Living The Dream

Wordless Wednesday...PreK Graduate

The picture says it all. I love this boy so much and I can't believe he'll be heading off to kindergarten all day in the fall. I cried throughout the entire graduation ceremony. So very proud of him! 

Studio Calico's So Cal revealed!

Studio Calico's So Cal is live!! It was such a beautiful kit! So bright and summery and fun! I got all the add-ons again this month (I'm such a sucker for pretty product ;), but Venice Beach was a favorite add-on....the colors were right up my alley, loved the graphic patterns in the papers and they were GREAT for boy pages. 

I've been wanting to scrap this photo ever since the shutter snapped on it...just my boy being silly during baseball practice. He's had a rough baseball season (the transition to kid pitch and travel ball has been a huge adjustment), but we keep encouraging him to just have fun. I wanted to document that and thought that photo was perfect for what I wanted to convey. For the journaling, I used a combination of typed journaling and the small letter stickers from Venice Beach. To do this, just type the journaling in your word processing program, leaving plenty of space for the words you want to highlight with sticker letters. Then just print it out and add the stickers. Super simple!

10 years is my main kit only page this month. I loved the orange/yellow/pink combo in the main and went with that color scheme here on my page. The photos are from our 10th anniversary dinner date. I used Mister Huey Boss Lady to mist the background...Boss Lady is a gorgeous pink color and matches the main kit perfectly!

I fell in LOVE with that Bazzill chevron paper the minute I saw it. The colors in Newport are SO soft and pretty! I took these photos of my favorite photography clients last month and wanted to document how much I love these girls for their awesome-ness in front of the camera. :) 

And finally a few cards to round out the month :) 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope everyone had an awesome Memorial Day weekend...it's back to our regular routine for us. Jackson was sick all week and weekend, but after a few days of antibiotics he's finally feeling better and he (and I!!) was excited to go back to school today. Only 6 days until summer vacation starts! ACK!! Happy Tuesday, friends! :)

Five Boys {Tampa Family Photographer}

My friend, Terra, has 5 boys. Yes, 5! Her second to youngest son is Jackson's best friend. They have been in class together since Kindergarten and they are inseperable at school. Terra and I have been trying to get together for photos for awhile now, so I was so happy when we were finally able to make it happen. Enjoy your sneak, Terra :)

Maggie Holmes Design Photography Workshops Blog Blitz!

It's Monday (boo!), but I've got some great news for you and an awesome way to start the week! My incredibly talented friend, Maggie Holmes, has been a professional photographer for 7 years and has created two online workshops. These workshops are chock full of valuable information, tips, tricks and advice from Maggie. She is an amazing teacher and gives easy to understand information. I've heard from many people how amazing the workshops are. Getting this kind of advice from a professional photographer is invaluable and you will learn SO MUCH!

I love Maggie's photography style...her photos are always so bright, colorful and FUN! Her work with children is just amazing. Wouldn't you love to be able to take photos like this?? :)

Here's a small overview of what will be covered in the workshops....

Maggie's workshops have just been posted and registration is now OPEN. You can register HERE. The dates for the workshops are:

Photography 101: July 9th - August 18th, 2012
Advanced Photography: August 20th - September 29th, 2012

These are the last two workshops Maggie will be offering this year, so if you're interested, get registered soon to guarantee yourself a spot! For the first time ever, Maggie is offering an earlybird discount of $50 off! This discount will not be offered again and is only valid until May 31st!

Maggie is giving away a spot in each workshop on her blog, so be sure to visit her blog to enter!  AND? She's also giving away a surprise BONUS spot in the Photography 101 class and the winner for this will be drawn at random from one of the blogs on the hop. Make sure you visit all the blogs on this blog blitz for your BEST chance to win!! Leave me a comment here and let me know what you'd like to learn the most from Maggie's workshops for your chance to WIN! Here are the next two stops in the hop...

Veronica Jennings http://creativeblessing.blogspot.com/
Lisa Truesdell http://gluestickgirl.typepad.com/

You can always check back to Maggie's blog to make sure you didn't miss any stops. Giveaway is open until Wednesday the 23rd! Good luck, friends, and happy Monday!! :)

Wordless Wednesday: I want to go back!

Getting back into the swing of things at home is always rough after vacation. So happy to be home with the boys, but man, those were some good times. :) Turns out I didn't take very many great photos with my big camera...that darn iphone is just so handy! Happy Wednesday, friends!! 

The winner of the BasicGrey blog hop is Alisyn! Congrats and thanks everyone who came by yesterday!

LOVE both these new lines!! thanks for the chance to win, Kelly :)

 Posted by: alisyn | May 15, 2012 at 08:35 AM

 

 

BasicGrey Clippings & Paper Cottage Blog Hop!

***    GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! THANKS EVERYONE FOR STOPPING BY! :) ***

  I'm just getting back into the swing of things here after spending an amazing 4 days in Key West with some of our great friends. We had the best time and it was so relaxing and gorgeous there! I'll be back to regular blogging this week and I'll share some of my Key West photos and stories along with some Studio Calico sneaks later this week, but for now, I have something super fun to share! 

If you haven't seen yet, BasicGrey has two GORGEOUS new collections! The first is Paper Cottage, which is beautiful. The second is called Cippings and is definitely my favorite of the two! Here's what BasicGrey has to say about Clippings:

Secrets, drama, intrigue—BasicGrey’s Clippings line reads like a mystery novel you can’t put down. Filled to the brim with ransom notes, typewriter keys, wool herringbone suit, a blue floral dress pattern, and deep red lipstick, you’ll want to read every note and memorize every detail.

I love the line for it's awesome color palette (great for boy pages!!;), graphic patterns and vintage-y embellishments. BasicGrey has been so generous and I'm so happy to be giving away a 6x6 Clippings Paper Pad AND my favorite of the embellishments, which are these Snippets...I think they would be great for any project and especially good for Project Life pockets!

Want to win these awesome products? Just leave me a comment here and I'll pick a random winner! The giveaway will only be open until tonight at 12:00am EST, so be sure to enter now while you're here. I will post a winner on Wednesday. Also, here is a list of all the participants in this awesome blog hop, so be sure to make your way through all of the blogs for more chances to win! 

 

BG designer : kelly goree - http://kellygoree.blogspot.com/

Els Brige - http://bestamped.wordpress.com/

Iris Babao Uy - http://irisbabaouy.typepad.com/creativecorner/

friend of BG : nichol magouirk - http://nicholmagouirk.typepad.com/

Jessy Christopher - http://www.teacherjessy.blogspot.com/

Keisha Campbell - http://abiteast.typepad.com/

Kim Jeffress - http://www.glasshalffull-kim.blogspot.com/

friend of BG : kristina werner - http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/

Larissa Albernaz - http://lariscrap.typepad.com/

Layle Koncar - http://laylekoncar.typepad.com/

friend of BG : jennifer mcguire - http://www.jennifermcguireink.com/

Leeann Pearce - http://thepaintbrushgoesspottie.blogspot.com/

Marinette Lesne - http://www.scraptherapie.com/

Megan Klauer - http://meganklauerdesign.blogspot.com/

friend of BG : jana eubank - http://janaeubank.com/

Nicole Samuels - http://nicolesamuels.wordpress.com/

Pamela Young - http://www.pamelasworldofscrap.blogspot.com/

Rae Barthel - http://simplyrae.blogspot.com/

Yohko Takiguchi - http://happy-fluffy.blogspot.com/

friend of BG : kelly noel - http://kellynoel.typepad.com/

 

I'm the last stop on the hop, but please head back to the BasicGrey blog to make sure you didn't miss any stops . Remember, if you find a link that doesn’t work, you can always hop back to the BasicGrey blog for a list of direct links to all the blogs in the hop. Thanks for stopping by and good luck! :)

Birthday Boy...

The birthday boy finally got to have his party last weekend. Of course, his original party date was the one day with an 80% chance of rain in the last probably 4 months! :P All was well though and all of his good close friends were able to make it. We had a small pool party here at home and it was just perfect. I made the cake, but my Mom gets all the credit for that amazing watermelon shark (which she found via Pinterest ;)...

A lot of his friends had left by this time, but we got some fun photos of the kids at the end of the day...these crack me up!

Not as elaborate and detailed as last year's party, but he had a good time and was none the wiser ;) OH and if you've made it this far, the winner of the NSD Studio Calico Blog Hop is:

Love your layering! The pops of the striped paper on the first layout is lovely. I actually have to go to a wedding this afternoon, but hope to squeeze in a little scrap time sometime in between! Thanks for the chance.

Posted by: thearthurz | May 05, 2012 at 06:58 AM

Thanks everyone for all the sweet comments on my layouts. Happy Tuesday, friends!! :)

 

Monday...

Riveting post title, huh? ;) We had such a nice weekend. We spent almost ALL of our time with good friends and family, which was SO nice. Jackson didn't have any baseball games this weekend, so we took the kids to the Rays game yesterday with their cousins and Tom's parents. The Rays were playing the Oakland A's and, in true Brady form, he insisted on wearing his A's gear (his little league team is the A's), even though we are all serious Rays fans. He's too funny, that one...always has to be different ;) He must have been the good luck charm for the A's though since they won! :P

How was NSD for everyone?? I've been scrapping like crazy. I didn't get much scrapping done for National Scrapbook Day, but last week I was busy busy creating. I had so much fun with Basic Grey's PB&J line...bright colors & cool patterns...what's NOT to love?! The challenges over at Basic Grey run through the end of the week, so be sure to head over to their blog and check them all out. 

That's it for today...I'll be back tomorrow with a winner of the Studio Calico NSD blog hop, which you can still enter until 10pm EST tonight!! :) Happy Monday, friends!!

National Scrapbook Day!!!

***********GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!! THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR SWEET COMMENTS...WINNER POSTED IN THE POST ABOVE THIS! *****************

For my scrapbooking friends, today is a big deal...it's National Scrapbook Day!! There are so many fun things going on. Of course, all the best things are happening at Studio Calico ;) Lots of challenges, some make and takes, and the grand prize is a $100 GIFT CARD to the shop!!! You can check out the Studio Calico blog for info on ALL the challenges and prizes. I've been scrapping like crazy this week getting ready for NSD...this first page is another MAIN KIT ONLY layout I made with 35mm. A little bit different for me....

35mm is sold out, but the Brownie add-on is still available...AND I have one to giveaway here today!! Leave me a comment and tell me how you plan to spend NSD and I'll draw a winner on Monday. 

My challenge over at Studio Calico is to USE TRIANGLES...of course trianges are everywhere right now...home decor, fashion, design. So many ways to use them! Here I made my own little pattern out of various Studio Calico Take Note papers. Be sure to check out the challenge on the SC blog and enter by May 13th for a chance to win a collection pack!

Supplies I used for my challenge layout:

InLinkz.com

And if you're still with me ;), I've also got a fun layout challenge over at Basic Grey today. I had SO much fun playing with their PB&J collection! My challenge is set to go live at 11am CST, so be on the lookout for that too. Lots of fun to be had at BG too! :) Here's a little sneak peek of my layout...

Wade - Class of 2012 {Tampa Bay Senior Photographer}