Design Team Image & other wanderings of my mind!

Well I used to have something in the "About Me" section on the right.  Wonder how I managed to blow that out??  This time I will save it in Word so that I don't have to rewrite it!  Guess I'll take care of that in a minute.

It's two days before Thanksgiving and usually by this time I am totally immersed in flour and other kitchen fun.   But right now I seem to be on a SBing binge and don't much care to do anything else.  BUT, since I am feeding 10 people I suppose I'd better adopt a different mind set!!

But I'll share these with you and then I am going to the kitchen, I swear!!

Karen at PIT challenged the design team to use the image above in a project and this is what I came up with.  It started out as an ATC but grew a bit large for that. The "Pages in Time" title is mounted behind a Tim Holtz fragment that I inked lightly with alcohol ink on the front side of the fragment.  Those fragments are kind of neat~ I just got them.  I put gold Stickles on the back of the fragment.  The little clock is actually a button from an article of clothing that I had long ago and the shoe is a Dress it Up button that I've had for a couple years anyway!  I inked the shoe 'cause it was too shiny.  This was one of those projects that I just kept adding too.  After I added the flowers I added the fiber to balance it all out.  Then I picked up the circle (left over from another project) and liked that look so I painted it with gold glitter paint and then I spied the piece of screening and mounting the whole thing on that.  I think it ended up looking a bit like an embroidery hoop on a piece of ladies veiling.  I have it hanging over my scrap table just as a bit of joy!

Then this morning I wanted to complete a challenge at PIT, New Paper Line challenge, using Bo Bunny Flutter Butter papers so here's what I came up with.  This is our 2nd home that we actually lived in for 6 weeks while waiting to move into our new house in NC and then dh lived in it for another 3 months before he moved into his weekday apt.  (He works away from home and is only home on the weekends.)  I love the blues in this paper line! 

Thanks for stopping by and "checking up" on me!

A couple more LOs

Here are a couple of LOs I did for Ali at Sketches: Creatively Yours as the Nov guest designer.  These are my last two.  I sure had fun creating from Ali's sketches!!!  Be sure you check out this blog to see some delightful LOs and hand drawn sketches!  Thanks Ali for letting me create for you this month!!
I love this photo of dh.  He was being so silly, but he was having fun pushing dirt around with that Bobcat!
Journal says:

In the fall of 2008, we began a humungous landscaping project that involved 3 very large raised beds, 13 trees, and more bushes than I can count. We had several loads of topsoil delivered and dumped in several spots in the front yard.

Dick borrowed a Bobcat from our neighbor that owns a fence company. He thought pushing that dirt around would be easy but NOT. However, he really had a great time pushing dirt around and getting the beds “just right”. Hmmm, I seem to remember that he used a shovel for part of that work!

This LO shows our house on the day we moved in (at the bottom) and then in early spring 6 mos after we completed our landscaping. The little file folder holds a very lengthy list of all the trees, bushes and flowers that we planted. There were 13 trees, more than 50 bushes, lots of perrenial flowers and bulbs. The results were awesome and we have had something blooming since March. We spent a little money and had a landscaper draw up a plan for us. It really was money well spent!

Woo-hoo, I am thrilled!

I am joining the design team at Pages in Time (PIT)!  This is my first DT position and I am really excited about it.  This is a wonderful online community, store, and retail store that reaches internationally.  I especially love that we have community members from all over the world!  Please visit us at Pages in Time.  There are some awesome LO's in the gallery and stay tuned for some exciting challenges.

A tag sketch

There's a great tag sketch up at Sketches: Creatively Yours.  I did 3 tags for this in my spot as the November guest designer.  Below is a layout I did using the tag I created with Ali's sketch.  I made a big tag as this is a 12 x 12 LO and the tag fit perfectly under the plastic overlay that I've had forever waiting to use!

I love that little picture of Chili.  She had been out under the apple tree which tends to stay muddy as grass doesn't grow there verywell.  She was such a dirty muddy mess when she came in.  I just had to laugh even though she made a huge mess in the hearth room!   Definitely not a prissy poodle in this picture!

These Christmas tags were fun, easy, and quick to make.  I just bought a pack of silver doilies at Walmart and cut them in half.  Everything else I punched on my Sizzix, added some edging doodles and ribbon.  Voila, fini!  The scan is not so great, sorry, IRL they are bright and sparkly as I used glitter paper for the snowflakes and flowers.

Be sure to go over toSketches: Creatively Yours to see the other tags that the designers did!

Another LO, I love this one.

Wish I still looked like this.....Ah the days of youth gone by!

This was a really fun project that I did for a weekend crop challenge at Scrapbookers Club House and a heritage challenge at Pages in Time.  I love playing with paint and ink and I did alot of it on this page.  I used an edge distresser on the paper edges and  sanded them some too.  Then I added white paint for highlights to the pink flowers.  I thought they came out quite nicely!  For the "moment in time"  I used Ranger distress ink and then a few paint dabbles thinned with a water wet brush on the background.  The letters are rub-ons.  By this time I had paint all over my work space as well as me!  I also splattered alcohol ink all over my shirt sometime during the day. 

Oh well I always was messy!  When I was a little girl, my Mom would dress me so prettily in dresses with sashes for school.  When I came home in the afternoon, my sash, my shoes, my hair, everything about me, was a total mess!

I digress, of course, for this kind of LO, you have to add bling and so I did.  The bling was a really big and beautiful scroll from Prima that I cut in two so it would fit right on the page.  Too bad the flowers are covering a lot of it!   Green rhinestones came from the Christmas $1 grag it bins at Michaels.  There were several colors available and cheap at $1 I thought.  Yikes, I just noticed that I put the toile pp on upside down and the edge that is showing is not distressed.  That's cause it was supposed to be under the picture.  Don't you just hate it when you do stuff like that?  Well its going to stay that way but I will distress the edge if I can do it with out wrecking everything else.

If you read my earlier post about Chili's problems, I am happy to report that she is much better now and seems to be over her pain.  MOnday is her last prednisone pill so I hope she does ok after that is out of her system.  Anyway, it is nice to see my pup smiling and feeling good again.

Have a nice Sunday everyone.  We were out late last night at a neighborhood party so I am quite listless today.  Think I'll scrap a little and keep a low profile!

Another Sketch

Ali has another sketch posted at Sketches:  Creatively Yours.  The sketch was done by November Guest Sketch Artist Ann Seleshanko and its beautiful.   There are some great interpretations of Ann's sketch posted too, so be sure to visit S:CY and take a look!

Happy Veteran's Day in the US and Remembrance Day in Canada

I hope everyone will pause in their busy day today and say a prayer of thanks to our soldiers. My father served in the Army for 28 years and is a veteran of WWII, and Vietnam.  He also did duty in Korea, but not during the "offical" war.  My husband gave the Navy 24 years of his life, and lost his father as a very small child to the Korean War.  Obviously, I have very strong ties to the military, but no matter how you feel about the Iraq/Afghanistan war, we can all pray for our soldiers' safety.  Happy Veteran's and Remembrance Day to all those who have served and are serving today.  I thank you with all my heart for your sacrifices.

Please leave a message for me and/or a prayer and our soldiers.

Come play at the Scrapbooker's Club House Mini-Crop

Scrapbooker's Club House is having a mini crop this weekend !  It's the Fall Ball Mini Crop with challenges and prizes.  Come join the gang!

Finally, I did something that I totally love!

I think it must be the subject matter, LOL!  This LO ended up so totally different from how it started as it began with a distressed doily which just didin't work.  The blue and cinnamon pps are Cloud 9 "Cinnamon Stick" and I just love the colors and flowers.  The dotted die  cut page is MM.  I used some of my new supplies on this.  I masked the blue CS with a Tattered Angels template that I got and sprayed with Cinnamon Glimmer Mist.  How convenient is it that I just happened to have that color??!   I originally sewed lace on the corner flower pieces but that didn't work for me so off came the lace and then I mounted them to chipboard.  Ahhh, much better.  Finally dug out the Architextures medallion piece and the copper (K & CO) hearts  from my stash.  I used a little Range alcohol ink to age the hearts 'cause they were way too shiny.  I really love fibers and ribbons and have lately been adding them  to alot of my projects.    This page is for the love of my life!

I added a companion page.  The card on the left is the card that we sent out announcing our marriage.

Weekend's over.....

Don't you just hate it when the weekend is over and you have to go back to work?  Its not so bad for me anymore since I work parttime and out of my house.  I am loving this arrangement!

We are  still having issues with Chili.  She is still having pain but is better than she was.  I guess the cautious good news is that our vet doesn't think its a skeletal problem; rather, he thinks it is muscular.  Perhaps she has pulled a muscle in her back.  It seems to come and go.  One minute she seems to be fine and then the next she is wimpering when she tries to get up.  It is so tough seeing my furbaby in such distress.  I wish she could talk and tell us where it hurts.  Initially we thought it was in her neck but now it seems to be mid-spine.  She has a warm spot on her back consistent with muscle strain I guess.

I did have a ton of fun today!  Dh and I went to a model train show and that was way fun!  Then we stopped at Archivers.  Oh yes, that was even way MORE fun.  I came home with a bag of goodies.  I really haven't been in a nice SB store in over a year so it was fun to see how products have changed and all the new goodies.  I think I'm glad its a 50 mile trek to Archivers though, otherwise I would spend way too much $$ there way too often!

Here is a project I did as the Nov.guest designer for  Sketches: Creatively Yours.  Be sure you check out the other intepretations posted of this sketch (#24) by Ali MacDonald.

And being the occasional over-achiever that I sometimes can be, I did a companion page on the right.  I love the quote on the left page, it says "We haven't been everywhere yet, but it's on our list."  Don't you just love that?  The pictures were taken in 2007 at Olympic National Park.   That is such an awesome park as its terrain stretches from the seashore to mountain peaks and includes a rain forest.  The chipboard on the right is supposed to suggest a photo stand - not sure it gives that impression but oh well - it looks good anyway.

I have been on a roll lately.  I made a few Christmas cards this weekend.  They are simple but cute.  The prettiest one looks just about awful in the scan so I think you'll just have to wait to get it in the mail to see it.  OR, I'll try taking a photo of it tomorrow. 

Right now I need to get the spoos outside and give Chili her last pill for the evening.  Cross your fingers for my little "girl" that she is on the mend soon!

Happy hump day!

I need to get up from this computer and get something done around my house.

  Poor Chili, if its not one thing, its another!  In addition to all her pain and neck related problems (which BTW, have immensely improved)  she had a seizure night before last. Soooo, gotta shampoo the carpet 'cause they lose control of body functions when they seize.  And, the cortizone causes them to drink lots of water so last night she had an accident B4 she could wake her sleepy Moma! 

But before I go, I thought I'd share this with you.  This is out other beautiful grand-daughter.  This was labor intensive.  The flowers are either Prima or cut with Cricut cartridge Walk in My Garden.  It just took oodles of time to pick out the flowers, figure out the placement, outline them, find the right pp, etc, etc!  But it was fun.

Olympic National Park

One of our travel goals is to visit as many of the national parks as possible and we're doing a good job.  Part of our 2007 visit to the Northwest included a couple of days at Olympic National Park.  WOW!  That is a beautiful and diverse park from its splendid shoreline  to its mountain peaks.   However, if you visit, be prepared for rain!  Well, part of the park is a rainforest so I guess rain is necessary! 

Here we are in the rainforest:

Journal if you are interested:

We decided to head to Oregon for the FMCA International Rally in August 2007 as we’d never attended a large rally and we thought it would be a good place to learn something and probably spend money on something we most likely, did not need. Well, if you’re going to drive to Oregon, you might as well take in Seattle, Olympic National Park, and whatever else strikes your fancy in the northwest.

So began another adventure. Our first stop was Seattle to visit old friends,  ****** who lived in a beautiful early 20th century home in West Seattle with a view to “die-for” of the sound. Dick has known **** and **** since his time at Naval Post Graduate School and I met them when we lived in Burke, VA. (They are one of the couples that went on the Alaska cruise with us.) We were able to park our motorhome on a wide residential street in front of their house. That was uneventful except for the drunk that banged on the motorhome on his way home at about two in the morning. I think he was just a college kid having a little fun but it did frighten us for just a moment.
Our next stop was Widbey Island for a couple nights camping and then on to Olympic National Park. We took a ferry from the island to the Olympic peninsula. Unfortunately, the weather was typical of what one expects, rainy and cloudy, so we were not able to see the mountains but the park was still beautiful. It is such a diverse park with landscapes ranging from coastal beauty to the dense and rich greens of the rain forest traversing to the mountain peaks.
From there we began our trip towards Redmond, Oregon and decided to stop at Mount St. Helens. That was a last minute decision that turned out to be the highlight of our trip. The story of the eruption and its impact on the surrounding lands is incredible and quite the sight to behold, even 17 years after the eruption.
Finally, we arrived in Redmond, Oregon. Because of the dogs, we had reserved a camping site at the fairgrounds with full electrical hookups. Provost motorhomes that go for a half a million and up surrounded us. There we were in our humble Seneca! We had a good laugh at that. Dick took in the safe motorhome driving course and I had fun visiting all the vendor booths. About those purchases of useless things we didn’t need….well now we have a Canadian goose “flag” that flutters from a flagpole that we purchased. I’m sure everyone needs one…..
After the rally, it was time to head for home and back to work. Later in 2007 we drove from Denver to Rocky Mount, NC to look for a house. We almost drove from coast to coast that year; all we missed was the 150 miles from Rocky Mount to the Atlantic shore.

Mount St Helens

We visited the northwest in 2007 and I am just now getting those pictures scrapped.  Our favorite part of that trip was our visit to Mount St Helens.  That is the most astonishing place; if you are ever anywhere near, I highly recommend a stop there.  The logs floating on Spirit Lake fascinated me the most.  The surface of the lake is covered with huge rafts of logs, all of which remain from the blast when Mount St Helens blew.  The logs were quickly petrified by the various gases released and so they float on the top of the lake as a constant reminder of the devastation.  The area around Mount St Helens is slowly returning to life but there is still much evidence of the blast.  You can see miles of downed trees.  It really is a fascinating place.

So here are two pages that I created.  They ae simple LOs but I think they showcase the photos nicely.  The long journal telss the story of the eruption.  The white on the photo of the lake that looks like a beach, is actually the logs on the lake surface.