There’s a great sneak peek up on the blog, so make sure you check it out! Vintage Plum’s kits are just $26.99 and include only 100% USA made products. YAY !

Journaling:
All I wanted to do was give you a bath. I knew you didn’t like water and should have made sure all the dishes were away from the kitchen sink. You freaked out and knocked some dishes into the bathwater. A steak knife fell to the bottom of the sink and you stepped on it, slicing the webbing all the way to the pad of your little foot. You yelped and I got worried. It wouldn’t stop bleeding. I couldn’t stop crying, but you were so brave. We had to take you to the doggie emergency room and you underwent surgery. You were such a brave boy, my little Gizzy. To this day, I will not forget the look you gave me — one that said “Mommy, what did you do to me?” I will never forgive myself for not protecting you from harm. Thank you for still loving me with your sweet, precious hugs and teeny, tiny kisses.

Credits: Kenner Road Kit Club, Sassafras Lass, Pink Paislee, October Afternoon, Crate Paper

credits:
Kenner Road Kit Club, Sassafras Lass, October Afternoon, Crate Paper

credits:
Kenner Road Kit Club, Pink Paislee, October Afternoon, Crate Paper, Sassafras Lass, My Mind’s Eye

I created this blog look for Anne-Marie using digital scrapbooking kit items from the Neon Tantrum Kit by Studio mgl and glitter from Holly McCaig’s Jubilee Kit at 2Peas.

This blog was loosely based off the Weeds WordPress Theme by Natalie Jost and features a bunch of fun plugins, like the Slickr Gallery, TwitThis, PostFooter and Twitter Tools.

In an effort to “go green” this year and also to save some money, I am skipping out on the traditional Christmas card this year. Ok, I’m also being reasonable. There is no way I could make cards and get them mailed out to everyone in the next 11 days. So, I hope you enjoy this heartfelt HAPPY HOLIDAYS from me and the fur-kids, Gizmo and Bandit. May you and yours have the happiest of holidays – whatever holiday it is you celebrate. For me and my family, it’s CHRISTmas – the reason for the season.

Blessings,

Amy

(Credit: Digital Scrapbook elements by Holly McCaig)

I’m in HEAVEN.

Now the question is… should I let these goodies sit here in my craft room overnight or do I stay up late and play?

I think you can guess what I’ll be doing tonight.

I helped her out and skinned the gallery, using the .psd she provided me… and will be having fun doing this to the rest of her site! Keep checking out the rest of her site for updates.

I am also offering this service to any photographers, artists, shops, etc. Stay tuned here to my blog for details, pricing, etc. If you are in a hurry or can’t wait for the info, please contact me and I will let you know if I can help you out!

Which reminds me… did you know I’m also offering freelance writing services?

Let’s see… what else do I have to share?

Oh yes, holly (my sista from anotha motha) used one of my zoo photos in the newest Pink Paislee product preview! Go over to Pink Paislee and show them some bloggy love. While you’re there, make sure you check out Holly’s creations: Tinsel Town and Sweet Cakes! I cannot wait to get my grubby hands on these designs!

Finally, I won a RAK from the Creative Team over at Kenner Road. Thank you so much Gigi! I can’t wait to get this eye candy:

I’ve also done some more digital pages…

(click on the photos for credits)

Alphas: Holly McCaig, Fresh Kit www.inspiration-lane.com
All other Elements: Creative Confusion, Fresh Air Kit, www.inspiration-lane.com
Font: 2peas scrapbook

All elements: Holly McCaig’s Fresh Kit, www.inspiration-lane.com
Special thanks to Atomic Cupcake for PS Actions

*deep breath*

Ok. So Thursday night I was working on some digital scrapbooking pages so I could finish things up for a photo book I was working on. I was watching the Democratic National Convention coverage on CNN and eager to hear Barack Obama’s acceptance speech.

Before I continue, I would appreciate it if my readers could make me a promise. Please don’t comment on what happened after the speech and make a negative link to supporting Obama to what happened. I know people will think that but I will not allow such comments on my blog. This is not about politics, this is about hard drives.

K?

So after hearing the speech, I was inspired to donate a little money to the campaign. I’ve never EVER donated for a political campaign, so this was a big step for me. I decided to donate a very nominal amount of money and as I reached for my wallet, my external hard drive tipped over. I didn’t think anything of it – put it back right side up and entered my payment information.

Then, I went back to photoshop to finish a few more pages and became physically ill.

My computer no longer recognized my external hard drive. You know, the place where ALL my photos from the last 6 or 7 years were stored? The place where all my digiscrap projects were saved… All my projects, graphics, etc I’ve created in the past couple months – GONE.

I tried everything – unplugging cords, restarting my computer, etc.

Nothing worked.

I have since tried a couple file recovery programs and it looks like I can recover a few folders of photos… of course these are not the folders I hoped for. So I don’t know if I’ll even bother recovering them, as I would have to buy the full version of the programs to do so.

I wanted my Guatemala photos. I wanted my digiscrap projects. I wanted my priceless photos of family and friends from the past few years.

But they are gone. All gone.

Of course, this all happened a couple days before I planned to back up my EHD to Cd’s. Isn’t that the way it always happens?

I know I can get some of these photos back. My dad has copies of our photos from Guatemala from this trip… and I know I will get a copy of photos from last year from another team member.

But what about my sister’s wedding? My best friend’s wedding? My graduation from college? My doggies? My friends’ children? My treasured memories?

Gone.

If this isn’t a lesson for each of us to be DIGILANT in backing up, I don’t know what else can call you to action.

I am currently backing up my internal hard drive thru the online system Mozy. I don’t want to lose all that too. Luckily, I had most of my digital scrapbooking papers and elements also saved in zip form on my hard drive so the only things I really lost were some brushes, actions and CU templates.

Many of my precious friends have suggested ways of recovering the data, but I am not hopeful. Nor do I have the extra funds to pay experts to get those images for me… if they’re not corrupted.

So, needless to say, I haven’t been very inspired to play in photoshop, to continue digital scrapbooking right now. The thought makes me sick to my stomach. And I feel like I was finally getting good at it, too!

In fact, I’d prefer not to be on a computer at all but I can’t do that. I have to make money somehow.

I am currently finishing up the details on some new services I will be offering, which include splash page customization, blog customization and biography/freelance copywriting. My goal is to save up money to buy a new computer in the spring. Perhaps an iMac? (Holly, I know you’ll be excited about that).

Also, not surprising by any means, I did not make the Fancy Pants design team. It was my first time trying out for something like that so I will chalk it up to experience. But, here are the projects I submitted.