Sneak Peek

A little sneak peek at a new product review that will be up at The Scrap Review on Monday, June 17th. 

Review Preview & Chance to Win

Here's a little peek at the projects for my latest product review over at The Scrap Review. Check out The Scrap Review today and leave a comment there for a chance to win a mini collection within the Collectable line by My Mind's Eye. 

Studio Calico Review over at The Scrap Review

Check out my latest product review and layouts with Studio Calico's State Fair line over at The Scrap Review. Leave a comment on The Scrap Review post for a chance to win some Studio Calico goodies!

sneak peeks of layouts and life

i've been playing with some cosmo cricket goodness & have a few quick sneak peeks of layouts that will be up on the scrap review on monday. keep an eye out for the review on their new togetherness line.

real life has been rolling on, making more and more opportunities to put memories on paper and in our hearts. on friday stan reenlisted in the military. the girls and i got to watch, proud as can be, as he was sworn in. i think back to when we were first married, never thinking the navy would end up as a career. but here we are with complete peace that this is the very place God has us to be regardless of the trails that sometimes accompany it... perhaps exactly because of that.

i've been on a sunburst kick lately for my daily pictures... so i figured i'd try it through our japanese maple, since the color of the leaves is so beautiful. perhaps funnier is that torrey was all hunched up because she had to go potty, and i kept say... "just one more picture!" :)

Faith can move mountains, 

but don't be surprised if God hands you a shovel.

motherhood and other nonsense

a few years ago, when torrey was in first grade, each kid in her class would write a paragraph every monday morning about their weekend. now i'm pretty sure this was just a ploy by her teacher to take an otherwise gloomy monday and fill it with hearty belly laughs. and man, if i'd been a thinker, i would have had the kids do this for me every week, too!

so flashback to  2006... i'm in the classroom correcting the spelling on the monday paragraphs filled with juicy tidbits of weekend fun. then i come to torrey's paper. her paper says, "on sunday we went to church and learned about how Jesus died on the cross for our sins and we learned that He saved us and to be kind to others. after all of that nonsense, we went home and had a party." now, i'm not going to lie to ya, i might have just burst out laughing right there in the middle of class. i think i even startled the teacher. you just never quite know what they're going to say next, do you?

incidentally, the party was stan's birthday party with our family... 'cause we're crazy partyers like that... lol. i asked torrey what she meant by nonsense, she said, "you know, the stuff that we do all of the time." so i got to explain that wasn't exactly what nonsense meant, while enjoying one of those magical motherhood moments where you try to keep a straight face.

i have this monday paragraph stored in a box of mom treasures. treasures like hand print frames, kindergarten crafties, random little love notes, sweet drawings... heck, i've even got the apology notes (given back to me) the girls wrote to my former neighbor for breaking their window during a "rock throwing contest" in their yard a few years back. treasures that i wouldn't trade for all of the flowers in all of the world. it is precisely these mom moments that make my life so very rich, and so very humorous all at the same time.

in other nonsense... i've been chugging along on my second year of project 365... mostly trying to document the girls on a daily basis. it's always hard to believe how much they've grown and changed over the past few years. it's fun to flip through the daily happenings and see it progress a little at a time, although i'm sure to others, it's a bit like watching grass grow...

the girls seem to be coming up on the next big block of change, and i'm thankful to have these daily baby steps toward the wide world of adolescence. i'm enjoying the ride, and savoring every moment of every stage the best i know how... one at a time.

next comes the scrappy corner of the world. or if you're at my house... the hobby whose supply stash is slowly taking over my entire house. (one more thing to get all cleaned up before stan gets home!) i've been working on projects for several different venues. i've made a couple more albums for the fabulous folks at punky sprouts. you can check them out here and here and here.

then, of course, there is the fabulous fun with all of the glitz goodness. love, love, love their vintage love line!

for the scrap review this month i got to play with the wonderful line my from very sweet friend liz. you can check out the review, along with a few other projects here.

for the sake of those that have actually made it this far down in the post... the rest of these bad boys are gonna get the super condensed speedy commentary. 125.365 emma looking serious & cute and seriously cute on the front porch. {more may daily life shots here}

124.365 torrey lost her first tooth since second grade walking home from the bus.

123.365 my little reader doing what she loves most... snuggling up with a good book.

138.365 emma sporting a flower autie kaori sent her from japan. {more pics here}

137.365 inspired by a friend, i pulled out the lensbaby & its star aperture disk and shot up my rhodies.

135 & 136.365 torrey looking sweet as candy, and emma sporting her pre-bath undone hairdo that looks simultaneously like she's from early 90's and in her mid 20's. {more here}

134.365 this past week i went with emma's class on one of my very favorite field trips... to the state park. i love, love, love our state park. it's amazing, beautiful, diverse and only about 5 miles from our house. we camp there bunches in the summer time, and visit all year round. all of the second graders get to go to the state park where the UW beachcombers come and show them tons of our natural wonders. so super cool! {bunch more pictures here}

133.365 what it looks like when you spend a couple of hours playing in 2 acres of freshly cut grass. i however, will not show you what my bruised hip looks like after falling on my brick steps trying to carry the dirty little bodies into the house. ouchie!

the rest are fill more bits and pieces of our daily life in may... {more pics here}

a little pick me up and catch me up

seems like i'm always playing catch up... whether it's my blog or facebook or housecleaning or scrapbooking. things always seem to get done... eventually. for things that have actual deadlines, i'm rarely behind, but for the rest of the bits of sand that fill in life's jar, those things without hard and fast deadlines, i always seem to be falling behind.

my house is always clean at least one day a week - wednesday... rather it is clean by wednesday evening. we have a Bible study/potluck at our house every week. i'm pretty sure stan kept it at the house while he was gone just so he knew in his heart that i'd clean once a week! that man knows me well! hee hee. and, of course, he is right. i will always have it clean (at least by my standards) by wednesday at 6pm. 

deadlines work like that for me, and procrastination is sort of my life theme. deadlines are something to concentrate on with fervor just moments before they arrive. i'm not a scheduled person, and thankfully for most areas of my life, that is a good thing. it comes in handy being married to a wonderful man whose schedule changes wildly every day. organization and schedules seem beautifully unattainable to me.

i sat in on an organization workshop with my dear friend cami this past weekend. cami and i were roommates for several years many years ago. she is like stan... super organized an enviably put together person. me... not so much! we chuckled in the back row while i told her it was just an "enabler" class for her, while it was more of a hopeless fantasy for me.  we laughed at old traits that only seem to solidify over time. and if i can continue to laugh at and about those crazy fun short comings for the rest of my days, i think my life will have been a happy one.

 and now, i hope to hopelessly bore you with a zillion (i haven't counted, but i'm sure it's quite close to a zillion) pictures from the past couple of weeks. 

friday was crazy hair day. torrey was hoping to have her hair in a star shape... we've been talking about it off and on since last year. well, i rolled my sorry self out of bed a little late on friday (*note time management issues listed above). we were running too late to make the star. so with goopy hair goo, pipe cleaners and some tissue paper (to help with emma's)... we pulled off some quickie crazy hairdos. {more pics here}

if it weren't for the last minute, i wouldn't get anything done!

in other news, not involving my seriously lack of organizational life skills, emma got some new specs. she's been wanting them since torrey got hers last year, and with genetics on her side... her wish came true! she looks beautiful, and so much more grown up than i'd like to admit. they did however give her a couple days of serious headaches and dizziness, one of which ended in losing her lunch in her classroom garbage can. thankfully it only lasted a couple days, then she was back in business. {more pics here}

and who can forget about tulip time? especially when you have thousands of acres of tulips available for strolling through just minutes from where you live. did i ever tell you how lucky we are? we didn't get up there as many times as i'd hoped to, we never do... but they are always beautiful and amazing and peaceful. {more pics here}

beside the rigors of daily life, i've been planning our church's woman's retreat. well, i get the group together and head to the retreat that's already planned at warm beach camp. but to make things just that much more special... we put together goodie boxes and notepads, and have shirts made for all of the ladies. i'm lucky enough to be on the planning committee for warm beach, to bring my church girls and this year i even taught a party planning class for the retreat. not necessarily a relaxing weekend, but always always a good one. {more pics here}

{crafty craftiness}

on the happy scrappy front, i've been a busy little bee, crafting away with loads of great goodies. woohoo!

first i am very excited to be a part of the new punky sprouts design team! this brand new company makes some wicked sweet (and green) mixed media mini albums. if your local store doesn't carry these amazing albums yet... ask for them! they're loads of fun! for the latest news and fun, become a facebook fan here. my first two punky albums can be seen in full here and here.

i am also lucky enough to keep on creating with the fabulous girls over at glitz. i love those ladies, and their scrapbook goodies get more fabulous with each new release! keep an eye out for new glitz layouts coming very soon!

i've also been keeping busy with the scrap review.  with this last review, i stained my fingers with loads of the beautiful shimmery goodness that is glimmer mist. i {heart} tattered angels! 

this last week i did receive some very sad scrap news that my favorite, and i'm quite sure the best ever, local scrapbook store, lasting memories, is closing.  it all came as quite a surprise, but the wonderful owners are happy with the life decision this is for their current phase in life. i'm pretty sure i'm going to be going through terrible shopping withdraws, but i'll do my best to survive them! best of luck to you jennifer & lee and all of the lasting memories girls! i'll miss you terribly!

now, to save you from my hopeless rambling (and if you've had the strength to make it this far... you amaze me already!) i will just post a bunch of daily life pictures... sans commentary.

{out of doors}

it's spring here in the great green state of washington, and my yard is all abloom, with no help from me i might add. lucky for me we have a yard full of self-maintaining flowers as well as a God given sprinkler system in the sky. these are a few of my favorites from the past couple of weeks.

{the end... almost}

alas, i've come to the end of my behind-ness, at least until tomorrow!