Mental Splinters

of a White Christmas… in Arizona. Hey now, it’s been known to happen.. once every other millennia..! Kami and I have been talking about me starting to design digital scrapbooking products (and really, who better to teach me than my favorite sister?) and with me losing my job a couple weeks ago and all.. I am finding I have plenty of time on my hands to join her little mini-apprentice program..!

Kami came up with the idea of doing a Christmas kit because well.. we seriously both have this Christmas fetish. We love everything about Christmas.. the decorations, traditions, music and especially the movies! One of our all time favorites is White Christmas… seriously, when we were 7 and 10 years old, it was one of our favorites mostly because of all the singing and dancing. Okay, back on track, so Kami came up with the idea of making a collaboration Christmas kit inspired by White Christmas.. so there you have it. Kami did most of the designing.. I just made the alphas, cluster elements and some of the quickpages. Have no fear, she will have me slaving over a hot computer banging out full digital kits of my own in no time! But until then, you’ll just have to enjoy this gorgeous collaboration kit:

White Christmas {The Bundle}

The Bundle includes The Kit, The Pages and The Words (buy it now while it’s still Fresh Fruit and you’ll get everything for only $8.00!)

White Christmas {The Kit}


White Christmas {The Pages}


White Christmas {The Words}

So to celebrate our first ever collaboration, we both are giving you wordart from our favorite White Christmas song: Sisters!

Here is the wordart you’ll find on Kami’s blog:

And here’s the wordart for my blog:

Whew! You finally made it to my little corner of cyberspace!  Who says Trick-or-Treating is just for the kiddies..?!?!  I bet you are having a blast collecting all the digiscrap goodies.. I know *I* am!!!  So, let’s keep this train arollin’..!

*knock* *knock* *knock*

With all the trick-or-treater’s visiting our blogs and downloading the free”bees” the blog train is sure to be a little slow… have no fear! We will all be leaving our treats up for days to come!  So if you get stopped or slowed down, just make a note to come back and get pick up your treat later!  If you’re not sure where to go next, check out the complete blog train list in the Scrap Orchard forum!

Now on to the next house… Vasco of Moon Scraps!

Just been unbelievably busy!  I just popped in to share some photos I took the other day… Reasons 1 & 2 of why I love Arizona:

I am starting to get into the groove again, I was sick the last couple of days with a horrible sore throat… still not sure if it was a cold or from all the wailing to Babs’ Greatest Hits! Kami is fixing to fly back to California in a few hours. I am finishing up some projects for work today and have to run into town shortly to pick Ma up because her car broke down for the umpteenth time. It’s raining.. I looove thunderstorms and am so happy I made it back to Arizona just in time for monsoon season!!

Well, I need to get back to work.. I have much to do!

I had hoped to be able to blog a little more yesterday as we trekked across Texas, however, shortly after my last post we ran into the tail end of hurricane Dolly and I spent the majority of the next 2 hours clenching the door handle and bargaining with Baby Jesus to get us through the storm safely. Slowly but surly trudge through the downpour and made it out on the other side in one piece. Mad props to Kami for keeping it together and not pulling over to the side of the road and kicking me out!

We pulled into the first hotel in El Paso around 7PM, now let me interrupt and say that I had done research on Hotels.com to make sure we got a nice, affordable, safe hotel… but what we actually got was a hot, fly infested, dead cockroach outside our door, no internet access, non-working telephone room in the back of the hotel in a questionable neighborhood. We checked out shortly after check in, but not before I had already unloaded the entire car in the 100+ degree heat.  Somehow, I was silently elected to have to reload the car, too!   Kami was able to find us a much, much more acceptable hotel a couple miles down the road (Kami to the rescue, again!). We finally got settled in around 8:00PM, ordered some pizzas and got straight to catching up on work in The Orchard

I fell asleep immediately after sending out the Fresh Fruit Fridays! newsletter… I am not sure what time Kami finally made it to bed, but she is still sound asleep. I am actually going to go back to bed for a little while longer. I will chat with y’all soon!

11:18am

Kami is now manning the rolling road show.. we have only been on the driving for about 2 hours and have already had to stop twice for life or death potty breaks… and I was always under the impression I was the one with the small bladder!  No more Starbucks for Kami from here on out!

We are still heading down Hwy 290, just passed through Fredricksburg and on the look out for a drive thru to get some grub.

Mandy by Barry Manilow is blaring on the radio.. unfortunately not loud enough because I can still hear Kami singing along.  She loves her some Barry..!  She refuses to let me play my iPod because she made a special Road Trip Playlist… but honestly, it is making me a little sleepy. Seriously, nothing screams fun, exciting road trip like Puff the Magic Dragon!

ARGGGGHHHH! The movers just contacted me to tell me there are going to be here between 2-4 PM on Wednesday (instead of the morning of Thursday which I had asked for)..!!!! And the lady from the movers is coming tomorrow to do an inventory.. ugh!!

Which means, I will be doing nothing but packing the rest of today and all of tomorrow… I will probably be completely unavailable on Wednesday.

Here is a snapshot of what my week looks like:

Monday

• Finish projects for Work
• Finish packing Den, Craft Supplies, Kitchen, Living Room, DVDs, Books, CDs
• Finish washing all dirty laundry
  

Tuesday

• Sort through clothes; get rid of anything that doesn’t fit or is too old
• Pack stuff I am going to take with me (clothes, medicine, toiletries, etc.)
• Pack clothes, shoes, purses, bags and junk drawers
• Pack Bathroom
• Final inventory with moving company

Wednesday

• Pack anything else laying around
• Walk through with Leasing Office
• Return cable box and modem to Time Warner
• Hope the movers get here closer to 2pm than 4pm
• Load car (computers, luggage, pet carriers, litter box, pets)
• Go to hotel and check-in once movers leave
• Unpack car
• Pick Kami up at the airport at 10pm
• Get back to the hotel, crash

Thursday

• Leave Austin around 6am and drive to El Paso
• Check into hotel in El Paso hopefully by 2 or 3 in the afternoon

Friday

• Leave El Paso for Hereford around 6am
• Arrive in Hereford hopefully around noon
• Unpack car, settle in
• Sleeeeeeeep!
  

OY! I am completely freaking out!

• Wash/dry all dirty clothes
• Sort through clothes; get rid of anything that doesn’t fit anymore
• Wash all dirty dishes; pack glasses, coffee cups & small appliances. Get rid of dishes, pots & pans.
• Clean out pantry & fridge
• Remove racks, lights, knife holder from cabinets; putty holes
• Pack sewing & crafting supplies
• Pack exercise equipment
• Pack office supplies
• Sort through & file paperwork
• Dismantle desk/shelving system; putty holes

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

It has been a really hard, tough, agonizing decision but I have made up my mind and will be moving back to Arizona next week. I absolutely love Austin and wish I could stay here forever, but for personal and medical reasons, Arizona is the better place for me.

I want to tell all the people and friends I have made during my time in Austin that I love them and if it hadn’t been for you, the decision probably wouldn’t have been half as hard to make. But sometimes, I just gotta do what’s best for me regardless how much it tears at my heart.

I will miss the “weirdness” of Austin, the Old Pecan Street Festival, Sushi Sake, the diversity, the people, the places I have come to love… I will miss it all.

But what I have to look forward to are indescribably gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, monsoons, no humidity, family, old dear friends, my taekwondo school, mountains and better health.

The Pros and Cons list is really dead even.. but my family and health tipped the scales.

I hope to have the chance to visit Austin, often and everyone is always welcome to come visit me in Arizona!!!

To all my Austinite friends, I will love and miss you with all my heart! To all my Arizonan friends.. watch, here I come!