i make things

Ashton at MOA

I babysat Ashton on Saturday (Apr 18th) for pretty much a half a day.

He was a complete joy! Happy, fun, playful, talkative, engaging, interested. He was so much fun.

I was so excited to get the chance to watch him. Usually I can't because I don't respond quick enough to the text from Nick or I have something going on, or someone closer watches him. (He has babysitters that are literally 5 minutes away and I'm more like 30 minutes)

I decided instead of sitting at home that I would take him to the Mall of America to check out the Sea Life Aquarium and do a little shopping. I thought he'd get a kick out of all the fishies.

He was excited even before we got in to see the fishies.

He LOVED the jellfish. I pushed him right up against the glass tubes and he could reach over in his stroller and touch the glass so it was like he was touching the fish.

He'd reach over and touch one and then look at me and smile. Then he'd talk baby to me about it. It was precious.

He thought the crabs were neat. I encouraged him to say crab. He tried but it was more like "cab" instead of "crab". He's little though.

I thought this purplish/blackish seahorse was cool.

This trip was fun for me too. I love aquariums.

They didn't move as much as the jellyfish so he wasn't as interested in them.

Often times he'd just stare away at the fishies swimming by. The sea tunnel was the coolest because fish were surrounding you from side to side and even above your head.

I pointed out the shark swimming above and he'd throw his head back and point and babble on about it.

da dum, da dum, dum I had a very "Jaws-like" moment seeing that shark swim right above my head.

The bottom-feeding shark, that's what I called it, was weird looking. When it swam over the top it look like a real mouth talking to you.

We Love You! smoochie smoochie smoochie

Fish lips! After I saw these two fish "kissing" I tried to teach Ashton how to do fish lips. He couldn't quite get the hang of it but he sure loved watching me do it.

Cool blue frogs. The colors were incredible. How does a blue frog hide on a tree stump?

Happy as a clam he was.

I picked him up and pressed him against the glass to see the evil eye of the gator poking out of the water.

I'm watching you.

"Just a bite!" - think Finding Nemo. Just a morsel.

Me and the squirt. Who wasn't sure what I was doing grabbing him and telling him to look at the camera for a picture.

Those eyes get me. Such a rich chocolate brown color and he just stares into you like he can see and understand your inner workings. He's been like this since he was little.

aaaaaand...he's a little stinker. Likes to smile and flirt with the ladies. In the shoe store he smile at all the passerby's and they'd say, "What a cute kid." He just ate that up.

We had a really good day. He napped on the way up so he was ready to go.

We probably spent a good 1 or 2 in the aquarium. Then got a chocolate covered strawberry which he absolutely devoured; both the chocolate and the strawberry.

Walked around and hit my favorite stores: DSW, Barnes & Noble (bought him a fun noisy moving turtle pull-toy, cuz I'm an aunt and can spoil him.), Lush, Loft, Ann Taylor and Victoria's Secret.

Stopped for Mac 'n Cheese at Noodles & Co. He didn't want any part of that so he ate some goldfish instead.

We splurged on Coldstone later on he kept wanting more and more. He'd open his mouth and I'd put the spoon in and rattle it up and down on his teeth. He just squealed with laughter...and I did too because it was hilarious and cute.

I kept him entertained a lot of the time. Pushing the stroller around back and forth, making noises, singing and doing the actions to little red caboose (girl scout camp song), talking to him, trying to teach him new words like "ready, set, go" which turned into me saying "ready, set" and him saying, "go" and thrusting his arm in the air.

Funny story. While I was in VS his daddy called wondering where we were. "I'm in VS with your son. bahahaha!"

He's so darn cute. And playful. and Fun. I Love him.

It was a really good day!

 

Real Life Me: Scrapbook Layout

Today's layout was inspiration from Cathy Zielske and Ali Edwards.

Cathy had a Monday scrapbooking post with an old layout that she had done awhile back. It's basically a questionnaire about yourself. She included a free download of the questions and I thought, "why not?" I haven't done anything about me for awhile, might as well.

Its quick. It's easy and I can embellish as little or as much as I want.

Here's my simple layout.

In Cathy's she did a single picture of herself but I decided that after seeing Ali's selfie layout in her Story Kit for April called "click" I thought I would do that instead. She printed out a bunch of selfie's in 3x4 format and filled an entire 2-page 12x12 layout with them. I didn't want to go that far but I did want put print out some of my favorites from the last year or so.

I cropped all of these pictures to 3x4 inches and printed them out on a 4x6 card. One of them I ended up not using because I didn't like it as much as the others and 5 is a party and 6 is a crowd. :)

 

Here's the left-hand side. After choosing my pictures I chose some very low key 3x4 cards to include. They are all from Ali's Story Kit's. I believe I used all of the cards from the "click" story kit.

I moved the cards around until I got it the way I wanted it. I didn't do anything special just rounded the corners using the 1/2" corner rounder on my crop-a-dile and glued them down.

If you notice I didn't center the cards I put the middle row slightly higher than the rest. I liked how that looked plus the 3 cards at the top weren't hurt at all by making them smaller and having them "fall off" the top of the page.

The Top:

I left the selfie card alone because I thought it made enough of a statement and I didn't want to fill it with embellishments because it would take control of the layout. I didn't want it to be the focus. I wanted the pictures to be the focus.

BTW - I love that picture of me reading on the left. I love it. It's so me. Sitting in a corner by the window with natural light, reading by myself in the fall. Wearing my favorite twins hat, my wool socks and reading a romance novel. I'm comfortable and into my book.

The top right I had to crop the picture but I didn't care I had plenty of "white space" in the picture that I could crop out without losing the integrity of the image.

P.S. It's one of my favorite images from my latest trip to the Pacific Northwest. I'm happy. I don't look fat and I'm out in the woods were I love to be and feel most at home and at peace.

The Middle:

The Capture this card had a different white star on it but I didn't really like it and I wanted to make a visual triangle with the other page to "connect" the two so I punched out a star from kraft paper and stapled it down. Then I added the date of the layout under it because, quite honestly, I didn't know where else to put the date and that seemed like a good spot.

This greenish-colored polka dot pattern needed something. Not too loud but not too quiet or it would be lost on the page. Overpowered by the other more over-whelming embellishments.

To remedy that I used a thicker see-through white star that was large but would not be a visual focus. I added the "Life is made of moments" phrase sticker from an Ali kit and stapled it down.

 

The bottom card is as is. I didn't add anything to it just left it. I liked how it helps draw the focus to the middle picture. It didn't need anything else.

Here is the right side.

Just some basic questions about me right now. Some of them I could have changed like "childhood ambition" as that likely won't change as I get older. That's why I changed "first job" to "current job". I thought it would be fun to do this again in 5 years or so just to see how the answers change.

These two items served as a way of linking the two pages together using a visual triangle. Plus the page looked pretty boring with no embellishment.

I used a lot of repetition on this page as well.

1. I used the stars.
2. The card on the top and the bottom both are aligned with the cards on the left-hand side. So The top card is touching the edge of the paper and the bottom is slightly off the edge.
3. The cards both have rounded corners.

Thank you for looking and I hope you got some inspiration from this layout. If you'd like to see more click on the Craft box in the navigation bar above then click on Scrapbooking in the drop down.

Thanks for stopping. Hope you come again! Any questions or comments please leave them below.

 

 

 

Project Life 2013: February

Project Life 2013 February.

This month was fun and busy so this spread is huge. HUGE! I couldn't find pics to support only one layout so I did a couple.

The header is a picture of crayon art that I made. I used the white space of the heart for the header. February is my own handwriting (I turned it into a brush in photoshop so I could size it.)

Layout #1

Left side

I used the Best Moments of to sum up my February (scraplifted the card idea from Cathy Zielske. She has a free December download of a December card. I used that idea to make ones for all the months)

Found out that Nick and his Girlfriend were having a baby! So exciting and such a shock.

Right side.

One of my favorite pics of the boys. Dad started stripping them down for their bath. The differences between the two boys who are only 3 days apart always surprises me.

These two cards are one's I made in photoshop. If you'd like the .jpg file please leave a comment with your email and I'll send it to you.

February #2

Lots of pictures of the nieces and nephews during february so I did an entire spread just on that. I made this project life card as well. I got some inspiration from Pinterest.

Right side. More nieces and nephews...I have a lot of them not to mention lots of cousins.

This is a cousin. I got to see him playing basketball which was nice because usually I don't.

I made these cards as well.

Love this pic of Grace. Usually purple, her favorite and wearing purple. Concentrating so much on her big heart cookie.

February #3...I know it's a lot but there was so much stuff going on I couldn't cut it down. My family is huge and I didn't want to leave anything out.

For instance. The left-hand side of this page was Henry's baptism. Can't leave that out.Notice I put the baptism invite card in with a picture of my gift to Jamie and Henry.

The right-hand side was Traci's birthday. Can't leave that out.

I made this PL card as well.

Used a big 4x6 card and added an instagram picture. I'm always looking for ways to add the square picture without it looking odd amongst the other 3x4 and 4x6 images. this one fit nicely in that quote circle.

Right-hand side was all about the last year of Delta Phi Scrappa, a scrapbooking retreat up near Brainerd at the Grand View Lodge. It's epic. It's so much fun. I wish someone would take it over and do it again. So many ladies, so much creativity and not just the scrapbook layouts, I'm talking the decorations, skits, table decor.

A cool picture of my sisters, mother and I. They had a pro photographer up there that would do mini shoots. We took advantage of that.

Another project life card that I made. The colors of Delta Phi Scrappa were black and white polka dot and pink. I had a lot of fun doing this month's spreads.

If you'd like any of the .jpg files please let me know and I'll email them to you.

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon or check out some of my other project life spreads by click on the navigation bar above under Crafts/Project Life.

 

 

 

 

Make a Card Monday: Thank you

This week's card is all about the thank you. Thank you for coming. Thank you for the gift. Thank you for house-sitting. Thank you for dinner. Thank you for the flowers. Thank you for being you.

I think this basic design will cover all manner of thank yous. I got the inspiration from a pin on Pinterest. I thought...this is so simple but it's elegant and gets to the point. I'm sold.

So here's the designs I came up with for my card stash.

p.s. I'm really loving this Make a card monday. It's really forced me to sit down and take some time and make some cards. I'm not spending a ton of time on them either. I probably spend more of my time wasting away on Pinterest than actually working on this card.

I made 4 this time. 2 with cutout writing and 2 using the leftover letters. Why waste paper right? Plus I get 2 more cards out of the deal.

So the first two.

This is a very basic design. All I did was use my silhouette to cut out the title and banner.

1. Set up a design page with the settings of your card laid out flat. I used a card with a 10"x6.5" size.
2. Type "thank" in Rockwell font size 72.
3. Type "YOU" in capital letters, Rockwell font, size 100.
4. Add your banner image below. I downloaded the echo park pennant banner for this project. Resize to fit under the YOU.
5. Group your images and use the "align center" to make them centered evenly.
6. Move your grouped image around on the right-hand side of the card until you have it in the location you want it. I just eyeballed it.
7. If you want the banner to cut all as one you will need to weld the triangles to the rope. A. Use your mouse to draw a box around the banner. B. Click on Release compound path in Modify. C. Select the rope piece and drag it down until it sits on top of the triangles. C. Draw a box around the group. D. Select Weld in Modify. Walah! Done.
8. Cut out your image.

I made one card using a blank white card and the other from a sheet of kraft cardstock.

I decided that I needed something behind the thank you because it looked very plain and kind of boring so I thought I'd add some tulip pictures from a trip I recently took. Nothing says thank you like flowers so it seemed fitting.

This is the first picture I used. An entire field of red tulips. I thought having a picture full of color would be perfect for the background.

When I laid the red tulip picture behind the kraft cardstock I didn't like it as much so I decided to print another picture of purple tulips. That worked much better.

I had two options here: I could either glue down the picture on the back of the cover page or on the inside page. I chose to glue it to the backside of the cover. I thought if I wanted to write any notes I couldn't do it very cleanly on top of the picture. Also there wouldn't be a whole lot of room underneath the picture. You know, if I'm long-winded that day, or something.

Notice that I trimmed down the side of the picture. My picture printed out 6 inches wide and my card is only 5 inches wide. So I needed to trim it. Before I cut I made sure that my picture covered all of the thank you on the front. Next, I closed the card and drew a line on the picture where the edge of the card was. Then I knew exactly where to cut it.

Now just put glue on the backside cover. I use an e-z runner for my tape. It's easy, quick and puts down as little or as many sticky tape lines as I want.

Press down on the front of the card to adhere the front to the picture. Before doing this, I lightly closed the cover and made sure the picture was exactly where I wanted it then pressed down enough for it to adhere permanently.

I love how it looks too. Very elegant and simple but fun. You could add a red or green border if you like but I ended up not doing that. I wanted to keep it simple.

It wouldn't take you long to make several of these cards once you figured out which print you wanted. I saved my silhouette page so that I could pull it up later if I wanted to make more of these cards.

Also, you could do whatever color cardstock you wanted and trim it down to fit in your envelope.

This is the picture behind the kraft-colored card.

Next I had the leftover letters from the two cards I cut out. So I thought I'd turn those into a couple cards. No sense wasting those letters.

Since I was using flower pictures I figured I might as well continue that trend.

I printed out a tulip picture and glued it onto the front cover of a card. I picked an image that was pretty all on it's own. For the previous cards I had to use pictures with smaller images of tulips, ex. the entire field of tulips vs. this one that shows only a half dozen or so and a closer level.

I used my xyron sticker maker to adhere the letters. I didn't want to try the tape runner or use glue dots or a glue pen. That seemed way too messy for me.

That was very easy and simple. I love the outcome and I'm glad I have these on hand for any thank you's I might need to send. Note: I added a punched butterfly to fill the space on the first card.

Thanks for reading this post. Have a great day!

If you have any comments or questions leave them below.

 

Pacific Northwest Road Trip: Day 5: Edition 5: Cape Perpetua - Devil's Churn,

Cape Perpetua has some beautiful and rocky coastline. One particular stop was at Devil's Churn near Yachats, Oregon along Highway 101. This stop has many different things you can hike to and check out: Devil's Churn, the Spouting Horn in Cooks Chasm, Good Fortune Cove and Thor's Well. Not mention it's touted as being the highest spot on the coast at 800 feet.

 

The drive along this particular part of the coast was scenic and beautiful. Definitely a must do if you are in the area. You are driving along the edge of the coast high up on the cliffs with a rock face on your left (if you are driving south on Hwy 101).

Devil's Churn area is run by the Siuslaw National Forest.

There is a trail you can walk down onto the rocky coast to see the Devil's Churn as well as view the sweeping coastline. This is looking toward the north.

This was part of the trail that zig-zags down the coast to get to the rocky coast including tide pools.

Moss, ferns and grasses are plentiful along these trails down to the sea.

First stop for me was Devil's Churn, a narrow opening where waves churn and buck against the rocky coastline. It's fascinating but a little dangerous. You have to be aware of the sneaker waves. If you get too close to the edge one could come in, splash you, grab you and drag you out to see...or even worse churn you and smash you up against this cauldron of ocean water.

 

 

I walked down to the churn and got fairly close but not as close as that group on the right. I believe they were drenched at least a couple of times. I didn't really need to get my camera equipment wrecked so I stayed at a safe distance away.

Plus, I promised my Aunt I wouldn't do anything too dangerous and end up like the thousands of tourists she hears about that die because they underestimate nature.

The backside of the Devil's Churn.

 

 

 

It really is impressive. I could have sat there most of the day just watching the swirling and churning.

 

A couple close ups. I love there was one part of the Churn were the moss wasn't rubbed off by the waves. It was so incredibly bright and green like a shamrock.

I got lucky on the image at the right and caught a rainbow. I love that juxtaposition. The intense and wicked looking waves that produce a soft and beautiful rainbow.

This image I had to add because of two reasons. 1. You are often facing the sea watching all it's majesty then you turn around and face inland and you see this beautiful scenery. Trees and hedges against a blue sky. The complete opposite of the sea 2. A reminder to look 360 degrees around you instead of just facing forward. You could miss something cool like this.

This, I believe is good fortune cove...I think. There are a couple inlets that are similar to Devil's churn along this stretch of beach. All of them you can get to at low tide.

But be careful they will drench you and drag you off to sea if you aren't careful. I saw it a couple of times in the short time I was there.

In fact, you see those ladies on the upper left? Yep those 2 small people. Who I suppose you can't tell are ladies but I know they are. I was standing up there talking to them and they were standing there with their camera ready watching this guy photographing Thor's Well. He was so close to it he was standing in a pool of water with waves hitting him constantly.

The one woman said to me, "I'm just waiting to get it on video when he gets dragged off into the ocean. That picture will be worth lots of money." She was serious. I laughed but it was true. I stood there with those two waiting for a couple minutes, watching it myself.

Another inlet. All quiet and serene...

Until KAPOW! Huge wave rolls back in here and crashes against the rock-sides. Pretty cool eh?

I got those nice ladies to take a picture of me. I'm nowhere near the danger zone. I'm up on a hill overlooking the scenery.

Until I decided I wanted to walk back to the Spouting horn. Then I made my way down to the rocks.

Next stop was the spouting horn in cook's chasm. It's basically a hole in the rocks. When the tide brings water into the chasm it's violent waves pushes sea water up into this hole from the bottom causing it to shoot up like a geyser. It was cool.

Highway 101 goes right along the coast and you can stop along the highway and see the spouting horn. You don't necessarily have to walk down onto the rocks if you don't want to or can't.

These are the stairs that lead down to the spouting horn and the rocky coast. There are tide pools all over the place. Unfortunately the tide was too high for me to check them out.

One of the coolest sites that is right next to the spouting horn was Thor's Well.

It's a sink-hole on the edge of the ocean. When the tide comes in, the hole fills up, then when the tide recedes the water is sucked out of the bottom all in a matter of seconds. It's impressive and scary. I kept imagining if I got sucked into that hole. I would never come up again. I'd be sucked out to see for sure.

See that photography up there? That's who those ladies were waiting to get sucked out to see. He was closer to the well before. In this shot he had finally backed up some.

This is the well emptying.

This is the well full of water.

It's starting to empty now.

I was fascinated by this. I took a video of it but unfortunately it got deleted. :(

I hope you enjoyed these pictures. If you'd like to see more of my trip all you have to do is click on the picture on the right-hand side of the blog under the feature section called "Pacific Northwest Road Trip". It will take you to a page that has a link to each post for the trip.

Have a great day!

Pacific Northwest Road Trip: Day 5: Edition 4: Yaquina Head Lighthouse

I made a stop in Newport, Oregon to see the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

I wasn't able to actually tour the lighthouse but I did get to see the surrounding area which was cool. 

I walked down from the headland to the beach which was COVERED with little black stones. There was a volunteer working who explained that the beach was protected so you couldn't take any stones home with you but you could take the driftwood.

I took neither. I was there for the views not the goods.

I was lucky enough to have a nice lady take my picture with the lighthouse.

When you are by yourself you have a couple options for getting yourself in a shot:

1. Set your camera with timer on a rock or the ground and hope it doesn't get wrecked by a passerby or fall off the rock while you run back to your spot.
2. Cart around an awkward tripod and set it up which isn't exactly fun.
3. Ask a stranger to do it for you and hope it turns out.
4. Try doing a selfie by flipping your camera around, stretching your arms out like gumby and hoping your head isn't at a weird angle.

Black smooth stones and driftwood on this beach.

I had never been on a rocky beach like this until I came to the Pacific Northwest. I'm so used to southern beaches where it's smooth sand not large rough stones.

It was definitely an eye opener.

The tide was coming in slowly so I had to make my way back to the stairs. Right here it looks like I have plenty of time but the ocean was much closer to the stairs than this piece of the beach. So I had to beat it back.

A couple of black and whites because I like to think it shows the texture and activity better than color.

After being on the beach I wanted to walk to the top of the hill and look out over the coast.

This is looking out towards the south as you walked up to the top.

There was a small path that zig-zagged it's way up the hill through grass and brush.

I like the juxtaposition of the rough rocks with the green smooth grass with the delicateness of the flowers.

At the top! Here's a selfie of me looking out towards the ocean.

It was super windy up there. My hair was blowing all over the place.

This is a look at the Northern coast making my way back down.

Yaquina was neat. I'd stop here again.

At the lighthouse were volunteers looking toward the ocean trying to spot the gray whale migration. I stood there talking to a very knowledgeable lady who showed me what to look for (a spout of water kind of like a miniature geyser) and told me all about the whales.

The male gray whales start the migration first. The females stay with their young down in Baja California. They need to build up the strength of the babies so they can make the journey up to Alaska.

Apparently there is this cover down in Baja that has a strong-moving current. The mama whale while push her young into this cove with current which increases their strength and stamina for the trip up north.

When they are ready, the mama and babies work their way north.

I never knew that and was greatful I learned so much and got to see some whales migrating.

Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope you'll come again.

Jen

 

 

Smoked eggs wrapped in bacon

MMmmmmmm....

Smoked eggs wrapped in bacon. Oh. Yeah.

Here's the super hot Chef, Bruce. Who also happens to be my boyfriend. Ain't he cute? :) I think I fell for the dimples first. Did I say dimples, I meant face pits. LOL Nah I'm kidding I fell for him because he was so nice...the dimples definitely helped though. :)

Enough about Mr. Hottie.

A close up for you. Oh my. Hooahhh (think Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman).

If that doesn't make your lips water you either don't like bacon, which should be a crime, or you don't like eggs, which is also a little shameful. (I jest, you can like what you want. I just happen to be a self-proclaimed bacon lover and bacon snob.)

Pretty simple recipe.

• Hard-boil some eggs. We usually go with a dozen. A nice round number. LOL
• Put them in cold water until they are chilled.
• Peel off shell then wrap them in bacon. Use the thin bacon it bakes quicker.
• Poke a toothpick through both sides of the bacon and eggs so that the bacon will stay on.
• Then smoke in the smoker for 20 minutes or so.
• We usually end up finishing in the oven for about 5 minutes.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I will say depending on your equipment and altitude you will have to play around with the times on this one. Could be more of less depending on how much smoke you want or how well-done you want your bacon.

I'm thinking about working on a batch with some type of maple-glaze on the bacon.

Enjoy.

This guy could probably eat the whole dozen, he loves them that much.

Thanks for stopping by and reading this post. Please stop by again.

Any comments or questions leave below. :)

The Kiddos Turned 4!

Itty bitty cupcakes for these two...cause 4 year-olds don't need an entire piece of cake. Image what that kind of sugar would do to them. LOL

Jacob was being a little turd and wouldn't let anyone take his picture. So naturally Daddy came in behind him and tried to get him to smile. The little stinker.

I bought Korby a superman t-shirt. Lately he's into the Avengers and Paw Patrol. He like super hero characters too but I couldn't find him a cool Avengers shirt that I liked.

Jacob is into playing on the ipad so that's what he got. He opened his gift so gingerly and you could tell he wasn't quite sure what it was until Mom took it out of the box. Then his eyes lit up and he gave us that huge smile of his, from ear to ear and was super excited. He clapped his hands and bounced in his chair.

On to the bowling!

Jacob getting his turn at bowling. He did pretty good pushing that ball down. Auntie Shelly's in the background with Bruce being goofy.

That's me and my rear-end bowling. The fam. likes to make fun of me for my style. I have a very high leg kick.

That's another one and of me and Bruce.

A picture of the scoreboard. I was doing pretty good. I think I bowled my best score ever. Somewhere around 136 or so. Bruce still beat me. He really turned it on in the end.

We probably had a good 4+ lanes so we could accommodate everyone.

Here's some of the other guests. I didn't get a picture of everyone because I was trying to make sure I got some time just to visit and be a part of the fun.

 

Clara and Korby. Sister and Brother.

Jack...omg he's getting so big and looking older everyday. Soon he will be taller than me.

Uncle Chris giving Clara smooches.

While I'm in the background sticking my tongue out at her. bahahaha

And lastly these two lovely ladies. I switched it to black and white because the color was off and I liked black and white.

*note: I used A Beautiful Messes' photo actions on these pictures. Sometimes I like to play around and today was one of them. They added a bit of pop to the pictures.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back soon.

If you have any comments or questions please post below.

 

 

 

Pacific Northwest Road Trip: Day 5: Edition 3: Devil's Punchbowl State Natural Area

This was a very quick pitstop as I headed down the coast. I read about the Devil's punchbowl on Roadtrippers.com and thought it would be cool to see, so I followed the road signs and made a pit stop. You have to drive off highway 101 and through a wooded area to get to the Devil's punchbowl. It's off of a headland.

There is even a little mom&pop restaurant you can get clam chowder at...unfortunately for me it was closed but I wasn't really stopping for chowder just the scenery.

It occurred to me that you couldn't really even tell where the punchbowl was so I drew an arrow. Do you see it now? That seemingly little indent. That's the top of the bowl.

This is what it looks like from above.  The waves crash int and swirl and churn and foam like a witches cauldron brewing.

This is at low tide. At high tide it's much more ferocious and the bowl fills up with salty ocean water.

The Oregon State Parks website says this, "The punch bowl was probably created by the collapse of the roof over two sea caves, then shaped by wave action."

While I was checking out the punchbowl or witches cauldron, as I like to call it, there were volunteers scouring the ocean looking for the gray whale migration.

I ended up talking to one of them for over 15 minutes about the migration, where I was from, what I had seen, etc.

I thought that was pretty neat. People just volunteer to stand on the headland for several hours a day with a pair of binoculars plastered to their faces searching for a glimpse of the gray whale migration answering questions from sight-see'ers.

These are pictures from the surrounding coastal areas.

Notice the image on the left was taken into the sun and the one on the right was with the sun at my back. When you're on vacation you don't always get to be selective or have ideal picture-taking conditions. Me, I work with what I have and usually get a rotten picture or two.

You'll also notice that it was raining for part of the time while I was out on the headland which means I have the occasional water-spot on my lens blurring my picture. No matter, it just reminded me that it was quite rainy out there.

 

Big Basin Redwoods State Park - Scrapbook Layout

Big Basin Redwoods State Park was a glorious and beautiful park with a windy tree-line scenic roadway. I knew I had to try and do a page that was filled with big print and big pictures but keeping the  natural and simple format of the forest. I didn't want to take away from the gloriousness of nature (is gloriousness even a word?......ok, it is. I googled it on dictionary.com)

Here's the full layout. I used a humungous picture of the road that twisted and turned through the redwood forest and 3 - 4x6's of some of the details of the park and of the trees.

I also decided to keep all of the pictures touching and make it one fluid layout. I liked the idea of them touching. It felt like when I was there, huge and nature surrounding everything.

The left-side. Not particularly interesting on it's own but together with the right side it looks fun.

If you notice I allowed the large picture to stick out over the brown background. I did that specifically because I liked how it seemed to make the picture feel like it was shooting off the page...which to me was how I saw the park. The trees shot up from the ground and it was like they just kept going and going and going and going up towards the sky. Tall as a skyscraper.

I put a few minor embellishments on the page. At the top I put the brown fleece leaf. (I can't remember where I bought it.) I was so excited to use this. I've had that in my stash for years, just waiting for the right opportunity to use.

On the bottom I added a couple phrase stickers on kraft paper with that cool little brown compass...that I also have been waiting for years to use. I knew at some point I'd find the right purpose for it.

I liked both of those embellishments because they fit the theme and they didn't detract from the entire page.

On the right-hand side of the left page I punched out a butterfly from some green paper I found.

p.s. I am not posting links to the products because they are several years old and I can't seem to find them anywhere on the web.)

Right side of the page.

I knew I wanted to add some additional pictures. 1 of the cool bark (far left), 2 of me next to those monster trees (middle) and 1 of the father Redwood tree (far right).

I kept forgetting about journalling. So eventually I dug around in my stash and found an old 4x6 card from a piece of patterned paper and cut it up to fit in the remaining spot on the right side. It fit perfectly.

I added a couple embellishments to the page. The other brown fleece leaf (the first one was on the upper left corner, this one was on the bottom right.)

I added another compass brad to the inside of the camera on the journalling strip and a cool brown travel/adventure sticker to the top of the picture.

All in all, this one was simple and reflected what I wanted it to. Sometimes pictures say a thousand words so you only need a handful in your journalling. :)

Thanks for stopping by my blog and reading this post. Please check the navigation bar at the top for more scrapbooking posts or the archives on the right-hand side of the page for more posts.

Please come again and if you have comments feel free to leave them.

Jen