Some layouts from pictures taken last week at Walt Disney World. In the zebra layout, I actually used two pictures and blended them together. The same zebra is probably in both pictures! In the layout of the stunt show at Disney Studios, I used Jen U's out of bounds technique to pop the car out of the frame. Credits for the layouts can be found in my gallery at Kathryn Balint and Friends as well as Jen's tut in the forums. If you visit check out all the wonderful kits in the shop.

The weather in Chattanooga has been wonderful--high of 84 today. Unfortunately, we can't enjoy it!!! They've issued a code red for air quality today. We are seriously low on rain and that's exacerbated the pollen problem. Pollen count today is 1650. As if that wasn't bad enough, there's wildfires burnhing on Signal Mountain and the air is filled with smoke. The smoke isn't that bad where we live although you can smell the wood burning. But today when I got to work I couldn't believe how bad it was. The smoke was like fog. It was hard to see. And it burned your eyes if you were outside for very long.

I was going to do some yard work but decided digiscrapping was a healthier alternative. I feel so bad. LOL!!!

Sorry it's taken me so long to get caught up after vacation. We had a great time and hope to start posting pictures soon or layouts from the pictures. The above layout with the rabbit topiary is a vacation picture. The topiary is in the Epcot World Showcase in the Great Britain section. I want to thank jensurge for posting her out of bounds technique which I used to make the rabbit "pop out" of the frame. Thanks, jen!! If you haven't seen Jen's awesome new kits (she's justr started designing) hop on over to Kathryn Balint and Friends to check her out and the other fab designers over there. In the top layout I used Betty Jo Martin's new Cottage Rose kit and for the rabbit layout I used Kathryn's Rabbit Tales. Full credits for both layouts can be found in the gallery over there.

Alex came home this weekend which is another reason I'm still catching up. But he forgot his laundry so I was off the hook for that. Poor Alex, now he has to do it himself. Teehee.

Major milestone this week. Michael went on his first "solo" drive since getting his license. He and the car came back in one piece. My best friend has kids older than mine so she is a font of knowledge. I remember when the boys were getting their learner's permits I told her of my fears and she confided that the scariest thing was not being in the car with them while they drove but it was standing in the door watching them back out of the driveway for the first time all by themselves. That is the truth!!!!

One good thing is that Michael has always been careful and even more so since his best friend got into an accident about a week ago. He got his license a few days after Michael. He is fine but he totalled his dad's car. So he owes his dad the $500 insurance deductible plus the cost of his citation and any associated court costs. The poor kid will be working all summer just to pay this off. Michael doesn't want that to happen to he's being extra cautious.

Now, that I'm back I hope to be more faithful posting here.

Just an FYI -- we're leaving in a few minutes for Disney World!! So I won't be posting until around next week at this time! Visit me then as I hope to have lots of awesome pictures with my new camera. This is my first vacation since getting it. Hope to capture some good animal pics on the safari ride at Animal Kingdom with the 12x zoom!! See ya!!

Your Vocabulary Score: B+

You have a zealous love for the English language, and many find your vocabulary edifying. Don't fret that you didn't get every word right, your vocabulary can be easily ameliorated!

How's Your Vocabulary?

I can't help it!! I am fretting because I didn't get a higher score. My ego has been totally deflated. LOL!! I have always been a lover of language and whenever I come across a word I'm unfamiliar with, I run to my dictionary. I love authors who introduce me to a new word or two when I read their books. I remember reading Isabelle Holland's books and loving every time she threw in an unfamiliar word. I'm also a fan of William Safire.

Michael must have inherited my love because he said he enjoys learning new words then being able to use them. Even as a toddler, he would learn a new word and use it all day. I remember joking and asking him what his "word for the day" was. I should have written some of them down because I've forgotten most of them. I remember him going around all day saying "impossible". LOL! Everything that day was "impossible".

This is my layout for Lifts With A Twist #10. Credits can be found here.

Had some excitement at the backyard bird feeders the other morning. I had a giant woodpecker feeding on the suet. I didn't realize how huge some of them are! I ran upstairs and got my camera and managed to get one picture before he flew away. Unfortunately the picture is very blurry but you can tell the size anyway. I'm going to work on the picture and see if I can clean it up a bit. I told Michael he needs to show me how to zoom in and enhance like on the cop/CSI shows and turn a blurry photo pwerfect. LOL! He said no matter how many algorithms he uses, he can't do that. LOL! I'm hoping the bird will come back so I can get a better picture but he ate all the suet when he was here...there was a good 1/3 to 1/4 of a cake left and when he flew away every bit of it was gone. The poor little downy woodpecker that comes kept coming back looking to eat. So I had to go out and buy more. I have 2 cakes out there now.

Here's a layout I did after using a tutorial from Jessica Sprague. Above is the original photo and below is the photo on the layout after I gave it a dreamy, old-fashioned quality then cropped it at an angle and used a frame from Jessica Sprage to soften the edges and then added text to the photo. Credits for the layout can be found here.

Alex is back at school. We took him back yesterday and looked at an apartment complex he's interested in for next year. The one he'd probably go with is a 4 bedroom/2 bath apartment. So he'd have his own bedroom but share a bath with one other person. There's a small kitchen with full size appliances including a dishwasher plus a washer/dryer. There's also a common area with a couch and chairs and stuff. The apts are furnished which is nice. The residents are all students so it's similar to a dorm. It's actually cheaper than r&b at the college but doesn't include food. To come out the same as on campus living, Alex would have about $45-50 a week to eat. I know he'd be much happier because they have actual high speed internet. The one on campus is pathetic--according to Alex anyway. And it might be good for him to budget his grocery money and have to work with that each week. I have been buying him lots of sodas and snacks anyway so if I continue I think he could do okay for that much each week. He says he's been eating a lot of ramen noodles and mac & cheese anyway so it wouldn't be much different. I know these are baby steps but he's on the way to being an independent person. When did he grow up??

My friend who has kids who are older and some younger than mine once said if her kids didn't stop growing up pretty soon they'd be older than her! LOL!!! I know what she means.

I've had this picture for a long time and couldn't decide how to scrap it until I saw Betty Jo Martin's Rusty Skillet kit!

I've been a bad blogger this week. I'd blame the fact that Alex is home on Spring Break but he's been barely home. He's been catching up with his friends and coming home to shower and the occasional meal. I did try to post yesterday but blogger wouldn't let me upload pictures.

And now Alex is finally home and wants to go get sodas, snacks and other essentials to bring back to his dorm.

I did this layout for Janna's template challenge. I have always love this picture of my niece and nephew so decided to use it for this. Can't post a link to credits because I keep getting error message trying to get onto Kathryn's site. But will say that I used Janna Billman's free template and Cyndy McAtee's Bless this Bread kit both available at kbandfriends.com

Well, it's official--our yearly car insurance has TRIPLED. Thanks to having 2 teenage boys with licenses. And that's with the discounts for Alex living on campus and not having a car and Michael's 4.0 GPA!!! A couple of Alex's friends--who already have cars--have gotten speeding tickets. Can't imagine what their rates must be like!

I went and picked up Alex yesterday for his Spring Break. Finally got to meet his new roommate and he seems very nice. Alex has been going with him to the gym and working out and climbing the rock wall. Alex said he really loves the rock wall and I can totally see that. He's always been strong and agile despite his skinny body.

He was supposed to have come home Friday night and John had planned on going after work since his work is 40 miles closer but Alex said he had plans Friday night. It worked out because Alex and I had to cover up the stuff he wasn't bringing home. They're fogging the dorms this week so I brought some trash bags and we covered up what he couldn't fit in the drawers or closet. I can't imagine the dh having the patience to stop and do that.

So now it feels like I have a bit of Alex's junk in every room of the house. And I couldn't even get the door to the laundry room closed last night because of all the baskets of dirty clothes.

And I swear Alex was home for 2 hours and his computer mouse broke. So last night after we all went out to supper we stopped at Best Buy. Guess who got to pay for the new mouse? He gave me a hug and told me how much he appreciated it so I told him he'd better remember this when I was old and senile. He said it was only a mouse and not that great of a one at that! LOL!!!

Gotta go tackle some more of that laundry.

My layout for this week's Lifts With A Twist. Credits can be found here.

Michael got his license today. I told him he had to pass because I certainly wasn't going back to the Motor Vehicle office3!! We went yesterday but he couldn't take the test--after being assured several times that all he needed to bring was his learner's permit--we arrived for his test and was told he needed his birth certificate. They admitted it was their mistake for not putting it in the system last time we brought it but we still had to suffer. Went back today with all the pieces of paperwork they could possibly ever ask for...got to within 1/2 mile of the place and there was a 3 car accident and traffic came to a complete standstill. We finally made it through and got there on time. Thankfully he passed. If he ever needs to go back there he can drive himself!!!

Whew! Been a while since I posted in here but I went through a bit of a dry spell and couldn't make a decent page to save me. The n, the dam finally burst and I was busy making pages as the ideas came flooding through! Here's a few that I made. Credits can be found here.

Watched the Oscars for a while last night but gave up at 11:30 and went to bed. I could tell it wasn't anywhere near being over and 6AM comes way too early. There weren't any surprises so I guess it didn't really matter. All the ones I assumed would win did. I liked The Departed although I think I liked Infernal Affairs slightly more. We' ve been wanting to see Little Miss Sunshine. I've had it on my Netflix queue for a long time and it was finally shipped. It was supposed to arrive last Friday but still hasn't gotten here yet. Grrr.

I got my CD from Scrapper's Guide, "Make Fluffy Famous" and made this quick page layout from it. The CD was my prize for my winning entry in the cat photo contest at Scrapper's Guide.

We're doing some circle journals at Designer Digitals and putting them in books from Shutterfly. Very exciting! The one I'm doing is for the What Makes My House A Home. I did a layout featuring my kitchen. The journaling reads: I decorated my kitchen with the things I love like handemade quilt wall hangings, framed prints
and pictures that remind me of the places I’ve been and with colors I love. Like red and gold.I
love it when we come together in the kitchen and share stories over a meal. I love it when one
of the boys lingers in the kitchen while I am preparing a meal or cleaning up. We often have
very enlightening conversations about all sorts of subjects. I really feel like we connect during
those times. Now that Alex is away at college and taking his first steps toward independence,
I treasure the times when he is home. And it’s always nice to be able to serve him his favorite
meals. Even better, are time times we spend sitting, or even standing, around the kitchen
chatting and catching up. So, I love my kitchen not only because of the way it looks but for this reason too.

Credits can be found here.

A layout I did with a paper sampler freebie from Designer Digitals' all day chat Saturday. The flip flops and surf board are from Retro Beach by Kathryn Balint. The DD papers are from Katie Pertiet.

My layout for this week's Lifts With A twist. I used Apple Pie kit by Holly McCaig for everything except the stitiching. The stitching is from Grandma Rose's Stitches by Kathryn Balint.

A couple more layouts. I tried a new technique with the collage teddy. And I used an awesome template from Janna Billman in the layout of Ping. The kit is Sakura in Bloom by Maryse Vincent. She's offering it as a free daily download on her blog. Check it out here.

For the teddy collage I used Kathryn Balint's Attic Treasures. The template from Janna is here.

I won last week's Lifts With A Twist!!! WooHoo!!! Here's my lift for this week's lift #5. Surprisingly, Ping stood still long enough for me to grab some great shots of him. Most of the time my pictures of him are blurred because he's always in motion. But he had jumped onto the armoire and sat in what I thought looked like a typical Siamese pose. Technically, Ping is a Tonk but because he looks like his Siamese side everyone assumes he is and it doesn't really matter. No matter what you call him, he's still a sweet lovable kitty.

I did this layout entirely with a kit from Agnes Lahur called First Light. Her kits are available at The Daily Scrap.

A couple more layouts using templates from Janna Billman's new set. It's Template Set #6 and it's awesome and on sale right now! The templates can be purchased here.
Credits for the two layouts can be seen here.

The snow is all melted and it was back to work and school today. But now it's the weekend and I'm looking forward to doing some more layouts! And P.F. Chang's China Bistro tomorrow night.

Snow today! No school for Michael and I stayed home from work too. We live at the top of a steep hill and I'm a chicken. LOL!! The amount of snow that we got would be laughable if we still lived in Massachusetts...certainly not enough to close school. But I'm not complaining! Actually, this is the most snow I've seen here in the 10 years we've lived here. Poor Kitty White Shoes sat by the French door in the kitchen and cried all morning. Even if we get the slightest dusting of snow she wants to go out and see it. I took her out for a few minutes but had to keep a hand on her so she wouldn't run off (she's an indoor cat). I thought she'd be satisfied once we got back in since it was so cold and wet but she continued to sit and cry to go back out. Michael brought Ping out but he wanted absolutely no part of it! He scrambled to get back into the house.

I completed a Jumpstart Challenge for Designer Digitals and took some snow pictures I hope to scrap soon.

My layout for this week's Lifts With A Twist. I'm having fun with these weekly lifts. Credits for the layout are:

Corner doodle: Jamie Rousselle (DSP)
Loved brush- Katie Pertiet
curved template- Sophia Davies Designs
Everything else is from Antique Lighthouse kit by Lucy Marino.
Font - Gigi

The Antique Lighthouse kit is available at The Daily Scrap.

I have been practicing the technique from Photoshop Friday tut on Jessica Sprague's blog. It's a simple but fun technique of blurring the background in the photo so journaling can be put on it.

Credits for the layouts can be found here and here.