Where Has the Summer Gone?

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've updated my Blog. Let me see if I can catch up a bit. Ok, first of all the big event for the month of June was my trip to Washington, DC which was totally awesome. There was so much to see, a lot of walking, a lot of steps to climb.....but it was well worth it. We got to sit in on a session of the House of Representatives in the Capital Building.

President Obama was a little too busy to have us for afternoon tea, but we got some awesome pictures of the White House. We visited museums, cathedrals and cemeteries. There was so much to see and so little time.

I got back just in time to pack for my two week vacation stay on the beach in July. Yes, it was off to Treasure Island, FL for some fun in the sun. I got to relax with my grandchildren, nieces, and other family members, as well as see some old friends.

I got back from vacation just in time to head over to Orlando to the Fiskar's 360th Birthday Celebration, which was held at Epcot in Disney World. We had an absolute blast. Fiskars knows how to throw a party. We had a scavenger hunt, an enormous goody bag full of Fiskar product. We did make and takes. We had an excellent dinner, followed by a big birthday party. The night was topped off with a Fireworks show. It was so great to meet some of the other fiskateers who enjoy doing scrapbooking and cards as much as I do.

And we all know the old saying....."All good things must come to an end." Well, I got a phone call saying my 80 year old Mom had fallen out of her wheelchair and broken her femur. Needless to say my last few days have been filled with going to and from the hospital. After 12 days, though, she has progressed enough to be moved to a rehab facility. God is so good.

"My mom with her baby brother"

I have great hopes that I might be getting back to some scrapbooking in the near future; but time can only tell.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my summer events. Maybe next time I'll post some projects I've completed.

Off to the Capitol

Hello everyone, I am getting ready for a trip. My niece's 5th grade safety patrols are going on a trip to Washington, DC and I'm accompanying my brother as a chaperone. I know it's not gonna be "ALL" fun and games, but I'm looking forward to some of our capitol's sites that I've never seen before and I'm hoping to come back with lots of pictures to scrapbook. Unfortunately, we actually get to meet our President or tour the Whitehouse.

There will be 492 of us (adults and children) boarding 10 buses at 4 AM Saturday morning. Stopping only for a potty break in Georgia, a box lunch at a South Carolina rest stop, another potty break in North Carolina and a buffet style dinner at Colonial Heights, VA; we will arrive in Woodbridge, VA sometime that evening to check into our hotel.



The next several days we will be on guided tours at a very fast pace. Starting very early in the morning and going on into the evening. Some of the things we are scheduled to see are:

Sunday:

• Mount Vernon - Home of George & Martha WashingtonSmithsonian Museum of Air & Space
• METRO subway ride
• National Building Museum
• National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial
• Exterior bus tour of the Capitol Hill area, the U.S. Capitol Building, the Supreme Court Building and the Library of Congress Building

Monday:

• Group picture at the Grant Memorial
• Newseum
• National WWII Memorial
• Lunch at the Reagan Building Food Court
• Smithsonian Museums of Natural History and American History

Tuesday:

• Jefferson & FDR Memorials
• Pictures stop at the White House
• Washington National Cathedral
• Embassy Row
• Vietnam & Korean Veteran's Memorials
• Lincoln Memorial
• Dinner & Shopping at Pentagon City Mall
• See the US Marine Corp Sunset Review at the Iwo Jima Memorial

Wednesday:

• Arlington National Cemetery
• Visit the Kennedy Gravesites
• Witness the Changing of the Guard at the Tombs of tne Unkown Soldier
• Guided Tour of theLuray Caverns in the Blue Ridge Mountains
• Enjoy the spectacular scenery of the Shenandoah National Park Area
• Tour the Hedged Maze

Thursday:

Depart Richmond, VA at 6:30 AM and head home. We should arrive back in Citrus County sometime around 9:00 PM.

I am looking forward to this experience and only hope I can keep up with all these young whippersnappers.

Happy Memorial Day

First of all I'd like to take a moment to give thanks to all of the men and women who have served or have lost their lives serving our country in order for us to continue to have freedom. We owe you so much for your bravery and we will continue to keep all of our troops in prayer.

So many of us have celebrated this holiday weekend in so many different ways. Here's a little bit of what I've been up to.

FRIDAY: Got together with 2 other Fiskateer Friends and made birthday cards. We had so much fun doing this and it's great being able to share new techniques and ideas. A special thanks goes out to my friend Trish who is always an inspiration to us. We all worked on the same cards and it's amazing how different each one came out. Here are mine:

Using flowers & a border punch


Using a dryer sheet & glitter


A little re-ink and saran wrap

Weaving technique

Re-inking splash (I loved doing this one)

SATURDAY: I worked on some Artist Trading Cards. I am involved in several ATC swaps at the moment and this particular theme is cupcake.

SUNDAY AM: I attended church. Thanks again for our servicemen & women, that we can continue to have freedom to worship.

Went to my Local Scrap Shop (LSS) for a organizational meeting of another ATC swap group. We shared ideas, picked themes ..... 1 a month for 12 months; and worked out the details. Here are some of the themes we will be doing, the first one due the end of June. The last 4 themes will be picked by persons who weren't able to attend this meeting.

June - "The Cow Jumped Over the Moon"

July - "Pets & Animals"

August - "Cocktails With a Twist"

September - "Black, White & Pick Color"

October - "Starfish & Mermaids"

November - "Halloween"

December - "Accessories"

January - "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

February -

March -

April -

May -

Lots to think about for the next few months, not to mention the other swaps I'm involved in with other groups.

SUNDAY PM: Went to Spring Hill to my daughter's house for a family/friends get together and cookout. The kids were all able to take a swim before the rains came, but we all had a great time.

MONDAY: Went shopping with my brother and his family and then enjoyed dinner at Sonny's Barbecue. Hence, this brings me up to now. After completing my Blog Update, I'll be ready to get back to the scrap table and work on my next set of ATC's.

Happy Scrapping everyone and thanks for stopping by.

Recent Projects

It's been a couple of weeks since I've updated, so I thought it was time to show you a few things I've been working on since my last Blog.

This is just a fun Hello card


A birthday card for my brother whose birthday is this month.


This is my precious grandson, Joshua. I never get tired of doing layouts of him.


Another layout of Joshua. He loves pushing buttons, so he's always playing with telephone, calculators, TV's, computers or anything else that has a button to push.

This was just a fun layout of me and some of my girlfriends. On their last visit, we all went to Homosassa Springs Wildlife Attraction. We all had our pictures taken behind the manatee.

I also took plenty of photos of the wild life, which will be shown in future layouts.

Happy crafting and thanks for stopping by.

May is National Scrapbooking Month

This past weekend has been such fun. May 1st was National Scrapbooking Day, so all weekend crafting sites and blogs were offering challenges. Online crops were going on everywhere, and RAKS (Random Acts of Kindess) were plentiful.

There is something about challenges that gets my creative juices flowing. Maybe it's the pressure of someone giving me a deadline. But anyway, I got a lot of scrapping done and am motivated to do even more this week.

Here are some of the challenges I entered.

#1. A Bee-utiful Challenge (My subject for this layout, was my grandson and his bee-utiful eyes.)




#2. Fiskateers May Sketch



#3. I Have to Have Some Sewing (I hand stitched around my photos, sewed on a button and laced a button through the title.)



#4. Scrappy Scrap Challenge (Make a layout using old scraps)

#5. Gorgeous Gallery-Times Two (You had to scraplift someone's layout from the gallery). This one was fun, as I used a picture of one of my friend's decorated sneaker in my layout.)




#6. Sunday Morning Challenge (Make a layout using old items that you never seem to use any more. I dug out all my old stickers, paper borders, and foamies.)

#7. Card Tag / Combo (pretty self explanatory)

#8. Show your Fiskars Pride Challenge

I love online crops and can't wait to find some more challenges. In the meantime, I have plenty of pictures I need to be placing on layouts and I ready to create. Thanks for visiting my Blog.