Merry Christmas!

Santa was here! He had some cookies! Just waiting for everyone to rise 'n shine! We had a great day yesterday just hanging out! We watched movies and cooked and napped! For Christmas Eve we had Japanese-style Tempura for dinner - shrimp, tilapia, chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, zuchini, and onions! What fun! Today we'll have the traditional ham, sweet potatoes, etc!

Here we are, hoping all of you have a Very Merry Christmas! Of course Grace isn't wanting to sit still long enough for one picture!















and, of course, Jake (mom's cat) is stirring it up with the older, less playful cats! here he and Arnold are having a face-off (Jake's on the left!) !

Will Finally Be Able To . . .

scrap pics of the decorations on the front of the house! i've been playing with the speed setting on the camera after being inspired by the SBEtc Photography magazine! YAY!

Ending the suspense!

here are the colors i've chosen for when/if i relocate my scrap room to one of the spare bedrooms! i think the middle two, with the darker one being just one accent wall. hope to have everything else in white. the carpet is white!

My First Totally Digital Page!

basically scraplifted from the Pinecone Press Book Tra-Digi for my book club meeting tomorrow morning! hope you like it!

I Found You!

My sweet baby playing hide 'n seek in the dryer!

Favorite Meals in New Orleans!

Wanted to showcase our favorite meals during our trip to New Orleans last August. This is the second of four layouts I have planned from this trip, remembering New Orleans just three weeks before Katrina devastated it! Journaling: Whole Lotta Muffuletta Goin' On - As usual, our favorite part of vacation is eating! We had some wonderful meals in New Orleans! We had breakfast buffet at the hotel each morning, and mostly salads for lunch. But for dinner . . .well, here are our favorites! and in addition to regular meals, we also enjoyed beignets and frozen cafe aulait at Cafe du Monde! BUT . . . the absolute BEST was our lunch in the French Quarter at the Central Grocery where we had the Original Muffuletta! I even brought some of mine home! YUM! The top right is an accordian album with more pics in it!

My Daughter's Treasure Box and Journal

This is an altered box that will hold my daughter's mini-albums. Right now it has her ASD journal in it and will soon have her dada's baby picture mini-book in it. I've hesitated making mini-books because I don't want them scattered around, but this seems like the perfect system!Here are the first few pages of her Autism Journal. We discovered her challenges and started therapy a year ago this December. So it seemed fitting to use this idea from the Pinecone Press Book Club Book 'Calendars' to create this library card pocket accordian-spine book!

Remembering New Orleans

This is one of four layouts that I will be creating from our trip last August to New Orleans.












Journaling: We got up early and rode the St. Charles Street Trolley out to the Garden District. It was a beautiful morning with lots of sunshine and gradually got hotter! We spent the morning doing the walking tour of the houses and had coffee at the local cafe. We paid a visit to the Garden District Bookshop to get Gary a t-shirt and then walked through the Lafayette Cemetery #1. Creeeepy! We took the trolley back to the French Quarter in time for lunch!

Right journaling block: August 8, 2005 just three weeks before Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans

My Brother!

pp - K Foster, K Neuburger, Bazzill cs, vintage typewriter font, wrights snowflake, vellum, ink

Growing Up

Journaling: Oh Grace, time is flying by much too quickly! I look at you now, tall enough to open doors and climb most anything you want to, going to school four mornings a week . . . what happened to this baby face . . . still such a beautiful face. Yes, you have your challenges. But you're taking them on one at a time, in your own time. At three years old you are now ready to give up your naps and when you wrap your arms around my neck you actually squeeze tightly, telling me, without words, that you love me. There is no better feeling in the world to me!

Caribbean Cruise

This was a wonderful trip with my dear friend and her family!
Materials: cardstock, ink, foam stamp, embossed foil paper, magnetic stamp, vellum, scrap essentials quote, gold pen.

Journaling: In January of 1998, just after I'd moved to Kentucky, Treva invited me to go on a cruise with her family! What fun! I met her in Nashville and we stayed at Brad and Holly's house. The next morning we flew to San Juan to board the Rhapsody of the Seas. Of course, I had forgotten to take my picture ID, so getting on the plane and ship was a little difficult, but they all vouched for me and we made it! We had a delightful time. We all kind of just did our own thing and got together for dinner each evening. Treva and I would go ashore in Curacao, St. Maarten and St. Thomas to do our usual shopping! In Aruba I opted to go snorkeling, which wasn't a good idea by myself. It was beautiful snorkeling, but I got so engrossed in what I was seeing, I almost missed the catamaran back to the ship! One of the days we were at sea, which was really nice because we could actually take the time to enjoy the ship! We mostly laid by the pool. And of course the meals were fantastic and Alfred and I went to the Club a couple of nights to hang out and dance.

The Henry Ford

Our visit in July to The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village with my cousin Cindy and her family! journaling hidden behind the picture with hinges:

On Monday, July 11, 2005, we loaded up in the cars and all headed to The Henry Ford! As usual, Mom and I were talking and we missed the exit, but got turned around and made it in one piece! We walked all through the Village, did some shopping and Tommy treated us to a great lunch! Then we all headed to the Museum. On the way we had another visitor take our picture in front of the fountain. We walked all through the cars and trains and planes. Mom and I went to see the Country Music show at the IMAX and Katie and Jennifer took Grace with them and enjoyed the rest of the Museum. Then we were able to find our way back to Perrysburg to meet Gary for dinner at Blue Pacific.

The Park in Elora, Canada

The same day we went to Elora to meet Carolyn (Counting Carolyn) we took Grace to the park to play! She loved the slide!

Journaling - we made it to Elora a little early for lunch so we had time to play at the park! You really enjoyed the slide! You scared us all when you grabbed ahold of the overhead bar and swung from it!

Materials: Burlap, DCWV pp, Junkitz twill snap, twill, cotton thread