She sent me a sneak peek of what she did with some of my stuff…and gave me the okay to share it with you! Take a look….and when you see it, make sure you say, “Oooh….ahhhh!”

If seeing that makes you want to go straight to the BPS site to check out the class info – or sign up for the class – click HERE!  It looks like a really cool class about hybrid scrapbooking – so even my paper friends might be interested!  I was just flattered that May asked me to be one of the featured designers – and honored to see my name on that list! Thanks, May!

I am busy, busy, busy with all things work, photography, and family related…and I’m proud to say I have given up pop! (I did fall off the wagon for a day a week ago…but got right back on!) I hope life is treating you well…have a wonderful weekend!

I haven’t been spending as much time blogging and lurking around the Oscraps boards, and chatting with my friends and loved ones on Yahoo and facebook because I’ve been spending time working out, playing Wii with my family, and taking photos….lots and lots of photos!  I have been super swamped with photography jobs – and I’m looooving it!!

 Here’s a link to the most recent shoot I did: Medley Family Shoot.  The little boy is sooo adorable – I couldn’t get enough of his little face and all of his cute little grins.  Here’s my favorite shot from the day:

I’m still tweaking a few things on my photography blogsite, but feel free to check it out! It’s gorgeous (if I do say so) thanks to Genevieve’s amazing design skillz.  Yes, the z was intentional there.  Her skillz are waaayyy too mad to be listed with a plain old s at the end.  There’s a link to her at the bottom of my blog if you want to see more of her work.  Anyway….focus, Jodie. 

So…I’ve been working out with the Wii Active Personal Trainer and I LOVE IT!  (Highly recommended, by the way…and no, they didn’t pay me or give me anything for free to get me to say that!)  My hubby’s been doing it too…and we’re both really sticking with a regular routine and working our tails off (literally, we hope) to achieve healthier, more active lifestyles.   That kind of lifestyle definitely means less surfing the web for inspiration, less facebook, and less sitting around designing and scrapping.  I’m not giving those things up completely…but we all need to check ourselves and get a little balance sometimes.  It’s always hard to admit it…but it feels good when you make those positive changes in your life! 

I am so excited about the purchase I just made during my lunch break today! I’ve been waiting to get it since the beginning of January!! I finally ordered my very own, sparkly, beautifully coordinated, super-dee-dooper Project Life Kit from Becky Higgins!  Here’s a picture of it – feel free to drool.

And yes, my fellow digi-divas….I ordered the *gasp* paper version!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think it will be good for me to change it up a little with this project – plus, if I have the kit sitting there in front of me it will force me to stick with it.  I do NOT like to waste money, people.  And…I do NOT usually make scrapping purchases like this.  That should tell you how much I love this kit!  Now I just have to TRY to be patient until it gets here!  I have been sticking with my Project 365 photo-taking – so I have tons of goodies to stick into the pages when it arrives!

One last thing before I stop rambling…

I’m in an Ella Publishing e-book! I have a layout in this book….what better reason do you need to go grab it up RIGHT now!?  Here’s a linky for ya…tell your friends! It’s my moment in the spotlight and my first pub in a BOOK!!  The sketches and layouts in this book are amazing and will definitely inspire you to scrap!! Trust me!  Donna’s sketches are so easy to work with…and I used to hate sketches! Donna cured me!

Wow – that was a lot of blogging shoved into one post! That’s what happens when you blog at Thanksgiving and then not again until Groundhog Day, huh? 

Have you made any priority changes recently?  Tell me about them!  Have a wonderful week – and Happy Groundhog Day! I’m hoping to watch that movie tonight with my hubby after our little sweetie pie is in bed…it’s one of our faves!

Welcome to the Giving Thanks {Blog Hop} 2009…

Thanks to some very amazing artists, over the next week, you will be able to hop around the web and find some amazing projects celebrating Gratitude and Creativity. We are very excited to be bringing you a cross-section of artisans, sharing their stories, creations, and thanks with all of you. Not everyone will post something everyday, but, there will be something somewhere everyday. You will just have to hop around and see what you can find. Each person participating has the full list of attendees posted, so you can hop from each one to another. We hope you find something that inspires you, sparks your creativity, or reminds you to be thankful this Thanksgiving.

From our houses to yours, please enjoy your week and our gratitude…

Debbie Hodge http://www.debbiehodge.typepad.com

Kelly Purkey http://kellypurkey.typepad.com

Lisa Dickinson http://lisadickinson.typepad.com

May Flaum http://mayflaum.wordpress.com

Patti Milazzo http://pattimilazzo.blogspot.com/

Stacey Kingman http://staceykingman.blogspot.com/

Stephenie Hamen http://cropgirl.wordpress.com

Margot Potter http://margotpottertheimpatientcrafter.blogspot.com/

Lain Ehmann http://knitandpurlgrrl.blogs.com/five_things/

Margie Romney-Aslett http://www.margieromney-aslett.typepad.com/

Rhonna Farrer http://rhonnadesigns.blogspot.com/

Wendy Smedley http://wendysmedley.typepad.com/

Jodie McNally http://jodiemcnally.com/

Liz Hicks http://blogerisms.blogspot.com/

Becky Novacek http://www.beckynovacekphotography.com/

Jennifer McGuire http://jennifermcguireink.typepad.com/

Allison Kreft Abad http://hamblyscreenprints.typepad.com/

Elizabeth Kartchner http://elizabethkartchner.blogspot.com/

I am thankful for my family. Even though we’re a little nutso with each other sometimes….we love as hard as fight. LOL! My brothers and I all have families of our own now and it is such a blast to get our kids together for some good old cousin time!! We did our big Thanksgiving at my Nanny Lois and Papa Jim’s on Saturday…and I learned a new skill!!! I’ve been wanting to learn to crochet for a while, and so my grandma got out her big yarn basket and got to teachin’.

Isn’t her yarn basket pretty and organized and all grandma-y?

And aren’t her hands all pretty and grandma-y (in a good way, Grandma….they SO don’t look old)!!

After a few quick tips and a fast lesson, I came home and made this while Shannon and I watched the lastest DVRed episode of Grey’s….so I thought a Barbie-sized scarf wasn’t bad for an hour-ish of work!! LOL!!

Isn’t my first little crochet project adorable?!! I’m so proud! Now, you might think that a little tidbit of yarn crocheted in a semi-amateur way wouldn’t matter much to anyone except the proud maker of said tidbit, right? Well, you’d be wrong…Lily was MORE than thrilled to have a sling for her little stuffed bird, Snowflake. (Who was injured when she ran into a tree mid-flight, according to Lily…poor Snowflake.)

Now, isn’t that just about the cutest thing ever?

So, my thought about giving today is this: The nice things you do for the people that you love don’t have to be huge and flashy….sometimes it’s the small and sloppily crocheted things that warm their hearts. Doesn’t that make you want to make something little and sweet for someone (or some bird) who is close to your heart? Go on…it won’t take long. I’m sure you have something DVRed that you can watch while you do it, too.

Welcome to the Giving Thanks {Blog Hop} 2009…

Thanks to some very amazing artists, over the next week, you will be able to hop around the web and find some amazing projects celebrating Gratitude and Creativity. We are very excited to be bringing you a cross-section of artisans, sharing their stories, creations, and thanks with all of you. Not everyone will post something everyday, but, there will be something somewhere everyday. You will just have to hop around and see what you can find. Each person participating has the full list of attendees posted, so you can hop from each one to another. We hope you find something that inspires you, sparks your creativity, or reminds you to be thankful this Thanksgiving.

From our houses to yours, please enjoy your week and our gratitude…

Debbie Hodge http://www.debbiehodge.typepad.com

Kelly Purkey http://kellypurkey.typepad.com

Lisa Dickinson http://lisadickinson.typepad.com

May Flaum http://mayflaum.wordpress.com

Patti Milazzo http://pattimilazzo.blogspot.com/

Stacey Kingman http://staceykingman.blogspot.com/

Stephenie Hamen http://cropgirl.wordpress.com

Margot Potter http://margotpottertheimpatientcrafter.blogspot.com/

Lain Ehmann http://knitandpurlgrrl.blogs.com/five_things/

Margie Romney-Aslett http://www.margieromney-aslett.typepad.com/

Rhonna Farrer http://rhonnadesigns.blogspot.com/

Wendy Smedley http://wendysmedley.typepad.com/

Jodie McNally http://jodiemcnally.com/

Liz Hicks http://blogerisms.blogspot.com/

Becky Novacek http://www.beckynovacekphotography.com/

Jennifer McGuire http://jennifermcguireink.typepad.com/

Allison Kreft Abad http://hamblyscreenprints.typepad.com/

Elizabeth Kartchner http://elizabethkartchner.blogspot.com/

I promised you a project today….and here it is! I have been needing to scrap this photo of Auntie Mac and Uncle June for quite some time. I wanted to make something for Stephenie to say thanks for being my “gets it” person….and since they are Stephenie’s grandparents I thought this was a perfect time to scrap it! Auntie Mac passed away last Friday after a 10-year battle with cancer….so this was a hard one to scrap tonight. Scrap therapy is a wonderful thing, people….trust me. My keyboard practically shorted out from the tears falling onto it, but I ended up with an awesome layout for Stephenie (and myself) and who doesn’t feel better after a good ol’ cry?? Ok, enough chatting…here’s the layout!

credits: frame (practically royalty kit by jodie mcnally) + paper and other elements (small talk by taylormade and fei-fei’s stuff) – all at www.oscraps.com

*passing the virtual tissues to Steph*  Ok…so yeah, that is probably one of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken and I hope my layout did it justice.   Like I said in yesterday’s post…I’m thankful to have you as my cousin, my friend, and my partner in crime at family functions.  You pretty much rock and I’m glad to know you.  Love you. 

I’m hoping to return tomorrow with some super cute pics of a Thanksgiving project Lily and worked on the other night….it is a riot!! Until then, go tell someone you love them and then thank them for something totally random that you love about them.  I promise you’ll both feel awesome after you do it.  Go on….

Mwah! xoxo

Welcome to the Giving Thanks {Blog Hop} 2009…

Thanks to some very amazing artists, over the next week, you will be able to hop around the web and find some amazing projects celebrating Gratitude and Creativity. We are very excited to be bringing you a cross-section of artisans, sharing their stories, creations, and thanks with all of you. Not everyone will post something everyday, but, there will be something somewhere everyday. You will just have to hop around and see what you can find. Each person participating has the full list of attendees posted, so you can hop from each one to another. We hope you find something that inspires you, sparks your creativity, or reminds you to be thankful this Thanksgiving.

From our houses to yours, please enjoy your week and our gratitude…

Debbie Hodge http://www.debbiehodge.typepad.com

Kelly Purkey http://kellypurkey.typepad.com

Lisa Dickinson http://lisadickinson.typepad.com

May Flaum http://mayflaum.wordpress.com

Patti Milazzo http://pattimilazzo.blogspot.com/

Stacey Kingman http://staceykingman.blogspot.com/

Stephenie Hamen http://cropgirl.wordpress.com

Margot Potter http://margotpottertheimpatientcrafter.blogspot.com/

Lain Ehmann http://knitandpurlgrrl.blogs.com/five_things/

Margie Romney-Aslett http://www.margieromney-aslett.typepad.com/

Rhonna Farrer http://rhonnadesigns.blogspot.com/

Wendy Smedley http://wendysmedley.typepad.com/

Jodie McNally http://jodiemcnally.com/

Liz Hicks http://blogerisms.blogspot.com/

Becky Novacek http://www.beckynovacekphotography.com/

Jennifer McGuire http://jennifermcguireink.typepad.com/

Before I forget…in honor of this blog hop, I put my store on sale for 25% off from today through November 25th! Yay!

As I mentioned in an earlier post…I’m still a little ga-ga over being on that list of famous scrapping-world people! The way I feel reminds me of one of the stories in Lain’s book, Snippets: Mostly True Tales from the Lighter Side of Scrapbooking.  In this particular story, Lain talks about going crazy about meeting scrapping royalty. (Which is funny for me since in my eyes, Lain is scrapping royalty.)  But, anyway….

Thinking about Lain’s book reminds me of someone I’m very grateful for…my cousin, Stephenie.  Now, you’re probably thinking, “How the heck does this have anything to do with the blog hop OR gratitude OR Lain Ehmann?”  Well, get comfy…this could take a while.

Growing up, Stephenie and I never saw each other on even a semi-regular basis.  Our get-togethers were usually the result of a wedding, funeral, or graduation party.  At those family functions, we usually spent the whole time tucked in a corner catching up and talking about how we would like to get together more often.  A few years ago, we realized that we had a shared passion for scrapbooking and crafting, so we started staying in touch via text, email, and the occasional “you won’t believe who I just met” phone calls.  (Those calls were usually her telling me – seeing as though she’s the one who works at Fiskars….LOL!)

I’m so grateful to have her as a part of my extended family because it means having someone in my family who “gets it” when I talk about digital scrapbooking or my love of mixing paper and pixels.  She is my go-to person for all things paper crafting and I am her go-to person for anything slightly related to Photoshop.  We share resources, ideas, and inspire each other to step out of the box once in a while with our scrapping.  I love calling her and saying, “You won’t believe this…but I just did an ALL paper layout!”  Again, because I know she gets it.  She is also the person who introduced me to another wonderful friend, Lain Ehmann.  Ah-ha! See? I told it would all connect somehow.  There is a method to my madness.

So, my gratitude blog today is me reminding you to think about and appreciate a crafting or scrapping buddy of yours.  Maybe it is the person you call when the craft store is having a huge sale.  Maybe it’s the one who is more than happy to jump up and down with you for getting published, or the one you know will ALWAYS go to a crop and stay the whole 12 hours. Or maybe it’s just someone who shares your love of sparkly ribbon.  Either way, call that person today and thank them for being your “gets it” person.  (And if you have time, make them something with that sparkly ribbon you bought at the last blow-out sale you attended together!)  I will be back tomorrow to show you what I made for Stephenie. 

Darn it, now she knows.  Ok, Stephenie…I know you’re reading this.  Act surprised tomorrow…love you.

(Oh, and *ahem* who do you think made that sa-weet blinkie?)

Welcome to the Oscraps DSD Blog Hop! This week we are celebrating digital scrapbooking! I have a new kit coming out this week…and a little sneaky peeky for you to download for free as a DSD gift! I’ve also put my store on sale for 30% off!  Can I get a what-what?!

Your words here at my BLOG are: world needs

Collect all of the words to form a quote, e-mail the complete quote to bloghop @ oscraps. com to be entered into a drawing for the grand prize!!

As a thank you gift for stopping by my BLOG, I have this FREEBIE for you!!

Enjoy it!! Thanks for hopping around our O-Team Blogs.  Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter – there’s a form over there <—— in the sidebar!  By subscribing, you’ll know when my new kit is live in the store (and get special super-secret discounts)!  You won’t want to miss out!!

Your next stop is here at http://www.lifeslittlemoments.de

To go to the start of the Blog hop, go here! http://ozone.oscraps.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14561

Now, for the REALLY exciting stuff…
You guys gotta check out Ella Publishing! The first edition of the e-zine, Ellaments came out today (it’s free!) and they have tons of awesome scrapping e-books for sale!

If you dig around on the blog and the e-zine today, you will find a chance to win a new printer – and it looks like a sweet one!!!!

My layout is being featured in the Ellaments e-zine! Check it out! On that layout I used my Whatcha Love Word Art and some other yummy Oscraps stuff! That word art pack is is on sale right now! So, if you don’t have it….now you have an excuse to grab it up!

What better way to kick off the Grand Opening of Ella Publishing than a week of fun & giveaways? Everyday this week is going to be filled with Ella fun!! Today I have a coupon to giveaway for a free Ella e-book of your choice!

1. Download a blinkie for your blog here.

OR

2. Blog about Ella.

OR

3. Post a facebook update about Ella.

OR

4. Send out a Tweet about @EllaPublishing.

After you do one (or all of those things!), leave me a comment here letting me know how you spread the news about our Ellabration today.  Just like that you will be enter to win a free e-book! You have until 11:59 pm CST tonight.  Tomorrow morning I will pick a random winner! Please make sure your email is somewhere in your comment so I can reach the winner!

UPDATE: 9/8/09 9:30 am CST

CONTEST CLOSED – WINNER WILL BE NOTIFIED TODAY!

Thanks for playing along!

If you haven’t been to the Ella blog yet, go take a peek at the schedule of festivities & prizes all week!!

Also, tomorrow the Ellaments eZine is revealed!

Increase your chances of winning by visiting checking out these blogs today!

*Oh, and I’ll be emailing the winner of last week’s e-book giveaway very soon! (Congrats, Deborah!)

“Well, well, well….look who’s back to blogging. It’ll last a week – maybe two.”

I’m here to tell you that you are possibly correct….LOL!

I am just so busy (in a good way) and my poor, amazingly designed (thanks, Gen) blog is sitting here feeling neglected.  Back to school time is always a hard one – I have to end my two month gig as a work-at-home mom and head back to teaching.  I have an excellent class list this year (yay!) and to top it off, my sweet  daughter is going to Kindergarten in my building!

Sooo, this week starts the official fall start-up of her sports and lessons and all that jazz! She is doing soccer, martial arts, and ballet.  Have I mentioned how awesome my kid is? She is the perfect mix of sassy and sweet (with an occasional overdose of sassy) and she is also the perfect mix of tomboy and princess.  She pretty much rules in my book. 

Rest assured, with these new activities comes new word art packs!  I have a soccer pack in the works now…and I’d love to get ballet and martial arts packs cranked out soon, too! Soooo, here’s your job: send over your ideas for those three packs.  If I use your suggestion, you’ll get that pack free!

Anyone who sends a suggestion will be entered to win a copy of Rebecca Cooper’s new e-book as soon as it is released from Ella Publishing Co.  I got a sneak peek of the book – and looooove it!  There will be many more yummy, downloadable e-books coming soon from Ella Publications….so sign up for their newsletter  to stay informed!

Here’s a sneak peek at the book that I’ll buy for one lucky suggestion sender-inner (nice, huh?):

So whatcha waitin’ for?? Dig deep, people. I need some inspiration…and in the process of inspiring me, you just might inspire yourself!!!

Email me ideas by Thursday, September 3, 2009! Have a great day! Mwah!