I've decided to come back to my blog once again. And once again this is taking place in September.

I know it is generally thought that January is the month of new beginnings and fresh starts, but it seems that for me September fills that role. Maybe it is from my days as a classroom teacher and September was always the beginning of a new group of students and often a new room to set up. Or perhaps it is because now September is when my own children are starting a new school year and after 3 months of not having any time alone I'm suddenly given time to ponder my own projects. Whatever the reason, this seems to be the season that brings me back to this little blog.

As I was looking through the blog today trying to decide if I really wanted to continue it or just delete it, I was reminded of all of the wonderful people I've interacted with and been inspired by over the years. Many of my links were outdated and more than a few are no longer in use. So as I visited each of these sites in order to update my blog, some that I hadn't seen in over 5 years, I remembered what brought me to blogging and scrapbooking/stamping in the first place. This community is amazing not just in talent but also and very importantly in encouraging one another. I originally started out with scrapbooking back in 1996 because I wanted to make a scrapbook of college life. In 2000 I started working and teaching classes at a little scrapbook store on the weekends or during breaks when I wasn't teaching in my middle school classroom. This is where I first became intrigued with using stamping in my scrapbooks. a couple years later when my first daughter was born I stamped and sent out my first actual cards - her birth announcements. I was hooked! I loved the immediate satisfaction I could get from cardmaking and soon after that I became involved with The Angel Company. When my second daughter came along in 2005 I realized I really couldn't continue with traditional scrapbooking because I often left a page in progress on my desk for days as I could only grab a few minutes at a time to work on it, And now with a toddler and a newborn this was risky and meant many ruined pages. Thus began my love affair with digi-scrapbooking. With each new adventure I met new friends on forums or at conventions that shared the same creative passion I had. They were there to give me feedback on my creations as well as to provide a listening ear when I had just had a rough mommy day. Until I no longer made time for them or creating. Even though I've had this blog since July 2006, I've not really been active on it or in anything crafty since 2010. This past spring though, as I was sorting out my craft room to decide what should be trashed, what could be donated to schools, and what I might be able to sell, my oldest became interested in cardmaking. Here just as I was going to get rid of everything and move on, she was wanting to join me in creating! She helped me remember what I loved about being creative, what my soul had been missing over the past 6 years.

Now we create together and so I've decided to once again open up this blog to share our creations. We have plans to work through a few weekly challenges to get us back in a groove and hopefully will even upload a few YouTube videos since this is one area we both enjoy gaining inspirations from. Over the past few months we've gotten lots of new goodies from My Favorite Things, Simon Says Stamp, Lawn Fawn, and a few newer companies that I'm just starting to learn about. I've got so many ideas and I can't wait to share them.

For those of you in the Raleigh, NC area I have tons of goodies that I am getting rid of. Tons of brand new stamps from my days as a TAC demonstrator (The Angel Company), papers, lots of stickers, and even a few tools. I'm still in the process ( and this may take a few days) of photographing everything and putting it into a flickr photostream that you can see here:

If you click on show info at the top of the slideshow, it will give you price info for that item. If you see something you want, send me an email. If you aren't local to me, I can mail stuff and will let you know exact shipping charges.

So I've come to the realization that I like stamping and crafting in my kitchen more than in a separate craft room. So I've taken measurements and drawn up plans to build a custom cabinet/workspace along a long wall in my kitchen. I have been searching for something that will work for me for months, however the closest thing I've found was a system from Ikea which costs $2500 for all that I want and still it wouldn't be completely meeting my needs/vision. This is the first attempt I've ever made at something this large scale. I mean I was the one girl who took wood shop in middle school instead of home ec. and all, but still this is huge including 20 custom made drawers! And it must look nice seeing as how it will be front & center in my kitchen. I really hope this turns out nicer than the nightmare I'm envisioning.

Wow! Almost a full month since I last blogged. To be quite honest, I haven't even been motivated to blog much lately because most of what I think to blog about is kinda depressing and I don't really want to share that publicly. I've been thinking also about starting up a paper journal again, but I've been to lazy to actually do it. Oh well.

So what has made me come to blog today? Well I realized I didn't really do much over at the Sweet Shoppe this past month and so I wanted to get back into the groove of things again with the latest blog challenge. This one is about what color finger nail polish I'd be, which is so funny to me because anyone who knows me, knows I don't even wear polish. I don't know what it is about polish but it really bothers me to have it on. The few times I have ventured to wear any, it lasted less than a day before I had removed it. Even for my wedding day. I literally had my nails done right before the ceremony (french manicure style) and then I removed it when I went to change out of my gown to leave the reception. What a big goofball I am. Well anyway, here is my result of the little blog quiz.

Your Nail Polish Color is Red

How you're unique: You have an incredible eye for style and art

Why your style rocks: You are classic and classy - and that's hot!

What this color says about you: "I'm smart, sassy, and sexy. And I know it.
What Color Nail Polish Best Fits You?

Is that not the most hysterical thing? I mean seriously me with Red Polish? Oh my gosh! Anyway, I hope you get results that make you laugh also. If so let me know.

Yep it's Friday and there is a new blog challenge up at SSD so here we go:

This week we are linked to a Star Wars quiz HERE to determine which character we are most similar to. And here are my results:

You are Luke Skywalker

Luke Skywalker 68% R2-D2 68% Yoda 63% C-3PO 63% Princess Leia 61% Boba Fett 60% Han Solo 59% Padme 56% Darth Maul 56% Jar Jar Binks 55%

You value your friends and loved ones, but can sometimes act recklessly because of your emotions. Occasionally you resort to whining. You look ahead to great things for yourself.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)

Wouldn't you know it I'm most like the one character I like the least in the whole original 3. Well at least I'm tied with also being R2D2. Enjoy, laugh it up, and go take the quiz and tell me who you are most like. :) Have a great weekend!

You Are 50% Weird

Normal enough to know that you're weird... But too damn weird to do anything about it!

Just another blog update for the Sweet Shoppe Blog Challenge. The questions were interesting because at first I came up with 40% weird and I know I'm weirder than that, so I went back to change one of my answers that I thought could go either yes or no since there wasn't a sometimes and it was enough to push me up to 50% weird. So can you guess which answer I would have said sometimes to? Take the quiz and let me know. :)

Ok so it seems lately the only time I actually blog on this thing is for the SSD blog challenge. :) Oh well, so be it. Today's blog quiz is all about whether we love or hate certain things and can be found HERE. So here are my answers:

Scary Movies: I hate & love these. I hate them because they really creep me out, but sometimes I like being scared. It just depends on my mood. LOL this could probably be said for everything on this list. I hate the ones that are just senseless gore, because really what's the point? I saw enough real life gore working emergency rescue, I don't really care to watch it glorified in a movie. But I do love the ones that really make your mind think, like M. Night Shyamalan's movies.

Amusement Parks: I love these. I love the games, the rides the oh-so-bad-for-me-but-oh-so-yummy food. Everything except the crowds. I just don't like having to wait in lines or feeling like I have no room to move around. So if it is amusement parks in the off season, oh yeah I'm all for it. Oh wait, though I hate water parks! YUCK! They just seem like one nasty bath tub to me and I don't like to share my baths. :)

Valentines Day: This I could take it or leave it. No real opinion here, because I have the absolute best hubby who loves me every day of the year.

working out: Hmmm, to be honest I don't love the initial part of working out nor do I love forcing myself to do so, but I do LOVE the feeling I have afterwards. I feel so much more energetic and I guess that is what pushes me to actually follow through with doing it every day.

tattoos: Nope, hate 'em. I have no desire to willingly put myself through that much pain and pay for it. I know some are very artistically done, but I always see them as what they will look like when the person is old and wrinkly and to me that is never a pretty sight.

guacamole: Oh YUMMMMY! I love avocados any way they are prepared, but a great bowl of guacamole and chips is always a delight.

Hillary Clinton: This is another one of those hmmm, depends on my mood. I don't personally know the lady so I don't judge her nor can I make any comment about her in any other way other than politically. And although I don't agree with a lot of her political views, I don't really know much of what she really stands for or what she has done in office.

Napolean Dynamite - the movie: Ok we just recently watched this movie, and it had some great parts but overall, it was just weird. So another one dependent on my mood. :)

Meat Loaf: Love both the musician and the meal. :) And I have a fabulous recipe for a southwestern meatloaf that never has leftovers.

Forwarded Emails (videos, stories, etc.): HATE THEM!!!! My email is flooded with so much junk mail already that to also have to weed through these is just a pain. My family knows I don't read them let allow forward them on. I don't care what it is, I just don't want it in my email.

So there you have it. :) I'll try to post tomorrow with some layouts I recently finished and a problem I'm trying to figure out.

I have a rant I need to make about Wal-Mart. Why does a corporation that is so wealthy (I just heard one day last week that the CEO or somebody got a multi-million dollar bonus, so I know they are not on the verge of bankruptcy) have such a hard time with cleanliness? I mean good grief! This is why I much prefer to just not go in there. But Saturday night was not a time that I could be picky. It was late, I had to get several things that couldn't all be gotten at the grocery store and Target had already closed. So I had to go to Walmart. Also it should be noted that I was not close to my house. I had to make a delivery to one of my stamping customers who lives about 40 minutes away, so she directed me to the closest Walmart instead of me having to drive all the way past my house and to the Walmart that is nearest our house. This I mistakenly thought would save time. Well first this Walmart, and if you are anywhere near me in central North Carolina this would be the one in Fuquay-Varina, was completely backwards from the Walmart closest to me (Clayton). I needed trash bags, sandwich bags, a plastic storage bin, 1 bar of Ivory soap (for my Sunday School lesson I would be teaching the following morning), and some replacement Brita water filters. Not a long list. I should have been in & out in under 15 minutes, right? Wrong! 1 hour 20 minutes later (at 11:30 pm!!!) I am stumbling out to my car because I'm so exhausted, and I still had a 20 minute drive home! So what went wrong? Well to begin with nothing was where it really should be. For instance, in the Clayton store I would have gone over to toiletries gotten the soap, picked up the storage bin on my way to the grocery side of the store where I could have found the trash bags, sandwich bags, and water filters right on the same aisle. I could have then gone through the self-checkout and been on my way home. But no, that is not the way it happened. You see for some reason those who manage the Fuquay store seem to think that trash bags belong on the aisle with popcorn and chips, sandwich bags really go with the plastic storage section, Ivory soap is only needed in packs of 15, and here is the real kicker, Water filters are easiest to find in the hardware department with the paint! UGH! Give me a break! And the whole store smelled like a giant fart. I could barely breathe in there. Plus I actually had to move heavy carts out of the middle of aisles and shift boxes over so that I could get the few items I needed off the shelves. One box that I had to pick up was a box of canned foods (in the Popcorn/trash bag aisle!!!) that must have weighed at least 50 pounds. It was truly a miserable shopping experience. As I told Jamie when I called to let him know I was finally on my way home, I'd rather bite off my toenails than to go shopping in there again.

Well yesterday I voted! I feel great about the candidates I voted for and even though some of them didn't win their election I know they are still the better candidate. :) The rain yesterday was torrential. And thus, voter turn out was low yet again. At my polling station, only about 23% of registered voters showed up. UGH! Perhaps one day, politicians will stop the negative ads and just say what their agendas and priorities are and give people a clear picture of themselves so that voting will not seem like such a chore. I know I don't vote with any one party because I like to know each candidate individually. But there were a couple that I chose only because they didn't bombard me with all the things their opponent had done wrong, instead they stated their goals for the office. Wow, simplicity really is best!

But enough about that. On to other topics. Ruthie went to get her flu shot this morning. YAY! Finally, we have been on a waiting list for over a month and finally the shots are available. Hopefully Ella will be able to get one soon also. But the nurse who gave the shot this morning is the sweetest nurse. We just love her and she even gave Ruthie a mini chocolate bar after her shot so that Ruthie would still like her. It was so funny, because when she first held it out to Ruthie, who was still screaming from the shot, Ruthie tried to hide under my chair because she thought the nurse was coming at her with another shot. When she finally realized it was chocolate she stopped crying, took a bite and gave the nurse a big smile. Oh how I love my little fireball!

Also a friend of mine, Cheryl, recently gave me a copy of her reading list she has been keeping for the past couple of years. WOW is all I can say. I love to read, but I have rarely had the time to do it recently. So needless to say, Cheryl has given me the motivation to try to remember what I have read so far this year. So here it is:

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling (I think I read it this past January, but it may have actually been last year. hmmm)
• Naked - David Sedaris
• The Eyre Affair - Jasper FForde
• The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket
• The Reptile Room - Lemony Snicket
• The Wide Window - Lemony Snicket
• The Miserable Mill - Lemony Snicket
• The Austere Academy - Lemony Snicket
• The Ersatz Elevator - Lemony Snicket

And I feel like there has been more, but for the life of me I can not remember what they were. Of course I read lots of Curious George, Winnie The Pooh and Sandra Boynton books repeatedly every day with the girls, but I want to include only books for me on this list. I just started The Red Tent by Anita Diamant today. And I'm reading through several "creative" books as well:

• Photoshop Elements 4.0 A-Z - Philip Andrews
  
• The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements - Richard Lynch
  
• A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking with Patterned Paper - Ali Edwards

I'm also trying to scrap at least 1 page per day while Ruthie naps or in the evening after the girls go to bed. It feels so good to be creative again! I feel like my mind is actually starting to work on its own again after taking a 5 year hiatus. And to push myself towards this I actually applied for a Creative Team position at The Digi Shoppe! I can't believe I did this, but oh do I so hope I get it. They are supposed to review all apps Friday and release their decision on their blog here sometime after that. We shall see.

Well I better go do a bit of cleaning while Ruthie is still asleep.