What's Up??

Isn't this just the cutest little elephant ever?  She is a Penny Black stamp I bought recently and I'm having a great time making a fun card every now and then. The little bird on the top of her ear is chirping "What's Up?"  He could also say "Happy Birthday" or "Great Job" or almost anything really as this card can be used as a kids card or a fun card for an adult friend.

 This card was made with one of my favorite paper collections ever: Stella Rose by My Minds Eye. The collection has the colors that I love and it's a little girly but not too much so.

We went to the dunes this weekend and this was a sunset we caught on Saturday night. The weather was so lovely. I went to Memories of Time in Coos Bay while I was there. I really love the store, but sadly it too is closing. I've been known to shop on-line now and then, but nothing beats being able to see the paper in real life. 

I thank you for taking a look at the blog today and welcome you to come back and check in often.

Love,

Lorelei

Summer Card Camp, Week 3

Yesterday I mentioned that I'm taking an online card class. It's called Summer Card Camp 2011. My favorite card maker, Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner, are teaching the class and I'm finally able to submit a card this week! The color pallette was the important consideration in the card I made Day 1 of week 3 and I hope you can tell what the colors were.

For this card I used a Hero Arts stamp called "Sillhouette in Grass." The sentiment was a Stampin' Up stamp which was gold embossed. I stamped with Wild Honey Distress Ink by Ranger and sprayed the stamp with Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels. I used a bit of Gold Stickles on the wheat. I had some corrigated cardboard so I sprayed that with Terra Cotta Ranger Wash and then a little Gold Glimmer Mist over the top. I really, really love Ranger Distress Inks!! They are so versatile.

I'm going to leave you today with this thought; If you never push yourself to do more, try more, be more, you will never feel the excitement, exhilaration and confidence that comes with success in anything.

Blessings,

Lorelei

Life in the Empty Nest

The party is over and we had so much fun!! We had wonderful tacos provided by Casa Amiga, a giant silly string match (a very Wojcik thing) played Rings, and admired everyone's new tattoos. What? Tattoo you say? Yep, that's what I said, Chris and Stan planned a joint tattoo session and the group grew! This is a pic of all the tattoos!! No I did NOT get one.

 Now Chris is back in Norfolk being a sailor and Nathan is back in Klmath Falls working at the YMCA. We are home alone and you know what? I kinda like it!! Life is simpler and Stan and I can eat better because we like lots of food the kids don't and we need to eat healthier and less!!

So it's back to creating cards and pages which I LOVE to do. I'm taking an online card making class and so I'll be sharing some of those cards with you soon. In the meantime, here are a couple I made recently.

This card is made with a Hero Arts stamp and colored with pencils. I totally copied the card from the Hero Arts blog and I think it came out pretty good.

This card was just too much fun! I colored the butterfly with Ranger Distress Ink and then painted it with Ranger Rock Candy Crackle paint. Isn't gorgeous.

I hope you are having a great week and are feeling richly blessed.

Much love,

Lorelei

Here's our handsome sailor.

Graduating and taking on a job too!!

 

There's a new graduate from Hidden Valley High School. Wow did that go fast!

We are all so proud of him!!

Nathan moved to Klamath Falls the weekend after graduation so he could go to work at the YMCA! He is growing up so fast and taking on the world.

Please keep him in your prayers. It seems like a lot of pressure for a young man, living away from home right after high school.

Chris is coming home on leave in 7 days!!! I am so anxious to have my family together again.

I hope you are enjoying good times with those you love, especially as we celebrate fathers this Sunday. What an important role our fathers play in our ability to be independent, responsible, confident citizens and members of our country and our families.

God bless our dads!!

Love,

Lorelei



It's that time...

I remember like it was yesterday when I put my two boys on the bus, Chris going to 2nd grade and Nathan going to his first day of kindergarten. Chris the older and wiser brother taking his little brother under his wing to show him how it's done. Here we are, after a blink and the older brother is in the Navy making a big life for himself, protecting what's near and dear to us all, and the little bro is graduating from High School.

It has all been so wonderful. All the baseball, football and basketball. All the helping in the classrooms of teachers who are now our dear friends. Meeting those who were in the same place all those years ago and who are now, tonight watching their kindergartners graduate from High School.

I wouldn't change a thing. God has been so good to us. This is the place and time He meant for us to be long before we would ever know it ourselves and all is very good.

Nathan is moving to Klamath Falls on Sunday June 12th. He has a job at the YMCA. Is that perfect for him or what? Chris is coming home on leave June 24th and will be here when family and friends come to celebrate Nathan's graduation on July 2nd. Is that perfect or what? We are a blessed family and we look forward to the day when our boys, who went on the bus together to Jerome Prairie Elementary in Grants Pass, OR, come and visit because they love our company and want to be with mom and dad.

Stan and I are going to be just fine. We love all the same things, well maybe he doesn't love scrapbooking, but I love sports. We both love to travel and camp and enjoy our home. Life will be different but we are exactly where we are want to be. God IS good.

Blessings,
Lorelei

Cards, cards, cards class YEAH!!

Here's a small sample of the  cards that I've made for the card class at Anna Bearden's house on Sat., June 4th. Here's the link annabearden@msn.com if you'd like to join the fun.

The card above would make a great Father's Day card or how about a birthday card for your brother or favorite Son-in Law. (We promise not to tell ;~).

This is probably my favorite card. I love strawberries and these look good enough to eat. There are 10 cards in the class for $20. They are all fun and unique and you'll have a card for all reasons and all seasons!

My next post will share my new favorite new product, Smash Journals by K & Co. Mine will record our adventures as Empty Nesters!

Please pray for Chris.  He has reported for duty to the USS Mahan somewhere out on the open seas!

We are also thankful to Karyn and her daughter, Amanda, for giving Nathan a job at the YMCA in Klamath Falls, Oregon. He is going to attend OIT in the fall and so a job is a VERY good thing. He'll be moving on June 12th. I can already hear the echo!

Love and may you be richly blessed,

Lorelei

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