Our Neighbors

Our neighbors of many years, Jim and Sharon MacKenzie, now live in Eagle Harbor, Michigan.  Very far from any big city, and they love it!  This is for you, Sharon and Jim....

The cluster is a freebie I got online and found on my hard drive today.  the photo came from google images.

The Spanish Hills

A long time ago, Larry and I spent some time on the Costa del Sol in Spain, as a reward to ourselves for living for two years in the Land of Fire and Ice (Iceland).  One of the excursions we took was to ride donkeys into the hills.  My donkey was very lively and led the pack; Larry's would have rather remained in its stable, and he brought up the rear!

Our destination was a hacienda in the hills, where we were fed countryside paella under huge shade trees.  An interesting day, for sure.

Dogwood

Jenni took this photo, edited it with a new free app and emailed it to me.  I downloaded it and created this:

New Logo

As you might have noticed, my blog is more Nanscraps than Nancooks.  I still love food and cook everyday, but I also make scrapbook pages and have a strong "show and tell" gene.  So I end up mostly posting finished pages on the blog.

For my birthday my daughter designed this logo for me.  She designed it on her iPad and the pixel translation was a bit fuzzy and I really have no idea how to make it properly fit the header space.  But that little bird in the tree just makes me so happy, it has to be up there.  If you are just dying to have the same bird and tree on a scrap page, I believe those embellies were in the ScrapPad app.

Artist of the Month

And I still have the collage!

My thanks to Sugary Fancy Designs for the free template that sparked my imagination for this page.

Moments in Time

......and his oldest son will have his in about 6 years.  Time flies........................

My thanks to Meagan's Creations for the freebie add-on.  I love to see what I can do with these minis!  They are perfect for me to design with since I really do not like a lot of choices in choosing what to use from a kit.  LOL.

Romance in Design

This is a departure for me; fluffy and romantic.  I am going through old kits and seeing what I can do with them.  This  is very muted when printed off.  Everything was so "shiny" that I reduced the opacity too much.  But it looks great on the screen.  LOL
Kit by GirlBoyGirlDesigns

Trip East

We were living in Oberursel, W. Germany, when it actually became Oberursel, Germany and the streets filled with Trabats, which went at about the speed of a lawnmower.  It was quite an experience.  One day we took a short trip to the closest picturesque town over the former border.  This is Jenni posing in front of a rather opulent building.  What the photo does not show is that the town was literally frozen in time.  The display windows of the stores looked like they would have in the fifties.....a wide window sill with items arranged along the surface.  No neon, no flasing signs, no modernity.  Very peaceful, actually.

And to show you the magic of digital scrapbooking layers, this was my first interpretation of this photo.  When I went to print it off today, it made my eyes hurt.  I really like muted colors and grunge. I did this for a web challenge and I was given a kit to use and when I grabbed for a photo, this one of Jenni caught my eye; her outfit does match the pink and purple.  But the redo will fit in my album better.

My Daughter Designs Too

The apple does not fall too far from the tree. Jenni has a good eye for color and design. She had a lot of input in redecorating our house as a teen. She designed and made all of her wedding details. She has watched me discover digital scrap booking and is now exploring it via iPad apps. This is a beautiful digital card she sent me. I had to share. A photo of her cat and all design work done with apps. It helps that Kitsa is photogenic!!

Birdsong.

When I was in the mall parking lot last week, I passed by a flowering tree and my ears were blasted with birdsong. That bird was loud and happy. I peered up into the tree, spotted it and just haf to take a pic with my phone. Then I used a scrap HD app to make a presentation. It has adorable stickers.

What Fun We Had!

When we first moved to Europe, Jenni was five and Jason was 10.  The weather was nice and we began immediately exploring.  Not too far from our town was an open air park called Opel Zoo, kind of in the middle of nowhere along a road we travelled frequently.  Of course we had to explore.  The "rides" were amazing....so clever.  All kid-powered; no electricity in sight.  As with all playparks in Germany, there was a petting zoo.

Thanks to Scrap Girls March 2012 kit for all the beautiful papers and elements.

Aaaah.....Preschool

Preschool is a wonderful invention.  When I was little, the first socialization for me (and break for my Mom) was Kindergarten.  When my kids came along, I discovered it for them.  Churches of all denominations in our area have preschools; it is a wonderful use of the facilities and a good source of income.
I even taught at this preschool for 4 years while Jenni was in college.

Budding artist

I just had to repost this artwork by my great-nephew, Murphy Williams.  His Dad put it up on Facebook for him.  He shows a great use of color.  I have seen similar stuff in an art gallery.  Keep it up, Murph; and tell your Daddy that lots of us like to see this kind of thing on "The Facebook".

Good Neighbors

We have lived on the same cul-de-sac since Jenni was 2 years old, with a hiatus to Germany.  When she decided on a destination wedding, we hoped the neighbors would travel to see her get married.  They did.  My thanks to Stef Burns who had the good sense to take the large photo...she was on the balcony after the cerermony, looking down at 'the group'.  (I think I posted this on my blog earlier, but you can't say 'thanks' too many times.)

Girl in Hat

Isn't this pic of my new niece just adorable?

Roughing It

Here is the journaling:

If you wanted to see really see the
beauty of Iceland, you had to camp.  In
the 70’s there were no hotels out in
the wilderness where the beauty was
and we could not have afforded them
anyway.

We bought a tent, a lantern, a Coleman
Stove, some eating utensils, and two
sleeping bags. and camped anywhere we
wanted to, always near water.  The water
was so pure, you just dipped your cup into
the stream.

The roads were not paved and mostly not marked.  You got a map and headed out.  Sometimes there would be other campers, sometimes you were
alone, except for some grazing sheep and the intense quiet.  We took all our food with us; the only food available “on the road” were lambdogs at
infrequent gas stations.  And for certain necessities, you stopped the car and went behind a rock.

The biggest camping trip we undertook was with two other families.  We headed to the far north of the island: Akureyri.  There were trees there,
something we never saw in the south.  It was actually the National Forest.  Beautiful.

I have not gone camping since Iceland.  Which is a very good thing, but the experiences of those trips remain in our memories forever.

Simply Sweet

Aunt Mary is the sweetest aunt anybody could want; my Jenni adores her.  Right now Aunt Mary is recovering from a heart attack and we wish her a speedy recovery.  She is 'Simply Sweet', no question about it

You Tell Me

My daughter commented that she loved the color pallette of Still the One on the prior post.  I worked on that page for quite awhile and just could not get happy with it.  By accident I pulled a teal page into the layout stack in the wrong place and that page I posted yesterday just appeared.  Here is the first version, brown.

I actually like them both, for different reasons.  Dear blog friend, you tell ME which version you like.  This brown one or the previous teal one.

Still the One