In the big scary woods

On Wednesday, I spent the day with Miles and two other boys combing the local state park for markers as part of their orienteering study for 8th grade Science.  No trail hiking here, this was the real deal, deep in the woods with spider webs and their makers and who knows what around the hill or behind a clump of trees.  I was very brave and only squealed once. (Well that's not really true, but I did try really hard.)

Miles was a really good orienteer. He pretty much lead our group for 3 hours to all of our markers to retrieve the initials written on each one.  For the first two, we missed the marker initially, but we did eventually find them.  Near the end of our time, we even rescued a group of girls who were hopelessly lost.  They slowed us down and we were a tad late for lunch. (One boy in our group was about to drive me crazy reminding me over and over what time it was.) It was no big deal really, other than it meant we didn't get to sit for more than 10 minutes before we had to move on and hike up to a natural bridge and then into a cave.

I'll tell you this though, as good as shape I thought I was, trekking through the woods, over steep hills and streams, through tall grass and lots of brush is a serious workout.  I was so beat and really was just dumbfounded at how tired I was when I got home.

But I wouldn't have missed it for the world.  Now that he is in 8th grade, there are hardly any opportunities like these and I really did totally enjoy the experience.  Here are a few of my favorite photos of the day.  I only brought my small point and shoot because I knew the terrain might be a little treacherous and Miles wanted to make sure I wouldn't embarrass him by being his paparazzi.  I tried my best not to be too intrusive or troublesome. :)

I think the most exciting part of the day was going into the cave.  We have hiked, as a family, all around this area many times and have only ever peeked into the cave.  I would have never gone in there, in knee high water, without a guide.  We could only go half way into the cave because the water got too deep from all the rain we had the previous weekend.   Truly, an unbelievable experience!!

After the cave trip, they did a stream study. This is where I probably most embarrassed Miles, but I just couldn't help myself. While a teacher was lecturing about the invertebrates they would most likely find in the stream, I walked over to a tree nearby to lean against.  After just a minute, I saw this humungous spider with what turned out to be a giant bright blue egg sack on it's back. I made some type of audible sound, (I can't remember if I squealed or said, "OMG".)  Either way, the teacher came over to look at the spider, declared it was a wolf spider and all the kids came over to have a look.  I was really embarrassed for causing a scene.  Later, Miles just kind of shook his head at me.  He said, "Leave it to you to find the biggest spider in the woods."  They must know how much I love them.  NOT!!

And finally, I managed to find little pieces of time this week to get another Project 12 layout done.  Still using my basic sketch, which I'm so happy I created, but went a little more graphic this month and left off the flowers. I also changed the "what we did" journaling spot into a circle.  Really happy with it. :)

Tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day and I'm hoping to join in on the online crop at Studio Calico. I've never done an online crop before, but it sounds like a fun day of scrapbooking, which is right up my ally! 

this and that, here and there

So the last two weeks Richard was out of town, and boy did we miss him.  The hardest part of him being gone for me, was it left me doing all of the carpooling and dishes, which I despise, but over the two weeks I tried to come to grips with my issues ;)  Regardless, I was feeling very scattered and too busy for my comfort level.  There never seem to be time to focus on a task and complete it.

Anyway, because I was out and about so much I made a few trips to Target. On one of my trips (I did make lots of returns too), I found a solution to my marker storage problems. What I had been using, a metal tea tin turned sideways had never really worked well. The pens were too deep into the container and it was really just a hassle to get the right pen out.

I found this basic pencil holder by Real Simple and because the little cells are tall, it still works great turned on it's side.  I thought I'd share this little tip, as there may be someone else looking for a good way to store markers. I know I had been on a hunt for a couple months.

I have a project on my table I had hoped to finish yesterday, but darn the luck if the printer decided it would print not another page without a light cyan cartridge. And of course, the replacement cartridge I had on hand was black! So maybe to day I'll get it done.

This weekend was rainy and just yuck, but Richard and I had two weeks of our TV shows to watch. Namely, LOST!  Oh man, it's getting good and what a relief to finally get some things sorted out about that show. Emily is so excited it's almost over. She says we listen to it too loudly and it keeps her up on Tuesday nights. lol

I do hope to participate in Ali Edward's Week in the Life, but obviously it would have been missing someone very important if I did it last week.  Maybe next week will feel right. I did the documenting part last year, but I never put the album together.  Need to get on that too!

I should go run, but it's cold and dreary.  But at least it has stopped raining.  We'll see if my Thai chai tea will warm me up enough this morning to get me out the door!

Still so sweet.

So, I ended my last post with a teaser of a really sweet story to tell.

While we were walking around the botanical gardens this weekend, there were times we were just kind of scattered around.  I was usually behind the rest of my crew, stopping often to take photos.  At one point, I was standing on a little bridge to take a photo of a small waterfall. Miles came up behind me and said "Let's have a Pooh sticks race."  It took a minute for my brain to process what he was saying because it's not often that a 14 year old brings up Winnie the Pooh.  Once I "got it," I immediately gave him a huge hug and was rushed with the realization that my sweet little boy is still inside that growing, taller than me, body. 

I loved that he remembered the sweet stories we read about my favorite character, Winnie the Pooh. My heart just melted and filled with such tenderness.  He is indeed the sweetest boy I've ever known.

I called out to Richard to come and take our photo so we could capture this story in a photograph.  

We each found a stick and dropped it on one side of the bridge and rushed to the other side to watch it come  out.  Unfortunately for us, their must have been a lot of rocks under the bridge because our sticks never came out.  While it would have been fun to live out this little Pooh adventure, it was just such a great little moment we shared.  There are times when I so miss that little boy who would crawl on my lap and I would read stories to or just come up and give me big hugs. This incident reminded me that little boy is still there covered in a teenage exterior. And, oh how I love him. (I do still get hugs occasionally from him now, but it's a little strange to have your boy bending over to hug you.)

And because I just can't help myself here are a few more of flower shots from the day.

Snapshots from the weekend 4.17.10

We went to St. Louis this weekend and enjoyed some great family time.  There was something for everyone crammed into a little over 24 hours.

We started off at the St. Louis Mills Mall and went go-karting.  Miles obviously has been doing too much Wii driving because he went screaming past us all!! It's a little scary to consider he'll be able to get a driver's permit soon.

Next up for Emily, there was ice skating. Not only did she want to skate, her wish was for us all to do it with her. 

She's quite good and we are not so good. Richard initially wobbled on the ice and said, "Why did I agree to this?"  But once he got the hang of it he was zipping around fairly easily.  Miles decided ice skating just wasn't for him after one nice splat on the ice. (I can't blame him really.)  I tried to be as graceful as possible, but obviously I wasn't the picture of grace the whole time. :)  They loved that they caught me on flapping! (I did not, however, fall down. I think this photo is pretty funny and if you can't laugh at yourself, well then, that's no fun at all.)

After skating, I got to squeeze in a trip to an Archiver's. Surprisingly, I didn't do too much damage. I stocked up on my favorite Thickers I can't get at home and a new Slice card. I made a new friend too!! I love meeting scrapbookers! We are the nicest bunch of people aren't we?

After getting checked into the hotel, we had dinner at the Triumph Grill.  What a fun place!  There is a motorcycle museum in the restaurant and the food was really good too.   The lighting over our table was super cool.

Sunday was spent at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  We really couldn't have special ordered better weather and it was the perfect time of year to see tulips in all their glory.  Not surprising that I took over 120 photos and would have taken many more if my camera battery had not died. Here are just a few of my favorites.

It was truly a great family weekend. I've got a sweet story to tell tomorrow.

GCD Studios Theme Project: Silk and Feathers

Each month Heidi Sonboul challenges the Facebook Gal designers with an inspiration piece. This month's Theme was silk and/or feathers. Here's a look at the image that got me super inspired.  I just adored the flowery necklace on the right.

With that in mind, this is the layout I created.

I knew instantly I wanted created a rose like flower out ribbon.

I started my project with a basic 2 inch wire edged satin ribbon from Michael’s and after fumblin around for a while, I searched online for roses made with ribbons. (What did we do before Google?)

The techniques for making a ribbon rose I found online involved a lot of hand stitching or intricate folding that I couldn’t seem to grasp, nor really wanted to do.  I struggled to make what I had envisioned for quite a while and then stumbled upon an idea that worked for me.   I knew it would be so much easier if the ribbon would just adhere to itself as I wrapped it around the knot I wanted to start with.  So I ran the ribbon through my old trusty mini Xyron. Once I did that it really became an easy  embellishment to make.

Here is a photo series of how I made the rose.  These photos are of the small rose which was made out of 20 inches of ribbon. The large rose was made out of 27 inches of ribbon.

The only comments I would add to these photos are after I got the rolling of the ribbon started I began to randomly pull back the ribbon to make it look more like a rose.  Because I used the removeable adhesive, it was also fairly easy to manipulate.  Once the rose was complete, folded the tail end to make a triangle, applied adhesive to the bottom of the rose and tucked it under.  I also “smushed" it down after wards.  Before I put the layout into my scrapbook, I will probably run an embossing buddy over the top so that the adhesive won’t stick to the page protector.

To make the gathered ribbon border, I simply pulled one end of the wire out of the ribbon edge. This creates a perfect no sew gather! I adhered it to my page along the top with Scrapbook Adhesives Craft and Photo tape. (A favorite strong adhesive of mine. I had wanted to sew it down, but my machine was having none of it!)

If you have never made a ribbon rose before, I hope this inspires you to do so. It really is very easy this way. Happy creating!!

Supplies:
GCD Studios, Ava Collection papers, Topaz and Mod (side a & b).
Embellishments: GCD Studios, Artsy Urban Melody Ross Collection; Clear Stickers (which I mounted on white cardstock and cut around), the Metal rimmed Glass Brads and the Vintage Brads.

Die Cut Machine: Making Memories Slice
Border Punch: Martha Stewart.

A quickie

I've got lots to share and hoping I'll have time tomorrow to photograph and post the layouts I've been busy with recently. I've got more projects to finish for a deadline so I'll have to make today's post brief.

I was super excited to get an email from Scrapbook & Cards Today asking if they could feature one of my Project 12 layouts on their blog today.  Go take a look and if you haven't downloaded the Spring issue of the magazine, please do so! (It's free and really quite fabulous.)

I really don't want to end the post photo-less, so here is a close up of some of the blossoms on my crab apple tree.  Have I said how much I LOVE spring here? And the smell is so sweet and pretty too! I really should add a photo of the tree and just how covered it is in blooms, but this was the photo already on my desktop.  (I'll share next time, maybe.)

Working with GCD Studios

I'm so excited that today is my day to share a technique with all the Facebook Fans of GCD. I'm super thrilled to be a part of the team and I've been waiting very patiently to share this layout with you.

I must say fell in love with the Melody Ross Artsy Urban collection the first time I saw it in the stores.  I just adore the shabby chic feel and to me, nothing lends itself better to shabby chic than distressing, especially when you are working with a printed cardstock.  Here's the layout I created with the collection inspired by the words to Rascal Flatt's song, "My Wish".  As my daughter reaches these "tween" years, I hope these words will stick with her.

So, today for my technique I’d like to revisit distressing.  If you’ve been around the scrapbooking block a while, you have done some distressing.  I personally think it never goes out of style. Shabby Chic decorating and antiques are classics right?

The black background paper, that is the base for my layout today, is from the Melody Ross Artsy Urban 12 x12 Collection Pack. It was perfectly distressed already. I also chose to use the “b” side to the Dress Shirt paper from the Lydia Collection. While this paper was a good compliment to my photos, it was just too perfect and I wanted to bring out the warm tones in the brick and the edgy feel in the photos.

To start off with, I sprayed it with Brown Maya Mist and then sanded it with the big, flat file from the Basic Grey Precision File set.  I loved how spots of glue and gunk on my table created dots on the paper. (Don’t you just love a happy accident?)

I also did a little scratching with one of the more pointy files and ran ink (Ranger's Distress Ink-Vintage Photo) along the punched edges once I was done sanding. (The this edge punch is my new favorite Martha Stewart punch.)

Here are the papers before and after.

Another great way to add dimension and bring in the shabby chic element  is to incorporate machine stitching. Right now, machine sewing it is my go to design element.  Once a piece of paper is sewn down the edges can really take a beating. I sanded, ran my fingernail along the edges and made little rips until the blue patterned paper was perfectly tattered and totally shabby chic.

To finish of the layout I used the Melody Ross Artsy Urban Layered Flowers, a Chipboard Sticker and Die Cut borders.  I hope this has inspired you to use distressing techniques to create your own shabby chic masterpiece.

The title was created with the Slice and given dimension with Close to my Heart’s Liquid Glass and adhered with pop-dots. The blue paper was from the 8 x 8 Melody Ross Artsy Urban pad.  Font for the journaling is Underwood 1913.

Welcoming a Hero to our Neighborhood

This morning was quite special to our neighborhood.  Homes for Our Troop's is building a house for a Missouri veteran that was seriously injured while patrolling the streets of Baghdad in 2009.

This morning was the opening "Brigade Parade".  The streets were lined with supporters of all kinds; military, political officials, friends, family and neighbors. All were there to welcome SSG Robert Canine and his family to what will soon be their new home. Over the next few days, volunteer craftsmen will build the outside structure of their home, in what I'm sure will be Extreme Makeover style.

The ceremony was extremely emotional and inspiring. After the politicians had their say about local volunteerism and patriotism, Robert's commanding officer introduced him to all of us. Here's just a piece of the heart felt introduction.
 
I was so glad we decided to let the kids stay home from school this morning to see it all unfold. Not only is it always important for them to understand the sacrifice our military families make for us every day for our protection and freedoms, but the Canine's will be truly be our neighbors.  We can see the what will be the front of their house from our kitchen window.

What a triumphant and exhilarating feeling this must have been for him and his family.  It ceratainly was exciting for us to watch and be there to cheer them on.

Later in the morning, after we got the kids off to school, we got to meet Robert and his wife, Jennifer.  They are the sincerely the nicest people. I'm so happy for them and I am so very PROUD to call them our neighbors.

They have a slew of volunteers lined up, but I'm sure we'll all be over their doing what we can and being neighborly. :)

Here's a link to Robert telling his story at Homes for Our Troops. (Warning: I've watched this several times and can't help but getting emotional each time.)

Thank you Robert, Jennifer and all of our military families. We love you and appreciate all that you sacrifice for our liberties and service to our country.

Breaks are good.

Okay, I'll admit it. There was definitely part of me that was not looking forward to spring break.  We weren't going anywhere and really didn't have plans, but it turned out wonderful really.  I didn't intend to take a break from the blog either, but other than making it hard to get back into the groove, it was good to take a step back from it and just enjoy the break, being with the family.

Emily and I spent a fabulous day Tuesday having lunch at a new Mediterranean restaurant, window shopping and walking around downtown. Such a good time just us girls. She's growing up so fast and I love that we can really just "hang out" together and enjoy each others company. She even indulged me with posing for a few photos in different locations downtown. Loving these. And you will indeed see them soon on a layout, unfortunatly I  can't share just yet. (Look for it at the end of the week.) :)

On Thursday, we rode our bikes on the trail all the way to downtown for lunch at a local sandwich shop.  It was a lovely, sunny and warm day. 

It was great to just be outside and back on the trail.  The trail doesn't have a tree canopy yet, so Miles and I got a bit of a sun burn.

Richard took the day off Friday and we drove down to the Lake to go hiking at a state park there. I don't know what it is about these trails at a state park being so hard to find? We have the worst luck I guess.  Once we finally found the trail I had read about and had my heart set on it was a good 2.5 mile hike.

We walked along a bluff above the river and passed a small family Civil War graveyard, dating back to the 1800's.  Emily being the novice rock hound spent most of the hike looking for cool rocks. (I must admit I spent a lot of the hike looking for rocks as well.)

But the thing that will probably be most memorable about the hike, was the boys being boys. As Emily and I were collecting rocks the boys were trying to hit trees with rocks. (I know this probably isn't acceptable state park behavior, but other than a few people on horse back we saw no one on the trail at all.)

Nearing the end of the hike Richard spotted this tree with a branch that had fallen off and created a hole.  And seeing a challenge, they then spent a good 15 minutes trying to get a rock into the hole of the tree. Miles finally hit the bulls eye and the rock went in!!

And even with this fun distraction, I know God was watching out for us, because just as we walked to the car, the skies open up with a torrential downpour.

This Easter Sunday was probably the prettiest day we've had on Easter in the (almost) 3 years we've been here. After church and lunch, we had our annual Easter Egg Hunt for the kids on our street in the empty lot next to our house. It was such a good day.

My first assignment to find GCD Studios projects was up at the GCD Studios Facebook page yesterday.  It was a layout featuring GCD embellishments used in a unique way by the wonderful Emily Pitts. Check it out here. I can't wait to share what I've been up to. :)