So I Was Just Thinking

...What does a mosaic of pictures say? My friends and I continue to reflect on our words, and we have decided to submit mosaics for our joint post. I love seeing how my friends think so this should be fun. Octamom has just returned from a VERY long road trip. (You gotta love her fortitude and perseverance.) Excellence... Completed Road Trips Blue Skies Ballet Extended Family Coming Home Nothing makes a teacher happier than summer vacation (okay and seeing our children succeed is up at the top, too.) Roban seems to have had a very nice summer break as seen below. What brings me JOY? my daughter Hannah, good movies, great books, knowing that Craig is a caring father, Scout, twinkling Christmas lights, summer days before it gets too hot, blogging, taking pictures of Hannah, Akiane’s amazing art, Maggie, when a student ‘gets it’ and becomes a writer, morning light as it dances through the door, the smell of Biolage shampoo, doing things with Hannah, finding a hand-crafted necklace that ...

Today while I was on Facebook , I saw some of my friends playing with a website called Yearbook Yourself . I decided to go over to the website and have a little fun. The hardest part was finding a photo where I didn't have my hair in front of my forehead so it would fit in the website's different hairstyles. I think the only two styles that might have really been me are 1996 and 2000. Of course I wasn't alive in 1952 or 1966, but it still was fun to try those out too. It's funny how styles change over time. Sometimes certain styles come back with a twist, but there are a couple of them that I would rather not see again. Go over there, have a little fun. I think they had music playing from each era, too, but I usually have my speakers off, so I couldn't tell.

Today, I was driving my son around town, and he asked if he could go see my mother. I told him that Gramma was at a doctor's appointment. He then replied, "Because she is having a baby." After I finished restraining my laughter, I told him that his gramma was not having a baby. He continued to insist that she was since Gramma was a girl, and she was at the doctor. He said, "Girls have babies because..." I didn't want to hear how he was going to finish that sentence, but was relieved when he did. "....because they are good." Well, that is good enough for me right now. I shall share this with his daddy when he gets home. I am sure he will get a kick out of it.

Look what I found today on the internet. It would have been the perfect stamp for my Time After Time cards . I wasn't even looking and BAM there it was ! Stamp by Lynne Perrella Isn't this usually the case?

To you this may look like just a messy little scrap area. To me it says much more. Let's take a look and see what we see. I have purposely not cropped this out, so you could see what I should be doing instead of blogging or scrapping. These are my clean clothes that need to be folded and put away. My beloved first piece of Tupperware ever that I didn't inherit from Renee or my mother. It holds some sequins that my daughter likes to dig through for school projects. I don't use them anymore, thus the dust on the lid that wouldn't be noticeable if a certain 4 year old boy didn't feel the need to touch EVERYTHING. The infamous glitter spray paint. Notice there are two. Both have paint, but neither worked after the first time I used them. I have decided I am not going to buy anymore even though I love the way it looks on my projects. The clock stamp that I searched for to the ends of the Earth. I think I will find a safe just for that stamp, so I never have to make the q...

One of my fondest memories of growing up a Baptist kid is of going to summer camp at the lake. We would learn new things, make new friends and have new experiences. There were always missionaries there from other countries who came to show us what they had been doing. The one problem about camp was I can't remember anything specific. I wasn't much of a diary/journal keeper. I was an awful writer for sure. I did like taking pictures, but I don't think I ever took a camera to camp. So all of my camp experiences are faint memories that float through my brain like dust in a sunbeam. I can see them, but can never capture them. For this reason, I have created a memory book for Caitlin to take to her first year of church camp. I don't want her to walk away from her time at camp and say, "Yeah, it was fun." Only to have me ask, "So what did you do? What did you learn?" and receive the response..."I don't remember." Below I have documented the p...

I love when I hear that in the morning. I never know what I am going to see. Today was no different. First thing James did was come out in one of his favorite t-shirts, but this time it was inside out. I promptly helped him realize the error of his ways. The next time I saw my darling son, this is what he looked like. Please note the lovely tube socks...where did those come from? He was also sporting his father's footwear. I guess you could say he has some pretty big shoes to fill.

I think I have said this before, but I'll say it again anyway. Sometimes I get a picture in my head how I want a project to turn out. I am certain it will work perfectly. Then come the roadblocks. The little annoying hindrances that come along and make you change your plans. Last time I was here, I wrote about altering cardstock paper with tissue paper. The samples looked really pretty, so I decided to go on with my ATCs. That is what happened with these ATCs. Do you see how big the clock is? Well, I looked high and low for a clock stamp and even went as far as to borrow one from a complete stranger through a friend. That conversation went a little something like this: Me: Hey, Renee! Do you have clock stamp? Renee: No, but I have a friend who is a scrapbooking guru. I bet she would. Me: (*Ring-Ring* Do phones ring anymore?) Hello? Friend's Answering Machine: Hi! You've reached us. Leave a message. Me: Hi! You don't know me. I am friends with Renee and I asked her for a...

If you saw my Discipline collage , you can tell I have a thing for tissue paper. I have used it make inchies and to paint mountain/sunset scenes. Now I am working on some ATCs . I have done some before using the same cardstock I am using this time. However, I am tired of this background and want to alter it some how, so here's where the process went. (Note: I did try it on some sample-sized pieces of cardstock first so you might see those pop in from shot to shot.) I began with a plain piece of cardstock (it is supposed to be green/yellow.) I lightly drew a line on the card. I then squeezed some glue onto the card (don't ask why it's blue...that's another story.) I used scrap piece of stock to spread the glue to get a perfectly straight edge. I laid the tissue paper onto the wet glue and pressed out the bubbles. (You could use a brayer, it gets messy.) I trimmed the excess tissue. (I have torn it before, too, for a different effect.) After the glue dried, I took the c...

I met a fellow Tweeter today for lunch. She came all the way from Kansas to meet some scrapbookers that she met on the internet. It got me thinking how small the internet has made the world. Yes, we have beaches in Central Texas. In the past, your friends were people you met at school, work, church, maybe even sitting in a doctor's waiting room. Certainly we didn't just suddenly have friends from Kansas, Canada, Australia, England or the Netherlands. If you wanted to make such friends, you had to fly to those places or sign up for pen pals and hope that someone replied to your request . You then had to wait weeks for that reply to come. Last year, a coworker told me about Scrapblog . It was through that site that I made several friends. Then Scrapblog led me to SISTV where I made more friends. Those friends then asked who Twittered which I quickly responded to and thereby received names of people I chatted to more frequently. It was better than waiting for an email. ( This...

Not wanting to feel left out, Caitlin had to come up with her own "ism." Mom: Caitlin, why do you have a can of soda? Caitlin: You came home sooner than I thought . I figured I would be finished before you got here. Ah, honesty! Who could ask for anything more?

LAST NIGHT James was sitting in our bed waiting for his sheets to dry (you can guess why.) Mommy: James if you don't calm down you will have to go to sleep in your bare bed. James: Mommy, I am NOT a bear! TODAY We took my brother to the airport this morning to fly from Texas to North Carolina. (8 hours later) James: Uncle Andre is flying in the sky. Mommy: Yes, he is. James: Now he is landing. Mommy: Okay. James: We have to pick him up now. Mommy: I think that would be a very long drive.

Do you know what this is? Give it a minute. Realize that this is the broken version of something very important to my everyday life. Do you recognize it now? Yes it's a knob. Yes, it is the on/off switch to my beloved dryer. Only many months ago, I cracked it. I was still able to use it with a little finesse, but after months of being tweaked a certain way, the metal core snapped into pieces and refused to be abused anymore. I asked my darling husband to please take a look at it with the new tool set the kids bought him for father's day, but he said it was a lost cause. He thought the entire internal switch had burned out, and it needed professional help. I looked upon this as an opportunity for a new dryer, but he insisted I call the repair man. After much procrastination, I finally called the technician to come out and take a look at the old machine, hoping he too would rather I buy a new machine instead of repairing the old one. No such luck. Mr. A showed up in a timely mann...

And they told their blog friends, and they told their blog friends, and so on and so on. (Flashing back to an old Faberge shampoo commercials .) I saw this on Roban's blog who saw it on Whimsical Whispers who saw it on Little Red House . Here are few glimpses of last two weeks. A flag from the Fourth of July Parade, a flamingo from the Dallas World Aquarium, James and firetruck, and James and his daddy after the rodeo.

My friend Chimene is hosting a give away in celebration of her 20,000th visitor. She is an amazing paper artist and photographer. To learn more about how to win a great prize visit this post. This is part of the wonderful prize package.

My brother has been visiting from North Carolina. You know him, the photographer. A couple of months ago, I saw a really nice camera at a yard sale that the dance booster club was running. It came with a big case and several accessories. Even though the trend has moved toward digital cameras, sometimes it is nice to use a traditional 35mm. I called him and asked him if he wanted it. At first he said, "No." Later on, however, he sent me a text to ask if the camera was still available and to buy it. Today he got to try it out taking photos of our family. The problem with 35mm film is you have to wait for the film to be processed, even in a one hour processing place. So while he was taking pictures, I decided to break out the digital camera and post some of them today. Mom is sitting on her front porch surrounded by her lovely plants. Many of them are gifts we received almost a year ago when my father passed away. This is why plants are better than flowers. We convinced James to...

The Fourth of July is a fun holiday around here. Each year the City of Belton holds their annual rodeo and parade. It is known as one of the largest Fourth of July Parades in Texas. This is the first year that my family and I have made it to both the rodeo and the parade. The rodeo was a blast and it gave my husband a chance to dust off his boots and hat which used to be staples of his daily wardrobe. Going into the corporate world put a halt to most of that. He was so excited that he took my son to the local western wear store to get our son a pair of Wrangler jeans and his first pair of boots. It was so cute. The rodeo was full of bucking broncs and bulls. Even the little tykes got into the action with some "mutton busting" (sheep riding.) That was quite fun. This evening after having some barbecue with my mom and brother, we will head out to watch the fireworks. I will see if my camera can catch them. (It says it can.) Another reason this is a special day is my late father...