hiking with the family and some links

Hey all!
What a gorgeous weekend we had here in southern California. It was so perfect that hiking with the family turned out perfectly. Mitch and I have been going through some weird schedules that we don't seem to have time to be together as a family so I suggested we go on a hike on Saturday since I don't have to work till that night.
We went up to the San Gabriel Mountains. Didn't hike that far or hard since we had the kids but it was still a lot of fun.
I packed some snacks and the moment we started on the trail, Maddie kept on nagging me for some pop tarts, so after a quarter mile we stopped and ate our sugary snacks.



see the nice clear skies behind Mitch. It was definitely gorgeous up there.


Mitch took a shot of me. It's nice to be in front of the camera once in a while.


Going through these rocks was a breeze for the kids. They didn't even care if they fall in the water.


After about an hour and a half of hiking we finally settled in at this quiet place by the river. Maddie liked to play with the rocks. She would find the most interesting shaped rock and give it to me to throw in the water.


and Marcus couldn't wait to explore in the river. Even the slippery rocks couldn't keep him from having a blast.


All of us definitely needed that time away from our routines. What a great trip!

and here's some fun links to start off your week...

Fall frenzy is almost here at Coconut Scrapshop. If you haven't signed up in the board, do it now. There's so many fun stuff instore for this week long event.

Scrapwords (one of my fave sites) is holding their 09 "Wordsmith" DT search. Check out the details here.

A dear friend was so kind to toot for me that this issue was out and she saw my minibooks on page 98-100, 106-107. How cool is that!

If you're looking for a fun and quick way to spruce up a part of your home for Halloween, check this out.

Have a great week,
Grace

busy bee......

or maybe just a headless chicken running around. I really don't know how to describe myself right now. I'm burnt out, feeling overwhelmed and not really feeling like I'm accomplishing anything these days but I'm chugging along. I can't complain cause I'm sure there's far worse situations out there.
So with that in mind today, I've decided to update my blog. I needed some kind of normalcy (sp?) around here and getting this post done definitely brought some sanity in me.......

Ok so last Saturday we attended Mitchell's niece's wedding. She's the first granddaughter in the family that got married so I consider this a big family event, not that weddings is not big but knowing that the last wedding in the family was mine and Mitch's, I think this is definitely up the charts with very important dates to remember. *wink*
Anyways, going to the San Diego Temple was a first for both Mitch and I. The place is gorgeous, it's really interesting how the temples can bring you peace and take you out of the hustles and bustles of life and bring you closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I hope that Mitch and I can go on a session there someday.
Here's a few pictures from there.....


This picture was taken by Markus Tolman (Mitchell's second cousin, I think)


It was definitely a llloooonnnngggg day!!!
Lots of waiting, sitting and I even broke the heel on my shoe. Yeah fun times! That night they had a reception at Murrietta. The cultural hall looked great. This was the fancy centerpieces that Jenae (the mother of the bride) had.



Here's my boy. I have to say he's really trained to give a great shot. *laugh*


and here's our "tiny dancer". Seriously I didn't know she had moves. Now I'm definitely going to teach her some choreographed dances. She was so cute dancing with her favorite cousin, Cassidy. She didn't want to leave the dance floor.



and finally some scrapbook share....
I made this a while back but being that we're in the fall season now, I thought it was appropriate to share this seasonal page. Here's Marcus in two different years at the pumpkin patch. I love looking at these pictures and see the difference two years makes.


and here's a fun layout that I had to do cause I'm missing my jalapeño artichoke dip at my Costco. Sadly they don't carry these yummy dip there anymore. *crying*



Journaling:

My day is always a little brighter, my smile a little bigger and definitely my tummy a little heavier when I score this dip at Costco. Everything in the world is just right because of the creation of the “Jalapeño Artichoke” dip- September 2008

You can't tell but I added some "stickles" or glitter glue to the flower die cuts.

I just found out that my oncall shift at work is cancelled tonight. WOOHOOO!!! Totally going to get some scrapbooking done tonight!!! Wow things are definitely looking up!!!

Have a great day,
Grace

Fall Frenzy

Join us October 1 - 6 for a week of challenges, contests, and fun! Daily "Fall Kits" will be awarded and an overall winner will be chosen to receive a Guest Designer Spot on our Design Team with November's Kit! Fall on over into our message board to get all the details!

This is going to be FUN!!! Can't wait to see you there. :)

a birthday post and a little advertisemnt....

Hi all,
checked out the "traffic" on my blog today and I'm glad I haven't turned anybody away with my previous post. :)

anyways as promised we are back to our regular banter around here and to start off our dear Mitch turned the big 4-0 last Wednesday. We had a two part celebration, one on tuesday night with the kids. We did the cake blowing AND eating during our Family Home Evening. We didn't have enough candles in the house to make 40 but in a way that's good cause I'm sure it would've been a big fire disaster if we did.


Haven't picked up my camera for a while so I took some "fun" shots of the family as well. With bad lighting and wiggly subjects, I didn't really get great shots but I love this one...


And then on Wednesday night we went to Anaheim Gardenwalk. A new place just around the corner from Disneyland. We had dinner at Cheesecake Factory (yum!) with his parents and his high school buddy Ken and his wife Angie.


The one thing I really enjoy when I eat at fancy restaurants is the way they plate your food. They can make a simple pasta dishes delectable just by looking at it. Tonight I tried their Thai pasta with chicken. Yum-O!


I got the waiters to sing to Mitch. You can tell he feels very awkward having all the attention to him but he was a good sport about it.



And after dinner we watched this on Imax. Great movie, a little too "dark" for my taste but I have to say if Heath Ledger doesn't get an award for this, whoever judges these awards don't know acting when they see one. He is soooo good, I was afraid I was going to have nightmares of him. LOL.


Oh the Garden walk was a nice place. Still very new, you can tell with lots of "coming soon" posts but the vibe is very mellow and had great fountains. We even managed to get this shot.....


And finally a little plug...
I added a few of this in my etsy store. You can purchase them either as a kit for you to make or a premade one that all you have to do is hang it up. More details can be found at my store.



Hope you guys have a great weekend. I have a family wedding to attend to tomorrow so that means lots of great camera opportunities and on Sunday I'm hoping to get some rest cause my week next week is proving to be another busy one.

Catch you guys later,
Grace

Let's make a stand!

I have been so lucky to have had this blog to share my pictures and stories to family and friends who we don't see on a regular basis;This place has also been a great tool for me to share my paper projects and show to ALL of you just how obsessed I am with scrapbooking; And just recently, I launched my very own business in this site as well.
I'm very grateful to all of you my loyal blog readers for keeping this a fun "job" for me to do on a weekly basis.
And now, I come to you guys again..... Now I hope nobody gets offended by this but I thought, this is my blog so I can say whatever I want to say, right?!
Hahahaha, now don't worry, I'm not forcing anybody that reads this to automatically side with me. Everybody has their own opinion but I'm calling to all my California friends and family. In the November ballots, we will have a chance/opportunity to vote on a very important matter.

Proposition 8 is simple and straightforward. It contains the same 14 words that were previously approved in 2000 by over 61% of California voters: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

Because four activist judges in San Francisco wrongly overturned the people’s vote, we need to pass this measure as a constitutional amendment to restore the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.

Voting YES on Proposition 8 does 3 simple things:

• It restores the definition of marriage to what the vast majority of California voters already approved and what Californians agree should be supported, not undermined.

• It overturns the outrageous decision of four activist Supreme Court judges who ignored the will of the people.

• It protects our children from being taught in public schools that “same-sex marriage” is the same as traditional marriage.

Go to this site and learn more about the issue. Again, I'm not throwing politics into this blog, there's no room for that here, but I STRONGLY feel that I need to stand up for my belief in the sanctity of marriage between a man AND a woman.

With that being said, normal blogging will return in the end of this week. *wink*

Have a great day,
Grace

SoCalScrap projects

It's the beginning of the month so that means that I'm hard at work with making projects for kit and online stores. Here are some projects I made using products that was or can be purchased at the SoCalScrap store.....

Oh brother!

Supplies used:

Textured Cardstock- Die Cuts with a View; Pattern papers- Daydreams line, Fancy Pants Design; Flowers- Prima; Chipboard letters and dots- Thickers, American Crafts; Journaling font- Simpson, downloaded from the internet.

This one is definitely a page that I'm sure everybody will appreciate. The design and very liftable and my story will bring you a little chuckle as well.

Journaling:

A family conversation during dinner.

Maddie: Mom you’re my friend

Mom: Oh yeah, how about daddy?

Maddie: Daddy’s my friend too.

Mom: How about Marcus?

Maddie: Marcus is not my friend

Mom and Dad: Why not?

Marcus: Maddie is my sister, Hello!

Nobody can tell it like it is except Marcus.

August 4^th 2008

Shopping with THIS guy

Supplies used:

Textures cardstock- Die cuts with a View; Pattern papers- Daydreams line, Fancy Pants Design; “my guy” rubon, Prima; Letter stickers- (small) Creative Imaginations (large) American Crafts; Scallop border punch- Water threading punch, Fiskars; Black pen- Millennium, Zig; Journaling font- Trebuchet MS, MS Word

The sketch was inspired by Pamela Young's sketch.

Journaling:

After a dinner and movie date, Mitch and I decided to run to Wal-Mart so he can pick his Christmas gift exchange item. Now before knowing Mitch, I’ve always thought that men disliked shopping so that makes them super fast shoppers. Man was I wrong with him! He does dislike shopping but when he goes out to buy, he really takes his “sweet” time in getting what he wants/needs. Tonight he came in the store without an idea of a possible gift item so that made it extra hard for him to decide which aisle to go to. We finally made our way to the sports and camping section and after oh about one hour in the store we came out with a collapsible table and some big bags of trail mix. Whew! I’m definitely going to make a mental note next time I shop with my guy to wear some comfortable shoes cause it’s going to take long. December, 2007

It’s Okay!

Supplies Used:

Pattern papers- Daydreams line, Fancy Pants Design; Title letters (I, t, k, y,!) American crafts; (‘, s, a) Heidi Swapp; (o) Me and My Big Ideas; Black pen- Millennium, Zig; Journaling font- Times New Roman, MS Word

It's fun to add texture and design to a page by using different fonts in your title. To make it eye pleasing try to stick with one color scheme.

Journaling:

It’s okay that this picture is not that perfect. My hair is all messy and that I can only appreciate this hotel as a visitor and not a guest. It’s okay that I don’t get to go on these kinds of trips often and that my days are usually filled with school chauffeuring and running errands.

My life is not perfect and not all glitz and glamour but I wouldn’t trade my sneakers, diaper changing and coupon clipping days for anything in this world.

Thank you so much card

Supplies Used:

Cardstock- The Paper company; Pattern papers- Daydreams line, Fancy Pants Design; Lace Cardstock and chipboard tag- KI Memories; Sentiment rubon- Scenic Route; Scallop Border Punch- Water threading punch, Fiskars

I've been enjoying my water threading punch from fiskars lately. Great tool!

Celebrate card

Supplies Used:

Pattern papers- Daydreams line, Fancy Pants Design; Flowers- Prima; Embroidered sentiment- Making Memories; Heart brad- Source unknown

Here's the link to the SoCalScrap store. Check out all the great deals there. I promise you, you will be hooked!

Have a great day,
Grace

Coconut Scrapshop's September kit

This month's kit had a very interesting mixture of classic colors and contemporary products. I especially enjoyed playing with the scroll minibook and the journaling blocks. Here are my projects with the kit....

Side Effects

Supplies used: Coconut Scrapshop September 08 kit; Black pen- Millenium, Zig; Color pencil- Orange, EK Success.

The colors of the paper were great to use for pages focusing on my hubby. He hasn't graced our books for a while so I thought this was the perfect time to dedicate some pages to him. When you have a long handwritten journaling block, it's good to add some whimsy to the page by highlighting some important words in your journaling.


I loved the little journaling spots in the kit, it made for a quick way to add the important infos in the page.

Tram Views

Supplies used: Coconut Scrapshop September 08 kit; Chipboard circles and swirl- Fancy Pants Design; Blue marker- Calligraphy pen, Sanford; White pen- Signo board, Uniball

This one was actually inspired by a Target commercial that I saw on TV. They had some fancy plates designed like a horizontal diamond. It didn't quite look the same here but I'm still happy with how this turned out.

I had to add some chipboard shapes (which is not included in the kit) cause I felt the page needed some more texture. I colored it in with the ink included in the kit. The letters were highlighted with white pen. It's kinda messy looking but I'm embracing the imperfection here.

Believe card

Supplies Used:

Coconut Scrapshop September 08 kit; Butterfly punch, Marvy Uchida

I loved the sentiment in the paper that I went with that as my background and continued it with my card title. The butterfly added balance and whimsy to my card.

Romantic Adventure Minibook

Supplies used: Coconut Scrapshop September 08 kit; Travel word stickers- Making Memories; Chipboard letters (v & s) Target dollar spot and (e, g & a) Celebrate Life, KI Memories; Black pen- Millennium, Zig

This was by far my most favorite project with the kit. It came fast, easy and cute! LOL. Things that made this easy and fast are (1) The sheer album created a fun book that doesn't really need much work on it. I left it as is but inked the edges of it. Warning: this is a very messy process. (2) I chose to work with 4x6 photos. Picked the best out of the bunch of course but bec. I worked with the regular sized photos, I eliminated the process of cropping. I did however had to crop two of my vertical 4x6. That's the only ones I had to cut. :) and (3) The journaling spot/blocks provided me with a quick and easy way to journal little snippets of my travel all along the book.

















here's the back. I traced one of the album sheets/page onto the blue cardstock and cut.


We usually see ribbons strung onto the chain of minibooks so I varied it with adding chipboard letters onto the chain. The letters spelled out VEGAS!


Hope you got inspired. Kits are available here. Get it while while it's hot!

Have a great day,
Grace