Three TEEN I can't believe it.

Got a few new LO done! Thought I would share...

10,000!!!!

OMG! When did that happen!? I have had over 10,000 visitors since I started this wild thing LESS than a year ago! If
and
this
is
a
B
I
G
if.....
I make it to 12,000 before my Blogiversary....
We might have to have a PARTAY!!!!
Thank you guys, for reading and loving me no matter what. It means SO MUCH!
~rachel

If you TAKE it,

I will Blog.
Lookie HERE!
My NEW and feels like we've known each other forever friend, Jennifer, took this photo on the SLY today....
Did you think I wouldn't BLOG it!? Isn't she the cutest? Yep.
It's so nice to have friends.
When we moved here, I was SO lucky that my best friend of only 6 months, stayed my friend. Janet and I really hit it off, and our friendship has survived the move. I'm SO lucky. Still, I hadn't really managed to make any friends here. It's one of the downfalls of moving to a small town. The people here are SO NICE. It's not that. They welcome you with open arms, and invite you into their community. The thing is, everyone here has either grown up here, or they HAVE their set of friends that they play with. It's not that they don't WANT you there, it's just that they don't think to call and ask. You really can only HAVE so many "close" friends. Thing is, we seem to have moved here at the same time as about three other families we've met this year! And we've all hit it off REALLY well. Even the guys. Which is saying something! There is nothing like having a friend that you can just drop in on when you feel like it. A friend who "won't judge"!
So Jen stopped by to kidnap me this morning, and because Travis had to go qualify at range today, I couldn't go with her to town. The best part about her? SHE STAYED WITH ME INSTEAD. I love that girl. She stayed with me in my greasy, zitty, unshowered, aunt flo is in town GLORY. and we had coffee, and she took pictures of Macs snuggling on me, and she took THIS. Thanks, Jen! I'm so glad that you are my friend!

Week 12 Deck of ME

Week 12 of Emily Falconbridge's Deck of me cards was I believe. There are so MANY things that I believe. I had a hard time finding ONE thing that I wanted to say. I decided to go a bit out of the box, and more self centered since this is, after all, a Deck of ME! LOL

I found THIS on my Memory Card

Ian used the self portrait mode on my camera! I had no idea. I love this picture I'm going to be scrapping it SOON.

How spent St. Patrick's Day

We had such fun on St. Patrick's Day! We went to our new friends house here in Reedsport, and we had an Irish Beer tasting, and potatoes~ YUM! I got a good pic of Travis and I.

I had this shirt made for Travis.

One of the beers we sampled. Don't even think it was REALLY Irish, but LOVE the name!

ArrogantBastard. My husband is holding the beer "Vanna" style so that you can see the label. NICE.

HAWAII!?!?

This is NOT me in Hawaii. I've NEVER been there. My MOM in the other hand...

SHE'S going to go AGAIN! For a whole LONG time. I don't even really know HOW long, because I keep blocking that from my memory. I get to babysit her dog. She's cute and all, but

NOT

H

a

w

a

i

i

Having the name Nani doesn't count. I'm really not bent so much about the fact that I don't get to go to Hawaii. It's not even that mom is going for the second time. I'm just really gonna MISS her. Silly. Because we don't even live in the same city anymore! I don't SEE her all the time. We've gone as long as she will BE gone before... somehow, on ocean between us is making it harder.

*sigh*

I

miss

her

A l r e a d y.

Has it been a MONTH already!?

Wow. It's been a month since I joined the read to me pledge on Jennifer's blog. When I joined, my goal was to read with my kids at bedtime. Funny, but Travis seems to have taken over that area of the night with our kids. He reads to them just about every night now, in funny voices, and even backwards through the books. At the end of a book, the kids wait in anticipation for him to suddenly SLAM the book shut. (I know, not very good stewardship, but the kids LOVE it) So while I personally, did NOT manage this challenge, my husband HAS. He even takes part of his dinner hour to tuck the boys into bed with a book. Pretty cool if you ask me. I say, mission accomplished.

Spring in my Livingroom

It's SPRING in my livingroom!
I made seed cups this year, for planting indoors before the frost season is past. To get a jump on the planting season. Look at them! They are just GROWING like crazy! I can't wait for the next sunny day, so I can plant them outside! I also need to make more cups. I've only just BEGUN to get those seeds planted!

Week 11 Deck of ME

Again, Emily! How do you do it!? I am enjoying EVERY SECOND of this Deck of Me challenge by Emily Falconbridge. Her prompt this week, was YOUR INITIAL. I took this chance to talk about my name in Spanish. I used paint this week, which is new for me. I used the paint and put my fingerprint on the card. I love that. Can't wait to see what you all do!

I'm sorry if I haven't replied.

I just wanted to take a moment to say that I'm sorry if you've ever commented and I haven't replied. It's the one thing about blogger that I really don't like. I can't always email you back if you comment on my blog. Sometimes I'd like to, but blogger notifies me of your comment, and unless you have chosen in your profile, to show your email address, I can't email you back. So here's what I wanted to say. If you have asked a question in a comment, please check back here in the comments area of the post you commented on. I will try to answer questions there. If you comment and I never reply, please know that I TRULY enjoy getting your comments. Maybe think about enabling your email to be shown. Blogger doesn't actually SHOW it here, but it will show up in a link that says email in your profile. Then when I or someone else clicks on that link, your email will show in the email form. If you have email showing enabled, then I can directly email you about your comments if I would like to, by hitting reply in the email blogger sends my to say that you've commented. I love hearing from you all! Just know that.

Tally Scrappin'!

So you've probably noticed that my blog is GREEN for St. Patrick's day!
I've been super busy with scrapping these days! Here's a few of the LO I've been doing! The first one is a tribute to SUPERnerd. He's the tech guy at TallyScrapper. For the grand opening of TallyScrapper, there was a challenge to make a LO using the website's design as inspiration. I decided to do this, and also gave a shout out to Weird Al and his song "White and Nerdy" by incorporating bubble wrap into the LO. The Toilet Paper is because the TallyPoints on TallyScrapper have been nicknamed TP. The picture is the Avatar that TallyNerd has. He is NOT Will Ferrel. That's just his avatar. Makes me smile.


This is the LO I did of Macs' birthday! The journaling is below.



I did this one for a challenge on TallyScrapper. I LOVE the way it turned out. The picture is my Mom and Dad in LAW. They look so CUTE!


This was a ScrapJack I did of KelliCrowe. Her LO of her son at age 8. It was also for a challenge called Hello My Name Is on TallyScrapper.com.


A LO of Ian. Telling him to handle his inner child with care.


My Cup of Love LO.


I did my first transparency with this one! I love that the background paper looks like an overlay!


My alter ego TallyHo on TallyScrapper.


So that's a LOT of what I've been up to! Happy St. Patty's Day!

I've Got My PARTY Hat ON!

I've got my PARTY hat on, Dude! It's the GRAND OPENING of TallyScrapper.com! That's RIGHT! It's gone HARD LIVE today! If you haven't been over to visit even WITH all my pushing, you've been missing out! Go today! There's a cyber crop, with prizes, and fun today at 12:00 Texas Time! Hope I see you there! I won't be able to come and play until later today. But I WILL BE THERE!

Busy, Baby!

I've been BUSY baby! Taking Pictures, trying out for Design Teams, Cleansing Domestic Domains, Enjoying the SUN and ocean AIR with my new girlfriends... I'm sorry I've neglected you! I had a baby shower to plan. One with first graders who were saying good bye to their teacher whose cutie patootie baby belly I was lucky enough to get to shoot. Her pics are on my flickr photos. You can look there for the rest if you want to take a peek! Em brought it to my attention that I hadn't blogged since SUNDAY! Thanks for the CONCERN, EM! Just kidding! sorry that I've been away so long! I really AM working on figuring out how to get that 25th hour out of the day. I'll let you know when I get it. SO.... WISH ME LUCK! I have submitted my pages for the TallyScrapper.com Design Team. YOU can try out for it too! It's an open call!

Week 10 Deck of ME

I can't believe it's week TEN! Emily had challenged us with ANOTHER great challange! The prompt this week is NOTE TO SELF. I have noticed that I need to PLUCK more... That is INDEED my UNPLUCKED eyebrow on the right hand side of the card. Yes. I took a PICTURE of it.

Magic

This is a picture taken by my Photography Hero. He named it Chrystal Tears. This has secret meaning to me. These Chrystals were my Grandma's. She had them all over. One of my favorite memories of her, is laying in her bed in Garden Grove, CA. She reaches up over our heads into the window, and spins a chrystal hanging there. We lay and watch the rainbows spinning all around us in the room. It's heaven. My photgraphy hero is my Uncle Lance. He must think of gramma when he sees Chrystals too. I think that's why he has titled this picture Chrystal Tears. I have been taking a lot of pictures lately. Makes me think of him. Haven't seen him since my Gramma died. I visit his gallery on line a lot. Looking at his photography takes me back to the darkroom. With the red light, and the smells of developing chemicals. There is magic in my uncle's pictures. Emotions captured there. Like his picture of Chrystal Tears. Somehow, they are wet. Warm because they are fresh. Forever because I will always remember. Comforting even though they are sad. I'm working on finding magic. I want to put it in my pictures.

Shedding a little LIGHT...

on a shady situation...

Karen!

I should have a PRIZE for you, but I guess instead I will have to think up a good eulogy, because you said you would

DIE

if I turned that lampshade into a HAT...

Well, I haven't been to a Red Hat FUNction in quite a while, so when I got the email saying that there was a Purple Pip Chick meeting, and there would be some shady things going on, you KNOW I wanted to go! Yes, we Purple Pips have been instructed to design a lamp shade for a hat. I bought mine at the thrift store for $0.95.

i AM the Baroness of Bargains!

The shade wasn't pink when I started, so I painted it, and added the right amount of froof and glitter. Then I decided that a GOOD lampshade hat should come with a pull string for any lightbulb moments I might be prone to while WEARING my hat. Somehow, I think my brilliant thoughts might come more often in such head dress. At anyrate, I put a chain on my hat, and put a pull on it JUST IN CASE. So that's what I've been up to! Now I'm off to bed!

Something's SHADY....

I know what you are saying.
"Rachel," you are saying, "WHAT are you doing with THAT?"
Well, I say to you.... You'll just have to WAIT and see.... It's NOT going to be a home decoration. I CAN tell you THAT.

Cheeeze

OK. I know I'm an adult, but I seriously LOVE Foster's Home for Imaginary friends. I found this artist while looking for some CHEEZE on line

Chocolate Milk by *ync on deviantART

THEN I found THIS!!!! If you never watch a you tube I put on my blog, please just watch this. Cheeze reminds me of Macs so much! This is only the first part of th episode, not the whole show....

Some pictures of MY ocean...

How much SPONGEBOB do YOU know?

Yep. I knew it. Knew it all!!!!! Bwahahahahahaha.....

Week 9 Deck of ME

This is my Week NINE Deck of Me challenge from Emily Falconbridge's blog! Her prompt this week was inspiration found! I have so many many things that give me inspiration, but the common denominator among them all, is that most of them are what I call THE LITTLE THINGS. I took a photo of a rose that I had taken last summer, and pointed out the dew on it with an arrow. On the back of my cards, I created a rainbow with my chalk, and made a list of just a few of my FAVORITE little things. I also chose the Queen of diamonds for this prompt, because of the LITTLE YELLOW flower she is holding in her hand. It's a little thing, but as you now know, those are the things that I love!

One Beach and a Wedding

I had the privilage this Saturday, to photograph my friend Kerry's Wedding. It was so much fun, and I took over 150 pictures. I wish I had been able to get more. Next time I do this for a friend, I won't bring my kids! LOL The wedding was here on the Oregon Coast, and it could not have been a more beautiful day. The sun was a challenge for me, but for a wedding, it was STUNNING. Here are a few of the shots that I got.

The father of the Bride walking her down the sand...


A Prayer before we started.


At the water's edge...


Her ring and then,

His.


Dusting that sticky sand off. I love this shot. I was actually taking one of her standing, and then as I snapped, she bent to dust off some sand. I like the shot I did get!


Something about this one made me keep it in color.



A shot of the sandy toes...


In the Gardens at Shore Acres.



THIS, I cannot take credit for, although I did the editing on it. Frenchie (Kerry's French Exchange Student, and NOT his real name) took this one, and MANY others. He let me load his pictures onto my computer too, so I could edit some. This one is THE BEST.

Thank you, Kerry, for letting my do this for you! Your wedding was stunning, and I can't wait to send you your CD!

PHINALLY! A PHOTOSHOOT!

Finally! I got the right day and weather to take Ian out for the shoot I've been wanting! Here are just a few pics from the shoot. There are more in the link to my FAVE pics. on the left.

Ian wanted this photo. Thanks, Ian, for having me take it. I love EVERYTHING about this one.

Ian just about got swallowed by a wave! I love that TRUE smile that I captured afterward!