The return of Phuong

Phuong Ton returned to designing for the month of August as a guest at Scrapbook Graphics during their birthday celebrations. I wish she was staying on as a designer - but unfortunately she's not :( I so love Phuong's designs and she is also one of the sweetest people in the world.

I got to scrap with the kits she created for her guest spot at SBG,These are my older daughter and her friend at the beach in June 2007. They were only 4,5 years old and had grown tired of chasing the waves, so they sat themselves on the sand and dug their bottom halves into the sand. Then they yanked their legs free, showering everyone around them with sand - and laughter LOL

I made this layout using Phuong's Sincerity kit......isn't it gorgeous? It's no longer in her SBG store, it's sadly been emptied now that the birthday month is over. However, you can still get this kit through Phuong's blog. And I have to say, it's a total steal at only $4,40

Today

I made a double page layout with some of the photos I took on today's walk :) I used Kitty Chen's 365 Inspirational Templates, backgrounds from Kristen Rice and elements from Weeds & Wildflowers' Hodge Podge and Simple Life series.

There was just gorgeous light today - I just didn't capture it well enough.

Bathtime

The girls take mostly showers these days so taking a bath is a rare thing. But it's always fun - and today they wanted a proper bath so I ran them a nice warm bubble bath, where they stayed and played for a good hour :)

That's Matthildur Inga having fun in the tub :)

And layouts...

This is Lovisa at the end of November. She is just gorgeous - even if I say so myself LOL

I used Design by KAT's beautiful kit, Glorious Grey, available at ScrapScandiStyle.

Both my girls are pink to the core LOL This is Matthildur Inga at 19 months, being her adorable self :) I used a new charity kit from MeKa Designs, called 100% Girl.

And lastly, there is a new charity collab brewing in the Orchard. It's called One Love and it's raising money for disaster relief in Haiti. There is an unbelievable list of fabulous designers working together on this kit - so be sure to keep your eyes open, because it will be hitting the stores SOON!!!
Well, that's it for today. Thank you for stopping by - and I hope you had a wonderful weekend :)

New layouts

I haven't been a Honey Bee at the Scrap Orchard for very long, but I'm really enjoying scrapping with all the gorgeous stuff the amazing Orchard designers put out every week. Just recently I played with mle designs' gorgeous new Wub Woobie...

It's an amazing kit, that just reminds me of hot chocolate and fairy tales read under a cozy blanket :)This is Lovisa Lin on January 2, 2005 at the tender age of 25 months :) This is the day she discovered the television LOL She was tired from so much company and so little sleep during the New Years celebrations, that she just sat herself in her most favorite soft and comfy lion chair and watch the Teletubbies for ages!!! She tried a lot of different positions on that chair that morning - and I have photos of all of them LOL - I just couldn't figure out how to fit them all in one layout!!

I don't like kids watching too much tv - but I like when they watch occasionally, especially since that means a few minutes just for me. Without the noise, and the constant "mommy" yelling LOL Don't get me wrong, I love the "mommy" yelling, but sometimes, when it's been on both ears at the same time for hours on end, a little break is welcomed :)

I got to play with a couple of things from ZigZag Scrap the other day. Here's one of the layouts I made, using Rachness Designs' I Dream of Fall...

This is Lovisa Lin in October 2008. We went to a holiday cottage one weekend and the colors were so gorgeous and the leaves were falling off the trees, so she toog a bag and started collecting the leaves for future craft projects :)

Irene has a new kit in her store. It's called Princess & The Pea - I just love Irene's fairy tale kits...I made this with it...My girls having a dance on our livingroom floor :) It's just one of those times you can't help but love - when everything is fun and everyone is giggling and happy LOL

Kristin just released two packs of new two-page templates in her stores. This is one of them. I have said before, I just love her templates. They make me scrap stories and events, rather than moments. I love my one photo layouts with just a title, both types convey my feelings of the moment - but looking back, these are the layouts I love even more. Where there is lots of journaling and we can giggle over what we did and how we did it and how we felt at the moment. I just love scrapping :)

That's it today, more later - there's always more LOL The layouts are all linked for full credit.

Thank you so much for stopping by - and I hope you're having a wonderful day!!

Layouts...

Cali is having a special promotion on a few of her kits. It's good until the 16th (tomorrow)!!!

Three of her kits at DigiScrapbooking.ch are only 1 Euro

and she also has a really cute CU pack for only 3Euros...

And I have some new layouts too :)

This is me, way back when LOL - the photo is from September 176, when I started 1. grade. There is also a photo of my old school :) I did this for the Remember When challenge over at Scrap Orchard. I'm hosting it this month - and it's my first challenge there!! The challenge is to scrap yourself on your own first day of school! I used lots of Orchard goodies for this layout :)

I'm REALLY happy with this layout. It's a bit different from what I've been doing since I've been scrapping one photo layouts. This is a whole days worth of photos - trying to get across the feeling you have when you feel spring finally arriving :) The photos are from April 30, 2009 and the journaling is about the first signs of spring.

I used a template from Kristin's ScrapDesign - and what I love about her templates is that they allow you to get a lot of photos on a layout without it looking all too crowded. I need this assitance with multi photo layouts - since I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to arranging them without help LOL

This is my little girl about 12 hours after she was born. The blended photo is the moment my daughters met each other for the first time :) I have scrapped that photo many times, I think it's my all time favorite photo - so I'll probably scrap it many more times too LOL

I got RAKd with Katrin Designs' fantastic kit, My Little Girl. It's really amazing, so soft and beautiful. THANK YOU KATRIN!!!

This is my older daughter in August 2008. We were out berry picking in amazing weather :) I used Mystique Designs' gorgeous new kit, Tik Tak...

That's it for today :) The layouts are all linked for full credit.

Thank you so much for stopping by - and have a wonderful day!!!

Birthday weekend...

...Thursday was my older daughter's 6th birthday. She was so happy to finally have to use two hands to count how old she is LOL We had a birthday party for 15 six year old girls Thursday afternoon and then the family came over for a little "grown-up" birthday party yesterday. She is happy :)This is her on Thursday :) I used Birgit Kerr's fantastic and just released kit, December Morning, along with more of Birgit's gorgeous goodies on this layout.

I got to play with Monica Larsen's new kit, Frosty Sensation, when she did a one kit CT call the other day. This is the first layout I made with the kit...

This is my little one last weekend. We went to see the lighting of the town's Christmas tree and it was REALLY cold. Still, she was happy, waiting to catch a glimpse of the Santas coming for a quick visit with some goodies in their sack :)

Dawn Inskip has some fabulous new goodies in her store. First of all, there is a grabbag which you can still get for only $2,65 at her Pickleberry Pop store and her NDISB store. It will be opened up tomorrow (the 8th), so you might want to hurry up :) She also has some gorgeous element packs in her stores - so run on over and take a look!! Here are a few layouts I made with Dawn's new stuff...

This is my newly turned 6-year old almost exactly 4 years ago. She was waiting to go to her first Christmas concert and was quite excited. I used mainly Dawn's grab bag for this layout, but also some elements from her Passion kit.

And here she is again on Christmas Eve 2004, very much impressed by all the Christmas decorations and all the presents under the tree :) I used Dawn's grabbag - and her new Festive Trees and Tinseltown alphas, along with some more stuff...And my 6-year old sweetie again :) This time having fun in the snow in our backyard. These photos were taken in January 2005. I used Dawn's new Flakes and Personality Alpha, along with more of her wonderful designs here.

That's it for now. I have to go make dinner LOL Thank you so much for stopping by!!

Revamp...

I decided to try and revamp my blog. I've always been too intimidated by the html code to ever try. Yesterday, however, I got Shabby Miss Jenn's Autumn Flea Market Blog pack - and it's so stinkin' cute that I just had to try :) And I managed most of it - I still have no clue as to how to replace the boring labels in the sidebar with the jpg/png images that came with the pack, but I might figure it out. Or not LOL If anyone has an idiot prove tut somewhere - please turn me in that direction!!
Here's the blog pack and the gorgeous kit it's made from, Autumn Flea Market...

And here's a layout I did with SMJ's kit.

It's totally fantastic and just amazing to work with!! Oh - and it's in the weekend standouts thread over at DST and it's also in the Standing O's over at OScraps!!

Ok - I've got a few layouts to show. First of all, Dawn Inskip just released a new template, it's called Wish You Were Here and it's perfect for travel layouts. I used it with a kit I just discovered in Dawn's store. It's called Timeless Treasures and it sure is a treasure!! I've used it twice already.

I used it as a front page for our Novembe3 2004 travel album. This was Lovisa Lin's first trip to the US and her third continent even though she was not even 2 years old yet.The photos are taken at the international airport in Keflavik and we were getting ready to board. She was excited, but also anxious, since this was her first visit to Uncle Siggi's and Aunt Jennie's. After a 10 day visit, she had Siggi and Jennie wrapped around her little finger and didn't want to leave LOL

Studio Phuong has a new paper pack in her store. It's gorgeous, and she calls the pack Fallen. The texture and warmth on those papers is amazing! I have a feeling there might be accompanying element packs in the future ;) Since it's not out yet, I used elements from Phuong's beautiful kits, Serenity and Floral Grunge...

These are my daughters last fall. We went to this cottage one weekend in October and while there, visited a site where one of Iceland's greatest 13th century authors once lived. They are standing in front of the door to his "pool house" - or the tunnel leading from the pool to the main house. The pool is circular but not big, a medium sized man can stand in the middle and easily reach both sides with his hands. But it's a natural hot water pool - and really cool :)

Ok - last one today. I did this one for the Unique Style challenge over at the Catscrap blog. They usually have the coolest challenges! I used Creashen's As I Am, mostly, for the layout, and it just shows my lovely 2 year old in July.Off to try and figure out the rest of the html stuff LOL As always, the layouts are linked for full credit - and thank you so much for stopping by :)

Shabby Girl...

...I'm a Shabby Girl!!! Shabby Miss Jenn just announced her new CT members - and I'm a full time member on her team!!! I can't really believe that I'm part of her team - this is like an all star team - and me!! I'm just smiling from ear to ear :)

In other news - the winds are howling outside and picking up speed. They are up to 80 miles per hour and getting stronger. It's supposed to be windy like that for the rest of the week. I have mixed feelings about the autumn storms, if I don't have to go anywhere, and my family is home - I love to snuggle up listening to the wind. If I need to be somewhere else, or if my DH is out on sea, like right now, I REALLY hate the sound of the wind.

Anyways, I've really gone overboard on all the fantastic fall kits out there - and some of the designers I CT for have just designed the most fabulous kits. Birgit Kerr and Flergs got together and designed an amazing fall kit called Autumn Glory. It really just has to be seen to be believed!!

Gorgeous kit - but really, would you expect something else from these two!!?? I've done one page with it. I took these photos on a walk we took in Reykjavik in the fall of 2006. We don't get too many of the beautiful colors here where I live, since it's usually too windy for the leaves to actually stay around long enough to change colors LOL - but they do in other parts of the country. Anyhow, Lovisa Lin had so much fun - and the weather was just so great...And here's one page for our China album. This is Lovisa Lin at 15 months and we had signed her adoption papers just the day before. She never cried during this whole process, but you could just tell she was grieving. Her eyes were always wet from unshed tears and she always had a solemn look. Quite a bit different from the vibrant happy 5,5 year old that she is today.

I used a combination of Cinzia Loosemore's My Journey and Live in Color. Then I found this amazing quote by Anna Aspnes. It somehow fit the layout perfectly!

This next one is for Vera Lim's blog challenge. This week the challenge is to scraplift Antje's (one of Vera's CT members) gallery. Her gallery is stunning - so if you plan on taking part in the challenge I can pretty much promise that you'll have a hard time choosing just one layout of hers to lift. Here's my layout...if you check out Vera's blog you can see which one of Antje's I chose to lift :)I used Vera's brand new Fallin' 4 Fall kit again. This kit is fabulous - and I know I'll use it a lot!!

And here's my one non-CT layout for now :) I used Milla Design's gorgeous Autumn Leaves to scrap my 2 year old on a fun, and cold, and windy, and wet walk we took on Saturday. That about sums up fall in Icelan - cold, windy and wet!! Well, she had fun - we did too, actually :) We jumped in a lot of puddles, got really wet from rain and puddles, saw sheep and beautiful waterfalls - and when we got back home and walked past the rocky shore, there were some seals enjoying the wet and windy weather too LOL I tried getting a good photo of the seals, but they were too far away and I couldn't hold my hand steady enough to get a clear shot at maximum zoom.Can you tell she had fun LOL

Layouts are linked for full credit - thank you so much for stopping by!!

Almost midnight...

...and I can't fall asleep! So what better than to turn the computer on, surf some scrapping forums and do a layout???!!! LOL I'm totally addicted to this - I'll admit it freely and completely :) Anyways, my DH is coming home later tonight or tomorrow morning, depends how far they went this time around. Sometimes they sail so far out into the Atlantic that they are almost closer to Greenland than Iceland. Then it takes them awhile to sail back. The first few weeks after he goes back to sea are terrible for my sleep. I go to bed late, wake up early and sleep very lightly in between LOL I do get used to this, it just takes awhile.

Since it's late and I'm feeling reckless, I took the plunge and submitted a layout for publication. It's a big step for me since I'm awfully afraid of rejection LOL - but I guess you won't know if you have a shot at being published unless you try...! So here's crossing my fingers and hoping for an "Out for Publication" sign in my galleries!

Well, I haven't been very productive, scrap wise, for the past few days. I've only managed three layouts in three days LOL I did another layout with Peta Boardman's gorgeous Sweet Delight

It's my little sweetie being utterly adorable with her binkie LOL I love this stage - not the binkie, but the 2 year old stage. There is so much progress each and every day - and it's so amazing to watch!

Amanda Rockwell put a new kit up in her store at the end of last week. It's so much fun and gorgeous like all her stuff is. It's called Backyard Whimsy...

There is a story that goes with this one LOL. We went to England in June 2005 with my in laws. Lovisa Lin was 2,5 and all she wanted to do was visit farm parks, or "go see farmers" like she put it :) So, we went to a lot of them. Usually the animals were fenced in (or the visitors really) so there was minimum contact except to put some food in ones palm and let them eat it through the fence - which she LOVED. Then, at this one place, there was a goat roaming around free as a bird - and it was a pretty big goat, big enough to lick Lovisa's face LOL - and she did NOT like that. The goat just wouldn't go away, just pushed and pushed for more food. Eventually we had to rescue Lovisa and go visit the playground :)

And here's my layout for today. I did this for the DST October color challenge. There's no story with this one, it's just a nice photo of Lovisa Lin when she was experiencing the crisp cool weather of fall for the first time - at least the Icelandic version of cool. She had already experienced the southern Chinese version of cool, which is quite a bit warmer LOL

The layouts are linked for credit - as usual :) Thank you so much for stopping by!

Back from camping!

We got back from camping late Monday night - a bit earlier than we planned, but it was a fun camping trip none the less. We had exceptional weather the whole time - except for this one night where it was so windy that I thought our camper would blow over LOL We got the remains of Tropical storm Berta that night, and even though it was far from hurricane winds, it was still very windy. The bonus of the storm was VERY hot weather!! We are still having far above average temperatures and sunny days! The temps are in the upper 70s to lower 80s Fahrenheit, which translates to upper 20s Celsius. In a country where the average temperature for July is a little over 10°C (in the 50s Fahrenheit) - this is VERY hot, and we are enjoying it immensely!

I haven't scrapped very much for the past 2 weeks - even though the laptop got to go with, it was mainly there so I could empty the memory card of my camera once in a while LOL

I managed one layout in the week before we left - and that's all that week! I usually do at least a page a day so this is VERY little LOL. This layout took me a while, though. This is my little one on the beach at the end of June...

Most everything here is from Cinzia Loosemore.

I did manage one layout during our trip, I had just bought Kasia's Blowing Dandelions kit and when I got this photo of my older one blowing dandelions, I just had to scrap it right away LOLThis last one is also from our camping trip. My little one had such a blast being outside all the time, running and jumping and exploring. And she got exhausted, which is the main reason why we got back early. But while her energy lasted (a good 10 days) she was the happiest of kids :)

This is again with Cinzia Loosemore's designs. She came out with a new and gorgeous kit while we were camping, it's called Dare2bU - and like all her designs, it's absolutely fabulous!! Check out the Dare2bU bundle, it's 43% off at Digital Freebies right now!! Cinzia has a new store at Sunshine Studio Scraps too and the kit is there as well and also at a special prize!!
This layout was in the Standouts at DST yesterday (yeah!!) and it's also mentioned at a blog called Best of Digital Scrapbooking!! How great is that!! Although, I really cannot take the credit since it's a quickpage created by Cinzia and comes with the kit. I only added the photo and a couple of elements from the kit.

Anyways - on my way out to enjoy our tropical heat wave LOL
Have a good day!!

New layouts

Just putting up some layouts tonight - it's been a difficult day so I'm just going to list them and go to bed LOLThese are the toes of my little one. The photo is from a year ago when she got beach sand between her toes - and just about everywhere else - for the first time. It was so much fun! I got to play with Lemonaid Lucy's gorgeous new kit, Summer Escapades - and I love it! Really gorgeous and fun to use!

Here's another layout from Matthildur's birthday in June. In April she learned to say that her birthday was in June - so as soon as June came around, she declared each day that today was her birthday. Since we always kept telling her NO, when it was finally her actual birthday at the end of the month and we agreed with her, she was really surprised and happy LOL

This is again done with Cinzia Loosemore's gorgeous Celebrate kit. It's an amazing and huge kit and I'm sure I'll come back to it again and again!!

Have you checked out Dawn Inskip's gorgeous Balance Is Beautiful, yet? I made another page with it. This is Lovisa in the spring of 2007. We were on a trip and while on a walk we came across an exercise field for scouts. There were all kinds of strength and balance equipment there, all made from things in nature. Of course, she had to try out everything, and here she's on the balance beam :)My last page for tonight is my gorgeous Lovisa. I took this photo a couple of days ago and I just loved it! I used Lydia Kurniawati's (silversword71) beautiful Happy To Be ME kit - available in her Shabby Pickle store. Well, that's it for tonight - I'm off to bed. All layouts are linked for full credits :)