Reminder

Just a reminder that there is no Friday Freebie this week. Instead, come back on Monday and we will have two summer themed freebies for you. Guaranteed, you will love them both!

Showcase Blog and New Tutorials

I've started up a new blog where you can find all the tags and tuts that are being done using my kits. It's called Digi's Showcase, and you can find it HERE!

Please be sure to bookmark it and follow it as well! Lots of great ideas! And of course if you've done a tutorial or a tag and would like me to show it off in the showcase, sent it along and I'll be happy to add it.

I just added four new tutorial - two fab ones by Elizabeth and a pair of animated tutorials, one from Bev of Horseplays Pasture and one from Jessica at Gothic Inspirations tutorials. So be sure to check it out. I'll be moving (hopefully) the tutorial announcements from this blog over to the showcase blog!



Digicats (& Dogs) is looking for tutorial writers!

Minimum: 2 kits per month, 1 tut per kit posted to five tut groups and/or forums of your choice.

Members that do more than the minimum get their names tossed into a hat and one gets pulled for 3 free tubes each month.

If you are interesting in working with my kits for free, please send your tut blog link to digicats1@gmail.com with "CT CALL" in the subject line.

Store Changes

Due to continued health problems - I have sever degenerative arthritis which makes it hard some days to use my hands and arms, or to sit for any period of time - I've had to cut back on my store involvement. As a result I've left Scrappetizing and Scraps and the City.

You can still find my designs at:

 

Thanks for you continued support. I hope to have some new stuff out for you soon!

And the winner is....

(Drum roll please!)

Leslie! Leslie has, if you can believe this, 215 of my kits stuffed on her hard drive. She says she has been stalking me for like forever, and visits my blog many times a week to see what's new!

Her collection includes some of the very rare titles, as well the very first kit I ever made, Irish Eyes.

So...for being such a great stalker, Leslie wins herself a copy of of my new Snowflakes kit, and I'll throw in a copy of Winter's Chill as well.

For the rest of you...don't worry. I'll come up with another R.A.K. soon. Thanks for playing along and thanks for visiting, here at the home of the Paw-ty Animals!

Out of Order

Sorry I haven't been around, but I got taking into Emergency last Friday with a case of blood poisoning.  Thought I was gonna die.  I've still got several more days of Antibiotic therapy to get through and that stuff really wears me out.  Hope to be back soon with some new designs.  Sorry for being away.

Find me on Facebook!

Okay, I finally broke down and got a facebook account. If any of you are on facebook and would like to add me as a friend , could you please do so ? Half the time I'm not sure how it works and the other half the time I'm not sure who anyone is.

Thanks a bunch!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001458273108

There is also a "designer" page....

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Digicats-Dog-digital-designs/

I think there's like a gadget I can add to blog, but I haven't figured that one out yet.

Plants are People too!

"That plant always looks so much more happier after you've watered it."

It does, actually. It's a Calla-Lily and they are a very expressive species.

X Marks the Spot

In case any of you were wondering where I lived....



I've yet to see anything to make me think there is a tropical storm in the area however.

Top Gun!

Well, the computer showed up yesterday and w00t! It works! So now I'm in the process of restoring everything which is gonna take a while.

I'm working backwards and so far, I've only got through Feb 2oth of 2010. Urgh...

On a happier note however, Mary sent me a great tag using my Freedom of Expression taggers kit. This one is free, so be sure you grab it if you've not done so already and ride the rails for the rest of the freebies on the Freedom of Expression train.



She wanted to know what kind of movies I like. I'm pretty impartial, but we mostly watch Action/Adventure because that's what the SO likes.

So she did a great Top Gun tag!

You can check out more of Mary's work at her Fotki.com album.

Thanks Hun!

Blinkie Codes

Google's on the warpath today. First they made me verify my e-mail account, now they've got my blinkie codes marked as inappropriate content. So much for freedom of speach. I guess it doesn't exist in California...

Anyway here are the codes:

Digicats' Stalker Code

<center><a href="http://digicats.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w45/manateeshockey/Digicats/DC2_bybrandi.gif" border="0" alt="Digicats Stalker" width="150" height="50"></a></center>

Digicats' Fan Code

<center><a href="http://digicats.blogspot.com" target="newwin"><img border="0" src="http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w45/manateeshockey/Blinkies/DigicatsFan_by_Brandi.gif" width="150" height="50" alt="Fan of Digicats"></a></center>

HP - A cautionary tale

What's going on with the computer...well...

The old one was dying. It was 12 or 13 years old anyway. But I found a great deal on a refurb from TigerDirect - $300 for a HP Pavilion a4313w. I've wanted a Pavilion for a long time and so I put aside my reservations over the refurb part and ordered it.

It showed up late last Monday. Tuesday I unpacked it and tried to run Win7 for the first time. It kept hanging and then it would give me the error screen. So after several attempts to get it going, I called technical support and got "Rami" who I could barely hear, in one of the overseas call centers.

He tried to tell me I had a virus and I needed to buy a recovery disk for $15. I said "I just took it out of the box, Rami. How did the virus get in there? Did you put it there?"

"No, no. You got it from the internet."

"I haven't been ON the INTERNET because I can't get it to BOOT UP!"

On top of this he kept telling me I had 59 days left on my warranty and I said "I just bought it. I get 90 days."  

"No, no. 59 days."

They really need to fire Rami and they really need to get rid of their overseas call centers because the whole thing is a scam. I just noticed today, when I was writing my review, that someone else was told they had a virus and had to buy a recover disk and since he didn't know better, he fell for the scam. That's sad.

There are thousands of unemployed Americans out there who would do a much better job than Rami and the overseas call center and represent HP in a much better light, instead of as a scam.

Unless of course they really want to be known as a scam company.

In any case, he told me to run a memory test, just to get me off the phone. So I did that, and amazingly enough, it booted up. And things were fine for all of about five minutes. I turned my back for 10 seconds to grab the box of software to upload, and the computer tried to reboot itself. Except it never did.

So I call technical support again. This time, I got David in call center in the United States. So nice to know HP actually does employ an American or two.

After two hours, it was determined I was shipped a machine with a faulty mother board. Don't they test these things before they ship them?

So they sent a box and I returned the computer. David was also kind enough to update my warranty information for I get my full 90 days. Personally, I think that should start on the day I get the computer back but...

Right now, the estimated shipping date is July 9th, almost a month from my purchase date of June 15th.

Needless to say, I'm mildly pissed by the whole situation. Don't buy HP folks, it's a pile of crap. Stick with Dell.

The 9th is the outside shipping date, he told me 5 to 7 business days to fix so I'm hoping I get it back sooner.

Since the old machine died, I went to storage and got the old-old Gateway, which has a 19Gig Hard Drive and 128K memory and which came with Win96 when I first got it. That was a while ago. LOL.

So I'm back online at least.

Guess I should go get my trash can now before it blows off down the street....

Nocturnal wanderings

One of the things I miss about living in the Miami-Dade/Broward area is the Miami Book Fair. Even when they got authors in I never heard of, the talks were informative and I discovered some new reading material.

There was one lady - a murder mystery writer whose name escapes me - she'd had like two or three books under her belt at the time and I read all of them after the discussion - who related some very amusing bits about writing murder mystery.

One was the "dinner conversation" at a fancy restaurant she'd had with another writer in which they discussed ways to get rid of dead bodies. The dinners at the next table, overhearing parts of the conversation, kept shooting them the weirdest looks. Well...at least they didn't call the police!

Another was the night she was at home alone, writing and the fridge became possessed and started making strange noises and scared the crap out of her. (Mine makes strange noises all of the time.)

And finally, there was the reaction of her husband, while she was reading him excerpts from one of her books while they were laying in bed one night. And the amusing bit was, her husband is a law enforcement officer.

What brought this on was, while I was not sleeping Friday night and sitting here working on the Verity kit, I wondered if it bothered Mike at all that I was spinning out dark visions while he was having sweet dreams.

"Well, that's why I try not to piss you off too much," he said, eyeballing one of the bookcases in which the Anne Rule books are stored. "Because, you know, I'd go to work one day. All the neighbors would see me leave, but I'd never get there. They'd find my jeep parked on the side of I-75, but my body would never be recovered."

Honestly, he's a little tough and stringy. I just don't see a gator wanting to eat him.

However, I still have that discussion on 50 ways to dispose of dead bodies to fall back on if need be. ;)

Irregardless

Since someone felt the need to tell me there is no such word...From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Main Entry: ir·re·gard·less
Pronunciation: \ˌir-i-ˈgärd-ləs\
Function: adverb
Etymology: probably blend of irrespective and regardless
Date: circa 1912

usage: Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance.

Wild 4 You

For a while there I was beginning to think that if anyone called and wanted to know what I was doing this weekend, my response was going to be "working on the Bits'N'Bobs Blog Train kit". Happily things really started falling together last night and I'm near done.



So maybe tonight I can do some tagging for fun...although at least one of the tags is going get done using my contribution to the Gothic Inspirations blog train....just in case I need to tweek it a bit.

Please note that the alpha I used on the tag is NOT included in the kit. I thought about it, but I've already spent too much time on the wretched thing.

I also need to do some work on the Summer Daze kit. This one is still available for Free on the August Goodie Train...BUT...the PTU version is going to have more papers, more food, more rides and more fun!

Digi's already made himself quite ill on hot dogs and innumerable bump car rides! LOL!

You have until Wednesday, September 1st to snag the FTU version, which you can find HERE.

40% off sale this Friday, Saturday and Sunday on my products at Sophisti-Scraps, Scrappetizing and Miss Bee Hiven! And wait until you see the sale we've cooked up next month for you! Woot! I'm excited!

Anyway, out of the depths of Africa, I'm now dashing off to the American Frontier....

Ink

What's wrong with kids these days? I went grocery shopping yesterday and there's little chick at the store who works for Nemesis Tattoo down on SFM Beach. She's got quite a few, but they're all pretty tasteful - just a bit more than most people would have. Anyway, I get in line to check out and she's talking to the girl at the register who is turning 18 in three weeks and wants one of the Transformers tattooed on her. That even took the chickie back a bit, but...I said "Let me give you some advise. Before you get anything tattooed on you, stop and ask yourself if you're still gonna be happy with it at the time your 50 years old."

I have three. I was happy with 'em when I got em, and I'm still happy with 'em. I turn 50 in a couple or three months.

But the girl kind of looked at me like I was crazy. Seriously...is she gonna be happy with a Transformer on her a few years from now? Yeah, it was cool at the time but....

This my phoenix....the picture makes it look like it's going down my back, but it's not. It's only up on my shoulder....



And my Wolfie...



And the dragon I can not show you on the internet because, well...that would be pornographic.

I know Bittersweet did one a years or so ago, but should do a "Tattoo You" kit.

(Heck, I did a "Wild Horses" kit. Let's do one for ALL the Rolling Stones songs!)

Beyond that I'm just toying with the notion of joining another store. I'm currently selling in three....

I started working on a Pirate themed kit. I've got the papers and the tags done and I've made the frames. I don't know if I'm going to decorate them yet or not, so I won't say they are finished. Just made. LOL. And I've started work on the elements. Camp Tippy Canoe does not have a lot of regular elements like ribbons, bows, etc in it. This one will.

In the meantime, here's a tag using my "Sunshine Beach" taggers kit:



The poser is (c) by Untamed Angel and the Summer Sun alpha was a freebie from Shel Belle Scraps.

Lake Park Crest on the 38th Street Canal

When I moved over to the Fort Myers area from the East Coast, one of the things I missed was the the fact that there was always something going on. We do okay with events here, but it's not EVERY weekend. If you were ever bored in Fort Laud, you just needed to look around and sure enough, you'd find something to interest you.

The Dolphins, the Marlins, the Heat....these are all things I miss. Yes, even the toothless old Panthers.

However, I was reading Ginger's Blog and she reminded me of something I don't miss....



Oh sure, we get some mild, localized flooding, but nothing like we had every summer at Lake Park Crest on the 38th Street Canal.

These pictures were all taken with my way old digital camera, which needed batteries at the time, and which is why there are all those lines through the pictures.

They are "scrapped out" using my yet to be released "40 Days" taggers kit. Since I'm not printing them, I felt it was totally acceptable to do them to 800 x 800 pxl size for use on the computer. :)

One of the reasons "40 Days" has yet to be released, is that it's a Noah's Ark themed kit, and I've yet to build the ark. In fact as I was doing these little images, I was making some elements up.



The other is that the animals used in it are - basically - the same ones I used in my Lion Hunt kit. Lion Hunt goes in the stores on MONDAY and I didn't want to release them too close together.

Note that this is the last weekend you can get Lion Hunt as a free to use kit, so if you've not snagged it, then you might want to CLICK HERE and grab it while it's still free.



I had had the 2x2 frames made up, but when I was doing these little layouts, I decided single frames might not be a bad idea, so I whipped up a set. I think I also want to add another set of tags. The ones I have are fine, but I didn't always want a fish on my tags.

Don't you love these fish doodles? I was procrastinating on doing the fish for this kit until I found these fish doodles. They are just way too cute and just what I needed to get back on track with "40 Days".

The "no wake" sign was also something I whipped up for these layouts as was...



The rainbow. I couldn't believe I hadn't done one earlier! Well, so much for thinking the kit was 99% done!

I also adore these little lightning bugs (a.k.a. Fireflies). This was something Cindy at Scrappin with Lil Ole Me dreamed up and they made me laugh. How imaginative!

Anyway, you can probably see where this would have made a great page kit - too bad my computer won't support my moving into that venue. All I can say is that I hope the economy turns around soon, and that perhaps I'll be able to afford the upgrades it needs by this time next year.

In other news, I've been working diligently on my offering for the July Goodie Train. I have also jumped on the Gothic Inspirations Blog Train for July and am working on another fairy themed kit for that one.

I also wrote a new tutorial last night. It is FTU, and free is of course, better than cheap. You can CLICK HERE for the tut and to grab the goodies associated with it! (That doodle alpha is full sized by the way, for all you Digi-Scrapers, and is FREE!)

Tithing, Taxes and Tags

My friend Rowena had reached the conclusion last week that her daughter, Danielle, would not attending St. Andrews Catholic School in the fall. This did not sit well with her husband who groused that the reason they'd had only one child is that they couldn't afford to put more than one through a Catholic school.

But that was four years ago, and times change.

"They want $6,500 payable over 10 months." For kindergarten. Plus the money they'd have to pay to Bobby Noonan Child Care Center for two months over the summer. Plus they have to pay for additional Catechism classes on Sunday, and attend church at St. Andrews.

"They give you little envelopes. They want a least $25 a week, but they want to know how much you make because they want to you Tithe...I forget how much."

"10% of your gross income." Unlike the federal government, the church does not give a break for having a cafeteria plan or socking money away in a IRA.

And unlike the federal government, you don't get anything back for the money. No army, navy, air force or marines. No government funded programs. No road work crews, prison system, police force, fire fighters. Nope, nothing.

Except the assurances that you are on the fast track to heaven - if there is such a place.

Yet it amazes me the number of people that will pony up that 10% weekly to the church, but then crab and complain and even resort to cheating on their returns to get our of paying their fair share to Uncle Sam.

I'm paid tax preparer. I see a lot of this go on.

(Morality Question: If you're cheating on your taxes, doesn't that constitute a sin? And if you're not really repentant of it - and can't be since you do it year after year - is all the tithing in the world still going to get you into heaven?)

Frankly, I can't say I feel sorry for Danielle. I HATED Catholic school and would not wish it on my worst enemy. She needs to get her on the waiting list for the target school, but she can't even register her for that until she gets out of Kindergarten. Ah well...

---

A couple of tags I made for challenges over at the Butterfly Lounge. The first challenge was to make a tag using the Summer Morning Add On freebie from Reineke Designs.



Part of the challenge was you had to put the name of the person who had participated in the challenge ahead of you - in this case Liana.

I am using one of the Sultry Summer posers by MediEvil Creations. I wasn't until this week end that I realized that "MediEvil Creations" and "Medi" from the Poser Emporium were one in the same. Sometime, I'm a little slow on the uptake.

This used three masks - two from Wee Scots Lass and the final one which went over the completed piece, by Cameron. The alpha is from a page kit called "Princess" that I'd download a while ago and resized. When I went to look for the credit for the alpha, I discovered it did not come with a TOU file, and so I have no idea who the designer was.

If you'd like to take credit for this alpha, please do. And maybe next time you could put something into your kits identifying you to the rest of the universe at large?

The second challenge was "show us a fairy tag".

If you've followed me for any length of time you know I do fairy tags all the time, but this time around I did one with twist - going for the Urban Goth Fae look.



"Jass on the Street" is part of the awesome work of Joseph Corsentino from his Time of the Fairies collection. It is licensed through MyPSPTube.com. The scraps are taken from my Bike Night taggers kit which is available in both Stargazers Scraps and Sophisti-Scraps. The "I Hate Sarah Palin" alpha was created by Humbug Graphics Galore.

I'd really love to have some extra cash to blow over at MyPSPTube.com, but money is a little tight right now, especially after I've found out they changed the deductible on our health insurance from $1,250 to $2,500. I've already met the $1.25 K. At this point I'll get no benefit what so ever from our friggin' insurance. Or at least, the only benefit is because I have insurance, I can walk into a doctor's office and they'll see me. Even though I end up paying the fee by myself.

Stuff and bother.

Sports & Superstitions

Yesterday I posted my 666th blog entry which just happened to be about the 13th kit I'd added to the Stargazer's Catalog. I kept waiting for the sky to fall in, but nothing happened.

Instead, I got my welcome package to Sophisti-Scraps, so now I have to rezip everything with the Sophisiti-Scraps blinkie in it and upload it to the new store. I'm thinking of reworking the previews too, as the newer ones seem to get more interest than the older ones did.

Earlier in the day I started working on a new blog layout for Diamond - she still had the St. Patrick's Day one up - and I decided to use my "Lion Hunt" kit to do it. I have to say, it turned out adorable! Have a peak: Diamond's Lair.

I hadn't really thought of doing blog layouts with my kits, but maybe I'll do that. I know some people would rather buy them than try to make their own.

In the meantime, remember that you can grab the Lion Hunt kit as a freebie. Just CLICK HERE. But also remember that it's only free until the 14th. After that it become a PTU kit so grab it while the grabbing's good.

---

When I woke up yesterday I had this strange notion in my head about doing a Miami Dolphins themed kit for my fellow Dol-Fans. Never mind that we're no where near football season, I decided now was a good time to get started.

And I was probably right because I'm going to have a invent a lot of the kit. Well...I'm supposed to come up with CU products for Sophisti-Scraps and I have years of sports related photos to pull on in an effort to make overlays. The sizing may be the issue, but I'll work on that.

Beside who knows, I may well end up doing similar kits for all of the AFC. Guess it depends on how many requests I get. I CAN'T use the actual logos do to copyright laws, but I can create mock ups of the same and make it look fairly legitimate.

Funny...it's the middle of baseball season and I'm thinking about football.

(Not half as funny though as my mother, who following the Cav's blow out loss to the Orlando Magic said of LeBrone "He missed all those free-throw shots. I can make free-throw shots. If you want to be a professional basketball player, the least you can do is hit the free throws!" I could just see her out on the court, hanging on to her walker with one hand and dribbling with the other.)

Happy Thursday! The week's almost over and I get a weekend to sleep through, and sleeping pills to help me do it. LOL!

Summer Showers

One of the ladies I work with retired this week after 20 years of service. She didn't really want to retire, and Tom didn't really want to let her go, but her eyesight's been really bad, and her temperament, which has always been crusty at the best of times, has been deteriorating as well, to where some of the clients were complaining about her. And frankly, we need to cut payroll because the work just isn't there.

Last time we went out to lunch, we went to Hoolihan's and everyone was complaining and saying how much nicer The Joint was. (I really like Hoolihan's BTW.) So today we went to The Joint. The ambiance is nice, but it's a very glorified burger and pizza place. I mean...$9 for a cheeseburger with chips?

"Oh, they're Yuka Chips," Rowena says, "they probably imported the Yuka from Mexico." She was very, very pleased because she got to taste Yuka for the first time in her short life.

I just kind of looked at her said "Rowena, this is Florida. I'm sure the Yuka was grown just outside of Arcadia on Carlos' Yuka Farm. Okay."

Since I wasn't paying, I got the $15 salad.

The next time I have guests in that I want to impress, I'll take them down to the Cape Harbour Yacht Club to look at all the little shops and the lovely boats. But we're NOT eating at The Joint.

---

When Ali released her new "Summer Showers" kit - it's in full and taggers size - I initially wasn't going to get it. But I kept getting drawn in by the colors, so I finally broke down. I'm so glad I did, as it's a delightful kit.

It comes with 32 papers - most saved to 800 x 800 Pxls in taggers size - and 72 elements. She scripted the full sized down for taggers and she didn't go through and check each paper or elements so there are a few oddities, and the solid papers seemed to have escape the scripting. I don't know that was intentional or not.

However, none of that really distracts from the kit.

I am using the Penny Pony poser by Perfect Poser. Charly is still charging around $6 each for her poser packs, but now you get 7 or 8 poses a pack, which brings them down under a $1 each and is more realistic for poser artwork.

I adored both Penny and Peggy Pony, they are rather unique and not something I've seen the other poser artists doing. (If you hurry over to Aussie Scrap, you can grab Penny for 1/2 price. But the sale ends SUNDAY!)



I love these cute little birds she's got in the kit and the rather adorable ribbon flowers as well. This uses one of the beaded rain curtains - the full page one. That trellis is from a Baby Cakes Scrap element pack - it included in the kit however. I kind of get a kick out of figuring out where the elements came from in some of these kits.



The rain in this pieces is on the paper and this is one of the papers in the kit that has a problem. It's got a white edge on it. I pulled the paper over so you can't see it...it doesn't make it unusable, but it does look a tad bit shoddy when you see something like that in a kit.

The water splat is from an element pack from Creationz by Jo and I added it in. I was trying for a certain effect but couldn't quite achieve it. After some time browsing my alphas, I decided to go with the Beach Bum alpha from Digi-Designs by Nicole again. Acrylics make for a very versatile alpha.



Miss Diamond picked this paper out herself and even opened it for me. (Really, she did!) Then she lost interest in the project and took a cat nap. I expect however that one day we'll see little mini-kits created with her own little kitty paws. And they will probably all be Temptation themed!

This tag uses the second of the rain curtains, with is very narrow one. This reminds me of the rain in Florida, here it can rain on one side of the street, but not the other.

I should note that the weather was fine and breeze today, so it did make eating on the deck at The Joint -- overlooking all the yachts -- very pleasant. I can't imagine it's as much fun in the rain.



The blue jay is from Granny Art. I couldn't decide if it was Granny or Lady Anne - so I looked. Definitely Granny Art.

I mixed both of the rain curtains in for this tag, which I call dodging rain drops, something we always TRY to do in Florida.

I enjoyed this kit so much I'm thinking of using it for my blog layout for June. I know...I should use one of my products, or something from Sophisti-Scraps, but this is really a fun little kit. You can find it at Stargazer Scraps, among other fine online boutiques.

· Be sure to check out my Lullaby of Love tutorial, which is the post under this one. I just adore the way this turned out!

· Scrappy Lover is retiring to pursue a real life career. Between now and June 15th, all of her stuff, including her CU stuff is 70% off. She's in three stores, but the only one with her full catalog is The Digi-Boutique. This is a great way to catch a few bargains, and after the 15th well, it's gone and no one else can get it.

· Syncho-Scrap is back....but now it's at Twilight Scraps! This week's theme is "Just Another Lullaby". And there's a difference. The kits are only free for the weekend. After three days, they go into the store.

· Tristan is hosting Weekend Cat Blogging. Stop by and leave your Cat related link in his comment section to be included in the blog carnival, which will be published on Sunday.

Crocs ARE Dangerous

I keep hearing how Crocs are dangerous on this radio talk show or this or that blog. Wiki states that "Footwear such as Crocs and flip-flops came under scrutiny in 2006 when children suffered injuries after the shoes became caught in escalator mechanisms. This was due to the softness of the shoe's material combined with the relatively smaller size of children's feet."

There's been some concern as well that they don't have treads on them and tend to be slippery in wet weather, but they were designed to wear around boats, and if you've ever looked at boating shoes - NONE of them have treads on them.

I usually laugh as such reports, along with the belief that Mirapex will turn you into a sex mad, gambling addicted house painter. We allow our compulsions to ruin our lives and we blame our drugs. We trip and fall because we are clumsy or careless and we blame our shoes.

We are a society that likes to pin the blame elsewhere.

However, I want to state for the record that I have discovered that Crocs ARE dangerous. Especially when left lying in the walk way of your bedroom.

You see...I'd kicked off my Crocs on Thursday and one hit the bookshelf and bounced out from where it was supposed to go, and being the lazy thing that I am, I left it there.

Friday I wasn't feeling well, so I stayed home from work. Saturday morning, I got out of bed to go and use the bathroom and tripped over the unattended Croc. That fact that I stepped over it all day Friday is meaningless. Saturday it jumped up and viciously tripped me!

So fell, mainly on my right side. I've haven't taken a tumble for a while. My first thought was "Now how am I gonna get back up", but once I got all the pieces parts pointed in the right direction, it proved pretty easy. I didn't even pee on myself while doing it! LOL!

However, I have degenerative arthritis and let me tell you, I've been feeling that fall for the remainder of this weekend. So it took it very slow and easy all weekend, worked a bit on some scrapping and slept a lot and read part of Sookie #8 "From Dead to Worse". (And made beef stew, LOL!)

My right leg is still bothering me and wants to give out at odd times, so...I have gone into work, just taking it easy here to.

As I've mentioned before, I'm in three blog trains for June, so there are lots of freebies coming your way at the end of this week. One of the kits - The Big Kahuna - is going on the June Goodie train, and I have to say, this is one you DON'T want to miss out on.



This is just a lush kit with lots of colors, and some fabulous elements. I did up a set of tags for it, to give you an idea. The posers in all of these pieces are (c) by Untamed Angel and are NOT part of the kit, although I do include two of KairinaKat Kreations "Faun" posers, who make quite good surfer chicks as well.



Bonnie at The Maltese Scrapper kindly permitted me the use of her shells, and there are some lovely realistic flowers in the kit from a CU element by pack by Bunchie's bin. The papers are split between the Hawaiian print papers and the water papers, so you can do your tags on the beach or in the surf as the mood takes you.



Once again I've included flip flops for Ginger. LOL! I'm sure those are just as dangerous as Crocs if left in the middle of the bedroom as well.

I think you're really going to like this kit, from the parrots on down to the '30 Ford Wagon Woody.

Be sure to stop back on June 1st to pick up this great kit, and check out the rest of the contributions to the June Goodie Train. It's gonna be a good one!

NOTE: The Beach Bum alpha used in these tags is courtesy of Digi-Designs by Nicole and is not part of the Big Kahuna kit.