Where did last week go?

oh my- the days are just flying by. The kids are really busy, which means so am I. I didn’t do any scrapping last week at all- just too busy running around and then too tired when I was home. I found a bit of scrapping mojo again over the weekend though.

This next weekend is our second dance competition, Legacy. It is here in the Springs, so that is nice. It is 2 days though, so it will still take up all of our weekend. The Dolls and Beth and Carissa’s duet are on Saturday afternoon, and Youth Tap dances early Sunday afternoon.

 
journaling: Our kids all had a fabulous time visiting with Molly and Brandt during our spring break trip to Texas. They didn’t want to come home they were enjoying each others’ company so much.
credits: everything at scrapbookgraphics: My Favourite Season Bundle by Natali, by Wendyzine: Lift It The Collection {2}, Warp It, Shadow It 2 (Acrylics)
fonts: CK Becky

 
Brenna's costume for her preballet class. The name of the dance is "Waltz of the Dolls."
credits: Urban Love- The Collection by Birgit Kerr at scrapbookgraphics
fonts: TXT Antique Poster

 
journaling: Brenna felt left out during spring break when Beth & Carissa got to sleep over at Molly’s house. So, we promised she could have a friend over for a night after we got home. We invited Riley when we saw her at dance class and they had the best time at their first sleepover. They included Sarah in their fun too, which made it even better for all of them!
credits: at scrapbookgraphics: Spring's Promise by MGL, Action: Wordart Stamps {Collab} by Wendyzine and Taylor Made, Metallicalpha: Collection by Flergs; Date Bits 19 by Misty Cato at SweetShoppeDesigns
fonts: SP You've Got Mail, CK Crazy Cakes

and Sarah and I are off to run some errands this afternoon including checking on my mom’s house to make sure everything is OK before she gets home from TX this evening. It will be good to have her back!

AJC Weeks 15 and 16

Still trying to catch up. I think I’m down to only 3 weeks I’ve not done yet. Not too bad considering how busy things have been lately- and it won’t be slowing down until after school gets out and recital is over. Such is life- busy, but good most of the time.

Week 15- Nature
The main prompt for this week was to scrap something about nature- what you are inspired by, how it makes you feel, etc.

journaling:“For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Romans 1:20
I see the hand of God when I see the wonders of nature. Surely the complexities of life didn’t just evolve from nothing. The more I studied science the more it convinced me that anything is possible with God. His work all around us is wondrous and amazing. The
world itself and the plants and creatures in it testify to the awesome power of God.
credits: at scrapbookgraphics: Field Notes and Wonderland (rock) by Tangie Baxter, Listen To Your Heart (fern leaf) and Along the Beach (shells) by Manuella Zimmerman, Blue Agate from Prehistoric by Phuong (retired), white rocks from Gumnut Gully by Flergs, scattered flowers from The Big Balloon by Lorie Davison
font: Baby Boston

Week 16- Character

The prompt this week was to scrap using a word you would use to describe your character. I knew almost right away that I was going to use the word ‘wallflower’- it suits me, and I accept it as part of who I am at this point in life.

 
journaling: Can you see me standing back here, blending into the background? Yep, it’s me- Ms. Wallflower herself. I’m happiest back here helping out where you don’t notice me most of the time. A little public recognition once in a while isn’t bad, but I don’t need it to enjoy the jobs I do while helping others. Really, it’s OK. I don’t mind no one noticing me. I think I actually like it better that way.
credits: Ultimate Art Doll by Tangie Baxter and SherrieJD at scrapbookgraphics; Bloomin' Eclectic by Jessica Bolton (flower paper); I Can See Clearly style by Misty Cato
font: Mistral, Arial

SBG Creative Fusion – About a Mother

Scrapbookgraphics has a beautiful new collab out called Creative Fusion. This edition’s subject is ‘About a Mother’. 

You can get the free catalog at SBG. It is filled with interviews with the designers about their inspiration, lots of beautiful layouts using the collection, and a free gift that coordinates.

Here are my LOs with this tremendous new collection of products. Beth and Carissa’s ballet costume for this year was a perfect match to the colors and style of the collection.
credits:
Everything from Creative Fusion- About a Mother at scrapbookgraphics:
Metamorphosis Papers and Metamorphosis Blooms by Studio Rosey Posey
Fab Face Frames by Studio Berna
Glitter Flourish from About a Mother Elements by Studio Vivarant
Leaves Overlay from About a Mother- Elements by Studio Manu
Happy Bouquet {Green} by Studio mgl
staple and journal tag from Page Pretties by Studio Gypsy
fonts: 2Peas Flea Market

I actually bought this photo tray a couple of weeks ago and intend to decorate it with real items- possibly for Brenna and Sarah’s room, as Brenna was complaining a while back about how she doesn’t have any photos in her room. I photographed it and made a digital version first so that I could create as many versions of it as I want ;)
  credits:
Everything from Creative Fusion- About a Mother at scrapbookgraphics:
About a Mother Artistic Papers by Alana (page background)
About a Mother Artistic Elements by Alana McCarthy (decorative note and drawn heart)
Garden Party Papers by One Little Bird
Garden Party Dates by One Little Bird (notes circle)
Soft and Simple Papers by Flergs (green patterned paper)
Heart of a Mother Backpack by Maya (white patterned paper)
Heart of a Mother- The Elements by Maya (flower bling)
Page Pretties by Studio Gypsy (bird, bling, wire bead dangles)
Happy Bouquet {Cream} by Studio mgl (S)
Happy Bouquet {Pink} by Studio mgl (B)
Metamorphosis Papers by Studio Rosey Posey (dark pink paper clipped to lovely circle stamp)
Metamorphosis Blooms by Studio Rosey Posey
Metamorphosis Accents by Studio Rosey Posey (butterflies, heart locket)
About a Mother Elements by Studio Vivarant (lace)
About a Mother- The Elements by Studio Birgit (wire heart)
Lovely Mini Kit by Studio Baers Garten (lovely circle stamp)
Photo Tray photographed and extracted by me.
font: CK Becky

AJC Quarterly Party Campfire and Week 13- Home

Who invited the party camels to the quarterly campfire gathering?? They must have snuck over after Brenna’s birthday party was done earlier this month….

The first campfire gathering challenge at the beginning of April was to decorate the camel Tangie gave us somehow. There are some beautiful, creative, thought-provoking, and even hilarious ones in the campfire gallery. I’m always amazed at the different things that the AJC participants think up!

 
credits: Birthday Wishes by Glam Fairy, camel shape and banner from AJC Provisions Parcel 2 by Tangie Baxter

and another page in the list of itineraries I am trying to catch up on. The week 13 prompt was to tell something about what ‘home’ means to you.

journaling: Before we moved to Colorado Springs, we moved quite regularly- every year or two. One of the things that struck me over time was how adding our belongings to a new house could make it feel like home right away. We spent almost 4 years fixing up the old house in Bellefonte, gutting the house and rebuilding it from the inside out. I remember taking one last look around the empty rooms before we signed the papers to sell it and move to New Jersey. It didn’t matter that it was empty now- those rooms held precious memories for me. Working side by side with my Dad and husband to make it a better place to live, bringing home our first child, working on our graduate degrees. Yes, my furniture and knick-knacks are important to me, but it is not the things in themselves. It is the memories that they bring to mind when I see them that makes them so precious. I feel the love of my friends and family in just about everything in my home.
credits: at scrapbookgraphics: AJC Provisions Parcel 13 by Tangie Baxter, Home 2 Wordart by Bethany Harty, Self Indulgence by Veronica Spriggs (jar with roses), Watering Can Vase and outside paper from The Big Balloon by Lorie Davison, door hanger and blue wood frame from Rusty Sweetness by Lorie Davison, Mediterranean Muse by Phuong and Microferk (flower bunch and gold vertical frame, retired), white wood frame from Tree Hugger by Anna Benjamin (retired), gold horizontal and wood frames and screw from My Family Tree by Line Designs (retired); white paper from Thrifty Solids No 3 by Jessica Bolton (retired)
font: TXT Abrasive

Dance Costumes Pictures and a sister page

The girls got the rest of their class dance costumes last week. We brought home a new costume (or two) nearly every day. Sarah in particular is so thrilled to finally have a costume of her own hanging on the rack next to her sisters’. I think the only ones we don’t have at home yet are Beth and Carissa’s costumes for the opening number, and I’m not sure when we will be getting those.

Brenna’s Pre-ballet class costume. They are china dolls who come to life after the shop closes for the day.
Beth and Carissa’s ballet costume. They are dancing to music from the movie, The Secret Garden. I really like the piece of music (it has a wonderful oboe line throughout, so I may be a bit biased towards it LOL) and their dance is beautiful.

Sarah and her classmates are Tinkerbell fairies, dancing to “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” from Peter Pan. Their class helper is playing the role of Peter Pan.

And Beth and Carissa’s Jazz 5 costumes. This dance is to “Vacation” by Vitamin C from the first Pokemon movie.

It was very good to see and spend time visiting with my sister and her kids over spring break. I wish we were closer so that we could do it more often!

 
credits: Wear A Flower in Your Hair Papers, Elements and Alphas and Vintage Papers and Frames by Pixel Works at scrapartist; Love of Space February freebie by Amy Martin at TheLilyPad; fonts: TXT Abrasive

AJC Week 8 - Music

Back-tracking a bit to pick up one of the weeks I had skipped earlier.

journaling: Listening to music is one of the quickest ways to change my mood. There is nothing else like actually playing my oboe in an orchestra though- helping to create the wonderful dance of notes weaving together is like working a bit of magic.
credits: at scrapbookgraphics: by JenU- Vintage Painted Papers, Old Window Frames, Natural Wonders Collection- Dried Fall Florals & Wild Long Stems, Vintage Antiquities- Rustic Elements (Rustic Sheet Music), and Victorian Vases, Inspirational 4 Wordart by Bethany Harty, Flying Dreams Sky Papers Collection by Lorie Davison (sky paper), Worn Overlays by Manuela Zimmerman, Soaring by Ztampf! (wings, strokes, red & blue papers), Mediterranean Muse by Phuong and Microferk (mantle, retired), Melody of Your Heart by Bluebell (music staff, retired), Angelic by SussieM (red heart and red paper), Everyday Essentials: Trims by Traci Sims (retired), Into the Twilight by Flergs (Clair de Lune sheet music), The Whisper About Fall by Natali (stitches); oboe pin photographed and extracted by me

Happy Easter

I hope you all had a happy Easter. Ours was pretty nice, overall. My mom had a cold the last weekend we were visiting her and evidently I picked it up before we left. It started hitting me yesterday afternoon and kept me up just about all last night with the coughing. I made it through the breakfast at church (which was delicious!) and then the service, and as soon as we got home I went to bed and napped for 4 hours. I could have slept longer, but I figured I had better get up or I would never get to bed tonight. Dinner tonight was easy as I had made most of it yesterday evening and it all just needed to be baked/reheated. I don't think DH was expecting a large meal like that since he had started looking for leftovers about the time I started working on things LOL

 

and the two layouts I managed to do this weekend.

journaling: Happy 7th Birthday Brenna! This year has been kind of different for us as far as birthday's go. We just haven't had time for the big birthday party with friends that we usually have. Instead we've had 2 small celebrations so far- one in Texas with Grandmama and the Rodeffers and one at home on her actual birthday of April 2. We will have the tea party with her friends that she wants, I'm just not sure exactly when it will be yet.
credits: everything at scrapbookgraphics: Birthday Wishes by Glam Fairy, stitches from Sewing with Love by Baers Garten, Stephanie's Templatez by NeeNee
fonts: Gigi

  We've been having some 'issues' at school with Bryce during the last quarter and I put some of my feelings down about the matter on this page.
credits: everything at scrapbookgraphics: Creator Kit and Creator Alpha by One Little Bird, Creator Templates by Crystal Livesay
fonts: Century Gothic

Spring break is officially over in about 10 hours, so I had better go get stuff for lunches out for the morning and head to bed. Hopefully I’ll feel a bit better tomorrow.

Where did spring break go?

The end of spring break is practically here. It went by much too fast. After DEA was over, we drove home, washed laundry to pack again, and left to drive to TX to visit with my mom and my sister’s family for the week. After a week in TX we drove home in one very long day. The girls have been back at dance as usual this week even though we haven’t had school. I squeeze in a few doctor’s appointments  since we had more scheduling flexibility too, so I still felt like I was running around all of the time :P It’s back to the normal grind of school days and homework starting on Monday. I’ve posted a few pictures from our week in TX at facebook.

We had to find a patch of bluebonnets to take pictures in during our trip to TX over spring break. I guess we were a couple of weeks too early to catch the huge patches of wildflowers, but what we saw was still pretty! 
credits: One More Day and One More Day Addon by Lorilei Murphy at scrapbookgraphics; photo textures used on photo from SkeletalMess and redwolf518
fonts: Natural Script

 
journaling: Grandmama gave Sarah this little piggy for her fourth birthday. Sarah wasn’t very excited about her at first, but that cute little face can’t help but grow on you and she has finally been fully adopted into Sarah’s large plush family. Sarah picked the name Olivia for her (after the books by Ian Falconer) and she has been the companion picked for many trips of late.
credits: It's All For Love by Glam Fairy at scrapbookgraphics; The Fix Jumpers by Crystal Livesay at Digiscrapaddicts; Stick It Dates by Darcy Baldwin at SweetShoppeDesigns
fonts: CK Becky

I didn’t get much scrapping done while we were in TX. This February summary was the only layout I got done during the time we were gone.

credits: 365 Remembered Vol. 2- February Lauren Reid at SweetShoppeDesigns; I Luv U by Mari Koegelenberg at The DigiChick; font: CK Becky

and going back just a bit to vacation in 2008 when we stopped at the Omaha Zoo and the octopus in their aquarium put on a show for us. Usually all you see of an octopus is them hiding in the rocks, but this one was actually swimming around the tank for us.

 
credits: Impressions of the Sea by The Studio Girls at scrapbookgraphics
fonts: Natural Script