new computer

Sorry I've been gone so long.
My computer crashed and it's taken a long time to get a replacement.
Hopefully life will become easier soon and I'll be playing again!
ttyl
maryanne

I'll be back soon!!

Hi everyone,

It seems like forever since I've been able to play!

We picked the girls up from State Fair on Sunday and I don't have a clue where this week went! They go back to school on Tuesday, so I won't do too much for another few days. I can't believe my little one is leaving for school! Unless I get a job I'll have more time to clean and scrap, lol. You know which I'd do if I had my choice.

I did get to create a layout today, since I grounded 1 dd from the computer, 1 was helping her dad and the littlest actually played outside today. This is not my typical layout, I did it as an 12x12 for my great nephew. It was so much fun to do, lol.

See you again soon

maryanne

Wishing I was here...

Hi everyone,
Sorry I've not been around this week. It's "turn-over" time at the apartments. We are getting 26 apartments ready for new tenants this week at my dh's work and he needs my help. So very little computer time, 20 hour days, sleeping on a blow up bed and scrubbing toilets, sinks and tubs are not much fun when you've been doing it for 25 years! lol
Hope to see ya'll soon.
Scrap one for me :)
MaryAnne

Fair Week Templates and Photo's

Hi everyone,

Just a reminder, if you've missed any Fair Week Templates you can still get them.

See the info on the right side of my blog.

Cathy did. Here's her layout

You can go to her gallery to give her layout some love!

By completing just 1 layout and emailing me the link, Cathy will receive ALL of the Fair Week Templates, delivered right to her email!

Here are some photo's we took during fair.
Jaime and Willie playing around the exhibits at the beginning of fair.

The Almont Squealers 4H club: Jaime, Heather, Tyra, Gabby, Willie and Jessica

Tyra in her showmanship class.
Jaime in her showmanship class.

Jaime and Heather in Market class.

Jessica in her showmanship class

Jessica received a trophy

Heather with her Grand Champion Carcass trophy, Jessica with her showmanship trophy and Gabby with her Reserved Grand Champion Carcass trophy

There's always some time for a visit.

Isn't she cute!!!!!???

Gabby, Brian and Jessica on Auction day in Gabby's pen

Jaime shows her 1st place ribbon for her Market Class hog, while waiting on auction day.

There's always work to be done

I'd like to take a moment to send a Thank You to all the individuals or companies that supported the kids during the livestock auction by purchasing an animal.

A special Thank You to:Roberts Buick for puchasing Jaimes 2008 Market hog

and All Green Lawn Care for puchasing Tyras 2008 Market hog.

Without your support the children wouldn't be able to have this great experience!

Now back to random photo's

After a hard and fast rain, the kids can't help but play in the puddles.

When there's nothing else to do, pretending to show using your baby cousin is always fun.

Gotta go to work now, hopefully I'll have a template later tonight.

Happy Scrapping,

MaryAnne

PS. I finished a template and my layout :)

Here's a Simple Stacks Template Freebie for you

Download it Here

ttyl, maryanne

Home again

Hi everyone,
By the time I arrived at the fairground, cleanup was almost complete. You would have a hard time believing there were 5 tents of animals, carnival rides, food booths, a circus and more, if you didn't see it before. But the weather liked to play tricks on us in the last few hours, so as we were packing up the supplies and camper, it rained. By 5pm we were on our way home again, to our pet left outside and comfortable beds, oh yeah and the flea's who hadn't had a meal in a week! Time to bomb!
Kids immediately stole my computer, I think they were in withdrawl too. But I planned ahead and created 8 Fair Week Freebies, knowing I wouldn't get to play as soon as I got home.
So here's today's freebie
Sorry this link has been removed
Lots to do today, bomb the house, grocery shop, download 2000 photo's from my sd cards, create layouts, make freebies, etc.

ttyl
maryanne

Rain, awards and trucks?

Hi everyone,
Well yesterday was sure a lot of fun! But I'm kinda glad it's over, everyone is exhausted!
In the middle of the last day we saw a huge black cloud headed for the fair grounds. Within about an hour we received about 3 inches of rain. Everything is drenched, even my ketchup! After the rain the sun began to peak out again, just in time for the awards, an indoor activity, lol. Tyra won 3rd place Livestock judging, with the senior team and 2nd place in Speeches for her division. Jaime won 1st place in Livestock judging with a junior team, 3rd place in Livestock judging as an individual in the junior division and 1st place in speeches for her division (I just know that kids going to be a lawyer or something where she can talk, lol)
When it was all over I asked my bil when they would be loading the hogs in the morning, so I could come back to help clean up the trailer while the kids were in the pens, etc. He said 12:01. Didn't dawn on me for a minute he meant AM which was about half an hour, lol (they are nuts).
Well I didn't stay, I have a 5 year old who needed to go to bed.
Oh, yeah then the kids gave their leaders a thank you gift and their leaders gave the kids a little gift (it was so much fun making this one happen) I'll post a photo as soon as I get one.

Ok now my freebie before I forget
Sorry link has been removed

happy scrapping,
maryanne

Last full day of fair

Well fairs almost over, just this last day before they have to clean up and move the animals. I can't believe how fast the week went! I took about 300 photo's again yesterday, just enough for some great layouts! Today are the awards, more photos!!

Here's todays freebie
Sorry link removed
There are 8 unique freebies, 1 for every day of fair. I just used the same preview because of limited net access. So, remember if you've missed a fair week freebie, go to the original fair week post to see how you can still get them

happy scrapping

maryanne

4H Dance today

Hi everyone,
Thanks for your great comments! Just wanna remind you I have very limited net use this week, so if you've asked me something I'll try to get back to you by the first of next week.
Today's the dance, more chances for photo's
Oh I forgot they want to do the club photo today, gotta run
Here's todays Freebie

Sorry link removed

MaryAnne

Auction day

Hi everyone,
It's 6:48 am, I can't believe how little sleep I get this week, lol.
But today is the day of the auction, so there's no time for a nap.
I can't wait to go back to my own bed!!!
I hope everyone is enjoying the freebies.
I saw only 59 downloads of yesterdays, so I'll leave it up a bit longer
Today's Freebie

Sorry link removed

MaryAnne

Wednesday...

Ride Day!

Got 500+ photo's of the pig show yesterday.
Don't forget tonight, Wednesday July 6th 9pm is DXD Mega Kit Chat
the kit will be on sale and there are freebies for everyone
today's Freebie

Sorry link removed

If you've missed a fair week freebie, see my note on the first day of fair for how you can still get it.
Happy Scrapping,
MaryAnne

show day

Hi everyone,
Whats worse than having insominia?
Having insomnina at the fair grounds, the animals wake up at like 4:30am!
Sorry link has been removed

Happy scrapping
maryanne

That time of year...

Hi everyone,
Well it's that time of year again. My girls have been gone for 4 days now over to their Aunt and Uncles for fair and I must go now too. (I just miss them so much! but don't tell them, lol)
Tomorrow, Tuesday is the day of the pig show so I'll be heading over to show my support and take lots of photo's, therefore my computer time is very very limited. So here's something for you.

Darn my poem isn't very readable, lol. Well here's what is says: I‘m off to the fair, where computer time is limited, but photo ops are found.I’ll post a template a day, which one I can’t say.Visit, download and then take a peak. show me your wonderful creations by then next time we speak. I’ll have another little surprise for you all, don’t know if it’s big, can’t say if it’s small. This offer is limited so please don’t delay, go and get your Simple Stacks Template Freebie today.
Like this ad says, this offer is limited! Since I am a nut about my freebies and my numbers, I will try to post 1 template a day, but I won't know which one it is and these will only be available for a short time! (just a day or so)

If you missed one that you just have to have, send me an email with a link to a Simple Stacks layout you've created and which day you've missed during fair week and I'll see what the freebie fairy can do when we get home early next week.
Don't forget the blog challenges on the right side of this page and DXD's Mega Kit Chat 9pm on Wednesday August 6th!
When I get back I hope to have a little more information on creating yearbooks with Simple Stacks for you.
Until then,
Happy Scrapping
MaryAnne


Oops, I almost forgot you can get today's sorry link has been removed

Edited to say: Thank you to all who collected my Fair Week Freebies. Sorry all Fair week freebie links have now been removed. mc 8/13/08

No power :( again!!

Hi everyone,

Sorry I'm late if you visited earlier.

We awoke at 6 am due to a power out!

No storms, no nothing, just nothing!

It was pretty frustrating, since dh made me go to bed early on Saturday after watching movies all evening. I'm starting to go through withdrawl, lol.

The good news is I waited them out! They said we wouldn't have power again until 11:36pm Sunday. I laid in the livingroom willing to doze if I would, but I didn't and the second the power was restored, 10:15pm, I checked the freezer and booted up my computer!

Now I don't have any layouts to share, that's the bad thing about digi scrapping. Unless you have a laptop and I'm in negotiations for one.

I just visited the DXD Store and you can now pick up your own copy of the DXD Mega Kit Country Foliage for the low sale price of $3.99 for a limited time.

This is a great deal, I loved playing with the collection this week. It has 80+ papers and over 100 elements, check it out

Even though I couldn't scrap, I had my Simple Stacks Templates ready to share.

So here is today's Simple Stacks Template Freebie

Download it here.

It's only 10:41pm, so I'm off to scrap!

Happy Scrapping,

maryanne

ps. be sure to check out my blog challenges in the right hand column, I'd love to send a Simple Stacks Prize pack to you!

Pss. I finished my layout for today, no more withdrawls, lol. Well ok I almost finished one. This one my dd has to finish for me. I'm going to have her do the journaling. I don't do that enough, it sure makes "completing" a layout easy for me, lol.

I used a hand stamped alpha created by Michelle Coleman and Phoebes Garden QP created by Lindsay Jane Designs (altered to fit in a Simple Stack Album)

ttyl

maryanne

Finished my work

Hi Everyone,

Yeah me!! I finished my DXD Mega Kit Quick Pages this morning. The Quick Pages are used on the first Wednesday of the month at 9pm during the Digi By Designs chat.The August 2008 Mega Kit is awesome! I don't see it in the store yet, but I'll let you know when it's on sale, in case you're interested.

So with my work done, I played! Only 8 more layouts for dd#1's 2006-2007 yearbook to go now. Here's the one from this morning.

I used Simple Stacks Template 109, so this will be todays Simple Stacks Template Freebie!

Download it Here

taking a break, dh asked how I can sit and do this so long, lol.

Happy Scrapping,

MaryAnne

Create a brag book, but stay away from an OMG moment, ok maybe 4 hours lol...

Hi everyone,
If you've visited me for a while now, then you probably know I work daily to create my daughters each a yearbook, using a standart 4x6 photo album. It's inexpensive and fun. While I do this, I post freebies for everyone and usually include some kind of layout both for an example and so I can brag about my girls.
Last night, actually really really early this morning, I began "dealing" with a computer situation that has been pestering me for about 2-3 weeks. Really I'm not a procrastinator. I just hate changing things on my system. If it's not broken why fix it, kwim? Well in the middle of "creating" I began working to get the program to stop pestering me. A short, or rather a long, time later, since it was 12am - 4am, I restarted my computer in every kind of way possible (safe mode, safe mode with networking, etc.) I really thought I had done it this time. I'm a software nut. I enjoy seeing what I can make software do. But I do not like virus or anti spyware programs. They ALWAYS mess my computer up for a great amout of time. Time I could be scrapping! It was so bad I had to complete my newest layout in safe mode, lol. By 4am I had had enough. I figured I'd have to ask dh for help tonight. So I went to bed. Needless to say it bothered my sleep. I went over the events multiple times. Questioning how I did this or why'd it do that. I'm happy to say I at least managed to uninstall the program in question! So I could get back to work, lol.
Ok then, I'm working!
In my comments yesterday, someone asked what an "electric guy" would want with a hog? (my sister would be so proud of me) here's where I get to "educate" in case you never knew.
4H offers a variety of agricultural opportunities to members. My girls are in the 4H club 2 hours to the east. My sister and bil are their leaders, great ones too. So every year my girls visit their aunt and uncle, or as dd#2 states "my summer house", multiple times during the summer to get everything ready for fair. They participate in multiple areas at fair, including livestock contests and indoor projects. Well one thing they do is "show pigs". My dh always asks, "what do they show them? lol" I never know if he's kidding or not. Anyway, they get in the ring and walk these almost 300 lbs animals around while a judge stands or walks around. The judge chooses 1-6 place of which child "shows" the animal best or in the case of Market Hogs, which animal is the most desirable based on multiple criteria. After the show, the kids choose 1 animal to put in the auction. Benefactors come to the auction and purchase these animals for anywhere from .60 cents a pound to $7.00 a pound. The benefactors buy the animals for multiple reasons - to support the children who are participating, to get meat to eat, etc. They will even buy an animal then send it back through the auction, so the kid can make more money from it. Basically giving a donation. Well my girls have been showing for 6 years now and they've never gotten over about .80/pound. But this doesn't bother them, because after it is all said and done my sister gives each girl a check for somewhere between $100.00 and $300.00, after taking "expenses" out of their fair checks. My girls use their "fair money" for mostly "educational opportunites" (saving a bit for college, taking a course, paying for education related expenses like playing volleyball, competitive cheer - since our school now has a pay to play policy and we just don't make enough to cover expeses) Like I said my sister and my brother in law are awesome leaders! They care so much about kids!! Anyway, if you ever have a chance to support a child in 4h, please consider doing so. If you have a business, you can even write it off your taxes!
Ok then, I have to show you how far I got on my layout.
If you'd like to leave the layout love please visit my gallery (it's so lonely, lol)
I used Simple Stacks Template 113, available
to download here (sorry to everyone who downloaded earlier this morning, I had a duh moment. This file includes the psd file of the template now. Three and a half hours of sleep is just not enough)
Cross your fingers for my ease in completing my computer corrections
Happy Scrapping,
MaryAnne

PS. I'm always on the look out for 4x6 quick pages. While browsing this morning I found a zoo quick page freebie and they've created some of them in a 4x6 portrait style. These could be used in your 4x6 album as individual pages!!

Here's a preview

Visit Creations By Rachael to pick them up.

maryanne

ok I think it's done :) full credits are in my Gallery

One more...

Hi everyone,

I finished Tyras 2006 fair layout!!! Yeah!

I used todays Simple Stacks Freebie

Download it Here

The girls left about 2 hours ago to get ready for this years fair. Funny how quiet the house gets, lol. Well I have somewhere near 123 layouts to do just to catch up the girls yearbooks and I have to complete DXD Mega Kit QP's before I head off to the fair.

ttyl

MaryAnne

Brag books have never been simplier...

Hi everyone,

I have this layout that I've been "thinking about" for a long time now, but I couldn't start. I'm not sure, maybe I didn't want to start, lol. After all if I didn't create a layout for it, did it really happen? I know one reason it was harder than it should have been, is because it was in 2007 and I didn't take as many photo's as I liked because I was in pain from my back then. My dd#2 figured out how to cope, she started taking her own photo's, lol. And man does she take them, here's one she took this week.I wish they had signed her up for photography class at the fair. This is priceless! She tries some amazine things with the camera.
So here I sat, limited photo's and no plan. But I never underestimate the "fly by the seat of your pants" technique. With a couple of odd elements from a variety of sources, it really is easy to make a Simple Stacks layout! Brag books have never been simplier.

Hey I was wondering do you all copy and save layouts you like in a special folder? So that way when you create a layout for yourself, you have some idea's to draw from. I've had a few friends say that's one thing they liked about my blogging about Simple Stacks. I have lots of layouts posted that are based on a Simple Stacks. If you pick up a Simple Stacks template and the layout I've posted using that template, you have a starting point and a concrete idea of ways to use the template. That said, here is the layout I finished last night

full credits and journaling are posted in my gallery

But I've done it again. This layout I didn't use any Simple Stacks, it just came out of my head while I was creating it.

I do have a Simple Stacks template freebie for you though,
Download it here

Going to pick up some photo's,
Happy Scrapping,
MaryAnne