My goodness, it has been a long time...

Sorry it has been so long since I blogged. We have had company here the last several weeks (my brother and his family are staying here while they are looking for a house to rent.) and it has really been wearing me out. But that's another story.

(from Tim's blog, link below)

Had a couple of pieces of good news today - the first being that Tim is going to do the 12 Tags of Christmas again this year. He wasn't sure he would, after what happened at the stamp show, so I was really glad to see the announcement today. Check it out HERE on his blog - there are going to be lots of giveaways each day. I was lucky enough to win a stamp set last year!

(from the Wolf website, link below)

The second - Jason will be doing the Acoustic Christmas Concert  in Kansas City, MO on December 9th - and Rhi and I will be going! Along with Jason, we will be able to see Jimmy Wayne, Chris Young and Love and Theft!! They will all be onstage at the same time, which will just be so exciting. And they will be helping the Salvation Army with toy donations too - One of the things I love the most about Jason is how much he wants to help others.

The third  -  the guys finished installing the new wood furnace today - woohoo! That means we will have better heat this year. Course, that also means we'll have to chop a lot of wood o_O but at least the house will be warmer this year!

Photo shoot at the Riverview Park

Today, I took my daughter to the park for some fall photos. {Wanted to take my son too, but he wasn't interested in going. So he stayed home} I wasn't sure the pictures would turn out, because it was overcast and the light was pretty dim, but I messed around with the settings on the camera, and I think they actually turned out pretty well. {Especially considering the camera wanted to use the flash when set in automatic, and I didn't want to LOL}

The first thing she noticed about the park was all the leaves. Which made her very happy. I made her stand by a tree until I figured out the camera settings, then let her play around. She had a lot of fun kicking up the leaves, loving the way they crunched beneath her feet.

I really like this shot. She was just sitting in the leaves and tossing them up in the air. But I really like how most of the background is leaves.

This is one of the overlooks for the River. It was really pretty, a little misty in the background. I love that little stone wall. There is not much land on the other side of it before it drops away.

Closer up/cropped view

Sitting on the wall and doing the model pose.

She walked over to the end of the wall and was looking off through the trees at the River. I really like this picture. In fact, it is one of my favorites from today.

Sitting at the picnic table.

"Let's pretend we are having a picnic!"

This is another favorite, even though it is blurry. Or maybe especially because it is blurry. I love how it shows the motion. She was having fun whirling around and kicking at the leaves.

Sitting in the leaves again {I was sitting on the picnic table}

Yep, really like this one. She was having so much fun.

Walking back down the path - she kept getting too far ahead for the camera, and I had to keep calling her back. The lighting in this photo is a little more true to how the lighting was

We found these beautiful yellow maples at the park.

Walking back across the grass to the car :which can just barely be seen in the background}

Found this statue of Mark Twain by another overlook in the park.

Looking out over the river.

All in all, was a fun afternoon. I'm really pleased with the photos I took, especially considering how dim it was. And she had fun too, which always makes it worth it.

Chasin' Jason Layout, or What I Did This Weekend...

Had an idea for a layout.. wanted to scrap the "I can sleep when I'm dead weekend".. using maps as part of the background of the page.. I wanted to  outline the route we took that weekend, and have a few pictures from everything we did. So I picked up an atlas to have maps from IL, MO, and IA.

Funny thing about atlases.... the maps are all different sizes.  So if you want to try this at home, I'd recommend getting a rolled up wall map or something instead. I ended up taking a page out of another atlas that was bigger, so MO was actually fairly close in size with IA and IL. {hopefully, we won't be needing that page from the atlas anytime soon.....}

Spent about an hour cutting out and piecing the map together. Didn't really want to leave out St. Louis... or Bowling Green.. so the LO evolved to include all the JMC concerts I've been to. There have only been 5, and they were all within 300 miles of home.. so.. how hard can it be....?

Well, incidentally.. THIS particular map was too tall to contain the layout on one 12x12 page. And not wide enough to make sense on a normal {HA!} 2 page layout. So.... what to do...

As they say in scrapbook organization - Go Vertical! Yeah! That will work! I think....

The only other problem I ran into, was not planning ahead and making smaller {2x3} photos. That would have been nice... Ah well.  I am still hoping to do the weekend layout {since it involved more than just JMC}.. sooooo... So much for my route outlines... Ah well, at least the important information is on there.. The other thing I wish I had done {hindsight being 20/20...} is set the map a little higher on the page, since three of the shows were to the south.. and two of those shows are the ones from which I have the most photos...

And, needless to say.. my desk isn't really set up for a 24x12 layout... so that made matching things up a little interesting. But I managed.

What I ended up with is a tri-fold vertical layout. It actually involved making four 6x12 layouts, and one 12x12 layout. Eventually I will have to figure out how to put page protectos around it.. but I figured since I don't put my layouts in albums anyway {insert rolling eyes smiley here}, I'd worry about that later.

I didn't want to leave much room for journaling on the inside, so I put all the journling on the outside of the layout.

Here is the front of the layout (unopened).

The background paper is from the DCWV Rockstar stack {which I use on all my JMC layouts}. The very cool title letters are from Creative Imaginations. I love them, and wish I had more of them. But luckily, I found enough letters in 1 package for the title I wanted. {And NO, Chasin should not have a G on the end, that would ruin the rhyme! I do wish the set came with an apostrophe though!} I inked the edges and added some mini gems. The stars were punched from the hot pink lips paper - they were attached over the stars on the background paper. Also added gems and glittery stuff to the background pattern. One of the reasons I chose this paper and these letters.. they go Oh so well with Jason's shirts.

The journaling, for once, I actually wrote ahead of time in my notebook -  usually I just wing it, but I wanted to highlight words with the MM tiny alphas, and knew I had limited space. The journaling I wrote didn't fit, so it was modified a bit, but it is pretty close. Got all the important info I wanted to put in there. Stamped the flourishes and inked the paper edges before doing the journaling, then started working on it. Took me forever, since I had to ink the edges of all the tiny alphas. But I really like the way it turned out, so it was worth it.

Closeups of the front pages:

{and yep, I know I have to add an L to Carroll... I ran out!}

{If you click on the photos, you will get a bigger one, which means you can actually read the journaling, if you want to!}

Incidentally, I actually did these pages last.. part of the reason was to cover up the brad prongs from the photo side of the layout. I also added some paper hinges to keep the pages together until I figure out how to handle the page protectors.

Here is what the inside looks like:

 This time, the stars were punched from the hot pink heart paper, and the hearts from the lips paper. Each star marks a concert, except for one, which marks home. The tags attached to the stars indicate the {one-way} mileage to that concert. The flowers are from Prima. I used the tiny letters for the place and date, as well as for Tim, Richie, and Shaun. This layout includes some of my favorite photos, though not all of them {the whole resizing issue again} And as much time as I spent on the stupid map, it's hardly visible, but really, I'm ok with that. The important parts are still showing, and I think it still gives a good idea of distance.

Here are the closeups of the inner pages:

I am pretty pleased with this layout.. I like how it came together, and I really like that it has all the concerts on it. I'll be really pleased once I figure out how to put the page protectors on it so the layout can be opened and still be protected. I'm sure that tape will be involved.

Oh, and this is what my daughter came up with today.

She wanted me to take a picture with my phone to send it to Jason. I laughed and said we'd better use the regular camera, since I don't have Jason's phone number. Then we posted it on Twitter.

Here's Jason's reply:

JMCOfficial “Hey Jason, this is from my daughter! :D @JMCOfficial http://bit.ly/3Wb4AS -@jmcarrollfan <-- Awesome! I'll try darlin!

Yeah, she was about as thrilled as I was :D

Serendipity POTD, and @JMCOfficial

Kristin picked my Pumpkin Eater layout for the POTD for 11/3/09 on the Serendipity Scrapbooks board. 

I love this layout {and sorry for the bad photo - it's washed out from bad lighting and camera flash}

I really love the picture on this layout - we were having so much fun when I took it {and no, he didn't really eat any of them... but successfully grossed out his sister because she thought he was going to!}

Papers are from Pink Paislee and Little Yellow Bicycle {I still think that is a cool company name!} Alphas are also from Pink Paislee, and are actually a nice shade of glittery green. I used the MS Drippy Goo punch for the green drips - I love that punch! The journal box is also Pink Paislee, and the alpha stickers are Making Memories.

The black velvet flowers are from Maya Road - I wish I had more of them.. I will be sad when they are gone.  Black pearls are courtesy of Jack Sparrow.. oops! I mean Prima! The purple pearls are from Queen & Co. I don't remember who the purple gems are from - tossed the package already, and I forgot to write it down {oops}.

The pumpkin is a wooden piece that came in the Halloween kit. I painted it with Tim's spiced marmalade crackle paint {which I dried with the heat tool since I was too impatient to let it dry on its own}. I inked over it with Tim's Black Soot ink, then wiped off the excess. The stem was inked with pine needles ink. The design was cut from one of the patterned papers, and I added little red gems {Basic Grey} for the eyes.

So, my other favorite thing to do lately is get on Twitter and chitchat with some of my HTFs. It's always interesting to see what some of the musicians I follow are doing as well. Jason posts quite often on Twitter, to let people know what he's doing, and will sometimes post photos. He took this photo tonight while onstage {he was performing with several others - Kellie Pickler, Phill Vasser, and Jimmy Wayne} in Scranton, PA.

{photo by Jason Michael Carroll}

And one of the HTFs, Teri { @TewiTso on Twitter } had gone to the show and took this picture at the same time Jason took the above picture!

{Photo by Teri Dimmett}

I'm tellin' ya, the man cracks me up.

{and Hell yeah, there will be a scrapbook page for the album!}

Oh, yeah, and check out his awesome Halloween costume:

{photo originally posted on Twitter by Jason Michael Carroll}

Pretty cool, huh? The family theme this year was super heroes and villains. {Robin is his son, JW}

Oh, and ironically, guess what was on TV when I took my dinner break tonight.

Yep.

Batman.

New pumpkin photos and birthday photos

Had Rhi's 9th-birthday-non-bonfire-no cousins party tonight. She was a little unhappy about the bonfire and the cousins, but she managed ok. We had dinner (chili for the adults, and tomato soup for the kids). After cleaning up, got ready to watch a movie (she picked Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen). Had cake and ice cream. I'm really pleased with the birthday candle photo this year - I think that's the best one yet.

(taken after dinner and before cake)

(this is her pumpkin birthday cake)

(the birthday candle cake - I kept forgetting to buy candle holders, and found these letter candles at Walgreens. Since she is nine, we only used "HAPPY BDAY!"  instead of the whole word birthday. She was pretty happy with it, but the candles melted FAST. I won't be getting those again!)

Managed to remember to get new photos of the JMC pumpkin the other day too. And I am really happy with them, they are much clearer than the first one. And no, I still didn't find my tripod, but I sat on one of the kitchen chairs and propped the camera on the back of the chair. Worked pretty well.

(closeup of the carved area)

Played around with the camera settings a bit.. was able to get this photo, which I think is REALLY cool. I love how dark the background is, with just a little bit of fire color coming through.

Not sure if I will be around to post tomorrow.. so if not.. Happy Halloween everyone....

What? She's how old??

Monday, my baby girl turned 9 years old. I haven't posted until now, because I have been waiting for the weather to clear to get some 9-year-old photos.. but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. So here is one of my favorite pics from this summer.. LOL {This is what I got when I told her to do something silly for the camera}

Another thing that it doesn't look like will happen is her birthday/costume/ dance-around-the-bonfire party. She was so looking forward to that, but it has been raining for the last two weeks. The ground is wet. The wood is wet. The trees are.. well, you get the idea.  This bonfire was this summer, around the 4th of July. She had a lot of fun dancing around it. {Maggie wasn't too happy about it, though}

She is rather musical, and likes to drum on things... when we were carving pumpkins the other day, she liked drumming on the hollowed out pumpkins to see what they sounded like.

She told me she wanted Jason to come over for her birthday. I told her she'd have to settle for her cousins. LOL. Hopefully we'll be able to do the Traditional Cake Photo on Friday - when we went to get the candles for the cake Monday, we found an empty mouse chewed box. Darned mice. But Rhi was just as happy with a plain birthday cake and no candles.

 Happy birthday, baby girl.

Pumpkin carving

Today {ok, yesterday LOL} the kids and I carved pumpkins.

My daughter, though - I don't know what has gotten into her. She has become a squeamish little diva.. {insert rolling eyes here} and wouldn't even touch the pumpkin guts because they were gross. So the boy and I had to have fun with that...

LOL I love that picture.. I can't wait to scrap it!

Anyway, I ended up carving her pumpkin, while she directed the carving the whole time. The boy pretty much did his own, and it turned out awesome. Here are their pumpkins with lights on and lights off.

The cat was done using a pattern from a book that came with the pumpkin tools we bought several years ago. Which gave me the idea for my pumpkin... So I got on my computer, messed around with an image in Irfanview, and got started.

This is the before shot {which I forgot to take BEFORE drawing the line for the top}

Taped down my image and poked the holes around the outline like the directions for the cat said... {which I thought looked pretty cool in itself!}

Knew I wouldn't be able to carve all the way through, or I would lose the center pieces in the flourish.. so this is what I ended up with {minus the top}. {In case you were wondering, I mostly used a paring knife and a potato peeler}

And here it is lit up {couldn't find my tripod, so the photo is a little blurry, and I have to carve an extra air hole before trying again, but here it is anyway...}. My mom didn't think it would show very well, but it turned out better than she thought. My daughter, loving Jason almost as much as I do LOL, thought it was "Pretty darned cool, Mom!"

I think it's pretty darn cool too.

And the winner is....

KIMMY! Congratulations Kimmy!

Thanks for commenting, everyone, it really helps to know that people actually read this blog, and I'm not just spouting off for nothing.. LOL

Holy cannolli

How did I come to have almost 10,000 hits on my blog?! Seems like just yesterday that I started this thing up {ok, not really}, but I remember wondering what the heck I was doing, and why on earth would anyone want to read anything I wrote??

Ah well, I still think that sometimes, but anyway...

In honor of reaching 10,000 hits, I will be giving away a RAK - an envelope of goodies along with a friends ATC - an extra from the set I made for the Hero Arts ATC Swap.  Goodies will include some of the lace on the ATC, Prima flowers, and other embellishments. If I reach 10,000 hits by Saturday at 12 midnight central time, I'll also include a Scrap Pink ATC, made for an AMR swap in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Here's how to enter - post a comment with the current hit count {the counter is at the bottom of the page.} and something you like about a friend.

For an extra entry - follow my blog by clicking the button in the side bar.


Keep the comments coming - I will close for the RAK SUNDAY at MIDNIGHT CST.

{SAS}sy Scrap Pink Crop, and Framed again.

The {SAS}sy Scrap Pink Crop is this weekend. Lots of great challenges, and some games, have been posted already! I'm hoping to get a little time to play, but I have to work this weekend, so who knows.

And my Beautiful Girl layout was framed today on Savvy N Sassy :) Yay. I love that layout.