Spring Wreaths

I've been wanting to re-make my front door Spring wreaths since last year. After so long in the sun, the flower colors had faded. A few weeks ago, while at Michael's, I was looking through the flowers & came across some that I liked.

I prefer the main flowers to have a "fluffy", "large" bloom. Then I chose a smaller "accent" flower. I found the smallest flowers at home from a different shopping trip that never got used & liked the combination of colors. I wasn't sure if I was going to work the flowers all the way around the wreath or just around half of it, but I play with that as I go along. Once everything looks right to me, I use a hot glue gun to keep everything in place. Then I finish it off with a simple bow.
And since I have 2 front doors (don't know why), I had to make two. ;)

I hope to re-make the Summer wreaths next.....

Easter Re-Cap

Easter morning the girls smile for me before diving into their Easter baskets.
I usually have the family over for Easter dinner. My sisters came over & the house fills up fast. But it's not too bad, there were 11 of us all together.

During the chaos I managed to get this quick pic of Marissa.
Caught her checking out a chocolate bunny.



Had to bribe Gianna to get this pic of her.
The day started out really nice & sunny, but they were calling for rain. Unfortunately, the rain came before we were ready to do the egg hunt outside. So we had to hide eggs in the playroom in the basement. We gave the younger kids a head start before we let my older two niece & nephew search for eggs.

Gianna with her score of eggs.

Marissa was happy with her haul.


After everyone left & things were cleaned up, I realized I didn't get a lot of good pics. The girls weren't crazy about it but were more agreeable since they were tired. ;)

My beautiful Marissa. I can't believe she's about to turn 10! I'm not ready for that.

Gianna was already in a sugar coma & her hair was all crazy but she's still my sweetie.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

HOPpy Easter

All I need to know I learned from the Easter Bunny!

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Everyone needs a friend who is all ears.

There's no such thing as too much candy.

All work and no play can make you a basket case.

A cute tail attracts a lot of attention.

Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day.

Let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits.

Some body parts should be floppy.

Keep your paws off of other people's jelly beans.

Good things come in small, sugar coated packages.

The grass is always greener in someone else's basket.

To show your true colors, you have to come out of the shell.

The best things in life are still sweet and gooey.

Wishing everyone a....

HAPPY EASTER!!

EGG-citing!

The day before Easter is always a good day to color eggs. Especially if you haven't done it in 2 years due to vacations. ;) The girls were happy to not miss this tradition this year.

Lately Marissa's favorite color has been blue, so of course her first egg had to be too. Gianna's favorite color is now yellow...The eggs in their bath.... Waiting patiently for her eggs... Thinking of trouble....always need to keep an extra eye on her! The finished eggs....so pretty!

Just Read: Water For Elephants

I've heard about this book for a long time.
To be honest I wasn't sure it would interest me.
So I did what I do best.

Procrastinate.

Since I've been reading on the ipad, I've started giving books I normally wouldn't bother with a chance. So I downloaded this finally. I mean it's got to be decent for them to turn it into a movie, right??

Not that I had any desire to see the movie.

So the book sat in my ipad, downloaded just waiting for me to read it. I was trying to "save it" to read on our next vacation, but then I realized I could always download something else & decided to just read it already.
I have to say, within the first few pages, the book got me. Hook. Line. and Sinker.

I had the hardest time putting it down too. I finished it in about a day, since I was trying to make it last.

Yes it's that good.

Now I DO want to see the movie. ;)

Summer Beauty

I have a habit of printing pictures with intentions to scrap them but then get involved with other projects. Then when I'm ready to scrap them, the ideas I had are gone. I know I should write them down as I print the pictures but hey, I'm nothing if not a procrastinator! ;)

I absolutely LOVE this picture of Marissa. She looks so much older than 9. It's like I get to see a glimpse of what she'll look like when she's older. This is another lift of Laura's work. You can see her LO HERE. I used all "Summertime" Echo Park Papers & embellies on this. And I got to use my new Sizzix flower rosettes. That is so much fun to use.

Bloom

You know when you take a pic & it takes your breath away? This picture does that to me. Seeing Marissa enjoying the sun in the backyard last Summer, without a care in the world. I love seeing how carefree she looks.

I've had this printed out on my desk for awhile, but wasn't sure which papers would do it justice. The not knowing made me put it off for awhile but as I was putting a stack of papers away I came across these & thought it would work. I lifted Laura's "Braces" LO, because her LO's are always inspiring & make scrapping so much easier for me. I know it seems like all I seem to do is lift her LO's lately, but I'm getting there...very slowly. I think all the school LO's have been sucking the ideas out of me!

All papers are from Imaginisce. They're so sweet looking & the fact that it had an owl in the paper sold it for me...since both Marissa & I are really into owls. ;)

Spring Parties

Today the girls had their Spring parties at school. Gianna's class had theirs 1st, which worked perfectly since the girls' classrooms are not close to each other, & this way I could spend extra time with both girls.

We took the kids outside where some moms had hidden eggs already. Once we let them loose the kids were on the hunt! See Gianna (in green jacket)? She was in a zone. Her eyes were on the lookout for those eggs.

This pic melts me. See how she's mid-prance? That's normal for her. This captures how she really is. Carefree. I sense a LO in the works.

After the great egg hunt, the kids played a few games.

Once back inside, the kids had their snack....& a few kids (one may or may not have been mine) snuck in some candy from their treat bags. ;) I felt bad for their teacher since they still had an hour left of school!

Then I went to the other side of the school for Marissa's party. Basically they did the same thing....I guess games were pretty limited.

The great egg hunt was on. Marissa was trying to fill her bag with the required 6 eggs as soon as possible.

Then there was the egg toss. This wasn't the easiest to do since the eggs were just empty plastic & it was a little windy out.

They played another game or two then went inside for their treats. Not too many snuck any candy....that I'll admit too anyway, but by this time school was out. It's now officially SPRING BREAK for us! Let the mornings of sleeping in begin!!

Night Owls

While waiting for the ball to drop on New Year's Eve I took these pics of the girls in their new owl PJ's. They look so comfy--wish I had a set! ;)

Since the pics weren't both the same dimensions they threw me off a bit. Going through some notes I made when I read all my favorite blogs, I came across THIS LO of Laura's & knew where to go from there.

I was trying to flip this one around but I just couldn't hack it (my mojo was leaving me), so I just made both LO's the same this time.Used My Little Shoebox papers, letters from Jillibean Soup & those cute little owls are from Michaels.

Working Hard

With the Summer approaching (not fast enough for us), the girls have been realizing that part of their Summer will be spent with me at work.

Before you go feeling sorry for them, it's just 2 days a week. A few hours each day. Wed. is the longer day but even then we're out by 1pm usually. Thurs is even earlier. Like I said don't feel sorry for them. They have fun. Sometimes if Joe has an extra video game not on location, he'll let them play. They also bring their Nintendo DSi's & books. They can keep busy.

With that said I was going through some of the pics from my iphone & came across these. I knew how I wanted to scrap them. First I used the Instagram app on my iphone to brighten them up. I printed them out & trimmed them to fit the Say Cheese stamp. (Can I just say how much I LOVE that stamp??) I used all Jillibean Soup on here including the Coredinations cardstock. I have to admit-it was my 1st time using it, & I love the contrast & the feel of the paper after sanding it After making the 1st one, I realized I had to make another. I try to be fair for each girls' album, especially if they're both in the pic, then try to mix it up so they don't look exactly alike. Used all Jillibean Soup for this too.And those tiny mini tags are an old QK die that I had in my stash. I love how these turned out. I think I'll be scrapping more of my iphone pics in the future!

Just Read: The Forgotten Garden

Since getting my iPad I was skeptical about using it to read books on it. I like the feel of a good book in my hands. I never thought I'd get into reading books on the iPad. But then I had an epihany (of sorts)--it'll be great for vacations! I won't have to lug books with me on the plane & make room for them in my suitcase! I think that sold me. Not that I won't ever buy real books again but I definately like not having to deal with piles of books I'm running out of room to store. I don't just buy (download) the books right away either. First I'll download a sample to see if I like the book. It'll give you a nice chunk to read & get hooked on. I like this a lot. If I read the beginning & decided it's not doing anything for me, I delete it. No harm done. If I decided I can't wait to turn the page then I download it. Fast & simple. So far I've only deleted 1 book that I couldn't get into. This book started out as a sample. I don't remember where I heard about it, but the preview sounded good so I tried it out. I liked it enough that I downloaded it. It was a little confusing since it jumped between 3 different time periods but it pulled me in & I couldn't wait to finish it. The ending was a little bittersweet for me, but it was a good read.

"The The Impotence of Proofreading,"

Got this from Curly Girl's blog. It's hysterical!!

School Kits 2nd Grade Miss M

Anyone else getting sick of seeing these school LO's? I'm sorta getting tired of making them. I am up to Marissa's 3rd grade year & then I get to start Gianna's school years. Luckily I'm not as far behind on her's. ;) The thing that doesn't make it "too" boring is that I try to make the LO's similar but different. They don't lay together in the albums & are broken up by other LO's from the years, so I know they don't even have to look similar. I just think it's easier to make them if I limit myself to product & design. I really try to stick to just the product from Becky's School Kits. Of course I toss in a few things from my stash here & there but if I didn't they would look all alike. Seems like I have so many pics from each year that I just can't get them all on one LO. In my line of thinking the more LO's I make the more of my stash I use. ;) I start the LO with all wallet sized pics. Then as I go along I trim them down to make everything fit. And where would I be without my collection of QuicKutz (now Lifestyle Crafts) ?? Years ago I bought so many of the dies & now I'm really thankful I did. They've really come in handy. The journaling is simply a folded piece of cardstock. I draw lines with my ruler & write my journaling. I dress up the outside of it & voila! This is the second LO for her 2nd grade year. On the day that I was just about done with this LO I got some "happy mail" from 2Peas. Inside was THIS stamp set & I knew how I was going to use it! I'm not even going to admit how many "banner" stamps I now own.....no way! ;) I even used one of the library pockets that came with the kit for this LO. I don't often think about them since they're larger than the space I usually have left but in this case it worked perfectly.

Now I'm up to 3rd grade & I've got the 1st LO framed out on my desk. YAY! The crazy part is I have A LOT of pics from 3rd grade. So I might just end up with 3 LO's from that year! Hoping to have those ready to share soon & I can stop being such a lame blogger!