Not your Granny's Valentine

All the Valentines for family and friends were dropped in the mail box this morning on my way to work. The picture is of my Grandmother Mabel when she was about 4 years old, the paper is Basic Gray and what doesn't show up very well is all the sparkley glitter which is Stickles.

Happy Valentines Day

Patty

Up Helly Aa

I made this memory page for our friends George and Linda Anderson.

While the Anderson's were visiting in the fall of 2005, their very talented son Lewis, made me a drawing of the costume he was making and would be wearing , as a member of the Junior Jarls Squad, on the last Tuesday in January, for Up Helly Aa . Linda sent me the Up Helly Aa first day stamp cancellation commemorative envelope. And George took the picture of this "hearty Viking", and sent it to me in an e-mail.

I had the drawing reduced in size, added the great photo and commemorative envelope, along with Basic Gray paper and, some distressing ink, along with a few other bits and pieces. The best part about the whole project...I was able to present the memory page to George and Linda on our trip to visit them this past summer.

Some people come into our lives and quietly go, others stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts and we are never the same. The Anderson Family have left footprints on our hearts. So Happy Up Helly Aa on Tuesday, to George, Linda, Scott, Vicky and Lewis.

Go to http://www.visitshetland.com/, and scroll to events, to find out why the town of Lerwick "goes a little mad for 24 hours" on the last Tuesday in January.

Patty

It Takes a Family

I know how much you love beads Cynthia. This is a photo of a necklace made for my mom. Her nephew gave her the opal pendant. He hangs out with the Australian opal dealers at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. The Labradorite beads were bought there too. My niece Maggie and My sister Mary, worked together to string and weave, and add bits of blue and crystal. To create this fantastic design. Mom staged the necklace, and I took the photo. It took a family!

Patty

Lighthouse Christmas

I had a request before Christmas from my buddy Bill. He asked if I would make a lighthouse themed card for a friend of his that collects lighthouses. It was a challenge. I went through my "idea" folder, checked out the Internet, and looked in back issues of Scrapbook magazines. I could not come up with a workable idea. Finally, in the middle of the night (isn't that the time most designers get their ideas?) a plan started to form. Dave and I had gone to St. Augustine a few years back, and had visited the famous lighthouse. I went through the pictures of the trip, and found a good one of the lighthouse. In Photo shop, I changed the color photo to black and white. and printed it out on transparency paper. Bill likes red and green for the holidays. so I used traditional color patterned paper and card stock, but toned them down. The lighthouse transparency was attached with brads, and I added a pine garland rubber stamp border on the top and bottom of the card to give it more of a Christmas look. Bill was pleased with the card, and so was the recipient

Patty

More Snow Photos

I did go outside to take these pictures while we were in Flagstaff. The snow falling in my mother's garden was just too beautiful to pass up. It did give me a chance to play with the "snow" feature on my camera. A setting I don't get to use much living in a desert.

Patty

Snow Angels

This Blog has gotten off to a very slow start!

We finally got it up and semi-running in the fall. About the time work got hectic at our respective flower shops. Cynthia, I know you were very busy with your "fall" weddings. And I ended up changing shops in October. All of a sudden it is Christmas and it all gets a little nuts.

In the middle of the craziness, Dave and I made a quick trip up to Flagstaff with the grand kids. They had a wonderful time playing in the snow, The first thing they wanted to do was make Snow Angels. I took a lot of pictures. Most of them through the window or at the door. It was way to cold for Granny to go outside!

A note to Santa:

Cynthia would like a new camera in her stocking this Christmas.

Merry Christmas To All

Patty

Post Worthy

I wasn't sure this layout was "Post Worthy". I had figured out how to stitch the two scanned parts of this layout. Then call my nephew Scott (the computer genius!) to talk me through how to re-size to the Basic Gray specifications. I had second thoughts about submitting it. Cynthia, your advice was to post. And so I finally I did...

Basic Gray's opinion was, NOT POST WORTHY! I tried twice, just to make sure. Nope they didn't want it. I guess that's the good thing about having a blog...it's all post worthy!

The photograph is of my Grandmother, Mabel Tait. The text reads: Mabel was a warm, loving and accepting person. She loved children, nieces and nephews, people, camping, picnics, animals and family. She seemed to be able to cope with whatever sorrows, agonies and aggravation life threw at her. And let her children know that all's right with the world. She reminded herself, in a hundred years what difference would it make?

Patty