Happy Halloween

 An oldie, but goodie...

Tag...you're it!

Fall has arrived.

I love this time of the year.

The cooler temps.

The delicious smells.

The leaves changing color.

Oh,all the rich color!

It is also time for the Fall tag swap that I partake in, with some very talented

ladies around the US. I originally heard about the tag swaps from my sweet

friend Jonnelle

. I love to create and I really enjoy seeing what others create.

So many amazing ideas out there.

Here is a sampling of the tags I have made for the swap

this time around. I used mostly papers from Teresa Collins Giving Thanks

 line, along with some odds and ends fom my stash.

Here are the ones I made for last years swap:

...and these I made just  for fun, a couple of years back.

I was so 'in love' with this line from Basic Grey.

The colors were stunning!

So Fall.

Happy Fall!

Happy Scrappin'!

I want my Mummy

A couple weeks back, we went to a very cute, small town, pumpkinfest. We had a great time walking around and checking things out. That is where we came across a very fun vintage shop that sold all sorts of things, from ornaments & wall hangings to books, toys & furniture. It was pretty cool! That is where we found the "I want my Mummy" sign. It was such a cute photo op & of course, I had to scrap it! I had to!

This cute layout was one of our make-n-takes (Teresa Collins new Haunted Hallows line) at Inspiration Unlimited, last month. I am not much of a Halloween scrapper, but I love to do Fall layouts. Well, wait, I take that back. I have many Halloween layouts, just not in the traditional orange and black background. Bryant's costumes always seem to clash with those colors. I loved this, but still had to tweak it a bit. I had to add my 'Dawn' touches to it. I changed some things, moved some stuff around and even sewed on the page. Loved that I had the foundation of the page, but loved that I could make it my own.

So Fun!

Happy Scrapping!

Re-visiting a few Fall faves

Fall is such a beautiful season here in New England.

I love everything about it.

The leaves changing color.

Visits to the farmstand.

Picking apples &

finding the perfect pumpkin.

I take lots of pics in the Fall (okay all the time-ha!)

I  recently took a look back at a few of my

favorite Fall layouts

&

thought that I would share.

Here is B and I having a little fun at the local farmstand.

I love these fun pics.

They matched perfectly with these really fun papers by Elsie:

I also loved this fun paper by Elsie

.I had so much fun creating this layout of

a family trip to the farmstand.

This layout was based on a card sketch by the very creative Nancy.

.I loved how it came out.

This Basic Grey paper is one of favorite lines by them.

This layout was my entry on to the design team at. Let’s Scrap.

I really enjoyed working with Cheri's sketches.

I also really loved this paper by Margie Romney-Aslett

(the Girls Paperie).

These pics of B from last Fall are so sweet.

Love this kid!

I am now working on some new Fall (future faves).

I am also working on Christmas stuff.

I really enjoy looking back.

To especially see how B has grown.

To see how my style has evolved.

And most importantly-

to re-visit the memory.

Happy Scrappin'!

Happy Birthday Jonnelle!!!

Happy Birthday to YOU,

Happy Birthday to YOU,

Happy Birthday Dear Jonnelle,

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Celebrate YOUR day!!!!

Devinely Sweet with Bazzill

This amazing box of goodness (delivered by the big brown truck) showed up on my doorstep today.

Who doesn't love all things Bazzill? I mean...WOW, right?!! I was one of the few (lucky!) ladies that were picked in a random drawing (during a super cute minibook class) taught by Joey Otlo (below with TC herself) at Inspiration Unlimited. I had no idea what the prize would entail, but when it showed up today, it was more than I could have ever imagined.

 This is the class that I took with Joey. How cute is this?!! It is so colorful and fun!

I can not stress enough how lucky that I have been, to be able to go to Inspiration Unlimited these last couple of years and I am really looking forward to next year already!

Happy Scrappin'!!!

Learn Something New Everyday...the second half

Yay! I completed Shimelle's Learn Something New Everyday class. This makes me so happy. It was quite the project. Learning, creating and sharing. It is a big deal. Some lessons are simple & fun and others are a work in progress, but great lessons all the same. I shared the first half of my mini book here and below is the completed second half.

Starting with my cover. I know I shared it before, but here is how the book looks completed:

Page sixteen: Everything old is new (and funny!) again. I loved that my son discovered Bazooka bubblegum and how excited he was ('Look, Mom there are funnies in with the gum!") Reminded me of my childhood.

Page seventeen: One can survive on the basics. I loved this sign that I saw in a very tiny town in Tennesse(population 321-really!) No Mickey D's. No Walmart. Maybe even no cell signal...

Page eighteen: No matter where I go, New England will always be my home. Very true! There is no place like home.

Page nineteen: A little TLC goes a long way. Bryant brought home this itty bitty tree over three years ago and it still continues to grow ansd thrive. We love our little tree!

Page twenty: I will always have a 'tom boy' streak in me, but sometimes I like to be girly. I recently got my first pedicure and it made me feel so pretty and girly and happy.

Page twenty-one: I need to take time to relax. This is something I am constantly working on, but on a recent trip, I took some much needed 'me time'.

Page twenty-two: I am always in such a rush all the time, that I forget to just enjoy my surroundings. I am learning to slow it down.

Page twenty-three: I think I could survive on peanut butter smoothies. I found a place in Vegas (last year and re-discovered it this year) that makes one that I just could not get enough of. It definately is the simple pleasures in life.

Page twenty-four: One can never have enough friends. I made a lot of new friends at IU this year and can not wait to see them next year!

Page twenty-five: It is okay to spend some time alone. I love my friends and family, but my alone time is very valuable for my sanity-ha!

Page tenty-six: I learned to let go. My son has started to walk to school in the morning. As much as this scares me, he is growing up and needs to start doing things on his own.

Page twenty-seven: There never seems to be enough time in the day. As I get older I am realizing more and more, that you can only do what you can do, in the time that you have. Use time wisely and you will be surprised what you can accomplish!

Page twenty-eight: As much as I love my local sports teams, sometimes they still disappont me. This will probobly never change, but a lesson learned all the same.

Page twenty-nine: Laughter is the best medicine! I love to laugh. This is not a new lesson, but it is one of my favorites.

Page thirty: Changes in the workplace are good. This pic below is the stack of work that I used to have at the end of every quarter. It was beyond stressful. Little changes, here and there, have made it much easier on me now. Still stressful, but much more streamlined.

I am so glad that I took this challenge. It was soooooo worth it! I created the sweet little book with my August Scarlet Lime kits. Look how pretty they are:

So colorful and fun:

All in all, doing this project made me think. I learned some new things and I re-learned some other things. It will be great to look back on it a year from now and see how I have grown.

Happy Scrappin'!!!

Inspiration Unlimited 2011-Teresa Collins

I love being a part of the Inspiration Unlimited event hosted by the fabulous Teresa Collins. She is amazing! This was my second year attending and it was even better than last year. I met some very fun people, made some of my favorite projects and I finally know my way around the hotel. It is now like my home away from home-ha!

Teresa taught two classes at the event. One being a travel book:

I love this idea and can not wait to fill it with all my pics from our vacation to Charlotte this past Summer:

Her other class was an A to Z of Me project:

I love this idea also and have been adding stuff to it daily. Here is my cover. The flower provided in class was green (not like the one above). I did not really like that one, so I changed it up when I got home. I am more of a sunflower/gerber daisy type:

Here is Teresa's first page:

Here is my first page:

Both projects are ongoing and I am determined to finish them!

I loved all the classes I took and promise to share the other projects soon!

Happy Scrappin'!

Happy, Sad, Sad, Happy

Tony Stewart winning two races in a row (one being Loudon!) makes me happy!

The Red Sox being out of the play-offs makes me sad.

Tito gone makes me very sad!

Pats season has begun. This makes me happy!

Oh, the ups and downs of my life as a sportsfan...