Author name: Karla Nathan

Even Twinkle enjoyed meeting cousins at the reunion. You can tell by the blur of her tail in motion that she was glad to have Boomer come and stay.

She and Elphie didn't get along so well, though.  Maybe she was just jealous because Elphie was too durn cute?

Except for the Elphie/Twinkle feud, and one little minor meltdown that I had while trying to hurry home from an afternoon on the lake, run to the grocery for more food, and get dinner started before all the hungry kids got back from the boat (not so pretty while it lasted, sorry, family!!),  the camp out was a success.  At least it was on my end, but then, I was sleeping in my own soft bed, not out in the yard….

If you can measure happiness by bags of empty marshmallows, we had a 4 star (bag) weekend. The bonfire pit got a workout and became the gathering area we spent the most time at.  Lots of s'mores were consumed.

Along with some other junk.

When I have a houseful, I'm not constantly picking up. Piles accumulate and I don't worry about it.  So this is the view of one corner of my kitchen for most of the weekend.  With that many people around, its easier just to go with it and enjoy the company, I can enjoy a tidy kitchen when I am home alone and have nothing better to do.  But while family is here to play, I want to be playing too, not clearing messes!

And all the important stuff gets done, with plenty of help!

I made sure I had plenty of time for neice cuddling, this is my nephew, Aubrey's daughter, and she was as snuggly as can be.  Her dad is in the military and has served a few tours in Iraq. It breaks my heart to pieces to imagine him having to leave her to go overseas, but he is being sent back again in October. 

FOR A YEAR.

 He is a braver person than I am.  I couldn't do it.  Not just the war and the danger, but leaving behind his two babies, who are some of the sweetest kids ever.

We are lucky to have guys like this that are there for all of us. Aubrey has grown up to be a great guy and I am so proud of him and so lucky to have him and his sweet babies and wife as part of my family.

And Twinkle is thrilled to count their dog, Boomer as her cousin too.

We had perfect weather all weekend, with just a few drops of rain at the Renfest on Saturday (I'll have photos from there later)  So, we were able to eat most meals outdoors.  It could have been a disaster if we'd had rain all weekend!

I hope the rest of the group loved our tent city as much as I did, and will come back to set it up again.  The yard seems empty with everyone all packed up and gone.

PS- I had to add codes to the comment log, sorry, I hate that. I like it to be easy for you to leave comments, but all of a sudden, I was inundated with hundreds of bizarre and BAD language robotic comments and needed to block them.  I'm sorry if this makes it take more time for you to comment, but you really wouldn't want to see those….

Also, please remember, all comments all month count toward the giveaway, which I'll look around the studio and scrounge up a little giftie for this week.

The Camp-or-ama weekend is going great! Here is a corner of my yard…

But after all the bonfire and Renfest excitement, we are all feeling a bit like Sugarwings does in this picture.  I'm off to bed to rest up for another day packed with fun.

Hope your weekend is great too!

Have you ever seen the Once Upon a Time scrap book paper?  Its so pretty, and has the perfect mood for a Renaissance Festival scrapbook. 

The pages are filled with fairies, mermaids, knights, castles, all tipped off with hints of glitter. 

Normally, I'm all vintage, all the time. But I love this stuff and it is soooo right for these albums to commemorate the family reunion.  I  made a cover from glitter paper (cool stuff too, but it "sheds" so I spritzed it with clear poly spray) and drew up a label, made color copies of it and added some glitz and sparkle to each one to make them all a bit unique.

My sissy is coming with her four kids and all of their families, so I created 5 books for them.  All are pretty simple, and ready to add photos of the weekend to.  I foofed only a few pages in each book, with pockets, and other little touches. When you use this paper, its so cool, you don't want to do too much to it. 
Its great as is.
The tag on the page in the photo is only glued down on 2 sides, so it is a pocket to slip ticket stubs or other mementos into.

I tied a golden photo mat inked up with sepia to age it, and filled with a fairy picture of my Sis to the albums.  To that, I added a little pewter dragon charm.

Now, I am wishing I'd made one for myself too…. 

There will be lots of photo ops this weekend!  One of my nephews is a professional photographer, I'm hoping to get some good family group shots from him.

Today, I am doing last minute spot cleaning to be ready for everyone.  The yard is cleaned up, floors are mopped, laundry is done.

The bonfire pit is being cleaned out and a fresh load of logs will be laid out and ready for the campers.  Yep, we'll have a tent city in the yard, at least 4 or 5 tents will be set up for the party.  Looks like the weather will hold too, we got lucky.  Now, I just need to get to the grocery store and getting chopping and dicing and cooking to have the house filled with food and treats when they arrive.

I can't wait!