Scrapstreet Magazine

Just tooting because one of my layouts was published in the July issue of Scrapstreet Magazine. You can see it here: http://scrapstreet.com/mag10/julyjuly/chic4.htm

Our First Challenge!

The (paper) Trail Makers Challenge Blog is hosting its first challenge! It is a recipe challenge and if you use all 11 parts of the recipe there will be a prize! You can check it out here:

http://trailmakers.blogspot.com/2010/08/week-1-recipe-challenge.html

TrailMakers Contest -- Win a Box of Goodies!

I wanted to share a new challenge blog with all of you -- The (paper) Trail Makers Challenge Blog! Its first challenge will go live on August 1st but in the meantime there is an amazing giveaway! All you have to do is become a follower of the blog and leave a comment saying that Krystle sent you and you will be in the running for a box of amazing goodies (Fancy Pants paper, stickles, smooch spritz, Bazzill cardstock, Jenni Bowlin papers, Creative Imaginations paper, Little Yellow Bicycle paper and journaling cards, Scribble Scrabble papers, and a gift certificate in there!) http://www.trailmakers.blogspot.com/

Update: The winner has been posted! Check it out:

http://trailmakers.blogspot.com/2010/08/we-have-winner.html

Deja Vu

I tend to scrapbook chronologically and I a roughly one year behind, which is really amusing because I am in the middle of scrapping Nicole and Chloe's visit -- not the visit that just ended, but last year's visit! Here is Chloe delighting in her McDonald's kiddie cone. Isn't she a doll? For this layout I used Basic Grey's Kioshi collection and played with Ranger's crackle paint on the title (if you click on the picture and enlarge it you can see the cracks).

I used Kioshi again for this next layout of our trip to the petroglyphs. I tried out pinwheels for the first time too!

One of the cutest things we did was to take a bath in our large tub -- Jesse splashed us and it was more like swimming than bathing! I love this picture of Jesse and Chloe because she is looking at him so adoringly!

I also love this picture of the three of us at the top of Sandia Peak with the wind nearly blowing us off!

The (paper) Trail Makers Challenge Blog

I am so excited to announce that I am now designing for The (paper) Trail Makers Challenge Blog!

http://trailmakers.blogspot.com/2010/07/our-new-design-team.html

This is a brand new blog that will contain tons of fun challenges to inspire you and there is The Paper Trail boutique that has tons of must-have scrapbooking items. Check it out! http://leaveapapertrail.com/Index.html

Looong in Coming

So this will be a looong post about my family's visit a couple weeks ago (and yes, I should be shamed for waiting this long to post it). We had a blast, as you will see!

First off, here is a darling picture of my niece to oooh and aaah over -- isn't she just a bundle of cuteness? Such a grown up little traveler!

And Chloe was very excited to see her Uncle Jesse. Although she is not a very cuddly girl, she would randomly come up and snuggle with Jesse because she loves him oh-so-much!

In both of these pictures, Chloe is playing with "her favorite toy" which, as you can see, is a fake plant, rocks, and a vase. She spent hours taking the rocks out and putting them back in! I wish we could all be so easily amused!

We bought Chloe a princess dress, which she loved to put on every single day!

Chloe was eager to start a walk around our neighborhood. Rachel was only interested in her book. =P



We also strolled around the botanical gardens here in Albuquerque, which has an adorable children's fantasy garden with lots of fun things like giant ants!

It also had a pretty Japanese garden (cute 1/2 Chinese girl not included).

One of the highlights of the trip was Ojo Caliente -- hot mineral springs just north of Santa Fe. The adults enjoyed soaking in healing waters and taking mud baths and Chloe was thoroughly amused playing on the steps of the kiddie pool.

We also played in the hammock, but Chloe didn't want to nap there with me (sadness!)

Shopping was also on the list and both Nicole and Rachel had beautiful turquoise flea market finds.

So much fun! Although it was sad when they left, we had another wave of family and funness!

Looong in Coming Pt.2

OK, so apparently blogger can't handle all of these pictures in one post! Anyway, we went up the tram to Sandia peak in time to see the beautiful sunset.

There is some interesting wildlife up there!



Ahhhh, beautiful!

No trip to New Mexico would be complete without a trip to Roswell's alien museum! Here I am examining pictures of UFOs.

There were tons of accounts of UFO sightings as well.

Down in the Carlsbad Caverns we saw the bat flight at night and went down into the caves themselves during the day.

There were some cool rock formations.

And we all had lots of fun!

This was only a small slice of our trip -- we saw tons more and enjoyed ourselves immensely!

Published!

I have had my first layout ever published in a scrapbooking magazine! Check out the June issue of Scrapbook News and Review!

Pieces of Pages

GUESS WHAT???? My family is coming to visit me tomorrow!!!! They'll be here (in shifts) for 2 weeks and I am very excited to see, for example, this sweet thing:

I love these pictures of Chloe -- she is so playful and fun! I busted out my new Basic Grey Kioshi collection for this layout as well as the next one.

In these next two layouts I used Crate Paper's Prudence collection and embellished them with handmade and Prima flowers and Jenni Bowlin buttons.

For this last page I used scraps from Basic Grey's Periphery collection for my "why I scrapbook" layout:

That's it for now. I suspect that I won't be blogging much when visiters are around!

7 Years of Married Bliss

We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary last week with a low key dinner out at Terra, a nice little place here in Albuquerque. We usually take a trip for our anniversary (especially since it lands on/near Memorial Day weekend) but this year we are saving up for a trip to Hawaii in the fall/late summer.

So we spent our long weekend (ok, it didn't feel very long because I worked every day) at home and went to a picnic with our friends from Faith Church.

Who is that handsome man in the distance, running like a gazelle? ;D