Okay, I have to share a couple of layouts that I've done for Syndee, a great product designer over at ScrapGirls. She's been coming out with some great products and I'm lucky enough to make layouts for her! I truly am blessed to be able to do what I love and get paid for it. Lovin' it. :)

This layout uses SS Tools - Styles: Collage 6301 by Syndee Nuckles, Legacy Collection Biggie by Keri Schueller, SS Embellishment Templates: Instant Photo by Syndee, Kingdom Collection Biggie by Brandy Murry, Journey Paper by Keri Schueller, Downtown Brush Set by Melissa Renfro, and Persian Breeze Embellishment Biggie by Brandy Hackman.

This layout uses Loopy Love Collection Mini by Syndee Nuckles, SS Embellishment Templates: Scattered Pictures by Syndee, SS Embellishment Templates: Threadbare by Brandy Murry, Genuine Brush set by Dinny (Diane Miller), and A Blooming Fancy Collection by Amanda Sok.
This layout uses Isn't It Romantic Collection by Syndee Nuckles, Isn't It Romantic Paper Mini by Syndee Nuckles, GraphX Brush set by Thao Cosgrove, and Fiber Brush set by Dinny (Diane Miller).
This layout uses SS Embellishment Templates: Photo Clusters by Syndee Nuckles, Anna Grace Collection Mini by Syndee, SS Tools - Styles: Micro Glitter 6401 Super Biggie by Amanda Sok, Tuesday Afternoon Collection by Syndee, Anna Joy Collection by Amanda McGee, Textile Brush Set 2 by Keri Schueller, and SS Embellishment Templates: Sparkle Trails by Amanda Sok.

I was shocked and saddened to hear the news that our beloved prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley, has passed away tonight. He was such a great man and he will be missed my countless people.

I will miss him, as he has always held a special place in my heart.

1-18-08: Blank. Can't find the picture for today. Maybe I'll come across it on another memory card. Hmph.

1-19-08: Today we got to hang out with my very best friend, Summer, who is staying the weekend with us. We went to Laguna Beach and had fun wading in the water and playing in the sand. It was a beautiful day, the kind that makes me glad we live in southern California. (I'll have to remember that day when I am faced with the housing prices here!) We're so glad to have Summer here for a while, it's been a long time since I've seen her. We basically grew up together, went to high school together, and have been best friends ever since. We joke that we've been through quite a lot together and that someday we'll be little old ladies chatting about our grandkids. I believe it. :)
1-20-08: SO glad that we have someone in the house that knows how to play Settlers of Catan with us! Nathan and I have not played in so long, but we got our skills back up to par pretty quick. Summer is a great player and we're all very competitive, so that made it a lot of fun. Now if only we could teach some of our friends to play and they actually like it! :)


1-21-08: Got to have a wonderful brunch with my Summer, and also got to meet her boyfriend, Ian. They are very cute together and he is really nice. We ate blueberry pancakes and an omelet. Eli loved the wheat toast as well.

1-17-08: Today I have been working on my first-ever big sewing project. My good friend Tracy taught me how to thread and use it, and so I wanted to start a little quilt for Eli. I cut out the squares, pieced them together, sewed on Eli's name, and put it all together. I am feeling quite good about myself and my little sewing machine! :) How domestic of me!

...and yes, those are pirate skulls. What more could you possibly need?? :)

1-13-08: Today Eli was playing so well with his floor puzzle he got for Christmas. He's been doing really well with his speech lately. He knows his letters and is starting to sound them out. Plus we're working on colors and shapes as well. He's making such great progress, and it's amazing to watch!






1-14-08: Today we got to go have lunch with Nathan at the mall by our house. It is always fun to have that break in the day where we can chill and enjoy each other's company.



1-15-08: BLANK. I had the cutest picture of my friends Tracy and Marisol at the park where we meet weekly. But I somehow formatted my memory card without downloading the photo. I'm bummed. We'll have to do it again next week! :)

1-16-08: I took this picture of my CD album cover from Wicked for a project I'm doing. My friend Tracy taught me how to thread my sewing machine and actually get it working! So I've been thinking of all sorts of ideas for fun projects and such. We'll see how many I get accomplished. :)

Photo a Day!

Okay, so I heard this great idea the other day on Photojojo about taking a photo every day to record and remember the things you did during the year. I thought it was such a great idea, not only to help improve my photography skills (because let's face it, if you're doing something every single day for a year, you'd better start getting better at it!) and also to be able to record your life in visual form. I have such a bad memory as it is, that it would be nearly impossible for me to remember what I did in May last year. But now I'll know! :)

So yeah, I'm excited about this little project and will be attempting to upload and catalog the photos here on my blog. That will help me to be more accountable, but it will also be cool to see the archives of them all. I'm going to try to post every day, but I'll probably end up doing a few at a time on catch-up days.

Starting with today.

I've done theses photos since the 6th, so I'm going to upload them in order today, and then hopefully get to them everyday and update. So enjoy! :)


01-06-08: Today was a 'let's play with the blocks' kind of day. Eli was experimenting with the different types of buildings that he could do, with our help and without. So he thought it would be a good idea to put his sippy cup on top of one of the buildings. He thought it was pretty cool until it fell over. Ah well, he built it again anyways.




01-07-08: Stomp, stomp, stomp! Doing the Yetti Stomp! This picture is of Eli doing the Yetti Stomp, which those of you moms or dads who know the Backyardigans, will probably know what I'm talking about. I wish I had caught a better picture, but this one seems to convey the movement and excitement he has about stomping around whenever anyone asks him to do so. So it's a keeper.




01-08-08: Okay, with this photo, I am admitting a weakness. I love chocolate. Way too much. It has probably contributed to the lamentable size of my waist. But sometimes I just can't help it. Like today. I bought some chocolate muffins from Costco. They're just so yummy in the morning. But hey, I never tried to claim I was perfect. Thank goodness, because I'd never live up to that claim!


01-09-08: Today we had a couple of the Walker kids over to our house to play. So this is not a picture of Eli and his blocks, it's a picture of Eli's friend Truman and the blocks. He sure had a fun time knocking them down once they were built up! Sounds familiar. :)

01-10-08: This is a frequent occurrence in our life, having Eli fall asleep in the car on the way home from running errands. I'm not a big morning person, and so by the time I'm ready to go run errands, it's usually around 11am, which only gives me a couple of hours to do those errands until Eli is cranky and ready for his nap. So yeah, he falls asleep a lot in the car. I'm sure this won't be the last asleep in the car picture for this project. :)


01-11-08: For this day, I had to include 2 photos, just because we had a lot of different, fun things going on that day that I wanted to record. First of all, Eli and I went to Target to pick out a gift for a baby shower I went to the next day. Eli decided he wanted to wear Nathan's beanie all through the store, even though it was hot out. Go figure.
The second photo is from Wicked, the musical that Nathan and I got to see that night. Oh man, if you haven't gone to see it and you can, I would urge you to do so. It was so good and the people who sang it were so incredibly talented. Plus it was nice to get a little date night in with my hubby.

01-12-08: This photo is from Eli's big hair cut on Saturday. We've been tired of it getting really long and unmanageable, so we told the woman doing it to cut it as short as possible. And we finally found the perfect secret to get him to sit quietly -- a lollipop! Of course, I didn't think about candy bribes! Works for me. :)

Okay, so to understand why I'm SO STINKIN' EXCITED about this picture and layout, you first have to understand my mom. Actually, that may take a while, so I'll just try to explain to you one part of my mom's personality. :)

My mom has this funny smile that she sometimes does when she's 'posing' for a picture or she knows she's being photographed. I'm sure we've mercilessly teased her about it, because I know she's been trying hard to genuinely smile in her pictures more. But it's just not easy to get a real smile from my mom.

SO, we were at Soldier Hollow in Utah, a place where you can go tubing on a big hill and it's a ton of fun. My mom had just come up the hill and was going to go down in her tube. I happened to have out my new camera, so while she wasn't looking I framed her in my screen, then called her name and snapped 2 shots.

The first was a weird look with no smile, and the second was this beautiful photo of her that is so true to life! I was so excited when I reviewed it, because I knew she would love it just as much as I do.

So here's the shot, the first personal layout I've done in a lot of weeks. Holidays are tough, man! :) Enjoy!


Now isn't she just gorgeous??

For this layout I used A Blooming Fancy collection by Amanda Sok, Fancy Lace Embellishments Mini by Erica Hite, SS Tools - Actions: Paper Tear 5001 by Melissa Renfro, SS Tools - Styles: Embed 1801 by Mandy Steward, Chic Embroidery Collection by Erica Hite, SS Tools - Actions: Stitching and Holes 4101 - Straight Stitching by Cheryl Barber, and SS Embellishment Template: Threadbare by Brandy Murry.

Merry Christmas (better late than never!)

For those of you who did not receive a Christmas card from us this year (and there are more on that list than I would like to admit because I didn't get around to everyone) then you'll want to check it out here. :)


Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year. I'm looking forward to 2008 with such high spirits and I know it's going to be wonderful. I'm ready to relax more, eat more healthily, enjoy my son more, and spend quality family time together. And get organized and declutter my house. Yeah, it's going to be a good year.