What a month!

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted. It's been a CRAZY few months here!

In early April we started a major remodeling project of our home: totally gutted and remodeled master bath; new wood flooring through entire downstairs, except master bedroom which got new carpet; new carpet on the stairs and upstairs "loft;" new wood flooring in my husband's office upstairs; and new flooring, countertop and painted cabinets in upstairs bathroom.  Most of March I spent packing up breakables and items inside furniture getting ready for the remodel. I also took that opportunity to declutter and donate stuff - what a job! Everything was finally completed on May 24 and I will share a bit about that in another post.

On May 1 I attended my online group's annual five-day retreat in Grapevine, TX. There were 17 of us there to celebrate our 14th retreat! (I've gone to all except one when I got pink eye the night before!) Ladies came from California, Washington, Utah, New Mexico, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Florida and, of course, Texas.  As usual, we had a theme and this year's was "It's a Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood" which could be loosely interpreted by everyone.

We always spend at least one day with everyone creating their own book coordinating with the theme. After lots of thought, I decided to make my book documenting the different houses we've lived in since we married. I altered a book with the title "So Well Remembered," which I thought was appropriate.

This is the cover. I cut a door from the actual front of the book, preserving the title. It is added to the front with two hinges.  I cut strips out of an atlas of maps from every state we've lived in and collaged them over the cover and used inks and paints to add color. 

Where the door was cut out I added a piece of mica and added a wedding photo of my husband and I on the page behind.

The first spread is for our first house in Kansas City, Mo. For this page I added lovely peonies cut from scrapbook paper and a photo as we had gorgeous peony bushes along the porch.  I journaled on each spread about the houses and memories of any special moments spent in each.

The next spread is our second house in Kansas City. I added a kraft pocket with a kraft tag for the journaling. The "Recollections" is part of a sheet of rub-ons from, yes, Recollections which has been closed for at least ten years now. I was surprised it still stuck!

Our third house was in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, due to a job transfer. I was not in love with this one! I used a pretty napkin on the background of this spread.

Next up is our house in Albuquerque where we lived 19 years. Two of the girls were born here and the four oldest went from kindergarten through high school here.  I added a pocket in this spread to hold some photos from our real estate listing when we sold, along with an artist rendering of the house when we added a garage.

The second page of the spread has a photo of our pool with more journaling. I thought the red chile washi tape was appropriate for New Mexico!

In 1999 we moved to Keller, Texas, and built our very first house. I used one of the photos as a pocket and added a tag for the journaling. There's also a floor plan of the house in the pocket.

This spread shows our current townhouse - we downsized in 2006 when our youngest left for college.

The pocket on the right holds a floor plan.

And this is the back page and back  cover. I love that paper with the houses.  Inside the book I used several pieces of Tim Holtz's wallpaper for backgrounds.

Here are a few of the other projects that different members taught us.

A mixed media house canvas by Kris

Three little cardboard houses by Roxie - they are supposed to be mounted vertically on a
yardstick which I haven't gotten to!

A box card by Jan - it folds flat and fits in an A2 envelope

Another card by Jan

It's a Z-fold and opens up to this - so cute

This was my project - an adaptation of a "penny rug." It hangs on an old drawer pull and has a key at the bottom.

We were each gifted an original stitched house pin by our "leader," Jeri. She purchased them from phizzychick on Etsy who is from England. Each was different and equally pretty.

It was a wonderful weekend and a welcome respite from the work being done at my house!

I hope to be able to post more regularly now...