Our new baby!

 

Uh, no. Not a real baby but still thought of as our newest bundle of joy! A previously gently-loved 23-foot trailer! We bought her last weekend {I think I now need to name her!} although we hadn't planned on actually buying one! 

She was perfect. 

We just had to have her. 

I never thought we would own a trailer since we consider ourselves die-hard tenters in the camp world but now that we are finding we aren't as spry as we used to be. Those cold spring and late fall camping trips found us freezing some nights in our tent and yearning for the comforts of a heater, a toilet you don't have to walk to in the middle of the night and a place where I can just plug in my coffee maker rather than waiting for it to percolate on the camp stove just got the better of us.

So here's to Spring camping, getting a campsite near the lake rather than near the bathroom and to coffee-in-a-jiffy!

Back home to reality...

We had an unforgettable time with family and friends this past week in Kauai celebrating my sister's wedding. The weather couldn't have been better and the intimate setting made it all the more special. The most sincere congratulations to my sister and my new brother-in-law!

 

Besides coming back with a tan I also came back with a cold. Ah well...a small price to pay for a week in paradise!

before i go....

When I saw this photograph of my grandmother camping I had to giggle. Camping must seriously be in my blood!

Granted, my parents kept up the camping tradition by taking me and my 3 siblings on camping trips from when we were young until probably up through high school. We started out in a tent, eventually upgraded to a travel trailer and then decided we wanted to go back to tents again. I camped here and there in my young adulthood but didn't really start camping on a regular basis until I met my husband. From there, it's all history!

So I am probably the only one on the planet to not have watched the Super Bowl yesterday. Instead Ginger and I took off to Berkeley again for some shopping and dining. Our husbands hung out at the house watching the game while the kids played so I think everyone was a happy camper yesterday {um, no pun intended!}

We are off to Kauai on Wednesday for my sister's wedding set for Valentine's Day. I can't wait! It is going to be such a beautiful wedding! Seven days with aunts, uncles, cousins and friends all staying at the same resort should make for a fun {or incredibly out of hand} time!

Aloha!

Scrap Across America

Yup. That is what my good pal Ginger and I hope to do one day! We both love to camp and we are even known to scrap while we camp. When the kids and husbands go to bed we break out the scrapbook stash, portable DVD player complete with chick flicks, lanterns and if we have electric hook-ups, the space heater to keep us nice and toasty! Of course, we get to talking and the "Wouldn't it be nice if ?..." And that is how we came up with our Scrap Across America idea.

We would combine our love of travel, camping and scrapping by renting an RV, loading it up with every last bit of our scrapbooking stashes and hit the road. We'd visit every scrapbook store from California to New York and perhaps even throw in a few retreats if the timing was right. Of course we'd stop off at national parks to do some sightseeing and hiking. Aaaaah....talk about heaven!

Granted, if this were ever to happen it would be when our kids are in college  and our husbands are retired. Our laughable plan is to bunk them up together in a retirement home {insert evil laugh here} and set out on our adventure.

What do you think? Does that sound like fun or what?

We went to an RV show last weekend with the husbands and kids and found a nice little RV for our adventure. Here's Ginger posing in front of our future RV. ;)

Vintage Family Photo Heaven

My dear uncle recently entrusted me with a box of old family photographs. One goes as far back as 1911. This one I am absolutely in love with:

This is a photograph of my maternal grandmother, Alice Wentworth, taken in either 1912 or 1913. The dress....the pure innocence of the photo...I am so enamored by it!

I have a feeling that the history in some of these photos and the months of research my uncle spent on the Wentworth family tree will be pursued further by me as soon as I can find the time to do it. Unfortunately, there a lot photos with no dates or names noted so they may stay unknown -- which bums me out.

Here's a photo of my grandmother as an infant with a family friend in 1911 when  Ferndale Bridge in Humboldt County, California, was being built.

OK, on a completely unrelated topic: Who is watching "The Bachelorette" and who do you think Jake will pick in the end? :)

What the heck - - - I'll blog today!

I know. I've been avoiding this blog like the plague. I was doing so well with keeping up with my December Daily....until Dec. 15th. Then the holidays were upon me and I haven't had time to look back since!

I've been diligently working on finishing  my last few pages and decided to hold off on posting the pictures until it was done....hence, the lack of a blog post in a month!

I'm SO glad I jumped in and have the experience of doing the the daily but I'm not sure if I'd do it again. That's just me. I think I enjoy the journaling/scrapbooking process more when I don't feel a time constraint or an obligation to do it. Crafting is all about the freedom for me and I think I'm just going to stick with what works for me. Who knows, maybe it'll be a different story by year's end. :)

There are so many things to talk about but since we are in the ever-glorious CHA winter-release season why don't I share the things that I'm looking forward to adding to my craft stash?

7gypsies letterblock tray

How many of these can I justify buying? And what wall space can I find to hang them from? Oh, the possibilities of filling this lovely thing is endless!

I love this 7gypsies receipt display because it can be changed up time and time again. I love the re-usage factor! And yeah, it further complicates my wall space dilemma!

7gypsies dangling paper clips? Need I say more?

Who doesn't love vintage ephemera?!? Thank you 7gypsies!

 

Everyone together now: "Ooooooh! Aaaaaah!" Can't wait to play with this stuff! Tattered Angels has done it again!

Hambly papers. Divine!

 

Maya Road fabric and chipboard banners. I foresee banners for every holiday and season!

And what good would banners be without these fun little Maya Road mini chipboard alphas?

Sassafras Lass banner stickers. Are you sensing a theme here? ;)

Just plain ol' pretty!

Thank you Tim Holtz for bustin' out the vintage-inspired buttons. Cuz I can never have enough of 'em!

Metallic feet to display your newest work of art? Yes, please!

Tissue tape: yeah, it can be used on anything and everything!

So what are your faves from the CHA sneaks you've seen?

I plan to be back here again soon. I promise! I have so much more to share!

The Christmas Rush is On!

Only 10 more days until Christmas? Say it isn't so! This holiday always manages to sneak up on me somehow. This week is filled with a 2nd grade recital, a church recital, a haircut and color {badly needed by me!} and an appointment with a physical therapist for my {yet again!} pulled calf muscle.

I managed to overdo it a few weeks back when I was running up some trail hills in preparation for my half marathon and pulled a calf muscle. I was forced to quit running for a week and then tested my calf out on a treadmill and felt fine. Two days later I decided to do my run outside and at 4 1/2 miles I had to stop. Yup, I think I exacerbated my original injury. Great.

So I'm just a bit frustrated that I can't train for yet another week but decided to get some advice from a physical therapist so that I don't keep repeating the same mistake because my time is running out {no pun intended.}

Here are the last 3 days of my December Daily.

 

 

I crack up when I look at the photo of my dad holding up his "ugly" cookie. I had a last piece of dough that was too small to cut out one last cookie so I decided it was going to be his "lump of coal" cookie. I frosted it and added some sprinkles and a few chocolate chips and it ended up looking like a holiday skeleton! When he put it up next to his face for some reason I thought I saw a resemblance. LOL.

Darren was showing off his hand-frosted cookie. He decided to give his snowman a yellow shirt. So after spending 4 hours baking and frosting 137 cookies I succumbed to eating 3 cookies. One was broken and the other 2...well, I have no excuse. Ha! Ha!