Sisters & Shopping

My sister & her dog, Wrigley, came over yesterday to spend some time with us. They just left a short time ago and the cats are still sniffing around cautiously! Poor things. Wrigs just wanted to play, but they didn't want any part of it.


Trent braved a trip to dinner and the mall with both of us last night. This morning, Mary helped me take a few boxes of items to Goodwill. We stopped by Big Lots first where I found some fun stickers, rub-ons and MM metal signage - all 7 items for $8!

And, when we came home, my latest order from Two Peas was sitting on the front porch. Lots of yummy goodness. :)

I'm going to see if I can squeeze in a little creative time before we meet friends for dinner and the baseball game tonight! :)

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Friday Freebie

In 2002, I created this layout to include multiple photos of our two cats. My intent was to keep the design simple and clean lined. The background is simply cardstock with the quote "Cats are just children with fur..." repeated.


To create the page, I actually laid it out in CAD in order to check my measurements before grabbing the ruler & x-acto knife. I have made it much simpler for you to lift this design. I created a template in Photoshop. It's saved as a .psd file with layers for each item (background, frame, photos, title). All you have to do is download it and add your own photos & papers.

Please, leave me a comment with the link to your creation. I'd love to see! :)

Click here to download the Children with Fur 12x12 template Enjoy!


Supplies: tan & dark brown cardstock; Jenkins font; quote from Pea Soup at Two Peas in a Bucket

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Day 16 - Spread Your Wings

After Ter asked how high the bird's nest was, I decided to take a photo tonight and show you. See the hanging basket to the right of our front door? That's where the nest is. So when the mother bird gets fussy because we come out and are near her nest, I laugh - she could have picked one of the 2 at the other end for more privacy. ;)

We've had birds nesting in our hanging baskets every summer since we bought the house in 2003. Typically we get 2-3 nests a year so I'm keeping an eye out for our next set. Once I know there is a nest, I take the basket down each time I water it. I'm careful to not touch the flowers or nest - just the outside of the basket. And gently water the flowers without watering the birds. Perhaps they would be ok, but I don't like the thought of dumping cool water on those little guys. It's the softie in me. :)

After photographing the porch, I took down the basket with the bird's nest to water and found this:

*sigh* The little ones have already flown away. The pictures I posted yesterday were taken Tuesday night. They looked so young. Too young to leave which is why I thought maybe it would be this weekend. Kind of sad to see them go, but grateful I had the opportunities I did to peek in on them. And, I'll be watching for our next set of houseguests. :)

Day 14 - Bird's Nest / Day 7 - Bird's Nest / Day 1 - Houseguests

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Gettysburg

12x12 digital page of our visit to Gettysburg National Military Park last Sunday. The background is one of my photos - I simply enlarged it and lowered the opacity.


Supplies: Uncluttered Collage Vol. 2 template by TaylorMade Designs; fonts: Hannibal Lecter, Century Gothic, and Perpetua.

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Bird's Nest - Day 14

Day 7 - Bird's Nest / Day 1 - Houseguests

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4 States in 4 Days

We have journeyed several hundred miles and back since Friday evening. From North Carolina to Pennsylvania with stops in between. We saw family and friends. Enjoyed my cousin's wedding. Toured two national parks (Gettysburg & Catoctin Mountain). Took lots of photos. Found gas for as "cheap" as $3.79 and as expensive as $4.05. And, had a lots of fun.

Before the wedding reception with my brother, Christopher, and my husband, Trent:

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Fort Fisher Aquarium

In 2005, I surprised Trent with a weekend trip to Wilmington, NC, for his birthday. One of the places we visited was the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. A challenge on Oscraps.com inspired me me to finally scrapping photos from our visit.


Supplies/credits: Redefined No. 8 template by Sue Cummings; fonts: Century Gothic, Myriad Pro, Angelina and 2ps Silly. Inspired by May 22 of dw2008.

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Fuzzy Owl

The prompt for May 24/25 of dw2008 is to create animal cards using fuzzy fabrics. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had the perfect fabric. I sketched the shape I wanted on the back, cut and began to embellish. My original plan was a cat's head. But after sewing on the nose (now beak) and starting to attached the eyes, I realized it looked more like an owl! Oops.


I hand stitched lines to create "wings" and used Prima flowers for feet.


Supplies: Paper Reflections card; fuzzy fabric, white felt, and threads from stash; Making Memories heart button & stitches; Autumn Leaves buttons; Prima flowers; Heidi Swapp journaling spot; American Crafts rub-ons; Micron pen; QuicKutz Tangerine classic font.

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Purple Flowers

I bought a bottle of the new Prima flowers at Michael's last week and they've been sitting on my desk since then waiting for an opportunity. I decided to use them first on a card inspired by Sketch This: 51.


A close-up:


Supplies: Bazzill cardstock; Prima flowers; Autumn Leaves A Rhonna Christmas buttons; Making Memories rub-ons; generic thread.

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Dinner & Christmas in May

My friend, Kim, is in town from Atlanta and we went out to dinner last night at Joe's Place Featuring Joe's Mom's Food. [Yes, that really is the restaurant's name. :D ] While trying to decide where to go, she mentioned wanting vegetables and Joe's Place immediately came to mind. They offer an all-you-can eat vegetable plate with a good selection of southern favorites.

Joe's Place has been around since 1979 and almost closed 2 years ago. After much urging from customers in Raleigh and across the state, the owner kept the restaurant open. A banner from his news conference in March 2006 stating the change of heart, still hangs over the counter today. It's partially visible in this photo I took and reads: Wow. We didn't know y'all loved us that much, so we're gonna do an encore.


During a last minute get together in December, Kim & I both forgot our Christmas gifts for each other! And while we had good intentions of shipping them, that never happened. So last night we had fun giving each other a little bit of Christmas in May.

Just before Christmas, Kim had gotten a new ipod so I picked her up a giftcard to download some tunes and altered a gift box to match.

She spoiled me with this beautiful handmade bowl. I was floored. I've tried using a potter's wheel in the past and have absolutely no skill at it. My friend has talent. The photo doesn't do this bowl justice - totally gorgeous. Thanks, Kim!! :)

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