flashback friday...Pismo Beach

Seven years later, and I still love this layout:

David & drove down to Pismo Beach for a last minute camping trip with his dad, stepmom, sister, & nephew. Long drive, but great weekend. Thought that's not why I still love it.

I love it for its simplicity. And I love the color combo. Heck, I'm still addicted to kraft & all shades of aqua on my layouts. And I'm still proud of how I covered up my mother-in-laws legs & bottom with the bottle accent!

preschool pages

I've shared before how excited I was to find this awesome digital kit from Cathy Zielske. She has samples here & here.LOVE it! I used it to do Brandon's first year of preschool a few months back, and I just completed his second year of preschool, and Olivia's first.

Here is Brandon's second year of pre-k:

For this school year I did three pages (plus the pocket page for work I want to save); there are four collage pages with the kit, and if you have a decent working knowledge of PSE you can easily alter the shapes & sizes of the photos.

You can also easily change the color of the numbers on each photo. They come in white, but as you can see in photo #1 below, it wouldn't show. So I "replaced" the color in PSE & changed it to black. Perfect.

I'm so pleased with how these pages have turned out so far. So easy! I love to scrap, but sometimes I want something simple, you know? I've done layouts featuring many of these photos already.

(I didn't notice this when I put the pages together, but did just now: Olivia is wearing the same darn dress in almost all of her pictures! I swear, they were all taken on different days...we got that dress at Target last year for like $10 & she wears it every chance she gets!)

Project LIFE 7/11 - 7/18

 

someone didn't want to take a nap!

I finally picked up a slip & slide for the kids at Target. Abbie wanted nothing to do with it, but Brandon & Olivia have been having so much fun on it every evening. Unfortunately it's way too hot in the afternoon to use it on most days, since our back is in full sun all day long.

Abbie loves her doggy

Happy second birthday my dear sweet Abigail! May every wish come true, today & forevermore.

xoxo, mommy

yummy ice cream! Mama & Papa got this fun ice cream set for Abbie for her birthday

we finally have something to harvest: cucumbers, a jalapeno, and tomatoes

april 2010

I finally finished! This layout has been sitting on my desk for over a week because I couldn't think of what to write. Thank you Brenda for another great layout!

For my journaling I used the font Gill Sans and 2Ps GG Love Me for the flower accent (lowercase q). The title letters were blank chipboard from American Crafts that I inked to the correct color. Both the ink & letters came in the kit from Green Tangerines.

Here is an example of the paper cutting I was talking about last week. I traced around the edges of the butterfly & clouds with a pencil & then cut along that line. I wanted them to be outlined by the original background paper, so I couldn't cut along the lines of the image.

I punched the circle flowers out with my 1 3/8" circle punch & cut around the turquoise flower.

I love this sketch & kit. And the paper really is a more summer line, so I'm glad I have quite a bit leftover for another layout.

april sneaks

I've been working on a new layout for the past couple of days; the month in review kit for April from Green Tangerines. It's another one of Brenda's designs, and so far I haven't strayed to far from it.

It includes fun paper from We R Memory Keepers that can be used in strips or cut apart. As you can kind of see above, I've cut a few shapes out of the patterened paper. In the past, I've always free-handed it around whatever shape I was cutting out. This time I lightly outlined each shape with a pencil first & cut on that guideline. Oh my gosh was it easier! I was actually pleased with the results (for a change!).

I'm hoping to get this layout finished soon...Right now I'm trying to come up with my journaling. I love doing these month in review pages, so I need to get better about taking notes throughout the month & writing something to sum it up at the end of the month so I don't have to come up with something three months later.

Project LIFE 7/4 - 7/10

  

"Dancing" while waiting for fireworks at the Fourth of July block party by my parents' house in Rocklin.

We watched our neighbors' dog Winkie for a week while they were in Oklahoma. Abbie was a little scared of him when they were in the same room, but she *loved* saying "hi" to him thru the window!

A fun day at Promontory Park in El Dorado Hills for Alexis Webster's 4th birthday. The water park wasn't working, but that didn't keep the kids from having a blast!

Our basket of bath toys.

The girls being silly & sisterly, listening to music on my i-phone.

Yes, that's stripes and plaid and orange socks. Brandon picked it out.

Since Brandon & Olivia were spending the night at Mama & Papa's, we decided to suprise them with new rooms! Brandon now has his own Star Wars room, and Olivia is sharing a room with Abbie. We made a spur of the moment decision to surprise them so we didn't get Brandon's room painted or anything yet, but the kids were thrilled just the same!

Project LIFE, 6/20-7/3 (plus a few make-ups)

Tuesday, May 11

Our sippy cup collection.

Friday, June 11

While at Costco, we decided to grab a pizza for lunch & head over to the Rocklin Water Park for an impromptu picnic. Olivia didn't care that she was fully dressed & ran thru the water anyways!

Sunday, June 20

Happy Father's Day!

We picked out a hamburger patty maker at Sur la Table for him, and also a silicone baster brush. To celebrate we bbq'd steaks at my parents' house.

Monday, June 21

Our first day of Breakaway. Brandon got to go up on the stage during rally time. Very cute!

Tuesday, June 22

Day two of Breakaway, our church's week long summer camp. I'm working in ECE Arts & Crafts for the 4th year, so I was in the art room that Olivia comes to with her small group.

Wednesday, June 23

Breakaway, day three. Brandon & the purple seals at Rec. To his left: TT, JO, and NF. We've known T & J (and their moms) since they were about a year old! We were in a playgroup together at church. Now we're in MOPS together, along with N's mom. The kids all had a great week together!

Thursday, June 24

Day four of Breakaway (and finally a picture with Abbie in it too!). Taken on our way in that morning.

Friday, June 25

Olivia's first dance recital. "Heavenly Hop" from Anything Goes.

Saturday, June 26

Grandma Nancy & Grandma Mary came to our hotel to have some time with the kids while we were at Amy & Matt's wedding in Riverside. Olivia *LOVES* her great-grandma!

Sunday, June 27

We drove from Anaheim down to Carlsbad so the kids could go to Legoland. The kids had a good time, though David & I were slightly unimpressed.

Monday, June 28

Disneyland! Brandon, Olivia, & I spent almost all day there. David took Abbie back to our hotel for a nap in the afternoon, so the three of us got to go on a couple of rides & watch the parade together.

Tuesday 6/29

Coming home up I-5, somewhere outside of Gustine, CA.

(We also went to Disney this morning, and I thought of using one of those photos. But I thought that this photo would describe our LONG drive home better. And, well, 50 years from now Disneyland will still look like Disneyland. But will I-5 be just farm country? Or a bunch of master planned neighborhoods like everywhere else in California?)

Wednesday, June 30

The girls decided to put on "a show" for David while I was at work.

Thursday, July 1

The Folsom Cattle Drive

This is the third time we've gone to the annual Cattle Drive preceding the Folsom Rodeo, but the first time we witnessed a bunch of "crazy cows" running onto the lawn at the park (and down the street into the neighborhood surrounding the parade route).

Friday, July 2

Our first tomatoes from the garden, Sun Gold. I love fresh tomatoes from the garden, and last year our we didn't get any! I'm so happy to see our veggies doing well (so far!) this year.

Saturday, July 3

The Webster's last summer party...so why a picture of Abbie eating Jell-O? Because she had been sick all day long, so David took Brandon & Olivia out to Shingle Springs while Sicky & I stayed home.

fashion tips by brandon

Wendy Hagen came & spoke at our MOPS group this last year. Since then I've been following her blog and enjoying her weekly fashion tips featuring her kids (that are about the same age as mine).

This week, I present Brandon, age five.

Tip: If you are going to wear an orange striped shirt, make sure that the shorts you pick out include one of the colors from your shirt. And if you insist on wearing socks in summer, at least match them to your shirt.

And by all means, if you are going to wear something this gaudy, let your mother take a picture so she can share it with her friends now, your girlfriend later :)

January :)

Now that it's July, I thought I'd scrap my January pictures!

Brenda used this layout for her Month in Review kit for Green Tangerines in February. I didn't get that kit, so I decided I'd just copy her idea. I've used this layout before, and I really like how you can fit a lot of pictures in it, along with some patterned paper.

I also inked the edges of the patterned paper this time around. I like how it adds an "edge".

And with this layout, I've used my February kit for six layouts plus three cards! I did add-on some cardstock, because I use a LOT of that. But I also still have quite a bit of stuff leftover for whatever I want :)

flashback friday...i loved her first

Okay, so I haven't been that great lately about posting my project life photos (haven't edited them yet!) or any new layouts (haven't done too many). But at least I can be on top of my flashback layouts, right? I mean, they've been done for years!

Since David & I were just at a wedding..."I loved her first".

From what I recall, that song came out right around the time Olivia was born, in 2006. I snapped these pics of David & her that summer and immediately thought of that song. The lyrics are the "journaling" on the left hand page.

Anyhow...so we were at a wedding in Riverside two weeks ago (that's why we made the trip to Disneyland), and I said to David, you know, no matter what Olivia says, you HAVE to dance to her with that song! I have a scrapbook page devoted to it already :)

Enjoy your weekend! And I've got some stuff I've been working on that I should get posted next week :)

flashback friday...the fourth

My Fourth of July layout from 2006.

My friend Holly had everyone over to her house for a day in the pool, followed by fireworks in the cul de sac. Olivia was just over two months old; one of my favorite photos is the one on the top center of the right hand page (with my sister). The photo to the right of that was taken during the fireworks...and yes, Brandon is asleep! He was about 16 months old, and the guys were setting fireworks off about 20 feet from us!