Recovering...

It was a busy busy weekend, and i'm definitely recovering today! We had lots of fun, though! On Friday, I kicked off the weekend by getting a much needed haircut. My hair had gotten so much longer then I normally like it, so i'm much happier with it now :-)

This is Chloe and me at our friends' birthday party we were at on Saturday. It was at an inflatable place, and the kids had a blast!
Later that same day, we went to a 40th birthday party for a friend and neighbor.

This one cracks me up. Noah was running around like crazy, and he was sweaty and tired. This was the best smile he could muster up for me, lol.

This one cracks me up, too, hehhea. Don't you love us girls trying to be cute? That's next door Lisa next to me, Heather is below her, and next to Heather is another friend. Heather is the one who I met when she found me on 2Peas after seeing my LO in Memory Makers about our n'hood. I'm so glad she found me :-)

Yesterday we had yet another birthday party, and then we hung out outside for much of the afternoon and grilled out last night - a perfect day!

I'll leave you guys with another layout using this month's kit at Create My Keepsake. I really love all the fun colors in this kit!

I was very excited to find out that a layout I made using last month's CMK kit got picked up by Scrapbook Trends for their December issue. I'm especially excited because it's the layout about Noah's photographs - he was SO excited when I told him that he's going to be a published photographer ;-)

Hope that you all also had fun weekends and that you are able to find some time to relax this week!

Summer is tiring!

I don't know about you guys, but summer is wearing me out, lol! Between park play, pool visits, slip and slide and sprinklers, all this time in the sun is tiring! But boy, are we having fun :-)

I have a new Fancy Pants layout to share using the gooorgeous new That Girl Kraft Kuts line. I covered up the flower paper with the polka dot paper and then tore it open to reveal the flowers. I then handcut a bunch of flowers (which I covered in glitter)and layered them on top.

Speaking of Fancy Pants, I just got word yesterday that the new lines are shipping to us tomorrow - whoo! I'm so excited to play with the new stuff and make some designs for CHA. I reaaaaly wish I was going to CHA - one of these years i'm determined to go!

Hope you all are having as much fun in the sun as we are out here :-)

Some more long lost layouts...

I was going through my picture file of layouts today and found a couple more that I never shared. I actually did these about a year ago, for the American Crafts DT call. Even though I didn't make it, I had fun making these. I so love these photos of Chloe dancing - look how young she looks!

This one shows one of our very favorite summertime activities - I mean, who doesn't like blowing bubbles?? :-)

Not too much else going on. Doing lots of summery stuff and keeping the kids busy. We're looking forward to our beach vacation later on in the summer!

Hope you all are enjoying your summers, too!

Happy 4th of July!

Whew... what a day!! We had a wonderful 4th of July here, and I hope that all my American friends out in blogland had a great day, as well!! We started with a bike parade for the n'hood kids this morning. After getting some naps in, we ended the day with a bbq/party at one of our neighbors' houses. They live across the street from a big hill in our n'hood where we can see the fireworks from the center of town. The kids lasted through the fireworks and then bedtime came quickly! ;-) Here are some of my fav pics...

From this morning before the bike parade...



Love this shot of Chloe and Tony...

Chloe loves her friend Savanna!

Getting ready for the bike parade to start...

Me and next-door Lisa (don't you love our hair?? ;-)

From the party tonight...

And if you've made it this far after my photo overload, lol, I have a new Fancy Pants layout to share using the new Boy Kraft Kuts line - this line is sooo cute!

Journaling reads: We were lucky enough to score this Jeep at a yardsale when you were 21 months old. Now, 3 years later, you still love your 1st wheels!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!!

My last Luxe assignments...

Yes, sadly the time has come. My DT term with Luxe is over. It has been an amazing experience, and I am truly honored to have been able to design for them for the last year+. Luxe was my very first design team, and I will be forever grateful that they were willing to take a chance on little 'ole me. Not to mention that I got to know some truly awesome girls in the process.

This first layout was done with Luxe's new Ecology line. I was SO excited to be asked to guest design for Method Playground, one of my favorite challenge sites! The challenge that I came up with is to use chipboard as a guide to handstitch a design (in my case, I used chip letters as a guide). If you play along at MP, you can win a cool prize pack from Lilly Bee designs, so be sure to check out the challenge here.

This next layout was made using Luxe's Lovey line. The honeybunch paper has tons of circles printed on it, and they were just screaming out to me to cut them! So I complied :-) And the end result gave me lots of fun scallops. PP, labels, epoxy sticker and large letters are all Luxe. Mini letters are MM and pink letters are Doodlebug. The little bird stickers are Hambly, ribbon is Heidi Swapp and stickpins are MM.

Finally, I also used the Lovey line to make a card, as I couldn't resist cutting out more of those hearts. This card is super simple, but as you all know, i'm a total card novice, so I figure the simpler, the better ;-)

Thanks again to Luxe for a wonderful DT term!!

So, June is out and July is in. I hope that everyone's summer is moving along nicely! We have a busy few days ahead, and the 4th will be here before we know it. We have a bike parade for the kids around our 'hood in the morning, and we're going to a party at our neighbors' house that evening - can't wait! What do you all have on your 4th of July agendas?

CMK Blog Hop!

Yep, here we are again... CMK blog hop time! This July kit is seriously goooorgeous - it's packed full of yummy October Afternoon goodies, as well as some Lilly Bee papers as well. You can check the kit out in greater detail here. And don't forget to check out the layouts from the other girls on the DT (links on the left)!


I've been wanting to do this layout for such a long time now. I wanted to document where Tony and I met, and how our story began. However, I didn't have a photo of the place we worked together (where we met). We went to the National Zoo in D.C. last week, though, and the zoo is only a few minutes away from the place. So, I was able to swing by and get my photo. It was fun taking a walk down memory lane... :-)

Hope everyone had a great weekend and is ready to face a new week! We had a great time at an engagement party for one of my good friends, and Tony and I also got to enjoy a spa day courtesy of my parents for a belated anniversary present. It was soooo nice, and my parents are the best!! Happy Monday, everyone!

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

I realized I never shared this layout. It was in the April issue of Scrapbook Trends, and I made it almost a year ago (last July). When I reread the journaling just now, it struck me how I still feel the same way not only about my littlest growing up, but about both my kids getting older. Although I love every stage of their childhood, it's always hard for me to accept that they are growing up way quicker then I would like them to.

Journaling reads: When I first saw this photo of you, I did a double take. I searched and searched this photo looking for my baby, but she was not there. Instead, there was a little girl looking back at me. Knowing that you are most likely my last baby, I am trying to hold on tightly to your baby days, and I am trying to ignore the fact that you are turning into a toddler at an alarmingly fast rate. Instead, I focus on your cuddles, your dependence on me, and all the adorable firsts that you experience. Although I know there will soon be a time when I can no longer call you a baby, I refuse to believe that the time has come just yet.

And then I look at this photo that I took of Chloe today when we went to the pool, and it is clear that that is a little girl's face now. I found some baby pics of Noah today, and I can't even remember when he was that little. I guess that's the part that I don't like. I don't like that my memory seems to fail me, that it's hard to remember any time other then now (with clarity, anyway). And then I remind myself that this is exactly why I scrapbook. Why this hobby means so much to me. So that I can remember when they were that little and all the adorable things they said and did. Speaking of saying adorable things, yesterday the kids were home with Tony, and he called me at work to tell me something funny that had occured. The three of them were driving in the car, and Chloe was trying to tell Tony something. Noah kept interrupting her and talking over her. Apparantly, she had had enough, and she screamed out, "Noah! I am TRYING to talk!!" Heheha. Noah continued to talk, so she then screamed (even louder), "Noah!!! I am STILL talking!" Ahhh, the life of a little sister. She's a pistol, that one. She does have to follow in her brother's footsteps, after all. ;-)

I just learned that Michael Jackson died :-( Wow! He was such an icon, such a symbol of my childhood. Despite his sketchy recent past, I will always have fond memories of my crushes on him in childhood, lol, and all that he brought to the music industry. Such a shock!

Oh boy, this was a heavy post huh, lol? Hope everyone is having a fabulous week!!