Somehow in the midst on one of the most stressful times I’ve experienced (at least within the last few years) I have managed to sit down and create not one but TWO layouts that got featured on the Gallery Standouts Blog this week!  Yes, that’s 2 in 1 week!  (I don’t think that’s ever happened to me)  Whoo hooooo!  Seriously people…. I really dig getting mentioned there.   Ya wanna see the pages that made it there?  Well… you’re gonna…

from today (Mar. 12th)

made with BCD’s new kit Sweet Ladybug at Digiscrappersbrasil…

and from Tues.  (March 9th)…

made with:

the new Scribble Stitches by Emily Merritt

new Modern Words: Springtime and Painted Alpha by Sahlin Studio

March BYOC products - Sunshine and Dafodils Elements and Papers by guest designer Sahlin Studio

and All Sports Alpha by Kate Hadfiel… all at The Lilypad…

Ta-da!

For someone who felt like their scrapping creativity had fallen by the wayside, this was totally a surprise for me!  I guess those nights that I made myself scrap in order to distract myself from other stressful issues really paid off.

Here are some other layouts I posted today with some fresh new products in the stores that will surely wanna make you get your scrap on…

***new at The Lilypad***

Spring Promenade by Kaye Winiecki and Jenna Desai & Snipettes: Springtime by Sahlin Studio

also new at The Pad…

Yo! Ho! Ho! by Emily Merritt and Spotted Dog Designs…

As Spring nears so does Opening Day for Lakeside Youth Baseball.  Because of this, I had been flooded with practices with both of the boys all week… thus not having enough time to scrap with all the gorgeousness that my favorite designers have so creatively put together.  Instead of a layout, I will link you up with previews of the kits themselves… because you seriously need to check them out!

Jazzmin Designs is sponsoring the Lottery Ticket over at After 5 Designs this month and I’m going to give you a sneak peak of what’s inside…

go get it now… it’s 76% off!!!  Whew!

Holly Designs has Spring Tales and Bunny Trails

and MK Designs has Tea Time…

I’ve been feeling rather “blah” for the last week or so.  I chalk it up to just being run down.  The kids have seemed very whiney and back talk-y to me lately and it’s wearing on my last nerve.  It’s hard for the household to adjust to Adam being home for a whole week after being on the road so much and I think everyone is just trying to find their place again.  Nevertheless… it’s taken it’s toll on me.  I can’t seem to scrap without a template… my creativity is almost non-existent… which too, contributes to my “blah-ness.”   Just when all seems gloomy Sarah Cornish, of MyFourHens Photography, swoops in to save the day with her new release of photo actions.  I doubt Sarah even knows that she’s my hero right now… but she is.  I had so much fun playing with the photos that I took at Kaleb’s first t-ball practice today!  Thank you, thank you, thank you Sarah for being so uberly talented!

Look at these…

the orig…

…cropped, topped, and ready to go… I just like the pops of color…

orig….

… gave it a little vintage “Sandlot” feel…

the orig…

I like the original photo but that cute little boy just seemed to get lost in it… so I cropped it and tweaked the coloring a bit…

now.. I really like the setting in the next photo…

for some reason it doesn’t even look like where we live.  I look at this and I feel like we were in a old baseball field in earlier NY times… so I wanted to touch it up to give it a little pop… a little excitement… yet a little retro…

orig…

I think maybe I over did it a little with the edit… but… well… whatever…  I kind of dig the washed out look in some photos… like this one…

ok… so are you ready for my official Project 52 photo for week 9?  This is one of my faves that I took today.  Again, I’ll start with the original and then I show you the edited version… which I just LOVE!…

ready?

ya sure?

ok.

orig…

cute photo, right?  It just need to be brightened up a little… given a little light…

here

we

go

again.

viola…

I just love love love that photo.  I love the look on his face, the fun that he is having.  I love that if you really look you see his glove in his hand and the ball at his feet.

Ok… so I’m gonna snuggle with the kids until bedtime.

Seriously!…

new at The Lilypad… it’s March… which means a new BYOC!

from Kaye Winiecki (oh how I wish this gig would last )  I also used her new Template 24 for the following LO.

with Valorie Wibbens BYOC goodies…

BYOC stuff by Emily Merritt….

and BYOC delights from TLP guest designer… Shalin Studio… (and The Book of Me ~the 2nd 10 pages by Crystal Livesay)

Cinnamon Designs added her new kit “Tweetie Pie” at A5D which I also used with The Book of Me (part 2) by Crystal Livesay at SBG…

Shabby Miss Jenn has a new kit called “Bella’s Attic” in her shop and I couldn’t resist using the photo of my best friend’s niece…. (photo by Oriole Photography)

Whew!  So there’s a look at some beauties that have hit the digital scrapbooking world today!

I have the sniffles today and just feel overall BLAH!  Basically I’m just gonna show you my new LO’s  and my picture for Project 52 and then go crawl back in my bed and tuck myself under the nice warm blankets.

Oh wait… let me muster up enough energy so you can feel my excitement for this small announcement…. I AM A GUEST CT MEMBER FOR KAYE WINIECKI THIS MONTH!  Whooo hooooo!  Man, I really love her stuff!

With that being said.. I’ll start with this:

using the new Template Pack 24 by Kaye Wineicki at TLP  (along with Happily Ever After by Valorie Wibbens and Jacque Larsen)  OH… hurry up and get over to The Lily Pad while that template set is on sale for $1 today!

Sahlin Studio and Britt-ish Designs teamed up again and boy did they do it up right!  I’m going to show you what I did with The Ultimate Round Trip Ticket Bundle (which includes their “Around the World kit” AND 8 “Taste of the World” mini kits) but be sure to stop by the store and check out all the pieces!  I scrapped a page with the pictures I took on the “Small World” ride at Disney World….

Last Friday the boys had some friends over for a Super Hero playdate/party and I used the new Embellished Stitches 2 by MK Designs at SPD to accent their adorable photo together…

Ever since Kaleb brought Marley the Birthday Monkey home from school I’ve been on a sock monkey craze.  (I just love those little guys!)  When I think of Spring, I think of rain…. and wouldn’t you know… Kaleb has the cutest yellow “Marley” raincoat.  It was the perfect picture for the new spring kit that BCD put together… Lovely Little Birds!  You will find this kit at The Digi Chick since Boutique Cute Dolls is the guest designer(s) this month.

Last Thursday was Mrs. Skammer’s (Kaleb’s pre-k teacher) birthday.  When the room mom  unexpectedly came down with the stomach bug  on the same day there was suddenly the threat of there being no cupcakes or celebration.  Jam packing more than I ever thought I could in one morning I volunteered to pick up some cupcakes and take them over to the school during snack time.  Kaleb was beyond excited when I told him that the cupcakes were a secret and that he couldn’t tell Mrs. Skammer OR any of his friends.  I started wondering how long that secret would be safe.   Kaleb kept his word… and his secret.  He was so proud of himself.

Here is my Project 52 photo… Kaleb and Mrs. Skammer on her birthday…

as stated before… I am now going to go crawl back into bed.

Eye Candy!

Alright… here’s a quick run down of some of the fabulous new goodies to hit the stores today:

At The Lilypad:

some awesome new photo overlays by Valorie Wibbens… “Confetti v. 1″ and “Confetti v.2″

(and b/c I’m just soooo in love with photo editing and I looooove bokah…. )

… a new collab by Valorie Wibbens and Designs by Lili called {Me}…

Crystal Livesay at Scrapbookgraphics designed the perfect showcase for my photos that I’ve been editing.  Check out her new Photo Focus Templates!  ( I also used various photo actions by Myfourhensphotography for the photos)

(We really fell in love with Marley around here… so much so that I bought a “replacement”.)

Ok… more scrap goodies….  Holly Designs at Shabby Pickle Designs and Kate Hadfield over at The Lilypad teamed up to make a FUN {not-so} little movie kit… I love it!  You can use it for home movies or to documents trips to the theater!  Stop by and pick up Movie Night at SPD!

Happy Shopping in Digiland today!

Wow!  I just can’t seem to get here when I’m suppose to to save my life.  I don’t even have a good excuse this time.   I actually had 3 whole hours to myself on Friday…. and do you know what I chose to do with them?  Well… first of all, I did a little scrapping and then I spent the other 2+ hours taking a nap.  Yep, that’s right.  I deserved it, dang it.  So, as much as I would like to apologize for not getting here on Friday to show you digiland’s newest releases, I just can’t… I really needed that rest!

No fear, though… in case you haven’t had time to scour the net or just might have missed something new… I’ll catch you up.

Let me just start out by telling you… YOU HAVE TO CHECK OUT VALORIE WIBBENS AT TLP!  This woman is like a machine and I can’t seem to keep up!  Since I’m a little behind on my scrapping I’m just going to show you her actual products instead of pages that I did (well… was suppose to do) with them.  I’m sure you’re just going to LOVE them!

Block It! v. P365

Doodley Doo Alpha

Expecting

Inspire Me came out last Tuesday and YES!, I found a moment to sit down and scrap with it!!!

Continuing the  journey over at The Lilypad you’ll find an awesome new collab by Emily Merrit, Designs by Lili, and Amy Sumrall… (I actually had 2 weeks to work with this so I was able to get a page done…)

Waiting For Spring

Cinnamon Designs put her new kit in the shop at After 5 Designs…

Zen Garden…

I’m not quite sure how this happened… probably due to my lack of blogging… but I never showed you the LO I did using Jazzmin Designs latest kit…

Fresh Breeze

Alright… while I’m here and showing you all kinds of scrapping goodies, I might as well show you the LO that I did just for the heck of it, right?  I LOVE when I’m able to sit down and scrap about a photo just because I want to… not because I’m trying to fill a CT commitment.  Don’t get me wrong… I LOVE my CT’s more than anything… it’s just that I never seem to scrap outside of them anymore, so every once in a while it’s nice.

In case you can’t read the small journaling, the background story is about Marley the Birthday Monkey coming to stay at our house for the weekend in honor of Kaleb’s 1/2 birthday.  Since he is a July baby he never gets to celebrate his birthday at school.  The North Run Pre-K teachers make sure that the “summer babies” get acknowledged too by celebrating their 1/2 birthday.  Mrs. Skammer lets each birthday child take Marley home and the children (or should I say their parents) get to document all of his adventures with the birthday boy or girl in his own personal journal.

Last on the list… Project 52’s (week 7) photo…  so here ya go.  Daddy feeds Marley a little ice cream…

As my four year old would say, “my bad.”  I apologize for not being around lately.  I just realized that I had not been back to visit my poor little blog since last Wednesday.   With the kids being home from school for the better part of two weeks due to the snow I just started to find myself a little drained… and not really wanting to do anything extra, including blogging.  Ok… “a little drained” is an understatement!  By last Friday I was totally and completely exhausted… so much so I could feel it in my bones.  It was all I could do not to cry and I think the only reason I didn’t was because it took too much energy.

It wasn’t just my blog that got neglected… it was my scrapping too… which led to another reason I didn’t blog.  With no scrap pictures to show and a brain reduced to mush I just didn’t see the point in even trying.  I’d like to tell you that that’s all behind me now, but sadly it’s not.  I’m not on the brink of tears anymore and I have gotten a little bit of worthwhile rest but I’m still just as busy as ever.  I guess that’s just the life of a SAHM… one never really gets a break.  The house selling process is going very slow but always trying to stay ready for a showing has me going non-stop.  There is always something to clean.  And because I don’t want to feel like Mr. Clean (well, Mrs. Clean) all the time I keep trying to find other ways to exhaust myself… such as play dates and new carpet installation along with shuttling little kids to gymnastics and birthday parties.  Oh the fun.

So anyway… there’s the scoop on me.  Before I go, I believe I owe you a photo for week 6 of Project 52.  Here ya go…

I used the new photo overlays by Cinnamon Designs at After Five Designs on the photo above.  I love dabbling in photo editing!

…And just because I’m a proud Momma… I’m going to leave you with this photo of Johnathan and his two Honor Roll ribbons that he received today at the awards assembly at his school….

When you know in your heart that your child shouldn’t be going to school in conditions such as these:

… then just them home.  I wished I had of had sense enough to do that from the start.  The weather wasn’t doing much when I woke up this morning but the local news channels reported “white out conditions” in several different locations of our county.   I waited thirty minutes longer to wake Johnathan up, positive they would at least have some kind of delay.  Still…. nothing.  It started snowing harder as time approached to get on the bus.  Though I knew the snow showers were not expected to last very long at all, nor accumulate to much, I still felt unsettled about the boy going to school like this.  I should have just kept him home and taken him in later on …. (if school had of still been in session.)

Johnathan got on the bus at 7:09 am.  At 7:35 am I got an automated call that Henrico County schools would be closed today.  Wait…. what?!?  The messaged continued on to say that if your elementary child had already been picked up by the bus, they would be returned home or held in the cafeteria until a parent was reached.  Again…. what?!?  A slight panic started to set in…. was my kid already at school?  If not… how far along in their bus route were they?  How should I know what time to expect him home?  UGH!

I called the school, he wasn’t there.  They gave me the phone number to get in contact with transportation, who they said would dispatch the bus to find their location and ETA… but they didn’t.  Instead, I was told they were too busy to do that and I just needed to go wait for my child, patiently.  Ummm, ok.  Nevermind the fact that I had another child at home that JUST woke up and was eating breakfast.  Why don’t I just go sit down at the end of the road for goodness only knows how long and twiddle my thumbs.  Great plan.  ~almost as great as the one to send them to school that morning.

Just as I was about to bundle up again and make my way down to the end of the street I heard a noise, that of a large motor vehicle.  Holy cow… it was the bus!  We have the BEST bus driver…. hands down!!!  According to Johnathan, they circled the neighborhood twice hoping each time to see my van waiting when they came back around.  Mr. Jack could have dropped Johnathan off at the end of the street and let him walk home… after all, his obligations would have been fulfilled.  Instead, he made his way down a dead end street that has never seen the likelyhood of bus tires, and delivered him right to his door.  He then had to BACK the bus all the way back down our long, narrow street.  Praise God for that man!

So there is my little piece of drama for the day… hopefully for awhile.  Since I had to go out in the white stuff this morning I figured I would snap a few pictures….

the above photos were edited by using the new Photo Overlays 5 by Cinnamon Designs… coming to A5D tomorrow!

Ok, ok… I know… it’s almost the end of Tuesday… I’m late with getting here.  There was just so much other stuff that had to be done today.  This was my first day in a week and a half that I actually had BOTH kids in school at the same time.  There were many errands to be ran, projects to be completed, scrapping to be done… you get the point, right?

Since most stores have changed their “New Release” dates to Friday (and some Thursday) I really haven’t had much to post here on Tuesdays.  I couldn’t resist popping in today though… even if I am a bit late.  I’ve got more good news.  I AM NOW CREATING FOR BCD!  Do you know who that is?  Boutique Cute Dolls… go check ‘em out!  Super cute stuff!

I had actually been asked nearly a year ago to apply for their CT but, unfortunately, the time just wasn’t right.  There was a little too much going on and I had already over committed myself.  I was about ready to email BCD and ask if they were still interested in having me on their CT when I realized they were having a call.  I managed to submit by application in at the eleventh hour.  Low and behold I ended up being one of the lucky four ladies chosen!!!  I got to work right away with their incredibly cute kit “Colorful Life“…

So, there ya go… that’s my new news I wanted to share with you!

Oh the weather outside is frightful…. ♫ ♫♫  Once again, Richmond received snow. Yipee. (not really)  My boys are not interested in going out to play in it so I make sure I stock up on the baking supplies when winter weather is due to blanket our driveway and roads.  The photo for week 5 is a result of more snow…

mmmmmm. mmmmmmm. mmmm!

and as a little bonus…  look who is sitting on top …. isn’t he cute?  The boys helped Dad bake some cookies to put in Cookie Monster’s mouth and boy were they yummy!