We’ve been talking a bit about vacations lately (maybe because I’ve been working on our vacation books and beach photos, dreaming of warmer weather.)  Well, we always do lots of little trips because both grandparents live out of state and both of my sisters as well.  So just seeing family is a trip and takes time.  But, for some odd reason today, it hit me.  If we only go on a big vacation every other year, which sometimes seems to happen with schedules and $$$$, then we have only 4 vacations left before Delaney leaves the house.

How did that happen??  That just isn’t OK.  I don’t know why this came to mind today, but sometimes perspective just hits you when you need it.

The girls have 10 days off in March …(crazy that they have so much) but even though I have plenty of work to do and Marty too, I vow to take some of that time to do something.     I’ve always been such a work-a-holic, had parents that way and married one too.   But I feel like my girls are growing faster than I can keep up.   So I’m giving myself a kick in the butt to make use of these days…..they will be gone too fast and work will always be here.

Just tonight someone was leaving to spend the night at a girls sleepover.  She showered, snuck in a little of my make-up since her complexion is changing as fast as her height, and was so engrossed in feeling good about the way she looked and felt.  I stood there and couldn’t help but get a pit in my stomach.  I felt as if I was watching a movie fast forward,  trying to press the stop button and it just wouldn’t stop.

I love my big girl….and to me she will always be my baby, even though she sure isn’t a baby anymore.

I think I’m still trying to catch up from my trip. However, perhaps if the sun would decide to come out, it might just be a big boost instead of these continuous snow storms.  Just when the show starts to melt, here comes another…..and this is really rather unusual for us in the winter or it hasn’t been the pattern the last 4 years.  I’m ok with the winter, but please sun just come out more often.  This is the drive I take on the way to school and I have to say, one of the prettiest sunless days.

Sometimes looking at my photos showing seasons reminds me how much I love that we live where we get to enjoy them all even if it feels like this Winter has been longer than usual.  I like to shoot the same photo which helps show just how the seasons are so different, like this one below on my drive to school.

I’ve been gone every night this week taking the girls to activities and while it makes things a little crazy, I love going and so do they (or we wouldn’t do it.)

McKinley is on the gymnastics team and has that 2 nights a week and Delaney has dance 1 night.  We carpool for dance, but this was our week to drive.  Marty drives some too, but this week I just wanted to be there, with CHA in California behind me.   This is the first year we have had 3 different nights.  I’ve been lucky enough to get things on the same nights, etc so that as a family we have more time together at home.  I know this is only going to get more challenging as they get more involved, but I try to keep it as manageable as possible.  If I don’t, their Dad steps in real fast with an objection too.  He’s just quite honestly a home body and that’s actually ok….(most of the time.)

McKinley is getting ready for her first gymnastic meet and so I’ve been eager to see how she’s doing on all her events.   I worry if she’ll be ready, but her coaches assure me she’ll do just fine.  I  want it to be fun and great in her mind and frankly I have no experience with how prepared she is, so we’re hopeful her coaches are right.    We’re so proud of how well she has taken to the gym socially (it wasn’t always easy.)  She’s a kid of routine and it takes her some time to develop a comfort level of new environments and new people, especially new people or coaches.  But I’ve known since she was little that swinging, climbing, flipping, spinning and anything involving movement was a calling for her.  She took dance a couple of years, mostly just because her sister was and after trying gymnastics one day, she found her thing.

Her first meet is in 1 month and I can tell she’s a little nervous about it.  She keeps asking how many days or practices.  I hope it all goes well for her.  She’s a trooper, but she has such a tender heart.

I wanted to share the winners of the Travel Collection and the Super Mini “Life” book.

Travel Collection:  Bonnie C

Super Mini “Life” book:  amy

Congrats to both, email your address with prize in the subject line to danelle@danelle-johnson.com

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and something I ran across that just made me laugh…..can you imagine getting this?

and by the end of the day I will be squeezing these 2 so tight.   As  Delaney’s been known to say, “Call 911, Mom’s going to squeeze the stuffing out of me.”

She is right about that one.  I’m ready to be back home.

Thanks for all the comments on the new collection.  I enjoy reading what appeals to you.

We’re heading over to the show a little later after getting a few last minute things ready for my class I’m teaching today.  It’s the Photo Journal I showed the other day, which I promise to share more of when I get back home.   I’ve gotten several requests for a class kit by mail, so if you are interested in that kit, leave a comment about that and I’ll have more details on that to come.

I wanted to share with you the Creative Cafe book we made at the CHA Retailer party.  It’s little and cute and the best part about it is how simple and effective it is for documenting your life with such ease.  I was able to include a year worth of photos January through December of last year, random favorite photos of McKinley all in this book.      What I loved even more about this is this literally took me minutes to fill.  So in less than 30 minutes, I had put this book together, printed and filled a book all about McKinley from 2009 with over 100 photos.  She LOVED the book and I had to beg to get it back.  I love the little size of it.

You know after scrapbooking for so many years, I find myself constantly changing in what matters to me.  Really, for me, it’s all about the photos and the stories they tell and being able to enjoy them ALL.  Not just one event in the middle of the year, but the span of time.  So you will probably notice that most of what I take time to do HAS to be worth the effort of including lots of photos.  AND by doing that, then I find that I feel so satisfied and happy that all those collected supplies don’t leave me with a feeling of guilt of what I haven’t done or still want to do.  So this little book I find fits that so well.  I will be making this again.   Because I did this one so fast, I plan yet to go back  and add some handwritten details alongside the photos.

The papers in the book are the new Creative Cafe foil papers, months papers cut with our brand new CCafe dies we designed for AccuCut.  You can see more about those new dies on the Creative Cafe blog.

If you like it, leave a comment.   I’d love to hear about where you are in scrapbooking right now.  (Don’t tell, but I snuck one of these from my make/take and I’ll mail it to you when I get home and you can an entire year of photos in one book within minutes too.)

Getting ready to head over to the show this morning.  It’s been a good couple of days, saw lots of familiar faces and friends. Stores are in good spirits and anxious to pick up the new product to bring home.  So it’s just another day at the CHA.

As promised, I wanted to share the new Art Warehouse travel collection.  Here are a couple of projects from it.  This first one is a die-cut mini book that comes all ready to add photos.  You really have to do nothing, just add the photos.  I’m all about that.

Leave a comment on this post and I’ll give away a set of these papers when they arrive, which is supposed to be shipping in February.

Have to get my self in gear this morning, but I will check back in with a couple more things tomorrow.

Friday Note:  I tired to fix the photos, but I’m still not sure they are working right.  Added a few more photos too

I have to make this quick because I’m heading out to help my hubby pick out new lenses.  Good thing he realized he needs my help.

It’s been so cold here (really unusual) and so I feel as if the sun hasn’t peeked out in days.  But we had one bit the other day and Marty and McK took the go-cart out to a few of the last snow banks they could find.  Totally Dad’s idea and I knew that was going to be interesting.  They were muddied from head to toe with dirt clods stuck in their hair.  Of course getting it out of Marty’s hair was a lot different than Mck’s.  I didnt’ get any photos, but heard all about it.  They quickly got stuck and Mck told Dad it happened just as I said it would.  But at least they got outside and had a little fun.  I can’t wait for spring and it’s only January.  I think this has the be the earliest I can remember feeling that way.

I’ve been working on updating my photo journal and enjoyed seeing these photos of getting the go-cart last Fall.

Guess who is the wild driver and who doesn’t like to ride with her?

This look means she’s up to something.  I’m pretty sure she was born with that twinkle in her eye.

Still adjusting to what kind of pictures you get from Middle Schoolers…..

like this one below….

Here’s a few pics of the journal which I have to say has probably more photos than ever!!   I found too many photos from the year I loved.  (will share more photos of it tomorrow, since I’m out of time today)   Oh and I have a few new things coming out at CHA that I’ll get to also.

It’s a new year and I’ve gotten a few notes from those of you who actually read this thing.  So for you and for me, I’m back blogging.

I’ve spent a little more time on facebook this past year and I think I found it so much easier and faster, so I kind of quit updating my blog.  But, I think maybe, this blog in some strange way is good for me and I need to keep it up.

Over the past year,  I’ve been simplifying my life in many ways, which was long overdue and I can say very truly that I am happy with the changes.  For a long time, I’ve been pulled in so many directions and I felt like I was floundering.  I think this blog was one of the things that I dropped for that reason while I refocused.    As a dreamer and an idealist with strong right brain tendencies, I have to be careful and keep my priorities in check.  Guess I’ve been doing a lot of checking on those lately and it does feel really good.   But, I have realized lately, it’s time to get back to blogging for me and for connecting to you, thank you for the comments letting me know that it matters.

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We have one kid at the elementary school and the other at the Middle School.  Can you believe I have a middle schooler?  Makes me sad actually.  Anyway, the elementary had a water main break and so they didn’t have school today.  You can imagine where I’m going with this.  Well, we had one very irate middle schooler and 1 very happy elementary student.   It made for an interesting morning getting ready for school.

So because McK didn’t have school today, it turned out to be the perfect day for something she has been wanting to do for months (go back to her babysitter with one of her best friends, who also went there.  We’ve been trying to orchestrate a day for this for a while and had one planned a few weeks ago, which was cancelled because of sickness.  So today worked great for these 2 to spend the day playing with (according to the girls) “the best toys in the world” and eating “the best lunch” and “best snacks in the world.”

It’s been about a year and a half since they’ve been regularly going and they have both been reminiscing about all their memories, favorite lunches, favorite toys, etc.

So this morning Marty took both of them and when he got home he told me about their conversation on the way.  They played “Truth or Dare.”  McK’s friend says to McK.”  Truth:  Do you like pickles?  Mck says, “Oh, ick no.”     Dare:  McK’s friend dared her to kiss her dog on the lips.  Friend says she doesn’t kiss any dogs on the lips except hers, that’s all.

And then Marty told me that McK took the dare.  I was confused as to how she did that on the drive.  Well, i guess when your dogs are riding in the pickup with you, you can take the dog dares.   I had to laugh because for McK that was no dare at all.  She’s always smooching with her dogs, cats, sheep and just about any pet and “on the lips” is even better to her.

So I’m smiling thinking of the fun these 2 are having.  They have been passionate friends since they first met and it’s just adorable.

(I decided to dig through my archives of photos of them)

….and after doing so realized why this blog is good for me, giving me what I call a little photo therapy.   It’s good to be back.

These papers below have some foiling in them, hard to see from the images.

 The paper in this below is all flocked and furry…so yummy.  Can’t wait to have some of these in my hands…

Heading out to spend the entire day with my big girl shopping, just the 2 of us.  It’s our back to school tradition and one of her favorite days of the year….actually mine too.

Seeing these holiday pieces makes me a little excited about Christmas.  Can you believe that Hobby Lobby has their Christmas decorations out already?    We have to do our back to school shopping first, so let me get that done and then I will be ok with the holiday stuff.

I am really considering doing a holiday journal this year with the help of this collection below, inspired by Ali.  I have never felt that I would be able to keep up with it, but I’m going to put it together this fall and believe in myself a little more than usual.  More on that topic after school starts.

This collection has several new pieces that are line extensions to the original Noel,  Mistletoe & Hollyberry Collections released last year.  For me, being quite traditional, I really like to have a broad range of elements to a collection which often comes with more than one year’s release.  This year we added in some flocking and foil to some of the pieces (mostly flocking and a few foils.)  

I have so many images to share, that I think I will spread these out a bit this week so I don’t bore you.

The item above can be several things:   a mini book as is, just add photos and decorate $7, greatly priced.  You can also tear out the pages and use them in a project of choice on layouts, or in your own mini book.  Looking forward to using this item in particular, one of my favorites of the release. 

Coordinating stickers…

This is all shipping in August from Creative Imaginations, so check with your favorite store to see if they will be getting it.

More to come tomorrow….