Hello!  I'm on a roll for posting!  I'm happy to report that my daughter's family adopted a pound dog today.  It's kind of funny, but before they moved to Tennessee in June, they decided they were going to look for a dog when they got settled.  They also decided on the sex of the dog, the breed they wanted, and even the name of the dog!  They had heard good things about Boxer dogs.  Amy decided she wanted a female since she felt lonely in the household of only boys!!  Also, since they were moving to Tennessee, they were going to call her Dixie. I'm not positive how they found her, but they found a 6 month old female boxer mix named Dixie at the pound!  Was it meant to be?  We'll see!!  Scott went out this weekend and bought the collar and feed bowls.  When they went to the pound today, Dixie was there.  They brought her home.  She is now Dixie Bird!  Here you go--Meet Dixie!  Welcome to the family!

I  have two layouts to share today!  I made the first one with a kit called Boys Toys by Just Creations, and a fun template from  Armina and you can find the kit here:  Boys Toys

And for the second one, I used a kit called Strawberry Delight from Jen C. Designs that isn't currently in the store, and a template from her new kit Essentials Volume 1 that you can find here:  Jen C Designs Essentials Volume 1 Templates

 Thanks so much for stopping by!  I'll have some  more layouts tomorrow!!

I'm posting four days in a row!  Yeah!  Today is Sunday.  We just came home from church.  We serve an AWESOME God!  Our current pastor is an "interim" pastor, although they gave him a name of "transitional" pastor.  He's currently attending school, but we've been happy to see growth in his faith, in his knowledge base, and especially in his preaching.  We have high hopes for a good relationship with this young man.  (He isn't "that" young, but almost everybody is younger that we are!)  He has a big Picnic on the Ground planned for September 12th, and we're all looking forward to that!  It's been a long time since we've done much celebrating together.

So far, I have TWO layouts to share today!  and I love them!  I made both of them with the brand new kit by Ruby Lane called It's a Buggy World Out There, and a freebie blog template called PC Scalloped Template!  Ruby Lane's kit is such a great kit when you have photos of little boys to scrap!!  Have you ever seen a little boy without a little buggy somewhere close by?  Jonah is notorious for finding "Buggies!"  Ever since he's been a tiny little one, he's loved watching them crawl on the sidewalk, or on the brick wall where they used to live.  He's a little nature boy.  I may be back later to share another one, but for now, you can find this fun kit right here:  It's a Buggy World Out There!

The second layout is some photos that Debbie shared with me from their trip to Sea World in San Diego.  Since they live close by, they get to visit Sea World quite often!  Especially when they buy an annual pass.  Debbie is able to incorporate some of their trips into their home school lessons, so that gets double duty from the passes--fun and education!  Can't beat that!

I'll have several layouts ready to post on Wednesday because a couple of the designers I CT for has some kits coming out then!!  I'll also be posting a new challenge at digiscrapbookmania.com on Wednesday.  It will be the "technique" challenge--which is kind of a strange one for ME to do!!  I'm not "technique" driven when it comes to digi.  I'm more of a find something you like and then find a way to do it kind of girl.  So that, in a nutshell, will be my technique!  Have I enticed you to check in and try it yet??  I hope so!!  While I can usually find a way to do something I set my mind on, it's a real challenge for me to put it into words and try to walk someone else through that process!!  I've found that my head (in logical steps) go faster than my typing fingers want to go!!  :)  So, go to the forum on Wednesday and see if I can challenge YOU!

Thanks for reading my ramblings!  See you later!  Enjoy your day, and don't forget to rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS, and again I say Rejoice!

I think I'll make another post--just to make "Blogger" think I've been hacked!!  Three days in a row!

I still have more layouts to share, so I'll get at it!! The first layout is a one I finished up about a week ago and forgot to post for some reason or another!!  It is our silly dog Molly!!  She is so spoiled.  And we love it that way!!  Why have a dog if you don't spoil them??  I used a kit called Toy Chest by Laurie's Scraps that you can find here:  Toy Chest.  I used a blog freebie template for this one.

The next layout is one from a trip to Morro Bay with Debbie's family.  We had such a good time with the girls!!  They are certainly sweeties!!  We've camped there a LOT over the years.  The first time was back in 1971 when we came to California the first time.  Chuck and Debbie were just little, and they got SO dirty!!  We had to give them a bath in the laundry tubs outside the bathroom doors.  We used those same tubs when we took Ashlyn and Megan there the first time too!!  (shhh don't tell--they'd be embarrassed!)  We always have a good time there, though, even if the kids DO get dirty!!  For this layout, I used a kit called Swimming Lessons by Three Hearts Designs.  You can find that kit here:  Swimming Lessons.  I also used a template from Pom!  Thanks Pom!

The next layout is with a photo of my mom and dad's wedding.  We don't have many photos of my father, so I've scrapped this one several times!!  My parents were married in 1939 and he died in 1961, so they were married for 22 years.  My son and his wife had their 22nd wedding anniversary yesterday.  I can't believe they've been married as long as my mom and dad were!!  That makes me pretty old too!!  Anyhow, I used a kit from Donna Rafferty called Historical Romance that you can find here:  Historical Romance

 

The last layout is a layout of my silly Bird Boys!!  I thought using the little prisoner on it would make it a Jail Bird layout.  :)  I miss them since they moved to Tennessee!!  Sweet boys!!  I used a kit called Little Crime Fighter by Statements by Jodi and a template from Photocowgirl.  You can find them here:  Lil Crime Fighters

and: Templates

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!!  I hope you enjoyed the layouts I shared today.

Two posts in 12 hours!!  Probably a record for me!!  I have a few more layouts to share today.  The first one is from a new kit my Marshmella Designs called Seeds of Tomorrow.  This kit is packed with hand drawn elements that you can't get anywhere else!!   They were fun to play with for sure!!  The papers are full of character also, so this kit was wonderful.  It can be found at Gingerscraps.net and at DigiRoo.

For the next layout, I used a cute new kit by Designs by Jodi called Lil Crime Fighters and a template from Photocowgirl.  Both kits can be found at Gingerscraps.net.  This layout depicts my little JAIL Bird!  :)

And for the third layout, I'm guesting for Misty O'Brien for September, so I was able to play with the new kit called Beautiful Dreamer.  You can find the kit at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns.  This kit was perfect for some photos of Noah when he was tiny!!  Now he's such a BIG boy!!  Love that kid!

Thanks so much for looking--I'm going to try and keep up with my postings so I don't have a hundred to share at one time!!  :) 

I've been SO neglectful on my blog posts!!  I do have lots to share though!  It's been a bit oppressive here this week with very high temperatures, and higher than what we like humidity.  I've been thankful for an "inside" hobby to stay inside out of the heat!!  We can't complain about the summer we've had though! Most of it has been wonderful.  I can't remember a cooler summer since we moved here in 1972 in fact.  Since we do live in the desert, the hot summers are just one thing we expect!  Here is a photo of what our sky looked like this afternoon.  It was gorgeous!!  We ended up not getting ANY rain or even a drop in the temperature, but it was fun watching the beautiful clouds build over the house!!

Last Friday Hannah and a friend of Hannah's came over and played in my scrapbook room with me.  They love making cards with the cricut.  Hannah didn't inherit my lame card making gene thank goodness!!  Her and her friend together made about 13 cards!!  They were all real nice.  I was glad to have the excellent company, and also to have someone to share my wealth of paper supplies with!  I actually made 4 paper layouts while the girls were here.  I had to finish up the journaling and the finishing touches, but it was fun playing with paper again after such a long time. Here are the four layouts I did!

Now on to some of the digital layouts I've done since I posted last!   Like I said earlier, it's been HOT here--way up into the triple digits in fact!!  When I was looking through some of the photos to scrap, I came across some snowy ones.  I thought it might work to make me feel a little cooler!!   For the layout Snowballs in the face I used a great kit by Ruby Lane called Playdate!  I also used that kit for the The Boys layout.  It's a great kit, full of nice elements and you can find it here:  http://funkyplaygrounddesigns.com/store/product.php?productid=23017&cat=0&page=1

The Sweet As Candy layout of Emily at the campground was done with the August Collab at Plain Digital Wrapper called I Scream for Ice Cream.  I love those pictures of her!!  She REALLY got into eating that Klondike bar!!

Amy started homeschooling the boys a week or so ago, and the PRESCHOOL layout was made with photos from their first few days of "class."  She is going all out, and the boys are going to learn a whole lot!!  I used a kit from Mandy King called Cootie Goo (I remember when all boys HAD Cooties!)  for that layout, and you can find it here:  http://www.scrappity-doo-dah.com/store/product.php?productid=5043&cat=0&page=1

 This kit is packed full of papers and great elements!!  I love lots of elements in the kits, and Mandy sure didn't disappoint!!  I'll try to make shorter posts in the future!!  :)  If you read this far, thanks so much for looking!!

Amy started preschool with the two older boys today. They skyped us awhile ago and shared some of the activities that they did today.  Jonah sang us a song and Noah played a melody (?) on the harmonica for us!  They both worked on a big "A" and ate apples for snack!  (apples WITH apple dip).  This week they are concentrating on "A" with fun Activities!!  Amy visited the library and picked up some "A" books for this week too.  She's really excited to start this adventure.  Thursday the boys will study with the co-op pre-school at their new church. I'll probably be making a layout on their first week at pre-school very soon!

I have several layouts to share today.  One of these days I'll be caught up!!  :)  I used a kit from Bunny Bean called Fish Tales for the Feeding the Fish layout.  You can find that kit at Digiscrapbookmania.com.  Glorious Creation and Three Sweet peas in their Pod is from two kits by Digi_Licious Designs called How Does YOur Garden Grow--kit 1 and kit 2--it just had too much stuff in it for one kit!!  You can find that kit at PickleberryPop.com.  I used a kit called Best Days of Their life for the two New York layouts.  You can find that kit at DigiScrapbookmania.com.  The last layout is of my sweet Sarah--And this kit is from DaybreakScrapsDesigns, and is called Brighter Days.  This is her first kit made for Elemental Scraps.  I wish her luck at her new store that just opened today! 
Thanks for looking!!

It has been a wonderful summer in the desert this year!  We only had ONE really hot week--and wouldn't you know, it was the week the Colorado family were here visiting!  We had fun in spite of the heat and humidity.  We had another week that we had a lot of smoke from a forest fire not far from here too.  It got pretty close to my son's home, but thankfully, the firefighters extinguished it before it got that far!  He had a lot of soot and dirt in his pool and around the property, but no other damage, for which we are so Thankful!!

I've been working on Creative Team layouts and having a great time taking an online class with Tiffany Tillman.  I'm a little behind, though, and hope to catch up this weekend. 

I have a few layouts to share today. 

Whoops, my "few" ended up to be ten, and I have more--but I'll save them for the next time!!
For the Beach BBQ layout, I used a new kit called Summer Remnant from Mandy King that you can find at Scrappity Doo Dah.  The layouts Beach Girls and Fishing trip came from a kit called Shark Tails from Bean Bunny Designs at Digiscrapbookmania.com.  That was quite a fun kit to play with!!  I used a fun template from MandyMade on the Fishing trip layout.  The BEWARE layout is the cutest little Pirate you ever did see!!  These photos were from last Halloween down at Debbie's house.  Amy and Scott and the boys were there too, and we all had a great time together. I used a new collab kit by Wyld Web Designs, MandyMade, and Pretty in Green called Say No to Pirates that you can find at Gingerscraps.net.  First Eats was made with a kit from Paste Optional called Vegetable Medley that is found at Plaindigitalwrapper.com.

Home school is very important in our lives.  All my children with school aged children homeschool.  And the one daughter with pre-school children is starting pre-school homeschool  this coming week.   The kids are looking forward to it--as long as "mommy" stays mommy and doesn't turn into only a "teacher."  Noah got a little confused and thought if Amy was his teacher, she wouldn't be Mommy anymore!  :)  Anyhow, for the homeschool layout, I used a kit called School is Cool from Kathy Winters.  The title came from a matching kit of word art--also from Kathy Winters.  You can find those kits at Scrappity Doo Dah.

The layouts Jacob and Little came from the same cute kit!  I love the banners--even though they are "trendy" and normally trendy isn't my style!  I used a kit from Sweet Tomato Designs called Findley that can be found at Polkadotplum.com.  The kit is pretty versatile!  I also used one of Sweet Tomato Designs templates for the Jacob Layout, and a template from the template challenge for the Little layout.

If Only layout I also used a template.  This one was from JennCK.  The kit I used for that layout was called Social Butterfly, and it was made by Starving Artist Designs!  She's been on a roll this past couple of weeks with the new kits!!  Little Boys Yard work was from a kit by Jen Martikas from 2 peas in a bucket.  The name of the kit is Woodsy!  It was a fun kit, and Jen sent it to me as a "thank you" for guesting for her CT in July.  What a sweet gesture!!  I love her kits-they are always fun to work with.  Thank you Jen!

For the Summer Vacation layout I used a kit called Cora from Pampered Princess at PolkadotPlum.com.
I picked that kit to work with because Cora was my grandmother's name!  And it was also a fun kit to play with!  It went well for a summery feel to the girls photos! 

That is all I have time to post right now--I hope to get caught up soon!!
Thanks so much for looking!  I appreciate you all.

I've been working hard on CT kits this past two weeks--today a kit by Jen C Designs was released at DigiScrapbookmania called I'm All Boy!  and you all know I have a few boys in my life that I love to scrap for, so it was almost like Jen created this kit just for me to play with!!  And play I did!  It was a really fun kit to play with--great colors and fun embellishments.  You can find the kit here:  http://scrapbookingmania.com/store/Jen-C-I-m-All-Boy.html   I have three layouts to share--and I picked up some of the poems at 2 peas!!  They have some awesome things there in the PEA SOUP area!!

I miss my boys!!  :)  I get to skype with them every week, but it just isn't the same--I received a cute homemade card from Jonah last week.  It was made on his favorite colored cardstock (Pink!).  He wrote the message--and I could even figure out what it said!  He said "I love you as high as the sky" and then he drew a bunch of rocket ships complete with fire coming out the back!  (to get to the high sky)  Well Jonah, Grandma and Grandpa love you too--And we miss you!!  (and your brothers of course)  Well, come to think of it, we miss Amy and Scott too!!

Today I have some fun news!  I've been picked up by two new Creative Teams this past week, and I'm so excited!  Also be guesting for another one in September, but I'll tell you about that one later!  One of my new teams is with Mandy King, and the other is the Polka Dot Plum site!  I've been a "Chatter Dot" for about a month now, so have been looking the site over a bit already.  I haven't had the time  to work with any of the kits from Polka dot Plum yet.  I think they are next on my list.  I've been working with Mandy's new kits this week, and I can share them today.

   I've always loved this photo of Abby and Horsie.  She always thought of Horsie as her "best friend" and I was happy to visit with Horsie when she came to visit us earlier this summer.  Abby still loves Horsie!  This week Abby is actually taking a class at a park located by them, all about taking care of horses.  She told me on the phone how excited she is, and how much she is looking forward to it.  Becky has already started school for this coming year, so Abby is going to be one busy girl this week with the horse class, then come home and work on school lessons!  We all know, though, that Abby is up to the task! 
I used the new kit by Mandy King called Bright Possibilities that you can find here:  http://www.scrappity-doo-dah.com/store/product.php?productid=4845&cat=98

The next layout was also made with the above kit!  All the grandchildren love grandpa's garden (our back yard!)  It's a great place to explore!  The other layout I have for you today is one made with Mandy King's other new kit this week!  It is called New Beginnings and can be found here:  http://www.scrappity-doo-dah.com/store/product.php?productid=4869&cat=2&page=1.  All of Mandy's kits are full of color and fun elements!  I love the little bird in the kit above, and both the alphabets that came with it.  In the New Beginnings kit, I loved the

The other layout I have for you today is one made with Mandy King's other new kit this week!  It is called New Beginnings and can be found here:  http://www.scrappity-doo-dah.com/store/product.php?productid=4869&cat=2&page=1.  All of Mandy's kits are full of color and fun elements!  I love the little bird in the kit above and both the alphabets that came with it are so much fun!!  In the New Beginnings kit, I loved the beautiful word art that was included!!  You can see the title that was part of the word art.  I used a template from Chrissy W with the layout below.

 Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!  It it's good to 'see' you!!  Hopefully, I'll be back tomorrow with some new layouts from kits by Modern June and Jen C Designs!!  I'm having such a good time with all the Designers!!

Ah!  I think they fixed my Blog!  I'm so excited!!  I have a few (?) layouts to share, and some news I'll share at the END!  This week, Kerry Stewart from 2 peas in a pod released a new kit called Reading Adventures.  I've played with it and made four layouts so far!  It is very versatile, and can be used for more than reading layouts!  You can find the kit here:  http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/shop/kerry-stewart/100478-digikit-reading-adventures/?source_type=LAY&source_id=1651485
The layouts I'd like to share with you!

I think I love them all!!  :)
Now my news!  I was chosen for a new Creative Team.  It is for Mandy King, and she just opened her new store at Scrappity Doo Dah:  http://www.scrappity-doo-dah.com/store/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=85       I hope you'll stop by and see all her lovelies!