today was just one of those great days.

Today was just one of those epic days that come along when you're least suspecting it and it just happens. Husband had today off and we just up'd and made the short trip with the boy down to the monterrey bay aquarium to spend the afternoon. Since i'm not normally one to blog about our days, how about some photos of the fam.

Oh and after the aquarium, we hit a restaurant we hadn't tried yet. Cannery Row Brewing Company. It was literally on the way to the parking structure and perfect. Even i must say they had an impressive selection of on tap craft brews (stone, speakeasy, and dogfish head to name a few) and even more hard to finds in bottles (think Belgians) not to mention decent prices. i recommend.




sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

happy holidays to you and yours!

 

xo, holly*, husband, the boy and mister

The Sampler's December Sketch Challenge

these days just get more and more busy! BUT, i did manage to slow down a bit and participate in The Sampler's december sketch challenge!

This month's kit is full of bright and fun goodies which made it so easy to use the december sketch and a photo of a haircut i've been holding onto for a good while now!

you can check out the challenge here!

sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

on the 14th 15th day of christmas... wait a minute here...

the legos keep on coming! yesterday and the day before we got another little lady and a table and chairs set. super cute.

 

tonight we're off to check out some christmas lights and what not. with any luck i will get some good photos of the boy, BUT heavens knows when i will get to scrap them. Between general holiday stuff and a 12 tags of christmas class i'm currently kitting for, my scrappy stuff is totally neglected. once i finally get this class kitted (aiming for late tonight) i hope i can package up those crayons i shared last week and get those ready to go!

speaking of, i need to make a to do list so i can quit forgetting things like that i said i would bring lasagna to the boy's holiday party... hum... i'll remember later, no?

sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

The Sampler's 2011 Design Team!

A HUGELY GIGANTIC CONGRATS to the returning and new members of The Sampler's Design Team!

 

I look forward to another wonderful year of creating with fabulous people and fabulous kits!

sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

Preschool Gifting

i now face the potential brain buster of mothers of small children everywhere. gifting. gifting to 20+ small children. I do believe in practical gifts. Things that wont just get tossed once they walk through the door. if they make it even that far.

Well, i've been stashing broken crayons since the dawn of time and i've had this project in mind for many moons, but this year's christmas gifties for tyler's little buddies are remolded crayons.

While searching for an ideal oven melting temp (i ended up using doing about 250F for 15ish minutes per batch) i found this link with all kinds of super cool ideas for those stray crayons. The simplicity of this project was perfect. I picked up a bunch of little holiday notepads (6 for 2 bucks) and i'm going to stash that with a few crayons in a little baggie IF i can ever leave the house.

Today is one of the days i'm in the store @ Memories Live On and i typically will run some errands, grocery shopping, etc on my way home. well, this morning husband got on the road before me (we leave about the same time but i drop the boy off at school) and he was stopped before he started. Apparently a car had overturned recently not far up the road. I just dont get it. Our commutes take us over a very squirrely road. its about 15miles of going up and down and around a "hill" (read: mountain if from texas). Not that this was the case for this particular accident, but people drive like jerks over that hill and it makes no sense. AND it's raining. not a lot. but everything is super slick. idk. there are more than a few accidents on that road. I hope no one was hurt. sucky way to start a tuesday....

Anywho, this means i can do some work from home on misc projects i have goin. i'm going to attempt some photos of projects despite the poor lighting. with any luck, i will return with the 14th day of lego christmas and some project updates!

merry tuesday!
sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

on the 13th day of christmas...

our lego calendar brought to use... an adorable lego toy fire truck!

Last night we took a break from tree trimming and organizing to hitch a ride on the Santa Cruz Holiday Lights Train with our favorite Kristina & Parker! The boys had loads of fun acting like complete maniacs and the mamas definitely enjoyed each others companies!

even bah humbug husband had a good time or two!

and look who showed up! SANTA! i wish tyler understood the concept of the naughty or nice list s bit more. oh well, next year...

sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

lego dailies...

after the busy spell and the bit of sickness, we opened day 8 through 12...

tyler is having a great time with this calendar. definitely making the passage of this christmas super fast and quite noticeable. ah well, such is life.

anywho, time for some errands and some tree trimming. very fun day!

sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

too sick for dailies...

Not me, but the little man. We were actually just behind for a few days thanks to being busy... but... today...

 

today the little man developed a fever and has been super cuddlie and un-interested. hopefully tomorrow. because mama has a big weekend planned!

sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

seriously! today's lego window had ME in it!

well, a lego that looked like me...

and a kitty. not sure what's up with that but its super cute!

in other news, tomorrow night i will be making these super cute treat bags at Hambly Screen Prints along with Sarah and others! it is destined to be a night full of merriment! Until then, i will be waiting for the next tag and CATACLYSM!

sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

drummer boy

super cute. now tyler is running around our upstairs drumming everything.

and how sweet is this? i came home yesterday after an action packed morning and afternoon of make & takes to find this little bundle. its from my husband's company of all people and i love that they showed even the smallest amount of appreciation for what families do to support the company even if it is indirectly. plus it livens up my desk so so so much!

today i'm working on christmas gifties. hint, hint. tonight i would like to do some more wrapping so i can get my holiday shipments out. BUT, i need more frames. inorite? so round 2 to costco today and target run whilst i'm at it. i think i will spare husband this trip. BUT, this gets me so close to 100% complete. a couple people popped up on our shopping lit that i was not expecting, but thats ok. They will get crossed off too and we can enjoy the rest of the season with holiday fun times!

ya'll have a good sunday now...

sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

december daily: day 4

today we got some lego parts....

we think they're a leaf blower. idk....

in other news... our fridge is full of spirit currently. including a few bottles of stone's vertical epic 10.10.10. can't wait until this one is ready to crack open!

we also did wrapping tonight. tyler helped! he was quite pro at cutting and taping AND even wrote names on packages! such a big boy!

sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

skatin' through day 3 of our daily december!

Tyler is still way into this whole count down to Christmas thing. I'm shamefully surprised when he has more than a 1/2 second attention span. so.... today's door revealed....

...skateboard accessories for of duel wielding lego man from yesterday! tyler, very thoughtfully, said to me, "mom, we shouldnt skateboard with swords. its a bad idea." i agreed. the end.

so, i'm smitten by Tim Holtz's 12 tags of Christmas for another year! BUT, this year, i'm making duplicates for Memories Live On so their customers can check them out in person! So far, i have to say i've gotten them pretty close. i have been enjoying the creation of these tags immensely!

anywho, off to DEstress fridays at Memories Live On! Have a super friday night!

sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

a man! with a cap! and TWO swords!

this evening we opened up day two on the advent calendar. the boy was stoked. he knew exactly how to put the little man together and wanted no assistance... shoot. i like legos too...

this shot was directed by tyler. the snowman is apparently melting already...

sunshine&bunnies,
holly*

my december daily...

this year i got my hands on a lego advent calendar and the boy has been chomping at the bit for december 1st to roll around so we could start opening doors! well, guess what, it's december 1st and we got to open the 1st door today!

we built a super cute little snow man. now i need to print photos so i can work on my journal. then hit costco. then i have a super cute mini album class to teach a memories live on. busy day all of the sudden. oh my!

sunshine&bunnies,
holly*