Nook June Kit

I am loooooving the June kit!

Perfect for all those fun summertime pictures.

Lots of color and cool patterns.

Yesiree......

It's filled with Simple Stories Summer Fresh and lots of Jillibean Soup embellishments.

I've got one layout to share thus far.....Kristen surprised me a few years back taking to our friends baby chickens.  Who knew!  Would never have guessed her to cozy up to them so much.  Though she has always been an animal lover, I just never knew how serious she was about it!!!!  

She didnotgetitfromme ;)

....and this is what she said when she saw them!

Don't forget to get yours, along with the amazing grab bag up for grabs this month!!!
hahaha.

A few layouts

i haven't been scrapping as much lately and i miss it.
but life has been crazy and i've been pretty mojoless ;(

but i do have a few Nook layouts that I haven't shared yet here on my blog.
Both these layouts use our May kit, Echo Park This and That.

I have all these random pictures stacked on my desk that get pulled out with others and than left behind never to be put away again ;)   They are cute pics, just never made it to a layout.  So I went through some of those and used them this month.

This here is Samantha, sleeping on the floor.  Her little lips pursed in slumber.  I love it.  I loved the little hanging bird cage and really wanted to use it, so I came up with this design having everything clustered at the top.

This is one of those pictures I don't know why I never scrapped!  My two cute girls at Easter one year.  2006 actually.  I forced my family into a little photo shoot that day, even had to drag Doug in to assist me.  But it was well worth it.

As much I try not to do just one photo layouts,  i seem to be doing them more and more lately.  I think scrapping is becoming more a creative outlet and less a need to scrap all the details and stories.  Though I do still want to accomplish that. 

Thanks for stopping by and looking ;)

The Gluten Report

sometimes it feels like we might starve to death.
just kidding.
but it definitely takes a little more effort to grab and go.

We have been pretty good....but yes, we've cheated a bit.
Just not at home.

Breakfast has really been no problem.
Dinner, not a big deal either.....as long as i cook ;)

Lunch, is another story.
That's been a tricky one.
We've tried 4 different types of breads.
My kids don't like any of them! neither do i
There is only so much fruit they want in their lunches.

But here are some of the good things we've found.

Chebe's Gluten Free Pizza Dough.....delish!!!

The kids love the cheese/pepperoni, doug and i love the roma tomatoes and artichoke & basil one....mmm.  And that's coming from a girl here who doesn't think much of pizza.

Chebe's Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls

With homemade cream cheese frosting....yummmeeeeee.

Namaste's Chocolate Cake

This was the most decadent homemade chocolate cake i've ever had.

And here's my most genius discovery: Kraft Mac and Cheese Cheese pack with gluten free pasta.
GENIUS  i tell ya!!!!
We had a whole case of it in the pantry so we are using the cheese sauce, it's a cheaper method than buying the gf mac and cheese at Trader Joes.
And we still get that mac/cheese craving!!!

We've also found granola bars that are GF.

We are definitely feeling a bit better, more energy, less bloating.
Not sure yet if it's making substantial changes, but we will keep going.

I think at some point we may need to implement some real bread. 
That one is just a killer for us.
But I kinda feel if we keep the gluten to a minimum and cut it out where we can than that just might be our best bet.  We are definitely eating less crap and that's a good thing ;)

My truth about project life

i
am
behind
.
way
behind
.

But I have a plan, or at least a working order of things.
I love my project life, I'm just bad about getting her done ;)

Here is what I'm finding works for me..... i date all my little notes/paraphernalia and I place a photo order every few weeks.  I'm finding that instagram is my new best friend for pl.  All the photo's are already edited, all i have to do is create a document and load them on the sizes i want them.  Here's what an 8x12 sheet looks like that i send over to costco.

then I throw everything in my book in the week they belong, with a little post it for the weeks date.

I have too many pages in this state.  But they are ready to put together when I get around to it.
I've been good about having things for every week, but there is a week in April I'm not even gonna touch.  Skipping it completely, and that's ok with me.  It was a rough one and I don't have anything good to record, though i will touch on it in the following week.  10 years from now i will want to know why i skipped it, though i'm sure it won't be forgotten.

Being a member of My Scrapbook Nook I have lots of kits leftover, so what I've been doing is grabbing a kit and using it for a week.  Sometimes I grab random stuff, what ever I feel like.  I have the Becky Higgins journal cards and I love using them too.  I just don't like using the same stuff over and over.  And it's a great way to use up old stash ;)

Here are some of my finished pages

I really love this book....i'm not gonna lie....it's a lot of work to keep up on.  But it's so fun and i love documenting the silly everyday things that would never make it off the computer.   It will be a really fun look at a year in our lives.


If you're interested, my friends over at eighteen25 are having a give a way....go check them out ;)

A Scraplift

We had a little challenge over at the Nook a few weeks ago......basically lifting a member.

I lifted a page by my new friend Diane Payne.......

and here is my take....

 found these older pictures of kristen from a few years ago.  i was taking a photography class and needed lots of models.  she was pretty much the only one who would help me out.  so i have lots of sweet pictures of her from that spring.  now, if i ask to take her picture all i get is that annoyed are you done yet look ;)  it was good while it lasted!

using the new Crate Paper Pretty Party Collection ;)

Birthday Girl

this little thing is pretty happy about being twelve

she is pure sunshine and sprinkles!

i don't know where the years have gone but THIS is what I still see when I look at her ;)

so happy her eyes disappear.......some things never change ;)

oh how i miss this.......so cute i can't stand it!!!

We are pretty lucky to have her.

Nook Weekend Crop!

We are starting this party early over at the Nook. 

We couldn't wait till Saturday so we've posted a few challenges to get you all excited ;)

Hop on over and play along won't you ;)

I'll be posting my challenge Saturday evening but we'll start them early Saturday morning and run them straight till Sunday morning.

Oh, and you know there are gonna be prizes ;)

.....and because a post is funner with some scrap pages here's a look at my Project Life.

Yes.

I'm still plugging away ;)

I used our April kit at the Nook for this week.

I worked pretty hard to get caught up last month and then in the blink of an eye another month had past.  But I'll keep going, I really love what 's finished ;)

Playing with October Afternoon

I've been in a real scrapping slump lately.
Life just sucks it out of you sometimes ya know!!!

But I decided to play along with some challenges over at October Afternoon 

to help me find my mojo.

Just thought I'd share ;)

 this was for one of their Thursday sketch challenges....with a starburst.

i used the Rocket line for this layout of Jack blowing out his birthday candles

 this next one was for a alpha sticker challenge, to use them ;)

my title isn't huge or overwhelming but i'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

used the farmhouse collection here.

I love playing along with the October Afternoon challenges.....it's pretty easy to find an excuse to use my favorite products ;)