My youngest sings the National Anthem for the Reds!

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

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

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...

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...

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"

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...

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!!

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!

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

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.