Johnson's group photo

Here's the latest photo that I've been working on for my class. It's a group shoot of the kids. We were supposed to use costumes and then turn the photo into an old looking one. I think it turned out fairly well.

Happy Birthday

Today is one of my son-in-laws birthday. Happy day to Gary. You know, I hate to admit when I'm wrong, but way back when Danelle and Gary got married, I thought..."this will never last"..."this guy isn't good enough for my daughter". Boy was I wrong. He's such a good husband to Danelle, and treats her so well. He's a great father, and works so hard. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't think well enough of him when they got married. Hope his day is a great one!

Challenge for March 28th

We are almost to the end of our challenges for the retreat. In fact, this is the last one except for the one we'll do at the retreat. We were to use a paper piecing. It's been awhile since I've done that, but it was fun. I did my birthday from last year, which the kids made so special for me. It was pretty fun and I love the papers.

I'm loving my Photoshop class

I love this class. I'm having so much fun with it, and I'm loving the fact that I'm excited about taking photos again. It's been awhile since I was this enthusiastic. I had to turn in the invitation I made of Chris's band concert tonight, and it was gratifying that everyone thought it was super cool....There's a couple of things I still want to try. A thin white line around each of the small photos, and maybe try rotating them a little to see how it looks.

Layout from Challenge for March 21st

I did this layout with the photo's from Brit's graduation last spring. She posed with everyone in the family I think. She was so good about it too. And beautiful! The challenge was to make a layout for under $5.00. I bought three sheets of cardstock, 1 yard of ribbon, 7 flowers and jewels for the center. I used a piece of patterned paper that I got FREE from CKU (Janell told me she didn't think I should count anything FREE from CKU) and a scrap of white paper for the tag. See my receipt down further...

This was almost all the scraps I had left over...cutting it close huh?

Only $4.24...awesome huh? Usually I even have enough left for a card or two, but not this time.

It was a ton of fun.

Hostess Club

Last Friday night was hostess club, and my sister from Soda Springs was the hostess. There sure weren't many people there, but we made some really cute things. It was fun, and I ate wayyyy toooo many crackers and dip. It was yummy.

3rd post today

This was the first card I actually started working on, and then did the next one, which I sort of like better. The paper is from Graphic 45.

Can you believe it? This is my third post of the day. I already posted on this blog, and I posted my challenge for the retreat. I'm going to wait and post that layout tomorrow or sometime soon. But...Robin posted a challenge on her blog to make a card and send it. I made a couple...just to use the paper. I'm going to post both of them here. I'm going to use the "you have outdone yourself"...to thank Sally for the wonderful pie she brought Jeff on his birthday. It was so yummy and looked awesome. She's becoming so "domestic" as Jason put it. Thanks, Sally.

Photo Shoot

Here are just a couple of the photos from the shoot I did with my nephews kids last week. I'm bummed though. I dropped off two rolls of film for development of this shoot. I thought they would be back in two days. When I stopped to pick them up on Saturday, they told me it would be this coming Friday...the day after my class that I need them for....bummer!

Yesterday was our baby shower for the women's shelter. I think it turned out pretty well. Other than I forgot that it started at 11:00. I went to town to get the Yukon serviced, and thought it started at noon...so I was late with my lettuce.

Mikayla's Birthday

Saturday, Mikayla had driver's training in the morning, so Danelle took her there and then picked her up and came straight to our home to work on the retreat things. So, I made some hot rolls, hamburger soup, and an angel food cake to celebrate Mikayla's birthday. She helped with us, and Danelle shared that in one month Mikayla had 22,000 text messages. What??? I can't believe it. That's like 700 a day..?? When we went up to Albion for dinner on Sunday, Jeff told Mikayla he wanted to see her thumbs. To see if they were calloused. Just while we were standing there, she had a ton of messages. None of them more than a few words, but still...lots of messages.

Dolls

I have never posted the photo of the doll I dressed for Danelle. Reta (my MIL) came over, I hate to admit it...several years ago, and helped each of the girls make a porcelain doll. It was so much fun. But, none of my girls really sew much, and they left the dolls for me to dress. In trying to clean up my scraproom, I put them on a shelf in the closet. And...forgot about them. Until I cleaned out my closet while Jeff was gone elk hunting last fall. So I put them all out on my table so I would get them finished. Well, here it is March...and I have finished Stephanie's and Danelle's. The rest are still sitting around my room. My goal is to get them done! As Larry the Cable guy would say..."Git R Done". Sorry about the messy table behind her...that's about the way my table always looks...

May Idaho

A couple of weeks ago, Jeff and I went for a drive up through Craters of the Moon, Arco, through a valley to the Salmon River, over to Challis, and back home. We didn't get out of town until about 10:00 and didn't get home until 8:30 that night. Long drive, but fun. I took some photos of May, Idaho. People still live there, but not many. I believe the sign said it was one of Idaho's oldest cities. Here's a couple of the photos I took.

Photo shoot with Chris & Taylor

I got to take some photos of the boys before they left today. Thank you! They were both so awesome the whole weekend. Taylor hates having his photos taken...but we bribed him with angelfood cake and sherbet. This is one of Taylor.

This one is of Chris. I have to make a billboard for my photoshop class next week, and I'm going to make an announcement for his band concert. I took alot of him and his sax so I can use one as a background and then add some smaller ones. I'm really excited to get it done. Love how it turned out.

We had a great time with the boys and Robin. Thanks for coming down and sharing your weekend with us.

Antiques

My mother has been giving me some antiques because she knows how much I love them. Lately, she gave me some lace that my Great-Grandmother crocheted. It was around a doiley, but the doiley has worn out. She also gave me a cupie doll, and an old cigar box that my Aunt gave her back in the 70's. I guess my uncle smoked cigars. I'm sure mom was going to make some crafty thing with it, but never did. So I'm planning to keep it original. I don't know if you can get them anymore or not.

Today we worked on our things for the retreat. Robin and the boys came down last night and we spent the evening just relaxing. Today Janell and Danelle came over and we worked on the projects for the retreat. We got most everything finished too. It's been great. After they left, Robin and I ran over to Katie's and got a few things.

This morning, Mom had the boys come down to her house and they helped make cinnamon rolls. They were really excited about it, and they got to bring two pans of them back for us to eat. They were pretty proud of themselves. They have video of it!

Snow

Treven is such a part of my heart. Has been from the time he was born. He's so smart, and started talking like a grownup right off the batt. There are so many things that he has said over the past few years, that I really wish I had written down. Anyway, yesterday I called Danelle to talk to her, and Treven answered the phone. I asked him what he was doing at home, and he replied that it was Spring Break. I said..."I thought that was next week". He told me in an excited voice..."No! It's today!" I asked what he was doing, and he told me he was holding his sister, Ellie. What a treasure. I asked if it was parent/teacher conference day, and he said he wasn't sure. I said..."Is your mom going to find out how smart you are?" Then he told me ..."I'm not really smart". Huh! He's way too smart I'm afraid.

This Tuesday, we woke up to SNOW...can you believe it? Well, I do live in Idaho. One year, we had a blizzard on the 9th of April. It was so bad, that they closed the freeways, I couldn't even get home from work. Jeff's parents had to stay at his home for the night because they couldn't get home. I remember we had about 12" of snow that morning. Then, of course because I do live in Idaho, the wind started blowing. That was the end of travel.

Anyway, here's a photo of what it looked like out my front door that morning.

Love blogs

Robin posted some of her favorite blogs to read, so I thought I'd list some that I like to visit. I have soooo many it was hard to narrow them down. But, I liked the idea of seeing someone else's favorites. Robin actually listed a few of mine, so I guess we have something in common. Here's my list:
Jana Eubank: http://www.frommyfeatherednest.blogspot.com/

Michelle Wooderson: http://michellewooderson.blogspot.com/

Andrea Walford: http://andreawalford.com/

Sue Nelson: http://www.heartprints.net/ Cards galore

Keisha Campbell: http://abiteast.typepad.com/abiteast

Robin Gibbons: http://heartfelt.typepad.com/my_weblog/

http://www.pencillines.com/

Hope you have fun checking out some of my favorites.

Photoshop Photos

This is a photo I took of Braquel holding a rose. I made a duplicate in black and white. Put that over the colored photo and then erased the flower. I love how it turned out.

Last week, we were to take an old photo and he taught us how to repair it. This photo is probably over 100 years old, and the paper is starting to break down and crack. I was able to scan it and then repair the scratches and cracks. I think it actually turned out fairly well.

Tomorrow night we are to take ads from magazines, and we're supposed to learn out to make billboards from photos or write on photos. Should be fun.

Last Saturday

Friday night, we drove to Boise after work and met Tori for dinner at Red Lobster. OMG...I love eating there. Jeff was kind enough to share his lobster with me, because mine was tiny...I didn't get much for my money. It was so sad...I took my purse in with me, and sat it on the floor. When we left, I forgot it! We got clear back to Tori's apartment before I realized it. It was nearly 10:30, and Tori tried calling them, but they didn't answer. I drove back over and went in. Told the girl I'd forgotten it, and she said the manager had it in his office. Everything was in it...what a relief. Geez...am I losing it or what?

Saturday morning we were meeting Darin and the family for breakfast, but he said they were running a little late. We had talked about 9:00 and they wanted to wait until 10:00, so we drove around for awhile and finally went to the old train depot and I took about 4 photos and the battery in my camera went dead...I'm batting a 100 here aren't I?

After breakfast we went to Idaho Camera because I'm looking for a new camera. I sort of think I want the new Canon T2i, but they didn't have one in yet. So, I'm still waiting. Jeff did get a new pair of binoculars though.

After that, we went out to the Simplot fields to watch Connor's first soccer game of the spring. They just barely finished indoor soccer, so it's year round for he and Jaden. He made a goal when he hit the ball with his head...He was pretty proud of himself.

Here's a couple of photo's that I took at the depot.

Easter Cards & another photo of Ellie

I have a ton of photo's from Ellie's birthday party. I couldn't resist sharing another one. This is the official cake eating...without clothes! She was so cute. She didn't know if she could really just eat with her hands, so she started out really dainty, just barely sticking her finger in the icing, then a little more and finally got into the cake. I think she was so full though, that she finally just started throwing the cake on the floor...that's when Mom said..."You're done!" Don't you love that little, tiny, ponytail on top of her head?

When I went to Boise to do inventory for our store there, I went to Archiver's after we got done Friday morning. They were having a make & take, and the store was crazy. But, they had such cute Easter paper, that I thought I'd get some and make some cards. I think I bought 2 sheets of the polka dot, one of the large circles, and one with Easter words and pics on a yellow background and one of large Easter words. So...five sheets and a sheet of Easter stickers. I figured I could make several cards with that....but 30! Wow. I guess I went a little overboard. I couldn't believe how many cards I got out of that.

This is some of the stickers that were on the sheet. I thought they were so cute!

When I ran out of stickers, I stamped a few images and used those. I'm not sure who I'll be sending all these to, but I better find a bunch of friends.

Ellie's First Birthday

Danelle and Gary invited us up for Ellie's first birthday. Danelle did it in a cupcake theme and she had balloons tied to the backs of chairs and cupcake's hanging from the lights. She had a pink polka dot table cloth on the tables and pink polka dot napkins. It was really cute. Of course, the star of the show was Ellie. She had a tiny little ponytail on top of her head and was dressed so cute. She was just smiling and going from one person to the next. She loved it when Leigh and Woody showed up. You can tell she just loves them. She was excited to see all the cousins and the young friends that came. She is just so happy all the time. She opened all of her own gifts and loved looking at the cards...just like Braquel did. It's almost sad to see her turn one, because she's probably our last "Baby"...unless Tori gets married and has kids. We're running out of babies. Until the grandkids start having them I guess. Boy...am I getting old or what?

Here's a couple of photos of Ellie with her Grandpa Jones, having a cupcake.

March 7th Challenge for the Retreat

The challenge for this week (for our retreat in April) is to use a punch on your layout or card. I did a layout of a trip Jeff and I took to Jarbidge, NV last spring. The fall before, a fire started there, and since it is part wilderness area, they did not try to stop it. Unfortunately, the fire spread very quickly and burned hundreds of thousands of acres before they finally got it contained. We went down to see how bad it was, and it was sad. We had always spent time hiking in to see the wilderness on the other side, and to see everything charred was sad. We also saw a wolf on this trip. At first, I just thought it was a coyote, but Jeff said..."no, it's way too large to be a coyote. That's a wolf". He didn't seemed to even be bothered much by us, just stood there and watched us. Made me nervous though.
I wish more people would share their challenge work with us. Makes me wonder if anyone is looking at the blog or not. Of course, I never really know if anyone looks at mine either. I just think of it as my "Journal" more or less. I enjoy sharing it, but even if no one ever looks at it, I have a record of my thoughts and happenings in my life.

March exchange cards

The theme for the March exchange, was ribbon. I love having these themes, because you can make any type of card...just use whatever the theme is on it. I scraplifted this card from some website...don't remember where, but I really liked how it turned out.

I am not sure I like putting patterned paper behind the card when I take the photo. It looks like the green check is part of the card...it isn't. I loved this paper though.

This one used lots of ribbon, but I'm not sure it was one of my favorites. A little busy...but okay.

I like this one. Loved the papers, and liked the cupcake stand. Thought it turned out cute.

I didn't do this one for the exchange. Just used leftovers from the card above. I have soooo many scraps, and once in awhile, I think to just go ahead and use them up while I have all the matching stuff out. Amazing huh?