A couple weeks ago, my sister Kelly, my Aunt Sandy, and I went to Starved Rock, in Utica, Illinois. I haven’t been there in SO long, and I remember we used to go there with my grandparents when we were little. I was feeling really under the weather, so I wasn’t sure how I would do, with having to climb all the stairs. However, I was grateful to see that after every set of stairs, there was a landing, with several benches, where we could all sit, and catch our breath.

     We intended to go there to take photos of the color-changing leaves, but everything was still green, so it was hard to find trees that had started to change. We were too early. However, we got some amazing pictures, got a lot of exercise, and had so much fun as we walked down all of the paths, and took in the beautiful views. I think we all overcame a little bit of fear, as we all pushed ourselves to get closer to the edge of the cliffs, and look down into the river below us. It was windy, so that didn’t make it any easier, but even I can say I was proud of myself, for going to the edge of the railing that runs along the top of the cliff.

     If you’ve never been to Starved Rock, you definitely should go. It’s great if you want to get away from the city, and be closer to nature. I almost forgot—we even saw a woodchuck. I heard a noise and I was scared to look back, thinking someone was playing a trick on me. But then, when I looked, I saw a woodchuck hiding inside his house, made of boards. My sister said that he probably made it himself. Later, her husband asked me if I asked the woodchuck how much wood he could chuck. Haha!

     All in all it was a beautiful sunny, cool day, and I had such a great time. This is our second fall trip that my sister and I have done. We’ve decided to make it a tradition. Last year we went to Michigan. We still plan to go somewhere else when the leaves start to change color, more. Maybe next year, we’ll wait a little bit longer before we go. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this post!

Until next time! J

 

It's adventure time! This weekend I am going to see my cousin J.R.'s wedding in St. Louis (well, not exactly St. Louis, but close enough)! What's especially great about this wedding is that a lot of my cousins and family will be together, so we're planning on bringing down the house. Also, since I'm single (which I can't say is a bad thing), I decided to invite my dad to the wedding, as he's always been close to my mother's side of the family. Therefore, a road trip is in order. It's going to be so much fun because even though it's only about a 4-hour drive, I'll spending time with my dad, which I hardly ever get to to do (even though we live in the same house). I know I can expect lots of singing from him, and music from bands like Journey, Kansas, Electric Light Orchestra, The Who, Bob Seger, the Beatles, etc. I absolutely cannot wait, and will take a million pictures to share next week.



Whatever your adventures include this weekend, I hope you have fun wherever life takes you!

Just Two Midwest Girls challenge!

Hello, hello!

Can I just start by saying its almost Friday?! Yipee!!!!!!

Okay. Moving on.

Here is my post for the Just Two Midwest Girls challenge.

I've had a rough couple of months, so I loved doing something inspirational. This layout made me feel so good to do.
The challenge was to make a layout about yourself, and who doesn't love doing that, right? :)

For this layout, I had recently printed a bunch of photos from Shutterfly. I always make sure to get in on their GIANT photo sales. So I have a bunch of photos of myself since I'm a 100% certified selfie-addict!

I had a lot of fun making this layout really girly, and adding dresses, hearts, glitter and lots and lots of pink. I really love the end result.

Here is the list of items I used:
Shutterfly: Photos
Glitz Design:
     Afternoon Muse
     Stripe AM2877
StudioG ink
Unity Stamps:
     You're the Ticket
     Share Your Smile
     Undeniably You
Bo Bunny: Olivia Dress Form (chipboard sticker)
Target dollar section: Heart Ribbon

I'll add more as needed, as I know I probably left some supplies out, but I really hope you like this layout and it inspires you to make a layout about yourself! I really think it inspires you to figure out who you are as a person and have a greater appreciation of yourself.

Happy Friday, happy weekend and happier crafting!

Kristy

Two Midwest Girls Scrap Challenge

Hi everyone,

I know it's been a long time, but I thought I'd pop in and share a layout I did for my sister Kelly, and her friend Heather's challenge.

The challenge was use the colors above. It's hard to see, but the paper is red, and Wisconsin's Capital building has a beautiful light green color, at night.  I took this when I went up to Madison, for a concert.  One of my favorite hip hop groups, Atmosphere performed there.


Unfortunately, I was late in uploading this, but my sister will be having a challenge every month.  I've posted the link if you'd like to participate.   http://kelsterjean.blogspot.com/



I hope you enjoyed this post!

Dear everyone:
I am having a change of heart, as far as my career goes. I think I might be facing burnout. For those of you that don't know, I am a certified nursing assistant. I no longer feel like I have enough patience or compassion to do this job anymore. I've been a nurse aide for four years, and there are a lot of times when I just don't feel appreciated. With that said, I've decided to begin to figure out what it is I actually want to do. While I'm trying to figure that out, I have decided that I'll use this blog for all things creative. I scrapbook, so I'll use it to show off some of the projects I make. But more importantly, I have decided to use this blog for writing and photography. I love photography, so I'll be uploading a couple photos every week, if not one per day. I think this is one great way to keep my motivation up.

Happy creativity!

Kristy

Long Time Gone

It's been a long time. I think I'm going through a quarter life crisis. I know it sounds funny, and I didn't actually believe the term until I heard John Mayer's "Why Georgia" lyrics. "Must be a quarter life crisis." No, but really! I started looking into it, and it turns out that there is actually a such thing. How does this apply to me, you ask? Well, for those of you who know me, I'm a nurse assistant. I love to scrapbook, and hobby in photography, and I love, love, LOVE poetry, but I don't think I do well enough to call myself a poet. A writer, maybe, but poets are far more amazing at writing than I am.

Anyway, I'm not sure when I realized that I didn't want to be a nurse anymore, but it has something to do with my current job at an unspecified rehab center. The thing is, I just don't FEEL it anymore. I still love taking care of patients, but sometimes the place is so damn understaffed that I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off. That's definitely not HAPPY me. So, I've been doing some soul-searching. I attended a "Discover the Possibilities" class at Moraine Valley Community College, which let me take a career quiz. There are two parts. The first part is a quiz, with results. So far it hasn't been very helpful, because there are far too many career options. I still have yet to take the second part, which will help me look into several career options.

For the time being, I'm considering the following:
*something in the writing business (editor? Journalist? Writer?)
*something in health care (xray tech? medical assistant? EMT?)

No matter which way I turn, one career keeps trying to rear it's head: photography. I used to love taking photos for poets at Neo Soul. It was just for something to do. But one of them asked me how much I could do a shoot for? Since it's a hobby, I don't have a price. Then Joe Brundidge, another poet friend keeps telling me that I'd make an amazing photographer. While photography doesn't pay the bills, I wonder if I should do it as a side job and learn as much as humanly possible about it, and then possibly go into photography as a full time career, AFTER I know tons about it. I even looked it up on youtube, and stumbled upon this photographer named Lara Blair. She takes photos of dogs. She did two videos on youtube, and in one of them she says to read your camera manual from cover to cover. So that's just what I'll do. And practice, practice, practice. As for the career thing, I'm still undecided, but I've filed my FAFSA, and I have until Fall 2011 to figure out just what the hell it is that I'm doing.

Here's to lots of soul searching research...