at this time, we’ll be at school. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe they’re old enough to be going to school. A very wise friend of mine, at the end of our babies’ first year (she and I met on an infertility board, got pregnant within three weeks of each other and our babies were born three weeks apart) said that thinking about having 17 more years with them seemed like a long time, but thinking about having 17 more of what had just gone by really made you realize it wasn’t that long at all. Well, now we’re down to three more of what’s gone by. It’s just gone so fast. I know school will be great. Living in the community we live in, school is everything. Everyone attends all the games and other events, it’s really like an extended family. I know it’s going to be great for all of us, but I still can’t help but be a little sad and nostalgic for the days about four years ago, when I still had two babies that I could pick up and carry around. Of course, there were many other things about my life then that I miss. Sometimes I just long to go back there, not just because of the babies, but because life was just so good then. Not that it isn’t now, but it was so good. That age for my children was my favorite age so far, truly. We also lived near my sister so we spent much more time with her. Both of my parents were still alive, too. We had breakfast with my Daddy every Saturday morning. It was so good. But now, this is another opportunity to embrace the changes and maybe these will be better. Not that life hasn’t been good for the last four years, but it’s been tough, for alot of reasons. Hopefully, we’re turning a corner to more happiness for all of us.

Okay, enough deep stuff for a Sunday morning, how about a layout? These shots were from the splash park we found on Friday:

That’s more of my Aquafina paper pack, from the Summer Cocktails collection, which will be in my store at SBG next weekend. I am not making element packs for all of these, but I have made a small one for the Aquafina pack. I basically just packed up the stuff I’ve made for the layouts I’ve made with it. I bought a ribbon pack to help me because, well, I could have spent hours making folded ribbons, but at this point, I just have too much other stuff to do. So, here’s my first layout with Aquafina, but I changed it a bit. I used my own buttons and added the folded ribbon I made. So, the flowers, the ribbon, the button and the glitter frame are in the element pack. It’ll probably be around $2 or something like that. So, here is the revamped layout:

If I get inspired to scrap with any of the others this week and make anything I think people would use, I’ll have more element packs, but honestly, there is so much of the scanned stuff being used these days, I’m not sure that elements will sell that well so I’m not going to spend alot of time on them. We’ll see.

Okay, I should get moving. I have school clothes to get washed, Bailey’s shirt has to be ironed (why, oh why would I buy a shirt that has to be ironed???), we need to pack up the backpacks and we should try to have a little fun together today, too. Have a great Sunday!

I can’t believe they’re going to school on Monday! We’re going to have donuts for breakfast and spend a little time at the park this morning, but I have been trying to start off my day with something inspiring and thought I’d share today. I am a buyer of small books, like the H. Jackson Browne ones and any small devotional or inspirational books I can find regarding Motherhood. It’s a tough gig and sometimes just knowing there’s someone else out there who understands is a wonderful thing. So, this is from The Power of a Positive Mom, gift edition, by Karol Ladd:

I made the frame and staple, the ribbon is from Natalie Braxton.

Oh, and I must share this photo, I am just in LOVE with it!

With that, I’m off to prod the children along to get dressed and brush their teeth…a glimpse into the near future, perhaps ? Have a great day!

Just a short post to say that I’m burning up my little rural DSL lines downloading TONS of great stuff I got at oScraps. I had helped Genevieve out with a little gallery thing while Vicki was on vacation and she sent me a gift certificate a while back. In the move, I lost it (’cause I had to change e-mail) so she kindly sent it to me again and I had so much fun! I didn’t know how much great stuff there was over there to choose from! I’ll show you some of it later, either in previews or on layouts, but for now, off to do some domestic chores .

Good morning! It’s Tuesday and we have to go get the rest of our shots today. We did this once, before we moved. They had to have physicals and get their shots, but here there are a couple more they have to have…so I guess in being on top of things, the downside is that now they are having to do it again…yuck. But at least they’re having a clinic in town so we don’t have to drive too far and go to the doctor. Another perk of living in a small town, I guess . So we’re going to go take the paperwork to school, get lunch, open up a safe deposit box for my DVDs of photos and layouts, maybe go to the bank where we have our accounts if we get a check in the mail, get the shots and then come home with two cranky kids. Sound like a fun day?

I have been looking for ways to organize and make our home flow more smoothly. I have a great magazine from BH&G that has some cool stuff in it and it gave me this idea:

It says to make things more accessible in the kitchen so I did. I love these being on the table and I think they look pretty cute, too. Believe me, this is one of many steps, LOL, but it’s a start. Organizing can get expensive when you need tools to do it, but I am pretty good at improvising so we’ll see how it comes. I also made this:

It’s a box for my mail. It has envelopes in the back for those few bills I have to actually mail checks for. I also printed out all my ABA and account numbers to make it easy to set up electronic payments or do them over the phone. It’s on one of the dividers that I made out of chipboard covered with patterned paper. There are like four sections, one for stuff I still need to deal with electronically, one for bills that must be paid with checks, one for miscellaneous stuff and one for the envelopes. I love it, it’s pretty basic, but it looks nice and serves the need.

So as you know, I was working on some papers…well, I made a total of 8 sets and the wonderful girls on the SBG team are playing with them so I’ll have some extra layouts to show off. Of course, my team, though it seems to keep shrinking, is full of great girls who do awesome work so I’ll be showing off their layouts as well. I guess I could make a blinkie to start teasing, huh? Maybe tonight, I’ll put that on my list of things to do. All of the sets are very bright and colorful, except for one which is varying shades of brown for some great neutrals for backgrounds. I love them all and can’t wait to show them off.

I got some absolutely awesome photos the other day, maybe the best one I have of Casey to date:

I scrapped it, but I’m not sure I’m happy with it, so I’m going to work on it again.

Okay, that’s all I have for now. I need to go finish getting ready and get the kiddos ready to go so we can head to town. Have a wonderful day, all!

Well, I have to apologize for the link to the new forum, I did it wrong, but it is fixed now…come join us! I really want to have a nice, quiet little place for friends who don’t feel pressured to promote or praise designers, and in fact, I plan to invite at least one friend who doesn’t do scrapbooking at all. It’s more about a circle of friends than anything else so if you would like that kind of environment, come on over!

Here’s something I had to share with you all, I found it on another message board and it’s well, pretty accurate .

Wanna try it yourself? Here’s the link.

I have a couple of layouts to share, both are with some of the Summer Cocktails papers…

Okay, gotta go get the boy out of the shower! Have a great Sunday and come visit the new forum!

Okay, the Girlfriends board is back, but it’s a little different…if you already registered, go check it out! If you didn’t and you want a place that’s low profile, but not cliquey, with a little inspiration for scrapping, but not solely focused on that, this is the place (click on the image).

I have to approve all registrations because I don’t want to have spammers there and you’ll need to take out the breaks in the link (another thing to protect the site from bots, etc…), but I’d love to have some good friends to chat with. I’m headed over now to share some inspiration, come check it out!

Well, I’d written a post about wanting to find a group of friends that I could engage in conversation with, but then for some reason, I got a permissions error using the Flock browser and lost it so, suffice it to say that I really wish my Girlfriends board had worked out. I so long for conversation, in fact, I am so desperate that I go to the place that shall not be named but makes me feel invisible, just looking for something interesting to read about. Ugh, I sure hope I meet some IRL friends after school starts.

Ah, yes and to finish, I said forgive the whine, I didn’t mean it to be a whine, but more of a “something’s missing and I don’t know how to fix it (a la John Mayer)” post…

Strangely enough, I actually got inspired today to do some papers. No, you can’t see them now, but the line is called Summer Cocktails and they’re bright, fun, a little grungy with alot of texture and I love them all. I can’t wait to use them. I think they’ll come in handy for the digital projects I’m designing for the LSS. I actually started with intentions of making a few papers for a layout for some photos I had of Bailey. I loved her shirt and pulled some colors out of it and…well, I just couldn’t stop! Anyway, I need to stop typing now, it’s late and my tapping is undoubtedly keeping my kiddos awake, but I just had to tell ya!

Sleep well,

I forgot how fun it was to print layouts! I hadn’t done it in such a long time, but when I decided to put my huge bulletin board in the kitchen, I also decided to cover it with pretty stuff. So, I printed out some of my recent faves and then when I scrapped a couple of pages, I couldn’t resist printing them, too. I figure when I take them down, I’ll just trim them on down to fit my 8 x 8 albums (I’m printing them at 8 x 8 on 8.5 x 11 paper) and put them into the albums. Anyway, here’s how it looks:

The page I did this morning is on there, but here’s a closer look:

I should note that most of the stuff I’ve been using to scrap is not mine, meaning I didn’t design it, but I don’t feel compelled to put the credits on my blog so if anyone wants to know what something is, just drop me a comment and I’ll let you know. I haven’t been posting my layouts in any galleries because, well, they never get any comments anyway and it just makes me feel worse to put them there and get no comments…so I put them into my SmugMug account and here and that’s it. It’s becoming more about the scrapping and less about the community for me at this point and it’s a welcome change. I do plan to teach some digital scrapbooking classes at the LSS and the projects I make for that will probably go into my shop…but I don’t see myself having the time or inspiration to actually be a “designer” anymore. The popularity thing is just really getting worse and, well, it just isn’t worth it anymore. I’m so happy for the friends I made, but am just ready to be out of that environment. I can go buy kits and use them and be happy about it. I buy what I like, not what I think will make me get comments…well, as I said, I don’t even upload to galleries anymore. I just want it to be a hobby, my own creativity, my family memories, the things that make me happy…and nothing else.

Okay, off of that soapbox for now, I have been wanting to share a pic of these:

These were my birthday present to me. Well, in all honesty, funds have been a bit tight and though there were many things I would have loved to have, we just couldn’t afford much. But, when I saw these mugs on sale at Starbucks, I just bought them. I’d seen them before they were on sale and couldn’t bring myself to buy them at full price, but at $2.99 each, I decided I could get them and I just love them. I know, I’m easy to please, but really, I’ve said before that we should find our happiness in the little things around us. So, these make me happy.

Well, that’s all I have for now. I still want to post a few photos of the house, but I haven’t had time or opportunity to get any good ones…maybe later today I can. Have a happy Saturday, everyone!

Yay! Well, I’ve been home since Wednesday evening, but yesterday I had laundry and cleaning to do to get ready for guests we had last night. We had a great dinner of steaks and a potato log, yum! Then a little tour of the place last night, but it was getting dark so we didn’t get to stay out long. We had a nice time and then we got up and went out again this morning and saw some wild hogs. I’d show you the pic I got, but my camera is still in the ranch truck . I’ll have to put it up later. Now I’m just enjoying a little down time. I got a page scrapped, wanna see?

As you can see from the journaling, we went to our first baseball game last weekend and had a great time. Ronnie is the owners’ son and a really nice young man, Casey just adores him. The whole family here is just very nice and we are so happy to have made the decision to come here. I was also going to share pics of the inside of the house, but again, DH has the camera so that will have to wait.

So are you doing any back to school shopping? We have a materials list that we have to get (times two) but I’m not sure about clothes. I think we’ve decided to get them each one new outfit and get Casey some shoes, but otherwise, we’re going to wait a while. First, the weather is not changing here so to buy new clothes when they have plenty of perfectly good clothes to wear for this weather doesn’t make much sense to me. Second, with all the trips back and forth for school, the budget is kind of tight so we just don’t have alot of extra funds laying around. I know we have a tax-free shopping weekend coming up, guess I need to find out when so we can go get what we do have to have.

Okay, well, since I have no pics to share, guess I’ll close now. Have a great day!