Mary's Sunday Blog Challenge

Our challenge this week is to pick a layout from our gallery and highlight it on our blogs. Here is my pick by BethJ. Beth takes the most beautiful photos of her children. I like how she did the title and that the large photo is the center of her layout.



Here is another one I found in the gallery. It's not a layout, but it cracks me up everytime I see it. Mary you need to get around to scrapping this picture.

Scrapping the Music - Little Wonders

Here's my layout for the Scrapping the Music challenge, Little Wonder's by Rob Thomas.

This photo just breaks my heart...
My daughter played Varisty soccer last year as a Junior. This year because of repeated ankle injuries, she didn't perform well at tryouts and was cut from the Varsity team (they have a new coach this year).



I used the lyrics from Little Wonders instead of the title. Journaling reads:

All of my regret will wash away somehow...
But, I cannot forget the way I feel right now.

PP is from Basic Grey and We R Memory Keepers. The flower is Prima Essentials collection. These flowers are gorgeous! The doodle is made using a Crafter's Workshop template.

Scrapping the Music - Best Days

This week's song at ScrappingTheMusic was Best Days by Matt White. I've been real busy this week, but I still wanted in on this challenge. This is a hybrid layout... The photo, frame, title and journaling are all one piece printed off the computer. I just added background paper and chipboard.

This is my hubby and me. We used to do a lot of camping in our younger days. The background paper is from the Basic Grey Obsure line I got from the 2ScrappyChixDesigns store.

Double Page Layouts

I see all these great works of art single stand-alone layouts, but I am double page obsessed. Even when I show only one page, I usually have a companion page to go with it. For instance this layout that won the Scrapping the Music contest last month has a second page that I didn't show:



Here are some more two page layouts! I love showing off my photos... and I do have a whole lot of them!

Smoke and Fire

SCHOOL'S OUT!
The entire school district has closed today. They are using the high school gyms as evacuation centers. Some of my daughter's high school friends were packed last night, just waiting for the signal to evacuate their neighborhoods. The smoke is very thick today with the Santiago fire on one side of us and now the Camp Pendleton fire on the other side.

Scrapping the Music - You'll be Here in my Heart

Here is my latest layout for the Scrapping the Music challenge. This week the song is "You'll be in my Heart" by Phil Collins:



This is my daughter, I scanned a few old photos to add to the layout too. I used PP from the new BG Obscure collection, primas and quickutz die-cuts.

Get BG Obsure from 2SCD:
http://2scrappychixdesigns.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=obscure

Wind and Smoke

Welcome to Fall in Southern California. One weather pattern that heralds the coming of Fall is the Santa Ana Winds. That is when a ridge of high pressure causes the hot, dry winds to blow in from the desert. It's typically in the 90's with winds gusting up to 40-50mph! My brother's family had a large tree in their front yard blow over... thank goodness it missed the house.



Along with the first winds of the season come the brush fires. Usually they don't reach the houses, but this year lots of houses were burned in Malibu and are threatened here in North Irvine/Tustin Heights. The above is a photo of the smoke from the parking lot where I work in Tustin.

Here are a couple of photos that I took on my way home.

Please keep all the fire victims in your prayers.

Scrapping the Music - My Wish

Here is my layout, of my son's 8th grade graduation. The words of this song are beautiful and perfect for this layout.



I used the song lyrics in the journaling...
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to, your dreams stay big, your worries stay small, You never need to carry more than you can hold, and while you're out there getting where you're getting to, I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too, Yeah, this, is my wish.

The patterned paper by 7Gypsies. The star stamp is one of my favorites by Paula Best. It reads, "Wish on Every Star" ... and I'm still practicing my doodling!

Scrapping the Music - Bubbly

As soon as I saw the title of the song, I knew what photo I wanted to use (even through the song has nothing to do with bubbles and bathtime). My mom has had this photo stuck to her sewing cabinet for years, so I ran down to her house to make a copy.



This layout uses the new Fancy Pants Botanical and Sweet Pea patterned papers from the 2SCD store. I used the new Prancer Thickers for the title.

This is my FIRST doodling layout. I'm taking a doodling class right now at Big Picture Scrapbooking with Maelynn Cheung and was finally brave enough to try it on a layout. I was so nervous! What do you think? Is it too much?

Book Review - "Uglies" and "Love, Stargirl"

If you liked "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli, you will love "Love, Stargirl"! This is the sequel to Stargirl and follows Stargirl after she leaves Leo in Arizona. There she struggles with the question, "Can you lose your favorite person without losing yourself?" Written as a series of letters to Leo, Stargirl rediscovers who she is. It is a very sweet, loving, funny, feel-good, story.

The Uglies is the first book in a series by Scott Westerfield. Set in the future where teens are given an operation on their 16th birthday to turn them pretty. You'll have to read the book to find out more about that... I won't spoil it for you. The heroine, Tally, is stupid, annoying, and shallow at the beginning, but she does evolve painstakingly slowly into a strong admirable character in the end. There is some good action and once you get past the beginning chapters it's a fun read.

My kids the Superstars!

This is my son. He's a freshman in High School and didn't make the High School soccer team. So, He decided to try out for the cross country team and made it! He just started running two months ago.


Here he is at the Dana Hills Invitational, running in the rain.
He came in 3rd place for his school and 41st place overall, and brought home a medal.

Here's my daughter. She has always been a Club soccer mid-fielder. This year, the coach wants her to play striker.

Not too shabby! Here she is scoring a goal against the hated West Coast Club.