Greetings, my friends. Happy Easter, happy Spring, and so much more in my house. We always are having lots of birthdays in my extended family. At the beginning of April my folks celebrated 68 years of marriage, and my dad just turned 92 years young! Mom was 87 in February, too. I live a long way from them, and luckily they are quite independent and still have good mentation. What a milestone to be married for 68 years to the same person! Wow! I racked my brain to figure out something novel for my dad's birthday that he would like, you know, really like. Lately, I've gotten in the habit of sending them precooked food from some great websites. I figure that will help them out not to have to drag it in from the stores and then cook it. It arrives ready to eat! Dad commented recently that he feels he is "living large" getting those kinds of gifts. I've sent them their favorite kinds of wine from my favorite winery over the Christmas holidays. For dad's birthday, I finally realized they had never experienced one of those fruit arrangements from Edible Arrangements. So, I went online once again and poured over the many different styles until I landed on just the right one for their first experience. It had everything in it and was beautiful, and I ordered a small which was still huge for two people. My only hurdle was that the store was 1-1/2 hrs. from where my folks live, and they don't deliver out that far. Lucky for me, I have an old high school girlfriend and former neighbor living in the same city as the Edible store, and she offered to drive the gift over to my folks! Now how many of you have friends who would extend themselves like that??? Needless to say, it was a big hit and we visited during its arrival and consumption via phone. Very cool indeed! I gave my mom a cell phone last summer and taught her just the basics in a few days I spent with her. She can get texts and photos, has email, and can carry it with her and call people. I put dropbox on her phone, so her cell phone camera photos that she takes get uploaded automatically to online storage, and since I set that up for her, I can get in and see all the pictures she takes. I got to see the fruit arrangement and all her pictures by the next morning. Not too shabby, hey? She thinks all this technology is like magic!! I tried to get them started on a laptop when they were in their 60's, but it just didn't happen, so the cell phone is as far as I've been able to bring them up-to-date.
I've been helping out babysitting after school for my gkids, and we are doing a thing called "photo-a-day" so we can text it to the great-grandparents. Plus, it gives me a lot of scrapping material, too! They like the idea also and are regular hams these days! Can't believe how fast they are growing up!
I have a
FREE QUICK PAGE for you, my monthly participation in the I
vy Scraps Quick Page Contest. For April we are playing with "Dotty" by Katlen. My page is a png format, 300 dpi, 12 x 12" and can easily be reduced down to an 8 x 8" if you prefer. Just slip your photos under it and add your own journaling on top. Done! Here is the kit preview, then my Quick Page preview, and the download is beneath that.
Don't forget there are plenty of contestants making these free QPs, so if you would like to collect enough to have a ready-made album to fill, just visit the April 2015 Quick Page Challenge thread in the forum over at
Ivy Scraps. Each person designing a QP gives a direct download link to it in their forum post. Go snag all of them up by the end of this month. The first of each month we sign up to work with a new kit. The former month's links are up for 30 days after that month's contest closes.
I hope to pop back in soon with more free goodies for you. I have them done, I just need to package them into zip files and get them uploaded so I can share. I have about three more alphas ready to go, some pre-made digital cards I know you'll like. Hang on with me and visit often. Leave some love if you download, so I know you like what I'm giving.
Have a wonderful weekend!
TOOTLES!!
