I’m back with another freebie, which just happens to be another coordinating page to our November *Days Gone By* challenge posting bonus, *Glitterfall*!

I really had no idea that I would end up scrapping wedding photos with *Glitterfall*, but I really like the way these two have turned out AND the kids DID get married a few days into the OFFICIAL “Fall” season!!!  I chuckle as it was a SWELTERING 104 degrees on the 26th of September and I kid you not when I say that the wedding party, as well as the guests, were melting!  LOL!  I can laugh now, but it was not SO funny at the time as I think we were all a little delirious!  I know, in retrospect, I did not capture several photos I would have liked to, but the kids were simply TOO hot (yes, beads of perspiration upon each of their sweet little faces) to give us the time we would have liked to have had with them.  Anyhoo, Jessica, looking stunningly beautiful walking down the aisle, arm-in-arm with her dad, to the song, “At Last” by Etta James.  I have used the lyrics to the song as my journaling for the first page!  ROFL!  Yup, I even scrapped backwards as the first layout I posted last week is now page two!  He, he …

Credits: *Glitterfall* by Bon Scrapatit Designs.  Fonts used are Pea Jessica

(you guessed it – the bride’s name!) by Kevin and Amanda and Kartika

Here is what both pages will look like together.  I changed the background paper on the second page to match the first as these will go into a photobook!  WOO HOO!  My VERY first and I am SUPER excited about gettin’ ‘er done! *wink*

I think I mentioned that Mark and Jessica’s wedding was not of the traditional variety and I LOVED every moment of it!  They were married in the backyard of one of Jessica’s aunt and uncle’s homes that sits atop a hill (or small mountain!) with no other home for miles and a GORGEOUS 360-degree view!  They even say that on a REALLY clear day, you can spy Half Dome in Yosemite National Park!!!  All I can say is that it is breathtaking and I would have NO problem waking up to Dan and Kelly’s view every morning!  The two lovebirds were joined in holy matrimony by a dear and long-time family friend who rode in on his Harley!  So, needless to say, that Harley became an instant prop for LOTS of photos and you’d have thought that my other three sons and the best man ALL looked like the Secret Service!!!  With it being SOOOOOO hot and the wedding party facing the sun, the guys ALL wore their sunglasses along with black slacks, white shirts and black ties!  LOL!  Can we say, “Men in Black”?  Uh, huh! I will share a few more photos next blog post!

REMINDER:  If you would like to receive the kit, *Glitterfall* (featured below) for FREE, all you need to do is check out our November *Days Gone By* challenge in the Scrapland Express Forum (must register first in both the forum and the gallery), create a layout and then post in the Scrapland Express Gallery.  You will receive links for the posting bonus via our private messaging system at Scrapland Express!  Links are also posted on both mine and Dawn’s blogs (sidebars) at all times and will change to the new monthly challenge once it has been posted in the Scrapland Express Forum!

We hope that you will come and join us and add to your family albums each month as we ALL scrap from *Days Gone By*! *big smile*  To those who have already posted layouts, “thank you”!  I’ve left y’all some love and  I will be headed over later tonight or first thing in the morning to PM you your posting bonus!!!  WOO HOO! 

Dawn (Snowsmoon’s Design), also has a FREEBIE for y’all this week on her blog this week (stay-tuned for another one towards the end of the week!).  Click the preview image below to be transported to Dawn’s blog for your downloading pleasure and please leave her some love for sharing her BEAUTIFUL quick page using *Glitterfall*!  Thank you girlfriend – you ROCK!

Scrapland is bustling right now with the holidays just right around the corner!  Stay-tuned as Dawn and I both will be participating in a few Christmas blog trains and will be posting more about them towards the end of month!  Blog trains will be departing December 1st, so mark your calendars and prep your hard drives for some AMAZING and FESTIVE goodies from multi-talented designers from all over Scrapland!

Thanks SO much for stopping in to visit and I wish y’all a GORGEOUS day and may it be FULL of scrap happenings!  I hope you enjoy your goody. I have included two, one with the vellum journaling matte (custom shadowing included) and one without!

Bon Scrapatit!

Linda <3

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD SCRAPATIT

HAPPY NOVEMBER EVERYONE!!!

Gosh, I have SO missed everyone and wish to take this opportunity to thank EACH and EVERY one of you for such a WARM welcome back, although, I’ve sure have been SLOW at getting back here, eh?  LOL!  Y’all are TOO sweet for words and I just wish you to know HOW special you are to me!  Thank you from the depths of my being!

Okay, I will catch you all up on things a little along the way as it has felt SO good to get back to Photoshoppin’ and I wish to start working on some NEW designs!   I am going to do things a little bit differently this time around as my perpetual late nights have wreaked havoc upon me and I am now on a schedule and in bed by 11:00 pm PST, most of the time!  Yeah, that has been a bit difficult when being a night owl is in your DNA, however, for health purposes and giving my body the ability to rejuvenate, I quickly threw up the white flag and gave in!  He, he … not to mention that I am now up and at ‘em early and walking with the LOVE of my life!  More about that another time! 

I am sharing just a few photos from my son’s wedding the end of September!  We had a FABULOUS time!  I will give more details in another post along with sharing a few more photos. 

Before I head on into this month’s challenge and today’s freebie, I wish to let everyone know that if you have sent me an email in the past month or so, I have now collected most of them and put them into a file for me to reply to.  I have had SUCH a struggle with being able to reply from the older computer I had everything coming to and thought that computer had finally bid me farewell, however, I turned it on the other day and VOILA, it booted up!  WOOT!  Anyhoo, my mails were getting stuck in the outbox and that is usually an indication of going over the limit on my personal email server, so I tried setting up on Robert’s computer and had difficult replying on there as well. *sigh* 

My method to my email madness was to finally cave and put everything here on my design computer AND to make them all Internet based!  For me, this will work well as I will no longer overload my computer with saved email and will have access to everything in ONE location.  I chose to go with G-mail for this since I already had two accounts that I had been longing to merge into one!  I am happy now that I can view ALL mails in the same window and when I get a little more time, I may even apply a few filters to simplify things even more!

To those of you who have inquired about past kits, I shall reply to you directly.  If you have inquired and do not hear back from me within the week, please send again as I either have not received it or have lost it in the process of moving mail. 

Carolyn – I am remembering a comment from you that you had sent me an email about Armour Thyroid.  I searched and searched and did not locate one.  Would you please resend as I am VERY interested in reading what you have to share.  Thank you!

I hope that y’all will join Dawn of Snowsmoon’s Designs and I for this month’s *Days Gone By* challenge!  Seeing as how we are coming up upon Thanksgiving here in the United States, we are challenging you to create a layout that preserves something or someone that you are thankful for from *Days Gone By*!   You can find all of the details HERE!  (you MUST be registered first)  You will also see all of the links posted on the upper-lefthand side of my blog throughout the month.  Dawn will post info and links on her blog as well.  Please give us feedback if you encounter any troubles in registering and/or getting into the forum.   You can reach me at bonscrapatitdesigns (at) gmail (dot) com.

Here is a peek at this month’s posting bonus:

I gave out a small sampler of this mini-kit last year, so some of you may remember it!  This was my contribution to the monthly Treasure Chest at One Single Seed, formerly know as Treasures To Scrap, which closed during the summer, so I am now free to sell it or give it away!  Guess which I am doing???  HA, HA!  When I first saw the color palette, I was stumped!  Once my mojo kicked in, I didn’t wish to stop!  I LOVE this combination of colors – SO rustic and perfect for this time of the year, don’t you think? 

And for your freebie today, I am giving y’all the scrapatit I used to scrap some of Mark and Jessica’s wedding photos which, of course, is made from our November challenge posting bonus, *Glitterfall*!  ENJOY and I’ll see you again SOON!

Have a GORGEOUS day everyone!

Love and hugs,

Linda :D

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD SCRAPATIT

Hi y’all!

Happy “82nd” birthday to my precious Mama and Happy “52nd” birthday to my baby brother!

I am just checking in briefly to let you all know that I am not only swimming slowly, but have been temporarily out of the fishbowl again while it’s getting a bit of a well-needed cleaning!  ROFL!  I think y’all can get a fairly good visualize of what that MIGHT look like, eh?  He, he … ACK!

Short and sweet.  My older computer, home to my e-mail activity, is no longer booting up and as of last night, I was finally able to get everything set up on yet another computer!  LOL!  Uhm … honey, would you mind if I set my e-mails up on YOUR computer?  LOL!  Yup, well he really does not mind as he does not use his computer here in the office, but his laptop in the other room, so that was comforting to know I could set up without having to on my design computer. 

I had grown accustomed to being able to keep my e-mail window open while working in Photoshop on the newer computer, however, it has been such a SLOW process that the older computer finally giving out was actually a blessing in disguise! It has forced me to seek a quick resolution to my mounting frustration of not getting anywhere because of my computer “hanging” forever when mouse-clicking on a link!  HA, HA! Yes, there is ALWAYS a method-to-the-madness, now isn’t there?  *big grin*

I hope to find y’all staying healthy and doing some SERIOUS scrapping and I should be back over the weekend with the templates I mentioned last post, along with a few photos to share!

Wishing everyone a WONDERFUL weekend!

Love and hugs,

Linda :D

ROFL!  Now, whatever do I mean by being back in the fish bowl???  Well, rather than go on-and-on, as we ALL know I can easily do, I will tell you how I see myself in the life of a goldfish!

Firstly, I’d like to say, it’s SOOOOOOOOO good to be getting back to Scrapland after two months of MIA status, with but a few posts in between.  UGH!  I have to admit, while I have been having a GRAND time of it all, I was feeling like a floundering goldfish who had found him/herself jumping WAY too high and right out of the fish bowl!  Can y’all visualize this one?  Uh, huh … I’m sure most all of us have had goldfish in our childhood or that of our own children and either watched a goldfish jump out of the bowl or we’ve found one that has already perished as a result of doing so.  I’ve experienced both!

I remember as a young girl watching one of our goldfish jump out and then watched as it floundered until either my brother or I scooped it up gently and returned it to the fish bowl!  We would then watch as it would swim away as if nothing at all had happened, but I do remember one that must have been out of the water just long enough to make it a little more slow-going upon it’s return to it’s much needed water-based environment.  Of course, we did find a few that were not lucky enough to be found soon enough and being children, we’d have a good cry and usually have some sort of service to lay our poor fishy to rest.  Boy, am I reminiscing at the moment, or what?  How wonderful it is to ponder upon, *Days Gone By*, eh? *wink*

With one DELIGHTFUL event after another and preparations being made for several family events, including the marriage of my son and WONDERFUL new daughter-in-law (I will share a few photos soon), I just found myself feeling more and more like a fish out of water, floundering and wondering if I’d ever be scooped up and returned to my fish bowl aka Scrapland!  ROFL!  HA, HA, HA, HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!  Y’all KNOW what I’m talking about!

So, here I am, back in the fish bowl and I find myself being like the aforementioned fish that had been out of the fish bowl a little TOO long and was a little slower in picking up the speed after floundering for SO long!  YUP, that would be me, however, I am happy to say that I CAN still swim, even though it be at a bit slower pace for a while!  WOOT, WOOT!!!  I’ve missed y’all immensely.  You are a part of my family that I was accustomed to visiting on a regular basis and then … NADA!  I got homesick for y’all!  He, he … *big grin*

Well, I am returning to my beloved Scrapland with some news and, of course, a little something for y’all!  After all, it IS *Fantabulous Freebie Friday*, now isn’t it? *wink*

I mentioned (last sentence of the third paragraph) how wonderful it is to ponder upon, *Days Gone By*.  Some of you already know that Dawn aka Snowsmoon’s Design and I had started a challenge in the DSO forum called, *Days Gone By*.  Well, during my absence and the fact that neither one of us will be selling our designs at DSO, Dawn had gone ahead and moved our challenge to our blogs as we LOVED Dawn’s idea so much and had some FABULOUS masterpieces submitted, that we just HAD to keep this AWESOME challenge alive!  I, myself, look forward to participating in it as well to help inspire others who, like me, may not have ANY or just a few photos from childhood, yet hold some INCREDIBLE memories that need to be preserved for our children, grandchildren and further down the line!

While Dawn was working on her blog post to announce our challenge for October, I was in creating a special place in our gallery at Scrapland Express for y’all to upload your layouts to each month as well as posting the guidelines and the challenge for October in the Scrapland Express forum.  Please bear with us as we work towards bringing the forum and gallery together on our site in the near future.  For now, you will find it easy to travel from the forum to the gallery via links that you will find posted in the GUIDELINES thread and along with each month’s new *Days Gone By* challenge.  You will also find the links to both the gallery and the forum posted on our blogs.  I will mention to you ahead of time, that you will need to register separately in both the forum and the gallery to participate as the two are not connected … yet!  LOL!

As I have a few more things to share with y’all, I am not going to post the actual challenge on my blog this time, but will post only the links to the appropriate forum threads for you to read, which will open in a separate window so that you are not taken away from my blog (THANK YOU JEANNETTE!!! MWAH!).  You will need to register to gain access to the forum.  If you are interested in reading what the *Days Gone By* challenge is all about and what is required of you to participate, please read the GUIDELINES first and then hop on over and read about our October challenge in the  AUTUMN/FALL thread.  Please DO stop in and say hello (right in the current challenge thread) as we will check in often to answer any questions you may have, as well as to check for your links once you’ve posted YOUR masterpieces in the GALLERY for October!  I am SO excited and cannot wait to see what y’all have to share with us this month!  WOOT! I’d better get busy too as I have NO photos that will work for this month’s challenge, so I shall be working with digital scrapkit papers, embellishments and honing up on my journaling skills!  I look forward to bumping into y’all throughout the month!  Ready? Set? Get YOUR scrap on!

This month’s Posting Bonus was LOVINGLY created by Dawn of Snowsmoon’s Design and I am DEFINITELY leaving you with a preview of her GORGEOUS creations!  Thank you girlfriend, these are YUMMY and SO perfect for heritage scrapping!  Keep your eyes peeled for some goodies from Dawn on her blog this weekend as well!  WOO HOO!

Scrapland Express will also house a VERY dear friend and as some of you know, my virtually adopted daughter, Sarah of Designs by Sassy!  Sassy is a well-established designer and also the owner of Designs By Sassy (where Dawn is currently selling her designs).  Sassy has done  most of the “behind-the-scenes” work in getting our forum and gallery up and running, for which we are EVER grateful and SIMPLY ecstatic!  THANK YOU Sass!  MWAH!  You DA bomb girlie!

As I’ve been away for SO long and have taken LOTS of photos and it being TOO overwhelming to share A LOT at one time, I am going to break things up and, my goal is, to incorporate some of the past two months events into a CT layout for one of the girls and/or using something that I create to share with y’all!

Your *Fantabulous Friday Freebie* tonight will be from a FREE kit, *Icky Burpday* (we’ll have to ask Sassy about the title as I know she told me some time ago where she got it from and my mind has gone blank, but it does sound like something a child would utter, now doesn’t it? LOL!) that I used to create a two-page layout of our grandson, Lohgan’s  second birthday party that we attended mid-September.  With Sassy’s permission, I am offering up not one, but two “scrapatits” with a combination of Sassy’s kit and two multiple-frame templates that I created!  Stay-tuned as I will be posting the templates for you this weekend!  I made the grids a bit wider, which makes them nice for journaling on!  As I am typically a clean-lined scrapper, yet lover of embellishments and am going to be making a photobook for Lohgan, I have chosen to create templates that will allow me to scrap LOTS of photos per page as this is a large family and I take LOTS of photos!  LOL!  I’ve also asked Lohgan’s mommy to send me some of her favorites to add to the photobook as well.

Here are my two layouts of our DARLING grandson, Lohgan, son of Robert’s number three son, Travis and his wife, Sofie!  Sofie picked such a CUTE theme for Lohgan’s birthday and if memory serves me correctly, MOST everything came from Celebrate Express, which I have already passed on to my son, Mark and his new wife, Jessica for Kaleb’s second birthday coming up in April of next year!  Oh, how I wished it was this convenient when my children were growing up!  LOL!  Everything all in ONE place and delivered to your door!  Makes me wonder how it’ll be for our grandchildren when they have children!  Ya’ll remember the Jetson’s?  OMGosh, that was like my favorite cartoon and I would just imagine what it would be like to drive a space car or to get beamed up … or down!  ROFL!  Meet George Jetson … His boy, Elroy… daughter, Judy … Jane, his wife … and, of course, their rog, rastro!  Did I get that right???  Anyhoo, you’ve just GOT to love the Jetson’s … family of the FAR OUT future, although not THAT far out anymore!  He, he …  REP!

Lohgan LOVES music!  He has been dancing since he could stand on both feet and he is QUITE the little ROCKER!  OMGosh, he was WAY too cute and this was one of the only poses I did not get a good shot of.  If you look closely, you will see the smaller photo on the first page where his little head is cocked backwards while he is strumming his Fischer-Price guitar and singing his precious little heart out to the crowd!  Not a bit of stage fright going on here I tell you!  He just LOVES to perform!  Oh, oh, OOOOOH!  I have to mention to you that the birthday hat you see on Lohgan’s head as he is reading his new Sponge Bob book is actually from Sassy’s kit (you would have been none-the-wiser if I’d not mentioned it, right? *smile*) and I made the number “2” from it as well! 

Okay, I could not resist!  For those who remember and better yet, for those that are WAY too young to know unless someone MUCH older has clued you in growing up!  Meet … The Jetson’s …

And last, but certainly not the least, your *Fantabulous Friday Freebie*, courtesy of Designs By Sassy and Bon Scrapatit Designs!  Make sure to head on over to Sassy’s Blog where you can pick up her *Icky Burpday* scrapkit for FREE right now.  She also has a *Buy My Store* deal going on too and you will find all the details on her blog as well as some LOVELY photos she has worked on in Adobe Lightroom from her wedding!  Please make sure to leave her some good old-fashioned Scrapland lovin’!  MWAH!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD BOTH SCRAPATITS

Hi y'all!!!

Firstly, my condolences, thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of actor, Patrick Swayze, who has lost his battle with pancreatic cancer this afternoon. He is NO longer in pain and I am in awe at his strength and fighting spirit over the past couple of years since his diagnosis.

Robert and I had a WONDERFUL time this past Saturday as we helped to celebrate the second birthday of our grandson, Lohgan! It was such a HOOT to watch the two-year-old cousins hanging out and playing with Lohgan's new toys! Can we say PRECIOUS??? Uh, huh!  Today is Lohgan’s official second birthday!  Happy birthday little man – we LOVE you!

It is difficult for me to believe that I have actually NOT designed or EVEN scrapped for the past several weeks, month or LONGER! LOL! I was almost feeling like a stranger in a strange land when I sat down Saturday evening to work on a layout for my BFF's newest kit, *Fresh New Look*, which boasts of blues and browns with a touch of green and was PERFECT for a close-up that I took of Lohgan after he had a little fun with his birthday cake and then sat down to open presents! WOOT! Oh my goodness! I think there was a mini-shopping center atop the picnic table! ROFL! He, he ...

I did learn that Lohgan LOVES Sponge Bob and he called him by name each time he opened a new package containing the INFAMOUS sponge! *wink* Lohgan also LOVES music and plays guitar hero with his daddy and dances up a storm! I wasn't so lucky in capturing a GOOD shot of Lohgan rocking out with his toy electric guitar, but it was ADORABLE to watch all the same!

What have y'all been up to??? I've heard it's been pretty quiet out-and-about SCRAPLAND, but figure now that school has started, y'all will be back to scrapping soon enough, eh? I know that I have missed creating and was SO happy to have had Dawn's *Fresh New Look* to work with, which has drop-kicked (yes, the guys are out watching Monday Night Football!) me out of my dry spell and managed to get me back into the scrapping groove!  Touchdown!  LOL!

Thank you ALL for your kind words and understanding of my time away. ONLY eleven more days until Mark and Jessica's wedding! WOO HOO! After that, Robert's second-born and his family are coming out to California from Tennessee for a week. We will be driving down to visit with them and to meet the FIRST Posten girl, Miss Claire, born in January of this year! He, he ... I am SOOOOO excited!!!  Things should begin to settle down a bit after their departure and I hope to start doing some time right here with y’all and my beloved Photoshop!  WOOT!  I surely will have a TON of photos to scrap too!

Tonight, I am sharing a layout of SWEET little Lohgan with y'all and I am also sharing with you by way of a "scrapatit"! The colors are very versatile and it will work WONDERFULLY for boys, girls, family, park, hiking, camping and SO much more!

Make sure to hop on over to Dawn's blog and check out her previews so that you can see ALL she has for the offering with her *Fresh New Look* bundle! Lots of DELICIOUS frames, tags, stitching, TWO alphas and more to go with the EARTHY papers and embellishments!  Dawn also has a coordinating FREEBIE for y’all that coordinates with *Fresh New Look* now available at Designs By Sassy!  Thank you girlfriend!!!  Dawn has JUST set up shop and will soon be in two other stores as well!  WOO HOO!  You GO girl!

Stay-tuned as I will be working on a FREE kit for y'all via Kim B's September Colour Challenge. I could NOT, NOT pass up this month's SWEET woodsy and earthy palette that I am hopeful will help me to scrap a few of our Yosemite photos taken weekend before last! Oh yeah, summer's end is upon us and Autumn is knocking upon the door! How COOL is that? LOL!

Wishing you ALL a WONDERFUL week ahead and I hope that it finds you plenty of time for scrapping, of course! *wink*

Love and hugs,

Linda

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD SCRAPATIT

Hi y'all!!!

How is EVERYONE???  It's been TOOOOOO quiet around here!  ANYBODY HOME???  *wink* I’ve been MISSING YOU horribly! 

I have SO much to share and wish to do it as briefly as possible for the sake of ALL of us here in SCRAPLAND!!!  HA, HA!
Firstly, I left y'all with my going to be working DILIGENTLY on goodies for an upcoming surprise at DSO!  Well, there ARE lots of goodies, but sadly, none of them from me!  I shall explain ...

Some of you may remember back towards the beginning of the year when I had mentioned to you that I was seeing "jaggies" on everything and to PLEASE let me know if you saw any after downloading my files.  Y'all assured me that everything was fine.  I have continued to design amidst the annoying little jagged edges!  LOL!

DSO prides itself in an AWESOME quality assurance department that checks ALL designs before uploading them to the store for sale.  I agree with this WHOLEHEARTEDLY as in my days as an Administrative Assistant at 3Scrapateers (2005-2007), I was trained to do this as well, which in turn led to my desire to design now that I understood how things were done, what was expected via Industry Standards,etc.  This step assures YOU, the consumer, in receiving TOP-QUALITY product without having to go through the process of unzipping files, perhaps, MONTHS later only to find stray pixels, "jaggies", improper resolution, and so on.  God knows I myself have spent OODLES of money on product I CANNOT use and have become MUCH more selective in the process, which is a GOOD thing for y’all as well as my pocketbook! 

As I was beginning to work on creating some things for the Second Annual DSO PU Grab Bags, I was struggling and becoming frustrated with the FACT that EVERYTHING I was looking at had "jaggies", which are TABOO in TOP QUALITY digital designs and as it SHOULD be!  When I say EVERYTHING had "jaggies", I am not exaggerating.  Kim B's CU goodies are amongst THE BEST around SCRAPLAND and I was even seeing "jaggies" on her stuff!!!  I kid you not, I EVEN awoke from a dream of “jaggies”!!!  EEEEEEKS!  So, now, I am sure that you understand my frustration in HOW in the world am I going to be able to create product when I cannot tell on my side if it is good or not???  I did NOT wish to have to rely on QA to be MY eyes on a regular basis as that would certainly NOT be fair to them with other designer's products to check as well.  I found myself VERY quickly in a "Catch-22" and spent several days thinking it through and decided that BEFORE putting the QA team to work and stressing myself with deadlines that THIS would be the RIGHT time to gracefully resign from DSO.

Ms. Bunny and Ms. Kim both spent some time helping me to sort through my troubles and much of it came down to adjusting settings for the performance of my computer, which allowed me to see smooth edges using the Windows Viewer, but still seeing slight "jaggies" in Photoshop.  By this time, I realize that it is FAR too late for me to get anything ready, uploaded and quality-checked before the deadline!  ACK!  Bottom line is that at this point I shall need to upgrade my graphics card as I now work on a HD large screen monitor and my computer’s stock card is just not powerful enough to give me the crispness I need to see SMOOTH lines in Photoshop the way I used to!  It will be a couple of months until I am able to purchase one. *sigh*

I know y'all know that I've been struggling for some time and I've finally come to the conclusion and heard the message LOUD and CLEAR, that I am not to even think about selling until I am prepared and AHEAD of the game!  It seems that every time "I" think the timing is right, something or THINGS are hurled into my path that are MORE important to deal with at the time, in turn, putting me "behinder" as I like to say!  LOL!  Yes, I still have my humor intact and that will ALWAYS, God willing, be a MAJOR part of my life which keeps me on an even keel, at peace with myself and the rest of the world! He, he ...
SO, I am going to focus working here on my blog once again and shall just be creating some FREEBIES for y'all until my life SLOWS down on the home front and time allows me to get serious about creating enough scrapkits to warrant opening a store front!  I shall still look forward to participating in Kim’s monthly color challenges too!  I am ALWAYS inspired and challenged by her selections!

And, WHAT else has come my way to keep me from my passion of creating digital scrapbooking designs for y'all to preserve your MOST precious and priceless memories with???  The VERY things that provide us with those memories, family events!  WOO HOO!

I was informed by my number two son, Mark, father of my DARLING grandson, Kaleb that he and Jessica are getting married ... within the month!  Uhm, okay, YAY, uhm ... ONE month??? So, after the initial SHOCK of getting a wedding together, myself together and HOW am I going to design at such a time as this ... I QUICKLY came to the decision that it is NOT the proper time for me to attempt opening a store front and that my focus NEEDS to be on my family.
I actually babysat Kaleb for the VERY first time this past Tuesday and it was a JOYOUS day and, hopefully, a day of bonding for he and I.  As I only see him every 6-8 weeks and he is only 17-months-old, I figured it would be difficult for him to be left in a fairly unfamiliar environment with a Grandma he "really" does not know.  Mark and Jess live  in a SWEET little apartment built just for them in the basement of her parent's home, which I think is WONDERFUL as at least Kaleb has regular contact with one set of grandparents.  I know that is becoming more and more rare today so I embrace the fact that he is blessed to know his grandparents, although, that shall soon be changing as Mark is enlisting in the Navy as soon as he and Jess say "I do"!

I will keep y'all up-to-date as things progress.  I have been asked to be the "wedding photographer" and feel TOTALLY inadequate for such a memorable event, SO, I have been fortunate enough to recruit my oldest son to be the videographer and one of Robert's younger sisters to be a second still photographer working along side of me!   WOOT, got most all of that figured out and now my oldest daughter and I are looking at songs for the Mother-Son dance in which Mark has requested that his sister, April, sing! 

Of course y'all JUST have to know that any of my children getting married means that I get the honor of seeing ALL six of them together!  It has been just a tad over ONE year since they were all together for Travis and Joan's wedding.  Oh, OH, OOOOOH ... and then, I've just received the news that April and her fiance', Ethan have set their wedding date for February 20th of next year!  WOOT!  Road trip!

Speaking of road trip, I best get myself to bed for a few hours of slumber before we have to arise and prepare for our trek to Yosemite.  I had hoped to include a little something for y’all tonight, however, I had the pleasure of playing DJ for Robert and his sister Corinne after dinner!  Y’all would’ve had a good chuckle watching me running back-and-forth between the kitchen and my office, taking their next request while cleaning the kitchen!  Shhhhh … I’m not telling them my secret as they thought it just AMAZING how I’d no sooner be given an artist and a song title and I had it playing for them!!!  Ya just gotta LOVE the “search” feature on just about anything!  He, he …. *wink*  Anyhoo, they both just fell asleep about 20 minutes ago so I snuck in here real quick to finish this up and hit the PUBLISH button.  Oh yes, I am using Windows Live Writer for the VERY first time and look forward to seeing how it works for y’all and for me!  Weeeeeee! 

One more thing before I say good night.  In light of the aforementioned topic of TOP-QUALITY CU products, in the event that you’ve not already heard, Kim and Bunny have opened a BRAND new store that shall be selling nothing BUT quality checked CU goodies and I’ve already signed up and made my first purchase.  I am sure I will do some more shopping when we return from Yosemite as I’ve just spied another one of my favorite CU designers there as well.  You just have go check it out for yourself.  All of the designers are having GREAT sales and Kim is selling a SPECIAL grand-opening CU grab bag for ONLY $1.50!  Click on the image below to be transported to the Digi Scrap Vault where you can check out the designers AND their sales!  WOOT!

And while you’re clicking, please take a peek over at the DSO forum for a NEW challenge posted by Dawn and I!  I can’t wait to work on something to put into the DSO gallery myself as I REALLY need to be working on my *Days Gone By*!!!  Oh, and just WAIT until you see Dawn’s LOVELY posting bonus!  You haven’t FAR to look! (Look down, LOOK down) ROFL!  Click on the image below to be transported to the DSO forum where you can read ALL of the SWEET details!  Oh dear, I am DROOLING here!  Did I mention that blue IS my favorite color!  *smile*  Oh my, my, my … that IS yummy!

Have a TERRIFIC weekend y’all and I will work on some goodies for you after we return from our weekend in Yosemite!

Much love,

Linda :-D

P.S.  I neglected to mention that the PU bags for sale this week by the DSO Designers are ONLY $3.00 each and chock-full of DELICIOUS goodies!