8 YEARS!

Jesse and I celebrated our eighth anniversary over memorial day weekend. We took a road trip to Phoenix and picked Jesse up a car (VW Golf TDI)! Because it is a manual, Jesse had the honors of driving the whole way home! (I am in need of some serious driving lessons).

We had a nice dinner at this eclectic Japanese tapas place downtown, where we had bites of pork belly, duck, tofu, and squid.

We also got a tour of Taliesin West -- Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home, which is now a school of architecture and museum.

We had a good time and learned a lot -- neither of us had been to a Frank Lloyd Wright building before.



One of the first things we noticed as we approached Phoenix was the huge and plentiful cacti. We saw a huge variety of them and other plants at their botanical gardens.

There were flowers and hummingbirds too, and since we went in the morning it wasn't too hot.

They had a cute/corny photo op place, so here you go!

Father's Day Card

It was so easy to make a Father's Day card with this kit! With all of the neutral papers (and amazing pops of red) and great embellishments (buttons and ribbon are so versatile!), this card came together so quickly. I can't wait to send it off!

Check out the June kit and contest details at http://trailmakers.blogspot.com/

June Debut Project

Bo Bunny's Timepiece collection is one of my favorites so I was very excited when I found out that this month's kit features this line! With all of the clocks on these papers I thought it would be fun to make a belated gift card from this kit. I fussy cut the clocks from the patterned paper and added some of the embellishments from the kit to make this card.

Check out the entire kit and other debut projects at http://trailmakers.blogspot.com/

Family Vacation

Last week we had the opportunity to jet over to Connecticut to see my family. Despite the cloudy/foggy/rainy/cold weather, we were still able to enjoy some time outside on the beach

and in the back yard.


And of course it was great to see everyone -- even when we were indoors!

We spent a great deal of time shopping (they have great outlets there!)

One cool thing we were able to do was to take a day trip to New York. We saw some exhibits at the Met,

chatted with celebrities in Times Square,

and did our best to see the top of the Empire State Building through the fog.

We also met up with Rachel's friend and Jesse's cousin in New York and had some excellent Italian food. Truthfully, we ate really well the entire trip -- yum!

Traversing Frozen Tundra

Back in April, Jesse somehow convinced me to agree to go on a hike at the top of Sandia peak. We were just going to traverse for a mile or so along the ridge . . . no big deal, right?

WRONG! Despite the fact that it was April, the top of the mountain was still covered in snow! Not only did my legs get all red but my ears and hands and, well, everything was cold!

And it was windy and on this of all days the sun was nowhere to be seen.

We did get to our destination, however, (the Kwanis house) and then high-tailed it back to warmth!

Handmade Flowers Challenge

I wanted to share this layout I made of some of the fun get-togethers we have had with our fellowship group at Faith Church:

I love handmaking flowers so I knew I had to enter the handmade flower challenge at TrailMakers. I used some ribbon to make a flower that I used on this layout, which features Fancy Pants' Little Sprout and other items that you can find in the TrailMakers store: http://leaveapapertrail.com/zencart. Get more details on the challenge and products I used at http://www.trailmakers.blogspot.com/

Defense Verdict!

I survived and won my first jury trial!

Flourish Challenge

There are a lot of challenges going on this month at the TrailMakers blog. I am challenging you to make your own flourish! There are so many possibilities -- use Ranger's stickles, liquid pearls or dimensional pearls, doodle some flourishes, or stitch them. I doodled a couple flourishes in pencil on this layout and then went back over them with a needle and punched a couple holes on the lines and used black thread to stitch these flourishes on my layout. I thought that stitched flourishes were more appropriate for this manly layout of my husband, his brother Matt, and girlfriend Merida rock climbing in Socorro. I can't wait to see what you will do! Link up your projects at http://www.trailmakers.blogspot.com/

In Trial . . .

. . . until further notice!

May Debut Project

I love the mixture of elegance and fun that Karen put together in the May kit. The kit features Fancy Pants' "It's the Little Things" line and contains some beautiful Kaisercraft Chipboard (which I inked with VersaMagic dew drops) and Jolee's flowers. I used the kit to create this layout of Jesse's first half-marathon with Dave, Sarah, Tiffany, and Dan. A whole bunch of people from our church ran the Duke City half marathon as well, and we met up with them after the race. Everyone did a superb job (especially Jesse!) and Vanessa and I cheered from the sidelines!

Get more details on the TrailMakers kit at http://www.trailmakers.blogspot.com/