Summer Camp. a happy place to be.

not real summer camp. i mean the August kit available at Studio Calico!!

there are still great add-ons left in the shop...and they all have a bit of something i love. Footpath for the Sass Paper Whimsies and Girls' Paperie chip alpha, Adirondack for that AWESOME Basic Grey chip alpha and Elk Lake for that crazy amazing STAR BORDER STAMP.

i can't quite put my finger on why...but i love the three layouts i made with this one. well...maybe i do. let me see if i can sort it out.

this first one is a marraige of a few happy things. a cool photo of my daughter, the awesome 8x8 ledger paper, grey + teal + orange...all good things in my book. and on my never-ending quest to do something fun with die-cut border paper, i played around and really like how this turned out. i cut out the middle of the My Mind's Eye paper and used it on the next layout...i removed a few scallops from each side to reduce the size of the frame that it made, and just conveniently placed some punched pieces over the 'seams'. i really like how it turned out! supplies: Summer Camp Main Kit, Square Asterisk Punch, Medallion Punch, BG File Set, Tiny Attacher + Refills.

this next one was definitely about the story. i snapped this pic of Allie while we were in D.C. at the Library of Congress. she was DEVASTATED when we found out you have to be 16 to enter the Main Reading Room. like, seriously...devastated. the gal there showed us to the observatory where you can look into the Main room, but no pictures are allowed of the Main room. so i happened to look over at her, standing on her tiptoes, craning her neck to see as much as she could. she looked at me and said 'Mom...loooooooooooooooook at all of those books...i could spend days in there and never come out'. it broke my heart, to be honest. i'm stoked that she loves reading + libraries so much, so it just seemed awful that she couldn't actually go in. she tried pleading with the gal...to no avail. my journaling and title here are about their interaction, lol. i spliced in bits of more of that 8x8 paper with the alpha paper and kind of quilted it a bit along the right side...and did a ton o'journaling on the left. and look at me...USING FLOWERS!! supplies: Bumpy Road border punch, Main Kit


this last one is about my nephew Zach...we got to spend time with him while we were in D.C. and i was reminded of how proud i am of the young man he has become. just a good egg, you know? so laid back about every single thing...and Allie absolutely idolizes him.

supplies: Donut Chain border punch, SC Patterned Paper, Bumpy Road border punch, Months stamps (still my favorite set OF ALL TIME).

that's all she wrote for my Summer Camp offerings this month...will blog again this weekend with thoughts on CHA.

i'm just so happy to be home!

:)

my winner from the Sketches2 class spot...

is Suzan T Zavala!!
shoot me an email and i can send the info on to Kelly!!
(brains32192ataoldotcom)

thanks for all who entered...i'm here in Chicago at CHA, working at the Studio Calico booth and walking the floor checking out all of the new goods. definitely LOTS of good things heading to an SC Kit near you!!

:)

Sketchbook 2...with Kelly Purkey and the Studio Calico Team!

hey everyone!! guess what i am giving away today?! yep.
you loved the first time around...here's your chance to repeat the fun + productivity!!
Kelly Purkey was kind enough to ask us all to participate in her sequel to the original Sketches class, and if you leave a comment here, i'll choose one lucky winner to be able to take the class FOR FREE!!

here's a sneak of my sketch...

and here's an example of what gets delivered to your inbox during the class...

oodles of inspiration + fun = WIN/WIN!

(don't worry if you've already registered...if you win, Kelly will happily refund your original fee!)

here's a link to her BLOG, where you can check out the details for yourself.

looking forward to seeing a big turnout for this class!

just leave a comment, telling me something about yourself...what you're enjoying for summer, your favorite new release from CHA, your favorite summertime way to cool down...you get the idea!!

i will close the entries at midnight EST tomorrow night (Sunday 7/25) and post a winner Monday...don't miss your chance!!

Summer Camp sneaks.

hey everyone!

first off, i just want to say thank to all for your sweet comments on my previous post. i am happy to report that she had a BLAST at soccer camp, and can't wait to go back next year. we were so dang excited to pick her up last Thursday that it felt like that 2-hour drive took at least 4, lol. but she's home now...and loving soccer just as much as ever.

i wanted to share my sneaks for the Studio Calico August kit, Summer Camp, before leaving for Chicago. we are going for a long weekend with another family who hasn't been there before...and then i am staying behind to attend the Summer CHA show with Studio Calico. i'm pretty excited to show our friends around town (YES, we do all the 'touristy' things when we go with people who haven't been...and we LOVE it! Shedd Aquarium? check. Navy Pier? absolutely. American Girl? you bet!)...and we always have so much fun with them, that it's sure to be a blast. we've known them for about 6 years now...their oldest daughter and Allie started soccer together waaaaaaaaay back when they were wee, and have been on the same team ever since. we're definitely lucky to have met people like that along the way with all of the mayhem that has happened while we've been involved with that sport.

i got sidetracked, lol.

so...i used the Main kit (Summer Camp) and the first add-on (Sugar Woods) this month. I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH: Sugar Woods is worth the hype. LOOK at that set of mini alphabet stamps! i love it. it will be used overandoverandoverandover. i find myself constantly reaching for the Months Stamps on just about everything as well...you can't go wrong with those. i was pretty wordy with my layouts this month, lol...go figure.

the My Mind's Eye So Sophie ledger stickers made it onto every layout this month, yes they did.

am i the only one who is stumped by large, die-cut papers?! i say that, yet always find myself using them lol...just not as they may have originally been intended. :)

there you have it!

Summer Camp sneaks, and a profession of love for small alpha stamps.

have an awesome Wednesday!

5 days away.

i have to be honest.

this photo hurt my heart a bit.

we were packing up the car yesterday morning to drive 2 hours away...and drop Allie off at soccer camp at a college campus.

she has been crazy excited about this. talking NON-STOP since we ok'd the idea a few months ago. she and 11 other girls from her team are there...living in a college dorm, giggling it up and playing their hearts out for 5 straight days. 8+ hours of field time per day. swimming, meals and fun mixed in to break things up a bit.

and like i mentioned, she'd been rambling incessantly for about 3 months about how excited she was.

until Saturday night when we were packing all of her gear.

and she kind of looked at me in the living room...and burst into tears.

any idea how hard it is for me (probably any mama for that matter), to NOT cry when your baby flops in your arms and cries the ugly cry? the one that shakes your whole body, where no sound comes out...just panic?

but by some miracle, i held it together.

and i heard her out. she was just scared at the thought of ALL of it. being away from us. 2 hours away. in a dorm. away from us. for 5 days. away from us. and though i reminded her that she has been away from us before, she gently and quietly reminded me that she always had family with her, so this was different.

and i get that.

but holy mother of Pele...we were leaving in 12 hours, lol. i had to think of something.

so i reminded her of how tight she is with her team.

and that they were her family for the next 5 days.

which kind of calmed her a bit. i think she just needed to let out all of that fear she'd had building up in a good old-fashioned, cry your face off kind of way.

the ride yesterday was a quiet one...i think we were all a bit apprehensive.

but as soon as we got her checked in, helped she and her roomie make up their beds and put away their stuff in their swanky college dorm rooms...it was all good.

and she burst into that smile i love.

and we skedaddled...because then it was my turn to shed a tear or two.

:)

she didn't see me. they had all taken off for their first big meeting...all excited about watching the World Cup Final on the big screen (way to go Spain!!).

and Mike knows me well enough to just stand behind me and put an arm around my shoulder to give me a squeeze...thank you for that, hon.

and after they had all turned the corner, us parents looked at each other...laughed a bit about how it wasn't as hard as we thought it would be...and headed home.

i'll admit, i was still nervous the whole ride home. i called my best friend for some comfort (thank you, Jenn...love you), Mike & i chatted about how odd it was that she wasn't in the back seat and i just waited for her to call last night. not sure what to expect. hoping she had avoided any girl drama that may have happened, lol...that they were having fun...and not knowing how she would sound.

then at about 9:15pm my phone rang...and you'd have thought the President was calling.

i grabbed it, showed it to Mike and said: 'IT'S ALLIE!!!'

he laughed. :)

and i hesitated. the moment of truth. waiting to hear her voice. wondering if it would be shaky with tears.

nope.

you could feel the happy in her voice. i can't even think of a word to do it justice. i think the apprehension was lifted completely after being there for that short period of time and now she is settling in and having a ball.

and me?

my heart can rest easy.

because i know she is experiencing so much...all of it with a smile.

that smile i fall for every. single. time.
good gravy.
only 7 more years to college, lol.

if she were 'Pres'...

morning everyone!

wanted to share a layout i finished yesterday for the Lily Bee blog...i wanted to get my thoughts about this conversation i had with my daughter down while they were still fresh in my mind, and the 'Hello Sunshine' line seemed perfect. this line is awesome for so many uses, but i love that it added a bit of a 'patriotic' feel to my page (which fit the subject), without being themey at all. :)

while in Washington D.C. this past weekend, we saw soooooooo many cool things. in fact, i choked up several times (surprise lol) while telling her about the history, etc. of wherever we were...and i think she really got something out of this trip. she was sad to go (as we all were), being that we on;y saw probably a third of what we had hoped. this photo is from the Smithsonian Museum of American History, where they have a special exhibit on the presidency. you get to stand behind a podium with a teleprompter, etc...basically give your own address to the nation.

it was crazy busy there with the holiday of course, so she kind of said a little something, let me snap her pic and we moved on. while we were looking around i asked her what would be different if she could be President for just one day...and the journaling on the right is what she came up with. :)

it cracks me up.

it's so 'her' right now...it was a fun way to kind of capture a bit of her at this moment.

definitely need to do this more often.
:)

supplies:

Lily Bee Hello Sunshine line, American Crafts glossy chipboard alphabet, Binding Edge Punch, Bracket Border Punch, Labels, Studio Calico Months stamps and Studio Calico Noah Numbers stamps.