Okay, for those of you who are even remotely interested in doing the scrapping stuff, here’s a lovely little discount from Michelle - use this code - it’s Ren-specific!

Seriously, buy stuff. Even if you’re not sure. Do it. Come on, everyone else is!

/wheedle

And just to make it even more worth your while, grab this freebie kit too and have a play:

Why is it that when I explain to my dentist that a recently fixed tooth still really hurts, he has to not only press and poke at it with a finger, but tap it - hard - with a very cold metal rod?

Seriously, I tell him that there’s billions of stars in the sky and he’d believe me but give him a sore tooth and he’ll tap it just to make sure.

I very nearly hit him.

I very nearly hit him a second time when he said “Oh, we’ll fix that right up,” and proceeded to stick me with one of those massive anaesthetic needles without first coating my gum with that stuff that makes the surface a bit numb to stop said massive needle from hurting so much. By the way, why are the ones dentists use always so big? They look like one of those contraptions you stick a Selley’s can in. HUGE! Anyway, not only does he not warn me he’s about to pierce my gum with a massive metal syringe but then he proceeds to rub at the spot he’s just pierced. Like I’m a puppy getting a vaccination or something. Yes, let’s just rub the sore spot, that’ll make it feel much better! NOT! Dude, the anaesthetic doesn’t work immediately! I can feel what you’re doing.

Is it any real wonder I have a pathalogical fear of anyone poking around in my mouth? After seven years of braces, two mouth operations and four extractions all before I turned 18, my dentist is extremely lucky I’m not a raving lunatic like my sister is whenever she has to go to the dentist.

Actually, my sister is perfect payback for all the pain and suffering my dentist has caused me. She’s a monster to deal with in a dentist chair. I could tell you stories…

Anyway, I had planned on getting straight to work after my appointment, however I got sick. Literally. In the middle of the city. On Collins Street. RIGHT OUTSIDE KOKO BLACK. Embarrassment plus. Of course, no one offers to help the poor tottering fat woman who’s hurling up breakfast from as far back as last Wednesday. So I called the manbeast and asked him to call work for me because my phone was just about dead and I didn’t have enough change on me to make all the phone calls myself. That done, I dragged my sorry self back to the train and back home again - where I proceeded to throw up as soon as I got off the train at the other end of the journey. More embarrassment but at least it wasn’t the Paris end of the city again.

Either I was having a bad reaction to something or the stress from the dentist visit caught up with me. No, I am not kidding, I fear dentists that much. It’s all in the build-up though. Once I’m in the chair I take a fatalistic approach (ie, “It’ll hurt, but I’ll live and in an hour I can go get a milkshake to make up for it”). Once I’m out of there, the sudden lack of stress either makes me get really sick, or really happy. This time it chose the former.

I still don’t know why there are always carrots in there. I don’t eat carrots on a regular basis, yet… the carrots always appear.

Anyhoo, time off gave me a chance to work with some more of Michelle’s awesome digi-scrapping kits. I seriously love being on her creative team.

I thought of a really good thing to write about earlier today but alas, the dreariness of work has killed it. Spent this weekend pretty much doing nothing.

Nothing except buying a brand spankin’ new COMPOOTAH! This is seriously quick shit. Professional grade monitah for my artz and super-fast-super-quiet box. Also got me oodlers of space in the form of a couple of internal and external harddrives - like over a terrabyte of space. Good stuff.

And nyah, nyah, Tony, I’m going to be running dual monitors too!

Photo of the new set-up when the manbeast finishes building the PC. Ah, the joys of living with a techie - as opposed to a Trekkie, which is no fun at all but I got both rolled into one along with a generous helping of D&D and WoW fanatic…

I digress.

I’m still waiting (now a little bit desperately) for my gemmies. And things regarding the wedding have hit a bump in the road. Well, not a large bump. More like discomfort stripes in the form of shoes, bridesmaid dresses and invitations…

Anyway, new page for the scrapbook:

(Template by Designs by Sine, and “Softly” digi-kit by Mellowbutterfly.com.)

Oh, I recently added a Spamfree to the blog and I can see that it’s getting a shitload of hits.  Please email me (ren @ getifa, yadda, yadda) if you’re having trouble posting past the spam filter.

My nephew is good therapy.

Background matt, cardboard frame & foliage: For the Boys kit by Michelle Batton @ Mellowbutterfly.com
Butterfly & pink flower: Blue Violet kit by Michelle Batton @ Mellowbutterfly.com
Yellow flowers & wheat grass: Ultimate Art Collection 2 by Christina Renee Designs
Alpha: Grab bag from Melissa Bennett Designs @ Sweet Shoppe Designs
Journal tag: Mina Keenan @ DigiScrapStation.com

Not as bad as one thinks.

Thought it was about time I did something with some of the holiday snaps I’ve taken since my write-ups of BOTH trips never really came to fruition. I like that my multi-photo panorama worked. Wel, sort of worked anyway.

Gah, so many typos in the Stirling one.  Please ignore them.

Pay no attention to that title behind the green curtain.

EDITED SUMMARY: I’m not well.

*sigh*

Anyway, my world is a little bit brighter after today for we ventured into Pahran Market this morning, only to be bitterly disappointed when we realised that it was only selected traders open on Sundays and Monsieur Truffe IS NOT ONE OF THOSE SELECTED TRADERS.

BASTARD!!!

(Continue reading to get your freebie scrapbook page.)

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I was talking with Allison yesterday about her bringing down her Wii and guitar for Guitar Hero at the end of the year. Well, Allison, ol’ chum, there’s no longer a need.

Guess who bought Guitar Hero for PC this morning?

And guess who else has been forced to listen to it for the past nine hours?

Here I was thinking I was safe. We’re a very anti-console family. I hate XBOX , PlayStation and the rest, so does the manbeast but we are followers of the PC … but no, the makers of GH went and totally spoilt my day!

It’s not so bad when he’s got the headphones on but that infernal click-click… click-click…click-click of the guitar is driving me somewhat batty.

Though in related news - and people not interested in World of Warcraft stuff, skip this paragraph - after two very long years, I finally hit the big 70 with Denalli! Not only that, but I got my flying mount the same day. Beautiful ebony griffin. Beautiful-but-slow-as-shit ebony griffin. Hehe. I was crushed yesterday as I’d worked really hard all week to get to 70 so I wouldn’t be behind the guys for the next WoW Day but I got hit with probably the worst migrane I’ve had for a long time and ended up knocking myself out with a large dose of mersyndol just to escape the pain. So the manbeast took my Denalli through Kara and got me some lovely purple stuff…

And in other news, the lovely Michelle released a new scrapping kit (I gave her the idea, go me!) and I’ve been playing with it all weekend and made these two pages:

It did. I gigglesnorted. It’s just so appropriate. But then I felt naughty. Stupid Catholic guilt.

I am a sad, disillusioned-by-religion geekette.

But I still gigglesnorted.

But OH OH OH! I made my first real CT team! I am now creating layouts and quickpages for Cathie Sipes of Scrap Acres at DigiScrapStation.com. Happyhappyjoy! Alright, so it’s my second CT job, I also work with Michelle at Mellowbutterfly.com but she let me on the team because she’s a friend.

Anyhoo, what is a quickpage? Well, basically most of the hard work is done for you. You just whack in the photos and chuck on some text if desired.

Like so…

The face that made us fall in love a thousand times.

Just thought I’d share a new page I’d finished this week. An old photo of Freddles (you can tell he is my inspiration for the whole scrapbooking thing).  Nanny-Mum love’s this picture.  So do I. it reminds us both of the Cabbage Patch dolls.

I don’t take nearly as much pictures of Fred as I’d like, but he’s suddenly gone all anti-camera in his old age of nearly a whapping three years which makes it rather hard to get a good picture.  He puts things in front of his face and says “No! Stoppit!” very sternly… and then says something else which is in Swahili but I’m sure it’s something not very pleasant about his adoring aunty.