Well, Thanksgiving is tommorrow. Cant believe that the year is almost gone. I feel as though it just started. My oldest son Marc is on Cruise so he will get his thanksgiving dinner aboard the ship this year. Probably not super great food. At least not how I make it. John Paul and I were supposed to bake cookies today but my husband needed me to bring something to work that he forgot so that took most of the afternoon. Traffic is already beginning to get heavy. John enjoyed getting out of the house at least. Even though it is only the three of us I decided I wanted to cook tomorrow. It will be good for me. I also need to work on getting the dining room cleaned up. It would be really nice if we could eat at the table. I am also hoping for great photo ops tommorrow. Hope I am not too disapointed. I also need to get my first lesson of the mentoring program zipped up and sent out to Cheryl. I am probably the last one to send it in. I have been busy making beaded ornament covers. I also need to start on getting a digital profile done for my part of Dean's business. I need to do three sets. Totally Digital, Hybrid and Total Paper. We will see how that works out. My parents and my sister and her husband will be leaving to go on a Mexican Crusie soon. I hope my parents have a good time. I am worried about my Dad since he has already decided that he isnt going to go anywhere off the ship. He says there is no where in Mexico he would really like to see. I think he has too much resentment against the Mexicans for envading San Diego. Envading is his word. I know it is tough for them living on the border as they do. Illegals always coming and going over their property. I hope he goes off the ship a little bit. I know he will have fun though. He is talking about getting a few massages and sitting around the pool. If that is what he wants to do I guess it is okay. I just know that my parents deserve this so much. This time of year is the best time to go too. It isnt too hot down there. I know I need to post some more layouts and will do that soon. I will also post some more stickits made with my own elements soon.

Take care and have a Happy Turkey Day and remember be Grateful for all God has given you!

Well, things have been busy since I was accepted to be in the mentoring progam at The Scrapping Garden. It has been so much fun yet a tad challenging. The first lesson is quite easy but I added a little challenge by doing the lesson on my new CS3 program. We were to keep it simple and only add a tad of texture if we wished. Scroll down and you will see a few of my better papers. I am intending on making several more so I have a good variety to choose from to hand in. We all have decided to do a mega kit together and this will help to introduce us all as new designers after the class is finished. This is the first class so we do not know how long it will last etc. They will be working out all of the bugs with this class so our input is crucial to the program.

I wasnt feeling to well yesterday so I went to bed early around 8:00 PM and slept really well unitl 6:00 am when I got up to get my son ready for school. I went back to sleep until 11:30 am so I am feeling really good today. I went to get my hair cut finally and it came out really cute. I just hope I can maintain the haircut halfway decently. It is funny how my hair can dictate the type of day I am having. I am sure alot of you can relate to that. Tommorrow I go back for a manicure and a Pedicure. I have never had a Pedicure before so we will see if I like someone messing with my feet or not. Everyone tells me it is divine. My feet may scare her though! lol She is probably use to it. I also stopped a blockbuster and got several movies. It is the time of year that I need to make all of my gifts for Johns teachers etc. I found a really easy ornament cover on the internet that I think I will use. I will be able to get a lot finished quickly. I think those are what I am going to work on to sell at bazaars. I havent seen any of then anywhere. They are so beautiful. People always seem so happy to get them as gifts. I have several I have made for my own tree. They are beautiful and I always get comments on them. Also, you can very the patterns to have all kinds of price points so people will definitely be able to afford one. Make lots of the more inexpensive ones and make some of the more expensive ones to show and I am sure I will sell them once in a while. They also make lovely bridal gifts etc. I will take some pictures of them and post them as I make the different ones.
Well, like I promised here are my papers. Remember these are previews only please do not copy them as they are copyrighted. They will be available to purchase sometime in the future. If you are interested leave a comment and I will email you when they are available. Thanks for coming to visit me. Aloha for now.

I just found out some awesome news! I submitted to be in The Scrapping Garden Mentoring 101 Program and was accepted! Classes start next week I was so excited and feel honored to be part of this program. After the program is over I am commited to be exclusive for The Scrapping Garden for a year. My dream of becoming a designer is going to come true! I am so so excited! Oh yeah did I tell you I was excited!! lol Yes, I am excited!!!! Monday evening is a meeting to explain about the program. I cant wait.

Today I went to a craft fair at the school where my husband works. I am glad I decided against going this year. There were so many painted items there this year. I didnt see any beaded ornament covers so I think I will work on those over the next year and Try those. I kinda got an idea on pricing so I feel It will work. It will be fun and I really like making those beaded covers. I also did not see any off loom weaving there either so I could through in a couple of bracelets maybe. It is worth a shot and if they do not sell I can keep them for me or give them as gifts.

I might even try to sell some digital work too. We will have to see. I did see some scrapbooking there but not anything like what digital scrapbooking is.

Well, I am off to take a nap now.

Well, today is November 1st. That means Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I am still back in January 2007. What happened to this year? It seems that every year goes by faster and faster.

Last week was pretty crazy for me emotionally. The fires in San Diego kept me up nights. My parents had to evacuate for a whole week! When they came home their house was still there. I witness to the fire said that it rolled over my parents house like a tidal wave. A huge bubble of air protected my parents house from serious damage. When we prayed for my parents my husband asked for God's loving hand to save my parents house from damage. If you werent a believer before I guess you would be now. Especially from what the eyewitness said. I can visualize the air being God's protective hand over my parents home. My parents are righteous people who have done God's will all of their lives. Helping others and rasing righteous childern in God's ways. We are eternally grateful to God for sparing my parents home. To this date my father is still working to help those who did lose their homes. He is commited to God's people to help in their time of need.

I seem to be feeling better which is a great blessing for me. I am living a pretty boring life right now trying to keep my stress down which will flair up my fibromyalgia. Keeping warm also is a key.

I have been working hard on learning new skills. I took a week off from all of my CT teams that I am on and worked on paper scrapping and tutorials for my CS3 program. I learned how to make customized shadows which make things look way more realistic and making ribbons and ric rac. I havent had as much time as I would like to design but I will be hopefully having more time soon. Part of my issue is sleeping too much. I just dont seem to sleep when I am supposed to. So what happens is I am not getting out of bed until noon which is bad. I keep trying to do better but am having a terrible time breaking this habit. I think what started it was when I was reading the Harry Potter books and staying up half the night. I would sleep in and I think that has really screwed up my internal clock. I have a few things to share with you. A couple of stickits and some layouts that I have made in the last couple of weeks, so make sure to scroll down to check them out!

I also have started on my Christmas painting this past week and hope to have some nice new decorations done for the house this year. I also think that I am going to start to narrow down the things that I am painting and paint those things that way it will be better to do shows etc. I really need to get going and get some bazaars scheduled for next year and maybe this summer.

I know this is a long post but I havent blogged for a while so I need to get all caught up.

I think we have finally narrowed our search down for our live-in travel trailer. I think we will be ready to purchase it around this time next year. We will need to buy a new truck. A one ton because this is a 30+ft fifth wheel. It is beautiful. We will be able to go and take a look at them on Sunday to make our final decision so that they will make sure to have one when we are ready to buy. I will take pictures to share.

Well here are the layouts and the stickits that I promised.

Country Harvest Stickit Preview:



Here is the download. All I ask is that you abide by the Linda's TOU.

http://www.4shared.com/file/28067964/6c415e66/Country_Harvest_Stickit.html

Whew! That was work! I forgot how to link to my 4shared account! Old age again! lol

This stickit was made from Linda Cumberland's Country Harvest. You can find these awesome kits here: http://scrappinggarden.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1460 and here: http://scrappinggarden.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1459

The second stickit is from Linda Cumberland's Come Autumn Kit. I love these two Autmun kits for the Country feel they have. Here is the stickit



This stickit is one of my most favorite layouts that I have done so far. I am learning more and more every day on how to make my layouts more realistic. The belt has a custom shadow that I just recently learned how to do. Fun, Fun. They more I learn the more addicted I get to this awesome art of digital scrapbooking! Okay, now for the link to this stickit.

Again I ask that you abide by Linda's TOU. Dont share this with your friends please send them to my blog to download it for themseleves.

http://www.4shared.com/file/28067529/7f861ebb/Come_Autumn_Stickit.html

You can find the Come Autumn Kits at The Scrapping Garden, here: http://scrappinggarden.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1496
and here: http://scrappinggarden.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1495

Enjoy your stickits! Hope you have a great day. In the next few days I will be posting the pictures to the beautiful fifth wheel that we will like to buy this time next year! We are so excited and I think you will to when you see it! It has everything that we were looking for and needed for us and John Paul.

I am having a hard time getting going again after being sick. I seem to have no motivation and want to sleep all of the time. If I dont snap out of it soon I am going to go to the drs. to have him check my thyroid. It just seems like if it isnt one thing it is another. It seems like us creative people have a hard time with our health or other issues going on. I guess it is the plight. Every thing else seems to be going okay. I have started on my Christmas presents. I am a little behind this year so I hope that I can get them all completed. I am taking a week break from doing peoples CT so that I can focus on things here at home and hopefully get back on track. I am hoping to have another freebie available soon and will also post some more layouts. Linda Cumberland has a few more kits available. I have been making layouts for one of them. I will post them when I am finished. Well, I hope you all have an awesome day and I need to get back to John Paul. He is home today and tomorrow because they have confrences at school. So it is a long weekend this week for me because Dean is working on Saturday. Hope to get a freebie posted by the end of the weekend so make sure and check back!

I am starting to feel a little bette now. I have had a couple of weeks of headaches and upset stomaches on and off. It makes it rough to do anything Creative. I know some of it is being out of one of my medicines. It has just about taken the Titanic Sinking to get it re-filled. I dont know who dropped the ball my Pharmacy or the Drs office. At a certain point you dont care anymore you just want your medicine.

Speaking of medicine John Paul is going through a rough patch of not wanting to take his medicine. It has caused some major upset in our family. I hope it is just a phase he is going through. Some of his medicine will land him in the hospital if he doesnt take it. On the other hand he is 18 years old and the law says I cant force him to take it so it can get pretty frustrating around our house in the mornings and evenings.

On to a better note I got some great pictures this weekend and am looking forward to doing some more digiscrapping. I also need to get some work done on my sisters vacation album both paper and digi. She has so many pictures I am doing both. It has been so much fun putting both these albums together for her. I also have been thinking about my Christmas Cards and other various Christmas projects I need to finish. It can be depressing if I dwell on it too long. It just seems as though I am never going to get them done in time. Wow, Im on a real bummer today. All negative. I probably should just stop. Dont want to get you all negative.

One good thing is my son emailed me last nite and told me he got orders to San Diego which means he will be very close to the rest of the family and a lot closer to home. I hope this means that we will see him more often. Especially my parents. They miss him so much. My sisters kids and him are pretty close in age so hopefully he will spend some time with them also.

Well, as they say if you dont have anything else good to say then go away!! LOL I will post a few more layouts and then be done for today.

Here is a layout of John Paul and our dog Pierre. I happened to be riding in the back seat trying to get a snooze and caught these cute pictures of the two of them over the front seat:


There is nothing like a boy and his dog!

In the above layout I used Linda Cumberlands About
a man kit. I love that kit so much! It is very versitile
You can get it here: http://scrappinggarden.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1201

Here is another layout with John Paul in it. This one has a cute story behind it. He was out in the backyard swimming in his pool. Dad stepped in the house really quick to get the camera
and in the meantime JP thought the dirt looked more fun. I laugh every time I see these photos! I keep scrapping them over and over because they are so great! John Paul had a blast until Dad had to hose him down and then he did not think the cold water was any fun!



I love all of the depth in this layout. It almost looks like a shadow box. I used Beth Kern's Mini Kit My Boy. You can find it here: http://www.oneofakindscrapz.com/store/product.php?productid=17481&cat=0&page=3

Keep coming back to check I should have another freebie to offer you by the end of the week.
Thanks so much for stopping by!

Well, decided to take a break from doing some of my Creative Team work today and blog for awhile. Today is the day that I send out urls to all of my designers that I work for. It can really be a job and a half if I have done a lot of work for them over the week.

I told you late last nite that I would tell you why my DH has been home for a few days off of work. He teaches High School and in the District he works for they found icolli bacteria in the community water. Those poor people were without water for three days before they could get the systems purged and the bacteria out of the system. I bet it was so hard for them to have to boil their water just so they could cook or wash up. Anyway they called school for Thursday and Friday so my husband was home from work. It was great because we normally do not get time together alone very often at all. That is one of the down sides of having a disabled child. We relish every minute alone we get. Even though we were out running errands it still was wonderful to be unencumbered.

I wish it were possible for me to take a small break. It just seems like I get caught up with my CT work I take a big breath and cross my fingers for a couple of days and another landslide comes crashing down. Whew! I keep trying to take a few tutorials here and there on my new CS3 program and designing a little. Sometimes it takes staying up really late at night. I get my best work done either then or when the house is quiet during the day. I am glad that I did not take on more that 3 CT's I would have never been able to handle more that that with my schedule and the demands of taking care of John.

On a lighter note I wanted to share a couple of layout with you. One is called Seventy Something. It is a picture of my Mom and Dad taken in the seventies sometime. I used Lynn Cumberland's Stickit from About a Man. You can find her About A Man Kit at The Scrapping Garden. http://scrappinggarden.com/



Now that I have started doing digital Scrapbooking I have taken alot of the photos that I have of family in frames and started scanning them and scrapping them. This is one of them.
My parents met taking ballroom dancing classes so my parents used to go dancing alot.

This is a layout of my husband's Nieces baby Maddie. She is so beautiful. You just cant stop looking at her.



I used Beth Kern's My Princess Kit to compose this layout. You can get it at http://Oneofakindscrapz.com
When my husbands family came over from Arizona to visit for awhile we were able to spend a whole day with his family. The baby is so beautiful and is sooo good. She is going to be so spoiled with all of the women dooting on her. I told her dad that he better buy a shot gun and learn how to use it and polish it when the guys start coming around because I think they will be coming in droves!!

If you scroll down to last nites post there is a stickit freebie there. Grab it while the link is still working.

Hey, Tracy thank you so much for your comment. You are right. It is a rainy place. We dont think we will be staying here forever but it was a good place to land at the time. It was the only place at the time we could afford to buy a house that he was offered orders to so bingo we moved here.

I know it is 10:20 PM but I promised a freebie on Friday and it is better late than never. My husband got the past two days off and I will explain why tomorrow. It offered us a chance to spend some alone time together which we do not get very often.

Anyway here is the layout that I made with the freebie stickit and then below is the freebie. I wanted to remind you that this is copyrighted material and that they are my own designs. Please do not share this file with others please direct them here to my blog. Any similarities to others designs are purely coincidential. You may post this stickit completed with your own pictures to your personal galleries or to my member gallery at The Scrapping Garden. I would love to see the pictures you use. You may use this stickit for your own personal use Please also do not alter this stickit in any way and if you do post it to other galleries please give me credit for creating it. Having said that I would love to give some love to Lynn Reloza and Atomic Cupcake for there help in making this stickit. Okay, got business out of the way. Please leave me so comments on your thoughts about my stickit. They are some of my first designs and I would love to here your thoughts on them.

Now for the good stuff! Here is my layout:



The stickit is the same as above minus the pictures.
Here is the link to the download of the freebie!
Love Look at the two of us stickit.zip

Enjoy! I will be blogging tomorrow more!

Well, as promised I have a couple of layouts to share with you. They are both using Linda Cumberland's new Country Harvest Kit.
This one is one of my favorites of all of the digital Layouts I have done.



I hope you like this one as much as I do. I am thinking about entering it into a contest. Leave me a comment and let me know if you think I should.

Here is my second layout that I did using this same kit. I wanted to do something so it would show off the pictures of the leaves that I took.



You are not going to believe it when I tell you that I took these pictures in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Bremerton Washington. I am sure that everyone thought that I was crazy jumping out of my truck to snap the pictures. I did see a few people staring. LOL I wish they could see what the end product was. These pictures were the best out of everything that I took.

I have been thinking about my son Marc a lot lately. For some reason I am worried about him. I usually do not worry so I am very concerned as you can imagine. It is really hard when they grow up and leave home. They are adults, you have no say anymore. You have to let go. I guess this is when the real worrying begins! I havent heard his voice in over a month. I worry about whether he is okay or not. He is in the Navy and is on a ship out on a good will cruise. I dont know where he is or what he is doing. I love him so much and only want the best for him. I worry that he is engaging in behavior that can be life changing. I am sure you are wondering what but since this is a public blog I cannot say. All I can say is that my husband and I know how devestating this can be because we both have had this problem in out pasts. I worry, worry, worry. Knowing that the only thing I can do is pray, pray, pray. I do not have the power over him to make him do what I want. I guess I never did. Only was a leveler of consiquences (sp?)

Well, as to the weather there is no rain today although it looks rather gloomy outside. It could start raining any time. Well I guess I have bent your ears enough for today so I will post again tomorrow.

Make sure you check back because tommorrow I am going to have a freebie for you from my first mini kit Heart Bursts!

Boy, I have been a bad girl. Havent blogged for a few days. I have been so busy creating layouts for Linda Cumberlands new kit Country Harvest. It is such a beautiful kit. I have been so inspired by it. In the element pack there are so many wonderful elements it makes it easy to create a stunning fall layout. Or if fall is not your thing a beautiful Country layout. I have been taking my camera around town with me when I leave the house so I can get some awesome fall pictures so I can use this kit! LOL Well, Fall has truely arrived in WA style. It has rained over 7 inches since Friday. I feel like I just got out my summer clothes. Now it is time to put them away. In reality I didnt even wear all my summer clothes since we really did not even have a summer. I can almost count the sunny days on two hands. The funny thing is we had our summer in spring with temputures reaching almost 100 degrees which is unheard of for this part of the country. I truely believe the weather patterns are changing again. There has been really unseasonable weather all over the country. My husband keeps saying I am crazy but all you have to do is open your eyes.



Well, I have some awesome things to share with you today. I have a freebie from Linda Cumberlands Country Harvest Kit. Actually it is an add on but it is freee thus freebie. Here is the preview for you:




Pick up your freebie here: http://www.scrappinggarden.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=17071


Here is the preview for her new kit Country Harvest:






I feel this is the best kit she has done so far so dont miss out while it is on sale until the end of this week!

You can grab these two awesome kits here: http://scrappinggarden.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1459 and here: http://scrappinggarden.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1460

Check back tomorrow to see the two awesome layouts I made with this awesome kit!

Well I guess that is it for today. I should have my first ever freebie of my own done hopefully by the end of the week. It is called Heart Bursts. I was inspired by my son John Paul for this kit. I always tell him that when he smiles at me with the love that he makes my heart burst with love.
It will be a mini kit. So make sure to check back on Friday. If it is not finished yet I will at least give you a couple of elements to tickle your inspiration bone. TTFN

Picture Resizing

Whew! I think I got the picture sizing problem solved!! Yea!! It took me a while but I think I got it fixed. I will post more tomorrow!

Rainy and Gloomy

Today was a rainy and gloomy day. When we set out for Cheny stadium to look at trailers it was fairly clear. Sprinkling a little. When we got there it was pretty windy and a little rainy. Not to bad. We saw a few trailers we really like. What we have decided to do is next year by an inbetween trailer and maybe upgrade our truck. Something that will get us through until when we are ready to pack up and leave. We are looking at about five or six years. It will be nice to have a trailer instead of a tent trailer so we can go camping whenever we would like. We will not be ready until about this time next year to purchase. We went to eat dinner afterwards and by the time we were finished it had started really raining good. Tonight it is supposed to rain six inches. Ugh!! Welcome fall as they say. I do love the leaves changing and stuff but around here it means rain!! Lots of it! They are calling for flooding in Shelton and some other outlying areas. That is never good here. I am still working hard on my Heart Bursts kit so hopefully it will be ready by the end of the week to begin handing out. Well to give you a look at fall here is a layout that I did using Lynn Reloza's kit Charmingly Beautiful. You can get it here: http://scrappinggarden.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1368

Here is the layout:





Take a look at that creepy spider!! He has a face!! Creepy. I just had to scrap it though.
Well, I hope you all had a great Saturday. I will post again tomorrow.

This summer we had a wonderful time. We did many things that have inspired me in my scrapbooking. We went to a ghost town way up in the mountains near Drumond Montana. I took so many pictures that will eventually become paper overlays and even paper themseleves. We also went to Sea World and spent all day looking at the animals. Since John was with us we did not spend too much time in shows because they are meaningless to John. We took tons of pictures. Below is a layout I did with all of my seal pictures as well as my husband and my dads pictures. I used Tracy Beck's Kit "Carribean Dreams", May 2007 Mega Kit, and Atomic cupcake Actions" Tracy's Kit here: http://scrappinggarden.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=374, May 2007 Mega Kit here:http://scrappinggarden.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=71&products_id=1016, and the atomic cupcake action here: www.atomiccupcake.com

I also want to tell you about a new kit from Linda Cumberland. It is called Maryann. It is also pictured below. You will be able to get this kit here: http://scrappinggarden.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1429

Well, I guess that is it for today. Nothing profound today just the ordinary day for my first day on the blog. God Bless you and Happy Scrapping!