TLP Blog Hop

The Lilypad is having a storewide sale this weekend and it's something you don't want to miss! In honor of the sale, we're hosting a blog hop and chats all weekend. If you haven't stopped by the Pad yet, you are going to LOVE this month's BYOC. Just may be my fave to date. A color palette to die for.

Without further ado, here is my contribution to the blog hop. It's a QP with some of the yummy goodies from the BYOC. I so hope you like it. Your next stop is the blog our fabulous guest designer, Pamela Donnis. She's got something truly special for you.

{image is linked}

Revelation Song

If you know me, you know that I like and listen to all types of music. Well...everything but rap. I just can't do that anymore. I must be getting old. But I digress, I love MUSIC. In another life I might have tried to make a career of it. As it is I'm blessed to sing with our Praise Team at church. This is one of the awesome songs we sing. I'm telling you that I could listen to this song over and over and over again. Such powerful lyrics!

If you're wondering...

...what we've been up to lately. Here's a clue.


Yes, we're all living in Round Rock now and a lot of our evenings are spent hanging out at the ballpark. Good thing we like this sport, huh?

Yes, I know I'm a terrible blogger and I could make a promise to do better but I don't want to make one I can't keep. :)

Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day I thought I would share with you the coolest reuseable shopping bags I have found. They are called Joey Totes and in a word...ROCK! Designed by a friend of ours, these bags really are fantastic!

How many times have you walked out and left all those bags you bought at the grocery store? Or didn't want to carry you grocery store branded bag into the mall? Well, you won't with these bags. They're so compact that I just threw them in my purse and when I breezed into Target yesterday, I just whipped them out a the check out line.

These bags come in 2 sizes and each collapses into an oversized pouch sewn into the inside seam of each bag. How cool is that? They are made of ripstop Nylon that's tough enough to carry 40 lbs. AND get this, they're even machine washable! The large tote is pictured below and it is BIG! Plenty of room for all your stuff.

You're probably wondering how much these bad boys cost, right? Well, shocker, they are really and truly reasonable and affordable. You can check out the pricing here. I even have a coupon code for 10% off if you're interested in them. Just enter LESLIE ROCKS in the coupon code. Easy peasy!

A few new pages

I just wanted to share some of my latest pages with you.

there is love here

camden loves kota

be you

u are the sweetest thing

Artisan Notebook!!!

Check it out! I've been published in the Artisan Notebook for being part of the fabulous Shabby Miss Jenn's creative team and part of the deal was to post a blog prompt on my blog revealing a little bit about me. I chose the "Tell about your favorite song/album/CD in high school" one so here goes...

As a child of the '80s I grew up with an eclectic taste in music so I would never be able to nail down an absolute favorite song from that time of my life. However, I must confess to being a total hair band junkie. I still like them today! Bands like Poison, Cinderella, Guns N Roses, Motley Crue, you get the picture...were all staples of the radio and my cassette (yes, I said cassette) player. Isn't it funny how a song can take you back to a particular place in time? It happens to me all the time and I love it! What was your favorite in high school?

The Daily Digi redux

After my post on The Daily Digi, Janet contacted me and asked me to participate in their More With Four challenge. I had to take the four products she gave me and come up with a page. I am completely honored that she asked and I found that it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Here is the page I did and make sure you stop by The Daily Digi to check out the fantastic pages the other scrappers did!

The Daily Digi

If you're even remotely interested in digital scrapbooking, I have a new site for you to check out. The Daily Digi is the brainchild of Janet Phillips and I've been so incredibly impressed with the info she is putting out. AND it's not just about scrapbooking. She has some other really cool info like today's post about Firefox. She has also put together a grab bag of fantastic designers for dirt cheap so that you can maybe try out a designer you never have before. Here's a page I did with Shabby Miss Jenn's contribution to the Digi File this month.

blessing

Some Big News in Digiland

After 5 Designs is having a site CT call!


Amy and all of the designers at A5 are absolutely fantastic to work with. I consider myself very, very fortunate to be on the team. So if you're interested make sure you get your application in!

P365

The Project 365 blog is now in full swing, complete with a whole week's worth of photos. I've also added quite a few pages to my slideshow on the right. Feel free to take a look.

Project 365

Today I embark (great word, embark) on a mission to take more and better pictures this year. I will we taking the Project 365 challenge and you will find my photo a day on this blog. No photo there yet, but tonight there will be. Stay tuned!

New year, new look

I thought I'd get a jump on the blog redo and make it over today. It'll still be a work in progress (as are most things in my life) until I get it the way I want it. I'll leave you with the year in review page I finished yesterday. Happy New Year everyone!
YIR 2008

Merry Christmas

we wish you a merry christmas
We want to wish all our family and friends the merriest Christmas, filled with the joy of the birth of our Lord and Savior. We hope you get to enjoy the time with the people your love remembering the true reason we celebrate this season.

As for us, 2008 brought a lot of changes. We started the year both still working at Baylor. Early in the year, Ryan Sanders Baseball came calling and in March, Khalil took the job as the Director of Stadium Operations for the Corpus Christi Hooks. I continued to work at the Baylor Alumni Association until May and then resigned in anticipation for our move south. At the same time, the organization moved Khalil in the same position to the Round Rock Express. Yes, the kids and I are still in Waco. We are pretty much here until the house sells or we can lease it out, at any rate. So for the time being, I'm a stay at home mom and Khalil is an hour and change down the road and comes home as much as possible. This year saw Emma turn 5 and Camden turn 2. Both are as precocious and rambunctious as ever. They are the true blessings of our lives. We have so much to be grateful for and we look forward to all the fabulous changes that 2009 will bring!

A little video treat

I've been trying to add this video now since last night. Finally, got it done!
Here is our little angel singing in church yesterday.

Just wanted to share

I've been scrapping some older photos and I just wanted to share this page and a story. Last night, Pook and I went through all of the toys and got rid of some to make room for the new ones coming at Christmas. She loves the thought of giving them to someone who doesn't have anything. She told me that she wanted to get rid of all of her baby toys. After all, she is 5 now and it's time for them to go. As I was telling her daddy this last night on the phone we both got really emotional because our baby girl is growing up. Daddy, of course, wants her to stay this size forever, to always crawl up in his lap and just snuggle with him. It seems like just yesterday she was the size she is in the photo below. It's crazy how time flies!

emma at 8 weeks

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAMDEN!!!!

birthday boy
It's so hard to believe our baby boy is 2 today! Where has the time gone?

New look and other stuff

Like the new look of the blog? It's courtesy of Shabby Miss Jenn's blogwear. This one is Grandma's Xmas, but you can spy all of her fabulous, shabby blog stuff here.

Still no news on the house front, other than the fact that we have also listed it for lease. With the holiday season here, I just can't imagine that we'll see too much action in the way of showings and/or sellings.

Speaking of the holidays, we're off on our visit traveling Thanksgiving this afternoon. Yep, this is the first time in our 7-year marriage that we have not hosted turkey day. I'm kind of sad about it. We really enjoyed doing the entertaining. I also did something this year that I swore I would never do....
I put up the Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. Gasp! Horror! I am a staight-up day after Thanksgiving decorator. However, since we are traveling this year I knew that I would be too wiped to do it when we got home so I decided to break my rule and do it before we left.

Did you catch the mention that K-man and I have been married for 7 years? That's right, our anniversary was Monday. All usual 7-yr itch jokes aside, we have been extremely blessed with the life we have. Khalil joked on Facebook, "here's to 7 more," but he's knows he's stuck with me for a lot longer than that.

I want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! I pray you enjoy the day and time with your family and friends. May you remember to count your blessings!

Our trip to Mexico

We had a wonderful vacation at the Excellence Riviera Cancun. You know when you scope a place out on the internet you wonder if it's going to be as good in person. Well, let me tell you...this place is seriously gorgeous. What you see on the website is what you get! We're already planning our return trip! It will come as no surprise that K-man was even named guest of the day while we were there. He was quite the little joiner. Here are a few pics from our time there. I was a bad photographer and didn't take many. I was too busy relaxing.



charity

I want to share a charity kit with you. Danielle (Artemia) is a sweet member of the digiscrap world whose family has been involved in an automobile accident. 13 fabulous designers got together and created a kit to show support. You can read all about it here. Below is my page with this gorgeous kit.

such a slacker

I'm such a horrible blogger, but my guess is you might be tired of hearing me whine about not selling our house. One of these days. I'm holding out hope and praying for it every single day. It's such a scary thing with the economy in the toilet but that's a different topic altogether. Please keep praying for the right person to come along to buy our house. I know I've said it before, but it's past time for our family to be back together.

On the up side, the weather here today was gorgeous. We got a fair amount of rain the past couple of days and that front brought in cooler temps. I love being able to turn off the air conditioner and so does our pocketbook! The kids and I ran around in the yard while dinner cooked and had a blast...all without sweating.

more digiscrap news

I've been extremely blessed here lately in the digiscrap area of my life. I was invited to join 3 more creative teams and I am so excited! Krystal Hartley, Traci Murphy and Scarletheels are all incredibly talented designers and I can't believe I get to work with their creations. As soon as my Picasa is functioning again I'll be adding their blinkie's to the right hand side of the blog. I'll also be uploading a bunch (and I mean a bunch) of new pages to the layouts link.

bird is the word!

For a couple of weeks now, I've been keeping a secret in the digiscrap world. However, today I can shout it from the rooftops! I'm officially a CHICK! I was invited to join The Digichick creative team and now I get the awesome privilege of working with tons of fabulously talented designers.

Kim and the incredible team there did a whole site redesign and we're celebrating this weekend with a big party! There are challenges and the entire store is 20% off! Come on over and check it out!

I...

I snagged this off of another blog tonight and thought it was too cool. Pass it along.

I AM … a child of God, a wife and a mother
I WANT… to sell this house
I HAVE … a really good life
I KEEP … way too many clothes
I WISH I COULD … design things for a living
I HATE … being away from my husband
I FEAR … something happening to my family
I HEAR … my children laughing
I DON’T THINK … anyone but God has all the answers
I REGRET … very little. it's all led me here.
I LOVE … my daughter's eyes and my son's red hair
I AM NOT … alone in this world
I DANCE … because I just can't sit still
I SING … all the time
I NEVER … say never
I RARELY … sleep through the night these days
I CRY ... when I'm mad, frustrated, hurt
I AM NOT ALWAYS … the woman I would like to be
I HATE THAT … our family is separated right now
I’M CONFUSED ABOUT … why people do mean things
I NEED … to exercise more
I SHOULD … go to bed...now
I HOPE ... that my children know that they are truly loved and truly blessed

is tomorrow really friday?

Man, this week has flown by! Is it just me? It kind of has my head spinning.

I hope that you took a minute today just to remember. It's hard to believe that it was 7 years ago. God bless all those who died that day and also bless those men and women who serve in our military to protect and keep us safe.

house news

By now you've probably guessed that we still haven't sold our house. We are definitely at THAT point. It is past time for us to be together as a family again. Need proof? Check this out. She just melts your heart.

whoo misses daddy?
We do, however, have a new realtor. His name is AJ Johnston and he happens to be a good friend. It's always scary working with friends on something as big as this, but we have faith that he's going to get the job done. So please keep praying.

We thought we were going to have houseguests this weekend due to Hurricane Ike, but it seems as our friends have decided to ride out the storm. I told them that they're crazy, but what can you do.

the pookster is 5

I promised a post about our baby girl turning 5 and I guess I should just bite the bullet and do it. I have been doing a lot of scrapping here lately and as I go through pictures I just can't believe where the time went. In the past two weeks, it seems as though she has matured and is carrying this air about her. It's like 5 was a magic number to her. We still have our moments and I have to remind her that 5 year old don't do this or don't act that way, but it's been so weird to watch her transform before my eyes. She still pretty much hates to wear clothes. She would run around and play in the front yard in nothing but her panties if we let her. And talk about a chatterbox! She redefines the word. She's so inquisitive and social it's almost unreal. She's almost 40 inches tall, but still wearing some 3T pants for her teeny tiny waist and butt, but they hover on the edge of being too short. The classic curse of our family! She is the best big sister in the world and Diesel just adores her. You should see them destroy the house chasing each other and rolling around on the floor together. Moments I truly treasure! I had been trying to scrap a page of her with a baby photo and one from her birthday and I finally got it done today. I'll leave you with it. The journaling reads:

When did this happen? When did you get to be such a big girl? I cannot really believe that you are 5. It may sound cliche but it really does seem like just yesterday we were bringing you home from the hospital. A lot has changed since then, but you can bet on one thing...no one will ever love you like your mama does. I know the day is coming when you won’t want to talk to me so for now I’m trying to remember to relish the fact that you are a chatterbox, full of ideas, questions, and songs. My gorgeous girl, you have such a full, vibrant spirit. Everyone says you’ll be famous one day. Know what I say? You already are!

september 2008

then & now
Incidentally, it was picked up today as a gallery standout at the GSO blog.

I'm also uploading all my recent pages to my scrap blog here if you want to see them.

relaxing weekend, busy monday, and other news

The K-man was home this weekend and it was so good to have him here. I swear the kids climbed all over him and barely left him alone all weekend. He even made it home on Friday in time to go play softball with our co-ed rec team. I think, however, I'm getting to old to play anymore. I pulled my quad first time up to the plate (still got a hit and got on though). Maybe I'm not too old after all. :)

Saturday was a day of just being lazy around the house. I scrapped a little while I had someone to occupy the kiddos and of course, there was college football to be watched. I also promised an adult-friendly dinner for my sweet husband after serving him kid-friendly fare Friday night. He requested the truly Southern meal of chicken fried chicken and mashed potatoes and that's what he got. I've got to tell you it was pretty darn tasty if I do say so myself. We had a garden salad and fresh asparagus, too. And about this meal, Pook announced midway through supper that this was not just for adults because she really liked it, too, and then proceeded to ask for seconds of the chicken. That's how I know I must have done something right.

Sunday was another pretty worthless day. We skipped out on church and pretty much just spent time as a family. Nothing special but the long honored tradition of a Sunday afternoon nap. It was glorious! Plus, we got word that our new realtor (more on that later) is showing the house today at 4:30. So needless to say, I've been cleaning most of the day trying to get the house back in shape after a weekend of sloth. Obviously, I'm done or I wouldn't have the luxury of sitting down here while Diesel naps. It so crazy that to think 15 minutes after we return from vacating the premises for the showing that it'll be right back to a disaster zone. I guess that's life with a preschooler and a toddler who is a one man wrecking crew! Now, I'm off to the shower. Hey, at least I'm going to get one today! LOL!

i love you...too and a fun quiz and a procrastination

I bring you a Diesel funny tonight. This kid is not only cute (yes, that's the mother in me talking) but he knows he's cute and cracks himself up on a regular basis. What follows? Well, you know that he cracks us up, too. The lateset? Check out the following {very} short conversation...

Me: Camden, I love you!
Diesel (with that ever-present mischevious twinkle in his eye): Too!

That's right, he can't be bothered to say the words I love you. He just says "too" like that should suffice! Is he all boy or what?

a procrastination

As you know, Pook turned 5 this past Tuesday and you may be asking yourself what kind of mother am I that I haven't documented it on this blog. A mother in denial is what I am! I am in full-fledged denial that my sweet baby girl has turned 5. Where, oh where, has the time gone? I do, however, promise to return with a blog post later solely dedicated to her and this milestone birthday...as soon as I get a grip on it!

a fun quiz

In honor of the start of the school year, I'll share a fun quiz with you that is sure to take you back. Dust off your color memory and try this Crayola Color Quiz. I made it through with only 7 mistakes. It's harder than I thought it would be. Have fun!

little more info

I forgot to add a very important piece of information about digiscrap in my last post. You must check out Digital Artist Magazine for the latest in trends and designers. They put out a monthly, downloadable magazine ($6/issue) and you get a free exclusive download with your purchase. I just bought my first one last month and I put it in my budget to buy one each month from here on out. There are tutorials and tons of inspiration in each issue. Make sure you check it out! (Oh, and, yes this is a shameless plug for DAM...if I blogged about it, then I'm entered to win a $5 gift card from one of five designers. Who doesn't love free stuff?) Did I mention that I already won a GC to oscraps from DAM for their blog party?

digiscrap info

I've had a few people ask me for info on digiscrap and so I thought I'd knock it all out by blogging it. (What a fantastic idea, Leslie!) Hey, cut me some slack...it's late and I'm trying. :) Please, please, please, don't think I'm an ol' pro at this by any means. I'm constantly learning and having fun, but I'll do my best to pass on what I've learned so far.

I was a pseudo-paper scrapper for years. By pseudo I mean, I had all the stuff, but only pulled it out when I had some waaayyyy extended free time or if LaNae and I were getting together for some planned scrapping. With the digital camera era I found that I printed my photos less and less and would either post them on my old website, email them or blog them. When Diesel was born, I designed his birth announcement and it wasn't long before I fell head long into digital scrapbooking. The question I get asked most is what program I use. I use Photoshop Elements 5 but Adobe has just released PSE7. I've used the full versions of Photoshop but I really like how user-friendly (not to mention cheaper) PSE5 is. As with any software, there will be a learning curve. The best method is trial and error. Ctrl-Z is the shortcut for undo and it becomes your best friend.

The next question I get is where do you get kits, background papers, elements, etc. When I started I basically googled free digital scrapbooking kits. The best site around for freebies is Ikea Goddess. Seriously, this woman puts in a massive amount of time sorting through the gobs of stuff out there and posts her picks daily. If you stop by, make sure you leave her some love in her comments.

What is going to follow next is a list of online galleries and forums where you can get a wealth of inspiration and a bevy of information about how to get sucked into this addiction. LOL!

my scrapbook art
digishoptalk
scrapartist
the digichick

I'm currently on creative teams (CTs) for two fantastic designers. I'd be remiss if I didn't steer you in their direction for supplies. Just click the blinkies to the right and you'll get to their stores. As far as my other favorite designers and shoppes, here's a list of those, too!

shabby miss jenn
the lilypad
sweet shoppe designs
shabby pickle
catscrap

Oh, Jessica Sprague has some great tutorials for Photoshop. She's absolutely fabulous at making it easy to understand.

Okay, I think that just about covers it for now. Please feel free to email me if you've got questions. I promise I'll do my best to help you out!

prayer warriors

We have another showing of the house today at 11:30 CST. Please pray that this couple falls head over heels with the house and makes an offer on the spot! LOL!

look out now!

I am simply amazed, but this page was selected by pickleberrypop as their August LO of the month! I am so lucky to be a creative team member for Kaye Winiecki and she makes it easy to scrap adorable pages. (Did I just pay myself a compliment?)

drool....

I just discovered something that I would LOVE to have. It's a custom made camera strap and it is just gorgeous. Strange to say, I know...but look!



I am seriously drooling over it. You can click on the photo to see the etsy store of Cotton Candy by Natalie.

'08 summer olympics

Does anyone else love the Olypmics like I do? From the Opening Ceremonies to the last day, I'm like a junkie. I keep track of the mdeal counts and I'm glued to my TV to watch even random events like trampoline. Did you know that was an actual event? Don't even get me started. I can only imagine what it would be like to participate in just the Opening Ceremonies. To walk into that stadium full of people representing the country you love would just be the coolest thing. Tonight's ceremonies were quite the spectacle and done quite well. I'm amazed at the technology behind it all. However, now that they are over...let the games begin! Bring on Michael Phelps, Jeremy Wariner, Dara Torres, the USA softball team, women's gymnastics, beach volleyball...do I really need to go on? I love the Olympics! The athlete in me just can't help it.

something else to look at...

Okay, so I make no secret that this is one of my all time fave shots of the kiddos. Crazy, since you can't see either one of their faces. However, to me it was the perfect shot that day (as evidenced by the fact I use it in my blog header). I know it's overkill, but I can't help it. Anyway, Kaye Winiecki and Tara Dunstan have this fabulous kit called All That Twitters that I swear was taylor-made for this photo so I had to show you what I came up with.

a perfect day