Sweet Shoppe Designs

Heather here and I can’t believe it’s February already… did anyone’s groundhog see a shadow yesterday? It was super foggy here, so there was no way the groundhog would have seen it’s shadow around here. We’ve had the most unseasonal weather this year too. I remember last year we were digging out after a huge blizzard and I was still recovering from having Asher so our neighbors came over to help Mark. This year, we’re out biking around the neighborhood with only a sweater and jeans on and we’ve hardly had a chance to bring out the snow pants or jackets to play in the snow. We’ve had a couple good days of snow and that’s it. It’s really bizarre for this time of year. I’m used to staying inside most of the winter, but I’m enjoying playing outside with the kids this year. I definitely can’t complain, that’s for sure.

Today is Friday which means it’s Sneak Peek day in the forums, have you seen the peeks of some of the new goodies coming this week? Every week I think the designers have outdone themselves only for them to outdo it again the next week. If you haven’t seen them yet, be sure to check them out. I also hope you all are really enjoying the portfolio this month. I’ve seen several that I can’t wait to do. Speaking of the portfolio, I have a fun little bonus challenge for you today. This will be for 1pt and you can add it to the end of your portfolio as, “blog recipe challenge”. Since this is the month for Valentine’s day I thought I’d play around with the numbers of the date to come up with the recipe for this challenge… so here goes…

2/14/2012 turns into:

2 – circles
1 – solid paper (you can have as many patterned papers as you want)
4 – hearts (can have more, but must have at least 4 hearts)
20 – elements (no more, no less… doesn’t include the hearts)
1 – journaling card
2 – frames

and here is my page using the recipe:

ENJOY and have FUN and have a great weekend!!!

Hello everyone!  It’s Dana here again  I wanted to pop in today and share some of my favorite layouts that were created for the January Portfolio! If you haven’t already scrolled through the portfolio thread in the forums, you are missing out!  There is a LOT of inspiration there!  So much so that it was difficult for me to choose my favorites!!  But, I wanted to keep this post at a reasonable length – so I decided before looking that I would select only 10 … it was NOT easy!  Robin has also been highlighting some of her favorites on Pinterest – make sure to take a look HERE!

Here are some of my faves – enjoy the inspiration

Sula’s portfolio was full of gorgeous pages – but I “think” this one is my favorite!  It is just so fun and funky and has so much great journaling!

I thought this one by Sara was so pretty! and I love the title work! Such a great mix of alphas and the wire!

This one from Trish is fabulous – the photo treatment is PERFECT for the kit she used, and I love the way i keep finding new goodies everywhere I look!

This one from Kim is great – those pics of her husband and her are so sweet and perfect – I need to take more pictures of DH and me!

This layout by Liz is amazing – the shadows are beautiful and i LOVE the little black flower piece at the bottom of the rainbow of flowers … I hope she is framing this!

Nikki’s entire portfolio is amazing – but I really love this one! Such gorgeous layering, and a clever way to use that kit!

There is something about this one from Sasha that I just love – it’s so clean and fresh!

And I LOVE blocking – so I had to include this pretty little too!  I love the use of the banners and the title work too!

I loved this LO the moment I saw it … the background is gorgeous – and how interesting to put the word-art over the picture ?!  Great LO Akizo!

I just love every little thing about this page from Sarah – the clustering, title work, mix of colors – GORGEOUS!

And I have to add one more LOL! I just love the clustering here – and the title work – swoon!  loooooove!

And don’t forget – the new February pins started going up yesterday!  I can’t wait to see what you create with them!

Happy Wednesday Sweet Shoppers! Do you know what today is? It’s the first of the month, and that means it’s time to put another amazing designer into the sweet spotlight! Today it’s Janet’s turn, and I think you’re really going to enjoy getting to know her better because I find her infinitely interesting as a person, a business woman, a mom, a scrapper and so much more! There’s just something special about her take on life, and I think you’ll see that in our interview with her below. As a special bonus you’ll get her amazing template pack Scrap This! FREE with your $10 purchase between now and February 15th, so head to the shoppe now to pick up some yummy goodies so you don’t miss em…

Just The Basics

Where do you live?

For the past four years, my family and I have lived in Bandung, Indonesia. My husband is a teacher in an international school here.  In the past, we have also lived in India and Malaysia.  In June we will be returning to the States for at least a year and will be living in North Carolina.

Do you have any pets?

We have one dog, a Pug named Lucy.  I have never been much of a dog person, but I am seriously in love with this dog.  She is playful, affectionate, and totally sweet. My favorite thing is that every morning when I get up and go downstairs to read, she always comes with me and spreads out on my lap and goes back to sleep.  I love it!  Here she is when she was a puppy.  She was not-so-patiently waiting for me to finish my work so we could go lay on the bed and take a nap (I was eight months pregnant, so she knew my routine pretty well!)

Texting or talking?

Texting.  I hate talking on the phone.  Even worse is Skype.  I loathe Skype with everything in me and I refuse to use it unless I am away from my kids.  I would much, much rather “type chat” on Gmail.

Besides designing, do you have any other job or occupation?

No, but I keep pretty busy with five kids aged eight and under and homeschooling the four oldest!

What’s your favorite food?

I know it’s weird, but I love peanut butter and bacon on toast!

What’s your biggest fear?

My greatest fear is that I will die before my kids are grown.  I am afraid to miss all the big milestones in their life (graduating, marriage, kids, etc) and I am afraid for them to have to go through losing their mom at a young age.  I have met many people who have lost parents when they were young and I don’t want my kids to have to go through that heartache and struggle.  Everyone deserves to have a mom!

Describe your perfect pizza toppings.

Cheese.  Just cheese.

What’s your pet peeve?

I have many, so I will just choose one. Eating at someone’s home and they don’t set out napkins on the table. I find it almost impossible to eat without a napkin.

Do you talk to yourself?

All the time. I am someone who needs to process things out loud and so if I have something that I can’t talk to anyone about, I go talk to myself.  I often takes walks just so I can “have a chat.”

CD’s or MP3′s?

Neither. I don’t really like music.  In a house with five small kids, I rarely have quiet.  So when I do have it, I don’t want to ruin it with music.  But if I had to buy something, it would definitely be MP3.  Living overseas is so much easier now that we can get music, movies, and books digitally.

Inside The Artist’s Studio

When and how did you get started as a digital designer?

I started designing templates in August 2006.  A friend had sent me a template to try and about half way through my layout I thought, “I could do this!”  I quit my layout and made my first template.  A few weeks later, I saw a designer call for The Digi Shoppe.  I applied and was accepted. I was at The Digi Shoppe until March 2007 when I moved to Scrapbook Graphics.  In January 2009, I stopped designing in order to launch The Daily Digi.  In December 2009, I handed the reigns of TDD over to my partner Steph and I joined Sweet Shoppe Designs.  It’s been an amazing journey and I am so thankful for all the opportunities that it has brought me.

What was the first kit you ever made?

These template packs were made in my first month of designing. Can we say wild and crazy?!? Obviously, it took me a while to find my style!

Do you scrapbook too or just design?

If you scrapbook, share your favorite layout.  I am and always have been first and foremost a scrapper.  I love scrapping and I can’t imagine ever giving it up.  It’s hard to find the time, but I push myself to do it.  That’s one of the reasons I don’t have a creative team.  I know if I had a team that I would stop scrapping.  Almost all of my template previews have an example layout on them and I do them all myself.  It’s the only way I KNOW that I will make time to scrap.  It’s hard to choose a favorite layout, but I know that I will always love this one of my son’s first birthday (he’s almost six now!)  This layout was part of my entry for the 2007 Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooker of the Year contest (I was a top ten finalist).

How would you describe your design style?

My design style is just like my scrapping style (and fashion style, home decorating style, etc!): simple, clean, and “perfectly imperfect.”  I like order to a page and I want the photos and journaling to stand out from everything else.  I love getting lots of photos on a page and my designing “specialty” is two-page spreads.

What’s your favorite thing about being a digital scrapbook designer?

I love the creative outlet that it has given me.  Knowing that I get to do something creative every week—and get paid for it!—is a highlight for me.  Also, designing has been what has enabled my family to live overseas for the past four years.  The extra income allows us to live here on a small salary and still be able to make ends meet every month.  We get to live with and serve the international community here in Indonesia because I love to scrapbook.  How crazy is that?

Food For Thought

If you could go back in time and tell a younger version of yourself one thing, what would you tell?

To quote Aibileen from The Help, I would tell myself, “You is kind. You is smart.  You is important.”  Growing up, there was no one who spoke words like that into my heart and soul.  Failures and shortcomings were pointed out, but no one ever stopped to tell me the good they saw in me.  It took me many years to see that there was good in me and that that good could be used to bless others. I wish I would have learned that sooner.

When you are 80-years-old, what will matter to you the most?

When I was in college, we had a speaker once that talked about her definition of success.  She said she imagined herself, 80 years old, sitting in a rocking chair of a front porch and thinking, “I have no regrets.”  That’s what I want.  I don’t want to be one of the many people who look back on life and think, “I should have spent more time with my kids,” or “I wish I would have realized that work and money aren’t everything.”  When I am 80, I am pretty sure that what I will find important is the fact that I used my time, money, gifts, and talents to love and serve my family and that we as a family reached out and served others.  I won’t care whether I wore $300 boots, I won’t care if I used generic laundry soap, I won’t care what electronic gadgets I owned.  I will care about whether I gave my all when I had a chance.  So, that’s what I am doing now.

If you had the opportunity to get a message across to a large group of people, what would your message be?

I think I would try to communicate the message above.  It really grieves me to see people chasing after money, fashion, bigger homes, nicer cars, and respect from people they barely know and yet the things that are really important are pushed to the side. Why should we wear $100 jeans when much of the world is living on less than $2 a day and can’t feed their family? Why should we work crazy hours in order to afford homes we are too busy to spend time in?  Why should we be more excited to get a new gadget than listening to our children pour out their hearts?  I guess I just feel like there are so many people who will get to the end of their life and think, “I’ve wasted it!”  That makes me sad.  We have one life to live here on earth and when it is gone, it’s gone.

If you could instill one piece of advice in a newborn baby’s mind, what advice would you give?

I would love for every newborn to grasp the understanding that they were created uniquely and that no one else can fill the role they are supposed to fill.  They have been made with gifts, abilities, passions, dreams, and desires that can uniquely prepare them for their calling in life. I want them to be glad for who they are and to seek out to be the best THEM they can be  rather than the best copy of everyone else around them.

If you were forced to eliminate every physical possession from your life with the exception of what could fit into a single backpack, what would you put in it?

Great question!  In my backpack would be: my Bible, my Kindle, my notebook, my camera, my laptop, my hard drive, a pen, my wedding ring, and my kids’ blankies.

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Now that you’ve gotten to know Janet a bit better, take a peek at some of her favorite products, and don’t forget you can pick up her incredible and exclusive limited edition templates FREE with ANY $10 purchase made in the shoppe between now and February 15th!

Hi Sweet Shoppers!  You would think with the gazillion photos on my hard drive, that I would not be short of layouts to scrap, or memories to record. Some days though, I sit in front of the computer and totally draw a blank.

I need fresh inspiration. Are you like that? Do you struggle sometimes to come up with a new topic/layout idea? One of the threads in the SSD forums this week got me thinking about it. It’s not always easy, especially for those who don’t have children to scrap on a daily basis, to come up with a new idea, so I thought today I would share with you my favourite links for journal/layout prompts.

Note: I will quite often take a prompt and do the journalling first. Once that’s done, the layout pretty much comes together on it’s own. One inspires the other, or so I find. Here are my favourite sites:

Squidoo Journal Writing Prompts

Kelli Crowe

Angie Pedersen – Scrap Your Stories

Story Corps

100 Questions to ask your kids

All About Me Journalling Prompts

Journal Jar Prompts

The prompts from Story Corps were what inspired this set of layouts from me a few weeks ago:

If you’re running short of current things to scrap, look back to your childhood and scrap that. What about your parent’s family history? I sent my parents a huge list of family history questions last year which they are currently working their way through. I did this because I got to thinking that if my Mum passed away, there’s no-one else I could ask for her family history. I need to collect the info while I can, and when it’s all in will create an album all about them and their family history.

I did a 6×6 album about my Nana (Dad’s Mum) several years ago. She’s 93 now, so I’m glad I did it before it was too late. My kids now flip through the album and read the stories of their Great Nana and the things she got up to in her childhood. Here are just a few pages of that album. (Keep in mind now that I did this when I was still fairly new to scrapping, and hadn’t developed my shadow skills yet)

I learnt so much about my Nana doing that project. I bet I’ll learn a whole lot more about my parents when they send me their journalling too.

So, that’s my post for today. What do you think? I hope it’s been helpful, and gives you a source of inspiration on those days where you’re just not sure where to start.

Hi everyone!  It’s Dana with my first blog post in 2012 – and I thought I’d write a little bit about our annual family vacation while it’s fresh on my mind (we actually just got back home last week!).  My family is BIG on vacations – travel is something my husband never says “NO” too.  Therefore, we go on a LOT of trips  Now that we have kids, our trips are usually either to visit family in Chicago or Dallas or to go to somewhere warm (usually Florida or Las Vegas).  However, we always take one big trip each year with my husband’s family – and it is always to a Club Med.  This year, we tried out Club Med – Cancun and loved it!  There were 20 of us who went – and EVERYONE had a fabulous time.  I highly suggest a Club Med vacation – especially if you are traveling in a large group – there really is something for everyone!  (We love it so much we had our wedding there! LOL!) Also – Club Med is all-inclusive – so unless you are doing an off-site excursion or a specialty activity (e.g., scuba diving lessons) – everything is included in your stay!  This includes all food, drinks (even alcohol! although they do have some special wines you can buy at dinner – we just drank the complementary house wine), snacks, activities … )

We’ve been to many Club Meds – in France, Spain, Tunisia, Florida, Mexico, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic.  They are each a little different – but there is still something similar about each one.  I had never been to one before meeting my DH – but he has been going since he was a child. Club Med is a French company – so for Americans, it is a little different than a normal American hotel/vacation.  For me, the biggest differences are in the rooms (they are not as “luxe” as a normal American hotel room, in my opinion) and the service (the front desk, reservations, etc. is a little bit slower than an American might normally expect).  There is a language difference as well – Club Med hires people from all over the world, so although everyone speaks English, it is not always their native language.  My husband’s family speaks French, though – so we love it!  There are many, many other things we love about Club Med – here is a list of my top five (in no order!):

1)  the FOOD:  Club Med really has great food – there is a buffet restaurant that is actually really fabulous – even if you don’t like buffets (and I don’t!).  They have a different theme each day – so there is an amazing variety of food, plus the basics (pizza, burgers, breads, pastas, grilled fish and meats) for the kids and less adventurous eaters.  One of their specialties is white chocolate bread – it is soooo good!  I only allowed myself one piece this trip otherwise I would have gained some major weight!

2)  the ACTIVITIES:  there are SO many activities included in your stay.  Some of our favorites this trip were snorkeling, sailing, water skiing and tennis – we did some of these things every day.  This is in addition to the beach and pool

3)  HEALTHY CHOICES:  even though it’s easy to be unhealthy on vacation (white chocolate bread and yummy pina coladas?!), there are also healthy choices available!  There are always healthy food choices (fruits, veggies, grilled meats, yogurt, etc) and they have great exercise classes too.  We tried something every day – including Yoga, Zumba, Abs + Buttocks, Water Aerobics and Sunset Stretching by the beach.

4)  the KIDS CLUB:  many of the Club Meds have kids clubs available from 9 AM – 5:30 PM (and sometimes even later) … we always put our kids in there for at least part of the day and they have a blast.  They do things like trapeze/circus, swimming, beach time, arts and crafts, sports/ball games, etc). This is super handy to give the adults time to do things on their own (exercise classes, water skiing, etc)

5)  the TRAPEZE:  the trapeze gets its own section for me – i LOVE it!  my kids LOVE it … my friends LOVE it!  LOL – it is seriously so much fun!  They don’t have trapezes at every club – but they are at many of them.   It is actually not too scary – and as the week progresses you get to do more difficult tricks.  For example, in the beginning of the week you would try to hang from your knees on your own.  By the end of the week you might actually get “caught” by someone hanging on another trapeze as you fly through the air  SO.MUCH.FUN!!

I uploaded a video from one of our first nights at the Club – one of the funny things about Club Med is that they have special dance moves (they call them “Crazy Signs”) to certain songs – they will play these songs and do the dances during the day and each evening and everyone dances along.  It’s so funny because even though it is completely goofy – it’s also really fun.  And, it is really great to hear them play a song from 10 years before and still remember the moves! Ha!  The kids loved doing this – especially at the end of the week when they knew the moves and they people working at the club.  Excuse the poor filming and my goofy family – we were just playing around

So tell me – have you ever been to a Club Med?  Did you love it?  Hate it?

I am just getting started with scrapping all my photos.  The hardest part was deciding HOW I wanted to scrap everything!  I’ve decided to do the following:

1) I am doing a digital form of Project Life this year – so I will have my normal weekly spread that covers this vacation.

2) I will do a 6×12 insert using Cindy’s new templates on one side – and just a photo collage on the other side.

3)  I will scrap any other special pics/special stories normally like i would do and put in my normal family album.

I have just started doing my digital Project Life page – I am going to work on this some more and probably change things up a bit before it is all over – but here is the first page so far – I am using Traci’s Document Life Sampler, Melissa’s Lemonade kit and Kristin’s Everyday Storytelling Journal Templates.

Hello Sweets, Mary here bringing you today’s post about a family event.

I am going to gush about my dd Helena, she’s a 17yr old Senior in High School and has to do a Senior Project in order to graduate. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do but she wanted it to have something to do with honoring her sister Charlie. She said mom I know what I’m going to do I’m going to bring awareness to my high school classmates about organ donation. I was deeply touched and yes I cried. She threw herself into planning, discussing, and researching her project.

First she had to pitch it to the school council for approval. Once she had the ok she contacted our Donor Family Service Representative, she needed guidance and she wanted to interview donor families. The representative said send me the pitch by email and we’ll set a date to discuss details. Helena was excited she said mom it’s going to happen, it’s Charlie, she’s guiding me. I cried and was very supportive of all her ideas.

She decided on a dance and she’s currently working on her final details. The name will be a Dance and Donate for Life Choice fundraiser. She booked the hall which will not charge her because it’s a fundraiser. She has booked the DJ who will charge her half price. The fliers are ready to be hung in the school hallways and tickets are halfway done. Everyone that buys a ticket will receive a pen or wrist band that Life Choice has graciously donated. She is currently contacting local grocers for cupcake and beverage donations. The chaperones have agreed to the date. She has just wrapped up her 12 interviews of Donor families and recipients A friend of hers will be coming over next week to help her edit the video that will be played for everyone in attendance and later for the community. I would really love to have a photographer donate their services just for the dance part but I have to research that one.

I cannot tell you how truly proud I am of everything she has accomplished so far. This is truly something near and dear to our hearts. I am amazed at how she has tackled this project with love, compassion and maturity. We sit and talk about the people she has interviewed and I cry when I hear the stories through her eyes and mouth. It makes me sit and wonder about our Charlie’s impact on so many lives because of our choice to gift life. Sadly I have yet to reach out to anyone we gifted to, I am not mentally ready for it. Once I watch the video on 3.2.12 at the dance maybe I’ll change my mind but not yet. For now I’ll continue to support Helena in any way I can.

Thanks so much for letting me share. Have a wonderful Sunday with your loved ones.

Hey, Hey Sweet Shoppers! Your favorite day of the week is here, and not only do I have amazing new stuff to show off to you tonight, I’m also here to kick off our 6th anniversary celebration!! So without further delay, let’s get to everything you need to know to get the party started in style. I think the images below say it all…

We have soo much in store for you this month to celebrate, but I’m going to keep it short and sweet this week so you can get right into the shoppe to pick up your favorite yummy treats on sale! Don’t forget there are just a couple of days left to grab Julie’s Featured Designer kit Forevermore too, it’s free with your $10 purchase through the 31st! On February 1st, Janet will be moving into the featured designer spotlight, and we’re really excited about seeing her there! And one final reminder, all portfolio layouts are due by midnight on February 1st, so get scrappin’ your hearts out to rack up those points for January’s Pinterest Portfolio Challenge.

On that note, I’m off, but we’ll see you here in your inbox next Saturday with a brand new anniversary promotion! Until then, keep making memories and scrap MORE!

Hello Sweet Shoppers, it’s Keely here today, I’m going to talk a little bit about journaling.  In the scrapping world the word tends to draw strong reactions in both the positive and the negative, but today I want to talk about personal journaling. I’m pretty sure somewhere there’s a study or statistic to support the statement that journaling is a positive and therapeutic activity. ( 100 Benefits of Journaling ) I’ve had journals off and on throughout the years of my life, the consistency and type of writing has varied a great deal. As I’ve gotten older I’ve discovered that my memory stinks, things I swear I’d remember I don’t. But sometimes the approach of journaling can be overwhelming, I mean some days feel pretty redundant, when there aren’t big highs and lows going, it can be hard to find the motiviation. I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t have to be a big production and that if you can get pen to meet paper on a fairly regular basis, it’s going to be a good thing.

So let me tell you what I’m doing for the year 2012. My main journaling is this:

Isn’t it fancy!? (haha) I found someone doing something like this last year in a real journal. I tried it out for a bit and fell in love with it. It’s not pretty but it’s about the easiest, low pressure way of memory keeping. I have a sheet for every week that I keep in my main Keely binder (where I keep calendars, to do’s etc) Once ( or several) times a day I jot down daily happenings, the weather, things we did, something said, a news story, or just  doodle.  I may not be pouring my heart out but I’m documenting our lives in little bits and I have something to look back on.

I also have another journal, one that I don’t pressure myself to write in daily. I use it for feelings, when I’m feeling PMSy or over/underwhelmed or when I want to jot down a quote I come across and love, or if I’m feeling like I need to document some gratitude.  It’s not fancy either….

It’s a composition book that I had on hand, I believe a two for a dollar variety. A little digi-magic with La and Shawna’s Imagine and it looks like this…

I’ve been pleased as punch with my latest journaling routines. I think it’s going to help with those scrapping journaling blocks as well, a definite bonus. Until next time, Happy Scrapping (and maybe some journaling too).

Hey readers!! Meg here bringing you a special spotlight today There are soooo many fabulous scrappers in this community and I think it’s important to really show off one every now and then. Today’s scrapper spotlight is Natalie aka NatalieKW..She happens to be on my creative team so I might be a tad biased but her pages have caught my eye for a long time and she’s super sweet on top of that! Read on to learn a little more about Natalie

Name: Natalie Whitworth/NatalieKW

How long have you been scrapping: I started in May 2007 and scrapped for a couple of months until I met and started dating my husband, who took all of my spare time. I took a almost two year break until my oldest was born. I took it back up in the Summer of 2009 and have been addicted ever since.

Three favorite layouts:

Do you have a certain style? Well…I don’t know. I have more of an eclectic style, I think. I love papers! My favorite kits, and resulting pages, have awesome papers. On the other hand, I have a hard time not using most of the elements too. I think the most consistent thing about my pages is that I like them pretty full.

What inspires you when doing a layout? The kit itself. I am on some amazing teams and when I buy kits, I buy them from some pretty amazing designers here. Nothing inspires me more than being excited to use an awesome kit. I guess I should say that it’s my pictures that inspire me, but honestly, the pictures, title and journaling are usually the last things I do on my pages.

What do you do when you lose your mojo? Browse the layouts I have in my favorites across the open galleries and Sweet Shoppe’s gallery. If that doesn’t work, I always browse Aly’s gallery. Her attention to details are amazing on her pages and it usually pushes the “scrapper’s block” away.

Are you a one kit scrapper or do you mix it up? I’m usually a one kit scrapper since I mostly scrap for my creative teams. However, I love multiple alphas on a page. I also love Traci’s stitches and have been including those on my pages a lot lately.

Do you have any other creative hobbies? I’ve been known to make some really big bows for my three girls. I also create some custom vinyl designs for people to use in decorating their homes. It’s kind of like word art for your walls. I wish I could crochet and knit, but I don’t want to sacrifice the scrapping time to learn.

What is one little known fact about you? I say some words wrong. I call a wolf a “woof” and a drawer a “jore.”

Do you have any scrapping tips that you would like to pass on? Hmmm… I can’t really think of any tips, but one thing that I always have in my mind while scrapping is to push myself. Yes I scrap to preserve my family’s memories, but I also scrap because it makes me feel good. It helps me get through the stress of having three kids under three. I’ve found by warping my shadows, using actions on my photos, making my journaling look real on the page by blending it ever so slightly, have all helped me take my pages to the next level. I love finishing a layout that I can’t stop looking at because I love it so much!

I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about Natalie!!

***Now for a bonus challenge. Look thru Natalie’s Gallery HERE and choose a layout to SPIN and LIFT..ev1 loves an old school spin a lift challenge right? Just put it on your portfolio tracker post as Spin A Lift Bonus Challenge and link it up!! Enjoy ***

This is not what I had intended to write about today, but today just hasn’t been one of those normal days.

I took my older two children to school and my 3-year old, Sadie, and I headed back home.  I was stopped at a red light at an intersection only a few miles from my house.  After the light turned green, I hesitated for just a second because there was a truck that I wasn’t sure was stopping for his red light. Once I was sure it was clear, I started through the intersection only to see a different pickup truck barreling through the intersection straight at me! I slammed on brakes and caught his rear driver-side tire with my front bumper.

Thankfully, a police officer was the first one at the intersection going the opposite direction I was, so he saw the whole thing and was immediately able to help.

Sadie and I are both fine. The airbags didn’t even deploy. My bumper is gone, but that is replaceable.

As I have replayed the whole accident in my mind, I realize that if I had not waited for a second before going when the light turned green, I would have been farther through the intersection and he would have t-boned the side of my car. This accident could have been so very much worse than it was. I truly feel that we had angels watching over us!

It’s funny how, sometimes, it takes situations like this to remember to have a thankful heart. We celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday a couple of months ago, but do we take the time to be just as thankful in January? I probably don’t. But I think I will now!

Have a great and grateful day!