I'm So Proud of Myself!

I got brave today and created a new header for my blog!! It's a little bit big and it needs to be moved over to the left a bit, but I dunno how to move it. Can anyone tell me? I've never done anything like this before. It was so EASY! Thanks to all my scrappy friends who have been encouraging me and who have been giving all those great PSE instructions! :)
Yes, I've had a lot of time on my hands lately. With Steve gone all weekend last weekend and then coming home sick and with Zoe gone, I've been rattling around here lost. So I've been scrapping a lot. Lately I've been working on travel photos. I had collected a ton of travel-related papers and embellies over the past couple of years and so I decided it was time to DO something with all that stuff! So here's my latest works.
First is a 4-pager about a weekend trip my parents made in 1989. They drove over to the Chesapeake Bay and went to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. My Uncle Foster and his girlfriend joined them for the first day. Mom hadn't seen her brother in many years and after his 3 tours in Vietnam she was quite happy to have him home safe and sound. Sadly it was their last time together as within a year he would be dead.




And finally a slideshow in the post below. My parents went to Salt Lake City, Utah in 2001 to visit my brother who lived there at the time. These are their pictures and the layouts I made for their album. There's a blank page where they can write their own notes and comments towards the end. Thanks for looking and Happy Scrapping!

2001 Utah Trip LOs

My Latest Work

I haven't posted any layouts recently so thought I'd post my most recent ones today.
First are three layouts I did at a class taught by Tricia Ladouceur. She is an AWESOME teacher and works for My Mind's Eye, Prima and a couple of other companies. Her class kits are full of goodies as you can see. I only added a bit of ink to them! All of the materials are from the My Mind's Eye "Laundry List" line. These are from her "Something Sketchy" class.
First are some random pictures of my grandson, Noah.


Next are some pics of my granddaughter Molly opening and enjoying her 7th birthday presents from Steve and I.


And finally, Noah and a friend "playing work". They were taking a break and sleeping. Hehe!


Next is a layout I did of some pictures taken in 1986 of Skyline Drive in Virginia. That's me in the top left photo. I USED to be skinny! Hehe!

And a two pager about Noah's love of SpongeBob. The journaling tells a story about how the power went out just before the end of a new show and how upset Noah was. His final comment to his mom was "I know! I'll go watch it on the OTHER TV!" What a cutie pie he is! :)


Finally, some pages about our original move 15 years ago from Alaska to the Tampa, Florida area. We stopped in Zion National Park in Utah on the way. It was AWESOME! I highly recommend visiting this National treasure!




Plus I've just completed 14 VERY simple pages for my parents of their trip in 2001 to Salt Lake City, Utah to visit my brother who lived there at the time. Some beautiful scenery which maybe I'll share another day.
Thanks for looking and Happy Scrapping!

Farewell to My Faithful Companion

It's a very, very sad day here today. My 14 year old dog, Zoe, died today. She suddenly got sick a few days ago and we discovered her liver was in bad shape. We tried treating her, but she hadn't eaten in 4 days and was getting weaker and weaker. So we had to put her to sleep this morning.
Zoe was my faithful companion through many, many emotional times in my life. We got her in Lutz, Florida when she was just a puppy. My daughter had decided to move to Maryland to live with her dad and Steve was working shifts at a factory because it was the only job he could find. She was my emotional crutch as I dealt with my only child not being home. A couple of months later she apparently got hold of a cane toad (very poisonous!) and nearly died. But somehow she suddenly healed up and never was sick another day in her life until 3 days ago.
She was there with me when I went through my back injury. The last 3 months before my surgery, she would climb up on the bed and put her back up against mine in just the spot that hurt the most. She would lay there until I moved. She was there when we went through lots of really tough years - always wagging her tail ready to chase the tennis ball or the Frisbee. Steve used to say "White dogs can't jump you know." But boy could she run!!!
She hated water, but loved the beach. She also loved peanut butter, popcorn, oranges, bananas and dry-roasted almonds. Every night Steve would take her around the corner of the yard to check on the mango tree. She never ran away even though she wasn't leashed. Most of all she loved road trips! Once at a VERY large gas station somewhere out west she tracked Steve from the car to the bathroom in the back of the property! Her nose was always sniffing the ground or the air and her ears were always up. Even in death she looked as alert as ever - ears straight up and eyes wide open.
It's the first time Steve or I have ever had to put an animal down. It wasn't very easy at all. But it was quite peaceful (except for my loud tears). We had a great veterinary hospital. I can't thank them enough for the TLC they offered us over the past 10 years.
So it's farewell to my faithful companion. I'll never forget you Zoe. You'll never be replaced no matter how many pets I may have in the future. You'll always be my pretty baby Zoe girl, the best doggie in the whole wide world. Thank you God for letting her be a part of my life.

Coffee Mug

My husband and I were visiting friends when suddenly the sound of a coffee mug hitting a ceramic tile floor and shattering interrupted our conversations. For some reason Steve felt responsible so he promised we'd buy a new one. You'd think that living in a beach town we could find a cute coffee mug that wasn't stupid or too silly. NOT! Finally Steve said "I want one that says 'Coffee Snob' on it since he likes all those exotic coffees." About that time I looked up and there was this clear mug staring at me. I thought "STAZ-ON!!!" (For those non-scrappers/stampers out there it's a permanent ink that doesn't come off.) So for $3.50 we bought the mug. We figured we had everything to gain and nothing to lose. The result turned out pretty cute I think! Now I don't know if it will last through the dishwasher or how many hand washes it will make it through, but I know that our friend will love it and will take very good care of it! Especially when talking with his hands! :)

This is the front.

Here's the back side. It's a stamp of a cup of coffee with a heart for steam.

Remembering 9/11

Someone on the Scrapdango board asked what we were doing on 9/11. Here's my response.

We had just moved into our home a month before. Steve got up that morning just after the first plane hit and woke me up. I came into the living room just before the second plane hit. I was really, really sick that day and didn't even realize when the Pentagon was hit that my family could have been involved until my Dad called later. I grew up in a suburb of DC and had worked just across the river from the Pentagon. Many of the people I worked with (including my ex-husband) went to the Pentagon for meetings on a regular basis. Steve had two cousins that were stationed there too. Thankfully none were even there when it happened. That afternoon my Dad called and told me that they had heard the plane flying low and had felt the impact. He worked less than 2 miles from the Pentagon. The plane had flown over my mother's office and over their house as well. So scary!!

In December my husband and I went up to Virginia for Christmas and we made a special effort to go to the Pentagon. It was bitterly cold and extremely windy but we went anyway. You couldn't get very close and the repairs were well underway. But there's a hill on one side where a small memorial had been set up near an area for public parking. In the middle of the top of the hill stood this veteran about our age. He was holding a flag pole and the flag was straight out because of the wind. It was so cold that the tears in my eyes were icing up. But he just stood there not moving and not saying a word. I couldn't stay! I am in tears now just typing this. It was one of the most moving experiences of my life.

Eventually I decided I wanted to do a layout of my pictures and a couple that Dad had taken just after it happened. That layout turned into a 20 page album! I don't have it posted anywhere but I should have done it for today's memorial.

God bless those who serve this country and who have given their lives in its defense. God bless our leaders (whether we agree with them or not) for their service as well. And God bless those who were injured or died or affected by those terrible events that day.

God bless YOU because you are my friend!

Blog Challenges

This is the 9/1 Challenge from Scrapdango: "I would like everyone to blog about the last thing that made you laugh!! The real belly laugh kind. The tears rolling down your face laugh!! Was it a movie or tv show? Was it your kids saying or doing something silly? Was it something you said or did? Was it a sudden memory that snuck into your head??"

Steve was purchasing some beer at the local grocery store. This particular store is notorious for bad service and stupid cashiers. So when they instituted a "card everyone no matter what" policy a few weeks ago, Steve was quite irritated. On this particular night he had worked until almost 8 PM and was tired, hungry and crabby. The stores were full of people stocking up for the impending Hurricane Ike and everyone was totally stressed out. As the clerk rang him up, she asked for his ID. We are grandparents and he is quite gray and obviously over 21. So he very sarcastically asked the clerk "Will my AARP card work?" He said everyone around him including the other clerks cracked up laughing. Meanwhile, the clerk who was ringing him up said "I'll have to ask my manager." Bwahahahahah!!! I said "Honey, you were the hurricane comic relief!"

My challenge to you is to blog about fall. Officially, fall doesn't start until the 22nd but for all intents and purposes, fall has begun with the start of school (unless you live on the other side of the world like Kerryn where spring is just starting). Even though it has been hot here the past few days, there are so many signs of fall. The leaves are starting to turn; even with the warm days, the nights are much cooler; all the fall produce (can you say ZUCHINI!); of course, children going to school; halloween costumes are in the stores, etc.


Living in South Florida means that fall has a totally different meaning than in most areas. It's never a good time for us. Fall means that hurricane season is in full swing and only 1/2 over. Fall means that the humidity is the highest and the heat is as well. Fall means that the kids have to go back to school in the middle of August. (No one can quite figure out why!) Fall also means that soon the dreaded but loved snowbirds will be returning. We hate them because they clog our roads and you can't get a seat in a decent restaurant without a long wait. We love them because they boost our economy and keep a lot of people working. But fall also means that soon the weather will be cooling off. That means it will actually be nice at the beach. That means we can turn off the a/c and open the windows! And for Steve and I, it also means that busy season is here and we'd better start getting ready for the dreaded taxes. I used to love fall in the north. The beautiful colors, the crisp clean air. Then the cold weather would come and I'd wish it were warm again. I Alaska it meant that fishing season was almost over and Steve would be home more and more. It also meant strong storms and very short days with darkness falling around 4 PM and light coming around 9 AM. So I'll take the Florida fall anyday! We get storms here too. And I can always go visit the trees! ;)

Guest Bathroom Before and After Pics!

Well, we finally finished it!

So here's the before pics:
This is the view standing in the doorway. The white on the walls is dimpled plastic or formica. It was hard to clean as well as ugly!


This is a picture of what the walls looked like before. Steve got creative with the gold spray paint and black paint trying to cover up the ugly pea green soup paint color they'd used. :)


This is the light fixture over the huge mirror before. There was a medicine chest in there that stuck out over the sink before. Space is so tight in here that we took that out.


And here's the after pics! We have ordered the mirror doors for the medicine cabinet Steve made himself. And then we have to figure out what color to put in for a curtain, towels and a small rug. Any suggestions out there? We don't mind bright colors! :)

Honor a Child

My friend Tammy Malone has a challenge posted on her blog. (You can access it by going to Life on Possum Trot in my fav blogs section.) The challenge is to use her sketch to create a layout honoring a child or children. She lost a son to cancer several years ago. You can read Michael's story on her blog.

Here's the sketch:

So I created this layout about my two grandchildren - Molly and Noah. This picture was taken on December 23, 2007. In hindsight, I would do several things differently on this layout (like typing the journaling over the door and THEN printing the picture!), but I don't often change layouts once I've completed them. And I can't get any more of most of the items I used here. So this will have to do.


The journaling on the door reads "Notice all the spinning tops all over the floor! And that's Greg sitting with his nerf gun ready for his next victim." The printed journaling reads "Greg, Jeff, Mike and Molly drove down from St. Pete for a few hours. They could only stay until the wee hours of the morning because they had an appointment to get their picture taken the next day. It was to be their Mom’s last Christmas and they wanted to make it special for her. She was dying of breast cancer. It was also the first Christmas that all of our children were in one place at the same time. So we had great fun watching the boys shooting each other with the Nerf guns. We had great fun watching Molly and Noah open their early Santa gifts and we had great fun just being a family and forgetting about our troubles for a few hours. I took a ton of pictures, but this one is one of my favs because Santa brought Molly something she hadn’t told anyone that she wanted! She was SO excited!" There's a bunch more pictures that go with the events this night, but they'll have to go on another LO! And I'm STILL finding tops, nerf bullets and even a gun in the house 8 months later! :) Amazing what you find when you move a book or couch!

Tammy, thank you for an awesome sketch to work with! God bless you!

Scrappy Distraction

This is what I did when I got too stressed about the hurricane. It's a total scraplift of a layout that was on the cover of the Close to My Heart catalog in Summer 2007.

What a sunset!!

Yesterday we realized that we are definitely in the cone for Hurricane Ike. So the major storm preps are underway here in South Florida. Steve and I have an evacuation plan in place and will leave in plenty of time since we are in an area where if an 8 foot storm surge came, we'd start flooding. If it grew to 20 feet, our whole house would be underwater. Since Ike's coming from the east, we have to be ready to grab and run. Needless to say, we're keeping a wary eye on the weather! I've found www.weatherunderground.com to be a wealth of expert information that has been an invaluable help to us!

Anyway, my time the past 24 hours has mostly been spent putting scrapbooks and pictures and non-essential, non-replaceable items into containers which can be put into the van or car and taken with us when/if we have to leave. I wanted to do a dry run (like a fire drill) to see if I had enough containers and to see what would fit anyway, so now's as good a time as any. We've been through 8 years of hurricane seasons and this is the only time I've even had to get this serious about evac plans so I think we're doing pretty good. And I'm not panicking either! YET..... :)

So yesterday as I was checking out the weather reports on the net, I noticed the sky had a funny color to it. Then my fence turned pink from the reflection and I said "Steve, the sky is PINK!" I grabbed my camera and ran to the driveway. By the time I got there, the sky was orange and THIS is what we saw! WOW!!



There's always a silver lining in everything you know. And this is one of the beauties of tropical storms and hurricanes. We get the most awesome sunsets you ever saw! This one is due to TS Hanna which missed us but shared some of her feeder bands with us.

So my friends, think of me as you're doing your thing this weekend. We may not have anything, or we could be in a New Orleans situation. Only God knows. But one thing's for sure. Steve and I will be as ready as we possibly can be!