In honor of Bennett's 1st day at the new job!!

Hi everybody! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.....we hosted my family - it actually was pretty OK. I had several days to prep and my mom kept the kids out of my hair on Thurs so I could do all the crucial stuff....plus my awesome grandmother - also named Meg - came over and it was great for her to see 4 of her 7 great-grandkids. Then, the 5 of us got Fri - Sun to hang out......personally, I know that we have SOOOO much to be grateful for - we have each other - after that, nothing else really matters.

It snowed here in metro Atlanta today!! Cool...kinda rare - especially for pre-Feb......

Today my dear hubby, Bennett, started his new job!! We are so excited - as a computer consultant, he had been traveling on and off (mostly on!) for the better part of the last 4 years....this job is less than 5 miles from the house! He's now with a local boutique consulting firm - he's the new director of their business intelligence practice (OK, I know...the geek stuff is gettin' heavy). In honor of his new job and the wonderful opportunities for our family that it brings....I made a new paper kit! It's Bennett's favorite color - PURPLE...and of course, it has glitter and fleur de lis...also faves. These 12 papers include grunge, glitter, snowflakes, glittered edges circles, fleur de lis, diamonds, damask, flourished edges, an entire 12x12 glitter sheet, and other goodies.

Click HERE for part 1 (the first 6 papers) and then HERE2 for part 2 (the next 6).

I do have to give a shout out for some of the awesome overlays (found on DigiFree - a daily addiction) that I used to help create this paper kit...in no particular order, they are:

TotallyD Overlay Grunge01
Scrapfiends Wallpaper Overlay04
Fryske's Harlequin 2
LynneSimmons Textured Overlays Grunge1
Beth Long ColdWinter SnowflakeEdge
lvd goingincircles001
05_O_Edge Flourishes2

That, to me, is the best part of the digi scrap world - we can share our creative talents and from that create things that are greater than the sum of the parts.....wow...deep...careful, the English major is showing! Anyway - Happy December 1st!

And we're off.....the Silly Season has begun!

OK - it's officially what I like to refer to as the "Silly Season." The time when (mostly) we women run around doing 4x what the normal person should be expected to do on any given day, cooking too many big meals, being too exhausted to enjoy them when we finally get to sit down, buying gifts for people that neither need nor want what we spent too much $$ and too much time and too much energy getting, wrapping, etc.

You know - it almost sounds like I'm sort of a Grinch....I'm not. I just wish with all my heart that we could get back to what Christmas REALLY means...make it simple - a time for real peace & joy - not chaos and all about the loot under the tree. I have been trying for years to get my extended family to agree to limit gifts to things we make or maybe to adopt a family that truly needs some help...instead we keep buying cashmere sweaters and too much candy for the stockings....sigh.....

But - in the spirit of what the Season means to me and my family - I have two things to offer: first, this set of four (4) glitter alphas in gold, silver, red & green glitter - each set includes caps, lower case, punctuation and the phrase "Merry Christmas" - enjoy! You can either click HERE or on the preview to download.

Second - try and be a beacon of true peace & joy this season - regardless of your beliefs or faith, nobody needs any more stuff - but there are a lot of people out there who need to know that somebody cares. Go care......I do.

'Tis the Season.....part Deux!

OK - this past week has been a blur - I won't bore you with all the gory details (and there were some, believe me) but let's just say that I'm glad to be back home & focusing on my favorite time of year again - Christmas!!

Despite the fun that was had by all at my hubby's 20th High School Reunion, I would much rather be making goodies to give to you all...so here goes: Today there are a variety of shapes in 5 different colors/patterns. This files includes all the shapes you see here in red, green, silver, and gold glitter AND in candy cane stripes - fun! Enjoy! You can click HERE or on the preview to download. A thank you to Atomic Cupcake for her amazing actions! Check back later this week for fun Xmas words & glitter alphas.

My uncle continues to improve - despite a major setback last week. More surgery is scheduled for this Thursday so your thoughts & prayers are requested. Now I'm off to cook dinner for the first time in almost a week - yes, it's been that crazy around here. I think we're on a first-name basis with the drive-thru staff of most of the fast-foods around here....and my waistline shows it!

Exciting new things on the way!

Wow - talk about a couple of weeks of ups and downs - both personally and for the country. Regardless of your politics (and for the record, I'm a Libertarian), it has to give you pause to think that in a country where less than 50 years ago, it was perfectly legal (and even encouraged) to discriminate based on the color of skin, that so many people could look beyond the evil of prejudice and vote for a candidate who is not a white man. It is my deepest hope and prayer that Obama's presidency be one of positive growth for our country and that wisdom prevails in all situations.

But - on the personal side, hubby, Bennett, got a great offer for a LOCAL job!! It's a good move for him professionally and it will drastically reduce his travel hours - such a relief! We celebrated by christening our new fire pit - it was such fun to have s'mores out by the fire, listen to the crickets and look up at the stars. We will definitely be doing more of that this winter!

So - on to freebie-time! I have created a new Xmas kit - did I mention I love Christmas?? Such a happy time for me and my family. In today's freebie, there are 8 papers in various shades of red & green. A big thank-you to Anna Aspnes for her amazing sparkle overlay used in 2 of the papers - go check out her stuff at Designer Digitals - simply perfection! Check back in the next few days - I have a cool set of Xmas shapes in 5 different colors and some alphas to give away, too. You know me - there will definitely be some glitter in there! You can click HERE or on the preview above to download the papers. The file is large (80+ megs). If you have any trouble, you can email me at megstocks (at) gmail (dot) com and I can break the files up for you. Enjoy!

'Tis the Season.....for nerves!

OK - I admit it - I'm not good at sitting around and waiting for stuff to happen. I'm one of those people who can handle just about anything - calmly and without freaking out - except the unknown. So - this election stuff is killing me. No worries - I'm not about to launch into a political diatribe - if you've read any of my stuff, you know where I stand....I'm just ready to get it over with and deal with the consequences....good, bad, or indifferent.

That being said - you all benefit from my nervous energy! Yesterday, I mentioned that I love Christmas - especially the shiny, glittery parts. So, I made a bunch of bracket frames in various glitter colors for you. There are 7 in all - Red, Green, Silver, Gold, Purple, Dark Blue and Light Blue - give me a shout if you want them in any other colors - happy to oblige! The images above show all the colors and the red one shows what the entire frame looks like. These are all page-sized (12x12 or 3600x3600 pixels) but are easily resized for smaller pages or frames on a page instead of using them to frame the entire page (like I do!).

You can click HERE or on the main image above to download.

So - hope you enjoy these - I'd love to hear from you if you have any requests - I love to play with shapes, glitters, etc. and make fun frames, shaped papers and journaling mats - more of those to come soon!

Take care - say a pray for peace for our country and our world - we need it!

Hope everybody had a fun Halloween! My 3 mini-goblins were dressed up as a Clone Warrior, a princess, and a tiny dinosaur....fun! Hubby took them around the neighborhood and my hips are already showing the damage - can't stay away from the Reese's Cups!

I want to share a bit about me - I've been torn the past few years about Christmas - I adore Christmas - I love the lights, the decorations, the special music at church, and most of all - the time set aside to remember the birth of my savior, Jesus Christ. But - the stress caused by the commercialization of the holiday (when did Xmas become all about the loot?), had me really bummed. Both hubby and I have pretty large families and by the time you add siblings, parents, kids, it really adds up - last year we spent WAAAYYYY too much money on things - just stuff that people may or may not even want and most definitely didn't need! My attitude really suffered - which meant that my family's joy was diminished...let's face it, when Mommy isn't happy, nobody is happy! This year, I want it to be different. I want to focus on the friends, the family, the food, and the real reason for the season. That being said, I've decided that I'm going to make most of the Xmas presents - especially for the adults. I've decided to use my gifts and make digital scrapbooks for both families of some vacations we took this year. I'll also be baking some more and planning more meals with friends & family. Finally, I want to do something with our homeschool group - I have this idea about an "angel tree" but for people in retirement homes who don't have anyone nearby....I'm still working on that one.

So - now that we're into what I call the "Silly Season" - that is, the holiday madness that seems to get bigger and crazier as November and December roll along, I thought I might help out a bit by giving this Christmas-themed freebie. In the freebie are: 2 swirl glitter overlays (one red, one green) - a special thanks to OVineyVines for the cool overlay and to Atomic Cupcake for her amazing actions! Also in the freebie is a layered .psd template in the shape of a Christmas tree - the top one has a star that you can either take off or leave. Finally - the freebie has 4 acrylic snowflakes - these are pretty large but you can re-size them - they look great over colored backgrounds or even as frames behind photos. Try them repeated on various colors to make a cool background!

You can click HERE or on the preview to download....enjoy!

Wicked good weekend...and freebie, too

Wow - what a fabulous weekend I had! Got to escape the day-to-day and scrap with some good friends and just hang out - it was fabulous! Got to give a shout-out to all my Peachy friends - thanks for a great w/e! I didn't get a whole lot done - but that may have had something to do with the fact that I was torn between 3 different projects (2 of them paper - eeeek!) and I was really tired...I even slept until 10am on Sunday - haven't done that in forever. Then, I got to go home (thanks for driving, Gail!) and get all dressed up to see "Wicked" at the Fabulous Fox Theatre with my hubby - fun!! It was awesome!

So - in the spirit of sharing, here are some grungy, swirly papers for you - you can either click the preview above or HERE to get them. Enjoy!!

My uncle continues to improve - hopefully, he will be moving to a PT/rehab part of the hospital to work on regaining full function in his left foot/leg. He still has a long way to go so your prayers would be appreciated still.

On the home front - my hubby, Bennett, is still slated to be on a project in Fla starting next Monday - this means 5 to 6 days a week travel and he may only be home about 30 hours each w/e....can you tell I'm freaking out about this???? Being a solo parent, handling all the kids, work, house, homeschool, having no partner around - not to mention the fact that he's my best friend and I miss him.....it just sucks when he travels. It's so hard on all of us....even him! BUT - he is meeting with a big company HQ'ed about 5 miles from our house today - if that works out then he might be able to make a fabulous career move and have ZERO travel....talk about an answer to prayer!!

Have a wonderful Halloween - check out some of my earlier posts to grab some Thanksgiving freebies & maybe I'll even post again before Turkey Day! Take care, Meg

Jessica Sprague Freebie & Grungy Tgiving final elements

OK - sorry to be out of the loop - my uncle had HUGE surgery to replace part of his aorta due to an extremely large aneurysm. He's still in ICU and they hope to start weaning him off the ventilator today. But - I have a grateful heart because the surgery was extremely risky (85% chance of survival and 50% chance of paralysis and/or major organ failure) but - he is doing great - has moved his arms and legs, his kidney function is good and his lungs (so far) are staying clear of infection. He is not out of the woods yet - a lot could still go wrong - I'd be grateful for your prayers for healing, no infections, peace for my aunt & our family and for a strong recovery.

But - you are here for the freebie - right?? OK - the final installment of Grungy Tgiving. Click HERE or on the preview picture for the download. Happy Scrapping!! Check back soon for some fun swirly grungy papers I'm working on........Take care, Meg


So - finally October 10th gets here and the amazing new class given by Jessica Sprague is revealed - and it's FREE!! Check out the flyer above (click on it to go to her website and learn more). I cannot tell you how amazed I am by her creativity and her generosity. Just when I think that we've pretty much been-there-done-that in the world of digi scrapping, she comes up with something totally new...like this. Hope to see you all there!!

Jessica Sprague Freebie & Grungy Tgiving final elements

So - finally October 10th gets here and the amazing new class given by Jessica Sprague is revealed - and it's FREE!! Check out the flyer above (click on it to go to her website and learn more). I cannot tell you how amazed I am by her creativity and her generosity. Just when I think that we've pretty much been-there-done-that in the world of digi scrapping, she comes up with something totally new...like this. Hope to see you all there!!

Grungy T'giving - Part 2

So - talk about a week of ups & downs. It's been great having Bennett around (his project with AT&T finished up & they haven't decided which new BI project he's going to be on next). Then my fave Aunt Carol came to visit - the most creative person on the planet - she organized a closet and helped me rearrange the kids' rooms...yea! But, the reason she's in town is because my uncle (her brother) has an aortic aneurysm and is having surgery next week. Just too many bad things can go wrong with that kind of surgery....keep him and us in your prayers!

OK - on to happier things. The first part of Grungy Thanksgiving was available this Monday....what's a kit without some alphas? Here are 3 sparkly alphas, some word art and some pictures to coordinate with the papers that you already have. You can click HERE on on the preview to get them....Enjoy!

Pumpkined out....before October??

Has it really been 2 weeks since I posted? Man, life just gets in the way sometimes! Things have been crazy around our house - Bennett and I had a fun trip to DC with an amazing time at the fancy parties at the French ambassador's residence (very pretty mansion on Embassy Row), a fabulous time touring Mt. Vernon and learning more about George Washington - the more I learn about him and our other founders, the more I am convinced of my Libertarian (i.e. get the government out of my life, off my back & out of my wallet!!) leanings....but I digress....

Click HERE or on preview to download

As you know, one of my many passions (obsessions?) is all the amazing digi goodness you can find on the web and the wonderfully generous people that create all of it. I am constantly awed by how talented people are and the beautiful stuff that they share. But - I have to admit that even though it is not even October, I'm getting a little burned out on the Halloween kits. All the pumpkins, ghosties, goblins, and stuff are really cute....but I have all I could ever use for the rest of my life!!

So, I'm jumping the gun and I made a Thanksgiving kit! You get the 6 grungy papers today and I'll post the coordinating 3 alphas a few days from now and then the elements & stuff a few days after that. As always, I'm kind of new at this so any and all comments, suggestions, helpful hints, etc. are always welcome. CU is fine - just please give me credit. Speaking of credit - I have to give a shout out to Atomic Cupcake for her amazing actions that I used to create the alphas and to Sugarplum Paperie for her fabulous dirty overlay that I used to give the papers the grungy feel.

Enjoy the papers & check bck in a few days for the alphas and the elements. Take care!

Ooooh.....glitter......fun!

Ok - time for another template - gotta love that glitter!! This is a layered .psd template so you can move stuff around and add or delete as you wish. Enjoy!

Just a note on 9/11.....I know that it was a couple of days ago....but every day is one that we should remember and give thanks for those work and sacrifice everything - even their lives - to keep us safe. I had the joy of being at the Atlanta Braves game on 9/11 (it was home school day at the Braves....is there a joke there somewhere?) and they had this really cool ceremony honoring al the first responders - police, firefighters, paramedics, etc. It ended with a flyover by F-18 Hornet jets...I think I still have goose bumps!

So - how did you spend 9/11? Click HERE (or on preview) to download.

This weekend is crazy - flag football game, a homeschool family picnic, a Cub Scout swimmimg party, a birthday party...and somewhere in all this we need to get the hose clean, the yard mowed, the laundry caught up & everything ready to leave the kids with my mom for 5 days....yeah, right. Pray for our sanity!

That went so well...why not try a template?

Wow - my first venture as a "public"digi scrapper went pretty well! Thank you all so much for the kind words - both about my venture into creating digi stuff as well as my crazy family....don't worry...you'll hear more about them later....

So - how about a template? Thanks to the awesome Jessica Sprague, I was encouraged to create my own templates (along with my fellow classmates). This template is my first attempt for any to share - be gentle!! Special shout-out and thank-you to Atomic Cupcake for her amazing distressed edge action - run, don't walk, to the Atomic Cupcake website and gather as many cool actions as you can - they take digi scrapping to whole new levels.

So - for the DigiMeg Template #1 with Circles & Distressed Edges, either click on the preview above or you can get it HERE. I'd love to hear what you think - cheers, jeers, and helpful hints all welcome - I'm new at this - just been at it since June '08 and I know I have a lot to learn.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend - I'm going to drive to my parents' house to pick up my daughter (she spent the week with Granny & Papa) so I'll be in car a bunch - away from the laptop (bummer!).

Take care, Meg

Family should be a 4-letter word

Like the alpha? Love the gold & the glitter & the fun symbols?? Keep reading!

OK - just got back from a long w/e with my entire family: parents, my sister (and her husband & 2 kids), my brother (and his wife and 10 mos old). On the surface, it seemed like a nice time - we stayed at my parents' lake house and got to visit....oh, if it were just that easy....let's just say that passive-aggressive and loose grips on reality do NOT mix well with 7 glasses of wine. The highlight of the weekend was when my dear, sweet, little sister hurled a ceramic vase at me because I had the nerve to actually answer one of her questions (yes, it was to me) in a direct and honest fashion. She missed....may have had something to do with the 2 bottles of wine mixed with all the "do not drink while on this medication" pills she's on.....guess the truth DOES hurt! For those of you who know me...I was nice and not my sometimes snarky self.

DIGI FREEBIE ALERT!!

Enough happiness......guess what??? I made an alpha!! Check out my digi goodness - you can get it by clicking HERE or on the preview pic itself. Gotta love the glitter!! I just love the DigiFree Blogspot - check it out HERE - so I thought I'd make something to share, too. So - thank you all the wonderful people at DigiFree - this one's for you!

Hint - this is a .png file with all the characters on one page - takes up less space & is easier to work with on digi layouts (thanks to Jessica Sprague for teaching me that very cool trick....up close & in person, no less!) Let me know if you have any trouble with it.... Like everybody else, if you use it, please credit - thanks!

Have a wonderful week...I'll touch back soon with more digi goodness......take care, Meg

Computers...the best & worst of times!

OK - so I gotta say that I am totally and completely hooked on this digi scrapping thing.....now I just have to figure out what to do with my many $$$ worth of paper scraping stuff....but I digress....Computers & the internet...wow!

It's just so awesome to be able to check the weather, catch up on the news, read the Bible (any & all versions!!), do shopping, manage the family social life, do research (comes in really handy for that home school stuff), and just be able to find info on any topic at any time....amazing!

Then you have some dumb@$$ at AT&T who decided that the Fri evening of Labor Day w/e would be a good time to roll out the new code that Bennett has been working on. Which means that I will be taking all 3 kidlets solo to my parents' lake house (pray for my sanity)....until Bennett can get there late, late, late Fri night (Sat AM?).

OK - enough griping!

I just had a wonderful evening with my awesome new good friend, Gail. She & I met at this little Italian restaurant in the Smyrna Square after her choir practice and it was so nice to spend some time with a kindred soul....she and I have so much in common that it is scary. We both home school, both our husbands are quieter than we are and are sort of nerdy in their own endearing way, we both love to sing, we both struggle with the balance of family/school/personal.....anyway, it was nice. You know how you meet somebody and you just feel like you've known them forever? Yeah, that...

So - I will be without the internet for 5 whole days.....eeeek! If nothing else, maybe I can get the TONS of free digi stash that I've been downloading organized. If you are not already an addict, check out the online digi classes at Jessica Sprague's site and then go check out all the free digi goodness you can find on this fabulous blog - it gets updated every day!! I'm running out of hard drive space!! Is it weird that all I want for Xmas is a 500 gb (ooooh....or even a terabyte) drive??

Anyway - have a fab Labor Day & I'll see you all next week!

Gettin' by with a little help from my friends....

OK - so I'm taking this really intense digi scrapping class from Jessica Sprague and this weeks challenge had us making an entire 24-page album after we made all our own templates....phew!

So - I made all my templates and I'm working on getting the papers, pictures, elements, etc. loaded....lots of work! I noticed that somebody posted this very cool website that has tons of grat ideas for LOs - for when you get that digi block that I suffer from daily. Check it out:

http://pagemaps.com/

This would have saved me hours!! Oh well....at least I got some more experience with designng LOs...part of our class is incorporating design elements....practice makes perfect?!

Off to lunch with my sweet grandmother.....then home to fold laundry and get ready for a small medical procedure on Monday morning...yippee....

Have a fabulous rest of the weekend...take care, Meg

Torn between two loves....

Like working mothers everywhere, I have a dilemma. Do I continue to divide my time, energy, talents, etc. between my family and my professional work or do I go on the long-term mommy-track and give up my 2nd (3rd, 4th?) job of doing all the contracts, etc. for an interactive media design firm here in Atlanta?

This has an added pressure - as a homeschooler, I don't have the luxury of my kids being educated by someone else - all the lesson planning, teaching, evaluating - I do all that. I love it and I feel overwhelmed by it - like all great endeavors it has challenges and rewards.

I do get to work from home 3 days a week - but that has its pros and cons as well. The flexibility is nice but there is little or no separation of work and personal time. When you work from home, your co-workers don't care if they interrupt lunch/dinner/math lessons or whatever.

While I love what I do professionally - I adore the minutiae that is required for contracts review and negotiation (especially in the area of internet-based apps as the law is woefully behind the technology) but I regret having to cram lessons in the morning so I can be available for work in the afternoons. I detest the crabbiness that comes from being pulled in multiple directions all day every day - by 5pm, I'm ready to duct tape my kids to the mailbox and/or tell my boss to shove it. Since I get to do neither, the pressure builds. This does wonders for your love life, too.

So - what's a girl to do? Yes, we can afford for me to quit. But since I only get paid for PT (20) hours a week and after we pay for a sitter, gas, dry cleaning, lunches, etc., it's not the money that keeps my attention. I fear never getting a break from the kids. I dread never having a real "reason" to wear things other than jeans or sweats or put on makeup. I fear becoming that "frumpy" mom you always see at Target. I dread totally losing touch with the legal and professional world. But - I hate that I work many, many more hours than I get paid for...dilemma.

Off to watch some Olympics and ponder this some more......

Foot update

Ok - went to the orthopedist - the Xrays don't show anything newly broken (never mind the 5 bones I smashed last May that will obviously never be the same), BUT - the doc thinks that I may have snapped the tendon that allows you to curl your toes under - sort of explains why the pinky toe seems to be pointing more & more towards the sky. So - the doc referred me to a podiatrist. Either it can be fixed by being "buddy-taped" (as it is right now) or it will need surgery......because I need more stuff on my plate right now - don't we all?

Busy week!

You ever have one of those days (weeks, months, lives?) when you just wish you could say "Stop the world! I want to get off!"?

OK - today I'm supposed to manage 3 kids, clean the kitchen, do home school for the 2 older kids, be available for work between 1-5pm, go get my left foot checked out (I think I broke something - again!), go do allergy shots for Zane, clean the house, do laundry, cook dinner and whatever else has slipped my mind...all with a smile on my face. Yeah, right.

My sweet grandmother just called - she is my dad's mom. She is also Meg - which can be confusing but is cool in that she is a pretty amazing lady. She invited us for lunch on Sunday - it's been too long since we've seen her so I'm glad we're going to go over there. I wish she lived closer - she's only about 20-30 min away but with Atlanta traffic and that pesky thing called life, we just don't see her as often as I wish. It would be really cool if she lived in the townhomes down the street- then we could just ride our bikes over (something else we don't get to do as often as we'd like).

So - I do a lot of downloading of digital freebies for digital scrapbooking. I use a lot of online file sharing sites....I've developed some faves and I thought I share my thoughts with you...here goes:

1. www.esnips.com - free; 5gb of space - no wait for downloads; can be a bit persnickety sometimes.

2. www.4shared.com - 5 gb of space; free; BUT you have to wait for download links unless you have a premium ($$) account; pretty reliable.

3. http://rapidshare.com/ - bigger - more space and bigger files; free - BUT you have to wait (sometimes 90 seconds) for link unless you have a premium account.

These are the main ones I see from the digi scrapping world - I know that there are many others...feel free to add your faves in the comments section.

BTW - www.woot.com has a killer deal on an 8gb USB thumb drive today...check it out.

I have a blog!!

Check me out - I have a blog - now everybody else can spend the hours they should be working/sleeping/playing with the kids reading all about my life!

Just kidding - I guess it's sort of the natural progression of things. I'm married to a techie-type and we currently have 4 laptops in the den alone (at least that I know of...haven't checked under the couch lately....) and who knows how many PCs and Macs floating around the house.

It's 4:28am ET (damn insomnia) and I really should be sleeping - long day tomorrow...instead I'm creating a blog, organizing my digi stash (more on that later) and trying to coordinate the two home school group calendars with my family calendar and not forget anything important....since I'm basically in charge of the free world these days, that is about as easy as brokering world peace.....pray for my sanity!

OK- I'm going to post this - whee- and then get back to organizing.....have a fab day!