Day 31 L.O.A.D.--St. Olaf

ARieff Template; SMJ Old Letters Kit

I am so happy that my daughter made the decision to change schools! I felt I needed to support her earlier decision to be 1400 miles away from home, but it was so very hard to accept. Just the logistics of getting from Washington, DC to Grand Forks were torturous. But the worst of it was how unhappy she was there. Now, she really enjoys her school, is around music again, and has much more respect for the math and science offerings. I'm impressed that she was willing to take the risk of turning her life upside down again to make this change. It's so wonderful when you see your children grow up before your eyes, and know that they are people that you truly have a great deal of admiration for! Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Day 29 L.O.A.D: Empty Nesters Gone Wild!

Asman font; KPertiet Papers, pin & overlay; JSprague grunge frame & 4 square template

My kids would look at this, look at the P.O.T.D. photo below and how we "entertain" ourselves, and say, "lame."

Day 28: Winter Essentials--L.O.A.D. challenge

Doris Castle Dreams Kit; font: Pepita

The photos in this layout will be familiar to those of you who have been following my POTD blogs. This is the 28th layout for the L.O.A.D. challenge! I am amazed that I have managed to do 28 of these. It's helped me increase my speed in digiscrapping, but I'm also looking forward to it being over! It's certainly helped me get printed many of the photos from our Alaska trip and to put down on paper some of the details of memories from this. Thanks to all who have commented on both the P.O.T.D and the L.O.A.D. entries!

Day 27 LOAD: Taking Down the Christmas Lights during a heat wave!

KPertiet Vintage Winter Kit; font: Impact & century gothic; bdate christmas promise beads;

I'm using this both for the L.O.A.D. challenge, day 27 and Jessica Sprague's challenge to complete a digiscrapped page in 30 minutes. This was hard! But not as hard as my husband's task. He's such a good guy!

Day 26:: Invincible Summer

I really like using the gradient mask brushes and this involved a winter image (now) and summer image (August) blended together. In August, we were on a houseboat in Voyageur National Park. Such bliss! A houseboat with a hot tub, no less! (There's another layout like this on January 20th.)

Day 25: LayOut A Day

KPertiet Paper Reveal; AAspnes Explore paper & quote; Trish Jones distressed diva; KPertiet Jewelry Tag; Jen Wilson rivet

This is the 2nd page of the 2-page lay out on the White Pass and Yukon Route lay out. Thanks for looking!

Day 24 LOAD Challenge:

Kate Pertiet Paper Revealed #2, A Aspnes Explore Kit papers; A Aspnes Wander stamps & clip; Trish Jones crush bubble paper & distressed diva grunge frame; Yukon trail stamp created from Wikipedia; Sara Marie Carnival stitches

From our trip to Alaska this past summer. It was total bliss! I want to go back. I HAVE to go back now that I have a good camera, right?

Now We're Rockin' LO

KPertiet Winter Vintage Alpha; Trish Jones Distressed Diva, crusshed bubles, idea papers; grunge frame; Torn edges; KPertiet Paper Reveal #2; JSprague Stapled Hearts; MFenwick Sept Afternoon Alphas; Angie Briggs Doodles; KPertiet Snow corners; Obsidian Dawn snow brushes; AAspnes Explore clock

This is my first lo for the NWR classes over at JessicaSprague.com. I'll probably scrap this photo more than once, because it is a very important photo to me, as you can see in the journaling. For those of you who have taken any of Jessica's classes, you'll be very excited to learn that today she opened a chat room! Such fun! So many ways to play. . . .
Thanks for looking!

Day 20: LayOut A Day Challenge

Anna Aspnes gradient maps; Marily Fenwick Posh Twilight Dreaming paper

Just another picture to "honor" the -25 degrees this am (before windchill). I used a gradient brush tool from AAspnes to blend a current winter picture and a couple of photos from this past summer.

Day 18: LayOut of the Day

MElgen designs Call of the Wild kit

I must have a foot fetish or something, but the messy site of my kids', and their friends', shoes all piled up in our entry way just warms my heart! When they were little, I'd get cranky that they were in the way, on the stairway, but now I like seeing them.

And I'll take the warmth where I can get it! See my weather pixie? As I type this it's -15 degrees. It's suppose to get worse today. . . on the order of -30 to -40 with windchill. Send me some warmth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 17: Lay Out of the Day

SG Eternal Love paper and elements; Jen Caputo Torn Hearts templates

I'm starting my Valentine for my husband! He's such a great guy! Even though he's a little blurred in this photo, I love the two of us together. I'd just gotten my remote for my D40, interrupted his football time, squeezed into the couch with him and said I wanted to try the remote, look into the camera, and instead he just cuddled with me. This is Day 17 for the Lay Out a Day challenge at bigpicturescrapbooking.com. Thanks for looking!

OScraps Paint the Moon freebie!

Jofia Devoe paper and ephemerals; AManning Come Paint the Moon kit; frayed muslin One Haute Momma-Jen Wilson; font-Lucinda handwriting, dwd-Rhonda grungy corners

There's a wonderful new challenge over at Oscraps.com. This week, Ann Manning has a beautiful free kit, Paint the Moon, available, with a layout challenge. I used it for the layout above, and will probably also use it later this week for the LayOut a Day challenge. Lisa at Lexicam has a totally awesome layout using this kit on her blog; mine doesn't hold a candle to the artistic beauty and creativity in hers! On the right side of her blog is a link to her gallery. Prepare to be awestruck!

I'm very excited that I got to sign up for the Jessica Sprague "Now We're Rockin'" digiscrapping class that starts Feb 11th! Hopefully, it'll inspire me to consider some new directions in my layouts!

And another thing I want to point out today is my all-new Weather Pixie. Dawn pointed me in the direction of the little, fashionably dressed, pixies! Now all my Dear Readers can be green with envy of the Grand Forks weather! Today we're boasting a balmy - 32 degree windchill! Now THAT's something to sneeze about!

Day 15: LayOut a Day

KissedTemplate 12
CRenae Art Fusion papers
dwd Rhonna distressed paint
jbolt delightinphoto stamps

I so enjoyed Scott being home for a visit for about 5 days. We hadn't seen him in 1 1/2 years; it's not that we don't like him, or anything like that--it's that he's stationed in Japan in the Navy. As I mention in the journaling for this, I caught Scott by surprise; he usually smiles much more readily, but I did like the slightly edgy, urban look of this photo. I added some grungy stamps to the layout.

Day 13: Layout a Day

Moriginals template #7
Meredith Fenwick Posh Crazy Beautiful

This is my 13th layout for the LayOut a Day challenge at www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com. I'm gradually working my way through photos from a trip we took to Alaska this past summer. In Ketchikan, we took a float plane ride over the Tongass Forest. I'm the kind of person who really prefers to keep my feet on the ground. Large planes don't bother me, but I'm not fond of ferris wheels or small little planes or things that might require good human competence to keep me alive. It's just that I know how many errors I might make in just plain old proof reading a post! What about dangerous stuff? I blame it on my middle son; he got me to watch "When Good Times Go Bad" with him years ago on TV. And those little books about things like "How to Survive a Shark Attack," . . . they're just unnerving! (If I could just run a nice little mental status evaluation on the ski lift operator, or find out about drinking behavior the night before) things might be easier. I did feel a bit compelled to follow this line of thinking once with the anesthesiologist before my husband's knee surger, but hey! You would too! He was wearing a bandana!

Anyway, I did go on a float plane ride with my family in Alaska and it was phenomenal! I think this should be a required experience for everyone, like one of the "A Thousand Places to see before you Die' book, but let's not mix death into this. . .

And one I like better!

Rhonna Farrer 2peas New Years stamps; Angie Briggs quotes and paper; champignon font