The View from Home

It's fall and things are really beautiful everywhere. I took a couple of pictures (with my phone, believe it or not) at my Mama's house that are so pretty. The clouds were banked close to the horizon and the shadows/light were so pretty. It makes me happy to be here everytime I look at them. We don't have a lot of colors here, but the slant of the sun makes things looks so crisp and nice. P.S. The cotton is ready to be picked also!!!!

BBQ Thanks

This weekend in Douglas (Ga) we had the Wiregrass National BBQ competition. There are people that come from all over the US to compete. The campers are set up and people BBQ all night and all day to get ready for the judges. It's really quite a neat time for our small town. There was so much traffic...which is unheard of...on Friday night. I couldn't even get to the center of town where it was all setup. My daughter and I went on Saturday evening, but everything was pretty much over and folks were breaking down their camps. There were some really big campers and outfits for BBQing. I'm sure they had fun. Everyone in Douglas did.

I made a card for a youth group at church to give to the BBQ place in Douglas. They donated some BBQ so the kids could raise money for a misson trip. I thought it was pretty cute. I got the idea for the pigs from stamping school. I used the computer to print the "Weees" and then the Cute and Curly Stampin' Up set with the punch that goes along with it. I thought it was very cute and so did the people I made it for. I made a similar card for my granddaughter this summer and when I was asked to make a card for BBQ, it just seemed appropriate. Sorry it's kind of blurry. I forgot to take a picture until I got to school and had to use my phone for the picture.

Yeap...there are things to smile about

Thought I'd show a couple of things I made tonight that are going in my class for give-aways. (I teach 5th graders and they still like these kinds of things.) These are not my original ideas except I used the faces from different things on different things.

Several years ago I wrote everyday...just 5 things to say thank you for. I am now redesigning this blog to reflect things that I'm glad I can say thank you to. 1. Of course, there's family and friends (even in the worst of times it's nice to know you do have family...and friend). 2. There's my pillow. It's the best pillow ever!!! I've had it for many years...a feather pillow I got from my grandma in North Dakota...now that's old. 3. I have a home that's been my home since I was 6 months old. I live in the home where I was raised...and I raised my girls in this home. It's not fancy and I like that too. It's a home that's served two generations now. 4. I have a hobby that I love because I can share it with family and friends... scrap booking and stamping. I haven't done that much scrapping lately, but I have done things for my classroom and especially since it's Halloween I have had a great time constructing things to put candy in and give away to kids. 5. I'm glad that I have music to listen to. I love it! I like classic rock best and then it goes on to blues, jazz, some country, classical...just not hip-hop or rap. My daughter is trying to help me appreciate this genre, but I'm not there yet. I also like to play the piano. I don't do it much anymore, but it used to keep my sane.

All evening on the computer

I've spent almost the whole evening here at the computer...looking at my favorites. I've been to Hero Arts and then checking out all the other blogs that I try to look at to see what they are doing. I get lots of ideas for cards and scrapbook layouts...now I don't have anytime left to play with the ideas. I spent a lot of time this weekend making things to use as gifts in my classroom. The kids were looking at them today and asking if those were the prizes for this weeks drawing...of course they are. I went to a class Saturday morning where we made all kinds of neat things that I can use during October/Halloween. I also sent three of them to my granddaughter in California. I told her I was sending her a Halloween package. It also contains a t-shirt that I tied-dyed orange and used a permanent marker and drew Jack-O-Lanterns inside the circles.....cute! I got the idea from another lady who saw it in a magazine. It was easy! Got to get myself to bed now. This is my new card....hope you like it.

Things come and things go!

I haven't posted anything for awhile. Things have changed and those changes are taking some getting use to. It's sometimes hard to know the right path to take. We just have to do the thing we thing is right at the time. I'm usually alone. My children are grown and I'm currently in a long distant relationship which makes me alone here at home most of the time. However, my youngest daughter is with me right now. I don't know how long she will be here. She usually comes and goes as she is a butterfly and moves from place to place whenever and where ever. She has been in every state in the United States, including Hawaii, at one time of the other except Alaska. She is part of the lost generation and it's sad. She is very talented, and she is lots of fun to be around. She is also bipolar and an addict. She is between one addiction and the next right now. I always hold out hope that she will be able to find sobriety, but I also have to know that she may not. I'll do what I can, but she knows this is the last trip home. When she leaves, and she will, she will not be welcome back unless she is sober. This is a hard thing, but necessary for both she and I. I cannot keep propping her up. It hasn't helped in the past and it won't help now or in the future. I have to believe that God is big enough to take care of her, and knows what will be.

Birthdays

Yesterday was my birthday! Everyone should have children around on their birthday. I got all kinds of cards from kids. Cards made with scrapbook paper and cards made on notebook paper. All the kids wanted to say "happy birthday." I think it's special to let people fuss over you sometimes. The kids all looked so satisfied with themselves as they gave me their card or a hug. The joy of giving is a special gift and one that is a win-win situation. So to all of you out there...make this a special day for someone and you've made it a special day for yourself. Sometimes things are so simple.

Sometimes it feels great!

Last Friday I made a couple of cards for students (girls) that had been doing the right thing at the right time. They were so blown away that it made me feel like I'd done something well. It seems to have changed the behavior of the whole class. They all want a card. It was a really simple card to make and the colors just set it off. The cardstock was an aqua color and the accent paper was brown (what a wonderful color combination). I used ribbon from Michael's and the stamp set "Think Happy Thoughts" from Stampin' Up. You can see the card...I wish I you could have seen the girls' smiles. Now what can I do this week? I have one boy candidate...that will be a challange.

Things Lost

I spend far too much time looking for my "stuff". I just realized that I don't know where the cable is for downloading pictures from my camera. I know where it should be, but guess what?...it isn't there. That means I can't share what I intended to, but I will share a sunrise with you taken yesterday from my yard. I just can't resist taking a picture of a sunrise/sunset. They just bowl me over. Enjoy!

Stamping with the Birds...

This is a card that I made for my mother's birthday. The cranes were made from a stencil by Washi Accent stencils. They are super easy to do and I love their simplicity. The papers are origami cut with scallop scissors. The embellishments are from the Stampin' Up hodgepodge hardware. The card is green and the layer piece is purple which were colors from the origami papers. I don't remember the measurements. Sorry the pictures is a little blurry, this is a card I made a long time ago and my picture taking wasn't the best. I think you can see enough to get the gist....

Finding out about stuff

Yesterday I spent the afternoon trying to find out about my daughter. She is/was in New Orleans and I tried for a long time without success, to find out about her. It took the afternoon, but I did find out that she had evacuated NO....thank goodness. She is in San Gabriel, La and I hope that will be a good place. I'm still waiting to hear from her.

It's kind of an irony...Hurricane Gustav and my grandfather's name was Gustav (not pronounced Goose, but Gus...like bus with a g...av) has chased my daughter out of New Orleans. My grandfather was such a sweet, gentle man...an immigrant from Sweden. He worked as a hired hand at a dairy farm in North Dakota with a family that had also come from Sweden. He later married one of the daughters, my grandmother and they raised their family on that dairy farm. Things seem to make a spiral bringing the same things in and out of my life at the most unusual times. I like it!

Let's Get Started

Let's Get Started This is something that seems to be everywhere and I think I'll give it a try and see where it goes. I'm usually not a person to jump on a band-wagon, but I'd like to see where this takes me. I hope to make some new friends and learn skills that I can use to grow in many ways. I would like to share some of the cards that I have created and somewhat copied. I don't think I have anything yet that is truely original....but I do have fun with stamping and scrapbooking. I have some digital scrapbook LO both in scrapbookblog.com and in my computer. I like the option of begin able to share my scrapbooking with friends and relatives. I would not necessarily share with some distant relatives, but doing it digitally makes it easy. I'm not sure (but I plan to learn) how to share these LO here.
Labels: digital scrapbooking, scrapbooking, stamping