New Kit

i know it's been a long, long time since i've been here...but life has definitely been taking it's toll. i have no other excuse.

i have 2 children living at home now ... or is that again ... i'm not sure. My youngest, who was so blissfully away at school is back home and thankfully working full time, unless she's on vacation visiting her boyfriend in Georgia. My eldest, whom we took in as a refugee, is still here, even though the granddaughter is not. My granddaughter is living back in Tampa with her father, but i'm told will be visiting for Easter.

• I started a diet right before Christmas - as Dan quit smoking. we decided the greater threat to health was my gaining more weight to quit - so diet i try. it's going slow - but that may be a good thing...i've lost only 15 lbs since christmas - not as much as i would have liked - but some. and i've more than i want to own up to to go before i consider quitting smoking...
• i've suffered through having my back cut open several times to remove cysts - and have one more of them to go ...
• i'm getting a permanent fixture put in one ear to counteract the effects of untreated ear infections that have left me hearing impaired in that ear ...
• i'm back into 'hot flash' mode after almost 8 months of nothing - and am ready to call it quits to this whole thing - it's been going on for 18 months now ...
• and after several thousand dollars of co-payments, i am now sporting a bridge and 4 new crowns in my mouth. and now i'm short both back molars on the right side - instead of just the bottom one - with no plan to replace either of them - we just cannot afford the implants ...
• my office decided to send me to Atlanta for 2 weeks for training last month, and i earned my MCAS and MCP certifications. i even aced 2 of the tests!!! That and $4.25 will get me a cup of Coffee at Starbucks!! But it's something I learned and earned on my own, and lets me put a cupla sets of letters after my last name on my signature block - and they cannot be taken away from me!

 and lastly - i finally slowed my life down enough to finish the kit i'd started last year ...

Here it is:

I'm calling this kit "For Eric" for the character of Eric Northman, in the HBO Series TrueBlood, adapted from Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire (also known as Sookie Stackhouse) Series books. Season 2's DVDs should be coming out soon, and Season 3 starts in June I believe.
I have to admit that I didn't read the books until after i'd see the blip at the end of one of the episodes in Season 1 that it was based on.....
and i was hooked!!
i've read most everything Mrs Harris has written, or have it in the audio-que on my IPod- my latest passion.
for anyone who likes a touch of supernatural with their romance - the Southern Vamps will do it for you!

Here are the download links:

http://www.4shared.com/file/251436404/edba8699/FlowerElements.html

http://www.4shared.com/file/251435771/c262f566/OtherElements.html

http://www.4shared.com/file/251430851/ccd620eb/papers.html

NOTE:  Download links to, and the source files for all other downloads at 4shared have been deleted.  It was time to do some housecleaning. 
THANK YOU to everyone who commented on my previous kits!! and i'm looking forward to providing more goodies in 2010!

Still Here...

I know it's been a while since I've been here...
Things at work have gotten pretty intense, and my exhaustion (aided by that midlife hormonal thing) has left me mostly unable to spend any amount of time behind my computer at home. Consequently, I've turned back to literature for mental diversion...finding I'm spending a lot of time with audio books...crawling into worlds so remarkably similar but so bueatifully different from ours.
Not only am I a Twilight fan, but I also became engrossed in the Southern Vampire/Sookie Stackhouse series, and consequently TrueBlood on HBO. That being said, there's a new kit coming forth shortly inspired by that series.
My life-long fascination with all things vampire has led to my pursuing several other series (as available on audio), most currently The Black Dagger Brotherhood, which if time and energy permits, will most likely inspire another kit.
I've desperately missed the time I was spending with my scrapbooking - but until I can get through the hot flashes, cravings, irregular sleeping patterns, and thereby the exhaustion, and the host of projects at work that are rolling one on top of the next to get through recent changes in tax/security laws, I'm not sure there's going to be too many chances.
Check back every so often, if any of you are still with me...
the new kit should be coming up shortly!

Shades of Twilight

I'm not ashamed to admit that i'm a great fan of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series - and by extension - the new movie. I'd heard about the books already late - during a TV Show discussing the popularity of book-to-screen adaptations of so many young adult books - and during the show was mentioned the Twilight Books. I got into the series between books 2 and 3 - just before book 3 was released...and now I'm a junkie...

I've the movie on DVD - on my IPOD - and the audio books on my PC, Laptop and IPOD...

and EBooks on my work laptop, for when I traveling.

Much to my surprise - my youngest daughter is also addicted to Twilight. She normally avoids anything with teen angst, romance, or that can at any time be confused with a chick flick...

So while my dad was in the hospital 2 weeks ago - and i was sitting in a hotel room last week, listening to the books - I developed this kit...
There are 16 background papers, and multiple types of ribbons, frames, brads, flowers, doilies, borders and hatpins in a variety of coordinated colors.

Shades of Twilight...

Soft and hard - light and dark - fire and ice - the lion and the lamb.

This kit is for Personal Use Only.

Please share your layouts and i'll post them here!!

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and don't forget to leave comments then you download!!!

Freebie Coming

I've been absolutely buried at work recently!! I'd thought things were going to level out by now, but that is not the case. The good news is that we're hiring someone else into the office - which won't value me much at all except to take away some of the stuff i've been doing that NOT my job! Which will free me up to do MY job!! and then maybe I'll be able to quit working 12+ hours a day!!
I come home at night and just don't have the energy or will to turn on my laptop - and the only time I spend on the computer in the morning (any more...) is to balance the checkbook! I've not really read a piece of email at home for 2 weeks!!

But all that noise being made...yesterday I got started on a freebie kit...
i may get it finished today, depending on how long my conference call for work lasts this morning (argh!! even on Sundays!)
Stay tuned for something coming!!!

Now Here - Christmas Around The World!!!!

My apologies to anyone who realized I was a bit late posting my link...

Here's The Preview of the kit (not all pieces shown)

Here are the links...

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Go on ahead enjoy the offerings on the rest of the train at:

http://christmasaroundtheworldkit.blogspot.com/

Remember to leave some love for the designers!!

Coming Soon!!

I'll be posting the links for the 2nd Annual Christmas Around the World right here, kit available to download on December 12th!

Here's a small peek at part of the kit...

I'm enjoying a few days off, which has provided a great opportunity to work on things link Christmas Cards, and the scrapbook being made up for someone as a Christmas gift.

Check back for the links to my contribution to the Christmas Around the World community gift!!

Been Busy...

I've been phenomenally busy...traveling, long hours, and not much time for anything else.
I've got more time today, in between of cooking dinner to meet challenges, upload files, etc., than I've had in a couple of weeks.

I've gotten a few pages done - but first I want to put out the links to my latest Kit!
This meets the November Design Challenge at Creative Victorian's Forum:

and the links for the downloads are:

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Challenges Met...

It's been a bit since I posted something, so I have all kinds of stuff today.

First, is the entry for Creative Victorian's October Design Challenge. This was done using a fixed pallette...I kinda got carried away with this one...
It's HUGE!
You can click on the preview to see a larger picture, and here are the download links.....

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I worked hard creating this kit - please respect that and don't repost ... Send your friends to my blog to download!
















I also did the Heritage Challenge over at Creative Victorian, and as a twist, used the kit above to develop the pages. The Heritage Challenge for the first half of October was Children's Toys, and always "Heritage" is defined as pre-1970. These pages capture a handful of moments between 1960 and 1965, and feature me, along with my younger sister and brother...

I'm not at all sure what they're going to say about this!!! And further - I'm not sure I really care!

Then there's the pages I did of my youngest daughter, Amy, for the Altered Art Challenge....















The challenge was "funny faces" and there ain't too many funnier than her! On one side are pictures from her Graduation Party, and on the other from the night of her prom...and both almost resemble the bulletin board in her room - which provided inspiration!

And lastly, is another altered art kind of layout - this one for the Color Challenge. We were given Blue and copper as our colors, and this is what I came up with.

Many many moon ago, in a place far away from Southwest Florida, Amy was the Good Fairy Princess in her kindergarten school play. She spent half the play on stage with a handfull of glitter, and at just the right moment tossed it all up in the air over everyone, casting her good spell and making all right again with the world! I made her costume, with some really cool sheer multicolored material... and grandma and grandpa came to see the play and present the Diva of the Day with Roses!!

That's all I've got today...
I'd appreciate any comments or luvins you may decide to leave...

I figured it out - so everyone gets a freebie!

After spending 2 days trying to figure out how to make this blog work, and getting a layout I liked, I'm ready to give something to my visitors ...

This is a kit I made to answer the September Design Challenge at Creative Victorian Design's new forum.

Right now it has no name - do any of you have any ideas?

Click on the preview for more detail - I couldn't get the preview as clear as i had wanted...but the larger one is just great!

If you Download, leave some constructive feedback, maybe an idea for a kit name, and maybe even some love in the comments!!

Here are the links - the kit is broken into 2 parts, for ease of downloading.

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Share the link, please, not the file! And give credit where credit is due if you use this kit!!