TGIF!!!

Whew what a week, I'm exhausted! Lots of buzy times and Dramarama at work... lol thats a story for another post. I have not been successful with any crafty creations lately :-( I really want to be productive, but anyone who knows me knows I love being outside in the yard/garden whenever it's nice.. I did make a trip to Archiver's yesterday and hmmm costly trip it was. I can gather my stuff and take a quick photo, but I'll just tell you I have more paper than I could ever use, and yet why do I need to buy more?? Can you repeat after me I AM ADDICTED TO PAPER AND I ALWAYS FOLLOW THE 2 SHEET RULE.... LOL (except when getting packaged sets - Like Crate paper Little Sprout and Orbit) I also picked up the Carolee Creation "Fern" collection of Owls.. I was lucky enough to add 3 more Quickutz Exclusive Dies for Archiver's to my growing collection. I got the seahorse, goldfish and bee! they will come in handy for my layouts when I get to them.
I promise to craft/scrap something soon. Hope everyone has a great weekend I am working tomorrow but off Sunday... so maybe an inspiration will happen... Hope the Scrap Fairy comes to visit. I am off to watch "Doubt"
Until next time!

Weekend Progress

Happy Memorial Day, don't forget to thank a VET today for their service to our country!

I spent the weekend in yard, planting and relaxing. I love how it's coming along and the critters are enjoying it too. We put water in the little bird bath at top of pond and this cute critter was enjoying a drink on a hot spring day!

I was able to get Kerry's assistance in laying down some mulch, we just got a little bit this week, and spread about the pond, and fountain areas. Like everyone else we are watching our finances, I just wish we could have done it all, but I'm thrilled we concentrated on these areas first. This makes a huge difference in the ambiance of the yard! I also planted some more petunias in large pots near both doors, and we've since changed out the small critter bird bath for something larger it's an old fountain top from father in law we recycled and filled in with river rock. The birds love it.. I am looking forward to watching many birds enjoy this haven!

This is taken from the inside area, the ducks just love our pond and so do I!!!!! I am blessed that Kerry made this area for us to enjoy, and he decided on the geraniums.. lol for the life of me I can not get excited about geraniums... they represent grave flowers for me.. But we get them because they will bloom all summer and that is the ultimate goal when planting around here!

While enjoying the outdoors, I am able to enjoy my favorite smell of all time. Lilacs, :-) I just love the Lilac bush Kerry got me for Mother's Day 6 years ago, it is from Lombard, IL the Lilac capital of the world (they say! ) lol The scent is heavenly and with the breeze blowing just right I can really enjoy it while relaxing.

We had to work on refinishing this park bench too. Kerry looked for "Orange" stain but was not able to find any, so they custom made one for him! I love this Man!~!!!!! We have it stained and I just need to put the finishing coat of polyurethane on it to seal it. I love how it looks against the green forsythia and the red mulch. You can even see the archway we got out too. The birds love having another area to perch.

In the front portion of this photo my butterfly and humming bird garden is coming along. I look forward to them buzzing around this summer.

I'm sure I have other photos, but don't want to overload everyones senses!!! lol Come on over and relax with me! I have a few hours left to enjoy then off to work tonight. Glad I got everything done this weekend it's supposed to rain for a few days now.. Will be good for the flowers.. Remind me to post the fountain next time..

Until next time!

By golly I just might have it... lol I was tagged last week by my sweet friend

Jocelyn on her blog!! She is the nicest lady, go check out her blog its full of "Happy Lists" and wonderful inspiration.
Okay, the rules of the Lemonade Stand award:Comment on this blog.Cut and paste the award logo and use it in your own blog. Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude.Link to your nominees within your blog post.Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award.Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.


And there was another one too! The Friend Award

And here's a little about the Friends award:These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to five bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award

So far going well, I've gotten this cut and pasted.. now to see if I can move it along, as I am not always techno savy the little accomplishments make me happy.. I want to pass this along to:
kristii

natty

carla

Okay so I know the rules were more than these but I've almost lost it (thank heaven for autosave!!!) I want to send this along before I loose it again... lol
Until next time!

Me from A - Z!

So My friend carla posted this on her blog and I found it enjoyable to get to know her a bit better, so I figured I would do the same..I still need to figure out how to get Jocelyn's award one done too, maybe this weekend.. I am so techno challenged, as I never have time to just sit and play with the computer any more... So I present Me from A - Z!

A - Age: 53
B - Bed size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: Washing Windows
D - Dog's name: Duchess - I miss her so much - she went to puppy heaven 4/2/09
E - Essential start your day item: Tia Alarm Meow
F - Favorite color: Orange
G - Gold or Silver: Both
H - Height: 5'7"
I - Instruments you play(ed): Does the Kazoo count?
J - Job title: Food Service Team Lead
K - Kid(s): Jennifer (32) Joshua (20)
L - Living arrangements: Married happily for the 3rd and final time!!
M - Mom's name: Barbara
N - Nicknames: Lorry, Lor, Prendy, and my husbands favorite - Beautiful!
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Yes, tonsils out at 6 years old.
P - Pet Peeve: People talking on a cell phone during checkouts!
Q - Quote from a movie: "Move it, Move it , Move it" from "Madagascar"
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: 2 younger sisters who are 10 years younger Cindy - and 11 years younger Carrie
T - Time you wake up: lately 4 or 5 am with the Tia Meow! but otherwise I would normally be up by 6am anyway, hate wasting my day!
U- Underwear: of course
V - Vegetable you dislike: brussel sprouts love everything else
W - Ways you drink your coffee: Usually a Vanilla Latte, or prefer herbal teas
X-rays you've had: Only at the dentist
Y - Yummy food you make: BBQ Pork Chops, Choc Chip cookies, Lasagna, lots of other stuff too.
Z - Zoo favorite : Giraffes

Until next time!

Friend Squeeze

Don't you just love this photo!!! I found this at www.btvision.com With my love of Giraffes this is the cute side... lol But this is how I feel about all my blogging scrappy friends.. LOVE you all, you make me smile and remind me every day how lucky I am to have met you!

So just a little something to keep you smiling while I go tend my gardens. Muaaaaaaaaaah!

Until next time!

I'm still alive...

Just a quick post to let everyone know I am still around. Busy at work tomorrow is my first day off in 7 days, I hope to work in garden, get blog updated, respond to Jocelyn's tag, and Carla's getting to know you and oh maybe something creative.

In the meantime, I am taking suggestions for flowers to put in this cute little planter my Sister in Law gave me for Christmas a couple years ago. I tend to want something to last most of the Spring/Summer season, and change out in Fall. Usually we go with Gerainums but I am open for suggestions area is bright light and late afternoon sun... Please leave me your suggestion in the comments area... I hope to try something new this year. Thanks!

Until next time!

Wake up Meow!!

Yes it's true I have an "Alarm Cat" lol this photo is a re-enactment of this mornings wake up Meow at 4:08am... UGH!!!! You see Tia gets right in your face and stinky kitty breath and all goes"Meow" thing is she will not just do one meow, it's kinda like the alarm keeps buzzing or throw it. LOL of course I don't throw her but we I do have to snuggle her closely and pet her for a bit, then she will settle down and on most days be okay to go back to rest, some days we just have to get up with her.


Until next time!

Tagged again!

Thanks to my friend Kristii I've been tagged again. I am inspired by her Faith, her Love of Family and her Awesome Scrapping abilities. She is an amazing woman, who I am glad to get to know through this craft. Thanks for the Tag Kristii!

I am supposed to post the first layout I ever created.. OH MAN this is gonna be painful... I am game but oh boy I am so glad (after looking at this layout!) that my creativity evolved to my own style and in my opinon much better.

I started scrapbooking like many - through that home party system CM. While working on this book with my first layout I discovered this style was keeping my creativity penned up. I agree this CM style works for some, but in truth it is not mine. Here is my first layout, and my thoughts on it now.

Notice the handwritten journaling ~ with matching calligraphy pen to match the triangular frame shape thingy??? (now I do still hand write some journaling but - the calligraphy)

Next up lets explore those shape cutters, cutting your photographs into ovals, rectangles with rounded corners are a way to cut out the distracting other stuff ~ note to self - glad I learned better photo taking skills so not having to crop the "said stuff" out!

And lastly let us review the Paper Pizzaz pre cut die cuts on the flimsy paper that ripped apart way to easy when trying to punch out of the books ~ I invested in Quickutz die cutting machine and the quality of brand name die cuts have grown with our craft!

So there you have it my very first ever layout and 12 x 12 to boot. Lets not forget the CM album, while I like the quality of the cover, I no longer like the having to glue to the insert pages and moved on to top loading albums ~ more "My Style".

Let me tag these 4 ladies since I can't seem to do these things right!

Lisa T.

Natty

Jeanne

Jennifer S.

Until next time!

Cloudy Monday

Well Hello blogging friends! I have read your blogs and it seems you all had a wonderful Mother's day also! I'm glad because "WE" all deserve it!!! lol

After not doing too much scrapping / crafting lately, I have almost finished up the month of April in my 2009 year mini, I am so excited to be working on this project and want to get this wrapped up tomorrow and start on May so I can catch back up. Here are the recent additions, I have added inbetween the 2 sides in order to get more photos and journaling. I have become more comfortable again with my own hand journaling in spots, I love my hand writing, but love the clean lines of computer journaling.. so alas I do both!!

Book is done with WRMK papers and the solid cardstock is American Crafts, I tend to like textured papers so will either use Bazzill or American Crafts.

The new little birdie stamp is from Stampendous and is called "Shower Chick" lol appropriate title for my pages!

My patio during the April Spring Snowstorm - not to worry snow was gone within 2 days!

Combining both computer and hand journaling ~ I love it!

Until next time!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all my blogging friends! I hope your day was relaxing and "YOU" got to do whatever you wanted to!

I spent the day working in my garden, on my Facebook page, and my blog. We went to the inlaws for hot dogs / hambergers and chips! No cooking yeah...

I did manage to take some photos of my mother in laws yard and her garden spots. Some of you might remember I did the same for sis in laws yard last year and created a mini for her. I plan on doing the same type of thing for mil this year. Here are some of the photos I plan to use.

My Father in Law Al refilling the woodpecker feeder

I sat here breathing in my Favorite smell and Flower in the whole world "Lilacs" I love them and wish I had a yard full in my own backyard. I do have a smaller version of Lilacs it's a minature bush near my bird feeding area, they are not quite blossoming yet, but soon they are full of buds I can't wait. All I can say is when my time comes to meet my maker it best be during Lilac season!!!

Closer view of the Lilacs with Bird house... Yes they too love birds, these wonderful inlaws were the ones who got me the coveted "binoculars" for Christmas "08 that I use every day in my own bird stalking yard!

Baby Bunnies are cute unless they are eating the flowers! lol

Well I have been making a bit of progress on my monthly mini book. I'll try to photograph a couple pages and post tomorrow - ahhhh something to look forward to.

And last but not least I did get a call from my son wishing me a Happy Mother's Day, it seriously is the "little things" that make me smile.

Until next time!

Always carry your camera!

I am always glad I made the decision to get a point and shoot digital camera!! I love having my camera with me all the time. You just never know what you might see and wish you had taken a picture of it. For instance, on my way home from work at one of the intersections I looked to my right and spotted this Egret in the water, the startling contrast of the lush green grass, clear water and this beautiful white bird had me scrambling for my camera before the light changed. I was planning on turning the corner if the light changed just so I could photograph this scene but I got lucky and got the shot off before I had to "take the scenic route" home!!!!

Arriving home I was able to play with Tia and Sparky... this is monitored VERY CLOSELY!!!

Tia is a very gentle loving kitty, but yes she is a kitty. Sparky is cautious to say the least, but it is cute to watch him scurry around the floor and try to play with Tia's toys.
I have to tell the world I have the best husband ever!!! I love this man so much, he is constantly surprizing me with little things (those are the best and most important things to me!). I love my gardens, and have been wanting to add wind chimes to them. Point is Kerry has very very very good hearing (not like me who is 1/2 deaf). The wind chimes would drive him nuts for sure. So in my longing everytime we go to a garden center, hardware store, gift shop I of course am drawn to these beautiful displays. Well today he was going to the hardware store for grass seed/weed etc. and while there he bought this butterfly for me.
I am over the moon, when I told him I knew it would drive him nuts thats why I never purchase any of them this was how much I loved him. He replied "I know and this is how much I love YOU!" Now seriously you gotta love a man who does this kind of stuff!

Until next time!

Creative Thursday

Creative Thursday, I have not had one of these for awhile, been too busy stalking the birds in my yard! lol Looking forward for some inspiration to create a couple of Mother's Day cards today.

I have a simple one with the Tulip photos I took last weekend, not sure if I should embellish it or leave it be time will be the deciding factor!

Thursdays are a free for all day here, I got laundry started, cleaned off counter in kitchen.. haha the kitchen counter is our catchall place.. I have a love/hate relationship with it. But this time I was cleaning up Kerry's junk not mine, you see I put all my stuff in a basket, well ok the basket is overflowing, but its in one place right????? That has to count for something? See Below.

Exhibit 1

Side facing the pond, last year we had Petunias in here and they were great looking, lasted all year. Kerry picked these out this year, but they were not "Wave" type, so I don't think the look will be the same, but I like them so far. Hoping they fill in better as summer goes on.

Okay so it's pretty green out here right now, this is in back of my shed area (the extra foot of garden space and the 1/2 circle at end courtesy of Kerry!!! lol

Close up on the wall I do have some Violets that are getting bigger every year and spreading, so that will help fill in the area, I want to find and add some Lilly of the Valleys I think the contrast will be pretty plus they smell divine!

Lastly is the start of filling in the 1/2 circle area with Phlox, I got the purple, low ground cover only 3 plants to start, but I will be getting a couple more this weekend to fill in better. Yes I know they will grow, but it looks pretty sparse right now... lol I want fullness, lushness, and prettiness RIGHT NOW!!!! but really I am a patient woman, just ask my kids.

Until next time!

Yesterdays sightings

Yesterday was another bird/duck watching day for me. LOL I bet anyone who reads this thinks I have nothing better to do with my time. Well hmmmm ahhhh NO!! lol I tend to get up early wether I have to work or not, and with Miss Tia meowing right in your face at 5:00am its pretty hard not to move just to get her to stop!

So needless to say, I get up early do my chores and then have the day to relax and read / bird watch. I was able to enjoy the ducks they flew right into the pond in the yard and then hung around for quite awhile while I was outside. They hung around for a couple hours just eating and even napping.. I love the exploring they were doing checking out the water in the bird bath at end of the waterfall area, and then trudging through the muddy grass>

Checking out the bird bath

Trudging through the mud

I also love the House Finches, they are a pretty purple color and are a nice contrast to all the black and brown birds that visit.

Last up is a cute Robin taking a bath in the little man made pool. Kerry set this area up along side of our pond as the drainage for the sump pump it flows down a bed of river rock, at the end there is this small area for water to sit for abit before it seeps into the ground, or continues on its journey through the cat o nine tail rushes.. ahhh the sound of a babbling brook right in my own yard. Love it! Love the man who created the peaceful setting for me to enjoy!! Thanks Kerry.

Until next time!

Bird Watch

So most of you might know by now I LOVE Birds, all kinds big and small. Well I've had my fill of the blackbirds, cowbirds, and such.. but they are still welcome to eat in my yard! LOL when I have had my fill of them I swosh infront of the window like a mad woman and then sit back to enjoy.

Today, I was able to weed one of my gardens, and enjoy the nice breeze and sun!!! After all the rain we have had lately it is nice. I have a couple pictures I took today, the Bluejay eluded my shooting expertise, so I hope he comes again, I get one every now and then.

Here is one of the many Cardnials I am blessed with daily.

The little burst of color brightens my yard and disposition when these Little American Goldfinches come to feast at the thistle feeders.

'This little guy is a new one for me to identify he is a White Crowned Sparrow.

Well so much for spending NSD (National Scrapbooking Day- for my family who might read) scrapping etc.. but I love bird watching too much and with the sunshine and fresh air who could resist not I!!!!

Until next time!

Tip Toe through the Tulips

Here are the photos from my earlier posting of the Tulips. They were so pretty, and I already went to have some developed @ Target so I could scrap them this weekend along with other photos I needed. Enjoy! and don't forget to "Stop and smell the Flowers" :-)

This waterfall is one of two on the entrance way where I took the tulip pictures today, it is a subdivision of homes. The waterfalls are on both sides and the Tulips are on the median in the middle.. Love Love Love how pretty this area is.

Until next time!

Backyard Tour

New Stuff: Oh my a trip to Archiver's this week cost me dearly... LOL (this is when I still wish I worked there!!) But the Asst. Mgr. Wandy knows me and always hooks me up! These are the newest Quickutz Embossing folders, and Nesting Labels. I can't wait to play with them. The embossing folders were very reasonable $4.99 each, and the Mats were a two pack 4 x 12 and 4 x4 for $9.99... sign me up... lol Oh and the girls on LRS were raving over the Tattered Angels "Glimmer Mists" I of course had to get them and chose 4 colors to start with. I did try them out and will add photos later :-)

My yard is shaping up This makes me HAPPY!!!! I love working in my yard and gardens it relaxes me and brings many smiles to my face as I enjoy the nature that come and visit. So this is what the entranceway in front looks like. I really want to get a full lenght glass storm door this year, will see what pricing and budget will allow.

Remember my post earlier this week about the extra foot of garden space my dear Kerry dug for me???? lol well here is a before photo especially for my friend Lisa! Look I have some very lonely Tulips but at least they are my favorite color Orange :-) This makes me happy.

I am planning on adding some phlox on the end that is rounded out (unless I come across something I like better.) I did plant 2 Coral Bells in the middle they should hopefully attract some of the Humming birds - speaking of which I got my feeder filled and put out! Hope they come soon, I just love watching these little guys. Below is one photo from last year.

Ahhh this cute little home is ready and waiting. I have this in our front yard tree, Hope some little family finds it warm and cozy :-) If not It still makes me Happy to see it hanging there.

Well lots of photos of why I enjoy my yard / home so much. I have projects to work on today and hopefully some photo shoots in surrounding neighboorhoods. I saw a couple places that had some beautiful tulips that I might go back and photograph.. whatever you do today Make it something Fun and may it make you HAPPY!!!!
Until next time!