So long 2011, Hello 2012

2011 was a good year, 2011 was a bad year.

Mostly good, as all of my family is healthy, we have a safe, comfortable home and I started my blog!

The bad is that I lost my full time job in September and though I have not found a new one, we are able to still live comfortably and I have enjoyed a bit of a work break after 32+ years of working.
I have looked for work but have not found anything yet.

The following 12 photos are snippets of our lives this past year. Not necessarily the best or worst, but a bit of something from each month.

January

New Years Day, 2011. All around the table for dinner. Bill is not wearing a shirt as he had surgery (shoulder replacement) just 3 days before. 

February

Snow, snow, snow!! It seldom snows here in Occidental, so flakes that last a bit on the table are something to get excited about :)

March

Nothing much going on this month but I did craft this Lucky Day wall hanging from 

my vintage supplies. 

April

My hubby and I went to Petaluma to check out the spring Antique fair and sale. Found  a few treasures, but it is always fun to see the value of things I already own! 

May

Scrapping with some friends on the Russian River. A beautiful spot to craft, chat and relax. 

June

Family reunion time! My hubby's family celebrates with a reunion here on the ranch every year, but my family, not so often. We should though, because we had a great time!

July

We had lots of fun activities going on in July, but I think Henry and I enjoyed a Giants game at AT&T park the most. Especially as the Giants won!

August
August was a quiet month, I worked a lot. But we did take time to help Aunt Joanne celebrate her birthday. Happy Birthday Joanne! 

September

Since my job ended in September and I had been working a lot the last few months I decided I needed a real vacation. So I went up to my sister's in Oregon for a week to shop and play. 

October

I was off work just about three weeks when my old employer called me and asked if I could go to Boulder, CO and help out for a week. A free trip to Colorado, sure!

November

My friend Jenny was expecting a baby and our friend Heather and I hosted a shower for her with all our scrappy, crafty friends sharing in Jenny's joy. Jenny was due on Jan 2nd, but her sweet Isabel could not wait that long and she arrived on December 15th, a healthy bundle of JOY! 

December
December is always a busy month, with all the holiday activities, decorations and baking. One of my favorite things to do is bake goodies to share with friends and family.
One of my favorites is decorating sugar cookies with my boys.

Right now there is less than three hours until 2012. I hope the new year brings
everyone good health and happiness.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Where does the time go??

When I lost my job in mid September, I thought "wow, I will be able to get so many things done, have so much time to craft" Ha! I seem busier than ever and not much time to craft!

Between traveling for fun and for work I have been home all of 4 days in the past three weeks. 

My house is a mess, I have not been able to craft much, except for the weekend getaway in my last post! 

I had gone to visit my sister Lou in Oregon, for a week.

I came home Sunday for 3 days and then left for my scrapping retreat on Thursday until Sunday. 

Came home from that on Sunday morning.

Emptied my suit case and filled it back up to leave early Monday to fly to Boulder.

I flew home the following Saturday and finally crashed on Sunday.

On Monday I cleaned a bit, painted my old green bookcase that I moved out to make way for my new red cabinet I bought at Ikea to house my scrapbook albums.

I painted it black to go in my scrap room to replace my old wire cubes.
And since my scrap room is a mess, this is all you will see of it for now.

Tuesday was spent cleaning as I had not been home much lately and prepared for some overnight company. My nephew in Bakersfield had come to San Francisco on Amtrak and would be riding his bike from SF to my house that afternoon. A 60 mile ride on back country roads and some scary city riding. He is braver than me! Since he was visiting I invited my next door cousins over for dinner.
A great evening with family!

On Wed I got up at 5:00 am to leave for the city (SF) for a job search program. The third trip to the city for this program. The first trip I only made it halfway as traffic on 101 was a mess! The second trip, I made it with two minutes to spare! This time there was no traffic so I had an hour wait at Starbucks. It was only 4 hours long so that left me time to walk to Union Square and have lunch with my sister Sally. She works at Britex Fabrics so I also had a chance to shop. Mostly window shop as fabric at $50 a yard and up is not fabric you buy just because it is pretty!

Thursday I had more company, as my 3 Stampin' Up friends and I got together to craft and share ideas. Since it was my turn to host, I made up two sample projects for all of us to craft.

A fun way to spend the afternoon! After it was time to go to my son's football game.

Today was a day to relax. I finished up my ATC swap that I am participating in and will mail them off to my fellow ATC swappers. Artist Trading Cards have been around awhile, but this is my first time to join a swap. I have been in other swaps (circle journals, cards and charm swaps). I am looking forward to seeing all the great artwork I will receive!
And now more football tonight. Tomorrow I hope to do nothing! Or at least just what I want to do :)

Sunday I will be heading to Tomales for their annual Flea Market. I hope to find a treasure or two! 

Crafty Weekend

This lovely view is taken from the deck of the vacation house my girlfriends and I are renting for a weekend of crafty fun! I love my Bodega Bay retreats and the fun group of crafty girls that share this weekend with me once or twice a year.

I may only be 10 short miles from home, but it seems like a million miles away from the chores and duty of regular life!

I will be crafting from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning. So much more fun when you share the time with girls who "get" your crafty, artsy ideas!

This lovely view of Bodega Bay is such a nice addition to the weekend. Need a stretch? Walk out to the deck to view the ocean and listen to the waves, gulls and peaceful surroundings. Too bad the house next door gets in the way of the almost perfect view.

Hopefully I can post some of my scrappy pages I create through out the weekend!

Crafty Weekend

I had the opportunity to spend the weekend crafting and since work has been no fun at all lately I decided to take advantage of the chance to play. A wonderful lady who loves to craft and scrap hosts a weekend "retreat" 4 times a year in one of the conference rooms where she works. We can scrap or craft Friday from 5:30 to midnight. Saturday 9am to midnight and Sunday 9am to 5pm. We have use of the tables and chairs and "kitchen", so we can bring in our meals to heat up or go out and grab a bite.
Once we set up Friday, we can leave our stuff "out" until we leave on Sunday. Just go home and sleep in your own bed each night. We can just scrap one day, 2 days or all three. I was on a roll and scrapped all three days this time :)
And did I mention, this is all FREE!

One of my crafty projects started out with this little foam pig I found here for just .50 cents.

After decoupaging the "P" section of an old dictionary to the little pig I ended up with this.

And there are some very appropriate placements of certain words.

Since we bring in our own food or go out to eat I stopped at the deli counter on Friday night for my dinner. I added this container of Pringles to my purchase and enjoyed the chips on Sat as a snack. I did not toss the container right away so it sat on my table for a day. On Sunday afternoon I had a strip of pattern paper I had cut, but did not use on a scrapbook page, that was just the height of the Pringles can.

I could not just pass the opportunity up so I cleaned out the can, grabbed my adhesive and altered the can that would have been garbage, into a container for storage, or treats or however you could find a use for it!

I had scrapped about 5 layouts also and was going through all my "kits" and page plans I have been carrying around from crop to crop and decided to finish this little mini album I started almost two years ago!

And I am so glad I did as I really like how it turned out.

I don't know why it took me so long to get it made? I guess the "mojo" just wasn't there and waited all this time to show up until this past Saturday?

I also completed about 5 layouts this weekend and will post those later this week.

A very successful crafty weekend! And a fun time to share ideas and laughter with some of my scrapping cohorts!

Thanks for looking!

Berta

Scrappin' on the River

I was lucky to spend Friday through Monday scrapping at a lovely retreat on the Russian River.
This was the view we saw from our scrap tables. Beautiful!!!! 
There were nine of us scrapping almost all weekend long.

We were lucky to be able to sit out on this deck to eat most of our meals until the rains started on Sunday. Despite the rain, it was still a beautiful spot to scrap and relax with a great group of girls.

We shared food, ideas and fun. I am ready to go back to this lovely, relaxing spot!

After sitting and scrapping most of the weekend I took a short walk on Sunday afternoon to the little town of Duncans Mills. I checked out a few of the shops. At one of the antique stores, Jim and Willies,  I found this vintage hat. All covered with lovely white velvet flowers, with that lovely vintage feel you can't duplicate with new. It was a deal at $10, I could get over 100 flowers for cards or scrapping!

 After I got back to the retreat, I started undoing all the stitching and removed enough flowers
to share some with my fellow crafters.

I completed almost 30 layouts at the retreat and 7 cards. This one I scrapped an old photo of my now 14 yr old son #3, when he was just 3. I love the silly, happy grin on his face. All pattern papers from Close to My Heart and the cute monkey was cut from the Create a Critter cartridge for the Cricut.

 

My birthday layout is done with both October Afternoon and Stampin' Up papers. I machine stitched around all the pattern papers and cut the flowers with my new Spellbinders flower die. And I used vintage pearl buttons for the flower centers. The banner stickers are from Jenni Bowlin Studios.

This two page layout from my trip to Boulder CO is mostly Crate Paper and Stampin' Up papers. Downtown Boulder has a great shopping/dining district called the Pearl Street Mall.  

 Three of the cards I made at the retreat. All have have ribbons and fabric from my stash.
I used Stampin' Up & Spellbinders dies. Papers from SU & Cosmo Cricket.

I really enjoyed my weekend but it was way to short! I could have scrapped and played with paper,
ribbons, stamps, and even my sewing machine for days more!
A big thanks to my friend Michelle H for setting up this fun retreat and all I want to know is...

"when can we go again?"