Long time no blog.....

My dear friend Rebecca has been giving me a hard time about the fact that I haven't blogged in forever. Sorry all!! I will try to keep things a bit more updated now.

So quick update......WE ARE MARRIED!! Troy and I exchanged vows on the beach at Magens Bay in St Thomas (Virgin Islands) as God made his pressence known with thunder and lightning at sunset on Friday, May 28th, 2010. It was totally amazing!!

Our wonderful photographer, Devon, owner of PhotoSynthesis Atlanta, sent the teaser below with a note that this was going to be the cover for her wedding pricing guide next year. :) I can't wait to see the other 9,999 pictures Devon and Jessica took during wedding week.

We did a "Trash the dress" photo shoot, well two actually, a few days after the wedding, and this is one of the shots from downtown Charlotte Amalie during our morning shoot. I recommend a "TTD" photo shoot to all brides. It allowed our photographers to concentrate on family photos between the ceremony and reception since we knew we'd have a chance to take additional bride and groom photos later in the week. And the photo shoots were a blast!! We were relaxed and having so much fun. I didn't care if my dress got dirty or even if I snagged it during the process. Seriously, was I going to wear it again? My friend Kimmie was very stressed in the weeks/months leading up to the wedding that I was seriously going to TRASH my dress. But I'm happy to report the cleaners were able to get all traces of dirt out of the dress and there is only one small spot where my heal got stuck in the hem. The dress looks brand new! So Kimmie - it's all good.

Back to our TTD Session: We started out downtown to take advantage of the architecture. Downtown Charlotte Amalie is now the "shopping district" for the tourist. Even though we arrived first thing in the morning as shops were just opening there were quite a few people around and everyone was so nice. They were shouting out congratulations, allow us to stop traffic and one man dressed in a costume (Native American looking) even agreed to pose in pictures with us. Just thinking about that morning makes me anxious to see the rest of the pictures!! We took pictures downtown and at several historical sites (99 steps, governors house). Then we headed back to the villa to relax and later redressed that afternoon to head to Magens Bay for some fun sunset pictures. I climbed over a bunch of rocks to get out to a big boulder that was in the middle of the water. I'm sure the few folks on the beach found it entertaining as I hiked my wedding dress up around my waste, waded into the water and then started rock hopping to my final destination. Devon followed - staying in the water...tip-toeing each time the tide came in to keep the water away from her gear which was strapped around her waste. We all had some good laughs!! We ended the photo shoot with Troy and I running hand and hand into the ocean as the sun set on the horizon. We all agreed that the thousands of bug bites we all got were totally going to be worth the pictures that Devon and Jessica were able to capture.

I'm happy to report that our family and friends spent the week of our wedding trip enjoying the trip and celebrations, and weren't spending all their time snapping pictures....that's what we had Devon and Jessica for. :-) Sadly, this resulted in us only having a handful of pictures until Devon is able to edit the 10,000+ pictures they took. But I know they are going to be well worth the wait. The one below is my favorite of the pictures we've received from friends and family.

Stay tuned for more wedding updates.....I promise they won't take me 6 months to post! :) I also have some craft projects I'll post soon too.

Have a great day!!

Mrs. Tammy Godwin

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow.....

Atlanta recieved 2-6 inches of snow on Friday afternoon/evening.

We got about 3 inches here in Woodstock.

Everything was all pretty and white.

Our backyard

Cue-ee had troubles coming down the hill - he couldn't see the junpiers for all the snow. It was quite funny to watch him "fall" through the junipers.
I think Cue looks like a deer running through the woods in this picture.
He was loving the snow.

Another shot in the back yard.

Outdoor dining anyone?? :)

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

I hope you have an awesome day!!

Celebrate a second time when your card arrives!

Love and miss you lots!

Birthday Card Struggles

Since most of you that follow my blog regularly are paper crafters you'll feel my pain with this story.

All last week I was trying to come up with a unique idea for Dad's Birthday card. I guess my mojo was so buried in Christmas it just couldn't think outside snowflakes and Santa. Then Friday night as I'm lying in bed the greatest idea for his card hits me. Awesome you say.....well except for the fact that his birthday is tomorrow (Monday) and he's on the other side of the country. The card is sitting here all done - I love it and I'm sure it's going to make dad laugh. Pictures have been taken, but I won't post those till next week after Dad has received his card. I'm going to send Dad the link to my blog for his Birthday, and what fun would it be to receive a card you've already seen on the internet! LOL

Dad's isn't the only birthday card that is late. DOH! I've been such a slacker in the Birthday card department lately. :( And let's not talk about the fact that I'm still working on Christmas Cards. Being sick at the end of October and through November has put me so far behind on so many things.

Check back next week for pictures of Dad's card (and hopefully a few others).

Holy Cow....

Man has it been three months since I've had time to post something. I knew life had gotten a bit chaotic but didn't realize it had been so long. Sorry my dear blog followers!!

More Card Creations

So I've obviously been slacking on the blog updates. Here it is almost the end of the month and the last post was at the beginning of the month. DOH!!

Here are some cards I've created the last couple of weeks.

These first two pictures are using the Stampin Up Wedding Sweet stamp set. Colors in the first picture are Sage Shadow, Handsome Hunter and Ivory. Such a beautiful and versatile set...not just for weddings. I think these will make great note cards!

This one I heat embossed with silver embossing powder. Love how it turned out. I used Watercolor Paper for the base, Stampin Up Brocade Blue and Night of Navy for the cardstock.

I made a few of these during Monday Night Scrap this week. The stamp is from Stampin Up stamp set Baroque Motifs. Another of my favorites. The colors are Stampin Up Mellow Moss and Always Artichoke, stamped in Always Artichoke.

I always struggle with cards for the guys. Thanks to my BFF Beth for the inspiration on this one. Patterened Paper is Stampin Up Designer Series Paper Manchester (retired), Chocolate Chip SU cardstock embossed with the distressed embossing folder, Vanilla Cardstock to stamp on and for the base. The tree stamp is from the Stampin Up set Thoughts & Prayers. The Birthday Sentiment comes from the On Your Birthday set.

Of course when I find a design I like I mass produce at least a few to I have them handy!! :) Thanks for stopping by!

Digging up Dead People

No need to worry....I'm not off robbing graves or anything like that! :-) I've started getting back into my genealogy a bit. Mom use to say I was digging up dead people...and since I've been at it for a good 20+ years I have dug up a lot of dead people.

My hope is to get my data for my mom's lines (at least 5 or 6 generations back) cleaned up and ready to convert into a book, add some pictures and get printed for that side of the family for Christmas. I've said for YEARS I would get books printed for each side of the family, but there just never seems enough time in the day. So maybe starting in August I'll get it done this time. The problem is as I'm cleaning up the data I always seem to get side tracked and go off researching missing info. Doesn't matter how many times I tell myself that my research will never be "done". I just have to bite the bullet and get what I have ready for publication and call it good....at least for now.

I found the cartoon below while digging through some boxes of research. I remember sitting in the middle of many a cemetery over the years. Research notebook in hand, camera, notebook paper....trying to piece together those buried there with what I had on my family. Are the people next to them part of my family by chance? Why isn't Great Grandpa buried with the rest of the family? And my favorite - that my great Aunt will appreciate - Cow Pasture Charlie! {ask me to tell you this story some day - it's quite funny}

If people would only make it THIS easy to determine who is who's kid/parents!!

Fun Facts about my research:

• I started researching at the age of 13th (1985-ish)
• My first Family Tree was drawn out by hand (by me) on notebook paper....and I still have it.
• When I began I didn't know my grandparents actual names - they were always grandma and grandpa. Didn't help that my mom's parents go by nicknames that are NOTHING like their given names.
• I have close to 2400 people input into my Family Tree Maker program. With probabaly another 2400 or more that NEED to be input.
• I have one line that goes back to my 10th Great Grandfather who was born in the late 1580's.
• I have another line that I swore for the longest time aliens dropped them in the small town in Kansas they lived in for generations. I just couldn't find his parents for the life of me for a good 5 years or more. It's my dad's side of the family and they do tend to be a bit difficult! :-)
• This hobby has been one of the most rewarding I've had over the years!!

Thanks for stopping by today! See ya next time!