Paper bag scrapbook

A good friend and neighbor asked me if I could make a paper bag scrapbook for her niece that just graduated from high school.

She brought a pile of pictures and some tidbits about the grad. Luckily for me, I know the girl as she babysat my kiddos before and we have spent the last few 4th of July's at her folks house which is right on the parade route. Handy, besides being a really fun group to hang out with. :)

For obvious reasons I can't show all the inner pages of the book but here's a sample for you.

Yikes...hail!

We got hit with the first round of storms earlier this afternoon. We snapped a couple of quick shots of the hail out the doors.

The weather folks are saying we'll be getting another round overnight. Joy.

Upon our preliminary inspection the, up to quarter size hail, didn't do any real damage to our house but we'll have the roof inspected by a pro after this week of storms in finished. Yes, I said week. The forecast is chance of thunderstorms every day for the next 7. Joy.

Macro digital photos

Before clumsily falling down the stairs on Saturday, effectively taking me out of commission for several days on end, I had been planning on posting this.

I have been playing with the macro setting on my digital camera.

I thought this was a pretty cool one. The camera was less than 3 inches from the subject. The roots under our crab apple tree are sticking out of the ground and this cute little moss is growing around them.

Keep in mind this is an 8 year old digital camera...the media storage that it uses isn't even produced anymore.

New Chimenea

We've wanted a chimenea for years but the kids were just too young and it would have been dangerous. We finally decided they are old enough so I went with a neighbor and bought this one. I bought a terracotta saucer to put on top to keep the rain out but we pondered how to keep the rain out the big "mouth" in the front.

I did some thinking then sketching and came up with an idea.

Hubby scoffed at me, so I took it upon myself to make it myself. I started it yesterday but was unable to complete it before he got home. I hid the whole works because I didn't want him to see it until completed. Boy is he going to be surprised when he gets home!!

Project cost: $0.00 I only used items we already had around the house.

I think I did a pretty good job.

What do you think?

Imperfection tip-ins

I finished my tip-ins for the Imperfection swap. They were fun and fast to do once I decided on a design.

I've been into houses lately so it seemed logical to me. I had the "New Perfection" stamp from Stampin' Up! (no affiliation) and thought it would make a great flag.

Awesome day!

Today has been just one of those wonderful days that everything seems to fall into place. Usually it's just the opposite. I forget or misplace things, someone is a crabby butt, nothing productive gets accomplished, etc...you get the picture.

Here's my list of wonderful things for the day:

• both kids slept in--HOORAY!
  
• beautiful gift from a friend arrived (spoon book w/knife)
  
• get to see my bracelet in print (pages 101 & 225)
• baby girl graduated from preschool
• tried welding for the 1st time -- it's REALLY fun

Texture ATC's

I went ahead and signed up for a couple more swaps mainly because they are being hosted by Elizabeth, who is also hosting the 2 ABC Anniversary swaps. If I hurry, I can combine the postage and send them all together as well as get them returned together. Gotta save those pennies everywhere we can these days!!

These are made from some fusion paper I made at least a year ago. It was kind of a wild experimental day if I remember right. Never quite knew what to do with my result. This texture ATC swap seemed like the perfect answer.

The second swap is called imperfections. Meaning, go ahead and use those not so perfect circles or the colored paper that just doesn't seem to go. Hopefully I'll get my tip-in completed today so I can mail some packages tomorrow.