A Lost Form of Expression

As I mentionned in a previous post, I've just booked myself for a visit "home" to visit my family back in Canada. One of the main reasons for the visit is to crash my sister's 30th surprise birthday party. Haaaaa! Can you imagine the fun?! She's one of those people who gives and gives and gives and never thinks of taking in return. So I am very excited to surprise her.

Today I was cruising the internet, trying to find some gift ideas and menu items for her party. I ended up browsing birthday cards. I often find myself doing this - I think because it gives me inspiration for my scrapbooking - styles, colors, layouts, elements and even sayings. I also think that sending and receiving greeting cards is becoming a lost form of expression. Don't you think that there is something just a little more meaningful to a card than to an email, don't you think? Just an example, but the other night, when I was going to bed, I found a card tucked under my pillow. It was from my sweet, sweet boyfriend! It was obviously very carefully chosen to express exactly what he was feeling. It was so unexpectedly romantic and random... I went to sleep with a smile on my face, thinking I had the best man in the world! Haha!

This particular site was kind of cool because the cards are customizable! You can order a ton of them, if you want... birthday cards, holiday cards, thank-you cards... I like simple and easy, and this site was just that - I chose the card I wanted. The next page you do any customization you want and presto! it's done! One quick step and you checkout.

And the Winner is...

The judging for our very first layout contest is over! Xandra has the results on her site, but here's a little preview of the talented winner...

A big huge thank-you to all who participated ~ an especially big thanks to Xandra for sponsoring the contest and giving of her talents!

"Forest Mist" Donation

So how does this all translate into Digital Scrapbooking terms? I LOVE FREEBIES! That's how! Haha! I relax and unwind after a long day at work by sitting down to the computer and trollin' for freebies.

I've recently heard that one of my favorite digital freebie site is in need. DigiScrapDepot.com - we all know it! - has grown to such an extent that it needs a new server! Although this is great news, the new server costs a chunk of money and Vicky, the owner, needs our help! So this is what I thought: if everyone of us gave just ONE DOLLAR she would be covered for the rest of the year! There is power in numbers - together we can keep this great resource alive! Here's a little something I made to make it even sweeter: "Forest Mist" will be available at MyDigitalAddiction.com on March 1st, 2008. Check back soon for full details!

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My Addiction to Good Deals

I don't know if it's just my frugal nature coming out, or the fact that I grew up as the eldest daughter of 15 children, but I love good deals! Did anyone watch Oprah yesterday - the show about the "freegans"? Yikes! These folks actually dig through garbage bins for food and other consummables. This completely freaks me out now, but as kid it was a different story! One of our favorite passtimes as kids was to go "Garage-Sale-ing" with my Dad every Saturday morning... or "bin-diving" with my crazy brothers. We'd find bicycles, computers, chairs... all kinds of treasures. As I grew older, I went grocery shopping with my Dad every week and learned how to spend less.

Now that I've moved away from my family, I am still always watching for the best deals. My biggest focus this year (and actually one of my New Years resolutions) is to not only keep the credit card in check, but to eliminate credit card debt completely. One way to tackle this issue is to try to be proactive, researching and finding the best credit card deals available... being aware of beneficial balance transfers, great interest rates, etc. It is also helpful to have a card that provides the convenience of 100% online banking. I love being able to do the majority of my transactions online in my home. This way I can keep a close eye on all of my transactions and know when I need to adjust my spending accordingly.

Disclosure Policy

This policy is valid from February 01, 2008

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

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Finding Treasure

When I should be doing all kinds of other things, I usually find myself digital freebie-hunting and blog-trolling. What's fun about this is that you always, always find something interesting or funny or inspiring. It's a great pick-me-up!

Here's my favorite of today: Lisa's Scrapblog. Unfortunately, it's not in English, so I'm very limited in my appreciation, but the layouts are incredible! I'd seen one over at DST and then just happened upon her blog. Her talent and creativity just blows me away! Go check them out for pure inspiration! And that's not all... she makes these incredible freebies!

Here's one called "Magic of Spring" that almost has a watercolor feel to it:

There is also a brand new "megafreebie" Lisa has just released on her blog called "Spring Time" containing a ton of different elements. I'm off to grab it now!

Going Home for a Visit

Whoo-Hoo! I'm going to visit my family in Canada! I usually get to visit them about once or twice a year, and I try to make it in the summer. However! It is my little sister, Melody's 30th birthday in March and I'm going to surprise her. (Unless, of course, she finds her way over here and reads this - Yeah, right! Haha!) This is her during our recent trip together to Cancun, Mexico - she's going to kill me!

Did anybody watch that movie "Bucket List?" I haven't yet - I've just seen the previews, but I have a Bucket List - a huge list of things to do before I kick the bucket. I was so excited to be able to do a couple of them while in Cancun. One was snorkelling and one was seeing the Mayan Ruins. So cool.

I still have to see the Egyptian Pyramids, go on an African Safari, a trip to Alaska (that must include seeing a bald eagle and a killer whale) and I want to take a flight to Australia. Australia has always seemed so faraway and exotic to me, from the moment I first saw the Sydney Opera House in a picture. Can you believe I've never seen a kangaroo except in an zoo?! The natural wonders of Australia seem to go on forever... I mean who wouldn't want to dive in the Great Barrier Reef? Ok... so I'm getting carried away... Can you tell travel is another passion of mine?!

Our Layout Contest at My Digital Addiction is over! The winners will be announced on February 29th on Xandra Martin's Blog. Best of luck to everyone who participated!

A Weekend Day Off!!!

Good Afternoon! I have a day off! Whoo-Hoo! Guess what I'm going to do?! Laundry and house cleaning! Ugh! Something is wrong with that, isn't there?!

Before I go, I just wanted to remind anyone who wanted to participate in our Layout Contest that today is the last day for submissions - until midnight - so get them in now! There hasn't been very many entries, so your chances of winning are pretty darn good!

And one more thing - while freebie hunting yesterday, I came across this new blog that I wanted to send you all to. KrYsTaL's ScRaPs. This girl does the most awesome layouts EVER. I wouls love to post a bunch right here, but I wouldn't want to overstep my bounds or anything... If you evern are in need of inspiration (and who isn't?!) then take a stroll over to Krystals blog and take a look at her work! Beautiful stuff!

Have a great weekend!

A New Way to Pay!

When I started "My Digital Addiction" a few months ago, I really wanted to be able to offer the Digital Scrapbooking community a place to interact, learn and above all, find quality "freebies." I was well aware that my hosting and bandwith costs would be significant, but I was thinking (mostly hoping!) that advertising placed on the site would cover the costs. Unfortunately for the time being, they are not. No biggie - I realize we're just starting out... We're growing drastically each month, so I am maintaining hope! In the meantime I am always trying to find ways to cover the costs.

The other day, while blog-hopping, I came across another Digital Scrapbooker's Blog who not only scrapped for hire but blogged for hire. What a great idea for a SAHM! Or, even better... what a great idea for ME!!! Maybe this could be a tool in keeping my site alive! Haha! So, I've signed up with Pay Per Post.

Pay Per Post is company that brings together Bloggers and Advertisers, to their mutual benefit. You can get involved in this opportunity as well, by doing blog reviews of my posts, if you like! This does not mean that this blog is going to suddenly be taken over by annoying advertising! It is important to me that all those of you who actually read my blog, continue to to do so! I use my blog as a communication and gateway to My Digital Addiction, and this will not change. All sponsored posts will be carefully integrated into my blog to cause as little disturbance as possible.

Thank-you to everyone for your continued support of My Digital Addiction!

Last Day to Enter the Layout Contest!!!

There are about 24 hours left to enter our First EVER Layout Contest! Click the Banner below for all the details. We will accept layouts until Midnight on February 24th, 2008. There have no been a lot of submissions, so you all have a great chance to win Xandra's (our Designer of the Month!) EXCLUSIVE Add-on to "Long Live Love!" Best of luck to everyone!

Addicted to Love

'Morning All! I've finished a new kit for you all... I've called it "Addicted to Love." It's a grungy-girly-Valentine's type of kit, but it's certainly not all hearts and fluff. Here's a layout I just made with it:

It is available for FREE in the Download section of My Digital Addiction now! Drop by and snag it... and at the same time create a layout for our contest! Submissions are being accepted until the 24th - Sunday ONLY! Get in on the fun!

Sorry! This product is no longer available for download.

Stressed Out Nurses

The coolest thing - I've gotten messages and emails from quite a few nurses from all over the world, telling me how they, too are on blood pressure medication! The interesting thing is, I was already starting to think that maybe this whole blood pressure business is not so much a pathology as it is a symptom of something else... I was having headaches before, but there was a real turning point when I was involved in a especially traumatic case at work (I blogged about it a while ago). Since then I've noticed that I will start getting headaches on my way to work! I'm perfectly fine when I'm at home! Not only that, but my blood pressure completely bottomed out on one of the medications and I had a pretty severe case of tachycardia, which almost sent me to the hospital with chest pain! Conclusion: Maybe I'm a nut case (but we all knew that anyways!).

Whatever the case, I have an (another!) appointment this afternoon with my doctor and I'll see what she has to say...

Big question is "What am I doing about it?" Well, the day I was first perscribed BP meds, I came home and ordered a stationary bike off of the internet. It got here a week ago and I am on it at least 1/2 hour everyday. I got some protein powder, but it was so gross I couldn't gag it down... going to have to do something different with that! Eating, wise, I already eat as non-fat as you can get - and have been doing that for over 2 years now. If anyone wants great non-fat recipes - I'm the one to ask! Hehe!

Here's one I'm making today for my boyfriend. It's the Jello Cake. He's been talking about this cake for several weeks now, so I figured I'd make it to shut him up! Haha! This is just a picture off of the internet, but it's exactly how it looks... It's an angel food cake - I just use the one in the box. That way you can't go wrong. Once it's out of the oven you poke holes in it and pour jello into the holes, then let it cool and add whipped topping. A 100% fat free food! Not bad, eh?!

Don't Say "You Don't Bring Me Flowers!"

Happy Valentines Day!

I am one of the fortunate few to have a very romantically-inclined significant other... the chocolates and champagne type. He even got up this morning and made French Toast (a favorite!) in the shape of a heart while I was in the shower! And that's not even the most romantic part... the most romantic part is: he does this (almost) every morning! I am truly blessed. I'll be honest, I often think "Why on earth did I end up with someone so incredible?! I'm not such a nice, wonderful person..."

While we're on the subject of love... a reminder of our FIRST EVER Layout Contest at My Digital Addiction! Xandra Martin (be sure to check out her blog, too - she's giving away some Valentine Goodies today!) is sponsoring "The Greatest Love Story Ever Told (at My Digital Addiction)." Let us your love story and win an exclusive add-on to Xandra's "Long Live Long" kit!

And now, in honor of overpriced flowers on Valentine's Day, here is a couple hundred megabytes of free ones! This kit is a little different from what I usually design, but who can resist dozens of sparkly flowers?!

Sorry! This product is no longer available for download.

OH! And I don't want to forget... Friday is the last day you will be able to sign up for Pay-Per-Play, the new audio advertising! There has been such a great response that they need to get more advertisers to accomodate the demand! If this is something you are interested in, sign up HERE! At least get your name in the bucket before the opportunity is gone!

Nothing Positive to Say

Hey All! I'm having one of those months... nothing is going right. Every single day that I am off work, I have doctors appointments. The blood pressure pill that I started on just about gave me a heart attack. My heart started racing to about 160 for almost 3 days. NOT fun! Then I just sent out My Digital Addiction's first ever Quarterly Newsletter and my Host suspended my account because they thought I was spamming people! UGH! And it's funny how fast they can shut you down, yet how slow it takes them to get it back up.... Which it still isn't, by the way! Grrr!

So on to something more positive: ummm..... I don't have anything right now. Haha! I'll have to write later. I haven't even had a minute to design a thing!

FREE: Love of My Life Kit

My five days off are almost over.... awwww! I was enjoying them sooooo much! I needed a mental health break after my last week at work, so I was soooo thankful that I had a little break in my schedule like this. It's always shocking to me how fast time goes. I thought I had five days off, so I would get so much done. Yeah, right!

First problem was the roof. We've had some rediculously windy days here. So strong that it blew part of our fence down and several shingles from many of the houses along our street! My boyfriend fixed the fence, which was awesome. But there was no way I was going to let him get up on the roof. So we had to get roofers to come over to replace the shingles. Just in time, too because the next day it rained!

Then there's the yard. For some strange reason, our yard is the only one in the neighbourhood that has these strange weeds on it. Everyone's grass is brown here at this time of the year. Then there is ours that looks like it has green measles! Our lawn care service doesn't start for another month and Michael is convinced we are going to get fined by our Home Owners Association if we don't get it looked after. So we actually went out and bought a cheap mower and weed killer to spread. The only problem is that it's still so windy, I'm sure if I spread anything it will simply blow away!

Number 3 was my whole blood pressure nonsense with all of the doctors appointments and blood tests etc... and they're not done yet! I decided I had to do something drastic to get off of these pills by the end of the year (that's my goal). So I ordered an excercise bike and protein shakes. Haha! My rules: a protein shake for breakfast (at least!) and I will never watch TV without being on the bike.

So now it's day 5 and I'm just sitting down to relax and give away another kit! Whoo-Hoo! This one is another Valentines Kit called "Love of My Life."

Sorry! This product is no longer available for download.

Medical Issues

I'm so annoyed at myself! I've been having headaches for the past month, sometimes so intense that they would knock me over. Like a typical nurse, I don't want to go to the doctor, so I try to figure out what's the problem on my own. So for a few days at work I take my blood pressure and am shocked with the numbers. I capitulate and book an appointment with the Doc. This morning I had my first appointment and here I am, 35 years old on blood pressure medication! This is so NOT ok! I eat right, I excersize, I don't add salt, I don't smoke. Why me?! So I am disregarding all of my previously stated goals for this year and focusing exclusively on getting off of this medication safely.

Many of you have been by My Digital Addiction to pick up this new kit... But I wanted to remind those who haven't that it is only available for the month of February. Here's a little sample if you'd like to check it out before going through the "store." And remember, as always, IT'S ALL FREE! For the whole kit, click HERE!

Sorry! This product is no longer available for download.

Freebies From Our Designer of the Month!

Good Morning! I am getting a really great response from "The Broken Road" kit, which I am really happy and excited about! I'm always nervous when I release a kit - I simply cannot predict what the response is going to be. So it's always great to hear good things!

I wanted to remind everyone of our Contest called "The Greatest Love Story Ever Told (at My Digital Addiction)". It's a great opportunity to tell us your love story and win some fabulous prizes from Xandra Martin!

Be sure to run over to her blog to pick up her freebie! The winner of our Contest gets the Add-on!

FREE: The Broken Road Kit

A new release! This always gets me excited... I've just finished a different type of Valentine kit. I've called it "The Broken Road" after the song "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts (I posted the YouTube version a few posts back). I love that song. It makes you feel like every moment in your life was for a reason... often when I am tempted to have regrets about how I have lived my life I think of that song and quickly realize that I wouldn't change a thing. I love my life and the person who is sharing it with me. Maybe it has been a "broken road" with lots of bumps and turns, but that road has led me straight to where I am now.

Here is a preview of "The Broken Road." You can click on the preview to be taken to the Download Section of the store. And YES! It's ALL ALWAYS FREE!

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Also be sure to pick up the three different coordinating alphabets:

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And for you blog visitors here is a set of stickers (also available in the Download Section). I've taken all of the road signs from "The Broken Road" kit and made them into stickers with custom shadows.

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Be sure to read previous blog posts for our FIRST EVER CONTEST at My Digital Addiction!