Trip to the "Punkin" Patch

Yesterday we took a family trip to the Ginormous pumpkin patch in Wheatland. It was like a fair with a petting zoo, big forts and slides and tons of places for the big kids to play, train rides, pig races, and TONS of good food! I went along to take pictures of the nieces and nephew and spend some time with them. Little did we know this was the Winslow's third pumpkin patch trip in the last couple of weeks so they really weren't into the pumpkin's, but they did seem to really enjoy all the other fun stuff. So here's some photos from the day....

Isabella was fascinated by the hay and kept grabbing at it











































Carter told me ALL about how he wanted a little "punkin" - it was actually the perfect size for him!






















Maddy was a little nervous about the animals at first but Mom encouraged her to put her arm in the fence. I could tell she was still nervous, but she waited ever so patiently for the goat to come to her and when it finally came and ate from her hand, she had the cutest smile on her face!




















Emily is getting really tall and growing up WAY too fast! She was doing such a good job being a good big sister by keeping her eye on Carter.






















You can't see Maddy and you can barely see Emily, but the family took a train ride around the patch! The Winslow's in the first row and Luigi and Isabella behind. Melanie and I missed the ride because we were taking pictures of Isabella with the pumpkins and had to sneak her over the gate to Luigi at the last minute to get her on the ride... Shhhh!






















And of course, those pumpkin pictures are adorable!



































My FAVORITE photo of the day is not even a really good photo from a technical perspective. But I just couldn't resist the look that Isabella is giving Maddy as Maddy is entertaining her! You can just tell by her look how much she is going to lover her cousins!

Design Your Life Sketch #2

Another assignment from Week 1 of Cathy Z's Design Your Life class. I'm running behind since we have a total of six sketches now, but I'm still proud I have accomplished anything! Especially since I spent Wednesday and Thursday night at Green Tangerines taking two AWESOME classes with Melody Langworthy!

Anyway, here's the layout I finished today. Again the concept is Symmetrical design. These are photos from my first impromptu photo studio in our small apartment in So Cal.















Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill; PP - Gina Cabrera (polka dots & gray script), Shabby Princess (ornate); Font - Batik Regular

The journaling reads: "When I first started getting into photography, Jonathan helped me build a mini-studio in the spare room of our apartment. Tonya was generous enough to offer to model for me right after it was all set up. I had lots of ideas but was not sure how comfortable she would be. She turned out to be a very easy model to work with. She took all of my direction and the photos turned out better than I even imagined. The photo on the top left ended up on display at the Orange County Fair the following year. I was very proud to see my work on display. I felt like a true artist. I will be forever grateful for that time I had to play and experiment in my little studio."

Design Your Life...

I've been taking the Cathy Zielske Design Your Life Class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking starting last week and I am totally LOVING it! I have taken classes before at BPS but never really kept up or was motivated to do any of the projects. I just hoarded the instructions the "some day" that I would put everything together. But I have to say that I am learning a lot in this class and am truly enjoying keeping up with the projects. I get the added bonus of actually completing a bunch of layouts too!

So here is the first layout I did based off her Sketch #1. The concept of based on symmetrical design.






















Supplies: Cardstock - Stampin' Up, PP is from my stash and the journaling block I created in Photoshop CS2.

The photos are of my niece Isabella who will be 7 months next week! Holy cow!

The journaling reads: "Little Isabella grows quickly, right before our eyes. Little Isabella looks more and more like her Mommy every day, especially when she smiles. Little Isabella is quite the darling of this family! Little Isabella is a photographer's dream, sitting pretty in pink!"

And the week continues....

This week continues to grow in excitement for me. I got a kick lately of submitting for magazines and design teams and figured nothing would happen for either, but at least I was inspired to start creating for submitting. So I get the notice on Wednesday that the magazine I submitted to wants to publish me, then I get the notice today that I've been accepted on a design team!!!

I will begin creating soon for A Page in Time Scrapbook kit club. I have been a member receiving their kits for close to a year now so I know I already love what they have to offer. It will be exciting (and a challenge!) to actually sit down and use some the stuff and get some layouts done - instead of just hoarding it and saving it for that special rainy day! =)

So look out for more of that soon!

'Til next time.....
Lynne
Officially to be Published scrapper, and A Page in Time Scrapbook design team member

ETA: Since the CK magazine is already out, I can finally add the layout that was published. This is my August 12-of-12 layout, officially published in CK Magazine!

A Very Good Day!

I was dreading today. October 1st marks the beginning of Open Enrollment at work. I was the primary contact and had to adjust my schedule to be there from 8-5 so I could available to employees. It's just the beginning of many more of those types of days for the rest of this month.

Thankfully, it didn't get too busy. And everyone has been so incredibly nice, it's hard not to feel relieved. Quite different from anywhere else I have ever worked. But the real kickers are two fold...

First - I got an e-mail yesterday from someone who found me on Ancestry.com . She thought we might be related. Turns out we are (3rd cousins, once removed - I had to look that one up!) The awesome part is, she has a bunch of family photos! She sent some to me today. She can't confirm and is hoping someone in my family can, but she seems to think these people are my great great great grandparents!!























If it is truly them, these photos are from the 1850's! I love history and all the stories and connections. It's amazing to me that these could be my relatives.

BUT - here's the REAL kicker of the day. I got the following e-mail this afternoon:

"If your page titled *?* is still available, I would love to include it in Reader Gallery in the February 2009 issue of Creating Keepsakes. I am attaching the form will all the details. Please let me know if you have any questions and of course let me know if it’s still available."

I went out on a limb and submitted a layout to Creating Keepsakes magazine two weeks ago and now I'm getting published! I can't say which layout it is, so you'll just have to pick up the February 2009 issue of CK Magazine and look for me!

So in the end, it turned out to be a MUCH better day then I could have ever imagined!