2011 VBS Set

This was my sixth year painting the VBS set at my church. It is something that I really enjoy doing. Most of the years, I have had a few helpers come and paint with me, including art students and friends. This year meant the most to me because my own daughter was old enough to join in and help me paint. We had a lot of fun together, planning and painting. She did a wonderful job and I am very proud of her. She is becoming a great artist. I am so glad I get to watch the artistic abilities continue to be passed down through out the generations. My grandmother and mom were both amazing artists. My grandmother painted mostly in oils. Beautiful landscapes. I remember my mom painting the background sets for my sister and my dance recitals. She also painted the most amazing little paintings to go in dollhouses. I so wish I could find those. I have a few of them. I am sure I put them in one of those safe places that you are sure to remember where you put them! Well until next year, here is some pics of this year's VBS set.

Catching up

I guess I will continue to try blogging. I have not been that great at it, plus no one leaves any comments anyway. So to try and make two months shorter, here is my effort. Finally finshed up our first year of homeschooling. It was a long one with everything that went on this year. We ended up only being two weeks finshing after the public schools. I did not think that was bad at all. Brian's 4th surgery, on his arm, for the fistula, finally went well and they pulled the port out of his chest. Now he can go swimming with us! I have a job now. My friend got her license for our photography business, so now I am a photographer/graphic designer for her! I got a new Nikon D7000 camera. We have finally started to recover from the hubby being unable to return to work. Mana has started voice, drama and ballet lessons for the summer. It finally seems like life is getting back to what we would call normal. Or as close as it will ever be. I finished up the VBS set for my church and the storybook for the ballet. Was not sure if I was going to be able to do those two things this year. Glad I did. My computer died last Monday. I got a new one last night and I am now trying to type and find my way around a laptop. Not so great at that yet. Tried to load photoshop CS2 and found out that it is not compatable with Windows 7. I have to upgrade now. It will be about two or three weeks until I can even order it. No editing pictures for awhile. :(

We have had a lot of deaths in the family. My grandmother's brother, my Aunt's husband, and yesterday my Paw Paw died. I got to go down and stay with him in the hospital a couple of days before he passed. I loved his grin and I am glad I got to tell him that! The funeral will be Saturday.

Well, that about sums it all up.

My Helper

I had a project that I needed to do for a lady today. Brian had his surgery to rework his fistula this morning. I thought that we would be home by lunch. It turns out that we were at the hospital for eleven hours. It was a very long day! I still needed to finish this project. I am painting some signs for a new store that opened today. Mana wanted to help me so I let her. She did an excellent job and was a big help. We got all the signs done in a reasonable time.

Tornadoes

Here are some pictures of the damage from the April 27 tornadoes.
Mana took these!

A Wonderful Family

Last Wednesday, I got the opportunity to photograph a very special family. Mana has taken dance from this sweet lady for several years. I was thrilled when she asked me to take some shots of her and her kids!! I had two of my friends with me to help out! Thanks Sherry and Lisa!! We make a great team!

A funeral and two prom photo shoots

Saturday, April 9 was a very busy day. My Uncle passed away and his funeral was that morning. It was out of town. We got back in town just in time for me to meet up with my friend Sherry to shoot a beautiful couple before their senior prom. They were really fun to shoot. The guy kept Sherry and I laughing the whole time. After that I went home and dropped my hubby off and changed batteries in the camera. I then went to meet some friends of mine to take their before prom pictures. All went well. I was extremely tired at the end of the day.

My sweet friend Heidi and my adorable daughter.CJ and Zena's picturesAdriana and Michael's picturesMy sweet girl

The Return of Scrapbooking!!

I use to do a lot of scrapbooking! Every Friday night, my friend Anggie and her daughter would come over and the girls would play and we would scrap. I miss that so much. We had the best conversations those nights. They wouldn't be over until way past midnight, but we never cared what time it was. We would paper scrap on those nights since I have printed pictures of when Mana was little. On other days, I had started a digital scrapbook for her 1st grade year. I was about done with it when I lost all her 1st - 4th grade pictures. I was not one for backups!! I have learned my lesson well! Now I have my pictures backed up in two different places. I have been downloading free scrapbook papers and elements for a long time now. (I lost all that also!) I have finally scrapped my first page since I lost everything. I enjoyed making my first page and look forward to doing others really soon.

Just had to share!! :)

Background paper and elements came from
scrappingsisters.blogspot.com
from the kit - Got Game Tennis.