HAPPY FANTABLULOUS FREEBIE FRIDAY Y'ALL!!!

I would like to thank y'all from the DEPTHS of my being for ALL of your MAGNIFICENT input regarding our little territorial conflict over here in our household!!! I shall be checking into the odor killers for sure!

The pads sound great, however, seeing as this is the FIRST incident of it's kind, I will hold off on those unless there is a SECOND! Boo-Boo is four years old and has NEVER pottied outside of the litter box and Zeke, well, I'm just hoping this is an isolated incident!

I just LOVE it when y'all come to my rescue!!! I feel as though we are all neighbors! Oh, BTW - may I borrow a cup of sugar??? He, he ... MWAH!

I am LATE tonight as I am moderately injured from an attempt to remove both Boo-Boo and Zeke from our bed this morning (yesterday morning now!) as I caught them out the corner of my eye investigating my clean up at the foot of the bed! OH YES, I failed to mention that, THANKFULLY, the offense occurred at the FOOT of our bed which if it's gonna happen, that would be the place!!! Anyhoo, as I had my mind on business and was still tired from the fiasco last night, I reached over and scooped both kitties up, one in each arm, to set them down onto the floor. Boo-Boo jumped down as I lowered her to the floor and all of sudden Zeke FREAKED and his razor sharp claws gouged me on both of my hands. EEEEEEOOOOOOWWWWW!!! Let's just say this was a FIRST-TIME experience and I surely don't wish a repeat performance in my lifetime!!! OUCH!

I headed straight for the bathroom, grabbed the bag of cotton balls and the bottle of peroxide and went to town saturating my five or six punture wounds and then just bathing my hands in the germ-fighting solution! WOWSERS! I don't think I have EVER been wounded to this magnitude in my whole half a century on this earth. I still hurt and I'm sure they will be tender for several days and, of course, I am keeping a close eye on myself to make sure none of them become infected. I have flushed the wounds with peroxide three times and need to go in and put some antibiotic ointment on them before I retire for the night (morning!).

Can I say this has been QUITE the week??? Uh, huh!!! Ain't nothin' gonna stop me from gettin' 'er done! I may take a while longer than planned, but I WILL get 'er done!!! ROFL!

I had hoped to be able to spend this entire weekend on my designs and catch-up work and will do so unless we decide to drive to Yosemite tomorrow to join Robert's baby brother and his wife for dinner. I'm actually kind of hoping we do make the trek as I have not been to Yosemite since I was 19 and we are only about an hour and 45 minutes away. I made it as far as Groveland and Pine Mountain Lake a decade ago or so and all four of my boys visited a year ago this month with their uncle as they ventured through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and down through Yosemite and then home. I've got my camera batteries charging JUST in case it's a GO! WOO HOO!!!

This week's FANTABULOUS FRIDAY FREEBIE is a "scrapatit" from my *It's Falling* scrapkit. I made the frame from my favorite background paper that I made from a brush in Photoshop, added an "edge-it" from one of Kim Broedelet's AMAZING grab bags, as well as a couple of her AWESOME weathered overlays, staples from a new action by FafBr that I could not get to work properly so I just used the staples and some CUTE branches from Utski that I just picked up today over at MY SCRAP SHOP where they are having a 40% off sale! I found LOTS of goodies from a few of my favorite CU designers, all of whom are listed under DESIGNER RESOURCES on my sidebar. Mega-Doodle Inspired, SKrapper Digital and Pillowgirl!

ENJOY, SCRAP HAPPY and to those of you traveling here in the US this Labor Day weekend, I wish you SAFE travels and a GOOD time wherever you go!

SWEET DREAMS y'all ...

Love and hugs,
Linda :)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREEBIE

The time is 3:35 am PST - link has been tested and is in
proper working order! Y'all have not let me know yet if you
like mini-series!!! Hmmmm?

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THIS FREEBIE BROUGHT TO YOU BY . . .TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES . . .

and a VERY dear friend!!!

Hi y'all! This has been ONE of THOSE days and it is already tomorrow and my day has not yet ended!!!

Firstly, I am still without virus protection as I've not yet heard back from support after submitting the requested files and sending screen shots to show that I am completely missing one that they asked for!!! ALL things for a purpose! Not sure what it is yet, but I'm sure it will become clear soon enough! LOL!

Without boring you to tears, I've been mopping up a bit of a mess here on the homefront as one of our DELIGHTFUL furbabies aka cats has gone and used our bed as it's litter box. Has this EVER happened to anyone else out there??? If so, ANY suggestions for SUPER DUPER cleanup and a way to deter which ever one is guilty from doing so again? I am beside myself (since Robert is not! He, he ...) as we are both having to sleep on the sofa tonight while letting our WONDERFUL and COMFY king-sized pillow-top mattress dry out! OMGosh ... this is like a WORST nightmare me thinks!

I've already washed our mattress cover and bottom sheet in HOT, SOAPY water with the addition of some Pine-Sol. The comforter is washing now as I type and I added in some powder equivalent to Oxy Clean. I have NEVER experienced this from a FULL grown kitty before and while Robert thinks it is my Boo-Boo girl, I am thinking it is Zeke because ... well ... um ... YOU know ... he is ... a MALE!!! ROFL! I was just talking to my son, Mark, who gave Zeke to me for Mother's Day and figuring that he is old enough to be neutered and no better time than the present, eh? Poor babe!

I acutally remained VERY calm for hurting from head-to-toe most of the afternoon and night. I was hoping to have something new for you tonight but after cleaning up, I am plum-tuckered out and wondering what I could give y'all while I am in transition these next few days. Then I suddenly remembered that my DEAR friend and DIGI-SISTER, Karen, had sent me a couple of LOVELY scraptits she made from *Summer Wedding* about a month ago. For those of you collecting, they will make for a GREAT addition and some EASY scrapping! THANK YOU KAREN!

Karen has just had surgery on one of her rotor cuffs and is alert and doing well from what DH tells us. I am sure MANY of you know Karen Halgren as she has been around longer than I have and involved with many sites and digi-sisters. Let's all give her a "Get Well Soon" shout-out!!! We LOVE you Karen!

I hope to come back tomorrow night with GOOD news and to say I've finally been able to put away my BIG umbrella from all of the RAIN coming down on me these past two days!!! Once the rain stops, what happens? Why, the sun SHINES brightly and the air smells FRESH!!! WOO HOO, I can feel the warmth already!

I hope everyone is having an AWESOME week and that you are getting ready for a SPLENDID weekend whatever you may have planned. ENJOY your Friday!

Ciao bellas ... baci e abbracci,
Linda :)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREEBIE

The time is 1:35 am PST - link has been tested and is in
proper working order! Sweet dreams ...

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BON SCRAPATIT Y'ALL!!!

I shall be a bit MIA throughout the week, meaning you shall not see nor hear much from me!!! Poor babes, whatever will you do with yourselves??? SCRAP, SCRAP, SCRAP and SCRAP some MORE!!! ROTFLMBO!!!

I have a few things to finish up for *Summer Wedding* and one of them is something I owe to Mary Lou and, BETH, I've not forgotten about the recoloring tutorial either! I have a LONG list of things to finish up this week and I shall do my VERY best to "get 'er done" as I've been dealing with some strange things going on in my body and don't wish to alarm you nor myself!!! I've just learned to stay attuned and to take notes and do some research! I will be just fine and am just taking it easy as well as catching up on some VERY much needed DVD burning. I've also just subscribed to Mozy Online Backup Services on recommendation from the LOVELY Ms. Babette of LB Creations who ALWAYS puts out TOP NOTCH commercial grab bags if you are interested in CU goodies! You can check her out HERE and, PLEASE, tell her Linda from Bon Scrapatit Designs sent you!

Anyhoo, I know that I shall have peace of mind with my designs, photos and scrapping goodies in a SAFE location besides my EHD's and DVD's!!! You will not believe how inexpensive it is for UNLIMITED storage ..... uh, er, uhm .... how about $4.95/month??? Check their services out HERE!

Sue - thank you SO much for your well-wishes love and I'm hoping that your trip to the hospital is nothing serious. You shall be in my uppermost thoughts and prayers darlin'.

EVERYBODY - thank you SO very much for your continued support and AWESOME shares and lovin'!!! YOU DA BOMB!

Tonight's FREEBIE is a small sampler of this month's FANTABULOUS *Treasure Chest* at Treasures To Scrap and comes from my contribution. Below I am posting a preview of my entire contribution plus a preview of the sampler! If you wish to purchase this BEAUTIFUL collaboration, look to your right and click on the small image of the preview. Each month, Treasures To Scrap puts a NEW Treasure Chest in the store for the VERY small price of $5.99 and it is worth every penny with ALL of the AWESOME and TALENTED designers who contribute each month! It is equivalent to buying five or six GOOD-SIZED mini-kits PLUS! Try it, you'll LOVE it!!! He, he ....

Night all, sweet dreams and I'll see you SOON! MWAH!

XOXO,
Linda :)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREEBIE

The time is 12:35 am PST - link has been tested and is in
proper working order! Do y'all like a GOOD mini-series???

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*SUMMER WEDDING* BRAG BOOK PAGES 7 AND 8 - THANK YOU SANDY!!!

Well, tonight brings the END to MANY good things - the Olympics, this past week and Sandy Coggins' FABULOUS *Summer Wedding* Brag Book Pages!

Today was a day I shall cherish as Robert and I spent the entire day watching "By the Book" movies on the Lifetime channel!!! We do this every once in a GREAT while and the movies today made if difficult to leave the room for any length of time! LOL! I SO needed to just VEG!

I shed a few tears and I think my fave out of all of the movies was "Forget-Me-Not" starring Martin Sheen and Mia Farrow. This is a movie about a woman in her fifties who is diagnosed with Alzheimer's and it is based on a TRUE STORY (my favorite kind of movies). Mia Farrow's character was a pioneer, trailblazer, founder of a support group for patients suffering from Alzheimer's at a younger than normal age. It was SO well done and covered all of the important aspects of dealing with this dehabilitating illness. I was enlightened. My father passed away eleven and a half years ago from Alzheimer's at the age of 89. I cannot even imagine dealing with it at my age.

This last week has been pretty SLOW-GOING for me as I have been winding down from the past couple of week's activities and I am hoping to find myself back into the routine of things this coming week! I don't know about y'all, but when I break away from my daily doings, I find myself a bit discombuberated!!! Okay, A LOT DISCOMBUBERATED!!! ROFL! Sometimes it takes me a bit to collect myself and get back on track, but I DO eventually get there!!!

HELLO MONDAY!!! I wish for you all an INCREDIBLE week ahead and may you accomplish all that you set out to by week's end!!!

Thank you for sharing your EMPTY NEST thoughts and stories with me! It is always nice to hear how others feel and deal with MAJOR life-changing events and I believe our children spreading their wings and flying from the nest is one of them! I appreciate your honesty in sharing your fears and/or concerns as well as your encouraging words. That's what makes GIRLFRIENDS so VERY special!!!

Night y'all, SWEET dreams ...

HUGGINS',
Linda :)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREEBIE

The time is 12:10 am PST - link has been tested and is in
proper working order! Bon Scrapatit!!! XOXO

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HOW DO YOU SPELL "EMPTY NEST"???

Robert and I just returned from a WONDERFUL barbecue with my son, Luke and his roommate, Aaron and family that were able to make it. We live in a SMALL town so, although we don't see Aaron's family often, we ALL know each other and had a GOOD time socializing and sharing family stories! Boy, do we ALL have some men that can COOK!!! WOO HOO!!!

I have watched a daughter get married, a son leave home and am about to watch the last two leave as well all in the matter of a week's time. Bittersweet comes to mind! With eleven children between us, Robert and I are ready for some alone time!!! You know, a quiet house ... just the two of us. Oh, be still my heart ... I am tearing up as I type. It's been a LONG road with my boys and while I am somewhat sad to see them all leaving the nest, I am EVER joyful that they are moving on with their lives and in a positive manner!

Carole, my dear sweet friend, THANK YOU so much for reaffirming to me the fact that a GREAT part of who my boys are is from me and the fact that I've ALWAYS been here for them through the good and the bad, thick and thin, will be something they will be thankful for down the road. I have learned over the years that the male gender takes a bit longer to work through childhood issues than does the female gender! From my own findings, I'd say right around the mid-thirties is the MAGIC age for the lights to go on!!!

I am sure that there are some of you here in SCRAPLAND that have raised children on your own and while it can surely be exasperating at times, the REWARD of watching them spread their wings and fly safely from the nest is immeasurable! LOL! I can't help but chuckle in that half of them are not having to fly far!!! My girls are both in Washington, however, my four boys will all be close enough to visit on weekends. :) Go figure as it is typically the boys that need Mama's assistance more often than the girls!

My oldest son, who moved back home over a year and a half ago, will soon be moving into the home we just came from with his brother, Luke, for which I am SO thrilled. Not just because I feel that at the age of nearly 26 he needs to be on his own, but because he will still be nearby and living with one of his younger twin brothers! It is SO difficult for the younger generation today to move out on their own without having to have seveal roommates to help share the expenses. Luke and Aaron both work together and have been friends for MANY years. Matt works down the street from where they work and they ALL three live close enough to their jobs that they can walk or ride a bike if the need ever arise! Luke and Aaron were even discussing the possibility of the both jogging to work but then laughed and admitted that they are TOO lazy that early in the morning!!! Their job is VERY physical anyhow, so no biggie!

I had such a FABULOUS time just observing and listening to the boys tonight! Luke would not let me do a thing, but I snuck in and cleaned the kitchen while he was still outside entertaining guests!!! I WILL miss my son yet I am SO very HAPPY and SO very PROUD of him for making up his mind SO quickly and for following through with it. He is TICKLED .... er, uhm ... BLUE!

I apoligize if I'm babbling on ... I had not intended to talk about this evening, but my fingers wouldn't have it any other way!!! ROTFLMBO!!! Now you just KNOW that I will LOVE to hear any of your "empty nest" stories, right??? Uh, huh!!! I'm ALL eyes!!! MWAH!

Please find below, Sandy's BEAUTIFUL brag book pages number five and six from *Summer Wedding* and a couple of photos of Zeke missing his boys and Robert and Luke in Luke's new home. Have a SUPER SUNDAY y'all!!!

XOXO,
Linda :)

Zeke waiting for one of the boys to call! He, he ... I was
actually sitting right next to him watching the Olympics
with one of the boys, looked over and found him fast asleep
on the phone which I had set down beside me! SO sweet!

I snagged a few pics on our way out. This is Luke and
MY Robert in Luke and Aaron's living room! I was SO amazed
to see how nicely this house was decorated for a couple of
young men living here! TOUCHE'!

NICE kitchen too! LOVE the counter and tiled backsplashes!
Wanna trade houses Luke??? ROFL! Robert and Luke
looking handsome!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREEBIE

The time is 1:00 am PST - link has been tested and is in
proper working order! I have downloaded and unzipped
this file and it WORKS y'all!!! Not sure what happened
yesterday, but still think it was a HITCH or HICCUP in
4-Shared :) Thanks for your patience!

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IT'S FANTABULOUS FREEBIE FRIDAY AND *SUMMER WEDDING BRAG BOOK PAGES 3 AND 4!!!

I wish everyone of you a MOST incredible weekend - may it be relaxing, rewarding and FILLED with SCRAP!!!

Robert, myself and, hopefully all three of his brothers and nephew, shall be attending a barbecue at Luke's new home here in Copper tomorrow night! How SWEET is that!!! The kids have barely been moved in for a week and they are already wishing to entertain their parents! I am honored to attend such a special gala event and am SO thrilled for yet another NEW beginning for Luke this year! He has moved SO quickly from his first car, new jobs and now a place to call his own (kinda, sorta - he has roomies!). I am VERY proud of him and must admit that it sounded just a wee bit strange, when speaking with him on the phone yesterday, to hear him say, "I'm at home" when I asked where he was calling me from!!! Did I mention that he is ONLY five minutes away??? Uh, huh - PHEW! ROFL!

Tonight's Friday FREEBIE is another installment of Sandy's BEAUTIFUL brag book pages using my *Summer Wedding* goodies! THANK YOU Sandy!

ENJOY y'all and I'll drop in again over the weekend to post two more pages to help you SCRAP THOSE PHOTOS!!! He, he .... speaking to self as well!!!

Ciao bellas!

Baci e abbracci,
Linda :)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREEBIE

The time is 12:20 am PST - link has been tested and is in
proper working order! REMEMBER: It's SCRAP HAPPY
HOUR 24/7 in SCRAPLAND y'all!!! WOO HOO!!!

Thank you for posting your comments on my blog - tis
GREATLY appreciated - MWAH!

UPDATE: Some of you have posted having trouble with this
download. I, too, had difficulty when following up and it left me
with a link. I went in to recopy the link to this post and decided
to try the original again and IT WORKED. I downloaded and
unzipped it to find all files present. At this time, all I can figure
is that it is a HICCUP in 4-shared and would just recommend
that if you experience a problem, make sure to remove the
downloaded link from your downloader and try again. If you
do NOT remove the first failed attempt from your downloader,
it will continue to show as a corrupt file, etc. I have this happen
to me quite often when downloading from other blogs as well
as stores and I think it has to do with others downloading at the
same time, which puts the system on TILT so-to-speak :)
Please shoot me an e-mail if you are not able to successfully
download this freebie. lindawalton (at) caltel (dot) com

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NO, "I"AM NOT BRAGGING BUT TONIGHT'S SURPRISE WILL HAVE YOU BRAGGING!!! HE, HE ...

THANK YOU SANDY!!!

I mentioned to y'all last night that I was going to ask Sandy if she would be SO kind as to let me share with you the WONDERFUL gift she had for me when I returned from Washington and Sandy has agreed to let me share them with y'all!!!

I have LONG admired Sandy's CREATIVE and BEAUTIFUL brag book pages since seeing them posted in the 3Scrapateers' gallery over the past several years. You know how it is when you are cruising through a gallery and a layout just JUMPS out at you??? Well, that is how it is with Sandy's layouts and brag book pages!!! Boy, was I ever honored when she asked if I'd like her to make some for me to scrap my daughter's wedding photos with! Uh, YEAH!!! PRETTY PLEASE!!!

So, tonight, I am starting you off with Sandy's delightful cover page along with page one and page two! There will be a TOTAL of eight pages and I will give them to you two at time (aside from tonight's which includes the cover page) over the next four days while I prepare to conclude the month of August and begin to prepare for the new month ahead, which is FULL of birthdays for our families as well as BIRTHDAY NUMBER FOUR for 3Scrapateers!!!

Please make sure to leave some of your FABULOUS lovin' and "thank you's" for Ms. Sandy!!!

DINEY: Thank you for making me feel better about my photo of THE KISS!!! I had thought the same thing and found that I actually liked the "out of focus" effect!!! Your comment was greatly appreciated!

KAREN: I neglected to finish my story last night with the fact that I had successfully downloaded all photos from all cards. I just was not able to reuse them. When I returned home I put the cards in MY camera and manually erased all photos and that did the trick. There was SO much going on around me at the reception that my mind could not wrap around doing it that way right then and there!!! Tell DH I am MOST appreciative of his advice and that I had not thought about anything different happening by putting my cards in another camera. Lesson learned! LOL!

HAPPY SCRAPPING EVERYONE and have a FANTABULOUS FRIDAY!!! Ya just know there will be a FREEBIE, don't ya??? Make sure to visit tomorrow night for the next two pages of Sandy's AWESOME *Summer Wedding* brag book!

Love ya,
Linda :)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREEBIE

The time is 12:30 am PST - link has been tested and is in
proper working order! I have MORE layouts to add to the
slide show and would LOVE to see MORE from y'all too!
I am SO thrilled to see SO many WONDERFUL wedding
memories being preserved with *Summer Wedding* - TY!

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THE FIRST DANCE??? NAH! BUT WE DANCED THE NIGHT AWAY!!!

OMGosh!!! I would LOVE to say that I danced my butt off at Travis and Joan's wedding reception, however, IT followed me home so that would be a FALSE statement!!! ROFL!

Nancy, you attended your nephew's wedding this past weekend as well - did you overdo???

I SO badly wanted to accomplish something yesterday and to post more photos, but I simply could not! NO energy, but then it turns out to be that LOVELY time of the month on top of everything else. I was SO delighted that I was spared until AFTER the wedding!!!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for ALL of your INCREDIBLE support, well-wishes and LOVING COMMENTS! I .... AM ..... OVERWHELMED!!! However, VERY nicely so! Y'all are just THE SWEETEST and I wish you could have been there, but you were in spirit!

A few things I wanted to note Monday night but was too tired to do so:

I was not able to gain Internet access on our laptop and did not have time to try and figure out why not, so I was only able to post to Twitter after arriving on Monday! Y'all were SORELY missed and I was kept VERY busy!!!

The other obstacle was a quirky mishap with my camera's media cards. VERY strange this was and I am still mystified!!! Joan and Travis gave me their camera to take photos with and rather than trying to use both their's and mine, I decided to use their's since it was the same make only TONS better quality - or so I thought!!! LOL!

Travis had extra batteries, filters and one media card already loaded and ready-to-go. I had two media cards from my camera and with the laptop in hand was prepared to download when I'd filled all three of them up. I took photos of Joan throughout the day before the wedding including rehearsal and reahearsal dinner. On the day of the wedding, I took photos in the Presdiential Suite at the Hilton, which was directly across the street from the park they were to be married in. Travis surprised Joan with the Presidential Suite as he is a GRAND barterer and with some pretty impressive connections, secured that room for less than one might spend on a regular room at an upscale hotel just about anywhere!!!

Anyhoo, I snapped lots of photos of the girls all getting their hair and makeup done and putting their dresses on and such. I then snapped a few right before the ceremony, which is one of the ones that I am in with all six of my babies. I then walked across the street and made it just in time to capture the bride being walked down the aisle and to the alter!

I went back to the Hilton after the wedding for family photos to be taken by Rebecca, the wedding photographer and followed her around a bit and snapped away some more. We then headed to the reception where I immediately began to download so that all cards would be empty. I was SO bummed to find that each card when put back into the camera was still reading as a FULL card. I tried several times to correct the situation, but to no avail. At this point, I was getting the message LOUD and CLEAR - ENJOY your daughter's wedding!!! He, he ... Rebecca was such a sweetheart and told me not to worry about it. I am SO hoping for photos on a CD/DVD!!! WOO HOO!

So, the reason the photo below is blurry - I used a camera I was not familiar with that had an incredible 10x optical zoom, but for some reason, DITZO here could not figure out how to make them appear focused!

I shall now have to wait until I get photos from Rebecca to scrap The First Dance, The Toast, The Cake, etc!!!

Baci e abbracci mi amicas,
Linda :)

THE KISS!!!

INTRODUCING MR. AND MRS. TRAVIS UHLIG

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREEBIE

The time is 12:35 am PST - link has been tested and is in
proper working order! I would like to thank Sandy Coggins
for her heartfelt gift of brag book pages for me to scrap some
of my daughter's wedding photos with! Sandy does awesome
work and I am hoping that she will let me share them with
y'all!!! PRETTY PLEASE Ms. Sandy! She SO rocks and so
do y'all!!! THANK YOU EVERYONE for your lovin'! XOXO

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I DO, I DO, I DOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Hi y'all!!!

Hope everyone has had a FUN and FABULOUS weekend! We returned from Vancouver, Washington around eight o'clock this morning after driving straight through via a few fuel stops, dinner and two power nap sessions!!!

I am plum-tuckered so my post shall be rather short and will consist mostly of a few layouts that I've put together to begin a photo book for Travis and Joan's wedding photos.

Tomorrow I shall catch you up on a few of the highlights as well as the obstacles prior to the BIG DAY!!! We had SUCH a GRAND time with family and friends of both the bride and groom and have surely created some INCREDIBLE memories to preserve for the future generations of the Walton's and the Uhlig's!

Your FREEBIE tonight consists of two more WORD FRAMES that I created on our return trip on the laptop while traveling Interstate 5!!! I have to chuckle a I thought I'd NEVER be sold on a laptop (I ADORE my desktop!), however, while I do still prefer my desktop, I DEFINITELY shall be taking the laptop on any future road trips and/or visits out-of-town!!!

I have to share with you the SHOCK and DISMAY expressed by Luke and John as they traveled with Robert and I on the way to Vancouver. MOM!!! There is just NO getting you off of the computer IS there??? ROFL!!! Uh, uhm ..... well, HEY, I'm being creative while life passes me by at 70 miles per hour!!! They actually thought it was PRETTY cool to be able to view some of the wedding photos I took while on our journey back home! LOL! I know I must seem pretty pathetic at times, but golly, gosh ... I am ALWAYS doing something memorable, aren't I? He, he ...

I shall post a brief description beneath each image you see below and I am already getting teary-eyed to be able to introduce you to all six of my children at the same time and in one viewing tonight!!!

Lest I forget to include this in tomorrow's post, this week has been a bit of a bitter-sweet one for me as Joan has been away from home for over a decade and her marriage was one of PURE joy and EXCITEMENT, however, this afternoon after awaking from a nap upon our arrival from our journey, Luke packed his belongings and took the BIG step of leaving home to begin his NEW life on his own (well, actually with friends!). I grabbed the camera of course, and could not hold back the tears as I watched one of my babies (twin boys) leave the nest. I am SO happy for him and have watched him take on his responsibilities of adulthood quickly and successfully thus far. I only mention this as having been a single mom, raising all six alone for many years, I've not been able to do a lot financially for my children and have NO regrets in that department as it has caused them to become resourceful early on and they can ONLY feel VERY proud of themselves for having achieved their independence on their own for the most part!!!

Have an AWESOME week y'all!

Much love and BIG hugs,
Linda :)

The eldest of my six children, Joan (the bride) and April
(the Maid of Honor). Joan will be 29 early October and
April turned "30" in December! These two young ladies
are the BEST of friends and April declared that to be so
in her speech followed by a toast at the reception, which
in turn led me to volunteer to speak a few words (YES,
it was actually brief and to the point!) about how the two
of them were at each others throats in their early
adolescence and my words to them then were, "you mark
my words girls, ONE day you two WILL be the BEST of
friends! Makes you feel good when it actually comes to
pass now doesn't it??? ROFL!

HERE COMES THE BRIDE! Joan was escorted down the aisle
and presented to Travis by her father's brother, Wes.

FIRST family photo since April's wedding seven years ago!
As you can see, this one was obviously NOT posed for - my
favorite type of photography! Don't my boys "clean up"
GOOD??? ROFL! It is not often I have the pleasure of seeing
them in formal attire and it is such a treat! From left-to-right:
John, Luke, Mom, Joan, April, Matt and Mark!

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COMMERCIAL-USE GOODY #2!!! CHEERS!!!

Hellooooooooooooooo everybody!!! I cannot tell you JUST how excited I am getting as the hours pass by quickly and we are ON the road in 4-1/2 hours and headed NORTH to Vancouver (Washington!).

I am SO thrilled to bring you my SECOND commercial-use item, which I hinted at several days ago. Now these LOVELY toasting glasses, as I have named them since they are etched with the words, BRIDE and GROOM, can be used in ANY way you wish (just don't claim them as your own and don't forget to read my VERY user-friendly TOU which also has instructions for newbies). I have included two "fluid" (LOL! - didn't know what else to call them!) templates for you to customize with your favorite beverage.

BE CREATIVE! Add a glitter style, a filter, recolor, run an action or MAKE bubbles!!! You will notice a slight improvement in these individual glasses as I have added an extra piece to the top to give them a more 3-dimensional appearance.

I have added my blog link to the TOU - thank you RAGAN for catching that for me and commenting!!! I was on my way back in to do so and got TOTALLY sidetracked!!! WHO? ME??? Of course!

BTW - Since I mentioned Ragan's name, I have just added her blinkie to my sidebar! Ragan is a SAHM, now WAHM who has recently started a blog designing business and she ... well ... uhm ... SHE ROCKS!!! Go take a peek and see for yourself! I am REALLY excited as well because Ragan thinks enough of my designs to have asked if she may use them for clients to choose from for her to do her INCREDIBLE magic in giving them a TOTALLY customized blog presence to reflect their business, their families and so on!!! Well, I shant ramble on any more, just GO SEE RAGAN! LOL! Oh, and tell her I sent you, K? THANK YOU!

Well, I'd better get this posted and get my bootsky in gear so the caravan leaves on time! I am not only excited to be attending my daughter's wedding and getting to hear my olderst daughter sing, but I will be on the road with Kaleb love and we will all be staying together so I shall get some GOOD quality Grandma time in as well! Yes, I will post pictures as time allows!!!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all of the WONDERFUL well-wishes, prayers and hopes for safe travels. Y'all are SO special and really know how to SHOW ME THE LOVE!!!

I shall miss you, but then you might not even think I had left if I come and visit you late at night while the boys are all down in the media room gaming!!!

Have a WONDERFUL weekend everyone and BE INSPIRED!

Much love and some BIG 'ol hugs (yes "old" because I am! - NOT!),
Linda :) "mwah"

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREEBIE

The time is 1:35 pm PST - link has been tested and is in
proper working order! I hope y'all ENJOY these and I'd
LOVE to see how you use them! Thank you for posting
your comments here on my blog - you are WONDERFUL!
If you have any questions, please post here as well as I 'm
not sure that I will be able to access my e-mail while away.
THANK YOU - XOXO

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18 HOURS AND COUNTING!!! ROAD TRIP!

Hi y'all!!! Just a brief visit to let you know that we will be on the road in about 18 hours. We were hoping to leave early afternoon, but Luke does not leave work until 4:30 and is less than ten minutes from home! Robert is working half day so we will have everything packed and ready for take-off when Luke arrives!

I've never taken the laptop anywhere before and have everything loaded in it I need, I think, I HOPE! I LOVE this as now I can download my photos so that I have a clean media card pre-wedding as I will take photos along the way and at the wedding rehearsal and dinner afterwards. Am I getting excited yet??? WAHOOOOOO!!!! YIPPEEEEEEE! OW, OW!

HOW convenient - we will be staying at Travis and Joan's and that is where the dinner is being hosted so we won't have to be concerned about getting lost to and from!!! LOL! Just kidding! Robert already has everything mapped out in his head from his GOOGLING last night as we had a difficult time locating the street during our visit at Christmastime! You know, all of the NE, NW, SE, SW and streets that end and pick up a few blocks over!!! ROFL! One of those occasions when cell phones are TRULY a blessing!

Thank you SO much EACH and EVERY ONE of you for your SWEET comments and WELL-WISHES! My heart is OVERJOYED and OVERFLOWING! I just LOVE y'all to pieces!!!

I will be back sometime in the morning to early afternoon to post my second COMMERCIAL-USE item for y'all and I think you KNOW what it will be!!!

Have a TOTALLY TERRIFIC THURSDAY dearest ones!

Love and hugs,
Linda :)

P.S. LOOK OUT textures cuz here I come!!! ROTFLMBO! :)

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WEDDING BELLS ARE RINGING!!! NOT! BUT I DO COME BEARING RINGS!!!

Firstly, I would like to thank you ALL for such LOVELY comments and making me feel comfy in the commercial-use arena!!! I hope to gift you with a few more VERY soon! And you can bet your SWEET BIPPY that my camera will be honing in on NEW textures. Hmmm ... wonder what I shall find in Washington???

I am WAY behind schedule and am simply dropping off tonight's DELIGHTS!!! These are for "personal-use, scrap-for-hire/scrap-for-others" use ONLY until I am able to have an opportunity to make sure that making one or ALL of them a CU item is permissible by the designers whose resources I have used. I shall be able to give you the wine/champagne glasses as a commercial-use item and may do so tomorrow night and they will be single glasses rather than the two attached "toasting" glasses so that you may do with them whatever you like, except claim them as your own of course! LOL! But then, I know y'all respect the hard work of designers and that is why I shall be revamping my TOU's, making them MUCH more USER-FRIENDLY!

DEAREST COLETTE - cheeky is GOOD! LOL! One must admire one who is able to speak up and make her/his desires known!!! Okay, who let you into MY mind today??? Hmmmm??? I was just sitting here last night saying to myself that since I am going to be SO consumed with preparations for our trip and then the wedding itself, that I ought to give out some of the embellishments used in the buttons so that y'all can be creative and use them to suit your OWN needs and tastes! SO .... VOILA .... tonight you are receiving two versions of the wedding cake; one with flowers and ribbon on top and the other without so that you can decorate to your liking. You are receiving the BRIDE and GROOM toasting glasses filled with champagne, Martinelli's or your choice of beverage AND you are also receiving both the GOLD and WHITE-GOLD wedding rings. The ring files have been specified as 18K - this is in HONOR of my DEAR friend Nancy from Conneticut!!! Thanks Nancy as it really gives them a little more class, eh? *wink*

ENJOY *Summer Wedding, #25* y'all and I sure would LOVE to see some MORE of your MASTERPIECES added to the slide show whilst I am away!!! I am taking Robert's laptop with us so I am HOPING to have a few minutes here and there to keep up with y'all and to post a few things for you from our destination - BEAUTIFUL Vancouver, Washington!!! I'm getting SO excited now!!! Spoke with the bride-to-be earlier in the day and she sounds SO good, calm and relaxed!!! Guess who will fall apart??? MOI? NAH ... I'll just simply MELT! LOL!

Night all and have a WONDERFUL Wednesday and keep SCRAPPIN' HAPPY!!!

XOXO,
Linda :)

P.S. Mary Lou and Beth, I've NOT forgotten you, but will have to catch up when I return. Thank you again for being so patient!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREEBIE

The time is 2:30 am PST - link has been tested and is in
proper working order! See what happens when y'all post
here on my blog? I see requests and can act on them more
quickly! I am ALWAYS open to ideas/suggestions and will
try my best to accommodate via freebies and/or sales to
meet your needs in preserving your precious memories!
HAVE A GORGEOUS DAY!

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MY VERY FIRST COMMERCIAL-USE FREEBIE!!! WOO HOO!!!

I am THRILLED to gift y'all tonight with my VERY first commercial-use freebie!!! On request, I am including a beveled frame and a background from my FIRST texture photo taken last Thursday as I exited the Salon Rouge' in Angels Camp, California! The background was tiled together as I did not have a large enough piece to avoid pixelation upon zooming! The 12x12 background is actually 4-6x6's!

I am including the beveled frame and textured background paper in it's natural state as well as TWO different shades of grayscale for you to customize to your own liking! Let those creative juices FLOW. If you are using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, use the BLENDING MODES and add a COLOR OVERLAY playing with the different settings until you find something that makes you go WOW, that is AWESOME!!! Add a grunge overlay to it or a patterned paper and then play with the blending modes. The SKY is the limit!!! Show me your creations - you know I'd LOVE to see them. OH, BTW - I have created my VERY first CU TOU and it is in .txt format. It is short and sweet. It is ALWAYS a good idea to read each TOU that you download from a designer as there may be times when they stipulate different guidelines. I encourage you to give me some feedback on the TOU included with tonight's goodies and let me know if the guidelines are clear enough. Thank you in advance!

NANCY - I am addressing you now lest I forget near the end!!! Thank you for posting your concern about my files. I have seen them and while all that is showing are previews in jpg format, I am sure if I investigate, there will be the actual files somewhere as well! I simply DO NOT have time to deal with this right now and can only focus on THE WEDDING!!! I know you will understand my friend. It touches me SO very deeply sweetie that you have my back and I cannot thank you enough for that, but they will just have to hang there until Monday when I am back home!

I thank those of you who have shared with me about exercise to help relieve chronic pain - y'all ROCK ... and then some! Cindy, I think you've shared with me some time ago about the other relief for sciatica. When you send that e-mail, I shall explain to you what is causing mine as it is not from an injury, disc or any of the other TYPICAL causes! Naturally!!! LOL!

Vicki - I shall catch up with you darlin' just as soon as I am able. Might be after the wedding and I thank you for the well-wishes love! My bonnie lies over the ocean, my bonnie lies over the sea .... LOL! That song just came to mind although you are NOT my bonnie but a dear sweet sister and friend!

To ALL who have left me links to your blogs to collect an award - I shall address these sometime next week!!! Several of them are awards that I have already received and have not yet posted as I've not been able to properly tend to them! I think I am in a CATCH-22, eh? LOL! I LOVE YA all for thinking of me and I know that you will understand the delay. and that I cannot possibly post them all in duplicate!!! MWAH!

I will also have to work on adding layouts to the slide shows next week as well. I was hoping to do so before leaving, but I really need a day to relax and prepare myself for the road trip without frantically running around the house at the last minute!!! NOT a pretty sight! He, he ...

My eyes are heavy early tonight, so I shall stop the rambling and catch up with the rest of you ASAP!

I would like to share with you a few photos using my TEXTURED SWIRLY FRAMES! I just ADORE my grandson, Kaleb (I ADORE the other four as well!) and was able to visit him after my salon appointment which happened to be the same day Kaleb was celebrating FOUR precious months of life! I have not seen Kaleb in nearly a month and as soon as I reached out to hold him, he flashed Grandma a HUGE smile!!! Yeah, you know the kind I am speaking of - MELTS the heart! And NO, no photo of that of course!

AND, my baby boy Zeke who is probably five months now and is growing like a weed and such a LOVE. He is SO used to us being with him that he is always under foot or over head!!! Yes, Zeke has actually curled up near my feet and taken a nap while I am doing dishes OR he lies stretched out on the back of the sofa above the head of someone sitting and watching television!!! TOO cute he is and he is the apple of everyone's eye in our house! My Boo-Boo girl is starting to hang out in our room during the day. She avoids Zeke unless she ABSOLUTELY wishes to play! Such a fickle girl she is but a LOVE nonetheless as are ALL of our furbabies!

LOVE Y'ALL!!!
Linda :)

P.S. Yolly - just spied your plea for help under yesterday's post. From what I have read, you are doing it correctly. The only thing I can think of at the moment is that perhaps you have a duplicate layer visible so that when you go to merge the two layers you wish to, you are seeing the duplicate layer. I have done that several times myself in the past so now I try to double-check my layers before merging. CNTRL - ALT - G is correct with the photo or paper as the active layer above the template.

If anyone else catches something I might be missing, please enlighten us!!! Yolly is using PSCS 3 as am I, but I'm not able to think of any other solution with my OVERTIRED brain tonight! Let me know if you get it to work for you Yolly and WELCOME to the AWESOME world of DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING! HELLO to the Philippines!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREEBIE

The time is 12:20 am PST - link has been tested and is in
proper working order! HAVE FUN Y'ALL!!! WOO HOO!

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TONIGHT'S FREEBIE SHALL HAVE YOU "CHEERING"!!!

Well, kinda, sorta!

Hi y'all! Hope everyone has had a NICE weekend!

My day started out with a painful case of sciatica so I spent MOST of the morning quiet and wondering how to combat this from happening again! I know WHY it happens, just need to figure out what I can do about it. And, NO, it's not from any of the typical things that cause for sciatica!!! Of course! Actually, that's GOOD!

Anyhoo, I GOOGLED it since it's been a while since the last episode and found that my taking a jog on the treadmill would be just the magic cure! I hopped on for 15 minutes and sure enough, releasing those endorphins does INDEED interfere with the pain receptors so that my brain was no longer getting the message: PAIN! Wahooooooooooooooooo!!! I didn't even have to take any ibuprofen!

I actually did a second round on the treadmill and went outside to do my exercises and I have to say that the pain is gone completely!!! I know that MANY people do not understand the benefits of exercise when dealing with pain, but "I" am NOW convinced. Robert tells me this ALL of the time, but I would always be thinking about how difficult it is to motivate myself when I can barely move as it is! WELL, I now know what to do and I have read several articles about exercise combating any ills that involve chronic pain such as, Fibromyalgia. Do ANY of you out there exercise your way through pain??? Would LOVE to hear your stories!

I shall be brief tonight as I am exhausted and I need to get up early. Tonight's FREEBIE from *Summer Wedding* is "the Toast" and two more word frame templates, THE BRIDE and THE GROOM.

I will include my WONDERFULLY texutured and SWIRLY ceramic frame in tomorrow night's download as I've decided to make IT my VERY first commercial-use item!!!

Have an AWESOME week ahead everyone and keep on SCRAPPING those MOST precious and PRICELESS memories!!!

CHEERS,
Linda :)

P.S. Please let me know if you see any "jaggies" on either of the word photo templates. I think sometimes when I've been working in PS for a LONG period of time, it starts acting WONKY!!! I am hoping this is the case! Thanks!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREEBIE

The time is 12:20 am PST - link has been tested and is in
proper working order! Thank, thank you all SO much for
leaving your comments here on my blog, I am LOVIN' it!

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IT'S FANTABULOUS FREEBIE FRIDAY - NOT "A PIECE OF CAKE"!!!

I most likely could have baked and decorated several REAL, bona fide wedding cakes in the time it took me to create this one digitally that you will be receiving tonight!!! Yes, I've been busy in the PS kitchen cooking up a digital wedding cake for your scrapping pleasure - I hope! I did not BURN it, honest!!! ROFL! Although, I'd BETTER burn it onto DVD after the hours I spent trying to decide how I wanted to decorate it!!! Definitely NOT a "piece-of-cake" as you are getting the ENTIRE cake!!! He, he ...

I'm dashing in and right out as I need to get a good night's sleep and arise early tomorrow. Robert is taking me shopping to get what I need before we leave for Washington next Thursday. We decided to make a day of it and will first visit the Farmer's Market in downtown Sonora, shop, have lunch and then check out the new Whole Foods store that is supposed to be like a Trader Joe's (I believe those are only here in California unless they've expanded since my last visit a decade ago!) I cannot believe it has been THAT long since I've shopped Trader Joe's - it is my ABSOLUTE favorite store on this planet! Anyhoo, they have been trying to get Trader Joe's to open a store in the Sonora year for ten years the paper stated and a local couple decided to open their own that is comparable! We shall see, however, I know it will be better than nothing at all!

Patti D - I saw your message in the CBox and I'm sure that I know what your question is and I will answer it here as I have simply not had time to try to e-mail each of you individually. For ANY of you visiting that were at my *Jeanealogy of a Man* Half-n-Half chat on June 12th, I owe y'all custom name labels and I will get to those ASAP, which will be after I return from Washington. I apologize for missing my self-imposed deadline and will make good on them you can count on that! Life has been crazy and I am making some changes to simplify things for myself and in turn better for ALL of us! Thank you for your patience!

I am also making a few of the "HOT" photo word templates that are in the August/September issue of Digital Scrapbooking and I've shown an example on the preview (photo is of our niece, Kimmi and her husband, Patrick as they walked the aisle together as Husband and Wife last July) so that you can see what it will look like. You can also embellish it/them any way you wish to! Add a stroke, perhaps a chalked edge, glittered edge, etc. UNLEASH your creativity!!!

Have an AWESOME weekend and although y'all think I am LATE for FFF, it is still Friday in Hawai'i!!! He, he ....

Love ya,
Linda :)

P.S. Since I've missed Maria's freebie finder, I went back to Photoshop and created a frame from my VERY firstever texture shot after leaving the salon yesterday! I had my son, Mark, take a photo and didn't realize I had my head tilted so far back that you can't really see my NEW "do"!!! Sooooo .... I'd like to present to you a photo of me and my NEW "dude!"!! ROTFLMBO! The reason my head wound up tilted back so far is that the note on my friend's shirt says, "DO NOT TOUCH"! I braced my arm behind him on top of the back of the bench and moved my head just AS close to him as I legally could!!! OMGosh .... what a HOOT this was! This is downtown Angels Camp, home of the annual Frog Jumping Jubilee!

I think I am HOOKED on texture photos even with just one!
Isn't this AMAZING? The Salon Rouge' was located upstairs
and this is the wall to the right as you climb up the stairs. I
thought it was SO cool and certainly fits right in with the swirls
that are SO trendy right now! I beveled the frame and I think
it looks like ceramic tile. If y'all would like to have this, give me
a SHOUT OUT and I'll include it with tomorrow's goody. XOXO

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FREEBIE

The time is 3:15 am PST - link has been tested and is in
proper working order! THANK YOU for leaving your
WONDERFUL comments here on my blog! Y'all ROCK!

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