Final ADSR Layouts

Well, ADSR came to a close on May 22. It was a fun, sometimes exasperating ride. My partner was amazing, and I had a lot of fun. I'll show you the rest of the layouts I did.


You may have seen this one in my iNSD wrap up post. I used All About Me: The Littles by Trixie Scraps and a sketch template by SDK


I used Lickin the Bowl by Heather Rosselli


This one was by both my partner and me. We used Trixie Scraps Summer Lovin iNSD grab bag.


I used BFF by wm[Squared] and a template by Band Geek Designs


I used Just Journalin vol 2 templates by Trixie Scraps and Connected by the ScrapMatters Designers.

All in all, I would do this race again. Hopefully some of the kinks would be worked out, I know on the ADSR forum there is a thread for future race suggestions by some of the racers. I'll bring you some of my newer layouts in a different post soon!

The Throne of Fire

***Minor spoilers for Red Pyramid and VERY minor spoilers for Throne of Fire***

The good news: I finished The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan. The bad news: I stayed up half the night to do it. It was totally worth it though! Unlike my apathy toward Dead Reckoning, I found that once I had time to sit down and read The Throne of Fire, I couldn't put it down.

I had avoided the Kane Chronicles even though I loved Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians because I couldn't imagine that I would love the Egyptian gods as much as I adored the Greek ones. When my BFF gave me The Red Pyramid for Christmas, I decided that it had to be worth a try. After all, Rick Riordan wrote it, right? Wow, I was glad I read that. Carter and Sadie had a great dynamic, and The Throne of Fire builds on that very well. They learn more about not only their magical capabilities but about themselves and how much they care about each other even if they also drive each other crazy (as it usually is with brothers and sisters). I how Riordan writes the Kane Chronicles, as if he's transcribing the tape they supposedly made. It makes it different and distinguishes it from the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series.

The book is nonstop from the opening lines to the ending. We see old friends and meet new ones. After the events of The Red Pyramid, Sadie and Carter have assembled roughly 20 kids, from ages 9 to 19, to train in the path of the gods. The plan to stop Apophis from rising is to wake the sun god Ra, as he was the only being the Lord of Chaos feared. It's a crazy, almost certainly suicidal plan, which means of course the Kanes are going to go ahead and do it!

Along the way, Carter is still searching for Zia, whom we learned at the end of Red Pyramid was in a magical sleep and hidden away to protect her. Sadie is still head over heels for Anubis, (can I just say I'm TOTALLY Team Anubis here?)but finds herself also liking another boy, an initiate. We also see Bast again, along with our old friends Isis, Horus and Set. I know we aren't supposed to trust the god of evil, but you know, he's kind of growing on me. We meet a few new friends along the way as well.

I LOVE the little nods to Percy in this series. It's only one sentence in each of the first two books, but it's enough for the fangirl in me to squeal with delight.

All in all, I loved this book. It was every bit as fun as the first one. Once I read Son of Neptune, I'll be eagerly awaiting the next book in this series. It's a good thing this year is filled with great new releases for books. It'll keep me occupied until the new Kane Chronicles comes out!

I'll have some new layouts up soon. I finished ADSR, so I will post up the final pages, along with some other ones I've done lately. Look for that soon!

Dead Reckoning

There will be mild spoilers in this post.

So I picked up the new Sookie Stackhouse book the day it came out. I couldn't wait to read it. Unfortunately, all that waiting was for naught. If you know me well, I'm a huge Alcide fan from this series, and Ms. Harris dashed all hopes of a Sookie/Alcide hook up here. The book was slow from the beginning. It was disjointed. I have never been a big Sookie/Eric fan, so I'm glad to see that the end may be near (please don't kill me, Eric fans!)

Amelia, who is one of my favorite characters, showed up, and then pissed Sookie off. Granted I could see Amelia doing what she did, but sometimes I think Sookie flies off the handle for the wrong reasons at the wrong people. I understand why she was upset with Amelia, but come on. Amelia is as rash as Sookie used to be.

Alcide appeared for one scene and although I love Alcide no matter what, and still do in this one scene, I feel that Sookie is very unfair to him. Yes, he didn't think his actions through, and yes, he should have known better, but really? We all know that Alcide likes Sookie, so why would her first thought be that he wants to be with her so his pack can have a shaman? She can believe that Eric loves her (and not just for his own selfish purposes, which I'm not convinced of, but I guess she is) but she can't believe Alcide would love her for herself? Yes, he screwed up WAY back in book 5. But what the hell has Eric put her through for 11 books? I wanted to smack her!

And then there was the whole thing with Bill. I honestly was happy Bill would get his happy ending with Judith, but nope, now he's back to loving Sookie forever. WTF?

And then there was Eric. Never was a fan of his, and now I can say I'm definitely not. If Ms. Harris' goal was to kill any of my liking for Eric, she succeeded. And apparently at the end, it's being set up for a phasing out of Eric and a phasing in of Sam as Sookie's Happy Ending. Don't care! Sam's a good guy, but I don't feel he and Sookie have chemistry. She should end up ALONE since that's how she apparently likes to be!

One person (aside from Alcide) that I really liked in this book was Dermot. I can't wait to see how this plays out. In the end, I give the book 3 stars. Not great, not bad. Just good.

iNSD wrap up and some scrapping

If you are looking for the blog train, it's one post down :)

Did you all have a fabulous iNSD? I did. I did some scrapping, I did some shopping and generally just had a blast. I am glad it is over though. I don't know how all the designers do it! Tracy put out a TON of goodies this weekend, and still had time to host a speed scrap, a chat and a progressive challenge. I mentioned Tish's grab bag in the blog train post, so today I'll show you my layouts with Tracy's stuff, along with a couple layouts I did for fun! (Warning this is a long post)


Using Star Struck vol 7 - Cami in May Templatetopia by Trixie Scraps
Spring in the Meadow by Trixie Scraps
Ric Rac from The Sneezin Season (recolored) by Trixie Scraps
Alpha from Daisy Crazy by Trixie Scraps and Madame Wing (retired)


Using Large and In Charge vol 1 in May Templatetopia by Trixie Scraps
Fishy Friends by Trixie Scraps


Using All About Me: The Littles by Trixie Scraps
ADSR Sketch by Scrappin Digi Kreations


Using everything from Trixie Scraps iNSD Grab Bag
Leaves from All About Me: The Littles


Using Southern Spring FWP collab by the SBB designers


For Tracy's 6 hour progressive scrap. I used Spring in the Meadow by Trixie Scraps and Friends are like Flowers by Trixie Scraps and Connie Prince(retired)


For Tracy's Speed Scrap at Gotta Pixel. I used Spring in the Meadow and Southern Spring.




Both of the above are made just for fun using Jady Day Studio's iNSD Grab Bag called Blessed to be your Mother. It's a beautiful kit, and I adore how both came out. I also used a freebie template by Jady Day Studio and Gimme Layers Singled Out vol 2 by Cluster Queen Creations respectively.

So what did YOU get this weekend? I hope you had a great NSD weekend and shopped and scrapped until you dropped!

Happy iNSD and a Pixie Chicks Blog Hop!

Hello everyone and happy iNSD! I just love iNSD, not just because of the sales, but there are always so many gorgeous kits and grab bags that come out this time of year. Have you seen the new grab bag from Pixiemama Designs? It's berry delicious!



Now, onto the freebie, which is what I know you came for ;)I made you an alpha and a cluster frame that coordinates with Carpe Diem, the collab between Pixiemama Designs and Digilicious Designs.



You can click on the image above or just click HERE

I also have one more thing for you! Click HERE and you can grab a great coupon to Pixiemama Designs store!

In case you get lost, here's the list of blogs:
You should have come from Tish's blog - http://pixiemamadesigns.com
Amy - http://amiesscraps.blogspot.com/ YOU ARE HERE
Valarie - http://fleurdescrap.blogspot.com/
Kim - http://scrapinmamas.blogspot.com/
Deanna - http://flowerscrap.blogspot.com/
Jen - http://jaredandjenday.blogspot.com
Missy - http://jrmminga.blogspot.com/
Melissa - http://mmhula.blogspot.com/
Jaya - http://scraps-by-jayaprem.blogspot.com

The Hunt is On!

Well... the hunt for a decent full time job that is. I'm actually rolling along pretty well on my way to getting a full time job. They want to interview me next week and have me take a second assessment test. After that, I'll find out if I get hired or not! We would have to move, but it would be a good thing for us. We would be closer to my mom, as well as in a bigger metropolitan area, so there will be much more to do with the girls.

What else is going on? Well I've been BAD about writing. I have two stories in progress and I just haven't had time to write. Between school, kids and work, I feel like there's just never enough time. Hopefully that will change over the summer and I will finally finish up those projects.

Have you read any good books lately? I've read some awesome books. If you are a fan of Cassandra Clare and her Mortal Instruments series or her Infernal Devices series, and you haven't read City of Fallen Angels yet, do it now. It's amazing. Also, I highly recommend picking up Andrea Cremer's Nightshade. If you like werewolves, witches and a love triangle, then you don't want to miss this. I grabbed it because Ms. Cremer grew up not far from my hometown and they featured her in the local paper here, and I was not sorry I did. In fact, I got my copy autographed by her back in February, and it's now one of my most prized possessions!

Last but not least, I've been competing in the Amazing Digiscrap Race. My team mate and I have been having a lot of fun. Here are some of the layouts I've done (each is linked for full credits):

I'm a bad blogger!

Yes, yes I am. But I'll tell you a little bit about what I've been doing. I decided that I want to read 75 books in the year 2011. I've already read 6, almost done with the 7th and they have all been by Rick Riordan. Yes, I re-read the Percy Jackson series, and my BFF gave me the first book in the Kane Chronicles for Christmas. I'm just finishing up re-reading the first Heroes of Olympus book again. After that, it's back to school reading, like Hamlet and Philosophy stuff. Yay!

I'll show you a few pages I've done as well!



Both using Baked with Love Bundle by Pixiemama Designs


Using Pigskin Party and Standing Alone vol 1 by Trixie Scraps


Using Pigskin Party by Trixie Scraps