So much more than my Grandpa

I will not be posting much over the next week or so. My grandfather passed away yesterday morning and my daughters and I will be flying to Chicago for the funeral.

Losing my grandpa, or "Pa" as we called him, is a devastating blow. We lived with my grandparents for several years when I was little after my parents divorced. My grandpa became like my dad. He's been sick for several years, but he just kept hanging on. So as the years went on, we just thought he'd keep going and going. Thankfully, I was able to see him over Thanksgiving and he was in good spirits, joking and laughing and telling stories. I'm so glad that I will have those final memories of him, that he was able to finally meet Hayley and see Will and I together. And the last thing that I said to him was that I loved him, and that brings me more peace than I can say. He passed away in his sleep, which was how he wanted to go and I know that he is in a place where he can sing again, where he can walk and run and do all the things he loved.

I have been creating though and will have more to share when we get back. Take care everyone!

Some mojo

I have been in a craft funk lately. No real motivation to go back to my studio and create. Well, in an attempt to get out of it, I decided to participate in the KWERNERDESIGN.COM color inspiration challenge for this week. Her blog is one I check all the time, but this is the first time I've actually made a card for the challenge :-). It's laziness because her challenges are always awesome color combos!

This weeks challenge was:

And a not so great picture of my submission because I'm rushing...

I am in a hurry with this stuff today because I have to clean my studio and finish organizing Cait's room to start making room for the new stuff coming. Christmas is creeping up quickly!! Have a great day everyone. Hopefully my mojo is officially jumpstarted so I can have more craftiness to share later!! :-)

Feelings of Gratitude

As Thanksgiving rapidly approaches, I am thinking about all of the things in my life that I am thankful for. This year I am giving thanks for a wide range of people, places, and things.

My family: I am so incredibly thankful for my amazing husband. He works so hard and sacrifices so much with his work. It's an entirely different list to name everything about him that I love and am grateful for, so I'll save that for later. But having him in my life makes every day brighter. And on that note, my children...both my biological children and my step-children light up my life and bring so much joy. They are such different people, each with his/her own personality quirks, strengths, and weaknesses. Seeing them interact with one another and watching them grow is such a blessing.

Friends: Both new friends and old friends that I've had for decades. My friendships nourish my soul and enrich my live. The love and support of my friends means the world to me and I thank God for them every single day.

Our home: By home I mean both the structure in which we live and also our nation. Our house is warm, and inviting. I have a whole room for a studio. My children have a yard to run and play in. As the economy struggles and our country feels the effects I am grateful to be an American because it is in these hard times that we reach out to one another and help each other through so that we can stand united and rise up again. The food drives, the Christmas giving trees. All reminders of things to be grateful for.

The Military: Being a military wife is both a blessing and a struggle. My husband has to be gone quite a bit for his job. Between trainings and deployments and multiple trips through out the rest of the year for days and/or weeks at a time, it adds up to a lot of time away from home. However, he is spending that time away doing a job that he loves and also protecting our country. The military provides a stable work environment and a lot of wonderful benefits that make life easier for us. Free healthcare, tax-free shopping, stability...

Starbucks: Nothing brightens a drab day than a caramel machiato with extra caramel and whipped cream and some good conversation with a friend. Time to unwind, revitalize, and be someone other than Mommy for even 20 minutes. A small blessing, but still a blessing.

My hobbies: They keep me sane. 'nuff said :-)

The fall foliage: HELLO Gorgeous! Walking outside and seeing all of the beautiful colors is an instant mood enhancer. I love it!

The drop in gas prices: My bank account is so thankful for the break :-)

Ok...I could literally go on all day here because my journal entry for this was pages and pages long. So just a sampling.

Happy Wednesday!

Some Enabling

I've been doing some random searching online (LOVE the internet) for random things. Home decor. New scrap supplies, etc. I thought I would share a few favorites for some shameless enabling!

First, I totally love this new Paperie line from Making Memories. SO fabulous. Here is a peek at one of the paper pads.And then there are these vinyl home decor products from Once Upon a Design. Jennifer McGuire has some posted on her blog (one of my faves), which led me to the designers site and there are so many designs to choose from. I found one to hang in our entry way, one for my studio, and a few that I could use on some gifts. They come in a variety of sizes all for very reasonable prices. You can find them here.

I took this photo straight off their site to just show what they look like. Nope, this is not my scrap space, though it looks beautiful in the pictures! (. (Stampin' Up offers something similar in different designs and they are also wonderful.) You can see more photos of them at Jennifer McGuire's blog here. Her studio is AMAZING! Love all of the storage ideas and little touches.

And finally, I LOVE all of the holiday gifts over at Pottery Barn Teen. Especially these adorable hair dryers...a little pricey for me to buy them just for cuteness when I already have a perfectly good (and kind of expensive) hair dryer already. But they are definitely cute!

And the Dottie Watch, which I may just have to pick up for myself at some point...or add to my Christmas wishlist.
That's all of my enabling for the day...Happy Monday, everybody!

November Gathering

The November Gathering of the Carolina Girls mini-group swap was today and it was my turn to be the hostess. We had a nice time chatting and exchanging ideas and of course eating! Here is the project that I planned for everyone to make.

It was a 4x4 inch pizza box. We used the Always and Upsy Daisy stamp sets for this project. It's super simple to make these, and lots of fun. They are a bit addictive. There are tutorials for this on Splitcoast, I think, but basically what you do is

Trim a piece of cardstock to 6x11. Then use your Scor-Pal and score the long edge at 1, 5,6, and 10 in. Then turn it to the short side and score it at 1 and 5.

Then you turn it back so that you're on the long edges and cut the score marks in to the 1 in. score mark to make flaps. Then you just fold all your score lines, put some adhesive on the flaps and stick it together and you have a box. Then you decorate it however you want to. And we made these 3x3 cards to go inside. Very easy.

Trying times as a Mommy...

I have been participating in the stories in hand class over at JessicaSprague.com . Just reading through the prompts for the class brought back so many memories. It's been a little overwhelming. So many stories left untold. So I feel like I'm catching up on a lot of recording. But before I forget my exact emotions for this week, I wanted to record this story.

Yesterday started out like any other day. I got up at 6 am and woke Caitlynn to get her ready for school. I was a little surprised to not find Hayley asleep on the couch because it has become her ritual over the last couple of weeks to wander from her bed at night to curl up with her blankie on the couch and go back to sleep. So I woke Caitlynn and told her to be extra quiet because Hayley was magically still asleep in her own bed. It didn't last, though, and Hayley was up within minutes of me waking Cait, despite the fact that Caitlynn was tiptoeing around and was literally using SWAT team stealth to move around the house in her morning routine. So I made breakfast and on with the daily tasks of getting Cait off to the bus stop and getting Hayley and i up and dressed for the day. Hayley fed-check. Hayley dressed-check. Hayley's hair combed and pulled back out of her face-check. Cold medicine administered-check. So, my turn to get ready. I shower at night, so I just had to straighten and fix my hair and get dressed. This took me approximately 8 minutes. I noticed that it was extraordinarily quiet in the living room where I had left Hayley to watch a movie while I got dressed. When I didn't find her on the couch, I immediately went to the office (the one room in the house that is completely off limits to the kids) and found Hayley in the midst of dumping containers full of glitter all over the floor and my office chair. This is just a glimpse of the catastrophe that was my office/studio. Glitter literally everywhere that made it impossible to scoop up and salvage. So I sternly remove Hayley from the office and put her on the couch so I can clean up the mess. It takes me about 10 minutes to get everything vacuumed and for the most part glitter free. I go back into the living room to have a chat with Hayley about the incident and she is scribbling with a marker on the windows and back of our old couch in the sunroom. Mess #2. This time I put her in time out and started cleaning up that mess. After serving her obligatory 2 minutes of time out. She got up and skipped in her merry sing-song way down the hall and into her bedroom. Okay great, nothing she can tear up in there. SO I scrub the windows and sill to get the marker off. Thankfully it came out. I finish that task and here comes Hayley holding her hands out saying "it's icky! I poop!" She is pull-up-less (naked from the waist down) and has poop on her hands. My guess is that she went into her room so she could have some private time to potty and then decided to try and change herself instead of telling me like she usually does. Her pull up is on the bathroom floor and there is a bit of a mess where she tried to clean herself. Mess #3. I clean that one. And about this time Will gets home from being at work. So all of this happens before 11 am. What a morning!

Mommy is completely worn out, broken down, and downright overwhelmed. I am feeling bad for being mad at Hayley. Feeling like a bad mommy for having this child who can cause so much destruction in just a matter of minutes. And feeling like a failure for having an overall sense of defeat before noon. My day did not improve much from that point either. I know someday I will look back at the pictures of our glitter-covered cat, Jack, who will probably still be sparkling 2 weeks from now, and laugh like a crazy person. But for now I am searching my memories trying to think of a time that I could possibly have caused my Mom or Grandma (who watched us while Mom worked when I was Hayley's age) similar grief so that in some way I would deserve the experience of having to clean it all up. The what goes around comes around theory. Nope. Can't think of any. I had my fair share of naughtiness I know, but I don't recall anything like this.

A day for the record book of my life. And a story I look forward to telling Hayley when she has her own child who makes a mess of similar or (with hope) greater magnitude than this one! Does that make me a bad person? Ha...I hope not. But I think this whole thing would have been slightly hilarious had it happened to someone else and NOT to me :-).

Election 2008

I am a little disappointed in the way that my county handled the election process. First we were separated by precinct into two lines. Ashley River (who's line by the way was EMPTY when I arrived) and Coosaw (a line of about 1000 people). I stood in line for 4 HOURS. The first hour of that was spent outside where it was chilly and rainy. We then get inside and wind around inside the building in line and a man randomly walked around calling people who's last names began with N-Z to the front of the line. Great for them, HORRIBLE for those of us who's names fall ahead of that and had been in line probably hours before them. Then when you finally get to the room where the booths were, the two lines of Ashley River and Coosaw combined, so it didn't actually matter at all which line you were in to begin with. So I stood in that forever long line for absolutely no reason because I could've gotten in the super short Ashley River line and been done way sooner. Did I mention that I had my kids with me during this whole ordeal??! They were troopers. Very very well behaved under the circumstances (Hayley had 3 shots that morning, and Cait had been at a sleepover--both were tired and a bit cranky). We arrived at the school, my assigned voting location, at 3:30 pm. Didn't get back home until 7:45 pm. I was not a happy camper.
Now I'm not usually one to complain much about such things, but that was ridiculous. So thank you for allowing me to vent my frustration.
Onto the actual election...I do not wish to offend anyone with comments made here. I think the day after the election is always the worst because no matter who wins, people are disappointed. My vote went to Obama, though my state went to McCain. While I do not agree 100% with Obama's ideals and beliefs, I agree with him on much more than I do with McCain. I am happy with the outcome, I am ready for our country to see some changes for the better to improve our present and solidify our future. And a new day has come. We will move forward. I hope that those who gave their support to McCain can do as he did and concede with dignity and grace. We are all Americans and divided we will fall no matter who is leading us.

"In this election- in this moment-

let us reach for what we know is possible.

A nation healed.

A world repaired.

An America that believes again."

--Barack Obama

I for one am thankful that we live in a country that allows us the freedoms and blessings that surround us every day. That we have the right to choose our leaders and have our voices be heard. God Bless America!!!! I believe.

Happy November 1

I cannot believe that it's November 1st already. This year has flown by, most likely because so much has happened this year. And the older I get, the quicker it all goes.

I am pretty excited for this week, though. I am signed up to join in on the fun for Jessica Sprague's new class. If you haven't seen it and want more info, check it out on her blog, here. I'm really looking forward to it. I also have been busy getting some product together to start on a December Daily album like this one I saw on Ali Edwards blog, here. I am going out on a little bit of a limb and designing some of my own digi embellies for this project. (I think I am getting a little more confident in my photoshop abilities.) And I'm excited to do my first actual hybrid album.

We had a fabulous Halloween, the girls looked ADORABLE!

Here is Hayley as Tinkerbell

And Caitlynn as Jasmine

Hayley did great with trick-or-treating until we ran across a group of boys that had some scary masks on and then she was much more cautious about walking up to the doors to trick or treat. Will or I had to take her up each time after the "monster scare". Poor baby. But she survived and ended up with tons of candy for putting on a brave face and getting through it. We managed to avoid the scary boys the rest of the night until of course we were at the house right across the street from ours on our way home and there they were again. Will wasn't quick enough about scooping her up and shielding the scary boys from view. So a little more drama right before we finished up for the night. All in all it was a great Halloween!

Updates

I have decided that I am going to blog even when I don't have anything crafty to share. I thought about starting a new one just to post the daily happenings of my family, but I think it's all part of the same larger picture. My family and the memories and the day to day details of our life is the reason that I create in the first place. So, you will more than likely be hearing much more from me in the days ahead.

Caitlynn had a half day from school today so we went to Wannamaker Park with some friends for some afternoon fun in the sun. It was the perfect fall day--cool, crisp, sunny. The kids had a blast playing at the park and making some new friends.

It was report card day for Caitlynn. She had a GREAT report card this time. She earned all A's and 1 B in Social Studies. The only negatives on her report were that she is very "distractable" so sometimes she doesn't seem to be paying attention. My little social butterfly. So to reward her for her excellent report card, I'm planning on taking her to see High School Musical 3. She has definitely earned a little bit of a treat--I am so proud of her.

Some Halloween Goodness...

I have not had a whole lot of time to blog lately. Will has been gone for about 24 days over the last month, which has left me lots of house/kid stuff to do. I even had to miss my Carolina Girls get together because of one of his trips. I was not a happy girl. BUT, he's home now and things are starting to slow down a bit so here I am.

We were blessed with a no school day this past Friday and of course it had to be pouring down rain the entire day, so the girls and I did some Halloween cookie baking for some rainy day fun. We had a blast. Check out some of our creations...

And we also have a new addition to our family. This is Shelby. She is a rescue dog...someone found her and her sister in the parking lot of a preschool and listed them on craigslist. If someone didn't take them before the end of the day, they were going to the pound...SO, Will sent me to go check her out and I cannot stand to see puppies or any animals in those little cages...the SPCA vet came out and looked at the puppies and determined a breed for me. She said that Shelby is a Ridgeback, and after looking up the breed online, I think she was dead on with her assessment. So far she is doing okay, but I think it's going to take her some time to adjust to being in a loving family. She is still very wary of us, but is awesome with the kids. She gives lots and lots of kisses.

Looking forward to some pumpkin carving tonight!!

As promised...

Back to show a quick project. I still have a few more to share that I haven't photographed yet because I was too busy hangin out with my hubby after he got home. It felt like he was gone for a month so we did a lot of talking and lounging and hanging out with the kids today.

So here it is, a simple gift bag and tag that I made as part of some prep work for a teacher gift. (sorry for the bad photo...I was in a hurry!) Of course there is more to share when I get a minute! I have a job interview tomorrow, so wish me luck!!

Thanks...

Thank you for your patience...I know I said tomorrow on my last post and it's been a few days. My hubby gets home today from being gone for the past 9 days so it's been a little hectic. I promise I'll have the post I promised up tomorrow with all my other fun projects I've been working on!! Hope everyone is having a good week!

Lots of fun stuff to share...

Hi Everyone! I have been creating a lot this week to keep me busy. My hubby is on a ten day trip to Germany and Iraq so this keeps my mind focused on other things! I am having a workshop at my house on Saturday and I plan to show these items at the workshop just as little creativity boosters for how to use the stamps other than just on cards.

I actually saw a scrapbook page like this on the SU demo website, and thought I would try it. I don't usually scrap 6x6 so I enjoyed the little change in pace.
I made this little clipboard using some old chipboard that I layered and glued together for sturdiness, covered that with some of the Bella Rose dp, and then stamped some lined paper. This is actually going to be part of a teacher gift. Something simple, but I think it turned out cute.

And last but not least, a paper bag album. I have been wanting to try this for a while now, and finally just decided to take the plunge and do it. Much easier than I thought! :-) So a little mini-book to celebrate the wedding.

I will even have a few more things to share tomorrow! ;-) So stay tuned. This is just the beginning of what I've gotten done this week. Maybe it'll make up a little bit for my MIA status on the blog. I plan to get back to posting daily, but like most people I'm searching for that mysterious and ever elusive balance in my life. Time for me, time for my kids, time for the things I am passionate about.

I usually do some blog-hopping during Hayley's naptime and I've noticed that a lot of people are talking about things that inspire or enrich their lives and how to readjust so that those things are given more importance. I have given a lot of thought about what I am passionate about and how to re-center my life around those things. At first I thought, oh well my passion- it's my kids. My kids are my reason for living. But really, that's just kind of a flippant sort

of off the cuff type answer, not too deep. Anyone with children probably would say that same thing and honestly, my children aren't the only defining part of my life. So I thought a little harder and came up with a list of things that I am passionate about

1. my kids--they are pieces of me, beautiful rays of sunshine on my days. I do so much of what I do to benefit them in some way shape or form.

2. my husband--he inspires me to be better; to laugh, to cry, to accept me for me. I love him for that and I am passionate about working on our marriage, building on our future.

3. photography. always learning. always trying new things.

4. travel. I want to go everywhere, see everything.

5. faith. I admit I don't go to church every Sunday, that I don't read the bible as much as I should. But I pray constantly. I believe. I have faith and I leave my life in the Lord's hands. This journey that I take every day--the struggles, the successes. I have been blessed. I want to feed my soul with spirituality and faith.

6. knowledge. Just in general. I read. I explore. I research new things. I try new activities. My interests are so far spread and there are so many. I live to learn.

And that's just a sample of my list...the tip of the iceberg if you will. But that simple exercise, thinking about who I am and where I'm going, what I love. It was a cleansing thing for me. And I'm thankful for other bloggers out there that really made me sit and question myself and I am taking it all in and making plans to help get things back on track.

For those of you still reading, thanks for taking the time to read my rambles! :-) Hope you are all having a good week. More to share tomorrow!

Finally

able to get some cards made this past weekend. And by some, I mean A LOT. But most were all of the same card. I belong to a monthly swap group (love my Carolina girls!) and we meet next Sunday and the theme is embossing, which believe it or not was something i had not yet attempted. I ordered a heat tool last week because I felt like trying something new, but ended up having to borrow one (thanks, Cindy!) to get my cards done for the swap. SO, I had to make cards for the swap and also I am a bit behind on my SCS RAK Welcome cards to the lovely ladies who have been recently accepted because of all my wedding craziness. So I made extras of my swap cards to send them because, well...it was convenient and the assembly line style of making swap cards just worked to get me all caught up for my welcome RAKs.

Phew, that was a mouth full of words for something really simple. I made 20 of this one card...

using my new Pocket Silhouettes stamp set ( LOVE!) and I also used a stamp from the Baroque Motifs set. The new Kiwi kiss paper and ink and clear embossing powder. The main image is embossed. The scallop circle is cut with my nestibilities dies, but the scallop border is from the new SU scallop punch. It is seriously a must have. I love this thing!!

Then for the other card, I was just playing one day during nap time and came up with this one just for giggles, also playing with some new stuff that I have accumulated since my last free crafty time :-). They are actually kind of similar...I'm really enjoying the color combo with the blues, browns, and greens...those earth tones are just speaking to me lately so they are always the ones I reach for first when I go to create right now. I do have a perfectly gorgeous pack of the new Bella Rose patterned paper and Pink Pirouette cardstock that I haven't even opened yet...possibly a wedding layout to come soon with those because I love love LOVE the patterned paper. I want like a gazillion sheets of every single pattern in that pack. All of the new SU paper is just scrumptious ( fun word, had to use it).

So there you have it. My first contribution to the world of craftiness in more than a month (wow!). Happy Monday, everybody!!

A lot has happened...

since my last blog post. I am now officially a married woman! WOOHOO! Here are a few pictures from our absolutely beautiful wedding. We couldn't have asked for a better day, so thanks to everyone who prayed that Hanna would move out of here before Saturday!!

The beach was incredible. Completely empty except for us. It was a little windy, but that helped to keep us cool so no complaints at all. The flowers were beautiful. We had dinner at Miyabi in West Ashley. Wonderful as always. Then we did the tourist thing with my family on Sunday. It was an amazing weekend. The best ever.

As if that weren't enough, we had another milestone this week as well. Caitlynn started riding a two-wheeler without training wheels. She put up quite a fight the first day, but by the end of the day was able to ride to the end of the block and back without falling. It was actually really funny to hear the excuses that she gave to not get back on the bike after her first (extremely minor) fall. "I'll go to bed, Mom!" "I'll go clean my room??" "I just don't feel like riding right now!" It really reminded me of when I learned. I remember I ran into a tree and decided that was it for me. My grandma spanked my bottom and made me get on that bike. We had to use similar tactics with Cait. God Bless my grandmother for teaching me to ride my bike. Not an easy task.!! Then we went out for lesson #2 yesterday and she can now take off and stop on her own as well. We were up and down the road for hours and she cried when it was time to come in. Here is a photo of her new accomplishment!

And one of her celebratory bike ride with Will at the end of the day. He has so much patience with her. I am so thankful, because I have zero tolerance for whining and quitting. He did a fabulous job teaching little miss to ride her bike like a pro!

And now I am actually off to try to accomplish somethign crafty. Should have more to share soon!!

Hurricane Hanna

Well here we are 4 days away from the wedding and hurricane Hanna is being forecasted to hit us late Friday night... what is it about natural disasters and my wedding day?

I know it will still be beautiful and that it will all be fine no matter what the weather, no matter what the location but I still wish we could have things go as planned. I know, I know it never happens that way...just darn my rotten luck with these types of things.

__ _

I had my wedding hair practice appointment last Friday. Here is the result of that...I love the back. I am still debating about the front view, though I think that the weird camera angle and the fact that I was having a horribly un-photogenic day has a lot to do with it.

For the actual day, it will also have some individual pearls pinned into the curls in the back to give it some more detail and polish.

__ _

The move is almost complete. We spent most of Labor Day at the old house finishing up some painting and cleaning so we can have the inspection with the management company and hopefully get our full deposit back. The new house is coming along. We have most of the boxes that are inside the house unpacked and put away. The garage, however, is a completely different story. It is jam-packed with boxes and miscellaneous stuff that has not been brought in to be sorted out and put away. I hate moving. This is our third move in less than 2 years...we really need to get out of that habit. But now that we found a place we really like that has all of the features we have been looking for, maybe we'll stay for a while.

__ _

Ok, enough rambling...time to get back to the task at hand...UNPACKING!

Lots going on

Caitlynn started 2nd grade last week. We went to meet the teacher night on Tuesday night and she met Mrs. Coury and also got to see who was in her class. She had a few friends from her class last year, so she was happy about that. Her actual first day was Thursday. She's been having a blast picking out her clothes and stuff for school and FINALLY being able to wear the precious but up-to-now off limits "School clothes". Here are a few pics of her from the events last week...

We've also been extremely busy with moving into the new house. We will be all moved in by the end of this week and are very excited about getting settled over there. We spent a good part of the morning there yesterday putting some things away and starting to get more organized. I'll have pictures of that to share soon. And hopefully I'll have some crafty things to share sometime in the very near future as well!

The wedding is coming up in just under 2 weeks...time is flying! Definitely looking forward to the day and all that it brings with it, and I'm starting to get that anxious excited feeling in my stomach about it.

A little blog makeover

So I was getting a little restless with my blog header, so I changed it up a little. My studio is in boxes at the moment getting ready to be moved over to the new house, so I am not able to do any creating until things get all set up over there. But you see where my priorities are because my studio is the first room boxed up and ready for the move :-). Naturally that's because it will be the first room to be unpacked and functional...or well, first after my kids are all situated. Really, the whole house needs to be set up, functional AND pretty because our wedding is in just 16 days and the house is our back up location in case of rain and with this tropical storm/hurricane headed in our general direction, I'm starting to wonder if the beaches are going to be in "wedding" condition. Just my luck, right? Oh well, it'll work out okay.

No time for blogging these days...

This summer has been absolute madness. I've said it over and over and over again, but it just keeps going and going. Just in August alone, we've been to Indiana for 4 days, came back home and decided that we're going to move, found the house and did the paperwork...then found out we got the house, so now we're in the midst of getting a move together to be completely out of our current house by Sept. 1 and actually hopefully into the new house before school starts on Aug 21!! And did I mention our wedding is one week after that Sept. 1 cut off date?! AHHH. We are major over achievers with this. So I am just a touch overloaded right now. Hopefully things will start to slow down after that so I can finally get some {crafty}stuff done! Thanks to those that are still reading despite all the absences!

Acrylic Album

I was given this assignment FOREVER ago at the Pink House. And well, time just completely got away from me and I didn't get around to doing it until last night. In my defense, I did tell them that it would probably take me awhile to get it done, but I never imagined it'd be this overdue. The craziness this summer has definitely taken it's toll on my crafty time! I am proud to say, though, that I started this last night and finished it this morning and I'm completely thrilled with how it turned out. My first acrylic album!! YAY!

Recipe:

Clear Scraps acrylic album

Doodlebug Designs Hopscotch alpha stickers

Bazzill buttons

Daisy Bucket Designs Patterned Paper

Zip Dry Adhesive

Stazon Ink

Some digital practice

I had a kind of stressful day today. You know...one of those days where the kids don't listen, everyone is cranky and whining and you have a list a mile long of things that you needed to accomplish that day?? Yeah that was my day today. My kids were INSANELY cranky today and forgot their "listening ears" on their pillows this morning, I think. It was just really one of those days. Enough said on that. Anyway, Will is busy studying for his promotion test that he takes tomorrow and has been basically buried in his books for the last few days so I've been kind of flying solo again with all the housework and kid duties and all of that. Needless to say, I really needed some crafty time tonight to unwind from my crazy day and to just sink myself into something that makes me feel good.

That being said...

I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 hours playing with Photoshop Elements 6.0 today. I am determined to get familiar with this program and all the cool things I know it can do. God bless Jessica Sprague and her blog and website for the amazing tutorials and freebies and all sorts of wonderful digi-goodness. After lots of trial and error, I finally came up with this page...

I have very limited digital supplies, and am a complete novice with the program...so yes, I might've used a different combination of papers if I had done this the "regular" way, and things might have been laid out just a touch differently, but I am pretty happy with how this came out. If you have any interest in going digital/hybrid, you must check out Jessica Sprague's blog. (there is a link to her in yesterday's post!).

I'll have a few cards to share tomorrow--I got some new goodies in the mail today!

Wild Pomegranates True Friend

I made this card today for another RAK to send out for the SCS Random Acts of Kindness Group. I still need to make 2 more...hopefully I'll have some more creative play time later this afternoon, but for now I'm happy to have gotten this one done! I want to use up some of the Spring/Summer In Colors as the new ones come into play next month. I've put in my first order for some new stuff--I ordered the new scallop border punch, and a couple new in-colors paper and ink pads. Now if I could just find some customers to share it all with, haha. Oh well, I'm feeding my own stamping addiction.

Card Recipe:

Cardstock: Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Purely Pomegranate, and Wild Wasabi

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Sanded Background Stamp, True Friend

Ink: Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate, and Wild Wasabi

Ribbon: American Crafts

Photo ShaZAM!

I am a Photoshop newbie. I have had this program for about 2 weeks now thanks to my sister who insisted that it's impossible to navigate and figure out. So she gave it to me to figure out so I can teach her how to use it. :-)

I am slowly learning a few things with it thanks to some AWESOME tutorials on Jessica Sprague's page. If you are trying to work with this program, check her out, she's incredible! Her site can be found here.

I was playing around today with her lastest Photoshop Friday topic, Photo ShaZAM. Here is the result of my tinkering today...before and after

Something scrappy...

It's a sad day in our house today. Will's kids went home for the final time for the summer. They won't be back at our house until probably Spring break next year. It is VERY quiet. Too quiet. If you've ever been in a house with kids for an extended period of time (long enough to get used to the messes and the noise) you'll understand what I mean. So having his 3 gone is a drastic change. I've been cleaning house and trying to restore some order to our home after their visit and trying to take my mind off of how much I miss them already. I'm looking forward to seeing them again in a couple weeks, but this time it'll be in Indiana.

In other news, I am happy to say that I ordered the supplies for our wedding invites and favors. I got some really great stamp sets from Papertrey Inc. I know, right? I'm supposed to be a demo for SU and I chose PTI stamps over SU, but their wedding selection was a lot more diverse. I did order the cardstock and stamp pads from SU, though, as I am more familiar with those colors. We've decided on Soft Sky and Chocolate Chip. As I start receiving the shipments and get to work on the invites, I'll post some peeks... thankfully we're having a very small wedding so I can do it all by hand!

I also managed to get some layouts done during the craziness this week as well. So here they are...

Sorry for the wait...

Here is a picture of my BEAUTIFUL ring. I love it. I took one look at it and started crying. And Will gets all the credit because he picked it out entirely by himself :-) I'm hoping to get some better pics later with Will's hand in it too, but I've had several people ask to see it, so this is the quick peak!

More later!! Love you all!!

I'm engaged!!

Just had to share my happy news...Will officially proposed last night. We've been planning for a few months now, but now I have the ring on my finger! I promise to post some pics and more details later!! LOTS to do! :-) Hope everyone has had a great weekend!!

Big Post...Playing catch up...

As usual, I'm behind with things I need to be doing with how crazy life is this summer. I finally had a chance this morning to get all of my welcome cards done for the SCS RAK group. Thankfully I was only behind by two people, because I was assigned two more yesterday. I'm feeling accomplished to have gotten all of them done and to have four different cards to share. Usually when I get behind, I just mass produce one design. Today I decided to take my time and play a little more since I haven't had many opportunities recently.

In other news...my sister finally made it back home to Indiana late last night. It was so great to visit with her and spend time with my niece and nephew. I've missed them all so much since I moved out here. I love love LOVE being here in SC, but being away from family is hard sometimes, so I am grateful that they were able to come spend a week with me here.

And my wonderful sister took a complete family photo for us! Here is the result of that!