New Year's start and the first trip of the year

Wow!  Has it really been almost 3 weeks since I last posted?  Where does the time go!  I guess I will start by sharing some stitching progress.  Like many of my fellow stitchers, I like to start on a brand new project on January 1st, as a sort of New Year's celebration.  This year, I chose to work on "Heaven and Nature Sing" by With Thy Needle and Thread.  The following picture shows one day's worth of stitching, and only one day's worth of stitching, since I haven't had time to work on the piece since the 1st.  Not too bad for one day's work, I think:

Since the first, I've been devoting my stitching time to a model piece for Mom, which I can't share yet, of course.  There actually hasn't been all that much time for stitching though.  Among other things, Alton and I spent a week in California cleaning out his uncle's condo in order to make some progress on his estate (Alton is the executor).  It was hard work, and sad work too.  I won't bore you with the details, but I will say that it truly boggled my mind to see how many different documents used to be generated containing a person's social security number: bank statements, pay stubs, loan documents, etc, etc.  Shred, shred, shred.

While we were in California, we did take a few hours off to do a tiny bit of sight seeing.   Between Los Angeles and San Diego, there is a old Spanish Mission at the town of San Juan Capistrano.  The original church was destroyed by an earthquake in the 19th century, and the ruins of "The Great Stone Church" still stand on the site today:

The church is listed on the World Monuments Fund top 100 Most Endangered Sites because of its fragile state.  The whole mission was simply beautiful, and relaxing.

The mission is also famous for its annual "Return of the Swallows" which is celebrated every year on March 19.  Apparently, the birds return on almost the same day every year, and build their nests along the eaves of the mission's buildings.  Sadly, it was the wrong time of the year for us to see the swallows ourselves.

There were some beautiful cactus plantings around the mission.  I didn't take many photos of the gardens, so you'll just have to take my word that they were lovely.

 So that's most of what I've been up to this month.  I have two of my six patterns bagged up, and I'm working hard at getting all the others ready.  I can't believe it's less than a month til the Nashville show!

Tomorrow (assuming that we still have power), I will post a giveaway announcement, and I will start sharing photos of my designs.  I hope some of you will like them!  Til next time, stay warm, stay safe, and stay crafty!

I finally scrapbooked!!!

After almost 6 months away from scrapbooking (well, except for the shopping part, I never really behind on the shopping part), I have finally gotten back it and gotten a few layouts done.  I used National Scrapbook Day to push me to 1- get the bonus room into some semblance of organization, and 2- get my scrap on!

On the organization front, a great deal of progress has been made, but there's a lot left to go.  I had more scrap and stitching product than I had storage space in the old apartment.  Now I have the room, but I am still in the process of acquiring the storage units that I need.  Hopefully, I'll have the room arranged completely to my liking by the end of the summer.

On the scrapping front, I have SEVEN layouts to share!!!  Yuppers, I am definitely back in the groove.  I am still working for the perfect place to take photos of my layouts.  There's plenty of light in my new room, but the layouts seem to come out way too dark.  I've tried to lighten them up to better capture their true appearance.

First up, and my favorite from the batch, is a layout about a trip Alton and I took to Death Valley back in 2009.

 I guess I like the color combination.  It was a great trip, which began with a girls' only visit to Las Vegas and ended with several days exploring the area with my honey.  Loved it!

This next layout is a quick, simple one showcasing a photo of my maternal grandparents and uncle working on the farm.  I'm not sure exactly when the photo was taken, but it's probably from the late 60's or early 70's.

 And finally, there are a few more layouts from my neverending Egyptian album.  When I last blogged about our vacation, we were spending our time in Aswan, and exploring Lake Nasser.  With these new layouts, we pick back up from the visit to Kitchener Island and head south in a small, motorized boat.  I think we sailed  about 25 miles from the border of Sudan, and maneuvered amidst the rocks and rapids of the first cataract on the river Nile.  The birdlife here was beautiful.

 At one point, we could see caravans of camels.  Some of them resting on the edge of the desert on the shore of the Nile, and others loaded up and walking along narrow desert trails.  It was surely something to see.  

 Our boat pulled up to the shore, and we had a few short minutes to walk on the yellow sands of the desert. A few of us dared to take our shoes off and wade into the Nile.  It was refreshingly cool, and amazingly clear and clean looking, especially considering the amount of trash we had seen floating on parts of the river earlier in our trip.

From there, we cruised on, and eventually docked at a small Nubian village.  We were greeted by several young girls trying to sell us wooden dolls.  I bought one because I thought they looked so cute.  We were taken to a local family's home where we had some tea, and then they brought out the Nile Crocodiles.  Apparently many Nubian villagers rescue the baby crocs from the river, keep them in their homes until they are larger  and better able to protect themselves in the wild.  It was really something to have the chance to hold one in my arms.  Yes, its little mouth was tied shut for my protection, but it was still awe inspiring.

It was getting later in the afternoon, and as we left the village, the camels were coming home for the night.  Have you ever seen a string of camels come swaying by on their way home for dinner?  They are very focused on their route, and don't pay too much attention to anything in their way.  Including tourists.  It made for some interesting moments.

So that's it for my new layouts.  Next post will either be some more honeymoon photos, or some stitching photos.  I'm not sure which yet.  I did finally pick up my wedding proofs this weekend.  There are only about 800 of them.  I don't know how I'm ever going to choose which ones to scrap, which to get bigger images of, etc etc.  Maybe my next post will be wedding photos.  Who knows.  Tee hee.  Til next time, happy crafting everyone!