Freebie Announcement:

I usually keep these at the digi, but I really REALLY liked this kit. So much that I did a quick page freebie with it (I quit doing that with every kit I made, too time consuming!). It's fairly simplistic, yet the paper is ornate enough, it can be! Click here to get to the kit download. Let me know if you need links to digi tuts to get started!

Here's the kit:

Camera Critters Go Cherry Pie

I cannot have Misty Dawn's eyes getting all teared up (with allergies). No way! So Mist, because I love you so much, not only am I participating in Camera Critters, the best darn meme there ever was, but girlfriend, Louie says hello and he wuvvvs you!

* If ya like the page, go over to the digi and get it, it's free!

Like A Record Baby....

Okay there's GOOD reason I've been AOL, here and there, hit or miss. I'm coming back. Just not today so much...sorry. Tomorrow, though! I feel out of the loop, it's terrible. It's all over at the Digi, please please go see and then forgive me. I'm so tired, I never thought three to five hours would be my standard. I think after today, it'll be better. I'll be up terribly late typing to make deadline, but the weekend looks better. Yay!

It's been getting so crazy around here, even Cody decided on his own to do those dishes! He was clearly hip to me taking a photo of him doing it, too. See?! I love that boy...he asked me last night on the way back from church where I'd like to eat for Mother's Day. He said all these years he'd always felt badly he couldn't do anything on his own and now that he has a job (lifeguard) he's excited to take me out. Under $100 he said. Uh huh, hmmm...this boy, he's lived with us all his life. Buffalo Wild Wings is about as upscale as it's ever gotten! I think I'll ask him for the change when we're done. Is that wrong?

Pushing Up Daisies

If you like the template, go over to Nicoal Goes Digi Scrapping, it's my newest freebie. If you like the papers on the template, scroll down a little bit, it's the Nicoal Goes Retro Pink Collection freebie. (hey a little advertising is okay!)

Stacey's Biggest News This Week! (Now that I re-read the post, I really don't get out much)

Okay I have some pretty exciting news I'm itching to share! First things first, though....as I went to upload the pictures I took tonight, I realized I'm wearing the same dang shirt I seem to ALWAYS wear when I post photos. My Do Not Remove Before Flight shirt I won from Pilot adorable's John's site. Could anything I say convince you that I don't live in this shirt? I really don't!! It doesn't look good for me though, so I'm just going to end it there! But the news is too exciting to change and redo the post. Okay:

Remember my bathroom walls? The ones that look like a giant prom corsage from 1989 was thrown up against them?Wait! Two more things....I have learned: 1) I'll need brighter lighting to take a photo using the mirror to bounce the image. Because the flash isn't appealing. (sorry) HOWEVER the flash was in fact, able to pick up the toothpaste splatters from the past week all over my side of the mirror. Not gonna lie, it's my side of the bathroom. So 2) maybe clean the mirrors first.

Okay NOW! Look behind me and yes yes yes it IS what you think! A ladder and a half naked wall. I did my "John, hon, I'm going to start steaming the wallpaper from the bathroom walls this weekend because I don't think I can take it anymore" thing. I know what comes next and while an ultra feminist might be insulted, I happen to love this. John says "I'll do it, you don't know how!" I don't think it's an insult, in fact I believe I have a nice thing going on here.

^^Infamous 8X magnification mirror I have a love/hate thing going on with on the counter^^

So now that the walls are nearly bare, and the under primer is actually very close to the tan color I intend to paint it (with touches of chocolate and aqua from the bedroom somewhere here), I'm confident I'll feel free to post even more bathroom photos in the future. It's a win/win development!

Look closely in the 'water closet' which is really just a claustrophobic little cubby with a toilet, ceiling vent and magazines thrown about....(thinking of doing something whack with that room, idk) and you'll see GiGi the cat. In a second, she'll be looking at me to see if I'm watching. If I am, she'll stare back until I get bored with that. If no, then she'll balance herself over the edge by her tummy and drink half the water out of the toilet before lifting her head and sliding back to the floor.

My St. Patrick's Day mini-kit is up and ready for download at Nicoal Goes Digi Scrapping. Get on over there and grab it!

Picture Time!

I'm all out of steam, running on about 1/8 tank right now, so I'm turning to my old standby for my weekend wrap-up post. Pictures! Yes it's picture time indeed....I thought I'd recap the week that is now mercifully behind me! Knock on particle board for thinking it will be better next week, because I'm just smart enough to know not to expect that!

A bright note--Alex in effort to hasten his earnings spent part of late Wednesday evening cleaning my bathroom. It's quite an undertaking, especially my counter...it's pretty hopeless. I was so tickled to see the end result:

Just like a guy thinks--if it can all be shoved together, clearing room on the counter, then it's good! The black fabric in the foreground is actually a piece of lining that fell off one of my tops and onto the floor. The soap box is empty, but bless his heart the root lifter spray looked so good on it! Why not? Loved loved loved it!

It snowed good Tuesday (or was it Monday--I forget) and the good news is, I do believe this is the last of the snows for us. Again, knock on particle board.

This is how skewed I am when I view my little boy (who is almost 11 now)....the other day I was cleaning the basement and came across these old outdoor end tables. I was going to throw them out when I had an epiphany! Alex loves to cook...sweet little tiny baby that he is. If I stored them in the laundry room off the kitchen, he could grab them and use them for step stools when he's working with me! And.....here you see how off my view of my little baby boy is:

WHEN did he grow ten inches?

Finally many of you already know Friday mornings are deadline mornings for me. Which means if I've dawdled around too much, I'll be up all night and into the morning typing. Last night (morning) 3:30 was threatening to catch me before I finally shut off the lights. I had time to capture this at about 2:30, dark circles and all:

And here is the stack I've already completed next to my very much coveted XM radio....of course Coast to Coast AM is always on from midnight until I wake up.

I've missed checking you all out over the past few days, so I'm excited to have the evening to myself tomorrow (John's got suite tickets to arena football and is taking Jeff, Cat's husband, and his brother, Jeff).

**If you're a digi scrapper, love bold and bright and have a vacation photo you want to scrap, head over to Nicoal Goes Digi Scrapping (and never turns back) and grab I Want My Vacation (it's a freebie!). Enjoy!*

****Hurdy Gurdy, JenGi!

Thursday Thirteen

I've never done the Thursday Thirteen, but thought what the hay! I think I could come of with thirteen somethings. I thought it would be fun to come up with thirteen things about my childhood you may or may not already know (I know hold onto the edge of your seats, this is riveting!). Here goes:

1. My family was very small. At holiday celebrations we consisted of the five of us and my grandma, my great uncle and my great aunt.


2. I worked every now and then at the soda fountain in my dad's drugstore.


3. When the store moved and the fountain was gone, I worked as a clerk and delivery girl in my teens.


4. I was fired from the drugstore at least three times..
   
5. You can get fired if you're busted sneaking across the street during work hours in your bathing suit and beach towel.


6. I have a gold panning pan and I know how to use it!


7. I walked a mile to town each week to check out the latest teen magazines..anything with Erik Estrada I bought and clipped.


8. I had a borderline creepy scrapbook with Erik Estrada's life intricately chronicled for about three years.


9. That Christmas we slept in the basement in sleeping bags listening to A Christmas Carol on our radios (smelling pretty darn good I must say!).


10. My first boyfriend's name was Charles..


11. My mother's station wagon started without a key.....so


12. I drove to Charles' house (halfway across town, but it's a small town) at 14.


13. My first car was an orange Ford Pinto. Better end it with that, eh.

On a completely different note, I had an amazing day at Nicoal Goes Digi Scrapping...DigiFree picked up my freebies and downloads have been going steady since. I think I'm hooked!

My New Blog Is OPENNNNNNN

I've decided to spare my non-digi scrapping friends the misery of having to look at my creations and see the layouts I come up with. There was only one answer...open another blog just for that! Yup, I'm a two blogger now. The other blot, Nicoal Goes Digi Scrapping (and never returns) made its debut today and has my new summer freebie to download as well. I'm not sure I've mentioned it here--Nicoal is an acronym for my three children, NIcole, COdy and ALexander. Just thought I'd throw that in, lest you think I forgot I'm Stacey. I knew that.

Like you need something else to do, I know, I know, so it won't hurt my feelings even one bit if you don't go over there. No, I won't be sad. I won't hardly cry at all, I won't curl up into a ball, pulling the covers over my head. I won't forever have blogger-friendlessness complex either.

Ah well, either way, I'm super excited (did that sound as obnoxiously twitty to read as it did to write?) about this. I listed the feebie on DigiScrap Depot too and think tomorrow I need to hunt down a few more freebie sites to put it out there for. Need to get to the typing now...sigh. If only John and the kids would agree to grilled cheese and macaroni for dinner every night, I wouldn't have to work myself to near death typing. On the bright side, maybe if I don't get much done, come Monday night, I'll treat you to another 3 am photo montage......(I'd link to it, but I'm too tired to go back that far and find the post).