Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Our Persistent Guest

We have a Summer Tanager who has taken up residence near our deck. As they are prone to do, he is flying into our windows, hitting them with his beak. We think he sees his reflection and thinks he must attack his competitor.

Here is an image of a Summer Tanager from the web:

summer tanager

And here are a couple of pics I took of our guest, on our deck railing:

We keep thinking he will wear himself out and give up. But he is convinced that he must fight off that other persistent male!

Faster and Faster

…does time fly! I mean, really. Seriously. It is exponentially faster, almost by the day.

My grandson is 16!! How can someone be 16 who was only born yesterday? He is such a very special young man, gifted with special talents and most of all a special heart, a heart for family, and more importantly, a heart for God. Surely my Conner must be very much like David (“a man after God’s own heart”). He has already dedicated himself to follow God’s calling into ministry. He talks about “the path” that he is on with God.

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His birthday was yesterday, and we celebrated his birthday with a nice lunch. It’s just fun and heart-warming to be with him AND his sister Tory. (Okay, so the three of us have a “mutual admiration society” and that’s okay. I wouldn’t have it any other way).

Birthday blessings to my very special young man!

What a blessing to be Conner’s Mamo!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Our Camp Site: A Digital Scrapbook Page

We have our camper parked at an annual site near Mark Twain Lake so that when we do have time to get away, we don't have to spend a lot of time getting the camper ready and pulling it. The owner encourages us to make it like home, so we planted a flower garden. It is relaxing and cheering to spend time there. I took these pictures with my iPhone and put together a digital scrapbook page very quickly.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Scrapping Joplin Relief Effort

As is my pattern, I wanted to use my new Cricut Imagine IMMEDIATELY for a layout. Our son had just returned from helping out a couple of days in Joplin (after devastating tornado), so I put together a quick page using the new machine and the two photos I have of his time there.

Edited Joplin page

I used the cartridge that came with the machine, Imagine More, to cut the green side border and the bottom border. I used my Expression with Elegant Edges cartridge to cut the brown border. The Imagine Yummy cartridge (my favorite) is the source of the flourish. The title letters were cut on my Expression with StoryBook cartridge.

For this page, my goal was simplicity in design, so that the meaning of the event itself would be center-stage.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Mr. MarkGregor’s Garden

 

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Our son Mark has beautiful box gardens this year. He shared some of the produce with us, and I used his Romaine, cilantro, jalapenos, and onions in a fresh and delicious summer salad.

Black Bean Salad

  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
  • 1 green bell pepper, diced
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
  • ½ c diced red onion (better with Vidalia)
  • 1 can corn, drained
  • 1 can black beans, drained
  • Cilantro (calls for 1 tsp, I use much more, fresh)
  • Optional: fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded

        Dressing

  • ¼ c olive oil
  • 4 T red wine vinegar
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • Salt/pepper to taste

Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves and tortilla chips, garnished with lime and avocado wedges.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Having Fun with Cricut Imagine




Having such fun with my new Cricut Imagine, that lets me print AND cut, with the existing Cricut cartridges and/or the new Imagine cartridges.

Here I enjoyed using the printed patterns from the new Imagine Nursery Tails cartridge, on layers of an image from the regular Kate's abc's cartridge.

I used a pop dot for the purse flap, chalked the edges with liquid chalk pens, and added some bling. I cut this at 4". What fun!