The Witch, her daughter and mini hats/brooms...

Or Transportation+Helmet (thanks dear loving man of mine. No seriously, that was funny and I giggled for a while)

These are from ChickenLittle's need for a dessert for her party @school...I'd have loved this when I was a kid, so BAM...

Fly safely young witches ;)

Time to celebrate the falllllllling of Fall...

with yummy leafy goodness!! 

I have spritzed mist over top of ferns, maple leaves, pine needle spray...I HAMMERED LEAVES on paper (leaving a YUMMY purple stain on the paper)...have I lost it completely at this point??
No, silly.    SNC, the scraptastic minions, have some challenges tossed out there.  

This is my layout that actually hit three of them --- Janelle's scrap-your-stash (to use white scraps) which is what all of my papers (kraft not included in "all") began as.    Also, Sharon's book-of-me (fave season).  AND last, but certainly not least since she is the only one that reads this drivel that I post :D  Lynn's Harvest theme.  Without further blahblahblah...

Fall details @random

until next time ;)

A photo a day for October...with a bonus tale

Okay - so it's been a REALLLLLY long time since I've been able to participate in "A Photo A Day" type of challenges for myself.  I am totally digging the camera.  Of course, I would LOVE to sharpen the colors and such - however - I have a computer with a viral thing going on, so I am NOT going to push it by trying to reinstall PSE#?.  Ain't happening.

Enough technical whining...SO my "plan" for October is to capture images with the overall loose-definition of "nature".   Since I feel rather ATTACKED BY NATURE (aka stink-bugs-that-suck).  Without a further waiting period - here are my first four images.

1.  LEAVES:  working around depth-of-field play.

 

 2.  THIS FLOWER:   I took photos of a flower exactly like this in my Kentucky house waaay back in the day where I got to stay for a weekend.  That is such a story for another time, or not another time...whatever I feel the need for I imagine ;)   ANYWAY - @my "new" place, THIS very awesome flower is here - via nature - just for me and my camera (I can say it if I want to, my blog, my rules).

 3.  FIELD OF YELLOW:   We walk past this field daily to go to the bus stop (yet another story involving our walking to/from the bus @ 3/10ths of a mile each direction, which equals out to me actually getting a bit of a mile of walking in per day whether I want to or not really).  I am so chicken though, I REALLY want to take pics of the kids in this field, but I don't actually want to have to WALK IN THERE BECAUSE NATURE IS HIDING!!!

 #4 CREEEEEPY:  and artsy ALL AT THE SAME TIME.   This thing intrigued me and freaked me the hell out all at the same time.   VERY AWESOME dots of water on the web though.  it's really hard to take pics and watch the manual settings when you're trying to also pay attention to WHERE the spider is while you're fiddling with settings/such.  UGH.

AND your bonus story is actually the following conversation between Steve and I maybe 2-3 fridays ago.  I thought it relevant to the #4 picture:

Me:  THE BIGGEST SPIDER IN THE FUCKING WORLD IS IN THE HOUSE. AND NOW i CAN'T FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIND IT. I.AM.LEAVING.

S:   *SNORT*

Me:  THAT IS NOT NOT NOT NOT FUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNY

S:  Lol lol lol what room?
     Did you scream?

Me:   OUR PLAY ROOM???? MOTHERFUCKER.  I didnt scream... Yelled a tribal scream and turned on the vacuum....which I THINK IT WAS TOO BIG TO FIT INTO...but it was gone...OH.MY.GOD.

S:   Was it black with lightening bolts on its back?

Me:  IT HAIR FUCKING HAIR.
HAIR STEVE.

IT CAN EAT SMALL ANIMALS AND PERHAPS CHILDREN

S:   Lol snort lol choke
Mice?

Me:   (((sent a picture of the worthless cat holding up his paw and staring at me)))
TOLD DRAGON....HE HAS A PAW IN THE AIR. I TOLD HIM TO FIND A WEAPON

S:  He looks scared.
Sissy cat.

Me:  I TOLD HIM THAT HE SHOULD BE!!!  Arm yourself!!!!   Faaaaawk

S:  Get a picture
Lol lol lol

Me:   Of WHAT??????????

S:   The spider of course

Me:  Fuck that shit Mr V.  If I could fucking FIND IT I WOULD KILL IT M.YSELF. i am freaking out because it's as big as a furrry baby hippo AND I CANT FIND IT

S:  Snort.  Go get the spider spray from the mud room and hit the last spot/area you spotted it Lol lol lol ...tears Mrs V

Me:  WHAAAAAAAATEVER.  I will bet it climbed into the heater thing because IT LITERALLY HAD TO DUCK TO RUN UNDER IT AGAINST THE WALL...

S:   Sure it wasn't a mouse?
Spray the heater all the way across.

Me:   IT HAD EIGHT DISBUSTING LEGS STEVER. MICE DON'T HAVE EITHER LEGS

S:  Snort...did you spray braveheart

Me:   YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

S:   Lol i snorted and hurt myself

Me:  (((note to self, kill him with spider spray if he makes another 'city girl' comment)))

The spider was big. Huge.
at least the size of a baby rhino or hippo, or whatever...but IT WAS HUGE. and HAIRY.   I think it was a wolf spider, which the internet says is "poisonous"??? REALLLY??? *grumble* make fun of me again...ugh.

Happenings and goings on...

Happenings:  I happened to have two layouts to share today.
Goings On:  My computer issues are still trying to kill me, but they haven't won yet muhahaha.

over @ScrapNChat two more challenge were tackled!

First we have Barb's Patterned Paper Crazy challenge to use- 3 florals; 1 diamond; 1 butterfly; 1 solid

and nex, Diana's color challenge - a gorgeous Spring-like selection including lavendar, purple, magenta, sage and light gray:

 and with these two rounding up my September completions (thaaaanks computer issues who suck)...I have a couple of more that I am going to try and sneak in from September....*gasp all of the NEW challenges for October 1st are up and I need to get running with that!

 



SNC October 2012 CHALLENGE DAY!!

HELLO MINIONS!   or Scrappy Minions as the case may be!

October=one of my fave months.  LOVE the crispness of Fall, particularly in central PA, because it's not almost 90degrees like VA Beach ;)    Here's the usual drill, two challenges posted by me @ScrapNChat  for the first of the month.   JOURNALING & ATC...let's move along...

 

JOURNALING CHALLENGE: 

 

 2005:  Journaling ...

    I will admit, that sometimes I am simply shocked by the photos that I find "tucked away" for safekeeping in my stash of things to scrapbook/keep.  These were in my last goldmine find.  A week has passed at this point, since his 15th birthday.  To find an envelope full of his little league photos (which apparently didn't get passed out to family either) at the ripe old age of seven (photo was Spring 2005).  I felt like I was in a time machine. I can absolutely remember his face just like this - seven years ago can feel like "a lot" or "a little" depending on perspective.

 

Dealing with separation as we are at this point - I relaly need to hold on to little moments like this that hug my heart strings, and appreciate the good feelings.  I an celebrate my little man becoming such a young man (soooo close to being 'old', he says).

 

I'm glad that my organizational skills with my photos allows for me to have moements like this --I can go on a mental vacation and hang out with my seven year old little legaue dude for a while.  And I'm also glad for Facebook, where a mom can post pictures of her PreciousBabyBoy and everyone can share the "aww" moment with me ;)

(photos circa 2005/journaling 2012)

 

((((OKAY I'll admit, I made myself cry with this one too. Get off my back already))))

 

ATC CHALLENGE!!!:    GET YOUR SPOOKY LAYERS ON!!

Your challenge this month, should you choose to accept it - is to break out the spooky for your ATC.  Hopefully in layers, because layers of spooky is much better than straight out scared ;)

 

 With my sample, I started with a tan CS card (2.5 x 3.5 is standard ArtistTradingCard size). I then used gel medium (though thin ModPodge would have done the same, but I found my gel medium and was in love all over again LOL)...and started layering bits and pieces of newsprint all willy-nilly, no rhyme/reason other than BECAUSE I WANTED TO. I used a layer of medium over top, then watered down some acrylic paint for a wash over top...darker in some spots than others. I had found this awesome owl and tree picture (in the paper!) as an ad, and decided to do 1/2 fussy cutting and lahyer it over top. Not enough layers? nah - looked too "clean" to me so I tossed some faint stamps over top of that, layered with the gel medium over top again, and BAM.  



My inner make-a-mess-goddess was happy and gel medium/paint covered.

 

OH, and as a bonus...

the long-legged freak show that was

RIGHT BELOW MY CARD THE WHOLE TIME.

you ca see him in the 1st pic, but I wanted to END the post with him, not start. 

That's another can of worms...er, spiders. eww. ugh. nature.

 

Thanks in advance for playing along (lynn *snort*)

Memory Keeper. I volunteered.

This layout, done for another of the challenges @SNC, the BookOfMe bySharon - it was a difficult one.

I literally had this sitting on my desk for two days.  Not because I was necessarily stuck on design or anything fun like that, no.   Papers? Nope, they pretty much picked themselves.    The journaling - that had me at a standstill.   Strange, right??  Being that I'm the one that gives the journaling challenge @SNC, I would normally be ALL OVER the journaling.  And usually I am.   This time, not so much.  Here is the "Dear Gram,"

My picture is sucky not so good - so I will be so kind as to transcribe my writing for viewing: 

Dear Gram, 

I am so very glad and thankful that we have had you in our lives as long as we have.  My kids lives are better for having gotten to know you.  You may not always know me, but I know somewhere, where your memories are being kept - I am there. I think of you often - particularly when crafting - one of the things you brought to everyone.  Along with the ability to organize a party for any one at any time. Your friendly personality could keep anyone at ease.  I have learned much from you and even though you may not always remember - I have the memories for you and I'll share them with you any time.      

ARE YOU STILL THERE??   and this would be the reason that I put it off...and put it off...I kind of knew what I wanted to write.  I just didn't really want to write it.   Writing it makes it more REAL?  More permanent?   I don't know.  Maybe I was just hiding from the feelings.  Because I know for sure that I had them, while thinking about what I was going to write, definitely while writing, and even while transcribing the same words for all to see.   I cried more about this layout than I have in a while. I had to toss myself in the shower when I was done because I felt a watery mess already.  My grandmother, always free with ideas (crafting or otherwise) has dementia.  The last time I saw her (the day of this picture), she knew my kids.  She even knew their names.   Mine?  Not so much. I know that she knew me, but she didn't give a name to me, and I didn't press to give her one.  Who am I to upset her when she's having enough of an issue with life every day?  Doesn't seem right to make it just ONE MORE THING that she can't remember even though she knows that she should.  I would not be the cause of that frustration. 
 
But you know what, my friends?  This needed to be done, even with as vehemently as I tried to avoid completing it.  Scrapping is, afterall, a form of therapy for me.   I am supposed to be able to string together thoughts/feelings/emotions and get a person to SEE and FEEL with me.   Tell me, did you feel something?  I know I did.

and yep, crying again.

another day, another challenge.

@ScrapNChat, Resa tosses us a "scraplift" LO to use.  The gist of this time around was to use "blurred" photos (not a problem. our kids were wild animals when we were trying to snap pics anyway, so blurry was the only option). 

I have started a "new trend" with myself --- the "& Again"  series of pages.   We take pictures of the kids the day that we leave.  It helps ease the kids emotions a little (some times more than others) and gives them something to look at in the next span of time until they see each other again. 

here we have "& again 9.2012": 

It also helps remind the kids (and ourselves at times too) that "it's not goodbye, it's *see you later*".