Looking 4 Inspiration...

Happy Thanksgiving to You and Yours!!!

2009-11-26T05:59:00.000-08:00

Although we are not having everyone over here for Thanksgiving I
still set up our table centerpiece as if we were... here are some
pictures....

The wood bowl is from an antique store I visited a few weeks ago. I
was thrilled to find it. I'm sure it is from Pottery Barn or something
like that but I really wanted one and was super happy to find it and
I couldn't wait to fill it up with harvest stuff...
A close up of the left end...

Here is the right end...

Turkey Lurkey keeps moving around the house, trying to 'blend in' ...

I hope you have a wonderful day reconnecting with family and friends!

See you soon!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Gratitude Day 7

2009-11-20T07:40:00.000-08:00

Day 7 (Friday)
1) Rain
2) Rain barrels to harvest the rain water for the veggies & friut trees.
3) chili starter
4) Mom being able to visit for a couple of weeks
5) Dad for letting Mom be here to visit without him
6) The rest of the family for promising to check on Dad on a regular basis
7) An email from a very good friend
8) online classes to stretch my creative ability
9) 9 years of being the mother of a pair of awesome kids
10) 10 amazing years with the love of my life
11) weather radar online so my Farmer Hubby can keep up with what is going to happen with the weather every day
12) the ability to pick up and go at the drop of a hat
13) letting more and more of the past go
14) better sleep
15) parent’s night out at the local gymnastics gym for the kids tonight so the kids have a great time with friends and coaches while we celebrate our anniversary with a fancy dinner date
16) great timing
17) the ability to learn something new everyday
18) non-squeaky dog toys for keeping the pups busy on a rainy day
19) big windows to watch the rain from
20) crafty friends who share ideas

Well, that was fun! I thought I would really have to stretch to find
140 different things I was grateful for but it wasn't very difficult
to do after all.

More stuff coming (including a new look for my blog)
soon...
xoxox
Csmoferret

Gratitude Day 6

2009-11-19T06:13:00.000-08:00

Day 6 (Thursday)

1) A husband who I adore
2) Mo & Lasses - the Slow Poke Twins (even though it sometimes takes 20 minutes to get from the kitchen to the car)
3) patience (see above)
4) my terrific chiropractor
5) guard puppies
6) snuggle kitty curling up with me while I’m asleep on the sofa
7) a vacuum that works - finally!!
8) the ability to stay home and take care of the kids, pets & house
9) more ‘good’ days than ‘bad’ days physically
10) patience from others when I go a bit silly
11) generous inlaws
12) community wide curb-side recycling so I don’t have to drive to a recycling center to drop off all our saved up stuff like I did in a previous town.
13) living only a mile from the kids school so they can bike or walk if they get up early enough.
14) alarm clocks
15) kids who wake up to an alarm clock with a SMILE! (I swear sometimes we think they must be aliens!)
16) double double mega chocolate cookies with extra chocolate and a bit of chocolate on the top - my Husband’s own super chocolate cookie recipe that is just absolutely incredible! (that is his name for the recipe!)
17) a working stove/oven
18) freezer space
19) enough art supplies in my stash to start a store -or help a kid create a masterpiece for a local competition without having to make a trip into town for supplies
20) tennis lessons with a great group of ladies and a very patient coach

More later!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Gratitude Day 5

2009-11-18T07:29:00.000-08:00

Day 5 ( Wednesday)

1) low temperatures in the 40's make it really feel like Fall
2) Wonder & Spike - the goldfish twins
3) playing fetch with Wiley & a paper towel roll
4) new books to read
5) kids who love to share new books
6) a clean reliable car
7) the super nice guys who pick up the trash and leave the cans
on the sidewalk instead of out in the street
8) email pals
9) the ability to learn a new trick
10) validation from an unexpected source
11) only 2 more days until the weekend
12) my crock pot
13) a sit down dinner with the family every night
14) A tolerant/loving husband who puts up with me and all of my crazy ideas
15) friends to stitch with
16) Starbucks -so glad the one in our town didn't close
17) a second pair of super yellow glasses- so I can drive at night even though almost every car out there has those stupid blue headlights that cause me massive debilitating migraine episodes if I look at them without the intense yellow filter and I don't have to worry about losing my only pair.
18) Sam from Eyemart Express who was able to fabricate a second pair of yellow glasses even though it took hours of dipping and redipping them in yellow & pink tints! Such a great guy!
19) cool sleeping weather after a really long day
20) awesome dreams

More tomorrow!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Gratitude Day 4

2009-11-18T07:26:00.000-08:00

Day 4 (Tuesday)
1) A finished ‘work in progress’ landscape solution diagram
2) computer problems that Hubby can fix for others
3) digital camera
4) Brownie scouts in charge of the Flag Ceremony
5) Volunteers
6) our babysitter
7) short board meetings
8) great books
9) a full evening of pass-the-pig with the kids
10) hearty soup & fresh homemade bread
11) sheets fresh from the dryer -love that smell!
12) a clean kitchen
13) COFFEE (after an incredibly late night)
14) money to pay the bills
15) friendly strangers in line at the grocery store
16) Good Morning hugs/kisses
17) 1 week until the kids are home for Thanksgiving
18) inspiration to work on some canvases
19) clean/fresh smelling dogs
20) a purring cat in my lap during the late news

More later,
xoxox
Csmoferret

Gratitude Day 3

2009-11-18T07:23:00.000-08:00

I wrote this out but it didn't get posted for some reason so here it is...

Day 3 (Monday)
1) a wonderful Husband who is up todate on the latest technology
2) a family that loves to play tennis
3) a place to play tennis close by
4) rain(even if it postpones tennis! : ))
5) cooler temperatures
6) a constant breeze
7) good friends
8) the lemon tree w/only 2 lemons
9) eggs benedict for dinner
10) hot showers
11) clean clothes
12) sweet smelling clean kids
13) the farm
14) Hubby home for lunch every day
15) My EarthKind Classmates & Teachers
16) the patience of the family as I continue to run ideas past them
17) flexible curve rulers
18) erasers
19) the information available on the Ag. Extension office sites
20) leftovers

More to come!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Gratitude Day 2

2009-11-15T07:07:00.000-08:00

Day 2
(in no particular order)

1) air condition zones so the bedroom is cooler than the rest of the house
2) good books
3) kids who love to read good books
4) legos -specifically Star Wars Legos because they make my son so happy
5) computers
6) working “UPS”s (uninterrupted power source) for the computers
7) washer and dryer inside the house
8) google search -so I can find just about anything I need or want in just seconds
9) internet shopping - so I can purchase the item from #8 if necessary
10) talking to Mom just about every day on the phone
11) good friends moving into the neighborhood this week
12) a very reliable baby sitter
13) the opportunity to take classes in different subjects nearby
14) peaceful family together day at home
15) the huge laughs that the misspelling of my last name generated
when I read it out loud during breakfast! (Thanks Jilliene!)
16) the Bill of Rights
17) the right to disagree with the government without fear of retaliation
18) the slow cooker
19) inspiration every where I look
20) the time and ability to act on that inspiration

Check out other lists by other bloggers beginning here.
See you later!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Attitude of Gratitude Day 1

2009-11-14T14:19:00.000-08:00

Several of my online friends are participating in this year's list of gratitude.
The basic idea is this - create a list of 20 things you are grateful for every day
for 7 days. I know I have said many times how grateful I am for this or that but
I have never actually tried to make a list. So, this is a first for me and I am
looking forward to it. So, here is Day 1...

Attitude of Gratitude
Day 1

1) my incredibly smart and loving husband

2) my 2 bright bubbly kids

3) 2 playful pups

4) a soft sweet kitty cat

5) our dry (and almost clean) house

6) my soft comfy bed

7) friends from the internet who inspire and challenge me

8) my iMac and large format printer

9) a beautiful sunny Saturday

10) a nice visit with family

11) kids able to spend the day with Daddy & Grandpa
water-skiing in NOVEMBER!

12) quiet time

13) loud giggling

14) card games with the family

15) a safe place to create

16) seeing the trees from my kitchen window

17) green grass

18) the trampoline

19) happy fish

20) feeling healthier after a week of illness.

See you tomorrow!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Double the Trouble...

2009-11-10T07:42:00.000-08:00

Double the Fun!

I was flipping through my iPhoto files and found this great picture
of Wiley and Whimsy -actually getting along- and thought I would
share it! I took it on the front walk in September. That was just
before the new law saying dogs had to be restrained by a leash or
fenced in the back yard. No more playing in the front yard with the
kids for these two. Oh well, at least that is 2 family members I don't
have to worry about running into the street.

I will have some more pictures of layouts I've been putting together
in the next few days or so. I have been fighting this horrible cold since
Thursday night (I started feeling yucky at our STMUG* meeting)
and it just got worse from there. At least I can sit up and almost
function today. Hopefully the healing trend will continue and I'll be
much better by Tomorrow. Fortunately, the rest of the family has
already had this cold and seems to be immune to it. I hope that's
the case, anyway.

Enjoy the pic & See you soon!
Csmoferret

*South Texas Macintosh User Group

Do you have a way to store Rain?

2009-11-03T09:06:00.000-08:00

This mish mash of buckets and bins were, until today, my rain catchers and
since we haven't had much rain in the past couple of years (aka extreme
drought) I never really thought much about catching and storing rainwater
to use on the plants.

Say 'Hello' to my new Rain Barrels! Yep - I got 2 of these lovely blue barrels!
A few weeks ago I started a class with our County Master Gardeners and
County Agriculture Extension office and have been learning how to
redesign our yard to take advantage of EarthKind Landscape principals
(formerly, at least partially, xeriscape -no cactus, though.). One of the
main ideas is that harvesting rain water is the best way to provide water
for the plants in your yard and rain barrels are perfect for that.

Well, I had heard of rain barrels, certainly, but it never occurred to me
to use them in Sunny South Texas - I mean, it almost never rains. Well,
it did last week and it rained so much I filled all my 'rain buckets' and
a full sized trash can lined with a 55 gallon plastic trash bag twice- it
collapsed from the full weight of the water and then I set it up, leaned it
against a post and it refilled almost to the top! I have been using the
water I collected to water my potted plants, citrus trees and tomato plants.

So, after having lost a whole trash can full of water I decided that
was not the way to go and started researching rain barrels. The
Master Gardener presenters in my class showed pictures of their
lovely set-ups and they shared the benefits and how-tos and as a
result I started to pay more attention to the drainage in our yard
in order to find the perfect place for my rain barrels.The barrels
I found online at Home Depot and Lowes were only available
online in our area and they were much more expensive than I
wanted to invest. So, my incredibly smart Husband suggested I
check on CraigsList.com for them.

I was amazed to find someone listing them almost immediately.
He was a few towns over but not too far away and his price was
perfect (less than half of the fancy online barrels that I would
have to pay extra for shipping on) and he seemed very pleasant
on the phone.

That was Thursday of last week. I asked him for 2 barrels and
he said "I'll have them made for you by Tuesday morning." Well,
it is Tuesday morning and I am very pleased to show my 2 new
rain barrels!

They have faucets at the bottom that are threaded for a hose coupling and
the tops have a plastic flower pot with mesh and rocks to act as a filter. I
can make a flexible downspout to connect right into the flower pot on top
and the water will be filtered before draining into my lovely blue barrels.
The dark color will keep algae from forming inside and they are pretty
lightweight until filled with water. These barrels held soy sauce so they
are food grade plastics.

Cool, huh? Now, I just have to get the rain gutters around our patio up so I
can take full advantage of the next rain and have less of a flooding
problem in our back yard. Oh, if the blue color is not to your liking, just
plant a couple of plants around the barrel site to cover up the color or use
a plastic spray paint (like Krylon's Fusion for Plastic) to spray it a color
you prefer.

Warning:
Of course, just because I am putting in rain barrels to cut down on our
need for heavily chlorinated City water for our landscaping and to cut
back our expenses by using 'Free' Rain Water does not in any way mean
or indicate that I believe there is such a thing as Global Warming nor
do I want to be involved in any sort of discussion about it.
Because I don't. Seriously. Period.
********

On a lighter note, since you made it through such a super long post and
just in case you didn't get enough Halloween cuteness from my last 3 posts...
I give you...

SPOOKY PUPS!
Frightening aren't they? LOL! Yep, they would probably lick you to death
or run your arms off playing 'throw the squeeky toy'!
Whimsy (l) is 7.5 yrs old and Wiley (r)is only 7 months old but his feet
are so tiny that we are pretty sure he won't be getting much bigger.

Thanks for stopping by today!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Halloween Night!!!

2009-11-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

Daddy & the Twins went Trick-or-Treating while I
finished up decorating the porch and handing out
candy to the 'lil Ghouls who rang our doorbell.
Punkin's Jane o'lantern was a white pumpkin with huge seeds and it's
insides smelled like cinnamon! Weird! That is a tiny squash sitting on
top like a hat.
The stacked pumpkins sat on the edge of the porch on each side of
the walkway.

Buddy's Jack o'lantern was a traditional orange pumpkin.
This was the stack of pumpkins on the right side of the walkway.
Last year we had kids come up to the glass door and try to
get into see the rest of the room and all of Daddy's electronics.
Then they went back to their groups saying "They have this and
they have that!" and that really bothered me. Especially since
so many of the kids that visit us on Halloween are not from our
area. So, in order to keep everything fun and to avoid that
sort of unwanted attention I added a couple of things to our
door decor that made it much more enjoyable for all of us.
An upclose shot of the indoor decorations...
Our house was very well lit!
That black stringy stuff on the right is our huge sparkly spider web and
Stanley the Ginormous Spider is sitting on the bush right behind the Boo
sign. I was disappointed he didn't show up in my late night (9pm) photos.
Oh well, he sits there every year so I'm sure we have a photo of him somewhere.

Notice the tired Trick-or-Treaters? They stayed up to help hand out candy
for another 45 min or so and then disappeared upstairs and into bed. If you
know Buddy, you know that is highly unusual. He is usually up until after
midnight playing legos or star wars or something quietly in his room. Not
after all of their Halloween fun! They were absolutely worn out.

Another close-up of my candy set up. The candles are glittery and are
battery powered. I LOVE them and will be keeping them out for the
Fall too. I love the look of tapers without the mess. (Yep, I'm lazy and
I know it- totally hate to clean up melted wax or burned down
candles!)

Our neighborhood is usually very decorated and the houses
are well lit but this year there were only 4 lit houses on our
street and we were the only ones who decorated. It was busy
but only because the kids were moving through the neighborhood
pretty quickly. We had kids at the door starting at 6:15 pretty steadily
until 9pm. We took all our decorations in at 9:15 and turned out our
lights. I think it was a 'light' year even though it was busy.

As much as I love Halloween, I was very glad it was over.
So much fun in a short amount of time!
See you tomorrow!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Halloween Fall Festival at the Elementary School

2009-11-01T17:11:00.000-08:00

Our Elementary school hosted their annual Fall Festival
today, held old fashioned games, cake walks, dance offs,
hoola-hoop contests and the first grade wing was turned
into a Haunted House. It was an amazing day with a high
in the mid 70's and a light breeze. Just a perfect Fall day!

The Tennis Shop from the local Country Club set up
the QuickStart Tennis for kids 'booth' and it was very
popular!

Punkin heard Buddy had won a real Goldfish so she had to try her hand
at that game too...

They BOTH brought home gold fish! Just what we needed to add to
our current zoo...
Punkin tied 2 other girls in the Hoola-hoop contest. After hearing a couple
of the girls talk about hoola-hooping for a couple of hours the judges just
called it a tie (it had already been about 20 minutes!)

This Halloween Lady Bug landed on my orange shirt and then spent
the next 10 minutes walking up and down my hand...

All 4 of us in a lull between Color Wheel games...
This is the Color Wheel game that was very popular (you got two prizes
from the Cauldron of Fun if you won and only one if you didn't) for 2
tickets. (Tickets were 25 cents each.)

Since the beginning of the month, the classes have been collecting items
to go into the Themed Raffle Baskets and the kids were all given raffle
tickets to sell for $2 each. The PTO made up gorgeous baskets for the
raffle - P & B were disappointed they didn't win the Legos or Webkinz
baskets.

There was also a silent auction going on and it ended the same time the
raffle basket winners were called out. It turned out to be a big money
maker for the school again this year. Hopefully, that means there won't be
a need for anymore fundraising again until next year.
By the time we got home, finished getting decorated, got some dinner
and the kids freshened up their costumes it was getting dark and they
were ready to head out Trick-or-Treating with Daddy. I manned the
door and photos of that are in my next post!
See you in a few minutes!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Happy Halloween - Pumpkin Patch Photos!

2009-11-01T16:52:00.000-08:00

Here are the photos I took of the twins at a local
Pumpkin Patch Friday after school...

Buddy decided to go as Commander Cody of Star Wars Clone Wars
fame and Punkin wanted to be Wonder Woman. This is my favorite
picture of the afternoon.

The Lady running the Pumpkin Patch was very gracious to allow us
to have our photo shoot there and, of course, we bought 8 pumpkins
to take home with us. So I think she felt like it was worth the few minutes
of us tromping around in the empty patch.

What's the point of having a magic lasso if you don't actually use
it to lasso anything? We just had to try it out! : )

Punkin was looking on as Buddy posed as a very serious Commander
Cody!

I think she was having fun!

Being a Clone Trooper is very serious work.

By the end of our little photo shoot the pumpkin patch was full
of people and several of the younger boys were following Buddy
around and asking about his uniform and a couple of girls were
following Punkin around with questions about hers. It was just
too cute! I had a hard time getting these guys in the car to leave
because they were caught up in the fun.

We had a fun afternoon!
Enjoy!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Day 31 -final LOAD & Happy Halloween!!!!

2009-10-31T09:06:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning with this layout in my head. I
already had to quick page but the photos I used were
part of the Botanical Gardens trip I used yesterday.
Since I used pictures of Daddy & Punkin yesterday I
thought I would use pictures of Punkin & Mommy today.

I can't wait to print it out and put it together with
the layout from yesterday.

The quick page is by the same person who designed the
quick page I used yesterday and I really like her designs.

With this layout I finish up a Lay Out A Day for the whole
month - that is 31 layouts for October. It went really fast
and I learned several new techniques and how to drop photos
into digital quick pages. I also decided that, while I like
the look of the digital pages I prefer to add paper and 3-d
embellishments to them -which makes them all hybrid layouts.

Of course, I had to print each one out and then add the extras
so that hasn't happened for todays layout yet but it will after
all the Halloween Trick-or-Treaters are done in our neighborhood.

The twins and I have been hard at work decorating our
house this morning and in a few minutes we will be
heading over to their elementary school to set up the
Fall Festival that will be going on from noon until
6pm today. They are beyond thrilled and I am beyond tired...
ah well, it will be fun.

Have a wonderfully spookalicious Halloween!
See you tomorrow!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Day 30 - some Botanical Gardens photos...

2009-10-30T17:27:00.000-07:00

These photos were taken in April of 2005
on a trip to the local Botanical Gardens.
Buddy was with Grandpa that day visiting
GreatGranny and Daddy & I took Punkin to
see the flowers.

I used a quick page called The Earth
Laughs in Flowers Quick Page by ValerieN Designs and
Daydreamer Designworks.

Well, back to getting ready for Halloween!
See you tomorrow for the last day of LOAD!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Day 29 - Hangin' Out in the Pumpkin Patch...

2009-10-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

I took these photos last year at a pumpkin patch near
Wimberley during our 'Get Out of Town Weekend' in the
Hill Country. Buddy posed as a Scarecrow while Punkin
chose a pumpkin. They laughed so hard at this photo
that I was tempted to title it LAUGH -and I might still
do that if I can ever find the letter stickers I plan to
use on it.

Now, this is a photo I took last night as I was cleaning
up from our impromptu
'Fancy Dancy Fou Fou Chocolate Fondue Dessert'

Buddy was 'helping' to clean up the mess! We don't
call him SugarMan for nothing! (Oh- he had the
'Yep! Go for it!' from Daddy to do this!-Figures!)

Of course, now he is convinced that is the BEST way to
enjoy chocolate fondue! Well-he may be on to something
there but he won't be repeating this stunt anytime soon.: )

Only 2 more days of LOAD!
See you tomorrow!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Day 28 - Train ride...

2009-10-28T09:46:00.001-07:00

This is a quick page by LLIELLA
and I added photos of the twins with
Amma on a miniature train during a
younger cousin's train-themed birthday
party in 2005!

I can't believe I've never scrapped
these pictures before but, thanks to
LOAD, here they are!

Enjoy!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Day 27 - Neighboring Beauty

2009-10-27T21:32:00.001-07:00

I took a couple of these photos of a tree just a couple
of blocks away this past Spring and a couple of them
today. I was making up the grid and realized I didn't
have enough photos to fill it the way I wanted to. I also
needed a sample for my landscape class tonight and, after
asking permission last week, Daddy & I stopped and snipped
the leaf and seedpod this afternoon.

The County Extension Agents think it is a Red Royal Poinciana
but they're not 100% positive. I think the foot long seedpod
really threw them and they are looking it up in the plant books
and will let me know for sure next Tuesday night.

Of course, I couldn't let the photo grid go to waste so I used
it for my LOAD challenge layout today. The prompt was to make a
layout without using any patterned papers and I was very surprised
to discover how difficult that can be.

I shopped my scrap drawers and had to keep putting the patterned
scraps back in the drawer after pulling them out and laying them
across the photos.

So here is my resulting page...

Enjoy!
See you tomorrow!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Day 26 -Together Today...

2009-10-27T09:13:00.001-07:00

This is the "Falling for Her Quick Page" by Scrapping Rainbow Designs

I cropped photos of each of us from this week and dropped them
into the hearts and then added the title "Together Today". I have
a couple of journal spots that I am going to add once I get this
page printed out. That, of course, makes this digital page a hybrid
page!

Only 5 more days of LOAD! Yipee!
See you later with today's layout!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Day 25

2009-10-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

Last October we spent a weekend in Wimberley,Texas
just enjoying Fall in the Texas Hill Country. We
spent time in town and also visited a couple of
local vineyards and tourist attractions in the area.
I have stuff to make a mini album about it but
I just haven't done it yet.

This is a picture that Punkin took of Daddy & I
just after he bought me the necklace I'm wearing.
It was a very early Birthday present! We had our
hats on because it was so sunny and hot while we
were walking around town.

The Quick page is by Project B Designs.
I will be adding more info to it when I get it printed out. I have several
pieces of ephemera from the trip I want to include on the layout.

Only 6 days of LOAD left. Maybe I'll get my studio cleaned up and
be able to actually make some paper layouts so I don't go through
LOAD withdrawal! LOL!

Enjoy the rest of the day!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Days 23 & 24

2009-10-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I have to admit this digital scrapbooking
thing is pretty cool. Of course, I have yet to
do anything other than add the photo and text
but I am sure I will be trying that out before
too long.

Anyway, here are my layouts for the last 2 days
of LOAD.

This is the Buddy @ 8 months on 5/2001 not too sure about sitting in Daddy's chair and being in charge of the remote. I will add my journaling with a pen once I print the page out.This is a quick page from the Seaside Kit by Thaliris

I have scrapped a few of the photos we took during our White Christmas in 2004
but these 3 got missed. When I found this quick page on Scrapping with IkeaGoddess's blog I had to try it out. This is the Candy Christmas Quick Page by Kimb's designs.

Only 7 more days of LOAD!
Enjoy!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Days 21 & 22 ...still plugging away & Blog Candy Winner

2009-10-22T17:33:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of Wiley sleeping in his favorite position upside down
on top of all 3 pet pillows. He had been playing so hard and training
with me and the K9 Coach so he was completely tuckered out. I used a
quick page from Lindsay Sparkes of Spinky Dink Scraps

I used photos of Halloween 2008 for today's layout. This is Punkin as
Sacajawea and Buddy as Capt. Jack Sparrow. They have to dress up as
a character from a book in order to be able to wear their costumes
to school and we had a very difficult time finding a children's book
about Sacajawea. She was a character from the movie Night at the Museum
but the book didn't include her as a major character so we couldn't use
it. I had to hunt down a historical junior novel for Punkin to carry
with her to school.

Buddy's was much easier. We discovered there is a whole series of kids
books about Young Captain Jack Sparrow. They are pretty good too. At
least he loves them.

This is a quick page by Roseytoes Designs& JennCk Designs

I printed both of these pages out and was very disappointed with
the background of the Halloween layout - it is distressed and folded
on screen but solid black in the printed page. I am not sure how to
fix this for future printings but it really used up a lot of black ink.

I added all the names of anyone who has ever commented on my blog since
the very beginning to big bowl and had the Buddy reach in a pull out a
name... sooooo ....

And now, the Belated Blog-iversary Blog Candy goes to....

(drum roll)....

***Anonymous said...

WOW, 1 year!!! Glad to see you are back in the swing of things. I have missed visiting you on your blog. Laura

September 14, 2009 7:03 AM***

Laura!!

Email me with your snail mail address and I will get your
prize in the mail to you asap.

Thanks to everyone who has left comments on my blog since
August 2008! It's so hard to believe it has been around
for over a year!

Have a great night & see you tomorrow!
xoxox
Csmoferret

See you tomorrow!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Day 20

2009-10-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

I used a quick page by Iseree for JM Designs
and scrapped this photo of Punkin in her
Brownie vest in 2007. I printed it out
and added the journaling and title but
I didn't get a photo of that part -only
the digitally scrapped layout.

It has been a very long day so see you
tomorrow!

XoXoX
Csmoferret

PS- I'll be posting the winner of my Blog Candy
from the comments since September 1 very soon.
Thanks to all of the visitors!

Day 19 -still going digital

2009-10-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is but the paper
layouts I've added to the LOAD Flickr
account just don't garner the comments
that a digital quick page someone else
created and I just added photos to. It
is kind of frustrating, actually. I mean,
it is wonderful that these beautiful quick
pages are recognized -that is why I chose to
use them after all. I just wish my own
creations were as well received.

Ah well, the challenge marches on
and I got it done between taking the
twins to Gymnastics this evening.

This page is a combination of a digital
quick page freebie by cardamome
and scanned photos of Punkin & Buddy
at 9 months of age in 2001. The only thing
I added to the title was the 'x2'.

It feels good to get some of these
older photos scrapped for the first time.

See you tomorrow!
xoxox
Csmoferret

Day 18 - back to digital

2009-10-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I spent this afternoon and
evening trying to get a bit of the
garage straightened out and didn't
get the paper layout put together
that I had in my head so it will have
to wait until tomorrow after the kids
get to school.

So, I used another digital quick page
for my LOAD today. This photo is of
the twins after they celebrated Thanksgiving
at school in 1st grade, 11/2006.

This quick page is by Jaye from Monica's CT on
Mglscraps CT. and the Autumn
word art is by Kathy Winters Designs

I have been finding these quick pages using links from
Scrapping with IkeaGoddess' blog. She does a fabulous job of
listing all the freebies she finds on the web. She is an
awesome resource! Definitely check out her blog and then
the links she posts - but beware- you will lose lots of
time to the fun pages and kits you find listed on her
site. (Remember-the key word is "Freebie".)

It's interesting how many photos from 2006 I've scrapped
this month because of the quick digital pages. I haven't had
to print a photo, find stuff to go with it, come up with a
page layout, write and rewrite the journaling, etc. I've just
picked a digital page, picked a photo and mooshed them together.
(So technical, I know.)

Well, it has been a long day of cleaning and reorganizing
the garage and I'm only 1/4 done. So it's off to bed to
rest up for more cleaning tomorrow.

Goodnight!
xoxox
Csmoferret