Still learning...

Computers frustrate me so there will always be something new for me to learn. Tonight my lesson was from my dear friend Brenda . And this quick post is just to see if I learned my lesson well. Hooray it worked!!! Thanks Brenda ...you're the best !!!

Also...I added a new link in the my galleries section since the Creating Keepsakes one I had there hasn't worked for a while now. I don't have too many pages uploaded there yet but I'll be gradually adding my favorites in there. Its a pretty cool slideshow that I'm really happy with the look of...check it out if you have a minute & let me know what you think....

Just a quick post tonight as I need to head to bed soon....have a great week everyone. And thanks again Brenda.

Unconditional love

I think that's what I'm going to have to use as a title if I scrapbook this photo...
It doesn't matter if you forget to play with them or scold them for being naughty...dogs love you unconditionally regardless. That's what I see when I look at this sweet photo. Is it any wonder they call dogs "mans best friend"?

please oh please, please, please...

...can I have some of your banana milkshake? I like banana's mom...really I do !!

oops..hang on while I catch my tail first...

ok I'm back....pleeeeeeese (maybe if I act a bit less interested she'll give me some)

It runs in the family...

Love of photography that is...

Meet Amanda...my gorgeous girl. She is spending her week traveling cross country to San Diego...

With her Navy pal Megan...

She sent me these pictures today from their stop in San Antonio. I really like this staircase photo a lot.

This one is lovely too...

But my favorite one is without a doubt this one.....Love this !!! So wish I was doing this road trip with her...but I'm glad she is having such a great time.

Who's a temptress now???

You know who you are don't you?

And for those who don't....let me explain...

I have this sweet friend who I have been sharing my love of all thing "Slice" with. She has refrained from purchasing it so far (better willpower than I apparently) but has told me I'm a temptress with all my raving etc about this fun little toy.

Jump forward a few days....she posts on her blog about this book and since we seem to like so many of the same things I decided to take a peek at it since I had a 50% off AC Moore burning a hole in my pocket. One look at the contents & I was sold. And you know what...if she hadn't reccomended this book I would have never given it a second look. Why you ask? Because I am not nor will I ever be a digital scrapper. I love paper too much & hate computers too much to ever make that change. But one look at this book & I realized how much I can learn from it. And I do use my computer for scrapbooking...I just will never do a whole page using just the computer. The sections on type & photos have so many fun things I'm dying to try. Love this book !!

So again I say....who's the temptress now my friend? (and I also say thanks for the great tip)

I also picked up this border punch that I can't wait to play with. I love anything with scallops these days.

Hope you are all having a great week.

Method Playground challenge

So the Method Playground blog (http://methodplayground.blogspot.com/) has posted a challenge for photo collage and after watching this site for quite some time I have decided to share this time instead of just observing. This is the photo collage layout I chose to share. I love these colors together, love that will my struggles with placement of multiple photos on layouts that this one came together pretty easy...but mostly I love that smiling face of my beautiful boy.

Green with envy

My daughter leaves Jacksonville Florida tomorrow morning after more than a year and a half of aircrew training for the Navy. She has one more 2 week survival training stint in San Diego (nope...not envious of that !) and then she heads north to Seattle (actually an island on Puget sound about an hour north of Seattle) where she will be stationed for a few years.

So why am I envious? Because she is traveling to both of these locations with her close friend by car and they are going to have such a great time spending 6 days traveling through Texas, New Mexico & Arizona & then again traveling north from San Diego to Seattle a couple of weeks later.

Yes greener than green with envy I am !!!

What I'm dreaming of.....

Every day !!!

Is anyone else craving a taste of spring & summer like I am? I'm sure I've shared some of these before, but thought they might be a nice reminder to all of us that winter is getting closer to coming to an end every day. Can't you just feel that warm sunshine on your skin looking at these?

Daylily love !! My favorite flower to collect....


each one as beautiful as the one before...

in any color you could want....

This one is one of my favorites..

Love the color of this flower too...

And this one will be coming your way soon Brenda...I have a bag full of these bulbs and plan to send you some for your gardens. They are more of a tropical plant so you won't need to dig them up the way I did...

Oh and what I wouldn't give to be sitting on this deck soaking up the sunshine. And since most of those trees beyond the deck (and the birdhouse that was a gift from my brother) are not there anymore due to the ice storm in December....it will be a very sunny deck this year.

Spring can't arrive quick enough for me!!!

Meet me

I saw this on Cosmo Cricket's blog and thought it might be fun to share on here as well. So here goes...25 random facts about me...

1) I graduated from hairdressing school but chose not to pursue that career because at the time I wasn't thrilled with the personality types working in that field (at least with the people I worked with at the time)

2) I'm very very afraid of bats...the 2 times I had them in my house may have played a large part in that fear.

3) I love Mexican food...the hotter the better

4) I was once a licensed high lift/fork lift operator....many years ago

5) I love to garden...but you'd never know it by looking at my house plants that I continually forget to water

6) I'm very independent...being a single mom for so many years has made me even more independent I think.

7) I hate violence....in my younger teen years I sometimes got hurt trying to break up fights. I still have a lump on my head 30 years later from my ex husbands elbow from one of those fights I tried to stop from happening.

8) I grew up traveling as a kid....we camped in most states east of the Mississippi...but Maine was the state we camped the most in. I still love to travel but prefer now to stay in hotels in a comfy bed rather than camping.

9) I've lost almost 15 lbs in the past few weeks...and I'm determined to keep at it till I get to where I want to be.

10) I have no use for dishonest people in my life

11) I also dislike drama......I'll go catch a movie if I want to see drama thank-you-very-much.

12) My favorite flowers are sunflowers & daylilies

13) My least favorite yard work chores are mowing the lawn & raking the lawn.

14) I'm determined to own at least one Corvette before I die

15) One of my favorite smells is the smell of freshly baked bread....tastes pretty good too !!!

16) One of my weaknesses is chocolate....I haven't had any for 3 weeks :(

17) I rarely drink...just an occasional drink if I'm out to dinner etc.

18) Not surprisingly...I have no patience for obnoxious drunks either.

19) I'm a night owl...If I didn't have to get up for work in the morning I'd probably stay up till 1, 2 or 3 am every night.

20) My favorite state I have ever visited is Wyoming...such a gorgeous place...need to get there again sometime.

21) For the first 12 years of my daughters life I was self employed with a dried floral business. I had a studio I worked out of in an old mill building...I miss that creative space that was all my own.

22) My worst personality trait (at least I think it is) is that I'm very impatient

23) I love to write and have always dreamed of writing a novel. I have even had a title & story in mind for years. I may just have to do it sometime...even if just for my own sense of accomplishment.

24) I listen to country music 99% of the time.

25) I talk a lot...some might say too much...lol. What can I say...I love people & being a single mom for so long without another adult in the house makes me all that much more starved for adult conversation.

So there you go...25 things you didn't know about me...and maybe didn't want to know...lol

Seven for Sunday

Seven favorite "Tanner" photos taken this week...

Sorry to bore you with more dog photos...there just isn't too much to photograph in the ugliness of late winter when all the snow is dirty & not so pretty anymore. No worries though in no time I'll be boring you with garden & flower photos..lol

Love this one taken during our walk yesterday. This dog spends probably at least 50% of our walks with his nose to the ground sniffing for critters.

Such a beautiful boy isn't he?

Two best buddies...

I think Tanner is a bit bored with Jake trying to hold him in place for photos...

These last few were taken with the continuous shooting mode on my camera while Jake & I played ball with him. They're a bit blurry bit I still like how they caught the action with Tanner & his favorite blue ball.

This one just cracks me up. Taken just before he grabbed the ball so it looks like he has a big blue clown nose.

Tag - you're it

My lovely friend Brenda http://brendaarnall.typepad.com/ has given me a challenge...and a fun one at that.

The rules - go to the place where I store my photos, chose the fourth folder and then the fourth photo in that folder, and post it with the story behind it.

Here you go Brenda...

This photo was taken last fall by my son during one of our hikes a few miles away from our house up Mt Wachusett http://www.wachusett.com/ He had decided to lay on the ground & take photos of the gorgeous colors of the trees above us & I couldn't resist poking my head into the photo & waving at him. It was a gorgeous fall day in the 70's....boy what I wouldn't give to be enjoying a day like that right now !

The final rule was to tag four others and challenge them to post their fourth photo out of the fourth folder. The only problem I have with that is that the only person other than Brenda that I know reads my blog regularly (because she leaves me such sweet comments) is Sonya http://picklespatch-sonya.blogspot.com/ And this lovely lady http://alteredtoperfection.blogspot.com/ was kind enough to leave a comment on my blog last week so if you are still visiting me I'll offer you both this challenge as well.

I know there are others who visit my blog from time to time beacuse of the live feed I've got installed. So my challenge to all of you is twofold.....1) try out this 4th folder 4th photo challenge & let me know when you post it so I can check it out. 2) Drop me a comment sometime & say hi...I'd love to get to know you. In creating this blog my main goal was to meet new people who shared my same love of scrapbooking & photography. I've met some really great people and been inspired by so many of you. But you can never have too many friends right?

Quick layout share

Hi all...jast a quick layout to share before I head to bed. Not much else to say tonight...I'm dead tired & my brain is shutting down. Hope you are all having a good weekend.

Where there's a will there's a way

Jake & I have been trying to eat healthier & be more active lately so when school was cancelled today due to the weather we decided to take the dog for a walk. We decided to just go up & down our road a few times as it is a dead end which is only a bit under a half mile. Less traffic to worry about on the slippery roads this way. The only problem was that there were a few inches on the ground already but no plowing was done yet. Jake came up with this idea to shovel our way along so we would have a path to walk on. We took turns pushing the shovel & I swear that was more of a workout than the walking itself..lol

After that it was time for a litle sledding & then a warm up near the woodstove. Winter is getting really old right about now. I'm ready for spring !!

Layout share

A quick layout to share that I created today using the some of the K & Co products I purchased the other day. I was inspired by a layout in Scrapbook Trends so I can't say the whole thought process of creating this was mine...although there are differences. I like the colors a lot on this layout but I'm not sure how I feel about that patterened paper on the right side of the page. To me it looks so busy in contrast to the left side of the layout.

The dies cuts, sticker & transparency are all from K & Co. Such yummy colors !! The title is cut from cardstock with the Slice machine. I have a feeling this little machine is going to save me lots of money on sticker & chipboard titles.

Oooh !!! Ahhhh !!!

No that wasn't my reaction when I saw the new Slice design cartridges (they were exciting too though...some more than others)
What I was oooh-ing & aaah-ing over was all the fun new scrapbooking products in Michaeal's today. Well it was new to me anyway...and I think it was new to Michaels as I hadn't seen any of it before.

There was a large display at the front of the store with Making Memories Sabrina & Cloe's Closet lines (not for me but still fun to look at), New Prima products (nothing there I couldn't live without...but again fun to look at), Autumn Leaves Pretty Peonies line (very pretty)Me And My Big Ideas, Colorbok's Friendly Forest line, And K & Co's Que Sera Sera line. I had to be careful not to buy it all, but I did pick up a few things I can't wait to play with.

The Friendly Forest line was very cute. I don't usually do cute and this line may work better for someone creating layouts for toddlers & very young children, but it was such a fun happy line that I couldn't resist getting a couple of packages of stickers that I'm sure I can find a use for.


MAMBI had this beautiful package to chipboard shapes. You can't tell in this photo but some of them are embellished with fine glitter & tiny crystal gems. So pretty I just had to get a package for myself.

The rest of what I bought was from the K & Co Que Sera Sera line.....I love these. In the photo below you can see an assortment of die cuts and in the back of the photo is an assortment of decorative transparencies...but they all came in one package. Love it !!!

Then there we these die cut (approx 4x6) journaling papers. Gorgeous !!

And this beautiful assortment of die cut border strips.

And lastly these beautiful 12x12 die cut papers. I love that orange one on the right !!

So now I'm off to play in my scrap space. Have a great week everyone !!!

CHA Envy

Am I the only one who is envious of all those lucky souls attending CHA this week? Oh how I'd love to be able to be there to see all the new product coming out. I've seen some great previews this week as I browse though some of the Manufacturers blogs. The one update I'm most anxious to see?

SLICE !!!

They have 12 new design cartridges being unveiled today. My son & I have guesses as to what the themes may be for some of them....spring/easter? summer? sports? wedding? pets? The suspense is killing me....

I've checked the Slice web site as well as the Making Memories blog but so far nothing : (

A well...guess I'll take the dog for a frigid cold walk to pass the time. Hope you are all having a great weekend.

Quick layout share

Hi everyone,

I've been a pretty absent blogger lately haven't I? I blame that on Stephanie Meyer..its all her fault for writing such amazing books. I fought it for a long time thinking that Twilight was not a book that I might enjoy.....I'm not much for supernatural stuff. But curiosity got the better of me after hearing everyone raving over these books. So I picked up Twilight last week...and it was good. Really really good !!! Now I'm on to book 2 (New Moon).

But I did finish the layout below this morning with a photo I took recently that was begging to be scrapbooked. I used Basic Grey's offbeat line which I really love. I don't very often use white cardstock but for this layout I really liked how it looked. The golden color under my journaling is Making Memories paint.

The chipboard hinges are painted Tim Holtz grungeboard pieces. The "Loyal Pal" is an epoxy sticker.

The epoxy sticker below didn't photograph well but it says "good dog". That's true most of the time, but sometimes the "brat" just suits him better.

11 years ago today....

I was blessed with the arrival of this sweet boy. So to celebrate his birthday we went to dinner last night at the Cheesecake Factory (yum !) and a movie (Paul Blart Mall Cop - funny movie)


And today we spent the day having fun here...

This indoor water park opened last month just about 10 minutes from our house and it was so nice to drive there in the middle of a snowstorm today & go inside and forget about winter for a day.

Jake had a blast sliding down all the water slides....

And playing in the water...

This photo of him sticking his head into a jet of water was one of my favorites from today.

It was a good day...but boy are we both tired tonight. I'm off to bed soon...hope you all had a good weekend too.

Pretty in Pink

Well actually I think my daughter looks pretty complimented by any color. And I'm biased I know....but sometimes I just look at her & say "wow". She is so gorgeous.

So here I am using pink again...I never use pink !!! And when I bought the Basic Grey bittersweet line I have to say this piece of paper was my least favorite of the bunch. So bright & with that busy wild pattern I thought I'd never find a use for it. Then I placed this photo on it & knew I had found a perfect match. I mounted it on dark brown cardstock and then just began placing random die cuts etc around the photo till I had a look I liked.

Below is a close up shot of the top half of the photo. You can't really tell from this picture but that die cut that the "love" sticker is on has pop dots behind it for added dimension.

And a close up of the lower half of the photo. A few more crystals added to match the ones used for the flower center. And see that little pink heart with the crystal on it....Slice again!! Loving that little machine !

Basic Grey has done it again

Hi everyone,

By now I'm sure you all know how much I love Basic Gray papers. Well I picked up their latest release the other day (Bittersweet). This line is pink...very very pink. I'm not much of a pink person and rarely use it on my pages. I think the only reason I bought it was because the other color in this set is brown. And I really liked the pink & brown together. This is what I came up with.


The only thing on this layout that is not Bittersweet is the cardstock & the grungeboard that I used behind the stickers to give them more dimension. Aren't these papers gorgeous?

And of course I had to play with the slice a bit too. The "friend" part of my title and the 2 hearts below we cut using the slice. I am so loving this machine !!!