It's beginning to look a lot like....

Christmas!

My favorite time of the year!

I count down the days until December 1st starting January 1st.  Shh...don't tell my husband!

I have my Christmas shopping mostly done, Christmas music on my Pandora station and I'm dreaming of my December Daily album.  Although I document our everyday with Project Life, I love love love the December album.  It truly is magical....just like the season.

I'm trying to get everything in order for this year since we have a super busy December coming up full of trips to Disney World, 2nd birthdays, a girls trip to NYC, cookie parties and preschool Christmas shows.  

For most of my album I will be sticking with the kit from Studio Calico.

Beautiful, isn't it???

Anyone else doing a December Daily album?  I'd love to hear from you!!

Kids Art Kit: Finished Mini Album

Earlier in the week I shared the Kids Travel Art Kit I put together for our beach trip.  It was a perfect way to have some down time in the afternoon rather than watching television.  

When I got back home, I put added our photos into the book to create a simple, but fun mini album.

Here are some of our pages...

I love how each page is totally handmade and unique!  And I love including all of Anna's fun artwork.  I'm sure she'll love looking back on it when she's older!!

Insta Love

I love Instagram.  Love it.  I love that I always have a camera with me and that I can share my photos with family and friends.  I love that I can document the "everyday" all day long without lugging around my big ole camera.  I love that I catch those special little hugs, quiet naps, messy treats and sweet moments.  I love looking back through the photos and seeing how much my two sweet kids have grown just this year.

Here is an "insta" look at our last couple of weeks.  All fun, all good.

From the top left:

UNC football game

Drew going to "pretend preschool"

Anna taking a rare, but needed nap

Drew and his cute little cheeks

Drew swinging higher

Our new home

Messy painting fun

Anna's preschool teacher

Anna's first day of preschool

Messy treats after dinner

Yummy beers on tap

Big slides

Funny Anny

First haircut for Drew

More swinging Drew-man

Anna's "first day" sign

And she's off...

Anna started preschool yesterday.....sigh.

Her excitement leading up to the first day was so contagious!  She carried her lunchbox and backpack around for days and kept talking about her "new friends".  

Hoping she has a fabulous preschool year!  

Love you my super big three year old!

goodbye summer.

Preschool and our fall schedule starts next week!  Can't believe Summer has already come and gone.  Looking forward to cooler weather, changing leaves, family time and football games.  

goodbye summer.

hello fall.

Mini Masterpieces Photo Book

This art book has been on my to-do list for quite some time and I am just tickled pink that it is finally completed!!  

Liz Tamanaha from Paislee Press teamed up with Shutterfly to offer this awesome mini masterpiece book.

I save most all of Anna's artwork in some form.  If the piece is no larger than 12x12, I either keep it in her art box or use it in our Project Life album.  Some of the larger pieces, three-dimensional pieces or just random pieces I photograph and keep an electronic copy.

All of the "masterpieces" I included in this book were photographed and then uploaded to Shutterfly just like any other picture.  I tried to scan a few art pieces in, but I found that the quality of the photographed art was better than the scanned art.

I also used some random pictures of her creating her "masterpieces".  

These are pictures from "My First Book" that Anna made last year.

All in all, I am over the moon with this super adorable album!  I love how all her artwork from age 2 is kept nice and neat in this simple album.  I can't wait to make another one for age 3 and then for my little guy once I get a good pile from him!!

If you have tons of artwork floating around your house I highly recommend photographing it and making your own mini masterpiece album!!  So fun!!

On Motherhood...

And we're off...

It's official! 

We are in the process of moving allll of our stuff from Maryland to North Carolina.  I'm looking forward to getting home and spending lots and lots and lots of time with my wonderful family.  And not just vacation time.  

I have some blog posts ready to go while we are out and about, but for the most part I'll take a little blog hiatus! 

Hope you all enjoy the end of the summer.  Preschool starts soon for as, as well as a fun new weekday schedule.  I'll be sharing much much more soon!!

xoxo

Family Memory Game

This family memory game has been on my to-do list since I saw this post from Charla Anne.

It took a while to find all the right pictures, print them and cut them out, but the finished product is so seriously awesome.

My daughter loves playing this game and it's really neat to see all the pictures.  I bet it will be even cooler in a few years when my two kiddos are older.

It would be an awesome birthday or Christmas gift too!

Signs of a great vacation....

Finally home after an awesome two week vacation!  We had lots of fun, hung out with allllll of our family and and ate lots of yummy food!  Oh yeah....and we sold our house and bought a new one!

Missing everyone, but glad to be back home!

Project Life - Days of the Week Templates

I have another Project Life template for you today!!

I typically use Design A as my base pages.  These little 3x4 days of the week templates are perfect for those little pockets.

Click below for the zipped folder:

Days of the Week 3x4 Templates

Enjoy and please drop me a line to let me know how you like them!

Happy "Project Life-ing" friends!

Goodbye February, Hello March!

Wow...where did February go?  I can't believe we are already into the month of March!  My goals for February were pretty much hit or miss (see below)....and I'm okay with that.  A lot is happening at our house and the days have literally just slipped by. 

For March, I decided to use my prompt from the One Little Word class to "take action" and plan 31 fun activities for myself, our family and our kids.  (Refresher: my "word" is balance so my March action list includes a balance of activities for us all)  Some of these things we would typically do anyway, and some are new.  Regardless, we will have fun this month!  I have taped this list onto the inside of our cabinet for easy reference throughout the month!!

On to my February goals...

The cinnamon sugar pull apart bread and the rosemary bread were fabulous and are definintely on my "to-make-again-soon" list!

I spent lots of time knitting my blanket....and it's going to take a lot more time.  Did you know it's almost impossible to knit around a 3-year old?  Who knew??  :)

 I have all my supplies to make my stenciled pillow.....maybe this month, huh??

And that picture wall....well....maybe later.  I'm just not feeling it yet and I don't want to just throw something up that I don't absolutely love!!

So...here's to March!!

Project Life - Free Templates for Design E

I'm not surprised at how much I love Project Life, but I am surprised at how much I love using Photoshop Elements to help me document in my album.  I am a photo junkie and I tend to take lots and lots of pictures (think about 500-1000 a month...yikes).  In order to try to include as many photos as possible I created a couple of templates in Elements and I thought I'd share with all those Project Life lovers like myself.

I have four photo grid templates for you today! 

They are all 6x6 and are perfect for Becky Higgins' Design E page protectors.  I love this style...probably because everything looks so clean and uniform.  Below are a few examples of how you can use the templates.

A zip folder of the templates is at the bottom!

6x6 Template

Nine Grid

6x6 Template

Four Grid

6x6 Template

Four Grid

(I couldn't decide if I liked a larger grid or a smaller grid so I made both)

6x6 Template

Two Photos

Click below for the templates

Design E Templates

New to Photoshop Elements?  Click here for a free trial! 

Have fun playing around!!  Drop me a line if you use them!

 Happy "Project Life-ing" everyone!

Weekend in Pictures

Our Leap Day Time Capsule

I saw the neatest idea yesterday morning on Becky Higgins Facebook page about making a time capsule on leap day so I grabbed my camera, got clickin' and kept a little log of our day.  The whole idea is to document your day in photos and words, seal it up and open the capsule four years later.  How cool will it be to look back on our life on this very same day in four years?  I just love that!!

Here's what I included in our time capsule:

Photo collages of our day

Our daily schedule (I literally wrote down every thing we did yesterday)

A letter to my husband and kids about where I think they will be in four years

Current age, height, weight, etc. about each of us

Fun facts about each of our family members

Funny sayings from my kids today

The weather

Important news

Current prices (gas, stamps, milk)

Our meals from this day

A picture of our February calendar

Artwork from Anna from preschool today and some random pictures she drew

What we are reading right now

My husband's business card

I put everything in a 12x12 Big Envelope folder from Becky Higgins, added a little label and sealed it up!

This was such a cool project and I love that it is now all sealed up until February 29, 2016.

And here's a quick glimpse into our day...

Happy March everyone!!