BUSY BUSY BUSY!

I've been SO busy on TallyScrapper! Been playing with the papers that I got from Christine! It's been such fun to see other's LO and what they are working on. Here are the pages I've gotten done in the short time since TallyScrapper opened!

Really liking these two. Remember, that if you want to view a large sized picture of any picture here, you have to wait for the SNAP bubble to pop up, and click on the window there.

Did a LO about only being 20% Girl! LOL I think it turned out pretty darned girlish!

The LOOK BLOG hosted a challenge to use a food label in a LO. So I did a LO about how much I hate the Ramen noodles in the bottom of all Ian's bowls!

My Muse

Just a few pictures of my muse. I love taking photos of him. He makes me happy.

It's even more fun when he ASKS for a picture... and has props.

Such a peaceful feeling to watch your child sleeping. I can't think of ANYTHING that makes me feel such love.

Week 8 Deck of ME

This week's prompt for EmilyFalconbridge's Deck of ME Challenge was WHO or WHAT do you MISS? I was going to say my gramma, because it's true, I do miss her. However, the one and only picture that I have of her to use on the card wouldn't load onto the new (and only one connected to the printer) computer. Turns out it was a great thing, because I had to think of something new. I wrote that I Miss Make believe.

TaDa!

Here it is! The DOOR.... Now it's the same orange as the living room wall, and hanging above the couch. Our family put our hand prints on it, and I put the definitions for LOVE, CHERISH, TRUST, RESPECT and COMMIT along the bottom as well as 2007. Now, as friends and family come to visit, they will be asked to sign their names to our piece of art, and I think in years to come, so that we can keep putting hand prints on as a family, I will use a tinted glaze to do our prints, so that we can do them over signatures and not cover anyone up! I love this piece. Gotta go, there are friends on the way over for dinner as we speak!

ETA: Our handprints are out of order so to speak. They go from left to right, Ian, Travis, ME, Macs, and Josh. Lookie that crooked pinky! I love that thing.

My door.... or IS it?

Remember this, because in a few days, I will be back with more pictures, and this door will not look like a door anymore! Oooooh..... will the suspense KILL you? hee hee. I hope it NEARLY does. Had a good idea, then saw something on TV that made my idea CLICK. So the thrift store near my house just HAPPENED to have a hollow core door for sale for $5.99 and I just HAPPENED to go get it. A few days later, and closer to the end of the project, but still not ready to share! I'll be sure to share ASAP!

Here's a few random pictures from my last few days...

I call this one, BOOGER CHECK. Don't ask me WHY Josh decided that this was a cool picture pose....

Not the BEST picture, and there is a police car behind the bird, but ANOTHER kind of bird at the feeder today! There is another one, but I can't get a good shot of it, so you'll have to wait. Sheesh. Waiting. That's all you ever DO around here....

Here's another thing you have to WAIT for....

I got my package of paper from CHRISTY, proud new owner of my FAVORITE ONLINE SCRAPPING STORE, Tally Scrapper! In a few days, you'll be able to see MY layouts with links to the PRODUCT I used next to my layout!

OR

If you are shopping, and happen to click on a product that I used in my LO, then my LO will show up at the product site! YOU could be showcased too! Go, check out her site, see if you have a LO using the product that she has. If you do, put your LO in the gallery, and make sure to show what product you used!

OK. You gotta try these!

You Are 80% Boyish and 20% Girlish

You have a tough exterior - and usually a tough interior to match it. You're no nonsense, logical, and very assertive. Sometimes you can't understand women at all, even if you're a woman yourself. You see things rationally, and don't like to let your emotions get the best of you.

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

Your Inner Child Is Happy

You see life as simple, and simple is a very good thing. You're cheerful and upbeat, taking everything as it comes. And you decide not to worry, even when things look bad. You figure there's just so many great things to look forward to.

How Is Your Inner Child?

Your English Skills:

Grammar: 100% Punctuation: 100% Spelling: 80% Vocabulary: 20%

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

Your Eyes Should Be Brown

Your eyes reflect: Depth and wisdom What's hidden behind your eyes: A tender heart

What Color Should Your Eyes Be?

Your True Birth Month Is December

Logical Patriotic Ambitious Not egoistic Loves praise Loves to joke Fun to be with Not pretending Loves attention Short tempered Hates restrictions Loves to socialize Loves to be loved Loyal and generous Impatient and hasty Changing personality Good sense of humor Honest and trustworthy Influential in organizations Takes high pride in oneself Active in games and interactions

What's Your True Birth Month?

Karen, I'm only slightly less nerdy than YOU...

I saw this on my friend Karen's blog... Says I'm not a nerd, but probably not that cool either. Geeze. THANKS! LOL

My First Spring Visitors!

A Junko! All year I've had wonderful House Sparrows. I live them, but I've been hoping that I might get some other visitors too! Today, while I was washing dishes in between my computer stints on TallyScrapper.com I saw them. Boys and girls alike, hoping around my yard! Will one of them find one of the nesting boxes in the backyard? Mmmmm wouldn't that be yummy! I can't wait to see! So... I've been busy, playing on Christine's new Store, and then blogging... it's miracle I ever saw the birds today! LOL But I did. And I managed to get some pictures. Enjoy!

Tallylicious!

I've been so busy today, on TallyScrapper.com! I love the site! Great Job, Christine! (and Tally Nerd) I'm so excited to be here at the start up, because I think this is going to be one of the hottest new places in scrapperland! There are so many incentives for the everyday scrapper, and the seasoned scrapper alike. The rewards and contests, and the opportunities for the everyday Jill! I really hope that you will go, and see what the site has to offer. Things are still in the start up mode, and even NEW, the site is awesome! I can only DREAM of the possibilities once all the product is in, and the site is 100% up and running!

IT'S HERE!!!! Tally Scrapper Away!

ETA:
This is not MY site, it's my friend CHRISTINE'S from Christy's Playground. I will be doing some LO for her to put on the site in a feature of the shopping that will allow you to see a LO using th product you are shopping for. Not all of her product is in. It's coming. Come back if you don't find what you need now! Christine is closely monitering the message boards, so let her know if you want something that isn't there yet! She will listen! The site is live, but a "soft" live. Meaning they are seeing what needs tweeking, and fixing. A few things that I LOVE about her site.
1. There is no Min. Order.
2. Shipping cost if for SHIPPING. There is NOT a handling fee.
3. I can use my PayPerPost $ to shop!

It's HERE! I can't tell you how excited I am! To finally touch and FEEL the new scrapbook shopping site! And yet, it's SO MUCH MORE! At TallyScrapper, you get tallies for participation. Participation in the Message Boards. For Purchasing HOT new product! Post Pictures of your layouts, and get tally points. What, you ask, does getting tally points DO for me? Well, I'll tell you! "TallyPoints are a fun way for you to earn discounts and free scrapbooking merchandise. Have fun exploring TallyScrapper.com for ways to earn TallyPoints!On the TallyBoard, each TallyScrapper (that's you) gets five points each day to give out to other TallyScrappers. Give kudos to other TallyBoard posters with TallyPoints!On the Gallery, you also get five points each day which you can award to other TallyScrappers for a job well done!" Tallygals with lots of tally points get goodies. Plain and Simple. I like that you get to give AWAY tally points. Makes everyone PLAY NICE. So go on over! REGISTER for TallyScrapper! If you like the site, come on back here, and email me for the HTML to put this tag on your blog or website! Help Christine with her sales! Be one of the FIRST to tell THE WORLD about TallyScrapper.com!



Still need a PUSH on over? Check THIS CONTEST out! Tell me you can't do THAT one!
Now GO. And while you are signing up, just know, that TallyHo isn't available as an ID on the site anymore! :)

In OTHER Whetzel News....
I've decided to start taking my showers at night. something about being CLEAN and SQUEEKY before bed... I like.
So here you go. Squeeky clean, and still feeling fresh the next day... PLUS I didn't have to waste hair drying time, so I got to CURL my hair! Not something I've done in QUITE a while...

Literacy begins with ME...

I'm joining a group of women who are commiting to reading to their children, and I'd love for you to join me! Click on this picture, and you will be taken to the site that is spearheading this project!


My goal is to read to the boys before bed each night. I've gotten off the reading wagin, and it's high time to climb back on!

Cup of LOVE

My mom gave me this mug for Valentine's Day... Can you feel the love? It's my new favorite. I enjoy every sip of sweet creamered (i know that's not a word, but i used it, OK?) coffee I take out of it. If it ever breaks, I'll be heart broken! (no pun intended)

Now I never caught these little guys drinking OUT of my Cup 'o' LOVE, but I'm pretty sure they did...

These are some of the NOISY little things that live in our pool during the winter. I actually caught them on the Basketball hoop that is currently floating around out there. It was dark out, and I took about 1,000 pictures, but this is the only one that even sorta turned out. It took me a while in the dark, to see that this was TWO frogs, and not one. Can you say polliwogs!?

Week 7 Deck of ME

OK, people! Here it is... my card for week 7 of Emily Falconbridge's Deck of ME Challenge! Her prompt this week, was......

SHOES - there is always a story to tell.

Hmmmm.

Um.

Thinking....

Thinking some more....

grrrrrrr.

Um.

Nope.

Nothing.

So... after putting my thinking cap on, I remembered that this last summer, I had taken a picture of my feet while sitting at the park watching the boys play. I plan, one day, to scrap the pic of my feet (notice I said FEET, not shoes) and how much fun I had relaxing and chilling this summer with the boys. No shoes story here, but a picture with which to start my card. Then I decided to do an acronym of SHOES. Only I couldn't think of a good one with JUST the letters, so I did one using different letters of the sentence

No Fair!

Some girls don't Have One single shoE Story.

So there you have it. A challenging prompt for me, but one that I loved just as much as all the rest! Also notice, I successfully used COLOR in my design! Yippy!

Every Blogstalker's DREAM....

Lookie here.
My friend Janet says that I'm a blog stalker. Most of you know this as Lurker. It's true. I have 60 of them that I stalk.
E
V
E
R
Y
s...i...n...g...l...e
day.
Takes me
4
eh
ver
her.
ever.
ever.
EVER.
Like some days, three hours of forever.
NOT
ANYMORE!
I found a site, called Bloglines.
They have saved my morning routine!
There is a little time involved, because you go to the site and tell them the URL of the places on your favorites list, one at a time. It took me about 1 min. each site, so it took me an hour.
BUT
now......
I come to the computer every morning,
open bloglines,
sign in,
and viola!
All of the blogs that I love are there.
A list of the ones who have updated.
I can read the complete posts right there at the site!
I don't have to check every single blog, because bloglines did it for me,
If I want to comment, I click on the link, a new window comes up with the blog on it, I comment, close it, and I'm back at bloglines.
Took me 15 min. This morning.
FIFTEEN!
Hmmmm.
3 HOURS.....
or
15 MINUTES!?
I'll take door number 2!
So.... check it out! Start adding your lurking love now, and finish when you want. I chose to finish all at once, because I was already wasting a ton of time, what's a few hours more!?
Now, when I find a blog I like, I can just add it to my bloglines, and forget about it!
It's been great.
You need it too.
I'm not getting paid to say so.
Here's a link.
I'd better be on there!





It really IS a blogstalker's DREAM...
Although,
Advertising it like that MIGHT not be good.

"Eye" See Two Mommies

When Josh was 3, he had gone to the park with some friends of ours, and fallen out of the swing onto the dirt. He fell right on his poor little face. No Biggie. He was fine when he got home. Just had a little dirt up his nose...

Later that night, he said to me,

"I see two Mommies!"

Of course, this made me look at him a little funny. I am the only Mommy he has, and as much as I'd love that clone, she's not coming anytime soon.

It was then that I noticed his eyes were crossing. I held up my fingers (two of them in a victory sign.) "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three!"

Um. Hello? Not so. Maybe the little guy doesn't know his numbers as well as I thought. He is three at this time, remember? So I ask him to count my TWO fingers, and touch them while you count.

"ONE......" and I'll be darned if he didn't touch that finger of his right IN BETWEEN my TWO I held up!

Um.

ER, today anyone?

Of course we went there, because I was thinking that the fall out of the swing might have given him a concussion. Turns out, Josh has what you all know as LAZY EYE... sounds like a western.

*in my best John Wayne voice* Pilgrim, you'd better stop that, or my padre Josh here, will give you the LAZY EYE......

OK. Back to my story.

Josh never had to patch his eye, because glasses have corrected the drifting of his eye. Sometimes, when he's had a long day, and he isn't wearing his glasses, they drift, but as soon as he puts his glasses on, they go straight again.

I told you all this, because last Friday, we went to his eye exam, and for the first time, he had to have the drops that dilate your pupils, and paralyse your eye's focusing muscle.

THAT is when we tried on glasses to see which pair Josh liked.

THAT

is when his eye lost all ability to stay straight! It's fine now, because it was the drops that made his muscle unable to keep his eye from drifting. Check it out. The picture on top is about 2 hours after the drops, and that right eye of his is still a bit drifty.

He was quite a hit at the Dr.'s! Not many boys have a parlour trick like that one!

So here he is, with his super cool plastic sunglasses that you get when your pupils aren't working for a few hours. He thinks they looked SWEET! Fingers crossed that his new glasses are in today! I'll put up some pics when we get them!

My Valentines!

I got Valentines from Josh's class today during the classroom party! Yummy Yummy CHOCOLATES! Here is my picture of the heart pocket that I decorated for the party. I felt just like one of the kids! LOL It was a lot of fun, and I felt pretty special, since my name wasn't actually ON the name list! The kids who brought goodies brought them because they wanted to! How cool is that!? As you can see, the kids call me Teacher Rachel. A throw back from the days that I worked at the Preschool, and then helped in the Public school where we are from. There were a lot of kids in the class I volunteered in, who were also Daycare kids at the Preschool. Rather than have them call me Mrs. Whetzel, (which is my MIL, not me) I just let them call me what they were used to. It's followed me here!

I've been tagged!

My mom tagged me through email, and I like the tag, so I'm putting this here on my blog!

FOUR JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE :
1. Zoo Keeper
2. Denny's Waitress
3. Photolab Tech at Wal Mart
4. Bartender

FOUR MOVIES I HAVE WATCHED OVER AND OVER
1. Men In Black
2. Catch Me if You Can
3. The Grinch
4. Cars

hmmmm. noticing that my video viewing has gone backward in age.....

FOUR PLACES I HAVE LIVED:
1. Corrona, CA
2. Roseburg, OR
3. Myrtle Creek, OR
4. Reedsport, OR

FOUR TV SHOWS I LIKE TO WATCH:
1. Dirty Jobs
2. House
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. Survivor


FOUR PLACES I HAVE BEEN ON VACATION:
1. Arizona
2. California
3. Oregon Coast (still feels like I'm on a vacation here now)
4. Eastern Oregon

FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS: not necessarily in this order
1. Oysters
2. Crab
3. Tamales
4. Salmon

FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1. In a SPOTLESS house
2. With my mom
3. Thrifting
4. On a Trip to the Lewis and Clark Museum

FOUR PEOPLE WHO WILL ANSWER BACK: only I'm just going to TAG these people
1. Em
2. Karen
3. Kim
4. Christy

OK.... If you wished that I had tagged YOU, then TAG! You're it too!

Lost Cause

Really. What can you do? I'm gonna have to say, nothing. No matter how hard I try to keep the kid away from markers, they seem to find their way into his I'd-better-go-check-on-Macs-it's-too-quiet-hands... This is from the other day.

Tonight, we had PERMANENT RED SHARPIE.

MmmmmmHmmm.

I should buy stock in denatured alcohol. I got the stuff out.

Victory.

Drum roll, Please!

There were 17 contestants in my contest post! There were other's who have posted on my blog, that didn't post on the contest, but I did not include their names in the pool. Only those who commented in the contest post are in the pool. The contestants in no particular order, ARE:

Brittany (the hollaman tribe)

Tracy Whittney

Lisa (welcome to the zoo)

Tiffany

Lynn

Tammy Kay

Tami

Amy (a.s.k.-p.)

Christine

Katie-ell

Jen Clark

Sam the Cat c/o Kim

Karen

Catherine

Miranda

Happy Day

Nancy Jo

My lovely assistant drew the card for me. I know he's looking, but he can't read....

AND THE WINNER IS TAMI!

Thank you so much to all of you who visit my blog! Even those of you who don't leave comments! It's nice to have people out there liking what I write about! I think I might start trying to have little drawings every once in a while. It was fun! And I found out about a few of you that I didn't know about! If you didn't get your name in this time, keep watch, I'll be doing this again soon!

Tami, I'll need you to email me with your address, so I can send you your prize! It's not the complete set, mind you, it's one each of the different animals in the set.

What is YOUR worth?

My eBay and blogging friend, Karen had THIS to say about our worth. Please take a moment to visit her blog and read it. I promise you won't be sorry!

rachel

Week 6 Deck of ME

This is my card for Week 6 Deck of ME on Emily Falconbridge's challenge. Seeing as it's the week of Valentine's day, Emily chose LOVE LOVE LOVE as her prompt for this week. I loved this one a lot since Valentine's Day is also Travis and My Anniversary. We also happened to go to our Church's Valentine's Day Banquet, and we took a few pictures together before we left. So I took that picture, and sanded it, then I chalked it leaving a heart shaped void around our faces. I doodled the heart flower vine, and also drew over the part of the picture where Travis and my hands are together, and his arms are around me. On velum, I printed a picture booth picture of me and him from the year that we first started dating, which I placed over red mulberry paper.

I have a Head Ick

I've been battling a Migraine since Thursday night, and I can't seem to shake it. I'm just posting to let you know that regular programing will HOPEFULLY resume tomorrow. I also thought I'd take the chance to mention that every time I have a Migraine, Macs tells me that he has a "head ick". He wrinkles up his little nose, and lays his head down on my lap. It's pretty cute! Well, I'm off to go take some more meds, and *ugh* lay down some more... I had so much more planned today, than laying around trying to beat pain. At least I think the pain is going away...

I know you are out there...

So I've been scrapbooking for about 8 years now. I've loved every second of it, and like most scrappers, I don't have the filled books to show for it! I also have a tendency to collect things for scrapping with, but I don't always use them Here are a few of the vintage playing cards that I've FINALLY begun to use. I mentioned splitting a bunch of set with my mom the other day when she was here, and these are the sets.

These are Old Maid cards that my mom used to play with me when I was a kid. A few of the character's names are less than PC these days!

I really like this set. It's all circus themed, and the colors are so pretty! I sanded a few of these down in my "curly" LO that I put up the other day...

Some Cutie Pah Tootie numbers that I El Oh Vee Eee!!!!

Another set that I used in a LO that I've posted about recently. "Camera Man"

I know you are reading this. My web counter keeps telling me. A lot of you even leave comments! I LOVE THAT, by the way... Just before the new year, I had ALMOST 5,000 hits on my blog. Now here is it, only a month and a 8 days into the year, and my counter says that I've had 7,430 visitors! WOW. That's cool. Really cool. So I thought I'd put out a little

THANK YOU!

for you! So here it is...

Another VERY cute set. Animal Rummy cards. I have enough to make another "set" of these, by taking out one of each of the animals. YOU can win the set by leaving a comment to let me know who you are!

I will draw names on MONDAY. That's Feb. 12th.

So PLEASE!

Leave a comment, let me know that you visit here, and you just might win something while you're at it!

Picking with a Crayon is Better...

Than picking with your finger. At least that's what I'm assuming.

I took this this morning of Macs. I was in the shower, and Macs was playing in the bathroom.

Not a good combination.

So I peeked my head out the shower door, to find that Macs had decided to use my hairspray to change his Doo! I thought that was too cute, and so we had to take pictures. While I was snapping away, I guess Macs decided to clean up a bit.

With a CRAYON. Hmmm. What ever works, I guess! LOL

I love this picture. The binki, the crayon up the nose, the glazed look, and that crooked pinkie. It's never been broken, don't worry. It's just CROOKED.

R e a l l y

r

e

a

ll

y

Crooked.

Travis' Gramma used to have crooked pinky's. I used to think that it was from living life on a farm, and all the hard work she did.

Then, after she passed away, Macs was born. With Betty's pinkies.

He doesn't live on a farm.

Curly

ANOTHER ONE!

I know. I amaze myself. I'll write about my journaling later. It's late. I've GOT to go to bed....

Camera Man

Lookie HERE!

Another LAYOUT! I'm on a roll! Can't believe myself! LOL I used a lot more color than I usually do. It's something I want to work on. I love color, but I never feel like I do a very good job with it. I love OTHER people's color, but when I use it, it feels clunky.

One of the things I do like about this, is the cutie tutti Vintage playing cards that I used. I've had this deck for a while now, and when my Mom was over this weekend, we went through and split them up. Getting them out made me feel like playing with them, and I like that I was able to shade them with color. So, share with me something that YOU feel challenged and clumsy over. If you've stretched outside your comfort zone, leave a link to your show and tell!

FINALLY! Everytime my friend Janet and I get together, I always SAY that I want to get a picture of us together. Then I forget. This last Saturday, we took a trip over to Roseburg, and stayed the night with Janet and her family. Then her family went with us to Travis' Parent's for SuperBowl. We had a good time with our friends and family, and I GOT MY PICTURE! LOL Thanks, Janet, for putting up with my picture takin' ways!

New Layout!

I've been doing a lot creatively lately, with my cards, but I haven't had much time for actual layouts. This is a set of OLD pictures that I've had set aside to scrap since Macs was about 1 & 1/2 years old. I don't know if you can really tell, but the focal picture is on another picture that I took of a bunch of barnacles. Then I sanded the picture, and journaled on the side. I had a lot of fun with this one. I didn't use one thing NEW. It's all a bunch of things I've had for YEARS...

Week 5 Deck of ME

This week, Emily Falconbridge prompted us to use ephemera from our week. She used a metro ticket from her trip to France! I had to look up the word ephemera to be sure I understood what it meant. Here's what my online dictionary said.

"Ephemera: [i-fem-er-uh] Items designed to be useful or important for only a short time, esp. pamphlets, notices, tickets, etc."

Well, I haven't taken any trips, and I knew that a lot of folks might use grocery receipts, and that sort of thing. So I had to think a bit. Then it hit me! I've been so very busy with my garden, why not use a package of seed! I've had such fun searching for unusual colored plants, and I've found a few of them. I decided to use the (now famous) purple carrots, because they were actually packaged for 2006. That makes their use even more short time.

So here's a bit about my card. I used the Queen of Spades card because I thought she fit so well into the Gardening theme! I also tried to be more colorful in my design, because color is something I love, and yet I rarely USE it in my pages. I have a hard time with it. I never feel very GOOD at using it. Things look very clumsy to me when I use color. I like this one. A LOT.

I started out covering the back of the card with a cool green page.

Next, I sanded scan of the seed package.

I covered the whole thing with a piece of velum that I printed the back of the seed.

I sanded the edges of everything. Then I glued ANOTHER piece of torn velum over the corner. I had printed the word GARDEN on that piece.

Next, I doodled around the black line front the edge of the card.

I sanded the back of the card, and chalked it with green. My journaling mentions a few of the other unusual things that I've found for planting so far.

Radishes with HOT PINK insides being one of them!

I really had a lot of fun thinking about this one. It was neat to use something from my past week, because I lived the whole week without knowing that I would NEED to save something from it, and I still had something I WANTED to use!