Wind and Smoke

Welcome to Fall in Southern California. One weather pattern that heralds the coming of Fall is the Santa Ana Winds. That is when a ridge of high pressure causes the hot, dry winds to blow in from the desert. It's typically in the 90's with winds gusting up to 40-50mph! My brother's family had a large tree in their front yard blow over... thank goodness it missed the house.



Along with the first winds of the season come the brush fires. Usually they don't reach the houses, but this year lots of houses were burned in Malibu and are threatened here in North Irvine/Tustin Heights. The above is a photo of the smoke from the parking lot where I work in Tustin.

Here are a couple of photos that I took on my way home.

Please keep all the fire victims in your prayers.

Scrapping the Music - My Wish

Here is my layout, of my son's 8th grade graduation. The words of this song are beautiful and perfect for this layout.



I used the song lyrics in the journaling...
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to, your dreams stay big, your worries stay small, You never need to carry more than you can hold, and while you're out there getting where you're getting to, I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too, Yeah, this, is my wish.

The patterned paper by 7Gypsies. The star stamp is one of my favorites by Paula Best. It reads, "Wish on Every Star" ... and I'm still practicing my doodling!

Scrapping the Music - Bubbly

As soon as I saw the title of the song, I knew what photo I wanted to use (even through the song has nothing to do with bubbles and bathtime). My mom has had this photo stuck to her sewing cabinet for years, so I ran down to her house to make a copy.



This layout uses the new Fancy Pants Botanical and Sweet Pea patterned papers from the 2SCD store. I used the new Prancer Thickers for the title.

This is my FIRST doodling layout. I'm taking a doodling class right now at Big Picture Scrapbooking with Maelynn Cheung and was finally brave enough to try it on a layout. I was so nervous! What do you think? Is it too much?

Book Review - "Uglies" and "Love, Stargirl"

If you liked "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli, you will love "Love, Stargirl"! This is the sequel to Stargirl and follows Stargirl after she leaves Leo in Arizona. There she struggles with the question, "Can you lose your favorite person without losing yourself?" Written as a series of letters to Leo, Stargirl rediscovers who she is. It is a very sweet, loving, funny, feel-good, story.

The Uglies is the first book in a series by Scott Westerfield. Set in the future where teens are given an operation on their 16th birthday to turn them pretty. You'll have to read the book to find out more about that... I won't spoil it for you. The heroine, Tally, is stupid, annoying, and shallow at the beginning, but she does evolve painstakingly slowly into a strong admirable character in the end. There is some good action and once you get past the beginning chapters it's a fun read.

My kids the Superstars!

This is my son. He's a freshman in High School and didn't make the High School soccer team. So, He decided to try out for the cross country team and made it! He just started running two months ago.


Here he is at the Dana Hills Invitational, running in the rain.
He came in 3rd place for his school and 41st place overall, and brought home a medal.

Here's my daughter. She has always been a Club soccer mid-fielder. This year, the coach wants her to play striker.

Not too shabby! Here she is scoring a goal against the hated West Coast Club.

Scrapping the Music - Sweet Child O' Mine

This is a layout inspired by the Guns and Roses song "Sweet Child O' Mine," posted on the Scrapping the Music challenge blog.





As I was looking through my old photo albums, I came across this photo. I'd completely forgotten about it. It was a beautiful candid moment.

I love the fun music inspired challenges at Scrapping the Music. They are have a great scrapbook kit to give away for just posting a comment on their blog. Visit them here:


http://scrappingthemusic.blogspot.com/

So sad...

My son's cross country meet yesterday was traumatic. A girl died.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-me-deadrunner28sep28,1,3560875.story?track=rss

She's the same age as my son, and ran the race right after his. He said that she was throwing up blood and died before the ambulance took her to the hospital. I'm talking to my son (what would you say to your child if he just saw someone die?), and the coaches are talking to the team. He seems to be dealing with it okay. It's a terrible thing to have happened. I can't imagine how much pain her family, her coaches, and her teammates are going through right now...

It's a scary thought to think that one of your family memebers may leave the house on a typical morning, and not return home. I just got this image in an email from my dad. It makes me want to hold my family in a hug and not let them go:

Amber's Blog Challenge

What fall premiere are you looking forward to the most???

The only show I watch is Dancing with a Stars. I didn't realize it started this week, so I missed the dances. I saw the judging show... WOW, is Dolly Parton skinny!

Scrapping the Music - These are My People

Here is my layout inspired by Scrapping the Music song of the week, "These are My People" by Rodney Atkins. This is a hybrid layout. The PP is from the FreeForm Cosmo Collection. The diecuts are from Quickutz and the flower is from Prima.



Journaling reads: These are my friends and teammates. We have been together for over 4 yrs. And have something big in common; we all LOVE soccer! We are tough ladies... not a single girly-girl in the bunch! We all play hard, get dirty, and have fun whether we win or lose. Of course, it’s always better to win! On or off the field, they are the best bunch of friends anyone could ever have. They are my team... the people I play with, the people I hang out with, and the people, with whom, I celebrate the victories of the day!

Song Lyrics used: We fall Down and We get up; We walk proud and We talk tough...We got heart and We got nerve; Even If we are a bit disturbed...


Another new layout using the Scribble Scrabble August kit from 2SCD:



I just love the colors and patterns in this paper line!!!

Kim's blog challenge at 2SCD

My taste in art runs toward the whimsical beach/ocean prints like: Roaslie Prussing, Arnold Fields, and Ruiz Munoz.

My decorating colors follow that theme also, blues for the ocean and the sky, and brown/tans for the sand... accented with colors of orange and green.

Scrapping the Music - Say it Right

This weeks song is "Say it Right" by by Nelly Furtado. I was honored to be picked as the featured scrapper for the week. Here is my layout:



I tried to capture the passion from the song in my layout by using the trendy colors, then I added the black to make it all sparkle. The beautiful patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye. The border around the photo is a digital element that I added before I printed it. It's called "Ledger Overlay" from Kate Pertiet.

See more great layouts and inspiration at :