Happy Independence Day, America!

The 4th of July is a wonderful holiday for The United States of American - we celebrate 235 years of independence this year! 

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.  (by Irving Berlin)

Here is my tribute to our great land and our celebration of independence:

There is another celebration going on this year, and this one is not specific to America.  It's the 7th birthday celebration for E-Scape and Scrap that begins on their blog.

I created a couple of layouts and a quickpage (which you can download for free right here) for this celebration using the new Lucky 7 Collaboration kit for sale in the shop:

In case you missed it above, click here to download your free quickpage.

However you spend the 4th of July, I hope you have a wonderful day.

Cute Kids Part 2

I just had to share some super-cuteness tonight, I'll be seeing this young man soon:

Layouts created using Preppy Boy by Sus Designs

Remembering the Good Old Days

I was ridiculously nostaglic last night - you know, the angst you get when it seems like everything that was good in the past is gone and can not be recaptured. I'm blaming "Where the Red Fern Grows" and consequently Netflix for offering these great old movies for Instant view. Either way, although the new generation of kids will never know what they are missing, I was sad for them last night as I realized that to them the definition of classics will be "Hannah Montana" and "The Simpsons."

kits used - Vintage USA by Kay Eflin, I Love Television by Julie Mead

Journaling:
Who will comfort them at night when the lights go out and they are not ready for sleeping just yet? Whose voices will they hear? Will they offer the same solace as Lucy and Mary?

We [my sisters and I] were born just in time. We grew up with classic TV, with role models like Lucille Ball and Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke. We knew that Green Acres was the place to be, that horses do indeed talk, and where everybody knows your name. I look at TV now and I don’t see the same comfort. Slowly they are banishing these shows to DVD, &replacing them is an impossible task. It’s unexplainable how it feels late at night to hear the slow tempo and dramatic music of the TV shows from the 50’s- the 80’s.I Love Lucy, Facts of Life, Mork & Mindy, Fantasy Island... watching them might not make me cool, but it makes me feel safe and secure in the world.

A Big Little Project

Well, I'm a lot more excited about my latest project than pretty much anyone else, but that's the way it goes, lol.  I recently made a mini-album (which I used as an example for this week's Use Your Stash Challenge at ACOT) and when I handed it to John to show him he opened it up to the middle page.  That's not how albums work!  Where's Nicole when I need her?

I've had an Epcot Passport kit for several years - it was super cute in the store but I had never gotten around to opening it up and using it.  When I decided to create a challenge about kits I suddenly had the urge to use that kit (even though it's technically not a scrapbooking kit).  I loved the end result - a passport book filled with memories of my experiences at Epcot's Holidays Around the World, one of my favorite events at Ecpot.

Check it out - here are a couple of images from the mini-album.  The rest can be found by clicking here.

cover:

title page:

intro:

Germany:

USA:

United Kingdom:

Thanks for looking!

Cute Kids and Other Stuff

Happy Belated Memorial Day to everyone - God Bless our Armed Forces.  A shout out to our soldiers, Rest In Peace Grandpa and Uncle Pots who served their country well, and thanks for Dad for his years of service as well.

We had a fun holiday, picnic and kickball in the park with friends and family and bbq ribs. 

I finished an album tonight - it's my Cute Kids Album.  I finally pulled together a title page for it:

And some recent cell phone pictures from Nicole helped me round out the pages:

Yep, we know some cute kids!

Family Values

I love my family - they are what matters most to me.  Take a look:

Eat What You Want Day

May 11 is Eat What You Want Day.  I know some people who ate chocolate cake today just because.  At least the holiday fit the crime.  :-)

After a couple of weak months, my scrapping has picked back up.  I finished 11 layouts for the crop this past weekend which brings me to 17 in May.  My end goal is 47 in order to catch up with what I didn't finish in March and April.  I have plenty of digi kits I need to work with, plus I'm having a lot of fun playing with my paper stash, so I don't see this being too much of a problem.

Here are a few of my most recent layouts: