Scenes from the ballpark

Last night we were at the ballpark again, and this time I took my camera. I think we all look forward to "pallbark" night for different reasons. Josh gets to hang out with the fellas and hit homeruns (he only got a triple last night though :( ). The girls get to play with all their little friends, and I get to sit and chat with the ladies. It's almost the perfect scenario! Now if there were only the sound of crashing waves, a cool breeze, some fruity drinks, and the smell of tanning oil...but overall it's usually a really good time had by all. As evidenced in these pics.


Of course the coach in me told him on the ride home that he's dropping his shoulder. Sometimes I can't help myself. It's just engrained in me.


C and Kels


To SK, ballpark night=grazing time. She's rarely found without some sort of ziploc in her hand. In this case, it's two. Sheesh! Would someone feed that kid?!

Create Your Own kit!

That was the final challenge for the Design Star Contest, and it was by FAR my favorite!!! I absolutely LOVED pulling papers and embellishments from my stash and getting it step up just so! I highly recommend creating your own kit if you're in a scrapping slump, because I cranked out 3 projects in 24 hrs. And just a word of caution, this post is full of photos!

Here's my kit, I named it "Kick Up Your Heels!"



Papers from Pink Paislee "Fascinating", Cosmo Cricket "Snorkel", and Heidi Swapp "Carefree".

embellishments up close


Of course I included a TON of embellishments, most of which are some of my favorites! Some of the items that I included were journaling spots, a coaster "album" that I actually stocked up on from restaurants, a handful of flowers, bling, pearl flowers, tickets, die cut labels, felt, and of course ribbons and trim!

ribbons and trim


And then the other part of the challenge was to create 2 projects after coming up with the kit. I created 3, and I'm tellin' ya, I cranked them out! :D

Project 1: "Just Babies"



This picture was taken when the girls were about 5mo. and 18 mo. old, and it's still one of my favorites. Journaling says, "They were just babies, only 13 months a part, one barely bigger than the other."





Project #2: Sympathy card


Project #3: Slip Slidin' Away



The girls have started doing this thing where they'll wait for each other to get to the top of the slide and then slide down together. I just happened to have my camera with me when they did it for the first time.

May sneak peaks

Here's just a couple sneak peaks for the May Serendipity kit. I had the "Just Enough Please" kit, and it couldn't have been more tailored made for me and my girlies! I had NO problem matching pictures with this kit! ;) Check back May 1st for a full reveal.

Hat day

Apparently today is unofficially hat day. You've still got a few hours left in the day to celebrate it if you haven't already.

Run-of-the-mill and hand-me-downs

Today's just another day in the neighborhood as Mr. Rogers would say. (yikes! did I really just quote Mr. Rogers?! oh nooo!) Last night Josh had another softball game. It was the first that the girls and I were able to go to and we had a blast. It was so good to catch up with all our old friends. In fact, I don't think I paid much attention to the game for talking so much! hehe! But softball nights are really late nights, which means that the next day we (I) have to recuperate. So today's a lazy day.

We've baked cookies, tried out our new sandbox and started laundry. Not a whole lot of interesting stuff to report. I'm still scrapping with my Serendipity kit and sneaks should be posted soon. But really, it's just a run-of-the-mill kind of day around here.

I do want to share my most recent LO.

Sisters becoming friends


These are the girls on Easter Sunday. They're wearing the dresses my mom and grandmother handmade for me and my sister years ago. I'm sure, knowing me at the time, I wasn't all that thrilled to wear that dress. But I can hardly put in to words how much it means to me that my girls are able to wear them. I remember how much blood, sweat, and stress my mom and grandmom put into those things. And I remember how special and loved those handmade dresses made me feel, even if I didn't particularly like to wear itchy, scratchy tights and a matching slip to go with them! So anyway, these are more than just your average Easter dresses to me. They're walking heirlooms.

Since the dresses ARE hand-me-downs I wanted to make a really shabby LO match. I decided to do a monochromatic color scheme so I would detract from the color of their dresses. My inspiration was all about the dresses! But THEN the photos really captured the girls in this new found friendship that's starting to form between them. Also something really sweet and special to me. The journaling reads, "There's a bond growing that I hope will be strong. You'll always be sisters, but I love that you're...(becoming friends)"

Upclose images:



Handmade rosebuds


Altered frame with stickled butterfly

Look Mom! Peter Cottontail!

That's what I heard as I roundded the corner of the house yesterday. Apparently while mowing, our neighbor found 2 baby bunnies beside the fence that divides our yards. One was kind enough to let the girls fondle it! It WAS really cute though. I won't think it's so cute when it and its brother(s) start eating my strawberries and hosta though! Caroline was just positive that she'd found the REAL Peter Cottontail! LOL! And he was a sweet little bunny. Even my skittish Sarah Kate held him for a brief second. But then the dog came around the corner to see what all the commotion was about. With that, the bunny scampered across the yard, hopefully never to be seen again. (Because if he IS seen, he'll be eating my newly planted stuff!)




(And please excuse Caroline's horrendous fashion choices! Safe to say she dressed herself! lol!)

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Okay, so I'm a tad bit late in wishing my niece Gracie a happy birthday, but I'm sure she'll understand! She turned 4 on Monday. I even made her this card to make up for it. (now I just have to send it, and be even later! lol!) Let's face it, I'm just going to be the "late" aunt!





I did this card for yet another challenge at Urban Anthology. The challenge was to use a LO sketch from one of the other contestants and turn it into a card. There also had to be hand cut elements on the page. I hand cut the candles, their flames, and the happy birthday, which was stamped with a Heidi Swapp stamp.

Lucky

Challenge #3 over at Urban Anthology was to "go green". Specifically we were challenged to reuse, recycle, and/or repurpose at least 2 items and complete a layout with them. Well, I kinda got a little carried away...hehe! I think I put everything but the kitchen sink on my LO! I just kept coming up with all these differnt things to use, so I added them! But at the same time I wanted to maintain a good design and use things purposefully, not just to add them on there. Soooo, here's what I came up with:

Lucky








Everything but the kitchen sink:
--corrugated cardboard from underneath our frozen pizza
--Guest Check receipt from when I used to wait tables (a REALLY long time ago)
--2 playing cards from a deck that was already missing some
--2 vintage milk caps
--Jenni Bowlin shape from a pkg. of chipboard buttons
--Jenni Bowlin ruled lines from same pkg. of buttons
--mismatched fonts of chipboard letters (more on this later)
--clear domed bauble I found while picking up the girls room

Random stuff that just came together to create a "green" LO!
In case you can't read it, the journaling talks about how lucky we are to have Josh as a dad and husband. How he makes time for snuggling or tickle time, and how he's the king (lower case k) of our hearts.

Live Bella Blvd. chat

Hey, just wanted to let you know that Serendipity Scrapbooks is having a live online chat with the girls from Bella Blvd. tonight. It's at 9pm EST and will last about an hour. Hope to chat with ya there! ;)

Another Easter treat!

Last Easter post, I promise. Well, I think so at least! lol! This weekend when Mom was here we found ourselves with a little down time with the girls were napping. So taking full advantage of Mom's baking skills, I quickly suggested we try making some cake pops (again) with the half chocolate cake I had left over. We were quickly consumed in all things confectionery (is that a word?!), but I'm so happy to say that we finally came up with suitable bunny cake pop to pass out to all our friends at church the next day! Yay! Thanks Mom! It was really fun to work together like that! :D

Our final masterpieces (don't laugh. well I guess you can since i won't be able to hear you!):




Chocolate cake with vanilla icing bunnies
dipped in white chocolate. Yum! :)

Easter highlights

Our Easter holiday actually started on Thursday and was a whirlwind of activity. I took a TON of pictures, and we all had a wonderful holiday. Here are some of my favorite shots:

The egg hunt





And on Easter Sunday.
These are the same dresses that my sister and I wore waaay back in the day. It means so much to me that my girls are able to wear them now. Especially since my mom and grandmother made them.

Check it out!

A quick check of the Lily Bee blog brought a huge smile to my face! They featured one of my LOs on their blog!!! Woohoo! :D If you want to check it out, you can find their post here. Yipppeee! What a fun what to end the week! It's a good stress reliever too!

Live, Laugh, Love

That's the title of my latest LO that I want to share. It's one that I did for round #2 of the Urban Anthology Design Star contest. This challenge was to spotlight your 3 favorite manufacturers. I chose Pink Paislee (Enchanting), October Afternoon (Daydreams), and Basic Grey (Urban Prairie). There's also a little bit of Prima (flower) and Crate Paper (tag) thrown in.









But as I start to reflect on this the importance of this week, Holy Week, I want to remember the REASON I live, the REASON I'm able to laugh, and the REASON I love. You see, "live, laugh, love" is more than a cutesy saying for me. It's because of Jesus, His death for my sin, and the fact that He rose from death, that I am able to LIVE for Him, LAUGH and rejoice in His goodness and blessings, and most definitely LOVE. Love Him, love my family, love my friends, I can do this because He first loved me! It's a time to celebrate!!! Happy Easter everyone! :D

A day of baking and costume fun!

Yesterday was cake pop day! I went over to the H's to try my/our hand at making cake pops from Bakerella's site. I had 2 terrific helpers, and they dug right in!







They were such troopers! We did great up until it came time to dip the balls into the almond bark. The balls wouldn't stay on the sticks, then we did it without sticks, and the bark was too thick....but who cares, right? What did happen was that they were super yummy treats! Before they were even finished drying, someone's hands were plucking them off the wax paper! We had 3 very eager taste testers, and soon they're weren't any, or hardly any, left!!! WE must've done SOMEthing right! hehe!

And while we were in the kitchen, apparently Caroline was arranging her own fashion show of costumes. First was the "pink princess dress", then the "white princess dress" (as she explained to me later), then she and Baby Kate wanted to be ballerinas. LOL! These are just a few of the pics that were taken of them by whoever picked up my camera at the moment.

the pink princess dress (apparently no one got the white one or the ballerina outfit)

Don't freak out Mom that Caroline's that tall. She's standing on a stool, and the dress is WAY long on her.


Somewhere along the way Sarah Kate became a gypsy.


And she's inherited her sister's knack for not looking at the camera! grrr!

Overall a very fun day! Can't wait to do it again! :D