L is for Linda,, Life, Lake City, MN

                                                                             L is for Linda...that's my name.  My Dad named me after an old girlfriend he dated when he was stationed in the Phillipine Island during the Korean War.  At my work there are 4 Linda's. :)...I took a photo of the above blocks when I visited my hometown of Lake City Minnesota a few years ago.

This I snapped when I visited the Hogel Zoo in SLC...There's a whole boardwalk of engraved names of donators to the Zoo. Below is Lake Pepin, in Lake City, Minnesota where I grew up.  It's not really a lake, but a wide part of the Mississippi River.  I kept going off the road when I was driving, just looking at how pretty it was, so finally I stopped to take some pictures.  This is the birthplace of waterskiing by the way...

I am reading a great book called "StoryCatcher: Making Sense of Our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story." by Christina Baldwin.  She writes about how we should preserve our own stories through journal writing, or scrapbooking, or on movies and ,of course, blogging!..everybody has a story and if we knew their story we would probably be more understanding of them.  I have been doing art journaling for a few years now...I love the visualness of it.  Yesterday I was watercoloring little basic zoo animals, a gnome farmer, some handdrawn witches that my talented mom drew, and a wizard (I love Harry Potter stuff).

This is part of a scrapbook page I did, scraplifting for my favorite scrapper, Ali Edwards....

K is for King's Bookstore, Kandra, Kenzie, Karlie,Kitty

Darla the Kitty

Karlie and Nicole

Kandra

Kandra a few years ago..

K is for Kitty...this is Darla, she's Queen of the Lab (anyone watch Bones?)...K is for Karlie, who found the kitty when it was tiny...this is Karlie, in the Kitchen (on the left )with friend, Nicole...at Karlie's birthday party  last year..    K is also for Kings Bookshop in Salt Lake City.. 

K is also for Kenzie...Who couragously passed a Kidney stone in the ER yesterday!!!

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J is for Jolly, Jar

This jolly little fellow was made by Kandra...her own design, used faux black leather, red cordroy, white felt for the teeth...a skull nipple...I love it!   She made it for a former boyfriend ...I am kinda glad they broke up so she got custody!!  And below is a close up of another doll....she does have an Etsy store (I will post the address next time....J is also for Jar...as in my jar of ribbon below, sitting in one of the cubbies of my Ikea Expedite bookcases(notice my little peeps)..I have 3 of those bookcases in my little scrapbook room...makes me happy!

I is for Independence, Interesting, Icky

When the kids were little we had a family tradition of participating in the Freedom Festival  Children's parade , always held the Saturday before the big Independance Day parade.  One year I had a friend, Marlene, make me a little Uncle Sam costume for Mario...He slept through the parade but did get his photo published in the Freedom Festival Magazine the following year.  His top hat I made out of left over material , covering an oatmeal box.  At the end of the little parade everybody got popsicles. 

I is for interesting....or icky....this was drawn by Karlie, who likes to do human faces...this does remind me when I worked in a nursing home many years ago and I had this little old man, Earnie,who had to take his glass eyeball out every so often to clean it....!

                                                                                                                                                                                                       

H is also for Heat, Hair and more Harry Potter

It's so cold out!  The puppies love to sit in front of the portable heater or fireplace and get warm.  Anybody want a puppy?  And this pile of hair belonged to Mario.  Kandra will be sending it to soak up oil spills or Locks of love....

And here's a Harry Potter Christmas tree complete with a slitherin' snake that I got from DI....and my man. Dumbledore, keeps guard in the living room...hope you all have a happy hey day hee hee.....

H is for Harry Potter, Hogle Zoo

How I love Harry....I remember when the first book came out, I just loved the idea of wizarding school!  And every year in the fall I am secretly dissappointed that I didn't get an owl post to be accepted into Hogwarts!   Here's my HP shrine, just full of stuff like, movie ticket stubs from the HP movies, owls, dragons, a stag patronus, unicorns, trading cards, wizards and witches....I have it at the front entrance of my home on a black bench along with a lot of candles and stuff...I am also working on 2 HP quilts and some artwork of Hogwarts....more later since I am in my studio in the basement and it is cold here!!!!   P.s....I took a picture of the owl at Hogle Zoo, through glass...