Capture the Details

ready

I'm working on samples for the store since tomorrow starts another new month. September already. Sheesh.

This is a layout for my September employee pick, the Perfectly Clear book by Autumn Leaves ( it has tons of ideas for how to use clear stamps ). I used the book for inspiration and came up with this page (you can click on it to see it larger).....

I used Autumn Leaves clear stamps (from the flourishes v.2 set by Rhonna Farrer) to give my superhero a wind-blown looking background....

and I wasn't sure how easy it would be to see the journaling on the black background so I have a close-up of that as well...

( in case you're wondering what a 'gully' is, it's a receiving blanket from when Ben was a baby.....actually the receiving blankets are from when Sarah was a baby. We have about six or seven of them and they are all threadbare anymore. Why 'gully'? Because when you're a baby and you suck your thumb with the blanket in your hand you make a gully noise, thus, we call the blankets gullys. Ben still uses one to fall asleep at night. I'm not worried about it though, because he used to use one all the time and as he's getting older his need for it diminishes. He's growing up too darned fast already, I'm not gonna rush him!! ;-)  )

The book and the stamps I used are available at Kinnon Keepsakes. I'll have more stuff to share as I create it. :-)

back to school

Gone are the days of staying up late and sleeping in. :-(

Benjamin and Sarah went to school this morning.... one a bit tired and a touch worried, the other with tears and I don't want to go's. Can you guess who was who????

Here is my baby     ~my baby~     posing in the official 'first day of school chair' on his first day of full-day Kindergarten....

( in case you're very observant, no, there is not info missing on his tag, I edited out some personal stuff because of putting this on the web :-)  )  He was the tired and slightly worried one.

She was the one that did not want to go. She put on a brave face for this shot...

but this next one you can see the anxiety plain as day. Poor kiddo.

I played the cheerleader for both of them ---- you'll be fine    everyone is nervous the first day   I'm so proud of you      but it was very hard for me this year because both of my kids are now gone for the day.

At the bus stop they were both rather somber....

I was soooooo happy that Todd was able to come home from work for a few minutes for the send-off ( Sarah is squinting because the bugs were so bad )....

I was glad because he was able to see them on the first day of school (he's never been able to do that before) and because he could get a picture of me with the kids, who had gravitated over to me for some motherly affection....

On the bus (look at my poor Sarah)...

Off they went and then mommy had a good cry.

I did have a job to keep me busy for a bit, though, while they were at school.... My step-Grammy is German. She has a German tradition that I decided to start with my kids when Sarah went to her first day of Kindergarten because I am half-German, too. The tradition is giving a school cone, or schultuete, to a child on the first day of school. It's a paper cone filled with goodies and it was started to make the change from care-free nursery school to what is called Der Ernst Lebens (the seriousness of life) easier.

I ran to the store to get poster board and goodies and came home to assemble it. I kicked my white cone up a notch by adding wrapping paper. Ben's cone was covered with who else, but Diego wrapping paper. I'll show you a picture in a bit.

The day went pretty fast and before you know it I was up at the corner with camera in hand again. I had a feeling that my somber little faces miiiight be a bit happier on this side of the school day and I was right...

Look at this cool cat.... yeah. I did it.....

 

and her, too....

 

Much better.

Home to the school cone --- he was so excited to see the Diego theme --- I had him pose with it before digging in... I had candy and Play-doh and some small Diego toys in it.

This next shot I got by accident.... I was trying to get a picture of Ben with his goodies when Sarah put the cone on his head and ran away. It was funny so I kept it....

One more thing to share with you..... I always check what is in the kid's backpacks and I pulled out Sarah's little notebook to see if she wrote anything in it. Well, I laughed when I saw her list. Yes, Sarah is a list-maker. Everything must be noted and accounted for and planned out and recorded. Here is her daily school schedule according to her....

Do you think she learns anything by chance?

Back to the grind again tomorrow morning, but without the pictures. :-)

wet feet

The kids had their last hoorah! of summer by sleeping over at their nana and pappy's last night, so it's quiet around here this morning. I let the dog out to do her business and I noticed how pretty it looked outside.... the sun was low so it was back lighting everything and there was dew everywhere. I grabbed the camera, took advantage of some 'me' time, and out I went. I took a bunch of pictures and narrowed it down to these....

My shoes are soaked through, but I have some pretty pictures to look at and to share with you. Enjoy your day! :-)

animal adventurers

Can you say amphibians?

My step dad went for his daily walk yesterday and came home with a box turtle that he found crossing the road. Of course, Ben, or should I call him Deigo, begged and pleaded to go and see it.

The kids followed it around the yard... this way.....

and that way.....

then they took turns picking it up ...

Ben is sooooooo in love with amphibians.... and he's not afraid to hold anything. He wants to be an animal rescuer when he grows up.

And the icing of the cake for him yesterday - he found a frog in the pond in their yard......

:-)

deck of me

I haven't updated this for a loooooong time, so here we go....

week 25: a photo that means something to you ( me and my dad ---he died about 7 1/2 years ago, so a picture with us together is priceless )

week 26: celebrating daughters

week 27: junk mail ( I found the scissors in a Pottery Barn catalog that I got in the mail )

week 28: goal of the week ( the background is actually from an office supply store ad --- they had a picture of a backpack with a really pretty pattern on it )

week 29: define perfection

week 30: blessings - count them!

week 31: no regrets

week 32: quiet

week 33: 10 minutes ( create whatever we want within a 10 minute time frame )

thanks for looking!!!! :-)

banners

I have been changing my blog banners frequently lately...... I like to put a new banner up every so often but lately the ones I've made haven't 'felt' right to me. So, if you are a daily visitor and you've been wondering what the heck is going on up there, I think I've made one now that I like enough to let there for a bit. :-)

new at the store

Kinnon Keepsakes has some new papers from American Crafts and I made a layout using the metropolitan line. Just like all their papers, this new line is very graphic and bold....

I used some new Bazzill scalloped cardstock and thickers™ alphabet stickers, also from American Crafts.

We now have really pretty wrapping paper, ribbon, bows and take-out boxes from American Crafts available as well. If you like their paper you will love their new gift items!!!!! I wanted to give you a link to the new papers and products but I couldn't find it on their web site yet. I did find this on their blog....if you scroll down and click on the word 'here' you can download the 2007 gift catalog and see the new gift-related products. :-)

every 2.833333 years

I have lived in this house for eight and a half years now. Yesterday was the third time in those eight and a half years that we had a power outage due to something in our yard or at the bottom of our driveway.

Lightening struck the ground about 4 years ago and blew out the transformer on the utility pole in our yard. Ben was in his high chair and I was feeding him lunch when I saw the lightening hit the ground between our house and our neighbor's house where the underground electric line/ cable/ and telephone runs. Talk about LOUD and scaring the pants off you. The lightening came through the line, up the pole, blew up the transformer then came through our house, blew the well cap off our well pipe, blew out an electric wire in the basement where the wire made a 90 degree bend. We lost our TV, VCR, garage door opener, phones, the cable and my computer modem.

Twice now a huge tree at the bottom of our driveway has fallen over and blocked the road, taking the utility lines with it. We had severe storms yesterday afternoon. In fact the kids and I were in the basement bathroom for a bit because there was a tornado watch for the town I live in. A lot of trees were down around the area and we had the action right in front of us again. We went to McDonald's to get supper since I had no power to cook with and I took some pictures. This is going down the driveway....

My neighbor below us put wooden saw horses up because people were coming up my driveway, driving across the grass and going down his driveway to get through. With all the rain the ground was muddy and the grass was getting ruined.

I took this one on the way back from McDonald's...

My driveway is the first one to the right, so luckily we were still able to get in and out, and so was our neighbor on the other side of the tree.

Power was out for about 12 hours... I woke up around 3:00 a.m. and the lights were back on. I said something to Todd about doing the math to figure out how often we have these situations and it's once every 2.83333 years. I guess we're good to go for a few years again. :-)

go Stacy go Stacy go Stacy

I opened an email newsletter this morning from Cocoa Daisy and I saw a very familiar face smiling back at me..... my bestest friend in the whole wide world, Stacy,  is the guest daisy diva for August. Go here to see her beautiful work and be sure to take a good look at her conservatory album.....  You can also check out her blog post with some info about her layouts and album here. :-)

4

I read Nicole's blog and therefore I am 'tagged'.....

4 jobs I've had in my life...

1. graphic designer, for a short time before Sarah came along... before that it was
2. retail sales at an art and frame shop
3. retail sales at my uncle's greenhouses
4. currently, retail sales at a scrapbook store (do you see a theme here?????)

4 places I've lived....

1. Allentown, PA
2. Northampton, PA
3. Kutztown, PA
4. Walnutport, PA

4 TV shows I like to watch....

1. CSI
2. Law & Order
3. Spongebob Squarepants ( you know I had to throw that in there!!)
4. Oprah

4 places I've been....

1. Mystic Seaport, CT (farthest North)
2. Williamsburg, VA (farthest South)
3. Jersey Shore (farthest East)
4. State College, PA (farthest West) ( I haven't been very far from home.....)

4 favorite foods...

1. pizza (with pepperoni or mushrooms)
2. homemade stuffing (Thanksgiving is getting closer and closer, mmmmmmmmmm)
3. chicken fajitas
4. lobster tail

4 places I'd rather be right now....

1. on a white sand beach in the tropics
2. getting a massage
3. I'd like to see Ireland
4. in bed (and I'm going there shortly)

4 places I'd like to shop....

1. Pottery Barn/ Pottery Barn Kids
2. Target
3. Macy's
4. and of course I have to say Kinnon Keepsakes!!!!

4 favorite books of all time...

1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (love love LOVE those books)
2. The Hobbit
3. Harry Potter series
4. The DaVinci Code

4 favorite movies.....

1. uh, yeah, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
2. Pretty Woman
3. Shawshank Redemption
4. one of my new favorites - Wild Hogs

               4        :-)