Week 8...

Here is week 8 of the Deck of You challenge. This did not turn out the way I had hoped. First, it's not the photo I wanted to use. There are very few photos of my grandparents together. The one I wanted to use is a B & W from well before I was born. But I couldn't find it. Or I may not have it. Who knows! Then the colors were just not speaking to me. Well, they were. They were screaming 70's! Hard colors for me to work with. So I kept it simple this week.
These are my grandparents. My mom's parents. The grandparents I grew up with. I love them both very much and think of them everyday. My mom and I lived with them for the first 3 1/2 years of my life. Until my mom married my step-dad. My grandpa and I were.... tight. I guess that's the best current word to describe it. Thick as theives. Inseperable. He taught me to do so many non-girlie things. We spent a lot of time together because my grandma was a busy woman. I'm not sure what she was always so busy doing but she was busy. So we stayed out of her way. My grandpa retired not long after was born so he was around a lot. After they moved up north I would spend summers up there. For weeks at a time. Then after my sister came along and was old enough she came too.
I miss them everyday. Some nights I will have a dream and one of them, sometimes both, will be in it. And the dream is so real. When I wake up it's a warm fuzzy feeling.

My mom is a grandparent like my grandpa was. She loves to be with Owen. And she is attentive. My grandpa was like that. My grandma not so much. But she was special in her own way too. She was a worrier. That's how she loved us.

There are little bits of my grandparents that I carry with me everyday. That make up who I am. My grandma's creativity. My grandpa's problem solving. Her worrying. His silence. Both of their stubborness. That is evident in my mom and my sister too!

My uncle is very much like my grandpa. Their handwriting is all but identical. And last Christmas I noticed that they have the same scent. You know how people have their own scent? Not perfume or cologne. But their body scent. My uncle smells like my grandpa. And they look alike too. I like that about families. How people look like each other and sound like each other. It's comforting.

Owen's album...

The album is 9x9, brown leather, by Chatterbox I believe. The paper is the SEI Grannies Kitchen Collection. I am up to month 2! The 4th page needs a title and some journaling.

Yippee!!!

I got my new banner posted in the header!! Last night I found a little video tutorial after doing a google search on this topic. I watched the video, took notes and opened up my template in blogger to get started. It was going to be super easy!! Unfortunately the video was based on the old template style before the beta upgrade and these widget things. Now I all but completely html and css illiterate so it's like reading a foreign language. And have I mentioned that I still have the headached and neckache that I was at the doctor for last week??? This did not make this task any easier. Okay fast-forward to this am....
I was on 2P's reading the blogs and came to Amberley's blog. And up pops this beautiful banner! And it's placed exactly where I want mine! So I viewed her source (cool thing you can do in a browser) to find where she placed her url for her photo. Then I opened up my blog and viewed the source to see where I could put the url for my photo. So after some trial and error I got it up there!! So THANK YOU AMBERLEY!!!
As I mentioned, I am still not feeling well. Still have the stiff neck and headache that I've had for the last two weeks. Our insurance is changing tomorrow so I will be finding a new doctor. Which I think will be fine. I am going to try to get a massage today and see if that helps. Morgan took today off to stay home and help with Owen so I can relax a bit and try to feel better.
The 2P's challenge for today is: would you live your life any differently if you didn't care what people thought??

Well, I try not to worry too much about what other people think. But that said I also try to live a life that I can be proud of and be a good role model for other people. Maybe that comes from being a teacher for so long or from being a perfectionist and wanting to be better than other people. (Not a good attitude to have! and I try not to be that way!) I don't think people should live their lives in a way that is hurtful to others. I am not all about individualism. There are far too many people on this planet for that to work well! And I think a good part of being happy is being able to get along with others. People who claim they don't need anyone else have a lot of other issues going on and that's what gives them that attitude.
If I thought I could get away with it I think I would probably dress a little differently and wear funkier glasses! That's about all I would change! My friend Pam is a great example of someone who dresses funky! She has this philosphy that all your clothes have the same value and you can mix and match them to you hearts delight. I love that about her! She has an eye for it. And it totally works for her.

It's finished...

Here is my quote journal. All done. Now I can collect my quotes in one place and stop having little cards of them all over the place.

The tabs are Creativity/Art, Children, Life, Bible Verses, and humor. I had a bunch of headings written down but figured that those 5 would cover most of what I would be collecting.

Ah...

Monday, again! Not really my favorite day. Can't really tell you why. It's just not. I acutally think it's my least favorite day.

I have a new banner for my blog! Here it is!Isn't it lovely! But the problem is that I don't know how to put it up there! So if anyone knows, could you tell me!? I figured out how to make one. But I can't find out how to put it in the blog. Grr! I could probably figure it out if I did a bit more research but I'm not currently in a research frame of mind.

The 2P's challenge for today is: If you can remember going on a family vacation. What was your favorite and why?

Well, I'd say my favorite was any vacation that we didn't go camping! When I was real young, under 12, we always went camping to the same place every summer. It was a lovely island up north. Beautiful lake and beach and lots to explore. The part I didn't like was all the fighting my parents did! And canoing was the worst. They would fight getting the canoe on the car, all the way there, getting it off the car, and then the whole time we were in the damn thing! That was a SUPER GOOD TIME!!! So I am not a fan of canoing. And I don't like to be outside in the summer all that much either so camping is basically the suckiest vacation I can imagine. If the weather is nice I don't mind too much. But in Minnesota the chances of it being too hot or raining while you are camping are pretty good. So that makes it suck.
I think my favorite vacation that we took was when I was older. In college. My mom, sister and I went to Winnipeg. It is a lovely city. I'd never been to Cananda. My mom and my sister had gone the year before without me so they had scoped it out a bit and knew different places to go. It was just a really great trip. Someday I hope Owen and I can go on a trip with just the two of them.

This weeks Deck of You theme is Who or What do you miss? You can check out Emily Falconbridge's Blog HERE. And join in the challenge! I'm really enjoying doing these little cards. I'm trying to use up my scrap with them too! I don't like to throw paper away so I have a drawer and basket dedicated to my scraps. I just always think I could use that little piece of paper for something! Especially the patterned ones.

On another note. Have you ever seen any of Claudine Hellmuth's books? You can check her out HERE. She is a collage artists and does some really neat stuff. Sandee, who's circle journal I have this month is a collage type artist. She does some lovely stuff. Very fun and quirky. So in preparation for working in her journal I got some books from the library on collage. I've done a bit of this kind of art in the past but needed some inspiration. One of the books is by Claudine and is so fun. So you will soon be seeing a little collage from me! Don't expect anything too fabulous though!

This weekend I started a little quote journal. I used the Hippy Chick papers by SEI for it. And I'm using 4x6 index dividers and cards. I love to write down quotes but end up having all kinds of pieces of paper and notes cards lying around with them on and I can't ever find one when I want it. So I saw an idea in Donna Downey's book on journals using the index cards so I modified it a bit to fit my quotes. I will post pictures when I have it finished a bit more.

The big one...

Yesterday and into today we got a nice snow storm. Not a blizzard. Apparently there are certain criteria that need to be met to consider it a blizzard and we did not have those conditions. We just got a bunch of snow. More than we've had all season.

No, we didn't actually have 23 inches of snow. This was just the drift in front of our side door. We got about 8 or so inches. Still a good amount!

And for the above photo please tilt your head to the left. (sheesh! that is irritating!) This was Owen's first major snow in MN. We saw a lot of snow in Montana but haven't had much here at home. I put him the Snuggli and we wandered around outside and over to the neighbors houses to visit. He had a good time. The above picture was just before I took him in so he wasn't in the snow long or getting cold!

The snow held off so I could scrapbook yesterday at my monthly crop. It was good. I got 4 pages done! I'm up to month 2 in Owen's album. I will scan the pages and post them in the next few days. When I got home from the crop Sandee's journal was waiting for me! I was so excited! Here is the package.

She included a little goodie bag too. With lots of fun stuff for collages. I can't wait to get started. The theme of Sandee's journal is serenity. So my wheels are turning.

How to make a bad day better...

have an iChat!!! Today Noelia and I figured out how to do a video iChat. She has an iMac too with the isight feature and we'd been talking about having a chat. Well today we figured out how. It was such fun! Again, isn't technology amazing! Noelia lives a lot of miles away from me and in another country and we still had a face-to-face chat! You can see a picture of me and Owen on Noelia's computer, ( in Canada!) HERE.
AND after we had our chat I took Owen in his room and read him a book. Then I put him in his crib and he is sleeping! So not only is Noelia super cool she is MAGIC too!
Thank you Noelia! You made my day so much better!

Last night...

was AWFUL! Owen did not take another nap yesterday. Just the one in the morning. Which we got to only because he fell asleep while I was holding him. It was a good nap. About 2 hours. Then we had lunch with my mom and Miranda. Came home for a bottle and a nap. And he was having none of it. So we played. He wasn't crabby. Just a little quiet. I worked last night and got home around 8. Morgan was giving Owen a bottle and then we had a short story and he went in the crib. He fussed a bit. Which is unusual. Then around 11:45pm he woke up. Screaming and crying! He was wet so I changed him. Which is always fun when he's in a "chucky" state. (You know that evil doll from the movies from a while ago??) Then we cuddled for a bit. I tried putting him back down two more times and he was not having any of that. He just screamed and cried. I tried a little Tylenol. That didn't help. FINALLY Morgan got up. After I shut a couple of doors firmly. He took Owen and I left. This was at 1:30am. I went out to the car and cried. I just needed a little time away from the crying. I had intended to go somewhere. But there's not really anywhere to go at 1:30 in the morning in your PJ's. I eventually went back in the house. Morgan and Owen were sitting in the recliner reading a book. With the lights low. Owen was quiet but not interested in sleeping. Morgan tried putting him down. More crying and screaming. So he got him back out. We sat in the study and listened to a Garrison Keillor Podcast and looked at the paper star light we have hanging in there. Eventually he fell asleep. Sitting up with me on the futon. Morgan took him and gently put him back in his crib. It was 3am. He slept until 6:30am. One would think that all that fussing would have tired him out more. But he was up at his regular time. So we had breakfast. And then played. And had a bottle. At 8:30 I was so tired and had had enough. He needed a diaper change so I took him in his room and changed his diaper and put him in his crib with the slipper he was chewing on and closed the door. There was a little fussing but he fell asleep. It's now 10:30am and he's still asleep. I had bit of a nap. Until Morgan called. Somedays he just doesn't have a clue. I love my husband. He is a good man and a good father. But he is not the mama. And he's not a woman. And no matter how close he and his twin sister are and have been all their lives he just doesn't get some things. And probably never will. I called him yesterday after I tried putting Owen down and he was crying and told him I'd had enough. I didn't know what to do. And later when I talked to him he said I just needed to let him know when I am at the end of my rope. So last night I was at the end and what did he do. Gave Owen to me to change (he originally got up with O at 11:45)! He said he'd already been up 2 hours longer than he had wanted to be because I had been reading with the light on! Well, that was NOT TRUE! He was up because he was on the computer working on his speech. It had nothing to do with me. Today when he called he admitted that he had his head firmly lodged up his A@# last night and wasn't very helpful.

Hopefully today will be better. Maybe there will be another nap in the cards. George did not bring Sandee's Circle Journal. It's supposed to start snowing tonight. And snow until Sunday. I hope it misses us. I've had enough cold, gray blah yucky weather. I am not a winter person. I'm a Spring and Fall person. Mild, gentle weather. Tomorrow is my monthly crop too. So I'm hoping the weather cooperates for that. I need to get out of the house for a day.

My committment to giving up sugar for Lent lasted 1 whole day! Yes, Maggie, 1 whole day!!! Last night I didn't bring anything for dinner when I went to work so I went down to the vending machine and got some chips. But there were also Girl Scout Cookies and big chocolate bars in our kitchenette. So I ate them. 6 thin mints and 2 pieces of chocolate. I cannot survive cranky baby without chocolate. Morgan said maybe I could try moderation instead of cold turkey.

Now I need to upload some photos to Costco's photo site so I have some pictures to scrap tomorrow! I want to get caught up on Owen's book. It has the first page done!!

Last night...

was AWFUL! Owen did not take another nap yesterday. Just the one in the morning. Which we got to only because he fell asleep while I was holding him. It was a good nap. About 2 hours. Then we had lunch with my mom and Miranda. Came home for a bottle and a nap. And he was having none of it. So we played. He wasn't crabby. Just a little quiet. I worked last night and got home around 8. Morgan was giving Owen a bottle and then we had a short story and he went in the crib. He fussed a bit. Which is unusual. Then around 11:45pm he woke up. Screaming and crying! He was wet so I changed him. Which is always fun when he's in a "chucky" state. (You know that evil doll from the movies from a while ago??) Then we cuddled for a bit. I tried putting him back down two more times and he was not having any of that. He just screamed and cried. I tried a little Tylenol. That didn't help. FINALLY Morgan got up. After I shut a couple of doors firmly. He took Owen and I left. This was at 1:30am. I went out to the car and cried. I just needed a little time away from the crying. I had intended to go somewhere. But there's not really anywhere to go at 1:30 in the morning in your PJ's. I eventually went back in the house. Morgan and Owen were sitting in the recliner reading a book. With the lights low. Owen was quiet but not interested in sleeping. Morgan tried putting him down. More crying and screaming. So he got him back out. We sat in the study and listened to a Garrison Keillor Podcast and looked at the paper star light we have hanging in there. Eventually he fell asleep. Sitting up with me on the futon. Morgan took him and gently put him back in his crib. It was 3am. He slept until 6:30am. One would think that all that fussing would have tired him out more. But he was up at his regular time. So we had breakfast. And then played. And had a bottle. At 8:30 I was so tired and had had enough. He needed a diaper change so I took him in his room and changed his diaper and put him in his crib with the slipper he was chewing on and closed the door. There was a little fussing but he fell asleep. It's now 10:30am and he's still asleep. I had bit of a nap. Until Morgan called. Somedays he just doesn't have a clue. I love my husband. He is a good man and a good father. But he is not the mama. And he's not a woman. And no matter how close he and his twin sister are and have been all their lives he just doesn't get some things. And probably never will. I called him yesterday after I tried putting Owen down and he was crying and told him I'd had enough. I didn't know what to do. And later when I talked to him he said I just needed to let him know when I am at the end of my rope. So last night I was at the end and what did he do. Gave Owen to me to change (he originally got up with O at 11:45)! He said he'd already been up 2 hours longer than he had wanted to be because I had been reading with the light on! Well, that was NOT TRUE! He was up because he was on the computer working on his speech. It had nothing to do with me. Today when he called he admitted that he had his head firmly lodged up his A@# last night and wasn't very helpful.

Hopefully today will be better. Maybe there will be another nap in the cards. George did not bring Sandee's Circle Journal. It's supposed to start snowing tonight. And snow until Sunday. I hope it misses us. I've had enough cold, gray blah yucky weather. I am not a winter person. I'm a Spring and Fall person. Mild, gentle weather. Tomorrow is my monthly crop too. So I'm hoping the weather cooperates for that. I need to get out of the house for a day.

My committment to giving up sugar for Lent lasted 1 whole day! Yes, Maggie, 1 whole day!!! Last night I didn't bring anything for dinner when I went to work so I went down to the vending machine and got some chips. But there were also Girl Scout Cookies and big chocolate bars in our kitchenette. So I ate them. 6 thin mints and 2 pieces of chocolate. I cannot survive cranky baby without chocolate. Morgan said maybe I could try moderation instead of cold turkey.

Now I need to upload some photos to Costco's photo site so I have some pictures to scrap tomorrow! I want to get caught up on Owen's book. It has the first page done!!

I am so...

EXCITED!!! I am going to be taking Donna Downey's bookbinding 101 class on April 21st! I wasn't really into scrapbooking celebs until recently. Except for Cathy Z and Ali Edwards I didn't really give a hoot. But then I got one of Donna's books and then another from the library and I LOVE her! Maybe it's because she used to be an elementary school teacher. But the directions in her books are wonderful.

So, that's all. I'm just super excited!

Now, if George would just bring Sandee's Circle Journal I'd be a happy clam!

Week 7 of...

Deck of You cards. I found the picture on the internet. The rest I did in PSE except for the ribbon and the date stamp. The frame around the photo is a Rhonna Farrer one from 2P's. The font on Shoes is called "selfish". I think. I changed it a couple of times. I can't remember what I used for the quote. The quote is what one of the witches said. I can't remember if it was the East or West witch!
Still no circle journal in the mail. Can you tell I'm not a patient person!?

Oh, and a little ramble. I've been thinking about technology lately. The pros and cons of all of it.
I love my computer. It's very cool. And fast. And allows me to do neat things like my card up there. Up until not too long ago we were still doing dial up and our computer was 8 years old. And then we upgraded. But the part I love most about it is that it keeps me company. Not the actual computer itself. But what it does. It helps me stay in touch with my friends who are still at work. And has allowed me to meet some really nice people who do stay home!
Now cell phones can be a pain but they can be great too. Think of all the people who are saved by them. People who need help out somewhere that people wouldn't find them any other way. Yes, we may ask "what the heck are they doing in a place like that anyway?!" but the phone helped them. And when 9/11 happened. Those people were able to say good-bye. And here's why I think they are cool. Maggie was skiing in Colorado until yesterday. And on Monday I was coming back from somewhere and I called her to tell her something. I was in MN and she was in CO. But I could still call her! No long distance charges. No looking up the number for the hotel. Just flipped open my phone and picked her name from my list and pressed talk. And she answered. And we talked.
The computer and the cell phone are about as fancy as I get. Morgan has an iPod and it is cool. But it's not really my thing. I don't listen to much music and when I do it's usually Owen's music. But whatever you are into there is some kind of gadget for you. I just think that's sort of cool. Oh, and I'm into my sewing machine too. Which has a chip of some kind in it that makes it do all kinds of cool stuff. I think today might be a sewing day.

Owen about town...

As I've mentioned previously Owen has had a case of "crabby baby" and hasn't been taking naps. As I type he's in his room fighting off a nap! Yesterday I had enough. The weather was decent and the sun was out so we set out for the library and Target. He is a photo tour of our neck of the woods.

The wildlife! We live across the street from a lake and it's fairly wooded back around the lake. But we don't often see deer right on the road! Look close. The one above is just to the right of the fire hydrant.



In all we saw 7 deer! Now where we live is not rural. At all. We are about 2 miles out of the Minneapolis city limit. Barely a suburb. It's not uncommon for us to see deer but right in the neighborhood is a little odd.
Here is the sidewalk to the library. Very exciting!
Yippee! We have achieved a nap!
There is the library from a distance. There is a nice park back behind it. We didn't go through the park though.
Here is the library up close. It's 2-3 years old. It's a great place.
Please tilt your head to the left to view this one properly. It's a huge mobile thing hanging in the foyer of the library. It's really neat when the light shines in just right.
Now on to Target. I have to mention we almost got run over by someone backing up in the parking lot!
Look what we saw in the dollar section!
Now we are on the way home. A much happier baby than earlier!
There is the mall. Brookdale Mall. We didn't stop there. I'd wanted to go to Barnes and Noble but it was getting to be lunch time. (If the nap this morning doesn't happen maybe we'll go there!)
That's the temp on the bank sign!
We walked through the park by our house on the way home.
Home is in sight!
And here we are! Much happier than before we left!

On our little trip I realized a few things. Lots of people driving cars are not very courteous to pedestrians. Even ones with strollers. I had the walk sign and some woman still turned in front of me. And I was already in the cross walk. One guy was stopped right in the cross walk and there wasn't any way for me to go around him.
Also, without all the accomodations that have been made to sidewalks and buildings for accessibility by people with disabilities moms with strollers wouldn't get getting around as well either! There was just an article in the paper a few weeks ago about this very thing too. How these accomodations have benefited a broad spectrum of people.
And my last realization was more of a confirmation of something I already knew. There are lots of people out and about everyday that are not using their brains! So watch out! It can be a bit scary out there!

Every boy...

needs a baseball cap, right? Here is the one I found for Owen at Baby Gap the other day. I had a hard time getting him to hold still. Or keep the hat on!

The frame on the first one is a Rhonna Farrer one. I bought a couple of the sets on 2P's. And the corner brush on the bottom one is from the Tattoo set by Jason Gaylord. I recently upgraded the RAM in our Mac to 1GB so now my PSE program SMOKES!

The 2P's challenge for today is to blog about beauty products. I have 5 that are daily musts. Oil of Olay moisturizer with SPF 15. Clinique rinse-off foaming cleanser, glossy mascara in jet black, and city base foundation. And then a translucent loose powder, no specfic brand. That's it. Nothing fancy. Just a little something to keep moist and cover the flaws!

I'm waiting for the mailman. George. I'm hoping he brings Sandee's journal today. But I think while I wait we are going to have to walk to the library. It's a nice day. Above freezing AND sunny. And Owen needs a nap but won't take one. So the stroller might be just the ticket.

Ta da!

Here is my circle journal.



Now that it is finished there are things I'd like to go back and change. But I don't have it so I can't! I am mostly uncomfortable with all the white space and the lack of glitter. I think it might need some red glitter. But then again couldn't we all! And I didn't do any of the type on the computer. It's all my own handwriting. Which I haven't done in ages. Once I got the hang of doing type for layouts I stopped writing on my pages. Bu I decided that since this is a journal I should write in it. Which I am now regretting. Or it could be the white space. If you want/need to see the cover it's back a few posts.

And this is why I am such a creative procrastinator. I have an idea in my head and if I can't get it to look exactly the way I want it to I give up. I stop. And that's what I've got to stop doing. Lately I've been trying to create a little something everyday. Most days I am not happy with the way the "little something" turns out and I end up walking away but sometimes it goes okay. And when I can't come up with something to do I get out my All About Me album and work on that. I try to keep in mind that I create because I like to. Because of the way it makes me feel. Kind of like why some people run. I enjoy making things and working with my hands. It's a controlled mess. Sort of. It's my mess and it's in my room so I can just leave it. I've got to get over what other people think. I don't care what they think about the rest of my life. I shouldn't care if my artwork is pleasing to others either!

My doctor's appointment went well. He seems to think it's the onset of a sinus infection. So he gave me a round of antibiotics to see if that clears things up. My headache and my neck pain seem to be causing each other. He thinks if the headache goes away the neck pain will clear up too. At this point I'd take the headache over the neck pain. I can't turn my head to the right most of the time and that's rather bothersome for changing lanes and making right turns. And general everyday functioning too. I told Morgan tonight that the benefit of being a person who works outside of the home is that when you are sick you can stay home and rest. But when you stay home you can't tell the baby to stay in the crib all day so mommy can rest. Or play quietly so mommy can nap. Or stop biting my toes... you get what I mean.

Today is Fat Tuesday. Even though I'm not Catholic, all those years teaching in a Catholic school made an impression, so I usually give something up for Lent. And it's usually sweets. This year will be no different. So right now I'm finishing up my last hot fudge sundae from Culver's. My favorite! I fell off my fitness wagon a couple, okay three, weeks ago and it's been dragging my behind it ever since. So I need to get off the sauce (hot fudge) and pull my bee-hind back up on the wagon. I don't know why all the things that are bad for me have to taste good. And french fries and ice cream certainly fill me up better than lettuce!

Baby class was good today. Owen didn't get into anything he wasn't supposed to and no other babies got hurt by him climbing over them. There is one baby boy who is bigger and older than Owen but he wasn't there today. It turns out the grandma of one of the little girls was my supervising teacher for student teaching. The world is small, isn't it!?

Time for some...

catch up! Here are my Deck of You cards for the last 3 weeks. This card is Week 4, a symbol you love. The claddagh. I did a little work on the picture I took of my t-shit a couple weeks ago and used that.
This card is Week 5. We were to use some kind of ephemera from our week. So I flattened a cap from a bottle of root beer.
And this is Week 6. The theme was Love, Love, Love. I love my boys!

This week is week 7 and the theme is shoes. I love shoes. I need to do some thinking on this one.

After work tonight I went to JoAnn's to use my coupons. I had a 50% for Michael's but I always use them at JoAnn's because I like the store better and I only want to make one trip. I bought a book called Visual Chronicles. It's about keeping art journals. I'm going to try out some collage and this book looked like it has some fun and interesting ideas for that. I also got a new black pigment ink pad, a small canvas, a small display easel and something else but I can't remember what! It's getting late and I'm tired!
Owen was a bit of a baby crab apple today. He woke up from his nap on the wrong side of the crib and got all upset and threw up. This is a rather common occurence. He finally settled down after I got out the vacuum cleaner. He's fascinated by it but he has to be confined while I use it or he chases after the cord the whole time.
I've also still got the headache that made me sick last Monday. It subsides a bit but eventually comes back. So tomorrow I'm going to go to the doctor and see if they can determine what the problem might be. My neck is also very sore on the right side. Which feels better and worse throughout the day. This all makes dealing with a baby crab apple more stressful!
I'm hoping to get a circle journal in the mail tomorrow. I get Sandee's first. Her work is what inspired me to do a little collage stuff. She has a beautiful and interesting style. You can see her journal on her blog.
I will post pictures of my journal soon. I've got to get to bed. Happy Fat Tuesday tomorrow!

Today's adventure...

The Como Park Conservatory

That is my mom in the foreground!

That is actually 4 pictures that I took and then stitched them together. Isn't that cool! I discovered this when I was preparing some things for the design team I applied for. I had a larger project that I couldn't get a good picture of with one photo so I took 4 and put them together. Then I used the photo stitch program that came with our camera. It's super easy to use and works great!
I have another one I did of these huge palm trees. But I can't get it to load the correct direction! Blogger likes to load my photos all the landscape direction and won't do the portrait direction. I don't know why that is. It's very frustrating.

I decided yesterday that my mom and I should take Owen to the conservatory today. It's too cold for the zoo but the conservatory is beautiful year round. So we went! They recently added on a large visitors center and a tropical experience area. Owen loved it. There were tons of plants and people for him to watch and look at.This is a brown tree fern.
Here is Owen watching the waterfall in the Fern Room.
Here is a close up of a huge palm leaf. It was probably 2x4 feet. This is the backside of the leaf. I thought it was beautiful how the light was coming through it.

This is the sunken garden. I have some other lovely photos of this but they are portrait style and won't post correctly.

Here is Owen watching some big fish. He really enjoyed them!

We had a good time. It was nice to get out of the house and be someplace sort of outdoors and in the sunlight. The conservatory has always been one of my favorite places to go. I love to take pictures there. And it's not an expensive place to go either. It's free actually, but they have a suggested donation. I love that too. It's available and accessible to everyone.