So I was told I have a stupid, pointless hobby today. Do you know how incredibly miffed that made me? I got red in the face and completely ticked, pointless my foot! Scrapbooking, wether traditional or digital, is a time honored memory preservation technique.

Digital scrapbooking has brought the traditions to everyone and gave it new life. I have not seen such a diverse set of people scrapbook as I do in digital scrapbooking communities, all age groups and both sexes alike. You would never have been able to convince me a year ago that men were just as avid a scrapper as women.

From children to great-grandparents, I have seen stunning works of art created with treasured family heirlooms from all who dabble in this so-called pointless hobby. How can art of any variety be called stupid and pointless?

Pictures will be my families legacy hundreds of years from now, with time passing and faces fading away, pictures will be our memories. With scrapbooking you not only capture the look, you can capture the esense of the moment by adding your thoughts and actions of that moment for all who come after your gone.

To me scrapbooking is not a hobby, it is history in the making. On that note I will say goodnight to you all, I have another long week ahead of me. Well, kiss those babies everyone.

I miss my family so very much. If there was a time machine where I could go back and choose to work like this again, I would choose to stay with my babies instead. By the time I get home every night not one single child is awake and my husband is usually fast asleep within the hour. I rush in the mornings trying to get ready and out the door on time kissing babies and hugging my boys on the fly.

I came home from work a few days ago and found out that my eight year old son took my wedding rings from off my desk. My fingers swell at night so I take my rings off and put them on my desk, well that morning in question my fingers were still too swolen to put on my rings. He apparently took them to school and at some point he tried to pry them apart thinking that it was more than one ring.

My husband picked him up from school at which time he proudly showed him what he had “found in the prize box” at school. I am just so completely at a loss for words, I am too upset to really do more than explain why they are important to me. He does not understand, he does but he doesn’t. He knows only that it made Mommy cry when she explain why they were important to her.

 Well I could whine some more but I won’t, I hope each of you have a better week than I have had. Kiss those babies everyone.

I have been trying to figure out a way to combine traditional scrapping with digital in a way that will allow me to have some fun with my old scrapping buddies. Most of them have smirked at the idea of switching over to digital and I can not convince them to even try.

My idea is to hold a scrapping party and have all my home computers set up in the dining room hooked up to the internet. I want to walk them through every step I took in finding my little niche here in the digital world.

They will have an advantage over me, they will have someone sitting right next to them when they get stumped on their next move. I hope that by showing them all the fun I have had online will push them into gaining more enthusiasm when I ask them over to scrap with me.

Well, I have a few things to work out before I can make that happen. I do have plenty of time to do it considering I won’t have the time until after April 15th. Kiss those babies.

I am just about completely drained, lol. Well I am done with updating and installing my programs again, now I am working on a few new kits. I want to get them finsihed by the end of next week but I am not promising anything.

I do have a few layout templates ready just need to save them as .png and .jpeg files for my PSP buddies. Funny thing lately, I get inspired to create something in the middle of preparing a tax return. What on earth is inspiring about a tax return is trully confounding me but it works.

I love the new Photoshop my family bought for Christmas and since it was not a digital download I still have it. Everything else I had has vanished even my tech friend said I was never going to recover them. Oh well, means I can really make a decision based on experience. I do have way more storage space and I am building everyhting with digital scrapbooking in mind.

I put together a winter page with the layout template I created last week and incorporated my vibrant color suggestion to add some excitement. I absolutely love the way it all turned out, everything just pops right out of the page. I wish I could take credit for the beautiful winter pictures but alas that credit must go to winterpictures.com.

I really needed this layout as it is so cold and dreary here in Indiana, today the forecast calls for temperatures of 20 below. This morning we got an additional eight inches on top of the snow that has been steadily falling all week, driving to and from work has been a nightmare.

I want to once again mention that I am looking for graphic artists who would like to earn some extra money writing lesson plans and tutorials for various programs like Photoshop and PSP. I am putting together a learning website for all the digital scrapbookers out there who are just starting out and looking for a place to learn and discover all that can be done in digital scrapbooking. If your interested please leave a comment and a linkback to you for further details, I will also be adding a Page here that will explains all the details of this venture.

I have to say that starting from scratch is completely aggravating at this point, I lost every commercial use kit I ever purchased. Which means I do not have access to any of the resources I had available to me before and no way to get them back unless I pay for them again. Not gonna happen I am afraid, I just can not justify paying for them again.

I do have the wonderful resource that is Commercial Use Freebies Only Forum, all of the designers who share their work are just amazing and I trully apreciate their kindness. Now I just need some extra time to sit and download all the items I had before form the forum, that will probably be a significant dent in my weekend.

My plans have slightly skewed in regards to the Featured Designers posts I wanted to begin this week, I am pushing the release back another couple weeks to give me ample time to write a post that trully shows this designers amazing talent. I apologize for the hum-drum and lacking posts, I am working on getting back in the swing of things.

Till next time, kiss those babies.

Well after having to perform a complete PC recovery earlier this week I am almost back up and running. I have an endless (or so it seems) list of program updates to finish installing, almost two full years worth for over 50 different programs. It is painstaking and time consuming but if I don’t finish them I will be behind the times in the digital world.

As soon as they are all up to date I will begin installing my newest software and will be bringing you more tutorials and freebies. Please stick around a little longer and I promise to make it worth the wait. I have quite a few topics in mind and have the research and outline ready to go just need my graphic program reinstalled.

I do have a template finished that I somehow manged to recovery from my missing files and will share it as soon as I get my FTP program installed again. One project at a time though, I still am not sure what caused my computer to crash in the first place so I am saving new recovery points each time I install something new. No way am I going to get stuck with my pants around my ankles again. Till the next time, kiss your babies.

I had to do a PC Recovery last night and I lost everything! My pictures, kits, software and my Internet Browser all in one swoop is gone. I am told that they are hidden somewhere in my computer but I can not locate them, I will need my tech guy to come and retrieve them.

I was watching a movie on the net with my children when my computer froze and crashed, and the rest they is history. The really messed up part is the other computers that are networked with this one all crashed today as well. I am almost positive it was the Yahoo browser that caused it all. I have been having problems with it for months, it never acted right and hated anything to do with the internet.

I lost all my Bookmarks, so now I have to hunt down sites if I remember them. All of my saved passwords are gone and I can’t remember them, my email has been blowing up from my password recovery requests. SIGH, this is a warning for you all, make sure you back up everything somewhere other than your hard drive. You never know when it may all come crashing down and takes all your innocent info with it.

As soon as I have time to reinstall my broadband connection I will be sharing a new template freebie that I made before all this hoopla went down. Until then, kiss those babies.

Winter is definitely here where I live; the new snow, stick your tongue out to catch the first flake, I want a White Christmas newness has worn and faded. I feel claustrophobic, sad and generally just a bit dreary as do so many that experience the winter blues.

I always shake things up about this time into the cold season, I start adding splashes of vibrant color everywhere to help lighten my mood. This seemed the perfect thing to talk with all of you about today, lets shake up our winter layouts with small yet vibrant splashes of color.

One idea is to change the color of your snowflake embellishments, not only does it create a unique touch it will also make your page pop. Multicolored type is another great way to splash in some color and is a tip that I read in the “Creating Keepsakes” magazine. The “Multicolored Type” is listed among other ideas that they refer to as “2009 Trend Watch”, check it out I found a lot of great ideas and I believe I will be subscribing.

Well I must go to bed, I have another 12 hour work day ahead of me tomorrow. Kiss your babies.

Well I started my new job today and I want to appologize now because I am going to be seriously tied up for the next couple of weeks. I found out that I will be the only one working in my store and I am scheduled 77 hours a week. Yep, you saw that right 77 hours a week!

I will try not to neglect this Blog but I am not going to make any promises. I have a few things worked out but only time will tell if they follow the path I have laid out. In the meantme I will try to provide you links to some of my favorite digital scrapbook designers who I know have many wonderful freebie’s to share.

I do a have a few featured designers in mind and I will be releasing one in the next week that I am positive will be worth the wait. She is a wonderful woman and her digital scrap kits are unique and vibrant. I hope you all have a great week and I will see you soon, until then, remember to kiss those babies (I so miss my little ones, by the time I get home they are all sleeping).