My Favorite Place

If you haven't been to my website, you should definitely go. It's one of my favorite places on the web :-) And since I love it so much I happily recommend my web host to others. And a friend of mine just happened to need a web host! So we worked together, creating her pages and figuring out all the new stuff until... she discovered she was expecting.

Which, is a good thing!

Except that it makes her very sick. Very.

So I took over the job of web design. And it's been so much fun! Amazing how doing your own work is, well... work. But doing someone elses' can be a blast. (And why is that?)

And here it is-- Rachael's website.

Now my second favorite place to be on the web.

In Love

Did you see the explosion albums? I mean, really, did you see them! They are so adorable. Fun. Charming. Colorful. Did I say adorable? I'm in love.

And so I wanted more.

I went back to the site where I found the directions for the explosion albums and opened EVERY file. I read dozens of instructions for files with no pictures, trying to figure out what was made. I saved at least six new files to my desktop. And today, I tried a new one.

Its called a paper bag book. And that's what it is. Sounds... weird, yes, I know. But it is so... adorable. Fun. Charming. Colorful. Did I say adorable? I'm in love. Again.

It still needs photos added or I'd post a picture, but you can rest assured I'll be working hard to complete it. And then those too will be added to the collection of projects offered by Designs of Mine.

'Cause they are just too adorable.

An Apple a Day

I like to use this post as an opportunity to share what is happening professionally with my buisness, but sometimes, well, sometimes I just use it as an opportunity to share. Anything. And today I'd dying to show the pictures we took at the apple orchard yesterday! My new camera is such fun (and of course my baby is so cute!).

Good Times

Ta da! The results are in and the Maysville Fall Harvest Festival was a roaring sucess! Well, it was good anyway:-) I'm excited to have met so many people and I hope Designs of Mine was just what you never knew you always wanted in a company!

Here are some photos from the day:

Other exciting news: Connie Spiers of Maysville won the raffle. She recieves a 10 page pre-made scrapbook. This family themed album is all finished except for the photos Connie can add. Congratulations!

The explosion albums that debuted at the festival are now avaliable online. As more companies are added to the Designs of Mine angel policies list you can look forward to new styles and prints. I hope you stop by the website http://www.designsofminebykm.com/ and check them out!

Thanks for such a good weekend-- hope to see you again soon!

Angel Policies

Yea! Until yesterday all products produced for the Designs of Mine business had to be created after a customer signed a contract. But now, all that has changed-- or at least its changing!

All scrapbook companies have terms of use on their products, meaning some allow designers to use their materials to create a new product after obtaining permission, others do not. I'm excited to say that I now have permission from six companies to use their products to create items NOT requested by a contract! In fact I'm so excited about this new development I stayed up a little late last night making cards (*yawn*).

Tell me what you love by coming by tomorrow and seeing the pre-made items available. Once I know what ya'll like I'll get more up on the website. (*rubbing eyes*)

So before I fall asleep I'll sign off. See you soon!

And the winner is...!

Do you ever have an idea that seems so brilliant you just take off and run with it? Me too. And I've got one now that I'd love to race with! I recently found a company that prints scrapbook papers, stickers, and embellishments with personalized information. For example, I could order paper specifically made for canoeing in Missouri-- which would be great if I thought people would be interested.

What I DO think people would be interested in, however, are materials created just for local schools. Stickers that say Maysville Wolverines, albums in red and black, paper with MHS printed as a watermark. OR GHS, or SHS or whatever!

I'd love to offer these options, but first I need to know that you'd be interested. There are minimum orders to deal with so I'll need some specifics before I can proceed.

So leave a comment here, or drop by my website www.designsofminebykm.com to tell me what you think, let me know which school you'd buy for.

I'm off and running!

You wouldn't believe

...what you can find on the Internet. Truly. And Designs of Mine (okay, yes, that's just me) is really excited about the latest Internet find. Balloons! The Fall Harvest Festival booth will now be displaying helium balloons with the business name and website-- www.designsofminebykm.com-- printed on them!

After a small mistake in the first draft the company did a great job printing the brown logo on very nice looking 12 inch balloons. Thanks Zoom Balloons!

I can't wait to see you all this weekend. Come see the samples, check out the specials, and take home a balloon!

Finally!

It's been raining a lot here. Gustave, Ike, everyone parties at my house. And rain is good for many things. Drinking hot chocolate and reading a Jane Austen novel. Experimenting with the macro setting on my new camera to take cool pictures of rain drops. Scrapbooking while listening to the sound of rain on the rooftop. Reading books by the hour to a cranky, fussy, toddler who wants more than anything to go outside...

Okay, so not that last one.

But today we have been rain-free for almost 36 hours. Which means OUTSIDE!

I did minimal housework.

I missed every phone call (sorry Rachael).

We ate leftovers for lunch.

And I did not scrapbook one single page.

Instead, we played outside! It was a perfect fall day! The ground was mostly dry with just enough mud to really interest my son and the sandbox had the perfect consistency for really making things (messy). It was great.

So tomorrow I'll be doing double duty to get all my scrapbook cards and samples ready for the Maysville Fall Harvest Festival. But it was worth it.

Pretty Soon

If you scrapbook or not, there is probably one thing you still enjoy. Pictures. My favorite is one we had taken of our son when he was five days old at a professional portrait studio. His Daddy is holding him and Brett is all snuggled up in his arms, both wearing white and with a white, soft background. Why can't I take pictures like that?

Well, I've decided I can try! I've been looking and learning about cameras for a few weeks now, and yesterday I made my purchase! A Nikon D60 (just right for a beginner) with an 18-55mm lens and and extra 55-200mm lens. I'm so excited!

Of course, the purpose of a scrapbook is to preserve whatever memories you make and there are no "correct" ways of doing this. One of the challenges I enjoy when scrapping someone else's photos (okay, and sometimes mine too) is turning a collection of dark, off-center photos into a great page. But there is something really great about working with that perfect picture too.

I'm so excited I've been practicing on anything. I've used the portrait mode on the cat, the night-time setting for the newly painted garage, and the macro button to shoot close-ups of decorative rocks.

I'm getting better!

Pretty soon I'll even take a picture of something worth sharing!

There She Stands

On September 11th, I just wanted to post this song by Michael W. Smith.

Never Forget.

There She Stands

When the night
Seems to say
All hope is lost
Gone away
But I know
I'm not alone
By the light
She stands

There she waves
Faithful friend
Shimmering stars
Westward wind
Show the way
Carry me
To the place
She stands

Just when you think it might be over
Just when you think the fight is gone
Someone will risk his life to raise her
There she stands

There she flies
Clear blue skies
Reminds us with red
Of those that died
Washed in white
By the brave
In their strength
She stands

When evil calls itself a martyr
When all your hopes come crashing down
Someone will pull her from the rubble
There she stands

We've seen her flying torn and tattered
We've seen her stand the test of time
And through it all the fools have fallen
There she stands

By the dawn's
Early light
And through the fight
She stands

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You...

At least it will be near you if you live in Maysville! Designs of Mine will be making a debut appearance at the Fall Harvest Festival September 20th. In addition to seeing ME you can also view my samples, a completed scrapbook, hand-made cards, pre-made pages, and anything else I'm able to fit on my little table!

I'm planning to raffle off a pre-made album to anyone who signs up to be on my mailing list. If you'd like to suggest a theme for a pre-made album click comments below-- I'd love to know what you think!

**Any contracts signed that day will receive 15% OFF their total order!!!**

So stop by, pick up some information, a magnet, maybe even some tootsie rolls... Can't wait to see you there!

Easily Inspired

Okay, so a few days ago I made a goal (see below). And, of course, like a good girl I set out to accomplish this goal. What I did not realize was that it was CRAZY! I am trying to find all the things I use to inspire scrapbooking projects, cut them out, and glue them into a notebook for easy retrieval. HA! So far I've begun with my oldest copy of my scrapbooking magazine and I'm still working!

Apparently everything inspires me.

Advertisements.

Clip art.

Completed scrapbook pages.

Cards.

Stamps.

Pens.

Whatever. My magazine is decimated and my adhesive is almost gone. And I still have all those magazines left. And when I finished with magazines I was going to work on my PageMaps from pagemaps.com.

At this rate there is no need for a notebook, because I'll be so busy working on it that I'll never scrap again.

At least I am easily inspired.