Practice, Practice, Practice.....

I've had my Canon Rebel XTi for over a year now, and I'm STILL trying to learn how to use it. I know, I know...I've been told all my life that "practice makes perfect"....well, just for the record, that is not technically true. There are quite a few things that I've practiced ad nauseam and STILL have not mastered - anywhere NEAR PERFECT! But I digress...

I have been practicing with my camera...every chance I get. Here are some of my more recent efforts. Two of my children and their children met me down at Bertram Park in Pensacola for a late afternoon photo shoot. Luckily for me, our friend, Tim Ludvigsen (who is a professional photographer) joined us. He gave me several quick lessons on my camera...and I think these are come of the best pics I've taken for a while. Acutally, Tim was the REAL photographer there, I just came along to get in a little practice with my camera AND all the help I could get from Tim. THANKS Tim!!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon! Hugs!

Susan

A Recipe for a Great 2009!

Someone sent me this....and I think it could make a difference in my life. What about you? 1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant. 2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Talk to God about what is going on in your life. Buy a lock if you have to. 3. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, My purpose is to__________ today. I am thankful for______________. 4. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants. 5. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli , almonds & walnuts. 6. Try to make at least three people smile each day. 7. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment. 8. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card. 9. Life isn't fair, but it's still good. 10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. 11. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does. 12. You are not so important that you have to win every argument. Agree to disagree. 13. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present. 14. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about. 15. No one is in charge of your happiness except you. 16. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: In five years,will this matter? 17. Forgive everyone for everything. 18. What other people think of you is none of your business. 19. GOD heals everything - but you have to ask Him. 20. However good or bad a situation is, it will change. 21. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friendswill. Stay in touch!!! 22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need. 23. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for__________. Today I accomplished_________. 24. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed. 25. When you are feeling down, start listing your many blessings. You'll be smiling before you know it.

How Do You Spend Your Time?

Since I spend my working hours in banks, this really hit home for me. I've seen this little article several times. The older I get the faster time flies....so I leave this for you to ponder. Oh, and Enjoy your day! There is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out ALL OF IT, of course! Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow." You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today. To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade. To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby. To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper. To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet. To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train. To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident. To realize the value of ONE-TENTH OF A SECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics. Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special. And remember that time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a GIFT. That's why it's called the present!

I've Been Tagged!

I don't get tagged often, but this week I've been tagged and received a "blog award" from a couple of my friends. So here goes..... The tag from Vel... Here are the rules: 1. Go to the section of your computer where you store all of your photos. 2. Select the 6th folder. 3. Select the 6th photo from that folder. 4. Post and explain about that picture. 5. Tag 6 other peopleHere are the rules: The date on the sixth folder in my pictures was September 14, 2006. This is a photo of our great grandson Nolan when he was about 2 weeks old. Perhaps I should scrap it! LOL! I will tag Sharon, Julie, Jane, Nicole, Amy, and Patti +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I also received a Fabulous Blog award from Julie and Jane

For some reason, in order to accept this Fabulous Award, I need to list five of my addictions. In no particular order, my addictions:

1. Diet Coke

2. Scrapbooking

3. Reading

4. Chocolate

5. Chocolate....sorry but it really IS an addiction!! LOL!

And in order to pass it forward, I'm nominating the following individuals for the Fabulous Award:

1. Pam

2. Sharon

3. Nicole

4. Amy

5. Patti

January Kit Work

Thanks for stopping by my blog. As usual, I'm a hit and miss kind of blogger. I really do intend to keep it up, but somehow I just keep shifting my blog to the back of the burner. So...hopefully, I can begin 2009 with a better record of blogging that in the past! Here's my layouts using the main kit from My Creative Scrapbook

This is my beautiful granddaughter Katie. She had just lost her front teeth and we tried everything to get her to give us a BIG smile....but she was wise to us! LOL! My daughter and her son with such happy smiles! I used a lot of sparklies on this layout. I roughed up the edges of the papers a bit too.

I really had fun with this card. I used my quickutz for the branch. The flowers are a paper shapers punch and the butterfly is stamped. I cut the butterfly out and added LOTS of glitter!

Well, now I'm off to do some "real" work...gotta keep that paycheck coming in so I can afford all my scrappy goodies!

Thanks a bunch for stopping by!

XOXO

Susan

A Little Sneak Peek

I was asked to be the Guest Designer for Creative Scrappers. The sketch I did will be for the week of January 11, 2009. If you get a moment, check out their blogspot http://creativescrappers.blogspot.com/ There's always a new sketch to try, challenges to participate in...lots of fun and activity! Here's a little sneak peek at the layout I did for the sketch for January 11..... As always, I appreciate you stopping by...and would love to hear from you! Hugs! Susan

December Kit work for My Creative Scrapbook

I'm such a bad blogger! I have every intention of stopping by and posting a new blog entry at least weekly, but life just gets so busy, I just can't seem to find the time. I did want to stop off and post my most recent work for My Creative Scrapbook. The kits this month are just beautiful! I love the main kit with the Little Yellow Bicycle papers!

This is Allen and Helen Grace...as you can see, Allen is very excited to talk with Santa...Helen Grace just wanted to get away from him! I did a little hand stitching on this layout...very time consuming, but definitely worth it!

More cute photos of Helen Grace. These were made right after she started walking. The ornaments are chipboard covered with paper and then I covered them with glitter...gotta have sparkle at Christmas!

These photos are of my three grandsons on Christmas Eve 2006. They were so excited...can you just imagine the excitement of three...yes, three.....3 year olds!! Definitely brought back some sweet memories!

This is my daughter, Traci when she was almost 4 years old. I turned the photo to a sepia tone to give it a vintage look...although it was made in 1979! This was made with the Cosmo Cricket Christmas papers...very vintage type papers!

I have to admit when I first saw this kit, I wasn't too crazy about the paper...but I love the way this layout turned out! Sweet photos of three of my grandchildren on Christmas 2007. This was one of the add on kits from My Creative Scrapbook. The papers are My Mind's Eye Christmas paper.

This layout was with the same kit...I just love these photos of Allen and Jacob trimming the tree. They "helped" again this year for about 3 minutes, then they were off to play...chasing each other through the house. Helen Grace, who is 3, was helping decorate the tree and was taking the job seriously....on one race through the living room, the boys bumped her and she ran after them into the bedroom and told them...."Jacob and Allen, you need to stop running, I'm twying (trying) to decawate (decorate) the twee!" We all got a big laugh from that...mostly because she was so serious! This is a sample of cards that I made using the three kits...I really like the card with the Santa stamp on it.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you'll visit again soon. I'd love to hear what you think about the kits/layouts.

Merry Christmas to ALL!

Susan

TIME FLIES.............

Yep! It really does! Seems like yesterday, I was posting the layouts from our October kits at My Creative Scrapbook! This month was a little difficult for me since I was away from home working all month! What that means is...these layouts were a bit of a challenge for me. I knew I'd be working on these layouts while I was staying in a hotel somewhere in Mississippi....(and it definitely wasn't Somewhere Over the Rainbow!!!) No kidding, I saw at least 3-4 deer EVERY day while driving back and forth to the Bank! Okay, enough of my chatter, let me tell you about these layouts. This is a layout of my beautiful niece, Sarah. Sarah and her mom (my sister) were visiting my Daughter in Alabama...another very small town. These photos were actually taken at an old, old cemetery there. Lots of beautiful wrought iron and columns! The papers in this kit are Crate Paper - Prudence. I used a Martha Stewart punch for the "lacy" borders. The black swirls are Quickutz swirls. I added touches of bling to the flower and to the swirls. The journaling is printed on some of the patterned paper and then cut in less than perfect strips...inked heavily and doodled on. The journaling is an old Irish blessing. If you click on the pic, you can get a close up and read the journaling.

Ah.....my beautiful (yes, boys can be beautiful!) grandson, Adam. This is his serious look. He get very focused on something when he's really interested in it. I tell him his serious look means that he's "in the zone"! These papers are also part of the Main Kit from My Creative Scrapbook. I added touches of bling....flowers, and a butterfly on this "masculine" page! The butterfly is a QK Monarch butterfly that I inked and added bling to...love the look of that!

This little cutie is my daughter's niece, Erin! She has such a cute little grin...and I just LOVE those dimples! Very mischievious...this one! These papers are from the Creative Kit for November at My Creative Scrapbook. Lots of fun working with these papers!

This layout is more photos of another one of my beautiful grandsons - Jacob. My son's children, Allen and Helen Grace were having a birthday party in October and they rented this bouncy thing for the kids. We really had a bunch of pooped out kids after an afternoon of bouncing ...bouncing...bouncing!!! This layout is also made with the Creative Kit for November from My Creative Scrapbook.

If you haven't checked out the kits....come on over and check us out. We'd love to have you join us!

Thanks so much for dropping by....I'd love to hear from you too....so leave a note!

Hugs! Susan

October Kit Work for My Creative Scrapbook

The October kit from My Creative Scrapbook is AWESOME!!! I love the Bo Bunny papers and all the flowers, bling, and ribbons! The chipboard alphas are "sparkly". Head on over and check out the kits for October....there are several to chose from! This is my adorable granddaughter, Helen Grace. She can be such a girly girl...and in the next second, she's just as rough and tumble as her brother and her cousins! I edited this photo in Picnik - which is an online photo editing program I use sometime. The bling is by a fabulous new company called Zva Creations. I used lots of rubons, too! I shaped the curved edge of the flowered paper with my Bo Bonny flex ruler....that thing is really cool! I've probably had it for a year and just forget about using it!

Just a little "happy" card! I used scraps from my layouts to create this card. I inked each of the squares and glued them to the front of a prefolded card. The "hello" is some of the felt alphas that came with the October Main kit. I used my zig pen for the dotted edges of each block. The flower I cut from the patterned paper and pop dotted it on top of the flower on that square.

This is our home. We moved to this house in March 2005 after living at the "old" house for 24 years! Do you have any idea how much "STUFF" you can accumulate in 24 years? Geesh! It took forever to sort all the junk! Got rid of tons of stuff expecting our new home to be very neat and orderly. The new house looked bare for a while (considering it was a good bit bigger than our old house)...but, wouldn't you know it...I've managed to fill it up and it only took me 3 years! The title "blessings" was a chipboard title that I painted and then I outlined the letters. The quote and the red scalloped border are sticker borders that came with the kit. The word "home" is actually stickers! I backed them with black cardstock. The way they are designed, they look like they are 3-D, but they really are stickers and they also came with the kit! I loved the flowers, rubons and bling that are in the kit this month!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by! As always...I love your comments...so post away!!!

Hugs! Susan

I've Been TAGGED!

It seems that I've been "tagged" by the sweet, wonderful, kind, considerate, beautiful (aaaaaagh ~let go of my throat) VEL! No....really....I meant EVERY word of it....really, Vel...

So, here are the rules:

1. If you've been tagged, you can put the logo on your blog.

2. Link the person from whom you received the award.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links to those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs you've nominated.

Being blogger challenged as I am....I sure hope this works! Here's to you, my friends! Consider yourselves TAGGED! And thanks for entertaining me with your blogs! 1. Gabrielle - my scrappy friend! 2. Jennifer Priest - I always learn something new from her blog! 3. Nic - Lots of beautiful work and scrappy ideas! 4. Helen - I've traveled around the world with Helen! 5. Robbie - my scrappy friend! 6. Susan - Scrappy Susan, that is! 7. Julie - yeah....that's the one! I've met all the wonderful ladies (not you RJ) through the scrapping world. Each of them bring fun and laughter into my life in on way or another (Julie...you're the other). Take a minute to visit their blogs...leave them a comment. Everybody needs to feel "loved"! ~even Julie~