Coastal Camping and some Digi Layouts

We just returned from 5 nights at Gualala River Redwood Park up in the southern end of Mendocino County. It's now one of my favorite places to camp. We camped with 6 other families from town and had a blast. The kids climbed trees, rode bikes, swam and kayaked in the river and even made their first tie-dye shirts! Here are a few of my favorite shots:

LOVING our trailer!

The Cathedral of Trees

All of the kids wearing their new tie-dye shirts! Love it!

Here's a view of the Pacific Ocean from Hwy 1 on our drive down the coast. So beautiful!

Before I left on this trip I won a free digital scrapbook kit from Sausan Designs. Here are two layouts I did today using the Love Generation kit. It was the perfect kit to use for our camping trip.

How is your summer going?

Speechless...

My uncle sent me a huge box of vintage family photos he's been holding on to. This is just a small sampling of what I received:

I so treasure these family photos.

My uncle also sent me binders of our family tree dating as far back as the 1200's. He spent countless days doing all of the research and I so thank him for it. I hope I can pick up where he left off. My heritage has always fascinated me and seeing these family photos makes it all the more real and tangible.

I am definitely going to scan {and scrap!} some of my favorites this summer but does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do with these delicate originals? 

I am guessing these leather-bound photo albums are about a century old. I squealed with joy when I took these out of the box! And yes, there are framed photos inside!

This is a photo of my maternal grandfather when he was a boy. 

Love it.

Summer is Here!

Last Thursday was our last day of school. Here's my guy demonstrating how happy he is:

The weekend before we took a quick trip to a local county park {never again during a weekend holiday...too much riff-raff if you know what I mean!} and tested out our new trailer. We had quite the gang show up on Saturday for a BBQ!

Yesterday I ran my first half marathon. 

Yup.

13.1 glorious miles.

Here are Ginger and I before the race:

The crowd {there were about 3,500 runners total}

Self-explanatory:

And us after the race:

We got in at just under 3 hours. The distance between mile 9 and 10 seemed to go on FOREVER! But once we hit the 10-mile marker we were able to imagine the finish line. Stupid me for not thinking of wearing sunscreen. I am currently the owner of a MAJOR sunburn on my shoulders and back. Yeah, not smart.

This coming week we leave for 5 fun-filled camping days at Gualala River Redwood Park. There are 6 families from town all camping together in one loop. It should make for an adventurous time! 

this and that

Here's a digi-page I made on Friday night:

Forecast is calling for rain ALL week but we are taking this baby out on her maiden voyage this weekend rain or shine! 

I made this cute little mini-album for my son's teacher yesterday:

Darren's class has been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. They each started out with their own caterpillar inside of a clear cup and watched it spin its chrysalis and eventually saw it emerge ~ transformed into a butterfly. Man, I wish I had fun things like that back when I was a little kid in school. You can buy the kits here.

I didn't want to miss seeing the kids release their butterflies outside so I came armed with my camera for the big event. 

On a side note related to my half-marathon training I have hit a rather prolonged speed bump. My impingement problem hasn't gone away and has now managed to cause all kinds of lower back pain. I've tried stretching {which I think made it worse. Oops!} and resting all to no avail. 

I have a physical therapy appointment tomorrow. I'm hoping they can help me with treatment or some appropriate home therapy options. I am running this race even if I have to walk it but I'm still crossing my fingers that I'll get ailing and aging body ready in time for the big day because I want to run all 13.1 miles!

7 days and counting!

Yes, that's right folks - 7 more days of school until summer break! Yipeeeee!!!

I have been working 5 days a week this past month; hence, the lack of a current blog post! I'm also 15 days and counting until my half marathon. The precious moments I have not been working I am running! 

I have to say that I feel good about the upcoming run despite the very recent setback of an annoying nerve impingement in my left leg. I think my body likes to remind me of my age! So, I'm taking a very brief but much-needed break from running to let myself heal and then it's full-throttle until the half!

I've been able to sneak in a few hours here and there learning some new Photoshop techniques in my quest for a better digital scrapbook page. There is SO much to learn in Photoshop that I am just scratching the surface but Jessica Sprague's Photoshop Friday Series sure has been helpful. Sign up to receive her newsletter or get on her blog roll because you can get all of her new mini-instructional videos for just $1 on Wednesday! I've taken Episode 2 and 3 and came up with these:

Episode 2 taught me how to use clipping masks (using shapes and die-cuts so to speak)

Episode 3 taught me how to use the drawing tool to create the banner.

That's about it for now! 

Enjoy the weekend! 

I plan to! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to you!

 {bouquet}

Today was a pretty good day. I was taken out to breakfast by my family and enjoyed french toast along with my parents.  :)  

Darren gave me the cutest cards listing the reasons why I was the "Best Mom Ever."

I went to see the Indie film "La Mission" starring Benjamin Bratt. My review: "Loved it!"

Here are the Mother's Day cards I made for my mom and mother-in-law:

What did you do today?

KR and KL-inspired

For those of you who didn't get the newsletter I was soooo sad to hear that KL has decided to close her Kenner Road kit club. I am happy though that she can now spend more QT (quality time!) with her "littles" and sit back and relax a bit more. Believe me, I know how fun yet taxing running a kit club can be! 

On the bright side for us scrappers, she is going to continue creating digital goodness to sell on 2Peas as well as projects and classes {hopefully!} down the road.

I happened to get my hands on the April main kit, "Patchwork" as well as the project kit, "Nine Patch." I haven't had a chance to start on the vintage banner that she created with the project kit but I am definitely going to make it hopefully this weekend! 

Here's a layout I did last week with the main kit:

I am loving the Martha Stewart Punch "Around the Page." I used it on the layout above. KL was playing with it at Scrapbook Territory a few weeks back {even though she was playing with it like a 007 gadget! :-P} and I just had to have it. Thank goodness for 40% off coupons from Michaels!

I also made a KL/7gypsies-inspired necklace that I found on the 7gypsies blog. I had all the components I needed to make the necklace except for the linen. KL was sweet enough to hand over some of hers so that I would have no excuse not to make one. Ha! Ha! {Thanks KL!}

Here it is:

Instead of adding the travel arrow that she used in her necklace I added this little tiny pineapple that I've been holding on to FOREVER and was so happy to finally put it to use! My first piece of handmade jewelry! Totally exciting. :-)

It's a busy week in the holiday world. 

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all you fellow teachers out there! Please don't forget to let your children's teachers know they are appreciated! Now off to make some Mother's Day cards...