Blessed Season

Created with the Blue Rhapsody Bundle, available at the Digital Scrapbooking Studio

Brighten Up

We've had quite a bit of rain here in my neck of the woods. Not that I mind. I really enjoy the rain! But, I also enjoy the sun at this time of the year. So, I figured I would do a little digiscrapping to brighten things up.

This kit from Laitha's Designs fit the bill. It's called Glowing Mind...and boy, does it GLOW!

So I dug around in my photos for a little something colorful. While I was in Ohio this Summer to visit family, my two best girlfriends did their first 5k, The Color Run. PERFECT! Then, a few weeks later, one of their daughters did a similar 5k called Color Me Rad. So, armed with some great colorful photos, this is what I came up with. 

Colorful enough?? Even though I LOVE color in my every day life, I usually shay away from such bold colors in my digiscrapping. But, I figured I'd give it a shot. Turns out, I like it!! :)

Home Again

In July of 2011 we adopted a new kitten from a local cat rescue group. We named her Xena and she brought a lot of life and love in to our home. This past September we lost her to massive kidney failure. The autopsy revealed that she only had once kidney and it was very small and abnormal. We were heartbroken.

In the first week of November we decided to go ahead and adopt another cat. Ziggy (our 11 year old boy cat) needed another playmate. So we headed to a pet adoption event being held by the same cat rescue group. We immediately fell in love with this little girl....say hello to Tilly. 

She made her way to the rescue group though one of their feral traps. Shortly after her arrival at the shelter, she gave birth to three little ones. When they were weaned, they were quickly adopted out, and Mom was left behind. Apparently, she was waiting for us.

When we brought her home, she walked in like she owned the place. She took about 15 minutes to walk around and figure out where all of the important things were....litter box, food, water, and Ziggy. Ziggy was naturally annoyed, he hissed as she walked by. She put her tail up and just strolled on by, she was home!

It's been a little over a week now, and she has settled in more and more. Ziggy is relaxing, and he's letting her know that he's the boss, which is good. He's watching her play, and she wants to play with him so badly. I think he'll be up for a playful tussle within a week or so.

As I type this, Tilly is running though our apartment, from one end to the other, at top speed. She has also decided to start attacking my toes. So I guess that means it's playtime!

Purple Delight

Purple is my favorite color. I love it. Now, I'm not one of those people who love a color so much that everything I own is that color, but I do seek it out from time to time.

I was thrilled when this kit from Laitha's Designs plopped in to my lap. It's called Purple Delight, and, well, it's delightful.

First up, it's my friend Lynn and her Hubby celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. 

Then, it's my friend Renita, and she's pretty much unstoppable.

Trust a Witch

It's that time of year...Halloween is near. The season of the Witch. They have been persecuted and misunderstood throughout the centuries, yet they strive on. They were the village Doctors, the counselors, the shamans, the teachers. They were important parts of community life, offering help and healing to anyone in need.

This time of the year they seem to be everywhere, only to fade into the shadows the rest of the year. But, they're always here, even in this day and age, working, learning, teaching, healing.

I hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween!

This layout was created with the Mummy-sh {Bundle}, a collab from Aimee Harrison Designs Studio, ADB Designs, Mad Genius Designs, and The Urban Fairy.

Autumn...again and again, Autumn

Honestly, I would be happy with Autumn year round. I'm sure I've said that before, haven't I?

Autumns here in the Silicon Valley area are very different from the Autumns in Ohio, where I grew up. In Ohio we had the leaves, the colors, the cooler weather, the frost....ahhhh!! I love all of it! Here, we have a tiny bit of colorful leaves, but we do have weather changes...the hot dry days of Summer give way to cooler days, with clouds and occasional rain. The cooler nights start first, then, before we know it, there's light rain, washing off the dust that has been sitting around since July.

I love it. After 13 years here, I'm learning the seasonal patterns, and falling in love with them. The migratory songbirds started showing up here a few weeks ago. White Crowned Sparrows spend the winter here in the trees and bushes beside our patio. Their cheery song and striking head stripes are always a delight to me, even when they wake me up at the crack of dawn after only two or three hours of sleep. I can't help it, I'm a bird girl.

13 years. Yup. October 9th was our 13th anniversary...yet another reason why I love Autumn.

I've been drooling over the Project 365 kits from Digilicious Designs. When I saw the October edition, I fell in love!!! Luckily my longtime friend, Jaymie, sent me some Ohio leaf love with her adorable sons!

What's your favorite season??

Autumn Garden

My big, ongoing project for this year has been my patio garden. We live on the second floor of a two story building, just our apartment up here, and five single car garages below us. Part of our place includes a 12' x 12' patio, and this Spring I decided to start my own patio container garden up here.

In the spring I grew a few edible veggies, mostly leaf lettuces and also some heirloom carrots. Everything else has been flowers. I chose my plants to draw in native bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects. I also have a bird feeding station out there that is frequented by the neighborhood Goldfinches, Scrub Jays, Mourning Doves, House Sparrows, Oak Titmouse, and the occasional California Towhee.

Now that Autumn is upon us, I know my garden will start to fade a bit. I have made sure to include plants that will be beautiful year round, but the splendor of Summer's blooms will fall prey to the wind and rain that will start soon enough. I'm OK with that. I love the seasons, and all that they bring. I enjoy watching the changes that happen, I find beauty in the dried blooms, the seed heads, and the fading leaves. I also look forward to the renewed growth that will follow next Spring.

For now, here's my tribute to my Autumn Garden. I created it with the Blustery Day Collection from Aimee Harrison. It's a beautiful kit full of natural elements that fit perfectly along side my garden!

 

Family is everywhere

I've been living here in California for 13 years as of September 27th. While I love it here, my very best girlfriends are still back in Ohio. Occasionally I get to missin' them something awful, and when I do, I digiscrap pictures of them and their families.

With Fall in full swing for most folks in the Northern Hemisphere, my thoughts turn to leaves, cool air, and bonfires with those girlfriends. Since they're not here, and we can't make that happen, I got to work. A couple of weeks ago, my friend Renita posted this photo from several years ago on Facebook. It's her and her two oldest kids, looking great. I fell in love with it! When this kit came along, I knew it was a perfect match!

When this kit came along, I knew it was a perfect match! The kit is a collaboration between Aimee Harrison and ScrappyCocoa and it's called Autumn Sunset. The warm fall colors really speak to me, and that touch of plum just put it over the top!

Now I'm not missing them all quite so badly!

Summer??

Is it just me or did Summer just fly by? This is the first weekend of Fall, and I, for one, am so happy! I love this time of the year. The days may be shorter, but the cooling temperatures speak to me in so many ways.

Anyway.

Summer. Yes, Summer. I'm just getting around to scrapping my Summer photos, along with a few photos for family and friends. It seems that everyone ends up at the beach for at least one day during the Summertime. I'm lucky enough to live just a short drive from the Central California coast, and we take advantage of it as often as we can.

I have good friends and family that live in the lovely, landlocked state of Ohio. They took their little girl for her first trip to the Atlantic Seaboard this Summer, and it was an instant hit. Even Teddy got in on the sun!

The kit I used for this fun layout is called Fisherman's Wharf by the lovely Aimee Harrison.

One in a million

I'll keep this short but sweet. My family is one in a million.

Created with the One In a Million Collection, a collaboration between Aimee Harrison and Snickerdoodle Designs.

Beachside

The lovely Aimee Harrison is at it again with her new Beachside Collection! It's perfect for those Summer beach photos.

All of those great weather worn colors and textures sparked my creativity, and I was off. One of my dear friends has a beautiful teenage daughter who just happened to be on vacation on the East Coast. I kept it simple to show off the oh so cool photo without overwhelming it.

Now I need to head to the beach to get some of my own photos to play with this great collection!

A little something for Mom

Phew. It seems like this year is flying by for me. I can't believe it's already the end of May!

We do holidays around here without much fanfare. Mother's Day is no exception. Mom and I got to pick what exactly we wanted to do on our special day. It had been a while since we've all gone to the beach together, so we thought it would be nice to do that. We headed down to Pacific Grove to Asilomar State Beach. There are lots of little inlets there amongst the rocks where we always manage to do some beach combing. Mom and I plopped ourselves down in the sand and proceeded to pick up lots of little bits and pieces to use in our crafting adventures. Shells, driftwood, and bits of sea glass, too!

After that, we headed down to the small sandy patch of beach to walk and watch the sunset. The weather was perfect and there were lots of folks there to enjoy it. There always seems to be a bunch of dogs on that stretch of beach, too. I love watching them running along in the surf playing and splashing about, they always looks so happy! Naturally we had to snap a few pictures.

I used the oh so appropriate kit You're the Best Mom Bundle, a Collab from The Digital Scrapbooking Studio for my Mother's Day LO.

 

I thought this beautiful kit was also perfect for a picture I took of Mom in her new patio garden! 

                                   Font used on this LO is Pea Bhea from kevinandamanda.com

Pretty As A Peacock

I have to admit it, I love peacocks. There's just something about the beautiful colors in those feathers that capture my eye every time. So, naturally I was thrilled to work with the Pretty As A Peacock Bundle from Digilicious Designs! All of those great blues and purples with a ton of yummy accent colors, and even a perfect collection of glitter styles ta boot. 

Spring Way Back

Not too long ago my father in law sent us some old photos that he had taken before my husband and his siblings were born. One of the photos caught my eye. It's a picture of my husband's cousins, sitting in the yard, enjoying a Spring day.

It was a perfect pairing with the Daffodil Daydreams Collection from Aimee Harrison Design Studios. Daffodils have always been one of my favorite flowers, they embody Spring perfectly....dontcha think??

Spring Flashback

In 1998 I took off for the weekend with my good friends Dedra and Nichole for a camping trip at an Ohio music festival. One of our favorite bands, Ekoostik Hookah, was hosting a weekend campout/music festival on Memorial Day weekend and we decided we needed a break. We packed up my big ol car (Myrtle the Rockabilly Love Machine) and headed out!

In short, we had a BLAST. Seriously. It was a weekend that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Music, sun, people, and lots of fun. So much fun that it started a tradition for us. Every Memorial Day Weekend and Labor Day Weekend for the next couple of years we headed to Hookahville.

This is just the first of the layouts that I'm creating with some photos from various trips. For these two pages I've used the mini kit "No Boundaries 1" from Sweetmade Inc. over at the Digital Scrapbooking Studio. The bright colors and funky feel were perfect for this project! 

News and a Moon

Sorry for the absence here. Hm. Does anyone even read here?? Well, just in case....March was busy! I did scrap, but just couldn't sit down long enough to post much! Don't ya just hate it when that happens??

I have some news. I mentioned it up there in the title of this post, did ya see it?? Recently, one of my favorite designers, Aimee Harrison, had a CT call and I decided to give it a shot. Honestly, I didn't figure I'd get on her CT...after all, I'm still a rookie compared to lots of digiscrappers out there. But I wanted to try. Long story short, I am now a member of the Aimee Harrison Design Studio Creative Team!

My first outing on my new CT was with an amazing collection called Moonlit Nights. All I had to do was see the title and I KNEW I would love it. Look at it, it's amazing. The collection has sparkly glitters and TWO great alphas. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be coming back to this collection again and again.

For my first LO with this kit, I went in a little bit of an art journal direction. One of my favorite "quotes" immediately popped in to my head as I was opening up the kit and poured over the elements. Moons and stars and glitter....I was in heaven!

I'm going to print this one out and add a bit of extra sparkle to it then hang it in my art room to inspire me during my jewelry creating time!

More February Creations

Created with the All About Me Bundle a collab between Nibbles Skribbles and SCrappyCocoa over at the Digital Scrapbooking Studio

Love is in the air...

It's February, and naturally the digiscrap world turns it's eye (and ear!) towards Valentine's Day. I'm not normally one to celebrate Valentine's Day, it's just not my thing. Never really has been. But, when I saw the Je T'aime Bundle from Aimee Harrison Design Studios...I kind of fell in love!

The colors spoke to me. There's red and pink in there, of course, but the dark blue, black, and grey really put a great spin on the traditional V Day colors. Once I got my hands on the bundle, I got to work!

One of my best girlfriends was having some fun on a rainy day with her youngest girl and the camera. I love it when they do this! It's hard being across country from them, but adorable pictures like this help!

This is a photo that Hubby and I snapped in October. For the past few years, we've gone tot he beach on our anniversary and snapped a picture while we're there. This one is from 2011, our 12th anniversary.
 

Last but not least, the kit has some really pretty pale colored elements and papers that have a rustic/vintage feel to them, in my opinion. So, I found this great old photo online and tried to tell their story. I have no idea who they are, or what their story is...but I thought they were adorable!

This kit really is fun and versatile. I can see it being used for lots of things other than Valentine's Day!

So. Since we're talking about the big V Day...what are your plans?

Got it!

I figured out what to do for my second LO with the Spectrum Collection!

Kit Conundrum...

Part of my duties as a Creative Team member over at The Digital Scrapbooking Studio, I get to pick a kit from a list to work with for that month. I was really excited when I saw this awesome bundle from Nibbles Skribbles called Spectrum! It was full of color, which is a BIG thing for me.

I. Love. Color. I mean, look at it! It's NOTHING but COLOR!

I was looking forward to creating all sorts of amazing LO's with this kit, inspired by its beautiful colors. But. I didn't. I floundered and stalled. I have NO idea why. But I did. Maybe my brain was burnt out from the Holidays? Maybe I was overwhelmed with all of the awesome colors?

Who knows.

So I let it sit for a while, then came back to it today.

This is my first LO with this kit. It seemed natural to use the concept of Chakras for this colorful kit. Colors are used to symbolize the 7 energy centers in the body. Each one with its own color.

The fonts I used are Samarkan and Old Typewriter.

We'll see what I can come up with for my second LO with this kit.

So, my question is....what you you other digi scrappers (or other creative types) DO when you're stuck?

A Thankful New Year

I'm making a point to count my blessings this year. Today I am happy for my feet that still work. They won't stay that way. 15+ years of untreated Rheumatoid Arthritis took a toll on them and they are already showing signs of degeneration. But they're OK now, and for that I am THANKFUL.

Created with the Count Your Blessings Kit from ViVa Artistry over at the digi chick.

What are YOU thankful for?