Had a post planned for today, but am taking some time off from blogging for a bit.
Everything is ok but my husband was in a bad car accident last night.
Scared the life out of me, and just glad he wasn't hurt.
With all the traveling and driving he does for work, it shook me up.
It shook him up.
I have a complete fear of something happening to him while driving.
But I know it's out of my hands and I just have to put him in God's hands and have faith he will be fine.
Having this happen while he is gone and we can't see him or hug him is hard though.
Like I said. Just glad he is ok.

Beautiful Moments

A layout just because :)
Actually, as I was going through the photos that I talked about on This Post to take to a crop this weekend, I decided to scrap this one!

Me, seven months pregnant, in Florida.
Journaling:
This was one of the happiest moments in my life. We had just arrived at our hotel in Florida and I was seven months pregnant with our baby girl. It was our last trip together as a family of three and we definitely enjoyed ourselves. As for this photo, I felt such a sense of peace and happiness. And for the first time in a long time, I didn't mind having my picture taken. I felt beautiful, and I don't usually feel that way. I will never forget this trip or moment in my life!

I truly think being on the design team at Scrapbooking From the Inside Out helped me be just a little braver with my journaling and expressing my true feelings. I don't know that I would have necessarily done a page like this a few years ago :)

I wanted to keep the vibe of the page soft and a little muted, so the photo would be the focus.
The butterflies were actually created using a mask and some mists.

I actually traced the Studio Calico butterfly masks to create my own mask.

I then placed my homemade mask where I wanted the butterflies to appear. I covered up the rest of my cardstock so it wouldn't accidentally get spritzed, and sprayed my inking tool pad. I then dabbed at the butterfly cutouts to create the images on the top left, and then also added a big one to the bottom right corner. The mist has a pretty gold sparkle to it once it dries in person which is hard to see on the computer screen. :)

Today I am still recovering from a very busy weekend with a huge party celebrating my mother-in-law's 70th birthday. Lots of family in town and people to visit with and see. It was lots of fun, but I am feeling a little drained at the same time :)

Plus we had a huge snow and ice storm come through Thursday! So two snow days for the kids leading up to an extremely packed weekend, was a lot! :) We had fun though and even enjoyed some play time out in the snow on Friday. Expecting more snow this week, but not of the same caliber.
How is the weather by you?

Crafting Ireland, A Layout and 25 Things You Just Have to Know About Me :)

The announcement went out today and I will be returning to the Crafting Ireland magazine design team for 2013! You can see the blog post and a list of the other designers Here!

And I did get some scrapbooking in on Tuesday. I decided to create a layout about the "favorite things" exchange I did with my scrapbook friends using one of the Instagram photos I just had printed.

My photo had just a small mix of the items I received in the mail. And I decided to use a few of the cards and lists as well on the layout. Plus, I loved the fabric that came with Desiree's package and cut a piece of it into a heart.

Journaling:
I met the best group of women a few years ago on-line through scrapbooking and we still stay in touch! When Nadine suggested a "Favorite Things" mail exchange, I knew it would be a great idea. She divided us into groups and the fun began. I loved putting my packages together to send out. And really loved receiving my fabulous mail in return. The photo is only a small example of the goodies that arrived and weren't taken by the kids or eaten immediately. Love my Suziebeezie friends!

It was a fun layout to put together :)
*ETA - I am linking this page up for the current issue at Paper Issues, "Sew Cute, You Keep Me in Stitches" :)

And now, thanks to a fun tag by Julie, it's time to get to know me a little better :)

1. Where Were You Born? - Right here in St. Louis, Missouri

2. Were You Named After Someone? - Well, supposedly my middle name, Josephine, is because of my great- grandmother on my mom's side. But my mom also had a doll named Mary Josephine. And I always tell Mike (my husband) we were meant to be together because his grandmother's name was Mary Josephine and his grandpa was Michael :) Fate!

3. If You Have Children, How Many Do You Have? - Two. A Boy (10) and a Girl (5) that I blog about all of the time :)

4. How Many Pets Do You Have? None. Although we had a fish for six days that did not do well. The kids are always asking for a pet though. Dog, cat, fish, and now lately a guinea pig. Not sure about it though.

5. What Was Your Worst Injury? I was in a pretty bad car accident in 1998. But thankfully no broken bones. Just lots of bruising and neck pain. Plus some anxiety and panic attacks that started up then for a while.

6. Do I Have a Special Talent? I have been told on by many people, many times that I have a gift with children. Which is why I became a teacher. I remember a friend of my grandma's telling me I was like the Pied Piper at parties with all of the kids following me around :)

7. What's Your Favorite Thing to Bake? I am a disaster in the kitchen. Not my favorite thing to do. But I can bake banana bread. That is probably my favorite thing to make if I have to bake.

8. What's Your Favorite Fast Food? I don't like fast food. I gave it up in January and haven't looked back. Glad to see I don't miss it at all.

9. Would You Bungee Jump? If my life depended on it, yes. Otherwise, nope.

10. What is the First Thing You Notice About People? Their eyes. You can tell a lot by a person's eyes.

11. When Was the Last Time I Cried? When Evan and I were reading "Bridge to Terabithia" That book is so good, but so sad. And reading it from a parents perspective made it that much harder.

12. Any Current Worries? With a husband who travels as much as mine does, there are always worries. But I have learned to put them on the back burner and not let it stress me out. Too much. As for currently, a big wintery mix is heading our way today and I do not like wintery mixes!

13. Name Three Drinks You Drink Regularly? Water, Dr. Pepper/Ginger Ale and Mango Orange juice. I went the longest time without drinking soda, and now I am back on. Although next month my health goal is giving up soda. So we'll see how that goes.

14. What is Your Favorite Book? Hands down, "Jane Eyre". Ever since I was a freshman in high school. Has not changed.

15. Would You Like to Be a Pirate? Not so much.

16. What are Your Favorite Smells? Vanilla, Mint and fresh rain.

17. Why Do You Blog? I have two blogs. One is personal and private now. It was my original blog, and is almost like a diary. Love reading back on the older posts, and use it a lot for journaling on scrapbook pages. This current blog is more my "scrapbook" blog with a little personal mixed into it. I love connecting with other people in this hobby and have met some amazing women through blogging!

18. What Song Do You Want Played at Your Funeral? Ave Maria and anything by U2. Maybe Magnificent or Bad, which hold special meaning to me.

19. What is Your Least Favorite Thing About Yourself? Where should I start?! No seriously, it is easier for me to point out the bad rather than the good, so I am trying to focus more on the positives about myself these days then the negative. So will pass on this one :)

20. What is Your Favorite Hobby? Scrapbooking of course! :)

21. What Do You Look For in a Friend? Honesty but kindness. Someone who is not judgmental and will accept me for who I am.

22. Name Something You Have Done You Never Thought You Would Do  - In the summer of 2009, my husband and I flew to Ireland to visit his family and see U2 in concert for two shows at Croke Park. Some place I had only dreamed of visiting. But I had to get past my fear of flying and over an ocean no less. Plus leaving our two children behind was really hard for me. It turned out to be one of my favorite trips ever!!!

23. What are your favorite things to do? Hang out with my family and friends, listen to music on my ipod, scrapbook, do yoga and pilates, play computer games and read.

24. Any pet peeves?  People who can't admit they are wrong and blame others or are judgemental. Road rage or not using blinkers appropriately.

25. What's the Last Thing that Made you Laugh? Not sure. I like to laugh a lot! :) And my children and husband are always making me laugh!

And now that you have read more about me then you probably wanted to know, I am going to pass it on to you! I am not good at tagging others. So if you want to share 25 things about you, just paste and copy the questions to answer. But make sure you let me know when you post, because I will want to come see your answers! :)

 Have a great weekend!

Happy Tuesday!

Hope everyone had a great long weekend!
I know I have said it before, but I love the fact that I have met some truly great women through scrapbooking and the internet.
On Sunday, I was finally able to meet my friend Katy when she came into town for her son's volleyball tournament.

We have known each other for several years, and didn't want to miss the chance to meet in person. We didn't have a lot of time, but we managed to talk about so much in the time we did have. It felt like we have known each other forever!

I was also able to take the kids to see a play based on one of our favorite children's books! I have been wanting to do more activities like this. It seems as if I am always finding out about fun things happening around town after they are over. Thankfully, my friend Kelly told me about a group that has an email newsletter each week sharing information about local activities.

As for scrapbooking, I have been doing a lot of organizing and creating a "share" pile. So look for a giveaway in the near future. :) And I do have several pages planned with the photos and product already pulled.. Even some sketches and other challenges to use as well. I am thinking today will be the perfect day with both kids in school and not too much on my agenda besides laundry.

I do want to share one cool resource I found through the Two Peas in a Bucket scrapbook message board before I go. A fun little site called Kanvess.com. If you are looking for a place to print your Instagram photos, I had some good luck with them.

It was super easy! I just signed in with my Instagram account, chose the photos I wanted copies of and ordered. They came two or three days later. They are 25 cents each and come in a 3x3 size. So I am excited to scrapbook several of these little photos!

But like I said, nothing to big on the agenda today while the kids are at school. So I plan to scrapbook as many pages as I can!  :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Valentines are done and the kids are celebrating at school today.

This is an instagram photo from my not so great phone camera.
Erin really wanted to make her Valentines this year. She remembered that I cut white hearts from cardstock last year for her to paint because that is what everyone did at her preschool. Make their cards from scratch. I was all for buying some at first, but she wanted to paint. So I cut out some hearts and she went to town with her glittery water color and acrylic paints. The hearts actually have a pretty shimmer to them.
After signing her name, she taped a tootsie roll to each one.

We are going to actually celebrate Valentine's Day as a family on Friday. Mike doesn't get in until late tonight, so we wanted to wait for him. I bake heart shaped sugar cookies every year, cook a favorite dinner and we exchange little gifts. :)

Now on to scrapbooking! So, if you read this post, I never did find the ticket stubs I was looking for.
But I did find my passport. Huge relief! :)

I decided to go ahead and do the layout anyway.
Here is the sketch from the October Afternoon blog...

and here is my take...

I always, always have a hard time photographing layouts on black cardstock. The color just looks off,
and this time was no exception. The tickets on here are actually hand cut from a piece of patterned paper from the Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic line by American Crafts. Not my real tickets. :) Used lots of silver and gold washi tape and also used some strips for my journaling. The stars at the top are made of fabric and I sprayed them with gold and silver mists. Kept things pretty simple as you can see.

If I do end up finding the ticket stubs, I plan on putting them behind each photo with a little pull tab. Something like I did here...

but with out the clothes pin. Just a little simple pull tab. I just think it will be fun to see what the price was like then compared to now!

I also have a peek at another layout I just completed that was an assignment for Crafting Ireland magazine.

It will either be in the next issue or featured on the blog. Not sure which yet, but I will definitely share when I know for sure.

I hope you have a great Vday and weekend! See you next week :)

Really?!!

That is what I find myself saying quite a bit today (on Monday, the day I am writing this post). It's just been one of those days.
But thankfully it was broken up a bit by the kids excitement over "Tacky Day" at school and a great lunch with two of my best friends.

I was hoping to have a completed layout to share today, but it just didn't happen.
I have this sketch that I saw on the October Afternoon blog last week,
Plus these three images I printed on cardstock of three of my favorite movies from high school.
It was going to be a fun little page in my mind.
Until I decided I just had to include the movie ticket stubs.
Yes, I have saved some of the stubs from these movies for all these years! They are stored in a little photo pocket protector like people used to carry around in their wallets to store those little wallet sized photos. (Do people even really use those anymore?)
Anyway, I saw these three movies at the theater in high school with good friends and saved the stubs.
Along with my first ticket stub to a U2 concert back in 1988!
And my ticket stub to Phantom of the Opera on Broadway which I saw the same year on a school trip to New York City over Christmas break.

I have had them for years stored in my jewelry box on my dresser.
And guess what?
When I went to grab them today, they were gone. Yep, gone!
Why? Where? When? What?!!!
I am sure I moved them for some reason, but for the life of me, I am not sure when, where or why?
So I searched the place where I keep our very important papers and passports.
The reason being, I used to keep those important things in the bottom section of the same jewelry box. And I thought maybe, just maybe, my stubs were with all of it.
Nope.
And then on top of that, I notice my passport is not with the kids passports.
Another great mystery.
So I spent a good chunk of time searching for ticket stubs and a passport totally perplexed as to why they were not where they would normally be.

*ETA* found the passport but not the ticket stubs as of this morning :)

And if you are still with me, I have a peek for you at my project that will be in the next issue of
Crafting Ireland magazine using...

this shadow box frame...

and some of these fun goodies :)
I can't wait to show you the finished piece. I am more a scrapbook layout girl and not so much a decor maker, but had fun creating this one. And I used one of my teacher skills doing it! :)

Well, hopefully next time I post it will be with a layout!
If I could just find those ticket stubs!

*Still Going Strong*

Back in January I talked about my goals and resolutions to have a healthier and happier 2013!
You can see that first post right here!
I am happy to say that I was successful with my first goal of not eating fast food in January.
Just McDonald's on the one school half day when we met friends for lunch. And I had a salad!

This is a page from a little mini album I made a year or two ago titled "Get Healthy, Get Fit". It is actually a scraplift of a mini I saw in one of the scrapbook magazines. Just some little reminders of things I can do to have a healthier lifestyle.

Because I think it is important for me and my family.

And because I am at a point in my life where I am ready!

So for February, I have set two goals along with continuing to avoid fast food. I'm not saying I will never have fast food again. But really trying to limit the stuff to once a month. And if I make it through a whole month without eating it, great!

But now for my first February goal...

I will be in bed no later than 11pm on school nights. And for me, it is a challenge because I love to stay up late. Sometimes 12:30 or 1am. But it's really, really starting to wear me down. And I have failed at this in the past. But for some reason, I am ready. So far in February, I have made it to bed every night by 11pm. And that is saying a lot! A friend of mine just told me yesterday that she had read a report by a doctor that said if you have a choice between exercising and getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep, go for the sleep. It really is so beneficial to your health!
That said though, goal number two for the month...

ok, I know it says every day, but that was then and this is now. I will be happy with five days per week. I have a better success rate when I allow myself a day or two to slack. And actually today was supposed to be a slack day and I chose to do yoga instead. So far in February I have exercised five out of six days. I like to mix it up, too. I jog/walk or ride my bike outdoors when the weather is nice. But I also like to do yoga, pilates, and cardio/strength training videos indoors. The key is changing it up frequently so I don't get bored. And it is such a good influence on the kids, too. When they see me exercise, often times they want to join in. Even if it's only for a little bit. And they know that mommy exercises to be healthy. Not to lose weight or be skinny.

So I am feeling good right now and am on track. Just one month, one week and one day at a time :)

I will have more pages from my mini to share as I set new goals in the upcoming months.
But for now I also want to share a post I have up on the Craft Your Nest blog. Some Valentine's Day inspiration and a few free printables. Make sure to say hi if you stop by over there :)
And have a great weekend!

This Page is for Tammy :)

from one Duran Duran fan to another ;)

I made this page a few years ago during a "Rock and Roll" type crop for an on-line scrap store.
Tammy's post here last Friday brought back some fun memories.
Before U2, there was Duran Duran. I was a HUGE fan and literally had my room wallpapered in their photos from magazines and posters. My sister was thrilled since we had to share a room @@ :)

Anyway, Tammy did a layout about how she met one of her friends by becoming pen pals because of Duran Duran through Tiger Beat magazine.
I also had a DD pen pal through Tiger Beat, but we didn't stay friends.
And I was never able to go to one of their concerts. My parents wouldn't let me because I was only 13 the first time they came through. Let me tell you I cried buckets of tears the night of that concert - pre-teen drama for sure!
But I have more than made up for that loss with the thirteen U2 concerts I have been to here, all over the states and in Dublin! Maybe it's because missing that Duran Duran concert back in the early 80's was so traumatic at the time ;) And when DD came here a few years ago, I thought about going but the time had kind of passed. Although with really loving their newest album, I think I would go if they came back!

Anyway, great post, Tammy! And thanks for the walk down memory lane :)

Welcoming February with Open Arms

I have to admit that the month of January is typically a hard one for me. It always has been.
And I don't think it is just the holiday let down. It's winter for one and usually cold and dark.
My doctor mentioned seasonal disorder, and could be.
I do try to look on the bright side and not complain, and try to be positive about my blessings.
But I just can't always be cheery and peppy.

And as much as I try not to wish away the days, weeks, months and years, a part of me is glad February is here. I know winter has a ways to go, but I always feel just a bit lighter.

I haven't touched the messy side of my office yet...still. And I haven't done much scrapbooking.
But I finished painting the kitchen, doing many, many tasks involving the children and school, plus created birthday party invitations for my mother-in-law's upcoming 70th birthday party. So I am getting things done. Just not projects or pages.

I do want to share a few photos though that make me happy on this first day of February...

My profile pic right now on Facebook that I found on Pinterest. Lego U2. How perfect is that :)

This sweet photo of Erin and Mike right after he put her wrist corsage on for the Father and Daughter dance at her school.

I made this little 4x6 mini collage in Picasa of photos from that night before they left and I am going to scrapbook them within the next week! So look for that layout soon :)

My ten year old son's haunted mansion drawing. He continually blows me away with his artistic skills. I wish I had half the talent he does at drawing!

As for scrapbooking, I will definitely be back to it this week and have projects to share here on the blog next week. In the meantime, I do have a scrapbook related post up on the Craft Your Nest blog from Wednesday with a little review of the daily video series over at Two Peas in a Bucket. You can see it HERE! :)
And while you are there, make sure to check out some of the older posts by Dawn, Cheryl, and our guest blogger this week, Kristin. Craft Your Nest was started by Dawn just to provide challenges and a little inspiration last year. And in the next few months, we are going to be looking for a few guest bloggers to share a post or two. If you are interested in being a guest blogger, definitely let me know in the comments!

Happy February!

*ETA* Becky - if you read this post today, make sure you check back on Tuesdays post. You were my winner! :)