Happy Thanksgiving!

The phrase "Count your Blessings" comes to mind when I think of Thanksgiving. Here is my "short list" of my Blessings:

* Butch - the one I love and just celebrated 32 years of marriage!
* Nicole - our first born, friend, travel companion, and confidant. =)
* Greg - our son, who is married to our wonderful daughter-in-law, Michelle, and the father of those two precious grandchildren!
* Michelle - just the right choice for our son, and who is still trying to figure out the craziness that happens within this family =)
* Our two grandbabies who will keep us forever young!

I am also thankful that we are all relatively healthy, have jobs in these tough ecomonic times, and most importantly, love and respect each other as individuals and forgiving of each others' faults!

Here's wishing you all a Very Happy Thanksgiving! Godspeed

Where has October gone?!

One minute it was Labor Day and the next its the day before Halloween!! WOW!! Time has just flown right on past me. It didn't help that I've been sick with a stomach aliment for the past week either. So, let me get ya caught up on what's been transpiring around here.

Butch and I have signed our lease with a different company, Focus North America, and although we had a rough start, things are going pretty smoothly right now. He's on his way to Canada to pick up a load that delivers Monday about 30 mins. from home. YAY! He'll be home just in time for me to not be feeling like crud anymore, and to catch some Sunday football! Hot wings here we come!

Now for the scrappy stuff..... Last weekend at Life Preserver's we had an online crop that was so packed full of challenges and make & takes that what I haven't been able to get accomplished, will be on my "to do in the future" list for sure. That DT is absolutely AWESOME and have the neatest ideas! Let me share a few. My first one was a Recipe Challenge using a wooden embellie, paper title, chipboard, jewelry piece, and fabric label. Three outta five aren't bad!


This next one we were to spray ink with a leaf mask and use as background paper:


Here we were to interview a family member and since Makayla was the only one around, she was my subject. I'm curious as to how much this will all change in a few years.


Onto a color challenge, using the colors of fall. Makayla insisted on helping with this one, so I put on the adhesive and she placed them on the layout. She also insisted it needed a piece of candy corn by the tree!


Here is the Early Bird sketch challenge. I just love this one and know it'll be used again very soon. =)


And my final one to show you is from the Breast Cancer/Domestic Violence challenge. Since we do Relay For Life in our household, I did mine on our 2009 Mr. Relay Lap. This is such a great fundraiser and over $1,500 was collected in 15 mins. FUN for everyone involved!


Thanks for taking the time to check out my creations and hopefully I won't be MIA for so long before my next post!

Godspeed

October TSR

October The ScrapRoom is celebrating 5 years! Happy Birthday TSR!! They are having a great sale this month on previous month's kits and I couldn't resist and snagged a few for myself. =) There are plenty of activities going on throughout the month of October, so check them out! In the meantime, feast your eyes on what showed up at my doorstep late last week:


And I can never get enough of Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird, definitely an all-time favorite. So many uses, so little time...... We also don't have any school aged children around here just yet, but that's what makes the kit from JillyBean Soup so nice, its double sided!


So, why you just sitting there? Go order!! =)

Godspeed

The Pumpkin Patch!

Saturday was Pumpkin Patch Day! Yes, around here it should be a national holiday cause we try to make it an all day event. =) This year we ventured out to the Pomeroy House. We visited the animals on the farm, climbed around the hay loft in the big barn, found our way thru the hay maze, and did the ultimate hay ride to the pumpkin patch.






And using this sketch by Julie Bonner, I created a layout with My Mind's Eye Boo To You papers! Love the way my pumpkin came out!



Off to scrap some more! Godspeed

It's Scrappy Saturday!

Yesterday I received my My Mine's Eye Boo To You kit from Life Preservers and it is just darling! I couldn't wait to break it open and since I needed cards for a swap (that I'm late getting out...sorry!), so I grabbed one of the sheets of paper and in about an hour and help from some stamps and ribbon, here we are.


And to entice you to get your own, here are all the pieces that came with my kit:





And that little Mummy that is packaging for the ribbon, he'll have a home on one of my future layouts!! All about the recycling!!

Other happenings today, yes there is more to life than scrapping (gasp!), include a trip to the pumpkin patch with Nicole, Michelle, and Makayla. Love this time of year with all the bright colors that surround us!

But, with the goodness of the season brings the ick. The weatherman is saying that fall is definitely here and tomorrow the rains head our way. Not what I was looking forward to since our summer has been fantastic this year and I just don't want it to end. Guess its not the rains I mind so much, as the days get shorter and shorter and it seems dark for soooo long now. My mood and outlook changes so drasticaly and its hard for me to just do the simple things. Need to rev up on my Vitamin D to get me thru another fall/winter in the PNW. UGH!! I think we need to move to Hawaii sooner than later! =)

Have a good one...... Godspeed

Its Arrived!!

When I first saw this line from Cosmo Cricket, I knew I had to have it. Earth Love is such a sweet and whimsical set of papers and with those earth tones and a pinch of peach in them, it can be used for a variety of layouts, cards, and altered items. So now I will show you those adorable papers and if you must, you can notify Simply Obsessed for your own set! I know what you're thinking, so sweet of me!! =)


These papers are so much brighter in real life, and the sheet, Relive, was perfect for our recent trip to the zoo while visiting the atrium with the parrots.


Thanks for dropping by. Godspeed

And now I wait.....

Now that my layouts are done for the Big Scrapper House challenge, I can sit back and relax. Yeah, right!! I'm as nervous as all get out and my fingernails are showing it! It has been announced that the house guests that were eliminated throughout the contest will somehow be the ones who 'vote' for either Kelly or myself, without knowing which one they voted for. Yep, you guessed it, CRAZY! Leave it to the owners, Frank & Von, of Life Preservers to add just one more twist to this rather crazy contest!

So, while I sit here waiting impatiently, here are the final two entries.....

For the #4 I had the hardest time trying to decide. I was thinking "4 legged friends" and featuring my pets, but animals can be so difficult when it comes to photographing. Then I got one of those DOH! moments and this is what I came up with......



The 4 seasons! I have such a beautiful garden all throughout the year and decided it needed showcasing all together on its own layout! Unfortunately, when I inked my number 4, it looked rather dull and I almost didn't use it. Since I don't have any opaque embossing powder my next thought was Diamond Glaze which worked like a charm. I need to pull that stuff out more often!

Onto the #5. I wanted my last layout to be a tribute of sorts to the actual contest itself. I thought of using my favorite 5 from the entire contest, 5 of ugliest, but then another one of those DOH! moments, which I seem to have alot of lately! I used 5 scrappy must haves and just love the whimsy and it made the perfect tribute to a fun and exciting contest!


I can't say it enough, but I've had so much fun and created some really neat cards and layouts during this 8 week contest. And yes, I have made a promise to myself, that I won't be this crazy again for, well, at least another 6 months!!

Godspeed

I'm a finalist!!

Yep, won immunity in the very last week and was guaranteed a spot in the Big Scrapper House finals at Life Preservers. For our final week, we are to create five different layouts. Sounds easy enough, but there's a twist....what else is new!! We had to feature the particular number in the layout and use that actual number somewhere on the layouts. This actually could lead to many interpretations, but here is what I did. For my first layout, I used one photo of one person, one paper line, and highlighted the actual #1 in my title:


For my second, I used a photo of two people, with two rows of pattern papers cut into squares, two strips of ribbon, two handstitched felt hearts, and the #2, again in the title.


On my third, I used a photo of three animals, with three rectangular blocks, three shades of brown, and inked the #3 in my title.


I still have two to complete before saturday and will be back to post those a bit later. For now, I'm off to get the emissions checked on my car. Thanks for stopping by!

Godspeed

Rice in soup.....

I learned something new today and I won't soon forget it. Never realized how small of an amount of rice to put in a pot of soup. Well, lets just say I'll be eating chicken rice with veggies soup all week! Kept adding more water and more water, and finally gave up.

I took a 2 1/2 hour nap this afternoon and feel much better. Hoping my crud is short lived and with the help of all my herbs and now this enormous pot of soup, I'll be kicking it good-bye within a few days. BTW, if you ever have a killer sore throat, try Throat Coat by Traditional Medicinals. It is a wonderful tea and makes your throat feel so much better! Been drinking it on and off today and it tastes pretty good, too, especially with a touch of honey. =)

Now that I feel better, I decided to hunker down and get my LEO Challenge #13 completed.


I love the colors of fall, but also know that the dreary days of winter aren't too far away. Trying really hard to focus on the beauty of the season instead of the negativeness of losing daylight at 4:30 in the afternoon. Time to work on that Vitamin D deficiency again!

Off to Hop! Godspeed

Zoo pics

We had a great time yesterday at the Portland Zoo and wanted to share a few pictures with you. Like I said we've been waiting for the lion exhibit to open, and we weren't disappointed. Doesn't he look comfy in his new home?


Close up of the King of The Jungle:


These three are beautiful!

They also have have a new exhibit where you can feed the parrots. Makayla was loving it:


And a few more, just because they're great shots!





Today I'm feeling a bit of the crud trying to take over my body, so I'll be back if it doesn't get the best of me. Have a great Saturday, everyone!

Godspeed

A time to share!

Here is a photo of Makayla smelling newly purchased mums. I don't think she appreciates the smell of them! This was a MUST to scrap:


Tomorrow, we're all going to the zoo! There's a new lion exhibit that we have been wanting to see and we get to spend the day with our favorite people. The temps are going to be perfect, there is no chance of rain, and we have the whole day to visit with the animals. What could be better than that?!

Godspeed

Happy Wednesday!

This week I decided to deep clean my home for the winter. Since its icky rainy here in the Pacific Northwest for about five months, I spend my whole summer outdoors and enjoy all that gloriuos sunshine. That said, I REALLY need to clean! Yep, its been ignored and I can tell. EEK!!

Problem is, I'm not only cleaning, I'm feeling the need to trash a bunch of "stuff" we never use anymore! Why we feel the need to keep this stuff is beyond me. Its taking me freakin' forever just to get one room done! By the end of this week, Goodwill is gonna get a pickup load of stuff. I just hope they'll take this perfectly good desk and office chair, cause I know Butch is tired of looking at them in his garage!

So, once I got my room of the day cleaned, I decided I needed some scrap therapy for moi. I pulled out my TSR kit and went to work with the Bella Blvd. Camped Out. That one looked to be the biggest challenge for me, so since I was already in the challenge mode with my purging, I decided why not give it a try. Holy Smoly am I glad I did!


I just love this photo of Makayla and Maggie, and scrapping it with these papers was so very easy to do! And I just love the look of those papers complimented with the Kraft cardstock. Whatcha think? =)

Till next posting, Godspeed

I'm a Hoppin'!

It's that time again for another Willow Traders Blog Hop. I love seeing what everyone's been up to in the week and can get some fantastic inspiration as well!

This week, I've been competing in a scrap-off at Life Preservers for the Big Scrapper House contest. After Scrapvivor here a few years ago, I swore I'd never get myself into such a thing again.... Unfortunately, it just happens to be the challenge for this particular week. Von split us into a Red Team & Blue Team. Whichever team scraps the most points, has the fewer number of scrappers eliminated. So, here's a sampling of my submissions:





Pulled out a few older kits I had laying around here and mixed in a few new that I just received. Thanks for dropping by.

Godspeed

Life Preservers Is In Da' House!!

Yep, this beautiful kit showed up in my mailbox and I'm just lovin' it! Cosmo Crickets Early Bird And October Afternoon's Cherry Hill lines with some really darling Etsy finds. Now I just need to decide which stack of cd's I need to get some pics from to start making a dent in this kit!


If you want to see more of the goodies offered for the month of September, check them out here! And while your at it, there are a few October kits still available and the November kits are already to be reserved.

Lead us not into temptation...... =)
Godspeed

Happy Saturday!

The house is quiet...no TV, no stereo, the dog and cat are sleeping, and I'm getting sucked into my own little scrappy heaven. Pulled out some ScrapRoom and Simply Obsessed kits, looked thru my stash of sketches, and gather up some recent photos. I am so ready for some scrap therapy!

After sitting for about 15 minutes trying to figure out which sketch to use, I decided to wing it. Here is what I came up with using Jenni Bowlin, Graphic 45, and some flowers I cut from old dictionary pages and pattern paper using my handy dandy original BIG red Sizzix.


Some of my best work comes from just winging it, how about you? Thanks for stopping by, and I'll have another post soon.

Godspeed

Blog Hopping!!

Until about two months ago, I never checked out too many blogs, but doing this at Willow Traders has been such a blast and I'm getting sooooo inspired with all the creativity that I've seen! So, here I am again and I hope you get inspired by my creations as much as I get by yours!

Here is my challenge for WT's LEO #5. We were to use a sketch from the May sketch submissions at Nuts About Sketches as our inspiration. I chose sketch #55:


And here's my interpretation:


Makayla loves our flowers in the garden and loves to take time to smell the roses whenever she's here! Once smelling this one she proclaimed, "too sweet!" I think another gardener has been born! =)

Be back later this weekend. Godspeed

Terrific Tuesday!

Why is it terrific you ask? Well, I managed to get two, you heard it correctly, two layouts finished of Makayla's 4th Birthday this past June! Over at Willow Trader's for the LEO #3 we were to incorporate a non-scrappy item that we recycled from the trash.

I've had this denim that I cut from an old pair of ratty jeans that I knew one day I'd find a scrappy use for. =) So, I used a scallop die cut piece of paper by Teressa Collins as a template to trace the denim, sewed it on, cut flower with another 6 to 7 inch piece and VIOLA!!


Didn't want to stop there, so used more of the denim pieces for the border edge and another flower on this side. This is for my Week 5 of the Big Scrapper House over at Life Preservers.


Never thought I'd use fabric on a layout, but completely am blown away that I did and not just one, but two!! I may have to drag it out more often. =)

Godspeed

Truly Unique!

That totally describes my subject matter in this layout! Makayla is such a sweet little girl, but the tomboy in her shows up quite often, especially when at the playground. This particular day it had just rained and I promised her a visit to the playground once it stopped. She discovered the slide was wet and asked me to dry it. Well, since I didn't come equipped with towels of any sort, I told if she wanted it dry, she needed to do it. Well, she did .... with her butt!! Where there's a will, there's a way. =) Decided to scrap those photos for Willow Traders September LEO #2:


And speaking of challenges, this week at The Big Scrapper House at Life Preservers, we were to chose between doors 1,2, or 3. Well, I chose three and there was a possibility that I could have been one of two eliminated from the game. It seems 11 other ladies chose the same door and it was two of their numbers that were drawn. WHEW!!

So, since I was safe, my challenge was to do a layout consisting of solid cardstock, doodling, buttons, and flowers. I jumped right on it and used up a bunch of little cardstock scraps I've been saving:


Now that I've seen my mojo again, I'll be back this Labor Day weekend with some more goodies to share. =)

Godspeed