GingerScraps

We are starting a new feature here at Gingerscraps. On Tuesdays we are going to profile a Gingerscraps CT member or forum member. This week we are meeting Jen Graham, one of our Gingerscraps creative team members.

What’s your name and digiscrap blog address? Jennifer, but most people call me Jen unless they don’t know any better. My blog is GrahamLikeTheCracker

Tell us a little about your family. I’m a happily married SAHM. My husband and I celebrated our 3^rd wedding anniversary last October. We have a 20 month old son named Alton. We live in Southern California, and are lucky enough to live close to most of our extended family.

Do you work outside the home & if so what do you do? No, I have been blessed to be able to stay home since we got married.

What other hobbies do you have besides scrapping? I love to read and bake. It has been hard to find anything good to read since I finished reading the Twilight series. I have now read that 5 times! I tried to go back and read the Harry Potter books again, but they just aren’t the same. I also make fabulous brownies and my husband swears he married me for my chocolate chip cookies!

When did you start Digi-scrapping and who taught you? I started in August of 2008. My Scrapland BFF is Charmaine and she taught me how to digi-scrap. She makes STUNNING LOs. To this day if I don’t know how to do something I ask her and she is the first person I show my stuff to.

Are you on any creative teams? I am very lucky to be on CTs for Ginger of Gingerscraps, Amber of Stolen Moments, and Chanin of Snowflake Beach Designs. I just applied for a fourth so I can do another CT gig with Charmaine. I think I might need an intervention soon! I still can’t believe my luck that so many designers like what I do. I was FLOORED when I got the acceptance letter from Amber. I was stunned when I got one from Ginger. With Chanin I was little more sure that I am getting better at this, but it was still nice to get the affirmation, “Hey we like your stuff, come play with us!” you know?

Do you design at all? I am doing the BrownieScraps 6 week design training. My first and second kits are up on my blog. I LOVE my second kit. I am sure 6 months from now I will be embarrassed by it, but for right now it is like my baby.

What is your favorite challenge here at GingerScraps? I love speed scraps when I can get on to do them. My scrapping time is limited to after Alton goes to bed though, and being on the west coast makes it hard to do as many as I like. Where else are you going to get an awesome LO done in an hour? I am a horrible perfectionist and take FAR too long to do a LO if I don’t have a some sort of time restriction.

Who are your favorite three designers? Ginger of Gingerscraps (Beach Glass was one of the first kits I ever downloaded), Amber of Stolen Moments and Kami of Ziggle Designs.

What are some of your must have elements? Stars, frames, and beads on string or wire. I need more beads on a wire!!! If a kit doesn’t come with a frame, I make my own.

Whose gallery here at Gingerscraps do you just love? I adore Harmonystar’s gallery. She makes the most stunning layouts! If I started a “to be scraplifted file”, she would be in it!

What’s your favorite kit in the store right now? I LOVE the New Year kit and the Chocolate Kisses kit. They both have such beautiful color palettes. Plus the New Year kit has those gorgeous swirls with the stars on it, so I LOVE LOVE LOVE those.

Out of all your lo’s so far, what are your favorite 2 & why? My favorite two are my Beautiful Life layout (kit by Stolen Moments) and my New Year layout (kit here in the Gingerscraps store). I ADORE the colors in the Beautiful Life layout, and my son just looks soooo adorable in those pictures. In the New Year layout I love that I was actually able to layer and cluster in a pleasing way. I wish I knew how to cluster better and I think I did an okay job on this LO. (BTW, I have a freebie QP on my blog for both of these layouts.)

If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? Most people would probably say lose weight, and while I would love to do that, I would much rather change my singing voice. I can’t carry a tune in a bucket and I for one am grateful that my son doesn’t know the difference. He thinks mommy rocks the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

What is the one word that best describes you? Creative. Is it wrong to say that? I am very thankful that I have been blessed with creativity.

Who is the most important person in your life? God. I can’t do anything without Him.

What is something that not many people know about you? I used to run track in high school. I was decent and I really enjoyed it. I would run bleachers for fun. Oh to have that kind of energy and stamina these days, not to mention that tushie!

If you could travel anywhere where would you go? Ireland. All of Western Europe really, but if I had to choose, it would be Ireland for sure.

When you were little what did you dream of being when you grew up? I always thought I would be a mommy or a teacher. Now that I am a mommy, I want to be on the Food Network when I grow up.

What is your favorite food? Mexican food, hands down.

How did you pick you user name? Okay my husband and I dated for almost 7 years before we got married. His Aunt Laurel and I became really good friends. I used to tease her because telemarketers always horribly butchered her name, “Can I speak to Lore-Ell Gray-ham please?” It never occurred to me that they would do the same thing to me once I was a Graham. “Thank you Mrs. Grah-haam.” Are you kidding me? So I usually gently correct with, “Graham, like the cracker.” When I was thinking of something to call my blog, I wanted something creative but memorable. So GrahamLiketheCracker was born!

What do you like doing with your family? Hiking in the local mountains and traveling. I LOVE to travel. (The best place to take pictures for digi-scrapping of course!) Alton and I go to Disneyland once a week for the exercise (I swear!) because we have Disneyland annual passports.

Where is your favorite place to be? With my husband and son. They are the lights of my life.

What are three things that are important to you? My relationship with God. My relationship with my husband, and my child. Alton is the best thing that happened to me since Travis.

Is there anything you would change about your life? I love my family, but I wish my husband could be in a different line of work. It’s a tough time for real estate agents right now.

What are you afraid of? Snakes. I get the heebie jeebies just talking about them.

Do you collect anything? I am a hoarder. A huge hoarder. When I paper scrapped, I would buy papers fully knowing that I wouldn’t scrap with them because they were too nice. Now I hoard freebie kits that I probably won’t use because they are so pretty I don’t want to disservice them with a lame layout!

Wouldn’t it be fun to be interviewed for this feature? Sign up in the Gingerscraps forum! Don’t forget to link a couple of your best layouts to be featured! And, stop by Jen’s blog… she has a lot freebies!

I just wanted to write a quick update on my brother.

He is now home and staying with my parents.

He is slowly improving and should make a full recovery.

Thank you all for your kind words and prayers!!

This is not scrap related but My little brother Willie (he is 28) …. my sister started a face book for him. I thought it would just be easier to copy and past … so i don’t have to type it all.

On Sunday night Willie had a seizure and fell in his apt in Kauai, he was found by the housekeeper, in very bad shape with a cracked skull and bleeding. He was rushed to the hospital were they didn’t think he was going to make it through the night.
Due to the severe injury he was flown to the Trauma Hospital in Honolulu. His skull was stapled shut and he was in ICU. His brain is swollen and beading. My Dad got on a plane and flew to be with him.
During testing and MRIs etc the Dr’s thought they saw something on his brain, maybe a tumor, maybe a bruise.
The update as of today Jan 16 is that They are not 100% sure if Willie has a tumour, the swelling and bleeding is getting better but, its still very hard to see anything on an MRI. Willie is still having seizures, and they need to get those stopped, they are giving hims med for that, trying to get the right levels to stop the seizures. The good news is that although it will be very long and hard they expect Willie to make a full recovery. But as of right now he is in a VERY fragile state. My Dad is by his side, but he is having a very hard time watching his son go through this.
My Mom is going to fly to be with my Dad and Brother on Tuesday Jan 20. For those of you who don’t know, my Mom has a stroke disorder. She talked to her Dr. and she said if she had to fly she could but she will have to take lots of Prednisone and other medication so it will be safe for her to go up in a plane. My brothers good friend Matt has volunteered to escort her to Hawaii. We are very grateful to him for doing this! What a good friend. My sister and I would go but, we need to be home with our children. Please, have her and Matt in your prayers for a safe trip.
The goal as of right now is to get Willie stable enough so may parents can bring him home, and we can take care of him here. We want him home and it is very costly for my parents to care for him there.
Thank you for all your prayers, and please continue to pray for Willie and my parents.

If you want to read more updates on Willie here is the link to his Facebook-

Please keep him in your prayers!!!!!

Hi all, well now both kidos are sick… home from school and feeling like crap 🙁  I fell pretty much the same.  I think I am gonna go look for some freebies, but I don’t know how far I will get. I wrote this a few days ago and thought I would post it today. It is long- but if you are in the mood for a giggle worth reading 🙂

If you were around in the 80’s you probable looked twice at the title of this post…. And you have probably heard the the late 80’s boy band sensation, New Kids On The Block, just released their first CD in about 15 years.  I first heard about this reunion a few months ago- and I will admit somewhere inside of me there was a 12 year old girl doing backflips LOL.  I was a HUGE NKOTB fan all through junior high- and a closet fan in high school, when it was no longer “cool” to love the New Kids.  I had my whole room filled with everything New Kids- posters, sheets, the big buttons, shirts, a jacket, water bottles, books, ect…..

(this is a pic of my room- I think you get the idea- I was so in love!!)

I was totally obsessed!!! When I was 11 (I think) I went to my first NKOTB concert, my second at 12, my third at 13.  But the “best day of my life”, as it was known for the following 5 or so years, was Dec. 1989.

( this is a scanned in photo of my bible- Not exactly what it was intended for LOL!!!!)

My friend Nicci and I were going to a NKOTB concert that night so I was spending the day with her and her mom.  It was right before Christmas and Nicci’s mom needed to go get some shopping done, so Nicci and I decided to go with her.  For some reason the mall was almost totally empty, Nicci’s Mom said we could shop around and meet up with her in 1 hour.  We were wandering around talking about which New Kid had the cutest eyes, best smile, ect… when all of a sudden Nicci turned as white as a ghost!  She started getting tears in her eyes and stuttering… “The New Kid…” and pointing behind me.  “Ha Ha really funny Nicci.”, I said- but she was NOT kidding 🙂  I turned around to see all the NKOTB (along with a few huge bodyguards).  Crazy, I know- but it is true.  We spent the next 30 minutes following them from about 15 feet away and randomly shouting out “I love you Donnie, Joey, Danny, Jordan, John.”  Poor guys 🙂  The boys decided to separate and we followed Donnie.  He had two BIG bodyguards with him.  We walked behind him, but had finally stopped shouting.  He got on the escalator to head up to the second floor, we got on the escalator- At the top of the escalator he stopped and waited.  As we moved closer and closer we began to lose it!  He stood there and waited for us to get to the top.  He said’ Hi, I’m Donnie.” (Like we didn’t know lol) And shook our hands!! He asked us our names and if we were going to the concert that night. We stuttered out “Ginger, Nicci, and YES!”  He said “I’ll sing you a song.” Then kissed his fingers and gave us the “peace” sign with them. Well, we both totally lost it!!!! But we did stop following him- which I am sure was what he was hoping for 🙂 Nicci’s mom found us a minute later, in a panic, we had not shown up to the meeting spot.  But quickly forgave us once we told her the reason.

We pulled ourselves together and finished up shopping with Nicci’s mom, then went home to get ready for the concert.  By the way Donnie didn’t sing us a song 🙂 But we didn’t care, we floated around on cloud 9 for a long time after that!!! I still get a little excited when I go to the mall and ride that escalator.

So the reunion CD came out last Tuesday, I was afraid it was going to suck…. But it is actually really good! I am sure I will have the words memorized in no time.  And if you, like me, have a 12 year old hiding out secretly doing backflips inside you.  Don’t hide it… Just wave you hands in the air and swing “em like you just don’t care! 🙂