‘twas the day before international scrapbooking day ...

When all throughout Scrapland, every scrapper was scurrying about to see the AMAZING digiscrap deals being revealed!

WOOT, WOOT and TOOT, TOOT!

Credits: *Summer Surprises* May 2010 Blog Train by Bon Scrapatit Designs

Fonts: Arial Rounded MT Bold, Hyrule and Pea Bonnie by Kevin and Amanda

Photos: Courtesy of my son, Mark Walton, the subject of my layout!

Firstly, I’ve been busy working on some goodies for the BIG day tomorrow and have decided to jump on the “let’s get this party started” bandwagon and to give you a bit of a peek into my contribution to the May Blog Train that shall be departing early tomorrow morning!

Before I lock my brain down on (inter) National Scrapbooking Day, I will give you a progress report on Joshua.  I just tried calling Tiffany’s cell phone and, SURPRISE, Joshua answered!  He has been transferred from the Burn Center to a rehabilitation facility and he said he did not know yet when he would be released.  He has finished with hydro-therapy, but not quite sure what kind of therapy they are currently administering.

Joshua sounded good and I could hear Tiffany’s voice in the background so I did not wish to keep him, but it was nice getting an update straight from the horse’s mouth!  Speaking of horses, I remember when Joshua lived here in Copper with his dad, he worked on a ranch that bred and raised Tennessee Walkers.  How ironic that he met and married a sweet young lady from Tennessee while he was in the Marines!  Life IS amazing!

I’m trying, as time allows me, to personally thank each of you that left comments, thoughts and prayers for Joshua and family if you’ve left me means by which to do so.  Thank you all SO very much!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow … is going to be wild, wacky AND wonderful!  Are y’all ready for (inter) National Scrapbooking Day?  Have you made your lists?  Have you checked them twice, thrice or even more?  Are you like, totally organized and ready to hop, crop and/or shop until you drop?  ROFL!  What keeps you sane on this once-a-year festive celebration of this most incredible addiction that benefits one and all?  Got secrets?  Then you’ve just got to share, if you dare!  Let us all know what your tricks are for accomplishing all that you hope to during (inter) National Scrapbooking Day!  LOL!  Yes, and we know that for many places this is not just “a” day, but may last an entire week! *wink*

When I signed up for the May Blog Train, it had not even crossed my mind that the train was scheduled to leave the same day as (inter) National Scrapbooking Day!  So, to enable me to participate in both, since we all know I am slower than molasses, I am giving y’all a bit of a sneak-peek into my contribution to the May Blog Train, which shall post automatically here on my blog while I am, hopefully, sleeping!  LOL!  Got to LOVE that auto post!

Hope you like the “scrapatit”!  Stay-tuned for the May Blog Train posting here on my blog just after midnight tonight.  I am first on the list this time around so making sure that I, thisbeing the first stop, have everything posted and ready to roll!  ALL ABOARD!  Hope you all enjoy what over 100 designers have awaiting you and please make sure to give them a shout of “thanks” for their hard work!  MWAH!

Wishing you all a good night’s sleep so you are refreshed and ready for the BIG day tomorrow … XOXO

Let’s get the party started …

Love and hugs,

Linda :D

P.S.  I will be posting the word art, as seen in my layout (Life’s a Beach While on Vacation!), on Sunday!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD *SUMMER SURPRISES* SCRAPATIT #1

Bon Scrapatit!

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something old, something new, something borrowed and the bride sings, "blue". a goody for y'all too!

Happy Thursday everyone!

I was finally able to get Ethan and April’s wedding video clips downloaded to my computer!  YAY!  I did a little editing in Windows Movie Maker, and was SO happy to have the audio turn out as good as it did, all things considered!

This was my son, Luke’s, first time holding Mark’s video camera, let alone manning it, so please excuse the horrible blurriness through about the first half, along with a bit of shakiness!

The boys and I miss April singing casually about the house, so this is a VERY priceless piece of video to us!  Due to the boy’s desire to spend time outside of the barn congregating, they missed the other requests she sang during the karaoke portion of the wedding reception!  She also sang a duet with another gentleman present.  There were also the songs that she and Ethan sang to each other that I would loved to have had recorded!  Ethan sang to April, “Just To See You Smile” by Tim McGraw and April sang to Ethan, “Halo” by Beyonce.  April has said that she will record, “Halo” for me and I can’t wait to hear it! 

 

I mentioned that I would truly value your input on this one!  If you like April’s rendition of, “Blue”, there is a place in the upper right-hand corner of the video, when it is playing, where you can hover your mouse and click on the word, "like” and/or you may leave a comment here!  What do y’all think? 

This means a great deal to me because I’ve always enjoyed hearing my daughter sing, however, she has not always had support from some of the most important people in her life and she actually had stopped singing for many years.  Her brothers and I all agree that she should be using her voice more often.  I was just speaking with her yesterday and whenever I mention how much we all enjoy hearing her sing, she makes light of it.  Now, mind you, I don’t believe in forcing anyone to do anything, it is just that we all remember HOW much she loved to sing before the desire was squelched and we’d just like to help rekindle that fire in her.  I would be most grateful for y’all, my Scrapland family, to have a part in rekindling that fire as well!  :D

If I am addressing anyone who has any experience with either video or audio editing and such, I would be truly thankful for any suggestions on how I can remove background vocals, if this is even possible, remove a reverb without harming the vocals and such.  I guess what I am asking is if any of you know if there is a way I can clean up the audio in this video.  I have already ripped the audio from the video and made a separate mp3 file to work with in a sound editing program I downloaded.  I was not able to find anything to smooth over that reverb you hear near the beginning.  But then, I don’t understand all of the options in the program either!  LOL!  Thanking you in advance for you input.

The following is a layout I created with a couple of the photos that the boys took at the wedding using the lovely, *Irish Eyes* by Snowsmoon’s Design!  Once again, Dawn has been kind enough to let me give y’all a “scrapatit” made from my layout!  Thanks again girlfriend!

Credits:  *Irish Eyes* layout created using *Irish Eyes* by Snowsmoon’s Design

Fonts:  DJB Laura Script by Darcy Baldwin and Alpha from *Irish Eyes* by Snowsmoon’s Design

Photos:  Courtesy of the Walton Boys!  

*Irish Eyes* by Snowsmoon’s Designs may be found at her store HERE

A VERY heartfelt “thank you” again to all of you have left comments, support, thoughts and prayers for Joshua and family.  I shall try to give you an update tomorrow, along with a Friday Freebie!  I was given a partial update just a bit ago from Robert, but our phone call was interrupted due to needs at work so I will get the full update and, hopefully, post tomorrow.  I will tell you that he is doing much better and the skin graft to his hand has taken – WOOT!

Love and hugs,

Linda :D

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD *IRISH EYES* SCRAPATIT

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update on joshua ...

Tiffany and Joshua on their wedding day!

May 13, 2006

Happy Monday everyone!

Thank you SO very much for your kind words, your thoughts and your prayers for Joshua and his family.  My beloved Scrapland family is appreciated MORE than words can express!  Thank you SO much to each one of you. :D

I think I slept most of Saturday and half of Sunday due to lack of sleep and, of course, emotions.  I do apologize for not getting here sooner to give y’all an update on Joshua.  I did not sit down to even check email until last night and I was too groggy to write and I wanted to be as concise as possible when updating you!

Joshua went in for surgery to repair the compound fracture to his right leg on Saturday.  The surgeons could not complete the surgery due to the burn on his leg.  They did remove the tube from his throat as there is NO damage whatsoever to his lungs.  Thank you Daddy! 

Joshua was able to speak to the nurse, even though heavily sedated.  He asked who all was at the hospital!  Tiffany explained to me that he would be fine one moment and loopy the next, but she was SO happy just to be able to talk to him and to hear his voice!  He was able to explain to her, in detail, what happened to him.

Robert arrived at the hospital, with his sister, late Saturday night.  He was able to go into see Joshua, which we had thought might not be possible due to the strict visiting hours.   We were thinking he would not be able to see his son until the following morning.  He was SO happy and SO exhausted when I spoke with him!  I would have loved to seen the faces of them both when their eyes met.  *sigh*

Sunday, about noon-ish, Joshua went back into surgery to finish the repair to his leg.  The plan was to put a titanium rod in his leg, but due to a natural curvature to Joshua’s bone, they had to use a plate.  Robert called me as soon as he was out of surgery and then again later after Joshua had been returned to his room (he was moved from ICU to a regular room sometime late Saturday I believe and is still in the Burn Center).

Tiffany’s mother and father stayed at the hospital until Joshua had been moved to a regular room and until both Robert and Joshua’s mom had arrived.  It was SO relieving to know that Tiffany has had family with her the entire time for comfort and support.  Not to mention all of the love, thoughts and prayers coming their way!

As of my last phone conversation with Robert about two hours ago, Joshua is headed back into surgery.  Today they will be skin grafting his right hand, which did suffer third-degree burns.  The rest of the burns are second degree and should heal up just fine.  Robert said that they may be sending him home on Friday!  He is hoping to be able to see Joshua once more before he leaves for the airport to return home.

Joshua and Tiffany have a two-story home, so Tiffany’s dad is working to get a ramp made before Joshua’s homecoming as the master bedroom is on the second floor – ARGH!  Robert is thinking that with the severity of the fracture to Joshua’s leg in combination with the burns, that they will most likely put him in a wheel chair and give him a walker as crutches would be much too difficult all things considered.

Again, I (we) thank you SO much for your lovely comments, thoughts and prayers of support.  MWAH!

I hope to be back later this evening or tonight with the something VERY special to me I wish to share with y’all, as well as another goody!  So, keep your eyes peeled for the blog post title, “Something old, something new, something borrowed …”  I am going to REALY value your input on this one! *wink*

Have a GLORIOUS day everyone!

Much love,

Linda :D

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showing y'all some "affections" with a friday freebie!

Credits: Little Boy Interrupted created with *Affections* by Snowsmoon’s Designs

Fonts: DJB Laura Script by Darcy Baldwin, A Little Pot and Eras Light ITC

Photo: Linda Walton using Paint the Moon Photography’s Hello Gorgeous!, Make My Skin Perfect and

Sparkle Eyes photo actions from the *Miracle Makeover* action set

Happy Friday y’all!  (Please read my post script and you will know why this is being posted on Saturday)

Well, I had hoped to see you before now, however, it has been quite a “taxing” week for me to say the least!  ROFL! 

I have done taxes for all of my boys and Robert.  I did three of them back in February and just finished up the other two late last night!  My oldest son, Matt, had finally received his W-2 in the mail yesterday afternoon after his previous employer had sent it to a very old address and then after he requested a replacement and waited and waited, there was still no form received so Mom advised him to call again and to make sure they are sending to the correct address!  TADA!

Before I  go on, please let me say that y’all TOTALLY overwhelmed me with your sweet and VERY supportive comments to *Shimmerin’ Shamrocks*!  Thank you SO much and I’m glad y’all like it!  Honestly, I thought with it late in coming, that it would not be well-received.  Y’all have surely proved me wrong in such thinking!  Thank you!

The following paragraph is an update that I just placed beneath the links for *Shimmerin Shamrocks* in my previous post and thought I would cover all bases and post here too:

A few of you towards the end have expressed difficulty with the first background papers zip file.  I have just downloaded to my desktop and encountered a problem with source file not being read.  Sometimes these things happen for reasons unknown to me and you may have to try downloading again.  I have downloaded a second time with 100% success.  Reminder - when you are having to repeat a download, always make sure to remove the first file from your downloader and from the destination file you are downloading to.  In this case, I cleared my Firefox downloads and then went to my desktop and deleted the incomplete files.  I hope this helps and thanks again for your amazing support! MWAH!

I did come here to show y’all some *Affections*, so here we go!  My BFF, Dawn of Snowsmoon’s Design, has just recently released a couple of new scrapkits in her new store at Digi Scrap Station!  As I was playing with those new photo actions that I mentioned to you last post, I just HAD to scrap one of those photos with Dawn’s bright and cheery, *Affections*!  I love Dawn’s choice of colors and her papers are LOVELY and SO easy to work with!  These colors just make me SMILE! :D

The photo is of our grandson, Kaleb Jace (goes by Jace), on his second birthday week before last!  He was not a happy camper when his uncle Matt picked him up and put him inside of Uncle Luke’s truck!  He was TOTALLY interrupted from his play! 

I will share more photos/layouts as I have time to do some serious experimenting with my new actions!  I also wish to devote a post entirely to the genius behind these AMAZING actions, Annie Manning of Paint the Moon notoriety!  Hmmm, guess I’d better get to working on those photos!  Just a few words will NOT do Annie justice.  She is awe-inpiring to me and a real sweetheart!  Oh, and I will make sure to show you before and after photos! *wink*

Here are a couple of previews of what you will find inside of Dawn’s *Affections* scrapkit:

 

                                                         

You can find *Affections* now at Digi Scrap Station

Dawn has been kind enough to allow me to share my layout with you by way of a “scrapatit”, which also includes the word art, Little Boy Interrupted and Little Girl Interrupted.  I am also including separate PNG files with all in grayscale so that you are able to apply color, etc and to put the words together however you wish to!

I shall, God willing, be back on Monday with something VERY special to me that I wish to share with y’all as well as another layout share and freebie!

 

Have an AWESOME weekend everyone and make it a VERY scrap happy one too!

Love and hugs,

Linda :D

P.S.  This post is actually posting the wee hours of Saturday morning.  Robert received one of those phone calls that no parent ever wishes to receive as he and John were on their way home from work.  I had met him outside to hand him the phone with good news from his baby sister and the look on his face was telling me that something was not right.

Robert’s number two son, Joshua, had a serious accident at work yesterday, which has left him with second-degree burns, a compound fracture to his right leg (broke both tibia and fibula).  They cannot perform surgery due to a burn on or right above his right knee.  The greatest concern had been for his lungs due to inhalation of chemicals from a fire extinguisher, which sprayed him in the face after he jumped ten feet from a platform to save himself from the fire that had started.  That jump is also what caused his broken leg.  According to our last conversation with Tiffany, Joshua’s wife, they do not think there is any serious damage to his lungs and that they should be just fine!  We are EVER so thankful that he is alive and that he will be okay.

Please keep Joshua and his family in your thoughts and/or prayers.  I will update y’all just as soon as I am able.  We are waiting to hear from Tiffany later this morning after she meets with a team of doctors.  Joshua is currently in ICU at a Burn Center.  After Tiffany calls, we will be making flight arrangements for Robert to travel to Tennessee to be with his son.  We are truly blessed to have such a loving and supportive family that has already taken much of the load off of our shoulders in contacting all of the family with the news and then with updates, helping with travel arrangements, airport pickup, etc.  Robert also has a sister who lives just two hours from the hospital Joshua is in who will be up to visit as well.

Joshua has been returned to us safe and sound three times from his deployments to Iraq (Fallujah) while serving in the Marines from 2002-2006.  We are more than optimistic that he will pull through this with flying colors!

Sorry if I am rambling on.  It has been draining emotionally and you just know the hardest part was the not knowing the full extent of Joshua’s injuries until Tiffany could get herself to the hospital (they had to life flight him to another hospital three hours away) and to speak with the doctors.  Much needed sleep awaits me … good night!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD SCRAPATIT AND WORD ART

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"shimmerin' shamrocks" are finally here and so is spring, woo hoo!

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I had a fairly long post all written up and ready-to-go for Saturday, but was called away and was not able to finish up *Shimmerin' Shamrocks* and had not the heart to post on Easter Sunday.  However, I just have to share with you the photo that went along with my post title, *Shimmerin' Shamrocks* are here, but where, OH where is Spring?  ROFL!

We now have an annual Easter picnic with Robert’s side of the family, which brings the multitudes together on a lovely, warm and sunny day here in Northern California at a VERY nice park.  Robert had been telling me for over a week prior that it was going to be snowing down to 2,000 feet on Easter Sunday!  NO way!  Uh, yup, yes way! 

As you can see by the photo above, which I took at 2:10 pm on Saturday, the day before Easter, it was SURELY going to rain!  And, it did indeed!  Come Easter, late afternoon, it was pouring!  No picnicking for us and I, seriously, doubt for anyone else either!

Yesterday, you would never have known that we were experiencing blustery weather just the day before!  It could not have been a more perfect day to celebrate Jace’s second birthday! The sky was pure blue, with no need for even a sweater, while the thermometer reached 70 degrees shortly after 2:00 pm!  It was heavenly! 

On the way to Sonora, you could see snow-capped mountains in the distance, which is always a treat to see when the sun is shining all around you!  I simply adore living in the foothills, especially this time of the year when surrounded by Spring greenery!

Well, if it is not one thing, it is the other with me, now isn’t it?  Here I finally get my hands on a sweet little point-and-shoot that snaps some gorgeous photos without much effort and Grandma is just snapping away as she watches her darling little red-headed grandson play with his favorite toys (trucks), only to notice that the photos were blurring.  This was a first time with this camera (an older Canon PowerShot – LOVE it!), so I was baffled.  Now, mind you, I am blind as a bat without my reading glasses on, so I had to grab them before inspecting the camera to find that, somehow, it had been knocked off of AUTO and was sitting two settings beneath!  HUH?  How did this happen?  LOL!  Needless to say, I was very disappointed in most of my snaps of Jace playing his trucks that are powered by pushing them forward several times – drats!  It was just WAY too sweet watching him, intently, push, push, PUSHING those wheels to make sure each truck went a great distance!

So, this is how I get myself into so much trouble!  Here it is three hours later since I started writing this post and I wanted to share a couple of photos of Jace on his birthday and then I just HAD to play with some new photo actions I bought Tuesday!  All I can say is, WOW!  I will share them with you tomorrow so as to give the INCREDIBLE genius behind them center stage!

Now, for some Spring greenery!  Remember, even though this scrapkit is chock-full of shamrocks, it can be used for many other layouts besides those depicting St. Patrick’s Day with it’s earthy-tones and sparkling jewels!

I decided to go ahead and upload all of the *Shimmerin' Shamrock* files to 4-shared since I started them there.  Also, because the file extensions are much shorter too!  Need to fine-tune the FTP situation so that it is not painful for either of us!  LOL!

Since it has been SO long since I posted the two files with the patterned papers, I am posting them again with the rest of the files for those who may come to download and don’t wish to have to hunt for them.  For those who HAVE already downloaded, you need not click on the first two links beneath the preview.

Thank you to you LOVELY ladies who always stop by, regardless, to say hello and to ease my guilty conscience for having been MIA so much this past year!  You seriously ROCK and I love you dearly!  *big grin*

Happy scrapping y’all!

Much love,

Linda :D

Sorry, these links are no longer available

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"shimmerin' shamrocks" y'all ...

More obstacles than I can count since I last posted!  I’m telling you, I need a secretary or two!  LOL!  Yup, grown kids and I am still interrupted constantly!  :D  No complaints, just feeling poorly because I’ve not been able to get the finishing touches completed on *Shimmerin” Shamrocks* so I can get the files zipped and uploaded for y’all!

To make amends, I have added extra goodies and am also including six solid papers.  I actually ended up redoing several embellishments and updating too!

Today is our grandson (from my son, Mark and daughter-in-law, Jessica), Kaleb Jace’s “2nd” birthday, so I am on the fly, once again!  It is also our niece, Halia Lynn’s “3rd” birthday!  Happy Birthday Babies!!!

Anyhoo, I am off to the shower to, hopefully, be ready when my son, Luke, arrives to take me up the mountain to pick up a few things to take to Jace’s birthday party later this afternoon!  Lots of errands and SO little time!  ROFL!

I hope to start zipping files when I return home tonight …

I had a full blog post all ready to go on Saturday when I was called away.  Come Easter Sunday, I just didn’t have the heart to post St. Patrick’s Day goodies, so when I have had a few moments in between taking care of things for those needing my help, I have just kept adding little things here-and-there!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week thus far and are scrapping happy!  See you soon!

XOXO,

Linda :D

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