Monday, September 21, 2009

There's a bit of Fall in the Air!



This weekend Colin and I made a trip down to Stuttgart to see the big pumpkin display that they set up at the palace in nearby Ludwigsburg. This year was their 10th year celebration and their theme was fairy tales. They had Gullivers Travels, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Cinderella, Puss in Boots, the Bremen Town Musicians and several others that we didnt recognize since they were from German folk tales. Every display was made out of pumpkins and gourds! I dont know where they found some of the varieties of pumpkins that they used, but they sure were creative.

Here are just a few photos from the day....







Since it is pumpkin time that means that the leaves are going to really start changing soon also. I put together a word art freebie to share with everyone so you can go out and take some awesome fall photos and have your title all ready to go! I got it all zipped and uploaded to 4shared now.



click here to download

One more thing that I definately don't want to forget to share. Scrap Shanty is back online! If you like the sound of a cozy little group of scrappers who feel like family and share layouts, ideas and challenges then please join us! Paper, Digi, Hybrid, its all good!!!

Saturday, September 05, 2009

A little nice goes a long way.

Wow...here I am at the ole Roche motel blog again! I have been caught up in the wonderful world of Facebook and with the summer and all I just haven't written any blog posts for awhile. OOPS!

Anyway, yesterday I was scrolling down through my facebook reading all about everyone's status and one in particular caught my eye and I had to follow the links and find out more about this. It was about something called Operation Nice. Basically the idea behind it is that if everyone was just a little bit nicer how nice it would be.

I was reminded of a story I once read about an old woman who was all alone in the world and was going to take her own life, but someone sat by her on the bus and smiled and talked with her. It was the first person to talk to her in weeks. The old woman changed her mind about ending her life that day. The person on the bus had no idea what a profound impact her "just being nice" had on this woman's life.

I don't know how true the story is, but the point it makes is true. We have such power to make an impact on those around us and beyond. It's like the ripples you get when you toss a pebble in a pond...the just go and get bigger and bigger and spread farther out.

Some wonderful crafty ladies decided to share some of their kindnesses this weekend by having a Operation Nice Blog Hop. You start at this blog and follow the links to all the others who are participating. Why? Just because they are nice! Who knows, you may find some goodies along the way.

I am not an official part of this blog hop, but I wanted to join in because I think it is so cool that all these people are making a point to be nice. I put together this bit of freebie word art for anyone who wants to to download and hope that you would go check out the Blog Hop, the Operation Nice website and also the site my friend Anam is a part of Scrapbook Calls cuz she is who I heard about all of this from.



click here to download

Thanks Anam, for sharing this with all of us. You make a difference!!