FABULOUS News + Candy!

Posted on | August 7, 2010 | 29 Comments

BLOG CANDY!! This is a sticky. Scroll down for newest post!

A lot of things have been happening in my crafty and personal life the last two weeks and I am over the moon happy. I’ve been keeping everything a secret, one for over a month now, because I have to and also because I don’t want to jinx it. So without further ado, I know that some people are just about ready to jump and shake my secrets out of me, here they are…

We got our house SOLD!! Yes, we closed last Wednesday and our paperwork got to the bank Friday afternoon CST. UPS International express ain’t cheap I tell ya! After our failed renter (they backed out due to personal issues the day before they were suppose to move in) we didn’t want to share this sale until it was all done with so not to jinx it. It finally closed, earlier than scheduled, and what a relief for us!! It’s tough having a house across the miles. It wasn’t just the mortgage but there’s also maintenance involved. We’re lucky that we have awesome neighbor friends to help us while we find a renter/new owner but if we didn’t have them, who knows. We’d have to rely on others which although paid to manage properties for a living cannot watch over our house as well as our neighbors. It’s also hard on our finances to maintain two homes. Granted we still have extra each month I had to really tighten up. I might be laid back with a lot of things but when it comes to finances I am really strict. For the grown-ups it hasn’t been bad. Me not buying new stamps every month was no big deal. But even though M’s been really good it’s heart breaking for me to tell her that she couldn’t have something just because it’ was an extra expense. She never ask for much to begin with so saying no to the little she asked was more tough on me than anything else. Seeing her sad face was no fun! The sale of the house also opens up something for me: a Ph.D. program. But we’ll see. I can’t do much right now that requires that much commitment and brain cells because Jovie still needs a lot of attention. I am hoping though that next fall would be a different story. We’ll see. I need to talk to somebody first. I need to go to London, to a University that has the program I am interested in!
I got invited to be a Waltzingmouse Mischief Maker!! What’s that? Well go check it out!! The team was by invitation only and so how surprised and excited was I when one morning I saw the email invite?! I’ve always loved WM’s stamps and it’s an honor to have been asked to be a part of their wonderful and talented team. Do visit their blog tomorrow. There’s a great new sketch AND a prize for one lucky winner. You don’t have to use WM’s stamps to play but if you do and you win who know, you might get an extra goodie or two {::SMILE}.
Last but not least I have been accepted to be the 2010-2011 Pebbles Inc design team!!! I was soooooooo excited when I received the email yesterday for a few reasons. The first was because: Their stuff is so cute!! The second was because this was one of my goals after I got here. I have more time now to craft and I thought that it’d just be great if I can design for a paper manufacturer. I have to mention two people here, they might not know that they had any influence on my decision but they did: Sasha Halloway and Sarah Martina. Sasha got accepted into a team recently and she said that if you don’t try you never know. After Sarah got her Crate Paper gig I told her I’d like to try and she said to go for it. So I went for it and gave it a shot. I really didn’t think I’d get it though because my email to them was lame. I basically told them that I have no examples using Pebble’s stuff (and I looked!) but I’d like to be a part of their team. I guess they must have liked my gallery because here I am!!! You should check out who’s in the team with me. I actually don’t know any of them but from quickly browsing their stuff they are very very talented. When I mentally compared my craft resume to theirs I think I’m the least published with the least amount of awards to be in the team. The third reason was just cause the news came after two other happy news. It was just a tad bit overwhelming.

So there they are. Nobody but our neighbor friends in MO know of #1. We just really wanted it to happen and if the sale fails it’ll just be less people to tell.

Have I gotten Miss M something? She was THE first to get a special treat. Thursday we went to this place called Scribbles. She’s been wanting to paint a ceramic box for weeks. She was so happy at Scribbles. She took her time and really enjoyed the process. It was fun watching her too while chasing Jovie around the safe side of the shop (mostly under the table). If you’re wondering what M drew, she was drawing her face, stitches from her 3-yr-old accident included.

To celebrate my wonderful news and also a 6-month stamp company anniversary I have a blog candy that’s sponsored by WPlus9! To win just leave me a comment and tell me which of WPlus9′s stamp you’d like to win (you can change your mind on which set to get if you win the candy) and what’s made your day this week. Remember that there are FOUR new sets coming out in a few days and if you haven’t been keeping up, go to the previous posts to see the new releases’ peaks and the links to the other DTs creations. Have a great one and thank you all for being wonderful blog friends and readers!! If you’re new to my blog and would like to subscribe, look to the top right of my blog and you’ll see an elephant’s butt. Click on it.

Deadline: August 12th by 12 p.m. CST

Blog Candy

Posted on | December 18, 2009 | 19 Comments

Literally! Has any of you had Chuao chocolates before? If you love chocolates and you haven’t tasted any you’re missing out. I found these at our local WalMart have buying 3-4 of them at a time… in case they run out ya know… ha! Today I’m giving some away but there’s a catch… only those living in north America/Europe can play. I don’t want the chocolates to melt in the mail.

I did some Googling because I was wondering why the price is so high (although very worth it) and found that Chuao is #8 in the Forbes list for most expensive chocolate. It’s expensive for many reasons, and one is that it’s made in the US, but totally worth it.

So, here’s my blog-o candy and whoever wins will get 3 bars mailed to you. Deadline: Dec. 21 by 11:59 p.m. CST and all you have to do is post a comment and tell me what you made for this coming holiday… baking, cooking, sewing, craft, etc.

Our news… We’ve just been swamped with moving and house selling. We had a very interested buyer stop by yesterday and even though there’s no contract they are still interested. We’re just waiting for a few things to fit into place. Prayers and fingers crossing, please {::SMILE}. The great news is that today’s my last day at work. I’ll have two weeks off!!! So excited! We’ll still be going through stuff and house work but I am hoping for a little bit of craft time for me too. The change of off days (the original last day of work is suppose to be next Wednesday), by our university president (last minute news) threw my gift giving schedule off a bit. The bad news is that I have nothing to give my co-workers as of today. The good news is that I’ll have more time over the break to finish making what I want to make for a few of them. Another bad thing… as of today I’ve only sent one Christmas card out. YIKES! Yeah, people’s going to get New Year’s cards from us this year. Oh well. Moving comes first this time around. It’s a once in a lifetime deal, right?

Have a great one!!

Blog Candy!!!!!

Posted on | October 9, 2009 | 35 Comments

Hey folks, I got some goodies for you!! I went to the Creating Keepsake scrapbook expo and found some yummy sale and I thought I’d share some of my finds with you (plus a few things from my stash). Tons of fun stuff and my favorite (besides the oh so many paper that I wish I could buy) is that Hambly chipboard owl. You know I’m a huge owl fan, right? I got three of them, one for one of you, M and me. It’s not much but I want to somehow show my appreciation to all you out there. I looked up my Feedburner stats and I have over 420 readers. This is just amazing!! Thank you so so much! I really appreciate your time and always enjoy every single comment you leave. Now I’m kind of curious… is it me you’re here for or the two brats who live with me? {::SMILES}.

I know I mentioned last post that after our UK move I’ll be wanting to write more about our life there but I’m also hoping that I’ll be able to stay home with Jovie (and M after school) and create more projects, produce more tuts (mostly digital stuff cause I’m too lazy to haul my camcorder to do a paper tut), and hopefully share some products — a little freebie stuff here and there (die-cut, digital element/paper, etc.). So yeah you might have to put up with more scenic/kids’ pictures or me complaining about my oh so burnt cake (I really suck at baking) but you’ll still get the usual share of crafty goodness.

Anyhoot, for the candy, just leave me a comment by October 16th 12 a.m. CST and you’ll be eligible to win the below PLUS $10 to Sweet Shoppe Designs (I guarantee you’ll have a hard time picking!!). In your comment let me know if you’ve tried hybrid and if you liked it or not. If you’ve never tried it, tell me if it’s something you’d like to try. This one is optional but what kind of tuts would you like to see in the future?

Next item… here’s my shopping/expo partner. M had a fun time and her eyes were wide open when she saw all the vendors and that she could buy more than one thing. She had a great time and it was such a nice feeling to be able to also share my birthday money with her. She LOVED the make and take and the ladies were impressed with her skills. After we came home she went upstairs and all us adults could hear downstairs were thump, thump, thump. When I went up to put things away, this was what I saw. She moved her craft stuff to the hallway. She said it’s her make and take booth. She had a sample, papers trimmed, and embellishments ready for her customers (me, myself, and I). Love this kid!!!!

I hope you all had a great week. This weekend is homecoming weekend for our hometown university. We’re going to the (very cold) parade tomorrow and who knows what else after that. We have lots of house cleaning to do — urgh — but that can wait {::SMILES}.

Google Reader + Blog Candy

Posted on | September 3, 2009 | 10 Comments

NOTE: This is a sticky. Please scroll down to the next post for my newest entry!

Hi readers! Before I get to the blog candy, I want to write this…

I’ve been a bit slow in updating my blog. Reason being: Just very little time since I went back to work. Besides my full-time job I am also an adjunct for the university where I work at and this semester I am also taking a photography class. Ok, I’m not doing it for a grade but I do want to learn the material and try to read my text books at least every Sunday evening (the night before the quiz, ha!).

Initially I started this blog to share my crafty stuff. I actually had other blogs that I update. But I got lazy with the other blogs and this one is just so much fun to keep up. Then I started making blog friends too and the blogging thing became more exciting. In all honestly I didn’t think anybody would want to look at my stuff or read what I write. But I actually do have people subscribed to this blog and I kind of feel bad that I haven’t been posting as regularly or worst yet I haven’t been visiting my friends’ blogs as frequently!!

The other day I made this video. It’s meant for work and my class but I thought I’d share here too. Since I’ve been random at posting and it’d suck if you click or type my web addy and there’s no new post I suggest that you use this method of keeping up with my blog and others too. If you’re still using email subscription and you love it, that’s fine, but subscribing through the RSS feed and using a reader, like Google Reader, will be so much easier (cleans up your mailbox too). If you’re already using Google Reader, that’s great. Maybe the video will show you a bit more about it. Keep in mind though that there are many RSS readers out there (if you use Outlook, you can use Outlook for your RSS reader for example). Google’s just my favorite cause I already have a Google account and I love using iGoogle as my homepage.

Another good way, if you are just bored and want to know what the heck is going on with Savitri’s life, you can follow me on Twitter. I’ve been Tweeting since before Twitter became huge. I don’t know what happened there… great marketing? Who knows but I do use it everyday. When I started Tweeting I only Tweet work stuff but since I went on maternity I’ve been a bit more random and personal. I figured why not.

The giveaway… share with me one little/big thing that you did to help somebody recently and you’ll be eligable to win $25 to spend at Tina aka’s Travelingmama’s new Etsy store. There are tons of wonderful stuff there and all profit goes to a wonderful cause which you can read in her store or her blog. Share this candy by posting it on your blog and be eligible to win some extra goodies that I will snail mail you (ribbons, buttons, paper, chipboard, all that good stuff). Just include the direct link to your post in the comment! One more… tell me that you’ve subscribed to my blog either via email, a reader, bookmark, blogroll, whatever, let me know (I’m just curious) and I’ll throw in more goodies for you. There you go (pics of the goodies to come). You have one chance to win up to THREE things from me. You have until Sept. 10, noon Central U.S.A. time, to comment and be eligible to win. Good luck!

Alright, have a great day and I hope I’ll be able to get into the swing of things again and craft regularly -- I really want to sew more! Oh, I added this plug-in for the comment portion and so even though you’ve commented before, if this is the first since I installed Intense Debate, your comment will be moderated first before it post.

Blog Candy Winner…

Posted on | April 1, 2009 | 3 Comments

First of all I want to show you some new pics from my new toy, the Nikon D300 {::HUGE SMILES}. I’ve been saving up for this moment. Between my savings and tax return I finally can buy me a nice (semi-pro) camera.

My camera was a refurbished item (purchased on Amazon through Adorama). Of course with any refurbed items you never know why or how long somebody’s had it before it was returned (that’s why buying extra warranty is important) but my camera look brand spankin’ new and before my first shot, the camera has had three other shutter clicks (the shutter actuation/life). IF you have a Nikon and you want to see how many shutter clicks your camera has gone through try OPanda (PC) or EXIF (Mac). I’m no camera pro but from what I read, digital camera has a shutter life. It doesn’t mean when my D300 reaches 150,000 clicks it’ll pass out, it’s an average number and like a car, my camera might just keep going after 200k shutter clicks. So if you will buy or bought a used camera, check this out. It’s no guarantee your camera will live for the next 5 years but it’ll be a good indication on how much the camera’s been used by the current/previous owner.

Ok, enough technical stuff…

Right now I just have one lens, my favorite 50mm (I have this for my Canon XTi and LOVE it). After everything tests ok I’m going to order another one and a few accessories. I had a hard time between the Nikon D300 and the Canon 50D but after feeling and reading I thought the Nikon is best for me. They both take great pictures and since I’m not balls deep in Canon lenses, I have the option to choose between the two. So far I love all the features this camera has and it does a lot more than my XTi.

Oh, the first picture was edited in Adobe Lightroom. The other two were edited in Photoshop CS3. The LR app is cool but hmm… besides the fact that I can print a wallet size photo in one click I’m not sure if it’s worth the $80 (education price since I work at a university). We’ll see. I’ve only played with it for a few hours. Maybe after a few tuts I might see more of the benefits… or not.

Ok, blog candy winner is…

Sandy L, you are the winner! Yeah, congrats! Email me (use the contact form — top left) your address and I’ll get the package out to you. I love all the book recommendations! I’m still researching but the Shopaholic series seems the way to go. I think I want something light and funny. Prob. not good for the stomach but it’ll be good for my mood. I want to be on drugs AND happy ha ha ha (when I had M, I thought the epidural guy was the hottest and bestest guy alive!!!). Lots of good reads suggestions though and if I don’t get to them at the hospital, they’ll be my goal for 2009… except Twilight. I heard it’s addicting. I don’t want social services to come visit me ’cause of a book series {::SMEARK}.

PS: No, I didn’t ask M to pose. She’s a camera hog. Most of the time (lately at least) she ask me to take her pics.