Friday, April 29, 2011

Little Boy Little Horse

I was in a mood to work on a layout and took advantage of it and spent Tuesday evening in my scrapbook room.  As messy as my scrapbook room is, I embraced the flow of creativity, overlooked the mess, pushed a lot of things aside and went to work!  I love when you can combine a few challenges within one layout!  There is the Polka Dot and Stripes Challenge at Frosted Designs.  The Polka Dot Challenge at The Paper Variety and several sketch challenges over at Sweet Peach Crop Shop.
I love the combination of papers from Lily Bee's Catching Fall collection and Crate Paper's Toy Box collection!
Sweet Peach Crop Shop is celebrating their one year anniversary this month and have 4 sketches this month by Liz Chidester, rather then their usual one.  I chose the 3rd Anniversary Sketch:
I kept this layout pretty simple, only using two buttons for embellishments and let the papers be the highlight of the layout along with the adorable picture of my son on his first Christmas.  I edited the picture in the Lo-Fi photo editing program to give it an aged look, after I changed it to sepia in Photo Shop.   
Here are a few closeups of my layout:


Life is still pretty hectic for me.  My daughter is doing well and I am thankful for that.  My mother's health has been rapidly deteriorating and my sister and I will be very busy next week taking her to various specialists.  It saddens me deeply to see her rapid memory loss and I fear that one day she may not know who her family is.   She has not been diagnosed yet, but I already fear the word Alzheimer. I lost a grandfather to this dreaded disease and pray that it does not take my mother. As I sit here and type I hold back the tears and pray to God to guide me and keep me strong.
Hope you all have a great weekend.  I'm trying to play catch up on visiting all of you, but only manage to get a few comments done every few days.  Bear with me, as I will be by to see your beautiful creations!  
 

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

I'm Still Here . . .

The past week has been a hard one, but it's been taken one day at a time. I remain hopeful that our lives are on the right track and things will get better.  I haven't gone in my scrapbook room since last week and am going to go in there after I post this and actually try to work on a layout. I've neglected visiting all of you also and am hoping to get back into blogging. 
I was asked awhile back to be a guest designer for Sweet Peach Crop Shop this month for their one year anniversary.  I was given their special Anniversary kit to work with, and am thankful that I got these layouts completed the beginning of the month.





You can check their post today featuring me here.
They have a lot of challenges going on right now with great prizes.  Stop by and check it out!

Friday, April 22, 2011

So Sweet - SOUS Challenge

For those of you who have expressed their concern for my daughter, I want to say thank you for caring.  It's been a long and stressful week and I am taking it one day at a time.  Her well being is in God's hands and I've
taken a step back and pray that he will guide her. As a parent of an adult child, it is hard when they are in their darkest hours.  You can be there for them, but you can't fix them.  As I prefer to keep the details private, all I can say is that I came very close to losing my daughter this past week.  I have found great comfort this week in praying and knowing that God is not only watching over my daughter, but me and my family.  I am going to take a few days off from blogging and focus on myself and  my family.  I hope that everyone has a joyous weekend, whether you are celebrating Passover or Easter!  Enjoy your time with your family!

My scrapbooking has been the last thing on my mind.  I've worked on this layout a little at a time this week and finished it up last night.
This is my niece as a baby.  She is now 18 years old.   Last Friday when I saw the new sketch at 
Stuck On U Sketches by Liz Qualman, I just knew it was meant for me:
Here are a few closeups:


I used my April kit from Artful Delight!    I've really enjoyed working with this kit and have savored every scrap of it.  I've completed five layouts from it so far and have one more I'm working on.
If you are interested in this kit:
there are two left and you can order here.
Have a wonderful weekend!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Beauty

I love the elegance in this layout!  The "beauty" is my mom at age 18.
 I used the Martha Stewart Eyelet Lace border punch on several strips of white cardstock and layered it.

My layout is based on the new sketch reveal today at Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesdays Challenge.

Here are a few closeups:

Please stop by  Frosted Designs to see what our designers have created! 



Sunday, April 17, 2011

Sweet Summertime

The weather in Maryland  was awful yesterday.   It rained all day and the evening brought us tornado warnings.  It got pitch black outside and the wind was extremely strong and made a loud noise that I have never heard before.  I headed down to the basement with my dog and son.  Fortunately there was no tornado, but there was some sort of explosion down the street from me.  It appears as though high winds hit some power lines and caused the transformer to explode. Fortunate for me that I am on a different transformer, but my lights keep flickering.   I sure hope I don't lose my electricity.
I again apologize for my absence in visiting your blogs.  My daughter was rushed to the hospital very early Saturday morning and my whole little stressful life has become even more stressful. My day will be spent with her and I pray that she recovers. 

I had managed the other day to finish up a layout using the April kit from Artful Delight and wanted to share it with you.
Nothing better then those sweet days of summertime long ago.  The picture is my son (in red) and two nephews enjoying their popsicles.
Here are a few closeups:
I got a little adventurous and did a little paint splatter with the Jenni Bowlin acrylic paint dabber that came in the kit!!  This is a first for me.
I hope to have some free time tonight to pay you all a visit.
Please keep my daughter in your prayers.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Fave Things, Moxie Tuesday Trigger and The Scrappiest All Rolled Into One . . .

 Life so much easier when you can complete one layout for several challenges!
The new challenge at These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things is up today and we got to pick from all of the posted challenges from day one to choose from.  I chose my favorite flower, the rose.  Now most of you know that I love flowers and have several flower gardens in my yard, but I have never been able to grow a rose bush, but I do remember as a child loving the beautiful roses my mom grew.


Tuesday Trigger - Porch Play

I enjoyed using some of Crate Papers Emma's Shoppe papers and mixing them with some Cosmo Cricket Cira 1934 embellishments, My Minds Eye Stella and Rose embellishments  and some Webster's Pages bloomers.
It's sort of hard to see in the picture above, but I added some glossy accents to the roses to look like rain drops. When I was little I was fascinated at the little droplets of rain on my mom's roses.  After a rainfall I would always go out to her garden to look at them.  After that I was off puddle jumping!  Just loved those simple times!!
 I promise to play catch up this weekend with your blogs!  As I have said a few times, life right now is hectic and stressful for me and I haven't had much spare time to spend on the computer. My sister's recovery is slow and so is my job hunting.  I need a little sunshine and happiness sent my way!
 

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Save The Date - Frosted Designs Online Crop!!

Yep, that's right, Frosted Designs in having their first online crop! 
We've got lots of challenges and games lined up, making for a fun filled weekend!
Hope you all can join us!!

Not much going on with me as of late.  Life has been very hectic and stress full lately and my mojo is running on slow. We had a touch of summer weather yesterday and it was nice.  Today it is back down in the 50's and raining.  I think for the rest of the week Thursday and Friday offer some sunshine, and the rest of the days are filled with rain.
  I've got a few projects in the works and will share them with you later on this week.
Here is a little sneak peek of one:

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Not Your Ordinary Laundry Kind Of Day!

Are you looking for some inspiration?  Want to have some fun and win some prizes? 
 I wanted to let you know about a really cool blog hop that Artful Delight is participating in today. It's a celebration of "no housework day"!!  Leeanne, the owner of Artful Delight asked her DT if we would create something for her to share as part of the blog hop, and I was happy to join in! I had to think a little about this one and came across an old picture of my kids playing in the laundry basket, and came up with this:
I used Artful Delight's April kit for my layout and had fun with this one!


If you click on the picture below it will take you to Artful Delight where you can find all of the details.

Have fun!!!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

I Am A Princess

The weather yesterday was gorgeous!!!  Temperatures hit 83 degrees, the sun was shining and there was a mild breeze!  You couldn't ask for a better day!  Today is a different story . . . storms moved in and the temperatures have dropped again.  I'm still waiting for Spring!

I wanted to apologize that I've been MIA these past several days.  My sister had major surgery last Thursday and since she lives alone, I've been playing big sister to her and helping her out.  I hope in the next few days to play catch up with everyone's blogs!

It's Tuesday and that means we have a new sketch reveal over at Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesdays Challenge!

That cute little girl in the picture is me at Christmas with my new doll!   I have on a little faux stole and jewelery and a smile from ear to ear!  I can remember how excited I was when Santa brought me that doll for Christmas!

Here is Diana's sketch:

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesdays Challenges for the month of April are being sponsored by Sweet Peach Crop Shop.  The winner from the April challenges will win their April Sweet kit.

I purchased the April Sweet Kit from Sweet Peach Crop Shop to use on my layout.
Here are a few closeups:



And speaking of Sweet Peach Crop Shop, they are celebrating their one year anniversary for the whole month of April.  They have lots going on, so make sure you check them out!
Now you've got plenty of time to create a layout or card based on Diana's sketch.  Who wouldn't want a chance to win this: