I have a great tip for everyone today...

I love the old, tried and true Jergens lotion, I've used it since high school. Last weekend I was at my moms and she had 3 bottles all upside down in a bowl. I thought this was odd, but I had to know what she was up too (she's always up to something)! My mom told me that she drains them because one bottle has close to another several weeks worth of lotion. Hmm... I've wondered about this before, thinking that I was wasting what was left.

Once I was back home one of my bottles was no longer "pumping" lotions, I sat it upside down in a bowl over night then the next morning I hit the sides of the bottle until every last bit was out. My goodness I had a lot more left that I had been wasting!

Here is my tip....
After you empty the bottle then put some lavender oil drops in the bowl, stir it well, put a lid on it (I use a small plastic bowl) and put it on or inside your bedside table to lube up those hands and arms up before bed. I love lavender lotion at night, its so soothing, calming and smells so nice.
(I put the oil in bath water too.)

Have a great weekend!
Our son, Henry, is coming home from college (MU) today, we are having your Thanksgiving dinner tonight and he will be with us until Monday! We are thrilled and can't wait to see him!! Being an empty-nester has been so strange for us, he is greatly missed!!

TGIF!!!

What's Your Favorite Layout That Best Represents Your Style?

I was recently ask to share a single layout that best represents my style... this was a hard one for me.  I love to scrapbook from sketches and make it my own, I love clean layouts and I love heavily embellished layouts too. I like to change it up when I scrapbook, I get bored easily. I ended up picking this layout:

I added these pencil lines because I wanted to keep within a square space in the center of the layout. Once the layout was finished I was going to erase them but then I decided I really liked them, they added a detail that I really loved. Simple but kind of cool too! 

The little velum envelope has a bunch of mini metal leaves and fall pieces from American Crafts. I wrapped a ton of ribbon around the envelope then stuck a pin on it that was off of some clothes I bought.  

The little boy in the layout is my nephew, Noah, such a little ham!

Supplies used:

Paper: Authentique, Crate Paper and Bella Blvd; Enamel Dots: MME and Prima; Stickers, buttons and embellishments: American Crafts, Bella Blvd, Jenni Bowlin and Making Memories. 

I'd love to see what you think best represents your style, so link me up a layout you created and leave in a comment! I love to scrap-lift so I bet I'll find some awesome inspiration too! 

Be sure to see the blog post below this one, I have an awesome giveaway and I will pick a winner tomorrow, Friday. 

Have a great day!!

GIVEAWAY, GIVEAWAY, GIVEAWAY!!

I have such a fun giveaway to offer all my followers today! My dear friend, Pam Dunn, who is an author, life coach and owner of Your Infinite Life has just written another book, It's Time to Look Inside - to see yourself and everyone through the lens of magnificence. I’m so excited for her, I’ve always wanted to write a book but have no clue about what and I’m not sure I have the patients for it  I just love the idea of it, but more than anything I'm so very proud of Pam!! 

IT'S TIME TO LOOK INSIDE:   

Take a truly transformative journey of exploration along with author Pamela Dunn, when you read It’s Time To Look Inside. Begin to see yourself and everyone in your life though the lens of magnificence by learning to cultivate open heartedness. Examine the bully/victim paradigm and learn how to recognize the innate goodness in yourself and others to break this ugly, destructive and dangerous cycle. You’ll learn specific and proven ways to shed old ways of viewing the world and your place in it and integrate new ways of operating. Discover, honor and learn to identify magnificence in those that express the opposite and learn how to treat yourself and others more compassionately.

This Saturday, November 22^nd from 1-4pm she will be having a book launch party at The Wolf Public House, 15480 Clayton Rd., Ballwin MO 63011. Pam will be doing a reading from the book and introducing one of the concepts.  This is a great place if you live in the Greater St. Louis area, they have great food, a full bar and ME… hee hee! I’ll be there to support my friend and can’t wait to hear her read from the book; Pam has a captivating presence that will draw you in.

So now for the giveaway…

Pam has generously given me a signed copy of her book and one EBook too! That will be TWO giveaways… TWO WINNERS (one lucky random winner will get a signed copy and another random winner will get the EBook)!! 

All you have to do: 

1. Go like Pam’s Facebook page: Your Infinite Life-FB                                                                              2. If you are on Instagram follow her account: YourInfiniteLife  (You have to type it in with no spaces.)                                                                                                                                                    3. Then leave me a comment below that you have done the above (one or both) and what your all time favorite book is, Fiction or Nonfiction it doesn't matter!

Lets help Pam celebrate her new book by giving her some “Love”!! I’ll announce the winner on Friday’s blog post!

Happy Hump Day!!  

                                                                

The November issue of Create Magazine 2014!

This issue of Create Magazine is GREAT! Has so many fun Fall and Christmas/Holiday layouts to scrap-lift and free sketches to download! This is a free digital magazine that has 249 pages of paper-crafting inspiration just waiting for you. An extra plus this month...getting to see layouts from each of the 36 new CREATE team members for 2015. These new girls (and the old ones too) have great style! I can't wait for next years issues! 

Here is the link.

Here are a few sneak peeks of my layout and mini album I created for the magazine:

This is my Limo & Lights layout.

This is the mini album I created for the 12 Days of Christmas.

I can't wait to use it this year! I plan on using my Fuji Flim Mini Polaroid for the pictures because they take the best little pictures. (I linked the camera if you want to see what it looks like also I added a picture below so you can see the little Polaroid picture size too.)

Here is the Fuji Polaroid with the pictures it takes. 

Happy Monday! 

Guess who's on the 2015 Create Magazine Design Team AGAIN?? ME!!!

I'm so excited to announce the 2015 Create Magazine Design Team! I feel so lucky to once again be representing this great online magazine!! Here is a link if you haven't looked at any of the back issues   and the best part... it is FREE!! Yep... Free!! With over 200 pages of great projects, sketches and tips per issue!! 

Here is a little peek of my last layout in the magazine...

Happy Monday!! 

THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE W/ QUICK BUTTERCREAM FROSTING!!

I have to say this is one of the better chocolate cakes I've ever made! So moist and really easy to make/bake! (Recipes below.) I didn't use the icing recipe that was with the cake recipe b/c I didn't want chocolate icing I wanted Vanilla Buttercream icing!! YUM!

Tip: )most of you might know this already but I got this from my mom) Once the cakes are cooled and ready for the icing, place the first cake upside down so the rounded top is on the plate bottom, then ice the top (which will be flat b/c its the bottom of the cake). Then once iced do the same with the top cake, so the flat bottom is on top. Why do this... well its for looks only! LOL... so, it really doesn't matter, but it does make a really pretty cake, that's perfectly round and portioned. 

Put all the icing left on top of the cake then ice the cake from the center out to the sides and edges. 

Now that you've got a beautiful cake... its time to dig in!!

Enjoy!!

The Best Chocolate Cake Ever Recipe from: Add A Pinch

Quick and Yummy Buttercream icing from: Food Network

Hope you have a great weekend... sit back relax, eat cake and check out the March edition of Create Magazine (it is free)!!

Pictures Aren't Great But The Memories Are... Who Cares, Scrap Them Anyway!!

This layout is a great example of "not" great pictures but fantastic memories!!

My nephew, Noah and I were playing with my Polaroid camera and he was amazed that the pictures, how they came out of the camera and that he could hold them too. We had so much fun that day playing outside and inside but I was so busy being an Aunt that I didn't take any really great pictures so these little Polaroids and one iPhone picture was it! So cares?! The memories will last forever so scrapbook them anyway!! 

I'm so happy I decided to scrapbook these little pictures so I can always remember our time together but especially on that day! When our kids, nieces, nephews and whoever else looks back at our albums they are going to be looking at the pictures more then the actual layout so don't get caught up in the "my pictures aren't good enough to scrapbook" because really its all about the memories of that day not the quality of the photos!! 

Products used: My Minds Eye, Jenni Bowlin, Little Yellow Bicycle, Am Crafts, and Glue Arts. 

Happy Hump-day!! 

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Don't forget the check out the March edition of Create Magazine!

Its free and filled with so much inspiration!! 

March Edition of Create Magazine!!

I'm so excited to announce the March issue of Create Magazine! 

I love being on this design team but I love the magazine even more! Create is packed full of projects, sketches and great info. Go check it out! 

HERE!

Here is a sneak of my 3 layouts I created in this months magazine:

This one is: "It's a Party! 

This one is: "Smile Jacob"

and the last one: "She is Family"

Go check out the great work of many ladies in this months issue!! 

Have a great day!! 

9 Years Old and Lookin' Good!!

Our sweet Savannah, was tied to a tree and abused, that's how I first found her. Rubber bands around her muzzle, caked in mud and her own fecal waste up to her knees. After convincing the owners that I JUST HAD TO HAVE HER THAT SHE REMINDED ME OF MY CHILDHOOD DOG (which was a wee bit of a lie because I had a German Shepherd) and many tears about why I had to have her they finally sold her to me for $30 (a few more than they had in her, so they said)! I think really they just wanted this crazy crying lady off their front porch! LOL! It worked because she was home with me and bathed within an hour of driving up, to their house. Savannah has been a blessing to us since then. She's a bit camera shy and doesn't like people or objects in her face, I'm guessing that stems from the abuse, so it's really hard to get a picture of her but sometimes when she's not paying attention I can snap a few pics. Like these that I took of her on my chair on the back porch. Savannah is a beautiful lab mix, only weights about 43 lbs loves to sun herself and hunt squirrels!

Below is just one of the many layouts I've created using her pictures. 

I love this pattern paper by Bella Blvd with sweet words typed in throughout the paper. 

Products used: Bella Blvd, Maya Road, Nikki Sivils, Jenni Bowlin, Basic Grey, 

Have a great week!! 

My Day with Lanie

Last week Lanie called and asked if I'd join her for a food tasting for her wedding that will take place this Spring. I, of course jumped at the chance to spend some time with her. We had so much fun, many laughs and I realized how much I miss having her working with me everyday! I'm so excited for her upcoming wedding.  Lanie got some GREAT news today as well, she  has been in the fight of her life battling cancer over the last year and half, and today she found out all the tumors in her pelvis and abdomen are gone and the other tumors are small and stable. This is such great news!! So please keep her in your daily prayers!!

Here are a few pics of our day together...

The food....

Regular and sweet potato martini's (no alcohol)! 

The wedding tasting crew!

We love you Lanie! Can not wait to see you walk down the isle. 

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Guess who turned 9?!

Our sweet Savannah! She is such a love and requires so little, Savannah has really been the worlds best dog! Here's to another 9 years my sweet girl!! 

We love you Savy!!