Good Food Friday and a QP freebie

It's been a long time, so this is going to be a huge post today.  Are you ready?  Okay, here we go.  It is good food Friday, so there's that, too.  Today's good food isn't so much a recipe as a yummy combination of convenience items for those days when there's just no time to make dinner.  Yesterday, for example, I was busy scrapping this page for the first event of the olympics at Brownie Scraps and didn't stop to make dinner. 

Isn't that kit fabulous?  It's "Get Lucky" by Flutterbye Faery Designs and Scrappin Daisies, and it was just one of the perks of the Brownie Addiction Club.  This month we had a QP exchange, and this page will be offered as QP for March members.  Yet another perk of the addict membership.  April memberships are for sale now, so if I were you, I'd jump over there and become an addict!  Here's more info:

Purchase your membership before the 1st of April, and you can get this awesome membership for ONLY $6! AND you get a FREE mini just for purchasing your membership!  So go HERE and purchase your membership before the price goes up to $9!

I also want to tell you about a fabulous deal from Marni Designs.  She has not one but TWO awesome boy kits just released on Monday. 
Little Buddy

and Little Boy Blue

Awesome, right?  They're $6 each or you can get both together for $8!!!  What a deal!!

Here are some pages I made with these great kits.  I don't have any boys to scrap, and these kits were still so much fun to play with.

We're almost to the end of this massively long post.  I just need to give you some links to snag those fabulous boy kits and a "recipe" for some good food today.  So here are the links for these awesome kits and the whole bundle:

Little Buddy

Little Boy Blue

Little Bundle

Oh, and everything in March's store is 38% off through Saturday, so you can save even MORE money on these fabulous kits.  Seriously, you'd be nuts not to take advantage of this!! ;)  And here's a quick and easy dinner you can throw together when you can't rip yourself away from your scrapping in time to cook.

Chicken Club Pizza
(Amounts are to taste - whatever you want!)  Preheat oven to 425.  Take a tube of refrigerated pizza crust (Pillsbury) and spread over a cookie sheet.  Spread with alfredo sauce.  Cover with a monterrey jack/cheddar cheese blend.  Debone a rotisserie chicken, cut into chunks and spread over cheese.  Take a bottle of bacon pieces (not the nasty fake stuff like Bacos, but the real bacon pieces) and sprinkle over the pizza.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  While it bakes, dice an avocado, tomato and green or red onion and mix.  Sprinkle that yummy mixture over the pizza when it comes out of the oven and enjoy!

And since you made it through this ridiculously long post, I'm going to throw in a QP freebie that comes from this LO I made with Marni Designs' Color Me Happy.  It's also on sale for 38% off right now if you want to hop over here and snag it.  QP download link is here.  Enjoy!

Perfect Day QP #3

"Word Art Wednesday" can be roughly translated to mean I-give-something-away-free Day.  Yay!  There's not much going on today.  I'm off to preschool in a little while to be the parent helper - which usually means indentured servant who cuts out tiny shapes for two hours.  Cutting for two hours is not fun for my carpal tunnel, but it's the trade-off for the free preschool.  I've been working a little every day on getting my house cleaned out and ready to sell.  We have SO MUCH STUFF!!!  It's a little bit ridiculous.  I have two HUGE boxes ready to go to storage that I pulled out of one closet yesterday.

Let's see, what else?  Oh yeah, Marni Designs has this FABULOUS boy kit coming out later this month.  It's kind of early to show you a sneak peek, but I know a lot of scrappers search high and low for good boy kits so I thought you'd appreciate the inside tip.  It will be released on the 15th, so this won't be the last time you'll hear something about it from me.

And now on to the freebie.  I've given you two QPs from March's One Perfect Day, and today I'll give you the third and final one.  Here's my LO of my second and third little cuties.  Lately they can't be in the same room without fighting, so I did this LO to remind myself - and them - of what sweet sisters they can be.

If you want to check out the Perfect Day kit, you can find it here.  If you want the QP version of my page, you can download it here, and please don't forget to leave some love.  You can find the other two QPs here and here.  Have a great day, and I'll see you tomorrow for Thank You Thursday!

P.S. Today is the last day to get Color Me Happy for 35% off, so hurry on over and pick up this gorgeous kit!!  Pictures and links are in yesterday's post.

STS Blog Train - French Tulips

For Me Time this Monday morning, we're focusing on my dream of learning to design.  I've been involved in one little designer "academy" at Brownie Scraps put on by Fairytale Beginnings and I didn't even finish the kit I was working on, so this is the first time I've ever finished anything!  Yay! :) 

Before we get to that, though, I want to show you this fabulous new kit.  I teased you with the sneak peek a few days ago, and here's the full preview:

Fabulous, eh?  It's a collab from Marni Designs and Designs by Anja J, and it's so colorful and fun.  You definitely want to add it to your kit collection and make some awesome LOs with it!  Here's one I did.

You can find Color Me Happy here in March's store at Brownie Scraps.  It's 35% off until Wednesday, so hurry and snag it now!

Now on to my designing dream.  I am so excited about my first ever blog train!  I just recently started playing around with designing, so I promise to keep practicing and get better.  I've got to admit, I love my papers, but my elements are mostly just CU recolored and modified when required.  There are only a few I made myself.  So I'll keeep working on that...  I really loved this palette and theme.  I'm sure you've already collected some fabulous pieces along the way.  Here's my part:

There are 8 papers and 15 elements.  This kit is PU/S4H/S4O use only.  You can donwload here:

French Tulips Download

Here's the rest of the train.  Have a fun trip and don't forget to leave some love when you download!

SAHM Scrapper
Nibbles Skribbles
Scrappin' Serenity
Craft With Me
Christin's Creations
Scraps N Pieces
B2N2 Scraps
Shel Belle Scraps
Saphira's Scrapdesign
Let Me Scrapbook!
Grandmas Templates
Where The Heart Is
Jensen Motley Crew Designs
The Scrappy Kat
Always Be Neighbors Designs
Scrap Attack-Designs by Beth
Scrapping Sisters
Seal Scraps
manda lane scraps
Ányi + a digitális scrapbooking
Pages N Memories
Flower Scraps
Arizona Sweetheart Scraps - YOU ARE HERE
Just For Fun

Nothing says thank you like a QP freebie

Hooray for Thank You Thursday!  I love taking some time every day to think of what I'm thankful for and sharing some of those gratitudes with my bloggy friends once a week.  Of course, as soon as I start typing, my mind completely goes blank and I can't remember a single thing I was going to say.  Does that happen to anyone else?  So while I'm thinking, let me show you a fun sneak peek.

Doesn't that look amazing?  Believe me, you WANT to get your hands on this kit!  It's a collab by Marni Designs and  Designs by Anja J, and it's FABULOUS!  It's called Color Me Happy, and it really is very colorful and very happy.  You will love it!

That reminds me of one of my gratitudes today.  A big thank you to March for including me in her CT.  It is so fun to work with such a fun designer!  I love the other fun ladies on the CT, and of course it's a blast to work with her awesome kits!  She has a kit in her store that is one of the very first ones she ever made - it was for a design challenge.  I made a few pages with it and offered one as a QP here.  Today I'm offering another one as a QP just to say thanks to you for visiting today.  Here's my page:

And here's the download link.  I left the title on so you can use it to scrap one of your silly pictures, too.  I love that her shirt says "boys are like so whatever" - so perfect for this page. lol!

My other big gratitude today is for 4 identical blankets my hubby's grandma gave the girls for Christmas a few years ago. 

My youngest adopted them as her own blankies, and oh my goodness it's nice to have 4 favorite blankies.  We keep one in the car, one in her bed, and two roam the house.  One can be in the wash or even lost without all the trauma that usually goes along with missing the favorite blankie.  I think that's going to be my stand-by baby shower gift from now on -- four identical blankets.  It's one of the best baby secrets I know!

Please, oh, please leave me a little note if you download, or even if you didn't because you hated it, I think I'd like to know that, too.  And don't forget to tell me what you're thankful for today!

Word Art Wednesday

Starting out with a little reminder.  Remember Be Mine by Marni Designs?

There are only a few days left to get a great discount on this fun kit with this coupon code:

 

It's only good through February, so head on over to her store right now and get a great deal on this fabulous kit!  While you're there, you may want to snag her newest kit, Peaceful. 

Isn't that gorgeous?  She's offering this beautiful kit for only $2.50.  What a steal!  Here's another page I made with it.

You can go to the gallery to read the journaling.  And finally, now that you've made it through all of that, here's the freebie for today for scrapping your cute little thumb suckers.

Here's the download link.  Remember to leave some love if you like it either here or at 4shared if you download, and especially let me know if you use it!  I'd love to see what you do with my creations!  And while we're talking about freebies, March of Marni Designs has a freebie template on the Brownie Scraps blog.  She makes fabulous templates!  In fact, my Tasty Thumb LO was made with one of her templates.  So go check out her template and you'll find another fun treat - a 50% off coupon for one of her awesome kits!  Go now!  (After you leave some love, of course.)  And I'll see you back here tomorrow for Thank You Thursday.

Off-Topic Tuesday Tips and a Freebie

Last night for family night, we had a really fun activity.  Some families like to hike mountains, some like to camp in the  mountains.  Well, we decided to tackle a mountain, too... this one:

I know, I know, what am I doing blogging when I have mountains like that in my living room?  I really should have had one of the kids stand next to it so you could really get an idea of the size.  I'm surprised anyone in the house had clothes left in their drawers to wear when this many were piled on the couch waiting to be folded.  It would have taken me all day of folding, while watching a few of my favorite movies -- really not such a bad way to spend a day.  But instead, we gathered our gaggle of girls and got it all folded and put away in less than an hour.  Even all the socks from this mountain and the mismatched sock basket got mated and deposited into the correct drawers in that time.  I wish I would have remembered to take an after shot when half of the living room floor was full of piles.  I did make some chocolate cupcakes to sweeten the night, and so I could feel better about myself as a mother. 

So here's my off-topic question today for off-topic Tuesday, how do you handle chores in your house?  Obviously I could use a lot of improvement in this area of my life, so give me some pointers.  I don't necessarily need to live in a museum, but we probably shouldn't have mountains of unfolded laundry taking up all of our seating space.  To get things started, I'll share a tip of my own.  One thing we do well is morning jobs.  The kids have their morning routine that they do pretty well, and part of it is one little job.  We keep track of whose turn it is with this adorable job chart. 

I just love how happy they look to do their jobs!  The circle of heads rotates, and when we first started it they were so excited to see where their head was pointing that morning.  I always love the start of a new gimmick.  Now it's lost some of its novelty, but it's still working.  What I love most about it is that it keeps on working without me having to do much of anything.  We've tried many, many chore charts in the 10+ years I've been a mom, and sometimes they're so complicated they take more time than they're worth.  This one is simple and effective.

I would really love to hear your tips.  How do you handle the chores in your house?  Or do you do it all yourself?  How do you do that without getting upset with the people who are making all the messes?  I went to a class once where a lady was teaching about this subject and said we need to remember when we're cleaning our teenagers' rooms again that we're doing it because we love them.  I'm sorry, but I don't believe in cleaning my teenagers' rooms and I think it would be more loving of me to teach them how to work for themselves.  Of course, I don't have a teenager yet, so it's easy for me to say that now... 

Leave me a comment and tell me what you think, offer a tip, or just mock me for that mountain of laundry I made my family fold for family night. (It was my husband's idea, by the way... He was probably tired of searching through the pile for matching socks every morning.)  I changed the settings so it's easier to leave a comment now - no code word to type, no pop-up boxes, no excuses.  :)  Make sure you leave me a way to contact you, and here's what I'll give you in return... the template for my chore chart!  

Yay for templates!  It's in .psd format in layers so all you have to do is insert your pictures and print it out.  Just make sure you use really happy pictures of your kids so they think doing their chores makes them happy! :)

Freebie Friday

This week has been crazy!  So we're making today Freebie Friday.  Yay for freebies!  Today is the release of a new kit by Marni Designs called Peaceful.  Remember the sneak peak?  Well, here's the full preview.  Isn't it fabulous?

It's in her store today for only $2.50!  Click --> here <-- to check it out.  Here's a page I made with it.

So to go along with this great kit, I made this Peace word art pack.  These are for PU/S4H use only.

You can download them here, and I'd love to see what you do with them!  I'll be back later to show you what I did with them.  Have a great day!

Be Mine word art

Hello bloggy internet friends!  How much do you love speed scraps?  If you're like me, you like them a lot, a lot!  So I thought you'd also like it a lot, a lot if I shared with you the schedule of speed scraps the Brownie Supremes are putting on this month at Brownie Scraps.  The first one was on Saturday, but there are FOUR MORE this month - including one tonight!  Yay for speed scraps!

And now, it's Word Art Wednesday, so I made a cute little word art to go with this fun kit by Marni Designs that just came out a few days ago.

You can also use it for the "Cherry On Top" challenge at Brownie Scraps which you can find here.

You can download the png file here.  Please remember it's for personal use only.  I would love to see what you do with it!  Leave me a comment with a link to where you posted your page or send me an email.  The whole kit is so much fun to play with!  You can use this coupon for the month of February to get $2 off!

How cute is that little love bird?  I'm telling you, this is a super cute kit!  Hop on over here and check it out!  Don't forget your coupon code!

Arizona Sweetheart

Good morning, Internets! Today is the very first “Me Time Monday” at AZ Sweetheart Scraps. ‘Cuz really, who doesn’t want to hear all about me?? Today I’m going to tell you the little story about where AZ Sweetheart Scraps came from.

Once upon a time when I was in fourth grade, the mandatory grade school curriculum required us to study the great state of Arizona. That’s when I first learned that Arizona had a nickname I had never imagined! I knew all about the Grand Canyon, which was up to that point our only claim to fame – or so I thought.  Did you know that Arizona officially became a state on Valentine's Day?  When I was in jr. high and thought I was oh so clever, I used to wish everyone a happy Arizona Statehood Day instead of Valentine's Day.  Oh my, yes, was I clever!  Anyway, that's how Arizona earned it's little-known nickname of the Sweetheart State.  It was also the 48th state to be admitted to the union, followed by Alaska 47 years later, so it was called the Baby State for awhile, but I didn't want to be AZ Baby Scraps.

So back to our story...  Several years later that 4th grader had grown up (or so she thought) and was off to college.  It was there that she met a boy and fell fast and hard for that boy.  She tried to charm him one day with her obscure knowledge of Arizona state nicknames.  The boy was charmed, oh yes he was.  And from then on he called her his Arizona Sweetheart.

Touching story, eh?  I also thought you might like to see what’s in store on this little blog. I’m an obsessive planner and organizer, so naturally I have a schedule all ready (and the next few blog posts just waiting to be posted and read by you!). I’m also a bit of a perfectionist, so this isn’t set in stone, and let's face it, I'm a woman and therefore change my mind frequently – but here’s what I have in mind for the near future.

Monday = Me Time Monday – cuz who doesn’t love to hear all about me, me, ME?
Tuesday = Off-Topic Tuesday – fun finds out in the internets that have nothing to do with scrapping
Wednesday = Word Art Wednesday – fun freebies that may or may not coordinate with fun kits
Thursday = Thank You Thursday – what are you grateful for?
Friday = Good Food Friday – even scrappers have to eat sometimes
Saturday/Sunday = Weekend Inspiration – great LOs from around digiland

Doesn’t that sound fun? I can’t even tell you how excited I am about this, my friends! (You’re reading my blog, so that officially makes us friends now. YAY! Why don’t you become a follower and make it even MORE official?) I am seriously coveting the cute, cute find I’ll be sharing with you tomorrow, and your mouth will water when you see what I have in store for you on Friday. I’m hungry just thinking about it!

While the spotlight is still on me, I want to show you a few cute LOs I did this weekend.  Well, actually it's two versions of the same LO and I need some advice.

I did this one first, but after I had finished it and looked at it again it seemed like the focus is less on Lauren and more on her dad.  Is it just me, or do you agree?

So then I did this one, and the focus is definitely on Lauren now.  Do we like it?  Which one is your favorite?

I used this beautiful kit by Marni Designs called Perfect Day. 

It's a wedding kit, but I thought it was perfect for these baptism day photos, too!  I made this into a freebie QP you can download here.  If you want to pick up the whole beautiful kit, you can find it here.  And don't forget you only have until the end of the month to use that great coupon for Be Mine.  If you *did* forget, you can go here to remember.

That's it for today, but while it's still Me Time Monday, remember to take some me time and do something for yourself today, just for fun!