Happy {it's a} New Year

I am so excited that 2012 is almost here! Even though 2011 wasn't my favorite year (to say the least) I do have some wonderful memories from the year. Unfortunately life got in the way so many of them didn't find their way to my blog... until now!

I love this family photo I had taken of us. We were at Rob's sister's wedding. Rob looked so handsome in his tux and Cullen almost stole the show in his adorable ring bearer outfit with the news boy cap. Aubrey just looked priceless in the flower girl dress I had designed and made for her... a true labor of love! I was so busy dressing everyone else that I barely had any time to find a dress for myself. Days before the wedding with only an few hours to shop (factoring travel time too) I was so happy when I found the perfect dress at the first store I went to.




I love the photo in color but for these papers the sepia print went well. I decided it was such a pretty photo I would frame it and hang it up where our current family photo usually hangs in our home (I didn't have time this year to get myself together enough to have family pics done. Between all the tragedy and heartbreak, oh and a few more surgeries I was a little busy.)




I suppose framing it was exactly what I did here. Pop dots and foam dots just weren't going to cut it so I had to think of a better way to pop these layers. I decided to try strips of chipboard adhered to the wrong side of the paper. I used my thickest chipboard for the outer frame and my thinnest for the inner frame. I love the results.





I liked the dimension in the frame and decided to keep with it for my layered title. I attached the title to the outer frame in order to pop it off of the page.

To the lower left corner I added a chipboard flourish that I painted and then covered with crackle medium. I love the texture it adds. Then I added a few flowers on top of the flourish. It was the perfect way to finish the page.

2011 may not have been a great year for me but it is over and I know one thing for sure. These three people in this photo with me are the reason I made it through the way I did.

I am looking forward to an inspired 2012.

Happy New Year!

Our Disney Trip

We were planning our trip to NYC for Spring break this year. We really needed some fun family time and when I asked Rob for his input on some of the plans his response was "lets go to Disney instead." That was about 6 weeks before Spring break so I thought he was nuts. I told him that I had read the books and you can't just go to Disney... you have to plan it out months in advance with charts and graphs. But the more I thought about it I knew he was right. We had been wanting to take the kids for a while now and the trip kept getting postponed. Now was a good time for us so why not?

Since our trip was only weeks away I decided I wanted to keep it a secret from the kids. It couldn't be that hard since it wasn't that far away. On the morning of our flight to FL the kids thought they were on there way to school. When they went outside they found Minnie and Mickey waiting for them holding these signs.

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The kids were so surprised they were sort of speechless. We had a great trip there, it was Cullen's first time on a plane.

Our first night we went to The Magic Kingdom and watched the Electric Parade.

The second day we toured Hollywood Studios. That was our favorite park!! We met lots of characters and got lots of autographs. I'll post those pics later along with the pics of the autograph books I made.

The kids had a great time at Jedi training camp. They were braver than I would have been...Darth Maul gave me the creeps.















We had such a wonderful time getting to the Animal Kingdom first thing the next morning. We headed straight to the Safari, just like Tour Guide Mike told us to do.



It was so neat to see how the animals really did look like they just roamed free. Disney did a great job disguising the barriers they had in place. I had read about it in the books but it was really exciting to see it myself.















The next day we went to Epcot. We loved Soarin'! We loved it so much we got a second fast pass for it and stayed in the park to wait for the fast pass to become current. While we were waiting Aubrey decided she wanted to do the Kim Possible Mission. I didn't think it would be all that interesting but if there is one thing I have learned about Walt Disney World it is that the creative teams behind Disney attractions should never be doubted. The kids had a great time doing their mission.

I had a great time too. Just watching them was so much fun. I was getting such great photos of them walking around "France" trying to collect all of the clues.















I was just shooting away when Aubrey came right up to me and in the most casual she could told me to "Quit taking so many pictures. You are going to blow my cover. I'm a secret agent Mom." It was so cute and brought a smile to my face.
So I started browsing around at the shops while my "secret agents" finished there mission.


We had an amazing time touring the parks each day but we also had lots of fun back at our hotel too!














Each afternoon we would take a break back at the hotel (just like the books say to do.) Although the kids didn't really relax. They had so much fun in the pool at the French Quarter while Rob and I would relax in the shade, he with his book and me with my margarita! Then we'd head back to one of the parks for some evening entertainment or maybe a character dinner.


The week went by so fast. Before we knew it the vacation was over and it was time to go home. It was also time to tell Cullen that Mars, the red fish, had passed on to the big fish bowl in the sky. He handled it well and asked if he could get a new fish... a Nemo fish;)

I've been PUBLISHED!!!

I know, I know... bad blogger.

Just as I thought my life was settling back down after a rough Fall/ Winter I was diagnosed with Lyme's Disease. I thought my knee pain was from running and when my foot started hurting I thought it was related to my knee injury... which I guess it was. I feel so silly now for going to the chiropractor for 5 MONTHS for a running injury that turned out to be Lyme's Disease!!!

I realized that after all I had gone through it was time for me to take a break from things that weren't absolutely necessary so I could take care of myself... which I did.

Although it has been a while since I blogged it wasn't due to lack of inspiration. I have been stamping, inking, sanding, cropping, painting, and embellishing nearly every day (except when we went to Disney World... pics of that later!!!) I have so much to share! I'll start with what is happening today and I'll touch back on projects from the past few months.

Today I got a package in the mail from Northridge Publishing!!
Its my little box of goodies for being published in the 2011 Mini Albums Idea Book.



I am excited to say that the first mini album you will see as you thumb through this very inspiring idea book is MINE!


It is a fun gratitude journal I designed last fall for the ScrapbooksPlus Design Team.

And here it is PUBLISHED!!

My Wish...

The first time I heard the song "My Wish" by Rascal Flatts I couldn't help but think of my children.

What do I want them to know about life?

What advice would I have for them?


This song is so special to me because it seems to touch on the most important lessons I have learned in my life.

Everything I want my children to know before they head out into the world on their own is in this song and that is what inspired this layout.



I took this photo in front of our home. I wanted my kids to be able to look back at this and remember what the neighborhood looked like when they were kids.


I decided to create a photo mat that looked like a window to place over the photo. I used an x-acto knife to cut the window frame out of chipboard. Then I painted it using Distress Crackle Paint~ Tattered Rose.



I printed the lyric on transparency paper on my home printer. Then I painted on the back of the transparency just behind the words. I used mostly a light putty colored acrylic paint and added just a touch of the blue color paint here and there.


I finished the layout with a bit of ribbon in the corner of the window and added a little white butterfly. The rosette ribbon is from Webster's Pages and the other ribbon I made into a flower and added a pearl brad in the center.

Mouse, Paper, Scissors

The doorbell rang this afternoon and when I answered it there was a package...

from Jessica Sprague!!!

I opened it quickly to see all the goodies and cheered when I looked in the corner



Glimmer Mist!!!

And to make it even more exciting the color of the Chalkboard that we got in our kits actually matches the Design Team kit I am currently working on.

I'm hoping to become a bit more digi from this whole experience.
Can't wait for my class to start on 2-21-11.

I'm moving!

...or should I say I moved!

The truth is my kids didn't like playing in their awesome playroom in the basement so I decided we would switch.

After tripping over myself all of the time in my old studio and fighting with the kids to quit bringing the toys upstairs I came to the conclusion that they would be happy with a smaller toy room if it were on the main level and I would be happier with twice the space... boy was I right!

Here is a sneak peak ;)


I'm not finished yet...

I still have a few things to hang on the walls

some painting to do

and even a bit of shopping!

Not to mention all of the stuff piled just outside of my studio waiting for a home in one of the closets! Did I mention I now have closet space!!!

I also have a few sewing projects to finish to make the space complete.

I will work on it here and there, in between DT projects and projects for submissions.

Even without all of that done I absolutely love my new space.

Thanks to my mom who helped me move everything, my hubby who got the heavy stuff and my mother in law who helped me arrange things I have a new studio that I find to be very inspiring;)

Hope

To my sweet baby:

"I carried you beneath my heart for three months... now I will carry you in my heart. Thank you for giving me hope."

So as it turns out I took another impromptu month long hiatus from blogging. I was hoping my luck was turning around when tragedy struck again. My heart is broken and I needed to take time to heal and try to begin to move forward.

Just as I was going into the second trimester I lost my baby due to IC which I believe was a result of my surgeries this past Fall.


This sonogram photo that was taken the day before I lost my sweet pea.




There are blessings in all of this sadness. After my surgeries my husband and I were finally going to move on with life, finally accepting that due to Unexplained Infertility we would not have any more children. Then this sweet little baby came along and gave us hope.

I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to carry a child again, even if it was only for a short time.

And the biggest blessing of all is becoming even closer as a family. After losing the baby I was broken. It was my husband who came and picked up all of the pieces of my heart and put me back together. I feel closer to him than ever before.

The kids have been amazing and have inspired me to have the same simple trust that God has a plan for us.
We told the kids that the baby left my tummy and went back to Heaven. And in a sweet, simple way they "hope the baby comes back soon."

So do I!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!!

So, 2011 is looking like its going to be a great year.

In June I am going to have a mini album of mine published in the Scrapbook Trends annual Mini Album Idea Book. I am so excited about this. I find this publication to be a major source of inspiration and I am thrilled that I am going to be a part of it.

There is more exciting news. We are going to have a baby!



I am just beside myself thrilled about this new little addition. We told the kids on Christmas Eve and they are super excited. We shared the news with our families over the holidays and everyone was quite surprised after everything I went through last Fall. They are all so happy about this new little one.

We told our friends and extended family in a fun way too! We made a Christmas card that had three different spaces for photos. We put a photo of Aubrey on one side, a photo of Cullen on the other and the sonogram picture in the center. The message read:

May your New Year be filled with blessings... Ours will be!
Love,
Megan, Rob, Aubrey, Cullen
and Baby (due July 17, 2011)

Happy 1-1-11 everyone!