The fastest year of my life!

Holy-Moly! How on earth is it already November?!?! Words cannot express how fast I feel life is flying by right now. I need a pause button. A way to slow it down a bit and cherish these moments. Does anyone else feel this way? Maybe because my thirtieth birthday is a little too close around the corner. And I'm not exactly excited to get there yet. Even thought my twenties have been quite the roller coaster, maybe it would be good to move on to a new decade. Hopefully one with more ups than downs.

Around here

Playing project life catch up (oops!)

Loving these words

Watching this little guy enjoy his new yard

(our last yard was almost all concrete since we had a pool)

Anything fun or exciting happening in your life right now?

Back to normal

We are finally done moving and I am so happy to be on with the next chapter of our lives. I loved this house. We lived there four years and made many memories there. I will miss it. The space, the pool and most of all the neighborhood. Who knows we might end up back there one day. Life is funny that way.

For now I am loving our new house. Much more than I ever thought possible. It's a tight squeeze fitting our stuff in here but I think with some creative organization and a few more donations to Goodwill we'll be there. Change is hard (I pretty much cried everyday last week) but it's good. It helps us grow and develop. And every now and then it's good to be pushed out of your comfort zone. So now it's time for new memories. In a new house, new neighborhood, new joys and challenges. I'm excited to see what the future brings!

Around here

Today I came home to this little swollen face :( not sure what happened but it was nothing a little benadryl couldn't fix

We're trying to get the most out of these last warm days. We've been playing in the pool and going to the beach as much as possible. Lunching with friends and enjoying my new bible study class. And still working on secret new projects ;)

Have a fabulous weekend!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is this wonderful mans birthday! I'm seriously so blessed to have such an amazing father! He is kind, always there when I need him, one of my favorite people to talk to, hilarious, and would do anything for his kids.  

Thank you Daddy for being so great! He's to many many many more birthdays!!!

Admist the chaos

These past few weeks have been a little nutty, life is at times isn't it :)

One night I decided I don't care how tired I am I just need to scrapbook. So I sat down

grabbed a few pictures, paper and started working.

I had no plan in mind I just knew I needed to create. As I looked through pictures these ones just stood out to me. It's crazy to think it's been nearly 4 years since these were taken. Man the years just fly by!

Sometimes I think it's easier to create when you're pressed for time. It seems the less time I have the more decisive I am which in turn makes for faster layouts.

In 20 days we will be celebrating our 8 year wedding anniversary...insane!!!



Week in photos

Yum!

 Beach day - Coronado

 From the top of the most terrifying ride I've ever been on!!!!!!!

Margaritas

I've been wanting this purse for litterally two years but it was always sold out. I finally found it on-line and now it's mine!!!

Lots of goodness by the pool

Happy weekend!!!

Weekend in photos

This weekend as I was sitting in my craft room reading, using a Forever 21 receipt as a bookmark, I thought "I'm surrounded by paper why use a receipt as a bookmark?" Then this happened

Quick and easy bookmark using paper scraps

 Today we bowled

 Read by the pool

 And wore pretty jewelry...

Hope you had a great weekend!

Oh and one of my super sweet Etsy customers featured our shop on her blog. Go check it out...she has a fun shop too!



dream a little dream

Weekly Ali Edwards sends out an email called 52 Creative Lifts. This week I loved it! Everything about this article spoke to me and I think we all need to do this a little more. I know it's long but worth the read :)
"WEEK 21
DECLARE A DREAM DAY






Last weekend I had a chance to connect with some creative friends for conversation and brainstorming and sharing about work and life.


One of those conversations was with Tracey. We talked about our list of work-related tasks and how it's challenging to find the time to work on some of the bigger dreams on our list because we get caught up in the minutia of daily working life.


She told me that she's started setting aside days just for dreaming and just for working on those bigger projects. I'm pretty sure that "Tell me more" and "I love that idea" were the first two things that came out of my mouth. As she shared about her day I knew this was something I need to make time for and something I wanted to share with you.
I asked her to write a bit about it - here's to dreams becoming reality.




MY DREAM DAY by TRACEY CLARK


I'm not new to dreaming. I subscribed to the dream program a long time ago. Daring to dream. Dreaming big. Dream weaving. Musing on my dream scenarios. I dream when I sleep and when I wake. When I walk, talk, sit, stand, drive, write, read. I dream about the things I’d like to accomplish, the places I’d like to go, the state of being I’d like to carry with me. I dream about my wants, needs, my wishes, my best life.






I’ve got dreaming down. And yet amidst all that dreaming, I’ve discovered a dream deficit.






I might be good at dreaming but I’m not nearly as good at giving those dreams my full attention. I do dream a lot but I’ve realized I do it while I’m also doing something else. I’ve likened it to talking to someone and texting at the same time. We’ve all done it (or a variation of it) and know that although you can do both, when you do, both things suffer. Not giving the task at hand your full attention means that you’re not 100% tuned into it. Not giving my dreams my full attention means quite frankly, that I’m inadvertently neglecting them.
One recent late night, exhausted from a long day, I was thinking about all the dreams I have and how I have put little or no time or energy into manifesting them. Doing my dream work (if you want to call it that) was almost always last on my to-do list, only to be done after all of my other work. All the have-tos, the shoulds, the daily tasks usually come first and since that list never gets any shorter I rarely even get down to the dream list.


How could my dreams materialize if I didn’t make time or room for them? Light bulb moment.


Right then and there while melting into the couch, eyelids heavy, I declared that next morning Dream Day. In a few short, decisive minutes I laid out the ground rules. I would take the day off from anything and everything that didn’t have to do with dream tending (not including my family obligations, of course). The inbox would have to wait. The phone wouldn’t get answered. The deadlines would be put on hold. Unless any of those things were directly connected to my dreams, they could wait. It was just a few hours of one day. I knew I could do it. And I knew it had to be done.


The next day—Dream Day—was in a word, dreamy. I used my time to muse and envision, to journal and make lists, and to begin and even finish some tasks that I knew would get me closer to my dreams. I gave what I was doing my full attention and I was 100% tuned in. It felt exciting and invigorating to nurture my dreams like that, to give myself permission to spend my time and energy on my dreams.


Who knows what my now regularly scheduled Dream Days might bring but my guess is whatever comes will go beyond my wildest dreams.


Tracey Clark is a photographer, writer, collaborator, and founder of shuttersisters.com. She's the co.author of Expressive Photography: a Shutter Sisters Guide to Shooting From the Heart, author of Waiting for Baby & Baby of Mine & the soon-coming title Elevate the Everyday: a Photographic Guide to Picturing Motherhood, due out July 2012."

source

So do a little dreaming this weekend...

Sad day

Today I was saddened to hear the news of Jr Seau's death. Being born and raised in so cal (and obsessed with football) he has always been looked up to in our house. My first thoughts were what could have made him do that? What could be going through his head to make him kill himself? I am so sad for his family and friends. And all the football fans who looked up to him.

It just proves that money can't buy happiness and that things aren't always as they appear. Take a minute to tell the ones you love how much they mean to you. You never know how an "I love you" can brighten someones day.

Checking in

My days lately have been like this - wake up, rush off to work, get lunch, head to job #2, come home, eat a late dinner, and catch up on recorded episodes of Burn Notice. Have you seen Burn Notice? I love it! Typically I despise any type of shoot-um-up shows or movies but this ones different. It's smart, funny, and Jeffrey Donovan is hot! Plus the good guys always win which is why I think I love it so much.

Needles to say working  12 hours a day and spending my whined down time watching TV makes it hard to work on scrappy things. Despite that I've been keeping up with pictures for my Project Life. Things should slow down a little soon so I can get caught up on blogging its progress.

Have a good week!!!

Sleepy day

On this wonderful rainy day I am SO SO SO tired! Like fall asleep on your dinner plate tired. Last night I stayed up way too late working on my Project Life. Now I'm paying for it. But I'm resisting to take a nap. So far today I've gone to work, bought these pink pants to go with my rain boots (BTW check out Old Navy's jean deal!)

 and I've been wandering around my yard taking pics of the rain.

 Also working on Project life some more. I love the rain!

All to try and avoid a nap, because I know if I lay down I won't wake up until the morning.

NASCAR anyone?

Yesterday Jeff, my sisters and I took a trip up to Fontana's Auto Club Speedway to race real life NASCAR'S. Now we aren't huge NASCAR fans but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to drive fast. My sister did a ride along and Jeff got to drive one all by himself. I have to admit I was a little worried about the love of my life driving upwards of 150 mph but he did good :)

Showing off his easy access whole in is race suit-boys will be boys :)

Dang dust on my lens!

Getting in for his ride

That's him driving around the track

Back safely!

One happy boy!

If you like to drive fast I would definitely recommend trying this out! Hope you had a great weekend!

Thankful

Today I am feeling very thankful for everything I have in my life. This past weekend an old neighbor of mine lost her husband. My heart is broken for her and their 2 boys. I can't even imagine how hard it is for her right now.

It makes me realize how fast things can change and that no matter if we're having a bad day or even PMS ;) we need to appreciate everyday we have with or loved ones!




Love these crazy kids!

Veronicas wedding

So one of my best friends, Veronica, got married Friday to the man who completes her! Finally, they have been dating for eight years. The wedding was at El Cortez downtown. It was beautiful! Being one of her bridesmaids I didn't get a chance to take too many photos. Mainly because we danced all night. It was a blast! I was so honored to be one of her bridesmaids. We have been friends since we were about 12 so it was real emotional for me to see her getting married. Most of us girls cried off and on all night with tears of joy. Her and Andrew are perfect for each other! OK on to the photos...





What a wonderful night!