He's living my dream!

AND................. I couldn't be happier!!!

That's my oldest son on the right.. he's with two of his best buddy's AT LAMBEAU FIELD!  He was at the game last Monday when the Packer's played the Vikings.  He's always been a Vikings fan... but look at this:

Uh huh... there has got to be MAGIC at that field!  ;)  Don't ya just love his smile?  I may be bias.. but he's one good lookin kid with a great smile!! 

It has always been one of my life long dreams to go to Lambeau Field.  Now two of six of our children have been there.  Wonder when they plan to take mom?????  haha! 

Blog Challenge

I haven't gotten the ok to participate in the blog challenge at SB.com yet.. but I couldn't resist grabbing this photo and blogging about it.

Many years ago I visited a friend in TN and sat on a rock overlooking the Smokey Mtns.  I found such peace there.  I, of course, didn't get a photo from this angle, but do have some that are very dear to my heart of that visit.  I had never planned to even scrap about this place (That's how closely I hold it dear to my heart) and one day... I really felt the need to put it onto paper. 

I even find myself choking on my own words trying to describe why the above photo hit me as it did.  I really did gasp when I saw it.  The layout that I created was on a different rock that I used to think through some very difficult things going on in my life at that time.  I made a life altering decision sitting there in that moment.  I didn't even know this photo was being taken until I developed the roll of film after I got back home. 

Later, I received a package as I was dealing with the fall out of the decision I had made on that rock that day.... and inside the package was a small piece of each of the rocks I'd spent time on.  I would find myself carrying those chunks of rock around when things really got tough.  I haven't had the need to do that for some time now, but I do display those rocks in my bookcase... as a reminder of how quickly life can change with one decision.  It also reminds me of where I was.. and where I've come to... and as much peace as I found on that rock... I am living a life of peace in my mind, heart and soul!!!

I'm Starting To Get In The Spirit ~ How About You?

My family is doing a traditional Christmas this year and we are to give each person something with meaning to them.  We cannot spend more than $5.00 per person.  So this really does take some though and I am REALLY enjoying myself.  It's really gotten me in the Christmas spirit.  One of the projects that I made is for my niece.  I found this on Pinterest and just absolutely LOVED the idea.  There was no link to it once I opened it, so I'm sorry I can't share.  But here is a photo of what I created.

 This was so simple to make and I got the frame at the dollar store.  I have less than $2.00 in this gift.  But it will mean more to her than anything I could have purchased.


My next gift is for my sister-in-law of two small boys.  I really don't know her to well but know that she is a fan of homemade gifts.  She gave my mom some gifts last year created by the boys on plates and they were adorable. My gift to her is a memory jar (Idea also found on Pinterest ~http://inchmark.squarespace.com/inchmark/2008/9/9/magical-thinking.html ) I used a mason jar that I had one hand that I'd used for my wedding.  I covered the lid with paper and hand stamped all the tags.  I wrapped the jar in ribbon to decorate it up leaving the jar open to see through. 

Middle School Fun

Do you like a challenge?  I do.. in fact most often I NEED a challenge to keep going.  Or to even get started.  The only thing for decoration in my scraproom right now is a metal sign sitting above the closet door on a ledge that reads "I would be unstoppable if I could just get started"  Oh how true that is!!!

This LO was made for two challenges.  The Spraplift the Person Before You Challenge and the ABC Challenge ~ WXY&Z.  You have to have White space, X marks the spot Yesterday when I was young and Zucchini green.  I had all of the above in this LO... and I got to scraplift Mommaprov My Boy, which you can see by going to this link:

 http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/530287/view/3291327/-1.html

I had a heck of a time getting the kids to let me take this photo.  They were all hiding their faces and looking away.  I told them all they'd be happy when they were seniors in high school that I took it.  I didn't wait until they were seniors to show it to them again, but I did wait about 3 years and put the photo on facebook.  Everyone of them commented on the photo about how young they looked.  I knew they'd appreciate it someday!  This LO will go in my son's graduation book.  TFL today!

Our Family ~

Hi!!  Hope you are having a fantastic Sunday.  I just love Sundays that I get to be home and doing exactly what I want to be doing.  Today I was able to finally sit down with a creative mind and make a Christmas gift for my Grandmother.  This is the second layout that I've created this way, and my pictures are taken from the first layout that I made stitching beads on my layout.  I've really enjoyed bringing two of my favorite crafts together all into one to create something beautiful. 

I've found it takes a little planning when you are adding stitching and beads to your layout.  You will want to make sure that you have your stitching and your paper layering in the correct order.  On this layout I was able to do the stitching last.  The first time I did it, I had to plan it because of the size of my papers that I was layering.  I have a paper piercer and also the Sew Easy kit.  I find I have to use both of them especially when I am trying to work around things in my layout.

 On this particular layout, when I did my stitching, I did it all first then went back and added my beads later because the beads were to small to go over the needle.  On the layout at the top of this page, the beads were bigger and I was able to put them on as I stitched.  I like the look of that much better.  This will be something you want to consider also before you do your stitching.

I made sure my layers were ready to be applied as soon as I needed them so I did my distressing and inking so I could then keep working right along as I needed the layers.

And here is my finished product.  Don't you love the look those beads add??  I sure do!!

Thank you for stopping by!  Enjoy your day!

Weekend Getaway

My son has loved dirtbikes since before he could walk I believe.. he's had one since he was 5.  He rides for fun.. not in competition.. but it is one of his loves.  Here are two LO's I did using some pictures from a weekend getaway with his uncle and cousin.  The 4 x 6 photo is one of my favorite photos of him.

I'm learning to use the Gesso on paper and I haven't quite got the nack of it yet... I will though.. between that and the stitching, those are really the only techniques I used on these two LO's.  Just alot of paper layering and piecing.  The works and dirt bike pieces were all on a 12 x 12 sheet of paper from Adornit.  It's an older line, but dirtbike stuff is so difficult to find that I snatched it up when I found it and have been saving it.  TFL~

2011 All Conference Team

These pictures bring me alot of pride.  My son is a hard working type of kid and he doesn't always get the credit given to him that is deserved.  I've noticed him shying away from some things because he notices the same thing.  It's a hard lesson in life to learn.  I was very proud when we were out and about the other night when I heard him tell someone that he realized that life isn't always fair, but these things build character.  I'm so happy to know he's learning that at such a young age.  It will save him alot of heartache. 

I had alot of fun making this LO.  I used some stamps that I had purchased at an in home party and I've fallen in love with their products.  Ever heard the saying 'you get what you pay for'?  These stamps prove that right on!  They are Close to my Heart products and I can't wait to get a little money saved so I can purchase the Cricut Cart. that is so full of neat things to cut out.  I believe there are over 700 ways to use that cart. 

I hand stamped on this LO a TON... all but the GO TEAM flag was hand stamped, the letterting on the baseball, the ribbon, the Love this Game embellie, and the small tags.  I also stamped the stars & #1 on the background paper.  The rest of the LO is just layered and the papers are from Bo Bunny's Homerun line.  There are also some My Minds Eye papers in this.  TFL~

Homecoming 2008

Seems I am in the mood for the Homecoming theme.  Here is a LO that I did for the Page Map #33 challenge.  I knew as soon as I saw the design what picture I was going to use and I love how elegant it turned out without having a 'girly' feel to it.  Really all I did with this one was alot of paper layering.  Even my tags are layered.  The letter that I used for 'Dance' are a foam letter and have a bit of height to them.  The stars on the tag were cut with a punch out of photo corners.  They have some glitter on them and I was looking to bling the tags up since I wasn't going to really journal on this LO.  TFL~

Me & My Friends ~ Jr. Prom

Remember those fun prom days?  Well, thankfully our school has some great people that come to take photographs of the kids and help make it a great time.  One of our photographer also offers class photos of the boys and then of the girls.  They all get to pose together and have something to take home for mom to scrap right?  ha!!  This layout is one that I made at a home party for a scrapbooking line.  I had the base part of it done but really wasn't sure what picture to use on it.  Then I ran across the ABC Challenge.  Each month they use three letters of the alphabet to name an item that starts with that letter to use in your layout.  This month was the T U & V letters which means we had to use something TEAL, put something UPSIDE down on the layout and use VELLUM.  I embellished my premade layout to match the requirements.  The base paper was already teal, I used the vellum phrase "Me and My Friends" and cut it apart.  I flipped the word "me" backwards (honestly  by mistake but it worked perfect) and turned the word 'and' upside down.  This finished off the requirements but the layout just needed more.. so I added the letters to spell out Junior and added the ribbon with the letters on it.  And there ya have it..... another great page to add to my son's graduation book!~ 

Party Time ~

Do you ever just look back at some photos of the kids and first wonder where the time went and then chuckle because they've grown so much?  Well this layout that I'm going to share with you is of a photo that made me do just that!!!  It's a picture of my son's class when they were in middle school at a party for one of the girls in class.  They are being goofy and just having a great time!!!

I made this for two challenges over at Scrapbook.com and had a great time doing it.  The first challenge was to scraplift the person before you in a list.  I scraplifted off of Chaton_13 from a beautiful layout that had a stamped brick wall on it.  The other part of this layout was inspired by a challenge to use Gesso or paint on your layout.  I've never used Gesso before so I thought this was the perfect time to do so.  So I created my wall with paper and paint instead of stamping it.  The results were fantastic and I think the paint added a great dimension to my layout... have you tried painting on your paper?  Or over a photo before?  If you haven't... well now's the time.  You will be glad that you did!

TFL~

Fun Fabric Coil Coasters ~

I'm not sure you've heard of this.. but you have HAD to have heard of this.. I've recently gotten ADDICTED to Pinterest.  Oh if you haven't heard of it you MUST go look.  It's a pin up board of all the things that you love and you can make folders to save the sites that tell you how to make something, or how to cook something, or just photographs of the places you love or places you want to visit etc.  www.pinterest.com

Well anyway... I was looking around the other day and found a blog that showed you how to make these fabulous coasters.  I thought they'd make some nice Christmas gifts so I went and purchased some rope clothes line and grabbed some of the material that I had in my stash and started rippin'!  I wrapped the material around the clothes line, hot glued it all together and walah!  Coasters.  I am going to hand sew them together just for added strength so they last longer.  I also found online where you could sew them together on the machine while crafting them, but I'm just not that great on a sewing machine so I opted for the good ol' glue gun!!!  Here is the site with the tutorial: http://twoshadesofpink.blogspot.com/2011/05/fabric-coil-coasters-i-green.html   Check out her site, she's got some fun projects!!!

Here are some of my finished coasters ~

Time flies when you are having fun!!!

Hello blog world!!  It's been awhile.  I've been trying to get back into the swing of things in the craft room..... and I figured what better way to start then to just jump in and start creating.... so last night I did just that.  I'll show you my creation as soon as I get this blog post done ~

Well let's see.. what's kept me away???  Well.. HOMECOMING!  It's one of my favorite weeks of the whole school year.  My youngest son Matt is a Sr. this year and I'm very sad to say that I participated in my last homecoming having a child in school.  Bittersweet I know... But... I have also learned not to be to sad about those moments.  But to relish in them and know that there are many more memories to be made! 


I'm not sure how your town celebrates Homecoming week, but we have a fun packed week for all!!!  The Friday before Homecoming the Seniors vote for the top 10 girls and the top 10 boys for their Homecoming Court.  I am so very proud to say that my son did make the top ten. 

He's the handsome young man in the blue Columbia jacket with a black t-shirt.  Now I have to add that the kids up here for this photo are all just great kids.  Of all my kids, this class has been the closest at heart class.  They don't thrive on drama and really do just enjoy each other.  It had to be one of the closest years of voting ever!!! The top 10 is announced on Monday during a pep assembly. It is also the first dress up day of the week. As you can tell by the photo, the girls dressed in animal print and the guys in camo. After the assembly it's off to the local businesses to paint the windows.. It was pouring down rain but they didn't let it stop them. 

Tue. brings another voting day.  But the whole high school votes now.  And it's a dress up day as well.  My son didn't participate in them so I am not sure what it was. 


Wed. brings the votes for the top 5..... and.. well.. my son didn't make that but that doesn't make a difference to me.. he got there in the top 10 out of a class of about 150.  After all the sports practices are over, they kids all meet at the high school parking lot to spray paint.... EACH OTHER!!  I have never seen kids have SO MUCH FUN as they do with this activity.  It is a supervised activity and just pure innocent FUN!!! 

They also get to white wash on the school parking lot.......

Thur is toga day for the Sr's and pajama day for the rest of the student body.  The football players got to wear black togas and their tie ~  Usually Thur. is dress up day for them... so their black dress pants and dress shirts were replaced with a black sheet.  I was happy the coach let them participate. 

See the blond young man with giving you the thumbs up???  You guessed it, that's Matt.....  It takes a few days to get all the spray paint off of them as you can tell!!  After a short practice and a team meal.. the kids get their floats out and jump on the fire trucks and the top 5 get in the fancy cars and drive through town for our Homecoming parade.

I did so good and I was SO proud of myself.  I held the tears until after the firetruck was by...... you could say I may be an emotional mom.... just a little...  After the parade we all meet at the high school football field for a pep assembly and to announce the king and queen.  It was a surprise to all the top candidates.. but we were proud to say that our Queen is on the football team and has just recently moved here and has won the hearts of many!!!  After the crowning the girls get to take the field for some powder puff football.  Don't be fooled though.. these girls get down and dirty and have some fun tackling.. um I mean going after those flags!!  The Senior girls took home the win!!!

Friday is spirit day as they all wear black and gold to support their team..... It was a great night as the Varsity team pulled out the first win in 6 years for our Homecoming game! 


I know this is only ONE of the weeks that I've been away from my blog but it was the most exciting.  I hope you've enjoyed seeing the fun we have through our Homecoming week.

Thinking.. and processing

I've been sitting at my computer since around 5:30 and uploading photos to be processed to make my son's graduation book.  So may thoughts go through your mind when you sit idle.. ok.. so many thoughts go through MY mind as I sit idle.  After 4 hrs and 20 minutes of going through photos.. memories.. past times.. my kids growing up.. AND LIVING.. all I can do is smile.  Then my thoughts run to OMG how am I ever going to scrapbook ALL these pictures... really... you have to know my youngest child to fully understand that thought... he is in everything.. he is involved, he has fun he LIVES.  My mind races through the memories as I flip through the folders.. all by date, all in order.  Yes, memories.. we've created many of them.  Lessons.. we've had those too.  And in my ADD stage, my mind races to all the things I want to create with these photos and memories and I get ahead of myself... because you see now my wedding photos are being uploaded (nearly a year since the wedding and I still haven't given any out.. eek) and I think of the albums I want to create with those.. I want them to be as special as the memories.. as the moments... can time stand still??  Even long enough for me to get all these racing thoughts to slow down... I want to re-live them.. and in those moments of re-living I want to add to them!!!  Of course we know that's impossible.. but stepping forward to make just as many wonderful memories as I store in these folders is right before me.. and it makes me proud when I can flip through the pages.. the pages created to tell the story.. the story of life.. because we have lived!!!!!

We've got pumpkins!!!

In the last few weeks we've noticed around town that there is corn growing everywhere.  A stalk here and a stalk there... we've figured out due to the storm it's blown around alot of things and corn just started where ever the seeds landed. 

Yesterday we had the grandkids over and noticed a plant in the corner of our lot.. we walked over to check it out and we found a plant FULL of pumpkins.  I know it's a little late in the season, but we'll let them keep growing and see what we end up with... this may be fun!

Aint they cute???

Blog Failure???

I already feel like a blog failure. LOL  It's been since August 2nd since I've posted!!!  In the meantime I've moved my daughter to college, created a great art room, school started and so has football and kept up with work and all the other stuff that just happens in life, oh, and can't forget the mini vacation!!


I'm going to share a photo with you of me and my son on game day of his first football game of his senior year.  I can't believe he's already a senior!!

Enjoy your day... I've got many things that I've created that I want to share...... another post!  Coming  Soon!!!

Scrapbooking Challenges

I haven't been doing a lot of challenges due to my sons baseball...and now that is over.. so before I get involved in getting my daughter moved back to college and then moving my scraproom to her bedroom, I thought I'd get busy on a few layouts for my sons graduation book.  Seems I always have a project going of some sort.. and I've really been enjoying the  challenges I've entered into to keep me motivated to get this project off to a great start.  Tonight was no exception to this.  I made a layout to enter into two challenges: Aug. Scraplift the Person Before You and Aug. ABC Challenge.

I used some techniques on this LO that I've used before, but also tried an old technique in a new way.  First off with this photo, I wanted to match as much of the screenprinting on his shirt as I could.  I had the perfect dry embossing folders to do just that!  But my paper was to big to go through my machine.  So... I used the folder, the plastic folder and a good ol' fashioned pastry roller from Pampered chef.  It worked great.  I then distressed the edges and  inked them and embossed to add some texture. 

I then cut a piece of scrapbook paper that looked like notebook paper to place under my sons school photo.  I used my binding edge paper punch to give it the look that it had been ripped out of his notebook.  I then glimmer misted in two colors ~ green and blue to match the screenprint in his t-shirt.

I assembled it all.. then went by what my challenges required. 

M= Metal (in all the corners)
N= Notebook paper (under the main photo)
O= Oval (Under the circle face shot photo)
P= Plum (base paper color)

I scraplifted the LO from CrazyScrapbooker and her LO was named K 2010-2011. 

The little personalized tags were printed right from the computer onto plain copy paper and inked on the edges.  When assembling this LO, I took a screenprinted type clear stamp and inked it in white and black and placed them around the main photo and in the corners for some added texture.  The paperclips were some I had around and in the right colors and I thought they were a perfect addition for a school theme. 

Thanks for stopping by for a look! 

Feline Fun

I was lying on the living room floor reading the paper and the cat ~ Timmy~ saw the motion of the paper as I turned the pages and started playing with the paper......

I was able to capture a great attack from her as she pounced the paper....

Crazy cat! 

Hi!

My first post.... and why am I here?  I guess you could say I'm at a cross-road.  Next weekend my middle child moves out and on her own for good as she attends college.  They always tell me that they come back.  Of all my children this one here will be the one that doesn't.  Maybe she'll surprise me....  My oldest has been out of the house for nearly 2 years and my youngest is a Senior in high school.  I'm feeling more and more that it's time to find a life that revolves around the things I love, rather than my childrens loves.  So.. here I am.  That's it.. in a nutshell. 


I have a creative mind.. and would love to share my ideas... another reason I'm here.  So I hope that you find a reason to come see me often as I post my creations, my thoughts or my photos as time goes on!

Thanks so much for stopping by... my little corner of the world!

P.S.  I would like to wish my grandma a very happy birthday today!!  I love you gramama!