Good News for Dial-Up People

It was brought to the attention of the SAS designers that many people on dial-up won't have time to download the entire Ornamental Spring kit in one day. (Those of us with high-speed are so spoiled, we sometimes forget how blessed we are.)

Well, personally speaking, I want everyone to be able to get this freebie so I'm going to leave the link active until next Tuesday evening. This will allow time to enjoy the Easter weekend with your families and still be able to download. I wouldn't be surprised if the other designers leave their links active for an extended period, either.

Hopefully this will take care of the problem for our dial-up friends. :)

Ready for the Spring Surprise?

Here it is, an extra freebie to celebrate Easter and Spring! Ornamental Spring is a blog collaboration kit put together by many of the SAS designers, just for you and just for ONE DAY! I'm posting my part early because I'm on Pacific time, which is nearly an entire day behind our Aussie and New Zealand friends. So grab it while you can - please no sharing the download link. Just send your friends to my blog to enjoy this gift. Download here.

When you're done downloading, visit these ladies' blogs to grab the rest of the kit:
Candee, Toye, Terrell, Kymm, Stella, Boo, Beckie, Heather, JenLin, Sherah, JulieC, and Aneczka.

Here's a preview of some of the other contributions to this kit:

Also, check out this week's SAS Newsletter. It's packed with freebies and tons of information!

Are You Sneezing Yet?

I am! I'm starting to take my allergy pills becase spring has sprung here in central California. Things are a'blooming and I'm a'sneezin'. Spring is one of those bittersweet times of year - I can't wait for the warmer weather but I know as soon as it gets here, there goes my nose. Yesterday, my hair stylist mentioned how gorgeous everthing is right now. Then I said, "Yeah, too bad I can't go outside to enjoy it." It's lovely from my window, though.

Okay, there's lots of stuff to update you on. First of all, I lost Vonda off my Creative Team. She had to step down due to personal reasons. I really will miss her because she was dedicated and creative and a genuinely nice person. But... that does leave an opening, plus I'm thinking of adding a couple more people besides that one slot so I'm having a CT call. If you are interested in applying, check it out:

If you enjoyed the So Sweet kit available on my blog through February, you may be interested in these Quick Pages now on sale at 40% off, but only for a few more days!


I have another set of Quick Pages on sale for 35% off. This coordinates with Merry Sunshine, which is now one of the featured Free With Purchase kits at SAS.

I have to admit, this kit is one of my favorites. I am really loving the color combination (if I do say so myself!). Here are a couple of layouts made with this kit. The first one's subject is my niece, Michelle (see note on Shelle-Belle below this) when she was a young girl. She's old and in college now, LOL!

Here's a beautiful page made by tripmom06, posted at SAS. This page is so adorable - I love the photo of the dogs with this quote.


My kit, Shelle-Belle, is on sale at 30% off at DSO. This kit is named after my niece, Michelle, whom we always call Shelle-Belle. This kit is perfect for feminine, baby, and even romance-themed layouts.


Last couple of things you may want to note before I give the freebie info out. First. DSO is planning an Easter Egg hunt, beginning on Good Friday going through Easter Monday. Make sure you're registered in the DSO forum and read more about the hunt here!

Tomorrow, come back to receive another gift - part of a MEGA kit created by the SAS designers. Ornamental Spring is soft and gorgeous and you won't want to miss it. It's a ONE DAY give-away on our blogs, so make to snag them all!

Finally, today's freebie is another coordinated element with So Sweet. It's a cute twisty-ribbon accent. Please, no hotlinking or sharing the link. Send your peeps to my blog to download. Click here for the freebie.

Don't forget to check the other Humpday Hunnies on my sidebar to grab some more awesome freebies!

I've Been Tagged!

That sneaky Bunny has tagged me, so I'm supposed to answer some questions now:

1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:00 a.m.

2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the movies? Definately, Maybe

4. What is your favorite TV show? Lost

5. What do you eat for breakfast? Coffee with a bagel or toast

6. What is your middle name? Barbara (after my grandmother)

7. What food do you dislike? Shellfish

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? This varies a lot - right now I'm listening to a Mercy Me CD (can't remember the title)

9. What kind of car do you drive? I drive 2 cars (only one at a time - hee hee!) One is a Honda Civic Hybrid, which I prefer - but I do drive my Ford Expedition when the extra seat belts are needed for more kids

10. Favorite sandwich? Turkey

11. Favorite item of clothing? I'm usually found in jeans and a nice blouse

12. Person dead or alive that you would like to have a conversation with? Jesus

13. If you could go anywhere in the world for a vacation, where would you go? I'm blessed enough to have traveled to far-away places so my hubby & I usually make this happen. This summer we're going to Australia with our diving friends - totally excited about this!

14. What color is your bathroom? Our master bathroom is cream with sage green accents

18. Favorite Sport to watch? None - I'm not a sports fan at all.

19. Farthest place you are sending this (I guess this can be changed to furthest friend reading this)? Australia

20. Who do you expect to follow through on the tag? Don't know...

21. Person you expect to complete it first? Don't know...

22. Favorite saying? "This, too, shall pass" (Can you tell I have teenagers?)

24. Are you a morning person or a night person? My sleep patterns are horrible - I'm really a morning person (which is when I have most energy) but I'm also up late because I have a hard time getting to sleep.

25. What is your shoe size? 7 (My shoe size grew 1/2 a size with each pregnancy, so I quit having kids 'cause my feet were getting too big.)

26. Favorite food for Dinner? Italian

27. What did you want to be when you were little? A school teacher

28. What are you doing today? Computer stuff - then tonight I'm going to a concert at the school with a visiting clinician. (I'm blowing off choir practice, which is where I'm supposed to go.) Can't be in 2 places at once, right?

29. What is your favorite candy? See's Candy

30. What is your favorite flower? Daffodils, because it's the first sign of spring

31. What day are you looking forward to most on your calendar? June 5 - Graduation Day

32. What are you listening to right now? Talk Radio - The Armstron & Getty Show. (I love those guys - I literally laugh out loud when I hear them!)

33. What was the last thing you ate? That would have been dinner last night, so it was chicken

34. Do you wish on stars? No

35. Do you believe in Angels? Of course

36. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Green

37. What is your pet peeve? It's bad, but I have a lot of these - I guess I get annoyed easily. On the top of the list is bad drivers...

38. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Donna

39. Do you like the person who tagged you? Yep!

4 0. Favorite soft drink? Diet A & W Root Beer or Diet Dr Pepper (although I'm really cutting back on anything carbonated)

41. Favorite restaurant? Lately I've been digging Tex Wasaibi

42. Siblings? Debbie - 13 months younger than me

43. Favorite day of the year? Don't know...

44. Favorite day of the Week? Sundays. After church we go out to lunch with friends.

45. Spring or Fall: Fall

46. Hugs or kisses? Hugs

47. Chocolate or vanilla? Depends on my mood

48. Do you want your friends to tag you back? Once is enough, isn't it?

49. What is under your bed? Dust bunnies

50. Who is the friend you’ve had longest? Carmen - since high school!

51. What did you do last night? Cleaned out Joe's room in preparation for making it a guest room (see post below this one...)

52. Favorite smell? Any homemade food

53. What are you afraid of? Something happening to my children

54. How many keys on your key ring? I have a few different key rings and they have either 2-3 keys on them.

55. How many years at your current job? Not sure how to answer this... I work part-time from home now. Before that I was at Hewlett-Packard for 5 years.

56. Favorite city to visit? Rome

57. How many towns have you lived in? Counting only my "adult" homes, it's four

58. Do you make friends easily? Yes

And as for who I tag? Bunny tagged all the DSO gals so I am going to tag Kristine and Oase.

Gee, now you know more about me than you ever cared to! :)

My son David's school recently held their big fund-raiser for the year, the annual Dinner Dance. It's really an elegant, catered full-meal event, with a silent auction that has some very cool items donated by businesses and people in the community. It's for adults only except for the students who provide the music to dance to (modern jazz and some small ensemble groups who played traditional New Orleans-style jazz). I want to thank our friends Cindy and Steve, Shirley and Tom, Carolyn and Rich, and my sister & brother-in-law, Debbie and Steve, for coming out to support such a worthy cause.

I took a few photos but it's alway so dang dark it's hard to get some good ones. Here are a few that I actually doctored up (and the exposure is still not great!).





Have you seen the latest Stone Accents Studio newsletter? Check it out - lots of freebies in there! You'll also find information on challenges, sales, and new products.

Finally, I have a fun freebie for you today. It's a label that coordinates with my Techie collection. It's still on sale at 35% off, but only for a few more days! Download the freebie here. Please, no hotlinking or sharing the link - send your friends to my blog to download. Don't forget to check the Humpday Hunnies list on my sidebar to get more fun stuff for free from my friends!

Write This Down!

You won't want to miss the next Scrap 'N Chat at DSO - mark your calendars for this Monday, March 10 @ 9:00 pm Eastern (6:00 pm Pacific) and join us in the chatroom. Click on the chatroom link on the top of the forum page. You get a free template for showing up, and here's a preview of the posting bonus:


It's a quick page made with my Flutterby Mini Kit - 'cause it's so beautiful outside and I just can't wait for spring!

Guess what I did today? My cousin from Boston is coming out to visit this summer - I am so excited! - so hubby and I have been talking about making Joe's room into an official guest room. It's not being used most of the time because Joe, as some of you know, is away at college. He does come home rather frequently on weekends, though. Anyhow... we've been talking about this guest room thing and today we bought new furniture. A whole set! We were only going to buy a bed for now, and add better furniture once Joe officially moves out (still a couple of years from now). BUT... we found a STEAL at a liquidation place, plus for this weekend only, it was an additional $200 off. How could we pass that up? So we bought a queen-size bed with a sleigh-type headboard and footboard, new mattresses, a full-size dresser and mirror, and a nightstand. Items will be delivered later this week. Now, I just have to tell Joe his room is not really HIS room anymore. Maybe I should just send him here to read this post. Would that be bad?

So then hubby says we (meaning HE) will need to paint the room. Okay, fine - but I wanted to get the new bedding before choosing a color for the walls. Only problem is, he and I have totally different tastes - in style and in color. In fact, he needs to go in for a tune-up, the way he sees color. (MOST men couldn't care less about this stuff, so if you're married to one of those... count your blessings. It is NOT fun having to get your hubby to agree about household decorating stuff.) So we go into Bed, Bath, & Beyond and didn't see anything either of us liked. We walk next door to Macy's and I found a pattern I liked with brown, taupe, and a soft baby blue accent color around the edges with small blue flowers. He insists the accent color is green. It's obviously blue - granted, it's a soft blue, but it's definitely blue. So we have to get the sales guy and ask him, "What color is this?" and of course he says, "Umm... that's blue." Smug look on my face as give him the see-I-told-you-so look. Turns out he likes the pattern anyhow, so we bought it, again, for a steal. It was already on sale plus we got an additional 25% off at the register. Now we just have to pick a paint color. I'm not looking forward to that.

By the way, I would help him paint but that, he does not want. He says I get more paint on the floor and myself than on the walls. I tell him, quit complaining - he gets what he pays for, and I'm free. I'm pretty much banned from painting anything anymore. Last time we painted the house, we had all the boys painting, too. I had a fleeting thought about throwing just a tiny bit of paint on them, but in a momentary flash of reality I just envisioned all of them ganging up on me, and I'm way outnumbered and they're a lot bigger than me. I caught myself before it was too late! This mama ain't no dummy...

My last bit of news is... I've joined the Humpday Hunnies!! I know, it sounds so risque but it's all in perfectly good fun, LOL! On Humpdays (aka Wednesdays), I'll be posting a freebie on my blog for you so come back and see what you can snag.

I hope you have a fun, relaxing weekend. As for me, I'm going outside now to enjoy some California sunshine. :)

Parent's Job Description

My friend Darlene (yes, another Darlene) sent this to me on email and I thought it was soooo true.

PARENT - Job Description

POSITION
Mom, Mommy, Mama, MaDad, Daddy, Dada, Pa, Pop

JOB DESCRIPTION
Long term, team players needed, for challenging permanent work in an often chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on-call. Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities! Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive courier duties also required.

RESPONSIBILITIES
The rest of your life. Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs $5. Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly. Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf. Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars, and coordinate production of multiple homework projects. Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks. Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next. Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices. Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product. Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.

POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION
None. Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
None required unfortunately. On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION
Get this! You pay them, offering frequent raises and bonuses! A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them become financially independent. When you die, you give them whatever is left. The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS
While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered; this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth, unconditional love, and free hugs and kisses for life if you play your cards right.

** AND A FOOTNOTE "THERE IS NO RETIREMENT -- EVER!!

Sound familiar to anyone?

Okay, so I've been mulling this idea for a kit in my mind forever now, and I finally got this finished! My new kit, Techie, is available at SAS and will soon be in my DSO store. And... it's on sale at 35% off until March 15! This is a perfect kit for all those technology-related layouts, whether it be your teenagers who won't get off the cell phone or layouts about your job! Take a look:

Pretty cute, huh? :) Here are a couple of layouts made with this kit:. The first one is yours truly and my DH. The second one was created by Marilyn G - those are her cute grandkids in the photos. (Thanks for sharing, Marilyn!)

Lastly, I have a bright, colorful freebie for you! This quick page coordinates with my Joseph's Coat collection. Please, no hotlinking or sharing the download link! Click here.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Up for the Challenge?

Wow, there's so much going on in the digi-community right now! Today is March 1 and that means a whole bunch of new challenges. I host the "My SAS-y Self" challenge at Stone Accents Studio, which is an All About Me challenge. This month's topic is a loose one - simply do a layout using a photo of yourself as a teenager. I put together a quick layout to get us started, using my Shelle-Belle kit (which, by the way, is a Free with Purchase special right now at SAS). I think I was maybe about seventeen years old in this photo:

I hope you join me in this challenge - you'll have a great time looking through older photographs and walking down memory lane.

More new challenges at DSO, too! If you complete all the challenges by the end of March, you get this HUGE mega kit for FREE:

What's included:

126 PAPERS
2 ALPHAS
13 BUTTONS AND BRADS
11 TAGS
21 WORD ART
28 FRAMES
53 RIBBONS
74 MISC ELEMENTS
==================
328 TOTAL ITEMS

PLUS - 18 12x12" Quick Pages

Okay, here's the deal with So Sweet - the kit I've been giving away all month. I made a coordinating alpha (with numbers and punctuation, too) for this kit. This is the last part of So Sweet. Aww... I know, so sad... but ALL of the download links are still available. If you're coming into this late in the game, go through the previous posts and get them while you can. The links will be available for one more week only. Come next Saturday, the links will be deleted and then this kit will be placed in my stores.

Sorry, I didn't make a preview of the alpha, but trust me, it's really cute. :) Get it here and please do not share the download link!