I Love Vacations!

It felt so good to hold a tiny baby in my arms again! Little Hauna is so pretty!

At her shower, Stacey said they had decided on Hana (and she spelled it for me) for the baby's name. Their last name is long so she wanted a really simple first name. Last night, I found out that they changed the spelling to Hauna. Different. I like it!

We had fun visiting with our friends last weekend. They were renting a ski lodge near Sugarloaf in Maine and we drove up to see them. We had fun playing Pictionary and watching videos. It felt good to get away for a change.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Yay! Christmas Is Over!

And now I have time to craft and read and just do what I want!

SkyWatch Friday #4

I'm being very lazy this morning after the craziness of Christmas. So, while sitting in my La Z Boy, playing on the computer, I looked outside and saw this amazingly blue sky on a -6 degree winter morning. I grabbed my camera and clicked this picture through the window and I didn't even have to get up.

Merry Christmas!

Finally got our tree up last Saturday. As usual, it's pretty sparse. I went up to my husband's job about a month ago to get boughs for my window box. He saw a tree that he thought had good needles so cut it down for me. Then he went to the top of it and sawed that off and said, "There, here's your tree."

And here it is all decorated with my mom's old ornaments. We don't really have room for a full-sized one and this one fit perfectly on the antique gate-leg table in front of the windows.

That and the window box are it for my decorating!

Hope everyone makes pleasant memories!

She's Three Already!

Hard to believe she's getting so old!

Because her greatgrandmother died just before her birthday last year, she never had a second birthday party. So, you can imagine how excited she was for this one. But, then, when we started singing "Happy Birthday" to her, she got all shy and tried to hide her face. Too funny!

I only have about 8 pages left in this journal and it's so thick that I have a hard time taking pictures. That's why it looks so crooked. Plus, we're in the middle of a Nor'easter and the light is terrible. Put that together with the fact that I'm a terrible photographer and I have a fairly cheap camera...

SkyWatch Friday #3

Just a soft peachy sky this morning. I took this on my way out the door at 7 am.

The Sky over Mt. Washington SkyWatch Friday #2

I took this picture Friday afternoon as we were driving by Mt. Washington in NH. The clouds were streaming over the summit and the sun was playing hide-and-seek with them.


To see more skies, visit Skywatch Friday

Secret Santa

Busy week at school with our annual Secret Santa fun. Each morning M-W, we bring in a small gift and give our person a clue. Then on Thursday afternoon, we all meet at a restaurant and have to try to guess who our Secret Santa is.


I figured mine out on Wednesday but the person I had didn't figure out it was me until the end through the process of elimination.

We had a blast!

A trip to My Favorite Bookstore

My husband decided to work last Saturday. Now, I could have stayed home to do laundry and clean but, I thought about it (for about 1 minute!) and decided to take a ride to Littleton to go to the Village Bookstore. It's about an hour away and was a beautiful day for a ride.


I popped the soundtrack from Mamma Mia in the CD player and sang along as I drove.


I only went to three stores: first, to the Harley Davidson shop to get shirts for my husband and son, second, to Generations of Memories, a scrapbook and altered book store where I bought a few things, and lastly, to the bookstore. I moseyed around for at least an hour.


It almost put me in a Christmas mood!

A Kylie Weekend

I usually take lots of pictures when she's around but, for some reason, this is the only one I took during her last visit.

Kylie and Grampy were snuggling under her Kokopelli blanket just before going to bed. She hadn't planned on staying overnight so had to sleep in her undershirt. Notice the beads around her neck.

I Love the Morning Sky! SkyWatch Friday #1

How can anyone not have a good day when it begins with this show?

I didn't enhance it at all.

For more awesome sky photos go to Skywatch Friday

I used a fake credit card to paint the background for this page. Yuck! The color came out awful!

I love the cartoon Anne sent!

Our First Snow Storm

I needed a summery page!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Worked on this page today with the help of Anne who sent this wonderful handmade tri-folded card. She's so clever and creative!










I wrote the poem last weekend for Sunday Scribblings. The prompt was "Grateful."










I love the words Anne wrote on the inside of the card and the reminder of a childhood favorite song.

Hope all those celebrating Thanksgiving have a great and grateful day!

The letters stickers are from Susan Branch. I love her stuff.

Kylie loves the girls and every time she comes to visit, she has to say hello to them and turn the light on and off.

Sadly, they had an accident so, now, she'll have to see them in here. They were sent to me from my friend, Anne, several years ago, and even though they are supposed to be a Christmas ornament, I kept them out year round.

As We Slip into Winter

I feel blue!

It's been so cold the last week; it's more like January.

Oh, well...such is life.

My friend, Anne's daughter, Beth, requested Chop Suey for her birthday. I've had it as Chinese take-out before but never made it so she sent me her recipe. I'm thinking this would be a good week to try it since it's so different from a turkey dinner.

Have You Ever Eaten Beaver?

Yes, my husband made a stew using fresh beaver!

As a Boston Red Sox fan, Dottie couldn't help buy this wine.

I was going through a pile of stuff I'd brought back from camp and came across some pretty paper towels so I ripped off a section and glued it to this page.

Here is that wonderful moon we had last week. The picture just doesn't do it justice.

The butterflies are from a bookmark that the laminating had come off of. (I know, I know; I ended a sentence with a preposition. My bad!)

Sunrise

I couldn't get over how vibrant the sky was last Tuesday morning. I got up with my husband and am so glad I did; otherwise I wouldn't have gotten these pictures.

There was no school because of Veteran's Day and I had a nice relaxing time doing whatever...

I don't use stamps very often but had fun coloring the flowers in so many different colors. Guess I'm just a kid at heart!

History Is Made

I'm not very political-minded but I did vote and I do love my wonderful country.

I definitely had to commemorate this historic event.

SkyBluePink

I tried to duplicate the gorgeous sky in the picture but...oh, well!

My cousin Dale is 8 months older than me so we grew up together. We spent as much time fighting as enjoying each other's company. She lives out of state, now, so I don't get to see her very often, but when I do, we just have a blast.

Stacey's Shower

Did this page based on the napkins at the shower. I tore it and it blended right into the background.

Stacey is our goddaughter and she's having a girl, Hana Rosalie. She's due Dec. 17th.

You'll notice that Stacey's colors are lavender, brown, and green. She hates pink and the napkins were the only pinkish things there. You should have seen the cute brown and green outfits she got. Each had a little pink or lavender accent but were definitely not traditionally pink. Stacey was thrilled.

The Absolute Last Halloween-themed Page...Really!

Had to do one more page about Halloween because of an incident at school that was pretty scary. I even wrote a poem about it that can be read here.

The kids at the top were sent to me by my friend in Florida. It's plastic and it took me a couple tries to get a picture that didn't have a glare on it.

Banner Swap

Lisa at http://simple-journeys.blogspot.com/ hosted a Cleaning Product Fragrance swap and these are the gorgeous pennants I received.

Left to right:

Blue Wave by Ruby. There is something about the simplicity of this one that appeals to me so much. Of course, I am a sucker for the ocean. I like how the yellow ribbons in the upper left-hand corner symbolize the sun. And the sparkly sequins at the bottom are hearts.

Tropical Island Breeze by Barbara at http://www.artiphytheheart.typepad.com/. Now that is one hunky guy! I love the playful feel to this one. She added buttons to the centers of all the flowers. And the rainbow ribbons add so much. The lace around the edge looks almost like sea foam.

SeaSpray. This one is mine. I was at camp and didn't have many supplies with me so my friend and I went to the beach and collected all the different elements. It was fun!

Moonlight Path by Lisa. The quote says, "The moonlight drapes under velvet skies." Isn't that beautiful? There are so many neat aspects to this banner. How she managed to include everything in such a small space is amazing. There is the light blue background with flower stamps, a yellow moon, a calendar, a Moonflower seed packet, a moonlit path through trees, a kissing couple, a border of blue lace, beads hanging from a button on the point, and a golden 3-D butterfly (or is it a moth?) charm.

English Lavender by Cindy at http://www.nigelsmom.blogspot.com/. Love the green with lavender! The old-fashioned girl fits the theme so well. She also added shimmery butterflies. But the absolute best part is the quote from Shakespeare. I'm an English teacher and on the day that these arrived, I had just begun teaching this scene to the kids in one of my classes. Serendipity! "All the world's a stage, / and all the men and women merely players; / They have their exits and their entrances, / And one man in his time plays many parts, / His acts being seven ages." How perfect!

The Last of Halloween!

I used a little piece of bubble wrap on this page.

The card is from my friend in Florida. She makes great cards!

The poem is from a 2007 Susan Branch calendar that I saved so I can use bits of in my journal. I love her art!

I couldn't believe the quality of my school picture this year! I guess the photographer was in too much of a hurry to check the camera to make sure there was no glare on my glasses.

I'm glad, at least, that I didn't pay for it!

I'm sick of all the golden hues of fall and Halloween already. I just had to use a different color and the elegant photo on the left from my friend, Anne, was just the incentive I needed for a purple page.

Kylie's sweet face was on my craft desk and seemed to jump onto the page by itself.

And look at my mom's beautiful handwriting from 1959!

Train Ride

I've tried several times, now, to get a good picture of this page but the light is never right.

It was such a vibrant day and these pics seems so dark!

Holy Orange!

Some women get flowers. Some women get candy. What do I get? Feathers! LOL

My husband found this hawk feather at his job and thought I'd like it for my journal. He was right!

Another thing I found when I was going through drawers is an old autograph book that I got when I was ten. It was falling apart so I decided to use some of the pages in my journal. This one was written by my younger sister.

From my seat in the living room I could see that maple tree reflected in an antique mirror we have in the hallway. I almost needed sunglasses!

Talk About Messing Up!

I can't believe I wrote the wrong day on this!

And that "like" is a mess! I don't use stamps very often. These are those acrylic ones that come with a clear block. I put the four letters on the block, inked them, but when I turned it over, the "I" flopped sideways covering part of the "K" and I didn't notice it until it was on the page. We'll call it a learning experience!

When I came out of the library, the clouds had cleared away after a day of rain and it was just so pretty sitting there under a blue sky that I had to take a picture. It's an old building, as you can see, and way too small, but beautiful. The air conditioner and windows are new since the last time I was there but, other than a few computers, it was just like I remembered it.

It's Snowing Leaves!

I thought it was kind of funny to see my husband's boat getting covered with fall leaves.

This was taken a week ago. This week 99% of the leaves are gone.

Fun

Here are more pictures from our last weekend at camp.

Again, I took the picture of this page in poor light. That's why the photo in the upper left-hand corner looks washed out. It's just that at this time of the year, it's almost dark by the time I get home from school! Guess I'll have to experiment for better results.

More Found Stuff

Keys

A Bookmark

Pearls

Erin's bracelet from when she was born

The picture is from a quilt calendar my camper friend, Donna, gave me. It was perfect for Columbus Day Weekend when the moon was almost this full.

Two Creative Cuties

Whenever Michelle visits, she always asks to work in my journal and I'm more than happy to let her.

Last weekend she had Tori to help her and they had fun designing this page by using the snippets I had on my craft desk. They left a space for me to say a few words with the directive, "Write" next to it.

I just love these two girls!

Junk Drawer Finds

Didn't have time to do any journaling last week because I was just too pooped from the nutty week at school and getting both my mom and mother-in-law off to Florida. They arrived safely, I'm happy to say.

I went through a drawer at camp last weekend and found all kinds of cool stuff to use in my journal.

Quite the Boat Ride!

We had such a great ride looking at all the beautiful scenery. The fall leaves were showing off and the sky was the perfect blue backdrop for them.

Then we had to try to dock the boat!

As I was sitting at my desk working on this page, the bird picture by Lisa at Simple Journeys caught my eye because the colors were perfect for the background. I love what the bird symbolizes for me. I'm a word person and love to "fly" with my poetry. Thanks, again, Lisa, for making something for me that fits me to a T!

Three Cuties

My niece, Alissa, came up to visit my mom with her two boys, James who is almost 6 and River, who is almost 4. My daughter, Erin, also picked that day to visit my mom with her little girl, Kylie.

I had a hair appointment that afternoon after school so only got to see them for about 5 minutes. Darn! My mom had a blast playing with and watching the kids.

The Good and the Bad

Yes, yes, I know. Another poor quality picture. I took this one last night. I should have waited until today when the sun was shining. I know I should have. But sometimes I just can't wait!

There, I took this one today and it's so much better! Somebody slap me!

We made it to camp for the weekend. It's nice to have two days to relax. It's supposed to be sunny but cool. I hope to bike to the beach, anyway. I have my parka down here so will take that with me.

Hmmm...

This is one of those pages that I had high hopes for. The background colors came out so pretty.

So, then, what happened? Maybe I should have done something prettier with the newspaper clippings.

Anyway, Gary heard today that he'll get paid $1850 for the tuna. He's happy but hopes he'll get a few more. At least it will help pay for the gas he's used!

This is a better quality photo. I took this one at camp under natural light. So much better!

I took the picture of this page at night and had to move my camera to an awkward angle to eliminate the glare from the lamp.

I've got to start taking them right after school while there is still natural light.

I can't believe the flowers in the window box are doing so well. Once my mom went into the hospital, no one watered them for about 3 weeks and it wasn't very rainy, either. But, they just keep blossoming away!

This is one of those pages that looks so much prettier in person. The photo of it just doesn't do it justice.

The End of Last Week

Just a taste of what I do in school every Friday.

A Purple Page

I know I should have waited until daylight to take the picture of this page. The quality would have been so much better. But I was too impatient.

A Weekend at Home

I just got a call that my own computer is ready!

Yes!

Later: Ah, it feels so good. I really didn't like that school computer.

I was happy to stay at home and avoid that two-and-a-half-hour drive to and from camp. I had an awful cold so it was nice to just stay put. My nose is still running but I'm feeling so much better and did go to school Monday.

Plus, I had a wonderful book to read. The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs is soooo good! I couldn't put it down. I wrote a little bit about it on my reading blog here.