Here is today's blog prompt for Wednesday May 23, 2007

Name a car you’d love to have.

That's easy...a Mini Cooper!!



Wow, I'm managing to post 2 days in a row!!

Today is the last day of school for Michael. Yippee!! That means I get to sleep an hour later in the morning and I don't have to worry about clean school clothes or what to buy for school lunches (he brown bags it). So it also feels like a vacation to me even though I still have to work every day. Of course about a month from now I'll be wishing school would hurry up and start.


No, that's not Johnny Depp. LOL!! It's the Pirates show at Magic Kingdom. Tomorrow we get to see the real thing. We already have our tickets and can't wait.

I've fallen behind again with my poor blog! We had a great time on vacation but it takes a while to catch up. We were really lucky with our Disney trip. We had left Friday night and drove to Tifton, GA (about halfway) to stay for the night. The smoke from the wildfires was pretty bad. My sinuses were killing me after just a short time. The next morning the dh had us up and on the road by 6AM. Yuck!! But it was a good thing because when we arrived in Florida we turned the tv on at the hotel and found out I75 had been closed due to the smoke. CNN said it was a mess with lots of accidents and people pulled off to the side because the visibility was so bad. The conditions must have really deteriorated after we went through. It had been smoky but not bad enough to have to stop. Luckily the smoke wasn't bad at all in Orlando. One day we could see a bit of smoke and smell the burning but only faintly.

And we were lucky again on the way home...the smoke had pretty much cleared out and I75 was open.

I've been scrapping some of my pictures. Here's a few layouts. Credits can be found here.

Here is today's blog prompt for Thursday May 10, 2007

What is your favorite font?

This is difficult. I don't think I've ever met a font I didn't like. For scrapping I like handwriting fonts. A favorite would be kgd kimmy.

Now is this the life or what?

Something really cool happened. I used to have a pen pal in Australia. This was way before the internet explosion and emails. Yup, I had a snail mail pen pal. We wrote lots of letters, sent packages at Christmas and she called once on Mother's Day (well, it was Saturday night in the U.S. but Mother's Day in Aus). Then, she moved, I moved and we lost track of one another. I thought about her over the years and especially when email and instant messaging became popular. Then, I went to Walmart to get an oil change and was browsing in the books while waiting for my car. I spotted a book by Maxine Sullivan--my old pen pal's name. Now, you're probably thinking this is a long shot but my pen pal was an aspiring writer. So I picked up the book and found a bio. The author lived in Australia, had 2 sons and lots of previously abandoned animals. That also described my old pen pal. I found her web page and emailed her. It was my pen pal!!! She was surprised and very pleased to hear from me. This is so cool!! We're pen pals again!! Only we don't have to wait weeks for our letters to arrive. I am so excited! Above is a picture of her first book. I'm so glad I'm able to congratulate her after all the years of encouraging her and then losing touch. Her first book was published in Feb of this year so she really stuck with it and I was "almost" there when it finally became reality! So cool!

Here is today's blog prompt for Wednesday May 9, 2007

Name one movie which is coming out soon that you would like to see.

The one movie I am definitely going to see on opening day is Pirates of the Carribbean.

I had to do a layout about myself as part of Kathryn Balint's CT. I feel funny doing pages about myself but I am pleased with this one. I started with a template by Sabine Etienne (sabdesbois) and used Mountain Meadow by Betty Jo Martin. An absolutely fabulous kit!

Lots of things going on lately. Long story short:

Alex didn't understand that parenthesis around your checking account balance is bad. Very, very bad. He kept on spending so I had to quickly transfer enough into his account to cover everything.
DH went and picked him up on Friday and brought him and a car load of stuff. Alex and I went back on Saturday and brought the rest of his stuff. We had just loaded the car and left campus when I got pulled over. The cop said I was doing 40 in a 30 zone. Gave me a ticket for $116. I have been driving for 36 years and have never even gotten a written warning! I was only pulled over 1 other time and that was because the cop said I pulled into the turning lane too soon. I was looking for my registration and he said all he wanted was proof of insurance. After I showed it to him he said okay...never even went back to his car so I know he didn't write me up or anything.

And my wonderful spring decluttering project was really going great. Clean closets, drawers and everything. Then Alex came home with tons of junk and it's like I took 2 steps back. The nice clean rooms were so calming and now everything feels chaotic again.

Some good things. Alex got all A's. A 4.0 GPA for spring semester and a 3.70 overall for his freshman year.

Another new bird in my yard. Does anyone know what this is? Looks like some sort of woodpecker but I'm not sure what kind.

What a week!!! My de-cluttering project is going well...by default if nothing else. We have had major internet problems all week. Then the network crashed and we kept getting a "contact your network administrator" message. Our "network administrator" is the oldest DS and he's still away at college. LOL!! But we went and bought a new router and so far so good.

So the decluttering project benefited from my not being able to access the internet. Hopefully those problems are solved (for now) and the spring cleanup is far enough along that I will be going ahead. Maybe a bit more sporadically but I am determined to be clutter free!

And towards that end I parted with my mom's pink dishes. I hated to do it for sentimental reasons but I can't tell the rest of the family "use it or lose it" and not follow through myself. Then I hit upon a wonderful idea. I was inspired by that wonderful designer and friend Betty Jo Martin. She takes wonderful still life photos of her collections. So that's what I did and I created a layout. Now, I can enjoy my mom's dishes without the clutter!! A special thanks to Betty Jo for the inspiration and the wonderful kit, Berries and Cream, I used to create the layout!!

A few more layouts. I was really excited when the pileated woodpecker came back and I was able to get some pictures of him.

Carol needs...

I saw this over on Janna's blog and decided to try it.

Mission: Google your name along with the word "needs" and post ten results.

1. Carol needs to be developed for future advancement carolpeters.blogspot

I’m all for future advancement!

2. Carol needs a nickname Carol needs to lighten up parentingdecisions.com

Well maybe if I had a nickname I’d lighten up.

3. What exactly Carol needs from the Sun's registry implementation?

Beats me.

4. to carol pam javi and anyone who needs to hear it. disc.server.com

I’m listening

5. Carol needs to be alert during and after delivery www.potterssyndrome.org

Could we discuss this a little more…

6. Enjoy Carol’s live presentations on DVD1. These presentations are highly ... The six stages of development and what you need to say to validate your child in Carol Peters blogspot again

Hmmm

7. That episode is hilarious and it actually made me want to watch old Carol Burnett reruns. She needs to get a life. www.eonline.com/news/article

I thought I had one!

8. "Our region needs Carol's voice, www.oregonvotes.org

Yes, but what about the nickname thing? Should I get one first?

9. Carol has dedicated her life to people's needs and concerns www.dfalink.com

Yep, that’s me!

10. Carol needs these materials 5 days in advance of the. event

But will I get them??

Michael is back from his FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) trip with 2nd place in the statewide web design competition. He'll be able to go to Chicago this summer for the national competition.

I was going to post some layouts but I think wha thappened at VT is just so sad that I don't feel like posting layouts yet.

I'm hosting a quote challenge at KB and Friends!! It will run from today, April 15th until May 15th. I'm very excited about it since it's my first regular monthly challenge at the site.

This layout is one I did to kick off the challenge. As you can see, this month's quote is "The man who has no imagination has no wings." from Muhammad Ali. Credits and details are here.

The big Spring Clean-Up is coming along. I cleaned out the closet and lots of files from the home office. And I began cleaning out my books. It's not easy but I know there's a lot of books. although I loved them, I probably won't read again so they're gone. But that still leaves a LOT of books but they are a bit neater. I also tossed a bunch of manuals and warranties on stuff we no longer own. Not much but it's a start.

Wow, it has been a long time since I've posted. Starting on Good Friday I was coming down with a bad cold and by East Sunday I was downright sick. Missed Monday and Tuesday at work but felt much better by Wednesday. Now, I'm playing catch up with everything. I did manage a couple new layouts as you can see. You can find credits here.

Despite the recent cold weather it's spring and I've decided not to procrastinate any longer! I'm decluttering in a major way. It will probably take quite a while but I'm determined to go room by room and not leave any clutter anywhere. I'm being ruthless too. Some of the more sentimental stuff (card the boys made, etc) is getting scanned so I don't feel so bad getting rid of it.

The youth at the church where I work are having a flea market later this month so I'm gathering lots of stuff to donate.

Check back here to track my progress! LOL!! Maybe that will inspire me to keep going.

Lions, Tigers and ...a bird!

Sorry it's been so long since I posted. I didn't realize exactly how long it had been. I was busy with the March 31st Birthday Bash at KBandFriends which was a smashing success. And this week I've been busy at work. I work in a church office and this week, Holy Week, is a very busy time. Lots of bulletins to create, etc.

You can find credits for my layouts here.

Some layouts from pictures taken last week at Walt Disney World. In the zebra layout, I actually used two pictures and blended them together. The same zebra is probably in both pictures! In the layout of the stunt show at Disney Studios, I used Jen U's out of bounds technique to pop the car out of the frame. Credits for the layouts can be found in my gallery at Kathryn Balint and Friends as well as Jen's tut in the forums. If you visit check out all the wonderful kits in the shop.

The weather in Chattanooga has been wonderful--high of 84 today. Unfortunately, we can't enjoy it!!! They've issued a code red for air quality today. We are seriously low on rain and that's exacerbated the pollen problem. Pollen count today is 1650. As if that wasn't bad enough, there's wildfires burnhing on Signal Mountain and the air is filled with smoke. The smoke isn't that bad where we live although you can smell the wood burning. But today when I got to work I couldn't believe how bad it was. The smoke was like fog. It was hard to see. And it burned your eyes if you were outside for very long.

I was going to do some yard work but decided digiscrapping was a healthier alternative. I feel so bad. LOL!!!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get caught up after vacation. We had a great time and hope to start posting pictures soon or layouts from the pictures. The above layout with the rabbit topiary is a vacation picture. The topiary is in the Epcot World Showcase in the Great Britain section. I want to thank jensurge for posting her out of bounds technique which I used to make the rabbit "pop out" of the frame. Thanks, jen!! If you haven't seen Jen's awesome new kits (she's justr started designing) hop on over to Kathryn Balint and Friends to check her out and the other fab designers over there. In the top layout I used Betty Jo Martin's new Cottage Rose kit and for the rabbit layout I used Kathryn's Rabbit Tales. Full credits for both layouts can be found in the gallery over there.

Alex came home this weekend which is another reason I'm still catching up. But he forgot his laundry so I was off the hook for that. Poor Alex, now he has to do it himself. Teehee.

Major milestone this week. Michael went on his first "solo" drive since getting his license. He and the car came back in one piece. My best friend has kids older than mine so she is a font of knowledge. I remember when the boys were getting their learner's permits I told her of my fears and she confided that the scariest thing was not being in the car with them while they drove but it was standing in the door watching them back out of the driveway for the first time all by themselves. That is the truth!!!!

One good thing is that Michael has always been careful and even more so since his best friend got into an accident about a week ago. He got his license a few days after Michael. He is fine but he totalled his dad's car. So he owes his dad the $500 insurance deductible plus the cost of his citation and any associated court costs. The poor kid will be working all summer just to pay this off. Michael doesn't want that to happen to he's being extra cautious.

Now, that I'm back I hope to be more faithful posting here.

Just an FYI -- we're leaving in a few minutes for Disney World!! So I won't be posting until around next week at this time! Visit me then as I hope to have lots of awesome pictures with my new camera. This is my first vacation since getting it. Hope to capture some good animal pics on the safari ride at Animal Kingdom with the 12x zoom!! See ya!!

Your Vocabulary Score: B+

You have a zealous love for the English language, and many find your vocabulary edifying. Don't fret that you didn't get every word right, your vocabulary can be easily ameliorated!

How's Your Vocabulary?

I can't help it!! I am fretting because I didn't get a higher score. My ego has been totally deflated. LOL!! I have always been a lover of language and whenever I come across a word I'm unfamiliar with, I run to my dictionary. I love authors who introduce me to a new word or two when I read their books. I remember reading Isabelle Holland's books and loving every time she threw in an unfamiliar word. I'm also a fan of William Safire.

Michael must have inherited my love because he said he enjoys learning new words then being able to use them. Even as a toddler, he would learn a new word and use it all day. I remember joking and asking him what his "word for the day" was. I should have written some of them down because I've forgotten most of them. I remember him going around all day saying "impossible". LOL! Everything that day was "impossible".

This is my layout for Lifts With A Twist #10. Credits can be found here.

Had some excitement at the backyard bird feeders the other morning. I had a giant woodpecker feeding on the suet. I didn't realize how huge some of them are! I ran upstairs and got my camera and managed to get one picture before he flew away. Unfortunately the picture is very blurry but you can tell the size anyway. I'm going to work on the picture and see if I can clean it up a bit. I told Michael he needs to show me how to zoom in and enhance like on the cop/CSI shows and turn a blurry photo pwerfect. LOL! He said no matter how many algorithms he uses, he can't do that. LOL! I'm hoping the bird will come back so I can get a better picture but he ate all the suet when he was here...there was a good 1/3 to 1/4 of a cake left and when he flew away every bit of it was gone. The poor little downy woodpecker that comes kept coming back looking to eat. So I had to go out and buy more. I have 2 cakes out there now.

Here's a layout I did after using a tutorial from Jessica Sprague. Above is the original photo and below is the photo on the layout after I gave it a dreamy, old-fashioned quality then cropped it at an angle and used a frame from Jessica Sprage to soften the edges and then added text to the photo. Credits for the layout can be found here.

Alex is back at school. We took him back yesterday and looked at an apartment complex he's interested in for next year. The one he'd probably go with is a 4 bedroom/2 bath apartment. So he'd have his own bedroom but share a bath with one other person. There's a small kitchen with full size appliances including a dishwasher plus a washer/dryer. There's also a common area with a couch and chairs and stuff. The apts are furnished which is nice. The residents are all students so it's similar to a dorm. It's actually cheaper than r&b at the college but doesn't include food. To come out the same as on campus living, Alex would have about $45-50 a week to eat. I know he'd be much happier because they have actual high speed internet. The one on campus is pathetic--according to Alex anyway. And it might be good for him to budget his grocery money and have to work with that each week. I have been buying him lots of sodas and snacks anyway so if I continue I think he could do okay for that much each week. He says he's been eating a lot of ramen noodles and mac & cheese anyway so it wouldn't be much different. I know these are baby steps but he's on the way to being an independent person. When did he grow up??

My friend who has kids who are older and some younger than mine once said if her kids didn't stop growing up pretty soon they'd be older than her! LOL!!! I know what she means.

I've had this picture for a long time and couldn't decide how to scrap it until I saw Betty Jo Martin's Rusty Skillet kit!

I've been a bad blogger this week. I'd blame the fact that Alex is home on Spring Break but he's been barely home. He's been catching up with his friends and coming home to shower and the occasional meal. I did try to post yesterday but blogger wouldn't let me upload pictures.

And now Alex is finally home and wants to go get sodas, snacks and other essentials to bring back to his dorm.

I did this layout for Janna's template challenge. I have always love this picture of my niece and nephew so decided to use it for this. Can't post a link to credits because I keep getting error message trying to get onto Kathryn's site. But will say that I used Janna Billman's free template and Cyndy McAtee's Bless this Bread kit both available at kbandfriends.com

Well, it's official--our yearly car insurance has TRIPLED. Thanks to having 2 teenage boys with licenses. And that's with the discounts for Alex living on campus and not having a car and Michael's 4.0 GPA!!! A couple of Alex's friends--who already have cars--have gotten speeding tickets. Can't imagine what their rates must be like!

I went and picked up Alex yesterday for his Spring Break. Finally got to meet his new roommate and he seems very nice. Alex has been going with him to the gym and working out and climbing the rock wall. Alex said he really loves the rock wall and I can totally see that. He's always been strong and agile despite his skinny body.

He was supposed to have come home Friday night and John had planned on going after work since his work is 40 miles closer but Alex said he had plans Friday night. It worked out because Alex and I had to cover up the stuff he wasn't bringing home. They're fogging the dorms this week so I brought some trash bags and we covered up what he couldn't fit in the drawers or closet. I can't imagine the dh having the patience to stop and do that.

So now it feels like I have a bit of Alex's junk in every room of the house. And I couldn't even get the door to the laundry room closed last night because of all the baskets of dirty clothes.

And I swear Alex was home for 2 hours and his computer mouse broke. So last night after we all went out to supper we stopped at Best Buy. Guess who got to pay for the new mouse? He gave me a hug and told me how much he appreciated it so I told him he'd better remember this when I was old and senile. He said it was only a mouse and not that great of a one at that! LOL!!!

Gotta go tackle some more of that laundry.

My layout for this week's Lifts With A Twist. Credits can be found here.

Michael got his license today. I told him he had to pass because I certainly wasn't going back to the Motor Vehicle office3!! We went yesterday but he couldn't take the test--after being assured several times that all he needed to bring was his learner's permit--we arrived for his test and was told he needed his birth certificate. They admitted it was their mistake for not putting it in the system last time we brought it but we still had to suffer. Went back today with all the pieces of paperwork they could possibly ever ask for...got to within 1/2 mile of the place and there was a 3 car accident and traffic came to a complete standstill. We finally made it through and got there on time. Thankfully he passed. If he ever needs to go back there he can drive himself!!!

Whew! Been a while since I posted in here but I went through a bit of a dry spell and couldn't make a decent page to save me. The n, the dam finally burst and I was busy making pages as the ideas came flooding through! Here's a few that I made. Credits can be found here.

Watched the Oscars for a while last night but gave up at 11:30 and went to bed. I could tell it wasn't anywhere near being over and 6AM comes way too early. There weren't any surprises so I guess it didn't really matter. All the ones I assumed would win did. I liked The Departed although I think I liked Infernal Affairs slightly more. We' ve been wanting to see Little Miss Sunshine. I've had it on my Netflix queue for a long time and it was finally shipped. It was supposed to arrive last Friday but still hasn't gotten here yet. Grrr.

I got my CD from Scrapper's Guide, "Make Fluffy Famous" and made this quick page layout from it. The CD was my prize for my winning entry in the cat photo contest at Scrapper's Guide.

We're doing some circle journals at Designer Digitals and putting them in books from Shutterfly. Very exciting! The one I'm doing is for the What Makes My House A Home. I did a layout featuring my kitchen. The journaling reads: I decorated my kitchen with the things I love like handemade quilt wall hangings, framed prints
and pictures that remind me of the places I’ve been and with colors I love. Like red and gold.I
love it when we come together in the kitchen and share stories over a meal. I love it when one
of the boys lingers in the kitchen while I am preparing a meal or cleaning up. We often have
very enlightening conversations about all sorts of subjects. I really feel like we connect during
those times. Now that Alex is away at college and taking his first steps toward independence,
I treasure the times when he is home. And it’s always nice to be able to serve him his favorite
meals. Even better, are time times we spend sitting, or even standing, around the kitchen
chatting and catching up. So, I love my kitchen not only because of the way it looks but for this reason too.

Credits can be found here.

A layout I did with a paper sampler freebie from Designer Digitals' all day chat Saturday. The flip flops and surf board are from Retro Beach by Kathryn Balint. The DD papers are from Katie Pertiet.

My layout for this week's Lifts With A twist. I used Apple Pie kit by Holly McCaig for everything except the stitiching. The stitching is from Grandma Rose's Stitches by Kathryn Balint.

A couple more layouts. I tried a new technique with the collage teddy. And I used an awesome template from Janna Billman in the layout of Ping. The kit is Sakura in Bloom by Maryse Vincent. She's offering it as a free daily download on her blog. Check it out here.

For the teddy collage I used Kathryn Balint's Attic Treasures. The template from Janna is here.

I won last week's Lifts With A Twist!!! WooHoo!!! Here's my lift for this week's lift #5. Surprisingly, Ping stood still long enough for me to grab some great shots of him. Most of the time my pictures of him are blurred because he's always in motion. But he had jumped onto the armoire and sat in what I thought looked like a typical Siamese pose. Technically, Ping is a Tonk but because he looks like his Siamese side everyone assumes he is and it doesn't really matter. No matter what you call him, he's still a sweet lovable kitty.

I did this layout entirely with a kit from Agnes Lahur called First Light. Her kits are available at The Daily Scrap.

A couple more layouts using templates from Janna Billman's new set. It's Template Set #6 and it's awesome and on sale right now! The templates can be purchased here.
Credits for the two layouts can be seen here.

The snow is all melted and it was back to work and school today. But now it's the weekend and I'm looking forward to doing some more layouts! And P.F. Chang's China Bistro tomorrow night.

Snow today! No school for Michael and I stayed home from work too. We live at the top of a steep hill and I'm a chicken. LOL!! The amount of snow that we got would be laughable if we still lived in Massachusetts...certainly not enough to close school. But I'm not complaining! Actually, this is the most snow I've seen here in the 10 years we've lived here. Poor Kitty White Shoes sat by the French door in the kitchen and cried all morning. Even if we get the slightest dusting of snow she wants to go out and see it. I took her out for a few minutes but had to keep a hand on her so she wouldn't run off (she's an indoor cat). I thought she'd be satisfied once we got back in since it was so cold and wet but she continued to sit and cry to go back out. Michael brought Ping out but he wanted absolutely no part of it! He scrambled to get back into the house.

I completed a Jumpstart Challenge for Designer Digitals and took some snow pictures I hope to scrap soon.

My layout for this week's Lifts With A Twist. I'm having fun with these weekly lifts. Credits for the layout are:

Corner doodle: Jamie Rousselle (DSP)
Loved brush- Katie Pertiet
curved template- Sophia Davies Designs
Everything else is from Antique Lighthouse kit by Lucy Marino.
Font - Gigi

The Antique Lighthouse kit is available at The Daily Scrap.

I have been practicing the technique from Photoshop Friday tut on Jessica Sprague's blog. It's a simple but fun technique of blurring the background in the photo so journaling can be put on it.

Credits for the layouts can be found here and here.

Another layout I did the guest CT contest at Designer Digitals. I used Sea of Love kit by Anna Aspnes. I love her kits as well as her awesome layouts.

This isn't a layout, but maybe I'll make it one. I've seen a lot of pages recently that featured books and they're really cool. I just finished reading Cold As Ice and I loved it-can't wait for the next book in the series!

Alex is coming home this weekend, or I should say his laundry is coming home. His friends are picking him up at school so they can all attend ChattaCon together. It's a gaming conference and he and his friends run the computer portion. Something like that. So, he'll stop tonight and drop the dirty clothes off and probably srop by on Sunday to pick up the clean clothes and be off.

I know I just used this picture in a layout but I couldn't resist using it again when I came up with this cute idea. Credits can be found here.

















I used Janna Billman's cool new My Valentine kit
to make this fun layout. The cute vintage valentins made me think retro--all the way back to elementary school!