One More Grateful Post

This is my dear friend Sue. I have known Sue since my days in business college....(a very loooong time ago) I remember sitting in class, not knowing anyone, and looking over and thinking she would be a nice person to get to know....my instincts were right....Sue was indeed a nice person.....and still is. She and I have recently caught up on facebook. It has been so fun to reconnect with her. She has become a big fan of my blog and has really enjoyed reading my "grateful" posts this month so I figured it was only fitting on this last day of November to let her know that I am grateful for her, and her friendship.

I "borrowed" this photo off of her facebook and cropped and  embellished it a little bit at picnik.com hope she is ok with that. =) Thanks for being that person that "I thought would be so nice to get to know"....I am grateful to know you. {{{hugs}}} Kathy

November 30th

I made it....here it is November 30th....I have made 30 blog posts...all about different things I am grateful for...it has been a great challenge....I had a few ideas for posts that didn't work out but somehow when I sat down to type I always managed to come up with something....sometimes my thoughts took me in a totally different direction than what I had planned on but that was ok...it made me grateful for my ability to "wing-it" as it were and still come up with something. I hope that I have inspired you to try this sometime....we all need to be more grateful....so don't wait until next November to try this out....it has been a wonderful exercise in finding and being grateful for the little things in life.

Tomorrow starts December and what could be the "Christmas Crazie"s....if you let it.......please don't get too caught up in the hustle and bustle and the craziness of the season......stop and take stock in what the season is really all about and enjoy it. That is what I am certainly going to try and do....working in retail it's difficult to do at times but it IS my goal this December.
Here's a little sneak peek of what I will be working on to help me remember the season.

Almost Finished

Wow....can't believe November is almost over...Christmas will be here before we know it...and certainly before I am ready for it. =) I had been feeling under the weather over the weekend....first a cold hit on Thanksgiving and then I threw my back out and was in pain for several days...so today I am grateful for my health....and the fact that I am feeling better....I promise I have NO photos of me looking pathetic and sick over the weekend...you can use your imagination on that image...but here is one of me feeling better. Ok so maybe I didn't take it today but you get the idea....I am feeling much better....and so grateful for it!

Inspiration



This is a lift from Stacey Michaud's blog. It's a photo of Jason and his half sister McKenna


As a scrapbook artist I am inspired by so many things....my photos....beautiful patterned paper....the stories I want to tell......and the designs of others. I learned long ago that if you could learn to look past the pretty paper and the photos you could take almost any basic design and make it your own. Most of the time I use "scrap lifting" as a "jumping off" point....a place to start...I love to see what I can do to make the design my own....often times just changing the papers and the embellishments will give my layout a whole different feel than the one I am "borrowing." I am such a visual person...that gleaning from others really helps start the process for me. Today I am GRATEFUL to all of those women who share their beautiful works of art out there in cyberspace....they are so talented and they certainly INSPIRE me.

  I am posting two layouts here that I just finished today. The layouts were inspired by Stacey Michaud and Karen Grunberg.........thanks ladies....I am totally GRATEFUL for your talent and that you share it with all of us. You can see Stacey's work at  http://staceymichaud.blogspot.com/ and Karen's http://www.karenika.com/

This layout is a lift of Karen Grunberg...what a talented lady she is. Sadly my title doesn't show up very well it says "Begins Now"

Blessings

I have fallen behind a couple of days so I decided I would play catch up today.

Post for Friday

As the month draws to a close I want say how grateful I am for this month of gratitude. It has caused me for just a moment to stop and focus on my blessings rather than on the day to day stuff that really doesn't matter.

I only took a couple of photos on Thanksgiving....but this one, tho it isn't stellar, stands out, because Cliff never plays video games with Jason and so I thought it was a sweet Father/Son moment. I am grateful for my wonderful husband and awesome son and even though they are very different they do have a special bond between them. I am sure it will be the topic of a scrapbook page in the not to distant future.

Post for Saturday
I was going to post this the other day but ran out of time. On Wednesday Jason and I went to Bella Terra and checked out a cool new cupcake shop owned and operated by some friends of ours from church.....talk about YUMMY! You can see their facebook page here http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Simple-Pleasures-Cupcakery/165154670162650?v=wall Here are just a couple of photos that I took with my phone. Today I am grateful for cupcakes and time with Jason.

A Sugar Cookie Cupcake........totally YUMMY!

How about a Chocolate Candy Cane Cupcake.......Scrumptious!

100 Awesome Things

I decided I couldn't say it any better than this! Take a few minutes and watch this video....I am grateful to Melody Ross for putting together this cool video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNRQClsH_-8  

 I added this layout from last summer...when we picked up Jeremy from his mission....I'm also grateful for the awesome time we had together as a family.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!!

Stories

Today I spent the day running errands and getting ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Fortunately I was off so I could get a lot done. I took a little minute this morning and ran to Starbucks to get one of my favorite seasonal treats........Peppermint Hot Chocolate. I could easily make this post be about how I am grateful for Peppermint Hot Chocolate but it goes a little deeper than that. When I got my hot chocolate I put one of those cup holder thingies on it, you know the one that keeps your fingers from getting too hot...the sentiment on it really caught my eye. It said "Stories are Gifts......Share" I thought about that for a while and realized how cool it was...I am the story teller in my family....I tell stories about our family with each and every scrapbook layout I create....while I love to tell the stories and create the pages I never had thought of them as gifts.....until today....they are gifts for my children.....and for their children.......so today I am grateful for all the amazing stories of my life....the stories that truly are gifts not only to me but also to my posterity.

I am adding some older layouts to this post...I don't have a picture of my hot chocolate this morning. =) But I do have pictures of layouts with stories on them...so for your enjoyment here they are.