Ten - Ten - Ten

It is 10:10 am on 10/10/10 in the Central time zone, and it is my 66th birthday today!
So nice to be alive on such a beautiful day in such a beautiful place!
I've got lots of layouts and cards to post, but I think for today it would be appropriate to post some birthday cards I've made recently. The one above went to my neighbor who was born on the exact same day as I was. The next one went to a good friend and the bottom one went to my brother who is 2 years and 6 days older than I am.


Happy Birthday to me and to everyone else born on this date.

CHEERS!

Time Travels

Okay, I'm not even going to make excuses or try to cover the last five months. All I can say is that Time travels way too fast for me! I haven't been a complete slacker, though, so for this post I will try to catch you up on a few of the "Travels to the Past" layouts I've done.

Here is one more from the Rome series - actually the bus ride home. I really liked these photos of the kids on the bus after a long, hot trip. (I handmade the little envelope embellishment.)





The second year we were in Germany, we went to see the tulip fields in Holland at Easter time.
I'm really enjoying the trip down memory lane that I get to take while creating these layouts.

Here are a few pages from Holland.







Actually, there are more from Holland. They will be in the next post.



That should do for now. Next will be Paris.

CHEERS!

Happy Easter!

Today seemed like the perfect day to go out and get photos of the dogwoods around us. They are really out in full this year. I guess the harsh winter was good for all the blooming plants. Our azaleas are blossoming out, as well.

I have much more to share, but will do it in separate posts. Just wanted to share these dogwood photos.

CHEERS!

Happy 2010!

I can't say "Happy New Year" 'cause it's not really new any more. Ten days have just flown by. I finally put away the creche today, so now it's time to seriously think about setting some goals for the year. Since I've had a few days to think on it, and some push from the message board at Coordinates Collections, I did come up with a few: stay healthy, exercise more, keep in touch with family and friends, and scrap some of the bazillion photos lurking in shoeboxes in the closet.
There, I did it - I put it out there for all to see - now I have to at least try to reach them right?

I actually thought about following what Alicia and a few others are doing by adopting a "Word of the Year," something they got from Ali Edward's blog a couple of years ago. I don't think I'll do that, but if I did, I think my word would be TRAVEL. By that, I don't really mean actually taking trips - although we do plan on taking TWO cruises this year - one from Barcelona back to Galveston, and possibly a road trip as well, but TRAVEL can be interpreted a lot of ways. What I'd like to do is:

1) TRAVEL through Books - I love to read but seldom allow myself the luxury to just sit down and get lost in a book.

2)TRAVEL with Food - get brave and experiment with new recipes and maybe different types of food, taking me to different countries through my taste buds.

3)TRAVEL through Nature - spend more time outdoors and learn more about and appreciate more what God has created.

and finally
4)TRAVEL to the Past - by pulling out photos from years past and getting them into scrapbooks.
AND I've actually been doing just that - in fact, it's the reason I haven't posted to this blog before now - I've been busy 'traveling' back in time to 1980 when we took a family trip to Italy from our home at Sembach Air Base in Germany. It was an American Express bus tour we signed up for through the base. Everything was all pre-arranged - hotels, meals, everything. It was so nice to let someone else "do the driving!" Anyway, here are the layouts I've done so far this year!
(The first two are posted in the gallery at Coordinates Collections, here. I can't seem to get them to upload right side up here.)











So, I haven't been a slacker, after all. That's a lot of layouts for me, and I'm already planning the next batch. HINT: We'll be 'traveling' to Holland next. :)

Until then,
CHEERS!

Now THIS....

is what it’s all about!

Remember I told you how I like to linger after a dinner or a holiday? Well, this is exactly what I’m talking about! Outside it is gray and cold and wet; inside is a nice warm fire and cups of hot spiced (and spiked) cider with a bowl of homemade caramel corn and oatmeal raisin cookies. It just doesn’t get any better than this. And the best part…John set it all up himself (well, not the cold and wet outside.) He is so good about creating the scene for me to really enjoy all the special elements of this life we share together. Thank you, dear sweet hubby!

Okay, that was yesterday; today, he took me to a new outlet mall northwest of Houston to meet up with Alicia and the kids for a day of shopping and lunch. I got two new tops (on sale of course!) and Alicia got herself a new sweater and pair of shoes. Erin spent some of her gift cards, as well. It was a great day. What a wonderful husband I have!

CHEERS!

Sigh.....

Christmas is over. The kids are gone, most of the gifts have been put away, and the quiet is deafening. It kinda makes me sad. It's like a huge dinner that you've been planning, shopping, prepping and cooking for, and then it's all eaten in fifteen minutes. It's all over way too quickly. I like to linger and enjoy the flavor of both big dinners and big holidays, especially Christmas.

It was a very good Christmas! I got some scrappy stuff, some really big trays for serving on the deck, and a beautiful sweater, but the best gift of all was the shelving set that Alicia and Chuck gave us. Chuck even helped to hang them before they left for home. Isn't he a doll? I'm so glad to have them up, 'cause the wall was way too big and bare without them and the clocks looked funny up there by themselves. Now it looks 'decorated' and I have a place to display my favorite owls, and even some more clocks!

I hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas. For me, it was so nice to spend time with family, and to hear from friends and family that we couldn't be with. We even got a Christmas card from son John all the way from Djibouti! It was indeed the most unique card we got!
Now it's time to sit down and write out my resolutions, and get busy on things I've signed up to do. I also hope to get some scrapping done this week.

CHEERS!

The Reason for...

...the Season! I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and that you get to spend a wonderful day with loved ones.
Alicia and her family will arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon, after they've had their Christmas morning at home. We will exchange gifts and then sit down to dinner of Prime Rib, roasted potatoes, green bean casserole, and orange and avocado salad. Fruit "Pizza" for dessert.

Blessings to everyone!