Guest Blogging & {i}NSD!

I feel like a big girl today because I was a guest blogger on the Paislee Press blog while Liz is on vacation. Although she seems to go on vacation about the same way that I do, because she was still answering emails. Sometimes I try to make myself believe that I could step away from all things Internet for a couple of days but I only make it a few hours and then get the jitters. I don’t have many vices – don’t smoke, don’t drink (much), no drugs or rock ‘n roll – the Internet is my vice.

On Liz’s blog I walked through this layout that I did the other night with the picture I posted last week of my son:

Reading through a few of the comments today I saw a few people who were relieved to find out they’re not the only ones who “meander around” on the page for a long time trying to decide where to put things. If I’ve ever given the impression that I’m a fast scrapper then I was lying! There have been a few very rare occasions where I’ve put together a page in under an hour – but they’re total flukes. A page is generally a 2 hour task for me on a good day, a 3-4 hour task on a regular day. Part of that is because I get sidetracked a lot on Twitter or in Instant Messages, but a lot of it is also me pushing things around on the page and swapping out one item for another item, then deciding I liked the first one better after all.

So you’re not alone, slow scrappers of the world!

I haven’t posted about the goings on over on the Hodge Podge Art Challenge blog lately. We’re all still churning out pages for our AAM (or all about “someone”) albums. I have to say that so far this year I feel extremely fulfilled about my scrapbooking. I’m scrapping a lot less than I have in the past, but it’s more rewarding for me. These AAM pages are part of that because I’m so woefully absent in basically all of our photos, and although I consider my “voice” to be my presence on my pages (through my journaling) there’s something very indulgent about doing pages all about little old me. It’s comparable to turning on a Sting album and sinking into a bubble bath.

We alternate journaling prompts and ABC prompts each week, so this week was the letter “G” – and I haven’t talked about it here, but OMG have you seen Glee?! The majority of my creative team watches this little gem of a show and they were singing (hah!) its glories backstage so I had to check it out – then I fell really hard for it. I’m way beyond the first date with this show, I’ve started calling it in the middle of the night and hanging up. I stand outside its window with a boom box over my head playing my own personal mash-ups of songs from the 80s.

So if you haven’t been playing along with the Hodge Podge challenges, jump in. You can go through the past prompts and catch up, or just start where we are and move forward. Get in that bubble bath, girl!

And finally, {inter}National Scrapbooking Day is this coming weekend – unleash the hounds! I know I just had a sale when I opened my new store, but for those of you who are new to me (or those of you who didn’t fulfill your entire wishlists then) I’m going to hold another sale!

Additionally, I’m going to be hanging out on Twitter on iNSD (May 1st) doling out limited time coupons and random giveaways to my followers. If you’re not following me on Twitter, I’ll also be simultaneously posting the coupons and giveaways on my Facebook Fan Page. I’ll post an alert a few minutes before each coupon goes up so there will be some fair warning, each coupon will be good for a certain number of uses – first come first served. Some of the coupons will be for free product! So if you have some time to hang out with me on Twitter – it should be fun.

That’s all for now! If I get myself into gear one of these nights I have some new word art packs and page borders I’d like to get into the store by this weekend.