Summer scrapping and cleaning

The weather here in Washington has finally gotten a little better. I hesitate to say it , but I think summer is finally here. Last night was so nice, it got up to about 73 yesterday and the evening stayed mild. So i headed out to the Love shack to do a little scrapping and cleaning. I moved my Expedit bookshelf from under the window and stood it up on end, I like it so far. I also purged some supplies and did some organizing, I much prefer when the shack is clean and organized. I did the two page Seattle layout last night and the Morgan layout this morning. The pictures of the shack are from this morning and show just how nice the day is shaping up - look at the sunshine. We are off to Cabellas today for a BBQ cook off competition- yum! Enjoy the weekend everyone.

Graduation time

Time sure flies when you have a child  graduating. Not to mention several other nieces and nephews graduating too! Morgan graduated two weeks ago from North Thurston HS and has been accepted to the University of Washington. We are all so proud of her, she graduated in the top 10% of Washington state students-we all wonder who she got her brains from!! The following weekend we had her party with her mom and other family. It was lots of fun celebrating with her and watching her mingle as an "adult". We gave her an Ipad for her grad/birthday gift and she was super excited. Last Friday we headed to UW for incoming Freshman orientation and parent orientation. The campus is amazing, I'm so excited for her to start in the fall. Way to go Morgan!!

Ashley's party

 I have known the Schoenings for many, many years and actually first met this sweet girl when she was in the 2nd grade. Now she's graduating, wow how time flies. I had the honor of doing her senior pictures this year and she is one of the best models I have had, she always has great ideas for poses and will do anything you ask with a huge smile on her face. Her mother is one of the my dearest friends and I count myself lucky to have their family in my life. Ashley graduated this week and they hosted her party yesterday. Jim and I made some yummy cheesecake in a cup desserts that were inspired by a blog post on Elizabeth Kartchners blog (hers were cupcakes in a jar and I'm sure they were yummy too). We decorated the lids with a picture of Ashley and everyone raved about how delicious they were. We are making them again for Morgans party next weekend, probably about 50 or so, yikes. We had a great day with the Schoenings and are very proud of Ashley- Congratulations my dear!!

Mini album love

Please hop over to Teresa Collins blog to check out my mini album she posted. I am so honored to have her use it in a post! Not that I'm bragging... LOL!
http//teresacollins.typepad.com

This boy is 17 today!!

17 years ago today I was laying in a hospital bed in Puyallup, Washington giving birth to this amazing boy. Mike was my last of two babies that I would give birth to and he was my little "honey pot pie" from the first moment I laid eyes on him. He has always been a kind, quiet, sensitive boy with strong opinions and a quirky sense of humor. He is a bit of a mommas boy but I love that about him, there's nothing wrong with a boy that loves his mother. I am very proud of the young man Mike has grown in to, he continues to be a joy to be around. These pictures are from a Penguins hockey game we went to together, we had a great time and I enjoyed every minute of it. Happy Birthday son- I love you with all of my heart.

Teresa Collins mini album

Oh my word, if you haven't used the new Teresa Collins Timeless and Posh lines you don't know what you are missing. I took Morgan out last weekend to take some new senior pictures, we ended up taking over 300 shots. Yikes. But... many of them were so lovely they inspired me to make a new mini album using the Teresa Collins products from my stash. I printed some pictures in black and white and mixed in a few color shots that I love too, then I mixed in several different papers and embellishments. I am loving how it all came together and turned out. This album is intended to be a gift for Morgans Mom and Stepdad, I hope they don't read my blog, it's a surprise. I do have to admit it's going to be difficult to part with but I think they will enjoy having an album to look at once Morgans gone off to college. I hope you enjoy looking at it too.

Picture, pictures, and more pictures

I love to take pictures. Can you tell by my blog posts?? I wish I had more time to devote to fine tuning my abilities- I'll have to add a photography class to my bucket list. Last weekend I took Morgan out shopping to get a few new dresses for her upcoming graduation and party, then we realized we needed some new Senior pictures too. I really wanted some cap and gown shots ahead of time so I could display one at the party, it gets so busy the day of graduation that the cap and gown "shot" can get missed. So we loaded up Jim and went to downtown Olympia on Memorial Day to do a mini photo shoot. As usual, I took hundreds of pictures, these are a few of my favorites. Because it was Memorial Day we saw some cool stuff at the Capitol building, including a 21 gun salute to honor our Veterans. After we were done shooting we headed down to Ramblin Jacks for a yummy lunch. It was a great afternoon.