Believe it or not...I survived the island! I remain shocked as I tell you that I won the Survivor Contest over at the Scrapbook Chalet by a small margin of 22-20. I am now the proud owner of a Cricut die cutting system, as well as the Guest Designer for I believe April. I used a Becky Fleck sketch and photos that my great friend, Angelina took to create Week #10's layout. It was an ad challenge where the ad was comprised of 4 letters that were cropped photos. We had to draw our inspiration from the ad. It took me HOURS to figure out what I was going to do. I dreamt about it..I thought about it for days...I drew sketches and jotted down ideas. When I finally did the layout, the day it was due, my idea to crop letters out of a photo and place on the same exact photo creating a shadow effect just popped into my head. I really didn't want to use the letters as a title and not have the remaining pieces of the photo. It just wasn't large enough and I felt the rest of the photo was important. I was lucky enough to have some SEI So Girly patterned papers left from my Design Team projects over at ScrapNCircle that matched Kaila's jacket in the photos perfectly.

It was a thrilling contest filled with absolutely AMAZINGLY TALENTED women. I am honored to have been in the contest with them. I thank everyone who voted for my layout. It is greatly appreciated. Congrats to Amber and Didi who also won prizes with their creations! You ladies are AWESOME!

Scrapbook Chalet is getting ready to launch another great contest with the grand prize being a gift basket full of products worth $250! Be sure to check it out and enter soon!!! Just click on the link, go to the message board and look it up under Chalet Contests.

We're about a month away from taking our long-awaited trip to Texas. And when I say "We" I mean my Husband and I...just us :) You read it correctly! We are taking a litle 8 day vacation to visit friends in Texas. Chris is actually Charlie's best friend from high school. They were in each other's weddings. The first and last time we flew on a plane was in 1996 to go to Chris and Becky's wedding. So, it's been a while. Charlie's parents are nice enough to watch the children for the week we're away. I'm excited, but nervous about what may or may not happen on the plane. If I didn't have to fly I'd be ecstatic! I just don't want to take 24 hours to drive down there. We're planning on going to a bed and breakfast for the weekend we're down there with just the four of us. Chris and Becky have two children of their own. We're easily entertained and just are happy to see them and visit. We're all counting down the days, because we haven't seen each other since May 2000.

On the homefront, there is mud everywhere...not just outside. These children and husband of mine have tracked mud into the house on numerous occasions. I can't wait for the dry season. So, I not only have to deal with a trashed house, but mud all over too. Needless to say, it's a cleaning day today. I better get back at it!

See ya!

Shawn

ScrapNCircle SEI So Girly papers...

These papers and accessories were a dream to work with! I'm just thrilled at how fast I whipped these projects together. Ordinarily, I am a very slow scrapper, but with these products, ideas and inspiration just came to me! Just in case you can't tell, the clock has pictures of my husband feeding our children sour worms like little birds. It was a site to see, let me tell you! For a closer, more detailed view of these projects, just click on the image.

Please be sure to checkout the ScrapNCircle website to purchase all your SEI needs/wants!

Thanks for stopping by!

Shawn

Can you say, "AHHHHH?" That's my cyber-scream. I am fortunate enough to have made it into the final 2 for the Scrapbook Chalet Survivor Competition. I can not believe it! A big THANKS to EVERYONE that voted for my layout this week. I'm just stunned. For this past week's challenge we had to create a layout using a Pencil Lines sketch. The original sketch has a half of a heart, instead of an egg. We have, what I believe is, the toughest challenge yet for Tuesday. It's an ad inspiration. It's very cool, but I'm going to have to borrow a thinking cap to put on for this one. My husband is, of course, cheering me on emphatically. Yes, emphatically. Because, as some of you know, the grand prize is a CRICUT!!! Not to mention, the winner will be a Guest Designer for a month at the Chalet. The good news is I still win a $50 gift certificate to the Chalet's AWESOME store!!! I'm a winner either way.

Speaking of the Scrapbook Chalet, the new Creative Crew has started posting in the gallery for the Chalet's April Kit. And, can I just tell ya how amazing the designs are!!!!??? Those girls ROCK! So, if you have a minute, or two be sure to skip on over to the gallery to see what the new crew is cranking out!

Another great site to checkout for awesome products is ScrapNCircle. The Design Team's Reveal is today, so be sure and visit the gallery to see what we've come up with this month using SEI Girly papers. I love working with SEI, especially the girly stuff. I have so much more to create! Awesome, awesome line of paper, stickers, buttons, brads...you name it! Get over to the Shoppe before it's all gone!

Lastly, but certainly not without merit, is my darling Mother's extreme weight loss. Can I just say that she has been an inspiration to me in the last several months as I've tried and tried to stick to some sort of diet to lose my personal spare tire? Who ordered that tire anyway? Obviously it doesn't have a return policy. - LOL! Anyway, she has managed to lose 47 pounds since August 2006. She's a bean pole! She's actually thinner now than in this after photo that I'm posting. She's on the Michael Thurmond's 6-Week Body Makeover. She eats 5 small meals a day and then an evening snack, if she so desires. Oh, and let's not forget she exercises everyday for about 45 minutes (walking). She did the body blueprinting for her body type and sticks to the "allowed" foods. She's boosted her metabolism and can go on little binges with little effect, but she tries to refrain from hindering her progress further into the world of slenderness. If you haven't guessed, I am currently trying to do the same program that she's been doing to help boost my metabolism and lose that nasty "tire" I spoke of earlier. Thanks, Mom!

That's it for now. I've got to clean, because and this isn't the ONLY reason, I'll be watching/guarding/protecting a total of 8 kids tomorrow! That's no typo, Folks! That's a big whopping 8!!! Wish me luck!


Shawn

Looky! Looky! My darling friend, Angelina, took these awesome photos of my daughter. Thanks, Girl! You so made my day!

Here's another creation using the Scrapbook Chalet's March 2007 Cherry Arte Kit. It was a blast to work with! If you'd like to see more, you can either visit the gallery, or scroll down to see what I did with the Junkitz Tin Box add on.


I am in the process of cleaning, laundry, baking bread and organizing my scraproom. You know, there isn't enough time in a regular day and the fact that we lost an hour today just doesn't help! Oh, and let's not forget that I'm trying to get the kids to actually help clean-up THEIR stuff! Yeah...not going so well. We're going to be disposing of a lot of items, I can tell ya that right now! I'm sooooo in THAT kind of a mood!


I can smell SPRING! I can see the mud! I can see the sun! It's gonna be great to get outdoors and enjoy the sunshine (minus the mud)! I'm ready!


Volleyball on Mondays and Thursdays is coming to a close. I have no more than two weeks of Thursday and approximately 5 weeks of Mondays. I'm going to miss it, but I'll be happy to have those nights free to work on other things. It will be here again before you know it anyway.


That's about it for today.


Thanks for stopping by!


Shawn

I made it to The Final THREE at the Scrapbook Chalet Survivor Contest!!! I am so shocked and excited! Congrats to DidiR and Hardcorescrapper as well! I had to scraplift a layout done by Carla. "Piggies in the SAND" is my lift of her "Hugs and Kisses." I am absolutely thrilled and look forward to the next challenge, which is using a sketch from Pencil Lines. If you like sketches, especially with examples, go checkout that awesome site!

Now, I must go and prepare for Stamp Club and scrapping at my friend, Lori's house tonight.

Thanks for stopping by!

Shawn

Book of Me - these are my final entries into the book from the challenges presented at ScrapNCircle. I had a lot of fun completing them and getting out those old photos. Wow! You forget how old you're getting when you look at photos from high school. It's been 15 years for me since graduating. I can hardly believe that.

Just so you know, you can also purchase Bazzill cardstock over at ScrapNCircle for $.40 per sheet! Yes! I just received a bunch that I had ordered. So, so pretty! Ya just gotta love that stuff!

Jodie K. won the March Guess Designer Spot and is doing a great job on the message board and in the gallery! She has a challenge going on right now for leaving love in the gallery. Also, ScrapNCircle has the May Guess Designer Spot up for grabs. Be sure get over there and check it out!

The Scrapbook Chalet just posted some challenges for March. Hurry up and go sign up! It started this past weekend, so there's still time to jump right in! You HAVE to go checkout the gallery! It ROCKS!!!!

Well, I've jumped on the weightloss bandwagon again. As I'm sure I mentioned, DH and I are taking a trip to Texas in April and I need to shed some of these pounds. We are flying and don't want to be the target of "dumping" excess baggage - LOL! I even worked out today! The heck you say...no REALLY! I was dripping sweat and everything! Anyway, we're pushing like 55 days until we leave, so I needed to get hopping.

Blake has his full speech evaluation tomorrow. He had "passed" the previous evaluation, but I pretty much said that she hadn't really gotten the full effect of his problem. So, tomorrow they're going to really "test" him. I'm not anxious or anything, I just want him to get the help he more than likely needs. He starts Kindergarten this September. I mean, catch a clue, People!

I have volleyball tonight and am, of course, taking the three kids with me. It's actually working out well. They behave almost perfectly and DH still gets to go shoot his bow. So, it's not considered a night where he's watching the kids. I feel less guilty about going to volleyball on Thursdays now. We have about three weeks left of Thursdays, so that will be over soon. I need that, there exercise!!!

That's all for now. I have to do my job as President/CEO of our little ebay business now. It's my "other" job.

See ya and THANKS for stopping by!

Shawn

Wow! I made it through two more weeks for the Chalet's Survivor Contest! The competition is stiff! I thank those that voted for me from the bottom of my heart. It is truly an honor to still be surviving. Last week had to use 3 pp's, at least 2 photos and 10 embellishments. I created "Kaila has such a sweet, sweet smile" using one of Becky Fleck's sketches and Basicgrey's new line - Blush (love that stuff).

This week, we had to scraplift Leslie Ashe (New Scrapbook Chalet Creative Crew Member) this week. We had a choice between two layouts. I especially loved the one about what she loved about her son. So, I did the best I could with creating "Sweet Beauty" using Stampin' Up patterened papers. I just adore SU's papers!

Also, I was able to complete some of my DT assignments for Scrapbook Chalet. I altered the Junkitz Tin Book that came with the kit using the Cherry Arte and Dreamstreet Papers. Oh, man! That was so fun! I used photos of my daughter and nieces, minus one (Brianna). I'm not done yet! I still have another layout to do.

A HUGE congrats to the New Scrapbook Chalet Creative Crew!!! Be sure and check their work out in the coming months, or just pop in and look what they've been up to lately. It's AWESOME!

That's it for now!

Shawn