Bella!!

Well it's almost time for Bella to make it's debut! Have you been to the site yet? What Site? OMG... it's just the newest ONLINE digital/hybrid scrap magazine! Guess that makes it a Zine huh?! Bella is brought to us be Holley VanDenBerg and her great team! (I was wondering what Holley had been up to) Here's a little blurb from the forum by Holley:

BSMTM is a neutral, non-site-related online magazine bringing you the best and latest in digital scrapbooking and hybrid designers, scrappers, kits, techniques, projects, and more! Each month we will feature an outstanding designer--who has made a kit especially for subscribers--and scrapper and find out more about what inspires them in their designs. See the current month's kit HERE. We'll discuss the latest products, techniques, ideas, and what to do with them!

We have 3 different subscription types--find out more here: http://www.bellascraps.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5

Feel free to browse the forums for subscription information, current page calls, advertising opportunities, and more. Please feel free to contact me us at holley@bellascraps.com if you have any comments, questions, suggestions.


Guess that about sums it up! Except that January's Guest Designer is Christine Haskell and February's is none other than Doris Castle! You're not going to want to miss out on one month of this so go over and subscribe NOW!

Music - A Powerful Drug

NEW PLAY LIST! Music has as much power to evoke emotions and trigger memories as does scent. For me the smell of sausage cooking makes me nausious because it's a scent I associate with my morning sickness days. And the first song on my playlist can bring tears within three bars... This song brings back memories of talking on the phone all night to a boy who I was madly in love with but who would always play it cool and aloof. It seemed this song would be playing everytime we hung up.... and everytime we hung up... I would start to cry... Ah music... a powerful drug!

Nature Boy!

Oh yes... ... He IS doing what you think he's doing! The boy is relieving himself on the beach. And if he feels the urge, he'll ask to do it in the parking lot, in the driveway... or where ever he may be... (outside of course) Where, oh where, did he learn this nasty habit?

Pick Me! Pick Me! - She Did!

LaWanna Desjardin ran a little ad for a scraplift challenge, the twist... she does the scraplifting and we win the gift certificate! So hey, I said, "what the heck" and I sent her a link to my website.. and SHE PICKED ME!!! WooHoo! Below is an excerpt from her newsletter including the photos... I did't realize she was going to pick two each month... the other winner was Zinzilah... OMG... I am so in awe of her work and I am flattered to be thought of in the same breath as her...! Oh and LaWanna.. thanks for the kudos re: my website!

Scraplift Love - Win Free Stuff Wouldn't you like to win a $5.25 coupon code to my store at Scrapbook-Bytes? Come on, who wouldn't! All you have to do is e-mail me a link to your online gallery or blog. That's it. I'll pop in to leave you a little praise on occassion and I might pick a layout of yours to scraplift. If I do Scraplift you, you will win a coupon code for $5.25 to my Scrapbook-Bytes store. Don't believe me? Well check out the winners for this month, Julie Leist and Zinzilah from Scrapbook-Bytes. Thank you ladies for the awesome inspiration and congratulations! These layouts inspired me to try some new things, like that corner treatment on Christmas Surprises and the cool stitching design on Exuberance.
Zinzilah's Layout from Scrapbook-Bytes	My Layout, Christmas Surprises
Julie's Layout, Living the Dream Check out Julies Website - It rocks!	My Layout, Exuberance

Show Me Your War Face

OMG.. I actually finished a layout and it ONLY took FIVE hours! LOL THAT'S why I don't do this for a living... I would have to charge $150.00 per page to make it worth my while... and I hardly think anybody is going to pay that LOL... So DH forwards this email to me from one of his clients... the photo was too cute... you have to understand the passion of people in this industry to REALLY get the photo and not think it's some sort of child abuse... I have had shop owners pull similar layouts I have done from their galleries because they felt the layouts "were inappropriate" and therefore in violation of site TOU!~ Commie Pinko... err uh... sorry too much time around DH.... LOL


credits:
Big Girl Panties by Trish Jones and Sylvie Wagner previously at Scrapbook Graphics I have no idea where to find this kit now
fonts - Turtle Club, Sidewalk, Satisfaction and Times new Roman

Too Stinkin' Cute!

Ok, so maybe... just maybe, I'm a bit biased... being his Grandmother and all... but come on, you can't tell me that THIS is not just the cutest Angel you have ever seen!



credit:
Angel of Nostalgia by Royanna Fritschmann at Divine Digital
font - Jacoba

And The Angels Sang

Well if that wasn't the cutest thing! On Wednesday I got to pick up my adorable grandson from day care in Hidden Valley Lake, meet up with my daughter at her office at St Helena Hospital, join her husband and go to the Discovery Land Preschool Christmas Pageant in Angwin. Rylie was an Angel... really... he WAS an angel! And he played his part well! I took 123 photos.. something with the lighting in the chapel though.. every single one of them had major red eye... I have never had a problem with red eye and this camera before... but then.. I generally do shoot outdoors... hmmm... I also seem to have a problem with digital noise in this batch... dang it! Oh well... he's a dozen photos.. OK it's really only 8 and I have gone edit wild with one... LOL.. that's me!

Looking

As promised here are some of the photos I took while out looking for my muse the other day.... nothing spectacular.. just photos around the area... a burning rice field, the Sacramento River, some uncooperative sheep, and a persimmon orchard...
Now I'm out of here for a couple of days, maybe I'll come back with some great photos... and then maybe not...

Yea! Yea!

It's been over a month.... I've been struggling! Trying so hard to push on... went out today to find my muse... took lots of photos, I'll share later... then came home and found something in one of my folders to play with... it's the simplest of layouts... but I just can't decide.... that's to be expected these days... I got lost coming home from the grocery store the other night and took a little drive on a dirt road... don't ask!

BTW.. there are 3 songs on the play list!

Lost & Found

while finishing up the Dulle layouts yesterday, I found this in my layouts folder... simply titled "Brushes" (created August 17, 2007)... I evidently was playing with brushes.... I probably wrote down what I used.... but at this point I have probably also thrown it away, not knowing what it was... because I totally forgot about this layout.... hmmm... I fear old age is REALLY starting to settle in....

that's SCARY!



Oh yes.. and a new play list! Enjoy!

A Ghoulish Answer

While poking around in the online version of the Napa Register I found the following :

Like Stratton, Danielle Dulle of 2192 Penny Lane knows that her neighbors can’t wait to see the yield of her decorating labors. “Last year, we were out of town and the neighbors were disappointed because we didn’t to it. ... When we do it, they always come up and say ‘thank you’ and that makes it worth it,” she said.

Dulle, who has celebrated Halloween vigorously for 15 years, said her yard currently features ghosts, spider webs, crosses, skeleton bodies, skulls, black lights and more. “We left it up to the kids this year to decorate and they did a pretty good job,” she said. "

Don't ask me how I could have missed it for 15 years...LOL I have to drive right by it to get to my moms.. Penny Lane is a dead end street (no pun intended) Oh, and the Register had this wonderful interactive map... with the whopping 8, yes EIGHT, count them, spooky houses in town.... http://www.napavalleyregister.com/maps/halloween/ you see the Dulle's little skull and crossbones int he lower right!

Ghouly Dulle's

Last week I went to Napa and took my grandmother to the grocery store. My father generally does that but he had been out of commission. After taking grandma to the bank and to the grocery store, I stopped by my moms house on the way out of town... A large Halloween display at the Dulle's caught my eye as I was leaving moms. I wondered why I hadn't noticed in on my way in... The only thing I could think of was that it was still daylight when I came in and they generally have so much "stuff" on the street around their house I'm generally looking at that! I'm use to seeing the ever growing, garish Christmas display; but, for some reason this was the first time I can remember seeing a Halloween display there....

Credit:
papers and elements by Lei Fhung at Ztampf
frames by Melanie Willmann (melgen designs) at Pocket Pearls... ok pocket pearls seems to have vanished; but, you also find the frames at OScraps

Perfect (details)

that adorable pumpkin patch layout I posted the other day but couldn't say anything about?! Well, the secret is out! A new collaborative kit, "Bountiful Blessings", by Julie Mead, Doris Castle and Michelle Sheveland is now available at Cottage Arts!

Oh, and right now... all downloadable page paks are on sale at Cottage Arts. (sales ends November 5, 2007)

Perfect

On the way home from our "beach session" a couple of weeks ago, we stopped by the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch and I snapped a couple....



I'm not suppose to post this yet but I wont be around when it is suppose to be posted... besides, I figure nobody reads my blog anyway... LOL. I'll post the credits when the word is out! (big secret)

So Sweet

Just one of the photos I took on Saturday... I love this photo!

The Problem With Mormons!

I dunno.... I found it funny!

Christmas Cards

The kids wanated me to take some photos of them at thebeach to put on their christmas cards, so Saturday we went to the beach. Here are a few of the pictures

Challenge

I did this today (instead of mopping floors) for the October Week 2 CT challenge over at Cottage Arts. The theme is nature.... These are pictures takenlast year at the pumpkin farm.... of course you recognize that adorable pumpkin in the middle!

Faux Pas

It's a funny thing about men... as they age, they grow hair from every orifice of their bodies. The well groomed man keeps these hairs trimmed... if not, the lady in his life generally makes sure extraneous hairs are kept in check. I'm not quite sure how this one slipped inspection... this man sat in front of mom and I at a concert last weekend. He had a small pet growing in his ears and I'm not even going to discuss the stuff stuck in his nose... Come on ladies.. for heavens sake... check your men... get rid of that hair... at least in the nose and ears... other defurring or waxing is entirely optional!

Say What?

I don't know, this is such a silly thing... It shouldn't bother me... could be the stress I have put myself under lately... I'm sure I'm making something out of nothing... with my weight issues of the past few years I have become sooo self conscious... So the thing is... My mom who has often commented on how shiny my hair is... and has even asked how I keep it that way... on Friday, told me that if I plan on washing my hair every day (have for the past 40 years) that I should use one of those "shine products"... because my hair is always "dull" So now I'm second guessing everything about myself... argh!