Mmmm...November gallery for Write Click Scrapbook

Hello! The month of November is upon us, and, appropriately, the November Write Click Scrapbook gallery will focus on food. Here's my page:

This was one of my favorite pages I've made recent;y. The photos were so colorful, and the papers were so bright and fresh. The blue plaid came from a Fancy Pants Designs line called Be Different, and the rest of the paper and stickers came from October Afternoon's Farm Girl, a line I only bought a few things of, thinking, "I don't vegetable garden! When would I ever use this?!?" Silly me. Here's some details:

I liked stitching down various stickers and elements. The title I had to stick down; the adhesives on the back were not terribly solid.

Thank you for checking out my page! I hope you go to Write Click Scrapbook and check out the rest of the gallery to get inspired!

Over the pig

I am just about totally well. Dominic got a bout of something, maybe flu, so I stayed home with him today, but he seems better now.

The weather is gorgeous, and the sun is shining. I can't tell you how happy I am for that. I was starting to think the vampires were leaving Forks and coming here to Minnesota because we have had so little sun this October. This afternoon I went outside to cut down more of my gardens, and Dominic went outside to play with a ball he got at Rowan's birthday party.

Happy fall.

May Day in September

Last spring my husband sent me an email while I was at work. I was on the computer working; he may not have been. After I got the email, I may have stopped working for a while to investigate because it was such a great deal: 80 bulbs, plus 80 free bulbs, plus free shipping, for about 10 dollars. WOW. This was from a company I'd never heard of, Bulbs Direct, but I was willing to spend 10 dollars to see what I got. So I did.

They came this week, a mix of four varieties of bulbs. I'm interested to see how they fare here; I'm mostly zone 4, but I have had some success with zone five, even one of the bulbs in this packet. For me, it was worth the 10 dollars just to see.

But 160 bulbs is a lot. Much more than I have room for. So this weekend, I assembled little packets like this:


I put some bulbs in the middle of the paper towel, wrote the name of the bulb on the towel too, and used garden twisties to close them up. I took the bag of packets to school and deposited bulbs on some coworkers' desks who I know garden. Sort of the autumn equivalent of May Day.

The big question in all of this, of course, is not whether the bulbs will make it through the winter. The big question is what the heck my husband was doing on a gardening website?

And for something completely magical, check out the chrysalis my son discovered in our garden:

The younger grades at his school focus on butterflies for science, raising caterpillars, observing the chrysalises (sp?), and tagging them, I believe, before they are set free. My tax dollars at work: the first Chrysalis I've seen in my garden ever. Worth it.

New pages and new hair

When the day starts with haircuts, you know it'll be a day full of energy. Here's Rowan's new 'do:
It's a normal haircut, just spiked with gel. Look at how happy he is.

Dominic got what he called a "hair sticking down" haircut:
Trust me, he's a lot happier than he looks. He just finished a sucker.

This afternoon I'm going with the boys to garden club. Some friends and I share labor and plants by helping out in each others' gardens. And we go out to lunch. I think I may have calamari today...

I just finished a few pages over the past few days. Here's one that is a typical design for me:I stack three photos, leave a spot for title and/or journaling, and add some paper strips. I have been doing a lot of "stripping" lately, so to speak. And this layout is a good example of why one should revisit products not used in a while. Before I put those flowers down, the layout looked empty and floating. I decided to pull out my chipboard, which I haven't used in a while, and found these flowers, which made a nice home for the Sassafras paper whimsies and the buttons.

The next one is a two pager I reworked:Originally, there was more stamping instead of the paper, but it was too subtle and looked like a mistake, so I added the patterned paper and brads. I never redo pages, but I do cover.

The last one may be my new favorite:
I used my Studio Calico August kit Over the Rainbow for it. I like the combo of bright colors and patterns with the strong lines I used. Oh, yeah, this is another typical pattern for me--two photos stacked on top of title and/or patterned paper. If you doubt me, check out a layout from earlier this week, The Best Day. I'm proud that I tried something new--the journaling is reverse printing in a text box. And the process of gluing and sanding the patterned paper on those chipboard cogs spurred me to buy the Basic Grey Precision File Set. I totally killed two emery boards last night.