September School Days

School Days - School Days

Learning our ABCs!

Last year Marian Ballog had the fantastic idea of making a Vintage ABC Book with our Tag Swap Group. She put an amazing amount of time, energy, effort, and creativity into making this project a giant success!  Hooray for Marian - and all who made the pages - 27 of each page! Whew!

Marian found great vintage books and made each participant a set of covers, including the individualized 'flashcard' titles - and a lot more!  If you look closely at numbers 4 & 12, you can see where she drilled the holes for the binding ribbon.  (I forgot to take a picture before I took the book apart to take pictures.)

Here are the outside front cover, title page, extra colorful BOOK bingo page, and the inside back cover complete with "check-out" card and pocket.

The Table of Contents pages. Marian asked each participant to send her a childhood photo to use. She listed the letter - Miss A, for example - and then the page creator's name & state along with the photo. The pages are all 4 x 6, about twice the size of the tags we've been swapping for a year or so. The pages illustrate the person's letter, using items that also start with that letter: color, fabric or background material, a flower, a sentiment, an attribute, etc. We included word lists - and sometimes more - on the backs of our pages.

Miss A - Alisa Noble (lifeisabeautifulplacetobe.blogspot.com); 

Miss B - Marian Ballog (meballog@hotmail.com); 

Miss C - Wendy H. Robrecht (wendy-hue.blogspot.com); 

Miss D - Judi Andersen (www.pinkpersimmon.com)

Miss E - Kim Schaefer(www.craftytriathlete.blogger.com)

Miss F - Kimberly Laws (ArtJoyStuff.blogspot.com)

Miss G - Gina Grable (http://embraceyourbliss.blogspot.com)

Miss H - Pearl Hooper

Miss I - Amy Malaise (http://www.craftingbycandlelight.blogspot.com)

Miss J - Jane Palmer (that's ME!)

Miss K - Kathleen Kelly-Pardo (kathleenkellypardo@gmail.com)

Miss L - Terri Kolte (TheGypsyMagpie.blogspot.com)

Miss M - Wanda M. Clark (www.wandamai.blogspot.com)

Miss N - Natalea Kandefer (kandeland.typepad.com)

Miss O - Linda Olstad (www.fancylinda.com)

Miss P - Priscilla Cloud (pkcloud@cox.net)

Miss Q - Debi Martin (Martin19@cox.net)

Miss R - Roxane Berenbeim (berenbeimn@comcast.net)

Miss S - Susan Murtagh (suestelle@aol.com)

Miss T - Grace Palazzolo(http://graceinthecity.blogspot.com)

Miss U - Marian Ballog (meballog@hotmail.com)

Miss V - Christine Nay (changeofheart56.blogspot.com)

Miss W - Sheryl Simpson (Whimzy!Whimzy@sbcglobal.net)

Miss X - Marian Ballog (meballog@hotmail.com)

Miss Y - Terri Kolte (TheGypsyMagpie.blogspot.com)

Miss Z - Rachel Velder (www.rach-ology.blogspot.com)

While looking over each page as I finally get  the pages photographed and posted - after all this time - I'm simply amazed again at all the creativity and beautiful work involved!  Thank you so very much, Marian, and all the participants!  This had to be the best swap EVER!

And NOW would you believe we're doing another book?!  

Vintage Christmas ABC this year!!! 

Better get busy - my pages are due very soon!

Falling for Fall

Fall Tag Swap

Went to a little craft show last weekend and couldn't resist

buying a few cute pumpkin items!  

Can hardly wait to try the Pumpkin Jelly - 

I've never heard of that before!

All these cute pumpkins inspired me to start working on my tags 

for the TagSwapper group's

 "Falling for Fall" 

fall tag swap, hosted by Jonnelle (www.mommy2alex.blogspot.com)

Contact Jonnelle if you'd like to join this swap. I think there might still be a few openings. The tags aren't due until the last week of October, just before Halloween, so there's plenty of time to make them. It's been lots of fun swapping tags with this group for a couple of years now, with several different hostesses and a variety of themes. 

Here's my tag with a 'skirt' added! I wanted to see the difference between the digital photo (first one) and the scanned version (this one). It looks like the photo is better and that my tag needs more work! Usually the final tags are quite different from the first one!

I love Fall!

Where Has Summer Gone?

September Already?!

 Gone Fishing!

The photo I meant to leave just before we left town - oops!

Hard to believe it's already the middle of September! We went out to Montana for a while, but I'm not sure where the rest of these past few weeks have gone!

Lake MacDonald - Glacier National Park

Visiting deer on shore of Lake Five at our friend's cabin

Going-to-the-Sun

Can't visit Montana in the late summer without enjoying the huckleberries! Huckleberry Pie - Yum!  Huckleberry Jam - Yum!  And here's something new - Huckleberry Italian Cream Soda!