One more post today!

This post is for Becky's challenge, she's the guest blogger for Nancy Comelab this week. Nancy is the creator of the awesome frames that I use all the time. Here is what Becky said to do..."Instead of a LO, let’s go out on a limb a bit and look through our pictures and find, you know…the ones that we just took because we wanted to try and capture on film some special little moment to remind us…and if you can, here’s the catch: Try to find one without any people in it…or at least for the subject." Well, I just couldn't choose one, so I am showing a few! I took these photos a few years ago at Spring Mill State Park near my hometown. Spring Mill holds alot of childhood memories for me and some fun ones as an adult too. Whenever I visit there even the smell of it reminds me of that time. I love going there and I always take my camera to the old fashioned garden in the Pioneer Village. My grandfather used to work at the Old Grist Mill, he retired from there many years ago. When my daughter was a small girl we used to stop by and visit him. He would give her a quarter to buy a treat from the concession stand. (well, it sounds like I need to make a layout of these and some other images I have from Spring Mill!) So, this is my non-person presentation using Nancy's newest and awesome Ultimate Frames Collection! For the images of the Grist Mill I used Nancy's mask with the blend mode set to overlay. The small flowers are by Correen Silke. I picked those up at SBB the other day using my happy birthday coupon from DST. The jewels and ribbon were a blog gift from Becky, thanks so much! (If you scroll down you will see a layout using Nancy's fab frames and a gorgeous kit by Betty Jo!)




Blessings and hugs,

Cheryl

Layout Alert!

Warning: this smile can be hazardous to the word NO!

full credits are here and here

This is my 3½ year old darling, sweet, mischievous, charming grandson...Andrew. How could anyone resist this smile?! He knows how to use it for sure, and when he wants something or thinks he might be in trouble he does use it. His parents are probably a little more immune to it than I am, but not much! He's all boy, still just a little bit of a baby, loveable, huggable and just all around precious! (well aren't they all?) He has a great sense of humor too. The other day he was lounging across his daddy's legs, head resting on the arm of the chair. He was very tired, and those big blue eyes were slowly blinking, he looked like he could go to sleep any minute. I quietly asked his daddy, "isn't he just the 'prettiest' little boy you have ever seen?" and Daddy agreed with me, because even if Andrew is a boy, handsome is not the right descriptive word for him, tho handsome he is. Well, I didn't think Andrew even heard me, but he piped right up...





"Gramma, I'm not pretty, Meikina is pretty!" Then he smiled that smile!



x




***sighs*** I adore him, can you tell?!


Here is another one of Andrew, taken the same evening as the one in the layout. You will see what I mean by "pretty"!

Now he is showing his mischievous side! LOL!

Okay, that's all for now! I have lots of pictures of the other kids from last Saturday, but you will have to wait to see them:) Laundry and other household chores are calling my name! Have a wonderful day!

Blessings and hugs,

Cheryl

Here is Christopher!

Can you believe it, I finally finished a layout! woohoo! It took me a whole week to figure out what to do with it. I mostly scrap the little kids and I can embellish with flowers and other pretty things even if they are boys. But this time I was scrapping my first born grandson. I couldn't do flowery things for a 12 going on 13 year old young man! I wasn't so sure about glitter either and I wanted this one to have just a little bit of a grown up feel to it, but still fun. So finally I went with the doodled frame, stars, and a touch of cardboard to go with the cream background paper and the stripes. So much for the grown up style layout, LOL! I really like how this came out though and I think he will too. I feel bad that I don't have alot of layouts of Chris, I would love to have a new scanner so that I can scrap my film pictures of him. The very first digi-layout I ever created was one of Chris, it's been over two years ago. I have been tempted to rescrap that photo, but I think I really should leave it alone. I had the best time doing that layout, it would be a shame to change it. Chris isn't around too much when I get my camera out, so I was very happy to get this shot of him last weekend. credits here

I hope everyone had a nice weekend...but look out, here comes Monday!

Blessings and hugs,

Cheryl

Happy Father's Day!

The LORD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. Psalm 103:13, NLT

It's Father's Day. I have been blessed with TWO men in my life that I can call Dad. One has gone on to be with the Lord. It's already been 7 years since he died, how the time flies! It doesn't seem so long really. And even though I know I will see him again, I miss him still. The other has been married to my mother for nearly 30 years. He is very dear to me and I love him so much! He is so much a part of my family and a wonderful husband to my mom. That by itself makes him very special! Then there is my son-in-law who has helped provide me with gorgeous grandchildren! And my oldest son who has his two boys, Joshua and Justin. Lots to be thankful for, that is certain! So this post is dedicated to all those wonderful fathers in my life! I love you guys!

Blessings and hugs,

Cheryl

It's The Weekend!

Have I been absent or what? I have barely started this blogging thing, and I am already guilty of neglect. It has been a crazy long week though, so I will forgive myself for being away for so many days in a row, LOL! I am really glad to see the weekend though. I don't have a huge bunch of stuff planned but just enough so that in between the busy stuff there will (hopefully) be some much needed downtime for me...and maybe even time and mental energy to scrap a page.

Today is my beautiful Daughter's birthday! Tammy, I wish you love, happiness, and joy on your special day. I love you so very much!

I did promise some more pics from LAST weekend, so since it's been almost a week since I posted I'll just present a few snaps of Meikina, Andrew and Tyler from the playground last Saturday.

The Boys

The Princess

My Birthday Cake

Ribbon flowers and stickers by Shabby Princess!

Have a Wonderful Weekend!

Blessings and Hugs,

Cheryl

Butterflies and Blessings and My Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me! LOL! I got an amazing email from Betty Jo this morning. Here is what she wrote:

"Hi Sweetie,

I just got to my computer to check the post where I'm designer of the week at Lifts With A Twist. Take a look here: http://pachimactoo.typepad.com/. I actually suggested this layout to Susan, as I think it is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. Low and behold she went with it too although you're on my team!! Awesome!!"

So this means lots of people will be using my layout for inspiration, how bout that??!!

This is one of my all time favorite layouts too, because it looks so layered and has lots of fun stuff going on, I really enjoyed creating it. Betty Jo even featured it on her blog last week to introduce me to her blogging friends. She's just a doll, I love her dearly.

I also got an amazing email from my Wonderful and Wise Mother, I love you so much Mom!

I'm watching my daughter's kids again today, since she and my son-in-law both have to work. I'm going there around 11am or so, and after lunch we are going to the pool for a little bit. Mike and Joshie are going to try to come to Louisville to visit me this afternoon, that will be a nice treat...I've miss them alot since I moved to Louisville.

I have some photos to share later from my babysitting adventure yesterday, that was an all day one, but it was a fun and awesome day. At one point as we were driving in the van I heard this little voice singing "Happy birthday to Gramma, happy birthday to you". It was my sweet little Meikina singing to me! Here is one photo from yesterday of my sweet princess, I'll post some more later of the boys. Gotta run!

Credits: Frame is a freebie by Mindy Terasawa, background paper is by Christina Smith. (not sure if it's still available.)

Blessings and hugs,

Cheryl

No Internet?? YIKES!

I went all of Monday evening with no internet access. OMGoodness, I actually had withdrawals, with severe anxiety, and I was just totally whacked out! LOL! I guess it wasn't really quite that bad but I still didn't like the way it made me feel. But really, all I wanted to do was check my email real quick, scour through a few blogs that I like to visit and say hi to my Mom and Sister and whoever else might have been online. The internet is my doorway to a bigger world and I miss it when I can't go there! Anyway, I'm back up for now and I sure hope there is no more trouble for awhile.

Ok, that gripe is out of the way. I have a few more pictures to from the weekend that I want to show you. Not many, but Mom's flowers were just so pretty and I had to take a few photos of them. Looky here...

Aren't they gorgeous?

The Photo Frames are by Nancy Comelab.

Silly Frilly Butterflies by Syrin.

Blessings and hugs,

Cheryl

Weekends are TOO short!

I really miss some of the things about working from home, when I was my own boss...in charge of my schedule. I miss the photography part of it too, the pleasure of delivering pictures to the coaches that I knew were some of the best sports pictures those parents would ever have of their kids. Maybe not such a big deal for some, but preserving memories is important to me, and I took alot of pride in my work. I also miss just being at home...free to take a day (or two) off if I needed to. I am glad I got to experience all of that for the time that I did, even with all the struggles that went along with it. So now I continue to move on with my life, still adapting to a "real" job....and thankful that I have one that I don't mind going to. And they are finally getting the paperwork ready so that I will be a permanent employee with benefits...yay!

I left Friday evening for Mom's house. My brother worked on my car Saturday, so while he had the car at the shop I spent the morning with my Sis-in-law and their little guy. Dawson is an extremely bright, ACTIVE 2 year old. Here are a couple of photos I was able to grab of him.

He's such a stinker! Cute tho, huh?! LOL!
My mom gave me the prettiest birthday card while I was there. I love it and the message inside could have been written by her. She's so sweet and thoughtful. We have a really special relationship that I cherish. She also gave me a cute little framed poem to put on my desk at work! And fixed taco salads for dinner on Saturday! yummmmy!! My fave food!

Here is my Mom! Thanks for a really nice weekend, even if it was too short!
Remember, I love you very much!

Blessings and Hugs,

Cheryl