Getting Started is the Hardest Part

How bad is it to be too lazy to make yourself something to eat?  Yeah, that's where I'm at right now lol.  I want breakfast but we have been traveling so much that I haven't stocked the fridge with my usual fresh fruit.  I guess it's going to be a breakfast of baby carrots and coffee for the win this morning.  

Yesterday I didn't complete one single thing in my craft space. Not one.  No organizing happened.  No paper was pushed around and absolutely nothing was glued.  

We visited my oldest son over the weekend to help him celebrate his 25th birthday.  I really don't know where the time has gone but it is so, so lovely to be able to watch him thrive.  His home is happy, his roommates are great, he is satisfied in his work and excited about his future.  This mom can't ask for more than that...

We didn't do a lot of exciting things but we spent lovely time together.  And I made him a cheesecake based on his favorite cookie.  He loved it!  Even though I burned it:).  

For the first time ever (and probably the last) I did paintball.  The only activity that can make getting shot in the face fun.  Yes.  I got shot right in the face.  

We went hiking at the Cape Fear River Trail.  Remember the movie from the 80's or 90's about Cape Fear?  I was excited to get to see it up close and personal.  I was not so excited to experience the NC heat.  If you are looking for a trail that meanders through the cool wood trails this is not it!  It was more urban than the trails that we have here in the DC area lol.  I don't think we took more than 6 photos the entire weekend which is a bummer.  

These last few months have been really busy with traveling and we still have several more trips coming up. All of the moving and shaking does not help the mojo and I've really slowed down on the amount of time being spent creating.  My post title stems from the fact that sometimes I really just don't feel like doing anything but staring into space when we are at home.  Most of the time I find that just getting started will get me into the mood to make.  Some of my favorite techniques, pages and designs have come from times when the desire to create wasn't there at first.  Thankfully I do have some layouts to share this week.  Most of last weeks pages still need photos but here are a couple that are completely done.  

Oh Disney photos I hope you never end!  I have no words for this super simple page.  I just love how it came out:)

This next page is super simple too and I love it just as much.  Like unicorns me liking 2 of the pages that I created is a rare sighting lol.  It's about my Dad who is so, so awesome and fantastic.  Even though I really love the page, I still want to put stuff on it because it doesn't quite feel finished.  hmmmmm

The journaling is on the back on both pages.  Neither page had a good spot to write on for me.  I personally hate to write my journaling on patterned paper.  It happens here but it's not a favorite thing to do in these parts.  Most of the time I will either write what I want to say on the back or onto a separate piece of paper that will be taped to the back of the page.  I'm wordy so this works well for me.  

Hey all, thanks for stopping by and have a great Tuesday!

  

Tuesday

Yeah.  I'm full of original & witty titles this week lol.  

My little guy forgot to call me when he got in last night so I was up until 2 am AAANNDD my daughter called me around 7am to say hello.  Bedtime for me is normally around 9pm so you can imagine what I am feeling like right now with only 5 hours of sleep.  My husband is determined to take advantage of our practice run at empty nesting so we have a full social calendar this week.  Aerobics, lunch dates, wine at the pier, etc, etc.  You would think that our kid is 2 not 16 years old the way we are acting:)

Pink, Pink and more Pink sums up my layout shares today.  I don't know why I buy so much pink paper!  It seems that every piece I touch these days has pink in it.  Gaahh.  

The first page of my layout shares today include a couple more photos from my sisters wedding.  My Dad is an amazing father and even though there are 6 of us, he has managed to build a special individual relationship with each of us.  Some of the special things that he does though, he does for all of us.  So when my sister chose her father daughter dance song, she picked a song that my father used to sing to all of his girls when we were growing up.  As they were dancing, all of us were singing along to the music.  I don't think that Dad even thought we felt it was special and he was a little surprised to find out how we all felt (he might have shed a tear or two) about his tradition.  The photos are terrible but the memories are amazing!

My youngest son is not used to being around pregnant women.  Not up close and personal like his sister & brother got to be when I was pregnant with him.  It was so sweet to see how he reacted to being able to feel his sisters baby belly.  Adorable.  

I am not crazy about this page put it i'm calling it done and putting it in the album.  

My goodness how these kids have grown!  They look so little in this photo!  I snapped this one on my phone but it is still one of my favorites.

And last but not least, my little Ethan Bear who just celebrated his 3rd birthday.  These photos are from our Disney trip.  He was so happy in his costume and just hammed it up for the camera all day long:)

OMWord I love this page!  I actually really love the last 2 pages here (the first 2 not so much).  The look on his face.  His cute little self in his Batman costume.  The paper.  EVERY. SINGLE. THING. about it makes me smile.  Sorry to gush but I just love this page:)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Tuesday!

Happy, Happy Monday!

I love the smell of a fresh new week in the morning:)  Although I am very sad to see the Olympics go, I am over the moon about welcoming a new week into my life.  Mondays just feel like a clean slate to me.  A do over so to speak.  

Last week wasn't bad.  On the contrary, it was pretty ordinary.  We didn't go anywhere, celebrate anything or do something new.  Thankfully we spent lazy days at home and not too crazy days at work.  Just how I like my week!

My little birdie is going on his first trip alone and he leaves tonight.  I'm going to think of it as a preview of what's to come when he leaves for college next year.  Feeling a little sad and nervous about him taking the train all by his lonesome but he is excited and ready to go.  As he should be...

On the crafty front, I am feeling the burn.  I have made myself promise to not create another stash kit until I am done with the one I created last month.  It still has a metric ton of product and I am nowhere near ready to get rid of any of it.  The rules say that once it comes out of the stash it gets used or it gets gone and I'm sticking to that.  

I really, really want to pull some more stuff.  Really Badly.  But I won't.  Sigh.  

I have several layouts to share this week but since all of them need to have photos printed before they can be called complete, I will just be sharing 2 today:)

Up first is this sweet page about my adorable niece who is now 10.  We had taken her to the zoo and she was soooooo sleepy.  

I am so in love with this page!  Everything about it makes me happy!!  The colors, the papers, the embellishments.  My favorite page this week...

And next.....  Yes.  This is the 3rd of 4th time I have used that photo of my daughter and yes I am still doing Disney photos.  The page is only a little related to our Disney trip.  It is all about how we love to travel and will use any mode of transportation to get to where we want to be.  Planes, trains and automobiles.  Bring on the travel!  Shimelle had a stitching challenge on her blog (which I ended up missing because I am such a slacker) but I still love the page and am glad to take advantage of the inspiration.  Thanks Shimelle (who will never see this post so don't get excited that she is one of my 8 readers.  She's not:))  

I used so much floss.  My plane and ship photos are promo shots that I found online.  

That's it for me today folks.  Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you have a great week.  Until next time.....

Currently

Organizing and reorganizing my craft space.  Somehow it never feels "right" and I am okay with changing things to make it work for what I need and for what I want it to be.


Creating a lot but only happy with a small portion of the finished projects.  

Traveling a lot.

Kind of tired which can explain my lack of love for my pages.  As lovely as traveling is, it is exhausting!  The older I get the longer it takes me to recover.  

Everyday I am getting 2 pages done.  Lately I've been prepping 2 pages for the next day before leaving my space.  For some reason having the basic layout done really helps me to get in the mood to scrap.  I cut my papers down, choose embellishments and put everything where it is going to go on the page than walk away.  When I come back to it in the morning the ideas start flowing because all of the "work" is done.  

This page about my brother and my nephew did not come together easy!  I loved the papers, colors and those big hearts but didn't know where to go with the page after that. I ended up just calling it done even though it still looks incomplete to my eye.

On the other hand this page had the ideas coming as fast as I could get them done.  Every time I was ready to move on I thought of something else I could do lol.  Paint dots, spatters, pop-dots, paper piecing, sewing and inking all happened here:)  Me and my baby sis looking happy to be together as always.  She is coming to visit in September and will be here for a whole week!  

Can you believe that it's Friday?  Have a super fun and safe weekend everyone!  Thanks for stopping by and see you next week to continue with the ABC's....

Kind of Crafty But Not Really Inspired

Today is just one of those days.  I'm kind of crafty but not really.  I am inspired to scrap but I don't feel like it.  

Yeah.  The struggle is real.  

In honor of the struggle I am sharing 2 layouts and nothing else:)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Thursday!

The ABC's of Scrapbooking

When you have been scrapbooking for as long as I have, you tend to have tried it all.  This weeks and for the next 26 weeks, I think that I am going to recap my scrapbook history from A to Z.  Just to see how much of it all I have really done & seen:).  

Last week, I worked with the letter "A".  Techniques, products, blogs, retailers and tools. As much stuff that I could think of that started with the letter A.  Surprisingly, my list was short, short, short!  Especially when it came to techniques.  I seriously drew a blank and struggled to come up with more than what is detailed below for the letter A.  Even Google couldn't help me lol.  

Scrapbookers - Ali Edwards & Amy Mallory.  One very well known and the other not so much.  Both extremely talented.  

Techniques - Aluminum Foil Forged Metal Embellishments.  I'm going to try my hand at this and see what I come up with.

Products - Back to the basics here with 2 products that no scrapbooker can live without. Adhesive & Albums.  Over the years I have tried them all.  Well, most all of them and only a few are still with me.  For albums I use the D-ring Binder style for my pages and have replaced all of my other type albums with these.  We R Memory Keepers is my absolute favorite brand.  They can sometimes be hard to find at a good price but the albums are so well made that I will often just by them regardless of whether they are on sale or not.  My adhesives have been whittled down to about 6.  No matter how hard I try, I can't find an adhesive that works for everything I do.  What's a girl going to do?

• Tombow Mono-Multi - Holds well and smells great
• Scotch ATG - I have the gold and hope it never dies on me!  
• Tombow Permanent Runner - They hold well and last a good amount of time.  Love the stick and the ease of replacing the glue tape (unlike my ATG:( which I still struggle with every. single. time)
• Glue Dots - They are my jam when it comes to adhering small stuff.  Buttons, enamel dots, thickers, ribbon, ribbon bows, chipboard.......
• Aleene's - I prefer the thick & tacky (purple bottle) as it does not warp my paper as much.  When I am making a mini and want the pages to last forever and ever, this is the stuff!  It would take an act of Congress to get stuff unstuck and you know how hard those are to come by!  Do yourself a favor and store it upside down!! My hand is cramping just thinking about the reason why:).
• American Crafts Foam Dots - I haven't tried the rebranded sticky thumb ones but the old ones are amazing!!  AC Moore was clearancing them out last year and I bought every single one I could find.  It'll be awhile before they are all used up.  

Manufacturer - American Crafts.  Wow.  To see how far they have come is astounding. This company pretty much owns the scrapbooking industry today.  Many of my favorite brands fall under the large umbrella that AC holds up.  Check out their website here.  Be prepared to stay awhile.  Don't say you weren't warned.

Tools -  The only tool that I could come up with was Adhesive.  See list above:)

Shopping - AC Moore.  Especially for adhesive and paper pads.  

Blogs - Andrea Bethke and Ashley Horton.  Pure eye candy can be found on their regularly updated blogs....

YouTubers - AuntRecReates.  She has a lot of content on her channel and she does tons of stash videos.  

As far as creating goes, I do have a couple of layouts to share today.  Both were created using sketches.  First up is this one featuring my daughter and my niece when they were little.  They are both in there mid twenties now.  How time flies!  It's a terrible photo of them that has faded over the years. It's out of focus so badly that you can't even see their facial features!!  Thank goodness I have gotten better with photography over the years.  

The sketch for this page is this one from pagemaps.....

The next page is based on a sketch from Studio Calico.  

My youngest loves to read and some of the book series that he started when he was a little guy still bring him so, so much joy.  He loves words like I do and started reading adult books in elementary school.  We give him pretty much carte blanche on what he reads....

That's about it for me today.  A mega post with very few photos but lots of links.  I hope you enjoy clicking through them!  

Thanks for stopping by and happy Monday.  Have a great week everyone!

Sorry (I Ain't Sorry)

Driving back from SC with my daughter gave me a lot of time & opportunity to listen to Beyonce's new album.  My girl loves everything B!  While it is a little too too for my taste, a couple of songs really were nice and for real, today, this song is just perfect for the mood I'm in.  

Sometimes life makes you apologetic.  I can freely admit that and I often feel that I need to say "sorry" for things that there is no need to be sorry for.  Like taking too long to get to the door at the post office when someone holds it open for me (even though they opened it as soon as my car stopped running).  Or for the opinions that I hold and strongly believe in (don't ask if you don't want to know my truth).  Or for eating the last cookie in the pack (who really feels sorry for doing that!?).  I can think of a million different things that would go quite nicely in this paragraph but the bottom line is that today, I am not going to be sorry for anything at all!  I am going to live my life this week and hopefully every week without looking back at what I should, could or would say, feel or do.  

Does this mean that I am going to turn into a huge jerkface?  No my ingrained southern politeness will never let that happen but I will turn a lot of my "sorries" into simple thank you's or no thank you's.  So here we go, I'm doing it!  

Next up - Creating with intention.  Hmmmm that's a tough one.  The question that I have been asking myself is this:  When I sit down to create, where am I going with it? What is my intention for pulling out paper, thread, paint or clay?  This seems a very good Monday morning question right?  I think that lately I have been creating to get to the end. To use up the things that I've accumulated over the years so that it doesn't seem as if my time and money have been wasted.  I know, I know.  Scrapbooks are all about saving the memories and history of our families for future generations blah, blah, blah.  That is not my reality.  When I move on to the big LSS in the sky, my kids will cherry pick the pages in my albums and only keep about 10% of what I have created.  Keeping it real.  And keeping it short until my head really wraps around the question.  Maybe by Friday but until then how about some layouts. 

The first page that I'm sharing today is from Christmas 2011 (hard to believe that it has been 5 years since we took these photos!).  I decided to go with a simpler Christmas theme with toned down colors and not a lot of embellishment.  But man oh man, the paper is so, so pretty!  And the non-traditional color scheme makes me happy too.  I don't know if you noticed that the photo next to the title runs off the page but that was a total accident.  This page is a sort of a review page and I wanted to use the photo of all of us together to "sum" up the week.  It was too big!  Arrrggggghhhhh!@#%($%  I had created the page without photos in front of me with the intention of sizing the photos to fit the mats. 

The photo would not size down!  I really liked the page as it was so I decided to just go with it and place a white mat around the picture and let it hang off the page.  Happy enough with it and it is going into the album.

The next page was from my stash kit.  Holy Moly is it colorful!!  I should have done a before photo/after photo shot of this:)  I scraplifted the design from the March/April 2012 CK Issue.  The page is "Give Me A Book" by Kim Watson.  I really loved how she used the rolled flowers and sprinkled her embellishments in a diagonal down the page.  Of course I didn't have the patience to do this but I loved it on her page:)

Really happy with how it came out and the design goes really well with how casual my photo is.  Loving that pop of yellow title!

That's it for me folks!  Thanks for stopping by and have a happy, happy Monday:)

A favorite Scrapper

Since this week is the week of "A", I have to talk about Ali Edwards.  Her style has evolved over the years but it has not morphed into something unrecognizable.  She still creates with lots of breathing room, her photos and her stories are always at the forefront of the pages she creates and she does magic with words.  With truths.  She puts so much of herself out there but somehow she never crosses the line into over sharing.  I truly love how open and honest she is and if I had to sum her up in one little word (see what I did there:)) it would be "true".  

A lesser known scrapbooker than AliE whose work is smashing is Amy Mallory.  She doesn't post much on her blog (no updates since Nov 2015) but pinterest is full of her lovely pages.  I find her interesting because she does a mix of digital and traditional and both her styles are beautiful.  Thanks for the inspiration Amy!

Every now and then, a layout just speaks to me.  It comes together effortlessly and looks exactly how I pictured it in my head.  This layout is that for me.  

There was no scraplifting, class or sketch involved in the making of this layout.  It is 100% me loving a piece of patterned paper and just going with the flow.  I just told a lie:)  I did see a page by Amy Mallory that sparked the idea of flowing the circles across the page. Her page had hexagons in a vertical column (the page is "Red Sox Love" from CK magazine)

The vacation whose pictures would not go away:).    That's what i'm starting to feel but in a good way.  I have found myself scrapping some of the photos from this trip multiple times AND printing them to frame for my walls.  Happy, happy, joy, joy is the feeling that these pictures evoke!

The layout is surprise, surprise - a scraplift of a page called "Dude" by Stephanie Stanton from CK magazine.  Loving the "arrow" strips!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you had a great Thursday...

Thrifting Has My Heart

And my wallet:)  But man oh man do I find some good stuff when I go.  Both to sell in my eBay store and to decorate my house with.  We decided that while some of our stuff would be purchased new, we want a lot of it to be old and to have some history to it.  Mostly i've been purchasing paintings, prints and nic-nacs but we are also planning on buying some larger furniture pieces too.  

The quality of the furniture that can be found at estate and yard sales is just phenomenal and it is always a surprise to see what people are willing to get rid of.  Some of this stuff looks as if has never been used.  Granted, the styles can be very outdated but there are still plenty of classics that never go out of style to be had.  We have been going to the movies more these last few months thanks to the release of several insanely interesting looking films.  

• Finding Dori - not nearly as good as Finding Nemo but watchable.
• Star Trek - No words for how good this was for me:)
• Ghostbusters - I laughed all the way through it!
• Independance Day - Wow, I really loved seeing how they tied the old storyline together with the new storyline into a neat little wrapped box.  Really fresh and interesting with very few dead spots.

I have really been enjoying this last week of "nothing to do".  It has been bliss!!  Our little family is starting to get mentally prepared for the next school year and taking care of the chores that come with going back to school for the very last time.  Our last little birdie will be flying the nest and heading off to college next year.  

College visits are a ton of work!  Just sayin....

On the creative front, I'm baaaacccckkk.  Yes!  Feels so good to have some paper in my hands and glue on my fingers lol.  I used sketches for both of the pages that i'm sharing today.  Sketch 1.....

Layout 1...

The photos of me and my oldest daughter struck me bc we have pretty much the same expression on our faces in both.  They highlight how much alike we are in a lot of ways but still so entirely different at the same time.  

Sketch 2.....

Layout 2....

I have been seriously hoarding the paper in the page above for several years.  It is absolutely beautiful!  The photos can't do it any justice at all and it was perfect for this photo that my husband snapped on our cruise in 2013.  I kept it really, really simple.  Although I tried to add layers and more stuff, nothing fit so i ended up taking it off.  Love this page!  

Thanks for stopping by!  We finally made it to Friday!! I will have the weekend to myself to spend as I please.  Thinking that I will scrap and complete 200 layouts but in reality I'll probably end up reading, napping and cross-stitching the entire time:)

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Ryan's

Maryland needs a Ryan's.  Like right now!  For a buffet style restaurant, it is very good. The food is always fresh, the place is always clean and the service is always good.  When my kids were little, we would have at least one family meal a week there.  It got me out of the kitchen and the entire family could find something yummy & healthy to eat. Fortunately my kids all love vegetables and Ryan's always had a really good assortment of them to choose from.  Of course it was on the list of places to eat this past summer during our visit to SC and it was everything that I remembered:)  

Thankfully there has been more time in my life so I have been able to get a few layouts done.  Yay.  The first page is a scraplift of "The World is Yours" by Els Brige.  It's pinned on my pinterest board here if you would like to take a look.  I really loved her page and stuck very close to her design.  

Next up is this page.....

Can I first just talk about my hibiscus.  O joy did they put on a show for my front porch this year!  They have been producing blooms for months now and I am just in love.  Hibiscus have never been a favorite of mine but my husband saw these and wanted to get them.  Yeah, just call me converted and a huge fan now.  

The page was based on this pagemaps sketch

It's okay with me that they don't look much alike:)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Thursday!  Only one more day before the weekend rolls in....

Wedding Dresses

My sister and I were shopping for dresses in a bridal boutique.  Formal dresses for my Dad's upcoming retirement/birthday party.  While we didn't really find a dress, what I did find was the perfect dress for my oldest daughters wedding.  Which is funny because she is not even dating just yet:)  And even funnier is the fact that she will probably not let me have much say in the dress anyway.  She is definitely her own woman and likes to do things her own way.   As her mom, I will be happy for her and as supportive as possible regardless of how much say I have in the decisions.  Moving on to the next thing...
  

Summer = Busy = Little to No Creative Time

There has been no time since May for me to be creative everyday the way I want to.  I have been able to sneak in some crafty time for myself but that time has to be used very wisely.  My crafty goals have had to be put on a shelf for almost the entire month of July! Right now the house is quiet bc my kid is worn out from his volunteer session at the farm but once he recovers, eats lunch and my husband gets home from work, it is a wrap on the quiet time!  

At the beginning of the year I promised myself that I would continue to make time for myself creatively.  In order to keep that promise I've had to work out some shortcuts/processes that really work well for me.  I'm sure that nothing is groundbreaking or never before seen but they are all new to me and seem to work well for how things are for me right now, in this moment.

• We have been doing a lot of road trips and have several more planned before the year is out.  In order to stay creative, I keep a notebook specifically for crafting with me at all times.  It keeps all of the ideas, sketches, notes, videos, classes & notes that I keep in one place so that they are easy to find (ie actually usable) when I can manage to find the time to get to my space and create.  
• Traveling with supplies doesn't work for me so I just don't do it but I do take along magazines and idea books.  I than sticky note pages that I want to lift or ideas that I want to try.  Another thing that works is watching videos, reading blogs, listening to podcast & surfing pinterest (we have a mifi) while we are in the car.  
• At home I use snatches of time to print photos, organize my supplies, cut paper for layouts and create backgrounds.   A lot more than you think can be accomplished using the odd 15 minutes here or there.
• I'll also use spare time to get on the silhouette and create titles, backgrounds and embellishments.  The time can be split between creating stuff in the software and printing or assembling them.  

Watching YouTube videos is definitely one of my favorite things to do whether i'm on the road or crafting in my space.  Becki Adams is a favorite.  Her videos are very well done and her pages are amazing!  

I do have a couple of pages to share:)  The first is another page from our Disney trip:) The papers are actually recent purchases which makes me extremely happy!  The new motto is use it as you get it.  woot, woot.  Both of the background papers are very busy so I printed the photo large to keep the papers from overpowering it.  The 2 smaller photos were just off cuts that I decided to go ahead and use on the page for added interest.  

  

The page is just meh for me.  You know how that goes, sometimes you love and other times you don't.  It is still going into the album just the way it is.  

I've been using pagemaps sketches for quite a few years and never seem to grow tired of them.  This one...

is a favorite even though I don't love the tilt and can never make a tilted design work for me.  It was also the base for this page.  

Using a good mix of old and new (some of it is really, really old) on this page.  The K&Co die-cut edge papers are from a paper pad that was released in 2011 or 2012 and it is fantastic.  Sadly, I only have a few pages left:(  There is a lot of last years Simple Stories Halloween line on here too.  LOVE the photos of my nieces & nephews!!

That's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and happy Wednesday! 

Crazy Town

It's crazy to think that the start of the school year is right around the corner!  It seems as if the year has just started but it is really more than halfway gone.  Geez, Father Time if your reading this blog, please slow it down just a little...

My family and I just wrapped up a mini vacation in SC.  Love my peeps!  Spending time with them is pure joy:)  Thrifting with my Dad, swim meets with my nieces & nephew. They rocked the pool, winning several heats each!  Touring houses with my sister.  They would really love for us to move back to South Carolina but man it was sooooo hot!  90+ degrees everyday.  I am 100% positive that they don't miss my complaining about the heat.  It was a blissful 77 degrees when we rolled back into MD.  

I have barely created anything at all for the last few months.  All of the plans and kits that I had in place just fell by the wayside to make room for travel and visits.  It has been so, so busy around here that I've barely had time to breathe much less scrapbook.  

I did manage to get some stuff done this weekend after we got back from Philly and I will be posting the pages throughout the week.  I've also started on a new explosion album that should be completed by the end of this week or so.  

The design for this page came from this pagemaps sketch.

The page and the sketch don't really have much in common but the sketch was a great starting point for this layout.  Once I got my basics figured out I was able to think about and focus on the design itself.  The doilies were moved around and brought in closer to the photo and the number of photos was reduced to 1 big one instead of 9 small ones.   Increasing the size of the photos just added some more interest.  The two clusters surrounding the photo helped to make the design even more my own style and less like a generic sketch.   These kids will play from sun-up to sun-down!  It doesn't matter what kind of game either (nerf war, tag, monopoly, cards, minecraft, etc, etc, etc) they love them all!  I love how well they get along and that arguments and disagreements are rare and quickly resolved.  

The next page was straight from my head and really, really simple.  I just wanted to use a cut file:)  My son took this photo of DC as our plane was landing and it reminded me of how this city has really felt like home for us more than any other place we have lived.  Had to scrap about it....

Not my favorite layout but it will go into the album!  

That's it for me folks.  Thanks for stopping by...