I didn't have time to post the paper on Friday. I'll post it tomorrow. I only have a few moments to post now, so I figured I'd quickly share some great scraps from my creative team! Woohoo!

Lilian has created a few things that I haven't shared with you yet...

First is this lovely layout:

Full credits here.

And this fab creation:

Full credits here.

And my guest CT member Muka sent this way-fun layout:

Full credits here.

And finally, the Little Darlin' kit I created with Jessica Bolton got a pick here recently. How cool is that?

Freebie tomorrow, freebie tomorrow... really... Gotta run for now!

Check back tomorrow for another freebie... I'll have a great paper for you then!

So today would have been my Grandma's 88th birthday. I'm feeling a little blue today, missing her. Here is a photo I took of her when she was visiting my house a few years ago:

If she was still here with us, I would have called her this afternoon to wish her a happy birthday and to sing to her and chat a bit. Since I can't do that, I figured I'd send her cyber greetings via my blog, just in case she makes it to some heavenly cyber cafe today to read my blog post. I miss you so much, Grandma!

In honor of her birthday, I thought I'd share a little something about her. My Grandma was notorious in my family for muddling up phrases, mixing up names, and saying funny stuff. Some of them have gone down in the family history books and we use them regularly in conversation. Here are a few of her best (funniest) ones:

- when Princess Diana died and the news was saying the paparazzi was to blame, my Grandma said, "Why would Pavarotti kill Princess Di? He seems like such a nice man."

- her name for architect Frank Lloyd Wright? Floyd Wright. (Combine the first two -- it's shorter that way.)

- one time when discussing something that ran in the family, she said it was "generic" instead of "genetic." We use that one all of the time now... i.e. "John has red hair like his uncle. Must be generic."

Good news on my Grandpa's health -- he continues to do well and came through his surgery yesterday smoothly. That one was a concern and could have been a stumbling block. That will have to heal, then he'll go to rehab since he's been stuck in bed at the hospital with a gout flare-up. I've called him every day to chat, and his voice sounds strong and he's been cracking jokes. He's also been showing the goofy card I sent him earlier this week to all of his nurses and aides, so that made me very happy to hear. Thank you all so much for your good wishes, thoughts, and prayers. It means so much to know there are a lot of people out there pulling for him.

You know, looking back on the post yesterday, it looks like all I do is watch TV. We often have it on for a few hours in the evening, and sometimes for an afternoon during the weekend, but we don't watch TV all of the time. And just because something is on the list doesn't mean I watched every episode... LOL. Also, I don't have kids, which I know makes a big difference. And I have to say thanks to everyone who posted their awesome Barbie stories... they were SO MUCH FUN to read and I was so excited to see that so many others out there made furniture and clothes for their Barbies too! Very, very cool!!!!

Tonight we are going to see Genesis. It's an outdoor stadium show and rain is in the forecast. If you are inclined, I'd appreciate a no-rain-tonight dance. I THINK we're under cover, but I'm not totally sure. I'll be taking a slicker with me, just in case.

I have been chatting back and forth via email with my friend Robin this week about the new fall television season starting and how thrilled we both are that some of our favorite shows will be back on. It turns out we have a lot of the same shows on our list of favorites, along with enough differences to keep it interesting. And our respective lists were pretty long... which made me wonder if I watch too much TV.

The truth of the matter is, though, that I am completely incapable of watching TV without doing something else... I'm usually on the computer designing or doing site admin or emailing. Or I'm looking through a pile of magazines for work. Mike has to review a lot of TV-on-DVD for work, so I often find myself completely roped into shows I would have never watched otherwise (case in point: the first season of Dexter, which we finished watching this past Sunday night -- it is an amazing show and so twisted but extremely well-done and compelling. Would I have normally chosen it to watch of my own accord? Doubtful. But there are a number of shows that I didn't think I'd get into and Mike watching them got me hooked -- The Sopranos, Carnivale, Lost, Heroes, The Shield, Mad Men -- the list is actually pretty long...). So while I do end up watching a lot of TV, it's not completely mindlessly staring at the screen, I'm almost 99.9% of the time also occupied with something else.

An article appeared in the NY Times earlier this week entitled "You Are What You Watch." Given my conversations with Robin (in which we both determined that we are complete and utter TV dorks), I found it a fascinating read. Because it appears that I'm not the only one watching a lot of shows on TV (and I certainly wouldn't be watching as much as I do if we didn't have DVR!). There are so many options, and there is so much more quality television than there has been in the past. More channels, more choices, more segmenting of audiences. We can all find plenty to love on the old tube, no matter what our preferences may be. So I decided to come clean and put together a list of all of the shows I've watched with more than a passing interest in the past 12 months. Guilty pleasures and all. Why? Because, like the NY Times says, I am what I watch. Wonder what this list actually says about me? (These are in no particular order.)

24
Lost
The Shield
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Flight of the Conchords
Entourage
The Sopranos
Mad Men
Psych
Jericho
Heroes
Eureka
The Unit
Weeds
Californication
The Office
My Name Is Earl
Design Star
Scrubs
Ugly Betty
The Bachelor
Prison Break
Dexter
30 Rock
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Damages
Burn Notice
Robot Chicken
Rescue Me
Big Love
The Tudors
Dirt
Sarah Silverman Show
Extras

New Shows We/I Plan To Check Out This Season:
Dirty Sexy Money
Journeyman
Reaper
Chuck
Gossip Girl
Pushing Daisies

And I've probably forgotten some!!!! Tell me what you watch and how -- do you DVR things or do you have stuff that you watch when it airs?

[Edited 9/26, 11:30 p.m. I knew I forgot some! Saving Grace and The Riches. And I actually DVR a lot of stuff on HGTV and the DIY Network that I watch when I have time: reZoned {my fave}, Color Splash, Creative Juice, Scrapbooking, B Original, Carol Duvall, Craft Lab, Crafters Coast to Coast, and I also tape old episodes of Changing Rooms on BBC America.]

So while I sit here and try to take my mind off of the surgery my Grandpa will have today or tomorrow (still not sure yet when it will be because he needs more transfusions first), I thought I'd do a little blogging.

Recently, my pal Melinda (she of the incredibly creative hybrid projects!) was blogging about finding some of her old toys as they were unpacking things in her mom's new house. She specifically mentioned her Sunshine Family dolls, and I used to have those too. I also had Barbies and Dawn Dolls (which had the coolest clothes). I was never lucky enough to have anything super cool for my Barbies, like the townhouse (which was huge), the boat, the camper, the car... I had two Barbie dolls and some clothes for them. If I wanted to start thinking abodes, I had to get creative.

I was never size-ist with my dolls. The Sunshine Family, Barbie, and the Dawn Dolls (which are all different sizes) could and did live in the same neighborhood and on the same street. I would create entire "homes" or the equivalent of a studio apartment inside of a cardboard box, complete with cardboard furniture with cushions I'd constructed out of cut up trash bags stuffed with kleenex that I then taped shut, or that I made out of fabric scraps I'd not-so-beautifully hand-stitched. Fabric scraps could also turn into blankets, rugs, curtains... as did paper towels. I may not have had the townhouse, but what I created was just as cool to me. I'd make similar set-ups for the Dawn Dolls and the Sunshine Family, the latter of which came with some stuff for the babies (high chair, cradle). I have some recollection of a Sunshine Family house, but if there was one, it hasn't been found among my old toys. It could have been a friend who had a house for them... I don't recall...

As I said, Barbie(s), Dawn Dolls, and the Sunshine Family lived in the same neighborhood, and even in my young mind, they were quite different. The Sunshine Family, perhaps purely because of their rather old-fashioned clothes were the Cleaver family... buttoned-down and family-oriented, squeaky-clean... (or maybe not... I already had been given the birds and bees talk at that point, so I do recall sending the parents in the Sunshine Family to bed together without clothes on to do what they would do because "when the Mommy and Daddy love each other" blah blah blah... and I would make them kiss each other...). It was all very tame, really, but I also didn't have them sleeping in separate beds like "I Love Lucy."

On the flip side, I always imagined my two Barbies and my Dawn Dolls would be wearing their cool boots and work-friendly mini dresses to cool jobs a la the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" (insert spin and beret toss here). Never had any Ken dolls. As I said, I wasn't size-ist, so both Barbies and the Dawn Dolls would sometimes date my brother's Action Jackson, GI Joe, or Stretch Armstrong dolls. It was never serious, and in retrospect there was probably a whole lot of "friends with benefits" and/or "booty call" going on because sometimes GI Joe or one of the other guy dolls would sleep in the same bed as Barbie. Even though they were just dating and weren't married. Hmmmm... Maybe Barbie and the Dawn Dolls were more "Sex And The City" than "Mary Tyler Moore Show." I just didn't know it then.

The two Barbies and the Dawn Dolls were all friends and they would go to parties together and SOMETIMES the Sunshine Family would have parties and invite Barbie(s) and the Dawn Dolls. Sometimes the Sunshine Family parents and Grandparents would go out and Barbie might babysit the Sunshine Family babies. I remember having a vivid imagination with all of this and having story lines about what everybody was doing.

What does this have to do with scrapbooking? Stick with me here for a moment... I'll come to that. As I remembered my creativity with making houses and furniture and living quarters for the aforementioned dolls, I was, in retrospect, pretty impressed with what I actually came up with. I recently went shopping for Barbies for my friend's daughter... and was FLOORED at all of the STUFF you can get for Barbies these days. And I wondered to myself if kids today are just as creative as we were if they get all of the accessories and the house and way more stuff than was available when I was young, or if giving them everything makes them less creative. Maybe it channels their creativity elsewhere.

With scrapbooking, I started paper scrapping in 1999. There wasn't much in the way of supplies out there. The first paper scrapbook I did was pretty basic, but I realized recently that I used what I did have access to VERY creatively when I put that book together... With the sheer volume now of scrapping STUFF and supplies and "things already made so you don't have to," I wonder if scrappers now are less creative because of it, or, like I said earlier with the toys, if that latent creativity is just channeled elsewhere?

I don't know the answers here. Just something I wanted to share with you guys... see what you thought.

And finally, today's freebie. It's another salted watercolor paper... I just love how soothing the colors are in this one:

You can download it here. And if you do, tell me if you used to play with Barbies and what your memory is of them!

Ok, I've been back since Monday night... I am such a freakin' slacker. Seriously, I could have come back to put a freebie up here as early as, well, ok, WEDNESDAY because it took me all day Tuesday to play catch-up. But did I? No. I'm not apologizing. Not making excuses. Just sayin'... And I've been hanging out at that little place called Facebook the past two nights... doing heaven only knows what with my time... bad habit to have gotten into, but dang, that place is FUN with all caps!

So, I'll get to the freebie eventually, but first I'm going to wax on (wax off) about various and sundry other things kicking around in this brain I inhabit. Maybe I will number my topics. For some reason, that helps me stay more organized and get everything in...

1) My Grandpa... is pretty much status quo. No better, no worse. He was thrilled to see us and even my brother came to visit too, so I think that helped his spirits a lot. He's still in the hospital. Have talked to him a few times on the phone since I got home. Your continued positive thoughts are prayers in his general direction are much-appreciated. We got to have a little birthday party in his room and he even got to have a sliver of cake. I was so happy to be able to spend that time with him AND to be able to see my entire immediate family on my birthday, which pretty much never happens anymore since we're all scattered geographically. Which actually brings me to topic #2...

2) My birthday. The big 4-0. I don't know what the hype is all about, frankly. I still feel 26, and they (whoever they are) say you're only as old as you feel, so I guess that makes me 26. (Which is interesting, considering I've been married 15 years... I guess I got married really young then, huh?) So my birthday was actually really nice. Watched football with Mike and my Dad, spent a few hours at the hospital with my Grandpa, got to see my brother, had cake, presents... all good stuff. My husband, in his never-ending creativity and pre-planning finesse got me some totally cool stuff which I must share with you now... (these are just the top two of things he got -- he always seems to get me way more stuff than he should...)

He scored this book for me, which is huge since it's only available overseas and with the cost of shipping is quite pricey:

And then, while I was off talking to the drummer backstage at the Crowded House show back in August (y'know, the night I MET NEIL FINN!), Mike had Neil sign this CD single for me... how cool is this?

I was pretty floored, to say the least! I had no clue he'd done it. It now happily resides on the shelf in my office so that I may admire Neil's signature on a regular basis. And the fact that he wrote my name. On the single for my favorite song of all time by anyone. (Freaky fan much? Nah, not moi!)

3) Designing -- gosh, I have to get back into it. I was feeling most creative when my other computer was down and the addictive Facebook has since reeled me into its evil (ok, not really evil, but definitely time-wasting) but oh-so-fun clutches. I will get back to it, perhaps as soon as this weekend.

4) Freebie -- today's freebie is one that was supposed to go out last week... better late than never, right? It's this groovy brown swirly designs with just the tiniest hints of blue in it. Here's what it looks like:

You can download it here. If you do, please leave me a comment and tell me what you are doing this weekend!!!!

I got a bit sidetracked with the freebies this week. My Grandpa ended up in the hospital again and, long story short, we are taking a very last-minute trip to go see him. I do have three more freebie papers and I'll post them next week when I have time. I was also going to have a b-day sale on my stuff at Scrapbookgraphics, but I may just have that belatedly now since I never got it together in time. Sorry to anyone who came by scouting freebies that I'd promised and didn't post... please come back starting next Tuesday. Thanks for understanding!!!!

Hey there!

It's a gray, rainy day here. Hope you are having better weather in your neck of the woods. I'm checking in with the second freebie paper in my series this week... Yeah, I know, it's my birthday and I'm giving away the gifts...

Today's paper is a blue and green extravaganza... I like how it almost looks like salted watercolors... Here's a wee preview:

You can grab it here. And if you do, please tell me what your favorite birthday memory is. Mine would be my 17th birthday when my best friend at the time planned a surprise party for me that was a total and complete surprise. So awesome! I had no inkling, which made it so great.

Ok, I made a decision over the weekend do freebies this week leading up to my birthday (which is Sunday). So here is the first of the series. I made some watercolor art papers that all sort of work together. Today's is blue:

Like it? You can download it here. If you do, please leave a comment! Thanks! Hope everyone had a groovy weekend!

So, in the midst of all of my Facebook-ing, I did actually get a few cool things made that I will be sharing very soon. Perhaps as early as tonight if I have a moment to name and zip files and all of that good stuff. No way to get it done now or anytime during my work day, but consider this a big heads-up. Some cool art papers are comin'...

Woohooo!

Ok, there, I've admitted it. I signed up for Facebook almost a month ago, but it wasn't until last week that I really got active updating my profile and having fun with it. I actually signed up and forgot about it until some friends found me on there and reminded me.

Well, what can I say? A week and a half later and I'm officially over MySpace (where I loved finding new bands to add to my friends list) and on Facebook all of the time. To send a cyber drink to a friend or throw a cow at someone (yes, really) I love or create lists of my favorite things. It's so much fun. So, if you are on Facebook and want to be friends, look me up and maybe I'll throw a cow at you. Or send you a fruity drink. If you aren't on there, what are you waiting for?

For some reason, I have had a ton of fun putting together my favorite books list and my Hot List. But what I've had the most fun with is signing up for groups. Not because I expect to meet people through them, but because it's fun to find topics I love or that I share with other people (you'll see what I mean below). I realized when I looked at my list last night that it was a big ol' meme, just in a different format. Here's my list of groups, which actually says a lot about me:

1) 'Flight Of The Conchords' Makes My World A Brighter Place [love that show]
2) Bagpipes Are Awesome [have always adored bagpipe music; my cell phone ringtone was Scotland the Brave for the longest time]
3) Addicted To 'Pride and Prejudice' ['nuff said]
4) Addicted To '30 Rock' [Alec Baldwin is a comic genius]
5) I Am Fluent In Sarcasm [ah, yes, I'm just a wee bit sarcastic most of the time]
6) I'd Rather Be In Scotland [yes, I really would]
7) And WHY Can't My Life Be A Musical? [says she who walks around singing all of the time]
8) I'm Tall, Therefore I'm Better Than You [well, probably not, but it sounded good... refer to #5]
9) But.... This One Goes To Eleven (Spinal Tap) [one of the funniest movies ever]
10) Bill Bryson Is A Genius [and I wish I could write as well as he does]
11) Book Jumping With Thursday Next [Jasper Fforde is an amazing author and his Thursday Next books are da bomb.] [Did I just say something is da bomb? Yikes!]
12) I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar [ok, yeah, I probably do, but I can't help it.]
13) Michael Scott: That's What She Said [The Office... one of my fave shows]
14) Cows [I collect cows and have for years]
15) Digi Rocks Da House [it does, doesn't it?]
16) Digital Scrapbooking Magazine
17) Good Typography Is Hot [somehow I don't think Paris Hilton would say that though]
18) I Frequently Quote Princess Bride [as you wish]
19) I Will Go Slightly Out Of My Way To Step On That Crunchy-Looking Leaf [and I always have]
20) I Want To Be A Sedaris: The Club [because David AND Amy are brilliant]
21) Johnstone Clan [my claim to Scotland fame on the family tree]
22) Neil Finn (Crowded House) Fan Club [as if you didn't already know about this one...]
23) Ricky Gervais Is A Legend [The UK Office, Extras... legend indeed]
24) Unlike 99.99% of the Facebook population, I was born in the 60s. [yikes... and I just admitted it in public]
25) Rock Ridge Music [a music client of mine]
26) When Harry Met Sally [one of the best movies EVER]
27) All Us Curly-Haired People [whose hair frizzes like crazy this time of year]
28) Best Show Ever: Robot Chicken [love it!]
29) Grand Island: Better Than The Mainland [the place I spent the first five years of my life]
30) I'm A Klutz And I'm OK With That [says she who recently fell down the stairs]
31) Digital Scrapbooking
32) Yinz guys speak Pittsburghese N'at? [a tribute to the place where I spent my middle school and high school years]
33) Best Decade Ever: The 80s In Music [two words for you: Duran Duran]
34) It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia [love this show]
35) Actually NO ~ I am not attempting to impress you with my eloquent vocabulary [well, maybe I am, kinda]
36) Crowded House Appreciation Group
37) EVERYBODY LOVES A ∆Z [still claiming my allegiance, despite the recent brou ha ha]
38) Digital Scrapbooking (yes a second one by the same name)
39) Cinnabon Lovers [a million calories of cinnamon goodness in every bun]
40) If You Think Krista Is A Beautiful Name [it is, isn't it?]
41) Do They Turn Niagara Falls Off At Night? [because somebody really did ask me that once...]
42) My middle name is Marie.....oh yours is too?! [anyone else reading this share it with me?]
43) It's Cause I'm Tall [I blame all sorts of stuff on my height.]

I'm popping in to say hello on a Saturday. I know, I know... crazy. After running some errands earlier, Mike and I spent a lovely afternoon next door at a cookout at our neighbors' house. They have a fantastic group of friends who we've gotten to know in the four years we've lived here, and we always have a great time when we hang out at their house. We spent the afternoon laughing and enjoying watching the kids run around. Kids are more entertaining than movies or TV any day.

So I've been thinking about my blog a lot lately. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. I read a comment somewhere recently (don't recall where offhand) where someone was saying that they hated when bloggers apologized for not posting. Gosh, I'm guilty of that... a LOT. Well, that got me to thinking. That and reading Somerset Studio's new magazine, Artful Blogging.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about why I blog. Why I enjoy it. And how, since this blog is for ME, I don't have to apologize to anyone when I don't post. I don't have to apologize to anyone when I don't have freebies. I don't have to apologize to anyone when I talk way more about Neil Finn than a person should (although, frankly, I don't think it's possible to have too much Neil, well, EVER). These things are hard for me to admit. I'm a Virgo. I'm anal retentive. And very demanding of myself. A perfectionist, if you will.

I've been reminding myself the past few days that this blog is something I do for fun. It's something I do for me. The fact that there are people reading it is way cool, but that's not why I blog. Blogging for me is my version of journaling. I never kept a diary or a journal growing up, but I have come to realize, in the almost year and a half of blogging I've been doing, that I really enjoy the process. I love just popping on here to babble about whatever. I've always been a writer, and being able to do something for me, with words, is just yummy. And necessary.

It's been a trying week. The computer shift (old to new) took a lot of time and effort. I was forgetting to smell the flowers a lot this past week. I've been in a bit of a funk anyway (hormonal mostly) and missing my Grandma a lot lately. I think about her every day. I have things that I want to tell her about and stuff that I want to show her. Things that happen that I know she would find funny. And I can hear her laugh in my head. I've been dreaming dreams with her in them really frequently. I find this both reassuring (because I've gotten to see her) and very sad, because I wake up and she's gone.

The other night, we were going to bed, and I'd opened the windows in the bedroom since it had gotten cooler outside. I could hear the crickets outside... they were really loud. And I said to Mike that the sound of crickets reminds me of my grandparents' house. I have very fond memories of visits to my grandparents' house when I was growing up, and we'd often sit out on their screened-in porch after dark, rocking in those chairs made out of that webbed criss-crossed material on metal frames. They'd often be squeaky. And the crickets, oh, the crickets would be loud because it was summer. Sometimes you could hear the bullfrogs at the creek a few doors down.

And we'd sit out there for hours sometimes. Telling stories. Talking. Laughing. The sound of crickets makes me think of those wonderful times. The sound of crickets the other night made me think of my Grandma. And it actually made me smile... to have such wonderful memories of time I got to spend with her.

Isn't it so very cool how small details can ignite memories like that?