Camping

This weekend found us enjoying the scenery and beautiful weather at St. Croix State Park. We had to dodge some raindrops on the way up, and hail on the way back but all in all it was a pretty fantastic weekend. We spent the weekend with a friend from Greg's work, his girlfriend and her dog, and we even got to go canoeing.

Layouts

Here's some layouts I've worked on recently.

The first is a photograph that was taken in May when my mom, my aunt, me, my cousin and several of my mom's cousins got together for lunch for a mini reunion. The papers and circle tag are My Mind's Eye, flowers are Prima. I stamped the dotted border and cut the title with my digital cutter.

The next is about seeing my nephew Jaedon back in January when he was first learning "Ring Around the Rosy" but wouldn't fall down at the end of the song. The papers are Cosmo Cricket, the circle embellishments are Scenic Route, the work "play" is made with thickers from American Crafts, the Rubons are also Cosmo Cricket. I made the journalling box on my computer based on an article I saw in Simple Scrapboks this spring.

The last one is a layout I did of a picture of my mom and I from Easter this year. Simple but to the point. The papers are Basic Gray (red) and Bo-Bunny (green); the border is a sticker from All My Memories.

Thanks for looking.

I hope you're all doing well.

Michelle

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who has sent me emails or left me comments about my friend's death. That means a lot to me. I ended up being able to go home over Memorial weekend for her funeral. As strange as it may sound it was a good weekend. Of course it was sad, but there was a great amount of togetherness that weekend. Our classmates got together on Friday night at her sister's house and by the end of the night our tears of sadness had turned to tears of laughter as we reminisced about high school and all of the trouble we got into...mostly because of Jill :)

Saturday was her memorial and her sister and best friend had organized it and did a great job of celebrating the person that she was the what she meant to different people. That night her sister had another gathering at her house. I got to see her husband and kids again, so that was nice to be able to show them support.

Sunday, we hung out with family. Went to the botanical center w/ my mom and grandma then grilled with them, my cousins, aunt & uncle over at grandma's. Monday we headed back.

As we were driving back to mom's after the bbq on Sunday night, I snapped this photograph. This rainbow was even more intense than the photo shows and such a peaceful sight!

In loving memory

This week Jill, my best friend in high school, was killed in a car accident. I am having a very hard time comprehending it. This picture was taken exactly one year ago this weekend when Jill, Marie and I gathered for our unofficial, very mini-class reunion.

I remember being nervous when I pulled in that gravel driveway at Jill's acreage. Except for one summer in college, and a few random phone calls or emails, I hadn't seen her since our freshman year in college and I hadn't seen or talked to Marie even that much.

And yet, as soon as Jill welcomed us in the door and the flurry of kids and pets settled down, I remembered exactly what it was that I've always admired about Jill: come as you are...no need to be nervous. The other amazing thing about our friendship was that no matter how long it had been since we talked or saw each other we picked up right where we left off and it held true for this visit too.

I also remember being so happy for her. She seemed truly calm and happy. She had these loveable little girls who gave us a tour of the house and introduced us to ALL of the pets; she had an adoring husband and she had this really warm-feeling home that you could just picture chilling in as a family.

As the news of her death has been weighing on my mind and weighing on my heart, I wanted to write down some of the things that I truly enjoyed about my friendship with Jill.

• We could talk about ANYTHING. Sometimes you have friends who you can't talk about certain things with, for whatever reason. And that's fine, I respect those bounds. But with Jill we talked about everything, and had some really good thought-provoking talks. Jill was always educated and well-spoken and passionate in the arguments that she made, but in the end she respected that you were entitled to your own opinion.
• Jill didn't care what other people thought. If she liked something, whether it was an "unpopular" person, an unheard of new song, a weird new outfit, whatever, she went ahead and enjoyed it. She didn't worry what other people thought, she just did her own thing. And the funny thing was, usually the things she liked ended up being the cool or popular thing later. But even if it didn't, she stood by her opinion.
• She was truly happy for other people and she truly saw beauty and value in other people...all people. Sometimes that's hard to do, and yet she always did it.
• She was fun. I remember countless Friday nights cruising around in that tan Ford Escort eating Taco Bell and listening to Lisa Loeb or White Zombie, or in later years the Dixie Chicks, just laughing and talking and doing random fun things as we went.
• You could count on her. If you needed a ride, money, the shirt off her back or a floor to sleep on, she'd be there for you in a heartbeat, no questions asked. But there'd be an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on if you needed it.

These are just a few of the things. I know that she will always be in my heart, but it saddens me to know that I won't get to see her again. Even though we didn't see each other a lot, it never seemed to take long to get back to where we were.

Here's to you, Jill, and the awesome friend that you were. May you rest in peace, and know that you were loved.

If you're the praying type, please say a prayer for my friend Jill and her family. She left behind an adoring husband, two very sweet daughters, a loving sister & supportive brother-in-law, two adorable nieces, a loving mom and a big-hearted teddy bear of a dad.

I've been a card-makin' fool!

I've been busy making cards lately.

Teacup Cards (top): I made these thank yous for a friend to use. Her daughter had her third birthday party recently and the theme was tea party. My friend came over and we made invites, so then I used the same papers to make the thank yous as a surprise. She is constantly doing nice things for the rest of us, I thought she'd like a surprise. The patterned paper is from Stack I got at JoAnn's, the stamp is a new Hero Arts release. I used watercolor pencils to fill in the cup, and added stickles, a flower brad from Bazzill, and an adhesive pearl to finish it off. Made the scalloped edge with the Fiskars Threading Water punch.

Flower Card (middle): I made a set of four of these thank yous for a charity auction at my husbands work. The papers are from the new Sharon Ann Little Yellow Bicycle collection, the stamp is Stampin' Up.

Birthday Card (bottom): I made a set of four of these birthday cards for the same charity auction. The stamps are Hero Arts, I used my watercolor pencils to color them in, and then stickles to bling them up, as well as sugar-coated brads from Doodlebug and Liquid Glass from Close to my Heart. The patterned paper is KI Memories. I embossed the blue cardstock with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

If you click on the cards you can see them bigger. The glitteriness doesn't read well online, they do look better than that! :)

Thanks for looking.

Cards

A quick post tonight.

These are a few of the cards I've made recently. I made a set of 10 of the upper one for a friend who always compliments my cards. Her husband recently passed away and I thought she might find these useful in the wake of all the memorials, flowers, meals, etc. that will probably be given to her over the coming weeks. The papers and flower stamps and "thank you" stamp are by Close to my Heart, the wavy "heartfelt thanks" text stamp is Hero Arts.

The lower card is one of the Mother's Day cards I made. Purple shimmer Bazzill cardstock, stamps & pearls by Hero Arts, ink by Versamark, scallop oval punched with a Marvy Uchida punch.

Have a nice evening everyone!

Still not Spring?

Mother Nature has been teasing us again! Warm, sunny beautiful days (we're almost talking short weather here) followed by cold, rainy and even SNOWY days. Yes, SNOW. In the end April.

I really thought spring was on it's way...and it still is, but just sidetracked I guess. We've barbequed several nights, and my plants are starting to poke through.

When I was growing up, my grandparents lived on an acreage, and I remember starting in late winter, they would scour the seed catalogs to decide what plants they were going to grow in the spring. They'd place their order and start their seedlings indoors on these lighted shelves my grandpa built and then after the last freeze, they transfer those sprouts to the flower beds on the acreage.

With limited space, I decided to try this on a much smaller scale...and so far, so good! I have one small tray of purple and pink sweet peas and one small tray of assorted pink/coral sweet peas growing happily in my kitchen window.

Also, sadly, when I stepped out this morning to snap a photo of the snow that actually stuck, I realized my irises were poking out and had snow around them. Hopefully they'll be OK. But assuming they're OK, I'll have irises, coral bells, and hostas that come back on their own and then I'll probably pick a few filler plants when it warms up and stays warm!

I got another layout done this week. This one is of my scrapgirls at our ornament exchange last Christmas.

In other news, Greg and I've had a fun, busy week. We babysat for a friends' little girl last week which took us to the Zoo and McDonald's Playland. We went to a small group game night with some friends church and Greg had softball practice and men's Bible study. Also, my supervisor at work treated my team to dinner one night this for Admin's week. So it was a fun, busy week! Tonight we have a karaoke party at a friends' house. Should be fun!