weekend adventures

Ellie and her castle

My father-in-law and sister-in-law came down from Maine to visit us this weekend. It was fun. They hadn't seen the baby since last summer! Now she's a big kid. We went to a local "castle" in town next to the ocean. Hammond Castle was created by a man who holds records for the most patents. It's a beautiful, mid-evil home next to the harbor...

my favorite part of the castle

Daddy pointing out something to his girl

Thinking gargoyle - had fun editing this one.

view of the harbor

Later that day we went to the zoo in Boston and had so much fun...

Playing with the budgies - this is Ellie's favorite part! She tries to catch them. No fear!

Feeding the budgies with me. She's thinking..."Come a little closer little birdie!"

Swinging joy!

Sliding joy!

Hanging out with the gorilla.

Worn out from the day!

She got to have time bonding with family we rarely see and she had a lot of fun. But less sleep than usual! It was a battle trying to get her to fall asleep for a nap yesterday after they left. I lost the battle! So today we are aiming for a "normal" day at home!

Happy Monday!

happy day after the 4th

waiting for the fireworks

We ended up having a really good 4th. At first it seemed like it would be almost non-existent. Cary had to switch shifts on the 3rd because we needed childcare. In our town the fireworks and parade are on the 3rd. But Ellie and I went to the parade...(I forgot my camera...gasp!)...and he had to work all day on the 4th. But when he got home we went out for fried seafood and found some fireworks in another town. It was so fun! The watching area was in a big farm field. Beautiful. Ellie had fun running around but when we needed her to sit with us just before the fireworks started she had a fun tantrum for herself. We both had visions of having to leave just as the fireworks began! But she held off and actually was really fascinated by the lights and fireworks. It was so nice! Maybe a new tradition? I haven't had a chance to upload photos from my camera from that adventure yet. This one is just from my phone when she sat still long enough to photograph!

 But here are a few layouts I worked on a few weeks ago. They go into two different albums I have going on. One of my childhood and the other is just a non-chronological album from this year and last. Yesterday I finished up a pile of layouts by adding dates and journaling. Even got one done with my new June Cocoa Daisy kit. Hope to post those in a few days... Here they are! Thanks for looking...

1st Skating Show: Here is another layout from a stack I did when I challenged myself to just use some new papers, etc. I had just gotten. This goes in my childhood album. I figure skated for 10+ years beginning when I was 8...with this annual skating show. It was to the music Macho Duck! So funny....but that was how it began!

Home: Another from the stack I challenged myself to do with the same pp. This layout is about our first home we bought last July. It is a little end-unit condo in my hometown. I never thought I would be able to buy a home close to where I grew up. We still want to have a regular house in the future, with a yard, etc. But this is just perfect for now.

The Story of a Girl: For this layout I forced myself to use two patterned papers I got in a grab bag years ago at my LSS. It was bright and colorful for my girl. I mixed in some much older embellishments and some newer. Over all it is a very basic layout...which actually tend to be the ones my eyes are drawn to most. Simple.

Happy Friday! Enjoy the weekend...

keeping my hand on the wheel

Fishermen's Memorial: Gloucester, MA

Wow. Life has been hectic these past weeks. I'm trying desperately to stay afloat at my new job. Intakes. Intakes. Paperwork. Intakes. More hours than I counted on. Trying to learn the ropes. It is challenging. I'm hoping that once I finish this pile of intakes, schedule appointments, and start seeing the kids I will fall into a routine. It's just that I have to build up my caseload all at once it is overwhelming.

My goal is to fall into a routine and take out some time for me. I had a little bit of time today when I got home before my husband and baby girl did. I had a wicked sinus headache though. I've been battling a cold and cough for the past week. Definately making things more challenging. After some tylenol though I got some motivation to do some weeding and cleaning up in our little patch of earth in front of our condo. I have been looking forward to that so much.

I have a pile of half finished layouts on my desk. I would like to say I'll get to do some work on them this weekend but I'm not certain. It is also the end of the semester and I have a stack of papers to grade for my college job. Ugh. Students think they have it rough this time of year! They. have. no. idea.

Hope everyone has a Happy Friday!

week & St. Patrick's weekend

Our City Hall through the trees

 It's been a good Spring Break week and weekend. Got to take a long walk with my dad, sister, and sweetpea earlier this week. This weekend I went to the bi-annual giant consignment sale and bought the baby a pile of clothes for her next size up. Such a good deal. Several pieces still had the tags on them. Took some time organizing a pile of hand-me-downs too. I love space bags! They are amazing for tasks/storage like this.

Also went to two yarn stores during our area's yearly "Yarn Crawl." I was responsible and only bought 3 skeins to add to my large stash. I have plans to make this owlet sweater for sweetpea with the pretty rich blue I have here... and some fingerless mitts for my good friend and daycare provider with this....

I was into blue that day it seems.

Also baked up two loafs of my Irish Freckle Bread...I started this tradition about 6 years ago or so. It is a recipe I found online. We used to have my Nana's recipe but it literally disintegrated it was so old and worn. This recipe is delicious. Would be happy to share if you'd like!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

mayville, ny

Here are my pile of layouts I created last week to document a Girl's trip with my Mom & sister we took in 2010...

We took the trip to a small town in upstate NY where my mom lived when she was in kindergarten and my Grandfather worked at Welch's. It was so much fun and let us see my mom in a different way...

The grapevines...I used a pile of journaling cards on this layout.

closeup of the tags..some I have had for years.

Just us Girl's: we stayed at a hotel my mom remembered staying in as a kid...and we had a pile of junk food! We always refer to ourselves as the snack family. We also played mini-golf...and this is one of only a few pictures we have of the three of us.

closeup: some pretty buttons from the old CD kit. I also cut some banners. Trying to layer papers...

A layout of all the random things we did on the trip. Pretty simple with just a few stickers and patterned papers. 

I also took some time last week organizing my old albums and finishing them up with journaling, album covers, titles, etc. Took out extra page protectors and labeled each on its cover somewhere with the year. It felt good to do that. I am also making great progress on the baby's album of her first year. It is by far the thickest album I have! This morning I fought with the posts to add more pages and organize the pages by date. Added in a few pages that I want to complete. It has been so fun to do and has reinvigorated my love of scrapping. Last night I went to a crop at my LSS. There were only a few women there and I mostly kept to myself since they all knew each other - but it was fun to get out and get some layouts started/finished. I'll post the rest of the layouts I've been working on over the past few weeks tomorrow!

Thanks for looking!

mom and dad & baby me

I love these photos. These are copies that were slightly enlarged of a photo of each of my parents holding me when I was a baby. They make me happy. But they were hard to scrap. I found myself cutting several patterned papers, playing around with them, and being indecisive. They just didn't seem right with the photos. I wanted something cleaner. Very little extras. I'm happy with the end result. The journaling was cathartic for me and brought up a lot of feelings I didn't expect. I feel truly lucky when I see these pictures and think of my childhood and I'm very aware of this not being everyone's experience. I'm so grateful.

I got some great suggestions on my last post re: my clear stamp organization. I looked up the MS binders and page protectors...they look like they could really work well. I am going to go through my stamps and see how many I have and go from there. My biggest concern is that they are slim but they seem like they would bulk up a binder pretty quickly. Has that happened for those of you that store stamps that way?

Thanks for looking!

disney on ice

me and my girl at disney on ice. she was a blur in every picture...constantly moving!

Over the weekend we took sweetpea to her first ice show in the big city. I used to love going to these shows because I grew up figure skating. She did good for being so little...ants in her pants throughout the show! Spent much of the time moving around so she is a blur in almost every picture. Here are a few!

daddy & ellie

home of the boston bruins & celtics

she loves to clap!

seeing ariel

never too young to start asking for $20 toys

brave - my favorite

wow!

beauty & the beast

Thanks for looking!

generations

This is one more page I decided to work on as a break from the baby's album. I have to say the page looks much better in person than in this photo. It seems like the coloring is harsh here...but it is actually much softer. The layout includes a photo I have had for a long time and had tucked away in an older album to scrap. I used a newer paper that I bought that has the words, "Some people strengthen others by just being the kind of people they are." I got that paper with the sole intention of creating a page about my dad. But I found this photo of my dad and his father sitting in our yard. My dad is holding my little brother who was around a year old then. I love this picture. It is the only one I have seen with my dad and grandfather together. This quote actually is fitting for both of them. My dad is a lot like my grandfather in many ways. Quiet, hard-working, intelligent, introspective, wise. 

Here's a closeup....

I also purposely included the strip of paper that looks like a ruler with a woodgrain. It reminded me of them. My grandfather was a Master Carpenter and my dad is an Electrician who can also build anything. I associate the smell of sawdust and the sound of a hammer and nails with them.

Here's one more closeup of the title...I used some really old rub-on's for the title "Generations:"

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family."

So true.






Thanks for looking.

Supplies: Kaiser Craft - Sears & Son - Sidecar; Echo Park - This & That - Yardsticks; Echo Park - Victoria Gardens alpha stickers; SEI Mandera Island chipboard journaling tag; Queen & Co Nightfall pearls; Hambly overlays; 7 Gypsies - Nest - quote sticker.

two years ago

This layout includes two photos from almost exactly 2 years ago. It marked my Dad's 65th birthday and the coincided with a very trying time in our lives. My father and sister's birthday's are only a few weeks apart so they allowed us to have two celebrations at a time when we really needed it. I decided to do this layout and another to tell a few stories of photos that I haven't scrapped. It was also a break from working on the baby's album. I used a really old Cocoa Daisy kit and remembered to write down the supplies this time. I even used the stamp that came in kit. I cut the stamped image in half and used part of the label under "celebrate" and the other half at the top of the page. I sometimes don't feel like dragging out ink and stamps while working on a page but I really like that I can create my own embellishments since I don't tend to buy many. I love my older kits because the product in them is still current in my eyes.

here's a closeup of the title...fun corrugated alphas...

Fast-forward two years...and we are reliving some of the same difficulties again...and looking for ways to celebrate. Which is why sweetpea's birthday was so wonderful a few weeks ago. She brings us all light, joy, and hope. I enjoyed working on this page with all the bright colors and cheerfulness. It helped me.

Thanks for looking:)

Supplies: My Mind's Eye ~So Sophie ~"Best Thing" Red Chevron; Jillibean Soup corrugated white alphas; October Afternoon Night Light ~ Henry ; October Afternoon- Label stickers - Report Card; Cocoa Daisy stamp; Basic Grey stitched brads; K&Co. smash washi tape; mini alphas.

after the storm

our place after the blizzard "Nemo"

 Finally just got outside with the baby. We've been in the house for 48+ hours! My husband got called into work again. Between work and National Guard he hasn't had a day off in over 2 week. Sweetpea wasn't to thrilled with me taking her out in the cold to take pictures. But it is pretty out. Here's the aftermath of a blizzard at our house!

"Are you going to make me go out there Momma?"

An unhappy baby on our front steps

piles in front of our place

pouter in front of the pond across from our house

pond view

sweetpea wishing I would hurry up and go back in

drift on the side of our condo. we are the lowest floor.

snow girl!

Have a happy Sunday!

rollercoaster

my sweetpea reading

Life is a rollercoaster. And not the fun kind. I'd kinda like to get off now. I mentioned yesterday that I am worried about an important person in my life who is dealing with a reoccurance of cancer. Well...the surgery is postponed and chemo will be starting asap. Ugh. I just don't have many words today. I am hoping to sign off and do some scrapbooking as my art therapy tonight. Unfortunately it had to wait until all the evening chores were finished after getting home from work. Now I can try and relax for a bit before I crash. But before I go I'll share a few more random photos that I love...

tiny pink chucks

who me?

cheerio love

my favorite place

one of my favorite people

Thank you for reading. Hoping to catch up on everyone's posts in a day or two.

Emily