Yes, I am a bad blogger

This totally explains my move to Blogger from Typepad not long ago...I'm a bad blogger these days. I blame Facebook. Facebook makes it wayyyy too easy to share what I want to share, and on the go, at that. I can take a photo with my cell phone and send it directly to Facebook. Why would I want to get out my camera, take photos, upload them to the computer, edit with PSE, then upload to Blogger to share something quick that I'm working on or that I just saw and wanted to share when Facebook is so much easier? Yeah, I know......

I do still like blogs. I do still like Blogging. I'm trying to make a go of the Examiner.com article-writing, but that's hard, too, especially since school started and we're on the go so much. I need to get back on that effort as much as possible. And scrapbooking?

No, not so much doing the scrapbooking. I made cards to send the girls' back-to-school snapshot and a dance class snapshot out to family and friends. I've made no pages at all though! Not since a July crop. Maybe soon....And knitting?

No, not so much doing the knitting. Took the entire summer off, actually. Lately, however, I've done a bit of knitting on the sweater for Maddie that I started back in the winter, and also on a simple but fun sock I started a while back. I only did the ribbed edge, and have now quickly brought the first sock down, around the heel and am now working the foot. I hope to get it done quickly and start the second sock. That will serve as inspiration for me to get it done so I have a new pair to wear. I am jealous of those who knit all the time and knit more complicated, beautiful socks (like Amanda posted on Facebook recently!). I also want to knit the girls' some leg-warmers to use in dance class. I bought a pattern over two years ago, and now I have a good reason to knit them.

All else is moving along....Girl Scouts started again last week. Tonight is the year's second PTO meeting at school. Girls started faith-formation class a few weeks ago. Upward soccer continues through October 24. (I'll be glad when that's over, to tell the truth.) So we're on the go...a LOT. Once soccer ends, it'll just be weekly dance and faith formation classes. Girl Scouts are every other week (or less perhaps); PTO is only monthly for me. Husband works a lot, too.

Otherwise, Girl Scouts begin their Fall Product fund-raiser this Friday, so if anyone would like some nice nuts, chocolate-covered nuts and pretzels, and other chocolates in fun little cans and tins, let us know starting Friday afternoon!

School supplies and the like

My gosh, I can't believe it's time to buy school supplies. Actually, I think we were late when buying supplies today. Many bins and displays were picked over; the three-ring binders were boring at best with only navy and black to choose from. What an exciting yet sad thing to be doing -- the excitement of back-to-school and the sadness that the summer is nearly over. Wow.

We got nearly everything we needed. The girls's separate classes have separate class lists, so that's a pain. If Maddie weren't in the new "combined" class of first and second graders, her list would be the same as Em's....ah well. We shall see what that situation brings as the school year gets started. Tissues still need to be purchased, as we need so many boxes for the two classes that we decided to wait for a good deal on a multi-box offer. I never envisioned my life and looking for a good deal on tissues. I really know how to live, I tell ya.

We have previously purchased some back-to-school clothes, and the girls seem happy with what we got. I got a fantastic deal...stumbled into it, really....at Gap Kids. They had a sale on clearance items, and we got two pairs of jeans (Gap jeans!) and four t-shirts for the girls for -- wait for it -- $48! That's hard to beat anywhere. We spent $20 at Target on two cute denim skirts, for gosh sakes. Lastly, we hit Sears, where we found Levi jeans marked down to $12, then a bunch of Roughskins coordinates for 2/$10 for the girls AND sneakers they love ON SALE. I gotta say, we did great in finding deals the girls love. This year, Em will have Wizards of Waverly Place sneakers, which I think she will love as much as she does her Hannah Montana ones from last year, and Maddie has Camp Rock sneakers she loves. Yippee on those finds.

I had hoped to post photos of the kindergarten scrapbooks that I did for the girls at my crop a few weeks ago, but, alas, I just haven't had a chance to photograph it. Had Monday off last week and worked on Saturday. Went to early church on Sunday and also attended the newcomers' breakfast, which was very nice. Cleaned and organized the linen closet. Scrapbooked not a bit, but I want to. Just trying to find a relaxing mood since it's no fun when there's too much external stress. I've gotten some great clearance and Hot Spot bargains ($1-$1.38) lately, and I can't wait to use some stash!

Hope it's not too hot where you are.....kinda steamy here this past week, that's for sure. :D

I coulda scrapped all night...

But the crop was only til 9 pm, 2 full days this past Friday and Saturday, both til 9 pm, and still I didn't get done as much as I wanted. I worked on two projects: kindergarten scrapbooks for the girls and a fun valentine's day memento book just for fun since someone gave me a bunch of patterned paper and matching ribbons. I added embellies when they went on clearance, and voila, a quick scrapbook. Here is that one, photos in no particular order, and I didn't include the front page. I haven't taken pics of the kindergarten ones yet.

In other news, we finished up swimming lessons last week. This week brings school registration. There are a few issues there that I'm thinking about. We are also enjoying our new church, and I need to call about getting the girls in (what I used to call) CCD for the fall. Husband has some irons in the fire (prayers welcomed for this). Work for me continues to be ok...tiring some after all this time working there.

The summer has come and is waning with us having not finished much of what we planned to do....the kitchen still isn't painted, nor is the hallway or our bedroom. The basement still isn't tidied from last summer's flooding. The back deck isn't painted. The yard isn't weeded. Siigghh....what happened to our get-up-and-go??

A quick card

I have some new stamps and I saw Jeanette's sketch challenge over at the 2RedBananas blog, so here ya go. :)

Two....get me two....

Stupid movie reference, I know. Or have you seen Point Break, by any chance?

Anyhoo....here are the two pages I finished this morning. You can now see what the "two" reference is for. One page for each of the girls' books. Em likes the pink; Maddie loves green. I did have a second, different ice cream paper, but figured I'd save it for something else. It's Basic Grey and is pretty cool, but completely different. This one is Imaginesce, very cool. The brown polka-dot is the reverse of the ice cream side. Gotta love that. This is the only piece of the line I bought, and it did the trick. Cardstock is Bazzill bling. Ice cream cone is QK. I think that yellow scalloped ribbon is Fancy Pants from the Office line? I bought it on clearance, I remember that. Sticker labels are Jenni Bowlin. Alpha is AC Thickers. Not sure I'm in love with these pages, other than the photos, which I do love, but the pages are....what?...say it with me.....DONE! I do love THAT!

Anyway, my goal is to get some pages done, use the new stuff I just had to have, and also to burn the stash as much as possible, downsizing as I go. Hope you like 'em, too. :)

Making the switch and another swim page

I didn't cut off my other blog in time to miss the next month's charges, but I believe I'm going to work with this one from now on to get the hang of it. Cool, huh? Not quite as fancy-dancy, but it'll do just fine, I do believe.

Here's another swim page I did...figured I had more of this paper that I really liked from last summer, plus the flowers I bought to match it. This page will go in the family book. The previous two are for each of the girls' books. This paper was by WRMK exclusive for Archivers last summer. The bling matched the line. Flowers by Prima also bought last summer (just perfect for the paper though). Chipboard corners are Bo Bunny. And, my rockin-the-stash move here is the rub-on title by MME that's at least 2-3 years old!

I have also completed a page for each of the girls' books using photos from our first trip to Snookies Malt Shop this year. I'll get those up this weekend, too, but haven't snapped pics yet. Used the fun Imaginesce ice cream paper...forget what the line is called, but it's this year's.

Testing again...posting photos

I remember previously leaving blogger because of endless troubles posting photos. Hopefully, that's all a thing of the distant past. Here goes....

What I did tonight - a couple of pages, one for each of the girls, using the summer 2008 WRMK line for A's that I liked so much last year. Glad to have these photos which are perfect for it! Yellow chipboard from Bo Bunny. Flowers are Prima, bought to match this paper...pretty good match, huh? :)

Ok, I'm not thrilled with how the photos are formatting. I'm going to have to look up some tips on sizing and placement of photos...thus far, it seems easy to upload, but I'm not happy with the result when seeing the post. What gives with this, I wonder. Like how I can custom-size the photos in Typepad. Can Blogger do that?

Testing, 1, 2, 3...

After a bit of thought about the ol' blog and other sites I now frequent like Facebook and Twitter, I decided to come back to Blogger and see how the site works now. My last post, still listed below, was nearly 3 years ago, when the site here was really sucking, so I moved to Typepad. I've been using (and paying for) that site since then, and even though it's only a token amount, I decided that if Blogger is up to snuff now, I should try it again and eliminate the cost of Typepad since I don't blog as much as I used to. I guess that's what Facebook has done in giving me another site to share some photos and updates with family and friends. So, this is sort of a "test post" to see how I like Blogger again.

Like my design? Free download elements and PSE....I'm so far from knowing what I'm doing with such things, but it's better than the basic template options, I think.