oh jeesh...... I'm watching The Bachelorette right now & loving it.... I have no idea how she is going to pick just one guy our of these four... do you think she can have a 3-way tie?????? I really really hope that Jeremy is the one to go. The other guys just seem so much more real, down-to-earth, fabulous guys.

Who's your fave - Jeremy, Jason, Graham, or Jesse???? or who don't you like???

my picks
1. Jason
2. Jesse
3. Graham
4. Jeremy

(spoiler at the end of this blogging)

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oh my golly gee... I just looked down at the time and temp on my screen and it says it's still 106F outside right now......... and it's almost 9pm............ I think we are in for one toasty summer

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today I made the cutest little somethin somethin for GP's July Gotta Grab It event.... oh, it's so fun.... too bad you'll have to wait til sometime in July for me to show you

but.............. if you are anxious for a great deal..... Tuesday is our 20,000th order appreciation day sale.............. isn't that incredible????????? last week our 20,000 order was placed so we are awarding all of our fabulous shoppers a super fab day of 50% off of everything INCLUDING commercial goodies... woo-hoo for all of you! ........ and, for all of you curious people, our special customer that placed this order received a surprise gift certificate to Gotta Pixel.

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oh gosh golly gee.... ABC is playing the longest commercial for Wipeout... it starts tomorrow.... it looks hysterical!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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ok. .............. DeAnna made her picks............... Jeremy, Jason, and Jesse... Graham is out.........she doesn't think that Graham can let his wall down, she's really hurt and really wanted him to be the final one, dang it is hard to watch... you can tell he really cares, he just doesn't know how to show it... he wrote her a letter and asked her to read it at some time any time.................starting to read the card, and now she's second guessing herself

oh... I hope I don't have to work next Monday night so I can watch The Men Tell All episode

my confession - updated

first off, if you don't know about my confession from late last night... please read HERE first ...

I couldn't help it..... I threw all of them away this morning & he wondered why.....I just kept laughing to myself every time my dh mentioned how weird those cookies were ........ so after letting him know that there was a reason, but I didn't want to tell him, and I was laughing the whole time, I finally had to spill........

he had to go grab the box of the carpet baking soda to try to find the ingredients to make sure nobody was poisoned, especially our toddler sons....well, I checked that yesterday & no ingredients and no warnings....
it was just a teaspoon anyway.. LOL

I thought he'd have a blast narking on me, but he said he's too afraid to tell anyone about it

btw, the batter tasted a lot better than the actual cookies :)

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soooo, since tonight was Thursday... that meant Swingtown on CBS! I love this new show..... there is no way I could even think about living like that.... but it's so 70s and so entertaining!
....and... another fun reason to watch it... Grant Show as a hot swinger with a porn mustache!

have you watched it yet? if not, definitely check it out... watch an episode or two online or just wait til next Thursday :)

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welll... I've finally made some close-ups for my Colorwheel paper pack collection.........

all of these 72 papers are uniquely texturized...not one is alike...

below are close-ups of 4 of the 8 papers in each pack





















all paper packs sold individually... or together in the combo pack for a huge discount

and.... all are Scrap for Hire ok... just like all of my other personal use goodies

Colorwheel is available at both Scrapdish and Gotta Pixel

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and now a reminder that Gotta Pixel's first Gotta Grab It event will be over at midnight (PST) on the 20th

more than 50 products - same color swatch - $1.00 each -

GP's Gotta Grab It collection....mix and match & grab your own collab

and... another gander at my other Gotta Grab It contributions...

















and... look at this super fab LO by my3hens (Sarah C), Bright Eyes

confession time!!!!!!!

ok.... I held a Silpada Designs party tonight ... so this afternoon I made some chocolate chip cookies

they were oh so special .... LOL.......

they tasted a little off......... I was told that they tasted like they had a cleaner in them or that they tasted like potpourri .... I, of course, said that I had no idea, except that I accidentally put a little too much baking soda in the mix

welllllllllllllllll... my confession to you... I couldn't even tell my dh because I knew he'd never let me forget about it...I realized at the end of mixing all the ingredients that
the only baking soda I had was the one for the carpets........well, I just chalked it up to the fact that it's baking soda, how diff could it be & it was ONLY 1 tspn.....ok, call me a big goofy donut, I've definitely said it to myself several times ...but I used it for the cookies

at least Hudson (3.5) and Griffin (2.5) love them


soooooooooo, please don't try this in your house!

ok... anyone else want to make me laugh with a foolish confession of your own?


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and... another new not-so-typical Sara goodie.......but I really really love this pack...

fun button bits, with a bit of a vintage feel.... the perfect unique accent for your creative masterpieces... Bitty Bits by Sara Ellis

they are called "Bitty" not so much for the size of them, but they kind of remind me of some little bits you might find crawling around Aunt Bitty's attic.... LOL

all 1- 2 inches in size

18 individual PNG files
300 dpi

**Scrap for Hire ok... just like all of my other personal use goodies**

it's been over a month!

have you missed me????? I know I've missed you :)

dang! I know I was out of town for a whole month....... and it was fabulous... but I've been back home for 2.5 weeks now..........
Cooper was picked to be on Prom Court (2nd or 3rd place for Prom King) and he graduated high school... it's hard to believe that I am now a mom of a high school graduate...
I still need to u/l all of my pictures off of my camera

since I've been back, I've become a bit addicted to the word games on Facebook... oh, they get ya good there.. I've been wasting too much time with them ... wanna play a game with me? add me as a friend .. here's my profile

oh... ya know how I always mention my great bargains at The Gap???? well, yesterday morning I cleaned out our backroom... we had some Gap Kids clothes on the top shelf that really needed to be moved out from early spring & even a bit of last fall....... soooooooo, tons got marked down to $1.97 and $3.97.......... not too much for boys XS (4-5), but I did manage to find a jean jacket, blazer, sweatshirt, and track pants all for $1.97 each (BEFORE my discount).. nice, huh? I love working there!

wellll... now to some design talk.... how would you like some fab bargains??????

my newest additions to Gotta Pixel's very first Gotta Grab It event, Grabba Painted Borders...

How about finishing off your layout with a big chunky puff paint border? This fun scalloping is the perfect framing touch. You can even resize them smaller to be picture frames. Each one has been individually hand painted.





only $1 until June 20th... just like all the other 40+ goodies in GP's Gotta Grab It collection....mix and match & grab your own collab

and... another gander at my other Gotta Grab It contributions...

_______________

happy NSD.... I hope it's better than mine :)

so not a fun way to spend NSD....

ok..... it's been great to come back home........
I flew back to KC on Wednesday and I will be in St Louis and Kansas City all month long..........

and that the huge storm that hit KC last night just missed us (my mom lives 30 min south of KC)....tornadoes and microbursts hit probably 15 minutes away on diff sides of us, roofs off of houses, humongous downpours, 2 inch hail, and heavy winds... we only had bad winds and 2 inches of rainwelll.....besides that......... my dh said that our 52" tv stopped working last night (it's maybe 2.5 years old), my flat screen computer monitor went out this morning (it's only 1.5 years old), the repair man came to check on our dishwasher on Wednesday & it worked fine for him even though it's been making crazy noises for us (it's maybe 4 years old), .............

AND......... my EHD won't work here.... I've tried connecting it to my laptop & my sister's computers & it just shows that there is an error with it (error 10, whatever that means).........all of my digistuff is on it... my grab bag designer spotlight stuff and EVERYTHING I have.......I hope the xray thing at the airport security didnt hurt it... I told them it was in my bag..it doesn't bother laptops, so it shouldn't hurt the EHD, but who knows...I don't know what the hell to do...............

and my mom doesn't have the internet, so I have to bug my sister once in a while, or bug my friend that I will be staying with when I'm in STL

oh... Griffin fell and busted his lip last night too

I did have one really great thing happen yesterday... Siren, the Norwegian foreign exchange student that lived with us 25 years ago is in for her 25th reunion... she landed 2 hours after me on Wednesday ... she is staying with her best friend from here .........we visited yesterday and I'm going to see her again next week before she leaves town anyway..........

any suggestions for my EHD

fabulous oh fabulous smiles

Tuesday has been a fabulous day!

My dh and I were in Vegas last night. We met one of his client's and his wife for dinner and played craps for a bit. Well, this morning I slept in until about 9am which was so incredibly awesome since usually Hudson and Griffin wake me up every morning around 6ish or earlier. A little later I played roulette with $50 of "house money". I let it ride on red and won $200. YAY! Then, my mom called later in the morning to let me know that Siren, our Norwegian Foreign Exchange student who lived with us for a year is flying in to KC a couple hours after I land tomorrow. She will be in town for her 25th high school reunion. Siren's best friend from when she lived with us sent my mom a letter to inform us. We are just ecstatic to see her for the first time in all these years.
And.... tonight... I'm sorting through my e-mail and found out that two super fabulous people gave me a fabulous award. (more below)

I hope all of you are having fabulous days too


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Two terrific and super fab ladies sent me an award! I am truly excited! Linda Cutshell and a fellow Gotta Pixel designer, Randi Oh are just the sweetest! Thank you girls for awarding me with the Arte Y Pico Award and for your kind words.

Linda sends out my Yahoo Ads and makes beautiful LOs with some of my goodies. Randi is just one of the sweetest and super talented designers around.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For those of you receiving the Award, here are the rules:

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award. http://arteypico.blogspot.com/Make sure you visit the link above. There are crafts of all kinds shown; you are bound to come away inspired!
5) Show these rules.

Technically, I guess I should be awarding 10 blogger friends..... but I'm still sticking with the 5.... I need to get to bed soon since I'm catching a flight in the morning

1. Danielle Engebretsen.... one of my best online buddies...and one of the super sweetest people in the entire world...... and one heck of a talented designer & collaboration buddy of mine

2. Amy Sumrall.... another one of my GP design team girls... and collaboration buddies

3. Lizzyworks.... one of my faithful CTMs......Liz has been with me for quite some time and is just a sweetie-pie

4. Laura Pitman.... one more GP design team buddy... and former OAKS girl with me

5. Beth Frank....an old friend and former co-worker....... and an avid blogger... I haven't seen beth in ages ... we don't live in the same city any longer.... but she is another definite sweetheart




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NSD lovin' happiness times....

Scrapdish is at least 25% off all week until the 4th........ my store is 30% off

Gotta Pixel is 30% off store-wide from May 1st to May 4th

**********
Gotta Pixel challenges:
To celebrate National Scrapbook Day (May 3) we are asking our members to complete as many of our regularly scheduled challenges from May 2 - 9 as they can.

This would include:

Color My Pixel
Font Fever
Ad-spirations
Gotta Journal
By the Numbers
Wonderfully Wordy
Scraplift

We have 7 donated grab bags -- one for each challenge and each member will receive a grab bag for each challenge they complete. The contents will not be revealed untill after the contest.

Members will be required to do a separate LO for each challenge.

Anyone who completes all 7 challenges during the designated time will get their name in a drawing for a grand prize - a $25 gift certificate to scrapbooksplease.com

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Gotta Pixel...
During May 1-9, the Pixel Pals will be on the prowl in the forums looking for active members to RAK! Each day, 10 lucky members will be getting a coupon for a free Gotta Pixel Mega Kit in the store. Any kit they want!! So head on over to the forums and join in the fun!
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Gotta Pixel...

It's a scavenger hunt called "Forum Forage". A Pixel Pal will be hiding acorn nuts around the forums for members to find.
There will be two winners who find the most, and a random winner who just played even once.
The winners will receive $6 coupons to diff designer's stores

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Gotta Pixel...

During May 1-9, the Pixel Praisers will be on the prowl in the gallery looking for active commenters to RAK! Each day, 2 lucky members will be getting a coupon for a free 3 Month membership to the Gotta Pixel Subscription Club (which currently has over 1500 great digital scrapbooking downloads). So head on over to the galleries and join in the fun!

blog lover's coupon :)

about an hour ago my 3.5 year old wanted a PB&J so he tried to get the jelly out of the fridge........ well, the jar was one of the larger sized ones that my dh picked up at the store yesterday............ it had only been used ONCE..........
well..... it was too big for his little hand............. and SPLAT.... it's a good thing we have Travertine floors.......... jelly isn't fun to clean up

one funny little thing about it....Hudson got a teeny cut in one toe... after I cleaned it up & wrapped a band-aid around it... he has asked for a wheelchair a few times since then...... Thanks, Cailou (LOL).......Cailou recently had an episode on there about a little child in a wheelchair

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Sew What: Stars & Arrows


and ...
Sew What: Corners


throw both the Sew What: Stars & Arrows and the Sew What: Corners in your cart together and save 20%.......... just scroll down to add both right now

both sets are Scrap for Hire ok... just like all the other personal use goodies in my store

notice the brand spankin' new packaging for GP? don't you just love the notebook paper look?

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love the beginning of my Sew What collection? love some other goodies?
it's been a while since I offered a coupon to my blog friends.......

sooooooooooooooooooooo.............
spend at least $10 in my store.... get 50% off
SE_BLOG_0408
expires midnight April 31st

happy shopping!

a couple PSAs

yesterday morning I was a witness to a dog attack close to my house at a greenbelt

well, it really opened up my eyes about having my guard up when we see dogs when we are out for a walk

I was over at the big patch of grass that dips down... Hudson wanted to play "chase me" & I'm so glad we didn't get started with that...........

there was a woman with 3 larger dogs resting on the smaller patch of grass on the opposite side of the sidewalk right there...... and another woman walking her two Yorkies through the big greenbelt and as soon as they got in the sight of the big dogs, one and then the other two took off for an attack..... (they were on a leash, but not a firm grasp & the owner was looking the other direction talking on the phone)................the attack dogs owner came to try and get her dogs and I ran over and pulled two of the big dogs off.... luckily a woman on the other side of the street came over to take care of my boys while they were screaming

when all was over... a nice woman driver took the little Yorkies to the vet... Nick is ok, but Nora had an intestinal issue with surgery and an infection last night, hopefully she recovers ok............. the owner had a chunk taken out of her arm.........I talked with her this morning, she had her first skin graft last night and will have to have another couple later

I stayed around for quite a while, the last witness...but I have no idea what happened with the attacking dogs... Animal Control was with with them when I left to take Hudson to school (the one that bit her was a Pit mix)

sooooooooooooooooooo.... now I am really going to have my guard up whenever I see dogs when we are out for a walk........please be aware of your surroundings... it only takes a brief moment with no warning for something like this to happen

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and.......... I have some fabulous, super fabulous edges now available at both Gotta Pixel and Scrapdish





How would you like the ease of having a portion of your layout already created for you.... while you can still be creative with the majority of it?

These edges are just the perfect ticket for happiness.

1 set includes 4 fabric edges and 1 set includes 4 torn paper edges, all are already embellished with loads of artsy, springy fun for you.

*all are Scrap for Hire ok*

This coordinates with the Spring It On Collaboration kit by Sara Ellis and Danielle Engebretsen. The edges were created by Sara.

Purchase either set together with the collab page kit and save 20%.


(all previews are linked up)

AND.... I have a fabulous coupon in this month's DST Insider - use it and save a bunch of money honey!!!

congratulations!!!!!!!

to me for adding a great new 2nd store...
and.............
Congratulations go out to AKHN
for guessing correctly about my newest store, Scrapdish............ she received this entire collection for free








Introducing the Colorwheel Paper Pack Collection by Sara Ellis..... a total of 72 unique colorful textured solid papers in 9 colors

Blast includes 8 beautifully textured red papers
Giggle includes 8 beautifully textured purple papers
Jump includes 8 beautifully textured orange papers
Lively includes 8 beautifully textured green papers
Passion includes 8 beautifully textured pink papers
Relax includes 8 beautifully textured blue papers
Shine includes 8 beautifully textured yellow papers
Shout includes 8 beautifully textured black & semi-black papers
Whisper includes 8 beautifully textured white & semi-white papers

$27 value to purchase every paper pack separately......
SAVE $12 by purchasing all of them together!!!
(all individually on sale for a fab intro price, as well as the bundle)

Enjoy & Scrap Sassy Silly!

finally... an update & a contest

I'm so sorry for the delay... I think this is the longest I've gone without updating my poor blog. soooooooooo...let's start out with some laughs...

Kids are Quick


TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America .

MARIA: Here it is.

TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America ?

CLASS: Maria.
_________________________________________

TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?

JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.
________________________________________

TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell "crocodile?"

GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L"

TEACHER: No, that's wrong

GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.
___
______________________________________

TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?

DONALD: H I J K L M N O.

TEACHER: What are you talking about?

DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.
__________________________________

TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we

didn't have ten years ago.

WINNIE: Me!
__________________________________________

TEACHER: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?

GLEN: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.
_____________________________________

TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with "I."

MILLIE: I is...

TEACHER: No, Millie..... Always say, "I am."

MILLIE: All right... "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet."
_________________________________

TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's

cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father

didn't punish him?

LOUIS: Because George still had the ax in his hand.
______________________________________

TEACHER: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before

eating?

SIMON: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.
_______________________________________

TEACHER: Clyde , your composition on "My Dog" is exactly the same

as your brother's. Did you copy his?

CLYDE: No, teacher, it's the same dog.
___________________________________

TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when

people are no longer interested?

HAROLD: A teacher.

all paint & doodle lovers will jump for joy with this...


Brought to you by popular demand - the alpha set from our Spring It On Collaboration.

This is the exact same alpha set that is included in the kit. One super fun double A-Z.

Each letter has two different colored painted doodles for your creative fun. BONUS included in zip

Need a little ease to make your creative masterpieces?

How about this little set of 4 beautiful 12x12 quick pages created by Sara Ellis using the super fun artsy painty Spring It On Collaboration kit (by Sara Ellis and Danielle Engebretsen).

This is so dandy for making gift albums and creating quick layouts, just add your photos underneath these PNG files and your journaling to these ready-made pages! Sha-zam... you're done!

album #1

and.....album #2


buy both together and SAVE 30% and.......... the actual coordinating page kit, Spring It On

__________________

and.. yes... this is Scrap for Hire/Others OK (just like the rest of my personal use items)

a couple of my FAVE layouts...





















by jenbalding

and...





















by TeresaP


****did you see my super generous coupon in this month's DST Insider?????

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CONTEST TIME------->

I'm adding a 2nd store again.....
Can you guess where it is??? I'll give you almost 24 hours (until 11:59pm PST Thurs - 2:59am Fri EST) to guess where I will be joining. If more than one person guess the correct store, I will pick one random winner.

The grand prize???? My newest very soon to be released paper collection, Color Wheel (72 total papers & each one has a diff texture)

Runners up might be receiving a little surprise too... who knows .... LOL... keep your fingers crossed

you must leave your reply here... and you MUST leave your e-mail address if you want a shot at a fun prize :)