I have been up to my knees in alligators since early spring. . . . I am praying to the gods of empty.nesters that I may finally catch my breath. One child packed off to college and the other back to Florida where she is happiest [at.least.for.the.time.being] works for me.

I’ve been so far behind for so long that it does seem like the beginning again, lol. There’s a lot I need to do around the store and some prep work with it as well. Not at all sure if I will keep the blog up because as we all know, I stink at it  . . . I have decided to close my store at SBB. I was never one much to spread myself too thin and yet, indeed I did; not the asset I had hoped for.

ALTEREDs shouldn’t go off line but encase I make a boo-boo, I’ll post here. Until things are straightened out I will post goodies here as well. Give me to after the holidays  . . .

Take care and have a Safe & Happy Labor Day weekend.

oxs

but, i just didn’t know how bad. doesn’t seem to be enough hours in my day . . . come to think of it, nights either ; ( way too much is going on around here, i can’t even tell which way is up, lol. on top of family matters, i need to start thinking about ‘moving’ the store. seems storage and bandwidth have been limited since last year. any suggestions on a good, no scratch that, a GREAT server host, pls let me know ; )

anyhoo, a small gift of appreciation for my wonderful customers. As a bonus, this ‘mini’ coordinates & compliments the full ‘fluer des champs’ Layette. i hope you enjoy.

Take care and have a truly special Easter with all your loved ones.
hugs, JoDe

will be back when my brain cloud clears up *s*
Download here: ‘fluer des champs’ Sampler

hope everyone had a wonderful valentine’s day and was totally spoiled *s* i guess you can say i am a ‘winter girl’ if you go by the ‘colours’ thing too. i prefer cold over hot, favorite color is white [then comes baby pink] and favorite time of year is now ; ) i recoup after christmas and get ready for valentine’s which swings right into my birthday. basically it boils down to being outrageously spoiled for about a month. who could ask for more ?

ok, i am going to tease you, then get down to some business stuff. lately i have taken to mind to try and convert some of my basic collage techniques to photoshop . . . [dang, wish i could keep the kittens out of jaw’s fish bowl, they think it is their personal desktop water dish, sigh] anyhoo, photoshop and yes 2 techniques have translated pretty good. the one i am working on now includes this wreath:

flowers are always around the house and next to my kitties, my favorite subject to photograph . . . i so very much miss my old world antique rose garden from florida, but that is about all i miss ; ) [talk about hot & muggy]

i have another kit i should have gotten up last monday but the girl got distracted with switching to my tech hat which i will fill you in on in a minute. it’s pretty and should hit the store today and probably SBB this mid week if the gremlins will leave me well enough alone for a time, lol.

business related -> if you have emailed me recently and have not heard back ; ( be assured i am not ignoring you . . . i bounced you, opps. no seriously. i know my first hat is geekware and i won’t bore you with details but about 2 weeks ago, i don’t know, memory is the first to go, i had to, again, kick one of my email addies in the fanny and let it bounce. i disabled it after doing some tracing of a critter that apparently was spoofing my altereds account. It’s been back up since yesterday, so feel free to resend any mail and forgive me. i just hate to kill another addie, i get confused so i know you do too and i drive poor Amy of SBB crazy with all these addies. again, so sorry. i have set a few of my filters up so if you are a customer i WILL receive your mail all intact, great big smile here.

let’s see . . . still looking for a secretary, lol . . . oh, i think i have the gift certificates up and actually working. waiting for a friend to come online so we can test it out, but i knew i could do it without a half dozen silly little certificates cluttering things up.

this blogware is yelling at me to upgrade . . . another upgrade for zen is available ; ( i am oh so patiently waiting for my birthday present, hehe, from a dear friend who just so happens to work for microsoft so i will be upgrading to vista and installing the full new version of office. when that time comes i will disappear for a week because it takes me just about that long to do a virgin install and get my main box back to how i like it and get the network back up and running. meanwhile, thank god for laptops . . . speaking of which i need to talk to that sweet dell fella again and see what the heck i have to do to get a new battery for my laptop as well as dd, olivia’s. they should just automatically ship them out, thy know darn well what computers went out with that recalled battery ; ((((

ha, stay away from peanut butter *s* and on that note, till later . . .

hugs & kisses

i knew i was going to be bad at blogging ; ( just didn’t know how bad. i know i need a old fashion secretary, lol, to keep me in line & focused. it’s not that i haven’t been thinking of you, i have completed some trinkets here and there and a layette or 2. oh, y’al have to see my ‘love life’ collection i put up yesterday. i am very pleased with it because it is not so valentine orientated that it can’t be used year round. [i don’t much care for one.shot.use things, so you will see that trend in most of my layettes] please take a look at the pdf as not all the elements are included. at 244 megs, there was no way and i still made 3 previews . . . always have wondered if ppl really think they are separate kits when i do that ??? oh well.

ok, of importance, i have disabled my digitabits email addie. the spam got so out of control ; ( i have been kicking around the net before it was ever a world.wide.web [wait] and i swear i have never been hit so hard with spam . . . i guess because of the store. i am trying something new. for initial contact, go to my ‘contact page’ . . . i don’t think the bots can get the addie. also, i have included the new email in my tou and ‘thank you’ with my kits. done with this part *s*

i am taking somewhat of a hiatus, lets call it recouping after the holiday season. with that, falling on the heels of the store going down, driving to florida and packing up my oldest son to get him moved to california, it was all just too much. ha, not to mention my ongoing affair with my dentist and now i hear my gp doctor wants to see me friday ; ( i no sooner get my mental health straightened out and the body goes to hell in a handbasket. what is up with that ? ummm . . . something else my mother neglected to forewarn me about ; (

sorry i haven’t any goodies up. i have been researching how to get the gift certificates up with just ONE and any amt you choose. i don’t care for listing 5, 10, 20 etc dollars ; ( and too, i was just getting the hang of coupons when the store went down ; ( now i bet i have forgotten . . . always something.

well, before this turns into a thesis, best i get, i have a date with my dentist later, lol.

KIF, JoDe

tada, my very own ’slide.’ that was pretty slick *s* sometimes i just amaze myself [AGAIN] . . .  i can think of a few places to try this ; ) ok, back to my mad.room; fighting for my desk & keyboard with kisses . . . [my brownie persian]

ltr, jode

ps: have you noticed the built in ‘tap’ chker in firefox ? i use a whole new foreign language for it to learn, lol. wish i could import my dictionary [sigh]

i am just as disorganized as ever, lol . . . not really, but distracted and trying to get some other well neglected things done. i spent the last 3 days cleaning up my outlook box, mail, calendar, contacts, etcetera . . . going back to 01.01.2001. my whole life is in those files. anyhoo, upgraded to outlook 2007 and wanted everything neat and clean. it’s all done. my one claim to fame, i have all of y’al, my wonderful customers, in my contacts and didn’t have to cry too long when i lost the store. i could have retrieved a lot thru paypal, but what a pita that would have been ; )

been muddling a lot how to do my ‘gifts of appreciation’ to my customer and so far the best i could come up with is coupons on occasion and possibly a discounted first day on releases . . . i would love to know what y’al think, what would work for you as a customer and me who does not like paperwork or ’selling’ herself . . . hehe. you get my drift. oh. let me add . . . i did do the coupon thing once, only once, because it seems it got lost in space of the www. ummmm.

the reason for me being here this bright and dang chilling morning [and they say atlanta is in the south, ha] . . . i have made y’al a little petite for christmas. hope you like. just hit the preview ; )

oxs

guess who crashed & burned . . . gracious, i guess i wore my poor ol’ eyes out getting ALTEREDs backup. got new eyeglasses out of it, so not too shabby. then there was a matter of a date with the dentist, ha, by the time we are thru it will be an affair, lmao. oh the pains of aging; sure wish mom had been around to warn me.

anyhoo, first off, then i will sign off . . . i wanted to get the ‘dance to your dreams’ blog addon up again as i had a recent request for it and dang ! if i didn’t remember i best start uploading stuff and trinkets again [my.bad] . . . will probably put ‘repeats’ up due to the fact i never remember what i did share . . . oh yea, the memory is the first to go to hear my kids tell it *s*

back to my coffee & ftp client, y’al have a great day . . . JoDe

OMGosh… I can’t believe this one fell through the cracks. One of JoDe’s most beautiful layettes in a while De’ja vu. This is a nice soft, clean group… rush on over to the store and purchase it before you see what’s comming next…. hehe (because I know you will want that too!)

find it ONLY at  altered scrapping: http://tinyurl.com/y96zex

this layette became a mod-podge of memories *s* you really must check out the pdf as the preview does absolutely no justice to the ‘paper mache‘ vase . . . i always try to put fun into my projects; anything to make me smile. i hope you have a smile for someone special today . . .

have a wonderful weekend, i am back to feathers [pillows] and couch . . .

i collapsed ; ( i had been ignoring a toothache while i was rebuilding the store and it finally caught up with me. my dear dentist has become my ‘bestest’ friend this week, lol . . . and i am sleeping with a boo-boo bunny ! anyhoo, sorry for the delay in getting ‘attic chic’ in the store. i promise this morning.

since i wasn’t accomplishing much at all sitting here in front of my box this week i decided to spend some of spouses money ; ) ah come-on . . . what did i miss ? excuse me, but i am seeing christmas kits popping up everywhere and we haven’t made it to halloween much less thanksgiving ; ( i’m sorry but i think things are getting just a little too commercialized here . . . .

rush.rush.rush . . . what is this all about ? if you are worrying about christmas now, what of thanksgiving, the wonderful holiday season with great parties & family get-togethers . . . the time shopping and coming in dead tired only to remember there are cookies to bake with the kids ? . . . gosh i could go on and on, but my point is ‘Slow Down’! this is plain nutz. don’t let the commercialism of the holidays dictate your life. so what if you are still scrapping christmas at easter *s*. let me tell you, since i have taken the plunge into ALTEREDscrapping, i have a few years to catch up on but that is very much okay. i don’t care how old the picture is . . . i remember and that is what it is all about. I’ll get around to it sooner or later but i have moments right now, today to secure in my heart!

. . . ish, my two sense, i am off the soapbox *s* will be back later and will try to dig up a goodie.