Happy New Year!

Monthly Mantle

Good morning! Hope you had a lovely weekend and are enjoying the season with your loved ones and friends. Our son Danny and his family are still with us and it has been an amazing and unforgettable week. I will share pictures and stories later on.

My dear friend  Melanie (one of the bees in our Hive) has done an amazing job on her fireplace mantle throughout the year. I asked her if I could share it with you and she said yes! Enjoy and be inspired!

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Happy birthday Valerie

Good morning! Our first born daughter  Valerie turns 38 years old today. Happy birthday dear Valerie! Every year we exchange a Christmas ornament which represents what we did during the year. She gave me a unicorn (you know my love for them) and I gave her a SUPERWOMAN character ornament. In my book, that's what this beautiful girl is! She is an amazing woman who loves the Lord, her family, her friends and her job. She is sooo fun to be around with and always has a loving and encouraging word for you. We could not be more proud of her. I took this picture of her at 3am on Black Friday when we did our shopping spree. Yes, she was delirious!

Here are some more Christmas layouts I made last weekend using Doodlebug Christmas collection.

Have a fabulous, happy, safe and blessed weekend!

Twelve day before Christmas

Happy Thursday! I have not posted since last week because it's been a very busy week with traveling, working, family and church. I spent last weekend with the Hive in Alabama and celebrated Christmas together. We worked on our Christmas albums, ate, laughed, played, shopped and scrapped some more. We even had elves visit our rooms in the middle of the night! I have pictures to prove it. 

I'll be sharing some of my Christmas layouts until the end of the year. Also, new Christmas KITS will be posted here on my blog (KITS PAGE) later on today. Stay tuned! I have 30 new ones coming up. Make sure you send me an email with the ones you would like to purchase to beatrizguzman58@yahoo.com.

Have a wonderful and blessed day and may the joy of the Lord be your strength.

Happy Anniversary

Good morning and happy Thursday!  Yesterday was our son and daughter-in-law's 9th anniversary.  They sent us this picture and it seems that neither of them has aged even one day.  Happy anniversary, Danny and Lexie, as you begin your tenth year together as one.

Here's the perfect layout for those pictures.

Thanks for visiting today.  Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Home Renovation

Good morning and happy Tuesday!  I hope that your week has started off well.  I had a rash flareup over the weekend and the Benadryl I've been taking has me sleeping most of the day.

A little over a year ago our landlord advised us that they would be selling the house we had been renting from them.  We had already tentatively been looking for a new home, but now had to kick it up a notch.  Within 2 or 3 days we found one that, in my words, was "move in ready".

Now, "move in ready" does not mean that it's ready to be moved in to.  Obviously, there are decorating things that have to be done.  Our house has an open floor plan.  The family room's freshly painted accent walls that I was absolutely in love with when we bought they place now had to be re-painted to match the rest of the house.  After all, it didn't match my furniture.

Then I went for the kitchen.  I wanted the wallpaper gone and its walls painted the same color as the rest of the house.  And a tile back splash was also something else that it needed.  We actually bought everything needed for these projects.  My husband got the family room repainted, all of my curtains and other things hung, but only started removing the wallpaper in the kitchen when we had to move in.  Then 2018 happened and the kitchen project stalled.

Recently I told my husband that I would like the kitchen finished before our son and his family arrived in mid-December.  He sat me down and was brutally honest with me.  He told me that the project was going to take several days and that since he works a full-time job, he could only dedicate a few hours to it daily.  I do not like tools and things laying around, but he said that he was not going to waste precious time putting everything away every day.  I'd have to deal with things out of place for a few days.  I reluctantly agreed, and the project is well under way.  The wallpaper removal and the painting is done and he starts on the back splash tomorrow.  I cringe every time I go into the kitchen, but I guess that that is the price of progress.

Here he is showing me just how nice the back splash is going to look.  Eek!!!  Look at those tools on the counter top!!!

Here's the layout where I'm going to put the before and after pictures.  Then I going to go into the guest bathroom and see what can be done in there!

Thanks for reading my blog today.  Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Little Scare

Good morning and happy Monday and happy December!  Only 22 days until Christmas.  Are you caught up on your shopping?

We had a little scare on Friday afternoon.  I got a call from our daughter.  Our grandson, Andrew, had fallen from the slide at school and she was 25 minutes away and could not get hold of her husband to go get him.  We took off for the school and by the time we got there, his dad had arrived.  I jumped into his car and accompanied them to the hospital.

Fortunately, it was just a broken arm.  They put it in a green cast and in 3 weeks he should be as good as new.

Here is Andrew with me and the ER doctor.  Coincidentally, he's going to be skiing in North Carolina the same week as my daughter and her family at the end of the month.  We're hoping that he won't be needing another cast!

Here's the first signature on his cast, the "man with all the toys"!

And look what they found on Saturday morning!  Elvis the Elf had fallen from the slide on the Barbie swimming pool and ended up with a green cast himself!!!

Here a couple of layouts where we can put these photos.

Thanks for visiting today.  Stay safe and have a wonderful and blessed day!

PBJ

Good morning and happy Friday!  I hope that you've had a great week and have some terrific plans for the weekend.

I found some unique papers the other day and could not resist buying them.  It's all about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

In my country, peanut butter does not exist.  When I got married, my husband always kept peanut butter in the house, but I never felt like trying it.  I thought "Blehhh, who could eat that stuff?" and never even fed it to my kids.  My daughter never tried it until she was in college and some friends introduced it to her during Spring Break one year.

She really liked it and asked me why I never gave it to her growing up.  I decided to try it and now I like it too!  I guess that I'm a little bit like the guy from Green Eggs and Ham.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.  Have a wonderful and blessed day and a safe and restful weekend!

Black Friday Shopping

Good morning and happy Tuesday!  I was saddened to hear that with the internet and on-line shopping, Black Friday may become a thing of the past.  Even though we may not buy that much, I really enjoy going out after Thanksgiving (it's now becoming the day of) and shopping for hours.  It's been a family tradition for years and my son and his family are continuing the tradition three time zones away in California.

Here are some photos of me and my daughter riding stuffed animals on Black Friday.

And although I've never made a Black Friday layout (what is taking me so long?), here's a Christmas shopping one.

Thanks for visiting today.  Have an amazing and blessed day!

Wilderness Adventure

Good morning and happy Monday!  I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving weekend.  We went over to the east coast of Florida to our son-in-law's father & step-mother's house for an amazing Thanksgiving dinner.

On our way over, my husband wanted to look for a plot of land that my father bought about 40 years ago when someone went to Venezuela selling pieces of the American Dream, 1/4 acre at a time.  As it turned out, this development never really developed (very common here in Florida) and the only thing there are the sand "streets" they plowed out of the wilderness all those years ago.

We've been paying the taxes on it for years, but none of us has ever seen it.  My husband and his sister went looking for it a few years ago.  Since the "streets" were impassable to anything but a 4WD truck, they started walking in but turned around when they found bear tracks.

This time my husband searched on Google Maps and found that they could drive to about a "block" away from the other end where there are some houses.  We got to the end of the drive-able road and he walked the rest of the way in.  Here's what he found.

Lovely, right?  Someone has dumped some old crates and tires in the front yard!  He said that he did hear a lot of animal sounds coming out of the trees, but no bears.  He decided not to check out the supposed lake at the back of the lot.

Here's the perfect layout for the photos that he took.  I may have to send him back for more ... he only took three!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.  Have a wonderful and blessed day.

Never a Dull Moment

Happy Tuesday dear friends! Are you getting excited about Thanksgiving and Black Friday? I sure am! As you know, I've been bound to bed/home for the last 5 weeks because of my latest back surgery. My sister and niece were here for a while "babysitting" me. Some days were filled with movies, crafts and visitors. Other days we had soooo much time in our hands that I ended up getting into BIG trouble!

I decided that I wanted a new look and wanted to have straight hair. My niece drove me to Walmart and we went straight to the hair department. A young man advised us to use this amazing product that will make your hair "very straight and very shiny". We were so excited that we did not read directions nor ask for advice from anyone else. We got home and started the process.  Everything was smiles and pictures until my hair started breaking off before we did the last step!!! You could imagine my screams, laughs and tears (all at the same time). When we finally googled the product we discovered that it was for African-American hair and contained lye!!!

This is my sweet husband trying to find something to help me out.  He discovered something called "Gorilla Snot".  He also commented that the product I had used worked great.  All of the hair that had broken off was laying on the floor very straight!

I am glad I had made a layout perfect for these pictures.  It's titled "Hello Gorgeous". 

Here is me yesterday getting another "new look". The nice, wise and patient hairstylist told me that the only way to fix it 100% would be to shave my head entirely but if I didn't mind conditioning it 7 times a day for the next 6 months, this new look will work.  My husband's unsolicited comment was "Time Cures All".

I am convinced that the Lord has done a great thing inside of me regarding my self-esteem. Not only I've enjoyed the laughs every time I remember this event, but I am also  glad that I still feel "beautiful"!!!! Laugh no matter what. Smile when things don't go your way. Give thanks to the Lord even in the midst of your mistakes.  

Remember about our amazing super sale on ALL of our kits. There's plenty available for almost every occasion.

Have a wonderful, blessed and fun day, no matter what! 

Black Friday Kits Sale Starts Today

Good morning! Hope you had a lovely and peaceful weekend. It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is only 3 days away! I am very excited because it's time to be surrounded with family and friends as well as adventuring the night away on Black Friday with my daughter.

We are happy to announce a Black Friday sale on all scrapbooking kits in stock starting today.  If you buy any four kits, you'll get a fifth one FREE!  That's a 20% savings!!!  And you'll save even more because every additional kit that you buy beyond the first five is $15 each, a 25% savings!!!

We have plenty of different kits available, but the quantities on some are limited.  Click on the Happy Shopper to the left to see what we have. Send me an e-mail listing all of the kits that you'd like to buy.  Even if you've previously purchased a kit for yourself, you might want to think about getting another for a scrapbooking friend.  They make great stocking stuffers!

Avoid the crowds and place your order soon!!!

Thanks for visiting my blog today!  I look forward to hearing from you.  Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Fall Layouts

Good morning and happy Friday!  My goodness, I looked at my calendar yesterday and realized that Thanksgiving (and, of course, Black Friday) were only one week away.  After that we move into Christmas & winter, new and different themes.  I hope that I'm able to catch up!

Here are just four of the Fall themed layout kits that are still available for purchase.  There are others that you can see by clicking on the shopper to the left.

Autumn Leaves

Autumn

Fall

October Fun

This is a great opportunity for you to find a home for all of those Fall photos you've been taking and the Thanksgiving ones that you'll be taking next week.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Autumn Layouts

Good morning and happy Wednesday!  Now that Autumn is is full swing, here are a couple of recent layout kits of mine for the season.  They are Autumn Leaves and Fall Traditions. 

And here I am with my friends Linda & Peggy enjoying one of those Fall traditions, the pumpkin patch.

Thanks for visiting today.  Have a wonderful and blessed day!