Cindy’s Place

Okay, not a “baby”, but a puppy! DH and I broke down our reserves and got our 10 yo ds and 16 yo dd a darling little puppy. We named him Koda and he is a lab/German Shepard mix. Cutest little thing…but then, my dh says “All puppies are cute…otherwise you wouldn’t want them!” LOL!

The RAKScraps June MegaKit is out. What an amazing kit.

You can find out more information about it here. But hurry, because links for each mini kit are up for only 2 days each. Check it out!

This is my contribution to the kit.

You may have heard by now, my friend Laura Vanderbeek (who is an amazingly talented photographer, digi scrapper, and beautiful person inside and out) was diagonsed with Hodgkins Lymphoma just shortly after she had her 2nd baby. She is going through chemo treatment right now. An amazing kit has been put together by 16 digital designers called Charity Fundraiser Kit called Courage For Laura. This is an amazing and beautiful kit put together by April Anderton, Gina Cabrera, Kristie David, Anna Aspnes, Julie Mead, Ange Barton, Dena Simoneaux, Mirranda Reinhardt, Lori Barnhurst, Karen Aicken, Kay Eflin, Maya, Wendy Morales, Michelle Coleman, and Clara Wallace. Every cent made will be given to Laura & her family to help in the hospital bills & taking care of their family. Please help us to support her.

Also, there is a Raffle they are doing where you can win lots of cool stuff…all you need to do is donate $2.00. All money goes to Laura and her family.

Spread the word and thanks for your support.

Okay, so I’ve had this toothache, and I broke down and made a dentist appointment. Let me tell you…I’m thinking having a toothache is a great way to lose weight. I took my dd to Sonic to get a milkshake and I didn’t even want any because cold just kills my tooth. How sad. I had to sit there and watch her enjoy a delicious shake!

So yesterday was dentist day. I found out I need a root canal. He numbed up my mouth and got to work. Let me tell you….I don’t remember EVER being THAT numb. After I left the dentist…I had no pain…however; my left side of my mouth drooped downward. Yikes. When I smiled, it didn’t move. Bigger yikes. I decided to go straight home…no shopping for this gal!

My dh made fun of me…making similar facial expressions. Dumb guy! I told him he’s fired!!! I could barely put my lips together when I talked. I was so hungry – I finally ate. But have you ever tried to drink from a glass and not feel half of your lips? I couldn’t tell if they were on the glass or not! Such a wierd feeling. And food on that side – I couldn’t feel. Worst of all….have you ever tried to blow your nose and not feel anything in your nostril? Now that is psycho! LOL! Yes, I’m laughing about this. It was dumb looking but so funny!

This appointment happened at 11:30 am and I had a client appointment at 5:30. As I’m driving to the appointment, I was starting to get some feeling back, but still my lips wouldn’t quite come together when saying the letters “b” or “m” or “p”! Really strange hearing myself talk. I know…you can really visualize this now. I’m looking quite silly.

Well, I explained to my client about the dentist and why I was looking strange. He laughed and told me about his experiences with the dentist. Luckily by the time we were done, I had my whole mouth back in good working condition.

I had to stop at my mom’s house on the way home and we celebrated by eating icecream together! LOL!

I just had to share. Hope you enjoyed my fiasco! Until next time!

By the way, some more fantastic papers are on their way….stay tuned!

For all of you who picked up the freebie Father’s Day WordArt Quote…if you let me know where you posted a layout using it, I will send you a coupon to get this beautiful paper pack in my shoppe for FREE!.

When you use this paperpack, let me also know where you posted a layout using any of these papers and I would love to post lots of praise in your gallery!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Just in time for Father’s Day, a quote for your Father’s Day layouts! I’ve included a “To him” and a “To her” version.

Enjoy, and please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you!

I finally found a copy of the June Issue of Scrapbook Answers. I won their April “Before and After” contest and it is published in this issue. Whoo hoooo!

You can see my 2-page layout on page 10. Thanks for looking!

Wow, what a concept. (But, first, let me tell you that I’m not afraid any more to discover new blogs and and add them to my evergrowing blog list. With bloglines, I’m notified about new updates, so I don’t have to spend all day looking through blogs to see if I missed anything.)

So, now, with that said….I found a great blog by Cynthia Morris. How many of you make “To Do” Lists. I do…they help me keep focused and on track and help me feel that I’ve accomplished something during the day. There are those days that I don’t keep a list and when the husband comes home and says, “So, what did YOU do today?”, I think……..hmmmm, what DID I do? I know I did a lot, but what? Well, the whole idea is that you keep a list of the things you did on a weekly basis and it gives you a feeling of acknowledgement. As Cynthia says, “The pause in the journey is encouraging, empowering and fuels us for more.”

She continues by saying, “I invite clients to practice acknowledgment by keeping a log of weekly actions. As the week progresses, or at the end of the week, they take time to write down what they accomplished. I do this myself and have been amazed at how helpful this simple tool can be. When we go for large goals, it is vital that we note the landscape along the way. Often people do this by looking at their weekly to do list and noticing what they have checked off. But I find that doing a separate list, with a title like “What I accomplished this week” carries more weight than a to do list that you will then throw away.”

Challenge: Keep track of the things you do during the week. If you keep a To Do List, when you check off those items you accomplished, transfer them to an accomplishment list that you can review on a weekly basis. Write down the steps you have taken for your goals no matter how small. Then you can look at the big picture. “What qualities or skills did you use to accomplish these tasks? What reward will you give yourself for coming this far?” I think you will be impressed. I’m going to do it. Let me know how it goes for you!

Okay, I’m sure more and more of you are discovering this, but I just wanted to share for those of you who aren’t aware. We all love blogs, and we all love reading them, but we don’t love taking all day to do so. Well….I discovered Bloglines. There are also some other sites out there that do the same thing. But let me tell you about Bloglines since I am most familiar with this one.

Bloglines is a FREE online service that helps you subscribe to and manage lots of web information, such as news feeds, weblogs and audio. Bloglines tracks the information you’re interested in, retrieves new stuff as it happens, and organizes everything for you.

With today’s avalanche of information, you really can get anything you want. Focus is the key to avoiding information overload — why sit still for an hour of TV news if all you care about is the sports update? Bloglines allows you to be very choosy and only track the things you are interested in — then they do all the legwork for you. We find the latest news, collect it for you, and keep it on your Bloglines page until you’re ready to read it.

1.  You subscribe to your favorite blogs. Then…

2.  (IMPORTANT TIP!) …you need to be sure to download their notifier. It sits in your bar at the bottom of your screen on the right hand side. Right click on it to set the options. Then, whenever someone updates their blog, you are notified right away. No more searching through blogs looking for new updates. You can immediately see the update. Too cool! Love it.

The other nice feature is that you can organize your blogs into different folders – especially, if like me, you start subscribing to a lot of blogs! LOL!

This is such a great feature and a time-saver for me. I love being notified about new blog updates and not have to search for them. Hope this helps you as well. So……….while you are thinking about it….subscribe to my blog. Link is in the right column of my blog. Thanks!!!

This little girl is so adorable and so photogenic. My dd did a photography session with her. Here, her mother is helping her put on ‘lipstick’.

Just wait until I upload some more shots of this cutey!

I used Michelle Coleman’s Gypsie Rose Kit and IOD’s Heirloom Enamel Embellishments – all new at ScrapArtist.com!

Hope you enjoy this series of sunsets I was able to capture!

Marvelous sunset from balcony.

A view from Lahaina.
Another sunset view from balcony.
Sunset drive in Lahaina.
Sun starting to set…

Sunset from balcony.