From One Child to Another

I have a fun mix of the old (hey, not that old!) and the new to share this week - a couple of layouts from my childhood, and some of the pages I created for my nephew Logan's 3 year old scrapbook.

DigiZines by Teri recently released Arabella, a beautiful new scrapkit that was a joy to work with. Take a look at what I did with this kit.

Dream Big and Bold - this is me as a child, which was a little bit longer ago than I care to admit.

Little Girls Love Dresses and Dolls - another look at young Tania

Young and In Love - reflecting on my parents, pre-children

And now to switch tracks, this year Nicole and I decided that Logan's 3 Year Old album should be themed with Marvel Superheroes. Obviously this was very exciting for me, although scrapbook supplies for some of the heroes were harder to find than for others. For example Spider-Man is all over the place, but The Avengers are not (even with their movie just coming to DVD). As it turns out, Logan is very into superheroes this year, so it's perfect timing. Here are a couple of my favorite pages from the album (Nicole will be putting pictures in it throughout the year, as he just turned 3).

Avengers Assemble! Did I mention I love superheroes? Or that this year was awesome with the release of The Avengers, Dark Knight Rises, and The Amazing Spider-Man? Well, I do and it was. That's it for now. Happy Scrapping!

Saying Goodbye to My Birthday Month

I try to make most of the year about everyone else. I really do. I'm more than happy to celebrate people's birthdays and accomplishments, to attend their events, to show my support. But I claim August for myself. I occasionally share, and I only make people celebrate for a week, even if I celebrate all month long, so I really think I am being more than reasonable. Just a little Tania-time can go a long way. You know what? Everyone cooperates. That is how awesome my family and friends are - they don't question my over-inflated birthday ego, they just roll with it. As much as I already love them, for that I love them even more.

Someone commented this year that I love the attention. I do, but not in the way you might think. What I love is being surrounded by love. For every birthday greeting I receive, every cake someone bakes me, every phone call, every email, every text message, and of course every gift, what I feel is an overwhelming sense that people, the people most dear to my heart, care. It's not something you necessarily get the rest of the year - we're all busy with our own lives and it's easy to overlook the people we love most. But on my birthday, when people take time out of their day to remember me for no other reason that that I exist, I can literally feel just how blessed I am to have them all in my lives.

This year Mom surprised me with a gift at the beginning of the month. I was so shocked that I'm not sure she got the reaction she was looking for, so I want it stated here for the record - Thank you, I'm really touched by your thoughtfulness, Mom.

On my actual birthday I walked into work to find... a cake on my desk! My friend and co-worker had it baked especially for me, so we had an inpromptu party in the afternoon. We had some very happy teams, that was a delicious cake. Another co-worker took me to lunch at Pesos, which I love. And now I have a shopping trip at BassPro awaiting me!

In the evening, after work and an airport run, Mom and Lisa had a party for me at their house. And Tabatha made me a cake!! Isn't it awesome?!

Although I'm still celebrating my base age of 25, they put some other kind of configuration of candles to represent what they call my "age of truth." Whatever. Age is just an equation. 25+14, wahoo!

There were gifts, too, which were super-awesome. Mom got me a chainsaw! OK, it's a portable chainsaw, but it is so cool!

And even a game of real scrabble, after months of Words With Friends.

I have no complaints, my peeps are the most awesome peeps in the world. Thanks for the fun birthday!

She Remembers!

Don't worry, I'm prepared for the hate mail from my family and friends.  But the honest to goodness truth is that many of the people I talk to (Hi Mom) do not remember what I say.  So it was to my absolute amazement the other day when talking to Nicole about LIbby's upcoming birthday party that she asked me, "Didn't she just hav ea birthday?  What about the Rock Star party?"  That, besides being an entire year ago (how time flies, it really doesn't feel like it's been a whole year), was indeed Libby's last birthday party.  I'm suitably impressed.  Nicole rocks!

While we're on the subject of Nicole, how about a few layouts from Logan's 1st birthday party last November?  Here you go:

Best Cars Birthday:

Tio & Tia are Ready to Party:

Have a Happy Scrappy Friday!

Down to the Wire

In a wicked game of procrastination, otherwise known as "Don't tell Nicole or she'll pass out and then bop me on the head," I waited to the last minute to finish Logan's 1st birthday album.  Luckily I work well under pressure or I would have had to show up to Logan's birthday party with a paper bag on my head.

So here it is, in all its glory (well, all except the last page which I didn't have time to photograph):

You're Only One Once

1st Birthday Party - Cars

Crawl/Climb

Shuffle/Walk

Thanksgiving 2010

Christmas 2010

New Years 2011

Becoming A Big Brother/Easter 2011

Summer 2011/4th of July 2011

Fun and Candy

Travel the Road 2 - picture not available

So there you have it - a whole year of Cars.  And now, onto Lion King for new baby!  Check back soon for some Holiday Cheer.

Here's Your Sign

I spent some more time working with the new Astrological Dreams Collab Kit that was released as a part of the E-Scape and Scrap 6th Birthday Celebration.  The kit includes full sets of the astrological signs in multiple media - picture cards, sign cards, stand-alone images and even a set of papers.  Whether you are into astrology or not, there's lots of fun to be had with this mega-kit.  Here are a few of the layouts I've finished this week.

Pisces – Virgo
This picture of John and I was taken during his birthday party earlier this year. I listed the positive qualities associated with our signs and our birthdates, found on the “How Stuff Works” website, next to our picture. The sign information in the body of the journaling came from “about.com”.

Journaling Excerpt:
Pisces and Virgo are directly opposite each other on the Zodiacal wheel, but both are mutable, able to 'go with the flow. Pisces likes to wax poetic, or dreamily let their imagination take the lead. Virgo has 2 feet firmly in this world, but constantly refines their body, routine, skills, etc. Virgo likes to be precise & can be detached. Pisces self-expression is looser and filtered thru sensitive emotions. When there is understanding, they stand to benefit from the other's balancing perspective. Whether our signs are compatible or not, John and I balance each other out. And whatever doesn‘t go out with the wash is conquered by true love.

Aquarius Ladies
We are busy celebrating birthdays in February – here are Lisa, Mom and Tabatha, all with birthdays in the first half of February.

If you missed the birthday give away you can still get the kit; it's on sale now in the ESS Boutique.
 
That's it for now - hope you have a Scrappy Day!

The Party is Going Strong

And I have my party hat on!  Check out the fun new party hat templates that Scrapdragon is giving away in her shop!

I thought it would be fun to use a picture taken at my birthday party to celebrate with ESS.  Mom took a couple of good pictures of me, yay!

Don't forget to go out to the ESS blog for clues to the Treasure Hunt (which will score you their new Astrological Dreams Collab Kit - a mega kit with 24 pieces created by ESS Designers), the most recent Guess the Designer game (for cool prizes) and more!

Have a scrappin' great day!

Fun and Games at ESS

A week long birthday celebration - are you missing it?  Here is the first one - guess the designer #1, posted in the Gallery.  Click the link to go there, guess right, and you could win!  More details are listed on the blog - click the blog heading for today to go straight to the ESS blog.  Also the first pieces of teh collab kit Astrological Dreams is hidden in the shop, just waiting for you to find it.  To give you an idea of how awesome this kit is, here is my first layout:

We've Captured the Fairy Princess

My original layout was slightly different - but after finishing it I felt like showing Bianca's feet in the picture took away from the barred window idea.  ;-)  Here's the original, tell me what you think:

I'll have another one for you tomorrow.  You might even see me don a party hat for the celebration.
Until then, Scrap The Night Away!

Birthdays are in the Air!

August rocks.  Of course being my birthday month might have something to do with that.  ;-)  Today I have a new equation.  25 + 12 + Faith X Blessings = Tania.  It's a wonderful life.  Dad and I celebrated my birthday when I visited him for the American Idols concet at the beginning of August.  Nicole, Dana and Logan had a birthday celebration for me when John and I visited them last weekend, complete with double chocolate cake (yum!).  John made me breakfast this morning - pancakes, and made just the way I like them (as thin as they get without becoming crepes).  He actually made a special batter just for me (he likes his pancakes a little thicker).  And Mom invited me over for a birthday dinner this evening.

On Monday, August 30, E-Scape and Scrap will be belatedly celebrating their 6th birthday.  The original plan was to celebrate in July, but then the site had that unfortunate incident and Julie spent the entire month recovering from internet fraud and lost data.  So now that ESS is back and better than ever, it's time to have some fun.  Check out their blog for more information.

Happy Birthday to anyone else out there lucky enough to have an August birthday!

Until next time, Happy Scrapping!

And She's Back... With Birthday Wishes

Well, that was quite the hiaitus.  Sorry about that!  July was a very busy month for us - we took a second Disney cruise, among other fun activities.

Today is Ranger's birthday!  If that doesn't mean anything to you then I'd say you are missing out on one of the funnest (and funniest) series around - Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series.  Beginning with One for the Money and most recently with Sizzling Sixteen, Janet Evanovich has captivated audiences everywhere with her wit and humor, and with the girl-next-door turned bounty hunter character Stephanie Plum.  Her books are laugh out loud funny - I've successfully gotten a number of people hooked on them - will you be next?  I hope so!

Getting back to the point - Ranger is one of two love interests for Stephanie in the series; he's also her bounty hunter mentor.  He owns and runs RangeMan, a security firm.  He's the best of the best and we love him.  Personally I love him more when he's not trying to steal Stephanie away from Joe Morelli, her rightful boyfriend, but Ranger is Batman so you can't hold too much against him.  Janet Evanovich sent Lisa an email (OK, she sent an email out to her fan distribution list, but according to Lisa these are direct links between her and the author, lol) to remind her that Ranger's birthday is August 12 and that we should celebrate with cake.  We already knew Ranger's birthday was coming up because Tabatha had added it to the MyFamily site calendar. 

Lisa thought the cake was an excellent idea so she went to the Publix bakery to see what they could do for her.  She ordered a Batman chocolate birthday cake that said "Happy Birthday Ranger" and the rest is, as they say, history.  We all dressed up in black shirts (that's the official RangeMan uniform, all black) with Lisa wearing the actual RangeMan shirt that I'd given her for her birthday.  It was my opportunity to wear one of the Oakley shirts I'd gotten as an early birthday present from Dad.  Even Trinity wanted to get into the picture so Lisa put a Twilight shirt on her and turned it backwards so you couldn't see the logo, lol.  Mom helped us out by manning the photo shoot, and we taught Lisa how to smile (she hates having her picture taken, so now you know how much she loves Ranger).  Afterwards we ate cake, and it was awesome.  Take a look (yes, I did indeed throw together a scrapbook layout of the event and we sent it to Janet Evanovich via her Facebook page):

Supplies used here were Katie the Scrapbook Lady's Visual Stories - Comic Book Templates and Bella Gypsy Design's Drops of Jupiter 2.0.

I'm Blushing

Or at least my layout is. ;-) Sus Designs just put out a cute new kit and matching alpha called Blushing and it's on sale at E-Scape and Scrap right now. Here's my first layout using Blushing - the kit and alpha.

Taylor Turns 12