It's been a while.....

Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted anything.  I think I have been a little depressed since losing Tommy, but have finally come to grips with it! I know I gave him a good life even if it was a short one!

We are deep in the throes of triple digit TEXAS summer heat....LOL! Yep, finally the 100 degrees was officially hit yesterday, but....we have had a week of triple digits unofficially and with lots and lots of horrible humidity. The air has been so thick it is almost impossible to breath. I had forgotten I had asthma, because I haven't had any problems with it in several years since removing cigarette smoke from my environment, but this weather has caused some congestion to creep back in....soooooooo....this cookie is staying inside in the AC as much as she can! (ROFLMAO...as if I need an excuse!)  Surely have done a lot of catching up on my reading, napping, movies and TV shows I had taped up! Such is the life....RIGHT?  Sometimes, ya just gotta do what you gotta do!  BUT....if the weather casts are anywhere near correct (???) we are to experience a cold front starting tomorrow that is to drop temperatures by 20 degrees by Thursday!!! Hip, Hip, Hooray!! Best of all, it is supposed to bring us some very much needed rain too!  If that all proves to be true...I will be out dancing in the rain puddles!!  LOL!

My hibiscus surely has shown off this year with blooms.  It has new blooms daily, from 1-8 each day and they are so big and brilliant in color.  The wind has blown so much I have to keep rotating the pot as it is causing the whole plant to lean, I finally tied it to a shepard's hook last evening to give it some stability. I have had to water the plants each evening as they are so thirsty from the heat and winds. Here's a couple of shots of the flowers from day before yesterday! I am surprised at how lovely they are each day! This is the first year I have seen a hummingbird...it loves the hibiscus so I hung a feeder for it just above the plant under the shade of the overhang and it visits daily. I am hoping to have my camera and get a photo, but they are so fast and I can't shoot through the windows as I have full screens and it has just been too hot to sit out front and wait and not scare it away!

Okay, time to get my behind out of this chair and get some things done...I have to move before I get so stiff I can't...LOL! Y'all have a great week ahead and keep on making all those memories to share! Chat more with you later! Blessings sent to all of you! Hugs, Mat

Things have changed.....

Click here to go to the NEW BLOG.

Double Whammy!!

I got hit twice with this award!

I am supposed to thank the one giving it to me, tell you 7 things about me and pass it on...well, here goes!
Thanx to Kyra from With a Russian Dutch Heart and Linda from Random Thoughts for this award.
1. I am the oldest of 4...3 sisters and 1 brother (who is deceased). I also have a couple of adopted Sisters too and even some ex-sisters-in-law that still call me Sis! I am an aunt to 2 nieces and 4 nephews, great aunt to 3 girls and 1 boy and mom to 3 fur girls!
2. I am very outgoing and love meeting new challenges and new people. I am a great and trusted friend and will do almost anything I can for a friend in need. I have several REAL friends not just acquaintances. I am proud of them all! I am steadfast and very loyal.
3. I love to travel and have been in a portion of all but 7 of our 50 states. I have been to England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Korea, China, Singapore, India, Mexico and Canada outside the United States.
4. I never realized I was creative until I started scrapbooking and it has been a beautiful experience evolving from paper to digital to designing! I love my blog that I had printed in book form...that is as close as I will ever get to writing a book. (I have retyped 3 books for reprinting and helped 2 other friends with their covers, etc that were published)
5. I was a police dispatcher for 6 years and have many, many, many stories I could tell, but choose not to bore any of you with them.
6. I love to read and research genealogy. I have over 4k names involved in my ever increasing Family Tree. I have created many "trees" for many friends and loved turning others onto finding their "families".
7. Lastly, I love to cook and bake for others.
Most of the blogs I visit the most has been hit with this awards so I think I will forward it to Lesley at Scrapiness Down Under http://scrappiness-sylviaesther.blogspot.com/ and
Lanell at Never Forget Memories http://neverforgetmemories.blogspot.com/
These are the only other blogs that I visit daily other than the ones that have been hit already! Thanks ladies for sharing your lives with me as well as your very generous gifts. I adore all of you and am very proud to call you my friend! Later! Dancing with the Stars is coming on and so is the Voice, one to watch one to DVR for later! LOL!
Luv, Mat

The Weekend is almost here again!

We've had a rough few days with the weather, but the weekend is coming and so is the sunshine and dryout time. I got a couple of photos of Hayden I thought I would share so you can she how she is growing like a weed.Here she is on her Mama's horse and in a kit by Lanell at Never Forget Memories.
Here she is in a kit by RDH called A Touch of Tenderness, the wordart is Miss Linda's.
Kathy's grandbabies are all down with a respiratory infection called RSV. Sure hope Mommy and Daddy don't get it, but at least all 3 have it at once. Poor Chris!!
I created this page with some photos I had not used yet. The kit is a freebie from Beautiful Bright Eyes called Purple Haze.
I just had to do one of my "girls" too so they don't feel left out...LOL!
I used papers from Miriam's Scraps and used Kyra's Cat Society kit.
I thank all these generous designers for sharing their work so that I might be able to play with all my photos.
Miss Miriam and her hubby have both been ill with the flu and sinus infection so I finally tackled uploading my own work to her blog, took a lot of help from Miriam, Lanell and Kyra, but we finally got the bugs worked out. Check Miriam's Scraps blog and find some great freebies. You can find a link to all these designers on the right side of this blog.
Y'all have a terrific weekend, making memories to share and we will chat again later! Luv, Mat

Spring Fever hits again!!

Spring is definitely in the air! Got the rest of the trees in the back trimmed, more clean up in the yard, freshly mowed, edged and weed eaten! Trash all out for pick up on Friday. Looks really nice, neat and clean outside and lots better with the trees trimmed. Fencing all looks good now, just getting ready to do some minor repairs and some outside painting, maybe. Not now though with all this high humidity!
Okay, all the windows are opened and I get a wild hair to remove the attached headboard and night stands from my bed. Got those in the barn and my room looks almost doubled in size and so much lighter in there too. So next thing...change the sheets and quilts out, move the bed and lordy, lordy, lordy found a whole new store of cat toys (not to mention hair I had been unable to get to cause could not move it) under the bed. So spring cleaned in there really well. Even dusted the furniture and ceiling fan.
Next day, called Nina, changed out the curtains in my living room to pretty spring sheers, plus changed up the wall decorations (Nina does such great work), then decided to wash and change the curtains in the bedroom too. So much fun, fun, fun! I was really tired so treated myself to some sliced apples, cheese and a glass of wine and went to bed to read until about 10.
Lightning flashes and thunder crashes woke me around 1:15 and did not die down until around 3. Not a lot of rain, but when it did come down it was very fast and very heavy. Wide awake so I read some more until about 7 a.m. then fell back to sleep until 10.
Had to go to Wally World to exchange some things, bought some silk panels to go with my new sheers in the living room, put them up, changed the curtain on the front door to match, changed the dining room to spring colors and then changed the ones in the bedroom around again. Now I am pooped for sure, but surely feels good that the spring cleaning is done, including mopping all the floors and washing the windows inside. Still one more load of clothes where I changed the dining room out, but that's nothing compared to all that has been accomplished this weekend.
Tomorrow, just gonna laze around and watch my Nascar Races and pig out. Hope you have a terrific Sunday as well. Make lots of memories while you can. We have more storms to come through on Monday and Tuesday so glad all the yard work got done.
Chat more with y'all next time. Luv, Mat and "the girls"
Here's what I did in the bedroom with removing the headboard and changing the draperies.

Here's some photos of what we did to the wall and windows of the living room. I used 2 kits of Kyra's from Russian Dutch Heart and a cluster from her kit by Arlene.

'Smoke' did it again in Vegas!!

Our rain is finally moved out of here, my little pond on the driveway has finally receded so the birds can eat again. I have been in this house since Wednesday and today I have been sitting here watching the Nascar Races from Las Vegas and Tony 'Smoke' Stewart won again. Great race this time..but I decided to scrap a little while watching it....LOL!
Spoke with my sister, Kathy, this morning and she said she was going to play Bingo, so I just had to do this page for her. It's a combo of a cluster by one of the CT at Raspberry Road Designs and the Add On freebie from RRD of the Life Documented kit.Then I put this page together of her grandbabies with a collab kit from MSCK called Violet Red Passion and some photos from Christina's facebook site.Finally here is a page with Miss Hayden in it. This is a special QP made by Kyra at Russian Dutch Heart.Thanks to all these generous designers for their lovely work.
Since the sun has come out and it is only 5:30 pm, think I will go outside for a few minutes, the temps are coming back up from the 30's to being in the 80's by tomorrow! No wonder so many folks are ill with allergies or colds. Y'all have a good week ahead, will chat with you more next time. Luv, Mat

Time Change Already?

Can You believe it? Time change is here again this weekend! Time just seems to fly by so fast now days!!
It's been spring here in Texas since the middle of January. All the trees have budded, bloomed and now are the pretty early spring green. Flowers are popping out everywhere and I have potted some pansies, geraniums, live forevers and dianthus and ornamental cabbages. The temps are perfect (actually a little warm) but the wind is about to tear everything up by the roots. We are expecting 2-3 inches of rain over the next three days that will help a lot especially if it is the slow soaking rain. And temperatures are to drop back about 20 degrees to the mid to upper 50's.
I took some photos of my cat collections...the 3 family kitty cat flower pots hold the dianthus', then there are the 2 solar cats amongst my potted plants in the front, the 2 welcoming ones standing on the front portico and all my placques that hang over the kitchen window. And my doormat says wipe your paws...think I love cats
These photos of my "girls" were taken with my Blackberry phone and put in a page I created from RDH's A Day in Tom Kitten's Life kit with a freebie cluster from the same kit made by Arlene (there is a link in my blog visits on the right), don't they look cute? They are such fun "girls" and so much company! You should see them now, a fly has gotten in and is about to drive them wild...they are certainly getting some exercise today...maybe they will be exhausted tonight (like a cat needs a reason to sleep...LOL
This newest photo of Hayden is from either Margaret's or Penny's facebook account, thought she looked so cute in this QP I made for Miriam's Scraps (See her link on the right here) a while back. If you haven't visited her space lately, you have missed some really lovely freebies. The wordart on this is one of Miss Linda's (Random Thoughts on the right) from a while back
Since it is hump day, y'all all have a great weekend ahead making lots of great memories to share and don't forget to turn those clocks forward an hour, yep we lose a whole hour on Sunday morning! Chat more next time...Luv, Mat