Going Back to School

The kids will be going back to school next week (or the week after, probably, for some kids).  I thought we'd take a look back at Sandy's children on the first day of school 2009, it will be fun to compare this picture to the one Sandy sends me from 2010 (maybe I should remind her I'm expecting a first day of school picture, lol).

This layout was created using Coppercurl Designs new kit "School, Etc.".

First Day of School 2009

Don't forget all that school shopping!  Although if you're starting now the stores are probably already out of the really good stuff, it's been on sale here for a month.

Looking Back on Our First Disney Cruise

Obviously I didn't meet my self-imposed July deadline to scrap our entire first Disney Cruise, so now I have two of them to work on.  I'm doing them separately so I got back to business and finished several more layouts from the first cruise, finally finishing the first day, lol.  Take a look (although if you are going on one and want some surprises, you might want to skip over the journaling, because my goal is to describe the entire experience).  Click on the linked title to go to a gallery posting where all the journaling is typed out and close-ups of the page are included.

Check-in and Boarding
Arriving at Port Canaveral and pulling into the Disney terminal ends the stressful portion of this journey.  Once you are in Disney hands, you are in good hands.  Hi, Mickey!

Our Stateroom
Our checked luggage and our room were ready at the same time, and we were settled in and ready to explore by 3.

Up On Deck 9
Deck 9 - where the party is at.  It's also where the pools and snack bars can be found.  Deck 9 is a great place to be.

Adventures Away
The Sail Away party - say goodbye to the daily grind and hello to vacation!

We Are On Our Way
As the party winds down the shore melts into the background; time to enjoy life at sea.

Animator's Palate
The first night of dining unveils a whole new facet of this experience - fine dining with the Mouse's touch.

First Things First

Logan is growing by leaps and bounds!  As he approaches his first birthday, he's getting quite a few other firsts under his belt.  Take a look!

Logan's First Solid Food
(Rice ceral, of course!)

Logan's First Teeth
(two of them on the bottom)

Both of these layouts were made using Rose Thorn's new kit "Baby's Firsts."

A Hot Mess

"Hot Mess" is the new collection of mini kits that the E-Scape and Scrap Designers are putting together after dealing with several months of downtime due to internet fraud the site fell victim to.  It's has a gorgeous color scheme, perfect for layouts of strong, independent girls/women.  There have been 4 mini kits released in this collection, created by Sus Designs, Cheryl McCain, The Busy Elf Designs and Gouzinette Designs.  I've already finished a layout from each of the mini-kits, take a look:

Take a Picture of My Glasses
The pictures in this layout are of our niece on a recent trip to Disney where she insisted I take a picture of her sunglasses which she had hooked onto her shirt.

Mini-kit by Sus Designs
Fonts used – LD Skinni Minni, LD Steep, LD Normal

Don't Stop the Ride
These are pictures of our nieces on a recent trip to Disney.

Mini-kit by Cheryl McCain
Fonts used – PC Bang, PC Brita

Make That Change
These are pictures of my sister working on one of her school projects; after years raising children she returned to college last year to become a Medical Assistant (which she now is) and to earn her 2 year degree (which she should finish by the end of the year).

Mini-kit by The Busy Elf Designs

One of a Kind
This is a picture of our niece during spring break.

Mini-kit by Gouzinette Designs
Font used – PC Lewis
 

Don't forget to stop by the ESS blog to pick up the free mini kits!

Back and Better Than Ever

Not me, silly.  I'm talking about E-Scape and Scrap, Julie Mead's Digital Scrapbook Boutique.  (I'm on the Creative Team at E-Scape and Scrap.)  At the end of June the store was forced offline due to fraud at their server host.  All changes made to the site and the gallery since April were suddenly gone, with no way to recover them.  That included the custom design of Julie site.  It was obviously devestating but Julie preservered.  Throughout July she worked tirelessly to restore the site, and when that was not possible she worked to rebuild.  The site is now back online, with the added bonus of being available both at .com and .net addresses.  Designers are reloading their products and there might be a surprise or two on the way (don't tell her I told you ;-)).  Also, the designers have created a collaboration kit called "Hot Mess," available free on the blog, as a call-out against the crimes committed here.  Check it out!

In the meantime, the Creative Team is back to work.  Here are the first couple of layouts I completed since the site was up, these are using Cheryl McCain's new Mosaic kit, which she designed in celebration of the reopening of the store.

She Waits
We recently had the opportunity (Lisa, Tabatha and I) to attend a book signing at the Romance Writer's of America Annual Conference at Disney's Dolphin Resort.  Approximately 500 authors were available to sign books, and books were available to purchase.  We found out about it because two authors that we love were a part of the book signing - Maria V Snyder (Poison Study) and Melissa de la Cruz (Blue Boods).  One of them sent it to Lisa in their monthly newsletter.  It's a good thing one of us is reading newsletters.  Here is Tabatha as we waited in line for the conference arena to open - she missed the parade of authors (and Melissa de la Cruz) but she did get to meet and talk with her after we were inside.

Maria V Snyder
Once inside we made a beeline for the authors we knew before wandering around to see who else was there.  Maria V Snyder had one of her new books for sale, Inside Out (which is amazing).  She also had news on her newest of the Glass series books, Spy Glass.  She assured me we'd see plenty of Valek in that book.  Yay!  She was super-nice and talked to us for a while.

I'll see you again soon!  In the meantime, check out the restored E-Scape and Scrap Boutique as well as a couple of my favorite authors.

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.

Happy 4th of July

Independence Day - it is the day our forefathers fought for and bled for and dreamed of for us.  It is the day that made all of our freedoms possible.  It is a beautiful day.

I love the 4th of July but I do not love the traffic that comes with it, or the ever predictable rain, so I watched my fireworks a day early at Disney.  The view from the beach of the Polynesian was perfect, and we had only a slight drizzle of rain, unlike the all-day downpour we experienced on the 4th.

Here it is - because of the drizzle I didn't take my camera but I took these pictures on my cell phone.
A Tribute to the Good Ole USA, using ACOT's digi doable challenge template and the Solids paper pack from Little Mrs. Liz.