WISHING YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES A VERY VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

JOY!

I want to share another project that I was able to complete at the Paradise Scrapbook Boutique "Holiday Workshop" back in November . . . this JOY banner kit was created by the most talented Christie . . .


Christie was not able to attend the workshop as she lives in Idaho . . . and even though she is very very very busy helping to prepare her sister's upcoming wedding (December 5th) and getting her design projects out for Graphic 45 (she's a member of the Graphic 45 design team) . . . Christie still found time to create a number of really cute kits, of which this banner was one of . . .

I do have to say one thing . . . no matter how hard I try to copy the original item exactly something always happens along the way and I end up making little personal changes to the design (sounds so much better than "mistake") . . . in this case I thought that I would add just a touch of glitter glue around the edge of each letter and they looked really cute and I was very careful on getting each letter to my car without smudging the wet glitter . . . what I didn't count on while driving home was the car in front of me coming to a sudden stop to make a left turn and when I slammed on the brakes my purse fell on the letters . . . sooooooooo when I got home I covered each letter glitter glue . . . I also didn't punch the holes correctly (there is only suppose to be 1 hole on each side of the circle cut out) . . . soooooooooo each of my circles has holes going completely around them . . . even with all these "personal changes" the banner is turned out cute . . . it is hanging in my smaller office at work and everyone who sees it, wants it . . . so again thank you Christie for sharing your wonderful talent with us . . . BTW . . . the paper that Christie chose to use is from BoBunny's St. Nick paper line . . .

Well that's all for now, thanks for stopping by . . .

Magic!

Do you believe in magic??? I DO!!!!! . . . I DO!!!!!

Back on November 21st I was fortunate in being able to attend the holiday gift workshop at Paradise Scrapbook Boutique where a number of beautiful kits were created by four extremely talented women . . . I have been dying to share the treasures with you that I was able to make but in keeping with the holiday spirit I decided to wait until December 1st . . . welllllllll it's almost December 1st and I just can't wait any longer (I also don't think that I will be able to stay awake much longer) . . .

The first treasure I want to share with you is this beautiful vintage antique bottle . . . the creator of this kit was Deb (sister to the owner of PSB) and she shared with us (from her personal collection) a number of ribbons, glitters, vintage do-da's, sayings and different sized old bottles for us to create are own little treasures . . . it was MAGIC! . . . you can see more of Deb's vintage antique bottle creations at the PSB website and find out who inspired her . . .


Thank you so much Deb for sharing all your "MAGIC" with us . . . it was great seeing you again and I can't wait for your next trip up to "Paradise" . . .

In the next few days I will be sharing more "treasures" that I have been able to create from this workshop . . . in the meantime thanks for stopping by . . .

WISHING YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

SUPERGIRL TO THE RESCUE!

I finally finished this year's Holloween layout of my granddaughter. Kyra had been saying for months and months that she wanted to be a princess for Holloween this year . . . I don't know what happened when she went shopping with mom for her costume but she couldn't wait to show me that she was going to be SUPERGIRL this year . . . well needless to say that began my search for the right shade of colors to go with such a bright costume . . . who knew that there were so many different shades of basic blue, red and yellow . . . sooooooooo . . . at this time I would like to present SUPERGIRL KYRA . . .

These pictures were taken at a church Harvest Festival on October 31st. They had 4 bounce houses and my daughter was able to get plenty of pictures to be able to tell a story. By the way . . . after I made my selection of pictures and laid them out . . . I had my granddaughter them me in her own words what was happening . . . my favorite is when she says "Hmmmm . . should I help them or do the dishes?" . . . makes you wonder and appreciate a child's imagination

Oh . . . one more thing . . . all of the paper was basic card stock . . . I stamped the plain blue cardstock using Technique Tuesday's "spin cycle" clear stamp and VersaMark and put little dots of Stickles "Golden Rod" down the middle of each title letter to add a little sparkle . . . the giant letter "S" I was able to purchase from Dillon's Laser Designs (www.dillonlaserdesigns.com) at the Scrapbook Expo that was held in Sacramento, CA in October (it was the perfect find and worth the 1-1/2 hour drive to Sacramento) . . .

Well that's all for now . . . I can't wait to share with you some of the projects I completed last Saturday at a Holiday Workshop at PSB in Paradise . . . thanks for stopping by . . .

SUMMER/FALL LAYOUTS

It's been a while since I last wrote on my blog . . . it was a very busy summer and fall is almost over and has been just as busy (with a couple of illnesses thrown into the mix) . . . I do want to say something right up front . . . I am not an ORIGINAL designer . . . I cannot look at paper and know exactly what to do with it . . . I take classes, buy kits and get ideas from layouts I see on the internet, magazines, where ever . . . I don't always follow the examples I am given or see but they are close enough so that I do not claim them as my "original . . .

So that being said I would like to share some of the layouts I have done since my last blog (way back when) . . .

When my mother-in-law passed on I was told to choose one item that had very special meaning to me . . . it was a very hard thing to do as I had known this women for over 46 years and considered her to be the mother I never had and always wanted . . . there were so many memories wrapped up in "things" around the house . . . I choose the wooden duck sewing box that her father made for her shortly after she was married . . . my mother-in-law hated to sew and when she found out that I did sew . . . well every time I was over at her house she always needed something hemmed or a seam fixed or even a button sewn on . . . . sometimes she even called me to get me over to do a little project and I was only just dating her son . . . so it seemed very natural for me to choose this duck as my special memory of her . . .

Now I knew that I would be doing a layout about this little box . . . but I kept on putting it off . . . that is until I saw a layout that Robbie Herring did with the July 2009 Limited Edition kit from My Creative Scrapbook club (Robbie is on the MCS design team) . . . I just fell in love with the layout she did using Graphic 45 Fashionista Collection paper . . . so here is the layout for the "sewing box" . . .

The next layout I am sharing is of pictures of my daughter and granddaughter from their annual "mommy & me" beach trip to Santa Cruz, California . . . this layout was from a kit I purchased at Magic Moments & Keepsakes in Chico and was designed by Stephanie Southam who also happens to be a Close to my Heart consultant . . . as is usual I didn't follow her design exactly . . . instead of using beige paper for the "turf" on the beach I used regular old sandpaper from my husband's workshop . . . I think it makes the beach look more sandy, don't you . . .

Layout number 3 is about my granddaughter getting ready for her 1st day of preschool . . . she was sooooooo excited (can you remember how excited you were very year . . . how you couldn't sleep the night before and then you were up at the crack of dawn making sure that you looked perfect and that you would not be late . . . I sure do!!!!) . . . well Kyra has followed in her mother's and YaYa's footsteps . . . so being the good little YaYa I look pictures of her getting ready . . .

Inspiration for making the owls for this layout came from the paper itself . . . the owl below that was used on the layout came from a kit I purchased at Magic Memories & Keepsakes way back in May 2008 (only made the owl & used the strip of owl paper from that kit) and it had to be pieced together . . . and yes I did actually sew a running stitch around the edge of the owl . . . I decided to make a couple of baby owls for the second page of the layout - with one of them taking flight . . .

Inspiration for this layout came from a challenge from Inspired Blueprints using one of their drawings (www.inspiredblueprints.typepad.com) which I meant to enter . . . but I got very sick and missed the entry time . . .

Okay sooooooooo only one more layout to share . . . and this is a very special one to me . . . my friend Christie taught her last class in Paradise (before moving to Idaho at PSB) using Graphic 45 "Baby to Bride" paper . . . she designed 3 beautiful projects - a single page layout, a card and this wall hanging (which hangs above my computer at work and every time I look up I see my smiling/happy granddaughter and all it bright & sunny in the world) . . . thank you Christie . . .

Well that's all for now . . . thanks for stopping by . . . hopefully my next blog will not be soooooo long and wordy . . . til next time . . . hugs and kisses . . .

NEW KITTY

While "blog surfing" one day I came upon this virtual cat from Widget . . . sooooooooooooo . . . say "hi" to my new kitty . . . Maukie (he's there on the right hand side where the clock use to be) . . . Maukie is very easy to take care of . . . you don't have to feed him or anything . . . okay you have to put up with the ad (to get rid of the ad all you have to do is click on the ad "x" square and the ad disappears . . . you can now play with Maukie) . . . his head and eyes follow your mouse around his body and at certain places he swats your mouse . . . he meows when you touch certain areas of his body and Maukie evens purrs when you touch his tummy . . . isn't he cute!

I would love to adopt a new real kitty to keep our current cat company while everyone is gone all day . . . . but my granddaughter is very allergic to cats and dogs (she inherited this from her dad - we are hoping that as she gets older her algery will improve) . . . we have one outdoor cat who adopted us (Cato) . . . and Krya loves him dearly but she knows that she can not give him kisses & hugs . . . so we have adopted Maukie for now . . .

That's all for now . . . will shortly be posting pictures of some of the projects I completed . . . until then . . . thanks for stopping by and don't forget to play with Maukie . . .

WELCOME FALL

WELCOME TO THE BEGINNING OF FALL EVERYONE . . . this is one of my favorite times of the year . . . I love the changing of tree colors . . . the crisp air . . . unfortunately in my part of the world (Northern California) its been in the 100's so far this week and looks like it will continue for the rest of the week . . . sooooooooooooooooooo . . . we will wait for this wonderful season . . . in the meantime I wish y'all a BEAUTIFUL FALL SEASON!!!!

OOOOPS!

Okay well it's NOT officially fall yet . . . had another look at the calendar and autumn officially begins Tuesday, September 22 . . . hopefully I am putting all the correct dates on all the papers I am filing with the court . . . anyhooooooooooooooooo . . .

Going back to "blast from the past" of what I have been during this summer . . . my husband and I spent the weekend of August 22nd down in the bay area . . . San Jose/Cupertino . . . to be exact celebrating our oldest child's birthday . . . can't believe that my little baby boy is 37 . . . . jeezzzzzzzzz . . . I don't know when he got older - I am still 24 (hehehe) . . . here is a layout I did a few months back (okay almost a year ago) . . . our son was 4 years old and we were on summer vacation when we stopped in this really cute restored western town, Winthrop, Washington . . . Jerry was so serious that day (a few hours later he came down with a very bad cold and we headed home to Eureka, CA) . . .

Speaking of this layout . . . it is not an original of mine . . . when I saw the papers I knew exactly what photo I wanted to feature and somewhere in my brain I remembered a layout I had seen that was perfect-it used these papers and had hand & machine sewing on it (two things that I love trying to put on some of my layouts) . . . if anyone out there in blogland knows who the original designer was . . . please please please let me know because I want to thank them and acknowledge their beautiful design . . .

Now back to that weekend in the bay area . . . we told our son that we would do whatever he wanted . . . so on Saturday we ended up at the Western States car show in Pleasanton, CA (got to love the bay area - everything is only 30 minutes away at the most via freeways) . . . 5 hours at a hot - very loud event . . . then it was back to San Jose and off to dinner at his favorite restaurant and a movie . . . "The Hangover" (very very very funny movie) . . . on Sunday we headed over to Campbell and stopped in at the "Psycho Donuts" shop for a mid morning snack (yes that really is the name of the donut shop - they have found a fun way to get you to eat donuts - I plan on doing a layout later about this unique shop) . . . after that we went to the Campbell farmers market . . . from there hubby & son went for coffee while I went and did a little shopping at the scrapbook store in Cupertino . . . hubby and I finally headed for home about 5 pm (another 4 hour drive) . . . it was a very busy weekend . . . but well worth it . . . BTW . . . here is a more current picture of the birthday boy . . .

P.S. . . this was not at the Pleasanton car show . . . this photo was taken at the Concours d'Elegance Gala here in Chico . . .

Well that's all for now . . . thanks for stopping by and until next time . . . hugs . .

TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF

.Today AUTUMN officially begins . . . can you believe it?. . . I know I can't! . . . seems like just yesterday it was the beginning of summer . . . I guess when you are very very very busy and having a great time everything moves pretty fast (or maybe its when you turn 60 that you notice how time is speeding by) . . . this summer was an extremely busy. . .

I just realized today that I have not posted to this blog since the beginning of August . . . sooooooooooo I have decided it's time to "turn over a new leaf" and post more often . . . I will try to catch y'all up to what I have been doing with the rest of my summer over the next few blogs (I won't bore you by putting everthing in one blog - I have got to get some sleep sometime ya know) . . .

To begin with I would like to share another layout that I did of my cruise to Alaska this summer . . . at 10:30 at night - on the second to last night of the cruise - the ship hosted a "DESSERT EXTRAVAGANZA" . . . I have never seen so many incredible desserts in one place at one time . . . and you could eat to your hearts content (I now know why people who have been on cruises told me to have at least one pair of pants with an elastic waist) . . .

Before my hubby & I went on the cruise I had taken a scrapbook class entitled "Sweet Chocolate Indulgence" which was taught by Christie Bryant at the Paradise Scrapbook Boutique . . . I loved Christie's layout but at the time I didn't know what pictures I would be placing on it (thought I was going to have to bake something - heaven forbid) . . . well needless to say I found the perfect pictures for the layout - or at least I think so - what do you think?????

Hopefully you were able to click on the above pictures to get a better look at the layout . . . and I have to tell you my layout does not look exactly like the one Christie did for the class (I even had her original pages in front of me) . . . I have a few boo boos that needed to be covered up . . . which gave me the perfect opportunity to make a brown paper cabbage rose (see the My Creative Scrapbook blog for instructions) . . . I do have to tell you that one of the desserts just made me laugh out load . . . its the picture below of mice eating cheesecake . . .

Bet you laughed didn't ya (hehehe) . . . well it's time to sign off and go to bed (oh how I wish I could retire and play all day) . . . soooooooo . . . thanks for stopping by and until next time . . . HUGS!!!

WEEKEND GETAWAY

My girlfriend, Marsha, came up from Oakdale for the sole purpose of attending a two day crop at Magic Memories & Keepsakes Scrapbook store in Chico with me. . . Marsha usually stays at my house, which is about 35 minutes away from the scrapbook store in Chico, but this year we decided to stay at the Best Western, which is only about 5 minutes away from the store . . . boy did we make the right decision . . .this was the first time that we stayed till closing at a crop in Chico . . . Marsha & I had a blast . . . we scrapbooked with our friends, ate way to much, drank just enough and stayed up until around 2 a.m. both nights talking and laughing . . . on Sunday Marsha and I went out to breakfast and did some clothes shopping for her (Marsha just got a job -she used to work at home -no more working in her jammies) . . . and of course I had to get some new clothes also (can't pass up any great sales even if they are not on sale) . . . so anyhooooooooo . . . I wanted to share one of the layouts I did this weekend . . .

Back in April of this year my granddaughter was the flower girl at her uncle Josh's wedding (that's her dad's brother - no relative of mine) . . . after trying out a number of background papers I finally decided to just keep it "simple" so that the pictures didn't get lost in the paper . . . I used the new Making Memories wedding overlay, backing it with just plain white paper and adding a little bling to some of the scrolls . . .

For some time I have been admiring the artistic layouts that the very talented Gabrielle Pollacco does . . . she gave a "how to" on her blog not to long ago (check her blog out for all kinds of wonderful ideas-she also sells items onESTY) on how to make flowers using screening (this is the screening material that you find on your windows and doors at home) . . . I think it added just the right touch . . . here is a blurry close-up of the flowers . . .

Sooooooo . . . that's it for now . . . I will be sharing more pictures in the near future . . . thanks for stopping by . . . LindaB

MY PRINCE CHARMING

It is a sure sign that after knowing me for 46 years (6years of going together plus 40 years of marriage) that my husband LOVES me enough to still do crazy things for me . . . and I am pretty sure that he knows that when there is a camera in my hand I will take millions of shots and scrapbook a lot of the pictures . . . he is however finally figuring out that I am sharing the pages that I have completed with the world and they are not all pictures of our granddaughter . . . so that being said, before we left for the Alaska Cruise I had signed up to take a class at PSB (layout unseen - however the layout was going to be designed by PSB owner Karen and I knew that I would love it) . . . and when I saw the "Charming" layout it just screamed for pictures of my husband that I had taken on the cruise . . . so here is the love of my life . . . "MY PRINCE CHARMING" . . .


Ya gotta love him . . . I know I sure do!!!!! . . . here is a close of the love of my life . . .

SHOPPING THIS WEEKEND!!!

Well . . . hubby decided to take me shopping this weekend . . . and here is what he bought me . . . A NEW CAR!!!!

It's a 2009 Toyota Venza . . . I had quite an education this weekend on different vehicle types: mini vans, SUV, cross overs, regular cars, and the new "green" cars . . . after going to car dealerships in 2 counties I felt like one of the "3 Bears" . . . you know - this one is to high-this one is to small- this one is to hard-this one is to black-this one is to white-etc.-etc.-etc. . . . and yes you guessed it - I ended up at the very first dealership purchasing the first car I test drove . . . anyway the Venza is a rather strange looking car . . . it is what they call a crossover-its suppose to be the combo of an SUV and a sedan (I call it a squished station wagon) . . . the one I ended up with has a lot of bells & whistles to keep my hubby busy while I am driving . . . I LOVE MY NEW CAR . . . so look out world cause Linda's goin to be on the road a lot now (hehehe)!!!!!!

I'M BACK!

For those of you who have been wondering where the heck I have been lately (as it is soooooooo long since my last blog) . . . well hubby and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary by going on a cruise of the "Inside Passage" of Alaska . . .


We had a WONDERFUL time and I will be sharing (or boring you) with more pictures and tales of adventure later on . . . right now I have to get going to work (have to pay for all my baaaaad habits - like scrapbooking & crusin) . . . so till later . . . LindaB

"LIFT THE DESIGN TEAM" CHALLENGE

The people over at the MY CREATIVE SCRAPBOOK site have been having a very unusual give-away . . .they are allowing you to scraplift any of the design teams' layout and enter a contest to win oodles upon oodles of Prima flowers . . . wellllllll . . . I cannot pass up an opportunity like that so after looking at all the wonderful designers pages, cards & mini-albums I finally decided to "lift" Robbie Herrring's May 2009 Main Kit design . . .

I was originally going to copy this layout only instead of a picture I was going to insert my mother-in-law's names (Elizabeth Ellen Emmens Bates) and use it as the title page for her section of the scrapbook I am creating about my hubby's family . . . welllllllll . . . I had one of those late, late, really late night change of hearts (about 1:30 in the morning) . . . Robbie's layout just cried out for a vintage picture . . . soooooooooo . . . I remembered this picture that I wanted to do of me (okay I'm not vintage yet - but pretty close to it according to social security) . . . so here is the layout that I am submitting . . . it is of me at the age of two . . . I was not a very happy camper was I . . .

It's not an exact "lift" of Robbie's layout but is pretty darn close . . . I did try some new things with this layout . . . one of which as the picture is black & white (told you I was nearing vintage) . . . I used Tim Holtz's "Alcohol Ink" and painted a very pale pink stain on the little romper I am wearing (I know the romper is pink because it is packed away in my hopeless chest) . . . and as I had the paint brush out I decided to paint glitter glue on some of the flowers . . . loved both techniques and I know that I will be using them again . . . well that's all for now . . . thanks for stopping by . . . have a great day!!!!

P.S. . . one more thing . . . as I love to work in 2-page layouts . . . I will shortly be doing the companion page . . . I think I will did up pictures of my daughter and granddaughter crying also just to see if there really is a family resemblinish . . . tata . . .

HONORNING A VERY SPECIAL PERSON

This has been a very low key, laid-back Memorial Weekend at my house this year . . . instead of the usual trying to crowd a week into a 3-day weekend with activities or visiting relatives . . . my hubby and I decided the take it easy and just hang around the house . . . so after all the house cleaning chores were done I found some time to do a little scrapbooking . . . I finally completed the second page of a 2-page layout I was doing regarding my mother-in-law . . . so here is "page 2" of the Emmens layout . . . this is a picture of the "daughters of the house" - Elizabeth (my mother-in-law) is the oldest. . . Hope (who died shortly after this picture was taken) is in the middle and Faith (the toddler) . . .


Here is the 2-page layout that is going in the "Emmens" section of an album . . . for those of you who saw an earlier blog of mine you will note that I made a couple of little changes to the 1st page layout . . . I added a strip of lace and replaced a crocheted flower/leaf with a butterfly . . .


I would like to share with you the following layouts that are of the various times during my mother-in-laws life . . . this first layout has her baby picture, high school graduation picture (she graduated when she was 16), her engagement picture and a picture of her 1 month before she passed away . . . the layout is from a class that I had taken from Tracy (she is the niece of Karen-the owner of PSB) right before she moved to Chicago . . .


The next layout is from a class that the very talented Christie taught at PSB and was the perfect layout for the baby picture of my mother-in-law . . . in preparing these layouts for her memorial service I ran across a copy of her birth certificate (which I shrank down and placed behind the fame) and a loose page that had snippets of her hair . . . soooooo of course I had to included it . . .



This next layout (Karen helped me with this one) showcases my mother-in-law's extraordinary talent . . . she was a "concert violinist" . . . she started playing at the age of 6 and continued through her freshman year of college . . . when she graduated from high school she had been offered a scholarship to attend the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, however because she was only 17 her father said "no" . . . while at college (her father did let her go as long as she could still live at home) her professor submit her name to "Julliard" and again she was offered a full scholarship and again her father said "no" at which point she put away her violin and never played again . . .

The next layout is from a class that Karen taught (she is the talented owner of PSB) . . . its shows the next stage in my mother-in-law's life . . . marriage and family (my hubby is in the lower right hand picture with his mother & older brother) . . .

So now you know a little of the history behind this very special woman . . . I want to give a big THANK YOU to Karen, Christie and Tracy for teaching classes that gave me the perfect layouts in which to honor my mother-in-law and my friend ELIZABETH ELLEN EMMENS BATES.

SPECIAL MAKE & TAKES/SPECIAL MEMORIES

Just wanted to share a couple of "Make & Takes" that were actually completed this month and with pictures, no less . . .

This first M&T was made at Paradise Scrapbook Boutique at the Friday, May 1st pre NSD crop . . . Karen gave everyone a choice of 4 different "make & take" mini kits and after a half hour of trying to decide between 2 of them . . . I chose the one from K & Company to showcase a very special day in my family's life . . . it was my mother-in-law's 80th birthday and among all the "posed" pictures there was this one of just my kids, husband, myself & the birthday girl being silly . . . everything was in this kit except the pearls, glitter paint and chalk (I chalk everything that isn't nailed down) . . . this picture hangs on my workplace wall and brings a smile and a wonderful memory every time I see it . . .

Now the 2nd M&T was completed at Magic Memories & Keepsakes in Chico this last Tuesday evening (May 19th) using Prima products . . . a representative from Prima was at the store earlier in the afternoon to demonstrate Prima's "Clear Paintables" transparencies . . . the very nice representative left enough supplies behind so that those of us who worked during the day were able to learn how to paint the transparencies using Tim Holtz Adironack alcohol inks & blending solution . . . I added a glitter butterfly, a Prima flower and a Jenni Bowlin pearl flower . . . the picture is of my daughter, granddaughter and myself (taken at my brother-in-law's on Mother's Day this year) . . . Kyra is sure look pretty serious in this picture (I think she had enough of picture taking by this time) . . .

Well that's all for now . . . thanks for stopping by . . . until next time . . .

PEBBLES INC. GIVEAWAY

WOW . . . you have got to stop everything and check out what is happening over at the Pebbles Inc. site. They have created a new line called "Lil' Miss" and it is soooooooooooo cute and perfect for the little girls in your life. . . Pebbles Inc. is is also having a GIVEAWAY (yahoo) . . . that's right they are picking one lucky person to received the full collection . . . and all you have to do is leave a comment on their blog . . . sooooooooo check them out and while you are there don't forget to check out their boys line called "Lil' Buddy" . . . till next time and thanks for stopping by . . .

Sunday Movie Matinee

The weekend weather forecast for this area for Friday, Saturday & Sunday was hot, Hot, HOTTER . . . soooooo . . . hubby and I decided that Sunday afternoon we would go to a nice air conditioned place like the movies (we only have a swamp cooler at home) . . . after much discussion (okay begging and pleading on my part) we went to see "STAR TREK" . . . LOVED IT-LOVED IT-LOVED IT!!!!! I am a Trek fan since it began appearing on TV back in 1966 and this movie was fantastic . . . the story line was great . . . the action scenes were thrilling . . . and it had the humor that use to appear on TV show . . . I wanted to hoot & cheer out loud during this movie . . . soooooooo . . . if you are looking for a movie - pick STAR TREK . . . you'll like it!!!!!! BTW . . . do go to the bathroom before the movie starts . . . its over 2 hours long (even though it didn't seem that long) . . . oh and one more thing - hubby liked it also . . . that's all for now - have to finish getting everything together for work tomorrow . . . . sooooooooo . . . until next time - LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!!!

It has been a very busy last 2 weeks and here we all are at another weekend . . . just unbelievable . . . where does the time go . . . I swear that the older I get the faster time goes by and the less I have to show for what I did during that time . . . HOWEVER . . . before I let any more time go by I wanted to share a picture that was taken of myself with my daughter and son last Sunday on Mother's Day in San Jose at my son's place . . . this has been the first Mother's Day that everyone was able to be in the same place at the same time . . . I could not have asked for a better gift . . .

Thanks for stopping by . . . and until next time have a great day . . .

A big THANK YOU to the three very brave ladies who showed up on Saturday, May 9th to take my crochet flower class at Paradise Scrapbook Boutique (this was the first time I ever taught a crocheting class). Everyone was given the patterns for making a single crochet flower (beginner); a triple crochet flower (intermediate) and a leaf (advanced) . . . Karen and Christie learned to make at a single crochet flower (it had been quite some time since they last crocheted) and Barbara made not only a single crochet flower, she also made a triple crochet flower . . . WELL DONE LADIES!!! . . . here they are busy crocheting . . .

You ladies did a great job and keep on practicing . . . can't wait to see all these beautiful flowers on a scrapbook layout!!!! Thank you again for being brave enough to take my class . . .

BY THE WAY . . . your eyes are not deceiving you . . . Barbara IS wearing 2 pairs of glasses (she is working with a smaller hook and thread don't you know) . . .

For quite a few months I had been looking for something to inspire a layout I wanted to do regarding my hubby's grandparents . . . well a few months back (okay quite a few months) I saw the cover of the Autumn/Winter 2008 Close to my Heart catalog and I knew that this is what I was looking for . . . soooooo . . . I ordered the paper called "Perfect Day" (along with the sticker sheets) and literally scraplifted the layout from the cover that I had so admired.




This layout inspired me to try sewing on paper for the first time using my sewing machine (I had previously done all needlework on layouts by hand) . . . it also inspired me to use crocheted flowers instead of the stickers I had purchase . . . however, I couldn't find the color or sizes of flowers that I wanted . . . sooooooo . . . one night I decided to look through all my craft stash (it really pays to never throw things away) to see if I had any books on crocheting flowers . . . and lo and behold I did (hubby was not surprised) . . . at first I just made single flowers but then I ran across a pattern for making a three layer flower and another pattern for crocheting leaves . . .



Well . . . some of the ladies at PSB admired my flowers a lot and wanted to learn how to make them . . . soooooooooo . . . thanks to PSB owner, Karen, this coming Saturday (May 9th) I will be teaching a class (another first) on crocheting flowers and leaves . . . . here is a close up of the crocheted flowers and leaves that appear on my vintage page and that I will be teaching the ladies . . .


Oh . . . one other thing about this page . . . I used long strips of "Recollections" pearls to do the swirly things . . . I would love to know where I can order "pearl swirls" from . . . Well that's it for now . . . have to get things organized for tomorrow's class . . . till later . . .