Spring Cleaning, Diecut Machines,Cute little critter, and Books in the Mail!

One thing that I have gotten into the habit of doing is cleaning my computer once a month. I started this after I lost a good amount of pictures when my last computer took a nose dive. I went out and got myself an external hard drive to store back up copies of important stuff, i.e. pictures, fonts, layouts. During the course of a month, I save pics, scan layouts and collect fonts (I am a true font-a-holic.) So, in order to keep my computer "clean" and to protect my valuable data, I do this cleaning. I organize the folders on my computer, delete unwanted stuff and then copy the valuable info to the the external hard drive. I highly recommend something like this to everyone. Whether you back up on DVDs, another drive, a network, or even the web...do something so you don't end up losing everything OR having to pay a huge amount of $$ to have data/files retrieved. So that's my public service announcement for the day!

On a scrappy note, I came across this layout that I had done a little while back for the BHG Scrapbooks, Etc. Make It Yours call. I created 3 layouts for the call, and this is the one that they did not pick up:

My favorite thing about this page is the part of my title that I hand-cut (remember). I keep telling myself that I am going to invest in one of those Electronic Die cut machines that allow you to cut out any font from your computer, but I just never follow through. I really question if it is an investment that I need to make. I do not know much about which machine does what, but I do know that they are not cheap. So, I keep putting it off and cutting with the handy dandy exacto knife. So, if anyone has any recommendations on Electronic Die cut machines, please feel free to let me know...I could use all of the help I could get!

Another recent fun find was this little critter in my house:

I'd like to think that she is a sign of spring, but I kind of know otherwise. It seems that many of these little ladies happen to find refuge from the winter cold in my house. I never kill them, of course, but they can sometimes be a bit annoying. I find myself catching and moving the annoying ones (those flying around the light in my scraproom, for example) to more secluded places in my home. Nonetheless, I think that I am going to take this one as a sign of better weather to come!

And last, but by no means least, I received my shipping notice today from Amazon that my copies of the PageMaps book are on their way to me. You might ask why I am waiting for copies since I just received my contributors copy from Ms. Fleck. Well, I have to be honest and tell you that I have barely allowed anyone to look through that copy of the book. I know, I am crazy! But, I do NOT want a whole bunch of hand touching and turning the pages in it. You see, Becky signed that copy for me. It is my original. The one I will keep forever, and I will NOT take the chance that something might happen to it. So, friends and family have been waiting on pins and needles for their chance to "dig in!" They will arrive next week...then I can show it off to EVERYONE!

That's it from good ol' PA! Peace Out!