Field trip!

The Portland Aquarium opened just before Christmas and we've been wanting to make a visit to check things out. Although they are just in the beginning stages and some of the exhibits aren't quite complete, we had a wonderful time exploring the fishes:

Can't wait to sort and develop the numerous photos we took today and get them scrapped!

Godspeed

changes....

Yep, got to start making some changes and I'm starting with the amount of time I spend on this computer! Hours and hours of the internet, Facebook, and all that other stuff associated with it has taken over my life and it needs to change, NOW! I love chatting with people, but lets face it, most of them I chat with I've never actually met in person. We have common interests, but I'm getting a bit too sucked in and its not healthy. I sit on my backside for HOURS on end when I should be cleaning, doing laundry, creating with my hands, baking, or even taking a stroll outside with Maggie on the leash.

So, I'm going to FOCUS on the amount of time I spend on here and set the timer for 15 minutes. Once that timer goes off, I have to force myself to do something constructive for at least an hour before returning. I'm even catching myself checking the internet with my phone at work!! I'm  an ADDICT!! and its time to break that bad habit, starting now.

Off here to set the timer for an hour of "constructive, get something done" time! While I'm at it, I think I'll just quickly jot down what I actually did, who knows, it may work! Wish me luck!

Godspeed

Bustin' into that stash this past week!

Yep, dug REAL deep to find the papers for this first layout. They are spooktacular by Teresa Collins from 2008. I actually thought I had used them and was pleasantly surprised when I found them! They were so perfect for this layout of my grandbabies and their friend at Halloween this past year....

I want to get my photos from Christmas 2012 done before moving onto others and Fancy Pants' St Nick were just the ticket....

I'm wanting to keep them simple, without alot of embellies, so I can focus on the photos and the good times we had during our holidays! More to come......

Godspeed

Layouts!

Feels really good to get back to my scrappy stuff! In the past few days, I've made a point to be creative in some way each and every day even if only for 10 minutes here or there. This first one is from my Cocoa Daisy October kit - the kids and grandbabies dressed up for Halloween. Could you imagine a reality TV show about them?! LOL!!

Most people do a December Daily for their Holiday photos, but I never seem to have time with working extra hours and all that goes into December. So, I decided I would just scrap my photos taken in December using whatever paper fit the subject, do them in 8.5x11 since most will be one or two photos, and put them into one album and call it "Our Holidays!" And I'm off to a good start with the following......

Thanks for stopping by!

Godspeed

Staying FOCUSed!

I've decided this is a great place to keep track of my weight loss and added my "pounds lost" badge to my blog. Its just a great reminder to me to stay on track, to stick with my healthier eating patterns, and FOCUS on me! And to date, I've lost 3.8lbs.! AWESOME!!

Godspeed

FOCUS on a healthier me for 2013!

This year I chose the word FOCUS and for good reason. Life tends to get me so distracted at times that I get so caught up in "the other stuff" that I forget to FOCUS on ME! Its not that I mind one bit, but I've also noticed my pants getting tighter - again! - and need to do something about it before it really comes back to haunt me in a big way!

I've joined MyFitnessPal.com and started writing down everything that passes my lips. I want to stick as closely to the 17 Day Diet as I can and get back to making those smarter eating choices. The Holidays are over, the cookies and goodies gone, and its time to FOCUS on putting good foods in my fridge and getting this weight back to a year ago when I felt good about my insides as well as my outsides.

So far the hardest part is giving up my coffee. I don't think its the caffeine as much as my love for coffee that is getting in my way! For now I'm not beating myself up, just drinking an extra water for each cup I drink.

Writing it down here keeps me accountable and besides, I can type quicker than I can write this out!

Godspeed

Farewell 2012.....

It was definitely a year of ups and down, joys and sorrows, peace and uprisings, and life and death. I think we all have learned something with all that's happened in 2012 and will do our best to right the wrongs and embrace the rights.

My wish to all is for a year of health and happiness from the beginning of the New Year and all throughout 2013. Remember, don't wait for happiness to find you, make that happiness for yourself!

Godspeed

Oh, Christmas Tree!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This year we decided on a larger 9 foot artificial tree with the lights already attached. What a smart investment!! Less stress getting the lights "just so" and no wear and tear on the knees! Decorating is courtesy of the two cutest little girls in this world! Love their little ornament clusters, which stay in place cause that's where they're suppose to be! 

Godspeed

Christmas tag!

Its been a trying week and I just needed some cheering, I want to feel like myself again.  Decided to try my hand at making a tag to eventually use on a layout.

With a combination of mists, inks, stamps, punches, washi tape, and baker's twine, I think it came out pretty darn cute and totally did the trick for cheering me up!

Godspeed

Santa visit!

Its that time of year again! And of course you can never get them both to give you a BIG smile at the same time, but even with a half smile they sure are cute!!

HO! HO!! HO!!!

Godspeed

As promised.....

... here are more of those layouts I completed in November:

Little Ruby in her Princess chair!

Makayla helping take care of little sis - awwww!

Not sure how much I'll get accomplished in December, but in the meantime there are cards to be made and jammies to be sewn!

Godspeed

Is it REALLY November 30th???

Where did the month go? Since its the last day I had better get my layouts posted for my November Scrappy Goals. My goal was ten layouts this month, but created a total of 15! It helped that I was on vacation in the middle of the month, it was raining like mad, and my mojo was working overtime! Here are a few more......

What do you do with ugly paper, but make a layout of a REALLY BAD moment, or in my case, dye job gone totally wrong! Still trying to figure out how to get my hair back to its normal color!

 And as you can see I'm not a chronological scrapper - my youngest DGD is now 3 years old! So glad I had these in my stash cause the soft colors are PERFECT for a baby's layout!

The DGD's version of "Where's Waldo?" *giggle!*

 I'll photo and share the others when these rains subside during daylight hours. The Pacific Northwest is a beautiful place to live, but not a great place to get photos with natural "daylight" ;-)

Thanks for stopping by. Godspeed

Turkey Time!

Aren't these the cutest little things?! Found the idea over at Our Best Bites and would love to create these with Makayla & Ruby for our Thanksgiving Dinner table! 

 Off to make that shopping list!

Godspeed

Special Day!

Today is a special one indeed! For it was this day 35 years ago in a small room at the Gretna Green Chapel in Las Vegas, NV that I married my best friend, the other half to my whole, and the man who has changed my life in so many ways. We've had more than our share of lives hardships, but the love we have for each other and the family and friends who have supported us along the way, make us feel like the wealthiest people on this earth! Thank you one and all!

~ forever yours ~

Godspeed

Almost to my goal!

This "stash shopping" has been such a blast and can't believe the kits that I have that were never touched. At one time I was scared to use too much paper for fear of running low and now I can't seem to get enough piled on each layout! Here are two "discoveries" I found last night.

Bo Bunny Kitchen Spice from 2009

Crate Paper Snow Day Dec. 2010 FOTM @The ScrapRoom

This one is for the "white space" challenge at The ScrapRoom's crop this past weekend

Bella Blvd. Man Of The House March 2010 FOTM

The Harvest of Memories crop at The ScrapRoom runs thru Nov. 12th so I'll be sure to finished up those and get them posted here to share. Thanks for stopping by!

Godspeed

As I wind down from the Cocoa Daisy crop.....

......... I'd like to share the layouts I managed to get finished. They had a HUGE selection of challenges to chose from and I really like it that way - for me its all about variety and choices!

Color Recipe

 Music Inspired

 Photo Inspiration

 Card

And my first ever Artistic Trading Card .....

There's still three or four more challenges I'd like to try, plus two more classes that I will get to one day, but for now, I'm a Happy Scrapper!

Godspeed

New month, new goals!

Decided that since I managed to get my layout goal met for October, why not try for November! At the moment I'm still working on the challenges from Cocoa Daisy's crop and here's another .....

This is from a sketch they provided and I'm totally going outside my comfort level lately with the paint splatters and random embellishing, but I like the outcome and will keep it up!

I'll be back tomorrow with more!

Godspeed

I DID IT!

I accomplished my goal of 15 layouts for the month of October! I know, I'm posting these today, Nov.1st, but it was a busy day yesterday and well, that's how I roll .... ;-)

I participated in a crop over at Cocoa Daisy last weekend and here are two of the layouts I created:

A Progressive Layout Challenge

Challenge #1 Man On The Flying Trapeze - journal with a flow

And one of the classes I was able to complete was a hardcover book turned into a mini album

I plan on working on more of the challenges in the next few days! It was a blast creating and chatting it up! Thanks DT at Cocoa Daisy!

Godspeed

play ball!

When it rains, it pours! No, I'm not talking the "wet stuff", I'm referring to the amount of layouts I'm able to complete without the guilt of being indoors when its so nice outdoors!

I've had these papers since February 2010 and it was time to use it up and scrap these photos of Makayla's time at bat during on of her games this past spring. If you look closely at the middle photo, she concentrates with her little tongue out just like her Daddy does - it must be in the genes!

And I've almost reached that goal - 13 complete!!

Godspeed

Oh, how I have missed my scrapping!!

The weather outside is frightful,

but I am so delightful.

As long as my adhesive holds, 

let it rain, let it rain, let it rain!

Needing a stress reliever, I created LOTS of layouts these past two days! Take a gander and tell me what you think. ;-)

I have so embraced the larger banners running across the page idea here! They make for a great backdrop with papers from Pink Paislee for our July 4th photos .....

Our DIL, Michelle, just had a birthday and this SEI Happy Day was just too cute! I used sketch #343 from Sketch Inspiration ......

My Mind's Eye BOO to you! was perfect for trick or treating photos from Halloween 2011.....

Juicing is a great start to my mornings! These Cosmo Cricket Early Bird papers really compliment those bright veggies .....

 And finally, here is my layout from the October Cocoa Daisy kit. LOVE her mix of papers! She included Simple Stories, Amy Tangerine, and Studio Calico for one beautiful box of goodies! One of her DT members issued a challenge called "Lotsa Layers" and I will admit, I was hesitant at first, but love the outcome .....

Thanks for stopping by and I'm now at 12 of my goal of 15 layouts for the month!

Godspeed

Gettin' 'er done!

I keep getting closer to my goal of 15 layouts for the month of October and here are a few more to add to that total:

 Just some good old summertime fun!

I am not a chronological scrapper as these are photos from 2011!

And a simple board game can get a bit crazy around here :-)

That brings my total to seven so far and definitely more will follow! Thanks for stopping by.

Godspeed

Scrappy Season!

It appears the Pacific Northwest "rainy season" has arrived! What's a gal to do when its cold and wet outside? SCRAP INSIDE! I call Fall & Winter "my scrappy season" and I totally got my scrap on these past few days. :-)

 Makayla in action - #62

Spending the afternoon with the grandbabies at the Saturday Market. While Makayla loved her monkey on a tree, Ruby didn't quite get the "princess crown" that adorned her head. LOVE that expression!

Found a bunch of photos that I've printed but got tucked away and they are on my agenda for this weekend. What fun it is to "discover" those moments months later and relive the events!

Thanks for dropping by!

Godspeed

A bit of scrappy time!

Today my daughter had to have surgery and while waiting for that phone call that said everything was okay and went as planned, I nervously sat and scrapped because frankly, my fingernails are gone!

It took a bit longer for this layout than I expected because I decided to paint my chipboard letters different colors. It sure takes paint FOREVER to dry!

For this creation, I had snapped a few photos of Makayla on her first day of 2nd grade this past September and using an older October Afternoon line, Weathervane from 2008, came up with .......

As for that layout goal ....... 1 done - 14 to go!!

Godspeed

Inspiration!

For the month of October I have set a goal of creating 15 layouts, so decided I had better get on a hunt for some inspiration. I was plesantly surprised when I ran across this sketch from an August post on the Lilly Bee Design's Blog.

The designers used the small 6x6 paper pad, but I also spotted someone else using the journaling cards from various manufacturers. I LOVE that idea!! Since I'm trying to bust thru more of this overwhelming stash of mine, its a perfect solution.

Now that I have an idea, I better get to it before another day passes me by!

Godspeed