And Cue Holiday Music

When I was a child, November was for Thanksgiving. We used to decorate for it - Mom had beautiful ceramic decorations of pilgrims and cornocopias that she set about the house. Food preparation began well in advance (Mom would pre-roll the dough for her famous croissants and store them in the freezer). At school we cut out the shape of our hands to make paper turkeys and studied the contents of the first meal the Pilgrims shared with the American Indians (we didn't say Native Americans back then, although I say it now). Christmas was only a distant idea.

Now mainstream retail and media treats November as the pre-cursor to Christmas, preparing everyone for Christmas shopping, baking and decorating just as soon as the lights go off on Halloween. I'm as guilty as anyone, I guess, as I buy into the Black Friday hype, but I do still enjoy the idea and celebration of Thanksgiving.

This year I'm participating in the unofficial 30 Days of Thanks challenge that is circulating around Facebook. Everyday I post something I'm thankful for - some days it's super serious and other days it's lighter fare, but I think it's important to remember to be grateful for everything we have when there are so many that have so little. Today when I walked out the door to what we consider arctic air (it was supposedly 51, but I'm not buying it), I'm thankful that Florida is not as chilly as Canada.

I'm thankful for so many things.

I'm thankful for my faith (my niece Tabatha, kit used is Elfin Magic by Katie Pertiet)

I'm thankful for my husband (John and our cruise waiter a few years ago, kit used is Grapevine by DigiZines by Teri)

I'm thankful for family (Mom and Connor, kit used is Give Thanks by DigiZines by Teri)

I'm thankful for Disney (me with Bianca and Libby, kit used is Best Day EVER plus coordinating alpha by Sweet Spot Designs)

And I'm thankful for my country, the good old USA (me as a child, kit used is All American by GreenEyedLady Designs)

Why are you thankful?

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.

Tis The Seas-on

In a break from the traditional holiday subjects that usually consume December, our team at ESS did a nautical reveal this past week.  We used Jen Reed's new Nautical Nights Collection (Papers and Elements).  There are a number of cute layouts up on the blog.  Here's the one I created:

Shuttle Boat Ride

When Michelle and Bob were down to visit with the girls in October, John and I met up with them and brought Bianca and Libby along.  Ages ranging 4 - 7, it was a great match-up and all the girls got along really well.  They had fun together, beginning with the shuttle boat ride we took from Port Orleans Resort - French Quarter to Downtown Disney's Marketplace.

A Shout Out for Dad's Day

We saw Dad this past weekend so he got to celebrate both Mother's and Father's Day this year.  He let us crash and fed us breakfast as we made our way down to Miami for the weekend, my dad rocks!

Here are some recent layouts I've created of him from our Disney Cruise last month.  Kay Eflin's new kit Dad Knows Best was perfect for them.  Good times!

Dad
I took these pictures of my Dad on a recent vacation; we were at the Atlantis Hotel on a tour of their replica of the Lost City of Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas.

Dad and Me 2010
Here we are on the guided tour of the aquarium at the Atlantis Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas.

Dad and I always have a lot of fun together.  Our next planned outing is for the American Idols concert in August, our yearly tradition.  Can't wait!

A Jungle Out There, A Zoo In Here

This week I had the privilege of playing with Ingeborg's new Sketch A Zoo Papers and Elements. It's filled with so many fun zoo animal images and a great selection of papers. My favorite place to observe wild animals such as lions and tigers (but not bears! oh my!) is Disney's Animal Kingdom so I used some of those pictures to work with this kit.

Jungle Explorers
Here we have my sister and her darling son hanging out with Safari Goofy and Safari Pluto.


Welcome to Animal Kingdom
Next up - it's me! This is the entrance to the park.


The Giraffe
The giraffe is my second-favorite zoo animal. This creature possesses a silent beauty and moves with surprising grace. Their long neck twists and turns in their quest to find food. The giraffe spots danger as it approaches and escapes with a burst of speed. (journaling from the layout)

Our First Disney Cruise

Warning: It's a Rave. ;-) It would be much quicker to tell you what I didn't love about our first Disney Cruise - that would be nothing, lol. We sailed The Disney Wonder from Port Canaveral to Nassau, Bahamas, to Disney's Castaway Cay, Bahamas, then spent a day at sea before coming home (4 nights on board). It was awesome. I can't say enough about the excellent service, the delicious food, the fantastic shows (live shows and movie showings), the long list of activities on board and off, the beauty (and cleanliness) of the ship, and the wonderful crew and characters that surrounded us and made the trip extra-special. I recommend it to everyone. And if that's not enough, both my husband and my Dad recommend it too - they walked off the ship ready to reboard.

Mere words can not express the amazing adventure that was our trip, but perhaps scrapbook pages can. Here is the first page in our Disney Cruise album.

Our First Disney Cruise


The model ship in the picture sits in the boarding area of the port.

More to come! My goal is to finish this album by mid-July.

Time for a Reveal

The hardest part about a reveal is keeping layouts under wraps! E-scape and Scrap released two new collaboration kits this week - Doodlicious by Julie Mead and Ruth Davis and Summer So Fine from the Nifty Designer Series. They are both jam-packed with papers and elements, with enough variety that you create layouts without searching other kits for missing elements. I had a lot of fun working with both kits, here are the results:

Doodlicious - a fun kit filled with doodle-inspired elements, offered both in color and in black and white. To sweeten the deal there are quite a few matching papers included in the kit.

Layout 1 - Blessings Caught on Camera
Logan's first tooth picture shoot yielded just as many non-tooth related pictures as it did first tooth pictures, lol.


Layout 2 - It's Her First Car
Tabatha picking up her Honda Civic. I think this kit equally screams kids and teens, the doodles are so whimsical and really fit a variety of themes.



Summer So Fine - a collaboration kit created by all the designers at E-scape and Scrap themed around summer and the great outdoors, filled with papers, elements and even word art. There are a number of floral elements included in the kit and I focused my layouts on these.

Layout 1 - Bloomin'
This picture of John and his parents at Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival was one I have been planning to scrap since the moment I took it, and the elements in this kit fit so well with the floral arrangements in the picture.


Layout 2 - Topiaries
I had to do a second Flower and Garden layout, there were so many elements in the kit I wanted to use.