Merry Christmas

Wishing You and Yours A Merry Christmas

What a winter day!

On a day like today winter doesn't seem so bad. I can wait calmly for the sunshine and flowers of spring with a view like this one out the living room window. Mt. Baker was stunning today. Absolutely stunning!

As were the Cascades.

Today also gave me new understanding to the phrase, "Don't let her get her talons in you." I know how this came about. Eagles mate while they are in flight and normally during a free fall from great heights. This poor male Bald Eagle is normally so beautiful with a pristine white head. I'd say she got her talons in him! Poor guy.

I heard this last week and really liked it. I am learning just how true it really is currently. I am glad life is a journey filled with friends, family and lots of different experiences.

Manage Me

When I am having a bad day that is how I feel. Just step in and manage me, please. Help me get to the next page of the book where everything looks better and brighter! I know logically that I am fully capable however on those bad days I just don't want to. I don't want to deal with me or those tedious decisions of the day such as what is for dinner.

Remarkable

This is a clip from Immortal Beloved, the story of Beethoven's tragic and secret love. What always amazes me is the passion and the beauty in the music. I shake my head when I hear people describe classical music as boring. I wonder how can they not hear what I hear?

Winter Wonderland

Its official, it is winter. I don't care what a calendar might say about it still being fall but when I look out my window and see this I can't say the word fall in relation to the present season. Sorry just can't do it!

That snow covered blob appears to be my beautiful black Mercury. I don't believe it is going to be going any place anytime soon though.

Now with this one I look at the apple trees and I can see the two seasons mixed together. The apple trees haven't lost their golden leaves yet and now those leaves are covered in winter's white snow.

It is coming down so fast that getting the camera to focus on Rom and not the passing snow flakes was a real challenge. I think Rom got annoyed with me calling his name to look towards the camera. If a dog could tell you to knock it off I do believe he would have done that this morning to me. Something along the lines of "Put down the camera and throw me a snowball!"

I do believe this brings grilling season to an end. Yes?! lol

Difference

Such a difference a week makes. Well and about a 1000 miles I suppose. Last Sunday this is where I was, Stinson Beach in northern California. It was a sunny warm day with the temperature at the beach reaching 70 degrees and inland a balmy 84 degrees. So very nice!

This Sunday I find this is my reality...the first lowland snow of the season. This is a la nina winter here in the pacific northwest. It means we can expect it to be a wet one and if the cold comes down from Alaska to say hello that wet becomes snow. It is lovely to look at on the Sunday afternoon while I can curl up inside with a good book near the fire or scrapbook the day away upstairs yet I know tomorrow when it is around and folks have to return to work it won't exactly be so lovely. Lowland snow isn't very normal weather for us. We like it up in the mountains where we can look at it from afar and say, "Doesn't that look so nice" and "Oh, look at that fresh snow. How beautiful!"

Grand

The Grand Canyon

Getting to see this amazing natural wonder was a highlight of my recent cross country trip. You walk right up to the edge and look out at this beauty, seeing at the bottom the Colorado River. All the while knowing that flowing river created it over millions of years. You feel like such a blip on the Earth's map.

Me happy to be enjoying the South Rim of the Grand Canyon!

Curl Up

Doesn't that just look like a wonderful place to curl up with a good book and read your day away?

Sara Bareilles

While traveling across country I had a bit of time to listen to music and this song has become a favorite of mine. It is peppy and the lyrics remind you that it is YOU that should set the course of your life.

Change

Change comes in so many formats in life. Some change is amazing and other change can be heartbreaking. Sometimes it is a bit of both. I believe there is a word for that, bittersweet. You can be so very glad that someone is in your life yet sad that the relationship has changed. Maybe friends aren't as close as they once were or they are moving across the country or that someone special to you is now just a friend. Whatever the the change you just know things are never going to be same and you can't help but morn the loss in the same moment that you are glad that person is in your life. Yes bittersweet is the the perfect word for it.

Ryan Star Start A Fire

When Ryan Star was in Seattle playing at Chop Suey in September he announced that Start A Fire off of 11:59 would be the next single and now there is an official in studio video for the song. It is one of my favorites from the CD and absolutely one of my favorites both times I have seen him live.

Travel Buddies

Walker and Mags are our travel buddies. Every RV should probably come with a set. They alert you when anyone gets too close to the RV, thinks about getting to close to the RV or I believe even dreams about it in their sleep! Walker is the wire haired Jack Russel (on the bottom) and Maggie is the Rat Terrier (on the top). Here they are between the seats in the front and they both want to be near me as I normally don't travel in the RV with my folks so this is a rare moment they want to take advantage of to the fullest.

Journey of Journeys

It begins aboard the Washington State Ferry Tacoma. Well really it began about 2 hours earlier by heading east on Hwy 101 but I didn't take any photos of that.

The morning of Day Two found us in Montana waking to an amazing sunrise. Chilly too! 31 degrees with frost on the ground.
One of the many vistas from the interstate in Montana. It was truly a day full of eye candy.

Day Two has ended in Wyoming where the mountains in the distance are even taller than many we have seen all day. Out of the 9000 foot range and back up into the 1000 foot range and higher.

The vistas from the interstate in Wyoming.

Pink = Breast Cancer Awareness

That is my Mom and in this photo she is trying on one of over 40 hats that she received at a "Hat Party" in March of 2006. The party was the weekend after she started chemotherapy. We, her friends and family, gathered to support her in the visible way. To celebrate the fact that her surgeries had gone well. To celebrate the fact that just like the first time she had breast cancer in 1994, the tumors were caught very early and the prognosis was very, very good. So there was the battle head of chemo and radiation yet much to celebrate. Later that afternoon with everyone there she would go bald having my husband shave her head and in support a friend would also shave his head going bald with her.

So this month you will see a lot of pink. Wear it proudly. Remember why you should. Do Breast Self Exam (BSE) each month. If you don't know how learn. Go to Susan G. Komen and download a printable card that will teach you how. Both times my Mom found her own tumors by doing BSE. It really can save your life. You know your body best. You know what feels normal and what doesn't. And if you find a lump talk to your doctor and get it checked out quickly. Don't delay. Please.

Because of BSE and great medical care in Dallas and Seattle we can now say my Mom is a two time Breast Cancer Survivor.

Extraordinary

This was the thought for the day on a blog that I frequent and I liked it so much I wanted to post it as well. It is a good reminder that no matter how life might try to jade us that people are worth the risk.

In The Pink

Yesterday I got all my holiday stamps out and began thinking about Thanksgiving cards and Christmas cards. So what do you think I begin to create? Would it be a Thanksgiving card in some of those wonderful colors of fall or would I pull out a few Christmas papers to play with some ideas for this years card? NOPE! My mind rebels and I get in a pink mood. lol

I find a lovely piece of patterned paper in one of DVWV stacks that actually has several patterns on it and I begin to cut it apart to create several cards all with pink in them. Here are a couple.

All the paper here is DCWV except the black and white which are AC Cardstock. Border punch is EK Success. Grosgrain ribbon is Offray. Stamp is Kolettle Hall. Used black Staz-On Solvent Ink. The stamp is accented with small pearls, small crystal and yellow stickles.

Again on this one it is all DCWV paper. The ink is Close to My Heart in Blush. The ribbon is brown velvet from Maya Roads. The button is probably one of my new favorites. It is from AC (American Crafts) and I got them as part of a kit from Hip 2 B Square (Thank you again Leslie!!) a couple of weeks ago. The colors of the buttons are fun and they are glittery to boot! The flower and sentiment is a stamp from Studio g. The hearts on the light pink are a stamped background from Stampin' Up called Petite Patterns and it is an old one from 1999.

Here you can see that great button just a little better!

This too!

This is video is from the concert I was at on the 13th at Chop Suey in Seattle! I still am so thrilled to have been there. I am so looking forward to hearing this song, which is going to be the next single released to radio, live again.

Hoping to see this too

I hope Ryan Star will perform this one. It is a bonus track on the Deluxe version of 11:59 which you can download at amazon or iTunes. Love the song!

Looking forward

Sunday I am looking forward to seeing this song performed just like this. This is Train performing the song Words live.

Ryan Star Thank You

Last night my friend and I were at Chop Suey Seattle to see Ryan Star. What a live show it was! I can now say that not only does Ryan Star sound great in videos and on his CDs but also during a live show. He also puts his heart and soul into it. The audience is entertained by his voice and also by his wit. The man kept us laughing between songs. We had such a good time that Sunday we will actually be going to another concert where he will be opening for Train. Like Train but going honestly to see Ryan Star perform again. I will also say that Ryan took the time to greet fans and my friend and I got a moment to chat with him twice. Both times he was quite nice.

Before he took to the stage a man by the name of Ry Cumings performed and this was the first I had heard of him. His songs wowed us as well. Here is a video for one of his songs.

Messy, Messy Corner

Several years ago my husband and I moved out of our 1920s era home that we had remodeled and into a multi-story 1970s era home that needed updated. In that really hot real estate market that the US was experiencing several years ago this beauty with an unobstructed water view was just sitting and sitting. She had been on the market 6 months when we looked at her and man oh man was she ugly. Her worst feature the white and brown brick story and half fireplace that was featured not only in the living room but also in the entry of the home. It was awful and it was the first thing you saw as you walked in the house. So needless to say this house has taken some vision and hard work. With the inside shaping up we are really starting to look at the outside of the house. Last summer it was getting rid of that dark brown color it had been painted and this summer it is a bit messier as the photos below show.

We have a great big yard, yet no way to get there from the front entrance area. Well here comes one. A few weeks ago we had a friend dig up the yard with a back hoe and now with the forms in place the concrete truck arrives to begin pouring the slab that will allow steps to be built. That's my Dad and Brother helping my husband out for the day. My husband would be the one in the middle of the concrete getting the messiest! Just how do you get concrete stains out of cotton?!

Here you can really appreciate the mess. Mess equals progress and I am doing my best to keep that in mind.

A bit of the progress. The first float of the new front porch!

Cards Abound

I mentioned in my earlier post that I'd been busy making some cards...

Used some patterned papers from the new DCWV autumn stack for this card and the one below. I am loving that it is time for Fall.

This baby shower card is a take off on one I saw in the magazine from the UK. As I mentioned I have been getting some ideas from this new magazine. Fresh inspiration and I am enjoying it! The patterned paper is My Mind's Eye from their Quite Contrary line. The flower are Prima and Close To My Heart. I got to use my new EK punch on this one and I love those fold flat punches. Genius idea!!

Goo Goo Dolls

I have been working in my scrap room the last few days and that means there has been music playing. I need to take some photos of what I have been working on to post later. My inspiration has been coming from a magazine I've just discovered from the UK, Cardmaking & Papercraft, and I love it. It is a bit expensive since it is an import but having the fresh ideas has made up for the extra cost.

As I mentioned there has been music playing during all this paper cutting and gluing. The Goo Goo Dolls have a new CD out and I am liking it. One of my favorite songs on the new CD is a song called Hey Ya. No video for it yet, but here is a the song for listen. It is sweet one.

Unbelievable

When people visit the Pacific Northwest from other areas of the country they expect rain and clouds all the time. Everyone seems conditioned to expect this. Well folks I hate to burst your bubble...it is a LIE! Yes it is true we do get rain and in some places a lot of it. Come here in late fall and winter, I promise you shall find either rain or snow someplace in the Pacific Northwest. However if you arrive during the summer expect what you see in this photo a friend took of my back yard. Blue skies and brown grass. The only thing green are the trees and the patch of grass around the apple trees where we water just for the apple trees. All over town this is what you find. This mix of brown and green because at this point we have had one good rain in the last two and half months. Pacific Northwest summers are wonderful things!

Return Visit

Dry Falls State Park...this is another place I would like to head back to one of these days. Maybe in the spring so the landscape looks a bit different from these photos I have of it from 2003. The photos I have aren't even that good. They are from the old film camera I had as I visited a year before I got my first digital. Back in the day of having to carry rolls of film on vacation and then having to wait to see if you got the photo right. Gah! Hard to imagine those days now.

Dry Falls was once the worlds largest water fall the cliffs and dry basin area are all that remain today. As the world shifted after the last ice age this was one of the changes. Geology can be interesting and beautiful stuff.

Dry Falls looking southeast

Dry Falls looking northeast

Needed

I do my best to think before I speak. My best isn't sometimes good enough. I needed a reminder tonight. I sought out some music that helps. This is one of the songs that does the trick.

Busy Weekend

What a weekend! Friends visiting from Seattle and then my husband & I headed over to Seattle for a baseball game on Sunday with friends that were in town from Michigan. It was busy, busy and a lot of fun!

Butchart Garden in Victoria, BC Canada on Friday

Love this view of the Sunken Garden out of the little cabin window atop the hill. Wish I had a backyard like this!


My favorite statue at the garden. I always am captured by her peace and the way her hands seem to be ready to give a gift. Maybe the gift of her heart, of love to another.

Pink roses are my favorite flower and there are so many to enjoy there.

This rose is from the USA and had such an unusual color. We were describing it as a steel grey red. The rose is named Hot Chocolate.

My friend was snapping photos and I managed to end up in one of the. Odd to see myself in a photo as I am so very often the only one with a camera. So the red head in the red jacket? Yep that is me checking out the flowers.

Here Leslie and I are at Hurricane Ridge. 18 miles to the top from Port Angeles. It is a world away up into the mountains. We were up there on Saturday to enjoy a beautiful early afternoon as her husband had never gotten to enjoy the Olympic mountains up close.

Here we are doing what old friends do...tease and laugh down by the ocean. One of the amazing things about Port Angeles is that within 30 minutes you can go from the mountains to the salt water.

Sunday found us in Seattle at Safeco Field the home of the Seattle Mariner's. They were playing my team, the Minnesota Twins!

Some of the action on the field.