Happy Mother's Day!

A very happy Mother's Day to all of you!  I think this was one of my favorite Mother's Days.  My kids are so funny!  The picture with my son behind the leaves always makes me smile!

I am excited to see what today will bring.  My son is speaking at church; I am so proud of him!  Can't wait to hear what he has to say.

New Phone

The Challenge:
Use design aspects from Alice in Wonderland

I finally got a new phone!  A smart phone :D  There are so many cool camera apps out there.  I was playing around with one (Vintage Photo) and taking photos of some of the Spring flowers in the yard.  I thought the photos had a sort of Alice look.  I included butterflies and cool ragged looking flowers to complete the look.  I made this layout when I had a really bad cold, probably on my worst day.  It just wasn't working for me and I didn't like it.  I am not sure I would have liked anything that day.  I decided to add the pearls, and I think they made the layout!  It was as good as it was going to get.  Now that I am feeling better, I like it a whole lot more :) I will be using my various camera apps a lot in the future!

Wedding Prep

Let the Royal Wedding prep begin!  No, not those Royals.... Kayla and Kyle!  The dress has been purchased (sadly, I can not show the dress since a certain someone is trying very hard to take a peek!), the cake design picked out, the initial flower meeting took place and the invitations are in high gear.  I did a little layout of the cake taste test.  There certainly are some perks to being the bride and groom to be :)  There was some good cake in this box!

Meet the Mooneys

The Challenge:
Use a monogram in a layout

We had some family photos taken earlier this year.  They were the perfect ones to use for a monogram challenge!  The Mooneys, being The Mooneys took some, well, rather interesting photos as well as some very nice ones.  Sometimes, you see the "real" people when you look at the goofy or outtake photos.  I hope you are able to gain a little insight into what we are really like as a family.

I loved how these butterflies turned out!  They are made with a navy, stamped image on silver paper and then punched out.

Cloud Challenge

The Challenge: make a layout using clouds, one of the super trendy elements right now

Actually, I love the use of clouds going on right now!  I have used them in a few of my more recent layouts.  I had been kicking the idea of using used dryer sheets around in my mind and I thought they would be perfect for clouds since they are all sheer and cottony looking.

I chose these photos of a hike John and I did last summer on the Browder Ridge trail.  It was really pretty.  There was sort of a halfway point where you could take in the mountains so we stopped there for a snack.  We were having trouble understanding where the trail onwards was so we started poking around.  We found what we thought was the trail, but it sort of petered out and was really hard to walk on.  It was a trail, and the book talked about it being hard to find at some point, but we thought it was a little ridiculous!  After a while, we realized that we were not on the people trail, but an elk trail.  We turned around and went back but I took the photo of the meadow in the vertical photo first.  I was really pretty, there was nothing like it anywhere else on the hike and we would have missed it if we had not gone that way.  We decided we would just turn around and go back to the car when we found that the trail where we entered the vista point kept on going up and so we followed it.  We did not make it all the way to the top of Browder Ridge because the weather started taking a turn for the worse and it looked like there may be a thunderstorm and we did not want to be there when it did.

Another little side piece of fun facts: There was a forest fire somewhere nearby and we watched the helicopters flying water in to fight it at various points along the way too.

San Fransisco Beauty

On my trip to San Fransisco last year with the jazz band and choir, we saw some really beautiful places.  Here are a few layouts remembering this beauty.

The Golden Gate Bridge is always a sight to see!  We pulled off at the viewpoint to take in the whole bay.  It was a gorgeous day!

While setting up for the performance at Golden Gate Park, I got a call from Bryon telling me to get over to the Japanese Gardens and to bring my camera.  I walked in as he was walking out and he stopped and told me to go here and there and take photos.  It was so peaceful and beautiful there.  I got the 10 minute speed tour but it was a calming part of a crazy day.  I would love to go back and visit there for a longer time someday!

Pier 39 is such a cool place!  It was another beautiful afternoon (a bit chilly) and my friend, Tina, and I walked down to visit the ship museum.  I had never been there.  It was interesting.  The kids played another of their games of Ninja! right there in the courtyard; they make me laugh so!  When we were all getting to the meeting place we saw a whole group of boys show up in Mexican style ponchos like The E's  It was hilarious!  Tina and I had some yummy chowder and sourdough and the next night we came back and went to Hard Rock Cafe.

Another San Fran Memory

Missing bands kids and traveling down Memory Ln; A look back at last year's jazz band and choir trip.

The whole reason for traveling is to play/sing music!  These kids love music and love performing.  One of the great things about the San Fransisco trip is that there is no competition; no judge sitting there with a pencil writing down every last mistake.  We are able to play just to share music with those passing by.  It is something else to set up in a public place and watch people walking by decide to sit and listen.

We played in three different public venues: Ghiradelli Square, Great America and Golden Gate Park.  Here are the layouts I made for each.

This was such a fun place to play!  It was kind of tight so the sound was pretty amazing and quite the crowd gathered too.

The carousel at Great America makes for a dramatic backdrop for a mini concert!  The kids look good, they sounded good and the even brought in a little swing dancing.  After we played, we got to spend the rest of the day riding rides.  Great place to go!

I think this is the coolest place I have ever watched the kids play!  This amphitheater is just amazing.  The shape really puts the sound out into the audience even though the space is huge.  It was a gorgeous day with a brilliant sky.  The photos of my son and his friends are two of my all time favorites!  After we played, we spent the day at the CA Academy of Science.

The dudes; spy style

Yep, that's pretty much how they roll!