Back to School Challenge

I again did a general search over on Pinterest and found this one.  The link lead me to Picasa and PHutchSketches.  I love it.  Great as a one-pager.  Easy to double, leave one side as the sketch and rotate 90 degrees for the other side.  Even doable as a card.

Create a one or two-page layout.  Create a card.  Create both.  Just create.  Then share your work in the comments to become eligible for the September goodie pack awarded at the end of the month.  If it's your first time sharing here, you'll get an extra entry.

Go Create!

Week In the Life - Friday and a Birthday

September marks the beginning of birthdays in my little family.  We have a six month break, and then from September to February we celebrate.  Three of those six birthdays are in September alone, so we party pretty good in September.  The downside to the partying is that right now I have a Black Forest cake (for me) from the local Rhinelander Bakery and a half dozen cupcakes left from this guys birthday on Monday.  Come Sunday we'll have even more cake/sweets in the house.  Thanks to my daughter who worked up the photo.

We'll do the Big Family To-do on Sunday celebrating the (now) 5 y.o. and the (soon-to-be) 13 y.o.'s birthdays.  The (for a couple more days) 12 y.o. will officially enter teen-ville on Sunday.  And on Sunday I will have three teens living in the house.  Which means we parents are officially outnumbered.  Pray for us.

Below are my Week In the Life photos from last Friday.  I haven't yet decided whether to include them in my Project Life or to do a mini album of them all.

I have to say I was excited to have reached Friday and was still going strong on the photos.  The run down from Friday:

• That same collection pond from Thursday, now empty again.  But wait. . .the rain is still falling.
• My High Schoolers who are off because the school is closed.  The school is difficult to get to when the roads are open, close one of the major routes (of three) to the school and it's not gonna be pretty.
• Cool morning and a box of peaches means it's Peach Cobbler Baked Oatmeal
• My fave magazine (Midwest Living) and a cup of coffee start my morning off dreaming of autumn colors
• Cattails?  Nope, my poor green onions.
• I was a domestic baking/cooking fool.  Pasta Sauce, Pepperoni Pizza Chili, Banana Bread, Perfect Peach Cake (which is still here to go with the Birthday cake and Cupcakes) and Homemade Dinner Rolls
• First patch of blue sky seen since last Sunday
• Mom's Night Out (layouts created to be shown soon. ;D)

Happy Wednesday,

Back to School Challenge

I got the cold running around my family on Sunday and the stupid thing is still hanging around making life interesting.

Today's sketch started with a general search on Pinterest, which lead me to this one.  The link led to general Bing images, but luckily you can see it's a Scrapbook Generation's sketch, though I don't know where it was originally posted from.  I love that's it's a no-crop-photo layout, well, one gets cropped.  However, you could increase the number of photos by replacing any of the 4x6 photos with 2x3 photos or decrease by making one or more larger.

Create a one or two-page layout.  Create a card.  Create both.  Just create.  Then share your work in the comments to become eligible for the September goodie pack awarded at the end of the month.  If it's your first time sharing here, you'll get an extra entry.

Go Create!

Week in the Life - Thursday

Gonna do a little catch-up for a couple days since I kinda feel down Friday and Monday.

Yes, the news reports of Colorado being underwater are correct.  The stats coming out of here are insane.  Luckily, our neighborhood has not experienced the flooding so many of our neighbors are dealing with.  Flooded streets, road closures, the High School was closed Friday and Monday and very soggy yards in our immediate area, but we are lucky to not be bailing water.  

We, personally, are impacted by one major road closed near us - the one we use to get the High Schoolers to school.  Though the school district sent out a notice that kids up the canyon may have upwards of an hour delay in arriving to school (which means they will miss their first classes) and returning home for the next two or three months while road repairs/replacements are dealt with.  My daughter texted me that a friend of hers from the canyon had to leave at 4:15 this morning to make it to school at 6:30; school starts at 7:25.  That's crazy to do for the next few months.  And that's if the road repair schedule is not just an estimate or further delayed by weather; snow for us is just a few weeks away.

I'll recap the weekend tomorrow.  Here are my Week in the Life photos from Thursday:

I realize, now. . .what four days into it. . .I should have done a "what's with the photo" run-down.  I did on Instagram, but for whatever reason, not so much here.  In order:  

• Another rainy drop-off.  My 12 y.o. is in the yellow, holding his brother's hand, aka the walking backpack.
• Running late means a Starbucks start to my day
• Editing.  Lots of editing.
• One of the 100-year flood collection ponds in our neighborhood.  This one was empty when we left for school this morning, just 7 hours ago.
• Pick-up after school
• Bathing with friends
• The "don't-wake-the-sleeping-dog-on-my-bed" fake out.
• Story time.

Note the photos taken after dark.  Woohoo for me! :)

Happy Tuesday,

Back to School Challenge

Today's sketch comes initially from a Pinterest search.  Lisa Dickinson used the left side to create an adorable 3-photo layout.  You can find the sketch and her work on the Basic Grey blog.  I love the banners under the photo.  That element moves cleanly between a layout or a card.

Create a one or two-page layout.  Create a card.  Create both.  Just create.  Then share your work in the comments to become eligible for the September goodie pack awarded at the end of the month.  If it's your first time sharing here, you'll get an extra entry.

Go Create!

Week in the Life - Wednesday

Hello from the deck of my ark. . .well, not really, but I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea.  It seems we've gotten an insane amount of water in the last three days.  Somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-24 inches (10 of that last night alone) of rain has fallen, depending on where you are in Colorado.  Streets are flooding, rivers are out of banks, "ponds" are becoming in-land Great Lakes, mountain sides are washing away, a few damns are in danger of just giving way.  And it continues to fall.  They're telling people to stay inside, much like during the blizzards, as roads are unsafe - had a road just a few miles from us totally wash out and take three cars with it.  It's crazy.

I'm still loving the rain, but Mother Nature can back off a bit.  I've tried to capture the amount of rain, because really I can't recall it being this bad, for Week in the Life.  But turns out, it's hard to photograph rain.  I'm driving when I see the overflowing banks, or the 100 year flood ponds that are to the brim.  When I think about the gutters it's after a particularly drenching band has moved on.  I'll get one yet though.  Here are yesterday's shots of life:

This is the type of weather I thrive in and wait for to get lots of cleaning or organizing done.  Or just cozy up and craft. . .you'd think I'd be getting more done.  Huh...

If you're interested in following my Week in the Life on Instagram you can find me HERE.

Happy Thursday,

Back to School Sketch Challenge

Today's sketch comes from Scrapbook Etc.'s website.  I miss that magazine, was one of my favorites.  Anyway, I like the white space on this one - lots of room to add your own thing.  Works well for pocket-pages and can be halved if you only need one page.  Making a card out of this one is a little trickier, but could be done.

Complete your card or layout, share it and you're entered into this month's drawing at the end of the month. 

Go create!