Challenge album pieces, due October 3.

Here are the pieces to be used for the next challenge. this time we are making a small album with someone else’s photos. Which means someone else is scrapping photos that are mine. I turned in photos of my little sister's wedding. I am looking forward to seeing what the album looks like. By the way, Ev got my photos, and I got hers!

Come back soon to check out the album and its progress or final look!

Farewell

"He need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it" -Ted Kennedy, 1932-2009

Basic Grey kit

I bought a swatch mini album kit at the Scrapbook expo. On the back of the package of the album it reads: "In the beginning the Lord created chocolate and he saw that it was good. Then he separated the light from the dark, and it was better.”

I found it very fitting, for my person anyway. I also thought it was very amusing to find it on that package. But then when you know that the name of the album is “Dark Chocolate Swatch Mini Album,” it all makes sense.

Here are some of the items included in the kit... I can't wait to actually use the kit! Soon, I hope...

Thought of the day

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!

Senator Ted Kennedy

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die." -- Senator Ted Kennedy, 1932-2009

Sunflowers

This is what we see when we look out the kitchen window towards the garden. Everybody knows how much I love, admire and respect nature. Those beautiful sunflowers simple make me happy and bring a smile to my face. We grow all kinds of things in our garden, but sunflowers are the most expressive, at least to me. I have taken a few of photos of them and will add more later.

Sunflowers 2

And here's what we do with them after we pick them in the field... We hang them to dry in the barn. They stay there all of fall and winter and then we use the seeds in the Spring to plant more sunflowers, to my delight!!!

Look at those 2... they have red seeds instead of black ones... weird... but then again, Paul can grow all kinds of weird stuff... lol...

Then there is the sunflower which actually has 3 heads. Weird, as I said...

Morning thought

Happiness is a grateful spirit, an optimistic attitude and a heart full of love.


==> I just read this line on someone's online site and had to copy it on here. It makes the early morning brighter...

BLOG HAPPY

Dang, I have been spending a lot of time on this thing called my blog... lol... That's to make up for the time when I wasn't using it I guess... I changed the look, title and header, because it is not going to be only about my scrap work. Everything that my heart feels like sharing will be on here. Hopefully you'll still enjoy the ride!
Take care everyone!

Always Looking Up

"At the turn from our bedroom into the hallway, there is an old full-length mirror in a wooden frame. I can't help but catch a glimpse of myself as I pass. Turning fully toward the glass, I consider what I see. This reflected version of myself, wet, shaking, rumpled, pinched, and slightly stooped, would be alarming were it not for the self-satisfied expression pasted across my face. I would ask the obvious question,"What are you smiling about?," but I already know the answer: "It just gets better from here."

Michael J. Fox, "Always Looking up"

Manet's Grand Canal

Edouard Manet. Venice - Le Grand Canal. 1874.




I might have mentioned this before but this is my favorite painting. I even have a copy of it on my bedroom wall. I find it very soothing.



"Il ne s'agit pas de peindre la vie, mais de rendre vivante la peinture." (Pierre Bonnard)

Book of quotes

About 4 or 5 years ago, I started what I then called a book of quotes. For my own entertainment, I would gather up quotes and find online photos that would go with them and put them together in a booklet. I have lost the hard copy of the beginning of that booklet, but I found the word processing document on a CD-ROM... That must have been my first inkling at blogging because as I am looking at the word processing document now, it sure looks like a blog post!


So I am going to restart here, in a real blog... One quote or two at a time... Come back once in a while for new quotes and new images.

Love is the best medicine, and there is more than enough to go around once you open your heart.

With great power comes great responsibility.

Scrapbooking Expo!

Wow, yesterday was an amazing day!!!! I was lucky enough to be able to attend a Scrapbooking Expo in St Charles, IL, near Chicago. It was by far the most awesome experience in my scrapbooking life. I mean, you can shop till you drop and see TONS of scrapbooking related stuff... a pleasure for the eye and the creativity. I went there along with Melanis and Ellen. And let me tell you, we had a blast together. We also had Edwina with us, the little GPS system girl, and she didn’t do that great of a job on the way back. I mean, I love the Chicago skyline and everything, but that wasn’t the way we had intended to take to get back home. Oh well... For lunch the girls introduced me to the little pleasures of Sweet Tomatoes (to be pronounced Edwina style!)... Ahhh... Loved it!!!! I am trying to squeeze in the “church” inside joke, but for fear of burning in hell (yeah, I know, I should have thought about that sooner...) I will just say this: “Amen.” And there it is! THEY will understand. So all things considered, it was a fantastic day. I did buy a few things, but I must say that in the end we were quite reasonable in our spending... We could have done WAY more damage to our wallets than what we did. We know have a lot of scrapbook “work” ahead of us. We are already talking about other Scrapbook Expo. If anyone knows of any and when and when they take place, please let me know by leaving a comment. I had to include pictures of the Chicago skyline which, against our original planning, we were able to see on our way home. Thanks Edwina!

Us three on the way back from the Expo!

This is Edwina!

CHICAGO SKYLINE:

(Yes, I am aware that most of you in the U.S. know the Chicago skyline, but let's think about the non-U.S. residents amonst my friends and family who maybe, just maybe, one day will take a look at my blog...)

Mill Pond Festival Fireworks

We would never miss the fireworks! Granted, tonight's fireworks were a little disappointing, but still not bad for a small town like Union Mills. I am still trying to figure out how to take good pictures of fireworks, so for lack of having good pics to show, I am showing you what I have...

8 years

Today I realized that I have been a LaPorte Family YMCA Employee for 8 years. wow... time flies or what! it has been 8 years of all kinds of emotions and accompishments... I would not trade them for anything though. I have met some of the most selfless and amazing people I know. Those years have made me who I am today, and for that I can only and forever be gradeful!
I LOVE MY JOB!

Quote

"What is Life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself on the sunset." (Crowfoot, Native American Orator)

Summer Family

Despite the fact that I didn't get to hang out with them in the heat and sun this summer, we had a few good times spent together, and I still think very highly of my beloved fellow counselors. They have proved to me one more time how caring and loving they can be! Over the years I have created some fantastic relationships with some of them.... I am fully aware that I will probably never see some of them again, and it makes me sad. But I feel blessed to have met them! So here's to all of them, a great big Thank you for some great times... I love you guys!

Heart to Heart

A friend and I had a heart to heart talk earlier this month about a couple of things in particular and life in general. As I told him, life will throw lemons in your face, no doubt about it... But in the end, you have to stand tall to catch those damn lemons and make the best lemonade EVER! But you shouldn't go through all the crap alone... There is a point when you need to not only accept help and support but also go as far as asking for it... I have learned that the past few months. It is a lesson in humility like no other. There are things that turn into walls and you can't push them back alone... You cannot be afraid or embarrassed to grab the phone and make that call for help, or to write about it online and share it with the people you know... Because who knows who is suffering out there and might need support too? My experience is helping other people, and those same people who are in pain somehow are helping me too... Let's not fool ourselves: the healing process is a never ending process and it works both ways... By helping someone I am helping myself. Sitting on those steps, talking, I did realize all this... If there is a bright side to this huge bump in my life, that's got to be it... I take comfort in thinking that I am a better person and an even more understanding human being because of the things I had to deal with, because I CHOSE to be a better person. It is all about attitude, positive attitude. And that's it.