It's A Chocolatey Morning

So much fun reading comments yesterday.  The Almond M&Ms caused quite the stir!!  When I was a kid, it was all about the peanut M&Ms!  The Milk Chocolate, we knew them then as plain, were okay, but the ultimate M&M was Peanut.  Keep in mind that when I was a child, as was true for many of us, M&Ms only came in plain and peanut!

For me, peanut was an easy choice for 2 reasons.  First, it had peanuts!  I’ve mentioned before that working on a healthy diet for me was the sobering reality of a serving size for nuts.  I love nuts!  You are what you eat, right?  Well nuts are all fat, good and healthy fat, but all fat.  Which makes Nani good and healthy to be around and….  (sigh)  So, I am careful now.  I measure and count nuts when I want them. 

Olives fall into that category too! I’ve loved olives since I was a kid.  There are three olives in a serving, three!  There are five fingers per hand.  The math doesn’t work.  Come on, how many of us did the pitted olives on our fingers as a kid?  I’ve even seen cans of pitted olives with a drawing of a kids hand with an olive on each finger.  I think we let kids play with olives at holiday dinners because we used to do it and it brings back happy memories.  I know I have a picture of Tori with olive fingertips at Thanksgiving!

But let’s get back to the topic at hand.  (Accidental pun alert.)  M&Ms.

The other thing that made choosing peanut easy was the chocolate.  Plain M&Ms were candy-covered Mars chocolate.  I have always preferred Hershey's for regular candy store chocolate.  Really, I’m a fan of Hershey’s in general, but even with my preferred chocolate, my favorite candy bar is Mr. Goodbar and I’ve always preferred Hershey’s Almond over a plain Milk Chocolate Bar, hover, I still love the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars!

When M&Ms started to expand and bring us new varieties of M&Ms, that was pretty cool!  They added the Almond to the M&M staples and honestly, the almond bumped the peanut out as my favorite M&M.  Then they added the Mint M&Ms for Christmas.  I like the mint ones for a change up, but they don’t mix in a big bowl of assorted M&Ms as well.  I’ve tried and loved the M&Ms in peanut butter, coconut, cherry, dark chocolate and peanut dark chocolate.  I tried and did not like the Crispy M&Ms.  Not a fan of Hershey’s Crackle bars.  I’m just not a big rice fan.  For a while if you asked what my favorite M&Ms were, I’d tell you Almond or Dark Chocolate Peanut, easy.  The Dark Chocolate Peanuts just amazed my taste buds the first time I tried them.  I’m usually more of a milk chocolate fan, but I think I just prefer Mars’ dark to their milk.

 Then, they did it.  They made an M&M for ME!  Pretzel M&Ms!!  How perfect a Nani-candy can they make?  Okay, as already stated, Hershey’s chocolate over pretzels with a candy shell would be perfect-er, but that’s not going to be happening soon.  My, without question, favorite M&M is the Pretzel M&Ms!  I have 2 bags of Easter candy left, they qualify as the best of the best to me; Pretzel M&Ms and Hershey’s Candy Covered Milk Chocolate Eggs.

 

The Candy Covered Eggs are essentially solid Hershey eggs with a candy shell.  Easter candy lasts a while because, even though the jar I keep it in is right next to where my computer is, I count them out and record my points for them, so the jar lasts longer.  Right now David filled the jar with his Cadbury Eggs.  That’s helping me control my chocolating too.  Not that I don’t like the Cadbury Mini Eggs, I do, but they’re David’s eggs and I don’t want to deprive him of his favorites!  But after the Cadbury Eggs are gone and it’s time to refill the jar, I have to make the tough decision of which of my two faves will be the last bag.  I’m thinking I’ll have the Hershey’s for last since, although not in pastel colors, Pretzel M&Ms will still be here.  The candy covered Hershey’s is gone after Easter.  Maybe I’ll find a half-off case of them after Easter Sunday….

Okay, time for breakfast.  Shall I have chocolate cereal or make a chocolate breakfast cake?

Angel and Devil Break

Another fun week in Blogland is drawing to a close. I’ve gotten pretty good with checking in, even just for a meme and a moment, daily. I wanted to do that for a while and I hope I can keep it up when my house project is done. We won’t have to worry about that for a while. But scrapping and blogging do a great job of getting me a good rest when I need it during the day and keeping me away from food! The exception being that the fruit basket and my laptop share space in the dining room. But the fruit is a good thing! Better than overdosing on M&Ms!

Right now I’m taking a rest between jobs for the day and the big bag of pretzel M&Ms and my last Ambrosia apple are fighting for my attention. The M&Ms are on my right and the apple is on my left which is totally skewed from the classic devil/angel scenario. I didn’t have milk stuff at breakfast because I cooked hot breakfast, eggs and sausage. I should probably have yogurt. I don’t have enough shoulders!

I decided last night that since I’m just stronger and more coordinated in the beginning of the day, I’d assemble the bookshelf during the day. It’s never going to be upright before it’s finished (I assembled the other one just like it upstairs a few years ago) I could sit on the floor and assemble it. That’s what I’m doing next. David said to assemble what I can and he’ll finish it when he gets home tonight. I hope all he’ll have to do is upright it and put it in the annex. We’ll see how much I can finish before another break-time!

Before I get working on the bookshelf, I want to do this week’s Friday Fill-Ins.


Follow Friday Four Fill-Ins




Every Friday, Hilary at Feeling Beachie posts four fill-in statements. It’s fun to read everyone’s answers and see how different they all are! I copy the statements and answer before I read Hilary’s. It’s not a meme that requires lots of time to participate and it’s fun! Stop on over and join in!

This week’s statements:
1. Nothing is better than.____
2. I ___my ___ in ___but never ____
3. Those _____ that are always _____ make me want to ___________
4. My favorite _________________ is when __________________________.

1.. Nothing is better than the feeling of accomplishment when a project is complete.


 2. I love my furry slippers in the morning but never find they’re quite warm enough at night. :(

 

3. Those Humane Society commercials that are always so sad make me want to adopt about 6 more cats! Scotty already refers to David and me as “That couple with the cats” because we had four at one time. We had all four cats for a while at each of our houses, but never as a permanent residence. Three has been, and is planned on being again, the highest number actually living with us.

4. My favorite coffee time is when I meet friends for coffee and we have no plans for after.

Just A Little Nuts

That’s me right now! I only have my final exam left in my class this semester. I think the final project wrapped up pretty nice. David caught a couple of typos this morning and now I’m ready to bundle it and turn it in. The official launch of Journal Camp, well, the pre-camp meeting anyway, will be posted in just a couple of hours. I’m really hoping to be back to normal blogging soon. The end of the semester is tough no matter how many classes because you take the class load that works with your life-load! Next semester, summer, I’m not in any graded classes because I’m devoting that to prep for the Network+ exam. Then 2 classes in the fall with hopefully a part-time entry level networking job. Wish me luck!

My wonderful honey brought me home my long lost and beloved Wildly Cherry M&Ms!!! I thought they’d never bring them back! He called me when he first hem so I could find them at the Kroger near us, where I was shopping the day I got the picture of the Avatar cupcakes for him. Alas, they didn’t have them at out Kroger and he stopped there on the way home from Paws Poker yesterday and brought me some!

By the way, David did make it to the final round, but didn’t finish in the money, but he felt good about how he played and it made a nice donation to Paws and Whiskers. After making it to the finals last time, I didn’t go this time. I found out that, while I refuse to lose on purpose, I get bored when I’m not playing with friends or at least with fun talk at the table. So I stayed home and scrapped. I did catch-up one more week of Java 365!

Vacation Week Java!
Credits: template by MAH Designs,
kit Sunset Beach by MAH Designs

I’ve been busting my scholarly butt on the final project this week, so tomorrow is going to be Nani-Day. Some pain kept me from biking so much last week. Too much sitting in front of school stuff made me stiff, I think! So, I’m going to get back to biking tomorrow and then go out to the fruit and veggie market. I’ve been thinking of making vegetable stew.

Now, I’m thinking a night cap Caribou K-Cup and wait for hubby to come home before sleepy time!

Got Chocolate?

Okay, well I had my chocolate, 1/4 cup of M&Ms while I finished my chapter review for chapter 14. We’re half way through the class part of that chapter and we’ll finish it up and chapter 15 tomorrow...and then the book is done. Wow. I have two more homework assignments to finish up this evening and then the review questions for chapter 15 tomorrow and the final exam by Friday...then the class is done!

I think my final grade will be a passing grade, but I’m planning on rereading about 6 chapters in the weeks between terms. I don’t just want a good grade, I . to understand well enough to pass the certification tests and get a job when it’s all said and done. My fall class is online and that’ll start as we are leaving for our honeymoon. Gotta love that WiFi! I’ll make an appointment with my advisor when we get back and look into an internship. It won’t be a “for credit” internship, so I’m even okay if it’s a free internship. If it’s for credit, I’d be paying to do it, so I’d want some sort of compensation! I just want to work with some network professionals, see what I’m learning in a real-life situation. Every time I open the book or the command panel on my laptop, more falls into place and the more comfortable that I really am learning this stuff I am. Now I’m feeling antsy about getting my hands on something that’s not just a simulation!


Awards!

I have some wonderful blog awards to share!

Thank you, Edna!

The first one I was given at the beginning of the month, but I haven’t had time to catch up and post it! Edna of Miss Edna’s Place gave me this award, “Blog Sin Frontiers,” acknowledging scrap blogs promoting a world without borders and people who offer help, love, friendship and solidarity in the world. What a very cool award!

Thank you, Kimberly!!

Most recently, I was awarded the One Lovely Blog Award by Kimberly of Kimberkatt Scraps. Kim’s blog is fun and the kitties on her blog’s background are just too sweet!


Retiring soon...

I am announcing the retirement of some more of the blog freebies. These ones have been free at The Chronicles of Nani for over a year.

Dandelions and Thistle


Heart of Glass/?digifree

Frame-It & Write-It

Dandelions and Thistle quick page

The links will close July 27, so if you haven’t gotten them yet, check them out!

Our Wedding, Our Way!

I'm taking a brief study-break, so I'll share a little from last weekend!

As forecasted, it rained Saturday, one solid thunderstorm to cleanse the earth and bless the day. Then it cleared up and was nice. It wasn’t oppressively hot or humid at the base ball park, although it was hot enough to pop a balloon in a car with no air conditioning!

Friends and relatives started coming in Friday evening. David and the girls and I met his brother, Ben and family for dinner. Tori was excited about that. I had told them about how wonderful David’s family was when I first met them, how I felt so welcomed. We weren’t sure what the plan would be, if we’d meet with them Friday or see them Saturday. Tori was insistent that we should all have dinner. We went to a local brewery restaurant. The kids seemed to get along pretty well. Ben and I both tried the beer sampler. I ended up liking and drinking two of the small glasses and really that was enough for someone who doesn’t drink often. Rina and Tori thought it was important to get a photo of me with all that beer to send to their Dad.

After dinner, the four of us went home to wait for Doug, who was staying with us. Doug got in and then the cats had enough of all of the people in their house. Baggle actually came back later and made friends with Doug, but surprisingly, Kaline stayed hidden. She pretty much decided that she didn’t need to deal with the house full of people for the rest of the weekend. On Saturday, when David’s brother Peter came in she stayed gone and when his brother Anthony came over with wife Carol and their grandson, well, you wouldn’t know we had cats!

We all managed to get into 2 vehicles, balloons and all, to head to the ballpark. When we got there, Rina and Ben stood near the main entrance with the sign for reception information, giving a niece from one side of our family and a nephew from the other on the home plate corner. Their job was to direct people to Tori and EP at the third base gate. The girls at third were in charge of checking people in and distributing the guest envelopes to our guests. After working on the favors with Rina and me, Tori assembled the name badges and prepared the envelopes with the tickets, wristbands and name badges and check in sheets. The system worked well. Tori was very into the whole wedding planner stuff. She’d done a lot of leg work with Laura’s wedding, welcoming her new Mom to the family and she did a lot to help her “old aunt” too. ;)

The bride and groom with Mudonna

I really didn’t think I was going to actually see a lot of baseball that night. I was however, gloriously surrounded by baseball. What a fitting reception party! I got to spend some time with friends and relatives, some of whom I’d just met, and still, there wasn’t nearly enough time for that. We got a visit from Muddy in the first inning and David and I got a picture with him. I was hoping we might be able to get them both together, but that couldn’t be managed during the game. Anthony brought grandson, JC, to meet Muddy. To say he wasn’t impressed is putting it so lightly. He cried. Big yellow birds in baseball jerseys are pretty frightening when you’re under 2. When Mudonna came a little bit later, David and I got our picture with her, but JC didn’t bother!

Dinner was fantastic! The carved ham and roast beef was a far cry from standard ball park fare and I’m told the mac and cheese was awesome! After we finished eating, there was an opportunity when all of the guests were present and not other places in the park for David and I to do some visiting and bring the favors to everyone. M&Ms won’t do a single letter on their personalized M&Ms. So, I made round stickers with a single letter “d” on them that look like “d” M&Ms at first glance. The stickers have our names and the wedding date on the circumference. Those stickers were on the bags that had M&Ms with our names on half and “d&d 12-23-08” on the others. They turned out to be very nice favors. We also had a newsletter with stories about how we met, our biographies and a word search with “us words” in it the newsletter got many compliments.

Our M&Ms favors

Before the cake was brought out, we invited everyone to blow the party bubbles as we released a group of balloons in memory of the family members who are no longer with us and in tribute to David’s Mom who couldn’t make the trip. The bubbles were a suggestion that Mary made and I passed it on to everyone as an “if you’d like to participate” idea. David and I held the balloons together and released them. As the balloons floated up in the sky a cloud of bubbles floated past us and followed like little angels pushing the balloons to heaven. I really don’t know what it looked like, but it felt warm, fuzzy and awesome!

Coming soon - THE CAKE!

My Favorite Candy Holiday!

I found this bouquet online. Isn’t it SO Nani??

Easter is this weekend!! Hopefully this year it’s late enough that we’ll get to Grandma’s for Easter weekend instead of making a snow bunny in our front yard! Don’t get me wrong. Frosty Cottontail was very cool, but Easter weekend is getting to see Grandma and Saturday night dinner at the restaurant with the great view of Lake Huron.

David and I were talking this morning. I told him Easter was THE Candy Holiday. He actually corrected me! He said that was Halloween. Please! Halloween is great for abundant candy, but for the BEST candy? The filled eggs, jelly beans, those wonderful Hershey’s candy covered chocolate eggs and CHOCOLATE BUNNIES, the best holiday is Easter!

David and I exchange candy gifts for Easter. I’m not going to go into details about David’s gift yet because he reads The Chronicles of Nani! But I figure I’m getting a bunny because he’s been asking about bunny specs. Although, that candy bouquet pictured up top is not a bad choice either! Candy bouquets come in all shapes, sizes and varieties of candy, but a big basket of Mike and Ikes? If we’d had a wedding, I could have walked down the aisle carrying that!

The plan is that we’ll exchange out NOT diet gifts at Grandma’s on Sunday Morning. I’m thinking I should probably have some small gifts for Dad, Aunt Judy and Grandma from the Easter Bunny too. Grandma likes sugar free candy to keep her glucose meter happy, but she’s a chocolate purist, and she does like her chocolate! That’s where I get it and it didn’t skip a generation. Mom was a chocoholic too! Maybe for Grandma I’ll mix some good Easter chocolate with some of the Baskin Robbins sugar free hard candies. I got those for her one year for Christmas and she’s been hooked ever since!! For Dad, definitely some Peanut M&Ms. I gave him those in Easter grass one year when I was little and he loved them. It’s sort of a traditional make me a little princess again treat now!

:::Happy Sigh:::

Yeah, how can you look at all the yummy Easter options out there and say that Easter is anything but THE undisputed candy holiday??

Lunchie Thoughts

OH MY... HEAVEN!!

All kinds of things going on my little brain this midday. Yes, midday, I eat breakfast either with David at about 9:30ish or after he leaves for work, about 10:00, so I usually do lunch about 2:30.

First off, last week was a very good week in job desolation world, but I worry maybe all the places I found to send resumes, posted jobs and phone calls that at least yielded information may have been a mirage in the job hunt desert! It’s just that this week wasn’t as fruitful.

I called on a posted Toledo job this morning, listed as local job, but with an 866 number and a second one with a Toronto area code. Huh? Well I called the toll free number and got voice mail...with no actual outgoing message. I left a number and the purpose of my call, but I am skeptical about how legit this posting is. I couldn't find a corporate website or even any firm information about the company. I’m afraid it may be not be a legitimate company. I regard those people that post “jobs” to lure despondent unemployed folks or the ones that bait and switch, tempting with a decent job to offer a low wage job, to be bottom feeders, the lowest life forms on the planet. GRR!

It was good to get a break from that frustration! I had parmesan noodles that I made with leftover egg noodles form dinner last night and the last of the hummus I made for lunch. YUM! It’s been a nice week with tabouleh, hummus and pita in the house! Lunch has been awesome, if a little redundant, all week!

I got back to the desk and read up on a few blogs. I came across a fun one, by way of reading Sherrie’s Stuff. She links to Friday Fill-Ins, which I usually read,but this week I think I’ll play!

Friday Fill-In

1. Dancing to the sounds of Frank Sinatra while in the kitchen cooking dinner makes me happy.

2. The last time I went upstairs in the dark I nearly stepped on Baggle! (He’s TOO trusting!).

3. When I drive I make David nervous.

4. I saw a chipmunk standing on the porch.

5. Give me a job, give me security, give me a chance to survive. (Thanks Styx!)

6. Next week I am looking forward to getting a call returned, setting up an interview and being offered a job.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to watching the new episode of Queen Bees. Tomorrow my plans include going with David to pick peaches with Dad and Aunt Judy in Erie Michigan and Sunday, I want to make a peach crisp with the fresh peaches and get some serious scrapbooking time!

Check out the Friday Fill-Ins every week. It’s a fun blog filler that does NOT ask you about your salad dressing preference. Gotta love it for that alone!

Imagine, seeing Dad and Aunt Judy TWO WEEKENDS IN A ROW! It will be a cool weekend that will most assuredly pump me up for a better work-week...Maybe even a week to get back to work!

A Little of This, A Little of That (2/8/08)

For those of you who are new to The Chronicles of Nani, I have a habit of collecting ideas for short blogs on my desktop and every now and then will do a "multi blog" with a few of them. As a rule I don't b log at work, which includes that while I am not working right now, I am a 9-5 job seeker. That has its own frustrations that I usually unload on my personal journal. Something about putting pencil to paper that is great for vaporizing negative energy!
I will sometimes blog at lunch when I'm home though. Part of controlling that frustration is making sure I take normal breaks, eat a balanced diet at normal intervals and put the whole thing, frustration and all away at the end of the day. That does a lot to keep the peace at home too!

So here is the current smattering of little things that have been on my mind and my desktop!

QBz

Thanks to Skunk Studios for the wonderful method of honing my multi-platform skills! Many evenings you can find this Mac girl typing away on a Windows-driven PC! It's not what you may think, though!

I am not a "Mac-Nazi." I am a realist in the platform wars. One has to know their way around a windows system in the larger percentage of jobs in the professional world. IBM beat Apple to the finish line. I remember the line at the end of The Pirates of Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs says to Bill Gates, commenting about his taking shortcuts to get his platform to production, "ours is better though, it's a better OS". Gates replies, "It doesn't matter Steve, it just doesn't matter!"

That's still true today, Gates won the argument and the meat of the market, American business. If you are going to be in business, you have to know Windows, unless you are in graphics. That's the main user difference between the two. Macs make better graphics and artsy stuff. Windows is better for gamin, especially online gaming. Kinda like Macs make 'em, Windows play 'em. I advise friends who are in the market, that if they are into gaming, go windows, but make sure the virus software is kept up to date!
Mac is a more solid platform. I don't spend money constantly updating virus software and the only Mac I've ever known to get a virus has been one that my Mom had. She opened on email in Softy Windows and it infected the whole Windows side of her partitioned hard drive. When she rebuilt, it was without the Windows program. My Grandma uses her computer for email, instant messaging and looking at photo intense web sites for quilting. She uses a Mac. That only makes sense! Besides, Macs are much more user friendly. Mac was a lot easier to learn how to use when she got her computer in her late 70s!

But this blurb wasn't supposed to be about Mac vs. Windows! This is supposed to be about QBz! So, QBz means I get some Windows time at home. I'm usually using Word or Firefox because QBz is on the Mac!! Although Windows are better for games, QBz plays fine on the Mac and David's older computer is too slow to keep up with the game. Of course, I can't do scrapbooking or make a movie on his computer and R2D2, my space heater, is next to the Mac, so I get cold, BUT David is a QBZ addict! I'm serious, he plays the "Game of the Day," competing with other peoples scores that are automatically posted online. It brings out the competitive animal in him!! He'll sit in front of my computer, finish 4 rounds of a ten round game and start over because he didn't get a bonus for a round. It's a sad disease. But, I have to support him on it. I HAVE to. It's my computer, my game. What's worse, we only discover the "Game of the Day" when I rebuilt my hard drive last week. It made him MORE competitive with the global high scores. I am his enabler, his pusher. I'm so ashamed. ;)

But, I get to learn new things about windows that I can chat up recruiters about!

Dark Peanut M&Ms

My new favorite pick-it-up-at-the-gas-station candy! This started at Christmas. When I was shopping for candy for the Fabulous Dessert Bar, of course, anyone that knows me or has read any of my blogs knows I HAD to have M&Ms! My favorite is…was…almond. I have loved the almond M&Ms since they first came out. This past Christmas, I bought dark chocolate peanut to add some variety to the M&M bowl which had milk chocolate and almond as well. (I put the mint ones separate in glass cups)

My goodness, what a GREAT choice to mix things up! I'd tried the plain dark chocolate ones, but I'm more of a milk chocolate fan. But the dark chocolate peanut M&Ms are AMAZING! You can find them in the Valentines Day colors, in big bags or in regular M&Ms bags. This may very well mean they are NOT a limited time deal, like the purple M&Ms were. So I'm not going to say, "Get them while they last." I'm encouraging everyone to get them SO they last!


Scrapbook Pages
I'm going to start showing off an occasional scrapbook page. I do the Mug Shot every Monday, Photoblog Wednesday and Friday By Request if I get a request, so I really don't want to schedule a "Scrapbook Day." I will make a point to post layouts that I'm proud of.

My friend Barb, from the Yahoo 360 Chronicles got me started on this. She has been doing her scrapbooking in the digital format for quite a while. In 2006, she did a page with a picture David took of me in New York. She really liked the photo and she did such a nice layout for me. I was honored that she chose that photo and put it on her blog!

Last summer, I got into it. My large bookshelf has photo albums and scrapbooks on it. The first couple shelves are straight photo albums. I started adding headings and caption handwritten on scraps of paper and they slowly morphed into scrapbooks. Now my paper scrapbooks have morphed into digital ones.

One of my 2008 goals is to get my scrapbooks caught up. At the end of last year I had JUST met this guy named David! Yeah, that David, the guy who shares his address with me. I'm a little behind. Well, I started this year going digital with my 39th birthday, July 2005. Kaline wasn't even born yet! I'm now done until just before Thanksgiving. I am 39 years old. I've admitted to David that I had fallen in love with him, we found Kaline, we've taken Rina to see her first up-close train and David's met my Aunt from Italy!

Shutterfly will print 12X12 scrapbooks up to 100 pages. The cool thing is, I can use kits I already have and do challenges in the cyber-crop clubs to earn more for free. So, with my digital camera, I can keep working on the books and store them in my hard dive until I'm back to work and can afford to get the books printed. I can NOT afford scrapbook supplies and printing costs for the paper books right now! I also think that the pages I do on the computer look better than the ones I do by hand. Well, I have a background doing graphics for TV and I flunked scissors in kindergarten. The digi-cropping is more in my nature!

So here are a couple of my latest layouts:

This layout is called “Why I Scrap,” I know, ingenious title! The kit I used is called “Flyin’ High” by RCMama Designs. RCMama is Sherrie and she is my boss of sorts. I am on hr creative team! Being on a creative team is basically making a number of layouts using your designer's kits and you receive them for free. It saves you a couple bucks and makes the designer a few more sales, hopefully. If your designs are good ones they promote the kit! Right now, Sherrie’s designs are freebies as she is just getting started as a designer. It’s also my very first creative team spot, so we are helping each other build a reputation! There are 4 total artists on her team. Ideally, in the future this relationship will mean she can begin to sell her kits a and I could join additional creative teams and get a few of those 5-10 dollar kits a month. You have to apply for the CT spots just like you do for a job, so I’m building up my portfolio! :)

I do know I enjoy the creative challenge and the challenge of meeting deadlines (Oh, God, I miss working a real job!) But, I also know that RCMama Designs are some really great products for digital scrapbooking and I love that I can be part of the promoting team at the ground level. If you do digital scrapbooking or if you know someone who does, check out Sherri’s blog for some incredible freebies...while you can still get them for free!

My second layout today is called “Who’s On The Button?” No kit on this one, it’s all my design and David’s inspiration.

I’m not a fan of buttons as scrapbooking elements, paper or digital. That’s just my personal preference. I don’t use them. Well, there was an element challenge with a nice freebie for a prize for posting at Digital Freebies, the site where all of my layouts are posted first. I’ve been there the longest and have participated n the most challenges there. For the element challenge last month, it was “use big buttons in your layout.” ARGHHH!!!

David takes a moderate interest in my hobby, well a supportive interest. He is not a scrapbooking fan like I am a railfan, but the very fact that my man is casually interested in my scrapbooking is as widely admired by the scrapping gals as his railfan girlfriend is by the train guys! When I voiced my stress at having to use buttons in a layout, he asked if they had to be a particular kind of button or could I use an interpretation of button? I have such a great man! He suggested The Button, as in poker, and even let me scan his chips and card for the layout. The result was a great layout that gathered lots of positive feedback at the site!