Teotihuacan

 Hello all,

We are in Mexico City training a Humanitarian couple in the Food program.

  Mainly we teach self-reliance and help them find their own resources,

 and help with what they don't have.  

Teaching this through gardening or chickens.

We had a day in between going out in the field 

to teach and visit homes.

So we took a taxi to the bus station, and then a bus to

this incredible ruins from the Omec people,

at least that is what the guide said.

Behind us is the temple of the moon.

This was named by the Aztec people, as the

ruins were built and discovered by them.

They were abandoned when the Aztec people discovered 

them and it is proposed that these 

temples were built about 600 years

before Christ.  

Here is Dana climbing the last steps of the Temple of the Moon.

Here we are standing on the Temple of the Moon,

down the walkway is called the Walk of the Dead.

This is because it was first thought that the buildings all down the sides

of the walk were where people were buried.

However, this was later discovered that these were

places of worship, not tombs.

The big temple behind us is the Temple of the Sun.

We opted out of climbing it, this climb was

enough for our old bodies.

What a wonderful discovery, 

of this primitive culture.

Robin

Halloween Wreath for Rachel

I have been pinning these cute

wreaths all year on Pintrest.

Well, goodness, why haven't I made one?

We have rolls of netting left over from the past 

when we had the netting cut into 12x12 squares and sold them.

(we do have some left in the warehouse if anyone wants to purchase them)

So with the rolls, I wanted to create a fun

Halloween wreath.

This wreath I have made for Rachel.

She loves Halloween, and 

She loves purple.

So this just seemed fitting to give to her.

This wreath is made with purple splattered netting.

I wired the netting on a metal ring purchased at JoAnns.

Then I wrapped it with purple stripe ribbon,

and made a bow with the same ribbon.

I then die cut bats from our

Purple glitter chipboard, 

and Spellbinders bat die.

I glued purple glitter bats all over the wreath, and I 

took the bats and bent them so 

they would look like they are dimensional

.

I also added bats to the bow.

And now, 

the wreath is finished.

Ready for Halloween,

Can you believe that October will be here

next week!

Hugs to you all.

Robin

Mexico

Hello,

We have been in Mexico for the last week.

For the last 18 months we have been called to serve as short term

Specialists for the Welfare Department of 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

We aren't sure how long we will serve in this assignment,

But will serve as long as we are needed.

Currently we are in Mexico, working with a senior couple

Called to serve here and work on the food initiative.

That is the area in which we work, specializing in teaching 

Self-Reliance.  Our assignment is to teach Priesthood leadership 

How to discover their resources in their area,

And use those resources of people, knowledge, and home 

Supplies.  Their resources can be used in gardening or in raising small 

Animals, so that local people can have more of an ability to

Sustain their personal and family needs right in their own yard, 

And at a budget they can afford.

So here we are in Mrxico training this couple how to do this.

We have a few slow days now, 

Because we leave on Saturday to tour areas of Mexico and introduce

This to the Priesthood leaders that have requested this kind of help.

There are about 10 missionary couples in Mexico City,

So they have adventures planned for evenings and pdays.

Tonight I will attend a concert with them, Dana isn't interested,

A violinist, it should be fun.

Studying Spanish has been on my agenda since January,

And I am not great at it, still my vocabulary is limited, but I can 

Understand some, and I am learning everyday.

Will post some pics as the weeks continued,

We will be here for a month.

Hugs for now,

Robin

Sunglasses

I love to take photos of our darling 

Grand daughters,

Seriously, every grandmother just

can't resist this!

At Christmas time, 

I took this cute photo of the girls

in their Christmas dresses

and sun glasses.

Well, how was I going to scrapbook that?

So, I decided to 

accent the sunglasses.

I decided to do a white page,

which for me is hard to think through.

So here is my take on the white page.

I used wedding paper,

and sprayed it with a pink alcohol ink spray

that I made myself.

I then sewed circles on the page 

with my sewing machine.

Stamped some motifs with stamps from my

scrapbook stash, and black ink.

I added my embellishments, 

rub-ons, Viva la France, Pink Classic Swirl CS,

Daughter sticker, Girl glitter sticker, 

and shapes cut from Pink Glitter Chipboard.

And DEW DROPS!

Several sizes,and different shades of pink.

Other products have come from

my scrapbook stash,

but the best was 

Timeless twine, one of our past partners.

Thanks Timeless twine.

Have a great day!

Hugs.

Robin

Alaska Binder

Dana and I spent 2 weeks in Alaska

visiting our kids that live up there in August

this year.

This is my 4th trip up there, and Dana's 5th trip to Alaska.

This time for me was the first time I had been there in the summer,

really early fall for Alaska, we learned.

So I had the opportunity to collect treasures from 

their back yard, the beach, and other places we went to.

The day we left, we visited the commissary on base, and they had an 

area that sold just things relating to Alaska.

There was an Alaska Binder there,

and I thought, mmmm, I could make my own,

with a Robin's Nest Leather binder.

 I used one of our Raw Leather Binders.

I looked for a binder in our warehouse that had been really 

abused.

This one has scratches all over it, because I wanted it to look 

distressed and used.

When I designed the Raw Leather binder, 

I wanted it to have a very expensive look.

So I picked raw leather to give it a

Ralph Lauren type of look.

Of course, because this is the look I was going for,

the cost of these binders is not cheap,

because, the manufacturer used real leather that came in

pieces not even cut in squares, they were in shapes

like the hide of a cow.

Then I had them sew an edge down the  side of the binder,

which added to the cost as well.

I love these binders,

they are great for the outdoor look,

camping, cowboy, hiking, or anything you do

outdoors.

Our grandson Gabe, had pealed bark off a birch tree in their 

back yard, Dana brought in this piece of bark,

and I decided, it needed to be brought home.

Gabe told me, just go outside, there are lots of those out there!

When I started 

working on the binder, my first thought was,

I need to use that bark.

It is really curled, and won't lay out straight.

I put it on the top of the binder and thought, wow, that is really tall.

But decided, this binder will sit on one of the tables in our 

family room, so does it matter?

No, it will look great, with the 3 dimensional look.

I then added other treasures that I found

in gift stores, while we were in Homer, Alaska.

I added a map, a totem pole, and a pin that says

I "love" Alaska.

These items I bought in the gift shops.

I added some chipboard letters from my scrapbook stash.

At the very last of my thoughts,

I decided to make a big dipper out of dew drops.

The state flag of Alaska 

has the big dipper, in out of stars,

so to create my own big dipper, I used blue

mini dew drops.

And alas, 

my binder was finished.

I added a strip of leather tied in knots

to the front of the binder as well,

this is what the totem pole is tied to.

I am so excited about this fun album.

There are many Alaska pages going in this binder,

and soon to come, 

I will share with you some of our 

adventures of our trip,

and some of the things we were able to 

do with our family.

Until next Wednesday!

Hugs,

Robin

This Girl Gets What She Wants Layout

This Girl Gets What She Wants

Oh, my sweet granddaughter, Alexys,

who loves to be called Ally.

I was going through the photos while we were in Alaska

visiting, and found this darling photo of her.

I thought, mmmmm, I must scrapbook this!

Of course when I travel to family,

and know that we are staying for 2 weeks,

I pack scrapbook supplies!

My gypsy, 

and what I think I might need to complete a 

few pages for the blog.

It is just fun for me, and my out.

And, at the same time, I feel like I am 

accomplishing something.

I decided to make a  crown with our dew drop stash of shapes.

This crown is make with pink diamond drops,

pink tear drops, clear dew drops,

and 2 pink shades of mini dew drops.

Really, quite easy,

and very effective.

I also added stickers, and other colors and sizes of dew drops to complete the 

look of the page.

I so love this paper, light green with pink flowers, 

there is so much you can do with it, and it is just

so beautiful.

Products used:

Spring sticker

Pink glitter leopard cs

Special Girl, Pink roses on green cs

Pink Sorbet Glitter CS

Pink Classic Swirl CS

This girl Sticker ( in sale products)

Rose Dew drops

Pink mini dew drops

Such a fun layout, simple yet classy.

Hugs to you all,

Robin

Guest Bedroom - Teals, Browns, Sage green, and Gray

The Guest Bedroom

For a few weeks in December we have been working on our guest bedroom.  It is small and next to the kitchen, so with very little to work with Dana and I began working on the guest bedroom, which for that last 5 years really has just become a extra room to put all the things you don't really have a place for. 

Years ago, I decorated it with grey paint and a fishing wall border, so Dana could have an office of his own.  Well.....I discovered that he really didn't like being put downstairs by the front door, and he liked the laptop in bed to do all his reading and work.  We have another office next to our bedroom, which houses several other computers and all the library of books we have collected over the years.

So, he uses the office upstairs, and this room became a guest room.

Dana stripping the wall border

Dana with grey paint already on the walls

Window in the room, trim not painted, and all the junk I dumped in there.

Original border in the room.

We visited a beautiful temple in Snowflake, Arizona this summer, that was decorated in teals, greens, and grays.  I so fell in love with this combination of colors, that mmmm, I thought this would be a wonderful color scheme for this room.  I added brown to the color scheme.

I pealed a section of paint from the walls, took it to Lowes, and it was scanned and matched, a quart was purchased to paint the areas where the wall border was stripped.  Dana stripped this, and we purchased crown molding, and floor molding.  I painted the crown molding white, the door trim, and floor molding a yellow tan, and the window molding a darker gray than the walls.  This took a week to accomplish, thank goodness for caulk to make all the unevenness of the ceilings look good. 

Jes our daughter, gave me a bedding set, that she had tired of in teal.  Rachel, our oldest daughter, gave us a queen bed with a fabric covered headboard (which just happened to be in the perfect color).  I wasn't sure about the color of it, but thought, if I don't like it, it can be reupholstered.  However, after Dana put the bed together in the room, mattresses on, it looked great when the bedding went on. 

The chair in the bedroom is an antique that we bought in pieces years ago, and I had upholstered it years ago to match the original office idea, but it seems to match on its own too, so I have left it to be the same. 

A former end table from my bedroom is now in the room, with a lamp that I dug out of the closet, not being used.  The flower arrangement I put together this fall, after going through totes of flowers left from our retail store The Robin's Nest.  I literally forgot I had such beautiful flowers, and it was fun to put it together.

This old picture is of Joseph Smith, Dana's mom found it in a flood in the bottom of the

basement of the old original church in Carey, Idaho.  She took the print and mod podged it on

a board, and that is how it came to our home.  Dana many years ago, when we lived in Tennessee, took the

print and made a frame from old wood that was laying around the farm we lived on.  It looks old,

and it literally is old!  

I so love angels, and have collected them for years, I probably purchased the pictures over the headboard 15 years ago.  Some day I will go into detail about my angel stories, but for now, we have lost 2 of our 7 children, so angels have great meaning to me.  I feel their spirits close often.

So for now, this is our guest bedroom, full of love, pantry etched in the new door found in a dumpster by Cortney, and love filled in teal, brown, and sage green.  Funny, as I was going through a few things, I found a blanket we bought in Puerto Vallarta years ago, in just these same colors, it is draped at the end of the bed.  A tray with a small pitcher and cup is on the end table.  The tray purchased in Portugal years ago when we went to pick up our son after serving a mission for 2 years there.

The queen size bed just fits in here, and a few other things I have around the house. 

It feels so fresh and new after all the years of being a junk room.

Enjoy!
We are, and now we have a place for guests to sleep,
and feel comfortable.

Until later,

Ciao,

Robin