My Favorite Room...

...in our new house is...my kitchen! I never thought I would hear myself say that - but then again, maybe that's because my craft room isn't completed yet (check out yesterday's post to see the status on that). Plus, do you remember the kitchen I had in our last house - click here to view - and the 5 rentals we had before that were no better - no wonder the kitchen was my least favorite room for a long time!

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Anyway, my new kitchen is awesome! I love the vaulted ceilings, the space, the island, the view, the hardwood floors, and the open floor plan. Here it is the day we moved in...

...and here it is after many hours and coats of paint, and new appliances! The color is called VaVaVoom - that says it all! I really love the red walls and black appliances with the beautiful hickory cabinets.

The fridge before was way too small for a family of 6 - it is now serving as an extra fridge in the basement! I LOVE my new double oven - so handy!!! And the over-the-range microwave is always nice. I would really like to change the top to my island eventually - I'd like to extend it to make it larger and more comfortable for seating. The kids and I have already done many cooking projects on this island - I love it!

So there's a peek at one of our new house projects - thanks for visiting!

Studio J to the rescue!

This is what my scrap room currently looks like in our new house...

I won't even show you the boxes, it's bad...which is why THIS is where I currently get my creative fix in...

The status of my room and boxes is why I'm SO excited about Studio J! I have actually been scrapbooking since we moved, can you believe it?!? I am really going to have fun working on my Studio J projects while all of my scrap supplies are boxed up and my room is under construction. I can't wait to get my room set up and get my fingers inky again, as I will never give up traditional scrapbooking or papercrafting, but in the meantime it feels good to get some projects done! Here is a quick peek at a few of the projects I have worked on since moving. I have already met some new scrappy friends here in our new town as well, and they invited me to a crop play day a couple of weeks ago - this is what I was able to work on while the kids played - and all I had to take was my laptop - now that's the way to pack for a crop!

The Studio J Memberships started on Wednesday, which has me even more excited and I worked on a few more projects - I love the Member Only papers and patterns, like these:

Class Act papers - Glimpses

Class Act papers - Backstage

And this one uses the new Hooligans paper from the New Autumn/Winter Idea Book, along with a new Members Only pattern called Zoom In

And the pricing with the membership is amazing! So far I have ALL of these layouts added to my cart, and not only will I get FREE shipping and FREE page protectors and FREE JPGs, but I am saving $52 just by being a member! You can't beat that! If you would like more info on the Studio J Memberships, just Contact Me!

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Thanks for visiting!

Continued from yesterday...

I just had to post more pics from yesterday's events - too much fun, I couldn't resist!

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Trysten wanted to get in on the first day of school pics - here he is saying "Chee!" which means "Cheese!"

And here we are making our yummy banana bread. Just a quick note about the banana bread - this morning Brailee said, "What if we try it with peanut butter!" I was a little skeptical but if she was willing to try it, so was I. I must say, I now know why people like peanut butter and banana sandwiches - it was surprisingly good!

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Brailee was really good at mashing the bananas...

...watching it mix...

...and making a mess!

She played with this for almost an hour after we were done making our bread - she had fun but made a huge mess - at least she was good about cleaning it up, and still adorable in the process!

I wouldn't let Trysten attempt the same mess, but he had fun playing with his trucks instead - I love how he rides his Tonka - he figured this fun trick out on his own.

And he currently LOVES trailers, especially this horse trailer - he loves to hook it up to the truck and pull it everywhere.

He did climb up to help every once in a while - but he made sure his truck came along ;-)

...and he was sure to flash more cheesy smiles...

After we made our banana bread and got cleaned up, Brailee wanted to play dress-up. When does she NOT want to dress-up, she loves it. She must have had a long exciting day because she crashed! It was a late nap but she still went to bed at 8 o'clock, thankfully!

After we dropped her sisters off at the bus stop this morning, Brailee wanted to work on her 'homework' - here she is practicing writing her name. Oh, and notice she already had her dress-up clothes on first thing this morning - I'm telling you, she would wear them all the time if I'd let her ;-) BTW - I do have a couple pictures that prove I have let her wear them regardless of where we are going a few times - it was funny to see the looks we got those days!

After I took that picture, Brailee took the camera and captured this one - I love it! You can see she was practicing her A's on her notebook on the left. I just love the set-up and angle of this photo - all through the innocence and eye of an almost 4 year old!

Trysten wanted to get into the homework action, too - he would scribble and then say "G! G!" He was pretty proud of himself! Oh, and notice his jammies - as much as Spongebob drives me nuts sometimes, I just couldn't resist these.

Thanks for visiting - have a great day!

First Day of Preschool!

Brailee started "Mommy" Preschool today - 3 other moms and myself are going to take turns each week doing Preschool with the kids and today was their first day. Brailee was so excited, she could hardly wait! Today was the letter A and the color Red, and she put her outfit together the night before. She wanted to be COMPLETELY red to go along with the lesson, but I was able to convince her to throw in a denim skirt ;-) Isn't she a cutie - don't you just love the red cowgirl boots? She's growing up too fast!

She was a little disappointed afterwards that she didn't get to go to a 'real' school like her sisters, but she still had a blast - she loved putting her 'homework' in her backpack (that is nearly as big as she is) and playing with her new friends. It's going to be a fun year!

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Now we're going to make banana bread - she's been begging me all week - it's a good thing we have lots of old bananas!

New Adventures!

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I've posted - life has been crazy - good crazy, that is! We have started a new adventure in a new town, new house, new school, and we are loving it! Here is a quick update with highlights of our last month...

...here we are saying good-bye to our old house...

...and hello to our new house with lots of painting and a few upgrades (maybe I will post before and after pics sometime)...

...flying kites...

...starting school...

...enjoying the beautiful view from our house...

...just being silly...

...making birthday cake...

It's been a busy time but we are really enjoying ourselves. I do need to get back into blogging, not for anyone else, but for me - just to keep track of everything! I'll be back again this week to post something new - thanks for visiting!

Convention, here I come!

No, I wasn't able to attend Close To My Heart's Convention this year in D.C. (which starts today) but I'd like to say a little piece of me is there this year! I was so honored earlier this year when I received a very special invitation from Close To My Heart. I was asked to participate in this year's Silent Auction to benefit Operation Smile. What an honor to be asked, but what pressure! I remembered a couple of last year's participants, Lisa and Tresa, and wondered how I could ever compare to the talented Consultants that would also be creating artwork for the auction. I finally accepted the fact that I could never compare but just to create something from my heart! I had plenty of time to work on it, luckily (though most of that time was spent just pondering my project) and finally the week that it was due to be postmarked, I started...and pulled it off!

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I am really pleased with how it turned out, and I look forward to seeing the other auction items. I hope it helps raise a lot of money for a good cause! I have shared a sneak peek here, but now here is the entire calendar project, as many of you correctly guessed. I used the Splendor paper pack on the entire calendar, just added a color here and there to fit with the month/theme. I also used the Irresistables Lots of Dots - it was great to customize the color for each month.

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January - also used Flurry Dimensional Elements and added Moonstruck CS - sponged the snowflake with Heavenly Blue and Moonstruck ink. It's hard to see in the picture, but under the chipboard snowflake and going up over the circle at the top, I stamped one of the snowy flourishes from the Flurries stamp set in White Daisy ink and chalked it with a light blue chalk.

February - also used the frog Stickease from Splendor, and a Heart Dimensional Element (but wish I would have sponged it a different color)

March - also used Bunny Love stamp set and Heavenly Blue buttons from the Spring Craft Button collection. The bubbles have the Glitz Stardust Glitter Gel on them to make them sparkle.

April - also used the Springtime stamp set, accented with Colonial White brads.

May - also used the Childhood stamp set for the kite.

June - also used Pizzazz Irresistables colored with Moonstruck and Topiary ink, and Splendor Designer Brads - dry embossed and sanded the border.

July - also used my new favorite stamp set Over the Rainbow - this month's page is one of my favorites - check out what I did with the window from the new A-Door-Ables. Here it is closed...can you see it?

and open...the balloon has the Glitz Stardust Glitter Gel on it.

August - also used the Summer Sweetness stamp set, Liquid Glass on the seeds, Tulip ribbon, and Topiary brads, and Tulip ink.

September - also used the Good Work stamp set and a bracket from the Pizzazz Irresistables inked with Heavenly Blue ink.

October - also used the Creepy Cobwebs stamp set and added black ink and black brads for the spiders.

November - this is another one of my favorites - I made the pumpkins using my oval Coluzzle cut from different Goldrush patterns from the Splendor pack and sponged the edges - I also added Splendor Designer Brads and Autumn Terracotta and Topiary Brads. This page got a little too thick with all of the brads but I still like it. I will be doing a lot more pumpkins like this - so cute and so easy - and you can do them any size you want!

December - I also used the Holiday Trinkets stamp set, some ricrac Stickease from the Splendor set, and added Tulip ink and CS. To create the scallop corner I took my Irresistables Lots of Dots 'leftovers' (the circles from the insides of the letters o, d, b, etc), colored them, and just added them under the corner.

Well, that's it - thanks for looking! I'd love to hear what you think - which month is your favorite?