The Team Layout

My photo system is quite a disaster. Between my thumb drive breaking, getting a new camera, then getting a new SD card for the camera, I have photos scattered everywhere. The thought of how much time it will take to get it all organized and backed up has me scared so I have continued to ignore it.

A while back I created this layout for a challenge at the Birds Of A Feather Kit. Co crop.

This line by Fancy Pants is quite old, but I still really like it. These pictures are from Chris's work. They had a decorating competition amongst all the branches for the Civil War (Oregon State vs Oregon). The girls did a fantastic job decorating up the branch and they all decked out in their favorite teams gear. We even brought the littles in all dressed up for a picture!
I love using pennants. I also created a 3-d star by cutting a star shape and scoring the back of it to pop up a bit.
Part of the challenge was to use a quote. This is the quote I chose. Chris has such a great team of girls. They really work well together and for that I am grateful!
Another 3-d star!

Thanks for stopping by!

Recipes and New Layout

Birds of a Feather is having a fun crop this weekend! The Design Team came up with a bunch of fun challenges. Here is my take on the color challenge (pink, limish green and yellow).

I lifted this layout I found on Pinterest. About the picture....Maddy was being naughty (imagine that! haha!) and I put her in her crib for time out. I noticed she had quit yelling and being loud so I went to take her out and this is what I found. Peyton had helped put almost all her toys in her crib and she was quite content to stay right here and play! Everything came from my stash, and some of it is quite old (I'm talking at least 4 years old!). I pulled all the papers from my scrap file and dug deep to find embellies!

Now for some recipes. A recipe I have been wanting to share for some time is this one. The Best Broccoli Of Your Life. While I have a recipe I like better, I still really enjoy this one. If your on Pinterest, you can find it here. Next up is Brazilian Cheese Bread. You can find it here on Pinterest. I have started a file on Pinterest for Recipes I have tried and liked. Back to the rolls. OH.MY.WORD. are they good! My mom made them last weekend at her house and both Chris and I couldn't stop eating them! You make them in the blender! Crazy huh? And here is the cool part. You can refrigerate the the dough mix for up to a week! Perfect for those people that only have one or two to cook for, you can make a couple rolls at a time! They remind me of sopapias.

That is it for me for today! I have a few more layouts to share. I did have a few photos to share. But I accidentally dropped my netbook and it had my thumb drive in it! :-0 Yes, I want to cry, busted my thumb drive to pieces and I lost EVERYTHING! :-(

Thanks for stopping by!

Layouts and Pictures

I was able to scrap a few layouts this weekend. The first one I'm sharing didn't turn out the way I had hoped and envisioned. But its done! ;-) I ran out of white cardstock! :-0 Yes, no white cardstock...what is a girl to do?

These were just a few random shots of Maddy being her silly self. I had brought her carseat into my moms house and set it under a table. I caught her in her carseat under the table trying to buckle herself in! Her capri's are on inside out in the one of her pushing her tricycle and the other picture she is stuck in an exersaucer that she is clearly to big for! Notice the trend of no clothes too? We had a chunk of hot days and I could not keep that girl in clothes!

Next up is a layout I did for a challenge over at Birds of a Feather. Krissy posted a step every day for a week. I had a lot of fun with that type of challenge.
I just love this Fancy Pants Alpha sticker font!
I painted a scalloped chipboard piece with crackle paint. I then added a metal piece and another piece of chipboard.

Now to catch up on some photos...

Maddy had her first hair cut today! *sniff sniff* This was all Chris's idea and I did not like it one bit. But we figured she is turning three soon, she could use a trim. She LOVED it! You can't tell by her expression, but she hopped right up there in that chair and sat really well. We only cut off an inch, so she still has lots of curl. :-)
Chris took me out to dinner Sunday night. This little brewery has a cute kids corner. A garden is painted on the wall and velcro pieces stapled all over. They then had baskets of stuffed veggies with velcro pieces on them to stick to the wall! The kids had so much fun planting a garden! I'm thinking we might need something like this at home! We got a little bit of snow at a week or so ago. The kids had lots of fun playing in it and were very sad when it melted. There is a good chance we could get some more this week though. I really need to find me some snow boots so I can last longer outside with them.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Sillies

I complete this layout a while back. I *think* I used a sketch and I *think* it was for a challenge at Birds of a Feather. But, my thinking power is gone and I cannot recall the specifics.

I simple layout using a very old Fancy Pants About A Boy Line. One of my fave lines! I would be tempted to buy this line again! So fun and I just love the colors in it! As I type this I recall that it is a challenge for Birds of a Feather. It was a layout about one thing I wanted to change in the year 2012. One thing I want to change is to laugh at the kids antics instead of getting frustrated with him. The pictures above are of Peyton wanting to wear his cowboy hat to pj day at school and of Maddy and my way of stopping her from taking off her diaper in the middle of the night. At the time, both of these frustrated me. Now I giggle at them. I want to remember to skip over the being frustrated and just giggle and enjoy the moment.

At the beginning of the year I decided to deep clean the house. I mean DEEP clean. This took a full week of every second I had. After I got it cleaned, I started in on a new routine. I am attempting to keep on top of the house chores by choosing a room a day to clean. I also am attempting to hop on the elliptical we bought last year as I always feel so much better when I work out. While attempting to find a schedule that works, that gets the chores done and gets the kids the attention they need, I am struggling to find time to scrap. So hang in there with me. I hope to get my routine down to where I can get some time at least a couple days a week to scrap just a little!

Geesus

Are you wondering what Geesus are? They are horses of course! ;-) Last year the kids and I joined Chris out at Kah-Nee-Tah. He had a golf tournament and we had been wanting to take the kids to the pool out there. We had a bottom level room. When we got to our room there were wild horses near our patio! The kids thought this was really cool! Peyton named one Fred and I can't remember what he named the second horse. We aren't sure where Maddy got it from, but she called the horses Geesus. It was very cute! She called them Geesus for at least a year!

I used the May kit at Birds of a Feather Kit Co. I love the pleated strip that is in the kit. Mine curved though and has hard as I tried I couldn't get it to stick straight!
I used a couple of my satin flowers that I made. I also doodled a line on the photos and white paper.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jillibean Soup Layout

Last month, Amy at Birds of a Feather challenged us to scraplift a layout from the gallery! I LOVE scraplift challenges. It seems I am either lifting or using a sketch on almost every layout lately. I have been wanting to lift a layout by Linda Harper that had been posted in the gallery. This is my layout.

I LOVE this line by Jillibean Soup! So cute and fun!
I have been wanting to do a layout about Maddy's beautiful curls. She gets complimented on them so often when we go out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Camper

I combined two different lines for this one. I LOVE the critters on the October afternoon papers. That line happened to go well with some Mr. Campy from Cosmo Cricket. I love it when two lines from different companies go so well together!

The Paper Variety's Challenge this week is to include a forest critter on your layout. This layout also works for a challenge at Birds of a Feather. We are having a crop this weekend and one of the challenges was to use a banner. It was just what I needed to balance out my page!

In case you want closer views, here is the left page:
And the right:
A close up of the banner. I popped it up using pop dots.

I hope you had a great weekend! We had a busy one!

Thanks for stopping by!

Birds of a Feather Blog Hop

Hello all! If you came directly to my blog, make sure to head over to the Birds of a Feather blog to make sure you don't miss out on any eye candy! We are celebrating Birds of a Feather's 1st birthday! What better way to celebrate than a blog hop and crop? Make sure you go back to the beginning and post on each blog along the way. Amy is giving away $50 worth of Bella Blvd. goodies to one lucky blog hopper! If you came from Karen's blog, welcome!

I decided to make a gift set for my Step Grandma who recently turned 90. I used the March Birds of a Feather Kit Co. kit.

I apologize for the dark pictures. We've been very overcast and gloomy the last three days. I found this frame at a garage sale for a quarter (ssshhh....don't tell). I liked how it had a large space to embellish.

The tiny type alphabet stickers and ribbon are from my stash. The paper and stickers are from the kit. I popped up a few of the birdhouses for more dimension.

I had some bits and pieces left over so I thought I would make a few cards to add to the package.

The card on the left was lifted from a card I saw on Pinterest (the SRM sticker was from my stash). The one on the right is using a Cardabilties sketch.

And since I still had a few pieces left over that I just couldn't throw away, I altered a little notepad.

I punched three butterflies, layered them and sewed them to the patterned paper.

Each person in the bloghop has a special word. Put them all together and you have a phrase. That is what you need to win some Bella Blvd. goodies valued at $50! M word:

Now hop on over to Lisa's blog to see what goodies she has up her sleeve!

Make sure to visit the Birds Of A Feather site. Amy is having a big sale to help celebrate! We are also having a crop! You can find the message board, where the crop is, here. The grand prize winner gets a BOAF kit! One thing I LOVE about the crops, is that Amy gives you a few extra days to complete all the challenges! The challenges are due on the 12th!

A Hike To Remember Layout using Jillibean Soup

I have another double pager to share today! I had a TON of picture from this day so I decided to create a two-page layout. I found a sketch over at Sketch Support (sketch #18). Amy has a yummy color combo challenge up this month at Birds of a Feather. I thought of the May BOAF kit that I absolutely LOVE!

I really like all the additional pieces Jillibean Soup offers and so glad Amy put them in the kit. It makes layering and embellishing super easy.

These picture were from a very special hike. My Grandpas property extends up onto Haystack Butte. This is where we have my Grandma, Uncle and Aunts ashes spread. The whole family hiked up to the top to spread my Grandpa's ashes with the rest of the family. It was quite a hike. The views were incredible.

Thanks for stopping by! Check back soon! I'm participating in a blog hop this week that is sure to offer lots of eye candy! If your around this weekend, hop over to Birds of a Feather. We are having a birthday crop! I'd love to see you come join us!

The Ranch (Jillibean Soup Layout)

I created this layout for a challenge at Birds of a Feather. I have been wanting to document the history of my Grandpa's house and my Grandpa's life. This challenge was just the push I needed to do a layout about the house and property. I think its missing something. Maybe something in the upper left? An updated layout may appear soon! ;-) I'm linking this to this weeks The Paper Variety Challenge.

I used the May kit from Birds of a Feather. LOVE the May kit full of Jillibean Soup yumminess!
I did a bit of stitching and layering.
Can you read that? haha! Okay if your interested, here is the journaling. Just a warning though, its long. I had to cut a few things out in order to fit in on these two pages and also shrunk the type quite a bit.

The Ranch, to me, is my Grandpa Read's (Herschel Read's) house that was built in the 18 's. *Interesting side note: The house was built by a one legged man.* The house was built on approximately 2000 acres which included part of Haystack Butte.

Perry Read (My Great Great Grandpa), in his early 20s, spent much of his first winter in the region with Barney Prine, who was determined to start the first town in the central part of this newly established state. Soon Perry Read met Hattie Montgomery (my Great Great Grandma) and married her. Perry Read and Hattie Montgomery were among the first of the white settlers in the Grizzly Mountain area, the first area of what would eventually become Jefferson County. Perry Read took a homestead in the Haystack Butte area, where he established a stage stop business. A small town grew in its shadow, called Perryville, in honor of Perry Read. There were two businesses there that eventually moved north a bit and helped form the town of Madras in the 1900's. Perryville had its own post office, run by Orace Collver out of his general store. This town was located where Haystack Reservoir is now located. When the railroad tracks were going up just a couple miles to the west, the entire town picked up and moved. By then, the community called itself Culver, a misspelled reference to the postmaster. Perry Read lived the life of a western stockman, indoctrinating his only son, James Perry Read, into the life as well.

James Perry Read (who went by Jim Read), as a young buck, raised wild horses. Jim would gather the wild horses up and drive them to a military fort in Brownsville, Oregon where he would sell them. One of my mom's (Jennifer Read Hatfield) fondest stories of her Grandpa was this: Grandpa Jim had a very very nice horse. He took a heard of wild horses over to Brownsville to sell. Someone offered him an outrageous amount of money at that time (my mom thought $100) as well as a cow and calf for his horse. Jim took the deal and it took him 30 days to walk the cow and calf from Brownsville to Culver. Along with raising wild horses, Jim cleared the land around the house and started growing wheat. This was around the time the town moved to where Culver is currently located now. James Perry Read (Jim Read) married Florence Belle Read. They had two sons, James Herschel and Howard Kenneth Read.

Herschel Read was born in 1912 and graduated in 1932. He served in the Navy in World War II, returning to take over the family ranch. Sadly, Howard Kenneth never returned from the war. When Herschel Read returned from the war and took over the farm, he didn't like horses and the farm was basically a dry wheat operation. So Herschel raised a few cattle for himself/the family and slowly added in cows in (this is in the late 1940's). Herschel quit growing wheat in late 60's early70's. There was a government program in the 60s' that subsidized farmers. The government paid farmers not to raise wheat due to a surplus. That is when Herschel could make more money NOT raising wheat than to raise wheat. This is when the Ranch turned from a farm to a ranch. During this time he allowed the cattle to graze in those fields. My mom (Jennifer Read Hatfield) was raised in this house. As a child she didn't always have plumbing. When built, there was no electricity or plumbing. They had an ice houses and an out houses. Over the years, the house was updated and added on too. They took out the stove that was in the middle of the living room and added a heating system, although the upstairs still has no heat. They added on a pantry, laundry room and bathroom on the backside of the house as well as a master bedroom and bathroom on the side.

I have so many fond memories of the ranch. One of my favorite memories is the Christmas Eves we spent out there. I don't remember a Christmas Eve as a child anywhere other than at the ranch with all the family. We had clam chowder and my moms cheese bread. I remember trying to sneak past my Uncle Pete to grab an olive when I wasn't supposed to. Uncle Pete turned it into a fun game. I also remember HOURS and HOURS of playing up in the bonus room upstairs with my brother and cousins. They had a stool that spun. We had contests to see who could stay on the longest as others spun us as fast as they could. There was an old secretary’s desk we used to play pretend with and a closet full of toys we liked. On warm summer days my cousin and I would take off exploring. One time the exploration landed us in a pen with a bull and scared the heck out of us. We also liked to walk a ways from the house to where there was an old broken down tractor. We'd pretend we were driving it. So much history, so many memories, The Ranch will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Kudos to you if you made it this far! Thanks so much for stopping by!

2 Page Echo Park Layout and First Day of Scool

I just love this Echo Park line, Splash! LOVE the colors! I created this layout using a sketch from Nuts About Sketches. It was for a color challenge at Birds of a Feather.

A super simple layout.
In case you wanted to see each page closer.
The pictures are from our road trip last summer to see my brother in law and sister in law who lived in Core D'Alene Idaho. We were supposed to pull our trailer over there and camp nearby. But, we lost the transmission in our truck. :-( We debated cancelling the whole trip. I am so glad we didn't as we had a lot of fun. We took the kids to Silverwood Theme Park. What a neat neat place! I'd love to take them back some day! I wasn't sure what to expect, so bought a disposable camera. I was quite disappointed in how they came out.

I'm entering this into the TPV challenge this week, which was to use stickers. The big flourish/wave and the sun journaling spot are stickers. The title is alpha stickers too!

Monday was Peyton's first day of Kindergarten! He was VERY excited! If you look closely, you'll see Maddy had her back pack on too. She thought she got to go too!
This is what happened when I asked Peyton to smile and show how excited he was.
I was so proud of him. he walked right in, sat where the teacher told him to sat and that was that! :-) No tears, no 'Mommy don't leave me', nothing! Poor Maddy sat down next to him and refused to get up! I had to pack her out. :-(

Thanks for stopping by!

A Couple Cards

Amy at Birds of a Feather challenged us to come up with a creative way to use up alphas. I saw this idea a LONG time ago and finally got around to try it!

I bought some plain pearl headed straight pins a while back. I love being able to alter them to fit whatever project I am working on. I simply glued on a orange and black bead to jazz them up a bit!

Can I just say, this is one of my favorite color combos? I just LOVE it!

The Paper Variety is celebrating their one year blog anniversary ALL week and weekend! They have challenges, prizes and give-aways so be sure to swing by and check it out. Their challenge yesterday was to stamp. I'm NOT a stamper. I really struggle with it. I do have a little stash of sentiments for cards. One of my cousins daughters birthday is this weekend and I thought I'd whip up a card real quick for her. I used a sketch from Cardabilities.
The colors seem kinda wonky in the photo, but in real life it looks much better!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Whats this...I scrapped? Can it be true? haha! August was a whirl wind month and the last 3 weeks of it left me no time to scrap. So far I have been trying my hardest to catch up around the house and with different projects after being gone so much which has meant no scrapping time too! I was able to sneak in a few minutes last night and this morning!

Its kinda hard to think about snow when its in the 90's! But these photos happened to be towards the top of my stack of photos and worked perfect for the sketch challenge this month at Birds of a Feather. As I was working on it, I noticed The Paper Variety's challenge today (for the blogiversary event) was to use your favorite manufacturer! Yay...this layout works perfect for it too!

I distressed a lot of edges, including the pictures. I wanted to sew, but was too lazy, sew I drew on lines instead!
Side note: If your looking for a friendly message board check out Birds of a Feather. Everyone is SUPER sweet and its small enough you don't feel totally overwhelmed when you join! Amy has great challenges each month too! Also, you will want to check out The Paper Variety this week! it is their one year anniversary and they are having a PARTY! Lots of inspiration challenges and prizes! So head on over there and check it out!

Monday morning, during my regular Craigslist searching, I came across a play structure for a excellent price! I was SUPER excited and called on it right away. Chris was a trooper, and even though he needed to get his bow fixed he went with me to check out the play structure. Yes...his bow broke during hunting season...worse of yet, it broke his arrow and the arrow landed on a buck right underneath the tree stand he was in...talk about timing! It turned into a all-day event! But this mama is VERY happy as are the kiddos!
We got it home and got the swing arm off and with all my body weight put into, I could even budge the dang thing, so I knew I wouldn't be able to help Chris. So I marched over to the neighbors house and asked for help! :-) I love having great neighbors!
Ta-da! It is all set up. Although I had to order new swings as the ones they had were broken.

On Wednesday I had a conference with Peyton's Kindergarten teacher. I'm really excited and think it is going to be a great year. I had a bad mommy moment and accidentally shut one of his fingers in the door on the way there. :-( NOT a good way to start off the year.
So I just got this sad pathetic, I will not smile for the camera, shot of him. :-(
Then once inside the classroom, the teacher tried to talk to him and he all out broke down. Which caused Maddy to get upset, which caused me to feel even worse than I had. So I did not get a picture of Peyton with his teacher as I had planned.

Thanks so much for stopping by!