Friday, May 30, 2008


This is a new venture for me - and for SIStv - it's called Scrapblog. I do have to say, it's pretty basic as far as digital scrapping goes - but it's kinda fun and definitely easy. So my little entry up there is a work in progress. I'm going to be adding some more photos and pages. But there's a little preview for you anyway! Check it out and do one of your own!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

We had such a lovely Memorial Day. I was a little disappointed that we weren't going to do our annual Memorial Day road trip - but only a little. At least we save a bunch of moolah! Instead, we started off our day by taking Dustin and family and Deborah and Sam out to breakfast at May's. Cheap and good. And filling! Lots of protien and grease to keep your tummy satisfied! Mmmmm! :) (that's for you, Martha!)

Then we all went up to Keystone Mountain Park to walk through the location for the wedding, tent and some lodging. We spent about 3 hours there. It was just a PERFECT day! And up by the darling little chapel (scroll to bottom of linked page) the kids are going to get married in, we had a nice little photo shoot. Here are just 2 of the great shots I got:



That is one cute family, if you ask me! :)

We had planned a hot dog roast, but rain was forecast, so we changed it to a little hot dog and brat supper and some lawn games and some deck time. Our neighbor, Chris, joined us (for the first time ever!) and the Shaws and the kids. We'd invited Bob and Kellie, too, but they went up to Ryan and Kerry's for the day.

A few drops of rain came down, but nothing that would have prevented having a fire. Oh well... At least Chris and I killed all the competition in corn hole...

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Here's one of my latest digi creations (completely using Audrey Neal's "Birdbrain" collection designed exclusively for SIStv). I love the look on Eva's face. It is one of utter contentment. After Dustin and Emily marry in August, Dustin will be adopting Eva. He has proven to be a truly wonderful daddy to her and she adores him. This just melts my heart because a wonderful daddy is something every little (and big) girl needs... And, of course, if you can read between the lines, then you'll realize that little Eva will also become our sorta "legal", if not blood, granddaughter. Oh. The JOY. I've been telling people that if I could pick from all the little girls in the whole wide world one to be my granddaughter, Eva would be the ONE! :) And I'm not taking that privilege away from anyone - all children should have two sets of grandparents and thus far, she has only had one. A fantabulous one set, but only one. :)

Today I head out of town for my annual Ladies LYFE conference. This will be my 21st time to attend. It's a great time of fun girl-talk and getting to know each other, the food is good, it's a beautiful campus and the workshops are usually good and thought-provoking. But my favorite thing is the "LYFE" hours - two on Friday and two on Saturday. There's usually a chosen keynote speaker for the year who brings excellent bible teaching and application. And there's wonderful singing of choruses together - always beautiful. And there's always some gorgeous special music performed. And there always fun and laughter. It's a great time and I look forward to it every year.

I'm off to pack and get ready and maybe even squeeze in some scrapping time...

Monday, May 19, 2008

(Credits: Scalloped Mask - Jen Caputo; Acrylic Alphabet - Audrey Neal (Iconic for SIStv - coming soon); all the rest is Flea Market designed by Jenna Beam (shabbymissjenn.com) for SIStv) (Click on photo for a larger view.)

I'm baaaack! Back from Wisconsin and back to blogging here much more regularly. I've decided to quit the 365 Challenge. I've just been so behind - on everything - lately, and I keep wanting to digi scrap, but was feeling the pressure to catch up on the challenge first. So, I just decided to let that go. It is my choice as to what I do and, while I do like to stick to my committments, I'm not above giving them up if they prove to be too much. And that's just what I'd been feeling. So now I'll be posting on this blog a lot more regularly. Maybe changing some things up a little...

I had a "great" visit with Mom when I went back a couple weeks ago. No, it's not "great" that she's in the situation she's in, but we still managed to have a great visit, anyway, and even managed some good laughs. The highlights of her days are mail, meals, Skinny Cow low-sugar ice cream cones and VISITS. I'm really glad I went back. Mom has a looonnnngggg road of recovery before her, even still, now a month after her fall. She's having a hard time accepting that, understandably. But I think she'll be more "content" - well as content as you can be in her situation, if she will accept it. Unfortunately, since she can't get up on her injured leg yet, good old Medicare won't pay for rehab on the "good" leg and arms, etc. That's really stupid because she totally needs to be building strength in that good leg for when she DOES get up on her feet. DUH.

She did have a dr.'s appointment last Thursday and they x-rayed for the 1st time since the surgery. Mom was hoping (albeit unrealistically - sorry, Mom) that he would say she could lose the leg brace and start getting up - but no - she'll be status quo for 3 more weeks when they will x-ray again and re-assess. I still highly doubt that she'll be getting up then either. But, they DID say it was beginning to heal. Obviously, WE all know that the danger in getting up too soon is that the whole reconstruction that they rigged up will be weakened or, worse, come apart. And THEN what? So, hard as it may be, she must be patient.

In other news, my 2nd tutorial at SIS went live last week. You can see it here. And it features the cute little banners shown in the two projects just below and also in the Romance page with Dustin and Emily, a little further down the blog. "Smash up" is just SIStv's fun little term for hybrid - where digital and paper scrapping are blended, or, smashed up. :)


My next tut will go live on June 2nd. I'm going to teach how to make your own transparencies. If you're just totally overwhelmed with excitement, sorry, you'll just have to wait! ;)

I am having SO much fun getting my "compensations" and complimentary collections from SIStv and then making stuff up. In fact, I just got the latest one a few minutes ago and there's a digi kit that will go with it as well. I think I'm going to make a set of cards...

Matthew & Martha called Saturday while they were in the midst of a yard sale. They're getting rid of stuff so they don't have to move it. We've been talking about them coming back to PA for a long time now, but the reality of it is beginning to sink in. Actually, it's that I'm allowing myself to really believe it and I am getting exCITED! I can barely contain myself! I'm SO looking forward to having BOTH of my "kids" around. Oh, the JOY!

And Dustin and Emily's plans are coming along for the wedding. They're starting to plan the invitations. I'm going to help, but I think it's a good thing that Deborah's a scrapper, too, because my summer is gearing up to be pretty darn busy!

We all had a great time last weekend when we went to Knoebel's Grove to celebrate Eva's 4th birthday. I think I feel a mini-book coming, because we got some cute photos and it was a day to remember. It was quite chilly and looked like it was going to pour down rain the entire time, but - it DIDN'T - and we had a ball.

Chris is out golfing with Jack today. I play my last monthly pinochle tonight in the little group I nosed my way into with Chris's sister, Kellie. It's REALLY fun. We take off for the summer - sort of. We don't play pinochle, but we will get together once a month still to go out to eat somewhere. How great is that? :)

I'm off to get to "work" - scrapping, that is! You know, I'm living my dream right now. When I quit work a year ago, it was my dream to be somehow scrapbooking "professionally" within the year - and being on a design team definitely counts! I'm SO happy!