Believe

This photos was part of the batch for the Christmas morning two page layout...but it was such a cute picture of Allison trying on her new hat and mittens from Santa...well it just deserved it's own page. This Best Creations Inc paper was perfect and so was the Pressed Petals scrap metal word. Added some Prima flowers and those fabulous Craft n Craftin' glitter snowflake stickers again(so beautiful and delicate), some bling on the flowers and voila - she is done. Her fiance came to the door just as I was finishing up - he thought it was very cute. Allison thought I should just put is away somewhere.
..... oh brother.

Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming

This is one of my favorite Christmas hymns and I love to sing it. I have sung it at church and in an adult choir with beautiful harmony. These photos are from our churches Christmas Gospel outreach. David played his guitar, Paul and Allison both performed pieces on the piano and our whole family (plus a friend of mine who was an alto) did four part harmony of my favorite hymn - Lo How a Rose E're Blooming. It is an old 16th century German hymn.

The layout is rather unique. Every picture had the back of a fellows white head on it and a rather large one - it seemed to pick up most of the flash. I am not sure who took the photos. So I have them overlapping in such a way that I was able to cover the head in all but the bottom one. I actually like the layout.

The paper is the new Moxie Winter Wishes. I used some music rub-ons from Maya Road, some heidi grace rub-ons, beautiful Craft n Craftin' glitter snow flake stickers, my white gel pen and I put the words to the song on a transparency. Somehow the transparency picked up some green on the scan and I could not photoshop it out - but there is no green in this layout. Christmas 2001 celebrations.

I forget just how busy life was back then. Good thing I was a whole lot younger. Loved doing this layout and remembering this time of singing with my whole gang. I love em!

Christmas Morning

What a wonderful time of joy, laughter and utter chaos - Christmas morning. We do open one gift at a time and savor this special time together - but there is an element of chaos and I am glad to be past the small toys with batteries and little parts era of our lives. I enjoyed such good memories putting this page together. We have so many Christmas traditions and we so enjoy this time together. How do I leave any pictures out? They are each part of the whole Christmas morning experience - and what make us family!

This page was a challenge - 12 4X6 photos! Some cropping and trimming and I fit them all. I know it is busy - but the point was to capture the morning.

I have noticed that when my family look at my layouts, they focus immediately on the pictures and the memories - the journalling. They seem impervious to the product or technique. When fellow scrapbookers look at a layout they comment on the impression, the products, the technique. Sometimes it is fun to use a new product in a special way. For other pages, it is the memory that needs recording.

The paper is Reminisce "Snowglobe", Pressed petals 'Monday Metals' (from my stash), Basic Grey 'wilma' chipboard letters inked and glazed and some of the new Beary Patch Christmas rub-ons which are very, very nice!!

Christmas is coming to JSI - a big box of beautiful Glitter stickers came yesterday and they are very nicely priced! Check em out!

Some really cool Hallowe'en paper also arrived along with matching embellishments.

Celebrate

Celebrating Allison's 12th Birthday. Sigh...birthday pages...so many pictures and how do you get them all on the page. This is page #61 of the 2001 album - I have been working on 2001 for over 6 months...hmmm that means....that means I will NEVER catch up! But I will press on. By my calculations, I have four - get that? 4...more pages to finish up the year ~ Allison's birthday party with friends, our church Christmas concert and then Christmas - which has to be a two page layout - cause there are too many of us and too many pictures. Have you noticed that I am in very few pictures? There is one of me in the Christmas batch though.

Anyways, this is my sweet daughters 12th birthday and what a lovely sweet and pure young woman she was becoming - and still is - getting married! YIKES! Of course a fine young man spotted her and immediately claimed her. LOL smart guy! ...but does he know how much she loves to shop for clothes???? And this 12 year old started University this week and is on her way to getting her education degree.

They do grow up so fast - so hug them, kiss them, tell them how much you love them and try to ignor the mess in the bathroom! Before you know it they will be married and you will have your bathroom back. :)

Birthday Party

Allison and her friends had a fun time watching movies, playing games and combing all the knots out of her Barbie doll's hair. Girlfriends are a lot of fun! Birthday celebrations and a lot of fun too!

I used the new Dream Street Paper. It is fun paper! The photos are dark - 2001 (page 62 and counting) but the event is recorded. A bit of mesh because the colour was rights and some Creative Imaginations rub-ons. A few flowers from the stash too.

Andy Rooney quote of the day...

Everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile. :)

I am going to try and remember this one!

We have a winner!

Cheryl guessed it right - That macro shot picture two posts ago - it is a lime in a Corona. What else do you have with pizza? It certainly wasn't coke - although April got the lime right off the get go and Stephanie guessed well with the lime in a 7-up.
Way to go Cheryl!

Here are some more obvious photos of the same bottle.

So Cheryl you can pick one of these prizes I happened to have unopened in the house just waiting for the right person.

The Zig two way glue...

or this short book from one of my favorite authors, John Piper.

Send me an e-mail Cheryl and let me know which one you would like and if you want me to mail it out or leave it at JSI.
Thanks everyone! That was fun - if I had a corporation sponsoring me, I would do this all the time.

Well "Seasoned" Chef

Ralna did it again. Sometimes I just get bogged down with a page because it lacks a theme or idea or message. I just can't find the right words for the title. I guess that is why I was a Science major and not an English major. Here I had a picture of Mark in November 2001 out on the back deck in the SNOW in his SHORTS and his winter BOOTS - cooking our burgers on the BBQ.

Mark loves to BBQ no matter what the season....but I was stuck on a title. Winter BBQ er, Hot burgers in the cold, yes, well these were not going to work. I pop the pictures out at work and ask Ralna....two seconds - that is all she had to think and came up with "Well Seasoned BBQ/chef" and pulled out the paper with all the seasoning stuff on it. A great play on the word "season"
How does she do it?

Paper Loft, Flair Designs and Basic Grey along with some of that super cool mesh, thickers, MM sticker letters, Creative Cafe rub-on letters (oh I need MORE of these), scenic route star - for my star bbq'er, heidi swapp clock cause he times the meat perfectly and my signo uniball white gel pen that I would never be without. I added some journalling on the right side after I scanned it - reads.

Mark, I love how you love to BBQ. No matter what the "season" you are willing to get out there and cook.

Doing nothing number 3

The sunset Saturday night was kinda pretty - although it was still cold and windy.
That is the two of us enjoying the view....and each other.

You cannot visit Waskesiu without stopping in at Pete's Pizza.
We think it is the best pizza in the province.
Busy and fun place and Pete is always good for a laugh or two.

..and sometimes dear husband uses the camera too.

Okay - a macro shot - does anyone know what it is a picture of?
Not too hard really. If I offer a prize for the first right answer will I get a flood of guesses?
The things that motivate the lurkers.... okay let me think what I have to give away around here that is brand new and won't cost an arm and a leg to ship.

Andy Rooney quote of the day....

Sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

I hope you all have a hand to hold and heart to understand.

Doing Nothing...continued.

peaceful hikes

snacks

Mama letting me know that was close enough!

Saturday was VERY windy. I slowed the shutter speed down to catch the water sprays - but that meant overexposure - so I had to Photoshop this photo. Had I used my tripod the background would have been clearer. But it was neat to watch the water smashing into the breakwater.

About this moment David told me that I was plenty close enough!
It's a zoom lens!
That's what it's for!

Andy Rooney quote of the day...

No one is perfect, until you fall in love with them.

haha I like this one.

More pics tomorrow!

Doing Nothing!

David and I got away this weekend. Very last minute we booked a teeny cabin up at Waskesiu. And it was very teeny and very last minute. Spur of the moment, unplanned, spontaneous! Love it. You get to do this when the kids are grown and independent.

Friday at 4 am before work, I woke up and put all the food together in the fridge, threw a bunch of clothes on the bed and put the camera equip together (most important part). By the time I got home from work dear husband had got home ahead of me and had it all ready to go - bikes in the car along with a bag, cooler and camera equip (even did a little bit of grocery shopping for snacks) and we were on the hwy - along with everybody else, trying to get out a town. But that was okay - we were heading off to do nothing and it was wonderful.

It was a feat just getting out of the city - but as I kept reminding dear husband - this was a weekend of NO PLANNING! We sleep when we want, eat when we want, walk and bike when we want - nothing planned. In between we read. So it didn't matter when we arrived.

And so it was. I don't think I have slept so much in one weekend in years! The air was cool and fresh, the bike rides and hikes rejuvenating and exhausting and the coffee on a very cold morning tasted especially fine even if it was decaf. Thankful for my heavy fuzzy socks to wear. Thankful for down time, nothing time. No Internet, no scrapbooking supplies, no phone and no TV. Just each other to be distracted by. :) Yes you read that right! Sometimes we need to leave those scrapbooking supplies behind.

Here are some of the weekends photos in no particular order - just the ones that captured the special time away for us.....

...playing through....heads up! Just another golf hazard.
Loose two strokes if you hit the elk!
No this is not David - we didn't golf - just watched a little.

hiked a little...

snacked a little...

photographed a lot!

relaxed much!

read whenever....

I will post more pictures tomorrow - I have lots more wildlife and a few fun shots.

Andy Rooney quote of the day...

"When you're in love, it shows"