Wow.

When I checked my email Wednesday afternoon to find that Two Peas in a Bucket had suddenly announced they will be closing, I was in such shock (just like so many of you).

This was the FIRST scrapbook website I had found,  the first scrapbooking website I had ever uploaded my work.  I immediately fell in love with 2 Peas.   I had been a long time reader of Creating Keepsakes, but finding a resource such as 2 Peas (free inspiration, shopping, connecting with other scrapbookers), was revolutionary to me... and surely to the whole scrapbooking community.   Literally, I have spent hours pouring over their member galleries for inspiration.

I am so sad to see they are closing, and honestly after the loss of Creating Keepsakes, Archivers, and now 2 Peas, my heart is heavy for this hobby I adore.

However...  

This hobby is full of talented artist and friends who are COMMITTED to memory keeping-- and inspiring in documenting their story, memories, and lives.  I feel lucky to be surrounded by such inspiration, and I know we will carry on and encourage one another in our pursuits of creative storytelling.

One thing I loved about 2Peas was how they would pick a featured layout of the day. I had been super lucky to have a few layouts selected over the years.  It was something that made me feel THRILLED for the day, and something I would get so excited when seeing other scrapbooking friends selected.

So thought I would just share a few of my layouts that were featured in this post....

My Little Pirate, (10/26/10) more info here

Always Believe (11/18/10) more info here

Sweet Pickin's (6/13/11) more info here

Spring Break at the Zoo (5/21/12)   more info here


Thanks 2Peas for making me feel special.   You will be missed!

Project Life Week 24: Hello Summer.

This week's Project Life covers the week of June 9-15th.

This was our first week back from Disney-- we were in full recovery mode!  I got a summer cold (this happened last year right after Disney), we had dentist appointments, library trips, strawberry picking, visiting and cookouts with both sides of our family, and Father's Day.

I mentioned here that I am changing up the size and format of my Summer Documentation.  I am loving the change!   I still find the vertical 6x4 space a little challenging (only because it's different from what I am used to), but it's fun to try new sizes.    Mostly, I am loving there is LESS space, and it's EASIER to complete my layouts.  This will be huge as I will try to stay current this summer.

I mostly used Elle's Studio's new collection Shine, and the June 2014 kit.  

I am wanting to be more intentional this summer to not JUST using photos for documenting our week--  so for this week I included dental floss packaging (from the dentist appointment), Library Summer Reading catalogue, clothing tag from a summer shopping trip, and a postcard from church that provided the perfect journal prompt to write about my dad for Father's Day.

Project Life was created by Becky Higgins as a way to simplify how you document life and preserve memories. Photo pockets used in my Project Life are created by Becky and can be found here. You can read all of my Project Life posts here.

Project Life Week 23: the Travel layout.

This week's Project Life covers the week of June 2-8... our vacation week to Disney World!

I mentioned last week when sharing my summer cover page, that for summer I am changing Project Life format/size.  I decided the 12x10 page would be a great fit for summer (this spread is using Becky Higgins Design G pages).  I know that doesn't sound like a big change, but I have been doing 12x12 spreads for almost 4 years!  And, I have to be honest. I am not used to that vertical 6x4 spot-- but I am up for the challenge, and I have found some other great pocket pages that fit this size.

 

Documenting a big vacation in Project Life is hard.  I took about 2,000 photos this week between my DSLR and iPhone.  How do you cut down to just a few photos to document the week?   I decided to pull the photos that told the best story-- and that's not even necessarily my favorite photos from our trip.

It was hard to cut down.  But what I kept in mind was what stories I have been verbally sharing since we've been home with friends and family.  Those moments were the highlights.   I am already planning to document this trip in an album of it's own, so I felt free to just give a glimpse, and call it done.

As you can see I added very little journaling.  I used the numbered card from Shine Journaling Tags to include our favorite memories, and that was it.   I could add a thousand stories onto this spread.  Leaving it clean (and knowing I could go in depth later in my travel album) allowed me to feel like I could complete this spread!

Project Life was created by Becky Higgins as a way to simplify how you document life and preserve memories. Photo pockets used in my Project Life are created by Becky and can be found here. You can read all of my Project Life posts here.

Disney in Photos

If a picture is worth a thousand words, well here's 28,000 to tell you how amazing our WDW trip was last week.  I am still recovering (and may be suffering from the same post- Disney cold i got after last year's trip), but I don't even know where to begin to describe our vacation we spend at Disney.

I posted several Disney relates posts last year-- (what we did, and a character meal reviews)...However this year we made the trip new and exciting by focusing on the several attractions we did not experience last year. (and we did 2 new character meals I would love to review).  Also, we really spent time at indoor SHOWS on this trip since it was VERY/unbearably hot two of the five days we were in the park.  Thankful for these air conditioned options.

Since i secretly desire to be a WDW vacation planner ;), I plan add our new Disney tips/experiences (1. how to survive indoors, and 2. how to make a second WDW trip "brand new" to your family), on my blog this summer.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few favorite memories of our week in Orlando-- the Happiest Place on Earth.  And now... time to figure out how to document this week--- my favorite part. :)

Project Life: Summer Cover Page.

Today's Project Life covers my COVER PAGE for my summer 2014 album.

 I decided to switch things up a bit and try an 8x11.5 album (this album by American Crafts) for my summer documentation.  I am REALLY excited for the change-- it seems to be the perfect size for documenting the summer.

I used Elle's Studio's SHINE collection to create this grid page-- which is very similar to my 2014 cover page I posted in late December.

I keep three albums per calendar year.  One for January- through late May (last week of school), a summer album, and a late August (first day of school) until New Years Eve album.  This has seemed to work very well for us the last three years of documenting with Project Life.

I used bits and pieces of Elle's new SHINE collection in this cover page.  It's beyond perfect for summer documentation.   The page protector I am using is slide projector pages from Archivers-- they are the 8x11.5 size.

I am so very excited for this new temporary design layout, and hope you follow along with my summer documentation! 


Project Life was created by Becky Higgins as a way to simplify how you document life and preserve memories. Photo pockets used in my Project Life are created by Becky and can be found here. You can read all of my Project Life posts here.

The night at Disney that broke my heart.

We just returned from a week at Disney World--  I have many photos I want to share.  (i could go on forever-- but will try to spare you-- i secretly desire to be a Disney vacation planner. i just LOVE all things Disney).  But one of our most favorite memories happened on our first day at Disney.  We went in the evening to stay late for the fireworks, and one of our fast passes was for Enchanted Tales with Belle where kids get to act out the night Belle met the beast WITH Belle.



Both Jonah and Jordan were chosen to be part of the "cast" to reenact this story.

Jordan was chosen to be the Beast and Jonah was chosen to be Philipe (the horse).

As they were practicing Jordan had to ROAR to the crowd and pretend to the be the beast.  Every time she did it she had BIG crocodile tears in her eyes as she looked at Todd and I, and we knew she felt embarrassed and out of her element (however if you know Jordan she just needs a little nudge because this is CLEARLY her element as she is the most DRAMATIC child ever).



My heart broke for her as we waited for the performance.  I just wanted her to feel okay about it all and i was a little confused why they asked her to be the Beast.  I almost asked if she and Jonah could switch....

However, the show went on and they both did well...





And then this happened...



I then knew why.  And so did she.

And it was so magical.







I couldn't hold back the tears, it was just such a precious moment to me.  Something I will (and definitely jordan) will always treasure.  We keep asking her what Belle was saying to her but she won't tell us :).

So this was the one moment at Disney I lost it.  The one time I cried like a baby.

Because of my baby.

It was the moment my heart broke for her insecurities and the moment it soared because she was brave and experienced something so beautiful and special.