Beach Layouts

The picture frames I made for the girls as a "welcome home from camp present".

I miss them!

Yesterday Cathy and I played in the shack. I finished up my beach/vacation album. Kind of bitter-sweet though because I love "working" on albums. I love to go shopping for things to go in an album, thinking outside the box for ideas and seeing what others have done with similar products.

Cathy made the cutest page of Clint and I yesterday. She used swirly borders and frames with her home decor cartridge I believe. Super cute! Super fun! She also altered a couple of "friends" chipboard albums to give as gifts. I'll have to remember to get a picture before she mails those off. Super duper cute! I'm really going to be extremely sad when I have to go back to work! I'm going to miss all of our 'play dates' out in the shack/shop.

Cricut Expression Dust Covers

Cathy's Cricut Expression Dust Cover

My Cricut Expression Dust Cover

My sweet Aunt Ben made Cathy and I the cutest dust covers for our expressions. It was a huge surprise to me because I didn't know anything about it! That was so sweet of her to do that for me! I really LOVE mine. It's actually made from a vinyl table cloth. How cool is that?!? We have the most talented people in our family!

Today Cathy and I played over at the shack. I finished my beach album! Yeah! My 8 yr old niece spent the night at pa's, so I also played with her too. I made her a little heart shape box out of the bags, tags, boxes and more. Super fun cricut cartridge. A must have. Then after she left I made the girls a picture frame for their room. I'll try and post a pic tomorrow. Super, fun, productive day! :)

Clint's album

I thought I'd post a few of the layouts from Clint's Father's Day album. I set a record making his album. 3 whole days. I couldn't have done it without my handy dandy cricut expression and the paper doll dress up cricut cartridge though. I do LOVE that machine! This album was a true challenge for me because I'm all about girly stuff. It was so hard not to put pretties on it. I feel for mom's of all boy's. Esp. if they are scrappers. lol I did use camo ribbon! I couldn't help it. ;-}

Happy Father's Day!

(The deck my brother built)


We took Daddy out to eat last night at one of our favorite local seafood restaurants. We had a really nice time together. We really need to do that more often. Special occasions or not. Lacey actually took this picture. She loves taking pictures as much as I do! Maybe one day she'll be a professional. :-} After supper (that's what we call dinner here in the deep south,) (dinner is lunch for us, but we call it both lunch or dinner) we all went to my brother's house to see his new deck (that one of my other brother's built). -See picture above.

I am the only girl out of 4 boys. {lucky me} It is gorgeous. My SIL said that everyone has stopped by her house and asked if they could see it. Now my brother is building decks for everyone in town. We call him the "deck man" now. ;-} My whole family are great carpenters. My Daddy taught them well. Now almost everyone in the family has a new deck. lol



My Daddy is an amazing man! Everyone really respects the person he is. He has been through so much, with the loss of our mom, his major surgeries and cancer. He NEVER stops! He's truly a walking miracle. Say a little prayer for him on July 7th because he'll be having another surgery soon.
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

Messy

I thought I'd post a picture of the HUGE mess I made tonight on the dining room table. I'm working on a surprise for Clint. A Father's Day album of his {treasured} knap in pictures. It's all about indian artifacts and things. I borrowed my cousins paper doll dress up cricut cartridge to cut out little arrowheads, arrows, and other things. I also used my {new} life is a beach cartridge for the font. I love that cart! I really hope he likes his gift because I've got hours tied into this album so far. It's truly PRICELESS... lol

It's like going to a crop because all of my things live at the craft shack now. So in order to be able to work on the album at night I've had to cart my things around in the car. But it's okay because it's fun and it's what I love to do! I also altered a box of Starbucks coffee drinks and a box of SB's chocolate covered coffee beans to go along with this album. This is going to be the best Father's Day he's ever had. :-)

Hero Arts

Is having a huge giveaway all week. Check it out here!!

Don't forget New Moon is still up for grabs. See post below.

New tool

Have you guys seen this new tool? Today was the first time for me. I think it's really neat. You can cover brads with just about anything. Right now I think you can only pre-order these. It kind of reminds me of the crop-a-dile. I wonder how well they will sell? Looks fun.

Don't forget NEW MOON is still up for grabs!!!

New Moon Giveaway

I just finished the second book in the twilight series New Moon. Really great book! If anyone would like this book it's free for the taking. This book really needs a home. :) I'll mail if off as soon as I get a taker.

VBS and Blog Hop

Today we had VBS at church. We changed it up a little this year. Instead of Mon-Fri night we went all day today. We had a giant water slide, pool, jumpin castle, snow cones, water balloons, water guns, bubbles and lots of games and crafts. It was so much fun. The kids even got to play in the rain. They LOVED it! I love having it Saturday. This way it doesn't tie up your week.

Also today, they are having another blog hop. This one isn't as large but fun none the less. I love visiting new scrappy blogs so this is always fun for me. So check it out! Start here.

Cards for Heroe's

Here are a couple of goodies that came in the mail for me today. I was one of the blogger's chosen from the blog hop at cardsforheroes to win a some goodies. You can see more of these stamps here They are so cute and she gives you a sample card which is always nice too.

I ordered the Life is a beach cartridge from ebay today, so hopefully that will come in the mail soon so I can get started on my beach album. Ebay has the cheapest prices on carts that I've seen anywhere. Oh my crafts has really great prices too!! I will probably go play at the shack tomorrow. I'm itching to do something. Make something. Anything. I just hate all this rain and humidity. It makes all the paper feel wet and warped. I can't pick up my pictures until Saturday. Patience.

The Track, Fudpuckers and The Gulfarium

Day 3

We decided to see the sights around town since we were more Sun~Kissed than we wanted to be. After The Track, Fudpuckers, The Gulfarium and Scoops ice cream we headed back to the beach to top off the day.

This is a van coming out the side wall of Fudpuckers. They have awesome fries! They also have a live alligators and show for the kids. This was a very cool restaurant for kids and adults a like. It even has it own gift shop. Our kind of place!
The girls posing before lunch.

Since the girls were almost sun burned I decided we would do a few things around town instead of spending the hottest part of the day on the beach. So we went to The Track for a little recreation time. Haley LOVED the bumper cars! She said they were much better than the ones at Wild Adventures.

Lacey and Haley had the bumper cars to themselves the first time around. We got to the park right after it opened.

This was the girls first experience on go carts. Haley was driving like a grandma. She was going extremely slow. The guy had to go out on the little hill and literally PUSH her up. LOL It was so funny. Even the workers were laughing. She finally got the hang of it the next time.

Lacey LOVED the go-carts the best. She was wide open the WHOLE time. {Guess she has a lead foot like her mama} at least that's what Daddy says. :)

The bumper boats were really fun. Not only could you bump into other boats but you can also squirt them! SO COOL!

After the track we went to Fudpuckers and had lunch. Then we went to the Gulfarium. This was very much worth the money. Only $10 more than lunch. haha It was right on the beach. You can actually see the beach from it.

We had to wait about 25 minutes for the dolphin show to begin. So Lacey took the camera and snapped this shot of the dolphins playing the tank. It was huge tank with windows all around so you could see them. I thought she did a great job.

After going to The Track, having lunch, and visiting the Gulfarium we stopped at Scoops for ICE CREAM! YUMMY!

This guy was in training. I thought he did an excellent job! It's AMAZING how HIGH these animals can jump! You can see the pier we walked on in the back ground to the left of this picture.

He put a live fish in his mouth. YUCK! Yummy for the fish though. ;)

a day on the beach

One late afternoon we took a walk out on the pier. It was so beautiful and breezy. We even got to see a wedding take place right there. It was very sweet and romantic. We actually saw two while we were there.

The girls took turns looking out over the ocean. There was a lot of fishing going on.

I LOVE this look on Lacey's face! This was right before she stumped her toe really badly on the wood/concrete walk way. We had to leave pretty soon after that because she was so miserable. I managed to walk 3/4 ways down the pier though.

I took a couple of shots of the girls on the beach. It proved more difficult that I imagined. The wind was either in their face or they were squinting from the sun. lol But so enjoyable non the less. :) I would have taken more pictures on the beach but I was so worried that my camera would get sand in it.

As I sat on the beach each day, I couldn't help but think how I was surrounded by all of God's natural beauty. I would close my eyes and listen to things around me. It was literally music to my ears. The waves crashing on the shores, children laughing, people talking, birds singing, the wind blowing and even the sand between my toes was calming. In those moments I felt totally blessed to be there!

Sun~Kissed

We had a wonderful time at the beach! It was by far the best vacation I've ever had! We had so much fun!! I took so MANY pictures. Now I have to sort through them and get them printed. Can't wait to scrapbook them.

If you've never been to the gulf coast you've got to go!!! It's so beautiful! I almost wanted to cry because I didn't want to leave! 4 days was not long enough. Haley was ready to come home though. She is such a {home body} "like her daddy." The water was so beautiful, clear and clean. The girls had a total blast in the ocean. We bought boogie boards and they rode the waves each day until we had to leave.

I'll post more pictures tomorrow.