Scrap Girls Digital Scrapbooking Adventures

Purple Glasses

During the Back at the Ranch message board event, I hosted the Purple Shopping Game. The premise was for members to guess the new purple thing that I recently bought... Turns out, I just got new glasses AND they are PURPLE! The best part of the story is that I didn't even pick them out! The clerk at the store thought they would look cute... And I LOVE them!

Layout by Kelly created with:

Hannah Collection, ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates: Itty Bitty, ScrapSimple Tools - Styles: Basic Shadows 6501 & Baskerville Old Face Font.

Struggling with change

I’m a person who struggles to keep up with change. I think that change is inevitable, and necessary, but not always easy. This past year has been a year of BIG changes for me, and looking back, I realize that a lot of the day to day things that are so important in life have gotten lost in the shuffle of dealing with the crisis instead of dealing with the priorities.

I decided to remedy this in two ways. Since I can’t change the change (nor do I want to – I love how God is preparing me and preparing the future for my daughter and I), I do at least want to make a mark to remember the every day moments that I don’t want to lose. I’ve decided to make a digital scrapbooking layout of the month in review. Collecting a few photos, making a few notes, and just taking some creative time to remember the things that have happened in the last few weeks is so important! Not only will it help me to remember the little things that have flown by in the past month, it will also serve my family well to see what has been happening in our lives these past weeks.

Products used: Monday Morning Collection Biggie, Phil and Jaymay Collection Biggie, and Smell My Feet Collection.

The other thing I’ve really tried to follow through on is blogging. There’s something about sitting down every day or every other day and having a place to just pour out my thoughts. I get to retell the stories of my day, and the music that I’ve listened to, and the people that I spoke to. The plans that I’ve made and the struggles I’m having also have a place in this recounting, because I can look back and see how God has provided and changed things as time has passed.

Don’t forget to record the little moments of your day, week, or month. They will be treasures to you and to your family for years to come!

Reflections of Fall Traditions

Winter is coming here in Ontario and that means the cold, wet and snowy weather will soon be upon us. I enjoy the fall season because it is the time of year when the air has a slight hint of cool, time for a sweater but, not quite time to get out that dreaded, bulky winter jacket. The leaves change color, beautiful colors, red, orange and yellow. And seeing the beautiful colors is always a breathtaking site to behold, nature is amazing.

The Stephens family has so many awesome fall traditions, it is hard to put my finger on a favorite. Here are some of the things that we do in the fall.

Taking a drive to see the colorful leaves.

A trip to the local national park to see the migration of the monarch butterflies and to walk the pathways.

Visiting the pumpkin patch (picking a special pumpkin to carve into for Halloween)

Apple picking, hay rides, hot apple cider.

Baking apple pies, making caramel apples.

Corn Maze. We have a blast doing the corn maze every year. This year we did it with friends and it was even better. We all had a blast trying to find our way out. Of course, the bigger boys flew through the maze in record time and had to wait for over 20 minutes for the rest of us to get out. LOL

Raking leaves and jumping in them.

Celebrating Thanksgiving - Canadian Thanksgiving was Oct 12th. We had turkey, pie and fun times with family and friends.

These are all the activities and things that make the fall season enjoyable for me. It is all about the traditions, I look forward to them every year and we accomplished all of them this year! Now to start working on all of those Digital Scrapbooking layouts! LOL the pictures are piling up!

Traditions mean that I get to spend time with my family, it is fun and I love every moment. But, we don't have many winter traditions like we do for the fall, aside from the typical snowman making and Christmas holiday stuff.

Melty, Messy Icecream

Isn't it fun to be at the park with a toddler and an icecream bar only to realize that the wipes are clear back at the car? Thankfully, we found a little cloth that saved the day!

Perfect

It is difficult at the moment to take a picture of Lily where she smiles at the camera. She is almost 2 and 1/2 years old and everything is more interesting than smiling at Mami’s camera.

She is occupied playing with her dolls and teddies, her Lego, running behind our dog Jimmy or screaming together with her brothers Nicolas and Frederic. Or sometimes, she is just up to some mischief, closes the eyes and makes faces when I point the camera at her.

I end up having many photos like this one. Lily was running around and I just managed to capture half of her face. But although this photo is far from being great it is my favorite one from the shot. The light in her eyes, the way she looks perfectly reflect her nature. I knew the moment I downloaded it from my camera to my computer that I needed to create a digital scrapbook using it.

Digital scrapbooking layout using Sweets and Hearts Collection;Colors of Fall Collection Biggie; Faded Beauty Collection Mini; Assemble Your Own Zoom Pages: Faded Beauty & AMC_Friendly Font.

Arizona Angels

I had the best time at convention this year. This is my table for the first day and I fell in love with my "Arizona Angels". These lovely ladies: Priscilla, Robbie & Sue came all the way from Arizona to be with us even though they are very new to Scrap Girls. I'd like to think they left tinted just a tad bit purple. (Photo by Scrap Girl Denise Bessent)