LAX- it's a way of life

No- not the airport, but we travelled enough to probably drive to and from LAX this summer for LAX! Lacrosse. This was the first year that Jake played travel lacrosse- and unless you are wondering, we DO play lacrosse in Kentucky. If you can allow me to be a bit of a proud mom for a moment... When Jake went to tryouts back in May he only knew one person on the field, coaches, players etc. and that one person was a teammate of his who had just started playing. There were 80+ extremely talented boys vying for about 25 spots. I hate to be a pessimist, but with just 2 hours of tryouts and that many kids to be seen I really wasn't very hopeful. It was a grueling week wait until they posted the list, and we were all super excited to see his name on the list!
He learned so much this summer, practicing several times a week with the best talent in the area in his age range- top level coaches who bring years of college experience and most importantly he made some new friends and had a lot of fun! We were able to travel to Denver, Baltimore (with a side trip to DC before hand) and to Atlanta for tournaments... in Atlanta we had our best showing making it all the way to the semi-finals where we played the host team really close. With 3 minutes left to go it was a 7-7 tie... but they ended up pulling ahead and getting the win over us.
Who knows what next year holds, Jake will move up to the U15 division and will be quite possibly the youngest kid trying out for that age group- his birthday is just 12 days before the cutoff... so if he was 13 days younger he would be eligible to play U13 again! Regardless this was a great all around experience for the entire family, and Jake got a really cool uniform too!

I have a Winner!

First time I have ever used Random Generator I think ;)

Tried to think of any significance #39 has in my life--- couldn't come up with one! But will have some significance to Jen Pierce!

Jen- send me your address, email and other contact info and we will get you your new Wood Veneer Asterisks and Kraft Star Stickers!

CHA and Studio Calico!

I had a major scrapbook dream of mine come true a month or so ago when I took a "behind the scenes" role with the most amazing company- Studio Calico. Everything about SC, from the incredible owners April & Greg, to the on site staff in Kentucky, the uber talented Design Team, and most importantly all the sassy, outgoing, friendly, creative members of the SC online community is just tops in this crazy industry! The last 7 or so weeks have been a whirlwind... talk about baptism by fire- jumping in right at the start of CHA prep, but what a time to jump in with the launch of three brand new lines- Autumn Press, Memoir and Classic Calico! I am in LOVE with each and everyone of these lines! By the time you get to my blog you have probably seen all the awesome things the DT did with the new products! I am guessing you can't wait to get your hands on it! Well as I was viewing all the projects as they were coming in I realized that I had to play a little myself, and when we realized that most of the journals were either blue or yellow it was the perfect excuse for me to make something too!

So how in love with the new journals are you? OK- I will admit it, I was a little intimidated by having to bind it myself at first... I was going to take the easy way out and just use binder rings, but I really wanted to use the herringbone fabrip (one of my top 10 pieces from the release) from the Classic Calico Line... so the novice book binder in me armed with some instructions from April tackled the book binding, and was it ever EASY! Maybe even easier than binder rings ;)

So... here is my journal... just a little sketchbook to keep inspiration, sketches, ideas in!


Now for the rest of the products in my top 10 from the new release...
I consider these all MUST HAVES:

10. 6x6 paper pads- OK I know this is cheating since there are 3 - but love small scale print of patterns!
9. Teal label stickers - love the new texture- so easy to write on!
8.Houndstooth Background Stamp
7. Woodgrain journal
6. Memoir Scrap Pads- Love the pop of red with the talk bubble
5. Star & Focal Point Papers from Classic Calico (especially the B sides!
4. Autumn Press Die Cut Tags
3. FabRips from Classic Calico Collection (perfect grey herringbone)
2. Kraft Star Stickers- I have yet to meet a star I didn't love!
and drum roll please.....
1. Wood Veneer Asterisks---- I think I might need to buy a gazillion of these!

So, here is your chance to win it before you can buy it ;) I am going to give away my top 2 items- the Kraft Star Stickers and Wood Veneer Asterisks... All you have to do is leave a comment on this post between now and 10:00 pm EST tomorrow (Wed.) I will then draw a winner and post on Thursday!

Oh I have to add in that while I PROMISE we will get you your prize if you are the winner we are still waiting for some of it to arrive at the barn, so be patient with us, it may take a few days to get it on its way to you!

How many times?

are you legally allowed to post... I have been so busy I haven't had time to blog!
Because I think that I have passed the legal limit and should be prohibited from being a blogger!

Anyway---- as I sit here and start thinking about ALL I WANT to share on the blog I also see this very daunting to do list staring me right in the face- hanging right above my computer monitor. BUT, good news is, I have crossing off quite a few things over the last few weeks off that to do list and I can see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnell!

So instead of a real blog post you get a... Hey I created this layout and I don't have time to post much else so I will post it on my poor neglected blog! Hopefully I will get back and blog before it is actually Halloween!


This past Halloween- that is Jake as Pauly D- {he does NOT look good with dark hair} and my little nephew Clay - and YES those are his real abs- it is a total freak of nature type thing... my sister {Clay's mom} and I know for SURE that he did not get them from our side of the gene pool! They actually had another friend- another guy friend who was going to dress up as Snookie, but after a heartbreaking loss in the semi final football game earlier that day he just wasn't up to it... although Jake loves his sports, and football especially- he didn't love it enough to mourn the loss by giving up a chance for pillowcases full of free candy!

Craft it Forward

My friends at BHG Scrapbooks Etc. came up with a really cool idea a few months back- you might have seen it in one of the recent issues- "Craft it Forward" (CiF) where they challenge readers to "make a difference through papercrafting!" Every month they have a fun challenge to make a project for a charity. You can go to craftforward.com and learn about each of the monthly craft it forward challenges and even enter your craft it forward projects to win $500 for you and a charity of your choice! How cool is that.

With Memorial Day this past weekend and the 4th of July just around the corner it is the perfect time to say THANKS to our troops. The theme for this Craft it Forward is Patriotic Thank You Cards. The BHG gang put together a blog hop of all kinds of CiF projects to inspire you to say Thanks to our troops! Find out more about the blog hop at the BHG Scrapbooks Etc. Blog. I made this quick and easy card that will be sent off to a special someone who I want to thank for all they give to protect our country! Hopefully you will be inspired to do the same.

Supplies: Stamp- Heidi Swapp; Card Base, Colored Stamp Ink, Zing! Embossing Powder- American Crafts; Blue Patterned Paper- Making Memories; Red Patterned Paper- Jillibean Soup; Grey Patterned Paper- Little Yellow Bicycle

I am not much of a stamper and certainly not much of an embosser, but I found that embossing is pretty darn easy, so I just stamped with some ink and then tossed 3 colors of zing on the paper, tapped off the excessive and hit it real quick with my heat gun... super super easy!

There's lots more to see, so continue on in the blog hop by hopping over to ... Ranger Ink's Blog (speaking of inking and stamping!)

Have fun hopping around!

Weather Man

Eli is our little weather fanatic- he loves to watch the weather channel, and is contstantly updating us on the status of the weather- "Mom it is raining" has been uttered more times than any of us care to have heard this spring! He actually loves thunderstorms and to sit and watch the lightning and listen for the thunder!

Today is the anniversary of when we boarded the plane headed for the Ukraine- 5/22/2007 - to adopt this precious little boy. I ask him if he liked thunderstorms when he was in the doma (Ukrainian for orphanage) and he tells me he liked to sit by the window there too! I think maybe it was a little calm in his world at the time!

If you want to read about our adventure in the Ukraine you can visit the blog we kept from that time HERE. Can't believe it has already been 4 years... CA- RAZY! As I often say- I am so glad I never decided "not to adopt" because I never really decided to- my husband did- I just never decided not to! Best decision I never made!

all good things...

For the last 2 years I was apart of the amazing design team at Jillibean Soup. Jill has created such an amazing company and I admire her so much. When it came time to re-apply I made the difficult decision not to (although to be fair- with all the great talent out there and the amazing new DT she has put together who knows if I would have even been asked back!) My 2 years working with JBS was simply fun and easy--- just what scrapbooking should be! Here are my last 2 layouts done for the JBS blog!



Oh... and the saying this week around here---- Happy Derby!