A Day In The Life

Road Warriors ~ or just plain crazy!

2010-02-08T04:01:00.005-07:00

You may ask yourself... "Self - what could possibly have Eila up at 5 AM, actually posting to her blog?" In truth a couple things have led to this. One, in the past week, three loverly ladies have popped in to say hello." I might add a heartfelt thank you for that. Hummie, the winter photos may actually make it in the next post... which could be sooner than you think.

The second reason... I am in Kansas City, preparing for a true adventure (we are talking EPIC proportions!!!!)

I had surgery in December (BTW). I am healing nicely (woman issues - that will no longer be issues - thank heavens!!!!) I was going about my business, walking every day - hitting the gym... just feeling generally good. Then on Tuesday, we got some scary news.

my mom is in the early stages of Alzheimer's. Every family has to deal with blows, this one is pretty huge. Decisions have been made very quickly. In an effort to prevent her from being put in a nursing home in KC - my brother volunteered to have her come stay with him and his family. In actuality, he and my mother had been talking about this for awhile, anyway. This just stepped it up.

Let's face is, care in small towns is usually a bazillion times better than in the big cities. So, Maine it is. In a nut shell, my sister drove to Kansas City from Utah arriving yesterday. I flew in on Saturday. My other sister and I spent the day yesterday packing. In a couple hours we are going to be picking up a Uhaul trailer... and by afternoon, we will he heading east. Has it occurred to anyone just exactly what that means? Hmmm I am thinking there is a storm heading that way SOON. And so the adventure begins. Wish us luck, and a prayer or twenty couldn't hurt!

I will try to post along the way, as we are looking for it to take several days to get there (shorter legs of the journey on the way out) We do not have to be back here until the 18th (Kansas City). And I look forward to seeing one of my buddies in Pennsylvania... Until then... hugs all around!

Eila

Where did the summer go?

2009-10-04T11:15:00.007-06:00

Hi, it is Eila - finally getting around to pop in to say hello. It seems to be that I posted as we were just starting to see a summer I truly believed would never get here. It did, and it was good in so many ways, and not so good in a few others.

It has been such a long time ~ I am thinking that you might want to pour a cup a coffee, and settle in. I will try to keep it short.

In early June, my mom called and said they had found a tumor in her kidney. She did not know the size, or what would be done. About a week later, it was decided that they needed to remove her kidney. It was cancer. She was very afraid... and rightfully so. She is 77 years old, and not in the greatest health anyway - and she was worried that the other one might fail. We did remind her that she has 6 children, all which would give her one if she needed it... should have gone without saying.

Surgery was scheduled for the end of June. It had been decided, since one sister lives there, and another travels there frequently... the rest of us would hang back and come one at a time, as needed to help with her aftercare - when she got out of the hospital. She lives with her cousin, and again - one sis is always there... but we needed to take some of the pressure off them. I was put in a holding pattern for the month of July. She came through the surgery well ~ the cancer was the type which confines itself to the organ it is in - so Chemo and radiation would not be needed. After a few days, they moved her to a nursing home for "after care" - which is where the real fun started. It took over 24 hours for her meds to get there. Then, she started having a really bad cough, The care (and I use that term very loosely) providers at the NH gave her Benadryl to help her sleep, because they couldn't get the Doctor (again a term I used loosely) to check in on her. Guess he was just too busy to be bothered. My sister finally took matters into her own hands, and took her to the emergency room at the hospital. They readmitted her with pneumonia. I am not an expert, but I think the term "after care" was anything but.

After 3 weeks in the hospital, mom went home. I made my reservations, and went to Kansas City. It was a very long 10 days. My heart broke into a million pieces when I saw Mom the first time. The stress of the situation had really taken its toll. She did not look at all like my mother. She was ashen and hollow (the best way to describe it). I got a place close by (as I knew I would need down time). Her cousin was there in the evening... and I spent every day with her. Each day she was a little better. Her physical therapist came every other day, and was pleased with how much she was improving each day after I arrived. My mother and I have always been close, although some days she makes me crazy. I am the one child that will tell it like it is. She has started to get cranky as she has aged... and far less tolerant of people, including her grand children. She used to tell me what a witch her great grandmother was. One day when she was speaking negatively about one of my nieces...I posed a question to her. Here is the basic conversation...

"Mom, do you remember Babo?"

"Yes, she was a witch - she was always so mean to me"

"OK Mom, now ask yourself this... Is that how YOU want to be remembered by your grand children?"

ith that, I left the room. And I could tell after I came back... that she was truly thinking about it. Later I noticed a true softening in her approach. I guess that is what I mean by me telling it like it is. She has a beautiful spirit, and I think sometimes she just forgets to put that at the forefront. She just got jaded at some point. I can see how that can happen. Kansas City is a horrible city, but then in my book, they all are. So many people, so much crime - sirens all day and all night. I was definitely a fish out of water. Mixed feelings all the way around about that trip. I did get to eat at Olive Garden TWICE (LOL). The nearest Olive Garden is about an 8 hour drive away, so needless to say, it is a treat to go there. I also spent time with 2 of my sisters, and was able to meet a friend I have not seen for 20 years for lunch (one Olive Garden experience). As I said mixed bag - happy and sad. It was too much time in the city, yet not enough time to see the people I wanted to. I cannot believe I spent such a large part of my life there. I am pretty sure I could not survive city life full time.

August 9th, I was more than ready to head home. It was 105 degrees and muggy in KC that day. Do you ever wish you could make a day in history just plain Go AWAY. I think it would be wonderful if you could go back in history an erase a day... and the terrible things that happened on that day would have never happened. August 9, 2009 would be just such a day.

I called hubby from the airport shortly before boarding. He was busy, and would be out the rest of the day. I was not looking forward to the flight. Storms were predicted in Minnesota. Deep breath... flight was bumpy. Safe take off - and landing - YAY. I did not call hubby from Minneapolis when I landed. I knew he would not be there. In hind sight, I am glad I didn't. Usually I would, just to say I was safe, and that I couldn't wait to get home.

The flight was great from Minnesota to Montana. We even got in early. (a half hour). No hubby... hmmmm. OK. I decided to call his cell to see if he was close. It was almost midnight - 1 AM - KC time. There was a message on the cell. It was him saying he needed to talk to me. He had left it shortly after I had left KC. OK, so panic. Had something happened to Mom. I guess I had to wait. He got there shortly after that. I asked him what was up. and he said "Cindy died today". OK so it took a minute to process. Cindy - vibrant - 52 years old - and the one real friend in the Swan Valley. She just collapsed and dies in her office. We spent hours in that office talking when I would go to the Mercantile. I had been her fill in girl for 3 years when they were short handed. And we shared Photoshop from the first day we met. We met the day she showed us the house we now live in. You see... she is also the local Real Estate agent. She was so many things in this valley - her greatest gift was that of "Friend". There are days I am still in shock and denial.

Her husband called me the next day and asked me to do a slide show for her post service celebration. Here they throw a major event to celebrate the life of one who has left us. It was a long week, of crying, scanning, and trying to heal. One thing about creating memorial slide shows - it is a healing process. I have never seen anything like the Mass. The church was FULL... the lobby was FULL... and the outside was FULL. Parking was spread down the highway for at least a mile. We lost someone who was so well loved. And I miss her everyday!!!

Her husband also recruited me to take over the ads and flyers for the real Estate business. So that is where I am now. I am also photographing some of the properties. The photos below are from a piece of property that is currently listed. If you have a spare 1.5 Mil - it could be yours. 1800 FT of river front. 18 Acres.

and so... now Fall is upon us... we are splitting and stacking wood... even tho we have a fullout TON!. Trees keep dying and falling. I will try to get back sooner and tell a little story about a fire we had on the property... must take photos first, and besides I believe I have taken up enough of your precious time. I apologize again for my absent behavior. I will try to do better. I miss my blog hopping - going to have to try that again...

until we meet again

Have a great day!!!!

Eila (the missing blogger)

Spring... while everyone else has summer - Well - not in the Southern Hemisphere.

2009-06-28T14:59:00.003-06:00

I have been crazy busy lately... but wanted to pop in to say hello. My poor little camera has been working overtime. It felt like Spring would never get here, but it finally did. We have had a nice amount of rain - and an equally nice amount of sunshine. We had 2 grand daughters (ages 5 and 7) spend a week here... WHO KNEW people so small could have so much energy - or that maybe I don't!!! But they were fun - I have to admit.

We have this plant that grows around here. Some of you probably know what it is. Apparently each plant only blooms about once every 5 to 7 years. This year, a bunch have bloomed.

The girls and I picked some on the way up to our place... and put them in jars with food color... What you see below is the result. Who knew?! It was a fun experiment.

I will post some layouts when I make them of the girls... I took tons of photos - no surprise there!

A couple of days ago, I went to Seeley Lake, and was taken back at the view out my windshield... I mean I go to our cabin all thetime, but sometimes I forget to look... really look. I fell quite blessed to be able to have this place in the summer.

This last photo is one of those where the light and the subject are just right. If you look at the water just to the left of the dock in the pick above... you will see where this family of geese was. I am quite pleased with this photo.

So there you have it... this is what I have been doing. I hope everyone is well, and having a splendid day - where ever you are!

hugs,

eila

Happy Birthdays All Around!!!

2009-05-27T09:31:00.009-06:00

Happy Happy Birthday to my sister Patti, oh and my friend Cathy in Colorado, hmm and Donna, my friend since the second grade!!! Hmmm I think I might be leaving someone out... Oh yeah - today is my good buddy Crop's Birthday!!!! In her honor, I have a small gift for everyone. She made a kit called Summertime - (from KimB's May CC) you can pick it up here at her blog - Crops2Dawn Creations. I made a layout with some grandchildren photos from our recent trip to Bozeman. I enjoy the color of this kit.

I also have the quickpage that goes with it. Enjoy... and why not pop over and tell Miss Croppie Happy Birthday!!!! I am pretty sure she said she is 29 AGAIN!!!!!!!!

Click the preview to go to 4shared

I have been pretty busy here of late. I know we are just moving into our Spring... but we are currently loading the woodshed with next winter's supply of wood. Did I mention I am married to a former boyscout (always be prepared) ~slash~ Engineer (I will design a plan)... so it is May , and in a few short days, the shed will be full, and I will be needing to see my chiropractor... LOL.

We have tons of trees down so the wood lot will be quite full as well. We are definitely taking advantage of the nice (but not too hot weather). We spent Memorial Day weekend at Seeley Lake - opening up the summer cabin. Friday and Saturday were beautiful - Sunday, not so much...so we came home a little early, and found that 40 miles made a hug difference. It was great here. The time spent at Seeley was not wasted. I was up on the roof, sweeping all the pine needles and pine cones off. It helps to find any loose roofing nails. Then I got to rake all the stuff from the roof (4 wheel barrel loads). I didn't have to help per sea... I had plenty of cleaning inside to keep me busy. But I figured the faster hubby is finished, and the less tired... I may well earn a steak dinner at Lindey's. YUMMMMM, they have the best steaks. I will tell you what - work all day - a steak dinner, and poor Eilajean was DOWN for the count by 8:30. I haven't been asleep at 8:30 since I was a kid.

I am so happy that the weather is good for being outdoors, and that is where I am headed now... well, after I grab a bite, and read up on some of your blogs. I am soooo behind.

Have an awesome day all!!!

Big Hugs!

eila

Montana Spring YAY!

2009-05-21T11:39:00.003-06:00

Good Afternoon One and ALLLL! It is yet another gorgeous day! It did not start out that way... 26 degrees, but the temp is climbing nicely. We are at 60 now. Not bad for May. We have finally been able to start doing some things outdoors YAY! So here are a few photos of what May is doing in Montana. Patsy... How many days left?

We had elk in the yard - again - LOL. These guys are starting to shed their winter coats... so they are a bit nappy.

The fielded area by the wood shed shows where they were in relation to the house.

Below are the peonies. We finally got around to mulching. I will plant peonies all along the front by next spring. Hubby used some sticks from the yard and rope to make the fencing. Feels like home - and holds the bushiness back. I like it LOL.

Our front porch. We will be replacing it with Trex this year... and the current one is destines to become a new ramp for our dock... Always recycling.

And the back porch. We finally got the hummingbird mobile feeder up - This pic has a lot going on - you can see both dogs - the feeder - and that is an elk down in the meadow.

OK, so there is your Spring time Montana tour!

Have an awesome day!!!

hugs!

eila

Psychotic Hummingbirds and Renegade Grizzlies ~ HAPPY SPRING!!!

2009-05-18T06:35:00.005-06:00

Hello... yes it would be me. I have been very remiss in my blogging, and I have no excuse, other than to say I have been side-tracked. Yes Graduation was a week ago. My son loved his new book. Of coarse the DIL now wishes to have one about her life. It is only fair. I told her she would be doing all the scanning and would have to provide info. This should keep relations good. Mothers, sons, and the women they marry ~ it can be a touchy area sometimes. I am happy this dynamic is usually fair and balanced. But I digress.

Below are photos from Graduation. I am so happy it is done, and they get to move on.

Credit goes to Creative Memories Jewel Achievements Package (free) and 1001 Free fonts - see previous blog for link...

OK, so no road trip is ever perfect. LOL! As we were driving to Bozeman for the graduation we got caught in a cattle drive. It is all part of the early Spring thing. It was fairly cloudy and icky driving there, but by the time we got there... the sun came out and it was an amazing weekend. We could not have asked for better! Especially since the forecast called for rain. I was very thankful for how it all turned out.

Sweet Spring may actually be here YAY. We have not had a fire in the wood stove in 3 whole days!!!! We did have snow last Wednesday. But today it is sunny and 75. The trees are finally getting buds... and things are green YAHOO!!!!! Yesterday we did steaks on the grill tonight it will be ribs. I have been really hungry for charbroiled food!!! It is just another sign of Spring.

Two more very distinct signs - grizzlies and the crazed hummingbirds. When we were in Utah, the hummingbirds were so laid back. They shared the feeders with ease. Here they fight - and I mean really crazy aggressive activity. I just want to know WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?!

I just received notice a week or so again that we had a grizzly kill some sheep a couple miles from here. NICE! A couple miles is not much in the span of griz travel. So Bear Spray it is LOL.

I am so sorry I have been such a dolt. I think the last hold out of winter sapped my creative flow - OK - so did facebook. I will try to get back on track... Been missing all my blog buddies - except you CROPS - now get back to work... LMBO!!!! And for the record - the reason I do not miss Crops is that she has been sucked into the same facebook (games) vortex as I. But we are back to work GF Yes?

Have a wonderful day all. Have windows to do today - but after that, will try to catch up on all the reading I have missed. And I will try to never get so far behind again. You will be hearing from me soon at your places.

Cheers!

*
eila

The last of the "Book" Layouts

2009-04-29T09:50:00.009-06:00

I am finally going to finish posting some layouts from the book. I was just going through the book thread, and it kinda blows me away that I did about 90 layouts in approximately 2 weeks. That is just plain NUTS!!!!! I will NEVER do that again LOL. I am getting ready to start 2 more books (Hubby's old family photos) I want to make books for each of his siblings for Christmas. That should give me enough time to put it together. (and find a good deal on printing). I also want to put another one together for our other son and his family. The kids are growing so fast, and I have a bazillion photos... that should be a fun project.

And here are the final layouts I will post from this last endeavor...

I have really enjoyed looking back. There were so many memories that made me laugh and made me cry... It has been a wonderful journey so far, and I am so looking forward to see where it takes us from here. Gotta LOVE the pink hat!!! Let this be a lesson to all children... pictures WILL show up that are related to the past.... This was our first trip out to the US... the left page is from central Pennsylvania. If you are anywhere near Scranton, PA, put Ricketts Glen on your list of places you simply must go!!! Nice camping - and BEAUTIFUL waterfalls. We have played there many times.

ALL But One layout - and I will specify that when I get there... are made using Creative Memories Packages and 1001 fonts.

More must go places!!! Montana - I will vouch for her beauty. New Zealand is also on the top of the list. It reminded me of Montana with shoreline. I would love to live there -with one exception. I love all the wildlife we have, and theirs is fairly limited. I do, however remember playing on a beach in the Catlins (Cannibal Bay) with a bunch of seals and sea lions. We were married there - perfect setting I might add.

This next layout is my oldest brother. He was great at Baseball, but was taken from us far too early. He was killed in a car accident when he was 15. The precious memories remain even after all these years.

oops - Angel Wordart is by Inspired Mommie Designs

This is my Youngest brother. He is a year younger than I am. He is an amazing human being. We are so lucky to have him in our lives. I just love some of the photos of him!

Credit goes to Beth Turner - The kit is called Let Freedom Ring. here is her soon to be "old" site and here is her new site. She has a good bit of patriotic stuff.

Last - but certainly not least... Arizona. It was not my favorite place to live... but man 'o man, the sunsets were incredible! The other photos are from prom and a road trip he took to LA with friends. The foot prints are Jack Nicholson's

I was going to wait to post this since I JUST posted yesterday... but I have some really exciting news... so I just could not wait...

THEY'RE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY'RE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY'RE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DOING THE HAPPY DANCE ALL AROUND THE OFFICE - I HAVE LOOKED AT THEM AND THEY ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS WORTH IT!!!!

...on that note I will sign off and say see ya ~ until next time!!!!

ciao for naio,

eila

A Couple Layouts - and A Couple of Gifts

2009-04-28T12:36:00.009-06:00

Whew - I have actually been a bit on the busy side here of late. I decided to do some spring cleaning out in our guest cabin. It doubles as storage (one room). I decided it is time to get rid of some of the things we have not even looked at in 3 years. Makes sense to me. I have had to have a fire going in the wood stove because winter has returned - and I am not so sure it will ever leave!!!! It is not even 40 degrees yet today, and it may not even get there. OK, so I will quit whining. I keep saying two words over and over in my head ("Snow Pack"). But it really is almost May, and Eila needs MORE vitamin D!!!! OK OK, I guess I just wasn't quite finished whining.

Moving on. MY BOOK IS ON THE WAY!!!! WOO HOO!!! I should have it in my hot little hands by the end of the week. I am so excited to see the fruits of my labor. I am posting just a couple more layouts because they are done using kits from some of the designers I so greatly admire, and I wish to give them credit... and a huge THANK YOU!!!!

This first set was done using a number of designs:

LEFT PAGE ~ Creative Memories (background)

Squiggly elements, bluebird, and giraffe ~ my buddy Crops - Crops2Dawn - pop over to see her, and tell her Thanks for all she does!!! She RAWKS!

Wordart by hilleke at Scrap Depot

Font ~ 1001 Free Fonts

RIGHT PAGE ~Creative Memories for the border text - the beach alpha and background is from Vicki A Work In Progress - from her Beach Holiday kit that was featured in Scrap N Art last July (I believe). She has a fairly new store... ~ Scrap That Idea ~ You can buy "her store" (the kits she currently has for a mere $30.00 - so go check it out (the offer is expiring fairly soon!!!) I have shopped there, and cannot wait to play with some of my new stuff... Was my boy just too cute or what - hence the wordart I chose to use LOL!

This one is from a kit from Mrs Miles' HEART STRINGS MINI KIT. She does some of the most beautiful work. This matches a page I had previously done - it is the opposite page in the book - you would have to go back a few posts for the other side. Thank you so much Mrs Miles. This is on of my fav all time kits. I guess because of the passion Boy and I both have for music. So pop over to her place an say "hi".

The next one was made using Barbara ~ Just Passing Through's Colorful Grunge Kit. She is a great designer, and works very hard for us - so if you snag any of her work, be sure to say a heartfelt thank you!!!

Oh GOSH!!!! I almost forgot (not really). I just happened to make a couple QPs using that very kit.

I tried to take into account those with slower downloads... so I broke it into two parts. Enjoy!

Oh yeah, and if it is not too terribly much of a bother, would you mind leaving a quick thank you if you do download. You of coarse are not obligated to do so, but it is just good manners, and I appreciate the feed back.

You can pick up the first one here

and the second one here

I really must sign out... I have a care package to put out for a friend who is going through a bit of a rough patch... Hoping to send a smile.

Ciao everyone!!! Hope it is sunny where you are cuz it sure isn't in Montana!!!

*
eila

Sunshine ~ Snow ~ and 100 YEARS!!!

2009-04-24T08:55:00.003-06:00

On Wednesday, I decided to go south to visit a friend. It was a beautiful day for a drive (120 round trip). I had the cruise control set, the sun roof open, and the tunes cranked. It was a great day to shed the cobwebs from winter. As I was heading home, I just had to stop and take a photo of what my drive was like... Blue sky and snow capped peaks... (and 70 degrees F) I love the Rocky Mountains - call me John Denver!

Yesterday was not so nice - some clouds and colder... (40s). Hubby went to town, so I used the opportunity to do some spring cleaning. My dust bunnies had moved in with their grand children... it was time, and I feel good that it is done!

Today - well... pictures speak louder than words!

I am off shortly to go help some of the local ladies set up the community center for a very special event. One of our long time residents (and our neighbor) is turning 100 years old. What a wonderful man he is too. The image below is the front of the invitation that was created (by me) for the event. In the photos used, he was 97. It was our first summer here, and he would come over on his tractor for visits. Oh, the stories a man who has lived a century has to tell. We, fortunately have a road that passes through our property to his, so he never had to go on the highway. Anyway I just wanted to say:

Happy Birthday Al Wise

I would also like to send my prayers to anyone in South Carolina who had been affected by that terrible fire.

and on that note... I must now go get some things done.

Be well, and have a great day.

eila

Critters

2009-04-21T10:42:00.004-06:00

Today, I thought I would share a little of Montana. The other day we had more visitors... 4 turkeys were passing through. I often see them by the highway, and have had as many as 2 pass through at a time, so 4 was kind of fun. As you can see we are still waiting for things to green up... but at least the snow has melted. YAY!!! We have not had to have a fire in the wood stove for 5 days now. Sure sign of spring, if you ask me!!!

While I was engrossed in the book, I did not have time to post this next photo, but found it amusing. The boys (Max - red collar & Morgan - blue collar) were quite interested in the elk in the meadow. Those two can sit there for hours and watch for whatever company might pass through.

Max has been with us a little over a year, and I have to admit he is such a giant goofball!!! I thought Morgan had that market covered... but Max OWNS it!!! In the evening, before their dinner ("promptly at 6 PM if you do not mind") Hubby takes them out for a romp on the property. While they are away, I usually set up their bowls on the counter. You see, if I had them both in their location on the floor, it would be pandemonium while they figure out who gets which. I have to have absolute order, or it is absolute chaos. These guys take their meals VERY seriously! As soon as Hubby starts for home, Max always runs up ahead, and is always the first one back. He sits on the porch and peers in the window... his way to let me know they have returned.

I usually do see him... but sometimes I ignore him because I cannot let him in until I have 2 dogs to feed, and Morgan is a little slower getting back (old guy). After he has waited what he considers long enough... he will make an effort to grab my attention. I actually waited for both of these photos (above & below) because I KNEW they would come. Our pets are soooo predictable!

We have established, in our household, who the alpha is - it would be me! The boys are required to sit until I tell them they can go get their food. Otherwise, I would be in a tangle of dogs while trying to feed them. Morgan is looking toward the counter, because, that is where the food is. All he really wants is for me to take the photo, and get the bowls where they are supposed to be. On a side note - Morgan has to be in front - he is sooo afraid Max will get his food. No trust!

To give you an idea of just how silly they are - Max, just his morning - went around to the front of the house when I let them out to attend to their morning "business". I was on the back deck - but can see through the house. There were deer all over the front yard. Out goes Max, and I am watching him... he starts to work his way toward the trees. The deer are as well. Now keep in mind, he has done NOTHING wrong so far. I headed through the house to rein him in before he gets into trouble. When I get there, he is about 25 feet, at the most, away from a doe. They are both just kind of staring at each other. No drama yet. I call him... and he comes immediately, tail between the legs. Keep in mind he has done nothing wrong. He did not chase them... he was calm, they were calm... but he comes in and proceeds to "slink" to his bed. It just cracked me up. I guess he KNEW he had been engaging in "impure" thoughts, so he felt guilty. I do not care what Caesar Milan (the dog whisperer) says. They are smarter and have much more of a clue than he thinks. I had to give him a little extra attention to get him to know he was not in trouble. Now if we could get our kids to be so well behaved LOL.

OK, I am done rambling. I will post a few layouts next time, I just wasn't up for all the linking today.

Have a wonderful one. The sun is shining and I am off to play somewhere besides the computer.

Hugs!

eila

2009-04-19T08:22:00.008-06:00

Words simply cannot express the relief I feel after finishing this project. Holy Cow!!!! (I guess those would be a start). I woke up Friday at 5 AM with so many ideas racing thru my little 'over worked' brain. So I got up - poured some coffee, and got to work... The last "heritage" page was the O'Sullivans. I had some history that went back to Ireland, and the potato famine. So I made it a little more green. I used Crops2Dawn overlay of shamrocks for the first page - from her kit Bring on the Leprechauns... I just softened it somewhat. I like the feel of it. I used Creative Memories - Shabby Cottage Package for the overall layout.

*on a side note* I have linked the Creative Memories to my sister's page in CM. I think if anyone knows someone who would like to make memory books, but doesn't want to work too hard learning Photoshop, it is a great program to own. There is a free version, but it is so limiting. You can not add your own papers, and cannot save your papers. With the paid version, you can do both. I was able to use kits from my favorite designers and save my work. The thing is that with the free one, you have to order your book from them. With the paid version, you can print your own, or as I did, use a different book program to purchase it. I got 4 - 120 page books (11x11) for 55.00 each including shipping. With CM, a 20 page 8x8 is 60.00 - In these tough economic times, you gotta do the math. I love the program, but can't justify the expense of the books. As far as the program, it comes with very basic packages, but there are SEVERAL you can download free. It is like having SEVERAL Quick pages, but you can rearrange the elements. Trust me, I know... LOL! Just something to keep in mind if you are looking for the perfect gift. Check out my sis... thanks... OK, I am done advertising... now onto the rest of the reveal.

The O'Sullivans

Check out the younger Daniel in the lower right corner of the left side page... does he look a little like this guy? Or should I say... does this guy look a little like him?

One thing that was interesting through this process was the strength of the similarities in my families visual features. (strong gene pool)

OK, NEXT....

These are a series of group shots of us - I was #6 out of 7...

I used Crops2Dawn - You're a Star kit for the paper and Autumn Moments for the half torn edge overlay... YOU RAWK CROPPIE!!!! You will be seeing more of her stuff in posts to come. Go check her out! She is a great read, and pretty darned talented too... The wordart... Elegant Wordart (Bethany) for the family. The brothers and sisters had no TOU and is not named with the designers tag, so your guess is as good as mine... (I just spent an hour searching the web... and digi free, and I even know what date I downloaded it... so kudos to the designer, and sorry I cannot link to you) and the text is "girls are weird" from 1001 free fonts.

My brother was killed in an auto accident when he was 15. that is why the later shots have one less. In the black and white, my youngest brother was not here just yet. We are 7 children with an age range of 8 1/2 years from oldest to youngest. Can anyone say Catholic?

Each of my brothers and sisters got a side by side layout... The oldest is all about animals. She works for Best Friend's Animal Sanctuary in Utah. I made the cat plaque a long time ago for her to put on a memorial spot on the animals place in Angel's Rest at the sanctuary... I used Mel Haines Raining Cats and Dogs (a collab she did a while back with Vicki Parker) - they have a somewhat new store out there - Scrap That Idea - you should check it out... and a little piece from Cats and Daisies.

This is another of my sisters - this is all Barbara at Just Passing Through. (Grand Canyon - Old Barn) I just love her kits, and she is a really fine person as well... Stop in and say hello, and it should go without saying, but you really need to say thank you to any and ALL designers whenever you download a kit.

THIS IS MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE!!!! (below). I think that in light of the fact that it was one of the very last pages I did after several days of "psycho scrapping" - I NAILED it! This is from two more kits from Barbara - see above...this is from Cork Meets Plaid and Wood Meets Denim. I have all these silly things that I have saved in a file most of his life... so what better way to display them than a bulletin board. (and I am aware I spelled Bulletin wrong - DANG - I should use spell check ALWAYS!!!!

Of Coarse, I had to do some pages for me - I am "The Mom" after all... these are all Creative Memories Packages - Soft Baby Girl, and the text is all from 1001 Free Fonts.

I used Barbara's (Just Passing Through) for this one as well... It is the Wood Meets Denim and it matches a page I did WAYYYY back when...

The last layout for today is "All Me" With a little help from 1001 Free Fonts. We have gone to Washington DC on MANY occasions throughout our time in Pennsylvania. I used a blended photo of the White House for the background. Man oh man, we had so many great times there.

I drove a bright orange VW Super Beetle for about 7 years. LOVED that car. His Name was "Syd" It is one of those cultural oddities... when you own an older bug - it is supposed to have a name. I had an 8-Ball on the gear shift - and a rainbow in the back window. That way I was always behind the 8-Ball with a Rainbow over my shoulder - kind of a "cosmic balance thing". OK, cut me some slack - it was mostly in my 20's. I was a bit of a "free spirit". So you might be wondering what the heck I am ranting about this for. In the pic below, you will see a photo my son took once, as a surprise to me. We were in DC for yet another July 4th celebration. (If you live close - crops... I am talking to you - and maybe Melanie too?) You have to do a July 4th there. It is the coolest thing ever, and I do not like crowds... OK back to the photo... he had gone to the Museum of American History with one of the people we were there with. He had the camera... and he saw what he called a "Syd-a-Saurus". The boy just cracks me up!!!! If you bring up the photo by clicking on it, you can see the literal sea of people in the photos. One year we even watched the fireworks while standing in the reflecting pool... probably would not do that again (again own it to youth... LOL)

OK, so I am done for today. I will post more of the layouts over the next week or so. Thanks to those that encouraged me and believed I could do this. There were moments when I thought it might be 110... but as it turned out - it was the exact right number. Now I am off to say hello to y'all. I have been remiss in visiting. I have a lot of reading and hellos to catch up on. So until the next time...

BE WELL and God Bless,

eila

Short and Sweet

2009-04-17T20:17:00.002-06:00

I FINISHED!!!!!!! With 2 hours to spare. I am going to have a bit of dinner, and call it a day - WOO HOO!!!

nite nite,

eila

PSYCHO SCRAPPER!!!!!

2009-04-13T08:24:00.016-06:00

I am not totally sure, but I think "Moe & Joe" might just have relocated to the Swan Valley in Montana!!! Following are 29 of the 60+ layouts I have done since my last post. My deadline is coming up... and here, I get an email from Inkubook, offering me 28% off my book order if I can get it in by Friday the 17th. I am ordering 3 copies of a 120 page book (Boys - plus - one for me and one for my mom)... so 28% figures out to @ 60 Bucks... So I have been jamming. I dream scrap layouts these days!!!! It is a good thing I sorted all my photos. It has been quite useful as I come up with ideas. I scanned @ 1000 photos about a month ago... yet I am still thinking of photos I want to use that I have not scanned. At least I know EXACTLY where to find them. YAY!!! My desk an immediate office area are pretty scary - negative sheets, CD notebooks, and photo boxes...

And in the middle of it all, I tweaked my back. I was making the bed on Friday and I felt that little tingle you get just before it causes you to walk like you are 100 years old. I actually think it might be a pinched nerve. I am sitting OK - which means I can scrap - but getting up and walking around is a bit of a challenge. it is getting better everyday.

OK, so I have to get back to Photoshop and Creative Memories... so here are the Pages. Keep in mind that I am doing them in twos... and as always, it is a work in progress... Aren't we all?!

First off - the wedding. Who gets married in Montana in January?! Three words for their wedding day (THIRTY DEGREES BELOW!!!!!) - yep, and then they went off to Victoria BC for the honeymoon - had to get off the plane in Seattle and drive the rest of the way because of a snow storm... LOL. They never take the easy way!!! This is a sample of the 14 pages I did... of just the wedding.

CREDITS:

first image only - wordart - elegant wordart

everything else is Creative Memories Cherish Package

fonts - 1001 free fonts

For his 16th Birthday we went to San Francisco - I had a BOGO airfare from Phoenix, (which is where we lived) and a friend to stay with - so it was affordable... By some fluke, my sister was there the same days on business (from Pennsylvania)... so it was a major bonus. What a great memory. We went to Carmel and Monterey to see my niece and her mom...

Th background blends are single photos that will go across both pages - same with the street-shot of San Francisco -

Fonts - 1001 Free Fonts (also one Creative Memories element)

Iowa - what can I say - we were there, and I actually made some of the best lifelong friends. There are 3 friends from there that are still my bestest good friends (25 years later). You know the ones - You talk to them and email them on a regular basis. (one even lives here in Montana...) another in Seattle - I see a visit to her in my future, since that is where Boy and Girl are moving...

background - Amy Sumrall Designs - MAN I Love that particular paper - I have used it before, and will surely use it again!!! The guilded leaves were a gift from Mrs Miles, I don't even know where you can get them, or if you can - but I LOVE them... and use them alot as well!!!

all me and 1001 free fonts (I love the Dear Teacher font for pages like this - I used it one other time...

Boy's day of Deployment - the background is a Main Street photo I had...I like it... again 1001 free fonts... linked above (these links are slowing me down... LOL)

I am using some full page images for a little balance - only a few - but when used, they apply...

The teacher... no idea whose wordart - no TOU with it...so if it is yours... I salute you, it is PERFECT!!!!! Same fonts... the kit belongs to Lilybelle Scraps

I made this layout using - HEART STRINGS MINI KIT - If you have not been over to Mrs. Miles' Place, stop by and say hello - it is always a good read. Wordart belongs to Bethany at Elegant Wordart

He was 5 when he made this - silly things we save!

Grunge frame courtesy - Numb Bum Wordart ~ Vanessa Fellow (whose blog is no longer with

us.

The next two are the covers Front first - then back - I used a quote from Richard Bach's ~ There's No Such Place As Far Away... a favorite (short) book of mine. The photos are mine - and the font is from 1001 fonts. I used these as covers so that it is something they will want to have on the coffee table (artistic - yet beautiful). I had t do that border so the gulls wings would be all on the front - after going around the book - All these things to consider LOL!!!

My Father was Uncle Sam in a parade a few years ago in Pennsylvania - so I decided to make a page honoring that. He was a retired Marine Lt Col, and loved this country deeply. Semper Fi Dad, we miss you.

The kit is by Beth Turner - called Let Freedom Ring here is her soon to be "old" site and here is her new site. She has a good bit of patriotic stuff.

This is the opposite page - I used Creative Memories Soft Baby Boy package for this.

A "ME" page using Creative Memories Jewel Achievement Package and Movie Font from 1001 Fonts... links above.

These layouts are my sis and her kids - using Barbara (Just Passing Through) Michele's Sunflower Kit. She does some awesome creating - pop on over and say Hi... Tell her Eila sent you...

Who doesn't Love Disneyland? Boy and Girl (that is what I call them) love Disney - they own every movie, and watch them regularly - She is from that part of California, so they get to go when ever they go see her folks. The first two are all me - my photos etc - except the font - which is waltograph from 1001 fonts.com... The fireworks one is a combo of a bunch of photos we took when we went in 2003. The other is from a play. Everyone should go to Disneyland at least once in life...

The one below is a combination of alot of stuff - I took the pic of the mouse flower garden - but I will have you know there were people in the pic - construction stuff... utterly took we weeks (in school) t clean this up... glad I found a use for it.

font - 1001 fonts.com

outer frame - saramarie creative team

inner frame - Lindsay Jane Designs

Wordart by - elegant wordart

I cannot believe I finally finished this post!!!! It took almost as long as making the pages... LOL... so now if you wonder why you have not heard from me for awhile, this covers the rest of April... I will be by to see everyone soon. I have been glancing at who is posting, but really have to stay focused. I have 4 days left to finish - (tomorrow is Dr appontments, and in town all day.)

Have a wondrous day!!!

eila

Out of the Past ~ Into More Recent

2009-04-07T08:48:00.013-06:00

The sun is shining, and I am feeling quite inspired. Yesterday was quite a day for me. I have been getting all the ancestor pages together, not realizing just how much work they would be. It is not a sense of indifference, quite the opposite. These are our roots... but I do not have the story embedded in my heart. As connected to the past as I am, they are not MY memories. (on a side note - I did not do most of the journaling - the pages that have a great deal of old typed text were taken from printed materials from family books done by others. One of the nifty benefits of Photoshop is that I was able to take the "white" out of the documents and drag them into the layouts. - an example of what I mean by "somebody else's story".)

So, yesterday, I decided to get into more of MY memories, or should I say OUR memories. I thought about making pages of more recent times... his wedding, his trip to Disney Land, times at Seeley Lake etc. I spent some time cleaning up photos in PS and started to play. I had no idea of the power of some of these images. I had put my headphones on (listening to my blog play list) - much like at this very moment. Toward the end of my photo editing, I started to come across photos of Boy's return home - airport photos.... THAT is when the waterworks started (much like this moment as I type this). It amazes me how a single photo can take you to a specific place ~ a moment in time, and you can feel every single emotion you had when it was "live". Powerful stuff!!!!

When the word of deployment came, there was so much insanity in Iraq (Nick Berg had just lost his life). I was terrified, but I also knew that I had no choice in the matter. He is a proud soldier, and had committed to serve his country with honor. Whether we believe in this mission or not, it is the soldiers we must always support. (and their families)

I remember the day we were at the National Guard Armory saying good bye. I remember the children crying as the roll call took their daddies to buses to go catch a plane for six months of training. I remember hugging my son, and then his wife and me, crying in each other's arms after he was gone. I had promised myself not to worry until he was actually boots on sand. I had 6 months to try to prepare myself. I had to have faith that it would all be OK. It was truly in God's hands.

He was able to come home for two weeks between training, and going to Iraq. This will tell you what kind of boy (Man) he is... He was supposed to get in on my birthday. I knew it would be late, and that he would want to be with his wife. (Moms have to step aside for wives sometimes, and this was one of those times). His wife wanted to take me out to lunch for my birthday. I met her at Applebee's, and guess who was at the table. The brat had snuck into town the day before, and wanted to surprise me. Yes, these are the moments that tell you you have raised a compassionate human being... and yes there were tears. Tears of joy. He has provided so many of those.

He was able to come home on leave after 6 months. We were not told ahead of time. He would just get the order, and fly home for 2 weeks. I had gone to Miles City with a friend, Patsy. We had stopped in Billings to see a friend, and put her on a plane. That is when the call came that he would be home in about 3 to 4 hours. That gave me just enough time to get back to Bozeman to meet his plane - and yes, I was right on time - just barely!!! (Cruise control and 75 mph) LOL!!! We will miss NO homecoming by golly!!! We had such a nice time, and I was feeling less stressed. I hated that he had to go back, but I knew it was almost over.

Last, but certainly not least, I remember when I was at work one day when the cell phone rang. It was him. "Mom, I am in Kuwait, and I am stepping on a plane and coming home". More tears of joy, and a HUGE sigh of relief. We went to Helena about a week later (they had to stop in Tacoma for debriefing). There were hundreds of people at the airport hanger - there to welcome their men and women home. The army had chartered a American Airlines plane, as there were alot of soldiers coming home that day. We watched the plane come out of the west - then it kept going back toward the mountains, then... it turned and came back - low... the pilot did a "FLY BY". It was incredible. (of coarse it might not have been so good for the guys, as there were some pretty fancy curves... Boy said there were a few "green" guys surrounding him. I was close enough to the plane after landing to get a photo of him stepping off the plane. THAT is a total keepsake. They had t go across town to get "released from duty". They closed the roads in town - police escorts etc. All the families went in the procession. The thing that will always stick with me were the crowds of people (thousands) that lined the entire route - saluting.

A day embedded in my heart forever.

And here are 2 layouts from it. There will be more, but these are my faves.

I used the Shabby Princess Heritage kit for the layout - Wordart courtesy of Bethany at Elegant Wordart. The double frame is also from Shabby Princess - Promises kit.

The layout below is somewhat my own... with 2 borrowed elements - the wordart is again Bethany's and the frame is from Lesley at Digkeepsakes (I LOVE HER WORK - go check her out!!!). The photo was taken by me. they wanted a portrait of sorts. I do better with candids, so I told them to go play over by the water (we were at a local lake). I had my 300 mm lens... and this was the "money shot" so to speak. As we were leaving that day - we saw a double rainbow. I turned the actual photo into a watercolor - and there you have it.

Sorry the post was so long - I had a story to tell. Hope you don't mind .

Have a great day!

eila

More Layouts

2009-04-05T16:40:00.005-06:00

I have been buried, and this is going to be short. I have been hard at it with the ancestor part of the book. This is the hardest part... but seemingly the most rewarding. I have all kinds of printed materials and have been adding those things to the layouts. But my brain hurts so I am going to leave it at that.

The first layout was done using a collab kit from Vicki and Stacy called A touch of Romance. You can get Vicki's part here, and Stacey's here.

The rest were done with Creative Memories Story Book Creator elements and papers - then tweaked in Photoshop. I used the typewriter font in Photoshop. Man I have bounced around in between various programs, and am feeling like a ping pong ball. LOL. I did side by side images to show what the pages will look like in the book. I will be happy when I can do the simple stuff... Yeah, like that is going to happen. Time is running out, so I better get back at it.

(By some miracle, you can click on the images, and view them larger - I never can get that to work... buttoday since I didn't think I could... it is working! Go figure!!!)

And on that note, I will say "see ya!"

Ciao,

Eila

Getting a Handle on the Past

2009-03-27T14:51:00.007-06:00

I have actually been a busy girl. I have been working on a book for my son - that I hope to have by graduation... I am building it in Creative Memories (Story Book Creator). It gives me a chance to layout the pages in the order I choose... and rearrange as I choose. It is somewhat user friendly. I bought the software because I can save the pages as jpegs that way, and have printed however I choose. I can also bring in other embellishments, as well as save some of theirs to use with different page templates. They have a million different book page packages, and you can select from premade pages... which I do, then tweak them to fit my mood LOL.

My plan is to make a book about his family Generational info and photos where they exist... in a photo album type of layout... I have posted the great grand parents - I still have to make a page involving great great - and a couple great great great that I have. That is for another day. I am making the pages as they come to mind - then I will rearrange them as need be. Here are 4 of the most recent pages... I have a few more to do of my father ... This could end up being a pretty big undertaking, but I want it to be something he treasures, and passes on to his children. It has to be powerful - and artistic. For the purpose of the post, I have blurred the names and details of birth dates.... it is the Internet after all.

All were done using the Story Book packages except one which is below - with proper credit for the embellishments I used.

Credit on the stitched frames goes to Miss Vicki in Texas from her March Color Kit You can pick it up here - she has several posts related to it, and it is a very cool kit - Be sure to leave some love if you pick it up.

I was on a bit of a roll yesterday - and decided to go for a lunch with hubby. When we got home, a nap sounded much better than working on the computer. After I awoke refreshed, I decided to hunt out some negatives I have had in my mind to scan. Thankfully my negatives have always been in better order than my photos. Here are a few Yellowstone images, scanned from B&W film. They are from 2001 - 2003. The coyote has a tracking collar. Actually, a good number of animals in Montana have tracking collars, so that FWP can get a handle on travel... especially the Grizzly Bear.

Here you go - I played with the coyote one - 3 photos of the same coyote.

A Bull Elk in Mammoth Hot Springs (with is harum) Yellowstone National Park

Bison in the middle of the road is nothing unusual. This is the Lamar Valley - Yellowstone

This is the route we would take to go to town for supplies. Put Yellowstone on your list of places to go if you have not already!

Originally, that was all I really had to say. But.... I went to the kitchen after I had started this. When I looked out the window, I saw 3 elk in the meadow out back... then another one came out of the woods, and another, and another, and before you know it, there were 13. I had to take some photos... so here you go - and this time, Mrs Miles, it is LITERALLY my back yard. LOL.

Yes, there is still snow - and more on the way for Saturday - YIPPEE SKIPPEE!!!! Guess it could be worse, I could be dealing with a melt that is too quick, or tornadoes. My prayers go out to folks in Mississippi, and North Dakota.

Have a great weekend!

Eila

Snow on the Ground ~ Elk in the Yard

2009-03-25T10:17:00.007-06:00

Yep, it is another stellar day in Montana! I will warn you, these are not the greatest photos - it was barely light out... and I had not, I repeat HAD NOT had any coffee. But.... here they are just the same. LOL.

Max and Morgan ALWAYS get excited when they see the elk in the yard

I must admit ~ we do too...

This lovely lady spent some time trying to get to the moss higher up

...and got a snowy face for her trouble

They are fairly skittish, so they do not hang around long. The dogs create quite a ruckus. Morgan has a moan that sounds very much like the moo of a cow... and Max has this high pitch whine that sounds a bit like a squealing pig... so when they get excitable - it is a regular barn yard. They run from window to window to get a better look. It is really quite comical.

After the excitement was "over" - or so I thought... I got a cup of badly needed coffee, we took the dogs out back to do their business. The next thing we know, Max is slinking around the side of the house. I look through the house (We can see thru from back to front) - and there goes Max on a dead run to where the elk have gone. I got through the house and whistled - which always gets him to put the brakes on. Today was no exception. Puppy KNEW he was in big trouble. He doesn't even have to be told, in situations like this. He went straight to his bed - tail between his legs... He is a hoot. He has never chased the elk before. He has the deer, and now does know better. I guess he thought he would give it a try - test the boundaries. He now understands after 10 minutes on the "naughty bed" LOL.

Speaking of Max - Have you ever seen what happens when you cross a dog with a frog... you get a DROG. This is how Max lays in front of the fire. Actually it is his most common sprawl. He is quite limber. He even sits up that way, as in raising his upper body - with his legs still behind him. I am working on getting a photo of that, but just like a little kid - it is hard to get him to sit still when the camera comes out.

On a separate note, I have one of those, DID YOU KNOW things to share.

Keyboard Shortcuts:

Awhile back, I was trying to help a friend learn Photoshop. I was searching around at some different tutorials, when I came across a guy who was talking about keyboard shortcuts. I had always blow them off... I used ctrl+z to go back and ctrl+d to deselect, but didn't bother much beyond that. As I watched this video, I realized just how much help it is to the work flow. For example: ctrl+J will either make a duplicate layer, OR do layer via copy (if you just want to do a layer of a selection.) Crazy stuff like that. They are fun to play with and even helpful once you get into the habit of using some of them, as they do apply in other areas of computing. But I won't go into that, because my MAIN point in all of this are the TOOL PALETTE SHORTCUTS... those are the ones that I slapped myself on the forehead for... ("I never knew that!!" WOW MOMENT!!!) OK, so this may not be very exciting to anyone but me... but on the off chance that this is new info to anyone, I am putting it out there.

When Working on an image, there are SINGLE letter (no ctrl+ necessary) keys that will change the tool you are using. For example, if you are moving along, and want to zoom into a spot you press the Z key - and you are now using the zoom tool - want to zero in on a specific spot and need the hand tool to move it around - H and you are now using the hand... Now you are ready to do a little healing? No, can't use the H, it is the hand... LOL - for whatever reason - the healing tool is J. The photo below shows what they are, and is linked to the tutorial that has this. There are several other tutorials as well. Hope this is useful to someone - if so... my job here is done :o). It was a total WOW moment for me. It only took a little getting used to, (making it a habit) since it made so much sense, and made things so easy. You can right click the tools, or run your curser over them to see what the assigned letter shortcut is (FYI).

***OH NO... I almost forgot another really useful one that I use ALL the time - ctrl+0 (the number) is to fit the image to te screen.... (sorry added this later...)

I wasn't so talkative in my last post... guess I found a voice today...

Going to go play a little...

May your day be sunny and bright!!!!

eila

Springing Into Spring... I hope...

2009-03-23T15:18:00.008-06:00

Good Afternoon...

OK, so I am quit hopeful that Spring may, at least, be on its way to Montana. Man, it was one evil cold shot we got - so unacceptable for March. I am happy to report that "Spring One" (as my oldest GD calls it) brought with it a sunny weekend, and our first robin sighting. Doing the "spring bird dance" around the yard....

I did go to town, and boy did that help to lift the spirits. I guess I have just had cabin fever, and I don't always recognize it until it is too late.

Barbara over at Just Passing Through has recently created a kit called Sherbert. Pop on over to grab it here ~ and remember, it is very bad Karma to not say than you... Well, as luck would have it, I made a couple quick pages with the kit, and they are my gift ~ my way of saying thank you for all the free stuff I have received. I hope to become more proficient, and perhaps more productive... but for now, I hope you enjoy these.

*a side credit* I used the Mickey font from 1001 free fonts. there are some fun ones there.....

Happy Is ~ here

Aim High ~ here

I guess I am not super talkative today, so I will say so long... I hope the sun is shining on you where ever you might be.

ciao,

eila

PS - I know there is a way to get the previews to open by clickingon them - but cannot figure out how - suggestions would be appreciated....

Where Does The Time Go?!

2009-03-16T12:07:00.005-06:00

I am a little surprised that I have not posted since the 5th. I guess I must have gotten busy? Or maybe just a little cabin fever? Dunno... but I am here now. It has been so unbelievably cold here. Sub zeros are tolerable in January - December even - we have come to expect and accept it... almost hope for it in terms of killing those evil little Mountain Pine Beetles. By March, we are pretty over tat... and would appreciate if Mother Nature would be too. OK, so I am finished whining.

Melanie at Creekside Cottage Designs posted a new (a couple weeks) kit called Heritage. You can pick it up here, and please remember your manners - say thanks, although I know my readers are all pretty polite. I made a couple similar, but different layouts using the same basic elements. I am a balance freak in a sense. Since I am making a book for my boy... which I really need to get rocking on... I feel it is good to start somewhere near the beginning. I am trying to get "facing each other" pages to coexist peacefully. These layouts are of my grandparents, his great grandparents. My grand father Johnny passed away when he was only 39. He was truly the love of my Grandma Ronnie's life. She never remarried. She spent most of her adult life taking care of my mom, and then taking care of a Catholic Priest, who had been bedridden from a stroke for 12 years. She was a good woman. She passed away 8 years ago, and I truly miss her. I do know she is back by Johnny's side, so it makes it alright.

The second one is of my father's parents... The oldest grandchild (my uncle's son) could not say grandma and grandpa when he was first starting to talk... he said "Moe and Boppie" and thus that is what they became to ALL the grandchildren. What a simple time that was. With our grandchildren there seems to be so much confusion. Our oldest grand daughter calls hubby Papa, which makes his daughter (hubby's daughter) angry because they had reserved that title for her husband's father. OK, so stay with me here. Her daughter did not come along for another year after he had been deemed Papa. So now he is grandpa to one and Papa to the others... silly, and petty, I know. I just think it gets a little complex. My sis decided she would be G-Ma to her grandson... and it stuck - sort of - she is G G since that was easier for him when he was little... it works though. I guess to me, it is the names that your grandchildren give you that are the ones that matter.

Moe and Boppie were special to me. I was their grand daughter and god daughter. I was the only child out of 26 grand kids that was both. We had a special relationship throughout my childhood. I miss them as well. Boppie left us when I was in the 4th Grade. Moe stayed until 1985... I was so blessed that she was able to meet my son.

So there you have it, the start of the story for Bosco's Book (oh, do not tell him I called him that LOL). It has been a long road, but I have finished scanning all the family photos (@700 in all) plus all of the lost photos- that I found YAY! That was a couple hundred more. The massive photo sort is also complete. OK, I guess I know where I have been. Give me a little credit, I have stopped in to say hello to some of you. I just wasn't feel terribly inspired to post.

So here is a photo of what organized pics look like...

Oh yes, and for the fun of it, this is what 10 days of wood looks like. Hubby built this rack, so we can fill this and then pull wood from the garage to fill the inside wood box - which he also made. I am sure glad he got the table saw! The garage wood rack is so cool because it folds down into itself for easy storage when we aren't using it. It pays to marry an engineer. LOL Personally, I will be happy when we are no longer in need of the wood stove... (SUMMER anyone?!)

I am pleased I was able to pass on info regarding screen shots. I thought I was the only one who had trouble with them. It completely blows my mind how simple it actually is. I had looked it up originally on google - and there found that the screen shots went to the clipboard, which I had to jump through some hoops to find... and when I got Vista, Ihad to hunt for it again. But Vista left it out... OHHH do not get me started on Vista. (or The Company That Bill Built!!!!) Vista + Me = BAD THING!!! I have a wireless mouse and keyboard. It is a Microsoft - so you figure it would jive with Microsoft products. NOT!!! Apparently, my screen saver does not work because of the mouse.. and this just started with Vista. They know about it, and have known for quite some time - but do you think they would make a fix... NOOOO! I have been hunting down what to do. I did finally get my Hibernate to work, but it almost took an act of Congress. You see, as user me - I have Administrator privileges... but am not really the Administrator. The Admin is hiding somewhere in my puter... and I am on a mission to unhide her (me)... every time I go to do anything I have to get permission FROM ME!!!!! Now what kind of craziness is this. It does not help the whole concept of WORK FLOW! ARGGG!!!

Gee aren't you glad I showed up all sunshine and smiles?! Tomorrow I will go to town and hopefully return refreshed. I am thinking I really have to shake this cabin fever. Hawaii is sure sounding good! I have air miles.... hmmmm, do ya think hubby would go for it...

Have a great one... I am out of here!

ciao for naio,

eila

A Visual of My World

2009-03-05T10:38:00.009-07:00

OK, so you can see our yard... and our neighbors who are just below - although we cannot see their place... and they are only there a couple months each year... Yep - that is our "town" Not much here... I put a pic of Missoula in at the same zoom to show just how much of nothing is here...

The Griz Corridor shows the two mountain ranges that the Griz have been tracked passing back and forth between them... yes, we live in the middle of it. LOL.

These Satellite images are a little outdated... they should be mostly WHITE... since it is snowing again today - LOL.

I am feeling somewhat pleased with myself. I am not one to read manuals often... but I finally learned something from a trial and error attempt. I am intrigued with screen shots. They have always seemed a little daunting. My key issue was getting them to a jpeg. I never could figure out the clipboard, or find it for that matter. I knew if I did a ctrl+PrtScn I could take a literal photo of my screen... but where did it go? Then hubby told me I could do the PrtScn thing and open WORD and paste it there. But that still did not give me a "Photo" - and WORD confuses me a little too. I use it, but do not get overly complex with it. (KEEP IT SIMPLE - my motto). SO I had this revelation... What if I paste it in a new Photoshop Image? Hmmm - I wonder if that will work... Guess What!!!!

It even SAYS clipboard in the description. One thing I did was change the resolution to 300... and though it changes from clipboard to "custom" you just click OK - then the blank page shows up - Go to Edit > Paste ... and Yippee Skippee - there is your screen at a somewhat decent resolution... then you can downsize it to whatever res you need for web work. Now, you all probably KNOW this already, but I am feeling awfully pleased with myself for figuring it out. I even checked it in PS CS... and it works.

I just wanted to get this post up... and now I am off to finish my coffee, and my day.

Bear Hugs all around!

eila

ANOTHER LAYOUT

2009-03-04T09:13:00.003-07:00

This is my Grand Canyon layout - I made it using the (appropriately named) Grand Canyon kit from Barbara ~ Just Passing Through. You can pick it up here. She does some pretty amazing work... Please remember to leave her some love. She is a very busy woman, who takes that extra time to give us some pretty lovely kits. Your thank you will mean a lot!

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I am not extra chatty today. It looks to be a beautiful day. They say tomorrow an Arctic cold front will descend upon us... zeros for several days... and snow. Ummm Could you folks in Canada find a way to send that stuff back to Alaska and Russia please... LOL.

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We seem to have had a large critter visit out porch last night... it marked the BBQ about 18 inches up - and is making the dogs bonkers... I hope it is not a coyote, wolf, or mountain lion marking its turf... and stalking our dogs. No, I don't like that idea at all! It has more of a cat smell - if you catch my "drift"... and they scare me the most.

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So that is all the excitement in my world. I think today is a "shut down the computer - make some chili, clean some house..." day. Be well...
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catch ya later
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eila

K.I.S. - Keeping It Simple

2009-03-02T08:44:00.008-07:00

Good Morning Blogger Buddies!

And a loverly morning it is! I heard geese when I was out with the dawgs. Do you know what that means? SWEET SPRING! Yes, we still have a ton of snow on the ground - the same snow that has been here since DECEMBER... but there is HOPE! Of coarse, as we all know, there is always HOPE.

I had quite a weekend. I got my new computer for Christmas... and since setting it up - I have had some conflicts. I am thinking it was from pulling my XP settings over from the old PC. I have been dreading fixing it, but I knew I had to. Actually, more than anything, I have dreaded calling support. Saturday, I bit the bullet and did it. I moved all my pics, and documents to the external hard drive and I took the computer back to the factory settings. Then I got back to the task of reloading all my programs. It was going pretty smoothly, until I tried to load my scanner software. No matter what I did, I just could not get it to recognize the drivers. I tried to go to Epson and get their drivers... still not working. FOUR HOURS, I worked on this. (I did take a break and make some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies w/ Reece's chips thrown in... yum!)

Cookies were the distraction I needed. I restored my system back to the point where I had started trying to get the scanner loaded. I found that when taking Vista back to the beginning, it creates a file called C:Windows.old. That file was 25 gig of useless space. I did a Google search (what did we do before google?) LOL!!! I found a suggestion to do a disc cleanup - which I did... and now my scanner is happy. I still have about 50 photos left to scan (I have done 900 already). I really need my flatbed! There you have it... the saga of my day yesterday. I have avoided electronics for years, but in the last 7 or 8, I find I have grown to LOVE all the tech stuff out there, even though I fry way too many brain cells trying to figure things out ~ Eila don't need to read no stinking manuals! I should, but I learn hands on - even though I should take notes, so I don't have to keep relearning the same thing. WOW, now there is a pretty propound thought.

I believe we have several things to learn in our time here on earth - life lessons. I believe God tosses them at us, and what we choose to gain from them will determine whether he feels the need to toss them back at us again. I was so happy to turn 30 (40 - not so much). But I embraced "thirty". The twenties were my longest period in life. I encountered huge lessons (gifts from God) but did not always pay attention so well. It wasn't until I had the revelation that I had already learned this... and learned to just walkaway from bad situations. Each time I feel a lesson coming on, I pause and ask myself if I have already learned this one or not. If I have, I know what t do... I wish I was as good with the computer! I am working on it though... NOTE TO SELF ~ take better notes.

Over all this week had been a pain "technically". On Monday - a week ago - the DVR crashed! It took about 10 movies and 40 programs with it. We don't watch a ton of TV, but we have the shows we like so while we have the ability to record 2 shows while watching a previous recording - it resolves many conflicts. I don't like commercials. I like being able to pause live TV - and I really need to be able to REWIND, in case I did not understand something that has been said. I love my electronic toys. Well, being as we live in the middle of nowhere, we had to wait until Friday for our new one to get here... I am a happy girl once again - we did hook it up ourselves. Me, patting myself on the back... LOL!

Oh yeah, the reason for the post... I have another quickpage to go with the last one. I think it is nice to have 2 pages side by side in the book - that compliment each other. I made two similar, but different ones. I could not decide which to give you - so I decided to give you both, and let you decide which you like better. I like them both - for different attributes... although one is decidedly my favorite. As I told you in the previous post... these are from Barbara's Wood Meets Denim kit - at Just Passing Through - you can get it here. It is an older kit from back in December. Stop over and see Barbara - she is a lovely person, as I am sure I have said before. Also, she is in the process of sharing her Grand Canyon kit. She does wonderful things with colors. You can get the kit at her place ~ here. And please, remember to say thank you, if you snag any of her kits. A thank you goes a very LONG way! (and it is rude not to).

Try not to be too impressed, but I actually zipped the folder - put in a preview, and a TOU - although I need to work on that... I just want credit to go where it is supposed to - not me silly - to Barbara. She is the designer ~ without whom, these would not exist!

Click on whichever preview you would like to download - that will take you to 4Shared... see, I am trying to keep it fairly simple!!!

On that note, I am out of here!!!!

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Have a fantabulous day!!!!

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eila

What to Do on a Snowy Day

2009-02-26T11:28:00.006-07:00

OK, so DO NOT ~ I repeat DO NOT get used to this. It is the first snowy day in a long time, and a few of the creative juices are flowing. Finding the "lost" photos was the push I need. I have a book to complete by April - in order to make it for my boy upon his college graduation. You designers have been putting out some pretty amazing stuff - and now I am starting to kick it into over drive! ROTFLMSBO!!!!

My first layout is from Vicki's My Blue Valentine. I just love this kit... LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!!!! You can get it here - but I am telling you that you bess say thank you, or I will find you for a good old fashioned hog tying with duct tape - (that is how we do things in Montana!). Yep, I did 2 layouts from this one... and there may be more yet on the horizon. I was not kidding when I said I LOVE it!!!! Man, my baby boy sure was a cutie patooty!!!

The next layout is from a gift from Melanie over at Creekside Cottage Designs. This lady is quite talented. It is her Bring Me a Dream kit, and it can be used so many ways. Few things are a precious as a baby sleeping!!! (or as quiet - man, I just crack myself up some days!!!!) You can pick her kit up here. The same thing applies ~ if you pick it up, remember your manners and say Thank You! Or I will send Miss Vicki from Texas to give you a full on Texas Butt Whooping - and I think that might just be 100 times worse than duct tape... I think you get my point. These designers work very hard, and share with us out of the kindness of their hearts. A simple thank you can go a very long way.

I am off to do a little more playing in Photoshop. Have a great rest of the day, and I promise to do the same!

Hugs!

eila

I've Been Tagged

2009-02-26T07:53:00.004-07:00

Yep - 2 posts, in 2 days... What are ya gonna do. I was tagged by Melanie at Creekside Cottage Designs. I don't know too many people out there, so I figure I better jump on it, since 3 of the people I would tag have already been... Since this s pretty specific, I can't really re-tag them - NO POINT.

Here are the rules:

I have to go to My Pictures, go to the 6th folder and then to the 6th picture in the folder. Now I will have you know, that is not as cut and dried as it would seem. I have organized all the photos in my back room... not so true for my computer. I have photos scattered all over the place. I know ~ BAD EILA! So I did the logical thing. I went to my Pictures folder - which is where they are all supposed to be (in a perfect universe)... I chose the 6th and 6th... so here you go... My dad in 1953 - I think he had just finished boot camp (Marine Corps - Semper Fi)

Now I have to tag6 other people - so here you go...

Barbara ~ Just Passing Through

Whew! That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It is a snowy day ... I need more coffee - and I am off to tag some peoples. Have a great day...

Yeah I know, I still have awards to tend to. As MacArthur said in the Philippines - "I shall return".

Hugs!

eila

A HUGE Surprise

2009-02-25T13:47:00.007-07:00

A good afternoon it is, here in Montana. It's a balmy 40 degrees, and the weather man says there is a fun little snow storm on the way. I can live with it... I know Spring will get here eventually. The cold and snow has given me a chance to sort the photos, scan the photos... and generally reflect on my life and family. I am so blessed.

Several members of the family gave me a huge stash of family photos. They span back to my mother and father's childhoods, as well ours. I finally decided it is time to just get it done! I have scanned over 300 so far, and think I have only about 150 more to do. That does not include the medium format negatives my mom has given me to scan. ARG! But I do it for LOVE... The negs are next on the "hit parade". This is what I SHOULD have been doing today - but it is not.

This is where I am... There are a few people in scrapland that just plain inspire me... on a creative level, spiritual (true) level, and a down to earth level. They are kind, thoughtful, and just - hmmm - looking for the word ~ Oh Yeah - Genuine. I stop by to read their thoughts. Sometimes I treat myself to a gift they have offered... and say a very heartfelt thank you just for being who they are.

I have no excuse - but I have not really given anything back. I don't know if it is being shy - YEAH! NO! or self conscious. Yep that makes more sense. I am talented at that which I care about... but I am nowhere near as talented as so many people I have come across in this little society. I am humbled... I have made a few layouts, and today I decided to take a layout I had made and turn it into a quick page. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!? Yes, I said I have a huge surprise - actually, I should have said SHOCK! I have even uploaded it to 4shared and everything. You see, I really did make an account there way back when. (which I discovered I must sign in at least once in 30 days - oops) It is all good. I have nothing to loose - since I had not put anything in there yet. But I have now. And although I have a lot to learn - it is what it is for now.

I would like to share a little about this QP. It is from Wood Meets Denim by one of my favorite designers Barbara, at Just Passing Through. My guess is you recognized yourself above :o) ~ Before she even released the kit, she made me a birthday card from it. You have no idea how much her thoughtfulness touches me. She is a very strong christian woman - and she is genuine. I respect and appreciate it. She is about to release her latest kit - Grand Canyon. You may want to pop on over and say hello. If you download any of her kits, be absolutely sure you say thank you.

So there you have it. My first gift. I hope you can find a use for it. And do not pass out from shock. Thanks to those who have encouraged me... if only by thoughtful words.

Click the preview to download (I hope LOL!)

Have a great day!

eila

Little Yellowstone Video

2009-02-18T15:55:00.003-07:00

I have a gift to share. While I was in school, I had to create a slide show, using the old fashioned projector, white screen, and music. We had a nifty device that could control the blend etc. I had this idea to use this song about buffalo, by Spanky and Our Gang. Do you remember them? They were kind of like the Mamas and Papas (harmonies and sound). They had a hit with Sunday will Never Be the Same? Well anyway, when I was a teenager, my dad had a greatest hist album, and I loved this one song a real lot. All I remembered was that the lyrics said "Where' My Buffalo?" The search was on to figure out the name of the song, and see if I could buy it on CD. I searched and searched, and finally I did a Google for Spanky. I actually found a website, and an email address. I wrote her, and asked the name of the song, and what CD I might find it on. She wrote back that the song was "National Stardom" and happened to be one of her very favorites. She has a deep love of the buffalo. She said it did not exist on any CD, but had her assistant convert it from an old album (VINAL, can you believe it?!) and they sent it to me... with permission to use in my slide show. In exchange, I sent a couple buffalo prints I had kicking around.

I had the music, now I had to get the images. I took a road trip through Yellowstone, to Cooke City and met several friends along the way. I stayed the night, and returned the next day. The only drawback of film is that you can't check the images right away... so a few were not usable, and a few are soft focused. I have been working to recreate the show, and so here you have it. Hope you enjoy.

I must go away now as the hour grows late, and I have to go make tacos for dinner. YUM! I do want to say thank you to those who stop by to read my rantings, and leave little messages of hello - it really means a great deal to me. I have to hop by your places... Promise I will catch up tomorrow - LOL - I hope!

ciao,

eila

Funny How Things Happen

2009-02-16T10:52:00.004-07:00

Whew! Where to begin? I have almost wrapped up the sorting of my photos. What a long strange trip it has been. There was this terrible "glitch" that was just about sending me over the edge... Have you ever put something VERY important away for safe keeping... and forgotten where you put it? You rack your brain and try to figure out your own logic... but it just does not come to you. So you search and search and search - and go back and search the same places again? That is where I have been since I started the massive organization project.

When my son was 18, he asked me if he could have his photo album. He wanted to show a girl some of his photos from when he was a baby. (It is always a girl that gets these problems going LOL!) So, of coarse, I say NO WAY!!!! I decided the nicest thing I could do is to pick out my very favorite photos which represent his childhood ... tape them to white paper, and have color copies made. I even had the 30 page booklet bound for him and everything. (keep in mind - this is 1998 - and technology has not really taken off yet). So now, it is 2009 and I STILLLL have not put the photos back into the photo albums. No, that would have been the sane thing to do. Instead, I had put them in a folder for safe keeping until I got a "round tuit". You guessed it... I have been hunting for the folder. These are my SERIOUSLY favorite photos... and some of them I do not own the negs to. (taken by family - old boyfriends of sisters, ex-souses of sisters etc...)

While getting everything together, I am sure I have seen them in the past couple months, but I just cannot figure out where. I want to make a scrapped photo book for him for graduation... and I cannot find the best of all the photos. ARGGG!!!!!

Fast forward to yesterday. I thought I would give it one more try, before putting out a call to the boy, requesting the booklet I made, so I can at least try to scan the color copies. Still no luck - and I looked EVERYWHERE again... some places twice - again.... So I left a message for Boy... and decided I had done all I could, and let it go.

Then came an odd phone call. It was from a cousin of my mothers - whom she had not seen since she was a very young child. He was working on a family tree, and had heard that I had unearthed some info a few years back. We chatted for awhile. Aparently he had spoken to my sister. He had in his possesion an old photo of my grand father when he was 2. Only a couple of my blog-buddies have been around since my early posts, so you may remember the photo restoration I did for mom...the one that nearly made me crazy - (oh wait... I already am that... LOL)

Bear with me... this is all going somewhere.

Here is the photo as mom sent it to me - for you new friends - It had stuck to the glass, and broken... and pieces were missing...

then I fixed it the best I could. If you notice, my great grandmother's hand is missing... so I gave her one of mine - which originally had a babies finger wrapped around my finger... so I had to cut off my middle finger and fuse it with one of the others... GOTTA LOVE PHOTOSHOP!!!!!!

The the cousin shows up and emails me the actual photo in its undamaged glory!!! Yeah - where was he 2 years ago? I actually feel pretty good, as my great grandmother has the same hands I me in reality (pretty close anyway... LOL) - except I am pretty sure she did not wear dark nail polish back in the day. See for yourself... here it is.

Ok, now I am on a mission to find the family tree stuff. While tearing through a cupboard in my office (which would be a logical place for me to put these papers... Guess what I found! YEP ~ This is me doing the extremely HAPPY dance around my office. I found the lost photos. And no, I have not seen them in 2 years... because I have not been in that cupboard for two years. Correct that - I have been scanning slides from there this week, but I thought all the notebooks and folders in there contained school stuff. OOPS, I seem to have been wrong.

To give you an idea of how priceless these photos are, I made a layout

A picture may be worth a 1,000 words, but TWO pictures can tell the whole story!!!! That is my mom, while she was still getting used to her two grand children. She is an old hand at it now... Those two, my son and niece went from sweet little angels... to three year olds in a span of a couple hours. How lucky we were to have someone tell the story. One page made for the book - only about 40 more to go. (credits: Papers - Melanie - Creekside Cottage Designs - From her Grandma's Parlour Kit Stitching Frames are from Digital Fingers - and the butterflies and paper overlay is from crops2dawn. They are all very talented designers... so check them out.

One last piece of business: I got an award... WOO HOO! Thank you Miss Croppie. I am hoping you don't mind if I slack a little and maybe pass it out in my next post. This one has taken my ALL DAY - sorry it was so long...

I must now get on with my day... I have photos to scan and pages to create. Thank heavens I have until mid April to get 'er done!

Ciao for Naio ~

eila

Happy Birthday Melanie!!!!

2009-02-13T11:24:00.003-07:00

Just wanted to pop in "on the fly" to wish a very Happy Birthday to Melanie (over at Creekside Cottage Designs). She is talented and I enjoy reading her blog. Hop on over and wish her the best of days!!! I made her a card, with a little help from some of my friends... and want to point out that I have decided on a new month. In honor of the fact that she does not care for February - we will, from now on, have a combo of Jan and March (or Jarch) ...just for you sweetie.

OOPS!!!! Almost forgot - Melanies gets credit for this kit - it is from her DSO December color challenge... LOVE the colors!!!!

Have a super~fantastic day!!!!

Hugs!

eila

Why I Did This Crazy Photo Sort

2009-02-11T10:44:00.007-07:00

I now really understand just what a good thing I have done to sort my "bazillions" of pictures. Now if I have an idea that involves a photo I know I have, I go to the box... pick out the section it is in... and I have saved hours.

A friend made this wonderful nature quilt for me to use on the day bed in the cabin LR. The problem is... as much as I love it, it is 2 feet too short. We actually did a trade for it - 8 hours of tutoring on my part for it. So I do not feel bad for returning it. I absolutely love it... but have no place it would really work (I want someone to have it that has a place for it) ...so I have come up with an alternate plan. I am going to design it, create a custom fabric using my own photos... and then pay her to put it together using my specs. Then came the quandary... do I want wildlife images, or scenery - or both. Off to the back room I went. I started with the Cooke City images... before I knew it, I was a scanning maniac! Wanna see some of what I found...

Do you believe in angels? Some can see her, some cannot... this first photo was taken in Billings in 1999. It has always been one of my favorites. I know I have a guardian angel ~ and I know she was on that walk with me that day!

Often, you can find incredible beauty in some pretty broken down things - people too! I loved this winter walk... It was at a time when I lived on the edge of Yellowstone... The next pictures are all from that area. Truth be told, as much as I like "here" I would rather be there!

same day - same general location....

this is the view from our "porch of sorts". It was a big ole spool and a couple chairs on the creek bank. It was where we sip a glass of wine at the end of the day. Or just hang out with coffee and a good book... the sound of the water was so soothing.

Oh yes... another favorite. It was a glorious sunny day... I was on my way home from a walk to a friend's place. I had my camera, and was just having so much fun "pointing and shooting". I spied a moose, and decided to try to catch a snap shot. This was a "cheapo" camera... and the moose was trying very hard to escape my lens... he actually "almost" did. I decided to have a print made for the owner of the cabin (who I had never met). I asked around to find out who they were. One day I spied a truck there in the early spring... so I stopped, knocked, and presented this stranger with my gift. A few days later, I popped into the local Post Office/ convenient store / fly shop... and there was a note inviting me over for a beer creek-side. I went... and The Davis' and I have been GREAT friends for going on 10 years. it is funny how a random act of kindness can turn out so well. I was into RAOK before it was a catch phrase... just because it is just "good" to try to do nice things for others.

This is from the same day I was trying to shoot the moose (NO! Not like Sarah Palin shoots them!!! LOL!) A lens flare can sometimes be such a happy accident. Look up Cooke City on the Internet sometime, just to see a little about the place. There are some "interesting" characters there. So the next photo reminds me of the "Beam Me Up Scotty" thing. We used to joke that alot of folks there (myself EXcluded) probable landed there on that Tractor beam. And... it is a stunning photo.... That was the view from the house I lived in that winter. I do love that little cafe so.

Same place - different season - note the buffalo by the pay phone.

bears in Yellowstone - Momma an couple cubs

A moose North of town

and a buffalo in the drive way.... Never a dull moment.

This next photo is of two "favorite" peaks. They are called Pilot and Index - and they are amazing. I used to love to come "home" from town - these peaks would lead me in. Such a special memory.

And there you have it! This is why I am so glad I sorted things out... Now I can create some fun things and feel good about my life so far....

Have a great day!

eila

OK - so I lied

2009-02-07T11:42:00.005-07:00

It was a small fib. I was heading to sort the photos, but I wanted to get this up for Crops. She wants to go to the zoo. Recently she also posted a layout with elephants. While sorting, I found two photos of me on an elephant, so I made this little layout in her honor. I used Barbara's - Just Passing Through Bear Kit.

I strikes me as amusing that this is the second time that one of my favorite designers has posted a layout which has images that match some that I have been recently coming across. It must be some kind of sign that I am supposed to be getting my images in order. And so I am. And with that, I am seriously out of here.

Have a super~fantastic day!

eila

Just a little note

2009-02-07T09:11:00.003-07:00

I just wanted to pop in before I turn off my computer for the weekend... to let you know - the snow in the picture of the cabin... is the same snow that fell December 15th. It will be here until April... maybe even May. It snows - then a little melts - then it snows some more. I love Montana, and this is great for keeping forest fire danger down... but by the end of February, I am ready for Spring... this year, I am ready now! Just thought I would share that with my Southern Sisters - and my Sis in England who is currently HATING the snow!

My thought for the day - "It could always be worse"

Have a fab weekend!

eila

Somebody has been a bad blogger...

2009-02-06T12:47:00.003-07:00

The last time I stopped in to say hello, I was heading out to the cabin to tidy up a bit. That is it above, as well as the woodshed, and outhouse. It is close to the house, yet lends to the privacy of our guests.

Here is the before photo (inside):

...and here are a couple after:

living room

kitchen

There is a bedroom behind me, which you cannot see... LOL - because it is behind me.... I love our retro little red table. It was a find on ebay, which we got surprisingly cheap. You see, it was being sold by someone who lived in the town where my son lives... so we were able to pick it up. Most people who wanted to bid on it chose not to because the shipping was sooooo expensive. So we lucked out and got it for $100.00 AND got to see my son on Mother's Day when we picked it up.

I am trying to wrap up a bunch of work related editing jobs, and have just not had time to pop in to say hello. I am almost finished sorting the photos. I hope to be done by tomorrow. As soon as I finish here, I am going to go back to the work room and try to knock it out.

I think I am getting a little of the "winter blahs"... so bear with me, if I don't show up much for now.

Have a great day everyone!

eila

A Blast From the Past

2009-01-29T10:11:00.005-07:00

Hola ladies - and gent, (I seem to have a boy follower LOL)

Yesterday, Miss Vicki (from Texas) had some great news. She had done a layout using the amazing Kim B's kit (Hearty Tarty)- and Kim B posted it. It is a really fun layout - to me especially since it had kind of a deja vu feel. I have been working diligently on my massive photograph sort. A couple days ago, I came across a couple pics from a trip I took to a Renaissance Fair in Pennsylvania in 1995 (with a co-worker). We had such a good time. Wellll, the layout Vicki did was of her and her sister locked in the stocks at the RF in Texas (I think my head may explode if I have to try to spell Renaissance one more time LOL!). I held a similar pic in my hands a few days before. So at Vicki's request, I am posting the photo... and I even thought I would throw it into a layout, since that is how we roll here in ScrapLand... (smiling again).

I used Andrea Boyer's Fall Splendor kit for this page. I just love the colors of fall.... OK, and I remember that the RF in Pennsylvania was near Allentown - but not sure where. Maybe one of my friends out there might be able to tell me where it actually is?! You know who you are GF - ROTFLMBO!!!!

While I have been writing this, I popped over to KimB's and I see that Bunny is in need of our prayers. I saw on the news that it had been pretty bad in Kentucky. I will say a prayer for her, and since most, if not all of you read her blog (the woman is just too incredible for words) - you might want to pop on over to her place to leave some encouragement for when she gets her power back. I can't imagine what those folks must be going through. We are somewhat prepared for most of what Mother Nature has to throw at us - even the inconvenience of lost power... yep, the bathtubs stay somewhat full just in case... so we can still flush - although in an extreme crisis - we do have an outhouse on the property (EWWWW - but the guys don't mind it). It is actually kind of posh - toilet seat, and a hanging air freshener on the wall - as well as a light -and coffee can on the wall to hold the TP. We even put Lye in it periodically to dissolve things.... Yeppers, we do 'er up right in Montana! Anyway - to Bunny and all the folks in KY - I am sending my prayers your way.

I need to go out to the guest cabin and light a fire. I have decided that today will be my "put the Christmas decs away" day. We have this handy cabin where our guests stay. It has a bedroom, livingroom, kitchen - cold running water... (and the outhouse - LOL). It actually is pretty nice... stove, frig, microwave, and a coffee maker - what else could you possibly need? One of the rooms is unfinished. I use it for storage. Well... after the "visitor season" passes, we tend to just throw stuff around in the cabin... for me to sort later. Yep - I believe today is that day. I need to step away from photos and computers for a couple days. I have been wanting to get to the cabin... but our drive had been an ice rink for about 3 weeks. We finally got 9 inches of snow - yay - which built a base on the ice that I can walk on... I am a happy girl.

And with that... I am outta here!

eila

This could be a long one

2009-01-23T10:08:00.009-07:00

It has been a little while since my last post. There have been a number of causes for this. The main cause is that I have just been a little "blah". I will blame it on PMS - and some MAJOR cramps. They say they get easier after childbirth - but it is a lie! I am feeling much better now... and actually have all kinds of things to go into.. so here it is.

First off, in my January 9th post, I posted a recipe for Beef Stew. It is an awesome recipe that I wanted to share. I scanned the physical recipe, because it was easier to display. I would however like to assure anyone who may be sensitive to copyright issues that it is online. It is from an amazing cookbook that I was given - but ALL the recipes are also on the website.

http://fbnr.com/

That is what makes this such a great cookbook. It is called Favorite Brands Slow Cooker Casseroles and More (I linked to it on Amazon - they have used copies for as low as $2.78 used $10.00 US new .. and it is worth it!) It is @ 375 pages of all kinds of recipes and cooking tips. The coolest thing is that right inside the front cover is the address for the website. So I am hoping I did not infringe on any copyright laws in offering it up to y'all. Here is the link to the actual recipe - just to be all formal and everything.

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/favorite-beef-stew-recipe.htm

OK, my conscience is now clear. As a Photographer, I know how important such issues are - and I know because of all the hard work the scrap designers do... Credit should be given where credit is due. I suggest you check out the recipe site. It is a good one. Personally, I like owning the book.

I got an award, and so appreciate it. It came from Shirley. She is a wonderfully creative blogger I have recently come across. She has all kinds of random fun things on her blog. You might should go check her out.

here are the rules for receiving the Lemonade award:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post with the person from whom you received your award.

(NOTE: there are a few I would send this to... Crops - but Shirley already gave it to her. Vicki (Bubbles who babbles LOL - kidding) - but I hate to make her do any extra work during tax season - but you would have it if you weren't so busy! Mrs Miles - but she just got a bunch of awards, and is in a bit of a "cloudy day funk". I am going to cheat and count you as three of my ten without the burden - and I am linking to you because others should pop on over to your places in case they have not met you yet.)

Anne of Alamo - LOVE your Blog

Melanie - Creekside Cottage Designs - I'm new to your blog, LOVE IT 2!

Barbara~Just Passing Through - Go get her Sunflower Kit ~ AMAZING!

365 Days of Our Lives - Some wonderful Photos and great fun!

Hummie's World - She has so much to offer - Love her blog

Kimmy's Keepsakes - This lady has so much heart - and 2 simply adorable sons.

Susie2shoes - I miss her - she has not been feeling super well this year - so pop on over and send her a little sunshine. Tell her Eila sent her.

WHEW - That was easier than I thought.

Now, onto what else I have been doing. I have been buried in "my life". Holy Cow! I have led a pretty wonderful life so far. I am feeling optimistic that I will be "in order" by Spring. Aah - there is a concept - Spring...

My plan is to get things in order and make a real live book for my son who is graduating from college in May. He will be 29. He got sidetracked by 2 years in the regular Army - and 18 months in Iraq - which puts him pretty much on track for an Engineering Degree. (they take an extra year - extra credits). The coolest thing is that he is graduating on the anniversary of the day I brought his little butt home from the hospital. Funny the things you remember. That was back in the good old days when they let you stay in the hospital for 5 or 6 days to rest. I believe that if men had babies... the insurance companies would give them a full 2 weeks of bed rest! Oh well... it is what it is! We will be going to his graduation, and I even get to have breakfast with him on Mother's day! WOO HOO, I am excited! Yes, I know... I get all happy over the simple graces in life! Just for fun - I took a quick snap of a set of photos I have. The black and White is me at age one - the color is my baby boy at one. Can we spell C-L-O-N-E?! Dang - we sure were cuties, if I do say so myself!

OK, so it is Friday - and though I never got involved in the "Friday Show and Tell" that Mrs Miles used to do (WHICH I MISS - Hers were always so wonderful) ~ I have one today. I am going to take you on a photo tour of my NIGHTMARE photo sort.

After looking at the photos... it inspired me to make this little thing... It says how I feel!

So far, I have watched the American President & Happy Gilmore. Today I am going to start with To Kill a Mockingbird - and see if I can't fit in Sabrina. It is cold and a little snowy - so I feel OK just doing photos and a movie - after all - my kitchen is CLEAN!

Can you believe it... I am finished.

Have a super day everyone!

ciao for niao

eila

Dolphins - and random stuff

2009-01-16T13:00:00.004-07:00

A friend of mine emailed me this video clip. It is pretty cool, I have to admit. I love where I am, but would really love to be there! I thought of Miss Vicki in Texas when I watched it. I think you will really enjoy this...

I follow Hummie. She has great bits and pieces - from her insightful Bible Bits, to her ramdom challenges, to her forums and tutorials. She just has so much to offer. She is open, honest, nonjudgemental, and candid in her posts. Her blog is one of my favorite reads. Today she had a post about testing your color IQ. My score was an 8 - which is not perfect, but if you go there... you will understand how you can get a little bleary-eyed. Here is a link to the site. Here is my result.

This is how I rank in my age group

I am not feeling super creative today. I have alot to do, and am not quite finding the enegy to do it. I have been holed up with my many boxes of photos, trying to bring some order to it all. I have picked out some of my fav old VCR tapes an have been watching "chick flicks" while I work. It has been such a long time since I have treated myself to movies, just because... well, it is not "just because". It gives me some entertainment while I sort and sort, and sort some more.

So this will be a short post. I am going to go back to my pics, and see if I can't get a handle on it all.

Be Well...

And I truly hope my friends in the south get some relief from the frigid temps. We expect it here - but not so much where you are.

Hugs,

eila

2009-01-14T12:23:00.002-07:00

A Wordl ~ What FUN!!! Should I be doing something else? Probably, but Hummie has sucked me in again... LOL.

Just trying to keep it light.

Later

eila

Surprisingly Simple

2009-01-13T09:50:00.007-07:00

It is a new year, and as such, we have (maybe) made a resolution or two. Some people don't... I have always stuck with my old "standby" - to try to be a better person - and do more for others. So here is the deal - actually challenge. It is not related to scrapping but since ScrapLand has become such a vast universe... I challenge each person that reads this (all 5 of you LOL) to put the same info on your site. You see, the five people who visit now and then, have a much wider reach than I - and it becomes this great pyramid.

Now here is the deal...

Below is information about the Hunger Site. We are often skeptical about such (too good to be true) concepts. I did check it out on Snopes. It is what it says it is... AND it is a good cause. It is painless, and it only takes a minute out of your day. You simply click a button on your computer and you can do many things

provide food for the hungry

provide mammograms to those that cannot afford them

Help provide free heathcare for children

help provide money to save the rainforests

help with project literacy

and feed some homeless animals.

It costs you nothing, except a moment of your time.

Here is what I do - I have the site as one of my tabs on my homepage

go to tools > Internet Options > under the homepage tabs - you just past the address. It is simple. When you pop on the net to go to your favorite blogs... it is there. It is a reminder to just do it... and it is done for the day. Only one click per person per day will be counted. ALSO: make sure when you do the hunger one that it actually brings up a page that your click has been counted. Sometimes it doesn't come up on the first click.

I have been doing this for about 3 months now - since I came across it on another bloggers site. Every little bit helps... and the sheer number of scrappers out there can make such a huge difference.

The link is below - if you would like to head over now and check it out...

http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1

This is the post on Snopes where I checked out the validity of it... I pasted it in the blog so you could read it yourself. So now I have done one more thing to make the world a little better place... and there are still 11 1/2 months lft in 2009. WOO HOO! I really do hope you will check it out... do it, and pass it on.

Have a nice day all... I have a bit to do today... Hubby is off to town, so it is just me and the dawgs... and boxes of photos...

Be well,

eila

snopes.com: The Hunger Site

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/hungersite.asp

The Hunger Site

Claim: You can direct money to hunger relief simply by clicking a button on a web
site.

Status: True.

Origins: Over the last few years we've seen a plethora of altruistic appeals circulate on the Internet, each one claiming that you could donate money to a worthy cause or right some terrible injustice — at no cost to you — merely by taking some simple action, such as forwarding an e-mail message. (See our Jessica Mydek page for one example.)

All of these messages were hoaxes — until The Hunger Site came along.
At The Hunger Site, you can "donate" money to hunger relief simply by clicking a button.

How?

The Hunger Site, the creation of John Breen, a 42-year-old computer programmer from
Bloomington, Indiana, was funded by various companies who sponsored the site for a day. Every sponsor donated the approximate cost of 1/4 of a cup of food to the United Nations' World Food Program for each user who clicks on the site during the day. (If multiple companies were sponsoring the site, the amount of food donated was multiplied by the number of sponsors.) Breen created the site in June 1999 as a personal project to help deal with hunger in developing countries, and the response was soon so overwhelming that he spent most of his time administering the site even though he received no income, loans, grants, or donations to compensate him for his time and effort or pay his expenses. Eventually The Hunger Site became part of GreaterGood.com, a shopping portal where customers could direct up to 15% of the cost of every purchase to causes they selected. GreaterGood.com ceased operations in July 2001, and The Hunger Site was temporarily shut down until CharityUSA.com took over its operations a few weeks later. Other sites also offer similar means for visitors to aid various charities:

l Animal Rescue Site
l The Breast Cancer Site

Additional Information:
World Food Program
The Hunger Site (World Food Program)
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/hungersite.asp?print=y (1 of 2)1/13/2009 9:40:19 AM
snopes.com: The Hunger Site
World Food Program

The Hunger Site press release (World Food Program)
Last updated: 8 October 2007
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/hungersite.asp
Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2009 by snopes.com.
This material may not be reproduced without permission.
snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.
Sources Sources:
Kirby, Carrie. "Millions Eat Because People Click a Button."
San Francisco Chronicle. 20 December 1999.
Rowe, Peter. "Fighting Hunger with the Click of a Button."
The San Diego Union-Tribune. 15 July 1999 (p. E1).
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/hungersite.asp?print=y (2 of 2)1/13/2009 9:40:19 AM

If you are doing a 2009 diet - leave NOW!

2009-01-12T15:49:00.003-07:00

This is why diets don't work -

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

Your mug contains -

4 tbsp flour

4 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

Please ADD:

1 egg

3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp oil

Mix well

Add small splash of vanilla

Add 3 tbsp choc chips (optional)

Mix again

Put mug in micro, and cook 3 minutes

The cake will rise over the top of the mug

allow to cool slightly and tip out of mug onto a plate...

eat and enjoy

serves 2 (if you wish to share)

yep - so have a nice day!

eila

This One I Made

2009-01-09T12:10:00.007-07:00

I had changed my layout a few days ago, using a winter scene I found on Allie Brown's blog layout site. Yesterday, I decided to use a few kits from Barbara - Just Passing Through. I love her kits. They are very western in nature, and fit right in with my life and world. This blog page is a mixture of a few of her kits. She even has one named "Montana" - so there you have it, a perfect fit. Hop on over to her place and check her out. Here is the link.

The sun is shining. It is a balmy 34 degrees... Life IS Good!!!! We spent the yesterday cleaning up "avalanches". All that snow, packed with rain (up on the roof) created perfect conditions for "slides". I cannot even begin to imagine the impact of a real avalanche - or how some people actually survive them. Just the weight of the snow as it came off was intense. We only have to worry about sidewalks and porches - but even that takes a toll on the back. It is good that it finally started dropping. Shoveling snow is preferable to a collapsed roof, which was becoming a real danger.

Hubby is heading down to Seeley today to see how the summer cabin is holding up to the weight of the snow they have had there. Augh, and afternoon to myself. I love the man dearly, but really do enjoy some time to just myself now and then. Today is that day. Yippee Skippee! I just got a crockpot of good old fashioned stew going. I found this amazing recipe. You layer it (of all things) and it is fabulous. Actually, Hubby found the recipe... and he even used to be the one who made it. Here it is... try it! You'll like it!

I can't seem to get it to be any larger? So here it is such that it is... get out those magnifying glasses. *actually, I tested it... double click on it and it will open a jpg - much easier to see... YUM ~ I would never lie about food!

I am getting ready to compose a letter to our state officials. They have recently proposed a ban on pit-bulls in the state of Montana. IN THE WHOLE STATE!!!!!! It is not that I am a huge fan of that breed of dog... it is the actual verbiage of the law. THE WHOLE STATE?! Oh yeah, I got side tracked. What the ban says is that if you have a dog that even looks like it might have some pit-bull in it, it can be taken away and "DESTROYED". WHAT?!!!!! Are they nuts, or what. If your animal has been accused of having pit bloodlines, you have to prove (at your own expense) that said dog is not. Current dogs will be grandfathered in... if they are registered wit the state... BULL! OK, I am taking this a little personal. Both our boys are lab-pit mixes, we think. Yeah, here in Montana, our lawmakers will fight anyone who tries to even ask how many guns we own, but will come and take your dogs, regardless of temperament? I am sorry, but that is just WRONG.

Whew, I guess I didn't realize, as I started to type the above info... just how impassioned I am about the subject. My dogs don't chase wildlife... they are the sweetest most loved - by all who meet them - ARGGG! And while this feeling is strong, I think I will go write a letter.

Have a great day all.

eila

Is it really 2009?!

2009-01-06T17:28:00.017-07:00

It's winter in Montana

And the gentle breezes blow

Seventy miles an hour

At twenty-five below.

Oh, how I love Montana

When the snow's up to your butt

You take a breath of winter

And your nose gets frozen shut.

Yes, the weather here is wonderful

So I guess I'll hang around

I could never leave Montana

'Cause I'm frozen to the ground!

Author unknown.

I have been a little "away" from the computer lately. 2009 has me pretty busy, but also rested, if that makes sense. What I want to know is this... was that really me who was asking for snow? OK so thank you!!! We have it in abundance now... and it doesn't look to stop anytime soon. If you hear on the news reports about Washington State and the massive amounts of snow in Spokane? We are in the path of everything that comes their way. Don't get me wrong, it is beautiful... but I think Hubby is getting a little over it!

That is him in the photo above. he looks pretty small in all that snow. Truth be known, he is 6'6". He has had to run the snowblower everyday for what seems like forever. Powder is not too bad, but when we came home after Christmas, it hads rained some on top of all the snow, which packed it pretty hard. No fun! Th poor pups can't even think about jumping in it, which they so love. There is a layer of ice about a foot down, so they fall through. Poor babies, because they SOOO love to play in it.

I had to dash to Kalispell on Sunday, as the freezer was getting pretty depleted. It was the only day that we weren't supposed to get snow. Wow, was that an adventure! The "beltheads" (snowmobilers) are sure loving this. I saw all kinds of trailers parked up and down the highway. Man it was a little of a white knuckle experience, but I was proud of myself for being so brave. It was necessary. We don't have the luxury of a garbage man, we have to haul our own 25 miles... and it was time. I did get some great deals though, so the trip was well worth it. I LOVE Pier One Imports, and they have screaming good deals on the Christmas stuff (75% off). I do love a good sale.

My sister is a consultant for Creative memories. She sent me this lovely package in the mail with some papers and embellishment packs (summer, fall and birthday). She is the one that got me hooked on digi-scrapping, but it is also fun to incorporate the paper scrap with the digital. Now if I could just find the time! LOL! I started out making a book with Storybook Creator. I bought the software so I could save the pages. There is free software, but you have to order the books from them, and they are a little pricey. If you are curious, check out Creative Memories in a google search. It is a pretty user friendly program, and I still use it in addition to everything else, and it is a good place for the novice.

These two deer were preening each other out in the drive a few days ago, and I just thought it was pretty cool, so I took a photo. This is my "share" with you photo.

Wow, I really have been gone for awhile. I feel like there is so much to catch up on. I have been seeing references to the 365 Challenge. How cool. I was given a book Looking for Summer (by Jim Brandenburg) as a gift a few years ago. He took one photo a day for 94 days, and they are STUNNING! I always thought it would be cool to do the same thing... looks like I missed the boat somewhat for this year, but that is OK... I can do it starting any day I want to. I was checking out Anne off Alamo's blog. She started a blog with just her 365 challenges, and I have to say KUDOS to her. Here is the link to her photo site - go check it out! Love it!!! Check out her scrap site for that matter...SHE ROCKS, and is ALWAYS a good read. Here is that link.

I changed my layout. I got this layout from Allie Browns site (another of my fav talents). Thanks Allie! I had designed my Christmas site layout using Crop2Dawn's Christmas kit, and I loved it, but it was too big a file, and I can't figure out how to make it smaller like Allie does. I will get there some day. If anyone knows the secret, I am all eyes (LOL... I can't hear you, but I do know how to read). By the way, Crops created a pretty amazing Fairy Fantasy Kit, go snag it at her place - but you better leave some love, cuz it is just too rude not to.

Miss Susie2Shoes, if you are around, I want you to know you are missed and I hope the New Year finds you feeling better. You are on my mind, and I wish to send some Happy 2009 Blessings your way.

It is now time for me to hit the kitchen, dinner is not going to make itself - although I would pay for that if they invented a way to make that happen. Another thing I would be willing to spend my last dime on would be a machine that you turn on when you go to bed, and it makes ALL of the dust and dog hair magically disappear.

G'nite all

Hugs

eila

Over The River ~ And Through The Woods...

2008-12-29T13:02:00.004-07:00

To the grand children's house we went. What a road trip we had! It most definitely could have been worse. The trip home had its moments, from blowing and drifting snow - to 48 degrees - to rain, to ice, to snow. Home is such a nice place to be. It was fun seeing the kids on Christmas. We did not tell 3 of our grand children we were coming. They thought we were going to be there the 26th. They were very happy when they opened the door and there we were. Hugs were had all around.

I now have a new computer with a better graphics card, more memory, and loads of hard drive space. Now I just have to get it set up... which means I might be MIA for another week. I just wanted to pop in and say hello... "Hello" ;o).

I do hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. May the New Year bring you all the joy in the world - and can we please throw in some WORLD PEACE for good measure?!

Be Well

I shall return,

eila

5 Days left

2008-12-20T13:37:00.007-07:00

It really is beginning to feel a bit like Christmas. It has been very cold here. Yet I am finally feeling pretty festive. the packages have been sent - most of the goodies have been made... most of the presents are wrapped... and the sun is shining for the first time in about a week. We did not get as much snow as they had been calling for - but this is doable. Hard to believe the temp is zero in these photos. BRRR. We have been keeping the fire going for over a week. Usually, we let it die down during the day... not this week. No way LOL!

I haven't had much time to blog. I had a pretty large order come in a week or so ago. I had to scan 9 images, clean them up... crop etc - then print 3 copies of each. They look great I might add. Then the client wanted me to cut mattes. I have a matte cutter, but have not cut mattes for awhile... and certainly not in that volume. It brought back my college days. We had to matte all our final projects - which was usually 10 to 20 prints. I was a little intimidated when I started yesterday, but amazingly knocked them out in no time. I guess it is more of a challenge when your grade is on the line.

Today will be a fairly easy day. We leave in a few days to go house sit for a friend. It worked out so nicely. We weren't going to be able to go see the kids (grand babies) until the 26th, because of dog sitting issues. A friend called me and asked when were going to be in Bozeman for Christmas. It turns out that they want to spend Christmas at Old Faithful Lodge... (Who Doesn't?). They need someone to stay with their dogs. WOO HOO... we get to see the family ON Christmas. We don't have to pay lodging, and we don't have to pay a dog sitter - cuz the boys are going with us. Talk about luck! I will get to do some final shopping on Tuesday in Helena, and Wednesday in Bozeman. I love where we live, but at this time of year, I miss the ability to spontaneously shop. I don't miss it the rest of the year. I had just gotten into the mindset to get things finished, when we got all this snow and deep freeze. It is not a good idea to travel at such times. Hopefully Tuesday will be a decent day to be out on the roads. We have to go @ 250 miles. We'll have to have the extra snow clothes, food, water etc. It is funny how prepared you have to be when you live someplace like this.

I am sure looking forward to seeing our grand children. They are just too cute. I made this layout yesterday. Actually I only used one scrap element (Barbara ~ Just Passing Through) papers from her wood meets denim -which is my fav kit of hers - so far, because she is always coming up with such fun stuff. Anyway, the print is 8 x 22 inches. I had a really beautiful frame stored. It is a gift for our son and DIL. They don't have alot of artwork in their house, so I thought this would be fun for them. Aren't they just the cutest kids you ever saw. I should have been a little more creative... next time. LOL

Have a Merry Merry Christmas all - and to all a good day!

eila

OH - I almost forgot - I got an award from Crops - Thanks so much - I want to acknowledge and express my appreciation. Woman, you rock!

Winter is here

2008-12-12T18:04:00.010-07:00

The above photos were taken just the other night (at midnight). The moon was almost full, and I was amazed at how bright the meadow was.

This is the official kick off for our winter. We are experiencing 12 degrees (fahrenheit), and going down... and the wind. It snowed last night, so I was happy... now there is a big ole tree across our drive - so maybe NOT so happy. I am not looking forward to clearing it when it is this cold... but as my motto has always been ~ "it is what it is" ... so off we will go.

The saying goes "be careful what you wish for". Maybe I should not have wished so hard for winter LOL. Actually, this will just be a little inconvenient. We are ready for power outages, in case that is the plan. We have 2 bathtubs full of H2) for flushing - 10 gallons of water for drinking - all the wood we could ever need (with a new row of wood laying in the driveway - ARG!!!) We both have cap lights, and many candles and oil lamps... we are set... although I would prefer the power stay on...

I am going to go address Christmas cards, and make goodies... So have a wondrous day out there in scrapland!

Eila

Giving Thanks

2008-12-10T18:03:00.002-07:00

I just created a page layout, and I wish to thank Carol for her lovely Christmas kit and add ons - go check her out! She Rocks. I know I need to tweak the page some, but it is a start.

Ciao for now - have to go make some dinner.

Beginning to feel a bit like Christmas

2008-12-10T11:34:00.006-07:00

Finally, enough snow to make it at least have the illusion of winter - It is not nearly enough in my opinion, but I will take it. It is such a challenge to get into the Christmas festivities, when there is no snow in Northwest Montana. I truly don't mind decorating for the deer - really I don't... I even have visions of late night gatherings of the squirrels, fox, big cats, deer, and elk. I see them singing Christmas carols around that big ole evergreen. I dream about it, really I do. LOL.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus. To me, that is something that should be celebrated every day. What I mean is that no matter what your belief is, it is about giving to those less fortunate, and just trying to promote peace and love everyday, in all that you do. The packages and all the things you are "supposed" to do just don't seem to have much of anything to do with the birth of Christ. Serving at a homeless shelter, giving gifts to Toys for Tots, helping those in need - that, to me, is so much more important than filling the wish list of people who already have too much. Do not get me wrong, I do believe in the joy of children when they receive a gift they really want. Augh, I don't know, I just remember a simpler time, as I am sure many people do.

I have been to town twice in the past 2 days, and quite frankly, it just wears me out. I remember how I used to see signs that said "Drive Friendly" when I lived in Texas. I want a big flashy sign to put on my car that says just that. The people in town were just plain crazy. I do have to admit that I did do a pretty impressive job of getting in and out of town on Monday. I had a dentist appointment about 20 miles from where I was shopping. (yes, novocaine and needles were involved, but I survived LOL). I got to Kalispell at 11:00 and had to leave town by 1:30 to make my appointment. I managed to go to the upholstery shop, Walmart, Costco (grabbed lunch at the drive thru) Ace Hardware, The grocery store, and even picked up a Take and Bake pizza on my way out of town. I even got every single thing on my list.

I have about a week before everything has to be finished... guess I should get to it. Hopefully I will have something nice to show at the end of this busy time. Be well all... TTYS

A New Layout - and a pic or two

2008-12-05T14:49:00.006-07:00

Happy Christmas,

I spent longer than I should have working on a new layout for a friend's birthday. I challenged myself on this one. One of these days, I will try to think out of the box as far as how I balance things. I tried a tutorial that I found on Barbara's (Just Passing Through). I had never heard of an OOB before reading it on her blog. I kept meaning to get back to it. My example is not as stunning as hers, but for a first time out, and in light of the image I wanted to use, I did OK. I'll get on some of my buffalo, coyote, bear, and moose photos, and see if I can't come up with some cool stuff. I'm running several images through my mind as I type. For now... this is the one I had to work with. That is my story, and I am sticking t it!!! LOL. Other credit goes to Lesley at Digikeepsakes. She does amazing work - check her out. The paper belongs to Vicki Parker (AWP). The frames are from Linda at Bon Scrappit. They are all very talented ladies - and I am so grateful for all their hard work. Go check them out, and leave them so love it you snag any of their goodies.

For you Crops... here is a photo from last year... the tree, which grew a couple feet this year. Note the really HUGE trees behind the house (shadows). Hope they never fall on us!

This is my exploding Christmas tree - I was experimenting... LOL - kind of like my head after the holidays!

This last one is nothing special, I just like the sparkly stuff.

I am off to go hang some more decs for the deer. Have a lovely evening, and please try to stay warm.

eila

Layout using Barbara's Wood Meets Denim

2008-12-04T12:37:00.004-07:00

Where oh where has Eilajean been. Busy Busy Busy! I took some time away from the mountain of work on my desk to play with Barbara's Wood Meets Denim kit. Hop on over to her blog to pick it up. Being a Montana girl, I do truly love my blue jeans. I have a feeling there will be much more for me to use this kit for.

Montana Winter is trying to get here... and I surly wish it would. By now we are usually draped in a blanket of white. Not true this year. They keep promising snow, but it always seems to bypass us. I am still hopeful that we will have a white Christmas.

While I was looking for photos to use in the above layout, I came across some photos of what winter usually feels like in parts of Montana. The first one is from the Beartooth Highway - leading into Yellowstone Park. It is closed in the winter, but people ski there, and ride snow mobiles. It is one of the most beautiful places I know of.

The second is one of my favorite "stop the car" photos. We were driving on US 89 toward Yellowstone. The clouds were amazing, as they were lifting off the mountain. I shot it in Black and White. I processed the film myself in the darkroom. Unfortunately, when the film was in the drying closet, another person opened it without turning it off. My roll was horribly scratched. This is why I truly do love Photoshop.

Speaking of Photoshop... I recently was helping my daughter-in-law get her feet wet with digital scrapbooking. They are her children in the "first snow" layout I did. Anyway, she does not have Photoshop or any photo manipulation software for that matter. I did a google search, and found GIMP. I don't know if anyone is familiar with it, but it is a pretty cool program. I downloaded it to compare it with PS. It has many similar qualities... except that it is free. Free is good... LOL. One thing I really like is that you can open images as a layer. Am I missing something - is that possible in Photoshop? The reason I am even bringing this up... we all know someone who likes to scrapbook - not necessarily "design" but just play with photos and create pages. This would be a great tool for someone just starting out. It also opens png and psd files, which I think is just cool!

We are just starting to get the Christmas decs going. We have the lights on the house - but sill have the 40 foot tree left to wrap in lights... NOT FUN! It is beautiful though, so I suppose it is worth the effort. I just can't for the life of me figure out why we go to so much effort for the deer - who are the only ones who see it... Spoiled wildlife - that's all I've got to say.

I do get excited about Christmas... once the shopping is done. Monday is a trip to the dentist... and I am sure some shopping will be involved. Then, it is onto the cookies. I made magnets last year, now I have to come up with a new idea. Here are the images I used for them. These flowers were all from photos taken on film. I love when film meets digi...

Sorry it has been so long - I will try to be better, but I can promise nothing. LOL! Have a great day!

Ciao,

eila

Let Our Troops Know We Care

2008-11-27T09:21:00.003-07:00

As we sit down to eat our Thanksgiving meal, let us remember the men and women that don't have that comfort of family, now and throughout the holiday season. It only takes a second to let them know we appreciate what a sacrifice they all make for our freedom. It is so little to ask... Freedom isn't free... and so many have paid the ultimate price. Look for ways, beyond this to make the holidays better for them.

I found navigation to be strange - so here is the link

http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1280.html

A Gift for Crops - (3rd day in a row!)

2008-11-26T11:35:00.008-07:00

I am dedicating this mornings post to Miss Carol (Crops2Dawn Creations). If you have not gone to meet the woman, you should. She is awesome... and fun. She has been at battle (figure of speech) with her sisters over the Thanksgiving Dinner. they decided this year to have clams... CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT?

Needless to say, Carol was not thrilled with this concept. Check out her blog, and go back a few posts to get the story. You can also find all the elements and papers used in this layout on her site. Take a cruise down the page to the bottom. She has some absolutely STUNNING fall images.

So, in honor of your quest for a turkey on your table, I present you this layout.

We do get wild turkeys in the yard. The boys love to stare at them though the the bedroom window. Morgan even chased one a year or so ago. I did not know that Turkeys could fly. Yep, they can. LOL.

Max is the one with the "flying nun" ears. I am thinking that his ears should have been clipped and pinned as a pup... but since his first owners tossed his litter by a river (only 2 pups survived), I doubt his ears were a consideration. Some people can be so ignorant. But I will just stay out of that chat room for now.

I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it... I know I am truly blessed and have so much to be thankful for. Have a drumstick for me Crops!

eila

TWO in one day?!

2008-11-25T16:58:00.004-07:00

Wow! I was visiting some of my favorite blogs. Apparently as I was having my "snapfish" psychotic break... I missed Barbara Lee's Birthday! This makes me feel pretty terrible, especially since she made me the most BEAUTIFUL card - (by the way Barbara, where did you get that kit - I really like it). I used one of her wonderful kits to make her an "I am a NUKLHEAD" card. I sure hope you had a great day! Barbara gets credit for the kits - Go check out her work, she is awesome... a southern girl with a western flare, and a very kind heart. If you decide to download her work, remember your manners, and leave her some love! Hmmm where have I heard that before?!

Eila

Note To Self....

2008-11-25T09:11:00.007-07:00

Good Morning. This is my reason for a "note to self". I often find myself driving to or from town, thinking to myself "Self - I sure wish I had my camera". Swan Lake is simply beautiful at sunset, and do you think I have a photo of it. NO, of coarse not! I suppose I have a paranoia of leaving my camera in my vehicle while shopping. I guess that is from too many years in the city. Also, in my own defense, it is really cold here, and cold temps are not good for the camera. The reason I mention this is the photo above. I took this last Saturday (Nov 15) when I was returning from the wedding. I had stopped at the top of the drive to pick up the newspaper. It was that time of day when the sun, setting over the Mission Mountains, was bouncing it's light off the Swan Mountain range to the east. As you can see, the golden larch have been replaced by snow on the peaks. I just wish we had some in the valleys too.

Now, on to the business of a couple of layout pages:

Leaf paper care of Amy Sumrall from her Fall Splendor part of the blog party. I just love this paper! I actually double layered this , rotated the top layer 180 degrees, and erased the bottom half to give it a full circle of leaves. It was perfect for their wedding setting. You will see this paper again, as I used it in 3 layouts.

This is a QP created by Linda Walton (Bon Scrappit). Check her out if you have not already. She is very creative, and talented.

Wordart by Vanessa Fellows - hers is an interesting site, worth a look. Lots of tuts, freebies, and everyday life stuff. Paper ~ Amy Sumrall ~ I meant it when I said I liked it!

This quick page is called Modern Vintage, by Kim Smith.

I created the best friends image, the frames are Linda Walton's and the paper, of coarse... Amy Sumrall.

I have a great deal of admiration and respect for all the designers out there. I am humbled by the vast talent!

What I do alot of in Photoshop:

I have a mental block when it comes to how you all create such amazing scrap stuff in Photoshop. I mainly use it for image editing. Below is an example of "The Kiss"... I will show the original first, then the fixed image... can you pick out the differences. It is not a quiz, I promise.

Have a great day!

eila

Hello there, from Eilajean, the very bad BLOGGER!

2008-11-24T08:15:00.006-07:00

Good morning Scrapland! I have been missing in action, and am now returning to sanity. Above are a few morning visitors from a few days ago. This photo was taken from my living room window. What you cannot see, or hear... is the whining and carrying on of two black dogs. They get so excited when the elk show up. I have to admit, so do I. I just don't run through the house like they do - from window to window. The deer don't phase them, but these ladies are quite another story.

My Photoshop is working, and I am a happy camper. There is still a good bit for me to figure out, but that is part of the fun. What it can do with Camera Raw images is amazing.

The book... Oh, the book. It was very taxing to learn the program in Snapfish, but I mostly prevailed. I was able to get it in on time to get to free book. I did some scrap pages, and I also used some of their tools. I just didn't have the time or mojo to create 20 pages. I will try to post some of the pages in a day or two. I did have an issue. (which thankfully was resolved.) The mother of the bride, who is a friend of mine, came over to check out the final project. We discussed a couple changes, and proceeded to order the book (including a copy for her). Yep, we ordered the book, without making the changes. It was really not a big deal. The big deal came the next day (yesterday) when I was looking at the book one more time. I have a habit of adding an extra "e" to Novemeber ~ see what I mean!? I do it to September as well... (HELLO EILA - SPELL CHECK!) It might have been OK, except it was on the cover of the book.

Thank You Mrs Miles for the guilded leaves - Also Thank You Barbara (Just Passing Through) for the papers - And Linda Walton - Bon Scrappit (aka Bobby's Girlfriend) for the frame. The wedding theme was a "fall" festivity... sunflowers and leaves. It was beautiful, and I liked this page for a cover. This is not meant to be the official wedding album, it was meant to be a fun book with photos of the happy event, and the festivities that followed (my gift to the happy couple). I think we did it justice.

On to the rest of the story... I realized I have made a dreadful mistake. 24 hours had passed since I ordered the book. They cannot stop an order once it has been placed. They do, however have a 110% Satisfaction Guaranteed. (which they had blown out of the gate, so I was going to make this work. I am no quitter. Have I mentioned this before?) I called the 800 number, and stayed on hold for 1 1/2 hours, yes you see that correctly! I have a headset, so I was not stopped from cleaning house, making, and eating lunch - the usual things one does when on hold. Thank goodness, there was no musac, only silence. When the young lady came on the line, I explained the problem. She credited me with another free book, and sent me to a place to get a label (online) to return the bad book when it arrives. I was then able to go back in and reorder it (corrected, of coarse). Whew, a disaster avoided! Snapfish redeemed themselves, although I do not believe I will be using them for books in the future. It is just not user friendly enough for me. There were limitations I found frustrating.

I am going to have to try Inkubook next. They seem more reasonably priced. My project for the winter is to create two family photo books, hubby's and mine. They will make great Christmas gifts, (next year). I am a huge fan of finding the Christmas gifts throughout the year... I have a closet shelf in our guest room filled with my acquisition thus far. We travel to see the grand kids a week or two before Christmas, so I always have to be finished early. I make chocolate covered pretzels, cashews (have to do something with the last little bit of chocolate at the bottom of the double boiler) - and I also make these WONDERFUL peanut butter chocolate cookies. I use Ritz Crackers (reduced fat ~ they are flakier!) and peanut butter (I used to use Reese's PB, but can no longer find it - which is a true bummer, because it was the BEST!) I make a plate full of sandwiches from the crackers and PB, and dip one at a time in chocolate almond bark. I put on a wax paper covered cookie sheet... let them come to room temp... the chocolate hardens, and you have an amazing treat! They are a favorite. My chocolate factory goes through about 20 pounds of almond bark every holiday season... I kid you not!

This is getting a little long, and I have an appointment with the dentist today, so I should sign off... and say thank you to the ladies who have pooped in to say hello.

ARG!!! I almost forgot. I got another award from the lovely Crops. TY TY TY. (Do you like how I associated dentist with you Crops?!)

I know I am a slacker, and I apologize for not acknowledging it sooner. I do appreciate it. I am supposed to pass it on to seven people, but I am not sure if 7 people total read my rantings. I do appreciate the ones who do. I find that it is nice to meet people who are from different places, with similar passions. You all know who you are, and now you can snag this if you want, cuz it it meant for you. I know, I am terrible at passing on those "pass it on to 10 people" emails too. I may forward them, but I delete the "sent it to 10 people" thing. The ones that make me laugh are the ones that say if you send it to all of your friends, and they send it back, it means you have lots of friends... I don't have LOTS of friends, but I so cherish the few I have... does that make sense? I have friends who I have known for over 30 years... it is not quantity, it IS quality. I have met some quality folks in "bloggerville" and I am thankful for that!

Have an amazing day! I will do the same - 15 degrees and sunny this morning... BRRR!

eila

Home Alone

2008-11-17T14:56:00.003-07:00

Have any or all ever seen Home Alone? Remember Macauley Culkin? There is the scene when he screams. Classic movie moment... that is me. I will resurface soon... ARGGG! Snapfish is the pits - I recommend it to no one!

Success At Last

2008-11-15T08:06:00.002-07:00

Is it Saturday already? Whew - where on earth did the time go. I (the one who is not a quitter-LOL) have been fighting with my computer. I won! After the whole Photoshop fiasco, I decided to download the trial. (while I wait for my son to deliver mine). When I first got the Photoshop, I had loaded the trial while waiting for the disposition of my case with Adobe. I used it twice, and it just quit working. I would open it, it would come up - an close immediately. So, I removed it from my computer. (or so I thought!). Long story short - the new Photoshop program, like AOL, always leaves a part of itself behind. After six days I was finally able to get the entire thing off my computer - reload - and we are back in business - YAY. There is a bit of a learning curve, but it is definitely faster. It will be fun to get to work on it... later.

I am headed out to a wedding today. I am going to shoot the event for the bride (my gift). My plan is to develop a book for her as the rest of the gift. I have a free book from Snapfish, if I get it ordered by tomorrow at midnight - so I know what I will be doing tomorrow... post-production. I'll be back in a couple of days, and hopefully will have something of interest to share.

ciao until then...

eila

The Best Laid Plans

2008-11-10T14:34:00.003-07:00

Woo Hoo! The Photoshop arrived. Boo Hoo... I can't use it. I checked to see if I could upgrade from CS, which they said I could... and I COULD, if I had the"stand alone" version ~ which they failed to mention. But do not feel sad for me. I have another plan... Since my son is a college student, for a few more months, I am just going to have him buy it for me at the student price (the STAND LONE) version - which will actually cost me less than the upgrade cost at full price. Adobe has agreed to refund my money - they are destroying my serial number, so it can't be used. Again - fine by me. It is useless to me anyway. I did get to play with it for a few minutes before it became inactive (using it as a trial version). It has some cool attributes for editing images. They did take away the contact sheet and the picture package, which I actually use. So, now I am in a quandary. I can always leave my CS on the computer for those two things or just have the "boy" get me the CS3... which I can upgrade later - perhaps on CS8 or something - because, I will have the STAND ALONE version... LOL!!!!

Hummie (of Hummie's World) posed an interesting question about backing up your files. Where? It got me to thinking how much trouble some scrappers have had with viruses, and crashing systems. I decided to take matters into my own hands. I have 2 external hard drives (which have been known to fail - not mine - but I have heard sad tales of this). I spent yesterday, and today burning all my scrap stuff to DVDs... which wasn't too time consuming, as I only download from a few designers. I also decided to get all my photos backed up to DVD. HOLY TOLEDO!!! I have 97.67 GB of photos on my computer. I decided to move them all to one drive and go from there. I have a few duplicates, but figure I can sort that out later, now that I have them all backed up. I wait for Costco to have a coupon for "buy-one-get-one-free" dvds... so I have plenty. I just do not know what I would do if I crashed. I ask a great deal of my computer, and am surprised it hasn't a million times over. Today, I feel accomplished! Next is the task of deleting the ones I don't want, and filing them in a better order. At least now I am safe, and can get to the rest of it.

I made that Artisan bread last week, and it was quite tasty. I am now trying out the theory that the bread dough can be frozen, so I will report on that later.

It has been rainy for days and days. The mountains just returned... yay. I am off to build a fire and just try to stay warm. Have a great day, and don't forget our Veterans tomorrow. They make our lives so much better!

First Snow

2008-11-06T13:20:00.004-07:00

We did not get the snow we were expecting - which is fine by me. I did receive a photo of three of our grand kids having some fun with the first snow of the year. The date was actually in October... but anytime is a good time to build a snowman - grass and all! I used Vicki AWP's Merry Mistletoe kit, which is available at Scrap 'N Art in the November/December issue... it is worth taking a moment to register. There are loads of interesting tips, ideas and the occasional kit. Check it out!

I had a pretty laid back Birthday. Hubby took me to dinner at our fav local restaurant - the ONLY local restaurant. It was yummy, and we ran into some friends, so I rather enjoyed myself. Thanks for the happy birthday wishes here and in my email. Y'all ROCK! No I have to go see if I can find some Photoshop CS4 in my mailbox...

Funny Story - Hubby ordered the CS4 well in time for my bday - but it had not been released, and shipping was delayed. It obviously was not a secret - but he made the cutest page to wrap as my gift. Do you remember the old game of Concentration (TV show?) Here is his attempt. I thought it was funny. It did take me a minute to figure out how it connected, but I got there.

Typical engineer!!!

Time to go do something productive.

Have a great day!

Houston - We Have Lift off!

2008-11-04T09:43:00.008-07:00

My photo is not the usual work of art... but the bread sure was quite tasty ~ thank you very much! I feel quite accomplished! I did add a bit of Rosemary to the dough (in the liquid before ever adding the flour). It added a subtle taste that I quite like. We did have the virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping. It was a lovely compliment to our steaks. I am glad I gave it the second try. It was well worth it. Thank you Mrs. Miles for sharing!

I am so relieved that we have finally finished with the wood. It brings my heart such joy, as well as my back. LOL! They are calling for snow tonight, so it is none to soon. Snow, I am not sure if I am ready for snow, but I guess when you live in Northwest Montana, it is inevitable. On thing for certain, we will stay warm.

Yesterday, I took a stroll down to the neighbors place with the dogs. Max is quite the "crazy dog" when he gets on a mad run! Fortunately he has never run into me. I am thinking he could do some serious damage. Today I played around and made a layout. I used Barbara's (Just Passing Through) Autumn Leaves papers and frames, Olivia Dorazio created the guilded leaves, and the font I used is Guttenburg MF. Max is in the front (duh!) and Morgan is bringing up the rear.

I'm a little boring today. The fire is lit, and I think I am going to wrap up in a blanket and hang out by the fire. Have an awesome evening everyone!

The Great Bread Adventure

2008-11-03T08:59:00.012-07:00

Here is where we stand on the "great bread adventure" ~ Saturday was out of the question as I had a reaction to my flu shot. I found myself in bed the entire day. I am much better now. Yesterday, I realized I had no yeast, so I made plans to go to the Mercantile to get it (well before noon). As I was preparing to head out, I got a phone call from a friend who needed my help locating a file on her computer. Two hours later, I was able to get to the store. I returned home pulled out the ingredients, and mixed the H2O with the yeast and Kosher salt (yes - have Kosher salt for Christmas Prime Rib). I also broke up some Rosemary to have inside the bread. Ready for the flour... Silly Eileen, "YOU KNOW you should measure things out on the side just in case ~ "Ring Ring" your niece calls and has questions about her company logo and gift certificates you are helping her create... too late, flour is in water, was that the 2nd half cup or the 4th - equaling two cups? Oh I don't know, let's just split the difference!"

Oh, did I mention? Genius me (who should have probably stayed in bed yesterday too... ) decided wheat flour would be better than white... I used to make bread years ago... that hard stuff where you kneed - punch down - let it rise some more... etc" I knew - back then that you could do as much as 1/2 the wheat flour to the 1/2 white flour - as in 3-ish cups of wheat to 3 1/4-ish cups of white. Now do you think Eileen gave that any thought at all while she was putting the flour into the water instead of a side bowl for accuracy. Oh no, that would make too much sense! Do you think Eileen plugged the words "can I substitute wheat flour for white flour in bread recipes?" into a google search - Oh no... again too logical. Had I done so... this is what I would have found out:

Can I substitute whole-wheat flour in an all white flour bread recipe?

href="http://www.cayneshousewares.com/faq/faq_food_processors.shtml" rel="nofollow">FAQ-Food Processors
Yes. You can substitute up to 50% whole wheat flour for white flour in the bread recipe that is in your food processor instruction book. So, if your recipe calls for 4 cups all-purpose flour, you can use 2 cups whole-wheat flour plus 2 cups all-purpose.

The real bummer is that I planned dinner around this bread. I made Spaghetti sauce, mine to be served on spaghetti squash - hubby's on linguine... a lovely salad and so hoped to have this amazing bread for the garlic bread.

So today I start from scratch, as I am NO QUITTER! Have I mentioned that before? ROFL!!!!

an added note - the bread has been mixed and is on the rise. It is a sunny day in the neighborhood - after buckets of rain yesterday. Mr E and I are headed out to finish up the work. We would have finished Saturday, but half the work crew was down (me).

Tomorrow is election day in the states. So all you Americans get your butts out and vote. It matters! When I wake up on my birthday (Wednesday) I want it to be a happy one - so vote for the "correct" candidate please... and I am not going to tell you who that is in my opinion... I have to laugh... on way too many occasions, we get phone calls from one of the parties asking who we plan to vote for. I know it what they do, but if our votes weren't to be private, why then do we go into the booth and close the curtain, and seal our vote anonymously? Just curious!?

Have a happy one everyone, I am off to play in the woods.