Sunday, November 6, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving to All of You!

As I sit here drinking my 3rd cup of coffee and reflecting on all I am thankful for, I decided to update my delinquent blog!  I am very thankful for my life, my fur babies, my family, my friends and all the awesome and very generous designers that share their talent with me. So, I want to take this opportunity (in case I have told you before) to wish you and yours a most wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving! I hope God shines his grace on you and your family this day and always! I'm also sending all of you a big hug! (This is a QP I created for Miriam's Scraps using a "Thankful" circle from Marisa Lerin at Pixel Scrapper).  The Scarecrow photo was a selfie from last May.
I have been busy being a lazy bum....LMBO....yes, I have been binge watching some TV, been winterizing my home inside and out, finishing up with all my medical checklist for the year, trying to get ahead of the Christmas holiday by purchasing and mailing off some packages early, creating some of these gifts too (since the budget always seems to be tight this time of year because of house insurance and taxes) relaxing by coloring and/or scrapping or reading and generally goofing off! I surely do love retirement! Of course, all the fur kids just had to have a hand with helping me! Especially with getting all their beds freshly washed and litterboxes all cleaned!
Last Sunday was my sister Penny's birthday....so I created a couple of special pages for her on Facebook!
The first is a photo of her sometime back in the late 70's or early 80's in a frame that I doubled and layered that was created by Neli at Lugar Encantado Da Neli...she is so very generous with offerings for free daily on her site...give her a visit...you will NOT be disappointed! Thankful for you and your friendship Neli!
Then I did this one of her that Maggie sent when she took the photo in Penny's office.  She is holding her oldest (Hayden) and youngest (Wayne) grandchild in her lap.  I just adore the red nose! The page was created using several kits from Kyra at With A Russian-Dutch Heart. The border is a free gift from Snickerdoodle at Digital Scrapbooking Studio.  Kyra, too, gives very freely of her talents with marvelous kits and special treats from her CT Arlene! Kyra and Arlene, so very thankful for you and especially your friendships!
 This page I just had to create! While scanning some albums and photos (Photomyne) I ran across the b/w photo of Penny (about 1961) and noticed the remarkable similarities of her and child Amy and her granddaughters Annabeth and Eliza.  What do you think?  Amy just adores the page that was a freebie offered by Katalin Thurzo at 7szindizajn, I love this free QP.
I also HAD to create this page for my sister Kathy....she is looking a lot better here lately! I am really thankful for that, I love you sis! I can't find where I wrote the information down on this QP, so will have to get back with you a little later, but she loves purple and orange and this QP fit the bill for both! LMBO!
This page I created for Veteran's Day to post on FB to thank all those that have served in the military! Of course, there is no way I can list them all because there are way too many. The photo is of my mother's brother, Worley Frank Dugger, who was killed in Luxembourg on Christmas Day 1944.  The page was created using freebies from Digital Scrapbooking Studio!
I think this all I can share right now, there are others, but they are surprises for Christmas and will have to be shared at a later date!
The lawn folks were by yesterday, sharpening up the edges, mowing, and leaf gathering so that all will look nice for Thanksgiving! My fur kids have all been wiped clean, fed and played with (loved on too) and are all sacked out, with one lying on top of my hand as I try typing this....my little man, Sideways (otherwise known as Bubba)....He got up when I tried to snap the photo, isn't this sweet? I desaturated the photo so you could see how gorgeous he is...he is sitting above my keyboard.  I used a couple of clusters from A-Manda Creations' Blue jean collection and Brendas Scrap Designs Christmas glitter paper and the grunge overlay is from Carin Grobe Designs at DSS
OK...so I got distracted and stepped away for a bit, but am back now to finish what I started at 7 a.m. (It is now 10:30).  I want to thank all the designers I have not mentioned in this post...keep an eye out for when I do post something of yours that I used and if I haven't given you proper credit, let me know as I will correct that as soon as I can...I adore all of you and appreciate so very, very much all you share!
Weather is a little nippy but is supposed to warm to 65F and the wind is to quieten down too! Tomorrow is supposed to be gorgeous...so, with that, I will say chat later, have a very Happy Thanksgiving and make sure ou make lots and lots of memories to share! hugs, Mat


November???Already!!!!

Okay, this year can go down as winning the derby, or races, it has simply flown by, right? Here it is time to turn our clocks back, don't you wish we could turn back the years as well?  I do at times!! Especially when I have had insomnia (waking at 2 a.m.) and start scrapping old memories....LOL....then I run into some new memories being created and I'm glad that time keeps marching on!  The trips down memory lane are so wonderful, but they were fraught with some bad times too that we simply choose to push away and bury! But the new ones being created....those are the best ones...cause I get to see my nieces and nephews growing their families and I get to spoil them as I did their parents. Of course, the most fun I have with spoiling....is for all the fur babies that come and go or stay in my life! I'm still at 5 inside and at least a dozen or more outside that need feeding daily! I could spend more on scrap kits if I didn't buy so much cat food or pay for vet bills...LMBO here....but I have so many choices of freebies from such GENEROUS designers, that I really have no need to purchase....just want to occasionally! ROFL!
This week has really been a strange one with my sleeping pattern...normally I get 6-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep...NOT THIS WEEK....it's more like 3-4 hours.  So, instead of lying around, watching things I have DVR'd or reading (which I have been doing plenty of both), I have been scanning old photo albums and/or making some memory pages...making sure I have all my digitized photos backed up...reorganizing files on my computer....put like scrapping items together...and yes, even cleaning and clearing out some cobwebs and down sizing my closet (things that others might be able to use, that I am not, after all...I love staying in my jammies on most days...LOL)!
It has been such a humid summer (or I'm just getting older and noticing it more) that I haven't been able to open my windows and/or be outside much, but this last front that came through on Friday....gave us some much needed watering, less humidity and even cooler that 90F temperatures...WAHOO...that means my windows have been open and even the dust bunnies are dancing around! It is so nice to have that freshness in the inside....and oh yeah, the fur babies are loving the window sills again...at least until I sit at this computer, then they "fight" over who is going to sit on the desk above my keyboard! I LOVE IT!!!
Hopefully, this week will bring an end to some of the nastiness that is being slung around on the airwaves and social media (I'm so tired of it all) as we start a new journey with a new government reign! We had new baseball champs (108 years since they won), hopefully our Cowboys will continue to improve their record, and NASCAR is winding down another year of great racing (they are here this weekend) that ends in the next 2 races...our VETS get their day of honor this month too...(they are honored by me daily as I am so very proud of all of them for all the freedoms I enjoy at their expense)...I have even changed my outside light to green to honor them and I tell them in person when I encounter them! We have Thanksgiving coming this month too (not that you would know as all the merchants just seem to skip over this holiday anymore).  And, of course, there are lots of birthdays to celebrate too...my cousin Nancy, my sister Penny, my great nephew Calvin just to name a few.
Alright...enough rambling from me...going to get this finished...put on some good old country music...finish up my mopping (that's what I have left to do besides dusting, but the open windows is relocating that for me) and get ready for DA BOYZ to play at noon (which means I have to DVR NASCAR to watch after the game)...don't you just love us sports nuts?  I can't help it...I do love it and I think we all should do things we love....Right? Can you tell I have been up since 3 a.m. and just finished my second cup of coffee? ROFLMAO!!!
So, with that....here are some of the pages I created this past week or so! First off, here's my page for this Halloween (which was very quiet in this neighborhood).
The QP is a freebie from the Digital Scrapbooking Studio girls...I just love that black cat...the photo is from 2008.
This is my sister-in-law, Inez, isn't she lovely? I had this QP by Brigit from DSS that I wanted to use and this photo from the middle 70's is beginning to deteriorate so I digitized it and desaturated it.  She loves it, as does the rest of the family, cause I put it on Facebook as a TBT for her.
The 9th will be my cousin Nancy's birthday...I had scanned a couple of her photos and decided to use this one in a freebie from Dea that I plan to put on FB as a surprise this week, and since she loves the changing of the leaves...I decided to make this page for her as well using a cluster freebie from ADS cluster at DSS and a background from Miriam's Scraps.
This one I posted on FB for my TBT photo this past week.....
 
This memory is of Penny's first visit to Texas (about 1983 I think) Fuzzy and I were dropping her off at the airport to return home. I used a free cluster from GTDesigns and used a background from Kyra at With A Russian-Dutch Heart that I recolored.
Found this older photo of Amy and Michael (pre kids) that I realized I had not used before...so I used her favorite colors to create this for her.  I used Kyra's kit Manuela and a cluster from her CT Arlene!
This photo was snapped of Daddy and Annabeth (dressed in her Halloween BatGirl) while out shopping on one of his rare days off...the free QP is from Eudora Designs.
Amy sent these 2 photos of the girls watching a movie and sharing their cookie bites together.  They are so very close and Annabeth says Eliza is her baby...LOL...I hope they remain this way always...nothing like a sister's love! This QP is from JulieCDesigns kit xxxs & ooos at DSS.
This is for my sister Penny who will celebrate a BIG birthday on the 20th...the photo is one I scanned from the middle 70's....and placed in a frame from Neli at Lugar Encantado Da Neli. I duplicated the frame and resized them to put one on top of the other with a colored layer in between.
On the 19th, her grandson Calvin will turn 3...he is crazy about Thomas the Train, so I created this page using a kit called Choo-Choo by Nibbles Scribbles at DSS (it was on sale for $1 and is an awesome kit for boys! He is going to love being the conductor!
His little brother, Wayne, loves playing in the mud...this photo that Maggie posted was so flipping cute, I just had to scrap it...used a from The Urban Fairy called This Boy that seemed to fit fairly well! This is from DSS.
And sister Hayden could not be left out...here is a photo for her 2nd grade. She is still excelling in attendance and straight A report cards...loves to read...and has almost got her 2 front teeth back. This is a QP from Just So Scrappy...also at DSS.
This is just because....I got an updated photo of my sister Kathy...and I used her 2 favorite colors to create this remembrance.  She hasn't seen this yet...LOL! The free cluster is from hyellen at dfdd and I used a freebie stacked paper for the background...I rather like it and is shows off her blue, blue eyes!
And lastly, not to leave them out....her grandchildren's school photos for 2016 that I put in a page I created using Just So Scrappy's kit, back2school. I love that they are all smiling.
Here's a frame I created and is free at Miriam's Scraps for the month of November if you would like it.
Thanks to all you lovely designers for your very generous hearts and fantastic talent in sharing all that you do to make scrapbooking so much easier and more fun. I applaud all y'all! That's it for now (I know you are saying about time she shushed)...have a fantastic month...keep on making those memories to share! They are so much fun to visit every so often! Chat later....Hugs, Mat