snow much fun

A little more Basic Grey goodness for you. This is their Jovial line. Available at Green Tangerines soon, very soon!

This is an Allison Davis sketch. I hand cut the large hexagon to mimic the small snowflakes.

These letter stickers are from My Mind's Eye Lush line. They have a soft velvet feel to them. They weren't quite a dark enough brown, so I inked them to make them the perfect shade.

These brown snowflakes were all hand cut. I had a hexagon punch that I was able to use for the blue snowflakes. I raised the blue snowflakes with dimensionals and placed them on top of the brown strips of snowflakes.

There were plenty of die-cut stickers in this line to play with!

Have a great weekend!

opposite day and ice skating

Do you remember "opposites day" back in elementary school? Or backwards day? Last week, Faith said she wanted to see what her hair would look like straight and what Paige's hair would look like curly. We declared the next day "opposite day."

I was able to get Faith's hair pretty straight . . . it is so long! This is the extent of curl that I was able to get into Paige's hair using a curling iron--and this only held for about half an hour! I'll have to try rollers next time.

They thought this was a pretty fun activity.

The girls had been saving up their "stars" to go ice skating with dad. Last weekend, the time had arrived. Skating time was unfortunately during Seth's naptime, so I had to rely on dad to snap me a few pictures.

These sleds help you learn how to stay upright. They also had 5-gallon buckets you could push around.

Another fun memory for the books!

lime-marinated chicken with salsa

I found this recipe in the book, Flat Belly Diet. I can't say I have a flat belly yet, but this recipe sure was good! I altered it by leaving out the onion and the jalapenos. I served it over brown rice. Yum!

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound)

3 Tbls lime juice (about 3 limes)

2 Tbls olive oil

1.25 tsp ground cumin

.25 tsp kosher salt

3 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 c chopped avocado

.5 c chopped fresh cilantro

1. Put chicken into a ziploc bag.

2. In a small bowl, combine lime juice, oil, cumin and salt. Transfer 2 Tbls of the marinade to a medium glass bowl. Pour the remaining marinade into the chicken bag. Seal and turn to coat--chill for AT LEAST an hour.

3. Meanwhile, add the tomatoes, avocado and cilantro to the bowl with the lime marinade. Toss gently to mix. Cover the bowl with wrap and chill.

4. When you are ready to eat, grill the chicken and serve over a bed of rice or fresh greens. Pour salsa mixture from bowl all over your chicken. Enjoy!

summer camping layout

We went camping four times this summer--FOUR TIMES!!! I still can't believe we did this with an infant. It certainly wasn't a breeze, but we still had fun--the girls LOVED all the camping. Here is proof below:

This is one of Basic Grey's newest lines, "Wander." When I saw the CHA sneaks, I fell in love with this line . . . and when I finally got my hands on it, I loved it even more. This line is so versatile.

This line features a fabulous set of die-cut stickers and letters.

I love the little compass--perfect for camping photos. I layered it on top of the big yellow die-cut. And the topography paper? I think it was made for me.

I did not perfectly punch holes for all of these brads . . . this die-cut came with holes in it that were just begging to be filled!

I'm also working on a "little boy and his car" layout with this same line. Stay tuned for that one! Have a great day!

have you heard?

Have you heard the news???!!! My favorite scrapbook store is reopening next month! It was a sad day last February when they had to close . . . but with a lot of work and some negotiations, my smart and business savy friend Kelly is able to reopen--10,000 sqauare feet of scrapbooking yumminess!

I am busy making some samples with the new lines she recently picked up at CHA. As soon as Green Tangerines opens you can pick up the fabulous Jillibean Pasta Fagioli line . . . I just love these warm colors . . . perfect for our trip last week to the ranch! If you want to see the full line, click here.

I used a sketch out of the recent Creating Keepsakes magazine . . . the September issue, page 31.

Jillibean has some great cardstock stickers that go with this line . . . that little "button" you see and the thread is from this line. I just love the mini letters included on the sheet of stickers.

The mini letters added a little extra pop to my journaling too . . . gotta love that!

The owner is working on the opening date . . . soon the countdown will begin. I can't wait! Thanks for letting me share my excitement with you!

jh ranch adventure

We are back home and sleeping in our own beds . . . so nice! We had so much fun this past week with Tim's family and all the cousins!

All but one of Tim's siblings made it to the reunion. We were missing a few of the older grandchildren as well, but the majority of us were there! (There are 39 grandchildren total.)

Being silly in the cornfield.

The pond outside the house we stayed in--complete with a rope swing.

Kayaking on the lake.

We went on a nature hike with the younger cousins. I put packing tape around their wrists--sticky side out. I had just read them a story about Creation and we collected all the different things God has made. We came back from our walk and they glued all their treasures to a piece of paper and made a picture. This was my friend Tara's wonderful idea--the kids loved it!

Another silly picture.

Mr. Goat just had babies . . . aren't they cute?

Faith's first time on a horse.

I just love being surrounded by the mountains.

We had a surprise party for Tim's mom who just turned 80 years old. Everyone took turns sharing why they are thankful for her. It was really nice.

Last, but not least. This little man loved having room to roam!

Back to reality . . .

vacation

We are headed to the JH Ranch this morning! This is the Christian camp that my husband's parents started 30 years ago. We always head up there for a family reunion during the last week of camps. All 11 of Tim's siblings and their families will be there--lots of cousin fun!

This is a layout I did three years ago when my husband talked me into this crazy screaming eagle ride--and I did scream my head off! Not sure if I will be doing it again this time around.

Be back next week, have a good one!

trampoline camp out

For awhile now Tim has been promising the girls they would camp out on the trampoline one night. Yesterday I talked both of the girls into napping (for 2 hours!) so that they could stay up late outside. We had our Friday night homeade pizza, put Seth to bed, made popcorn and got all set up on the trampoline.

I think they brought almost every stuffed animal they own onto the trampoline.

Isn't it fun to jump and giggle (and be noisy neighbors) at 9:00 at night? I love Tim's expression. He truly enjoys his kids and I love that about him!

Tim told the girls to pretend to sleep for the picture. They just couldn't do it, they were laughing too hard! We laid on our backs for quite a while and played who can "eye spy" the first stars. Then we had to explain what all the moving stars (satelites) were. That was interesting . . .

This is Paige at 8:00am. She is the only one who made it on the trampoline the entire night! Around 9:15pm a skunk sprayed somewhere in our backyard and it STANK!! The smell eventually went away, but at 10pm Faith came inside saying she wanted to sleep in her bed in case the skunk came back. Tim made it till 2:00am, but he said the occasional duck quacking in our backyard (we have 3 ducks) was keeping him awake. He slept inside in the family room with the slider open so he could hear Paige if she needed anything. I had a blissful night of sleep by myself in my bed . . . no offense to my snoring husband! 

This one will go down in the memory books . . . the girls had SO MUCH FUN!! They have such a creative dad.

new home for albums

I mentioned that I was working on a  new home for my albums a couple of weeks ago. Well, the new home is finished! I am so excited! Here are the before pictures:

These "holes" on either side of the fireplace were meant to have a television and electronics in them, but who watches television on the floor? I felt like it was wasted space that was asking to be so much more! We've relocated the toy bin to Seth's room and the kitchen we have yet to decide on. Maybe it will move on from our home . . .

The albums in this cabinet are all pre-children. The drawers below are for toys.

This one's my favorite. It houses all our family albums (black), kid albums (yellow for Faith, green for Paige, and blue for Seth--not shown). The purple one is for all of their birthday parties and the red one is for our homeschooling adventures.

If you are local and need some cabinets built in, I was really happy with the guy who did the work. Fast and a nice guy. I'm still deciding on how I am going to arrange them and fill up the space. A little home decor is in order since the space will not be filled up with albums for quite a while. Now my linen closet is once again free . . . maybe I'll actually use it for linens . . . we'll see. Most likely it will be home to all of the homeschooling books that seem to be overflowing from the school room.

Have a great day!

pagemaps layout

Pagemaps blog is having a little (actually big) contest this month. Go and check it out! All you have to do is create a layout based on this sketch:

I've been wanting to do a layout about Paige and her horns for awhile now, and this sketch was perfect for the three pictures I had. I love how these pictures show a side of her personality that most people we know don't see! She is so shy in public, but at home she can be a crazy girl!

farm birthday party

We had Seth's one year party yesterday, and of course we went with a farm theme seeing as we have been farmers for the past year . . . by the way, did I mention our ducks now have a swimming hole?

I spent entirely too much time making these party hats. If I wasn't a scrapbooker, I probably wouldn't have bothered . . . do you ever go to all the trouble of making something just for a cool picture (and layout)? Yeah, it's one of my many faults. My husband was rolling his eyes while I was making them.

In case you have a farm party coming up, here are some close up shots of the hats. Think LOTS of hot glue!

I got the cake and hat idea out of a kids birthday party magazine I've had for three years. This cake was actually pretty easy to put together. The key was taking a can of frosting and adding one cup of powdered sugar to it--this made the frosting extra stiff for putting the barn and silo together. The frosting on the cake I made from scratch.

He wasn't really sure what to do with the cake . . . and I'm okay with that.

He had plenty of kids to show him how to open his gifts.

A little boy is not complete without a lightsaber, right? I know these are intended for children over age three, but I will watch him carefully, he just loves the swords and sticks. Such a boy! Happy birthday little man!