What made you smile today?

For my husband, it was the arrival of a box of bialys. The box came courtesy of his cousin as payoff of a SuperBowl bet. She'd been snowed so so was just getting it out to him. For me, it was watching my husband as he enjoyed this old favorite from his childhood in Brooklyn. I tried one, ate one but found it relatively tastlessm, even the onion in the middle, and tough and chewy enough it could pull your teeth out lol. Sore today from yesterday's PT session which included some "compression" on my spine. Oh well, at least I worked on decluttering the living room and made homemade chili today. Was working with a couple design ideas but they just weren't coming together as I'd like. And I'm seriously running out of hard drive space. That's bad because I have one 500 GB external, another internal hard drive that I think is maybe 800 GB and the main drive which is 1 TB. My husband is correct that I have a bunch of junk on there that needs to be removed. What makes it worse is that I got awfully sloppy in terms of organization so it is taking time to go through files and figure out what is what. I've got to put together some sort of sale for the store this month March, I mean) and see about getting something new in store. What I'd really like would be to wake up in the morning and find that the Good House Fairy has visited and cleaned my house. With leftover chili for dinner and housework done, I could be good and do my exercises for PT, then go in and finish up the quilt blocks waiting on the sewing machine. I'd really like to get several crazy quilt blocks (for a bed runner) pieced and embellishments picked out to work with. I think the change of activity would be good for me and perhaps help lift this mood and get me motivated. Meanwhile, today I read more in Mrs. Poe and should have finished it by tomorrow. What to read then? Or perhaps write?

Still designing but slowly

PT this week was rough. Monday had a minor tumble while practicing a new exercise that I couldn't handle well because of my balance problems. Wednesday we switched gears and focused on getting up from the floor lol. By Wednesday evening my pain level was up to an 8 and sleep was hard to come by that night and next. Good news is that Friday I got a call from my rheumatologist's office saying that they had asked my insurance company to reconsider the denial they had made for the Voltarin gel I use for pain. Hubby picked it up today and I'm set with that for awhile. Had a couple things I'd been working on for the Valentine Romance CAK and just couldn't decide if I was satisfied with that I finished up today. One is a set of papers that is more contemporary than I usually do

I'm still not crazy about them but who knows? Another is a mix of elements I'd been making for the CAK. 8 elements all CU4CU.

Then a set of colored overlays I had been playing with for my kit that didn't go in

And, finally a free contemporary paper for you

Pick it up here http://www.4shared.com/zip/9tRMgoMEce/ss4cu_ValRomancepaper_free0222.html? I'm thinking about taking March off to attend to some other matters and decide whether I want to continue trying to sell designs at Digi Style Designs or give it up and just play.

What's new and belated freebie

All best laid plans . . . fail when a migraine takes over. Just today managed to get my Valentine kit and related items in the store. Here is what is new:

This is a big kit so here are some additional previews to show what is included:

I used some of my own (Sher Scraps) CU items in the kit and am offering some of them in that shop:

and these haven't been loaded to store yet as I can't stand too much of this light on PC:

And another pack added to the Feb CAK:

You know where you can find them all: digistyledesigns And here are the freebies I intended to load yesterday:

download here: http://www.4shared.com/zip/Nct7t-BIce/ws_freebie215.html?

Just right click & save Hugs!

Promised freebie

we were lucky weather wise. Got a couple inches of heavy wet snow then it changed to rain and all was clear this morning when I took Dad in for his eye surgery. I was able to run to post office and grab a bite for lunch after he went back and he had just returned to waiting room when I got back. We sat there waiting an hour to be certain there were no problems then were free to go. It has gotten colder and very breezy and snow has been reported across the James River in Hampton. Last report is we will have colder temps tonight and possibly a little snow which will disappear when temps rise again tomorrow. So far, so good. To all my friends who are suffering from winter weather woes, you have my sympathy and prayers for your safe keeping. And here is today's freebie - exclusive to my blog and newsletter readers.

Link is here: http://www.4shared.com/zip/1B4u4N77ce/ss4cu_ValRo_frame_free213.html? Hope you have a good Valentine's day tomorrow with your sweetie Hugs!

New for Valentine Romance

Hmm started post without checking to see what I've already shown you. Silly me. Guess I'll just show all of CU4CU stuff for this CAK.

BTW the page border I gave as a freebie is Not included in the set in store.

Heard from my dear friend, Liv aka Country Liv's Graphics, who is in NC and bracing for the winter storm starting there. The one that knocked out power for so many in GA. They (NC) have been told that they may lose power soon so Liv is getting prepared and sent me a warning saying that it's sleeting and visibility is about 10 feet! Sounds a lot like the last storm we had here that gave us 10 inches of snow! Last thing I heard before heading to bed last night was we'd start getting precipitation here about 6pm today - rain mixed with snow and no expectation of accumulation. Haven't checked weather channel yet to see if that has changed for my area. Did put my beef stew on to start cooking early just in case icy weather causes problems. Liv is taking a design break this month but why don't you stop by her blog and say Hi and leave some warm thoughts? Her designs are lovely and if you aren't familiar with them, I'm sure you will be pleased to discover them. http://countrylivs.blogspot.com/ I did not get back to desktop PC last night for any length of time but here is a free qqp for you made with some of the above Valentine Romance products.

pick it up here: http://www.4shared.com/zip/_J_M1XfBba/ss4cu_ValRomance_freebie212.html? And despite migraine and backache, I'm a smidge ahead with another freebie ready for tomorrow. While it uses one thing from my CU packs above, this item will not be included in any packages for sale. It's just for you and coordinates with the Valentine Romance colors. Heading in the kitchen now to stir the stew and make another cup of that chai tea. Stay warm and healthy!

Talk about . . .

On my laptop because I wanted to see the Olympic ice skating. Love that, as did my Mom. The rest of winter sports doesn't grab me much although I watched snow boarding with my grandson over the weekend. And there should be basketball? I prefer college (mens) basketball but . . . Just can't get it together. Some of it I'll blame on this PT schedule and I'll confess I'm not being all that commplyent at home - every two hours? really? Only 30 minutes a stretch at PC? Yikes! Yesterday I came home in snow flurries and just didn't want to do a thing. Was feeling tired and bored too. Didn't want to take a nap so sat down at PC and decided to browse Pinterest to get some ideas for the next teat I'll do for the girls. Too late to do anything Valentine's Day themed. Mostly was browsing with thoughts of creating some articulated paper dolls for the girls to put together. An activity is good for the moments I need to clear dishes or get something out of oven and so on. I've got a couploe basic art doll templates but was looking for some inspiration. Pinterest is dangerous for me! I start with one search but then there are threads to other interesting sites that I "must" check before I forget where I saw them. Next thing I know, I've been looking for hours and haven't done a thing useful. Talk about reading - finished up Stephen King's Dr. Sleep (takes over from where THe Shining left off in the sense that it tells what happened to the little boy.) It was a slow start for me but then, like good brain candy, it became addictive and soon I'd gobbled it all up. Dad brought over a paperback copy of Dan Brown's Deception Point which I'm well into now. Gee, there is a cold draft coming from somewhere here and I'm reading about the Artic? Today I used a little goodie I picked up at Food Lion the other day - a tea infuser mug from Cool Gear.

I've got a number of other tea infusers but haven't been that happy with them. With this, you can add either loose tea of a tea bag into the infuser tube, twist onto lid, add boiling water to the mug, top with infuser lid and let steep. Today I had some Kama Sutra Chai loose tea from Discover Teas http://www.discoverteas.com/ I shop at their Williamsburg store when I'm out that way, but you can shop on line. This is one yummy chai - not too spicey and has a floral note. I enjoyed two cups with the same tea I loaded for the first. Then I compounded my errors of the last few days. I took a long nap. Woke up too late to make the beef stew I'd planned so it was cowboy beans for dinner. Hubby was not impressed but didn't complain too much. Got to give it up, go make coffee for tomorrow, put dishes in dishwasher and do another set of exercises. Then back to computer room to get down some of those (too many) tabs I've got up looking at stuff, renew my cell phone and hopefully put up another freebie. PS Thanks Linnea for the lovely header. I couldn't seem to get around to making my own and your bird header hints at the kit I have in the works.

New page borders & freebie

I know, I know. My blog header needs replacing and I promised a freebie I didn't manage to put up. Starting going to PT and by the time I got home didn't want to do much else. Also taking my father to doctor. And next week will be busier: 2 PT sessions plus take Dad for eye surgery (a minor thing overall) etc. etc. On the plus side, if I cut back on the frequency of the exercises prescribed to where it's only a little uncomfortable, they are helping. And June is recovering from her pneumonia finally. Only made it through one of my January goals, that of getting financial papers etc in better order and gathering materials for taxes. My husband was pleasantly surprised when I handed him all the info without him having to ask! He's already sent federal tax forms off and will get state done in about two weeks when he is off work to go to a Bluegrass party. For some reason, we've had no trouble with federal taxes but when we do our own state, it always comes back as in error. So we started going downtown and getting the state tax people to do it and all is well. Did get some potentially bad news tonight. My son called, saying he'd been putting off calling until he knew more about a health issue he'd been having last couple weeks. He's getting some kind of heart palpations or unuusal heart beat and been to see a cardiologist. Of course, as these things go, it wasn't happening while he was in the office, so they sent him a heart monitor to try and capture such events. The monitor arrived as planned but had some sort of kink in the lead wires so wouldn't record anything. He's got another now and will be monitoring for next couple weeks. Would appreciate any prayers on his behalf. I put together some page borders for the Valentine Romance CAK at DigiStyleDesigns. It's a full size set of 6 and they are CU4CU.

And here is a free page border for you:

http://www.4shared.com/zip/_zMMWYEQce/ss4cu_ValRomance_pdborder_free.html?

Valentine's Romance at Digi Style Designs

Have you seen the new Create_A_Kit at Digi Style Designs? It's called Valentines Romance. Check it out here: http://digistyledesigns.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=268 Every product in this category is priced from $1 to $4 and all coordinate with the color swatch you see here:

I'm usually ready with new CAK stuff before the first of the month but between unusual weather woes (snow!) and back pain, I was slow getting going. Got my Mardi Gras contribution finished first and am working on a PU Valentine's day kit so the CAk stuff came later. Just got back from physical therapy and loaded a set of overlays from Sher Scraps:

and from Wonderland some PU papers made from above overlays:

and two sets of page templates:

Am only supposed to be at PC for 30 minutes at a time, then break and do exercise for my back, so I haven't made a freebie for you yet today. Hope to add a little something before I go to bed tonight.