Scrappy Day & Nani’s New Shoes

It’s my reward for getting all of my school work done and turned in yesterday, it’s due tomorrow night. David is at work, so I got to scrap with a big bowl of popcorn and a huge mug of my own blended sugar free dark chocolate English Toffee latte. I love Ron and Frank’s drink mixes! The Dark Chocolate cocoa is sweetened with Splenda and the English Toffee cappuccino is unsweetened, so if I blend them I get perfect sweetness! I added a spoon of Coffeemate to make it creamier and a spoon of instant espresso for stronger flavor and it is positively decadent!

While I have another project I’m working on right now, the project that’s the reason why I probably won’t finish 2008 this year, I’m still slowly but surely keeping up with the 2011 pages…slowly. I finished this page from our May into June vacation today.

Credits: Kit- Wrapped In Chocolate by Heartfelt Perfections
Flowers from various other kits
Chocolate Word Art by Digitalegacies Designs

That piece of fudge cake deserves its own page! It was the best, and I mean the best dessert of 2011 so far. That bottom level is fudge, not fudge cream or fudge cake, but actual fud,ge with a couple of chocolate cream layers on top all on a chocolate cookie crumb crust. I started the layout last night and woke up this morning craving chocolate. Hmmm…


We went out this morning to get me some new shoes. We did well! I got shoes for me, David found a pair in his size, special in itself, but on sale and the second pair of shoes was half off! Then the socks packs were buy two get one free, so I got four packs for me and David got two packs free. I’m not shy about the fact that I am not a woman who has a shoe fetish. In fact, I have a shoe aversion. I can’t stand shoes and if I could be barefoot or sockfoot all the time, I would be.

There are a number of reasons for that I guess. My Mom was an insane shoe woman. When Dad and I cleaned out her side of their closet, we never ran out of shoes. She had so many different kinds, some to match only one specific outfit and some never worn, but she had to have her shoes. I think it disappointed her a little that I was not a shoe shopping companion for her. I did go out shoe shopping with her, but I went for her company and enjoyed coffee after shopping much more than the stores, especially the shoe stores!

Mom finally understood why I hated shoes when I was in my 20s. When she commented on my funny walk and the shoes didn’t look right, I was in 2” pumps at the time. My heels are narrow. Medium width foot with AA narrow heels, duck feet! So shoes don’t fit right. The heels always slosh around when I walk and dress shoes flop off the heel when I step. Scrunched up toes keep them on my feet, but oh, they hurt!

I guess I’d have to say that’s the greatest thing, a good thing, about using a walker or wheelchair. Nobody ever, ever, expects me to wear dress shoes! I can wear comfy ballet-style slippers with a dress in the chair and I’m stylin’! Tennis shoes with the walker are fine no matter what. I’d look plumb insane if I was wearing slippery hard-sole shoes with any kind of heel with the walker. And I am NOT insane. I’m not crazy at all. I’m especially not crazy about shoes!

Ah, but today I had to get new shoes before Monday because I have physical therapy on Monday. Monday I’ll learn how to wear and walk with an AFO!

I had the AFO made not long ago. AFO is an Ankle Foot Orthosis. It’s a plastic brace that helps with foot-drop, the biggest reason I won’t be taking ballet back up. Well, there are several reasons I don’t dance the ballet anymore, but foot-drop is also a big part of why I fall. A hopeful good additional effect is that it will control the hyperextension in my knee. Right now I’ve put it on and tried to walk. It terrifies me! I need my PT to show me how to do it! That comes Monday!

It is, however, why I had to get new shoes. I have a comfy pair of size 9-1/2 Reeboks. I’ve worn Reeboks for years and years. It was the best walking shoe I found when I used to walk at the park every day. Now that I’m not walking for exercise and enjoyment anymore, I’m still true to the Reeboks because they fit. I can order them off the Internet and they’ll fit because the size is true to my feet. Unfortunately the supports that make them great walking shoes, the padding in back that make the fit my skinny heels right and the tapered toes that form supportively around my medium width feet, don’t fit in the least over the AFO!

Keep the shoes! Give me dots and stripes
and plaids in my favorite colors of SOCKS!

The orthotist who made my AFO suggested New Balance because they don’t have the tapered toes that Reeboks do. So, we went to Shoe Carnival, which has always been my shoe store of choice because they are inexpensive, have good sales and a nice selection of socks. As much as I hate shoes, I love socks. A saleswoman assisted me in finding the right pair and size to fit over the AFO, which I brought with me to try on shoes. She asked me if I had a color preference. Yanno, I am I fairly well endowed woman. I haven’t seen my shoes in many years. I didn’t tell her that, but I told her it didn’t matter as long as they fit over the AFO.

I ended up bringing home a pair of gray and silver New Balance with white trim and little pink accents. It’s a good thing the accents are pink so I can tell them apart from David’s. My shoes aren’t quite as comparatively small anymore! These are a size 11 D wide! Hopefully, it means that come Monday, I’ll start walking a little better with the walker. 11D, Yeesh!

My HUGE new shoes

Okay, a last note, as a thank you for reading my tale of shoe-woe, I have a scrapbooking freebie for you! I was so pleased with the word art I did on my chocolate layout that I want to share! Yeah, keep the silver; I want my clouds to have a chocolate lining!



Click on the preview to go to 4Shared.

Well, while I’ve been typing, I finished my big mug of Nani’s cheat-a-ccino blend. Man, that instant espresso is one of my favorite cooking pals! My layout is still making me crave chocolate, so maybe one more before David gets home. Speaking of yummy coffee, I’ll be back to talk about that clickable banner in the bulletin board. A coffee sponsor? I could weep with joy!

Links

More about AFOs

Ron & Franks Gourmet Drink Mixes

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

Three Coins for a Fountain Drink

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of iCoke.ca. All opinions are 100% mine.

Well, actually it’s for a bottled drink, but what a tasty way to win a Canadian Gold Medal! Exclusively at Mac’s Stores, in Canada, you can get a FREE Coca-Cola Collectible Medallion. You can get one of three Canadian Olympic Coke medallions when you purchase 2 Coca-Cola 591mL products at Mac’s.

Mac’s is one of those places that David and I make sure to stop at when we railfan in Canada. They have a good selection of those Canadian chocolates we love and a great selection of refreshments. Those refreshments include the bottles of Coca Cola products that will earn you the collectible coins celebrating the Olympics and Team Canada. You don’t have to be Canadian to participate or enjoy Coke!

I look at it as similar to the collectible pins. I know I have a host of souvenirs from the Atlanta Olympics. Mom bought Dad a shirt with flags for all of the countries that participated on it, which included San Marino! I think the coins in celebration of the Vancouver Olympics are a great addition to any sports memorabilia or Olympic mementos collection, and all you have to do is enjoy a couple of refreshing bottles of your favorite Coke product. For me, that’s Cherry Coke. I drink Cherry Coke a lot when we railfan. There is definitely an art to making a good cherry cola and there is none as good as Cherry Coke! And now, when we railfan in Canada, my Cherry Coke comes with a collectible Olympic medallion!

This offer is subject to availability, so get out there and buy your coke products, exclusively at Mac’s, while the supplies last!

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!

A Better Fantasy

Football season is here again! Yes, I’m a baseball fan first and foremost, but there is a certain quality that football brings in. Welcoming football season is welcoming fall, apple picking, pumpkin spice coffee and tailgating. There’s also Fantasy Football leagues!

David was in a casual fantasy football league through GenX Mensa a few years ago. When he was on a railfan vacation, he called in changes he wanted to make to his team for me and I updated his stats before the weekend games. I have to admit, it was fun! Now he has a laptop and if he’s traveling, he can update from a hotel room. If I ever want to play again, I’ll need my own team.

That’s a scary thought. I’m a casual fan and I’m sure David, who follows football stats closer than I do would be subscribed to someplace for closer analysis before making his Fantasy Team choices! WaiverWire.com is a great place to get Fantasy football analysis that is up-to-date.

There are three levels of membership you can choose from. All three levels are slashed in price for what they call “2009 Season Stimulus Pricing,” including the basic package, which is completely free this year!

There are very involved Fantasy Leagues with cash prizes that are well worth the investment in the more expensive packages, but the free analysis, stimulus packages, would be a great complement for a free league. If you are thinking about a Fantasy Football team, or if you already have one, WaiverWire may be the place on the web where you can get all the info you need to make the most of your managing experience! Even if Fantasy Football isn't your thing, if the armchair quarterback in your life is actually an armchair head coach, why not steer them towards a comprehensive place to get all of the analysis they need to make the best of their fall hobby?

Charter Wants Your Story!

My television background is in cable TV and I just marvel at how far the industry has come. I love my cable TV and there are just some fabulous things that your local cable provider offers.

I know my inner child would go nuts if I missed an episode of Degrassi, but then again, thanks to my cable internet, I have the speed necessary to watch full episodes I miss on the website! Heck, I don’t know if I’d blog as much if I was still trapped in dino-dial-up land!

Right now, Charter Cable is having a contest, asking their subscribers for input - How do you live your digital life? Whether you subscribe to their phone, internet or TV service or if you have a Charter bundle, they want to now your digital story.

I now I’m enjoying reuniting with old friends on Facebook quite a lot, you can even see the Charter on Facebook profile and keep up with them. I love being able to set up a recipe online on my laptop while I’m in the kitchen, thanks to our broadband hotspot house while watching the Reds game on TV. Oh, and if you have the phone service, you can talk on the phone too, no interruption to the TV or the internet connection!

Go to Charter’s website and tell the your story. They’ve been giving away a laptop computer or 53” HDTV every week since June in this contest and there’s still time if you act now to get your story n for the grand prize! On customer will win a package of one 52” HDTV, one 15” Laptop, and a free year of the Charter Bundle with Digital Cable, including HD and a DVR, Charter High-Speed Internet and Charter Telephone.

I bet it’s easy to see how digital makes a difference in your life and your story could make a big impact too!

Everything is Zenni

Money...Insurance...Still Money...Yeesh!

I’m always blown away at the costs for things like, oh, like eyeglasses. I have to have glasses to drive, to read,mto see the computer screen and I need an extra pair to see in the sun too. Holy Moley it can really drain the bank!

I’ve got decent optical insurance, but that covers a new pair of glasses every two years and one frame to go with that. There’s a limit on what I can spend on the frame too, the rest is out of pocket. I need a different prescription for computer/reading than I do for distance and I’ve tried wearing bifocals before without success, so a pair of glasses or even just new lenses, plus reading glasses, sunglasses and a back-up pair...well, you can see, the out of pocket gets up there!

How about the insurance pays the lion’s share of the first pair and then I take my prescription where I can get the same frames I’m trying on for a fraction, serious fraction of the cost?

Zenni Optical offers eyeglasses online with YOUR prescription with prices starting at $8.00! That’s not just the frame, that’s the prescription lenses too and UV protection, anti-scratch and polishing and beveling are all free. There are some options that have nominal additional cost, but if you are a glasses wearer, you know how drastically reduced those costs are too!



This pair is almost the same as my regular glasses. I want glasses that don’t look like I’m wearing glasses. Believe me, rimless frames run from $150-to over $350 for the frames alone. Then you add the cost for the lenses, any tints, etceteras. This pair is $25.95 and the $50 antireflective coating that’s a must-have if I want to keep up the appearance of no glasses is only $5.00!

Zenni has been talked about by many news media sources and gets an enthusiastic thumbs up. If you’re skeptical, buy one backup pair for less than ten dollars instead of a couple hundred and give it a try. Odds are you’ll be back for more!

You Got Style, Momma!

If you are expecting a bundle of joy or if you know someone who is, you really should check this site out! Kiki’s Fashions has a darling line of maternity clothes.

The main page of the site boasts about dresses with nothing over $30 and truth is, I didn’t see anything on the site over $30. The dresses were feminine, sassy and elegant and I loved the tank tops! They have a selection of just darling baby doll tops that are cool, comfortable and very feminine.

I remember my nieces Mom in her final months of carrying twins. There were times that she felt so hot and uncomfortable let alone not feeling so beautiful near the end. She had a favorite maternity top that was cool and made her feel pretty. It changed he whole disposition when she was wearing it! If you can find that one or two item for your maternity wardrobe that puts a bigger smile on your face, it’s worth the money spent and more. Kiki’s fashions gives you the worth without the price tag! There’s even an under $10 section!

Their stock rotates often, so there is always something new and something perfect for whatever season you are glowing in!


Oh! You also get a special extra for reading the blogs that tell you about Kiki Fashions! Their bloggers and friends of bloggers get 20% off their purchase! If you check them out and buy something for yourself or a daughter, granddaughter, sister, be sure to enter the coupon code “blogfriends” during checkout.

Diamond Girl

That’s me! Nani the Diamond-Girl!

Yo know how much I like diamonds! I love baseball diamond enough to be planning our after-the-fact wedding reception at a ball game and I adore the rhythmic sound of a train crossing a diamond, where two tracks intersect. There’s that diamond that David put on my hand to sparkle forever too. You know I really like that one! My favorite perfume is even a diamond!

I love White Diamonds by Elizabeth Taylor! I just feel like I sparkle like a diamond myself when I’m wearing it. There is a perfume shop online where I can get it for an awesome price too. Lucky me! I’m thinking maybe I need to spoil myself a little with a bottle of my favorite favorite perfume. My first exam in school is next week. If I do well, I’ll reward myself!

Digitalegacies Designs Sale Paper

I hope everyone has been visiting Scrap Bird on Thursdays for the great half-off kits available with all of the fantastic personal and commercial use goodies in all of the stores. We’re growing again, even more designers! I’ll have all the blog links up soon. I’m still catching up from being gone a week!


This week, the Digitalegacies Designs offerings in the Crazy Thursdays sale are Eight Days A Week and One Step at a Time. Both are only $2.50 today only!!


But wait, there’s MORE!


Okay, that’s corny, but we’re talking a dollar sale! There are just a few days left to get any Digitalegacies Designs template set for just one dollar! That’s right, half off the Project 365 sets with four templates each and a third off the quilt-inspired Premier Templates.

Coming soon!

A new quick page set will be in the store soon! The Look of Love is four quick pages, one made with each of Laura, My Blue Heaven, Because of You and Your Own Special Way, the Digitalegacies love-kits!


Just put your photos behind the png files, flatten and print! Look for the set of four pages in the store soon!


As June starts, a new DST blog train kicks off the month on the first, plus a new I Wanna Talk About Me challenge and bonus too!

New Sponsors To Consider

We just got home very late last night, so I’m catching up on a lot of things this Memorial Day! Thank goodness for a day to catch up! There will be a Monday Mug Shot, later, this evening after I check-in on the assignments list for the last week in my web pre-class for school and see about lunch! David made a late waffle breakfast this morning, so I really at least owe him seeing if he’s hungry before I “head off to school!”

Before I wanted to take a minute to introduce you to some new ideas that sound pretty good! You’ll find these links in the bulletin board too!


Medical ID Bracelets

If you or a loved one has a medical condition like diabetes or a heart condition or allergies to medications or food, they really should have some kind of ID that’s always with them. Medical ID bracelets or pendants are a great way to do that.

I had an ID bracelet for my penicillin allergy when I was younger and I really should wear it, but I don’t. I’m rethinking that now, especially when I know there are more Nani-stylish options to the old medical alert jewelry. I love the dog-tag style necklaces and I can get one in colored aluminum. It can be engraved to say my name, allergies to Penicillin and food allergy to MSG. Hey, if I should ever pass out at a Chinese restaurant, they’ll have an idea where to start investigating!

Check out the site, even a pendant worn under a shirt could save your life or the life of someone you love in an emergency!

See the Medical ID Jewelry at MemorialBracelets:

Medical ID Jewelry





Kids Clothes

Baby Me has some awesome styles for babies, toddlers and young girls and boys, totally adorable styles!


Be sure to check out the clearance section too! for deals like this pink skirt set for only $9.00!




This toddler boys hoodie is in the clearance section for $12.00.

Get inspired for kids’ styles and check out the cute fashions here:

Girls' and boys' clothing boutique!





Baby Photos

Once you have your baby all dolled up, why not submit one of those great photos you have in the Great American Photo Contest? If your precious baby photo wins, it’s a $2500 first prize! That will buy a few diapers and the clothes they grow out of so quickly and all you have to do is share photos and show off your little one. That’s easy!

Check out the details here:

Improving Your Web Presence

If you are using your blog or if you have a website you are using as a revenue earning place on the web, you know how important search engines finding you is! Check out Steve Wiideman’s SEO consulting site. You can get some search engine optimization tips there while you have consider if Steve might be able to help you increase your visibility and your profits on the web.

Check out what Steve had to offer here:

SEO Consulting Services

Digitalegacies Designs Sale Paper

Happy Thursday everybody!

Just a quick stop in to remind everyone about Crazy Thursday at Scrap Bird. This week there are 22 products at half off, including Eight Days a Week by Digitalegacies Designs!


If you need happy colors and a lot of room for inspired journaling, consider Eight Days A Week! This kit was made with Project 365 layouts in mind, but it’s super versatile!


The kit comes with 3 full alphas and the Project 365 Templates set 1, a $1.99 value, as a free bonus! Today the kit with bonus is $2.50!



Or if you want some quick and easy Project 365 or any multi-photo pages, try the Project 365 Quick Page set!


Four ready to go pages, just slip your photo behind, resize as necessary and there you have it. Now you are ready to spend some quality time with the journaling, or to add your own extras. Those are $1.38 today!


Also, as April is wrapping up, this is the last day for the Add It On For Free special from Digitalegacies Designs! Buy the kit, get the add-on free!


Coupon codes for the free add-ons:

One Step at a Time - kjad4365
Homemade Love - lknd856hn
Because Of You - dkrj25jdh
Your Own Special Way - lknrj37hdn

Just put both items in your cart and enter the code, the price for add-on will disappear!



Tomorrow will start the NSD weekend sale at Scrap Bird! 40% off the entire store all weekend plus see the Scrap Bird blog for more specials and the freebies announcements! There is a special NSD freebie from each Scrap Bird designer this weekend AND the second part of our fabulous Flowers Blooming collab is free for three days too!! Most of the freebies will go into the stores after the weekend, so make sure you check out Scrap Bird while everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is on sale or free!

Have fun shopping the sales!

Digitalegacies Designs Sale Paper

TODAY ONLY!!



APRIL DEALS!!


Use the coupon codes for your freebie add-ons! (One coupon per order)

One Step at a Time - kjad4365
Homemade Love - lknd856hn
Because Of You - dkrj25jdh
Your Own Special Way - lknrj37hdn

FREE HDTV!!!

In this part of Ohio, we have Buckeye Cable and I love our cable TV service! Dad and I endured the agony of Direct TV for a year when Mom got mad at the cable company when she bought her HDTV and switched, she was the stubborn holdout and it took 2 months before she was apologizing like crazy for contracting us into the satellite TV nightmare for a year.

That was some 7 years ago. HDTV has been growing and it’s going to be the norm very soon, especially with the great deals cable TV offers! If you’re lucky enough to be in a Charter Cable service area, you have the opportunity to win an HDTV!

It’s true! Every day in April, Charter will award a 22” HDTV in their HDTV A Day Sweepstakes. They are also offering a grand prize of a 52” LCD flat screen HDTV, home theater system and a free year of Charter cable with HD programming. This great sweepstakes is available to all new AND upgrading customers. Have cable and want high speed internet? Upgrade and maybe win a new HDTV! Maybe you want better phone with unlimited local and long distance added to your Internet and TV. Upgrade and you’re entered in the sweepstakes too! Of course, if you are tired of that metal spaghetti bowl on the side of your house that goes on the fritz when it snows, offers only the national updates on the weather channel and just as much local as they absolutely have to, join charter for better TV and maybe even A better TV!

Go to Charter.com to start building the bundle that’s right for you. You’ll be entered into the sweepstakes, but you’ll also be giving yourself the best entertainment and communications package you can get for the money. “Times are tough.” Makes you think of another cliché, like beating a dead horse? But almost everyone has that glue factory in their backyard. Charter is doing what they can to ease that pain!

Charter is doing some very customer conscious work in reaction of some negative light that’s been shined on Cable TV Companies, but think about it. Where have you heard negative stories about your cable TV company? From the satellite competitors who aren’t even local! Cable TV wants you back, Charter wants you to stay! They are showing it with their customer friendly website, services and great promotions. Last year they added bonuses and fun to to the customer experience, giving away Xboxes, laptops, even hybrid cars!

Charter wants you! If you’re smart and frugal, you want Charter too!

It’s Transitional Wardrobe Season!

It’s that time of year when you put on a coat in the morning because it’s chilly, arrive at work where the heating and cooling hasn’t adjusted for the change of seasons and it’s hot and end up wishing you had a sweater because the air conditioning kicks on when the suns shines through the windows, forget your coat at the restaurant at lunch because it’s a beautiful spring afternoon and wish you had it at 5:00 because the rain has started and it’s COLD again!

Oh, you all know I really do love spring, but it does take a good transitional wardrobe to get through it! In steps Sears with 75-80% off original prices on fall and winter apparel. Here is one that totally grabbed me. I love versatile pieces in my closet.


This Studio One Women’s Plus Short Sleeve Shirtdress was originally priced at $78.00. You can get it for $19.99! It’s a cute, simple dress that’s fine for a relaxed professional look. Dress it up with a blazer, warm it up with a sweater, or for more looks, wear it unbuttoned with dress slacks and a blouse or a a simple solid dress. Using it as a duster, you can lighten up the look as we swing into spring. The dress is a poly-knit, machine washable, multifunctional and only a quarter of the original price with plenty of season left in it as we transition into spring!

See this dress and many more deals for women, men and kids at Sears! It’s while supplies last at the discounted prices until April 18, so click now!

Nani, Nani, Nani

My new electric best bud!

I actually was going to do one of my potpourri entries yesterday with a few briefs, but the first one ended up so long! I’m just very pleased with the progress of Wife 1500 so far. If it’s working for me, you might find a kernel or two that works for you too. Yes, a pun with the kernel comment there. hehe


Now to finish what I started yesterday!

First off It’s another Crazy Thursday at Scrap Bird! This week you can pick up my Project 365 template sets for half off. That’s only a buck! Four templates in each set, that’s 2 months of Project 365 layouts with your choice of paper and elements but done the easy way! Just place the paper above the layer, create a clipping mask and you’re good to go! You can see many samples of those layouts by clicking “365” for the posts with that label.

365

One Step At A Time Layout


I got the first layout with One Step at a Time from my CT! This one was done by Jana, one step at a time is baby’s first steps! I kind thought in the back of my mind that this kit would be good for this kind of layout and Jana definitely proved that thought right! She did just a great job!



Sweet Thanks

I got this very nice thank you from Linda, Tirza’s Treasures!

It’s presented as a sincere thank you for awards and nice comments. It doesn’t have to be passed on today or ever, but it can be. Very cool sentiment!

I get many awards for which I am so grateful. I do, sometimes a little while after receiving it and sometimes right after, acknowledge all of them, but I don’t always pass them on. It’s not that I want to spoil the fun, but I sometimes just don’t have the necessary time to do it. But I do appreciate them all just the same.

Now, I’d like to pass the sincere thank you to everyone who reads this. Thank you for taking a few moments from your day to stop in at my cyber-coffee shop and read a little! Thank you for thinking of The Chronicles of Nani!



FINALLY!

More mundane but, to me, exciting news! In the wake of the feel-good donation to Locks of Love, and finally moving my hair care to Ohio with the rest of me, I’m going to savor the fruits of wedded bliss! I’m getting my teeth cleaned! That’s not nearly as corny as it sounds. My teeth badly need cleaning. I’ve been near-broke and uninsured for a few years! With “I do” comes “add my wife to the policy!”

I am almost militant about brushing and I am what my old oral hygienist thought to be rare, I floss every day! I’ve been told my smile is one of my better physical traits and right now my teeth could really stand a face lift! So next week will be my first visit to my Toledo dentist. They’ll do X-rays and the initial consultation to decide what the cleaning and caring plan of action will be to get me back to smiling confident that my smile is my best best-feature it can be!

A week later will be sorta bittersweet. I’ve had the same optometrist since eight grade. It was reading glasses then, but he is also the one who recognized my dyslexia and helped me with eye exercises to overcome it and make reading easier for me. He taught me how to put contacts in. He gave me an explanation that a young me could comprehend about exactly what astigmatism is. (He used the baseball-football analogy)

But Dr. Levin is in Northville, 70 miles away now. If I need a new prescription, that’s a long way to drive with unreliable vision! So, in two weeks will be my first visit to an optometrist who isn't Dr. Levin or one of his partners. I think this is even scarier than a new person cutting my hair!



Opposing Views and Paid Posts

I wanted to mention this just to let you know what I do behind the scenes! Anyone who has ever left a comment here knows that I only publish approved comments. This does a few things. The number one thing it does is gets rid of any need to enter a confusing set of letters before the comment posts. When I read it, I’ll figure out if you were a real person or a machine. I’m an accomplished hunt and peck typist. That means I’m pretty quick and even accurate if I put my mind to it, as long as what I’m typing are words as I know them. When I have to type in those security combinations, I usually have to do them 2 or 3 times. A machine would probably do a better job of faking being a human than me! I understand how it works as a security measure, but since I read them all before they appear, I don’t care if I’m deleting gibberish from a bot. I don't like the security codes and I don't think I need to put anyone else through it here.

The other more important thing comment approval does, is it let’s control-freak me have...control - over the content of my blog. This is important because I don’t allow comments that hurt or slander me, my readers or my sponsors. Yes, I’m protecting the generous sponsors who support my caffeine habit by letting me do a little promotion for them through compensated posts. As I say in my disclaimer on the bulletin board, I choose opportunities to promote products and services that I think are a good idea or in the case where I’ve used it , a good product. A good clue is that if there is a link in the text for a non-scrapbook post, it’s a compensated post. When I am recommending a product or service on my own without compensation, the links will here on out be after the post. For the most part they usually have been anyway, but I'm going to do it that way from now on so you know if it's a sponsored post or my personal testimonial. I'll never say I've tried a product unless I have, sponsored or not. If you disagree with a product that is a sponsor, please feel free to leave a comment, even leave an email address and we can trade emails about anything you think would be a better product. I do read every comment and I always check out links you share. However, if the comment is on a compensated post and especially if it recommends a competitor, I won’t publish it. That’s contrary to the contractual agreement with my sponsor and my own personal business ethics. But if you want to chat about it “off-blog” leave me contact info and we can chat over the coffee I can afford after doing the post!

Well, there are my little bits and bits for this week. Exciting weekend scheduled!!

How Is Wife 1500 Going?

First, I did NOT go have my small Shamrock Shake yesterday and I ended the day having to eat four pretzels to get to my minimum calories count. I had more than enough left for the shake. I still want to get my shake before they’re gone until next year. Maybe this weekend. I found flounder fillets at Kroger, regular $9 bag for $2.99! That was dinner, so there were definitely calories left over yesterday. Great dinner though!

Spaghetti dinner I cup of pasta with meat sauce,
salad with Newman’s light balsamic vinaigrette,
1 slice Texas toast and 1 glass cabernet. 450 calories

This is a bit of an update on the Wife 1500 project. I’m doing well so far with keeping between my numbers. Usually, I can stay between 1000 and 1200, but the 1500 number is in place so I can occasionally have McBreakfast when David and I are railfanning or ice cream/cake for dessert. My honey loves his desserts but he usually doesn’t want to have ice cream without me, so I structured my diet in a way that allows me to enjoy evening dessert with him. I don’t consider that splurging. That’s making sure my diet doesn’t make David crazy. That would be another sure way to have an excuse for not being disciplined. I have to look out for myself too. After all, I’m doing this for me!

Recently, bless him, we found out that we both like Jello. Strangest thing for that to be such a big deal, but especially after a heavier meal, like beef or pasta, it’s a nice light dessert and while a bowl of ice cream is 150-250 calories, a bowl of Jello is 80! It’s the perfect companion for our nightly Yahtzee challenge!



Also HUGE thanks and shout-out to Skinny and the City! Joining that mailing list was just awesome for me!! I’ve gotten some great tips and recipes that I’ve added to my cooking routine. I also got a link to Kernel Season's Popcorn that changed my way of crunchy snacking for the WAY better!

I air-pop my popcorn, 120 calories for five cups! Then I spray it with popcorn spritzer, which by the way is butter flavored cooking spray with a little salt, and sprinkle on the flavor topping. Skinny and the City had a coupon code in their email newsletter that offered a free bag of popcorn and a free full-size popcorn spritzer with any order. I bought two shakers of flavor, caramel and garlic Parmesan, and my freebie was worth as much as my purchase, it was essentially all you see in the photo for half price. Did I mention that the newsletter was free? I’m loving my morning coffee read!

By the way, you can’t just buy microwave popcorn to do this. Lots of fat for cooking it, even the light varieties. It must be air-popped. It gives great flavor and no fat with the spritzer and shakers. An air-popper is about $20 anywhere you buy Kitchen appliances, but you CAN still air-pop in the microwave too. Get a standard lunch-size paper bag. Put 2 tablespoons of kernels in the bag and fold it tight on the top. Put it in the microwave for 2-4 minutes. Times vary per microwave, but you don’t want to leave the popcorn unattended at first anyway, until you are sure of the time. Nothing is nastier than the smell of over-nuked popcorn! Just let it go until it stops popping, same as regular microwave popcorn. Now you can put it in a bowl, spritz, flavor and mix, or you can just spritz and flavor in the bag and shake!

I did this for a while, but I realized that I was making popcorn almost every day anyway and I was running out of paper bags! So I picked up my air popper at Meijer. I think it was $22. So now I have my popper, bag of popcorn, butter flavored spray and 3 shakers. I picked up Kernel Season's’s kettle corn at Meijer when I got the popper and new bag of popcorn.



Another Nani-testimonial! I tried Kahiki egg rolls. It was a link from an email, maybe that was Skinny and the City too, but don’t quote me on that one. I went to the Kahiki home page because while the egg rolls look good and only 70 calories each, I can’t have them if there is MSG. Nasty reaction MSG gives if you ingest it when you’re allergic! Well, NO MSG in the egg rolls! They have veggie, shrimp and chicken. I’ve tried the chicken too and they are very good for only 10 more calories, but I LOVE the veggie ones!

I downloaded the $1.50 off two coupon from their website to try them. I couldn’t find them at the nearest grocer to me, but they had them at Meijer, where David prefers to get his steaks anyway, so that’s convenient for me! The egg rolls cook in the microwave in their crisp pouches in 2 minutes, 4 if you’re cooking 2. They are full-size tasty egg rolls and only 70 calories! Plus, bonus time, I cut a coupon off the box for 55 cents off my next box. At this rate, they’ll never be full price either!


So this is all great, but am I getting results?

Yes.

I can already see it in my face. I like my face as it is just fine, so of course, it’s the first place it starts to show if I lose a little weight. That’s probably where my fear of losing too fast is. I’ve seen people who lose a lot really fast that have a gaunt corpseish look for a couple years after weight-loss. I always struggle with the polite “oh, you look GREAT” and the honest “don’t worry, your face will fill back out and you’ll look good again.” So of course, the first place it starts to show to me is my face gets thinner. I’ve talked to other women who’ve complained that the first place they lose is the bust. I wish! Murphy’s law of dieting is that you’ll show loss first in the last place you think you need to lose. In a Biblical sense, Murphy is Satan tempting you towards gluttony for the sake of vanity! I won’t give in, but I still want to figure out how to lose in the bust.

We don’t have a scale in the house, and truth is, I don’t want one. Actual weight fluctuates with time of day and the results of exercise too. Muscle weights more than fat. An occasional weigh-in at the doctor’s office or even at a friend's house is sufficient. I can tell by clothes that are already fitting a little better and “hey, that roll used to hit my elbow when I relax my arms.” Everyone who has ever struggled with weight KNOWS what I mean by that! You see, if I can’t keep looking at a number on a scale, I don’t KNOW that it’s a good time to “take a break.” As long as I can see it and feel it in the mirror and my closet, I’m good and satisfied that the plan is working!

Of course some people need the scale for encouragement. That’s cool too. I truly believe that what works for you is the right way to do it. If I lose enough by the end of my first married year to be worth writing a book, it won’t be the Nani Diet, but the Nani Diet Motivational Inspiration book. Of course, you all will have read it in The Chronicles of Nani for free!

So there’s the update on my quest to buck the norm and LOSE in my first year of marriage. Thanks for your support and definitely try those yummy suggestions!

Try these great diet treasures!
Skinny and the City
Kernel Season's
Kahiki