I Owe You An Answer

I owe you an answer about that Monday lie a couple of weeks back. Since I didn’t do the quiz while I was on vacation I left the answer to my final question hanging! If you recall, question 4 was:

4. Tell us two truths and a lie about yourself...


My answers were:

1. I’ve been the Prima Donna Ballerina

2. There was never anyone dressed even close to like me in school.

3. Although roller-skating was hugely popular when I was in middle and high school, I’ve never roller-skated.

And my question for everyone was:

5. So, which one of my answers to #4 was the lie?


I got a nice assortment of answers, but the lie is #2!

I was the center-stage Prima Donna when I was 9 years old in advanced youth ballet. My class was a small class, just three of us and I was the advanced dancer with two older beginning young adult students. I had the solo section and the longer skirt. As we got near to the spring recital, my hockey team was also in the state playoffs. It was a good year for me. But my hockey coach never gasped when I walked into the locker room in my leotard after dance class the way my dance instructor did when I walked into ballet class with my duffel bag and stick.

After a bad ankle injury practicing a leap for a ballet number I was planning to do for the middle school talent show, my doctor suggested that roller skating wouldn’t be the best idea for me. I wasn’t really all that interested; it was just something a lot of my friends did. I liked dancing better anyway.

As for the lie; while I most decidedly never saw anyone dressed like me in middle school through college, first through fourth grade I was in a Catholic school; ALL the girls dressed exactly like me!



There just wasn’t anything to really defrag from my blog on Friday last week, but I have a few from the weekend!

First off, Darlene Haughin is back designing at The Studio! She has been out of designing for a while. Darlene has been battling breast cancer. It was caught early and treatment started quickly. She is okay now and rather than retell details, I’ll invite you to her blog to read her journey in her words: A Story of Survival and Faithfulness.  I am so glad she is doing well and happy she has returned to the Digi-Design world. When she sent her new kit to the creative team, I was ready to create! I’ll be back with a preview of My Happy Place and the first layout I did with it.


Also for more fragment stuff, check out the blog I did last night, I Want To Get Smashed  It's not a problem; I'm not that stressed, and it's not an ad.  It's just something I'm very geeky with anticipation about!


Now, on to this week's quiz from Heather at Acting Balanced!

1. What is your favorite Autumn color?

The red and orange combination of maple trees


2. If you could go back and change something about your high school days what would it be?

If I’m making a change it means I am doing it with the knowledge I have now, right? I’d go back and let myself know I’m not stupid. I could have applied myself better, maybe even graduated with cords and gotten a scholarship to finish my degree in 4 years instead of 13, except that I had an awful inferiority complex. I was an honor roll student and justified that the grading curve was why I did well because I thought I was pretty dumb.

Yes, the Mensa thing was a shock when Mom talked me into testing for it.  I've accepted that I probably really did deserve the high school grades. 


3. Name something that you tried because you thought you'd like it, but in reality didn't meet your expectations

Yogurt with Splenda. There’s something in the processing that makes it taste nasty!


4. Do you have a favorite "Monday" song?

Probably Manic Monday by the Bangles.


And don't forget to add a 5th Question on your own blog so we can answer as we hop around!

Who makes the best donuts? Which flavor is the best?

I have a social history with Dunkin Donuts and their coffee is the best, I drink a little mental ambiance with it, but the best donuts are Tim Horton’s! My favorite is Walnut Crunch.

Scrappy Weekend

Well, I did promise yesterday that I’d show off some of the fruits of my weekend!

The first project of the weekend was Thanksgiving 2008. That’s slightly out of order currently. My scrapping goal this year was to catch up 2007 and keep up 2010, I want to have 2010 done by the end of January, 2011. Well, I needed appropriate photos and those were in 2008.

Darlene Haughin has a new mini kit, Bountiful Harvest. Right now that kit is a limited time freebie available at Scrap Bird. It just screamed Thanksgiving to me. So, my first layouts of the weekend were Thanksgiving layouts.

Credits: Bountiful; Harvest by Darlene Haughin,

Word art by Caribbean Mom,

turkey shape from the Thanksgiving shapes -

\freebie from the Adobe Photoshop Exchange

Credits: Bountiful Harvest by Darlene Haughin

You can get this kit for free for a limited time at Scrap Bird. That would be a great next stop after The Chronicles of Nani!

Moving up to the current year again, continuing my work towards that finished by the end of January goal, I opened up the next file in my 2010 “to be scrapped” folder. I just finished up 14 pages from our Florida trip and the next April folder was “cat mom-cad dad!”

I bought a bundle of mini kits by Ellie Lash when she was interviewed on Veelana’s blog and offered a coupon. I love mini kits because they let you focus on the photos and the page instead of going through 40-50 elements and papers or more before you even get started! I do like larger kits for larger sets of photos, because that variety is essential to do many pages with the continuity of one kit, but for solo pages, the right mini kit is the perfect answer to getting a great page without an hour of choosing the papers and elements. One of the kits in that bundle was Cats Meow, purrfect cat pages!

Credits: Cats Meow by Ellie Lash

I thought putting the cat cutouts in the foreground was a nice “walk all over us” effect too!

Now one more really cool kit and layout I did today. I swear this kit was made for me, it just feels like it! I don’t even have ell of it yet, but I LOVE it!!

All Aboard is a freebie collab by Edna B and Suruah-Freespirit . Trains!!

What an awesome kit for all my train layouts. They offered the first parts last Monday, the day I don’t get too much time for blog-reading, so I was delayed in getting back to the Monday blogs! Parts 3 and 4 will be available tomorrow and if I don’t get time for reading tomorrow, I’ll be sure to check back when I read blogs on Tuesday. Tuesday and Thursday are big reading days because I need rest time for a while after aquatic therapy.

My layout was inspired by a photo. I’m not going to say I took the photo, because we got in trouble because I aimed my camera at the subject. It seems the security guards at refineries think a woman with a party camera and a cane is suspicious. I get that there is a heightened sense of fear in today’s world and I don’t think safety is a bad thing at all, but come on, seriously, I look dangerous?

Anyway, the photo, that I DID NOT TAKE, was one of the refinery, the storage tanks to be precise. There were several sizes of storage tanks and they were on a hill, so there was some amazing texture to the lay of the land. I envisioned varying sizes of paper blocks in front of and behind the main photo. Of course, scrapping early May in November, I couldn’t possibly remember the inspiration for the layout, because I didn’t have the photo. I didn’t take the photo. Just like I told the nice security guard.

I don’t defiantly break the law, but I’m not such a stickler for the company policy of a company for whom I don’t work. I don’t observe the technicalities often, because I seldom have to, but when I’m standing on public property, taking a photo is not breaking a law. I’m really not exposing anyone’s secrets in a scrapbook page. I didn’t even post or scrap the photo. I mean, I can’t because the photo, of course, does not exist!

Anyway, void of that wonderful inspiration, here is the layout I did with the parts of All Aboard I have so far:

Credits: All Aboard by Edna B and Suruah-Freespirit

I still maintain that one of the wonderful things about digital, photography is that you can shoot like there’s no film in the camera, because there’s not! That also includes getting shots of buildings and industry that inspire layouts!

Okay, now off to finish dinner and do another layout before bed!

Links:

Darlene Haughin

Scrap Bird

Bountiful Harvest

Ellie Lash

Miss Edna’s Place

Suruah-Freespirit

Designs In Digital

Santa’s Digi Express

Lots Happening This Week

Big week this week!

Rina is visiting for the week, so we’ll get to have some fun Aunt-Niece time, including inviting ourselves to Pop’s for dinner. Rina hasn’t seen her Papa in a while. Dave and the rest of the family will visit him on the 4th of July weekend, but we’ll meet them in Indiana on the 5th so she can join them on the way home. Rina just didn’t want to be this close and not see her grandfather. So, I figured if my dad was all welcome smiles when I invited myself for Fathers Day, surely, he’d be just as happy to have Rina do that. Well, I’m sure you all realize that the Indy granddaughter calling to invite herself because she misses him is an even bigger event than the daughter who is only an hour away!

We’ll be at the festivities of the annual Mensa Gathering this week and the holiday weekend. It’s in Detroit this year, which means we can save some money compared to last year in Pittsburgh. Travel, a week in a nice hotel, dinners out and needing to get a cat-sitter all add up to Pittsburgh being personally bigger and cost bigger too! The path between Michigan and us is pretty well worn anyway! Davis will be presenting an auto-industry specific train slide show at the gathering. I helped with the sound for the show, so I feel pretty included in it too!


I’m waiting for a new study-guide text for the CompTiA A+ exam. I’m going to need certification in A+ as well as Network+ to get ready for my first job in my new career! The material for A+ was generally covered in my first networking class, but this guide will be a little more exam-specific. That’s scheduled to arrive in mid-July.


In the Scrapbooking world, Darlene Haughin is back after her 6month hiatus!! I’ll be posting some stuff with her newest kit very son!! Her stores will reopen July 1!

In the mean time, you know I haven’t been without new stuff to play with! Nibbles Skribbles has a new kit that just came out yesterday that is perfect for the entire picnic, parade and fireworks pics you’ll take this coming holiday!

It’s called Purely Patriotic and if you’re celebrating the US Independence day, that’s just what it is!

I love, love, love that skyrocket! I didn’t have the right place to use it on the sample layouts, but we’ll se what I have from the coming weekend and I’m also trying to plan a fireworks game for David and me at the Mud Hens n a couple of weeks!

Here are my sample layouts to inspire you for this must-have kit!

As you can see, Purely Patriotic is perfect for patriotic celebrations and the celebration of things Americana too!

Purely Patriotic is on sale right now at Digital Scrapbooking Studio for only $2.99! There is also a complementing mini-album page set, with six brag book sized pages that will showcase a dozen of your holiday photos. Those are also 25% off at just $1.50!


Head on over to the Nibbles Skribbles store to snag this great Independence Day kit and see all of Manda’s products, available exclusively at The Studio!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Stock photo from laptop

Hi there! I’m not lost, just kinda buried under my final project for my XHTML class! I’m doing a page for Journal Camp. It’s all dolled up to follow the requirements for the project, but I am a creative type that has to be creating for a purpose. It takes a lot longer to “make something up” for a subject than it does to create for something that already exists, so Journal Camp it is! The rough draft and copy is done, now I need to put the code in to, hopefully if done right, go from a text document to a web page! That’s kinds like magic. It’s fun!

Last weekend, my brother, Dave and I took our spouses back up to grandma’s house to work on the cleaning out. I was, not even kidding, shredding tax documents from 1958! Grandma and Papa moved there in 1982. You’re supposed to keep tax documents for 7 years. They didn’t even need to bring 1958 tax forms with them from Detroit!

We went up Friday night and left Monday morning so we’d have 2 full cleaning days. We really have made a good dent. I came home with a car trunk full of more old photos in antique frames. After I get a staging area cleared here, I have a major identifying and scanning project to work on. I started a family tree at ancestry.com and I’m filling in blanks and notes as I can put them together from the photos and notes I have. It is a huge task, but it’s kinda fun too. Ultimately, there will be 2 sets of disks with copies of everything, one for Dave and one for me. They can be copied from there, but initially everything will be duplicated for storing. I now have all the photos from both sets of grandparents, so I’m going to archive both sides of the family. Whew! Big project!

I’ll try to make some time to get the best of Monday Mug Shot up this afternoon for this week. I’m just a little back-logged right now! But I’ll get it all together, I always do!

The pre-camp meeting for Journal Camp is a week from tomorrow! How exciting!! The post for that week is ready; just have to do a little uploading. I have one more layout I’m working on that goes with week one. I want to remain ahead on this! You can see that I put up the sponsors list on the right side bar. The links are all working, I just need to get the blinkie locations up! I have 12 fabulous designers who have agreed to provide the random prizes for Journal Camp! I’m trying to use sponsor kits for the remaining layouts for examples to show off a little bit of what you might win.

Okay, now I have to get back to switching a laundry load, then working on my code for school!

Cock-a-doodle Mooooo!

Rise and shine scrappers! Today is the official release of a fun collab by Nibbles Skribbles and Wetfish Designs, Cock-a-Doodle Mooooo!

This great collab is available in all of Nibbles Skribbles’ stores AND all of Wetfish Designs’ stores. You can’t get any more convenient than that. You’re bound to already have an account at one of these stores, so getting the kit is easy, but they’ll make it even easier to get the kit. As an introductory sale, it’s 30% off at Digital Scrap Ink and right now everything is on sale for 40% off at The Studio as part of the Spring Celebration!

Here is a layout I did with Cocka-Doodle Mooooo for the Monday night scrap chat at The Studio. I just loved working with this kit!

Credits: Cock-a-Doodle Mooooo! By Nibbles Skribbles and Wetfish Designs

I am so pleased with how my cluster turned out on that one! I’ve really been working on those. One of the spoils of a CT position, I got the okay to share my first cluster that I’m really, really pleased with! Manda said I could give it away as a blog freebie at The Chronicles of Nani!

sorry, this download is expired



Visit the designers' blogs for more Cock-a-Doodle Mooooo freebies too! Be sure to check out all of the great things at Nibbles Skribbles’ stores and checkout Wetfish Designs too. Good stuff!

Nani Updateables

Mug Shot Inventory

Greetings morning to all! Life in general is keeping me pretty busy right now and I’m trying to get myself organized! Part of that organization is that The Monday Mug Shot will be “Best ofs” for a few weeks. I’ve been writing the Mug Shot most Mondays since mid 2007, that’s a lot of mugs! Oh, I have tons more I haven’t written about, but right now I have limited display space at home too, so they aren’t all unpacked, or unrepacked. The point is, I need to make a list of all the mugs I’ve done so I know what ones are stories yet to be told! 2008-2009 ones on BlogSpot are easy. I just hit the mugshot tag in the right column and I’m good to go. The earlier ones on Yahoo are a bit more of a challenge because they have no tags in the archives and you have to go through the whole history to find them. I may use the full chronicles archive on my EDH and run a search. That will still take time. Since I have school and other duties I have to keep up too, the mug shot inventory won’t be a one day and done thing. I hope you don’t mind the oldies!


Journal Camp

I have the rough drafts of the “lessons” for all 5 weeks of journal camp complete! Now I have to edit, prepare any other necessary example layouts and freebies! The layout prizes will be from the Digitalegacies Catalogue that used to be at Scrap Bird. Remember that I will not turn things from my store into freebies, because it’s not fair to others who have paid for them or won them in some other way, but offering them as the random gifts at Journal Camp is okay. I’m going to offer them in sets of two or three items from the store at a time. The freebies will all be new items and I am busy creating them right now. I’m also planning to create a logo and blinkie for Journal Camp and I’ll offer a thank you gift for anyone that wears it on their blog or in forums!


LOTW at the Studio

My page, Maybury, created with At The Park by Nibbles Skribbles was selected as the Layout of the Week at the studio!

Credit: At The Park by Nibbles Skribbles

Imagine my reaction as I was reading the newsletter and I see my layout! Double cool because it was the first Nibbles Skribbles kit I’ve officially worked with as a CT! There is a gift certificate prize that goes with the selection. I don’t know if CT members are eligible for the prize, but it’s so cool to be selected!

The journaling style I used on this one is “letter-style,” talking to the person in the pictures, in this case, Rina when she was 10. That is a style we’ll talk about at Journal Camp too! :)

While I’m showing off my LOTW done with a Nibbles Skribbles kit, I’ll mention that I have two new kits by NS that I’m working with right now (busy, busy, busy) and The Studio is dedicating a week to celebrating spring! That is SO my kind of party! There is a progressive scrap, which I’m going to try to eke out a few minutes a morning to keep up with to work on my clustering, chats every night and some other fun challenges, including the avatar challenge, hosted by Manda, Nibbles Skribbles! The challenge is to renew your avatar by dusting off an old pic of yourself. The picture has to be half your current age or younger! This is me in 1972:

Credit: Butterflies and Blossoms by Nibbles Skribbles

Need More Coffee…

Credits: I Love You A Latte by Double Dutch Designs,
P365 template by Heavenly Scraps

They stopped doing the photos Project 52 at My Life and Scrap, but they are doing it at The Studio, which is home since Digital Freebies pretty much dried up, after being in the SASy Lady contest in 2008, I know and love the girls there anyway! It is a lot easier to keep up with a single-layout weekly challenge than going it on my own, as I’m still plugging away at the layouts for Patch 365 last year. I have the photos and the journaling in folders. I just need to assemble the layouts!

Oh, and I DID get another cup of coffee too, but it was a fun heading for the layout! It’s gray and gloomy and there’s just a tiny chill in the air in Toledo today. That is a weather mood setter for coffee. I brewed a pot with a regular amount of Columbian for a strong brew, a half-teaspoon of caramel popcorn seasoning and a half-teaspoon of fresh ground cinnamon. It made a wonderful pot of coffee with a robust body mellowed by a hint of sweetness and spicy flavor. I poured a cup with Coffeemate and Splenda, good stuff! Yeah, I love my coffee.


Little milestones
Every Monday, I program my exercise goal into my recumbent bike. The higher the level, the more resistance which stretches my back better, but it’s harder on my knee, so I set a time goal for the week and a resistance level that will work my back well. Then I try to reach that cumulative time goal for the week, allowing myself to stop when my knee starts hurting. Now remember I mentioned having added the arm work to the routine too. I think that in some aspects makes the workout a little more intense, but it also creates a diversion form concentrating on my knee. Yesterday, while I was on the bike, the computer stopped. For the first time since I’ve started doing the weekly goals, back in September when my back got bad after therapy sessions, I reached ZERO! The computer stopped and said “check my stats” because I was done! YAY NANI!

I did 30 minutes at level 6 and went 5.3 miles. That may not sound like a lot, but remember, my knee is usually begging for a break after grocery shopping and level 6 is pretty intense. The routine I chose changes from lighter to heavier resistance, so some days are a little tougher than others. I figure I won’t change the goal for a couple of weeks and let myself be level there for a while and then add another ten minutes.



Okay, back to school!

Coloring Outside The Lines Is COOL!

Big announcement : I’m a Skribbler! YAY!!

If you’re scratching your head, Skribbler, with a K, is a member of Nibbles Skribbles creative team! I’m SO looking forward to working with Manda’s kits!

Things have slowed down on the other creative teams I’m on and I have really had the itch to do some serious promoting for some new-to-me designers. You’ve seen my work with Morning Mocha, Nibbles Skribbles' collab with Little Red Scraps and now, Nibbles Scribbles is selling at The Studio!

Manda’s work is also available at Digital Scrap Ink, which is a new site for me too. I just registered there, so I haven’t posted anything yet, but this is scheduled to be a stay-at-home, rainy weekend, so I’ll have some time to settle in. It’s also going to be a weekend with some scrapping time! I have the latest from Nibbles Skribbles, At The Park!

I have some ideas cooking in my head for this kit! I have great old pictures at the park when Tori and Rina were little. We were big time playscape and playground connoisseurs when they were under ten sand we all lived close to each other in Michigan! Now, they are half way to 16 and we usually find a way to get to a Starbucks when we get together. I’m proud to say I got them started on that with Starbucks steamers when they were about 4. While “cappuccino” for me as a kid was Noni’s drink of vanilla ice cream and a spoon of espresso in a demitasse, the version of kid cappuccino I introduced to the girls was steamed milk with a flavor shot. Rina really liked vanilla and Tori enjoyed cinnamon. They both liked caramel. So I could scrap the girls with At The Park AND Morning Mocha!

I’m also thinking of a perfect reflection page for my own inner child as one of those extra pages I’ve talked about before. We’ll see what I unleash tomorrow!

In a recent The Studio newsletter, it was announced that Nibbles Skribbles had joined the team of designers and Manda gave this wonderful gift to the subscribers:

I was working on a layout with it and thinking about the fact that I’d seen a CT call at The Studio, and stopped mid-layout to send my application. Then I finished this:

redits: Springtime Fun by Nibbles Skribbles,
March10 Template by Kimberkatt Scraps
Fonts: Segoe Print, Going Nuts

I’m scrapping September 2007 now! Remember I started the year with the start of the year 2007. Woo hoo! I have three current pages that I have in folders, so I’m keeping up with 2010 too. Doing well with the scrapping goal!


I’m also keeping up with my Project 365! This week’s layout includes a couple of shots of the treasures from Grandma’s house.

Credits: Cafe by Skrapper Digitals,
template Project 365 template by Sus Designs

The task of cleaning out Grandma’s house and preparing it for sale is a bit daunting. The treasure we’re finding though! I have a couple of boxes FULL of old photos. Photoblog this week was one of my Great-Grandmother punching the time clock at work and I have a totally sweet one of Grandma and Papa kissing. It’s dated 1944, but before they were married! I would think at that time, it was probably a little bit of a scandalous photo! I also found the military permission note for Papa to send Grandma a locket dated 1943, probably that locket I brought home after her funeral. I even found the receipt from the hospital when my Mom was born. Grandma was in the hospital 9 days and it cost under $90 for the visit, no insurance, medications and tests included in that figure. Of course, in 1945 there wasn’t advertising for prescription drugs and doctors didn’t have to drive BMWs. Maybe I should scan that receipt and send it to Washington?

In addition to scrapping this weekend, I’m going to spend a few hours working on the Journal Camp material. I figure I’ll be ready to schedule the dates and promote the blog-camp by the end of next week. I’m planning lessons, freebies and participation bonuses too. I think it’ll be fun!

Okay, I’m finishing this post now so I can get an early start on the scrapoliday weekend, David has been restless with a nasty cold, which probably means I’m next. I think he fell asleep in front of the basketball game and I want to make sure he gets to bed too.

Links:
Nibbles Skribbles Site
Nibbles Skribbles store at The Studio
Nibbles Skribbles store at Digital Scrap Ink

Holiday Scrapping Cheer and a Freebie!

Merry Christmas in Italian
From It’s Christmas All Over The World by Digitalegacies Designs
Available at Discount Digi Designs

Now I’m getting to the point of balancing my ambitious plan to continue doing a layout a day during Christmas Crunch Time and taking the valuable tips from Capture the Season to heart! I have a ton of notes for this week’s layout for Capture the Season, which is focusing on the changes you make in your home to prepare for the holidays. We have our new tree, but we haven’t put it up yet, so I don’t have the photos I planned to take! Also, my journaling notes are NOT about the tree. They are about a different annual change in our home that hit me when I was making the Davinities. So, I believe there are two major things that change our home into a Christmas home and that will probably be a two-pager in the Christmas part of my scrapbook for 2009. I’m still going to work on that when I get a chance, but since the tree won’t be up until just after week three starts, I won’t have it done early! But stay tuned! I do still plan to get it done “in the now” and I’ll share it when it it’s complete!

When David got in last night I asked, “Poker?” That means I asked him if it was an online poker night for him, which Wednesdays often are. The great thing about that is that while he plays poker, I do the Speed Scrap at Designs in Digital. I was very busy with baking and gift stuff yesterday and hadn’t done my layout for the day yet. Speed Scraps are a great opportunity to fulfill that commitment! So last night I did a Christmas Day page from last year.

Credits: Under The Mistletoe by Gone Scrappin’ Designs,
Holiday Sugar Cookie Blog Train contributions from AliSarah Designs
and Litabells Designs and Gingerbread Christmas by Desertgirl Designs

Christmas is usually a combination of a trip east to celebrate with David’s family, a trip north to celebrate with my family and a quiet day for just us on Christmas Day. That was especially nice last year since we got married two days before Christmas. David worked the night shift on the day we got married and there were last minute stops and dinner with my family on Christmas Eve. It was especially nice to have some time for a nice dinner at home n the good plates and wine out of Mom’s crystal. It’s going to be two pages. The dinner page and another with the tree and gift time, but I need to wait until we u the tree up this year. We got a first married Christmas ornament when we were in Connecticut last year, before we were married, so it had to be kept a secret! It’s a frame ornament and I slipped one of the photos I picked up on Christmas Eve into it, the one the judge took of us at the courthouse. I could have sworn I took pictures of that ornament on the tree. I really thought I did, but, there are no pictures of the ornament in my Christmas file! Things were a little involved last year, but in a really good way!

There will be one more Speed Scrap before Christmas. There won’t be one on the 23, because everyone figures to be busy with Christmas prep. David and I are making plans to celebrate our first wedding anniversary, so I don’t think I’d make that one anyway!

There is a great bloghop scheduled for this weekend with the SAS designers! Like last year, they are doing Christmas song inspired mini kits, which were awesome last year, so be on the lookout! If you haven’t stopped at Veelana’s blog lately, why not? She’s giving away gifts from her advent calendar that coordinate with her Jultid kit every day. Be sure to check that out!!


While I’m talking about my favorite designers, the ones I‘m so fortunate to create for, remember when I mentioned Darlene’s Dear Santa kit? Well, she sent me the kit to play with! Here is a two-pager I did for UNO and the Fabulous Dessert bar 2007.

Credits: Kit – Dear Santa by Darlene Haughin,
Blocks template by Digitalegacies Designs

We had a good turnout in 2007 because Christmas Eve was Monday, so we had an additional three nieces from out of town. There were lots of pictures, many that only differed slightly, but I wanted to make sure I got all of the people in the layout, so I created the blocked templates and with the help of some of the elements in Dear Santa placed over and under them, it gave a nice 3D look!

That brings us to the Freebie!! I said before that when I was selling, my templates were definitely my best sellers. I love working with templates too and often make a template as I’m designing my pages. This was one of those times. I made the template first and then tweaked it as I needed to fit my photos. I often customize templates a little to suit my photos and journaling, but boy, what time savers they are to get you started!

On the Blocks template set, I used one color for photos and one for papers. I didn’t even really stick to my own template! Also, on these ones, I left the grids on them; just turn them back on in the PSD file. With the grids, you can resize any of the bocks to fit your own photos and elements and stay within the placement and sizing of the blocking. Here’s a hint too – you can also copy the grid onto a new document and use it to create your own blocked layouts from scratch!



click preview to go to download page
password – drawfour

I’d love to hear any comments, preferably here since I don’t check the 4shared comments too often, but I do eventually read all the comments you leave! If you use the templates on a layout, I’d love to see them! Send me a link in comments or at thechroniclesofnani.gmail.com.

Now, it’s back to baking, cleaning, decorating and gift-finding!

The Bragging CT

This is from last year - need to get a new one with the shorter hair!

I create for and have created for in the past some wonderful designers. A bug part of my philosophy in life is that surrounding yourself with quality creates quality in you. I still remember the warm smiles last year when I gave the family history books to my brother and cousins. Everyone was sitting down with their books and sharing them with their spouses and kids. That’s where I believe that giving is not completely self-less. I couldn’t pay someone enough to buy the way I felt inside. They were great gifts and the quality from Darlene Haughin, RC Mama Designs, Beckie Wallace, Tirza’s Treasures, Veelana Designs and the host of other designers whose purchased and free kits with kits designed by me, Digitalegacies Designs, all made that great gift and wonderful feeling possible.

Yeah, I tend to get warm and fuzzy in general at this time of year. Well, okay, there are those who say I’m warm and fuzzy at ANY time of the year!

I wanted to do some CT cheerleading, something for which I am also known! First off, Scrap Bird is celebrating its first birthday this month! They have some great games and freebies and the whole store is 45% off! They have great designers; of course, Darlene and Veelana both sell there! But in addition to my bias, there are other talented ladies with whom I worked before I retired from professional designing. Believe me, a 45% off sale is an EXCELLENT opportunity to try out a new designer!


At Stone Accents Studio, also where both of “my” designers sell, there is much holiday bustle! Darlene is busy working on the upcoming bog train. The Christmas Carol Blog Hop starts December 11. I was so busy last year that I didn’t get to take advantage of too many of the sweet mini kits when they were free, but I’m going to try to have some time this year. We’ll see how bogged down I get with baking! While Darlene is busy with the blog hop details, be sure to check out the sales in her SAS store! Christmas favorites like Dear Santa and Frosty are on sale as well as some of her other kits!

Veelana has a wonderful new kit at SAS!


Jultid is classic Christmas shades with silver, which gives a very classy touch! She is doing an advent calendar freebie on her blog right now with a new freebie created with Jultid every day until Christmas! Definitely visit Vee’s blog if you haven’t yet. The brag book pages are just stunning!

While I was working on some pages with the new kit, I couldn’t help but play a little. I came up with a Jultid freebie to share too!

Click the preview to go to the download
Password is holiday-stories

You all now how much I like to talk, well, talk in the written sense, so my freebie is a few places to journal a little to go with the spectacular pages you’ll create with Jultid!

Jultid is on sale at SAS for 25% off its already low price!

Well, now I’m off to have breakfast and continue work on getting the house spruced up for decorating and entertaining and getting my shopping lists ready for Monday. I’ll still find scrap-time too. I’m sticking with my page-a-day commitment. This time next year, I hope to be scrapping 2010, not 2007!

Scrap News and Stuff

I’m going to try to get back to my regular features next week. This over a week between blog entries is SO not me! I think things are getting to some semblance of normal in my world again. It’s a new normal, but it’s okay. I just have to adjust.

I keep updated in between visits to Grandma via phone and I make the 2-hour trek north to visit her twice a week. The Nurse Practitioner advised against putting her back on the medications that made her so cloudy in the hospital (YAY!) and she has plateaued with not exactly clarity of mind, but memory of all of her people. That was Grandma’s greatest worry, that she’d hurt the people she loves by not remembering them. So, Grandma wins this round! She’s even doing her word searches again, though she’s not as fast as she’s always been, but I’m so glad to see her doing them again! I think I’ll bring her another copy of our wedding program so she can do the word search again!

The toughest thing to get used to is the phone and the driving. I don’t like either and I’m finding them taking a lot of my time now! The best thing I do for myself with the driving is make a point of at least one of those trips every week is also a stop on the way home for dinner of coffee with one of my friends. I get to see my family of friends in Michigan so seldom since becoming an Ohiogander and the long drives to the Motherland are a great way to get some quality time with them! Now, I just have to get my “happy head” working again. The driving makes me grouchy, well grouchy for me anyway, and I don’t like that! The nicest thing the phone does for me is the battery dies. Then I get an hour off while it recharges!

I lost a few days on my project 365 when Grandma was sick and in the hospital. When one is fearing the worst about her last grandparent, taking pictures is not really in the foreground of my mind! Also, this project is our first married year and many of those days I wasn’t with David. So for the scrapbook layouts for those weeks, I have some journaling in place of the photos for some days. I’m okay with that and I don’t feel like I failed the project. If a picture’s wroth a thousand words, then journaling CAN replace a missing picture! That’s how I scrap events I want to tell about but didn’t photograph too.


Going Out Of Business Sale!


I told you there’d be a sale in connection with my leaving the design business! When my resignation was accepted at Scrap Bird, I was also told that I could come back if I wanted to get back into it. Very cool. But I am there until the end of the month and all the Digitalegacies Designs products, I mean everything in my store, is half off until the 31st! If there’s anything that I’ve created for the store that you might want, now is the time to get it! Some items, like the add-on for Homemade Love or my brag book pages for My Blue Heaven and Laura are only 50 cents! There is no I Wanna Talk About Me challenge this month, but I did do one last contribution to the store collab kit for November, so there will still be a little Digitalegacies in that!


Creative Team stuff!

This new scrapping direction, well return to my old scraping direction, gives me more quality time to spend on my own layouts. It also gives me more time to work with Darlene’s kits again. Her newest kit, Happy Camper, is free with a $5 purchase at SAS right now.


Now, as I was explaining to Darlene, as one who walks with a cane, I really don’t have many camping photos in my current “to be scrapped file.” But the kit is very versatile! I created a nice layout for week 21 of Patch 365 with it. I just LOVE that butterfly and it HAD to be used on one of my layouts!



Also with some extra time, part of my congratulations to Veelana for becoming a new SASy Lady was an offer to create for her! Her “yes,” was enthusiastic and I’m helping her brag about her first kit in her new store!


My first layout with this kit is the second page I did for our trip to Sand Patch in October 2006. I did this for Darlene’s quote challenge at Scrap Bird. Vee’s kit is just perfect for the fall train pictures!



In celebration of my new passport, David and I are going to spend some time in Canada tomorrow checking out their fall colors and trains! Now, I need to finish up some laundry and get ready to go see Grandma. I see a pumpkin spice coffee stop in my near future!

Great Weekend Coming!

The week is over, YAY!!!

No, it really hasn’t been a bad week. There is just a lot going on as May gets rolling.

The biggest thing this weekend for me, is that tomorrow, May 2 will be our fourth Dativersary! Yes, we still acknowledge that. A big part of the reason we do, is it also means SEMMantics weekend, which is where we met in person after a couple weeks worth of emails. As much as I thought, “If he’s a gentleman, we’ll still go to the ball game, but he won’t call again,” I came to find out that the feeling of “spark” was real and mutual! Our first date was May 2, the day after SEMMantics in 2005 and well, David’s my husband now!

It was also our first thought for a wedding day had we gone that route. Honestly, I’m glad we didn’t. We‘d have had to miss SEMMantics!

So, this weekend is SEMMantics and we’ll get to see Mensa friends we haven’t seen in a year. As it worked out, SEMMantics was the only Mensa gathering we attended last year! This year, we already know we’ll be going to the AG, so we’ll have a long week later with our pals too!


Tomorrow is also National Scrapbooking Day. Scrap Bird is having a blowout sale, as I mentioned in the “Sale Paper” yesterday. Make sure you check out the NSD section at the store for 10 designer’s freebies! The freebies, including the collab Flowers Blooming part 2, are only guaranteed free for the weekend, May 1-3, so make sure you get over to check them out.

The song that’s playing first for the weekend is an old live tune from Nazareth, called Java Blues. David often tells me the coffee’s got me! It’s also the name of the NSD freebie kit from Digitalegacies Designs!


If you like your coffee or anyway the social implication of coffee with friends, this is a great kit for scrapping those friendly occasions!

If you don’t have coffee or “at coffee’ pics to scrap, there are other things you can scrap with this kit too!

Credits: Lay0ut by Jana with Java Blues by Digitalegacies Designs

My CT member, Jana, did this precious layout called “Bubbles,” using the coffee ring circle in the paper to make frames for pictures of her little one!


The first of May is also a new I Wanna Talk About Me challenge!

This month, we’re focusing on the ME and I want to see layouts with a picture of you and some journaling about you.

Here is the layout I did for the challenge:

Credits: Flower Blooming part 2 Collab by Scrap Bird Designers.

That’s all from Flowers Blooming part 2, so you can grab that for free this weekend too!

Be brave and join us in making the layout ALL about you this month, and you’ll get Butterfly Kisses by Digitalegacies Designs as your posting bonus


What an exciting weekend this is going to be! A Mensa gathering, and all the chocolate that goes with that, a little bit of Dativersary romance with my hubby and all kinds of fun, new stuff at Scrap Bird and all over the Scrapbooking world!

Heck, I’ll sleep on Monday!

Scrap Stuff and a Freebie!

Are you getting geared up for National Scrapbook Day? I’m doing as much as I can ahead of time since, as usual, I won’t be in town on NSD weekend. I always end up someplace else. NSD this year is May 2, the four year anniversary of our first date and the weekend of the convention where we first met in person. I love my occasional scrapping days, but for that weekend, there is really no place else I’d rather be than with David Scrapbook holiday or not!

The April Collab kit, Flowers Blooming, is in the store at Scrap Bird!


It’s amazing how so many talented designers with such a variety of designing styles can work with a common theme and palette and come up with a huge kit that works so well together, yet still reflects all of our individual styles. I credit Marzena with just knowing what to do to bring the best out of us as a team!

Part 1 of this terrific mega kit is in the store now for %25 off with a great sampler available for free on the Scrap Bird Blog!


Make a point of bookmarking our blog! There will be more great freebies to come! :)


New from Darlene!

I’ve been on Darlene's CT for a year now and I’m a designer too, but she still blows me away with her designs. I’d say for every three pages in my personal books, there is one done with a Darlene Haughin kit.

I just did a couple of layouts with her newest kit, One Spring Morning.




Here’s one of my layouts:

Credits: One Spring Morning by Darlene Haughin

This is from spring of 2006, when Kaline was less than a year old and about half the size she is now!

Darlene’s mini kit, Mysteria is on sale at her stores this month.


That’s next on my scrapping list. I told Darlene she was enabling my green and purple addiction. But come on, green-purple and blue in various combinations are just so Nani! With the exception of cars, I could live if those were the only colors in the world.

After I finish up the pages in my priority folder, I’m going to work with the newest kit in Darlene’s store, Chocolate Bunny!


I bet you can guess one photo that is perfect for this kit! (Think Photoblog this week!)


Add It On For FREE

If you visit the Scrap Bird blog, you’ll see my ad for the April Digitalegacies Designs sale. Buy One Step at a Time, Homemade Love , Your Own Special Way or Because of You and enter in the coupon code for the add-on for free!

Remember Because Of You?

Put the kit and the add-on in your cart and enter coupon code dkrj25jdh. The price for the add-on will be removed!

Stop back a couple times if you have your eye on more than one of these kit and bonus pairs!

Add It On For FREE coupon codes:
One Step at a Time - kjad4365
Homemade Love - lknd856hn
Because Of You - dkrj25jdh
Your Own Special Way - lknrj37hdn


Treasure Map

If you came here looking for a freebie, you’re sorta at the right place! I’m here to tell you about the freebie rather than give it today!

First, check out this page done by my CT member, Fenny:

Credits: quick page by Fenny with Laura by Digitalegacies Designs

I just love the way she used the flower and ribbons in the kit with the gemmed frame! We traded a few emails and I coaxed her into trying to do it as a quick page and voila!


You can have a great quick page for making a quick and gorgeous page and also some inspiration for the many things you can do with Laura!

Click the preview to stop by Fenny’s blog and get this beautiful quick page. When you’re there be sure to leave her some love and check out all of the sweet layouts she’s done of her family with my kits and other great designers’ kits too!