What a week!! (TwelveFridays Update & some news!)

It's been a whirlwind around here lately! I think last week was one of the more jam-packed weeks in my life... between me having a bad sore throat (and losing my voice, only 3 days before I'm supposed to teach at the Twelve Fridays Weekend Celebration), packing up kits, my car breaking down & being towed on the morning I was leaving, juggling kids, and getting the house ready to leave (I just CAN'T leave it messy, you know?), I was soooooo ready for the weekend away!
Honestly, though, it was such a cool opportunity for me to allow people to help me. I'm one of those stubborn people who believe that they can handle it all themselves (which is so not true!), and I think I needed a little lesson in humility and letting people love on me.

And love on me, they did. :) A friend came and cleaned my house for me. Others stepped in a helped work out stuff for my kids when my car was not starting up. Another friend actually came and drove me all the way to Gatlinburg! Several people - friends and family - helped ease burdens from me in various ways. It was so cool to see in practice... and humbling.

I was telling my Sunday School girlies a few weeks ago about how it's hard for me to show grace to others, because I don't let people see my weaknesses so they can show grace to me, and it turns into an ugly cycle. It's something that I feel like God has been really teaching me the last 6 months or so. Last week was a sure sign of it!

Anyways, I had an absolutely AMAZING time. Got lots of uninterrupted sleep AND scrapping. Woo to the hoo! I'll be posting pics of everything I completed over the next week, but here are the layouts I taught. (Like a do-do, I forgot to bring my layouts back home with me, so once they get back to me, I can post pics of what they look like complete with photos, journaling, and titles).
(By the way, does anyone know why blogger is putting lines in my photo- like the one above- when I upload? They're not in my original photos. I end up deleting them and re-uploading them. I asked a question about it on the help forums but didn't get a response.)

Oh, and the "NEWS" I mentioned in my post title?

Well, remember me talking about applying for the Lily Bee Design Team?

I got a pretty good phone call yesterday. :) Needless to say, I'm pretty much over the moon and in complete awe over the fact that I got chosen to be on this team.

Lots of happy dancin' going on here today!!!!

In need of a little Spring break?

I know I certainly am sick sick sick of cold weather. I really am wanting to break out the ol' black flip flops (and the turquoise ones...and the yellow ones... and the green ones...)

To tide me over until true spring time, I am really looking forward to a get-away coming up in a few weeks. I wanted to let my readers in on a little deal, and see if any of y'all wanted to join me!

I'm going to be teaching at the Twelve Fridays Weekend Celebration in Gatlinburg, TN. Heidi & Heather sent me this the other day:

That is a smokin' hot deal!

You can see my blog posts about it last year here and here.

I cannot wait!

It was super refreshing, relaxing, and inspiring. I absolutely enjoyed my time as a teacher & as a student. Leave me a comment if you have any questions, or email heather @ heatherpreckel at gmail dot com.

I'll be teaching two layout classes this year, for a total of six layouts. I'll be posting some sneak peeks of them very, very soon. :) I'm doing a little AccuCut action, some Silhouette stuff, some techniques here and there, and of course, using some good ol' sheet music.

It wouldn't be a Virginia layout if I didn't throw something vintagey on there, now would it? ;)

Home again, Home again (and I always must add, jiggity jig)

Back home, that is, from the wonderful Twelve Fridays Weekend Celebration in the Smoky Mountains.

I drove up, and it was cold and drizzly, and pulled into our beautiful resort. This was what was waiting as I walked into the scrapping lodge.

There were lots of fun, bright, springy decorations and small touches that just made it lovely, like the tote bags with all of our supplies in them (including an American Crafts album that we ended up FILLING with layouts from the classes), the little jars decorated with our initials and full of candy, the embroidered shirts for the teachers, and the DELICIOUS food from Heather. Man, I wish she could come be my full time cook. hehe

I had so much fun - it was really low-key and we had ample time in the evenings to chill out in the theater rooms (even if "Australia" was way longer than we thought it was going to be, it didn't matter because we were all kicked back in these cushy recliners) or to go shopping in the outlets - or scrap. I mostly just took advantage of the really comfy beds. :)


These are some of the albums the ladies decorated (and filled with layouts).


Here are the layouts I taught- I hope it's okay to go ahead and post them!

All in all, a fabulous event. Kudos to the whole team- Heather, Heidi, Amy, Mandy, and Nic- I had a blast spending the weekend with all of you and can't wait for next year!

Twelve Fridays Weekend Celebration

I am counting down the days... in exactly one week, I'll be headed to the Smokey Mountains to teach at Twelve Fridays Weekend Celebration! I am so looking forward to the time away and am hoping for a little rejuvenaton... in all senses- emotionally, mentally, physically, and creatively. I'm bringing the scrappy stuff, for sure, but I'm also bringing some books, my journal, and my iPod and am hoping to sneak away for a little quiet time.


Look at where we'll be staying- pretty sweet, huh?
I've been working (in the moments that I'm actually awake and don't feel like tossing cookies) on kitting up my projects. Here are some sneak peeks of the three layouts I'll be teaching:
I'm starting to feel a teensy bit better- I think that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel of the first trimester. I'm starting to only feel sick at night, and am just tired during the day, which is an improvement. And this beautiful Spring weather we are having is definitely boosting my spirits!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend... we are very close! :)

Twelve Fridays (on a Thursday)

Twelve Fridays recently announced that they are taking a break until April (you can read about it here), but that doesn't mean that I won't be bringing you a few more 12F projects!

I just wanted to go ahead and put here that Heidi Lacy & Heather Preckel, the owners and dear friends, are such sweet and thoughtful girls to work with, and I have really enjoyed working with them so far... and I'll be looking forward to the re-launch in April to see what unique designs they will have to play with then!

Here are the projects that I emailed to them today, using the December kit.

Twelve Fridays

Love reminiscing at last year's Christmas pics for these layouts for the November kit from Twelve Fridays! I can't believe how baby-faced Em still was, and how tiny tiny tiny Sabriel was for Christmas. Sweetness.

I was totally inspired by this from Vanessa. I love her little triangle bows on the packages!
Trying to get a good picture of a bunch of kids is pretty much near impossible. Still pretty cute, tho. ;)
I made a Christmas planner with the kit with the hopes that I will be able to be organized this season. HA!
I added some corrugated cardboard, Making Memories & American Crafts letter stickers, and some bling from KaiserCraft. Throw in some AccuCut and Bind-It-All, and you've got a nifty little personalized notebook!
I used the November-December months from an old planner from Walmart and bound those in with some notebook paper and tabs. I am thinking of having sections for shopping lists, to do lists, gift ideas, food/baking lists, addresses for Christmas cards, and probably a few other things. Thanks for looking!

Looky-loo

Heather just posted the pic of the Twelve Fridays December kit! SO cute!


I got to talk to Heather a little bit yesterday on the phone, and she was telling me about some of the fun planned for the Weekend Celebration that Twelve Fridays is hosting in March. What a beautiful time of the year to visit the Smokey Mountains!

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Also, if you CLICK HERE, you can go see a little friendship album I created for AccuCut. Have I mentioned lately that I'm a big fan of the AccuCut machine? LOL

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On a random note, can I tell you how very excited I am to hear that Scrubs is moving to ABC, rather than being cancelled?!! I've seen every episode (I'm a bit OCD about having to every episode of shows I like), so it makes me happy to know that I'll be able to continue to watch one of my favorites. :)

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Finally, I've been preparing for our annual Christmas Bazaar at church. Katie, Gretch, Brittney, and I are all contributing towards a booth.

My friends Michelle, Shan, Kim, Laura, Whitney, and I am sure MANY others are all hosting booths too, with their amazingly creative work.

See you Saturday! ;)

October Twelve Fridays Layouts

I haven't posted these here yet, and I wanted to share!

These are the layout I made with the fun October Twelve Fridays kit:

It came with these cool round corrugated cardboard discs. The first thing I thought when I pulled one out what that it would make a cool base for a pumpkin, so I sat and played until I made this:

The leaves on it were made by printing this coloring page out, and then cutting & tracing the leaves out. I free-hand cut the stems & veins. (Pretty much any time I need a specific shape, I use google images to search for "coloring page" and whatever thing I'm looking for. Pretty handy!)





Thanks for looking! :)

If my posting is a little slower this week, it's because I'm making final preparations for Wrapper's Delight, PLUS it's the Hubs' birthday this weekend, PLUS my brother's birthday on Thursday, PLUS the kids are going to their Nana's for a couple of days and I have to prepare for that!

Busy week, y'all! I hope you all have a wonderful one and that your Sunday was full of renewal & rest. :)