Road Trip and no Cell signal

I am on the first day of a few day road trip and I do not have any pictures yet, :-( so sorry. I really need to get back to my old blogging self. I have no cell phone service here in VA but I am able to use my air card for my laptop, I know it doesn't make sense. They say that it is something about the type of towers that they have here is messes up out of state cellphone. ARGHH....
Well I may have no pictures but I do have a couple of links to recommend. So here they are in no particular order.

This one is an Etsy crafter that I found through her ad in Ready Made and my girls really think that her creatures are cute. She is Debbi von Zyl, and she makes one-of-a-kind hand-knitted toys/creatures. Here link is here.

The next one for today is a really good food magazine called, Clean Eating. I just discovered this one and after only one issue I am hooked. The recipes are great and are very healthy and the way they are presented even a picky eater will try it. Here is the link.

Let me know what you think about these 2 and I will try to post more soon. I am going to take a few pictures of the beautiful views of the Virgina countryside and post them in the hotel tonight.

New Digital Scrapbook Pages

This one is from Shae's birthday we took her to ride the Wild Woody Racetrack on the strip in Pigeon Forge, TN

This last one if my new desktop on my computer.

I made these new Digital Scrapbook Pages with recent pictures from our trip to the Smoky Mountains.

Another Small Layout

I have not had much time to work on these because I have been working on a few traditional scrapbook pages.

A New Layout

I just finished this new layout and I wanted to share. This one is from my vacation back in September. I go on a Ladies' Retreat with the ladies from our church for a week every year to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This is another layout using only the freebes from Designer Digitals.com.

Pink Pig Pictures

This is my niece Jessica, and my mom and the girls. Waiting in line took for what seemed like forever.

We knew we were close when we finally saw this.

Oh My, Oh My

I cannot believe that it has been over a month since I have posted. So mush has happened over the past month that I do not know where to begin.

On Sept. 11, I left for a few days of relaxation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I went with the ladies from my church for our Ladies's Retreat.

Here I am with my BFF Amy, duting one of our nightly meetings.

Here I am getting ready to go Parasailing, I had so much fun, this was my second time doing it and I plan on doing it every year I go now.

I had planned on posting the week after I come home but I never seemed to get a chance and then on Sept. 19, our family suffered a great loss. My Cousin Greg Garner passed away very unexpentantly. I really have now felt like posting because I really did not know what to post.
Please keep my Aunt Jean and his family in your prayers.

My Camera Is Back

I decied to put new batteries in my camera and guess what. It turned on and my pictures from Saturday were still there. Yipee. So I tried to take a picture and the only things is they look a little hazy. It might take a few more days to get that out.

This one makes me want to make my own deocrated coke bottle. I was thinking that I could over one with polymer clay and then paint it. Who knows I might just have to start a flickr group for them.

We ate lunch in the grand ballroom at the GA Aquarium and this was the view.

On the road again

We are on the road, headed to AZ. Our planned pitstop for the night is Dallas, TX which in about half-way.
6:18 am EST
We are leaving the house and I plan on updating this post for the rest of the day to let you no out progress. I will try to take pictures of the various locations.
7:31 am EST
We are now West of Atlanta on our way to Alabama. It is a little smokey from the wildfire in south GA and north FL. It would be a beautiful day if the smoke was not here. We have managed to keep the girls asleep. The closer we get to AL the bluer the sky gets. I have brought a few projects with me, actually my supplies have their own suitcase (I have a hard-sided carryon rolling cart and I have it full of jewelery making supplies, yarn, books and drawing supplies.)

8:00 am EST

Here we are comming into the Alabama, It was still very smoky as far in to Alabama as Taladaga.

It was about 11:00 when we stopped right outside of Meridian, Mississippi, for a picnic lunch. The welcome center is located about 30 miles inside of mississippi from the line.

There wasn't a sign for Louisiana when we crossed the Mississippi river so I took a picture of the bridge.

We took a break at one of the many rest areas and let the girls stretch their legs and found a patch of wild blackberries.

Oh My Gracious

I can not belive that I have let it go so ling with no post. I have been on the road for the past 5 days. Driving Camper trailers all over the southeast. Here is an update on what I have been doing.

• Wed, April 18, Left the house (outside Atlanta, GA) at 4pm to drive to Ocala, FL , arrived in Gainsville FL to stop for the night at 11pm.
• Thursday, April 18, Left Gainesville to go to Ocala, Left Ocala at 11am to Drive toward Franklin, TN. I did not want to go over Montegale Pass on I-24 so we went through Tallahassee, FL and then to Dothan, AL, and ended up in Birmingham, AL for the night at about 11pm
• Friday, April 19, Depart Birmingham, AL at 7am Central Time and Head to Franklin, TN it took about 3 hours to get there and after dropping both campers off at the horse show, I had to stop at a local craft shop, being the crafter that I am, I was Gotta Bead, in FRanklin TN if you are in the neighborhood before May first you have to stop in, they are going out of business and everything is on a super sale. I did pick up a lot of beads and I will show pictures of my haul asap. WE then left their for Five Points, TN and picked up a camper there and headed back toward Cleveland, GA, We did not get that far we stopped in Elijay, GA at about 11: 30pm for the night.
• Sat, April 20, We deliver the camper to Cleaveland, at about 8:30am afer getiing up at 5:30 to start back driving. We headed home after that to pick up the girls and then go back to Alpharetta, GA to pick up another camper to take to Franklin, TN at 1pm. We made a stop in Kimball, TN for the night to get a good dinner and good night sleep.
• Sunday, April 21, We deliver the camper at 11am central after a 2 hour dirive and then head back to Chattanooga, TN and we decied to ride the Incline Railway to the top of Lookout Mountain. The girls had never gottten to do this yet and they had so much fun. (pictures to come). We head back after a nice afternoon on the moutain to Alpharetta, GA for the night.
• Monday, April 22, We get up at 6am eastern to drive to Cumming, GA to pick up 2 more campers and one other truck. We leave there by 7:45 and head back to Franklin, TN. We get back to FRanklin at about 12 central and drop the campers and one of the trucks off and I just had to make one more stop at the bead shop because I will not get back before the close for good on May 1st. I picked up a few more strands and on the way back made 6 pairs of earrings and 1 charm bracelet. We arrived home at 8:15pm tonight.

Over the whole trip I made 20 pairs of earrings and 3 charm bracelets. I will try to get some pictures posted tomorrow. I have to take them to Anastasia's school in the morning because some of the teachers want to see them.

What I have been up to lately (picture heavy post)

I have been very busy over the last week. So here is a few pages from my illustrated journal. I picked up a journal last week at Barnes and Noble and Have been going crazy ever since. I love the graph paper pages they seem so artsy.

I also got the itch to start beading again, as I did it in my pre-blogging days. Here is a few of the earrings that will be in the shop in the coming days. You can clink on any of the pictures for a larger view.

Ramblings

Yesterday me and the DH and the girls went to the park. They were so glad for a nice spring like day. I loved watching them play and I think that we all enjoyed the day as much as anyone. It was the first real warm day of the week and Anastasia is out of school this week and yesterday an today have been so nice, that they have played outside all day.
My studio is located where I can open the front door and the girls can play and I am able to work and watch them. I planned this when I decieded where to put the building up. I am glad that I put it here because I was really able to get a lot done today. I wish I could find my camera because I finished a quilted overnight bag with a zipper closure and handles that wrap around the bottom of the bag and up the other side. I really like it but now I have to make three more because my mother loves it and wants one for her and each of her sisters. I will post a picture as soon as I can find my camera.
I hope that I can keep up with my plan of one FO per day. I hope to have my mother's fingerless gloves tomorrow because she loves the ones that I made for me but I did make a few changes to her's like increasing the rows after the thumb hole to give her more coverage on the fingers for when she is driving.
I know that I have been rambling here but I feel like talking tonight and I have no one to talk to tonight, the girls are with my parents and my DH is asleep and I am up watching Numbers and I don't feel like stoping. I have added to my book collection this week.

• Paula Deen and Friends Cookbook.
• Everyday Italian
• Skirts The how to
• Denise Schmidt's Quilts

I love these books as you can see I added 2 cookbooks as well as 2 craft books. I have been collecting cookbooks for the past 13 years. I was 15 when a elderly lady started this collection with a box of cookbooks and cooking magazines, the books were from as far back as the 40's with one from the 60's that is a lady that was a television cook from the time. I now have everything from Southern Living cookbooks to the current Food Network Chefs. I love to cook and I love to make things with my hands. I also love to talk, to write letters, to post on this blog., and most of all spending time with my family. I would love to write a book one day and I have one started, it is a crafting book a little of everything because I do some of it all and I think that if I were to write a book it would have to be about everything that I love to do. I hope that I have not put you to sleep with my ramblings. Thank you all for reading my posts because I really love doing this. I hope that you all have a good weekend, I will be redoing my living room tomorrow as I am getting a sofa, and 2 recliners. A friend of ours is moving and their new home is smaller and they do not have room for this set in their new home.


This picture is now gracing my desktop, I get to see them everytime I turn my computer on. I think that this picture is too cute for words.

More Atlanta Pictures

Isn't she beautiful. I just loved standing there and watching her. She was so beautiful that I could not stop watching her they way she kept swimming up to the top of the water to breath.

I just love the way these look. The girls love touching the starfish. I just had to touch the Sea Urchins, I love that they felt as though they were silky.

I thought that this fish is so beautiful. It kept comming up to the glass and swimming back and forth so I just had to take a picture of this.

A Day in Atlanta

The girls were out of school today so me and my friend Amy and her cousin took them to Atlanta and the Georgia Aquarium for a visit. This was our first time and we all had so much fun getting to see all the wonderful animals, and getting to touch them.

This is me and the girls. In front of the salmon stream. They say that the salmon can be seen swimming up the stream and up the rocks. Today they were in their pond area.

There are lots more pictures I will try to get to them later,I have to get back to school work so I will try to post more tomorrow.