Two New Layouts

Do you ever buy a kit, or get it in a grab bag, and think.... I might use this once... and then it turns out to be extremely versatile?! Well for me that kit is Dani Mogstad's Softly Falling. I got it as part of my purchase of The Digi Files #8. So averaged out, it cost me maaaybe 75 cents? lol and I have used it on some great pages already.

I really thought with the fall theme, and the fact I dont' really take fall photos much, this would not get much use. But I've already used it on this layout and this layout too. And now, a 3rd one!!

Wedding Brunch & Frisco BBQ:

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Here is my other new layout, and I think a new favorite. I just love the bright colors and I love the photos we took on this outing!

Eldorado Springs:

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Coffee, Blogging, Scrapping, Oh My!

Reason # 214,873 of why I love my friend Raina ... she loves the computer as much as I do!!! Every time I've thought, surely you must be bored, she says "I've got HEAPS more photos to upload to Facebook!" :) Ahhh Raina, we truly are kindred spirits!

We started off our day on Saturday at Einstein's Bagels because she'd really enjoyed it on her last visit. I played it safe with ordering an old favorite, while Raina shocked me by ordering a green chile bagel with jalapeno salsa cream cheese. Wow! And she loved every minute of it! That's the goal :)

After breakfast I decided to take her to Forza Coffee. She isn't a Starbucks fan so I wanted her to be able to try some other places while here. She liked their coffee a LOT more. We had a great time hanging out there on our laptops!!

(Photo by Raina.)

I love that Raina is a computer nerd just like Ian and me :) Every time I think surely she must be bored she says "I've got heaps of photos to upload and heaps of blogging to do!" Yeeeeeeah!! I got to do blogging at Forza, AND scrapbooking!! yay yay yay

When we got hungry for lunch a few hours later, we headed to Panera Bread to eat lunch and continue with computer time :-D

It was such a fun day and I wish I could just repeat it!! We went to Zoo Lights that night too (photos coming soon!) so it was an awesome day.

The scrapbook layouts I worked on got finished up last night so those are posting next!

Wedding Day Prep Layout

Another new layout! I'm on a roll this week! And yes, I'm still doing lots of school work ;) ;)

This layout is the photos from my wedding day leading up to the actual wedding... getting hair done with my bridesmaids, and hanging out in the dressing room right before the big event :) Such special memories!

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Bridesmaid Spa Day Layout

I must have found my mojo because I got another layout done today!!

This is from the day I had with my bridesmaids before the wedding. We had mani/pedi's at the Omni spa followed by lunch at the Huckleberry Tea Room. It was such a fun day!

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Thanks for looking, hope you like it!

Bachelorette Party Layout

Finally a new scrapbook page!! It's been two months since I last scrapped :( I really need to be scrapping more often as I just love it so much! Not to mention I have so much to do!

It took me a while to do this page because I wanted to find the right kit! I'm really happy with how it came out.

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Left Side:

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Right Side:

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CREDITS:
* Template #123 by Yin Designs (Purchase here.)
* Out for Drinks kit by Trish H Designs(Purchase here.)
(Some Elements Recolored)

Sahhhhhhhhhturday

It's Saturday, and I feel "ahhhhhhhhhhh". Very relaxed. We do have a lot to do today but we can just go at our own pace. We slept in and Ian then made breakfast burritos. Last night I went to Kellie's for get 'er done night. Kellie and Cori were both being extremely productive but for once, I just was not feeling it. I did nothing but hang out and play with knitting needles, lol. Still, had a very nice spaghetti dinner over there and lots of fun and laughter with my friends. On the list today... have to go take care of the kittens again (almost done, my parents come home Monday!)... fill a perscription... pick up a few things at the grocery store... and the main thing, try to fix Ian's truck. I can't remember if I mentioned this or not but the drivers seat in his truck broke on Thursday, so we need to try and fix that. He's using my dad's car right now but they get back Monday so definitely need to take advantage of the weekend and get that taken care of. I'm hoping that tonight when we are relaxing again, I can get some more scrapping done! I do have one new LO to share that I did earlier this week. It's the first of probably 3 or so it will take to cover our Taylor Park Camping trip from August.

Hope you like it! This morning I bought a very cute alpha that I can't wait to use!

I think it will be really cute with our photos from Valentine's weekend this year. Especially with all the red in the photos. I might end up scrapping that pretty soon even though it would be out of order. I'm actually proud though of how far I've come with my 2008 book. I'm up to the camping trip in August which only leaves.... Breckenridge/Ian's birthday in September... Vegas in September.... Visiting Sarah in November.... and Christmas. Still a lot, but doing pretty good. My goal is to have 2008 done and my Greece & Turkey book done by the wedding. (I don't think that's really all going to happen, but I will sure try!) I am halfway tempted to start my Greece & Turkey book over, and do it in the same style as Ian's New Zealand book. Simply because it went so much more quickly. However, I don't think it would really work too well as I also have so many maps I want to incorporate, and souvenirs. So I'll have to just keep chugging along :) Sorry this post was mostly about scrapping... that's what is on my mind right now :)

Bits n' Pieces of Happiness

With some of the stressful things going on lately, it's time to focus on a little bit of happiness. I read this today -

10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy

The first one is very appropriate right now:

I have been finding a lot of cheer lately in little things... a frappucino at Starbucks... a good conversation with a friend... making a scrapbook page... getting a new laptop bag that I love! I really think they key to not getting depressed is being able to recognize these little things and be happy about them. Apparently I've been REALLY happy about them. When I got a bunch of my scrapbook pages printed and put them in my album, I hugged it. Hahaha. And when I got my new laptop bag and it turned out to be even more wonderful than I thought... well, I hugged that too! I felt a little silly getting so happy about little things... but reading this article today showed me that it is actually a good thing. So, let's celebrate that... here's some of my new scrapbook pages I've done recently:

And here is my new -Pink!- laptop bag! I just love this bag. A digi-scrapper's dream!

Now it might not be everybody's cup of tea, but I am just loving it. Besides being cute, it has more pockets than I could ever need and it's really great quality. It is cheering me up and I just want to find some place to go hang out tomorrow so I can use the bag and take my laptop somewhere! :)

One more thing that is really making me happy is this blog that just started January 1st... It's all about digital scrapbooking. And it is so chock full of awesome things every single day. It brings a HUGE smile to my face. In fact, this article about happiness was posted on THERE today! That's where I found out about it and that gave me such a pick me up :) If anybody is interested, here's the site - The Daily Digi.

In other news... I think I might have my very first client for my teaching business! My friend Christine who is a digital designer has a good friend who would like to learn digi scrapping. I told her I am not totally set up & ready yet, but that I would gladly teach her friend for half price if she doesn't mind sort of being my guinea pig and letting me sort of figure things out as we go along. I'm waiting to hear back about all of that, but it looks pretty promising. It would be such a great experience for me to have a person to teach as "practice" so to speak.

Tea Party Pages and More

Wow it's been a while since I got any pages done! First of all, I did these first three about a month to 6 weeks ago. The first two pager is from a small family gathering with some distant relatives which took place in August 2007 (Yep I am waaay behind.) The 3rd one is from my birthday tea party, September of this year.

So I had started off the tea party pages with that one of Sarah, but then I didn't touch the project again until this week. I used some quick pages to get these done - I'm pretty happy with them...

So I'm feeling good that I'm finally getting back into my scrapping. There is SO MUCH I want to do! I really really REALLY want to finish off my 2007 album and of course my Greece and Turkey album. I think oh 2008 isn't so bad because we're still in it... then I realize it will only by 2008 for another 7 weeks... holy crap! So much to do. SO SO MUCH. I would freaking LOVE to be caught up, but does that EVER happen????

I got my 8x8 prints in from MyPicTales.... still waiting on the 12x12 prints. I placed my order October 5th so this waiting game is making me mad. I guess it's worth it with a coupon for 100 free prints, but I don't see myself continuing to use their service after this. Maybe for bound books but that's it! I'm going back to my beloved Costco.

It was nice getting the 8x8 prints though, because I've never really SEEN them before. I always thought 8x8 would be too small for me to enjoy them... but I actually do like them a lot. After I finish 2007, 2008, and Greece/Turkey I might switch to 8x8 fully for future stuff. Except maybe vacation albums.

Here's my 8x8 prints:

That's all for now... more soon, I hope!