I'm so happy I could shop!

Really, I mean I can shop. I was just notified that I won a $20 gift certificate to Scrapbook.com. I know you're thinking "$20? That's not much " But to me it's a lot, it's a huge deal to have won something period! I mean even if it is only $20, it will buy a pack of paper, but that's not the point. The point is that I won something based off of a layout that I had submitted. Granted, it was sort of the luck of the draw, but still they had to have liked something about my layout. They do a search for all layouts posted on a certain day, review them, and choose one based on the criteria that you linked to one tool, one product, and one adhesive (at minimum) in their online store - but you would think that even still there would be hundreds that would fit into that criteria, right?!? This isn't some big contest (like Lucky 7), it's just some contest they started in April. They are giving away one prize a day day till further notice. I won for something I uploaded in June. I'm excited because it's the first time I have won anything for my work, and to me, it is a sign of things to come. The beginning of my scrapbooking dreams/goals being realized and coming true. So while right now it may not be a magazine publishing or becoming a Design Team Member, but in the future it may be if I keep up the hard work and play my cards right. Maybe if I am real lucky, next month I will be notified that I won a prize in the Lucky 7 - hopefully a grand prize.

Keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck!!!!!

Oh, btw - did you check out the new pictures I uploaded to Flickr? I know it wasn't a whole lot, and they aren't tagged or described all that well, or rather at all - but at least they are there for your viewing pleasure. I have some videos to edit and post on YouTube just as soon as I can get to them. Today is my pre-op appt. with my plastic surgeon, the last night of swim lesson (thank god!), and hopefully the day I will find out if I found a new general surgeon - otherwise I have appointments both tomorrow and Thursday, ugh!

I'm Back...

So sorry I've been MIA lately. It's been a whole combination of things. First off there's Natalie's swim lessons, which has ended up being more time consuming than I previously thought they would be. Then of course there was the whole Lucky 7 scrapbook contest - which I am happy to say I successfully completed 7 layouts for just in time for today's deadline! Add in some money drama issues with my brother. Oh, I am also frantically searching for a new General Surgeon to perform my mastectomy on the 23rd, at almost the last minute I found out that the hospital I was scheduled to have surgery at had dropped from my PPO's plan, and my GS doesn't have privileges at the new facility - so I am seeing new doctors almost daily, which is REALLY difficult given that I cannot take Natalie with me to these appointments. I've also had to shop for and buy furniture for both the guest room and our dining room. Add all this stress and anxiety together, on top of being bi-polar, and watch out for some severe displays of manic-depressive. There was so much going on that even I didn't see it at first. About 3 days into it all, it dawned on me that I was having these mood swings and for the first time I think I really understood what was going on, and that I am bi-polar. I do have extreme periods of highs and lows. Of course this means that if I am experiencing such periods of mania or depression, then it means that my medication is not working all that well anymore. So when you hit a low, you don't really feel much like doing anything - no blogging, no getting out of bed, and definitely no scrapping. So forcing myself to do all these things wasn't the easiest, but the time is tick ticking away. There's only a tad more than 2 weeks left before my surgery, after which I won't be able to do much of anything for at least a month. Trying to do something too soon is how I botched my last reconstruction surgery. I really don't need or want another failed surgery - especially since this one is bi-lateral. I can't even imagine how much pain I will be in. I don't understand how women get breast implants. Needless to say, yes I am scared, and that is what you hear talking. Don't worry, just 2 more weeks to go of all this anxiety, then my anxiety level will triple when I get there and they go to start an IV. You'd think by now I'd be a pro at all this surgery stuff, but since my veins are so bad, I am hard stick. The more they try and don't succeed, the more I freak out. I also don't handle pain well, which tends to fuel my anxiety at times. So this is my world, welcome to it. Getting those layouts done for Scrapbook.Com was not an easy task. Half way through I lost my motivation, my drive. Actually I think maybe it was more my focus, and being in a low, depressive state with all my anxiety and stress. Sometimes it just gets so difficult to deal with things, cause it's like having a monkey on your back. So my layouts, to be honest, weren't all that satisfying to me. I just think that I could have done better if I had been in a manic state. But hopefully 1 will catch someones eye. At least I tried and applied myself. I really have to force myself to scrap more often. You know the saying, practice makes perfect. Ruben successfully sold my Craft Robo Pro on Ebay, and I took my money and purchased a Cricut instead. It's much more user-friendly. Just pop in a cartridge and your good to go. I can't wait to play more with it, and the other cartridges I got. Hopefully before my surgery, but we'll have to see how my schedule goes - and if I can get myself out of this funk I'm in. 4th of July was no big to do here. It rained all day, so the BBQ was cancelled, as was swimming in our wading pool. I say wading pool because it's about 2 1/2 feet deep of water. It stopped raining just in time for dusk, so we rounded up all the kids in the hood and Ruben shot off the fireworks he bought out of town. We got about half way through when a cop came by and told us that all fireworks are illegal in St. Charles Parish. He was really cool about it though, he didn't even give us a ticket or anything. The kids got a big kick out of the fact that they were illegal. So that was the end of that, which was kind of a good thing being that the mosquitoes had eaten us up. They are viscous little blood-sucking killers! So in about a week, on the 15th, it will be Ruben's birthday. He's going to be 34, and for about 6 months I will get the joy once again of being the younger one! I'm just not sure yet what to do for the big day. He's already got everything he could want or need. I mean hell, we are grown ups, we buy what we want when we want - it's not like we need a special day for that, so I'm really not sure what to get or do; I mean like other than sexual favors, lol. Tomorrow I will try to update Flickr with some of the newer pictures of Natalie swimming and from the 4th, it's already too late tonight and it's about time to hit the sack and call it a night!

I'm SO Excited!

I know I keep going on and on about this, but it really has been a long ass time since I last scrapped (well, prior to this set!) I just finished and posted my 4th LO yesterday. I had gotten into it so much, that I had nearly forgotten the fact that we had a birthday party to go to. I looked up at 12:30 and said oh shit, the party is at 1:00. Luckily my daughter was already dressed, and waiting to go. Both my hubby and I had showered the night before, and since it was a pool party at our neighbors, it was pretty low key - so getting ready took no time at all. It was hard for me to walk away from a near finished page, but my daughter's friend turned 6 and she was so excited to go swimming and see him. We ended up having a pretty good time, and I finished my LO when we got home. We'll be returning there all this week, providing it doesn't rain, so she can take swimming lessons with a personal instructor. Don't you worry, I'll have that camera with me and I'll be taking lots of pictures just like I did yesterday. You can check out the new LO here. I've got 3 more to do before 7/7 - and after that, well, let's just hope that I finally get this room straightened out before my surgery and can at least scrap 1 LO a week while recovering!
Enjoy!

I'm on a roll now!

I just finished and posted my newest LO, the one I worked on for the past 2 days. I'm glad to be done. The LO I did was sort of meant to be funny. Now I'm gearing up to start my next page as soon as I think of a theme, and find the pix, paper, and other supplies. So much thought goes into what to do - and sometimes, so much time goes into just doing it! I'm going to try to dig a little deeper on this next one. I really want to pull out a creative edge, and do something drastic, and amazing; not just like something you've seen in every magazine. Wish me luck.
And here's the link to my latest page, enjoy!

Another entry made!

Ok, I'll be honest - I didn't just create this layout - But it is a favorite of mine. I'm trying hard to resist any urges to post any older layouts, as I want to take this opportunity to actually scrap. I'm working on a page, and have been for 2 days. I think tomorrow I will finally be able to start putting pieces of it together, and hopefully complete it. Once done, I will let you know where you can find it. But for now, the 2nd entry can be found here - again please give me your honest opinion, and vote or leave comments if you are a registered user of Scrapbooks.Com. Thanks again, I appreciate your support.
Yesterday while I was hard at work on my next big thing, my daughter said to me, "Mom, I'm glad you back to normal and scrapbooking again". It was an odd but funny comment to me. I hadn't realized I wasn't being "normal" already. I also had no clue that my scrapbooking affected her so greatly. So I'm going to have to make some kind of resolution, though I hate that term, that I will continuously scrapbook at least monthly, if not more often. And no, the area is still not organized. In fact I think it MAY be messier for having ransacked through items looking for stuff!

1 down 6 to go!

Well at least if I want to submit as many layouts as possible, per the contest rules. Now, I have not scrapped in quite some time - quite honestly, I don't think I have in at least a year, as I have not done anything since my mother's death. So I'm both excited and nervous. For a first layout I think I did pretty well, but I know that somewhere within me I can do better. And no, my room is not even half way near being unpacked or organized yet. Yesterday I just woke up and started tearing through stuff on a mission to find the perfect paper, photos, and supplies. Like I said, I'm not sure how well I did, but for being rusty, and the first go, I think I did good. Due to contest rules, I cannot post the layout anywhere else for the time being, but if you would like to see it - and more importantly sign up and vote; the layout can be seen here. Please let me know what you think. I need some feedback, as my mind is going in a million different directions and I was up or felt like I was up half the night thinking about scrap related things - layout, titles, colors. My mind was going nuts, and still is. And to make matters worse, I admit ably have too much stuff; too much paper, too many stickers, die cuts, sets, stamps - lots of duplicates. It's no wonder I can't make any sense out of this room! Look for a huge sale coming to eBay soon!

Pictures

I've loaded hundreds more photos onto my Flickr account to share with y'all. Some pictures are old favorites, pictures of Disney I forgot about, and a new set containing those of my very messy scrap area. I figured that while I am inspired, and wanting to scrap I better take some before pictures so you can see the mess I had to sort through just to make a page. As you'll find, not only are things downright messy, but there are boxes that still need to be brought upstairs in order to be unpacked! It's going to take a lot of hard work and effort to organize this mess, and some of it will have to be done in order to just start a project as I don't even know where to find basic supplies like scissors and glue! Maybe y'all can give me a few ideas, cause while I'm usually an organized person (ask my ex co-workers) I'm not all that into color coding things. I sure wish Cynthia would come help! Anyway, once I've managed to clean up a bit I will be sure to post after pictures as well as whatever layouts I create.

In case you're wondering why the sudden urge to create, well check this out: