NOTES FROM THE HOLLER

I discovered digital scrapbooking almost immediately after receiving my first home computer way back in 2003.  Since that time I have spent countless numbers of hours glued to my keyboard turning out thousands and thousands of scrapbook pages.  I have downloaded who knows how many kits, products and freebies, and have been forced to delete many of those as the years go by because no matter how hard I try, there is just no possible way to manage and use everything!  Many of the sites and designers I first began with have disappeared from the community but others have managed to chug right along.  Case-in-point, Scrapbook-Bytes   My SBB profile says that I first became a member there in Aug 2005.  In fact, that is where I first discovered my all-time favorite designer Rina Kroes !  Through the years, I have bounced from site-to-site and occasionally visited Scrapbook-Bytes but I really had all-but-stopped visiting the forums there.  I used to be...

I am posting this a day late...yesterday was just a bad day for me. Sept 23rd is my twin brother's birthday.  They are now the same age as me, at least until my birthday on Nov3, lol.  As I think of their birthday, I think of the special birthday dinner Mama always fixed for them...smoked pork chops.  That was Ronnie's favorite, and they were good...you can't buy them like that anymore.  Birthdays, always meant Mama got out the special dishes, and her beautiful glasses, and she set the table perfectly.  We miss her. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DON and RONNIE! (I can't forget Jackie as well - I hope your birthdays were wonderful!) I made this page with a poem I found on the internet using The Marshmallow Collection by Rina Kroes

I just finished my submission for this weeks Scripture Challenge at SBE I hope you don't mind but it turned out so well, I had to share it with you! I combined Rina's newest collection Marshmallow with her Joyful Awakening Elements My baby brother and his wife went out west for a summer vacation this year in their RV.   I have not seen them since they got back from their trip but I have been able to snatch some photos from his facebook album!  I thought you may like to see the two pages together so I am posting them as well. For a full list of credits, click here MY SBE GALLERY .

Sometimes we think little things like a card do not matter but seeing the pleasure on your face as you read your daughter's birthday card to you last year proves that notion wrong.  I have not heard anything yet but you were due to come home from Afghanistan yesterday just in time to celebrate your birthday with your family today.  What a joy this will be for you all...a birthday filled with memories to last a lifetime!  I love you my son, Welcome Home and Happy Birthday!  Layout Credits: Haunted By Memories Of You from Designs by Helly available at:  Gotta Pixel and Scrapbook-Bytes 

Well its Monday...the day is finally here!  Its the day before my DS #2's 31st birthday, and the day he is due to arrive back home from Afghanistan!  I know it will be some time before he can reconnect with dear ole Mom, and that is perfectly ok!  I am just happy he is home safe and sound once again, and I hope he is able to spend some time at home taking it easy and enjoying his family!  I love you Nicholas!!!! I surprised Isaac by picking him up at school at Friday, and he spent the entire weekned with Granny and Pap.  We did absolutely nothing extra-special but we had a good time doing it!  I got tickled at him...Saturday evening he was playing on the swing in the backyard, and was going to show off to me doing some kind of big spectacular trick when in midstream, he figured it was a bit more than he was willing to attempt.  When he stopped, I started teasing him, and said. "That's ok!  Granny loved her little weanie"  He immediately res...

I love to do forum challenges throughout the digi-scrapping community.  They always provide me with inspiration, especially at times when I just can't find my mojo.  I find so many I would love to do but there is only so much time in a day so I really have to commit myself to doing only a few, otherwise, I would feel overwhelmed and just give up.  The one challenge that I really try to complete every week is the Scriptures Challenge with Rina Kroes .  Rina has been hosting this challenge at Scrapbook-Elements since 2007, and her lovely word art serves as testimony to us all each week.  For me personally, I have not attended a church regularly in many many years but thanks to Rina's Scripture Challenge, I do have my Sunday morning worship service most every week.  Read more about Rina and her Scriptures Challenge at her blog posting A 5 Month Recap of Scripture Challenges .  Browse through the forum threads at Scrapbook-Elements and the Scripture Chall...

Its  Tuesday and my hubby has been waiting for this day for some time now.  He  left out bright and early this morning to go pick up his friend so they could keep their appointment  with the CB repair specialist in Louisville whom is going to solve all their CB ailments!  My DH will be so happy to have his Bull Creek Sub-Station back running up to par.  Here are a few photos of his antenna and tower here behind the house. He is so proud of that big tower! I can't help but laugh when I think of the hours and hours he spends sitting back in his throne, the big leather desk chair sitting at the end of the kitchen table.   With his feet propped up AAAAUUDIO-ing to the world, he is the Master of the Universe...his universe any way, lol.  I do get  aggravated with his "little hobby"  for sometimes for it can seem that his CB-Land is the only world he cares about but I know that is not the case. He likes to talk, plain and simple!!...

Rina's "Marshmallow Mini's" are a collection of 3 smaller, simpler (and more affordable) coordinating page sets that can be used individually or mixed-and-matched together, whether you are creating a single page or a whole set of matching pages. Filled with deliciously sweet pastel colors of candy pink, bubblegum blue, and sunny yellow, these mini kits are perfect for precious pretty girls of all ages (even for small boys, babies or spring-time memories). I used Rina's Marshmallow Kits to create some wonderful pages for friends of mine whom I had not seen in several years.  I recently was reconnected to them through facebook and I just wanted to let them know  I wish the very best for them and their families! The above page is my submission for Rina's Scripture Challenge this week at SBE .  Each week Rina creates beautiful scripture word art which she makes available for one week only so don't forget to go check it out after you visit the New...

I am so glad that I gave Facebook a try once again.  I am not out to accumulate hundreds of  Facebook friends or fans as some people are rather, I am finding it is an amazing tool to reconnect with my past.  I am still leaning how to post messages,etc on Facebook but when I see the smiling faces of people I went to school with, or cousins I have not seen in thirty years or more - well it just makes my day!!!!  And when they share their pics with me...that's just awesome!  As most of you know, I have been addicted to digi-scrapping for several years now and I am always begging my kids and family for pictures to scrap...now I have boo-goos available to me! I want to scrap them all for us so I came up with a great idea.  I am going to start up my own little game of tag!  Whenever I make a scrapbook page using your photo(s), I will "tag" your photo/album on Facebook, and post the link to let you, my Facebook Freinds, know where you can find the posting...

As I reluctantly spent most of this past holiday weekend alone, I found myself  reflecting about memories of yesterday.  Delightful moments of pure magic often intermingled with flashes of despair, life can be most bittersweet but as I have often said, my digi-addiction is the best therapy I have known.  Through it, I can often kick depression to the curb just as it dares to pop its ugly head into my world! My Daddy  used to tell me that I live in my own little world, and he did not mean that as a compliment, lol.  He said that I looked at the world through rose-colored glasses, and what I saw was not reality.  In his opinion, I created my own problems because Debbie's World was pure fantasy.   My brothers have pretty much told me told me that same thing over the years, and most recently, my husband told me the same thing.  Of course, they all use different words, but all of them believe Debbie's World exists only in Debbie's mind.  R...

Join SBE in celebrating Labor Day with a 40% off sale Sunday, Sept. 5th through Tuesday, Sept. 7th   Sunday through Tuesday, September 5th- 7th (central time)   40% off*   *excludes UBI, DOTM, Close Outs, Designer Resources, CD Burns, Gift Certificates, items regularly priced $2 or less Run over to the SBE store and pick up those things you have had on your wish list!  Its times like this I wish I had a bottomless pit of moolah available to my payPal account, lol!  I wanted SO MUCH but look at the goodies I was able to get this morning! Of course, Rina and Kimmi have all of their kits on sale as well, so don't miss out on this big event!  Here is a little pressie for you today as well using Rina's Bellisima Page Kit Enjoy! *NO LONGER AVAILABLE*

I used to look forward to this weekend so much! The Grayson County Fair at Leitchfield (my home town) is always held on this weekend, and that was an event we always looked forward to! As a teen-ager, my Mother and I always went to the Miss Grayson County Beauty Contest which was held on the opening night of the Fair, and during a couple of years, I worked in the Young Republicans Booth selling hot dogs and cokes during the fair days with my brother Don. We thought we were so grown up doing that! After I was married, I always took my crafts, my hobbies, my canned goods and baking to the Women's Building on the afternoon of the opening day. Back then, the Grayson County Homemakers, a group of which I belonged to, sponsored the Women's Bldng and encouraged all residents to bring their best wares to have them judged. I took quilts, dolls, cross-stitching, embroidery and counted cross-stitching; anything I (or my family) had made that I was especially proud of, and wanted t...