halloween chex mix-

(photo from Betty Crocker)

While not earth shattering news, warranting two posts in one day, this stuff is good! And I wanted to share it while there was still time to make it pre-trick or treat! The recipe is here. I have so much to do before Friday...gotta run.

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shutterfly LOVE-

I am so flattered to report that I received an email from Shutterfly that my book is currently being featured. How exciting. Now more than ever, I cannot wait to see it printed. You can view it here: http://community.shutterfly.com/gallery/post/start.sfly?postId=/gallery/1/post/GMGDBgycOWLhgxYA0DQL-s. Check out some of the others, very cool stories and great design too. Pin It

also found in the blogosphere...

(photo from NieNie dialogues)

I guess I became aware of this story in August, as other blogs I visit, began reporting this sad story of an AZ couple who was burned in a plane crash. Over the weeks, I have read tidbits, and then today this very comprehensive story. Read it. It is inspiring. And it is sad. You will probably be like me, and have questions and wonder more about them. You can find further updates, and the backstory, here.

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super talented...

so check out this blog: Grosgrain. I found it a few months back and added it to my by google reader so I see the new updates every couple of days. I am thinking 1)this lady is incredibly talented, 2) she is way generous always giving this stuff away, 3) her kids are cute and really agreeable subjects, 4) she sets up her photos just beautifully too. I gotta admit I had been thinking, so when is she going to sell something, and it looks like that time has come. Yea for this mompreneur!

I went shopping today with my Mom and my niece, Kacie. For no reason but for fun. And it was. Love some of the stuff out there right now. Love yellow and grey together and always a fan of the greens. We hit the Old Navy Halloween sale, they had t-shirts for a $1 and all kinds of other good buys.

Tonight, the 4 of us are going on a Halloween walk with the Brownie Troop. Brrr!

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I kinda lost track of the days...

but I am back! This is something on my to-do list: a blog remodel. How cute is this stuff? I need to figure out how to install something like this. Of course, this one suits me perfectly b/c it is made by Krystal, whose stuff I always love ( and feature currently in my blog header, made expressly by moi!). And because I never really defined my good news, I will be a guest designer for her in November. I cannot wait to get my hot little hands on any new stuff that may come my way.
I had a busy, productive week at work, ending today with a Lunch N Learn that was well attended by many interactive attendees. Returning to work part-time has been truly great. I feel like it has rounded out my life perfectly. I am enjoying the challenge of selling, making new contacts and the new era of networking...alot of which can be done, is done, online. A tool I particulary like, and am trying to really expand my use of, is Linked In. You can view my profile here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tracykuethe. I am always open to adding new contacts so send me a line if you are a member. Pin It

a costume preview

Is that light surrounding the angel too much or what? It almost makes you wanna believe, right?! And below, our version of Hannah Montana, with teased hair and green eye shadow. Again, too much, right?!
I am NEARLY finished with my "a week in our life" album. You can view it in progress, in album form, by clicking the link to the right
----->.
I am wearing down and want to finish. I have 3 pages to go and then I cannot wait to press print and hold a copy in my hands.

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yum-o! chicken with mushrooms and peas

Not for lack of effort, but I cannot find a link to this recipe online ANYWHERE. It was in the November Rachael Ray magazine though, so you can find it in there. I baked a whole chicken instead of chicken thighs like it called for, and it was so tasty. A really nice deviation from regular baked or rotisserie chicken. The only problem, the forecast called for rain and cool weather, instead I was heating up the kitchen and it was way over 80 degrees. Oy. I also made the new Ore Ida Steam N Mash potatoes. I made the garlic variety and they were also delicious.

As a blogger, I think you never really know what drives you to keep on posting but it feels GOOD when you see a bunch of visits to your site. After doing a little research, I see I have the DigiFree blog to thank. A few days ago, they showed my templates on their site and it brought a whole lot of traffic my way. I sure hope to see some Christmas card samples too!

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my current temptation

Starbucks Shaken Iced Tea Lemonade. I have been trying to knock it off at home b/c $3 a pop just is not getting it nearly once per day (it's a problem, i admit it). So my Liption Cold Brew bag + Crystal Light lemonade was a pretty good fill in. Until today, I used Lipton Black Pearl tea and whoa, what a delicious difference. And you have got to see these pyramid shaped tea bags, super fancy. I just boiled one mug of water in the microwave and then steeped the tea bag. An hour or so later it was cooled off and I made my concoction. Delicious!

I also am a new-ish owner of a salad spinner. I got one at Walmart for $2.97 and it works perfectly. I am not sure how I did without for so long. Goodbye sopping wet papertowels on the counter. I made this salad for lunch: (cannot find the recipe on my computer so here goes)

1/4 c. balsamic vinegar

1/4 c. olive oil

1/4 c. real maple syrup

Whisk together for dressing. Salt and pepper to taste. Add this to spinach or any greens you like, walnuts, extra sharp cheddar cheese cut in chunks and a sliced or diced apple.

Ok, and I just read somewhere about using your waffle iron as a panini press or to cook other things. Has anyone done that?

***edited to add: when I make this at home, I use one packet of artificial sweetener (the Generic by Kroger if you must know). At Starbucks, I get one Splenda for the tall and grande sizes and two Splenda in the Venti. I don't like my tea very sweet so take that into consideration.

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check out whose page is on Ali Edward's blog

MINE!! She is showing some examples from people who participated in the week in the life project (getting tired of that mantra yet?!) and lo and behold if you scroll down here, you will find two of my pages. Ali is really an inspiration. I love her style in all things but she is certainly a go-to, always return to, person for scrapbooking ideas. Click around on her blog, tons of good things there.
I have a few more pages in the works for my "week" project and hope to get it nearly done this week if I can. I am getting super anxious about uploading it to Shutterfly and having a real book printed. Pin It

more pages for "week in the life"

The top one is just a general page to cover a large topic, and one I had LOTS of pictures to support. I plan to include more like this. The next, is the first page of the album. I got pretty far behind due to my computer setback. Everything is up and running now. I just need time, motivation, and the clean house fairy to drop by and absolve me from those duties.
Although I did not take a camera today, my little soccer star scored TWO goals this morning. Go Shelby!

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the last cry of my External Hard Drive

I really, really am thankful that it sent me a few clues to it's impending demise. Thankfully when I took it to my techie friend/co-worker at my new job, he was able to "get it spinning" and download everything onto their server for safekeeping--much more comprehensive than what I did yesterday just to preserve my absolute priorities. Anyway, a new External Hard Drive purchase is in order. Seriously, a hassle but again, totally grateful not to lose all my precious photos and digital goodness...60GB+ worth. Pin It

day 2: a week in my life

Definitely click on the above picture to make it big enough to see, and maybe even read!
I did decide on a few things. One, I changed the font to one much easier to read, per Olivia's suggestion/comment. The rest pretty much mimics the first day, and I went back and changed that font too. I am working now on my first "extra" page which is highlighting the food pics I took during the week.
I have had some serious computer problems again today, making all of this much harder to do. I think the root of the problem is my external hard drive, so I copied and moved around a bunch of files today for safekeeping. I think I will replace it regardless of what my tech friend figures out tomorrow. It is imperative to my digi scrapping!

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beginning to document my week in the life...

I may tweak this but for now, this is Day 1 of my week :) I created the righthand template and the left template is from Designer Digitals, a Patti Knox freebie. I will probably rotate this to change things up throughout the album. The primary kit I am using is: Sweet September by Jannylynn and Lliella. The overlay which is the very faint border on each side is from foxydesigns. The journal lines are from Weeds and Wildflowers. The date stamp is from Little Dreamer Designs.

I plan to make several pages that simply expand about things that became common in my picture taking such as errands I run/places I go, perhaps a page dedicated to each person in our family or at the very least, each child. Maybe a food page. And I definitely want to create an intro so I can remember the process, why I did it, etc.

Link me to your work if you participated in this. Also, I am now a huge flickr follower, so look for me there too.

Two separate heart stopping moments today. 1) My computer locks up and I cannot reboot, AT ALL. Somehow, that finally works out. 2) I go to email something directly from Picasa, and everything from my external hard drive is missing. I unplug, plug, re-plug and my computer is still not recognizing the HD. TERROR! This has all my photos (of which, some are backed up), all my digi kits, and most recently, all my day in the week photos. Instant indigestion. Finally, what works is unplugging and re-plugging the electrical outlet back in. So now Picasa is working super overtime, adding all those folders back in. Don't tell anyone, but there are 31000+ files in my external hard drive!

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some very fun, flattering news to share...

It is not official yet, but check out this cool designer's blog for a sneak peek of something that might be coming.... Pin It

day 6 of my challenge

Only one more day of hard core photo taking and then I move on to creating my scrapbook. It has been a fun and inspiring week. I am glad I forced myself to take notice of the details of our lives.
Shot 1 today is Olivia's baby bedding, circa 2001 that I listed today on Craigs List which is a first for me. Maybe I will earn a little fun money. Shot 2 is from my backyard under our pine tree. I almost NEVER go in my backyard, beyond the confines of the pool. Today I did. Shot 3 is Shelby finding the hidden seeds in a dried out marigold. MaMa showed the girls how to do that. Shot 4 is our pool. Dave poured the antifreeze, pool closing chemicals in and it turned to this shade from sparkling clear. Hmm? It also smells very strongly of bleach. Hope that all works out. Tomorrow we are getting the very squeaky dryer repaired, I cannot handle a pool snafu too.

Today I attempted to salvage my attempt at a gratitude wrap. Love the idea of this and I think when I try again, I will have much better success. This first one will have to remain my own. Tomorrow I will share pics of it, but for now, click on the above link for some really well done ones. I did buy a bias tape maker today at Joanns. Clearly, I need at least a 1" tape to ever successfully fasten it to anything. It worked like a charm.

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wednesday: a week in the life

Some of my favorite photos of the day. Caught my computer booting up at this point at about 8:15 am. Love Shelby in action waiting on her carpool to school. Trying to take one of us together, with a short, prime lens resulted in this charming one of her and I. Notice her perfect skin and my perfectly, OLD skin?! And I made my first stop of the day only to notice some custom artwork on my dirty van window, courtesy of Olivia. Would I have taken, or noticed, any of this without this challenge? Probably not.

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NEW 12x12 template (working a bit ahead of myself!)

I got a little excited about my general plan for this "week in the life" album. I am only supposed to be in the taking pictures stage but I decided to whip up a quick one page design, featuring one photo with text surrounding that photo. If you have PhotoShop you can download it here, and use it. My sample layout will probably make it into the album. These are kits and items I plan to use throughout the whole thing to keep it consistent, and as simple as possible. Admittedly, things are never really simple for me when it comes to PhotoShop but I'm getting there! Click on the above photos to see them larger...and be able to read my flyer. Also, if you use this in any fashion please let me know by linking it here on my blog, I'd certainly be thrilled. And a disclaimer, this is only my second template ever. I hope it is useful but if I have overlooked some key piece in the puzzle, please accept my apologies!

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