Thursday, April 29, 2010

American Crafts Challenge

This week's challenge is to make a page about a pet. I made my layout about Bandit, my sweet pup. I miss her. You can read more about her here in one of my Flashback Fridays. This is my first page about my one and only dog. Thanks to AC for providing the challenge!

I used a variety of American Crafts collections and I like how they all look together. I personally like the pink, yellow and gray combo.

And a few close-ups. I cut out a few hearts from the Teen collection paper and put pop dots on the back to give some dimension.


I inked up a toilet paper roll to make this circle. Yep, a toilet paper roll! You can use just about anything on a scrap page.


Product used:
Paper from Teen, Abode and Dear Lizzy collections
Flat Chipboard Thickers
Dear Lizzy ribbon
Note and Springy Flair
Happy Tape

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Ten on Tuesday

1) I'm still sick. I wish this crud would move on out!

2) I'm happy everyone in my family is back where they are supposed to be.

3) I watched a lot of movies while I was sick. I didn't like any of them, including two Oscar nominees; Crazy Heart and An Education. Disappointing.

4) I was lucky enough to celebrate with my nephew on his birthday! We visited his classroom and I read the class two books. So fun! More on my trip later.

5) This art is really cool. Take a look at the photo essay as part of the story. You'll see a selection of his art. Amazing.

6) I cannot believe it's almost May!

7) I enjoyed Ali's Week in the Life. I think it's such a cool idea to celebrate the perfectly ordinary days that we live. I hope to do this on my own in a few weeks.

8) I have so much on my to do list. I wish I could hire a personal assistant just for one day.

9) Last week was full of being sick, being worried, being anxious, being locked out of my building (again). I'm thankful that most of my weeks aren't like that. I'm looking forward to looking forward.

10) I miss these guys!


Thursday, April 22, 2010

Best Laid Plans



So, this is what I've been up to. Drinking lots of liquids, taking medicines, sleeping and trying to shake this nasty head cold. My mom even suggested boiling a pot of water and sticking my head over it and breathing in the steam. I tried it. I'll try anything! I think it may have opened up my pores more than my sinuses though.

I had a lot planned for this week, like participating in Ali's Week in the Life project and walking to work for Earth Week. It's been a beautiful week too, lots of sun. Ugh! I'm so frustrated that I have no energy to do any of this.

I hope to be back to normal next week and I'll pick up where I left off. I hope you'll stop by.

Have a great weekend!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Happy Birthday S!



A very Happy Birthday to the coolest, most awesome nephew in the world! And since it's also Flashback Friday, I've gone back into the vault (7 long years) and found photos from each of his years to celebrate this great kid. I love seeing a series of photos like this together. It would make a great scrap page!








Thursday, April 15, 2010

The Whole Truth

In the April edition of Body & Soul, they interviewed Anne Lamott. I enjoyed the questions they asked her and I thought it would be fun to answer those same questions of myself.

My favorite moment of the day is slipping into a freshly made bed, writing in my journal, reflecting on the day and reading.

If I could say one thing to myself 20 years ago...Be brave, take risks.

What scares me most...Losing a loved one.

Unhealthiest meal...Girl Scout cookies and popcorn.

Personal philosophy..."Be the change you want to see in the world."--Gandhi

I feel healthy when I get outside and breathe in the fresh air and when I make my meals versus getting take out.

I unwind by talking to my mom.

My father always told me I could do or be anything I wanted and to watch out for tractors when on a two lane highway.

My mother was right that we sometimes have to do things we don't want to do.

The movie I watch when I want to laugh is The Princess Bride.

I always feel saner when I can take a nap; take a long walk; have a great conversation with a good friend; write in my journal; be creative.




Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Ten on Tuesday

1) I walked 3 miles the other day. Felt good.

2) I had my first ice cream cone of the season, which is why I walked the 3 miles. Boy, it tasted good.

3) Glee is back, Glee is back. Today!

4) I ordered a bunch of photos. Can't wait to scrap them!

5) I bought a new suitcase and a travel book for the Southwest.

6) I'm going to try and participate in this next week.

7) Found this site while blog hopping, . Lots of sketches and inspiration!

8) I've been spring cleaning. Purging, shredding, organizing, and reorganizing. I do love organizing.

9) I'd like to see this movie.

10) Next week is Earth Day/Week. My goal is to walk to work everyday. Wish me luck!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

American Crafts Challenge

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. It was absolutely beautiful here!

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. Very much appreciated! I'm still trying to figure out how to respond to comments in Blogger.

Here is my layout for this week's American Crafts challenge. I'm loving this Abode collection and using it on every layout lately. Such fun stuff! Halloween wouldn't be the first subject I would think for this collection, but I think it worked well. I especially love the little houses. So cute.


And some close ups.




Product used:
American Crafts paper: Abode Skyline Drive, Halloween Boogieman
American Crafts My House Abode Chipboard and Puffy Shapes
American Crafts Thickers By The Yard and Flat
SEI Eerie Alley button
Ali Edwards Today You stamps

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

American Crafts Challenge

The challenge this week is to use Flair. I have a slight obsession with Flair. I knew immediately what I wanted to do. I created a page of my nieces and my Mom making my Grandma's cinnamon rolls. The Abode collection was so perfect for this. My Grandma would love that her great grandchildren were making her rolls. I loved it too.


Product used:
All American Crafts; Abode papers, Apartment Thickers, Flat Patterned Chipboard Thickers, My House Abode chipboard, and Sugar and Spice Flair

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Ten on Tuesday

1) I've become a tea drinker this year and I wanted to buy some new fun tea cups, but then I remembered I have my Grandma's tea cups. I've started to use one and it's so neat to think we've both enjoyed tea from these cups. So much better than the store bought kind.

2) I bought purple tulips this week. I enjoyed them for a few days and then they fell over on themselves without opening.

3) My allergies are ridiculous. What the heck is out there?

4) I succeeded in getting my Mom on April Fool's Day again. Sorry Mom!

5) I've put away my sweaters. Hopefully, I'm not tempting fate.

6) My sister and her family and I signed up for a vegetable farm share. I'm so excited!
We'll start getting fresh veggies in June. Yay! Being from MN, I didn't think it possible to be more aware of the weather, but this is making me hope and pray for a good farming season full of the appropriate amount of water and sun.

7) This American Crafts blog hop is full of awesome inspiration. I hope they do one again soon.

8) I made my favorite rice/chickpea/feta salad for the first time this year. Well, I actually made it twice in one week. It's so delicious! Let me know if you're interested and I can email it to you.

9) I bought a lime for the first time in my life. Yes, you read that right. My Mom was surprised too. I learned from her that the best lime is heavier and therefore full of juice. Thanks for the tip Mom!

10) This is my 50th post. Wow! Thanks for sticking with me!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Easter

We spent Easter at my parent's house. We had a lovely time. Below is a selection of photos from the day. We Skyped with my brother and his family, but no photo of that. It was fun to see and talk with them. My nephew has no two front teeth! Isn't Skyping the best?


An egg hunt in the backyard. Where o' where are they? No snow to hinder the looking.


Tons of picture taking and taking pictures of the picture takers.


Finding out what goodies are in the eggs. This year, lipgloss, hair pretties, erasers and money!


A delicious meal. We're not much of a ham family, so turkey it is.


The requisite self-portrait photo. I see you D!


A bit of sidewalk chalk hang man. Yes, you are a sassy chick. :)


A spring day is not complete without playing some four square. My goal before summer starts is to find the best four square ball ever! We need one like what I used as a kid. None of this small, hardly any bounce nonsense.


Waiting to get into the four square game. I see you there too, D.


Hmm, the ball got stuck.


But my brother-in-law rescued it and we resumed play.

The time always goes by so quickly. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Flashback Fridays

Twelve years ago this week, I was a sophomore in college at Gustavus Adolphus. We had just started our spring break. I was at home with my parents and the phone rang. It was a friend of my Mom's and the first thing she asked was "Is Sara home?" Not a typical first thing for my Mom's friend to ask. Her friend went on to tell her that St. Peter had been hit by an F3 tornado. It was on the ground for only two minutes, but the campus had taken a direct hit and sustained heavy damage.

We were on spring break, so I knew my friends were okay, but I didn't know about my professors. I didn't know the condition of the school or my belongings. It was all surreal at first. We weren't allowed back for three weeks, so it was hard to imagine.

We soon learned that 80 percent of the windows on campus were shattered and more than 2,000 mature trees were uprooted, the Chapel spire was snapped in half and most buildings sustained damage. The eternal flame was still burning in the Chapel though, despite every window being broken.

It wasn't until I arrived back in town when it really hit me. When I saw it with my own eyes. It was shocking. It was awful. The drive up the hill on College Avenue is usually so beautiful, seeing Old Main appear amongst the trees, but this view was changed forever.

Damage to buildings and things can be fixed and fortunately, no deaths or serious injuries were sustained on campus because all the students were on spring break. But one little boy lost his life and 19 others sustained injuries from this tornado. For that little boy's family and for those who were injured, this can't be fixed and this will be with them always.

The city of St. Peter, which is a beautiful little city of century old homes, was devastated. Five hundred homes were destroyed and 1700 were damaged. Gustavus sits on top of a hill and I remember the view was drastically changed after the storm. I could actually see the town. There were no trees obstructing my view.

I don't remember when I found this out, but my dorm room was facing the valley side of town, not the center of campus, and my room did not sustain any damage. Many of my classmates lost everything. Some professors did too and yet they did all they could to get the school open again, so we could return. I had feelings of guilt because my home had been spared, when so much had been taken from so many, my life had been spared, when a little boy's hadn't.

Tornadoes are so vicious and unpredictable. Whenever I talk about this with family and friends, inevitably we say thank God students weren't there. It's hard to reconcile that with those who lost their life, who were injured and who lost their entire homes.

The rebuilding on campus was swift and coordinated. The President of the college created a campaign, "Rebuilding a Greater Gustavus." The faculty and staff were amazing. They were committed to bringing us back and finishing the year.

There were many hours of clean up. Some classes were held in FEMA trailers and it was a difficult reentry. The beauty of campus took longer to rebuild. But the campus is made up of its people and we rallied. This was our home, our community, and we made it so again with hard work, faith, and the great Gustie spirit. There's nothing like it.

You can see more pictures of before and after here.
http://gustavus.edu/events/tornado/