Hi there!!!!!

Hello everyone!!
Sorry I've kept some of you hanging and maybe even worrying. But I just wanted to pop in to let you all know that I am alive and well. I know I have not posted in WEEKS!!! Gasp!!! But things have been crazy here. We've been in the process of buying our new home and moving!! So my hubby and I have been packing and cleaning like crazy! I am up this late cleaning and packing. We closed on our house today!! We're officially home owners now!! Well, owners with a mortgage payment! Ha! We're moving in tomorrow Friday the 30th (well, actually today at this point). I wanted to post a picture to go with this post but our camera is out in the car and I don't want to go out in the dark to get it! So I am sorry for my absence. And I know I haven't commented on any one's blogs lately, I have checked different ones here and there quickly off and on. But I haven't taken the time to leave any comments. My mind is kind of cloudy and tired right now. So I am going to cut this short. I just wanted to get this out before our phone and internet will be shut off sometime tomorrow. We won't have internet access at our new home until Monday. Our house is all packed up and we're picking up the u-haul in the morning. A guy my husband works with is going to come and help us load everything up in the morning. Then he and another guy will help Matthew unload at the new house. I'm sitting on the floor while typing this. Our desk is all disassembled. My boys came down with colds so they were not feeling so great earlier today. So just be praying for them and us for smooth sailing tomorrow!! Thanks so much!! Hopefully I'll have some stuff to share sometime next week!! God bless you!!

Al Mar Orchards

Happy Sunday! I trust you all had a wonderful weekend. My hubby, the boys and I came up to my parents place last evening. Matthew actually worked today. So I was here with the boys all day. I was itching to do some digi scrapping and being that I am away from home where I have all my digi stuff, it makes it a little difficult. However, my mom has Photoshop Elements on her computer. And I had purchased some stuff recently from a couple different places. So I was able to download that stuff to play with! I really wanted to play more with the fun fall set I got from Little Dreamer Designs last week. So I found these pictures of my two little sisters from back in 2007 when they were up in Michigan visiting our family's favorite apple orchard! We all love going there every time we visit in the fall. So I thought it would be fun to scrap their pics to make note of our favorite apple orchard. I think I may have some pictures at home of us there as well... Hmmm, now I'll have to check when I get home, so I can scrap those! :) So without furthar ado, here is the page I came up with.

It was a little different for me to adjust to using PS Elements. But after a while I figured things out and it was pretty easy. Some things were a little anoying b/c I'm so used to regular PS. But it was fun being limited to just having a couple different digital sets to work with and using a slightly different program, it was a fun challenge! Thanks for stopping by and "seeing" me today! God bless the rest of your Sunday evening and have a blessed week!

Everything but the kitchen sink challenge

Hey there! This is going to be a real quick post. We're heading out right after Mr. Keller gets home from work. Anyway, I really wanted to be able to make in time for this challenge, so I hurried and made these cards today. Super quick. Nothing too special. I haven't gotten any mail in the last two days, yeah crazy! And I was waiting to get something exciting. But I figured I would just go ahead and use some newspaper I got in the mail earlier in the week. So I made THREE cards today!! Ha! I just wanted to try some different things. for the first one I did another Dahlia flower, this time using newspaper, it was fun!

And again for this second one I used newspaper to create kind of a laced ribbon effect. I also used bubble wrap as a stamp for the white stamped background. I'm not sure where I got it from, but at some point it probably came in the mail a while back.

And this last one I ended up finding a Snapfish magazine I got in the mail a week or so ago, I was flipping through it to see if there was anything that would work good for the challenge, and I realized it had these really neat brush flowers on each page. So that is where the brown strip with the flower on it came from. SUPER simple card, nothing too special, but I was in such a hurry I threw it together. (NOTE: the brown smudge on the bottom of the flower isn't suppose to be there! I think I must have had some brown ink on my hand and touched it, oops!) I am happy I am able to be a part of this challenge! I was excited about it when I first read about it on Courtney's blog!

I know I haven't been listing my supplies I've been using lately, mostly because I don't have time... or just too lazy. Ha! I may try to list supplies again eventually but for now I do not have time. So hope you enjoyed, have a wonderful weekend!!

Samuel William- 1 year old

One more post for today! I know, I've had a lot. But I wanted to share this... So here is my sweet little son on his first birthday yesterday. He was having lots of fun picking up sticks and "tasting" them. He even picked up a dead caterpillar and tasted that too! I quickly got that from him and told him that was really yucky! He then had tiny little hairs on his mouth from the caterpillar! Ha! I still cannot believe a whole year has gone by since I went through that gruesome labor of having him! But he's sure worth it a million times over! (ok, so I probably would be dead after that! Since I thought I was going to die from just having him the one time!Ha!). He brings so much joy and delight to our lives, I can't imagine it without him. Happy birthday my sweet baby!

Here is the card I QUICKLY put together for him. Of course he can't read or really realize what the card is for, but I like to keep them for keepsakes. And he does enjoy getting cards, and then destroying his cards he gets. He just holds on to them and then kindly tears pieces off it!! Haha! This picture was taken after it had already been mangled by him and then rescued and salvaged the best we could. Haha! He had a great day though! EVER SO CUTE watching him blow his candle out! I think he's a pro now, since he got to do it twice in one week! He loves to blow on everything!! Including the sidewalk chalk and then taste it of course!

I also wanted to talk about the star paper I used on this card. It is actually paper that came from a book that my son Isaac has. Well his little brother (Samuel) tore it out one day. And as I was throwing it in the waste basket I realized I could reuse it! It's really pretty blue paper with stars all over!! So I quickly grabbed it back out and have saved it for using on cards!

Moxie Fab- Gradient is radient challenge

Hello again! Here is my card I created last week for the latest Moxie Fab challenge, which is using a gradient effect. My pinks don't exactly fall together far as the right shades, but I had to use all the different pinks I had to make enough for the dahlia flower. So I used all the pink I could find that looked remotely good together. Anyway thanks for checking this out and visiting me again today! Your comments mean a lot to me!

Falling Leaves...

Hello there! My son had a great birthday yesterday! And despite that I wasn't able to use my nice camera for the indoor shots, I did take the boys outside for awhile and was able to get some good photos with the canon I think. Otherwise all other photos had to be taken with our old crappy Sony camera.... so it was rather sad having to go back to something with not so good quality when you're use to using a nicer camera. Anyway, I had to just let things go and relax. Thanks so much for all your prayers and encouragement, you all are so sweet!

So anyway thought I'd share this digital page with you that I created last week. I wanted to add some leaves that kind of looked like they were falling to go with my "falling leaves" quote/sticker. I was at Little Dreamer Designs last night and found a new set that was 20% off. I thought it was cute. So I added the leaves and this is the end result.. I'm not sure if I'm sold on this layout, but I do know I love all the color in it and I mostly just wanted it to display the pictures and what I wanted to say. So I didn't put a whole lot of detail on it. I got some free digital papers that Crystal has on her blog, so that is where I got the orange paper and the die cut shape from. Maybe I will list my supplies I use on my layouts another time. Sometimes I'm just too lazy to look everything up. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Missed it...

Hello! Well, it happened to me again.. I missed the deadline for Dawn's color challenge. I didn't take a picture of my card earlier today like I should have. I knew I should have when I thought of it, but just got caught up with other things throughout the day. So I quickly took this picture this evening in the house. I thought I still had an half hour before the challenge ended. I was thinking we are 2 hours ahead of her in her time zone, but I must have been wrong, because when I went to check, it was already closed. Boohoo. This was just one of the many things that went wrong for me today. I had a pretty rough day. A lot of tears going on. AND to top it all off, shortly after I took this picture this evening, I went to take a picture of our boys being ever so cute, and our flash on the camera quit working!! I thought maybe I had it set on something wrong. Matthew looked it over and tried some different things and then went online to try and get some help. It sounds like we will have to send the camera in to Canon and spend close to $200 to have it fixed AND it would be gone for at least 2 weeks!! AND, not only that, but my baby boy's FIRST birthday is tomorrow (today), the 6th!!!! I have just been in tears tonight. I need to have a working camera, and especially for inside I need to have the flash. We were going to wait to give him his gifts and do the cake (torte) after Matthew got home.. and by then the lighting will be even darker in the house!! I need some prayer right now. I've had a stressful and emotional day. Along with trying to start my first day of the week in my life project, which I might have to post pone now, I don't know. We'll see. I got through most of the day with a working camera, but it just wasn't a happy day for me. Got upset with myself, my son, my hubby... just feel like a horrible mommy and wife sometimes. Ok, I best get going. I need to get some rest. Thanks for listening to my sobby, self pity story. No, I know I just need to relax and give things over to the Lord and pray alot. He can give me perfect peace that passes all understanding.

Sorry...

Hey there! I just wanted to pop in and say Hi! And also say sorry for such a "quiet" week far as no posts. I know I had a lot last week, and I knew it wasn't going to be as busy this week just because things going on here. October is a VERY busy birthday month in our family and just a lot of other things going on as well. I do have a couple cards I've wanted to share that I was able to make a few evenings ago. But the weather had been bad and it wasn't the greatest for taking pictures. Today was BEAUTIFUL! It was a such a pretty fall day. The colors ares starting to come out more, the air was crisp, blustery with a bit of a chill, and sunny! So perfect! I LOVE fall!! I love the smells, the cozy feelings you get when you can just enjoy the beautiful weather but also cuddle up in side and drink some tea, hot cocoa, or even spiced hot cider (which I have not had yet this year, we did get some apples and cider from the cider mill last week, but it's all gone now!). Anyway, today would have been perfect for my pictures, but my hubby ran off with the camera when I thought of doing it... had I known sooner, I would have grabbed it earlier on in the day and snapped some pictures of my cards. But besides all of that... My sweet baby boy is going to be ONE year old this Tuesday (the 6th), so we are having some of my family over tomorrow to celebrate. So I've been getting things ready for that. It's going to be sort of a double birthday celebration because my Dad's birthday is on Monday, the day before my son, Samuel's (he was actually due on Grandpa's birthday, but just missed it by a few hours). So we're doing a dinner with just my parents and some of my siblings, the older ones with their families are not able to make it. So we'll be doing chicken, mashed potatoes, a salad, and not decided for sure, but maybe some acorn squash, I think I will most likely make it. We love it, and so does my family. And there will be cake and ice cream of course! I made two pumpkin pies tonight for my Dad, that's what he requested, he loves pumpkin pie. I like getting what I can made ahead of time. And if you know me, I'm a late night-er, it's just easier for me to get things done after the boys are all in bed and I can have free time to get things made and ready.

My hubby did wash all the dishes for me tonight though, that was SO sweet of him!! And he did it all on his own, I didn't even have to ask!! How sweet is that?!?! The house smells wonderful with that pumpkin pie aroma in the air! Another thing I love about this time of year! :)

And with today (yesterday, now!! It's after 1:00 am here, eeekers!!) being World Card Making Day, I really wanted to have at least a post up of one of my cards, but I didn't get to it. And I knew with me being busy with birthday planning and such, that I most likely would not get to create today. So anyway, hope you all had a wonderful day and have a very blessed day tomorrow!!

One more thing I wanted to mention...

Starting Monday, I will be starting a documentation of a week in my life. This is a fun thing to do just to document one week in your life. Taking photos each day, jotting down things you did that day or anything that you would like to make note of. Take pictures of things you wouldn't normally take pictures of, like washing dishes, laundry, cleaning your bathroom, a pile of folded clothes, mail, or if you go out take your camera with you and take pictures of where you went, ie- grocery shopping, post office, just running errands etc. There are no particular rules for this, it's just a fun thing to do to document a whole week in your life and then you can make an album featuring all your pictures and documentation. It will make for a really neat thing to look back on and remember just an ordinary week in your life! I will be starting this on Monday and ending it on next Sunday (the 11th). But really you can make it as long as you want and you can start it whenever you want. I found out about this last year through Ali Edward's blog. She started doing this a few years back and she explains all about how she does it and really has some great tips and suggestions on how to go about doing it. And encourages us to just be ourselves and make a point to document even the silly things that may even seem pointless to us, or something we don't normally see as being worthy of making note of or taking a picture of. I didn't participate in it last year because I was big huge and pregnant and ready to pop at any time! Ha! And I think I was pretty miserable feeling, so I guess I wasn't up to it. But now I sure wish I would have done it!! I think it would be so neat to look back at how I was feeling those last few days leading up to the birth of my son. Sometimes I too often don't do things and then later regret not doing them. So I encourage you to join me this week and document this week of your life, no matter what you do, even if you think your life is boring or nothing special going on. It doesn't matter. Even if you just take pictures or just journal. Later in life you will be thankful you did this! So will you join me?? I hope so!! Be sure and check out all Ali has on this and all the insight and info she shares on it!! I think it will encourage you more!! :)

So get your cameras ready!!! I will most likely be posting my pictures that I've taken through out the week! So stay tuned!! :)

Blessings to you all!!