SVG learnin' time...

hi all!
have ya missed me?  sometimes i miss me too :P  entirely too much going on in my life.  luckily it's mostly good!  today, not so much... i had the fun of discovering a mix up with my account at the state tax dept and the froze my accounts.  WOW is that fun.  no problem, i talk to them, gather the papers they need and fax it over to them....again...and again...and again...while i am trying to get that to go through i decide it is REALLY time to get down to business on my scrapbooking.  i don't know if i mentioned it or not but i am the proud new owner of a black cat cougar digital cutting machine.  not that i don't love my cricut and all my cartridges but i also really love all the adorable SVG files i see folks using, especially my good friend Christine - you should check out her blog (but don't forget to come back here when you are done!)  so i have been cruising the likes of Little Scraps of Heaven, My Scrap Chick, & The Digi Bistro snatching up the cutest stuff to cut.  but FIRST I have to figure out how to do it.  i never understood people who were intimidated by their cricut and left it in the box but i have to tell you - i am a wee bit intimidated by my cougar!  not enough to leave it in the box tho!!!!!!!!  so it is sitting on my breakfast table...glaring at me...because i have been to busy with the latest issue of the magazine to get to work with him.  (i think he needs a name don't you).  i am not used to working this way but i needed to size my cuts so i laid it out in photoshop - i used one of the Oct Page Maps as my base:

from here i could just digi scrap it huh :P  but thats no fun.  well it is but not my plan for this one.  i spent the better part of the rest of the afternoon re-familiarizing/learning Make The Cut - i downloaded the updates and WOW - it is amazing now!  i have had it since the day it was announced.  so i have everything pretty much laid out...sort of...  now i have to figure out the cougar!  maybe tomorrow.....i do have to say it felt like ALOT more work doing it this way as opposed to grabbing a cartridge and cutting.  BUT i know alot of people prefer this method whether it's MTC or Gypsy or Cricut Craft room so maybe i will find it is easier when i get to the other side and only have to cut once and have everything i need just the right size.....now we just have to manage to get to a pumpkin patch and pick out some pumpkins!!!  you know BEFORE halloween....


Now you remember that fax i was sending don't you?  STILL not going through.  even called and got a different fax number.  finally i pull the printer out and look at the back...and there is the end of the phone cord glaring at me...not. plugged. in.  remember back in the day when life was less complicated.  phone cord plugs into phone jack right?  well in our house now we don't just have a few simple items.  the uinderside of my desk is a mass of wires everywhere - we have the laser printer, the all in one, the photo printer, the home server, my laptop, the router, the cable modem and somewhere is the direct tv hook up.  the phone jack is taken, i am not sure what's in it.  i plug it into the router - no luck.  i decide i am going to have to go old school - it has to plug into the next closest jack...in the kitchen...not close to the office... i find a long phone cord in the bedroom on the floor (no i don't know why).  it only goes to the foyer.  i am going to have to delve into hubby's drawer o'abandon cords.  YES - phone cord!  here is how it went:

no way i could get them all untangled so i gave up and just used it like it was.  but it WORKED!

hubby is coming back from PA tonight YAY!  i can NOT sleep when he is out of town and i just like it much better when he is home with us.

Anyone else use MTC here?  Anyone else design digitally FIRST and THEN cut - whether it is with MTC or a Cricut product.  ANY TIPS????  will i learn to love it?  are there any othe SVG sites i need to know about???