Pretty Paper Blog

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I do appreciate that you take the time to see what I’ve been up to over here in my little corner of the blogsphere.

I have not been posting much lately, only because I’ve been caught up in the day-to-day…Trying to stay positive while juggling, skipping and dancing through a busy time in my life.

Don’t you fret for me, I’ve had some fun these past few weeks too!

For instance…I took my kids out to my good friend Barbara’s Property to see her new lambs.

We took off towards here home after I picked the kids up from school one afternoon last week.

As I drove, I watched the city melt into green pastures. There were beautiful wild flowers blooming everywhere.

Who knew this beautiful countryside was merely miles from my front door.

When we arrived at Barbara’s the kids had to see the the lambs first.

What better way to get the Mommy sheep close than to offer them yummy treats?

Barbara has three new babies.  They’re adorable.  Izabelle was so excited to get to hold one.

We went for a long walk around Barbara’s 40 acres.  It was so wonderful  to spend the afternoon walking in the wildflowers.  It’s amazing what a bit of nature can do for your soul.

Parker was collecting rocks along the way.  Check out this fun rock he found with a smiley face (and yes, those are yellow wild flowers all over the ground - gorgeous).

Barbara has four beautiful dogs (Black New Finland).  Three of them walked the property with us.  I shot a photo of Barb with her dogs next to the beautiful rock wall that runs along one side of her land.

The oldest and most noble of the bunch, Rigel:

Barbara has chickens and turkeys too.  Izabelle loved feeding the chickens.

It’s hard to describe how it felt to visit Barb that day.  A long walk is just what I needed.  My time walking and talking with Barbara renewed my appreciation for friendship and for nature.

For the first time in a long while, I lost track of time.  It felt so good…no, it felt wonderful!  It was so nice to slow down and take a break from my fast-paced life.

I will definitely be slowing down more, especially now that I’ve discovered how nice it is.

The laundry, the dishes, the deadlines…they can wait an hour or two while I take a long walk.

I highly recommend you do the same.

I’ve returned from my journey to Idaho…OK, I’ve been back 5 days.  It’s amazing how long it took me to re-adjust to all that I do at home.

I have Idaho photos to share!

This is Cali and her daughter Sky (two of my Dad’s horses).

Meet my baby sister Emilee and her horse Buddy (Em has had Buddy since she was 11 years old).

Here’s another of Emilee with Sky.

Emilee looks really cold in this one (she’s a good sport):

These are the Barn Cats.  They huddle together to keep warm in the hay.

Here’s Jimbo:

Maddie and Sadie:

Can you see where I get my love for animals from?

Now that I think about it, most of the photos I took in Idaho were of the animals.

I did not get any photos of the dogs (bummer) but I did get a photo of my parent’s lazy spoiled cat Tommy.  He has a super-cute personality.

Now that I’m back in the swing of things, I’ll be posting some Valentine projects.

Ah heck, if you’ve hung in there this long…

Here’s a Valentines/Thank You card that I made for my Grandparents using Basic Grey Papers/Embellishments:

More coming soon!

This is why I love the city I live in.  The trees.  There is rarely a street that is not completely lined with trees.  Trees, trees, everywhere.  Every shape and size.  I love living in this City.

I miss the trees when I go away…there are always here to welcome me back.  You can tell every season just by looking at the trees.

Fall is my favorite season, I’m sure because of this city and the gorgeous colors the trees produce.  The trees here define my hometown, they are glorious!

Go Check out CANDID CARRIE for more great Friday Photos posts!

I took a lot of photos yesterday…too many to share in just one post.  So this post is mostly for those family members that moved out of state.  Hopefully my blog regulars will like them too.  I have yet to scrapbook these photos but they do inspire me.

Here’s a current photo of my home:

Just kidding.  The above photo is not of my home.  This mansion was the home of the Bidwell’s.  Nowadays it’s a Museum.

The Mansion did, however, provide an excellent back drop for this photo of Izabelle:

And this photo of Parker:

I also found some other lovely things to take photos of around the Mansion:

I’ve mentioned before that my kids like the “I SPY” books…With Parker, it’s sort of an obsession lately, he carries the “SCHOOL DAYS” book everywhere:

Izabelle found some beautiful “Sparkly” flowers…you all know how much I love anything that sparkles:

OK, I think 8 photos is a little too many for one post…I have a couple hundred more…maybe I’ll save those for the scrapbook.

Have a wonderful day!

I was feeling a little blue, not sure why…just one of those days.  Maybe I’m a little down because I miss my family…the family that moved off to Idaho…and Utah.  I’m still here in California.  Not that it’s a bad thing to be in California, I just miss them.

I don’t know what made me do it but I grabbed my camera on the way out the door this afternoon.  I can’t really explain the feeling of having a camera in my hand.  It just feels good.  It feels right.

I’ve haver taken a  photography class but I’ve always wanted to.  Maybe if I took a class it would be easier to capture my world through phototgraphs…easier to tell the story of my life from behind a camera lens.

I was waiting to pick up Izabelle from school and started taking photos.  The first one of myself in mirror on my car…

Then I snapped a photo of Izabelle as she was getting in car.  Then I noticed a tree behind her.  A beautiful burnt orange tree.  Gorgeous.

I love Autumn.

Suddenly I was feeling better.  I had a half of an hour before it was time to pick up Parker from school.  I took my time driving there, pulling over on the side of the road whenever it felt right…snapping photos.

I love to close my eyes and feel the breeze, gentle, cool, calming, the sun shining on my face. As my eyes are closed, I listen to the sound of the wind blowing through the trees.  I feel peace. I feel blessed.  I feel grateful for the beauty that surrounds me.

I love Autumn.

I took photos of Citrus Avenue during the Fall of 2006.  Our family lived on Citrus Avenue for quite awhile.  We moved into our new home during the Summer of 2007.  At the time I had no idea it would be our last Autumn on Citrus Avenue.

I LOVE Autumn.  It’s my FAVORITE season.  These photos make me miss Citrus Avenue…not that I don’t love where we live now, it’s just a newer neighborhood and the trees are still young.  The trees on Citrus Avenue had been around awhile, they were magnificent in the Fall.  As my Grandpa Crabtree would say, they were Glorious!

A closer look at the layouts using “October Afternoon” paper (or the little details)…

Exploring my parent’s backyard…

My Mom’s favorite, the willow tree

One view from the deck…the pool (yes, that’s one of my kiddo’s in the water).

The rest of these photos were just experimental with my new camera.  There are so many beautiful flowers, trees and bushes in the backyard….see for yourself:

I have always loved to take photographs.  I can’t help it.  I carry my little digital camera in my purse and it goes everywhere with me.  I’ve had too many experiences that I wish I would’ve had a camera for, I learned my lesson when my son was very young.

My children’s lives are well documented in photographs.  So well in fact that they both either huff and puff because I’m taking “another picture” or they say, “Mom, take a picture of me holding….”  whatever they have in their hands at the time…

When my kids were younger I went through a Black & White phase.  It was before I went digital and I would haul my big camera around with me.  That big Camera went along with us on all of our outings, it was just as necessary as the diaper bag was.

I took the following photos about 6 years ago.  I am not and have never claimed to be a professional photographer…but it does not deter me from pretending to be with my children.  Looking back at these photos, even if they’re a little blurry…I’m so glad I lugged that camera around with us.

I took this photo of my children in 2003.  When I think about my children they still seem to be this size.  At the time my daughter was almost 3 and my son was 6.  It is as if they never age in my mind.  Even when they are standing before me, sometimes it seems as if they will always be small.   I am often shocked when I look at them and realize that they are huge (well, not huge  but it seems they are very large when compared to the above photo).  My daughter, Izabelle is 7 almost 8 and my son, Parker is 11. 

It seems as though I will turn around and they will be adults.  I prefer to keep them forever young in my mind.  Just as they are in the photo above.  I finally understand what my parents meant when they said, “You will always be my baby”.

…These two will always be my babies.

Yesterday at about 11 am a fire started about 5 miles away from my house. It’s really dry around here right now and the winds have been insane…up to 50 miles an hour and beyond! Lucky for me and my family, the fire started to travel the opposite direction from where I live. But my heart still goes out for all those people that live in the path of the inferno!

I took this photo from the park down the street from my home at about 4 pm yesterday.

And then I drove down the street and took this shot (notice how dry everything is):

The fire is STILL burning today and moving towards Paradise (where my beloved Paradise Scrapbook Boutique is located). I have friends that live in the area of the fire…I’m so worried about them!

While I was putting the horses back in their stalls this afternoon I took this photo at about 2:30 pm (and yes, that is a huge pile of manure in the lower left hand corner):

Crazy! I heard there is a huge fire a couple towns north of town too (about 20-30 miles away).

Makes me think…what would I grab from my house in a fire if I only had time for a few things???

Considering that my children and animals are out safe…I’d probably go right for the photos! What would you grab? I’d love to know!