A Weekend in Myrtle Beach.

At the last minute on Friday I decided to make a trip to Myrtle Beach, SC for the weekend. My SCS friend, Darcy from Arkansas, was going to be visiting Donna, another SCS friend. So Saturday morning I loaded the Forrester with all my stamping.scrapping stuff, and one small bag of clothes. It ended up being a very easy drive down there - only took about 3 hours and 20 minutes with me driving the speed limit. I got to Donna's house about noon and Darcy got there just a short time later. In about 2 minutes it felt like we'd all been friends forever. Saturday afternoon we made quick trips to Micheals and AC Moore. After dinner, Andrea, another SCS'er came over and we crafted. We had a blast around Donna's kitchen table. Sunday morning we went to Myrtle Beach State Park but didn't stay too long because it started to thunder and lightning. Stopped quick at Sonic for lunch and went back to the house for more crafting. I had to leave about 6 and I hated to go. I'm sure I'll be going down to visit Donna again. Tim says he might have a weekend biking trip coming up this fall, so that would be a good time for me to take another trip - and hopefully it will be cooler in Myrtle Beach.

I Love Free Books Part 2

Several days ago I mentioned that I got two free hardback copies of The Lottery by Patricia Wood. Well, I finished the book today - and it is great! It will definitely go on my list of choices for book club next year. And the author left a comment on my post - how cool is that?

Four Cats is Too Many

Simon is here on his annual visit. His Mom is on "vacation" for a couple of weeks. It's amazing how well these cats get along, and everything is normal. This is the first time that Riley has met Simon. And I think the first couple of days that Riley was a little put-out by our visitor. or it could have just been the stray cat who was hanging out on the deck (who thankfully is gone). This morning Riley and Simon were playing chase - at 6:30 in the morning. Tarzan and Fitz have just been watching them. When Simon comes to visit we have t-r-e-a-t-s'. Can't say the word because the know what it means. So this is a picture of Tim trying to dole out t-r-e-a-t-s' to four cats. Simon is hard to see, but he's under the chair.

A layout for Tuesday

Ah, it's Tuesday. My day to sleep in and enjoy an easy morning before I go to work. Except the cats were loud this morning and insisted on being fed. That Simon has one loud meow. And it's book club day, so I have to leave for work earlier than normal. At book club we will be discussing Widow of the South by Robert Hicks. Si, I'm sitting here on the couch with my second cup of coffee listening to a load of laundry in the dryer and the the dishwasher running - need to do those things before it's a 100 degrees outside again today.

I want to share this layout of my Great Grandmother Kreber, who we called Granny Two. I did this layout during for the big Virtual Scrapbooking Weekend on SCS. The challenge was to include a recipe in your layout. I have a box full of all of my Granny Two and Grandma Holles' recipe cards. The base of the page in elegant eggplant. The so saffron layer has a enlarged photocopy of Granny Two's Penuche recipe. I also include a couple of photocopied recipe cards in the library pocket. I made some pattern paper with the Pretty Posies stamp set using plum and sage inks for the flowers to accent the top and bottom of the page. One the library pocket are some of the things I remember about Grandma Two: quilting, violets, Granny Buns, and gardening. Tim scanned and printed the photo for me, so I didn't use my original. I love this page, and I hope you do too.

No Fear

Dad and the boys worked together and made some soap box derby cars. Joe's car was made from a kit. Jim's car was totally homemade. After Joe broke his arm, Mom and Dad asked me if I wanted to race his car in the locally derby - no way! They raced down the hill by the Riggs Library. It was a really big hill! Joe said he could race his own car - even with his broken arm. he got 4th place in his class and Jim got 2nd place in his class. Pierre, SD, summer of 1976.

I had to call Mom and Dad to check on some of the details. We had a good time remembering. I'm sure the boys remember the event differently, but this is how I remember.

I used True Thyme, So Saffron, Buckaroo Blue and Close to Cocoa papers to give the page a 70's feel. I stamped the race car from Toy Box and used my SU markers to color them in for the only embellishments on the page. The title is made from chipboard letters and rubons. I love how this page turned out

I love Free Books

One of the perks of my job is that sometimes publishers send me free copies of books, usually titles that are just coming out in paperback. Their goal is to for me to select the title for my book group, so they can sell more copies. Recently I got a paperback copy of The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard, and I did like it so much that I put it on the possible list for my book group next year. Then a couple of weeks ago I got a paperback copy of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I had already read it and loved it , and it's also on my possible list for next years book group. This week I got TWO HARDBACK copies of The Lottery by Patricia Wood. This book has been getting very good reviews. And it is so new we don't even have our copy at the library yet. One copy is for me to read, and the other I'm going to give away as some sort of prize at the library. It's been a long and tough week for me so I've barely been able to start my news book. Can't wait to read it and see if it's as good as all the reviews say. If it is, then maybe it will go on next years book group reading list.

Exhausted

VSBN is over. We had a wonderful weekend of scrapping challenges on http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/. Thankfully I took the day off yesterday to recover. People are still working on their challenge submission, so we will not know until Wednesday evening how many challenges were completed. I know I filled an entire album with the pages I made for samples - and I love every page. I'll start showing you some of them. Now I need to spend some time making cards.

The theme for VSBN was "Curl up with a Good Book". So all of the challenges had to do with books. Gloria was our kids challenge hostess and she likes the Goosebumps books, so the first challenge on Saturday was to make a page with bumps. My page is from Fitzie's birthday. I used pop dots to raise up the circle embellishments.

Keep watching, and I'll try to share all of the pages I did for this big weekend.

I got a birthday present!

I think Tim is worse about presents than I am. He ordered my birthday present and gave it to me already! Not that I'm complaining mind you. I love getting presents. I got a new Canon Rebel XTi digital SLR camera. A huge step up from the Canon point and shoot camera I have been using. My new camera is too big to carry around in my purse at all times like the Sure Shot is. I took a few photos last night, and I love the quality. I am so excited and can't wait to get out and take some more pictures.

Our friend, Jon, who moved to Wyoming last year, is coming in for the weekend. We are all going to get together to celebrate Jake's birthday. A great opportunity to use my new camera.