Love Is....

I have lost three close family members to domestic violence. My aunt was murdered when I was 10 by her husband of one month. He stabbed her 28 times no one even knows what the dispute was about. She left a six year old son. My cousin who was like my older sister was murdered when she was 23 year old and I was 20. Three hours before her son's father shot her, my mom and I were at her house and were upset at the huge bruise on her arm. She smiled at us and said he SAID he was sorry.....she left two little girls and a 3 month old son. Two years ago another cousin of mines naked body was left in a wooded area, she was last seen arguing with her off and on long time boyfriend, there has been a couple of arrests but prosecutor seems to have little interest in taking this court to trial. She left two preteen daughters. All of these crimes were committed by men who purported to LOVE them. I always go back to (IMO) the authority on Love, who said:
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant (1 Cor. 13:4)...where in there does that leave room for abuse? where does it leave room for murdering the very one you claim to love? My heart goes out to Jennifer Hudson & her family. I am crying the same never ending tears. In one second, some idiot demolished your life as you knew it. And nothing can ever change it back. As time goes on, you build it into something new...something different. Something not quite as good as it was...after all those loved ones are no longer there with you. It never hurts any less...it's just not as close to the surface. But something will remind of that person and even now almost two decades later, the pain of my cousins passing can overwhelm me. I wish I could tell every woman who is with an abusive mate, not to allow him to do to her family what has been done to mine. I wish I could show them all the years of pain and tears that has been inflicted on children who are missing bright smiles and warm hugs of their murdered mothers. I wish I could tell all those abusers, hey we love her too, she doesn't BELONG to you. But I can't. I can only continue to pray for those whose pain I know all too well.

Mercury Retrograde...

I admit i check my horoscope from time to time. I am not fanatical about but when I do I ALWAYS go to Susan Miller's Astrology Zone. She is usually has things that are so exact it is eerie. well this months forecast for me starts out like this,

"After a fairly stressful September, you are looking forward to October, and rightly so. Mercury, your ruler, will still be retrograde for the first three weeks of October. This time you may welcome the slower pace that Mercury retrograde brings. With two eclipses in August and a very difficult full moon in mid-September, you've been dealing with a lot of news and shifting situations." Ok cue the spooky music! Lady get outta my life and head...stressful September was an understatement..

here is another gem..."At work, if you are in the creative department, this month you'll find it easy to come up with ideas but a little harder to execute them properly."
Guess thats why my idea book is full but my upload queue is almost empty...execution seems to beyond my grasp right now....

but now that the retrograde has passed (Oct 20) i should be able to get back in the swing of things....right????

Mad About Plaid and a freebie

I finally got a new product!!! I ran a bit behind on the preview templates I was working on because I got sidetracked by these...its my Mad About Plaid series. Six unique grayscale overlays to make creating plaid papers a snap!



The scrapper size set will be exclusive to DID for the next week as the promotional kit of the week..free when you spend at least $10 in one purchase! You can also purchase the tagger size set. Here is a freebie of both sizes to play with!

Work in Progress & freebie

thats how I feel. My life has been so hectic...my eldest is graduating this year. She has decided on a college (go Grambling Tigers) but still has ACT to take, she made captain of the cheerleading squad and nominated to Homecoming Court...all of this means her extracurricular load is crazy...practice for this, practice for that, community appearances...whooo...busy busy busy. Here is Pixie in her uniform pic

my youngest son is seeing a new pediatric neurologist because the two previous ones moved out of the area. She is GREAT! i was really unhappy with the last one he had. He was good with my son but I just found him somewhat standoffish. My son will also be seeing a physiatrist...I had never heard of it either...its a rehabilitation doctor. Rehabilitation physicians are nerve, muscle, and bone experts who treat injuries or illnesses that affect how you move. Jorrell's official diagnosis is hemplegic cerebral palsy (resulting from stroke he suffered in utero) which means this doctor will use his expertise to oversee the physical & occupational therapy. Even with him getting it at school & outpatient once a week, we are noticing increased tone or difficulty with him doing the range of motion exercises. It makes me sad to see how he has to use his left arm turn his right arm in supine position.

But he is a real trooper and so sweet! The brace on his arm is to help with finger extension!
Those are just a few of the things that are keeping me busy. i also seem to have lost my mojo...i am working on a set of paper preview templates. A friend asked me to make her some so I obliged. This one supports 8 papers so here is a sample download here.
i am also working on my first tagger kit..I am part of the yahoo group Truly Inspired and next couple weeks, there will be a blog train based on this story SHIMILY (be sure to have your tissues ready). Stay tuned to for more info on that.

Nightmare at Scraphead Blog Train

Its been forever since i updated but I am back with freebies!! Who doesn't like a freebie? As part of the Oct daily download at Scraphead.com, the designers are doing a blog train. Be sure to grab the brag book pages from all the designers. This is my first brag book page and it can be downloaded here:

Day One




Snowraven http://silversnowyraven.blogspot. Com

Michelle Powell http://scrapheadspot.blogspot.com

Renata http://www.serenebyrw.blogspot.com

Creations by Rachael http://www.creationsbyrachael.blogspot.com

By God's design http://digibygodsdesign.biz

Jennifer Wambach http://jennartdesign.blogspot.com/

MoveFearlessly Designs http://movefearlessly.com/blog/

Cathy Joes Designs http://cathyjoeskorner.blogspot.com/

Sherry D http://ambrosiaartsva.blogspot.com/

Cindy Ritter http://cindyritterdigiscrap.blogspot.com/

Tiffani http://totallyrawkindesigns.blogspot.com

Patricia - http://www.digiheaven.blogspot.com/

Be sure to check back for the new page!