Project Life 2012: Week 15

My IT guy (aka Lucas) has come through again! He got my web browser updated for me so that I can once again post on my blog. *yea!* So I'm back in action (although, still VERY short on free time for blogging, so my posts may be a bit scattered for a bit longer... hang with me pleeeeeease!)

Very slowly, bit by bit, I have managed to pull together another week of my Project Life 2012. It's been in itty bitty bits at a time, since that's all I've had to work with. I've still got weeks 16 and 17 to do, plus another 4 weeks that I've skipped to try to get as caught up as I am. *sigh* Life has taken over in full force, and all the extras, like photo editing (and blogging) have all but fallen off the charts. *shrug* What can ya do but keep plugging along.

So, here it is... my week 15. Easter. Lacrosse. Gymnastics. Softball. And a few odds and ends here and there.

 
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I found an easy way to address my text alignment issue when trying to print journaling on the index cards and 3x4 insert cards. I found that scanning the card, and then opening the scanned image in Photoshop Elements allows me to align my text exactly as I want it right on the screen. Then, to print, I simply hide the scanned card layer, print the text only, then tape the actual index card over the printed text and reprint. This will put the card in the exact place I want it to be in order to get the text to print just where I want it to print on the card. Super easy. Here are some examples:





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well it seems blogger has decided to make some updates and not ask my opinion on the matter. they no longer support my web browser. therefore, i cannot see my post page to make new posts. i'm taking a stab in the dark at this one and hoping it works. but i will not be able to make any complex postings (with pictures and such) until i get this straightened out. for now, we're in a holding pattern. i've got to get my house clean before i can sit down and mess with this. until then...

Project Life 2012: Week 14

Wow, my time to do things like blog and edit / print pictures continues to be EXTREMELY limited. We are just on the go non-stop! This week we've had 3 lacrosse games, one lacrosse practice, four gymnastics practices, a softball practice, and a field trip since Sunday.

BUT. I did manage to get pictures printed a little at a time, and have finally pieced together my week 14 for Project Life. It's VERY simple yet again, as simple is all I have time for, and I really don't want to fall behind again. So I'm doing what I can with what I've got to work with. *shrug*

This week I did more digi / hybrid stuff. I used quite a few digi cards and printed them to be used in my project. It's just more comfortable for me that way, since that's the medium I'm used to working with anyway.

spread


left


right


And I figured while I was sharing the week of the zoo, I could share a 'few' other zoo and flower garden pictures as well.

From our River Walk:


These were taken from along the river peeking into the flower garden...


And looking out over the city...





A few zoo pics:






And the flower garden:
They have an indoor orchid display right now... beautiful!







The kids thought the zoo train through the flowers was fun!


And can I have this in my back yard please?!



Okay, that's all the sharing I have for now. Time to go get the kids up for school! Have a great day!

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One Story Down - Friday Releases

Love the new releases at One Story Down this week! Seriously, I am so thrilled with all the gorgeous new stuff that rolls into the store every week, and this week I loved so many things I couldn't make up my mind what to use first! In the end, I mixed and matched a few new products to make this page:



(Click here to view full credits)


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The Hands...

One of my favorite songs at the moment is Aftermath by Hillsong. There is a phrase in the lyrics that I think speaks volumes, and encompasses Easter and God's awsomeness.

The hands that cradle the stars are the hands that bled for me.



Think about it. Be amazed. He is amazing.

Happy Easter!

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Easter!!

Last night before bed, Sebastian told me he was worried he wouldn't be able to sleep because it was the night before Easter and it's hard to sleep when he's excited. I love that! He's nearly 11, and he still gets excited about Easter. :) Then again, I'm 34 and I get excited about Easter, too!

Around here, Easter alway always means church on Easter morning.


Then we do Easter baskets... This year the kids each got 1 Skylander, 1 mini Webkinz, a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble, and 2 Reese's peanut butter eggs. I think each basket was a total of about $30. We keep it simple, because it's not about us getting stuff. It's about remembering what we've already been given.

Egg hunt... I have no idea how eggs ever became part of the Easter tradition. I'm sure I could find the answer to that somewhere on the internet, but I don't really care. It's fun to color the eggs. And it's extra fun to hide the eggs and watch the kids run around like crazies trying to find them. This year, Lucas hid Sebastian's. He said he was old enough for 'advanced egg hunting.'






(It was windy *lol*)


An example of advanced egg hunting... Lucas unscrewed the light bulb, put the egg in, and screwed the bulb back into place. Poor Sebastian couldn't figure out how to get the egg out. Plus, he could barely reach, and was stretched to the max on his tippiest toes. And Lucas enjoyed every minute of it :)



And of course, no matter how healthy we're being around here, jelly beans are a MUST at Easter time. I couldn't find Jelly Belly's at the store, but I found some that are made with real fruit juice & no high fructose corn syrup. That counts as healthy, right? Plus, they were DELICIOUS, and they're almost gone already!


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try try again.....and again

We're going strong on our eat-at-home and eat-healthy-foods plan. Today I was planning on making turkey burgers and pizza. I was originally going to make the pizza for lunch, but then realized I didn't have the cheese I needed. So turkey burgers for lunch (and ohmygoodness I have a new favorite burger topping....sweet onion salsa and grilled pineapple...to die for!).

After lunch I was getting ready to start doing other stuff, when Meagan reminded me that we still needed to do eggs. *mental forehead slap* How do I forget this stuff sometimes? Really? * i dunno* So I boiled the eggs and prepared for egg coloring. But somehow I got distracted by laundry and a phone call with my mom, and it ended up being 4:00 or so before I finished with the eggs (plus, I had to boil a second round of eggs because several in the first round cracked). Nearly time to start making dinner. But I still didn't have the dumb cheese.


So. I set up the tablets in the little coloring cups, crushed them up, and let them sit and dissolve while I made a trip to the grocery. I got the cheese (and a pack of york peppermint minis for a treat for myself) and came home to start on coloring eggs and making pizza. I got the kids started on the eggs, then I got all my stuff out for making pizza... and then realized I didn't have pizza sauce. *REALLY?* Grrr...

Thankfully, our kids are old enough now to do their own thing for the egss. I let them have at it while I made ANOTHER trip to the grocery. For sauce. Only sauce. Dumb. By the time I got home, they were almost done with the eggs. *sigh* I feel like I missed it, which makes me feel grumpy. But I'm thankful that they were able to keep going without me, or else it would have dragged on for quite a while. So I guess in the end, it all worked out, and I just have to face the facts that my kids don't need me for all of the stuff they used to need me for. And I guess I can be okay with that.

I AM okay with that. Just sometimes I forget.

Pictures:

I think we've used this same cheapy set of coloring cups since the beginning of time. They're cheap. They're easy. They work. Why change it?


Having only 5 cups of color and 3 kids, we had to figure out a system for keeping track of their eggs... they're pretty protective of which eggs are theirs. So we take a slip of paper, write the colors across the top. As they put their egg in the color, they write their initial by that color. When they take it out, they cross their initial off. Very simple. And it works. And we avoid arguements.

Favorite Eggs:
Sebastian's...

Isaac's...

Meagan's...

My favorites are always the really vibrant greens and blues...

And here's the whole collection...


Happy Easter!!

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My Style

I've been scrapping in some form or another for nearly 10 years now. Over time, I've struggled to find my own personal style and get comfortable in my skin so to speak. I've gone through periods of comparing my artwork to others' and finding my own to be lacking. But finally, in time, and probably with some degree of God's help, I found a degree of comfort and satisfaction in my artistic style. While mine may not be the most wowing or the most creative pages out there, I find that I am happy with them.

My style has formed to be something like this... I like the photos to tell the story. I like the colors and elements and patterns to accentuate the photos somehow without being overbearing (hopefully... at least that's the goal). I tend to do big, centered blocks o photos for whatever reason. I don't seem to be the girl who can scatter things around the page and make it look right. I love that style on other people's pages, but it just doesn't work for me. I love to document the stuff I want to remember most.

But most of all, I love to scrap the every-day. Really, it's those things that I cherish more than any major holiday or milestone. And if I'm honest, I think it's those things I'm most afraid I will someday forget. So I want to have some visual reminder to myself, as well as a message to others, that these moments happened, that they were a part of my life, and that they mattered to me. That's important. And it has played a rather large role in helping me to settle into my own personal scrap style.

Anyway, I know that's a bit of random information, especially for those of you who don't scrap and could care less. But I was looking through some of my recent layouts, and I realized they all share some common characteristics. That observation prompted the thoughts behind this post. So forgive my randomness. Here are a few layouts I can share with you.

Everyday Miracles
This layout was done for April's Girl vs. Scrap challenge at One Story Down. (Come check it out. There's a free gift for participating... definitely worth it!) The challenge I took was to document an every-day miracle in my life.

Here's the story behind this layout:
One day I was grumbling to myself as I stood in front of our pantry, thinking I didn't have anything to make for dinner. As I was turning up my nose at what we did have, and wishing we had something we didn't have, I was convicted about my attitude. I became clearly aware that many many mothers suffer this trial on a daily basis, not knowing what they will feed their children, or how they will fill their bellies. I realized as I took a closer look at the pantry that we had more than enough to sustain us. Just because we didn't have what I WANTED, did not mean we didn't have what we NEEDED. I was reminded of the Israelites feeding on manna for years and grumbling about that daily miracle. Right then I stopped my grumbling and took a fresh look. I found enough to make some homemade soup and sandwiches, and we ate a filling meal that night.

(Click to view full credits)

Yum
Another every-day kind of moment. This one has a lot less meaning behind it. I just happened to have my camera near-by when this happened. Sebastian was lounging around, enjoying a Tootsie Pop he had gotten at school. Lilly took an interest in said Tootsie Pop, and hopped up to check it out. She kept sticking her nose right up in his face, sniffing around, bu she never got brave enough to take a lick... which is probably good, because cat licks on your sucker is kinda gross... although I used to let my cat drink out of my cereal bowl when I was young (don't tell my mom *lol*)

(Click to view full credits)

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