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.