Year 2013 & Year 2014 2

Year 2013 & Year 2014 2

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Hippity, Hoppity,....HAPPY EASTER 2014!

The Easter Holiday means so much MORE than chocolate bunnies in your basket (But far be it from ME to be AGAINST that!), or hunting for plastic -or real- eggs to gather more than anyone else. No. Easter was meant to mean so much MORE. More than you or I could ever give to anyone else; much MORE than we could ever want from anyone else here on this planet, or find out among the stars. What Easter means to us- to every single person who has ever lived in the history of life itself... is LOVE. Yep. It's that simple: Easter means LOVE. It's about GOD becoming a lowly man just like one of us; one who could be born, live, eat, sleep, work, play, laugh,...and die just like us. But very UNlike us, when GOD came as JESUS CHRIST; it was not to be UNlike us, but for us to be LIKE HIM. And the only way to do that was to conquer whatever keeps us from LIFE. Oh, sure, you and I are still going to die. From THIS life. Everyone will. But, because of JESUS and what HE did in dying on the cross for me on what we now celebrate as 'the Easter Holiday' (Passover meal on Thursday, Good Friday- the day of the Crucifixion, and Easter Sunday morning) I have FAITH...I trust in, hope in, keep looking forward to...a life that will be full while here and fullER and complete in an Eternal Life! If I turn out to be wrong about all this, then I have lost nothing: I just keep trying to live justly, have mercy, and walk humbly with my GOD. And-BONUS!-gain alot of friends who can count on me. Not a bad way to live. :D
And some Sweet Day, when it's my time to leave here, I'm 'looking' very forward to doing some really GR8 HEARING!

Blessings from our family, to yours! Happy Blogging!

APRIL TAG- The 12 Tags of 2014

April arrived pretty fast, don't you think?? Especially after such a L-O-N-G, cccold, sssshhhhnowy winter 2014! I am happy to say that I have already been outside getting up stray leaves from around the house (No, that does NOT mean they won the LeafWar13.) and getting them out of the pool. Thus I have already started the tan....and even a burn. Hmph, it was so WINDY that day, it very well could be just WIND BURN. lol! Anyway. Let's get to the TAG for April!
      T im Holtz has a bunch of new Alterations Dies that I can't wait to get my hands on! When I first saw the ones he debuted at Winter CHA in Jan, I saw just a few that I REALLY LOVED. But now that he's showing off some of them, I think I'll be adding to my Wish List! This one he used for a 'trellis' is really ADORABLE! But, alas, not only are the dies nowhere around my area (Logansport has NO CRAFT STORES AT ALL since JoAnn Fabrics left. Grrrr!!!), but I already had an idea for April that would somehow, in some way, be for our younger PURDUE Nuclear Engineering Son. Brett graduates on May 18th, and hopefully will be getting situated in whatever part of the country-or world- where a company will hire him. Our prayers are still being sent up after he's been through just three interviews. My thoughts along the line of my tag would be his four years at school in which he went from a young KID....to a MARRIED MAN. For this Mom, I will always still see their "baby face" when I look at them. But I am SO VERY PROUD of both my Sons and the wife one has- and the other will choose! And when I started looking through dies for ideas, my thoughts kept going back to all the photos I took -or MADE HIM take...hehe!- during that time. So I finally decided. And here's how it went:


I started out with choosing dies that would fit the photos I wanted to use. I ended up with three different sizes of 'filmstrip' available if I included some of the tiny filmstrip ribbon. I wish I had the Mini Filmstrip/Mini    Tickets Strip Die, but I    made do. My plan was to use everything I had, but match the techniques Tim was using.  

I next began choosing colors and materials for my plan. I will say that at this point, I'd already decided to make my Tags (one for Brett & a duplicate for myself to keep) in a larger-than-usual size. I noted someone else did that on another blog, so that helped with the size of photos I wanted to print out copies of. I chose the size to be a little smaller than half page (4&1/4 in wide x 5&1/2 in tall), and then cut two sides for each so I could do both sides AND put a pocket into the middle of both for excess photos. By now, let's not kid around...this Mom takes PHOTOS. TONS. :D

S tarting on the backside of the tag, I cut out letters to a colored (Black Soot) grungepaper. Added some Rock Candy Crackle Paint over it to make it look as old as Purdue really IS- 1836! Then I started cutting out gears from grungeboard also. Using my alcohol inks and distress paints for color, then scratched/sanded them, and rubbed Distress Inks.


T his is where I tend to get a bit 'chaos-driven' working on it in bits and pieces until I figure out exactly how I want my plan to work. It also involves moving from one area to another- if I get hungry or thirsty. ;) The photo work takes the longest- choosing, crop & edit if needed, print, cut apart, and then glue all the photos into their designated frames.


T hen start putting it all onto the Tag sides and get ready to put the sides together. I made my own pockets out of Kraft brown resist paper because the waxiness of that paper allows the photos to slide in and out easily.  I'd already chosen my IdeaOlogy items for each tag, so just putting them on was a cinch. Then the ribbons- black and gold, of course.
 
 
In case you don't 'get it', the IdeaOlogy in the photo with the Word Key is supposed to stand for all the things "Nuclear"= as in SECRET (Word Key), ELEMENTS (Trinket Pin),Knowledge (Muse Token), and the top-most Muse Token is for the EXCELLENCE Brett kept up while at PURDUE! He's only missing "Distinction" on his Bachelor of Sciences in Nuclear Engineering by almost 1/10 point. I think that's pretty great- for a kid who had to take four out of five of THE toughest classes in the entire PURDUE UNIVERSTIY curriculum- and better than just PASSED !!!
The tickets,below, were made on computer using the Print Artist Gold program. Just remember to measure the die, then use your measure guides on the program. Print, and line up the die where the printed tickets are, and cut as usual. Don't forget to SAVE your tickets how they are arranged on the screen- so you can use the same pattern over and over for other designs of tickets. 



                   THANKS for all the KIND comments on my Blog!!!
      And, THANKS once again, for checking in and reading!
                           HAPPY BLOGGING! 

My First Trip to FDIC in Indianapolis- April 12, 2014

    This is one of those posts in which I am sharing my love of photography on one of my favorite subjects: my ChiefHubby & his chosen vocation of Firefighting. I'd been bugging him for months to take me to FDIC (Fire Department Instructors Conference) which is held every year in Indianapolis- formerly at the RCA (Hoosier)Dome, and now in the new Lucas Oil Stadium. My ChiefHubby had been to it many times before, and his Dept even had their brand new Alexis Pumper (what I call the GVFD's 'Big Red') on the show room floor after purchasing that year (2004? I think). He usually took our FFCaptSon for his birthday since it falls so closely near the usual week. And also usually; the little Chiefy's Wifey- that's me- would stay home with much to keep me busy. Since both sons are now out on their own and we have this "empty nest" going on, my time has been more abundant to do things I always wanted to do but never had the time before. Raising kids (if it's done RIGHT) takes alot out of a couple. But neither of us regret one second of it- such a HUGE BLESSING our sons have been in our lives!! And all the other kids they have brought around to us as well! So watching all the tweets flying around on TwitterLand and emails sent advertising or promoting all the FDIC info....I figured THIS YEAR was my CHANCE! And while he wasn't really all that excited about making the trip (too many other things clanking around on the gears of his mind going 'clickety-clickety-click!'), the ChiefHubby arranged getting tix after warning me that the only day he could get off for it this year would fall on the very LAST day of it. And that would be a SHORT day on the schedule- closing at 2pm. That was ok with ME, tho. I wasn't gonna be picky; just be happy to finally GO! So here's all the VERY COOL stuff I got to see, and not just see FDIC, but my first visit in the new Stadium, too. Yeah, I know....I really need to get out more. We'd been in the Dome so many times for Colts Games, Pioneer HS Games *Football Champs Class A, and esp PHS Legion of Gold Marching Band and also PHS Drum Line State Contests for both our boys over 11 yrs as a Band Mom/Chaperone. I even ended up carrying in one of the sets of Bass Drums during one yr along with the Band. (Never wanted to do that again- suckers are so HEAVY!)
         Well, here are the pics....If there are too many- which I absolutely do not believe there is such a thing- it's because I was, and still am, excited over it all! :D
                            











 









                                                                                






















And that's it. This last photo at the left is a very realistic rendition of a Firefighter. Or so I THOUGHT when I was snapping the photo while leaning over David as far as I could reach in order to get a good shot of the 'neat statue'. Then, I saw someone walk up and toss a donation into the bucket on the sidewalk. And the 'statue' MOVED. Let's just say that... oh....probably the entire downtown of Indianapolis heard me scream. The Chief thought it was hilarious. The Chiefy's Wifey did NOT share the same opinion.
Thanks so much for checking in and viewing the photos! Be safe, and Happy Blogging!!!