A little crafting

So, as much as I would love to be scrapbooking, crafting has been too tempting this summer. So much to do, so very little time! (But just one more week til school starts--yipee!) I have SOOOO many pictures I want to scrapbook too! When my mother-in-law asked me what I'd like for my birthday, I asked for time. Time to scrap, craft, and feed my creative soul. And I got it! (THANKS!)

With my birthday money, I took a class at Papertales (my all time favorite scrapbook store!) and took a technique class (see below) taught by a very talented lady named Jill.I love how it matches perfectly to my walls in my scraproom. So many details and dimension! The piece is white washed over a paper mosaic on wood, stamped, painted, doodled, glittered, and the dimensional flowers I learned to build were perfect for this piece. While I was at Papertales, of course I shopped. I saw these lovely flowers by Prima and now, they are my favorite bracelet. (My lovely model's wrist, Madeleine, is a little small but this fits me perfectly)
Here is how I made it. So easy--I hope you make one too!
You need:

• About 10" crocheted lace trim,
• About 10" narrow elastic,
• the flower,
• a scissors,
• and a sewing machine.

First, sew the elastic onto the middle of the trim. Stretching the elastic as you are sewing it will make it gather and stay on your wrist.Next, determine the length you need to fit around your wrist. (The 10" you started with should offer plenty, even for big-wristed people.) Pin it and sew the 2 ends together. Trim the excess.Next sew the flower on. If your flower is to decorative in the center to stitch it, Fabri-Tac works well too. All done! Seriously, it is that simple! Go make one!

It's an inexpensive, lovely gift for a girlfriend. The best part is that the package comes with 2 flowers so I made one for myself too!

Thanks for checking in!

Counting my blessings

I believe an important part of being happy is counting your blessings everyday. 5 years ago, we met someone who gave us an amazing blessing: our son Sam.

Last weekend, Sam's birthmom, Tiffany was in town and we got to have dinner and hang out for a while. I wish we'd had more time together but distance makes it hard to see each other more often. She is an amazingly courageous person that I pray that Sam will know his whole life.I hope Sam is finally at an age that he is remembering how much she loves spending time with him. It's written all over their faces, isn't it? Another amazing person I've been thinking of a lot lately is Max's birthmom, Jordan. Distance makes it hard for us to get together but there's never a doubt that she loves this little man. I just did a layout with a picture of them from April.
Max has her smile. When he greets me in the morning, I think of Jordan and thank God for her and this wonderful gift she gave us. And who couldn't love a face like this???I'm so happy to share my blessings with those who read my blog. Please, make sure you count your blessings too. There are so many!
Cheers,
Christy

Sequoia trip

Sometimes, people wonder why we live in Southern California. My answer: Why not? Ok, we certainly miss our family on the East Coast and in the Mid-West and every other corner of the USA but... we have a good life here. And honestly, California is an amazing state! I'm quite smitten with this lovely place and I'm not sure we could discover it all in a lifetime. But Brentt and I are going to try. (And our 3 lucky kids get to be drug along... whether they like it or not! :) ).

A couple of weeks ago we went camping in Sequoia, about 320 miles from home. If we were traveling in the mid-West, we'd have seen cornfields the whole trip. Not in California! The diversity is amazing!

We started here, inland San Diego:I took all the road pictures of the drive from the front seat, moving at least 60 mph. Forgot to take pictures of the ocean going up I-5 though.
Through LA . Yuck.Up over the Tejon Ranch and into the Grapevine.Did you know there are oil wells here? Thousands of them!
Climbing...to get to Quaking Aspen campground to camp with our friends.Bug hunts are always a necessary part of a camp trip for Maddie and Sam.Dome rock was a nice place to explore. I was really happy we didn't lose any of the kids over the edge! It looks like we're climbing the moon.Max really loves riding in the backpack. Good thing too!
But my favorite place we saw up there was the Trail of 100 Giants. There are trees over 200 feet high and over 1500 years old!It is hard to get perspective on how big these trees are. This should help. See the red speck in the photo below? That is Max. Here are Brentt and Sam climbing on the roots of a felled tree.
We really had a great time here, with our friends, and making memories for all of us. I highly recommend it and hope to return next Summer.

Thanks for checking in!
Cheers,
Christy

Friday! Friday! Friday!

How did it get to be Friday already? Are we really in August? We survived a week of Vacation Bible School and I thought I would have more free time. Ha! Right. I feel like I am some sort of fast-forward time warp. Our littlest man, Max, is growing so quickly that I just wanted to share a few pictures of him from our play time this week.As soon as he sees the camera, he starts crawling toward me so it takes more skill to actually get his photo. He is drawn to electronics--such a boy!
Also, Brentt finished part of our "remodel." He put up a wall in between the playroom and the living room. In the playroom side, the kids now have a giant chalkboard. They love to play school (which has been great for me to sneak in some Summer learning! ;) )And color themselves so we have our very own "Blue Man Group." Ha! They are so funny!We have a busy weekend. One going-away party for some dear friends, a VBS celebration Sunday and then off to the race track. Yay! Have a great weekend!
Christy