Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #219 - Day at the Beach

One of my biggest regrets (at the moment) is not finishing my European scrapbooks from the summer of 2008, when I spent 6 weeks in Italy, France and Ireland.  When I saw the weekly challenge on the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge blog this week, I immediately thought of these beach pics from my trip to Italy and got inspired to make a layout.  They aren't the fanciest pics but they bring back such fun memories of getting in the ROUGH waves at the beach at Cinque Terra.  The waves knocked us down like bowling pins!  

I used the "Life's a Beach" cartridge for the "Crave the Wave" cutout and also for the wave border.  I also like that I was able to get SO many pictures onto one 12x12 page.

Thanks for stopping by!

One-Year Anniversary

 Happy 1-year anniversary to us!  What a fun, awesome, sweet year.  We spent the weekend on a little romantic get-a-way in Atlanta.  There were so many things I wanted to see/do there so we just made a weekend of it!

First stop Saturday - the GA Aquarium.

The otters - always my favorite!

 

Next stop - World of Coca-Cola

The highlight of the attraction was sampling the coke products from all around the world!

We had a hearty lunch at the well-known Varsity

Then it was off to the Margaret Mitchell House (really an apartment) where she wrote over 90% of Gone with the Wind.

We ended the evening with a romantic dinner at Bone's in Buckhead.  Awesome steak!

 

  

Day 2 started out with a Behind the Scenes Tour of CNN!

What a cool view!  Who knew they had the world record for the longest free-standing escalator??
 

Posing in front of the CNN building.

After we finished downtown, we moved back to Buckhead to check out the Atlanta History Center.  It was really neat to see all of the items pertaining to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Loved touring the beautiful, historic Swan House!

Swan House was recently in the Hunger Games movie!

This is actually the front of the home. 

But alas, our weekend had to come to an end.  Once we got home, we sampled our year-old wedding cake!  Neither of us could remember what flavor the top tier was!  It tasted okay - def. not as wonderful as it was a year ago!  I think I'm just excited to finally have that space back in my freezer!!  Here's to Year 2! XoXo

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #192 - Use a Sentiment

WOW -- is it cold out there!!  It was a frigid 5 degrees on my way into work this morning.  I'd love to have a few "snow" days to stay home and keep up the scrapbooking roll I've been on the last few days!  Unfortunately, I don't see that in my future so I have to stick with grabbing a few minutes here and there throughout the week to throw a page or two together.  Last night before the BCS Championship game, (and while dinner was in the oven) I raced up to my scrapbook room to put together a page for the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge for the week.   This weeks challenge is to use a sentiment and I knew I could incorporate it into the next page I had up to make for my current album - the year of wedding planning/being engaged!  Here's what I came up with:

I used the Sweethearts Cricut cartridge to cut "Save the Date", the engagement ring and the envelopes on the second page.  

I used a 6"x12" Becky Higgings page protector and also one of the Project Life journaling cards from the Blush Core Kit.  

So far in my "engagement" album I'm up to December 2012!  Getting all the engagement pics scrapbooked was quite the endeavor from the weekend but I LOVE the way the pages turned out.  I'll share some pictures soon. 

On another fun note, it's been exactly 5 years since Adam and I met for the first time in "real".  We first met up to watch the BCS Championship game in 2009 in Mobile!  Time really flies.  

Stay warm out there!

 

Favorite Ornaments -- Christmas 2013

Pulling the ornaments out and reminiscing is one of my favorite holiday traditions.  I've slowly built my ornament collection since I was a baby girl and it's fun to see how my ornaments have grown with me.  My tree is a reflection of my passion for dancing growing up, love of cats, worldwide travels and now my life with Adam.  

 

This little beauty is a Kate Spade ornament.  This was the "year of Kate" for me it seems!  My wedding shoes were Kate Spade, our new silverware is Kate and I've gotten 2 purses and some jewelry from there this year as well.  I love the brand's classy style.   

I'm a sucker for Hallmark ornaments and pick up a few each year.  The 2013 dog ornament was too cute not to get.  I love the antlers on the frame!

I picked up the Jim Shore Pineapple ornament last year when we were at the Bronner's Christmas store in Michigan.  Adam and I love pineapple and the detail that Jim Shore adds to all of his pieces is amazing. 

I got a few of these Vera Bradley ball ornaments when they were on sale after the holidays.  This is one of my favorite prints and love the way the light plays off the ornaments.  Beautiful!

I grabbed this little pilot at the Christmas Shop in Pigeon Forge last month.  A great way to remember this is the year Adam got back into flying. 

And of course... 2013 was the YEAR of our wedding.  I LOVE the various wedding related ornaments we have and have received as gifts.  These are 5 that I bought for our collection.  The picture frame is a Hallmark ornament and has the year on it but with the camera flash you can't see it in the picture.  The engagement ring is also from Hallmark and has the year engraved on the side.  I just picked up the dress and tux jacket a few days ago at Kohls.  They also have little charms with the year.  The cube is from Shutterfly and probably one of my favorites.  I also made one last year with our engagement pics and it's hanging nearby.  

What are some of your favorites?  Do you decorate in colors/themes or what's your tree decorating style?

Memory Charms for Wedding

One of the most bittersweet things about everything to do with my wedding was the fact that my grandpa's wouldn't be there with us to celebrate.  I am so happy that Adam got to meet both of my grandfather's before they passed and I know they both really liked him.  There's so many things about Adam that remind me of my mom's dad.  I wanted to honor my grandpas on our special day so I checked out several options.  I know a lot of people do the roses on chairs in memory of but I didn't want to see the empty chairs or have my grandmas sitting beside these empty chairs so that wasn't a good option for me.  Then, I came across memory charms that you can attach to your dress, bouquet, etc.  Perfect!  These were actually one of the first things I ordered last summer.  I found them on etsy and the vendor is Designs by Tami.  Love the final result.  

  

  

The Wedding Shoes

A lot of time and thought went into what my wedding shoes would be!!  I literally searched from TN, to MI, to San Francisco to Vegas.  I stumbled upon my PERFECT shoes literally at midnight when shopping at Caesar's Palace Forum Shops in April.  It was love at first sight.  They were my first Kate Spade purchase and actually a shorter heel than what I typically wear, but the perfect height for all day wear and perfect since I didn't need to have any length alterations to my dress!!

Here's some pictures from the night I got my shoes, I look a little rough but mind you, it was midnight!!  

 

 It's funny to look through the pictures from the wedding because it seems my shoes had a little photo shoot of their own when I wasn't looking!  Got some cute shots!

 

My favorite

I really like this picture too.  Abbie (my niece) was pretty upset that she didn't get to wear high heels in the wedding but once she discovered that her flats had sparkles all over just like mine we were golden.  This is us chatting about how much our shoes look alike (even though she pointed out that hers still don't have a heel) :)

This is a funny one -- my dress is escaping from the photo booth and then you can see my shoes kicked off to the front of the booth.  I think it was a combination of they made me too tall for the shot and by that point, 8 hours in, my feet weren't saying they'd had enough!

Last but not least, here's a picture of the bridesmaid shoes I got for my ladies .  I thought they were so pretty and classy looking.  Poor girls though, these have a 4 1/4" heel!  I didn't think that through because they are all taller than me anyway and my heels were shorter so I just looked like a munchkin in comparison haha

 What did your wedding shoes look like??