Clear Scraps projects, Old Threshers and JMC

August has been BUSY. Sorry for the blog absence - I have been working a ton, getting things done, and taking the kids on trips for school.

Three projects I have done {I have more layouts to post from some crops I did, but I'll post those later}.

Self portrait is a layout using a photo my daughter took of herself with my camera. She loves to do that, and I often find photos of her shoes, hands, and various other things. I really need to get her her own camera, so she will stop taking mine!

Supplies include Clear Scraps shapes (2 hearts and an arrow), MME papers, Glitz Designs gems, MM rubons, DCWV flowers, inque boutique stamps, and StazOn ink. Journaling was done directly on the paper with a Sharpie. Edges of the shapes were inked using StazOn. The second photo shows a closeup of the two heart shapes.

Don't Forget was made using one of the 9x9 Clear Scraps acrylic easels. I also used a magnetic sheet to make a note holder - this would work nicely for a small shopping list or a place to hold coupons. I picked up the magnet clips at Big Lots.

This album was made using the Clearly My Album individual letters. Ali is my husband's dog, a bassett hound that used to ride in the truck with him until she got sick. She has Addison's Disease, which means her body does not produce enough steroids to function. Every month, she receives a steroid injection - as long as she does, she does fine. Unfortunately, it also makes her pee more, which did not make my husband's boss (who owns the truck he drives!) very happy. So now Ali stays at home with us, which she is ok with, until my husband comes home. Then it is like the rest of us don't exist. Poor thing misses him and the truck a lot. (She gets very excited whenever she hears jake brakes on the highway)

Supplies include Basic Grey papers, American Crafts ribbons, DCWV flowers, Glitz gems and rubons, CTMH chocolate ink, Markings "Faithful Friend" cutout, and Sakura glitter jelly roll pen {which I received as a RAK from a friend on AMR, Anne Marie. I *LOVE* this pen! It adds glitter without adding colored ink, and it perfect for highlighting just about anything!}

Friday, we took the kids up to Mt. Pleasant Iowa for the Old Threshers Reunion. We didn't have nearly as much time as we would have liked, but we had a lot of fun. They had a ton of old tractors there {though not too many Henry's! We only saw a few old Fords!} I will try to make another post about this with more photos - we saw a lot of things, including an old trolley car from the Chicago/Aurora area, which my mom probably rode on when she was a kid! That was way cool.

The main reason we chose to go on Friday, though was this:

Jason Michael Carroll was the musician for Friday night. And since Mt. Pleasant is only an hour and a half drive, we thought we would go. The kids also like his music, so we thought it would be fun. And since he is one of my obsessions lately, there was no way I was going to miss it.

Mom and Patrick stayed back in the bleachers, but Rhi and I went up to the stage to take pictures, and ended up sitting on the dirt with a lot of other people for the rest of the concert. Everything was fine - until Jason gets it into his head to jump off the stage and into the crowd! Luckily, Rhi and I were able to get up quickly enough that we weren't trampled, and we were within just a few feet of him. Close enough for him to take my hand at one point! Awesome!

I kept holding Rhi up, so she could try too, but he turned to the other side, and then went back onto the stage. By this time everyone was up against the stage, and kids were sitting up on the edge of the stage. Somone handed him a photo and a pen, and he was signing autographs as he was singing. I wish I had thought to bring up the photo I took from the last concernt - if I had, I would have been able to get his autograph. But who know he would do that? In between times, I could see him mouthing to his bandmates "This is crazy!!" and grinning. It was easy to see he was having a lot of fun. {At one point, he took someone's camera, turned his back to the audience, held the camera out and took a photo of himself with the audience in the background.}

Rhi was still disappointed she hadn't gotten to touch him, and the two ladies between us and the stage very nicely let her in front of them so she could see. And when Jason came over to our side of the stage again, the lady nearest the stage waved him down to Rhi, who held up her hand for him to hold. She was just as thrilled as I was. {And she kept saying "He is such a nice man!"}

Hopefully he will come out this way again - I know he will be in Kansas City too, but that's a little far to go right now. Hopefully he'll have a new album out soon - he has some new songs on his MySpace page, and sang some at the concert, and they are so much fun.