Quiet time

With the exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, my house was pretty quiet for most of the holidays. My mother graciously offered to take the girls to visit my aunt's house for a few days before Christmas and for a week of camping in South Texas after Christmas.

I have a love/hate relationship with the girls being away. Of course, I love how quiet the house is and how clean it looks without toys strewn every which way. But I also hate how quiet it is. It's too quiet. And it's kind of sad walking by the toy bin, seeing all the things so neatly put away and not being played with.

So what do I do with all my free, quiet time? I scrapbook. Photos of the girls. Naturally.

I wanted to do something fun with these photos from 4th of July, and when I saw the "it's a banner day" sticker in this collection from Lily Bee, I knew immediately what I wanted to make.

And of course it has a banner -- I'm so predictable.


More fun summer photos that I hadn't put to good use...this layout was up on the Pretty Little Studio blog earlier in the week. I used paper and vintage tags from the Antique Store collection. The patchwork pattern reminds me of one of my Granny's handmade quilts.

I hid the journaling inside this Maya Road envelope on one of the Restaurant Receipts from Pretty Little Studio. I think it's cool that these receipts were modeled after original antique receipts from the 1930's and 1960's.

Have a great weekend, and be sure to stop by on Monday, when I'll be sharing a fun announcement!

Fresh starts

There's something wonderful about waking up on January 1 -- especially when I didn't stay out too late or drink too much wine on New Year's Eve. Yes, I went to bed early this year, satisfied that I'd accomplished everything I needed to do in 2011. And when I woke up the next day, I felt happy and satisfied and very, very blessed.

Maybe it was my One Little Word taking effect. Or maybe it was just a quiet morning that I didn't wake up with a child or dog laying on me. Either way, it felt like a fresh start.

So far, 2012 is looking really good. There are many things I'm looking forward to like watching Cecily graduate from Kindergarten and celebrating my 10th wedding anniversary (in Hawaii!). And this year, I will turn 40 -- not exactly something I'm looking forward to, but the fact that I'm healthy and alive is cause for celebration, right?

One quick glimpse back at the holidays before I move full-speed ahead into 2012...

I usually run several months (sometimes a year) from taking the photos to scrapping the photos. But I liked these so much I couldn't wait.

I made the die-cuts with some Quickutz dies I've had (and used) for a long time. The bracket shape is one of my favorite dies because it actually cuts that skinny little frame, which you can use in a ton of ways. I used both the positive and negative cuts to create the background for the top. The paper and letter stickers are from the Christmas Town collection by Lily Bee Design.

Hope your new year is off to a fabulous fresh start!