When one door closes...

...another opens. I've heard this saying for as long as I can remember and it's always SOO true!!! BUZZ AND BLOOM has announced it's impending closure. I LUUUV Buzz and Bloom...the owners, the products, the camaraderie! I had planned on NEVER leaving the team (I was already in my second year). But, the scrapbook division is only a small portion of the business and an illness in the family has forced Div and Mark to focus their energy on the business on a larger scale. I continue to keep them in my prayers and hope that I get to work with them again when they revamp...because I'm CONVINCED that Buzz and Bloom will rise again!

SOO, even though I DO have Kreatorville, I wondered if it would be enough to keep me busy all day, especially when school starts again. I think Kea will be in preschool starting next month and after the cleaning and cooking, I spend my days KREATING! Well, I'll wonder NO MORE because I just found out that I'm a part of the inaugural Gone Scrapbooking Creative Team for the National Examiner.com!!!! The Examiner is a national magazine but the creative team's projects will be published in the online edition. We get to kreate WHATEVER we want once a week for the next year...how SWEET is THAT??? Congrats to the other eight ladies who I'll be working beside:

Tanisha Long
Kathleen Summers
Jackie Anderson
Pat Yahner
Beth Moore
Karen Garbacik
Ashley Hamm
Amanda Sevall

WOO HOO!!! OK, enough celebrating...my first assignment is due soon!!!

The Serious Scrap

PUBLISHED IN:

Basic Grey Newsletter-June 2008
Rusty Pickle Newsletter-November 2008
Somerset Memories-November 2008 issue






DESIGNING FOR:
Kreatorville Kraft kit klub: November 2009-PRESENT
Gone Scrapbooking Creative Team:July 2010-July 2011

Buzz and Bloom:January 2009-
Tally Scrapper:April-June 2009
Lotus Paperie: June-November 2009
ScrapNArt.com:May 2008-November 2008


 GUEST DESIGNING FOR:

 These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things-September 2010

Kraft Girls Kits:October 2009 

Coordinates Collections: September 2009

CONTESTS:

ScrapScene's Truly Trendy Contest-Honorable Mention May 2008






CHALLENGES:

Scrapbook.Com-U Crack Me Up-June 2008
Dreamgirls' Clearly Yours Challenge #21-February 2009
Tally Scrapper/Category Stories- What I Love About (Alone
Time): February 2009
American Crafts "All About Me" challenge-August 2009

I'm very easily....

...pleased. I love when my husband and kids hand-make cards for me. I love being given an entire day to kreate. Love looking back at pictures I've taken of time with family and friends and reminiscing...the little things make me happy. So, when I got this unexpected yummy


in the mail , I was giddy! Something SOO small, right? But, I didn't pay for it and I had no idea it was coming...just a great surprise! And, it inspired me to kreate IMMEDIATELY!

I made this page as a tribute to God because he NEVER stops showing us that His way is BEST and that we don't have to understand...just have FAITH. Let me tell you why my husband and I are SOO great together on road trips: we have that "Just wanna GET THERE" mentality! We make as few stops as possible and we pack food so we can eat on the go. If it wasn't for my Mom getting sick a couple of years ago, we'd probably NEVER stop! (Mommy had a blood clot break free from her leg and travel to her lung during a road trip. The doctors have cleared her to take long rides again with the stipulation that she stop every two hours to avoid having more clots form) All of that will help you to understand how I felt when we left Orlando late recently. It's already a TEN HOUR ride and WE left late. THEN, we ended up going the wrong way...GRRRR!!!! My mind kept saying, "OK, THAT added another hour to the trip!" When we finally stopped for directions, the guy sent us on an unfamiliar course. It got us home but it took longer. Because he was a Florida native, he figured he would give us directions which didn't put us in the heart of traffic (it WAS Memorial Day!). I was FURIOUS!!! At the end of vacations, I'm SOOO ready to get HOME...don't add MORE time to my arrival time. Well, so that I don't blow a gasket, I have to talk to/encourage myself. I told myself that there was a reason we left late and had to take a different way home. I encouraged myself to know that, though I didn't understand, this was HIS will and that He knows best. That helped me calm down and I exhaled and decided to read. MAYBE ten minutes after I had my epiphany, we heard/felt a LOUD thud that made us all scream...well, all except Kea because he slept through it! John slows dramatically from the 80 m.p.h. we WERE doing to about 40 and pulls onto the shoulder from the left lane. When we discovered this

my knees LITERALLY got weak...I had to sit down. A HUGE piece of rubber popped off of the tire. Now, all of you SPEEDSTERS know that the rate of speed we were traveling REALLY should have caused the ENTIRE tire to blow and we REALLY should have flipped over. We REALLY should have caused a major pile up because of all the OTHER speedsters traveling 80 behind us. But, because GOD was in control.....there was NO CAR IN SIGHT ON EITHER SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY!!!! On Memorial Day??? REALLY??? I was SO humbled! I kreated the above page because I ALWAYS want to remember that the most IRRITATING things happen NOT to aggravate you but because they fit into His plan...can I get an AMEN???

WHEW!!! Now that I've taken y'all to CHU'CH up in here, I'll share another page I kreated with my Webster's Bloomers! My brother is a professional model but most of the time I look at him as JUST my baby brother...I used to change his diapers...what do you EXPECT??? But, there are times when I see him and he TRULY takes my breath away because he really IS beautiful. I checked his Facebook page recently and stole...ummm, scored some great shots
and I used my Bloomers to scap them. I have about two more projects in the works and then I'm just gonna hoard the rest (admitting you HAVE a problem is the first step, right...RIGHT???)

I recently had this project featured over on the Buzz and Bloom blog (yeah...you have to go THERE to see the entire thing!) We were asked to show the world our kreative process...LAUGHABLE!!! I NEVER do it the same way (ummm, we ARE talking about SCRAPPING, people!!!) Make sure to check out the other's girls' projects because NONE of us do it the same way!!!

So, have you visited KREATORVILLE recently? You HAVEN'T...WHAT??? Then, you MISSED The Husband's projects when he guest designed for June? AND you don't know that some of the older kits are being offered at 50% off of their original cost??? AND you're missing the fabulous Ms. Nat's Kreatorville week over at her blog??? PLUS, you're missing out on the opportunity to enter a project into this month's sketch contest??? I did this
page but of COURSE I can't win...ummm, what are you still doing HERE???? Get on over THERE!!!!

What is random?

Main Entry: ¹ran·dom

Pronunciation: \ˈran-dəm\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, succession, surge, from Anglo-French randun, from Old French randir to run, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German rinnan to run — more at run

Date: 1561

: a haphazard course

— at random : without definite aim, direction, rule, or method at random>

REALLY???

Then, how is it that my Daddy, husband and me were all chosen to do jury duty...at the SAME TIME??? And my summons went to my parents' house...along with my Dad's! Random my BEHIND!!

You know...

... my family and I are supposed to be enjoying the last night of our vacation and I just finished bawling. I decided to check my emails and saw this Facebook update

Kendall told us at our reunion last May that the doctors had given him 11 months to live...that the brain tumor he had successfully fought as a child had aggressively returned. He vowed that he would fight but God decided that it was time for that fight to end. This guy graduated with me from high school...I called him my brother...and yet I didn't make it to the hospital to see him before we left home. I told John, "We need to visit Kendall before we leave" and even though he agreed, packing...paying bills...cleaning...EVERYTHING got in the way and time ran out. And I said to myself, "As SOON as we get home..." and now there is NO MORE TIME. DANG! WHY do I keep doing this to myself???? I know part of it is that I can't STAND to see someone in pain/dying. But, I HATE the guilt I feel after NOT seeing that person even more. I have a severe headache because I ache for his young wife and young son who have to continue on without their king. I cry because of the laugh I'll never hear again. And, I promise to never again get caught off guard by time. When my God and my mind are telling me to act NOW so time doesn't screw me again...I will. And I promise to use the time I have to love on the ones I care for. In your name, Kendall....because I love you.

I promise.

This was...

...dinner

Friday AND Saturday...
DOUSED in ketchup
and eaten on toast.




And you wonder why I'm 872 pounds?????




REALLY???

Let's see...

...I'm
1. packing kits
2. spring cleaning
3. getting ready for vacation
4. reporting to jury duty this morning for my schedule
5. finishing up this month's BUZZ AND BLOOM assignments
6. doing custom orders for the etsy shop
7. getting ready for Mahd's promotional ceremony
....and that's just today! I can't pray for life to slow down because I don't want God to stop blessing us! I just pray that I'll have a wonderful, relaxing vacation with my family where I can recharge.

Since I'm up at four-crack-o-dawn am, I decided to check out the BUZZ AND BLOOM blog...lo and behold, my page is featured...yay! We had to do a project based on the colors red, aqua and green. Go check out my page...pretty sweet, if I say so myself!