oh my goodness!

i was chatting with my friend, Jan, during the weekend crop.

she shared some sad news that the ScrapInStyleTV website is going to be closed down on May 15. i was partly shocked. for the past year the site has been really quiet and many of the regulars haven't been around. i knew BigSis had some family stuff with her hubby going through thyroid cancer. which also coincided with much of the downturn in the economy that has hit many parts of the scrapbook industry really hard. nothing like being kicked when you're down. it was the first place i posted pages i had made, so lots of sentimental history for me there. a few of the girls have completely removed their galleries. i'm still undecided what i will do. sad. very sad.

Jan is also a fan of website challenges. we chatted about some of the recent sites she has been enjoying. i was thrilled to hear that she entered her  "ta-ta trophy" in a weekend challenge at 2Peas.

i had mentioned that i should try some challenges this year. i once entered a layout at OLW (one little word). not even close to winning! ha!! i then took a peak at some of the challenges and figured it was worth a shot. one of my entries was in the use of "spray mist"category. this one. the class has now been posted at Urban Scrapbook for May 14 at 6pm. this is a fun and messy layout. don't wear your favourite clothes and book the manicure after the class! much to my surprise and delight the layout was one of three chosen to win. no way!! {here is the list of all the winners.}

i guess i won in another category as well. how many times can one person be summoned for jury duty in 7 years? apparently 3. ugh! i tried once again to get excused on account of having young children that would require child care...which also happens to be very difficult to find. we'll see if that is excusable. the last time i was summoned the jury was cancelled a few days beforehand. however the first time i did have to sit through the procedure. lots of people who should have been excused quietly on paper were not. i felt badly for a few of them, because they had to state their reason in front of the judge, lawyers, accused and the entire group of potential jurors. some were pretty personal, and a few embarrassing. in that instance it was a high profile case and i think they expected to "deny" a good portion of people as it was. thankfully this summons did not come with a letter that warned of a lengthy or gruesome trial.

it did make me glad we requested our mail to be redirected here for the extra length of time. we did leave our address with the new owners....but not everyone forwards or returns mail. would that not be a highlight on the street to have me arrested for skipping jury selection?!

i finished this one pager recently.



it is actually more of a travel paper. since bike riding is the extent of our traveling these days, i thought it was appropriate! the crochet flowers are Dear Lizzy. the paper is CosmoCricket. the letters are JelliBeanSoup.



and the "r" is old, old, old product. i wanted to do some testing with alcohol inks and dye ink pads. it was a successful experiment in my opinion. the ribbon is a few years old too.

also, i think Adobe is trying to kill me. did my CS4 trial. LOVED it. wish i had taken more time to edit more photos. Kristian has figured out a plan to save some money off of CS5. hmmmm... i now have the CS5 trial. i tried to load the actions i used very successfully in CS4. nope. nothing. now to find 12 hours solid to sit and work through the long way to do stuff in CS5. any tips for me? i do also have PSE8....part of Kris' plan to save money. maybe i need to just stick with it for now. oh how i want CS4 back again. how long will it take to get actions made for CS5? my head is spinning!


back to things i can somewhat control.


i have been sweating over the May class layout. i won't complain about me being over-run with ideas for this one. but, what a long process to choose which ones to keep and which to ditch. seriously too many to use on one layout! i think i am nearly finished. i finally hit that point today where it started to feel right. i love this process. seeing which ideas will actually work and what it looks like when it comes together. probably the same reason why some people love to renovate....except they have more patience than i do!


well, it will be a busy creative day tomorrow and then i end the day at Urban. fun times!