I finished my Dad’s memory book in time for all of us to go to Colorado and have a nice little memorial service.

I enjoyed spending time with my family and seeing my cousin Scott. It was a shame to not see cousin Sandy and Scott’s wife Sunita. Sunita had a emergency with a friend and Sandy did not want to come out because the Delta variant was running high in Colorado. I have no idea when I will be in Colorado again so I may not have a chance to see her again. Afterall I am old! LOL.

I ended up mailing a book to Sandy and also sending a book to Toni (Paulines daughter) for taking care of our Dad’s estate.

I hope you enjoy the book.

Sadly my father passed away late 2019 and as the family historian I always make a memory book of my departed relatives. You can check out my Mother’s book on this blog if you have an interest in reviewing it. I am about half way done making the memory book and usually keep it a surprise until the family receive the book.

I really hate to release a sneek peek but decided for the sake of National Scrapbooking Day and the chance to win $100 from Simon Says Stamp I will release this one page of my father in the Navy. I think my brother is the only one who looks at my blog anyways so I think it will remain a mystery to the rest of the family.

For my memory books, I ask the family a series of questions and then take their answers and add it to the book. It usually takes quite a while to create a whole life in pictures, but I consider it a labor of love.

Thank you for taking a peek at my scrapbook page.

Yesterday was my annual pool party.   I use to do the annual Christmas party but it was getting so hard for everyone’s schedule.  There were too many activities to do both on my schedule and my family members to pull of the Christmas party in December.

My brother in law was always kidding me, but seriously inviting himself over to swim in my pool.   So I started this tradition.  Dogs and all.

My theme this year was Nautical or more ocean themed, Tropical and Patriotic.  LOL

I had bought new chair cushions that were a blue and green coral because the other cushions were getting a bit flat and out of shape.  Hence the ocean theme,  Since my outdoor tableware was a tropical pattern and it was the 4th of July weekend my theme automatically became the Naut/Trop/Pat theme.

To start with Eli (my brothers dog) had to wear his new patriotic bandana.  Little does this dog know that he is going to be exhausted by the end of the evening.  Eli has a fear of the water and thinks it is his personal responsibility to try to save everyone out of the pool.   Get ready Eli, it will be a crazy day.

Penny can smell the ribs cooking and is really looking forward to a bone or two.  But she is being very patient.

Penny is a sweet natured Terrier Mix that has a bad habit of nipping at people when the other dog gets excited.   More about the other dog later.

Penny’s DNA is a complete surprise to me.

She is a terrier mix, but I guess she is more of a Chihuahua/Australian Shepherd mix.  Her fur, when long, does look like a Australian Shepherd, and maybe her legs do look like a Chi’s, but I thought she would have more terrier in there.

Oh well, I digress.

The other pooch at the party is the “Head of Security”, my Maltese Olive.  She barks her head off at any potential stranger. Which can be very annoying.  This in turn gets the other dogs worked up.   Penny then nips, Eli growls.  All this because a little white fluff ball says “This is NOT a DRILL, I repeat, This is NOT a DRILL”  Barkity barkity bark bark BARK BBBBAAAARRRRRKKKKKKKKK.

Do not be fooled by her cute dirty little face.   She means all business.

Here she is with her Uncle Doug who is trying to get her to behave.  LOL, good luck Doug.

Crazy, fat bellied, dirty face Maltese.   God I love you!

The night before the party I made some cute Ocean themed framed pictures of my appetizers and drink menus.

I think they are real cute.  I designed the background using Photoshop Elements and used mostly Lorie Davidson images.  I don’t remember the font name but it looked like a Pirate font to me.

We put cut flowers into mason jars and added some American Flags.

So how do you add a patriotic theme to a tropical dinnerware set?   Just add some star stirrers.  LOL.   Yup it creates the theme just right.

Please note the appetizer plates match the fabric of the chairs.   I just loved this octopus I found at Joann Fabrics.  He really made the ocean theme complete.

Appetizers made and put out.  Please notice the dog nose on the lower left corner of the picture.  Eli must check everything out.  Especially if he can smell it.

Wide shot view.  Notice the large movie screen.  I bought that at Amazon and it is amazing.  It is portable and can easily be put up in 30 minutes or less.  Depending if the helper will let you read the instructions.

You can get it from Amazon HERE.

Guests have arrived, my sister kicking back with a Sangria.  You can kinda see the cushions that match the plates.

My grand niece Kenzie playing in the pool with Eli.  Eli loved the shooting water.  He was completely drenched by the time the day was over.

Here is a video of Eli playing with Kenzie as she shoots water in the air.

Eli trying to save Kenzie.  This poor dog ran around the pool all day long trying to save us.  He did manage to save a few pool toys.

My beautiful niece took a selfie at the party!

By this time I stopped taking pictures as I was in the pool, eating, talking and enjoying myself.

By nightfall we watched “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” on the big screen.   We had popcorn and theatre boxed candy.

When it was over it was around 11pm, so everyone went home, tired and happy.

Until next year!!

DAY TWENTY-FIVE

I started out the day with another cricut cutting file.  I used a soft muted silver paper and added a little deer to embellish the page

I wanted to add some Pet Food ads to my album since Christmas day was really about opening gifts for the animals.

I also added a small page protected with cat food!  I actually remember this ad!

The funny thing about this ad is that Penny LOVES cheese!  I call her my dairy dog because she would sell her soul for cheese or butter.

This layout is about us actually opening the gifts on Christmas Day.  Basically all the animals got the goods.  LOL.

This cute jacket was for Eli (my brother dog).  Somehow I think I will never see him wear this coat.

I really did not like just cutting the album off without some sort of closure.  So I created an cutting file overlay on a bokeh light photo.

Then I write an Epilogue to wrap up my thoughts.

Thanks for looking!

DAY TWENTY-THREE

I wanted this day to be about the critters.

I started out with a small photo insert of the dogs and cats.

The Cats

We were also dog sitting a dog we placed from the rescue.  Little Lily which we called Monkey.

Lily has this cute little face that reminded us of the monkeys in Wizard of Oz.  Horrible to say, but she really does.   Sweet little Monkey!

DAY TWENTY-FOUR

This year I wanted to make a collage with the cards I received in the mail.   I get so many pretty cards and I hate to toss them.  I usually make something with the cards.

I made a circle collection with some of the larger images

For the other prints, I created a Christmas tree by cutting out small circles.   I also used some flairs from October Afternoon.

Thanks for looking!

DAY TWENTY-ONE

For this day I wanted to capture the weather.  For Southern California we don’t really have seasons.   The only sign that it is winter is the bare trees.  Except on Christmas day we still have some brown leaves.  Once in a blue moon we get snow.  So you never know.

DAY TWENTY-TWO

Every year I try to do a puzzle.  I love doing puzzles and try to do them at Christmas time while watching Christmas movies.    My brother picked out this one with cupcakes.  His theory, similar to mine is something where you can tell what the pieces are.

MEMORIES THEN AND NOW

I wanted to show what Christmas was like when I was a child, and what it looks like when I am all grown up.

I took a transparency that had typewriter fonts on it.  The tree in my Mom’s house was so typical of our tree.  Tinsel carefully laid on each branch.  The tinsel was lead based and heavy.  LOL, the good old days.

This Christmas scene was at my house.  I had not been in the house very long so there was not a lot of clutter there.   LOLOLLLLLOLLL.

All my nieces and nephews are all grown up now.  Time flies.

Thanks for looking!

 

STARBUCKS INSPIRATION

I guess this year had a lot of flack about Starbucks going with a plain red cup instead of a holiday print.

It was strange, I only saw posts about people saying to “get over it”, but I never saw anything that said anyone had an issue with it.

Personally I could care less.  However I did want a bag to put some stuff in.

I added the cards that I loved and family letters into my starbucks bag.

DAY NINETEEN

Tonight we went around to look at the neighborhood lights.  We found a street that had a contest and we saw some pretty impressive decorations.  One house actually had a ski life for small stuffed animals.   They really did a great job.

DAY TWENTY

I had some images I really liked that I wanted to add to my album.   They make it feel like Christmas.

ANOTHER INSERT

Here is another insert that I made from my Cricut.

You can check out the cutting files HERE

I decided to use glitter paper

On the backside I took some wooded stars from Studio Calico and embossed them in metallics and white embossing powder.  I put a transparency with red dots on the page and glued down the stars.

Thanks for looking!

DAY SEVENTEEN

Today I went with Mercedes to drop off gifts to the different shelters.  In case you do not know, I do dog rescue with Mercedes and find the critters new homes.

We went to Best Friends in Mission Hills and to the shelter in South Los Angeles.

DAY EIGHTEEN

On the following day I went back to the local shelter in Castaic.   I gave them their gifts and spoke with the head of the shelter.  My brother came with me and when we were done we fed treats to all the dogs.  I was thrilled to see a lot of empty stalls, so there were just a few dogs.  We were able to feed treats three times, by the time we made the third round, the dogs were wagging their tails.   Find your next best friend at a local shelter.

ADOPT! DON’T SHOP!

Doggie prisoners!!!  Hope they find their forever home soon!!!

Thanks for looking!

DAY FIFTEEN

I wanted to show the gift wrapping process.  Ugh, I took a picture of the wrapping paper and nothing else.

DAY SIXTEEN

For the last few years I made my own Christmas cards.  It is always a struggle and I always start too late.   I was going to make another card but the sample card took me over an hour.  Oh No!  It is too much and I do not have enough time.  So I switched to another card I made for a class.

I made a smaller pocket page and glued my card onto it.  The card used a snow stencil and some different inks to make the trees.  And a heck of a lot of masking.   I like this card.

The back side of the card.  Keeping with the retro theme.

Thanks for looking!

I added this Christmas picture of my sister Elaine and myself.  I was probably around 13, but who knows.

The flood pants I am wearing crack me up.   Not to mention the print.  But the award for geek clothes go to my sister in her caftan.

I think the cat was Pinks or Patches.   She blends into the caftan so it is hard to tell.

DAY THIRTEEN

Tree decorating day!!!!   I have an artificial tree that has lights that fade and turn colors.  It is so easy to put together.  However I have had other fake trees that looked prettier, but at this ripe old age, easy is best.

The gold burst behind the number 13 is a great set from Do Crafts that is call Glitterations.   It is hard to tell but these are filigree snowflakes and stars.

What I love about using a digital journaling cards is that I can change the colors.  I was able to make the Shine Bright card to be purple like the tree in my picture.  And with my new nifty printer it comes out so nice.  But again I had issues with how much glitter to add to the pocket.

DAY FOURTEEN

I wanted to showcase the silly hats I made my dogs wear.   LOL.  Every year.  Olive (the white Maltese) has no issues with outfits.  Penny (the black and white terrier) not so much.  She hates it.  LOL

It is hard to see but the day 14 is on a foiled pattern paper from Heidi Swapp including the snowflake.   I used blue foil to coordinate with the page.

I wanted to do a clear overlay with words of my Christmas.  I used some transparencies that are for ink jet printers.  I liked how it came out.

Underneath the transparency I used an October Afternoon snow scene.   I added the word JOY using some grey foam thickers.

On the back of this paper I placed another photo from my youth.  A picture of all of us and the family cat Rusty.  If you noticed the outfits, it was the same from the stocking photo.  I loved that little outfit.  My sister had a friend named Mary Lee and she was real petite so she was about my size.  Not to mention that her family was very wealthy. So on occasion I would get hand me downs from Mary Lee.  They were awesome clothes.  This one was a wonderful white dress with a red velvet jacket.  Oh how I loved this dress.  So glad I have a photo of the dress for my memories.

Thank you for looking!