Be Still My Heart . . .

I actually stole that phrase just now from someone who left a comment right before me on the Pink Paislee blog, but I couldn't think of a more concise way to describe how I feel about their newest launch (designed by Jodie Patterson/aka Gypsy Chick) - Butterfly Garden.  I know that:

• I'm not supposed to dwell on material things.
• My scrapping these days is almost exclusively digital.
• I have enough paper scrapping supplies to last me 3 lifetimes.

But, seriously, how in the world am I supposed to resist this scrumptious stuff?

Check out just a few bits of this line, which will make its debut at CHA this coming weekend in LA. (For you non-scrappers out there, that's the Tradeshow for the Craft & Hobby Association.)  For the full load of eye candy, just click on any of the pictures:

Bottom line, if I'm able find a store that can actually keep any of this in stock once it's released, I WILL be getting it!!

I'm So Excited!

Just in time to rescue me from the mid-Winter blues, my FAVORITE show is coming back for a second season on February 9th.  Yep, Raylan & Boyd (along with the rest of the gang) will be back in action in less than a month - WOOHOO!!  So, I'm tellin' you now - don't expect me to be answering the phone or making any other plans on Wednesday nights . . . Dave & I will have our butts parked right in front of the tube watching Justified.

Meanwhile, not nearly as exciting I know . . . here are a couple of scrapbook pages I've done in the past few days. The first one is from the little tamale-making adventure Lara & I had a couple of weeks ago.  I can't even begin to tell you how much fun we had - or how delicious the tamales were.  I got so many photos that day that it was difficult to choose which ones to use (the one of Lara & Holly was a no brainer), but I had no problems whatsoever deciding which kit I'd use.  I LOVE Libby Pritchett's "Olive Juice" (from Sweet Shoppe Designs), and no doubt you'll be seeing more of it :-)

In this layout, I used a picture that I "stole" (with her permission) from one of Sue's Facebook albums.  She posts such gorgeous pics of the property and has some especially beautiful ones of snow scenes.  But this one appealed to me mostly because of the way that bright red cardinal just popped right out of the picture at me!

Also, I finally thought to link my layouts directly to Flickr so you can go there to see credits (or whatever) . . . instead of boring you with the little spiel about my sidebar link every time I post a layout.  Most of you don't care, but it's important to me that I credit the amazing designers who create the elements I use to make MY creations.  So, assuming I remember to embed the links every time, you should be able to just click on any layout you want to know more about.  

Odds & Ends

I totally don't have time right now to be doing a blog post.  While I was at least "semi" productive this morning, this afternoon serves as a perfect example of why I need to be more focused on being focused.

It started out with my needing to have a little "chat" with some of the neighbor kids.  First, let me say that in this everyone-being-too-afraid-to-even-let-their-children-out-of-their-sight-for-a-moment world in which we live, I am DELIGHTED that there are still children who play outdoors.  What I don't understand is why they insist in playing in my yard instead of their own.  I'll admit that I'm a bad mom & should have trained Riley and Belle not to go ballistic every time a butterflies passes down the street.  And I absolutely do NOT want to be "that old grouchy lady down the street" we've all known and hated.  But these boys KNOW that they get the dogs riled up when they play in my front yard, and I have asked them repeatedly not to do it.  The oldest of the group is seriously dumber than a box of rocks . . . when I asked them yet again why they weren't playing football in their own yard, he proceeded to tell me that he lived really far away.  After I asked why he was in this neighborhood if he lived so far away & he stared at me blankly for several seconds,  I reminded him that I know exactly where he lives . . . and two houses away from me isn't exactly "really far away" in my book.  I've always tried to talk to them as nicely as possible in the past, but today I laid down the law.  Next time it happens, I promised to let the dogs out to see how much fun it might be to make them bark without a locked door keeping them inside.  Then I'll call the police.  I guess I AM the old grouchy lady down the street after all.

On a lighter note, but even more distracting for me, people keep bombarding me with stuff to check out, and I.CAN.NOT.RESIST!  Most of what I've been "researching" today is scrapbook-related and wouldn't be of any interest whatsoever to the majority of you.  But in the spirit of sharing, I decided I ought to pass along a couple of links you might enjoy.

27 Possible Names for Fake Meat Products .  Written by Amanda's friend (and mine), Darci Ratliff.

Forever Lazy Commercial.  I'm soooooo putting this on my Wish List for when it's available in leopard.

Alot Is Better Than You At Everything.  This site's new to me, but I'm afraid I'll probably go back.  Hopefully, she'll never discover my blog & my using-really-long-hyphenated-phrases-to-describe-things penchant, or she may be posting about ME one of these days!

My Word

Carl Fredricksen & Dug the Dog from Pixar's "Up"

I have a word this year.  It's certainly not a new word, but it's one I need to plant firmly in view and think about often.  FOCUS.

If you've ever seen the movie "Up", you'll know what I mean when I say that I frequently have Dug moments - heck, even hours or sometimes entire days.  (If for some reason you haven't seen this movie, take my word for it - you SHOULD!)  With my penchant for getting distracted by "squirrels" and all manner of other things, it's a wonder I'm even remotely productive - and, truth be told, my habit of flying off in twenty different directions at once is precisely why I named my blog Quantum Leaps.   

I've always kind of had this problem, but it's gotten seriously out of hand lately.  Used to, I took occasional little side trips but still managed to get quite a lot accomplished.  And sure, I might have digressed in the middle of a conversation, but I did eventually get to the point I was trying to make. These days, I seem to spend almost all my time chasing squirrels & not nearly enough staying en pointe long enough to get anything finished.  

So, I've decided it's necessary to make some changes . . . in 2011, I am going to re-learn how to focus!  Because of my natural tendencies and the fact that I've gotten really slow, that means I'm gonna have to de-clutter, simplify, and purge a lot of the unnecessary "stuff" in my life.  But I'm more than willing to do that if it means possibly returning to my once ultra-organized, queen-of-multi-tasking, OCD self :-)

To help FOCUS on my goal, I did this page for a challenge at Sweet Shoppe Designs, which is (big surprise!) where I got most of the elements used in the layout.  

 (as always, if you click the link in my sidebar, you can go to my Flickr gallery for a full list of credits).  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go focus on de-cluttering a few things . . .  

Don't Forget!

In case you didn't remember, today is National Static Electricity Day . . . WOO HOO!  I've been waiting on this one for a while - but not quite as eagerly as I'm looking forward to Tuesday.  Milli & Sheila, I know we've been talking about a little field trip this week- but you might want to give me wide berth that day unless the weather's a lot better than it is today! ☺

Meanwhile, I got to thinking that I haven't posted many new layouts in quite a while.  Of course, that could be because I haven't done many - but I did complete a few for the crop we just finished up at Scrapadilly and thought I'd post them before they get tooooo old & stale.  Actually, a couple of these did double-duty by fitting some of the January Portfolio challenges at my absolute favorite digi spot, Sweet Shoppe Designs.  (Hey, I LOVE the designers at Sweet Shoppe & buy practically all my stuff there anyway - why not do the challenges and earn some discounts?)


Anyhoo, here are the pages . . . all about just a FEW of my favorite people.  As you may have guessed, almost all of the elements I used are from SSD - but full credits are listed in my Flickr gallery.  

By the way - I realized after I had posted this that "unwrapped" should really be "wrapped", but I was waaaaay to lazy to go back & change it.  You get the point even with the mistake, I hope - lol!

Public Service Announcement

There's a lot of discussion going on at several places I've visited today about a personal information website called spokeo.com  (I'm not giving you a link.  I don't want to publicize it any more than necessary.)  In any event, it's pretty shocking when you first find out about one of these places to realize that so much of your personal information is posted right there for the world to see.  However, just remember . . .

• there are dozens of other sites like this.
• there's really not much any of us can do about it.  Even if you're successful at getting your name removed from a few of them (which isn't likely), there are plenty of others who don't even give you an option to do that.
• much of the information isn't accurate (e.g., neither the number of people in our household nor the assessed value of our house is correct).
• any accurate info is readily available on legitimate sites.

Requesting that you be removed from sites like this is pretty much a waste of your time . . . all you're accomplishing is to let them know your email address is a legitimate one (they probably already have it but don't know for sure it's valid until they get an email from you).

What puzzles me is why anybody would pay to join spokeo to the tune of $5.00/month in order to have access to ALL the partially-true information, particularly when any information they have is FREE & generally more accurate at various other (mostly government) websites.  (Just too lazy to look the information up themselves, I guess.)

Unfortunately, this is one of the prices we pay for having all the stuff we WANT available at the click of a mouse.  Just like anything else in life, there are always going to be those who have to go & spoil it for everybody.

I do believe, though, that I solved a mystery today.  Since I've never researched and/or bought any penis-enlargement devices or meds, prescription drugs (without a prescription) or Nigerian get-rich-quick-just-give-me-your-bank-account-number-and-password, I've often wondered why I continue to get dozens of these messages filling up my trashcan every single day.  I'm pretty sure they're getting their mailing lists from places like this!

And The Winner Is . . .

Sorry about the late post, folks . . . yesterday was a very long day (although a good one), and I was too pooped to deal with this by the time I had a chance last night.  Without further adieu, however - the winner of the Father Christmas goodies I promised to share is none other than the lovely-on-the-outside-but-actually-quite-mischievous, GLORIA!!   Seriously, I know you'll put the papers to good use, Gloria . . . with some Christmas layouts of Drew & Laurie & all those other adorable DGK's of yours.  And I'll pop them in the mail to you in the next day or so.  Congrats!  ♥♥♥

Happy New Year!

Well, I have no doubt that there will be some dead spots in my blogging this year, but I'm determined to at least start the year off with a quick post.  Here's a cute vintage postcard I thought I'd use as my New Year's greeting . . . not sure of its origins, but it looks very German to me & reminds me of how crazy the New Year's celebrations got over there sometimes. I got it (plus a few others) today for free from the Gypsy Chick.  (In case I haven't convinced you yet, not only is Jodie unbelievably talented, but she's extremely generous as well!)

Meanwhile, I hope everyone finished off 2010 in style (whatever style you chose - lol!) and that you're ready for a FANTASTIC 2011.  I happened to be on Facebook earlier today and found some cute pics that Jennifer had posted of their celebration last night.  Not sure if that's real live champagne in the glasses or some DoDad concoction or another, but the kids seem to have had a mighty fine time regardless . . .

Finally, I want to wish the beautiful Mrs. Wilson a super-duper, fantabulous, totally awesome, Kelly-worthy birthday two days from now.  I know for a fact that I won't be getting any layouts done before then, so I'm posting one I did quite a while back for her wedding.  If possible, Kelly may be more gorgeous now than she was on her wedding day, but I don't think anyone will argue that there's never been a more stunning bride . . . I mean NEVER! Happy Birthday a teeny bit early, Kelly Boo!!

[Credits:  Color Theory: Cream (Flergs/Scrapbookgraphics) and Swallow Field Alpha (Kerry Lynn Yeary)]

Happy New Year, Everyone!!