July KOM creations!

I know you're going to love this kit, it is full of fun and diverse papers, everything from Fabscraps, to 7 Gypsies to Pink Paislee mistables.  This first layout incorporates all three of these paper lines.  The photo is a cabin in Hope, Alaska that we happened by while honeymooning there almost 20 years ago.  I loved the flowers everywhere so of course had to snap a shot!

The fence is from my stash as is the orange floral vine (there is a blue one like it in the kit) and the large orange rose.  The 5 petal flowers are in the kit but i have misted them orange.  The honeycomb paper is Pink Paislee and I have inked it with Bundled Sage Distress ink.  There are also some Prima masks which I used there on the right.

 The large bloom here is hand made.

You know how I love my furbabies!  This is my sweet girl Brandy, she went over the bridge December 28, 2007.  She was quite the character and I've included stories about her in the Dog Tales file folder.  I used Distress ink, Fired Brick, on the Pink Paislee mistable paper, its the circle.  I used my Lucky 8 WRMK Tatted Doily to cut the scalloped circles.  The large rose is a beautiful Manor House bloom that came in the kit that I misted with Lindy's.  The tiny roses are Flying Unicorn Enchanted Passion Bordeaux - all from the store.

I love the crows on the telephone line, that's a Scrap FX chippy, love it!!

My journaling:

Dear sweet Brandy…there are so many stories to tell, she filled our hearts with love and laugter for 12 ½ years, her last year with us was difficult, but a dog is a forever friend so you do what you have to do.

During the last year of Brandy’s life she developed anxiety disorder and it got so bad that we had to put her on Xanex twice a day.  One day I came home from work and Brandy greeted me at the door.  I thought to myself, “Hmmm, that’s strange, I could have sworn, I put the dogs in the laundry room this morning.”  I figured I hadn’t closed the door good and thought no more about it until the next day when Brandy again greeted me at the door when I got home. 

At that point I figured some further investigation was in order so I went to the basement to check it out.   Our laundry room was a combination laundry and storage room and it was quite large so that’s where Chena and Brandy spent their days.   What I found was really quite amazing, the round door handle was quite mangled as Brandy had learned to grasp the door handle in her mouth, turn it, and pull the door open.  Yes, smart dog!           

Her anxiety attacks were quite severe and caused her to cling to me to the point that she would try to lay on top of me.  She would pace and pace and nothing calmed her down.  One night I was awake all night with her because she would not settle down.  She and I went to the guest room one night and I allowed her in the bed with me but she would lay down for a minute and then resume pacing, and jumping on the bed, and pacing, and laying on top of me, she was wild with anxiety, I felt so badly for her.

 The final straw before putting her on Xanex full time was the day our housekeeper, Kathy, came.  Well Kathy was afraid of dogs so we always made sure the dogs were securely locked up downstairs where Kathy did not have to go.  That day, Brandy was stricken with anxiety and opened the door and she and Chena went running upstairs to find a very startled and scared Kathy who climbed up on the island in the middle of our kitchen.  Brandy reportedly laid down on the floor but Chena kept circling the island and barking at her.  At some point Kathy was able to get off the island, grab the phone that was just a few feet away, and call our neighbors whose house she also cleaned.  They worked out a plan where our neighbor would come over to the back of the house and tap on the sliding glass door and get the dogs’ attention; meanwhile, Kathy would jump off the island and flee to the garage.  That worked just great except that by now, Kathy was so rattled that she couldn’t remember where the switch was to open the garage door.  Finally she slipped our house keys under the garage door and the neighbors were able to get in the house and put Brandy and Chena back in the laundry room.  Only problem was that Brandy again opened the laundry room door.  And so, the neighbors came back over to rescue Kathy from the dogs!  After Brandy’s 3^rd escape from the laundry room, the neighbors putting Brandy in the furnace room and when we got home she had escaped from there too.

 Amazingly, Kathy continued to clean our house, and after putting Brandy on Xanex twice daily, we had no more episodes of doggie escape!

I'll be showing you more things I did with the kit in a couple days, please come visit!!