backtracking...

Getting ready to work on project life, but I wanted to start on posting my spring break pics.  I can't believe that almost a month as passed already!  That's the one thing I'm not sure I like about PL... it really makes the weeks fly by!!  I'm just finishing up one week and then *boom* it's already time to start the next one!

We had such a great day yesterday!  Alex had his 13th birthday party at a gaming lounge here in the city.  It's funny... I think there may have been 13 kids there (plus one of Alex's teachers from school) to go with the "13" theme.  They had an absolute blast together... it was amazing for me to see such a big group of boys (and a girl) that really get each other...  they're all somewhat geeky gamers just like Alex and have such a great time when they're hanging out together.  Sigh... makes this mom happy!   Sadly... the few photos I took won't get added to a PL page until next week (when I do my week 18 layout) since I scrap Sunday to Saturday.

Anyway... back to spring break!  Our first full day in Missouri was Easter Sunday.

Here are the kids dressed up for church...

In front of the sign for the church I grew up going to...

After church, we went back to my parents' house and started getting things ready for the big family dinner.

One of the highlights of these gatherings for the kids is getting out the golf cart. 

 Clara was the brave soul riding on the back...

 Now, her cousin joined her back there...

Charlie...

For some reason the kids ended up rummaging through dad's garage and came out with the kites...

And then some leftover fireworks from the 4th...

 It was a really great day of catching up with family that we don't get to see very often!

a little preview of the grunge show...

I have got to get back into posting things other than my project life pages!  For every photo that makes it into my PL book... there are a bunch more that are edited and ready to go into our big, end of the year album.  I even had a bunch completely edited, resized for web and ready to post... but I've been a little lax about actually posting them.

So, before I go back to the spring break photos I've been meaning to upload, I'll post this video from last weekend.  Alex has been at School of Rock for a while now and loves it!  Clara just joined around Christmas.  She wasn't so sure at first, but now loves it too!  Especially since she has graduated out of Rock 101 and is in a "real" show this spring!  She joined the grunge show with Alex.  That official show is next weekend, but last weekend was the spring preview show.  Three songs were picked from each of the 5 spring shows and were performed at a fundraiser concert. 

One of Alex's songs, was picked and Clara just happened to play keys on this song too!  As an added bonus, it was on Alex's 13th birthday!  What better way to ring in your first day of being a teen than belting out Smells Like Teen Spirit up on stage!!  Can't wait until the full show next weekend!!

The song needs just a little more polish... but my favorite thing is the end where they're all high-fiving each other!  They really have a lot of fun up there and a few of them have become really close!  Alex has a band with a couple of the kids up there (two on the song and one coming in for the next song).  They hang out a lot, have sleepovers and have a lot of fun together.  I love it when an activity, becomes more than just another lesson to go to, but more of a family :-)

Project Life: Week 16

Another week done!  I'm very excited that I'm sticking with it!  I think my motivation now is getting excited about paging through the finished book.  I really can't wait to see it.  The other day I came across some old photos from when the kids were little.  This distracted me a bit, I got into the mindset that today could wait and what I really needed to do was free the old stuff from computer, since we had so enjoyed looking through those photos (laughter to the point of tears... so much fun!).  But, I had to keep myself on track and realize that I needed to keep focusing on today, since in a few years, these will be the "good old days" for my kids.  So, onward with this project and I'll fill in the down time with work on the old stuff. 

Oh!  Speaking of freeing photos from my computer... my MyPublisher book came!  I'm totally in love with it and ready to go back a year to 2011 to print another one!  I can post more details about it later if anyone is interested.  I'm just so excited about getting so many things printed this year.  That book has 635 photos in it... most of which, had not been printed before in any form!

 Enough of that... on to week 16.  Not loving my title card this week, but I gave up and called it "done". 

 Supplies:
Template by Amy Jaz Designs
Title Card - Titled Templates by Amy Jaz Designs
Paper on title card - Crazy for You by One Little Bird
Journal Card - Color Me Happy by Amy Jaz Designs
4x6 Photo Collage templates by Designs by Lili
3x4 Photo template by Designs by Lili

Supplies:
Template by Amy Jaz Designs
Journal Card - Color Me Happy by Amy Jaz Designs
Make a Wish Card - paper and elements from the Lilypad collab Hoppy Birthday
4x6 photo collages by Designs by Lili
3x4 photo template no. 2 by Designs by Lili

All from The Lilypad.

Project Life: Week 15

 Forgot to post these last week!  So here they are and on to putting together week 16!

 Template by Amy Jaz Designs
Cards - Hello Lucky by Amy Jaz Designs (4x6 recolored)
4x6 Templates - 4x6 Collages by Designs by Lili
Arrow photo cards - 3x4 Photo Templates No. 2 by Designs by Lili

Template by Amy Jaz Designs
4x6 Templates - 4x6 Collages by Designs by Lili
Journal Card - Hello Lucky by Amy Jaz Designs
Papers - How It Began by One Little Bird
3x4 frame - Make Today Amazing by Emily Merritt

All supplies from The Lilypad!

Project Life: Week 14 part 2

Finally caught up with posting my completed PL pages... but, yes, that does imply that I still have not completed week 15!  It's about halfway done and it is only Tuesday (but why does it feel like it must be later in the week that this???).

 Supplies:
Template by Amy Jaz Designs
Title Card - Titled Templates by Amy Jaz Designs
Papers - In Review Papers by One Little Bird
Elements - In Review Elements by One Little Bird
3x4 Photo Templates No. 2 by Designs by Lili
4x6 Photo Collages by Designs by Lili

Supplies:
Template by Amy Jaz Designs
Card - In Review Elements by One Little Bird
4x6 Collages (No. 1, I think) by Designs by Lili

As usual... all from The Lilypad!

Project Life: Week 14 part 1

Still behind with my posting!  I have good a excuse though :-)  Instead of resolutions, a lot of people I know do the "one little word" thing for each new year.  I didn't officially do that this year... but, if I had, I think my word would have been "print".  I have been very troubled for a while by how many photos I have trapped in computer and this year I've decided to do something about it!  My PL pages are still technically trapped and so are my Bearski book pages for now... but I just completed my second photobook of the year!  I mentioned the Cancun one a few weeks back (ordered from Shutterfly... loved it!), today I just sent a 100 page book with about 635 photos from 2012 to print!!!  I saw a couple of pins on pinterest about people who print a big year book of sorts with all of their photos each year and I've been wanting to do that.  One of the posts I read, mentioned that they print through My Publisher and that they waited to print their book until they run their free extra pages deal.  Well... I got that email the other day and I sure wasn't ready for it!  But, their software was easy to use, the process went really smoothly and I was able to send the book off to print today before the coupon expired (SPRINGPAGES expiring at 11:59 tonight)!  Hardbound book with photo front and back, 100 pages, 635 photos, SHIPPED for $45.99!  I can't wait to get the book to see what I think of the quality! 

Okay... back to project life!  Here is the first half of our spring break trip to Missouri...

 Supplies:
Template - Amy Jaz Designs
Title Card - titled templates by Amy Jaz Designs
4x6 Templates - 4x6 Collages by Designs by Lili
Happy card - spring break cards by Emily Merritt
Papers - Think Happy. Be Happy. by Lauren Grier
3x4 Photo Templates No. 2 by Designs by Lili

Supplies:
Template - Amy Jaz Designs
4x6 Templates - 4x6 Collages by Designs by Lili
Spring Break Card - spring break cards by Emily Merritt
Papers - Think Happy. Be Happy. by Lauren Grier

Project Life: Week 13

We're back from spring break!  Actually, we've been back almost a week already... I just haven't gotten around to posting anything.  I'm actually all caught up still with PL, I've just been avoiding making my supply lists so I could post everything.  I've got the supply list done on this one, so here it is...

Supplies:
Template by Amy Jaz Designs
Title card - Titled Templates by Amy Jaz Designs
Patterned Papers - oh dearie by Paislee Press
4x6 Collages (No. 1) by Designs by Lili
3x4 Photo Templates (No. 2) by Designs by Lili
Arrow Card - Hello Lucky by Amy Jaz Designs

Supplies:
Template by Amy Jaz Designs
Patterned Paper - oh dearie by Paislee Press
Heart - dotted: love edition (recolored) by Emily Merritt
Journal Card - Chevrombre 4x6 by Amy Martin
4X6 collages - Designs by Lili

All available at The Lilypad.

Project Life: Week 12

Still at it!  And I'm still totally in love with this project!  I also love that this project has inspired me and motivated me to get more photos off of my computer and into a form we can all enjoy.  Not only am I still plugging away at Project Life, but just this week alone I've completed another 6 or so Bearski book pages AND made a quick Shutterfly book of our trip to Cancun back in 2009!!  Shutterfly sent out coupons for a free 8x8 book or $29.99 off of a larger book (MYBOOK is the promo code... expires tomorrow - Tuesday), so I jumped on that offer and got those photos out and into the world!  No one here has really looked at those photos since I posted them to my blog years ago, I'm so excited to have them in a book form that we can pick up and page through whenever we feel like it.  It also went back through my photos and probably added another 20 or so that I didn't post to the blog.  Funny how your perspective on things change over the years.  Plus, I don't mind overdoing the same type of shot in a book, where I like more variety in my blog posts.  The book has already shipped... I can't wait to get it!!

Here are my project life pages for this week...

Supplies:
Template - Amy Jaz Designs
Green papers - How it Began by One Little Bird
Lucky Card - Hello Lucky by Amy Jaz Designs
White photo card - Make Today Amazing by Emily Merritt
Black paper - oh dearie by Paislee Press
4x6 templates - 4x6 Collages No. 1 by Designs by Lili
3x4 template - 3x4 Photo Templates No. 2 by Designs by Lili
Title Card - Titled Templates by Amy Jaz

Supplies:
Template - Amy Jaz Designs
Big Journaling Card - Hello Lucky by Amy Jaz Designs
& Card - Color Me Happy (recolored) by Amy Jaz Designs
Happy Card - Make Today Amazing Cards by Emily Merritt
Green Paper - How it Began by One Little Bird
4x6 Templates - 4x6 Collages No. 1 by Designs by Lili

All available at The Lilypad.

Project Life: Week 11

I struggled again with this week.  Mainly because I didn't have many quality photos, which meant I had blanks to fill and journaling isn't one of my favorite things.  I ended up using several filler cards and "journaled" bullet point style on one large card.

Oh... and I have a new project life supply addiction... I'm totally in LOVE with the 4x6 photo collages by Designs by Lili!  I bought one set, but I have the itch to own them all!!  I bought a 2x3 set as well.... I hope to use it soon!

Supplies:

Template - Amy Jaz Designs

Title Card - Titled Templates by Amy Jaz Designs

Papers - How it Began by One Little Bird and

oh dearie by Paislee Press

Yellow Card - Everyday Essentials by Amy Jaz Designs

Awesome - Dear Diary by Little Butterfly Wings

4x6 templates - 4x6 Photo collages No. 1 by Designs by Lili

Supplies:

Template - Amy Jaz Designs

Papers - How it Began by One Little Bird and

oh dearie by Paislee Press

Journaling Card - Everyday Essentials by Amy Jaz Designs

4x6 templates - 4x6 Photo collages No. 1 by Designs by Lili

 

All products available at The Lilypad!!

oh.. and I'm still working on my Bearski book.  It's actually going quite well.  The only reason I haven't posted lately is because it's actually going TOO well.  I probably have 15 pages to post!!  I'm so excited to finish it up and order my book!

Project Life: Week 10

I made it to double digits!!  Yay week 10!!

Supplies:

Template - Amy Jaz Designs
Journaling Card - Hello Lucky by Amy Jaz Designs
Title Card - Titled Templates by Amy Jaz Designs
Papers on Title - oh dearie by Paislee Press
Tab - everyday essentials by Amy Jaz Designs
Paper on tab - Hello Lucky cards by Amy Jaz Designs
4x6 templates - Paislee Press and Persnickety Prints freebie

Supplies:

Template - Amy Jaz Designs
Stitching - Three(x4) stitched frames by Amy Martin
Tab - Tabby Dates by Amy Martin
4x6 templates by Paislee Press
Patterned paper - oh dearie by Paislee Press

As usual, all supplies (except the Persnickety Prints templates) are found at The Lilypad!

I was on a roll...

... last week.  Not so much this one!  I'm posting a bunch of Bearski book pages.  I could pretend that I did some last week and some this week.  But in reality, I did them all last week and I've done nothing so far this week!  

To make it simpler... all products are from The Lilypad... they all use Amy Martin's Project Grids and all have One Little Bird's Pagekraft paper as the background.  I'll list the individual stuff with the pages.

 Journaling card - Winter Frost by Amy Jaz Designs

 Awesome word art - Dear Diary by Little Butterfly Wings

Striped paper - oh dearie by Paislee Press

 Paper - oh dearie by Paislee Press

arrow card - Hello Lucky by Amy Jaz Designs

 Journal card - Hello Lucky by Amy Jaz Designs

Papers:

oh dearie by Paislee Press &

how it began by One Little Bird

today was good card - Dear Diary by Little Butterfly Wings

Project Life: Week 9

Another week done!  So very thankful we live in the digital age this week!  :-)  Alex got chosen to attend a big event last week and I knew it was pointless to send him with a camera (I've done it before and it always comes back unused).  But I really wanted photos to add to my project life pages!!  I was able to find event photos on the newspaper website and one of the CQ staff members who went with the kids, emailed me all of her photos of Alex!  I had taken all kinds of boring, just in case I don't get anything else to document this, photos (his permission slip, him in his t-shirt once he got home, etc.), but thankfully I didn't have to use those!

 Supplies:
Template - Amy Jaz Designs
Arrow Card - Hello Lucky by Amy Jaz Designs
Title Card - Titled Templates by Amy Jaz Designs
Background paper on title - oh dearie by Paislee Press
4x6 templates - Paislee Press

Template - Amy Jaz Designs
Grey striped paper - Winter Frost by Amy Jaz Designs
Remember card - Hello Lucky cards by Amy Jaz Designs
orange chevron paper - Made for Each Other a Lilypad Collab
4x6 templates by Paislee Press and Persnickety Prints

All available at The Lilypad (except the Persnickety Prints templates)

two more...

... Bearski book pages.

Simple, simple, simple... but they get the job done!

Supplies:

Project Grids by Amy Martin

Pagekraft Paper by One Little Bird

Journaling Card from Everyday Essentials by Amy Jaz Designs

Word Art from Dear Diary by Little Butterfly Wings

All available at The Lilypad.

Now that I'm kind of on a roll with this, it's just like slipping photos into an album!  Yes, I could do more with it, but right now, getting it done and printed is my highest priority!  :-)

I lied...

... I'm back to project life style pages for my Bearski book.  In the end, I decided that I preferred the consistent look with using Amy Martin's Project Grids set vs. mixing and matching various templates.  Plus, when it really came down to it, this fits my current style more and the pages came together much more quickly.  And this is a project I want to keep moving on.  I have a ton of photos of this year at Bearski and I would really like to have the book done before summer.

So... here is my second take at this set of photos...

Supplies:

Project Grids by Amy Martin

Pagekraft papers by One Little Bird

Arrow and Snowflake from Star On Top by Amy Martin and One Little Bird

Dotted paper from Crazy for You by One Little Bird

Journaling Cards - Chevrombre by Amy Martin

All available at The Lilypad.

okay...

Good news/bad news in regards to my blog and projects.

Bad news first... I made my last Bearski book pages without consulting my blog and after flattening and uploading those photos, I realized that I had the events mixed up and the pages labeled wrong.  Currently debating on whether to change them or just run with our rewritten history :-)

Good news now... when I went to edit my next batch of photos for posting, I discovered that I had already edited them!!  All I had to do was save them for the web!  So, here are our MLK day weekend photos...

Jeff and the kids getting ready to go ski...

 Clara relaxing after skiing...

The obnoxious bug-eyed chihuahua (who is currently hiding under my bed because it's sleeting out)...

A new thing they added at Crystal Mountain this year is laser tag.  The kids really wanted to check it out...

Jeff and I didn't sign up to play (we had massages scheduled at the spa), but thankfully there were other people signed up to play...

This photo cracks me up, Clara taking out Alex...

They really had a lot of fun and wanted to do it again when we were back over Presidents' Day weekend... but unfortunately the times didn't work out for us. 

Project Life: Week 8

It's funny how the weeks that I think we've got nothing going on, end up being the weeks with the most photos!  I was worried though... it was already a short week (due to me including Sunday in last week's weekend layout) and Clara starting the week with strep so we were tied to the house a bit.  But once I start taking random photos with my phone, it's hard to stop.  On the second page, our lunch at Pei Wei was nothing special as far as an event... but the kids think those touch screen soda machines are so cool that I snapped a quick pic.  I figure one day, we'll look back on that and laugh about how "space age" we thought those were.  My only regret this week was not getting out my big camera (yet again), but I've already taken some "big camera" pictures for this week's pages already.  Maybe it's an every other week sort of thing :-)

Supplies:

Template - Amy Jaz Designs
Papers - Made for Each Other a LilyPad Collab
"Gift" Card - Sunshine, blue sky & happy days by Little Butterfly Wings

Title Card - Titled Templates by Amy Jaz Designs

"Sunshine and Rainbows" Card - Color Me Happy Journal Pack by Amy Jaz Designs
Arrow Brush - Everyday Essentials Doodad Stamps by Amy Jaz Designs
Journal Card - 4x6 Chevrombre by Amy Martin
4x6 Templates - Paislee Press

All available at The LilyPad.