Christmas Cards

So, at the end of my first complete year as an "obsessive" scrapbooker, a dilemma arises. Do I want to hand-make Christmas cards this year? Oh boy. The thought makes me a bit light headed. First, my list has expanded this year due to some new friendships and rekindling of old ones. Then there's the fact that some people may not appreciate the effort as much as others. So, I am compromising. I bought a box of regular cards, and I am handmaking some too. I'm sending the handmade cards to those closest to me and my family, those who would appreciate the thought most. Then regular cards for everyone else. I just don't have the time, energy or finances to handmake cards for everyone. I will still insist on writing personalized messages in each card, rather than mass producing them.

For those of you who love my (s)crap...

*snort*

I've created a new blog exclusively for my scrapbooking. You can find it HERE. I'll keep this one for now for personal ramblings, but I don't know how much love it will get, depends on how inspired/silly/snarky I feel.

November is almost over....

sheesh, that means 2006 is almost over.

My baby boy turned one this past Sunday! He's getting so big, he's pulling himself up on everything now, and he's got the big-boy car seat now instead of the carrier, facing forward!

I think I've decided I am going to make my Christmas cards this year. I have an idea for the design, I just need to sit down and make them. *sigh* That means I need to drag out the card list and update it, since I want to have a clearer number of how many cards I need to send, rather than me just buying more boxes of cards like previous years. I may buy a box anyways, just in case. heh.

My Poor Blog....

...has been quite neglected. There is plenty of good reason for this, at least in my mind. In my defense, I've actually been writing in my physical journal, which I feel more comfortable doing fo personal things.

I've been working on my "professional self" (and by this I mean my scrapbooking self, my engineering self is another story), and to those ends I've been clarifying some goals. I have some ideas I want to percolate for a while, so posts here may be few and far between, unless I feel the itch to type to you, my unknown audience.

Fiskateer #476 reporting for duty!

I received my wicked cool Fiskateers welcome pack today. Those gals rock. If you love Fiskars products, check out the Fiskateers link in the right margin ------------------> When a group sends you a printed welcome book that begs to be cut apart and used for scrapping, it can't be all bad. :D

Let the Purging Begin

I've finally moved all of my craft supplies into the attic. They are in a big pile, but they are in the attic, and no longer in my bedroom closet. So, the next step is to inventory and purge. Once I clean things out, I can work on organizing and decorating.

One thing I can say, I have a lot of yarn!

The magic hours...

It's that precious slice of time....after the kiddos are in bed, and before I need to go to sleep, it's my time, time to create.

Now my creativity could be art or engineering, depending on my mood (or my deadlines), but tonight, it was all about art. I had an idea this afternoon for a layout for a magazine call I had read about. I did some prep work earlier, but tonight I really got working on it, and am super happy with the results (and as an added bonus, another layout done for the Hawaii album!).

I love this time of night, it's so quiet and there's nothing to interrupt me. Sometimes I don't even play music or turn on the TV, I just create and enjoy the silence.

Slice of Life - 30 October 2006

(from the Simple Scrapbooks "Scrapbook Shortcuts with Quizzes and Questions")

1. The last person I sent a card to: The last card I sent in the mail was to Patrizzia, along with a page that I scrapped for her, that was a couple weeks ago. I've given two cards with gifts in the last few days, one to my friend Monika at her baby shower, and one to Sophia for her baptism.

2. What I ate for lunch today: leftover Papa John's pizza and cheese sticks

3. Something I just learned: I can't think of anything right now.

4. My favorite song this year: Anything by Jet, the Killers, or from the Backyardigans.

5. The last book I read: I am terrible at reading books in series, one at a time. I think I'm currently working on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (by Stephen Covey), The Big Picture (by Stacy Julian) and a few other things.

6. What I'm wearing right now: A teal blue v-neck t-shirt with jeans and green striped socks.

7. The last phone call I made: Hmm....maybe CVS to renew prescriptions? I don't talk on the phone much.

8. Inside, I don't feel very different from when I was: 18. Seriously, I don't.

9. The last restaurant I ate at was: Friendly's, tonight for dinner.

10. My favorite TV show is: CSI (the original)

Babies

I'm going to a baby shower tonight for an old high school friend of mine, who is carrying twins! The engineer in me says having twins is far more efficient, but the mom in me says "dear God, please give this woman as much help as you can!" I cannot even IMAGINE carrying, birthing or raising two kids in parallel.....two in series is hard enough! These are her first kids, so she will not have to take care of an older kid at the same time. Here's the card I made for her for the shower. The stamp of the pregnant lady was a total impulse buy at Michael's. $1 is too cheap to pass up for a cute stamp like this!

So much for my creative funk...

I've made a few layouts over the last few weeks that I totally LOVE. Some of them I've posted in my gallery, others I'm holding onto, at least for now. It helps so much when I stick to a certain "formula": awesome paper, a few embellishments and some snarky journaling. Okay, it's not always snarky, but some is fun. I finished a layout yesterday, of which Perrin is the subject, and the journaling is from his point of view. Sort of. I think it's pretty funny, but I haven't scanned it yet, and I think it may be one of those layouts I hold onto for a while. I also managed to use up some older supplies, so that is a good thing. Seriously, I think the only thing I need to buy for a long while is adhesive, and even that is questionable.

I have also started scrapbooking our Hawaii pictures, it's only been 6 years since we were there. I even have an album for them! Okay, so there are 3 layouts in there so far, and 2 of them are technically about the same subject. It will be a long process, but as long as there is Basic Grey Hang Ten paper available, I have all the time in the world to work on it.

I just sent Hayden off to Scrapbook Trends!

Okay, not really Hayden himself, but one of my very favorite layouts, and Hayden is in it! This will be my very first publication (the MM non-pub doesn't count). I have recently started using Scrap Submit for my submissions, and although it has its quirks, it's so easy to submit things. We'll see if this helps my luck any.

Only 4 months until the CK Hall of Fame entries are due! I'm really excited about this. This time last year I had never heard of CK, but my growth has been amazing. I love this artform and I love the people I have met through it. I will be entering HOF. I'm even going to get started now, and not wait until the last minute.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

Since my GDT term at Scrapbooker Online came to an end at the end of September, I've been in sort of a creative funk. I haven't scrapped a single layout in the last week. Now, creativity as a whole isn't an issue, I made a digi layout, an altered item, and today I've made 5 cards. It was nice having the DT challenges to think about, so that I had at least a general direction to go on while scrapping. I just got Ali Edwards book "A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking" and I am really enjoying it. I am thinking of doing a little scraplifting from there to get back into the groove.

Right now Hayden is having a "conversation" with himself in the mirror. That kid is freakin cute.

Growing Up - digi

This layout was created mainly with Angela Spangler's new kit from Everyday Digital Scrapbooking and the first thing that grabbed me was the color. This color is so yummy! It's a free download, check it out. Actually everything in this layout is free. :D

Elements:
PP, ribbons: Angela Spangler "Blue" kit - Everyday Digital Scrapbooking
Black star: Chris Ford "Future Rock Star" kit - twopeasinabucket.com
Teal star: Gina Cabrera "Lucky Star" kit - DigitalDesignEssentials.com
Font: Teen - dafont.com
Notebook Paper - Tia Bennett "New Growth" kit - DesignerDigitals.com

Professional versus Amateur

I heard a commercial the other day....it was football related, I don't remember what the product was, but I remember the quote:

"Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong."

It really got me thinking about a lot of things in my life, dedication and determination. If I really and truly want to be successful at something, I need to give the kind of quality effort that football players give their game. This applies to not only my professional life, but also my creative life and my personal life.

A tangent thought is that I need to determine what endeavors I want to dedicate that sort of effort to. I enjoy doing a lot of things with my hands, mind and heart, but there is only so much of each and only so much time to dedicate to them.

It's Friday!

Yay!

It's all about submitting artwork to calls today. Last night I sent 2 layouts to a CK call, I have another one to go out today to a different CK call, I have several to send to a Paper Trends call, a design team that I'm considering applying for, and a book call where I just may deluge them with anything I think fits (because it's a pretty broad call). I can't get published if I don't create and submit!

As my term as a Guest Designer at Scrapbooker Online winds down, I can't help thinking about what is next in my life as a scrapbooker. I love SBO, and although there are many calls out there for web site design teams, I don't think I want to join another community based site. I love all my sistas! So, if SBO ever has a DT call, you betcha I'll be applying, but that's it. I'd love to join a manufacturer design team, but I need to get some publishing experience under my belt first.

Wooo!! Something Engineering-related to Post!

My proposal was accepted by a large instrumentation company for a pilot program that they are running. I will be receiving some fun hardware in the mail in a couple weeks, then I get 3 months to play around with it. Of course, now that I am working from home, my home will be my laboratory. Once I get my test program running, there may be random electronics in random parts of my house. ;)

I don't get paid to do this, but it is really cool hardware that is under development by a major company, so the experience and the contacts are valuble. Plus I love to play with hardware. :D

I've pushed the "Send" button....

My Ranger Ink DT application has been sent. I just love that feeling after I send in an application, or also with an engineering report or proposal, when I know my work is done. It's finished, and out of my hands. Now, the cleanup begins.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

I am back from CKU-M. I had a fabulous time. I got more swag than I know what to do with. I learned some totally cool things. I met awesome people (famous and not so famous). I drank a lot of wine. I have a messy scrap table.

Did you get one of my rolodex cards? If you did, please comment and say hi, and tell me where in the world you're from! I love all of the fun rolodex cards I received. Scrapbookers are artists, that is for sure.

And the lightbulb above my head started to glow...

Yesterday I had a scrapping revelation. I am a "simple scrapbooker". I've always liked the simple/graphic look, and Simple Scrapbooks has been my favorite mag, but I've always just tried different things. Yesterday I realized that all of my favorite layouts are simple and/or graphic. Layouts that I do in this style seem to come together faster and I 'futz' around with them less. I whipped out 2 layouts last night after these thoughts, and I totally love them both. (You'll have to wait till WAT to see them though!)

Part 2 of the revelation....I have been trying to work on my entry for the Ranger Ink Design Team call. I realized that lots of their products don't seem to mesh with "simple and/or graphic". There is lots of destressing and other techniques. As of last night I was considering dropping out of the race.

Part 3 of the revelation came this morning. Was it possible to make the Ranger products work with my scrapping style? I think I can. I have some new ideas that I'm totally psyched about. Wow, that lightbulb above my head got brighter. I totally love that "lightbulb" feeling.

Happy Birthday to Me

Another trip around the sun.

I got to sleep until about 9AM today. That is UNHEARD OF. Family over for pizza and carrot cake tonight. Yum. My big present is that I get to go to CKU-M later this week. 3 days of kid-free scrapping bliss with MFF. Yay!

One of our cats is missing. We didn't realize the back screen door on the slider was open, and they both got out. It rained all evening, so we didn't think they'd go far. One was huddled by the house, but we can't find the other. E is staying in the basement with the slider open in case he comes back. They are not outdoor cats, and we live far enough in the boonies that there are larger animals out there who would love to eat a nice juicy domestic house cat, so hopefully the little bugger gets hungry and comes home.

Week 2: Last Scrapper Standing

I totally love the Effer girls. Seriously. And I totally love this layout. If I don't move on to Week 3, I am submitting this high and low. Heck, even if I do move on I am submitting this high and low. Hayden is just the cutest little boy, isn't he????

The challenge for Week 2 was to use 13 photos in one layout. I think I counted my photos about 300 times to make sure I only had 13.

(photo removed 10/12/06, layout requested for publication, yay!)


















I never posted my Week 1 layout, so here it is. The challenge was to put the journaling on the photo.

It's 9:45 PM. Do you know where your mojo is?

just something fun for my challenge this week at Scrapbooker Online. Digi elements by Tia Bennett (New Growth kit).

I {heart} 7Gypsies

It's Wicked Awesome Thursday, and our wicked awesome sponsor for this month is 7Gypsies! We have a ton of really cool stuff to work with. Check it out HERE!

August Contest at Scrapbooker Online!

Scrapbooker Online’s Progressive August Layout Contest

www.scrapbookeronline.com

Thanks to the wonderful contributions and participation in our July contest we have decided to keep the ball rolling at SBO and offer another progressive layout contest for the month of August. But this one has a little twist involved. For anyone who attended our Cyber Crop in June and participated in my challenge you will understand the contest rules below.

The contest will run for 4 weeks. Each, MONDAY by Midnight EST, you will upload the assignment for the week. There will be a designated contest gallery for each week of the contest.

The contest judging will not occur until the end of the month but to be eligible you will need to upload your assignment each week. Due to the fact this is a progressive contest you can not miss a week because each week will build off of the past weeks work.

Each Tuesday at Noon, EST, I will post the assignment. You will have a week to complete it and upload to the gallery.

The final layouts will be judged on the following: Overall craftsmanship, creativity, and interesting use of embellishments, journaling, and how well you followed the directions. The SBO DT will be judging this contest.

This contest is going to take some thought ladies. Each week you will need to use what you have done in the past and build on it. But, you will not know what you are to do next, until the assignment is posted. You also can NOT add anything to your layout that is not in the assignments. Good luck let me know if you have any questions.

The first assignment will be posted this Tuesday, August 1st. The first deadline will be Monday, August 7th at Midnight EST.

It's Sunday.....

And although I don't work the regular week like I used to, there is still the same feeling of the weekend ending and the work week beginning. I have a Franklin Planner, and I try to spend time each Sunday reviewing goals and planning my week. And even though I'm not in the office anymore, I still fill up each day with tasks. The next thing I'd like to work on is putting more structure into my day. Right now we go as the wind takes us through our day, and I don't get as much accomplished as I'd like, whether its Mommy things or engineer things or scrappy things. Problem is I am not a morning person. That and Hayden has been waking up at 3AM the last few nights and wanting to babble and play.

Stay tuned for an all new Wicked Awesome Thursday at Scrapbooker Online this week. We have a new sponsor for August and I am so totally psyched to be working with this product. I want to go out and buy tons more of this stuff. I have a project in the works that will knock your socks off. It's already knocking my own socks off! Now I just need to finish it in time...

This week was all about blueberries. One day last week I picked six cups of them. It was so nice to have the big bowl of them in the kitchen. I could scoop a few each time I walked by, or dump a bunch on my cereal in the morning. Or have them with Cool Whip after dinner. It's all good.

Do YOU read my blog?

Just curious to see who comes here. If you are reading this, please leave a comment, even if you're just saying "Hi!".

:D

Bleck.

Yesterday the UPS man stopped at my house. I hadn't ordered anything, and when I saw him carrying a "pizza box", my only thought was that someone had sent me some 12x12 paper or something. Until I saw the return address. The layout that I sent in to be published (had been requested after I sent an e-version for review) was returned to me, with a note saying that although they appreciated my work, they had decided not to use the layout. Now I knew that there was always a chance it wouldn't be used, but this just stinks. It would have been my first publication. Apparently a LOT of people are getting their layout shipped back to them this week, an unusually large number it seems. We are banding together to see if we are going to get any sort of compensation for submitting our layouts. Many people paid a lot of money for postage to get it shipped. I managed to only have to pay regular priority, so I'm not out a lot of money, but it's very annoying.

So here's the layout, I can post it now. It's one of my favorites, and I didn't make it for the call, it just happened to fit for Easter.

It's Wicked AwesomeThursday

It's that day of the week at Scrapbooker Online where everything is Wicked Awesome! The DT sponsor for July is Crate Paper and this week the DT scraplifted our Wicked Awesome members. Here's my lift of Patty!


And as promised, here is my Effer Dare #36. Note that it's a lift of the same layout by Patty. Yeah, I forgot to use the Crate Paper the first time. Ah well, I love how both of them turned out.

Since I don't have enough to do in my life......

I am interested in applying for the Ranger Ink Design Team. This is another one of those "snowball's chance in heck" sorts of things, but who cares. This one would be really really fun. The hard part will be that several of their products I've never used. So I bought a few things this week to try out. I think I'll play around with some products for a while and make a decision by Aug. 1. That gives me a month to make my entries. I think I do my best work when I am applying for something. Not like a magazine call, but a competition. I've always been this way. I don't like to practice, but I love to compete. This time I think I'll practice by competing in a few other things before my entry is due.

The Effer Dares are having a challenge in August with some potentially awesome prizes. I have signed up. Yay! I did Dare #36, but I'm not going to post it until tomorrow, since it was something I did for Wicked Awesome Thursday at Scrapbooker Online. I've got a plan for Dare #34, just need some time to work on it.

Effer Dare #35

Effer Dares are good for your creative soul. Here is my #35.

It's Wicked Awesome Thursday...

...at Scrapbooker Online. Our line of the month is Crate Paper...boy is this paper yummy! It's got a great texture and I love the muted and distressed effects. Here's a couple of items from the Kate Collection:

Anticipation....

Okay, so a teeny bit nervous over here.

So I entered the Junkitz Designer Draft this year. Loved my entries. Didn't really expect to have any chance in HECK of getting chosen (they're picking 3 people, I bet they got hundreds of entries). So I read yesterday that they've finished the first round of judging and they've narrowed it down to 30 people. And, after some requests, Stacey at Junkitz says she'll post the names of the top 30 on her blog today.

And this after I was prepared to wait till July 14th to hear any news. Seriously, there are so many super talented people that I know applied. But there's that little tingle in the back of my brain saying, "wouldn't it be cool if you were picked? It would be so freaking awesome to create for Junkitz." I certainly won't be crushed if I am not picked. But...........

EDIT: Well, I didn't win. Didn't get top 30 either. Ah well, at least I can post my entries now, I didn't want to while the call was pending.

July!

July is the start of my tenure as a Guest Designer at Scrapbooker Online! I am so excited to be working with the DT and with Corey, who is also a Guest Designer for these three months. Corey is first up with the challenges in July, and she has some great ones. I'll be on deck with the challenges for August.

Only 12 more days until the Junkitz DT announcement! (Ya, like I have a chance in HECK of making that, but I looooove their stuff and I loooooove my entries). I also threw my hat into the ring for something else, a challenge type blog a la Effer Dares, we'll see what comes of it.

Hmm....these posts have been a whole lot of ART and not a whole lot of ENGINEERING. The problem with engineering is a lot of the things I work on are confidential in some way, so I can't just post about whatever I'm working on. Hm.....I'll have to think about this.

If I won the all time lottery,

a journaling prompt by Sophia via AprilAmy at 2 P's

what are the top 10 material things I would buy?

1. A second home in Hawaii. DH and I have been itching to go back to Hawaii ever since we were there in 2000. Yeah it's expensive to get there and to live there, but I would have won the lottery, right?

2. A new car. An SUV. Hmmm, don't know what kind yet.

3. Jewelry. I'm not really an "emebellished" girl, I don't wear a lot of jewelry, but diamonds are a girl's best friend. I think I would buy a couple of signature pieces that I could wear daily, some diamond studs, etc.

4. A new house. This is hard because I like my house, and I like my neighborhood. We do have some ideas for a "dream house", and I think if I could build it somewhere nearby, I'd be really happy.

5. A contract with a cleaning company to clean my house. :D

6. Top of the line laptops for all of us. Fully wired house, wireless network, tablet PC in the kitchen.

okay, I have to think about this more, I'll finish the list later.

Hooray for Summer!

Nikki from SBO gave us a fun journaling prompt this week:

My Top 10 Favorite Things about Summer (in no particular order)

1. Wearing shorts
2. Wearing flipflops (or not having to wear socks)
3. Sunshine late in the day.
4. Grilling
5. Mowing the lawn (seriously, I like mowing the lawn, with 2 kids its a great hour of solitude)
6. Flowers in my yard
7. Bright colors everywhere
8. My birthday and our anniversary
9. Airconditioning when it gets too hot and humid
10. Baseball

Inspiration

Today was an awesome day. I had the extreme pleasure being selected to work with the Design Team at Scrapbooker Online as a Guest Designer for July through September. I am so completely psyched about this opportunity. The ladies on the design team, and the Sistas in general are so fabulously inspring. In the 6 months that I have been visiting the site, I have learned SO MUCH from all of them. I am so excited to be able to give back to everyone. Here is one of my entries. There is journaling inside the tag explaing my unexpected labor and delivery of my son.

Validation is a wonderful thing.

One of my layouts was requested for publication in the Memory Makers Idea Gallery book, to be published this fall! This is my first publication request ever, and I am on cloud 9 right now.....I had to run downstairs to tell my DH.

You know, I scrap for me. The page that was requested was not one that I had made for a call, or to use a certain paper. I loved the photos and I loved the way it turned out. I just submitted it because it fit one of the categories they were looking for. But even though I scrap for me, it's amazing how good it feels when someone says "I like what you've done." Yep, I love getting praise on the message boards I post at, and I love dishing it out. That reminds me, I've been so busy this week that I haven't left much praise. I need to pay my good luck forward.

If

Random question from The Big Book of If:

"If you could call any person from history for advice tonight, who would you prefer to talk to?"

My all time historical favorite has to be Leonardo da Vinci. He was more than just a genius. He truly was a "Renaissance Man". He was an artist in several mediums, an inventor and philosopher. He definitely exercised both sides of his brain. I'd love to know more about how he organized his life, and managed the many facets of his work. Heck, I'd just love to observe him and absorb his talent.

I have a kit to build a model of da Vinci's ornithopter flying machine. The kit was purchased for me years ago as a gift. I managed to get the cockpit done, but then we moved, and it hasn't seen the light of day since. Maybe I'll get it out when my new craft space is done (yeah, like I have the free time to work on that too.).

Hooray for me!

This layout of mine won the May contest at Scrapbooker Online!



Thanks so much to MFF and the Sista's at SBO. They are truly inspirational.

Words of Wisdom....

Last night I spoke at a dinner honoring the Math Team members at my high school. I was asked to provide some words of wisdom, and I am pretty happy with what I wrote.

Words of Wisdom

My name is Sue, and I am a former Mathlete. That sounds like an opening for a “Mathletes Anonymous” meeting, doesn’t it? Mr. Sullivan asked me to provide some words of wisdom for the Mathletes that are being honored. At first I wasn’t sure what to say, since I wasn’t a “top” mathlete, and I certainly had my struggles. But I turned out well, so I must have done something right. I think the best advice I can give comes down to two words:

Be Distinctive.

I graduated 7th out of 140 students in my class. I played sports, did extra curricular activities, including Math League, like I’m sure many of you do. For many of us it is easy to excel, and being a Mathlete is another way to challenge yourself. I was surprised to find out when I went to college that I wasn’t as distinctive as I thought. I went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute to study mechanical engineering, along with the best and brightest from many schools around the country and around the world. I was no longer distinctive amongst my peers; in fact I was perfectly average. For someone who was used to being very good at everything I did, this was a big shock. I’ll be the first to admit that I did not do all that well my freshman year academically and really questioned if I was taking the right path.

It took a bit of time, but I got my academics on track, and I learned that I had to change my thinking on many things, starting with how to distinguish myself from my peers in ways other than academics. The first big decision I made was to take a year off between my junior and senior year to take a co-operative education job as an engineering technician. This was life changing in so many ways. I found out what the real world of business and engineering was like and learned many skills that were not included in my academic plan. As someone who now reviews resumes and interviews potential candidates for employment, I can’t stress enough how positive it is to see relevant work experience on a resume. It doesn’t particularly matter what your GPA is, and employers generally judge an undergraduate degree the same from any school. Relevant work experience, whether internships, summer hires or co-op terms show your potential employer that you have done something other than study books and take tests, since you’ll rarely have to do those things once you get a job.

Once you’ve learned to be distinctive in order to land a job, you need to switch gears in order to advance within your company, or to move on to different companies as you grow professionally. My advice here is to get as much experience with as many different things as possible, whether this is business areas, software, projects, you name it. My success has come directly from being a “jack of all trades”. My skills are useful in many different projects, I am not pigeonholed into a niche and I have the basic skills to learn a lot of new things along the way.

My last bit of advice in order to be distinctive is to learn to communicate. If you can verbally express your ideas, speak clearly in public to co-workers or clients and create quality written works (memos, reports, presentations, etc), you will be successful. And this takes practice, but it is by far the most useful of all skills you’ll bring to your employer. You could have a 4.0 from a top university but if you can’t convey your thoughts and ideas in a clear, concise way, you cannot be successful.

And never stop being distinctive. Recently I left my employer to start my own engineering consulting company. I did this not so much to be an entrepreneur, but to have the flexibility to stay at home to raise my two sons. It’s been a wonderful experience, although challenging in its own ways, but the experience will certainly benefit me later in life. Best wishes for the challenges in your life.

Has it really been that long?

Ten years ago today, I graduated from college. TEN years. I really don't feel much different than I did then, but so much has happened in my life that I'm grateful for. I had 9+ years of doing engineering work for a fabulous company and I've now started my own engineering consulting company. I met and married my husband, bought a house, and gave birth to two beautiful boys. I've traveled all over the country and met many wonderful people.

Here's to the next ten years.

Keep the Internet Free.

"This is about Internet freedom. "Network Neutrality" -- the First Amendment of the Internet -- ensures that the public can view the smallest blog just as easily as the largest corporate Web site by preventing Internet companies like AT&T from rigging the playing field for only the highest-paying sites.

But Internet providers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast are spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress to gut Net Neutrality. If Congress doesn't take action now to implement meaningful network neutrality provisions, the future of the Internet is at risk."

Click on the link above. Sign the petition, be more aware. I don't advocate for much, but this is something that really means something to me.

It's raining outside and I can't go out in play..

...why do we need the rain, anyway? (Okay, just channeling Sesame Street memories for a sec)

I have no plans for today. That is kind of nice. I could have slept in but I forgot to turn off my alarm from yesterday and I didn't think to look at the clock after it went off, so I got up, then realized it was 6:30, but it was too late, I was already up, and if I went back to sleep, I wouldn't get up untul 9-ish, and I'm sure my kids wouldn't appreciate that.

So, I'll be mostly domestic today. Going to put a pot roast in the crock pot to cook, will do some laundry and cleaning, play with the boys, etc. Then during nap time I'll put my engineering geek hat on and do some report writing for work.

Speaking of geek hats, next week I am speaking at a recognition dinner for Mathletes at my high school. Yep, Math League members now get varsity letters and a fancy recognition dinner at the end of the year. (No, I'm not bitter.....wait, yes I am) I had to write some words of wisdom to speak, and of course procrastinated and procrastinated, and I kept getting emails from the coordinator (also my former calculus teacher) saying "your homework is late!". Ah, that takes me back. I am taking scrap classes at CKC-Manchester earlier in the day, so I'll be jumping between scrap-mommy mode and geeky-yet polished public speaking mode.

little pic of me

DH took this pic of me a while back. I have nearly zero pics of myself that aren't self portraits, since I am the family photographer.

Only in Boston.....

The Red Sox traded for a backup catcher batting .182 with no RBIs this season. They put him on a private jet to Boston, had a state police escort bring him to Fenway. He put on his uniform in the back of the police car on the way there. When he took the field he got a standing ovation.

Because he's the only guy on the face of the earth that can catch Tim Wakefield.

Doug Mirabelli, welcome back to Boston, we love ya!

Creating Without Fear

Very interesting site: Creative Collage

I started the exercises on Creating Without Fear. Here is the result of the Week 2 exercise:


- Did the exercise seem worthwhile?
It was fun, kind of freeing, although I'm not sure what the point was.

- Did you gather your supplies together before beginning the exercise?
Yes.

- Were you able to move through the steps effortlessly?
Yes, I just did it, and didn't really think about what I was doing.

- Did you put the completed exercise away right after you were finished?
Yes.

- What was your first reaction to your completed exercise?
I didn't really like it. I didn't really compose anything, I just "made marks" and while it was fun to doodle and stamp, I don't feel the result does anything for me.

- Overall, how did you feel about the process?
I think there still needs to be thought in the creative process, but not judging thought.

Now, I haven't gone back and read the discussions yet, I may have more insight once I do that.

Procrastinators.....

"Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."

If I get a call tomorrow morning, someone's in big trouble. They're running a big test of a new system. I got pulled off of that project a while back, thank goodness. And I don't have time for it anyways, but they just have no concept of reality. I am going to sit back and be quiet, because if I speak up, I may get sucked back into the project.

I am really getting fed up with the state of clutter that exists around me. I am just too overwhelmed with it to know where to begin. I know I should be patient and wait until the attic is done so I can move things into my space deliberately, but I just can't stand not having a place for everything right now. I have about 28 boxes of baby clothes in various sizes, maternity clothes and prebaby clothes that don't quite fit yet in my bedroom, because they can't go back into the storage area in the attic until the attic is done. My desk is being used for work, scrapbooking, filing and kid crafts. I feel like I keep shifting piles of stuff around. *sigh*

Ka-ching, baby!

Today I received my first check. Sure, we all get checks all of the time, but this was my first payment for my services for my own company. Some people frame their first dollar bill, I'm going to scrap a picture of my first check. (Duh, can't scrap the check, I had to deposit it! Do you know how long it's been since I last got paid???)

Of course, as soon as this baby clears, I can remove my scrap purchases moratorium (you know, the one I haven't exactly been sticking to).

The calm before the storm

It's 8AM on Thursday, and my house is quiet. DH has gone to work, and my two boys are both still sleeping. I love this time, I get to take time to wake up and surf the web a bit, have some caffeine and think about my day.

Soon enough there will be laughing, screaming, giggling and crying, but for now, the only sound is my typing.

Effer Dare #1

If you scrap, you need to do the Effer Dares. They are a really cool way to get your mind working. I have a 6x8" spiralbound album that I'll be putting the results into. This is my interpretation of Dare #1.

Hooray Hooray It's Opening Day!

Hooray Hooray It's Opening Day! 

So why is it that I am on the computer and not watching or listening to the game? Hrmmm......

Handel Challenge: Day 3

The west end of our attic room.

I didn't start this on time, but I've started nonetheless. Here is my raw canvas, our attic. It's not quite finished, there are a few more rows of flooring to put down, then the baseboard trim, and then we can start moving things up there. I am currently working on a floor plan (the room is approximately 18' wide and 22' long) so I can work out where to put my existing furniture, and to determine what the best placement for storage is. The window is facing west, there are also two skylights on the north side (right side of pic).

Happy Friday!

It's the last day of March, and it's been a busy month! It's been my first full month of being self employed, and I managed to work just as much as I had hoped I would. I've started submitting my scrapbooking work for contests/publications. I'm on track with my weight loss, and it's 70 degrees outside today!

Today I submitted my application for the 3 Bugs in a Rug Design Team. I just love their paper, Cabana is just perfect for scrapping my son Perrin. I need to break out all his Hawaiian shirts for the summer, he is so darn cute when he wears them.

The Handel Challenge

I've decided what I want to do for Nikki's challenge . I have the unique opportunity to create and organize my own craft/scrap/office area. We are finishing our attic into a beautiful living space, and I will have a lot of room. I will spend 25 days planning what I will do with this space, selecting items for storage and decoration, and have a complete picture in mind when the room is ready, so as I move my items up there, they will go right into their proper places. I am not a very good planner, so this will be a great exercise for me, and in the end I will have a great space to do my creating, both crafty creating and engineering creating. I'll start my challenge on April 1, which is this Saturday.

Construction wise, we have abou 1/3 of the flooring installed. Once that is done, the trim can go up, and I think we will be complete enough to start moving things up there. I can't wait to put all our stuff back in the storage area up there. The contents of our attic have been in our bedroom and office for the last 8 months or so. The construction is slow going because we're doing all the work ourselves, but we're saving a ton of money and the space is GORGEOUS!

I'm down, he's up.

• 1.2 lb weight loss this week, for a total of 15.4 lb! And to think I ate three pieces of cake in the last three days. Or was it 4 pieces? It was good cake (funfetti, from Hayden's baptism).
• Hayden had his 4 month appointment today, he's up to 16 lb 4 oz! Poor guy had three shots in his legs though, wasn't happy. We decided to go shopping afterwards for some retail therapy.
  
• My pledge to not buy any more scrapbooking stuff for a while was broken again. Maybe if I put it in print....I WILL NOT BUY ANY MORE SCRAPBOOKING STUFF UNTIL I GET MY FIRST NEW PAYCHECK!
• Working from home is logistically difficult. I need to seperate my work material and my craft material. It's all on the same desk right now, and one distracts me from the other.
• I haven't been working as many hours as I'd like. Must really put the nose to the grindstone this week, if I want to make money.
  

Wicked Awesome

Congrats to the three wicked awesome ladies who were selected for the Scrapbooker Online Design Team. It's really cool that the three who were picked were established Sistas! Congrats to Amy Workman, Kristy Huddle and Janet Covington!

If you haven't noticed lately, I am Wicked Awesome too. It took me a long time to realize that.
I took Julie-Ann's suggestion and submitted this to the International Scrap Yourself Challenge. What a great idea, most of us scrappers are usually focusing on others, and not ourselves.

Fingers crossed

Today is the day for the Design Team announcement at SBO! I am really happy with my entry, it can be seen here. There are so many talented people that I know entered, and I know the team will be benefited by whoever is chosen. I just love all the sistas there! It's my online sorority. :D

What can I do in 25 days?

My friend Nikki has proposed an interesting challenge. Handel composed The Messiah in 25 days. What can I do in 25 days? She is recording her own challenge here, where we can all follow along. I am thinking of potential challenges for myself, but I'm having trouble deciding whether do to a material challenge or a personal one. A material challenge would be something like organizing all of the photos in my house, or designing and implimenting my new craft space in the attic. A personal challenge would be something like becoming more active, or working on my relationships. Maybe I'll pick one of each if I'm feeling ambitious.

Random Stuff for 21 March 2006

• Today is my little sister Emily's birthday. She's 23......dang that makes me seem old. But I don't feel old, so BLEAH to all of the people that think that age is a number and not a feeling.
• Yesterday was the first day of spring, why is it so #@^&%%$ cold?
• Yesterday I submitted my first scrapbooking layout to a magazine publication call. I love the layout, but I'm pretty sure the quality isn't up to snuff for publication.
• I can't wait for our attic to be done so I can organize my office properly. My desk is a mix of engineering notes, scrapbooking stuff, photos, bills and potty training reward trackers.

I'll add more later as I think of things.....it is only 9AM anyways....

Sunday Journaling 3/12/06

A journaling prompt from Nikki

Talk about your first job. What did you do? How much money did you get paid?

I was 14 when I got my first job. It was my freshman year of high school, and after earning a varsity letter in soccer that fall, I wanted to get a letter jacket. I don't remember how much they cost (wool jacket with custom embroidery), but they were fairly expensive, and my parents didn't have the money to spend on that.

There aren't a whole lot of job opportunities for a 14 year old. So, I went with what I knew. I had been taking ceramics classes at the local girls club for several years, and I asked the instructor if I could work there, helping out with the classes for the younger kids. She agreed, and I started with the next session of classes.

My job was basically setup and cleanup for each class. I would cut out cubes of clay using a wire, slicing out slabs then dividing them up. I'd put scrap clay in the scrap bucket at the end of the class, making sure there was enough water in the bucket to keep the clay moist. I'd also tent up in plastic any thrown items, so that they'd still be a bit moist the following week, so the students could trim the base on the wheel and give their bowls a foot.

The best part about these classes was near the end, when everyone got to glaze their pieces. I always loved seeing the glazes transform from milky coatings to deep shiny colors after firing. I still have several of my own pieces around, although I haven't thrown any pieces since about that time.

I don't remember how much money I made. It wasn't much, but I did earn enough to buy my own letter jacket. I took great care of it, it was the most expensive thing I had ever bought with my own money. In fact, it's still hanging in my closet.

Note to self...

If I am to go into Michael's to buy one thing, I am to bring cash for said item only, and leave all other forms of currency payment in the car. Sheesh, $10 in adhesives and $40 in other goodies.

My business is officially open for business. Federal ID #, registered with the state, bank account established. Bought QuickBooks last week and set things up. Tracking my working time so I can properly invoice. Now just need to find time between potty training, train playing and food making to actually work.

Movin' on up....

I am no longer Sue Kristoff, Project Engineer, I am now Sue Kristoff, President and Operating Manager of The Kristoff Group LLC, an engineering consulting firm. And I've got the paper work to prove it!

Of course, I'm also cook, maid, dishwasher, laundress, accountant, activity director and lots of other titles to two adorable little bosses.

Now, I REALLY need to clean off my desk. Currently it's a mix of business materials, scrapbooking materials, fitness books, crayons, artwork from a resident 2.5 year old and potty training charts and prizes.

A little pain in a little spot

This is one of the reasons I am happy not to be working full time any more.

Today I had to go into a client meeting. I had to bring the kids to my mom's house. I forgot to bring the swing so that the baby would have some place to sit and watch the kids. I forgot to bring a baby bottle for the milk. Luckily my mom had some ones left over from my nephew. I find out that the client meeting is starting two hours earlier than I expected (luckily I had gone in early because I wanted to work on another project). We had a meeting with our client for several hours, then I sit around waiting for people to give me parts of the proposal I'm working on. I then drive back to my mom's, pick up the kids, and drive home. If I had to do that every day, I'd go insane.

I now have a pain in my back, above my left shoulderblade. I almost forgot about it, I used to get it all the time. I hadn't had it once since I was home on maternity leave. As my stress worsens, the pain extends upward. If it gets bad, it goes into my neck. If it gets to my head, things are really bad, and I need to disengage from whatever I'm doing. So, it's just in my shoulder blade, which is good. It's bad because it hurts, but it's good because it's not expanding. I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow, so I'll just relax and hang out with my boys.

Working hard or hardly working?

Today is my first day of gainful self employment. Although technically it was yesterday, because I did 2.5 hours of work to finish up a presentation draft. Such is the life of the independent contractor.

I'm in the process of setting up my own company. I am using a third party company to facilitate the setup process, and my paperwork is being processed by the state right now. Within the next week or so, I should be an official business owner!

I need to start referring to my ex-boss and company as my "client". It's weird, since I was an employee there for ten years. They are letting me keep my laptop for the time being (i.e. indefinitely borrow), since it has all of my files, etc. That is nice, one business expense I can put off until a later date. I am going to pick up a copy of QuickBooks to keep track of everything, print invoices, quotes, etc.

Holding my breath and jumping feet first

I am making a HUGE change in my life. For the last ten years, I've been working full time as a mechanical engineer. I now have two small children, and the toll of working full time, commuting, and being too exhausted to spend quality time with my children was too much.

Last week, I submitted my resignation to my boss.

This week, I am in the process of starting my own engineering consulting company. My goal is to have about 16 hours of work per week. My boss from my current job is willing to contract me work for about that amount, and I already have a project lined up. My first official day of being self-employed is Monday February 27th.

I'm not very good at accepting change, and this was a tough, but I believe worthwhile decision. I will now be able to be home raising my kids, but still have some technical work in my life.

Self portrait

I have no good pictures of me. I'm usually the one taking pictures, so there are very few pictures of me as there is. I'm going to work on creating a self portrait, a picture that I'd be happy to share, and not be all embarrased about how my hair looks, etc.

What does heaven mean to you?

From 52 Figments for 2/5/06

This is a tough question for me. I've always had issues with my spirituality, and I don't have a firm vision of heaven. When I was little I didn't believe in god, or any other religious dogma. I do believe in something now, but I'm sure it's not the mainstream belief. Heaven could be a place or a state of mind. The Buddhists consider achieving Nirvana to be a form of heaven. I watched that Barbara Walters special a while back on heaven, and that really didn't help my thinking either. Some people have such a rigid idea of what religion and heaven is, and that bothers me.

Heaven is a state of perpetual bliss, I don't know if it's a mental place or a physical place.

Money is no object and your safety is guaranteed....Where do you want to go?

From 52 Figments...

I'd like to go on a grand historical tour of the Mediterranean. I'd love to visit Egypt and sail down the Nile River, see ancient sites in Turkey, Greece, Italy, the Middle East, etc. These are the places that our civilization came from, and I am facinated by these sights. I've always had an interest in religious historical places, although I'm not particularly religious myself.

Another part of me would like to build an ocean front home in Kauai, Hawaii, and live in paradise.

2006 - The Year of the Change

I've made an agreement with myself to make some changes in my life this year. Most of the changes have to do with having "too much" in my life, usually bad things, like stress and clutter. The biggest change for this year is that I am leaving my job as a mechanical engineer to be a stay-at-home mom. I am hoping to continue doing some consulting work for my company on a limited basis to retain some income and keep my skills up, but the most important thing for me is to be home raising my kids.

I was spending up to 3 hours a day in my car. I realized that I was spending more time in the car with my son than I was spending time at home with him during the week. With the birth of my second boy, I knew things had to change, or I would be horribly stressed out just trying to get out of the house in the morning, never mind trying to get a full day of work in.

Here's a short list of the changes that I intend to work on this year:

Spend more time raising my children
Reduce work stress in my life
Pare down the clutter in my life
Be more creative

This blog is where I'll document my experiences, progress and results.