Neece's Place

Snow day... :-)

First I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!  :-)

January has been a busy month but not so busy that I haven't taken time to "smell the roses" along the way...

One such "rose" was that we woke up to snow  on Thursday morning.  It was only a couple inches, but enough to make the ground and trees white, and enough to make for a very nice walk outdoors.  :-)

I don't typically take walks in the mornings.  Usually mornings are busy with breakfast and such.  But before we ate, ds and I took a long walk really early before the snow melted.  We got to enjoy the fields and woods covered in their wintery whiteness.  It was wonderful!  Ds kept saying the snow was nice, but he wished it were two foot rather than two inches.  (He loves snow as much as I do.  LOL)











Got a few photos of a class project... I'm taking a class at bigpicturescrapbooking.com called Got Paint.  Emily Falconbridge is the teacher, and she has inspired me so much with her love of using paint in her journals and scrapbooks.  I've taken pics of my creations for week one.  I'm finished with week two, but no pic of that yet.  We're into week three now, and I'm looking forward to getting that one done this weekend.

First is the cover... it measures just a bit larger than the 6x6 pages we are working with.  In it are my samples of the techniques I've learned from the class.  It is my place to experiment and play with paints.  No rules, just explore the elements of paint and paper.

I used corrugated cardboard and ripped the cover sheet off the front.  Then I painted it with several layers and colors, dry brushing most of them on.  I painted the first layer, then let it dry to the touch.  Afterwards I put on masking tape in a random pattern, painted over that again with thirds of three other colors.  When I peeled off the masking tape, it ripped up some more of the paper sheet off the cardboard.  So then I reattached the masking tape and peeled paint and paper to the front of the journal cover.  It turned out pretty kewl, and it was so fun to experiment with masking tape, cardboard and paints.  :-D

Week one, Got Paint (art journal cover)...



Dry brushing over textured white cardstock:




Dry brushing over embossed cardstock:


Color-washed background (tan) with color added with the wipe-off technique (red and pale green):



That's all for now.  Type to you all again soon!

Loves and hugs!
~Neece, out.

More of my JYC class...

I have had such fun with the Shimelle JYC class.  Here are more of my pages (as promised).  I'm not including them all, just a few of my favorites...

(Click on any of the pictures to see them close-up.)

This is a close-up photo of the felt tree I made from the page I posted a few days ago.  I hand-drew the pattern for the tree.  The glitter dots are from a couple of Jenni Bowlin kits, and the other "ornaments" are just punches...



This is my cards page.  It is a pocket page made out of shaped paper from a Jenni Bowlin kit.  This page contains most of the cards we got this year (there are a few cards that ds kept out)...



This next one is the wrapping paper prompt... I entitled it, "Favorite Paper," rather than it be our current paper for this season (I hadn't bought our paper at the time of the prompt)...



This page is the ornament prompt... I hand-drew the ornaments and put rhinestones and some metallic pens on them.  The opposite page in the book will be pictures (with journaling) of some of our favorite ornaments to date...

This is a close-up of the felt poinsettia flower I made from my "favorite paper" page (the flower is my own freehand design cut out of felt).  I used some vintage red, stretchy, wrapping ribbon along with green satin scrapbook ribbon (I think the green is from the Elsie collection)...



Tonight I'm working on another page for this album.  I'm having fun with some new papers I bought right before T-giving.  I forgot which line, but will try to figure that out when I post the page.

Hope you all are having a wonderful day.  'Till next time, take care!!!

Love and hugs!!!


~Neece, out.

Merry Christmas!

Wow, it's been a nice day here!  Not the weather one would expect for Christmas Day... sunny and nice with a wintery coolness in the air.  Most of the time I would have wanted snow, but today was just right.  :-)

Visiting our families yesterday was great.  I really didn't want to leave mil's with all the nice conversations we were having with the il's.

Once we left mil's, we went on to my mom's, and had a wonderful time there, too.  My brother's wife gave a special request for me to make monkey bread.  I had made it for them a couple years ago, and she loved it, and decided it would be a perfect new Christmas tradition!  Sounds good to me!  :-)  Anyhow, all four of us gals (me, Mom, and both sils) went into the kitchen and pitched in, sort of in an assembly line process.  It was sooo much fun!   The desert turned out the yummiest ever, too!  LOL :-)

Ds had a great time visiting as well!  He loved all the presents from the grannies and il's.  He got lots of clothing, games, candy, and some spending money, too.  He's one happy camper.  :-)

We didn't check the mail yesterday -- was gone all day, and didn't get back until late.  So today dh and ds go out to the box, and what was there but a JP mag.  It's ds's favorite!  He spent a good hour today reading it.

Right now dh needs the computer to check on something important for work.  So I must stop this post short.  But I will be back tomorrow to post more, and more pics of my Shimelle class lo's.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!  :-)

Lots of love and hugs!!!

~Neece, out.

It's that time again...

Christmas is just around the corner, and the hustle and bustle is getting to me.  I feel a bit like a kid again just thinking about the wonderful sights and smells of Christmas.  :-)

One thing that has helped me shove the "Scrooge" side of me out the window this year has been participating in Shimelle's online class called Journal Your Christmas.  Below is my first page entitled, "Manifesto."  (I totally love that title...:-) )



The journaling reads:

"The purpose of this journal is to define what I love about Christmas, both past  & present.  In doing so, I'm hoping to bring clarity to our current traditions, and hopefully start new ones, too.  :-)  I want to share what inspires me about the season, whether it be memories of past holidays, or my dreams for future celebrations.  I'm hoping this will lay the groundwork for making our future celebrations merrier and brighter!  ~D"

I knew before I began the class that I wouldn't be able to go at the predetermined schedule (set to begin on Dec. 1) because of my time constraints.  But I joined anyway, because dh and ds told me they wanted to give it to me as an early Christmas present.  :-D

I began my first page on Dec. 12th, and still have quite a bit of catching up to do even to this point.  But I'm plugging along, and loving every minute of it.  I will take more pics of the pages as time allows.  :-)

Right now I'm baking cookies, and we're nestled in all snug and warm in our home enjoying looking at the tree, listening to holiday music, and spending time together as a family.  Later this evening we will be wrapping the last of our presents to relatives, and getting ready for our family gathering beginning tomorrow (Christmas Eve).  We are planning on visiting both sides of the families tomorrow, and the journey is quite lengthy (3+ hrs) so it will be a very long day.  It will be good to see all our relatives, so it's worth it...:-)

To my readers, thank you for staying with me during the sparse blog updates of late.  I sure hope to get back into the swing of things with more frequent updates after Christmas Day.  Just so you all know, I have not abandoned scrapping and papercrafting, just have not any time to take pics, or post to the blog.  I'm looking forward to having more time after the holidays are done.

Until next time, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Love and hugs!!!
~Neece, out.

P. S.  Thank you all for the prayers and condolences regarding my dh's cousin passing away.  I really could feel you uplifting us in prayer, and I appreciate it so much! xOxOx

Please remember us in your prayers...

One of dh's cousins passed away tonight.  He had a battle with cancer and did not survive.  Please say prayers for our family as we mourn his passing.

Thanks.

No news is good news, right?

You know the old saying, no news is good news?  Well not so this time.  I've had a difficult couple of weeks and sure could use some prayers as my morale is running low right now.  :-(

It all started the week of Thanksgiving...

Our Thanksgiving holiday was canceled this year... we did not get to visit any of our relatives because of car trouble.  Not one, but all three of our vehicles had trouble and were not road worthy enough to travel the 3 hrs to my mom's.  So all our visiting plans got canceled at the last minute... I have a 13yo who loves to visit his grandmothers, so it was especially sad for him not to get to go.  :-(

We hadn't planned on cooking and had planned to be gone until the Sunday after T-giving, so I didn't have enough groceries on hand to be cooking @ home... had sort of let things run out on purpose so I didn't have a lot of food sitting around wasting.  At least we were able to cook supper T-giving night -- we had some meat frozen and some canned goods on hand so supper wasn't a total bust.

The whole thing went like this: dh had been working away from home that week before T-giving.  He got home Wed. evening after picking up the car parts he needed to work on them the Thanksgiving Day, before we left out for my mom's.

He got up very early T-giving morn, and began working on one.  But it wouldn't go back together properly, and it was totally undriveable because of a leaking radiator hose gasket that wouldn't seal right.  UGH!

So  then he moves onto working on car #2.  Ummm, that one was totally unfixable because he got into it and found he needed more parts!  The parts places were closed that day so no chance of getting it fixed by then.

The third vehicle was not something he was able to fix, so that meant we weren't going anywhere that day!  UGH!!!

If the T-giving fiasco wasn't bad enough, last week dh got very ill from something he ate, and he couldn't even finish the workweek.  He was only 50 miles from home last Wed. when he got terribly ill with bad stuff coming out both ends (yuck!).  He got really weak and shakey, and felt so nauseated that he coudn't drive or get out of his truck!  He rested about 3 hrs, then drove 20 miles and had to stop and rest again.  Then he got sick again, and after that he rested about another 3 hrs, then drove the rest of the way home.  That was Wednesday morning, and he is just now getting back to feeling like working again tomorrow (Tuesday).

Please say prayers for us.  Dh is still not feeling up to par, so he sure could use some uplifting right now.

Today I stepped down as owner of Cuttlebug_Itis yahoo group.  I formed the group one year ago last January.  I finally decided to hand it over to a couple online friends in hopes they could devote the kind of time it needed to keep it growing and thriving.  I have mixed emotions about giving it up... I feel on one hand happy for the group to be moving forward.  And I feel happy to have made the decision and carried it through.  But on the other hand, I'm quite sad that I had to step away from ownership of it.  So again, could use some prayers in that respect.

Well, I guess that's enough prayer requests for one post.  Until next time, stay sweet, and follow Jesus!

Love and hugs!!!

~Neece, out.

A little something...

Same type of problem with typepad, but this time it was an email that got my post deleted.  What I did was try to update last weekend -- Friday, I think it was.  So I opened an email in another window while I was waiting on a pic to upload for my blog post (yeah, I was getting bored with the slowness of it all).  Okay, so there was some kind of trouble with the email -- it must've had a link in it or something, and I kept getting this pop up window asking me for a password to a blog.  Unexplicably weird, huh???  Well, I tried and tried to close it or exit it without shutting down my browser but I couldn't.  So I control+alt+deleted the window, but I lost all my windows w/ my blog post & uploaded photos, TWICE!!!  UGH!!!  I'm going to start saving all my posts as drafts every few minutes!  LOL  Okay, rant over!  Now back to my update...

We've been having cooler weather at night, which means it's campfire weather.  We have tons of downed trees from when they put in the electricity this spring.  So every so often dh and ds drag one up with the Jeep and a chain and cut it up for campfire wood.  We burned two whole trees last week.  Wow, now that's a lotta' wood!

Here are dh and ds cutting up the trees:

And here they are dragging the trees through the field (Note: Ds is driving the Jeep.  'Nuther note: that is smoke from the campfire in the left part of the pic):

You'll have to click the pic to see the tree on the far right.

So anyway, since we have burned up all the wood that was cut, we can't have any campfires until dh and ds get to cutting wood again.  But just as well, 'cause tonight is supposed to be the coldest of the season, down into the mid to upper 20's.  Gosh, what happened to fall?  I'm not ready for that type of cold yet.  Yep, I think 20's is too cold for a campfire.  LOL

So, is it cold in your area?  How cold do you suppose is too cold for a campfire?  ;-)

Have a good fall day, y'all!  'Till next time...

~Neece, out.    :-)

Long time, no blog...

I know I've been a terribly bad blogger... been way too busy, but I'll try to do better.

Sorry for the short post.  Will try to post again tomorrow... with a picture...:-)  All I need is a few moments to hook up that digi cam and download the photos.

'Till next time, take care, y'all!  TTYL!!!


Love & hugs!
~Neece

Playing catch up...

Okay, I'm not happy.  Just hit preview after writing quite a lengthy post and it disappeared.  UGH!  I wish typepad had an auto save feature, like my gmail account does.  Gmail auto saves drafts every few seconds while writing so your email doesn't disappear if you lose the connection.

Okay, typepad rant over.

Now for the update:

Have had a few difficult weeks in August.  For one, I had the worst tooth pain I've ever had happen to me.  I went to one dentist and he made me worse and did nothing to solve the problem.  So I went on the hunt to find another dentist that would actually not only see me but take care of the problem.  And dentist #2 ended up pulling one of my wisdom teeth.  So now I've been pain-free for over a week and it sure feels good!  The moral of the story is, don't put off going to the dentist if you suspect you have a problem.  Get it taken care of while it is yet a little problem.  KWIM?

During all that difficulty with teeth pain, my mom called to let me know that sil was losing their first baby.  She was about 10-12 weeks along, and they didn't find the heartbeat.  A few days later, the process began and she lost the baby.  She and db were sooo excited about this pregnancy, so this has been difficult for them.  But they are going to try again in a couple months when things get back to normal in her body.  Wanted to thank all of you who prayed for them, and ask that you continue to do so.  Sil has to deal with the physical and emotional part, so she especially needs the prayers.

With all that has been going on, I have gotten behind in my work and have been playing catch up all week.  I did take a pause yesterday to make something scrappy, though.  See, I won this contest over @ scrappersanonymous.com.  It was called "I'll try it" contest.  They picked my name (and several others), and sent us free samples of the neatest product.  It's called stampbord (stampbord.com).  I really liked working with it, and made this mini "mock" clipboard:




I used 7g's paper, ribbon from HL, rubons from CI and Luxe Designs, bookplate and clip from scrapbook kits, and MM rhinestone brads.  Amazingly, I punched holes for the brads with my Crop-o-dile eyelet tool.  The pic is of my mom when she was sixteen.

Well, that's a wrap.  Update complete.  Until next time, later gators!

Love and hugs!!!

~Neece, out

Heat Wave!!!

Okay, are you all melting yet?  And how hot is too hot?  Anything over 95 degrees Fahrenheit is too hot for me!  It has been a record setting last couple weeks in the Mid-South.  We definitely need to pray for rain, y'all.  The grasses and crops in our area are all dried up.  How hot is it where you live?  Do you live in one of the drought areas?

Went to a friend's crop a few weeks ago and got NOTHING done except cutting out some chipboard for album covers.  I was laughed at and ridiculed for being so unproductive (but it was all in fun).  Afterwards, I realized that I must be in a creative slump!  I am really trying to pull myself out of that.  But it hasn't been easy.  Not sure what I need to inspire me again.  You guys have any tips to help bring me out of this creative slump?  I sure hope so!

Take care, y'all!  'Till next time...

Love and hugs!


~Neece, out.