Mistletoe Moment freebie

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Christmas WA freebie

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Amazing Grace

I'm so proud of my niece, Amye, today. She had the understanding of God's hand in her life, enough to know to pray for the courage and grace to accept the loss of her unborn child. We are all grieving today as she waits for her body, heart and spirit to heal from this unthinkable sorrow. She had a week to prepare herself, in between sonograms, for the doctor to give her the official word...that her baby had stopped growing four weeks ago. We had all rejoiced in the news of her pregnancy and now mourn with her and her husband as they adjust.

In a message from them yesterday, they acknowledge their sadness and disappointment, but tell us that they will never forget this baby, whose heartbeat they never heard. I'm so very very sad this morning with this loss...this, too, will heal because we all know that God is in control, and with Him, we can get through anything.

Blessings on your day,
Melanie

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Things Unnoticed (freebie)

I stumbled across this quotation this morning, and it reminded me of countless conversations with my mother in recent years, since we lost my dad. There are so many things my siblings and I remember about our childhoods that my mother does not. She and my dad were just busy BEING...busy going about the day-to-day activities required to take care of a family of seven, stretching the money as far as it would go, making clothes for us girls...so many things, so little time. So little time to notice the things that would someday become memories for their children.

I think that's a gift for us--their children--and a gift we can give our mother now in turn. Special memories.

Let's take note of these memories-in-the-making every day, shall we? :)

All the best,
Melanie


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Christmas Is More...freebie

A few weeks ago, the lovely Kate sent me another layout she'd done. This morning, while working on unfinished business from the past several weeks, I realized I had not posted it to show you how she used my word art. And--as it so often happens--re-reading her note to me this morning was exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you, Kate, for your gracious comment!

Melanie, Just for you, I hope you like it. Your word art makes all the
difference to a layout – gives it meaning. Love Kate

And here is her layout:

Today's gift word art is another way to share my beliefs about what Christmas really means. I used the phrase in a layout I prepared using KimB's Christmas First kit. Hope you can use the word art, too.

Blessings on this lovely day,

Melanie
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Chill out freebie

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Recycled Freebie

DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT: Wetfish Designs
Please take time to visit Cyndi's blog this week. Her December 1st posting is an inspiring writing of a fresh start she is making in how she views her life. You'll also find freebies in her December 2nd posting, with a reminder that Divine Digital has a terrific kit which you can collect through the Download-a-Day in its forum. It's called Holiday Madness. The preview below is just a small part of this cheery kit. Cyndi always adds more on her blog when it's her turn to provide the daily download gift.

As I work on word art to commemorate this oh-so-special time of year, I was reminded of a word art I made last year. I call it Christmas Means..., and it still summarizes my thoughts about this meaningful season. So I'm posting it again in case some of you new to my blog may have missed it.

blessings on your day,
Melanie
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COOKING WA freebie

Some time ago, Debbie (from Scotland) requested a "cooking with Nana" word art. So, I'm finally getting around to that! As it happens, my mom is called "Nana" by her grandchildren, too, so I'll need to find a pic to fit it myself.

blessings on your day,

Melanie

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December 1st freebie

Whew.

The last of my company left Sunday afternoon. We had a good visit with everyone, and as much as I love my family, it's always nice to have our house back to ourselves. I took yesterday "off" and did very little except for a bit more cleanup, and prepared a few random leftovers for dinner for my husband and me.

This morning, I'm still feeling as sluggish as 4Shared is acting...so I apologize in advance if you have any download issues with today's freebie.

I'll talk to you later, 'k?

Melanie

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Bad blogger

I am sooooo off-schedule with my blogging and designing and word-arting (?!) but I'm down-to-the-wire on getting ready for a houseful of family arriving for a 2-day Thanksgiving celebration. My husband and I are hosting it this year, but since everyone couldn't be here Thanksgiving Day, they're coming on Friday as well. We'll have revolving doors on the front door and the refrigerator, I think!!! Anyway, I'm dead-tired at the moment and need to get off my feet (on the bed but not at the computer) because Wednesday is going to be another very long long long day.

All that explaining to say that I'm not going to have a freebie for you today but maybe I can get back on schedule by Sunday. Thanks to the faithful few of you who leave encouraging, thoughtful messages. I appreciate them greatly.

To my US friends...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Blessings on your day, and see you soon!
Melanie

Thanksgiving ... freebie

So sorry to not have any new gifties for you the past few days. Having computer issues and unable to work on anything new. HOWEVER, I do have some Thanksgiving things I was working on last week for a new set for my store...but since I can't work on any more at the moment, I decided to give them away on my blog.

These are two of my favorite hymns of Thanksgiving, and I do not share them lightly. Hope you can use them on your special family gatherings layouts.

Thanks for your patience,
Melanie

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a fashion play-on-words...freebie

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A Royal Mess freebie set

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For Jessie ... freebie

Today's word art is dedicated to a friend of mine in North Carolina. Jessie is struggling with long-term pain for TMJ and is undergoing a new treatment right now that hasn't started working yet. Chronic pain really grinds at you and whittles away your last nerve, but when you also have two little ones in the house...well, it takes a special person to work through it. She's got one of those nasty colds right now, too--and you know how those coughing spells linger! And to make matters worse, she had a major computer crash last week; she's still waiting to see if any of her family photos and important layouts can be restored. Sending big hugs to you, Jessie, my sweet friend!

Her misfortunate computer issues reminded me to do better about backing up my stuff. So, even as I type this, my computer is uploading everything to an online storage space. Hope it works!

Hope you've had a great Scrapbooking weekend with all the bells and whistles and freebies and good buys. I'm so grateful that Divine Digital has been restored...they've got a new collab kit coming out that you won't want to miss.

Blessings on your day,

Melanie

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Must-Have Freebie

Debbie (from Scotland), I have to say how much your postings have cheered me on recently. You told me that the timing of something I'd prepared had helped you in the same way, but you have no idea how much I needed to hear your encouraging words at the time you sent them. Thank you so very much. Hope your everybody-needs-something-from-you period eases up soon! Stay strong. :) I'm sending you hugs.

And from the other side of the world (Australia), Kate sent me another layout she prepared, using word art I'd done some time ago. Thank you, Kate, for sharing this gorgeous layout with us.


I'm being a lazy cow this morning because I should have prepared a layout illustrating today's freebie word art. I need a creative team, don't I?! Anyway, if I HAD prepared a layout featuring this word art, I would have used photos of:

my Dad's Bible that I carried in my wedding

my wedding ring

my Nikon DX

my eyeglasses

my passport

chocolate

my Kindle

my favorite socks

a notebook and pen

Of course, another layout I could have done with this same word art would have included a mosaic of all my family. Just can't imagine life without 'em.

Another take on this would be photos of the things I pull out of my closet or drawers to wear almost every day at the moment:

• my new boots
• my newest scarf
• black trousers
• my fave bohemian blouse (that looks SO good with my boots!)
• my Twilight (Sarah Jessica Parker) perfume
• and more socks (I'm diabetic, so my feet stay cold ALL the time without my socks)

What's your must-haves?



Blessings on your day,
Melanie

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Happy (Inter)National Digital Scrapbooking Day

There are soooooooooooo many sales going on over the weekend in recognition of this special weekend for scrapbookers, that I'm not even going to try to compete with it at my store. However, if you DO happen to feel like taking a look around at Divine Digital, please note:

• a hacker caused extremely serious issues recently at Divine Digital; consequently, the store is graciously offering a great prize for anyone who takes the time to re-register at the store by midnight Nov. 7th (Saturday), and tons of freebies are slated to appear over the weekend.
  
• if you do happen to make a purchase at my Melanie's Digital Creations shop there any time over the next week, just e-mail a copy of your receipt to me (Melberry34@aol.com) and I'll send you a free set of word art as a thank-you. [Please allow time for me to process any requests!]


• please be patient with Divine Digital. Notices have been sent to everyone and I suspect that the store has been inundated with members trying to update their information.

Most importantly, please take time to check out the November SONGBIRD AVENUE kit, named Toys In the Attic. It's absolutely extraordinary. I ALREADY KNOW THAT I WILL BE USING IT YEAR-ROUND. It's not on sale, of course, because it's a charity kit...however, you not only get your money's worth (and more) from your purchase, but also you benefit such a worthy cause: this month, all sales benefit TOYS FOR TOTS, which brings joy to so many children at Christmas. Check it out...it's amazing amazing amazing.

Thought you could use today's freebie word art for all kinds of things, not just for this weekend's shopping!!!!

Happy shopping...and scrapping!
Melanie
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Happy birthday, Kim!

I was remiss in wishing KimB a very happy birthday (Nov 4th)...she would read any greeting you left her...they make her cry! [As you can see, I used items from my Aloha November kit, mentioned below.]

50th Aloha

DSO's challenges are fun to me, and I confess, I haven't taken the time to look at other store forums. I know there are SOOOOOOO many talented designers out there in scrapbookland; however, I have a special place in my heart for those designers who have become friends. Kim Broedelet is a crack-up, and a gifted designer as well. I worked on her color challenge at DSO earlier this month than I did the past couple of months, so that's your freebie today.

As usual, there's a story behind it! The color palette selected was definitely different for a November kit, so I started thinking outside the box:

• my brother turns 50 this month...


• he's celebrating with a week-long cruise from Los Angeles to Honolulu...


• with another week exploring the islands...


• and Hawaii's celebrating its 50th anniversary as the 50th state in the United States of America.

Eureka! A theme!! And, on the odd chance that my brother and his wife actually share photos from their trip, I will have something I can use to scrapbook his 50th celebration. I based the elements on what I knew for sure they would be doing.

I had computer connection issues today so I'm behind on other things, but thought I'd get this posted this evening--better late than never.

Blessings on your day...evening...morning...whenever

Melanie

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best costume ever

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Another freebie

Well, a couple of you have had some suggestions about creature comfort phrases, for which I thank you. I'll try to post that extra set tomorrow...I agree with your thoughts! And the rest of you will benefit from their suggestions.

There's a crispness in the air today...hurray! Each day is different, which is not unusual in my part of Texas. Thirty-degree temperature swings are not uncommon, and we're accustomed to it. My husband--a transplated Texan from the UK--still is not used to it, however, so his reaction becomes comical sometimes. I'm still smiling about his reaction this morning--nothing in particular to share about in words, but my point for all of us today is to find humor in the little things. That's always part of being ME, but it does take work at times.

It didn't take work this past weekend, however, when my 3-year-old nephew walked into the room and said, "I'm the bomb-diggity!" We have no idea where he heard that but he was so cute and sunny-natured when he said it...well, it was irresistible. He was just being him at the moment.

Hope you can use another "being me" type of word art today. I made it glittery in case you wanted to sparkle up a Halloween layout with it, too!

Blessings on your day,
Melanie
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Feel-Good Freebie

If you've spent any time at all tracking my blog, you know how much I enjoy playing with my friend, KimB's Color Challenge at DSO. She's such a gifted designer and it's always a treat to get her posting bonus, but the real fun is in designing, too. [By the way, Kim's newest kit is all about a Candy Christmas, and is adorable. Check it out!]

I did something a little different this time. Kim let her husband choose the color palette, which made me think that these were "comfort colors" to him...which made me think about comfort food (doesn't everything?!!)...which made me think about things that appeal to me about October...which made me think about October's Creature Comforts. Make sense? It did to me. :)

Hope you can find this set of 12 word art phrases COMFORTABLE and inspiring to use for your layouts. Who knows...if enough of you send me YOUR "creature comfort" word-wishlist, I might be persuaded to make a second set. :)

Blessings on your day,
Melanie

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Retrieve!!

Hello, all...hope this October day brings you joy. I had a fun weekend with an unexpected visit from my oldest niece and her family. Her three sons are great and we enjoyed watching them relish playing in the PERFECT weather we had all weekend. [Rainy this morning, after a stormy night, but the weather was perfect when we needed it!]

As boys do, they played all sorts of games; but in one particular game that involved a battle of sorts with foam swords, the oldest one (age 8), yelled to his "troops"....Retrieve! Retrieve! Retrieve!

We couldn't help but laugh at his version of the battle cry, "Retreat!" :) We never did correct him because, to be honest, we were impressed that he even knew the word retrieve. Don't you just love the way shared laughter makes you feel? :)

The lovely Kate sent me three recent terrific layouts she had done, using my word art. Thank you so much, Kate, for sharing these with us! Her daughter is newly pregnant and she wanted to commemorate the glowing lovely that she is.

I'm celebrating this favorite time of year myself with the addition of two new alphabets to my Divine Digital store. Click on the preview images below to take you to my shop...

AUTUMN ART ALPHABET:

And CHRISTMAS GREEN ALPHABET:

Hey, this just occurred to me...here's a thought for an advertisement slogan for my still-new store: RETRIEVE! RETRIEVE! RETRIEVE! [laughing by myself at my computer] Hope you like the new alphabets, at least enough to stop by the store and take a look. One of the word art sets I started with has been reduced to 20% off, so check it out, please! "Retrieving" them may just be the perfect thing you need for your layouts. :) A shameless plug, I know.

Hope your week begins well...I'll be back soon with another freebie!

Blessings,

Melanie

It's not easy being me FREEBIE

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good witch, bad witch

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Ghoulies and Goblins and Ghosties, Oh My!

Thanks for those of you who took the time to make such special comments about my store opening at DIVINE DIGITAL. It's been such a treat to work on items for it, and that's no trick! Did I mention that the K.I.D.S. word art set is on sale for 20% off? I think I forgot that the last posting. Here's the quick link to everything I've got in my shop at the moment: HERE. I'll be adding to it next week.

Today's freebie is another Halloween-ish one...hope you can find a use for it!

Have a great weekend!

Melanie

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drum roll, please...and a freebie

It's finally official.......I have my own store at the fabulous DIVINE DIGITAL boutique, where you can Let Creativity Fly. I was thrilled to be accepted into such a talented team of designers and was frustrated when the flu knocked me out of getting it up and going sooner. But now, you know...

Here are the first sets of word art that I've got available for you. The first one you see in the previews below is probably my favorite so far. I'm extremely sarcastic at times and thought it would be fun to have a few phrases that can be used that way, tongue-in-cheek, in layouts. This series is called, Yeah Right. The arrows come with it so that you can point the way to the person in your layout who is "always right," or "cleans their room"......yeah, right.

I've had fun doing them and look forward to being part of Team Divine.

Here's how to travel to my Divine Digital Store

THANKS!

Melanie

here's today's freebie:

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GlamTastic freebie

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deja vu

Suddenly, as I was uploading today's word art, I had a feeling of deja vu....as though I've used this word art before. Niggling thoughts coursing through my fevered brain at the moment...but too late. If I have, it would at least look different from this one. If I haven't, then this says what I'm thinking today:

I did not see it coming that my husband and I would keep trading the flu back and forth between us for the past two months. Of course, by now, he's totally convinced himself that it's the swine flu and that he narrowly escaped being hospitalized or worse. [He's a guy; what can I say!] He's fairly fit (more so than I) but this time it just took hold of him and he's not accustomed to feeling that bad for such an extended period of time.

On a much lighter note, one of my silly guilty pleasures is that I like to watch the Disney Channel when I'm not in the mood to have to concentrate on anything in particular but want the background noise and the lightheartedness of it. The silly gets to me sometimes, yes, but at least I know who these people are: Lily Truscott, Hannah Montana, Cody and Zach, London Tipton, the Russos....I have a soft spot for Alex Russo (Selena Gomez's character in Wizards of Waverly Place) and I love her little laugh when she says "I did NOT see that coming!" in just about every episode. Don't hate me or think little of me--this can't be worse that grownups being caught up in Harry Potter [read them all] or the Twilight series [not interested in vampires], can it? Just reliving our childhoods in a whole new way, I think. :)

Having rambled all that much, I'm tired...time for more meds and a nap...but I'll be back later today or tomorrow. I'm just about ready to make a big announcement and share the news of a fun project I've been working on just about all summer.

In the meantime, be good to yourself!

Melanie

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stop to think...

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a new look

How do you like my new look? My sweet friend, Kim Broedelet, surprised me with it over the weekend, using her new Soft Whispers kit. Isn't it gorgeous?!!

That was the inspiration for today's word art. And before anyone says anything about it, I DO know that two of the words aren't REAL, and quite poor grammar. But they suited the purpose for my gratitude to Kim and I thought they'd be fun on your layouts. I used Kim's SW papers in creating this WA today...you can use them together or separate them, as you wish.

She made a blinkie for me, too, and I'll post it as soon as I can figure out how to install it properly. I'm really behind the times in some of that sort of thing! Sorry about that.

I have some fun things to tell you about later this week but I'm not quite ready yet. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I want to heartily thank all of you who had such dear, sweet, kind things to say about my Dad's September kit. After all the wedding hullaballoo over the weekend, my mom and I slipped out Sunday morning to put fresh red roses on my father's grave at the cemetery ... it seemed fitting and lightened our hearts. I'm glad this kit gave some of you special memories of your own. Thanks for sharing them with me.

Have a great Monday...and thanks for stopping by,

Melanie

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Dad's September

I ran out of time before I could do everything I wanted with this kit. My dad has been on my mind a lot lately--partly because there's a big family wedding this weekend and we always miss him keenly at those events, partly because the wedding is the day before what would have been his birthday, and partly because it's been raining a lot lately, and he and I spent hours on the front porch when I was growing up, watching the rain fall...talking...and sharing silences, too.

My dad loved the autumn time of year and I have such fond memories of that. KimB's color palette she chose for this month's DSO Color Challenge brought that to mind. I wanted to honor him...I wanted this kit to be better...I wanted it to represent him. But, it is what it is today, and that will have to do. The photos I used in the background of some of the papers were taken either in England or the Smoky Mountains earlier this year. I associate special memories of him with both of those places, too. Please take care of this kit and accept it in the spirit in which it is given...a loving, IMISSYOU tribute to my dad. He's been gone 10 years, but sometimes it just seems like yesterday.

Blessings on your day,

Melanie

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Kim's Soft Whispers and Girls Night Out

My friend, Kim Broedelet, has this gorgeous new kit available today. I got a sneak peek and LOVE the very appealing color palette. It's got a year-round feel to it, I think, and appreciate the fact that it's not all pastels. She calls it a vintage romance type of kit, which I think suits it. She's got it in her store at DSO now, so check it out!

I used her palette to make today's WA...hope you have fun using it!

Take care, and blessings on your day,

Melanie

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remember

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