Lunch, Leftovers, and Lowe’s

And Fountain Cokes! But that doesn’t start with an “L”.

Yesterday’s lunch was a typical lunch. Except rather than leftovers we had hot dogs. . . another usual lunch. For those of you who know Cody, you know he loves his fountain cokes. So each day, after he walks over to my office and we eat whatever leftovers we have, we make a run up to the corner store.

Most days, we have time to kill before our lunch hour is over. The most common activity. . . . wandering Lowe’s. We go to Lowe’s just to wander at least three times a week. We really don’t have too many other choices.

You never know what we might look at. Well, except that we almost always go by the mis-matched paint. Sometimes we might look at appliances so we’ll be prepared as ours go out. Sometimes I dream of better ceiling fans. Quite often, it’s the PVC pipe. . . where Cody plots a protein feeder. And if it’s not the protein feeder, very often it’s other projects or supplies for the deer lease.

Yesterday, after looking at the storage stuff, the metal for my craft room, and paint, it was Tool World. It started off looking at sanders (which we actually own one somewhere in the garage) but Cody got off track quickly. I used my 365 project as an excuse to kill a little time taking pictures.

And truthfully, I was glad to capture a moment from our everyday typical lunch routine.

Creative Updates: 365 Link and Scrapbooking

Just wanted to share a simple update for those of you who are interested.

1) My 365 Project is going strong. I’m not sure whether I’ll get around to sharing a bit about each picture in blog posts but I plan to upload them to this gallery on about a weekly basis. (I’m also having them printed and putting them in my 365 binder). You can also see images from that gallery on the right hand side. . . and there’s a link to the gallery in the top menu.

2) More Scrapbook Layouts. . . I haven’t posted the other layouts I’ve done for my class so far. I’ve got one more to do before week 5 of the class starts on Thursday. It’s a 12 week class so just imagine how many layouts I’ll have done by then.

Since I plan to make scrapbooking a better part of 2010, I thought I’d go ahead and create a gallery for the pages I’m amassing quickly. Again, you can find a link up at the top directly to the gallery too!

(Again, these are all using Cathy Zielske templates from Big Picture Scrapbooking’s Design Your Life class. . . and the papers/embellishments I did not create are mainly from Crystal Wilkerson/Jessica Sprague)

3) Later this week, I hope to post some of Cody and I’s pictures from the zoo Saturday. There really wasn’t a movie we wanted to see for our anniversary and we had the church’s 50th anniversary dinner Saturday night leaving us with a limited amount of time. So, we went to the zoo in Lufkin after we went out to lunch. You’ll have to see the racoon pics we got! (Cody actually out shot me by 100+ shots) Truth be told neither of us is that much of a movie person and we’d rather be outside and taking pictures any day. It was a rare warmer anniversary as the temps were around 70- so we took advantage rain or not.

About 16 Hours to Go

Just a note that the deadline to enter our 365 Kit Raffle ends in about 16 hours- Midnight CST.  It’s your chance to do something for a great cause and get an opportunity to win a great kit!

The 3-Day, 365 Raffle

(Sorry this one’s blurry. . .it was already dark outside when I took this picture.)

Enough talking, let’s take some action! So, if you’ve read my blog posts as of late, you know that I’ve committed to raising funds for breast cancer research and walking 60 miles as part of that effort. Even better, my best friend Lisa has committed to doing it with us as well even after I sent her a goofy video invite. It’s part of the nationwide 3-Day.  And, I’ve told you all about the Creating Keepsakes/ Becky Higgins 365 Kit of the Month that I’ll be raffling to kick off our fundraising. 

Here’s how the raffle will work:

Ways to Enter
1) Donate at least $5 to my 3-Day Donation Page (Link’s below but I want to make sure you see how to optimize your chances)
2) Donate at least $5 to Lisa’s 3-Day Donation Page (Again, the links below, but read on.)

You’ll get 1 chance for donating on my page and one chance for donating on her page. So, that’s two opportunities to enter.

Want more chances?
The kit cost me just at $35 dollars. So, if you donate more than $35 to either page, you’ll get 5 chances. That’s five for my donation page and/or 5 for her page. (Maximum 10 entries)

(Note, the donation page will let you extend payments for up to four months.)

How long will the raffle be?
It’ll run from time of this posting through Midnight Central Standard Time Feburary 12, 2009.

Shipping
I’ll pay for US Shipping. International orders, I will ship internationally but you’ll have to pay me the difference in shipping (we’ll work out payment method at that time.)

How will we determine the winner?
We’ll put My list of donations/entries and then her list of entries or vice versa. We’ll put our names in a hat and let her son choose. (This way if you enter both, you’ll be in the first half and the second half!) Then, we’ll use Random Integer Generator to pick the winner.

Winner Notification
We’ll notify the winner by February 17th. The winner must reply by February 21st so that we’ll know where to mail the kit. We’ll also announce the winner here.

Overall chances
There’s only one kit in this raffle. But, your chances of winning will depend on how many donations we receive, and how much you donate.

The Cause
Don’t forget that this is going to a great cause that’s touched everyone’s lives in some way. You can include an any person that you are honoring with your donation.

OK. Now that you read the rules. . .

Here’s the links to enter for your chance to win the 365 Kit. You must donate online in order that we can ensure we count all donations into this raffle.

My 3-Day Donation Page
Lisa’s 3-Day Donation Page

(These links go directly to The 3-Day.Org- so they have control over donations and financial info. . . and it’s totally secure.)

And one more thing. . . .

How else can you help?
Share a link to this page with others online. The internet, and especially the scrapbooking/photography community is a powerful group of folks who can really do a lot to raise monies for causes such as this one.

The 365 CK/ Becky Higgins Kit Information

So, as mentioned, I’m going to be raffling off this kit tomorrow as part of my fundraising efforts for The 3 Day .  I thought I would share a bit about the kit in case you are not already familiar with it. 

(If you are familiar with it then you know that this kit was in very little supply with CK’s original order of 4000 being sold out in much less than 1 hour.)

The kit contains everything you need to make an album for your 365 project with very little work involved. (Which is good since there’s going to be 365 (or more) photos and lots of notes to make, etc.)

Here’s a list of what’s in the kit:

1 12×12 D-ring binder
54 12×12 specially divided page protectors–four 6″ x 4″ slots and four 3″ x 4″ slots on each side
399 3″ x 4″ journaling cards–21 designs, 19 of each design
60 4.25″ tri-fold journaling cards–4 designs, 15 of each
60 4″x 6″ header cards–12 designs, 5 of each
60 2.8″ x 3.8″ footer cards–12 designs, 5 of each
8 4″ x 6″ decorative title cards
8 4″ x 6″ decorative end title cards
12 12″ x 12″ decorative cardstock–6 designs, 2 of each
25 4″ x 6″ transparent overlays–5 designs, 5 of each
12 3″ x 12.5″ monthly divider tabs
27 days of the week cardstock sheets–378 total stickers
11 days of the week cardstock sheets for journaling cards–429 total stickers
2 yards ribbon–two designs, 1 yard of each
2 4″ x 6″ decorative boxes to hold journaling cards
1 date stamp

I have not opened the kit- so everything should be in there. And yes unlike those who selling the kit on ebay the first week, I actually do have kit in my possession.

It’s set up so that you create layouts like this by simply dropping in the included cards and your 4X6 pictures into the divided page protectors.

Becky Higgins has some great videos showing how to put the album together etc here. You can also see a close-up of the kit here.

365: A Picture a Day, Every Day

One of the things I’m working on this year is a 365 project.  The concept is simple, take a picture a day every day.  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for several years but couldn’t figure out how to manage it.  Then, came, the Creating Keepsakes Becky Higgins kit.  I knew then that this kit would make things easier.  Perhaps it’s because I also got a new photo printer last year that will help out too!  With her kit you simply insert your pictures and add a bit of journaling.  (I’ll share more about the kit later as I’ll begin a raffle for one tomorrow).  Of course, you could do the same with many photo albums or by blogging. 

This year for us will make a great year to start the project.  It’s a decisive year in terms of our adoption, it’s our 10th year wedding anniversary and 15th from when we met, and we started the year off with a bang!  But, also I want to capture all the normal stuff as well and am looking forward to that as we settle back into routines later this month.

I’m hoping to share many of the pics with here on the blog but I’m eternally stuck on dial-up at home so I won’t promise to share all the pictures. 

So, in the interest of catching up here’s week 1:

From 365

Jan 1: My CK 365 Kit confirmation along with the Whataburger cup from my morning hamburger run for the sake of wi-fi.

From 365

Jan 2: Lisa and her son (AKA my nephew), Jack, came up for the weekend and I had just received the fish-eye I rented for our upcoming vacation!

From 365

Jan 3: While Cody and Jack went hunting, the gals went shopping. I purchased an old camera in this antique store for “Through The Viewfinder” photography.

From 365

Jan 4: We drove home the long way after church. Cody and I played with the fish-eye lens and Cody actually took this picture. I had to drag my nephew Jack out of bed to go to church and felt kinda bad as he was so exhausted. But it was on this trip home that he told me he missed going to church. I felt much better then!

Oh no! The pics I thought were uploaded aren’t there. . . I’ll have to come back to this post to add the rest of the first seven days!