Goodbye 2 for 1 Tuesdays

Two for One Tuesdays never really got off the ground after I began the feature in the beginning of September. With everything that's happened over the past month, it was just too big of a comittment for me to take on. Especially now that I have my BSF leadership meetings on Tuesday mornings! So, unfortunately, I am saying goodbye permanently to the feature. For now, I will have only two during the week, Makeover Mondays and Scrap Stash Saturdays, ok? You live, you learn.....

On a side note, where the heck is everyone? Traffic to my blog has been down this week! Why? I'm startin' to get a complex...is my blog not meeting your needs anymore? (there's so much scuttlebutt on SCS about what makes a good blog/bad blog lately that it's givin' us ALL a complex!) Is my writing a little boring these days? (it's difficult to be witty all the time...), or, have my projects been really ugly (yesterday's football tin was a bust in a big way!)? Whatever it is, I want my peeps BACK! I miss you guys when you're quiet! I'm guessing everyone is just really, really busy these days. I am too, so I get that. Just don't stay quiet for too long, k?

Now onto today's card. It's getting to be that time of year, isn't it? It's time to start thinking about Christmas cards. Want to know a secret? I don't make my own Christmas cards! I went that route a few years ago and it was way too much work! I love sending a Christmas card filled with photos of our year, but that's just not possible when you make your own cards. Not to mention that because I'm a procrastintor, I usually leave myself very little time to get 50 plus cards made up in time to send before Christmas! Nope, I finally took the pressure off myself and now leave the hard work to Winkflash.com! Just because I make cards for a "living" doesn't mean I need to torture myself every Christmas. I want to enjoy the holidays, not add unneccessary stress to my life!

With that said, I DO like to make a few Christmas cards to sell or to send to very, very special friends. I'm not a complete Scrooge! I made today's card for the {Caardvarks} chipboard challenge a month or so ago. I thought I'd share it with you today to motivate you to start thinking about your own cards (I think I'm probably already behind the 8 ball on this one, most of you are already featuring Christmas cards on your blogs!).

I love the non-traditional colors of my card, pink and green together is one of my favorite color combinations of all time! The designer paper is from Scenic Route, as is the matching chipboard frame. The pink polka dot paper is from My Minds Eye, their Tres Jolie line.

The little mouse is Max The Mouse from Stampendous. Isn't he utterly adorable? I stamped him using brown Stazon, and then colored him using my Prisma colored pencils. The sentiment is from Hero Arts and is new this season!

Well, I've got to get moving now. This morning is my leadership meeting. Then I'm having a quick bagel lunch with my neighbor. We've barely seen each other the past few weeks. She lost her father this summer, so she's in the same boat we are as far as grieving goes. It will be fun to connect for awhile.

The reality of unemployment hit hard yesterday. We are having to make some serious decisions these days about what stays and what goes as far as necessities. We got our first severance check this week and we're netting LESS than we did when hubby had his job because of pre-tax deductions. Combine that fact with the fact that we have $900 MORE in bills due to COBRA benefits, and you can smell disaster from a mile away. We are seriously considering selling my husband's car to get rid of the $400 monthly payment and using his mom's car instead, which we inherited after her passing. Don't get excited. It's not a great car. It got totalled in 98 from a hail storm, so it has dings all over it. But it's free and "free" does wonders for the family budget! We questioned whether or not we shouldeven go to Bemidji this weekend for a few days, but in the end decided we really, really need a getaway after the events of the past month. It will do our minds good to go back to place that will fill us with wonderful memories of our beginning. You can't put a dollar tag on that. It's invaluable, and we need it. End of story.

Have a wonderful day!

Hugs,
Amy