Oh Boy! Do I have a challenge for you!!

Happy Birthday to The Scrappy Gourmet !! They're celebrating their 1st birthday with some super fun challenges! Each designer is posting a challenge on their blog and the winner gets one of their kits, and trust me, you don't want to miss out on their gorgeous kits!!

I have thought long and hard about what I wanted my challenge to be about. And finally have come up with something that I will hope you have fun working on :)

Since Valentines Day is coming up and it is one of my favorite holidays, I want you to create a layout with a love theme, please make sure you have journaling ( I am a sucker for reading the journaling on layouts). Make sure you use lots of bling, cause you can never have too much frosting. ;)

I am going to get in on the fun with you all too. Look for my example in the coming days. I cannot wait to see your creations. Please link up your creations to The Scrappy Gourmet gallery under my blog challenge gallery "Amanda Oates Blog Challenge- Birthday Celebration" by February 14th for a chance to win!!

Snow

Just wanted to share my excitement, will post more tomorrow :)

The Scrappy Gourmet Winter Cook Off

Join in the fun and enter The Scrappy Gourmet's latest contest - The Scrappy Gourmet Winter Cookoff. It goes until January 31,2008. You have just two weeks to create and display your favorite designs in the gallery, with no stipulation on product usage. And the best part is that you can enter as many times as you'd like! Two winners will be selected; one for design elements and style and the other winner will be selected at random. So.... the more you enter, the better your chances are to win.

Winners will be announced the first week of February and will receive a prize package worth more than $75.00 of product from Fancy Pants, Daisy D's, 7-Gypsies, Melissa Frances, Art Wareshouse and of course, The Scrappy Gourmet.

Upload entries to the gallery at www.thescrappygourmet.com

6lbs and Counting.....

So yes you read that right I have lost 6lbs already. I am so excited. I have only been working out alittle over a week. I know that every week will not be like this but hey it's a start. I am ready for the new me, no more size 12 jeans. No more "goodyear tire" around my waist from the baby weight. I am ready to be one hot mama in a bikini this summer! I want to be comfortable in my own skin again. I had a really down day the other day and my girlies at tallyscrapper really encouraged me and I thank you for that, without the love and support from you guys and my family, I dont think I would be able to continue with this. Cause I am not going to lie this has NOT been easy. I have given up all of my favorite things, pepsi , butterfingers, and CUPCAKES. Omgosh did I really say that aloud. LOL. I havent really given up cupcakes completely, I am using them as a reward for every 10lbs I lose I get a cupcake :) I may skip the first cupcake. I am having a cupcake party for my daughter and her friends next month so I may wait till then to indulge, but I will tell you this I have soo much more energy now that I have been working out and eating right and for that I am grateful. I have a horrible temper and stressout very easily and lately that has not been the case. I know my husband is happy about that. :)

So nothing else is really going on around here. I am going to relax this weekend, the hubby is working (which sucks). Then next week is full of playdates and packing. We are leaving for Fl on the 25th. So excited about this cause I am going to party with my besties from the Oasis at Dionne's house. I havent seen them in forever, cant wait to get my scrap on with you ladies :)

I havent really been scrapping lately, but playing with felt. It's crazy cause the other night all I could dream about was felt. It was the strangest thing. Here are some cuties that I have made with felt :)
Have a wonderful day everyone :)

~ The Big O

Happy Sunday!

Nothing really going on here today. I need to get some cleaning done. I hate cleaning. I have no idea what to blog about today, so I will leave you with some pics of work that I have been doing. One is a kinda CHA sneak peek, its a layout I did for the Rusty Pickle booth, I will post it in full in a couple days :)...

Cupcake Goodness Target Style

Ok so I am over the top excited over this. Just to let you all know my birthday is next month, the 23rd to be exact. Target gift cards will be accepted as early as TODAY lol :) Anyhoo here is the goodies that I purchased yesterday....


Plate:
Bowl:
Placemat :

One Step at a Time

So I have been using the elliptical for 2days and I can already tell a difference in how I feel. It is amazing, why didnt I do this before now?? I have add a little ticker to the right to keep up with my own miles. When I get skinny I will take a photo of me working out like Christine did, but not before then lol..

I went to target last night and omygoodiness they have the absolute CUTEST Cupcake stuff ever. It looks like the cupcake line by Marcella by K (which Target also sells, I bought some of that too) I will post pictures later.

Just want to give a shout out to my Jags who play New England this weekend. I believe :) GO JAGUARS!!

New Years Resolutions

I normally dont make one because I always know I will break it. Well this year I made one and started before the new year. I have given up PEPSI and any other caffeinated beverage. Yes you heard me right and no I am not crazy. (ok maybe just a little) I have been going through the headache withdrawl stuff the last couples days, but I feel like I have more energy. My problem now is to drink more water. I set a goal yesterday to drink 6 glasses of water, I got to 4.5 glasses. Hopefully I can over come that soon too.

The other thing I am going is the walk 14,000 miles and back to iraq with some of my girls from tally. I am soo excited about this. A great way to support Christine as her hubby goes back to iraq and I am hoping to lose tons of weight too :) I stepped on the scale a couple weeks ago and about had a heart attack. So thats what brought on giving up pepsi.

I never really talk about the military aspect of my life, but please keep us in your prayers. My husband only has a little less than 7 months of recruiting left and we are faced with the unknown right now of where we go next. Looks like we wont know till sometime in March. I was hoping for next month, but I know God has a plan. So I am just going to go with the flow. :)

I leave you with some recent work I have done and ofcourse some new photos of Emily. I hoep you all have a fabulous day :)


Fun Little Layout of My Baby Girl (used a Becky Fleck Sketch):

I leave you with a little SNEAK PEEK of the Rusty Pickle Blog Challenge for February.

Hump Day

Ah so it is finally Wednesday, which means the week is half over thank goodness. I am looking forward to this weekend. Working and Cropping at my LSS. Oh yea my hubby's car is FINALLY getting looked at and hopefully fixed Saturday. Cross you fingers and pray for us. We have been a one car family since October and I cannot express how much that it sucks. lol. I am ready to have my truck back.

It is a nice, cool, and crispy 32 degrees here in NC, today. Doing lots of cleaning. We took the Christmas tree down yesterday. We also bought Emily a tv for her room. We offically call it "Operation taking our living room back". It is so nice to be able to have it back :) Hopefully we can transition her into sleeping in her own bed too :) Wouldnt that be nice :) I have moved a majority of her toys into the office/playroom. Which is another nice thing, I am so tired of stepping over toys in my living room. I feel so liberated :)

Scrappy News----


Rusty Pickle has a new blog challenge up on their blog-
"Nothing Rusty Here"
Check it out. It was a super Fun challenge to do- Here is my attempt at it :)



Tallyscrapper is wrapping up the super cyber crop for the New Year and it was a BLAST!! I got soo much scrapping done. Here is another layout I got done for it. I totally love it, because it is so not my style to scrap something that isnt a person in my life. I hope you like it as well. Cause lets face it Gas Sucks.