Woodgrain Love

Glitz has loads of fabulous woodgrain patterned goodies to work with for this week's challenge. On this layout I used woodgrain patterned paper, washi tape and even a Peek a Boo transparency. I love how the light background and soft textures of the Sunshine in My Soul papers show off the woodgrain. The texture works perfectly for uniting masculine and feminine elements in a layout.

I wanted to let you know about another Glitz giveaway that they are adding during the month in addition to the monthly blog hop. Leave comments on the Glitz Blog throughout the month (new projects are posted nearly everyday) for another chance to win a prize pack. The more comments you leave throughout the month the more chances you have to win! Check out the Glitz Blog for more details!

Glitz Design "Color Me Happy" papers: Woodgrain, Bits & Pieces

Glitz Design "Sunshine in My Soul" 8x8 paper pack

Glitz Design "Color Me Happy" Peek a Boos

Glitz Design "Color Me Happy" Rubber Stamps

Glitz Design "Color Me Happy" Roller Doodle - cameras

Glitz Design "Color Me Happy" washi tape - woodgrain

Glitz Design "Love You Madly" washi tape - lace

Glitz Design "Beautiful Dreamer" Trim

Glitz Design "Yours Truly" Giant Rhinestones

other: doily, sequins, ink, sewing machine

daddy love

It is far too late to think of clever things to write. So I will just leave the photos again so speak for themselves about the sweet love between a daddy and his daughter. 

“Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point and does not break.” – G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

{home}

Can you tell I can't quite get enough of my husband being home? I suppose it's pretty obvious. Anyhow, he humored me by letting me snap a few more pictures after coming home from work today. After a few minutes he started getting a little silly, hence photo number two... and the giggling started in photo number three. But I'll take what I can get. Having him home is the best gift of all. 

I got a little scrapbooking done today. Keep an eye out for layouts with the all new Glitz Designs releases on January 21. In addition to that, I'll have a new Punky Sprouts mini album up on my blog on January 23. 

Walking out to fetch the mail this morning, this frost covered leaf caught my eye. I ran in the house to grab my camera, then proceeded to lay on the cold gravel to see if I could catch a glimmer of its magnificence. It was far more spectacular in real life, but this was the best I could do before I had to rush in and spend some quality time in front of our wood stove.

"It was one of those chilly and empty afternoons in early winter, when the daylight is silver rather than gold and pewter rather than silver."
-G.K. Chesterton

daddy's girls

"The family is the test of freedom; 

because the family is the only thing that the free man 

makes for himself and by himself."

-G.K. Chesterton

Can you tell they're happy to have their daddy home?

there's no place like home

After a year of incredible heartache, losing both of my parents three weeks apart, duty called and Stan had to ship out overseas. 

The Navy had been very gracious to us over the past year, bringing him home mid-deployment last March just in time (3 hours before) my mom went into brain surgery. Throughout the year his command, allowed him time as needed to help take care of our ever-changing situation on the home front. Just a couple of days after Thanksgiving Stan headed overseas for what we fondly call here at our house a "bonus deployment" (an extra little ditty between regularly scheduled deployments). Today, he arrived home safely. 

As a side note, I have found it very difficult to write anything meaningful on my blog since (and really before) I lost my parents. My head seems so jumbled up with the tsunami of thoughts and emotions that enveloped last year, and words do not seem to come easily in writing these days. Some of the process is of sorting through the rubble is coming through photo journaling daily life. Please forgive me if words fail when I wish they would flow. 

“When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale.”  

-G.K. Chesterton

i love you. always.

"Many a man has been lucky in marrying the woman he loves. 

But he is luckier in loving the woman he marries." 

-G.K. Chesterton

Heading very soon into deployment number eight, I am thankful again and always for my husband. For his sacrifices and service, for his courage and character, for his heart and his faith.
I love you.

Our 12th Anniversary
11.14.11

"But the traditions of humanity support humanity; and the central one is this tradition of Marriage. And the essential of it is that a free man and a free woman choose to found on earth the only voluntary state; the only state which creates and which loves its citizens. So long as these real responsible beings stand together, they can survive all the vast changes, deadlocks and disappointments wich make up mere political history." -G.K. Chesterton

here today - gone tomorrow

"Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." — G.K. Chesterton

I've been missing for the past few weeks on my blog, filling it with the wild ride of the past few weeks. Stan was gone for about a month on Navy "business". He arrived home just in time to celebrate Easter, confirmation and First Holy Communion together as a family. What a blessing!

After just a week at home, it was time to say goodbye again. Saturday we sent Stan off for another deployment. Goodbyes don't quite get easier, just different, and God gives us the strength to take up our cross daily and follow Him.  So we press on.

Thank you for your prayers.

Count Your Blessings

I spent the day with Torrey who was home sick from school. We snuggled, watched an old movie and just rested. She's 10 now, and these snuggly moments seem to be a little fewer and farther between than they used to be. She's just a few inches shorter than me, but the two of us can still curl up in one chair, barely. She still gets cozy under the quilt my mom made for her when she was born, and she still needs the special comfort you can only get from your mom when you're feeling crummy. She has sharp green eyes, and a sly smirk. She's changing and growing, yet remains much the same as ever. It's these little moments that make up my million tiny blessings. They're just little bits of everyday life, but they are gifts from God every one of them. In a world so wrought with pain and injustice, it helps me to look at life through the lens of daily blessings, to see the beauty in tiny moments. Hopefully taking one step, then another, in the right direction.

If you're looking for a little extra dose of sunshine and inspiration, I found a new source of inspiration through The Shine Project blog.

“When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place”
-C.S. Lewis

“The love of heaven makes one heavenly.”
-William Shakespeare

 "That's a negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full."
-Top Gun

My super cool husband called to tell us he was going to do a fly-by on the house the other night. The sun was setting, the sky was beautiful... he dipped the wing to wave to us and flashed the landing lights as the girls jumped and waved to their daddy in the plane. Yah, we're pretty darn blessed. 

365 for a New Year

Wow! It's easy to get behind when you go on a nice long vacation right before the holidays! So for the sake of giving myself catch up time, I decided just to start my 365 pictures for 2011 fresh. Now that I have all the time in the world to catch up on the last six weeks of 2010, I can focus in on the new year.

What better way to start the new year than with a frozen moment in time. The girls on the very first day of 2011... oh how fast the time goes! Wasn't it just yesterday when they were little? It never ceases to amaze me just how much of a blessing they are each day. They've changed my life in every way, and I'd never exchange it for all the money in the world. There are blessings beyond description that come from being a mom... I am thankful for these two big blessings.

(just for fun... the girls 04.2006)

Speaking of blessings, I couldn't go without this one... I love this man with a love beyond measure. He is my partner in life and in faith, my most trusted companion, my best friend, the love of my life. I am the luckiest girl in the world because of him.

For a few of photos, I found quotes the seemed to fit with the picture and the mood of the day...

You have brains in your head
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose
You're on your own
And you know what you know
You are the guy who'll decide where to go

- Dr Seuss

A snippet of a layout for The Scrap Review article on the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner... (just a hint: I thought it was very cool!)

Everyone is in awe of the lion tamer
in a cage with half a dozen lions
everyone but a school bus driver.
-Dr. Laurence J. Peter

A morning without coffee is like sleep.
-Unknown

(The inspiration for today's picture of the day... from a West Elm catalog.)