Mini File Folder Travel Journal

I made this travel journal using Christy Miller's template that she posted on the Memory Makers Magazine blog. It came out really cute. At first I was going to give it to my Husband for his next trip overseas, to save receipts etc in. However, I think I will donate it instead to a fundraiser that includes a silent auction. The fundraiser will raise the final support for the two ladies from our church who are going on the next mission trip with my husband. It is hard to raise money around here so fundraisers dinners are absolutely necessary.

I also made another of these file folder minis using bright papers and a "love" theme. It has more ribbon and less of the travel feel. Still cute. However, I love the collage look and the layered old world feel.

Enjoy.

Scrapbook

For some reason I have a hard time figuring out what to post on my blog. I've been wanting to post this scrapbook page for a while but my camera went to Jordan and Egypt with Husband so I haven't gotten around to it.


I made some pages to enter the Memory Maker's Magazine Masters contest. I really wanted to use this one but couldn't get all the needed model release forms signed in time. That's the problem with adult/college age kids. The pictures often include their friends who are from different towns. They always have to sign for themselves as they are over 18. So I thought I'd post here.

I loved the pictures of Son and Daughter with their dates. We took the kids to Disneyland in April and had a great time. Son and GF had taken swing dancing all semester at college and found the swing dancing at the Carnation Plaza a lot of fun. Daughter and BF are walking down the queueing line at the Indiana Jones ride. Sorry the journaling didn't show. I used Olive ink on olive paper. doesn't show in the photo.

VBS

This week is Vacation Bible School at Sequoia Heights Baptist Church---and I'm the director. That means I get to church at 7:30 and get things set up and stay until the last teacher leaves about 1pm. In between I spend most of my time running about making sure every teacher has what they need, the additional volunteers are up on supplies and all the students are where they are supposed to be. Daughter is doing all the paperwork/computer inputting. That is a huge load of work and very important. Thank you so much Daughter!!!

I love VBS. It is a great time to reconnect with a lot of my church friends. We tend to drift apart during the year because all of our children are different ages and going so many different directions. It's also a lot of work.

Today three van loads of French 20 somethings dropped in on the church. They had flown into San Francisco and were on their way to Yosemite National Park. They told Pastor they were touring the state parks here in California for 20 days!! They saw our church and all the people around and stopped to use the restroom. We were happy to oblige. Funny though, in California it is illegal to smoke practically everywhere. They were not aware of this fact. Pastor had to ask them not to smoke on the property, but to take it out into the parking lot.

Today was a great day!!

Hopefully I can get back to posting next week.

4th of July

Son got a 3 day pass to come home over the July 4th holiday. It was so great to see him.

We had advised him to wear his ACU's home: he might get special treatment because he was wearing it. His father had arranged the plane tickets and because he kept telling the travel agent that Son was in the military, they wrote it on his ticket. The airline bumped him and the other guys with "military" on their tickets up to first class! He had plenty of room to spread out. He didn't realize though that the flight attendants would wait on him hand and foot. He said it was almost annoying how many times they asked him if he needed anything. He just needed sleep.

When he got to LA his connecting flight was cancelled, just as they were about to board. Unfortunately, we live a 2 hour drive from the San Francisco airport and had already left to pick him up. He called, we turned around and husband found him a new flight. This time he flew into Sacramento, same distance from our home, but less travel time because of traffic. His duffle still ended up in SFO. They brought it out to Son the day we had to take him back to the airport.
Fortunately, he had a non-stop flight back and made it back to base on time.

Fireworks were really late this year because of high winds. We were so tired that we left the park and our friends about 15 minutes after the scheduled start time. Just as we walked away toward home, they started. We kept on walking. We've seen spectacular fireworks before, at Disneyland, and were not concerned about missing them.

All in all, it was a good weekend. We really miss Son but he only has 5 weeks left in Maryland.
Then both kids will be off to Fresno State. Empty nest, here we come.

Spending Time

Here in California, we often forget to slow down and actually spend time with our friends. On Saturday morning my husband and I spent about two hours at Starbucks visiting with another couple. They brought their new puppy. He's about six months old and they've had him since he was six weeks old. I didn't know that because we haven't spent much time with them since before Christmas. It was wonderful reconnecting with them and hearing what each of their three adult children are up to.

After that we dropped by another couple's house. They were having a garage sale so we spent about an hour visiting with them--in their garage, of course!! It was great catching up with them and two of their four adult children. These friends we do keep in contact with on a weekly basis, but it is always nice to drop in and visit with no reason other than to say "Hi".

Life seems to go at the speed of sound around here. I'm already feeling the pressure of Son and Daughter going to Fresno State at the end of August. And it's just now July. Stop, take a breath and enjoy the Fourth of July!! BBQ, swimming and fireworks!!

Feeling Crafty

So I was shopping for a summer purse on Thursday and couldn't find anything that I liked. I decided to look through my quilt fabrics and found a trio of sample pieces of toile that I bought on ebay at least 10 years ago.

Now, I have a problem with fabrics and papers that I love: If I use them, I won't have them to use!! It's a vicious cycle. I decided to go ahead and use a piece to see how I liked the fabric purse. I followed a tutorial by blogger Chocolate on my Cranium. Of course I made it my own, different handle, different sizes. I also had to make a seam on the bottom so that both scenes would be right side up.

I like the purse so far, but do wish I had had the fusible Pellon interfacing on hand to make it stiffer. and stand up on it's own. I'll try another one soon.

First!

This is my first blog. I hope to share pictures of scrapbook pages as well as occasional quilts that I make. I may even post pictures of my kids (ages 19 and 17). Please enjoy and stick with me as I get better at posting. Happy first day of February. My favorite month--it's short, has Valentine's day and my birthday.