Over at Craft Your Nest...

today with an older Thanksgiving layout.
You can see the post *Here*.

Also wanted to share how excited I was to read my friend Shalini's blog and see that she had created a layout using the Creative Scrappers sketch that I posted about on Monday.

This is such a fun sketch and I love her take which she shared on her blog  *Here*! 
It is such a pretty page!

I hope everyone who celebrates has a wonderful Thanksgiving. :)

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

At Paper Issues that is! :)

The new issue is up and our focus is Christmas. As always, you have a chance to win a fabulous prize just for linking up a  new or old Christmas project. We are giving away a...

to one lucky linker.

Of course I linked up the Christmas Tree home decor piece I posted about *Here*
I have already linked up...

my Christmas tags.
And I will also link up...

this layout...

this layout...

 

and this layout.

As well as...

 

a post with a ton of Christmas cards I made last year.

So I have a lot to share for this issue! I am not linking all at once though. I usually spread it out a bit.

So if you have any projects to share, come on over and link them up *Here*! 

I will be looking for you :)

And you can also find me on the Paper Issues blog with a post today as well if you want to stop by and say "hi"!

Checking in to Say...

My layout I shared here Monday is being featured on the Creative Scrappers blog today.
I am excited and a little intimidated because two amazing scrappers on the Paper Issues
design team have their layouts on that post as well...Patricia Roebuck and Mandy Kay Starner.
They are simply amazing!

Anyway, if you have a second to spare, could you please go and check the post out?
I would really appreciate it. :)

More scrapbook news...I had a layout picked up for this magazine Life, Paper, Scrapbook. It's a digital magazine. And it was this layout.

Much to my chagrin, as I was filling out the material list I realized that it had already been featured in a magazine. Crafting Ireland which I love! But I had completely forgotten when I submitted it for the LPS call. Doh! Kind of a bummer because it would have been my first published layout with them. Truly hated sending off that email to let them know it had already been published. Hopefully they will give me another chance in the future, but it was a little embarrassing.

I am happy to say though that I am still keeping up with the #30 grateful days challenge sponsored by Paper Issues on Instagram. Definitely an accomplishment for me.
Here are a few of my recent photos in no particular order. :)

Day 16 - Grateful that she loves to dance! So much fun to watch her 

Day 14 - I am so grateful to have this fun little girl to play McDonalds with. "May I take your order?" She asks :)

Day 15 - Grateful for those little surprise moments that make me laugh. I turned around to find this...yes, that is Erin inside my leaf bag. See her new red boots peeking out down below?

And then I realize, I have a lot of photos of Erin for 30 grateful days. It's not that I am not grateful for other people in my life. :) But Evan likes his photo posted less and less, and I try to respect that.
Same for Mike. I am sure he doesn't care. But with his travel schedule it's harder to get photos of him.
I think I need to get a good phone photo of the two of us post one day. :)
Also, Erin is my little shadow. She loves to hang around with me and truthfully, I am glad she does.
I mean how many years do I have left before she leaves me in the dust ;) Hopefully, we will still be close in the years to come!

Anyway, I hope you have a great weekend!
See you next week. :)
 

Over at Craft Your Nest Today...

with a layout and featuring a few blog friends who linked projects to the current issue over at Paper Issues.
My layout uses a sketch by Juliana Michaels and the October kit "Pumpkin Latte" from The Paper Bakery.

Hope you will come by and take a peek!
You can see the post *Here* :)

Teaming Up with Creative Scrappers!

Paper Issues is teaming up with Creative Scrappers for CS Sketch #256.
And it is a fun one!

This is the sketch we were given...

and this is my interpretation of the sketch. I loved the hexagon shape. But since I wanted to use more than one photo, I decided to create two smaller hexagons. I made a pattern by tracing the hexagon on the actual sketch I had printed up, and then cutting it out! Old school I know, but it worked. :)
My layout is scheduled to be featured on the Creative Scrappers blog this Friday, but I wanted to share it here with my blog friends first. But you definitely want to check the CS blog out every day this week to see how all of the Paper Issues design team members used the sketch. So many great ideas, and every page looks so different!

Since Paper Issues is sponsoring as well, of course there is a great giveaway!

Yep! A $30 gc to the store. So make sure to check out This Post  over at the CS blog, and link up your project based on the sketch for a chance to win! :)

Changing things up a bit.
Some pretty bad storms blew through the midwest yesterday.
Thankfully, we only had some bad winds that took down a lot of trees by us.

This is one of the trees in the park across the street from us. Thankfully no where near our car, unlike that last big storm a year ago in October.
There were two big trees down in this spot.
I didn't realize how bad Illinois had been hit until I saw some of the news feeds here on the internet. Apparently Washington, Illinois was hit by a tornado that just leveled areas. :(

It's funny. I have grown up in the Midwest. Lived here all of my life.
And yes, we have always known that tornadoes are a possibility.
But I was never truly afraid of one. The past several years though, they feel like a real threat and we take the sirens pretty seriously here now.
Especially after what happened down in Joplin, Missouri in 2011.

I will definitely be keeping all those affected by the storms last night in my prayers.

Crafting Ireland Final Issue

The final issue has been released. You can see it *Here*
The framed Christmas Tree piece on the cover is my creation.
Here is a slightly bigger photo...

I have a little tutorial to go along with it on page 28 in the magazine. I know I already mentioned here that the magazine will no longer be published, but they will still continue to have lots of tutorials and inspiration on the Blog and their Facebook Page.

And as a little goodbye to the magazine, there is a Design Team recap post on the blog. Each team member picked three of our favorite projects to be featured from our time with the magazine. You can see the post *Here*. I am at the top. :)

After a lot of debating, I have made the very difficult decision to step down from the Design Team at Crafting Ireland. I truly loved being on the team. Timi and Nicole have been nothing short of fabulous to me, but I am trying to simply things. I think I just need a break from some of the deadlines and tutorial work. And as nice as they are, they left the door open for me to return if I decide I have more time in the future. I may just take them up on that one of these days. :) But for now, I am a little more focused on family and my healthy living goals.
I am still on the Paper Issues and Craft Your Nest teams because they are simpler commitments. So there will still be plenty of scrapbooking going on here!

Thanks for stopping by today, and have a great weekend!

Grateful For You

So that was a little bit of an unexpected blog break. :)
I am definitely grateful to be feeling a lot better!
Been super busy, but I am here to share the new issue that went up on the Paper Issues blog yesterday.

"Grateful For You"
And the prize...

a gift certificate to the Paper Issues shop!

I have also been participating in #30gratefuldays on Instagram through Paper Issues this month. Ten days = ten photos so far.
Here are a few of my photos that I have shared on there...

Day 1 - (Nov.1) As I drove myself to the doctor's office to get that stomach pain all figured out, I realized how lucky I am to have a car to get myself and my family places. And it's a car I enjoy driving, so that is a plus!

Day 2 - I am so grateful that Erin loves to read! She likes to pick the selection of children's books I have collected through my years of teaching. It's almost like going to a little library in there. 

Day 3 - grateful for Erin having the chance to play soccer on a fun team with great, positive coaches. She is so proud of her first trophy.

Day 4 - I am grateful for having access to so many great libraries with tons of books! This one is a favorite of mine. Enjoying some quiet time here before school pick up. 

Day 5 - Happy birthday to my wonderful mom. I am so grateful for her. And Evan and Erin love her so much. She makes everything fun!

Day 8 - Grateful for my husband Mike who loves his job and works hard at it. He took us on a tour of his current job site yesterday and we learned a lot from him on the tour!

These are just a few of my photos so far. Pretty excited that I am actually keeping up! And I am thinking they will make a nice little mini album when all is said and done.

Are you participating in any of the thirty days challenges?
I know my blog friend Tracy is because I have seen a few of her photos on Instagram already. :)

And don't forget if you have any projects with a "Grateful" theme, be sure to link them up for a chance to win the Paper Issues Gift card. You also have a good chance of being featured on their Instagram page, Facebook page or blog. I know I always look for familiar names first on my blog post days!

Happy Monday! And hopefully I will be back sooner this time to post. :)

Halloween

Despite the rain that poured down off and on that day, we had a fun Halloween.
Evan was so bummed because it is his favorite holiday.
But there were several breaks in the rain. And having a friend over to hang out with him helped!
All of the photos I had are from my iphone camera. Unfortunately, pretty much all of them are blurry because of the rain and bad lighting. But at least I got a few shots that tell the story.
I just didn't want to drag my big DSLR out in the rain.

No, this isn't a decoration on our lawn. Well, not a real decoration. Evan doesn't like to trick or treat anymore. He likes to stay home and try to scare people who come up to the house. This year he totally scared a group of girls from his school. It was pretty funny. :)

Here is a photo of Erin and her BFF Sam. His mom and I took them trick or treating while the dads stayed home to pass out candy. Erin is Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz pre ruby slippers. I just couldn't find any to fit her anywhere! But thankfully she did not care one little bit. :) She just wanted the little Toto in a basket. I thought Sam made a pretty convincing little vampire.
Especially when he said, "watch this!"...

Watch out, Erin! :)

and two of our jack o lanterns.
Really the only trick or treating we did was our block and the block right behind us. It's a small one block private street. That was more than enough for us. The kids bags were pretty full just going to those houses.
Back at home we had so many trick or treaters we ran out of candy! And we had well over 300 pieces. Next year I need to buy more. A lot more.

So all in all it was a good Halloween. And I was so glad Mike could me in town this year. Made it so much better!

I will say that on Friday though, I had a bit of a health scare.
I started having abdominal pain on my right side at bedtime Halloween night.
I have dealt with IBS since high school, so didn't think to much of it.
But then after waking several times with the nagging dull spasmic pains (not sharp ones), I worried a little bit. It just felt different.

The next day it just wouldn't go away, so I called my doctor.
They fit me in and I headed over.
She was worried about my appendix so sent me to have a cat scan.
Not having one before I was extremely nervous.
It was not terrible, but it wasn't a picnic either.
A vein blew out where they had put a catheter in my arm. So they had to repeat that whole process.
And the big glass of barium they require you to drink was super disgusting.
But as I lay there while they took the x rays, I just repeated to myself "with God all things are possible." And it gave me courage to make it through.
Thankfully, the scan was clear except for a few minor issues that were nothing to worry about.
My appendix was fine, and the cause of pain was diagnosed as a virus.
Seriously, a lot to go through to be diagnosed with a virus.
But better safe than sorry, right?

And here I am today, so grateful that it all turned out ok in the end.

An older layout, but one that sums up that feeling perfectly!
Hope you have a wonderful Monday!