Palomar Observatory Camping

Due to our rekindled love of camping husband-face and I have been trying to do more of that.  Two weekends ago we ventured out to Observatory Campground on Palomar Mountain for a little one night stay. We didn't know anybody who had stayed there before and there wasn't a whole lot of information online so we took a gamble and the gamble paid off.  The campground was small, quiet and beautiful. We did an awesome hike up to the observatory at the top of the mountain, websites claimed it was 2.2 miles each way but that's BS, it was way longer than that. Either that or I'm way more out of shape than I thought, but I workout at least 3 days a week so I'm pretty sure the 2.2 mile claim was BS. Some shots from our excursion:

This is Miss Bianca, she is a camping chihuahua (and in case you couldn't tell a doggie model)

Not too shabby a view on our hike up

A Manzanita tree, rad looking (and apparently fireproof)

There was this massive tree filled with holes that squirrels had shoved nuts into, we called it the forest pantry

These plants smelled like weed

Palomar Observatory, I love this photo

The top opens up, inside is the Hale telescope

I got me another box of wine!

Miss B got coooold

Cookin' Brats (yuck says me, the vegetarian)

I love fire, though it took me 3 days to get the smoke smell out of my hair

Morning smolder

Beautiful campground

Lazy Sunday

Today was cold (in my book) rainy and gloomy.  And it was Sunday so I did a few things I rarely do.  1-I wore sweatpants all day long. 2-I didn't leave the house.  After 3 nights in a row of socializing and consuming a few too many alcoholic beverages sweats in my house was all I wanted.  Except it was cold and I hate, hate, hate cold.  Keep in mind I live in southern California so as soon as it drops below 70 I'm cold. As I type this it's 6:30pm and I'm already under multiple blankets in bed...go me.

Anyway, my husband enjoyed his cold day at home by watching football and/or Nascar all day (redneck) and I enjoyed my day doing my favorite pass time and the subject of this blog, creating pages of paper and photos to preserve my memories.

Callia's Smiles, my niece is so effin cute. Bo Bunny Ad Lib

Mr. Baseball, this one might be too simple? My Minds Eye Fine & Dandy

I used this page map from Got Sketch for this one

Photo shoot!  The ladies in Palm Springs for a bachelorette party. Echo Park Happy Days

The bachelorette, this one differs a bit from my usual style but I think it works. SEI Mimosa

This is a lift from a Kelly Goree page, I can't find it on her blog but it's here on scrapbook.com.  I think she's my scrapbooking idol because her style is so much like mine. I love everything she does and especially her use of white dashed lines and have been incorporating those more and more in my layouts. I also used a stamp on this one which I rarely do.  I have this huge collection of stamps but never use them so am trying to incorporate them more.

My sister and her family, Easter 2011. Basic Grey Kioshi

Picadilly!

Another beautiful new line from Basic Grey Picadilly features a rather random assortment of papers with what they call a farmhouse theme but I think doesn't really have a theme.  Non-themey lines that are merchandised with a good assortment of embellishments are my favorite. I love the new wood buttons and metal flowers they've added to their embellishments.  Here's my first layout with it, my husband making a face as my niece fills her "nappy." The lettering is Prima textured lettering, my absolute favorite.  I've started using page maps and sketches from other blogs to fashion my layouts after and used this one from Got Sketch.

Layers!

In love with Amy Tan's Line

I think I'm one of millions out there that is in love with Amy Tangerine's line for American Crafts. It's bright, it's fun and there's so much to it. I feel like this layout might be a bit chaotic and chaos isn't something I do well with.  So this is an attempt to go outside my normal comfort zone.

Chaos?

Love the washi tape

MJ Turns Four-Basic Grey June Bug

As I've mentioned before I'm a little behind on my scrapping, just started my 2011 book (and still haven't finished our wedding one). I always rant about how perfect Basic Grey lines are and June Bug is no exception.  It's so fun and works for a huge variety of events.  I just used it for my nieces fourth birthday, it worked perfectly with her red dress in the photo. The strips of paper are a play on the current pennant/banner trend and the June Bug embellishments made it easy to add the perfect touches.  The yellow lettering is American Crafts Thickers.

 

Perching-Basic Grey Max & Whiskers

In my mind Basic Grey's Max & Whiskers collection is the perfect pet collection.  The colors are fantastic and, like all Basic Grey collections, it's cute but not too cutesy or themey.

You will soon learn that I am obsessed with my cat Oliver, he's like a child to me. He's incredibly spoiled and I think he's the cutest animal on earth, besides Boo maybe. He has his own album on my facebook page, it's ridiculous really.  So he ends up in a lot of my layouts, this being the latest.  Ollie's favorite thing to do besides eat is perch in high places.  He somehow made it on top of the fridge, I'm still unsure how.

I hand did the small white dots around the edge, I love white ink.

Now That's An Owie

Last winter my nephew (then 6) attempted to do a karate kick off the kitchen counter.  What ensued was a scene that I (I'm kind of twisted) wish I witnessed. It started with him landing in a way that caused his glasses to puncture the skin right by his eye and cause an extreme amount of bleeding.  A loud scream filled the air and my brother-in-law Eric came running to his aid.  My sister followed soon after, the description I got was "spurting blood."  My niece, then 3, didn't know how to handle the scene and immediately panicked and started screaming as well. My sister went to call the paramedics while my brother-in-law attempted to stifle the bleeding.  Now the funniest thing about this whole story is that Eric doesn't do so well with blood.  So as he was trying to stop the bleeding on his son's head he started to pass out. So the paramedics showed up to a scene with a semi-conscious father laying on the floor, a little girl screaming in a corner, a mom trying to stifle blood flow and a little boy saying, "I'm OK guys, it really isn't that bad."

This is my contribution that fiasco: