today, I organize

Today, I am going to try to organize my little creative space. I haven't really done any thing but move piles around this whole month. I did manage to get a couple more LOs completed though. The first is Evan with his "Lil Pumpkin". He loved his mini Jack 'O Lantern.
Supplies: Fancy Pants patterned paper, letters are Making Memories & the epoxy sticker is Basic Grey. Here's one of the girls at the pumpkin patch. Patterned paper is KI Memories, CB stickers are Making Memories & Basic Grey. I cut out the branch from the PP.

So...today I try to organize & hopefully later I will have photos to post of a very clean creative space!

Calm before the storm

I have actually had time to scrapbook this week! I am going to do my best to use my stash! For the "Yes my Queen" LO I used Martha Stewart paper as well as brads & epoxy sticker from Basic Grey (I got a killer deal at Big Lots)

This photo may look familiar. This is the Christmas photo I used for our Christmas cards as well as ornaments that I gave to the Grandmas. I had fun with this LO adding snowmen, felt, tags & sparking brads. So fun!

I hope to get many more LOs done this week. The kids are at the cabin this week with my folks & the cousins. We are going to meet up with them on Saturday right before we leave for Disneyland! I am just trying to rest, relax & create!

my new lens

This is a look I get often! Evan is the boy with a hundred faces. He loves flashing me a silly mug!

Thankfully though I can usually get a sweet picture too!

I took a few shots with my new lens....I am in love. I can't wait to use it in action at Disneyland! Just in case I didn't mention it before, I bought an 85mm f/1.8 for Christmas. My in laws gave me some Christmas money and then I added a little of my own to purchase this little piece of Heaven on Earth. The bokeh is beautiful & the pics are so crisp.

Christmas is coming

Wow, things have been crazy around here! I am sure that many echo those same sentiments. My scrapbooking time has been limited (if not almost nonexistent). I did manage to do a couple LOs though. Here is one of my sweet nephew.

I used Fancy Pants. This little guy is so super cute, love those big eyes!

Well, as December races by in a blur I pray that we all focus on what is important. I look forward to spending Christmas in the snow with my family and enjoying traditions old and new. I want to focus on the birth of a babe and what he brought to the world. Keeping Christ in Christmas and celebrating the King. My wish for the world is: Joy, love and peace to all!

Christmas cards have been ordered and they should be here soon! I already have the house decorated & we are ready for Christmas! It's the most wonderful time of the year after all. I was able to get a great shot of the kids in front of the tree with out to much effort. The kids cooperated and everything. I have been listening to Christmas music for a few months now & I am ready to start singing carols & watching all of those fabulous Christmas movies!
It's the first Black Friday in forever that I haven't been out there shopping. Today we are going to take it easy!

Happy Halloween!

Argh! Evan makes an adorable Captain Hook! Sophia as Cleopatra.

The kids always love dressing up for Halloween & they always look adorable! I took a few shots before school on Friday. I am hoping to get some more photos taken Sat. or Sunday. With these photos I actually used some amazing actions. My favorite is called "Fresh Color", I think that I have found a new addiction! They are fantastic & so super easy to use! I look forward to collecting many more!

sharing a layout

My sweet boy. Had fun with this LO, went crazy with the brads. All of the paper is Fancy Pants. I love the bright colors...so typical of Evan! When it comes to my scrapping I tend to go in creative waves. There will be days, weeks even, when I don't scrapbook one photo. Even though I am not actively scrapping I am almost always playing around with photos or learning more about photography & photo editing. I think that one of my favorite things is seeing the transformation that my scrapping has gone through. I guess that's one of the things I love about this craft..the growth & change is evident in my albums.

It finally feels like Fall!

What says that it's finally fall more than a trip to the pumpkin patch! We went to the pumpkin patch with our dear friends & had so much fun! Here's a picture of Fia & her BFF. Such lovely ladies!

Here's to prove what a good friend my GF is, I asked her to sit on a pumpkin for this pic & she actually did it for me! Thanks Stace!
Here's a pic of the whole gang with their scarecrow adopted family, we especially loved the pig!

Sweet Sid, she was more cooperative than Fia, as far as pictures go! I think Sophia is a little over the whole photography thing! :)

Meet Wilbur! I loved this pig...so stinking cute!

We love Bishop's Pumpkin Patch! It was pretty crowded but we still had an amazing time! I took some great shots of the kids. So many great memories made. We can't wait to carve the pumpkin. The kids wanted to carve it when we got home but I reminded them that carved pumpkins really don't have a long life. They decided to wait till a couple days before Halloween! Good choice guys, no one like a moldy Jack-O-Lantern!

Richardson Springs

Here's the whole group. It was so much fun getting to know everyone a little bit better!

Here's one of my mom & her sister (my aunt) I was thrilled to be able to get a few good pics.

It was such a blessing to be able to go to the retreat with my mom. Love that I was able to get some pictures of her, she is usually the one behind the camera. The one thing that I do regret is that we didn't get a pic of the two of us! Maybe next time.
Richardson Springs was so beautiful...so many great photo ops! I wish that I would have had the extra time to really explore but, since I was part of the music team I didn't really have the down time. Hopefully next year!

more vacation layouts

I am still working on vacation LOs & I am having so much fun with this awesome kit from MME. Definitely the best 19.99 spent on scrapbooking supplies! I can't wait to get the whole album completed and then I can calculate how much I spent on each page. Yes, I am a dork! I have started scanning & stitching my LOs at the nudging of my hubby. I love the vibrancy & detail of the LOs but I cut off the tiniest bit off of the sides. I am still mastering the process! For the Tidal Pool Lo I used my 2$ cuttlebug Die that I scored at Big Lots. Love that!

Love this paper! I added a few rub ons from Me & My Big Ideas, plus a few flowers & gem brads. I am still debating whether I want to do a title or not!

The kids had so much fun watching the Elephant seals near San Simeon.

Summer vacation: Layouts Galore!

I am in love with Peachycheap.com, I ordered an amazing MME kit from them. Perfect for my vacation LOs. I am tickled pink! I was so inspired that I knocked out three LO's. OK, so this one isn't from the kit...but I just thought that I would include it. Love that the kiddos get along (most of the time). The pp is from DCWV, the chipboard is Elsie for KI Memories (a Tuesday morning find).

Ok, back to the beach. Sweet Elli loved the smooth stones at Montana De Oro. She spent forever just stacking them into Papa's waiting hands. Too cute! You'll note at the bottom that I tried my hand at selective coloring.

River & Rayne, these California cuties are the kids of my dear friend Cyndi. They drove up for the day to hang out with the kids at the beach. They loved the boogie board. I have so many more boogie board shots! Needless to say there will be a couple more boogie board LO's in the future. I loved the surfboards at the bottom. To add a little dimension I added pop dots to a few extra surfboards. I really like the way it turned out. Love this kit!

Great weekend

Just thought that I would post a few pics from last weekend. We had a wonderful time at the cabin with my folks. Enjoyed the weather & had fun taking in the local sights. I am still looking for the best way to get true skin tones....AHHHH, I am thinking that I may need to take a photography class or something. I am may be taking a beg. photo class through the local Jr. College. I am just not sure whether I should do beginning or intermediate. I guess I will start with beg. & if it's to easy I can switch. They have lessons on PSE as well so I am hoping that I will be able to pick the instructors brain. The instructor is a local photographer & she has been in the business for 25 years so hopefully she will be a able to answer some of my silly questions!

Love the way the I caught the light in this photo, it just makes me smile & think of the cabin. Love it!
Here's the hubs. I really need to figure out how to fix his glasses to remove the glare!

Ok, so here's the big skin issue! Sophia appears yellow. I tried to cool the temp but she came off to blue. The automatic skin corrector that is in PSE always makes things a little red , I just want to find a happy skin color! I guess that will be my goal for the week! I will be surfing for skin tutorial this weekend!

Here we are again....a little yellow...Argh, so frustrating! I was going for a sun glow look not jaundice. :(

Back to school Lo's

I thought that I would post the LOs that I completed from Friday afternoon. It was pure bliss being able to "just scrap" I am tempted to do the same thing today....we shall see! I had already posted most of these pics but now they have come full circle and they are ready to go in albums. I still have to get Evan's school year album so I can start highlighting his educational journey! Sophia's school album is going strong & I am looking forward to adding this LO. I must admit this picture is not the best of this LO but I just wanted to get in posted & I was not very patient. I wish that the title showed up just a bit better, it looks more striking IRL & stands out so much more. In this picture it really just disappears! Oh well!

I actually completed this LO last night with the KI memories friendship stack. I got the stack at Tuesday Morning plus the matching embellishments. I love TM for scrapbook deals! I find my best deals there!

Today, I am going to scrap.

I have made up my mind, I plan on getting down to business! I am going to use my hour & a half while the kids are in school to actually create rather than clean. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to this afternoon! Till them however I decided to post a pic from Donner, since fall is upon us I wanted to linger a little longer on an image of summer. This is my "Happy Place" an image from my childhood that will forever remind me of the summers we spent at our cabin. I am so thankful that my kids will be able to have those same summer memories. This weekend we are going to head up there & I am sure that the next time we visit after that, the cabin will be covered with a thick blanket of snow. Till then we will relish the last few days in the sun & time on the lake!

chalk it up

It was my turn to host the challenge over on the CK mb. I had had this idea floating around in my head for a while & there is nothing like a public challenge to get things done! I pulled out the old chalks & let em fly. Here is my LO:

I used a stencil that I cut out with my Cricut "Life is a Beach"to create the shell border. I also used that cart to cut out the star fish & sand dollars. I highlighted the cut outs with chalk & used a resistance technique for the title. Honestly I am not sure why I don't pull my chalk out more often! I think that I may have to start participating in more challenges so I can really make the most out of all of the supplies that I have been hoarding over the years! LOL

Lo form the crop

I had fun at my crop Saturday night but I have to admit, I didn't get all that much done! I was able to get two LOs done. Here is one of them, I still have to put some finishing touches on the other one. The best thing about crops for me is always the visiting as well as introducing newbies to the art of scrapbooking. Our crops generally range in ability as far as the scrappers go & Saturday was no exception. I am sometimes dismayed by people's comments about themselves when they are just starting out . They feel that they should be able to instantly create masterpieces that are worthy of publication but like most things when you are stating out...that's just not the case! I hate to hear things like "I am just not creative" "I can't do this it takes to much time, money, etc" They beat themselves up and stress over everything. I even had a gal tell me that she was having fun but not sure that she was doing it right....What? There is no wrong way...what matters most is that it's your way! Enjoy the process, relish the memories & celebrate your family & it's history. That's what scrapbooking is about to me.

My little guy with his new hat. He just had to have it, silly boy. He does look adorable though...I love it!

Today I will be getting ready for my crop tomorrow night w/ the ladies of Grace. Can't wait to scrap with them again, it has been all summer since we have scrapped together. I will be working on my vacation photos & I plan on narrowing them down to specific LOs that I want to get done. When it comes to crops, less is more as far as supplies are concerned. I want to just take what I need for each LO. Sure, it takes a little extra planning but it is so worth it to me. I am going to plan each Lo & make a kit for each so that I just need to bring the basics & not my entire scrapbook area. So, after I drop the big boy off at preschool, I will snap open a Diet Pepsi & get to planning! Hopefully I will have some great LOs to post next week!

First week of school

Evan is loving preschool! He is so tired after his class, poor guy's used to a little nap during the day! Here we have the yearly porch shot. He doesn't look excited but he is. He has been wearing that back pack since his Grandma bought it for him, silly goose!

Here's the girl, so excited to get going & see all of her friends. This year she is lucky enough to have all her besties in class with her. All of them were in Kindergarten together too! I just pray that the fourth grade girly drama is kept to a minimum!

Looking forward to the schedule to settle back in so I can get some sort of normal routine going. It turns out that I will have about an hour & a half of daily free time. I am looking forward to all of the projects, books, friends, photos & everything else that that extra mommy time will provide!

I am shooting in manual!

f/5.7 1/64 ISO 800 Ok, so I have a DSLR & have been trying to really learn how to use it. Yesterday I challenged myself to shoot manually & here are a few shots. I still have so much to learn! I love the fact that I am starting to understand it though! I should add that these shots are not SOOC, I pse'd them a little. I did a clean edit though & only really adjusted for skin tone (which I am still trying to figure out!)

f/5 1/49 ISO 500

f/5.6 1/60 ISO 500

Finally, here is a LO I just completed with my sis & my brother's little girl. The goal was to get a pic comparing their red hair. Compared to Elli's bright coif Erica's barely even looks red!

School starts in a little over a week. We are enjoying the last few free days of summer. I love the easy, laid back days of summer but I am not going to lie...the thought of school gets me a little giddy. I always love the "newness" of it all, the fresh start, clean slate & unexpected bliss of it all. The crazy thing of it all, is that up until last week I was eager to send the little guy to preschool. I was imagining scrapbooking, reading, projects & coffee with the girls, but lately I have experienced an emotional pause. I, ultimately, am not ready. The true question of course is...is he ready? I imagine that the first week of school is going to be hard on momma!

Love seeing the two of these guys together...so glad that they are such great friends!