A Little Inspiration

Two quick things . . . I completely forgot to post this layout yesterday (although there were plenty without it), but I just love this picture of the 3 beautiful Stone girls & wanted to use it for one of the Life's Little Lessons challenges at SSD.

Also, I am totally cribbing the following . . . lifted it straight from Hummie's blog, but it struck me as one of those things I wanted to pass on.

After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno's damage.

One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by the eerie site, he knocked over the bird with a stick.

When he gently struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother's wings. The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise.

She could have flown to safety but refused to abandon her babies.  When the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body, the mother remained steadfast.  Because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings would live.

"He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge." (Psalm 91:4)

Author Unknown

One of the best illustrations I've seen of the infinite love a parent has for its children - and that our Heavenly Father has for us. Have a blessed day!!

Just For You, Kelly!

Hey, Boo - I have no idea what happened to that other post, but here's the layout I was talking about . . .

xoxoxo
Auntie Buttons

I've Been A Bad Girl!

I haven't posted a single thing in well over a week, and I promised myself I'd do at least one post every week.  Oh well - that's what I get for making promises I can't keep, eh?!  Anyway, maybe one reason is that I don't have much to say - sometimes I get inspired to talk (yeah, that's a surprise to everyone, isn't it?) . . . but sometimes I don't.  And lately, I just haven't been very chatty.  I have been doing a little scrapping, though - between the crop challenges at Scrapadilly and the monthly portfolio challenges at Sweet Shoppe, I've done quite a few layouts - over a third as many this year already as I did in all of 2010!

Yeah, I know a lot of you think "she needs something constructive to do" . . . well, I've been doing constructive sorta stuff, too.  Yep, Dave & I are still working away on our eternal kitchen renovation, and I've been doing a little here & there toward that end. Don't really have any pictures to post that would show our progress on that front, but we ARE actually making some :-)  Hopefully before too long, I'll be able to post something to prove it!!

Meanwhile, here are a few projects I've done lately.  As usual, full credits are listed in my Flickr gallery & you can click on the pics to go there if you'd like - but if you're someone looking to know where to buy any of this, at least 90% of my product comes from Sweet Shoppe Designs.  In fact, this little coupon book I made for Dave for Valentine's was featured on Libby Pritchett's blog last week - and the Haute Baby layout I posted on Emma's birthday was showcased a couple of weeks ago on the Sweet Shoppe blog.  So, even if some of you think I'm wasting my time, not everybody does - lol!!

This is a quilt-style layout I did about Bill & Lara's latest acquisition . . . a stray (but of course!) puppy one of the ladies at school found during a snowstorm.  Yeah, they needed another animal like they needed a hole in the head - but he is sooooooo precious & he's not going anywhere if I have anything to say about it!!

Here's one I've been going to do for a while - pictures from Joseph & Jennifer & the boys' trip to Disney World last year.

Another older picture - one of little Miss Nattie during one of last year's snowstorms.  This is for the Life's Little Lessons series at Sweet Shoppe.

Now, if you REALLY want to talk old pictures, here's another layout for my Book of Me.  As my older siblings will recall - I was several years old before I could even touch my fingers over my big ol' noggin. Amanda refers to photos from this stage of my life as my "basketball head" pictures.

Well, that's it, I'm afraid.  Sorry it couldn't be anything more exciting - but I truthfully kind of like the old routine, if you know what I mean.  The older I get, the more it seems like "exciting" all too often means "bad" - so I'll stick with my dull ol' life, thank you very much!!

Happy Heart Day!

Hey there, everyone! Guess what? You're getting the same kind of Valentine's card from me as you did for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and your Birthday . . . as in zip, zero, nada. Sorry 'bout that!

I did, however, do a little layout in honor of the day - I fell in love with Libby Pritchett's new white-on-white kit "Paper! Snow! A Ghost!" but didn't really have anything appropriate (like a wedding or some other elegant occasion) to do with it. I got to thinking that I could add a few pops of red and come up with an appropriate way to tell you all how much I DO love you, even if I'm not better about telling you often enough.

I also couldn't resist doing one more love-themed layout.  Last weekend at Emma's birthday party, her little friend Cullen was bound & determined he was going to kiss her.  I snatched these photos that his mom took off of Facebook, and they were just too hilarious not to scrap!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Another Birthday!

For such an icky month in general, February isn't all bad . . . first we had little Miss Emma's birthday earlier this week, and now it's time for the grandest birthday of them all - JANN'S!!  I know you're off gallivanting around this weekend, my sweet seester . . . but just in case you get a minute to pop in to check on the old blog, I wanted to have this waiting for you.

I hope all your peeps are taking good care of you and that you are having just the wunnerful sort of birthday a Janneepoo deserves!  xoxoxo

Housebound

Well, fortunately I'm one of those people who's quite content to be at home without external stimulation . . . with this horrendous weather we've had all week, Dave's taken my car to work every day & I'm without wheels.  But, I certainly have plenty of things to occupy my time & it should come as no surprise to anyone that part of what I've been doing is scrapping.

Here are a few recent layouts . . . a couple are for a Book About Me challenge I'm doing at Scrapadilly (they'll be pretty obvious to pick out), one's a page about that little rascal in California I'm missing so much, and the last one's a little more on the serious side.  There's never a time that I don't miss Keith, but for some reason this time of year is almost as hard as June is.

(All supplies are from Sweet Shoppe Designs.  Layouts are linked to my gallery for full info.)

It's Somebody's Birthday!!

Believe it or not, young Miss Emma is having a birthday today . . . yep, that little angel is already a year old!!  She celebrated a little early yesterday by eating one of her Grammy's Chanel lipsticks, but from what I can tell she's no worse for the wear today.  This isn't the greatest picture in the world, but I think you can get a pretty good idea of what a mess she made.  Kelly said she had just taken her eye off her for "5 minutes or less" . . . obviously, Kelly didn't understand before yesterday just how much an inquisitive little thing like Emma can get accomplished in such a short period of time - LOL!

In any case, as I told Kelly on Facebook . . . the fact that she chose a Chanel lipstick as opposed to some off-brand definitely proves that she's got taste - in more ways than one :-)   Apparently, Emma's just like her mom & grammy in that she doesn't have a clue just how gorgeous she is without any embellishments at all!!

That does not mean, of course, that she can't look extra cute given the right set of circumstances.  In honor of her birthday, here are a couple of layouts I've done recently that show her in a little better light than the lipstick photo . . .

I'll undoubtedly do an actual birthday layout once I lay my hands on some pictures, but meanwhile:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMMA BEAR!!!