Erica's 2009 Christmas Faves

Christmas is not one of my favorite memories to scrap. I don't really know why. Maybe it's because it always seems the same: open presents, lift them up, pose for pictures. Blah, blah, blah. So to get around that, I'm trying to take different approaches to the holiday memories. The first one was Household Chores where I wrote about Erica earning allowance for helping me decorate the tree. This one is a little more traditional, but with a twist...it's a looking back memory from today.

Erica got some really good presents this year that she REALLY wanted. The first is the Nintendo DS. She has wanted one for a while. Santa told her he would have to see if he had any left cuz they had been so popular...he did, lucky Erica! Another present that she really wanted was dangle earrings. Grannie Annie came got her two beautiful pairs and she loves them. Unfortunately mom created a really bad situation with them, so she's a bit gun shy over them (you'll see a "worst momma ever" story one of these days). And Grandma gave Erica a bunch of dress-up clothes, some she made and others she found pre-made for a deal. All of them are wonderful and still big hits today (well, the earrings will be again, soon...). This layout is a 2-pg sketch from Cathy Zielske's Design Your Life Class...see, I told you I was productive this past weekend. If I'm lucky, I'll get one more layout done so I can post by the weekend...and just in time to be assigned three more projects (ugh!).

UAA Gymnastic Stars

Have I mentioned how much fun we are having with Girl Scouts? Well, we are! The troop is sooooo involved in all kinds of activities. You've already seen some camping pictures and you'll be seeing more soon (and some of the stories are AWESOME with them).

Last month the UAA Gymnastics Team hosted a clinic at a local gym for the girls. Unfortunately I deleted my pictures (ugh!), so I got a few from one of the other moms. The girls had a blast! They did relays, jumped on the vault, walked the beam, jumped on the trampoline, and fell from really high mats. At the end, one of the girls climbed a rope to the top of the gym with just her arms (legs out at a 90 degree angle)...it was impressive!I stretched myself on this layout by using patterned paper as the background. The sketch is from Cathy's Design Your Life class (yes, I did lots of layouts this past weekend and am getting close to being caught up). The papers are all from Close to My Heart and the stickers are from Creative Memories.

My Fearless Daughter

I went to an all-day crop for two days after Thanksgiving. That left Jeff and Erica to fend for themselves both days. It isn't too hard for them to keep busy, though. One day Jeff took Erica to a local school with a pool, diving board, and water slide. Usually the water slide is the exciting part of the trip. BUT, this day it was actually the diving board.

As the story was told to me, she was in line and watched a boy in front of her do a flip off the diving board. After watching him, she decided she wanted to give it a try...and did. WOW, she taught herself to do a flip off the diving board!!! And I missed it!!! Now she says she's ready to ride the big roller coasters with me because she likes going upside down doing flips. I guess we'll find out if she's *really* ready in a few weeks at Disney World.Oh, and these pictures are from the day after Christmas. This is another sketch from Cathy's Design Your Life class. And I used more papers from the Pink Paislee Cupid line and Making Memories charms (the January kit from My Scrapbook Nook), and the title is cut from the Cricut using the Graphically Speaking cartridge.

Happy Day...layout and history

This is one of my favorite memories. When Erica was young she used to say "Happy Day" for Happy Birthday, Mother's Day, Valentines Day, etc. Then it just stuck for everyday stuff, too. We carpool to work most days and Jeff and Erica usually drop me off first. When they do, I usually hear, "Happy Day, Momma." I just love that!!!

I was four weeks behind on my class (12 layouts) and this layout is from this week's "Emphasis" project. As soon as I saw it, I knew what I was going to do...and I did it immediately. The pictures are of Jeff helping (very little) Erica make me a Valentine's cake two years ago. She cracked eggs, added all the ingredients, turned on the mixer, buttered the pan, and decorated the cake. It was one of the best Valentine's Days I have ever had (Jeff proposing was the best).

The paper is from the Pink Paislee Cupid line.

Who am I as a scrapper

Wow...I'm 8-1/2 weeks into my Design Your Life class and I JUST finished the pre-work (well, sort of). We are supposed to do a layout that shows who we are as a scrapper. I like Cathy Zielske's sketch because I'm a very linear person to begin with. I created this layout to say:

• I scrap my family memories (and friends)
• Scrapping is a social event for me...I prefer to scrap at crops with friends and many of my good friends are scrappers
• And scrapping is fun...it's my release and it keeps me sane

So I'm mostly done because I still need to journal. It *says* family, friendship, and fun, but the other details are missing.

More cupid inspiration

I have my laptop back, but haven't gotten any pictures printed for these layouts. I wanted to go ahead and post some of these layouts and hopefully I can print some pictures this weekend to finish them.

This is more inspiration from Basic Grey kits, but uses Pink Paislee Cupid papers. I like the idea of using this for Jeff so I can list what I love about him, but I still haven't decided. I think I need to get a few more pictures of him before I decide for sure.

Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day...and some layouts

Man am I behind on posting. It might not seem as bad to you as it really is...lots of last week's posts were "scheduled." I was at a crop all day on Sat and got some layouts done. I meant to post before now, but I received some tragic news about a good friend's husband (who is also a co-worker of mine) missing in an avalanche accident, and presumed dead.

The terrible news reminds me how important family and friends are. I do not scrap enough about my friends and husband...or myself. Erica is usually the subject of my layouts. I am modifying my goals for the year to do one layout about myself, Jeff, or the two of us a month. And the Pink Paislee Cupid collection is PERFECT for making that happen this month. Stay tuned for a few layouts over the next few days. These layouts are lifted from some Basic Grey kits I recently saw. Oh, and there are no pictures on these layouts because my laptop is in the shop. Friday morning we were trying to buy Carrie Underwood concert tickets (no, she's not coming to Alaska...she'll be in Springfield this summer) and Jeff knocked my coffee over and it spilled all over my laptop. I took it into the shop on Friday and hopefully it'll be done in a day or two. Sooooo....no pictures for now, sorry.

Halloween Fairy

I think I posted last year that Grandma made Erica's Halloween costume again this year. It was absolutely perfect!!! Erica loves pink and purple and her favorite movie at the time was Tinker Bell. Since we live in Alaska, the kids are always in winter gear when they go Trick or Treating. There's a great option for indoor SAFE Trick or Treating in Alaska called Trick or Treat Town. We went again this year and Erica was able to go without all her winter gear...and looked like the perfect Fairy! Thanks, Grandma.This is another sketch by Cathy Z for the Design Your Life class. The papers are all Prima, the rubons are Making Memories and Scenic Route, and the stickers are Doodlebug.

Smallest Owl in North America - digital and more white space

Whew...what a title, huh?

I posted a layout last month with some pictures of the Girl Scout service project when we went camping. That was just one of the activities we did in Camp Togowoods (Wasilla, AK) last November. We also had a volunteer from the Alaska Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center come with a Northern Saw-whet Owl, the smallest owl in North America (they're about as tall as a dollar bill). The neat thing was that Erica JUST read a story about that same owl in school the day before. The owl had been hit by a car, was blind in one eye, and can't hunt for himself so he will not be released back into the wild. So this is a layout about the owl visit. It's a digital layout using Cathy Zielske's template from the Design Your Life class. The papers are from Chrystal Wilkerson's The Room Collection and the feathers are from Lynn Grieveson's Light as a Feather digital set. They were white and I had "fun" manipulating them into different colors...boy do I have some learning to do when it comes to that!!!

Disney 2009 summary - more white space

As I worked on another Design Your Life layout, I thought I could whittle down pictures from last year's Disney trip for the 1-pg layout sketch...but I couldn't. We had such a great time with so many good memories (and pictures) that I decided to embrace white space and turn this into a 2-pg layout. It was REALLY hard to leave all that white space on the second page!

The journaling on the layout talks about going to Disney with Grandma and Grandpa. We had breakfast with Goofy (and Minni Mouse, but I forgot that one), lunch with the Princesses, and rode LOTS of roller coasters (another DYL layout here). Erica saved her allowance and bought Tigger Tails for everyone (layout here). And I had to include a picture of Erica pooped out on the bed...we all played so hard we just about needed a vacation from our vacation.

The papers and stickers are from a Disney album kit. The album says Sandylion stickers, so I'm guessing that's the manufacturer...but I could be wrong.

Erica's Chores...and white space

We firmly believe in having Erica do chores. She earns a dollar a week for doing all her chores (pretty loosely enforced, though). Her chores include clearing the table, helping with laundry, and cleaning her room. She likes to save money and buy things for people. When we went to Disneyland last year she bought everyone a Tigger Tail (yummy treat...see this post). And this past Christmas she decided she wanted to buy Grandma and Grandpa mugs at a school fund raiser. She didn't quite have enough money, so Daddy loaned her some money...and she had to pay him back. How did she do that? She worked it off, of course. Helping Mom decorate the tree was one way she paid off her debt...This is another sketch by Cathy Zielske in her Design Your Life class. Whew...now I've completed 10 projects and am 9 behind. At least I can say I've completed more than half of them so far...

More Phyrah's Farm Fun

Erica got a chance to go to Pyrah's U-Pick Farm twice in 4 weeks. The first time was with the Girl Scouts, the second time was with her class for their first field trip. I love that I have a flexible job and can go on trips like this. We had a great day and a fun time! The vegetables were near the end of the growing season, so there wasn't much left, but the kids didn't mind. And anything to get us outside while the weather is nice is a GREAT thing.

This layout is another sketch by Cathy Zielske for the Design Your Life class. I used left over papers, stickers, and chipboard from an album kit. The title is from Thickers. I'm still behind on the class...almost half way caught up. I hope to get more layouts done this weekend...we'll see...

Never Look Back - Repetition

Yeah...I am having some scrapping time at home!!! I REALLY need it, too. I'm in week 6 of Cathy Zielske's Design Your Life class and I'm 3 weeks behind (three projects a week...so I'm 9 projects behind). So this week is repetition...but I already said that (hee, hee...repetition!).

When I saw the three pictures with the repetitive theme, I knew these pictures were perfect...showing sequence as Erica walked into school on the first day. I know this is First Grade and not her first day EVER of school...but I really expected a wave good-bye. But she didn't even look back.This is a template from Cathy Zielske's Design Your Life class. The repetition in this layout is the color red, the spacing between pictures, the apple, the flowers, and the yellow in the flowers and the bingo card. The three pictures in sequence are also repetitive. The bingo card is Jenni Bowlin, the pattern paper is Sassafras Lass, chipboard from Maya Rd, letter stickers from Sweetwater and Making Memories, and Prima flowers

Cinderella Look-a-like

Yeah...I can finally post this. I participated in a sketch challenge at scrapjazz.com...you KNOW how I love challenges. I loved the sketch, but had to use more photos. And as I thought about winter blue colors, these pictures stuck in my mind...I just LOVE them!

Grandma made the dress for Halloween and Erica HAD to take it to Disney last year. And because she's such a princess, she HAD to wear it when we had lunch with the Princesses. I was THRILLED when Cinderella showed up. The two of them had a great time twirling and dancing together. And I REALLY love the wonderful picture of the two of them holding their hands up by their faces...and aren't those gloves and crown the perfect touch? Erica bought the crown with her own money (well, she borrowed it from Daddy, but she paid him back!).

I also made two desktop frames. I kept this one for the office and gave the other one to Grandma.