California Poppies

I have the fortune of living only about 10 miles from the most beautiful array of California Poppies. Today I went out there with my dh and three of my kids and two families from our scout pack. We hiked about three and one-half miles of trails there. The flowers are absolutely stunning!! We also saw one rattlesnake and several lizards. We had a great time. The weather was just gorgeous with enough of a cool breeze to keep you from getting overheated. I really wanted pictures of my kids amongst the flowers, but they decided to run ahead on the trails and leave poor old mom in the dust. We spent about 2 hours hiking and then another 20 minutes or so enjoying some delicious oranges before heading home. The oranges are Cara Cara Navel oranges and they are the best oranges I have ever eaten. I have not ever really been a big fan of fresh oranges but these are superb. I highly recommend them.

As for the poppies, I highly recommend a visit there if you are anywhere nearby. They are breathtaking!

Circle Journal your Senses

My circle journal swap is on the move again. Yeah! So here are the pages that I did for Mary's journal. The theme is senses. Which one is your favorite? Sight, hearing, touch, taste, or smell? Of course, I can't actually imagine living without any of them, but I made my journal pages based on touch. "We all need the human touch," says Rick Springfield, and I agree. You can click on these photos for a closer look at the journaling. I used some adorable patterned paper from Stampin' Up! I also used the small star punch, decorative scissors, silver hardware, red grosgrain ribbon, and sponging. I'm about to work on the next journal so be on the lookout. Have a great day!!

I Love Bird Houses

Have I ever told you that I love bird houses? They just make me happy when I see them. I have quite a collection of them in my home. Now that my patio cover is up, I will also be able to put some of them outside as well. A couple of years ago, I bought this bird house from Michael's. It was unfinished and I knew that I wanted to paint it. But my usual procrastination and uncertainty kept the darn thing in the cupboard, undone. Well, I got inspired a couple of weeks ago and got started. I stamped the flowers and the bee and free handed the rest of the artwork. I was inspired by the colors that I am going to be painting inside my house over the next few months.
The kitchen will be about the same green as the top of the house and the leaves and stems. Then there will be red accents throughout. In fact, I just recently got a Kitchen Aid Mixer in red. I have wanted one of those mixers for years!
As I get rooms painted, I will share pics of my new, pretty spaces.

Scrapping Friday

I'm all set to scrap the morning away again this week. I have finally printed all the digital photos that I have been holding in my camera for nearly a year. So I have TONS of photos to work with. I really need to get on the ball and get some pages done. Here is a page I did last Friday while scrapping with my mom. This is from Mother's Day 2006. I very rarely do a one page layout or a page with only one picture. But what the heck, it was a cute pic of me (which are rare in the scrapbook) and my littlest sweetie. Remember that I mentioned I stink at taking photos of scrapbook pages? Well, this is case in point. I need some tips. How do you photograph your scrapbook pages for blog land? Help a girl out!
Last night I went with my oldest son to get measured for his tux for prom. Aww! My baby is going to prom on April 26th. I'm looking forward to scrapping those pictures and they aren't even taken yet!
Do something creative today and have a great weekend.

Birthday Soup

April has several birthdays. This card is for my father-in-law. Meagan was actually born on his 50th birthday. I think he likes that. So here is the card I made for him. Blue is his favorite color so I used an assortment of shades of blue. I started with a blocking effect for the background. The largest block seemed to need something so I used the Flannel Plaid BG stamp in Versamark. The lower right section was stamped with the Crosshatch BG also in Versamark. I left the top right piece alone except for faux stitching and sponging the edges. The focal point is from Alphabet Soup. I used SU! Markers to color the stamp in three shades of blue and stamped onto Whisper White. I punched the corners with the ticket punch and mounted onto yet another shade of blue. I added some more faux stitching and also some silver brads in the corners. The focal image is popped up a bit with dimensionals. The blues used are: Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue, Night of Navy and Brilliant Blue. I honestly have a hard time with more masculine cards. I should work on that!
Next time I will share a scrapbook page. I'm going to be scrapping again on Friday, so I should have some more of those to show you. I'm not very good at photographing my 12 x 12 pages though. Any tips would be appreciated.

For my Birthday Girl

Yesterday my sweet Meagan turned 15. I can't believe how quickly the years have passed. And of course, she can't stop reminding me that it's only one more year until Sweet 16 and a Driver's License. When did I get so old?
I made her this simple card yesterday. Nothing like waiting til the last minute, right? Her favorite color is pink so I started with Pretty in Pink for the card base. Then I just rifled through my Soft Subtle scraps until I found two other colors that inspired me. They are Lavender Lace and Barely Banana. I new I wanted the "happy birthday" stamp to be in white to make it pop against the other colors on the card. I stamped the words in Regal Rose and cut out a strip That helped determined the length of the top set of boxes. I then figured how big the banana piece needed to be and then cut the lavender piece to fit. I used the Headline numbers to stamp "15" in Lavender Lace ink. At this point the yellow piece was looking a little plain so I pulled out my retired soft swirls background stamp to give this piece a bit more interest.
For the focal point I layered up a bunch of punches with one stamp from the Little Pieces set. You can see from this side angle that I used dimensionals under the top layer and the bottom layer for lift and interest. I like this layout so much that I think I will use it again soon and I also plan to use it on a scrap book page. I will be scrapbooking tomorrow so hopefully I will have some pages to show you after that.

Tanks on Tuesday

I know, it's been a while again...I am so unreliable!! haha Anyway, today my ds went to see my baby brother, get promoted. My brother in the Army and has been for years. Anyway, Matt is out of school this month (I hate year round school, btw) so Grandma took him with her for the occasion. All Matt has talked about for days is going to the base and seeing tanks. He got to do all of those things and he even got to put the pin on my brother for his promotion. So cool. So here is my ds and my db with one of those super cool Army tanks. Thanks Mom, for taking Matt. He loved it!

Tomorrow is my dd's birthday so I have to make a card pretty soon. (read-tonight!) So I'll take a photo and post that later this week. Have a good one!