Scrapping the Music Challenge #188

We are changing the tempo this week at Scrapping the Music and offering you a beautiful, thoughtful, and reflective song, "I'm Alive," by Kenny Chesney and Dave Matthews. Check out the video!  Everyone on the design team was really inspired by the song this week, as I was!  You can see it in their layouts!
Here's mine:

If you have been following my blog, you know that I am a survivor of cancer - for 19 years! (I was standing in the wrong line at the survivors parade - LOL!!!) My sisters and I walk or run in the Woman's 5K Classic that takes place at the Parkway in Allentown, PA every year - we walk/run in memory of my sister (and dad) who passed away, and in honor of my mom and me, who are survivors!!! Yeah - I'm alive!

I hope this song touches your heart like it did mine! 

Please check out Scrapping the Music and join in the challenge this week!!!!!

Two new layouts to share!

The first one I made with photos from Anne's 9th birthday party.  It is still so mind-boggling to me that she is NINE already.  She is growing up very, very quickly!  And growing very tall, too!

Here is my layout:

I used mostly Echo Park papers for this page from my stash - a combination of the "for the record" and "country drive" collections.  I just love her big smile!  She was so happy that day - and to share it with her cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandmothers made it extra special!

My second page is made for a challenge going on at Scraps of Darkness.  Here it is:

I love to blog hop and found the story of the 2 Wolves on Shawn's blog yesterday. I absolutely LOVE this story and asked her if she minded if I use it on my layout. She said "no" and that she will probably use it for a layout, too. I can't wait to see hers. Thank you, Shawn (aka micupoftea at scrapbook.com), for the inspiration. You can find the story on her blog Poetry in a Pot of Tea! Go check it out!!

I made this page for the challenge at Scraps of Darkness. It is a new challenge started this month, the "Dr. Darkness Interpretation Challenge." Melinda's husband, who is a real doctor; hence the name: "Dr, Darkness;" is going to be the judge. This month's theme uses the word "fade." The challenge involves using different mediums and a colors. I used canvas, mists, ink, paint, broken glass(provided in the January kit), notebook paper, and an iron-on for my page. (I also used Drycha's tutorial for my TH charm - check it out at SOD!) And I found the beautiful photo of the two wolves on the web.

My interpretation of the word, fade, involves the story of the 2 Wolves:

One evening an old man told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "my son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all."

"One is Evil - it is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego . . . "

"The other is Good - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which one wins?”
The old man simply replied, “The one you feed.”

I added, "Remember, the rest fades away"

Thank you, Melinda, for always having such thought provoking and wonderful challenges at SOD! Thank you Drycha, for the tutorial.
And sending a GREAT BIG thank you to Shawn, for providing this amazing story on her blog!

Sewing Day! (from 12/3/11)

My good friends Lisa and Barbarann graciously invited me along to one of their sewing days!  I practically begged to come along because I wanted to learn how to sew an up cycled T-Shirt dress!  We got together at Lisa's home the first weekend in December, last year.  I know, that was almost 2 months ago!!

Barbarann was the first to discover the up cycled t-shirt dress on ETSY.  She purchased an amazing one for her daughter, and we all absolutely LOVED it.  She and Lisa got together and made a couple of dresses for their daughters.  The dresses are beautiful and very cute!  So, I asked (well, begged!) to come along to their next sewing day. 

Here is an example that I found:

Anne, who really isn't into wearing dresses, thought this t-shirt dress was pretty cool.  She came with me to purchase the t-shirt for her dress, and the rest of the material.  I felt like an idiot at the fabric counter because I had NEVER purchased fabric before! 

We got 1/2 yard each of red and blue t-shirt material,  and a t-shirt with a penguin and Christmas tree lights. 

When I got to Lisa's home, she showed me all of the amazing t-shirts she had purchased at her local thrift store, along with the jersey material she had.  She graciously gave me some material from her stash for Anne's dress.  Thank you SO MUCH, Lisa!!

Barbarann, being the amazing photographer that she is, brought her camera along.  Here are the photos that she took from our fun day.  But, I don't have any photos of her - sorry BA!

Here is my dress, after I cut out the material from the pattern and we laid it out on the floor. That red material was from an old t-shirt that Lisa purchased from the thrift shop. Cool, huh?

We used the word "sparkle" from the sleeve of the t-shirt and I sewed it onto the back of the dress. It looks adorable!  Thanks Lisa, for the great idea!

Lisa set up her craft table in her living room and that's where we worked. Look at Lisa's beautiful Christmas tree!

Lisa taught me how to use her serger sewing machine.  Her serger really gave us that finished look to our dresses. Lisa told me that it is a treasure to her as it was given to her by her beloved grandmother!  She always thinks of her when she uses it.  That is such a wonderful memory!

Done!!!!!!!

OK, here is Anne in her dress:

And at her Tap dance recital - they didn't have to purchase costumes!  So, she had a great dress to wear:  YAY!

Thanks once again, Lisa and BA, from the bottom of my heart!!!!!  Such fun memories!

Scrapping the Music Challenge # 187

It's January's edition of movie week at Scrapping the Music, and this time around we are paying tribute to the movie "Good Morning Vietnam." Our song is James Brown's "I Feel Good"!!!
Check out the video at Scrapping the Music and our design teams' awesome creations!

When I saw this week's song, I knew that I had to scrap a photo of my dad. It was his favorite song . . . . . . I remember him singing "I feel good!" and dancing to this all the time.
Doesn't it look like he is doing just that here?

I used my amazing kit from December from Scraps of Darkness to make my layout!

And don't forget - everyone who plays along with us this month is entered in the drawing for our January prize...  You don't have to win to be entered into the drawing for the prize!  The more you play, the more chances you have to win this beautiful journal from Papaya Arts...

Come on - it's a great week to play! The song is so much fun!

Three new scrapbook pages!

I would like to share three new scrapbook pages with you  . . .
 all made using the January "Escape" Scraps of Darkness kit.
I am so sad because I have to stop subscribing to these kits for awhile in order to save that money for Katie's college fund.  She is a senior in high school and will be leaving for college before we know it.  Sniff-Sniff!

My first layout was made using a photo of Katie and Ryan just before they left for their senior "Black and White" formal. 

Even though the kit was made for warm-weather vacations, I thought the colors were perfect for this special occasion in Katie's life!

My second layout is another winter page using the SOD warm weather kit.  I took a photo of the snow globe at my friends' (Barb and Jimmy) home on New Year's Day.  We have been celebrating Christmas and New Year's Day at their home for such a long time - what a wonderful tradition.  My sister and her husband are always there, too, making it even more special.

And, last but not least,  my third layout is a very emotional one for me.  Scraps of Darkness runs a "Skeletons in the Closet" challenge every 3 to 4 months.  This one is about friendships and how they effect us.  We were challenged to print a photo of us on something other than photo paper.  I printed mine on patterned cardstock. 

My journaling reads as follows: 

I met a friend in 1991. I had just gotten married in 1990, moved twice, and was living in West Virginia. She was the employee health nurse at the hospital where I had just gotten a job. She did my pre-employment physical. I was taken by how friendly and funny she was. We hit it off right away. I distinctly remember her telling me about “getting older” and that she was experiencing pain in her right hip. She thought it was from skiing. Funny, I skied, too. Another thing we had in common.

In 1993 I found out I had cancer of the appendix - a very rare form of cancer that had spread throughout my abdomen. I was scared. I was especially scared that I would never be able to have a child. My friend found out that she had cancer right about the same time I did. It was another rare form that began as a lesion in her right hip bone. Ahhhhh - that was why she was having that pain. I had surgery and chemo. She had her chemo at about the same time as me. But hers was much more intense that mine, and she ended up having a bone marrow transplant. She went through so much, but finally passed away in 1995. I survived, and went on to have my daughter, Katie. A happy ending to my story, but not to hers. This experience had a profound effect on me. I felt so many emotions, including guilt for having survived while she passed away.

Time heals all wounds. Through the years I have learned to appreciate each moment, take one day at a time, and to treasure the friendships that I encounter along the way. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sending a great big Thank You to you all out there!  I appreciate your friendship and support more that you can every imagine!

Our travel group's holiday party!

Our adoption travel group has grown by leaps and bounds. 

More people = more love!!!!!!!

We just had our holiday get-together at one of our friend's homes.  It was so amazing to see our girls growing up beautifully, seeing their new brothers and sisters, and also seeing new couples added to our group who have recently adopted!  I just can't explain in words how much joy I felt seeing all of these wonderful people together in one place!

Here are some photos from our day:

Check out their skirts!  Barbarann made them using old sweaters from thrift shops!  Amazing, huh?

Lisa made that adorable flower in her hair!  This is a really creative bunch of women!

 We did a book exchange and here is part of the bedlam that ensued afterwards:

Anne got volume 2 of "The 39 Clues" one of her book series favorite series!

I feel so much happiness when I see them all together!

Scrapping the Music challenge #186!

This week at Scrapping the Music, we are honoring Martin Luther King (yesterday was Martin Luther King Day here in the USA) by having the song "Care" by Kid Rock. 

I immediately thought of my decision to go into nursing school when I heard this song.  Here is the layout I created - the photo was of me on the very first day I had my nursing student uniform on.  Boy, was I proud that day!!!  (And dig those aviator glasses - cool, huh?!)

Go on over to Scrapping the Music and check out the fun going on there!!!!!

What are you waiting for?  Go!!!!!!!

Congrats to the winner of my random drawing!

I would like to say thank you to all of you who left comments for my blog the past week.  You really helped to make the 1 year anniversary of my blog a success!!!  And as promised, a winner was chosen today.  Anne and I used a very "technical" approach to picking a winner . . . 
Anne wrote down all of the names on a piece of paper, as I called them out to her.  She cut them up and placed them in a bag, closed her eyes and drew one name from the bag:

And the winner is . . .

First, a drum roll please . . .

Snapdragon!!!!!

Snapdragon, please PM me your name and address (you can PM me on scrapbook.com) and I will mail your RAK to you asap!

Thank you all so much for playing along this past week.

And to all of you for your support throughout the past year, too!

Anne and Katie are growing up!

Well, Anne turned NINE today.  Yep, I said 9!  I can't believe that she will be in double digits next year already.  Where did the time go?

She's our 9 year old birthday princess!            

And Katie had her senior class "Black and White" formal tonight.  They held it on a Sunday night because  they all have off tomorrow.

Here she is:

And with Ryan:

I've been doing a lot of sniffling and talking about how fast time flies this year!  I just can't believe it . .

Tomorrow I will announce the winner of my 1 year anniversary blog award!  I will be doing a random drawing of everyone who left a comment for me during the past week.  I will send the winner the following RAK from me:

 

Have a great week everyone.  Thank you all for your friendship and support!

Scrapping The Music Challenge # 185

Scrapping the Music is now having WEEKLY challenges! YAY!  Woohoo!

This week's challenge is "Who Says" by Selena Gomez. 
Here is my take:

I want my daughters to know that they are ALWAYS beautiful in every single way, like we all are!

Go check out Scrapping The Music and join in the fun with this fabulous song!

We can't wait to see what YOU create!

Happy one year anniversary to "that girl fritchey!"

I can't believe that I have had my blog up for 1 year!  It is amazing how fast time flies.  I really want to thank all of my friends and family, AND my blog and scrappy friends who have become followers!  You all mean the world to me, and your support has been such an inspiration!

Here are two layouts that I made this past weekend:

We took down our Christmas tree and decorations yesterday, and we were all feeling a bit sad after that.  So in order to cheer us up, I made a layout about Christmas day.  I used my basic grey "Jovial" papers because I loved the festive, warm colors.

The second layout I made was about the gifts that keep on giving throughout the coming year:

I used a picture from one of my catalogs for the basis of my "Giving Tree,"  then embellished it with the words that are the

gifts that keep on giving in our home throughout the coming year!  The photo was taken after church on Christmas Eve.

Once again, thank you all for your wonderful support. 

And . . . to thank you even more, I am going to send a RAK to one of my followers - I will chose a random winner from whoever comments here within the next week, then send my "gift" to you the following week.

THANK YOU!

Let's Scrap "Leap Around the World" Blog Hop

I am very excited I am to be part of the "Leap Around the World" blog hop originating at Let's Scrap! 

I am one of the 50 ladies hosting  this amazing hop during the month of February. Each of us will be offering a RAK and 2 chances to win on our blogs!

Stay tuned for more details . . .

The blog hop will run from February 1 to February 29, so mark your calendars and be ready to make some cards with some really great sketches, and win some great prizes in the process!
You will only get a chance to "Leap Around the World" every 4 years, so join in on the fun!

Scrapping the Music - Challenge #184

This week marks a new year and a brand new blog for Scrapping the Music!!!  The song, picked by one of our design team members, Frauke, is "Piece of My Heart" by Janice Joplin. 

Go check out what the rest of the design team members created at 
Scrapping the Music !!!

When I started making my page, I loved by the lyric "I'm singing once again!!"  Every time I look at my beautiful daughters and our pet, I feel like singing.

I used my amazing December Scraps of Darkness kit to make my page.  Once the pictures were printed out, it only took me TEN minutes to make it.  I was inspired by an article in my latest ScrapbooksEtc magazine . . . on page 90 and 91.  Really, it only took my 10 minutes to make!!!

I hope to see lots of you over at Scrapping the Music this year.  We are starting weekly challenges again, and having monthly sponsors.  I know it will be a ROCKIN year over there, all year long.

Happy New Year!!