happy christmas holiday! busy-insane past couple of weeks, but all good *wink. i hope everyone's holiday was(is) good! mine has been great, spending it with my family and a lot of great friends!! AND, we had a WHITE Christmas! ... i love that.to start up our holiday a week early, bobby comes to me and tells me that he wants to get ethan a boxer puppy for christmas. ..meet CHAMP

bobby and his girlfriend drove to topeka,ks., in a snowstorm to pick him up. i was at a wrestling tourney all day watching eth. when i got home, bobby had the pup and had stopped at the petsmart to pick up this santa hat and a black hoodie (he said he had to get the hoodie because then the dog would be like ethan -of course always with a hoodie on) this is the classic part... right before ethan got back from the tourney, the pup had gone underneath the christmas tree and fallen asleep! bobby put the santa hat on him, and when ethan walked in the door, the pup was asleep underneath the tree dressed in hoodie and santa hat!! it was perfect, and the look on my son's face was completely priceless. he is so in love with this dog, and even though i enjoyed not having a dog to worry about, i missed our labs and their companionship too! and so did eth. i've always had dogs growing up, and it's nice having this little guy around. this is a first, but i've heard a lot of great things about the boxer... so we'll see. he was 7wks when we got him. it's amazing how quick he's grown, now he looks like he's doubled in size already, and all legs! the diff. in these pics is just 9 days!

i finally got back into the groove of a little journal work. i started a dec. page in my yearly journal. (skipped oct/nov, so it's back to playing catch-up....again). this situation was the seed for the layout of the page.. - we were having a snowstorm here in kc, and my printer was running out of ink, so the pics i printed turned out -not so good- to say the least! i wanted to work with them, so i decided to make a collage, distressed the photos a little and used red dye to stain the entire collage. festive, yet in my normal out of control self of altering!i used a little left-over christmas wrapping paper, beeswax, plastic wings, red dye, dip pen and ink. pretty simplistic really... the negative areas where the dye didn't stain are covered with beeswax; resist.    

i'm anxious to get this journal complete and ready to start on my 2008 journal! what i'm really looking forward to is sitting down once 07 is comp. and going through it month by month. my life has changed sooo much in the past year. a lot of good mixed with some bad, yet it's all good!! i'm blessed. i'm happy. i have a great life with a lot of great people in it! time for another time capsule. (i still love to look at this piece; it's still hanging in my studio) what i also love about this time of year is the feeling of renew. the curiousity and mytic of the upcoming year..  people, places, daily happenings.

merry new year!

XXX- slm

Comments

[CarrieJ]

Boxers are great. Or, at least my in-laws was. But, be prepared ... the first year they are HYPER!!! Good luck

[Kelly Feraro]

Bobby's thoughtfulness is a testament of what a fantastic mother you are!!!!
Big smiles,
Kelly

[Seth]

Steph: You are so talented. Even with a printer that doesn't print right, you still made a fantastic journal page. Your new dog is pretty great too! Happy New Year. Seth

[Carolyne]

hey there steph, in kentucky at the moment and thinking of you. hope you had a great christmas and wishing you the very best in the new year. love the journal page, always inspiring. hugs.