Favorite photos of 2010

Not because they are perfect, or in even focus, just because I love them. 

Ah, the first of many photos with her eyes wide open.  Later this year, it would switch to "cross-eyed" because she thought it was funny.

Profound love for Little Pets...

 This pose is so Ava. 

 I have no idea how I was able to capture them in mid-air, at night, with flash and a shutter speed of 1/8.  Luck.

 I just love this one. 

 One of my absolute favorites from Disney, pure adulation when the princesses arrived at the table.  Priceless.

 I love Aurora's facial expression here.  She enjoyed the hug as much as Ava did.

 Cooperating for some photos.  Love, love, love her eyes here.  And, the smores on her face.

 Practicing with my new camera, they look too grown up here. *sigh*

 In love with little princesses. 

Hopefully 2011 will bring another year of great photo opportunities and the chance to learn more about photography.

Happy New Year!

A girl can wish, right?

I have way too many scrap supplies.  I'm surprised my husband hasn't said more about it.  But, there are always a few things a girl can wish for, or at least pick up slowly over the months.  ;)

I dreaming of these:
Jenni Bowlin ink pads (spice tin shown here) I'm in need of Spice Tin, Soap Powder, and Lemon Drops.  Eventually, I'll have them all...
Classic Calico Mr. Huey  - I love spray ink, and these have such great coverage.  I'm also thinking of Atmosphere
I'm after all of the wood veneer, but the alphabet are first on my list, the stars are second.

I'm holding off, since I've purchased my fair share for this month!  But, there is always next month...

Ready for a new year.

I cannot believe 2010 is almost to a close!  But, I am looking forward to 2011, I have a feeling, it will be a good year.  Right now, I'm enjoying almost two full weeks of vacation time/holidays.  Ahhhh..... Plenty of time to organize the scrap area especially since John picked me up a new storage set.  I will have to find a picture and post it.  It has 47 (!!) bins for little items.  None of my stuff matches, so I didn't worry about the colors at all, but it is perfect. 

Look for a fun blog hop from Apron Strings in the coming weeks.  There is a new design team (I'm back for another year, yea!) to kick off 2011.  I'm already looking forward to the January kits, there are some great papers and embellishments in the Smaller than a Breadbox kit that I am eyeing. 

Alrighty, I am off, we are visiting with family today and the chicklets are chomping at the bit to get a move on.

Sooner or later I will be back with a bunch of Disney layouts I've been slowly creating over the last few weeks.  I need to get more pictures printed for layouts.

Random photos

Elfie, hanging out in the candy dish.

As suggested, capturing them while they are young.

Wii!  (check out that form!)

Hello Snow.

I don't know how many inches of snow we have here, but at least 5 would be my guess.  Frosty is about 5'10" tall. 

 Oops, got the dreaded gray snow look in Ava's snowflake eating picture.  Could not figure out how to get rid of it in PSE today.  I'm trying to figure out how to edit RAW files, and I need a lot more practice.  I'm also trying to figure out the settings on my new camera, a Panasonic Lumix FZ35, shooting in RAW + JPEG, in manual.  I seem to end up with grainy photos at times. 

Friends on FB are already wondering about school tomorrow, I'm figuring we will have school though.  Someone needs to catch up on wrapping presents, especially since Ava and I made 5 dozen cookies this afternoon.  MMMMM, chocolate chip. My favorite!

"Elfie"

Please meet our Elf:

Elfie (original, I know).  This guy arrived a few days after Thanksgiving and has been hiding in the house ever since.  The girls love looking for him every morning.  He's even taken a spin in the Barbie beach jeep, hid in each girls' stockings and has visited both girls' rooms.

We'll see where he goes next.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend! 

December Apron Strings Sneak Peek

I really suggest you get the add-ons.  They are F.A.B. 

Thankful.

For my family, especially these girls.

Enjoying the long weekend.  Putting up Christmas decorations.  Doing some Christmas shopping (online).  Avoiding house work as much as possible!

Hoping to get some layout finished for the Apron Strings December Kit STABB - which is AWESOME.  Jillibean Soup and Fancy Pants Christmas papers and Cosmo Cricket Togetherness.  Lots of great embellishments.   Maybe I'll have some sneaks tomorrow. ;)

Project 12 - catching up!

All caught up, including October (finally)!

I used the November Apron Strings Kit for the October layout.  I think it needs some stitching, but I'll add that soon.  

I think July is my favorite.  I love those Pink Paislee papers, and the sketch, with soooo many photos.

I'd reorder the photos, but apparently, Blogger is not liking my choices!

Santa, I would like a...

I think Alexa said "video Barbie" and Ava said "Rapunzel" doll.  Yes, we went early and it was WORTH it.  No lines.  No tired, whiny kids. :) 

We'll mail Santa a letter in December. :)

Sneak peak for November

A couple of layouts are up on the ASD website, but here is another snippet.  :)

I've got to say, I've used up a good chunk of the Bigger than a Breadbox kit. 

Halloween!

What's better then pictures?  (maybe candy?)

Hope you had a great Halloween!

P90x

Today.  First day.  Not sure if I can actually do this in 90 days, exactly on schedule, but I'm going to try and get close. 

5 pounds to go.

Randomness

Spring is here.  Oh, wait, maybe summer?  All I know is it was 75 today, and it's going to be 76 with thunderstorms tomorrow.  Indian Summer?  Maybe.

I've lost 17 pounds.  3 more to go for my first goal.  :)

Peanut butter M&M's are the best post workout food.  Seriously.  Protein, fat and carbohydrates.  See, perfect.

I'm enjoying Grey's Anatomy and Glee this fall.  Haven't watched House since last season in the winter.  Eh, it got old and its the same every week: weird, sick patient, staff misdiagnoses patient at least 3 times, House has an epiphany, disease identified....

Finally found my scrapping mojo again.  So far this week I've completed 3 two-page layouts (catching up on Project 12), 2 single page layouts and I have 2 more in progress on my table. 

The November Apron Strings kit will be arriving at my door this week,  Cannot wait to play with the papers - I need to find (or take) more fall photos. Sneaks to come. 

Looking forward to Halloween, Alexa is going to be a vampire, Ava is going to be Sleeping Beauty. 

I can't believe it's almost November!

I'll be back.

Really.  The weather is getting colder and I'm going to be spending more time in the house.  So, back to blogging and scrapping.  We returned from a week at Disney and I am still sorting through hundreds of photos. I have probably edited around 120 that are really good and shipped them off for printing. 

I will be back and I swear I'll be more regular about blogging.

True Blood Anyone?

Where have I been?  Oh, right, I don't have HBO.  Started watching the first season on DVD from Netflix, and I am HOOKED.  We just got the next disc and will be watching those tonight.  Of course, since I am slightly obsessive-compulsive, I have already read the first two books (picked them up Thursday, finished them by Saturday morning) in the Sookie Stackhouse series (which it is based on) and have ordered the rest.  Once I start a series I am compelled to finish it!

So if I disappear again, I'm reading, watching, or scrapping.  I do have the September kit on my desk and I'm working on that as well!

Either a crazy good time...

or just crazy.  What a picture.

Me and G45? Who'd have known?

I can honestly say, I rarely buy or use any Graphic 45 papers.  But, they were a part of the July Smaller than a Breadbox kit and I finally had an idea to use them.  I've been holding on to a couple of the "printers trays" and I think the combination came out well.  Do you?

I used a bunch of stuff from my stash as well, Jenni Bowlin bingo cards and bingo numbers, BG letters and dollies, and some extras from ASD kits as well.

I should have some sneaks from the August BTABB kit soon.  I have finished all of my layouts, sans journaling on two of them.  I've used almost every scrap of paper.  Literally.  The August kit is chock full of good stuff!

Garden Goodness

Here's part of what we've been doing this summer.  Ok, really me.  I raked, weeded, planted and picked the garden.  So far we are reaping some great rewards.  H-U-G-E zucchini's, at least 15-20 so far, some yellow squash, a good 2 lbs of green beans, some Japenese eggplants and a few tomatoes.  Including some heirloom ones - red stripey and pink girl.  Yum.

You know what chaps my ass?

Those stupid, freaking annoying "tax relief" commercials.  "We owed the IRS 3 million dollars, but only paid 1 million dollars."  Really?  Glad to hear you skipped out on your taxes.  Bastards.  Apparently, I'm supposed to be happy for them.  I'm not.  Last I checked, the IRS didn't give me 66% break because I paid my taxes late.

*rant over*

A post? Really a new post?

It's been far too long, but the summer has been busy and full of fun activities, so my blog absence is from good times.  I've been scrapping the last couple weeks, after taking a month or so off and not creating a thing.  I've gotten back into scrapping with my project 12 layouts.  I'm catching up, happy to say that March, April and June are done, while May's layout is sitting waiting for a few touches and it will be complete as well.  And if you can believe it, June's layout is done BEFORE the deadline.  Go figure.

Here is June:

I used some October Afternoon Thrift shop and those awesome corrugated alpha's from Jillibean Soup.

For good measure, here are April and March layouts as well. 

Alright, off to do some creating - I have the Apron Strings August Bigger than a Breadbox kit in hand and it is awesome!  Echo Park papers and Jillibean Soup papers!  I already have one single page layout almost completed and a two-pager as well.