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I'm late to the show but here's mine: My basketball teammates in Utah...Bryce, Grand Canyon.

Oh sorry, I meant my adoptive mom couldnt have kids and so my parents adopted four of us in different years. My (adoptive) mom had a blockage of a sort and was unable to conceive. I am the youngest, the next sibling is 2 yrs older, one at 7 yrs older and one at 9 yrs older. Yes, we all feel like we won the parent jackpot. I was only a couple days old when I was adopted as was other siblings too. I have never had any issues over being adopted. The question I get most is have I ever tried to find my birth parents. I havent, it has never interested me. I've told people they are welcome to look for me, but I dont seem to have an interest. it doesnt bother me that I was adopted or given up (however you like to put it). If I did chose to know anything it would be why the birth mother gave me up. and that is only a mild (very mild) curiosity not a burning need to know. On a side note if I use the word "mom or dad" I mean my adoptive parents as I have never thought of them any other way except "mom" and "dad". the adopted part is just a detail that isnt that important to me.

I posted this in the Oct working on posts but forgot to post it here. It better be a really good party because full moon is the 28th. I guess if you are ghosts and sprites etc a few days is no problem. LOL

I love Amazing Race too. They have a Canadian version too which is so much fun when they show places that are familiar. Last year, they even filmed right here, in town, and visited places I am vary familiar with. One pit stop was in Pokeshaw, where this picture was taken. It was right at the bottom of the picture, on the beach. I would drive by there twice a day when going to work. For the other reality shows, I like to see the challenges and such, but I am a bit annoyed with the drama. One show I don't watch is Big Brother. I have had it on, sometimes, while waiting for another show, but I find the drama too much and I don't like their challenges. I am not sure why.

I dont remember a time where I didnt know. From my perspective I've always known and it's never bothered me. Only one person in grade 5 told me my mother took "the easy way out" by not having natural children. At the time I didnt know she was unable to have children. Otherwise, some people find it fascinating. To me, it's just the way it's always been. There are 4 siblings in my family, all adopted. My oldest brother and sister are actual brother and sister but 2 yrs apart (yes, there's a little story there). In Saskatchewan (Canadian Province)my parents got a file of the whole story of their background and why they were put up for adoption. My other brother and I (we are the two youngest, me the youngest of all, were born in British Columbia) and that province did not allow any details about our birth parents so my parents destroyed the the other siblings file. However, we all have known the story most of our lives . They felt it was fair to us two younger ones. I wish they had kept it. I dont have any issues of not knowing where I came from because my parents (that raised me) are my parents and that was good enough for me. All of us were adopted as very new babies. I have friends that do research into their acestors and find some shocking information from time to time. At least it doesnt reflect on who you are today at this moment. We get to decide that for ourselves...well, mostly we do, or maybe we dont and that could explain some things, hmmmm, something to add to the long list of things to think about.

I just found the very first image I ever made as a card for family who could not be at the table that year so long ago. So to ya'lll who live in both great nations. I am thankful to know ya'll here on Campus.

Still working on it. I guess this is about midway in the total trip. We are now in Wyoming and will be there for a couple of days. The campground is 7000 feet, and with my COPD, it is pretty tough breathing at first. Second day I felt better and went with Joe and Laurie to some of the places they went to on this day. The flag and seal for Wyoming is from the web and the curvy road sign is from Pixel Scrapper (also the 2 rv's on the concrete road).

Oh Jannette, write your stories! Some day they will be a source of inspiration and delight to someone, even the sad stories. History of any kind has many sad stories, but they need to be told. How else will we ever know about "those days"? For years, I've done research into old stuff (for my own family and now for other purposes), and the stories I've been able to write keep that part of the past alive.

I love that quote and have never heard it in it's entirety. How impressive your family lineage is. I am adopted so I have no known lineage other than my birth mother was french (French Canadian I believe). I'm ashamed to say I failed french in school. the worst marks I've ever received.

I checked out that tutorial which looks like fun. I really like your version. How cool that you got mentioned!

My poster to everybody be ready; ) I used here only my fractal and a fine font

Our (Canadian) Thanksgiving is coming next Monday. To keep things easy but to satisfy the urge to "make" something, I did a card for friends/family I won't see. Just really simple.

I have wanted to make a button for a long time and today I finally succeeded. It's not a very big one. And not too sharp either. But I enjoyed making it. I used the Eye Candy 5 impact glass plugin for this. The scrap kit is new. I got it this week. And is from Susan. It is named 'leaves of autumn".

At first I didn't want to contribute to this discussion and viewpoints, but I like to mention something else. A lot of the European countries were under German occupation in WWII and have suffered terribly. If the allied forces had not come to our aid we all would be speaking German today and I like to remind you of the enormous loss of the Jewish people. Of course the result of all this is not what everybody hoped for and of course I know the price the Germans and Russians have paid for it too. But I think the solution today is not that simple. My comment can be deleted too if it's deemed controversial.

It is more difficult than it looks, Julie. I'll give an example. A child was born to one family, but another older child died on the same day. No story. It must have been dramatic given their reaction. They moved to another part of the country soon afterward. I have no clues as to what happened. Was the mother in labor and did something happen to the other child? Or did the mother go into labor out of fright because something happened to the older baby? To secure stone you need cement, for a story, you also need some "cement". Sometimes it's okay to use your imagination, but in this case I don't think it's appropriate. That's why I got stuck at this point. These are just the facts. And facts alone are not interesting. But I feel very much sorry for this family.

I was thinking about you. Glad to see you back in the Campus and to hear you are doing well.

Reality TV is pretty much most of what I watch besides crime documentaries and shows like Forensic Files. I like seeing the process of investigation into the crimes. As for The Traitors. I never saw the first season of the US series as it was on Peacock and I didn't subscribe to it. But last spring, they did a marathon on the Bravo channel and I was able to watch it there. Then about a month ago I found out that season 2 was being filmed (filming should have ended this week). No idea if I'll be able to watch it since nothing has been said about where it will be shown. I really enjoyed it. I would like to watch the other versions but don't have access to them. I'm pretty much limited to anything USA based since I don't subscribe to any streaming services. I like reality TV because I can start and stop at anytime. I don't really like series anymore. Just this week I've missed every show I watch because of surgery and being in the hospital longer than planned (I'm doing good though!). But I can easily pick up on them next week. And with reality TV it is usually 13 shows and done. I would have to say my favorite is The Amazing Race. I love to see the different places they go. Some of the other series I have watched, I have taken off watching for a few seasons and then when I watch again, it is fresh and new.

Now that's a weird coincidence isn't it?

Thank you, Susan. Your words are the perfect start to my day!

OMG! Love the frames, love the color, love the background. Your words are perfect and that blue in the photos is a perfect paring.

Poor Susan. Hope someone saves you some turkey or ham to make a sandwich to take to work. But be patient...one day you will be retired and then you'll be REALLY busy.

Did this one back in 2016 after watching a Corel tutorial. (It was before the wonderful Spooky master classes that Cassel offers.) I changed it up a bit in 2021. Corel even gave me props on the original! I was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning.

It's raining outside:( It is probably a first fall day so we have to say 'Bye bye summer':( My recent work "Rain". I used Carole's template but aspect ratio has been changed. btw, tell me why we use 3600x3600 (square) mostly?

Love this, especially the plaid. You are on a roll with layouts. I will be working on Monday. Long weekends are my least favorite weekends because they are the opposite for me, they are short. We have an extended Friday shift to have a shorter Monday shift. Which is just means less weekend for me. But I am thankful I have a job and will remember to be thankful on Monday.

May I just say, it's "cute as a button"? (Which is a colloquial expression meaning pretty darn cute.)

I've yet to do one either. This is so cute. I like the shine part on the top. It makes it look rounded and real. Good job.

quote: they came from all over Europe, with the intentions of starting a fresh. They wanted to leave behind the turbulent history, of inter country fighting dating back hundred and hundreds of years. Border wars etc.: But they left for a country where there were also many problems between black and white north and south. Until now. That is an interesting subject you mentioned. Another hobby of mine is Genealogy. We can go back to 1700 and sometimes a bit in the 1600. What strikes me is that old English and old Dutch are very similar as if they have the same background. Spelling was free at that time that's why everyone had their own way of writing, but then also its own development. As far as the wars are concerned, it was very simulated by the Romans. In their view, the more problems they had, the better because then they would cooperate less and rebel. The Romans were the second to last world power in Nebuchadnezzar's famous dream. for those who enjoy reading the Bible can be found in the first chapters of the Bible book of Daniel. All those world powers had the same goal; namely improving the world through war and thus creating a better world. (This is their statement, not mine) At the cost of many human lives. Until now.

I had a great deal of difficulty understanding the Canadians when I first moved here. Especially when they spoke, as they leave out letters. They don't' say Toronto, but Torono. Under the bonnet is the engine of the car. I'd often say, he's tinkering under the bonnet. In other words working on the engine. When the settlers arrived in Johnson in 1621, they came from all over Europe, with the intentions of starting a fresh. They wanted to leave behind the turbulent history, of inter country fighting dating back hundred and hundreds of years. Border wars etc. They adopted the English Language, as their primary language, but Greek and Latin makes up a great deal of the English Language. So, they decided to change many of the words. Changing a letter or omitting a letter in a word. Such as Tyre (tire) Colour (color). It didn’t stop there, they would change words like bonnet and boot, to hood and trunk. That is why we have (old) English and American English. North America has done it’s best to eradicate everything related to the settlers native countries. They believed that a continent like North America would be untouchable by invading countries. It was true. North Americans have led sheltered lives. Since WW2, the US has instigated over 200 wars in European and Asian Countries. Including dropping 2 atomic bombs. Russia has been involved in a total of 4 wars by invitation of the respective invaded countries. How the US has changed since those first settlers, they wanted a peaceful new life. My mother lost 2 of her eldest brothers to WW2, and a cousin, my dad lost an uncle. Today I say to myself, what did they die for. Hollywood has portrayed the US as the heroes of WW2. Not true, Russia was the primary army that defeated Hitler and the Nazi. With the highest mortality numbers. I can remember to this day, how my gran spoke kindly and fondly about the Russians. As they were allies of GB and the US. I knew the second the house speaker of the Canadian parliament, introduced a Ukrainian Canadian officer who fought against the Russians in WW2, that he was a SS Nazi of the worst kind. It worries me, that if the neocons of the US government, and governments around the collective western countries aren’t reined in, I fear for what is in store for the future of generations to come. I've gone off on a tangent here. It can be deleted if inappropriate.

This all started with me wanting to show that moon and branches photo of mine through a window. It grabbed me and took me along for the ride for the rest of it. The room, ghost, pumpkin, cups, and bird were modified from Creative Fabrica downloads. The sprites or whatever they are were made with various paint brushed such as smoke etc. I have been playing with this off and on all day and had a blast..

A couple of projects from the Grunge Class - good, fun class, thanks Carole!

September sketch I just made windows out of the sketch Nevada mountains Moon, Sycamore Eagle, Forte Sea on Lake Michigan

F = FOOD with a Halloween theme

Fun with clip art! The background is from years ago so I don't know where it came from, but I'm sure it was free. The gnomes are from CF (I love gnomes and d/l them all). The bee is by AnnieC from a Scrap Designers blog train a few years ago. The fonts are a duo called Bee Kind, also from CF.

Maybe we need a new topic for idioms. LOL J/K

It just means to get into the inner workings. I was a bit confused cause we have a saying that looks like it but with another meaning. 'Onder hoede' means in Dutch under protecting or monitoring. We have another saying that says = 'under the cap of' which means secretly. Buying under the cap means in Dutch, without taxes. I think that the Dutch 'a look behind the scenes' comes the closest. There are so many words and sayings with hood, cap, and hat. Playing under one hat means = Being in league with others. If we delve into this, we will come across a lot.

Ah, Jannette, I am so sorry this keeps happening! We use so much slang, I don’t see how any of the Europeans can figure out what we’re saying! (And that includes the English!) Ann has the right of it. It just means to get into the inner-workings. Under the hood of a car is the inner workings of the car. (However “behind the curtain” also showed the inner workings of the Wizard in Oz, so maybe not much different, afterall.) I often will delete a word or change a phrase when I post here, thinking it could be confusing, but I don’t always think about it. Just keep in mind we admire you all, and could NEVER do what you do! Google translate, or not!

Jannette, in the US the "hood" is the covering for the engine on an automobile. In the UK it's called the "bonnet." The phrase "played under the hood" would refer to the user working on the engine with a car, or in this case, creating their own customized filter in Filter Forge.

If anybody has Filter Forge, see a couple of my filters. They are still there 10-15 years later! (This idea is from today’s Filter Forge Masterclass - I bought it and was surprised to see my old account was still viable!) https://www.filterforge.com/filters/9010.html And https://www.filterforge.com/filters/9012.html They each have over two thousand downloads and work with FF 2.0 and higher.

Carefully choosing one of my photos for the background, I then added some clipart to create a card. The prints in the snow are either from the white tailed hares or other resident four legged creatures. Placing the dog where some print are visible. No one would be any the wiser who made those prints.

It is surprising how some folks act during times of deep sadness. When mom was in the hospital, she shared a room with a woman she knew in passing at stores etc. They both delivered their babies within a minute or two of each other. Robert was the lady's son and I Dorothy arrived on the scene. So, Robert and I in time passing shared the same school's name but in different states. Roberts family soon bought a beach cottage a half block from ours. We shared a 13th birthday party as Robert and I had become good playmates and were good friends. That winter Robert fell off the back of his dad's truck, hit his head and was pronounced dead. We attended his funeral. Two weeks later they sold their business, house and beach cottage and just left. Her husband later wrote my Mom . "She could not bear to see me still alive and her son gone".