Challenge Day

The LIITD Creative Team is THRILLED to be back issuing challenges to our members. We took a little break while life was so busy for everyone, and are ready to dive in again. :)

Last week, Norine issued a challenge to use white on white, and her layout is gorgeous... check the challenge out HERE.

My issue for this morning, can be found right HERE. I want you to use your goals for 2012, and on our board we each like choosing our OLW (one little word) for how we want to live that year.... and you can use that on the layout as well. This is the layout that I made for the challenge:

Hope you have some fun giving it a shot! :)

Is school back in yet?

I WISH! LOL! I love my kiddos, and they have been pretty good the last week and a half, the weather has been beautiful for where we live so they have been outside a lot.... I'm just ready to get back to routine. They don't sleep in, so it's a lonnnnng day.... ;)

While Brayden napped today, I thought I'd squeeze in a layout, and once again chose the Sketchy Thursday challenge.... and came up with this layout of my little monkey. He is such a serious looking boy at times, but then BAZINGA, he lights up and does something completely opposite. He makes us laugh... :)

Thanks for checking in!!! :)

Welcome to 2012!

Happy New Year!!!!!

I hope that you all had a fabulous New Years Eve, ringing in 2012 in every way possible.... but most of all, safely!! Me and my man had a great night out with friends, dancing and drinking, and a nice quick walk home in beautiful weather :)

I did a bit of decorating the past few days.... not around the house, but at the scrap table. LIITD has the cutest cupcake boxes in the store. SINGLES or ONE DOZEN are available. I got a few of the singles, and thought I would dress up the boxes a little bit. The singles are perfect to also use as little gift boxes for that present you just don't know how to wrap! I love making pretty cupcakes, so I will definately be making use out of both of the sizes to take to my friends and family!! LIITD always has the cutest, different things in the store!!

Here are a few glimpses of my creations, but you can check out the LIITD blog post today to see them in full!

Took some ME time!

Me time = Scrappy time!!

I used a sketch from Little Yellow Bicycle on their FB page that they have used for a fall/winter collection contest, and submitted a layout.... I kinda love how it turned out :) Doesn't necessarily have to be a winter layout to use winter papers, people!

I also did one of my and my 2 boys using Echo Park's Holly Jolly line, still one of my faves of the last few months..... and once again, not a Christmas themed page, but it all worked together nonetheless. :)

I hope you are all enjoying the season, and gearing up for New Years Eve tomorrow night!! We're headed out on the town for some dancing and visiting with a bar full of people! LOL! Happy New Year, I'll be back on January 1st for my NEW YEAR of posting and sharing!!!

Almost to 2012

So I am working on a layout... actually it's already finished, but I can't post it yet. ;) I can tell you what it is about, though. It's about ME. It's about making ME a priority in 2012. 2011 was such a roller coaster of a year, and I let myself take a backseat to everything else. When I'm stressed, I eat. When I'm sad, I eat. When I'm angry, I eat. You can see where this is going, right? Yup, it went right to my hips, my belly, my ass.... I am soooo not happy with how I have let myself go downhill the last year.

I vow to eat better, to keep going strong with the very little diet pepsi and hopefully eventually NONE at all.... I vow to exercise once per day, even if it's just doing the Just Dance 3 on the Wii that we got for Christmas (that is quite the workout, you know!!!).... I vow to make ME a priority, because if I don't, I won't have the energy to play with the kids, and I won't have the health to be around for them for a long time.

It's time... it's gotten out of hand, I miss the old me... but I'm bringing her back. One year from today I will be at my goal weight. I promise. Bring it.

Christmas Traditions

This year was going to be a year without a few of our traditions... and I kept telling myself that it was fine, because things change and that is a part of life. But, I kept thinking about not having Santa on Christmas Eve, and not seeing my uncle and aunt and their kids at all on Christmas Eve.... and I got sad.

Our Amma has been Santa on Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember.... but it is getting to be too much for her, too stressful finding extra gifts for everyone and to remember who she has for and who she doesn't.

We found a solution, though.... we told her that she should just use her actual Christmas gifts to give to everyone, instead of finding extras. Christmas morning there are SO many gifts under the tree, and nobody will notice one less, and this way Amma can watch everyone open her gifts without the bigger shmozzle of Christmas morning. Because believe me, Christmas morning in our family is a chaos of wrapping paper and ribbon drowning us in the livingroom.

So Santa WILL be coming this year on Christmas Eve, and I know my kids will be thrilled... as will I. :) It's the little things.

My aunt and uncle are also going to come over for a part of the evening after all, and that makes me happy too :) We always have such a great time eating and drinking and playing games... we have done it for many many years, and I wasn't ready to see that change.

So Christmas Eve we will be sliding in the afternoon with a bonfire weenie roast right on the hill... then back to my mom and stepdads for appetizers as supper, drinky poos, Santa, and some games... and of course tons of laughs and chatting.

Darcy, Brayden, Jackson and myself will be coming back to our house to sleep, while the girls have asked to sleep at Grandma's with my sister and her 2 kids, and my brother. We all stayed last year and while I love doing that, it's just not as easy this year with Brayden... I don't want him waking anyone up, and I don't think he'll go to sleep and stay asleep with 14 other people around. This way hopefully he'll get a good sleep and be in a great mood in the morning. Makenna and Tayla will phone us the second they wake up and we will race on over there and do presents, cinnamon buns, baileys and coffee and more presents. Then over to my dads for brunch and his gifts. Perhaps a little rest, then back to my moms for supper, and my dad usually joins us too.

Ahhh Christmas. Crazy busy, sometimes stressful, but always fun and memorable. I hope that my kids grow up to enjoy our holidays and keep some of our traditions alive. :)

Merry Christmas from my home to yours. Enjoy your loved ones, and make every moment count.

Back to gettin' Sketchy!!!

I have missed playing around with one of my fave sketch sites... Sketchy Thursdays... I was doing them on a regular basis, but then life got way too busy and I had to sit some out. I went back yesterday to check out the latest sketch and knew I had to get busy! :) I just happened to take the perfect pictures for it this weekend too!!



I know, I know... 2 posts in one day. Don't worry, this is a rare occurence ;)