Wordless Wednesday - Us

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - First Album!

I completed my first Scrapbook Album!  Recognize the story line?  (Hint: It's from this post!)

Judah's Park Adventure - how to create a free slideshow

Awesome Sale!

I'm sure everyone is tired of me going on and on about MyMemories Suite and how much I'm loving digital scrapbooking, but I just had to share this!  This weekend only, MyMemories is offering a coupon to get their MyMemories Suite Software for only $9.97 PLUS a $10 credit to use in the MyMemories store!  Regularly, it is $39.97!

Also, be sure to stop by and "Like" MyMemories on Facebook - they're always having fun challenges and giveaways - and once they hit 10,000 fans, they'll be giving away an iPad 2!

Oh, I guess I should go ahead and give you that coupon code, huh?  Use: FB8000 when you checkout, and the price will drop to $9.97!

I *love* MyMemories!  Here's a few more of my recent pages:

Seriously, if I can do this, anyone can!  It only proves what a great program MyMemories is!  Don't miss this great sale!

Wordless Wednesday - Peas

Seven Quick Takes - Volume 12

*tap, tap tap* Is this thing on?  Is anyone out there?  I know my blog has been super quiet lately (did you hear crickets chirping?)!  Real life flies by at the speed of... well, life! I've been going along for the ride, with little time to take care of things like blogging!  For a quick recap of the past few weeks for us, here's my Quick Takes!

We celebrated Michael's 33rd birthday last week!  He took the day off of work and we went up to the mountains to play disc golf (what else?!).  The course up there was very challenging (disc golf in the mountains, what else could be expected?) but we had a great time as a family, enjoying the beautiful fall weather and each other's company!  Here's the birthday boy man and his boys!

Notice anything different about Isaac in the picture above?  Here's another picture for a closer look:

For a little while, he had been complaining about road signs and various other long-distance things being fuzzy... finally it got to the point where I thought I should probably take him in to get his eyes checked.  Sure enough, he's got his mama's eyes and needed some glasses.  Thankfully, it's not nearly as bad as my eyes, and we're hoping it stays that way!  He loves his new glasses - for one, because he can actually see again (go figure!) and two, several of his friends have glasses, so it's the "in" thing in his crowd.  I'm really happy that he's happy about them!

We've made an official upgrade!  We've enjoyed our wonderfully steady and reliable Suburban for 6 years, but with Rachel joining our family, we had officially maxed it out.  We all fit, but there was no room at all for anyone else, which got tricky at times.  After a few months of casual looking around, we came across a 15-Passenger van that met all of our criteria, and was in our price range!  And it's a pretty fun color, too!

I'm doing something that I swore up and down I'd never do.  No, it's nothing all that terribly exciting, but it has made a big difference - I'm running at night!  Instead of trying to beat Miss Rachel's wake-up time and getting up at insane hours in the morning, I've found it's so much easier to wait until everyone is in bed to hop on the treadmill.  I've always thought it would be way too difficult, because I'm really *not* a night person, but I'm finding it alot more enjoyable, since I don't feel a huge pressure to RUSH or stress about possibly being interrupted.  I had slacked off for about a month, but with some external motivation (training to do a 5K with friends!) and this new adjustment, I'm getting back into a good routine.  And getting to sleep in a little later!

Speaking of Miss Rachel and her sleeping... something has happened to my wonderfully content sleeper!  From the time she was about 6 weeks old, she had been sleeping like a dream - waking only once or twice, often sleeping 10-12 hours straight.  Such joy!  Right around the 6 month mark, though, something changed.  Call it teething (she did get her two bottom ones in), or milestone development (she is crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything!) or separation anxiety, or... whatever it is, it's amounting to NO sleep.  Naps are a struggle, and nighttime sleep goes well for the first few hours, and then she wakes up to nurse and wants to stay awake and hang out.  For an hour or two.  Or three.  In the middle of the night.  Um... that's not working for me!  This has been happening several nights a week for a while, and I'm a little tired (to say the least), and praying we get over this little hitch soon!

Remember that review and giveaway I did for the digital scrapbooking software, MyMemories Suite?  Well, it's become a slight addiction for me.  I think I do at least one page a day, or work on a page, anyway.  I seriously love it!  Besides just really fun scrapbook pages - like this one:

 

I've also realized what neat decorations and gifts I can make!  This has been my latest project - making name pages for each child to go on their doors.  It's been fun to consider each one's personality and tastes while doing it.  Here they are - click to enlarge if you want to see them bigger!

Take a close look at Joel's - we had a compromise we had to work out over it.  He wanted a monster on the page, and I wanted the grasshopper (Michael calls him "Cricket" so a grasshopper was a close fit)... and we both won.  Can you see his monster?  :-)

Anyway, my point is, that the whole digital scrapbooking thing is more than just a way to present photos - it is actually quite versatile! I love it so much that I'm an affiliate for MyMemories now! So, if you order the MyMemories Suite Software, use can use the coupon code STMMMS71850 to save $10 off the software price and get another $10 credit toward stuff in the MyMemories store... and I'll get a little bonus, too!  They also have weekly freebies and fun challenges on their Facebook page, so check them out!  And if you're still hesitant about buying... and have a lot of patience, I'll be doing another giveaway, probably early in the new year!

In all of my free time (hahahahahaha!!) (no, I mean, the several times a day I sit down to nurse the baby, that's about as free as I get), I've been working through some older literature on my Kindle.  Since so many good, older books are available for free, I decided "why not?".  I started with Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, and while I found the storyline not quite to be my style, I was very impressed with the writing.  Most recently I've been absorbed in Les Miserables - I've been reading it for almost a month now and am only 50% of the way through!  Phew!  But it is soooooooo good!  What has really stood out to me the most from both of these stories is the quality of writing, the use of language, the deep character development - things that are hard to come by in many modern novels that seem to be written with much less depth nowadays.  I've gained a new appreciation for what constitutes good writing... as well as an appreciation for the dictionary feature on my Kindle!  My vocabulary has been challenged, and it's been fun to stretch my brain a little.

There you go!  The basic highlights of life in my world.  Forgive me for not being more regular as of late... and thanks for stopping by!

The Winner Is....

I'm happy to announce that the winner of my My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbook Software giveaway is...

*drumroll*

Lisa, from My Homeschool Circus!  Lisa happens to be a fellow reviewer for the TOS Homeschool Crew!  Congratulations, Lisa!

For all of you who didn't win, thank you for entering!  Remember, I have an awesome coupon code you can use for $10 off My Memories Suite AND another $10 Credit to use at MyMemories.com.  That's a $20 value!! Just put My Memories Suite into your cart and enter coupon code STMMMS71850 when you check out!

And, since I'm enjoying digital scrapbooking so much... be on the lookout for some more pages from me!  I'm definitely hooked!  (Here's another one, just for fun!)

Last Day to Enter!

(This Give Away is now CLOSED!  Thanks to all who participated!)

I just wanted to remind everyone that today is the last day to enter my My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbook Software giveaway! (Phew, that's a mouthful, lol!)  There are less than 20 entries with only 12 hours left, so be sure to get yours in!  (Please don't post entries here, make sure to go directly to the original giveaway post!)

And just for fun, here's a page I made just recently:

I'm pretty excited about my new hobby!  It's so fun and easy!  Remember, the giveaway closes tonight at 5pm!  Come back tomorrow to see the winner!

My Memories Review and a Giveaway!

(This Give Away is now CLOSED! Thanks to all who participated!)

Sometimes, I really surprise myself!  I don't consider myself the "creative" or "artistic" type, not by a long shot.  I'm also not especially gifted at technology - blogging is about as technologically creative as I get, and that's because it's pretty easy!  Because of these two things, I have never considered trying my hand at digital scrapbooking.  I've often admired the efforts of friends who do it so well, but that's as far as it went.

Keeping all these things in mind, you can imagine what I thought when I was given the opportunity to review My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbook Software! I figured I'm probably one of the best candidates to review it, considering my qualifications (or lack thereof)!

Well, I've been playing around with the whole digital scrapbook thing for a few weeks now, and let me tell you - I am sold!  I don't know a thing about other scrapbook software, but My Memories Suite has made my introduction into scrapbooking an absolute breeze!

Downloading the software went without a hitch.  When I first open the software, I am given the choice of either using a pre-made template of pages, or designing my own.  In a pre-made template, there are lots of choices included with the software, and more choices available at the My Memories website - many for free, which is good for my budget!  Then, I can choose which order I want the pages laid out in, and whether or not I want the pictures automatically filled in, or if I want to place them myself.  Then, I am prompted to select the photos I want to include, and... Tada!  A beautiful scrapbook!  Really.  It's that easy.  Crazy, huh?

These are two of the FREE! pre-made pages available on MyMemories.com

One of the nice things about the pre-made templates is that they can still be edited to add a more personal touch.  So they can be used as-is, or as a "starting point" to get creative juices flowing!

After giving the pre-made templates a try and seeing how simple it was, I decided to try my hand at creating my own.  That took a little more time, as I am an admitted perfectionist... but, it was still amazingly easy.  There are many so many papers, fonts, embellishments, and even features like video and audio to use and choose from!  Here's my very first attempt (inspired by a recent post):

You can see that at first I was a little afraid to get too creative!

Then, I got a little braver and played around with more embellishments:

 

I get so excited every time I finish a page!  I can't believe I can actually do this, and so easily, too!

It's hard to even go into detail about ALL of the neat features that are a part of My Memories Suite.  Photos can be cropped, shaped, sharpened, the color changed, red eye removed, and other editing, all within the software.  Embellishments are infinite, it seems - there are so many incredible options!  You can even add music, narration, links and other multi-media to a page or an entire book.  Who knew?!

There are also many tutorial videos on YouTube as well as the My Memories Blog... and they have loads of helpful information.  The more I learn, the more amazed and excited I am at what a neat tool My Memories Suite digital scrapbook software is!

I wanted to add a little something about my experience with My Memories Customer Service.  In my first try in downloading a kit I purchased from the website, I was able to download and install it correctly, but then... couldn't find it in my software!  (That's my technological ineptitude for you!)  The FAQs on the website were very helpful, but I still wasn't getting it, so I emailed Customer Service.  They replied in just a few hours, with very helpful and precise instructions, and I was easily able to find and use my downloaded page.  I always love a company with fast and efficient Customer Service!  

Plain and simple, the software is easy to install, easy to use, and brings out the creative inspirations I've had hiding somewhere and never knew! Whether you're a digital scrapbook newbie, like me, or a seasoned pro, I definitely recommend My Memories Suite Scrapbook Software!

Here's the really fun part!  You can WIN your own My Memories Suite Scrapbook Software (a $39.97 value!).   There are several ways to enter - please leave a comment for each way you enter:

• This one is required to enter! Visit MyMemories.com and take a peek at their cute kits, papers, and embellishments.  There are tons, so try not to get overwhelmed! Come back and share with me your favorite, and what you might use it for!
• "Like" My Memories on Facebook for 1 extra entry
• "Like" A Full Heart on Facebook for 1 extra entry
• Share this giveaway on Facebook for 1 extra entry
• Follow my blog (see right sidebar) for 1 extra entry

If you don't want to wait around to see if you might win, I've got an awesome discount for you!  Use coupon code STMMMS71850 to get a $10 discount off MyMemories Suite Scrapbook Software, as well as a $10 credit at the MyMemories.com store!

This giveaway will close at 5 pm Eastern on Monday, October 3 - that's 1 week!  I'll pick the winner that evening and post it on Tuesday, October 4!  Have fun!

Disclaimer: I was given this product specifically for the  purpose of reviewing here on my blog. I received no other compensation in regards to this review.