Washington 2010 - part one

We did so much on our trip to visit Amanda in Washington that it may take me a few posts to share some of my favorite photos. And blogger is being such a pain about uploading photos that it is taking me forever to get them on here...ugh !

So part one - The Olympic peninsula and Whidbey Naval Air base

The Olympic National Park and surrounding area was so breathtakingly beautiful. We stopped at a few different areas of Cresent Lake to take photos....gorgeous blue green water surrounded by mountains and wildflowers...

We hiked to a couple of different waterfalls while there...Sol Duc Falls was one of them.

The forests were so lush and green...

And some of the trees are enormous..

We spent the night in Forks. For any of you who read the Twilight series you'll know this is where the vampires called home. It was actually just a seedy little town...not much at all to look at. But after getting settled into our hotel we went out to LaPush (where the werewolves in the Twilight books lived) and hiked out to Second Beach...what an amazing place. This panorama with Jake in it is one of my favorite photos from the whole vacation. (click on it for a larger image)

The same beach at sunset...another favorite photo..

We also were able to get onto Amanda's base during our visit and see where she works and trains...

We even got to go on the plane she spends most of her working hours in. Jake loved this (actually we all did) Coming down that steep ladder...not so fun...

It was really cool to see firsthand Amanda's workstation where she tracks submarines from (or practices tracking them...when not tracking the real thing)

Love this photo of one of the planes in being worked on with the sun setting beyond the doorway at the far end.

Amanda has really done so well in her 3 years of service so far and we are really proud of her.

Wow !!!!

I know I have been MIA for a while. I have recently returned from a 2 week vacation to visit my daughter in the Pacific Northwest. It was an amazing vacation & I promise to post soon to share a few favorote photos from the trip etc.

But I had to quickly share this You Tube video I came across tonight. I'm not a religious person but I think this is the most beautiful song. You get goosebumps when you hear this adorable 7 year old sing it. Amazing !!!

Amazing Grace video

bored...so I'm copying...

Saw this on a blog I follow & I thought I'd post it on mine too since I'm kind of bored...

Listening: To the dog snoring
Eating: Nothing...still full from dinner
Drinking: Diet Coke
Wearing: Shorts & a tank
Feeling: Bored
Weather: Nice right now...was pretty hot earlier though
Wanting: This week to be over quick so I can start my vacation
Thinking: Life is too short to waste on people who try to bring you down...especially the ones who pretend to be a friend.
Enjoying: How good it feels to weed the pretend friends out of your life. It is the most freeing feeling imaginable. Life is truly good.
Wondering: How much my pup will miss me when I'm gone for 2 weeks. I miss him already...but I have to admit it will be nice to have 2 weeks of dog free time off.

Plants on steroids?

This years has beeen such a great year for my gardens. Just enough rain & sunshine....and it shows in how healthy everything is growing this year. Tanner was not very happy to be left inside while I walked around taking photos. Can you see him peeking out the front window at me?

After the long cold winters we get here it makes me so happy to see everything begin to bloom..

Some of the plants I have had a while are so beautiful this year. Not even sure what this plant is but there are 2 large clumps of it this year & the magenta flowers on it are are so pretty.

The yellow Evening Primrose with the pretty pink bell shaped flowers of this Campanula look so nice together.

Aren't these flowers gorgeous?

This climbing rose is new this year. I planted it next to the arbor Amanda gave me last year for Mothers day. This is not the best picture but it really is a pretty rose. It's called Night Owl.

This daylily is new too. A Wal Mart special. I love the 2 toned bloom but I have to laugh because when I bought the package at Wal Mart with the bare root plants in it the photo on the bag showed a 2 toned flower...but it was dark & light pink. No pink in this flower though is there? I still like it though.

The heathiest growth in the garden this year by far is the Hosta's. They are gorgeous. These large green ones are particularly beautiful.

And this beauty (Gold Standard) is 3 times the size it was last year. Love it !!

This yellow green monster is still one of my favorites though. (Sun and Substance) Look at the size of those leaves. And the plant itself is almost as big as the double front window. And there is Tanner...still peeking out at me wishing he could come out to play.

Where does the time go?

Wow...has it really been 2 months since I last posted on here. Last time I was here I was just breathing a big sigh of relief that winter was finally over & spring was here. And now here it is the beginning of summer already.

So what have I been up to?

Well....

I had a couple of ice storm damaged trees cut down. Including the maple in the front yard which I had been wanting to remove anyway. So there is lots of logs waiting to be split now...

I replaced the maple with a beautiful Sweet Bay Magnolia and enjoyed watching it bloom for the first time. The scent of these pretty flowers was amazing. A vanilla, citrus, floral scent....love it.


I spent a lovely day at the ocean ...just me & my camera doing the loop around the perimeter of Cape Ann. I got lots of great photos. The one below is one of my favorites .

Baseball season has come & gone. Jake finished out the season with the best batting average on his team which made him really happy. Can you see the ball in the photo below as it sails by just to the left of that third baseman in red?

I've spent the past couple of weeks going through old photos of Amanda for a project I am doing for her birthday. It was a weepy couple of weeks feeling sentimental & wishing my little girl was still my little girl & not all grown up and 3000 miles away. We leave for Seattle & the pacific northwest a week from Friday to spend 2 weeks with her. Can't wait to see her !!!!

I did this page weeks ago but I don't think I ever posted it. If I did...sorry for the repeat.

Its not one of my favorite layouts I have ever done...but I love the photo of Tanner begging me to take him for a walk over the top of my computer. He is such a sweet boy...who could resist those big brown eyes.

5 on the 5th layout share

I'm early this month in getting my 5 on the 5th layout completed. I'm loving joining Brenda on these challenges....and as an extra added bonus it is helping me get over my fear of multiple photo layouts. My spin on Brenda's "signs, signs...everywhere a sign" challenge was to do "5 signs of life" layout.

Now here's a big surprise.......everything on the layout except the brown cardstock...Basic Grey of course. I am so in love with the beautiful colors in this Origins line.

A closer look at photos & this beautiful paper.

Exciting news !!!

Oooooh...I am so excited I think I may explode !!! I got an e-mail today saying 1 or more of my layouts submitted had been chosen to be published in a Memory Makers upcoming gallery book.

I have never been published in all my years of scrapbooking & submitting pages so this is such exciting news for me.

Now if I could just remember which layouts I submitted : ) Guess I'll have to wait for the next e-mail they said was coming to help me refresh my memory...

A perfect evening

Its cold & rainy out today....

A perfect day to get the woodstove going...

have some home made beef stew for dinner....

with a bit of begging per usual...

grab a good book.....

And curl up in my cozy bed to read for the night...

Perfect !

Missing....

My girl....and counting down the days till we fly out to Seattle to see her.

And dreaming of spring, warm sunshine & playing in the gardens..

But other than that life is really good right now. Are there things I'd change? Of course..But I think I'm more at peace with my life than I've ever been. It looks like its going to be a very wet weekend here so spring cleaning is going to be in full gear. And maybe I'll even spend some time scrapbooking. The fire is going & its going to be a cozy weekend at home for me. Beats work any day....

Photo fun

My friend Sonya had a great photo posted on her blog today & when she shared the simple steps to create it I had to give it a try. Check out her blog here to see the great photo she made adjustments to. I thought the photo below of my daughter & her crewmates on Sept 11th in Iraq would be perfect to test it out on.

Here is the original...

And here is the new version. Love it !!!

Project 5 - February

My dear friend Brenda posted her " 5 things" challenge for February on the 5th & I'm a bit late getting to it. But I wanted to get it done before her next challenge is revealed on March 5th. If you want to do your own 5 things pages & want to be inspired by this lovely lady you can check out her blog here.

For February her question was "what are 5 things you are loving right now". Below is what I created.

The title is created using K & Company new wooden letters. Love them !!! The pattern papers are from Basic Grey's Origins line.

Have a great weekend !

Better late then never...

I just realized that I never shared the photos of my "date night" with Jake last month. We do this every year on his birthday but since he turned 12 this year I'm not sure how much longer its going to be cool to spend a night out with Mom. Jake really loves this night just for him so I'll cherish them as long as they last.

We started out at the movies where we saw Avatar. I never thought I would like this movie at all but it was Jake's choice....and what an amazing movie. We both loved it. Definitely a movie better seen on the big screen.

Then we were off to The Cheesecake Factory (Jake's favorite place to eat) He started out with a fried macaroni & cheese appetizer...

Then the main course.... Pasta Carbonara with chicken...

And it wouldn't be a birthday dinner without birthday cake & singing waiters. He's blushing but he really was loving the attention too. It was a fun night out with my favorite boy.

Awwww Mom ....

Are you going on the internet again???

Wouldn't you rather go for a nice chilly walk???

Maybe if I stare long enough with my sweet puppy dog eyes she'll give in....

Gee Tanner...you give a whole new meaning to internet pop up ads. Ok.....I give in...lets go for a walk

Return of the bad blogger

I know I have been so bad about posting to this blog lately. First there was getting ready for the holidays, then Amanda's arrival home. Then my sister helped me to become hooked on knitting. Needless to say I haven't done too much scrapping in the past couple of months.

But last week I finally got my hands on Basic Grey's new Origins line. Love, love, love the colors in these papers...

Aren't they gorgeous???

Here's a page I made using these yummy papers. Love this picture of Amanda at the train station. It was so freezing cold that day and still Mand looks happy. I realized after I made this page that it was kind of odd to use a flower filled paper on a page titled Brrr. Ah well....I loved the papers & they matched the green of her coat. so its all good I guess.

Have a nice night everyone.....hopefully I won't be such a slacker anymore.

Another fun project

A few weeks ago my friend Brenda had me intrigued when she posted on her blog that she had a new idea for a project she would be revealing at the beginning of January.When the day finally arrived she posted her idea ..... 5 on the 5th ..... her first page and ideas for variations on the January theme can be found here . You'll have to scroll down to January 5th to see it.

I tried to keep mine sort of food related as much as possible....well not actually about food but rather 5 favorite things in my kitchen right now. My layout is below:

Now I just have to wait a couple more weeks to see what her next creative idea is for February...

Need a smile?

I know I have been pretty absent the past few weeks on here...and I still have no pages to show. But I do have something to share. I got the following in an e-mail...it made me smile & I thought you might like to see it too...

The pink glove dance was created in Portland as a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness. And to promote Medlines new pink gloves. When the video gets a million hits Medline will make a huge contribution to the hospital as well as offering free mammograms to the community.

Its really a cute video......you can view it here.....it put a smile on my face...and if its true then its for a good cause. Enjoy

Something new...

Well I still have not done a bit of scrapbooking. I did buy a few pieces of patterened paper today though...does that count?

I went to the yarn store with my sister last weekend...and of course didn't come home empty handed. I've spent the week knitting at night on the scarf in the photo below....

I fell in love with the colors in this yarn and its been fun seeing the scarf take shape & see how the variation of the colors in the yarn would play out.

So today I went to an even bigger & better yarn shop....and came out with this beautiful soft yarn for scarf #2. I'm heading to my sisters tonight for a girls knitting night and to show her how my scarf is coming along. I do miss scrapping though...maybe tomorrow....

A new project for 2010

In 2009 I decided to join my friend Brenda Arnall in a weekly gratitude project. Each week I created a page for my 52 blessings book. This project was such a good thing for me in so many ways...I met some really nice people and learned to be so much more concious of how many blessings I have in my life. My 52 Blessings albums can be seen here.

While I loved that project I thought this year I might do something on a monthly basis rather than weekly. My thought was a "Year in the life..." type album with monthly 2 page layouts.

Tonight when checking Davinie Fiero's blog I found my project inspiration. I don't know if I will submit my pages each month but I definitely like the idea and I love that there will be monthly layout sketches by Becky Fleck to inspire me further.

If you're looking for a project for 2010 check this one out & maybe it will be just the thing you are looking for too.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!!! I hope it's a little less frosty in your area than it has been here lately.
Is it spring yet?