A Tribute to Our Daughter-in-Law

We never had a girl. Lord knows we tried to have more children, and a girl would have been so nice. She would truly have been Daddy's little girl. I always felt that the reason why God gave mothers two hands was one for each child. Our son has been our joy and source of much pride. Our daughter-in-law has been a blessing.

Let me tell you about her. She is brilliant. She has her Masters in English. Can you imagine reading all those boring books? Yet, she did and found life and love in each of them let alone meaning I could never find. Our precious daughter-in-law is beautiful! She has the most gorgeous smile, perfect teeth, and eyes. When she applies her make up, she could stop traffic! She is humble. She doesn't know how gorgeous she is! The thing is, she's lovely inside and out. She is a tender heart. She has much love and sweetness. She is such a good sport, tolerates our darling son, and loves to do adventurous things with him. Our daughter-in- law is tall - enviable tall. How would it be to be able to reach things higher than the first shelf in our kitchen cabinets, LOL?

We are so proud to have this wonderful woman as part of our family. Our family is better because of her. She is a jewel and we love her dearly. XOXO

I want to share two layouts I did of her and for her. Here they are:


Absolutely Fabulous

Thank you, Kerry, for sending me this beautiful paper! When it came in the mail, I had no idea what photo I would use. Then, yesterday, while going through my e-mails sent by DS (darling son), I found this beautiful photo our our DDIL (Darling Daughter-in-Law). Thank you for sending the paper to me. I love it!


Beautiful You

This photo was lovely in color, but I chose to print it in sepia so that it would blend better with the layout.

Darling daughter-in-law, thank you for joining our wacky family. Know that you are loved by all of us - including our two furry friends!

Love,

Chris

With Love to Our Son and Daughter-In-Law

Dearest Ones,

We are so proud of the huge leap the two of you have taken. You are approaching a new level of responsibility. Scary, isn't it? Despite all the hassles the two of you have had regarding your huge purchase, YOU DID IT! Your dad and I are so happy for you! May your home be a place of love, respite, and happiness.

Because you finally sent photos, I had something to scrap! Here are some layouts I did for your albums. I hope you like them!

I can't wait to see your new home after you've worked on it a bit. I see white shutters, flower boxes under windows, awnings, a beautiful garden by the edge of your porch filled with flowers of every color and height. Your home has so much potential. A white picket fence would look so cute, but who would want to keep painting it after the northwest storms take their toll? LOL


Welcome to your First Home

This layout captures all the characteristics of the Pacific Northwest and your home. I chose lots of trees because there are forests! There are birds, a rabbit, and an owl because of the wildlife found there. Your old skeleton key represents the age of your home. The clouds represent your cloudy skies.There is a little snail because I bet you'll have them in your flower beds! I blurred your street name for privacy, but the stickers I used are replicas of old typewriter keys.


Home Tweet Home

I love the fact that the two of you take short trips - it's so good to get away and enjoy camping. Dearest DIL, you are such a good sport! Thank you! Here, I've scrapped a photo you took at Trees of Mystery in Klamath, CA. Great photo! There are some glittery elements that you cannot see in the photo,but they are there. I've added some bling to the semicircle scalloped edge. Keep the photos coming!


Cherish These Moments

I so fell in love with the photo you sent on this LO! I loved the blues and greys. Of course, I immediately knew what papers to use! You made my choice so easy! The scroll at the top is made of wood. The color matches the inner angle of the photo corner. The circle in the lower left is a pewter "eyelet" that has a raised surface. There is journaling on the strips so you can remember this day. I love both of you!


Together

This layout is of your dad on his 60th birthday! Isn't he handsome? He doesn't look 60! I wish both of you the years of happiness your dad and I have had.


True Love

This is another LO of your dad and I on his birthday. We had such a good time but missed you both dearly! You know dad and I. By the time dessert came, we had everyone in the room singing along with the wait staff. It became a party! One of the diners took this photo for us! I had gotten this mask a while ago and just didn't know what to do with it until we were on our way home. Dad stopped at a sporting goods store and I stayed in the car. While there, one of Dad's favorite songs came on the radio.He loves the lyrics to the song. I'm thinking that it was Ann Murray who did the rendition I was listening to. I knew right then and there the title of the LO and how to use the musical mask!


Grow Old Along With Me

This last layout is of the snowstorm that happened just before your Christmas arrival. It was snowing when Dad took this photo of the house. It was so beautiful outside with the Christmas lights on the roof of the house blinking in the snow. I have some rusted brown metal snowflakes which I used on this LO. You can see them if you look closely. They are larger than those printed on the brown snowflake paper.


A Blanket of White

Thank you, everyone for stopping by and reading along as I give my loved ones a huge cyber hug! I hope you will come back soon! Your visits mean the world to me!

XOXO,
Chris

Hail to the Chief

Well, there has been a political change today. Needless to say, it is a ripple that has circled the globe! What an historic event! I don't think there was this much enthusiasm in Presidential transfers since John F. Kennedy - and even that wasn't as monumental as this! I do remember that feeling of elation, though. Even as a teenager, I embraced Kennedy as the new leader of my country. I also have those same feelings today. I have to tell you, I also had a feeling of relief as President Obama took the Oath of Office. I pray that there will be blessings of wise decisions, intuitiveness, and support bestowed on this young President. Only time will tell. His speech radiated the importance of self responsibility. I believe that if you take ownership of something, you commit to work towards whatever that goal is. Today is a new day under new leadership.

I did scrap today's event. While others on my primary message board felt that it wasn't a priority to scrap, I did feel that it was. I wanted to document today. This election taught us that elections matter and votes do count. We saw that even in a dark time, we, the people, seek leadership. And, for the first time in the history of this country, the color of a man's skin was not a barrier. So, through the photo of this man, a copy of his speech, and my journaling, I have documented this moment in my history. I am proud that I have done that for someone, at some time years and years from now, who was not here to see this moment occur. Here is my LO. President Obama's speech is attached to the back of the page (treated with Archival Mist).


A Witness to History

I've done three layouts for Happy Scrappin'. I was really into Doodlebug products this month! I'd pick up paper that I liked, planned the LO, turned over the paper to list the product and found that I repeatedly picked out Doodlebug all three times! Here they are:


A Father's Love

This has to be one of my favorite photos of DH and DS! I just love it! I wanted to do something different so I rounded the corners on the PP. Now, for those of you who are not spatially challenged as I am, this was a real pill! I needed to make sure the curvature on each corner was as closely the same as possible. The trouble came in when I cut the PP into smaller sizes and still needed to maintain the curve. DH often asks, "You had trouble in Geometry, didn't you?" I just smile. Some of you probably have a better way of doing stuff like this. I tend to do things the hard way. *sigh*


Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?

This LO started out to be black and white. I quickly realized that I needed some color and red is always great with black and white. I made the flowers on the right using matching papers from the Doodlebug line found in the heart and the red on the mat. The word "Love" was silver metal. I used Staz-On to color it black. The "leaves" on the stems are 3 metal Making Memories words (love, adore, sweetheart). The chipboard hearts are all glittery and the key in the lower left is made from black and clear crystals to add some sparkle. I had fun. The title words come from a song done in 1945! It works for Valentine's Day, right? LOL


Sweets for My Sweet

Doodlebug again! I wanted to do a monochromatic LO and the brown paper was so much fun to use. I got to use up a ton of flowers, too! To add some sparkle, I placed some tiny crystal stars that are in shades of brown here and there on the LO.

Thank you for stopping by. I really love that you took the time to visit and hope that you will come back again! Your visits are important to me.

XO,

Chris

I've Been a Bad Blogger!

I cannot believe that it is almost mid January and I haven't blogged in weeks! I've been busy with projects and the holidays. I hope your holidays were wonderful! Ours were!

I spent one week making an album. I seriously spent a whole week on it! I never said I was a speedy scrapper! I've made it to sell, so if you are interested, let me know. Make me an offer! It did turn out really well. When I first planned the album, I thought it would work for us. However, as I got into the album, I realized that it needed children, grandchildren, family. We have no grandchildren and our son is a man. Our family is just the three of us plus our daughter in law. It just needs kid photos. Sometimes, scrapping is hard because I don't have little ones to photograph. Let me tell you a little bit about the album.



This is a chipboard album that has been covered with PPs and embellished. There are lots of spaces for journaling, too!

For the cover "B," I covered it in green PP and then made another "B" that was slightly smaller and glued it leaving the green border. There is a sparkly pointsettia in the center and lots of ribbons on the rings. I also used three metal giant "eyelets" on each page to reinforce the album. The backside of whatever side has the eyelets has donut shaped matching reinforcements to give it a finished look.



Because these two pages are small, I chose to make the left side for journaling. The border of the journaling tag is rimmed in red metallic paint which adds just the right amount of sparkle. The page on the right has a small photo mat with some rhinestone centered Primas.



Both pages have mats which were cut with my Nestie dies. The page on the right shows text from a Christmas poem. The flowers match the colors perfectly.



The page on the left has punched borders on the mat. There is a little notation sticker in the lower left corner that has metallic red and green printed on it. A photo will slip behind the Merry Christmas twill that has been accentuated with prima flowers.

The right page is relatively smple. There is a journaling tag beneath the photo mat. The brads are a cream color and the ribbon, as well as the brads, match the PP.





The left page has been rimmed in loopy ribbon in a cream color. I added suede-like brads, a Bazzill velvet flower with prima flower, button, and ribbon. The tag is on pop dots. The cream colored paper has been cut and mounted to accentuate the scalloped border.

The right side has a journaling tag beneath the mat. The top mat also flips up to reveal two more photo mats beneath. The jingle bells in the corners have silver cord. The mats beneath are also embellished.





The left page has glittered stockings and Christmas trees to add just that touch of sparkle! On the right, there is a tag for journaling beneath the photo mat (which I forgot to tuck in), chipboard and matching Prima flowers. The photo corners are red metallic. I lined up the PP on the right page so that the lines are all aligned perfectly.





For these pages, I used rhinestone accents and square, red metallic brads. The Santa is fabric, and there is a journaling tag behind the photo mat on the right. The label on the left page is rimmed with metallic red and green.

I am so glad that you stopped by! It means so much that you took the time to see what I've been up to! Please come back as my front door is always open to you and there is always a cup of hot chocolate waiting for you!

XO,

Chris

Ho, Ho, Ho!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday!

We were together as a family with DS visiting us for Christmas. What a treat that is. He was lucky to get out of the Pacific Northwest due to all the snow. For a while, we weren't sure he'd be here for the holiday. He made it! We so enjoy his visits.

Did you have a wonderful holiday? Was your tummy full? I made our Christmas menu a bit different this year. We had a fabulous ham from Basse's Choice. They are sooooooooooooo delish! With that, I made grits rich with Gruyere and Mozzarella cheese. DS doesn't like potatoes so grits was the substitute. I also made wild rice with cranberries, mushrooms, onions, celery, and topped with crispy bacon and cashews. Oh, that was really good! We also had an artichoke casserole and orange jello salad made with cottage cheese and cool whip. It was a nice light dessert.

Just after dinner, a storm moved through the area. Our lights kept flickering, the wind was really blowing - I mean gusts at 50 mph! The rain was coming down in torrents. What an odd December!

I found a couple of sites this morning that are giving away a really nice blog candy offering. Here are the links. They have some wonderful blog candy offerings! Check them out!

http://linda-wright.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-candy-up-for-grabs.html

http://crafts-international.blogspot.com/2008/12/blogg-candy.html

http://thepaperfreak.blogspot.com/2008/12/im-offering-my-first-blog-candy.html

Join in the fun - maybe one of us will win!

I haven't taken any photos or done any scrap work for the past couple of days. I've just been working on other things.

I hope your holiday was very special! Come back soon!

XO

Chris

Las Vegas Snow & Here, Too!

"Oh the weather outside is frightful"
"And the fire is so delightful"
"And since we've no place to go"
"LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW"


The Snow Fairy Came!
No, this isn't a black and white photo! This is how it looks outside this morning!

I am sooooooooo excited! The snow if just falling thickly. We have a fire in the family room fireplace and the blinds are open so we can watch the snow fall outside. The landscape is white, and our Christmas lights are twinkling. Sadly, our lighted, moving reindeer have shorted out, HA, HA! They are dark and still! LOL. They couldn't take the snow! I feel like I'm a kid again. I loved winters in Pennsylvania. This is a wonderful treat!

My first experience of snow in the Mojave desert was in 1974. Las Vegas had nine inches! At that time, there was only one snow plow in Clark County, NV, and it was at Mt. Charleston. Since then, the county purchased a second one! LOL You have to understand that Clark County, Nevada (where Las Vegas is) covers 8,091 square miles! It's very large! The streets were a mess!

Driving to school that morning was "interesting." I had a Mercury Cougar XR7 with a huge engine. The back of the car had no weight. I remembered that my dad told me to always make sure the back end was weighted down. So, before leaving for school, I packed a 20 lb. bag of kitty litter in the trunk and filled the trunk with cinder blocks, my encyclopedia books, and a bunch of textbooks, LOL. I did make it to school without an issue! LOL I definitely had enough weight in the trunk!

We had three inches in 1979. DH and I had just moved into our home and one of the access roads to our area was a steep hill that was still dirt. DH and I decided to go skiing! We carried our skis and spent the evening skiing down the hill and walking back up. We had a blast! It was so much fun. We skied until about 10:30 that night. School was cancelled the next day, so we were able to play late!

In 2003, Las Vegas had another significant snow. DS was so excited, he came and woke us up about 2 AM. DH told us to get dressed. We piled into the Navigator and went to a park where we took some photos. Then, we drove around taking more photos of The Strip and other areas until 6 AM. The neat thing was that we weren't the only people at the park or just out and about. Lots of people were in the park at 3:00 AM playing like we were! People were on The Strip taking photos of the snowy hotels.

Today, Las Vegas is, once again, being whomped with snow as are we just north of Vegas, It started about 4 PM and hasn't stopped. There's about 3 inches on our lawn so far. I AM SOOOOOO EXCITED!!! There is nothing I love more than winter snow. It just makes things so beautiful! It just makes it feel more like Christmas, too!

OK, I've bored you enough. I'll post some photos in a bit. I have to download them from my camera. I hope it snows all night! I can't wait to look out the window tomorrow morning to see just how much we've gotten.

Here is a photo of our home taken at night:

This is so much fun!

XO,
Chris

Christmas Cards to Share

Oh, we're supposed to get snow tomorrow! I am soooooooo excited! I feel like I'm 10 again! The anticipation, the beauty, the feeling of Christmas! I so hope that the storm holds true and we get the 3 - 5 inches that are predicted!

I've been making cards. I thought I'd share some with you.

The first one is of DH when he was sooooo little. This photograph just places a huge lump in my throat! The innocence in DH's face. Santa looks so real. We're sending this card to DH's dad as his Christmas card. I think he'll like it. I tried to make it vintage looking by using vintage colors with gold. What do you think?



This card uses a Tilda stamp. I am so in love with these little characters! Her pants are a rust color, but for some reason, they don't look brown, but a dark red. Oh well. I used some old BG PP for the matting. I love the vivid colors. I also placed her on pop dots so that she stands out from the card.



This is a Pageframe Design clear acrylic card. (See Happy Scrappin' link) I apologize for the yellow look, but if I used a flash, it would create a glare. So, I had to take the photo without the flash. I used a clear sticker on the front of the card as well as some "snow" effects. The bird, leaves, and branch are all silver. It is so pretty. Then, on the inside, I added the sentiment and a ribbon w/ snowflake brad. I like the dimension I achieved.



This is another Magnolia stamp. I thought this Santa was so cute. He's on pop dots so that there is some dimension to the front of the card. The colors are so rich.



Another cutie patootie Magnolia stamp. The simplicity is so wonderful. I embossed the back mat using a Cuttlebug embossing folder entitled Snow drops.



Here is Tilda holding a Christmas wreath. If you look closely, you can see that I embossed the back mat using my Cuttlebug "Winter House" embossing folder.



This card is dark green, but it looks black. I embossed gold paper with the Cuttlebug Christmas ornament embossing folder.All of these folders are available at Happy Scrappin'. I took some colored rhinestones and glued them to some of the depressions in the foil. I wanted to add a bit of sparkle and a bit of color. I used red, green, blue, and clear rhinestones. Then, I remembered I had these beautiful gold pointsettia Primas. I used that to cover the knot in the bow.



And now for a single layout! This is one of DH's favorite photos of himself and our son. I tried to keep with the rusts and navy blues found in the photo. My guys went for a hike at Zion National Park. There had been a snowstorm the day before. If you look closely, you can see a snow plop on DS's hat and wet drip marks on DH's jacket! I used copper elements to keep the LO very masculine. This is one of my very favorite color schemes. I did some stitching around the edges of the PPs. The alphas are navy blue felt Thickers. TFL!


Father & Son

Thank you for stopping by! I hope I get some snow photos to share. **keeping my fingers and toes crossed** I am so glad you took the time to visit!

XO

Chris