June 2013: Cindy Scraps

in the garden..

so far, our garden is doing well w/ a few pests we are working hard on ridding naturally as much as we possibly can. while we were away in CT earlier this month, there must have been some windy weather as a few of our red onions were uprooted, some damaged. and those annoying green critters are having a field day in w/ our cabbage and broccoli.

cabbage

broccoli (this was our greatest surprise & we have two of them)

zucchini

yellow squash

yellow tomatoes

roma tomatoes

eggplant

asparagus

bell peppers

butter lettuce

xo

triangles + journaling...

i love summer! long days and short nights. the first few weeks of summer has been crazy and i'm so glad all the extra curricular activities have come to a close. now the kids & i can enjoy our summer days w/out any major commitments. well, until it's time for swimming lessons, but that in itself should be fun!

while it's nice & hot outside, i have also been enjoying the art of scrapbooking. i'm finding having my kids home all day is inspiring me more and more to want to create. it's the little things they say and do that has me wanting to pick up my camera more and more. i am truly loving it!

my layout i created is a new favorite. i love how it turned out. this weeks focus on over at Lily Bee is creative journaling. this layout though focuses more on design than journaling, but i love how using letter stickers throughout page act as embellishments. i used short sentences and simple phrases to tell the story behind my photo.

this layout also features my own digital die-cutting file, geometric triangles, for today's blog post at the Lily Bee blog and it's free! the geometric triangles can be downloaded here.

thanks for stopping by, xo!

father's day...

a rare moment. pictures w/ dad on Father's Day...

summer solstice

today i'm sharing a layout i created using a good mix of Lily Bee products, old & new. i love to mix & match these products together... this layout went up on the blog yesterday here, documenting one of my favorite summer traditions.

Spending time at the beach, running through the sprinkler in the backyard, and just plain grilling are just a few of my favorite summertime memories. Though, celebrating the Fourth of July with my family is probably the most favorite and setting off fireworks is probably been our family tradition since the beginning. We spend several hours outside counting down the clock and awaiting the sunset so we can begin our fun. I get a kick out of my kids excitement as they watch the fireworks explode. Their reaction is comical, nervous, and full of joy. Sadness always weighs in once all the fireworks are done, but then we get to sit on our front porch and watch the professionals shoot off fireworks into the sky in our neighborhood. A perfect ending to a wonderful summer day celebrating our freedom.

xo!

he's whittling...

Memorial Day weekend we spent at camping with Tyler's cub scout Pack. it was really nice. we had the entire campsite to ourselves. hiked on many trails, enjoyed extremely delicious food and enjoyed all the sunshine mother nature provided. it was great! Tim stayed and camped out w/ Tyler for the weekend while Corinne & i only visited for the day. we had to get home to tend to Nala. plus, it was nice spending more mama & daughter time together w/out the boys for a change.

Tyler also earned his whittling badge, which he loves so much. he was super excited to earn his award and also his official cub scout whittling knife :)

my favorite photo is this... nice to see them both hang together doing something they both are enjoying and the whole aspect of doing something out of the normal routine...

good day...xo!

GB | project life...

this was suppose to go live last, but i had it scheduled later...
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here are some snapshots of my project life/project 12 entry using Gossamer Blue's June Bits & Pieces kit... this month is all about March.

you can read more about the details here and be sure to share your projects over on Gossamer Blue's Pinterest board for your chance to win a sweet prize here TODAY!!!

have a lovely week, xo!

Lily Bee Design | Page Maps

this month Lily Bee Design has the pleasure of working with Becky Fleck creator of Page Maps . sketches are a huge part of scrapbooking. about 95% of every layout i create i sketch out a several designs in my head and jot them down for reference. many times though, i'll use a Page Maps sketch to give my creativity a jolt. and many times my layouts won't look like the actual sketch. however, there are many times when i am given or find a sketch that i really like, i'll stick w/ the actual design and go from there.

this sketch presented to me put a smile on my face. i LOVED that it's different from my usual design. all the different layers really grabbed my attention.

for my page, i pretty much stuck w/ the overall design down to the stitching. however, i added two photos and moved my journaling towards the bottom of the page instead of in the center. i even played around w/ the strips of pattern paper to make ticket stubs, arrows, etc. out of them for interests, like in the sketch.

and for the first time, i mixed all three Lily Bee collections on this layout, something i've not done in a while or at all since they've been available. i love how they all correlate so well on my page.

if you have time, be sure to check out this months sketch layouts from the rest of the team and definitely challenge yourself to using Becky's amazing sketch designs here. she has a ton of variations in all sorts of sizes based on your scrapbooking or cardmaking preference.

xo...

Day in the Life | May

hello there!

i'm here with another day in the life, May edition... i didn't remember it was the last day of the month until after i arrived home from the gym. but managed to capture enough that shows how our day went. pretty relaxing really and i didn't do a lot of selfies this time. well, maybe just one... used my cell phone b/c i didn't feel like lugging my dslr and i couldn't find my Fuji x10 until later that afternoon. oh well! anyway, here are some snippets from our day...