Hi Blog!!  EEEK!!!  I'm so sad to tell you that about 2 weeks ago my computer quit--just up and wouldn't boot up!  After jumping through some hoops, we were given permission to send it in for warranty work!!  Thankfully we bought it from Costco, so had an extra year warranty on it!!  I admit, I do use it a lot, but you'd think it would last more than a year and a half!  Anyhow, got word from the service area that the problem is the hard drive fried. 

I lost a lot of layouts (about 70) and about that many kits, but thankfully, no photos!  I've been able to download a lot of the kits thanks to some awesome sites that took pity on me and reset my links due to my sad story!!  It's always been my practice to move things off the computer every month, so that saved my photos!!  My practice will be to move things off weekly now instead of monthly.  The good news--we received the shipping information yesterday that said it should be returned today.  I'll be happy to get it back, as I've been using my old laptop that is really hard to use due to lack of RAM!

I also have a double EEK!!  I've been chosen to join the CT of Caroline S!  Her things are so much fun!  I think I'm going to love it.  Also, I'm guesting in September and October with Studio Basic--another fun team!  It is going to take me a week or so to catch up with my teams due to the lack of a computer, but I plan to really enjoy my stay with Studio Basic! 

I have a couple of layouts to share with you!!
I love this new kit from Caroline S, guest designer at the Digi Chick for September!! The kits name is No Ordinary Family found here: http://www.thedigichick.com/shop/No-Ordinary-Family-by-Caroline-S..html It was so much fun to play with!!  My layout is also titled No Ordinary Family.  It's my youngest daughter and her sweet family.  The boys are so special!!

and here is the cute kit!!  Can't you just see your own layout with this great kit??

Another layout I wanted to share is this one!

I used several things from Studio Basic Designs here!
I used her new addiction banners found here:  http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=23993&cat=0&page=1

Must have papers 2 found here:   http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=23998&cat=0&page=1

Keep calm and scrap it 5 found here:  http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=23999&cat=0&page=2

Dear Diary-which will be available soon!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!  Feel free to visit again soon.  May God Bless you!

Today is August 24th.  It's a wonderful day in our family.  It's the day several years ago that we welcomed a little bundle of joy to our family.  We named her Deborah Renee' Staley.  She's now Deborah Renee Thompson!  She's a blessing to everybody that she comes in contact with. 

I remember bringing her to our small home in St. Louis.  She joined a a 27 month old brother (who wasn't impressed with the little pink thing that made a lot of noise!!)  Where he was a usually a little mischievous, Debbie was a little more shy but always sweet. She had a favorite blanket she lovingly called her sissy.  Wherever Debbie went, her sissy was there too.  It finally just totally wore out, and I think I gave her the last little strands of it not too long ago!  Debbie also loved her thumb.  Between the sissy and the thumb, those were her most prized possessions.

Debbie's first experience away from home was for college.  She attended Point Loma University in the San Diego area.  She received her degree as a Registered Nurse.  After that, she worked at Children's hospital in the same area.  Now she's a happy wife and mama to four beautiful girls.  Her girls give her as much joy as she has given to her father and I!  I love to see them together.

I love Debbie, and am so fortunate to call her my daughter, but even more so, to call her my friend.  Happy Birthday dear.  Here is your Birthday layout!  :)

May God bless you really good today dear!!  We love you.

Hiya!!

The summer is coming to a close soon!  It's been very hot here in the desert for the last couple of weeks, so I'm looking forward to some cooler weather and cooler nights!  I actually don't mind the heat, but when coupled with high humidity, it gets a bit draggy around here!  We usually have "monsoon" type weather a couple of weeks in the summer.  All in all, though, this summer has been one of our cooler summers since we moved here in 1972. 
I have a few things to share with you today.  I'm only going to cover one designer today.  Her name is Ryan Caselton, and she designs under the name ROSEYTOES DESIGNS.  I haven't asked her yet how she picked that name, but I might!  :)  She currently has stores at Gingerscraps and Gotta Pixel.  She used to design at a site I CT'd for, so I used to work with her product occasionally while she was there. 
Anyhow, I've worked with a couple of her products this past week that I'd like to share today!  The first product is called LOVE YOU FOREVER.  I love the beautiful colors in the kit! 

See how pretty?  I loved it!  I made these two layouts with it!

I liked the versatility of the kit!  The colors would go with about anything!! 
You can find this kit here and here.
The other kit I worked with was called Backyard Play.  This kit is found here and here.

It has many nice and unique elements to play with, and a calm color palate!  It was great to use for these layouts of the grandchildren!!

Besides the kit shown, I also  used the matching templates and the grunge add on that can be found in the two stores!!  Look at the different looking layouts I did with the same kit.  I love it when I can do that!!  With Ryans kits, that is a given!  It's possible to make several very unique looking layouts with the same kit.  I love them, and you will too!!  Take a look in her stores!  I'm sure you'll find something that will inspire you to create a memory!
Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you'll stop by again soon.  In the meantime, may God bless you!

Check Out These Great New Kits!!

Yeah, I know it's been a long time again.  My bad! 
I have been busy with life--and that is good!  Earl and I decided to spend some time in the shed.  Not because we wanted to be in there, but because it really needed organizing and De-cluttering!  It took us several days, but we did it!  We got rid of LOTS of stuff.  The funny part, though, the shed is still FULL!! 
After we finished the shed, I started in my scrapbook room.  Wow there is a lot of stuff in there!!  I have it so I can now use it for a scrapbook room though.  The junk has been moved out, and the furniture is moved around to a place that I can use the room for actually scrapbooking!!  I even made four paper pages in the past couple of days.  So fun!!
I've also been busy with my Creative Teams!  I love scrapping.  It's so much fun to take some photos, a new kit, and my PSE program and come up with a memory!  I love not having to clean up afterward!  It's great.
Now, to the kits being released today!  Siamese Studio has a new collection in the Grab A byte section at Scrapbook Bytes
called Music of My Heart. 

This collection is so sweet and delicate!  I just love it all!!
I made this layout with it.  This is my sweet granddaughter Sarah!!  She's six years old now, and still as beautiful as ever.  Isn't she adorable?

Another kit in the Grab a Byte Collections at Scrapbook Bytes called You're A Wonder and it is just so cute too!!  It's from Tami Miller.  It has a lot of pieces to chose from!

Aren't they luscious?  LOVE the colors!  They were just perfect for this layout of one of my other grandchildren Hannah!! 

Isn't she pretty?  Where has the time gone?  I surely don't have an idea!!
Be sure to check out these great releases!!  
That is all I have to share today!!  Thanks for stopping by.  May God Bless you!!

Oh gosh!  Blogger has changed since I was here last!!  I hope I can figure this out!  I've been gone for quite some time.  We've had a busy spring.  We traveled to Colorado the end of April just about 5 or 6 days before our daughter gave birth to our new grandson!  They named him Joseph Earl, and he's really a little sweetie.  We stayed in Colorado almost all of May and really got to know him well.  We had fun with the other kids too!  We finally came home the last week of May, just in time to celebrate our son's and grandson's birthday back in California. 

I've been busy since getting home just trying to to catch up!  We came home to summer in full swing.  We're so thankful for our evaporative coolers!!  

To get down to business now, I'm going to try and keep up with my CT's posts here on the ol' blog!  I'll start off with a new kit from Snap Wings called Magic Travels!   It's a great kit, full of travel related elements, clouds, and beautiful colors!  Here is the preview and you can find it here.
For my layout, I used a poem I found online!  It was about how God made the world out of his Dreams, and really fit the feeling I got out of this kit, and the sweet photos of my grandson and his daddy exploring God's world in my back yard this past spring.  My grandson is very curious, and loves to go on new adventures, and find new things.  He's a sweet boy, and I can't believe he is already six years old! 

Besides the beautiful kit from Snap Wings, I also used a CU template from Colie's Corner.  I'm so amazed at these wonderful designers and the beautiful things they create! 
I love the poem I found online!  The author is unknown--but the poem says:
God made a world out of his dreams,
Of wondrous mountains, oceans and streams,
Prairies and plains and wooded land,
Then paused and thought,
"I need someone to stand on top of the mountains
To conquer the seas, explore the plains and
Climb the trees, someone to start small and grow,
Sturdy, strong like a tree." and so...
He created boys, full of spirit and fun,
To explore and conquer, to romp and run,
With dirty faces, banged up chins
With courageous hearts and boyish grins.
When He had completed the task He'd begun,
He surely said, "That's a job well done.
So, that is my post for today!  I hope to see you again sometime soon.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  May God bless you!!

I was very excited last November when I was asked, after my month long guest spot on Connie Princes CT, if I would like to return in March.  I thought to myself--"No, I wouldn't LIKE to return, I'd LOVE to return!"  I SO looked forward to March!  Now that March is finished, I'm sad to say good bye again!  I hope someday to  be a permanent member on the team!!  A girl can dream right?  When I chose March for the month to return, I had no idea March was going to be so busy though!
Included in March, I had such a wonderful surprise because my daughter and son in law and three  precious little grandsons that live in Kansas came for a visit!  We hadn't seen them since last October when we had our family reunion in Colorado.  The boys have grown so much, and are so sweet!!  I've missed them SO much.  Our visit was fun, and full of lots of activities.  It was even warm enough one of the days to play outside with the squirt guns.  All three of them had a good time squirting Grandpa!!  They all had fun playing with Grandpa's trains too!  Grandpa had built a Lionel Train layout for them to play with while they were here!  Every day was filled with whistles, and horns and lots of clickity clack noises as the train made the rounds around and around the track!  It was terribly quiet when they left, let me tell you!!
After the family left, I had to have oral surgery.  That wasn't pleasant, but it got finished up, and hopefully won't have to worry about that tooth for a good long time!  After the surgery, I developed a head cold--which was miserable because I couldn't blow my nose because of the surgery.  All in all, I lost a week recovering from the surgery and the aftermath!  I'm doing much better now, in fact, totally back to normal.

During all that time, I had lots and lots of great kits to play with from my regular wonderful designers, and also from Connie!  It was funny that two of the designers I work with had collabs with Connie this month!  That hardly ever happens!  I'll share some of the great kits I was privileged to play with this month!  You can find Connie's great products at GingerScraps, GottaPixel, Scrapbook Bytes, and My Memories store!  Just take a look at how fabulous all of these kits are! and please keep in mind that most of the kits shown here had extra parts (templates, border clusters, hodge podge, or stacked papers!)  Connie always makes wonderful products!!

You can find all these fine products at Connie's stores!  You should make a visit--I'll bet you don't leave empty handed!  These are the layouts I made with these great products!

I love all the great layouts I was able to get done during my "down" time!!  Maybe that was the blessing for having to have oral surgery huh??  :)

Thanks so much Connie for having me for your guest!  It truly was a blessing!  You know how much I love your things.  I hope to work with you again some time! 
Thanks for stopping by--and may God Bless You!