There will be flowers!!

Boy I sure love the lovely days!! We got to take advantage of one over the weekend and planted our flowers in the pots, barrels and flower box. I planted my herb barrel with rosemary, thyme and oregano, it looks so tasty. 

Oops!! Wrong picture, it's so close to looking my barrel I got mixed up (ha). Well anyway, we'll have a lovely yard when the Osmocote and Miracle Gro do their thing. We use the slow release Osmocote and then fertilize with Miracle Gro once a week and if the sun participates (hmmm) and the snails go to the neighbor's, we get lovely full pots. But, enough for the commercials.

We've been waiting and waiting for Chris to get his leave and come home to us, but the Navy really needs him right how to clean the barracks and go on watch so we wait some more. Please continue to pray for him and all our service members especially at this time when we remember what they have sacraficed for our freedom.

I am working on creating a travel collage on one wall in my studio.  I've made this printer's tray to be included among the photos and other things that are special to me and our family. The 7 Gypsies tray has a bit of Graphic 45 paper, some Tim Holtz tape on the outside frame and the rest is pictures of us in our travels!! 

I hope you like my new look! I needed a facelift. I'll be sharing some cards I've made, some fun I'm having with organizing and couponing and all the other things that have been keeping me from blogging. Like so many of you, I have too many interests!!! I will never be bored.

Blessings,

Lorelei

Life is somewhat normal again ;-)

I hope you didn't give up on me.  I've been very pre-occupied with Chris in Bootcamp. He is now at his A-school in Virginia, learning to cook and having a great time.

In the mean time, Nathan graduated from High School early and is going to RCC; just like that!! In the fall he wants to go to Oregon Institute of Technology!! That would mean an EMPTY NEST!!!! (What's that I'm hearing in my head? Is that crying and weeping and wait it's worse!!! QUIET!! Oh NO!!)

I guess I'll have to keep myself busy with scrapbooking and cardmaking. Wait, I like that don't I? I might have more time for what I like, WOW, this might not be so bad.  Don't get me wrong I love my kids to the moon and back, but this might turn out OK.

So with all with all this time on my hands (sounds like a song, no, no that was too much time... and we know we don't have that!!) I'm going to need to stay organized. To that end.,.. I made this cute little composition book for keeping notes and lists.  It's fun to look at which it makes it easier to write in and dare I say stay or get organized?

Since my lists were empty (ha, who am I kidding?) I enrolled in the new Club Got Sketch, an on-line class by Valerie Salmon. I post pics of the layouts that I do using inspiration from her great sketches. This is a rafting trip we took as a family (cousins from Minnesota, Texas and Cali) down the Rogue River from Chinook Park to Schroeder Park. We had a fabulous time and this is just page one of a two page spread.

Finally, I wanted to share a cute little card I made after getting some inspiration from Archiver's in Chicago. What a fun store that was. I can't wait to go back, I really think if we did a road trip to shop there for the day, it would be worth it!! This is a Hero Art stamp that has the flowers as the part not covered with ink, the white area is heat embossed and the flowers and birds are then painted with water color!  I also did one in oranges and green; very cute.

I hope you are enjoying what you do, getting a chance to do a lot of it and remembering that there are blessings all around us. You are a blessing to me. Thanks for looking.

XO
Lorelei

Could Valentine's Day be the birth of scrapbooking??

 Did you ever wonder how we came to celebrate Valentine's Day? Since I am a member of the order of the "Women of the Perpetual Question" I looked it up.

One theory of how Valentine's Day came to be goes back to Rome in 270 AD!! The emperor at the time, Claudius II, ruled that soldiers couldn't marry because it made them weak.  He said married men were more emotionally attached to their families. Valentine, a priest of the day, thought this was unjust and he secretly joined lovers in holy matrimony. He was caught before too long and thrown into prison where he fell in love with the jailor's daughter.  It is said that just before his execution he signed a farewell to his love "From your Valentine," a phrase that has lived ever after. He is believed to have been executed on Feburary 14, 270 AD.

By the 18th century, gift giving and exchanging hand-made cards (yay!!) on Valentine's Day became common in England. Cards made of lace, ribbons, and featuring cupids and hearts were made and given to one's lover. It wasn't until the 1840's that Valentine's cards, intially made by Esther Howlanda Mount Holyoke, were made commercially available. They were made of "scrap." Hmmmm, was this the beginning of scrapbooking?  You certainly know my thoughts on the subject.

Here's to spreading the love today my dear Valentines.

XO,
Lorelei

Wellness Continued

I am still enjoying my wellness journey! I have been eating really well and exercising almost every day. I am pretending that I'm in boot camp with my son Chris! He doesn't get any breaks and he can't quit so neither can I. Talk about motivation. I think it's the best!

Please forgive the long absence from posting here. It is because of Chris going into boot camp in Great Lakes, IL this month that I have been otherwise occupied. We had an Anchor's Aweigh party for him a few Saturdays ago and that took planning and execution. It was all so worth it though, because we all had such a great time. He invited the folks from our church and the young people he has been with in the DEP (delayed entry) program and those that helped him make his decision to go into the Navy. There were a few family members here also.

 Since he has gone into boot camp I have been very distracted by the Navy for Moms web-site where there are other moms with young people that went to boot camp on the same day as Chris, and I have even found one mom whose son has been assigned to the same ship and division!! Chris's recruiter texted yesterday with the ship and division information. That was when I shed my first tears and almost lost it. I have been very strong so far because this is the very best thing for Chris and he is in good hands. But, the ship and the division numbers are a small thread of connection, the only one right now, that I have to Chris and it means the world at this point! I still need to receive his clothes that he wore to boot camp, his cell phone, etc. to arrive from Federal Express, along with a form letter that will have the graduation date and his official address. He can't call or write to us for 3 weeks (1 down, 2 to go).

I have been concerned about our wellness throughout all of this personal drama, though, and I want to encourage you to exercise together with me using either the plan as it is taught on Big Picture Classes (bigpictureclasses.com), or on your own. I have been getting great information from The Biggest Loser - 6 Weeks to a Healthier You a great book which has eating plans, exercises and recipes that are very good. I like that program on TV a lot too.

Wellness doesn't just doesn't include the physical body, though. Wellness also includes our spirit and our mind. I want to nudge you to make time for devotion and prayer, and also to find ways to grow mentally. If you are not of the Christian faith, then find time to meditate and get your spiritual house in order. This is vitally important to your sense of well being and to overall wellness. There are many studies available to prove this point. Almost as important is challenging yourself mentally. Don't be satisfied with what you already know, make a commitment to learn about something you've wondered about. Hey, how about learning about places to travel or better yet, how about scrapbooking and card making!! Hmmm, how did this wellness conversation work around into scrapbooking? Oh well. It just so happens that I'm teaching a card class this Saturday, January 29, at Anna's 659-1097). Here's just a sample of one of the 10 cards we'll be making for $20.

Blessings and take good care of you,

Lorelei

A New Year and a New Resolve

2011 is here!! I know it's been said so often and yet it's too true; 2010 just flew by.  How can we make the new year memorable if it too is going to fly by?  Sadly, I don't have the answer you might want to hear, but I do want to do more this year for me to feel better, look better and be heathier overall.  I try to do this every year and somehow I let other things take priority and in no time at all, another year has gone by and not much has changed. I might have even backslid a bit (ok alot).  But all is not lost if we keep trying. Gardeners take out plants that die or have been placed in too much sun, scrapbookers put an embellishment over a mistake and if the book you're reading is bad, you pick a different one. So... if what we've tried in the past hasn't worked, we need to plant something else, pick a different book, slap a sticker on it or try a new lifestyle!! What's more, we need to tell people we're doing it! "Ahhhhh" you say. It's been proven that accountability is what makes folks successful in their undertakings. So why can't we accomplish accountability (i.e. proven route to success) by letting it be known that we're doing something new? Maybe we won't want to fail if we have to admit it to someone else.

I'm taking another class from Big Picture Classes called "Wellness Journey."  Part of the class is to make a journal of our activities, so I want to share mine with you.

I would love to be accountable to you and share my journey with this journal. How perfect for a scrapbooker to be able to go on a Wellness Journey and make improvements to my body, mind and spirit and have this fun journal to share.

The papers I'm using are Pink Paislee's Parisian Anthology which I received as a gift from a dear friend. Thank you so much, buddy!! and thanks to you who are checking in today. Let me know if you need an accountability partner, I'm here for you ;D

XOXO,
Lorelei
HNY!!

Yet another layout!!

Here's another layout I've just completed for the Nic Howard on-line scrapbooking class I'm taking. This is Chris's graduation from high school in 2009. Blue was the color we were to work with which was perfect for the school colors and for helping me get another page done for the 2009 album. I love doing the clusters which I could not do before this class and I can still benefit from more practice.

I hope you all have a very blessed day and stay dry!

XO,

Lorelei

Sharing my love of scrapbooking....

This is my favorite recent page that I did for the Big Picture class. The theme for this class was green so I immediately think of my Oroville pictures. The lake view is from our deck, isn't that fun?  I used Queen Bee paper from Pink Paislee for this layout because of the wonderful die-cut page which I cut in half. The technique that thrilled me the most was my own by accident. I painted a Maya Road chipboard swirl with  Ranger Lettuce wash. It covered the chipboard beautifully. But when it dried and I painted just a bit of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Gold over the wash it created an incredible thing. Stop now, drop everything and go try it!!  

Have a great Thanksgiving and enjoy your family time. Eat all the pie, potatoes, and stuffing and start your diet after the first of the year ;-).

 I am thankful for the opportunity to create and share pages and cards with you. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy life to stop by and look. If you are traveling over the holiday, be safe. God bless your holiday and I hope you find some time to create. 

XO,

Lorelei

Winter/Christmas Card Class

These are two cards I've made for the class coming up on Dec. 11th at 10:00 am at Anna's house. The class will be $20 and will include10 fun cards for Christmas or winter depending on the sentiment you choose to put on the inside. 

I have been really busy with the scrapbooking classes I'm taking on-line. Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love them. You can find some free sketches from Valerie Salmon here. It is a big help to getting started on a page and to having a fun and done page in the end!  The "All a Buzz" sketch is a bee migration that occurred downtown one day last year. I was able to capture the whole story with the pictures I took. It was really interesting how the bee man found the queen and then the rest of the bees followed her to a box that the queen was placed in.

I'll share more fun layouts and cards in the next day or so.  In the meantime, have a richly blessed day my friends. Make a list so you can feel good about crossing things off ;~).

XO,
Lorelei

It's Nathan Day!!

Both of the layouts I want to share with you today are featuring Nathan!  I do have another son, and I do take pictures of him.  Chris is a wonderful guy and I'll share pics of him soon. The 1st layout is another that is inspired by the Got Sketch 106 class I'm taking.  I'm happy that it captures the excitement and fun of the day. The day the Pittsburgh Steelers (Nathan's fav team) won the Super Bowl!

This is a layout of Nathan's baseball days.  It was created for the Nic Howard class I'm taking on Big Picture Classes to highlight the color orange.  I loved making the cluster which I have wanted to learn to do for a while now. The page is not too busy and yet the cluster is relevant to the pics.

 I'm having another Christmas card class on Saturday, Nov. 20 at 9:30 at Anna Bearden's house.  Tomorrow I'll be posting the cards for another card class coming up very soon.  This is a great way to socialize, have a few laughs and get your cards done at the same time.  

I hope you are feeling richly blessed today and that your Thanksgiving plans are coming along nicely ;~).

XO, Lorelei 

Fun layout to share

Good Morning!!

I'm excited today! We are getting an upgrade to our satellite system and we'll be able to watch 2 different channels now and record!! Now I know everybody can already do this and you probably don't understand the excitement I feel, but this is truly a giant step for the Wojciks! This is part of my campaign to become more techno savvy within my family. Next step might be updated cell phones so stay tuned ;~).

Nathan's team lost their game in Florence, but they played really, really well against maybe the best team in the state in Siuslaw. Last night they gave the awards out for fall sports and Nathan received an Honorable Mention for both Tight End and Middle Linebacker for our conference within the state of Oregon and more importantly received Defensive Player of the Year from his teammates!!  Of course he wasn't able to attend because he was working a project for school. What!!!! Yep, that's right. His dad and I were disappointed but he had to choose and getting the project done for English won out. Awww yes.

In the My Time of my life, I created this layout for the Got Sketch 106 on-line class I'm taking. The technique we learned was to make the accordion flowers. This layout is made with Graphic 45 "Le Romantique." I am pleased with the result and once again may I say that working with Graphic 45 papers is so much fun. The embellies are from Prima "Flights of Fancy." The pictures are of my cousin Joel's wedding in Lake Tahoe last year. We had such a great time and now the memories are ours forever. I love that part.

Well I have to be off to get my house ready to have new and better TV!! (which I don't watch during the day, how do people get anything done?). I hope your day is super awesome and you are able to find time for you.

XO,
Lorelei