Tuesday Update

Hi everyone! We had a great time celebrating Kayla's 6th birthday at Disneyland and California Adventure the past 2 days!!


It wasn't crowded at either park and we saw tons of characters and went on almost every ride!!


Disneyland was all decorated for Halloween and we were greeted by this big Mickey head pumpkin when we walked in the park.


We splurged and ate dinner Sunday night at Goofy's kitchen. There were tons of characters walking around the place and Goofy even took a few minutes away from his kitchen duties to say hi! When the music started, he grabbed Kayla and whisked her away to the dance floor where he danced with her to The Twist...she was thrilled!!


She also got a very special birthday treat jewelry princess box at dinner with her own little cake.



We had an absolute ball!! I was so tired when we got home last night but it was a great trip. I need to get back in the swing of things around here, i've got scrapping to do with the October Color Me Daisy kit. Stay tuned for those projects and some fun baking I did last week!! Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Happy Birthday!!

Today is my sweet daughter's 6th birthday! I cannot believe how time flies...cliche, but so true!! It wasn't that long ago that she looked like this...


It was tough to get one of her NOT screaming at that age (about 3 months) but she always loved water, so bathtime was actually a nice thing for us! LOL!! What about this cutie??

First time to hold her head up!! I am sure glad i'm a scrapbooker and have all these milestones documented. Because I would for sure forget!! Here she is today...
She is my sweet, difficult, temperamental, creative, loving, silly, beautiful, smart girl!!! Happy happy 6th Birthday!!!

Friday Favorites!!

Happy Friday everyone!! I haven't done Friday Favs in a while, but i'm going to get back on track. So here they are...in no particular order...

1. Hershey Kisses!!



I just bought a bag of Pumpkin Spices kisses. I didn't even know they made those! They also have candy corn kisses. I have a new recipe i'm going to try next week with the spice ones...stay tuned for that.

2. Prevention Magazine. I love this magazine. It always has a ton of great recipes and workouts and other 'fun' healthy, exericsey stuff that I love to read about. I'm doing this bootcamp workout that is kicking my butt, but i've lost a few pounds because of it. So yeah! Sometimes I need to do something other than running...especially when I strain my achilles tendon (which is a whole other story).

3. Picky Palate...my NEW favorite recipe site!! This woman comes up with the most amazing recipes and I can't wait to try them ALL!! Check out this one for The Mother Load Layered Cookie Bars. Please see #2 for that bootcamp workout I will need to use more and more if I make those cookie bars!! Hee hee!! Plus, I love her header...who shops in high heels like that????

4. Soccer Season!!! I love watching my kids play soccer. They are really into it this year and they are doing so well. I love seeing them happy and successful!



5. Pen pals!! My scrappy friend Beth had a great idea to have our kids be pen pals. I met Beth online and we had the great opportunity to meet in person this last spring. And while her kids are older than mine, they hit it off immediately. And now they are penpals and it's awesome!!


The girls write each other about girl stuff and the boys write each other about boy stuff, hee hee!! Amanda sent Kayla the CUTEST little goodie box for her birthday. Which included this amazing card AND cute little clay friend!!



It does NOT get any sweeter than that! Thanks Beth and Justin and Amanda for being great friends!!

Okay...i'm off to watch The Office. We finally got the latest season (before the one that just started) on Netflix so we have to catch up!! Thanks for stopping by!!

Sneaky Peeks...

You are all going to love the October kit at Color Me Daisy. Want some peeks????


Seriously, is there anything cuter than that pumpkin album???? I can't wait to show you the whole reveal...soon!!!

And here's another layout I did at my retreat. I used some Making Memories paper i've had forever and one of my favorite photos from a trip I took up north to surprise my mom on her birthday this past spring. Please excuse the plastic stingray in the background. I have no idea how he swam into my photo!!


I loved cutting out those flowers on my Cricut. I just layered them, added stickles and put them in a cute little bouquet!!


I also pleated some ribbon there for the border, I really like that technique. Adds some fun texture to your layout!!

So glad tomorrow is Thursday...because Friday is right around the corner. Thanks for stopping by!

A Quick Share

Hi all!! I am going to be running upstairs for teeth, books, and bedtime soon AND I can't wait to watch The Biggest Loser tonight! I love that show. So this will be quick...I just wanted to share this layout I did at my retreat. I used scraps from Color Me Daisy's June kit, the paper was so sparkley that I couldn't waste any of it!!

I cut the flowers from the patterned paper and added buttons to the center. Then I used some scraps for matting and a journal box for writing. And it's done!! I love a quick, fast layout that uses photos I've had around for a while. You can click on the layout for a closeup. And sorry the layout is a bit crooked, it's been windy here and getting my layouts to sit still while I take a photo has been a challenge!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Soccer is in full swing!

Yep, soccer has started!! This weekend was the second week of the season and my kiddies did soooo well. Kayla scored her first goal and it was the first goal of the game. She was thrilled, the smile never left her face for the rest of the game! And Kevin scored first in his game, too. Could a soccer mom be any prouder????




Yes, Kayla has the hair bows again this year but at least they are not gigantic like they were last year. She wanted to wear her hair like that this week, but complained that it flopped around when she ran. We'll see how she wants it this week.

Over at More Than Scrapbooking, we have a new challenge each month along with 2 sketch challenges throughout the month. September's challenge is to create a layout about a fall tradition you have with your family. My layout is about how my girlfriends and I always go on a scrap retreat in the fall. This is the 4th year we've gone and they are always amazing times!!



I finally opened my Eva paper from Basic Grey, it was perfect for this layout about girls gone wild...hee hee!!!

I am hoping to get back into the blogging swing of things and maybe even post some layouts I did on my retreat...thanks for stopping by!!

A Sunny Day

I want to share a layout I made for a contest over at Serendipity Scrapbooks. It was to create a shaped layout, any shape you wanted. I've seen lots of really fun suns on layouts and decided to make my own. I took a 12x12 piece of cardstock and just freehand cut out a sun shape. I made sure to leave enough room for my one photo and then just cut away!!


I also had to have some stitching, so I stitched over all the sun's rays. I added some clouds and layered them with popdots and stickles!



I used some scraps of Basic Grey Lime Rickey paper from a Color Me Daisy kit for the matting and details. I had so much fun making this layout. I remember the day that photo was taken was such a beautiful day and everyone was in the pool alll day long. Ah...I miss summer already!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Monday!

I am back from my scrap retreat and what a retreat it was! We had a fantastic time! If you are in the Southern California area, you should definitely check it out. It's called the Scrap Retreat at French Valley. Amazing house, beautifully decorated and decked out for a scrapbooker. The owners gave us the best customer service! We had a great time, even if I only got 10 layouts done. Yes...10 layouts in 4 days. Pretty sad, but I don't really mind! Heehee!!

Here's the scrap room:


The room was so big and we each had a 6 foot table. And there was an ipod docking station and speakers all throughout the ceiling. Awesome! Here is part of our group, doing some pineapple vodka shots on Friday night. Have to stay awake to scrap, right???



On Saturday we threw a surprise baby shower for one of our friends and it was awesome. She was super surprised! My sister and I made this great drink called The Dirty Diaper for the baby shower. It was like a Mudslide (vodka, kahula, bailey's, chocolate liquor) and it was garnished with a little Baby Ruth candy bar. I made a regular chocolate shake for the preggo one!! I got this great photo of all of us after the shower:



I don't have any photos of the layouts I did at the retreat, but I will share something I did right before I left. I am now designing for More Than Scrapbooking, an awesome monthly kit club!! Their September kit is all about the new line Delilah from Bo Bunny. These papers are amazing!! Here are my projects so far with the kit...




The kit includes matching flowers, buttons, and Bo Bunny stamps. You should definitely check it out. Thanks for stopping by...I am sooo behind on visiting all my bloggy friends, but I plan of catching up this week!

Crafty with Fabric

On my scrap retreat, we'll be celebrating a new little baby coming into the world soon. I really wanted to make some onesies for my girlfriend and spent alot of time scouring the internet for ideas and ways to customize onesies. And when all was said and done...I had all the materials I needed right here at my fingertips!! Here's what I used...

onesies (obviously!! hee hee)
palette ink (I got mine from papertrey ink)
stamps

And I couldn't believe how easy this was!!



I just stamped on the fabric with palette ink. They are supposed to be permanent forever on fabric, so i'm not worried that these might get alot of washing. The above stamps are from Papertrey Ink, but I used a variety of stamps on the following onesies:




The buttons I added with Fabric Tac and that's supposed to be permanent as well. And this last one I just love. The group of girls I scrap with calls ourselves the Westside Tote Bag Gang. I have no idea how this started but it probably involved a very late night scrapping and some tequila shots. Regardless...whenever we see each other on the street we throw some gang signs at each other and yell WESTSIDE! Can you image how hilarious that must look...soccer moms throwing gang signs at each other in the pickup line? Anyway...my girlfriend is having a girl so she definitely needed a little Westside onesie!


Isn't that stamp cute?? It's by Pink Paislee and I'm so glad I remembered I had it!! Can't wait for the retreat and the baby shower and the look on her face when she sees the Westside onsesie. I'll have my camera ready for sure!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Crafty Weekend

Hi everyone! Hope you've all enjoyed your Labor Day weekend. We definitely made the most of it. Sunday we spent all day at the beach and it was gorgeous. Just a beautiful day. We spent the day digging, boogie boarding and hiding our wine from the Sheriff's. Hee hee...! Today my husband decided to re-paint our daughter's room. She picked purple and he's been hard at work all day. Me...I decided to get crafty!!

I am going on a scrap retreat this coming weekend and we always play Secret Sisters. We leave gifts for a special person all weekend and then reveal ourselves Saturday night. We've been doing this for 3-4 years now and it's getting harder and harder to come up with creative gifts and keep ourselves a secret! I heard about glass etching on a message board and decided to give it a try. I had to get glass etching cream (Michael's) and contact paper (the Cricut website says to use vinyl, but that was too $$$). I cut out the names of my secret sister's family and etched everybody a personal ice cream bowl. Check it out!!



How cool is that??? It doesn't look perfect, but I think it's quite charming that way. Ha ha! Here's a closeup-


Now this is a gift I can be sure she doesn't have and will be a big surprise. I'm putting together an ice cream sundae basket with bowls, ice cream scooper, sprinkles, toppings...the works! How fun would this be for a neighbor's christmas gift or for somebody in your family???

That's about all! I'm still working on some secret sister gifts and baby shower presents that I hope to share with you all tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!!

Got Milk???

Wow, this week has really flown by. First week of school done for my kids and they did a great job. Yeah!! Now enjoying a nice long weekend. We ran a bunch of errands today and we are hitting the beach tomorrow for a little boogie boarding. I did get this done this week...Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Combo!!

I was very excited to try the MilkMade template from Papertrey Ink. If you haven't already checked out Lauren Meader's blog, you should. She makes all the templates, she is pretty amazing. So creative and productive and inspirational!! So...here is my creation!!




I am in love with this template!! Seriously, two little milk cartons with their own little carrying case...who wouldn't be in love!! I used mostly Papertrey Ink products for this. I use their Polka Dot basic stamp set to match the milk cartons to the polka dot paper I lined the carton with.


Oh my, this is so cute. Did I already say that??? I made my husband look at it about 400 times already and he's pretty much over it. Not me, LOL!!! Both cartons contain candies and I made this for somebody at my scrap retreat that i'm going to next weekend. I know she doesn't read my blog, so i'm safe!!

I just love this template and will definitely be using it again and again. Thanks for stopping by and hope you're having a great weekend!!

ABC's and 1,2,3's!!

Are you singing that song yet in your head? Because it will get stuck there allll day long. Just here to share another fabulous kit from Color Me Daisy this month...introducing ABC's and 1,2,3's!!



The American Craft and Jillibean Soup paper in this kit are wonderful together. Put that with all sorts of fun embellies and you have a great kit for back to school, kids layouts, nature layouts, the possibilities are endless!

Here's my first layout. These are my kids showing off their reading medals from school last year. They had to read 5000 minutes at home and we were so proud of them!



There was some fun crepe paper in the kit that I folded and pleated to make that bottom border. Fun!! Here's another layout...my son with our GPS unit. That equals geocacahing time!



And here are 2 goodie baskets I made for my son's teachers for the start of school. I used a template from Papertrey Ink and the CUTEST apple stamp that is included in the kit!!


My coloring isn't stellar on the apple, but you get the idea! I am working on a few more things, so stay tuned. You will definitely want to get your hands on this kit. The last few months have sold out...so hurry over to Color Me Daisy!!