Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We are home from our amazing trip to Maui. One that I will never forget! The weather was great, the surf and sand and sun was great and I'm so glad I got to share it with my family. What a fantastic trip!! I won't bore you with the loads and loads of photos I took, but I have to share a few. Right??? So here are a few...

Green sea turtles off the beach right in front of our condo!


Teaching the kids to snorkle...

Boogie boarding in Kapaula Bay...


Fire dancers at the Luau...



Spotting Jacques Cousteau on the dive boat...


Watching Craig get nailed by the blowhole...


Hiking in the Iao Valley...


And my most favorite time of the trip...washing this MASS of sand out of my daughter's hair every night!!!


Thanks for making it this far!! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend. It is back to reality for us now, work and school tomorrow. In fact, Kayla is finishing up homework right now and she's not happy about it. I hope to have some fun Christmas layouts and crafts this week to share on the blog!! Thanks for stopping by!

Leaving on a jet plane...

Tomorrow....I will be on a plane to the beautiful island of Maui!!!!



We will be spending all week with family and I cannot wait!! The sand, the surf, the diving, the food...I will be soaking up every single thing that I can when we are there. I hope you all have a fabulous week and a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends and family. I really do appreciate all of you that read my blog and leave such wonderful, kind comments. I am truly thankful for all of you!!!

Aloha!!!

Posh Designs Card Sketch challenge!

We are having a card sketch challenge over at the Posh Designs Blog...come on over to check it out! Here is my card for the week #1 sketch, this was a fun one!


Right now we are on sketch #2...

Come on over to the Posh Blog to check out the DT inspiration and enter the card sketch challenge. You will need to add something sparkly and some stitching to your card! Deadline for sketch #2 is November 30th. A new sketch is posting twice a month, and there is a prize to win everytime. So...get creating!!

Friday Favorites!!

Today i'm going to post 5 of my favorite photos from a photoshoot I did with my kids and some friends a few weeks back. We went to a place called Paramount Ranch. It was an old movie set where many Westerns were filmed and it's still used today to fill TV and commercials. There are really cool old building and doors and porches you can play on and take photos around. So...while it was hard to narrow it down to 5...here they my top 5. In no particular order:

1. I love the door and my daughter's pose!

2. Another really cool door!

3. I like this one in black and white

4. My daughter and her friend, I love their poses!

5. My son let me take about 3 photos of him!! He was too busy running around playing cops and robbers with his friend. It was a great place for that!


I played around in photoshop with these photos, adding some vintage washes and black and white washes. I had lots of fun taking these and editing them. My daughter could have posed ALL DAY long. My son...not so much. I want to go back and take more! My friend made the pink tutu she is wearing, it was so cute!!

Hope you have a fun weekend planned! Thanks for stopping by!

Midweek Projects

So, I've been having some fun over at Treasured Scrapbooking, participating in some of their challenges this month. It's been so fun meeting new girls and seeing old familiar faces. You should definitely come check it out!!

This was for a challenge to use embossing on a fall card. I don't have a cuttlebug, so I just used my scorpal to make some embossed lines for the card background. I made that flower from some ruffled ribbon that I just twisted around.



This layout is for a challenge to use fall colors and a tree on your layout. I've had this Basic Grey Ambrosia paper forever and finally i'm putting it to good use. And look at that cute Bo Bunny owl stamp!



And finally a challenge to made a gift card holder. I used the Cash or Charge template from Papertrey Ink. I love the blue with the softer holiday colors. This opens up and there is a slot to put the gift card. Too fun!!


I've been having fun crafting this week, i'm sneaking in some time here and there. Hope you are all having a great week. Thanks for stopping by!!

More fun projects

I am really enjoying the fall colors of blues and oranges in the November CMD kit. I needed a little gift bag this weekend for a friend and pulled out my November CMD kit and Papertrey Ink template. This template is called Around Town Tote. It's a great sized bag, not too small. I filled this one with lotions and bath gels from Bath and Body.


I made a paper ruffle with some patterned paper and a fabric flower using some fabric from the kit. I also made a matching thank you card using the rubons in the kit. Cute owl!



I also made this thank you card using the little chipboard houses in the kit. I can't enough of those little guys!!




Hope you all had a great weekend!! Ours was really busy but the weather was gorgeous. Perfect for 2 soccer games on Saturday!! I hope you had time to be creative this weekend. I'm starting to think about the holidays and what I want to start making. I have some new stamp sets that need breaking in, hope to find some time this week! Thanks for stopping by!

Acrylic Wall Hanging

I got a bit crazy this month and purchased the acrylic 12x12 page add-on from Color Me Daisy. I was inspired to make a fall themed wall hanging for my house. I just took all the Halloween decor down and I needed some fall colors to go back up on my walls!


I used the Dream Street papers from the November kit, along with the awesome felt flowers and orange ricrac for embellishing. I also used the transparent frame and another one of those cutie cute chipboard houses!!



Everything is from the kit for this layout except the brown ribbon holding it all up! I loved how all the elements work so perfectly together. That's the whole beauty of a kit! Hee hee!!



I even cracked open the rubons in the kit, perfect for the acrylic page!


This is now displayed proudly in my house. Just the perfect little fall touch for my entryway. Hope you are all having a great week! Thanks for stopping by...

Autumn Splendor

Here it is...Color Me Daisy's November kit...Autumn Splendor!


This kit is full of papers from Dream Street and My Little Yellow Bicycle, embellies from Maya Road, American Crafts, and My Little Yellow Bicycle, and lots of flowers and ricrac and buttons. It's a great kit for fall or pumpkin patch photos or family photos.

Here is my first layout showcasing the brand new farmer's market in our town this summer:


This next photo is from our camping trip to Mammoth this summer. My daughter actually took this photo when we reached the top of our hiking destination. It's of my sweet hubbie and I. I want him to know how much we truly appreciate all he does for us!



I loved the chipboard houses in the kit. I sprayed these with glimmer mist and then used my Bic Mark-it pens for outlining.



There is a fun transparency frame in the kit that I hide behind the photo to let the flourishes peek out!


I have a few more projects to share with you. I am putting the finishing touches on one of them right now. Come on over to Color Me Daisy and join us for tons of fun challenges, techniques, and chatting. Maybe you will even be our Spotlight Member of the month. Come check it out!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Halloween Highlights!!

Happy Day After Halloween! I think I might have a candy hangover, but i'll get over it. I'm really excited to get one more hour today. I've decided it's going to be a very lazy hour, LOL!! We've been running non-stop all week and today is rest day. Ahhhhhh...

Okay...here are the pumpkin carving photos! This was the first year I let the kids use the knife themselves and do the carving. They were so excited and did a great job!

I had a Fairytale Witch and Optimus Prime (a transformer) on my hands last night!

Do you see the weather? It was a gorgeous night!!! My kids were actually hot, and all the adults were in shorts and t-shirts when we went trick or treating. We met up with a bunch of families from the neighborhood and we all had a ball. It reminded me of why we moved to this community...lots of kids and fun families. The perfect place to grow and create memories. Hope you all had a great Halloween!!


Thanks for stopping by!