Third time's the charm....

Arrrrgh!!! It happened again!!! This time in the middle of my typing. :(

So here goes try #3

Sunday, November 18: I am thankful that I live close to a scrapbook store. Today I was working on prepping my December Daily album (more on this later) and my Silhouette blade died on me. So I hopped into my car and drove over toArchiver's to get a new blade. Now I was grumbling the whole time, complaining that I had to go to the mall in this crazy holiday traffic and i couldn't even park close, but as I was driving home I realized that this is not something that most of our customers can do. They live an hour+ away from us and have to plan out their trips because of the time it takes and gas. $$.

Monday, November 19: I am thankful for technology like FaceTime and Skype so that  tonight we could have our small group with Matthew in it even though he is in Florida and we are here in Indiana.  It turned out to be a very fun evening. Also this is looking more and more like this is how I will meet my first nephew Conor because my sister will probably be having him the week I am in Disney. Thank goodness for iPhones and technology!!!

Tuesday, November 20 (today): I am thankful for books and reading. I love how a book can transport you to another place and time and how a book is like a dearly loved friend, always there to comfort you and help you see the eorld in new and exciting ways. :)

And this wraps up my long very extended catch up session of thankfulness. I am going to finish these posts of thankfulness up on Thanksgiving day because I am going to be starting my December Daily project tomorrow. So stay tuned...

Catching up

Well my iPad decided to do something weird so this is a continuation of my post from earlier...if you haven't read that one scroll down to it and then back up. :)

Friday, November 16:  I am thankful for Impromptu family hang out nights. Renee and Zach invited us out to dinner at Cracker Barrel and it was so much fun just hanging out, catching up on life and enjoying each other's presence. :)

Saturday, November 17: I am thankful for Saturdays off. I love hanging out at home with my family, eating together, and spending time in my scrap room with the paper and glue flying. :)

Catching up....

Wow it has been over a week since I have posted on my little blog. Trying to keep up with my month of thankfulness and I have been jotting 'em down but they haven't been making it to the blogosphere. So here goes...

Monday, November 12: I am thankful for friends who are there to cheer me up when I am feeling blue. :)

Tuesday, November 13: I am thankful for fun surprises like today's when Debbie invited me to go see Fiddler on the Roof with her and her mom and our friend Lisa. She had extra tickets at the last minute and it was a great pick me up in the middle of my crazy week. The show was amazing and I loved every minute of it. Plus the guy who played the main character, Tevia, was amazing!!

Wednesday, November 14: so very thankful for good meals shared with friends. Last night I went to dinner with my dear friend Rosalie and today I got to have a wonderful lunch with Debbie. Lots of time to catch up on life, share joys and heartaches, and plan fun future events like Disney and summer break plans!!

Thursday, November 15: I am thankful for my Thursday night group. We are a little crazy but we know how to have fun like we did tonight at our pre-Thanksgiving dinner.  The food was delist (especially the deep-fried turkey...yum!)

A Busy and Thankful Week

Hello all!

I've been busy with Make & Take at Archiver's this week helping customers make Christmas cards and other projects. :) It is pure craziness but good fun seeing all of our "regulars" and helping them be creative.

Also continuing on with what I am thankful for this week.

Wednesday, November 7th: I am so thankful for my good friend Debbie.  She is such an amazing woman and I love her spontenaity and joyful attitude towards life.  We have become really close this past year and I love her to pieces! 

Thursday, November 8th: I am thankful for days off.  I spent my day scrapbooking and starting my Christmas cards which was blissful. I also went out to lunch with my mom and Colten, the little boy she babysits. These days when I am free to do what I want and just hang out in my scraproom with my dog Bailey make my heart happy! :)

Friday, November 9th: I am so thankful for my friend Robin.  We are there for each other when things at work go crazy and I love her fun outlook on life and just hanging out with her.

Saturday, November 10th: I am thankful for my family. They took me out to dinner for my birthday tonight and I just love hanging out with them.  :)

Sunday, November 11th: I am thankful for all the servicemen past and present who have sacraficed their time and even their lives to keep America free.  Thank you!!

Thankful for...

Today's post continues my season of thankfulness.

Sunday, November 4th: I am thankful for my friends. God has blessed me with some amazing friends who are there to support and encourage me as well as bring out my zany, ornry side.  We have so much fun together and I love them to bits! :) These photos are from my birthday bonfire that I had on Sunday night...so much fun!!!

 



Monday, November 5th: 

I am thankful for my small group.  They are an amazing bunch of friends that truly love God and inspire me and encourage me in my walk with Christ.  We have a ton of fun and love hanging out together. :) (more pics from the bonfire...)

 

Tuesday, November 6th: I am so thankful to live in America, where we can choose our leaders and have so many freedoms.  I exercised my right to vote today and made my vote count! :)

 

(This picture was sent to me by my amazing friend Debbie. Love it! :)

A Season of Thankfulness

Hello there blog readers. :)

As we quickly approach the holiday season, I wanted to take some time to reflect on all that God has given me and so today I embark on a month-long journey...a mission of gratitude, of remembering all that God has done for me, of all the wonderful people He has brought into my life, and of all the awesome things that He has done for me. Some days I will share pictures, and others I will just share my thoughts. I may even scrap about a few of them to share. So here goes...

(Today I will be sharing for multiple days since I am getting a late start.)

Thursday, November 1st: I am so thankful for my job. Even though it is stressful at times and crazy around the holidays, I really love the people I work with and the chance I have to share my love of scrapbooking and card making with others. I have made so many friends through this job and I am so thankful for each of them.

Friday, November 2nd: I am so thankful for homemade meals. Tonight we had homemade pizza which I haven't had in years and it was absolutely delicious. Yum!

 

And a few days ago we made this delicious honey chicken from Pinterest. Another hit with our family...it was heavenly!

 

Saturday, November 3rd: I am thankful for my photography skills. I love being able to capture the world around me and relationships between families and friendships.  This is a picture I took a few days ago of my friends as we celebrated Halloween. :)

And this afternoon I am heading out to capture my sister and brother in law as they are expecting their first new baby.  I am so excited to photograph them and their love for each other and little baby Conor. :)

Wedded Bliss...

When my sister got married a few years ago, she asked me if I would scrapbook her wedding. I of course told her I would and almost 3 years later I have started on this scrappy endeavor of preserving all the wonderful memories of that day through photographs and my creative muse.  This is just the beginning of this huge project with many more pages to come.

For the album I am using one of Basic Grey's older collections, Indian Summer. The colors in the papers coordinated perfectly with Renee's color scheme and it was released the year she got married. It was a match made in heaven. And with photographer Kris Gay's amazing images, I think that the album is stunning so far. I am using this collection throughout the album and it has been fun to challenge myself to use the patterns in new and creative ways. Also I haven't journaled on any of the pages....since I am making a copy for my sister and one for me, once the album is done we will each record our own memories of the day on these pages.

"Just Married"

I absolutely adore these photos of Renee and Zach exiting the church. The bubbles add so much fun here and I absolutely adore the picture of them walking off. I found the perfect sketch on Pinterest (my new addiction...more on that later) and used a gorgeous lace printed paper from SEI as well as several of the papers from th Indian Summer collection. I used my Silhouette to direct the word married and the cute hearts on here. A fun banner with the rest of the title finishes the page.

 

 

"The Processional"

This was the first page I created for the album.  I found this cute idea for a layout on Pinterest too and I fell in love with the heart border at the bottom. So I recreated the layout with my Fiskars punches and some of my favorite patterns from the collection. :) The title is cut with my Silhouette and is using the font I chose for this album "Great Vibes"...love how the letters connect and the elegant look for a wedding album.

 

 

 

"Beautiful Girls"

When I saw this amazing photograph that our photographer captured of my sister and her emotions on the day, I knew I had to make it the focal point of my layout. I paired it with other pictures of us girls getting ready and added some elegant embellishments to create this heartfelt page. Some pretty orange gems and butterflies from Prima finish off the page.

 

 

 

"Getting Ready"

One of the things we loved most about Renee's dress was the lacing going down the back of her bodice.  It was a process though getting it laced up and I ended up being the one who always did it for her.  So I love that the photographer captured these photos.  The large doily shape was cut on my Silhouette using the SEI paper and so was the pink mat. The flowers and pearls are from Prima and  lend a touch of elegance to the page.

 

 

"Memorable Moment"

Since we had to do most of our photos before the wedding, Zach didn't get to do the traditional first seeing Renee as she walked down the aisle. So they did a quiet meeting...it was so precious and the joyful expressions on their faces as they skipped down the aisle was priceless.  I found the perfect stamp from Technique Tuesday that says "saying hello" and I thought it was the perfect embellishment to this page as well. I completed this layout at a crop and I borrowed my friend Peggy's Sew Stamper to create the scalloped stamped/stitched lines.

 

Well there are many more pages to come. This is just the beginning but I am really loving the rich, vibrant colors of my supplies and the gorgeous photos I have to work with. :)