Sponsor for the week... Check this out and win a prize!

Hello there Scrap Fans!
Today I want to let you know about a great scrapping and card site where there some great sketches posted.  And, they have weekly contests and challenges and lots of fun!

This week I am the sponsor.  Since I am a consultant for MemoryWorks I have donated a prize of the new SimpleStories set.  What a great kit this is.  Bottom line,  use this kit and have guilt free scrapping and great results.  You can see the sample at Let's Scrap  and get your chance to win by making a layout based on Cheri's great sketch.

You can also learn more about MemoryWorks and SimpleStories and place an order by visiting my website at Ann's MemoryWorks Website

Thanks a bunch!  Have a scrappy day!

I have been picked to be on a Design Team. (My 1st one!)

Well, I am happy to say that my hard work has paid off. I am now part of the 4th Term Design Team over at Just My Sketches We have been given our first assignment and I will be starting on it tomomrrow.
I am proud to say that I will be working with many, many talented ladies and some are even MemoryWorks Consultants like me!  Please go on over to Just My Sketches  and check it out and be sure to be a follower there too!  I hope that my scrappy friends will join in the sketches and challenges.

For my non-scrappy friends, I will explain what being on a Design Team entails for me.  We have a lovely Blog Hostess named Deanne and she makes sketches to be used for layouts and cards. I am on the Design Team for Layouts.  Deanne will give us sketches each month and we will make layouts and then post them on her blog.

I will also post links to my team-mates' blogs, as well.  Stop by and say hi and tell them Ann sent you!

Till next time.....
Ann

I am going to be published.... thank you Grandma Maggie!

For the last month I have been making scrapbook layouts like crazy.  I have been trying my hand at Design Team Calls for blogs and websites and I  have sent items to just one magazine, Scrapbook News and Review.  So far, I have not had the pleasure of being picked for a design team but I keep trying. Plus, it gives me an excuse to actually get out my stuff and create!  However, I did get notice just a week ago that I will be published in the one magazine I tried for.  Not only will one layout be published but a book I created called "It's Me, Ann Marie".

These two projects have a few things in common: the layout is a single black and white 8 x 10 portrait of me at about 18 months.  And the book was made from old pictures of me from birth to 14 weeks.  These pictures all came from my Grandma Stauffer.  In fact, the booklet pictures were actually in her grandma brag book.  So it is with great honor that I dedicate the publication of these items to my 90 year old grandma, Maggie.  Without whom, I wouldn't have a million pictures to scrapbook.  She always had a camera, most likely the latest model, in her hand no matter where she was.  She could be at a family reunion, going for a boat cruise with friends in Florida and even taking my only other female cousin shopping when she was young.

I also want to thank her because I believe I get my strength and my emerging independence from her as well.  These are the things that are allowing me to try my hand at my new found hobby and pursue other avenues with it.  I know I have her artsy talent, as well as Grandpa Stauffer's.  This is talent that sat dormant until 2 years ago.  So thank you to my grandpa up in Heaven and to my dear grandma in Ohio.  I love you both!

"He ain't human, he's my doggie"....

Those of you who know me well, know that I have a 6 1/2 year old toy poodle named Charlie.  He is a a wonderful little dog and he is my faithful companion.  Nobody, sadly, gets as excited to see me when I am gone, than Charlie.  He jumps up and down and runs circles until I pick him up and then he gives me little doggie kisses.

He came to us after our first toy poodle, Punkin'  got run over by a neighbor. We only had him for a month and he was a rescue dog that we got at the Humane Society in Muscatine.  We really didn't get a good chance to show him how much we loved him.

I was so distraught about this, I searched for another one at all the local shelters and came up with nothing.  Then I saw a website for Daisy Hill Farms.  They are a poodle breeder from North Dakota.  Incidentally, Daisy Hill is the name of the place that Snoopy from Charlie Brown came from.

The owner of the farm was so nice to me and she worked it out so I could get one of their puppies.  We named him Charlie for a number of reasons:

• my grandpa's name was Charles and when I was growing up and my uncle lived at home, they had a black poodle named Puff that I adored.
• Charlie is the name of the head dog from All Dogs go to Heaven, which we had to watch over and over because of Punkin' dying and the kids at 2 1/2 and 5 1/2 needed that movie to help them get over the situation.

• And lastly, because of the name of the farm where the dog came from having an association with Charlie Brown

So by now you are wondering what the point of this post is, right?  O.k.  the point is that I had a bad day today because my dog had a seizure and it scared me.  Now, this time last year Griffin was diagnosed with seizures and I knew from going through that with him, what was going on with Charlie. Nonetheless, it was still very scary.  The timing wasn't so good either.  It was 3:15 and I was needing to go to the Middle School to pick up Griffin from band lessons.  By the time I grabbed my coat and keys the seizure was over. I scooped Charlie up and ran out the door to pick Griffin up.

We took him to the vet and the Dr. said he was looking good and wouldn't have known anything was wrong with him if I hadn't seen it. In other words, he seemed normal.  But we put him on medicine for a few days and then we will run blood tests to see what that tells us.

My problem is that my dog is my dog first and then Griffin's.  He just loves me and the kids but my husband, growing up on a farm, just doesn't see animals as pets for some reason.  He has never liked my dog and I don't have the slightest idea why.  NOTHING upsets me more about my hubby than this attitude he has.  He would let the dog die before giving me the money to do something medical for the dog. Grrrrrrrrr, I say.

So like a mother when her baby is sick, I can't do enough for my little fur ball.  I don't want to leave him because I think something might happen to him.  I am going to go now and try to figure out how to give him his medicine.  Please pray that this dog has nothing serious, because I know how I will feel, but the kids would really take it hard.

As Seen on TV

Today my husband called me and told me he was bringing me home a surprise.  Funny how he doesn't just bring it to me, he has to call me to tell me it will be a surprise.  Anyhow, the surprise was The Perfect Brownie Pan.  Yep.. and the 2nd part of the surprise was that he made Ghiradelli dark chocolate brownies... mmmmm  He wants everyone to know that this is an item that actually does what the tv commercial says it will do.  Really, he told me to tell everyone.  So there you have it!  Fresh from the horse's mouth! Oh wait, would that be me calling him a horse and looking the gift horse in the mouth?
Ponder that :)

and buy it locally... ask me where... save the shipping and handling and buy scrapbook stuff instead!  LOL

Please visit my new MemoryWorks Store

It is almost 4 in the morning and I am STILL up.  Yes, I am STILL up because I haven't been to bed yet.  I do get to accomplish so much more when I stay up late.  I feel more creative and I think I have created some of my best layouts in the middle of the night.  There are no interruptions from the phone, or kids or someone at the door.  The other thing is, I don't feel so guilty surfing the net at night and updating galleries and such.  I also get laundry done and folded better this way too. But.... I don't want this to be the norm anymore.  I need to get back to staying up til just maybe 11 or 12 and getting up and staying up at 6:30 with the kids.  If I have to say that I am making a resolution in 2010, I guess going to bed earlier and getting up earlier, would be it.  I would love to say I will lose weight and exercise more but let's just say  I could do that but it doesn't need to be a resolution to break.

So the title of this post is telling you about my new MemoryWorks online store.Ann's Scraps of Time  Now, you can go there and order direct and have it shipped to you at your home.  If you haven't seen the products we carry, you really should go there.  We have many of the items you already know and love and sometimes can't even find locally.  My favorite line right now would be anything from Sassafras Lass.  I will post my latest project that I made over the weekend with the line called Amplify.

MemoryWorks is about to launch something wonderful.  The new line called Simple Stories will be our exclusive product.  This will especially appeal to those who want to try their hand at scrapbooking but don't have the time or know where to start, or even feel overwhelmed by all the choices out there.  It is truly an innovative idea and great way to get an album done in one sitting, REALLY!  Click on the blinkie and you will see what I mean.

These are challenges from a weekend cyber crop at ScrapFit. 

The first one is from my twins' 5th birthday and uses Amplify from Sassafras Lass, which I love!  ( I think I said that already, sorry)

The second one is a picture of a butterfly I took at the Butterfly Festival in August when visiting in Ohio.  It is my first attempt at wildlife photos and I guess it turned out ok.  The items used are from the current MemoryWorks Express kit of the month club and just went on sale to non-subscribers.  You can purchase this from my site.  You can also subscribe to future kits. I have seen a sneak peak of February and it is really neat!

The next layout is from the September MemoryWorks Express kit.  The pictures show my kids and my sister-in-law, Pam who comes "home" to Iowa every year. This was at the Dubuque botanical gardens.

The last one is using Basic Grey's Marakesch line.  I got it in a grab bag from MemoryWorks.  $5 and I got the whole theme set plus stickers and a few other goodies.  (worth over $20).  The pictures are from Disney on Ice in December on Scout Night.  The girls are my twins and their friend and our down the street neighbor.  They were really acting goofy after the show so I just snapped these.  The challenge theme was laugh, so this is what I came up with.

Until next time, which I hope won't be 3 weeks like the last time.....
Thanks for Looking!