Mini Envelope Album

Here is another little project I created on Saturday while scrapping with my girlfriends. It is a cute little envelope album. I modified it a little bit when I put it together because I just wasn't happy with how it sat. I still think I need to make a few modifications to it, but it will work out. This is my first attempt, so they should look better after this. You know how that is-your first attempt at anything new sometimes needs a little help!Happy Scrappin'

My interactive swap pages

I had a great day yesterday. I was able to go scrapping with my friends. What a great day to spend together. We also did a lot of chatting and catching up. How much more can a girls ask for? I was able to get my swap pages for July done (and I even took pictures this time before I sent them away). This time around we had to make interactive pages. This is what I came up with.Simply untie the ribbon and flip open the interactive part of the page. All it will take is a little creativity in how you put it in your page protector (make a slit in your protector).

Thanks for a GREAT day and the wonderful food!

Hopefully the weather will cooperate this week. Last week it was so uncomfortably hot and humid, I would get home from work and not want to do a thing. Maybe one of these years we will put air conditioning in our house!?! I think it is supposed to be a little better this week. I also hope the weekend weather holds up for next week, we will be riding our motorcycles down to Iowa for the weekend. What fun!

Happy Scrappin'

Almond Crunch Cookies

I thought I would share a recipe with you. I brought these along to my class reunion over the weekend. I love them and they are a good change from something chocolate that would have been melted all over (we really never got nice spring weather, we just went right into the hot summer stuff :) These cookies taste kind of like Pecan Sandies, so if you like them, then you'll probably like these.

1 cup sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup oil
1 tsp. almond extract
2 eggs
4 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cream of tartar
2 cups almonds, chopped
6 oz. pkg. almond brickle chips
sugar

Blend sugars, butter, and oil until well mixed. Add almond extract and eggs; mix well. Gradually blend in flour, baking soda, salt, and cream of tartar. Stir in almonds and almond brickle chips. For easier handling, refrigerate dough about 30 minutes, then shape dough into balls and roll in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten with a fork in a criss cross pattern. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around edges. Cool about 1 minute before removing from the cookie sheet.

Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day, Dad's!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there! I hope you have a great day. Around here, I think Father's Day will be spent baling hay. Not very fun, but in the life of a farmer, you bale hay when you can. What's that old saying? Make hay when the sun shines. Very true.

My Dad has been gone now for 12 years, but I still miss him and hold him dearly in my heart. I'm thinking that he better be taking good care of my son up there! This is one of my favorite pictures of the two of them together. It was taken 14 years ago when my sister got married. They were all dressed up in their tuxes and told not to get into trouble or get dirty :) They were a couple of mischief makers, let me tell you.I was going to post yesterday about our evening Friday night, but just got too busy yesterday to do it. Friday night when we went out to eat with our friends, we were talking about all the bear that have been in the neighborhood lately. I was joking with my sister-in-law that I was going to camp out in her gazebo just so I could see a bear in real life. I have never seen one (except in the zoo, but that doesn't count). As we were driving down the road talking about it, Dale said, "there he is now!" Holy Cow! It was a bear! He was in the field and started running away. I always keep a little camera in my purse, so I grabbed it and tried to snap a picture while I was driving, backing up, rolling down my window, plus stay out of the way of an oncoming truck. It is not a real good picture, but at least I have proof of what we saw.Then there was a deer in that field, too (I didn't take a picture of that as they are very common). Then about 10-15 miles down the road, we saw another bear! It was on the side of the road and went down into the ditch and the thick brush. We tried to find it, but couldn't. The there was another deer about a mile or two down the road. Then, on the way home, we saw 2 more deer. Talk about a night of wildlife. After never having seen a bear in real life, then I saw 2 in one night! I loved it!

Yesterday morning was a busy one as I had to do a little running in the morning to get parts for the tractor. Rhonda decided she really wanted to pull Tony's tractor in the pull yesterday and it didn't want to run right. It was a tough decision to make whether to let her pull it or not, but we decided it was meant to be. Was the tractor not running Tony's way of saying leave it sit? Be then we figured he must have taught her to drive it for a reason last year, so we said she could. Normally she wouldn't be allowed to touch his tractor, but last year, he taught her all the ins and outs of it (his tractor is really unique in that he made a lot of modifications to it and it has a lot of little things you need to know about it to drive it). Everyone was very happy to see it out. They even had a moment of silence in honor of Tony. It was very special. Rhonda ended up getting 1st place with it! She was so proud (as we were of her).Then it was off to my 25th Class Reunion. Can you believe I've been out of school for 25 years?? I can't! Here is a photo of some of us yesterday (I missed a few of the group as I was late because of the tractor pull). It doesn't look like a very big group, but we also only had 27 people in our graduating class. We had a great time reminiscing and laughing. I can't wait to do it again.This is me 25 years ago. I just laugh at those trees in the picture. I think every one of us had the same tree in our photos. Back then, we all went to the same photographer. My, how times have changed.OK, I've rambled enough for today, sorry for the long post. Happy Scrappin'

Thank you card swap

Since I am not working today (the last of our mandatory days off-boo hoo, I will miss these) it is a day of trying to play catch up around here after the crazy week I had again. It sounds as if every time I am on the afternoon shift, they will shut our line down on Friday and we will have to double back and come in on days that day. It sounds awful, but really, it gets us out of there on Friday nights. In the long run, I think it will save me a lot of vacation days. Plus, now instead of rotating shifts every 2 weeks, we will work 4 weeks of days then 2 weeks of afternoons. That really won't be so bad-just a little harder to keep track of is all. No wonder I keep my planner handy at all times.

I have shown you my planner before, but for you newcomers, here it is again. I always use the 9x9 calendar from Close To My Heart. I love that each day has enough space for me to write what I need in it (plus I frequently use the left side of the page for notes also. I can't survive without my planner. Usually each week gets totally filled up. I love it!Here are the swap cards I received the same day as the layouts. I just didn't have time to take pictures of everything all at once. I already showed you my card, so here are the rest of them.KateKellyLynnSheriAnd our over-achiever of the month, Rachel. She also sent us the template for making this uniquely folded card.Enjoy your day and Happy Scrappin'

One Lovely Blog Award

Wowsers!! Look what I received from not one, not two, not three, but four blogging friends! Yes, I said FOUR! Can you believe it? I know I am pretty overwhelmed. I am very honored. Thank you to Brenda, Liz, Carla, and Deneen. You don't know how much I appreciate this award. I will display it proudly.

**OK, an update-now I have FIVE blogging friends that have sent me this award. Add Iona to that list. Thank you so very much everyone!

Now, as part of this award, I need to:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog with the name of the person who gave you the award. Be sure to link their blog so people can visit them!!
2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs you've newly discovered. Remember to post to their blog to let them know they've received the award!

Here is my list of blogs that I have passed the award on to (maybe not 15, but you really need to visit these gals, too, as they are either great artists, great writers, or a combination of both!) These are listed in no particular order.

Antionette
Melanie
Doresa
Tiffany
Nona
Amy
Kim
Rhonda
Jennifer

OK, the list needs to end for now. I NEED to head to bed. Once again, it has been a crazy week at work. I was on afternoons this week, then had to double back and work days today. That means, I get home a little after midnight and then have to be up, ready, and out the door at 4:45 the next morning. Yikes, it's amazing I am still awake.

We did have a wonderfully relaxing evening, though. We had pudgy pies for supper. We burned the huge pile of sticks that has been accumulating in our fire pit, so, being the multi-tasker that I am, I figured we'd make good use of the fire and make our supper out there. Kinda like camping in our own yard :) Where was my camera?? Sometimes I wonder how we end up with any photos for in our scrapbooks!?!

Good Night and Happy Scrappin'

Swap layouts

Remember that layout I said I made for a swap but forgot to take pictures of? Well, here it is! The mailman delivered my swaps to me today. Wow! Talk about some great artwork. I can't wait to get pictures put on them.Without further ado, here are the rest of the swap layouts.
Lynn-Rachel-Sheri-Holly-Val-Kelly-Kate-Heather-And a couple that I am not sure who made them (this is why I love it when artist claim their work and include a label that tells me who made them). I would love to give credit to them!As always, you can click on the photos to see more detail if you wish. Enjoy!

Happy Scrappin'