Family Vacation

Last week we had the opportunity to jet over to Connecticut to see my family. Despite the cloudy/foggy/rainy/cold weather, we were still able to enjoy some time outside on the beach

and in the back yard.


And of course it was great to see everyone -- even when we were indoors!

We spent a great deal of time shopping (they have great outlets there!)

One cool thing we were able to do was to take a day trip to New York. We saw some exhibits at the Met,

chatted with celebrities in Times Square,

and did our best to see the top of the Empire State Building through the fog.

We also met up with Rachel's friend and Jesse's cousin in New York and had some excellent Italian food. Truthfully, we ate really well the entire trip -- yum!

Traversing Frozen Tundra

Back in April, Jesse somehow convinced me to agree to go on a hike at the top of Sandia peak. We were just going to traverse for a mile or so along the ridge . . . no big deal, right?

WRONG! Despite the fact that it was April, the top of the mountain was still covered in snow! Not only did my legs get all red but my ears and hands and, well, everything was cold!

And it was windy and on this of all days the sun was nowhere to be seen.

We did get to our destination, however, (the Kwanis house) and then high-tailed it back to warmth!

Handmade Flowers Challenge

I wanted to share this layout I made of some of the fun get-togethers we have had with our fellowship group at Faith Church:

I love handmaking flowers so I knew I had to enter the handmade flower challenge at TrailMakers. I used some ribbon to make a flower that I used on this layout, which features Fancy Pants' Little Sprout and other items that you can find in the TrailMakers store: http://leaveapapertrail.com/zencart. Get more details on the challenge and products I used at http://www.trailmakers.blogspot.com/

Defense Verdict!

I survived and won my first jury trial!

Flourish Challenge

There are a lot of challenges going on this month at the TrailMakers blog. I am challenging you to make your own flourish! There are so many possibilities -- use Ranger's stickles, liquid pearls or dimensional pearls, doodle some flourishes, or stitch them. I doodled a couple flourishes in pencil on this layout and then went back over them with a needle and punched a couple holes on the lines and used black thread to stitch these flourishes on my layout. I thought that stitched flourishes were more appropriate for this manly layout of my husband, his brother Matt, and girlfriend Merida rock climbing in Socorro. I can't wait to see what you will do! Link up your projects at http://www.trailmakers.blogspot.com/

In Trial . . .

. . . until further notice!

May Debut Project

I love the mixture of elegance and fun that Karen put together in the May kit. The kit features Fancy Pants' "It's the Little Things" line and contains some beautiful Kaisercraft Chipboard (which I inked with VersaMagic dew drops) and Jolee's flowers. I used the kit to create this layout of Jesse's first half-marathon with Dave, Sarah, Tiffany, and Dan. A whole bunch of people from our church ran the Duke City half marathon as well, and we met up with them after the race. Everyone did a superb job (especially Jesse!) and Vanessa and I cheered from the sidelines!

Get more details on the TrailMakers kit at http://www.trailmakers.blogspot.com/

Rain Challenge

When I saw the TrailMakers rain challenge I knew I had to get my hands on the Indie Girl collection in the TrailMakers store (http://leaveapapertrail.com/zencart) because they have such cute cloud stickers! I used two of them on this layout and used Krisis Kreations' flower template to create the sun peeking out behind the clouds! For a finishing touch I used glossy accents to accent the flowers and faux stitching on the paper.

This layout is of Jesse's trip to Vancouver for a conference. He took a lot of pretty pictures!

Spring is here, and judging from my watering eyes and mucus filled nose, it has come in full force. But it's not all bad; we have some beautiful cherry blossoms in our backyard:

Also, my Peach Tree in a pot survived the winter and a Peach Tree Borer (which I found and smushed sometime in February) to come back lush:

We have an imperturbable lilac bush as well:

Most exciting, however, is our recent replacement of a Yucca that died in our front yard with a Bird of Paradise bush. The new bush hasn't leafed out or flowered yet so no pictures, but the whole process was interesting. This is what our back yard yucca looks like:
It's beautiful, green, and grows very little. Here's the corpse of our other Yucca:
The interesting part is that upon digging up the dead plant I found hundreds of bugs infested in it's roots and trunk. They had eaten it hollow. I learned from a local nursery (Jericho nursery on Alameda, highly recommended) that I'd found a Yucca Weevil infestation. Here's a picture of mine, with a larvae and adult:
Here's the adult after I got done with him:
Anyway, I dug up as much of the infested dirt and actual bugs as I could. But, since there were literally hundreds I'm sure I missed a few. I followed up physical removal by applying a product with Merit insecticide (Imidacloprid) and another product with Carbaryl. The first was specifically recommended to kill these weevils. Here's hoping.

Album Cover

I created this scrapbook album cover inspired by the TrailMakers Banner. I copied the general design (label shape, diagonal ribbon, swirls) and used dimensional pearls, the Indie Girl collection, and a digi flower template from sponsor Krisis Kreations (tip: you can use digi files as stencils by printing them out and cutting them out).

Get more details on the challenge and products I used at http://www.trailmakers.blogspot.com/