February 2016 Challenge: Use old collection kit

In response to Mercy Tiara's challenge to use an old collection kit, I dug through my stash a bit because I didn't used to buy whole collections or kits until more recently.  Usually pick and choose papers and embellishments as they catch my attention.  I found the Country Boutique by Fancy Pants collection kit from 2012 that is a paper pack with two die cut sheets and an alpha.  It's nothing like the style I usually use, Shabby Chic and washed out whereas I like bright colors, but I was drawn to it because of the peeling paint/wood papers.  I couldn't figure out at first what pictures to go with it, most of the layouts using it I could find are wedding photos and all mine are already taken care of.

This is the first one I landed upon, of my older daughter when she was 9 months old.  I didn't have a story at first, I just love this photo of her.  Finally the Van Morrison song "Brown Eyed Girl" popped in my head while I looked at the photo and I found a poem that fit perfectly how I felt.  I managed to use several papers and made a dent in the die cuts that came with it.  The alphas were black and didn't fit the look, so I found some dark brown ones.  The embellishments weren't from the kit, but everything on this page (except for the wooden circle at the bottom) is at least 3-4 years old.

my brown eyed girl
Dec 18 2003 (scrapped Feb 2016)
Country Boutique collection kit by Fancy Pants 2012 - papers, die cut banners & heart ticket
My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart embellishments - smaller banner die cuts, buttons
Alphas - Jillibean Soup; wood circle - Dear Lizzy; flowers - Prima; metal clip - Basic Grey

I have 2 more pictures I'm going to try to scrap with this kit. 

Can't believe this is still around...

Dusting off this site so I can post scrapbook pages I make for challenges.  Because I feel the need to connect with Scrapbookers and I think the challenges may help me use up my gazillion papers and embellishment collection.  *crossing fingers*

Hello 2012!!!

I'm excited to start a new year.  I'm approaching the "resolutions", or actually life changes, I'd like to make in a very positive, planned way.  And to help me out I'm taking two "scrapbooking" classes at Big Picture Classes: Ali Edwards' One Little Word (I'm a big fan of her and her style, have been reading her blog for years, and wanted to do this class last year) and  Lisa Day's Journey to Happiness: What Matter's Most.

One Little Word  is a yearlong class, with monthly prompts to help us keep our word at the forefront of our lives, to help us work out the issues through journaling and some fun play with photos/embellishments.  At the end I'll have a small album, but more importantly I'll have support and incentive to work on my issues.  The word I've chosen (or actually it chose me) is: focus.   Because that's really the root of my problem.  I can set any goal/expectation/change I'd like to make, but I easily loose focus.  I get distracted/overwhelmed/discouraged too easily, and then easily slide into the old way of doing things, choose the easy way rather than the rewarding way.

So, welcome 2012, the year of focus!

Ok, I give up.....

Well, I don't really want to give up on the blogging idea, just postpone it for a while.  I feel that there's just too much going on and I don't have enough time to do blogging justice.  And at this time, I don't have enough of what I want to blog about to offer - crafty projects and ideas of things I'm doing or want to do, or find online that I want to share.  One can only spread oneself so far, and right now I choose to concentrate more on family and home.  We just had two babies born, my mother had a small heart attach and is recovering, and she, my grandma, my sister (from Chicago) with my niece and nephew are all going to be moving in sometime this summer to the house we purchased for my mom & grandma and we're getting things all ready for them.  Plus it's summer fun time!  Lots and lots and lots going on.....

So......bye for now!

I.

Summer has begun!

Yesterday was the last day of school.  Pixie's 2nd grade class had a Pizza & Root Beer float +  watching Tangled party to end the year with a bang!  It was tons of fun.  Felt bad for the other 2nd grade class, but hey I guess we had the cool moms with cool ideas! ;)

The cutest thing - her teacher gave them these school "yearbooks" and they went around signing each other's.  How. Cute. Is. That! 


I brought silverware and stuff to the party and a big hit were these super colorful, fun, large diameter straws that I got from - of all places - JCPenny Home store.  They were just in an "under $5" bin, and cost $1.99 for 50.  (as you can see we used many up.)  The moms were like "where'd you get those, they are so cool".  The kids liked them too. ;)

I remember growing up how fun and rare it was to get one of those twisty straws.  So if I see unusual straws I get some, and the girls love them. We don't use them all the time but sometimes they like to use the skinny coffee stir sticks for their hot chocolate and I always use the jumbo wide ones for our smoothies and milkshakes.  Just adds a fun novelty to your beverage!  So look around at the grocery stores, dollar stores, restaurant supply stores, and even the "home" department stores during the spring/summer time and you might score something fun for really cheap.  Maybe even some Asian stores, since I saw they use them for bubble tea.  I did a quick search on Amazon - my absolute favorite online place to shop - and found these, and these, and these.  And here at Nutsonline.  Not as cost effective as local, but if you absolutely want some and can't find them, and maybe rinse and reuse....and I'm sure the WWW has plenty of other places to find them. 

I keep all sort of staws by my Magic Bullet blender ready for smoothies & shakes!

Photo Freedom

Today I start the Finding Photo Freedom class from Big Picture Classes.  Yay!!!  I've had Stacy Julian's two books, Photo Freedom and The Big Picture for a few years.

I've tried to start implementing her "Library of Memories" system once before but didn't get far.  I've had the Adobe Photoshop Elements with the Organizer for a couple years as well, and have slowly been using it more and more.  But I have yet to get all my photos organized.  Until Now! :)

Family Matters

I've been all out of sorts all week.  (Truth be told, been out of sorts since2 weeks ago when we all had the stomach flu)  This weekend was particularly crazy.  No lazy Memorial Day weekend for us.  Pixie had a 5 day weekend.  We suddenly went shopping for some new stuff, in addition to the other new stuff we'd already been shopping for/ordered in the last couple weeks.  So I feel my house is topsy turvy with all the re-arranging and cleaning out going on.  SIL #2 had her baby boy Sunday morning!  The BBQ SIL #1 hosted that day was a little crazy, they drove at crack of dawn a couple of hours up to where baby was being born then came down to host tons of people at their house.  We drove down there that day, then Monday drove up to meet the new baby.  Then I got word that my mom was in the hospital in Puerto Rico because it looks like she had a small heart attack on Saturday.  She was fine, but went to the Dr. on Monday, they ran some tests and put her in ICU for observation.  Today she had a Cardiac Catheterization and they found no problems.  Yay!  The hardest part for me was having her so far away and how hard it is to get info.  And she was scheduled to fly up to my sister's in Chicago this Saturday, so my sis is scrambling to change everything.  I only got to talk to my mom directly Monday night while she was still in emergency awaiting an ICU bed.  But now the news is good, she might go home tomorrow or Saturday and be cleared to fly to the States in a couple of days. I'm still worried because my mom has medical issues and medicines they had to change to do the procedure, the biggest worry is clots.  But still the fact that her heart looks fine is such a relief!


So I haven't been in much of a crafty mood.  I've sorta been a hermit the past couple days, been doing alot of escape reading.  I had this online class I was starting today and wasn't sure if I could get to it.  But now that so much of the uncertainty has been removed, I feel like I can go ahead.  Details in next post....