I'm Game - One Word Meme

I got this from my RCU friend Paige's blog - it looked like fun - and since I don't have many words to spare - it seemed fitting. Why don't you try it? Yes YOU.

YOU CAN ONLY TYPE ONE WORD!
Not as easy as you might think. Now copy or forward to at least 10 people. Change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers. Let me know if you're doing one! I'd love to see your answers!

1. Where is your cell phone? desk
2. Your significant other? verbose
3. Your hair? ponytail
4. Your mother? absent
5. Your father? crusty

6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? none
9. Your dream/goal? writing
10. The room you're in? bedroom

12. Your fear? uncertainty
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you're not? thin
15. Muffins? maple

16. One of your wish list items? RV
17. Where you grew up? scattered
18. The last thing you did? dishes
19. What are you wearing? pjs
20. Your TV? off

21. Your pets? numerous
22. Your computer? companion
23. Your life? good
24. Your mood? sleepy
25. Missing someone? many

26. Your car? parked
27. Something you're not wearing? bra
28. Favorite store? Borders
29. Your summer? over

30. Do you love someone? many
31. Your favorite color? brown
32. When is the last time you laughed? minutes
33. Last time you cried? today
34. Who will repost this? unknown

Random Things About Me

I was tagged for this meme by Stephanie, however, since I have done something like this before, I thought I would reference an archived post.
There are a few other things.......

• I have a bit of OCD about my bed being made - and being tightly tucked in when I am in bed and have been known to pull all the covers off and remake the bed around my sleeping husband
• I love to go barefoot and never wear shoes in the house, but I cannot stand dirt on my feet or wet socks - ugh

I am sure that those who love me can think of many more - so if you know me and know something weird about me - feel free to comment and add it here.

10-20-30

I saw this on Annie's blog and decided it was interesting enough to post about while I wait for a YouTube video I have been trying to load since last night to be complete. (It is not YouTube's fault - it is totally my wireless signal that is behaving like a schizophrenic child!) You are supposed to post where you were 10-20-and 30 years ago.

• 10 years ago: I was living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia with my husband, 2 daughters and one month old son. We were actually in and out of the hospital and doctor's offices a lot because Kullen had newborn apnea - and they were looking into any possible medical explanation for it.
• 20 years ago: I was in my senior year of high school. I wish I could say I was having fun - but I was pretty much surviving. I was living with my aunt and uncle in West Virginia - and working, trying to decide what I was going to do with my life, and hoping I actually got one eventually that was mine, and not an extension of someone else's.
  
• 30 years ago: I was in 2nd grade in Mrs. Longobardi's class at Sunshine Elementary in South Florida.
  

Scrap Happy - Week 13

I had a great time making this page today - commemorating my youngest daughter's 14th birthday. It did however take me hours to figure out how to blur the edges and fade her picture into the background. But it was so awesome once I figured it out. There was a lot of experimenting with techniques, brushes etc. I got some of my ideas from tutorials in the Digital Scrapbooking magazine. If you haven't heard of it and you are a digital scrapbooker - I highly recommend it. There's lots of fun pages, samples, contests, and reader pages. Wow!
This week you'll actually get to see TWO pages - pretty much the same page with two different pictures. She didn't like the picture I had in the first one (posted at the bottom) and so I redid the page with another picture. We both like the second one better. But I got her permission to share them both with you so you could see the difference. I made the first one in black and white - or actually sepia tone. It is truly the most "artsy" page I've ever made - and of course I had to because Kaitlyn is my little artiste! The picture in the first page really does go better with the overall theme of the page as well! Happy Birthday my Kaity-bug!

And yet another page that I had to make for my birthday girl - I've had a very productive scrapbookin' day!
I can't wait to see the pages y'all are making this week. Please link them up here!
Happy Scrappin'!

Scrap Happy - Week 12

I have been making new pages the past couple weeks - and it makes me so happy to just have a leisurely pace to work on them - and yet a motivator such as this meme! Even though there aren't many participants yet, I hope you will continue to put the word out about this for other scrapbookers - so that we can all get ideas and inspiration. My sister-in-law Vonda is an avid scrapbooker, and just being with her makes me want to scrapbook even more!
Here is this week's page:I had a lot of fun making this page from a terrific picture my daughter Kaitlyn took. She has a very artistic eye, however, I think this photo was done much by accident! However, I found it difficult to locate the perfect papers and elements for this picture. There isn't much scrapbooking stuff out there for "teen-boys".
I can't wait to see your pages this week!
Happy Scrappin'!

Scrap Happy - Week 11

I am back! It is only Sunday and I am already prepared for the Scrap Happy meme tomorrow! I even made a BRAND NEW page! Woo hoo! I have so little creative energy sometimes - and most of it is being invested in writing projects right now - but it was so nice to get a scrapbooking fix!
I took this fantastic picture of my girls with two of their bestest friends in the whole wide world when we were in WV in May-June. I love taking pictures - and they seem to capture happy memories, as well as sad ones. This was the day we were supposed to be packing the car, but the friends came over and we couldn't get things packed up - because we really didn't want to leave our friends!
Since were are here talking about this meme, would y'all like it if we had a "challenge" - some themes we could work towards occasionally - but you didn't have to work on that theme unless you wanted to - or would you prefer to keep this totally open all the time to anything people want to post??? Just a thought.
Happy Scrappin'!

Scrap Happy - Week 9

Hey everybody!
I'm just a bit late putting this up today! Sorry - things have been crazy. I'm dealing with a sick girl, piles of laundry, work and all kinds of other stuff! Here is a page for the week - it is still not a new one, however we did get my Adobe Photoshop reloaded when we took our computer back to XP - so next week should bring a new page or two or three! (I'm getting way ahead of myself!)
I did not make this page. It was created by my sister-in-law Vonda. I hope that she won't be upset that I am using it here. She is very talented. I will link to her gallery here once she sends me the link I lost when my computer crashed! She is a very special person in my life - and is responsible along with her mother for turning me on to digital scrapbooking. It is a hobby and a passion that we share and enjoy. I loved it when she made this page of the two of us. I will always treasure it. I am glad that we have had a chance to get to know each other, and I do count her as my sister in my heart!
Thanks Vonda for sharing this love of scrapbooking with me!
Happy Scrappin'!

Apology to Scrappers

I am so sorry - with the holiday weekend - I completely forgot about Scrap Happy. One of my commenters reminded me about it - but alas it was too late when I received the comment. Stay tuned - we will be back after this slightly unscheduled break!
I WILL get things back to a regular basis - and you will NOT have to always remind me! I am so sorry people - I am usually on top of things - but lately - ugh! My "computer doctor" (a/k/a fantabulous hubby!) is at work as I type this!

PLEASE Help Me Advertise!

Dear Reader,
Hi there!
If you are visiting this blog - perhaps you have your own blog, no? I need some other bloggers to help me get the word out about my Scrap Happy Meme. Even if you don't scrapbook, if you would be willing to put up a post about the meme, or link it on your side bar - it would be so great! There is a button and a banner that you could grab and link up. If you need me to email you the link - please feel free to request that as well in the comments or by sending me an email at julientexas at sbcglobal dot net.
I'd appreciate it so much!
Thanks ~ Jewls

What Does a Good Blog Make?

That was a pretty backwards way to ask the question inspired by an email conversation I have been having with my friend Leslie at Raise the Cup. We were discussing blog traffic and what keeps people coming to your blog. She has several blogs and prefers blogs that are singularly focused on - politics, homeschooling, home-making, homesteading, current events, etc. I personally get bored with these blogs (not hers of course - I read ALL of them!). I do not repeat visit blogs that are about the same thing all the time, generally. There are some that have drawn me in, but I tend to visit, skim, and leave. The Google Reader has made this easy - I just glance the content and decide if I want to read more, visit, leave a comment, etc. Leslie and I both agreed that we find it ever so boring to visit a blog that is nothing more than memes - with nothing in between. I enjoy Thursday Thirteen and Slow Cookin' Thursday (evidently Thursday is my day for memes!) but there seems to be themes for every day of the week. I only participate in the ones that I find personally enjoyable. But if I stumble on a blog that is nothing but Secret Sunday, Manic Monday, Ta Da Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday...(you get the picture) - I likely won't return. I like memes - don't get me wrong - I'm even starting my own - but if that's all there is it gets rather boring. I like things that are a little more personal than that. Everybody is different, but I was wondering if I could get some input from readers - what do you like or dislike about certain blogs? Does finding someone's household schedule make you want to pluck your eyes out with a spoon, or does it encourage you to get your own act together? Do you find the rantings of political blogs monotonous or are they inspiring? What brings you back to a blog and makes you want to read more? Do you like one theme or a variety? Just thought maybe you would like to join our conversation and that we could all learn from each other.

Scrap Happy Meme

Another lovely banner by the one and only Goofy Girl!

Are you a digital scrapper or a paper scrapper with the computer savvy to scan and post your pages? Well this meme is for you! I want to pull our collective talents together to wow and inspire one another. All it requires is a weekly scrapbook page to post, and a blog where other participants can go and view it.
I don't care what size your pages are, what programs you use, or any of those technical things - feel free to post them to share with others if you'd like - but the purpose, the real deal behind this is to inspire one another toward creativity. So if you want to share where you got a certain kit, element, font, etc. feel free to share those things. If you want to explain how you were inspired to create your layout by a piece of architecture, puffy clouds or a grape juice stain on the carpet - share away. If you would like to include a tutorial for a certain technique that you used - teach us! Nothing is required however, except that you post a page to share each week and link back here in the Scrap Happy Mister Linky so that the rest of us can visit you!
I think it is important to state that I do not work for any scrapbooking-related company, have my own company or care about the who, what or where you buy your scrapbooking stuff. If I point to a specific supplier, or product, it will be because I like it - and for absolutely no other reason! There is nothing to sell or buy here - so just imagine us as a bunch of scrapbookin' friends getting together for a crop - and showing off our pages each week.
I started scrapbooking almost 10 years ago now, making my first pages when I was pregnant with my now 9 year old son. I have two huge-mongous albums to attest to my serious paper-scrappin' habit. However, the house we lived in at the time was around 900 square feet - so you can imagine, I didn't have a room or studio to set up, and honestly after I got it all drug out, and got the things out that I wanted to use, there was no creativity left in me! A year and a half ago my mother-in-law and sister-in-law introduced me to digital scrapbooking, and I love it!
Here are some of my pages -

The Joy of Sisters - about my kids

My Thoughts of You - a tribute to my father-in-law
It's Gonna Be a Cary Christmas - spending Christmas with my BIL

These are just the pages that I have posted since I started this blog in January of this year. I have plenty of others that I will share as time goes on. I plan on using weeks where I can't get to making a new page to post one of these old ones. I linked to these just to give you an idea of how a post should look - but this is your deal - create, inspire and dazzle us!
Scrap Happy - week #1 will commence on Monday, April 16th. This will give you plenty of time to make pages from those awesome Easter photos that you're sure to take this weekend, or whatever else creative you might put together! Be ready to come back here that day and post the link to your page in the Scrap Happy Mister Linky.
If you're interested in publicizing this, feel free to grab the banner and link it back to this post or email me at julientexas at sbcglobal dot net and I will be glad to send it to you via email.
Goofy Girl is working on a button for us as well!
Now that you're all inspired to scrapbook, let me point out a really beautiful Hoppy Spring Easter kit that I found at Cottage Arts! I can't wait to scrap some spring/Easter pictures with that!
Leave me a comment here to let me know that you are hoping to participate!
Happy Scrappin'!

Credit for the sample pages here go to (in order):
My mother-in-law, Myrtice Forsythe created the first two with the old-tyme flair
My sister-in-law, Vonda Bearden created the page with my daughter when she was about 4
My husband's aunt, Julia Cook made the page with the filmstrip of her grandson
and last is my page created a year ago for my daughter's 15th birthday - I used her wrapping paper for the background! You can click on any of them to enlarge them and look at them a little better.