Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has plans to have a great Halloween! We have a soccer game this morning. In the afternoon we are meeting up at a friend's house for chili and cornbread and some trick or treating. Looking forward to spending time with family and friends today.

I just love this time of year with the cooler weather starting. Last autumn we we able to visit my sister and her family in Virginia where we got to experience playing in fall leaves. (No fall leaves here in AZ.) The kids were so excited to play with the leaves. I love how simple things can be so exciting for kids.

Here's a layout I just just put together celebrating play time in fall leaves from our trip to Virginia.Everything on the layout is from the Scrapbook Circle November kit.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Eve

Hope you are excited and ready for Halloween. We are all ready for some Halloween fun this weekend.

We have a Halloween party at church tonight. Chili, cornbread and too much candy. I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully I will be able to find a bag of peanut M&M's in one of my kids' bags.

I'm still having fun playing with wedding photos. Here's a look at another wedding layout.I love that we have a photo of all of the family together. I can't thing of the last time we all got into a photo together. Plus, I don't think everyone has ever looked so good!

Layout supplies from the SC November Kit.

Sparklers!

We have always spent 4th of July in Arizona. In Arizona it is illegal to use fireworks because it is so dry here. We are not even allowed to use sparklers.

This past summer, we went to Utah for the 4th of July and had a whole, fun world of fireworks opened up to us.

The kids LOVED getting to use sparklers. It brought back memories of summers at my grandparent's house in Idaho where we got to play with sparklers. I loved swinging them around and spelling my name.

It was exciting to get to share the fun with our kids this year.

A Few Favorite Wedding Photos

I just printed off a few of my favorite wedding photos from my sister-in-law's wedding. I have a photo printer at home, but I don't use it unless there are photos that I want to use right away on a layout. I wanted to use wallet sized photos for this layout and decided to do a quick print job at home.

It's always fun to get to create with new photos. I'm happy to have a lot of new wedding photos to play with.Everything (paper, stickers, journaling label. pearls and corrugated alpha) are from the Scrapbook Circle November kit.

Looking Back

Today I was sorting through photos in iphoto getting them ready to print. I decided to look back a year ago to see what I was up to.

Here's a look at a layout from the end of last October. I love that it has 8 photos on the page without feeling cluttered and it stars my kids and their cousins.

Wedding Times

My husband's sister was married to a wonderful guy yesterday. It was so fun to attend their wedding and celebration. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the event.My girls were the flower girls. They LOVED getting all dressed up and participating in the wedding.The family.
Our 3 kids. Our sweet boy got to be the ring bearer.

My husband and his sister.
I had her stage this sneaky photo.

Good times!

6

I've had this picture of Max sitting on my scrapbook table for a few months and I've been waiting for just the right time to do something with it. He just turned seven and I wanted to be sure and document all of his favorites at age 6 before I forgot everything.

So, here's a look at my sweet boy at the age of 6.
I really love using bright colored products on white cardstock. Love how it makes the colors really pop.

Everything on this layout is from the October Scrapbook Circle kit.

You've Been Booed

Someone is our neighborhood started some "You've Been Booed" Halloween fun. We received a treat bag on our door step and then we get to give a treat to two other neighbors. Our kids absoluely loved leaving a treat, ringing the doorbell and running to hide. So fun.

If you want to start something similar in your neighborhood, go here for a poem and boo signs.

Here's a look at the treat bags we made for our delivery. I also made one for each of the kid's teachers.Thanks to Diana for sharing the treat bag idea from Jennifer.

I found the treat bags in the Halloween section at Target. I did have plain bags that I could have used, but I thought these were more fun.

The supplies came from the Scrapbook Circle Halloween Kit.

Pumpkin Glazed Cookies

I've been waiting for autumn to come just so that I could make these cookies! The glaze is definitely what makes these so fabulous. It's a butter and brown sugar glaze and it's delicious.
Thanks to my sister, Melanie, for sharing the recipe.

Pumpkin Glazed Cookies:

1 c. shortening or butter (I use butter)
1 c. sugar
1 c. pumpkin (cooked and mushed or from a can)
1 egg
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream together the shortening, sugar, and pumpkin. Add egg and mix well. Combine all dry ingredients and add to wet. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 min. Do not overbake!

Glaze:
6 Tbsp. butter
4 tsp. milk
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

When you put the 1st batch of cookies in the oven to bake, cook butter, milk and brown sugar in a saucepan until the sugar is dissolved. Place saucepan in the fridge to cool. When cookies come out of the oven, put them on the cooling rack. Then, finish the glaze by stirring in powdered sugar and vanilla. Spoon generously over warm cookies. Yum!

Hope you give these a try and love them as much as I do!

A Quick Layout to Share

One of my favorite things about Sassafras paper is the decorative edge strip that is at the bottom of each sheet of paper.

Yesterday, I finally had time to play with the October SC kit that has 5 Sassafras papers in it. Since I love the decorative edges of the Sassafras paper so much, I decided to cut them all off and play around with them.

This is what I came up with:I love the simplicity and playfulness of the layout.

Potato Salad, Anyone? Layout

I love to cook and have been know to take a lot of pictures of food, but I don't usually use the photos in layouts.

Here I thought it would be fun to use this photo I took a while ago and include the recipe on the layout. The recipe is written around the photo and cardstock. Thought this was a cool way to preserve a family favorite recipe.This layout is pretty simple because I wanted the focus to stay on the food and the recipe. Sometimes a quick and simple layout is just what I need to get into a good scrapbooking groove.

Thanks for stopping by!

Paper is from Collage Press and alpha from Making Memories.

Come Name the November SC kit!

Want to win a November Scrapbook Circle kit? Stop by the SC blog and give a name to the November kit. The person whose kit name is chosen will win a free November kit!

Rainbow Cake

I put this cake together for my daughter's 5th birthday.
My 2 girls had fun decorating it will almost all of the sprinkles in the house!

The recipe came from Pioneer Woman's recipe sharing site, Tasty Kitchen.

I Love Disneyland

We just returned from a 5 day vacation to Disneyland. I love it there! Just walking into the park and onto Main Street makes me feel so happy. Maybe it's all of the great memories I have from there as a kid, maybe it is getting to share the magic with my kids and maybe it's a mix of both, but I just can't get enough of the magic of Disney.
I used this House of 3 template for the photo collage.

30 Things Album

Sorry I've been gone for so long. I've been busy planning and hosting a birthday party for my now 5 year old daughter, getting my house ready for my sister-in-law's bridal shower at my house, packing and shipping the October Scrapbook Circle kits, packing for a 5 day Disneyland vacation and going on a 5-day Disneyland vacation. It's been a busy week!

One of my favorite things I did last week was put together a "30 Things We Love About You" album for my sister for her 30th birthday. I'm the oldest of 5 kids and my siblings started the "30 Things" album on my 30th birthday.
The other 4 siblings contribute memories and favorite things about the person turning 30.
One of my other sisters gathers and printed all of the photos. That saved me so much time!
I gathered, typed and printed the memories onto white cardstock.
It was so fun to look back on all of these old photos. Good times!








Happy Birthday, Melanie!

The paper came from the September Scrapbook Circle kit.

Happy Birthday Sweet Sister

It's my littlest sister's birthday is today.
Happy birthday, Kristen!