Family

I know that a lot of families have had this same experience, the one where your newborn is in the NICU. In some ways I enjoyed my time there because it allowed me to have some one on one time with him (and because the nurses let me sleep more than my 1 year old at home would have.) But I also hated the time we spent there because I missed us being together all the time and being a family. I missed those fun moments when they are a day or two and you get to snuggle with them and your other children just want to hold them. Oh the joys and hardship of the NICU. Well needless to say those moments are over for little Will and he will soon turn two (where did the years go?) He has grown so much and as a family we have grown. Hopefully we never have to experience the NICU again! This layout is from the Pemberley workshop on the go available here

My Girls

Okay so I thought after the sap fest yesterday we might as well keep it going! I love my girls and I love spending time with them (though I also enjoy my me time!) These girls make me laugh and they make me cry at least once a day. So when I found these pictures of them playing nicely at the Newport Aquarium (also known as Oregon's Aquarium) I just sighed. If only they played nicely together everyday (I know all the moms out there are saying YES, IF ONLY!). So if your littles are playing nicely today grab the camera and snap that picture and journal about it. That way when they are screaming at each other tomorrow you can remember that yesterday was better and tomorrow will probably be another good day. By the way this layout and the one from yesterday are from the Florentine Workshop on the go available here.

Simple things

My life seems to be built on simple things lately. I have come to take joy in the little moments that happen in my life everyday. I recently read an article (many of you might have as well, and SORRY I didn't save it!) that talked about Karos moments vs. Chronos time (sorry I am pretty sure I can't spell!) Anyway, so Karos moments are those ones that make time stand still and make you think, WOW I am blessed. I love those moments. Last July we took a trip to California and spent some time with my family. On a few of those days I went to the Close to My Heart Convention (which was amazing and I am really bummed about missing this years, but something about a sister in law coming home after 18 months takes center stage this July!). Creed was good and took pictures for me to see what I missed. When I look at these pictures of my girls enjoying the ocean and the breeze, I feel sad that I missed it, though I wouldn't go back and change a thing. It just helps me remember to stop and take a picture of them enjoying the simple things today, so here I go to take a picture, maybe you will do the same!

Questions

My little Sarah girl has so many questions. Everyday we answer at least 20 questions (and yes sometimes I feel like I should be playing that game!) She is so anxious to learn about the world that she lives in. Sometimes I love the questions and other times I don't know how to answer, and it makes me feel a little dumb (please tell me I am not the only one like this!) I love her funny questions, but my favorite questions are the ones that deal with her knowledge of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (yup we are mormons!). She usually comes home from church with lots of questions and one Sunday I decided to document the moment. I loved how Creed got down on her level to answer the questions, and I love how she then just sat on the ground with him. I love these little life moments and am so glad I captured this one. So go capture one of those little moments that seem to happen all the time.

People Layout

Okay so you have already seen this layout here, but I wanted to tell you a little bit more about it. I just love my little Mady, she is a handful, but a cute one, so I used this layout in my people category for my Twelve class with Stacey Julian and featured her. This is here in April of last year and man has she grown since then (say size 24 month to 3T YIKES!) To remind me that it is a People layout I used a little orange brad under the main picture on the left page. I hope you like it!

Seasons layout

So I know you have already seen these pictures, but I just wanted to share how I used them. For my Twelve class with Stacey Julian one of the topics is seasons. I just LOVE Utah in September. The temperatures are just right, not too hot, the grass is still green, there are still flowers around, oh it is beautiful to me, so I thought that I would scrapbook that along with some pictures from last September that we took on at Temple Square. See that little green brad on the right page that is my embellishment that lets me know it is a seasons layout, I hope you like it!




To see more about the product used click here.

Another Me Layout

I completed another me layout for my Twelve class with Stacey Julian and Big Picture Classes. I have to say that I am still loving this class! I really am learning alot about a different method of scrapbooking and storytelling (somewhere along the lines I forgot that journaling was so that I could tell a story, not just describe a picture.) So here it is another me layout:



This layout features a bunch of single pictures of me that were hidden in my photo album and each one has a story behind them (literally!!) See those pictures on the right page each picture has journaling underneath that tells the story or memory in the picture. (I love Jeanette Lynton and her Magic book!) See:




I did find a set of three photos that had a story that I felt fit with the other pictures and stories on this layout so I went a head and used them on the left page:



I also was pretty excited and proud of myself for mixing and matching papers from different paper packs (I haven't done that before, I don't know why.) I used some paper from the Wonderland paper pack (X7146B, which will NOT be available after January 31st so get your paper pack soon!) and the Bliss paper pack (which is already gone/retired sorry!) I used a plain colonial white cardstock as my base and added some crystal blue cardstock for a little pop of color.

I used the Love Life stampset (D1482) for the star embellishments and the flourish under the title as well as on the E and B in the title. I used the Crystal blue stamp pad as well as the Chocolate and Colonial white (on the E and B in the title). I used a few Milepost shapes and some bronze glitz glitter gel (Z1483). I used up the ends of some cocoa ribbon on the E and B in the title and then to add a little embellishment from my class I used a button from the Blue button collection (Z1371) I of course got the layout from the Magic book ( 9034) and I used my Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge ( Z1686) to cut out the title and the stars (man is this cartridge and machine cutting my scrapbooking time in half, LOVE IT!)

I hope you enjoy and if you are wanting any of the product used just click here. While your there make sure you get all the things you are wanting/needing from the retiring product (see here for the list) and if you purchase $25 you can still get the Rock the Block promotion for $15 (a super value and a lovely stampset!) and if you purchase $50 you get the Stamp of the Month for $5 (which is also a really nice stampset!)

Family Photo Ritual pages

Another layout that I completed for my 12 class is one on a family ritual. This is a yearly thing for us. We have our family photos taken once a year, rain or shine, happy or sad, ugly or beautiful, fat or thin. I want to make sure that we capture who we are every year. This year we had a wonderful lady from my church take our pictures (Ruby Red Photography). We LOVE them, so I decided to fit them into a layout that is fun, interactive and has some room to talk about meaningful things.



Tada! Okay you might need some close ups:






See? So fun! I used a fun layout from the Magic book (9034) and the Sonoma paper pack (X7143B) along with some Colonial White cardstock (1388). To make the interactive aspect I used some Flip Flaps from the 12" Assortment pack (Z1325). I also used a few pieces from the Sonoma Stickease (X7143C) and some Hierloom Assortment pieces (Z1635). Another product used that I am really falling in love with is the Pin Clips (Z1612). Of course I had to add some of the Mocha Opaques (Z1333) to add some dimension. I also used some ribbon from the Cocoa Ribbon Collection (Z1316). As far as stamps I used the 10 Things stampset (C1474), Confidential (Retired) and the numbers from this month's stamp of the month Little Reminder (S1201). For the title I used the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge (Z1686), Notable Alphabet Dimensional Elements (Z1682) and some 3-D foam tape (Z1151).

I LOVE this layout and hope you all enjoyed it! Don't forget to click here to see all the above products and more from Close to My Heart!

1st Me pages

If anyone is taking the 12 class from Big Picture Classes than you already know what the title of this post means. If you are not let me tell you! The class is broken down into twelve topics and we are scrapbooking by topic (this is a new concept for me and I am loving it!) So the first topic is YOU or since it is about me, ME. Which is really opening my eyes about what my parents and others in my life did to make me feel of importance. The other thing to note is that each topic gets a color. I picked blue (but I think it is suppose to be a light blue or a combination color blue and I didn't pay attention to that part of the slide so I should go back and listen again :).



If you look closely you can see that I tied Crystal Blue waxy flax (Z1247) through my bling buttons (Bling Assortment Z1466). I am a huge fan of the colored waxy flax and in case you were wondering they do NOT continue into the next Idea Book going live February 1st, so get them while you can here! I used paper from the Bliss paper pack (retired) as well as some Grey Wool card stock (X5911). I also used my cricut cartridge, Art Philosophy (Z1686) to cut out the ME and the square that covers one of the shapes from the dimensional elements mixed shapes that comes with the cartridge. I also cut out all those butterflies with using my the cartridge as well. Then I used a preloaded cartridge to cut out LOOK. I also used some Colonial White ribbon (Z1102), and some sparkles (Z1104). I ended up only using two stamps and those were for the flourishes, Love Life (D1482) and You and Me from the You and Me scrapbooking kit a couple of months ago (sorry no longer available!) I stamped in Grey Wool ink (Z2125). I used a layout from the Magic book (9034), which is my favorite book ever! I love hiding things in my layouts like some journaling and my not so favorite pictures of myself :).


See told you not so lovely pictures! But that is okay that was me and it is a part of who I am. Anyway, let me know what you guys think and don't forget to stop by my website and check out the colored waxy flax that is going away! (not all waxy flax is retiring, just the fun colored ones).