Zva Creative August DT Blog Hop!

The Zva Designers are joining together today to share a project that we have created using some of our favorite Zva Creative products. I am hoping that you will take some time to join us for a little bit of fun again this month!

The Blog Hop begins at Kim Hughes' blog: Paper Hugs. She will have the complete list of all blogs that are participating in case there is a glitch along the way. If you would like to play along, I am linking to one of the Zva designers and that designer is linking to the next and so on. Be prepared to be inspired along the way. Hidden on 5 of the blogs is a Zva Creative prize package ...YAY! Those blogs will be randomly chosen after the hop is over, so it's important to leave a comment on as many blogs as you can along the way.

The Blog Hop starts now and runs through midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, August 31st and the 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, September 1st on each of the five winning blogs. The full list will be found on Kim Hughes‘s blog as well (linked above). We will do our best to notify each winner, but it's best if you can pop in to all of the blogs once again on Wednesday...plus, you never know what kind of inspirational creation that you may find there. All you need to do is leave a comment on this Zva Blog Hop post...you do not need to leave a comment on each and every designer's blog post to qualify. The more times you leave a comment along the blog hop path though, the more chances you will have to be one of the lucky winners.


Zva Creative products Used:
Crystal flourish- Item #:CRB03CA113
Crystal brads- Item #:BRBK02CA101

The blog hop begins here: Kim Hughes

Your next stop is here: Lisa Johnson

Thank you SO MUCH for joining us

4 Years

I find it incredible that I've been with John for over 4 years. It actually seems a lot LONGER in a lot of ways. I feel like I know him better than anyone else in the world and he knows me more than anyone else too. I love that he pays attention to the little things and even notices things about me that I never even knew about myself before he pointed them out!

Since we met each other 4 years ago this month I had to document it, of course.

I know that I've scrapped these photos before but we don't have many recent photos of just he and I.

BUT.

We will have lots of new ones taken this week! Jennifer TP and Chris are arriving tomorrow night and Jenny's going to take our engagement photos for our wedding invitations. Yay! I cannot wait to see her!

A week later, Stephen (my best friend from Alaska), is coming to visit!! I haven't seen him in THREE YEARS, I'm soo excited to see him! He and I have been friends since we were little.

Guilty Pleasures

Yesterday I had fun playing with the new My Minds Eye Boy papers. They were perfect to use to scrap Alex's first day of school.


I also made a cute little boy card.


I've decided that these papers and embellishments would make REALLY adorable decorations for Alex's room. They match his red and blue color scheme! I have been working on a picture frame/decor wall in there for quite some time now and it needs some SERIOUS work. Maybe I'll work on that tonight... maybe?? :)

Sweeter Than Sweet

Alex is so sweet... MOST of the time, lol. I guess that's how all little boys are, right? But no seriously, he is one of the sweetest kids you will ever meet. I love how he cares for people so much.

He has been a little doll at school so far, I'm so proud of him! I find myself wishing that I could hide somewhere in his classroom to watch him interact with his teacher and his classmates. I always hung around his daycare with him every day, sometimes for a good hour in the morning and afternoon so I could watch him interact and play as long as I wanted. I'm finding it a little hard that I have to drop him off at school and leave him immediately. I didn't think it would be this hard at all! I thought people were being a little rediculous when they would ask me if I was freaking out about Alex going to school. I always answered "No, I think it's fine. He'll love it and I won't mind a few hours of quiet time". Was I sure in for a surprise! I still think it's really good for him and it's been really nice to have a couple of hours to myself for the past couple of days but I think it's going to take me quite awhile to adjust to him not being by my side at all times. He hasn't been in daycare for over half a year, although it seems like it's been forever in some ways. :) I'm definitely used to him being around 24/7, that's for sure.

Now that I'm done with that long tangent, here is my new layout of the boy. I was stoked to see that Paper Crown already received the new My Minds Eye Girl and Boy collections! I like the girl collection the best, naturally, because of my love for girly colors. Since Alex looks so pretty in this photo I figured I could use that as an excuse to use the Girl collection to make this layout. Like I really need an excuse to use girly colors though, I use them all of the time anyway, ha.


I also created this layout for Zva Creative. I used the pretty crystal flourishes and crystal brads on this one. I just found out that the Zva Creative DT will be receiving lots of the new Zva CHA releases soon, I absolutely cannot WAIT, they're all so gorgeous! As you can tell I'm a little Zva obsessed, lol!

Zva Creative products Used:
Crystal flourish- Item #:CRB03CA113
Crystal brads- Item #:BRBK02CA101

Have a wonderful weekend all! I had better head to bed soon- I'm exhausted. This girl's still getting used to getting up at the crack of dawn for school. Thank goodness tomorrow's Saturday! :)

Back to School!

Today was Alex's first day of school! :) He LOVED it, he was sad when he had to go home and can't wait to go back tomorrow. We're hoping his enthusiasm for school lasts. :)


I HAD to take photos of him this morning right before we left. He looks so precious with his big ol backpack full of new school supplies. :)

In ode to Alex's last day of summer I made a fun summer layout of Alex and his friend, Kenedy playing with water guns on the lake this summer. I used lots of Fancy Pants, My Minds Eye and Prima on this one!

Speaking of Prima... have you seen their new releases? Gorgeous! I must have ALL of it, lol. I also ordered a bunch of new My Minds Eye and Bella Blvd. Love it!

Happy Birthday John!

It's John's birthday today! (the husband). It's the big 29 for him this year, just one year away from 30! He loves that I keep reminding him of that fact, haha.

We began his birthday celebration by going to parent night at Alex's new school, we got to meet his teacher. We're all excited!  He's becoming such a big boy. :)

After parent night we all went out to dinner and came home to open presents and eat cake. This is about as far as my baking skills go:




At least I didn't burn the cake! lol.

Alex and I bought John lots of grill accessories and a grilling cook book. My Mom got him a grill for his birthday, although it hasn't arrived at our house yet so my presents kind of gave away my Mom's big birthday surprise for him, heh, oops. John's pretty excited though, he's been wanting a grill for awhile now.

We also just got done watching "Date Night". It was a cute movie, pretty funny too.

Wedding Dresses

Wedding dresses are my fav dresses to try on, hands down! I bought my wedding dress while I was in Montana last month, I love it! This is pretty much the first fancy dress that I have ever owned. I never really had a prom dress or anything so getting all girly and trying on puffy dresses is an experience that I've never had before!

I loved one of these dresses more than the other but because of the fit I had to go with my second favorite.  I think I'll keep which one I bought a secret for now though. :)  I don't want to totally give it away!



Sorry about the horrible tanlines. I thinking I may have to get a spray tan or something before the big day!

Ohhh Sam Merlotte!

I made a shirt last night. :) It's a bit big though, as you probably can see.


John had the day off today so we ran errands all day and went to the mall. We walked by Hot Topic, which was one of my favorite stores when I was a teenager but I pretty much outgrew that stage years ago. Well, when we walked by Hot Topic John asked "Jill, what's the name of that bar that Sam owns in True Blood?" To which I promptly answered "Merlotte's, duh!". John told me that he saw a Merlotte's shirt in the Hot Topic window. We immediately turned around and when I saw it I KNEW that I had to have it.


This is the back and the front just has the little logo on it just like the shirts the waitresses wear in the show. This shirt is now one of my new favorites that I'm sure I'll wear quite frequently. Sorry that I cut my face off. This is right before I decided to take a nap this afternoon and I looked like death. :)

Crabby Pants

Check out the flannel PJ pants that I made for Alex last night.


Some crabby pants for my Crabby Pants! Whenever Alex is in a bad mood I call him "Crabby Pants" or "Mr. Crabby Pants". When I saw this fabric I knew immediately that I HAD to buy it and make some pants for him. :)


He loves them! He wore them all day today. He played outside AND went to the store in them, what a sweet boy. :)

Easter Flashback and Lake Fun!

I had the most amazing Saturday last weekend!! John actually got a day off so we headed up to Amy's lake property for the day. We were out on the boat all day, it was so much fun! It's been hot here lately so swimming all day in the lake felt amazing. Alex still wouldn't get in the water- much. Last time when we went to the lake without John Alex stayed in the boat the entire day. This time Alex let John take him in the water a couple of times if John was holding him. Guess Alex doesn't trust me enough to let ME hold him in the water, lol.



Kenedy and Alex, aww. They play so well together, I love it!

I made Amy one of my favorite drinks- Absolute Pear and lemonade. Yummm.

We ran into a family who had their two beagles swimming around with them- the dogs were wearing little lifejackets- it was hilarious!

Just like a scene out of Titanic. :)

Here are a couple new Zva Creative projects that I created this week. I was obviously in an Easter mood. It was the cute Jillibean Soup papers I think. I love the cute bunnies and checkered umbrellas. :) The papers go so well with the gorgeous Zva Creative pastel colored pearls!

Zva Creative products used:
PEC02CB103, PE02CB121, EB03CA111

Zva Creative products used:
Self-Adhesive Pearls - 12"" Round Double Chains - Soft Blue- Item #: PEC02CB106

Tidbitz In Time August layouts

While I was in Montana my mother in law gave me some old photos of John when he was about Alex's age. I scrapped my favorite one with the Tidbitz In Time August kit. Wasn't he adorable?

After I scrapped that photo I decided that I'm going to start working on our old baby photos scrapbook, so I scrapped an old photo of me next.

There's me, looking like a boy.