thanking and showcasing

thank you so much for all the sweet comments of comfort and hugs at this time. it still feels very weird that she's not here anymore. i think it will feel that way for a long time to come. the funeral will be on wednesday morning, it will be good to be with my family, but sad at the same time. we had a wedding in march and now a funeral in september. two family gatherings in one year. i know we'll be sad and missing nana, but i have a feeling it will be a bit of a celebration as well, her life touched so many others' for good, that can't but help to come out in the end.

september is one of my favorite months. my daughter was born this month, 16 years ago. she was due on the 9th, but didn't show up until the 23rd. the leaves start to change because the nights are getting chilly. the western hemisphere is getting ready for a long winter. it's just a good month. it's also a new gallery at write.click.scrapbook, one where we were asked to scrap with 5 products. it was hard for me, i admit it. but this is what i came up with, a layout about the sculpture in the main trainstation in zürich, switzerland:

i was also asked by my friend erin benaim to be the guest designer for a newish challenge blog called simply ArTistiC, a blog featuring all ATCs!  i know i don't do them all the time, but when i do, i love playing with that tiny little canvas. the theme erin gave me was the queen of hearts, they are starting out with an alice in wonderland focus. it was so much fun to create with that in mind. i loved the checked stocking of the queen and so thought it would be fun to paint a skewampus background of the browns and reds with the blue of her eyeshadow. then i found a hambly manniquin that i'd cut out for another project but hadn't used. i thought that would be pretty funny, considering the queen's constant shouting of, "off with her head!" yes, i have a weird sense of humor. then i remembered i had those huge anna griffin green letters, the color matches the frogs in the cartoon perfectly. that's basically how this came together. it was fun. thanks to erin for asking me :)

to end, some miscellaneous stuff: the kids are doing really well with their new school years. annie's loving all her classes and the scarves are a big hit. she's back to church volleyball, loving that too. ethan's riding his new bike to school and home everyday. that's going well. i'm riding with him. that's going well too. kelly is still working. ethan and kelly added a couple of sprinkler heads to the lawn yesterday, we've had dry spots every year. this year was the year to do something about it. good times.
i need to clean out the flower beds this week. i want to go exploring again. i get my new SC box on tuesday. must work on the september crate sketch tomorrow. tried to make a canvas last night while scrapping with my colorado scrappy friends, it needs some readjusting, but will be pretty cool. scanning old photos. wishing i would have gone to my high school reunion now that i'm seeing pictures on facebook. but i have no idea what i would have done there. so probably better...