QUOTE OF THE DAY ON MY HOMEPAGE THIS MORNING:
One day in retrospect the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful. - Sigmund Freud

I don't typically put much stock in self fulfilling prophecies, but every time I see this quote it seems to follow that everything in my day will be a challenge. Saw the quote when I logged on first thing this morning and guess what? Crappy day.
So I'd like to send a little note to dear old Dr. Freud to give him a little dose of MY reality. Something like-
Dear Dr. Freud,
Can I opt for a little less struggle now and settle for a little less beauty later??? I'd really appreciate it.
Lori

Nope – not trying for a second career as a hand model. I’ve had this stabbing, burning pain in my thumb and wrist for the past month and it’s not getting better. So this morning I got xrays and saw an orthopedic hand specialist.
Good news: no osteoarthritis.
Bad news: I’m supposed to rest my hand in the evenings.
Rest my hand in the evenings??!?!?!
I work during the day, but I LIVE for the evenings when I can scrap and make cards for three or four hours. I could no more “rest my hand in the evenings” than I could sell my scraproom. After some back and forth, we compromised on an alternative plan: I wear a splint 24 hours a day and he’ll give it a month to improve.
So I’m wearing my lovely black splint even as I type. Looks like I’m ready for that spur-of-the-moment bowling match, but what the hey. I’m just glad it’s winter so I can wear long sleeves.
Me and my splint are going to toss all caution to the wind and scrap our hearts out tonight. I only have one concern. After an entire evening of me making cards and leaving Dear Husband in another room, what do you think he’s going to say when I show up wearing my lovely TeePee Night Splint???!!!?!

Oooh! Sunshine today - and lots of it with just enough new snow to make everything look fresh and beautiful. It's amazing how a soft snowfall can highlight even the most commonplace things, like this tiny little nest a bird made in our hedge. But I'm really tiring of winter - are you listening, Mother Nature???
Just popped over here from Scrappy Jo's website -the forum's back up! It's a warm friendly place to visit if you're out wondering around on the internet.
Everyone needs a place that feels like home.

It's been a week of extremes, just like the weather. Some nice sun, and a few dark clouds!
The dark clouds were clouds of frustration. My first home on the internet scrapping world was Scrappy Jo's. It's where I posted my first LO when I finally got brave enough. Unfortunately, the forum's had a bug so I haven't been able to log on all week. I'm going through separation anxiety - I miss my SJ friends! But the SJ store is having a sale so at least I can order my goodies and thank heavens I've found most of my SJ friends on Facebook.
But this week also had two big rays of SUNSHINE. The first is that Scrappy Jo's forum will be back up and running soon - I can't wait! You really should check it out.
The other ray of sunshine was really more of a blinding sunspot of goodness: I made the Card Design Team at My Sketch World! I've followed Lucy Chesna's blog for a long time and I love her sketches, never mind all the inspiration I've gotten from her DT's creations. When I read that she had over 100 submissions for this call, I never bothered to check back right away because it neverinamillionyears occurred to me that I'd make the cut. Never ever. I'm still pinching myself!
I've gotten to meet some really talented and really wonderful designers on Lucy's new forum, so I'm excited to get started. But whoooeee - after seeing how accomplished this DT is, I do have my work cut out for me!
All this good news inspired me to -what else? - make a card. Hope you like it.
And I hope next week brings you lots more sunshine than clouds!

Hello World!

My first post! I'm excited about this blog - I've wanted a place to share all things scrappy for quite some time now. This is actually my second blog. "Just the Good Stuff" was my original blog, but every time people tried to find it they ended up at "Just the Good Stuff Please" which one day posted xray photos of bodies. . . well. . . enjoying other bodies. I know this because my mother found it. And now I know what it's like to feel like a teenaged boy.
So I tried Scrapissimo. Taken.
A Load of Scrap. Taken by someone named Connie who hasn't posted to it at all.
Scrapola. Taken by some blogger who's last entry was on June 4, 2006. Come on - doesn't anyone at Blogger check these things?
So "Scrapinator" it is. I like the Terminator movies, but I'm not a rabid, obsessed fan of them. However, the word "Scrapinator" does make me giggle and it seems to work for scrapbooking.
Think about it.
The Terminator was single minded, but not heartless - I challenge you to find a single headline reading "Scrapper's Family Starves to Death" because which one of us hasn't selflessly stopped scrapping at a critical juncture to open a can of soup for the whining masses?? And answer me this: doesn't anyone else in the house know how to dial for take out?!!?
The Terminator was created for one reason - a feeling realized by scrappers the world over at that sublime moment when a table full of paper, embellies, glue and die cuts suddenly comes together at the end of a 10 hour crop to be. . . . . . . The Best Layout in the History of the World.
The Terminator set out to determine the future by changing the past - we all have LOs with at least one creatively cropped photo where the ex or the class bully or annoying Uncle Sid magically disappeared, never to be seen by future generations.
The Terminator was relentless - substitute Basic Grey for John Connor and you have every wild-eyed scrapper who ever needed a paper fix.
The Terminator is scary - no, wait. That's just me after an entire Saturday spent scrapping in curlers and bathrobe, eating peanut butter out of the jar and scaring the dogs. But dammit, I finally got that layout of Uncle Ken's birthday finished.

No pain. No fear. Relentless. Unstoppable.
Ah, yes. . . . . it's The Scrapinator.

I'll be back.