Torn between love & desire....

If you know me, you know I adore the mountains! Always have and I think I always will. The last 2 years I have made trips to Colorado but sadly this year it was not in the cards. My only time to get a week away is in October and well, I don't do Colorado from Oct-May ;-) So, I am putting together an ocean vacation with my mom for October this year. She has always wanted to see Savannah, GA and I am going to make sure she does! I have never had much of a desire to do ocean trips but I am really getting pumped about this one! I have reservations made at a little cottage on Tybee Island....just a few short minutes to the Atlantic Ocean. I can't wait to drive around Savannah and see the gorgeous personality of Southern living!

Here is my first love....a beautiful sunset behind the Rocky Mountains, courtesy of my BFF in Colorado.....



And a photo, courtesy of a search on the internet & Trip Advisor, of a sunRISE over the Atlantic Ocean....what I think will become a new love affair of the heart!




Ahhhhhhhhh, counting the days to October 10th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Love & Hugs,
Helen

Truth-Be-Told Tuesday...

There is nothing like having a thought to start swirling around in your head at 6 in the morning and know you must get ready for work.....go to work.....and try to keep that thought swirling around and not lose it!

As I read a blog post this morning, the person listed about 10 different sites to go to the help keep things simple in various areas of your life. As I read through the names of the different sites I was amazed at how many contained "mom" "parent" "marriage" in the title.

I am not against these types of sites since I have several such sites & blogposts delivered to my bloglines inbox everyday. But, it just really struck me this morning.....what about places where singles show their perspective?? And so the thought began to take form inside my head. It is a seedling of a thought at the moment. I will pray and see if God grows it into a beautiful flower or not.

So, there it is....my truth-be-told Tuesday thought. Happy day to you :)

Helen

BOTCT FINAL WEEK

Well, the Busy Bees are officially retired :( It has been an intense 4 weeks of discussing, changing of minds, retouching of layouts, posting, and waiting!

Here are our layouts for the final week of the contest. Our matching theme was "heritage scrapping". Heritage scrapbooking is HUGE in the scrapping world. Just like people love to spend hours on Ancestors.com digging around to find pieces of their family history....we scrapbookers love to take the photos we already have and turn them into creative historical art pieces for our family to enjoy for generations.

Please don't forget to go vote HERE!!!

Created by Wendy


Created by Helen

Created by Brandy

Created by Tracie

Created by Emily

God given skillz

.....I mean skillS! Just kidding :) Our small group Bible study group talked about "skills" today. We all agreed God gives everyone atleast ONE skill/ability/talent. The discussion went a little deeper when we talked about whether we are automatically "great" at our skill or do we have to hone that skill over time before it can be said we are great at it? We each threw out a skill/talent we had and some said it was something they have just always been able to do and do very well. Others said it theirs was a skill that they always had the "desire" for and just naturally gravitated to BUT they had to work at it to learn it & fine tune it in their life. Some have one major skill they are great at and other have several smaller things they are very good at. It made me wonder what are MY skillz? It has always been hard for me to list things I am good at.....it feels odd to voice it....like maybe I am bragging. I would much rather have a few close friends list the skillz they see in me. Hmmmm, that gives me a thought about a chain email to send out. You know those emails that go around where you have to list 10, 15, 20 things about yourself? You know the ones I am talking about....what are you wearing right now? what is your favorite icecream flavor? Uh-huh, those emails. Maybe I will send one out to a close friend and list the top 5 skills/talents I see in that person. They then reply back to you doing the same and then choose 1 other friend to send an email to. That's a rough draft but you get the gist. What a great way to boost someone's confidence in themselves, don't you think?

Pastor Gary Taylor filled the pulpit at church today. I really liked his sermon alot. In fact, just moments into the start of his sermon I realized he reminded me of a much older Pastor Fred. I think it was the way he mixed in his jokes & stories with the biblical passage he was preaching from....which, by the way, was Psalm 11. He is a visual speaker, too. I am visual so when a person speaks in terms that cause me to 'see' things in my head....that is always a big plus! Seeing that yesterday was the 8th, it made me smile (and a little sad) to see characteristics of Pastor Fred in someone else from the very stage where he walked and preached from just 5 short months ago. Speaking of yesterday and the date....it never occurred to me once that it was the 5 month anniversary of his death. I wonder if that is a sign of healing? Part of me feels very guilty that I didn't have those flashbacks of that horrible day....to remember the feeling of utter & total shock/dismay of knowing a murder had just occurred in the very sanctuary where I lift my hands in praise to God. I suppose the feelings of guilt is just as much a part of the healing process as anything.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend as well as have a splendid week to come. Use your skillz in a way that brings glory to God this week!!!

Hugs,
Helen

Pretty Scrappy Sale!!!!

If you are a digi-scrapper then I highly recommend you take advantage of this "end of summer" sale to stock up on some great kits!!! Photo below is linked the the store! Happy Shopping....

ROCKED OUT 2 MORE....

layouts using the kits, Sunny Disposition by TaylorMade Designs & The Digi Files #6 from The Daily Digi. Amanda Taylor is hosting a challenge that earns you a $3 coupon to her store for the first layout you do with her kit.....and $1 for each additional layout you do. I am at 3 layouts so far so that is $5.00....woo-hoo! Here are the other 2 layouts I have created so far. The first one is in the previous post.


All but the background paper is from Amanda's kit, Sunny Disposition. The bg paper is from The Digi Files #6....a great collaboration kit which you can find over at The Daily Digi store for just $5.


I so LOVE this layout. I have been holding on to this photo from Mom & Dad's 50th Anniversary party back in June and I am glad I waited because Amanda's kit had the perfect yellows & blues to match the photograph. The pops of red & the staples are from The Digi Files #6 kit. I love having a pop of color added to my LO's like this.

Thanks for stopping by to peek at my August progress. Have a blessed Saturday. I am off to start laundry....put up the $100+ I spent at Wal Mart (and not ONE fun purchase, either!!!) and do some housework inside with the a/c going. Going to be a scorching 95+ degrees today and no clouds in the sky to block the sun. Yep, it's an inside day :)

Hugs,
Helen

A few layouts....

I have been very creative lately....here are the results:

This is my Week 4 Battle of the Creative Teams layout. You will see it again when I post on Monday but thought I would go ahead and place it now, too. I don't do many heritage layouts but this week the majority of our team chose "heritage" so guess what? I scrapped, heritage style. I really do love how it turned out. This is my mom & dad on their wedding day. My dad's parents are to the left and my mom's dad is on the right. Scrapped using the August Collab kit at Pretty Scrappy called Drama Queen.

One of my August CT responsibilities at Pretty Scrappy was to do a layout using the kit, Monica's Wedding. I chose the kit because I knew I had photos to scrap with it (and I do like the color theme in the kit)

Another August CT layout using the kit Doodloo. Again, the colors caught my eye in this kit and I thought these photos of Caiden worked perfectly with it.

This is an old LO I did of some 1988 photos and I posted it here now because it is my "before" layout for the August challenge I am hosting again at PS....A Garden Make-Over. Below is the after layout....

The kit I used, Let's Fly A Kite, another August CT job, lended itself well to my photo. That day, which I remember so well, was such a lighthearted, happy-go-lucky day that the kit's personality is perfect for my layout.

This is a layout I just cranked out for a TaylorMade Designs challenge. She is challenging us to use her kit, Sunny Disposition, to create layouts. The more we create with the kit, the more we earn towards a gift certificate to her store. Hello? Can someone say "Oh Heck Yeah!!!"? I am crazy about this LO.....of course, the white space being something I have grown to love. My photo subject has much to do with loving the layout as he is one cute little dude!!!

Ahhhh, what is THIS all about you may wonder? This was a layout I did for a challenge that I think I totally forgot to ever submit. The challenge was to scrap about......you guessed it, a bad habit we have. Well, the list I had to choose from in my own life of bad habits was longer than I care to share but leaving my shoes around EVERYWHERE is one that really annoys me. Yes, I can annoy myself with my bad habits as much as anyone else can annoy me with theirs, LOL.

So, that's a little peek into my creative world for now. It is nearing 8p.m. and I have not had dinner. Just now getting hungry. Ugh, I hate to eat this late, I really do. Hmmm, what to do!!! Maybe a salad. C'ya, thanks for stopping by!!

Love,

Helen