Happy Birthday Walt!

~ Happy Birthday Walt Disney!

~ So many memories made at Disneyland /Ca Adventure...so many more too come!

Starting to feel like Christmas...

~ It's nice that the weather is cooler now, as living in Southern California, it has been unusually warm lately. It's just now starting to feel like Christmas. I will spend the rest of the week dragging tubs of deco's out of storage and putting them up inside and out.
~Every year I say I'm going to cut back and put up less, but then I dream up new designs and my creative muse takes over! I'm looking forward to getting our first "real" Christmas tree since Dyllan was born over 4 years ago! When he was little we always had the fake fold up tree on a table or stereo cabinet, and being so small, it limited what we could decorate it with.
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~We are picking out our tree this Friday, a nice Noble Fir, my favorite!
We will be putting it in front of our big living room window but since it will be in Dyllan's play area, I'll be saving my vintage glass ornaments for another year and only putting unbreakable decorations on it including hand made ornaments that Dyllan and I can create!
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~ I'm sorry that the advent calendar above is not my usual style, but it works!
I decoupaged a old rusty coca~cola metal tray and made the little numbered boxes out of Christmas cards and patterned paper. Then I attached round magnets to the back. Inside each box is a little wooden ornament to be hung on a little tree.
Last year in box #25 I put a hot wheels car. This year I will most likely put a star wars action figure. ;)
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~ Today, beside doing Christmas deco's, I'm finally taking photo's of all those things I've being working on for the shop! Tags, wire creations, craft supplies ,kits, and more tree's...!

See you soon!

The Grand Canyon!

We left Nov.22nd, and came back Nov. 25th. It was so cold! Brian and I both had good winter jackets but Dyllan did not. So before the trip, I took him to Walmart and after much trying on , found a nice 2 piece winter jacket for $20! The inner jacket is less heavy and reversible. Worked like a charm.
In the above picture you can see ice on our car after the first night. During the day temps got to be around 50. At night, as low as 23.

We stayed at the Quality Inn Suites. Really nice, had a front room with seating area, fridge and microwave, then down a hall,our spacious room.

We were less than 2 miles from the South Rim entrance. So before we went, we visited the local IMAX theater which is a National Geographic Visitor Center .Here we viewed a beautiful film,telling of it's rich history.

(((Please click on any picture for detail! I made them all small so you could see any detail you might want!)))

On Sunday we toured the west side of the rim. Mostly just driving along and stopping at all the points of interest all the way to the end which was Hermits Rest.

~ In the above photo, what looks like granite lines is actually a trail with people walking down or up! That's quite the hike.

Here's Brian on a overlook. As you can see the rail is not exactly "child' friendly, so we took turns holding Dyllan's hands so we could take in the scenery.

We were trying to back out of a spot to go on to the next point of interest when this Van in front of us caught our attention. I took the photos through the sun roof as I did not want to be too obvious. Love the leave a message pad.

Twilight is probably my favorite time of the day. I love how everything becomes a silhouette.

The ravens in the Grand canyon were unlike any I'd ever seen. Not only were they the biggest but the sound they made was quite unusual. The first one we saw sounded like he was going through puberty, with a warbled , "gronk!"

Our first day was hazy and very nippy. These sunset photo's were taken along the rim somewhere around Hopi Point.

I had brought along a new toy for Dyllan for the a ride home, but it proved useful to keep him entertained on rocky places safe from the edge. It was a yellow transformer and it went everywhere with us.

One of most favorite places that we visited the next day was in the Grand Canyon Village. We took a trail along the rim past the Bright Angel Lodge, on to a Fossil area. Now I LOVE hunting for sea shells at the beach, so this was right up my alley to hunted for prehistoric shells!

Here you can see shells, a bone? and even what looks like a fish of some sort.

I wore a beautiful green beret and crochet felted rose made by Kathryn of Camellia Designs

Kept my head warm and looking stylish too!

With supervision and a tight wrist strap, we encouraged Dyllan to take photo's of anything he wanted. To see the Grand Canyon through the eyes of a 4 year old, please go here and enjoy!

I was also thrilled with the abundance of Juniper trees everywhere!

After strolling around the village we headed to the east end of the rim, stopping at various points of interest and ending at the Watchtower. The inside is stunning with richly painted walls and steep winding stairs that took you to the top for a beautiful view.

A man was playing a flute which resonated in the tower and made the trip all the more worthwhile. You can see some of the beautiful art work on the wall around him.

The above photo shows the different levels. I looked down once and felt squeamish, so on this shot I leaned back and held the camera over to take the photo.

We stopped off at Mather Point for our last Sunset shot. It was over crowded and really really cold. I played with Dyllan while Brian took some pics. Then Dyllan conked on the way back to the hotel which was good cause we wanted to eat somewhere besides McDonald's on our last night!

We ate at the steak house above. went straight from the park which turned out to be a good idea as the placed filled up fast! My meal ended up lasting a few days as it was lot and delicious. The home made biscuit came with prickly pear jelly too!

On Tuesday, as we left for the ride home, i saw something in the trees and begged Brian to turn back. Turned out to be a total of four deer, perfectly camouflaged. Here you can just barely see them.

we also stopped off at Planes of Fame Museum.

the place was huge! lots to look at. Turns out they have another museum, even bigger in Chino, Ca. Gonna have to take a look-see someday.

After the museum I browsed a rock/gem shop, because I felt that no trip is complete with out bringing home some stones from state you visit. I picked out some beautiful pieces to add to my rock garden but felt sorry for the older lady as she lived in a trailer home out back and she said a snow storm was moving in later that night.

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So now we are home safe and sound. I went to a walk in clinic on wed. seeking relief from a cough I've had for almost 2 weeks. Turns out to be a viral Bronchitis. The doctor says I'm beyond the contagious part and gave me some gel pills to ease the cough. The side affect of the medicine is that I'm even more tired and they make me feel queasy even when I take them with food. feeling miserable is no picnic and makes it harder to get in to the "creating" swing of things.

~ Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We spent ours with some dear friends.

I'm looking forward to getting together with my scrapbook/altered art group on Sunday for six hours of food, fun and crafting.

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Have a good weekend!

~Michelle

***All images are property of Michelle Cummings, Please do not copy for personal use. Thanks You***