aah!

Can you believe that it is almost March?? I cannot believe how fast February flew by. I am looking forward to spring though, so I don't mind too much.

I thought I would share a layout today :) This a favorite of mine. It is one that I had published in Creating Keepsakes magazine.

I just loved how it turned out. I happened to find these perfect pattern papers that matched :)

These pictures are pretty old now--Levi will be 7 soon! He's not even 2 in these pictures. *sniff* I wishe they would stop growing:(....anyway....I used several Quickutz dies here. And there are a couple Papertrey Ink stamps too.


Thanks for stopping by today! I hope your week is going  well. We've been enjoying some really nice weather here this week.yay :)

It's party time.

 well, not really. But how about a party layout.

This layout is of Leah. My goodness, they all look SO little!! It's hard to believe how much they have changed in 3 years(!) *sniff,sniff* Lots of Fancy Pants stuff on this layout. And some stamps,  I love using stamps on my layouts when I can.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!! I'm really looking forward to taking it easy today :) stamping, scrapping and maybe some online shopping. fun :)

a layout for today.

I was going to post a card over the past couple of days, but I had an issue with my computer recognizing my pictures or something *~* Anyway, I opted to post a layout that was already on my  laptop from before.

Just some cute pictures I had of Miss  Emma from early before she was even one. Goodness, I can't believe she is already 3!!!

Are you ready for the weekend? I sure am :) If all goes well, we'll make it to a new church in this area, buy a little heater for my new crafting room, and get our Christmas decorations up.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Hanging out...

I have layout today of Levi and Miss Emma. These pictures are from a while ago, but they still love to hang out together :)

Pretty simple layout. I hand stitched the title for something a little different. I also added some hand stitching to the butterfly that I die cut from felt. The pattern papers are from Fancy Pants, which is still my favorite company for pattern paper, although Echo Park is definitely a close second.

Ok, that's all for me today. Levi isn't feeling well today :( so I'm off to sit with him. Thanks for stopping by!!

fun :)

I've been making a lot more cards than layouts lately. But yesterday I made a layout, and it was so much fun! Really want to do some more. Sorry I don't have the picture of that one on my computer yet, but I do have one that I made before it.

Pretty simple, but I was really pleased with how it turned out. I stitched all the lines between the pictures. And I even used some stamps on it too :) These pictures of when my Cutie learned how to ride his bike without training wheels. (He's so big now *sniff*).

Thanks SO much for stopping by today!!! I hope you have an awesome day!

well...

I'll do it again. I have to apologize for the lack of posting again. I'm actually disappointed when I don't get to because I like posting. But apparently, this embassy-passport-citizenship situation is more taxing than I thought it would be. I don't if any of you have had to deal with all the paperwork involved with having kids overseas, but I'll tell ya, it's never straight forward. Unfortunately I don't see us being done with it any time soon, so I'm just trying to stop worrying about it for now...

Anyway, I thought I would post a layout :) Seemed like it had been awhile.

These pix are a couple of years old, but I thought they were cute :) And I'm not a chronological scrapper, so I just scrap whatever I'm in the mood for.  I liked how it turned out :) I hand drew and stitched the puff of smoke since I couldn't seem to find anything I had that awas just right. Added some machine stitching and staples, and that was about it.

Thanks for stopping by today!! I hope your week is very uneventful and restful :)

Layout time :)

It seemed about time I shared a layout :) I am a *very* slow scrappy in general. It can take me forever to finish a layout. But, I am proud to say, I finished this whole layout in one day. One afternoon, actually. And it's even a 2 pager!

I was really pleased with how it turned out. I used a 6x6 pad from SEI. Lots of pretty patterns.

I even stitched around   the sections of pattern paper-some straight, some zigzag.  I used several stamps and die cuts too.

And some journalling too. I stamped the butterfly from Clear Dollar stamps on pattern. The cardstock stickers are from Crate Paper.

And that's about it :) Thanks for stopping by today!! I hope you are having a wonderful week!!

so tiny...

I made a layout of the first pictures I got of Miss Emma--ever. The nurses took the pictures for me while I was wheeled away after the c-section. It is so hard to believe that she was ever that small!!

I kept it pretty simple with just the 2 photos they took for me. She was so tiny (4lbs14oz) they thought she wouldn't get to come home with me, but she did :) And she's been thriving ever since. You certainly wouldn't know it now-heehee.

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope your week is going great!!

yay for school :)

I don't think I ever thought I would actually say that. Or even my kids. But there was absolutely NO complaining about doing school today. There were lots of smiles and listening on each other's lessons, and some very great memory verse recitation. Today was the 2nd of our new school. I was little nervous about starting it, and I'm definitely still working out timing etc. But I must say, I am loving it :) yay! I really thank God for leading me to it at just the right time. And in case you are interested, after all my raving :), you can check it out at Heart of Dakota.

I thought I would share a layout today. I made it a little bit ago. With thinking about and working on our new school stuff, I still haven't been creating as much as I normally do. I really love how this layout turned out :) The picture are old though, maybe about 4 years old. I took these from inside while Tomio was saying 'bye to each of the kids. He did this every morning on his way out  to work :) So glad I captured it :)

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a lovely week :)

okay...

I think it's time for a layout. I've actually made a few layouts lately. I even *seem* to have gotten a little bit faster at it too. Which can be good considering I usually have the same layout sitting on my desk for a week. I haven't finished all of Levi's other birthday pages yet, but since I am no longer stuck under the " I must scrap chronologically" way of thinking (which is definitely the best choice I ever made. I enjoy my scrapping *so* much more now), I didn't let that stop me from scrapping the cutie-pix :)

Last year Levi chose Batman, and this year it was Superman. It's funny. Every year, I know Tomio is going to do an incredible job drawing the pictures on their cakes with chocolate. And yet, every year, he still manages to exceed my expectations. It think it is so fun for the kids that they can ask for any picture they want, and they know Daddy will draw it.( if only I had that talent). I am really sticking with the less is more look for my layouts (well, and cards too) lately. I still experiment with other looks too, but I always seem to come back to more clean and simple.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you are having some nice fall weather. It looks like it is finally getting cooler now here. yay :)

sickies...

Rhys had a fever on Monday, and while he is all better now, Miss Emma now has one :( Rhys is actually really good when he is sick, not whiney or anything. Miss Emma... well, not so much. But considering her normal personality :), not too bad I guess.Really praying she's better in the morning. She still is her talkative self though. We were sitting together on the couch while she watched some dvr-ed shows. The care bears she watched finished, and the normal tv show came on. It was some Japanese cartoon that my kids don't watch. Normally when  a show that is "unacceptable" comes on, my kids will say "oh, that's poop", kind of reinforces that it's not worth watching. Anyway, this time it was kind of like a witch that popped on the screen. Miss Emma looked at it and said " Oh! scary! Scary poop!" :) heehee:)

anyway...how about a layout today? This is me and Tomio back when we were dating :) let's see...I must have been16, which makes him 21. Sometimes it's fun to go back and do some older pictures too :) Pretty simple, but I thought it went well with the black and white photos.

Thanks so much stopping by today! Taking care of sickies can be pretty tiring, so I'm going to *try* to get some more sleep tonight. Hey, at least everyone slept 'till 6 today :) Hope you have a great day!!

They are off.

Tomio and Leah left for Thailand. They will be there for a few days--golfing everyday :) Not particularly MY idea of a fun holiday, but they were pretty excited about it lol :) So I'm here with the boys and Miss Emma. They are having fun doing "boy" stuff. They got a new Pirates of the Caribbean lego that they just love. Their current faves for everything are Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones. You can tell Miss Emma has 2 older brothers when she recognizes anything pertaining to them, and calls them "Pirates" and "Jones", respectively. heehee :)

Here's a layout of Miss Emma. I can't believe how little hair she had here lol. And it was straight too. Basically just had fun with this layout. Some stitichin, felt flowers, cute papers. I actually heat embossed the woodgrain pattern onto the buttons--thought it kinda looked like sunflowers.

So glad you stopped by today!! I hope you are keeping cool, it seems to keep getting harder and harder to do that here. So thankful for my air :)

I think it's time...

for another layout. I made this one a few weeks ago, but I'm pretty sure I haven't shared it yet. So sorry if  I did!

These pictures are from last year when Miss Emma was first learning to eat by herself. She's eating broccoli :) which was, and still is, one of her most favorite foods. She prefers veggies over meat all the time. And she insists on calling eggs "chicken", which I suppose, isn't too far off, right?! Anyway, back to the layout-- I used some Fancy Pants Papers and some Prima flowers. I stamped, colored and trimmed out some PTI butterflies. Oh, and I die cut the letters out of coasters from PTI too, just for something different.

Short and sweet today. We've got some school to do and then we are going to the kids' first lesson at their new swimming class. Hoping things go well. They are all super excited :)

Thanks for stopping by!!

Happy things~

Tomio likes to surprise me :) He's a black belt in karate, pretty cocky (which was one of the first things I liked about him when I first met him when I was 14), so he never likes to admit that he's smitten heehee :) or that he's actually paying attention. But he really IS. I've been SOOO happy that I've realized some of my goals this year to get my cards published (YAY!!). And I was lamenting to Tomio that I really didn't have anything good to actually send them in. They say "box it up"....but I never could find anything that was "fitting". This was weeks ago. And then today he went out to get some light bulbs, and comes back with light bulbs, and several little boxes :) Yes, just the right size for mailing in cards :) Apparently he'd been checking everytime he went to the store. I love that 1) he remembered what I was wanting and 2) that he's sure enough that I'll get published again to buy several boxes :) He tries hard to hide it, but he doesn't do a very good job :)heehee~I know I'm lucky.

So I have another winter layout I did. I'm really liking doing snow layouts when it's really hot outside. I was really disappointed with myself with these pictures because I must have had the white balance on some really funky setting, so they are all a little off. :( But I of course wanted to scrap them anyway. Isn't Levi's hat just too cute?! None of these pattern papers are actually winter ones, but I thought they worked well.

Well, the weekend is over,and I think I am *almost* ready for a new week. Thanks for stopping by today :)

back to normal

So everyone got back from camp ok.  They had probably a little too much fun :) I'm really glad that there is a Christian, English camp for them to go to. For the past few days I keep hearing more and more about the different fun things they did. They were thrilled that they got to go swimming everyday :)

After all this "summer" talk, I have a winter layout I did heehee :) I used some adorable paper from Cosmo Cricket that I have been hoarding lol. Used some stamps, added some stitching. I really love these colors :) I love this little snowman stamp!! So cute. I like to emboss with the Ultra thick embossing enamel (UTEE) like i did here and then stamp his eyes etc in Stazon.

Alright, things are going back to normal today--back to studying and schedules again. Hoping it allows for a little down time for though :) Hope you had a great Father's day weekend!! We spent the day at my parent's house. Thanks for stopping by!!

really?!

Can you believe it is already June?! I just can't--the year is half over! aaahh! I'll be happy if the first few days of June are anything like what the rest will be, though. They said it was the coolest day in June they had in 22 years here. I would love a cooler summer :)

Have a layout to share today. Some of my favorite pictures of Miss Emma from the park near our house.

I'd been doing a lot of two page layouts with lots of pictures, so I thought it would be fun to try doing some really different ones. I like printing the pictures with a white border to help them pop. The pretty striped paper is from Fancy Pants. I went for years without even owning any flowers, and then after I got some, I went for months without even tryin to use them. But lately I've been really liking them and putting them on layouts and cards. I think I might have gotten a little carried away though heehee :) There's a little stitching, a little stamping and a little embossing too.

Thanks for stopping by! Are you reayd for the weekend?  I sure am :)

since I'm on a roll...

I thought I would share another layout that I made :) I'm actually really happy with this one. I made it for a call Creating Keepsakes was having, but I guess they were looking for something else. But I was really glad I made it. Reading is such a big part of Leah's life right now that I was so glad I documented it.

I used real pages from an old book that was in pieces :)

And I had fun with the journaling. See? I made it look like one of the pages from the book :) fun:)

And I used my favorite buttefly stamps. Did some stitching, and added some fun embossed clouds :)

Leah seriously reads all.the.time. I can barely keep up with enough books for her! She's already had her Nana and Aunt Coo'gug (long story with that name lol) provide her with dozens. Good thing we can get her English books from the library at the American school here.

Well, that's all for me today!! So glad you stopped by! Hope your week is moving along smoothly :)

A layout ~yay!

So I started as strictly a  scrapbooker. Then I think about...3 years ago? I got into making cards more and really got into stamping too. Now I make maybe more cards than layouts simply because they are alot quicker, so even I spend the same amount of time scrapping as stamping, I won't get as many done lol. But I love both so much that if stick to one or the other for too long, I start to miss the other too much lol. Anyway, here is a layout I made of Leah :) These pictures are from 2009, and I can't believe how much older she seems now *sniff* :(

There is a little bit of stamping on this layout too. That actually makes happiest---combining stamping and scrapping :) I drew on the flourishes freehand and then pierced holes, and then stitched over them by hand. I love how they turned out though :)

Just a little journaling at the bottom.

Added a bit of stitching to the felt heart too :)

Took Emma to the doctor yesterday for her cough. She seems have raspy congested cough again. Fortunately, she loves her medicine and is excited to take. Such a blessing :) Glad she'll be feeling better soon too.

Thanks for stopping by!! Hope you are having a lovely week :)

a little tired and a layout.

Well a new week started again. I have been so tired lately. I guess I shouldn't complain, since I get to stay home with the kids and Tomio is the one who has to go out. See he's been so busy at work that he has to leave by 6 most days. Which means that I get up and get him breakfast etc. before he heads out. That itself is tiring enough, but Miss Emma seems to have decided now would be a good time to start waking up in the middle of the night and scream, and scream...and scream. I've tried everything I can think of but it hasn't helped.

So I'm tired. Maybe some extra coke will help :) And at least the coke-shortage that seems to have been going on at the stores near me has ended and I was able to find plenty for the week. yay :)

I thought I would share another layout today(!) I actually really like how this one turned out. It is from the same sketch as the one I shared a little bit ago. But I like how it has a totally different look.

I love the "wonky" scallops at the bottom. I didn't really have any, so diecut several circles and cut them in half and tucked them in. I also like the little felt car. I like adding stitching and buttons to felt shapes :)

Well, that's all for me today. I'm really hoping to get a nap after school today... :) Thanks for stopping by! I hope you had a great weekend!!

Sorry for the long silence again. My week didn't go at all like I had planned. I had hoped to do all this great planning and cardmaking while Leah and Rhys were gone doing sports all week....but none of that happened at all. I DID take Emma and  Levi to the doctor for their bad coughs. And I did manage to catch Emma's before it got really bad this time.
But I still have big plans for this week. I'm sure that some rescheduling and some attitude adjustments(which come from the Lord) I can get things done and enjoy them too.

Since I didn't create anything that I had planned this week, I don't have a card to share. But I do have a layout(!!!) I know, can you believe it? It's actually one that I made for Creating Keepsakes, but they didn't want it. But I still love how it turned out.

Some fun pictures of all my kiddos enjoying some cupcakes :) I used lots of stamps on this layout, which is one of my favorite things to do. When I first started stamping, I really didn't combine the two, but now I love it. 

I used lots of Papertrey dies too. I *LOVE* these notebook page and ticket dies. Both are ones that I wasn't sure I would get much use out of but got just because I liked them. And doesn't the cupcake look so cute out of felt?! So fun :)

That's it for me today. I hope your week went smoothly. Or at least you made the best of whatever came your way lol :) Thanks for popping in!!