Kountry Kreations by Darla

Oopsie!!! My Bad and A New Freebie For You!!!

2011-12-17T23:39:00.000-06:00

I had a really nice email from Cindy letting me know that I had some mistakes in my Photoshop Calendar brushes. Eeeks!!! I am so sorry!!! This is what I get for trying to Photoshop in the wee hours of the morning....LOL!!

I 'think' I've fixed everything that was wrong...if you see the preview below and look at August you'll see that I left out the 12th. I've gone through and fixed the ones that were wrong. Not all the font brushes and the PNG's were wrong...Just a few. I've included the Excel spreadsheet in the zips so if I do have another mistake you can fix it yourself faster than waiting on me to get around to getting it fixed and uploaded. But, please, drop me a line and let me know any mistakes you might find.

2012 Calendar Photoshop Brushes

2012 Calendar PNG's W/U.S. Holidays

Just for my oopsie I've included another 2012 brush set in a new font.

New Font Tweeny Bopper 2012 Photoshop Calendar Brush

All the PS calendar brushes, PNG's, Excel Files are included in one download link.

Click Here for the Download

Here are the samples I had in the original post...

I hope y'all have a Happy and Safe Holiday Season!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

MCP Actions Contest for a Canon G12

2011-11-30T11:33:00.000-06:00

Hey Y'all!

MCP Actions is having another great giveaway on their blog. Click HERE for the blog post and deets of the contest. Who wouldn't want to have a really nice point & shoot camera when you don't feel like

toting around about 40 lbs of camera gear and backpack? LOL!!

The camera has been donated by Adorama. CLICK HERE for a link to their site and CLICK HERE to see this cool cameras features and specs!

Have you seen this camera???? It has an HD setting for taking those great HD shots. It's also a 720p HD Video camera too!!! How awesome is that!

Here are the main features:

10.0 Megapixel CCD sensor combined with the DIGIC 4 Image Processor creates Canon's HS SYSTEM for improved low light performance and better image quality.

Shoot beautiful 720p HD video in stereo sound and play back on an HDTV via the HDMI Output

Full range of shooting and recording modes including RAW + JPEG for the ultimate creative control

Utilizes Canon's Hybrid IS to compensate for angular and shift camera shake during close- up shooting.

Large, bright 2.8-inch Vari-angle LCD with 461,000 dots for shooting at a variety of angles plus an optical viewfinder

A high-powered 5x Optical Zoom with Optical Image Stabilizer, plus a 28mm Wide-Angle Lens gets you up close and personal to your subjects, as well as capture more in your frame.

A host of optional accessories including Speedlite flashes, underwater housing and Tele-Converter Lens are available

High Dynamic Range scene mode combines multiple shots into one picture showing greater image detail.

I wished I could get one of these in my hands and I could give you an honest opinion of how the camera works and feels. So maybe I'll win one and be able to let you know OR you could win one and you can let me know!!!

The Contest Sponsors Who ROCK!!!

Go! Enter the contest right now!

Thanks for stopping by!

The Reger's Weight Loss Journey

2011-11-06T21:14:00.002-06:00

Hey Y'all,
So I told y'all in the last post that hubs and I were dieting and have lost lots of weight. Here's what we're doing if your interested.

We started Medifast on September 1st. Without giving out weights my journey started at having to lose 90 lbs to my "Goal" weight. I'm not set on the goal weight that Medifast says I should weigh so I'm going to just watch the scale, my clothes and my body to see where I want to stop. Hubs had 150 lbs to lose for his "Goal" weight and he's in the same boat I'm in. What some BMI and supposed weight/height proportionate scale says doesn't always fit reality. It doesn't really take into consideration that both of us have pretty large bones to begin with, that's how we could hide all the weight, well, until we couldn't hide it anymore...LOL!!

So as of November 1st, I've lost 35.6 pounds and hubs has lost around 56.2 lbs. We're learning how to eat smaller meals several times a day. We're learning how to read the labels to make informed decisions on what foods we buy. Looking at the calories against the fat against the carbs. We're also going to begin Couch to 5K training, we bought our running shoes today.

The reason that I'm writing this post is to inform my family of something that I ate today. I think they will fall out of their chairs out sheer shock. I am the most pickiest of eaters, I don't like any "green" veggies other than french style green beans, spinach and salads. So you can imagine in the past when I'd done Weight Watchers a couple of times that I'd "fall of the wagon" since I'd get bored with only eating a few types of veggies. Have I ever mentioned that I'm allergic to mushrooms and have a slight allergic reaction to onions, scallions or anything in that family. I also get fever blisters from citric acid which is in tomatoes and other good for you veggies...{{{HMPF}}} What's a girl to do when she wants to stay on this plan and make it work???

She buys a spaghetti squash! She searches the internet for hours on how to prepare it. She thinks she's ready and BAM!!....We had Shrimp in tomato basil pasta sauce over spaghetti squash. Here's the thing, the squash doesn't have any flavor at all and will absorb whatever you ladle over it. Here's a picture of Italian Turkey Sausage over spaghetti squash from Sandy's Kitchen...

This is what our dinner looked like except for ground turkey we had shrimp! OMG! I'm so full!! On Medifast we're supposed to eat 3 veggies a day. Hubs and I eat those three veggies for dinner so we get 1.5 cups of spaghetti squash plus 7 oz of shrimp. With the tomato basil sauce I adjusted the amount of squash with the amount of tomatoes in the sauce so like 1.25 of squash and a .25 cups of pasta sauce. I don't know if this is correct or not but it worked for us.

I'm probably going to post our progress every couple of months or so. If I get really motivated I'll post some recipes on here that we've been eating the last couple of months that are really yummy!

So here's the 1st recipe...from Sandy's Kitchen

Italian Turkey Sausage with Spaghetti Squash

Slightly adapted from Medifast Lean and Green Meal Cook Book

Ingredients:

17 1/2 oz raw, ground turkey, 93% lean - should yield 10 oz cooked servings (2 Leans)

1/2 tsp oregano (1 condiment)

1 tsp basil (1 condiment)

1 tsp fennel seeds (2 condiments)

1/2 cup Walden Farms Marinara Sauce (2 condiments)

3 cups or 465 grams cooked spaghetti squash (6 greens)

Directions:

Combine ground turkey, spices, and garlic in a medium skillet. Brown meat mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally to break the meat mixture into crumbles. Once the meat mixture is browned, drain the fat and return the cook meat mixture back to skillet. Add the marinara sauce and stir until well blended over medium heat. Serve over spaghetti squash.

Servings: 2 Complete Lean and Green Meals with 3 Condiments No healthy fat required

I hope y'all enjoy! Even if your not watching your weight this is a really good meal.

Thanks for stopping by!

MCP Actions is having a Lightroom 3 and Presets Contest

2011-11-02T11:57:00.001-05:00

Hey Y'all!

Just a quick blog post to let you know that MCP Actions is giving away Lightroom 3 and MCP's own Quick Clicks Collection of Lightroom Presets ($500.00 value).

Contest Sponsors:

Please check out this blog post to enter and there are some other things (Tweeting, blog posts and FB) you can do to add more entries to the pot!

I just love MCP Actions, and use them every time I'm processing photos. Just about every photo you see on my blog has been process with Jodi's actions in some way or another.

Check them out today by clicking on the links in this post or the MCP Actions Banner on the right hand

side of my page.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Yep, I've been gone for a while....

2011-10-30T14:27:00.001-05:00

Lot's been going on around the home place the last couple of months. First, Hubs and I started Medifast on Sep 1st and have been losing weight (a lot). Second, I went to Ireland for a week. Third, hubs has retired from his Sheriff's Deputy job after 27 years and has taken another Sheriff's Deputy job in a closer county (no, I wouldn't let him stay at home, then he would be under my feet on the days I work from home...LOL!).

So! I need to finish my photography class which I plan on doing next weekend. It's so much nicer outside now and not 200° in the shade. I'll fill y'all in on our weight loss journey and post some of my Ireland pictures.

I even have been working a few little freebies for Halloween too.

Here are just a couple of the over 500 pictures I took in Ireland.

The Organ - Giants Causeway, County Antrim - a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Solis Lough Eske (Eske Lake) Castle - Dragon Statue - County Donegal

Slieve League Cliffs (Grey Mountains) - County Donegal

2012 Calendar Brushes and PNG's are READY!!

2011-09-04T12:59:00.000-05:00

Whew! I've been working on these things for a month now and finally got it all ready to share. I had the brushes and PNG's done fairly quickly, it was all the previews and sample layouts that took me a while. Between my day job and my photography class and chores around the place I'm usually just pooped by the end of the day...LOL!

My photography classes are going great. I'm learning a lot even though I'm about two weeks behind. It has just been so darn hot to go out and photograph anything and I just don't have room in my house to do any
photographing (I mostly just don't want anyone to see my dirty floors and cluttered living room....LOL!).

So here they are...my 2012 Photoshop Calendar Brush and PNG's Collection!!!

The brushes are in 8 different fonts (not all shown in the preview);

Arial, Berkley, Blanca, Calibri, Comic Sans, Jester, Papyrus and Pickwick

The PNG's are in two different fonts; Arial and Pickwick.

Click Here for the download.

Here are a couple of brush set samples I did using these brushes:

And here is a calendar page I put together using the PNG's:

I've also included the original Excel files in case you want to make your own brushes. Here's how:

Open the Excel file, highlight all the type and change the font

Save as a copy in Excel (if you want a copy in Excel)

Also save the copy as a .PDF

Open your PDF up in Photoshop and save image as a brush

Save your brush

I hope y'all can use these brushes and PNG's for your digi scrappin' projects! Please leave a comment if you download, I read all of them and really appreciate the thoughts!

Darla

Supply Credits:
Kristen Aargard's - Zoo Day - After 5 Designs
Chelle's Creations - Yeehaw - Scrap Orchard
Kay Miller's - Pieces of My Heart Template - After 5 Designs
Kay Miller's - Flamingo Dreams - After 5 Designs

My Photography Class - Week 2 & 3

2011-08-21T20:36:00.004-05:00

I am so digging my photography class. I got behind a couple of weeks but got caught up today, finally.

Things are finally clicking into place in my brain and things are coming back to me from my high school photographer days, 30+ years ago.

Week 2 was learning about ISO and how your DSLR will compute the Aperture and Shutter Speed when set on the "Program" mode.

Our Week 2 Assignment was to take two "Fun Photos" on full "Program" mode and then find and object or person and take 5-6 photos in the same light and change the ISO for each photo starting at 100 and as far up as your camera would go.

Here are my two "Fun Photos":

Party in the Bird Bath

Sand from Around the World

And here are my photos with my ISO assignment:

I can barely tell the difference from the lower ISO's and the higher ISO's because the camera will compute the Aperture and Shutter Speed to accommodate the ISO. It's there though. The higher the ISO, the more "noise" in the picture and if there is "noise" in the photo then it's going to be a teeny, tiny bit lighter.

Week 3 was learning about Aperture Priority mode on the camera. This is where you set the Aperture and your DSLR will compute the ISO and the Shutter Speed. Our Week 3 Assignment was to take two sets of photos, one set with the Aperture wide open (small numbers) and one with the Aperture at a smaller setting (bigger numbers). We were supposed to use an object in one set and a person in the 2nd set. Well, living out here in the country, I don't have too many models so I just used objects in both of my sets.

Here is my first set:

Here's my second set:

Well, I'm off to read Week 4 and figure out what I'll do for that assignment.

I'm working on my 2012 Photoshop Calendar Brushes and .PNG's. I should have those done by next week. The most visits and downloads I get from my blog are my 2011 Photoshop Calendar Brushes and .PNG's. Too bad most don't leave any "thank you's" in the comments section. I do read my comments and really appreciate those that do leave me a comment.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you soon.

Photography Class...Week 2 - ISO and a digi scrap freebie

2011-08-10T12:57:00.005-05:00

I've finished uploading my Week 1 photos for my "Mastering Manual Mode" class at Big Picture Classes that I'm taking.

Week 1 assignment was shoot one subject in five different lighting situations in Program Mode at ISO 400 and record the settings.

I used Ace the male model and my hubby's duck hunting dog.

outside but beneath the front porch roof

50mm - f5.0 - 1/160 - ISO 400

Full Sun

50mm - f8.0 - 1/640 - ISO 400

Full Sun but underneath porch roof

50mm - f5.6 - 1/250 - ISO 400

This is supposed to be the kitchen with blinds open and subject facing the open window. My kitchen isn't big enough for me and Ace to get between the island and the window so I used our living room and positioned Ace facing the window with the blinds open.

50mm - f5.6 - 1/6 - ISO 400

Full Shade

50mm - f5.0 - 1/200 - ISO 400

You can tell how hot it's getting by the progressively longer length of Ace's tongue hanging out in each picture.

Now for the freebie...

I was doodling around and made a couple fo filmstrip frames and thought I'd share them.

Click image for the download link.

Sample Layout...

Be sure and leave some love if you download it and you really should go over to Big Picture Classes and check out all their classes.

Thanks for stopping by.

Layout Supply Credits:
Scrap Orchard - Background Templates II by Scrapping w/Liz
and When You Smile Kit from Captivated Visions

My Photography Class

2011-08-08T20:04:00.004-05:00

My online photography class has started over at Big Picture Classes and I'm learning a lot.

My Pre Class assignment was to put my camera on Full Auto Mode and take pictures of the following:

Someone you love
Two people you love
Your favorite food
A flower, tree or plant in your yard or nearby park
A landscape picture
A person or pet in action
A candid photo
A self portrait
A favorite object in your home
A group portrait

So here is my interpretation of that....

I've finished and uploaded week 2 and I'll share those later this week. Now to start on Week 3.

Thanks for stopping by.

Scrap Girls is having a Carnival!!

2011-07-26T11:51:00.005-05:00

My all time favorite digital scrapbooking store Scrap Girls is having a Carnival!!! And a sale!

Click the button to go there!!

My favorite products are the commercial use products. They allow me to create my papers, embellishments and word art for my own pages.

My most used tools or the Layer Your Own Ribbon Brushes...

My most favorite personal use kits are (only cuz I live in the country and on a farm so anything country, western, farm or animal inspired are my favs):

In my Kaboodle list are:

My all time favorite "go to" kit is the Back Porch Collection:

Thanks Scrap Girls for having this great Carnival where just about everything is on sale until August 1st, 2011. Be sure to check the forums for all the fun and games too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Texas Gulf Coast - The Wildlife

2011-07-16T16:12:00.000-05:00

The last day of our trip was probably to me the best day, even though it was hot and I got all sweaty, bleck!

It started with us going over to the house where everyone else was staying and having breakfast, chorizo, potatoes and egg burritos...My all time favorite breakfast! I was in HEAVEN!

Then my brother and I set off to find the birds of the Gulf Coast to photograph. We started downtown first and found a little beach right down from the Selena Memorial on Ocean Dr. that had the longest jetty I've ever seen. It was on the north side of Emerald Cove. It was probably some kind of sea wall and not a jetty since it was blocked on one side to get to and a long walk on the other side to get to. It was worth it though since I got some really cool crab, shell and bird pics and I have a pic of one little bird that I have no idea what it is.

These pics are from the jetty walk.

Funny story about this shell. My brother climbed down from the jetty to get this shell for my niece Abby and stuck it in his pocket. When we got back to the van he put the shell in the back seat of the van and we went to the Hans & Pat Sutter Wildlife Refuge and we were there about and hour. When we got back to the van I heard my brother say "What are you doing up here?" and I asked he who he was talking to since we were the only ones in the parking lot. Apparently the shell wasn't empty and the thing that lives in shells was trying to make a get-a-way and fell off the back seat and crawled all the way to the drivers floorboard. We released him back to the wild when we went on our dolphin tour. I'm sure glad nothing happened when the shell was in his pocket, I don't know that I could explain that with a straight face.

These are from the little beach to get to or in our case leaving the jetty...

Black Skimmers

Click on image for a larger view
Great Blue Heron (I think, it may be a Tri-Colored Heron) diving for dinner.

This Sea Gull that kept giving me the creeps. He kept flying around us and all I could think of was the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds".

The Mystery Bird
If anyone knows what this little guy is please send me an email or post it in the comments section. We figured it was a juvenile, but just don't know a juvenile of what species.

After we left this area, we drove along Ocean Dr looking at all the "BIG" houses and decided that if all the family members here in Texas and the family members in Mexico chipped in we could buy one of the "BIG" houses....NOT!

Anyway, we happened upon the Hans & Pat Suter Wildlife Refuge in Oso Bay on our way back to the SPID. My brother preformed a U-turn and we parked grabbed the camera gear and took off on the trail. The trail turned into a boardwalk and we didn't get very far before we started seeing the birds.

Cormorant & Turtle

Cormorants

Ducks

Cormorants, herons, cranes, white pelicans, it was like hitting the mother-load of Texas Gulf Coast birds!

Great Blue Heron

Cranes, herons and all kinds of long legged and short legged birds

I asked my brother, looking at a little island out a ways "are those flamingos?" All we could see are pink birds on long legs. My brother got his video camera out and got it zoomed it in and said "I don't think so." We could make out that their beaks weren't quite right. Thank goodness there was a sign at the beginning of the trail head that we could look at when we got back to the parking area that identified most of the birds we saw.

Rosesate Spoonbills

White Pelican & Great Blue Heron

White Pelican

Great Blue Heron landing in the water

This little bird that I now know is a Little Blue Heron, we couldn't even see what it was. It was so well camouflaged to the naked eye, we just knew something was in there and it was so bright outside that it looked gray. I ran the "Magical Color Finder {vivid}" from MCP's Bag of Tricks Action Set and brought out the color that I could see once I got the photo in Photoshop and zoomed in on it.

Little Blue Heron

After we left the wildlife refuge we had to haul butt back to Johnny's house because we had tickets for the Dolphin Tour from Port Aransas and we had to haul butt from Corpus to Port Aransas. As we were leaving the house my mother started to get in on the driver side of her SUV. I asked her if she was going to drive over the causeway? "What?!" she asked. I said "Mom, we have to go over the big causeway to get to Port Aransas. You can drive but you're really going to need to keep your eyes open going over the bridge {laughing hard at her}". She said "You mean I can't just feel my way over?". I said "Um, not with me in the vehicle with you!."

That was pretty much the end of our trip. We went back to Johnny's house and Rosa and her sister made us empanada's for dinner. I'd never had them before and now I want to find a restaurant that makes them as good as what Rosa and Irma made.

Mom and I got up early and hit the road back to Fort Worth. I still needed to stop and buy groceries on my way home which adds another couple of hours onto my trip home.

I hope y'all enjoy the pics. I had a great time taking them.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Texas Gulf Coast Get-A-Way, Part 2

2011-07-13T22:20:00.003-05:00

When we got back to Corpus it was time for us to go to the beach.

The whole family! In two vehicles!

We get to the beach and drive and drive and drive looking for an empty spot to set up. We drove so far down the beach that we got to the area that if you don't have 4-wheel drive your screwed. Well, we were screwed. Fortunately there were enough drunk hard bodies at the beach and they pushed my brothers van and then my mom's small SUV out of the sand and back the other direction. You can't stop and thank them, all you can do is yell out the window "Thank You!" and wave and keep the accelerator down to keep moving.

That was the first excitement of the day. We found some spots close together and started unpacking all the chairs, coolers and the shade awning thing. The kids all hit the beach with my SIL and mother and Rosa watching after them. John and Juan sat down and rested after helping the hard bodies push us out of the sand. My brother, Juan (after he rested) and I set up all the chairs and set up the awning thingy and finally and little rest. I used to be a sun worshiper, now I'm a sunscreen and shade worshiper. I stayed in the shade most of the afternoon. I did get out and play in the water a little bit but after getting salt water in my eyes and remembering that I only had the one pair of contacts I decided I was safer on the beach and everyone else would be safer if I could see since I was the one driving my mom's SUV around due to all the causeways and tall bridges we had to go over and my mothers absolute fear of heights.

click images for a larger view

The second bit of excitement of the day was when I saw my mother and my nephew out in the water and my mother was waving at my brother to come to them in the water. She was laughing and he said "it must not be an emergency if she's laughing". She finally got my nephew out of the water and he was holding himself (you know the area I'm talking about) and quite agitated and kept saying that a crab bit him. My brother took him to the side of the van where no one could see and did some exploration and found a teeny tiny almost microscopic "thing" on his, well you know, thing. They put the thing in a water bottle (the organism not my nephew's thing). My brother was going to have it analyzed when he got back to work and see what it was. I haven't heard the analysis yet but the rest of the afternoon my nephew walked around like he was born bowlegged and on his tippy toes. My brother said "of the whole gulf and all these people how does something so small that can cause such pain, find MY son?"

click images for a larger view

We all had a great time, the kids covered Crystal up with sand, my niece Abby even added boobs to Crystals sand sculpture. Then they proceeded to cover each other up with sand. My mother brought stale bread and the kids dragged that out and started to feed the gulls.

click images for a larger view

The next bit of excitement came when my brother caught a fish in the water, and not just any fish but a Red and then proceeded to chase all his children with it. They all thought it was a shark.. {{{[ppffttt}}}. Here is what he posted on FB "My fish I caught. By hand. I wrestled it from a pelican while fighting the killer 20 ft waves in the gulf. At least the size is accurate. You be the judge of the story." I'm here to tell the rest of the story....The fish was already dead. Freshly dead but dead none the less.

click images for a larger view

We packed up and got off the beach on to the beach road and while sitting a the stop sign, thinking my brother was right behind me, I looked in the rear view mirror and it wasn't my brother but a couple in a car and they were fighting, not just yelling at each other fighting but hitting each other fighting. I turned onto the main road to go back to Corpus and was rolling down the road with my mom, and nieces Alexis and Abby and realized I hadn't seen my brother yet. I called him to see where he was at. They got caught behind the couple fighting and the couple was driving all over the road and over the causeway while fighting. It was bad enough that my brother called 911 and reported them. That was the last of our excitement for that day.

We went to the motel and took showers and all went back over to Johnny's house for dinner. My SIL's mother Rosa and her sister Irma cooked dinner for us and it was yummy!

Thanks for stopping by.

I have more wildlife pics to share with y'all.

Supply Credits:
All products from Scrap Orchard

The Texas Gulf Coast Get-A-Way

2011-07-06T20:57:00.080-05:00

I was talking to my mother last week and she mentioned that she, my brother and his family were going to Corpus Christi for the long 4th of July weekend. They were going to be visiting and staying at my sister-in-law's brothers house. My mother told me that she was going to drive by herself and get a motel room to keep from putting my brother (in the mini-van) and my sister-in-law's family out. After hearing that, I sort of invited myself to go with my mother. I really didn't think she needed to do an eight hour drive by herself and I would get to spend some time with my side of the family.

I took my both of my cameras with me. The big camera for wildlife pics and the little camera for the beach day.

My grandparents had two homes in the Fulton area when I was growing up. I remember spending time at both of these houses. The first house was a street or two right behind the Fulton Mansion. It was a weird house, it had three front doors and used to be a redwood red color. I don't know if it used to be a triplex or something, it wasn't a particularly big house width wise, just long. The real stand out memory though was the windmill in the tree in the front yard. It was blown there from a hurricane in the 40's or 50's and the tree just grew up around the windmill.

Click on image for larger view

The other house was right behind the Sandollar Motel. I remember sleeping on the screened in front porch and that my grandparents had tamed two squirrels in their backyard and named them Myrt and Girt or something like that (Maybe my brother or cousins can remember their names better than I can). The squirrels would come sit in your lap and eat their pecans and other nuts.
These pics were taken from the little beach that sits right across N. Fulton Beach Rd and the street where my grandparents house was.

Click on image for larger view

The original pier that we used to fish off of I thought was gone but after sleeping on it (not the pier, the thoughts) I'm pretty sure that the pier we were on is the original pier. This picture is from the end of the pier looking back at the road. See that street running up from the main road? My grandparents house was the 2nd house on left. People were doing hard scape work in the front yard. I didn't feel comfortable asking if I could take pics of the house. The only thing I saw different is that the house used to be white and now it's kind of a barn wood looking gray.

Click on image for a larger view

I have memories of going out on a bay fishing boat called the Mary Lou with my dad, I also remember going out on the "all day" fishing charters on the Scat Cat or the Wharf Cat and getting caught on the "wrong" side of the boat and saw all these men hurling over the side because they were seasick. My dad came looking for me and being the weak stomached kind of guy he is, he hurled a couple of times too and then we back to the "right" side of the boat to fish some more.

Thank you mom for letting me take a stroll down memory lane!

Got lots of wildlife pics that I took. Those will be coming in a post this coming week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supply Credits:
Scrap Girls - the take off is using "Coastal"
the old house is using "Back Porch"

My Photography Class at Big Picture Classes

2011-06-18T21:32:00.004-05:00

I'm a grown woman, I can admit it...I do not know how to use the manual settings on my DSLR. Well, I can use them somewhat but not with very good results.

I've signed up for an exposure class at Big Picture Classes. They have classes on everything from photography and digital scrapbooking to paper scrapbooking and hybrid projects like using colors and journaling in your scrapbooking and it's free to join!

I just finished a class on drop shadows "Me and My Shadow" and WOW! I was blown away but the little things that can be done to take your layout from a ho-hum to a wowser layout. Thank you Peppermint Granberg for the great class! There is another class I just found, "Cluster Embellishing". I gonna have to take that one too....LOL!!

Me and My Shadow Class

Aren't those KICKIN' shadows?!?!?

Click on the image for a larger view

The classes are priced very reasonable. I paid $10.00 for the drop shadow class and got three instructional videos and three handouts. Most of their scrapbooking classes are anywhere from free $0.00 to $17.00 and there is a "Design your Life" class from Cathy Zielske that is a little more but like the "Design your Life" class that is "self paced" the photography class "Mastering Manual Mode" is an 8 week course with daily emails, instructional handouts, a photo field guide, voice messages, critiques, access the teacher Elisha Snow via the message board and emails, private gallery to upload your work to share with and view other students work.

So if you go to Big Picture Classes and sign up, please enter this code D41CF9E6 in the "Refer-A-Friend" box and I'll get credit. Oh! I almost forgot, for every $10.00 you spend you get a a star, when you get 10 stars you get $10.00 to spend on a class! I already have a $10.00 credit...yipee!

Thanks for stopping by! Go to Big Picture Classes and check it out!

Darla

Supply Credits:
Fantasia Kit by Captivated Visions @ Scrap Orchard

More Yard Birds and Critters

2011-06-12T18:06:00.002-05:00

Hey Y'all,

I set my camera up in the yard this morning to see if I could capture some pictures of birds taking a bath in the bird bath this morning. I went to go turn on the water hose to clean out the bird bath and a little tiny baby Praying Mantis was on the water faucet handle.

I convinced her/him to move on so I could get on with my bird bath cleaning and flower and tree watering.

I don't know how those birds know that I have my camera set up. I swear they won't come to the feeders or the bath when I have it set up. As soon as I bring everything back in, they start swarming the feeders and bird bath.

I did get one cardinal bathing. Of the whole series I shot, these two photos are the only ones that I liked.

Well, that's all I have today. I've had a headache most of the day. Probably because I was outside messing around before I got my allergy medicine snorted up my nose...LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

Supply Credits:
Photo masks and frame from Scrap Girls.

More Flowers Around Me...Another Freebie, and a Contest

2011-06-09T18:46:00.000-05:00

Hey Y'all,

First:
There is a contest over at MCP Actions, it's for a 16 x 20 Slim Float Mount Print from Color, Inc.

You can also click on the MCP Banner on the right hand side of my blog to get there as well. These are pretty slick. I may just have to order one and not wait to see if I won anything...LOL! There is a 15% discount code for a limited time this week.

Second:
So I realized yesterdays post title was a little misleading. When I wrote out the title I had fully intended to use only flower photos in the templates but in digging through some of my flower photos I stumbled on to my nephews wedding photos. You see, I took some photos of some cone flowers at the Peacock River Ranch on the same day as the wedding and I went to that days folder to get them and found the wedding pictures crying out to be scrapped. That's my story and I'm sticking to it...LOL!

I have been taking photos of flowers since last spring. I'm trying to document the types of flowers that we get in North Central Texas in any given season. My flowers are anything from Texas wildflowers to flowering weeds. I think some of the most interesting flowers have been the flowers on weeds.

Sun Kissed Collection from Scrap Girls

Zoomba Collection from the Scrap Girls Club for May 2011

Spring Inspiration Collection,
Scattered Pictures Emb Templates
Photo Transfer Frames
from Scrap Girls

Twilight Magic and Dimensional Frames from Scrap Girls

Third:

Here's the freebie!

The white background is not included, it's just to help

show the blended portion.

Click on image for the download.

I hope you like these templates. Leave me some love (comments)!

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

The Flowers Around Me...and A Freebie

2011-06-06T10:53:00.002-05:00

Hey Y'all,

I have bought some of these types of templates before and instead of spending more money for new ones I thought I would try my hand at making my own.

I'm not real creative in coming up with clever names for my templates and if anyone else calls their same type of templates the same name let me know and I'll change it to something else.

Here are some layouts that I've made with my Blenderz.

These were some of the wedding decorations at my nephew's wedding and reception a couple of weeks ago. Bless their hearts, they were all set for an outdoor wedding and the reception indoors and the Texas weather reared it's ugly head and stormed all afternoon, evening and night the day of their wedding. With a little rearranging, they had the wedding in the reception hall amongst their family, friends, rain, hail and a tornado on the ground 5 miles away (no one was hurt thank goodness). They say it's good luck when it rains on your wedding day. They should have good luck for a really long time...LOL!

Scrap kit from Scrap Girls, this is "Old Friends" collection

And "Promise Wood Paper Super Mini"

This one is a layout about a huge stand of Prickly Pear Cactus that is on Jacksboro Highway between Azle and Springtown. I wished I had stopped earlier when all the blooms were blooming instead of when there were just a few blooms left to bloom. The bottom photo is a close-up of bees that were working away in the blooms.

Scrap kit from Scrap Girls, this is the

"Sun Kissed" collection

Another layout from my nephew's wedding. The got married at a place in Gatesville, TX called Peacock River Ranch. The first pic is where the bride gets ready and it's called the "Peachick Bridal House". The middle pic is the reception hall. If your looking for a rustic type wedding place, this is the place for you. The people who own it are also photographers and they have several "photo stations" for taking bride & groom photos after the wedding and before the reception. The bottom pic is Buddy the brides dog.

Scrap kit from Scrap Girls, this is the
"Dave and Raya" collection

I know these scrap papers are more fall related but I loved the colors to use with my cone flowers.

Scrap kit from Scrap Girls, this is the

"Serendipity" collection

Click on the preview for the download

I hope you can use these templates and have fun with them like I did.

I do plan on making some more so keep checking back.

Thanks for stopping by.

Darla

p.s. Leave me some love (a comment) if you like these.

My Yard Birds Part 3 ... and a Freebie

2011-05-29T21:17:00.000-05:00

This is the last of my "My Yard Bird" posts for a while. It's supposed to be in the 100's the next week or so and I imagine I won't be outside much to take any pictures. That's just way to hot to be outside...LOL!

These are pictures of my most favorite little bird that stops here on their way South. The Painted Bunting. Once it gets really hot here they'll move on. The other is my favorite Cardinal picture....I don't know why, it just speaks to me...LOL!

Here is another layout of my two favorite birds and the top picture is a bird that built it's nest in the corner of our porch awning. This was a really cold day that we had in May and she/he was all fluffed up and sitting. I'm not sure if they hatched any eggs or not. When we got back from the wedding last weekend and during all the storms the nest was blown down. I did look for eggs but I didn't find any so maybe they had already hatched and flown the coop.

So Here are your two freebies today...

A 4 spot photo clipping mask. I've made it in .PNG format if you have one photo you want to clip to it or it's in .PSD format too in case you have 4 photos you want to clip to it.

Click either image for the freebie download

The other is a 12 x 12 3 spot storyboard template. It's in .PSD format so you can make all the changes you want to it.

Click either image for the freebie download

I have a lot of flower pictures that I've been taking all spring long and I'm working on some photo masks and storyboards for them. So when I get those made you know that means freebies for you.

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

How Did I Survive The Last 3 Weeks????

2011-05-28T22:01:00.004-05:00

Hey Y'all,

I have more freebies for you this weekend. I meant to have them ready for iNSD but my whole internet world fell apart! My internet went out for 14 days almost to the hour. As if having no internet isn't bad enough, then my external hard drive that I carry my files from computer to computer crashed. It crashed HARD! For 10 days I had to work in my office in Fort Worth. That's an hour+ drive in and a hour and a half drive home, and that's if it's a good drive home with no traffic issues. Gas was at an all time high for us here in N Texas, 4.89 per gallon, plus what I had to spend for lunches (it was too late and I was too tired to cook most nights when I got home during the 10 days that were week days). My internet outage cost me about 300.00 in gas and food. I asked the phone company to reimburse me, that I saved the receipts...I swear you could hear crickets chirping in the silence that I got from the customer service rep....LOL!

I got my internet service back up last Thursday and the next day we left for Central Texas for my nephews wedding and didn't get home until Sunday. So every available minute I've had from Sunday to today has been begging for download links to be reactivated, combing through my two big hard drives for zip files for the things I lost. Fortunately it had only been a week since I last backed up everything so I was able to get everything back but it sure is time consuming organizing everything and unzipping files....GRRR!

I'm seriously considering an online backup up service like Mozy or Carbonite to store my zips from now on. I think you can even set them to upload automatically on a schedule too.

My Yard Birds ... Part 2 and a freebie.

I took more pics of my yard birds at the feeders a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure what the little gray bird is, maybe a Titmouse but the other is a Red Wing Black Bird. It's really strange to see that one around here. They normally live in the cattails and other grasses around lakes. As much I as I wished we did, we don't have any lakes close to where we live. I do tease that the people across the road have such a huge livestock tank that I call it Lake McClendon. So that might be where they are coming from. I think I have a couple of males and females visiting the feeders.

The little gray bird in the upper right pic looks like he's about to

peck my eyes out. He looks MAD! LOL!

Here are another two storyboard templates for you. One is in leather like above and I did another in tan suede. I've even thrown in the word art in case you have some yard birds of your own...LOL!

Click on the preview for the download

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

My Yard Birds part 1...AND a Freebie

2011-05-03T21:16:00.000-05:00

One of the things I absolutely love about living out here in the boonies is spring time!

The flowers are in bloom, the birds are singing and making nests and hatching babies. MY hummingbirds are back!!

I love my hummingbirds. I usually end up with about 30-50 at any given time. I have four feeders out, three out front on our patio/porch and one in the back yard that I can watch from my office window. I make my own sugar water and I guess the little birds like it since I have so many and they go through it soooo fast. I'm making about 4 1/2 cups every other day right now and it'll only get worse in the summertime. Right now I have about 20 birds I think, give or take a few but by June I can have up to 50. In June I start making close to 6 1/2 cups or more of sugar water every couple of days. I spend a lot on sugar in the summer...LOL!

Here are a some pictures I took Sunday evening of my hummers. I made this Storyboard to put them in.

My Yard Birds part 2 are going to be pics of my other favorite bird that stops here in North Texas on it's way South for the summer.

Here is the freebie I have for you. I've made 2 4 Spot Storyboards. They are 300dpi and 11 X 14.

If you want the Branded Action for your titles, I got that action from Scrap Girls...HERE.

Grab your Freebie HERE

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

p.s.
If you want my mother-in-law's recipe for the hummingbird sugar water it's...1 part sugar to 4 parts water. No joke, I had to ask my mother-in-law what the "parts" measurement was...so if you're like me and NOT a mathematician, I use 1/4 cup of sugar for 1 cup of water.

A Kountry Valentines Kit is Ready!

2011-02-07T09:21:00.005-06:00

Hey Y'all,

Thanks for stopping by. I have my "A Kountry Valentines" kit ready for you.

Lots of sparkles, Shines, glitters and my favorite Valentines day colors.

I hope you can use this kit for any of your lovey dovey pictures and I hope you enjoy this kit.

Click on the links under each image for the downloads. All items created at 300dpi.

A Kountry Valentines Kit

The Bellies and Word Art

Drop Shadows on preview only

The Papers

12 x 12

(not all shown)

4 x 6 Cards

Just drop your picture in and print out

Alpha, Numbers and Punctuation

drop shadows on preview only

Just a few samples I came up with using this kit...my samples are at 8x8...

I hope y'all have lots of fun with my kit. Leave a little love if you download.

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

MCP's Project 52 and Sneak Peek

2011-02-04T14:01:00.001-06:00

Hey Y'all,

Well, I submitted my photo for week 4 of the MCP Project 52 but I wasn't feature...oh well. That's okay, it really is. The photo's featured were very good and very clever. I wasn't that clever...LOL!

Here's my pic:

The theme was "Soothing Repetition". Bruiser is my soothing repetition.
I don't seem to be able to go to sleep until I hear his snoring with his
flews flapping gently. The other thing that goes along with his sleeping
patterns is the flatulence that boxers are known for. That is not the soothing
part...LOL!! Matter of fact, sometimes it's cause for me to not be able to sleep at all.

Week 5 them is "Muse". I have no idea what to do. We've been snowed and iced in all week and I had company over the weekend. I've taken a couple of "snow bird" pics and that's about it and today is the last day to submit. I may be skipping this week. I've been waiting for a
really gorgeous sunrise or sunset this week and of course there has been nothing...Those are my "muse" the sunrises and sunsets that we get out here on top of a hill in the boonies.

On to the sneak peek. I've finished my Valentines day kit. It's call "A Kountry Valentines" and I'll
put it up on Monday.

Here's the sneak peek of it though...

Look at all that glitter...

So I hope y'all come back on Monday for the downloads.
Thanks for stopping by today.

Darla

MCP's Project 52

2011-01-24T09:00:00.013-06:00

If your a photographer, you probably already know about MCP's Actions. If you don't know about them then you really need to head over to Jodi's website and check them out! They are ♪♫♪awesome♪♫♪!

Jodi has started a "Project 52" challenge every week. It will have a different theme every week and you can only use new photos taken in that themes week. It's to help push yourself as a photographer, whether it's to get of a rut, need a lift or just want to do something for yourself. I started in week 3 which was "Shades of Gray".
Here's Jodi's Blog with the Project 52 info....

Here are the pics I took:

The Chicken House

The Hayfield

The Tank

I submitted the chicken house and the the tank pics. I wasn't featured and that's okay. Doing this challenge gets me off my butt and out of the house to really look around at my surroundings. It helped that the day I went out if was foggy as all get out. So I almost didn't have to do a whole lot of processing to these pics other than desaturate and adjust some levels.

Next weeks challenge is "Soothing Repetition". That sounds like fun! I've already got some ideas for that one. Time to go get dressed, grab my camera bag and tripod and get outside!

Thanks for stopping by!

I know! I know! Where the Heck Have I been?!?!

2011-01-23T13:47:00.000-06:00

Hey Y'all!

Yep, I've been gone for a while. I tell you, when life happens, it really happens!

I do have the freebies ready that I've been threatening you with last Christmas and this past Halloween. I sure hope that smooths over any hard feelings you may have and will forgive me.

Here is my "Fright Night Part 2" kit. It goes with the Fright Night kit I did Halloween 2009. It's just more papers and bellies that I made after I'd already posted the original kit because I couldn't quit making stuff...LOL!

For the new bellies and papers click here

The ribbons are 12"

This preview is not what I included in the zip file. I didn't have this one done yet when

I needed to upload the file.

Here are some samples of the new papers and bellies for Fright Night Part 2 kit:

Here is my "Kountry Christmas" kit that I've been working on for a little bit. The kit I started last year I ended up not liking very much and trashed it and started over. I love the pinks, browns and minty greens.

For the Kountry Christmas kit click here

Here are some sample layouts for Kountry Christmas Kit:

I'm working on a Valentines Day kit right now and it is coming along quite nicely. Lots of sparkly glitter! I've even made some 4x6 cards that you can just drag and drop a picture in, do a little size adjusting and Viola! You have a personalized Valentines day card.

Here's just a little teeny gander at one of the papers that I've made...

I hope you enjoy the freebies and stop back in February for "A Kountry Valentines" kit.

Thanks for stopping by.

Darla

Happy Halloween!!

2010-10-28T16:53:00.001-05:00

Hey Y'all,

I know it's been a really long time since I've posted. I've been working on an big fundraisor for a high school classmate's daughter that has Nodular Melanoma. So from working all day at my day job and working with the Warriors for Brandi girls on some nights and most weekends for the last couple of months my hiney butt has been dragging...LOL!

If you get a chance and want to learn a little about Brandi Dickey and what we've been doing for her take a look at her web site www.warriorsforbrandi.org.

Last year about this time I put out a Halloween Freebie called "Fright Night" over the course of several days. Since all the work has been done and the links are still active I wanted to list all the links for all you freebie hunters out there.

Here is is the first post if you want to go to the original posts...but here is everything from those posts condensed into one post...just without the jibber, jabber...LOL!

For Personal Use Only. Drop Shadows on Previews Only.

Not all kit contents shown.

21 Papers

85 Bellies

5 Alphas

12 Word Arts

2 Quick Pages

Here are some the layouts I made using this kit...

The Quick Pages

Here are the download links:

I hope y'all enjoy. Leave a little love if you do.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

p.s. Stop back by in the next couple of days I'll have some more Halloween papers, bellies and word art. I've been playing around the last couple of nights but I've exceeded my upload/download bandwidth cap for a couple of days...Have I said how I hate my satellite ISP!! But it is better than dial-up.

I'm so excited...

2010-09-19T19:22:00.002-05:00

One of my very favorite paper scrapping companies is Die Cuts With a View. I have all their "stacks" in all the design collections and sizes. All glittery and blingy...I was just in heaven when they would release a new stack.

Then I started digi scrapping and and haven't bought a new "stack" in a while. I was noodling around on the internet the other night and you'll never guess which traditional scrapbooking company has gone digital???? That's right! My fave; Die Cuts With A View!!! Their digital version is called 300dpi.com. Oh I'm in heaven, again! I have a link over there on the right you can click on and be glittery, blingie heaven with me.

You'll have to check them out. They have digi kits, or you can just buy the portions you want; papers, embellishments, word art which they call quotes, blog wear, photo book creator and much more.

Grungy Metal Photo Card

Step-Son Trey, his wife Brooke and their new baby girl Avonlea

The following sample page is one that I used in the calender brush freebie post I did on Sunday is using their Ciao Bella kit. It's under the "Freebies" listing.

Ciao Bella Kit

The digital version of the stacks, kits and bellies has all the bling, glitter and layers like the traditional versions. Can you tell I'm so happy?!?!?!

I've been selling off most of my paper scrapping and crafting items since I started digi scrapping. I'm just not using them anymore but am clinging to my "Stacks" like a life raft. Just not gonna give those precious babies up...LOL!!

Citrus Kit and Citrus Solids
Journaling:

You are the most amazing girl I have ever met. No matter what this awful disease throws at you, you meet it with courage and grace and always with a smile on your face. Brandi, you’re a true inspiration and I’m so proud that God brought you into my life.

The one and only issue I have with 300dpi.com is that they package their kits as one download. For people like me that are on satellite internet that's a problem since we have a download/upload bandwidth cap. I do have to plan when I'm going to buy and download a kit so that I don't make the satellite ISP mad and shut me down to slower than dial up speed.

Oh, and they have a monthly club too. Love that!

Be sure to clink on the 300dpi.com button on the right or on their banner at the bottom of my blog.

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

2011 Calendar Photoshop Brush Sets

2010-09-12T21:27:00.001-05:00

*****UPDATE Aug 20th, 2011***** I am currently working on 2012 brushes, PNG's and Excel spread sheets.

Keep checking back after you download the 2011.

Hey Y'all,

Well it's Sunday night. My last day of my ~~vacation~~ staycation. I've been sick all day. All the rains we've been having are playing hell on my allergies (but we seriously needed the rain). It's all kind of built up to today and me having a huge sinus headache. I've spent most of the day in bed or my recliner holding my head.

I've worked on these calendar pieces on and off all week. I was looking for some calendar brushes and just couldn't find any that I liked in digi scrap stores or freebie sites. I sat down with my MS Excel program and got to work.

I've included the Excel file too in case your Excel savvy and you can change the fonts and then save the Excel file as a .PDF. Pull your .PDF up in Photoshop and it will show as a transparent background. Then you can define it as a brush or save it as a .PNG.

The Pickwick font brushes are a spaced a little more in case you want to use it to make notes in your calendar.

To Download the Brush Set Click Here

Here are some samples I made:

These are the .PNG's I made. The will fit on an 8.5 x 11 page with a nice border. Or you can adjust the size up or down as you need. I've even put the U. S. Holidays, most Religious and Jewish holidays. I think I tried to cover all the Jewish holidays. Please don't be offended if I've left something out. Just drop me a line and let me know and I'll fix it. I did not put the Catholic or Muslim holidays on. I'm just familiar enough with those Religions to be comfortable putting them on. I got my information from www.holidaysmart.com.

If you want me to add those holidays send me a listing of the dates and the holiday and I'll be more than happy to add them and re-upload the files.

To Download the PNG's Click Here

Thanks for stopping by! I hope these come in handy for you. Please leave me some love if you like them.

Darla

Supply Credits:

Scrap Girls

Scrap Orchard Designer Tracie Stroud

300dpi - DCWV

Date Wheel Freebie And A Tutorial

2010-08-18T13:28:00.001-05:00

I've been playing around with these date wheels for while now. I think I've got it where I like it for now at least. I really think I'll try some more styles with this too.

I've made these date wheels into .PNG's and .ABR's. Just depending on how you want to use them and how labor intensive you want to get...LOL!! I'm probably making them more complicated that it really is but I'm having fun figuring out new stuff, like using the custom shapes in different ways than they were meant and learning about text paths.

With the ring marker

with the circle marker

with the X marker

I did the above using the brushes. You can choose whichever color you want to make the date wheel. If your going to use the brushes I highly suggest doing each part on it's own layer so you can move the parts around to get them lined up just how you like and then merge the layers.

All the .PNG's are done in black and you can use the magic wand, if there are several parts to select hold the shift key down while using the magic wand to select the part or parts you want the color changed to pick your color press "alt" and "delete" (for PC) at the same time and the portion you've selected is now the color you picked.

I do it another way, especially when there are several parts to have to use the magic wand on like the day, month words or the numbers...Here is a tutorial for when I'm feeling lazy and just want it done and not messing with the magic wand and shift keys on each part.

1) drag all your .PNG's you want to work with in a work area. I used a 6in x 6in @ 300dpi.

Do all the work you need with your individual .PNG's, line up, size up, size down...

2) Add a new layer to your palette above the .PNG's layers that you want to change to one specific color

3) Click on your color selection box to bring up the color picker. Choose your color and click OK.

4) press the "Alt" & "Delete" simultaneously and that will load the color into the layer. You can also do "Edit">Fill Color>Foreground Color>OK and that will also load the foreground (top color selector box) into your layer

5) now, merge all the layers you want in this color. Holding the "Shift" key down select the layers you want to merge

6) click on the layers palette menu prompt and select "Merge Layers" or you can press "Ctrl" & E simultaneously to merge your selected layers

7) all your layers are now merged

8) now press "Ctrl" & "G" simultaneously and that will clip your color to your wheel

9) now you can "Link" your layers to keep your clipping mask in place

10) or you can merge the layers

11) re-do the steps if you want your marker or other parts in different colors

I know it looks like a long tutorial but it really doesn't take that long to do all these steps. It took way longer to type up and do all these screenshots for a tutorial. Doing the actual steps only takes less than a minute to actually complete when you get the hang of it...LOL!!

I hope you find it useful. It may not be the best way to do it but it's the way I find easiest. That's the great thing about Photoshop, there are any number of ways to do one thing.

Here are the freebies...

Click HERE for the .PNG files zip

Click HERE for the .ABR (brush) file zip

I'm not sure why all the months came out in different size, when the text was all the same font. I'm still learning Photoshop....LOL!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

Flower Power! Bonus Freebie

2010-08-14T22:19:00.000-05:00

As promised here is the Flower Power! bonus I've promised. A couple of alphas, some frames and tags. All really cute.

Click HERE for the download link.

Drop shadows on preview only.

Please, no sharing the link. Send your friends to my blog for their downloads.

Here is the quick page that's included in the bonus zip file just not shown on the preview.

Picture not included in the zip file. Just Quick Page. Just

drag, drop and size your photo behind the quick page.

Drop shadows are included on this page.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope y'all enjoy the freebies!

Darla

Flower Power! Day 3

2010-08-13T22:17:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the late post. I tried to have this done Thursday night so all I'd have to do is post the freebie but things never work out like you plan...LOL! I have to work in our Fort Worth office on Fridays and I don't get home until after 7pm and after feeding DH and messin' with the dogs and putting the chickens up for the night I'm finally sitting down with my laptop and it's 10:00pm.

Click HERE for the download link

Here is a layout I did using one of the papers.

I hope y'all come back tomorrow for a bonus I've been working on. I made some more embellishments, frames and an alpha to go with this kit.

Thanks for stopping by and please leave me some love.

Darla

Flower Power! Freebie Day 2

2010-08-12T11:54:00.000-05:00

I am utterly stumped as to what to write about today. Talk about writers block...and I'm not even a writer...LOL!!

So I'll share a couple of pics I took recently with y'all.

Sunset from Saturday Night

A Spider that's living on my handrail on the front porch.

Okay, Flower Power! freebie Day 2. These are some overlays I made to go with the kit.

Click HERE for the download.

A layout I did using one of the overlays.

You didn't think I'd do a kit and not have some glitter in it...LOL!!

I hope y'all like them. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the Bellies. Saturday I'll have a bonus for you too. Be sure to leave some love!

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

A Family Snake Story and Flower Power Freebie!

2010-08-11T15:14:00.002-05:00

This is the funniest snake story I have ever heard and I had the privilege of being there for this. Now, I was a bit younger and don't know exactly what happened at the very end...but I'm sure my mom will call me and let me know...LOL!! Hi Mom! I Love you! =)

My mother is deathly terrified of snakes. I don't just mean a scream and running away. I mean a full on panic attack complete with paralysis of her body while she's screaming and crying and then crumpling to the floor/ground. She can not even look at pictures of snakes, see snakes on TV or movies. My snake bite post from the other day had her so worried that I had put a picture of a snake in the post that she was not going to finish reading it. I can just picture her sitting in her computer chair with one eye closed and her body tensed up and half turned from computer just in case I had a picture and it was going to jump out at her. Poor mom! I know you read my blog and I would never do something like that to you ;-)...LOL!!

So I'm not exactly how old I was, maybe 9'ish. I do remember my brother being in a stroller I don't remember him walking yet. My family decided to visit the local zoo in Fort Worth. My parents along with my brother, myself and my aunt and uncle were there also.

We had been to every part of the zoo, seen all the animals and I'm pretty sure this was in the summer so it was hot. It was time to visit the snake house. I couldn't wait! I loved that building with all kinds of snakes and lizards and it was air conditioned! My mom wasn't as thrilled, but with all the snakes being behind glass she bravely entered the snake house. We went down all the aisles, looked at all the snakes and lizards. We were just about to the end of the exhibit and came around the corner and some folks had brought a snake into the zoo for identification. I was immediately drawn to what they were looking at. My mom on the other hand stayed very far away and kept my brother in the stroller with her, very far away. The people were sitting on some benches with a zoo employee who had a trey or something with snakes in it and he was holding up the specimen and looking at the other snakes for some kind of identification.

About this time, my dad who can be a world class joker decides to scare my mother a little. He ran the arm of his sunglasses ever so lightly up her leg. I did mention this was summer? Did I mention that we were all wearing shorts? Well, now you can imagine how someone whose wearing shorts would react when she feels something sliding up her leg in a snake house? Several things happened at once. She screamed and ran off leaving her child, her baby all by himself. Several other women screamed, the zoo worker holding the trey of snakes jumped at the screams and the snakes flew up in the air. More women screamed. My dad, uncle and I are just laughing our butts off! I mean really laughing, holding our sides because it hurts so much from laughing, laughing. I not sure where my mother ran off too. I know it was out the doors, it may have even been to the parking lot. I think my aunt went and got my brother. I'm pretty sure I saw her lips twitching, trying really hard not to laugh. I also remember other men in the snake house laughing too. I also noticed their wives smacking the crap out of them for laughing.

My poor mother has been subjected to all kinds of snake jokes....like calling her to come quick and see this "thing" on TV only to have it be a snake. Or as my brother got older and brought grass snakes in the house and forgetting about them and mom finding them in the dirty clothes hamper when she was sorting the clothes on laundry day. I can't tell you how much fun with had with a rubber snake my brother bought from somewhere, Six Flags I think. That was the best rubber snake. It was such a good one that we'd leave it where mom would have to step on it but she wouldn't be able to see it and because of the rubbery nature it would somehow wrap around her arm, foot and or leg. I'm sorry, I have tears in my eyes trying to keep from laughing as I type this...BWAAAAA HAAAAA HAAAA!! There I got it out! (Sorry mom! I love you!)

Now with the technical advances we can send her emails with really cool (frightening) pictures of snakes. Just for you mom I found this snake picture that I think you'll be okay with.

Okay, enough of humiliating my mother with her snake story...and trust me I have more. BUT it's time for the freebie...

My new kit is called Flower Power!. It's bright and lot's of flowers (no snakes).

Part 1 is the papers....

Click Here for download

Drop shadows for preview only.

No sharing the link. Please direct your friends back to my page.

Here is a layout I did using the kit...

Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to come back tomorrow for Part 2.

Darla

Love you Mom!!!

Freebie Digi Kit Sneak Peek!

2010-08-10T10:58:00.000-05:00

I've been working on another digi scrappin' kit. Here is a hint; it has lots of flowers, LOTS of flowers.

Perfect for girly girl, flower or flower garden pages. Check back tomorrow as I put the first of three parts plus a bonus up for freebie grabs.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to come back tomorrow to pick up Part 1 of this freebie!

Darla

Summer Bugs That....

2010-08-08T18:00:00.010-05:00

I love to watch...

Another thing that I really don't like out here in the country...snakes. Now let me explain. I'm not afraid of snakes at all. I'll take a snake over a grasshopper any day. What I don't like is the chicken snakes that eat our chicken eggs. I love my free range eggs and it also means that I have to buy eggs to supplement. It also means that the chickens are now hiding where they are laying their eggs and we can't find the nest/nests which also means I have buy eggs to supplement.

I also don't like the copperheads that are just lying in wait in our loafing shed and on our backyard fence line that separates the back yard from the corral and the loafing shed is just a few yards away. By the way the same loafing shed is where the chicken laying box is at too.

My two adult boxers that we had when we moved out here have both been bitten by copperheads. Both have moved on to the Rainbow Bridge, but not from snake bites. Now my boxer puppy Bruiser was bit a couple of weeks ago. Copperhead bites are not fatal in dogs. It does however make them very sick. Sarge and Romey never threw up but got really listless and wouldn't eat or drink anything for about 12 hours and then they were okay.

Sargie's Snake Bite Scar

Snake Bite marks the day after bite and the swelling.

He looked like he had a goiter in his neck.

Bruiser is not a little puppy but a 60 lb puppy none the less. He didn't come back with the other dogs when I let them back in the house for the night. I went and got my flashlight and found him laying in the grass. I carried him back in the house and laid him the pillow and started looking for anything that could have made him so sick so fast. Then it hit me, 'snake bite'! So I started checking him all over for bite marks and found one on the side of his foot. He was very sick for about 24 hours and throwing up. I had a tummy virus myself that night so Bruiser would throw up, I'd clean it up and then I'd go down the hall and throw up myself...LOL!! That went on pretty much all night. Poor little guy, his foot and leg swelled so much he could hardly walk on it. After 24 hours and even with a still swollen leg he was back to normal playing and fighting with Ace. The swelling went down in his foot and his leg about five days and he's all back to his mischievous, playful, bouncy self.

Hubby put out snake repellent granules all along the fence line and then he put sulfur all over the back yard. The smell is supposed to deter snakes and other critters from coming close to it. I've always put moth balls around the fence line and that has always seemed to work. It's been hard finding moth balls lately and I've been using the crystals. The crystals obviously weren't working too well since a couple nights later I opened the back door to let the boys out and saw a copperhead just a few feet from the steps. I got the dogs back in the house before they could see it and Hubby came out with the gun (a .22 rifle) and missed it. As he was patrolling the backyard he found another copperhead under the brush in a different area. That's when we bought the sulfur and snake repellent. That seems to be working as of now. I haven't seen another snake in the back yard. Hubby and I both go outside and check the fence line before we let the dogs out though just to be on the safe side.

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

Supply Credits:
"My Winged Things"
Scrap Girls
"Look before you leap"
Scrap Girls and a freebie kit I'm working on.

Summer Bugs That Are...Updated post

2010-08-05T20:46:00.002-05:00

driving me up the wall...

So I was told that I needed to share one of my "I hate grasshoppers" stories to give y'all a good laugh...LOL!!

Starting from the time I was around 10/11 years old my dad would lease land in the Springtown, TX area every summer and plant watermelons and cantaloupes as a source for extra money. It seemed like it was a hundred acres even though it was probably on twenty acres and usually more like five acres but it might as well have been a million acres for all the work that goes into it in the very height of the HOT Texas summers.

My dad would plow the land. Then, with me sitting on the back of the plow he would make rows and as he made the rows I would drop the seeds in and then he would go back with the plow and cover the rows up. This was the easy part. Waiting the next few weeks were the easy part too. When the little seedlings would start sprouting, that's when the hard work would begin.

My dad would wake me up at 5am every morning or sometimes he'd have to drag my butt out of bed and we would drive to the lease land and we would take our hoes and hoe the weeds. Every plant, every row, every day. About eight every morning we would take a break and go to the little cafe in town so he could get some coffee and I'd get a cinnamon roll. After our break we'd head back to the fields. This went on all summer long until it was time to pick the watermelons and cantaloupes. Then we would cut the vines and carry the melons to the end of the rows for pick up after all the harvesting. At the end of the work day (which was usually around noon) dad would drive the truck up the rows and we'd load all the melons in the back and take them into town and sell. This would go on for weeks until all the plants had given all the melons and cantaloupes they wanted to give.

This went on every summer until I was 16 and old enough to get a job. I did still have to help on my days off from my job but not as much as I did when I was younger.   We would wear jeans when working in the fields due to bull nettles, snakes and other things out in the fields. Just to clarify, I have never liked grasshoppers...AT ALL! They jump on you and they stay. They don't shake off easy and I think that's why I don't like them. They swarm you and they stick to you....UGHH!! So you can imagine how many grasshoppers are in a field of luscious, delicious green plants to eat on.

I'm pretty sure I was about 14 when "The Grasshopper Incident" happened. I was old enough to be modest around my father anyway. My dad was several rows away from me working away. I was bending down cutting vines and carrying melons to the end of the row and grasshoppers are swarming around me, sticking in my hair...all of a sudden, some how, a grasshopper got up my pants leg. It was more than I could bare. Having that thing trapped in my pants leg and it wouldn't shake out. I started screaming and cussing and was holding my fingers around he top of my calve so the grasshopper couldn't go any further up. If you've ever felt a grasshopper walking up your leg, it is not a pleasant sensation. AT ALL!
So my dad hears me screaming and comes running and is yelling "what happened?" "Darla, whats wrong?!?" I can't answer him, I'm too busy trying to keep that grasshopper from going up my leg. About the time he get close to me and sees that I'm in absolute terror mode, my eyes are crazy, he has no clue whats wrong.

I just cant take it any more...I finally let go of my leg and start pulling off my boots and unbuttoning my jeans in the middle of the field. I can not get those damn boots and jeans off fast enough. I just know that grasshopper has made it up to my thigh by now. My dad just kinda pulls up short. He's really confused as to what was happening now...I started shaking my jeans in the air and that dang grasshopper flies out of my jeans. It was one of those big ugly ones. Really big, about two inches long, I kid you not! I stand there in my shirt, underwear, socks and crying and shivering and my dad just bursts out laughing. Mostly to dispel the worry he's built up running to me. He was just positive I'd been bit by a snake or that a snake was trying to get up my pants leg. I collapse into a puddle in the dirt. My dad does give me a few minutes to collect myself and get dressed and then it was time to "get back to work". He knew after that incident that he was going to have a hard time getting me back into the field to help. Luckily enough we were at the end of the summer and growing season. I had a couple more summers of helping with the watermelon/cantaloupe seasons. After the watermelons and cantaloupes my dad would lease places that had hay fields...and that's another story for another time...LOL!!

Well, that's my grasshopper story and I'm sticking to it...LOL!! That was kinda therapeutic getting that out there.

My brother called me after he read my post and laughingly asked if I'd used my telephoto/zoom lens to get my pictures of the grasshoppers. I didn't, I used my 18-55mm lens so had to get really close to them. I really am trying to work through my fear of them. I have good and bad days. I do know we need to get some more guinea chicks to raise up and turn out to eat more grasshoppers. We are COVERED up with them this summer. I hope y'all have a good laugh at my expense. Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

supply credits:
Scrap Girls
Chelle's Creations from The Daily Digi

The Little Girls

2010-07-05T19:00:00.000-05:00

More pics of the little girls Lolita and Houdini.

Little Lucy & Houdini July 3rd

Lola & Lolita the night Houdini was born

Lolita is watching Bubba, she chases him around.

Houdini & Bubba checking each other out for the first time.

Lolita & Houdini are now playing with each other, July 4th

And the head butting starts....July 4th

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

Our 2nd Baby Has Arrived!

2010-07-04T22:25:00.000-05:00

Our cow Little Lucy had her baby last Wednesday around 930pm. Another little heifer.

Of course this is her first baby and she took to cleaning, protecting and feeding right off. I was so happy that everything was going okay for Little Lucy and her baby. But, you know I can't finish without having some sort of new momma story. So that night, late, it started raining. And into the the morning hours, raining. We got almost 5 inches.

At about 630am I'm awakened by this horrible, awful bawling. I go look out the back door and it's Little Lucy. She's walking the fence line and bawling. I find some shoes and not knowing that it had rained 5 inches head out to the corral. Little Lucy has lost her baby. It's rained so much it's rained her scent of the baby. My dad heard Little Lucy bawling too and he came and we took off in different directions looking for the baby.

I found her laying in some weeds. She was okay, thank goodness. I tried to lift her up to get her walking back to her momma and it was like trying to stand a noodle up. Limp, limp, limp. So I decided to go get Little Lucy walking in the baby's direction and as soon as I turned on my heel, that little baby jumped up and started running and not in the right direction either. She ran through some old fencing and came through that unscathed. Next she ran right through the barbed wire fence and was out in the open pasture. Ninety acres of pasture!!! I'm slogging around trying to run in the shoe sucking mud.

I'm thinking, this calf is not even 12 hours old, hopefully she'll slow down. Nope, she runs and runs and finally gets to a pipe gate to a small area that's fenced off in the middle of the property and she stops. I finally get to her, yelling at my horse Julio. He doesn't know what that little black thing in his pasture is...he's running and bucking and acting goofy. I grab her up and start carrying her back to the corral (I do have to make a couple of stops the rest...LOL!). Checked her over to make sure she doesn't have any cuts from the barbed wire. Not a scratch on her. She is now called Houdini.

All this time, Little Lucy still has no idea where her baby is. Dad opens the gate for me and my bundle and I set her down and she tries to take off again but I have a better grip on her this time. I sent my dad down to run Little Lucy up my way. Finally, momma and baby are reunited. My dad looks at me and says "I hope you haven't had your shower yet". I looked down and I'm covered in muddy water, mud, cow poo and a little bit of afterbirth. And I smell. I'm doing all this running and carrying in a sleep t-shirt and my pink plastic clogs that I keep by the front door. How's that for a picture of country life...Hahaha!

The rest of the day pretty much went like the morning with stuff in the house and the job. I was so glad to go to bed so I could get some sleep and start over on a whole new day.

That's all the babies we're expecting now. We should have three more late fall. Those will be first time mommas too so I'm sure there are going to be some stories.

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

My Baby Had Her Baby!

2010-06-23T19:51:00.000-05:00

Our cow Lola that we've raised since she was 3 months old had her first baby this morning.

Baby Lola

It was rough going for both of them for a little bit. While Lola was being a very diligent momma with the cleaning and the protecting of her baby, she was forgetting the very basic thing her baby needed. Sustenance! I had to run in to the local feed store to buy some colostrum supplement and feed the little baby a little at a time until Lola figured out what needed to be done. Lola is finally feeding her own baby now and the little heifer even tried to kick up her heels, only she was a little too wobbly for that.

Lola and her newborn baby

And meeting all the auntie cows....

And taking another nap...

Hangin' out with momma Lola....

Oh, remember a while back I posted about the neighbor bull that showed up and stayed for over a month that I named Brutus....He's the baby daddy...

Baby Daddy Brutus

I think we have a couple more days and Little Lucy will be having her calf. Yes, Brutus is the baby daddy for that one too. I think he made himself a little to "at home" for my liking.

Avonlea Brynn Collection Freebie Day 3

2010-06-07T20:04:00.000-05:00

Well Blogger was down yesterday so my Day 3 Freebie never posted. Sorry about that.

Here is the post with the freebies.

Why is it that when one mechanical appliance breaks down, everything else will follow shortly thereafter?

The week prior to us going on our 30 year high school "Reunion at Sea", the washer dies. Not 15 minutes later the dryer, not being able to go on without it's mate gave up the ghost. We scrambled to get another set so we could do the laundry to get our packing done. But of course nothing could go the way we needed. The dryer was in stock but the washer was not, no one seemed to think it was important to tell us though as I sat waiting all day Sunday for delivery. They finally showed up Monday about 2pm, knocked 70.00 off the washer because we told them we'd take the floor model just to get delivery and then I got to washing and drying for our Wednesday departure.

My friend Pam called me Friday and their whole air conditioning system has to be replaced, then her car broke down Saturday. I went to watch my new movie "Avatar" and guess what? Yep, the DVD player bit the dust. We just spent a couple of hours at Best Buy looking at Blue-ray DVD players and then because of a special with the purchase of the player we bought we could get $30.00 worth of movies. That $30.00 doesn't really go that far for Blue-ray movies but if you catch the specials just right we picked up two movies for the $30.00. There were some for 9.99 each too but of course those were nothing I wanted.

Okay, enough of my bellyaching...

Avonlea Brynn Collection....The Alphas, Frames and Word Art

Click here to download the Word Art

Click here to download the Alpha

Click here to download the Frames

Here is a layout I did using this kit. I've run out of girly girl pictures to scrap....I'm surrounded by boys...LOL!! Now I have a kit to use for when my granddaughter gets here.

I hope y'all enjoy this kit as much as I enjoyed making it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Darla

p.s. Be sure to leave some love. I love to read your comments.

p.p.s. Be sure to keep checking back or better yet, subscribe to my blog. I'm working on a little boy kit in honor of my grandson Lane.

Avonlea Brynn Collection Freebie Day 2

2010-06-05T09:57:00.002-05:00

I had to have a little minor surgery on my inner lip yesterday and didn't get the freebies posted like I should have last night. For that, I'm sorry. I didn't think I would have so much trouble with my little procedure. I had to have a Mucocele removed from my inner lip, basically I bit through a saliva gland and it made a skin tag like growth on my inner lip. Then of course I would bite it again while eating and then it would get bitten off a couple of times more. Every time it got bit off it would bleed for 1 to 3 hours and then would grow back even bigger. I asked my dentist about it and he wouldn't even touch it and said I needed to see my Dr. for a referral to an oral surgeon or periodontist. So off to see my Dr and he won't touch it either but he does give me the referral to an oral surgeon.

So the oral surgeon Dr. removed the growth and and about 4 smaller ones that were under the skin with a laser under a local anesthetic . My little procedure got a little bigger than the Dr. thought it was going to be. My incision is a little bigger too and they had to put a stitch in it that the Dr wanted to last at least 24 hours. Um, it lasted about 4 hours. When I woke up this morning I look like I had a nice shot of collagen and have that puffy, pouty lower lip that women would kill for. Too bad it's only temporary and oh yeah, it hurts like hell. So I've been doing my cold packs this morning and will continue through out the day. Tomorrow are warm packs on and off. I've got to figure out what I can use for a warm pack...

So enough about my little procedure...here are the freebies for today...

Avonlea Brynn Collection....The Papers

Click here for the Pattern Papers 1

Click here for the Pattern Papers 2

Click here for the Striped Papers

Click here for the Solid Papers

Here are a couple of example layouts I've made with this kit...

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the freebies. Please leave me a little love. I love reading your comments.

Darla

My New Digi Kit is Ready!!

2010-06-03T21:35:00.002-05:00

Hey y'all!

I tell you, I didn't think I would ever get done with this kit. I've been working on it for months. Of course that's been at night mostly and some weekends. Because y'all know life just happens and you get sidetracked every once and a while.

Since this kit is like all my kits, HUGE I'm going to post it in parts. Bellies, Papers and Alpha, Frames and Word Art.

I got the inspiration for this kit from the nursery decor that my Step-Son and Daughter-in-law picked out for their baby girl that's on the way. Avonlea (pronounced Avunlee) is due the August 11th.

And now checking their Target Baby registry to find the name of nursery collection, it looks like they may have changed their mind....oh well. I still like these colors and patterns.

So without Further ado....

The Avonlea Brynn Collection Freebie!

Bellies 1

Bellies 2

Bellies 3

This is a great kit for babies, baby girls or girls of any age. You can use some papers and elements for boy pages too.

Here are a couple of layouts that I did using some of the elements of the kit.

I hope y'all enjoy this kit as much as I've enjoyed making it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

p.s. Comments are very much appreciated!

Sneek Peak of my newest Digi Kit

2010-06-01T13:11:00.000-05:00

Hey y'all,
I know it's been a while. I've been really busy working on this digi kit, getting ready for our 30 year high school reunion in July and we took a cruise with a group of 50 high school classmates for a "Reunion at Sea". Whew!

Here is the sneak peek of my kit. I created this for our granddaughter Avonlea Brynn that is due the first part of August. I used the colors and patterns that the kids picked out for her nursery decor. It's very bright, and very girly. Lots of flowers, paisleys and stripes.

I'm almost done uploading all the zip files. If you've downloaded from me before then you know, I'm on satellite internet and can only upload/download so much per day/per month or they slap my hand and slow my speed down to pre-dial up speed....UGH!!

I should have everything loaded and ready to give away in the next couple of days.

Now to work on a kit for my grandson. I wasn't digi scrapping when he was born but I've been meaning to do one. So keep an eye out for that kit to be posted this summer some time.

I'll post some of our cruise pics too. Of course I didn't take many pictures of people, lots of critters though...LOL!! You know I"m not a people photographer. I did take a group picture, but now I'm working on it in Photoshop. It did not come out so well. Very underexposed....Yuck!

Thanks for stopping by and keep checking in for the freebies in the next couple of days.

Darla

He Got Squirrel'd!!

2010-04-24T10:14:00.043-05:00

I have a guest contributor today. My city dwelling but country raised brother has a hilarious story to tell you. I still giggle when I think about this...{{tee hee hee}} So without further ado, take it away Ron...

"Tail" of a Squirrels Fate

A couple of Fridays ago, I took advantage of everyone going to bed early to stay up late and just veg-out on TV. I recently upgraded to a nice LCD TV and just haven't gotten to bask in all its high-definition glory much. So I finished watching TV and started to get ready for bed. As I come out of the bathroom, our dog, Elsa, started making trips into the bathroom to stare at the cabinet and then walk out again. After the 3rd trip I followed her and started looking with her. I got down on my knees to look under the counter and saw nothing, but she was pretty certain something was there. I looked around the floor and the base of the cabinet and still saw nothing, so I opened my drawer on a whim and that's when the tail of a squirrel sprung straight up like a mailbox flag on springs. All I could do was just sit there for several seconds in stunned silence. I could see the rest of the squirrel in the drawer looking right at me. I guess we were sizing each other up.

Now I grew up in the country on a farm, raised animals, made straight A's through school, joined the Marines, and have even gone back to school to finish my bachelors. Unfortunately, there has not been anything in my life that prepared me for sitting on my knees in my bathroom at 1 am on a Saturday morning with a freaked-out squirrel squished into a drawer about 18" from my head. I had to do something, but what? My immediate plan was simple, get out, trap the squirrel, and kill it with a pellet gun (if you think this has a happy ending for the squirrel, you might as well stop reading now, but you will miss the comedy that ensued).

So with the plan in my head, I was ready to move. Then, for whatever reason, I decided to improvise (most of my plans involve this) and tried to shut the drawer to add another layer of "trapped" to the situation. Well, that must have been enough hiding for the squirrel, because as soon as I tried to shut the drawer, it jumped out and landed on the floor next to me. I jumped up to my feet to get out of the bathroom so I could shut the door, but Elsa, who has been on my six the whole time backing me up decided at that moment to take action. And by taking action I really mean she bowled me over into the door frame to get to the squirrel while I was trying to get out of the bathroom. I made it out and turn in time to see the squirrel in Elsa's mouth and then her drop it. I guess she got bit or scratched, but my concern was not for her at the moment; it was getting the door closed. Our bathroom has a pocket door which slides open and closed. I got a hold of the handle and slid the door shut. That's a little inaccurate. I slammed the door. Hard. So hard that two things happened. The first was I woke my wife up who sat up with a "What's going on?!?!" The second thing is that the squirrel somehow buffed up and was able to get its little paws between the door and the frame and push it back up open while leaping 2 feet up in the air. Actually, that's only how it replays in my head because that's what the scene looked like. In actuality, I slammed the door so hard that it bounced back open about 2 inches, but the squirrel did come leaping out through that crack, landing at my feet, again. The squirrel, in a last ditch effort, actually jumped up on my leg, scratched me, and then ran off into the darkness of the bedroom, since the only light was coming from the bathroom. I don't know if it thought my hairy leg was a tree or what. And I did finally reply to my wife, after I yelled out (my wife says screamed; tomato/tomahto, no need to split hairs about it) from being scratched, "There's a #$@# squirrel in here!" This whole scene played out in about 10 seconds, though the slow-motion cinema mechanics of my brain can drag it on for eons.

I did spend the next 30 minutes trying to find it again, but with the bedroom door open, there was too much to search and, as my fight or flight adrenaline rush wore off, I got tired. We did finally go to bed and slept. We actually slept for two nights not knowing what happened to the squirrel. Then Sunday afternoon rolled around.

My wife came out of the bedroom to tell that both the dog and one of the cats were real interested in the dirty clothes hamper. So I geared up for battle. Heavy gloves and the loaded pellet gun, with one pellet only. I was a Marine, after all. One shot, one kill. And Elsa. Gotta have the hound dog for huntin' varmints. So around the hamper I start to look. Nothing. So I grab the hamper to pull it away from the wall, and there the squirrel goes again, almost right over my shoulder. And now the chase is on. Behind the dresser, over a table, around the clothes basket, under the bed, though the nightstand, and into the closet. And then repeat: behind the dresser, over a table, around the clothes basket, under the bed, though the nightstand, and into the closet. And then one more time just because I don't think the squirrel saw everything on the first 2 trips around the room. I was never able to get a clear, safe shot or Elsa was in the way trying to cause a friendly-fire event.

Sweet Elsa the Hound Dog

this is what you get when you cross a

Basset Hound and and a Blue Heeler...

Finally the squirrel wedged itself in to a corner where it couldn't see me, so it thought it was safe. It wasn't. The story is a little grisly from here on out but, suffice to say that what the pellet gun didn't do, Elsa stepped in and finished the job. Under my bed. Under my king sized bed, in the dead center (pun intended) where I couldn't reach her easily. She also decided the kill was hers and wouldn't bring it out to me. Luckily we have hardwood in the bedroom, and although the clean up was gross, it was easy.

One last thing. After bowing to pressure from my very citified wife and in-laws, I went to the doctor to have the scratches looked at. I think I spent almost two hours at Care Now to have the doctor come in for about 90 seconds to tell me that squirrels don't carry rabies (I knew that, others weren't so convinced) and that the scratches were minor and didn't really need anything (I knew this, too), but gave me an antibiotic anyway. Also, the nurse was in tears from laughing so hard when she asked how it happened. Now, I have about six more days at two times a day on the biggest horse pills I have ever taken. This pill will take care of any infections I have now and probably my next two years of upper respiratory infections.

I was going to use a texture on this picture but with my brothers hairy leg it would have been overkill...LOL!

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope y'all got a good laugh at the expense of my loving brother.

Darla

supply credits:

frames are freebies from Scrap Girl

27 Days until our 30 Year High School Reunion Cruise

2010-04-22T21:14:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited, it's almost time for our cruise in May to celebrate our 30 Year High School Reunion. We're cruising from Galveston on the Carnival Ecstasy on a 4 day cruise with a port in Cozumel.

In my humble opinion Cozumel is the best part of Mexico. It's a small island off the Yucatan in the Caribbean Sea. It's a very low key, laid back place and that's why I love it. There are the bars like Carlos 'n Charlies, Senior Frogs and Fat Tuesdays to name a few if you really need to get your drink on and dance on the tables. It's also fabulous for scuba and snorkeling. But me, just give me a beach or pool with a little shade and that's all I need. Well, I also need a cabana boy coming around and refreshing my drink every 30 minutes too. That's my idea of an ideal destination.

Here are some of my favorite pics of Cozumel I took a couple of years ago. Of course I had to add texture and some kind of framing and masking...y'all know I can't just put a plain ol' picture on here. Trying to spice my pics up is what led me to digital scrapbooking in the first place. LOL!

I hope y'all enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed being in Cozumel and taking them. I plan to come back with a whole slew of new pictures in May.

Thanks for stopping buy!

Darla

Supply Credits:
All masks, textures and brushes are from Scrap Girls.

p.s. I'm working on a cute baby girl digi kit in preperation of my grandaughter's arrival in August.
Then I'll work on a baby boy kit in honor of my grandson who got here before I discovered digital scrapbooking.

p.p.s. Keep a watch out for a sneak peak next week.

Sweet Easter Treats

2010-04-05T09:05:00.000-05:00

Hey Y'all,

So I've been dieting for like a month now. Doing pretty good, I've lost 11 lbs so far. I'm not doing any special kind of diet, just doing Slim Fast shakes and eating salads every day. Two to three nights a week I cook chicken breasts, pork chops and we still have our steaks on Saturday nights, I've just reduced the size of steaks I buy now. I still get the munchies during the day so I've bought Quaker Rice Snacks True Delights. I eat the Ranch or Cheddar Cheese for any salty cravings and I eat the Carmel Corn for the sweet cravings. I've also bought the Slim Fast snack bars and Special K bars, but really the Quaker Rice Snacks are my favorites. I haven't touched the bars in a couple of weeks.

We leave on our 30 year High School Reunion Cruise in May and I'm trying to lose some weight. I'm realistic enough to know that I won't have lost nearly as much as I need to by then but I'm not letting that slow me down. I DO know that IF I do wear a bathing suite I'll have a cover up on over it in public...LOL!!

So since I've been dieting I have almost completely cut any kind of bad candy out of my life (I have bought some of the Adkins Indulge Peanut Butter Cups....yummy!!). I was having a sugar withdrawal moment on Saturday so I sat around making chocolate Easter eggs, bunnies and chicks and candy Easter eggs and a couple of peeps to satisfy the craving. That didn't really stop the cravings so I had one of the Adkins Indulge Peanut Butter Cups....LOL!! I did have fun making all the digi candy though!

If you can use them please feel free to download. Please be sure and leave me some love for these yummy candies! They are all 300dpi and in .png format.

They are personal use only.

Click Here to download.

They are personal use only.

Click Here to download.

(I don't know if I like the way the peeps came out, but since I'm still learning I'll keep working on it)

They are personal use only.

Click on Here to download

Be sure to stop back later in the week. I'll be posting pictures of my Step-Son Trey and his now Wife Brooke's wedding in Gruene TX.

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

Record Snow Fall in North Texas!

2010-02-12T13:30:00.001-06:00

Man, we have had more snow in the last couple of months than we've had in the last 10 years! Yesterday's snow fall replaced the 1978 record of 7.5 inches. Now the "official" record is 11.2, but I know we got way more than that out here in the boonies. We had over 10.5" last night and it snowed all night and through to the wee hours of the morning.

This is what my citified brother and his bunch do when it snows...

Here is what the country folks do when it snows...we wonder around in the snow all bundled up and take pictures of everything. We wear boots with not thick enough socks and end up with a big old blister on our heels...ouch! We won't be wearing shoes anytime soon. But! I did some pretty cool pictures.

I got a new macro lens for my camera and this is my first picture with it. I need some more practice with it but wait until spring and the bugs and flowers start showing up...I'm gonna have a blast with that lens.

Snow crystals up close

Hubby finally caught up with my on my little photography walk-a-bout and brought Ace with him. We stopped and checked the cows and Ace decided to start eating cow poo. Dogs do it, there's no getting around it. I've seen it all my life; cow, horse, bird, chicken poo. Well Ace eats it like it's dog chow and we're yelling at him to quit. We finally get him in the house and get to feeding all the puppy dogs and Ace's tummy decided that dog food and cow poo really do not mix. He regurgitates everything onto the living room rug. Fortunately I miss this little show, cuz I'd probably would have hurled right along side him. Hubby was cleaning the rug when I walked out of my office. So glad I missed that show! So glad the living room rug is a Walmart cheapie!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed the video and pictures. Stay warm and safe if your in the nasty weather.

Darla

Family Pictures

2010-02-08T22:20:00.000-06:00

Hubby's family had a get together for the Superbowl game last night. We had such a good time! Good food, good drinks and good company!

Hubby, me, my step-son Trey and his fiance Brooke.

Trey and Brooke

Our nephew's girlfriend Chrissie, Our nephew Randy, Trey, Brooke and Hubby

Hubby, me, Trey, Brooke and my Sister-in-Law Sharon

Chrissie and Randy

Thanks for stopping by.

Darla

HO-LEE COW!!

2010-01-20T20:18:00.001-06:00

Well, we didn't have anything else to do Monday night so we decided we would weigh the puppies and see where they were at weight wise. That was easier said than done! No, really!

We got Ace first since we figured he would be the hardest to weigh since he's so big and has a hard time sitting still, {{{pft}}} he was easy, peasy, lemon squeezy...he weighed 69 lbs. OMG! He's only 5 months old! He's going to be a horse.

We then weighed Bruiser, who taught us that little packages are very deceptive. He turned out harder to weigh than Ace. He did not want to go in the tub we use on our scale. Who knew that puppies can spread their legs out to catch the sides of the tub and not go in...LOL! I finally got him settled down with some liver treats and got a weight on him at 23 lbs.

Our little boys are growing up right in front of our eyes. {{{sniff, sniff}}}

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

Supply Credits:
Templates from Scrap Girls

Bruiser and Ace the Moose Dog

2010-01-17T21:34:00.001-06:00

I finally got some new pictures of Ace and Bruiser this weekend. The pics of them together are not all that great since it was only me trying to handle two crazy hyper puppies with liver treats. The treats only worked for a while. I was hoping hubby would have helped, but I forgot that we had dinner plans and as soon as he got home from work he had to feed the "big" girls then take a shower and we left right after that.

Bruiser went for his 2nd set of puppy shots right after New Years, he weighed in at 17 lbs and is doing good. We go back the first of February for the 3rd set. He's getting taller and gaining weight.

Ace went to the vet's for his last set of puppy shots on Christmas Eve. He was four months old then and weighed in at 53 lbs. OMG! It's so hard to remember that he's a five month old puppy when he's so big. It's now mid January and I bet he weighs over 60 lbs now. I'd really like to change his name to Moose, but hubby won't let me. So I just call him Ace the Moose Dog.

Here are some layouts I did with the pics I took this weekend.

Sweet Bruiser

Bruiser and Ace

We had dinner with some of our high school classmates Saturday night. That Facebook, it's a wonderful tool to re-connect with your high school friends. I've had so much fun getting caught up with everyone's lives. We're using FB to plan our 30 year high school reunion, and planning a "girls only" night out with our classmates in February.

I'm still working on the Christmas kit freebie. My day job has been keeping really busy and by the time the day ends I just want to chuck the computer out the window. So I just shut down, come in the living room, play with my puppies and go to bed.

I'm also working on a western kit too. Talk about biting off more than I can chew. I have really cute elements for both kits. Just need to come up with some really cute papers and they'll be ready to go.

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

supply credits:
both layouts use kits and digi layout templates from Scrap Girls

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2010-01-03T17:35:00.000-06:00

I know I'm late, but that stupid Dish Network powered by Wild Blue satellite internet service and their stupid rules about upload/download bandwidth really just chaps my hiney! I've been slowed down since the 1st part of December so I couldn't upload all my Christmas freebies I had planned. Sooooo, I'm going to have Christmas some time in January. I'm going to finish working on the Christmas kit I've been working on and start uploading all the zip files. Stay tuned for more details.

Here is a layout I did with my Grandson Lane. We got to spend time with him on Christmas Eve afternoon instead of Christmas Eve like originally planned. Due to the weather they didn't want to take a chance of not getting home that evening and they wanted us to be able to watch Lane open his present and play with him.

We've been having some wacky weather this winter, we've had 3 snow storms in the last 30 days. The only good thing (for a little while anyway) is we did have a White Christmas, then Christmas turned into ice...yuck! The last snow didn't even last the day. With all the pain I've been in with my root canal. I didn't get any pictures of the White Christmas storm or the last storm. I did get some pictures of Bruiser in his sweater I bought him. He's a short haired dog and the temps haven't been out of the 30's and he just shivers when we go out for potty/tee tee time. I bought him a sweater to wear outside so he wouldn't be so cold. I did try to get him a doggie coat but they were either too little or too big. Sometimes it's hard being a puppy...LOL!

Here is a layout of Bruiser with his sexy blue sweater I bought for him

I hope everyone had a Very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Thanks for stopping by!

Darla

supply credits:

all products are from Scrap Girls

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I'm so excited...

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Summer Bugs That Are...***Updated post***

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Record Snow Fall in North Texas!

Family Pictures

HO-LEE COW!!

Bruiser and Ace the Moose Dog

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

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