Fire in my Dad's Garage

Fire in My Dad's Garage

Well life came and bit us this week, not me personally, but my family. My dad was working in his garage, welding his truck, with only an inch left to do, when the insulation in the door caught on fire and took the whole garage with it. Luckily though my dad got out safe. Phew! Unluckily though he lost 40 years of tools, his truck and his 1971 corvette.

I can not express in words, how sorry I am for my dad.

The tools he lost are his life. He used them all to help so many people, myself included. 

My dad is the kind of person, that if you call him, no matter what time of day or night, he will drop whatever it is he is doing and come over to help out. When I was younger we didn't get along, he is my step father, but in my heart, he is my father. He has always been there for me, when I didn't get along with him, to now. I am very glad he wasn't injured but to see the amount of sadness on his face when he looks at all he truly holds dear, it's a heart breaker. My dad is defined by the tools he has, he can repair almost everything. If he can't he will give it the best shot he can. He has amazed me over the years, and even I have learned quite a bit more then I thought I could about cars and repairing things.

I wish I could fix it all for him. Make the tools he got from his dad, who has now passed, turn up unharmed. I wish I could give him a brand new garage with the truck and corvette he kept and was working on, for so many years. I know they are only material things, and I do understand that they can be replaced, but sometimes those things hold memories. Now his things are gone. But as I said before, at least he is safe. And I am so very happy for that. 

We spent the better part of the weekend helping out with the mess my parents have, all while looking for the remains of 4 very expensive tools that my dad has. I found one or two of them. I hope he finds the other ones, so the insurance company can get him new ones.

I am sure I will make a layout of the closeness of family.

I am so proud of my family for pulling together to help dad this weekend.

Thank you to my husband, son and brothers who worked their butt off and to my daughter who made the food. 

Thank you also to mom, for helping so much and organizing the food.

Thank you so much.

I love you all.

God Bless.

Hi all

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit. I do have a great layout to share with you, it's in the process of getting made. But honestly, I am having one of those months where stress is taking over and I am not feeling like doing much.

First because we are in the count down for my son leaving, in July. Tomorrow is May 1st and in less then 2.5 months, he will be off to boot camp. He will be away from us for 13 weeks! I haven't been away from him for more then a couple days ever.

And secondly, because we are having some issues with one of our neighbors. She did something very mean to us, just because she is afraid of dogs. And now, we might lose the right to keep our puppies. We have a lot of paperwork and some finger crossing to do, to see if our town will approve it. I know that some might not understand how I feel about my dogs, and I get that. They are like children to me. They are all different, and they have their own personalities. Also some might say, so what you have to give them up. Well, this is the issue. If we give them to someone else, how do I know they will be cared for and loved. I don't think it's right to tell someone how many kids to have, so why is it okay to limit, how many dogs I have. If I take care of them, love them and such. I can't even tell you the stress this has put on me. Because now the fate of my puppies, lays in the hands of people I don't know and who don't know me. They don't know my dogs and how good they are. All because our neighbor is scared of dogs, we have a 6 foot fence in between us, who cares if she is scared. That is not my problem.

So this is why I can't focus on a page right now. I know everyone has issues. I know I am not alone and mine are insignificant compared to others. I just love my son and my dogs so much, asking me to part with any of them is too hard for me to even wrap my head around. 

I am sure as time gets closer to July 15th, I will be a bigger mess then I am now.

Thank you for letting me vent.

I will be back with a page I hope soon.

Much love to all.

Spread peace.

Happy Couple

Happy Couple

It's Saturday, mid-day, and I am exhausted. I am going to post this then go take a nap I think. The puppies are snoring, which is making me sleepy, and I didn't get to sleep in like I wanted this morning. Because the little ones, like to get up promptly at 6am.

I made this layout to look vintage.

The photo is of my BFF and her husband Jason.

We went to a local park, around the corner from my BFF's house to get these pictures.

They make such a cute couple, don't they?

I used the Recollections Memories Documented paper line, to make this layout.

I used a thin black sharpie to draw two lines around the perimeter of the background paper, mainly because I was being very lazy and didn't want to sew with my sewing machine. But honestly, I think I will go back and do it. The good part about this layout, is the border around the page isn't supposed to be perfect, you want it wiggly and imperfect.

I printed their pictures using my Epson R2000 printer, and Topaz Labs to edit the photo. I used a light lens effect on the photo, to make it look a little vintage and fit the layout.

I found a cute tag that fit the layout also, and happened to come in the paper pack with the background paper.

Then all I did was add a couple flowers, some black/white checked ribbon, paper strips and some grommets.

I hope you enjoy the layout.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Have a wonderful day.

April 2013 Recipe Challenge - The Paper Mixing Bowl and My Layout called "GROW"

April 2013 Recipe Challenge

This month's challenge is Ambrosia Salad.

Beautifully soft colors and a fun challenge.

Want to play along? 

It's so much fun and you use lots of creativeness.

To join the challenge go to: 

http://papermixingbowl.blogspot.ca/2013/04/april-2013-recipe-challenge-ambrosia.html

Here is my version of the challenge:

I painted the background paper with white gesso. This background paper was very busy. So the white gesso toned it down some. 

The colors of the paper where close to what the challenge asked for, I have very limited pastel papers.

The birdcage, I happened to pick up the day I started this layout. It's made by Tim Holtz designs. And I just love it. I opened it up, added some yellow backing paper and made three dimensional butterfly inside, with a white rose bud. I took three Mrs. Grossman butterflies, that were exactly the same. I folded all three in half, then added one to each wing of the top butterfly. When you do that it make the butterfly look real. It's a fun technique that I love, but don't get to use very much. I also did that same thing, to the blue butterfly in the upper right corner. 

I added banners in yellow paper, flowers that were off of stems from Michael's. They were very cute, already had the layered look, and up close, they even have littles frayed edges.

I added journaling strips and a title, that the challenge called for.

This picture was taken at the Lilac Festival, my daughter loves to climb the love tree, everyone that goes there, carves their initials on the tree for them to stay forever.

I hope you enjoy my version of the challenge.

Please play along with us, it's a lot of fun!

Visit:

http://papermixingbowl.blogspot.ca/2013/04/april-2013-recipe-challenge-ambrosia.html

to learn about the challenge and how to join.

Can't wait to see your layouts there!

Have a wonderful day!

Love

Love

Hi everyone!

How are you doing this weekend?

Don't you love Sundays?

I do! 

I get to create and this time of year, have the house pretty much to myself.

The hubby is working on the yard, and the kids are with friends.

It's blissful.

For this layout, I stamped the background paper with black ink and a variety of different stamps. The stamps I used are dollar bin stamps from Michael's and Inkadinkado stamps.

Then I took some black acrylic paint from Making Memories and added water to it. I took a cheap paint brush and splattered the paper lightly with the paint.

While that was drying I the various papers in to the lengths and widths I needed. These are all papers from my scrap bin, it's a tad overflowing now, so I either have to use them or burn them, and that seems like such a waste.

The papers I used are from My Mind's Eye (I know, big surprise there), Basic Grey and DCWV.

The embellies are from Making Memories, Spare Parts and SEI.

I love this layout. 

The picture is of my beautiful daughter, she took this one herself with her phone that is why it is grainy and not great quality, but I think that adds to this layout.

Sometimes the picture is perfect but it's still something that should be scrapped. 

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Have a wonderful day!

Follow Your Dreams, Don't Forget...

Follow Your Dreams,

Don't Forget...

This layout is a scraplift from a scrapbook.com user, Blitz. 

I just fell in love with the layout and wanted to do something similar.

This is my son two years ago when he had long hair.

We were at the beach located close to our house, on the first very nice day of Spring.

It was extremely warm out and the sun was perfect for some of the shots I got. Most of the time, sun is your enemy when taking photos, you want overcast, or cloudy weather. But you can also get some really great photos in sunny weather.

I am not in love with his facial hair, he looks like a grizzly bear in this photo, but his hair used to get these awesome gold highlights naturally from the sun. 

Anyway, I used the My Mind's Eye Indie Chic - Saffron line of papers to make this layout.

I used a rub on for the title and and some My Mind's Eye stickers. The hearts are made by Martha Stewart. And the brads are by Spare Parts.

Thank you for viewing my blog.

Have a wonderful day.

Us

Us

I designed this layout as a gift to my husband and myself. 

We got our pictures taken a while ago and I wanted to do a special layout. I really love Bo Bunny's Timepiece collection and I waited to use this particular piece of paper until I had the right use for it.

I found some images of roman numeral clocks online and printed them out in various sizes, because I didn't have any clock stickers or paper where I could just cut them out. (It's a good cheat when you need it).

I used various other little scraps of paper from my left over scrap. Some is My Mind's Eye and The Paper Loft.

The other item that I used on the layout is a chipboard clock, made by Dusty Attic.
I love this embellishment and I wound up using it as frame for my photo which I printed out to fit.

The flowers are made by Spare Parts, the brad is Making Memories and the two white hearts are Martha Stewart stickers.

I believe this layout came out wonderful.

If you have any questions or a comment, please post it below.

Thank you for visiting my blog.