I learned out to link a picture to a site!!!

OK, so this may be basic for a lot of you all, but I am so thrilled!!! I just learned how to link a picture to a site using the html codes needed.  I have a lot to learn when it come to things like this, but wanted to share my little personal victory, lol.

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My daughter Kristin with a special gift from a special friend!

Last week I had posted a blog here about my daughter Kristin about how special she is and what a hard time she has been having lately.  A very special new friend, Cindy, had posted to her blog this beautiful tag she had created just for Kristin.  I received the tag the other day and had told Kristin that she had a very special gift here waiting for her. 

When I handed her the envelope and she opened it, tears immediately streamed down her cheeks.  She was so overwhelmed and was just so deeply touched by Cindy's gift.  I hugged her and told her that she has a lot of people thinking about her and praying for her.  She cried for a good ten minutes or so, and told me that they were definitely tears of joy and happiness.

So I want to thank you again Cindy from the bottom of my heart for creating this tag for Kristin.  Kristin wanted me to tell you thank you so very much and to let you know that she loves it!  She is a music fanatic and plays the flute as well, so she really loved that you had music notes on this.  She just loves it.

I told her that I wanted to take a pic with her and the tag for this post, she said "OK, but don't take the picture now when I'm crying."  So the pictures below were taken late Saturday evening by Eric my boyfriend.  The first picture shown is the original picture from Cindy's blog  of the tag, the one photo of Kristin with her tongue sticking out was her way of showing she was being her regular goofy silly self.  Although when you look at it, it almost looks as if she's in physical pain and trying to say "Help ME, my tongue is stuck and won't go back into my mouth!" He He!  I don't know, but what I am trying to say is that she was/is so tickled by this gift!

Thank you again Cindy, and thank you to everyone who has prayed for her and kept her in your thoughts.

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Some of my favorite scrapbook pages that I've created of all time: What I would choose if I were only allowed to keep a small number of pages.

Well in keeping with the spirit of trying to keep up with the Blogging For Scrapbookers daily idea list, I have already missed one day; and it hasn't even been a week yet!  However, in my defense yesterday's thing to do was to  "Create something sparkly and share it on your blog", I tried to create diamonds by rubbing some coal together but didn't work, so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

So today I am back on track...What I am going to do is share some of my most favorite scrapbook pages that I have created.  A lot of these pages that I am going to share with you were created when I belonged to a group that dealt with "emotional scrapbooking".  A great group, there is a link to it on my blog here "Scrapbooking From The Inside Out".  Anyway, every month there would be a theme of some emotion/feeling/goal, you name it they have it covered. 

So join me on my trip through scrapbooking memory lane as I share some of my favorite pages with you.

This first grouping is a double LO of JUST ME, it was a challenge for another group I belong to and this was created in November of 2009.  The challenge was to create a double LO all about yourself.  So this is why I chose this one to come first in my stroll down scrapbook memory lane. 

I was just learning how to use flock at the time and had also purchased the Doodle Bug glitter that you rub into the glue and all the glitter you see here is self induced! LoL!

All the rest of these scrapbook LO's are from challenges from the group I had mentioned, Scrapbooking From The Inside Out.

For many of the LO's that you will see coming up, I cannot remember what the exact challenge was, but will do my best to explain the LO to you.

This LO is entitled "In My World...Anythings Possible".  It has hidden journaling which basically says at this time of my life I sat and thought about myself and what I could attain and do with my life from that point onward.  I wrote that I know I am genuinely an optimistic person and that if I put my mind to something and work hard at it, and just simply believe in myself, anything is possible.

This LO here was for a Cyber-Crop we had on SFTIO on a day called "Madly In Love With Me Day".  I remember this challenge was to show I think how we felt about our bodies and well as you can see, I didn't think to highly of mine at the time. The LO is entitled "Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired"   (sorry about the blurry pic, but this was not taken with my camera and the camera I used just didn't like me).

I really LOVE this LO because it talks about the first time I felt Kevin move inside me when I was pregnant.  The challenge I actually remember, we had to put on the LO somewhere something that opens and closes, which is where the open and closed eyes pic comes into play.  The Student Bible pictured in the LO was what I was reading at the time and had it rested on my pregnant belly when all the sudden "POP" he moved!  It was one of  the most precious moments of my life.

That's why I called this "Peace Movement" because I was at such peace with everything when he moved and even more so after the fact.

This LO is all about my mom!  In this challenge we had to use a floral them and I may have went overboard a bit on the flower embellishments, but hey, it's my mom and she's worth all the flowers in the world!

This LO is obviously devoted to my kiddo's Kevin and Kristin who are my world!

This LO also has hidden journaling but I will give your the gist of what it is about.  The LO itself is called "Never Again".  This pic of me was taken last year, but this situation was something that I went through when I was 24. I was young and thought that this guy pictured here, Adam, was just "IT".  Well the relationship didn't last to terribly long, but long enough for him to steal from me, cheat on me and in the process getting the other girl pregnant, but I stayed with him because at that time I felt I deserved no better.  I felt my worth was 0!  Then one day, I looked over at him, it was like a bolt of lightening had stuck me or something, but I looked at him and almost to this exact wording I told him that I deserve better than this, better than him and the way he had treated me.  It was that day that I learned to create boundaries for myself and to FINALLY realize that I am worth way more than this loser was ever going to amount to.  So if ya think about it, it was actually maybe a blessing in disguise that I met him, or else I may not have met the person I am today for taking a stand for myself.

OK, LAST ONE, I PROMISE!  He he!

This LO is another challenge from the cyber-crop we had, I actually won this particular challenge and was VERY happy about that!

This was a sketch challenge and the host of the crop created this particular sketch and viola, here it is.  I had to name it "Madly in Love With Me" because how can one celebrate Madly In Love With Me Day while having a cyber-crop and not name at least ONE LO that. LoL!

Well I surely hope that I didn't bore you to tears and that you liked some of my pages.  I just started to scrapbook when I joined SFTIO which was how I learned what I know today.

So let me know what you think, I would love to hear what you thought of my post today!

You all take care!

Charity From The Heart...Would You Like To Be Involved? I Hope So!

Hi everyone,

I am writing today to tell you about two charities that I belong to.  I am responsible for the charity portion of the Yahoo! group PBS_Swappers and while we mainly discuss crafting and have challenges and swaps, we also wanted to do more in the way of charity work. 

The first charity I would like to tell you about is Operation Write Home {OWH}.  OWH is a non-profit organization that helps our men and women in uniform serving around the world.  What they do is send the troops handmade greeting cards which are blank on the inside so that the soldiers can in turn write their own personal messages to their families and loved ones back home.  What we at PBS_Swappers are doing is helping to supply some of these handmade greetings.  While having our group do this is wonderful, I thought I would extend the invitation to you all and ask if you would be interested and willing to get involved with helping OWH out as well.  I am going to give you a link as to what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in the handmade greetings sent to our troops.  Mainly it is all about NOT USING GLITTER.  What I am currently doing is mailing out quarterly to my contact Dixie in North Carolina.  The next time I will mail out will be towards the end of September. So this gives us all plenty of time to get those cards in.  Christmas cards will be needed in vast amounts as the holiday season approaches us.  Dixie also informed me that while Birthday cards, Thinking of You cards, and other general greetings are important and needed, what she is lacking is cards for the men in the lives of our soldiers: husbands, fathers, brothers, etc..  Also she stated that there is a need for cards for the children in their lives as well.

Another charity we are involved in is called Amy's Angels.  This group sends out handmade greetings to those who suffer with cancer as well as to their care-givers.  Again, we at PBS_Swappers are helping out by sending handmade greetings.  These cards are also to remain blank inside as they are requested by others and those at Amy's Angels fill them in per each request.  However a sentiment such as "Thinking of You", "Get Well", or something appropriate like that can be placed on the front of the card; or you can leave off a sentiment and just create a beautiful card front.  Also my contact their stated she would like to have our "Hallmark" signature on the back of the cards, such as "designed by", or "created by"...you know what I mean.

I have been up all night {yes again} looking into some other charities as well.  I am currently awaiting their response to let me know if and how we can help out.  I will share this information with you all as soon as I know anything.

If you are at all interested in sending a card(s) to help out these charities, please contact me via email  and I will give you my mailing address so you can send them onto me.  Anything and everything helps out those in need.  The three charities that I contacted this evening {or rather in the middle of the night}, all are dealing with children who are either ill, homeless, or just need a friendly card every now and then due to one reason or another.  I do hope that when I get information from them, that you will be interested in helping out those as well.

The PBS_Swappers and myself are not receiving anything in return for our assistance to these groups, I want to make that clear to you all.  If we are receiving anything at all, it is knowing that we are making a difference to someone else in a non-selfish way.  Perhaps that in itself is selfish, but I know from personal experience that helping someone else, whether in person or anonymously it feels great!  I want you to have this same great feeling!

I would also like to take this opportunity to invite you to join the group PBS_Swappers on Yahoo.  We are a fun, creative, and most importantly, a caring group of women who are based here in the United States.  We would love to have you join us.  The founder of the group is Sherry and you will find she is a very talented and a great friend to have.  So please come and take a look around and join us.

So again, please won't you consider helping out in this journey we have ventured on to brighten the day of someone who is in a less fortunate place than us right now. 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart and from all those who will benefit from your kindness.

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3 Craft Show's Coming Up...I'm going to be busy!!! WooT!

I have been in contact with an old friend named Barbara {she has no blog that I am aware of & if I find out I will link later to it},  and she is organizing here in Cincinnati, Ohio "The Yellow Ribbon Support Center Fundraising Event".  She has invited me to come and set up a booth, which I more than happily accepted!  That is on Saturday August 28th, so it's coming soon. 

She has also informed me of another show that is on August 15th so yea, I have to hurry and get ready for that one!  This second one is more geared towards motorcyclist and I am going to have to try and create some cards geared towards that.  I just hope that I can work fast enough to do all these.

Then there is a huge one in Sardinia, Ohio which I may have told you about at Lake Waynoka.  This is where Eric's camper is at and we camp occasionally.  There is a nice beach there as well as an indoor and outside swimming pool, it's a very nice place!  Anyway back to my point at hand...they had invited me to attend when they saw my cards at Lake Waynoka Days a few weeks back.  They said they usually have a turn-out of 400+, so big YEA to that!

So I am off now to create and start working on more cards and try to finish a few mini-albums!  I'll post as I go!

You All Take Care!

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A Day I Never Want To Forget...

As I said I wanted to write according to this list from the "Blogging For Scrapbookers", and today it says to write about a day I never want to forget.  This is hard since there are so many great days to remember & perhaps not so great days that need to be remembered.

So I was searching in my photo's and came up with this one: Mother's Day 2009

This picture here is of my mom and I when I gave her a scrapbook dedicated to her and her life.  She really loved it and shows a lot of people it when they come over to visit her.  The page that it is opened to here is one the left side a page about my brother David and on the right side a page about me.

Can you tell we were facing the sun?  This was a beautiful day we had all spent together at a park near my moms place.  In this photo are Kevin, Kristin, and I. 

Here is my brother David, Lisa {my sister-in-law}, and one of their sons Zack.  They also have another son David II who is not present in the pic but was there to celebrate Mother's Day with us all.

This is Lisa, my mom, and David together.

Last year's Mother's Day was so much fun and enjoyable because I just love it when we can all get together and share in the love we have for one another.  It was such a gorgeous day out, we grilled out and munched to our hearts content! LoL!

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If I could see one thing in the future...answer one question of what will happen...what would I choose?

This one here took me a while to think about, in fact I thought of so many things that I would like to see in the future that I am going to cheat a bit on this and name more than the one than the question asks.

For the longest time I was afraid of the future, the uncertainty of what will happen to my kids, my family, my self, and all of humanity.  With the year 2012 looming over our heads and all the hype that this infamous year has attained, I will admit that sometimes I honestly cannot see past it.  There was a time years ago that when I use to blog on MySpace quite frequently, I wrote a very disturbing rant about my fear of "the end", and eventually deleted it.  I sounded like quite the loony bird and people who read it most likely thought I should have been put away. LoL!  Now a days I will admit that I am still nervous about the date December 21, 2012 but just not in a way I was years ago.  It seems that most of the newer movies are dealing with post-Apocalypse issues and have men and women fighting, pillaging, and for God sakes even eating one another.  I really don't like these movies for those reasons.  I hate to think of humanity slithering down to such low morals {if any at all} in the future. 

So what I have decided to do here is name a few things that I would like to see in the future; both near future and beyond.  I feel that most people have good in them and most have good intentions in their hearts, and that is what I based these ideas on.

I would like to see the world come together as one, to not have any racism or hatred towards one another.  To have countries at peace, not war.  To have us all united as one.  The Beatles said it best "All You Need Is Love".

I see in the future for myself a better understand and closer relationship with God.  I want this so bad, I need this.  I know that with all the resources out there this will eventually happen.  I pray for that day to be filled with this completeness of His Love.

I see that all religions will come together and there will be no more "religious" wars over who is right and who is wrong.  Over whose God is the correct one or false one.  I see that we will all learn to love God and be free to worship how we feel to be the best for us to get closer to Him.

I look forward to the future with my family and friends and knowing that we will always be together and stick by one another no matter what.  I look to the future with a life with my boyfriend Eric and trust and pray we will be together to a very long time.  I look forward to happier times in my life and more opportunity's to share in good times with others.

This is how I see the future...how do you see it?

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I'm going to try and start something new here...

Last November of 2009, I took an online class by Shimelle called "Blogging For Scrapbookers".  I thoroughly enjoyed this class because it not only taught me the very basics of how to set up and start a blog, but it dealt directly to those of us who scrapbook and are involved in all areas of crafts, no matter what they may be.

Shimelle still offers this class as well as many more for a small fee.  The wonderful catch; if you will; is that that once you pay for a particular class, you may re-take it as many times as you like, for FREE! At least that is my understanding of it. 

So what is it that I am going to try here?  Well it is something that I learned from the class last year and never did get around to doing.  You see in Shimelle's class she had available a list from January 1 to December 31 of tips, things, ideas, and tidbits to blog about EVERYDAY.  Now I am not saying that I will most likely do every single daily idea that she offers or that I will be able to do so.  However, I am going to give it a go and start with the post that follows this one.

There are A LOT of snazzy  idea's to do from this daily list she made and I would surely love to complete everyone.  Perhaps in order to do so, I will have to double up some days, I just don't know at this time how it will pan out.  I hope I stick to it.  I hope you will like what you read and see as I go along.

This does not mean that I will stop writing about what goes on with me in my everyday life or that I will stop sharing my card creations with you, that will NEVER happen.  I enjoy sharing all that to much with you all.

Take care for now and again, I hope you enjoy what you see in the near and distant future.


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My Favorite Word...Thanks Cindy

I was thinking that this would be a hard one for me to find just one word that right now is my favorite.  Because let's face it, at least for me some of my favorite words or lines and phrases change from time to time.  But right now I am going to say that my word is DETERMINATION.  It is befitting my life right now in so many different aspects.
I am DETERMINED to help my daughter know that she is wonderful and God's child, I am DETERMINED to help my son know that he can and will succeed in his first ever job, I am DETERMINED to help myself and learn more about who I am and who I hope to be as far as the spiritual side of me.  I am also DETERMINED in my mind to succeed in my selling and promotion of my cards, something that I am passionate about.  I am DETERMINED in making the relationship with my boyfriend Eric work as well as all my relationships that I have with family and friends.

I want to thank you Cindy for taking this challenge and really putting myself to the test to find my now favorite word.   HUGS!

You all take care!


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Thank you all for your supportive comments and emails! I have been having MASSIVE computer issues today...

Thank you all for all of your emails and comments about my Kristin.  It's so nice to hear from you all with your advice and prayers. 

I am getting my kids this weekend, and Kristin and I will surely try to spend some quality time together as I know she needs that.

My email and computer have been acting up allllll day and I am sorry that I have not been able to get back with some of you, I will be continuing to work on this throughout the weekend periodically to get it back on track.

God Bless you all and I am taking ALL of your advice and comments to heart!  I will let you know how the weekend went on Sunday.

Take Care!






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My daughter is hurting and I don't know what to do

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This is my daughter Kristin, she is 16 years old and part of my world, my life, my everything.  She contacted me at 2 AM this morning and was/is very upset.  I know that teenagers go through rough spots, as I did and I'm sure we all did growing up.  I mean let's face it, being a teenager at any time period or generation is not always a picnic. 

Kristin has been going through her rough time now for months and I am beyond worried for her.  I just ache when I hear her cry or sad.  My heart just breaks for her and her pain that she's going through.  As a mom I want to protect my kids from anything that can go wrong in their lives, but it just seems that its one thing after another with her that she goes through.  I know she is suffering from depression and I know from personal experience that its so hard to get out of the pit once you're deep into it.  I have given Kristin all my advice on what I have done and lived through as to try and help her and talked to her hours on end and it seems that she's just not the same happy, strong-willed, silly, and determined girl I knew a year ago. 

I have talked to her dad who has custody of her and my son Kevin about this and he almost refuses to see that she needs some type of professional help at this point.  I do not want to go into some of the ugly details that surround my worry with her, as I do not want to embarrass her.  I just know that something has to be done here and my hands are tied.  Being the non-custodial parent leaves me with nothing but advice to my ex-husband which 99% of the time goes unheard.  He merely thinks that Kristin is lazy and doesn't care about anything.  He is so hard-headed and it makes me so angry that I cannot get through to him the seriousness of the current situation with our girl.

Kristin and I are very close, closer than anyone and I love that she can talk to me about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that goes on in her life.  We have such an open door relationship and she knows that I'm always here for her.  But one day I am afraid that just won't be enough.  I'm afraid that day is quickly coming, and I am scared to death for her and what could be.

I just wanted to write alittle about this in the hopes that someone out there would have some new advice for me or that you can say a prayer for my baby girl who is so lost now in life.

Thanks and take care!

New camera, new shoes, and new book!

Well I don't know if you all know this about me but I am diabetic and as for most diabetics care of the feet is very important.  I have been having problems with my feet now for a couple years.  I had plantar faciitis in both feet which resulted in 3 new types of surgeries and then finally an old fashioned "go in and cut" surgery last year on my left foot.  Well the pain in my feet was temporarily absent for all of about 2 months.  Then I had a new type of pain...arthitis in both feet...ouch!  So my Dr. suggested that I get these snazzy new shoes.  I have been waiting for 2 months now to get them.  I was fitted over a month ago, but had to wait nearly a month to even do that!
The man I met with over a month ago sized my feet and made an impression of both feet for the inserts as well as the shoes.  I get there today to get them and they had me a pair of size 8 shoes!  I haven't worn a size 8 since my son was born and he's 18 now!  So thankfully they had a pair in my size after trying on 8 1/2, then 9 and finally a size 10, which embarrasingly I normally wear. 
So here is my new orthopedic shoes with the inserts that will HOPEFULLY make it easier for me to walk in and not be in massive pain when I do.

They don't look that bad, I mean they are a little bit bigger than the average gym shoe, but I will do whatever I need to do in order to not be in pain. 

I also belong to a group called Paperbackswap.com and it is a place where you swap books to one another.  I received a book from a friend of mine, Sherry, and I started reading it last night.  I love this book so far!  It is called "Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self"  I went out on my balcony tonight as it wasn't to hot or muggy, and read over 50 pages!  That's a lot for me in one sitting considering that I think of myself as the worlds slowest reader, lol.

This book talks about finding out who you really are and findind your "authentic self".  In it is has exercises that will help one to do this.  I am very excited about reading this.

I also wanted to share with you my latest new "toy" that I received last week in the mail.  It's a new camera that I have been wanting for a while and it finally came!  It's the Kodak Easy Share Z981 Digital Camera.

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This camera is so easy that is has an idiot button on it for all the different programs it offers for easy reference.  I just love it and cannot wait to really get out there and take some dazzeling pictures of everything and everyone!  I just need to get a nice case now for it.  But I love it so far and its not a disappointment at all! 

Christmas Cards!!!

The other night I started to work on some Christmas cards and I just LOVE making Christmas cards!  These are a few of the ones that I have completed.

This card is called Christmas House and I just love how it turned out.  I don't know if you can see the stickles surrounding the house or not.  It was used to give it a snowy effect.

This card is entitled Season's Greetings and I decided to use non-traditional colors of pink and green together.  I think it turned out quite nicely.  The "Season's Greetings" is a rub on on the pink ribbon.

And last but not least, my Wonderful Time card. This card is pretty simple, but I thought on this card that less is more.

Christmas for me has such sentimental value.  It to me is a time for family to get closer even if only for a few days during the holiday season, it just gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling all over.  I have a new boyfriend who I look forward to spending these times with for years to come and creating new traditions with.  Christmas has always been a time of giving for me, I would rather than give than receive.  Perhaps that's selfish of me but I love to see the look on someones face when they open their gift/card and know they are thought of in a special way.

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