Sunday, June 28, 2009

Whew! Made it just in time!

After a late couple nights I am thrilled to share the July Project kit for Cocoa Daisy!! A little history on how this kit came to be: Ever since I did this mini last July I knew I wanted to create a travel album project kit and during CHA winter I found the perfect product to include in it! Originally I was going to include photos from our 2008 trip to the Outer Banks, but then I saw this post by the incredibly talented Anna. I loved the idea of getting an album all ready before your vacation and simply adding the photos and journaling when you get home. Of course there is no rule that says you have to do it ahead of time, you can use the kit to create your mini album all at once with photos from a vacation you have already taken. It's entirely up to you :)

I did include a completed page (day 1) just to show how the album would look once it has pictures in it.







This is how the pages look without photos, I included pages for both vertical and horizontal photos.


The album comes with a pocket page which will be perfect for holding memorabilia.



Kit goes up for sale on the first and a full set of instructions is included. :) Have a great Monday!

Friday, June 26, 2009

July's Project Kit.

Introducing "Travel Ahead" July's project kit for Cocoa Daisy!! This is just a little sneak peek of what is going to be in the kit - lots of new goodies from the Making Memories and Little Yellow Bicycle travel lines. The reason I am calling this Travel "ahead" is that this mini album is something you will complete BEFORE you go on vacation, yup, you will have it all done and ready for your photos when you get back from your trip! So no excuses as to why you never got around to recording this summer's family vacation :) The papers and embellishments work great for either a road trip or a tropical vacation and the album even has a pocket page in it to hold memorabilia.

I will be digging into this tonight (I know cutting things a little close aren't I) and should have some sneaks of the finished product on Sunday :) Have a great weekend everyone!


Tuesday, June 23, 2009

BAD BLOGGER, BAD, BAD BLOGGER!!

Well it does seem like forever since I have updated - sorry about that! I have spent the last week preparing for and then enjoying some out of town guests! Greg's dad and his girlfriend (Pa Pa and Shirley) came up this last weekend and we had such a good time with them. Here is a little photo recap:

We spent some time outdoors after dinner playing with the boys, you can tell by looking at the sky there was a big storm rolling in. In fact we had a huge storm come through, many places around us were flooded and without electricity by morning.



Just when the rain started the boys decided that dancing in the rain was a very fun thing to do :) Looking back at this photo I now wish I had danced in the rain with them!


On Friday we did a little antique hunting (I found another printer's drawer :) it's in great condition, not sure where I am going to put it yet but I could not pass it up. Saturday was a beautiful day so we decided to head to the beach for lunch. We sat outside in the sun while we ate and I have to say that after such a long winter and cool spring it was nice to feel some "kisses" from the sun:

(Zach actually took this photo - which I thought was pretty cool)


After a walk along the pier it was decided that an ice cream break was necessary. Pa Pa tried to get Zach to share his milkshake with him but as you can guess Zach said NO!


Sunday was not only Father's day but also Greg's birthday - a big one in fact! The big 4-0!!! He met the day with enthusiasm and good humor, not a bit of fear :) Here is the birthday boy with his slice of birthday pie - yes he wanted apple pie instead of cake, very good choice if I do say so myself!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREGGY!!


Pa Pa requested a photo of him and the boys and after a few promises of candy I was able to get this one:
(love how it turned out!)


And last but not least the obligatory "aw aren't they cute" photos of my boys:



After almost 10 days of no scrapping I am about to burst! So here is hoping that I get some time to scrap tomorrow, hope you all had a great Father's day!

Friday, June 12, 2009

June layouts for Cocoa Daisy

Here are my June creations for Cocoa Daisy. I loved how I was able to make "grungy" layouts as well as bright & graphic layouts from the same kit!! Not to mention being able to play with the mask that comes with the kit. I used Maya Mists with the mask on my layouts.













Have a great weekend everyone :)

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I want to remember.



This day June 10th is not a good day. Today is the 4 year anniversary of my nephew Andrew's death. I have struggled with if I should post about this again this year. It is very hard for me to talk about and to express my feelings when it comes to my sweet nephew. But I was thinking about him today and I started looking to try and find the last photo that I had of him, and this is it.
It was Easter 2005 and he is the tall young man with his pocket full of Easter Eggs, only 16 years old. This is the very last photo that I have of him, which is why I decided I needed to post about him today. I know as scrapbookers we like to say we scrap to keep the memories recorded for our kids and future generations, but that is not really why I scrap anymore. Andrew's unfortunate death made me realize that I need to scrap for me - for right now. I want the memories of my boy's pudgy wrists when they were two, their cheesy smiles, the funny things they say and just all of it! I want to have it all there for ME to look back on and remember. You never know what life will bring and we never know how long we have with those we love, so please, don't just scrap for someday, for your kids to look back at, scrap for you to remember, for right now.

I want each of you who reads this to do two things for me today, tell your children you love them and take a photo of them RIGHT NOW!! I don't care what the lighting is like or what they are doing just go grab your camera and take a picture of them.

Monday, June 8, 2009

June 14, on-line crop class!

As part of our fun on-line crop this coming weekend (June 14, noon-4pm at Cocoa Daisy), I will be hosting a class between 1-2pm. We will be creating a simple layout using a mask and some hand stitching. The layout was created using the June Cocoa Daisy kit (but you can use whatever you wish). Additional materials you may want to have on hand: Glimmer Mist or Maya Mist, paint or ink. A paper piercer, needle and embroidery thread.
Here is a little bit of a tease, I really hope you can join me!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Some random bits

I haven't posted some randomness in a while - so here goes! :)

So first off, finding a four leaf clover is good luck, right? Well then what does finding a four AND a five leaf clover mean? Extra luck, or does the five leaf cancel out the four and make your luck take a turn for the worse? I am just asking!


A couple of weeks ago we made a stop at our favorite antique store.


These two photos are of a very cool storage cabinet and a storage bin. Of course my first thought was how perfectly you could fill them with scrappy supplies!!!



And you wonder why I call him my monkey? Sometimes Nate will come up with some of the funniest things out of the blue - and were he has ever seen a wind up cymbal playing monkey I have no idea! He just cracks me up!


In May Mom, Amber and I made our annual trek to the Great Lakes Mega Meet on the East side of the state and I am thrilled to tell you that Amber took FIRST PLACE in the layout contest!! Woo hoo!! (her layout is at the top of the page, scroll down to see Amber and her very cool first place prize).
My favorite find at the convention was this awesome little Tim Holtz stamp holder!


I am drinking this tea right now as I write this post - it is sooo yummy (thank you Jennifer for telling me about it). Add a little bit of sugar and some cream and it is perfect!


I just finished organizing my buttons and papers by color - and you can read all about that little project on the MMM blog.

Lastly on a bit of a sad note, Deli Joe is not doing so well. I took him to the vet today as he was just not himself. The x-rays show his lungs are still good, but he has an infected mass/lymph node under his right front leg. Hopefully with some antibiotics and pain medication he will be doing fine and we can hope to have him following me around for a while longer. So I had Greg take this picture of me with my baby last night.


Thanks for stopping by - have a great Thursday!

Monday, June 1, 2009

More project kit photos

Here are a few more photos of the Cocoa Daisy project kit. The extra flash cards were used to list each family members current "favorites" on. I thought this would be fun to look back on years from now :)





Have a great Monday everyone!