Sometimes "lan B" can be much better than what is originally planned.

Case and point:  our girls get-a-way weekend we just experienced.

Originally, my friend Mel and I were going to take our girls to Chicago over MLK weekend and hit the American Girl store.  The incoming snow, and sub-zero temperatures (that do not seem to want to go away anytime soon) changed our plans.  Instead, we went to "Plan B", waiting a week and doing an over night in downtown Indy.

Saturday night we started the evening by surprising them and going to Bucca di Beppo downtown for dinner.  Naturally they had to strike a pose outside.

After dinner was the next surprise:  Disney on Ice!!!  The theme was Princesses and Heroes... which was the perfect opportunity to wear some favorite Princess dresses....

... and buy $20 light up wands :)  only disney.

We had so much fun at the show!  Then it was off to the The Alexander Hotel to spend the night.  

To say the girls were excited was an understatement....

hyper and off the walls are words that come to mind ;).  It was so fun to see them have so much fun.

Finally, after a dance party, room service, hand shadow puppets, and an episode of Duck Dynasty.... they crashed.

(love this photo taken by Mel:)

The next morning we explored the hotel more.... it is very unique and ART focused.  Right up our alley. 

Very unique and beautiful, right?  We truly enjoyed our time here!

Wonderful memories were created with dear friends and my sweet girl.  

Yep, I have to say, our "Plan B" was pretty magical.

Project Life Week 2: Snow Days

Today's Project Life covers the week of January 6- 12.  The first full week in January (but week 2 in my album:)

What a crazy week.  It began with waking up to a 57 degree house after an all night power outage after a snow storm.   We experienced sub-zero temperatures, and really the city of Indianapolis shut down for almost a week.  My uncle lost power for several days so we had the wonderful opportunity to have him stay with us in our home durning this time.   All of these things, plus a birthday, a (sad) Colts game, 4 snow days, and a Pacers game equals our week.

I used Elle's Studio's new Everyday Moments collection for this spread.  I LOVE THIS NEW LINE! It  brings so much color to my chilly winter photos!  (this collection is now available!)

My kids were supposed to return to school Monday of this week from Christmas break, but they had no-school snow days from Monday until Thursday--- truly can't remember the last time that happened!  I documented this by including sequins and snowflakes stitched in a pocket with "4 Snow Days" titled on the outside of the pocket.  

Thanks for swinging by today!

Project Life was created by Becky Higgins as a way to simplify how you document life and preserve memories. Photo pockets used in my Project Life are created by Becky and can be found here. You can read all of my Project Life posts here.

Everyday Moments - Paper Collection Pack

Everyday Moments - Wood Veneers

Everyday Moments - Journaling Tags

Everyday Moments - Bits and Pieces

InLinkz.com

hooray for eight: a layout.

Yes you read the title correctly-- i made a layout!!   I focus so much of my creative time with Project Life, but this year I want to get back into making more layouts.

This was a quick and fairly simple layout--- all about Jonah's memorable birthday.  We had a snow storm and power outage on his birthday.  But that didn't stop his joyful spirit and excitement.  He was thrilled for a "blackout birthday"!!  (me, i would have been NOT so happy;)

I used pattern paper from the Penelope Collection by Elle's Studio and trimmed it along the lines to create the title.  The card stock has circles punched with bits and pieces inside.  I used items from Elle's Studio's new Everyday Moments for layering.    

The circles were hand-drawn with Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel Pencil in black.    These are fun pencils but they smear easily, so watch out!

This quick fun layout will find a home in Jonah's Childhood album for 1st grade.  (sharing where it will go because I want to keep the end in mind as I create-- and for me, that translates into where it will be displayed!)

Everyday Moments - Paper Collection Pack

Penelope Paper

Everyday Moments - Lil' Snippets - Labels

Everyday Moments - Bits and Pieces

InLinkz.com

Elle's Studio New Collections!

Elle's Studio new releases are now in stock in the shop - they also have started shipping to scrapbooking stores last week, so if they haven't arrived at your favorite store, they should be soon!

This release includes our new Love You More and Everyday Moments collection, along with new wood veneers and four different colors of alphabet stickers! (Please note: we are running low on the wood veneers, if they do sell out, look for another restock in February). 

With this release, our Bits & Pieces packs have increased in size and now include tabs, frames, tiny tags, etc. Each pack includes 31 tags and work perfectly for your layouts, mini albums, Project Life, and more!

To celebrate this launch, we have a very special, shipping special for you!

I played with the new Everyday Moments collection to create a Project Life Spread--- here is a sneak!  (you can see the full spread at Elle's Studio!)  I LOVE this collection and just love how this spread turned out!

Happy Shopping!!

Project Life 2013 :: Week 51

Today I am sharing the week of December 16- December 22 2013.

Twas the week before Christmas.

So close to completing 2013 I can taste it. :)  Carving time out to complete this album while also keeping up with 2014.  But you know what?  It's a lot of fun, and I enjoy doing it.

I referred to tips from this post while trying to finish strong.   Used lots of goodies from Elle's Studio Noel Collection.  Perfectly festive. (yet I can still use many of these pieces into the New Year:)

Happy hump day! :)

Project Life was created by Becky Higgins as a way to simplify how you document life and preserve memories. Photo pockets used in my Project Life are created by Becky and can be found here. You can read all of my Project Life posts here.

Documenting Disney: Part Two

Today I am sharing Part Two of our Disney Album from our trip this past May.  (you can see Part One here).   Part Two covers Day 4 of our vacation.

 I decided to take the Project Life approach to our Disney Word Vacation.   I collected so many momentos from our vacation.   I knew I wanted to include within the album-- so, Project Life was the best option for me!  Here's a look in the album.

Day 4:

..

Whoa baby.  Our first full day in the Magic Kingdom was a packed house (thankfully we visited the night before and got a bunch of rides in).  From lots of research I really thought this day would be more low key (since the day before was Memorial Day), but as we pulled up on the monorail we heard "it was full house today".  2 hours from hotel door to the castle.  wowzas.

We had visited Disney in 2008 when Jonah was 2 and Jordan was 6 months.  I put a few of our favorite photos from that trip on my phone and we tried to go back to those spots to recreate the same photos 5 years later.  That is what the photo is in the top left corner.  I adore this photo with all my heart!

The right side of this page is Design G by Becky Higgins.  

I was waiting in line for the bathroom and heard someone say they "needed a fast pass for the ladies room!"  LOL! that pretty much summed up our day.  We called it an early day and enjoyed time in our condo- especially after a long day and late night the day before.

A few things I saved from the park, and included in the album: 

• Parking Ticket Stubs-- we drove to Disney.  The cost of parking our car every day makes me think a plane ticket would be cheaper ;)
• Fast Pass Tickets-  After receiving our Fast Pass tickets for Peter Pan's Flight (my favorite) I tried to get another one and it issued this "invalid" ticket.  Save it and put it in the album!
• KidsMenus at restaurants- totally worth saving since the whole menu is on it, and the kids can include their own art work :)
• Park Maps-  I have used the maps throughout the album so far---it is a great filler for a 3x4 space, or something to base an entire layout on.

To see the rest of my Disney album click here.