January Challenge #224 "Captured Moments"

This month's theme is "Life's Moments" over at Lasting Memories.  This week's challenge is all about "Captured Moments".  What is a captured moment?  To me, it's when I come across a photo of a moment that I completely forgot about.  For instance, the photo I used for this week's layout was taken at the Philadelphia Zoo during a visit to my hometown. 

 My son, my sister, and her boyfriend were all looking at this little monkey climb a rope to get to his buddies.

We all stood there and watched the monkey go about his daily routine. 

 We didn't say much to each other, we just got lost in the moment. In fact, the monkey wasn't doing anything amazing.  He was simple.  He would climb up one rope, look around,  jump to another rope and look around.  But for some reason, he captivated us.   I forgot all about this moment until I came across this particular photo of our trip.  It's more than just a photo, it a "Captured Moment".

My Story

No, no, no....don't worry.  This is not a blog post about my life story.  I'll save that for a rainy day.  "My Story" is actually the title to today's scrapbook page:

Maybe I will indulge you in a little chapter of my Life Story.  Did I ever mention that I was in the United States Air Force?  Did I mention that I was a firefighter?  Yup. Yup.  I can't lie, I am a little proud to say that.  I joined the military in 2007 because I always sorta felt compelled to do it.  My recruiter gave me a booklet of jobs to bring home and carefully choose a career that I think would suit me.  All the jobs sounded kind of boring to me, until I saw FIREFIGHTER.  So I checked the box.  Simple as that.  No tear jerking, inspirational reasoning behind my decision.  I was warned over and over that the training was brutal.  I was told several times that females rarely make it through the Physical Training, because women's bodies usually can't lift a human being off the ground, throw them over their shoulders, and carry them out of a burning building if necessary.  But hey, I like a challenge.  Long story short, I did very well in Fire Training and even did better than half my class which was all men.  Maybe I'm just built more like a man than a woman.  I don't know.  But it was the 4th greatest accomplishments of my life.  

The photo was actually taken in Disney World.  I was acting like a complete doofus and pretending to open to the hydrant.  

I followed along with My Creative Sketches' December Sketch:

Check out the challenge, you still have until Jan. 14th to enter.

Check out Paper Issue's Link Party

What is your 4th greatest accomplishment?  I'd love to know.

Two More Holiday Layouts

Howdy Folks.

How is everyone out their in Blogland?

I'm doing just fine.  I lost the bedtime war with my son this evening.  

I waved my white flag and surrendered.

He was way too smart and powerful for me tonight.

Looking back, I never had a chance.

Complete Defeat.

Oh well, tomorrow is a new day.

On to other news, I made a couple more Holiday layouts over the weekend.  The first layout I made is of a sweet little family we met shortly after we moved to the Florida Keys.  They are so awesome and I'm grateful to have them in our lives:

I used a sketch from a blog I found while browsing called Let's Scrap.  They have lots of inspiration and post new sketches all the time.  I used Sketch Challenge # 12-31-14:

It's the first double page sketch that I've ever worked with, but it was so much fun to change it to suit my style.

   The second layout is of my son and I hanging ornaments on our tree this Christmas.  The holidays were so fun now that he understands Santa Claus and was filled with holiday spirit:

I used Studio Calico's Sunday Sketch:

Thank you for visiting me today.  Happy Scrapping Homies!

Big News and Lasting Memories Challenge #223

Hello.  My name is Andrea and I have absolutely no patience & I'm so excited I could just pee my pants.  I was chosen to be a Design Team Member for Lasting Memories.  Seriously?  Somebody pinch me.  Really?  Me?  Are they sure about this??

I am so honored to be a part of such an amazing challenge blog.  These ladies (and maybe some men) are the nicest group of scrappers I've ever met.  They welcomed me with open arms and I am eager to learn from them and share my work with all of you.  This will be my first Design Team position and I'm stoked!  Slightly nervous, but more like "first-date-butterflies" type of nervous.  It's awesome!

With all of my blabbering out of the way,  I'd like to welcome you to our very first challenge for 2015 at Lasting Memories! We're celebrating the new year and new Design Team with a blog hop. Super fun right?! If you're just starting the hop, be sure to start at Lasting Memories so you don't miss anyone - if you're last stop was Paula,  then you're on the right track!

Our challenge theme this entire month is "Life's Moments" and our first challenge is "Life's Simple Pleasures" .. we want to know what one of your simple pleasure's in life is. Chocolate? Coffee? Adorable children, pets or grandchildren?? SO many things to consider and we're excited to see what you create! What's my Simple Pleasures?  Coffee, my son, my husband, coffee, and chocolate.  Here's what I came up with for this awesome challenge:

When I was searching for a photo to use, I came across this perfect photo.  It totally fit this challenge and spoke to me.  This photo is my simple pleasure.  Everyday, when my husband comes home from work, my son, Cole runs to the door with joy in his heart and the biggest smile on his face.  He jumps up for a hug, and for the rest of the evening, they are inseparable.  They truly are best friends and miss each other when apart.  Every night when I see them, my heart smiles and I know how lucky I am to have these guys in my life.  Pure unconditional love.

Your next stop is Suzanne and when you're all done visiting the new Design Team, we really hope you'll have time to join the fun! All our challenges run for the entire month, so you have time to play! Thanks for stopping by today!

Line Up

Lasting Memories

Lori

Tina

                                    Paula<----(came from here)

                                       Andrea<----YOU ARE HERE

                          Suzanne<----(next stop)

Lyne

Bea

Claire (returning member)

Renee

Kimberly (returning member)

Michele

Karen

Lasting Memories (time to craft!)

Another Christmas Layout

I thought I was over making holiday layouts, but apparently I still have Christmas Spirit.  I'm not sure how much longer it will last, but I'll take full advantage of it while it's still flowing.

I finished up a layout tonight with a photo of my son on his 1st Christmas morning.  The first year we bought our home, we didn't have much extra money.  That year for Christmas, I bought all of Cole's gifts from the thrift store and from yard sales.  I started a few month before the holiday and really had quite a collection.  It was so much fun to hunt down little treasures instead of going to the store and buying something brand new.  I've been a "thrifter" my whole life and love digging through piles of junk to find the "diamond in the rough".

To get my creative juices flowing, I participated in a challenge over at The Paper Girls Challenge.

The theme was ornaments for Challenge #70.

You can create your own ornament, make a layout or December album page about ornaments, use ornament paper, stamps or embellishments on a layout or card. 

To follow with the ornament theme, I used a piece of ornament paper and also used an ornament sticker at the bottom of my page. 

Are you still making holiday layouts or crafts?  Or are you sick of the mumbo-jumbo?

A Jellyfish and a Challenge

Have you ever made a piñata before?  They are relatively easy to make and SUPER in-expensive.  I actually buy all my supplies at the Dollar Tree for about $10.  So far, I've made two piñatas in my life and they turned out AMAZING!  (sorry for bragging) I followed THIS TUTORIAL BY HONESTLYYUM.  

Last year, my good friend, Bonnie,  asked me to make a jellyfish piñata for her daughter's "under the sea" birthday party.  Of course I said yeas, I'm always up for a challenge.  And a challenge it was.......planning this ridiculous jellyfish was no easy task.  So I asked for help from the most crafty girl I know, my neighbor Jessica.  She had so many awesome ideas for getting this thing to resemble a piñata.  Take a look:

Didn't the tentacles turn out cool?  They were Jessica's idea.  They are actually made out of strips of plastic table clothes from the Dollar Tree.  

I made this layout as a Guest Designer for CSI.  This month they are having an amazing challenge with awesome prizes.  The challenge closes on Jan 31st, so you still have tons of time to join in the fun.  Here is what Major Case File No. 151 looks like:

Scrapping these photos has me itching to make a piñata again.  Have you ever made a piñata?  

P.S.- I miss you Jessica!

My 2015 Scrappy Happy Resolutions

Happy New Year!

Before I go any further, I need to be honest.  I have never been a big New Year person.  I think because I'm still partially in a Christmas mode and sort of frustrated with the holiday decorations, trees, and boxes that need to be filled and stored. However, this year has been a little different.  I found myself thinking back over 2014 and realizing what a great year it has been for our family.  I think scrapbooking literally shows me everything we have done together and how much my son has grown.  I now can honestly say that I appreciate the New Year and the fresh-start-feeling it brings.

Yesterday I started making a few "New Year Resolutions Lists" including: Our Home Cleaning & Decluttering, Blog Goals, Scrapbooking, and Our Home DIY Projects.  I'm only sharing one with you today. Here they are in no particular order:

My 2015 Scrappy Happy Resolutions

• Put finished layouts in page protectors then into albums.
• Journal more. 
• Try a 2015 "Keeping up with the Joneses" album.
• Stick with a monthly Project Life approach.
• More Mixed Media and Artsy stuff.
• Scrap more about me & my childhood.
• Scrap more about my husband & his childhood.
• Scrap more family members, near and far.
• Make Youtube process videos.
• Make my own sketches.
• Go through my Studio Calico online classes again, start to finish.
• Use more stash items.
• Budget my purchases
• Schedule my creative time.
• Apply for design teams.
• Use more Project Life cards on my layouts.
• Organize my scrap area.
• Build a shelf for my albums.
• Organize photos on computer.
• Print photos at the beginning of each month.
• Learn more about photography.
• Actually send out cards and mini album gifts ON TIME!
• ALWAYS HAVE FUN!!!

This this seems a little intimidating, but I keep telling myself that I have an entire year to complete these things.  And even if I don't do all of them, at least I may improve with a few new ideas.  What is your #1 Scrappy Happy Resolution for 2015?