Project Life >>> June 30

This Project Life spread that I want to share today is one of my favorites. It's probably because it records one of our most fun weeks of the summer. Plus I just love all of the bright and happy colors!

Week of June 30, 2013. We spent the majority of this week in Orlando visiting the Universal parks. At least half of our time there was spent in Harry Potter World. I really cannot say enough about how fantastic this place is. The Howarts ride was unlike anything I've been on before (it's kind of a cross between Soaring Over California and a moving roller coaster) and the town of Hogsmeade and the shops were amazing.

The night before we left for Florida, we got to celebrate my dad's birthday at Joe's Farm Grill. Love my dad and that restaurant!

Grandpa's Birthday /// Universal Orlando /// Hogsmeade /// Hogwarts

Since we took so many photos that week, I needed an insert for this spread. I used one of these 9 Pocket Page Protectors for the insert. I love that it gives me space to add 18 additional photos/elements without making the page feel overwhelming. 

On the back of the insert I cut up one of the park maps that we had used during our trip. I love to save things like this and it's so great that I now have a good place to save it.

We spent 3 days at the amusement park and then ventured an hour away to the beach for a day. We loved the beautiful day at the beach. It was a nice change of pace from the crowds.

Cocoa Beach /// Movie Tickets for Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University

I love having a place to document our travel adventures. Of course, I will will create a few traditional scrapbook pages with some favorite photos from the trip, but this format allows me to share even more of our story.

PL Supplies /// Scrapbook Circle Let's Go On an Adventure Kit

Pantry Makeover >>> Glitz Blog hop

Hello! Welcome to the Glitz Designs August blog hop. I'm excited about this hop because it's the first time we get to feature the brand new Glitz line, Dapper Dan. I'm really loving the green and navy color combo.

We moved into a new house a few months ago and there was a great room for a pantry, but only one shelf built in. We decided that we wanted to build out the room with lots of shelves and cabinets to really maximize the space.  So I decided to create a page sharing the finished pantry.

Just for fun, here's a before look at the pantry. It is really a mess. In my defense, when we moved in I knew we'd be moving everything out soon to put in the cabinets.

The Glitz Dapper Dan line has so many great element and I loved using them on this page. One of my favorites is that giant green arrow from their Whatnots and the giant rhinestone.

Plus the new alpha sheets are so cool because they include 3 fonts, 2 sets of numbers and a set of word strips. I love that so much is included on one alpha page.

Ready to join in the blog hop? Just leave a comment here and along the way on the hop.

Jaime Warren
Karine Cazenave
Lea Lawson
Leica Forrest
You are here >>> Lisa Andrews
Magda Mizera
Marie Ramirez
Mou Saha
Nina Ostermann
Noel Culbertson
Stephanie Bryan
Glitz Design Blog

Each comment will enter you to win a Glitz Designs prize pack. Sweet!

Layout Supplies
Glitz Designs "Dapper Dan" Patterned Paper: Chevron
Glitz Designs "Dapper Dan" Giant Rhinestones
Glitz Designs "Dapper Dan" 6 X 6 Paper Pad
Glitz Designs "Dapper Dan" Whatnots
Glitz Designs "Dapper Dan" Alphabets and Word Stickers
Glitz Designs "Dapper Dan" Stamp Tin

Project Life >>> June 16 & June 23

Hello to more Project Life pages!

Week of June 16, 2013. We celebrated Father's Day and my MIL's birthday this week. Plus the kids and I are hooked on the t.v. show Once Upon a Time. We are limiting ourselves to one or two episodes a day to make it last longer.

Father's Day /// Hannah's Drawing /// Yoyo Class @ the Library /// Playing in "Barbieland"

Once Upon a Time /// Family Room Fort /// Gramie's Birthday /// New Pantry ///Scrapbook Night

Week of June 23, 2013. Audrey and 2 of her friends participated in a Les Mis summer camp this week and last week and they loved it! We listened to a lot of Les Miserable music this week. 

We also attempted tie dyeing one afternoon and the kids ended up with great looking t-shirts. I love having the time to do fun project like this with the kids.

Tie-dying /// Getting Ready for Church

Yoyo Class /// Mall Madness Game with Cousins /// Ward Spoke in Church /// The Sink is Always Full of Dishes /// End of Les Mis Camp /// Fruit Pizza

I'm still loving this project!

Project Life >>> June 2 & June 9

Hello! I'm excited to share a the weeks of June 2 and June 9 from my Project Life album today.

Week of June 2, 2013. This is the week we celebrated the last two days of school and we went on a three night getaway to Lake Havasu. As you can see from the photo, Lake Havasu was HOT. But we survived by keeping cool in the lake.

I also included a drawing with ideas for our new backyard pool. Even though this spread is from over 2 months ago, we really aren't any closer to deciding on a pool design. It's the cost vs. what we get that keeps holding us back. Hopefully I'll be able to show a finished pool on a PL spread sometime in the (hopefully) near future.

Backyard Picnic /// Hannah's Chore List /// Lake Havasu

More Lake Havasu /// Pool Ideas /// London Bridge

Week of June 9, 2013. Summer is here! This was our first full week of summer vacation. 

This week included morning chore lists, time with friends, a painting class and an owl dropping off a letter letting the kids know that we were going to Hogwarts (aka Universal Orlando) over the 4th of July.

New Rug + Sandals /// Hannah's Oil Painting /// Chow Locally Box (included some cactus) /// Lunch /// Proof Bakery Croissants 

Fun Summer Drawing by Audrey /// Playtimes with Friends /// Invite to Hogwarts /// Choir Summer Camp /// Yogurtland with Friends

We just loved our summer break! It went by so quickly, but I'm happy we were able to pack so much into our nine week break.

Project Life >>> May 19 & May 26

Project Life continues to be one of my favorite ways to document our family life. I'm going to play a bit of catch up today and share two weeks of PL.

Week of May 19, 2013. We had a lot of good things going on this week. A highlight was a quick weekend visit from some friends who used to live here, but have moved to UT. We love having houseguests!

Audrey's 13th Birthday /// Sam's Club Grocery Shopping /// Day at the Lake

At Saguaro Lake with Crystal and Jennie /// Ward Speaking at PHX Creative Mornings /// Flag Football Ends /// Stitch Fix

Week of May 26, 2013. We were getting closer to the end of the school year. One fun thing to note is that I cut out the patch on Audrey's school uniform polo and included it on this spread. The shirt was stained plus she wasn't going to be returning to the school, so I figured it would be a cool thing to save in the album.

In addition to photos, this week I added a printed copy of an email from the kids' school talking about the end of the year plus a wedding invitation. I love being able to include things like this.

Sunday Night Dessert @ Grandpa and Grandma's /// Visiting the Cemetery with Family on Memorial Day /// Nightly Ritual /// Dress Like Your Teacher Day /// School Uniform /// Getting Yogurt

Memorial Day Breakfast /// Family Room /// Cousin Katie and Alani's Wedding /// Michelle Made the Wedding Cake /// Uncle Bill & Me

There you have it! Another two weeks documents.

It's Back to School Time!

Our kids are now wrapping up their third week of school. It feels great to be settling into our new routine. Because of our move earlier this year, our kids are all at new schools. The homework is so much less at these schools and everyone (including me) is happy about that. They now have more time to practice the piano!

We had a bit of a rough start to the school year with Audrey coming down with a staph infection and being quite sick for a couple of days and missing school. Thanks to antibiotic shots at the doctor and antibiotic pills for 10 days, she is back up to full speed and loving 8th grade.

This week on the Glitz Designs blog we are sharing ideas for using Glitz products for a back to school themed project. This was the perfect opportunity to use the back to school photos from this new school year.

I love the big "The Adventure Begins" piece from the Glitz Color Me Happy Bits and Pieces paper. It seemed like the perfect title for a new school year at a new school.

A huge new box of Glitz Designs good have arrived, so this will be my last page with the Color Me Happy line. I've used up every last piece of paper and have loved using the bright and cheerful colors on so many of my pages.

My pink typewriter came in handy on the journaling.  Love it and I need to remember to use it more often!

Layout Supplies

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Patterned Paper: Bits & Pieces, Chalkboard

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" 6 X 6 Paper Pad

Glitz Designs "Wild and Free" Giant Roller Doodle Plus

Glitz Designs "Finnley" Triangle Washi Tape

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Rainbow Washi Tape

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Rainbow Alpha

Stitch Fix #5

Have you tried out the Stitch Fix service yet? I really do love having a beautiful box of clothes picked out for me and delivered each month. It's definitely an extra fun thing that I won't be able to do forever, but for now I'm really enjoying it. Plus, thanks to some of my readers, I've had some credit to use up thanks to people signing up with my referral link. Thank you!

This month I didn't have a camera person around (aka one of my kids) to snap a few photos of me in my stitch fix options. So I let my bedroom door model the clothes for me.

Benny Shortsleeve Coral Knit Cardigan. I was about 50/50 on this when I pull it out of the box. It was cute and I liked the style, but I wasn't sold. I tried it on over a t-shrirt and then a blouse and decided that it would be a great layering piece to have. I love that it is really lightweight so I can add a pop of color without adding much warmth. Plus I've loving that bright coral color. Keep it.

Sanctuary Smith Faux Leather Trim Pants. Honestly the words "leather trim" in the title made me very skeptical, but I kept and open mind and tried them on. After all, one of the great things about this service is that I get to try things on that I would normally skip if I was out shopping for myself. The fit was not right. They were really loose around the waist and hit at an awkward spot right above my ankles. At least I tried. Sent these back.

Jolie Printed 3/4 Sleeve Blouse. I loved the print and color of this blouse as soon as I pulled this out of the box. I layered this over a white tank top and have worn it with white jeans and denim skinny jeans. Keep it.

Bilson Pleat Detail Tabsleeve Blouse (floral) by Daniel Rainn. This shirt just had too much pleating for me. It was too big and the pattern just wasn't speaking too me. Sent it back.

Navy Cap Sleeve Blouse. This shirt was really simple and cute, but I decided against it because was limiting myself to only two items and this didn't make the cut. Sent it back.

So here's a close up look at the winning pieces from this fix. A fun extra that Stitch Fix includes with each pieces of clothing or accessories is a style card that shows example of how to wear the item. Cool!

Okay, I'm still loving this service. It does cost a $20 styling fee per box, but that is applied to your order as long as you keep one item. You can set up the price ranges and they also take requests (long sleeves, blouses, skirts only, etc.) If you decide to give Stitch Fix a try, I hope you love it as much as I do!

My other Fixes:

Stitch Fix #1
Stitch Fix #2
Stitch Fix #3
Stitch Fix #4

12 Week Wellness Challenge

My neighbor sent out an email a couple of weeks ago asking a bunch of her friends if they wanted to join her on a 12 Week Wellness Challenge. At first I thought there was no way I wanted to stick to a wellness challenge for that long (I have to be realistic!) but then decided this could be the exact thing I need to work on right now.

There is a list of 10 things that need to be completed everyday and 1 point is earned for each item. So at the end of a week, a perfect score is 70 points.

The thing that helped me decide that this is something doable is that a free point is available each week for each item. This means I can still eat some sort of dessert each week. This mean that I can actually stick to the challenge.

We all put money into a pot and where top three scores will earn money back at the end. I'm not in it for the money, but the perfectionist side of me will make it hard for me to let myself miss many points.

We'll see how it goes!

Grand Canyon >>> Let's Go!

It's so fun to look back through all of the photos we took this summer and remember all of the fun things we did. My sister and her family visited us for 10 days from North Carolina and we had a great playing tourists with them around town and in northern Arizona. We decided to take a day trip from Flagstaff up to the Grand Canyon.

I love visiting this place! My husband and I have hiked to the bottom of the canyon and out and have also spent a week rafting through the canyon. We've also brought our kids a couple of times. So we have a lot of great memories at the Grand Canyon.

We rode a shuttle bus around the park and hopped on and off at a bunch of lookout points. We had 17 family members with us! We were quite a group. Some of us did a short hike down the Bright Angel Trail for about a 1/2 mile. It's nothing like hiking the entire way down (and back out) of course, but it's good to give the kids a little taste of hiking the canyon because we hope to hike it someday with all of our kids.

It's pretty much impossible to describe how beautiful and amazing the Grand Canyon is. If you ever have a chance to visit, I highly recommend it!

Layout Supplies /// Let's Go On an Adventure Kit /// We are Here Add-on

Project Life: July 21 - 27

Hello! I'm happy to report that I just need to finish up the past two weeks and then I'm current on my Project Life album. Seriously still loving this project.

The PL spread I want to share today was inspired by our Glitz challenge this week to using the colors yellow, aqua and grey on a project. That is such a great color combo, so it wasn't hard to use it on my PL pages. This was such a fun week to document. My sister and her family were here visiting us from North Carolina and we got to play tourist around town.

Exploring Walnut Canyon /// Day at Sunsplash /// Diamondbacks Baseball Game /// City Waterpark

The Cousin Lineup /// Dinner at Carolina's /// Movie Showing of Blackout /// Backyard Irrigation /// All 17 of Us at Church

Lots of good times documented! 

We Love the Beach

It was with a bit of sadness that we sent the kids back to school last week. The structure will be great with the school schedule and activities starting up again, but I've got to say that I just really loved the more relaxed routine of summer. One of my favorite things we did this summer was go to the beach for a day while we were in Florida.

Spending the day relaxing in the sunshine and then cooling off in the water is near perfect to me. Our kids are a bit older now and can all splash around independently without me having to worry about them falling face first into the water every second. We rented boogie boards and a surf board and everyone had a grand time.

We drove from Orlando to Cocoa Beach and it was pouring rain on our drive. It was so bad at one point that we couldn't even see out of the windshield. We weren't so sure that we had chosen the best day to do to the beach.  But as you can see from the picture, it was bright and sunny  at the beach. Not one drop of rain and not a cloud in the sky. Beautiful day!

Layout Supplies /// Let's Go On an Adventure Kit /// We Are Here Add-on

7-Eleven Slurpees

It's stamping week over on the Glitz Blog and I've been loving all of the ideas that the design team has been sharing!

Today my page includes a few of the cool Glitz Designs stamps. The roller arrow stamp was used in a few places on this page. I think that is my most use stamp. Love it! I didn't have a stamping ink color that was going to work with the page, so I decided to use mist as my stamping ink. I just sprayed the ink onto a non slip mat that is on my desk and then rolled the stamp through the mist.

The "day, month, year" stamps at the top of the page are from one of the Glitz Designs rubber stamp sets. I also used mist on these to stamp the images.

For the big "number 7" stamp, I used a marker to color the image and them stamped it. I don't do a lot of stamping and so I don't trust myself to stamp directly onto my pages. I just stamped onto other paper and then trimmed around the stamped image and added it to my page. That is a nice method because you can stamp things a few times and pick a favorite stamped image.

Do you do much stamping on your pages? If a lack of ink colors is stopping you, try using your mists or markers to color your stamped images!