String Fest

This is the first year my dear daughter is taking the Viola.  She took it as an elective in 6th grade, joining the Orchestra.  Tuesday was the 40th Annual Festival of Strings, where beginner string players in the AISD middle schools.  It was so exciting to see her involved in such a fun event.  There were over 1200 students on Violins, Violas, Cellos, Basses and 1 Harp.  Zilker Park Hillside, an outdoor venue, was the original plan for the festival but due to all our rain lately it had to be moved to a local high school gym.  Very crowded but the students were real troopers.  The t-shirts for the participants were bright tie-dyed.  

This is the digital page that I finished (12X12) using this month's template by Ann Martin on The Lilypad.  My photos are of my DD and I even make an appearance in one. (-:

Fall

https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Grids-3-Amy-Martin.html by Amy Martin - template 8
Font - Beyond Wonderland by Christopher Hansen
Capturing Fall by Kim Jensen - Beige Paper
Capturing Fall by Valorie Wibbens - leaf
Capturing Fall by Kaye Winiecki - leaf 1 and leaf 2
http://the-lilypad.com/store/SF-organic-elements.html by Splendid Fiins - mist
http://the-lilypad.com/store/i-am-what-i-am-patterns-and-backgrounds.html by A.Pennington - bag paper
HoppyBday by Amy Wolff - Orange Banner
DSD by J. Larsen - FALL circle
http://the-lilypad.com/store/Sprinkles-V8.html by Valorie Wibbens - tag
NewYearsEve by Sahlin Studios - 2013 button

October has come and gone and we had so much fun with festivals, costumes parties, class celebrations, and pumpkin patch excursions.

Fall has to be my favorite seasons.  I love the cooler weather and the burning colors as the leaves change.  Not to mention it is the first step towards ramping up for the two biggest holidays of the year.

Another First!!!

As a mother daughter activity, I joined my sixth grade daughter's Cross Country Club in her middle school.  Let's be blunt and honest.....I am NOT a runner, I am the frumpy, overweight mom, not the stylish, tight body mom.  It has been a real joy spending this time with the club.  My goal was to finish our end of season 5k and not come in last.  I met both goals and did so much better than I even imagined.  YEAH ME!  It not only made myself proud of me but my daughter was also very proud of her mom.  Doing something healthy for both of us, just mommy and daughter activity.  This page commemorates our accomplishment.

Completed for Polly-picks Nov. Challenge using the following:

https://the-lilypad.com/store/Born-to-Run.html by Kate Hadfield Designs


https://the-lilypad.com/store/Journaling-Doodles-by-Micheline-Martin-Designs.html by Micheline Martin


https://the-lilypad.com/store/Selfie-Wordart.html by Lynne Marie


Font - Blackadder


https://the-lilypad.com/store/SF-organic-elements.html by Splindid Fiins


Joanne Brisebois at Oscraps.com - photography frame

Quite different than most of my pages, but I still haven't found my style, I just go how the page develops.

October - at the speed of life.

I blinked and October was over!  I was puttering along and Friday someone asked me if I was ready for Halloween.  No, but I have lots of time, like weeks!  OH NO! I had less than a week and I had done NOTHING!!!  Sometime, (way too often) I get so busy living life I forget to map out and plan ahead.

Any hoo, what I have been working on is getting a few pages done, here and there.  Documenting the kiddos.  I have been salivating over 'Pocket Project' pages but I haven't tried my hand at them yet.  

I have been trying to keep up with the Lilypad and it's monthly and sometimes weekly challenges.  It really helps in getting my pages completed and working outside of my comfort zone.

Here are a few of my favorite pages I have done over the last 2 months for their challenges.

I love the minimal effect of this page.  My daughter competing in a swim meet last Summer.

My youngest enjoying what he loves best, cars! 

The pictures tell the whole story.

 I just loved the feel of the photo and wanted to convey that in the page.

My goofy kids had to pose with the Old Navy mannequins, can you pick out all three?

The best thing about working on these pages is remembering the fun when they were taken, and reliving the memories.

Uploading, but not.

Sometimes I think I am just a little dense.  I created this page for Sahlin Studio's Template Challenge.  I was inspired right away with her template.  The problem is I just cannot figure out how to upload my page onto the LilyPad site!  I guess I will have to stop

and pullover for directions.

I used Sahlin Studio's August Challenge Template and her Sweet Storytelling Collection.  This photo just jumped into the template, sweet.

Summer Bucket List

Check!

Our visit to the Blanton Art Museum

Another item checked off my Summer Bucket List, I am following The Happy Family Movement, Summer Bucket List on Facebook.


1.  Get to a museum or two.  Yesterday we got to the Blanton Art Museum (I don't think the boys were very into it) on the UT Campus, which was new to us.

My oldest son, turning 9 in September 2013.

My oldest child, she is turning 11 next week.

2. Take updated head shots of my kiddos & a little journal word to go with. 

My baby, who will be turning 5 in September 2013.

Now I just need to get a few photos of the whole family.  I do not think we have any of the five of us at all.  I love how the individual pages came out with each child highlighted.  I have stopped fretting about getting things documented and started enjoying the process.  Realisticly, I take WAY too many photos to make a page for every event.  I will just stick with the ones that inspire me. 

Hope you enjoy.
Tracy

My Beautiful Daughter

It has been a while since I have had time to sit down and do any type of scrap booking.  I even had a computer change and my old computer eat most of my digital collection, which I am now rebuilding slowly.  I just had to sit  down and churn one out after seeing FDS's template for April's Scraplift.

One usually breeds several, so I will take a little time here and there and get a few pages worked out.  Already have one in my head, ready to be worked out in PSE.