Teresa Collins Guest Designer and major catch up!!

Ok, so it's been a *little* while since i've updated here (hanging head in shame ;-) The truth of the matter is that life has just gotten really busy, and, unfortunately, I just haven't had the time to keep up with scrapping and blogging like I used to. I'm trying hard to manage my time so that I can get back to scrapping regularly like I used to - I really miss that creative outlet! I did manage to get some layouts done recently for my guest design gig for Teresa Collins. She sent me the GORGEOUS Christmas home collection, and I made these 3 layouts:





You can see the blog post here.

A super big THANK YOU to Teresa Collins for having me as a guest designer - what an honor! :-)

Now, onto some photo catch up! During my blogging hiatus, I missed Halloween:



And I missed a trip to the airport park with the kids. Lucas LOVED seeing the planes fly by! My mother-in-law was also here for a visit then, which was a great treat for all of us. Unfortunately she had to cut her trip short, as Tony's grandmother is sick, but we loved having my MIL visit while she was here!





And then, most recently, I missed blogging about Thanksgiving. We hosted, as we always do, and it was great to have some of the family together. Love this pic of us ladies - my mom, me, my SIL, my niece, and my Chloe :-)

The 5 cousins:
And this year's family photo (yes, this will be gracing this year's holiday card soon LOL)!
So, in recent months, Noah finally lost his first tooth, Lucas started walking (he is all over the place!), Chloe learned how to ride her bike without training wheels, Tony completed the Tough Mudder (a 10 mile obstacle run), and I signed up for the Iron Girl triathlon (.6 mile swim, 17 mile bike ride and 3.4 mile run). What was I thinking? Good question!! Thank goodness I have until August to train. I've started with the running, and although I still hate it lol, at least I feel like i'm going to die a little less each time - I guess that's a good sign hehea.

Yes, life is definitely busy here. But very very good. And we truly have so much to be thankful for. Happy belated Thanksgiving, friends!

Thank you GCD Studios!

Ok, ok, I know I've been on a teeny tiny bit of a hiatus here recently ;-) Super busy month and not a whole lot of scrapping. Still working on that whole balance thing! I did have the honor, though, of Guest Designing for GCD this month, as you can see here. Here are the first two projects I did (the other two haven't been posted yet) with their awesome September kit. I had a blast working with it - thanks GCD :-)

I also got a gorgeous box of Teresa Collins goodies the other day to work with for a Guest Designer spot - super excited about that, as well! Can't wait to play :-)

Things have been good here - the kids are loving school so far, and work is going well for me. Noah turns 7 next Sunday, so we are having a birthday party for him which he can't wait for. I got away last weekend for a girls weekend for the first time since Lucas was born - I love those weekends to refresh and recharge! Thanks for bearing with me during my absenteeism ;-) Happy fall, my friends!

First birthday and First grade... oh my!

Lucas turned ONE last week! I still can't believe it - this year went sooo fast (too fast!). I've always had a hard time with my babies turning one, but knowing he is my last made this one that much harder. But, alas, we had a wonderful birthday party celebration for him, and that helped his sad mama embrace the exciting times that lay ahead ;-) He got two ride-on trucks for his birthday that he LOVES. I just had to get these photos scrapped right away, of course :-)
Some of my favorite pics from the party (we had a Sock Monkey theme :-):

Not only did we have a first birthday, but we now have a first grader! Week one has been going well... no complaints. Let's hope it stays that way!

No firsts for this girl lol, but she is excited to be starting her second (and last) year of pre-school in two weeks.

In addition to the big birthday and the start of school, we had quite an eventful week last week! Last Tuesday, Lucas' actual birthday, we had an earthquake that measured 5.8 on the Richter scale. Not only do we normally not get earthquakes out this way, but the one we did have before was very slight. There was no denying this one! Things were falling off shelves in our house left and right - I even had a vase break! The two younger kids were freaked! Then, only 4 days later, Hurricane Irene made her way up the east coast and brought crazy storms over this way. Luckily, we did not lose power (LOTS of people out here did, and some people I know first got their power back today - 5 days later!) and there was no damage, but others were not so lucky. I feel very lucky! We did have to postpone Lucas' party from Saturday to Sunday, but it all worked out ;-) I sure hope all my friends out there who were also visited by Irene also fared as well as we did!

Let's hope next week is not nearly as exciting! ;-)

Family frame

One of my favorite things to alter is plain wood frames as I love finding unique ways to display photos around the house. This is a recent frame I had lots of fun with :-)

I'm working on a printer's tray right now for an assignment...love those things!

Speaking of assignments, I got my goodies from GCD for my guest spot - love the gorgeous stuff I got! Will share when I can :-)

Going to take Lucas for his very first haircut today... the boy's hair has exploded! Can't believe he is going to be one in 8 days, ack!!

Happy Monday, friends!

I'll blame it on mommy brain...

Yeah, these would be two more projects from when I was the guest blogger on the Jenni Bowlin blog a couple of months ago. I had previously shared the two layouts I had done, but I also made this little mini-album:

and this butterfly mobile (which is hanging in the doorway of Chloe's room):

I used the JBS butterfly stamp on transparencies with watermark ink, and then I heat embossed the images with different embossing powders. I then attached them to the little tart tins from JBS - Chloe loves it :-)

Tomorrow the kids and I get to celebrate the birthday of one of our favorite people... Daddy! Well, their daddy, anyway ;-)

Loved this day...

These photos were taken on Mother's Day. The kids and I were just hanging outside, and the big kids were blowing bubbles for Lucas (sorry, Chloe, you didn't make it into the layout lol). Lucas thought it was the funniest thing ever! Love those little moments :-)
We've done a lot of hanging around this week. We went to see The Smurfs Sunday night, and the baby came down sick later that evening, so we've been stuck in the house. We made fingerpaints, silly putty, baked cookies, went on the slip and slide, and we've played 6, 399, 293 games (at least that is what it seemed like lol) - mostly UNO. I'm definitely not complaining, though - I love games myself, especially UNO :-) I'm sure the kids are feeling a little cabin fever at this point, but we've gotten a lot of quality summer-time in. Good times :-)

My other love...

It's no secret that I love to scrapbook, but some of you may not know that I also love to crochet :-) I've been doing it since I was a little girl (I think I was 7 or 8 when my mom's friend taught me how), and i'm hooked (hehe). Having kids has given me an excuse to get back into it, and some of you may remember the sock monkey hat that I made for Lucas this past winter. I've always loved this photo of him, and I finally got around to scrapping it!



I can't believe we're already almost into August - ack! This summer is going TOO fast! The kids have dabbled in camp this summer, but from here on out, there are no more camps and vacations left, so it's up to moi to keep them busy. Today it was homemade finger paints I had found a recipe for on Pinterest. Wonder what next week will bring? ;-) Would love to hear any ideas you all have found for great summer activities!