Observations from the beach......

So okay we borrowed this umbrella from a really good friend and really knowing how girlie she is we should've known we'd get a GIRLIE umbrella but when she said "grass" we assumed "tike hut grass" and not girlie grass. SNORT! Our bad.

As I bobbed up and down in the water (one of my all time favorite things to do really). It's so relaxing (but I digress). This is day #2 at the beach and honestly we're so used to the boat that we were so not prepared. NO sandwiches, NO napping in the A/C, so not ready. (But that's still another story really). You'd think we'd have learned from day #1. But noooooo.......

As I bobbed up and down in the water from my vantage point I got to watch "the show."

I saw dad's trying to lure their daughters in the water, making them be brave in the waves.

I saw young men trying to lure their ladies into the cold water w/the promise that it would warm up.

I saw young couples cuddling in the water, warming it up for those who were luring their loved ones in.

I saw lone mother's hanging with their young children.

I saw older couples soaking up the sun and being young at heart.

I saw tattooed young people walking the beach.

I saw young ones playing games.

I saw snorkelers checking out the ocean floor.

I saw fish that felt it necessary to be in my space. (more than once).

I saw love, lots of it, between young and old.

I saw my family and their love.

I saw a day of sunshine, blue sky, and the gulf - calm and sort of warm. Embracing all who came.

Whatever their agenda.

Their needs and wants were met down by the deep blue sea.

Special D....

Yup.My Connor is a special delivery. I just love this (Iphone photo-I work w/what I get) of him poking his nose out of a box. You just wanna smooch his peaches and cream face all over the place. lol!!! Poor baby. Anyhoo, Sassafrass Lass (again) LOVE THAT STUFF, and notice the bill of lading behind??? Got that from Bad Girl's and it's from Fullerton, PA, close to home. Very cool piece of ephemera. 7 Gypsies completes the ephemera let's put him in the mail to Grammy's house along w/Collage press journaling tape and used the whole darn thing (yes I did). A tag, library plate and dynamo tape. And the cute little typewriter thingy. That is sooooo shades of stash. bwahahahaha!

Flashback Friday 5.15 "A-Treat"

The challenge this week was a favorite drink, snack, food, etc. I knew what I was going to do the minute I heard the challenge. No doubt about A-Treat Birch Beer. There is no other like it. So I went to the digi-side. bwahahaha!! Pink Paislee digital creations are the background "paper" and I actually used the photo and logo from the A-Treat site because really - you just can't reinvent this perfection. AND 8x8 size. Haven't done that size in awhile!

Shh.....baby gift....

Okay...let me just say Sassafrass Lass all the lines (which I seemed to use both interchangeably because A. I lost my mind and B. I couldn't find the stuff I knew I had) Sigh. Which was very cool. Decorated the lunch tin w/the anime birds from QK. Does it looks like it belongs together??? Does it really matter.The little book was just so fun. I whacked down to 6x6 and then staggered the pages - MYSELF. (patting self on back for being so creative. snort).
Primas, and die cuts and stamps. OHMY!
Punches, can't forget them either.
Its a little boy. Did I get the name? uummmm.....nope.
Did I find out if there are any siblings. Sigh. My bad.
Just add pix and adhesives........And just add some goodies IN the TIN. and wa-la....

Flashback Friday 5.7 'love as ever, Aunt Ida'

The Challenge this Friday was about handwriting and letter writing. Snail mail - a lost art. Sad really. I've wanted to do this for awhile and thanks to my pals at 2 peas I have one more thing off my to-do list!!! WAHOO!!!!This is my great grandmother Ida Stocker Altemus's and thanks to my Aunt Florence who kept these priceless gems (and I only have a few-ran out of money at the copy machine in the supermarket LOL). It appeared that Ida kept a day runner/journal and also on any paper she had wrote stuff down that caught her fancy in addition to letter writing.
It appears that she was quite cheeky in some of her sayings/adages. And she loved scripture and prayers.
She kept up w/all the comings and goings in the 'hood. She also knew shorthand and there are a couple of entries in there that I'm assuming she didn't want know. I learned shorthand, and to my dismay I can't translate them YET. I think that like me, she had her "own" shorthand "shorthand". Seriously.
Maya Road album - could it be anymore perfect. I fondled this baby for a LONG time before I finally used it. Snort. Lots of foreplay lmao........
Then between Bad girls kits and mostly Kenner Road. The papers and do-dads came together.
Primas - can't ever go wrong w/them and found some stamps in the way-back stash. woo hoo!
My Mind's Eye (in which I did my entire roots album (diff line though) is the main paper along with the punched out die cuts (can we say YUM)! 7 gypsies are in the mix as well. Sigh 7g's rocks too.
Some thickets got in the mix and in the little envelopes little letter gems are stored.
And a lineage or two in her own writing.
And of course a prayer. Below is a partial letter she wrote to someone named Pascale. If you don't read anything else please read that. It's beautiful.
My Dear Pascale= Am thinking of home and visioning the rush and commotion for which this day has ben and snide still is the supreme special day of year. The circle market is gay with nature's beautiful wild flowers and florists hot house potted products - they hurry and scurry - the crowded buses - the martial music of the bands - the attractive high stepping majorettes. The viewing spots where the tall people have the front places and the small people like me have the rear stands and are obliged to stretch their necks to the limit in vain attempt to see the great parade in steeps of precision, coming down Northampton street with the small members of the family along side with daddy. (it ends there = written Memorial Day May 30 1952.

LOL!............

OK first off, I really really really didn't plan on doing this size. Really. Snort. In looking at this OLD set of pix. Shane had red, white & blue on and going through my stash (really way-back) Reminisce just fit the bill and to not get REAL busy looking really. SNORT. The only none qualifying busy piece was the polka dots that was of course whacked down from some past project. SO....imagine my dilemma. As if you can really have a s/b'g dilemma. LOL!!! Anyway its all Reminisce except for the *gasp* thickers. I KNOW. I have a ton and hardly EVER use them. So this is like history here. BWAHAHAHA!!!

Anyway the back story and part of the journaling is that Shane was laughing and giggling so loud and so hard that he drew EVERYONE in the Walmart store over to the photo studio where we got caught up in an impromptu photo session. Of course he was so infectious that everyone was laughing w/him. And of course he was so darn cute. He did grow out of his shirt between sessions because one is of him in a tub bathing (which I need to go back to the way-back box for). OMG! He was chubby. And he laughed through that and squealed when his Bubby was in the pix w/him (another find somewhere). Bottom line, the $5.95 session cost me over $100. I was always a sucker for them. Still am. Good thing the kidlets have grown up. MOL!