Lakauai {Life is Good}

I am always on the lookout for a great new blog to follow.  I was browsing the new designers list chosen for Graphic 45 and found Kristin Wilson.  She has some pretty amazing stuff, definitely worth a look-see!  And as a bonus, she is in the middle of a pretty incredible giveaway – $100 to Scrapbook.com  Wowzers!  What kind of damage I can do with $100 at a scrapbooking mecca like Scrapbook.com!!  You should check her blog out and you could get your name into the giveaway.  Or wait – don’t!  that will make my chances of winning better!!

I have a huge collection of Life Truths at Pinterest.  My master plan is to create an Art Journal with a page dedicated to each of these quotes that I collected.  I love quotes, they are the perfect way to sum up great words to live by.  I also wanted a way to display a few of my favorites around my house.  So, I started picking up large, fairly flat rocks here and there.  I got a bunch last week at the lake that finally gave me enough to start my project.  First thing to do was to wash the rocks!  The rocks need to be free of dirt and mud before they get prettied up!  Some of the rocks, I just spray painted, others I used some scrapbook paper scraps and mod-podged them.  Next was to use my fine-point Sharpies and try to write neatly enough for it to be read and space the words so that they whole quote fit on the rock.  That was pretty hard actually – one of them I had to use my bleach pen on it and start over!  This was a great, fun easy project and I adore how they turned out!  These are the quotes I chose for my rocks.  Try it yourself, and choose quotes that speak to your heart!

• Life is about using the whole box of crayons.
• When in doubt choose the kids, there will be plenty of time to choose work later.
• Use what talents you possess.  The world would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
• What I love most about my home is who I share it with.
• Piglet:  How do you spell love?  Pooh:  You don’t spell it, you feel it.
• Dear Math:  I’m not a therapist, solve your own problems.
• The book is always better.
• Logic will get you from A to B.  Imagination will get you everywhere.
• Go the extra mile – it’s never crowded.
• This is our Happily Ever After.
• If you want to know where your heart is, look to where you mind goes when it wanders.

Finally, four to six months after they were supposed to be removed, Chace’s braces are gone!!  He could have had them off before Christmas, but no!  I guess he thought that the dentist was just kidding when he told him to wear the rubber bands.  Or maybe he just thought it was optional.  I don’t know!  Anyway, they are finally gone now – and oh my!  I can’t get over how great his teeth look, I’m such a proud mama!!  He seems to be so much older now, I get a glimpse of those smooth pearly whites and I see the man that he is fast becoming.  sniffsniff….seems like just yesterday he was at the dentist for his first major dental work at 3 years old wearing the orange smelly nose and enjoying a little laughing gas.  Time has shifted into fast forward!

This is a layout I created for the newsletter over at The Digi Chick.  I used a digital kit called Wish by Forever Joy Designs.

I made the title in PhotoShop using the banner and girl elements from the kit.  Then I picked a font and added the title.  This was backed with one of the digital papers and printed out on cardstock.

The journaling was also done in Photoshop.  The frame is a digital element from the kit and I added some ink, tiny flowers to the corner and my journaling.

Last thing was the addition of the paper flowers by Prima.  In the center of each flower is a brad.

A quick and easy page!

Love the photo of Todd and Caeden.  It was taken at a Blue Angel AirShow.  Love the way they are both looking up at the beautiful blue sky, their profiles and the way they are both wearing hats and how Caeden is sitting on Todd’s shoulder.

I have a beautiful jewelry box my MIL gave me for Christmas several years ago, but it’s just not quite big enough to hold all my {non-expensive} lovely jewelry.  Please know that if you are a potential robber none of my stuff is worth your time – it’s all costume jewelry!!  Anyway, I saw a great idea a while ago to use those cheap-o plastic hooks on your closet walls to hold necklaces, so I did that – but I don’t have enough available wall space in my closet to hold all my necklaces.  So, I started scouring the web for ideas for jewelry organization.  I found lots of ideas on Pinterest, you can see all the ideas I collected by checking out my Accessorize Pinterest Board.

I ended up using an old set of shutters that my Mom and Dad took out of a house they had a long time ago.  I grabbed them when they said they didn’t want them, and have had them sitting around ever since.  Finally, inspiration struck!!  I bought some nifty picture holders at Wal-Mart and nailed them at regular intervals on the shutters.  A perfect necklace holder!

You can also see more necklaces on a black rack thingy I got at the thrift store.  I’m not sure if it is supposed to be a jewelry holder or a cup holder or what.  But, it does work work to hold necklaces.  I just wish it had more hook arm places.  I’ve had to double up on all of them even triple hang on some and sometimes it’s a pain to get to the necklace I want.  You can also see some other jewelry holders I am using in this picture.