Wilma4Ever's Aged to Perfection Kit

I got a new kit to work with this week & started a series on our grandparents. These first two layouts are of Dave's paternal grandparents using Wilma's Aged to Perfection kit found here:
http://wilma4ever.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=52_137&products_id=19338

First I did Grandpa Bricker's page using a photo of the wagon train Nebraska to Indiana in the late 1980s.

 

And here's Grandma Bricker;s page:

 

 



Lazy Days

You've heard of the "lazy days of summer"? Well, in my world, winter has far more lazy days! And today has been one of them. It's gently snowing right now, the kind that just makes you want to sit in front of the fireplace with a good book & let the world go by. I've spent it mostly scrapbooking. I did a challenge at Wilma4Ever...AprilTheScrapaholic provided a cool sketch (free download at W4E) & I used Patty's Frosty Day collection again (it's on sale right now at W4E -- see link in previous post).

 

 

We really did have a good time Christmas Eve. Brent & Mark hadn't been to our house in years (it's not like we haven't seen them, but not here). Once Brent's boys warmed up to Julie's girls and vice versa, the kids had a lot of fun. Had a chance to visit with Fritz a bit & compare feelings about being the oldest generation now.

I think it has hit me harder this year than any previous. With Mom passing away in October, neither Dave nor I have any living parents -- we're orphans now. But I really have found I miss Mom & Dad so much more, and it's also resurfaced emotions about Andy that hadn't been happening so much any more. I just try to focus on all the wonderful memories that I have buried in my heart.

No fire in the fireplace, but I think I'll go put my nose in the book I'm reading right now...To Kill a Mockingbird, decided to reread that one, it's been years & it was such a good read.

 

Frosty Days Kit by PattyB Scraps

I've started a new venture & am now on the Creative Team at Wilma4Ever. Now I have my first group of layouts finished. The kit I used was "Frosty Days" by PattyB Scraps shown above. You can pick it up in Patty's store at W4E -- here's a link:  http://wilma4ever.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=52_357&products_id=19470

Here's a couple of layouts that I did with the kit:

 

And here's a cluster that I made:

 

 

This is a png file, if you'd like to have a free copy of the cluster, here's a link to my dropbox:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wb5l29udhbkrq92/Cluster.png?m

 When you go to the link, you will see a button "get link", click on that & then at the top of that page you will see a "download" button to pick up the cluster file. Enjoy!

 

 

Sad News/Glad News

You've heard that when God closes a window, He opens a door?
Well earlier this week I got a message from Barbara at Precepts & Promises that she is closing her store & going to work full time. So my time on her Creative Team is over. It has been a real pleasure designing layouts for her.
The good news is that Anmarie of ABCreations at Wilma4Ever.com had been encouraging me to apply for the CT at Wilma4Ever. I decided to go ahead and apply -- today I got word that I have been accepted there. So I end the year with new opportunities.
W4E is a relatively new scrapbooking website. I've been a member there for a little over a year, but not a very active one until the last month. Their monthly Speed Scraps & Bingo chats are what drew me in & kept me going back. They have a very nice variety of monthly challenges, 13 for December. Plus they have nice participation gifts.
Here's a couple I've done this week:

 



Be watching for more W4E LOs!

Almost Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Where does the time go?
Everytime I think I will post regularly on my blog something bogs me down....blog bog, hmmm a new ailment?  LOL
Since I last did a new entry we have laid my dear mother to rest. I've done a few layouts celebrating her life. Here's a couple of them...

 

I've been taking photos again! This week there was a fantastic sunrise one morning. Here's what I did with those a couple of those shots:

 

 

And we've been having a few new visitors to the back yard, but I'll save those for my next post.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving -- God is good, all the time God is good!

 



It's been a busy summer, fall appears to be going that way too

With fall officially here -- it's Corn School Week -- I look forward to cooler weather. Alaska got me ready for it I guess. It's been tough getting back into the swing of things from vacation & my blog has definitely taken a back burner.So has my scrap-faithbooking.
At least my computer has been cooperating a bit more than before we went. Unfortunately the CD player doesn't want to play for me. I started another My Life My Faith class with Precepts & Promises at ScrapTakeOut. We've been going for 4 days now & I'm already behind 3 days. Yikes! Well, not totally behind. I have to add photos (they're on a CD) to my layouts & they'll be ready to post. I have tried to get inspired a little bit. Here's what I did last night:

Kind of hard to read, but I've had it in my head to merge together what I've been learning from a little book Eat That Frog  by Brian Tracy and from the Flylady's emails about keeping ahead of my housework. The book is about how to succeed & get ahead in your career; Flylady is about taking baby steps, but being consistent & doing something daily about cleaning out the chaos in your home. So much of their advice is applicable to my daily walk with God. I'm thinking it must be a good thing to do because satan sure is trying to block it happening. So I will take it a step at a time & let the Holy Spirit guide me down this path. The layout above will be my first two pages. I still need to do a cover for it..
And here's the cover for My Life My Faith class:

 



And I have done a few vacation layouts. I'll post those later.

There's no place like home!

We've been home almost two weeks now. I'm beginning to get back into the swing of things.
Actually it has been more like six weeks since I've felt no pressure or been out of town.
First there were preparations for having Nanae & Yoshi visit.
Then there was their eight days here.
A week off, sort of, we had to get things packed & make final arrangements for our Alaskan tour besides seeing that everything was set for the time we would be gone.
Then it was two weeks of travel to amazing Alaska!
And the last two weeks have been filled with getting back into the swing of a routine. As much fun as we had, it was so good to be back in our own home...like Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, "There's no place like home!"

When we first started planning on our trip way back in July of 2011 (We actually booked it back then!) it seemed so far off. Now it's history. And it's a glorious memory. We were first scheduled to leave on Labor Day, then we got word that the tour had been canceled. They offered us the same tour, same rate only a week earlier. At first we were a little disappointed, we'd miss Janessa's birthday, but we'd be here for Indian Summer Days. (That's a whole other story though.) As it turned out (God's timing!) we were there during the peak season for color; the days were cool, but not cold; the sunshine was abundant; and even though a lot of the wildlife had migrated already, we did see a lot of critters & birds. Moose season opened while we were there, but we did finally see one in the wild. She passed right in front of the tour bus on the last full day of our tour. They say that less than 30% of the people who go to Alaska on vacation get to see Denali (or Mt. McKinley) -- we were fortunate enough to see it on three different days. First on our train ride to Denali National Park; then while we were touring the park the next day; and again on our last day in Anchorage it was visible if you got up high enough in the hotel.

Here's the moose we saw:

And here's our first sight of Denali:

 

I'm getting ready to put my best shots up on Flickr if you want to see more.

 

I still get goosebumps when I think of the splendor of the mountains. Sunday morning when we went to church after we returned, the first hymn was How Great Thou Art. When we got to the verse that talks about the "lofty mountain grandeur" I was blown away at how God orchestrated every little detail of our trip, even down to singing this hymn on our return home. We truly do have an awesome God who is in control of every minute of every day.