Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you from us!

I {Heart} National Digital Scrapbooking Day

I love to play with real papers, but I don't actually make any paper layouts. 

All my Scrapbooking is done digitally, and today is National Digital Scrapbooking Day (DSD).

I love Digital scrapbooking, 

but I don't limit myself to just making Layouts with my digital scrapbooking supplies!

I use digital elements to make postcards I can email

And to create my own printables, like cards

or recipe cards

we've made printable signs for Boo-ing

I made this printable "chore reminder" for my teenage son

I almost always use digital elements to make invitations

Sometimes I make "Hybrid" projects:

...like cupcake wrappers

 Or this flyer and matching "edible image" for the cake

Or notebooks & planners

 Now that I have a silhouette I'm going to have to try the "print and cut" feature - I've seen some awesome digital element/silhouette projects out there!

Two places where I shop for my digital supplies are having sales to honor National Digital Scrapbooking Day,

Mymemories & Scrapgirls, check them out today for some great savings! And if your just getting started, or are digitally curious both websites have a bunch of freebies to get you started.

What do you make with all your digi supplies?? Leave a link so I can check you out!

Halloween Hangover

October is a fun month, but between Kadences birthday and Halloween I'm glad it's over.

seriously, do you know how many parties those two events alone entail?

I needed all day yesterday just to recover.

On top of the normal craziness of Halloween, Kadence got her hair cut on Sunday 

but was unhappy with the results so I had to re-do it on Monday for her. 

(and it looks freakin' awesome if I do say so myself - post on that tomorrow)

She also wanted it dyed red. 

Did I actually just dye my 11 year olds hair?

yes.

yes I did.

Obviously, after dealing with the hair, we had to style it appropriately for Halloween.

Then onto the make-up.

Oh yeah, guess I have to make a costume too, huh?

So we sewed this up quickly and got her out the door just in time to trick or treat.

Anthony was a zombie at a neighborhood haunted house. 

He looked pretty awesome - but took off early so no pictures of that kid this year.

Happy Halloween!

Wishing you a Spook-tacular day! ~the Duran Clan!

Join Me on Make a Difference Day!

You can make a difference for abused children.

Saturday is Make a Difference Day, a national day of helping others. 

If you live in the Ogden area, I hope you will consider joining us as we gather at the Newgate Mall to make quilts for the Childrens Justice Center. These quilts are given to children for comfort while they are interviewed and given medical examines, and they are then theirs to keep.  

My local ASG group has been doing this annually for around ten years and  it's become a cause close to my own heart.  Please check out  The Childrens Justice Center website for more information on how they make a difference everyday in the lives of abused children.

Please. If you can, just stop by, it doesn't cost a thing except a few moments of your time.

Looking for yesterdays 31 day post?
here it is: 31 Days to Settle After a Move: Make Family Cards

31 Days to Settle in After a Move: Unpack

  This one seems pretty obvious, but is one of the hardest to do! the M half admits in her comment that she has taken 2 moves and 5 years to unpack, and I don't think she's alone. 

  If you are being moved by contractors (Mayflower, Allied, etc) then make it easy on yourself, have them do the unpacking. It's part of their contract, so it's not an additional charge - and when they're done they take all the boxes with them. Of all the families I've seen move (there have been lots!) I don't think I have seen anyone besides us take advantage of this.
They'll say "oh, the movers just dump everything, they won't put it away." 
True. But it's a lot harder for you to ignore all those piles of stuff than boxes. This way you are forced to take action.
They also say "I don't want the movers handling all my stuff."
Um. too late. And there is a way to work around that, but that would be an entirely different post.

 And if you aren't so lucky as to have strangers rifle through your belongings and leave them in piles on your (hopefully now clean) floors, then it still has to get done. You could use the same method, just unpack it all at once. Our most recent move was a DITY (military speak for moving yourself) since we just moved locally. We had movers handle all the furniture but the "stuff" - that was all us. Mostly me. I used Rubbermaid containers for most of it. And a few laundry baskets. But I only had so many. So in order to get everything moved, I had to unpack right away - so I could run back to the old house and get more stuff. 

 Unpacking is a lot of work. A lot. But, you can't get things put away while they're still in boxes. And like I said, it's a lot easier to shove stacks of boxes to the side and say "oh, I'll do that when I have time" than to ignore piles of crap everywhere. 

 Maybe you're still not sure where everything will go? There is one way to figure it out. 
And I guarantee, when you first saw your new home all empty and full of promise you didn't squeal "oh yes! My 16 boxes of  craft supplies will fit here perfectly, and we can dig through the dish pack every night before dinner in this EXACT spot!!"

 One last note, if you have little people. There is a benefit to unpacking - besides not leaving their childhood memories full of  cardboard and unfound belongings - a yard full of empty boxes is a total. kid. magnet.  

 So, if you have boxes stacked somewhere, still unopened - pull 'em out. You may discover a lost treasure (OMG! So that's where it's been!) or just a bunch of crap you can live with out after all (why do I have this?).

MyMemories Suite Givaway & Promo!

Have you tried Digital Scraping yet?

I've been doing it for a few years now, and  love it!

I know a lot of people find it intimidating, especially the software. It's pricey and has a steep learning curve. I have a couple typical photo editing programs that are often used for Digi-scrapping: 

Photoshop (but haven't gotten around to figuring it out!) and PSP X, which is what I would normally use, but still have so much to learn there also!

  So, when MyMemories.com  asked me to review their digital scrapbooking software "my memories suite" I jumped at the chance! I've been playing with it quite a bit, in fact, I used the "my memories suite" and designs to create the layouts I posted here and here.

I made this in under 1 minute(!) using Autumn Rose Quick Page FREEBIE

  Right off the bat there is one big difference: This is not a photo editing program that can be used for digital scrapping - this is a program created especially for digital scrapping! 

Things I loved:

 Super easy-peasy to use. Seriously. If you are currently trying to learn a photo editing program you will be stunned at how simple it is to maneuver around my memories suite. 

 Not just for Dummies. Yes, it is easy to use - and an excellent first program if your just getting into Digital Scrapping. But, it's great for those of us who already know what we're doing, it has all the features to really make your layouts polished. So- whether your a beginner or not - your layouts will never look "beginner"!

 Instant down-load and categorizing of your "stuff". This may be my favorite part. Whenever you purchase any kits, embellishments, design packs - whatever - it is downloaded into the software, and categorized into folders so you can easily find it instantly and easily! No unzipping, filing, searching... I love that! You also can DL your stuff to any where, and use it with any photo program - versatile!

It comes Fully Loaded. Just getting started and don't want to buy a bunch of "digi-stuff" just yet? My memories suite comes fully stocked with a jazillion papers, ribbons, buttons, flowers and other embellishments to get you started. Plus, the program already has shapes, shadows, etc - so there are no actions to buy.

 Access to the Website directly from the software. If you own a Silhouette, you know what I mean. If you realize you want need something, just click and your there!

Drag & drop. Tons of templates - just drag and drop photos and you. are. done. Adding embellishments is just as easy. No files to open, "copy" or "save as". Nice.

Digital Scrapping taken to the next level. Add sound. Narration. Music. Need I say more? Okay, Publish. Print. Share.

Whats not to love? 

I only wish it had an eraser. 

Another made in about 1 minute using Quick Calendar FREEBIE

I know you're just dying to try this baby out now!

Good news!

As a special for all of you, Mymemories.com  is offering a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store ($20 value!)

Just use code: STMMMS80032 at checkout

Mymemories.com is also giving one lucky reader their own copy of my memories suite. Yay you! 

To enter:

Mandatory entry: go to Mymemories.com and the leave a comment letting me know which design pack is your favorite. 

For additional entries:  

 Follow the mymemories Blog
 Follow Mymemories on Facebook
Follow mymemories on Twitter

Leave a comment below for each additional entry.

Winner will be chosen by random number generator.

Contest closes Sunday night. Winner announced Monday, October 3rd.

 . 

This giveaway is sponsored by MyMemories, I have received a copy of mymemories suite for review. All opinions expressed in above review are my own.

Bucket List Scrapping Challenge

Over at Journaling Junkie Stephanie proposed a challenge: Create your Bucket List

 I like to check out her blog because they have regular challenges, and whether you do digital scrapping or traditional paper scrapping the emphasis is on journaling (well, duh!) Plus there are tons of beautiful pages to motivate you if you're in a rut.

This challenge had me a bit stumped tho. There are plenty of things out there I want to do, but when it came time to put paper to pen, uh, finger to key board, I struggled. 

 The entry posted on her blog  is long and inspiring! Mine has 5 items. No pics.

Maybe it just means I'm pretty content, and if I were to be abducted by aliens tomorrow, I would have few regrets.

Or, maybe it just means I suck at this topic...

Either way, here is my Bucket list as of this moment:

1. see the red woods
2. take a vacation - just me and the Sarge
3. sew a wiggle dress - and rock it (I am a good 30lbs from rockin' any dress right now)
4. attend a Penn State "white out" game
5. learn to swing dance

Mathlete Status, a Silhouette Project

Kadence is rockin' the Mathlete status!

When she formed a "Math Club" at school 

I said "you know what that makes you, right?"

"a nerd?"

"No! A Mathlete!"

"a mathlete? cool! we should totally make a t-shirt that says that"

"totally!"

Thus, the "Mathlete" T-shirt was born.

I used my Silhouette and freezer paper to create the stencil, then just bleached it out. 

We also cut some slits into the sleeves to add a little funk to the mix.

Easy-peasy project! 

Kadence says the next one should say

Cutie π

(that's cutie pie for us non-mathletes)

Anthony suggested

if π r2 are then why aren't they called cake?

(and that would be, if pie are squared, then why aren't they called cake?)

I see many Math-related shirts in my future.

linking to: sew darn crafty

Closing Day

For the last 13 years,

Home has always been where the Air Force sent us.

We've been stationed at

Charleston AFB , SC

Kirtland AFB , NM

San Antonio OPLOC, TX

McChord AFB , WA

Holloman AFB, NM

For the last 2 years we've been in Utah, and this will have been our last PCS.

Today we close on our new house.

Now, and for the rest of our lives, we are home.

Happy Mothers Day!

Have a wonderful day mamas!

Pretty Little Planner for my Sewing Friend!

I made up this pretty little ASG 2011 Calendar of events/planner for my friend Tina.

I love digital scrapping, and playing with "real" paper too.

In this project I was able to combine both techniques. (FUN!)

  

I hosted the Christmas party for our group in December and she came over early and helped me out, (even making the frosting for our Red Velvet cupcakes, Yum!) After the meeting I promised to give her a copy of our plans for the upcoming year.

But, being me - I couldn't just jot them down and hand them over.

I had to do it "pretty"

Inside I created a page for each month/meeting with the program for that evening.

I also added pages for a supply list and notes for each meeting.

Below are a few of my favorite pages:

January

(that was sewing room organization, presented by me!) :o)

June

(Flower pounding - doesn't that sound awesome?!)

The back

I fussy cut the butterfly and inked the edges. It came out so pretty!

Somethings are just too sweet to hide in a bag or with paper wrapping.

So I just added a ribbon for presentation.

I can't wait to give it to her tomorrow at our Fitting group!

I love the papers and embellishments I used on this project.

They are so rich and warm, and they printed out bea-yoo-tifully!

All my digital scrapping supplies come from Scrapgirls, and most items used in this project were from the Noteworthy Collection.

One of my favorite things to do is make organizers (go figure!) planners, or any kind of "book".

In the past I used to buy an Owire bound book, take it apart and recover/re-do it, then put it all back together again. My friend got me hooked on making these when we were stationed together in WA.

For Christmas I got a Bind-it-all (Yay!) and this is my first project!

Now I don't have to do the disassemble - reassemble thing anymore.

(any one else just hear No disassemble #5 in the back of their head?)

 Check this Post for a Vogue Pattern Giveaway!

 

Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Summer

This afternoon I took Slick to the airport. He's flying out for the summer.

Even though he's a big guy now, 15, I still had a hard time letting him go.

I had a hard time letting him pack.

That's a lie.

I didn't let him pack.

I did it for him.

Which really irritated him and ensued proclamations of
"I'm not a baby!

UGH!

Why won't you let me do this"

etc, etc...

To which I poured on the guilt

"Why can't you just let me do this for you?

can't I just mother you before you leave me for the whole summer

Can't you just let it go for me?

Come on, just make your mother happy"

I win.

I love my son tremendously...

he's a good kid...

and I will miss him...

But he is a teenager

and oh man, am I going to enjoy this summer!

Technically, Summer starts on the 21st, but for me it starts as soon as his plane lands safely in California. Happy Summer everyone!

Happy Birthday Son!

Today Anthony,

my baby

my first born

my only son

turned 15.

::sniff:::

::pout::

For the record, I am way to young to have a 15 year old.

 He's received a nice chunk of change this year as presents

Wednesday is "the" 9th grade dance

Thursday is "Lagoon Day" for 9th graders

Friday is the last (half) day of school,

followed by a trip to the DMV for a learners permit.

Sounds like a pretty sweet week for a 15 year old!

Happy 15th Birthday Son, I love ya!

Welcome! 5 Minutes for Mom Ultimate Blog Party!

Hello fellow bloggers, and welcome all newcomers stopping in from the Ultimate Blog Party!

This is my first go 'round and it is so inspiring to see all the amazing blogs out there - I wish there were enough hours in the day to stop by each and every on of them.

My bio to the left pretty much says it all, lol, so at the risk of sounding redundant here goes:

hi there! I'm Leslie, SAHM to 2 kiddos, a 9 year old girl and a nearly 15 year old son. Yikes, that makes me sound old... We're a military family and my husband, often referred to here as The Sarge, is a MSgt with over 14 years in service ...ewww, old again....

I love to make things - any thing!  

But mostly I love love love to sew.

and design.

and embroider.

and fit.

I also love to play with paper, digital scrap, bake, bead, decorate, go junking, swap, trade, organize, whew!

and I think I may have mentioned, I really like to make things. :o)

So feel free to snoop around, here are a few of my favorite posts:

Princess Seam Progress aka Full-Blown Tantrum

My Ugly Relationship With My Serger

Inspired by Alice

The first two, because they are "me". Foot stomping, pouting, shouting and all.

The last one because, well, I love beautiful things. And Alices Um Dress is definitely a BeeYootiful thing. I really really really want to make this!

And I shall, but should it be for me, or Kadence? Ah well, first I need to get things a bit settled around here. Like:

I am preparing for a show on April 12th, and hope to open my own etsy shop around the same time. I currently carry my childrens line Cherry Bubbins in a brick and mortar store but am excited about this new venture! Wish me luck!

Thanks for popping in and leave me a comment so I can return the favor and check out YOUR amazing blog!

Happy Celebrating!

Happy Easter!

Wishing you & yours a joyful Easter!

Making Panoramic Sugar Eggs!

We made some sugar panoramic Easter eggs last night!

(For those who aren't in the know, they are hollow eggs made out of sugar that you can peek into and see a sweet little scene inside.)

Be sure to click on the image to get a good peek at the chick inside!

Have you ever made these?

They are so much easier to make than they look, and they last forever.

Seriously.

I've seen vintage sugar eggs in antique shops!

Plus, it's a minimal investment to create your own family heirloom.

Heirloom -is that a stretch?

all you need to get started  is egg whites, a ton of sugar, and some icing.

And of course, an egg mold.

or several.

they come in different sizes, ya know.

I like the itty bitty ones.

We made blue eggs last night and filled them with tiny Easter eggs and fluffy chicks.

I'm hooked -  I plan on making more with my kiddlets over the weekend.

Now I want to run to the dollar store and see what I can find to decorate the inside of my Easter eggs!

Want to know how to make these? Check out this post for a tutorial to make your own!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Wishing you Irish bliss, and a day with no pinches!

...unless you want to be pinched, that is...

Persevering Pansies

Our snow has melted away, leaving only a few icy traces in our back yard so I decided to trek around and check out my flower beds and see if anything has survived the winter. 

With our warm weather this week I thought I might come upon some greening, or tiny signs of life.

 Imagine my surprise when I came upon a sweet single little Pansie!

Then, after snooping around some more, I found little clusters popping up all around - and what I would guess to be bulbs - although I don't remember having any last year...

Pearls & Princess Seams

Today is meant for fantastic shopping and sales but I didn't get out and do any.

Oh wait, I got new tires this morning...does that count? No? didn't think so. Oh well....

I'm okay with that, since I did get a pretty for Valentines day from the Sarge. I have been wanting a pearl necklace for several years now, I just love how classic and elegant they look. In keeping with my Martha Stewart/Barbie wanna be image, I have this blissful fantasy where I see my self vacuuming in heels and pearls. Really, don't laugh! Alright, a little snickering is acceptable here... Okay, now I can finally live out my fantasy because Dru gave me a strand of pearls. Thanks babe, I love ya!

On a different note, tonight is my ASG Fit group and we are working on fitting a princess seamed pattern. I started this project last month and I'm hoping to complete it tonight. The alterations for my bust are so complex it's like a million steps - alright, maybe only 18... Whew! It's worth it though, because in the end I should have a pattern that will fit my girls properly and not gape in the arm hole and neck. Yay me!