Around my house this past weekend...

Hello, Blog friends!

♥

We had a fantastic 3-day weekend here in Arizona. I spent most of my time in the ol' craft room working with paint and canvas.

I finally spent some time and made a new blog banner {that also doubles as a wall plaque for my craft space}. I do love how it turned out. :o)

We had family over on Sunday evening for a get-together, and Doug made his famous homemade ice cream. YUM!!!

We managed to rest and take a cat-nap here and there...

My craft table had not one inch of free space...

And one more project on canvas...

Yes, I was busy, and as a result I didn't spend much time on the computer {which is good in some ways, but means that I'm a bit behind in blog reading...again...}. I hope you all had a lovely weekend. This week will be busy getting our house ready for a "Girl's Night In" party on Saturday night. The occasion? Well...someone in our family is turning 23! :o)!!!

Hey, we're having a barbeque...

We're doing it again tonight...hope you can make it!
;o)
Wishing each of you a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend.
We'll be honoring our troops this evening with
family and a cook-out in our backyard. 

Arizona must see: Sedona

The last time Carrie and I went to Sedona there was snow on the ground. This time the weather was much warmer, and such a beautiful day for a picnic!

And this time we shared the ride with our sweet friends Janae and her mom, Dana. We ate our picnic lunch on the red rocks just to the left of where we're standing in the photo above. Absolutely breathtaking view for lunch, don't you think?

We were at Crescent Moon park for this part of our day, on a lovely walking path with stunning scenery. After lunch we followed the trail and came upon this large flat rock that had been covered with rock art.

Of course, I left my mark...

As we continued along the path there were stacks of rocks everywhere! These are known as cairns, and rocks stacked in this fashion are used in different forms around the world as trail markers. Let me tell you, this trail was well marked!

We came upon a clearing and there were stacks and stacks and stacks of rocks! It was really cool, but also a little eerie...hard to explain why...it just was...

It was such a beautiful day, with gorgeous scenery. Carrie and I love Sedona, and it was great fun to be there with friends this tim e.

If you're ever in Arizona, Sedona is a must see!
Take it from me.
And do have yourself a lovely weekend.

♥

Just a quote for Friday

In matters of style, swim with the current;

in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

~ Thomas Jefferson

It's a circus! {She Art canvas}

♥

Ok, I'm telling you, the She Art class I'm taking is the most fun thing ever. I have LOVED putting paper and paint and ink and stuff onto this canvas and seeing it come to life.

It started with my step-dad's old storybooks, and I wanted to use the circus themed book. The result isn't quite what I expected, but I just couldn't be happier with this fun little piece.

All of the paper used for this project {with the exception of my girl's face and arms} was taken from the old circus book {published 1954} and even though you aren't able to clearly see my base papers, I do love the way all of the colors work together! This inspires me to look at these old storybooks in a different way. I'll be using some of the "less desirable" books for future projects - solely based on the color scheme.

~sigh~

No photo shoot in my craft room is complete without Whiskers butting in.

♥

I have some more empty canvases and a 3-day weekend coming up...see ya' later...I'll be in my craft room...   :o)

A kitten for Carrie. A layout for Amy.

This past weekend Carrie adopted a cute little kitten. Lucky for me because I was on the lookout for a scrapbook page idea in answer to Amy's challenge. It felt so good to sit down and create a layout - did it on my lunch break in about 30 minutes.

Thanks to Amy for the great idea and also for the layout sketch. It was quick and easy and oh-so-fun to follow. This is a format I will definitely use again! You can check out all the other layouts done in this same format on Amy's blog tomorrow (Wednesday).

♥

PS: Carrie blogged about her new kitten today too. :o) 

A candle lit in Sedona.

On the drive into Sedona, Arizona there's a church up on the side of one of those gorgeous red rock mountains. It's called The Chapel of the Holy Cross and it's just so beautiful. In all the times I've been to Sedona I've never taken a detour to actually see the chapel, but that all changed yesterday.

It's a little bit of a trek to get from the parking lot and up to this beautiful spot...but, oh, was it worth it!

This is the view from inside the chapel, on the other side of the beautiful cross...

I lit a candle for my mom.

I burn a lot of candles at home, and every time I light one I do so in honor of someone that I care about. It's a different person every time, but lately the majority of my candles have been lit for my mom.

Do you honor someone special when you light a candle?

Will you honor my mom the next time you do?

She (we) would appreciate it.

♥

Oh yes I did.

You may remember when I blogged about these cool old storybooks that my dear step-dad gave me.

When asked what you would do with them, many of you mentioned that you could never cut them up. Well, I felt a little bad about cutting this circus book...for about 10 seconds...

Having recently read the book and seen the movie "Water for Elephants" I'm loving anything "circus" right now, so I dediced to create a canvas collage with a circus theme for the She Art class I'm taking.

Stage one complete...a little white wash...time for some texture...and a girl...

Have a lovely weekend, all you wild and crazy bloggers.
I'm headed to Sedona for the day with my girl C
and two of our lovely lady friends.
♥

Just a quote for Friday.

{birthday flowers from my lovely SIL's}
♥

I get by with a little help from my friends.

~ John Lennon & Paul McCartney

Anatomy of a salad {at our house}

As our weather starts heating up in Arizona, I start making more salads for dinner...

Romaine lettuce is my favorite {er...mostly for the color of the lettuce...is that wrong?}

And I love using Roma tomatoes ever since I used this recipe from Karen's blog a while back...

Feta cheese and balsamic salad dressing...

Croutons made stove-top so I don't have to heat up my oven...

Yummmmmmmmm....

Oh wait...add the croutons...

Outdoor dining at its best...

{clink}

To us!
♥

;o)

The puzzle comes together...

I'm so excited about this project!
It may be a while before this project is complete, but I couldn't wait that long to show you!

My sweet and clever girl, Carrie, put a lot of thought and effort into her gift for me for my 50th birthday this year! She created a large puzzle then cut it into 96 pieces and sent those pieces out to my friends and family. Over the past couple of weeks I have had "happy mail" every day. :o)!!!

It's been SO much fun to see what comes in the mail. Some folks have written a simple birthday message, others have included a photo or two, some have written about lovely and silly memories they have of me, and some of my scrapbooking friends have created mini-layouts or written a lovely piece just for me. Every single card I've received is appreciated and treasured so much! {Photo above is of the piece that my youngest crafting friend, Molly, sent to me.}

This past weekend I set out on the task of putting the puzzle together. So far I have 45 of the 96 pieces back...

This wall in our entry way has been temporarily cleared for the purpose of putting a puzzle together...

It was a little tricky getting the grid set up, but once I did the pieces sort of fell into place...

I wonder what's in the mail today...

♥

Carrie got this idea from a post seen here and has
had plans to do this for my 50th birthday ever since.
:o)

Edit: You can see the final puzzle post here.