Cookbook Layouts

I had been wanting to work on cookbook pages for our family and when I saw Sarah Meyer's Grammy's Apron Quickpages and Scrapkit at Digitals I knew it was perfect for the project. Here are some of the pages I have gotten done so far!

Late as usual!

I totally meant to post a sneak peek at the rest of the SAD kit but things at home went haywire as usual lol. Seems like there is always something going on never a dull moment! With that said here is a sneak peek at the second half you get for posting your layout!

Hope to see you there...Weds Aug 20 3Scrapateers Chat room at 10 pm Eastern Time!

So what's new?

Well let's see...update on little Zach is he is home and doing just fine! He is on the monitor but so far it's not gone off again that I know of so thanks for good things!


A new scary note this afternoon I went to the store where dd works and when I looked down thru the parking lot in the lower end there were several fire trucks, ambulances and men in chemical suits all over the place and it was all cordened off with police tape! Come to find out apparently there was an anthrax scare at the post office!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I dont' know much more and will have to check the news at 5 to find out details as the news crew was there as well but I sure hope it was a false alarm!!!!!!!!!!


On a designing note I have the Scrap A Deal Crop coming up at 3Scrapateers on Aug 20th so check out the deal then buy it and join me for some free goodies that night and get the other half of the kit when you post your layout in the proper gallery! Can't beat the deal for $2.00!

Wanna peek?

Here's the first part

And then you will get alot more when you post your layout! Sneak peek you say? Hmmm stay tuned tomorrow haha. May even give you a peek at the goodies you will get if you come to the crop!
Have a super weekend!

ANother visit point

I have totally forgotten to say i love Shabby Miss Jen Designs! I so love her style and products and her tuts are understandable hooray! I want to be her when I grow up haha!

On a note about baby Zach he is being kept in the hospital yet again tonight and will be sent home on an apnea monitor. They have ruled out any major heart and lung issues thank heavens and apparently he suffered the horrid apnea that sometimes takes a child in their sleep! Two of my grandson's also had it happen when they were several days to several weeks old and were both on an apnea monitor the first year of their lives. It is scary at first but bless the inventor of this monitor as it alerts the parents or sitter or grandparents ect the moment the baby is in distress or stops breathing for so many seconds. It became a normal routine for us and I am sure Zach's momma and daddy and grandma will adapt to it tho he will adapt sooner than they will lol..children are so adaptable most of the time to things that make us adults cringe! I have apnea which developed since I was "blessed" with the Lupus and Fibro and sleep with a CPAP machine which is a normal part of my life. The grands were a bit curious and a bit itimidated by it when I first got it three years ago but now it's just part of who Nana is when she sleeps. One said I look like I should be in a star wars movie hahahaha! God Bless the mouths of babes! I find I CANNOT sleep without it now and have learned to sleep in any position with it on and just change the hose and mask to roll with me!

Ok so much for wierd pictures of me to float in your heads rotfl.

Have a great week. Off to work on some kits..have a crop coming up at 3Scrapateers so check back to see what, when and where!


My August girl is by

Scary Moments

I had quite a scare a bit ago. I was sitting here working on a kit when I heard voices outside and someone yelling for help and recognized my one neighbor's voice. Ran as fast as these old legs would take me down the steps and out the door to find her sobbing hysterically and holding her brand new grandson of 5 days not breathing. The baby's mother was in hysterics and daddy was on the phone with 911 who were not coming nearly fast enough! I went to her and tried with her to get the lil guy breathing hollering at them to run up and get my next door neighbor who is a paramedic and one of the 911 directors. We beat on their door all the while trying to get Zach to breathe and he did take one gaspy one and i could hear him whimper a bit but he just stopped again and his lips were turning blue. Our neighbor's wife did hear us and got him fast and he grabbed the baby and did a fast mouth to mouth and got him breathing again and he let out a huge wail much to my relief. Grandma and mom were still in sobbing mode naturally but did get them to realize he was okay and awake and looking at them. Meantime the ambulance and police got to the complex only to go to the wrong area. We could see their lights but they were not where they could get to us so the daddy tossed me the phone and he ran as fast as i ever saw anyone run to where they were and the paramedic and emt came back with him. Bern did have the baby breathing and doing okay but they naturally grabbed him and mommy up and took them into the ambulance and made sure he was stable and that mom was okay and then came back to check on grandma as well before taking them all to the ER to make sure things are okay. I am still shaking and while he is not my grandbaby it felt like it was! To see that lil precious face turning blue terrified us all. Apparently he has apnea which two of my grandchildren had as babies and i can remember how scary it was! Hopefully they will put zach on an apnea monitor like ours was on! Keep them in your thoughts and prayers and will update when grandma comes home and I hear how things are!

Something done :-)

Happy Sunday everyone!

I want to say thanks to Kim from Daisy Cottage for even visiting my blog here! Thanks so much for your comment on my layouts and stuffers here. It's wonderful know someone at least checks on me from time to time and I am soooooo loving her home and what she finds along the way! In my next life I swear I will own a home and one similar to her awesome place. I so love cottage style living and decor but alas at my age fat chance of that ever happening so I live my life vicariously thru her lol. Thanks Kim for the visit and keep the wonderful finds coming! My "wish" book is slowly filling up with ideas and finds and wants and many thanks to you on alot of them. My health does not allow me to go yard sale'ing, or antique browsing so it is lovely to be able to visit her finds! I used to work part time for a writer in Chicago area who did alot of articles and photo shoots for several of the magazines on Kim's site so they are very familiar faces to my old weary brain :-) Sad to say my old boss passed away of breast CA many years ago now but i have alot of fond memories of the treasures she would find and some of which she shared with me and some of which i just got to enjoy when we would also house sit for her at her lake house in Michigan.

Found a wonderful desktop freebie and just had to use it! I rarely put anything on my desktop as it seems to suck up my resources but could not resist this one! It's from Jennifer Layden/Misty Cato. Thanks for looking!

Ok so true lol I love Country Music

You Are Country Music

You are friendly, down to earth, and fairly conservative. You are true to your friends and your upbringing. Change is hard for you. But beneath your old fashioned attitude, you are expressive and artistic in your own way. Very few people can express pain and pleasure as eloquently as you can.

What Kind of Music Are You?

Just browsin around

I have been just a browsin' around some the past week or so and also helping ds and dd with computer problems along the way(UGH). Son got infected with a dang trojan on his laptop that is about to drive him mad and he finally had enuf sense to call mom lol. Think we have him about fixed now thanks to places like Tom Coyote's site What The Tech which I swear by and a few others out there. I even learned how to run and read HiJackThis and it's been a huge livesaver many times over the past two years and it was all we needed to fix daughter dear's. Honestly you would think grown children in their 30's would know enough to NOT click on some of the sites you see on the internet but dd has a roomer that just doesn't get it lol and I told him I will cheerfully break his fingers if he does it one more time on her computer! I am the one who spends hours with them either in person or on the phone with them fixing booboo's!


Discovering blogs I never had time to find before has been an adventure as well the past few weeks. Some of them I found and enjoy are places like Cen's Loft, Scrapping with Ikeagoddess, Daisy Cottage (whose house i would love to live in lol), A Work In Progress, Women - Art - and Life, ScrapDoctor, BubblesBabbles (who makes me laugh so hard sometimes it's embarressing lol), and MyGrateful Heart just to name a few. Some have made me laugh so hard and some have brought tears and prayers but they all have something to offer me. Not always scrapping related stuff but life stuff too! I am not sure sometimes how I find some of them but tend to check out links on blogs I enjoy and wah lah sometimes it just sends me someplace I fall in love with.

Judy at My Grateful Heart made me a wonderful new siggie :-)

Isn't it gorgeous? The artwork she purchased is from Kreated4U whose talent just puts me in awe! I love this little redhead! THanks again Judy! You are a super lady and I am so enjoying reading your day to day life and how you are dealing with some rough and some wonderful times!

Hmm where else have I adventured lately? A new to me place called Step by Step Digital Scrapbook run by Karen at ScrapsOfMind looks like it would be a wonderful resource for newbie scrappers and give ideas to us oldbie scrappers :-) It looks really informative!

Oh and for any of you who love pixels please take time to visit my friend Susan at Grandma's Attic. She makes wonderful websets, sigtags, and other items from her own artwork. She is awsome in the pixel world in my opinion. Pixels are my second love next to my scrapping can you tell haha. I have my own pixel site that I mess with from time to time as well ..the link is over -------------------------------------------------> at the top. :-)

Ok rambled quite enough for one night ! Hope you are all well!

nEW LaYOuts

I had a productive day yesterday :-) Got some layouts done and worked on several new products and kits hooray! Told DH I just had to have a day without all the interruptions and sidetracking he tends to toss my direction let alone phone calls and noise so shut myself up in the bedroom with my friendly computer and got something done for a change lol.
Here's the layouts I have finished so far :-) THanks for looking!

ALL BOYS -- Credits :
Vicki Acreman -- All Boy QP
http://txbubbles-bubblesbabbles.blogspot.com/

My Daddy's Chair
Credits:
Flergs AML Freebie

WILDFLOWER GIRL
This was my first attempt at blending a photo with a paper and am really happy with how it turned out. I fell so in love with products over at Weeds and Wildflowers so downloaded a couple of challenge freebies to see how i like them and I am officially HOOKED lol. Thanks for looking!
Credits:
AMenegassi -fun garden doodles flowers
boyerville-whoababy paper
Digitalegacies --alpha
Chez Nanine -- "Romance"Stitches and "En attendant le printemps" buttons colorized

Two Littlest "Weeds" lol
Another from Weeds and Wildflowers challenge freebies!
Thanks for looking!
Credits:
DJB ANGELA font
Weeds N Wildflowers -- GinaMarie Huff --Freebie Challenge --
Doodly Patterns and Word Art

Inspiration

In case you hadn't noticed I really have been in a bad slump for inspiration and ideas. I went traveling the past few days checking out sites and blogs and so forth and happened across a designer and site I had not seen before and totally fell in love with their site--tis called Weeds and Wildflowers. I loved the offerings of the designers there and think they gave me a "oomph" in the ideas..now if i can make myself sit and draw lol. I have been playing more with my wacom and since it's been sitting here gathering dust it's about time I just bit the bullet and learn how to use the blasted thing! Doesn't do me any good to have spent that much money on a "toy" I have only used a couple of times since I got it! I should have my son come learn with me as he is the artist of the family..he does such beautiful freehand work and now is doing tattoo work and I am just sit and oooooooo and ahhhhh when I see how easily it comes to him! Two of his girls so far love to sit and draw for hours on end as well so hopefully it keeps on going in the family! Then I came across a few bloggers that I had not seen before either and one in particular I ended up spending half the night reading all her past posts and laughing sometimes so hard I about pmp! ROTFL. She also does some super QP's for free and of course I had to grab those too and that led me to another blogger who does only QP's for free and spent a few hours there as well..NOW maybe I will get more scrapping done yes? Check them out in the side bar for blogs I visit..they are WMP and Bubbles Babbles.

We had a big ole turkey dinner with the trimmings down at my son's yesterday and it was YUM! I get so hungry for it at other times of the year other than Thanksgiving and Christmas so it was a lovely change. Tracey did it in the roaster so at least it did not heat up their home too badly but the humidity here was really bad and by the time I got home i felt like i had been under a shower for days I was that drenched! I dunno sometimes what is worse..heat or cold with this lupus! Both really bother me and make my skin awfullllllllllllll!

Woke up to a nasty thunderstorm half way thru the night and my left ankle feeling like it did when i first broke it back in 1991! It's so swollen up it looks like an elephant foot at times and trust me that is NOT a pretty site! UGH!...Don't get old and break your bones folks lol !

Hmmm thinking ...yeah me thinking that is scary isn't it? DH is making me crazy..he's been off work now since Feb and the dr told him Weds it will be after labor day now before he can go back to work! He is no spring chicken and just is not healing fast since his surgery. Mind you I love the man and would miss him if he wasn't here but having him underfoot 24/7 can make me totally nuts! I finally got so mad this week I told him either he finds a hobby or gets out of the house more or I will go stay with one of the kids for a few weeks just to have some peace and quiet lol...Fat chance of that happening there but you get the drift! Every time I am into something design wise he manages to come up and want me to look up stuff on the computer for him. I keep saying he needs to learn how to use a computer and would hook up the old one to the internet for him in the spare bedroom but he doesn't seem to want to. Think my son may talk him into it so at least that part he would keep busy doing something else instead of standing over my shoulder! That's another side effect of the dang Lupus..I cannot stand it when anyone is hovering or to be in a crowded place even on the interstate highway i freak when cars and trucks have me "penned" in. I can't control it and I can't explain it --it just happens. One of the meds I take now helps some but for someone who was always a people person and who used to travel for work it's really is an odd way to feel trust me!

OK i really have babbled tonight errr this morning haven't I! Hope everyone out there is well!

Dunno if anyone even reads me anymore but hey at least i am trying to blog a bit more often than I had been!
Hugs all arround to those who need it!

Summer Fun at Digitals

If you haven't checked out the Christmas in July fun over at DIGITALS now is the time!
There is a treasure hunt in the forums and a Polar Express Blog Train going with some wonderful free items done by some awesome DIGITALS designers!

To visit DIGITALS and find the treasures hidden for you go HERE and follow the directions!

To visit the POLAR EXPRESS BLOG TRAIN:
Individual designers involved have their blog links in that thread!

ANDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

great great Sale right now til July 25th at Digitals

Get 50% off my products (no coupon needed)
Go crazy and SHOP TIL YOU DROP! :-)

and a wide variety of discounts from many of the other Digitals Designers!
CHeck out the info HERE

New kit Release

AMERICAN MADE

Check out my newest release at both Digitals and 3Scrapateers called American Made!

Red, White and Blue this is the scrapkit for You!
Whether for the 4th of July, cross country vacation, summer picnic or other red, white and blue events this scrapkit is perfect for those photos or cards and layouts!
Kit Contains:
Upper and lower case blue chipboard alphabet with numbers and extras
11 12x12 300 DPI papers,
1 round fringed mat,
1 fringed flag mat,
1 bordered mat,
2 buttons in red and blue,
1 gold brad, 5x7 chipboard photo frame,
3 acrylic Stars with firework "sounds" on them,
1 Gold starred 12in.border,
4 ready to use tags,
Lady Liberty,
3 flowers in red, white or blue U, S and A in gold outlined white painted metal hearts,
4 crossed ribbons,
1 beaded red, white and blue tassel,
1 gold star eyelet

You can find it at DIGITALS or 3SCRAPATEERS

Get Your 3S Scrapkit of the Season Now!

From bold and bright to muted and distressed, you're sure to have just the right collection of background papers and embellishments for any of your Summer layouts! This is a mega kit full of great scrapping items from these 3Scrapateers Designers --
Yours Truly me :-) Jolene Shaffer, April Staker, Kim Stewart, BonScrapit Designs, KutnKudly Kreations, Kashiabean Kreations, Deanna Patterson, Carla Ware, and Lianne Carper. It has a great mix of colors for any part of the summer in any part of the world!
All of this includes:
10 Spectacular Summer Digital Scrapkits consisting of
90+ 12"x12" Background Papers
325+ Individual Embellishments
All on sale for $19.98--that's half price of it's normal rate! Think about it..that works out to about $2.00 per full kit! How can you go wrong with that price?

http://shop.3scrapateers.com/shopexd.asp?id=6095

You're Only Limited by Your Imagination With almost 350 unique background papers and elements, you'll find yourself returning to the Scrapkits of the Season - Summer Edition over and over to bring your Summer memories to life. From bold and bright to muted and distressed, you're sure to have just the right collection of background papers and embellishments for any of your Summer layouts.Create Pages You'll Cherish for a LifetimeBut that's not all...Layouts, Cards, Altered Art, Journals, Recipe Books, Candy Wrappers, Home Decor, Papers, Crafts, Calendars, Hybrid Projects
For Personal Use Only.
Feel free to check out the other Seasonal ones now available and watch for the new ones every quarter!

My contribution is "Cool in the Pool"

You can find it by itself here:

http://shop.3scrapateers.com/shopexd.asp?id=6088

Go have fun..shop til ya drop!

4th of July

Just some fast pics from our picnic on the 4th!

--The merry go round has been there since I was a kid lol

Miss Wiggle Butt and I rode this..needless to say it was the ONLY ride I ended up on as was so sick when I got off I didn't think we would make it back to the picnic table. This ride was not that far for most people but it seemed like a million miles to me!

Our Pavillion was in such a nice area and we all enjoyed just sitting around yakking. My bro in law and sis in law with Dh.

I love this shot of the Ferris Wheel all lit up that night!

3 of our girls ..they really had a ball and were quite pooped by the time the day was over!

Bad Blogger lol

I am such a bad bad blogger! it's been forever it seems since I have energy to even update!

With that said just am gonna try to do some bits and blurbs as I can and hope eventually I can be current every day..Yeah ok we shall see lol







Came across this while looking for something else and thought where was it when I used to have a closet full of shoes for work? I admit when I was working I was a shoe and purse hoarder! I had a purse to match every pair of shoes and shoes to match any outfit I wore to work! At any rate it's a neat idea and they even have one for kids in different colors ..what a clever idea!
They are made by Rakku Designs and run about 35.00 - 65.00 depending on the size and color and model lol. WOuld have been worth it space saving wise back in my working days! Now I am lucky I wear a pair of flip flops, a pair of slippers and my good ole tennies!

Things around here have been up and down as usual! We took some time to spend the 4th of July with our kids and most of their kids at Idlewild Park which is something we all used to do when my kids were growing up. My son wanted us to have a old fashioned 4th so got us all together and he made arrangements for us to have a pavillion close to the restrooms and on a level area due to my walking issues and my brother in law uses two canes now so we could not manage otherwise! THe folks there had a lovely small pavillion set up complete with the red and white plastic tableclothes on them 4 huge picnic tables and 5 other long serving wood tables with electric outlets and all set up for us just near the main ride area and handy to the restrooms and by the little creek. The weather was not to be great so we figured we would be rained out at some point but it turned out to be a perfect ride day! No storms tho it did spit a little rain twice but the sun was not miserable and we all had a wonderful day. We stayed for the fireworks which were superb as we all remembered. Needless to say I spent the next two days in bed recovering..walked too much but it was worth it to see the smiles and hear the laughter coming from all our girls and our Jack. Hubby's brother and his wife came as well as friends of our Son and his wife with their boys too so we had a great group and lots of good food and conversation as well as making some great memories! Daughter took some pics and believe my d-i-l did as well so will be posting them later on. I thank the folks at Idlewild for hearing what my son said about having some of us with disability issues for they really did a wonderful job on picking out a perfect pavillion and setting it up so we didn't have to do anything except open the coolers and picnic baskets!

Yeah okay i have rambled on..and will ramble more in a bit haha. Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July if you celebrate it and for my canadian buds hope you had a super Canada Day!

TAGGED

Arghhh Lissa got me lol. I so suck at these but because she is my best friend in the world guess I better do it eh? Here goes!

Rules :
1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name).
3. After you are tagged, you need to update your blog with your middle name and your answers.
4. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name.

(Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and that they need to read your blog for details.)

M---More interested in reading about others lists lol
A---Athletically challenged
R---Redhead at heart
I---I love my granchildren
E---Enjoy my scrapping and my pixeling more than I can express!

So who can I pick..hmmmm this isn't gonna be easy is it lol?
Marsi
Alisha Hess
Ronnie M
I DON'T KNOW ANYONE WITH I LOL
E E DON'T KNOW ANYONE WITH E EITHER LOL
Any volunteers with I or E? haha

Took time to play today

I took time to play and shop today lol. I finally learned how to make and save my brushes in PS and to make fuzzy fibers all by myself..no actions yay! Think I will be playing a good bit now that I have figured out more of what does what in the thing!
As to shopping I am totally hooked on ideas and actions by Monica Larsen! I nabbed a grab bag from her and am so tickled with what was in it that I went and got another one haha. I can see playtime more and more so I can mess around and get what I want with her help!
I really want a really satin look to ribbons and have been working with that with help from Roberta's actions to come up with silky looking ones so hopefully with all the trial and error I can accomplish the look I want with a silk ribbon as have not seen anyone offering one that does what I want it to do! So cross ya fingers it works!

LOL OK I tried it

Lissa had a name meaning on her blog so of course I just had to go try it out..

What Jolene Means

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you. You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries. You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice. You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

WOW

With the bad two or three weeks I have had I just got a huge pick me up from an internet friend!
Tracey from Rainy-Daze gifted me with a 12 month membership to a pixeling site I have been wishing for for over a year now! I am so stoked as I love Paint My Dreams and Thalia is amazing! I love my pixeling altho it is more on the back burner than my scrapping is and this is the pick me up I really needed. Thanks to Tracey from the bottom of my heart..it means more than you can possibly know! You made my week!

Susan from Grandma's Attic made my week as well as she gifted me with a cute st pat's sig tag

and when I purchased something I had been wanting from her she added another gift that I had my eye on lol. She is such an awsome lady and I love her dearly for her friendship and her work. It's great to have another "Nana" who I can yak about our grandkids with lol. Her lil guy is a cutie for sure.

sO at least some good things came about this week yay!

Peeved!

ok you all know its been a rough few weeks around here and now on top of it all it seems that someone named Snarky has put my commercial use psp script up for grabs in her pirate group! I have news for you cupcake..I know who had access to my files at all 3 stores and i know who purchased this legally so don't think for one minute I won't yank it down and you along with it! I guess I should feel ummm "flattered" NOT! My scrapping pays for meds and some other things I would go without and while I sure don't get rich from it by any means I still need it. AND btw i have licenses for all my work and yes I bought my graphics proggies so don't even go there! I still have the boxes and cd's! There was a time when I was in the tagging stuff too and didn't know better but I do now and anything I had for free either got left behind years ago or I went and bought it so it is all legal. I pay for my cu items and I paid for my graphics programs and I am so sick and tired of reading all the drama and all the backstabbing name calling crap in some of the blogs and communities ..What are these people? A bunch of kids in junior high? Honest to Heavens you would think they would grow out of it! but noooooooooo..sorry it's been a horrible horrible week for me and this added to it just sux. Feeling like you have to save every email every scrap of paper in case someone comes after your reputation stinks. I am at least smart enough I email back and forth to make sure terms are met and always have been treated respectfully and the makers appreciate it but I am not doing it just for them....with all the crap I am covering my own butt for the future! You would think at my age I would not have to do that wouldn't ya! My grandchildren behave better than some of those people do in the "bad" blogs and groups! The language on some of them is worse than a truckstop and the truckers don't talk that way in front of others outside themselves but those ***koff Koff*** "ladies" (and i use that term very loosely) have the foulest mouths on the planet!

The sad part is we have lost several excellent designers over all this and even some great scrappers let alone community members in all the various stores and forums. There is plenty of room in the digi scrapping world for heavens sake..why do some people feel such a need to break it apart so? I am no big name nor great designer..i just plug along and if you like my stuff great if not that is okay too..each of us has our own taste and our own way to scrap or design but attacking others is just so wrong on so many different levels. The one thing it has done is brought together alot of others who may not have otherwise known each other and made them stronger so it will backfire in the long run to the evil minded ones. What goes around comes around!

Ok off my soapbox! Take it or leave it :-)