October LOAD 1 & 2

I'm starting out the month a little slow because I've been sewing instead of scrapping. Now I will have to try to catch up. Here are layouts one and two for the October LOAD challenge. I'm not proud of the first one, just put it in here so I could count it, LOL! In real life it is a square within a square but looks completely crooked here. These are random pictures of Jersey, David's dog, with the little kids. I love the one of Jersey laying in the rain gutter. Notice her fat, little baby tummy! Look quickly, but don't agonize over trying to find something nice to say about it.


I love this adorable photo of Allen and Jacob. David and Yazmin took the boys to PoJo's one day. At PoJo's they can eat and play all kinds of games. David took this picture of their reflection. I love their mouths in this shot. They are really focused on the prizes. They are oblivious to everything else. I think they are two and five here.

Expecting a Change in the Weather

We are expecting a light frost tonight so we got the garden blankets out of the shed and onto the plants. You can see that some of the grape tomatoes are not covered. We ran out of blankets. Not to worry, we still have plenty that are protected. It's pretty windy outside so we had to anchor the blankets with bricks and logs.


Hopefully the apples can take care of themselves. We had a bumper crop this year - in spite of the squirrels.


I found a packet of pictures and papers this afternoon that I had put together some time ago but never scrapped. This is my daughter-in-law, Yazmin and my granddaughter Celestra. They both came into our family in 2007. Celestra was born in June, Yazzy and David were married in October. David took this picture when they were visiting Heather's family.

What a Mess!

I was sitting here minding my own business just now when I heard a crash from somewhere upstairs. Gathering my courage, I went to investigate. Had it been dark outside, I probably would have pretended I didn't hear anything. Daylight enhances one's bravery. Everything in the house was in order but the garage was another story. A shelf had given way and dumped its contents, wreaking further havoc as everything fell to the ground.


The garage is home to a lot of stuff (junk I say). But that is Terry's domain and I try to close my eyes when I have to go out there for any reason. However, this was a mess that could not be ignored. In fairness to him and his stuff, I did take a picture with my camera and emailed it to him. Wanted to give him a running start should he choose to come home and protect anything. (The heavy bag is mine. It's good for venting one's frustrations - especially when there's a lot of clutter around.)


He must have an instinct that kicks in whenever I get the decluttering bug (and this incident was a big trigger), because moments later he was coming into the garage - in the middle of the afternoon! I'm not sure what he was doing home, but I didn't get a fair chance at tossing very much stuff. As it turned out, most of this belongs to David anyway. I shoved everything back into the boxes and made a neat pile of it in the middle of the floor. Looks much better.


David has his own house now. No need to store his stuff in our garage. Must have been a message from the universe!

A Kiss and A Kick

Last Sunday a dear couple I know from church stopped by the house and gave me this lovely bouquet of flowers. This sweet, simple gesture of kindness touched my heart and really made my day. Every week they bring a beautiful arrangement of flowers and place them on the pulpit for everyone to enjoy. This time they shared them with me after the meetings were over. What a nice reminder that it doesn't take a lot to brighten someone's day.


As you can see, my week went a little bit downhill after Sunday!


Traveling home from the store Wednesday afternoon, I was in a little fender bender. I had decided to skip the freeway because it was getting close to rush hour and, with the construction on the Vista overpass, I didn't want to get tied up in traffic. As it turned out, that would have been much faster!


I was first in line at the red light on Overland and Vista. When my light turned green, I proceeded through the intersection. To my surprise, the fellow coming the opposite direction decided to make his left-hand turn at the same time. I slammed on my brakes but he hit me any way. Oh, how I hate that sound! I was so shaken up, it took me three tries to call 911! Nobody was hurt. I waited nearly 20 minutes in the middle of the intersection for the police to arrive. So grateful for air conditioning! Long story short, the other guy was clearly at fault. He didn't understand that a green light meant he had to yield when turning left. New driver, fresh from Colombia. Bet he won't try that again!

July Layouts

I woke up early this morning with my sleep bank full, so I quietly moved to my scrap room and got to work. It's 9:00 and I've finished three layouts today. My mojo is back! This first layout is a simple, everyday picture of David and me napping on the recliner when he was about 16 - note the hair - that helps me know how old he was. These papers are from a previous Scarlet Lime kit, letters and numbers American Crafts, yellow flower I think I took off a package a while ago and then today I added the red flower from an old SG kit. Leaves are made from SU ribbon, die cuts and green felt trim from SL, ric rac and transparency from stash, ink SU. I know the transparency is hard to read here, but IRL it isn't.


These are not the best pictures (pre-digital), but they are the only ones I have from this event. Elizabeth sang with her elementary school choir, McKinley Singers, for a couple of years. I think she is 12 here - that would make this 1999. Not putting a date until I can get her take on it - she always remembers better than I do. In the last one, I am up in the mezzanine looking down at the kids. Papers and rub on and red flowers SL, yellow flower Prima, blue brad and ribbons SU, swirl and letters AC, star brads from stash. Corrugated paper and journaling block SL.


We got this silly picture from the golf tournament we played in May. One of the sponsors had this photo shoot set up on one of the tees. The top left picture is the folder the photo came in. Not sure what Australia had to do with anything but I liked it. I don't think we even had the camera with us that day. Terry was in charge of the tournament and I kept busy helping him until it was time to golf. Then we just had a fun time. Papers are from stash and the new SL that came yesterday, sticker and foil chipboard from SL, lace and flower and bling from SG, letters AC, button SU, ric rac and transparency from stash. Journaling block SL. This layout really does have a white border all the way around.