She’s Official!!

Today Xtina took her drivers test and passed it! So she is one step closer to being able to start applying for law enforcement agencies. In fact we found out that she is already old enough to apply for the Washington State Patrol. She spent a couple hours talking to one of their academy instructors recently. She found out that they do way more than most people realize.

I’m excited to start doing Creative Team work over at Divine Digital again. They have had their website hacked twice (or was it thrice) this past year, then lost a bunch of stuff when their webhost changed hands. After being “down” for the better part of the last few months they relaunched last month and are pretty much up and fully functioning as of yesterday. I get to work with a couple of new kits that one of the founding partners is getting ready to release. Since I don’t have to drive to hockey practice twice a week it means I’ll have more time for digiscrapping.

Three years ago I lost 50lbs and have slowly over the past two years became to complacent in my diet. I quit counting calories, slacked off on exercise and started eating junk food again. When I woke up one morning and realized that I weighed 145 lbs I realized that I had to change something. So I’ve gotten back on track and during the past three months I’ve been able to lose 13lbs. There were a couple weeks I slacked and gained a couple of pounds. I would like to get back down to 150lbs by my birthday at the end of February but I don’t want to lose it so fast that I end up back where I started.  Christina getting her drivers license means that I’ll have more time to fit a workout or walk in during the week. Over the past month I have slacked off on exercising. With winter approaching it gets darker earlier and a bit colder out. I’m hoping to be able to walk her right after work before it’s too dark or too cold now. If all else I can hop on the trusty treadmill or do some yoga. My short term goal is to be down to 160 by New Years.

One roof done, one to go….

Well we finished the roofing yesterday afternoon. Now we need to get an assessment done on the second garage to see what our options are. In the meantime we still need to finish the soffit, trim the flashing and fascia boards, hang the gutters and then paint it (at which time we will finish painting a couple sections of trim on the house).

Its been interesting but a fun project and allowed Mike and I to spend more time together on the weekends. We have been enjoying the work even though we disagree on occasion about the best way to accomplish something. I am an early bird, lets get the work started and get as much done as possible kind of gal. As opposed to Mike who is a lets relax and take it one step at a time starting around noon-ish, work for a couple hours and take our time kind of guy.

Roofing Update and a Quickpage Freebie!

My hubby and I have been building a new roof on one of the two garages on our property this summer. This weekend we will finish the last rows of shingles on the little roof in the foreground. Then getting ready to shore up the rafters and replace the roof on our other garage/shop which is in the background of the photo on the left. So I haven’t had as much time to work on layouts like I normally do. Some have followed our remodel/construction journey via my Facebook page and some of it I’ve talked about here. The little roof was the “learning roof” in preparation for redoing the big roof. The smaller garage is the equivalent of a very small, single car garage (I could fit my Supra in there but couldn’t open the doors very far) but the larger one is more of a two and a half car sized garage. (Supra went in easy but our trucks are too tall for the existing door). The bigger garage has had nothing done to it for well over 30 years and is leaking like a sieve. It was probably built in the early 50′s and as such it wasn’t subjected to being built to the same rafter building codes we have today.  No one did maintenance work on them over the years nor was there any “improvements” done. As such the rafters are leaning a bit and from the outside the roof line looks like an old, swaybacked horse. We will need to replace one set of windows and the gutters, but the walls and floor are in excellent shape.  We now face the decision to either tear the entire roof off the big garage, order trusses and build an entirely new roof it or shore up the existing rafters as much as possible, tear off the old shingles and re-shingle the whole thing.  Tearing off everything  and getting trusses built will take alot of work because they didn’t use plywood for  “decking”  but tongue and groove boards that are butted right up to each other. It will also cost more because they trusses will have to be custom built to fit the existing walls. Whereas we’ve been told that due to those same solid tongue/groove boards being in place that shoring up is also a viable option as long as we aren’t too worried about having a perfectly straight “roof-line”. They can fix some of the sag but may not be able to get all the sag out of it by shoring up the existing rafters and adding supports to them.  Either way it’s going to cost money and involve more than a few weekends of our time.

It doesn’t help that even though we have almost finished roofing the little garage the hubby now wants to get the wiring redone ASAP so he can transform it into his own little “mancave” complete with all his KISS memorabilia. After finding the “Pepsi Cooler” you see in the corner on Craigslist last weekend for $130 and a couch with two built in recliners for free on it this weekend he is raring to go and I have to keep reminding him that we have to finish the roofing and get started on the big garage before the rainy season starts back up in here. I think the threat of the big freezer getting moved into his “mancave” is the only thing keeping him on track to complete the second roof. Once it is done we can start “inside work” on both garages with getting wiring/insulation and drywall placed.

Well lets get off the subject of home remodeling projects and on to Digital Scrapbooking. Frankonia has a new kit called Strawberry Delight that went on sale this week. Normally I’d have a couple cute layouts to show you but as you may already realize that  life has been very crazy for us with our garage remodeling projects. So here is the preview of the kit.  She has graciously given me permission to share (as freebies) two of the quickpages that I created for this kit. Today I am making the first page available and will post the second page in a few days.

Here is the download link

Hope you enjoy the freebie and please go visit her store over at Digi-Boutik to see all the wonderful kits she has.

Princess In Pink Quickpage Freebie and Frankonia’s having a SALE!!

Okay the Princess in Pink kit hits the store today and Frankonia is having a SALE through the 8th! She sent me a sneak peak of a kit that is going to be released later this month that includes one of my favorite treats – STRAWBERRIES!!

Here is the FREE Quickpage that I promised in my last post.

Quickpage Freebie Coming Soon!!

Frankonia has this new kit coming out July 5th, called Princess in Pink. I have already completed one page for it and am beginning to work on another. It’s one of those kits that could be used for a wedding, valentines, feminine or even a baby shower page. Check back soon, once I get the okay to activate the link for the freebie I will! In the meantime you can check out her other kits which are available in her store now.

Trig’s Relaxing on the Couch!

Well I’ve completed a second page from Frankonia’s “I Love Coffee” kit. Looking at it you would never know it was a coffee themed kit.Couldn’t figure out how to add journaling to this layout so I went with a simple title made of tags.  It’s my first attempt of creating a “Scene” with items from a kit. I extracted the photo of Trig from one that was taken when we did her Canine Good Citizen Test. She was actually lying in the grass. I added the cinnamon roll “ball” in front of her on the couch to hide the fact that her paws were hidden in the grass.

I HATE COFFEE…I really do!

But I tell you what I absolutely love some of the cups that Starbucks sells for coffee and tea. To the point that I have been know to stalk our local Starbucks stand in search of the limited edition clear insulated tumblers and the holiday hot beverage tumblers. When I walked into the Starbucks located in lobby of the Outrigger Reef where we were staying in Waikiki I spotted the big mug in the photo and didn’t hesitate to buy it then and there. Luckily I bought it  because it was the last one and they didn’t get anymore in stock before we left nor did I see them in any other Starbucks. My passion for the insulated tumblers is such that my friends and family members call me when they see them. My latest tumbler is one that my niece who lives in Hawaii spotted them with the words “Aloha from Hawaii” and the outline of a hibiscus on it. She immediately called me and asked me how many I wanted. LOL…I took three since that version is exclusive to Starbucks in Hawaii.

When Frankonia came out with her “I Love Coffee” kit I knew exactly how I could have fun playing with the kit even though I absolutely hate coffee. I can barely tolerate the smell of coffee which becomes rather interesting considering my husband and daughter are coffee freaks.  I only go into Starbucks to check out their selection of cups and tumblers or to pick up a Venti Iced Mocha (no whip) for my husband. So if you have a coffee aficionado or barista in the family this is the kit for you. Frankonia as usual did a great job with her extraction work and she put together a great selection of elements.

U.S. Honor Flag to fly at Lakewood PD

U.S. Honor Flag to fly at Lakewood PD.

Spring Moments and a Freebie

Well…It’s been a hectic few weeks in our household. Not only have we been trying to finish the roof on “the little garage” but my mom had a PONS stroke, my younger brother and his wife flew in to see her and help get mom’s house situated so that she was able to come home from the hospital and use her walker and get ready for a camping trip that has been planned since October. All of this while I am in the process of getting back to scrapping and doing some “One Kit Calls” and joining the Creative Team for a new digital scrapbook designer called Frankonia. Luckily she was understanding and gave me some extra time to get things settled down before I jumped back into some serious scrapping. I’ve missed scrapping terribly but family does come first especially when it’s a major medical issue.

When I first saw Frankonia’s Spring Moments Kit I immediately thought of my parents wedding photos. We only have a few slides of their wedding and one or two “Polaroid” photos that were printed.  I am going to have to see if I scanned a copy of the slide that I had printed a couple years back so I can finish this page. I did a traditional scrapbook page about their wedding years ago and now I’d like to do a digital version. So I went ahead and created the entire page with the exception of  journaling and a photo. I felt that it would make a wonderful quickpage and Frankonia gave me permission to share with everyone so HERE IT IS!!!

CH Somerset Something Special, CGC

More commonly known as “Miss Tina” or just “Tina”.  At 10 1/2 years she is still making us laugh on a daily basis with her antics as all “bullies” seem to do. Tina is top dog  in our house  even though she is one third the size of Hemi – our 1 year old German Shepherd.  Our 7 year old American Toy Fox Terrier (Kiwi)  is her best friend in the whole world. The two of them can be found snuggled up in Tina’s crate, curled up together on the couch or hiding under the blankets in the middle of a bed. Now that she has reached double digits we decided that she can sleep on the couch whenever she wants…after all she’s earned the right to snuggle up in the cushions and enjoy a leisurely snooze.

Digital Kit:

Walk With Me by Jennifer Barrette.

The kit is available as a free download if you have a DST Diamond Membership.