Throckmorton County - Throckmorton, TX

This weekend will host the first winter storm to come into Texas.  No problems but rain for the upper coast and unbelievable humidity which will make it feel a whole lot colder in Houston area then North Texas this weekend.  Looks like I-20 north will be an ice storm.  At the ranch it's one of those things where the weatherman is covering his backside.  If they get a sure enough ice storm the weatherman has covered his backside.  And if they do it still won't be that bad as temps jump into low to mid 40's, ice gone each morning.  Since I did the first layout of buildings surrounding the courthouse and was thinking about what to write on my blog.....wonder what Throckmorton will look like....ice, ice and more ice.  Sigh......I'm glad I'm not in North Texas this weekend.  I'm holding down fort in Houston area home.  Probably won't even turn on the heat.

So here's the park bench I talked about in Pioneer Life post.  RAB Brand..... and around the corner the Sign in Pioneer Plaza (where sculpture is) that pays tribute to early Cattle Ranching in Texas and the Great Western Cattle Trail.  It is Layout #3 this month for me.  Now to do a card next for CKCB!!!  Just as soon as I relax from stressing over my mini covers......sigh!  Once again trying to figure out how this Cottage Cutz die will work and I don't have enough paper to waste on this the covers!

This was the sketch that inspired me and one I found on Pinterest.  Now to give credit where due....this one took a little time to find the how and why.  Posted on Dearly Dee Blog in the UK and then one can trace it to  a layout by Marcie Penner for Basic Grey.  Kind of fun to see where I got to with this layout.  I do want to use the sketch again and hold a little more to the sketch.

Can You Even Imagine.....

.....that you would climb a set of stairs to seat yourself in an airplane?  I don't have to imagine as I have.  What a thrill to have three photos from the Glory Age of Travel by plane!  Yes, I remember when we had to get dressed as if going to church to fly.  As well as to have pampered service which doesn't exist anymore unless you fly 1st Class!

Yet to have three 8x10 photos taken of some of the staff of American Home Magazine was an incredible treat to find in my grandmother's files.  Some how to have a professional photographer take the photos and not have one of them with everyone looking at the camera and smiling is beyond me.  This is the first one to scrap.  Definitely staged as my grandmother's coworker is holding an American Home magazine in her hand.  I really wanted two things from this set of photos was to date the photograph as it was unusual to for my grandmother to not date the photo on the back and figure out what the model of aircraft.  The magazine was my ticket.  Off to eBay I went and found the magazine, October 1951 issue.  Then because I have brothers who are commercial pilots I had to figure out what model the airplane was.  LOL....they would be impressed their sister knew.  A little more difficult piece of information to figure out the model.  It definitely was not a DC3 as the chipboard piece at top would lead you to think.  Studied back and forth between mounds of photos of DC4 and DC6 aircraft to decide finally the plane was a DC6.

I died inside looking at the title....off center!  Then I realized the DC3 was off center too!  Darn plaid papers and not using my mat to center things.  As I looked and looked some more I was a tiny bit more happy with how it turned out.  Planes fly into our view and as quickly are out of view.  Works for me!  But still not happy with it.  At some point I'll get to scrapping the other two photos but just wanted to share this one right now.

I also used this layout as my example this month for the Heritage Challenge over at A Cherry on Top.  So stop by and have some fun playing along with us and the Challenges Hosted!  As always there are some great challenges hosted.

Now off to scrap for the rest of the day!

Elle's Studio Sketches

I usually just fall in love with Elle's Studio Sketches.  Why I have never used one until yesterday is beyond me.  Enter Pinterest!  I didn't get Pinterest to the point of a "Why?"  Finally got talked into opening a page with the ladies at ACOT!  I still don't get "IT", but I have found one great use for Pinterest and my iPad.  I no longer have mounds of paper for favorite sketches.  I have a Pinterest Board for them.  I also have found some great staircase storage ideas.  Both Larry and I have said almost in unison that we want a staircase up to attic instead of those pull down ladder things.  I guess it is our age.  Great storage ideas for staircases.  The staircase will be in the pantry.  Now to look at pantry ideas, yes we will have a room for the pantry as I want to get into canning.

So the sketch I stored in Pinterest was this one from last week's Sketch Thursday.

Triangles....the newest "IT" shape!!!  When it came to math in school the triangle was the coolest shape to study.  The rules concrete the names exotic in my mind.  Silly what we remember about school sometimes when you hit that 50 something age.  I have the Spellbinders Isosceles Triangle dies.  Need to get the Equilateral dies!  I just loved this sketch.

I loved the simplicity of this sketch, too!  I also loved the arrow look to sketch!  I found just the photo in my mind to use.  Once again I turned to one of my mother's photos of "Zu" to scrap.  A head study.  "Zu" had one of the most exotic Arabian heads I have ever seen.  As she grew older it just became more exotic.  She gave her head to her son Zuby who now is a grand old gentleman in our pasture.  I wanted the layout to be simple....to draw you straight to the photo and I feel I accomplished just that!

One of the very few photos my mother took that I loved.  Zu is beyond happy in this photo.  Her best friend is there admiring her, my Mom.  A little Glitz, Heidi Swapp, and Elle's Studio!  Love it!

Oh and don't forget, today is Sketch Thursday! 

Thank you for taking a peek!

Until Next Time!

Pioneer Life

 I truly love the rural courthouses of my state.  Throckmorton County is located in just west of the Palo Duro Canyon.  The county has a population of 1,641 in the 2010 census a decline of 209 people since the 2000 census.  Throckmorton is the County Seat.  The population is 828 down from 905 in 2000 census.

Cattle, Cotton and Oil make up the economy of the county.  Some grains also are grown by farms/ranches.

Larry and I were in Throckmorton to attend the RA Brown Ranch Dispersal Sale in October.  This gave me the opportunity to add two more counties to mark off as having photographed their courthouses.  I decided to work immediately on the photos of  Throckmortion County Courthouse.

Already undergoing renovation the Courthouse Annex is completed.  One can visit Facebook to view what the renovation to the courthouse will look like.  I am thrilled to have taken photos of the courthouse before renovation.  Right now the courthouse stands empty waiting for the renovation.

With most of the family tree complete for both sides of the family I am reminded I have very easy life in comparison to my ancestors.  When Larry pulled into a parking place the first two things I saw was a park bench outside a business and a sculpture.  I was enthralled by the sculpture before me.  How many times had I done exactly what this women was doing.  Too many to count.  Has life changed that much for a woman who chooses to live a rural life.  Not a lot except maybe for electricity.  Our first home we built in East Texas was wood heated, no central heat.  I split more wood then I can even begin to think about.  Our new home we build at the ranch will have both central heat and wood heat.  Electricity is fickle and dies at the first site of wind or thunderstorm.  

A bucket in one hand and an axe in another.  Her chores never done.

I'll be working on Throckmorton County Courthouse photos over the next few months.

I'm using this layout as my CKCB Challenge #2 entry.  I had to change the color of something on my page.  I change two things.  My base paper is the "B" side of Fancy Pants Collecting Moments Inch by Inch is a graph.  I took three stencils to change the color of background using my Tim Holtz Distressed Inks.  Most of the Micro Burst Stencil is covered but you can see some of the green rays around the doily.  I also chose to use Crafters Workshop 6x6 Chevron Arrow Stencil.  Finally I took the CM Petal Multi-Maker Punch and made my own stencil with the results seen in the right above the photos.  Thought it gave a nice southwest feel.  A few more splats of Slate Glimmer Mist around the page and my background done.  From there I took the Jillibean Soup Poloroid Mat.  Took the "Life" Frame and went from white to aged pink with Vintage Pink Glimmer Mist and Vintage Photo Distressed Ink.  You can see a close up of the layout here.

I'd like to thank Studio Calico for their sketch as my inspiration found on my Pinterest Sketch Board!

Stay tuned.

Hello Fall

I remember vividly the fall season when our family lived in Niagara Falls and Wilmington, DE.  Beautiful rich colors of the trees and a trip into Pennsylvania for apples from the farm.  All those vivid pictures stored neatly in my brain from before the age of 10.  To my amazement the tree across our driveway at the ranch in 2010 burst forth color hardly ever seen from a native tree.  Had to document the tree in this glorious color!

I used Papers from Studio Calico, Echo Park and Ruby Rock-it.  Embellishments from Fancy Pants, Prima and Studio Calico.  Stencil from Crafters Workshop, Mists and Paints from Art Anthology and Tattered Angels.  Inks from Tim Holtz Distressed Line.

Looking in the distance across my neighbor's pasture is pretty green trees!  I thought while at the ranch this weekend I would take the photo of the same tree this year just a few days over three years.

This time you see dead trees in the back of the tree and water.  In 2010 our neighbor built a tank and chose not to cut the trees down in part of the area where the water would back up.  A common practice to allow cover for fish.  As you can see the grass is shorter and the tree just turning color.

At the same time I am reminded that the early fall rains we have had in abundance I might add have allowed for rye grass to come up and given the summer grasses somewhat a spurt of growth in the warm days of October this year.  Yet you do not see the tall summer grasses we had in fall of 2010.  2011 would put my world to a test that it had not seen since the droughts of the '30's and '50's.  The old timers around town would say the summer of 2011 was far worse then the Dust Bowl.  And it certainly claimed many trees.  Somehow this tree survived.

You can see the damage the drought caused as it fought to survive and did.

Living in my world at the ranch is an amazing one.  Like wishing I had the camera as I sat in the Kawasaki Mule and some movement caught my eye of a baby skunk within arms reach waddling by as if he owned the world back in 2007.  Or would have that youngster given me a spray I would never forget!  And I could list many more treats I get to see.  Life is very constant, my world moves in circles from one season to the next, one calving season to the next, from birth to death of a tree, an animal, or the garden. The cycle never ceases and the circle always begins again.  It's a constant I can count on never changing.  I wouldn't trade my life as a rancher for anything in the world.

I used my Mother Nature I put together for CKCB.  Do check what others have created with their kits.  I would also like to thank deanna13, a member of ACOT's community for the pointing me to the Creative Scrappers Sketch #255 for my inspiration.

May each of you have a blessed day!

Counterfeit Kit for November

My search for papers for this month's kit actually began last weekend.  Lynn and I went to Waco for lunch and it had been four month's since I have been to Crop, Paper, Scissors.  Love this small quaint store!  I love not having an overwhelming number of choices.  I was thinking so many kit clubs usually have gorgeous fall colors!  So I picked up some things I thought might fit the bill.  I was delighted to see Jenni Bowlin's Kits yesterday!

My kit as usual came out totally top heavy in embellishments so it's huge!

I have struggled with the name but decided on Mother Nature in honor of all the wonderful things that catch my eye at the ranch in the fall!  I don't get the color of the north but love the beauty in our Texas Fall!  And maybe another courthouse!  I was able to photo two more courthouses last month, Young & Throckmorton Counties.  Usually lots of green if we get early fall rains as we have this year!  We should have our first freeze by mid month though!

The colors I chose aren't as deep but certainly I was pretty close to the colors in the kit.  I started the kit with Jillibean Soup Polaroid Placemat which I can leave white or color with ink or mist.  I have paper(s) from Teresa Collins Memorabilia, Studio Calico Clasic Calico (didn't use last month so kept it for this month), Ruby Rock-it, Echo Park For The Record , Fancy Pants Collecting Moments and Pink Paislee Portfolio!  The choices are part of the old scrapper loving earth tones and the new scrapper that wants bright colors.

From there as usual I just went wild with embellishments from Vintage to new!  Washi, canvas, burlap, trinkets, frames, cloth, wood, and more!  I'm loving the embellies for this kit!  I have some ideas running in my head of some layouts so I need to upload some photos to print!  I think the first thing that came to mind as a must have when I saw the kit was my brand new still in Package Glitz Roller Doodle Floral Stamp!  Most of my flowers are at the ranch....sometimes just plain tough to have two homes and your supplies are split between the two!

I also found two mini's on the kit page at Jenny Bowlin's and as I progressed through the hop some of the ladies will be doing mini's this month!  I have three to do this month so out came the entire line of Little Yellow Bicycle's Feels Like Home line plus a few added embellies!  Christmas Presents for my Mother and Brothers this year. I call it Thanksgiving as it will contain last year's photos of our Thanksgiving together!  Fortunately it will be assembly line fashion!  I probably won't finish until next month.  My brother's don't live close by so they have to be done by the 10th of Dec.  I also love love the pie chart stencil and sadly I don't have one but chose a trio of hearts for both kits and Crafter's Workshop Mini Burst keep with a round pattern.

I apologize for the sunlight rays coming through the blinds!  Beautiful partly cloudy day!

Of course all of my inks, mists and Art Antholgy Paints are a must have and not shown!  I also might switch between the two kits!

If you have never tried this challenge I encourage you to do so!  In just two months I now can just grab papers and go with a layout.  Something that took me hours of  stress to decide!  It is one of those humps I just couldn't seem to conquer!  Now I have thanks to CKCB!  Thank you!