OBX Creations

Week 3 Photos

2010-02-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

Well, as I've said before, I've been really good about taking my photos. But, I'm really bad about posting them. Here it is February 3rd and I'm just posting week 3 photos. The weather here seemed much warmer and many of the frozen places have melted. The sky has turned really pretty for a few days.

Day 15: I've been told I have a Food Lion addiction. let's just say I like to go grocerys hopping and make sure we have plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, LOL. Anyway, I thogught this looked pretty.

Day 16: Some generous patron gave this gorgeous flower to the library. Stunning!

Day 17: Driving around Kitty Hawk, we saw this beautiful fog scene. Jake told me this is his favorite photo of all of them so far. :)

Day 18: I had some baseline x-rays for my arthrtitis. Got some pther pictures too. The lady was very nice when I asked if I could take some photos.

Day 19: The blue sky was a mixture of the sun going down and some dark clouds.

Day 20: Just a pretty sunset on the way to the library one day.

Day 21: My students were working on a painting project. This student mixed a bunch of colors together and came up with this. I kind of like how it looks.

Project 365 Week 2

2010-01-25T15:06:00.000-08:00

OK, I am really bad about posting these photos! But, finally, here are week 2.

Day 8: So pretty. I was waiting in the line to get Jake from school and thought this looked pretty.

Day 9: Children's videos from work.
Day 10: More of the frozen sound. Crazy! But, it was finally starting to melt a little.

Day 11: A Christmas present for a friend that I still haven't seen. I was finally getting around to wrapping it.
Day 12: Jockey's Ridge. They haven't had standing water like this in several years, but e've had so much rain here. It should be back to normal before tourist season though.

Day 13: This is the beautiful view from our deck.

Day 14: Jake's beautiful blue eyes!

Project 365

2010-01-19T08:10:00.000-08:00

Well, last year, some scrapbook friends participated in the Photo a Day Challenge. They did a fantastic job which game inspitation to try it this year. I know I can take a photo each day, but, the challenge for me will be to make them fun and also work on a project with the photos. But, I'm giving it a go. So, here are the photos for the first week.
Day 1: Jake was enjoying his grandparents' massage chair (complete with reading light, LOL).

Day 2: Jake and I were simply goofing around.

Day 3: We always stop and eat at The Cracker Barrell on the way home from visiting relatives.

Day 4: Like father, like son. Both of them staring at the Wii.

Day 5: I apparently killed my aloe plant while we were away. It must have rained then frozen. :(

Day 6: Came back to the beach to find that the sound had frozen. It is quite beautiful and even amazing that a body of water so large and in this reagion would freeze. Day 7: Jake holding my hand. Love how he still likes to do that at 8 1/2 :)

Crayon Fun

2009-09-04T15:28:00.000-07:00

OK, so what to do with all those broken crayons that seem to accumulate and end up all over the huse? Well, you can make some new crayons with them, of course! All you need is a bunch of crayons in all different colors and a metal pan/mold. Since my molds are not metal, I used my mini-muffin pan.

The first step is to break all those crayons into smaller pieces. Then you can place the crayons pieces into the molds. I try to get a bunch of different colors mixed together. Kids can certainly do this part by themselves, too. Then, place the pans/molds into the preheated oven set at 200 degrees. Wait a while until they completely melt. I just waych this so I'm not sure of the time this would take. Plus if you use smaller mold it will take less time. :)

Finally, carefully take them from the oven and allow them to harden. Be careful not to allow the wax to mix. When they are hard and cool, turn the pans/molds over and out pops your new crayons in your fun shapes.
Have fun!!!!

50 Years!

2009-07-31T12:39:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last posted, but we've been kinda busy this summer. Mainly I've been working a lot, but we did take a long weekend to head to Andy's parents' house in Peachtree City, GA. They had a 50th Anniversary party celebration. Can you imagine? 50 years! How wonderful! And, even better, EVERYONE was able to attend the party. We had a great time and really enjoyed chatting with everyone. I'm looking forward to the next gathering with everyone.

Look how happy they are together. Still enjoying each others' company.

The Douds Family

Our family

The whole family

Andy looking quite handsome

Jake looking quite handsome

Clips and More Clips

2009-07-09T14:49:00.000-07:00

Well, it has ben such a busy summer. Don't know anout you, but I am working more and more and more...I did find time to work on this LO using clips for Use Your Stash. This week's challenge was to use clips on your LO or project. I chose to use a lot of clips. Loved it! I might just have to use them again since it brought so much color and fun to my project.

This photo is of Jake at the National Zoo in DC. Andy and I both agree that it is one of both of our favorite shots of Jake. Such a cutie. Still is!

So hop on over to Use Your Stash and use some clips on your projects.

And the Winner Is.....

2009-06-04T15:15:00.001-07:00

Thanks for all of the great comments about my new etsy shop. It really is so nice to hear!
Also, all of the wonderful things about Use Your Stash are so very true. I love using up all of my stuff before heading out to buy more. And, as a lot of you mentioned, I often forget what I do have and will either use something else or go buy it (again). And, the challenges are wonderful and very creative. Hopefully you will pop in often over the summer to see the changes Kimmie and Corey are bringing to the blog. Loads of fun!

Anyway, the winner of my earrings from my etsy shop is....

CrafyRia

"I love the challenges at Use Your Stash. They are very good for inspiration. I enjoyed looking at all of your earrings! My favorites are the purple and white swirl ones. They are so pretty!"

So, please email me with your address and which earrings you would like, and I will get them right out to you.

Thank you everyone who left comments.

Use Your Stash Blog Hop Party

2009-05-31T18:48:00.000-07:00

Wow! Can you believe it has been a year for Use Your Stash? These gals have been super busy over the last year giving us fun challenges which not only challenge us to use what we have in our stash, but also our scraps. I know I've enjoyed them and I hope you have too.

Here are a few of my favorite projects that I've recently completed for Use Your Stash.

Also, leave me a comment about what your favorite thing about Use Your Stash is and you can win a pair of earrings from my new etsy shop. I plan on adding a few scrapbook embellishments in your package too...so check out my etsy shop and choose your favorite earring. Don't forget to leave me a comment. :)

Don't forget, in order to win the 2 packs of Coredinations, you must comment on all the blogs!

Next stop is Jingle's blog. Hop on over and see what she's been up to!

Jake's First Holy Communion

2009-05-14T19:36:00.000-07:00

Jake had his First Holy Communion this Sunday which was also Mother's Day. What a fabulous day we had. My parents were down for the weekend and Andy's parents were here for a day. It was nice having everyone together for such an important day.

Sadly these are the only photos I have. Dad took some fortunately because my camera died. Can you imagine? Lame mommy, LOL. Anyway, because of the battery, most of my photos were blurry. But, these are pretty good. Such a handsome little guy. I'm so proud of him!

Spring Break and Easter Fun

2009-04-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a while since my last post. Jake has been off for spring break and we've been busy. All week, Jake had different friends come over for some fun. We did laser tag one day, worked in the yard, fished off the dock, and a few other things. I taught a class for a friend who works with adults who have traumatic brain injuries or iqs of less than 70. What a wonderful experience. The group was so positive and really enjoyed the activities. I was hugged a lot and told "I love you" so often. What an uplifting and wonderful day! I hope to do this again soon. Here are some pictures from the week and also from Easter.

I made the ham like my mom used to make. Wow, so delicious! Thanks Mom!
Here are the boys helping me in the yard. OMG the yard is a disaster...we will be working on that for some time! I think the people who lived here before didn't touch the yard. Look at the ohoto of our backyard. Gross! But, I'm planting some new flowers and some vegetables. So excited because I also have some strawberries and grapes. Andy wants watermelon and Jake wants a pumpkin. We'll see what grows. I'm also planting some tomatoes and cucumbers and thinking of maybe a few more. Who knows?!

The SavvynSassy Great Ribbon Rave ended. I didn't win, but wow! That was a fun and exciting contest. Here is my week 6 entry. This photo is from Jake's 4th birthday party. These girls had so much fun at the party and looked like they were having a blast on the jumping aparatus.

Easter Basket Cupcakes

2009-04-09T12:02:00.001-07:00

Jake and I just love decorating these cute Easter Basket Cupcakes. They are so much fun for everyone and taste good too! If you have young children helping, I recommend that you make the cupcakes ahead of time. One year I was camping at Easter and didn't have an oven, so we bought un-iced cupcakes from the bakery section in the grocery store. The first step is to add green food coloring to both the icing and the coconut. I used two shades of green so it would look like it had more depth. I also like to keep the icing and coconut separate because I found that if you put the coconut on top of the icing it looks more realistic.
The next step is to bend a licorice stick so it looks like an upside down "u" and put it into the cupcake. This will make your handle. After that, add some jelly beans to look like eggs in the basket. I used Jelly Belly jelly beans because of the size. But, you could use regular jelly beans or even M&Ms.

Have fun making these little treats!

Tag Mini Album

2009-04-08T06:10:00.001-07:00

Well, it is that time again. Use Your Stash has posted another challenge. This month's challenge is to use tags in your LO. The DT came up with some fantastic ideas fr your inspiration. You really should enter this one because the prize is a $10.00 gift certificate to Elle's Studios. But, we must have at least 7 participants to choose a winner. So go give it a try. This should be an easy one to do.

Here's what I did for the DT. I made a tag album using some of the photos from last year's visit to the Elizabethan Gardens. You can see the photos from the visit at this post here. I've had these tags forever and some were differnt sizes and colors, but similar. So, to tie them all into one another, I kept it simple by adding the same paper and embellishments on each. The PP had bothe the tan and green on it and the rub-on I put on each is also brown. (My fabulous scrap pal Chris sent it to me - check out her blog here because she just got published and is really just super talented!) I tied it all together again with coordinating ribbon.

Check back later this week because I am making my fun Easter Basket Cupcakes. They are fun and easy to make and children just love to help.

A Few New LOs

2009-04-04T20:50:00.001-07:00

I was able to do a few new LOs. These are the lastest for the SavvynSassy Great Ribbon Rave Contest. Only 1 more week to go. I would love to win, but there is some great talent over there, so you never know. Go there and check out their gallery. There is some terrific LOs for inspiration.

This one was for week 4. The photo is of my sisters and me in 1975. The challenge was to make sure we made our LOs shabby. We also had to do the same treatment to our ribbons. We had to make these LOs more than just flat, the had to have dimension.

This one is for week 5. We were supposed to use 3 PPs, 3 flowers, 3 circles, and some chipboard. We also had to weave our ribbon on our LOs. The photo is of my family when I was 5.

Check back soon for a few new LOs. I've been working on a few more.

Welcome to the Jungle

2009-03-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

Jake had his Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts last weekend. It was great. The theme was "jungle" and we really decorated his table well for the occasion. I'd say the wolf table was the best. :) No bias here, of course, LOL. We had snakes, monkeys, and tree frogs, and butterflies spattered about the jungle, too. So cute! They did a skit and Jake nailed his lines. He did such a great job! Here are a few pictures

More New LOs

2009-03-24T16:31:00.001-07:00

Well, it has been a while since my last post. I've been busy with some spring cleaning around the house. I have had a few minutes to scrap a few things.

I am participating in the savvy n sassy great ribbon rave contest. It is a 6 week contest with a new challenge each week. I've completed 3 LOs so far and am working on the fourth. You should see the awesome LOs that the ladies are creating. Wow! Such talent. Here are my three that I've completed so far. This week is shabby and 3D pages...I'll see what I can do.

I've also made a few others, too. AMR had their monthly crop last weekend, but unfortunately I was so busy that I didn't have a chance to make any. I did, however, make a few for their daily challenges and for some gifts. My DT at Use Your Stash also will be having a new challenge coming soon. So be sure to check back for that.

Break Out Your Crop-a-diles!

2009-03-06T05:49:00.000-08:00

Eyelets Can Work on Our LOs, lol. Ok...I really did use them on my latest LO. The Use Your Stash item this month is eyelets. I know you are thinking....eeeekkkk, I haven't used those in ages. Well, try using them in a different way. I used them as a center for my flower in my LO. Here's a sneak peak. See the rest of the LO on the Use Your Stash blog, here. Create your own and you could win a $10.00 gift certificate to scrapbook.com. How cool is that! Use your old stash and get some bucks to replace it with new stuff. BTW, there are some great LOs as inspiration on there too.

A Few LOs From the AMR February Crop

2009-02-26T08:24:00.000-08:00

All Moments Remembered has their monthly crop this weekend. They are always fun and have great prizes for the challenges they offer. This month's "theme" was tropical. So, the challenges and everything else, including music offernings and attire, was tropical related. Stacey asked us to paint our toes, Jessica offerend up some music, and Angie offered a fun challenge for us to show we were ready for the crop by wearing our fun tropical clothing and such. It was fun. I completed 3 LOs, but only 1 was for the crop challenges, the other 2 were for the weekly challenges offered at AMR.

The LO I did for the crop challenge was for us too do a summertime LO using citrus colors like yellows, oranges, lime green. You can add other colors but lets say you must have at least two citrus colors. I've had these great pictures of Jake from Oregon Inlet in Nags Head for some time now, so this was a great challenge for me. The colors of the paper are much brighter than the photo shows.

I also completed the weekly color challenge, but was a day late to submit it. But, it felt great to get this LO finished. Jake's grandparents took him out one day and they played on these huge tractors. I know Jake had a blast. Look how little he looks sittign in that wheel. So cute!

Finally, the last LO that I completed was for the product challenge. Not only did I submit it in time, but I also won. Woo Hoo!!! We were supposed to use fabric in our LOs, two PP, and alphas. I really like how this one turned out. And, that photo of Jake is just so stinkin' cute. He is such a happy little guy and it always shows in his photos. What a cutie! This is probably one of my favorite now and I loved using the fabric. I'll have to do it more often!

And They're Off

2009-02-24T11:03:00.000-08:00

Saturday was a busy day for us. Jake had the Babe Ruth Baseball Conditioning in the morning. I was so happy to see how organized it seems to be. The boys (and one girl) were able to learn and practice some parts of baseball. They played a game and also broke into three different groups to learn some of what will be expected. One group batted with a tee. Another caught fly balls. And the last group caught grounders. Andy has been playing catch with Jake for a while now, so he felt pretty confident. But, he had never hit the ball before. He said he had a blast. I'm looking forward to more baseball practices. Oh, and the boys play with a pitching machine, not a tee, so this is cool. I see lots of practices in our future. After this we got a quick lunch before I was off to work for a few hours at the library. I then met Andy and Jake at the Parks and Rec for the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. OMG this was so cute and fun. Jake was so proud of his car. He designed it and helped with the carving. He painted it by himself and also added the faces to the "people" driving the car. The leaders gave them all driver's licenses. Jake didn't win any of his heats. But, he said it was fun and was very happy that his friend Wade won the while event.

And, a local photographer, Bob Summers of Shoot The Beach, took some pictures and offered us to download them for free. Here are some of his awesome shots. Oh, and make sure to check out his wonderful photography here. Oh, Jake is the green car that looks like a truck with people in the front seat. So cute!

XOXOXOXO

2009-02-16T06:55:00.000-08:00

The DT at Use Your Stash has added their cards for some good inspiration. The stash item for the month is ribbon, as you might remember from my earlier post. The cards are gorgeous! They show such creative ways to use up your ribbon on a card. There is still time to get your LOs in, BTW. You could win that great prize!

For my card, I made a valentine's day card. I made the ribbon into and "X" and put a circle ("O") sentiment inside. Hugs and Kisses...The paper is Little Yellow Bicycle Love Letters "Kiss Dots". It is such beautiful paper!

Fun New Products

2009-02-10T07:39:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, my parents gave me this really cool gift called a DigiPro Drawing Tablet. I finally had a chance to take it out of the box and upload the software. OMG, this is very cool! It is a drawing tablet that uses a pressure sensor pen. OK...I can upload my signature easily into a file. I can make my handwriting a font. I can use this with my PSE 6. I can draw...well, I can't really draw, but I could let Jake draw a picture and use it in my scrapbooking. I can highlight directions or write on them. There are so many uses for this. The best part is that Jake loves it too. We played hangman right on my desktop yesterday.

Also, last week I bought a Pandigital Photolink One-Touch Digital Scanner. This is also easy to use and so practical for me. It scans in print pictures and stores them on a SD card. I can then hook it up to my computer and import them into PSE or I can put the card into my camera and upload them later with more pictures. Why is this cool or becessary you ask? Well, you don't have to be in front of a scanner. It also scans them pretty quickly. And, I have tons of print pictures that I'll eventually have to scan. I can use this while watching TV. I can use this wherever I am and while I am doing whatever.

Oh, and keep your fingers crossed. I submitted a few things for contests or publication. I'm so excited! I've never done this before but you never know.

A Ribbon Challenge

2009-02-05T08:32:00.000-08:00

Well, some of you might remember that I design for Use Your Stash. They have terrific challenges each month and just put up a new one. The prize is a good one, too. So get ready to use those scraps! The prize is sponsored by Jen Blackwell with Ready, Set, Create Ezine. She is giving the winner a one year subscription to this!!! Who can't use some inspiration here and there?

So, the challenge this month is to use your ribbon. I know I have tons of ribbon scraps. I used mine in lieu of PP on this LO. Oh, and there is a lot of inspiration from the DT on the blog. Here is my LO that I did for this challenge.

The picture is of my friend Barb's dog, Cinnamon, and me. Barb and her family live in Rio Rancho, NM and this was taken when I visited in 2001. This is just the sweetest, cutest dog, and

I just wanted to take her home with me.

Check out the challenge and enter!

A Rainbow of Colors

2009-01-25T12:46:00.001-08:00

Well, the snow and ice quickly disappeared. It happens when the temperatures soar to the high 50s. Crazy weather we are having here. But, I was home the other evening and looked out onto the desk and saw this beautiful sunset. Here are a few shots. Last night we picked up Wii Fit for our Wii. Jake and I actually had to convince Andy that we should get this. We had a lot of fun trying out some of the games. I really liked the balance games. And since I have no balance, hopefully this will help me. Ironically, Andy's Fitness age is higher than mine even though I have a worse BMI than he. Mine is only 5 higher than my age and his is 7 higher than his age. I had to convince him that it was because I work a lot on my core while doing my PT. Now I have to stick with it and hopefully I will lose a few pounds while having some fun. BTW, if you have this, tell me how you get a camera in the same room as your DH while he is doing the fitness games. I'll let you know how it goes and try to get a picture.

Snow in the OBX and a Little Whine

2009-01-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

Wow, it snowed here on tuesday! So sad that poor Jake was out of town with Andy visiting Andy's parents. Anyway, as expected because it doesn't snow often here, noone here can drive in the snow and everything closed. Since the schools were already closed it didn't create a mad rush to pick up all the kids. I stayed at our store until around noon and then decided to head home. I did get some beautiful pictures of the snow at our house. Here they are:

Oh, and for my little whine...I found this not so nice frame that was the perfect size to go over one of the mantels in the store. Since it didn't quite look the way I'd like, I altered it to match the colors in the store. The wall it was to go on is painted Bali Turquoise by Ralph Lauren. See it here. Love it! Well, Andy doesn't love it and won't put it in the store. Needless to say, I'm not happy. What do you think? You can be honest. Oh, the first picture os what it looked like when I bought it. The rest are of it altered.

New LOs and Great News!

2009-01-18T17:14:00.000-08:00

Great news!!!! I've been wanting to share this with you all...WOO HOO! The wonderful girls from USE YOUR STASH asked me to be on their DT! Here is the announcement. I can't say it enough how great Kimmie and Corey are. Each month they post a challenge for us scrapbookers, and the challenge encourages us to use what we have in our stash. Confess, gals...who doesn't have stash that we should be using before we buy new stuff. (Oh, and once you use it all and have all that newly found room you can go buy new stuff) So, check out the blog, do the challenge and you could win a gift certificate!

AMR had an anniversary crop this past weekend. I think there was something like 35 challenges or so. The crop lasted two days and was a huge success. I had a blast! And, I was able to create a bunch of new LOs. One cool thing is that one of the memner challenges was to use acrylic. OK, I've had an acrylic album for a while, but have been afraid (silly, I know) to use it. I think I wanted it to be perfect. KWIM? ANyway, I tried it and just loved how it turned out. ANd, I really want to do more. This one is for my dad. I had the cutest of photos of dad and my nephew, James from Christmas. Dad, don't look! Here are a few of the pages.

Since I did so many of the challenges, I will show you all just a few of them. I love this photo of Andy reading to Jake and Allison. It was taken by BIL, John, in Ocotber 2002. Jake was 16 months and Allison just turned 2. The title is so fitting as "Delight". This might be my favorite LO. I just love the colors and the simplicity of it.

This is a photo of me when I was young. We lived in Berlin at the time and mom and dad took us to the German/British Unity Day Air Show. We got to sit in a helicopter. How cool when you are so little. OK, I would still think it is cool, LOL. Anyway, I love how the LO turned out. The colors are great together and I like how they look with my mustard little outfit and the browns in the helicopter.

This photo is of my sisters and me. Debbie and I loved ballet. But Jacqui hated it. Anyway, I did this for a challenge that we had to use pink, lots of pink. Since the pink in the photo was so overbearing, I decided to mute the pink in the embellishments and paper. Noy sure that you can tell, but the cardstock is Bazzil Bling.

Woo Hoo!

2009-01-06T12:45:00.001-08:00

Well, I am so excited! The wonderfully talented gals over at Use Your Stash invited me to be the guest designer for January. Some of you might remember my post recently about this. Anyway, they posted my LO today. Check out their blog! They have challenges each month (and sometimes even more often) that challenge us to use what we have, rather than buying new supplies and hoarding them. OK, we all know that we will keep buying supplies, but let's use what we have and make room for the new stuff.

So, here is a teaser of my LO for them. The challenge for the month was to use brads. I used a brad in the center of the flower here to add some color and dimension. I also used brads on the border of the LO as well.

I've Been a Busy Little Bee

2008-12-30T10:51:00.001-08:00

Well, it has been a while, but only because the holidays make us all so crazy busy. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. We visited my family for Christmas and will be visiting Andy's for New Year's. My brother and his family finally made it safely from Alaska. We were worried. They had tried to leave on saturday, but were snowed in. They finally were able to get there on friday evening. How great it was to see them all! And, boy, my nephew JAmes has grown so much! What a happy little guy he is!

This is one of the pictures from our Christmas cards this year. OMG we were so silly. We took about 100 or so pictures and none of them were turning out. So, Andy and I just started to go with it. We started to just take silly ones.

This year, we decided to go pretty simple for the teachers. Jake and I got mason jars and filled them with 8 different kinds of beans to make a layered soup mix. We added a bay leaf and a bouillon cube. On top went some ribbon and fabric. We added this to a bowl and included the recipe and also some candy. Finally, we wrapped them in cellophane and added a pretty ribbon and an bell ornament (which I had gotten last year after Christmas for like nothing!). They turned out lovely and cost only about $4.00 per person. Not bad. I also made some for my co-workers at the library. We made about 16 or 17 baskets. Also, a friend from AMR, Leslie, has been going through some pretty tough times. Stacey asked us to make her some 4x6 inspirational cards which she will be sending to Leslie to help her through her journey. I made about 6 for her. I just wish I could've done more. Please read her blog and keep her in your prayers.

Take care and ttyl! :)

Finally scrapped...WooHoo

2008-12-02T16:39:00.000-08:00

OK, so I could've scrapped well into the night, but I finally went to bed. I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. But, oh, did it feel so good to actually touch the paper and embellishments. I finished some projects for swaps and what-not, and I also worked on a mini-book for my cousin who just had a baby girl. I'll post that when I finish it.

I finished my project for Stacey over at All Moments Remembered. She is awesome and some of the gals there are presenting her with this album with LOs from all of us. Stacey started her blog and store about a year ago, so this is her 1yr present to show her how much she means to us. We were supposed to make an 8x8 LO with a picture of ourselves on it, our name and message board name, when we joined, and what we like about AMR. (BTW, it isn't crooked, I just took a crooked picture, LOL) Here is mine:

Speaking of Stacey, she had asked us to make some gift tags from Santa to some needy children where she lives. I only finished 12, but love how they turned out. I used some tags that I've had for years, stamped a single image on them and then used chalk to color the image. To soften the background, I also chalked around the picture. Finally, I inked the edges and added some red fibers. Very sinple, but they look nice. Finally, I participated in a cookie recipe card swap and a candy recipe card swap. I laminated mine after making a simple digi card. They had to be 6x6, and could be digital or traditional.

A Few New LOs and Tagged

2008-11-03T13:24:00.000-08:00

I've tried a few digital LOs lately. I'm enjoying collecting the stuff for them. Ha Ha...it's almost as addicting as collecting paper supplies. And, Downloading fonts is also fun. There are some great fonts out there.

This LO is of my Grandmom, Uncle Vic, and Aunt Betty. Uncle Vic has since passed and Grandmom has had a stroke. I'm not sure where or when the picture was taken, but I really love it. And since Aunt Betty lives in California, they don't get together too often. It must have been someone's wedding.

My nephew Nate just adores James. He doesn't let go of him too often. Love this picture of him. Such a cutie he is.

This LO is of my son, Jake when he was about 18 months during Thanksgiving.

This LO is of my nephew, James. What a sweetie pie he is. He was just born this April. Crazy how time passes. Don't you just want to kiss his cute little face.

My scrap pal, Chris, tagged me. How fun! You should check out her blog and her scrapbooking work. OMG is she talented!

(The rules….link your tagger and list these rules on your blog. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.)

Here are my "facts":
1. I love gummy bears. I buy (and eat) them often.
2. My father was in the Air Force and we've lived all over the United States and some countries, like Germany and Canada. I was born in Berlin.
3. I played the flute and piccolo in HS and college.
4. I used to run cross country and track, but now can't run at all.
5. I've had multiple joint replacements and set off the alarms at airports.
6. My Mom tells me that I used to think it was Baby Jesus, Mary, and Frank and we didn't kow anyone named Frank at the time.
7. I keep finding a few gray hairs, but am resisting getting my hair died to cover it. Would that make me old? OK, so it makes me strange.

The 7 people who I'd like to tag are:
1. Angie...a friend who not only loves scrapping, but also loves the beach. Check out her blog for some inspiration
2. Noel Joy...Love her style. She has the cutest girls.
3. Jessica...there is some serious talent here y'all
4. Nancy...been enjoying her blog and sensational work lately
5. Jenn...love her work and always is positive!
6. Liz...because she always has great ideas and style!
7. Jewlz...just look at her talent!

Halloween Eyeballs

2008-10-27T08:58:00.000-07:00

OK. So who doesn't like to eat yummy treats on Halloween? I know I do, especially when it is fun making them. Well, Jake and I love to make Halloween Eyeballs. Yep, they look like bloodshot eyeballs. And, they are super easy to make (oh, and delicious!).In the photo, they are not quite set, so after about a half an hour in the freezer, they will be ready to serve.

Here is the recipe:

1/2 C butter

1 1/2 C peanut butter

2 C confectioner's sugar

1 tbsp vanilla

white melting chocolate

crisco

chocolate chips

red gel

In a medium bowl, mix the butter, peanut butter, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla. Form into balls. Place on wax paper and put in freezer for at least 1/2 hour to firm. In small saucepan, mix about 1 TBSP Crisco with white melting chocolate over low heat. Stir constantly and until smooth. With a toothpick, dip the balls into th echocolate to coat. Place on wax paper. Remove toothpick and insert upside down chocolate hip into the hole form the toothpick. After they set a bit, make squiggly lines going from the chocolate chip to make the eyeballs look bloodshot. Place back into freezer to set. After they are set, take a wet paper towel and smooth out the edges from the white chocolate.

To serve, cover a plate with lettuce and place eyeballs on them. Enjoy!

Halloween Party!!!

2008-10-17T12:28:00.000-07:00

A Fanciful Twist is having a Halloween party tomorrow (Saturday, October 18)! How much fun. Check out her blog here, and then link to the other blogs that are also playing along with the party. There will be lots of fun.

For my part...I found these silly videos on you tube. Perhaps they will bring some fun Halloween memories from your past. I know I remember watching some of these.

Popeye's Halloween: click here

Donald Duck - Trick Or Treat - 1954: click here

A Scooby Doo Halloween: click here

Betty Poop Halloween Party: click here

Mickey Mouse Haunted House 1929: click here

Skeleton Dance: click here

I will try to have a tutorial on how to make chocolate peanut butter EYEBALLS...but, since I have to work, I might have to add that a little later for you.

Two More Digi LOs

2008-10-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

Remember my post with the pictures of the Elizabeth Gardens? Well, I created the following LO using those pictures plus a few others that I had taken on various other trips. Amanda Probst was the guest designer for the AMR crop this past weekend. She issued her own challenge for us. She asked us to lift one of her pages using one of her sketches. I chose a single page LO from her November sketches. Her LO was perfect for using many pictures on a single LO.

I also created this LO for the crop. I just love these pictures of Jake at Grandmas's house. His face and the way he is wearing the bathing cap is just adorable. And, I really think the orange stands out with the blue. What a cutie he is!

Hopefully I will have some more LOs finished soon. I'm sure with football and cub scouts and Halloween and fall festivals (and everything else, LOL), I'll have a lot of photo opportunities.

(Finally) Some New LOs!

2008-10-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

So, as many of you know, I have not been able to scrap lately. AMR had their monthly crop this weekend and I was not only able to participate in it, but also able to crop. Woo Hoo! Here are 3 of the LOs that I was able to finish so far. Each is a digi LO. Oh, and check back for (hopefully) some traditional LOs, too since the challenges are not due until wednesday. Maybe I can scrap tonight.

This first LO is of Jake. He always looks happy and has a great smile. The challenge was from the member spotlight (Sandy), who challenged us to take 3 colors from the photo and use them and only them in the LO. I chose black, tan, and white for my three colors. I really wanted the colors in this terrific photo to stand out.

This next LO was Debbie's challenge. She asked us to create a LO of a life altering event. I chose my arthritis and many surgeries. Since I didn't want to gross anyone out by photos of replacements or scars, I chose to make it simple and do the journaling on the back. There's been a lot of pain...(but I'm still walking). Isn't that the truth! And, you know, I'm happy that I can still function on my own. Somethings are a little difficult (and there is the constant pain), but I can still manage!

In this last LO, we were challenged by Heather to scrap our favorites. Funny how I love the color purple and didn't use that in my LO. Oh, and I just love older movies as you can see. Danny Kay, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney...well, you get the point. Maybe when I reach another milestone age I will change my mind. :)

I Found It!

2008-09-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

Woo Hoo. Three years ago, when I moved to the Outer Banks, I thought I lost a drive with a lot of my pictures on it. Sadly, many of them were just digital and only on the drive. Others I could scan and, though it would be some work, wouldn't be a problem. Well, way down in the bottom dark corner of my laptop bag was my drive. On the drive were many pictures of Andy as a baby and throughout his younger years that his mother gave me, various pictures of Jake, and pictures of different trips to places like Disney and Ireland. Here are some of my favorites that I found on the drive.

This one is of Andy and Jake catching the big fish in Oregon Inlet. It reminds me of this one of Andy when he was younger. It was taken somewhere in the OBX during a family trip.

I just love these of Jake playing in the ocean.

Love this one of Jake dancing at Disney. He used to get a very serious look on his face and squat down to dance. So cute!

I also love these ones from Disneyland.

Someone is Having a Birthday!

2008-09-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

My wonderfully talented scrapbooking friend, Chris, is having a birthday today! Check out Chris' blog. She has a really neat tutorial about typography. And she, of course, used lots of pictures for us visual types.

Chris has recently had some wonderful scrappy news. She has been published in various places, she was the guest designer for AMR, and she was named to the DT at The Scrappin' Supply Shack.

So, visit her blog and leave her some love. Then, have a piece of cake in honor of Chris.

A Few Tidbits

2008-09-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

Do you ever find a good book that makes you love the author again? Well, this summer, I refound Michael Palmer. Loving his books! I own two and then this summer, Dad gave me The First Patient and The Fifth Vial. Over the last month I've also read Miracle Cure. I'm now reading Critical Judgment and The Society which I borrowed from the local library. Have I said how much I love these books? I read pretty much any genre of book, but I love thrillers and mysteries. Michael Palmer writes medical thrillers. The thing that makes his books believable, and in my opinion great, is that he writes about things that could happen to any of us. His books prey on our fears. For instance, do you ever wonder what happens to the blood when you get bloodwork? Why do they need so many vials when a drop might surfice? What if they take an extra vial for their own purpose? The Fifth Vial uses "fear" as a scenerio in the book. Check out his books! Read for yourself. I'm sure your local library will be able to borrow it for you if they don't have one in their collection. My friend, Angie, gave me this blog award a few weeks ago. Thanks! I love getting them. Funny thing is that I need to give it to 7 people. But, as my scrappal, Chris (who also got one), mentioned, everyone already has one. So, I'll give this award to everyone whose blog I read and love and any new ones that I come across.

So, I haven't been blogging as often. Well, if you didn't know, we moved a few weeks ago. Love the house, hate to unpack. School started, as well as football. Jake also starts cubscouts tonight. I started teaching a class for the CC here. Love it! But, it is a night class, so I often come home exhausted and don't get much of anything else accomplished. I've also been interviewing for FT jobs. This week, I have a second interview with the director here. Wish me luck! And, fortunately, Andy's business is picking up. Even though it is still pretty hot here, people are thinking ahead and either buying fireplaces or servicing the ones they own. I've been trying to do the alphabet POTD at the AMR board, but haven't been able to scrapbook. Maybe some day soon I will be able to scrap. I have the mojo, but not the time. Here are a few of my alphabet pictures.

Homework...for Us?

2008-08-26T07:55:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the first day of school here in Dare County. Since we are moving into a new house, we enrolled Jake in the new school. He was a little nervous about making all new friends, but when we were completing his paperwork for the school transfer, he saw another kid he knew from his daycare. He was in a different teacher's class, but they were able to see each other during recess. Jake is officially a "First Flight Fyer" now, not a "Nags Head Wave Runner". It is hard to believe he is in 2nd grade!

I had to laugh when I picked him up from school. The first thing he told me about was the homework. He said he didn't have homework, we do. I said, "Wait a minute, I didn't go to school today, how did I get homework?" He laughed and said, "that's OK, Daddy has to do it with you, too. It is for both of you to do together." And let me tell you, he meant it. While Jake was playing with a neighborhood boy, I took out the paperwork, aka homework, and started filling out the humongous pile of forms. Jake noticed and made me wait until Andy got home. It took us over an hour to read everything and complete them all.

I hope we get an A.

Sunny

2008-08-20T12:01:00.001-07:00

Wow. It has been a busy summer for us. I haven't had much time for scrapping at all. Jake will be starting school in about a week, and I still need to get his supplies and a new backpack. Football starts soon, too. We are thrilled that he wants to play again this year. Some good news for me is that I will be teaching a class at the community college here for their compensatory education program. I am so excited about it! And, the best part is that I will be working with a wonderful group of kids.

Since I haven't been able to scrap lately, I decided to play around with digital scrapping while here at the store. I've never done digital scrapping or even hybrid and thought this was a blast. I will try it again.

So, here is "Sunny"! Amazing how huge he grew in such a short period. Andy and Jake documented it in steps along the way. They measured him and marked it on the post next to him.

Stalactite Anyone?

2008-08-13T11:57:00.000-07:00

We just came back from camping at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Campground in Luray, VA. We just love it there. Usually we go camping for Halloween, but since we've never used their pools or the waterslide, we decided to go during the summer. The views were just as spectacular and the rangers and campgrounds were just as awesome. While there we decided to visit the Luray Caverns. We try to do this every visit since Jake loves it and it is not only educational, but beautiful as well. Admission costs $19.00 for each adult and children ages 6-12 are just $9.00. But, they do offer some discounts and the entrance fee also includes the cost of admission to the Car and Carriage Caravan Museum as well. The caverns are temperature controlled at a comfortable 54 degrees and the guided tour takes about an hour to complete. The paved path is about 1 1/4 miles in length.

Stacpipe Organ (this is a working organ that uses the stalctites for their pipes!)

Pluto's Chasm

Totem Poles

Titania's Veil

Fried Eggs Formation

Wishing Well
Various Views

My pictures do not do this cave justice. The formations are just magnificent. To learn more about each of the named formations and about the caverns, check on discover the caverns on their website.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel Fishing

2008-07-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we met Andy's brother, John, on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel for lunch and fishing off the pier. The Bridge Tunnel is trulya remarkable structure. The first phase was completed in 1964, and an additional phase was completed in 1999, which opened the Bridge Tunnel to four lane traffic. Including the causeways, the span is 23 miles. It includes two tunnels and allows travelers to go from Virginia Beach, Virginia to the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including points north, like Maryland and Delaware. The total cost of building this was 450 million dollars which is entirely paid for by toll money costing each car $12.00 to cross.
We ate lunch in the restaurant that is located on the southern-most island of the Bridge Tunnel. The food is good and the restaurant, of course, has a spectacular view. Andrea didn't come, but John brought the kids, which is great for Jake. Afte we ate, the kids browsed the gift shop before we set out to the pier for fishing.

There are a lot of lookouts for you to see incoming ships and such.
Allison and I just hung out and played while the boys fished.

The boys really had fun. And, I'm sure Andy enjoyed seeing his brother.

The view from the pier is gorgeous!

Blog Award

2008-07-24T09:57:00.001-07:00

My friend, Angie, gave me this blog award! How sweet is that! I've never won a blog award before. Woo Hoo! Thanks Angie. BTW, check out Angie's blog here. She is a friend who also lives in North Carolina and has some very cool pictures, LOs, and cards on her blog. She is also on the design team for Lilac City Designs.

Here are the rules:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you've nominated.

And here are my picks:

Chrispea: check out her blog here. Chris is my scrappal. She is funny and kind and makes the best LOs. She is also a finalist for the guest designer spot at AMR. Wish her luck. She is so talented!

Elizabeth Kartchner: check out her blog here. This gal was the scrapbooker of the year over at CK. She is amazingly talented and has two of the cutest little girls. I enjoy reading her blog for inspiration. Love her music, too.

Nicole: Check out her blog here. Nicole is so funny! I love reading her blog. She always makes me laugh. Right now she is trying belly dancing. How fun is that! Not only does she crack me up, but she also makes really nice LOs and cards. She just had 5 published! Wow!

Kelli: check out her blog here. Kelli is one talented lady. She designs stamps and they are cute, too! She is the designer for Lilac City Designs. How cool! She also makes the best cards. Super talented.

Jessica: check out her blog here. This is another talented gal where I go for inspiration. Love reading her blog. Oh, and while you are visiting her blog, check out those gorgeous blue eyes on her baby! So sweet!

Kimmie and Corey: check out their challenge blog here. They have great challenges. Love it because it makes us use what we have and also use our scraps. I need the kick in the pants sometimes. Awesome!

Amber: check out her blog here. So sweet, this gal! She alters things. Ahe also likes to make cards and LOs. I love her work and enjoy reading her blog for inspiration.

Wow, Oh wow!

2008-07-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow! Two great things just happened to me, scrapbooking things, that is.

Over at the blog, Use Your Stash, I was picked to be their Guest Designer for December! Woo Hoo! Here is the link to that post : Announcement. This is a fun challenge blog. Kimmie and Corey challenge us to use our stash, which is great because so many of us scrappers like to buy supplies and don't use a lot of them. Anyway, being picked was such a thrill! Can't wait until I find out more of what is expected of me.

The second awesome scrapbooking honor is that I was one of the finalists over at All Moments Remembered to be their Guest Designer. Again, woo hoo! These ladies at AMR are just so amazingly talented. To be included as a finalist is such an honor. Here are the other finalist: Milli, Chrispea, drea, PattiM, Jessicamae, Jenn_A_scraps, Nicole, and Janobean. I've linked their blogs so you can see their amazing talent (sorry Jenn, I can't find a link for your blog). I'll keep you all posted when I learn more. So, good luck to everyone who is a finalist! And, if you do check out their blogs, leave a little love for them!

Corolla Lighthouse

2008-07-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

While Betsey was visiting, we took her to see the Corolla Lighthouse. It is gorgeous and the climb isn't so bad. There are apparently 214 steps inside the lighthouse with a number of landings on the way up to rest. If you've never been, you should visit this while here. Oh, and they do give group tours and hold weddings on the premises. That could be so pretty.

The spiral staircase is pretty. Andy noticed how as you go up, the stairway gets pretty narrow.

The inside has several landings on which to rest. Some have windows to look out. As you get higher, the view from the windows is pretty nice.

Betsey was having a great time. Ok, all of us were.

As you can see here, the view from the top is spectacular.

Some New LOs Fom AMR's Monthly Online Crop

2008-07-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the July online crop at All Moments Remembered. They had lots of great challenges, which was cool because many of them were using techniques I've never used before. Sadly I felt sick most of the weekend, but I managed to create 3 new LOs, 2 of which were for the challenges. If you are not a member of this board, check it out. These ladies are the most positive, and support one another nicely. Never an unkind word. They are a lot of fun. Oh, and while there, check out the store. Stcaey has the best customer service anywhere.

This LO was the non-challenge LO, "Fun at the Beach". Andy and Jake were visiting his brother and they dug these huge holes which the kids had to play in. The pictures are so silly, so I had to scrap them. Of course, my first reaction was of a typical mom, "OMG, what were you thinking? Lots of kids die each year in holes like this!"

This LO, "Outdoor Adventure", was for a challenge at the crop. The challenge was to glitter up some chipboard and use it on a card. I changed it a bit and used it on a tag on a LO. The photo was from Skyline Drive in Virginia. Gorgeous background! Noticing how horrible the glare is on that photo of the LO, sorry. Here is that photo I used. If you've never been to skyline drive, you should go. We camp every year at the Yogi Bear campsite near Luray Caverns. Check it out at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park.

This last LO I used pictures of me that Jake took one day at the store. I look really orange because Jake used Andy's iPhone and we have orange walls and bad lighting int he office. The challenge was to find a non-scrapping magazine ad and use the ad as inspiration for your LO.

Here is the ad.

And, here is my take, "@ Play"Since the glare on my photo is so bad (sorry), here is the last picture, it is the goofy one of me.

Aquarium Fun

2008-07-09T20:52:00.000-07:00

Betsey has since gone home. Our house seems so empty. Andy even mentioned that it is quiet and something is missing. She was a such a pleasure to have visit.

While she was here, we took her to see the North Carolina Aquarium in Roanoke Island. We have a membership, so we didn't have to pay, but I believe the cost is pretty inexpensive. Also, with our membership (that only cost $50/year for the family), we get a discount in the gift shop. The best part is that they have a reciprocal agreement with something like 200 other aquariums and zoos across the nation. That means that if you are visiting, check your membership to see if you can use it to visit the aquarium here.

Personally, I love the aquarium here. It is large enough to offer a good variety of fish, sharks, and other animals, but small enough for young children to really enjoy. They also have an outdoor area where the kids can dig for dinosaur bones (Jake loves this!) and other fun stuff.
The exhibits are great. I love Jake's expression in this photo of him looking at the octopus.

Jake saw this alligator and had to pose for this picture. He was so funny. Look at that face, LOL.

He used to hate touching the stingrays. His class went to the aquarium this year and somehow he came out loving the touch area. I guess peer pressure can be OK at times. ;)

Will the frog turn into a prince for Betsey? How many frogs will she have to kiss before one turns into a prince? Of course Jake would rather play with this frog. Kissing a frog? Gross!

Jake's favorite exhibit is the shark tank. He would stare for hours if I let him. Too bad I didn't get a good picture of a shark. They have about 5 huge sharks last time I counted.

In another area, they have a few animals including these turtles. Can you tell Jake took this picture? Do you see his reflection?

What color is your canvas?

2008-07-07T13:57:00.000-07:00

While Betsey was visiting, we did a lot of touring. But, we also did some fun stuff at the house. One day, Jake, Betsey, and I painted some canvases and added a few fun embellishments. Andy, well, let's just say he isn't so much into crafting. He played on his iPhone or went in the hottub or something while we did this. I love how they turned out.
This first picture is when we out to eat lunch one day. Betsey and I sat together and Jake went unser the table to sit next to Betsey.
for his canvas, Jake used a very cool picture from one summer years ago when he was just turning 4 yo. It is one of my favorite pictures of him. Betsey used a very cool picture from this year when her class went to Seaworld. She is kissing Dexter the Dolphin. So cute!I used a gorgeous picture of Jake when he was 3 and visiting Grandma and Grandad one summer.

Elizabethan Gardens

2008-07-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

We took Betsey to tour the Elizabethan Gardens. The gardens are filled with beautiful flowers, statues, and fountains. Located on Roanoke Island, the gardens also host many special events and programs, like plays, shows, holiday events, and various classes. The cost is $8.00 for adults, $5.00 for children ages 6-17, and free for children 5 and under. There are also group rates and tours available. It is pretty reasonable considering the gardens are so rich in history.

Jake was given a sheet where he had to search for various animals and bugs. Some of the animals were statues located throughout the grounds. He was funny because while he did look at the flowers and statues and such, he was really searching for these bugs and other insects on the sheet. Here is a statue of Virginia Dare. Born on August 18, 1587, she was the first child born in the new world.
Here is another statue in the gardens: Queen Elizabeth I. She is made of bronze and is the largest bronze statue of Queen Elizabeth I in the world.
The grounds are not too large, but we stopped a few times to rest.

Here is a photo of a water spot hidden in the Woodland & Wildlife/Children's Garden among amny cute statues for children, like The Bashful Girl and some gnomes.

Here are some photos of some of the gorgeous flowers you will see.
There are several fountains at the Elizabeth Gardens. All are gorgeous. Here is one of them.

Wright Brothers Memorial

2008-07-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

A good friend's daughter, Betsey, is visiting us for the week. We are taking her to some of the wonderful sights here. One of the first stops was the Wright Brothers Memorial. Located in Kill Devil Hills right on the bypass, it is easily accessible to all of the visitors here. The cost is very reasonable, too. Kids 15 and under are free and adults are only $4.00. Also, your pass is good for a week, so you can go back during your visit here. Jake, Betsey, and I had a great time walking around and listening to the park ranger discuss the origins of flight. Inside the museum are a real plane and glider that the Wright brothers used. Here is the museum from the outside. It looks rather small, but is really filled with a lot of interesting information. They have a bookstore/gift shop where you can purchase all sorts of great books, pens, pins, and posters. Also you can find toys and t-shirts.

The Monument looks wonderful on top of the hill. At night it stays lit and really is beautiful. The view from the momument is spectacular. You can see the ocean, too.

Outide, you can see the storage and living quarters the brothers used. Also, are the stone markers which mark the exact location of the first four successful attempts.
Also on the grounds are two newer buildings. They have more information about flight, flags fom every state, and one building has a show to watch.

Interestingly, when we were going to the car, an old plane started to land right in the field. I don't think it was planned, but as soon as it started to land it took off again. There is an airport right next to the grounds, so we thought it was odd.

A Beautiful Sunset and Some New LOs

2008-06-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

A couple of nights ago, I saw the most beautiful sunset. The colors were so pretty, lots of purple. Here is the picture I took. This is a LO of me when I was a baby. There is a Book of Me challenge at AMR. We will be doing the pages through the month of December. This one is due June 30th. I put a hidden journaling tag behind the larger picture of my mom and me. It reads in part, "Patricia Anne. I was born June 30, 1968 in Berlin West Germany to Charles and Norma. I already had a big sister, Debbie, who was almost two. Little did I know that Jacqui and Chuckie would soon follow. Daddy was in the Air Force." The rest is along those lines. I wasn't sure about the ribbon behind the large flower, but like how it turned out.
This LO is also from a challenge at AMR. Heather did a progressice challenge giving us different clues every day. After two weeks, we were to adhere it all and post to a specific thread. This is what I did. I used the photos from my brother's wedding. The challenge turned out harder than I thought, but I enjoyed it.

A Few New LOs

2008-06-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finally had a chance to scrapbook some. Which was great because I got some new goodies from AMR. Their June kit came and was fabulous! Here is some of the great stuff that came with the kit.
One of the ladies on the AMR board posted a challenge where we had to create a LO that used at least 4 photos, some of which had to be in color and some in black and white or sepia. We also had to use a journaling tag and at least 4 different types of embellishments. I used 21 pictures! Didn't think it was possible, but I did. I finally scrapped some of the pictures from my trip to Ireland in 2001 with the Arthritis Foundation. This will get me moving and scrapping the rest of the album.
I also created this LO of my grandmom. Wow, was she gorgeous! Anyway, she is now in her 80s, and it is hard to believe she has 6 children, 15 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren!

Another LO I did is of Jake, Daddy, and Tigger. Tigger was such a good sprt. Jake kept putting him inside the swimming ring with him and Tigger didn't whine at all. He was such a great pal. Andy had just gotten over chicken pox (yep!) and still was feeling pretty bad in this picture, but was a good sport as well.
Finally, I was able to do another LO of my sister, Jacqui, and her daughter (my niece), Courtney. This picture was taken at Chuckie's wedding. Hard to believe it has been 11 years! I've always loved this picture, but didn't know what to do with it.

Wild Wild West Birthday

2008-06-16T17:29:00.001-07:00

Jake had his Wild Wild West birthday party yesterday. The kids had a blast. Since it was Father's Day, in addition to the cake, we had cupcakes that said, "Happy Father's Day" for the fathers that gave up their day and came to the party.

The invites turned out great. I used parchment paper which I distressed with brown and black ink. I found a picture of Jake in a cowboy costume looking quite the outlaw, so I added that. I also added a few flourishes and used a cool cowboy font, called "bleeding cowboys". The picture just shows the top of the invite, the bottom had the info like time, place, etc on it.

For the goodie bags, I used a great fabric which I stuffed with some candy, toys, waterguns, stickers, candy. I tied them with a rope ribbon and added badges to the front.
The Pin the flower on the Cactus game turned out great. For the kids' flowers, I put their outlaw names on them. They were: "Jake the Kid", Annie Oakley, Jeffrey James", etc.

We had the panning for gold. I bought rocks from the dollar store and spray painted them gold and then a glitter gol. We burried them in the sand and gave the kids sand sifters to pan with.

We also did a shootout game. They used a watergun to shoot at the bottles. I bought waterguns for this, but they didn't put out enough power, so they had to used the super soaker.

The kids won various prizes for the games. I also put their outlaw names in my pink cowboy hat and had the youngest child pick a name for a door prize.
Jake got a lot of great cards and gifts. One of the kids ran to Jake's room and quickly made him a card. It said, "Your party was awsome!"

Two New Layouts

2008-06-13T19:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went to a crop at my Church. It is a small group of girls and we scrapbook and chat. I have a great time. I finished two LOs tonight since I had to come home pretty early because I still have a bunch of stuff to finish for Jake's birthday party on sunday.

The first LO is for my Dad for father's Day. Don't look Dad! The top picture is my Dad with my Grandmom. Isn't she gorgeous! The second picture is a recent picture of him. The colors are a little different than I usually use, but I like how it turned out.

The next is a LO using a single picture of the Grandkids taken at Christmas last year. Baby James was born this April, so I'll have to take another picture of all of them soon. We live all of the US, so it can be difficult getting all of them together. The red PP is by Cosmo Cricket. I love it! I layered two ribbons because they were so sheer and I wanted them to show a little better.

A Few New LOs

2008-06-10T06:18:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the June crop over at All Moments Remembered (AMR). They have one each month. It is great because, not only is it a lot of fun, but we also have until monday to finish the challenges. Even so, I was only able to complete two of the challenges. But, I love how they turned out!

This first one was for Tracy's sketch challenge. We were supposed to make a ayout using her sketch as inspiration. I actually won this challenge! OK, so it is totally random, but I still feel honored and excited, LOL.

Here's Tracy's June sketch:

And, here's my LO. The picture was taken at Woodloch in 2006.

The picture is of Jake and my nephew, Matt, during one of their games.

This one was for Tracy's layering challenge. The challenge was to use as many layers in your layout as you can, at least three. This one caught Heather's eye over at AMR for monday. I feel very honored for that! Thanks, Heather! For my layers, I used cardstock, PP, diecut paper (2), stickers, ribbon, rub-ons, bling, stickles (did I forget anything?).

Here's my LO. It uses various pictures of me from different ages.

I'm not usually in LOs since I'm taking all the pictures,

so when I decided to do one using a photo of me,

Jake picked out all of these.

Not exactly what I had in mind for a picture of me, but it works.

Beach fun and some new photos

2008-06-05T06:57:00.000-07:00

Jake's class walked to the beach with another first grade class for their end-of-year party. The school is in between the highways (the beach road and the main highway here), so the walk is not too long. They played putt putt and listened to the lifeguards speak about beach and water safety, but mainly they played in the sand. The kids had a lot of fun. Ok, so did I.

They just loved playing under the lifeguard stand. Isn't it great how the lifeguards still watched the beach and water even though all those kids were just under them squeeling and laughing?

They started out having a water balloon toss. The other class wore green shirts, our class wore yellow shirts. I thought it was so funny how most of the other class kept on their shirts while our class ran around in their swimsuits.

It quickly turned into a water balloon fight with parents, teachers, and the children.

I took this picture before the kids arrived. It looked a little overcast and had a great breeze. It later turned very hot with no breeze. The kids had fun anyway and we made sure to put sunscreen on them.

Teacher Gifts

2008-06-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

Jake's last day of school is this friday. Tomorrow is the end-of-year party for his class. They are walking to the beach and listening to the lifeguards talk about beach safety and having lunch. Then they are going to the putt putt place acrosss the street. So, I thought I'd finish the teachers' gifts and bring them there with us. Jake and I decided to make each of them a little mini book/gift card book using pictures of the class, pictures of the teachers, and some of his work. Jake picked out the colors for each of his teachers and helped me make these. I think they turned out pretty well. Each page has a pocket where we put a gift card to various local places.

This is the one we made for Mrs. Jones. The other for Mrs. Weaver is a different color scheme, but pretty much the same otherwise.

I just loved this picture story Jake made. It says, "I can make a difference by planting flawrs because It will mack the world pritee."

For those that might quick need ideas for teacher gifts, I made these for teacher appreciation week. They were very easy to make and looked great! They candy bars were on sale for a dollar at the grocery store and I used paper, ribbon, and bling from my stash.

Watermelons

2008-06-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

Jake and I made our fun watermelon cookies last night. Every time I ask him if he wants to make them, he makes a funny face to which I always say, "no silly, they look like watermelons, they don't taste like watermelons." We both giggle and then get started. Now, I do have a great sugar cookie recipe, but I always use the premade cookie dough that you would find in the dairy section of your grocery store when I am making them with children. It makes the recipe quicker for smaller attention spans. To make these you will need the following:

1 roll of premade sugar cookie dough

flour

mini chocolate chips

paste food coloring in red and green

water

circle cookie cutter

knife

To make the dough: in medium bowl, add the roll of cookie dough with a little bit of flour. I don't measure it but add just enough so that I can roll it out. Add red food coloring. Kneed together.

Flour your cutting board so it the dough doesn't stick. Roll it out with a rolling pin or just have the children flatten it with their hands. Sometimes they like this better. Use your circle cookie cutter and cut out several circles. Cut each in half.

Place on your baking sheet. Add mini chocolate chips. We probably use more than a watermelon has, but we love these chips. LOL

Bake according the the directions on package. (usually it is in a preheated 35o degree oven for 12 or so minutes)

While they are baking you can start the icing. I use a pretty shallow bowl like an oval vegetable bowl. Add confectioners sugar with a few teaspoons of water. Add your green food coloring. Stir. It should not be runny, but not thick like you would spread it either. You should play with the measurements, the kids will like to stir it anyway.

Let the cookies cool completely on cooling racks. After they cool, while holding the straight side of the cookie, roll the other end in the icing (see picture). This should end up looking like the rind of a watermelon. Place on wax paper to dry. After they dry, store in air-tight container lined with wax paper.

Texting fun

2008-05-29T07:51:00.001-07:00

Tuesday night I wasn't feeling well, so I decided to go lie down and read while Andy and Jake were watching TV. Andy taught Jake how to text me using his iPhone. Keep in mind that Jake is 6 and mostly his computer contact is at school. We don't have computer games at the house at all. We don't even have a gaming system. So, he thought it was pretty cool. Here is what transpired: (warning it is very long)

Jake: Hi Patti. What ya doin'? (Andy was helping him here)

me: Reading, you?

Jake: I'm sitting down watching Million Dollar Baby (um, OK)

me: Cool is it good?

me again: Do I hear Deadliest Catch?

Jake: yes

me: cool

Jake: Good night patti

me: Nighty night handsome!

me again: Oh, and enjoy the movie!

Jake: Thank you Patti

me: Night

Jake: I love you Patti

me: I love you, too!

me again: So now what are you watching? (I heard the TV go to the history channel and Andy going outside to the hot tub)

Jake: I dont no

me: Turn on something else then

Jake: No

me: So you like whatever is on then

Jake: Yes I do (by now I am thinking I need to teach him some abbreviations!)

me: Cool

Jake: OK (he has now started to text me and then run into my bedroom to see if I got it. Then watch me type and run back out to receive the text)

me: You are so funny!

Jake: Yes I am fuuny (and modest, too)

me: I'm a lucky girl to have such a handsome funny guy

Jake: Yaaae!!!! (He then runs in to see if he spelled it correctly which I wouldn't answer

me: Come lie down with me for a while (he is now on the bottom of my bed on his stomach)

Jake: No!!!!

me: You don't want to snuggle with me?

Jake: You have to much room on the bed

me: The better to snuggle with

Jake: I ooopioooooihvxcfff

me: Silly

Jake: What!!

me: You're a silly boy!

Jake: Oh yah well you Love Me

me: You know I do!

Jake: Yes :(

me: Why the sad face? (and who taught you that?)

Jake: Because you sed sumthing I did not no

me: What? You didn't know I love you?

Jake: You are silly!!!!

me: I get it from my son :)

Jake: What's whith the hapy faec (he is now next to me in the bed)

me: Because you make me smile and you make me happy

Jake: Darned!!!!

me: Huh?

Jake: can I lae whith you Patti.

me: Sure. Go get ready for bed and come right back. (we've been texting for over and hour and it is past his bedtime)

Jake: OK

Wild Wild West Winner and Some New Photos

2008-05-25T06:36:00.001-07:00

Thank you all for the terrific suggestions for our Wid Wild West Birthday party! We will use so many of them. And, I will make sure to post pictures as we make them.
Ok, for my (not so) secret method I put all the names into a bowl and stirred them up. Then had Jake choose a winner. The winner of my giveaway is Amber - Tink13. Congratulations! I will get these right out to you.

And, some beautiful photos to share:

Jake and I walked to the sound and were able to take some beautiful pictures around sunset.

I also was able to catch Andy and Jake in the hottub. We have the camper open Since Jake has wanted to go camping in our backyard on occasion lately.

Wild Wild West and a Giveaway

2008-05-22T06:58:00.000-07:00

Help! Jake's 7th (OMG!) birthday is just a few short weeks from now. We are planning a Wild Wild West party for him which will be held in our backyard.

So, I've planned the invitations - Wanted Posters - which need to go out soon. I'm working on them now. I have some ideas for the food, decorations, and fun, and I've bought a few decorations, but need your help with some crafty ideas.

So, please help me by adding a comment giving me your best ideas for the party. On saturday night, I will choose one lucky reader to receive some wonderful scrapbooking goodies. Here are some pictures of the yummy things you will receive. Thanks for your help!

Here is another picture: felt fusion (2: black scroll and orange flowers), white Signo pen, beach/summer word stickers, and Studio K letters. Cute!

Another shot: journalling tags, K&Co chipboard words, and rub-ons (some numbers and Bohemia "Summer". Again, cute!

A Sad Weekend

2008-05-19T05:46:00.000-07:00

Sadly, our beloved dog-friend, Briquette, passed away this weekend. She had been acting lethargic all week and didn't want her treats, but friday she wet inside. So,we planned to take her to the vet on monday. Saturday night she threw up in the middle of the night and had trouble walking. When Andy took her outside to go to the bathroom, she wouldn't get up off the deck. When I went outside, she seemed so frightened, almost sad. Andy took her to the emergency vet in Chesapeake (VA). They noticed a huge (grapefruit-sized) tumor on her stomach. She passd that night. My question is why didn't she show symptoms before this? I mean with that size tumor, the symptoms shouldn't have just showed up. She had been to the vet twice since New Year's, too, for normal check-ups. We miss her already. She was our friend.

Got a new bug!

2008-05-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

A Cuttlebug, that is! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Well, it came today. I am sitting at our store staring at it and awaiting the time I can go home and play with it. The minutes are just dragging along and I am not being very productive here at work. With it, I got the Textile and Stylized Flowers folders, and they are so pretty. They should make for some awesome LOs and other projects.

In the meantime, here is another LO I did recently. This is a great picture of my Great Grandfather (Pop Pop) and Great Grandmother (Ma Ma) with my Dad and uncles. The picture was taken about 1956. I think Pop Pop always looked like that. He passed away when he was 98 in 1988 and looked the same as he did in this picture.

A Few New Layouts and Photos

2008-05-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been working a lot, which is good. But, it doesn't leave a lot of time for fun. So, I thought I'd share a few more of my newest LOs and photos for the Photo a Day for May challenges I'm doing.

This first one is my favorite picture of Andy and me. The photo was taken at my good friend Karly's wedding, by Lisa, another friend. Check out Lisa's photography at http://lisagoodmanphoto.com/. She is so talented!

I don't usually use pink when making LOs with Andy in them, but even he liked this one.

Here is a photo of the Kill Devil Hills water tower. I liked how the sunrays beamed down on it.

Mailboxes at the Kill Devil Hills Post Office. Love the pattern they make. OK, where is that Cuttlebug?

I took this picture of Andy and Jake at the Elizabethan Gardens in Roanoke Island in the spring of 2003. Andy kept putting Jake's floppy hat on all of the statues. It was actually pretty silly. If you've never been to Roanoke Island, you should come visit. The history is so rich and there is quite a bit to do, even for little ones.

A Wonderful Mom's Day and a new LO, too

2008-05-12T07:11:00.000-07:00

What a great day! I had mentioned to Andy that I really only wanted a day to relax and scrap. So, he obliged. How great is that! They went fishing at the pier and brought home about 8 fish for us to eat. Yummy! We spent the morning together, eating breakfast and opening gifts. They left for a bit, then came back for dinner and dessert, which they took care of for me.

Jake gave me a homemade card and some presents that he made in school. Look at that great card! It reads:

Dear Mom

thank you for all of the things youve done for me.

I love you so much.

I am so glad you are my mom.

You are so nice

Love

Jake

My parents sent me a check and I used it to buy a cuttlebug and embossing dies. They should arrive early this week. Thanks Mom and Dad. I will definitely enjoy that.

During my free time, I was able to get a few LOs done. Here is one of them.

My parents eloped and only have this one picture from their wedding. I love how the LO turned out.

I hope all of you all had a great Mother's Day too!

Welcome to my blog!

2008-05-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

So I decided to take the plunge and try blogging. I'm hoping to make this a place where friends and family can come see what is going on in our slice of heaven in the Outer Banks. So, I'll be posting updates about the family. I will also be posting scrapbook LOs and projects, as well as some photographs. Right now I'm doing a Photo a Day for May challenge over at both ARM and Creating Keepsakes.

Here is a LO I made last night using some ugly paper for a challenge over at AMR (love this board!). The orange polka dot paper in the center of the LO is that paper. I think I dressed it up pretty well. Jake was a little afraid when he started to ride his bike. But, he did really well and enjoys it now.

Here is one of the photos from day 7. They are therapy balls. I liked how they were so colorful and how they reflected in the mirror. I took the photo using my cell phone (LOL) lying down on a mat doing some sort of exercise.

Here is a LO of my son from when he was about 13 months. What a cutie!

In honor of my beautiful, smart, and wonderful mom, here is a LO I made using a photo from when we lived in Berlin. I was about 1 (don't you just love the tongue hanging out of my mouth). Isn't my mom gorgeous! Happy Mother's Day! I love you.

Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there. I hope you have a wonderful and peaceful day.