I'm Honored

I'm so excited! Last week, my friend Sally (The (mis)Adventures of Karl & Sally) nominated me for my first blog jewelry!!! It made my day!

Sally is my half-neighbor (LOL! Their cabin is only half built and they aren't living there full time yet!), but I know it's going to be dangerous when she's my full-time neighbor because she has a passion for photography too! I love seeing her pictures and her eye for great landscape (and especially critter shots)! Only problem is, I'm drooling because she has a nicer camera. :cry: LOL!!

Well, now for the business~! Here are the 7 steps of this award:

1) Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

2) Copy the logo and place it on your blog

3) Link to the person who nominated you for this award

4) Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting

5) Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers

6) Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate

7) Leave a comment on each of the seven blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

Rosa at Capture the Little Things a fellow scrapbooker who also loves photography!

Christie at Three guys, a girl and a camera another fellow scrapbooker who loves photography and has some amazing patience to get that totally rocking shot!

Chris at works for scraps

Angie at Feathers in My Nest

Linda at Eterno-ly Yours

Jackie at Pursuits of my Scattered Mind (how can you not like a name like that! LOL! I so feel like that most days!

Heidi at Sunshine & Lollipops

Now for 7 things about me!

I am addicted to dark chocolate & coffee (oh, diet coke too)

I live with my camera at my side (does this surprise you??)

I wish I was more organized and on-top of life than I am!

My most favorite time of year is fall - I adore it!

My favorite thing to do (beside scrapping & photography) is to read a whole book in a day. Only done it a couple times, but I feel so intelligent & accomplished!

I live off the power grid - we have solar power

I love to be creative and pretend to be Laura Ingles Wilder (as my friends call me) by cooking everything on the BBQ, making all sorts of things totally from scratch and preserving food by canning! It's just so pretty on my shelves (does this surprise you - I said I was changing my hobby to "making Pretty things!" LOL!

I love sparkles!

My husband jokes that I'm part redneck because I love sparkly things! I think that's just girly though!

Made this little piece of jewelry for a gift for my son's AWANA teacher at church. Tried something a little different as using the toggle clasp as part of the design. I liked it, but I couldn't get it to lay right for the photo, it's much prettier when it's actually on!

Supplies: silver chain, toggle clasp, Swarovski crystals (I think 6 mm Rose AB and 8 mm Clear AB), silver eye & head pins.

Some Shower Fun

Ah, don't you just love bridal showers. The excitement of the bride, new love!!


Last night a few girls from church & I put together a shower for a young lady who is marrying into our church. She is a very sweet girl! We had so much fun, and I just wanted to share a few pictures of the favor we made for the guests.




(the tubes wouldn't stand up straight because I made my sample one with cake sprinkles in it, but filled the real ones with coffee and chai tea mix so they were much heavier. Be sure to cut the base for what you will actually use so they stand right - this base should have been beefier!)
All decorations were cut with the Cricut & Storybook cartridge.

And then another fun little gift I made. I found this apron that I just loved the color of! I think I may have to do another one for myself!!

Cut out the letter with the Cricut and storybook cartridge, used heat 'n bond to apply it & the ribbon to the apron.


Then for some fun, I shoved it in a can from Starbucks


And decorated it! Yup, I'm a dork!

A few random shots

Just wanted to share a few random shots from last week (yeah, I'm a little behind). Robert gave me an *early* birthday present - (yeah, only 2 months LOL). I wanted a new lens for my camera because I'm shooing my sisters wedding next month and I wanted it before the wedding. So I asked if it would be okay if I ordered it (we've really cut back our spending because of the uncertainty of the economy). I also ordered this little wireless remote so that I can be in any group photos we do! Yay!


So of course, I had to go through the house and take random shots with the new lens. I know already it IS my favorite and will be on my camera 90% off the time!

Wildflowers we picked from our pasture.

Fresh eggs from our chickens (we get a dozen a day!)

A couple weeks ago I finished this dress - and I modified the pattern all by myself! Was so happy with that!

Some Days Just Deserve Two Posts

Just because.....

snapped this picture of Aly this morning......

then a few minutes ago I was doing dishes and looked out my window to see.....

THE HORSE STEALING MY CLEAN LAUNDRY OFF THE LINE!!!!

Yes, I love ranch life. Somethings you can just laugh at......like a horse eating my dishtowels. And just more proof that the laundry pile NEVER ends!! LOL!

Bug Bites & Photo Shoots

Yesterday we met some friends of ours at the park. They wanted some pictures for a Father's Day gift, since all the pictures their Daddy had in his office were from when the girl was the age of the little guy!

We had fun letting the kids play, and of course couldn't leave without at least 10 misquito bites each!

This little guy has the BIGGEST eyes I think I've ever seen! Gotta love snapping those pictures!

And of course, this was my favorite photo of the shoot, but you all know me, I love those candid, real life shots.

Bridal Shower Gifts

A couple girls & I have been working on a bridal shower for a young lady at church. They gave me the task of decorating and let me go (what were they thinking! LOL!)

The first project here is for the decoration at the food table. I framed a picture they sent me, cut out their monogram with my cricut & SCAL, and then cut out a verse with SCAL.

This is the gift I made. At one of my showers a lady gave me a toolbox of tools. Through all our moves, all but the hammer have gotten lost or broken, but I remember how practical of a gift it was. I've tried to do it again, but of course, I never was happy to just do tools. Well, now I've personalized them! Put bling all over them and a monogram!

I'm thinking this tape measure might not make it to the shower.......

What new bride wouldn't like that? And the best part, her husband can't accuse her of stealing HIS tools, nor can HE steal HER tools!!! LOL (Yes, it happens, I find it ironic how often my scrap tools are "borrowed."

Cards for Heros

A few weeks ago I found out about this website called Cards For Heros. They collect handmade cards for soldiers serving our country abroad. The objective is for soldiers to be able to keep in communication with their families, but also to be shown that we care in taking the time and effort to make something handmade & heartfelt.

Every year around 4th of July (well, usually a few times yearly), I try to find a special project to do with my kids to help them realize what our soldiers sacrifice for us and to see how fortunate and blessed we truly are. Our freedom is NOT free. Thank you to all our soldiers, and their families, from the bottom of my heart, for ALL that you sacrifice. May God Bless You.

To get back to the subject at hand, our project this year is to make cards. And I'm asking everyone I know who does paper crafts (and even those who don't ;-) ) to join us. Cody pledged to me to make 10 cards, and I'm sure he'll actually make more like 50. The kid loves a challenge!!

So if you'd like to participate, you can either send cards directly to them by following the link above, or by sending them to me. We will be sending off our cards July 18. I am planning at least one local card party at our home to get more people involved.

Here's the details:

~cards are preferred to be 4.25 x 5.5 inches
~envelopes are welcome but not necessary
~any theme is great, but general cards such as missing you, love you, thinking of you, birthday, thank you
~NO glitter (glitter flaking off is a safety hazard; it makes a messy uniform and make heros visible in night vision goggles)

More info can be found here.

Recipe Book with a Twist (or scent LOL!)

A while ago I saw a recipe book made with some tear out packets of spices in it to go with each recipe. Well, my sister is getting married in about a month and she's having a shower this weekend. I won't be able to make it, but they were supposed to bring a recipe I think and an ingredient for it.

My parents were visiting us this weekend, so we pooled our recipes and I made this album. Didn't turn out too bad since I made it in bad lighting. Not real happy with the color of the cover cardstock, but too late now :)!

I did the pages in Adobe Photoshop Elements and used a brush for the floral/flourish design. Then I printed in on a linen cardstock. I used SCAL and a floral font to cut the scallop circles, and the spice mill on the cover, and Storybook font for the words. Then used the Bind It All to bind it (love that bad boy!)

Supplies: My Minds Eye (paper), Cricut, SCAL, Storybook cartridge, Bind It All, o-wire

You never know about small towns

We spent part of yesterday in the town of Bridgeport. It's an interesting town, at the foot of the Chief Joseph Dam (a very high output hydroelectric dam on the Columbia River).

But sometimes you never know what you'll find. It's a small town of probably 1,000 people and very poor. But right in the middle of town is a War Memorial full of old war equipment. Tanks, helicopters, rockets, torpedos, jets. Last time Robert was there a maintenence person for the town put a battery in the tank, fired it up and drove it down the road.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any good pictures because there is a chain link fence all the way around.

The playground (that's very, um, blood pressure elevating? for parents :-).....

Cody put his helmet on by himself. I had to explain to him that helmets are only safe when we wear them right. He thought he had it........

When Boredom Causes Trouble

Oh my goodness, first, I have to share because I am just so giddy over it!!!! I got a new camera lens (Canon ef 50mm f/1.8). If you're a camera guru, you know what special. If not (as Robert said, "tell me in English"), it makes it so I can focus on just a small part of the picture and make the rest blurry.


And oh, I am in love (well, probably more like infatutation :-)))


Okay, but the point of this post was to show what I did for a challenge on the CKMB. It was really slow one day and I thought of a fun thing to bring some fun. We all randomly drew names and swapped some random products that had nothing to do with each other. We were then to make a page with those projects on either white or black paper. I chose black paper and converted my picture to b&w to give it a more cohesive look. All in all, I really really like how it turned out!

So this is what I received:


And this is what I created:

Supplies (I think): Creative Memories (black page), Making Memories (flowers, Happy sticker), American Crafts Thickers, K&Co (ribbon & envelope closures)

Just some fun pictures!

My parents were here for a couple days. My dad had been in a car wreck and his truck was totalled so they bought a new (well, new to them) truck and wanted to go for a road trip. So glad to have them visit for a couple days. The kids loved it and had a great time.

Here's some of the pictures (I think my mom took all of these - definitely the ones I'm in -- I'm not that talented LOL!) Although I did order a wireless remote for my camera that I'm very excited to get!))

Cody loved building with dominos and cards. Pretty clever here!

Can anyone tell me why the little boogers will be affectionate and hold hand for Grandma to take their pictures but not ME????

Different Sizes

I have a friend who scraps 8.5 x 11. After looking at her recent pages, I decided I'd give it a shot too. That's the size I started with.

Lately, I've been using 3-ring albums and the great thing about them, is you can mix and match the page protectors in them. It's been great to use different size page protectors in it. It doesn't bother me that you can see the other pages below. Kinda ecclectic to me, and that's great (which is kinda funny because I'm not very ecclectic....)

A lot of the pages in this size I did were my childhood pictures. The size works especially well since I have only one picture for most things and they are for the most part smaller prints.

This LO was when I had my spinal surgery in 1998. I knew this picture existed, but thought I had thrown it away after the surgery. (I have severe scoliosis so I had to have my spine straightened and rods attached). Obviously, it's not a flattering picture so I wanted it to not exist. However, now that I'm older (and have started scrapbooking), I realize that it's very much a part of who I am and have become. I often reference back two it after having had two c-sections how they were a piece of cake after my spinal surgery. So it's definitely a part of me. And I was very happy when I found this picture!