woohoo!

another cj layout done! I was just a-zoomin' along last night, got into the "zone," stayed up until 3:45am. yikes. I loved what I was doing, loved the Bo-Bunny paper, loved the style, loved the flow. Then my late night delusions hit, making me think of another "great" idea - the ribbon on the top. hmm... the verdict is still out on that one. I actually do think it's a cute idea, but just not sure with this particular layout, it seems to make the whole thing top heavy. So I'm thinking and deciding if I want to keep the fringe or remove it.

This one is Carrie's, and the theme is "Crazy Little Things I Love." Trying to differentiate between that and "Things that Make Me Happy" was a little tough. She requested that the main color of the layout be our favorite color - as long as I can remember, purple's been my fave color. My fave shade is that beautiful deep royal purple. So anyway, this was kinda fun, because it isn't often that I get to use purple in my scrapping!

And if you can't read my crazy loves, they are: an organized studio, dark chocolate, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, dill pickles, a dual-control electric blanket, and a comfort grip side click mechanical pencil (I have one at work that I ADORE - it's so comfy in my little paw!).

layouts for outlaw cj's

I have two layouts with matching tags done for our outlaw cj group. Both LOs are total scraplifts of layouts I found on twopeas, love that site! The first is "My Happy Things," pretty self-explanatory. Used a couple dif paper lines, lovin' the rub-on in the upper left hand corner. The pic is of us in Istanbul in front of the Blue Mosque. I think the picture is appropriate since two of my happy things are Greg and traveling!

The second is "My Mentor" - anyone who you feel mentored you - that was tough for me, so I took the Daddy angle. Daddy loved bright colors, esp. red and yellow, so I had to incorporate those. He was very vivacious, so the patterned paper seemed to fit well too. The rub-ons are CK brand - love the font. The picture is OLD, about 8 yrs old, but it's so dang cute!! :-)


Yes, I whited out my info on the left tag, it was handwritten addy, phone and email. That pic is me on the bike of course! The back side of the colorful flowered tag has my info on it. That pic is from somewhere overseas, our 2006 cruise, I think it was taken in Egypt.

continuing the trip out east

Continuing on, the next day we went to Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia. The highlight is the waterfall, quite pretty. There are also some scenic overlooks into the canyon. However, I think as far as we were concerned, we saw prettier scenery just driving along. WV is truly a beautiful state, with great biking roads.


The next morning we visited Antietam National Battlefield. Now, I will display some ignorance as to American history. I knew Antietam was important in the Civil War, but I didn't know why. So that was why I wanted to stop so much - to try to understand the war and the times and the people better.

I was truly amazed at how huge Antietam is. Because most of the fighting during the Civil War was hand-to-hand combat, I didn't think one battlefield would be so large. And even more amazing was the number of deaths from one day of fighting here. The film they show in the museum/shop area is a bit hokey, but it really points out some facts that I'm guessing a lot of folks either don't know or forgot. The one that really sticks out in my memory - after the win at Antietam, Abe Lincoln wanted the Union soldiers to go after the Confederates, but the commander in charge didn't do so. The war continued for a couple years after this - could these years of bloodshed have been avoided?

These pictures show: an overview of a small part of the battlefield (the ditch along the left was an area of many deaths), an enlarged copy of a photo taken before the bodies were removed, a photo from very near that same spot, with the church still in the background, and the bridge where many Union soldiers died, trying to cross.

Visiting the battlefield was very thought-provoking to me. I wonder, as I had previously, how soldiers of that time could fight "like gentlemen" - march in a line while being shot at, not trying to avoid getting shot, just continuing onward. Where is the instinct for self-preservation? And how stupid (in my mind) to fight that way - what a waste of humans. Of course I also think of the horrific wounds and almost non-existent medical knowledge. And I think about families, torn in two, with some family members on each side of the war... and some families were never able to reconcile afterwards, each side thinking the other a traitor.

trippin' again

Literally, taking a trip. Not illegal (or legal) drug use!! ;-)

The last week of June, Greg and I determined that we could both take the week of July 4th off from work. woohoo!! So we bounced around ideas as to where to bike, because of COURSE we had to take a motorcycle vacation... lol. We decided to head east. Greg created a route that would include numerous roads from his fave book "The Most Scenic Drives in the United States" - which has 120 different suggested drives. And we decided to incorporate being in Washington DC for the July 4th fireworks - what better place to celebrate Independence Day than in our nation's capital?! I didn't take the time to update the blog as we drove along, so I'll post a few times this week.

July 1 - pretty boring... just shooting over to our first night's stay in Chillicothe, Ohio. Mostly interstate driving.

July 2 - DEFINITELY more interesting! We rode on two scenic roads, the first in south east Ohio, and the second in the very southern section of West Virginia. Great roads, twisty turny, just as we like 'em! Through trees, sometimes by water, up and down the mountains. WOOHOO!

In Ohio, we stopped at Hocking Hills State Park, and we hiked to the Rock House. We had no idea what it was, but we were intrigued. The Rock House was kinda cool, but I personally liked the House exterior better than the interior.

In West Virginia, we stopped at the New River Gorge National River. We apparently had already stopped there together several years ago, and Greg stopped there himself last year, but that was ok, it made for a nice break anyway. And Greg took me on an interesting road down under the bridge.




The scenic road ended in Lewisburg, WV, where we spent the night. And yes, the town was pretty interesting too. It's so dif here than out east - so few bldgs (if any) here were built prior to 1900. Out east a lot of houses are from the mid 1800s, there are some still from the early 1800s, and a few even from the 1700s. That is just so rockin' cool!

And yes, I know, compared to Europe, Africa, Asia, etc., our "old" is just a baby. But it's America's history. And that, my friend, is amazing.