2013 is almost gone....gone...gone!!

This year has simply sprouted wings and flown by!  It seems like only yesterday we were saying Happy 2013.  This has certainly been a weird but intriguing year for me. Basically, it has been a pretty good year for me and I am so thankful for all I have. I think the most memorable for me is that my nieces gave birth within months of each other(and I haven't gotten to see them yet), I reconnected with some very dear old friends (whom I got to visit and they have visited me) and I got to officially retire last month. This led to a serious case of clean out, get rid of and downsizing to my clutter!  We had a scare with my sister Kathy's health this year that all my family, and cyber friends successfully prayed for, as well as some friends that needed my prayers to aid them. I got to add a little man to my furry four legged family this year too! The whole country has experienced some really unexpected nasty weather changes and we have had to deal with some sad loss of lives! I even got to scrap a little more and am hoping that next year I will be able to scrap all I want to!

I hope you and yours had a very Merry, Bright and Wonderful CHRISTmas. Did you take lots of photos for memory books? I took a few, but most of them were of the weather, sunrises, sunsets and my fur family! I did manage to get Jayson's ABC photo book finished before years end and now I am collecting photos for Amy & Michael's Annabeth and Lance & Maggie's Calvin for their ABC photo books. I love this tradition I started with Hayden, Jade & Ruby. I took a few days to make a special memory book for my ex husband's grand children for CHRISTmas as well as going through a lot of photographs to separate and share with the folks that are in them after I scanned them into my computer....what a time consuming job, but done with love and it was so appreciated by all that received them. (I told you my clean out was serious and I haven't even broken the surface yet, but I can find things a little easier now...LOL).

Well, enough of my gabbing....here are a few scrap pages that I have made that I wanted to share and put on my blog (so they will be printed in Volume 4 of my blog book in 2014).  If you haven't tried printing your blog in a book, you should just try one...you will be hooked....I like looking at mine and reminiscing! Some of my friends have really had some nice things to say about them too! Maggie just shared this photo of Calvin on my Facebook wall, so of course I had to make a scrap page....I used Raspberry Road Designs kit called Handmade Holidays and the frame is from Timo Designs. Isn't he simply adorable? Just love that killer grin.  He is one month old and weighs 13 pounds already.

I also got copied on a photo taken at the church the Sunday both babies were confirmed...here's all of my Georgia family except for Lamar that were there. This is a QP by Miss Boots (aka Random Thoughts at Linda's Place) Front row left to right in photo is Tony & Bessie (Michael's parents), Michael holding Annabeth, Amy, Lance holding Calvin, Hayden and Maggie with pastor Johnson. Back row also left to right is Lee (friend of Michael's) Weymond and my sister Penny.

Here's a page I created for my friend Julie of her and her grand babies. Aren't they lovely children? This is from Raspberry Road Designs Christmas Romance kit, the cluster is by her CT Ellen and the wordart is Miss Linda's at Random Thoughts.

Here's Nina's grand daughter Elizabeth with her daughter Emorie...in a Christmas QP by Neli at Lugar Encantado de Neli. Nina's daughter, Tammy wanted this one to frame.

Plus, I did one for Nina's sister Beverly with her first grand child. I love this photo of them. This is a QP by Neli too!

And in another frame from Neli (she had a lot of gorgeous Christmas frames) is Nina and Chuck with their great grand daughter Emorie.

Of course I could not leave out my babies...so here are a couple of them. I am working on some for Hayden, Jade, Ruby and Jayson of their CHRISTmas that I will post later. This one of all of them lazing around is some from a lot of designers. I did the background, then used Texture 4741 by Edna B the frames are freebies from aw-prince DOTD from Digital Scrapbooking. The photos are all mine....LOL!

Here's the baby (his name is now Tom Tom cause that is what he responds to) playing with my IPad...thought I would add the other 2 watching as he shows Oreo how to play with it. (He sits on my shoulders and watches me, then when I open Cat Toys...he just has to play with it...too cute). This one is made using Kyra's kit Almost Easy and Arlene's cluster using Kyra's kit Beautiful Soul. The cat paw print border is an oldie freebie (recolored) from Tina's Creations. The frame is from Timo Designs

And one just for fun...these two are always sleeping together...they adore each other. Just couldn't resist this since I had the perfect wordart for it.  I used a kit from lth called Yuletide Memories and the wordart is from April the Scrapaholic and the frame is Timo Designs.

Okay, enough for today, got my fur babies reminding me it is time to eat, so will close for now and chat more next time.  (I'm giving you fair warnings)....LOL! Y'all all have a great, safe, healthy, prosperous New Year if I don't chat with you before then....!! Hugs & Love, Mat

Winter is offically here!

Yes, today it is officially winter, but I'll bet a lot of folks are thinking they have had winter for at least a month now. I know we did when that ice storm hit us, but after 6 days, we finally melted and had some pretty warm days, yesterday we started out at 65F, muggy and sticky, well.....about noon or so that norther finally blew in...dropped temps 20 degrees in a minute. It got biting and then the storms started during the night with lots of rumbling thunder that woke me several times (at least the cats woke me...LOL!) and it has rained all morning, and into the afternoon, but now at 3 p.m. it is finally moving out. dropped lots of much needed water for our water sheds anyhow. I decided to not even get out of my jammies today...so very nice to not have to go anywhere in this mess. I fixed a good southern lunch for me (butter beans, creamed corn, sliced tomatoes and onions and some spicy cornbread) that was so very good, now I am sitting here in front of this computer listening to George Strait sing Christmas songs, eating some of Nina's homemade cookies with a cold glass of milk for dessert. All the "babies" are asleep....life is so good! :)
I did most of my Christmas gifting online this year...maybe will not next year....UPS has been a real pain about delivering (blaming a back log on the ice storm....yeah right). I finished everything on the 13th with delivery by the 17th so that I would not be in the RUSH....I still have 2 to be delivered...only after several phone calls and e-mails they finally told me they would deliver today or at latest by Monday, will see. None so far have been delivered on time and I had several NOT delivered in Texas.  Then a package that I mailed by US Postal Service to Georgia on the 13th, left here, went to Tallahassee, FL (35 miles from destination) then it was sent to Memphis, TN where it sat for 3 days until I started raising a stink (again in person, by e-mail and phone) now it has left Memphis according to the tracker, but not to where it was sent, but I bet the package does not arrive in time for Christmas if ever! And, they are raising postage again in January as they are going broke....I wonder why??????  If I have to file a complaint they will make me prove it was not my fault before they will do anything.....GEEZ....I am glad I sent my cards out on the 3rd...hope everyone got theirs! LMBO!!
Okay, enough complaining...I am warm, fed, bills are paid and am in a lot better health than a lot of folks, so I have lots to be thankful for. Thank you God for taking care of me. I am very thankful for my family and the new additions this year that arrived healthy and with no problems. I am thankful for all my friends (real and cyber) that I cherish so much. I am thankful I have made it to complete retirement and can sit on my butt and enjoy scrapping as much as I want to....LOL! And that, I have been doing a lot of, both paper and digital. I am so very thankful for all the generous designers that so generously share their beautiful work with me so that I can make such lovely pages.I am certainly one lucky person!!!
Here are some of the things I have been making this week! first of all I used a template from Granny Enchanted for ornaments of the kiddos (Grandmas are cutting them out and putting on the trees).

Annabeth's First Christmas....cutie pie!

Calvin's First Christmas too...so handsome!

Miss Hayden's Fifth Christmas

Jade is celebrating her 7th Christmas

Ruby is celebrating her 4th Christmas as her birthday is the end of December when she will be 5.

And this is Jayson's 2nd Christmas.
I have made a few pages too, but since I am not finished, I will post those in a couple of days just before Christmas day....Y'all have a great Sunday....make lots of memories, be safe if you are traveling for the holiday and/or out finishing up your shopping. Chat with you more later, right now I think I need a nap. LOL, yep, I am happy to say I can do that now anytime I want to and not feel guilty about not doing something else.  Just loving it! Hugs, Mat

Ice is gone finally....

I know you are probably laughing your heads off, but...ice is so seldom this thick and for sure never lasts this long in Texas, we just don't have the resources for it. Last I heard was for damages so far from this ice storm were around 30 Million Dollars. Now comes the fun part, repairing/replacing vehicles, homes, schools and roads.
Miss Nina and I had a lot of fun yesterday finishing up our shopping. We always have fun when we are together. I'm just glad I don't have to fight the crowds anymore...with the nasty icy cold weather and fewer days, the stores are jam packed. I'm not much of a shopper anyhow.
I did get my CHRISTmas present to myself yesterday.....I got both of my grandfather clocks cleaned and oiled and synchronized again. While they were being fixed/cleaned, I cleaned the cabinets really good and oiled the wood,  The Clock Doc brought them back and set them up last evening (took 2 hours). They look and sound brand new...I have certainly missed the one in my bedroom not chiming (It had a broken hammer and worn out gear).
I think we had some mischievous elves playing with my blog background this past week. Some could see it, others couldn't.  I could see it on my PC, but not my iPad or phone or even on my laptop!  Weird!! But my trusted friend Miss Boots, searched it out, I think she finally got it fixed so others could see it, but she can't now...Whatever....will be glad when those little devils cease their jokes and go back home. I even had to go see Scarlett for a couple of hot toddies after that bit...LOL! 
I even found time to do a couple of pages for my sisters and one for a friend. That was fun and now I am wanting to scrap some in my paper books too! Work is almost finished, one load of laundry in dryer and the last load in the washer. I have dusted and washed "kitty nose art" off my windows. All I have left to do is mop again....with all this melting ice and the rain we got yesterday makes a big mess, but it is so much easier to mop than shampoo carpets....LMBO! Then I can sit and scrap to my heart's content and not feel guilty about letting things go to scrap....LOL!
Anyhow, here are the pages I did and posted on Facebook...

This page of the Georgia clan is called Christmas Wishes by Mago74, lovely freebie kit. She actually has about 5 that are all Christmas or Winter themed that I found on Best Free Digital Scrapbooks.

Here are the Missouri gang in a page made using Kyra and Arlene's work from With a Russian Dutch Heart if you haven't visited her site lately, you have missed some awesome Christmas kits that are free too.

This page I did for Amy's sister-in-law and used a couple of kits by Mago74. This is their newest addition to the family last month. Isn't he just too cute?

This is for a double page layout in my paper book of Penny's grand kids and Kathy's grand kids.This frame was created for me by Neli at Lugar Encantado De Neli on her site you can find over 50 Christmas frames that she offers for free.
Once again, I want to thank all you wonderful designers who so generously share your work with us  scrapbookers. Y'all all ROCK! Hugs to each of you.

I hope all of you have a fabulous weekend of making memories with your loved ones. I'll chat more with you later, have a great weekend and week ahead!
Luv, Mat

OOPS!!

Evidently some prankster elves are messing with the background of my blog.....my blog GURU is trying so hard to find the elusive little devils, so please be patient if you don't see my blog background, it will be fixed as soon as she can find the culprit....LOL! Have a great week ahead y'all, I think we may be thawing out some today and tomorrow! LOL! Luv, Mat

Brrr-Winter Finally found us!

Wednesday we hit 80 degrees, Thursday winter finally found Texas! We dropped 50 degrees in one day, then the freezing rain and sleet found us last evening, all night and is just easing off with the sleet in my area now at 10:00 a.m. Friday morning. We have between 1-3 inches of ice, more than a quarter of a million without power (thankfully, not me) and it is now 25 with a windchill in the teens. This area is shut down, all schools and non essential government offices are closed. The DOT is working around the clock to try keeping the major highways open (but we don't have enough equipment as this happens so seldom here), lots of traffic accidents especially with 18 wheelers at a stand still on the high overpasses, Power is trying to be restored, but again because of the icing hazards it is slow and sometimes dangerous. There are power lines down, trees bending that have lots of leaves with all the ice, carports have toppled under the weight of the ice. It looks like a winter wonderland outside.

The cats and I are warm and toasty, we cuddled all night as we listened to the ice pelting the windows. The outside cats in the back (facing the north) were snuggled in their "condos with the electric warming beds" and the mama and her five kittens were snuggled in boxes on the front porch (facing the south) in their blankets. As I took food out to them this morning the ones out back (Buddy, Shadow, Patches & Prissy) were all warm (their food bowls were frozen to the ground and water bowl was solid), they came out to eat a little, but it was still sleeting pretty hard so they went back to bed....within 30 minutes their food/milk was frozen, I had to bring it in to thaw for later. The ones out front fared a little better as their water was not frozen and they ate all the food asap and lapped up the warm milk they were given, frolicked a little in the icy stuff, then right back to their beds. The birds could be heard walking on the ice under the trees searching for food, I promptly threw out chunks of bread and lots of seeds on top of the ice for them, my kitties on the inside sitting in the window watching them.

 I took some quick photos of my red oak tree in the front yard, it is so laden with ice that the branches are only a couple of feet off the ground, hoping the winds we are experiencing don't break those limbs before some of the ice melts (which will be a few days out as we are not to get out of the 20's until Monday or Tuesday). I am so very thankful I have enough food for all of us to wait this out as I DO NOT want to attempt having to drive anywhere.

Hoping all of you are safe and warm and stay that way. Blessings wished to all, chat more next time! Luv, Mat