Snapshots of the Beach.....

Just a few snapshots from a recent trip to the beach in June.......

 

Love this boy and this picture reminds me of how much he has grown this past year......

 

Maleia and her daddy.......

 

The sandcrabs were amazing and occupied much of Maleia and Hayden's time.

 

 

 

Found a big one mixed in with lots of little ones......

 

 

Um, hello???  How awesome is this?!  See, I knew these two could get along!

 

Baby girl was feeling puny earlier in the week, but was well enough to let me dress her up in this awesome swim suit!

 

Wishing everyone a great Summer!

 

Michelle

 

Summer Reading List.....Defending Jacob

Defending Jacob by William Landay was.......suspenseful.  I say suspenseful because the murder mystery centers around Jacob, the 14 year old son of Assistent District Attorney Andy Barber.  Like an episode of Law and Order (any variety!), I spent the entire novel wondering "who did it?" 



 

 

The book moves along at a heartbreaking pace.  The circumstances surrounding the family of the deceased and the family of the accused is harsh.  I never had stopped to think about how the latter would feel prior to reading this.  Andy's world is absolutely shattered by the accusation:  he loses his job; he has no control over an investigation that he would ususally be knee deep in;  and because he's a lawyer, he agonizes over every little detail as he fights for his son.  Andy's wife, whom had been the center of a group of mothers, is left isolated and questioning her own mothering. 

I think the story is also agonizing.  My goodness, what would you do if your own child was accused of murder??  I was rooting for Jacob and his family one moment and the next I wanted to shake them for their thoughts and actions.  And then there is the question that weighs heavily throughout the entire book:  do you think he did it???  

Good book, but I need something a little bit more lighthearted for my next one :-).

Michelle

Love.....

I scrap almost every day.  It is my therapy.  However, because I am mom of three, my time is limited and I scrap during free moments.  As a result, I have become a bit of a scrapping machine--in the last several months my layouts have come together quicker and I am much more efficient.  Surely the 3 cups of coffee I consume most mornings has played a part, but it usually helps to have somewhat of a plan in my head prior to starting something new--this can be a sketch, a general design element or techinque that I want to incorporate, or even an older layout in my head that I want to re-visit and make it new. 

For this next layout I went in knowing that I wanted my elements to be in a vertical line across the page, I wanted some layering, and I wanted to incorporate this beautiful paper from Websters Pages.  Here's the result....

 

 

Have a great day!

 

Michelle

Summer 2013 Reading List .....

Finally, my Summer Reading list!!

I had been working on this for a little while and my intent was to have it up a few weeks ago, but life is always throwing up new twists and turns and obstacles and I am just now able to finish it.

So here goes......
         

1.  Defending Jacob by William Landay
A suspense that makes you consider the horrible circumstances of one's own child being charged with murder.  This one makes you think--yes, have already finished this book.

2.  Inferno by Dan Brown
Have read the first three, so of course this one is on the list!

3.  The Time Between by Karen White
Sisters and secrets.  Fun stuff.

4.  Revolutionary Summer:  The Birth of American Independence by Joseph J. Ellis
Proclaimed author taking on the summer of 1776.  Love this subject and excited to read it--also part of my effort to get more non-fiction read.

5.  Wild By Cheryl Strayed  
A memoir based on the author's emotional and physical journey hiking the Pacific Coast Trail. Also sort of close to my heart--I live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas where the author begins her journey as well as vacation in the Sierra's every summer.

6.  Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
The latest rom-com from a favorite author.

7.  The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchahan
 A historically based novel about the girl immortalized in Edgar Degas's statuette  "Little Dancer Aged Fourteen" and her sisters set in 19th-century Paris.

8.  From Notting Hill with Love....Actually by Ali McNamara.
Seriously, this one had me at the title.   Love both movies so expecting some fun.

9.  The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
I know, a children's book.  LOL.  I do not discriminate with what I read and since I have already read the first in Riordan's Percy Jackson series AND the movie will be coming out soon, I knew I had to throw this one on the list. 

 

So there you have it, my summer reading list!

 

Michelle

Little Girl & Cute 4 Ever......

I love taking pictures of my children--it's my thing.  Camera in hand I am on a mission to record it all :-).  Unfortunately, Hayden and Maleia give me some difficulties:  Hayden avoids me (he is 12 and way too cool for pictures) and Maleia refuses to actually look at the camera, instead opting to look behind me or around me or up in the sky or just hide her face all together.  But, Allora, does not know any better yet and continues to give me lots of smiles! 

 

 

I made a "bold" decision for this one and decided to stitch a heart on the picture itself.  Love the added texture it gives, but wish I had moved the heart a little to the left.  I doubled and tripled checked to make sure I liked the placement of the heart before punching the holes (I used Amy Tan's stencil set), but it still was not quite where I wanted it.  Oh well, it is what it is...

 

 

This was a favorite picture taken earlier in the spring that I had been holding onto and finally scrapped using a mix of papers from Glitz, American Crafts, and Studio Calico.  The hearts were an element I had been wanting to play around with, so using two punches and my scissors, I played around with the size and placement of the hearts until I liked them. However, I have to say that this layout bugs me just a bit.  I feel like something is just missing.  I even had it sitting out for awhile so that I could look at it from time to time, hoping something would come to me.  Nothing happened.  LOL.  Inspiration denied.

 

Michelle

 

 

 

 

Milestone....

With the start of summer vacation I really thought life would slow down and I would be going through my days at a nice, leisurely pace ......I was sadly mistaken.  LOL.  Instead the fast forward button has been pressed and it is stuck there!! 

So here with a flyby post, before I have to wake the kiddos to take my son to a 9 am doctor's appointment (I was NOT thinking when I scheduled an early appointment.)

Yes, this season Hayden not only hit his first ever homerun, he hit his second---all in the same game!  Seriously, it was awesome.  To watch those balls sail right over the fence--priceless! 

I used the Beautiful Mess App to edit the photo, ran it through Instagram, and then PicFrame to print it as a 4 x 4 at Walgreens using their app.   Whoo.  That's crazy.  How many apps can one photo go through?? 

Michelle

Lovable....

Hi!  Here to share one of my recent fave layouts.  

Seriously love this pic!!  The love between these two girls NEVER ceases to amaze me and it makes me quite giddy when I can capture it on camera :-).

This layout features a whole lot of Dear Lizzy and a tiny bit of Teresa Collins and Fancy Pants.  When it comes to longevity and versatility I say that AC hit it out of the ballpark with the Lucky Charm line.  I just keep going coming back to it.  Whether it dominates my pages or plays a supporting role, it works.  (Thank goodness because I have a boat load of it!)

In other news, I am currently working on my Summer Reading List for 2013.  Have been busy Pinning potential candidates and will be posting the final lineup soon!

Michelle

My Foray into Watercolors......

I really had been on the fence with the addition of watercolors in scrapbooking.  I certainly thought that they just looked beautiful, BUT I absolutely hated how they warp the cardstock.  Warped cardstock is a total pet peeve of mine.  I like my papers nice and flat thankyou!  

Finally though, I surprised myself and figured that a little warpiness did not matter because the watercolors looked like so much fun to play around with.  And I was right!  Here's my first, very ameteurish layout featuring watercolors.....

My result was absolutely imperfect--my mask moved too much despite being taped down, was really unsure of how to get just enough water-but I felt like a kid again!  

I recently read a thread over at the 2peas forum that was discussing trends that we all wished would go away and a few ladies mentioned that they very much disliked the more artsy/mixed media elements on a scrapbook page, proclaiming that it either ruined the page or that it took away from the photos or story.  And I could NOT disagree more.  For me, my number one priority is getting the story and photos down, however scrapping for me is a creative outlet.  And the fact that I get to play with paints and mists and glitter and paper WHILE documenting my little moment here on earth, is pure fun.  Mixed media is definitely not for everyone, but it sure makes me happy!

Wishing you a good week!

Michelle

 

You......

I am pretty sure I have previously mentioned that I have a small scrappy crush on Jen Jockish--her layouts are always so fun to look at and she is super great at layering.  So, when this past week's Sunday Sketch at Studio Calico was posted and it was based off of a Jen Jockish layout, I jumped at it!  You can see it here.   And this is what I came up with.....

Being me of course, I went for a more simple, layered take on the sketch.   (Really, I do try to amp up the layering, but I seem to have a low threshold for layering.)  The addition of the pink chevrons was a last minute call and I really liked how they contrasted with the rest of the colors.  Prior to this I just felt that the page was too monochromatic even with the blue pp behind the photo.  I thought the pops of pink really helped to cement the subject of my layout--my dd's fun and energetic personality. 

Before I leave to fold some laundry (yuck), I want to mention that yesterday I was the featured member on the Scraptastic Kit Club blog.  How fun is that?!

Michelle