http://www.wolframalpha.com/

He had me start by looking up a simple music chord – D F# A. Now the results for that were impressive. Then, he had me plug in the following:

weather birth city,state full birth date

Oh my goodness! I could not believe the information that popped up. I now know the exact weather conditions, temperature as compared to normal that day, wind speeds, sunlight intensity on the day I was born! Pretty nifty tool!

You can compare countries, do calculations, conversions…..I am impressed. Go play and see. It’s a bookmark-worthy site.

The Minnie Marathon was a lot of fun. I hope everyone got to play along. I only got to participate in two of them, unfortunately, but did enjoy them both. I can’t believe it, but some people actually managed to make all ten speed scraps! Pretty amazing! I can’t wait to see who wins the three big prizes!

Before I go, if you think about it, please keep my grandfather in your prayers. I don’t want to go into detail here for certain prying eyes, but he sure could use extra prayers. Thanks in advance!

DH and I have been watching the series and are just cracking up, especially given the similarities between the blonde chick and someone we both know. Too funny!

Don’t forget the Minnie Speed Scrap Marathon that starts tomorrow at Mousescrappers! It’s going to be a fun time for all! Check the details HERE.

Happy weekend everyone!!!

Also, just released yesterday – Putting It Together Templates : In Pieces

These are some really fun to use templates. PU/S4H/CU friendly.

Oh! And before I forget, this weekend is the Minnie Speed Scrap Marathon at Mousescrappers.
You don’t want to miss this fun weekend of chatting and scrapping with other Disney fans. There are lots of fun participation prizes, and 3 lucky people will win a grab bag full of goodies, including a $10 coupon to my store! You can get all the details and see some of the prizes HERE at Mousescrappers.

That’s about it here. I hope to see some of you at MS this weekend!

Click the preview or HERE to download. I know it isn’t much, but maybe someone can use something in there.

Have a great weekend everyone!

My new release is finally in the store! I teamed up with Neverland Scraps to create this awesome new collab kit, lovingly inspired by everyone’s favorite clownfish and friends.

You can grab it HERE.

Have a great week everyone!

Wendy and I had so much fun putting this one together.  I know you will have just as much fun scrapping with it. 

Also, I completely spaced and forgot to mention that The Plum is offering a new “Deal of the Week”.

And with that, I am off for today.  Be sure to come back tomorrow to see the full new release.   I may even throw in a freebie for you. 

I don’t usually post all of my personal things on this blog, but today I feel the need to make a statement about something many of my family members can relate to. I want to set the story straight on some things so that all know where I stand on some issues, instead of getting a partial story from the person involved.

Drama is one of those awesome things that seems to exist in everyone’s lives in some way, shape, or form. Sometimes it can be good – like in the form of a book or a movie. I love a good drama from time to time, don’t you? Other times, however, it comes in a negative form, such as in the case of family drama. Not much you can do most of the time in those cases other than ignore the drama queens and try to go about your days, biting your tongue all the while. I come from a rather large family of aunts, uncles, cousins galore on both sides. My mom was one of four and my dad was one of six, so you can imagine how many branches are on my tree.

Now every family has their fair share of fruits and nuts on each of their trees. Every so often one of the nuts goes bad. You can choose to nurture it in the hopes that it will bloom again soon, or you can choose to clip it and dispose of the one part of the tree that is causing the rest of the tree to droop. I tend to be a nurturer for the most part. However, every so often one of those branches you are nurturing and trying so hard to care for will grow vicious thorns. You prune and continue caring for it, despite getting pricked. Your instincts tell you that even though eventually that part of the tree *might* turn into something useful again, most likely, that branch is going to spread its vicious thorns to the rest of the tree. Most of the time the nurturing works and the tree does turn towards the sunlight and grow and mature. However, some branches are just useless causes and you realize that all of the love, attention, help, and concern are only going to be perceived as you attacking no matter what you do. Your help will go unnoticed and unappreciated, because apparently it is simply expected and not earned. The thorns grow more than any bloom ever will on that particular branch, and after being poked and stuck multiple times over many years, you finally become enraged enough that you trim and dispose of that horrid mess to allow the rest of the tree to once again have the nourishment and attention it needs to continue growing and maturing.

I am a person who is generally not vicious. I always believe you should turn the other cheek multiple times and I firmly believe in giving third and fourth chances….shoot, just ask my husband about how forgiving I am! It generally takes a lot to get me mad, and it takes a WHOLE LOT to get me to the point where you can no longer even begin to earn forgiveness from me.

I recently “trimmed” away a branch of my family tree for good. At first, I struggled with the decision to do so given their obvious cry out for help, but in the end, I must say that doing so has finally allowed me to have my own branch grow stronger. It sounds mean at first, but the manipulations and lies over the past eleven years along with the person’s expectations that everyone keep completely quiet and not be allowed to form and voice their own opinions on a situation in this free country of ours, well, frankly ticked me off enough to break off any and all communication. When this person’s thoughtless and extremely selfish actions began to affect my children, it was time to “trim the thorny branch” for good.

I know this “branch” is getting support from her “online family”, and to those people, I am glad she has some support because she will need it now that she has alienated herself from her entire family. To those, I pose this question though – if an entire group of people have known someone their entire life (not online, but really and truly known her and the things she has done in the past and always forgiven her in the past) and they are suddenly ALL dropping her, wouldn’t you think that maybe there is another side to the story you should know before running to her side to support her? There is way more to this person’s story, much of which she will never tell you, but your knowing would probably shed some light on the concerns the family has right now. For starters – I don’t understand how someone can claim to be in an abusive and loveless marriage and expect everyone to be ok with them leaving five children with that supposed abuser (NO MATTER WHAT TYPE OF ABUSE YOU ARE CLAIMING) while they go off and live her life with their new boyfriend….and I really don’t understand why this person’s “online family” is not questioning this and instead thinks it is awesome that she did such a thing. She’s not a hero for leaving the way she did, so praise should not be given.

Harsh to prune the thorny branch? You are entitled to your opinions on that one. I won’t forbid you from speaking to me ever again for offering your thoughts, unlike the person this was about. For me, trimming and pruning was definitely the right decision. I actually feel very relieved to have finally done so after biting my tongue for the past 11 years. That’s a whole lot of trimming that needed to be done. My tree will continue to grow now while the branch will struggle to try and sprout new roots elsewhere, only to be rejected once the thorns start to sprout once again. History will repeat itself, it always does…and this time my tree will be stronger than ever with roots firmly planted and bark thick enough to shield from any harm those insignificant thorns can muster the courage to attempt attacking with.

Alrighty, rant over. I hope that you all have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend. We plan to do some shopping and watch our neighbors shoot off their annual fireworks providing the weather cooperates. Enjoy!