Friday, May 30, 2008

More pages and cards

I just realized that I never posted these pages. I'm working on a couple of little things for Katie (since next week is her last week here!).





And some cards I made:




Cole and Hailey

I took these pictures on Mother's Day when we went to the beach. I'm so glad I captured this moment. These two crack me up!!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Brady

Another pic from the wedding!

Friday, May 23, 2008

Bright Eyed Boy

Another layout from the pictures I took at the wedding.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

TDC Blog Post

Thought I would show you this:

My blog post.

Hee, hee!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Awesome weekend!

Well, the mass of people that descended on my house Friday night is gone. Almost everyone in my HUGE family showed up in Oregon to witness my sister Dani's wedding on Sunday. The only people missing were my brother Tim and his wife Sara. So, that means we found sleeping places for 15 extra people at my house (since Rob and Rachel stayed with Rachel's sister). It worked out just fine, though! Thank goodness we have the "guest suite!"

The wedding was beautiful! It was an outdoor wedding in May, which is always unpredictable, however the weather was PERFECT! It was warm, yet very comfortable under the shade of the trees at Hoyt Arboretum in Portland.

At times like this, I wish I were a real photographer . . . who didn't have to supervise a toddler. Or keep him out of the center isle while the bride is walking down.

I hope to complete a few pages with some of the pictures I took this weekend. We'll see! For now, here is one:

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

more cards

I love doing digital cards. They are super fast, really easy, and the results are at your fingertips in no time. I also bought new printer paper (Epson Premium Presentation Paper Matte Double Sided). WHAT a difference. I will never print on plain old cardstock again. (Now, textured cardstock is a different story!)



My kid is a genius!

Yes, he is. I've known this for a long time, but now I have concrete proof. He can sing the alphabet backwards. I can't even sing the alphabet backwards! Today, while leaning into the window of the car to grab something I almost forgot, I heard Grant singing the alphabet song backwards for Katie. I about fell over! The kid is 4! He told me he has been studying using the game board for his Leap Frog Letter Factory game and just, "starting at the letter Z, and then to Y, and then all the way to A!"

I'm telling you, my kid is a genius!

Last week he nonchalantly told Katie that he knows his phone number. I didn't know he knew his phone number! We have never even told him his phone number. I figured that he should know it by the time he enters kindergarten, but that is not for another year. Sure enough, he recited his phone number. I asked him how he knew that and he said, "Mom! You say it all the time!" (It's how I end most of my calls!)

I'm telling you. My kid is a GENIUS.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Some things I've been doin' lately

I don't know anyone who is having a girl anytime soon, but I just had to make this card. I love the way it turned out! I'll post credits soon!



This card is for my sister Dani, who is getting married on Sunday. Again, I love the way this turned out!


Pictures from Mother's Day!


And, my sweet boy:

Saturday, May 10, 2008

The rest of the Cancun trip

I'm so embarrassed that I left you all hanging! I thought I had finished up posting about my Cancun trip, but apparently I must have dreamed it all up. I have a very funny story about dreams which includes aliens and my dear #1, but I'll save that for another time (and another layout).

The last thing I talked about was Saturday, so let's move along. Remember, this is nutshell format. Details will probably be included in later layouts.

Sunday -
Mitch was suckered into committing us to go to a timeshare presentation and, of course, we always follow through with our obligations, so we got up early, met our sales dude, and followed him into a restaurant for breakfast. He started the meeting right!! We ate, talked, then hopped on a golf cart for a tour around the resort. It was fascinating and it opened our eyes to a lot of fun opportunities that we never would have known about if we hadn't gone on the tour. (That was Mitch's plan all along, right?) Mitch saw some new "life birds". He was excited. When the tour was over and we said, "Thanks, but no thanks", we were sent off with a calendar, 2 t-shirts and $100 of Palace cash. We immediately found the bike rental place and hopped on some bikes and took our own little "eco-tour" of the resort. Had to stop to look at the myriad of lizards, birds, bugs, etc. Got totally hot and sweaty. Became hungry and thirsty. Found an awesome restaurant that served Caribbean cuisine (fish and mangoes!), ate and rode bikes back to our side of the resort. (Actually, I took off and left Mitch looking at birds by the golf course.) I hung out by the pool for a long time and got even more burned. (It's a base, right?) Mitch took a nap, then joined me in the shade by the pool. That night we went to dinner at "the steak place" with some friends. On the way out of the restaurant, I sprained my ankle. Totally embarrassing story involving a curb that was not supposed to be there. (Still bothers me, by the way!) Relaxed in the HUGE hot tub in our room while looking out at the ocean!

Monday -
Did you know that you are supposed to ICE a sprained ankle and not heat it? Hmm. Now I know how important that is. I woke up in the middle of the night in AGONY thinking, "How in the world am I going to survive a trip to Chichen Itza?" I took some Tylenol and sucked it up. We got up early again and hopped on a bus headed toward Chichen Itza, which is the Mayan city with the huge pyramid that you see on TV and in the movies. We stopped off at a little Mayan village and got to see how modern Mayan people live. Squalor is the best way to classify it. Then, we stopped at a little square where real Mayan artisans sold their stuff. (There are a lot of impostors out there who sell junk, but this was the real thing.) Finally, we arrived at Chichen Itza. It was very, very cool. I remember teaching about this place in my former life (7th grade teacher!). The guide called it "Chicken Pizza", so you may hear us refer to it by that name. I highly recommend a visit, however it was hot, sticky and a LONG drive there and back. After an educational tour, more birdwatching, and attempts at re-hydration, we hopped back on the bus for the LONG drive back. We stopped at the same little square and enjoyed "lunch" at 4:00. Nevermind that we were all anxious to get back to the resort to get ready for the big dinner.

Anyway, we finally got back to the resort at 6:00 (dinner was starting at 6:30), practically ran to our rooms and took very cold showers. (Side note: I literally took 3 showers a day while in Cancun. Never less than 3.) After getting all gussied up for one of the only "State Farm" functions during this trip, we walked into the lobby. The RUSH of noise was deafening! SO many people milling about! (Very cool!) We made our way into the banquet hall, sat, ate, and then the entertainment started.

I know I said this was supposed to be a nutshell. Sorry. I'm Kelleigh. What can I say?!

Entertainment. Check it out here: World Classic Rockers. Oh, my gosh, it was awesome!! These are the lead singers, guitarists, drummers, etc. of some of the biggest bands in history!! You KNOW these songs, I promise. My dad used to blast some of this music through the house and in the car growing up. It was AWESOME! They invited the kids to come up to the dance floor, so of course people rushed up there. Kids of all ages. We joined them. It was so cool being an arms length away from representatives of Journey, Boston, Toto, Santana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Steppenwolf. Oh, and I just know that one of those guys has been on some movies lately. It was seriously SO cool. After the concert, we hung out in the lobby bar for a while (where the lead singer for Toto swung through), then went on up to bed. We later found out that the band members had an impromptu concert in the lobby bar. How cool would that have been!!?

Tuesday - The first thing we did was go to breakfast where we were seated at the same time and just an arms length away from the lead singer of the Carlos Santana Band. You would TOTALLY recognize his voice. Tom, Mitch's boss, went over to tell him how cool the concert was. Hee, hee! We decided to play "Spot the Rocker" that day. We saw about 5 all over the resort!

Ok. Next was the SF Business meeting (for tax write-off purposes) which lasted about an hour, then we relaxed around the pool while waiting for the departure time for the "Jungle Tour." (Nutshell, Kelleigh, nutshell.) We rode a boat through a "jungle", came out in the ocean, bounced in the waves, tied up and went snorkeling in the second largest reef in the world. It was very relaxing ('cause we got to wear life jackets)!

We got back to our hotel, showered (of course) and went to dinner at "the Brazilian place" with some friends. It was another very fun time! LOTS of meat. I took it easy, but apparently some in our party did not. They became friends with the toilet that evening.

Whew!

Wednesday (it's almost over, promise) -
We went deep sea fishing in the morning. We hung out by the pool in the afternoon. We finally found some Mexican food for dinner and ate out with some friends!

Thursday - We were both up super early. Mitch went bird watching for the last time while I took pictures of the resort. After checking out, we ate breakfast at the golf club restaurant (where Mitch went bird watching again and saw another alligator) and then hopped on the bus for the airport. Easy trip back.

That's it. I'm tired.

Birthday Card

I'm having so much fun with this hybrid card thing! I actually printed this one out on regular, cheapo Kodak photo paper (4x6 - 3 stars, gloss, 100 sheet pack - bought @ Walmart) directly from my computer. I wouldn't recommend this paper for pictures (I love my glossy HP Premium) or for larger hybrid projects (I like my Epson Premium Presentation Matte), but it is great for little paper crafts!


Click for credits!

The card was actually featured as a gallery standout over at DST! Pretty cool! (Don't tell them how EASY it was to make!!)

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Couple of cards



Happy Mothers Day mom! You'll get this in the mail soon!

Click on images for credits.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Jungle Tour

This is another Cancun page!


For credits, click here.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

birder

I made this layout a few days ago, but I couldn't show it off until today (which just KILLS me)! The designer who made the green/blue papers is new to The Digi Chick, and debuted today! I LOVE this layout. This is Mitch in Cancun.

For credits, click here.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Some recent projects

I've been SUPER busy working on some hybrid projects in my new role as a member of the Hybrid Creative Team at The Digi Chick! I am having SO much fun with this store! It has everything!! I'm just like a kid in a candy shop. And I get to play with anything I want! Wahoo!

Here are some of the projects:

I used a new template by Cinzia Loosemore for these two cards that I am SURE to use again. It was seriously SO much fun to make these cards, and super easy. The top card is for my nephew, and the bottom one is for Grant's teacher. I had so much fun that I am going to recreate these on scrapbook pages at some point. I love that the spinner makes them interactive! Grant can't keep his hands off these cards.

I entered this card at Prima Hybrid for an interactive card challenge. I'm hoping to win, since I was the only one who entered. However, with my luck they will decide that no one wins since there weren't enough participants! Hee, hee!

This one uses Amanda Heimann's May grab bag. A worthy investment!


These boxes are for Grant's teachers. I used Amanda's grab bag for both. You can grab the template here.


I made this bag using a template that you can find here (I just enlarged it), and the new Mr. Curious kit by Karah Fredericks. She created a series of kits representing each of her three sons, and this one had the name "Grant" on it. I just had to grab it right away. Those are awesome boy kits. So appropriate!


Saturday is International Scrapbooking Day. Yeah, I know some of you are rolling your eyes (Mitch . . . stop that!), but I know that most of my readers are cheering! Scrapbooking stores around the internet and around the world (as in walk-around-and-pick-things-up type of places) will be having HUGE sales. I have my cart already filled at some of my favorite online stores. Hopefully I will get the chance to break away for a while and actually BUY some of that stuff.

Tomorrow, I head on up to the airport to pick up my mom and two sisters who are flying in from California! We are going to go out for lunch, then back to my house where one of my brothers and his wife will join us from Seattle. (And I finally get to see the belly bump! My sister in law is having a BOY!! I really gotta get on that "Unsolicited Advice" column, don't I?) On Saturday night the chicas will be attending another sister's bridal shower. Very fun! Everyone leaves on Sunday, so it will be a whirlwind visit. I'm so excited.

Now I'm off to change some sheets and clean some toilets! Enjoy your weekend!