Hobby Lobby

It is a little bit lame for a crafter of any kind to claim Hobby Lobby as a favorite store so I won't, even though it is:).  Fortunately, my kid does not have his morning class on Monday which means that I will have time to run by Hobby Lobby while he takes his afternoon class.  Hobby Lobby is about an hour from us so a visit there always demands a little planning.  I am hoping to pick up some mini glue dots and some other basic supplies.  Maybe they will have some of the newer paper pads and I can snag a couple of those.  Michael's was a bust with the $5.99 paper pads, I did not walk away with a single one!  They were all sold out of the ones that I wanted.  Oh, well...

A couple of layouts to share with you.  The first one talks about my oldest sons struggle to learn to crawl.  It was based on this layout my Melinda Spinks.  Love her work!

My precious girl again.  This time taking a nap after we had gotten home from work.  I probably snapped this pic because she is wearing a favorite outfit for me.  Love the flower border!  Inspired by this page also by Melinda.  

And my girl again.  I told her that my blog was looking to be all about her:) I scraplifted a wedding layout by Nicole Harper.  It was in the May/June 2013 issue of CK.  We snapped this photo of her in 1990 at Universal Studios.  

This photo is where me and my husbands happily ever after began.  

I used a sketch for this page.  It was from the first sketch book that pagemaps put out.  I have both of the issues and I don't think I will ever get rid of them.  Still refer to the sketches and tips even after all of this time.  My husbands Grandmother passed away some years ago but we still get comfort from remembering how engaged she was with her great-grandchildren.

Attention Maryland!  Please consider making it a little more reasonable for young people to get a driver's license!! Between the 60+ hours of driving time & requirement to complete driving school, this dude will not be able to drive by himself until after he leaves for college!!!!!!!!!!!  In the meantime, this mom will sit in the backseat and grip the door handle as tightly as he grips the wheel:)

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Easter!!

A Little Grumpy In The Mornings

This is my favorite way to start the day in my favorite cup.  Too bad I didn't bring the big easy's secret recipe for cafe au lait back with me.  That would have instantly made things a lot better around here in the am:)  As you can see my first cup is gone and it's time for my second...

My daughter is turning out to be quite the great shot getter.  I was on her facebook page swiping photos and just really being kinda stunned at how quickly the years have gone by.  It seems that all of my nieces and nephews turned into preteens in the blink of an eye and my children did the same with adult hood.  

It turns out that the last one to leave the nest is the hardest one to say goodbye to.  Probably because he is leaving us with a true empty nest.  When the oldest kids left, there was always someone left to take care of.  Don't get me wrong, I am very happy to see him getting out and starting his journey, it's just that he has been my buddy, my sidekick for as long as I can remember.  He is crazy town and usually down for whatever.  If I can dream it, he will try it you know what I mean?  Because he is homeschooled, we spend a lot of time together discussing things and talking about stuff.  He is an interesting kid and I am going to miss him very much:(  

Anywho, in stark contrast to yesterdays layout shares, I like today's pages a whole lot better.  

The first one is based on this pagemaps sketch...

and is about my husband and I grooving it up at my brothers wedding.  We had a great time.....

We went on a cruise and got this shot of him, our youngest daughter and his mom....

I pinned this sketch from 2012.  It is by Valerie Salmon @ got sketch?.  Than I made this page about my nieces in their costumes.  How cute are they?  Love the expression on "Jessie's" face:)

Pagemaps has really been helping me to get inspired to create!  This sketch

was the inspiration for this page.  Whenever we go to Disney, we stop at the Florida Visitor Center to get shots under the welcome sign.  It is always an adventure...

Pagemaps again.  This sketch was for an 8 1/2X11 page but since I don't ever scrap 8 1/2X11, I easily translated the design to 12X12....

This photo of me and my daughter (swiped from her facebook page) did not blow up well but I still love it.  We did not mean to wear the same type/color dress but were both delighted about this happy accident.  She looked so fantastic!

I hope you guys aren't tired of pagemaps because here is another one

My oldest and my youngest dancing.  Love, love, love!  He was so uncomfortable and made sure that we knew that science, not dancing was his thing.  There is no dancing in science unless you are a molecule (yeah, he says things like that:))

Thanks for stopping by and as always your comments are welcome, read and appreciated!

Perfect Days Don't Happen Every Day

We recently took a short trip to visit the Big Easy.  It was a fantastic trip.  Everything went so smoothly & we were able to see/do everything that we had hoped for.  My favorite part of the trip was visiting Jackson Square.  It was vibrant and noisy and colorful and full of weirdos.  Us included.  Loved the vibe and am very glad that we didn't go there first, I would have wanted to go back everyday.  Bourbon Street was a one time been there got the beads type deal.  My very conservative 16 year old son said it best, "New Orleans, it's been nice visiting you but you really need to do something about your problem on Bourbon St":).  He was not impressed, lol.  He did love the French Market & Jackson Square....

I am very excited to get the photos that we took onto a page.  My husband didn't take a ton but the ones that he did take were excellent...

I also have a lot of layouts to share today.  10 to be exact:)  This girl is rolling on getting her layouts done.  I am even getting them into albums.  I have to run to Michael's to grab 6 more albums and some tape runner today.  

Of course M's is having a sale on Hot Buys Paper Pads and for $5.99, a couple might just jump into my basket.  Just Sayin'.

A few of the layouts that I finished actually have some techniques to be shared.  Like this first one of my hubby.  I had this chipboard embellishment sheet and after I used all of the chipboard, the frame was the perfect size for a, well a frame.  But by itself.  Fugly.  I have this really cute washi tape that was perfect for the project.  I simply covered the chipboard frame with washi tape than backed it with patterned paper.  It would also make a very adorable shadow box with the addition of a transparency...

Oh paper weaving.  You were so fun to do for this page.  It took a long time but man oh man am I in love with how it turned out.  I did the legs of the "x" individually but for the "o", I cut it out on my cameo on a scratch piece of paper the exact size that I needed.  I than taped the letter to my craft table, did the paper weaving right on top and traced the letter in pencil (very lightly) on top of the weaving.  Once I had all of the weaving complete, I sewed around the edges and trimmed away all of the excess.  This left me with a perfect "XO" for my page:)

The rest of the pages were run of the mill getting it done....

Some I love (Charleston, Winter, XO) but most of these are just okay for me.  I am a ok with not loving all of the pages I create:)

Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic weekend!!

New Orleans There We Went

So we took a mini vacay to this fabulous city and really enjoyed our time there.  People are so, so friendly in NO:)  We had some unexpected favorites and some unexpected not favorites.  We also thought it would be warmer.  Much warmer.  It was also more crowded than we expected too.  I think folks have caught on to our strategy.  The strategy of traveling during the off season to avoid the crowds.  

Some highlights of the city that we got to see for/experience ourselves...

• Bourbon Street
• Riding the Streetcars
• Katrina Devastation and Rebuilding
• Alligator (not me!  I'll have chicken!!)
• The French Market
• Beignets
• Delicious Cafe Au Lait!  It should taste that good everywhere:)
• Really Pretty Beaches in neighboring Mississippi. Also fun teaching my son the Mississippi spelling song on the ride down.  He thought I had made it up...
• Beads!
• Street Performers
• Live Blues & Jazz.  We definitely left with happy ears:)
• Jackson Square
• Bizarre Parades and a lot of them...

And some layout shares....

He loved sugar cookies - 

My oldest son on his graduation day.  So, so proud of him.  That was about 6 years ago - 

The same dude about 17 years earlier getting to know Sylvester at an amusement park.  He would not ride any rides, but he loved meeting all of the characters.  We couldn't get him on any rides until he was a teenager.  Hated them all.

My Gabby Girl at the beach in the Caribbean during one of our family vacations...

My Gabby girl again dancing it up with my sister (her mom) and my other two girls Nya & Kezia at Disney last year....

My husband & I a few years ago.  My sister had Q for the summer so right before he came back, we took an impromptu getaway.  He was so upset that we went without him that he hasn't gone away for the summer since....

I plan to start the layouts for our New Orleans trip very soon.  My husband took some amazing shots and I'm excited to get them recorded while my thoughts are still fresh.  In the past, I have waited years to scrapbook our trips but not this year, this year I am prolific and am scrapping everything when everything happens:)

Thanks for stopping by and happy Humpday!

Our Best Moments

Looking at our photos, I am realizing that our best moments don't always happen on vacation.  They are also not limited in number.  As a family, we have shared countless best moments.  These moments are the ones that make us want to be together, make us miss each other when we are apart and the ones that make us feel so, so happy when we remember them.  

This moment happened on a normal day at home.  We had gotten home from work/preschool and were just winding down before dinner.  Nothing special but my girl looks so happy....

I based the design of this layout on this pagemaps sketch.  Love the chipboard elements from MME!

This moment just happened to occur while we were on vacation last year.  Our entrance to the park and we were dazzled by the beauty of the place.  There is no feeling like the one that you get when you see Disney for the first time.  The excitement is unreal....

My inspiration came from a Fancy Pants magazine ad....

This moment comes from an average, ordinary school photo but she looveed to take school photos so this made it a best moment for her.  She hated school but here she was happy.....

Inspired by this card that I pinned on my pinterest boards.

A spontaneous moment during a weekend getaway.  A best moment for him because he was doing something that made him feel daring.   At least until a slightly panicking mom made him stop:)

Loving using sketches.  Big shout out to pagemaps for having some fantastic ones!

A very best moment for this little guy because what little boy doesn't enjoy covering himself with sand?

Used another pagemaps sketch for this - 

Happy Friday Everyone!  Have a great weekend!!

Popping in For Another Quick Share

I've been creating like a crazy woman and it feels great!  Using products that I have held onto for years makes me feel productive and remember why I fell in love with this stuff in the first place.  When it is in its storage place, all that is visible is the packaging and that can be a little overwhelming because you really don't see what you have, you only see how much you have.  The question quickly turns from how great this is going to look on my project to why did I have to buy so much stuff.  

I am down to the last of the lessons in Nancy Damiano's class and have enjoyed it so much.  Really looking forward to taking the ones she has on BPC.  The first page, I followed her design pretty closely.....

The second page, I took inspiration from her split hearts and split some chipboard Christmas houses .  Loved it!

This scraplifting thing is really working for me.  I don't know why I didn't do it more in the past.  I'm finding that sometimes, the inspiration for a page just comes to me out of the blue.  This page is a rescrap of a photo we took on a family trip to visit our oldest daughter in NYC a few years ago.  Now that our kids are grown and gone, we try to visit them at their places on their birthdays....

This sketch from pagemaps

Inspired this page about my niece and my daughter on my nieces high school graduation day......

Disney.  Again.  This was an epic trip and we had a lot of good moments.  Who takes a selfie on a roller coaster?  We do...

My youngest daughter with my mom & sister right before she got some glamour shots done...

Used this sketch as my inspiration....

Thanks for stopping by have a great Thursday!!!!