Blowing Kisses

<sub>Text: Rachel loves to blow kisses. She has her little brother and sister following suit Every morning as Rachel leaves for school she will blow me a kiss. The other day she had her dad laughing when she happily said, "Heads up! This one is a pop fly!"

Collage Wings by Hope Wallace
Background paper and glitter swirl from Birthday Kit by Michelle Coleman,
Glitter Kiss: MCO
Hand Stamped Alpha: MCO
Photo border by Rhonna Farrer
Inked Edge: Scrap Artist Carefree Kit
Fonts: Jane Austen/Pea Johanna Script/Artistamp Medium</sub>

::::::::::::::::Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!::::::::
Today is SPAMALOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No, I'm not EXCITED!!!!!!!! I don't think Michael and I will appear too foolish because the crowd will be mostly Monty Python fanatics who get the jokes and sing along. I will give you my review tomorrow!

Where Fairies Were Born:

_{Fairies: Hope Wallace
Pram: Free Vintage picture at Flickr
Baby Photo: My mom
Background papers: Good Karma
Glitter: Michelle Coleman Birthday elements}

Quote: When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. By James Matthew Barrie

This was for the Teesha Moore Challenge in the altered/collage section.

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Today is picture day at the public school, but I've finally worn my kids down and they don't ask for money to buy their pictures. It may seem cruel, but I hate most school photos. I buy the yearbook, but the photographers for most school picture programs have little to no clue how to take a photo. They also don't have time to get a good shot, so alas I don't send money. Rachel took this lack of payment as tantamount to saying that I think her pictures are ugly. I just told her we would go to a better photographer to get a picture of her lovely face.

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This week is covered up with places to take the kids, so I will sign off now!

E is for Explorer:

I really like ATCs...Can you tell?!?

_{Background Paper: IOD's Adelaide's Letter
Frame: Rhonna Farrer
Fairy: Hope Wallace
Carpet bag, Flying hat, and hot air balloon from the internet
Stamp: IOD's Felina
Postmark: JennV
Font: Marginal PX
Alpha: Century font with a IOD's San Salvatore paper then color burned.}

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My explorers are canoing today with the scout troop. Michael took the troop to Stone Mountain for a practice run with the canoes and two boys baptized themselves because they stood up in the canoe. It should be interesting to see how the campout goes.

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<sub>This is a photo of my two sons, Noah and Aaron. They rarely get along, but when we went to Six Flags Over Georgia they rode most of the rides together because they wanted to.


"Homecoming Kit", "Florist Kit", "Persimmons in Summer" designs by Sandra Boddington


Font: Pea Alesa


Overlay by Nancy Rowe Janitz</sub>

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My stepfather, Jim, sent me some photos of my brother doing his sweeping thing, so I will scrap them in a couple of days with his story. Another fun layout I'm trying to figure out is Eve's retelling of the story of Jesus' resurrection. Eve has replaced the angels with fairies that roll away the stone, so I will scrap it like I think she thinks about what happened.

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I need to go make a smoothie and mow the lawn now that it isn't raining and the sun isn't to high over head. By the way on the smoothie...i've been adding frozen peaches and they are so mild they don't seem to change the taste much, but for some reason it lends a "clean" taste to the flavor. Don't know really how to explain.

Have a lovely weekend all!

Trying My Hand at a few ATCs:

These were done for the Altered/Collage section at Scrapartist. The idea seemed pretty cool so I've joined in. See what ya think?



_{Jumping Jack doll parts from Maya
Background paper is "Lola" form IOD's Room at San Salvatore
Font: Hello Sark
Overlay by Nancy Rowe Janitz}

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_{Background paper and alpha made from Savage Florals by IOD
Slide holder frame by Sandra Boddington from her blog
Doll Charm Parts by ScrapArtist
Flower Charm by Michelle Coleman
Mirror by Bri Ryan
Font: Century}


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I thought this one with the fairy listening to the bird would be cool!

_{Background paper: "Adelaide's Letter" by IOD
Frame: Rhonna Farrer
Fairy and bird banner: Hope Wallace
Font: French Script MT}

My Scrap Artist Challenge Layouts:

I often do not hear the correct lyrics when listening to songs, and my husband points out the expletives on songs while we are listening to the radio. I often hear him asking me, "what did you just sing?" I'm not deaf, they just need to annunciate! Hear is my layout for all of us folks who are lyrically impaired!

<sub>Fonts: Mr. B, Sketchy, Matisse, Pea Lis, Perpetua
Background from Studio Chic by Shabby Princess,
Fairies and wings (altered) by Hope Wallace
#4 from Official Boxer Alpha by Mo Jackson
Title Alpha-Phunky Phresh by Jennifer Pebbles
Overlay by Nancy Rowe Janitz,
b&w images from Weird is Wonderful by Maya
Internet photos of earmuffs and otoscope diagram
Stock Exchange photo of the pink highlighter



Summer Whimsy Kit: Alpha, stamps and paper,
Gypsy Rose Elements: by Michelle Coleman
Fonts: Distress, CAC Shishoni Brush, Cold Coffee, Pea Beth, Jane Austen, Pea Happy Girl</sub>

Dream Weavers

She dreams about ponies, and dancing like a ballerina, she dreams about playing with Jasper her ferret, being a "Pop Star"and chocolate chip waffles and myriads of other fanciful things!



_{Fonts: Weathered SF, Pea Lis, Chocolate Box Decorative
Kits/Papers/Elements: Mulberry Memories by Sandra Boddington, Collage Fairies and banner by Hope Wallace, Funky Frame by Carrie Stephens
Extras: (Modified) Weaver photo by Valerio at www.sxc.hu, Torn Paper Circle by Traci Murphy and Overlay by Shabby Princess}

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Rachel started College for Kids today, which is a program for kids who enjoy writing and want to improve. It was really fun to watch her try to make friends with one of the girls in her group. There are only 10 kids, so there can be a lot of interaction with the instructor. Rachel pretended to keep reading the posted class list until she got up enough nerve to say hi to a lovely little girl named Ana maria. They quickly took desks facing one another when they were allowed into the classroom. Rachel loves to write, so I hope this class will be a great experience for her.

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The summer continues and the children have yet to achieve "Herdman" statis. If you aren't familiar with the name Herdman grab a copy of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and you will quickly understand. Noah has tried to wash a cluster of miniature rubber bands down the sink. Luckily, the trap is to small and they just acted like a stopper in the sink.

Michael, Aaron and I played a game of Risk, which if you have never played, takes a minimum of 3 to 4 hours to play. Our games always end up with Aaron wandering off to do other things and I finally don't really care and Michael is left as the de facto dictator of the entire world. This seems to be a lonely position. The maxim: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely will be one neither Aaron, nor I will ever have to worry about when playing board games.

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Aaron is currently watching the movie Stargate, which is the very first movie we took him to see when he was 9 months old. Boy Howdy! You should have seen some of the glares we got from suspicious adults who didn't want to hear a crying baby...completely understandable...I might add. He was asleep when the movie started and less than half way through he woke up, so I nursed him for a about 5 minutes, but the noise made him want to sit up and see what was happening. I thought for sure he would cry and I would have to leave with him, but to our astonishment he just watched in amazement. From then on we took him to the theatre with us. We have not been as fortunate with the other 3 kids, oh well!