Tuesday, October 31, 2006

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Wishing all a safe and fun Halloween.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Art Doll Artist Trading Card

This is my first attempt at making an Art Doll ATC. The arms and legs are fastened on with brads so they will fold up within the 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 - inch card. They are supposed to be whimsical.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

My Beautiful Niece

I thought I would share a beautiful layout that Bobbie did of my niece, Heather. Bobbie, Heather and Sara (Heather's friend) went to Lithia Park in Ashland and did a photo shoot. Bobbie did the photo shoot for Heather and Sara's graduation announcements. Bobbie took over a hundred photos. I can hardly wait to see the rest of them.

Bobbie is a wonderful photographer. She has taken some of the most beautiful portrait and landscape photos. She has a knack of taking beautiful photos of flowers too!!!

Hmmmmmmm!! I wonder if she would take a few photos of Rick and I this weekend? I would love to have a nice photo for Christmas Cards this year.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Bobbie's Book of Me Challenge

This is my layout I did for Bobbie's Book of Me Challenge on Scrap 101 last week. The challenge was to use "Unforgettable" Nat King Cole's song in your title.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Wolves






I thought I would share today some of my favorite wolf photos that I have in my collection.

"May the spirit of the wolf watch over you and keep you safe."

Sunday, October 15, 2006



I did this layout last night for the Friday Night Challenge on Scrap101. I was the only one to enter.............so by default I won!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had spent most of the day making ATC's for some swaps. We were supposed to do a layout on how we spent our Friday the 13th.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Artist Trading Cards

Yummy - Candy ATC
Bigfoot - Legends or Myths ATC
Halloween Wedding Cake - Candy ATC
Tuna-flavored Candy Corn - Black Cat ATC
Let's Party - Black Cat ATC
Sasquatch - Legends or Myths ATC

The photos are some of the Artist Trading Cards I have made in the last few days. I love making ATC's. They are small pieces of art. I have traded with several people in the United States, Canada, Germany, Australia, The Netherlands, New Zealand and England. I have over 600 ATC's in my collection and still collecting.

Back to creating!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BARB!!


Photo taken October, 12 1968 on your third birthday. Your brother carried this photo with him while in the Army. This was only one of several photos that he had with him.

Barb hoping that you are having a wonderful birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's so hard to believe that you are all grown up. It is so sad that we have missed so many of your birthdays over the years. It wasn't because we didn't want to be with you...............we was kept from you by lies and deceptions.

We are looking forward to seeing you and James at Thanksgiving.

Love to our beautiful sister on her special day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those who don't know........Barb is Rich's adopted sister. His family provided foster care for children in need. They received Barb from the hospital when she was 3 days old. She is Black, White and Puerto Rican. The family fell in love with the beautiful little girl and decided to adopt her into their family. Before Rich and I started a serious relationship Rich asked me if I had any thing against people of mixed races. I told No! He then told me about the beautiful little girl that his family had adopted.........she was mixed race. I asked him when I could meet her. The moment I met her I fell in love with her. She was so precious.

Until the death of Rich's mother we were allowed to spend time with Barb. We took her with us when we visited my family. They loved her! To this day Dad remembers Barb out in the garden when they lived in Wimer. She had never been around gardens and was so facinated with everything. She loved playing with Bobbie, Nancy and Sandi outside and getting dirty. We had to clean her up before we could take her back home.

After Rich's mother died we weren't allowed to spend much time with Barb. We were thought to be bad influences on her because we have a laid-back lifestyle.

So Barb grew up without us seeing her very often. Gone were the wonderful times we spent with her. Gone were special times in her life that we missed. There wasn't a time that we didn't love or miss her and wonder how she was doing.

Now that Barb is all grown up we have been reunited with her and hope to be able to have times together that we can cherish.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

It's been a busy morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been very busy this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My morning started at 4am.............that's the time we get up so Rich can get ready to leave for work by 5am. This morning after Rich left for work I started work on prune plums. I put 4 more trays in the dehydrator. I took the rest of the plums and pureed them for the freezer...........7 pints.

I canned the sauerkraut that I had started 3 weeks ago. It's a wonder we had any to can as Rich and I kept tasting it to see if it was ready. It was the first time I had tried making sauerkraut. It is yummy if I say so myself. I had 3 quarts to can this morning. I want to make more now that this small batch turned out okay.

Next was canning the grape juice I had ran through the juicer the other day. The quarts look so pretty. I will make grape jelly from the juices as we need it.

After all the canning this morning I decided to take a break. Of course even taking a break I like to be busy. So I did a layout to enter in Carla's Quotation Quest on Scrap101. I loved the quote..............."A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you." Brigette Bardot As soon as I saw the quote I knew the photo that I was going to use. It is a photo of Danny, Rich and I. It is the last photo of the three of us taken 9 months before Danny died of ALS. This photo is very precious to me.

I can't believe that I've did so much and it's only a little past Noon.

This afternoon I have plans. I'm going to be making salsa to can. First I have to go to the pharmacy and get a prescription filled. I went yesterday but forgot to get it. While I'm waiting for the prescription I'm going to take some photos of trees around the parking lot. They are so beautiful.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy the beautiful autumn colors that God has provided for us.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

More Canning, Drying and Freezing Foods

Yesterday Rich and I went to visit a dear friend, Alberta. She has been like a Mom to Rich since he was in High School. Rich and her oldest son, Bill were best friends in High School. They went on a trip to San Francisco for a Science Fair together their freshman year. During the summer between their freshman and sophmore year Bill died while swimming. The believe now that he may have had a seizure.

We had a great time visiting with her and talking about numerous subjects. After leaving Alberta's we went to the local mall where Rich and I used to work several years ago. Rich worked in Security and I worked at Subway. Too many people for me............I can't stand large crowds of people.

Next stop was Bobbie and Mike's. We had a good visit with them. Miss Heather came home and we visited with her. We then went out and picked Concord Grapes, Italian Prune Plums and Tomatoes. Yum, Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bobbie also gave us some beautiful Bell Peppers.

So today I started preserving my goodies. I was able to get 7 quarts of pure Concord Grape Juice. I have a juicer and I ran them thru it..........the juice is so thick. Next I worked with the Plums. I have 4 trays of plums drying. I cut them into quarters so they would dry quicker. I then made 4 pints of prune puree to put in the freezer for cooking or pies. Dad loves Moon pies with Prune Filling.

Tomorrow I will can my grape juice, work more on the plums, tomatoes and bell peppers. Did I mention that I got potatoes on sale..........buy one get one free. So with the potatoes I bought last shopping trip I now have 35 pounds of potatoes to use. I think I'll try drying some as soon as the plums are finished. I also bought 10 pounds of onions to preserve.

Later, as I got to get to bed.