Sketch Challenge

Every month I participate in a sketch challenge on one of my scrapbooking groups. I thought I'd start including the sketch for the current month's challenge, and maybe some of you would want to participate in the challenge as well. If you'll send me a pic of your LO, I'll post it on my blog along with mine! Fun, huh??
Here's the July sketch....

And here's my LO based on this sketch It's kind of rotated and a loose rendition!

Girl Trip to Arkansas

My friend Renee and I just returned from a 6-day 'girl' trip into northern Arkansas. We took the RV and stayed at Lost Bridge South Campground on Beaver Lake. It is a beautiful lake surrounded by hills and trees. Our campsite was right on the water. We did lots of fun things like stopping at every little flea market and junk store, drove through Pea Ridge Military Park, explored War Eagle Cavern, took many sidetrips down interesting dirt roads, visited War Eagle grain mill on Beaver Lake, shopped in Eureka Springs, and spent lots of time just relaxing by the lake, reading, playing games, or just visiting. My brother Tom and his wife Bev came out to our site a couple of times. We went to their home for a delicious dinner and a relaxing visit on Thurs. night. Friday night, our last night there, Tom and Bev came out and after sitting through a downpour, the skies cleared and we started a campfire to roast marshmallows and eat s'mores! What kind of a camping trip would it be without eating s'mores!! This was a wonderful break for me from life in general and a fabulous opportunity to enjoy God's glorious creation.

This is the view from our campsite...This next picture shows who we shared our campsite with!













These last two pics are of me with my brother Tom in his convenience store, The Short Stop, at the entrance to the Lost Bridge campgrounds, and of Renee and I enjoying the view from a lodge overlooking the lake.

My England Album

I've spent a lot of time recently trying to get our trip to England and Scotland scrapbooked. I took over 800 pics, so you see what a daunting task this is! Tori and Greg made sure that we saw as many of the awesome sites as we could. I only have a few minutes so I'll post a page now and promise to return in the near future with more.



We are eating a late lunch at The Trout Inn, a famous pub outside of Oxford, in Godstow

I don't think I mentioned that in February we lost our sweet Percy. He was a beautiful tan (unusual) pomeranian that just loved to be loved. We had had him about 13 years and loved him dearly. I've done one LO in memory of Percy and have a few more pics of him to scrap but wanted to share this one.

This is the sketch that I used for this LO. I love using sketches!!

Hope you had a Happy Mother's Day

Considering that I could not be with my children, all in all it was a very nice Mother's Day. It started off with a call from our daughter and son-in-law in England. Then we went to church and Sunday School, came home to change and headed to my brother's home for a nice Mother's Day lunch! We had ham, sweet potatoes (see recipe below!), baked pineapple, salad, bread, and dessert. After visiting for awhile, we came home and I took a LONG nap! I woke up to the sweet voices of my son and three grandchildren (daughter-in-law was most likely asleep!). Great way to wake up from a nap! Then Clint and I watched Night at the Museum (funny but kinda dumb!). I couldn't resist watching the finale of Survivor which we had TiVoed so it ended up being later than I wanted going to bed. I was really disappointed that Dreamz didn't keep his word to Yauman, and thus Yauman was voted off. I wanted him to win - felt that he deserved it. But the next choice would have been Earl, and he had a unanimous vote! So, there is my Mother's Day. Nothing really eventful but very relaxing! And now I want to share this yummy sweet potato casserole recipe with you!!

Sweet Potato Bake
5 c. mashed sweet potatoes or yams
1/2 t. salt
2 T margarine
1 9-oz can pineapple tidbits, undrained
2 c. min. marshmallows (I used more!)
1/3 c. pecan halves
Combine potatoes, salt, butter, pineapple and juice. Place half of mixture in a buttered casserole dish. Top w/half the marshmallows. Add remaining half of the potato mixture. Arrange pecans on top. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 min. Remove cover, add remaining marshmallows, and bake 10 min. more.

It is yummy!!!

Deanna