Been a While since a LO post

I feel like it’s been awhile since I posted a LO heavy post, but I looked at my blog and I posted some LO’s in the post before last!   Guess it hasn’t been a while!  Oh well, here is a LO heavy post anyway!  Last weekend the site called “Mousescrappers” hosted a Speed Scrap marathon in honor of the marathon that was held at Disney last weekend (in which our friends Beth and Jeff ran the 1/2 marathon and rocked it!).  Well, I decided to do the half marathon at Mousescrappers and did 7 speed scraps.  A speed scrap is generally done in an hour or so in a chat room, and you are given 7 different instructions all leading you to scrap a page.  We host these chats/scraps at The-Lilypad too sometimes and I love them, because it really forces me to get some pages done, and generally they are pages that I end up LOVING, despite the speed I did them in!  So, without further ado…here are some new Disney pages I have scrapped!

And a few of my recent non-Disney ones:

And I made this super cute cootie catcher that Braelyn just LOVES with Val’s Cootie Catcher template.  She has all kinds of goodies for Valentine’s hybrid stuff right now!

 

Enjoy your weekend everyone!!!

MandaKay

Some Seriously Good Info!

I’ve been meaning to write this post for quite some time now, and I just keep putting it off.  I have a tendency to do that with certain things in life.  So without further ado…I am going to share some information on sites I love!!!

First off – DIGITAL CREA ART

This store has the most amazing works of art!  Each kit definitely has a unique style all it’s own.  The store is a French/English store, and up until recently, here in the states we could not shop at this digital store because the only form of payment they took was the euro, but I just discovered they now take the US dollar as well.!  But guess what else?!!  They have the most AMAZING freebie kits!  Take for example this one that came out today – it’s so so so cute!  And you can download it from their store right here since it’s free!

A couple tips on using their store:  make sure you change the language over on the top right hand side of their store.  You will see two flags.  If you hover your arrow over them one will say French and one will say English.  Choose English – it obviously will make navigating the store that much more easy!  Second tip is to sign up for their newsletter.  They send out a newsletter about once a week and it will link you right to that week’s freebie!  You will never have to miss one!  If I could find where to sign up for their newsletter I would link you, but at the moment I cannot seem to find it.  The unsubscribe is down along the lower left side, but I don’t see subscribe.  So sorry.  I know you can subscribe though, because I get their weekly email with freebies!  Hope that is some useful information for you digital scrapbookers out there!

 

Secondly – SWAGBUCKS

I signed up for Swagbucks last March.  Swagbucks is a web premier rewards site.  You can earn virtual money by doing things you do on the web everyday.  With pretty little effort I have earned over $100 in Amazon gift cards!  I got a few really nice Christmas gifts for the kids by using those giftcards and waiting for deals.  A few things that I would recommend to get the most swagbucks:  install the Swagbucks toolbar.  I have the Swagbucks tool bar installed on every computer we have (which right now is 4 working computers!!!  Yikes – can’t believe I am admitting that!).  By having the toolbar you basically will earn 1 swagbuck per day just for opening up your internet.  Also it has a search box (just like a google search box), that you can earn random bucks for searching the web.  So anytime that Kyle or I are searching the web we just type it in there at the top of the screen and we can earn swagbucks (happens quite often – I think the average is 1 out of 5 searches)!  There are more ways to earn bucks too.  If you visit their site you can answer the daily poll for 1 swagbuck a day.  You can click thru a couple offers to earn a swagbuck a day.  And the newest way to earn swagbucks is by printing and using coupons! If you know me, you know that is probably how I am going to start earning BIG Swagbucks!   On Swagbucks website they have a tab on the top that says EARN.  In that drop down there is a coupons button.  Click that and it will bring you to Coupons.com, which is a site I use to print coupons ALL THE TIME!  So now I am just doing it thru their website and I should start earning 10 swagbucks for every coupon turned in to them.  It will take a while however (8-12 weeks) to get those swagbucks since they have to kind of wait for each coupon to be processed and tallied back to them.   But I am excited! I bet I have used probably 20-30 coupons already thru printing from there, so hopefully I will start seeing those swagbucks start rolling in from that as well!   OK – enough about that!  Sign up here and get started with it!

 

Thirdly – SYNOVATE

If you are at all into filling out surveys for a little extra cash I would suggest Synovate.  I have been a panelist for Synovate for almost 7 months now, and I am almost up to the $25 threshold.  I know it’s not much money, but it’s extra cash which is always nice.  The surveys are always short and easy.  Another good benefit is that they send you stuff to try out as well.  I got a free bottle of shampoo to use for 2 weeks and then filled out a survey at the end.  I don’t know what kind of shampoo, but it was free and I actually liked it!  I think I have perfume coming my way to try next because of a short intro survey I took.  I have even gotten dog food to try.  Weird huh?!  I love it though, and if that is up your alley then I would recommend Synovate – it’s a very good company. 

 

And last but definitely not least – VIEWPOINTS

Viewpoints is a public review site.  You can read reviews and give reviews on basically everything.  It’s people’s honest opinions on products from strollers, to tv’s, to computers, to lotions, and everything in between!  About once a month they offer their reviews (which can be you) a $10 gift card to Amazon or something similar.  They ask that you review 10 products (900 character/paragraph long review), and then they email you a giftcard within the next month.  I have earned $40 so far in Amazon cash for reviewing thru this site.  Again – adding to my Christmas shopping!   Join here today!

 

I hope a few of these were new for you guys!  I just wanted to share a few ways I get free things!  This year on Amazon I got my Wii Fit Plus, the girls a motor scooter, Pop on Pals, Toy Story Mania game for Wii, a book given as a gift, my fitness watch, and a few other little things all from gift cards basically to Amazon.com from Swagbucks and Viewpoints!  I hope to be able to save up even more for this coming Christmas since I will have a few more months under my belt than I did last year, since I didn’t start these things until March and later! 

 

Have a great day!

MandaKay

Project 365

So I am committed to doing project 365 again – a photo a day for a year.  I did really well in 2010 and looking back at my folder of my 365 photos I am reminded by what a blessed life I lead and what a blessed year we had, despite losing a job, a less than ideal economy, and a few other hardships!  I can’t wait to get them in some sort of album – another project all in itself!  So join me and see my pictures in my weekly posts over at The-Lilypad forums for P365!!!  Here is this week’s posting.

 

No new year resolution for me – I figure if I don’t set one, I don’t have to dissappoint myself!   In reality though I am really trying to lose a few extra pounds and have been working out every day since Dec. 1.  It’s going good, I missed 3 days so far total since Dec. 1.  I haven’t changed my eating too much, but for the month of Dec. I tried cut back on my pop intake, but that didn’t last long.  I am probably down on my consumption a little bit, but not much. I am realizing that I am getting older though because to lose weight now takes longer and longer.  I feel like I should be seeing visible results by now and I am not.  In high school I would have lost 5 lbs at least with all this working out.  I am feeling stonger though…I guess that’s good.  And a few other little non-resolutions I set every year are, to keep working on saving money and not spending it, to read my Bible more and grow closer to God,  to be a better wife and mom, and to enjoy life!

 

And here are a few LO’s to share!  Thanks for looking!

All with The-Lilypad Goodies!  They are having a sale too this weekend!!!  30% off the store (20% off BYOC products)!  Come out and do some shopping from the comfort of your home!!!

CHRISTMAS!!!

It’s almost here!  Christmas!!!  One of the biggest two Christian holidays of the year, and without Christmas there would be not Easter – so yeah…Christmas is big!  I’m not a Christmas freak really.  I think Christmas is a bit too commercialized personally.  I don’t decorate a ton, I don’t do a ton of shopping, I’m not a real gifty gifty type person (it’s just not my love language, sorry), so Christmas to me truly is more about the celebration of Jesus’ birth many years ago.  My other favorite thing about Christmas is the parties and get togethers with family and friends!  I truly look forward to them!  Our Huizenga side party is already done, and it was great!  Santa made an appearance, many of the kids did a lot of gymnastics (even some of the adults!) and great food and fellowship!  We did have to miss out on my Mom’s side extended family party though.   Can’t hit them all I guess.  We also had two great work parties/dinners, which reminded me how blessed we are to have jobs!  Now we look forward to my family Christmas party on Christmas Eve!  On Christmas morning we will enjoy the morning here at home with our girls for our own Christmas, and then breakfast with Kyle’s parents and sister and her family.  Our other tradition is to go to a movie on Christmas Day and some sort of dinner out (wherever we can find that is open)!  Good good times and great memories always surround Christmas!

Braelyn has been enjoying her break so far.  Today is the first morning we had some snow on the ground, so they got out a bit to enjoy that!  We’ve made a craft, made Christmas cookies, got doughnuts for breakfast…all kinds of treats to make the week special!  I’ve really been enjoying having her home with us and not having school and other commitments this week.  The girls have been playing pretty good with each other!

So, looking back, it’s been a month since I last blogged!  I don’t honestly know where the time goes!  I just haven’t had a ton of time I feel like to sit and blog.  I want to, but I don’t.  Story of our lives right?!  But it’s been a great month!  Thanksgiving was great, we decorated for Christmas, we enjoyed the first snow, and we bought our first Christmas gift as a family!!!

Gunner!  A Weimaraner.  He’s a riot.  We didn’t get along so great our first 4 days, but he’s been in our family now for about 2 weeks and we love him!  He’s super handsome and nice and cuddly.  He’s not real hyper for a puppy either.  He did take up a ton of my time though in the last 2 weeks, so there’s my excuse for that!

 

And I really have been having a hard time scrapping lately, so I don’t have a ton of new LO’s to share.  I’ve been taking quite a few photos though, so I am going to need to buckle down and really scrap here soon!  I hate getting backed up on that!

And with that…From our family to Yours…

Middle of Nov.?!

I cannot even believe it is the middle of Nov. already!  I feel like from here on out we speed thru the rest of the year.  Before we know it we will be ringing in 2011!!!  Personally I am kind of glad that this past week is coming to an end!  It’s been a doozey.  It’s been one for the books.  Why not throw 2 house showings, starting a new job, 5 salon appts., being a single parent all week because Hubby is off hunting, cleaning, and putting out dramatic fires between 3 lively little girls all into one week.  Until next year!

 

It’s a busy but fun week ahead!  I love thanksgiving!  My kids all get to be home this week with no school!  I love weeks off that we don’t have to pack lunch, drop off and pick  up at preschool, and that we can all be home together!  We have our annual friends dinner the night before Thanksgiving!  Always something to look forward to!  I think the tradition is like at least 7 years in the making!  Our group of friends (along with all our families) gets together  over dinner out - I love traditions!  And Thanksgiving Day…of course full of traditions!  And Black Friday – well not so full of tradition – looks different for us every year I think!  Not a Black Friday shopper at all.  Occasionally we have gone out later afternoon to see what kind of deals are still left, but we don’t do the crazy early morning shopping.  And so far I haven’t seen any deals that I just have to have this year, so I think I’ll sleep in!

 

So I’ve done a little blogging over at The-Lilypad!  If you have ever wondered how to easily mat your photos in Photoshop CS or Photoshop Elements, then go learn a little bit from my Tips & Tricks: Digital Matting tutorial!

That’s it for tonight.  For some reason I am up yet at 1:00am, and I really should be sleeping (I may have actually dozed off a few times during writing this post)!  I actually have no LO’s to share because I haven’t really worked on anything since last weekend scrapbook weekend.  Unusual, I know!

MandaKay

Whataya want from me…

I’m channeling my inner “Adam Lambert” tonight.  I’m not even sure why that title popped up in my mind.  Maybe it’s because I sometimes view blogging as a chore.  Not very often, but sometimes.  Now, I fully realize I don’t HAVE to blog.  It’s totally up to me if I write my thoughts down or not.  98% of the time I enjoy blogging.  My friend asked me the other night if I had a new blog post up recently, and I said “no, I think it’s been a little over a week”.  I then had to explain to the girls I was with that I actually have had many an instance over the last week where I thought to myself “I’ve got to blog about this”, but then when it comes down to it I don’t.  Some of the things I have wanted to blog about I don’t because of the fear of offending someone.  How dumb is that though, because this is my blog, my journal.  Some things I forgot that I was going to blog about.  Some things I just can’t blog about quite yet, so there you have it, that is why I haven’t blogged in over a week!  So, without further ado…here is my new blog post!

 

I had such a great Fri. and Sat. this weekend!  I went with some friends to a local hotel, for a scrapbook weekend!  After a great lunch with a friend we got all set up and started scrapping!  The dinner Fri. night was great, and I think we scrapped until about 1:00am!  Sat. morning we were right back at it after breakfast, had a great buffet lunch, and then scrapped until about 4:30.  By that time I had to get the girls from my in-laws!  It was a great weekend, so needed for this Mama, and I felt like I got a lot of things done!

The week ahead is rather daunting to me and I am trying to remain calm about all that is going on over here!  Any prayers for me would be appreciated as I delve into a new job and back into that mode again, after 5 months of being unemployed!  I am excited and I think it will be a great opportunity!  Lot’s of other busyness on top of that too of course!

 

And of course I have scrapping pages to share – seems like I always do!

Here are two new LO’s with some newer Lilypad goodies.  I started this first LO of my Dad on Veterans Day and finished it up this weekend – love documenting history for my family!  The second is of course another LO for my Disney album…it is slowly but surely getting done!

This next group of LO’s are all done for the new journaling challenge going on at The-Lilypad.  The point of the challenges is to finish a 20 page book with your heart into the journaling.  For this album I chose to do it largely on me and my thoughts/likes/etc…

And finally this set of LO’s will be done to put together a book with a lot of journaling and something that I hope my girls will LOVE reading and looking at someday!  The whole book/template/journaling prompts can be bought actually over at The-Lilypad is called Grow With Love:Kids by Sara Gleason and Crystal Livesay.  They are currently doing a 2 a week blog post with a new journal prompt each of those 2 days.  Join in…I dare you!  You will not be sorry you did!

That’s all I have for now.  Have a great week everyone!

MandaKay

Scrappers Give Thanks 2010

What to make a sick child’s day?!  Who wouldn’t?!  I am participating in the 2010 2nd Annual Scrappers Give Thanks project, and I want you to as well!

The 2nd annual Scrappers Give Thanks project has a goal of assembling 2000 participant-created 4×6 pages into 100 ten page (double-sided) mini albums to be delivered to 10 children’s hospitals across the country. Submitted pages should be scrapbook-style mini artworks containing positive words, happy images, jokes etc. and may be in digital or tangible formats.

Create a 4 x 6 vertical composition card (digitally or paper scrapping), and submit it using the Scrappers Give Thanks submission form.  Easy as that!  What a great way to brighten a little child's day!

 

And don’t forget to join me today in the The-Lilypad chat room at 2:00 EST today!  That’s less than 2 hrs from now!!!

MandaKay