Really?!

Ugh! I can't stand it one more minute! Looking at my last entry about Valentine's Day stuff (from well over a month ago) each day I click on my blog to direct me to my favorite daily reads (posted on left side). I am so sick of looking at those heart felt wreaths and balls! So now is as good as time as any to just get something else up here. I am very excited that this weekend I will be going away to another scrapbook weekend. If you or your friends are in the SoCal area and are looking for a place to spend a weekend, I highly recommend Scrapbook Inn. We are going to be staying at their newly aquired 2nd location. Their original one is wonderful and this new place is supposedly even better. I can't wait. I am aiming to get lots of layouts done. It's going to be the weekend of my Hannah. In packing I came across a TON of Hannah photos from years past that obviously were supposed to be documented but never were. Shocker I know! So rather than print out new photos, I am just going to take this huge pile with me and hopefully get somewhat caught up. I just went to Scrappin In the Hills and purchased quite a collection of cardstock so I have no excuses for not getting pages done.

So in case you were wondering what all has been going on in the 1 month plus I have been absent:

Niece #2 was born. Welcome Payton!


I worked on my photography skills.


We went to Disneyland with Joel's parents.

Experienced the first loose tooth. Yes she's only 4!

Experienced the first LOST tooth! The Tooth Fairy brought 8 quarters and a special note.

Planted a garden. (Red bell, Green bell, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, Big Boy tomatoes?, and Green beans)

Decorated Easter eggs.





Helped the Easter Bunny make these baskets.


Enjoyed the girls having a blast on Easter.

I am currently trying to work on Makaela's Ariel/Under the Sea 2nd Birthday party. Sigh! If only there were enough time and energy to make all my ideas come true.

OK I am off to get some sleep so I can be well rested for my scrapbook weekend. I am beyond excited.

Have a great weekend ... if you haven't stopped following me due to lack of frequent posts. :)

Heart Felt Wreaths

I also made these and these for Valentine's Day decorations. I got the idea from here.


These guys followed the above tutorial but used 2.5" styrofoam balls for the center. They end up being about 5" in diameter.

I don't care if it's too late to post this! :)

I made these to help decorate my home for Valentine's Day. I think I got the idea from Better Homes & Gardens' website. I don't really have a close up of any of them. I used Making Memories and Pink Paislee's Valentine papers. Bought several bunches of the fake white flowers from Dollar Tree. As you can see, I am in desperate need of some sort of furniture piece to go on this wall.

She lives!

Yes, yes, I am still alive. And keeping busy. Just not feeling very motivated to sit in my cold scraproom late at night editing pictures, uploading them, and other whatnots. Sorry.

Here's a project I just finished up last night. This has been in the works for oh ... 7 months! It's terrible. Our good friends who live out of state had a beautiful baby girl back in July 2009. I rushed to make an album and got it to about 85% complete before having to set it aside. I didn't pick it up again until a few days ago when we confirmed that my husband was going out to visit them. I am really pleased with how it turned out. Now I only have 5 more baby albums to make.

The paper for this was all American Crafts, BoBunny, and Bazzill. All of the shapes were cut with my Silhouette. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this machine.

The cover:

Pages 1 and 2 (sorry about the censoring but you just can't be too careful these days):

The reverse side of the tag:

Pages 3 & 4:

Pages 5 & 6:

Better shot of the tag:

Pages 7 & 8:

Pages 9 & 10:

Pages 11 & 12:

Close up of the tag:

Pages 13 & 14:

Close up of the tag:

Overall shot:

Uh, Happy Valentine's Day?

Before anymore time passes and it becomes inappropriate to post Valentine's Day things ...

I used the Making Memories line of Valentine's Day papers for this layout. Then I busted out my handy dandy Silhouette and cut the heart border, the XOXO, and the Love You quote bubble.

Each year it's a tradition for me to make a layout for both girls honoring their dad. He's so good to them and I want to document where they are and how much they love at this time of year.

Yum!

I promise I am working on some posts to finally get up here ... including my CHA loves. In the meantime, these look delicious!

Woo hoo CHA!!!!

I am so excited to be leaving for CHA in just a few minutes. It looks like there's lots of great product being debuted today. I am so thankful to my husband for taking the kids again so I can go and drool over all the new stuff. I'll be back with pictures in the next couple of days. Have a great rest of the weekend!

*** updated *** -- saw lots of great things at the show! Fortunately I was able to see all that was on my list. My feet and lower back are a bit sore, but the experience was well worth it. I wish I could go back for the 3 remaining days, but I'll live. I'm hoping to post some pictures in the next day or two.

Scrapbook Weekend Results

So this past weekend I went to a home in Escondido with friends for a scrapbook weekend. I've done this once before at a different loacation and find that I don't ever know what to bring and don't want to pack up ALL of my stuff. So I decided to bring with me two kits that I had purchased last year from Christine Middlecamp. I paid a pretty penny for each of these kits and they've been sitting in their shipping box for months. The time had come to get them complete.

Can I just say I am so so so happy that I purchased these kits! Christine is an amazing scrapbooker and clearly an amazing kit designer. She doesn't do very many kits in a year so I feel fortunate to have gotten my hands on these when I did. She sells out very quickly.

The first kit I did was for my youngest daughter Makaela. The kit was normally designed to be a garden themed one, but that didn't quite fit me, so I changed the title to my daughter's name and altered a few small things in the album. The foundation for the album is Melissa Frances's Bingo Card Chipboard Album. I learned so many things by working on this album. How to layer, how to make use of small pieces of paper, how to look past the obvious use for a scrapbook supply. I also got a refresher in how to follow written directions. She gives VERY detailed instructions on how to put this puppy together.

The cover:

Page 1:

Page 2:

Page 3:

Page 4 -- I designed this page with extra materials because she didn't use all the pages from the album:

Page 5:

Page 6 (you can tell the light changed right here) -- I designed this page with some of the extra materials because there were some extra pages she didn't use from the album:

Page 7:

Page 8:

The next kit I did of hers was this one. This is the first one I bought. It's foundation uses the Jenni Bowlin Set of 2009 Die Cut Calendar Cards. I love this album. I love the colors! I love the techniques! I love the mixes of papers! And I learned that I really do love Jenni Bowlin!

The Cover:
Page 1:

Page 2:

Page 3:

Page 4:

Page 5:

Page 6:

Page 7:

Page 8:

The greatest part was all of the materials left over from the kits. She really packs them up with product. It's well worth the money. I made two more layouts, with it. I think I might submit them to a contest so you'll have to wait to see those. But here's one I can share with you that I used the Ever After line by Cosmo Cricket. I had made these fabric flowers and really wanted to use them. But I didn't have any paper with me that matched this color pink. My friend suggested using them with colors that didn't have any pink. Great idea!

I learned how to make these flowers from this tutorial. There are hundreds of tutorials out there on how to make fabric flowers. Just Google "how to make fabric flowers".

So much to talk about ...

First off, choosing the word "peace" as my word for 2010 has been a good thing. While there are many times that I feel unpeaceful, there have been many more times when I have realized that feeling coming on and have focussed on being peaceful. Asking that God give me a peaceful heart. And for the most part, it works for me. I am able to calm myself down and deal with whatever is at hand. I am keeping my eyes open for artsy things that incorporate the word peace for my home. I plan for it to be in many spots in our home so I can channel that feeling at all times.

Something that is breaking my heart is the Haiti earthquake. I don't watch the news and most of the time life is too hectic to even read online articles. I was made aware of it yesterday on MSN's homepage but didn't get a chance to read details. Listening to NPR this morning, I became very aware of the devastating details. I am so saddened by this. I cannot imagine the condition that the country is in and the desperation so many people are feeling. I ask that you pray for the people of Haiti who are suffering, for their government to be able to meet their needs as best as possible, for outside countries to be able to lend assistance, and for all the children that are left without parents and for the parents who are left without children.

Months ago I wrote a post about my step mother's diagnosis with Stage 4 Melanoma which had grown on the outside of one of her ovaries. It is a very rare occurence where the Melanoma grows on the inside and there is little research on it. The statistics of such a cancer are not good. Anyways, in case any of you are curious, she has been undergoing some serious bio-chemotherapy. The schedule was as such: one week in the hospital constantly connected to various drugs. Then sent home for two weeks. During the first of the two weeks at home, she feels terrible. Very sleepy, very nauseous, no appetite, etc. During the second week at home, she begins to feel close to human again. When the two weeks is up, she goes back into the hospital to do another round. After every two rounds, they do an MRI to see what kind of progress has been made. So far she has had two MRI's come back showing positive results. THANK GOD! If you do the math, you can conclude that she's done at least 4 rounds of this intense treatment. Well, she's actually done 5 and was supposed to begin #6 today, but given the constant low white blood cell count, her doctors have told her she's done with them. No more! Her body can't take it. This is actually good news for her. It was getting to the point where she was becoming depressed over not feeling good. She doesn't like not having energy to do anything. She is not considered no evidence of disease (NED), but her doctor thinks she would never be able to get to that point anyway. And for some unknown reason, she can never again start up these treatments again should the cancer begin to grow. They have altered her immune system and expect it to continue its attack on the cancer cells even without drugs. So for the next 8 weeks she is to recuperate. Then they'll give her another MRI and see where to go from there. So please keep her in your prayers if you will. She's a wonderful lady. Only 47 years old. She has much more to give this world. So I thought I would update on her.

Along similar lines, there's a little girl's story I have been following. Her name is Kate McRae and she is 6 years old. She's a victim of brain cancer and it's a rare and agressive one. I learned of her from Jennifer McGuire and her Cards For Kids campaign. Her mother tries to post updates everyday here. She's a wonderful writer and does so to gain prayers for her sweet daughter. I highly recommend you following her story, sharing it with other, but most of all praying for Kate. Despite the sadness of the situation, the posts are very inspirational.

On a happier note, this weekend I get to sneak off for a scrapbook weekend with quite a few friends. There's a place in Escondido that is dedicated to scrapbookers. So I am looking forward to that. My hope is to complete two different kits I ordered last year from Christine Middlecamp as well as to possible complete my December Daily 2009 album. It's only three projects but something tells me the 2.5 days I will be gone won't be enough time. We'll see. I will post pictures of what does get completed when I return.

Have a wonderful weekend if I don't get back here before then.

PEACE: My Word for 2010

I tossed around many words. Relaxation. Patience. Plan. Organized. I couldn't decide. Then I realized the common factor behind any of the words I was contemplating was the desired feeling they would bring me were I to be successful. That feeling? Peace.

Yes I wish desperately for this wonderful world we live in to achieve world peace, but I think I want something I have a little more control over.

For me peace is going to come when I am not constantly rushing around trying to get something done minutes before it's needed. It means planning ahead for meals. Laying the girls clothes the night before. Buying gifts for friends well in advance; and also making their cards in advance. Making small lists and crossing off items as they are finished. Taking time out each day to focus on those that need prayer. Going to church. Working out regularly. Eating more healthy. Confronting difficult situations head on rather than trying to hide from them.

I am always reevuating myself. Trying to be a better person. I think I am a good person but am not sure that I like how I deal with things. If I can succeed at all I have listed above I think I will feel a peace within. One that will allow me time to enjoy life. I love life but am not sure I enjoy all I have.

So here's to PEACE in 2010!