Seth Golf 2009....His Senior Year

 

I can't even list all of Seth's accomplishments in golf this year.  He has had a terrific senior year.  It started off with a trip to the Junior Amateur Tournament in New Jersey where he hit his FIRST HOLE IN ONE!  So exciting for him and John.  Donald Trump congratulated him and they took a picture together.  Next Seth was Medalist in the Hurricane Classic in Jonesboro.  This was the second time he was Medalist in this tournament. In August High School Golf started and they had a great year as a team.  He LOVES playing with these guys!  They have so much fun together.  Seth finished the year with a trip to Pleasant Valley Country Club for the State Overall Tournament where he finished Second in the State!  What a great way to go out!  We love him and are so proud of  his determination to do well.  Great Job Seth!!

Legally Blond

This summer Lauren got us tickets for Legally Blond in Fayetteville.  We took my Mom with us and we had a great time.  We all dressed in pink and went to dinner at Bordino's before the show and then walked across the street to the theatre.  It was a great show and we loved the 2 dogs!  So cute! 

I'm trying to catch up on my blog so check back quick for some new posts! 

Seth at the US Junior Amateur

 

 

Seth qualified for the second year in a row to compete in the US Junior Amateur.  This year it was held at Trump International in New Jersey.  During Seth's practice round he hit his very first HOLE IN ONE!  Donald Trump said no one had ever hit a hole in one on that hole before and that Seth had to buy everyone in the clubhouse a drink.  NOT!  He did get his picture made with Donald Trump through.

Family of Shih Tzu's

A little over a year ago I lost my little Yorkie named Baxter.  I couldn't stand it so I got a Shih Tzu named Daisy.  I love her and she is such a good dog.   About 7 months later Lauren moved into a house in Fayetteville and started saving her money until finally she had enough to get a dog.  She found some puppies in Little Rock and her and Ryan drove down to see them and asked my sister in law Christina to go with them.  Welllllll.... Lauren ended up getting Paisley and Christina went back the next day and got Abi!!!!  They are such good, smart dogs!  My Mom and Dad also have a shih tzu named Oscar.  I guess we are a Shih Tzu family

Father's Day 2009

I made Daddy a little scrapbook for Father's Day this year.  When we lived in Gulfport Mississippi in 1969, Hurricane Camille hit Gulfport and most of Daddy's childhood pictures were destroyed.  I had to use the only ones he has and most of them were water damaged.  I scanned them and printed  out the ones I could use.  I made Mom a little book for Mother's Day and now they have their little books side by side on this antique piece of furniture in their house.

Rock Creek Minnesota Golf

Seth played golf all over the country this summer and John and I took turns taking him to different tournaments.  I cannot believe I missed this trip!  They went to Minnesota for a tournament and made it to the MALL OF AMERICA!!!!  What????  They got to go before me.  I don't know how this happened.  I think it was a conspiracy between John and Seth.

Keep checking back.  I will be updating the Blog every few days

Hi!

Hi! I haven't disappeared!  I will be updating next week.  I have so much to tell.  All good stuff. I've just been really busy.

Nana and Papa

We love our Nana and Papa and are so thankful they live here in Mountain Home. They were my subjects the other day in the park while I tried out my new lens. They did a great job and I got some great pictures.

Golf and A New Lens

I got a new camera lens for my Nikon D300 and I just love it. It is a Nikon 70-200 VR 1:2.8. I LOVE that I can set the aperture wide open so I get this fabulous background blur (bokeh). I have been shooting on aperture priority so I choose the aperture setting. I am still getting used to using it and it is HEAVY but well worth it. Our summer days are full of golf so these are the first shots I took with my new lens. I like the way they turned out. Seth is doing good in golf this summer after a few bumps in the road. Golf is such a funny game. One day you do really good and the next day it can totally fall apart. I guess that's what keeps them coming back. John and Seth are totally addicted to it! There should be a golf addiction program run buy the golf widows. Hahaha

Mother's Day

I made this little book for my Mom for Mother's Day. I combined some old photos with some recent photos to kind of capture her life. She loved it and I just made my Dad one for Father's Day and gave it to him last Sunday. I'll post some pictures soon.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. Our's is busy with golf trips and John and Seth are loving that! I manage to find a scrapbook store in every town we visit.

St. Louis

We went to St. Louis in April and had a really good time. Lauren and Ryan and Seth and Sonya came and we went to a Cardinals game on Friday night. We sat way up high on the first row and it was perfect for my short little legs. Everyone else's legs were all cramped and hitting the rail but not me! I could stretch out and had a perfect foot rest. On Saturday night Seth and Sonya went to a Taylor Swift concert that they said was really good. We had a great time and ate some great food and let's not forget some great shopping!!! hahaha

Paisley

LAUREN GOT A PUPPY! We bought a house in Fayetteville and Lauren and 2 of her friends are renting it from us. It is so perfect for them and they love it. Sooooo Lauren has always wanted a dog but of course couldn't have one in the sorority house. She saved her money and bought little Paisley in Little Rock. She is just precious and we call her our Granddog!

Lauren

I am so proud of Lauren. She was on the Dean's List and the President's list last semester at Fayetteville. She also got a nice scholarship. I drove up to go to the awards ceremony with her and then took this picture after the ceremony at the square. Tomorrow I will post pictures of Lauren and her new _ U _ _ Y. Hahahaha

Seth and Sonya

Seth went to his first prom this year with his girlfriend of 8 months Sonya. They were a beautiful couple and had a great time. I was only "allowed" about 15 minutes to take photos, but I got some good ones. It is so different with a boy. Lauren LOVED me to take photos of her and would just pose forever. Seth on the other hand will give me just a few minutes so I have to be on my toes. Tomorrow an update on Lauren! She has a new little _ _ _ _ _!

Herbs

Ok, I will be doing another Blog Blitz this week because I am soo far behind. I will start with the herbs I planted in my sunroom in April. I have already used them so much and I love having them in the sunroom. I can harvest them without fear that a SNAKE looms very near. I haven't spotted a snake this year so far and I hate to even say that to jinx me. I HATE snakes and my family will tell you that I have a "snake scream" that is very loud and everyone knows it and they come running with tools to kill it. I am already inside when they get there!!!!

Mexico 2009

We took a wonderful trip to Mexico in February to celebrate Gloria's 50th Birthday! We went to a beautiful house in Manzanillo Mexico. We read books and played games and relaxed. It was absolutely beautiful!!! I even packed some scrapbooking supplies and we made some valentine cards for everyone to take home. It was so relaxing and the scenery was just picture perfect. I'm ready to go back.......maybe next year.

Ali Edwards Carousel

I got this photo carousel idea from Ali Edwards site. Basically I divided it into 4 parts for the 4 members of my family. Each person has a section and I included baby pictures all the way up to present day pictures. I think it turned out really cute. I have it in my kitchen for everyone to flip through.

The Ice Storm of 2009

It took me 2 hours to figure this background out but I love it! It is from House of 3 http://www.houseof3.com/. A new site by Heidi Swapp, Janet Hopkins, and Rhonna Farrer. It is mostly digital stuff but it is really cool.

On to the ice storm! It was terrible! We lost electricity for 3 days. That is not very long considering some people lost it for much longer. I will NEVER take electricity for granted again! I wouldn't have made it 100 years ago. I am soo thankful for my heat, my refrigerator and freezer and mostly my lights at night. I think that is what I missed most is having light at night. You see I am a night owl and I do lots at night but with no light it is boring! I wanted to go to bed at 8:00. Thanks to my little hand warmers (that hunters use), I was able to stay up and read a book with a little book reading light. I had those little warmers in my hands, my bra, and even my socks. They are great little things. Who knew? I even slept with them. Anyway we survived, but we lost 5 trees and had lots of limb damage. Thankfully none hit the house or the pool. We also lost everything in the refrigerator and freezers. We are blessed because it could have been much worse. Everyone is safe and that's all that really matters.

Kelly Goree Creative Escape Layouts

I am finally getting around to finishing up my projects from Creative Escape back in September. These layouts were from Kelly Goree's class and I really love the way they turned out. I have learned so much about Photoshop Elements lately that it is fun to play with the photos and not be scared to death you are going to ruin them. I can change them up a little and then print them out in the exact size I need them for the layout without all that triming. I'll post the other projects as I finish them. Have a wonderful day! I'm going to scrap!

Lauren is Engaged!

Ryan asked Lauren to marry him on December 7th. One of her friends handed her a piece of a puzzle that told her a limo was picking her up that sunday afternoon. The limo took her to the Kappa Sigma house where some of his fraternity guys sang her a song and gave her another piece of the puzzle. She got back into the limo and the driver gave her another piece of the puzzle and took her to the spoofer stone at Ole Main on the Fayetteville campus. (Secretly the limo left and came and picked up our family and Ryan's family and brought us to Ole Main.) Ryan was waiting for her with candles and he got down on one knee and proposed. He even had engraved glasses with the date for them. They made their way back to the limo and opened the door and we all surprised her. She cried. They got in and we went to The Power House where Ryan had arranged for some food. Some of their best friends met us there and we had a little party. She was very surprised and cried many times that night. Such a happy day and we were so glad we could be a part. There is no date set yet. Ryan wants to go to Law School and Lauren still has to get her Masters.

Scrapbook Addiction Christmas Expo

I had a fun time at the Christmas Expo and made 3 good projects. The teachers were all really prepared and the projects were so "stinkin" cute!! The food was good too. It was really nice that it was in the middle of November because it got me in the Christmas Spirit early.

Thanksgiving

All of our relatives from Mississippi were here this Thanksgiving. We had a great time and after Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday we went out to Gaston's to take the annual picture.

Refinishing Hardwood Floors

We had our original hardwood floors refinished in November by Chad and Matt Hershberger. They did a wonderful job!!! They look better than they did when they were brand new! The only problem was that me, John and Seth had to live out of our bedroom for about 10 days with 2 dogs and 2 cats. Oh My! I didn't even have use of the kitchen. One night Seth said what do you do if you want a drink? I said you get in your car and you go buy you one! The last picture is of the sealer they use and how it has dried on the can after so many uses. I couldn't resist taking a picture because I thought it looked cool!

FALL IN THE OZARKS

I am still trying to learn how to use the Nikon D300 I got for Christmas last year, and I love fall, so I thought I would drive around and take some pictures of the beautiful Ozarks that we live in. It really is breath taking when you STOP and look around and take it all in. THANKFUL!

Blog Blitz

I am so far behind on my Blog that I have decided to do a Blog Blitz! Sooooo for the next several days I will update it everyday. I am starting with Halloween. Daisy went as a pumpkin and had so much fun. She loved all the visitors at the door, but she especially liked to run and JUMP right into the basket of candy. She was so tired at the end of the night. We had a big crowd of kids and we gave away 300 plus toothbrushes and lots of candy.

More Layouts

Don't panic John's tatoo is fake! We both got fake tatoo's in Branson when we went for our anniversary weekend to trick our kids. They didn't buy it at all! Oh well! These are some layouts I did from Cathy Zielski's class online at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I am learning sooo much from this class about design. She is so good and funny too. More to come!

Design Your Life

These are some of the layouts I have done for my class with Cathy Zielski from Big Picture Scrapbooking. She designs the layouts and you fill in the pictures and colors etc. I have learned so much about color and repetition and the triangle of design. The class lasts until the end of the year so I will keep posting. I hope everyone is loving this fall weather!!!!! Ahhhhhhhh!

Daisy

Let me introduce you to Daisy! About a month ago I lost my 13 year old Yorkie. He was such a sweet dog, but he had so many health problems. After dinner one night, I came into the bedroom and I always glanced over at him in his bed to make sure he was ok and this time he wasn't breathing. I guess he just went to sleep and didn't wake up. I guess it was the best way to go, but it sure made for a horrible night. My dear friend Dr. Helvey actually came over to the house at 8:00 that night and took him. He has been such a good vet to my animals. I owe him a debt of gratitude for his many years of service. Ok enough of that! :( :(

Well, I tried, really I did, but my other dog is 15 and I couldn't bear the thought of something happening to her. So we got Daisy! She is a Shih Tzu and weighs about 3 pounds. We love her! She is so playful and happy. I have already introduced her to Dr. Helvey!

The layout of Daisy is from a class I am taking online at Big Picture Scrapbooking. The class is by Cathy Zielski and called Design Your Life. It is basically a graphic design class where she designs layouts to teach you things about color, space, and general design elements. It is really fun and at the end of class you will have a scrapbook filled with layouts that represent the elements of design. I will post more layouts from the class tomorrow........Daisy needs to go out. haha

Creative Escape

We made it to Creative Escape a day early to go on the Bazzill Warehouse Bus Tour. It was so interesting to tour the warehouse and see how the paper is cut and stored in these huge sheets. Mr. Bazzill himself gave us a tour and was so nice and answered everyone's questions. The Bazzill people take care of your EVERY need! They are so nice and make sure you have everything you need throughout the entire event. After the tour we got to shop!! We could fill Pizza boxes with any paper including the fancy edges papers for $20 a box. Each pizza box could hold around 125 pieces of paper. I love their paper! Well.......I came home with...actually I shipped home 5 pizza boxes full of paper!!! They had all kinds of things for sale like albums for $1 and chipboard and brads etc. All of it was so cheap! Needless to say I stocked up and shipped it all home. After the warehouse we went to the Scrapbooks Etc. store and it was really nice. I spent some more money there and shipped that home as well. We had a great day.

On Thursday, the registration began at noon and then we went to the Technique Boutique where you have lots of make and takes and learn some techniques that you will use in the classes. There are so many freebies that you walk away with your arms full of stuff. So fun!! After that we went to the teacher's trunk show where they set up tables full of their work and they are there to answer questions and just introduce themselves. They are always so nice and willing to get their pictures made with you.

On Friday the first day of classes we had Kolette Hall's class and her project was "The Good Book" where you write good things about every day for a year. Her husband is in a wheel chair and so funny and inspirational. The second class was Kelly Goree's class and we did 4 layout's with some really cool different ideas like weaving, a clock face layout, and this cool quilt like layout with a neat border, and another one using layering. The third class was Jessica Guthrie's class and we did an acrylic book in her class. In each class when you walk in they give you the kit and you would be amazed at how much stuff is in each kit. One kit had a huge 12x12 bazzill lickety slip album. Our last class was Heidi's class and she is so relaxed and personal in her classes. She really shares her soul with you. She is so real and inspiring. We did an interactive calendar in her class with pictures and quotes and spinning wheels to change the date and the month and a quote. She is really creative! After all of these classes during the day, we actually had a huge 3 hour card making session that night and we made like 36 cards designed by previous CE teachers from the last 2 years. We were exhausted but we made it. Everything was included for all the cards and they are so cute!

On Saturday our first class was with Jenni Bowlin. She is soo cute and calm and we loved her hodge podge book. We even used glass glitter in her class. We love her style. The second class was Laurie Stamos and we did the big Bazzill Lickety Slip Scrapbook. The page protectors have different size pockets and some you put pictures in and some journaling and just what ever you want. These come together quick. She used lists for alot of her journaling and it was such a cute and quick idea for journaling. The next class was Tim Holtz!! He is a wonderful, wonderful teacher! He is very calm and says embrace the imperfection and is so funny. We made this little fabulous pin that you can wear or hang in a little frame and sit on your desk or dresser. I have never seen anything like this and it was so much fun. He definetely got us out of our lilttle boxes and had us try new things. Our last class was Janet Hopkins. Her project was this really cool book and we used a easy and fabulous technique on the cover. She is a good teacher and this book is so cool. One of the pages inside is actually a mirror. I will post all of my projects at a later date as I finish them. That night the speaker was Kolette Hall's husband Jason and he told his story and it is truly inspirational. If you ever have the chance to hear him please do! He is very upbeat and funny and you walk away feeling inspired.

We had a great time and I tried to post the pictures in order. Sorry for the long post!

Anniversary Trip to Branson

This is the last day of the blogging blitz. John and I took a little time and spent a weekend in Branson. We stayed in the new Hilton at Branson Landing. We stayed on the top floor in a really nice room. Our balcony was right under the Hilton sign! We ate out and went to a movie and had a good time. I surprised him with a new laptop and a minature Wedding Cake! The Jewel Chest gave us bottle of champagne!! It was nice to get away.

Tomorrow I am leaving for Creative Escape in Phoenix with my cousin!!! We are so excited! We are going a day early this year to go on a tour of the Bazzill warehouse and this huge Bazzill scrapbooking store. I'll tell you all about it when I get home.

25th Surprise Party

Well first, I just hate surprises! I am sorta, kinda, a control freak! Ok, fine I said it! Anyway, my sweet husband planned a surprise party along with Lauren for our 25th anniversary. He wanted me to have an event to scrap! How sweet is that! The only problem is......I am very observant. We had planned to go out to dinner that night and then Ryan, Lauren's boyfriend got kinda dressed up for "just out to dinner". Then John comes and says, (with this funny mouth thing that he only does when he is trying to fool me), "I think I am going to go on out to Big Creek early to talk to Eddie about some golf club". THE LIGHT BULB WENT OFF IN MY HEAD!!!! Something was up!! So I started trying to get SOMEONE to tell me, and they all started having that funny mouth thing!! So I knew there was some sort of surprise. Now remember I hate surprises and being the center of attention!!!! I had envisioned 1000 people at Big Creek waiting to scream "Happy Anniversary" at me and all staring at me!!! Waiting for me to deliver some fabulous emotional speech!! Oh my gosh! Panic! Soooo they got me in the car and we got to Big Creek and they all got out of the car and I refused!!!! No I wanted to go somewhere else. Really I do! Finally I agreed and I got to the door and Michele and Traci were there and told me it was just a few really good friends. Well guess what! I had a really good time visiting with everyone. Lauren and John had gone to alot of trouble and got a cute cake with a picture of me and John at a Delta Zeta function at college. Lauren ordered these beautiful flowers and Ryan brought us some darling petit fours from Rick's Bakery decorated with our wedding date, a ring, and our initials. They also had photos of John and I through the years on the table. It was a nice night and I think I might grow to like surprises if they all turn out like this.

Travel Book

This is a little travel book. I put pictures of us in the different cities that we have traveled to recently. It's very simple and just made out of cardstock. I got the idea from one of the classes I took at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I have done a lot of scrapbooking this summer. Seth doesn't usually like us to follow him while he plays in these big golf tournaments. When I would take him I would take some scrapbooking projects and do them in the hotel rooms. In the big tournaments they have online scoring so every 3 holes they update the tournament scores, and I would follow his progress online with my laptop. I got a lot of hotel scrappin done!! I mean you can only shop sooo much before you get bored. I thought I would never say that!!!!!!!

Blogging Blitz Day 5 and 6

Sorry I missed yesterday! Seth had a High School golf match so we were out late and then I had to come home and do the payroll for the office because of the holiday on Monday. So today I added a picture of my birthday cake along with some pics of Seth and his golf tournament.

We celebrated my birthday (July 5) after we got home from Colorado Springs. We had a family dinner and Lauren decorated the kitchen. She is such a party planner and she LOVES cakes. She was so fun to have around this summer. I miss her!

Seth played in an American Junior Golf Tournament in Fayetteville and did really well! The tournament was at a very hard course called "The Blessings" built by John Tyson. It is a very exclusive private course. Kids from all over the country play in these golf tournaments. The girl that won is from Arizona. Seth tied for 4th and the top 5 are totally exempt for the 2009 season so that is a really big deal. It means he doesn't have to qualify to get into some tournaments. Lauren and I ordered the cookie cake that day as he was playing on the last day of the tournament. We didn't have any idea how he was doing but we didn't care. We still think he is the World's Best Golfer!!

Colorado Springs Vacation

This is day four of the Blogging Blitz!! We went to Colorado Springs on the 5th of July. We had a really good time and we stayed at this beautiful historic hotel called "The Broadmoor". Out our back window we had a beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains. One of the things we did was ride the Cog Train to the top of Pikes Peak. If you ever go to Colorado Springs you must do this. It was a 3 hour round trip ride. The views are just gorgeous! It takes an hour and a half to make the trip up and then another hour and a half down and you get 30 minutes at the top. They have a little snack bar up there and it is 30 degrees cooler at the top. You pass by gravesite of a couple that died on their honeymoon trying to make it to the summit and the original building that was built at the top 100 years ago.

Another day we went horseback riding. Seth was thrilled! hahaha This was serious trail riding. We rode for 2 hours and at some points the trail was about 2 feet wide. John and Seth's legs were all scratched up because they had on shorts. It was beautiful and we saw some old cabins and an old mine. It was hard to take pictures though because you had to hold on!!!

The day that John and Seth played golf Lauren and I drove around old colorado springs and had lunch in this little family owned Italian restaurant. After the golf game we went to see Garden of the Gods. It is huge red rock formations that you walk around. So unique and beautiful. We saw 3 deer just wandering around eating brush and they let us get about 5 feet from them. Evidently a family donated the land to Colorado years ago for a park and there is no charge to walk around.

At the end of the meal on our first night, John and the kids INSISTED on dessert which is really unusual. I was so shocked when he surprised me with a new wedding ring in honor of our 25th anniversary. The kids were in on the surprise and Lauren had her camera ready! I think she may turn out to be a scrapbooker after all!!! Tomorrow the blog blitz continues!!

Swimming Pool Fun

This is day three of the Blogging Blitz! I wanted to show some pictures of summer in the pool. Lauren will probably kill me for putting these pictures on my blog but her and Ryan have had so much fun in the pool this summer. These pictures are for you Lauren!! I love you sweetie! hahaha Tomorrow will be a long post with lots of pictures from our trip to Colorado Springs.

I Love My Studio

Ok, this is day 2 of the blogging blitz! I got your comment Michele and keep watching because I do believe you are going to be on here in a few days!! I actually took over our guest bedroom (which we only used maybe 2 times a year) to put in a studio for my scrapbooking and hobbies. It was my Christmas present several years ago. We put in a "murphy bed" in the cabinets just in case we needed an extra bed one day. It is a bed that folds out of the wall and then just folds back up. We have 2 sofa's that are sleepers also. Wellllll ....the scrapbooking supplies somehow expanded and I took over the closet. Then I got a bigger table to put more stuff on. Soooo I started to think.....which is a dangerous thing! We NEVER use that murphy bed, and I could sure use that space for shelving. So for my birthday this year I got this cool shelving unit from IKEA. John put it together for me and I love the functionality of it and it looks cool too. I am a freak organizer so every little thing has it's place and it's all open so I can see what I need. Tomorrow I have pool pictures of Lauren and her boyfriend Ryan so come back and check out Day 3.

Blogging Blitz

I have been such a bad blogger this summer and I apologize!! Sooooo for the next 10 days I am going to do a post!! Yes, I said 10 days....I promise, so check back everyday!! I am going to start from the beginning of summer and go in order and tell you what we have been up to. I will begin with the filling of our pool in early July (after the pizza guy drove into it). The weather finally got dry enough to put in the liner so we got our pool back. We got 2 loads of water from the Water Wagon and filled the rest up with the hose. It took about 24 hours. We were so excited!!!! Tomorrow, I am going to show you this cool shelving I ordered from Ikea for my studio. I love it!!!

Port Gibson Mississippi

Finally, I am posting my pictures from my visit to Port Gibson, Mississippi! I had a wonderful time visiting with my cousin. We have so much fun together. We made some charms for our charm swap for Creative Escape in September. She is a wonderful jewelry maker! I will post pictures of my charms in a couple of days. We have been soo busy! Check back soon because I will be posting about our trip to Los Angeles.

Traci and Michele

On Thursday, Traci, Michele, and I went to the cutest place for lunch in West Plains. It's called the Harlin House. The food was wonderful and it is just amazing what they have done with the house. It was practically falling down before they restored it. It is full of family history with pictures and even a scrapbook documenting the restoration. We will definetely go back! Thanks for taking me there girls! I had a great time!! Love ya'll!!

Heidi Swapp and Scrapbook Addiction

Well, I finally got the email from Brandi that I had been waiting on for months! THE NEW HEIDI SWAPP STUFF WAS IN! Glory Be! I rushed in and here is the result. She has tons of new double sided papers and some really cool 12 x 12 transparencies and some flower and butterfly embellishments in different colors. On some of her papers she even has this little tear off edge with tags that go with that paper. Really cool stuff! Thanks Brandi and Heidi of course for making my day!!

Port Gibson

I am trying to use some of the supplies that I already have so I decided to use this page kit I got in Springfield. It is by a designer named Allison Davis who was a 2007 member of the Creating Keepsakes Magazine Hall of Fame and a finalist for Scrapbooker of the year. I find that sometimes it will spark my creativity if I just let go and follow a kit or a project. You don't have to think so much and make decisions and it is very relaxing. I chose to use some pictures from my trip to Port Gibson, Mississippi with my cousin Ann. We spent one night in her 200 year old HAUNTED house. Now don't get me wrong. I am a huge chicken. I had to mentally prepare myself to go there. I hate scary movies, and monsters, and aliens. I told my cousin once we got in the house we couldn't even mention the ghosts. And YES I slept in the bed with her with the light ON! Seriously! Anyway, they left me alone!!! Not a single incident.....except the next morning when all of a sudden the lamp we left on all night went off. I told her if that had happened in the middle of the night she would have found me in my car backing out of the driveway.

She has done a beautiful job restoring the antiques that came with the house and redoing the plaster on some walls, and putting in a new kitchen floor. There is much work to be done and she loves it. She loves all things old and has collected many things to put in the house. She wants to have everything in the house from that time period. We sat on the upstairs balcony and had dinner and it felt like we were sitting in the oak trees. She has live oak trees at the front of her house that are huge and beautiful. It is so much fun being with her! I wished she lived closer.

In my next post I will show more pictures of the Port Gibson house. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

"Enjoy" Banner

I have been out of town visiting my cousin, Ann, in Mississippi. We had a wonderful time!! She is restoring a house in Port Gibson, Mississippi so we spent one night there. It is haunted but thank goodness they didn't show while I was there. It is a beautiful little town and her house is gorgeous and filled with antiques. We are going to Creative Escape again this year and we signed up for a charm swap. We have to make 85 charms so we worked on those while we were there. On the way back to her house in Jackson we each picked a favorite word to make into a banner. I picked "ENJOY". It is suppose to remind me to enjoy every day!

Library of Memories

I am taking an online class with Stay Julian and Big Picture Scrapbooking called Library of Memories and I have been really busy organizing my photos on my computer and the photos I have printed. I can tell this will really pay off because it is sparking my creativity and giving me lots of ideas to scrap. I also backed up all of my photos stored on my computer. I have been meaning to do that forever and this class has really inspired me to stay on top of things. I am sort of an organization freak anyway so this has been really fun. The only down side of this is that I haven't been scrappin much and I was really missing it. So tonight I pulled out a couple of pages that my cousin and I did in Memphis at Archiver's in a class. All I had to do was add photos so it was easy. I don't like to do a blog post without pictures so there you go! I hope everyone has a great week!

By the way Stacy has a new book out that tells all about the Library of Memories System. I'm sure Brandi at Scrapbook Addiction will be glad to order it for anyone interested.

Easter

We sang this song this morning at 1st Baptist Church and I just love the words so I thought I would post them on this beautiful Easter day. The song is called "On The Third Day" with words and music by Matt Maher and Marc Byrd.

"On The Third Day"

Creation brings an offering as autumn leaves turn to gold.
The trees bow down in highest praise, now made bare before your throne.
The western sky is an amber blaze at the end of the day,
for everything must die to rise again.

The winter’s chill, a bitter cold, as sin and shame leave us to fall.
The clouds, now full of new born snow, for grace to come and save us all.
Within the darkest night of man was found Your saving hand
for everything must die to rise again.

On the third day, behold the King. On the third day, death has no sting.
On the third day, we’re forgiven and reconciled.

The earth, it groans in labor pains, as flowers stretch to heaven above.
Your creatures sing the prophet’s song to be a gift of selfless love.
The sun is rising in the east, and Your Spirit is unleashed,
for everything must die to rise again.

And so we wait in joyful hope for You to come and take us home.
And so we join beneath the cross in suffering, from whence we go.
The greatest act of sovereign grace in the universe displayed
for everything must die to rise again.

On the third day, the saints rejoice! On the third day, we lift our voice!
On the third day, we’re united and glorified



Happy Easter Everyone!

My Sister Book

This is the second Donna Downey Kit that I bought. I decided to do this one on my cousin (we call each other Sister). She is my dearest friend in the whole world and I talk to her every day on the computer. We leave each other messages all day. I don't know what I would do without her. Some of the best times I've had have been with her. At the beginning of the book I put a couple of pictures of us as kids and then when we had our own kids at the same time. I have known her my whole life and I just love her!!

Donna Downey Kit

I ordered this kit from Donna Downey. (www.donnadowney.typepad.com) I thought it was so cute and it was scrapbooking and sewing all together! How fun and challenging for me at the same time. This is the finished projct. It took me about a day to finish it. It used these vintage thread spools to make the canvas stand and they just slide into these little pockets that you make. I also stamped using some Tim Holtz ink and some paint. She also included some beads and templates for the hearts and the scrolls. Everything was included in the kit except for the stamps and the ink and paint. Also included was this June Tailor photo transfer paper. This stuff is cool!! You put all the pictures onto a page in your computer and size them and include words and sayings in different fonts that you want to use on the project and then print it onto the photo transfer paper using your regular printer. Simply cut them out and iron onto your canvas. You can't really see it from the photos but I stitched around each picture and the hearts. I bought another kit from her site and I think I will start working on that next. She is really creative and funny and uses alot of mixed media things in her projects. I'll post pictures of that as soon as I finish it.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Every year I make valentine's for my family. I really should gather them all together from years past and make a scrapbook. Good Idea! On Thursday I am making Seth's favorite meal for him and John. Shhhh don't tell! I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!!

February

Please pray for the people that were hit by the tornadoes in the South. The devastation in Gassville is heart breaking.

I have posted a layout I did at Creative Escape in Heidi Lynn's class. All I add is a photo each month. Easy! Lauren comes home this weekend so I'm looking forward to her visit! Have a good weekend everyone!

Golf Scrapbook

I have been soo busy scrapbooking Seth a golf scrapbook for last year. I do this every year to document his tournaments and his golf season for the High School. The last 2 years have been wonderful because they have won the State Tournament both years. This years has 31 pages and it really turned out well. I know he will cherish it, especially when he gets older.

After I finished the scrapbook, I did a little organizing (I love to organize!! Seriously! I know weird!). I bought a 3 drawer unit from Walmart and organized my paper scraps. I always try to keep and use scraps, especially solid colors. I now have a drawer for Neutral colors (black, brown, white), one for Warm colors (red, pink, and orange), and one for Cool colors (blue, green, and purple). I love the way it turned out. I am putting it in my closet in my studio. I sorted all of my scraps and this will be so much easier to use. I'm off to scrap again! Have a wonderful week!

Back To Back State Golf Champions

I have finally started Seth's golf scrapbook for the season last fall. Yes they won the State Golf Championship two years in a row. How exciting is that! He acts like it is no big deal that I make these scrapbooks for his golf adventures, I include pictures and all the articles from the Baxter Bulletin, score cards, etc., but every once in a while I CATCH him flipping through last years book. hahahahah I just act like I don't see him and keep walking with a BIG grin on my face. I love this hobby!

Cathy and Ann in Memphis

I have been so busy since Christmas. We took Lauren back to Fayetteville last weekend and it was good to get back to normal. She was so glad to see her friends and the Monday classes started was her 21st birthday. I can't believe that!!!!

After a month of Christmas, my cousin and I decided we needed a break so we met in Memphis which is half way for both of us. We had the best time. We went to the Pottery Barn Outlet and the Willams Sonoma Outlet and got some deals! Of course we took our scrapbooking stuff. Memphis has an Archiver's store there so we scrapped on thursday night and then took a class on Friday right before we left to come home. Ann also found this really cool antique store in downtown Memphis that was 3 stories and had some great stuff. She is redoing an old house in Port Gibson, Mississippi. It freaked me out to go into the basement because the stairs were probably 200 years old and I just knew the door was going to slam behind us and we would never be heard from again. The basement was under the street and I am really scared of ghosts etc. She just laughs at me. Anyway, we survived, but seriously I am just going to stick to scrapbooking.