Lily Birthday Gift!!

Lily's birthday gift is 4 months late. Oy vey! When I was visiting, she showed her mom and I a picture of a terra cotta pot with candy in it, like they are flowers. (I'd give credit here, but I don't know where she got it.) So, I was feeling a bit crafty and thought I'd give it a try it.

I was lucky to find such a cute pot! I put floral foam in the pot. I used small wood BBQ skewers to hold the candy. I used a hot glue gun and put it on the skewer and then put the skewer on the candy seam (so you don't see the skewers in the back either). I cut some down with scissors to make them different sizes.

I think it came out cute, if I do say so my self!!

My new favorite things - Ana and Knock-off Wood!

My sister Kate told me about knock-off wood (KOW) in passing and I must say I am glad she did!! It is my new favorite site to visit and I love checking out what everyone has to say on FB. I'm totally addicted. So much so, that I got Steve to show me how to use the circular saw and the miter saw. (See fence post - Steve showed me how to use the circular saw on that!) KOW is a site where Ana White provides FREE plans on all types of furniture. I liked so many things, I just felt compelled to try to make something.

The projects I decided to do first were the tryed tables for my back yard and a bench that I've been wanting for our pool deck. I've been asking Steve to make a bench for forever, and he was more than pleased I was attempting it myself.

The top of the table is not attached because I wanted to stain it first. Since I bought pressure treated wood, the people at orange told me to wait a month to stain... I'm getting impatient to make them look done :)

Below is the bench. I definitely see my mistakes in this, but I'm still pleased with it. Steve asked me to make another bench so it goes to the end of the deck! I thought that was the best compliment :) This will be stained white like the deck.

New Fence!

I've been buggin Steve, an buggin Steve, an buggin Steve (over a year now) to put up a fence on the side of the house. The area is pretty big, but it is my favorite spot in the yard because 1) it is shady and 2) that is where my hammock is. But, that is the same spot where you can see everything on the street. I just wanted a little privacy, but I still wanted to see out and around so I could still see the kids (and all the action that just doesn't happen on our street :).

So we agreed to turn my rock wall, move some trees that Steve really liked that have been next to the screen porch and we agreed what direction we wanted the fence to go in. Whew, a few things we agreed on.

But... we couldn't agree on how we were going to do it. Really, a few weeks more of discussion. My mom was over one day and gave us the best suggestion - to put the fence between our trees! Yeah mom!

Then there was the fence. Vinyl, wood, composite? 4 feet, 6 feet? solid or slats? We finally found one we really liked at a local place! Yeah! But I couldn't live with $165 for one link of fence, then another $125 for one post. UGH!!! So, Steve agreed to make one for me. Great man!! He wanted a stockade look and I wanted the slats. I think at this point he agreed just cause :)

In the pic below, the fence on the left just has standing pieces that aren't attached. There is a gate there too, just for me cause I HAD to have it :).

This is a front (side) view of the fence!
And wouldn't you know it ~ right after I worked on this post, I went out to mulch my front garden bed. Steve worked on his veggie garden and then went out to finish my fence! YEAH! I'll have to take pics of it when it is light out :)

More digital pages from the April Crop ~ Finally!

When the weather turns nice, I'm on the computer much less. I love gardening and was happy to go out shopping with my mom for plants today :)! Since she wore me out shopping, I'm happy to sit and watch a movie tonight. Thought this would be a good time to finish uploading some more of the digital pages I did while my sister Kate and I were away at a crop in April.

This coloring on this page was completely an accident, but I like how it is color in the middle and then goes to black and white as it goes it. Don't know if I could even do it again if I tried... Gotta love PSE! Papers from divinedigital.This was my first attempt at changing a picture to black and white and adding back in color to the flowering shrubs. I was really happy with how it turned out! Papers from divinedigital.
Papers from Shabby Princess.
Papers from divinedigital.
As you have probably figured by now, I'm a HUGE fan of multi-photo layouts, but I'm always worried about the pages looking too busy. I was so pleased with this one and it really captures all of our favorite things about Bar Harbor!
Papers from divinedigital.
This was one of my first pages using the masks so the pictures look like they blend into the paper. It's a pretty cool feature!
My beautiful Sydney!!

Sunshine Award!!!

My very sweet and extremely talented girlfriend Cheryl left me this very cool Sunshine Award. Being new to blogging, I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Since I only follow a very few, I will not pass it on at this time, but wanted to thank Cheryl for honor :). If you get a chance, stop by Cheryl's blog. She is always working on something different and it's always fun to stop by.

Thanks Cheryl!!

New Pages!!!

I am at a crop with my sister Kate and am working on some new great pages. I will come back sometime when I'm more awake and add credits. These are some of my favorits. I'll post more in the next few days.

Sweet Lily

I love this page of Lil's birthday. I had started it and stared at it for days - literally!! I did it and redid it a million times. Finally, tonight I started with new papers I bought at divinedigital from the Fo' Shizzle kit by Just Jamiee. I love it! I think it works perfectly now :)

Halloween Pages

Yeah! Some more pages completed. Once I'm done with 2009 I plan to make a bound book from Blurb for the entire year.

In both LOs below the papers and embellishments are from Royanna Frischmann, which I bought from divinedigital. In the first page below the arrangement of the pics is based on a sketch from Sassy Lil Sketches blog.

San Diego - Third Times a Charm??

My 3rd attempt at this one.

Update and airplane etiquette

Okay, so I haven't scrapped for well over a week or two due to a work trip to San Diego. BTW, sunny San Diego was not so sunny. Very sad when a "winter" in Maine is nicer than most of the rest of the country :) Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the mild Maine winter this year... I digress.

I had a 5.5 hour flight from San Diego to Dulles yesterday, and of course was in the middle seat. Where are the rules on armrest (elbow) etiquette? If I'm sitting in the middle seat, don't I get a majority of the armrest? Shouldn't there be some rules posted on this? :)

I also want to give a shout out to Cheryl at Cheryls Window and wish her a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!