Project 365 - Week 41...

Last week life was back to normal! Here we go with the photos...

Monday, October 19: Okay - This is a problem. LOL. These are my new Studio Calico Crop Bags, and I've been keeping them in a cute little orange bucket on the floor of my scraproom; each one holding a project in progress. Those nice little marks are from the cats chewing - each bag has some of these. Apparently I need to find a different place to store them that is AWAY from the cats - LOL.
Tuesday, October 20: Homemade vegan pizza - YUM...

Wednesday, October 21: My first day back to work after vacation, and this is what I saw on my road trip to Northern Minnesota - EEEEKKK - I'm not ready for snow! Thankfully when I got back down to our part of the state it wasn't snowing...

Friday, October 23: Evidence that there's been a cat party in the scraproom...

Saturday, October 24: Our HUMUNGOUS order of photo papers and ink cartridges came - YEAYYYYY!!!! This oughta last awhile...

Saturday, October 24 also: And the cats got a new fort out of the deal...

Sunday, October 25: The finished travel journal from our trip...

That's it for last week! For those of you that are also doing Project 365, how's it going? It's hard to believe the year is starting to wind down already! I'm looking forward to seeing what Becky Higgins has up her sleeve for next year's kit - she's been hinting about it on her blog.

I will be back tomorrow with another update - have a fabulous Friday my friends! Thanks for stopping by and for your comments - they really make my day!

Scrap That Poetry...

I discovered a really cool new challenge blog! Thanks to my awesome friend Julie TW, who has a link to it on her blog, I found "Scrap That Poetry!" I love poetry, and I've never seen a challenge blog that uses it before - so cool! Anyhoo, their featured poem this week is "Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou. I've always loved this poem, so I just had to play along! Here's how my layout turned out...The photo is of my niece Liz, sister Renee, me and our Mom - Pat. I am so proud to be part of a family of strong women, who I think are phenomenal!!!

I used the September Studio Calico kit. The title is handpainted and outlined with a sharpie. The alphabet stamps are by Stampin Up.

The Autumn=Love class is still going great! Elsie and Rachel have such cute and fun projects, and my favorite part is that there are so many different types of crafts covered! The latest thing we are learning is making things out of plastic shopping bags! My only problem is that I've fallen way behind, what with our vacation and all; but the good news is that the website is staying up for a whole year, so I will be able to work my way through the projects at my own pace - YEAYYY!!! I will be sure to share with you as I finish them.

I've fallen slightly behind on my Project 365 photos again - AARGH! I seem to be having a harder time remembering to take photos! I am definitely going to catch up again tho - I've made it this far - I won't give up now!

Don't forget - today is the last day to submit your "favorite season" layout at the "My Favorite Things" blog! Tomorrow the new challenge goes live!

Also, you have until the end of the month to play along with the October sketch over at the TATS blog!

That's it for today! I wish you a fantastic Thursday my friends! I will be back tomorrow with another update - thanks for stopping by!

15 Years and Counting...

I've been wanting to do this layout for about a month now, and the current challenge at "Scrapping Out Loud" (to scrap about time) was the perfect reminder to do it. The layout is to celebrate Michael getting his 15-year medallion from AA. Before I did the layout I did a little interview with him; because I love his attitude about his AA journey, and I wanted to get the words right. Here's how it came out...


I used my October Studio Calico kit for the first time, which was so much fun! Everything I used is from the kit except the black scrappers floss and the clouds, which I drew onto dictionary paper and cut out.

Speaking of Studio Calico, there are only two more days to wait for the November kit reveal! It looks like it's going to be another fabulous kit! Check out this thread for Picture clues.

I will be back tomorrow with another update! Have a great Monday and thanks for stopping by!

Travel Journal Part Two...

I'm all done with the travel journal! Yeayyy! Michael and I sat down and went through it and it was so much fun to relive all the memories! Even tho it's only been a week since we got back - LOL! So, here are a some highlights from the second half of the book...

Here's how it looks all done...I made charms to dangle off the spine from two souvenir smashed pennies, and one bauble I got at a thrift store on the trip...
More memories from the Wild Animal Park...

and then moving on to the zoo...


Mission Bay...
Balboa Park...



I found the words in one of the free travel magazines in the hotel room...
So, that's it - all done! Now I'm inspired to go back and make one for Honeymoon Two, which I barely even started last year.

Now, what I really want to do next is bust out my October Studio Calico kit and have some fun!

Don't forget there's still time to play along with the "Totally Addicted to Sketch Blog!" It's a fun sketch, come on over!

I hope your weekend is going well! I will be back tomorrow with another update - thanks for stopping by!

What I've Been Doing With My Time...

I discovered a new feature of my Photobooth program, so I did this...
this...
and my personal favorite, this...

Can you tell I am lost without my photo paper?

I am expecting a truckload (slight exaggeration) today. Then I can get busy again.

Hopefully I will have something more interesting to post later. Have a great Saturday!

Travel Journal Part One

So, my travel joural is about half-done and I am so excited! This has been such a successful experiment! In fact, I had so much fun doing it, and it was so easy that I think I am going to start an art journal process like this for my regular life - why not?!!

What made it so easy was:

a. limiting my supplies to the few that I brought in my travel kit, plus memorabilia,

b. not worrying about the design. just slap it down write something, leave room for photos and keep going. super simple. love it.


Here are some excerpts from the first half of the journal...image of the couple was cut from the free magazine you get on the plane...
plenty of time for doodling on the plane...
stuck the menu from our fave restaurant right in there and journaled on it. also pasted a pic of michael at the restaurant on there...
I absolutely loved the little drawing of the pig that was on the takeout menu from Pure Luck, so I made a pocket that it could hang out of...
and put a pic of the restaurant under the menu...
another pic out of the free travel magazine...
the pic of the flower was cut from that thingy you hang on your doorknob telling them what you want for breakfast...



I left lots of room to paste photos when I got home...


Made a pocket to house the Park Guide out of the wrapper from my thickers...

My fave pics got a page all their own (how fabulous are these sweet faces?!!!)

it was fun to crop the photos to fit the odd size pages (like the rhino here)...

So that's about it for the first half of the journal. I am now out of both photo paper and two ink colors. I guess tonight I will be working in my art journal, since that does not require any photos. LOL. Hurry Mr. Fedex man! I need my photo supplies!

I also ordered a bulk supply of wires for my bind-it-all so I can make more of these journals!

And thank you again to my super sweet secret sister Andrea for giving me the journal to write in!!! I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!

I'm excited about another art journaling class I found. It's called "A Prompt A Day" by Kelly Kilmer. I love her style and can't wait to start!

Thanks for stopping by and for your comments! See you tomorrow for another post!

Honeymoon Three Meets Project 365...

I was getting really far behind on my Project 365 photos - but it turned out great because it allowed me to include extra photos from honeymoon three in my book! I took 560 photos on the trip, and narrowed it down to 28 (three from each day) (almost) and now I am back up to date! So, here we go with my Project 365 photos from Honeymoon three...

Thursday October 8: Michael waits for our rental car at the Orange County Airport...and he's such a gentleman to carry my bags to our hotel room...
It was so wonderful to see Mom and Elmer again!...

Friday, October 9: We got to go to our favorite vegan restaurant - The Veggie Grill!

Me and my beautiful mother...

My sister Renee took us to a funky cool vegan restaurant called "Pure Luck" in Hollywood - it was YUMMY!...

the area was full of awesome urban art..It was wonderful to see Renee and her sweet cat Lily again!...

Sunday, October 11: The most awesome vegan breakfast ever in the history of the world! From another cool restaurant called "Flore" that Renee took us to. There we also got to see niece Liz...
Our plush hotel room at the Laguna Cliffs Resort at Dana Point...
a walk along the beach at Dana Point - I loved how Michael's outfit goes with the scenery...

Monday, October 12: We arrived in San Diego and took a walk at Mission Beach...
such a beautiful place...
and relaxed on the balcony of our room overlooking Mission Bay...
Tuesday, October 13: We spent our anniversary at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I made friends with this beautiful duck. Can you believe how gorgeous he is?!!! He was sweet too.
Now - THIS WAS THE MOST EXCITING THING EVER!!!!! A highlight I will never forget! We took a photo safari and got to hand-feed baby giraffe! They were HUGE, Beautiful, and SO GENTLE! What a thrill!


Wednesday, October 14: We spent the day at the San Diego Zoo. I made a friend in Bucky the goat. He loved hugs!
this beautiful little guy was in the hummingbird aviary - isn't he gorgeous?!!!
I loved this quote on the wall at the aviary...

Thursday, October 15: A gorgeous sculpture at Balboa Park. It was made of marbles!
the artist's village at Balboa was so quaint and colorful - all little cottages, each one with an artist selling their wares...
we were enthralled by this tree at the park - such interesting bark, so huge and the roots were amazing!...

Friday, October 16: Before we left San Diego, we took a ride on a bicycle built for two...
We rode over to see Mission Beach one more time. It was a beautiful, hot, sunny day...

Our last hotel room was especially beautiful. it reminded me of an old castle...

Saturday, October 17: On our way back home again...

Sunday, October 18: Back home again - Willie takes a nap and all is back to normal...


So that was Honeymoon Three in a nutshell! We had an amazing time, and I am filled with gratitude for being able to do this each year. As we savor the memories, we are starting to think about where to go for honeymoon four.............

I hope you have a terrific Tuesday! I will be back tomorrow with another update. Thanks so much for stopping by!