He's a college graduate now!!

Can you believe it...my oldest son is now a college graduate!  Jaron graduated today with a degree in Computer Information Systems and I'm one proud momma! Here are a few pictures of our day:

 Congratulations son...I love you!

Little Red Scrapbook June Projects

Love, love, love the June Little Red Scrapbook kit this month!  It features Echo Park's "Sweet Day" line and the embellishments are perfectly coordinated to go with it.  I was able to create 4 layouts and still have plenty left over to do more!

The first layout I created for Karrie's sketch challenge using a fabulous Pagemaps sketch.  I love the pinwheel embellishments!

This layout is my favorite from the kit.  I had so much fun cutting out all of the honeycomb blocks and popping them up to add dimension.

The next two layouts are of our trips to Moolack beach this year.  We've been there twice and both times found some pretty cool shell fossils.  We love to explore that beach!

 Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to visit Little Red Scrapbook to check out the June kit!

Little Red Scrapbook May Kit!

I've had the best time creating projects with the Little Red Scrapbook May kit!  The kit features Basic Grey's "PB&J" line plus a whole lot of fun embellishments!  I've already shown you the "Family" layout I did for the NSD Blog Hop and here are the others I created this month.

Thank goodness I have cutie patootie neices and nephews that I love to show off.  This is Kyle...

And this is Ruby at her 2nd birthday party. I also have a layout almost ready to go of her twin brother Henry aka "Hank". He's adorable too!

And a card for Meg's card challenge this month.  So fun!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out this month's kit and add-on's.  If you love Basic Grey-- you'll love this kit!!

NSD winner announced...

Just popping in real quick to announce the winner of my National Scrapbooking Day RAK. The Studio Calico mists go to...

Victoria!!

Victoria, please pop in over at LRS and PM me your addy so I can get them into the mail for you. Thanks for all of the wonderful comments ladies!

Little Red Scrapbook Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Little Red Scrapbook’s National Scrapbook Day Blog Hop!! 

We all love scrapbooking and the community that this hobby brings so what better way to celebrate than by a blog hop!  Each of the designers has some inspiration to share with you and you might even find some chances to win prizes along the way! 

LRS has a sketch challenge each month and this month we have selected this fabulous Page Maps sketch for our inspiration!

Here is how this sketch inspired me using the May LRS kit!!

 

If you would like to play along with our sketch challenge, please upload a photo of your layout to our NSD gallery here and then link it to the Sketch Challenge thread on our message board, found here. As a bonus, you might find your layout featured on our blog this month in our new "Wow'd Us Wednesday" post where we will be highlighting one member's design each week!!

Now, hop on to the next blog in the list and be sure to leave a comment on each blog!  Your final destination is the Little Red Scrapbook blog to tell us what inspired you for a chance to win a prize!  You must comment by 11:59CST to be eligible.

Lisa S.- http://www.lisaspiegel.typepad.com
Karrie - http://www.karriecook.blogspot.com
Nikki – http://nikki-hobbs.blogspot.com
AnnaMarie - http://www.annamarie-mondro.blogspot.com
Meg- http://www.meggiroux.blogspot.com
Tammy - You are here!  Please leave a comment on my blog for a chance to win 2 Studio Calico Mister Huey's pictured below.  Deadline: 5/5/12 at 12 midnight (Pacific)
Lisa W. - http://createfor7.blogspot.com
LRS Blog- http://www.littleredchronicle.blogspot.com

Final Day in Philadelphia

It's hard to believe I'm already home.  I missed blogging about yesterday's travels as we spent a lovely evening with Kathy's friends Carol and Paul.  Paul was kind enough to tour me through the flower beds and garden on their lovely property while Carol made us an amazing dinner.  A warm thank you to my new friends.

So yesterday.  Yesterday was another one of those overwhelming days of absolute beauty. After Kathy humored me (once again) and let me climb the Rocky steps at the Philadelphia Art Museum and pose with the Rocky Statue, we toured Longwood Gardens. Longwood Gardens date back to the 1700's but the biggest contributor was Pierre du Pont, who was an industrialist, conservationist, and farmer.  You can read more about the gardens here.

This place was spectacular.  There were so many flowers in bloom including many that aren't native to Oregon.  I think the Wisteria was my favorite but the conservatory was amazing as well.  We walked through the greenhouses for at least an hour and I'm still not sure we saw it all! 

Here are some of the pictures...I'll start with Rocky since I enjoyed making an absolute fool of myself! ha-ha. The Philadelphia Art Museum is huge with a whole lot of steps!

 

Yep, I actually did it.  I didn't run up the steps but I did jump...!

Now here are some of the pictures of Longwood Gardens.  I took over 200-- so you are only going to see some of my favorites. 

Me and my friend Kathy.  Isn't this a good picture of us?  Love it.

Thanks for letting me share my vacation with you and a huge thank you to Kathy for sharing her city with me!

Day 4: Shopping

The day here in Philly started out rainy and drizzly but it didn't slow down our sightseeing or shopping!  We started the day by touring Kathy's old neighborhood and seeing the house she grew up in.  Very nice.

It also wouldn't be a trip to the Philadelphia area without stopping by a Wawa.  You all may know what a Wawa is but I didn't until I came here.  A Wawa is like a 7 Eleven but has more of a selection and an automated food ordering system.  Kathy showed me the ropes and now I can say I've been to a Wawa for breakfast.

Next stop on our journey was the Fonthill Museum and Tile Works.  The mansion was gorgeous and constructed mostly of concrete.  Many of the windows have been replaced with wood frames but you can still see some of the remaining concrete window frames.  Very interesting gentleman, that Mr. Mercer, and apparently very afraid of a fire.  Here is a picture of the mansion which is now a museum.

This is a picture of the carriage house, also constructed of concrete...

My favorite stop was the tile shop.  Many, many beautiful tiles to choose from.  I bought 3 and one included a 2012 commemorative tile with chickens on it.  Imagine that...love my chickens! :)

Next stop was shopping in New Hope. New Hope is a quaint little town filled with fun and intersting shops.  I saw a ton of beautiful art and of course want to recreate it all when I get home.  There was also many historic buildings there dating back to the 1700's.  Wow.

Couldn't resist getting my picture taken with this guy...kind of reminds me of my 6 foot tall nutcracker at home!

We took a little break from shopping for Kathy to humor me and allow me to walk across the Delaware River to the dark side...New Jersey.  She was convinced that I would end up with big hair and start talking funny if I did it.  I guess it was a good thing I had my hair in a pony tail!  Here is my bridge to New Jersey...

We spent the rest of the day touring the countryside and shopping in Peddler's Village in Lahaska, Pennsylvania.  Lot's of fun shops and I even bought myself a tiny little german smoker-- but what I really wanted was one of those $1000 cuckoo clocks!

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite pictures of the countryside.

Don't you wish you were here?!