Loving Life

It had been over a year since I posted  to this blog and I hadn't planned on this post, but I wanted to journal and this seemed the simplest way to do that right now.

There are so many moments from today that I just love!  I was watering our plants and a goldfinch came and landed on our birdbath and for some reason that made me super happy.  Lately we seem to have more birds in our woods than ever, or I am just noticing them even more.  There are so many varieties of songs all at once.

The girls were both at the county fair, so it was just Michael and I for a while.  We spent time doing some gardening together.  The weather was just right as we weeded, watered, planned, etc.  

Michael and I were watching the movie "Parental Guidance" and there is heart-warming scene where the grandparents and grandchildren are playing kick the can in the rain.  Later Olivia came home from the fair and was laughing hard at the deleted scenes and it was a happy moment with her next to me on the couch enjoying the humor. 

Kaylie played her first JV game with Mr. Kelm coaching.  He had her be point guard and I don't know what it is about her playing that position compared to when she plays a guard, but she just kind of seems to be more in her element as point.  She loved the tournament and worked hard.  I was proud of her and love to see her happy.

I took the time to look go through some of the on-line stamping class I am taking and it made me wish to get out my stamps right then and create.  I was excited for the class, and I am thrilled with the inspiring content.

Kaylie came home and told me some about her night at the fair.  I am so thankful for the relationship that we have and do not take it for granted how incredibly fortunate I am that she shares a bunch with me. 

Kaylie

Photo #1 Rolled up in a blanket while playing with Michael and Koah.
Photo #2 Classic: Her pink sweatshirt, big headband, and ipod.
Photo #3 Her and I at Glen Lake on Mother's Day.
Photo #4 It's hard to see, but her face is muddy from rock picking to earn money for camp.
Photo #5 Long jump.

I love you my pet loving, music loving, hard working, athletic girl!

Olivia loved her star party sleepover! Kaylie wanted to make the cake and she did a great job making it star shaped. Cake, ice-cream and punch made quite the after school snack!

There were some glitches like kelly green acrylic paint that splattered on one guest's pale yellow Abercrombie shirt. Long story, but we did have paint shirts! : ) Overall though there was tons of fun. Hiking in the woods, going through the sprinklers, a craft project, roasting marshmallows around a campfire, a movie and popcorn, and the star wands. In the goodie bags for Olivia and her guests were glow in the dark star wands. I loved looking out in our yard that night seeing 6 girls marching in a circle waving their wands up and down and singing a fun little made up chant.

Inspiration Everywhere

There are so many places to get inspiration from, such as blogs, magazines, Pinterest, advertisements, etc. It may even come from your very own scrapping desk! I was picking out some papers to use with my photo and they landed at angles. I noticed that I liked how it looked and decided to design my page with the angles. Inspiration is everywhere. Catalogs, galleries, clothing, and so many more places. Where do you find your inspiration?

My Flower Girl

I have often called my younger daughter Olivia, my flower girl. She loves to pick flowers for me or her Grandma and she also enjoys creating beautiful flower arrangements. Recently she picked these flowers from the woods by our house. Thank you my sweet flower girl!

New Approach to Crops

When attending crops in the past, one of the biggest struggles was deciding what to bring. I have read about many others struggling with the same thing. Recently I went to a friends home to do some scrapbooking and decided to take a new approach. Instead of feeling the need to produce complete pages while at a crop, I decided to just work on certain aspects of pages. It was such a wonderful change!!! I didn't need to try guessing what would be needed, and I had so much less to pack.

The above layouts are a couple examples of what I did. Both pages were created with the Glee Club kit from Studio Calico. Here's what I did at the crop for the top layout: I cropped and double matted the photo, cut and distressed the strips of paper, and added all of the letter stickers to one of the strips. I placed everything back in a Studio Calico crop bag and completed the page a couple days later at home. For the bottom layout, all that I did at my friend's home was to trace and cut the 3 large chevrons. It was a big help to have that part done.

I worked on more pages while there also, but wanted to share these ones and my excitement for how much I loved this new way of looking at things!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Recording Memories

So often I'll believe my photos will help me recall enough of the details that I'd want in our scrapbooks. I begin to create a page and realize there is so much I do not remember. One of my goals in 2012 is to write down some memories, the very day they were created.

Last week we had a beautiful snowfall and my daughters, my Mom, and our dogs, all went on a walk in the woods. I wrote down the memories that night. I was going to share them here, but the funny thing is I already forgot I had written about a private conversation from the walk. I'm so thankful I wrote it down because it was something special that I don't want to forget. Above are some of the photos from that day.

Challenges

I had never visited the Challenge Central forum on Studio Calico's message board until this week. I'm so glad I checked it out! Ursala Schneider challenged us to create a layout with inspiration from Ania-Maria Wolniak. It helped me get a layout done, discover Ania-Maria's wonderful pages, and learn a new technique. Ania-Maria has a water color look to many of her pages. Thanks to the help of the Studio Calico message board, and Marcy Penner, I learned how to create the look of water color drips using Mr. Hueys. I used five colors and it was so much fun!

Love That Feeling

Do you know that great feeling you get when you finally complete something you've been meaning to do for a long time? I love that feeling! It can be about something big or small. In my case, it's just about a little something. I purchased one of Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's chevron stencils back in September. I've been meaning to made a chevron background for a scrap page since then, and I finally did it! I think what I love best, is that it makes me want to do more of those things I've been meaning to do, and believe I will do them. Next on my list is to create a page with inspiration from one of my Pinterest boards. What's on your list?

Happy Winter! Happy Scrapping!

It's winter weather here in Wisconsin where I live. One of the things I like about colder weather is that I get more done inside - like scrapbooking! So far in January I've completed five pages and that makes me happy! Above is one of the pages. I don't know the date yet, but I'd guess in was about 6 years ago. Our neighbor boys, Matthew and Andrew came over and played in a big snow pile with Kaylie and Olivia.

Have a cozy day, wherever you live!

Pretend Sleepers

I thought it would be fun to peek into a file of photos from several years ago and see what I find. I take TONS of photos, so I could've spent a lot of time. Instead I grabbed this one quick. It makes me smile because my girls are so obviously faking it with being asleep. I don't know the story behind it, but I wish I knew. It's photos like these that remind me that one of the important reasons I scrapbook is to record those precious stories in the little moments of life. This year I'm working on doing better at recording the memories that wouldn't be obvious by just looking at the photo. What are some ways you make sure those stories are not forgotten?

Misting!

I seem to be on a misting kick right now! It's just so much fun! There was a misting challenge on the Studio Calico blog that inspired me to create this layout. I used Clay, Sunshine, Huey, and Heirloom Blue Mister Huey's by Studio Calico.
The photos are from our 2010 Door County vacation. We were hiking and took a little break in the lake. My brother-in-law, Craig and my girls decided to hike the rest of the way in the water instead of on the trail. A memorable little adventure they had!

Sources of Inspiration

Here are the details of what I was inspired by in my previous post:

Book - Art Saves, by Jenny Doh
Song - Someone Like You, by Adele (love the piano!)
Catalog- Pottery Barn Teen
Gallery - Studio Calico, member gallery
Blog- Julie Fei-fan Balzer's, balzerdesigns.typepad.com

I hope you enjoy if you check any of these out!

Soooo Inspired!!!

A book, a song, a catalog,
a gallery, and a blog.

I'm so inspired from all of this goodness!

Let me know if you want to know which book, which catalog, etc. inspired me.

In Her Element

My older daughter Kaylie has always been such a nature lover. While on vacation in Door County, WI, my sister took this photo of her. We had just been hiking. Kaylie, Olivia, and their Uncle Craig waded through the shores of Lake Michigan throughout part of the hike. Kaylie was just loving it all, and the photo captured her joy at the end of the adventure.

Scrapfest!!!

Jennifer B., Nicole H., and me.

Jennifer B., Kelly P., and me.

Elizabeth K., me, and Amy T.

Make 'N' Takes

I was able to go to Scrapfest this year!!! It was at The Mall of America and I had a blast! I took a class that I'll share more about in another post, met the wonderful ladies above, watched some demonstrations, and purchased a few items at Archivers.
Jennifer is a friend I met from the Studio Calico community, and I was happy to see her in person at this event. Elizabeth, Nicole, Amy, and Kelly are all scrapbooking stars in my eyes, and it was so fun to meet them in person. Such talented, sweet women!

Our 2011 Vacation - Part One

We went to South Dakota this summer for our family vacation. The above three photos were all taken at Badlands National Park. We all thought it was gorgeous! I had read somewhere to try to go in the evening and get photos at sunset. I practically jumped out of the van before it stopped moving, when I saw the sun setting against a beautiful scene. My family and I had a good laugh over that. I'll be sharing more about our trip in future posts.

10-Year-Old Photography

bathroom rug

tire valve stem

wild flower

My 10-year-old daughter Olivia used our camera while I was out the other day. These are just a few of the many photos she took and I'll hope to share more in the future. I enjoy seeing the subjects she captures and the angles she uses.

I Did It!

I did it! I started a blog! I decided to just begin, rather than waiting until that day when I knew how to take better photos of my layouts and I knew more about creating blogs.

This is one of the pages I entered at the county fair. I entered a total of 15 layouts and had a blast doing so.