The Hearts We Leave Behind

My friend, Deb is planning her grand opening at The Dapper Doxie for October 1st. Deb is planning to have at least one new kit available in her shop. I'm looking forward to seeing what she creates next. Deb's kits have such an elegant, soft vintage feel.

I decided to do another couple of pages for my heritage album. During the early years of my mom's life, she lost several immediate family members. Joyce, her older sister, died unexpectedly at the age of 13. My mom told me, that she gave me my middle name, after her sister's. These are the only pictures I have of Joyce by herself. There don't seem to be any baby pictures of her. The quote I used is by Thomas Campbell from Hallowed Ground.



The Hearts We Leave Behind I & II digital kit credits: Day Dreams from The Dapper Doxie.
Fonts used: Chopin Script, Porcelain, & Kayleigh.

We've had frost the last couple of mornings and it's been a cool week. I'm looking forward to seeing all the beautiful colors of fall, although I hope summer isn't quite finished yet. It is definitely more peaceful at home, with Raquel back to school. Raquel says she had THE BEST first day ever, I hope she feels that way about the rest of the school year. Ayden is definitely keeping me busy, without Raquel here to help amuse her. One of her favorite outside activities in bouncing on the trampoline. We've also been taking Lady out during the day. Ayden loves helping me lead Lady around and occasionally gets to have a little "ride" . Anything to do with the horses is a highlight to her day. It's so sweet to see her standing on the fence calling them to come in from the field. But soon we'll be spending more time inside and I've been thinking maybe it's time I put together my own kit. We'll have to see what happens with that....

Have a great weekend!

Lovelier than Lilacs

I spent some time this week scanning in some more of the old pictures my mom gave me. I know I've said it before, but I do really love those old pictures. I wonder about their lives, their dreams, sorrows and heartaches. I have a lot of them digitized now and organized into family files.

This is a picture of my great aunt. Leona, was one of my maternal grandfather's four sisters. Raquel and I both think she was beautiful and like the picture on the right. I suppose this is really an introduction of sorts to Leona. I don't know Leona's date of birth or when she passed away, but I do know a little bit about her life. I have quite a few pictures of her family and will eventually be doing more pages for my heritage album.

I really like this kit of Deb's, lilacs are one of my favorite flowers. I had decided I wanted to use a quote about lilacs on this page. It was all done, except for that and finally after several hours of internet surfing, I found this one, (you'd think there would be more quotes on lilacs). It seemed to go perfectly with the rest of the page. The quote reads:

Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,—no
Sonnet I

THOU art not lovelier than lilacs,—no,
Nor honeysuckle; thou art not more fair
Than small white single poppies,—I can bear
Thy beauty; though I bend before thee, though
From left to right, not knowing where to go,
I turn my troubled eyes, nor here nor there
Find any refuge from thee, yet I swear
So has it been with mist,—with moonlight so.

Like him who day by day unto his draught
Of delicate poison adds him one drop more
Till he may drink unharmed the death of ten,
Even so, inured to beauty, who have quaffed
Each hour more deeply than the hour before,
I drink—and live—what has destroyed some men.

Edna St. Vincent Millay,
Renascence and Other Poems, 1917

Lovelier than Lilacs digital kit credits: My Lady and My Lady Add on freebie from Doxie Designs.
Fonts used: Mutlu, French Script MT, Monotype Corsiva, Porcelain & Kayleigh.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Have a nice weekend!

Touch of Time

I really enjoy old photos and I think those are some of my favorite pages to do. This picture is of my dad, with one of his brothers and his sister.

The quote by Carla Ortega reads: To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time.

Touch of Time digital kit credits: Helens Roses And Lace Kit from Blushbutter
Fonts Used: Maiandra GD & Monsieur La Doulaise

We are supposed to have some nice mild weather this weekend and for most of next week. Raquel has one more day of school, before going on a week of spring break, so we will probably be a bit busier than usual. Thanks for stopping by my blog. Have a nice weekend!

The Gift of Oneself

The weather has improved finally, today it was 0 C, which was a nice change. Everyone is starting to feel better, which is wonderful as well. I found an interesting site the other day about chemicals on fruits and vegetables. It lets you know which fruits & vegetables have the most pesticides. I know a lot of us mom & grandmas are concerned with what our little ones eat. If you like, you can check it out at Food News.

Doxie Designs has out a lovely new kit, it has so many elements in it that remind me of my Grandma Kay. Grandma Kay, was my Grandpa Mike's second wife, and she was a very wonderful, caring lady. She was the only Grandma I ever really knew, she passed away in July 2006. I will always miss her. She used to write me letters and send pictures. She loved God, gardening and liked pretty handkerchiefs. I will never forget her tea cup collection and the fruit trees in her yard. We must have been a handful, when mom & dad took us to visit every year. This picture was taken the last time Grandma Kay came to visit.
The quote reads: Love is above all the gift of oneself. -Jean Anouith

The Gift of Oneself digital kit credits: Precious Memories by Doxies Designs (Bow colorized to match ribbon), word art also by Doxie Designs (it was a freebie Deb gave out a while back).
Fonts used: Windsong & Perpetua

Wisp in the Wind

Another busy week, with Ayden forever perfecting her climbing skills. Raquel wasn't feeling too well and spent a couple of days home from school last week. I have made some changes to my blog. After much indecision as to a theme, I finally came up with a header. I would like to express my appreciation to Vanessa for allowing me to use her pretty Fairies in the Garden kit.

Which leads me to my next piece of news. I am so VERY happy that my friend, Vanessa, has accepted me on her Creative Team at Blushbutter. It is due to Vanessa's beautiful graphics that I became interested in digital scrapbooking. If you'd like, you can check out my About You page, on her site here. If you haven't been curious enough to check out Blushbutter's site, you been missing out on some of the most amazing Scrapbooking kits, elements and papers. Vanessa is truly one of the most talented designers I know. Her kits also print up beautifully and I have used them in quite a few hybrid pages in the past. Thank you Vanessa for having me on your team.

In celebration, I decided to do the following LO. This is a picture of my Mom with my Grandmother. Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away at an early age, when my Mom was very young. We don't have a lot of information about her, but are lucky to have several pictures. I am still researching and hope one day to get more details.

I wrote the poem myself. The Wisps in the Wind bit had been floating about in my head for a while, (as I'm sure Idgie recalls). It seemed to fit with the feel of this page to me. It reads as follows:

Wisps in the Wind
We are like wisps in the wind
Time moving by so fast
An emptiness of the heart
A moment that couldn't last
Fragments from another time
My mind wanders for awhile
Forever in my memories
In another face I've seen your smile.

Wisps in the Wind LO digital kit credits: Blushbutter's Victorian Heritage Replica Scrap Kit and Digital Old Photo Frames with Creases.
Fonts: Palatino Linotype and & Kayleigh

I made the Lacy Screen frame from a tut using a background paper from the kit. Actually it is one of my lessons from my PSP group and I thought it was so pretty, I just wanted to use it in a LO.

Below, is a simple tag I finished recently. This picture was taken on the west coast of British Columbia at Florencia Bay Uclulet/Tofino on December 21, 2007. I think it is truly beautiful. I wish I could spend some time watching the waves...
Photography credits: CSC Photography - used with permission.

I hope you all enjoy the changes and are having a great week.

Lest We Forget LOs and some Halloween LOs

I managed to do four layouts last week and yesterday. I meant to get these posted yesterday, but we went to Home Depot and got some Christmas decorations. Vern spent the rest of the day setting them up outside before it gets too cold and snowy. Ayden was so amazed by the lights.

My newest interest is genealogy. I've been wanting to start some Heirloom layouts. Since it was Remembrance Day yesterday, I decided to start with my Grandfather's pictures. Both of my Grandfathers passed away before I was born. I thank my parents, for the information they provided to complete these pages.

Credits for Remembrance Day LOs: background photos courtesy of www.freefoto.com.
Kits - No Room for Grey by Retrodiva found here and as a freebie here.
I also used www.blushbutter.com newest Digital Essential Frames Packet, it can be found here.
I created the frame around the photos from a tutorial.




I'm eagerly awaiting some more pictures from Germany (they are in the mail). I plan to do some more heirloom LOs and get some of my family history done. I really love those old black & white pictures.

Thank you Mom & Dad for previewing my layouts and making sure I got all the information correct.










As well, I did a few Halloween LOs of my beautiful girls. I have more Halloween pictures to go, so there will be a few more LOs coming. We had such a fun time. I think the candy is just about all gone though. So the girls have been
enjoying it. Raquel was a beautiful witch and Ayden the most adorable little angel. I made Ayden's costume myself and we assembled Raquel's costume. We took this picture just before we headed out the door for the evening.



I've used a bunch of freebies I found and the web frame, I had made in a previous tut. Credits for Halloween LOs: Kits I used Skelgance and Googleye Add on from Derek M. Designs. I'm afraid he only had the
download link temporarily until Halloween, so I think its expired.

You'll have to go get it next year.
I'm sure he is working on something new....

Ayden & I went to help Raquel dress up at the school for her class party. There were lots of cute costumes.

Background paper on the Halloween Party LO is also from Derek M. Designs Googleye Add ON. Halloween Frames found here. Additional elements from another Halloween freebie found at Mom's Design blogspot.

Hope everyone has a great week!