April project kit!

Jack's Banner -the April Project kit for Cocoa Daisy goes up for sale on April 1st. You can find it here and just to let you all know it is a pretty limited quantity this month. Happy April 1st!

Finding balance.

I am at a point in my life where I am searching for balance. There are times in our lives when things change and we suddenly find that we need to make different choices and try to make it all fit together as best we can. Right now I am trying very hard to do this - I need to do this for my own sanity :) One aspect of that is trying to find "me time" we all have this battle and up until recently I was putting up a pretty good fight, then my itty bitty (Zach) decided he no longer needed naps and really does not like the idea of "quiet time". In fact what usually happens is he comes into my scrap room (which is where I like to spend my "me time") bringing with him whatever he can carry and climbs into the chair with mommy demanding attention. Now I know life could be a lot worse than a sweet little boy wanting his mommy, but I crave some time to recharge, to just sit for a moment and "be still" so to speak. I need to get back to getting up really early I think and change the afternoon routine around a bit. So I am up for the challenge of finding this balance, of course the minute I do life will change again and it will all start over with a new set of rules :) But in the mean time I will cherish the little interruption of this sweet angle (and I am sure he has wings -I just have not found them yet) as he drags all his blankies into my room and falls asleep at my feet. :)

Project kit sneak

Well here it is! A little peek at the April project kit "Jack's Banner". The idea for this came from Tricia's little boy Jack - who wondered when he could have a banner like his sister had (she had the banner from last spring). So I came up with this one, made just for little boys! I'll post pics of the whole banner on the first of April when it goes up for sale. And as always a full set of instructions is included with the kit.

Cocoa Daisy April sneaks!

Here are some little sneak peeks using the April Cocoa Daisy kit. I bought some of the add-ons for this kit and I am so glad I did - the papers especially, so many fun ones!







Have a great evening!

The essentials?

I had to run to the store Friday morning to get a few things and when I got home and unpacked them I had to laugh at the "essentials" I had purchased for the weekend. So here is a photo of what I brought home:


Now later that afternoon Greg came home with a few things of his own - I thought it was priceless the difference in our "essentials" so I took a picture of what he bought:


Interesting what these items say about us :) Have a great weekend everyone! I promise some Cocoa Daisy sneaks tomorrow!

Random is my life!

I am so glad it's Wednesday! Not for any real specific reason I guess, other than it's not Tuesday anymore ;) Zach got sick yesterday afternoon, but thankfully was fine the rest of the night. Poor little guy was so upset, I think he just had an upset tummy, plain and simple. Yesterday was also a very warm day here in MI, however we must live right in the middle of some special Mother Nature designed wind tunnel, if the weather man says it is going to be "breezy" or "windy" it is TORNADIC (I know made up word) here! Zach and I had tried to venture out after lunch but that didn't last too long :)

On some scrappy news, I posted my layout for MMM here. A little background on this one: As Masters we receive boxes of new product from manufacturers, with the hope that we will try it and give some public feed back about it. Cool little perk I know!! Well I was so excited when I got this box from American Crafts and knew the red and pink would work perfect with this picture of me and Amber. I was very happy with the layout -until I put my nasty chicken scratch handwriting on it! I know so many of you out there in scrappy land feel it is important to preserve a loved ones handwriting and you are right -but just not on my layouts! I promise to leave my children some notes or something :) Once in a while I can write a little date or around the edge of something and it looks decent, but honestly most of the time it is just plain BAD to look at. So my apologies for the bad journaling on the above posted layout and I promise to expose you to as little of my handwriting as possible in the future :) On a side note - the bad handwriting is a total stubborn/control issue, when I was little and I learned to print, which I did very well, the teachers insisted I do cursive, so me, being that little stubborn girl decided "fine you want cursive, try and read this!" and the bad writing just stuck with me. I know what you are thinking -and I wonder where Zach gets it from? Hmmmm......maybe his Momma!!!!

I am starting to work on April's project kit and will give you a little hint of what it is about. You may remember the Spring Banner that I did last April, well a lot of people used this banner in their little girl's rooms and instead of adding the word "spring" to it they added the little girl's name. Well this April we decided that it was the boy's turn to have a banner with their name on it! That is all the hints I am giving for now ;) can't wait to share it with you!

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

A little Saturday randomness.

I am so bummed! Today the MI sisters are getting together for a crop and as luck would have it I am feeling a bit under the weather :( and as Nate's kindergarten teacher used to say "Colds are nice -but we don't need to share them." So no cupcakes, chatting, scrapping, making Sonja laugh, watching Julie push paper around -he he, talking with Nicole and Greta, and of course no jumping in front of brick walls for me. I miss you guys too!! So here is wishing for the next time.

I am hoping the meds kick in and I can get a little scrapping done here at home. I neglected to post a couple links earlier this week so here goes: My MMM blog post. I posted a fun trick on how to create photo corners over at the Cocoa Daisy blog.

And one last bit of scrappy news -if you have the April edition of Creating Keepsakes magazine - check out page 61, you may see a familiar face :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

What do you get....

..when you give two women a house to themselves,


lots of chocolate,


some adult beverages,

and plenty of time to scrapbook?

One VERY fun Saturday! Love you girl!!

March Cocoa Daisy layouts.

I think it's about time I remembered to post these :)





To create the title I just traced the chipboard letters, colored them in with colored pencils and then added a layer of crystal lacquer. This is a great way to make a title with exactly the color that you want.

NO WAY!

There I am just walking down the aisle at Michael's and I spot this:


I just stood there with my mouth hanging open! When I sent in the invitation to Scrapbook Trends I had no idea that they were going to use it on the cover -what an awesome surprise!!

Great giveaways at Cocoa Daisy!!

Here is the official rules for this one:

Don't miss your chance to win a $500 American Crafts prize package!


Now's the time to start your subscription or share your love of Cocoa Daisy with your friends!! New subscribers and subscribers referring friends will be entered to win. Read on for details:

There are two ways to be entered into the drawing for this HUGE prize package:
sign up for a new 3 or 6 month subscription at Cocoa Daisy during the month of March and be entered to win.
refer a friend, or two or three! And for each friend you refer, who signs up for a subscription by March 31st, you AND your friend will be entered into a drawing for an amazing American Crafts prize package worth $500. There is no limit on the number of friends you can refer.

And as if that wasn't enough, we will also be giving away a free April kit to two other lucky winners!

If you are referring a friend, be sure to have them mention your name in the comments section of the order form and both of you will be entered into the contest.

You can also find out about some great giveaways from Stacy Julian, Kelli Crowe and Big Picture Scarbooking here.

Lots of great stuff - so make sure to enter! Have a great Wednesday!

Woo Hoo it's Monday!!!

I adore Mondays - a new week, a fresh start and every Monday morning BOTH boys are in school! Zach has three-school for a couple hours and it is so nice to have 2 whole hours all to myself!

So first off here is my blog post for MMM. A fun little card I made for my friend Jennifer who just had her first baby, a beautiful little girl named Greenly.

And a few fun Etsy finds:

I spotted this print on Cathy Zielske's blog and just fell in love with it. Can't wait to get it framed and hanging in my scrap room.


I ordered a bunch of these sweet little tiles as gifts this Christmas and of course had to have a couple for myself. This one is my favorite. I bought chains for mine at Michaels - they are a smaller size ball chain so they look a little more dainty - which I like.


This is what it looks like on:


Have a great Monday!!