Some Color Me Daisy and more!

I've got some long awaited Color Me Daisy layouts for ya! This July kit is sooo much fun, perfect for my monkeys! You may also notice that all these LOs are of SK. Well, as Mom and I were cleaning up, painting and organizing my scrap space, I realized that I hadn't made NEAR as many LOs of SK as I have of Caroline. it's not that I don't take photos of SK, it's just that for some reason they don't get scrapped. SO these are all of her. Some are brand new, others are, well, from 2007 (ahem....the year she was born).

"New found freedom"



Yep, you guessed it. SK right after she learned to crawl. (Bad mommy for not scrapping these sooner!)

"Summertime Splash!"



Shots from the kiddie pool. I'm not so sure I've seen her THIS excited. Ever. The kit comes with 2 sheets of wonderful fabric, and I decided to make my own ruffle and add it along the bottom.

"Age of Discovery"





This light table at the Creative Discovery Museum is like a magnet to/for SK. She could stand at that table for hours. Unfortunately for her, her sister is obsessed with the dress-up stage in the back so we have to divide our time evenly.

But apparently SK's not opposed to dress-up either. Here's how she chose to go out of the house today. What a riot!

This lovely ensemble consisted of Dora (Christmas) pajama pants, the top half of a puppy dog Halloween costume, and her Baby Banz sunglasses. Nice huh? Her sister's only a tad bit better.


Cinderelly pajama top and Sleepy Beauty princess dress. Lovely. But then she decided to come inside. Apparently she'd rather watch paint dry. Literally.


(Sigh.) Just another day in the office for me!

July 4th recap and sketch #28

Welcome to the 1st installment of my favorite 4th of July/vacation at the lake photos! I've taken SO many, that I want to share just a few.

First day--they both fell asleep on the boat, so it turned into a marathon boatride.



Then Friday (the 3rd) we watched fireworks off the dock curtesy of the neighbors next door. ;)

On Saturday the 4th we put the girls in their pjs topped off with their life jackets, and went out on the boat to watch fireworks over the water. No shots from that, because I wanted to "be" in the moment.

Before we went out on the boat though, Dad and Kathy had their annual July 4th bash. LOTS of people, TONS of food, and some good quality moments too!





K, so those are all from the 4th. We ended up staying another 5 days at the lake. I'll share my faves from those days soon.

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Last but certainly not least, the new sketch is up at 52 sketches! This one's sketch #28, and my first official reveal as a DT member!



"1 Wet Sunday"

I just LOVE Julie's sketches, and this one was no exception. You'll probably remember these photos from our Sunday frolic in our over-soaked backyard. The thing I loved about this sketch was that it allowed me to use multiple wallet-sized photos, while still cramming in lots of paper too! :D

The deadline for this sketch is next Sunday, July 19th. And one winner with receive a $50 GC to www.scrapbookexpress.com. I don't know a single person who wouldn't like a $50 GC somewhere, so get those entries in so you're eligible for that fantastic prize!

That's all for now! Hope you had a great weekend! I sure did--nice and relaxing! :D

Babies!!!

The proud aunt in me HAS to show off my new nephews, so bear with me.

Baby A, Andrew, came in to the world Wednesday the 8th somewhere around 8pm. And he looks exactly like his daddy.

Andrew is doing great, and at last report, is to be going home sometime later today.

He was quickly followed by his brother Baby B, Gabriel, at 8:11pm.
As you can tell, Gabe had some breathing trouble because his lungs weren't quite ready for delivery. But he's been doing better lately, completely off the C-pap machine, breathing "normal" air, and hanging in there. They give him another day or 2 in the NICU, then he'll be able to go home and join his brother.

It was really sweet and endearing to watch my sister be a mom. The nurture and concern came very naturally for her. Her gentle spirit will be a great asset as she wades through the uncertain waters of 1st time motherhood. I'm very proud of her.

It was a bittersweet moment to do a little impromptu photoshoot with them, because Gabe was missing. But this are still some of my favorite shots from the day.




Hopefully I'll get to visit them very soon, and get some snaps of the boys together!

Well hello there!

Good grief I feel like I've been away for forever!! Seriously! At midnight last night (or this morning) it was so nice to walk in to a freshly cleaned house that was actually meticulously cleaned 10 days ago by my wonderful mom. Yep. That's right. The girls and I were gone for almost 10 days....some to the lake, then the trip to Jackson to visit my brand new nephews. And I've got TONS of photos to show for it. (sigh) It'll be a lot of photo-editing that I just don't have much time for. I also feel so behind. We have no food, and no clean clothes, but the house is clean! Yippeee! And it's BEEN clean, and STAYED clean. It's the little things that count, right? AND on top of that, I have a wonderful new scraproom that Mom also helped me put together! It's sooooo nice! Not finished, but nice.

I guess I'll start with those photos since they're easy to access, and chronologically they DID happen first.

A few little facts first.
1. My scraproom isn't really a "room" at all, more like a nook.
2. My Dad tore down a wall, and we converted a NEVER used bathroom in my laundry room (who puts a bathroom in a laundry room?!) into my little space.
3. So far we've only painted and gotten organized. There's still LOTS I want to do to it, but this'll do for now.






Things to note:
--that shower curtain actually hides our hot water heater. Had to get creative with that one.
--my albums will NOT stay there. But they're there for now.
--Future plans include shabby-ing up a brass chandelier that was original to the house, only it'll be spray painted white and shabby-ed.
--I see some fabric purchases in my near future, but I can't decide between
Sandi Henderson's cherries from her Farmers Market line:

or the Heather Bailey floral from her Pop Garden line.

I can't decide because the cherries seem a little too matchy-matchy and they're pretty trendy, but then the floral seems so formal...
Other plans running through my head include a claw-and-ball high backed chair covered in the fabric I pick out, and then an inspiration/bulletin board also decked out in some fabric. But like I said, we've only just begun. But it makes me soooo happy just to walk in there! And how many people can say that about their laundry rooms?! hehe!

k, enough for now. When I come up for air I'll have more photos ready. ;) Have a wonderful day!!!

More fun news!

Well, it's just been a week of fun news, now hasn't it?! We just got word that my sister delivered the twins about an hour or so ago, and as far as we know, everyone's doing fine. Baby Andrew is doing great, perfectly healthy. Baby Gabe is having a wee bit of trouble breathing, and is in the NICU, but expected to be okay. So I'm officially an aunt (again)!! :D :D :D I'm soooo happy that they're here and doing well! We go up to see them all in the hospital tomorrow, so stay tuned for more pics!

In scrappy news, the August edition of Creating Keepsakes came out yesterday, and guess what? I made the front page of the Seasonal Solutions column!!! Woohoo! I actually haven't seen it yet, but my friend Tab scanned in her copy since these are photos of her kids when they were at the lake with us last summer.



Yay!!! So fun! :D I plan to pick up a copy of it on our way to the hospital tomorrow. So overall, a very fun day with some great news! It doesn't get too much better than this!

EEEeeeeeek!!!

I can't tell you how long I've been waiting to share this! Last week I got a call (and missed it) from Bella Blvd. asking me to be one of their upcoming Artistas!! I'm sooooooo excited about this amazing opportunity! Here's the official announcement. It's so fun to see some familiar names on that list too! :D I can't WAIT to get started!!!

Aquarium

Today was Mom's last day to stay with us. Not only was she a TREMENDOUS help in setting up and organizing my scrap space, but it was also good quality time to share together. Before she left she'd promised the girls she'd take them to the aquarium and this morning she made full on her promise. Here are some fun shots I got along the way!












Needless to say we had a great time!!!

Gotta jet. Lots to do with very little time!