MESSY PIANO

I've been wanting to scrap this page after seeing Hannah Clark's Shabby Melody kit, just had to find the right pictures. Although all of my kids have played piano, Vanessa was the one who practised without being asked or told to... and who went the farthest in lessons. I really do love to hear the piano, no matter what stage they are at. I know some people wince at the "plunk, plunk" of the new little ones but I always loved listening to them. My favourite time of the day was making supper while one of my kids was practising piano in the background....it made everything right in the world!

My advice, start them early, not too early but once they are teenagers too many other things take precedence and the piano gets forgotten. During the elementary years, piano music makes your house a home!

Scrapbooking Notes:

HClark Shabby Melody Kit
KPertiet Starglows No1
Fonts: Impact, Century Gothic

Not sure I would fill the word again if I have a blended photo...thinking it looks too busy. I loved Hannah's frame and was happy with how it framed Vanessa. I'm using Cathy Zieske's Tips for Better Types when I journal which has helped a lot.

PERU PAINTING

 This was one of my favourite pictures of Don and Melodie that I was able to take when we were visiting Mel in Peru! We had so much fun and were amazed at the beautiful Peruvian architecture. I thought this  watercolour technique would do this picture justice and bring it to life. This brings back wonderful memories of seeing our missionary daughter, Hermana Mathieson for the first time in 18 months...it was an amazing, joyful trip!!

Supplies:

Lynn Grieveson In Distress Papers

KPertiet Defining Words No4

KPertiet Starglow No1

LMurphy Discovery Elements

SPCom Festival Village Frame

WWC Malihini Solid Papers

Fonts: Impact, Georgia, Beautiful ES, Century Gothic

PICTURE MAKE OVER

I took this picture of my Mitchell and Rebecca at the park and love how it turned out. What was even better is that Rebecca liked it!

Using a tutorial, I decided to boost the colour and contrast and add an embossed stroke with a drop shadow. I think it really emphasizes how much they look alike! Funny to see how these last two (the tallest in the family), who used to fight all the time are good friends and they talk and hang out together. Makes all the time outs, go to your rooms and "quit bugging each other rants" almost worthwhile. It also makes me wonder what the future will bring....my last 2 babies!

DADS AGAINST DAUGHTERS DATING

A friend of Don's sent him a picture of the new movie ad for Arnold Schwarzenegger's "The Last Stand" and said it reminded him of Don. It made me laugh but as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to make this page! It took some work and a couple of tries but I am happy with the end result.

This is a picture I took of Don years ago in our living room and I had fun extracting it and putting in on a new manly background. As the father of 4 girls, 3 of them married, he's fighting a losing battle but he still keeps trying! I have a feeling his 3 sons-in-law are going to just laugh at this picture....

Supplies:
Lynn Grieveson In Distress Paper
Fonts: Century Copperplate Light, Century Gothic

GRANDPA'S KEYS

I'm in a scrapbooking mood lately and have been working on more projects than I have in a while. I found this picture today and had to laugh when I saw it....knew it would make a fun layout! I used some of Hannah Clark's new kit, Shabby Melody and then added some embellishments from some other digital supplies that I have from Katie Pertiet (using her "Painting in Progress tutorial) , the Ettes and LMurphy. I struggled with some aspects of this page but eventually decided that I had spent enough time on it and I like it the way it is. My cute grandson, who is not very happy in this picture...I think it was because he was tired of Grandma taking pictures!!!

 I'm trying to increase my Blog membership, feel free to join my site!

BEAUTIFUL OREGON

I was so happy to have this picture even though it was taken accidentally! I wanted some shots of the kids boarding in the ocean while we were in Oregon, but because the sun was behind them the pictures came out really dark! I decided to try and make them silhouettes and they turned out wonderful. So I decided to scrap them! I've been wanting to use Hannah Clark's scrapbooking kits that she has recently designed and her Butterfly Bliss kit had some beautiful colours that fit perfectly! Thanks Hannah....

I thought you might like to see the original picture....

Here is the layout I made. I made my own template using 8 rectangles and moved them apart. I then clipped the same picture to each one and put a drop shadow on the rectangle. When I added the paper behind I reduced the opacity and I loved how it turned out! I added some embellishments from Hannah's kit, a starglow from Katie Pertiet and now I have a page that makes me happy. It really was a memorable vacation.... have any of you visited Oregon? Any favourite memories out there....

WEDDING NOTES...

As the mother of three brides, with 2 weddings to go, I would like to point out that as wonderful as weddings are, they are also the most stressful parties I have ever put together! Let me give you a few reasons why:

 1         First of all, you are trying to make sure the bride and groom are happy which is no small task because they really have no idea of what this whole wedding entails.  They are in “la-la- in love fairyland”. Don’t believe them when they say: “All we want are chips and carrots and a dance!”

      There are tons of flowers to find and put together, for centerpieces, bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages. Not only that but they will be forgotten somewhere by someone and no matter how beautiful they are, they will be missing from the pictures, sigh….

      There are all kinds of decisions to make about food: Sit down dinner or appetizers, friend’s help or catered? I haven’t been to a wedding yet that ran out of food, but that is always the big worry especially when you see someone’s runaway child scarfing down 10 desserts!

Wedding invitations have to be sent out early, which means engagement pictures and reception details. No matter how many you make, your children will remember 50 more friends that they should have sent invitations too, 2 weeks before the wedding!

 Do your bride and groom want bridesmaids and groomsmen? This means finding dresses in the right colour that everybody likes! Be prepared to hunt every store in a 200 mile radius, to be one the internet for hours and to buy at least 8 different dresses that need to be returned. Do yourself a favour, don’t let the bride pick her colours until you have the bridesmaids dresses!

     You will have to start looking for decorating ideas right from the start especially if you are decorating a gym or hall… be on the hunt for tulle, greenery, flowers, lights, trees and don’t let your kids talk you into live goldfish on the tables! You’ll regret it, believe me, when you’re hunting for that slippery fish on the floor because the bowl has been tipped over!

     Will you be having a dance because if you are, you will need to find a DJ and music! Are you including a program and who will be speaking? Are you prepared to be in the spotlight as a blubbering mess because for sure they will want you to speak?

What kind of pictures do you want? A professional photographer or your friends snapshots of the events? Try not to wince when you find out the cost, after all this is all you will have left when the whole shindig is over…PICTURES!

 Of the 300 people you invite, 100 will tell you they’re not coming but the 200 that come won’t tell you that….be prepared to be set up extra tables and chairs and tell the kitchen help to add more carrots to the vegetable tray!!

 Nevertheless, the BEST part of the night is looking around at all your friends and family who have come with love, gifts and best wishes to celebrate your child’s marriage…AND that makes it all WONDERFUL!!

      Lastly, the best thing you can do as a friend is to SHOW UP…there is nothing worse than putting on a big party for your child and no one comes. I have loved and appreciated every family member and friend who has made an effort to be with us on that special day! What a treasure they are to me!

So what do you think? What is your favourite part of a wedding reception? What do you remember the most? I would really love your feedback, you can let me know in my comments! 

WEDDING PICTURES... LAMBS

Here is another slideshow of some of the pictures I took at Mikael and Emma Lamb's wedding! I was so happy to be there.... what do you remember most about weddings? I would love to know....

WEDDING INVITATIONS... LAMBS

JULY 18, 2012

Congratulations to Mike Lamb and Emma Dudley who will be getting married in the CARDSTON, ALBERTA, TEMPLE this Friday, July 20! We are so happy for them and their families. We have known the Lambs for years, in fact our kids pretty much grew up together! This is the invitation I made a few weeks ago and I was so happy with how it turned out. They used a template that I already had which made it easier. 

We are looking forward to their wedding reception here in Kamloops on July 28... it will be fun to see the whole Lamb family!

PIERSON ANNIVERSARY PICTURES

Vanessa asked me to take some first year anniversary pictures of her and Scott and I was able to get some while we were in Oregon. I had fun with them and they were both pretty patient while I took lots of pictures....these are my favourites. Put some PW actions on some of them to boost the colour.

So glad these two are so happy and living two streets away! Trying a slide show today.....

DUNE BUGGIES

Well here is another update from our vacation last week! Now that I'm home it's been a little busier, but I really wanted to scrap a few pages of our fun day quadding. Of course, that took longer than I expected what with working, painting, and driving Mitchell to basketball camp. Just don't take a close look at my yard, it is seriously getting forgotten.....

I still enjoy using Tiffany Tillman's Modern Master Template Collection and continue to use Jana Morton's Blending and Extraction techniques. Happy to have these....

If anyone out there has good memories of Oregon, would love to hear about them! Just leave a note in my comments.....

FOREST GROVE AND PORTLAND

A picture down Memory Lane on Thursday....this was the school Danielle and Melodie went to in Forest Grove, Oregon. They went to kindergarten, Grade 1, 2 and 3 here at Harvey Clarke Elementary...they still remember some of their fun teachers....

Had to take a picture of the townhouses we lived in 20 years ago...I was so grateful to be able to get into this townhouse B! The rent was subsidized and made such a difference in our expenses, considering the horrendous tuition to Optometry School! We moved into Forest Grove with our 3 little girls...not too many of the other students had kids, forget 3 so our three were pretty special and were always made much of by Don's classmates!



Don's optometry school in Forest Grove!



I'm not in this picture when Don graduated because I was at home in Canada on bed rest with a baby! Bittersweet moment for me because I was so upset that I missed his graduation....

The Portland Shopping Crowd....notice that we now have Kevin amongst and look how happy Melodie is!!! We picked him up from the airport!

Vanessa's cute chauffeur!!

We were happy to meet up with some old friends from optometry school! Don went to Pacific with Lorne and Roz Yudcovitch and they were able to meet up with us at Applebees in Portland...so fun to exchange stories! Friends from long ago always seem to remember stories that you have forgotten!

Long but happy day!

PARADES AND CRABBERS...




Enjoying the 4th of July parade here in Rockaway Beach...we all had to laugh when the policeman directing traffic told the girls...."since I'm old enough to be your Grandpa, I think I can safely say, you girls are all drop dead pretty!!" Lots of red faces.... 

 

 Everett trying to hold up his thumb like Uncle Scott is teaching him, tricky things thumbs!



One of several floats in the parade...surprisingly this small town had streets lined up with people gathered together for the parade. We wondered where they all came from...lots of cars, trucks and not many decorations unless you count all the red, white and blue flags! I think they spent their budget on the fireworks which were stupendous!!!

 

A few horses and beautiful cowgirls....

 



Everett's favourite float, which Melodie had to stop him to keep him from going out and riding this one!!

 



Mitchell spending time crabbing with the other men, one of his favourite past times this trip.....the catching crabs kind not the complaining kind, lol!!




The shivering cheerleaders...the wind off the ocean was cold!!! But they still look good, even cold, not sure how much crabbing was going on is this corner though!




Happy, happy crabcatcher...learned all kinds of things about crabs Don did...the size, the kinds, the gender, what to use to catch them with and lots of other useful knowledge to a guy who wants to catch them and not just buy them in the store. He also learned that his wife refuses to toss them into a pot of boiling water and that's another one of his "he-man" job if he wants to eat fresh crab!!!





The happy "one year" married couple who really should live by the ocean because Scott would fill his plate every night with what he's caught from the ocean that morning! Good luck Vanessa...love MOM!







BEACHES, WATERFALLS AND CHEESE!

We've certainly enjoyed being here in Oregon! We arrived Sunday night and found this house we had rented...this is the back view. The inside was nice and big with lots of room, good thing since there are 10 of us, 11 if Kevin can make it Thursday.

 The kids were happy to find a volleyball net in the backyard and they've been out there keeping busy! Here is Mitchell showing his sweet volleyball skills....



Hopefully Everett is having fun as well  with all these aunts and uncles....



One of our must visits on Tuesday, the Tillamook Cheese Factory! We visited this years ago when we just had the three girls and still remember it! Seriously, cheese heaven....and for us Canadians, the cheese is sooo cheap!!!!



Silly cheese pictures....what a cute couple!!

Pretty crazy all the work that goes into making cheese, this is the packaging area!!

Can you tell who LOVES ice cream?

Drinking good stuff... notice the difference in size of containers!

We also took a quick hike up Munson Falls....in the pouring rain.

So happy to have Michelle Edis with us...

Family Pictures...just missing Kevin and Tim!!


to be continued....



SOCCER MAD

Lots of scrapbooking in the last few days...saw a football layout at Designer Digitals by Grantlauren's Mom and loved it, thought I would try it with Mitchell's soccer pictures. Happy to use Tiffany Tillman's  Masters Templates and it made them easy to put together. I am still practising taking sport pictures and  need to keep working on them ......

Rebecca at 16

Had great fun with this page celebrating our Rebecca's 16th birthday! Rebecca and Mitchell are our babies in the family but on days like this, we realize that they are not babies anymore. Rebecca has just graduated from Grade 10 and she is our HAPPY girl. She is lively, fun and always has crazy stories for us. Things always seem to happen around Rebecca, she is like a sparkler and gets the party going!!! We sure love her and are grateful she is in our family....

EVERETT IN THE WINDOW

Loved this picture of Everett looking back at me when I was taking pictures of him looking out the window. He loved to see who was going by and to watch the buses at the bus stop but his favourite was to watch his Uncle Mitchell playing basketball! Of course he would rather have been out there but he wasn't quite big enough! When I saw a picture masked with a frame around it, I knew I wanted to do it to this picture and then I even found a tutorial on adding a radial blur to give it more light so that's what I did and was so happy with how it turned out. Doesn't Everett just look like he's walking out the window into a new adventure?

Sure makes me miss him though!

BABY SHOWER INVITATIONS

I am hosting a baby shower for a new little Mom that I know! She has a darling baby boy that was born a couple of weeks early and so little Aidan wasn't even 5 pounds. When Vanessa and I went to visit with them it sure brought back memories! My Danielle and Melodie were that size and they were so darn tiny...I remember being scared to bring Danielle home, not sure that I would know what to do with her. The lucky thing about Kelsey is that her Mom, Coral lives a few streets away and that must be such a comfort. I know that Coral loves having her new little grandson close especially because her other daughter Lindsay and family moved away a few months ago. I would have been thrilled to have my Mom around but I lived in Lethbridge, AB and she lived in Moncton, NB!

So I made the invite tonight for the baby shower and found a super cute invite on Pinterest. I then used some baby stickers from Crystal Wilkerson for the design and I plan on handing them out tomorrow.

WEDDING INVITATIONS .....MIKESELL

I  was happy to be asked to do another wedding invitation for a lady I know in Kelowna, Debbie Card. Her daughter Allie was one of our happy kids on trek so lots of good memories there. This is a second marriage for Debbie, she is so happy and it shows in the pictures. We had some fun designing this and I learned a lot! Each one gets a little easier.... this is the final copy!

Stay posted for another Lamb one coming up!!!