Reached home safely

The roads were starting to get slippery. We got out in time! As far as tomorrow, they'll put an alert out if they're closed. My office will also put out an alert. We're getting pounded by snow and freezing rain. It's so cold rightnow. The Federal offices were shut down this afternoon!

I got my purse today! And along with that I got a hand signed card by Michelle Coleman!! OMG I was so psyched! More about the card than about the purse, which is very nice! She had scrapped the card (ofcourse! Is there any other way?) The card is *so* pretty. DH says she didn't scrap it, it was pre-bought. Ha! He thinks this because it's printed on a differnt type of paper (cardstock?) I get my LOs printed on matte photo paper so that's what he's used to seeing.

I've been bad about exercise this week. After my run on saturday, my legs started aching and it was so bad that night. Happened again sunday night even though I didn't run or even walk. Don't know what's going on so I'm taking it slow. I don't want to cause an injury or something. I have increased my time to 1 hour. Can only go 4 miles. Blech.

School's out..

Daycare is closing early due to the weather. It has been snowing a little bit since last night and rightnow we're getting rain mixed with snow. Not good because it will turn to Ice. DH dropped me off today so he's coming to get me and we'll pick up Mehul earlier. They didn't say what time they're closing because they want to give parents time to pick up their kids ASAP without pressuring them to come get them NOW.

BTW, these reminders are pretty cool. I registered with www.schoolsout.com to receive alerts in case the daycare puts one out. Good to know they work ;)

I'm pretty sure they'll either be closed tomorrow or delayed because of ice. That means Valentine Party will be postponed to day after? I'm not sure. Will ask while picking him up. I don't have to prepare anything for the party, just have to pick up a fruit tray from the grocery store..

I have a few layouts to show. One of those is this Valentine's layout I did for Lori's newsletter. Pretty cool to see *my* layout in a newsletter. She also featured a couple of layouts her CT (including me) did for her new Life's Little Moments collection.

Greatest Treasures

Credits:
Based on the template by Lori Wiley in February Newsletter from Scraptastics.com
All Papers, Stitched Heart, Ribbon, Rose and petals from Diamante Designs February Sampler available at TheDigiShoppe
Butterfly (recolored in 2 colors by me!!) from Diamante designs Let Yourself Shine kit availabe at Scraptastics and TDS
The background journaling is sweet little things about family :)
I created the wordart from a quote found on the net.

There is a Valentines Party at Mehul's Daycare. I only came to know about it yesterday when his teacher 'reminded' me about signing up for an item for the party. Umm..I didn't even know about it. Apparantly, DH forgot to tell me about this and the fact that we're supposed to give all the kids Valentines Cards. I signed up for bringing fruit platter (easiest, LOL!) Their entire menu is high on sugar - Cupcakes, fruits, fruit juice, cookies and chips (ok, salty, but not any better!) Ms. Jessy said it's good that they have a gym class after the party where they can burn all the energy. Yeah, good luck controlling a bunch of sugar-high toddlers LOL!

So, cards are done. Ofcourse I scrapped them. I made a version last night but it seemed too girly (but it was cute!) with pinks and reds. This version is more attractive and little boyish I think.



My sister reminded me that I never posted about the speech issues the teacher had brought up at the last Parent Teacher Meeting. I know I had said that it'll be posted later but I don't really think there is anything much to post about it. The teacher basically expressed concern about him not talking much in the class and not having a 'conversation' with the teachers. For example, instead of saying, "Ms. SoandSo, I need more applesauce", or whatever, he'd just say "More". She said he doesn't respond to questions. Our experience has been different. He responds to us most of the time and sometimes he doesn't (isn't that normal for a 2 year old?) I think the main reason he doesn't respond to either of his teachers is that their accent is kindof hard to understand. They are Hispanic and *we* have a hard time understanding Ms. S in particular. Other kids have probably adapted since most of them have been in the class longer than 6 months. We're not overly worried (read- we're not worried) She did say that the daycare has a Speech Therapist on staff who can work with kids as needed. That I think is wonderful to have. She has since told us that M is showing a lot of improvement, talks a lot, responds, etc. I just think he's getting to understand her more now.

Anyhow, I *know* it is hard to understand what he's saying a lot of times. Specially if it's a new word. We were sitting at Chipotle's last night and he came up behind me (no more high chairs) and held my face in his hands and said "da ya ddestane" That's what I heard the first time. After like 30 seconds I decoded it LOL. Do You Understand? Yep. That's what he said. No wonder teachers are having a hard time.

Scrapping is going on as usual. I have resigned from one CT. Their requirements increased suddenly when they added more members. Instead of just doing a layout with their new kits and posting in pre-specified # of galleries, they put additional demands on all of us. I just don't have that kind of time. I'm very happy with the original 2 designers. But I do have a guest CT spot for March with an *Awesome* designer. I can't wait for Feb to be over!

I have a lot more to say but gotta go. Have a great weekend!

Snow Day was here..

And it's almost over :( I took the day off today because of the snow last night. It was drivable but I just wanted it ;) If I had my work laptop with me, I'd have worked from home but I didn't.

I downloaded a bunch of quick pages from ScrapArtist. The fun with QPs is that they're QUICK! Here are a bunch that'll adorn my purse soon :)

ajaabney's

iscraptoo's

MMacLean's

need2create's

Julie's

Credits to each one are in ScrapArtist Gallery

Messy, Recipe, Sleepy

1. Messy layouts. I'm loving this new style. It fits like a glove. And yet it challenges.
2. I've created a whole bunch of recipe cards. I'm afraid posting might be copyright infringement for some recipes. I'm not sure if I can share them because most of the recipes are from published books. I've made modifications but the main recipes are from books. Guess I'll keep most of them just for me. I'll either put them in a 5x7 photo album or get them laminated, punch holed and threaded.
3. Sleepy I am. Didn't even watch much TV last night because it was super bowl but still slept after midnight. Don't remember what I was doing. LOL. Is it time to go yet?

Unique Perspective

Credits-
Papers, paint, flower, stitching: Diamante Designs Forever in Love kit
Knotted Ribbon: Diamante Designs Fashion Ribbons
Swirly stamp: Diamante Designs Scribble Swirls
U = Diamante Felt Alpha
N = Diamante Rubbed Alpha
I = Diamante Furry Alpha in Valentine Mega Kit at TDS
Q = Michelle Coleman Button
U = Michelle Coleman Chipboard square, Shaggy Characters alpha from

www.DustyBear.com
E = Michelle Coleman Summer kit (forgetting the name...)

Sweet Cheeks

Credits-
Background Paper: LindaGB Star Bazaar
Bird Overlay: Michelle Coleman Flowers For Mom
Frames: Anna Aspens Work Hard Play Hard, Jen Wilson Messy Edges
Star: LindaGB Star Bazaar
Flower: Michelle Coleman Flowers For Mom
Buttons: Michelle Coleman Flowers For Mom
Twisty Tie: LindaGB Star Bazaar
Splash of Paint: Anna Aspens Work Hard Play Hard,
Checklist brush: Gina Cabrera To Do Stamps Freebie
Line Dot Brush: SBB Toolbox CT Kit ~ Misty Cato
Tape: LindaGB Star Bazaar
Fonts: Carpenter, Trashed, Times

Learning my ABC

Credits-
Background Paper: Meredith Fenwick Everyday Inspiration ~ Perfect Time of Day
Text Overlay: Anna Aspens Work Hard Play Hard
Big Star Brush: Michelle Coleman Written In The Stars
Red Star Brush: Anna Aspens Work Hard Play Hard
Strings: Meredith Fenwick Stung Out
Eyelet Ribbon: Michelle Coleman Savoir Faire
Staple: Diamante Designs
FilmStrip: Jen Wilson Messy Frames
Grungy Frame: Anna Aspens Work Hard Play Hard
Star: Digi Supply Closet
Stitched Circles: Michelle Coleman Christmas Magic
ABC ALpha: Anna Aspens Work Hard Play Hard

Thanks for the comments on my win. I was surprised on getting picked because there were so many beautiful entries. It's an honor to receive *any* recognition from ScrapArtist specifically. It's my most favorite place to shop ;) They're top of the line.

Bounce Bounce!

My work finished sooner than I had expected. I was able to get back to the snapshot I took yesterday afternoon, and then re-did the rest of the work. It's done. Wasn't too bad, actually. Worst part was the waiting for disk check to come back. It took 3 hours!

But the BIG NEWS!! I had participated in a quick page making contest at ScrapArtist. I received this email from Michelle Coleman yesterday. I am one of the 4 lucky winners to receive the purse!!! Plus a free kit from the shop. Woohoooo! This is the first time I've won anything in a contest. I don't participate much (I think I've done one before)

And my page will be available for download (among the 20 total winners) Princess Purse Quick Page. I think there were about 80 entries. I am going to download some of the other pages and make a few more for my purse. This is fun!

Here is what I had submitted -



This is what the purse looks like -


Awesome!

Not a good ending

to the week. All the work I'd done yesterday on my Virtual Machine is gone. I use VM software for work. It's basically a whole machine with it's own operating system, disk allocation, memory allocation in a file. It appears that the file has gone corrupt. Though it's possible that the external hard disk it was on might have bad sectors. I'm hoping that's the case because that means I'll be able to save some of it. I'm checking the disk for errors rightnow. It has been running for over an hour. If this doesn't fix the problem, I'll have to redo all the work from yesterday. Argh!!!

BTW, I wanted to post that I don't want to seem like I was being too judgmental about the other mom's child rearing methods. We all think we know what's right for *our* kids. I feel that way and I'm sure others do too!

Scrapping - There have been a few layouts done that'll show up here over the weekend (because I don't feel like posting rightnow). Scrappers, I hope you know that The Digi Shoppe is having a 50% off sale until Sunday! I already snagged some goodies this morning.