Recently we took a guided tour to Yosemite by Yosemite Tours out of Oakhurst. If you're wanting to go they are great! This was my first time to Yosemite and I wasn't sure what to expect. It's hard when you're from the Pacific NW, you live with the beauty of nature surrounding you in every direction you take.

Living in the Central California valley it's a stark contrast to Washington state. Yosemite with it's magnificent trees and stately mountains stands out because it is so utterly different from the valley floor. The day we were there they were doing controlled burns, that's why you see the whisps of smoke billowing above the trees. I was sure glad they'd told us about this otherwise it would have been a little scarey thinking there was a fire somewhere close. I had hoped the fall colors would be out, they were just beginning, but all in all it's a majestic place and if you're nearby one you should take the time to visit.



Just click on the preview of her kit to be taken to NDISB where you can purchase this kit.
I used the kit Fixation from Lori Giles to do this page. Lori's a great desinger. She's selling her kits on her blog now. If you haven't checked her stuff out you should. She's very talented and draws a lot of her emblishments free hand. I envy her, I have no talent for that whatsoever so truely admire those that can.

I did this with the next tutorial of Linda Sattgast - The Scrapper Guide, I am sooooo glad I finally took the time to see what she was sending I only wish I had looked a long time ago, I bet I've missed out on a lot.

This time was learning how to put text in a shape. I learned so much, it is so fun to figure out how to do something so simply that you had struggled with on your own.

I also experimented using the shapes and doing everything in the layout on my own, pretty simplist but a good feeling to know I can do it!

This is a picture of my son Mitch and my daughter-in-law Jeanett. I'm wanting to put together one of Melissa's Scrapbook Memory books and needed a couple pictures of the kids to round out all the wedding photos. Recently I had received a newletter from Linda Sattgast. She sends out a wonderful newsletter with a video on how to do some neat trick in Photoshop Elements (it's also adjusted for PS CS2 which I use). Well like lots of things the newsletters have come and been filed and I just finally got around to looking at them. Wow what I've been missing. I created the text here (The Kiss) with her latest technique she shared. It was so simple to do and since I'm fairly new to PS I find it fascinating to discover all these things right in front of me that I had no idea were there or if I did how to use them. If you haven't checked out her sight please do so now and don't miss out like I did on some very good stuff!

Check it out at The Digital Scrapper and be sure and sign up for her newsletter! Or better still invest in one of her cds I'm sure you won't be sorry!

One of my friends stopped by to say hi on my blog and wanted to know where all my pages of my friends were, so this is for her and the others who touch my life daily with their love and support.


Journaling Reads:

I sometimes wonder why I was chosen to be so blessed. I know others who don’t have one close friend and here I am with many! Over the years we have laughed with one another, cried with each other and offered a shoulder with no explanations needed for one another. It is true that those that love you most see the inside not the out, they love you when you do stupid things and they love you when you’re on top of the world. If I could wish one wish it would be for everyone to have at least one best friend to journey through life’s bumps with.

The elements used to make this page were from the talented Designers from Divine Digital the kit was a free one from them bits and pieces of it were posted daily Project Divine Daily Freebie - DIVINE FRIENDSHIPS - Sisters by Heart! Stop by Divine Digital, this mega kit will be available soon in their store.

Taco Temple
2680 Main Street
Morro Bay California

If you haven't been you have no idea what you are missing! Aptly named 'California Fusion' the food it to die for! Try the Tacos Carnitas and the Bread Pudding, and don't forget to have a cup of their coffee with the pudding, I bet you've not tasted any better. When we asked the waiter where they got it from he said it came from 2Dogs Coffee Shop in Morro Bay and they blended it special for them.

If you don't know about this place you could pass by in a heatbeat and never know what you missed!

Stop by, and Enjoy!

I'm on the Creative Team for Barb Speck and she just came out with this beautiful kit called Lilac and Lace (you can get it at Digiscrap Designers here - http://tinyurl.com/godbf ). I just loved the colors and when I ran across this card the other night I just knew I had a perfect match.

This card and the memories it evoked were really therapy for me. Sometimes, no matter how many years pass by you still long for past days you remember, people you shared times with, familar-unhurried-childhood times without the problems of the modern world and the stresses of adult life creeping in.

I wrote to Grandma in this, it just seemed the right way to do it. It came straight from my heart and I think perhaps that is how I will do a lot of my layouts going forward. Because it is these memories that I want to pass on to my Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren. Memories of people they will only know in the stories that I pass on to them.

When I posted this in one of my galleries someone wrote how great I had found the card and had kept it all these years, but better still how great I had scrapped it so it could live on through generations to come. That's exactly what I felt.

The journaling reads:

There was no way you could have guessed all those many years ago how a simple card could touch my soul 50 years later. Probably when I was 7 or so you sent me this Birthday card and I always kept it because it made me think of you, I think it was the flowers that did it for me because of your love of Violets. Friends laugh at me because I cannot seem to part with things but when I look at this and see again the beautiful handwriting you always had I am again a little girl running to Grandmas after the dishes were done each night to play games and just be with you. I miss you, I love you, but in my heart you are always just a memory away.

Now I don't feel quite so bad that I've kept hold of things for so many years.

I love this picture of Zoie and my sissy Carol. Zoie is so content just to snuggle up. My sis doesn't like her picture taken very much so I sneak them in whenever I can. I love that I got a shot of Mom's extra little girl leaning next to them with her head in her arms. Carol made that life size doll for Momma and it just looked so cute in the picture, like she was taking a little nap too.

Being from the Pacific NW it's always fun to scrap photos that make me feel closer to home. I love these that were taken in the Columbia River Gorge. I took a friend to see the Gorge, he'd never been there before and it's so great to see something familiar through the eyes of someone who is seing it for the first time. Sometimes we get blind to the beauty that surrounds us all the time.

Living in the Central Valley of California now I miss the lushness and the beauty of the Pacific NW, something I took all so often for granted. Stop for a moment and enjoy the surroundings around you. See them again like you're seeing them for the very first time. It's a great feeling!!

A big thank you to Rina Kroes for giving away her beautiful kit Grandpa's Cabin which helped me created this layout.

I just created this page of Chris and Ed and us taken over the 4th of July. It was so much fun. Each day you got a free piece of this kit from Cheryl McCain at The Scrapping Garden and you were suppose to create part of the layout each week using different elements given and adding on as the weeks progressed. This is my final, unless there's and element or two that she adds in the next few days that I just can't live without.

I'm So Excited

I'm so excited to have finally gotten my blog off the ground! I've coveted so many on the net and procrastanated for so long! But now I'm finally on a roll. My hopes are to have a 'home' in web land that my family can access at any time to see what I'm doing.

Thank goodness for wonders of the modern world: Internet, Computers, Digital Cameras, Video Cams, Cell Phones and on and on and on. My family may be separated by miles but they are only a second away from me at any given moment.