Sketchy Thursday sketch

I am playing along with Sketchy Thursday this week because I love this sketch and they are offering a great (as usual) prize. I used pictures from one of our favorite places in South Carolina....the Independent Seafood Market in Georgetown, South Carolina. The shrimp boats pull in right there and we could buy shrimp that is still wiggling! And good???? There is nothing like fresh South Carolina shrimp. Now that we live in Florida we really miss our big plump sweet low country shrimp. Maybe it is getting to be time for a field trip to stock the freezer!

Standing at the Dock of the Bay

I can't believe that it has been nearly 2 weeks since I last posted on my blog. It has been a rough couple of weeks....very busy and being short handed at work makes for coming home exhausted and lacking any spark of creativity. Throw into the mix the sudden, unexpected death of one of our sweet little birdies and I just haven't been in the mood to do much in my scraproom or on my blog for awhile. However this past Wednesday morning I saw the new challenge over at The Paper Variety and I was instantly excited again about scrapping. It is a beautiful sketch from one of my favorites sketch artists out there...Jana Eubank. I finally got a chance to spend some time today in my scraproom and play with my Little Boy collection from Echo Park. I used a picture of my boys and their dad from 1989 on our one and only trip to Florida and Disney. Matt (age 9) and Adam (nearly 8) had gotten terribly sunburn earlier in the day which might account for the reason no one is smiling in this picture! I went shopping for a few hours and asked Ed to make sure to put sun screen on the boys and he did....once. And it was right before swimming. This was 1989 when the sunscreens were not as good (or as waterproof) as they are now and the boys got terrible burns. A couple of days later at Epcot, Matt was especially miserable as his burn blistered. That was the only bad part of an otherwise fun trip. I am working on my sons' childhood books and will do another layout of this same picture but I will probably change it up a bit just to keep the two books different. I really love working with old pictures and new collections. I feel like my creative spark has returned so hopefully I will have more new projects to share soon.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

It's my granddaughter Abby's birthday today. The precious princess is 3 years old. She spent a quiet day at home with Dad and when Mom got home from work they had ice cream cake, opened presents and hopefully took lots of pictures for grandma! It is hard to miss the celebrations in my family's life but thank goodness for web cams, Facebook, and all the modern technology that connect us even though distance keeps us apart.

I wanted to share the card I made for Abby's birthday. I used Imaginisce's Birthday Bash collection which I had been saving (well hoarding actually) for this special occasion. I love how versatile it is....perfect for all birthday layouts and cards.....young and old; boy and girl. I can see that I am really going to need to get more of this collection.

All Star Boys

I just love this layout that I created today....the photo of my grandsons Jacob and Cole is one of my favorites and I just love using red for boy pages. The stitched and felt stars are from my favorite Etsy shop Precocious Paper. I have been using my stash from there up all weekend in anticipation of receiving an order of new stuff. She has the most awesome embellishments and these stars worked out perfectly on this page. I used sketch #210 from Sketch Inspiration as well. the page came together very quickly....don't you love when that happens? I will also be entering this over at Lasting Memories "You're the Boss" challenge. The journaling reads "Family means putting your arms around each other and being there"....so true isn't it? Sometimes just being with our family is enough. In my case since I am 1000 miles away from my family in the midwest scrapping their pictures is the next best thing to being there. I love my family!

St Patrick's Day cards

I worked on my St. Patrick's Day cards this weekend. Being that my sons and grandchildren have good ol' Irish last names St. Paddy's Day cards are a necessity and I like the way they turned out.

Jacob and Halie

Recently I found this beautiful picture posted on my grandson Jacob's Facebook page by his aunt. It is a photo from 2.5 years ago with a little girl named Halie who I presume is Jacob's cousin on his mom's side of the family. Isn't it a gorgeous picture???? I knew as soon as I saw it I had to scrap it. Another special thing is the shirt that Jake is wearing. I am pretty sure that is a shirt that Dave and I found while out shopping the summer of 2008. It is the same shirt (in a much smaller version) of a shirt that Dave has so we bought it and sent it to Jacob. I never saw him wear it until I saw this picture and it warmed my heart. Boy I miss my family tonight.

Aren't those flowers made from recycled corrugated cardboard gorgeous? I ordered them from my favorite Etsy shop.....Precocious Paper which you can check out HERE. Tessa is the sweetest and one of the most talented ladies around and her stuff is gorgeous! (and reasonable) And NO she did not pay me to say that I just feel that it is right to recognize someone's talents and workmanship.

I have been working alot with paper and glue this weekend so I will be back with more posts throughout the next few days. Hope everyone is enjoying a good weekend.

Also entered at: http://doyoustackup.blogspot.com/2011/03/dysu-9-just-green-it.html

http://ecpchallenges.blogspot.com/2011/03/challenge-33.html

Sweet Child O' Mine

I still remember what it felt like to hold my firstborn son in my arms for the first time after holding him under my heart for nine months. Nearly 31 years ago and it feels like yesterday. I recently created this page for a song title challenge. The photo was originally a Polaroid instant photo that I scanned and used on the page....thus preserving this picture and this memory. Now my son Matt pictured in this photo is expecting his second child with his wife Amy (whom I adore!) and I am thrilled. There is just nothing like having babies in the family....especially when someone else has to walk the floors with them at night!