Winter Time is Indoor Scrap Time!

What a dreary day in our neck of the woods.  Seems the norm for this winter.  On the bright side we are but eight days away until Valentines day!  Valentines Day along the Upper Texas Coast is the day you Spring prune your roses.  I absolutely love my roses and the year round flowers.  Although they are not happy campers this winter as we have had too much rain.  Only my miniature roses are happy campers as they are under the eave of my home thus slightly less water.  My other spring chores for this spring is to go through the entire storage spaces and purge like crazy!  I start this coming week with our closets.  Larry wants to start on building the house at the ranch.  We just haven't cleared out the I do not need this stuff in 10 years.  James took care of the garage last year purging stuff!

I have been busy busy working on the display for the Lowline Booth for the International Room at HLSR.  Making sure Larry stays on a low low low fat diet.  What spare time I have had I have been scrapping for SBC Scrapbook Challenges.

Sketch #426 totally threw me for a loop!

Then Brynn gave me clue, she's an 8 1/2x 11 scrapper.  So I deconstructed the sketch and came up with this.  No journaling as this layout gores in my son's scrapbook for him to journal.  Totally didn't like it but it is ok if one doesn't like what one creates.

Next Challenge from SBC!

I absolutely loved  James' wonderful picture of our cat 'Q'!  When we adopted her from Second Chance Pets she came with the name "Q-Tip."  Yuck!  So promptly shortened!  So I needed a quote, well it's a never ending chore vacuuming behind "Q's" never ending huge amount of fur she leaves behind.

'No amount of time can erase the memory of a good cat and no amount of masking tape can ever remove his fur from your couch.'  ~ Leo Dworken

Until Next Time!

SBC Sketch Crew

I started out the year like gang busters on Blogging!  Then it all came to a screeching halt on the 9th!  Larry had a gall bladder attack and spent a week in the hospital!  I spent all but one night with him.  On morning #2 I awoke with a sore throat and headed straight to the doctor.  The hospital's greatest number of patients were there for #1 Pneumonia and #2 the Flu!  Even though I had no fever my doctor gave me a round of really high powered antibiotics because of my now living at the hospital.  In the last couple of days I have finally gotten over that bug!  Larry is doing fine and will find out today when his surgeon will schedule his gall bladder surgery.

Just before this all happened I applied for SBC - Scrapbook Challenges Design Team!  Whoop!  I made it!  There are some fantastic creativity flowing in this group of ladies!  It has been a lot of fun getting to know the ladies who are on the team!  So stop by and have some fun with the terrific sketches and challenges Brynn creates!

I love love that I have spent every spare minute at my table this month!  I am still working on the Kathy Orta mini album, Also included are my design team work and Larry's Christmas Present is just about done, the Basic Grey Calendar!

I pulled my Counterfeit Kit Challenge January Kit to create my first two layouts for SBC!  The second layout will be shared on a later post next month.  Sketch #425 was right up my alley and loved working on some older photos!  My show steer my Senior year FFA Project along with a couple of other friends with their steers!  Dirty, Messy, was my theme and I think I hit the nail on the head so to speak.

SBC Sketch # 425

I especially love the Challenges for SBC!  My first mood board challenge and one I truly loved!  The colors and quote remind me of a spring thunderstorm in Central Texas.  I had no photos printed of the multitude of photos I have of spring storms.  I had one printed of a fall storm so colors didn't match.  I really need a photo printer!  Shifted gears and found a photo that seemed to pull me towards the mood board in the colors and eclectic nature of the sculpture and mood board.  I spent about 20 minutes just studying this sculpture!  Some older Heidi Grace papers were perfect!

Now back to my table.....it's calling me!  I am loving all the inspiration!

My Favorite 2013 layouts!

There was a post on message board I am active on that asked for you opinion of what were your favorite Top 10 Creations for the year.  Since I wrote my response I wish I could have added more.

I thought I would post my favorites from 2013 today and my thoughts!

I think I will start with the two courthouses I worked on this past year and still working on!

I have enough layouts in the first of many albums that I needed a title page for the album even though I still need to completely photograph three of the five counties I have lived in.  So far to date I think this is the best photo I have taken of a courthouse I have photographed.  I've only photographed or partially photographed 18 courthouse and six or seven I need to return to because of renovation work.  This is Anderson County County Courthouse.  I know the pink azalea doesn't match the papers!!!  But....Texas' official colors are red, white and blue!

If my mind serves me correctly this was a layout I did after putting together a kit for CKCB.  Older stuff and really wanting to add just a hint of mixed media application.  This Brazos County Courthouse.  The only photo I took and I took several to make sure one turned out well.  Since ;under construction I will return probably this summer on a Sunday morning since the Bryan/College Station area is a zoo!

For this photo I got kind of warped in my thinking trying to be humorous.  I asked Larry to take me down to the courthouse on Christmas Day, 2013.  Actually I was hoping to find a nativity scene!  Sadly not but Van Zandt County did in 2013 and Houston County had one this year.  Both counties with suits brought against them.  Van Zandt won their lawsuit and the State of Texas will help with the suit brought against Houston County.  Honestly I am tired of the "intolerance" crap that goes with religion in this country.  Get over being offended people.....I am never offended by your practice or lack of practice of religion.  What I am offended by is your treading on the Constitution!  And true atheists and agnostics are benevolent people who don't tread on other's belief systems!  'Nuff said on my politics.

I did find something though not often seen today but so much a part of my childhood.  A fallout shelter sign!  It was fun to scrap it alone!  Oh....and the other thing I found at the courthouse.....yep on Christmas Day somebody locked Santa in the Courthouse.  I wonder if Santa got in trouble and was waiting on a judge?  Stay tuned for that layout!!!  Maybe sometime this year!

I also started to scrap Project Life last year.  Once I ran out of photos in March I didn't print any more.  I have no idea why....just didn't but I love how fast it is and how I proved I could keep up!  Once I get done with the mini I plan to catch up!  I wasn't a big picture taker this past year either!  And so far not this year either!

Of all the photos I scrapped for the Life Photo Display at Mom's Birthday this was my favorite one and made the list of Top Ten!

This is an 8x8 layout which was just an amazing work in my mind.  I do not often fussy cut except G45!  There is so much goodness to fussy cut in Raining Cats and Dogs!  On top of that the Prima wood veneer matches the dress the little one is wearing on paper!!!

This is the last one I will share and it too, made my Top 10.  I just love it!

Most of the layouts I did for Mom's party were 8x8 and this one was, too!  I loved what few papers I had purchased when the original Times Nouveau came out and had just scraps left!  It was also my first papers from G45.  With the Collector's Edition it was a given and must have!  I will probably regret not buying two!!!  As I scrapped this photo of my Great Aunt and Mother I was stunned to see what I saw between papers and photo.  The car in the photo has the exact same styling in the photograph!  My Aunt Betty's coat almost the same styling as the model to left of photo.  How sweet to have 1930's period specific papers to go with a late 1935 photo!  Love it!!!

Until next time!

My Favorite Things

As I thought about this post the song sung by Barbara Streisand came to mind, 'My Favorite Things.'  I have way to many favorite things in my Paper Crafting Addiction!  My absolute favorite thing in paper crafting are mini albums.  They truly make me Happy!  The mini's I have created have all gone to someone as a gift.  I have drooled over hours and hours of videos on You Tube of beautiful mini albums.  My favorites are ALWAYS done with Graphic 45.  I am a see and do creator as I personally don't have a creative bone in my body to use a cliche!  I have taught myself to be creative and I still have what I call disasters occur!  I rarely throw them out, as I want to remind myself not to do what I did.

My favorite mini albums are ones created from scratch with chipboard.  A scrappy friend last summer discovered such minis and she lead me to numerous videos.  In fact in my groups monthly crop in June she spent almost the whole crop watching videos.  She describes herself in the same way I do, a see and do person.  As I dove into hours of watching videos and still watch them I decided the best thing for me was to purchase a Kathy Orta tutorial.  I am sure I will purchase many more until one day I will just sit down and create my own.  The album I chose was the Lapbook 2.

  

I promptly made a mistake in the construction but I so love the result!!!  I put a page in before adding the wallet feature.  Yet I found another place for the wallets that works perfectly!  As we say, mistakes can sometimes be beautiful!  I plan on using the same mini for two additional albums for Christmas presents for my brothers!  only this time the wallets will be in the correct place and the mistake will be added, too!  I just need one more set of papers for them. I even got bored one night and quickly constructed the second cover now waiting for the paper.

The current album is for a very dear friend who is about to become a Grandmother.  In fact her granddaughter's due date is today!  I should be done with the album in the next three weeks.  What a fantastic interactive album!  Nana can share with her granddaughter as she gets older!  I can see the picture in my mind of my friend with her granddaughter on her lap as 2-3 year old enjoying looking at her photos and listening to Nana's stories behind the photos!  The perfect line for the album is Graphic 45 Baby to Bride Collector's Addition!

I can't wait to show it off when I am done!

The second album will be done with Bo Bunny Altitude for my youngest brother's family who are avid skiers!!  Love this collection and delighted with Bo Bunny's addition of stamps in their lines!

The third album will be made with Graphic 45 Sweet Sentiments for my other brother.  I thought a spring album perfect for them with the celebration of Easter in mind which is perfect with how involved they are in their church!

As always I think way to far in advance!  I just love love the Kathy Orta Contessa Album!!!

And there are many more tutorials I would love love to have!!!  I just have to see where I am by the end of 2015.  Kathy is an amazing artist!

January Kit for CKCB!

I have spent the last half of 2014 really missing participating over at Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog!!!  With Mom's 80th birthday, I was creating her birthday most of the summer and fall.  I love making my own kit from my stash!  I have been going over the top large!  Yet again, I am in the middle of creating for a friend and I need some me time creating for me.  I forced myself into a quickly put together a kit to do several things.

Small kit!!!  I did it....it's small!

Enough embellishments to make me happy....did that, too!

Keep my 12x12 papers to 6 or under....did that, too, with five!  I do have lots of coordinating scraps!

Well I did remember I had a 6x6 paper from Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic

At the same time I allowed myself one thing to go overboard on....I chose three alphas sets!

Best part it all fits nicely in a 13 x13 Ziploc with room to spare!

Now with that all said, I reserve several things I can use in my creations:

1)  Cardstock

2)  Flower Stash

2) Inks, mists, paints, twine, DMC Floss

3) Stencils

4)  Dies

I seem to be in a real matting mode of late with photos and just in general wanting more dimension.  I think it is due to working so much with G45 for Mom's birthday.  I also just stocked up on cardstock!  Couldn't miss the deal HSN had on Bazzill.  I've purchased two boxes!

So what inspired me....first the colors and second was Angela with this comment on her blog!

I need to get some serious stash busting done this year, and the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog is one way of getting that stash combined into up to date, fashionable, and appealing craft kits.

Thank you Angela

My Kit!

So where did my mind go for the kit.....after the paper......I needed some gold and I am not a foil, glittery, silver or gold person....then remembered I had some of the Pink Paislee Luxe Rubons.  Then the rest came quickly together!  I can get a fun layout from my kit or a wonderful detailed layout!

Thank you for stopping by and consider playing along with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge!

Until next time!

Yeah.....Smile!

I promised to scrap a layout using SBC  Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #347!!!

Although I admonished my adult son who took this photo heading into Houston since he's attending University of Houston, I still couldn't help but laugh.  It had been a long time since I had seen someone alter their "FORD" on their truck!  Then again....that large a "FORD" is no longer on the tailgate!

Super easy super fun sketch to work with for a photo that will always lighten my day.  Loved using Basic Grey Highline to work with the sketch.  It is such a happy line!

  

Until next time!

Happy New Year's Eve!!

This evening Larry and I celebrate 29 years ago at the stroke of Midnight he asked for my hand in marrage!  Time definitely just keeps flying!  We spend our time at home on this evening!

For the last day of 2014 still taking a break from the mini album I have two layouts on the table.  I have one of James' photos that brings back memories that always made people laugh!  When I printed James' photos to scrap for him I died laughing and decided to wait for the right line to scrap it with and the right inspiration.  I found it yesterday going through the Scrapbook Challenges website, Sketch #347.

The line I chose to do this layout is Basic Grey Highline!  I just purchased this stencil which will work perfectly using a little Gesso and Art Anthology Dimensional Paints!

The second layout on the table is a photos of the Throckmorton County Veterens Memorial on the County Courthouse Grounds using Bo Bunny Liberty and Anthem as well as maybe a tidbit of Monte Paper Mill Patriots line.

Yesterday I finished and entered my layout in the A Cherry on Top's Becky Fleck Sketch Challenge #84.  Awesome Sketch!

I took lots of liberty on this sketch!!!  I used a single 4x6 photo a 4x6 envelope and one of those darling 7 Gypsies ATC File Folders instead of three photos!  Since it the layout has a frame I decide to build my own frame instead of  the way the sketch frames the focal point!  I love love the result!

The photo is of the North Face Elevations of  Throckmorton County Courthouse pre-restoration, with the courthouse empty awaiting start of renvovation.  It will be interesting to return and photograph the courthouse!  I have been following the renovation and the project just thrills me to watch the process!

I'd like to thank Suzassippi's Lottabussa County Chronicles for the photos below!  Be sure to visit her post as there are some other great photos of the restoration!

Before

After

The cupola was on the courthouse when originally built and how wonderful it is returned to this beautiful structure!

My wish is you have a Blessed New Year!

Time.....

Time.....the older I get the faster it goes by!  I can not believe it was the end of May the last time I wrote a post!

So what have I been up to.....playing with paper through the summer into fall to celebrate my Mother's 80th Birthday in November.  What fun to use Graphic 45 Time to Celebrate to do a Life Photo Display and Decorations for her HUGE party.  I also used some other lines as needed depending on the photo(s).  More to come later as I scrap the photos of the party!

The last layout still needs a title.  I think it was taken on Cape Cod, just still need to check with Mom.

I am tickled pink to link a Design Team Call for Scrapbook Challenges!  I found the call yesterday and sent in my application!  I do love to share so please send your application in, too!

This fall at the ranch.....we are in busy mode.  We started flushing cows in November and will continue right through until April.  We are well on our way to reach approximately 150-200 embryos.  We are selling four embryos in the National Western Stock Show on Jan. 22, 2015 in the 15th Annual National Lowline Sale. as Lot 40.  We are offering 4 Half-Blood embryos:  Duff Primo x Fairwyn's Contessa.  This cow needs no introduction as her dam is one of the most successful flush cows in the Lowline breed.  To read more see the link to the Sale Catalog.  Kirk Duff breeder of Duff Primo will be the featured speaker just before the start of the sale this year.  LiveAuctionsTV will be hosting the sale online!

May you have a Blessed Day!!!

Weather, Weather, and Glorous Bad Weather,

For many who are on CKCB Design Team and participate they have read my undying passion for Bad Weather on my May 2 post!  Love it and the adrenaline rush I get!  Heck I've always been an adrenaline junkie since I can remember.  Barrel Racing with my first two horses as a teenager, swimming on a swim team as a child and teenager, showing our Arabians, and I get the same rush when I walk in the show ring showing our cattle although no speed to it....nice and slow.  But what really sets me off into a huge adrenaline rush is bad weather.  At the same time I need to know I am as safe as I can be at that moment.  Like you will find me running for shelter as soon as I hear thunder because of almost being struck twice.  My husband shakes his head when I'm following chasers live,  Chaser TV.

I promised to get some photos I got as Larry and I drove into a severe storm just north of Calvert in March.  I'm sorry I didn't get the PL Page done on this one but will eventually.  Only four pictures worth printing and one is pretty blurry but thought I would share a great wall cloud with no rotation in it.  They are taken with my iPhone and we didn't stop the pickup so they show bleary.

Great wall cloud!

Looking north hard to see structure but wall cloud to right of the photo.

Really blurry but the wall cloud itself from middle to right was pretty awesome.

Finally underneath the cloud deck with the wall cloud headed northeast and away from us it now looks to have developed a hail core in the storm.

Then I thought I would share day before yesterday some photos online I found which are awesome of a warm air funnel in the Manvel/Alvin area of Houston.  A short hop from our Houston area home of 20 miles and no I didn't see it but this funnel was absolutely gorgeous with the way the light was hitting it.  Saw one of the photos on the Weather Channel yesterday of this funnel and another coming out of the same wall cloud.  A warm air funnel is the land version of water spout.  This storm was never tornado warned.  No damage occurred.

And a close up:

So cool and so pretty!

The next two photos of about 17 or 18 are a storm I chased in April 2011.  The first photo from my porch at the ranch in Central Texas.  Just awesome structure to the storm and just had to run down the highway to see what the storm would produce. You can see in the haze of the second photo the tornado.  Had to pull the tornado out of the photo by enlarging it then cropping.  The tornado touched down briefly in Coolidge about 15 miles north of where I took the photo.

Final photo to share with you is an awesome photo taken last August by James as we raced home so we wouldn't be rained on.  I have other pictures as we waited for our take out order from Chili's at our Houston area home but not as awesome as this one!  By the time we were a couple of miles from the house this thing was meaning business.  Great structure and rotation in the storm but no funnel emerged.

Hope you enjoyed the trip through just some of the wonderful photos in my collection of weather!

CKCB Challenge #1

I have had a month of being frustrated with each and every single layout.  What pops in my head has just not worked and they have sat and sat on my desk.  Finally I get Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Challenge #1 done today!  Sat on my desk a full 9 days before solving my issues with it!  Now done I am absolutely thrilled with it!

Winters in Texas certainly are not like northern areas of our country.  Although you can have a relatively warm day in January within just a few hours it can be snowing or more likely an ice storm.  This winter it was in the Top 5 coldest winters for Central Texas.  On this day I took these pictures it was in the upper 60's and a delightful January day.  As evening came in there were scattered thunderstorms to the west.  And when this happens with blow off from storms over 50 miles away we get some GREAT Sunsets!  I only had my phone with me and took seven pictures to make sure one would be decent!

Using the same kit I put together I created the only other series of photos and choose one from each subject to create the entry I call my CKCB Layout #1.  The only layout this month I had no problems putting together but frustrated with finding the right pocket page.  These were the only pictures I took in January this year.  I chose to use Elle's Studio papers to create the layout with embellishments from Studio Calico and Fancy Pants.  I like to keep things simple on my PL pages to get them done quickly.  A Jillibean Soup Wise Word "Today" fit perfectly.

The photos taken a few hours before the above photo is of two different cows on our farm with their bull calf in front of them.  It may be hard for you to see the calf in the right hand photo but if you look at the cow's front legs you'll see the calf and his little right ear in front of mom's legs.  There is a reason why I didn't try to shift around and get better photos.  Cows can be very protective of their newborns.  We have some that I wouldn't have ever gotten as close to these two cows to get photos as it would have been way too dangerous.  The rule of thumb though with a youngster is keep the calf between you and the cow.  She won't run over her calf unless rage has set in.  Even the cow on the left who is a past show heifer and still loves attention, I wouldn't trust with a ten foot pole with her newborn two days old.  Both calves are bull calves.

Then four months later and so much has happened in the story of these two babies.  The cow on the left lost her calf in early March.  Our daughter searched the pasture for two days looking for her calf.  She found his carcass.  Chances are it was a coyote that got her calf.  She's not a particularly bright animal.  She has done something to loose two calves in two years.  We think she laid down on her first calf at three days of age which typically kills a newborn and isn't that uncommon.  We do have a third calf from this cow born this year via embryo transfer in Dec. A really beautiful heifer with her surrogate mother a Longhorn.  Longhorns are GREAT mothers!  I know of no better mother's in beef cattle then a Longhorn and definitely will protect their calves even to the point of jeopardizing their own safety.  One of those mom's I wouldn't get within 50 feet of her newborn and 25 feet when they are 2-6 months old.

The calf on the right had a rough start to life.  It isn't uncommon in cattle to have problems for any number of reasons at birth.  In the case of this calf he got his head stuck up in between two bones in the spinal column of his mother.  Took my daughter four hours to find a vet to come out and pull the calf.  At the point the vet got him out the cow had been in labor seven hours. And usually you have a dead calf.  Not this boy....the vet was stunned and so was my daughter to see his flank rising and falling once he was on the ground.  Immediate attention given to him to make sure he would continue to breathe.  Also a quick check of his front legs to be sure they weren't broken as he had a hard pull.  As such he has been called Miracle Man ever since.  This past Friday the second group of cattle we AI'd  (Artificial Inseminated)  included this cow.  Our reproductive technician found her reproductive tract too torn up for her to ever have a calf again let alone ever have the ability to get pregnant again.  This means after weaning she will be culled from the heard and become hamburger in the freezer.  Yet her genetics look to have a good chance to be passed on by Miracle Man.  He's got the conformation and growth rate we want in our calves.  He still has to have his DNA sample pulled to see what his carcass traits are as well as keep showing the needed growth up until 18 months and then pass a reproductive exam.  Typically out of 75-80 bull calves we have a year only 1-5 of those will make the cut to become bulls by 18 months.  At any point in the evaluation process they can become steers and either go into our freezer or to our restaurant.  As a result of our over demanding criteria for a bull we have a waiting list for our bulls we sell.  It shows our bulls we grow are that good!  And they are not cheap to purchase!

Stay tuned to tomorrow's post for more weather pics I promised to do on a layout that won't get done!

Until next time!