For the challenge at Snapdragon

The challenge was to do a layout with paper piecing. I built a house.

Sometimes it's got to be about me

We got a new fence around our backyard. Being the photo dork that I am, my first thought was that it would make a nice background for a photo shoot. So, I got out the tripod and set up the camera and started shooting pictures of myself. Curtis came home and caught me, laughed, and went back inside! He didn't even comment beyond the laugh, either. He knows I'm a dork and loves me anyway.

Project 365

I got a little behind uploading my pictures to Flickr but just finished. I realized I missed a day. Bummer. However, while I was loading the last three weeks of pcitures, I got my first complimentary comment on a picture. Pretty exciting since it is the first one in four months of uploading with all those millions of pictures being posted out there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22349850@N07/2443949194/

Have been in a red phase lately

Some reflection

This is the page I submitted to HOF for the journal your passion assignment. I post this page, not for you to feel sadness for me, but for you to share my joy in how my life has turned out. I was 20 years old and had been married for two years when our first baby girl was stillborn on Feb. 1, 1980. We named her Melissa Nicole. She was full term. We had an autopsy done for our peace of mind and the official cause of death was from cord compression. When she dropped in preparation for her entry into the world, the umbilical cord was pressed between her head and the birth canal and all blood flow was stopped. She was gone before I even went into labor. All movement had stopped for a day or two when I called the doctor with the feeling something was wrong. My suspicions were confirmed at the hospital and she was born a couple of days later. Curtis picked this spot for her grave because of the small little tree planted next to it. He thought it would grow tall and keep her shaded. Over the past 28 years, it has definitely grown. Although devastating at the time, I am so happy with how our life turned out and what great kids we have. I often think of her and wonder who she would be but then I think that if she had lived, maybe we would still have stopped at two and my beautiful Allison would not be in our lives. I altered the photo a bit by desaturating the color until only a little bit of the color in the flowers remain. If you click on the picture, you can read the journaling.

Dusted off the Quickutz

I thought this little tree die cut was just adorable so I bought it and then looked for pictures to use it with. This is my favorite little boy at the park.

A most awesome quote

My friend, Kelz has this awesome quote on her blog and I told her I was stealing it. Here it is.

"If you don't find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for him further." ~Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

Another song on the radio that made me cry

This is happening to me more and more. Is it part of the aging process? I never heard of this girl until I heard this song today. I searched for it as soon as I got home. Get your kleenex ready.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=100103638

A Technique page

I did this one for the HOF contest. I used alcohol inks on a blank transparency sheet and then ran it through my cricut to cut the title letters in the word ART. I thought that stapling them to the page added a little artistic touch. I don't normally do 8 1/2 x 11 pages but I wanted this to have the elements close together.

some pics from the wildflower center

A really nice weekend

I went to visit college girl this weekend. She turns 21 on the 17th and will be on a church retreat next weekend, so this was my time to celebrate with her. I bought all the ingredients for the requested red velvet cake and then left them home, so I bought them again in Austin. I've never made a red velvet cake before. Watch out for all that red food coloring. It is messy! In the morning, we watched part of a regatta. UT (who is ranked 19th in the nation) rowed against the #1 ranked California Bears. We lost. We then went to see the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower center and later that day I took Allison and two friends to dinner. After dinner, about 10 friends came to her apartment for cake and ice cream. They kept me laughing as they recounted the stunts they pulled as children and usually kept from their parents. What a great group of young adults, though. Every one of them had interesting summers planned with internships or research projects. Only one of them was taking the summer off and he is graduating this May and starts "the real world" at Direct Energy in September. On Sunday morning, we got up, walked to the bakery/coffee shop and had breakfast. We went back to her apartment and just laid on her bed and talked. It was such a good weekend.

About work

Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.
-- James M. Barrie

Wow, what a morning!

My daughter, Karen had gall bladder surgery today so Seth spent the night with me so I could take him to day care since she had to be at the hospital at 5:30.

Curtis left for work about 3 and it was raining. At 3:30, the sirens went off and my power went out.. The wind and the thunder and the lightning were very scary. I woke Seth, got him in the hallway with me and waited it out. When the sirens quit, I looked outside and things looked okay. Seth never went back to sleep and of course, neither did I.

When daylight came and I ventured out, it is like a war zone out there. Roofs blown off. Trees broken in two. Fences down. No street lights working. They have not confirmed that it was a tornado or straight line winds but whatever it was, it caused a lot of damage. A very large portion of the roof on my church blew off and there is quite a bit of water damage in the sanctuary. I went and looked at that. All of the schools are closed because so many people have no power and there is so much damage.

I live in the northern part of town and most of the damage was south and east of me. My fence didn't even blow over and we were kind of hoping it would.

Oh, and Karen's surgery went fine. She was eating graham crackers and drinking sprite when I left her. Her fiance stayed with her and is going to take care of her for the next couple of days and I will take care of Seth.

here is a link to some pictures. Click on images from April 9/10
http://www.nbc5i.com/news/15842483/detail.html?dl=mainclick
_________________

No call for me

I know a few of you are wondering so I thought I'd let you know. No worries. I absolutely did not expect one but it was fun to dream.

For the challenge at Scrapdragon

I did this page today for the challenge at Scrapdragon. Thank you Laura for inviting me. The challenge was to use the word FOOL somewhere in the layout, use something unexpected that is not normally used for scrapbooking, and not to use more than one item from any manufacturer. The supplies used are:
patterned papers from Scenic Route and American Crafts
Buttons from Creative Imaginations
Hearts from Making Memories and Me and MY Big Ideas
Photo turns from Fiskars
Brads from Doodlebug
Chipboard letters from EK success, Heidi Swapp and Basic Grey
painted with Plaid acrylic paint
the unexpected item while not very imaginative is a refrigerator magnet (the word fun)
The heart with a ribbon on it came on a card and I kept it.

Finding the Dress

I think this layout took me longer than any I have ever done. It took me weeks. I agonized over the colors and the patterned paper and then I printed the pictures several times in different sizes. This is what I finally came up with and it makes me happy. (except for the white rub on letters that cracked and that blankety blank lace that was the biggest pain ever to peel and lay down!)

Thanks for coming to my blog party

I enjoyed all the comments I got this week. Thanks for playing with me. The winners from yesterday are Laura and Inara. Please email me at dettaowens@texasearch.com with your address so I can send you a gift.

Best Friends

One of the biggest regrets in my life is that I did not nurture the female friendships I had earlier in my life. I had a couple of friends from school that I was very close to from Jr High into young adulthood. Although we are still in touch and occasionally talk, it is not the same kind of closeness my daughters have with their best friends. Two of my sisters and one of my sisters-in-law have friends that are almost family. I am envious of that. I was too busy being the best wife and mom and employee in those days to understand the importance of outside friendships.

This is my youngest daughter, Allison and her best friend, Laura. They go to different universities but talk to each other just about every day. With cell phones and instant messaging, it is much easier today than it was when I was their age. Click on the page to read the journaling. Do you have a best friend? How long have you known each other?

This paper line is the new Scenic Route Providence. It is so much more feminine than their previous lines. It has the same funky fun colors as before but so much prettier.

(I have corrected this post. I originally said this line was Grafton. I bought that line at the same time. Thank you, Erica, for pointing that out to me.)

I only had five comments yesterday. I'm sure it was because I posted so late. Sorry guys. The winners were #2 Mel and #5 Inara. Please email me with your addy at dettaowens@texasearch.com.

A quote for today

I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.

— Martha Washington

I love this. This quote really speaks to my philosophy on life. I really believe that being happy or miserable is a choice. You can choose to be miserable when bad things happen to you or you can choose to look for the bright side or at the very least deal with them and move on. That is the reason I chose the name of my blog. I choose to have a good attitude. So, I smile.

Sorry if you were looking for me this morning. I didn't get up early enough this morning to post before I went to work. Some days, you just gotta hit that snooze button a couple of times.

Using the random number generator, yesterday's winners were #2 Mel, #9 Cheryl Wray, and #11 Whippet. Please email me at dettaowens@texasearch.com so I can send you something fun. I have yours, Jan. I will send it all at the end of the week.

Springtime in Texas

I was very excited to get my answer to "what symbolizes spring to you?" printed in the April issue of CK magazine. I wrote about the Texas wildflowers. I was lucky enough to accidentally find a place with a parking lot to get these bluebonnet pictures yesterday. Most of the flowers I usually see are on the side of the freeway and it would be crazy to stop.

Here in North Texas, spring is always glorious. We have Texas wildflowers blanketing the fields and the medians and shoulders of our highways. You'll find bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes, buttercups and Black-eyed Susans. You'll find bluebells and foxglove and Texas thistle. It is a veritable feast of vivid blues and reds and yellows and purples. Families stop and take photographs of their children in the fields.

Yesterday's winners were #9 Luvenkmz, #3 Marti, and #5 Corey. Email me at dettaowens@texasearch.com with your address. Please come back tomorrow. You can comment on any post no matter how far back. It does not have to be the one for today.

Heart Full of Love

I did this page for a design team tryout at a new site called Memorable Seasons. I like her logo which says “capturing the seasons of life.” Isn’t that so appropriate for the diverse group of people who scrapbook? There are those who are single, those with no children, those who have small children, and those of us whose children are grown. These pictures of Karen were taken a couple of weeks ago at the Botanic Gardens. We were inside the butterfly exhibit where there were lots of shadows and spots of sunshine peeking through the trees and shrubs. I reduced the color saturation on these photos until they were almost black and white to reduce the contrast of those shadows on her face and I used purple. It is Karen’s favorite color but I don’t often use purple on my layouts. It is a funny color. I think it is really pretty but too much of it is overwhelming. I think it is balanced with that soft green. What color is hard for you to scrap? Is there a certain color that you use often? I find myself using green or blue quite a bit.

I had 11 people comment on my blog yesterday. I numbered them in order by the time they posted and used the random number generator to pick winners. They are #7 Ida,
#9 Whippet (Jan) and #2 So Many Scraps.

Please email me your address to dettaowens@texasearch.com. Keep visiting every day this week. You can win more than once.