New Blog Address: http://bybeccadesigns.com/bybeccablog/

Hello everyone and happy Thursday.  This is just a quick note to let you know that I have moved my blog to:

http://bybeccadesigns.com/bybeccablog/

To manually add the feed from my new blog to your reader simply subscribe to: bybeccadesigns.com/feed

I will no longer be maintaining this blog, so please follow me at my new home.  I apologize for any inconvenience that may cause and I hope that you continue to follow me there.  Thank you so much!

Monsters No More

Just a quick update in case anyone is wondering.... my children are getting along *much* better in the last two days.  DMan has turned his attitude right around in an effort to earn his screen time back and while he still slips up now and again, I can tell he is trying.  That is fantastic and I am so proud of him.  Yay little man!!  Way to set a positive example for your sisters.  

Little Monsters

I usually try to keep personal stuff off of my blog.  I’ll post a bit about the weather or our health, but generally speaking I look at this blog as the face of my business and I don’t want to put things here that aren’t business related.  I think maybe that habit of mine needs to change just a wee bit now and again because designing is such a personal thing for me.  My real family and real life and  affect what happens with my designing, so maybe its ok to talk about it here once in awhile.

Today parenting has me down.  I have four AMAZING WONDERFUL children.  They are bright, talented, loving.  Well, at least most of the time.  Today they are mixing like oil and water.  Except that there are four of them, so I really need oil and water and two other things that don’t mix with either oil or water to have the perfect analogy.  I am an hour late for work because they could not stop screaming at each other or hitting each other this morning.  I don’t know where these little monsters came from.  I don’t recognize them as my kids.  And I’m not sure what happened.

I decided I would turn the whole morning around and called for a pow wow.  I sat them in a circle and ordered suggested that we go around the circle and say something that was special about each person.  Goo, who is three, was all about that.  She is always all about whatever I suggest since she is my Number One Fan.  Kay was right there with me, too.  And even Tiger, who is as sweet as pie but has developed the nastiest screaming habit EVER lately, was on board.  But not the DMan.  He sat there staring daggers at me.

If looks could kill, I’d be dead.

I chose to take the higher ground and ignore the looks of death.  I figured he’d get in to the spirit and the day would be saved.  No such luck. 

The girls very enthusiastically praised one another’s strengths.  DMan made halfhearted attempts for Goo and Tiger but by the time we got to special things about Kay he out and out said that there isn’t anything special about her.  And of course I reacted by telling him I was sick of his awful attitude and he had better think of something.  Maybe not my finest moment.

So I laid out a new law – until they can treat one another with kindness they have lost the privilege of screen time.  Heaven help me, I’m not sure how I’ll survive without letting them spend a little time in front of the screen each day but darned if I will let the older ones constantly put everyone else down as though that is a perfectly ok thing to do. 

It isn’t. 

And like it or not, its DMan who sets the tone for the rest of them and so he must adjust his attitude and lead the way into …. well, whatever comes after this.  He taught Tiger to boss the younger girls around and yell at them and I won’t have the younger ones following this same pattern. 

I know that I expect a lot from him.  I’m an oldest of four too and I know that sometimes expectations are too high.  But the ones who come after him are following his example and I cannot, cannot, cannot, have his example be that its ok to constantly belittle your sisters.  Kay doesn’t think he even likes her.  Not ever.  Definitely not ok and it breaks my heart.

I wish I knew what to do.  I did not save the day with my powwow.  If anything, DMan, Tiger and I are all MORE upset than we were before we sat down.  The girl at daycare made a joke about my being late when I dropped them off and I burst into tears.

Tell me it gets better.  And if you know the secret to fostering love among children and teaching them to treasure one another’s strengths rather than beating one another down I am all ears. 

Sorbet Revealed

Good morning everyone!  I hope that this Friday morning finds you happy and well and that the sun is shining where ever you are.  I’m feeling sunny and cheerful. I just can’t help myself because every time I look at the palette for my latest release it lifts my spirits a tiny bit. 

Sorbet is sunny and warm with the refreshing contrasts of fresh raspberries and crisp limes.  It feels like a summer day, sitting on the porch and sipping a lemonade.  Or limeade?   Sorbet contains 42 original elements but a few alternate colors and shadowed versions.  There are 12 patterned and semi solid papers and 5 solids plus a full alpha in four different colors.  I just couldn’t decide which one I liked the best, so you get all of them.

Sorbet is 20% off at 9th & Bloom today and Saturday.







Coming off the highly themed Boardwalk I wanted Sorbet to be neutral and good for every day pages and judging from the pages that my creative team made, it is!  They made amazing pages of all sorts and among them quite a few gorgeous wedding pages.  I didn’t expect that, they are truly stunning.


Finally, I have a winner to announce!  Thank you all for you lovely comments on my sneak peek.  I hope that you like the kit as well as you liked the peek. 

The random number generator gave me this:


If I’m counting correctly, that makes SharonKay the winner.  Congratulations Sharon!  Please send me an email to bybecca at live dot com or post your email address here and I will get you a code to download Sorbet from my shop. 

That’s all for me today, I hope that the day brings you wonderful things.

Win Sorbet

I know I've been quiet here lately, it is such a busy time of year for everyone.  My kids finished up school last week and we had a very busy Memorial Day weekend.  Somehow in between all the *have to do* stuff that has kept me busy, I stole a bit of time and put together something new with an eye toward summer.

Its called Sorbet.  Isn't that delicious?

I'll even give you a tiny taste to whet your appetite.

So how about a chance to win it?  

Just post a comment below and I'll be back to choose a winner on Friday morning.  Good luck!

Boardwalk

A few weeks ago Helly and I started talking about our fourth collab.  We kicked a few ideas back and forth and even made a couple of palettes, but none of them got us very excited.  And then THE IDEA came of doing a boardwalk carnival kit inspired by old carnival posters and postcards.  Not a vintage kit, but something with just a taste of of days gone by.  Immediately we both started making lists of elements and creating.  I think the result is something wonderful! 

Boardwalk has 17 semi solid, patterned and scenic papers plus 7 solids, an old gold alpha (caps only) and more than 70 elements, including a few that are in alternate colors and versions.

 

The entire collection is 20% off today and tomorrow. 

 

Just look at these stunning pages from my CT!

We found we couldn’t stop with just the kit, so we also made a ton of extras for the perfect finishing touches to your pages.

Boardwalk: Bonus Alphas

 

Boardwalk: Words

 

Boardwalk: Clusters

 

Here are a few pages using the bits from the various add ons.

Of course its all bundled together so that you can get a huge discount if you want to own absolutely *everything*.

 

Boardwalk: Big Deal

Thanks for reading today.  I hope that you have a wonderful weekend!

Becca

Color Challenge

Good morning!  Just a quick note today in the midst of all the iNSD excitement  First off, a quick reminder that everything in my shop is still on sale  Its 40% off today and 35% off tomorrow (Monday May 9).  That’s it for my hard sell. 

Mostly you are hearing from me today because I took some time this morning to design for fun – not because I have to, not to sell something, not to promote something.  Just for the joy of designing.  Its been forever since I’ve done something like this and I am so happy I did!  I participated in a little color challenge at Enchanted Studio Scraps.  There’s a soft spot in my heart for ESS since it was my very first digihome.

The challenge palette this month is right up my alley and I simply could not resist.  Here is my little bit, yours for the taking.  Enjoy!

Download here.

Have a wonderful day!