Life is not whatnot

New layouts

2012-03-13T05:39:00.000-07:00

Just sharing a couple of recent layouts using Studio Calico kits.

This one is using Daydream Believer...I am having a hard time with this kit but I like the way this one turned out:

And this one using the March Kit, Story Hour. I love this kit!! Great colors for boy pages:

That is my new favorite stamp!

Thanks for looking!

Project Life Weeks 3 and 4

2012-02-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

And here are weeks 3 and 4...

I am going to add a collage insert with more pics from Ally's birthday and our trip to the American Girl store but I just haven't made them yet.

And week 4...this is the week i sent my camera away so this is mostly iphone pics...and it turns out this is my favorite Project Life week yet! I love the different sized pics:

I got one of the Project Life stamps sets from Studio Calico..I got the Awesome set and it *is* awesome!!

I will definitely be using more iphone pics in my Project Life...I took pics where I normally wouldn't, like the bus stop, so i like that it adds more "real life".

Project Life Weeks 1 & 2

2012-02-13T13:59:00.000-08:00

I have been plugging away with Project Life but have been very bad at sharing my pages. So here are the first two weeks. Nothing really earth shattering here, just the basics mostly. I did not buy a kit this year so my journaling cards are from lots of different places. Actually that is not completely true...I did by the Cobalt digital kit and printed them out but have mixed it up with lots of other designs. I also have the plain white grid cards and have been embellishing those, mostly with stamps.

Here is week 1:

And here is week 2:

I added an extra photo pocket for a few more birthday pics:

And an extra photo pocket here too:

I have weeks 3 and 4 done too but I'll save those for another day:)

A Couple More Layouts

2012-02-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

Just sharing a couple of pages I did this past week...so happy to be getting some more time in my scrap room:)

Love how this one of my three turned out...just makes me happy:

This is using Studio Calico's County Fair Kit. I think I am in love with this background paper and that round stamp:)

And this one of Max and Ally using the SC Brooklyn Flea Kit:

I also love the stamps that were in this kits addons. I am definitely becoming a big fan of embossing with zing...its addicting!

I've Been Without My Camera...

2012-02-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

I sent my camera off to get cleaned about a week ago. I had no idea how much it was going to cost until the emailed they estimate to me...yowza! I had no idea how much that cost! So I told them to send it back uncleaned:(

But the good news is that it is back which means I could take pictures of the layouts I have been working on!

I'll share one today because this one deserves a post of its own. On Saturday night Ally swallowed a ring. I had put her and her friend to bed (she was having a sleepover) and a few minutes later she came out in a panic choking on a ring...very scary! She swallowed it down after a few seconds but said she could still feel it...so off to the ER we went. I was fully expecting them to tell us it would come out the other end in a few days but after they took an xray they said it was stuck in her esophogus and would need to be taken out. They said there was no one that could do it at that hospital so they were sending us to Boston Children's Hospital, about an hour away.

It was scary...we thought she was going to need to be put under anesthesia ...but long story short the ring had moved to her stomach by the time we got to Boston and we were sent home to wait it out on the other end. Not fun, but a best case scenario for the situation.

I had my iphone with me so I took some pics while we waited. She kept wanting to look at the picture of her xray:) Here is the layout I made:

And we still have not seen the ring:(

The American Girl Store

2012-01-23T15:39:00.000-08:00

So as I said, on her actual birthday we headed down to the American Girl Store in Boston. My sister and niece and some friends came with us. It was crazy crowded but we still had a great time. She had gotten Kit the night before from us:

She was thrilled! She had asked for Kit and McKenna, the new Girl of the Year, but we went with Kit because she has wanted her for a long time and has only known about McKenna for a couple weeks. McKenna is still on her wish list especially after seeing her cool stuff at the store. Here is her and her friend checking out her bed:

And she has a thing for the glasses:

She had gotten some gift cards for her birthday so she was in shopping heaven:

We surorised her when we got to the mall by letting her get her ears pierced...something else she has wanted for a long time. She was so happy! And we decided one of her dolls could get her ears pierced too. She decided on Julie...here they are after we picked Julie up from the salon with their freshly pierced ears:

Some downtime while we waited for our table in the bistro:

Then came the bistro...her favorite part! She was beaming!

(Yes, she had to bring all 3 dolls!)

And this priceless face when she saw the waitress walking towards us with her special dessert and realized she was singing Happy Birthday TO HER...made it all worth it!

Such a fantastic day!

Someone had a Birthday

2012-01-23T10:29:00.000-08:00

And somehow it turned into a 3 day celebration, lol! It certainly wasn't the original plan. About a month before her birthday I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday and she told me she wanted to go to the American Girl Store and have a friend party at a bounce house place. I told her she would have to choose one because they would both coast a lot of money so she choose the American Girl Place. But then during that month she had gotten invited to several friends parties in their homes and I started to feel bad that I wasn't having a party for her friends so I decided we could do a small party at home with a few friends.

So she ended up having a friends party on Friday, a family party on Saturday, and on Sunday we went to American Girl...lol...3 days of celebrating. It was a little much but boy did she have a great weekend!

We went with a Rainbow theme for the friend and family parties...so many great ideas on pinterest!

I made rainbow cupcakes for the friends:

Then I made this Rainbow cake the next day for the family party...it was huge!

And Luckily the good people at American Girl took care of her special treat there:

Happy 6th Birthday baby girl!

Scrapping Finally!

2012-01-06T11:13:00.000-08:00

I was finally able to get back in my scrap room today after over a month off from scrapping. I have been itching to get back at it and then when I finally was able to my mind went blank. That happens a lot to me when I don't do it for a while. I finally just forced myself to make a layout and came up with this:

Its not my favorite layout, for sure...seems very predictable for me...everything centered, journaling around the edge, etc. Same ol', same ol'. But I think I just needed to get that first one out of the way so I could get my creative juices flowing. Next I made this one:

This one I like much better...a little more out of my comfort zone. These were both made with the December SC Kit, Brooklyn Flea and addons. I hope I can continue my mojo and keep getting time in my scrap room!

Project Life Cover Page

2012-01-03T11:31:00.000-08:00

I have decided to take on Project Life again this year. I did pretty will with it last year, although I got behind over the summer. I still have to finish up November and December, just waiting on my Shutterfly order.

My goal this year is to stay current. I am going to keep the journaling cards by my bed and fill them out when I go to bed while the day is still fresh in my mind! I hope this works...the journaling is always the hardest part for me. Then I hope to sit down once a week and to the week altogether, hoping to be able to add more scrap supplies this way.

I did not by the kit this year. I got the Clementime Album for Christmas and Design A page protectors. I also bought Design D page protectors and plan on alternating one with the other so that each week I can have both landscape and portrait photos. I only used design A last year and realized that I actually take more portrait photos so this was something I had to get used to. But because of Project Life i am now in the habit of doing both!

I also bought just the plain white journaling cards in hopes that I will spruce them up with my stash:)

I finished my cover page today and am excited to get started! Here it is:

Top Ten Layouts of 2011

2012-01-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted to do one of these and I don't think I ever have so here goes:)

I think most of these I haven't even shared yet! Here they are in no particular order:

(this is a horrible photo of this layout but I can't find the high resolution one right now)

Two things I did this year that really helped my scrapbooking...took KP's Sketch class and became a subscriber to Studio Calico. Looking forward to getting back in my scraproom...I have not scrapped since November!

Our Christmas

2012-01-01T12:17:00.000-08:00

First of all...Happy new Year!! I love the fresh start of a new year...love making goals and resolutions. Of course my biggest resolution is to get back this here old blog...hope I can stick with this finally!

To start things off I will recap our Christmas. It was wonderful. Ally woke up first at 5am. I tried to get her to wait until 6 but I couldn't get back to sleep so we decided to go downstairs. Max met us in the hallway and the 3 of went to see if Santa came...he did!

After taking it all in the two of them got started on their stockings:

Poor Brandon woke up not feeling well...found out a couple days later that he had strep throat:(

They started digging in to the gifts around 6am when Daddy and Brandon joined us downstairs:

Ally was very happy about Max's new aquarium too:)

The new xbox...he was very surprised!

A box filled with his favorite snacks...13 year old boys are hard to shop for!

Her biggest surprise...a new wii! Ours broke about 2 months ago and she had just started playing it a lot. She actually went to be crying the night before because she said she really needed a new wii and forgot to put it on her list! Luckily mommy and daddy had been missing their netflix too:)

Doing a happy dance!

Playing with her new American Girl stuff.

A fun Christmas breakfast thanks to pinterest...Reindeer pancakes!

Favorite gifts picture

Zonked out by mid morning:)

Getting her doll ready for school...both of her dolls got new backpacks...she loves playing scholl with them.

All decked out in their new clothes!

That night we had family over our house for Christmas dinner...a great way to end a great day. I am a litlle sad it is over but definitely looking forward to the new year!

I stamped!

2011-04-14T07:54:00.000-07:00

I love stamps but always struggle using them. I recently got this Jenni Bowlin stamp that I love but had to push myself to use. I combined it with some misting and made this layout for the Studio Calico sketch challenge this week:

I just love how it turned out! I am definitely going to need to do this more often!

I also made this layout the other day using some Jillibean Dutch Mustard:

This is one of my all time favorite layouts...love these pics and love this Jillibean!

KP's Sketchbook class Day 2

2011-04-12T05:26:00.000-07:00

I actually wasn't sure I was going to use this sketch...it felt out of my comfort zone when I first saw it. But I happened to have these pics on my desk and when I saw them it all just fell into place.

And I MISTED!!! You can hardly tell but trust me it is there! Once again I used lots of Jillibean Soup Blossom Soup. I need another sheet of that flower pp...its my fave and I am getting low!

KP's Sketchbook Class Day 1

2011-04-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

Two blog post in one day...what has come over me??? LOL, hopefully it will keep coming over me because I have a lot of pages to share.
Just one for now though. I joined Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook 3 class this week and wanted to share my take on the first sketch...I am having a lot of fun with this class so far!

Here is my layout...

I just love the way it came out! I used my new "Handwritten" Slice cartridge for the title...so glad I finally broke down and bought this one...I love it! I also used the Studio Calico wood veneer hearts...love, love, love! And those little tiny Lilly Bee letter stickers...I am going to need more of those!

Love the way this turned out!

Amazing...

2011-04-06T04:26:00.000-07:00

Its how I feel about her:

And this new Blossom Soup line from Jillibean Soup! I finally got a chance to sit down and play with my new stuff! All of their new lines are awesome as usual but this one is my fave, especially for girly pages. Hoping I get another chance to play this afternoon:)

AMLT Blog

2011-04-04T04:58:00.000-07:00

Its my week to host the A Million Little Things Blog this week. I am sharing sports pages all week...go check it out!!

http://www.amillionlittlethings.typepad.com/

Need to catch up...

2011-03-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

phew...these past few weeks just got away from me. I'm still keeping up with POTD but I need to get them all printed and put into my Project Life album. Instead of sharing those photos right now I think I will share my latest layout:

I have been ordering a bunch of new stuff from A Million Little Things...so excited to play with my new goodies. This is new MME and Pebbles, Sassafrass and American Crafts. I am in love with this My Minds Eye pattern paper. We actually just took our second trip to the American Girl Store over February vacation so I figured I should get scrapping this first visit:)

Since I am talking about the American Girl Store I'll share a picture from when we went a couple weeks ago. She brought Julie with her and this is right after she got Julie's hair done at the salon:

So much fun!

A few more layouts

2011-02-16T17:10:00.000-08:00

Still working on that pile of photos on my desk...

This one is my fave I think:

I think I went a little heavy on the mist on this one...need to keep practicing this technique:

And this one...

I think I only have a couple more layouts to make before I am done with that pile of photos...that feels good! Those photos have been there for several months! Glad to get them in my albums!

44/365

2011-02-16T16:59:00.000-08:00

In the glow of the Xbox...Maxwell gaming. He had been gone for the afternoon at a friend's birthday party. They had gone to a Monarchs game and he had a great time...he didn't have much of a voice when he got home...a sign of a good time:)

43/365

2011-02-16T16:55:00.000-08:00

Came across this sight and ran for the camera...such a rare moment, the two of them like this. Reminds me of the days when they used to play their DS's side by side on the couch. Love this:)

42/365

2011-02-16T16:53:00.000-08:00

Max came home from school today and got right to work on his Valentine's for his class.

41/365

2011-02-16T16:46:00.000-08:00

These crazy girls...had a blast CLEANING on their playdate today! They vacuumed and washed windows. Nejat told me that it was the best day of her life...so cute! Here they are pretending the windex and paper towels are their babies...they are crazy!

40/365

2011-02-16T16:44:00.000-08:00

Early morning, before school gaming. He has started playing his DS more lately...reminds me of the old days:)

Scrappy share!

2011-02-09T15:11:00.000-08:00

Thought I would share some recent layouts today...I have been on a role lately! I have printed quite a feww smaller photos over the past few months and i am accumulating quite a little pile of them on my desk. I have given myself a challenge to finish scrapping all of those before I print anymore! Here they go...

This picture was not in my pile but I ran across it recently looking through some older pictures and had to scrap it...look how cute and little he was:)

Feels good to make a dent in that pile...but I still have quite a few more pics left!

39/365

2011-02-09T14:03:00.000-08:00

Max doing his homework after basketball practice. He got a really great report card last week. So proud of him!