Hi! IN THE 90's

It's been summer here the last couple days! Wednesday and Thursday, it was in the low 70's -- just the way I love it! NOT so today and yesterday -- low 90's and very humid! That's supposed to go on for a couple more days. Tuesday's forecast WAS 100, but they've dropped that a few degrees. Somehow 97 sounds so much better than 100! Okay, I HATE the heat and especially the humidity! As I said, I love the 70's!

Owen spends a good deal of his time running around
the outside edge of the trampoline! It makes him happy!

Jared loves to teach Owen. It's so incredibly sweet to witness it. Usually it's way above Owen's comprehension! Here, he's teaching him how a bicycle works! From gears to brakes to sprockets... It may be way over Owen's head now, but someday he'll know where his knowledge of bicycles came from!

SO talented! Yet a little creepy too!

Things are going well. Jim is very happy with his new job! His sleep is getting better -- just not enough! He's been working long days, but the hard work is good for him. He's proudly sporting a sun-tanned left arm! He's been sun deprived for so many years, this is so great for his physical and mental health!

Nathan hasn't been a subject of my photographing the past week or so, so I thought I'd go back to my archives and show you one from yesteryear.

He wore Blue Velvet (title of future scrapbook page!)

Nathan was dedicated at 3 months old. This is the outfit that he wore -- blue velvet! This adorable photo was taken a week or so before.

I ordered a WHOLE BUNCH of prints from winkflash last week, so I have several envelopes of photos. For a challenge, I'm going through each envelope and choosing a photo (or a few from a particular event of photo shoot) to scrapbook! I MAKE myself do a page from something in that certain envelope. If I don't do that, I'll keep going through my pictures STUCK on what to do next! This challenge seems to be working for me. Last week I sorted TONS of photos -- Nathan, Jared, Owen, 2 or 3 boys together, Jim (from childhood until now), me (same as Jim), photos of Jim and me together, Jim's family, my family, ancestor pictures, etc.... I think that'll help me too.

A friend from church expressed interest in learning to scrapbook! She'd like me to teach her! I can't wait! I have to keep reminding myself what I want to teach her (and what I taught ladies when I was a Creative Memories consultant: KEEP IT SIMPLE!! Some of my favorite pages are ones that I just did and didn't stress over ("just do it"!). I love patterned paper, so if I can add that and a fun title and journaling along with my photos, it makes me happy. I'm never going to win any awards for creative pages. Although I love to complete creative, crafty pages, my ultimate goal is to scrapbook as many of my photos and stories as I can -- as quickly as I can! I have a few thousand! I realize that I won't put them all in scrapbooks, but I want to get many of them in!

Until next time...

blessings, joie

ONE FOOT, TWO FOOT, WHITE FOOT, BLUE FOOT!

Owen Matthew

Been wanting to scrap these photos for a while! For weeks, Owen insisted that he wear this sock at nap time! When nap was over, we'd take it off until the next day!

I love my Girls Are Weird Sizzix alphabet dies! They're a nice size -- not too big, not too small. One thing really neat about them is that there are 2 sets of capital and lower case letters. There are letters like what you see on this page AND larger letters that act as shadows BEHIND the letter. I typically don't use them -- always in a hurry to get done, but I have before and they look very cool! And, of course, I LOVE LOVE to cut out craft foam (Fun Foam) I buy 9 x 12 sheets -- usually on sale -- at my "local craft store", AC Moore. Even the thinnest dies (Quick Kutz) will cut through craft foam easily!

I want to run errands today, but it's been raining pretty hard. I might just wait...

Until next time...

blessings, joie

WELCOME JUNE!

I can't believe that it's already JUNE! The weather's been beautiful lately! I'm going to keep this short with a photo of a scrapbook page. I have so many pictures, and I just ordered a BUNCH more from Winkflash -- I had scanned tons of older pictures -- Nathan's and Jared's little boyhood! Plus some pictures of nieces and nephews when they were little... and my parents... and a few ancestors... oh and Jim and me when we were little... that about covers it!

Here's a new page that I did.Enjoy tomorrow!

blessings, joie

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE COMPLETED PAGES!

I just LOVE completed scrapbook pages! But first here are a few pictures I wanted to share...

Owen on Memorial Day-- edited by Color Select Studio/Magic Splash

This scene makes me happy!

Another 'makes-me-happy' picture!

Here are 3 more pages that I finished up in the last couple days!

Owen--I'm drawing a blank about how old he is here!

Jim and his brothers and their cousins

just read the journaling!

Gotta run, it's late--again!

blessings, joie

MAY 29, 2008

Jim is really enjoying his new job! He likes the challenge of getting in and out of tight places (gas stations) He likes to work hard, and that he is! His sleep is also getting better, Praise the Lord -- "pretty good, but just not enough", he says. "I'll take that!", I say!! This is such a blessing to all of us! Thanks for all your prayers!

well-dressed truck driver

Love this picture of Jim checking out new keys he had made-in his CHURCH CLOTHES!

Owen doing a before-bath happy dance!

Lately, he likes taking a bath!

my current workspace

I've recently started hanging my completed pages so I can enjoy them for a few days before putting them in albums!

Until next time...

blessings, joie

HAVE A BLESSED MEMORIAL DAY

Jim works today. We're going to my sister Brenda's for a family cookout. Hope to look through lots of old photos of my childhood. It's always good for a giggle or two (or a gasp!) -- plus I want to scan them so that I have copies of them to someday scrap!

on our neighbor's porch getting ready to watch the parade go by!

love the $2.50 flag shirts from Walmart!

blessings, joie

Owen's Crown

In my last post, I mentioned Owen's crown that he made in children's church. I forgot to add the photos, so here they are!



Also I wanted to mention a bargain that I got the other day. I've been wanting to use NON photo-safe paper products on my pages lately -- things like corrugated cardboard, paper bags and other memorabilia. I'm still very conscious of the need to protect my photos; SO I decided to check into Archival Mist by EK Success. I checked at the craft store, and they said they didn't carry it because it's so expensive. The woman suggested one of the TV shopping networks. I found it on HSN- I think - and the cost was $42 for a 5.3 oz. bottle (EK Success also carries 1.5 oz bottle for arount 16.99). Ok... pretty expensive alright. Everywhere I looked the retail price was between $37 and $45 for the "larger" bottle. I figure I'll be using it a lot, so I wanted the larger size -- and it lasts forever. So in searching on Ebay, I stumbled across a seller who was selling TWO {brand new} 5.3 oz. bottles for only $22!!! Shipping was $6, but it was still a HUGE savings! That's $14/bottle instead of $45! This seller only had these two, so you can't buy any more from him/her. I tell you this to illustrate that if you take the time to search on Ebay, you can find some incredible bargains!! YEA!!

blessings, joie