My dad

I have been MIA this week for a good reason. While I was traveling to Wisconsin last week my dad became ill and ended up in the hospital. He was there from Wednesday until late Sunday afternoon recovering from blood pressure and other issues. For those of you who don't know, my dad also has some dementia and Alzheimers so being ill is confusing and scary to him. As his grown child it is difficult to see him change in personality and to see him unhappy. I am not looking forward to this new season in his life and the changes that will come with it. Out of necessity I will be spending more time involved in his care and daily life to make sure that he is well taken care of. The fact that both of my brother and sister are also really involved is such a relief to me. We are dedicated to making him comfortable and safe for as long as we possibly can. Please keep us in your thoughts over the next few months.

Spring Green Wisconsin

For the next few days I'll be in the town of Spring Green on business. We got in reasonably early today and after working for a few hours we decided to drive around the area. One of my favorites things to look at in Spring Green is Taliesin, the former home of Frank Loyd Wright. It has just amazing history and the architecture is to die for. Literally, I think someone died there! I dont have any of the details but I think there was a fire and a jealous lover type thing that happened there. If I wasnt so tired I'd search it on Google and give you the details. You'll have to forgive me, I've been up since 2:00am.... I'm off to bed. Enjoy the pictures!!

The Love Shack Baby!

For my newer bolg readers, here are some pictures of where I do my scrapbooking. The building was built for my work to use as a test project for new coatings on windows that improve the ease of cleaning and insulating performance. It got the nickname of the Love Shack from my friends at work who would tease me that I was headed to the Love Shack when I was really heading off to test the windows. Weird inside joke. So the building sat in my yard for two years with nothing inside, until I met Tiffany. She came over for a visit and almost hit me in the head when she saw the shack and realized I wasnt using it for a scrap space. Duh, right? So Jim and started work on setting it up as my scrapbook room and soon, all of my stuff was out there and I was scrapping more than ever. I bought an Expedit shelf from Ikea and Jim picked me up the white work stations with the red bins from Fred Meyer. I quickly became a stand up scrapper and I dont think I'll ever go back to sitting down, it's just such a great perspective to stand above your layout. I just picked up the new gray rug from Target and love both the color and texture.

Okay, so the dress form... I found that sweetie at Tuesday Morning in Lacey. I looked at it on Friday night and didnt buy it I just wasnt sure how it would look. Then I told Tiffany about it on Saturday and she convinced me it would look great. So, on our way to see Alice in Wonderland with a carful of kids, we stopped and picked it up. You wouldnt believe the ribbing I got from the kids, they couldnt understand why I was buying it. So now I need to work on dressing it up somehow, any ideas?? I hope you enjoyed this mini tour of the Love Shack, have a great day!

It feels like Spring!

Saturday was a beautiful Spring day in the Pacific Northwest. The sun was out and, even though it was still chilly, we all managed to spend a little time outside throughout the day. The kids and Jim spent awhile outside hitting golf balls into the trees, until one almost hit the neighbors house, then they had to switch directions and hit them toward the road. Dont worry, no cars were hit!! Cameron got his braces off this week, his teeth look great and he looks so grown up. I gave Morgan her 16th birthday album and she was super surprised and excited to get it. Jim and Morgan both looked though it several times and laughed over many of the memories. That is definitely the best part of making albums for the kids, watching them look at them and talk about the memories. That is the reason I scrapbook.

Stay tuned this week, I'll be posting pictures of the Loveshack and sharing my scrapping space. Oh, and my great find at Tuesday Morning..... tomorrow, I promise.

Saturday scrap day

Tiffany came over yesterday to hang out at the Loveshack and do some scrapping. I didnt really have a plan for any particular pages so I was relieved when Tiffany gave me one of her new kits from this month. The kit is the Sew Sweet kit and it was super easy to complete in just a couple of hours. Anyone who knows me knows that I am so "not" a sewing kind of person, but you really don't need to be to love this kit. I'm planning on using it for pictures of the kids, when they are actually being "sew sweet". I'll let you know when that happens....

I took a few shots of Tiffany too, one of them is below. I love the contrast of the gray rug and the pink shirt, it really made her eyes stand out. Them Rachel took a few of her and I together, a must for a day at the Loveshack. It was a relaxing day and I am always glad to spend time withTiffany. We really should do it more often.

Stay tuned for pictures on my "find" at Tuesday morning last night......

Getting closer....

We have been working every night after work this week to get the floor done and we are definitely getting closer. We really only have a little bit of the mud room area and the bathroom left to do. Yippee. Oh, and the trim work of course.I was able to do some clean up tonight and get the kitchen table back in place which totally made me happy. There is just something about having a clean table with new placemats that makes me content. We were even able to sit at the table and have dinner, biscuits and gravy per Mike's request. It was yummy. I really like how the table looks with the new floor too, nice contrast. We decided we have to do some repainting in the kitchen, the yellow is showing some wear in a few places. Oh, and we get our new fridge delivered tomorrow- I cant wait. Our old one is over 15 years old and is also showing it's age. More pictures in a few days.

New Floors

A few weeks ago we decided we were going to put new floors in downstairs. So we searched the stores and decided on a really pretty hardwood and some great carpet. The first step for us in installing the hardwood, ourselves. Okay, this is definitly much harder than I expected. By the time we pulled up the carpet, put in more sub floor, pulled all the staples and trim and laid the underlayment, we were already exhausted! But we kept at it for both Saturday and Sunday and got all the way to the kitchen. We finally stopped at 8:00 that night and collapsed on the couch. I guess it didn't help us much that it was daylight savings time so we lost an hour too. So here are a few before and "not quite" after pictures. We are planning on working on it every night after work and we want to be done by the weekend. More pictures to come within the next few days.

Like a Gramma

I love these pictures of the girls, they were part of the photo shoot we did a few weeks ago. The story behind the layout is so funny to me, it doesn't seem to be as funny to everyone else but I love it. The girls have genuine smiles as they were cracking up about the "gramma hug". I used Little Yellow Bicycle paper, Jenni Bowlin Butterflies and Maya Road stick pins. I had a little time tonight after work and cooking dinner so I decided to try to get a layout done, I'm glad I did.

So I finally finished up Morgan's 16th birthday album. Not too far behind, her birthday was last June....I know, I know, I should have done it sooner but somethimes things don't work out "on schedule". I am planning on giving it to her next weekend when she comes over , I hope she loves it as much as I do. So far Ihave done this kind of album for both my girls, my niece Kim and my nephew Cody. I don't know how many more I'll manage to do, I have an "overdue" one for a niece and then another niece and my son coming up on 16 this year. Yikes! I may have to beg off..... we'll see, wish me luck.