FLEETING FEBRUARY!

Speaking totally for myself, I'm glad this month is almost gone! I'm so ready for Spring and just don't care for the winter months at all, even here at the beach! Could do without them totally; too much drab and dreary to suit me. They do zip-zero-nadda for my mood. Give me yellow SUNSHINE!

However, I am doing the "happy dance". A good friend and former coworker came to me recently with a business opportunity which I gave careful consideration and full scrutiny as I do because that's me. After looking over the product, trying out the product in person with my friend, researching the company and its projections, etc., I am delighted to share with all of you out there that I jumped in with both feet and am so excited! Who among us does not long to be their own boss with a home-based business that may provide all that we desire? Well, I do believe I am in on the ground floor of something great! The start up expense is very minimal which suits my current budget (LOL!), and the company provides excellent support which makes it all too easy. If I have tweaked your interest at all, please take a look at my new business website (which the company designs and provides free for me) at http://www.myinlife.com/smartsolutions and watch the introductory video and browse all the information at the top of the page that appears after the video. You can read all about it until your heart is content. If you have any questions and are interested in this type of opportunity for yourself, please just jot me an email (address is provided on the left upper corner of my page there), and I'll be most happy to share my knowledge and assist you completely!! This could be the greatest gift I will ever be able to give you, so go check it out for yourself!!

I've got a couple of layouts to show you as I managed to squeeze in a little personal scrappin since my last post (as well as some house cleaning and all that jazz).....and we have another CT layout for the "NEAPOLITAN KIT" by DK Designs, this one by Anjanette....

Is that not the cutest?!! It always amazes me how different each and every layout can be using the same kit. One's vision and imagination is such a wonderful thing, so individual indeed!

Here are a couple of my own recent personal layouts just completed.....

This is my 3 yr. old tadpole grandson enjoying his bathtime bubble maker from Santa, and I used the kit Rubber Ducky by babyyaks of Pretty Scrappy, the top left word art is by inspiredmommiedesigns also of Pretty Scrappy, and my block font is "Wild Child" from Two Peas in a Bucket. I love how you can place clear bubble elements all over to carry out the bubblebath theme in the photo!

This one is truly a treasure to me as it's extremely difficult for some reason to ever capture my DH and self in the same photo! Does anybody else have that problem? We were headed out the door on our dinner date Valentine evening, and my daughter thought to pick up her camera and grab a shot! I used a bracket type quick page called "Sweet Love" from Just So Scrappy, the red paper is by Kim Hill included in her recipe card kit from FxFoto, the pink paper is ap7 and the beige corrugated cardboard looking background is ap4 in the kit Amelie by Corina Nielson, also a kit designer for FxFoto. I totally love he bracket shaped full size quick pages some of the fantastic designers create. Just So Scrappy has included 8-10 of these, all different, in her "Sweet Love" QP Album. It's so colorful and so easy and quick to use! Had fun making these two layouts!!

Now for my freebies for you!! The first is simply one of my family's favorite candy recipes which we always make at Christmas in huge quantities, I call them "Reese Balls" because that's what they taste like. I rescrapped this page to enter the February Recipe Challenge featuring chocolate at Designs in Digital hosted by scrappinmint. They wanted an 8 x 10 so folks could print them later at home, so I took my original 12 x 12 layout and converted it to an 8 x 10 and therefore had to add some more embellishments to the original. In the zip file for you, I am including both sizes in high resolution. That way if you print or have it printed anytime in the future, you can basically size it to whatever you would personally like without loss of resolution quality. I usually have my layouts printed professionally online in an 8x8 inch format, just like to store that size in albums. But I normally always scrap in the 12 x 12 inch format just in case! Here is the preview......and enjoy the recipe....it's too easy!!

DOWNLOAD HERE

And below is a big FREEBIE PAPER PACK fitting to finish off the month of February. I'm relatively new at designing, but I made these with the help of a CU overlay or paper template from Farrahs Creations. I call them my "LOVE SHACK" papers, and there are 24 colors for you! Yep, I get started designing and can't stop! These are 12 x 12, 300 dpi, (my normal). I hope you can use them to scrap some love!

DOWNLOAD HERE

That's it for now my peeps! Be back soon with some more goodies, so stay tuned. Later today I must do battle for the third time in 2 weeks with a 10-gallon aquarium which persists on irritating my last nerve with repeat performances of cloudy murky light green hazy water for some mysterious reason which is not usually a problem. I know, sounds fun, doesn't it? I can give you a tip if you too are a fish keeper. We have three aquariums, and the larger 30-gallon one is much easier to keep clean and clear than the smaller ones are. Go figure!! The smaller they are, the easier they are to become unstable chemically more quickly than the larger size ever do. So if you want to do fish, my advice would be to do them in a large way! LOL!

Okay....Tootles! Catch ya soon!

SWEETS FOR THE SWEET!

What are YOUR plans for celebrating Valentine's Day? I've been invited out to a nice dinner, sort of a date for us, and I'm looking forward to it! We get so little time to ourselves that we truly have to make a concerted effort to cut that time out just for us.

To keep to my promise of 14 heart frames for you by Feb. 14th, I've packed three into today's FREEBIE! This will complete your "Hearts Afire, Series 6" collection from me for now. I love how these turned out, so I may add to the collection from time to time with new colorations. But never fear, I have lots more to give you, so do drop in on a regular basis!!

DOWNLOAD HERE

I want to show you the Valentine I scrapped for my sweetie. The poem was the beginning of my inspiration for this, the background paper seemed just right, then the stitched heart seemed to complete it nicely. My version, of course, is personalized; but I took that off and put a more generic text on this one to show it to you.....


Yeah, I'm a doodley-doo kinda gal, so I liked this a lot. The word art is from Aubrey's Mom, the stitched heart is from stitching_sampler_RowenaF at Divine Digital Boutique (one of my favorites), and the paper is from the kit, "Sunset" by Baby Cakes Scraps. I hope you can zoom in to read the verse, it's perfect for older couples who have been through a lot.

Ya still with me? I have two of my own layouts to share featuring none other than my youngest grandbaby, Miracle Mason, who lives with me and runs me ragged on a daily basis. Take a look.....

The first shows him atop a John Deere tractor with no fear and, in fact, acting like he knows what to do up there with all those switches, knobs and gears! The second is a closeup of him on the walk we went on that day, and it better shows his favorite attire which includes what he calls his "cool-rays" (sunglasses) and yes, a string of beads!! We don't know why, but he has always loved beads and has an eagle eye for finding them in the floor and even in the dirt at a local park where other kids must lose them when they break. He can find them singularly even when they are the size of a bird seed, picks them up, and brings them home to his Mimi. We wonder if this is because he sees me designing jewelry, but he was so little when this began that it's hard to think he made the connection. At any rate, his mom his hoping he will grow out of wearing beads in public before he goes to school. LOL! But if you will, please note what is on his shirt under the NYC letters and then note the element on the bottom right included in this kit. Is that uncanny or what!!??!! Back to the layouts.....Both were made using the free sampler kit, Oh Boy_Mini, by JulieItIs. I found her by way of Digi Scrap Depot. I absolutely love the metallic grid, and the cardboard tractor is the bomb! I'm going to have to go get the full size kit since it's too cute for boys! I love the papers that were included in the sampler, and that grid lends itself to so many ways to play with it. Oh gosh, too much fun!! The block font is "Wild Child", and the font on the note is "scrapbook", both from 2Peas also.

Alrighty then, thanks for reading through, I've kept you long enough. Have a GREAT and ROMANTIC Valentines day with your loved one or ones, and I'll be back soon!

Tootles!

LEARNING, STILL LEARNING!

You say, "What are you learning, girl?" Well, for starters, I've learned that it's hard to do a post every day! Heehee! What goes on behind the scenes of a good post is a lot of technical work to get everything your showing or giving away organized and ready for viewing on the net or zipped up and uploaded for downloading! Whew! I can now appreciate all these gals (and guys, too) that have such wonderful blogs!

With that said, I'm going to do things a little backwards today since I missed posting altogether yesterday, and give my FREEBIE first! Okay, I can hear the applause from here! Today is heart frame #11 in this collection, which is a beautiful rich purple for all you passionate purple lovers!

DOWNLOAD HERE

Now on to some things i'd like to show you: First, I have some new layouts by our CT for DK Designs who have another brand new kit, Neapolitan, available now at JustDigiLayouts, Digital Scrap Designs, and a new store they are soo to be selling with, Scrapping Garden! This kit is loaded with pretty embellishments and lots of papers to create with! Here's the kit preview:

Layouts by Cynthia: by Cherity,
by me,

I have some additional CT layouts for DK Designs kit, "Rustic Spring", and you can see the kit preview here in an earlier post (just scroll down):

by Cynthia,

by Anjanette,
Here are some additional CT layouts for DK Designs kit, "Sleep Tight", preview also shown here in an earlier post.....

by Anjanette,

Aren't these the most precious baby layouts?!! I think I'll jump off and work on some more things to show you next time! I may post again tonight since I feel I am behind with my mental deadlines.

Tootles!

THIS IS "MY" COLOR!

I think I missed a day posting, my sleep cycles are getting a little weird, and it's hard to keep up with myself. Never fear, we will get all the heart frame freebies up on here this month!

My Taco Soup/Stew (whatever) turned out really tasty two nights ago, and really the longer it sits in the fridge with the flavors blending, the better it becomes. My 3-yr. old grandson lapped it up readily, so I know if he consumes it, it's good. He's like a little food snob already, but he gets that honest from his mom and dad who are both excellent domestic chefs with very particular taste buds for fine foods. I am just what I call a "country cook".....food is good, hot, seasoned, and plenty of it.....but it isn't fancy or too rich. At any rate, the 6-qt. pot is doing the trick for me....i.e., feeding them for at least a couple of evenings so I can snag some free time out of the kitchen! Yeah!

Today was a good day even though I got out of bed on the wrong side for some unknown reason. I talked to my BFF on the phone who also lives on a beach but not nearby. Her's is on the Outer Banks and really nice but usually more windy and cooler than my beach here. I love to go there and visit though because it is not so commercialized and feels more naturefied. (Is that even a word?) LOL! It always seems our lives are running parallel even though we are miles apart. We share what we call "international moments" which are simple good convesations over many cups of coffee. We used to do this in person when we lived close to each other and our children were all young together. We would fix the real "International Coffee" flavors and pretend we were someplace wonderful while we talked instead of in one of our kitchens able to hear our kids yelling and killing each other. Ahh, those were the days. We didn't know it then, but those were actually our "happy days". At least we had some control on our kids and their problems and they were all there inside the household walls, safe and sound. And, little did the two of us know what we would personally endure in the future as we sat there and drank our coffee. Wow, how time flies and one day you look in your mirror and see your mother looking back at you. Geez!!

Okay, enough of memory lane for the moment....

Today's FREEBIE is one of my favorite colors! I'm a very basic earthtone sort of modified hippie gal, and this frame is a gorgeous mix of browns and oranges. I personally adore how it turned out! (My most favorite color is teal, and that one is coming soon!) Below is #10 in this collection in the give-away of 14 in this series. All are 2100 x 2100 pixels, 300 dpi, png format so you can use them in most all programs and resize them up or down with retention of excellent print quality.

DOWNLOAD HERE

I hope you have use for this and are enjoying collecting all of these frames. I've aleady done a great page with this color combo above with all things I've created myself so far, so I'm very pleased with my learning progress! Yeah! When I get a little farther down this learning road, I will be offering lots of quick pages here on my blog. I'm excited and can't wait to get to that point also!

Taking off now to go put a pot of coffee on. The family will be up just anytime. I'll be back soon. I'm working on some paper packs to give you loyal scrappers!

Tootles!

A DAY OF REST - SUNDAY!

I hope you all take Sunday as your day of rest as we are supposed to. It can be a great recooperative day for a worn out body and spirit. The max I am looking at today is to prepare something for dinner, and I'm about to start that just any minute. Going to fix something that's been floating around all jumbled up in my head, sort of a Taco Soup/Chili type big pot of yummy stuff! So far I know I'm using burger, pork, stewed tomatoes, onion, taco seasoning mix, tomato sauce, velveeta cheese, red and light kidney beans, and some black beans too. Should be good with some tortilla chips on the side. I know, it sounds like football food, but it's been on my mind so today is the day it gets made in the pot. I rarely use a recipe for things from my own mind, but if anybody wants more specifics on this just leave a comment and I'll break it down into an actual recipe for you.

The weather here on the beach to day is WARM!! Must be low 70's out there today. It's so weird this time of year, up and down, but it sure beats the heck out of the solid cold season we used to bear up north! Whew! One little ant in this ant farm got up today and actually went for a long bike ride. Another little ant offered to go gather in my ingredients for dinner. So, I will do my part and cook for them today. I like making large pots of comfort food that will last at least two days around here!

Todays FREEBIE is the 9th frame in my "HEARTS AFIRE", Series 6 collection. Remember, there are 14 in all, so I hope you are snagging them all for your stash! Tomorrows is a doozy, color is downright gorgeous! So do drop back by for I have saved the best till last! Heehee!

DOWNLOAD HERE

Remember to leave some love when you download. You kind words are what keeps us inspired to create more! Take care and have a great day of rest!

Tootles!

MOVING RIGHT ALONG!

All is well here, and we are moving right along through February. I'm pleased with my own progress, been studying a lot! In fact, my daughter noticed and told me today that my left eye is somewhat bloodshot from staring at my computer screen for about three days straight! I checked it out in the mirror, and she is right! It doesn't hurt though. But I've accomplished quite a bit. I studied up on how to make your own blog backgrounds, and I've already designed one for myself! Yipee! I'm storing it and won't make the switch until I figure out how to make a matching header to go with it. Then I may be satisfied to switch up to it. I ran across very simple instruction for making these at http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/ so you may want to check that out and give it a try. The installation instructions are included there also. It all seemed pretty simple, but the true test will be when I go to install it here and see how it actually looks on-screen. Good luck with yours if you decide to get into that. They have a lot of free blog backgrounds they have designed if you prefer to use something already made up and ready to install.

I've managed to add a few blinkies here on my blog, although I keep thinking there must be an easier way to do this other than what I am going through to get them in. Still looking for helpful hints on this procedure from you guys out there!

Here's another great layout from our CT at DK Designs, this one from Anj Schlafmann using the kit, Rustic Spring.....

The preview for this lovely kit can be viewed below in one of my earlier posts this week or jus hop on over to DK Designs and have a look at it and all the other gorgeous kits Cherity and Josie are designing for everybody!

Alas, today's FREEBIE! Frame #8 in my "HEARTS AFIRE", Series 6 collection.....

DOWNLOAD HERE

Remember to leave some love when you download either here under comments or at 4Shared. I set my 4Shared so you don't have to log in to leave your comments, and I really would love to read what you think of my designs so far.

I'll post again tomorrow with another freebie frame for ya! Meantime, Happy Scrappin'!!

Tootles!

KEEPING PACE!!

I'm making a huge effort to keep pace with my brain and promises to any loyal followers out there, so without any idle chit-chat here's another FREEBIE for ya! This is Frame #7 in my "HEARTS AFIRE" Series 6 collection. Again, there are 14 total in this particular collection, and you should be able to snag them all by the 14th of this month as my Valentine gift to anybody stopping by! If I have a really good month, I will continue the giveaway after the 14th with another series of heart frames I have ready. As before, these frames are 2100 x 2100 pixels, 300 dpi, so they are easily sized larger or smaller without loss of excellent print quality. I'm keen on print quality because I'm doing a lot of that myself! The last pack I gave was sort of on the darker side in coloration, but now we are going to lighten up with this one!

That messes with my eyes and the whole picture looks lopsided to me! LOL!

DOWNLOAD HERE

Enjoy! Tootles!

I'M A NEW CT MEMBER - YEAH!!

I'm so excited! This just proves if you ask, you just may receive!! I applied and have been accepted as a Creative Team member for DK Designs who is comprised of two sisters, Josie Stewart and Cherity Anderson, who love to digi-scrap and are making beautiful kits for everybody to work with!! I ran across their blog in my "digi-surfing" and was struck by their beautiful color combinations in their own creations. While reading their blog I saw their CT call and decided to respond, and they have taken me on. I hope to do you proud girls!! They are so nice and have already been sweet and kind enough to teach me how to insert those blinkies into my blog template with very exact directions. Those directions were perfect! You two are great teachers!!

Other CT members for them include Cynthia Clark, Anj Schlafmann, and Annette Thompson. I will post these ladies' websites when I get them in the near future.

DK Designs has several brand new kits going out to their stores. One is called "SLEEP TIGHT" and comes in two color versions, one for Baby Boy and one for Baby Girl pictured below. For now, this kit can be purchased exclusively at iscrapbook.com

Below are some layouts already shared by the new CT members:

Layouts created by Cynthia Clark.....

Layouts created by Annette Thompson.....

Layouts created by me.....

Purely sweet, huh? It was so much fun to do. My layout shows my precious extreme preemie grandson, Mason Alexander, who was born in 2006 at only 24 weeks gestation at 1 pound 8 oz, way before his lungs were formed, and well, before a lot of things about him had formed. Against all medical odds and after six months of round-the-clock NeoNatal Intensive Care Unit in an incubator under a team of special angels, he got to come home to continue 24-7 secluded home care with oxygen, feeding tube, and heart monitor for the next 6 months and advice of major isolation from people and germs for the first 2 years of his life. I'm happy to let you know that we just celebrated Mason's THIRD BIRTHDAY, and he is a perfect little guy who is extremely quick-minded and way ahead of all of us caring for him. LOL! He may be smaller than most, but he is mighty and determined in spirit, and I am quite sure that this and the Lord is what brought him home to us! Yeah!!

Another beautiful brand new kit by DK Designs, "RUSTIC SPRING" shown here.....

Here are some of our CT layouts with it so far.....

From Annette Thompson.....

and here is mine.....I fashioned my page around a picture of my mom awaiting the arrival of Spring in the Appalachian Mountains of WV (about as rustic as it can get), standing in front of her beautiful spirea (Baby's Breath), and she is wearing her favorite hat that I crocheted for her. She was 79 then and is almost 81 in a few days, and she still lives life with all the gusto of a 30 year old lass. She is my inspiration in so many ways! My brother's nickname for mom is "the rock", because to him, through thick and thin, good times and bad, she is like the Rock of Gibraltar. Of course, as teenagers we had some other nicknames for our parents; but I won't go into those here. Heehee! We are grown-ups now!

More layouts with this gorgeous kit will be forthcoming soon! This beauty is already in the stores at Just Digi Layouts and Digital Scrap Designs! Hurry and get it and get a jump on spring!!

And here's one more really GREAT GOODIE from my new friends, and this is going on right now and can be seen on their blog....They have a list of kits down the right side of their blog all for $2.00, and if you buy any one kit you get this kit, "BE MY VALENTINE", seen below for FREE!!

Isn't this just awesome! One more thing to show you. Josie and Cherity also have plenty of freebies on their blog, so float on over there and have a look around. I picked one called "Breezy" to create a layout to show them an example of my work, so I'll share the kit preview and my layout below:

And here is the layout I did with the very unique colors in this kit.....

The lady in this page is a very good high school friend of mine now living in Yuma, AZ. We used to cheerlead together, and she lives her life with that same gusto that we had back then! In the late fall of 2008 she and her hubby were riding downtown via this cycle to have a hamburger out together when they were broadsided by an elderly driver who just didn't see them apparently. My dear friend and her husband are both lucky to still be with us, and she has been through a hidious ordeal of surgeries, rehab through the holidays, and has just gotten her cervical collar removed two weeks ago. She is determined to get her limbs moving like they did before the accident, so you keep up the therapy girlfriend! Good Luck and I LUV YA!

This ended up a long post, so call me gone for tonight! I'll be back soon with some more frame freebies for you in the next few days, so stay tuned! I want you to have the complete Series 6 set of 14 "Hearts Afire" frames before February 14th!!

Tootles!

BACK TO BASICS

What are feeds (RSS)?

You may have seen those little orange buttons that say RSS. You can click those and view the RSS feed from that page. But, more than half of the people using the net don’t know what feeds are. If you are one of these, then read on. If you browse through a lot of websites or Blogs then you, my friend, should know what feeds are because they would make your browsing easier. RSS actually stands for Really Simple, Stupid! No, no, just kidding. It stands for Really Simple Syndication. Feeds provide subscribers with updated content from blogs and sites they enjoy
that support feeds without having to visit the actual site or blog itself.

The 3 main types of Feeds are: RSS , Atom , XML. Whichever format your favorite feed is in, it really is nothing more than a form of syndication...just like your favorite syndicated column in your local newspaper a feed is "broadcast" to all its subscribers at one time. So think of a feed as a syndicated newspaper column. When it's published it appears in hundreds of newspapers around the world all at once. See? Feeds aren't anything new, they're decades old - they just haven't really caught on the way the geeks expected. That's why more than 50% of you don't know what they are. Newer versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox allow you to read feeds directly from the browser - however, the feed readers in browsers are limited. If you are really a fan of feeds, you'll probably want to use a "Feed Reader". A dedicated feed reader allows you add the feeds from your favorite sites where they are updated automatically. Any time your favorite blog or RSS-enabled Web site is updated, the information is automatically "fed" to your feed reader. In other words you don't have to keep going back to the site to see what's new. There are many different feed readers available and many of them are free. Some of the free ones include: Google Reader, MyYahoo, Bloglines, Netvibes, Newsgator, FeedDemon, etc. Feed readers allow you to integrate, organize and browse your favorite feeds without ever opening your browser.

Will feeds ever really catch on? Maybe not the way it was first imagined they would. But many programs use feeds to provide updated content to users. If you're using Vista and still have the Sidebar displayed, you're using feeds. If you use our CalendarPal program, the weather information comes to you via web feeds provided by Accuweather.

See more examples of page content being displayed using feeds at http://thundercloud.net/start/ . The World News, Tech News, and Tips are all displayed in real time using feeds.

So feeds are everywhere yet more than half of you don't know (and probably don't care) what they are. Isn't that fascinating?

Okay, grasshoppers, that was your tidbit of knowledge for today and was an excerpt from a free e-zine I get from the computer whiz guys at Cloudeight Internet, LLC who call themselves Eightball and Thundercloud. I'm sharing (hopefully) their online e-zine link here with you so you can visit and read how much really GOOD computer information they pack into an issue. These guys know their stuff, and if we would just follow their lead, we would never have so many "puter problems". Here's the link to the recent Cloudeight Info Ave issue I took this from http://thundercloud.net/infoave/archives2009/week-366.htm

Well, once in awhile I like us to really learn something so we can keep up with the youngsters! I am already using feeds since August when I began to follow SO MANY digi-scrap blogs.

Now for your freebie! Today you get #3, #4, #5, and #6 in my "HEARTS AFIRE", Series 6, collection of 14. Again, these are 2100 x 2100 pixels, 300 dpi so you can size them up or down without losing any print quality. I do so hope that you can find a use for these, especially since it's "Love Month"; which reminds me that I will have to show you the scrappy valentine page I made for my hubby in early January (Wow, was I in a hurry or something!). I'm not emailing it to him until the eve of Valentine's Day (don't laugh, we have twin computers sitting about 8-9 feet away from each other in our den where we hang out, so it's sometimes the most major way we communicate....at least we share a common interest....."computing"! LOL!) For Christmas I had asked for some extra gigs of RAM to up mine's performance, some more storage devices now that I'm into digi-scrappin, and I may have to think about my next even larger #2 external hard drive soon!! Yikes! At least it doesn't make a mess all over the house like the rest of my hobbies! Heehee! He is into playing all versions of Delta Force online with his buddies and for the last 10 years has been designing environments to share for that game. It's amazing; he stopped buying software games when he found out he could design in that one and share the "maps" they call them. I'm stupified by what I've seen him do with all that over a period time. It has totally occupied him better than anything. I told him he would like this digi-scrap designing since he likes to "create" like that, and he does come over and look at my computer screen from time to time and make comments about what I'm trying to make, but then he returns to the noisy manly stuff. Thank goodness he uses earphones and a bluetooth while playing that stuff!

OMG! Sorry! I've rambled on way too long here, didn't mean to torture! LOL! I'm making up with you by sharing 4 frames this time instead of just one. LOL! Isn't making up GRAND! Here's the freebie preview:

DOWNLOAD HERE

Alrighty then.....that's enough of me for awhile. I'll be back tomorrow with another freebie and plan to share some paper packs with you this month also! Meantime, Happy Scrappin!!

Tootles!

IT'S GROUNDHOG DAY!

So how many of us believe that how quickly our spring arrives depends on whether or not Mr. Groundhog saw his shadow this morning or not?? If you think about it, we have passed a lot of these old traditions down through the generations, haven't we? Well, I for one do not think there will be any shadows cast, so Spring should arrive early. However, I definitely could be oh-so-wrongo! Another of these I recall is "that when the leaves on trees turn upside down in the breeze, it's going to rain". Do you all know that one?

The fantastic Super Bowl is over, and it was a great game!! Being originally from the north, our family has always been Steelers fans, so we were pleased. My brother has been transplanted in AZ for quite a few years now as an end result of his Army career, and I figured he may just be rooting for the Cardinals.....but NOT!! My whole family had to do a conference call of shared elation when the 100-yard touchdown was run just as the clock ran to zero at halftime by the Steelers!! Geez! It was great!! We are spread in a huge triangle across the country from each other; but, regardless of the miles, we are all still very close in heart and spirit. Guess you all know how that is I hope! My elderly parents sat in front of their relatively new huge plasma flat screen HD TV, and mom said she felt like she was at the game! It's such a blessing that she and dad are still enjoying life together at soon-to-be 86 and 81 years of age. Mom has "her own" TV of this type in her den where she curls up on her plump high backed sofa under my hand-crocheted afghans and watches lots of movies late at night during the winter cold months in the Appalachian Mountains. Dad has "his TV" in his master bedroom which also has a nice fireplace in it, so he enjoys his sports and avidly reading daily newspapers and lots of books while he reclines in his comfy bed. That way he can just doze off whenever he wants. They meet in the kitchen when hunger calls. Mom was like a drill sargent raising us with three home-cooked square meals a day, and she clicked off her daily chores each week as if she was on some type of mental punch clock. She hasn't let up much in taking care of dad in the same manner all these years, and in the spring/summer/fall seasons she mows and tends two acres around their home and enjoys avid flower and vegetable gardening. She would rather be outside digging in the dirt than be inside doing housework, and I can't blame her for that one. Watching things bloom and eating fresh veggies is way more gratifying than worrying over housework which will still be there when we are beneath the sod. Agree?

On to my freebie for you! This is the second frame in "HEARTS AFIRE", Series 6, and this one is a beautiful "electrifying" blue! Hehe! You'll see! I'm sure there are a lot of blue fans out there, right? It's in png format so should work in most software programs, and is 2100 x 2100 pixels, 300 dpi, so you can resize up or down and not lose any printing quality. The blue paper beneath the heart frame in this preview is just for contrast and is not included in the download. It is part of a series of papers I made which I will be giving away soon, so I hope you'll check back often and pick up whatever you like to work with. Here's the preview:

DOWNLOAD HERE

If anyone finds anything wrong with any of my downloads, files or links; please just let me know so I can fix it for you. I consider myself still new at all this, but I AM having fun and AM so addicted to scrappin!

I also have a request, and I don't know how simple or complex it may be. I need help or advice on how to insert those "blinkies" in a nice list down the side of my blog. I've collected quite a few of them since they are usually in designer's freebies, but I don't know the trick for getting them inserted here so they actually work and take you to the designer's site when you click on them. I've tried a couple of things and so far I haven't hit on the right thing to do. If somebody out there can help me learn and has a kind heart, please leave some instructions in the comments here or email me. My email can be found on the download page of 4Shared where you send a private message. Would so appreciate some help over this obstacle. Thanks! It's probably something very simple, and I am overthinking it as usual.

I'll be back hopefully tomorrow with another free frame for you in this series so you can collect them all month if I stay on cue! Enjoy!

Tootles!

HAPPY "LOVE" MONTH!

It's February already, and to celebrate the ongoing passing of winter (which can't happen too fast to suit me) I'm going to attempt doing a lot more posts this month and sharing lots of freebies which are a result of my recent head first dive into learning my PSE6. I'm making some happy little progress in my designing attempts, so I have some wild looking heart frames to share with you. I hope you'll be able to use these in your romantic digi-scrapping! I've made several different series of these frames, and the first I'm sharing is Series 6 which has a total of 14 frames in it so far. I've named this collection "Hearts Afire", and you'll be able to easily see why. I'm going to try to share one a day with you for the entire month of February! Yikes! I hope I can keep up with myself on this idea. (If I fall behind, I promise to just load up the zip files with more than one so you still have them all by the end of this month!) Here is the first one:

DOWNLOAD HERE

Please leave me some love to spur me on if you like this, and of course I'd love to see anything you make with it and will post your layouts here if you'd like to send them to me. My email is in the TOU included in the download file.

It's cold here at the beach during the nights, and we have the audacity to complain; but I'm sure it's much more frigid in northern parts of the country right now. What's the weather doing where you are?

I'll make this a shortie since I want this freebie available to all of you early on today! Will chat more as the month progresses!

Tootles!