Love this moment!

Hi everybody!  Happy weekend!  This is such a beautiful Saturday morning.  The sun is shining and the weather is crisp and cool!  I am so happy that Karen, Anne, and I are going to spend some time with our friend, Barb, at Arrowhead Lake this weekend.  We are going to have a "girls weekend" and I can't wait!

Another thing that I cannot wait for is coming up this Friday, May 3rd.  John and I are driving up to Penn State to pick up Katie!!!  YAY!  She is coming home for the summer.  I cannot believe that her Freshman year flew by so quickly.  I know that John, Anne, and I are going to enjoy every second while she is home!

In honor of this awesome occasion, I wanted to scrap a photo from one of our visits up to Penn State in the fall of last year.  The photo was taken at the Alumni Gardens at Penn State Main Campus, and is one of my favorites of Katie and Anne!

Here is the original photo right out of the camera:

And I converted it to black and white to make it more dramatic.  Here it is::

Katie and Anne just look so happy and carefree here, don't you think?

I knew that I wanted to scrap this picture, so I went looking for inspiration on the web!  WOW!  There are some really talented scrapbookers and artists out there!  I found some wonderful inspiration at one of my favorite blogs:  Scrap Africa!  The challenge going on at their blog right now is to used triangles, black and white photos, and confetti on your layout/project:

I thought this challenge was perfect for my photo, so I decided to give it a try!  I still had lots of papers and embellishments left in the Scrap That! kit that I just won during their blog hop in April.

Here is my final result:

  

I used little hearts and stamped stars for my confetti.  

Some of my triangles are inked on my page above the photo, and the doily is the shape of a triangle, too:

 . . . and I also used triangles in the banner just below my photo.

Here are some more close-ups:

 I just loved making this page today!  Thank you, Scrap Africa, for the inspiration!!!  

If you want to see what the Scrap Africa design team did with this challenge, or you would like to participate yourself, check out their blog here.  Their challenge runs through April 30, 2013.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.  I can't tell you how grateful I am for your visits and comments.  You all make my day!  Enjoy your weekend!!

Take me away . . .

I watched an episode "House Hunters International" on HGTV last night where the family was looking for an apartment to buy in Paris.  I was touched by the story of the mom who had just survived Stage 3 breast cancer and moved to Paris because it had always been her dream.  What a heartwarming story!  (I was astounded by the prices of the apartments in Paris, too!)

I recently won a Scrap That! kit because I took part in their April blog hop.  I was very excited to get my kit in the mail yesterday, so I decided to make a layout using the kit and my favorite photo from Paris.  (I wanted to participate in Tracey Sabella's challenge going on at Scrap That!, too! And if you want some beautiful scrappy inspiration, check out her Garden of Grace blog!)  I chose this photo from John's and my trip to Paris back in 2011.  I actually got the chance to live my dream when he was assigned to travel to Paris on a business trip.  I met him in the "City of Lights" after his work was done!

Here are just a few of the photos from that trip back in 2011.  I feel it was the trip of a lifetime for us.

Here is my first glimpse down one of the beautiful streets of Paris:

The Avenue of the Champs-Elysées:

And the Eiffel Tower at night:

So without further ado, I would like to share the layout that I made with my new Serendipity kit from Scrap That!

Here are some close-ups:

I used a favorite Natasha Bedingfield song as my inspiration, too!  It most definitely was a sweet escape!

And, if you are interested in finding out more about Scrap That!:  Check out their blog here!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today!  I hope you have a wonderful day.  The weather is supposed to be a little cooler today because of the wind, but it will still feel like Spring!  YEAH!

More Spring!

Good Morning everyone!  Happy 3rd week of April!  It is funny how time is flying by this year!  Our oldest daughter, Katie, will be 19 years old this coming Friday, April 19th!  And the best part is that she will be coming home to celebrate her birthday with us this year!  YAY!

On a scrapping note,  Color Me Scrappy's newest challenge is up and running on their blog right now!   It runs through April 30th, and is such a fun color scheme to work with.

Here it is:

Isn't it pretty?  The twist for this challenge is to use two of the same photos and butterflies on your project.    

Here is my take:

I used a photo of a butterfly that I took when I was at a Labor Day picnic last fall.  It was right after we dropped Katie off at Penn State for the very first time, and I felt that it was a sign that she, and I, were going to be OK!!! (And it all worked out beautifully!)  I cannot believe that she will be completing her freshman year in May and will be home for the "summer" so soon! 

 Back to scrapping:  in addition, I used Heather Landry's sketch #35 for inspiration:

Check out Heather's blog entitled "Miracles Momma Designs" here to see what the rest of the MMD Divas came up with for her awesome sketch!

Have a wonderful Monday!  Enjoy this beautiful day!!!

Iron Pigs game

We went to see the Iron Pigs (a "Phillies" minor league baseball team!) game last Saturday with my sister, Karen, and her husband, Tim!  We had a wonderful time, even in the COLD weather!  We were sitting there in warm coats, hats and gloves!! Unbelievable, because the temps hit the 80's here on Thursday!!!

Anyway, here are some pictures from the game.  They are all courtesy of my sister, Karen! Thanks, Kar!

We purchased the tickets for this game at Action Karate because the demo team was performing at the Iron Pigs pregame show for Martial Arts Night.

Here is the demo team performing:

Asah!

They did an amazing job!  a big congrats to them!!!

This game was the Iron Pigs vs the Syracuse Chiefs.  It was only the 3rd game of the season!  

And here we are enjoying the pregame even in the cold (with Anne's and my eyes directly at the sun!!):

Here's Aunt Karen and Anne:

Enjoying a snack:

The score board:

John and Tim:

FeRROUS and FeFe:

It's getting dark:

Game still going on:

 Aunt Karen wanted to purchase a signed ball.  Anne picked the ball with all of the team's signatures!  WOOHOO, Anne!

 And the Iron Pigs won their first game of the season in the 11th inning.  Final score: 5 - 4!

A re-cap:

"Allentown, PA - On two occasions the Lehigh Valley IronPigs gave up late leads, but when the dust settled they clawed their way to a 5-4 walk-off win in 11 innings over the Syracuse Chiefs for their first win of the season Saturday night at Coca-Cola Park.  . . . The home team easily had its best offensive game of the year, pounding out 12 hits, led by the 4-for-6 performance of Hernandez, who drove in a pair of runs. Castro had a solid day at the plate as well, finishing 3-for-5 with two runs scored, while Martinez drove in two on two hits."

Here's the official Iron Pigs website!

Hopefully we will get to enjoy more games this summer!  Thank you, Karen, for supplying the photos!!!


 . . . and thank you for stopping by my blog today!

Once Upon a Sketch's April Challenge

Hi everyone!

I came upon a lovely scrapbook sketch and journaling challenge blog entitled 

Once Upon a Sketch.  

Here is this month's sketch and theme:

April's Sketch:

April's Theme:  Best day of your life

"This month's theme is:  The best day of your life!!!!! Everyone has at least one or two! Tell us anything that you can relate this title to." 

The beautiful sketch really caught my attention and held it, and the theme is awesome!    Finding this sketch and theme really was wonderful for me!

I thought and thought about the best day of my life.  Which one should I pick to scrap about!  Quite a few days came to mind:  the birth of our daughter, Katie; the day Anne was placed in our arms in Changsha, China;  being the maid of honor for my twin sister on her wedding day, all of the fun-filled days we had on our Disney World vacation were just a few.  But when I actually thought about it, I knew that none of these days would have been possible if I hadn't met and married John!  It's funny because at the end of 1988, I thought my life was over.  I was newly divorced and was going through one of the saddest times of my life.  Little did I know that I was going to go out on a blind date on January 3, 1990, and  marry John 3 months later on March 3, 1990!  And what a day it was . . .  I can honestly say that it was the best day of my life!

Here is the layout that I created:

The journaling that you can see on my page next to our photo (which is one of my favorites of us!) includes some of the lyrics to the song "All my Life" by Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, and written by Karla Bonoff.  This song has such meaning to us because John played it for me just before he placed my engagement ring on my finger in El Paso, Texas. 

I wanted to include hidden journaling on my page, so I wrote words that I typed above and tucked it behind the photo of John and me.  So that he would always know why it was the was the best day of my life!

Here are some close up shots of my layout:

 . . . and I thought I would share a few other moments from our wedding day:

my dad and me:

Sharing a kiss after cutting the cake:

so happy!

It really was a magical day and one that I will never ever forget!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. 

And thank you, Once Upon A Sketch, for hosting this wonderful challenge that inspired my layout!

Signs of Spring!

Good Morning everyone!  Our temperatures are going to be in the 70's today!  It seems long coming, but I think Spring is finally here!  I went for a walk yesterday and found lots of signs of spring.  Do you want to come with me to see what I saw? If you do, follow me . . .

The first sign of Spring that I saw was as I was walking down our driveway: greens are starting to peak through the rocks:

 A little way down our road, I saw crocuses in bloom:

As I came upon the fields, vibrant greens were evident around bare trees:

 If you look closely, you can even see green starting to show around the barn and pond, which is down our road a little more:

The fields have been tilled and something green is starting to grow in even rows:

 Tiny little blue flowers are showing their smiling faces in the fields:

 Ahh . . . my favorite Spring flowers, daffodils:

 

Hyacinths:

And all kinds of beautiful Spring flowers:

As you can see, this home is decorated beautifully for Easter:

And, as I headed toward home, I was struck by how pretty the view is.  

And all of the greens growing in the fields:

And when I arrived home, I saw the most famous sign of Spring: a robin!  

He was singing to me from the neighbors' tree.  Can you see him?

I love Winter, but I love the changing seasons more.  I can't wait to see what Mother Nature has in store for us in the next few months.  Spring is here!!!!

And lastly, as I promised yesterday, here is a layout that I made using Anne's picture from Easter Sunday.  (Once again, I used papers from the Echo Park "So Happy Together" collection.)

Thank you all for taking the time to come visit me today.  Enjoy the coming Spring!!!!!