Songbird Avenue do want to make a difference by creating a new fantastic kit each month, using the best designers, and then giving away most of the income to charity. This month it’s S.A.F.E. house that gets the donation. Since Valerie made us all winners of a gift card, in the contest in late June, I bought the July kit Endless Summer and have been using parts of it for a few scrapbook pages already.

I like the colors of it, the circle shaped elements and the letters (to mention but a few… )

(for credit click image)

On their Songbird Avenue blog there is a scraplifting challenge for July.

We are challenged to scraplift one of the talented designer Dani’s pages using the Endless Summer kit.

Dani have a lot of wonderful scrapbook pages and it was hard to choose, but finally I went for this one that I found in her slide - and started to take a bunch of photos of MT for my lift.

(Tonight I’ve searched her blog archives for this scrap page, but I haven’t been able to find it, hopefully it’s ok that I used a layout found in the slide and not in one of her blog post…. I love this one with her beautiful and photogenic daughter and her different faces and moods)

This is what I came up with inspired by Dani’s scrap page and the Endless Summer kit:

(for credit click image)

These are all for challenges, but the field one is also for a book I plan to make with scrapped vacation photos from this summer. I wish I had a proper camera, though, the cell phone one has it’s limits!!

(click on the images for credits)

(as messy as it was when I left )

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Click the photo for credits.

This day has been slow and sleepy I can’t say I’ve done much, other than being with MT and washing some clothes. It’s been sunny for the most part, but there is a chill in the air that makes me not want to go bathing(!) That’s to bad because I really want to swim a bit…..

Tomorrow night or Friday we are expecting some new guests, we can hardly wait! I’m going to make the most out of tomorrow making this place cleaner and tidier. If I can manage to get out of bed that is….

We also celebrated my birthday yesterday, with family at first and then adding our friends, when they arrived, we grew to a total of 20 people - so it was a busy and fun day

I’ve scrapped another page; about our favorite summer tradition:

Mommy, there is a frog in my pool!!

Fun for MT, mommy is not so sure……

He was so happy and rushed to kindergarten to tell the other kids.

It was still there when we got home and I got to take a few photos of him/her while MT spent the time watching the frog jump and swim around.

Anyone know what kind of frog it is?

Tomorrow, if it’s still there, I guess we need to take it out. MT reckons it should stay until we get visitors late next week….

1. Relax
   • This is an all day event; two three cups of coffee so far and a good while online as well. This is the main thing today!
2. Scrap
   • I’m working on a now finished with the watery one….
     
     This scrap page have all of my most favorite colors and it turned out better than I hoped
     I managed another, but not without using a bit more of the night than I think is wise…. better go to bed now! Like MT
     This is from our vacation to North Norway last year.
     I have plenty of other photos to use and can hardly wait for the new kit coming from Songbird Avenue tomorrow! Thank you, again, Val, for the gift/price!
3. Get the flowers/veggies out of their tiny pots - partly done.
   • The tomatoes have now gotten a much larger pot; hopefully it’ll take to it’s new home and produce some more flowers so I can get tons of tomatoes late summer/early fall
   • The corn is in it’s corner of my garden. I’ve never grown corn before so I’m curious how it’ll work out, but MT LOVES corn so I must try them out…. Wish I had some pies to put next to them, though!
   • I almost forgot to tell that I’ve finished planting two flower pots and put the mint by itself so it can grow as it pleases (it tend to take over if just placed by others in a garden)
4. Do a bit of laundry Oh, yea, two loads finished and hug up
5. Empty my car of trash and things that don’t belong there….
   • This will just have to wait!

We gave God thanks for all the wonderful and amazing things our world is filled with. We stopped up a little together for better to see it all. It makes me smile just thinking of how much beauty there is in the small things as well as the larger ones. Among us we had three babies (that got baptized during the service) and having them around made us better understand how fantastic God’s Creations really are(!)

But then we focused on the other side of creation, the more challenging part; how can we preserve it so our children and generations yet to come can appreciate it as we do now. I believe this is a challenge we all need to take seriously and I also believe in doing that we are in fact giving thanks and glory to God, the Creator of it all!

We have a national church aid here in Norway and their youth organization have a saying that I try to remind myself of when needed: “OFF COURSE WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD!” (I love their logo, it’s the earth but upside down ). And off course we can, and we should, one person at a time. And I’ve seen it - help in the right place do make a change for those living in that village or in that area - it works. And it makes sense for us with money to help those that have few. It’s in fact the Christian thing, no matter how hard it sometimes is to remember and just do it.

So now I’ll go home and try to make the Creation Day and everyday event. When I mess up and forget to drive less or to share what I have with others - and I will - I know I have a Father that will forgive me and then send me right out in the world again to give it another try…. Are you with me?!

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