MVP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited for my son that I can hardly contain myself. The awards dinner for the Kodiak ice hockey organization was last night. All kids received a very nice trophy for playing the season. There were some special awards handed out to a few players from each team based on different things. Each team had one player named as "Most Valuable Player". Ollie was the recipient for his team! HOW WONDERFUL is that? I have to tell you how proud I am of this kid. He puts his whole heart and soul out there every time he steps on the ice. His work ethic is absolutely amazing and he works nonstop at improving his skills and the way he plays the game. It is so nice to see him rewarded for this.

I think I'm most excited for him because this organization has treated him so incredibly well. This coming after being in an organization that treated him badly for 2 years. We went from an organization that only cared about the management of the organization and those parent's children to an organization that cares about each and every one of the players. This awards dinner was amazing and the things they did for the kids were equally amazing. The awards, prizes, gifts to the team managers, coaches, etc. were so well thought out and planned. My hubby took the team pictures, I did all the editing and printing and then several of the mothers helped put them in frames last week. EVERY player and every coach received a framed team picture.

Just to cap off a fabulous night, one of the parents from our team organized a collection and gave my hubby and I a very nice plaque thanking us for all our hard work as Team Manager and a gift certificate to a very nice restaurant. It was so unexpected and it is very much appreciated even though completely unnecessary. I would do it all over again in a minute even though it's a lot of work. As a matter of fact they wouldn't let me turn in my first aid bag, water bottles and game pucks... I have a feeling I'm already designated for the spring league team! Even better than that, one of the parents took a picture of hubby, myself and Ollie after the last game at the tournament. He printed it out 5x7 and framed it for us. I was so touched, we have so few pictures of the three of us together and it turned out gorgeous. Never mind that we were dressed for a game, Ollie had wet sweaty hair, etc. etc.... I'm in between my two favorite boys in the world in that picture and it's AMAZING!

Hubby took the night off from being the photographer, so no pictures from the dinner. I'll be sure to get pictures of the awards and post them here later. The president of the whole organization got up throughout the night with some one line facts, stories about the season, etc. One of the one liners was:

"Chances are... the Oliver's have more pictures of your child than you do"

ROFL, how true and funny is that?


P.S..... for those of you who have e-mailed me this week and not gotten a response back, you can see why! I'll be working very hard the next few days to catch up on things. LIFE IS GOOD!

THANK YOU!!!!

Thank you so much to everyone leaving me the lovely comments on the download area and post. It's nice to be appreciated and have other people like your designs. I love love love designing and feeling like someone besides me likes them is a huge boost! Also a big thanks to everyone signing into my guestbook/map. It's so fun to see where everyone reading the blog is from. It's great to see many new faces I don't know and the familiar ones that I already know and love. Keep it up everyone!

I think you have all convinced me to definitely add pieces and maybe make this part of a whole kit. Thanks again!

Design Fun and a Blog Freebie ...

Ok, where did my weekend go? Anyone know how to make those things stop going so darn fast?

Parent/player games yesterday were a riot and the kids (and parents & coaches) had so much fun. There was good food, good times and a lot of laughs. Hubby took tons and tons of pictures I need to get downloaded and up on the website for the kids.

I've been on a creative tear and having a ball creating again. I'm so happy with the work I'm doing right now. So far just this last week I finished a piece of the April Mega kit for The Scrapping Garden, a piece of the April Mega kit for Digi Scrap Shak and a April 2007 Challenge Bonus kit for Digitals. Previews will pop up here on the blog as the stuff becomes available. I'm chomping at the bit to show the stuff. I'm also working on a fun magazine project for The Scrapping Garden and you'll have to wait on more details for that too! hehe

In the meantime, I was playing around with a color palette and these pieces just flowed right out. Here's a fun blog freebie just for my loyal readers.

You can find the download link here. Please leave me a comment if you like it. I can so easily see this being the beginning of a whole kit. I have SOOOO many ideas, I just need SOOOO much more time to create!

Happy Monday to all!

Thursday News ...

Hmmm Monday is the beginning of the week, Wednesday is Humpy (or Hump) Day, Friday is always TGIF, Saturday and Sunday are the weekend.... Tuesday and Thursday are just kind of boring in comparison!

Well the team pictures are printed, cut and assembled into frames for the awards dinner. With four teams it was a lot of printing and cutting. We had about four people assembling them at practice last night so that went pretty fast. The kids are excited about the parent/player game and the awards dinner, but I think sad that the season is basically over.

Spring season is gearing up quick though, just got notice that one of the two teams he's playing on will start practice next Tuesday. Ummmm did they forget that hockey moms need a break too??????????????????????????

Digitals is having a CT Call! You can find information about it here.

Spring??????????

Ok, so today is the 1st day of Spring. Ummmm did someone forget to notify Mother Nature? LOL As I look out the window this morning at the snow and ice piled up everywhere from the weekend storm and feel the freezing temperature ... it sure doesn't feel like spring! It is however supposed to start warming up as the week goes on. I'm ready for some pretty green grass, flowers and leaves on the trees. Reminds me, better get the allergy medicine lined up!

Another super busy week this week. Preparing for the awards dinner. Printed out the team pix for all four teams. Several of us are getting together tonight to assemble the frames. Also working on pulling everything together for the parent/player game on Sunday. I've got deadlines by all three shops for my pieces of mega kits, etc. Soooooo once I'm caught up on that I can get back to a normal routine. Yayyyyy

Almost done with my piece of the April Mega kit for The Scrapping Garden. Woohoooo I love what I've done so far. Making me want to get caught up so I can devote more time to designing.

Back to the piles of work on my desk..................

Home again ....

Whew, good to be home again. Not necessarily back to the work grind and routine, but felt good to sleep in our own bed last night.

Weekend was wonderful! The families had a great time, the kids had a great time and our team played well. We came in 3rd by having a tie in 2 games and losing our 3rd game. It was a heart breaker that we didn't get further, but a very impressive showing by our team which has struggled all season. They played hard, with a ton of heart and made a very strong showing.

The weather was unbelievable. Somehow we went from 70 degrees on Wednesday to a ton of ice and snow on Friday. We had team members rolling in as the 1st game was starting. They all made it though!

So, it's back home. Still busy preparing for the awards dinner, but time to get organized and get some designing done and some more kits in my stores. I will start going over the CT call applicants with the Dream Team and we'll have an announcement by Friday. Stay tuned!

Ahhhhhhhh time, I need more time ....

We are leaving this afternoon and I'm running around like a crazy woman. My desk here at work is piled to the ceiling with stuff to do. I'm pretty much packed, but it's those last minute things that I keep trying to pull together. Have to get the laptop and camera bag together. Ollie's hockey gear, jerseys, team water bottles, first aid bag, sticks, and game pucks are already loaded in the truck. Clothes and toiletries are pretty much packed. Neighbor is coming by to check on the fur babies while we are away. It's nice to live on a block where we all look out for each other.

Poor hubby has been working insane hours this week. Monday he left the house at 7:00 a.m. and returned home at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday he left at 7:00 a.m. and returned after 11:30 p.m. Wednesday he left at 6:45 a.m. and returned after 11:30 p.m. This morning he left at 6:30 a.m., he supposed to leave at 2:00 p.m. so we can hit the road right after school. Poor guy, we haven't really seen him all week. Worse with my migraine woes it's been hard to pull everything together myself. We didn't get home from practice until about 9:15 p.m. last night, but I did manage to get everything washed. Yayyyyy

Now for some really spectacular news............

*DRUM ROLL PLEASE*

I'm proud to announce a wonderful addition to the Dream Team!

Melanie Riordan is joining us and I'm super excited about that! Just LOOK at this beautiful layout she did with Pajama Party! WELCOME Mel!

There will be further additions once the CT Call is closed and we go through the applications. I think I will extend the deadline until Monday since I will be away this weekend and won't have a chance to review them. So, everyone interested, please send the e-mail to DreamsInkDesigns at AOL ... here's the CT Call again ....

Blah... I'm a bad blogger this week ....

Ughhhh not doing too well on keeping up this week. I'm so buried in stuff for the tournament and awards dinner that I have no time to blog, design or scrap this week.

Ended up being home today with a major migraine. First one that's kept me out of work in a very long time. That's mostly because I was up almost all night with the darn thing and kept getting worse and worse. Picked up meds this afternoon and hoping the fog lifts soon. I have too much to do and frankly can't hardly move to get anything done.

About 1/2 way through printing out all the team pix for the organization. I need to have done by next Wednesday so we can get them in the frames. Since I'm not going to be able to print from tomorrow afternoon through Sunday evening (at the earliest), I'm running the poor printer on overdrive.

I guess that's all for today. Nothing exciting, that's for sure. Well, there is one piece of very exciting news, but I can't tell yet... hehe.... Hope everyone is having a good week!

Busy weekend it was ....

Busy weekend, but an enjoyable one. Now that street hockey is over and we just have ice hockey, it's back to enjoying the games instead of feeling rushed all the time. Ollie's team lost both games, but only by a goal and they were well matched and well played games. He scored on Saturday and had two assists on Sunday. Here's a pix from his goal on Saturday. You have to look for the red gloves in the air!

Busy week ahead getting ready to leave for the tournament on Thursday. Wondering if I should go get another card for the camera as I'm worried about filling the two we have up and I didn't plan on taking the laptop to download. We'll see what happens ...

I'm hoping to have Pajama Party up in the Scrapping Garden store today. I'm all set up there I think. Anxious to get caugh up on a few things so I can start designing and putting some new stuff out along with reworking my older kits.

Happy Monday... have a great day all!

Excuse the dust ...

I'm reworking the format of my blog a bit. As a result some of my posts look very strange.

World's Cutest Jammie Girl ...

When I finished my Pajama Party kit, I knew that my dear friend DeDe would have the perfect pictures for me to play with. She was very accomodating and gave me some pictures of her adorable little girl, Beth. I'm so pleased with how this turned out!



I have to tell you, it feels really good to be doing some scrapping again too. Life is good!

Come be a part of the Dream Team ....

It's official, I'm having a CT call ...

Bloggity blog blog ...

Just randomness this morning! LOL

We went to the high school ice hockey playoff game (round 2) last night. Wooohoooo on a fantastic win in the shoot out. I can't believe that Ollie is going to high school next year and this could be him I'm rooting for. WHERE did the time go? WHEN did he get taller than me? It's amazing to me how fast he's growing up right now. Round 3 will be Friday night and we'll be able to attend that one also. If they win Friday night, they will go to the Semi-Finals and possibly Finals which are played at Continental Airlines Arena where the NJ Devils play. We love going to those as there are four games on the semi-final day and it's a fun time. Unfortunately it's next weekend, the same weekend we'll be in Deleware for our hockey tournament. Regardless.... GO FAIR LAWN CUTTERS! We are behind you all the way guys.

Working on ideas for a new crop series. Apparently my old site has decided to keep my crop instead of me taking it with me. That's ok, the Dream Team is working on some fun ideas that I think will take us in a better direction. Funny how when one door closes sometimes a much better one opens. I'm very excited about all the new sites and the people I'm meeting there. Life is good!

My boss is in the hospital since yesterday afternoon with a rapid heartbeat problem. He's feeling better this morning. We are waiting to hear if they are going to do a procedure they talked about yesterday. Hopefully he'll be better and home later today. Stressful stuff.

Lots and lots and lots to do, need to make a list ...

PAJAMA PARTY kit ...

Woohoooo Pajama Party is now in the store at Digi Scrap Shak and Digitals. Here's the main preview:



I'm working on a coordinating charm alpha that I'm hoping is a great addition for the kit.

Lots going on and I'm behind in blogging. Will try to catch up better later with links and preview pictures and all that fun stuff.

March Wallpaper

I started making a monthly wallpaper with a calendar for hubby over a year ago. Now he's spoiled and asks every month "where's my wallpaper?". Here is this month's edition:

TGIF!!!!

Wooohooo I'm happy it's Friday. And a Friday that we have NO plans. I'm looking forward to COOKING dinner at home and having an evening to chill. Of course hubby knows that means SCRAP and DESIGN time. hehe

It's actually a fairly quiet weekend. Ollie has a game on Sunday morning and is on standby to alternate for the A team on Saturday afternoon. Other than that, no big plans. Hubby and I did a big grocery trip the other night so any food needed should be minimal. I think we are set on Costco stuff too. I think we'll take some time and try to see a movie or two. Ollie already saw Norbit and said it was really funny.

Have an idea in my head for an add-on alpha set for the Pajama Party kit. I did preview templates for my products last night. As soon as I'm done renaming the files, zipping up and adding the previews ... I'll be sending it off to the stores. I can't wait! Speaking of stores, I'm so pleased to announce that I was accepted to design at The Scrapping Garden also! They are in the process of a large server move so when they are back up and running I'll be set up there too. I'm excited about my three stores and look forward to being a part of the communities there. Everyone I've met is so nice!

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!