Junior bridesmaids doing important Jr. Bridesmaid stuff

Angelina and CaraLYNN are quite the pair.

Had a great time taking their pictures and

watching them through my lens.

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.