Taggy Collagey Layout

Despite a busy schedule lately, I have been sneaking in some creative time whenever I can. I've mostly been scrapping and makihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifng ATCs.

I have also fallen in love with Pinterest, and my favorite layouts I see there are the busiest ones, covered with lots of tags and collage elements. They inspired me to make this:


Thanks for stopping by!

My First Dotee

Making this was a bigger challenge than I thought it would be. I usually have complete confidence in my sewing skills until I sit down at my machine. I was committed to making it because I was in a swap, so I had to stick to it. In the end, the skirt didn't line up in the back, but otherwise it pretty much came together. I am definitely going to try another one!


So this was a bigger challenge than I thought it would be!

New ATCs

I have been loving sending and receiving ATCs through Swap-Bot lately. Here are some of my latest creations!

The Esme Update: The Dam Cafe

The Esme Update: Outtakes and Bloopers

Keeping Busy

I have been staying very busy lately, between work and Girl Scouts and my daughter's birthday and just general stuff that needs to get done! I have not had as much creative time as I would like, but I have certainly been taking a lot of photos for use when I finally do have some.

Now that I am several weeks in, I can tell everyone that starting a Facebook group for local scrapbookers was one of the BEST ideas I ever had. I would highly recommend it for anyone who would like to make some new scrappy friends, and have the opportunity to get together and crop. What started as me talking to a friend has grown to a group of 57 women and counting. We've planning several events including local crops and even an overnight at a campground, with the hall rented for cropping.

I also love having a challenge every week - this layout is from a sketch challenge from a couple weeks ago.

The Esme Update: Pizzeria Uno

Board of Directors

Esme had the opportunity to speak to the Board of Directors tonight! Turn the volume up to hear her - I was kind of far away with the camera.

The Esme Update: Ivy and Bean Book Review

Esme in the News.....

Girl Scouts is an important part of homeschooling for us, and Esme got to be on the news last week for attending our World Thinking Day event. She was also in the newspaper.

World Thinking Day

More about our awesome World Thinking Day event later, but for now, here is a clip from the news. I am the adult interviewed!

New LSS

There is a new LSS near me! Whooo hoo! I got to check it out for the first time yesterday - here is the my video of my visit!

The Esme Update: Friendly's

PVS, Challenges, and More

The Facebook group Stephanie and I created for local scrapbookers is going great. We are up to 45 members and have planned our first event and are working on our second. So happy to make some new friends, and feeling really excited about scrapping. We took last week's challenge from this blog, and this is my take on it.

Challenges

There are sooo many challenges for scrapbookers out there, it's hard to sort through them all and decide which ones you'd really like to be a part of. A friend and I are planning to offer challenges every week to our new local scrapbooking group, so I guess for me that's a good a place to start as any! If you have a challenge group you really like, please link me, cause I'm looking for some more inspiration!

Here is my layout for this week's challenge - from a sketch posted by my friend:

Reading Separately and Together

Now that Esme is older and her reading skills have grown so much, we've lost most of the time we used to spend poring over picture books together. Esme still loves picture books, but it is far more likely she'll grab one to read aloud to me than for me to read to her.

However, we have found a new love - chapter books. She's really enjoying them on her own - everything from Encyclopedia Brown to Beezus and Ramona and Ivy and Bean to Horrible Harry. We also love reading them together. I've read aloud Sarah, Plain, and Tall, The Phantom Tollbooth, Charlotte's Web, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Pippi Longstockings, and we're working on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I find I'm MUCH more motivated to make the time for reading aloud together every night if it is a book I really, really love. When I was a little girl I loved Pippi, but I didn't love it as much this time around. I also wasn't so much on The Phantom Tollbooth, but the rest I've really, really enjoyed. Esme seems really, really interested to know what is going to happen next in Narnia.

The Esme Update - Ed's Kitchen

We are really on a roll with these videos - since we were in CT visiting friends the last couple days we had occasion to eat out, and made another installment of The Esme Update.

The Esme Update - Panera Bread

Esme had such a good time making her Bueno Y Sano review, she decided she wanted to do another one. Panera is usually our go-to spot if we have to be out running errands.

Time for it all.....

I really wish I had time to scrap a page every day, make more cards, paint a lot more, and still be an effective homeschooling mom and Girl Scout leader, as well as work an adequate number of days at my job. As it is, I'll have to settle for doing some of those things. I was really pleased with how quickly this layout came together - these photos were from my brother's family's Christmas card.


This week I am hoping to travel to my bestie's house (about 75 miles away) and spend the night actually scrapbooking with her IN person! It's been soooo long since we could have time together that was about us, and not just running the kids from place to place.

Finished Layout - Best Boy

A friend and I have been going through old scrap magazines and pulling out pages for inspiration. When I looked through my enormous pile, I realized that what I like most is pages with A LOT going on. I love busy layouts!

Some friends and I recently started Pioneer Valley Scrapbookers - a group for local scrapbookers. We used to be part of a really active crop group that was great, but it pretty much fell apart over time. This way we can chat with people locally about our favorite hobby, and hopefully maybe even start up a crop or two. I made this layout for the first challenge.