I had the sweetest honor and distinct pleasure to officiate our niece's wedding.

and also be the photographer

which was way more scarier than officiating. 

I warned her LOL.

It was a lot of fun - and so special.

 It was really really windy.

Siesta Key.

My last official act before my notary expires.

You'all have until May 29, 2018.

Just sayin'.....

BACK DOOR SLAM

I happened to be listening to Pandora - The Blues Station and a song came on, on an album titled "Back Door Slam" by Davy Knowles and I got to thinking about "the back door slamming" when I was a kid. So I wrote my memories of the back door slamming...(and yes, there'll be a scrapbook page).  I hope this reminds some of you of your back door slamming.

(And the only photo I have of a back door - is gram and grandpop's place...)

Remember your back door. 

Running in and out.

in and out

in and out.

But not all day. 

There was a rule. 

Once you were out. You were out. All day.

NO RUNNING IN AND OUT.

AND NO SLAMMING THE DOOR. That was worse than IN AND OUT.

Except for bathroom breaks. Unless you’re at a friends house and their mother doesn’t mind you guys running in and out.

NO KNOCKING ON THE BACK DOOR EITHER.

You YELLED HEY (insert name here) can you come out and play. Unless there was a catastrophe of epic proportions...

YOU WENT OUT AND PLAYED. ALL DAY.

Summertime, of course was the best! 

It got dark later.

No school.

Bikes. 

AND NO ADULTS REQUIRED.

During the summer, we went out every day until the streetlights came on.

Then you went home for DINNER.

We biked all over the ‘hood like a gang of Hell’s Angels except we had to BE angels

BECAUSE everyone knew everyone’s mother and they were NOT afraid to pick up the phone and dime you out or cuff you themselves.

It would happen in a heartbeat. 

AND no one was upset except for the one that got cuffed.

We CUT THROUGH YARDS to get where we were going and no one minded.

We played softball in the back yard. We had laundry poles, hedges and shirts for bases.

And we all shared gloves, bats and balls.

If we had issues, we settled them ourselves...

  NO ADULTS REQUIRED

What freedom we had through the back door slamming.

Our Annual St. Patty's day

Our annual St. Patrick's Day festivities were a lot of fun

having been joined by peeps from the Murphy Clan.

 The food was delish and the company was awesome.

It's so neat to hear stories of the Murphy's

from back in the day,

 This is a really old line from Reminesce and I did

fussy cut all of those the clovers.

 Love how it turned out. 

And there is a thank you card is tucked into

a glassine envelope behind the photo.

It was a fun day.

Fussy cutting and water colors

I loved the paper with the black and white flowers on it

but it was a tad be overwhelming so I decided

to water color some in and then 

fussy cut them out, mixing things up between

black & white and watercolors.

 And I love how it turned out.

 Broke out some stamps because I really really need

to use them more and stamped around the page.

The No: is from Kenner Road and the stamp with the numbers

is a combo of Studio Calico and Hero Arts numbers.

It came out quite heritagy looking so therefore, I needed

a heritagyb looking photo, of which, it took me forever to find

Because when I put the page together, I left only

that itty bitty little spot for a photo.

Sigh.

 This is a photo of my Aunt Sue and her brother Frankie.

Frankie died about a year or two after this photo was taken, sadly.

If you look really closely at this photo, it looks like someone

was beating them and then made them take a photo.

Neither are very happy.

Studio Calico.

Remember those big waxed lips?

They were quite popular when I was a kid and it appears

that they still are popular.

SO..I fussed around with page to the point of making me crazy.

 I really really  really wanted to use that jar 

that says "Let your Light Shine Bright" because it totally fit.

And I really really really wanted to use the fire flies.

 It took days for finally just "go for it".
Seriously.

It shouldn't be that hard.

I did add some punched bugs, not sure what flavor,

so I made them yellow for more fireflies

to flit about the page.

And the moose just needed to be there.

This page was just painful to make because that big

jar threw me off. Started with 6x12 papers that I changed

out a couple of times because I couldn't

decide on the color nor the design.

Them I found this paper.

Whew!

And changed the jar and the moose around.

Studio Calico.

Ephemera & 6x12 page

I originally had whacked this paper down for another

project that went by the wayside, but

it turned out to be perfect these photos.

As you may know, I'm a big blues fan, especially of Beth Hart

and Joe Bonnemassa (they're amazing).

Anyhoo, we had a chance to see Beth in concert at the Tampa

Bay Blues festival and had a great time.

(Except I lost my prescription sunglasses, and yes I'm whining

about that still LOL)

I used an envelop to tuck in the tickets and for a tag

with additional journaling because I found the journaling

on the feather was just not enough.

Beth loves the word awesome, so that because the title.

We were awesome, she was awesome

everything was awesome.

Worked out perfectly.

Studio Calico.

Rolling with a heritage photo

 I built this page by just letting the mojo flow

without a photo in mind, and of course, having some agnst

in picking the right photo.

Love how the odds and ends

and paper bits, loving the gold, and blue ended up
in this design, especially with the paper tearing.

 I had another photo in mind when I plunked down the title

and subtitle with tacky glue of course, so

I was stuck when I decided the original photo was not

going to work.

I found this photo of my mom and cousin Gertie.
How young they were and looks like
they were just hanging out.
I wish I knew more of the back story, but alas....

Studio Calico.

Whooooo knew - hand drawn & hand stitched

I have been following Lisa Fonseca for awhile on utube

and she's an amazing scrapper.

She draws, cuts out, and stitches the most amazing critters

and things for her pages.

Very unique.

So I embraced my inner Lisa and made this owl.

I have been drawing this owl since high school and I wish

that it was an original idea of mine, but alas,

it was a classmate that sat next to me would draw all

this fun figures.

And this one, and 2 others, are ones that I can do.

I just wish I remembered her name.

Sigh.

In my defense it was a really long time ago.

So I traced it out and began piecing it together 

and because she also stitches

 I decided to do the same.

I need to do better on the hole spacing thing but

overall it turned out not too bad and really kind of makes it.

And there's the back - love the washi LOL

but I'd have never done that on my counted cross stitch.

 So in keeping with the fun - I used some really old 

grungeboard Tim Holtz alphas and made them two-toned.

 And in the spirit of doctor Suess I couldn't resist the whooooo.

 A great photo of Sam and Lou was perfect

for the owl and vice versa.

Studio Calico.

I love how it turned out. 

I can't say that I'll do this a lot  because it is very work
intensive, but it was fun.

Predominately Kraft & Fav Youngest Son

One of my favorite photos of Shane worked perfect 

for this page.

I designed it the page at first without a photo in mind loving all the kraft and

I love how the orange paper works with it.

 When me and my pal Holli hung out she had this hummingbird stamp

and she let me stamp a bunch and this page was 

basically designed with the birds in mind.

 Love how they look scattered over the page.

 No judging on the shape of the photo.

My mom - she was a great lover of shapes but when

I plunked it down I couldn't help but notice

it fit absolutely perfect.

Shane was just 3 months old and we were strolling 

through Walmarts when we came upon a photographer

with a really good deal. $9.99 for a package.

(you can snort and laugh here because whoever just paid 

the going package rate ever).

Anyway, his shirt was removed for his fake bath and he

was laughing so hard and so loud it echoed 

throughout WM and everyone stopped to laugh

with him and many came to see what was so funny and laughed with him.

He just lit up the entire store.

Oh and when I went to put his shirt back on - it was too small 😐.

LOL.

Studio Calico.

Have a couple of April birthdays

I decided to be a bit different this time.

Studio Calico. Dear Lizzy.

Frames and Mixed Media

So I had all of these frames laying about 

and they were all different sizes and colors.

 Therefore, I glued them all down on 8.5x11 cardstock

and gessoed them.

All over.

 And then using the packaging technique

I used some Heidi Swapp mists all over the page.

And then I had to hunt around for some photos and embellies.

While doing that,  I found that I wasn't crazy about the

design/layout but I persevered.

I fussy cut the love out - You've seen it before I know

and I'll probably use it again.

I put together that transparent heart, owl and flower as a premade

and was bound and determined to use it.

 Went back to the wayback box and found these photos

of me, Nick and Shane all about the same age.

I think.

Not quite what I envisioned but it was an experiment

and even though I'm not crazy about it sometimes you

gotta keep going because the end result may surprise......sort of LOL.

I'm surprised I'm not crazy about it- but

no guts no glory.

Studion Calico - more or less.

Easter baskets for my nieces

We had a wonderful time Easter with the family

and my 2 nieces are beautiful and lots of fun.

Of course we had the egg hunt, which they may or may not

be too old for but the adults had fun with it LOL.

Of course there's candy in it and I made the baskets from

those green plastic things strawberries come in

so I had to cram a lot of stuff in those bad boys that

didn't really work out well so I had to wrap them.

As you can see my wrapping skills are less than stellar.

So in addition to candy I added a stuffed bunny because

who doesn't love a pretty stuffed bunny

and each of them have the little mini albums I made

a bit ago and you can see them here and here.