Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Two Weeks in August

A lot can happen in two weeks, especially when you have family visiting.  We were lucky enough to have the Dwyer's stay with us from August 5th thru the 22nd.  We had an absolute blast with them and the two weeks were action packed to say the least.  We were also lucky to have the Bonavolonta's pop in while the Dwyer's were here for lunch and a swim.



There were plenty of great meals, including this one with Larry's home made Gnocchi and the best grilled asparagus I've ever had done by Mark.


There was plenty of this kind of stupidity,


and lessons for Kennedy on how to make cinnamon pull apart bread.


There were plenty of donuts,


Key Lime Pie Martinis,


s'mores by the fire pit


and the best appetizer dinner ever!


There were movies in the car on the way to Disneyland,


and enough energy to hit the park the same day.


There were fireworks at night,


and this kind of love that made me so happy.


There were breaks from the heat at the Tiki Room,


and yummy picnic dinners before World of Color.


There were chances for a group shot at the front gate,


new sequined Minnie Mouse ears for Simone and Mickey pancakes for everyone at breakfast.



 There were cool retro signs to enjoy,


and impromptu visits by not one,


but two lovable chipmunks!


There were 3D glasses for Toy Story Mania,


and walks through the water sprayers to cool off.


There were stops at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame.


As well as chances to see where the celebrities celebrate and


photo ops with the Hollywood sign.


After all that, there was time to hang out at home, swim our hearts out, shop some, eat some more and then sadly take this bunch to the airport.


Simone cried the whole way home and keeps asking when she can visit them and when they are coming back.  We miss you Dwyer's, our house is too quiet.  Come back soon!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Week in the Life, Completed

Wow, what a project, I can't believe its done and off to the printer.  I spent the past two days glued to my desk chair really wanting to get this project done.  I had a goal of finishing by the end of last week and I did it.  Having the templates that Ali designed really helped me along but it still took a lot of time choosing the photos, figuring out how I wanted it laid out and writing the text. 

I ended up using a 4 page spread for each day, the title sheet and then 3 additional sheets for the photos.  I wanted to complete the project 100% digitally and on this first attempt at the project I wanted it to be about the words and photos and nothing else so I opted not to use the divided page protectors like Ali was doing.  I did incorporate my favorite moments from the day and my favorite thing overheard on the first page of each day.  I really liked having these memories documented.  I had planned on documenting the weather but I found that my photos told the weather story for me, same for what we ate each day.  I did a pretty good job of highlighting our meals here and there so I decided not to include specifics on that.  I had never done a 8.5 x 11 project before so it was fun trying something different and I really think for this project it was the perfect design.

I really enjoyed participating in this project, I was also very happy to put my camera down for a few days and only shoot what I had to to stay current with my Project Life album.  There was a bonus however, I really got a lot of time in with my DSLR camera and feel like my shooting did improve a lot over the course of the week, bonus! 

I am now 100% completely in love with this project and I'm so happy that I did it.  I look forward to doing it again and again.  Truthfully taking that leap really was the hardest step for me.  I don't  know what I was so afraid of, doing it proved to be fun and very enlightening.  

I'm really loving Orange these days so when I found the paper in my digital supplies I new I wanted to use it for my cover page (the paper was in a freebie pack from Persnickety Prints called Summer Sorbet). I opted not to use a photo on the cover because I loved the paper so much. Once I had that paper chosen I found this Orange We R Memory Keepers album which seemed perfect for my completed pages.

Now on to the finished product...click any to see larger.  Enjoy!

















Try this project, you won't be sorry!