Come on over to CREATIVITY UNBOUND (just click the name right there and you will be on your way!) for all the details and all the fun...but here is a little teaser for you! ~~~~~And here is another~~~there will be lots of free goodies given away!!~~~~~

Stop the presses, call your friends, the moment you've all been waiting for is HERE! Here is the framework for our Grand Opening Creative Party! (But don't be surprised if we throw in a few extras!)

OUR CREATIVE PARTY TIMELINE:

Please note, all times listed are Eastern time. Adjust accordingly for your time zone so you don't miss any of the fun!


Saturday September 1:

9:00 AM

- Creative Girl Lesley will introduce her 5 Senses of Summer mini-album and give you your first challenge on TASTE

- Creative Girl Elly will introduce The Search Game

12:00 PM

- Creative Girl Marci will post her Song Lyric Journaling Challenge
- Creative Girl Marci will post the Meet the Creative Girls Game

2:00 PM

- Creative Girl Lesley will post the next challenge for your 5 Senses of Summer mini-album, HEAR

3:00 PM

- Creative Girl Tanis will post a Card challenge

6:00 PM

- Creative Girl Mary will teach you how to make a mini-album out of one sheet of 12x12 paper

- Creative Girl Mary will host a Bingo game: get your words in the FORUM

8:00 PM

- Creative Girl Lesley is back with the next installment of your 5 Senses of Summer mini-album, TOUCH

9:00 PM

- Creative Girl Marci leads a lesson on how to create an altered composition book *****You will need a standard-sized composition notebook, readily available at most discount stores this time of year for a dollar or two, to complete this class*****

12:00 AM

- Creative Girl Elly is here to teach you how to "Clean Your Drawers"


Sunday September 2:

9:00 AM

- Creative Girl Lesley begins our morning again with another of the 5 Senses of Summer...SMELL


12:00 PM

-Creative Girl Kelly will be here to challenge you with a magazine ad

2:00 PM

- Creative Girl Lesley is here to finish off your 5 Senses of Summer album with SEE

3:00 PM

- Creative Girl Lesley has something a little different for us this time, a Back to SCHOOL shop N Tag challenge

6:00 PM

-Creative Girl Tanis is back with a luggage tag/backpack tag challenge ******To complete this project you will need luggage tag or vertical badge holders, such as the Mainstays Office vertical badge holders, available at Walmart in a pack of 12, and a Binder Ring or key ring*****

9:00 PM

- Creative Girl Elly finishes off the party leading you in creating a Tri-fold frame

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Please feel free to right-click this blinkie and save it to a photobucket,or other similar, account and use it wherever allowed!

Hey, guess what? I found an account I didn't remember having with lots of my favorite blinkies saved on it! So, I've added a bunch to the scrolling marquee on your left and down a bit...can you tell which ones are new?

It's been a week of ups and downs.

Thursday my husband brought me home a one-pound box of See's Candies. They are the best chocolated in the world. I know some may disagree but they are misinformed. I grew up eating See's in California, but they were a rare find in Colorado and this is the first time I've ever seen them here in Michigan. For those that don't know, my husband works for a sugar factory and I suspect that these had something to do with some business contact, but he's admitting to nothing. And I don't really care, because I have a pound of See's Candies and they are hidden and I, mother of five precious children I love more than my own life, am not sharing them.

I also found out I made the Design Team at Creativity {Unbound}. I am not big on submitting things or trying out for teams, but once in a while something really stands out to me and I go for it. This was one of those times and I am tickled that I made it. I am having a blast and really hitting it off with the rest of the gals already.

I finished cleaning my basement. My kids and to a lesser degree Arnel may say they were the ones who cleaned it because I freely admit to having them do a bit of the grunt work. But I took it completely apart and put it back together again and it was a H-U-G-E job. You see, this is a room the kids often go hang out in when they have company, and I rarely go down there...so as you can well imagine, it had gotten a little out of hand. It is also where we store our very large collection of board games, as well as craft supplies. And for some reason our cat also had decided it was an extension of his litter box. So having it so clean that I actually am considering making it our whole-family-TV/Rec-room...that is a big deal to me.

School books for this year arrived so I get to dig in and start organizing and planning in earnest!

We had a nice time at church Thursday night for the Family Night I'd organized for youth group, followed by a fun time here Friday night at our High School Musical 2 Premiere Party (honestly, I only ventured in now and then to take pictures or moderate a game but the girls and their friends seemed to have a blast.)

We got to visit some friends last night for a fun campfire at their home...we love them and don't see nearly enough of them considering that they live under ten minutes away, so it was a much-overdue treat.

On the other hand...

the See's Candies are a definite diet set-back.

The other Design Team I tried out for was supposed to announce their selections last week but has delayed the announcement.

The appraisal on our house was not nearly high enough for our home refinance to go through the way we had hoped so we have some serious budget issues to buckle down on.

Boy readers may want to look away for a moment...

I started my period today. It is the first one since my miscarriage. It is not a huge deal, really...it is just that it is such a reminder that no, I'm not pregnant. Not that I was in denial or anything...it is just that I'd reached the point where I was no longer thinking about it all the time...and now there is this obvious, physical reminder all the time, so that it is up in the forefront of my thoughts in a way it hadn't been in a while.

All in all, my life is good. I have a wonderful family and I know that they are with me throughout the ups and the downs, and that God is there through it all, as well, with a perspective on all of it that I can't possibly understand. So this week has been a reminder to me to praise Him through the good and the bad and to place my faith in Him unconditionally.

Childhood Commandments

Laws Concerning Food and Drink
Household Principles
Lamentations of the Father
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Ian Frazier


Of the beasts of the field, and of the fishes of the sea, and of all foods that are acceptable in my sight you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the hoofed animals, broiled or ground into burgers, you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the cloven-hoofed animal, plain or with cheese, you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the cereal grains, of the corn and of the wheat and of the oats, and of all the cereals that are of bright color and unknown provenance you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the quiescently frozen dessert and of all frozen after-meal treats you may eat, but absolutely not in the living room. Of the juices and other beverages, yes, even of those in sippy-cups, you may drink, but not in the living room, neither may you carry such therein. Indeed, when you reach the place where the living room carpet begins, of any food or beverage there you may not eat, neither may you drink.

But if you are sick, and are lying down and watching something, then may you eat in the living room.

Laws When at Table
And if you are seated in your high chair, or in a chair such as a greater person might use, keep your legs and feet below you as they were. Neither raise up your knees, nor place your feet upon the table, for that is an abomination to me. Yes, even when you have an interesting bandage to show, your feet upon the table are an abomination, and worthy of rebuke. Drink your milk as it is given you, neither use on it any utensils, nor fork, nor knife, nor spoon, for that is not what they are for; if you will dip your blocks in the milk, and lick it off, you will be sent away. When you have drunk, let the empty cup then remain upon the table, and do not bite it upon its edge and by your teeth hold it to your face in order to make noises in it sounding like a duck; for you will be sent away.

When you chew your food, keep your mouth closed until you have swallowed, and do not open it to show your brother or your sister what is within; I say to you, do not so, even if your brother or your sister has done the same to you. Eat your food only; do not eat that which is not food; neither seize the table between your jaws, nor use the raiment of the table to wipe your lips. I say again to you, do not touch it, but leave it as it is. And though your stick of carrot does indeed resemble a marker, draw not with it upon the table, even in pretend, for we do not do that, that is why. And though the pieces of broccoli are very like small trees, do not stand them upright to make a forest, because we do not do that, that is why. Sit just as I have told you, and do not lean to one side or the other, nor slide down until you are nearly slid away. Heed me; for if you sit like that, your hair will go into the syrup. And now behold, even as I have said, it has come to pass.


Laws Pertaining to Dessert
For we judge between the plate that is unclean and the plate that is clean, saying first, if the plate is clean, then you shall have dessert. But of the unclean plate, the laws are these: If you have eaten most of your meat, and two bites of your peas with each bite consisting of not less than three peas each, or in total six peas, eaten where I can see, and you have also eaten enough of your potatoes to fill two forks, both forkfuls eaten where I can see, then you shall have dessert. But if you eat a lesser number of peas, and yet you eat the potatoes, still you shall not have dessert; and if you eat the peas, yet leave the potatoes uneaten, you shall not have dessert, no, not even a small portion thereof. And if you try to deceive by moving the potatoes or peas around with a fork, that it may appear you have eaten what you have not, you will fall into iniquity. And I will know, and you shall have no dessert.

On Screaming
Do not scream; for it is as if you scream all the time. If you are given a plate on which two foods you do not wish to touch each other are touching each other, your voice rises up even to the ceiling, while you point to the offense with the finger of your right hand; but I say to you, scream not, only remonstrate gently with the server, that the server may correct the fault. Likewise if you receive a portion of fish from which every piece of herbal seasoning has not been scraped off, and the herbal seasoning is loathsome to you, and steeped in vileness, again I say, refrain from screaming. Though the vileness overwhelm you, and cause you a faint unto death, make not that sound from within your throat, neither cover your face, nor press your fingers to your nose. For even now I have made the fish as it should be; behold, I eat of it myself, yet do not die.

Concerning Face and Hands
Cast your countenance upward to the light, and lift your eyes to the hills, that I may more easily wash you off. For the stains are upon you; even to the very back of your head, there is rice hereon. And in the breast pocket of your garment, and upon the tie of your shoe, rice and other fragments are distributed in a manner wonderful to see. Only hold yourself still; hold still, I say. Give each finger in its turn for my examination thereof, and also each thumb. Lo, how iniquitous they appear. What I do is as it must be; and you shall not go hence until I have done.

Various Other Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances
Bite not, lest you be cast into quiet time. Neither drink of your own bath water, nor of bath water of any kind; nor rub your feet on bread, even if it be in the package; nor rub yourself against cars, nor against any building; nor eat sand.

Leave the cat alone, for what has the cat done, that you should so afflict it with tape? And hum not that humming in your nose as I read, nor stand between the light and the book. Indeed, you will drive me to madness. Nor forget what I said about the tape.

Complaints and Lamentations
O my children, you are disobedient. For when I tell you what you must do, you argue and dispute hotly even to the littlest detail; and when I do not accede, you cry out, and hit and kick. Yes, and even sometimes do you spit, and shout “stupid-head” and other blasphemies, and hit and kick the wall and the molding thereof when you are sent to the corner. And though the law teaches that no one shall be sent to the corner for more minutes than he has years of age, yet I would leave you there all day, so mighty am I in anger. But upon being sent to the corner you ask straightaway, ”Can I come out?” and I reply, “No, you may not come out.” And again you ask, and again I give the same reply. But when you ask again a third time, then you may come out.

Hear me, O my children, for the bills they kill me. I pay and pay again, even to the twelfth time in a year, and yet again they mount higher than before. For our health, that we may be covered, I give six hundred and twenty talents twelve times in a year; but even this covers not the fifteen hundred deductible for each member of the family within a calendar year. And yet for ordinary visits we still are not covered, nor for many medicines, nor for the teeth within our mouths. Guess not at what rage is in my mind, for surely you cannot know.

For I will come to you at the first of the month and at the fifteenth of the month with the bills and a great whining and moan. And when the month of taxes comes, I will decry the wrong and unfairness of it, and mourn with wine and ashtrays, and rend my receipts. And you shall remember that I am that I am: before, after, and until you are twenty-one. Hear me then, and avoid me in my wrath, O children of me.

I learned something new today!!

I've been wanting to learn how to make blinkies but never actually needed to before. Well, with the new site Creativity {Unbound} there wasn't one already set up. One of the other "Creative Girls," as we are called, whipped up a beautiful one...but it got me motivated to finally try and learn how to do this. I still have LOTS to learn...but I do have the basics down. VOILA!

iPod Party Shuffle Promotion is Rocking and Rolling!

We're off to a rockin' start and our iPod Party Shuffle promotion is topping the charts. We've received great reviews since we announced this fun promotion to consultants and customers and we don't want you to miss the action.

It's simple...book a party and place a party order. Each party order of $150 or more will receive an exclusive "Rock Star" theme set - featuring papers from Creative Imagination's "Play List" line - absolutely FREE!

Plus, for every party order you place you'll automatically be entered to win a FREE iPod Shuffle - an $80 value!!

Catalog parties count, too...if you've been thinking about holding a class, crop or party, there is no better time...call or email me now!

Gotta go get ready for a potluck tonight but I'm excited to share some news with you all that I've been sitting on for a couple of days...



Creativity {Unbound}

Some of you may know that I make a ton of scrapbook sketches (lots that wind up being a "learning experience" but some wheat does come along with the chaff now and then!) My problem is that I am terrible and getting them "prettified" to publish on the web. I am, however, taking another stab at it and am sharing the link with you all here so that you can keep me honest and give me the kick in the seat when I need it to stay on top of this!

Scrapbooking Sketches by Enjoy the Journey

Want to share one more layout that I love!

I haven't shared any layouts here in ages so here are a few of my more recent ones...hope you enjoy them!

Create a Free Slideshow

This was created by the daughter of my cyberfriend Vanessa but I'd already decided I was going to add it to my blog before I knew it was made by her. I just love this song and she did such a great job with it!

Just a quick catch-up and then scroll down to see some fun slideshows!

I went earlier this week for a much-overdo trim on my hair. Well, my stylist wasn't quite ready for me so I had time to browse the books in the salon and, well, you know what that means! I wound up walking out with a new 'do. Much shorter (I'm above collar length now) and sorta sassy. It is fun to have something different but I don't love it so will probably let it grow back out.

Thanks to a gift from my mom we bought a new dining room set which will be delivered Wenesday, woo hoo! Anyone who has eaten dinner at our house in the last few years knows this was a much-needed purchase. We happened to go in during the "summer sale" and they were also offering 18-months same-as-cash. This gave us the push we needed to go ahead and make the plunge and buy "good" set. Not as in "formal" but as in large enough to actually fit our whole family with room for guests if we add in the leaves, and in solid wood rather than laminate so that it can withstand the rigors of said family! We even found a new set of barstools for the kitchen island on clearance that will coordinate with the new set. Of course the pretty new table is going to make my floors look terrible...you all know how that cycle goes!

We were able to put together a basic schedule for Youth Group for the fall and get our workers lined up. I'm amazed that we have been able to pull this off but let me tell you, it hasn't been without some blood, sweat and tears and a mind-boggling amount of time. We have a pseudo-scavenger hunt that we are doing tomorrow that is going to be soooo fun and I can't wait to share pictures of that!!

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

42 "colorful" points for any August Advanced Math student who leaves a comment on this post!