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?

Photo share

As I type this post Amanda is on her way back to her base in Seattle. We were sad to say goodbye to her but we had a great time with her while she was here. Jacob was on cloud nine with so much 1 on 1 time with his big sister.

I'm hoping to get my house back in order over the New Years weekend & hopefully have some scrapbook pages to share soon. For now though I wanted to show you a few more photos from our week. Happy new year to all of you !!!

Cooking dinner from a recipe found on the web. I rarely drink except over the holidays when I do enjoy the occasional mudslide to sip on. mmmmm....
A few from a hike on the lower mountain trails with Tanner. I hate the cold...but the snow is so pretty...

Mountain Laurel...

Tanner's favorite water to play in during the summer. I was glad he didn't venture out onto that unsafe looking ice on this day though.

Snow people...

This is the first snowman ever to be built in my yard. Love it !!!

Love this shot...

I'm thinking Tanner had no idea he was going to be put to work as a sled dog when he was invited outside with Amanda & Jake. He doesn't seem to be minding too much though...

I think they tired him out a bit...lol

sledding on the town common in front of the library...

The classic "Amanda pose" she does this everywhere. We have photos from all over the world with this pose. Love this one though with the flag flying behind her.

I absolutely LOVE this picture of Jake !!!

sweet...

doggy kisses...

being silly...

Freezing cold waiting for the commuter train into Boston.

Amanda's old boyfriend John from 10 years ago. He is such a great guy...so glad they are still friends.

One of my favorite photos.

Happy New Year...thanks for stopping by.

Life is good !!!

Truly, truly good !!! My daughter is home safe from Iraq & Italy and we are loving our time with her while she is home visiting for the holidays.

We picked her up at the airport in Providence RI last Saturday and then headed down to the beautiful seaport town of Newport for a fun family day together. We had a nice lunch together ...

Poked around in some of the waterfront shops and took lots of pictures. (and no I didn't have drinks with lunch...even though it looks that way from this photo...lol)

Then we headed to Bellevue Ave where the mansions of Newport are located and toured this mansion.

From the back of the property you can see the cliff walk that runs along behind the mansions along the coastline. A beautiful place to take a stroll in the warmer months.....in December its very cold back there near the water....brrrr.

This is the Tea House that sits behind the Marble House.

And then there is the mansion itself....which when it was built in the 1800's was built as a summer "cottage" and was given as a 39th birthday gift to Alva Vanderbilt by her husband.

And what a sight it is to see. Not what most of us think of when we think of summer cottages. You can read more about this mansion & the others in Newport here

I snuck this photo of one of the bedrooms

All in all it was a really fun day spent with my 2 favorite people.

Back home there has been lots of just hanging out enjoying our time with Mand. Tanner adores her.

Then we had our family holiday party on Sunday where all the cousins, siblings etc got a chance to visit with each other. Everyone was there from the youngest...

To the oldest (sorry Mom...you know I love you more than anything)

There was lots of silliness...

And lots of love...

On Monday Amanda & I spent the day in Boston at Fanuel Hall & Quincey Market shopping.

the city is not my favorite place to be but it is fun for a day trip every now & then

The rest of the week was spent shopping, wrapping, going to a Bruins hockey game together. Lots of fun family time spent together waiting for the big day...

And before we knew it was here...

Tanner was very happy to find a candy cane shaped cookie in his stocking (excuse the messy house please)

Mand & Jake opened stockings together...

And hammed it up for the camera in their new video camera sunglasses...

Jake was thrilled with the ticket to the NE Patriots game given to him by his sister (they head to that game together tomorrow)

Christmas with these two was good....very very good. Now life can get back to a normal less hectic routine and in a week we will need to say goodbye to Amanda as she heads back to Seattle : (

But for now...we are all content & happy & life is GOOD !!!