I know it's been awhile.... 

As you all know life is just plain busy. 

But life around here has been a good kind of busy.

 I have been taking my crafting 

into a different direction lately and I couldn't 

post about it because I didn't want to ruin the 

surprise for a few people.  

It basically started with a dream...Really...

A dream I had one night....LOL

And the next day I knew I had to learn

how to do this particular thing and I 

needed to learn it quickly. 

So I dove in head first and I spent

every waking minute working on this 

"thing" and I have to say that 

I have really fallen in love with it. 

A few years ago a certain person in 

my life was pushing me to to to this 

and I had NO interest what so ever. 

But now seemed to be the right time for it. 

It's official..

I am a QUILTER :) 

This was for my Mom for Mother's Day

I did this one for a good friends bday present

 This one was also a Mother's Day gift for 

my "other" mother. 

So that it was I have been up to. 

And I have been enjoying it very much. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day

and I will be back soon with 

some other quilts that I am working on :) 

(The patterns that I used were from Moda Bake Shop recipes; the fabric in the 

first one is Moda - Papillon; the 2nd one is Moda Vintage Modern; and the 3rd one is 

\Moda California Girl) 

Chevron + Project Life

I am seriously loving all the chevron stripes

that are out and about.
I am seeing them everywhere!
I got this awesome chevron bin at Target...Love Target :)

I put all my PL supplies in it so that if I want to go

into another room and work on my album I can

just grab the bin and go :)

Found these awesome new stamps to add to my PL.

I love adding stamps to the journal cards that are in the
kit for PL to change things up a bit :)

Looking forward to adding these fun stamps to my project :)
You can get the stamps HERE + HERE

You can also check out Findingnana's Blog HERE to get

free printable chevron striped journal cards.

Have a great day :)

IKEA + Skinny Taste

Friday afternoon after a VERY long week I

went into my office (at home) to get some school

supplies that Jake needed and I opened my

closet door and wasn't paying much attention and

reached in and grabbed the stuff I needed off of the

DO.NOT.TOUCH.LOOK.AT.OR BREATHE.ON bookshelf

and you guessed it...

the whole thing came crashing down! NOT.FUN.

I finally broke down and pulled EVERYTHING out of the closet!

Nice mess huh?

Years and years worth of stuff that I had completely forgotten

was even in there. I sifted through it all and purged like crazy.

Then came the fun part...a trip to IKEA!!!!!

The first time I ever went to IKEA I hated it!

I thought it was the worst place ever.

Then I ventured back...and I loved it! I love it for stuff like the Expedit

shelving units. I seriously think these are the best things ever!

So I got one for my office closet..and can we say HAPPY?????

I feel like an organizing queen now with this thing!

Let's just hope it stays that way :)

And for those of you who are watching your waist lines

like me I found this really great website with great recipes

that I am really enjoying. AND she tells you what the

Weight Watchers points are for each dish!

The recipes are GREAT! I have made about four of them

already and all four were terrific! None of that boring

bland tasteless diet food. So if you are trying to find

something new to cook for you and your family that you

will truly enjoy check out Gina's site Skinny Taste and give it a whirl.

I don't think you will be disappointed :)

Have a great week! :)

Snapshots of a Good Life

I can't believe it's March already!
This year is going by so quickly!

I previously posted about a photography workshop
that I started taking in January.
Snapshots of a Good Life
I took the class based on the recommendation from a friend.
As much as I love photography I've never been
a great photographer. For one I didn't understand my camera
in the least. I would snap off 300-400 pictures at an event
and hope and pray that I would get a least 5 decent shots.
It was ALWAYS a gamble! And then I would upload all my pics and
scroll through them and be so bummed out when I didn't
have very many good pictures. But what did I expect
from shooting everything in Auto??? The thought of shooting
pics in Manual was about as exciting to me as playing
in a pit of snakes... NOT.SO.MUCH!

So I bit the bullet and signed up for the workshop.
Jump ahead to today... I like my camera now... Actually
I LOVE my camera now! I love that I know what all the dials and buttons are for.
I love that when I go to take a shot I'm really checking everything out
in order to get the perfect shot. It's not about just grabbing my camera (on auto) and
shooting away hoping and praying for the best.

This workshop has been really GREAT for me! I was a little nervous
at first because I really didn't know how I would learn this stuff in an
online workshop. But Karen has made it so easy and so understandable!
She answers EVERY.SINGLE.QUESTION you may have even if you
feel like it's the dumbest question on the planet.
The workshop for me as a full-time working mom has been great!
I can do it on my OWN time and this works great for me.

I know I am rambling now but if you have ever
just peeked at her site and have a slight interest in being
a better photographer and actually learning about your camera
than this is the workshop for you. Karen has truly
opened up a different world for me and for that I
am truly thankful!
(Karen has not asked me to post this on my blog - I am just
so thrilled with this workshop and I wanted to share it will you all!)

Here are some pics that I have taken over the last few weeks

these photos are NOT perfect by any stretch of the imagination

or even close to it...But they are SO much better than what I

was taking. All of the photos are SOOC with no editing.

So I figure if I keep practicing everything that I am learning

in this workshop that one day I will be able to get the perfect shots!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful Weekend!

Project Life + Valentines Day

Project Life Valentine's Day

Wow! Two posts in one week! I'm on a roll!

One of the things that I love about Project Life

is that I can add whatever elements and papers

that I want to my project. I am currently using the

turquoise edition for my Project Life but I like

to change it up a bit to. For Valentine's Day this year

I opted to use Echo Park's Yours Truly Collection.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this collection! It can be used

for many different things other than Valentine's Day

which is exactly why I bought it! I also used

stamps from Tim Holtz Valentines Silhouettes.

I really like how the pages turned out and that they

were a touch different then the rest of the book :)

Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life - Weeks...well a lot of them

Project Life

I have been struggling a bit.

I work full-time and I do not take my camera with me to work

so I rely on my iPhone for most of my pics from 9-5 Mon-Fri.

Unfortunately, I get super busy at work and forget...

Then I get home thinking to myself no worries i'll take a bunch of pics of Jake

tonight when I get home...

Well...this is a typical night at home...

Race in the door from work, pee, stuff food in my mouth,

fight with my son for two hours over homework,

spend another 1 1/2 doing said homework,

throw in a load of laundry,

spend another 1/2 hour to get Jake in the shower,

go through the mail, walk the dog,

stay up late for "me time", then finally crash.

Doesn't make for a lot of stuff to put in my Project Life book :(

So I end up scrambling to take a bunch of pics in what seems like

a limited amount of time just to have something to add to each week.

BUT...I have been doing it and I am EXCITED that I have been doing it.

I realized just recently that putting the good, the bad and even the ugly

(homework nights!) in Project Life is really our true story.

It's real life and twenty years from now it will still be real and I will love it!

So if you are struggling to take pics NO WORRIES...fill it in with other things...

In the big scheme of things what you do add you will cherish in twenty years from now.

I know I will...

So here is SEVERAL (long overdue) weeks worth of Project Life!

Oh and another struggle I have...

Taking pics of each of the weeks that I have done...

I have the crappiest lighting in my house and I can NEVER get a good shot

but I'm winging it...So here goes :)

So I will leave you with these and hopefully

I will be able to stay on top of the upcoming weeks.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Thanks for stopping by :)