Sunday Blog Love - Linky Party

I'm starting the party a little early this weekend because I'm out of town spending

time with my daughter, Crystal and her family.

More importantly spending time with my sweet little granddaughter, Macie.

I'll be posting my favorite picks from last week in a couple of days....

Thanks to all who linked up!

 All kinds of posts are welcome--whether it's about your family, a craft project,

thrifty find, a favorite recipe or maybe it's decorating your home or a giveaway....

The only requirement is..you must link back to my party...

(besides it's blogger ettiquette to link back...)

Not required but if you become a follower - then you know if you've been featured....

and will also be added to my Sunday Blog Love board on Pinterest.

Have a great weekend!

I Have the Best Subject!

First of all I want to thank everyone who left such a nice comment about our backyard
and about losing a pet...it was so touching and I'm so appreciative that you took the time
to leave a comment....

I would never have believed that I would enjoy scrapbooking as much as I do...

Last month, I shared that I'm taking part in an online workshop sponsored by
Patty at Colored Sprinkle Girl.
I've learned so much and have been so inspired...

let me show you a few of my latest 12 X 12 layouts...

I've got the best subject to showcase too, my little granddaughter Macie!

And for some reason, I've tried to fix the html code so that the pictures don't run together so tightly but it keeps reverting back to being crammed together...

Thanks for stopping by..wishing you all a beautiful rest of the week! Linking to these parties....

Our Tribute to Storm

Of all the weekends I decide it's time to paint the bench in our backyard,

the temps were in  the 90's and the wind is blowing 20-30 mph.

It wasn't all the bad outside, I got some sun and painted the deck close to the

house to get out of the windest part of the backyard..

Here's a before look at a small part of our backyard and how the bench looked like....

This bench has seen better days but I'd like to get one more season out of it...

and the birds sure love to stop by and leave their mark...

and because of this, we don't tend to sit here....

There are a few little statues around our landscaping and this is one of my favorites..

a boy petting his dog and getting kisses...

Guess I decided you needed to see the bench again...

we had stained it a few years ago and got stain on the wrought iron legs..

definitely not pretty....

But before I show you the after, I thought I should show off some more of our backyard...

with the abnormally warmer weather, our landscaping has really thrived

and everything is so lush and pretty...

This was taken just before the peonies bloomed and it is always so pretty.

I love peonies but wished they had a scent besides bug spray when I bring some inside...

always full of ants and bugs....

Funny story, several years ago we put this bunny in our landscaping. Storm loved to chance the bunnies around the landscaping so we wanted to trick him and see if he would go racing to it.

When we let Storm outside for the first time, he just looked at us...

and continued his quest for real bunnies!

Then down the hill we have a couple of birdhouses as well as lots of perennials....

we're hoping in the next year or so to put a storage shed right between the two

birdhouses and do some rearranging of perennials...

So now we're back to the bench...all painted a glossy red color....

and it doesn't look so sad anymore...

but there was a reason that I wanted to get this bench painted....

When Storm died, we asked for his ashes so we could bury him in our backyard.

When I was looking at petstones, it was so difficult and

that dang thing took 2 months to get here...

Today we buried Storm and as you can image it has been a sad and quiet place around here..

and plenty of tears from both of us....

Storm was with us pretty much everywhere we were when we were home..

in this picture he was looking for bunnies....

If you've ever loved your dog as much as we loved Storm...

you can understand that our hearts are still broken...

This is my tribute to Storm...

a place of rest..a place where he enjoyed playing

fetch with us, chasing bunnies or just rolling in the grass...

So when we are missing Storm, we'll be able to sit out here

and remember all the fun and love we shared...

Storm - you are gone but will never ever be forgotten..

Thanks for stopping by today..

wishing everyone a wonderful week.