Spring Break is going to be in SCOTLAND!!! SQUEEEE!!!

I cannot believe it!!! Hubby and I were JUST talking about how I was not PLANNING ANYTHING for our Spring Break "off". No weekend trips to Vegas or anywhere....then hubby's brother and sis-in-law have to SPOIL IT *snort* by offering boarding in the UK since they were going ANYWAY...would we want to come along, too?  What?!?!? I almost spontaneously combusted I tell you!!!  You have never seen a quicker 180 done EVAH.  Within SECONDS I was begging Hubby to pleaseohpleaseohplease can we GO TO SCOTLAND!!! SQUEEEE!!! We'll get to see Keith Castle in Scotland!  Which is called Dunnottar Castle and was one of the pit stops on The Amazing Race season 3 (the best show EVAH!!)

Gorgeous!!

The man loves to save money.  It's a hobby for him.  He had to change gears from "we're saving soooo much money NOT going anywhere" to us flying across an ocean in a very big plane and transportation and food and and and.....
God Bless him....he's so wonderful.  BECAUSE WE'RE GOING!!! And he's told me he's happy to see me so excited.  That is just so stinkin' sweet.  I love that man...*sigh*

I'm stamping Valentine's tomorrow--I'll post some pictures of that fun stuff...I promise!

Most awesomest blog header EVAH!!!!

Thank you thank you thank you to my awesome friend @understandblue for doing such an AMAZING JOB!!!
Best header EVAH!!!

Lydia also designed my header on my "old" blog http://www.fanstampulous.blogspot.com/ and now that you've seen both you know I LOVE LOVE LOVE Hibiscus flowers! BWAHAHA!

Hubby and I tried designing an avatar for my gaming persona years ago and just couldn't decide on anything great...without it being too cheesy.
When I told Lydia I was going to simplify my "branding" and stick with Darth Sunshine even in my stamping/blogging world she said "I've already got an idea!" which I didn't think about until today.  I messaged her and asked if she was going to have time to think about it and she replied with "Didn't you check your email? We must be on the same wavelength" and sure enough...waiting for me in my inbox was this GEM of a design.  I giggle every time I see it.
I love it...and if you know me you know it fits me perfectly!! :D

You did good Lydia.  I owe you a steak! :D

Confused yet?

So if you came from my OTHER blog www.fanstampulous.blogspot.com you know I'm trying to streamline my "branding". Most artists I know use their name as their brand--well I started a few years ago with Darth Sunshine--the nickname my brother gave me that has ultimately stuck because I'm such the Star Wars fan and I LAUGH AT EVERYTHING. (I'll explain the history in a moment).  Anyway--in looking at the big picture of "branding" myself--Darth Sunshine fits me better than Fanstampulous. Fanastampblahblah is a great "name"--but labels me only as a stamper, methinks.  My artistic realm extends beyond the stamping borders--so I didn't like the idea of being put in a box. Actually...I put myself in that box. HAHA!

SO--I already "owned" the darthsunshine.blogspot.com and decided I was going to use it.  Now my Twitter ( @darthsunshine ) and gaming nickname and basically every username I have everywhere is darthsunshine. That's who I am. (Well...that and "Wonder Woman" if I'm on a wait list at a restaurant! Bwahaha)
So how did I get this name? My brother has the BEST sense of humor EVAH.  He makes me laugh continuously--I'm not kidding. Here is me and my brother, Skip, at our favorite roller coaster ride EVAH--Space Mountain at Disneyland in California!

(Yes, that is me and hubby in the front making our "signature" roller coaster ride face. Skip is right behind me MOCKING US! BWHAHAHAHAHA!!! I laugh SO HARD when I see the picture!)

We are both Star Wars fans. HUGE fans. Not kidding you there. A few years ago he was telling me that anyone that ticked him off he was calling them Sith Lords (for those of you in the dark...a Sith Lord is Darth Vader, or Darth Maul, Darth Sidious, Darth Grievous, etc.) Later that day I was teasing him about something (neither of us remember) and he looked at me and said "That's it...you're a Sith Lord!" and I retorted with "WhatEVAH, I'm the Epitome of Love and Kindness!!!" and his reponse was "That makes you Darth SUNSHINE!".  OMG I laughed SO HARD...we were both gasping for air at the time.  So stinking funny.  The best nickname EVAH.

So...now that the history is blogged....I'm working on transferring all my links from my old blog to this one. Most of my links are up. I'm going to persuade my BWAHAHA-sista Lydia to maybe do a new Blog Header for me...with cash of course :D

I've got some stamping classes coming up--I'll be posting again soon!
Thanks for sticking around!

SQUEEEEE!!! New Products!!!! And Leadership Conference!!! SQUEEE!

The Occasions Mini Catalog lauches tomorrow January 5th!

AND SALE-A-BRATION!!! If you're new to the Stampin' Up world--Sale-A-Bration (SAB) is an annual mini-catalog where with every $50 you spend in product you choose one free item from the SAB catalog! SO FUN! This year SAB has not just stamps, but paper and even PUNCHES!

Just scroll through the catalogs....giddiness abounds! I looove new toys to get my fingers inky with! The new clear block stamps are AWESOME...and storage in the DVD cases is just brilliant! LOVE IT!

Wednesday I fly out to Phoenix, AZ for Stampin' Up's Leadership Conference! Soooo excited! We'll have classes and info on new products and possibly sneak-peeks into what's coming up later this year...SO EXCITED!!! And even more exciting than that is girlfriend time! I'll get to meet up again with my friend Lydia--who only lives in not-so-far-away-Austin--but who I get to communicate with often via Twitter.

I also get to finally meet one of my Twitter friends in real life (IRL)-- @Moeneeke--Monique, from California!

I finally finished my New Year's Cards.  I'm mailing them out tomorrow to the rest of my friends and Twitter Friends (or...Tweeple hehe). Wow...

OH MY GOSH. I just realized I posted TWO BLOG POSTS IN TWO DAYS!!!!

Let me go take my temperature.

Peruse the catalogs--and if there's anything you want, need or just MUST HAVE please go to my website and SHOP AWAY!!! :D You can order online through my website and have your order shipped directly to your house! Fantastic!

http://www.danakeith.stampinup.net/ 

(and click on the "SHOP NOW" button in the top right corner)

I'll post an update or two while in Phoenix (shocker, I know!!!)

Have a great week!

Dana

Family photo and TWENTYTEN!!!

First of all--I promise to start my Christmas cards BEFORE THANKSGIVING next year.  Wait. THIS year! It's twentyten!  So I had to stamp HAPPY NEW YEAR inside my cards this year. Oy! I'll be posting the pic of the card this week...don't want to spoil it for my friends who haven't received theirs yet! HAHA.

We've started this tradition to include a family photo...and a letter...with our Christmas Cards.  This year I scrapped the letter--it's so hard to compile the lives of 5 people onto one page.  More than one page in a Christmas Card is a little much.  Really.  Who wants to read a novel with a card? Ahhh I digress...but here was our photo.  We decided to do something different and this version won because my hubby liked the expression on my face with Chibi licking my chin.  So cute!

That's me, with Chibi our adorable Bichon Frise, my hubby Dean, Delaney (11 yrs), Kayci (10 yrs) and Madison (15 yrs). We had a lot of fun trying to take this photo (my father in law is holding the camera).

So I don't really like to do resolutions every New Year, because I basically set myself up for failure. Seriously.  I've NEVER EVAH kept my resolutions. However, this year I'll be 40 and I promised myself years ago that I would be in the best shape of my life EVAH by 40...so I'm getting serious about that.  Now. Plus my favorite Triathlon is in June and I plan to be so ready for it!!

As for my stamping goals for 2010, I plan to:

Blog at least once a week.  I can do that.  I enjoy blogging and will most likely have new stampin' stuff to post each week...so I plan to share more!

Participate in more challenges--I love them.  I really loved KWernerDesign's challenge, so I hope she picks it back up. But I've also discovered many more that I want to participate in!

Both of the above mean I will set aside time to stamp at least once a week.  Life gets away from me usually and I have this fabulous crafty space to work in...I want to utilize it more.  So I will!

I've also decided I'm going back to my Franklin Covey planner.  My iphone calender is great for setting alarms for stuff--but I'm a tactile/hands-on person and need a central location to write my TO-DO and plans.

Wow. All this and I don't have a card to post!  Stay tuned! I'll be back!

Happy New Year!

Wanna see what I was yelling about....??!?

Stampin' Up clear mount stamps!!

Seriously, this is what I was yelling about a couple of weeks ago--and in 2 more weeks you can order them for yourself! I love love love the design!!! The clear blocks have a groove around the edge like our wood blocks do.  See the DVD cases that hold the stamps sets? There are images of the stamps on the binding and the front--soooo easy to see what you're looking for now! AWESOME!!

Now that I have my dream job (secular--the REAL DREAM JOB would involve me stamping all day!!) and have two weeks of vacation (school nurse is my full time gig, remember?) I'll have more time to play and post some pics of super cute stuff.  Right now I'm sweatin' it trying to get my Christmas cards finished.  Yeah, once again they'll be more like New Year's cards. Why do I always procrastinate.  I need to work on that...but I've been saying that for years now.  I should just embrace it!! HA! I'm not posting my Christmas card until after I've mailed them--would like it to be a little bit of a surprise for my friends. :)

Merry Christmas soon!!! :D

BIG NEWS! and other stuff

The new Occasions Mini Catalog is going out the mail today and you will LOVE what you see! (At least I LOVE IT).  In addition to the Wood Block stamps, Stampin' Up is now going to offer CLEAR BLOCK MOUNT STAMP SETS!!! Now, before you freak out about how much you *might* hate clear block stamps....Stampin' Up is going to use the SAME rubber!!! I love it.  My biggest issue with most "clear" stamps is the plastic, or acrylic, or whatever most other stamp companies call "rubber" does not hold ink like Stampin' Up's rubber.  I won't go into more detail (and I can't post pictures...yet)...because you'll get to see the pictures SOON in your Mini Catalog when it arrives in the mail.
The Occasions Mini Catalog sales period is January 5-April 30, 2010

OOOOOOooooo and SALE-A-BRATION is starting the same time!!! From January 5th through March 31st--with every $50 you spend in Stampin' Up you get to choose a FREE item from the Sale-A-Bration catalog! This year they've included a NEW STREAMLINED PUNCH! There is also a pack of Decorative Paper to choose from. WOW!!! You can also reap the benefits if you HOST a workshop that totals in $300 or more.

If you decide you'd like to benefit from the discount as a demonstrator and you sign up during Sale-A-Bration you get to choose a new stamp set from the Idea Book & Catalog (the BIG ONE) valued at up to $47.95.  FOR FREE!!! The most expensive stamp set we have is $47.95 so you get to choose ANY stamp set from the entire catalog for FREE on top of all the goodies you get in your starter kit at a huge discount! AAAAAMAZING!!!

Did you know Stampin' Up has maintained a DORMANT LIST OF STAMP SETS? I forgot they did! BWAHAHAHA!
Anyway, this is a list of stamp sets from earlier catalogs that are still available to order until January 4, 2010

 113407 Back Woods
114492 Beautiful Baby
114486 Birthday Wish
113200 Branch Out
114496 Celebrations
113732 Central Park
113206 Classic Sketches
113226 Classy & Fabulous
114498 Flowers in Silhouette
113405 Font of You
113216 For the Bride
114494 Forever
109425 Friend by Definition
114488 Fun Flowers
113716 Garden Greetings
114490 Glad Friends
111580 Grand Soiree
113242 Hit the Road
113710 Lexicon of Leaves
113236 Man's Best Friend
114423 Ocean Commotion
113728 Playful Petals
109276 Polka Dot
111544 Putt Putt
113240 Quilt Quips
113754 Really Retro
113403 Sip by Sip
113726 Sweet Stems
113250 That's Funny
113688 Wonderful Watercolors
114028 Para la novia
114032 Acuarelas Maravillosas

If you decide you gotta have one of those dormant stamp sets, please let me know before January 4th so I can order it for you.

I'm pretty much taking December "off" regarding classes.  I thought I would try to schedule something before the break but I'm soooo behind on my own Christmas Cards, I really need to get crackin'!!!

HAPPY DECEMBER!!