Day 364 in the Year of Our Lord 2012

WOW!  That was a QUICK week!  My, how time flies when you are having fun!  :D   Hard to believe this is the last day the kids will be here!  They are all ready to come home as they miss mom, dad and the rest of the family!  And I'm ready for some peace and quiet again, LOL!   I sooooooooo love having the kids here, but it is always nice to get back into the usual routine!

Today is laundry day, so while I was working in the laundry and cleaning the bathrooms, I told the kids they could play games on the internet.  Ryan is all about the racing games.

 Hannah wanted to do girly games.

 Michael wanted to play Life by himself!  He REALLY loves this game to play it by himself!  Actually, he had a pretend opponent.....Bob!

 It started out being rainy and cold.  But after lunch the sun came out but it was still cool.  But I had promised the kids we would go feed the ducks, so I stopped the laundry and we took off to go to Thom A Lex Park while it was nice and sunny.  The kids were not happy with me when I made them where their hats.

 After feeding the ducks and Canada geese, they played in the playground area for about 1/2 hour.

 After we got home, I did some more laundry and started dinner.  The kids played on the computers some more.  Then Ryan and Hannah helped to set the table.  Ryan even wanted to help me put in and take out things from the oven!  He did a great job being very careful not to get burned.

 After dinner I cleaned up the kitchen and worked in laundry while the kids played some more.  Here Ryan and Michael did some coloring.

 Hannah took her shower first and then sat in the bathroom messing on her iphone.

We all played another game of Life.  Michael won that one!  Ryan was very close!  Tim and I could not stay off of the Expense spots, so we were constantly paying out.....more than we took in!  At 7:30 we had some cookies and milk and then they began watching their movies before bed.

Tomorrow I will drive half way and meet Liz to drop the kids off!  It has been a good week!

Day 363 in the Year of Our Lord 2012

Today the girls and the boys parted ways.  Hannah and I went to the thrift stores and Ryan and Michael and Tim went to the shooting range.

Ryan fired 4 rounds, I think, but Tim said he had more fun just collecting the empty shells. 

Michael looks pretty serious, too!

This afternoon we just messed around the house.  After supper and after Tim watched the news, we all played a game of Monsters, Inc Life.

 So, I set the timer on the camera and told everyone to say cheese.....and Michael gives me this TOTALLY dumb face.  When do they grow out of that??!!

 Hannah did not actually play the game with us.  She passed out the life points, salary cards, etc which was a great help!

And the winner is.................RYAN!!!!!  WOOHOO!!!  Michael came in a CLOSE second!

The movie I got at Walmart on Tuesday has been a BIG hit.....Monster House.  We watched it Tuesday night together.....they watched it again today......and then wanted to watch it AGAIN tonight!  So, I fixed some popcorn and they watched it while Tim read in the man cave and I sat here playing on the laptop.

Speaking of computers.....I booted my desktop up on Tuesday for Hannah to play on and in the middle of the process it just turned off!  I thought maybe I had hit the sleep button, but nothing I did brought it back on.  There was a blinking green light on the power supply.  Tim did some research on the internet and from all indications it seemed to be a power supply problem (which I have replaced once before!!!)!  So, I told Tim not to worry about it for now if he didn't want to because I was going to be too busy to spend much time on it anyway with the kids here.  So, I've been checking my e-mail and facebook and posting here and basically that is all.  Well, today in the mail was a power supply that Tim had ordered from online on Tuesday.  He put it in and........VOILA!  Problem solved!!!  Good thing because ALL of our checkbook information is on there (Quicken program) and the last backup I have was from last month when I did the balancing at the end of the month!  I sure would've hated to have tried to work it back up to current with that information!  Thank You, Lord!!!

Til tomorrow....................

Day 362 in the Year of Our Lord 2012

First, here's the birthday gifts I found for Chance, Thad and Abigail yesterday at AC Moore.

 Two each, one set each for Abigail and Thad.

 These are for Chance.

Two each, one set each for Thad and Abigail.

Today, Tim spent the morning at the hospital while one of our members had hernia surgery.  I stayed here with the kids.  We just messed around and talked with Jessica and Kara on Skype.  Then we went to McDonalds for lunch.  They wanted to go to one with a play area, but I didn't want them to play outside in the one closest to the house.  So we went to the McDonalds by the mall and was glad to find there was a play area inside.  We were there for an hour or so.

Here's the play area.

Here's Ryan.

 Here's Hannah.

Michael and I played tic tac toe and hang man and connect the dots while Ryan and Hannah played.

I've had stomach problems since we got back from McDonalds and did not eat supper with the rest.  All I've been eating is tums and pepto.  YUCK!  Would MUCH rather have been able to eat spaghetti like Tim and Michael.  Hannah and Ryan ate PB&J and Yogurt.

 Michael was being goofy and wouldn't smile for me.  I told him to look at me and say cheese.  He did if very quickly and so his face got blurred!

After baths, we watched another movie, "The Reef."  Cute movie.  It will be earlier lights out tonight.  That's why we started the movie earlier (plus the fact that we didn't have church, so we got to start earlier).

OK, more tomorrow!

Day 361 in the Year of Our Lord 2012

Let's begin with family pictures from yesterday, Christmas Day.

This is a 4-generation photo.  Tim's mom, Tim, Jessica, Jessica's sons, Chance, Thad and Michael.

Here's the group, with the exception of Terry and Thad.  Terry had Thad in the bedroom for a nap.  I'll have to photoshop them in after Jessica takes a photo of Terry standing and Thad sitting or standing!  :D

Now for the happenings of today.

After going to AC Moore for some craft items (ending up with birthday gifts for Abigail, Thad and Chance for next year) and then Walmart for a "few" groceries, while it was not raining, Michael and Hannah helped me change the church sign.  

While we worked outside, Ryan and papaw worked on the inside.....putting a Battleship game together and then playing.

For the little bit of time left before having to begin supper, Michael made another paracord bracelet.  Ryan and Hannah did a bit of engraving art work.  I checked my e-mail and facebook.  Michael and I also played a game of Scrabble.

After supper (pizza) showers were taken for church.  Here's the kids in Bible Club.  We had our lesson on Job's friends not being the encouraging type of friends that we should be.  After the lesson sheet, we did some Bible Pictionary and began a game of Bible Match when the adults finally finished up their Bible study.

After everyone changed from their church clothes into their pajamas, then had a snack, we turned out the lights and turned on "Monster House."  Believe it or not, the room was totally dark, but the flash on the camera made it look like the lights were on in this picture.  Now, it's almost 11:30 and time to change the floor into pillow pallet beds for night time.

I decided I did not want to drag the kids around to the thrift stores.  Plus, one of the members is having out patient surgery tomorrow, which Tim will be going to the hospital for.  I'll take them out to McDonalds to eat lunch and then come back home.

OK, more tomorrow!

Day 306 in the Year of Our Lord 2012

I have NO idea if my Day 306 is correct!  I definitely WON't be doing that again, LOL!  We have 60 more days left in the year (YIKES!) so that make this Day 305 except that this was leap year, so I added one more!  :D

Anyway, Tim and I had a great day of thrifting!  We left early and headed to Greensboro with the intentions of eating breakfast at Bob Evans.  Well, I got the address off the internet, but when Monica got us to that address, there was NO Bob Evans!  RATS!!  Well, up the street was IHOP.....not Bob Evans, but it was OK.

After we ate we tackled the list of 10 thrift shops we have for the Greensboro area.  One was a pawn shop, so I crossed it off the list as we have no interest in those places.  One other place had moved or closed.  We hit 6 of the 8 that were left and then headed back towards home.  Once there, we went to our 3 regular thrift shops.  That put us home somewhere around 2.

We ate leftovers for dinner and then I went to AC Moore and Walmart.  So it was a good day.  We found a few bargains.  Tim got a book and I got a little ironing board made specifically for pressing sleeves.....had never been opened!  Tim got a 4 cup coffee maker for his office and I found a plastic container that I'm not sure what it is made for.  Tim said it was a bug catcher because of the slits in the lid, LOL!  Thot I'd put paint brushes or something like that in it.  I also found this thing pictured below.  I have no idea what it is.  I just liked it.  Thought I'd keep knitting needles or something in it!  :D

OK, let me share some more layouts with you.  This is mainly for Jeanne and some other friends because probably the other family members have seen all of these on facebook.  Enjoy and I'll be back tomorrow!

I did all of these using the kits of Angie Young, Aria, Cilenia Curtis and GreenEyedLady Designs at Scrap Art Studio.

Alive and Well.......

.......actually, not as well as I could be, but not as sick as I could be, either!  I've had a nasty head cold for a week, but I'm getting better!

I know it has been OVER a month since I posted on here.  So today I thot I'd give you a rundown of life here in NC.  It will be short and sweet as I will only hit the high spots.  :D

After vacation with Tim's mom in September, we had revival here at our church.  But, it was a little different than usual this time as Tim actually did a series on Defeating Evolution. 

Then, it was "on the road again" as we spent a week in Talcott, WV as Tim preached revival for Bro. Stalnaker at the Rollynsburg Baptist Church.  That is where we attend the Mountain Missions Bible Conference in July and spend the week in the cabin down on the Greenbrier River.  Such a peaceful place!

The weather has been beautiful!  A couple of weeks ago on Tim's day off, we headed west to do some leaf peeping in the mountains of NC.  We headed to Mt. Mitchell, which is at an elevation of 6,684 feet and is the highest point east of the Mississippi.  The drive up to it was beautiful.  But, when we got up in the clouds, it was a totally different story!  The wind was whipping fiercely, it was cold and the mist of the clouds made it downright nasty since the sun was totally blocked out!  (It was just like our visit to Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Forest in Maine, Jeanne!)  So, needless to say, we got out long enough to go into the visitor's center and then left!  Once down below the clouds, we enjoyed the scenery again!  That was 3 hour trip one way!  We had planned ahead, however!  We had address to thrift stores that we could hit on the way back home!  :D

Last week, on Tim's day off, we visited our beloved Pilot Mountain.  However, I was not feeling great, so we did NOT do any hiking around the knob.  We just took some pictures and left.  We went north to Mt. Airy to do some thrifting.  But, not feeling great, I was done after a couple.  We ate lunch at Aunt Bea's Barbecue and headed back home.  By the time we got home I had a not-so-nice headache.  So I took some meds and laid down for awhile.  Feeling much better in an hour or so, I asked Tim if he wanted to hit our regular thrift stores, so we did that and then came home.

That brings me to this week and the effects of Hurricane Sandy.  We are blessed in living a little over 4 hours away from the coast.  The effect on us has been minimal.  Cooler temps, overcast skies and windy.  We had a light frost this morning.  It is just now reaching about 42* at 9:30.  And I am praising the Lord for his watch care over our family members in other areas of the eastern portion of the U.S.  Especially Michael and his family who were basically in the direct line of the hurricane.

Now, creativity-wise, I have been doing some art journaling.  I know you are probably wondering what in the world art journaling is.  It, quite simply, is journaling that is done with/along with art.  LOTS of people do this in physical journals using paint and other things (mixed media).  I tried that but didn't like it.  So, I'm doing it digitally.  There are no rules with art journaling.  Remember the old saying, "if it feels good, do it?"  Well, that's kinda the way it is in art journaling.  Since there are no real hard and fast rules to follow, you are just creating something that has begun with a thought or some bit of inspiration.  Let me show you what I mean.  For those of you who see my facebook posts, these pages will be repeats, but you will get some of my thought processes behind the pages, too.  And I'll bring out some of the "hidden" things in the pages, too.  I'm only going to show you a couple because this post is getting rather long.  I'll share some more tomorrow......I PROMISE!!!  :D

This page is a mix between a regular layout and art journaling.  You would not believe how many "pieces" actually make up this page!  Lots of blending went on here (which is a process used in changing the looks of your photos, etc, like digital clip art used in these pages).  These photos were taken at Pilot Mountain last week.  The photo on the left had a distracting bright area that I covered up with the yellow daisy.  The shadow picture of Tim and I to the right of the other photo (under the poem) was "blended" into the "paper" below it.  The original photo shows a sidewalk and grass that I did not want in the final product, so I did some blending and erasing to get just the shadows showing.  I also reduced the opacity so the poem would show up for ease of reading.  Above these shadows and still behind the poem you can see a butterfly.  This butterfly is the exact same butterfly that you see at the bottom left of the page.  It has just been changed by "blending" it into the background paper that I added the shadow picture to.  All of the flowers are separate "layers" that I used to give the bottom of the page more "balance" and interest as it was too plain compared to the top of the page.  There are tags, borders and stitches that all make up the bits and pieces used to create this page.

Now, here is an art journaling page.  As you can see, there are no photos.  This page is made up entirely of clip art with some added journaling.  My inspiration for this page was a pocket calendar (one of those 2-year planners in the plastic pockets) I bought at Dollar Tree last week.  The cover of the planner (shown below) is a perfect example of a physical (not digital) art journaling page where someone would paint the background with the flowers and then add some little pieces of paper with the different typesets on it for the journaling.  The journaling, flowers and butterflies were my inspiration!  Cilenia Curtis's kit (see credits and links below) that I used for the above page, too, has those wonderful daisies and butterflies that I am just totally in love with!  As you can tell, the "doll" was made out of the same kit (which is free, btw).  So, using my inspiration and my digital clip art in her kit, this page consists of 1 background (paper), at least 25 daisies (6 of them blended into the background paper), 1 butterfly and the art doll.  And I added the journaling using different fonts (Times New Roman and Scrap Script).  You could EASILY print out the flowers, butterfly, doll and journaling, cut them out and adhere them to a painted canvas or scrapbook paper!

CREDITS for this page and the one above:
"Follow Your Art - Together" by Cilenia Curtis at Scrap Art Studio
Papers here:  http://www.scrapartstudio.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=127_128&products_id=961
Elements here:  http://www.scrapartstudio.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=127_128&products_id=960
FREE Doll here: http://www.scrapartstudio.com/new-fya-release-together-a-freebie-from-the-fya-designers/
Bundle (used in top page) here:  http://www.scrapartstudio.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=127_128&products_id=962

Planner I got at Dollar Tree (above).


I got the inspiration for this page during Tim's sermon on Sunday.  He preached on Jesus, the door to our salvation and, among other verses, used the one shown on the page.  I asked the designers at Scrap Art Studio if any of their kits had a door in it.  One of the designers, Lynne Anzelc (aka Aria) had taken several photos of doors and extracted them from the backgrounds, but has not yet put them in any kits.  I told her which one I liked and she sent me the clip art file.  I further extracted the door from the frame so I could show it as an open door.  I found a free picture of Jesus on the web and added some rays of light of my own making, along with the elements, etc of one of Lynne's kits (see credits and links below) and this is what I came up with!

CREDITS:
"Follow Your Art - Together Bundle" by Aria (aka Lynne Anzelc)
"Bundle" means, several packs combined together to save you money.  Find it here:
http://www.scrapartstudio.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=127_130&products_id=956


And, last but not least for today, a page that was inspired by the background paper you see with the tree.  All of the items used are from another kit of Lynne's (credits and links below).  And the prose I found on the internet.  I googled the few words on the back cover of the 2-year planner above, "Where Autumn, like a faint old man" to find the whole piece.  I highlighted some of the words in the poem by making them a different font.

CREDITS:
"Color Play 3" by Aria (aka Lynne Anzelc)
Papers:  http://www.scrapartstudio.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=127_130&products_id=858
Elements:  http://www.scrapartstudio.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=127_130&products_id=860

OK, dear family and friends!  That's it for today!  Took me an hour and a half to create this for you!  Hope you enjoyed my little catch-up play and some insight to my "artistic" musings!  Love you all!

Loving Kindness Every Morning

I've got a couple of layouts to share with my favorite peeps (that means YOU, if you are reading this!  :)

As most of you know, I'm taking a break from designing scrapbook kits so I can learn the Photoshop CS5 program that Michael gifted to me back in January.  I had been thinking of hanging up my designing hat off and on for awhile, but just couldn't do it!  I LOVE "creating" clipart to use in digital scrapbooking.  But, I just didn't have time to learn while designing. 

Several months ago, one of the designers at Digitals put up a CT (creative team) call.  For those of you who don't know what that is, the members of a CT get to play with a designer's digital kits for free in exchange for posting layouts to various online galleries as a way of advertising the kits for the designer.

Anyway, this designer, Cilenia Curtis, has a totally different style of designing than I have (or had, I should say).  Her style is "artsy" as they call it.  Well, I have ALWAYS loved art, even though creating it digitally scared me!  But it intrigued me so that I decided the only way to learn more about it was to join her CT.  Once I did that and began to work with that style I was hooked!  I didn't even like my own traditional style of digital creations anymore!

So, I began to try my hand at creating some "artsy" and incorporating it into my kits.  I didn't get rich quick, LOL, but I did sell more of that style than of my traditional style.  Cilenia, who is also my designing mentor, told me if I was really serious about designing, I needed to get away from Photoshop Elements and learn the "big boy," Photoshop CS (Creative Suite).  So, I made the HARD decision of hanging up the designing hat (I probably should say "selling" hat) while I take the time to LEARN the program.

But, in the meantime, I am still CTing for Cilenia and the other great, artsy designers at her new shop, Scrap Art Studio.

I said all of that to say that there is a guest designer at Scrap Art Studio through November, ValC Designs, and I got to play with one of her kits, Perfect or Not.  And here are those pages.  Hope you enjoy them!  You should be able to click on them to get a bigger picture if you want to read the journaling on the page.

If you want to visit my layout gallery at Scrap Art Studio, you can go HERE.  I think I have posted all of these on Facebook before, but not all of them here.

Day 8 Traveling

No pictures for you today.

We were up at 5 a.m. this morning and on the road by 7 a.m.  Tim was pleased as that was an hour before planned.  We drove and drove and drove and drove!  We stopped one time for gas, one time for potty, one time for lunch and one more time for gas.  I thought I was going to have to shove Tim's seat into the steering wheel to get him to stop for the night!  But were are here, fed and now in our jammies! 

We are hoping to be able to drop Tim's mom off tomorrow and then drive on to WV.  So, Liz, just be prepared, but I will call and let you know for sure when I know for sure!  It will be late when we get there, however, I am sure!

OK, nite!

Day 7

First of all, the flowers we have found all over Maine in a variety of colors are Beach Roses, so we were told.  And the berry on them is used in Rose Hips, etc.

We did not get to do the whale watch today due to high winds.  So, instead we did some other sight seeing this afternoon and spotted a couple of small lighthouses and just enjoyed the beautiful afternoon.

Tomorrow we begin our approx. 20-hour trip home.  We will travel 10 hours tomorrow and 10 hours on Tuesday.  Depending on how Tim feels at the end of the trip, we may travel to WV after we drop Tim's mom off.  If we do, we will spend the night with Liz before traveling on to NC on Wednesday.

I asked Tim's mom if she has enjoyed herself this week.  She said, "Oh, yes!  It has been a dream come true!"  So, that's all that matters!  :D

I've had a sinus headache all day, so I'm calling it a night!  Nite!

Today was a beautiful day.  Much cooler and breezier.  So, here is the view we missed from Cadillac Mountain because of the fog yesterday.  The white spot in the distance is a cruise ship.  And that is Bar Harbor to the left of the cruise ship.

Here's one of the small lighthouses we found today.  I uploaded the wrong picture, so it is hard to see the lighthouse on the left against the backdrop of trees. But I think you can tell that it is not as high as the 2nd story roof on the house.

LOVE capturing the power of the ocean and the beauty of the waves crashing onto the rocks.

It is amazing to find this scene among the rocks along the shore.  I bent down to take the picture of the flower and the bee zoomed right in there like he didn't want me taking the picture without him!

Here's the other lighthouse we found.  You can't tell it from this angle, and I zoomed in from across the bay to get this picture.  But when we drove around to get a closer look, it was a Naval lighthouse and you could not get to it for a fence that had barbed wire twisted all along the top of it.