Scrapbooks and Journals

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T08:05:00.000-08:00

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO EVERYONE!

Such a lovely surprise to wake up to from my hubby!!

Envie I worked on last night so I am ready for the next letter to go out. Used a bill envie, covered with a map from my trip last week out to Iowa, then got busy having fun gluing some magazine clippings to the envie an a little doodling

Pretty little envie with these goodies in side from my friend Hilda - for Valentine's Day

a lovely card, with a letter and another zine to view.

LOVE MAIL - RECEIVING & SENDING

2012-02-12T14:44:00.000-08:00

This goes out in the mail tomorrow to my new friend Kendra in California! Reused an envie sent to me with a bill (oh joy) and covered with a page from a magazine, then added the "kraft paper ribbon" I threw together by sewing it onto the envie, as sewed on buttons, some other stickers and magazine clippings and used a sharpie for some doodle/detailing - hope she enjoys the mailart and the goodies within!

Light mail day for me yesterday, but can always count on my best pal, Hilda in Mississippi to send me a letter and goodies - looking at all that fruit makes me hungry!

a sweet card inside along with a letter and a zine she just got on ETSY.com

MY SON IS HOME FROM IRAQ - HAPPY PINK SATURDAY!!

2011-09-10T06:32:00.000-07:00

What could be better for a Pink Saturday post than the fact my heart is filled with love and pride and so much happiness and relief that my oldest son, Michael is home for good - from his deployment in Iraq!! These two little ones he is holding are acutally his brother-in-law and sister-in-law -its TRUE.
The family attended the Welcome Home ceremony yesterday morning and last night we had a surprise welcome home party for Michael in our new home - everyone had a good time. On Monday, he will be "recognized" along with other servicemen and servicewomen at his old elementary school - where his youngest sister is now attending - during the 9/11 tribute.
This is the happiest and most content I have been in a long time - Happy Pink Saturday!

Squeezing in another PINK Saturday during the packing...

2011-08-12T16:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another PINK Saturday hosted by Beverly over at http://www.howsweetthesound.typepad.com/
This is a special Pink saturday as today is the day we all share a blessing in our life,and help to raise money for another Miracle Makeover. Please stop by Beverly's site and leave a message as each one she receives raises money for another Miracle Makeover, and while you are there you can see Charlie's Miracle Makeover video that was possible by all the money raised last year.
I really needed the break from packing, by the way the final move date is the 18th.
I was outside next door playing with my neighbors 10 week old miniature workshire terrier - Wolfie, he is so adorable - puts a smile on my face everytime I see him. Then in front of me I see a hummingbird - which we rarely see around our houses! It stayed in the area for several minutes and it was a joy to view, so I wanted to share this lovely photo of a hummingbird I found online to remember my luck of spotting one this afternoon...
Although I am tired and stressed from all the packing and moving that I have been doing I am also blessed knowing that my family are all healthy and for the most part together - our oldest son is still in Iraq but due home in another month. Through good times and tough times we have been there for one another and watch with love and pride as our children and nieces and nephews are becoming strong and caring adults. Looking at that hummingbird reminds me that they are taking flight with their own lives and that makes me feel very blessed.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Pink weekend!

A QUICK POSTING FOR PINK SATURDAY

2011-08-05T12:48:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I am busy packing for our move in less than two weeks, but since I missed the last Pink Saturday, wanted to get a little something up for this one - besides, I needed a break!

This lovely pink depression glass pitcher was found at an antique sale on our 5th wedding anniversary - last month we celebrated our 21st. It is difficult to appreciate the delicate pink in it from this photo. I love when the sun shines through it; I use it more for floral display than actual 'pitcher duty' since the pour spout is so tiny it is very slow pouring and usually messy.

A gift from my oldest daughter, she found it while up visiting OSU - she moves up there next month to start her Junior year. Hopefully I will find a couple of hours this weekend to enjoy it and relax.

Please stop by Beverly's at http://www.howsweetthesound.typepad.com/ she is the wonderful hostess of Pink Saturday.

TIME FOR A NEW PINK SATURDAY

2011-07-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

Looks like it is time for Pink Saturday over at www.howsweetthesound.typepad.com

One lot of vintage paper ephemera I have listed on my Etsy.com site... the pink and plain colored hand written pharmacy prescriptions I found at the monthly Burlingtion Antiques Fair - turns out the show AMERICAN PICKERS was filming there that day, paced by the crew several times - the fair ground was PACKED! Lovely vintage rose card is even nicer than its picture, thanks to the long, handwritten letter inside of it. The bottom card is more of a dull coral color but also a "gem" with a handwritten letter inside!

If you haven't bought, or for that matter seen this issue of Somerset Stdio Gallery mag - you are really missing a ton of amazing creative "eye candy" !!! As far as I am concerned, Stampington & Company have the most incredible craft magazines!

Keeping it short and sweet this week, have a lot on my list of things to get completed! Oh, but before I go, just wanted to give a shout out to a new blog I discovered last week thru Pink Saturday, http://www.sharonsshowcase.blogspot.com/
Very talented with the card making!
Hope everyone has a wonderful Pink weekend!
Robyn

SHIMELLE'S EXPLORE CLASS STARTS MONDAY MORNING

2011-07-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

Finally, the wait is over, Shimelle has another online class beginning in just a matter of hours - she is 6 hours ahead over in England - an I am so excited to take another of her offerings - loved JYC this past December.

Tomorrow is the first day of a brand new online class – Explore! it’s not too late to sign up and join in the fun of twenty prompts, four videos and more to keep you inspired, documenting and creating!

Throughout this four week course, we’ll be exploring the world, even if you’re not going anywhere. Each prompt covers a different aspect, from days when we’ll focus on photography to videos that cover crafting techniques to do something new with your existing supplies. We’ll be taking pictures, making journaling easy and stretching ideas so you’ll keep creating long after the final prompt appears in your inbox. If you’re worried about being too busy for the next four weeks, then the workbook is your answer! You can print it from day one and follow along in a quick format then come back to the full prompts when you have a bit more time to explore those ideas.
If you are interested in joining us for EXPLORE, visit http://www.shimelle.com/ to sign up.
Hope you will join the fun!!!!

TIME FOR ATC'S ON PINK SATURDAY ...

2011-07-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

For this week's PINK Saturday I decided to share some ATC's I made and have since traded. These were all one of a kind ATC's - some days I regret noth having made doubles so I could have each for my own collection, instead I must be content with the photos.

The first ATC has a multi colored background from scrapbook paper - hues of PINK, then images of Marie Antoinette, The L'arc de triumphe, block letters, gems, and prima flowers

"COUTURE" atc I used a notecard for the background that had the word couture on it - there is the slightest of very pale pink shading - the mannequin is a stamped image, letters cut from a magazine, brads and prima flowers in shades of pink

Geisha ATC has PINK and red with a background cut from a magazine, along with images cut from magazines, ribbon, brads, actual Japanese coins and a fabric brad with asian motif

The look on her face caught my attention immediately and when I saw the word "unique" on the tag I knew I had a "match"...background is cut from a calendar with a swirling PINKS, crystal and PINK gemstones, several images from Graphic 45 line.

scrapbook paper background of a post card, plastic overlay with dark pink florish design, rubber stamped clock, pearls, images from Graphic 45 with PINK tones

another scrapbook paper post card with pink tone for background, pink card stock, images from Graphic 45, metal key

old stationary with a multitude of mag images applied, inked in vintage pink, clear sticker, brad, photo

cardstock inked in pale pink, embossed eiffel tower rubberstamp image, Graphic 45 imags, rubber stamp face image - chalked with pinks, embossed clock rubber stamp image, prima flower, brads, gems

Last week there were over 175 PINK Saturday participants, so much enjoyable PINK visited, and found this new blog to me, please take a moment to go visit: http://www.altheredschoolmarm.blogspot.com/

As always, thanks to our wonderful hostess: Beverly at http://www.howsweetthesound.typepad.com/ for promoting Pink Saturdays, always a joy!

PINK SATURDAY - good to be back!

2011-07-08T14:23:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time since I have been on here and I have missed all the wonderful blogs that post, so very happy to join in the fun again for tomorrow - July 9th.

Stopped by 1/2 Price Books and found this book that is full of COPYRIGHT FREE vintage images: so great that the cover is PINK!

a few pages showing what is offered inside the book - wonderful images!!!

these will definitely be used on ATC's

Last week I found a shoebox full of vintage greeting cards at a local antique mall and this adorable little girl was in the mix - you can't really tell but is has glitter around the door and on her sweet pink dress!

this is another card from the box - the other pink is covered in glitter

this was at the bottom of the box, I HAD to post this because of the tiny little pink ribbon at the top of this graduation announcement from 1926 !! It is in mint condition!

close up of pink ribbon

That's all for today - wanted to get my "feet wet", now it is time for me to go view all the other great blogs!

PLEASE STOP BY http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/ TO VISIT THE OTHER PARTICIAPANTS BLOGS!

Thanks for stopping by!

SHOW ME YOUR STATIONARY - JOURNAL

2011-07-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

I am a follower/subscriber to Jackie's site/mag: http://www.lettersandjournals/ and through her recent post I discovered this wonderful blog: http://mollyandtheprincess.com/
Looks like each saturday she has SHOW ME YOUR STATIONARY, where we link to her with our newest stationary and our journals. This is right up my alley as I love letter writing/journaling! While I usually like to deco plain journals, occassionally it is nice to find one already full of prompts and decorated. So, here is my newest find from TJ Maxx (I have a niece who works there so she lets me know when something new comes in.)

It was originally $12.99 but at TJ Maxx it was marked down to $2.00 I was pleased with that price!

I really like the collage look to it...

I love that each page has different fonts and looks to it...I still have not decided if I will leave it in tact as is or dismantle to use pages in my other journals or maybe just make copies so I do not have to dismantle it...

Here is the link to Molly and the Princess, hope you will take a look at her site and the others who are participating.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!

2011-07-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

A VERY HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO EVERYONE AND ESPECIALLY ALL THE SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN - THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE AND CONTINUE TO DO!!!

oldest son, Michael who is serving in Iraq!

balloon release at Joe's & Connie's on July 3rd...

neice, Ashley and nephew, Jake

son, Kyle and daughter, Kerri

daughter, Kerri and son, Kyle

nephew, Jason and my hubby waiting for the fireworks to begin!

Layout for a swap

2011-06-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

This is a layout I did last fall actually, for a swap I was in. The recipient's favorite colors were blue and orange (her college colors). I enjoyed using the rub-on flourishes, which "picked-up" on the ones in the decorative background papers and the overlay fit in nicely - she seemed to be very happy with it!

I think I should create something similar for myself, I really liked the outcome of this layout.

Have a fun day!

A couple more simple journal pages in a swap

2011-06-18T14:40:00.000-07:00

these are two pages I did recently in a journal that was for Swap-Bot, had to journal for the entire month, write, draw, collage, put in photos, everyday tidbits - these are my favorite kind of journals to swap, what we call an Everything Journal. The pages are simple, but it is what I "felt" like doing at the time. On the left I used a piece of scrapbook paper and added a little bit of glimmer mist to it, then some decorative tape around the outside, a scrapbook paper scrap and then some black and white tissue paper images. The right side is jst a Zentangle/doodle I did while watching tv.
What have you done in your journal today?

Simple and Sweet

2011-06-16T18:37:00.000-07:00

Yes this is a very simple layout, but the photo is precious to me and it is just what I wanted for it. I used a smokey grey Bazzill cardstock, then clipped the glittery clocks from another piece of scrapbook paper to place strategically on the layout. A soft pink piece of Bazzill cardstock I laid down the middle to anchor the photo of my youngest, Kerri when she was about a 1 1/2 and on top of that I placed an overlay with the definition of "sleep" printed on it and Dream at the bottom. I used my Cricut to cut out KERRI from the storybook cartridge and "in Daddy's arms" are Recollection mini alphabet stickers. The clouds were made with my Cricut and I used Recollections star brads near the clouds as well as regular brads to secure the overlay.

Hope all your dreams are sweet!!

Spring Break Layout

2011-06-15T05:19:00.000-07:00

My daughter, the one on the right, took this photo of herself and friend as well as the amazing sunset while on spring break in 2008. The paper is double sided and is mostly a pink toned paint brush effect on the other side which I originally wanted to use for this layout, unfortunately it over powered the sunset photo so I settle with this side and all the words related to the beach. I added the headed which is actually cut from another piece of 12 x 12 paper that is all words and phrases; the "ribbon banners" are also cut from the same piece of paper. I accordian folded a pink strip of paper to give it a ruffled look down the side of the page and topped that with a Making Memories flower and rhinestone and added a few flower bling by Recollections. The little days of the week card I believe is 7 Gypsies, added a pink paper clip and black Alphabities.

Wish I could be at the beach in Florida, or for that matter Kiawah Island, SC right now too!

Connecticut Scrapbook Page

2011-06-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

A sweet photo of my youngest daughter during our trip to Connecticut in summer 2009. Background paper is by K & Company called Polka Dots on Text Flat Paper, other papers on layouts are coordinating pieces from that line: I layered 5 pieces on the left side in various lengths and widths and even took the brown piece and gave it an accordian fold for a ruffle look, the same way I did with it under the photo. The flower I made using Tim Holtz' method with his wonderful tissue tape, inked the edges and added a greem gem brad by Recollectdions. I also used a piece of the tissue tape over the top of the photo to "anchor" the "plastic" sticker word: beautiful. The words "in" and "Connecticut" are sticker letters with text on them - sorry do not remember the brand.

Scrapbook Page with colors I would not have figured go together...

2011-06-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately the lighting in the picture did not help to show the strong color of the greens here. If these two papers had not been in a kit together, I never would have paired them - I guess I am a bit color coordinating challenged..sigh....

I knew the background paper was perfect for the one photo my daughter had of her weekend trip to Chicago, but I wanted a couple more pictures, since she did post the larger photo to Wardrobe-Remix on Flickr, then I was ok with adding a couple others pics that had been loaded there. So the layout conveys her trip to Chicago but also a few of her wardrobe-remix outfits. I used my Cricut to create "the windy city" and the CHICAGO border, added some Recollections flowers and pearliscent brads along with Making Memories metal photo turn and brad as well as a metal tag from Tim Holtz line as well as using his wonderful tissue tape to create to create the ruffled edge under the photo, also added a little butterfly that was received in a swap. Several items are "popped up: using Zots and foam pop dots.

What have you made lately?

Some Journal-Collage Pages

2011-06-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

I am inspired by the assortment of images and texts I see in every single magazine I look at. I love to combine them for an entirely new perspective and message. These pages are from a journal I did in a recent swap through SwapBot.com

More tomorrow...

Friday: A PAINTING

2011-06-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

Yes - its Friday and it is raining - so glad it is - I've wilted from all the 90 + temps for the past week and this rain is very welcome - I don't need to water now - yippeee!

VERY HAPPY AND PROUD to share an acrylic painting my oldest daughter, Morgan did for her sister, Kerri .

Hope everyone's Friday is a good one!

More card creations to share and a SUMMER GOALS LIST...

2011-06-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

Yes, more cards to show that Kerri an I made together, three of these are all ideas we saw on You Tube and a Craft magazine. The cupcakes card idea is compliments of butterflykisses12 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orRAK1Zi-Ikhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orRAK1Zi-Ik . Our card is bigger and our cupcakes are were made using the Cricut and instead of a round punch - which I was unable to locate mine - we used a square punch. The little "grunge/rock" boy is from the norsugirl at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLi2oI_84zs (she has some really wonderful ideas and these Greeting Farm stamps are adorable!!!) The word bubble says It's Time and inside the card we put TO ROCK YOUR BIRTHDAY and added a "guitar" that started out as a Tim Holtz grunge board hinge that was inked. He also has cardstock "wings" with gems and is on an embossed and inked card stock that I felt kinda looked like "records" hanging - all that on top of scrapbooking paper. The Grad card was in an idea book, simply "graduation" scrapbook paper w/ the silver mortar boards on it, added letters spelling grad, then the felt butterflies with gems and finally typed out "spread your wings and fly..." The last one was very fast, an embossed and inked piece of card stock with "thank you" in various lanuquages, with gems, on a piece of scrapbooking paper and a few felt flowers added.

As to my SUMMER GOALS LIST, as inspired by Elsie over at http://www.abeautifulmess.typepad.com/, well here they are:

SUMMER GOALS:

#1 get back to the gym every morning because I definitely NEED it!!

#2 Keep up with my blog!

#3 Work on making journals and more layouts to post onto Etsy.com

#4 Go on more mini 2 day trips - canoeing, hiking, visiting museums, just site seeing in general

#5 Clean out the basement completely!

#6 JOURNAL EVERYTHING EVERYDAY!!

Looking forward to the weekend, The Italian Festival (yes - hubby's side is!) and anothe baseball game as well as a tennis match and grilling out some steaks, yummy! Hope everyone else has nice plans too!

Crafted cards with youngest for school project

2011-06-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

My youngest, Kerri had a school MINI SOCIETY project to do in May, just befor school ended. She had to choose a product to make, keep a taly of what she spent, her time and price it to "sell" at school with "money" the kids all earned the previous month. Of course she chose CARDS because of all the "goodies" I already have on hand. These are a few we made: the pink one is just a collection of floral embellishments and stick on gems, with a border added, very easy to make. The purple one is card stock with a piece of scrapbook paper added and flowers cut from the Cricut machine, gems added, a typed message and adorable little memo "tickets" that we inked. The yellow one is cardstock with a sticker flourish added as well as a saying sticker at the bottom, Prima flower added with a brad center and some felt butterflies with gems, the last one we "scrap-lifted" from thestampgoddess on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv1thrMi6H8 she used stamps alot, we did not use any, unstead a Cricut cut cupcake, and mini alphabet stickers and lots of gemstones - had to move it again as the center kept shifting on it.
It was an enjoyable afternoon with my very creative and crafty 10 year old, more to share tomorrow.

My youngest sings the National Anthem for the Reds!

2011-05-09T06:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, my youngest, Kerri got to sing the National Anthem with her school's performance group: Oakdale Elementary OVATION, for the Cincinnati Reds on April 29th at 6:50 pm and they did a great job!! It actually did NOT rain all day after an endless week of it - seems the "rain gods" smiled on the group for their performance - unfortunately the Reds lost to the Marlins 6 -5 but it was a really good game!

Stormy Night, time for journal page

2011-04-27T04:51:00.000-07:00

Yes - a LOUD stormy night, felt like the roof was going to cave in there around 3:30 am. The basement smells "damp" - not good - have fans down there now - but it is still raining at 7:45 am...ugh!

Good news - Kyle won his high school tennis match yesterday as did the entire team! : )

Sharing a RED collage I did for a journal I sent out - it was hard to let go, wanted to keep it in my own journal - but deadlines for swaps being what they are, had to part with it.

on a background of red tissue paper, then a variety of cut out magazine images

Hope your day is drier and brighter than mine looks to be!

another wet day, with a little sunshine thrown in

2011-04-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, more rain, but not quite as much as the past week has delivered and I've seen a few peeks from the sun. Hopefully Kyle will get to have his tennis match after school and Kerri will finally get to have her first baseball game of the season - 5 rain outs in a row!! sheesshh!!

I've been playing with ZENTANGLES lately, it can be very addicting. I find myself doing it while running through sites online or while I'm not so engrossed in a tv show. Have sent out a few envies that I completely zentangled and have added quite a few zentangle pages to various journals I've done. Here's a look at a recent envelope I sent out:

If you've never heard of or seen Zentangles before, just Google it, there are some really incredible ones out there!! Have a good Tuesday.

I'M BACK...2 years and 3 months later that is...

2011-04-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe I have been away from this blog for that long. Things have changed around here, kids growing up so fast. My oldest son Michael is now married and he is also in the army and deployed to Iraq for a year. He has a 21 day leave coming up, so can't wait to see him on May 9th!

I am hoping to post a page a day from either my scrapbooking or journaling. I am starting off with the newest page I did of my oldest daughter, Morgan. I layered the clock paper over the butterfly paper then heavily embellished with more butterflies (LOVE them!), lots of flowers I put together as well as som "paper rosettes" I created, then thrwe in some pretty pearls and a little bling and threaded some lovely shimmery ribbon bows through it all.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter yesterday and looking forward to a good - drier - week ahead!

Good night!

I've been tagged...

2009-01-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

Robyn over at There's Always Thyme for...tagged me.

Rules: go to the 4th folder in your photos and take the 4th photo, post and explain...

Turns out that would be this photo from our summer vacation 2007!!! We went to California and Las Vegas for 2 weeks. This is of my oldest son Michael, 18 then and little Kerri, only 5 at the time on Big Bear Lake in California - they had a blast on the sea-doos for over an hour!! It was unfortunately rather chilly that morning - around 63 degrees high up in the mountains.

So, I need to tag 4 others with this....

Ok ladies, how about...

Amy at StinkyToesDesign

Cerri at LittlePinkStudio

Kim at Kim'sCottage

Twyla and Lindsey at TwoCrazyCrafters

Hope everyone had a fun weekend.

Take care, Robyn

A couple of scrap pages and my new "toy"

2009-01-06T09:24:00.001-08:00

So happy, look what hubby and the kids gave me for Christmas!!!

YES, YES, YES the Cricut Expressions - love it, love it, love it!!

I started simply to get used to it, made these next two pages, the "moments" here and

the "memories" here (love this block look!)
These are pages for an 8 x 8 album I'm doing that will just be pages of Kyle, my 3rd child - he's almost 15 - going to be random picks of him as a toddler!

Need to add a few more embellishments to this page though...

I was at a crop the other weekend and I WON - this fun calendar kit - I'm going to turn it into just a year long album though - not really mess with the calendar sheets.

Hope everyone is having a good day - its cold, wet and dark outside - I'M STAYING IN!!!

at least until I have to pick up Kerri from school...

Sparkle and Snowflake Swap I was in...

2009-01-04T09:16:00.001-08:00

I neglected to post about the other swap I participated in: the Sparkle and Snowflake Swap hosted by Holly.

My swap pal Eve in Oregon sent me these lovely blue sparkling snowflakes and...

Gold glittering reindeer ornaments. You should have seen all the glitter when I opened the package, WOW , it was like "magic dust" all around me!

Eve also knitted this wonderful scarf, I've been battling my 18 year old daughter, Morgan over it ever since it arrived! The girl owns over 7 scarves as it is but insists she doesn't have a multi brown one that looked perfect with the outfit she had on...

The following are the items I sent Eve for the swap:

This white ornament with snowflakes and rhinestones...

a package of snowflake tags...

a glittering banner I made with a Martha Stewart kit - HAPPY HOLIDAYS -

I added the poinsettias in between each letter using the Making Memories paper flowers.

Sorry, accidentally deleted the photo I had of the banner strung out.

This cute VINTAGE Santa boot I found at a local antique store.

The red flocking on it was still in pretty good condition,

but I decided to cover it with red glitter - also included candy canes to fill it with.

Picked up a wooden E at Michael's and went to town with Martha Stewart's red glitter,

then added the paper poinsettia and a gold leaves from a pick.

A monogram ornament for Eve.

a cute reindeer embellished gold mesh basket that I added pink crepe paper

(from my friend Binda in Australia and the vintage pink swap)

then filled with french vanilla soap and fizzing bath balls.

All the items together - also sent the gold glittered NOEL and the

little green glittering tree.

Two little monogramed sticky note cards,

a red charm for a necklace

as Eve likes to make jewelry and a

few gift tags I embellished with more of the poinsettias.

Receiving the swaps I did during the holidays made it all the

more merry for me wth two new friends being the best gift of all.

IT'S GOOD TO BE PINK AGAIN!!

2009-01-03T06:51:00.000-08:00

I did this layout of Kerri a few years ago, came across it last night while she was looking at some of my scrapbook albums. There's A LOT of PINK here - her HOT pink little outfit, the flower and the stripes in the paper. Reads down the side: SHE IS JUST BEAUTIFUL

Nice things come in pretty little PINK bags!!!

Have a wonderful weekend!

I"M BACK FOR PINK SATURDAY!

2008-12-20T05:31:00.001-08:00

Decided the best Pink Saturday items to share with you the weekend before Christmas would be some of our "pink" ornaments. By the end of these pics, you will see the "theme" that has the most pink in it which are for Kerri - our 7 year old daughter.

This first little one is one of my husband's and my favorites - he brought the little skier back from Germany when he was stationed there in the army during the late 80's. (He brought back a collection of these adorable little wooden ornaments, but she's the only PINK one)

This rocket ship was given to our 14 year old son when he was about 7 years old and was "into" rockets. I was surprised to see pink on a rocket ship back them.

A starfish to represent our last vacation on Kiawah Island, S.C.

A lovely ballerina - yes, its' Kerri's

A sweet angel - another one belonging to Kerri

Cinderella's pumpkin coach - yep, its Kerri's

Another adorable ballerina - of course it must be Kerri's

Ballet slippers, must be Kerri's

An one more pair of ballet slippers - oh, this is definitely Kerri's!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Pink Saturday and a Merry Christmas!

I'm BACK...FINALLY!!!! and my Vintage Pink Xmas Swap

2008-12-09T10:53:00.001-08:00

I signed up to be in the Vintage Pink Christmas Swap and was fortunate to be paired with Belinda (Binda) from Australia - happy to say I have a new friend to keep in touch with!

Here are the wrapped goodies I sent to her, which she has received thankfully all in one piece!

This is the Christmas scrapbook I made for her - I posted a "teaser" of a few pages last month. In the following photos you will see the entire album I created.

My 7 year old daughter wanted this album - its mostly PINK - so you can
understand her desire to have it for herself!

I like the look of the little hanging tag, in hindsight,

I should have done more of those in the album!

Loved that the green photo circle was pre-cut and a sticker

- so much faster that way!

The cute stocking I HAD to have "hanging" and a brad

with a loop attached was the perfect answer,

along with a mini jump ring.

Another pre-cut sticker circle that I "raised" with foam tape

Yes, this album can stand up on a table and this is the back - so it kinda resembles a package from the front as well as the back.

Another view of the album and the store bought cinnamon candle that I added decor to - the metal tag in the center of the flower reads: BELIEVE

We had to include at least one vintage item,

Binda likes elves and I

was lucky to find these little guys at a near

by antique shop.

I picked up the hand-painted roses ornament at one of the school craft shows I attended and another vintage ornament - that I had a VERY HARD time parting with! Three-dimensional diorama ornament I found near the elves.

Here is a look at the swap in its entirity that I sent her - made the bird/tag/envlope, cute little santa statues, a cool looking pink glass ornament, a pagoda ornament (Binda likes Asian inspired things), another vintage item - Xmas garland in its original package, chocolate that she loves - 1 for each member of her family - a glass bird ornament and a package of cute wooden clip-on gloves and stockings ornaments.

The following is the cool swap I RECEIVED from Binda -

all the sweet pink and Santa tissue wrapped packages!

I got to try some Australian candy - told her I love mint - so she sent me yummy Allen's Minties. Cute pack of napkins with four blocks of babies in various "beds". A sleeve of pink crepe paper that I have already put to use on a project! I like to do alot of journal writing so she sent me the sweet little journal that she altered for Christmas! 2 Adorable gold glittered clip on bird ornaments that look great on my tree. Another bird - a cardinal - she made that has also found a home in my tree. A card of vintage pearl looking buttons and a vintage pink doilie; also a pink ballerina pencil for 7 year old Kerri.

Another photo of my goodies - also shown here: a honeycomb bell, package of butterfly tags, more pink doilies and a cool shoulder bag Binda made. She upcycled a really nice skirt into the bag, added vintage trim and a cute pink flower with multi colored fabrics for the handles. My 18 and 7 year old daughters have been arguing over who gets it! HELLO?!!! IT'S MINE, MINE, MINE!!!

Closer shot of the shoulder bag.

And finally the sweet Christmas card she made for me!

Had so much fun participating in this swap!

Thanks to Jen at RoseyLittleThings for hosting this.

Cookies, cookies, movie and last year's memories

2008-11-24T06:49:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I promised Kerri we would make MORE cookies -

she LOVES to mix and bake!

So we started off with the Clementine recipe from the

December Ladies Home Journal issue.

We had never tried these before, but they sounded "refreshing"

so Kerri and I made the attempt.

Here you can see she is piping the merangue mix - which then had to sit

at room temp for an hour before going into the oven.

The first tray to come out of the oven - browned just right.

and the final result, Clementines! T
hey are sandwiched with the buttered/sugar cream center.
Fortunately the kids' god-father had stopped by so he was
the official guinew-pig, um..."taster" ha, ha.
DELICIOUS!!!!
So much in fact he asked that I make a big batch for him to take
to the RCIA class he teaches on Tuesday for their Christmas party!

That batch wasn't enough for Kerri, while she enjoyed piping she wanted to "cut out" cookies and decorate. So it was onto the sugar cookie recipe AGAIN - remember last weekend's post?

This time I have her decorated creations to share!

In between the baking and mess clean-up we sat down to watch one of our all-time

favorite Christmas movies: Christmas Vacation.

As always, it was a fun and enjoyable movie to watch!

I was looking thru my scrapbook albums last night and

came across this layout from last year.

This is something Kerri and I did last year at this time and it

was the last time we would do it as well.

Her grandma saw the ad for an American Girl Mystery Train Ride on

the historic Loveland Railroad. Tickets were $40.00 a piece.

DH thought it was a fun idea and signed Kerri and me up for it! His mom and

him were going to take us up there but during our 2 hour "adventure"

they were going to go antiquing!It was about 20 degrees that day and while we dressed

warmly for the OLD, NO HEAT train-ride, we didn't even thing to bring a blanket!!

While it was fun to be with my little girl and her favorite doll - Nikki - and see the other little girls with their dolls the train ride was LESS than enjoyable with no decent scenery!

After the ride American Girl Kit Kittridge was raffled off to ONE lucky girl - a grandma won her with 2 grand-daughters. You should have seen the faces on the rest of the girls who did not win!

That was far worse than us freezing on the train ride!

We then had a teaparty at the historical post office -

you can see the glass and gold cover boxes behind Kerri in one of the pics.

Afterwards we did a little antiquing and then headed home.

On the way, Kerri said it was something different to do and she was glad we did but she didn't think she'd want to do it again. Perhaps if it was warmer...

Today its about 36 degrees and raining - the kind of day to stay indoors and watch a movie or play on the computer and blog or work on crafts. I plan to do all the above before I have to do some cleaning for thursday and our Thanksgiving feast.

Have a great week!

Hey Hey - Its Pink Saturday

2008-11-22T11:24:00.001-08:00

Here's to another Pink Saturday! Thank you Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for hosting this every Saturday and to all the ladies who participate!

Ok - I've come to realize that with a blog titled scrapbooks and journals I should definitely be showing far more pages than I have - pretty lame. So, in honor of Pink Saturday here are three layouts I did a few years ago.

This one of is of Kerri at our annual elementary school family picnic at Stricker's Grove amusement park - she is just like her mommy - LOVES cotton candy!!!

Another one of Kerri - everyone one who sees this photo thinks she has angel wings on her back. Nope, just a big bow on her dress. I was so thankful to have gotten this photo - lets just say she was less than enthusiastic to have her photo taken by the very strange looking woman at Olan Mills. When I finally got her to look at me and she was leaning forward I told the woman to click the photo and she said, "But this is one of our poses." HELLO!!! Take the darn pic now - she looks adorable and it was the ONLY decent shot after half an hour!!!

A few shades of pink here - my two beautiful girls - baby Kerri and big sis Morgan - "sharing" a cookie. I just love this shot!

Thanks for taking a look, hope your weekend is great!

Yippeee - Another PINK SATURDAY!

2008-11-15T05:33:00.001-08:00

It feels so good to be a part of another PINK SATURDAY!

This adorable gift "box" I found last summer at a yard sale for ONLY .25 !!!

Believe me, I've had to "fight" Kerri for it - if it goes missing from my craft area I KNOW I'll find it on her dresser!!!

Sory, I took a rather lousey photo of this sweet little bracelet - tiny pink rhinestones are in the middle of each one of the gold "flowers" along with the pink beads and deep rose tone beads. This bracelet was originally Morgan's - she's 18 - last year she passed it down to Kerri who is 7. (I had given it to Morgan when she was 12.)

OK - I saw this in the newspaper, an ad for this super cute figurine, and just couldn't pass up sharing it with everyone!!

Wanted to "show-off" the family-project Kerri's teacher send home for us to do. He was just an enlarged coloring book figure that we had to decorate to hang on the wall at school. Kerri an I had fun creating him. KERRI sewed the mouth onto the muslin I gave her and glued on the eyes and colored in the cheeks. She also colored in the pants, tied the string around his neck, set the orange "button" brads, colored the shoes, tied them, added the patch to his knee with the safety pin and added the pumpkins herself. I took care of forming the fabric to his hat as well as the plaid fabric for the shirt and stuffing the straw. This is a nice keepsake that Kerri and I did together and we have another one at school now - a Indian Girl which is up for Thanksgiving!

Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...we made SUGAR COOKIES from scratch!They were so yummy!!

Sorry, didn't get the pics AFTER he was decorated - but he sure did taste GOOD!!

An I've been a busy elf, sorting, wrapping Christmas gifts!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoys their PINK SATURDAY!!!

SHOW AND TELL SUNDAY - COLLECTIONS

2008-11-02T05:37:00.000-08:00

Its that time, to do a little collection sharing. I just chose 4 of mine.

The first is a collection of flat replica houses - or shelf huggers. The far right shows the pink house from Battery Lane in South Carolina that I was thinking of sharing yesterday for pink saturday. All the houses and trees are replicas from South Carolina with the exception of the low and long building in the front. That is Oakdale Elementary here in Bridgetown where all of my 4 kids have attended. My kids god-father started giving me one of these for each Christmas after we had spend our summer vacation down on Kiawah Island, S.C. I should have told my daughter Morgan to get me another one when she went down there for her

Senior trip last summer as we did not vacation there.

They sit up high in the dinning room on top of our hanging antique corner shelf.

Small collection that has not been added to since the 90's as the cvintage compacts I kept choosing were TOO EXPENSIVE for me to NOT feel GUILTY about buying. The two on the left I bought and the other two were gifts from friends.

I have to say my favorite is the top one on the right, with the blue and rose disc, because...

Its very unique with the metal mesh that droops underneath - has an animal skin lining where the powder rests.

All four compacts have the original powder puff, some powder and their

mirrors intact.

Small bottle/vase collection. I like them old and with a unique shape.

Another shot of them...the tall one on the right is an antique baby bottle. Next to it on the left is unique - it is a triangular shape! Love the color of the cranberry glass, I had a lovely cobalt blue one but unfortunately I was a "butterfingers" one day a couple of months ago while cleaning it and - CRASH!!!

I also collect small pitchers/creamers and most of these have been gifts from DH - the pirate one of course - the kids' god-father and my mother-in-law.

These three are my favorites though - I found the one at a tiny antique store and was NOT about to pass it up, I mean would you if it had YOUR last name on it?!! The tiny littel white one is just so cute and the lovely cottage inspired one was a Christmas gift from the kids' god-father. Most of these do get used.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek at a few of my collections. I was going to share my charm bracelet collection, but I'm kinda hoping the ladies will pick that as a show and tell theme soon. Have a lovely Sunday! Once again we have a beautiful day shaping up here!

PINK SATURDAY TIME!

2008-11-01T05:42:00.000-07:00

Happy PINK SATURDAY!

Hope everyone survived Halloween - after Kerri had the 24 hour stomach virus on Thursday - which put her DOWN like the flu, was worried she wouldn't make Halloween night, but yesterday morning she was FINE, couldn't even tell she had been so sick!

Ok, Kerri collects music boxes and this sweet pink piano was given to her a year ago by my step-mom, this little think is HEAVY!

I am so happy that my pretty pink impatients are STILL blooming!!!

We were down to the 30's most of this past week and they are still going strong!

Oops! Moved the camera - sorry!

I did have one more item to show, but its part of a collection so I'm saving it for the Show and Tell SHOW YOUR COLLECTIONS tomorrow!

Have a terrific PINK SATURDAY! I'm off with my step-mom and Kerri to the first Xmas Craft Show of the season, yippeee!!!

I've Been Boo'ed and a Rainbow!

2008-10-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

Yes - I was BOO'ED by Judi at www.judicreations.wordpress.com

Now go to as many friends as you like and tell them they have been Boo-ED and have them link back to your blog to pick up their prize, the picture, and tell them to Boo their friends. Put the picture in your sidebar so they know you have been boo-ED and send the pic to someone else.

OK - I figure it just has to be a great day if you get up in the morning and you find this in your house on the wall!!! Shining through the livingroom window bright as can be - had to share and hopefully pass on the "good luck" of it to all of you!!!

Kerri's grandma brought her another pumpkin! Kerri sat down, drew a picture of a pirate and asked me for help to transfer it to the pumpkin but that girl gutted the entire thing herself...

she had fun doing it as you can see by that dimple standing out!

She also carved the entie mouth herself and the nose!!!!

Her Pirate is fabulous!!

Tons of stuff to do, better run - hope everyone is loaded down with candy and ready for Halloween in just two days!! Have a great week!

PINK SATURDAY - my 3rd one

2008-10-25T05:35:00.001-07:00

HERE'S TO ANOTHER WONDERFUL PINK SATURDAY AND A BIG THANK YOU TO BEVERLY FOR HOSTING IT AND ALL THE PARTICIPANTS WHO SHARE THEIR PINK!

These two pieces of pink depression glass were found in the early 90's.
This was before the magazines started talking about depression
glass again and made the general public realize their value and
hunger to own it again. Thus the prices sky rocketed even at yard sales!

I wanted this sweet little dessert/ice cream cup as soon as I saw the lone piece and at $2, it was a steal!

The platter was also a great find at about $4

While the cup basically is just a display item in our corner cabinet we do use the platter quite a lot, especially for big dinners.

Wanted to add this adorable bed today, which is from the American Girl Doll line. Kerri saw it in the new catalog and of course said she'd LOVE it for Christmas. Well, sorry, but at $118.00 that is not happening. While I love the American Girl items I think the prices are truly outrageous! I do believe though, that between her daddy's woodworking crafting skills and my touches of fabric and beads here and there, not to mention paint or stain we could make something similar for under $20 - much more doable!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Pink Saturday and if this is your first stop at my blog and you have an extra few minutes, please take a look at some of my other posts - especially the Halloween Party from last Saturday the 18th - it was a lot of fun!

High School Musical 3 and a New Mag

2008-10-24T19:20:00.001-07:00

Ok, this is my 2nd attempt to post this - lost it somehow the first time - ugh!!

Today my 7 year old was out of school thanks to a Teachers' In Service Day, which was perfect since it coincided with the opening of the much anticipated

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 - SENIOR YEAR.

YES - the theater was packed and even though we got there half hour early we

still ended up sitting in the 2nd row from the screen! UGH!!! I never cared to be

that close as a kid and still don't care for it, but my daughter and her two friends

were in 7th heaven, so that's where we stayed!

So, for 2 hours I had an enjoyable time with my daughter - hey, I love musicals and Disney did a good job of upping the difficulty in the dance sequences for the big screen. The girls went on and on about the movie aftewards, an unanimously agreeing it was the BEST of all 3 High School Musicals!

I came away with fond memories of listening to and watching my daughter enjoying herself an my eyes feeling as though they had rolled back into my skull - thanks to our seat location.

So happy to find my pre-ordered copy of the premiere issue of the new magazine:

WHERE WOMEN CREATE

I have thoroughly enjoyed pouring over all these amazing creative spaces and wishing I had anything nearly as wonderful!

Look who I found among the pages and who will have her own column in each of the quarterly issues, the oh so talented Sandra Evertson.

I smile whenever I come across the photo of Sandra's supply loaded dishwashing machine! So creative! I also wonder, where was Sandra with this idea 11 years ago when I could have used it on the portable dishwasher my mother-in-law 'pawned off' on us - which ended up out on the curb for the garbage man.

Let me just say that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this antique multi-drawer storage unit owned by the Tinsel Trading Company in Manhattan!! How I'd love to have a potion of it, but guess I'll have to make do with the two small antique units I do have...

We've had this for about 15 years. My husband found it about 16 years ago,

a four piece section of a Dewey Decimal System drawer unit.

This piece below is much older than the card catalog drawers and was a gift to

my husband from our kids' god-father. The drawers are about a foot long.

I keep looking for more storage items; one of the sharpest I've ever seen was about 11 years ago a the Burlington, KY. Fairgrounds monthly antique show. It was a large round wooden shape that had small triangular drawers - over 100 of them!!! It was also on a turntable and the owner said it was a turn of the century dentist storage unit! It was beautiful and I wanted it but not at $2,500.00 !!!

I also found the newest issue of Somerset Studio in my mailbox, so much eye-candy to view! Talented artists on everypage!

Here's to tomorrow and PINK SATURDAY!

PHOTOS FROM LAST SUNDAY

2008-10-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

Went on our annual pumpkin picking trip to Browns' Farm Market -

I've lost track of how many years we have gone here.

Cute sign for Kerri to pose with.

Kerri immediately grabbed one of the wagons to be "in charge"

Some of the larget pumpkins they offered that we passed

on this year - but great for a photo op
They also make and sell these adorable play houses.

My girls selecting pumpkins,

with Morgan looking at it from an artistic standpoint

That one wasn't right, let's look for another...

Browns' Farm Market changed their layout

a LOT this year - seemed so different.

No shortage of pumpkins to choose from tho...

Gourds, gourds, anyone want more gourds?

Inside the market - the person who comes closest

to guessing the weight of this pumpkin WINS it!

We opted NOT to go on the hayride this year and

were disappointed to find the 2 hay mazes gone.

Now I just need to scrapbook the photos I took - maybe tomorrow night would be good. I'm in the mood to be CREATIVE which I haven't felt much like doing in the past couple of weeks.

Kids are out of school Friday for end of quarter, so no homework worries tomorrow and no time table to follow on Friday - yippeee!!!

Watching the end of TOP DESIGN - see you tomorrow.

RECEIVED MY FIRST BLOG AWARD!!!

2008-10-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

Thank you so very much Kim of Kim's Cottage!!!

She has bestowed on me my very first blog award and just made my day!!!

She is super sweet and has been so gracious with her comments!

The rules that go along with the award are to answer the

following questions with one word answers...then pass it on to 7 other bloggers.

1. Where is your cell phone? Hand
2. Where is your significant other? California

3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? Diane
5. Your father? Ron
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? None
8. Your dream/goal? Security
9. The room you're in? Dinning
10. Your hobby? Scrapbooking
11. Your fear? Blindness
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Better
13. Where were you last night? Gymnastics
14. What you're not? Perfect
15. One of your wish list items? Van
16. Where you grew up? Cincinnati
17. The last thing you did? Eat
18. What are you wearing? Jeans
19. Your tv? On
20. Your pet? Rocky
21. Your computer? Laptop
22. Your mood? Anxious
23. Missing someone? Hilda
24. Your car? Junked
25. Something you're not wearing? Watch
26. Favorite store? HobbyLobby
27. Your summer? Short
28. Love someone? Passionately
29. Your favorite color? Red
30. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Forget

These are the Lucky 7 I'm passing this award on to:

Cerri of Little Pink Studio

for being one of the first people to leave me a comment

Beverly of How Sweet The Sound

for being one of the first and for hosting Pink Saturday

Twyla & Lindsey of Two Crazy Crafters

for being so friendly and supportive this whole time

Jenn of Rosey Little Things

for several nice comments and hosting the

first swap I've signed up for: Pink Vintage Christmas

Linnea of Neabear

for being the first blogger to link to me and being so friendly

Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist

for being sweet and talented with great ideas

And although she doesn't have a blog she is really the person who

encouraged me to start my own blog, is super supportive and

introduced me to so many of the blogs that I admire,

my best pal - Hilda in Mississippi!!

Thanks again to everyone who visits my blog,

and thanks to all of the bloggers who share with me everyday!

FINALLY!!! - HALLOWEEN PARTY TIME!!!

2008-10-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

ITS TIME FOR THIS HALLOWEEN PARTY TO GET STARTED!!

Of course all houses must be "guarded" by wickedly fun jack o' lanterns. We pay tribute to our witchy friends...

but these "warty beauties" we leave as is - the COVEN likes it that way!!

Please watch your OWN HEAD as you step on up..

Don't worry about the banshee, he just likes to have a good time to..heeeheehee...

Of course some of our quests had a harder time getting here, took this guy a little while to dig himeself out!

ah lovely to view...

Stop right there! Enter if you dare!

Welcome, come right in...

A portrait of our hostess with the mostess - BRUMHILDA!!!

A few of our other quests, he maybe of Viking descent!

Ah yes, the always lovely Vampiress,

but don't let her partake of the drink too much, otherwise...

she becomes a wee bit testy!

Wolfboy - wolfman's son of course!!! So glad you could attend!!! Of course, what else would he be doing on a night with a full - moon? There wasn't a full moon? Oh my, he maybe a gatecrasher, I may need to get the bouncers over here!!!

Oops, looks like our bouncers have their hands full with this sweet little fairyprincess.

Now why in the world would she try to crash this hauntingly wicked soiree?!!!

Please, I'm being a terrible hostess, step into the dinning area,

watch your head, our chandelier is a little low tonight.

Hope you don't mind our feathered-friends here,

they heard we might have a recitation of The Raven,

so flew on in!

Please, this way into our entertainment area...

we have enlisted the talent of the local
"Monster Mash Varsity Singers" They are quite talented!!

This one seems to be...

SPOOKTACULAR!!!!

Oh, still hungry, please help yourself,

there's plenty for everyone!

Oh, have you worn out so soon,

hate to see you preparing to leave....

There really is more food,

we don't want it to go to waste afterall...

Wouldn't you care for our special NIGHTCAP?

Really, it only upset the mad scientist's stomach,

everyone else LOVED it!

Oh, forgot about Dorian, seems to have effected him too!

Oh well, anything is possible at a Halloween Party, hope you enjoyed yourself!

Enjoy the rest of the partiers thanks to Vanessa over at afancifultwist.typepad.com

Late with all my planned posts!!!!

2008-10-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

WOW! I am so far behind with posting for

Vanessa's Halloween Party and posting for Pink Saturday and Show and Tell Sunday - thanks to a "locked up laptop" that would not respond and had to wait for DH to return

home from a business trip to fix it!!!!

So, here is my posting for PINK SATURDAY , both items belong to my 7 yr. old - she had seen them at Hobby Lobby and we waited and waited for a sale then low and behold they went on clearance!!

She took ballet, tap and jazz for 3 years, is now taking gymnastics, but she still loves anything related to ballet and that which is the ALL IMPORTANT PINK!

These are both necklace holders whicha are stitting on her dresser and YES, she wants more when she sees them!

Thanks for stopping by!

And Winner Is...

2008-10-14T15:55:00.000-07:00

Beverly of How Sweet The Sound!!!

You are the winner of the tags and mini notebook to mark my 1 week blog anniversary! My daughter Kerri just pulled your name out of the bowl.

Congratulations!!!

I will be contacting you to get your snail mail so I can send
the goodies out to you!

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by over the past week,
hope you'll continue to visit!!!!

I'm gearing up for Vanessa's

Halloween Party

this Saturday - so excited.

As you can see one of the Witch Sisters got into the goodies a wee bit early and devoured far too much. Crimson - the Head Witch - is not too pleased and just doesn't know WHAT to do with the younger witch.

Crimson is also in a dilemma over which hat to wear with her cape to the party.

Its just one thing after another - so many choices, so little time!

Hope everyone is ready for Saturday! Have a great evening!

Oops, skipped Monday's posting...

2008-10-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all who visited me for Pink Sunday - I'm still trying to get to the over 100 sites that participated. So much wonderful PINK to view!!!

This is just a two page spread from the Christmas album I did for a swap I'm in - don't want to show too much just in case my partner stops by here to visit.

The postage stamp ornament is on popdots so a photo can slip part way underneath. The stocking on the bottom page is attached with jump rings so its free swinging. Oops, forgot I wanted to add some cotton to the top of the stocking, didn't have any with me at the scrapbook crop.

There are 12 pages in this album.

This is a page for my pal Hilda's Disney album. Her daughters Kassidy and Elayna and their cousin Alexis - having a fun time. Kept this spread rather simple as it was a single photo, used a couple of others similar to it on another spread, so just used sticker words to express what they experienced.

Another Disney layout, the girls are in front of a SnowWhite garden in Epcot and since there were no photos of the girls with any of the princess characters I used this one as a princess type page with all the pink and SnowWhite sticker. I don't feel its finished yet though. I really want 'something' on the left hand side on the strips, but 'WHAT' is eluding me!

This is my 7 year old, Kerri thoroughly enjoying herself at Cade's Cove last summer. We met up with Hilda and her mom and daughters for a wonderful week in Pigeon Forge, TN.

Another pick of Kerri during our trip, this time at the Old Tyme Photo Shop in Dollywood. Her grandma has been wanting a tin type photo of Kerri for awhile now and they decided on the prohibition era setting. Againk kept it simpl so the photo is the main attraction and just enhanced with ribbon and neutral colored flowers.

Have some running to do. I will be back on later today with the winner of my 1 week blog anniversary giveaway. Everyone who posted the past week will be included in the drawing. Kerri asked if she could pull the name out, so will let her do it when she gets home from school. Sorry, I didn't do it over the weekend, but better late than never. See you later today.

A FUN DAY AT THE SCRAPBOOK CROP!

2008-10-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

I LOVE THIS STORE - I have to drive 50 minutes to get to it, but it is WORTH it, especially if I'm spending 15 hours there SCRAPBOOKING!!!

This is what you are greeted by when you first walk into Simply Scrapbooks. The Creative Cafe bar, then to the left and right and straight back areas LOADED with anything scrapbook and rubber stamp related!!! There is SO MUCH to choose from, and pages adorn the shelves and walls to give you added inspiration!

At the very back of the store is the cropping area, each person has her OWN TABLE, how great is that?!!!
This is my friend, Andrea who I met last April at one of the store's crops and since then we've been cropping together at the store whenever we can! I meant to take some photos of the layouts she did, really fun ones of her 4 kids, but my favorite was a page of her husband holding one of their sons when he was a baby and she has lambs, clouds and puzzle pieces that read: A Perfect Fit. It turned out so darn cute!!!

Here's a look behind me at the rest of the crop space - this was a small crop that a few of the Cricut users put together, only 15 of us. It was a fun, "intimate" affair - a change from the crops where the room is filled to capacity and it gets rather loud and a tight squeeze to get by at times -
ALWAYS A FANTASTIC TIME REGARDLESS!

We were surprised to learn there would be doorprizes! We each got a ticket to put into the basket of the prize of our choice. Andrea won this sweet basket filled with a variety of scrapping items.

Here is Michaela, who came with her grandma, and was lucky enough to win this accordian folder which held 10 page kits.

Jill was one of the organizers and wanted this Halloween paper slab BAD!!! I mean the girl WANTED IT - she's so funny! She also got a stack of clear rubberstamps.

Sami is Jill's daughter and was in town just for the crop. She was lucky enough to this plastic tote filled with scrapping goodies!

This is Tamy, just met her at this crop and she won this pouch filled with a variety of pens. Found out when she was leaving to go home that she lives just a few miles from ME!! How great is that?!! So planning on getting her to go to the next crop with me in November on the 22nd!!

And here is the last winner of the evening with her mega scrapbook kit!!

Oh, forgot to mention that I won too!!! This cute corduroy 8 x 8 album and 4 packs of coordinating papers - very cool!!

So happy with my win that I started filling the album at the crop! These are papers from another pack I already had.

Two page spread with a pocket and tag that has a metal word plate attached to and a hidden pocket on the second page.

Love going to crops and this one was an enjoyable day. Will show a few other pages I made as well as the Christmas album I did on tomorrow's post. Time to relax with hubby and a movie, have a great evening and see you tomorrow!

MY FIRST PINK SATURDAY!!!

2008-10-11T04:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, so happy to be a part of this fun Saturday event now.

This will be a short post as I am off to my 15 hour crop!!!

This lovely pink wingback chair is actually one of a set. This one happens to reside in my daughter Morgan's room, notice the green walls. She had been wanting something like this when we redid her room 2 years ago and her. We happened to luck-out when her god-father was given the pair and he offered the one to Morgan and the other to my 7 year old Kerri for her playhouse. I believe that Morgan is ready for a make-over in her room again, so this chair maybe going to Kerri's playhouse as well.

This cute bank is Kerri's and we picked it up on her trip last summer to SanFrancisco. Found it at a kiosk in a local mall. The girl is all about pink and bling!!!

Thanks for stopping by, can't wait to visit the other Pink Saturday sites when I get back late tonight. Have a great day!

Working on SISTERS album

2008-10-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

TGIF!!!

Whenever I'm asked, "What is your favorite day of the week?", my reply is always, "Friday - because I know the weekend is just beginning once the kids are out of school at 3:10 and I have all that to look forward to!!!"

I quick look at my mums in the front yard. Rather disappointed as my brillant red and burnt orange did NOT make a come back this year and for some reason the local nurseries do not seem to have these colors I LOVE for the Fall!! So, here I'm stuck with the yellow/orange hues.

I've been admiring all the photos on others' blogs of their beautifully colored trees, unfortunately our trees are S-L-O-W-L-Y turning to their fall foliage this year. This is the only one of ours going so far, our tulip tree in the front yard. Even my neighbor, Denise's oak in the background has yet to change or drop its acorns.

Made a quick trip to Target this morning to return something and found some cute scrapbook embellishments and clear stamps for $1 each in their front area $1 store. I LOVE checking this section out every chance I get!! Great items at a great price and when they clearance the seasonal items - WOW - best deals going!!! These goodies here will be put to good use tomorrow at my all day crop at Simply Scrapbooks.

Speaking of scrapbooking been working on this accordian album: SISTERS. Just using various photos of my daughters together. I went ahead a laid out the pages first, now just need to go back and adhere the pics. This was a fun and relatively quick project. My girls are 18 and 7, so big age gap, kept the pages theme free other than using green and pink since those are their favorite colors.

Photo on the left from last Christmas and to the right Morgan's
high school graduation this past June.

The girls are the annual Harvest Home Fair and

another shot from Morgan's graduation - afterwards.

Pages just waiting for photos to be added to.

More pages waiting on pics. There are a total of 16 panels. I used Prima flowers, brads, rhinestones, plastic tags, scrapbook papers and card stock, buttons, sticker letters

Another 2 page spread from Morgan's senior memory album - Graduation.

Her class had almost 900 kids graduating - Oak Hills always has the largest

high school enrollment in the state of Ohio.
I made the tag using a cute rubberstamp of a graduate then added stickles for streamers and another tag I stamped with congradulatory words. The right page is a transparent overlay - loved the wording on the side:

Time is a friend, a healer, a maker of dreams and every moment

maker of dreams

it holds in its hands is filled with new beginnings. Our lives are

new beginnings

woven by the weavers of time in a pattern we cannot see; but when

cherish time

we cherish time we cherish life for time gives even as it takes.

Unknown

This is an ATC/ACEO that Morgan made, just a quickie drawing with her prismcolors.

Hoping to make copies to sell in our Etsy shop.

Hope everyone has a great day, time for me to get my scrapbooking

goodies together for the crop tomorrow while I listen to Duffy singing "Mercy".

Check back on Saturday for my first PINK SATURDAY and Sunday for blog about the crop Saturday.

Barbie goodies and a Thank you!

2008-10-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying yesterday was a "bad" day. I was not able to get to the laptop and post, which also kept me from showing this first photo as a special "treat" to Lindsey over at TwoCrazyCrafters. I have so enjoyed all of her Barbie Wednesday posts and wanted to share with her two of my treasured Barbie items from MY youth

Yep, these are 45 RPM records and they still play and sound GREAT - no scratches ladies! They came out for a limited time in the early 70's and each had an outfit to go with the song title. There were a total of 3 made and I did have all three, much to my horrific surprise when I went to pull these out to photograph, the third record and outfit were missing!!! Well, at least these two are still here and the first is titled Fly Children Fly and the second is Rapping in Rhythm; by the way the third was titled Here In Nashville and the outfit was red and white with a very ruffly blouse and mid calf full skirt with matching white boots and red "painted" lacings plus a white cotton "lace" shawl. The Fly Children Fly outfit is missing its sheer white blouse and leather lace up belt as well as a pink scarf.
So, here's a toast to you Lindsey - an other Barbie lovers -

just a little treasured blast from my past that brings back very fond memories!

These next two photos are of a Make-and-Take I made at Simply Scrapbooks. Fun and a little messy using Tim Holz' Alcohol Inks, rubber stamps, Staz on ink and markers. If you haven't tried using the alcohol inks, go to your local shop that is offering a class and take it, just fun, fun, fun with so many possibilities and a cool look!

This was to be a mini tag album with the individual pieces of scrapbook paper adhered to the back side of each clear plastic piece as shown below. But I hesitated and decided to save the individual elements to possibly use on a scrapbook page or pages.

Today wasn't a total mail loss - finally got my Nov. issue of CK mag. I was kinda jealous as my friend Hilda called the other day and said she had her's already!!! At least I have it for my all day crop this Saturday!

Here's a quick peek at a little item I'm working on, using a canvas panel, silk leaves, raffia and probably a couple other items. Hard to see in this photo but both the wood letter and the canvas have been painted using glitter paint. I think I'll redo the canvas so its darker. I'll post later when its complete.

One other note before I sign off, "THANK YOU" so much to Karen over at PoshLittle.com for featuring my Halloween chipboad album I have in my shop at Etsy on her site. What a wonderful surprise to find her post in my comments! Just made me day!!

Have a great one everyone!

Random things...

2008-10-07T16:53:00.000-07:00

Isn't this little pumpkin cute?!

Kerri, my 7 year old was so excited to find it growing down in our back yard!

Its from the pumpkin seeds we threw down there after last Halloween; unfortunatlely this little pumpkin, although cute, isn't nearly as big as the original pumpkin he's from. Doesn't matter though, Kerri is just so excited to have her own little pumpkin patch this fall!!!

I just HAD to share this:

I LOVE this photo of Kerri from our favorite pumpkin patch, Brown's Farm.

She was only about a year and a half here but loved breing among the pumpkins.

She's 7 now and still loves going out to look for and pick her Halloween pumpkin!

Kerri's god-father found this vintage metal dog bell at a local antique
shop for her playhouse. She has always loved the house bell he has at his back door,
so when he saw this, he knew it was meant for her!

No one else was home tonight except for Kerri and me, so she asked if
we could get pizza. Sounded good to me since I wasn't in the mood to cook! It also helps that my son works there and we get a family discount!! So,
here's to our pepperoni pizza and cheesy crazy bread - yummy!

It was a bit of a crazy day an I didn't get a chance to work on any of my s
crapbooks or tags or journals unfortunately! Honestly, tomorrow doesn't
look very promising either. My hats off to you ladies who have the
ability to work on your "goodies" each day!!

I was able to get to one of our antique stores and found a MIB
pink vintage Christmas decoration for the swap I'm in!!! Going to keep my
fingers crossed that I will be able to go to the last Burlington Fairgrounds
Antique Fair on Oct. 19th of the year. They will set up again in April 2009.
DH an I went to the one last month and found a vintage baseball glove for our
son Kyle's baseball memorabilia collection and a wooden Wells Fargo lockbox
- my hubby zeroed in on it immediately, said that our friend would love it, so that's
his Christmas gift.

Time to get Kerri to bed then I'm settling down to watch a little tv.
First I think I'll go make a nice cup of coffee to go with a few Mint Milano cookies.
Go0dnight.

Its Monda and a new week

2008-10-06T20:06:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned I LOVE Halloween?!!! Want some candy? Monday, a new week of school, homework, extracurricular activities, being a chaffeur and looking forward to SATURDAY when I get to attend a 15 hour crop up in Dayton at Simply Scrapbooks and hook up with my step-mom Bernice and my friend Andrea. AHHHH! 15 hours of quality scrapping time, no interruptions by husband, kids, animals, housecleaning, etc. I get far more accomplished away from home than I ever do when I try to take an afternoon for myself and scrap! Just far too many distractions that can't be neglected, no matter how hard I try!

I got lucky, usually there are a couple of months, at least, in between my crops but this one is only 2 weeks after the Crop for the Cure that Simply Scrapbooks hosted on the 27th of Sept. It was an enjoyable day of scrapping and spending time with Andrea, whom I hadn’t seen since June. There were hourly giveaways and word games, plus different hourly sales throughout the store. This was the t-shirt they gave each of us, nicely created by the owner's husband!

I managed to do a few pages in the Disney album I’ve been working on for my best pal Hilda! She is so patient, thank God! Found the bone ribbon in the pet section along with some paper with bones that I cut out individually. This was to be a gift for Christmas 2007, keeping my fingers crossed I have it ready for Christmas 2008.

Hilda's girls Kassidy and Elayna are too adorable!!! I was inspired to do this page due to a BINGO game we were playing where one of the squares said to do a layout using 3 different patterened papers. Turns out I had this packet of coordinating papers I had received from them at a crop back in the spring and I think it worked out great! The orange paper has tiny fish desing on it! Kept this layout rather simple as this was just about the girls trying on the Nemo hats, no real journaling to go along with it.

This is a page from Morgan's High school senior year memory album - which is NOT finished yet and she just started college!!! Taken during our trip to California last year. Loved the paper and KNEW I'd use it for her picture as soon as I saw it. If you have a keen site and paint sense I'm sure you'll recognize a paint sample card when you see it on this page! Love collecting a few everytime we go to Home Depot or Loewes - they come in quite handy for scrapping!!!

Listening to some music that Morgan loaded onto her ipod with her itunes card - she has great taste in music - I could listen to these choices all day long!!! How To Save A Life by The Fray just played and now Breathless by The Coors.

Its been a long and busy day of errand running for others and a late night run to White Castles by Morgan for Kyle and Me. Time to call it a night, Tuesday morning is only minutes away. See you soon!

Scrapbooks and Journals

2008-10-06T17:45:00.000-07:00

Scrapbooks and Journals

2008-10-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

My first Sunday and new family addition

2008-10-05T08:21:00.000-07:00

So excited to post again!!!

After getting to bed after 3am, laid there thinking about stuff I wanted to share and pics to post. I've longed to join in on the fun of Show and Tell Sunday, but too late to officially sign up over at Cindy's and unfortunately I'm not a collector of vintage aprons but I'm looking forward to what the next theme will be!

Ok - in honor of me finally creating my own blog and to say thank you to any of you who have found your way over here and taken a look - I'm giving away a few goodies: a few tags and double pocket I created and a little mini journal (representing my two passions, scrapping and journaling). So just leave your name, or blog addy or email if you don't currently have a blog and next Sunday - which will mark my one week blog anniversary - I will have one of my kids select one of you to receive the goodies!

We have a new addition to our family of 6, plus a long-haired chihuahua named Sunshine which our 18 year daughter found lost in the street 2 1/2 years ago - a 6 month old Boxer/mix puppy we got from our local SPCA. This is our 14 year old son's dog! He has wanted his own dog for a number of years now but we resisted due to already having a dog and before that owning a cat. Then my husband, in all his infinite wisdom "bets" our son that he can't keep his room SPOTLESS for a full month during the summer- if he does he can have a dog. HELLO! did ANYONE ask for MOM'S opinion on the subject since I'M the one who will be dealing with yet another animal while Kyle is in his freshman year of high school?!!! OF COURSE NOT!!! My husband kept saying, "You know he'll NEVER do it, he will not keep that room absolutely spotless for a full month." I don't know WHAT he was thinking, but obviously he had turned a deaf ear to our son's pleas of having his own dog for the past few years. A REAL "guys'" dog that would learn to play catch, go running with him, and stay in his room at night and was DEFINITELY larger than a breadbox.

I KNEW I was doomed and sure enough two weeks ago we went to the SPCA in search of the dog he had located on their website named Bruce. A 1 and a half year old chow/mix that had a cute look to him and was done growing and not too big to my way of thinking. We arrived at te SPCA half hour before closing time, walked into the kennel area to the deafening noise of over 30 dogs all looking to be chosen for adoption! We found Bruce and then STOPPED. There was a note attached to his documents that read, "Is NOT fond of kids!" UH OH! That wouldn't work with kids at home ranging in ages: 20, 18, 14 and 7 (our 7 year old daughter was the one I was most concerned about). The attendant said he "seems to have a screw loose, looks sweet but when we open the cage to potential adopters he tries to attack them!" So NO BRUCE and Kyle was let down and we had to start looking.

Found another - his name escapes me know - looked promising until the attendant said he had a rash on his bottom and his chest - NOPE won't work as we have a dog at home and I'm not taking any chances with something possibly contagious! Time was running out as they closed at 6 and Kyle was NOT leaving without a dog as he had waited an extra week to get one since his dad had tried to renege on the "deal". Looked at the 6 month old Boxer/mix several times, he had the sweetest face but was still growing and I had secretly hoped for a fully ground and hopefully at least partially trained dog. Kyle connected with him immediately and for $109.00 we took him home. Naming hime took the rest of the night, I liked Jackson, our oldest daughter Morgan said, "Sebastian" (YUCK!!!) then she and Kyle said Jabba because as it turned out he was a very lazy, laid back puppy and made them think of Jabba the Hut (I still think that was a weird connection and a BAD name). Fortunately my husband came home and he said, "ROCKY-he's a boxer/mix and Kyle and I like the Rocky movies". Kyle went for it immediately and so let me introduce to you our 6 month old, 28 pound boxer/mix ROCKY.

He is a very sweet dog, everyone has taken to him so quickly and Kyle has been doing a terrific job taking care of him! As far as the relationship between Sunshine and Rocky, well, she's 7 years old, used to be the only animal here with all the attention and its taking some time. We let them together under supersivion each day but he gets so excited and wants to play and that long tail of his it like a deadly whip to little Sunshine; she's still learning to avoid it. He difintely knows she's the boss since she bit him on the nose the first night he got to exuberant with her.

Going to enjoy my Sunday by scrapbooking all day long - at least that is my goal - but you know how things can easily change in a large household. Thank goodness the two oldest have their own cars and do not need me to take them here, there, everywhere!!!

Speaking of cars, take a look at Morgan's new (used) car she saved up for and now drives to her freshman classes at UC. Dear hubby found it online and naturally she was totally taken with it and made the deal that night!

Time for me to get some crafting done, not to mention go visit a few of MY FAVORITE BLOGS. Have a fun Sunday!

What a time to start a blog..

2008-10-04T22:20:00.000-07:00

WOW! Here it is 1:21 am an I'm still on here attempting to set this blog up! Is there anyone else out there attempting this as well and feeling a little loopy at the process? Hmmmm, perhaps not, perhaps its just me an my lack of computer savvy, but I'm getting by - slowly.

I've viewed others' blogs for several years, always enjoying what they had to show and tell, like a free movie or finding a great series of books to read everyday. The entertainment value they have given me is priceless as well as the new crafting knowledge I have learned. I've held off starting my own blog for various reasons, many I'm sure others have had or still have: time, wondering if you'll have anything worth wild to say, time, dedication, time, time, you know how it is. My pal, Hilda who I've known for 14 years now by way of originally being penpals, has been pushing me towards this and I finally took the plunge. On a night it was QUIET in my household with NO ONE to bother me and no worries of lack of time due to other obligations. So here I sit, writing to YOU, whoever you maybe, that I maybe fortunate enough to get to know you.

As you can see by my title, Scrapbooks and Journals, those are what I enjoy doing the most in my creative and spare time. So much in fact that I now sell them on Etsy.

As for the Journals part, those are actually journal letters that I write to Hilda. Yes, we fill journals to send to one another, not just one at a time, but generally 3 - 5 (what can I say, I, well, WE - LOVE to write). So, you can see that being a blogger was bound to happen to me.

Hope everyone has a great evening, I'm about ready to fall out of my chair, so good night and talk to you later today.