Spring Break Cruise 2010

     The Norwegian Sky

The first full day on the boat the boys went fishing and Lauren and I stayed on the boat.  The crew conducted a safety drill and actually launched all the rescue boats and shut the metal water safe doors.  It was really interesting and Lauren and I were glad the boats actually floated.

This is a cute bench in front of an ice cream store in Atlantis.

The aquarium at Atlantis.

Seth and Weston snorkeling.

Me and John on the balcony..............................NOT!

John's new hairstyle.

We had a great time and loved the warm weather and the sunshine. 

Scrapbooking

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I did a layout for my All About US scrapbook about our trip to Spark.  I use the Library of Memories System (Stacy Julian) to organize my photos and my scrapbooks.  I have a scrapbook for All About Us, People We Love, Places We Go, and Things We Do.  I also make a scrapbook for Seth for each of his High School Golf Years. Along the way each year I make mini-books about special events like Spark or a special vacation.  Right now I am focusing on photography and trying to learn Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom to edit and organize my photos.  I am struggling.  I have learned a lot but it seems I still haven't even scratched the surface.  I will keep plugging along.  I wish I could just slide a DVD into my brain and download all the info.  

Spark

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 My cousin and I went to Spark in Salt Lake City in the fall.  We had a great time lighting our creative SPARK!  I finally got around to finishing one of the classes we took there.  We were given a Donna Downey fabric scrapbook and I added some pictures and created the pages.    I love how it turned out.  The fabric was really fun to work with, and I just used fabric glue to glue on the fabric and glossy accents to glue on the pictures.

Being Creative

 

  

I added these flowers to a shirt I bought at Walmart.  They are rolled fabric and I learned how to make them at a wonderful event called Spark last november in Utah.  I think there is going to be a Spark II!  Excited!

 

  

I call this my bird book.  The book was a class I took at Creative Escape in Arizona.  The project was designed by the talented Heather Bailey.  She has beautiful fabrics and papers.  I reorganized my studio last week and I work so much better in a clean organized space!!  Ahhhh!

Valentine Cards

 

Well today it snowed AGAIN!!!  I was all bummed about it and feeling dreary.  So I decided to close all the drapes and pretend it wasn't snowing and go scrapbook.  My Fav!  I ended up making some Valentine Cards from  a card kit called Sugar Rush Greeting Card Kit from Basic Grey.  If I knew how to leave one of those fancy links I would right HERE but since I don't just google it.  I love the results and now I can check that off of my list and I am all about checking things off my list.  Enjoy!!

January 2010

 

We had a surprise snow storm in early January.  The temperatures reached single digits for several days and the snow didn't have a chance to melt.  The kids used all of their snow days before they even went back after their Christmas Break.  As you can tell Daisy loved the snow and didn't even notice the temperature. The kids shoveled off Mom and Dad's driveway and Seth took this great picture of Lauren and Ryan.  Maybe he should  give up golf and become a photographer!

Christmas 2009

 

 

 

We had 4 different Shih Tzu's this Christmas.  I have Daisy, Lauren has Paisley, Christina and Jay have Abi, and my Mom and Dad have Oscar. Somehow I missed taking a picture of Oscar. (Probably because he spends most of the time under a chair hiding from the young dogs)  We all had a little Christmas outfit for our puppies.  They had a great time playing with all of their new toys.  Who says Christmas is only for kids?  hahahaha  

Thanksgiving 2009

 

 

 

 

 

We had our annual Thanksgiving reunion in Jackson Mississippi this year.  My cousin Ann has an old house called The Heath House in Port Gibson Mississippi so we traveled about an hour out of Jackson to her second home to have our dinner.  She is in the process of redoing the house and has made so much progress.  It was like traveling back in time.  She is furnishing the home with period items she picks up at estate sales.  After dinner we traveled to the Windsor Ruins.  Years and years ago this beautiful home burned and this is what remains.  The pictures don't do it justice.  Those columns are HUGE and the tops are solid iron.  How in the world did they get them up there 100 plus years ago??  The last picture is of the whole family in front of The Heath House.

SPARK

 

 

 

 

 My cousin and I went to this GREAT event called SPARK.  It was hosted by Rhonna Farrer, Elizabeth Kartchner, and Margie Romney-Aslett.  It was held in Salt Lake City.  It was a day and a half of fun to "spark" your creative soul.  We had sewing, jewelry, photography, and art journal classes.  It was so fun and the site was decorated so cute.  The mountains were in the background and we took some great photos.  Ann and I met our first Morman friend, Amy Dalley, and she was sooooo sweet.  We asked her all of our Morman questions and she was happy to answer them.  They are some of the MOST creative people I have ever met.  The whole community is centered around the arts in many different forms.  I was just inspired to see so many artistic people creating.  We are planning to go back next year!!