Father's Day Weekend, Old Family Photos & Cards

We spent the weekend in California at my Dad and Evelyn's house for Father's Day.  It was a fun filled weekend, my brother and sister were able to be around a lot, which was great since we haven't seen them much in the past couple of years.

Friday started off early so we could hit the road, but it was derailed a bit by this munchkin' who ended up in our bed at about 2 a.m. and was up for about an hour.  Nicholas never does this, so it was perfect timing since we planned to get up at 4 and be on the road by 6. :)

He does look cute in that big old bed. The drives both way were pretty uneventful. It was best when they looked like this....

Saturday we met Mike's brother Scott and his family for lunch between our nieces softball tournament games.  Then we headed back to my Dad's house for swimming and celebrating birthdays for my 2 nephews, Christian and Andrew. 

Sunday Dad made brunch and we hung out all day.  We took some updated family photos...

Mike got spoiled for Father's Day....

My sister and I spent time with our Dad, looking at old family pictures and finding out who the people we didn't recognize were.

We found great ones like this favorite of both my sister and I of our grandma and dad when he was probably about 2.  She was so pretty and young and he was adorable.  We think every one of my brother's and my boy's have looked like our Dad in this picture at some point.

My Dad and his brothers...(or a picture from The Outsiders.)

Our Dad sometime in the later 60's, we think.

My sister found this great one of our Grandma, it looks like someone is not behaving and getting that look....

Dad racing his cars that our Grandpa used to build. We know there has to be more of these pictures.

Earl, a great uncle, he was lost at sea in a submarine while in the Navy.  This was one of the last pictures of him.

Our great great grandparents (I think it was on my Grandfather's side)

A slice of Americana...my Uncle Jim and Aunt Noreen.

And a little scrappy stuff...I used Girls Paperie to make Father's Day cards for the Dad's in our life.

Have a great week!

I'm so excited!

Now that I have been away from Color Me Daisy for a while I decided to throw my hat in the ring for a couple of design teams.  I was pretty selective on what I chose to apply to,  I was trying to find a fit for me and something I felt good about committing too.  Having been on the other side of choosing a design team I know the excitement.  But it felt really good to get that e-mail this week inviting me to be part of the ScrapTiffany Team. I am very excited to be scrapping for fun again and I can't wait to start showing you all of the great stuff Tiffany has planned over the next several months!

So if you want great inspiration or a weekly challenge check us out at ScrapTiffany!

Adventures in Cooking - Volume One

Earlier this year we bought a TV and Direct TV DVR for the kitchen. Little did I know that would take Mike's cooking adventures to a whole new level.  

Ever since he started staying home with the boys he started taking on more of the cooking.  He was definitely inspired by my Dad who has been cooking great things for years. This past Christmas when Dad and Evelyn came to visit, Mike even asked my dad to supervise his first turkey on the grill.  They had fun and the turkey was great (almost as good as mine) Ha!

After the TV purchase Mike started recording several shows on the Food Network and we have been eating wonderfully,  At times we have to get creative with recipe modification. We started Weight Watchers in the middle of April, and I have managed to still lose about 2 pounds a week while eating all this yummy food.  I am really learning portion control. 

Sometimes I send him recipes I find like this one from Zesty Cook for Garlic Basil Cheeseburgers

Or maybe an idea from Cooking Light Magazine for pizza on the grill.  This one was for the kiddos, I guess I forgot to take one of the salmon pizza we had that night.

But the cheese pizza was a hit for Nicholas, who loves to be served milk and food at the BBQ bar.

Then there was Mother's Day when I requested fajitas.

And I made this Mojito Melon and Mango Salad to go with the fajitas.  I was trying to replicate something similar I had eaten at Chelsea's Kitchen in Phoenix )while seated a table away from Danica Patrick, who is quite tiny by the way).

Then there was the weekend we went out to Schnepf Farms and picked peaches and Nicholas had a ball.

And Jackson, my wild boy was a bit shy

But all was good because we had a ball that day and went on the train...

and then we had peaches to make this delicious peach and tomato salad (that is now a favorite).

that went perfectly with Jamaican Jerk Chicken, corn on the cob and a bit of wine.

Then Mike decided that the grill wasn't just for dinner.  And he made breakfast.  Bacon on the pizza stone, an idea from Becky Higgins blog, I figured if it worked in the oven, it would work on the grill.  And we finally figured out that the flat part of our grill could really be used for something...pancakes.

And I do think the scrambled eggs are better when cooked over the grill then on the stove.

We still had peaches so the next weekend we made, grilled chicken tacos with peach avocado salsa. 

So now that you are probably hungry for some yummy food, I will end this installment of Adventures in Cooking.  I have lots more to come, since Mike comes up with at least one new thing every week.

Back in the day....

This was my mama...

I have been going through my old photos I recently had scanned at Scan Cafe and came across this one of my mom sometime in the late 60's before I was born.  The Santa next to her is still part of the family, my mom gave him to me last Christmas, so he will live on for many more years in our home.

A layout and ScanCafe

Another layout from my Baker's Dozen class.  Now I have just 4 layouts to work on to be caught up to the class.  One thing I love about the class is the simpleness.  You have already picked out pictures and embellishments and every couple of days you get a sketch and a recipe and you can get to work on telling a story.  Last night I wanted to scrap, but was tired so my heart wasn't in it as much.  So I flipped on the Glee season finale (which perked me up some) and grabbed my next assignment.

Me and Nana

PP, CS & ribbon from Studio Calico kit. Making Memories 

letter stickers and paint. Maya Mist, Quick Quotes canvas heart, 

Clearsnap ink and paper clip.

I love this picture of Nicholas and his Nana C.  He has really grown close to her since they moved here a year and a half ago.  I am glad that the boys will have a chance to grow up nearby to some of their family.  We are very lucky to have Mike's parents so close to us.

I am looking forward to this weekend already. My Mosh Posh and Citrus Tree Studios kits have arrived already this week.  My box from Studio Calico should be here today and another couple of orders should be here by Saturday.  It's been like Christmas! I have a big picture order to pick up at Costco today too.  

So I'll have lots of new goodies to scrap with and a whole lot of new pictures to scrap with.  Including several pictures I recently had scanned by ScanCafe from my pre-digital days.  The Mosh Posh kit will be perfect for some pictures I have of my grandma's and my mom from the 40's - 70's. The Citrus Tree Studios should be great for a Father's Day surprise for Mike I am thinking about. And the Studio Calico kit is going to be great for last weekend's pool pictures.

If you have been thinking about getting photos scanned I really recommend ScanCafe. I heard about them when I took Library of Memories at Big Picture Scrapbooking and although the whole process took a couple of months I am so happy to have my old photos in digital format.  They retouched and in some cases restored photos and now I finally have them to incorporate into my scrapbooks. 

I had been looking at scanning my photos for years including trying to do it myself.  I sent them about 2000 photos and selected about 1400 to have digitally. The great thing about ScanCafe is you are only obligated to pay for 50% of what they scan. So I sent negatives in that I had no idea what would be on them and only selected the pictures that were worth keeping.  There prices have gone up slightly since I ordered but they are still reasonable compared to other services.  And if you sign up for their newsletter they send out discount codes pretty often.  (I am not being paid to sing their praises, I was just really happy with their service.)

Starting on my Baker's Dozen

I signed up for the Baker's Dozen class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. However, life got in the way and I am a bit behind in the class.  However I did put together my first layout last night.  A simple one that just focuses on the story I wanted to tell about a little boy who is getting into everything right now....

Sorry about them not being side by side, but I don't like the way the picture of the 2 pages together came out and it is too dark now to re-take it.

And just like that it's over....

Color Me Daisy, that is. We sold off out the clearance mystery boxes in less than a week.  They are stuffed full and  ready to be picked up tomorrow.  So with that done, Color Me Daisy is no longer.  I have to admit that I realized while we were packing up the boxes late into the night last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, that I will very much NOT miss packing kits. I would much rather play with paper, and pretty sparkly things.

Speaking of playing I pretty much used up all of my Mosh Posh May kit and here is the last layout I made. I love the Lily Bee colors.  I was pretty excited just now, I went to grab the Lily Bee blog link and saw one of my layouts I posted last week was in their Friday Faves post.  How cool is that? :)

"U 2 boys 'r' so Sweet"

I really had hoped to scrap some this weekend, but I was so tired last night I crashed early and this afternoon I ended up organizing my craft room instead.  So maybe tonight I'll get back to scrapping,

Nicholas had his last day of preschool this week.  They had a water and ice cream party, I had planned to volunteer that day, but it being quarter end at work I had to cancel. We really like his teacher, Ms. Jackie and we are glad Nicholas will have her again next year as his teacher.

I made his teacher, class assistants and speech therapist summer bags with beach towels, sunscreen, water bottles and a magazine.  I whipped up some matching cards with just a package of Sassafras Felties, a scrap of Basic Grey paper, a punch and a couple of stamps.

At the beginning of the year I did a major clean out of the craft room.  My LSS, Scrapbooks Etc., had it's semi-annual yard sale in March. I sold so much stuff I ended up with almost $600 in store credit, and up until this week I hadn't used any of it. With new lines starting to showing up, I made a trip over to the store on Thursday and picked up lots of goodies.

That Crafters Workshop star template should be fun for misting and painting. I am in love the new Bella Blvd. Man's House line (I even ordered a kit from Citrus Tree Studio), and think it may work for a project I have in mind. Nicholas loves trains, so I have a few pictures already for that new stamp. And  I have on more than one occasion wished I had an oval punch when making a card or needing a journaling spot. Also, I recently got the I Top on Scrapbooksteals, but the deal didn't include the small punch, so now I have it. It makes good layered flowers too.

I picked up more of Girl's Paperie On Holiday papers and some embellishments. They will be great for summer pages with or without actually traveling anywhere.

I really like Pink Paislee's new Starlight collection.  I also ordered a couple of pieces from Stop and Scrap and I thought the Basic Grey Basics stickers worked well with the papers.  Should be fun for boy pages or 4th of July pages.

Have you seen the new Echo Park line? It is so summery and happy, and those new Cosmo Cricket little alpha's are so perfect with it, as was the Sassafras Me Likey Ice Cream paper. I also ordered a couple of other pieces of this from Stop and Scrap.  I think this will be cute for a summer banner.

Studio Calico had the paper with the frogs in one of their add on's this month, but I passed on it over another add on I liked more.  But I still  had to have this paper. I also found these others from We R Memory Keepers 72 and Sunny line. Isn't it fun?!

I also picked up most of the new Studio Calico Documentary line. It will be fun for some travel pages and I love the hot air balloon. I have the Fab Rips and Alphas coming in a separate order. 

So I have lots of new stuff to play with.  And best of all I didn't spend anything for this since I had a store credit.