Top 10 of 2013

So before I get started I just want to share that this post accomplishes two things.
I am finally getting around to choosing my top ten favorite scrapbook layouts of last year.
And two, I get to tell you about a fun project I am about to embark on with some great crafty friends.
Several years ago, my friend Suzanne, created a blog that she shared with several of us.
It was a great place to visit, share ideas, support each other and just have fun!
As the years have passed though, we kind of went our separate ways as our kids grew, interests changed and life became extra busy. Although many of us stayed in touch through our blogs, email, and then Facebook.

Recently Elizabeth contacted everyone to see if we would be interested in starting a new project with her. Basically we are using lists to help document our year. Me being a queen list maker decided to join in. And it's also just a really great excuse to reconnect with friends!
It's going to be a pretty casual effort. No real guidelines, although most of us are going to try to post one list (in any format we choose on any topic) per week.
And you are welcome to join in if you would like. Feel free to use this badge

if you want to be a list maker as well. And link me in my comments when you do make a post so I can see your list.

For my first list, I am going to share my list of layouts I am most proud of in 2013. Just a PSA, not all of my lists will be scrapbook related though :)

1.

I think this is my favorite layout of 2013. I used a sketch that I found on the Pretty Little Studio blog for this page. But the photo is one that will always be a favorite as well. :)

2.

This was not the first year that I chose a word to focus on. But it is the first year I chose to do a layout about it. And it was such a fun layout to put together! Plus, I really did try to inject a little more humor into my lifestyle this past year because I kept this word in the back of my mind. I will have a post soon about the word I am choosing for 2014.

3.

So one of my favorite memories of the past year was doing a Favorite Things exchange with some of the very women who are in the Lists with Friends group. I used bits and pieces of what they sent me. (yes, that heart is cut from beautiful fabric sent by one of my friends) It was so much fun!

4.

This is the title page for a Florida Trip album we took so long ago already. But I was finally able to work on it at a Scrapbook Getaway this past winter. I finished 17 pages in one weekend for this album. You can see more of the pages on posts *here*, *here*, and *here*.

5.

This is a page I created using one of the photos from that Florida album for Crafting Ireland magazine. I had lots of fun putting it together like a puzzle almost! :)

6.

This was such a simple page, but with a photo I love. I just really wanted the focus to be the photo. :)

7.

Another page for Crafting Ireland magazine that made the cover! Such a peaceful and relaxing page to me and reminds me of that moment on the beach.

8.

This is a page I created using a sketch from Creative Scrappers. One that I definitely made my own and a little out of the box for me. I definitely experimented a bit on this page :)

9.

And I think this another of my absolute favorite pages this year. I created it using product from Chic Tags given to me for a design team project by Paper Issues. Even though the line was school themed, I realized it could be used for more than that. And all of the great book elements made me thing of the library. And I am happy with how my journaling and storytelling has developed the past two years. I think I owe a lot of that to my time as a Design Team member for Scrapbooking From the Inside Out.
And I was so excited to see my friend Shalini inspired to do her own take on her happy place as a result.

10.

 

And I don't usually do Christmas pages, but I do love this one. It was a great page to share with the family!

Oh and just wanted to share this photo as well!

This is what happens in my town when 6-10 inches of snow is expected. I stopped into the grocery store to get something for dinner on Saturday night. Let's just say it was a little crazy and we tend to overreact here when snow of any kind is in the forecast.

And here are a few photos from Sunday...

This is one of the pavilions in the park across the street from our house. We walked through the park to Panera with our friends who live a few doors down. While we were there they actually closed up shop! But it was a fun adventure walking there and back in the falling snow.

And a picture of Mike and I bundled up and ready for the trek.

Thankfully he didn't end up having to drive out of town last night. Today would have been his first day back to work since the day after Christmas. It's been so great having him home so many days in a row! And today was the kids first day back at school, but of course it was cancelled. Too much snow and temps too cold.

Sorry this post ended up being so much longer than I planned with the snow storm. But it is big news around these parts! :)

Thanks for stopping by today and checking out my first "List" and the big Snow Storm of 2014 photos.

I am looking forward to sharing so much over the next year, as well as being inspired by all of you!

Swag Bags with Paper Issues!

Fun news!
Starting today (1/3) the very first scrappy sampler bag is for sale at noon central standard time.

This is an example of what the bags will look like.
The price will be $10 per bag.
Right now subscriptions are limited, but will be increased as the demand goes up.
To get more information on how you can subscribe or just buy an individual kit, check out this link *here*! (fixed the link) All the details are posted there. But remember that the sale doesn't start until noon (CST).

I am signed up and looking forward to my first bag!
I will be back on Monday with a post sharing my top 10 layouts of 2013 and sharing details of a little project I was asked to be a part of for 2014.
Have a great weekend!

The Blog

I hope your holiday season is going well!
Things are good here, but extremely busy.
The kids are off school until January 6, so I don't seem to have a lot of free time to myself.
I did want to stop by and take a little time today to let you know a few things.

1. I am up on the Paper Issues blog today with a short post.

2. Christmas went well.

Erin was able to see Santa despite the crowds. And we did lots of fun things like bake sugar cookies and visit with family.

 

Out of all her gifts, I think this was her favorite :) Forget the big Lego Friend Yacht. Doesn't compete with Mike W. from Monsters Inc.!

Evan did well for himself, too, but he is still not to fond of  me posting his photo these days, so I am respecting that.

3. And as for the blog. I am doing a lot of thinking on how I want to use it this upcoming year. 2014 is going to be a year of change and setting goals for myself. I know I will still be blogging and scrapbooking. But I also know I am going to be focusing even more on "healthy living" and working my way back into teaching. So it will be all about choices and balance. More on that next week when I get back to blogging more regularly. :)

Sorry I have not been visiting blogs as much. That will be back on schedule next week as well. Taking time this week to enjoy having Mike and the kids home full time despite the upheaval to our schedule. It's a good thing!

Happy New Year!!!

Shiny and New!

The new issue goes up today at Paper Issues.
We are talking "Shiny and New". Plus there is a fun sketch that you can try as well.

I haven't used the sketch yet, but it's printed and ready to go. I am hoping to create a layout using it in the days after Christmas.
But to be eligible for the $20 gift card to the Paper Issues store, you can link up projects using the sketch, the theme "Shiny and New" or both! I think when I work on the sketch, I plan to do a New Year's theme of some type. Still thinking on it.

As for other projects I am linking up to this them, I am choosing...

This was a page I did for Crafting Ireland magazine about the changes in our lives after Erin was born.
Didn't quite turn out how I had pictured in my mind, but I love the photo! Do you ever have that happen? You envision a layout, but it doesn't quite come together that way. It happens to me quite a bit (lol)

This is an older page, from 2007. As I lay there in the hospital snuggling my brand new baby girl, I knew couldn't get better than this. :)

And of course my latest and newest layout with it's shiny gold doily! :)

That is what I have come up with so far.
How about you? Do you have any "Shiny and New" projects you would like to link up over at Paper Issues? If so, you can link up *Here*!

Snuggle Bunny

Ok, I just had to pop in to share this since Snuggle Bunny is making a comeback here :)
When Erin was smaller, she loved to sit on my lap and watch this video on YouTube...

The little Snuggle Bunny and his carrot.
She loved it so much that I had to make a scrapbook layout about it at the time.

As you can see it's an older layout, since the date is in 2009 and the papers are all Sassafras Lass which is no longer around.
*ETA - I am linking this layout up over at Paper Issues for their current "Sew Cute, You Keep Me in Stitches" issue. :)
Look at her with her short hair just starting to curl! She was only about 18 months here, and she would listen to the song and sway back and forth to the music. Oh how I love her!
And she looks and acts so grown up sometimes now.

But she is loving Snuggle Bunny again, and wanting to watch it in the morning before school. And it's true what they say about our kids growing up in the blink of an eye. I snapped this quick shot the other day when I was trying to get a photo of Evan and Erin at the Botanical Gardens after school. It was pretty much a disaster photo shoot as far as Christmas cards go, but that's ok.
We ended up using this one...

Ha! Not your typical Christmas card shot, but it's us. :) I actually made a small little collage of photos from the year though and this one is in the center.
And as I work on my Christmas cards, I am thinking that about a goal I am setting for myself next year. To make more cards and send them in the mail. Not just for holidays or birthdays, but some "just because" cards. I really miss the days of getting a letter or card in the mail. And I do still get them from time to time, but it's just not the same.

OK, now unless I have some kind of really big fun announcement to make, I think I will take a little blog break until after Christmas. So much to do and time is running out! :)

Today...

I have a post up on the Paper Issues blog which you can see *Here*.
So come by and say hi if you have time. :)

As for us, this weekend we had some of this...

very pretty snow. The shot is from my front porch on Saturday morning.
We have spent a lot of the weekend decorating and getting ready for Christmas.
But on Sunday, Erin and I took a little break so she could go to a school birthday party at Build a Bear workshop.

She came home with that little bear on the left as part of the party. I was surprised each child got a bear, and it's a pretty nice bear. That is Ballerina Bunny on the right. Erin received her on a trip to Build a Bear for her birthday present two years ago. She says they are now sisters. :)

We tried to go see Santa while we were at the mall, but the line was way to long. We are going to try again one afternoon when the line will most likely be shorter. The malls are just crazy on the weekends here!

The Christmas tree is finally up though as of last night.

 

This is one of my favorite ornaments. We brought it back from Ireland with us after our trip there in 2009. A trip I will never, ever forget. :)

And the kids only have five more days of school. Then they get sixteen days off in a row for Christmas break! So I need to get tons done around here this week before Friday. Not sure how much I will be blogging between now and the holiday. But I will try.

Hope the holiday rush is not too crazy where you are right now. :)

Two Sketches, Two Layouts!

Today I want to share the layouts I made using sketch #16 and #17 from The Paper Bakery.

Sketch #16

I stayed pretty true to the sketch for this one, but decided not to add the ribbon elements. Just some wood veneer instead. I loved the little flair button that said perfect weather. But I decided to change the meaning up a bit by adding the "Not so" in front since the storm was definitely less than perfect. :) Still I kept this page pretty simple.
I received a whole pad of 6x6 patterned paper from the American Crafts Cut & Paste line by Amy Tangerine in the Capture 365 kit. So that made it easier to cut the rectangles for this page. I just flipped through and found patterns I thought wouldn't compete too much with my photos. I also added lots of inking and distressing to the paper edges.

Sketch #17

This page makes me so happy! I don't typically scrapbook Christmas. I'm not sure why. I've done a few pages, but not many. Since the November kits I received from The Paper Bakery contained quite a few Christmas items, I decided to go ahead and find some photos. Yes, that baby in the photo sitting on Santa's lap is me! I had so much fun sharing this page with the kids tonight. At first Erin thought it was a picture of her! But then right away she said, "Is that you, mom?" And they loved seeing a younger photo of their grandparents.

Next on my scrapbook to do list...Christmas cards for the teachers and staff at school. For our family and friends, I ordered photo cards which I picked up today. Now I just need to start addressing envelopes and get them in the mail before Christmas. :)

Hope you have a great weekend!

My Happy Place!

In Scrapbooking:
The new issue "My Happy Place" is up at Paper Issues!
And I am really excited about this one because the sponsor is Chic Tags.
I was given the new Schoolhouse Collection to work with and here is my layout...

I can't think of a better "happy place" for me than the library. :) And as you can see, I had a lot to say about it! This may have been a "school" themed line, but it could work for so many other things. As you can see there are definitely a few book items, which I love! And with the addition of patterned papers to their lines, it was so much easier to coordinate everything.

We would love for you to join in by linking up projects about your "Happy Place" or using Chic Tags product. The giveaway this time around is a prize pack from Chic Tags. You can see all the details on this blog post *Here*.

Also, this past Saturday Paper Issues participated in Day 7 of the Winter Frolic blog hop with PaperHaus Magazine. My "Christmas Pajamas" layout that I shared on this post *Here* was featured as part of that hop on the Paper Issues blog that day in a collage of projects by the Design Team. You still have time for a chance to win a $20 gift card to the Paper Issue store. You can find that post *Here.*

Around the House:
It was a super busy weekend here as usual.
St. Nicholas left a small gift and some candy for the kids on Friday morning.

Evan received a little stuffed Minecraft Creeper which he loved. It made having to go to school on a snowy day a little bit easier.
But who knew though that Erin's flashing Christmas light bracelet would not make the cut. She is usually all over junk jewelry. But when she saw Evan's little Creeper, it was love at first sight. Oh how she wanted it. She kept following him around saying, "Evan. I really like your Creeper." And then later that day she actually told me, "Mom, there is going to be trouble at home because I really want Evan's Creeper." Oh yes she did. (lol)
And lo and behold, her bracelet broke on Saturday morning, and she cried because now she didn't have any present at all. So guess who ended up with a little stuffed Creeper from Target bought by Daddy. Yep! And she is has slept with it every night since and carries it everywhere.

On Saturday, Erin had dance and Christmas Caroling with the Girl Scouts.
And yesterday, we celebrated my husband's birthday.

I actually baked a chocolate layer cake for him. Although I will say, it looks a little red in my Instagram picture there. But I promise, it was chocolate. And the kids loved it! Evan was asking for seconds, and he is not usually a big "sweet" eater. :)
The recipe actually came from this book...

and was picked out by Erin! There is also a really good lemonade recipe in there that we have tried.
So at least the book is getting some use.

Hope you have a great Monday!
Thanks for dropping by :)