Hi there everyone,

I've been very neglectful of this blog and I apologize. Unfortunately that's not likely to change very soon. My husband and I are in the midst of a job change/move, so things are just a little crazy right now.

I will continue to keep this updated with any classes that I have scheduled. I will not be doing a whole lot of classes though until we get the whole moving thing figured out.

Just yesterday I finished packing up my craft room into boxes. It was a huge job, and I'm glad that part of packing is done for now. Anyway the work continues...

Blessings to each of you,
Valonda

better late than never

Here is a fun picture from when my sister and her family were here with us. Four kids painting very intently...so cute. They were so very serious about their art.

Now here's a fun before/after comparison. This first one is a picture I took of Hannah at mom's wedding. Now...
here's one I took a couple of days ago. Notice anything different???

Catching you up

It's official...my mom is now Mrs. Westover. That will take a little getting used to. The wedding was a beautiful celebration. Look at the happiness on their faces...it's a beautiful thing.

And here is a picture with all of us together...a new family.

The back row is: Crystal (my sister who just moved here from Mexico), Bob, David (my new brother), Mervin (my little brother).

The front row is: Brenda and Carol (my new sisters), Mom, Birdie (my sister from Mexico City), and me

The wedding came right on the heels of our week at Drift Creek Camp. My sister Birdie and her family, my kids and I, and my friend Courtney went out to Drift Creek Camp to provide art projects for the Middle School Camp. We had an awesome time. And of course I used some of my free time to create some fun sample cards using some of the products that we took out for the kids to use.

This card features a fun background made by embossing with white embossing powder, then adding Alcohol Ink. I loved how it turned out.

The background of this one was made with Color Wash sprays, then stamped in sort of a collage style.

Last, but not least, this simple little card has a cuttlebug embossed background, and the focal point is a piece of paper that I stamped with a script background then with an image from an awesome stamp set by Amy Butler for K&Company called Lotus Floral.

And all of that is why I have not been posting much lately. Well, ok, lets face it, life is just full of better things to do than sit in front of my computer all day, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. Meanwhile, I'll share with you as often as is realistically possible.

Night Pier Card

I received this beautiful stamp from Impression Obsession at a class I took in San Francisco. I finally made some time to play with it.

If you have any interest in learning how this card was made, continue reading this paragraph...if not, just skip down to the next one. I stamped the image 4 different times, once each on regular matte cardstock, acetate, brown cardstock, and glossy white cardstock. The sky and sand were colored using Distress Ink and the Blending Tool. The shiny water was cut out of the acetate, and was colored using Aqua and Pearl Mixative Alcohol Inks. The pearlized quality didn't really show much in the photo, but is really neat in real life. The pier itself was embossed with Distress Embossing Powder before being cut out and layered over the other pieces. Lastly, the moon and the shell were painted using various new Light and Bright colors of Ranger Alcohol Ink. I used Matte Accents over the outside of the shell to make it more like a real shell...just the "inside" remains shiny.

We have been enjoying life around here lately. Up until a couple days ago, weather was sunny and beautiful. We were getting some important jobs done around here, like replanting our lawn. Now the storms and rain we are getting are giving the new grass some important time to establish itself, and it's starting to actually look like a lawn again. As I sit here, the birds are greeting each other very noisily as they feast on worms.

School is winding down, end of the year parties and field trips are in full swing, and Hannah is loving all of the extra excitement. We'll see how she handles summer at home this year. I have a feeling she'll be good and ready when school starts again in the fall.

Noah...well he is spending all of his time and energy growing. Seriously, like a weed! One day none of his pants fit (luckily he had some shorts, and it was warm weather), then shortly after that most of his shoes didn't fit anymore. When I went to measure his feet, he had skipped a size and I had to buy him size 10's. Hannah had times where she suddenly grew too, but not the extreme growth spurts that Noah has. A couple days ago I went and bought him size 4 jeans, and when he wore them yesterday, they really didn't look big on him at all. How can watching your kids grow up make you so proud and so sad at the same time?

Catching Up

Well hi again everyone! This is going to be a random post, catching you up on what's been going on in my life recently. I realize spring break has been over for awhile now, but I'm just now getting to sharing with you what we did with our vacation.

We have some wonderful friends in California that welcomed us to their house for a whole week. We had a fabulous time with them, enjoying the wonderful sunshine, beaches, good food and bonus...visiting Disneyland and California Adventure. I thought I'd just include the above picture since this was the whole reason that our son was so excited to go on vacation! Lightning McQueen! Getting his picture taken with him, seeing him in the Pixar Play Parade, and getting a new Lightning McQueen toy made Noah's day...scratch that...the whole trip. He wasn't even smiling in the picture because he was just so in awe.

Next event: Noah started getting sick toward the end of our trip, and by the time we stopped at Matt's parents' house on our way home, Noah REALLY wasn't feeling well. He snuggled in with Daddy, and was content to just sit there and pet Poppa and Mommas new little kittens. This kitten in particular settled right in and seemed to enjoy just cuddling up.

Of course, Noah's sickness was followed by Hannah's sickness, which is followed by me currently loading up on Airborne in an attempt to avoid some not so pleasant symptoms on Easter.

I am supposed to be singing in 4 church services on Easter, and have all kinds of rehearsals coming up in the next couple of days, so I REALLY don't want to be sick. So far the Airborne seems to be helping. Or maybe it's the prayer...either way, I'll keep doing both.

In other exciting news: My sister Birdie just recently announced to the world that she is pregnant with her 3rd child!!! AND while we were on spring break my mom got ENGAGED! So it looks like this summer we will be having a wedding! It's so crazy to watch my mom enjoying new love, I hear myself telling her some of the same things she told me as I was dating and preparing to get married. So funny.

Ok, finally, I have gotten back into my craft room and created something. This was a bit of an experiment, and it was finished up last night when I was tired. I'm just saying... The experimental part was that I used a Copic Colorless Blender Pen and dipped it in my new light and bright colors of Ranger Alcohol Ink and used that to color in the image. My inexperience definitely shows, but I'll keep practicing.

The Tulip Girl stamp and the background stamp are both by Cornish Heritage Farms. The background is the new Distressed Circles Scrapblock. I LOVE it! I definitely see it becoming another "go-to" stamp in my collection.

Oh, just in case you want to know. The Tulip Girl was stamped with Tuxedo Black Momento Ink before being colored in. And the background was stamped on vellum and embossed with Tattered Rose Distress Embossing Powder...LOVE the great texture that the Distress Embossing Powders provide.

Oh, and the Trinkets Pin from the Ideaology line by Tim Holtz says "thoughts" on it. I liked how that went with the "Wishes" sentiment from the Expressions set by Hot Off The Press.

My goal at the beginning of the year was to post at least once a week, so sorry about the long wait for this post. But I'm sure you understand that family and home life have to be my first priority.

Blessings to you!

Igloo Boy

I haven't done a scrapbook page in a really long time, but this picture was to cute not to do something special with. Noah had been out in the snow helping Daddy and the neighbors build this igloo for quite awhile so when it was finally finished he just took a rest inside and looked out at me so sweetly. Seriously, who could resist that smile.

Butterfly Mobile

As soon as I bought the Spellbinders Nested Butterfly die set, I knew that one of the first things I wanted to do was make a mobile for my daughter Hannah’s room. She is the ultimate girly girl, so I made her mobile very delicate, feminine and full of bling. The Spellbinders Scalloped Circles are cut out of transparency sheets, and the designs are stamped with The Essential Glue Pad and glittered with fine Vintage Glass Glitter. As they float around the sparkle coming off of them is just mesmerizing. It was hard to really capture the beauty in a picture though.
The main elements of the mobile are 16 acetate scalloped circles, 10 die cut butterflies, and a FUNdamental Swanky Frame by Technique Tuesday. I wrapped the Swanky Frame with tulle to soften the look, and added some butterflies and flowers.

The butterflies were made of a fine Thai Kozo paper, and sprayed with a mixture of Rangers' Adirondack Color Wash, Perfect Pearls, and water, before being stamped with VersaMark Ink to add a subtle design. I also sprayed sheer white ribbon to match the butterflies, and used it to tie the butterflies onto the mobile.I just love their little antennae...fishing line tipped with Glossy Accents and dipped in the Vintage Glass Glitter for just a bit of sparkle.

Hannah was so excited to hang it up in her room! “Mommy, it’s beautiful!” makes it so worth going over the top with all the sparkle and bling. Now the question is, will it help her sleep in on Saturday morning?

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's already 2009. A year seems to fly by awfully fast these days.

This is my husband and I on our anniversary trip this year. We stayed on the Long Beach penninsula in Washington. Our trip was planned smack in the middle of one of the largest amounts of snowfall that Oregon has seen in a long time. Sooo...we had to take the long route over the coast range and up along the coast to get to Long Beach. It was pretty crazy because they actually had snow too, and they hardly ever even get a little skiff of snow. We went for a walk on the snowy beach one morning. So beautiful! We saw a bald eagle flying over, and lots of little water birds of various kinds shared the beach with us. There were alot of heron on the beach too. It's a very pretty place, I think if we went again we would go in the summer though because it was COLD.

Well, I started this blog one year ago, and it was fun for me to look back over the entries that I've made in the last year. I find it interesting that at the beginning of the year I chose to put my focus on the word prioritize. I wasn't sure how I would actually see that focus play out in my life over the year. But I've spent significant time praying about this, especially in the middle of the night when I was laying awake and everyone else was peacefully sleeping. Now looking back, I do see that my priorities have actually changed gradually throughout the year. I've become more and more aware of how very quickly my children are growing up. I don't want to miss it, I want to just take it in and enjoy this special time in the life of our family. If you've been following my blog, you may have noticed that the amount of blog entries dropped significantly over the course of the year. Now, I could blame that all on priorities, but truthfully, some of it is just a lack of knowing what is interesting for you to read. Some of it is priorities too. My goal through this next year is to post an entry on my blog at least once a week.

As for 2009...I believe that my focus for the year is this, live intentionally. The things I do in my life do have meaning and purpose, even in the daily grind, and I want to be intentional about using my resources, time, and talent to intentionally bless my family and others, and to grow as a person. How that will look at the end of this year remains to be seen...

So happy 2009! What will it hold for you?

Snow, Snow and More Snow

This is what's been going on at our house for the last week. We've had an extra week of Christmas vacacation due to snow days. I came out and took these early in the morning before anything but deer had messed up the perfect smooth snow. This is the nice sticky snow that piles up on branches and such quite nicely. It also packs together wonderfully for...

making a sledding hill and...

igloos. Daddy and a neighbor spent a couple of hours building this great little igloo. Throughout the night it has been snowing on it and adding thickness to the walls. The great thing is, with all that work, it looks like it won't be melting yet for a little while. Some forcasts are reporting another possible 6 - 10 inches today on the valley floor. Great for snow forts...not so great for anniversary trips and holiday travels. Although they are still predicting rain for Christmas, blech. For now we'll just enjoy the snow.

Congratulations to the Sheridan Spartans!

I have to brag a little bit today. My husband coaches the Sheridan Highschool volleyball team and last night was a great night for the Spartans. The girls won the league championship game last night against a very tough team from Valley Catholic in Portland.

It was a really great game! I am so proud of my husband. I know that I am just a little bit biased, but I think he is a really great coach, and am so happy for the teams' success.

In addition to winning the league title, all 6 of the starting players received all league awards with 3 making the first team, 2 making the second team, and another receiving honorable mention. Matt also received Coach of the Year.

We have now had two nights in a row of little sleep, the first being anxious lack of sleep, the second being excited lack of sleep. It's going to be fun to watch them play in the state tournament!

Now, on to other things...the following picture is from the Autumn Deer Framed Art class. If you need a great gift idea for someone special, this just could be the class you are looking for. This is a very detailed project, and the results are amazing.

A Chance to Give

Dominic's fundraiser is coming right up. If you are not a regular on my blog you can read more details about my niece Dominic below. These details were previously posted on my blog so if you have already read this you can just skip down to the next photo.

Dominic had a g-tube placed when she was 14 days old due to urgent need of complete nutrition that would help her overcome all the challenges she presented at birth. These challenges included low birth weight (4.6 lb. at 39 weeks gestation), small head, an area of damage in her brain, two small holes in her heart and a severe bilateral cleft lip and palate.She has received surgery to repair her palate and lip, but has been receiving 99% of her nutrition from her g-tube (a small apparatus surgically placed in the stomach allowing food to be deposited there directly, bypassing the mouth and esophagus).

Dominic doesn’t experience food like you and I. She has oral sensitivities, poor oral motor skills, fear, and negative associations (like vomit or pain) with food that she needs to overcome. For Dominic moving food in her mouth in a way that is necessary to eat is not natural, it is hard work.Dominic is medically ready to wean from her g-tube to oral feeding, but she needs some help.

There is a therapy available in Washington called Rapid Wean directed especially for kid just like Dominic that could have her eating significant amounts of food orally in a matter of 14 days. (to learn more visit http://tofthouse.com/ )Dominic will be entering this therapy in October, but does not have insurance that will cover the costs of this therapy. God has already been blessing Dominic and her family, and much of the money has already been raised, but as the time draws nearer, there is more that I want to do to ensure that Dominic gets the therapy she needs in order to continue growing and developing into the sweet little girl that God made her to be.

Dominic feeding her baby.

If you live in the area and are interested in helping out...this is the invitation that is being sent out to friends, family, and people who care:

YOU ARE INVITED!!!!...

To an open-house cardmaking fundraiser.

When? This Friday, September 26
What time? 3-9pm
Where? At the Scrap-a-Latte store in McMinneville, OR
(Located on Hwy 99w betweenFigaro's Pizza and Hollywood Video.)
Why? To help financially support Mic in her upcoming oralfeeding/g-tube wean therapy.

Valonda Leichty(that's me...lol) is organizing the event and will be on hand, along with all her supplies, hundreds of stamps, lots of ideas, tips and helpful, professional advice. Come spend as long as you want and make as many cards as you would like.
There will be a requested donation of $3 per card that you make, although additional donations are welcome as well.
If you are interested in attending this fun event, you can RSVP by emailing Valonda at valonda1@juno.com

Obviously this is very, very important to me, and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to use my supplies and talents to bless my family and to help Dominic receive some life-changing help. Thanks in advance for joining together with me.

First Day of School

My little girl is now a first grader. Her first full day of school was a little rough on her. She came home exhausted and starving. But she loves her new teacher, and was glad that she gets to see one of her very good friends on the playground even though she is in a different class.

I just thought it was so cute. When I got ready to take her "first day of school picture", Hannah felt bad that Noah wasn't going to have his picture taken, so she invited him to join her. He didn't have a backpack to show off, so he decided to show us his bag of cereal. It's amazing how one minute they can be yelling at each other and the next minute they are so thoughtful and kind to each other. I guess I can remember feeling the same way about my sisters and brother. Can anyone relate?

Drift Creek Camp

It's time for a reminder that time is running out to sign up for the Fall Quilt and Scrapbook Retreat at Drift Creek Camp.

I will be there teaching some classes, and holding open-house style cardmaking time with my entire collection of stamps and an enormous selection of supplies. Details can be found here: http://www.driftcreek.org/Programs/Fall_Quilt_and_Scrapbook_Retreat
I'd love to see you there!

Many members of my husbands family, including us, will be getting together this weekend to remember Matt's grandpa Jake Leichty who passed away on Monday morning. The memorial service will be friday. I have already said goodbye to all of my grandparents, and am so glad that we have two wonderful great-grandma's on Matt's side of the family who are still around to be a great blessing and influence in my kids lives. I'm so thankful to the Lord for elder family members who bring a perspective to our lives that is so needed.

I feel like there is so much more that I wanted to say, but I can't think of where to begin. Writing does not come easy for me, but I thank you for following along with my thoughts.

I will be back in a few days with something fun, creative, and new...hmmm...
See you then.

See you at The Venetian!

I have several fundraising events coming up, and would like to invite you to join me in helping to raise some money. These cardmaking fundraisers are going to be open-house style events. I will have all of my supplies on hand, along with ideas, tips, and helpful advice so that you can just play with the supplies and make as many cards as you like.

There will be a requested donation of $3 per card that you make, although additional donations are welcome as well.

The first fundraiser will be held to raise money for my sister-in-law Kristen Leichty. She will be raising money for her 11 month long mission trip which begins September 6th. Kristen will be traveling to Europe with Radical Journey, a program of the Mennonite Missions Network: http://www.mennonitemission.net/Work/Service/RAD/Default.asp

So if you would like to be a part of the fundraiser, the information is below:
The Venetian Theatre
Albany, OR
Monday, August 25th from 5-9pm
*the cafe will be open with coffee drinks and soda available
if you are interested in attending this event, please shoot me an email at valonda1@juno.com



This is my little niece, Dominic. Dominic will be 4 years old in November.

Dominic had a g-tube placed when she was 14 days old due to urgent need of complete nutrition that would help her overcome all the challenges she presented at birth. These challenges included low birth weight (4.6 lb. at 39 weeks gestation), small head, an area of damage in her brain, two small holes in her heart and a severe bilateral cleft lip and palate.

She has received surgery to repair her palate and lip, but has been receiving 99% of her nutrition from her g-tube (a small apparatus surgically placed in the stomach allowing food to be deposited there directly, bypassing the mouth and esophagus). Dominic doesn’t experience food like you and I. She has oral sensitivities, poor oral motor skills, fear, and negative associations (like vomit or pain) with food that she needs to overcome. For Dominic moving food in her mouth in a way that is necessary to eat is not natural, it is hard work.

Dominic is medically ready to wean from her g-tube to oral feeding, but she needs some help. There is a therapy available in Washington called Rapid Wean directed especially for kid just like Dominic that could have her eating significant amounts of food orally in a matter of 14 days. (to learn more visit http://tofthouse.com/ )

Dominic will be entering this therapy in October, but does not have insurance that will cover the costs of this therapy. God has already been blessing Dominic and her family, and much of the money has already been raised, but as the time draws nearer, there is more that I want to do to ensure that Dominic gets the therapy she needs in order to continue growing and developing into the sweet little girl that God made her to be.

This fundraiser will be the same type of open-house style event as the previous one. If you are interested in attending this fun event, you can RSVP by emailing me (valonda1@juno.com).
The event will be held:
Friday, September 26th from 3-9pm
at Scrap-a-Latte in McMinnville, OR
Hope to see you there!

Sisters

Don't you love this stamp? As soon as I saw it I loved it. I can't help but think of my sister Birdie when I look at this stamp. She loves nostalgic things, and she has light brown hair while mine is very dark, and she is taller than me(even though she is younger). I don't get to see my sister very often because she lives in Mexico City with her husband and two kids. BUT I will get to see her soon! They will be coming in October for about a month and a half. We are very excited to see them and to hug them all...especially her little guy Damien who we have not met in person yet. Anyway, its not all vacation, they are coming for. My niece Dominic is coming to have some intensive therapy. Dominic was born with a cleft lip and palette. She has already had surgery to repair those, but she will be receiving therapy to learn to eat without her feeding tube. This is going to be huge for Dominic and for their family. We are just waiting to see what God is going to do through this therapy.

About the card above. The Sisters stamp is made by Cornish Heritage Farms from their Sandra Kuck collection. I used a brayer to ink up the image with Tuxedo Black Momento ink by Tsukineko. The image was colored using Prismacolor pencils, and blended with a Copic Colorless Blender. The pink paper is by Making Memories and the patterned paper on the left is from the Urban Couture collection by Basic Grey. The words on the right were stamped with Walnut Stain Distress Ink by Ranger, and additional shading and edging was added with the same ink.
One of the details that I love is that I had this neat scalloped lace that just happened to line up really well with the scalloped edge of the paper. I love when things work out like that!

Cuttlebug Embossing Techniques

Get ready for a new class coming soon to a store near you (if you live in the Wilamette Valley *smile*). The new Cuttlebug Embossing Techniques class is currently being scheduled for the fall. The first ones will be in September. I will post the dates as soon as they are confirmed. Sooo...you have some time to save up for a Cuttlebug if you don't have one yet. Each class participant will need to bring their own Cuttlebug machine, and you will receive an embossing folder as part of the class. The class will include 10 different techniques and variations on those techniques. There are so many different looks you can get with these folders...SO much fun to play with.

I've been having a great time in the last week, with friends and family visiting from out of state, and out of the country too. My sister is here visiting from Mexico right now. She and her husband are pastors in the mountains of Creel. It is great to have her around for a little bit. We are hoping that all of us will be able to be together this fall. We haven't all been together since my dad died almost 4 years ago. In any case, having her here us a blessing, and we are thankful for each and every bit of time that we get to spend together. With that said, I need to go pack up my stuff and head to my moms house for a little more time with her before she has to leave.
Have a great day!

I love summer!

I love it that my husband is a teacher! We have been having lots of fun since school got out. Of course this has resulted in me being very negligent in my blogging, but hopefully you can forgive me. The picture above is from a couple days ago. As a family we went to Scotty's Playhouse, an incredible indoor playground at our church. It is open to the public at no cost, built in memory of several children for our church who are in heaven now. If you would like to learn more about Scotty's Playhouse and the See Ya Later Foundation formed in honor of Scotty Banke, you can check it out here: http://seeyalater.org/Templates/ScottysPlayhouse.html
The next day, we took the kids fishing at Small Fry Lake, a part of Promontory Park. Small fry lake is a 1 acre lake, specifically for children to go fishing at. It is free, and is stocked with trout. The drive there is beautiful, and so is the lake. I love how they have made every part of they lake very easy for children to fish from, there are well-kept bathroom facilities on site, and just up the road is a tiny play area with a covered picnic table right there. So we fished for as long as the kids wanted to, then had our lunch right there by the slides and swings. It was such a perfect day, and that is even without catching any fish.
Noah wanted to hop right in the lake and catch them with the net. We could see them jumping, but we didn't get there until mid afternoon...not exactly prime time for fishing...so we didn't get to eat any fish. But then again we didn't have to clean them either :).

We have also been working on our landscaping some. It's always nice to see that project progressing. And, yesterday, I went to Portland with my friend Amy with no kids. I love my kids, but I rarely enjoy a relaxing shopping trip with them along. It was great. We had a long list of things we needed to do since she is going on vacation soon, but even with that list to take care of we had a great time. How can you go wrong when a day involves Starbucks, chocolate, The Container Store, and a beautiful $89 skirt for $15?

Guess what I did last night? Put together Crafty Secrets kits!!! That's right, it's coming up this Saturday. The first Crafty Secrets Bird Lovers Class...yeah! In spite of my blogging absence, everything is going along great. With days this good it is sometimes hard to find my way to the computer, but I will do my very best to keep you informed and throw some inspiration your way. In fact...stay tuned. I will post some fun projects with some brand new stamps soon.

New Class Pics

This is one of 4 cards we will be making in the Hero Art Thanks Phrase CardArt class coming up in August. The stamp will be included in the class fee, and we will learn some great techniques, as well as a variety of ways to use this wonderful stamp.
AND...here are more glimpses of the fun you can have in the Ir-resist-able Art Backgrounds class. This photo shows just a small portion of a couple of papers I made using the techniques and supplies we will be using in this class. I promise to supply loads of inky, messy fun! As well as some great ideas of ways to incorporate these spectacular papers into your projects.

Well, I guess "summer" has hit. Yesterday was Hannahs last day of Kindergarten. She's ready to go buy a new backpack and start first grade. She has no real concept of "summer break". It could be a long summer. Luckily we have some excitement to break up the length of summer...harvest. The kids always love being with their grandma and grandpa on the farm during harvest time. I love it too. The smell of grass seed harvest will always bring back lots of memories for me since I grew up on a grass seed farm too. And guess what, the end of the school year brought a pleasant surprise with it...warmer weather. The next five days or so are supposed to be in the mid 70's. Just perfect!

My little girl is 6

It's official, Hannah is now 6 years old. After counting the days...and days...and days...(she's been counting since November), she is finally 6. We had a nice little party with family and friends. We chose to do some art projects instead of party games. One of the things we did was make some shrink plastic charms etc. They colored them in with Sharpies, and some of the adults cut them out, then they got to watch them shrink up in the toaster oven. Lastly, they got to string them onto necklaces with a bunch of other beads. None of them had ever done this before so they thought it was pretty neat to see them shrink up tiny.
Along with Hannah's 6th birthday, came her first two wheeled bicycle. Granted, it has four right now, but she was pretty excited to have a two-wheeler. She has a little friend that just moved into our neighborhood this weekend, so she is really looking forward to riding bikes with her friend.
She is pretty tentative on it right now, and utilizes its brakes quite often. That's my girl, she's always been pretty careful. Which thankfully means no broken bones or stitches yet, but hopefully it won't take her to long to gain enough confidence to ride at a walking or even jogging pace. I'm looking forward to getting a little exercise on our walks.

This fun, distressed tile was created with Embossing Paste and Crackle Paint. It will be part of my Decorative Elements Paste Embossing Class. Every project in that class incorporates my favorite products (Ranger Distress Products) with embossing paste.
Yesterday was a long, but fun day. My husband was playing in a sand volleyball tournament, so the kids and I were on our own for the day. We went to watch my very talented cousin compete in an invitational track meet. Maria (above with my two kids) is now a freshman and gets to compete for her highschool. In past years she has competed at the annual Hershey meet in Pennsylvania, and we are looking forward to seeing where her talent takes her in the future. It is really fun to watch her race. She is still healing up from a recent injury, but still ran a very good race, missing first place in the 100m race by only four hundredths of a second. Congratulations Maria!

After sitting in the sun for a fair amount of the day, my kids were exhausted. I didn't even realize until we got home, that Hannah and I were looking a little bit pink. I guess we aren't used to sunshine, LOL.