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Here's your number for the KI giveaway:
and commenter number 53 is Michele! (Email me your addy, Michele, so I can send out your goodies!)
I'll leave you all with one of my JBS layouts for the month. The full gallery reveal of the design team's pages will be tonight at midnight, so check it out!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Another new CHA release that is near & dear to my heart is KI Memories. It couldn't be more different than Jenni Bowlin, but I love the happy colors and huge variety of embellishments! I'm still scouting around for photos of the full lines, but here's the peak of what I'm pretty sure will be my favorite line from this release:
I spy a candy stripe pattern in there that I predict will be appearing in many of my pages. And don't you just love the little comma leaves on those flowers?!?
So let's get down to the giveaway! Hop on over to the KI Memories blog and take a peek at the new lines. Then leave me a comment as to which is YOUR favorite. On Friday, I will pick one winner to get a box of KI goodies. Deal?
I'll leave you with a few projects I've done recently with some of the current KI product. Enjoy!
The number selected by Random.org was 25:
And commenter #25 was Misty:
found you via JB - love it and cannot get enough!!!
So Misty, email me your address and I will get your JBS goodies box out to you! Woo hoo!
The CHA Summer Convention kicks off today, and while I'm not attending, I thought I'd do a few posts over the next few days in honor of some of the new lines that will be debuting in Orlando! Of course, I'm partial to the new Jenni Bowlin paper line, Town Square:
The rich browns and reds are gorgeous and versatile. And did you know the August kit from JBS Mercantile contains the full line of these papers and journal cards?! I'm working with kit this week and loving it! Here's a few sneaks:
Yummy, right? Well, of course, it's Jenni, after all! And in celebration of that, leave me a comment here and on Wednesday I'll pick a winner to receive a little package of JBS goodies.
And stay tuned later this week for another fun giveaway involving, oh, I dunno...KI Memories, maybe??
Happy Tuesday people!
On Sunday, this little girl turned four years old:
And we celebrated with a backyard bash that included a bouncy castle:
A beautiful Barbie birthday cake:
An impossibly cute baby boy:
Some very blue raspberry snow cones:
Lots of good conversation:
And of course, no gathering would be complete without an impromptu family sing-a-long to David Allen Coe (courtesy of me and my parents):
Thanks to my sister in law, Ali for being the official event photographer. And now that it's over, the clean up process begins...can you guess what my to-do list looks like today??
Have a good one!
We woke to a gloomy forecast yesterday and staying cooped up in the house with two restless siblings hell bent on annoying each other was not my idea of fun. So we loaded up and headed to Splitz for a little afternoon bowling, naturally! Because if there's two things that will distract your kids for a few hours, it's ugly shoes and shiny balls!
Hayden had no trouble figuring the game out (see, all those hours of Wii Bowling were time well spent!) He definitely wins as the Most Enthusiastic Bowler Award, doing a crazy little hopping dance after every ball.
And then there was Riely, with the ever-popular between-the-legs-roll technique (the butt crack reveal is optional on this one!)
Since the ball took about 3 minutes to reach the end of the alley, she had plenty of time to carefully guide it with wild hand gestures and yelling. It was a technique that proved effective, considering she ended up beating both Hayden & me.
Then we discovered the "ramp," from which Riely could launch her balls, giving them a bit more speed down the alley. Hayden offered up plenty of strategic tips (and was a darn good ball carrier for his little sis.)
This was the first time either kiddo had hit the lanes and I must say they are both naturals. Which is surprising, considering this is the spastic, flailing form they had to emulate:
At least the hair has plenty of volume, right? Which only proves to reiterate my general philosophy on sports: It's not how you play the game, it's how good your hair looks while doing it.
Happy Wednesday, my friends!
Can you see I'm developing a standard blogging M.O. after the weekends? Monday rolls around and I'm suddenly running around like mad, trying to catch up on all the stuff that got neglected over the weekend (thus the lack of Monday blog posts.) But the relaxing summer weekends are totally worth it.
Last weekend was exceptionally special, as Mike and I were celebrating anniversary #11 on Saturday. Since we were married up in the mountains (near Devil's Thumb Ranch) we decided a weekend getaway in the high country was in order. So on Friday and we headed up to to Vail for an adults-only weekend. We had booked the mini-trip online, and weren't sure what to expect since neither of us had been up there in the summer before. But when we pulled into Bachelor Gulch where the hotel was located, we were blown away by how beautiful it was. Seriously. And we both grew up in the mountains, so we're not easily impressed. But it was breathtakingly gorgeous:
The log-cabin inspired architecture with the huge wood beams and stonework blended seamlessly into the mountains surrounding the property. And the flowers beds on the property were A-MA-ZING. They were overflowing with colorful natives (I so want my yard to look like this!) and seeing them totally reminded me of the Tom Petty song Wildflowers, which was played at our wedding (awwww...) Yes, I'm being a cheesy, sentimental romantic. :)
The weekend package included breakfast in the room each morning (a delicious spread that was ALMOST to pretty to eat - almost - there was bacon that HAD to be consumed, people!) and a daily afternoon couples' massage, which left us too relaxed to do much of anything but lounge by the gorgeous pool (and keep the poolside waiters busy by ordering lots of adult beverages!)
Local micro-brews, anyone??
Every evening at dusk, the hotel starts a bonfire on the patio, and supplies huge baskets of marshmallows and roasting sticks. We grabbed our seats early and enjoyed the scene:
So here's to eleven wonderful years...and many, many years to come. So happy (and blessed!) to be on this journey with my best friend.
Wishing you all a fabulous week!
So one of my tasks this week was to create invitations for our much-overdue summer barbeque to celebrate the completion of our outdoor bar & patio area. Yes, this project was actually finished early last fall, when it was still warm enough to invite friends over...but we didn't. Because what no one tells you about home construction projects is that when they are finally complete, and you've spent four months (even though it was only supposed to take three weeks!) with various contractors traipsing through your house and yard (when they bother to show up at all), dragging in dirt and mud, and leaving behind trash and half-eaten food, and constantly telling you something else just went wrong and it's gonna cost you another $500! (and we can't fix it for at least another week!) you will start to harbor malevolent feelings for all people in the construction industry because they are making your life a living hell and then you become paranoid that they secretly think you are a stupid, stupid person who they can just take advantage of and what did you do to deserve this anyway??? You are a nice person who never hurt anyone! And why can't these mean, mean people just leave you alone?!? In short, you will not want to invite anyone into your home for a long, long time.
Sigh.
But the therapy and medication is working I have managed to get past all that now and we are ready to PAR-TAY! So of course, I had to send out invitations. Because, um, I send out invites to ALL events at my house. Even Thanksgiving dinner. And not those e-vite thingys, no siree. Real paper invites that have to be mailed. It's not that I'm trying to be Martha Stewart here (though who are we kidding - I LOVE Martha in an unhealthy, obsessive, stalkerish sort of way). No, it's just that I enjoy having myself as a graphic design client. You see, I'm quite considerate of production schedules, allowing plenty of time for the creative process to occur. I don't bully the artist into creating something that goes against all basic design principles, and I never, NEVER insist on using hideous, inappropriate fonts. I always approve the first concept presented to me, throwing in lots of compliments like You are SO creative! and You have such an amazing eye for color! and I never forget to add, This is such exceptional use of white space! (Of course, if you read regularly, you already know how much I talk to myself.) Basically, I'm the most PERFECT client. Ever.
So, yes - THE INVITE! Since the party is less than two weeks away, I went with a simple concept that could easily be hand-assembled. Using a typewriter font, a stock photo, and some cardstock with a circle cutter, here's the final design:
And my client is thrilled with the results. Let's hope the guests are, as well. And just for the record, that's NOT my real address or phone number. Not that I wouldn't love to have you readers show up at our party. It's just come to my attention that there are CERTAIN people out there who don't appreciate my critical comments about Comic Sans. And they just might be out to get me. Hmmm....maybe my paranoia isn't completely cured, after all. :)
When you spend a weekend doing the typical lazy summer things, it sure makes it hard to face Monday. We packed our weekend with plenty of fun things, like making a stop for our favorite milkshakes (Chick-Fil-A Handspun Vanilla):
Of course, we also made a trip to the community pool to beat the heat, and later I got a date with this hot boy (the second in as many weeks - I'm getting spoiled!)
Sunday was another laid-back day, hanging in the backyard and staying cool in the sprinkler:
(Yes, it looks like it's going to rain, but the boys still couldn't resist a running sprinkler.)
Riely opted to avoid the water and draw ponies instead:
And we wrapped up the day with a dinner off the grill (brats, potato salad and veggies!)
And since the weekend was pretty much all-play-and-no-work, Monday meant facing all the things that were avoided in the weekend revelry. Don't you hate days that force you to be a grown-up? Hayden summed it up pretty well last night when he announced, "I want to be a kid forever! Grown ups don't ever get to play with toys or video games and all they do is work!" And I kind of have to agree. So here's hoping this grown-up can fit in some playtime today...and you should do the same, my friends. Happy Tuesday!
P.S. Forgot to mention that I am the guest designer this week over at Create Well...Create Often. Go check out this inspirational spot, and thanks, Jen, for the opportunity to be featured!
So yesterday I tackled the chore of vacuuming under our sofa cushions. The fact that I just typed that sentence is probably a glaring clue that I'm running low on blogging topics. And if you're still reading, you must be having a really, really dull day. But you probably will be interested in this list of what I found under there:
And just so your visit today isn't totally without purpose, I'll leave you with a recent page. Have a great Friday, people!
