Scrapping Day 7

Okay so this one is a little weird.  My sister graduated from college, and of course, her school colors are hideous...red and purple?!?!  But I wanted this page to reflect her school, so I tried my best.  I found this in my Pinterest board and went with it.

I was able to use up some purple paper and boarder stickers I've had for a while (not my favorite color) and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out in the end.  (Remember that red and purple are school colors!)

Scrapping Day 6

Another birthday layout.  Not normally how I scrap, but I bought a few papers specifically for a few of Ava's birthday pics.  This sketch was perfect for the two I used along with the papers.  This messy cupcake face and Ava playing with Mufasa were more important to me than pretty pictures of Blue's Clues cupcakes and posed smiles.

I used as many 2's as I could in the embellishments with out having them stand out too much.  I love seeing them peeking out here and there.  

Scrapping Day 5

I'm sad I can't find this original inspiration either.  But again, I'm sure it was this gal, who is amazaballs.

My mom's dog is the best with Ava.  She just lays there to get rubbed, or in this case, put sunglasses on.  More boarder punches, and just a few journalling blocks.  Of course, Thickers too.  

Insta-Friday!

My favorite! Here's what we did this week!

What would you do for a Klondike bar?  We enjoyed a warm Alaskan evening (in the 70s) outside.  The neighbor came over and gave Ava a (huge) Klondike bar, and she totally made a beautiful mess!

We went to Home Depot to pick out fixtures for when my dad comes up next week (yay!) to help us fix up our downstairs bathroom.  This is what's in the upstairs bath right now, and man do I love that toilet paper holder (it lifts up instead of messing with that spring loaded thing).  But did you know those things are like $30?!?!

My new mid-afternoon drink.  And good citrus is hard to come by, so instead of a slice of orange in my iced tea, I just splash in a little OJ, still delish.

And my second Brazilian Blowout is about 2 months old, but I woke up with the hair I've always dreamed about one morning (little wavy, good body, not tangled, shiny).  Best $300 ever spent.  Ever.

WWF and I were fighting.  I had mostly vowels in all my games.  I was in a WWF funk for sure.

And Ava is always talking about how "Mommy making!" while I crochet.  So I made her a little lace card and gave her a piece of yarn of her own.  This was a huge hit for a good 15 minutes.  She was so proud of "Ava making too!"  <3

That was our week, what about yours?

Scrapping Day 4

Shimelle has totally turned me on to two, and three pics on my pages.  I'm able to get more action, emotion, and different perspectives on the page.  I feel like I'm able to use brighter papers and more embellishments because the larger photo-block can handle it.

I was inspired by this page.  I don't do many pages off-kilter, but I thought this one was fun.  Ava loves (avo)cados and I wanted to always remember how good they are in Houston!

Scrapping Day 3

Wha-wha...I con't find the inspiration for this one. But I'm sure it was Shimelle.

I've had this die-cut Bazzil paper pack (two of them actually) for, ahem, years.  Gramma loves red, so I decided to use it already.  The background paper isn't what I'm normally drawn to either, but it totally reminds me of a shirt Gramma would wear.  I want to get as many of these memories with Ava and her Great-Gramma as I can!  I love watching them play together.

Scrapping Day 2

Next, I wanted to get something in from Ava's birthday.  I followed this, but turned it on it's side since I had three landscape photos.  They are a little dark since I forgot my camera at home and only had my phone.  But I'm not going to let that stop me from remembering what we did and the fun we had.  Ava still talks about bowling with Daddy, the shoes, and pushing the green ball down the slide!  

I love using up all these boarder stickers, and being able to punch out cute little strips with my punches too!  In the album, I also included the print out of our scores.  

Scrapping Day 1

I've been scrapping a ton of pics I took in Houston last month (and a few big events right before we left), as well as using my new stash I bought while down there.  Shimelle does a sketch a week, and I've had quite a few pinned to Pinterest.  Because I had such a large stack of prints, I didn't want to reinvent the wheel, so I followed quite a few of them.  I'll be sharing what I've finished this week.  Hope you like!

Printing this picture was an accident.  I don't remember why, but I don't usually print enlargements, and my home printer was acting wonky.  I found this sketch though, and I got out my new boarder stickers, punches, and journalling spots and made it happen.  There wasn't much to journal about this pic, so I didn't.  It's pretty clear to see, just a family shot right before heading out to Easter Sunday church.  

Love Insta-Friday!

Insta-Friday makes me smile.  Even when I feel like a bad blogger, I can't wait to go through the week's pics and share what we've been up to!

Hello Kitty + Yogurtland = My head nearly exploded.

And Eddie came home!  Ava and I have been sticking it out, just the two of us while he was training in New Jersey.  But we picked him up, and immediately went to Yogurtland.  lol.  Awesome husband.

A rainbow!

And I'm working on a new earwarmer/headband for the shop this year.  Termination dust (snow on the mountains) will fall soon enough up here.

We went to the Governor's Picnic where they had a Balck Hawk for the kids to play in.  Ava wanted to play so bad, but she was so nervous to go alone.  We walked by several times, and she finally got up the nerve.  Then we stayed there nearly the whole time and didn't do any other activities.  lol

And after a busy week of beautiful sunshine God blessed us with rain so we could rest.

This is my fridge.  I started participating in Ali's Week In the Life project.  I did it last year and really loved the process, and the album now is a treasure.  But this week was just no good for us so I didn't follow through.  

This is not my picture, but I saved it to my phone.  It's from a local news stations' contest "Anything Moose Alaska".  Mama and her babes found their way in to someone's pool.  It was apparently a mess once they were done with it.  The baby drinking out of the ring like a water dish is adorable.

And this one is adorable too.  We watched Charlotte's Web a few weeks ago, and found this Pee-Wee Pillow Pet around the same time.  She sleeps with her piggy every night now (because Fern sleeps with Wilbur in the beginning of the movie).  

See ya soon!

Insta-Friday!

Finding my blogging groove again.  Insta-Friday is back!  One of my favorite days of the week!  I woke up this morning thinking, "Oh Friday, what do we do today?  Insta-Friday!  And I forgot to put out the trash!"  But no worries, I got that stinky stuff out just in time for the trash man to round the corner.  Yay Jesus!  But, here's our week!

This is our first year planting flowers up here, so I wasn't sure what these prickly flowers would be.  

Eddie bought me a ticket to Harry Potter, and called the baby sitter for me so I could go on Friday.  Love that guy!  All that while he's 4000 miles away!

I finished a few scrapbook pages, here's one in process.  I seem to be smitten with 3-photo layouts right now.  I'll post them soon!

Being a tourist in our own town, walking down 5th Ave Ava found this stuffed bear family to say "hi" to.

And a moose to snuggle up with.

And I was having some Hawaii-blues, so we had dinner at L&L.  Chicken Katsu is delish!

Playing at the park.

And 93 points without a Triple-Word score!  But I did get 2 Double Words on the same word.  Erica and I have been playing for over a year straight!

Thank you Pinterest.  My salt is now cute and more convenient.  (Morton salt spout fits on wide mouth mason jars.)

Coming to the shop very soon!

And mornings have been wonderful.

We'll do this again next week!  <3

Back on the Wagon

A year ago (about) I lost 70 pounds.  Yay!  If I do say so myself, but I have been stagnant lately, and still have 30 pounds to get to my goal.  So I'm back on the Weight Watchers wagon, and having success again. I'm currently in *love* with Fage (greek yogurt).  I'll eat it with honey, or fresh fruit, make tzatziki with it (greek yogurt sauce, I'll post a recipe next time I measure everything out) for veggies, brown sugar and strawberries with Fage are delicious too.  I've got some Nutella to get married up with the Fage, but I haven't gotten there yet.  Mostly because when I cut some fruit I think that would pair well, I can't stop dreaming of this...

Peanut Butter Fage dip is the best name I have for it.  Definitely better on the chub than a huge dollop of straight-up pb, this stuff tastes like Yogurtland Peanut Butter yogurt (I had a *duh* moment when I made that connection, lol).  I can't remember where I found this recipe, but I think it was a few places, and a changed it up some.

Peanut Butter Fage dip

1/2 cup Fage

1 T Peanut Butter

1/2 tsp honey or brown sugar (you'll be surprised how little sweetener you need)

splash vanilla extract

dash cinnamon

Mix together, serve with cut fruit.  Apples are my favorite.  Makes 2-3 servings.

The end of an era.

I love my husband. Like, lovelovelove him. He surprised me with a babysitter and a ticket to Harry Potter in IMAX 3D on Friday night. Hello! Who's a blessed girl?!  I did have a couple days of warning, so I hunted down all the previous movies and had a super marathon.

Ava and I had just enough time to get through all the movies before Friday night.  Ava has limited TV time usually, but we made an exception in this case.  Throughout the marathon she kept shouting "Harry Potter!", "Sirius, okay?" (he was speaking through the fire and that confused her), and toward the end she figured out "Voldemort, scary!".  

Friday night I was a big ball of emotions.  I was so anxious in the hours before.  It really is an end of an era for me.  And the more I thought about it, I remember exactly where I was when I read the first books, and watched the first movies.  Just a kid in high school, wrapping Christmas presents at Borders when I first heard about the series.  And to think I watched all of the previous movies with my *daughter* 12 (or 13) years was so special.  

But on to the movie, I haven't watched a movie in 3D in 15 years?!  So that was a trip.  Less stuff flying at me, and more stuff just closer to me.  I really can't believe its over.  It's been over for years really (the books ended it obviously) but I'm sad all over again that it's really over.  The end of an era for sure. 

Yum-o Iced Coffee!

P-Dub posted her Perfect Iced Coffee about a month ago, and I was all over it.  She's my homegirl, and has never steered me wrong.  (I heart her pecan pie, and white chicken chili off the top of my head.)  I had a hard time finding a 2-gallon container up here, you know, in the frozen sticks.  So while I was searching, Julie on Joy's Hope posted about her adventures.  So I knew it could be messy.  Coffee and grounds everywhere I imagined.  But I will say that after a month of dreaming about it, and only a few grounds spilled, I have a gallon of iced coffee waiting for my in my fridge.  I will sleep well tonight!

Funner Summer - Staycation Part 4

We did something very Alaskan and went camping and dipnet fishing!  We've been here for over 2 years, and never done it!  Essentially, you wade into the water up to your chest at the mouth of the river, and hold out a huge (5 foot wide!) net on the end of an even huger pole (I think ours was 15 feet long!) and wait for the fish to swim in.  Crazy right?!

The tide tables said it would be a slow weekend, but we didn't care.  We just wanted to get out there!  Any excuse to camp is a good excuse!  This was Ava's first camping experience and I think she loved it.  She played in the sand, ran around, slept late, and ate marshmallows!  We ended up with 4 salmon, and a flounder!

And we're off!

Alaska!

Look, it's warm!!!

We made it!

We tried for s'mores, but Ava prefers her marshmallows rare, and couldn't be bothered with a cracker and chocolate.  

Playing in the sand.  How weird is it that she's wearing sweats in the sand?! (It was cold...)

Midnight sunset!

Our crazy camping neighbors.  He had a generator for his coffee pot, waffle iron, and microwave (for Hot Pockets...huh?!)!  The next morning he still made a donut run.  Crazy!

Eddie heading in the water!  It was chilly, but bearable, especially with insulated waders.

Some of our catch!

We cooked one whole for dinner.  It was SO good!  The best salmon I've ever had!  

Waterfalls on the way home.

Once we got home, we filet'ed (???) our salmon, and vacuum packed them for the freezer.  I took a piece off the belly and it was the best salmon sashimi I'd ever had!  Can't wait to go again!  We're waiting for a big tide to see what we get!  Man, I love camping!