It's December...

and that means we have recently had our annual Christmas Card Photo Shoot. It's a tradition. PJs, Santa hats, humoring mom for 15-20 minutes...

Today I share some of the photos on a layout done for Nuts About Sketches #191. I loved working with this sketch!


While our photos don't show it, we do cherish this Christmas season for it's true meaning, the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And just in case I do not post in December again, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Oh, what a glorious day!

I don't have many pictures to share yet, but Saturday 11-12-11 was a glorious day! We celebrated Ken & Annette's wedding and the beginning of their life together. Kent was Best Man, Seth and Tessa were Junior Attendants. The wedding ceremony was beautiful and touching. Don't ask about Friday... let's just say we are giving glory to God and thanks to the many who prayed for Tessa to be well on Saturday (she felt fine and was a lovely junior bridesmaid). We are so happy for Annette and Ken and hope they are having a wonderful honeymoon/vacation this week. I look foward to having more photos to share in the future (esp. since I don't have one of the "boys" in their tuxes!) And my apologies to Pastor Chris for the blurry photo, but the expressions on the bride's and groom's faces were so perfect and so "them" that I had to share!

Nuts About Sketches #183

Today you can see fun, festive sketch #183 from Shawn at Nuts About Sketches! Here is my layout of my precious and much missed Nanny:



Head over to Nuts and see more inspiring layouts of this sketch!

Sketch #181

For Shawn's Nuts About Sketches #181 layout, I went back a while and scrapped some older photos of our "Tessa the Messa" when she was just earning her nickname... now she's almost 8 and her face often looks this messy when she eats a popsicle... or ribs! Go to Nuts About Sketches and see a lot of other great layouts using this fun sketch!

Nuts About Sketches...

I'm so happy to announce a new "gig" with Nuts About Sketches! Shawn makes scrapping easy with her fun sketches and she has a great mix of one and two-pagers. I am honored to be a part of her design team and have my first layout to show you today! Here's my layout:



Now you have to go over to Nuts About Sketches to see the sketch (week 177) and all the other wonderful layouts that the team did with this sketch! Shawn reveals a new sketch each week, so be sure to bookmark her blog (or become a fan or FB follower) so you won't miss any!

Almost "Back to School"

Sunday are the kids' Open Houses. Next Tuesday is the "Welcome Back Breakfast" at the elementary school. Since I'm in charge of PTA's Staff Appreciation, I'm working on the table decorations for the breakfast, as well as a little something for Tessa to give her 2nd grade teacher and English teacher (she attends Spanish immersion school, so will start taking English this year). Here's what I've done so far:

I hot glued the crayons around a $1 tin (and another one that is larger and will hold the napkins). The "supply centerpiece" is mostly held together by glue dots and rubber bands (so it can be disassembled and most of the supplies used later.)

For these little "survival kits" I found the free printable labels online at Bee in our Bonnet's blog and the little storage boxes in the clearance section at Staples.

I also plan to put bundle some pens, expo markers and pencils for all Tessa's "specials" (Music, Art, Computer, Library, etc.) and use these cute labels from Itsy Bitsy Paper by Lindy.
Now, if only the kids supplies would label themselves, we would be ready!

Summer's flying...

Summer has been quite busy here so far... a few hightlights:

Soccer Camp for T

VBS for all of us

Basketball Camp for S

Swim Fanatics Camp for T (and an afternoon trail hike)

A 4th of July visit to "the cousins" in Hendersonville

Grandma comes from Mississippi

Day trip to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte

Dress shopping & a Bridesmaid's Tea at the O'Henry for T (junior attendent)

T's first sleepover party

S hanging out @ Isaac's

Soccer Camp for S (indoor, thankfully, since temps are ~99 this week!)

and still to come, dog-sitting for a week and a half (a nice test for T to see if she likes having a dog as much as she thinks she will), Art Camp for T, Basketball Camp for T (with S volunteering), some playgroups, trip to NatSciCtr, maybe the NC Zoo... and who knows what else August will hold!

Haven't been scrapping much but I posted one recent layout (from this July 4). Hope your summer is going great!

Saying good bye...

It's the last day of school and my kids are saying good bye to their teachers and friends for the summer. I'm always sad to see the school year end when they've had a wonderful teacher (or teachers), and both have been blessed with some incredible teachers this year. I am hoping my son will snap i-photos with some of his today (middle school = 7 teachers). My daughter is pictured here with her 1st grade teachers, Senora Alen and Senora Geniac. They had a terrific class this year, learned so much and had a lot of fun, too! She is also saying good bye to one of her favorite "specials" Senorita Castillo, who we think is returning to her home country of Chile in July. I am so thankful for all the amazing teachers she's had so far at Jones Elementary (Spanish Immersion Magnet).

I'm also saying good bye to my design term at The Scrapping Spot. For the last 10 months I had the honor to create with Jill and Cathy's wonderful kits and I had a blast! Their June kit is perfect for your summer fun photos and memories. I'll show you the projects I made using it:

Today I say "good bye" to some peace & quiet and "hello" to summer, hopefully not one spent with a "referee whistle" in my mouth, but one filled with fun activities and enjoyable memories for our whole family... we'll see, wink!

Project 12 March... using TSS May Kit

I love the whole concept of "Project 12" and am so grateful to Davinie for her inspiration and for the wonderful Pagemaps sketches! I also love using new kits from The Scrapping Spot for my layouts! This one is the May kit (on sale May 1... another blog post with more layouts later.)

The Scrapping Spot's April Kit - no April Fool's joke!

I had so much fun designing with The Scrapping Spot's April kit, on sale now in the store.

I thought I'd share my projects with you today.

This kit is a fun way to welcome spring; I highly recommend it!

Project 12 - Feb. Captured

Wow, it's snowing a bit here in NC on March 28 - you can be sure I took a photo of that this morning!

I'm enjoying the "Project 12" monthly summary layouts. You can find all the details here at Davinie Fiero's blog: Project 12. I used the sketch this month and The Scrapping Spot's April kit with Bo Bunny's Ad Lib line.

I can't wait to do a March layout, but there's still a few things to enjoy this month, especially for Seth, who will be turning 12 in a few days!

The Scrapping Spot's "Twig-licious" March Kit

I ♥ the March kit from The Scrapping Spot.


It is sold out but they have some more wonderful kits coming this Spring, so stay tuned! Here are my March designs:

March "marching on" and I'm just trying to keep up! Dr. Seuss celebrations, basketball (for Seth and on TV... ♥ March Madness), soccer starting for the kids, other school activities, and Seth's birthday at the end of the month are making for a busy but fun March! I'm glad Spring Break is in April this year (what we have left of it after losing days to snow make-up days). Hope your March is "marching on" in the direction you'd like! Thanks for stopping by!

Janurary 2011 Layout (Project 12)

I love the idea of doing one summary layout for each month of the year. That way, if my mojo is slumping or I haven't been scrapping much for some reason, I'll still have a complete picture of our year. So, I've found Project 12 on Davinie Fiero's blog and thought this would be a great way to get started and keep up in 2011! I intended to use the sketch provided, but found I wanted to do something a bit different and include a calendar with many of the details. I found the free printable calendar at Creative Mamma. I used the March kit from The Scrapping Spot and Unity's Bella Doilies stamp set. I look forward to doing a monthly layout all year!

Dr. Seuss Door Decoratons

Next week, my daughter's class will celebrate READING and DR. SEUSS (his birthday is March 2). Her school is having a door decorating competition, so I volunteered to decorate theirs. After visiting Seussville.com, I got an idea for the door. I wanted the kids to each draw their favorite Seuss character (or a self-portrait) in whimsical paper frame, which I then "hung on the wall" from buttons and twine. Added a bunch of other room elements, including a vase with Horton pom-pom flowers (one has the Whoville dust spec on it) and filled it with Dr. Seuss "books." The kids love seeing their creations on the "wall" of the door and it was a lot of fun!

They'll also go see "Seussical the Musical" on Monday, make "Cat in the Hat" hats, eat green eggs and ham, make Oobleck, and read lots of Dr. Seuss books!

Hello, February...

It's Feb. 1st and you know what that means? For much of the country, it means more snow and ice. Here in NC, we're not getting this winter storm, but we've had our share of snow this winter! I'm ready for a breath of spring (even if it comes in the form of a cute papercrafting kit!) So, today, I share with you The Scrapping Spot's February kit and a couple of my creations:




My blog header was also made using this adorable kit. If you'd like to see more, head over the The Scrapping Spot's Blog. This kit makes me smile and brings me a feeling of hope for Spring. We'll see what the groundhogs have to say about that tomorrow!

Happy "New" Year

January 2011 is almost over and I haven't posted to my blog once - what's up with that? So, I thought I'd post a few photo highlights of the last month. This year we've seen science experiement, lots of snow (and snow days), and lost teeth! Stay tuned because next week I'll have designs from The Scrapping Spot's Fabulous February kit!