LittleMan's birthday

My little guy is getting so big. He had his first birthday on Saturday. He wasn't too interested in ripping open the presents, just eating the wrapping paper. But he did love tearing into the cake. After the first few bites he picked up the entire piece of cake and went after it, Cookie Monster style.The Aftermath...To celebrate LittleMan's first birthday, I made a small freebie to share. Click on the preview to download. Leave me a comment if you like it, and enjoy!

Spunky Girl Add On Freebie

Tyson finally finished the attic foil on Tuesday morning, shortly before the installation company came out to install the new insulation and seal the ducts. They didn't actually end up sealing the ducts, I don't know if we misunderstood what they were going to do or what, but they did seal all the leaks around the vents where cool air could leak into the attic. We had 29% leakage of cool air before they sealed everything, and now we're down to 8%. I don't know how much more effective the new insulation is than the old (except that we have more of it), but it sure looks cleaner. If that's any indication, I give it an A+. :PWe had the cable company come out yesterday and install new cable wire so that we could switch our internet service from DSL to cable. Our service is almost twice as fast, at half the cost. You can't beat that. Tyson spent half of this morning running the cable in the attic and trying to push it down into an interior wall where he's going to install a cable jack. The installer would have done it yesterday for an additional $75, but Tyson said "No thanks, I'll do it myself."
Now I have blazing fast internet and Tyson won't have to crawl around in the attic for anything anytime soon.

Here are some new layouts by Amber spotlighting my Spunky Girl and Stars & Stripes Forever Kits.I posted this originally at the beginning of the week, but if you haven't picked up the first part of my Spunky Girl kit, you can snag it below (image is clickable).
And now I'll leave you with a bonus, an Add On to my Spunky Girl kit! Click on the preview to go to the download page. *No longer available**Sorry, this is no longer available as a freebie. You may now find this and other products available for purchase in my Blog Store.*

Spunky Girl has arrived!

I'm already succeeding at this better outlook on life thing. At six-something yesterday morning when Tyson and Terrence were clunking around in the attic installing more attic foil, sounding like they were going to fall through the ceiling at any moment accompanied by a herd of elephants, I thought, "Isn't it great that they are climbing up in the attic, in the middle of July, in the Texas heat, so that they can make our home more energy efficient and save us money on our utility bills?"

My Creative Team girls have come up with some more great layouts from my new kit.

Here is Jenny's heartwarming layout Live and Laugh As Much, an ode to her parents. She used my Spunky Girl kit and a template by doudouloirsirs.

Shannon created this great brag book page entitled Nat's First Birthday using template #76 by Curth's Digital Designs.

Shalene has a treat for you on her blog (if it's not there yet, check back, it will be there soon.) She created this cute FREE brag book set for you using my new kit. Hop on over and snag it!

The kit is here folks! It has five papers, several frames, doodles, and acrylic buttons and charms. Click on the preview to be taken to the download link. Thanks for all of the comments! *Sorry, this is no longer available as a freebie. You may now find this and other products available for purchase in my Blog Store.*

Celebrate Freedom

Yesterday I went with my sister Jenni and her family to a large outdoor concert. We didn't hear much of the actual bands performing because it was very family friendly outside the arena and we spent a lot of time walking around and letting BittyBit try out all of the bounce houses and slides in the kid area. It was so incredibly hot outside. We had spf 50 sunscreen slathered all over us (Jenni even had spf 70) and we kept having to re-apply it because we were starting to burn. There is nothing like the vicious Texas sun to beat you into submission.

Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays. I thought it was only fitting that I create a kit for the 4th of July. There are only a few items that are specific to the holiday. Most of the rest of it is neutral enough to use for any occasion.
You can download the papers here, and the elements here. *Sorry, this freebie is no longer available for download. You may now visit my blog store to purchase this kit.*

My friend Shalene of Jordan's Boutique designed this fabulous desktop calendar to coincide with the release of my kit. She is amazingly crafty and does all kinds of hybrid work, including cards and invitations to events. Check out Shalene's blog to snag the desktop wallpaper, and remember to leave some love if you do.

New Windows

We had a local company come out an install new windows in half of our house. Tyson previously installed the small bathroom window in the pictures by himself, and he did the windows in the baby's room too. We found such a good deal on windows and installation though that we decided to let this company install the rest of them for us. As soon as we pay off this half of the windows, we are going to have them come back out and do the rest of the house. My house should be so much more energy efficient, and just in time for the hot Texas summer. Next Tyson is going to put more insulation in the attic.

Out with the old...
...and in with the new.

I created a couple of alphas to coordinate with my "Sunshine Day" kit. The one with the dots is a clear epoxy alpha with glitter polka dots. The lowercase letters are in the same font but are solid blue glitter. I also have some bonus punctuation and numbers included in the files. Thanks for all of your encouragement, it makes me excited to design a new kit. Click on the previews to be taken to the download links. *Sorry, these are no longer available as freebies, they are now available for purchase in my Blog Store.

Tagged, and the Long Awaited Elements

Sory created a great layout with the papers from my "Sunshine Day" kit. Check it out on her blog.

HeatherMSU and Michelle tagged me. I don’t usually do these sorts of things, but I thought I'd try something new.

1) I’m only 5’3”. I had to shorten the hem on all of my pants until I finally got smart and started shopping in the petite section of the clothing stores.

2) I love chocolate. I know this isn’t unusual in itself, but my husband can’t stand the stuff and objects to it even being in the house, so I have stashes of it hidden all over the house so that I can get my fix without the teasing.

3) I met my husband at Scarborough Faire, the somewhat local Renaissance Festival. It was not love at first site though, as I was dating his friend at the time,and Tyson and I didn’t start dating until more than a year later.

4) I am very particular about how certain things are done around my house. The other night a friend helped load the dishwasher while Tyson wrote up an appraisal and I bathed the kids. When I came out later to add a cup to the dishwasher, I noticed that the plates were on the wrong side and were facing the wrong direction. I tried to leave it alone, but I ended up reloading the entire machine.

5) I have a thing about the textures of my food. My eggs have to be cooked until they are dry. I like my bacon cooked to a degree that most people would consider burned, but I like to think of it as crispy. I do not like soggy bread either, although I am not so crazy as to freak out about the foods touching on my plate. It is strictly a texture thing, but you are probably thinking I am completely OCD!

6) I do not like to clean the house or do chores when other people are around - which no doubt frustrates my husband, who works from home. :) I prefer to clean the entire house while he is gone, so he can come home and be surprised.

7) I love everything about digital scrapbooking. I am enjoying learning how to create my own kits. I really love collecting other people’s freebies. It is a personal mission of mine to teach any of my friends (and their friends, and their friends) who want to learn. I have already taught seven people since last fall and I can’t wait to learn more so I can share what I know with everyone else!

Now I am tagging:

Jenny - She only learned digi-scrapping a few months ago but she is spinning out layouts right and left. In addition, she just moved far away and I miss her already, so I need a Jenny-fix.

Missy – I am super jealous of her mad photography skills. :)

GingerScraps - She is a collector of freebies, like myself and has her own freebie list to feature other designers.

Mrs. Wresh – I love reading her super long blog posts and feel like I know her family personally. Plus she has amazing template designs and gives away great freebies – and yes, I read to the bottom of each post before I snag the freebie. She is such a great writer.

Andrea Gold - another great designer. I love all of her templates and have even found some great commercial use textures lately. I have seriously bought every template Andrea has ever made.

Michelle Coleman/Little Dreamer Designs - Her kits are full of grungy patterns and bright colors and the depth and textures of her designs are amazing. She is also a budding professional photographer and her pictures are great too.

Misty Cato - I love her style, and her tutorials saved me from chucking my computer out of the window when I first bought photoshop and had no one to teach me how to use it.

Here's the part some of you have been waiting for. I finally finished the elements pack to my "Sunshine Day" kit. It took me forever because frankly, I'm still learning photoshop, and I wasn't sure what I wanted my style to be. I'm also just learning how to use my graphics tablet, so I wasn't entirely comfortable drawing the doodles. I took inspiration from a ton of different people, so the elements are rather eclectic. Several people asked for shovel, pail, sand, and that sort of thing. I did not include those items in this kit because I'm going to use all of those items in a different beach themed kit. The drop shadows are for the preview only. So without further ado, here are the elements.

I love your comments and I read every one. Thanks so much for all the encouragement, and can I just say that I am so glad that I am finished with these - I haven't gotten to bed before midnight in over two weeks!

*Sorry, this is no longer available as a freebie. You may now find this and other products available for purchase in my Blog Store.*

My First Freebie

Ok, it's not much, but I designed my first paper pack. I might dabble in trying to make some embellishments to add to the kit later, but for the moment this is it. There are 13 papers in the kit. If you have any suggestions or any ideas for elements you would like to see in an add on, I would love to hear them. If you send me your layouts and I will post them on the blog. Please leave some love if you download. :) *Sorry, this is no longer available as a freebie. You may now find this and other products available for purchase in my Blog Store.*
Download Paper Pack Here
*I changed the preview and updated the link to one download instead of two, because the files are not so big that they need to be split up.