May 365 2014

May has been a busy month. As always it flies by and over before we know it. 

Ready for June-bring it! 

Book Worm

Friday night, a miracle happened! 

I scrapped a 12x12 layout!! 

I started out reorganizing my island, and came across a pile of scraps that I originally thought to use in PL. Obviously it never happened, and I couldn't be happier about that! 

I started just playing around. Just arranging the scraps on cardstock.

 Then I decided I would brush up on my stitching and sew them down. It came out pretty good so I decided to look for a picture to go with it. 

Before I knew it, I had a layout! 

I even finished it in record time. I'm so happy with it!

Project Life 2013 Week: Forty-Seven

November has always been a tough month for me.  This week was no different.  Joe went away for a convention and I dealt with the girls, the puppies, his business, and our being apart.  Never mind getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping, it's a TOUGH week for me.

One part of Joe's going away that I do like is the ability to Face Time with him at the end of the day.  I took a screenshot of our call as well as our texts.  

I found these ("grateful", 'home", "together") Heidi Swapp words in my stash and managed to use the entire pack in just a few weeks worth of pages.  Love rediscovering old stash!

The last few days, I find myself wishing I hadn't started Project Life 2014.  There I said it.  I find it time consuming lately, and I miss, really, really miss 12x12 pages.  Yes, I know, I can do both, but I just can't put it aside and create a LO knowing how far behind I am.  Weird, right?  I hope to catch up with PL and THEN I can work on regular pages again.  It's just how my brain functions.  I'm at the point where I'll be simplifying my PL approach as well. I'm not going to worry about embellishing it "just right".  As long as the words tell the stories, I'm calling it done.  Not to say, I won't embellish it at all, just don't want to have it feel so "chore-like"  This should be a fun hobby, not something I find myself purposely avoiding.

There, my rant is over.  Hopefully, the pressure will magically lift from my shoulders and I can turn out some more spreads and catch up before vacation!

Project Life 2013 Week Forty-Six

Another week closer to the end of the 2013 album.  I think around this time, I couldn't believe how fast we were approaching the end of 2013.  Now, as I type this, we're about halfway through 2014.  Yep, I'm a slacker.

I can not stress enough, how much I love using alpha stickers. I'm torn picking a favorite between Kelly Purkey's & Basic Grey's alphas.  They both pretty much rock my world.  

This pocket, has a little spot for Piper's lost tooth, that Marissa managed to find.  Had to include it in the album.  It didn't come out how I wanted it to, but I got it in there, and that makes me happy.

Project Life 2013 Week: Forty-Five

I have a tendency of printing my Project Life pictures wallet size mostly.  This week, I made more of an effort to print some 4x6.

I didn't have a lot of pictures for the week so printing some 4x6 made it flow better.  

I tend to journal a lot on my cards.  This side shows tiny handwriting to squeeze it all in.  Lots to say in a small space.

I think this week I had to force the mojo more.  I go in spurts of creativity and sadly, sometimes I get boring pages where I have a "just get it done" mentality.  Oh well, it's done.  I can move one.  No one in the future is going to care if I added the perfect amount of embellishments!  Right??

Field Day 2014

Field Day.  The day kids look forward to during the school year.  Can't beat being outside all day, playing games.  End the day with a Popsicle and it's a kids dream!

Gianna was excited to be on the yellow team this year.  I believe the yellow part has something to do with Minecraft, but that's besides the point. 

                             

All the usual games were played.  The kids have fun no matter what they play.

Water games are everyones favorite.  Except when the kids get out of hand "accidentally-on-purpose" falling into the water.  Water everyones been dipping their hands in, or sitting in, or dunking their heads in?  I'll pass, thank you.  But my kid??  Nope, she'll do what she can get away with!

See her smile?  So worth it.

Memorial Day Weekend Organizing

We didn't do anything super exciting for Memorial Day weekend this year, unless you count organizing!

Which, for the record, I totally do. 

We started out reorganizing Marissa's room. She's been in need of a complete room makeover, suited more for her age, but we did it in steps.  Baby steps.  This weekend we purged, packed and tossed a lot!  The picture may not show the neatest room, but trust me, it's WAY better than it was.  Next step will be painting.  

We did have some fun, and managed to go see "Blended".  It was a great movie!  Romantic and funny--my kind of movie!

Gianna was ready for a new bike, now that she's had some practice on the old one.  She did so good and loves the freedom!

Then of course, we did more organizing.  The garage is like a dump around here!  We sorted, purged, and cleaned up.  There is no after picture, since we ran out of time and had to stop, but trust me, there has been major progress.  We can now fit the cars and still have room to move bikes around.  

So that was our weekend.  Nothing super exciting but it's all good.  We'll save the fun for Disney!

7th Grade Choir/Art Show

Springtime at school means a choir concert. Marissa looks so grown up lately, she's just beautiful. Hard to believe she'll be in 8th grade next year. 

This year they mixed things up bit and had the 7th grade choir separate from the 8th graders. They sang 3 songs, my favorite was Seasons of Love. (Marissa's in the top right row in the back.)

Afterwards we got to walk around school and see all the wonderful artwork/projects the kids have worked on throughout the year, from various classes. 

This was a scale model of a smoothie shop, Marissa and a classmate made for their pre-algebra class. Still waiting to find out their grade....

Happily counting the days until the girls are out of school. I think around this time we're all burnt out! I know I am!!

Teenager Birthday Weekend Re-Cap

Birthday weekends are the best. Especially if you're turning THIRTEEN!

We had a full weekend of parties between her friends and family so Friday night, the four of us went to Pizzaria Uno (her favorite) for dinner.  So good!

We came home, in the pouring rain, to bake her cake for the next days party with her friends.  She's very into Minecraft and wanted her party themed after the game.  We made all sorts of treats themed to the game too, Marissa made signs to go with the treats (she takes after me!).  Some were easily done like chips for "potatoes", and some were blue jello representing water.  Nothing crazy really.  We even made marshmallow pop "creepers"--both girls helped with these.

The next day, a few of her friends came to Monster Mini Golf, where we played some black light, mini golf, finished off with video games.  

Pizza, Minecraft snacks and cake at the house with a few more friends made the day complete.  

I miss baking those girly, cutesy cakes.  Regardless, it was yummy.

Sunday was her actual birthday, and she requested to open her presents from us, in the morning before everyone else got here.

We had a happy teenager when she opened up her new laptop.  Knowing how much homework is done online (and Minecraft), she was ready for a laptop.

Later in the day, we had family over to celebrate with burgers and hot dogs (it was a beautiful day out!) and finished the day with more cake (this one was much prettier, but still yummy!).

Can't describe how much we love our girl.  We are so proud of her!  It's just so hard to believe she's a teenager already!

Now to spend the day recovering from the full weekend of celebrating.  I'm tired!

She Is Thirteen

Today is Marissa's 13th birthday!  She is officially a teenager!  Luckily, she's easy-going (so-far).

Here are thirteen things about her.

1. Her favorite colors are Purple, Black, and Neon Green.
2. Her best friends are Emma, Jennalin, Grace, & Sofia.
3. She loves to play Minecraft.
4. She has a sweet tooth.
5. Her favorite thing to do is read. 
6. Her favorite thing to wear is t-shirts, skinny jeans and combat boots.
7. Her favorite food is Caprese Salad.
8. Her least favorite thing to do is state testing at school. 
9. Her favorite subject is math.
10. Her favorite phone app is Wattpad.
11. She is almost as tall as me.
12. She wears a size 8 shoe (depending on the brand).
13. She's looking forward to our next trip to Disney World.

This may just be a list of 13 things about her but she is so much more than this. She is amazing!! 

Project Life 2013 Week: Forty-Four

Week 44, aka- Halloween week!  This week was a fun week for me.  I used a lot of alpha stickers to keep things simple but I also raided my stash.

That little squirrel card was from Imaginisce.  Didn't have much to add to it to turn it into the cutest little week card.  

Of course, since it was Halloween, there would be a lot more pictures to include.  Inserts make the spread fun usually.  I talked myself into not hoarding the cute cards from Bella Blvd and actually USING them in my pages.  So happy I did, since I love how they came out!  I also took a WRMK page protector and stitched down the second half of the page leaving me with a column of 4x3 slots for my cards.

Side A

Side B I used some MAMBI cards for this side, LOVE the glitter! 

Added a few more Halloween pics to this side and worked my way into November. 

I have been trying to use more of my stash, whether it's new right now or not.  I sorta put myself on a buying hold except of course for "necessities", like adhesive.  I should have plenty of supplies to last me a long, long time.  I'm not saying I won't buy anything (like the latest Bella Blvd-which was a must have) but I want to really exhaust my options at home before buying "the perfect" something to finish a page.

Typing it on my blog makes it more official. ;)

Project Life 2013 Week: Forty-Three

Week 43 was another pretty simple spread. I kinda like the simplicity. (Not the best pictures but I'm going with it)

I find myself doing more flip pockets to include more pictures. The bottom right is a flip pocket, but I forgot to take a pic.

Another two very simple flip pockets on the bottom. So many extra pictures I want to include! 

The girls got their school pics this week so I scrapbooked them into 8x8 pages as an insert. 

I miss scrapbooking traditionally. Lately, I find myself wishing I didn't do Project Life since I'm so behind and have trouble balancing the two. 12x12 pages make me happy.

Either way, I just want to play with paper. Guess you can say it's a win-win situation. ;)

Mother's Day 2014

We keep Mother's Day low key here. This year we had a pretty lazy day, which I enjoyed so much!

Joe never forgets to send flowers, and they did a beautiful job. So many of my favorite flowers! 

The gifts they got me are so cute! So me! 

We were so lazy we almost forgot to take pics! I wanted one with ALL my girls. The puppies are my babies too. (Yes, I really did just type that!!) 

Motherhood may not always be fun but I wouldn't change it for the world!