Stacked Stones Studio!

Well...here I was thinking I was doing so well from my surgery -- and I guess I pushed things a little to much. Apparently, I pulled an internal incision -- and while it is painful -- the doctor says it will heal just fine if I will stay off of my feet for a couple of days. So -- here I have sat -- moving from the bed to the couch...to a little bit of time in my scrapbooking room (sitting VERY still in my chair). I feel like I have gone back to the days right after my surgery...I hate it! Anyway...I did get my layout finished that I started at the crop last Friday night. The layout is about a little girl, named Danara, that Royce and I met in St. Petersburg, Russia. We both fell in love with her...and wanted to bring her home with us -- but it just wasn't a possibility. We met her in a Child in Danger shelter where she had been placed because she had been abused, her mother was in prison for drugs and her father was dead. I met her when I walked through the "dining" area ...

I am so happy I am a girl...for so many reasons. One of my favorite reasons is that it is ok for my to gushily happy over pretty things. My joy of the moment was brought about by the arrival these gorgeous jars of vintage buttons by Melissa Francis at Scrap It -- the most wonderful scrapbooking store and hang out place I have found. I brought the buttons home and enjoyed going through them...touching them and smiling when one or another of them reminded me of clothing my Mom or Grandmother (Jammy Jane) used to wear. The jar itself was too pretty to put away, so I had to find it a place of honor. It now resides beside my antique typewriter, vintage pen and ink and wax stamps sitting on my scrapbooking table. I smile everytime I look at it. Did I mention I LOVE being a girl?!?!?! Have a great day dear friends...and find joy in the moment and little things -- they pass way too soon.

I have a "love/hate" relationship with Saturdays. During the week, it seems like I am always looking forward to them because Saturday is a day that is supposed to "belong to me." But that is so rarely the case...they usually belong to my -- "LIST." I won't even bother to explain the list -- but it has been with me for a very long time...and sometimes comes in written format -- but other times it exists only in my head. Things that I SHOULD, OUGHT, MUST or HAVE to do. How an item gets on that list is a whole other process that I am not sure that even I understand...but I am real clear when it does finally make it on "the list." There is one other word that is occasionally associated with "the List" -- WANT...as in things I WANT to do. The perfect Saturday is when the things on "the List" -- all the SHOULD, OUGHT, MUST or HAVE TO do also are on the WANT TO portion of the List. This would be the "love" part of the r...

On a roll. I finished another lo tonight. In looking for the picture I used last night, I ran across a whole stack of my very favorite pictures that I have taken while working in orphanages in Russia. I have boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes (you get the idea) of pictures from more than 16 years of traveling throughout Russia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. If I were to think about it, as a very new scrapper I could be VERY overwhelmed with all the "resources" I have to work with -- or if you were to see it from my perspective -- "that I OUGHT" to get in a scrapbook as quickly as possible. It simply can't be done. However, and I guess fortunately, I have one box of my very favorites that I kept adding to as I took them and loved them -- for whatever reason. Last night I opened that box...and it just might be my Pandoras box. I LOVE the pictures in there -- because there is a story behind each one that means something to me. So, guess for a while, I will p...

What a lovely evening I have had. I knew that I wanted to spend some time scrapbooking -- but I really had intended to go a different direction entirely...even gone specifically to Scrap It to pick up some purple paper and embellishments so I could work on a lo from a recent trip to the Bahamas. Oh well...the best laid plans... As I sat down to work, my heart was drawn to a favorite picture I took a couple of years ago of a lady named, Tamara. I met her in the midst of a bitter winter in Siberia, Russia. She was pulling a cart filled with straw from one end of her village to the other where she had a very skinny cow that provided milk for all the children in the village. I was freezing cold despite all my thermal underwear, gloves, coat, scarf and hat. She on the other hand, had only a jacket and a scarf tied loosely around her head. Her eyes are what caught me. In a face that only partially showed the difficult life she had led thus far, were these incredibly joyful eyes. They danced....

There is much joy and celebration in my house tonight! My budgets are done, submitted and out of my hair....at least for now. Of course, there is the teeny weeny eenincie chance that The Board won't agree with everything I put in my budget -- so I have to leave a tiny crack in the door that would require me to drag them back out and rework them. However, for today....they no longer exist in my world! Woo Hoo! To celebrate, I came home and did just a quick and fun layout of my dog Anastasia and her personal watering dish...better known as my backyard fountain! It was fun and came together quickly...not the most sophisticated thing I have ever done -- but it gave me satisfaction to be able to say that I finished my budgets AND did a whole page lo in one day. I'm queen of my wooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrld!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So...I couldn't help myself. I had to turn these wonderful pictures of Weston into a scrapbook layout. It was fun...gave me an opportunity to try and do a "vintage" look. I am hoping to take several of our old family pictures and do something with them...but since most of my stuff has been "retro" oriented up until now, I needed to see what would happen when I went with a different style. So PLEASE, give me your feedback and ideas...I am a total sponge. The journaling under the saddlebags & pistol picture is basically from my blog.... Ok...onto other fun things...Yesterday was the Super Crop at my lss, Scrap It . It was my first time to go to the SUPER crop -- 10-10...a whole 12 hours of women, chatting, chocolate and scrapping...is that as close as we're gonna get to heaven here on earth or what?!??! Tracie Claibourne had a great "Layout Takeout" -- which people really loved. Have I mentioned what a talented lady she is? She has an eye for col...

For as long as I have known Weston, Tombstone has been his all-time favorite movie. He has also especially had an affinity for Doc Holiday. Tough on the outside -- but a softy at heart. That describes my Weston. Today, he got to BE Doc Holiday...for real. His high school theater class required him to come "in character" and stay that way all day long -- never breaking character. I am betting he managed that assignment quite nicely. As I took these pics, I saw a younger -- not so rascally or hardened Doc Holiday. It is fun to pretend...and while I guess I would want him to always be the kind of man that will champion "the right" -- I pray that he will not go down the sordid path that made Doc Holiday a lonely, sarcastic man who died too young. Ok enough philosophizing -- it was just fun.

I received a gift for Valentine's Day that I thought I would never get. I got to watch "my child" become a man and see him go out of his way to treat the special lady in his life to an evening of romance. He and his Dad are two peas in a pod. But in my experience, teenagers want to do their "wooing" in private...not in front of their Dad and his girlfriend. But Weston was all about he and his Dad doing this together. Now, given -- his Dad is the King of Romance and if a young man wanted to "do it right" he is pretty smart to go to the source. As a single gal -- and never having had any children there are so many things that I miss and yearn for...and one of them was watching as Weston (he has become like a son to me after knowing him for the past seven years of his life) move from being a boy to being a man. Last night they pulled it off. We were met at the door by two gentlemen dressed for romance. They then took us to the dining room which had a been...

I love my honey, Royce. But when I say that I love him -- there is so much more tied up with it than just "googley eyed" lu-uv. I respect, admire and trust him more than any man I know. He makes me laugh. He makes me think. He challenges my thinking. He doesn't mind being quiet (in fact, he sometimes prefers it! *smile*). He loves Jesus and seeks to follow Him every day. He is a leader. He is a peace maker. He is a gentle man. He is a feeder. He is romantic. He is a great Dad. Yeah...I know he isn't perfect. But then, neither am I -- and it seems our imperfections and quirks and strengths all seem to compliment each other...and fit together like a bit of a puzzle. I wanted to give him a Valentine that said all of this...and more (I'm NOT showing you what is written on the back). So, thanks to inspiration by Jenni Bowlin...and a lovely door prize from last Friday night's crop at Scrap It...I sat down and tried to pull it all together. Hope you a...

Happy Weekend Before Valentine's Day! I have been a slug (with the exception of laundry) in order to snuggle into my house and creative room and just do "fun Jann things." I went to the crop Friday night at Scrap It....which was wonderful. It was quiet -- like everyone was very contemplative. Most folks stayed away because of the snow scare -- so it was more intimate and I have to say that I quite enjoyed the lack of hustle and bustle. I got a couple of pages done in the "Treasure of Firsts" book for my friend Summer...which made me feel great. Ann had these great new embellies from 7 Gypsies that are REALLy arrows -- but in my mind are "spinners" so I went a little nuts and got one of each. I think I have a new addiction to 7 Gypsies things. I also splurged and got one of their kits -- which when I got home had some many wonderful "surprises" in it that I had to start thinking about what to do with it all. Also, I won the door prize ...

All boy, my nephew Tyler.  

My sweet niece, Lindsey 

Anastasia loves running water...my fountain became her personal water dish. 

Couldn't resist immersing myself in these gorgeous leaves.  

Ok...for a "creative" person, having to do budgets is one of the worst form of torture assigned to me. But, it is that time of year and like it or not...I have to do them. After YEARS of fighting the process, I have discovered that there are ways to make the process somewhat less painful. Don't laugh...these are not the kind of suggestions you find in a book about "doing better in business" -- these are just things that help me through the process. Buy a brand new notebook of graph paper (it helps me line the numbers up and keeps all my "figuring" together in one place. Also, there is something about a NEW spiral notebook that gives me the same thrill as getting new school supplies at the beginning of the school year. I say, every little bit of thrill helps under these circumstances. I go to a coffee shop and find a table where I can spread out. The chances of being interrupted are slim and the hustle and bustle of the coffee shop becomes "wh...

Hello sweet friends. I have been absent for a couple of reasons. I was traveling on business to a conference in Norfolk, VA (more on that later) I have used every free moment to get my home office cleaned out and reorganized to accommodate all of my scrapbooking supplies. The trip to attend and provide media support for the Worship Conference was phenomenal...but VERY tiring. The shortest day I put in was 18 hours...which isn't all that atypical when we are out at an event and responsible for setting up and manning a booth, providing media support for all general and breakout session as well as teaching classes. But for this gal who has for the past six weeks taken naps when my body needed them to suddenly be thrown in a place where "no naps allowed" was in force was very difficult. I came home and just crashed. But it was so totally worth it. The teaching was superb. Dr. Miles Monroe taught on what it means to be a resident of a "KINGDOM." Those of us t...