The End of August Already?!

How can that BE?! Does it seem to you that time just keeps going faster and faster or is it just that you notice it more the older you get? Maybe it's both... Somehow this year seems to be slipping away from me!
I have been very busy this month with Scrapdango's week long End of Summer Blast crop and My Sketch World's month long ABC Summer Crop. My goal was to finish ALL of the ABC crop challenges (alternating LOs and cards each day of the month!). I wanted to finish them BEFORE tonight's deadline at midnight PST. Well, I DID IT!!! I got the last one finished and uploaded last night. I had SO much fun doing them all!
Below this post is a slideshow of all my creations from A to Z...
I'm looking forward to Scrapdango's "School's In" contest. You can find it here - http://scrapdango.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=64. We will be hosting weekly challenges and games for the month of September. You can win the grand prize of an awesome full Scrapdango kit! This is gonna be TONS of fun! Hope you'll join me!
We have some awesome great news to share in the family. I can't post it here yet... But it's VERY exciting!!!
Noah starts kindergarten in a week too! I can hardly believe he's old enough for that! He's really growing up fast! Man I miss him! :(
As is Molly who starts second grade this year! YIKES! She's SOOOOO tall now! And such an adorable little girl! We miss her so much!
Steve's business has picked up quite a bit thank God! It seems that it started early this year which is totally awesome! He has the oppotunity for some HUGE jobs in the future so we're praying they will really come through quickly!
Greg will be teaching 8th grade this year in Ketchikan. He's very excited! Jeff is doing well in Ketchikan after having a bit of surgery. Looks like he's got a nice job working with troubled teens lined up! Keeping our fingers crossed for that one. Mike had a small hand injury during fishing but he's doing well. Season was short, but they seem to have had a good year. Michele is doing well managing the store in Virginia Beach and being Mom to Noah. My parents are healthy and my brothers are also doing well and are happy. YAYAY!
Steve and I are looking forward to saving some money for Alaska. He's going try hard to get us up there this spring... We'll see... We are anxious to get this lodge thing started soon!
Meanwhile, I'll be scrapping away! Seems that's where God has me for now since every other door I've tried to open has shut tightly! So that's where I'm concentrating my focus. I have some fun things in the works for this blog but they're not ready for reveal yet... Keep checking back because I'm hoping to at least give hints very soon!
Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day! Happy Scrapping!

19 Years of Wedded Bliss!

Today my husband Steve and I are celebrating our 19th anniversary! When we met almost 20 years ago he was a commercial fisherman from Alaska spending the winter with friends and visiting his sons who lived with their mom. I was a secretary living as a single mom struggling to get by both emotionally and financially. My roommate was the son of Steve's friends. My roommate, Chris, worked nights as a bouncer in the Peppermint Lounge where I hung out with my girlfriends on weekends when my daughter was at her dad's. Steve's dad and Chris's dad had been co-workers in the Forest Service 20 years before and had kept up the friendship through the years. So when Steve's ex-wife remarried and moved to DC, Steve would come and spend winters with Chris's dad and help take care of the cows on the farm in the outer suburbs. Without God's intervention in this relationship, we would never have met!
One night in late October 1999 Chris asked if my friends and I could help entertain his friend who was coming to "The Lounge" as we called it. Of course, we always did stuff like that and that night I met this wonderful man. We went out on our first date a few nights later and the rest as they say is history.
By the time Steve was scheduled to return to Alaska for fishing season we were in love. He bought me a ticket to come back with him for a visit to Ketchikan in Southeast Alaska. At the end of my visit I was dreading going home and living life without this wonderful man whom God had brought into my life. Little did I know that Steve had a plan!
The night before I was to leave we went out to dinner and dancing. It was quite cold that night but we braved it and went to a beautiful place for dinner (that's now a tourist shop!). Then we went to a fun bar and it was crowded and noisy. So we went back to the restaurant where there was a live band. I was watching the band waiting for my drink to arrive and when I turned around I saw the ring in the box on the table in front of me. I literally burst into tears! HEHE! I had NO idea he was going to ask me!
I went home and spent some time preparing for the 4,000 mile move from Virginia to Alaska. My 9 1/2 year old daughter loved Steve and wanted to come too. So I waited from March until June so that she could finish school. Then we packed our belongings and drove just the two of us all the way! We stopped at Mount Rushmore, The Badlands, Yosemite and lots of other places along the way. Our absolute favorite was Tekarra Lodge in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Finally we arrived at Prince Rupert, British Columbia where we caught the Alaska Marine Highway ferry which would take us the 6 hour run over to Ketchikan.
We spent 5 years up there before we moved to the Tampa, Florida area. Steve's boys had been moved again and we needed a change since the bottom had dropped out of the fishing industry. We have since lived in Jacksonville, Florida; Calistoga, California; and finally to Deerfield Beach, Florida about 11 years ago. While we like it here, we are feeling the draw back to the simpler life in Alaska. And thus our dreams and plans to build a family-oriented fishing lodge near Ketchikan. We hope to begin this journey sometime next year.
We have been through many trials and tribulations. We have remodeled 3 homes. We have raised our children - he has three boys. We now have two grandchildren - Molly is 7 and Noah is 5. We have a wonderful home and lots of friends all over the world. And we're still very much in love! It's been a great life. All because God brought two men together in the Forest Service in Kentucky almost 40 years ago! Isn't that amazing!?!
So on this night of our anniversary I want to publicly say THANK YOU to God for bringing us together. I would do it all again! The good and the bad. The fun and the not so fun. The moves from one end of the country to the other and back again. It was all WELL WORTH IT! And it's all because we truly, truly love and respect each other. Man I'm blessed! :)

Scrapdango August Sugar Kit Reveal !

It's finally reveal day!!!!! I've had SOOOOOOOO much fun with this kit! It features Basic Grey's Lemonade line. Now if you know me well, you know that BG is one of my all time fav manufacturers so this was just like scrappy heaven for me! Enjoy!

First is a LO about my dog Zoe a few years before she died. The pic and title say it all! I used commas and periods for decorations on this page. Can you see them?

Next is a layout about my very first orchid that is now 10 years old! I have always loved the "clustery" style of pages but have never really tried it on my own without a sketch. I love how this one turned out! I added some pieces from previous Scrapdango kits and some ribbon and a few of my own embellies to create the cluster...

Next is a two-pager about the hats my Mom used to wear when I was growing up. Unfortunately the pics aren't digi and the hats were thrown out shortly after I took these pictures. But I wanted to scrap about them anyway. :)


Next up is another 2-pager about a weekend crop I went to a few years ago. I used my Coluzzle to create the circle pattern in the background...


And next some old B&W pics of my brothers, some friends and I during the summers of the 1950s and 1960s. I had great fun with this one! I scanned the backs of the photos where my Mom had written the date, names and place and then printed the scan onto transparency paper. Then I drew arrows to the picture with a fine point Sharpie pen.


Instead of an altered project this month I decided to make some cards. First is a "Hi" card based on a Lucy Chesna sketch (My Sketch World). It is not one of my better attempts. I'm still working at this card thing...

And last but not least is another card for my DH on our anniversary this Sunday. I scraplifted my friend Angele's birthday card that she posted for the SD pre-crop card challenge. This one turned out better...

Thanks for looking everyone! If you are interested in learning more about the Scrapdango kits go to . They are PACKED full of fun goodies and I always have leftovers! ;)
Happy Scrapping!

Sneak Peek!

The reveal for the yummilicious Scrapdango Sugar Kit is tomorrow but I can't resist giving you a bit of a sneak peek at my creations! I have completed three 2-page LOs and 2 single page LOs. I plan to do at least 2 cards and have another single page LO planned. And would you believe that even with all that I STILL have at least 3 full sheets of cardstock and 2 full sheets of patterned paper plus some ribbon, brads, sticker letters, glittery Thicker letters, some chipboard embellies, a flower and a butterfly left over?! I'm telling you these Scrapdango kits totally ROCK! You can check them out at .
Now for your peeks...






The butterfly is a pink mirror!!! (Didn't scan very well did it?)
So check back tomorrow afternoon and you can see the full pages!
Meanwhile, Happy Scrapping!

YUMMYLICIOUS Kit!

Isn't it just GORGEOUS?! This is Scrapdango's August Sugar kit. I am playing with it today and the reveal will be soon! Carrie and Dana put together such AWESOME kits! They also have a Spice kit every month. Here's a sneak peek at this month's Spice kit:


So be on the lookout for some yummilicious layouts arriving soon! Happy Scrapping!

Still More Challenges to Share!

I was hoping to get really scrappy this weekend. But unfortunately DH and I both got some weird bug (me on Friday night and DH yesterday afternoon) which has knocked us both down for a couple of days with fever and chills. UGH! So I still have more Scrapdango challenges and more My Sketch World challenges that I have planned to do... And TONS and TONS of gallery praise to leave for everyone! My there's some awesome eye candy and inspiration in the SD and MSW galleries!!!

So here's what I've done so far that I haven't shared yet... I left off with MSW's Alphabet Challenge where we're alternating between layouts and cards using letters of the alphabet for inspiration. I've shared through the letter I. The next was a card challenge - "J is for Jewels". I had so much fun creating the first card and had supplies left over so I ended up creating another one! Here they are:




Then came a layout challenge - "K is for Kiss". I pulled out some old pics of my DH's brother and sister-in-law on their wedding day and created this layout...


Next was another card challenge - "L is for Lime Green and Lace" - which really stumped me until I saw the awesome cards the MSW ladies made! And again, I made two cards because I guess the card mojo was flowing pretty strongly! Hehe!


There are still lots of challenges I want to do for the SD Last Summer Blast Crop - Like Kerryn's Puzzle Piece Challenge, Alyssa's Shaped Card Challenge, Keely's Dr. Seuss Challenge and more. There's still time as the deadline is midnight ET tonight!
And of course, MSW's continuing their ABC Summer Crop until the end of August... Sundays are "rest days" so I'm only two challenges behind.... One layout challenge, "M is for Movies", and one card challenge, "N is for Numbers". I think I can catch up! :)
Watch for MSW's August Sketch Reveal coming soon! I have an AWESOME LO to share! And SD is planning a REALLY COOL school-related challenges for the month of September! Scrappy school that is! TONS of fun!
Meanwhile, HAPPY SCRAPPING and thanks for all the love ladies!

More Challenges to Share!

With two crops going on at once it's been difficult to keep up with them all! First are the Scrapdango challenges.
Alyssa challenged us to use bright colors - no neutrals allowed. These pictures of a rainbow over the Florida Turnpike were perfect!!! I used my Cricut and the Printing Press font on this page with some VERY OLD Club Scrap paper.

Our Guest Design Team Member, Marielle, challenged us to cover some chipboard. So I used a frame I've had laying around here for awhile and covered it with some patterned paper...

And I had SO much fun with Julie's beautiful sketch! This is one of my all time fav pictures of Molly. Once we got the little frog out of the hammock she and Grampa had great fun in it!

I still have several challenges on SD that I want to do. Like Alyssa's shaped card challenge. And Kerryn's Puzzle Piece challenge.

Plus there's an alphabet letter a day alternating between cards and layouts on My Sketch World's forum. I have a bit of catching up to do but I'm done up to the letter I. Here's my latest creations...
H was for Happy Birthday and was a card challenge. So I pulled out some REALLY old stash and a bottle of my fav Stickles and made this card...

I was for Ink and was a layout challenge to "ink it up". I created this two page layout of Molly's visit. There's 25 pictures on these two pages! Gotta love it!


And finally, somewhere in between it all I threw this layout together for my own album about Mom and Dad's 60th anniversary party in January 2008. It took awhile to design this one. But I love the results! :)



And now I'm off to do some more scrapping in between laundry loads and errands. Have a wonderfully scrappy day ladies!

I Wasn't Just Dreaming Was I?!

I wrote this email to the very special person who nominated me for the SNR blog award posted below. As I finished writing it, I thought "There are others out there who need to hear this too..." So I am posting it here as well. This is to all my online and IRL scrappy friends out there. I may not keep in touch with you as much as I'd like but I'm always thinking of you and praying for all of you. Here's my message to all of you.
"You have NO IDEA what great timing this is!!! It just seems like every day just brings another thing that has to be dealt with and we just aren't doing very well with it right now. We really want to build this lodge in Alaska but we didn't get out of this house in time. So now we've got this huge dream which is TOTALLY do-able and no way of making it happen financially. I have never had trouble finding a job in my entire life and now I can't even get past the first interviews and very lucky to get that far. I'm so totally bored here - even with my scrappy stuff. I miss my grandkids and my DD so much. It's been two years since Michele and Noah moved back to Virginia. And my poor DH is totally stressed. It's been a really tough year. Although suddenly this week he's back in the feast mode and things are going well so far... But we have no idea how long it will last.
So this morning I was gonna totally pamper myself today with a nice long, hot shower, do a good conditioning hair wash, etc. And the first thing that happens is the dog starts scratching really badly and I find a HUGE flea on him. So needless to say that's started a whole bunch of serious cleaning, etc. So much for the pampering day.
I'm so sorry to unload on you. I just wanted you to know how much this award has meant to me. I think I'd be totally bonkers today and just a blithering blob of mush if it weren't for this award and my scrappy friends!!! Thanks for keeping me sane!!! I'm sure DH and Baxter appreciate it too. :)
Happy Scrapping ladies!!! I'm off to finish cleaning and de-flea-ing. YUCKY POO!!!

OH MY GOSH!!!!! CHECK THIS OUT!!!

I've been having a really bad few days lately. Just stuff going on and feeling icky as a result. So when I checked my emails tonight I was quite honored and surprised to read the following:

Hi Ginni

The administration at SNR asked each staff member to nominate a few blogs that we really liked. I nominated yours and am thrilled to tell you that the staff has approved it for this award!! Here is their statement:

"Congratulations, Scrapbook News and Review, the leading paper crafting magazine on the internet, has noticed and is impressed by your blog. We appreciate the time, effort and creativity that you share with the crafting world and to show our approval, we've included this unique blog award for you to proudly display.

This award is possible only if you've been nominated by our staff or readers and have been approved by our editors. We encourage you to display it proudly and link it back to Scrapbook News and Review Magazine. We thank you for all you've given to the blogging world and encourage you to keep doing so. We'll keep watching and enjoying."

Congratulations again!!"

OH MY GOSH!!!!!! I had to read it again to make sure it was really real! And THEN I opened this totally awesome graphic that I get to add to my blog!!!


OH MY GOSH!!!!! Scrapbook News and Review is my FAV online magazine - and not just because they've published my work so much. It's a totally awesome e-zine with tons of inspiration and information in it. I totally encourage you to check them out and subscribe! Check out my layout in the Dance section too!

Thanks sooooooooo much SNR! I am totally humbled, honored and happy to display this graphic!

Let the Serious Scrapping Begin!

Scrapdango's Last Summer Blast crop started today. The DT has posted some really AWESOME challenges! I've been able to finish one so far, but hope to get the rest done soon. Had to get errands outta the way first. :) So here's my first completed challenge to make a card using yellow or orange AND blue or green as prominent colors PLUS at least one flower, some fussy cutting and some doodling. Here's what I came up with...



I'm also continuing with the My Sketch World monthlong crop. I completed three more challenges last night
Here's what I've done since my last post -
For the B is for Blue, Buttons and Borders I used some REALLY old stash and made this cute Thinking of You card...


E is for Event Layout challenge I grabbed some old pics of my daughter Michele and created a simple page for her 2nd birthday party at her babysitters...


For the F is for Four Flowers card challenge I used some premade chipboard flowers and created this Thank You card...


For the G is for Glitter challenge I did a LO about Molly and I making paper flowers while she was here...

ABC Summer Crop at My Sketch World

Each day there's a new challenge at MSW! It's been so much fun so far! They're based on the alphabet and we're up to the letter F so far. My A is for Ad Challenge is the Ice Cream Thief layout posted in a prior post. B is for Blue, Buttons and Borders and was a card challenge. I will post it in a few days... C was a color challenge - orange, white and blue. Here's my creation for that one. It's a picture Noah drew.


D was for distressing. We were to use two different types of distressing on a card. I used inking and sanding on this card for my brother who just had surgery today.


I still have to do the E for Event layout and F for Four Flowers card. This is FUN! If you're a scrapbooker or a cardmaker you should check out all the fun at http://mysketchworld.s2.bizhat.com

A Very Scrappy Day!

Well, the MSW ABC Summer Crop is in full swing at the My Sketch World forums! Three challenges and two games have already been posted! I am hosting a countdown game and there's also a bingo game going on. More games and challenges arrive daily! It's so much fun! And the group of ladies there are just wonderful!
This weekend starts the Scrapdango Last Summer Blast Crop. I'm hosting a really FUN challenge there beginning on Saturday. It's a busy month for me! :)
I've done 4 layouts and a card since Saturday morning. The card is still drying so I'll post it another day. Meanwhile, here's my layouts so far!
First up is "Big Grasshopper". We saw this grasshopper on our way back from Naples a couple of months ago. Steve was just fascinated with its size (about 2" long and 1" tall!) So I grabbed the camera and started snapping pictures!


Next is "Hidden Fruit". Steve and I were shocked to see this big bundle of bananas! We had no idea they were there or how long they'd been there! We felt like God was speaking to us saying that we have fruit we didn't know about. So we're praying for God's revelation! :)


Next is my entry for Nicole's Ad Challenge on My Sketch World. These are pics of Noah "stealing" ice cream.


And finally is "Frog Dinosaur". Noah drew this picture last year. Michele and I both think it should be turned around 180 and looks like a dead bunny. But Noah insists that this is right side up and that it's a frog dinosaur. What a vivid imagination! :)

Come and join me on these fun sites! I'd love to see you there! :)

It's SCRAPPY TIME!!!!

The fun has begun! I posted a countdown challenge this morning. And Nicole posted an awesome ad challenge too! I'm off to work on that layout now... Hope to see you there!

Happy Scrapping!

MSW LAYOUT REVEALED!

Today is reveal day! And if you guessed EASTER for the subject you were RIGHT!!! :) The pictures are of me on several Easter days in the 1950s. I used some VERY old Making Memories paper stash and some old Close To My Heart stickers as well. Can't WAIT to share next month's layout with you! ;)