James Bond is my husband

We had such a great time on our recent trip to Chicago. My sweet hubby hadn't worn a tux since our wedding day and he looked quite dapper!

Product credits: Template from the Life is Amazing 2 pack by Fiddle Dee Dee Designs at Scrap Orchard; Papers, embellies and word art all from Little Black Dress Kit by WM {Squared} at Scrap Orchard; Journaling font: Avenir

Disney suitcase mini book

My parents are huge Disney fans. They go every year, and this year was no different. When I saw all the cute pictures my mother was posting on Facebook, I knew I had to do something with them. I have access to all of my Mom's phone photos based on a automated backup system I set up for her on her phone to Dropbox. Since this handful of photos were the ones that she posted, I knew they must be the favorites.

I started by downloading the photos from Facebook and saving them into their own folder. Then I measured this adorable little Disney suitcase gift card holder I had purchased days before "just in case".

Using the measurements, I created blank canvas in PSE and created photo boxes using the dimensions for the planned photos.  I printed a bunch onto each page. 

Using my handy dandy paper cutter, I cut each column to the correct size. Once all the pictures were ready, I placed them in the order I wanted for the book. 

Then I used this awesome sparkle, glitter tape to adhere each page back to back. When all pairs of photos were adhered together, then I ran a larger piece of the glitter tape down the side of the hole stack, like a book binding, and finished it off.

It took less than an hour and my parents absolutely loved it. My Mom loved that it is small enough to carry in her purse to peruse or share whenever she feels like it!

1940s party fun!

It was so much fun to dress up for the theme night party at my hubby's National Convention in Chicago this year. The ballroom was decked out as a 1940s supper club. Fortunately, I had convinced my husband to play along and get dressed up for the event. It turned out to be great. The icing on the cake was the fake puffing cigar and the inflatable machine gun. He had a lot of fun with both!

Product credits: 

Above: Template: The Monthly 12 x 12 Album Set (January) by Cathy Zielske at Designer Digitals;   Party time word art from the Awesome Time Brushes and Stamp Set by Ali Edwards at Designer Digitals; All papers and embellies for both layouts from the Little Black Dress Collab Kit by WM [Squared] and Dream Big Designs at Scrap Orchard

Below: Template: The Monthly 12 x 12 Album Set (December) by Cathy Zielske at Designer Digitals; 

First Car & The Bean

After having a wonderful time with a house full of visitors following immediately by a wonderful trip to Chicago with my hubby, I'm happy I had a few minutes to document some of the fun.

Product credits: Template - Scrapping with Liz Artsy Journal Template 32 @ Scrap Orchard; Papers & Stamps by Dunia Designs Say Something kit at Scrap Stacks; Title font: Chalkduster; journaling font: Avenir

Product credits: Template - Fiddle Dee Dee Designs Dots & Buttons 2 at Scrap Orchard  ; Paper, Embellies, Title word art by Studio Blagovesta at Scrapbook Graphics ; Journaling font: Avenir

Smiling from ear to ear

My parents absolutely love Disney World. They love it so much that they go every single year. This year was no exception. They celebrated my father's 73rd birthday there just a few weeks ago. As my Mom says "After all, you only turn 73 once!" I suppose that's her translation of any time is a good time to go to Disney!

I love how happy they look when they spend time at the happiest place on Earth.

Page credits: Template: Fiddle Dee Dee Designs, Fuss Free Dots & Bows 2 at Scrap Orchard; Papers & Embellies: Libby Pritchett's From Ear to Ear kit at Sweet Shoppe Designs; Font: American Typewriter

Our California Adventure

Click here to view this photo book larger

Visit Shutterfly.com to create your own personalized photobook.

Project Life 2011: Week 25 (7/24-7/30)

 

Another wonderful week. This was part of my week in the life project and I chose to continue to capture the everyday in my PL while getting a whole lot more detail into my WITL.

 

Got this cute little gift card holder when Summer and I went to Five Guys for a burger. I thought it would be a good idea to reference my Week In The Life binder inside this project so everyone would know where to go for more juicy details.

Totally loving my sharpie right now for making titles a la Ali Edwards.

Week in the Life 2011 – See binder for more details from this week.

Monday
Summer’s ear infection, 1st time to get blood drawn. Patchy & Bryce to movies. Treat @ Rita’s. Taco’s 4 dinner. Finish Eric’s baby book. Blog about Camp Ellie.

Tuesday
Summer still in a lot of pain. Dropped boys at Game haven for the day. Worked at Beltone for the afternoon. Sat in on meeting with Jill re: marketing. Mom & Karen like Camp Ellie blog post. Watched movie with Summer. Picked boys ups at 11pm.

Wednesday
Dropped Bryce, Pat & Mark at KD. Working with Jill on Beltone marketing. Target for school shopping with Summer. Lunch at Five Guys. Summer and I went to Cars2 in 3D. Reschedule riding. Pick up at KD.

 

Thursday
Drove from VA to NY to bring Patrick home after spending Bryce’s birthday with us. Stayed at Babs’ for dinner & Twister :-). Boys watched Veggie Tales videos the whole way with Bryce narrating, so funny!

Friday
Summer finally slept thru the night. Went swimming with Danielle & Eric. Dropped Durango off for transmission service. Took Bryce to get his airsoft gun fixed but they were closed. Played Farkle, were very silly with place cards. Chilled with Mom & Dad

Saturday
Went to pick up car – sticker shock - $800 because I needed brakes too :(. Strathmore for bagels – yummy. Waiting for Babs & fam to come over. Can’t believe I have to leave tomorrow already.

h – Week in the Life – 2011

Love that shot of the Verrazzano Bridge – it means I’m almost ‘home’.

Project Life 2011: Week 24 (7/17-23)

OW! OW! BOO-HOO! 7.18

Poor Summer got an ear infection while on vacation and was down for the count for two days. Two doctor visits, three prescriptions and two sleepless nights later she is finally feeling much better and pain free. Thank goodness for codeine!

So glad Danielle & Eric got to stay a few extra days. We played lots of games while he slept. Farkle, Uno & Rummikub were big hits. We also invented Uber Farkle. We even squeezed in water polo!

Any day is *GAME DAY*. We had a ton of fun playing Farkle togeher. When that got boring we made up new rules to make it more interesting…

Farkle, Uber Farkle, Uber Scruber Farkle & Uber Scruber Stupid Farkle :-)

 

I’m so thankful that my parents are willing to open up their home for us to invade for weeks at a time. Now that we no longer live close by it’s nice to experience the everyday-ness with them each summer. I get to re-charge and we all have a wonderful time. July 2011

7.24.11 While Patrick was here for the week. I took the boys to Chesapeake to Ballahack for airsoft. Summer & I went to the beach and visited the Munsons in Va. Beach. Good to catch up with *FRIENDS*

Up & Down the Coast

VA to NY, NY to VA, FRED to VA BEACH, VA BEACH to FRED, FRED to KD, KD to FRED, VA to NY, NY to VA

Whew, busy few weeks going back and forth. We all had a great time seeing family and friends but it’ll be nice to stay put for a bit.

 

Project Life: Week 22 (7/3-7/9)

  

Crab Fest 2011
We all got together for a Crab Fest at Katherine’s. A bushel of crabs, delicious guacamole & a bucket of beer kept everyone happy. The die hards even stayed out in the rain picking crabs!

(Stacey, Katherine & Julie)

Bryce’s 14th Bday
Trenton, Bryce, Mark, Tyler
A casual get together turned into an all out party with nearly every kid on the block here. Chips, dips, soda, cupcakes were all part of the festivities. The best part: when the boys decided to WEAR the ice cream cake! (click here to see the resulting layout)

Our ride up to NY via Amtrak was fortunately uneventful. We arrived right on time-yippee. Thankfully the kids got along the whole trip which was a miracle in itself! The best part?…running off the train for the first hug of the trip.

Trip Recuperation
Spent the day by the pool soaking up the sun and watching the kids swim. Aaagh – days like this… {heart}.

Summer & Ellie had a fun filled two day sleepover. It was nice to see Aunt Barbara & Aunt Linda & Megan. We had fun playing a bluffing game called Balderdash with Bryce, Heather, Barbara , Megan & Danielle. I {heart} GAMES

Project Life: Week 21 (6/26-7/2)

Bryce loves all things military. So it’s no surprise when Gram & Fossil gave him money for his birthday we immediately went to the military surplus store. He got outfitted in Marpat head to toe. He also bought dog tags & MREs.

Katherine’s 33rd
We celebrated her birthday in style at two opposite ends of the spectrum. Her husband hired a pole dancing instructor so we danced the night away Vegas style. The next day was more reserved as we took her to High Tea at the Thomas Jefferson hotel in Richmond and to the Maymont.

F is for FUN at Fleeton
We love going to Fleeton whenever we can. We were lucky enough to celebrate the 4th of July there this year with Keith’s family. It was hot and sticky but worth it. Great fireworks show!

FIREWORKS * FOOD * FUN * FLEETON

Love the sunset photo off the dock, I must have about a hundred of them because I can’t resist snapping one each time another beautiful sunset happens!

This week saw another visit to Kings Dominion, the girls had a great time riding rollercoasters and smiling for photos with the characters.

I love, love, love this photo of Summer with Hope, she is so happy when she is near these beautiful creatures.

5 days, 4 nights = aaaahhhh :-)

Our trip to Texas.

5 glorious days and 4 nights without kids! and my honey all to myself - well mostly. We went to San Antonio, TX for the Beltone National Conference. Keith had to attend classes for part of 3 days but the rest of the time we had to ourselves.

Wednesday, we caught an early flight and were in Texas by noon. After checking in and getting settled in our room we met up with fellow coworkers and had lunch at the crooked branch bar – yummy. Then we  sat by the pool and soaked up some late afternoon sun.

After a little siesta, we then met up again with everyone later  for dinner at Cibolo Moon ( restaurant within the resort). Keith tried one of the 90 tequillas the bar had in a “Bloody Sunset Margarita which was so potent that he sipped on it all night.

I really lucked out that his co-workers are so cool and the ladies in particular are great - it was a lot of fun spending time with them each day during the different things that we did.

Thursday was a late start for his meeting and I went shopping with some of the wives for a really cool necklace and earrings for the party scheduled on that evening. No expense was spared on this party - the buses were lined up promptly and we were all transported to downtown San Antonio to where they had rented out the entire Buckhorn Saloon, a bar/restaurant & museum. There were food stations everywhere on each of the three intricately decorated floors. There were  

                mounted heads,

antlers and museum quality animals,

reptiles and fish displayed everywhere. 

They even had a DJ playing some great music and the food was wonderful: sausage and pepper kabobs, queso & spinach dip with chips, fajitas, tortillas, guacamole - the works!

After we had our fill of tex-mex fare we took a stroll down to the infamous San Antonio Riverwalk. It was really cute, the river ran right through the middle of all these shops and restaurants and bars and there were little cobblestone bridges to cross over it in various places. there were even riverboat cruises going around on tours.

The river couldn't have been more than 30 feet across, so I would say it was more of a glorified canal than anything else. But it was cute nonetheless. We stopped at one of the restaurants and shared a giant margarita between 3 of us - it was 60 oz!

By the time we got back to the hotel we were completely exhausted and hit the hay in anticipation of another fun-filled day.

Friday Keith had classes again and a few of us ladies decided to hit the pool instead of the shops. It was beautiful outside and the sun was intense. All day long we hopped in and out of the pool while our waiter made sure our cocktails were never empty. After class the guys joined us and the fun continued.

We even got everyone to go down the lazy river a few times, which is probably why everyone ended up sunburned! Later that evening was the awards dinner which they certainly did up with style! The dinner itself was held in one of the grand ballrooms of the hotels and it was a black-tie optional affair. Only the big wigs had on tuxedos thankfully though. Keith wore a suit and I finally wore a red gown I had purchased a few years ago.

We had such a great time and the food was divine. I'm not much into detailing what I've eaten for the day but this meal is worth spelling out. We started with lobster bisque with a pastry top, and then went into a caesar salad with blue cheese crumbles, followed by an enormous and perfectly cooked filet mignon topped off with a decadent chocolate cake - my mouth is literally drooling and I remember each course! The awards dinner lasted way longer than anticipated and we all just went to our rooms afterwards.

Saturday was the last day of classes and also the day of anticipation as the location for next year's convention was to be revealed at the end of the day.

Since most of us girls were crispy from our day at the pool on Friday, we decided to go out to lunch. We ended up at a place called Willie's Grill & Icehouse, obviously a local favorite, and enjoyed a lunch of appetizers and cold ones.

The closing ceremony had Mike Ditka as the guest speaker and they revealed that our conference destination for next year is the Bellagio in Vegas - so cool. After returning from lunch, we met the guys for drinks in the lobby and then went to go get ready for the big fiesta party. Once again, the party did not disappoint. Everything was decorated so colorfully out on the lawn and the weather was extremely cooperative. There were food stations galore with more tex-mex fare and they even had fun stations set up. There was a table where a woman handmade paper flowers which the guys picked out to match our outfits (how cute!), there was a caricature station where we had ours done (very funny)

 

and last but not least, the guys really got a kick out of the cigar rolling station. The icing on the cake absolutely had to be the amazing band they had. There were 3 brass players, 3 singers, a keyboardist, a drummer and a guitar player. they were amazing! Every song they played sounded like the original artist and we danced until the last second of the last song (not an easy feat wearing kitten heels on a grass dance floor). Even Keith was dancing at the end! We were all so pumped up that after that we continued the party in the sports bar and just ended up being plain silly for our last night together. We were fortunate that our plane didn't leave until the next afternoon because we were certainly in no shape to function early the next morning.

The weekend as a whole was akin to a Disney experience, the staff at the hotel, the resort itself and all the functions that Beltone had planned for us were truly top notch.

We came home relaxed and renewed and looking forward to next year's convention. Watch out Bellagio, here we come!

December Daily: Day 4

Journaling reads:
On our way out of town to go to Keith’s Christmas party in Roanoke we passed the newly finished overpass at Mary Wash – I still find it more than slightly amusing that I ended up living in my college town!  Taking pictures on the way to Roanoke, we saw a speed limit sign that said 70 miles per hour,  Keith said he had never seen one and neither had I so of course I had to take a picture. Since he was driving and I had just gotten my new laptop, I wanted to document me happily scrapbooking the whole way, hence the picture of my reflection in the laptop. Once we went over the mountains it started snowing like crazy… almost total white out conditions, so weird! The mountains were so pretty to see, very nice views from the road in every direction. It was a very relaxing and quiet trip with no kids on board.  Since we were alone, I had to set up the timer to take a picture of us – we had such a good time hanging out alone together, it was the first time in a very  long time and it was wonderful.  The lobby of the Hotel Roanoke was amazingly decorated in all reds and golds with multiple Christmas trees all around, the snow falling outside was just icing on the cake. We saw a cool train roundtable which my Dad would love so Keith stopped so I could get close ups of the engines. We even stopped at a scenic overlook on the way home. Although we were only gone for a little over 24 hours, it was a wonderful re-charge for both of us.

Merry Christmas Eve, I hope Santa brings you lots of goodies!
December Daily challenge
Templates & overlays: Ali Edwards, Cardstock: Atomic Cupcake, Patterned Paper & word strips: Katie Pertiet

A Tour of the Guinness Factory in Ireland