The Wind

Hello There...Wow, well, can you say windy......my wind chimes were gently singing their songs this beautiful fall season, until, until yesterday, and then they exploded with loud, painful clanging noises ( I swear they were screaming for help) I was wondering, for a while, if I was hearing their farewell songs....but, they have survived and are gently singing their songs once again today...it is now officially fall at our house...last night around 7:00 p.m. I went to fall softball practice, with the wind....How windy was it you ask?  Let's just say, I spit out my gum about an hour into practice...it was getting way too crunchy for me (basically, full of dirt)...and I could have used a pair of goggles too... the ear plugs and hoodie zipped and tied did not suffice...but I survived and now I remember why they call it fall ball...it happens in the fall, in the wind, and.. in the cold, and... sometimes in the rain...but mostly in the wind...the girls didn't seem to mind at all..."it's not cold..."they said.  Well, from my perspective, sitting in my olive green portable chair, that I schlep to every practice... game... and tournament it was very cold and windy....but hey, that's just me. I carried my daughter's hoodie and some earplugs to the field because she said she did not need them and I knew she would....she put the hoodie on, about five minutes after we got there "I'm freezing" she said.  "Put the ear plugs in and pull your hoodie up" I say.  "I'm OK" she replies over her shoulder as she runs across the field to line up for a drill....and the wind blew, and blew, and blew... My daughter came out of her hoodie, fifteen minutes into practice..."I'm hot..." she says...and the wind blew, and blew, and blew....balls were hit, runners were tagged, throws were made, balls were caught and balls were chased over and over and over... I think the wind had as much fun playing wiht the softballs as the girls did (giggle, giggle...) and the wind blew, and blew, and blew.  An hour and a half later, we are trekking back to the car, she beats me back to the car and loads up her catchers bag ( this thing is ginormous and heavy, but, praise God it has wheels) I hand her my chair and tell her she beat me back to the car, she replies "I know mom, because you're a turtle"...I climb into the car and start the engine... and take out my ear plugs.  "What are those?"  Rebecca asks.  "They are the ear plugs I tried to get you to wear" I say.  She replies "When did you tell me about those?"  "When I told you to put your hoodie on" I answer.  "I didn't hear you tell me you had ear plugs, I could have used them tonight" she says.  Oh well, it must have been the wind...

Meet Gracie

Hello There,

This is Gracie, sometimes crazy but mostly amazing... we love her and I wanted to share her with you. She has been flabbergasted with all the commotion these strangers are stirring up by invading her yard lately.  We have some contractors helping outside and its about to drive her crazy....she jumps and whines and wiggles all over the floor...then she collapses on the couch to catch her breath...never mind they have been here about a week...she still goes nuts...

Now she has moved to another couch...and is "listening" to the Salsa music playing outside (the workers are happy, quietly laughing and singing)...she looks stressed...she is very quiet almost contemplating....I can hear her thinking "IF only they would let me outside those guys would have so much more fun IF  I was out there doing the salsa with them, IF, IF, IF,,,," it's a very sad time for her she is under the impression that everyone is her BEST BEST BEST FRIEND and needs her to give them lots of attention...by pouncing on them over and over and over it can be quite overwhelming for some people others just roll with it....she is small but very strong and her pounces or HUGS, as she seems to think are very much needed, like you are her BEST BEST BEST FRIEND and she hasn't seen you in ages, never mind that you just went to the mailbox for like 2 minutes...she will greet you with lots of HUGS or pounces and sounds...no she does not bark she whistles and gurgles and makes all kinds of sounds but I would not call it a bark....Any-who this is our Grace...a very affectionate little fireball...I hope you have a wonderful day...I'm scrapping tomorrow...thanks for stopping by...

Sports Layouts

Here are some softball lay-outs I have done I used the team color purple for  the background and backed the photos in black, added some 3D embellishments and softball stickers as well as a black silhouette..the side border is a piece of purple card-stock with some velveteen raised purple polka dots that just went perfectly for this lay-out...

This is another softball layout with the purple team color as the background, I used black and purple borders for the pictures, and another piece of the purple raised velveteen polka dots for a side border...I used the sports mania Cricut cartridge for the silhouettes and some softball stickers to finish it out...there are some purple rhinestones on the letters and hidden journaling tags behind the photos...

I trimmed out the letters in gold, but I think I need to redo them with black...I like to fussy cut some of my images of Rebecca in her uniforms and pop them out the effect is eye-catching...The silhouette of her about to throw down to second base is emphasized by placing her in a corner of the page with the words "GOIN DOWN"....oh I love this page....

I also like to add some things like cartoons that go with my sports themed pages when I can find them they add more to the story...and are very appealing to the page...Rebecca plays catcher and this fit perfectly with the memories of her first season with the pitchers shaking off her signals and refusing to throw the pitches the coaches were telling her to call...


The weather is so beautiful now, it's the beginning of fall and it's fabulous.  I was able to take in a saturday crop and it was so much fun.  I feel refreshed and energized and ready to tackle some more layouts...I spent the day working on a new mini I will post some pictures soon.  I hope everyone has a chance to take in the beauty of the day...it's amazing how a change in the weather makes you feel sooo much better...Be thankful in the little things as well as the big...life is full of countless little blessings...open your eyes and see them....

More Sports Layouts

Here are some sports lay-outs that I have done for some of my daughter's sports pictures...It might give you some ideas for your own sports themed pages...

I like to use the team colors for the background color on my pages and use black as a main border for the photos I back the photos with pop dots and they really pop.  I used my cricut to cut out the letters.  I like to use some 3D embellishments for added demension as well as stickers.  The team mascot is a LION with paw prints on all school spirit stuff...which is really fun to use as an accent on her sports pages.  I also like to use her hair ribbons to tie into the pages for memories...this blue and white polka dot ribbon was her main go to ribbon for these games...I used my corrugater to add texture to the torn black border as well...

Well, hello October, come on down, this year is blowing by; it feels like "Life in the Fast Lane" lately, but it will surely settle down soon.  We did some yard work over the week-end. While we were working on the trees in our front yard, all of a sudden, we heard birds (hawks) making loud screeching sounds to each other like they were talking, and then we saw one over our heads, then there were two, and then there were three of them, circling over our heads...Gary yelled their hurt, I stopped stuffing limbs and leaves in the trash bag and looked up thinking how does he know they are hurt, so I asked him "How do you know that they are hurt?" and he yelled "No, they think the dog is hurt or dead and are looking for an easy meal" well, Rebecca, dropped the trash bag she was holding,  jumped up from the ground, practically leaped across the yard, grabbed her dog and became very defensive over the little Jack Russel Terrier she calls "Gracie", she was clutching her protectively while muttering "they're not getting my dog, I'll kill them if they try and take my dog" (I think her hackles were up instead of the dogs)...Gracie just looks around like what's the big deal I'm fine, let me down...after a few tense moments, I guess the hawks realized that the dog was not dead (she was just lounging around sunbathing while we worked), so the birds quieted down and  flew away... It seems like our yard teems with squirrels until the fall and then they disappear...actually I think these hawks come to roost in our trees and feast on our squirrels....and then they move on to greener pastures. Near the end of winter right before spring comes we start having an abundance of squirrels again.  The squirrels can be a challenge to Gracie as they love to tease and aggravate her with their antics when she is safely in her cage and can't get at them... My daughter has been playing volleyball and softball so I thought I would give you a few ideas of some ways to do sports layouts that might help you with your own little athlete's photos.

New paper bag mini

Here is a new mini that I wanted to share this was so much fun ....with the paper bags it has a lot of real estate for photos and journaling with lots of tags...I handmade the rose on the cover...

Gratitude is the hearts Memory

Good Morning...today is beautiful and full of possibilities I am thankful for another day...I have been up doing laundry and am about to pick up Rebecca from volleyball practice, do grocery shopping this afternoon and then go to prayer meeting tonight I am full of expectancy. God is about to show up in a huge way I can feel it, I woke up singing today... I am hopeful that I will walk three miles on my treadmill today...I have gotten out of my routine since vacation and need to get back into it because it really does make me feel better...I don't know if it was a good idea to put my treadmill in my scrapbook room right next to my scrapbook table... I seem to have a conflict of interest...Oh, well, we shall see...I just opened my new book called Wishes by Close to my Heart founder Jeanette R. Lynton...it is sooo full of creative card ideas and the secret pocket is calling me out, almost daring me to stop what I'm doing and get cracking making these cards...wow, my heart is pounding just thinking of where I can sneak this pocket into my mini's and layouts...I think I have the Magic book as well, now I have to go find it...The Wishes book if full of beautiful quotes...one of my favorites "There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude. A quiet joy. By Ralph H. Blum". Be thankful in all things....

my day

It's a new season and change is coming...I can feel it...does anyone else feel it....went to church today it was awesome I could feel something different in the air...had a great time with friends and family at lunch...we went to Saltgrass Steakhouse...the best steak around....had a quick visit with MaMaw in the nursing home...they had tied a huge bow in her hair that matched her dress...and it was quite fetching on her little 86 year old gray head.  The house is quiet now because my husband and 13yr. old are at softball practice...the fall softball season has begun today...school volleyball practice started a few weeks ago...school will start in ten days the official countdown has begun.   Rebecca's first volleyball game is the second day of school.....I need to upload some of my layouts from last years vb and sb seasons they were fun to do...

I am torn between scrapbooking some layouts or working on some scrapbook mini albums today...I have the guilty pleasure of loving the feel of glue and paper in my hands, the sounds of the paper cutter and scissors is music to me I get lost in the zone...seriously... I lose all track of time until someone awakens me to reality and I have to come back to life as I know it.  I can hear my washing machine playing me a beautiful melody (it's one of those that actually plays a melody when it's done)...so I have to go take care of the laundry....I usually scrapbook to hide from the laundry...but apparently it has found me again......

Flower Baby

I have been waiting and waiting to use these pictures in a layout...these are some of my favorites they are of my little one Rebecca Faith, she's about 1yr. in these pictures and loves to look at, touch, and smell the flowers (or as my husband says weeds, I prefer to look at them as flowers too).  She is walking around in the back yard obviously spring time and saying in a very small voice "fows, fows, mell, mell", and the little foot cocked to the side is because she just realized she was stepping on a fows and said "uh oh, uh oh, fows, fows"....this memory for me is forever embedded in my mind and I'm sure it will never leave me.  Her hair is finally starting to grow, and we have no idea what her hair is about to do, but that's another story and another layout.  My daughter is now about to be thirteen...but I remember this day....Thank God for memories...precious memories how they linger, ever often on our minds....I think this is one of the reasons I love scrapbooking sooo much...it allows me to walk back thru time anytime I want to...there's such a peace in this that I have never found in anything else except in prayer and bible study.  I believe this hobby or dare I say passion will last thruout my lifetime and live on in my children when I'm gone...in a world full of chaos and stress it truly is a treasure to be able to de-stress by a little time travel every now and then. It's just plain good for the soul, like buttermilk cornbread warm from the oven smothered in butter...oh well, I digress.....back to this layout...I used a green cardstock for the background and papers from DCWV "The Four Seasons Stack" and "The Mariposa Stack".  The left side border is a piece of paper from the four seasons stack and then I cut out several individual butterfly's from the mariposa stack and pop dotted them on the border for a great visual effect it looks like they are flying between the sunflowers.  I used some daisy's that I bought at Walmart's silk flower section and took them apart at the top of the border and then added the RG they are chipboard white letters with glitter that I picked up at Target.  The center photos are double matted with brown and a cardboard color that went perfect with the pictures that I pop dotted off the mattes for effect.  The large sunflowers I hand cut from one of the pages of the four seasons stack, I cut the placard in between the photos from one of the pages of the mariposa stack I used pop dots for dimension as well.  I then added two more daisy's and placed an individual butterfly on top of the daisy's with a pop dot.  The other butterfly's came from the same paper packs.  The journaling is a BasicGrey journal block stamp, and finally to finish it I tucked the adorable chipboard butterfly tag from DCWV Street Lace series under the photo.

Wonderful You

This is a layout that I did of my daughter's 25th birthday, she spent the day wearing a tiarra, a huge blinking bling ring, glittering eye shadow and had a glitter heart painted on her face...let's just say she had herself a DAY !!! So, this had to be documented in the annals of my scrapbook pages.  Since she moved out and doesn't live at home I don't see her on a daily basis anymore.  I chose the pinks and orange colors to accent her cake and pictures that seem to have a pinkish hue.  I used the DCWV "Ciao Bella" Stack papers, they are sooo beautiful and sooo full of stuff to cut out and use as embelies on your pages. First for the background I used a charcoal grey cardstock paper and then layered the top and bottom borders with some portions of the Ciao Bella papers I choose the pink ones and the roses were on one of the papers in the stack and I hand cut them out.  The borders are layer of pink paper, layer of orange taffeta ribbon, layer of dark brown wire ribbon with a shimmer sparkle to it.  I used another page from the stack to back the top photo and then a different section from that page to back the center photo of the birthday girl in all her glory...:)...I then placed the roses with pop dots over the photo and charcoal grey paper.  For the top border I placed the smaller roses on top of ribbon with pop dots, and I made a Title placard by cutting it out of another page from this stack as well, and then coloring it in with some Tombo pens.  The journaling in the bottom right corner is a stamp from    BasicGrey its called the journal block stamp set...I finished this off with a few pink rhinestones placed on the brown ribbon and a few itty bitty rhinestones on the tierra for effect...it's quite fetching....