A word a week, a card a week

A friend of mine has issued a challenge to complete a card, ATC, or something, with a new word each week. I'm on board, although a little behind.

Here is my entry for "blue."

The ocean has such a pull for me, I cannot imagine living anywhere that I could not easily get to the ocean. I just love to watch it, you know? This photo was taken recently when we were having some record high waves. They just kept coming, one after the other. There's something so reassuring about that - no matter what happens the waves keep on rolling! Byron had it right when he said "roll on."

Men at Work

My brother and dad have been working on the enlargement of my dad's bathroom. Here they are, prepping some of the roof rafters.

And the kids are having great fun driving around in dad's golf cart!

I made necklaces for Jean's granddaughters and Kayla. And it was amazing that they matched EXACTLY the clothes the girls were wearing. It was as if they had selected the outfits on purpose - of course without knowing even that they were getting anything. How unbelievable is that???

Jean has a cute little vignette in the entry hall. She found a "workman" Santa with a toolbelt and all the tools. Too cute!!


And lastly, Tammy's Cinnabon roll recipe makes divine rolls!! I ended up making them for all the golfers in dad's group. Ready by 9 am so I was up at 4 am making the dough! I'm such a good daughter.....

My New Ride

My grandmother was kind to me in her will so I bought myself a present from her. Very indulgent, but I sure do love it!!

I'm a little behind on my photo a day, and I'll fall far behind on uploading (although I hope to be taking a ton) once I get to Florida. But here are a couple, one for yesterday - my tree at night with the twinkle effect on the lights.

And our sunset tonight. Pretty nice, huh?? Shhhhh, Don't tell Pioneer Woman, but I can take a mean sunset photo, too!!

I've been having fun making some new ornaments. This is a pretty cool technique where you decorate a piece of transparency, then roll it up and pop it into the clear ornament. It unrolls itself and looks awesome! Everything except the rub-on is on the inside!!!

Holiday Hats

Matt and Lily enjoying a little holiday spirit while we were decorating the tree. Lily looks less than happy. Well, I guess Matt does too. Couple of bah-humbugs I think!!

Well, "Ho ho ho to them," I say!!!!

Every year, the Torrance Police Departmenet sends Santa and his sleigh through all the neighborhoods. They stop in the middle of each block so the children can go out, sit on Santa's lap, tell him their Christmas wishes and get a candy cane. Matt enjoyed this for many years. Although it's not "cool" anymore and this year I could not even get him to come outside, I still love to go out, listen to the loudspeaker music and remember years gone by. And of course, take a picture!!

Six pack abs

The young squirrels were running around the tree this morning, playing, chasing each other, and eating. This one is hanging from one branch to reach the fruit on a branch below. I just missed his face, but this is a cute belly shot!

Who says a tree has to be green??

People must have thought I was crazy when I stopped my car and jumped out to get a shot of these trees at the local tree stand. The minute I saw the pink one, I thought of my friend Pam and had to get a photo. This one's for you, Pam!!!

The Power of the Ocean

We're having an amazing confluence of weather systems here which is producing record high surf. Although not as tall as in Northern California where they're reaching 50 feet, our waves are still pretty impressive. I had to drive to the beach this morning and, along with all the other camera nuts, snap some photos.

For the doubters among you, this is all you can see of the lifeguard boat when it's between swells. No, it's not a submarine <^_^>

Today's picture

A few friends have inspired me to participate in their Picture A Day challenge for December. I hope it will help me remember to take my camera along with me when I leave the house. Today's photo was taken right on my patio. We have some nesting squirrels with young-uns in our tall palm tree. Right next to it is a mock apple tree full of fruit - a perfect spot for hungry little squirrels. Here, Mama Squirrel was telling me in no uncertain terms that I was venturing much too close to their lunch room.

Distress Inspiration

I have really been enjoying the inspiration that Tim Holtz has put on his blog. I created this altered CD using some of the techniques he demonstrated. I can't wait for the next 10 days of inspiration!

More acrylic fun

I finished up another acrylic album today, this one's for a class I'll be teaching in January. This is a ready-made album - much less work :) The theme for this one is Things I Love. Paper is the new Loveland collection from Scenic Route along with their Black Labels rub-on transfers, hearts are Heidi Swapp. Rubber stamps are from the new Inque Boutique collection. Printed transparencies are the Vintage Patchwork sheet from Hambly. Very fun products to work with!!!

Ear plugs and goggles

My ears are ringing! The sandblasters are outside and is it LOUD! All the windows are covered in black tar paper and it's like living in a cave!

I just have to remind myself that we'll have a nice pretty house in the end.

Warm Thanksgiving wishes to everyone from all of us here in our "naked" house!

A really fun new project

I've been working on a very fun new project - an acrylic album made by myself from "scratch." I purchased acrylic sheets from the local hardware store and cut them to size. I also incorporated clear transparency sheets and some very beautiful Hambly transparencies. If you'd like instructions for this project, you can check out the Scrap Rally section of 123-scrap.

http://123-scrap.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8963

Here's the finished album. I love how you can see little peeks of all the pages behind.

And the cover by itself. Mostly clear so the first page shows through.

This is the first page.

Here you can see that I used a half-sheet transparency on the right.

The acrylic pages with transparencies really show the multi-layers.

The page on the right is a Hambly transparency.

I used a lot of stamps and rub-ons on each page.

The last two pages.

I can't wait to make more of these albums!! TFL!

Carving the modern way

Gone are the days of hand carving - enter the saber saw. Oh my gosh - what a difference a little electricity makes!!! Cutting out the large areas and taking off the top were a breeze! Matt is bah humbug about pumpkin carving these days, not cool, not cool. So, I had fun all by myself and created this monster masterpiece. Not my most detailed work of art, but it was fun.

Lost in a Dream

I often have some very vivid dreams, but I cannot usually remember them minutes after awakening. Last night, however, I had one of the weirdest, and, at the risk of putting myself "out there," I thought I'd share it with my 3 blog readers. Now, promise.....no laughing and do NOT send the men from the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time - I promise I won't be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats!!

So, the scene takes place in a large house with lots of sliding glass doors to the outside. The outside varies - wooded setting, neighborhood with other houses, water surrounding it. The house doesn't change, just the outsides. I'm inside, in the kitchen I think, and there are lots of animals outside - huge alligators, a kangaroo, and others which I can't identify (maybe dinosaurs). I have my camera (of course) and am trying to take photos out the sliding glass door without letting any animals in. The surrounding water changes into neighborhood houses, and there is a man on a neighboring roof. Suddenly, a very large (bigger than the man) alligator shows up on the roof, darts toward the man and then past him, jumps to another roof where there is another alligator. They fight and wrestle, alligator style.

Back to me in the house. I'm trying to take a photo of a kangaroo, which I cannot for the life of me focus on. Suddenly a huge alligator makes his way through the door. I am not afraid (I actually was not afraid through-out the entire dream). I realize that what the alligator really wants is the little wrapper from a piece of orange-flavored trident gum (which DS chews, IRL). I wave the paper at him, toss it out the door and he charges outside after it.

Flash to the living room, where I am now complaining to DS that the roll-up privacy screens are all tattered and do not keep the animals from looking in. He begins to tell me how he'll fix them and the shredded screen door when ANOTHER alligator shows up in the living room (I have no idea where he came from). As I am opening the screen door so I can toss out the tasty gum wrapper, he grabs my hand with his mouth (no pain, no blood). I manage to distract him, toss out the paper, and out he goes.

Then Lily wakes me up, asking to go out.

Now, how weird is that for a dream?

I GOT IT!!!!

OMG!!! I got a photo for Halloween!!! For years, Matt has refused to dress up for Halloween, but his best friend convinced him to go to a costume party. It was so fun watching them pose for my camera, willingly for a change!! Now I have to go looking for a digi kit so I can scrap it.

Well, it's here.....the last "first day" of school, at least until college. I can't believe how fast these 12 years have gone by!

I had a chance to work with the new Citrus Kick Collection from SEI this week, for a guest DT assignment. I really love these papers - the designs AND the colors! I can't post in online galleries yet, so here are a couple layouts, in case you'd like a sneak peek!



I used PhotoBlast's Focus Select on the small pic. above, and their Black and White conversion on the photo below. I have to say, PB makes fine-tuning your photos or achieving a special effect or color super easy!