Zva Creative November DT Blog Hop!

We have a NEW Zva Creative Design Team and we welcome you to join us this month for a blog hop that we feel is extra special!

There is now an added twist to our blog hops, YAY! As you know, Zva offers so many beautiful color groupings for pearls, flowers and crystals. We want to make sure that they shine bright for you, so each designer was asked to share a creation using a specific color or color combination on their blog hop project. We anticipate that our hops will become even more breathtaking with such stunning products to showcase by concentrating on color..

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, just follow along the blog path. 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 FIVE of the blogs is a Zva Creative prize package ...YAY! Winners 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 today, November 29th and runs through midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, November 30th and the 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, December 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.

The specific color that I was asked to design with this month is Ginger. I absolutely love brownish colors of any kind. I actually think that I wear the color brown more than anything else and I have found that I love to scrap with the color!

I decided to use my Zva Creative flourishes to scrap yet another one of my engagement photos of my husband and I!


Zva Creative products Used:

Ginger pearls: PE02CB140
Roses: bulkflowers

The blog hop begins here: Kim Hughes

Your next stop is here: Susan Lui

Thank you SO MUCH for joining us

Scrapbook Circle Sale! (and a Visit with Santa)

Hi everyone! Make sure to check out Scrapbook Circle's HUGE sale this week!

We had a super fun weekend that was filled with Christmas Shopping! I'm proud to say that my shopping is nearly done already. I only have a few more things to buy but they're just things that I need to order over the internet so no more malls for me, whew. The mall was way too crowded this weekend.

I finallyyy ordered John a shirt from Johnny Cupcakes this year. I've been in love with this brand for awhile now, I felt like it was finally time to get John his own Johnny Cupcakes shirt, since he's a cute little Johnny Cupcake himself. :)

Alex got to go see Santa this weekend as well. He said he loved it and told Santa that he wanted about a billion things for Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving friends and family! I hope you all are having a blessed holiday. It's been such a nice day for us so far. This has been the first Thanksgiving we have ever spent ALONE without other family and friends with us. It ended up being one of my favorite Thanksgivings to date. :) We spent the morning cooking, cleaning and then eating. Afterwards we all decided to lay on the couch and veg for awhile. I think that's something you HAVE to do after Thanksgiving dinner to let everything settle and digest! lol.

So this week has been a little nutso. Alex and I spent all of last Saturday at Amy's daughters birthday party.  I love little kid birthday party's, they're so cute!

That's him with one of those party blower things, if you couldn't tell! :)

On Sunday my dogs dug out under our fence and I had to go chase them. I was chasing them down in the fields behind our house and I stepped in a hole and sprained my ankle, yuck! It hurt like the dickens. It feels a little better now, it's just all bruised up and sore. I blame it all on the dogs, lol! John and I are both kind of a mess this week because while he was dumping trash at work yesterday he cut his hand on a glass bottle and got a big piece of glass stuck in his hand. The poor boy's hand is super swollen and he can't use it. We're both handicapped now! lol.

Since I'm handicapped I've spent the past couple of days scrapping. I actually made a layout JUST FOR FUN, it wasn't a DT assignment! How cool is that? Haven't done one of these in forever. :)


That's me on Halloween this year! I used the Circa 1934 Cosmo Cricket papers to create this one. I have fallen head over heels for these papers! :)

Which is why I used them again to scrap a layout for Zva Creative! Here's Jenny TP and I on Halloween again.
Zva Creative products used: Item #: CR03CA116

I also used my Cricut and Heritage cartridge to create the frames on both layouts.

Before I go, check out how big my new puppy's getting!



Isn't he cuuuute??! You like the action shots that I got of him? lol! When we got him two months ago he weighed 8 pounds. Now he's over 35! He's going to be a biiiig boy once he's full grown! :)

I'm pretty happy that I can get awesome dog kissy action shots with my camera now. I went back to Target last week to exchange the new camera that John bought for me last month. It was a Sony Cybershot and it was AWFUL! None of my photos turned out. They were all grainy and fuzzy no matter what setting the camera was on and if anyone slightly moved while I was taking the photo? Forget it, the photo wasn't even usable! I was soo frustrated because I've never really had a GOOD camera and to even get a good layout shot with my old camera I'd have to take about 30 photos of my layout to get a usable photo out of it. Even then I'd have to photoshop it like crazy so it wouldn't look awful.

Anyways, I did lots of research before I exchanged the camera and ended up getting a Nikon Coolpix S6000. It. Is. Amazing! I only have to take one photo of each layout. I can take close ups of my layouts now and EVERY photo that I take turns out perfectly! The camera was only a little over $200 so for the price I can't believe the quality of the camera. I am now a super duper happy gal! Expect LOTS more photos from me from now on! :)

New Exclusive Cricut Circle Cartridge!

Today on the Cricut Circle Blog the Design Team showcased the new cartridge coming out next quarter for the Circle Members.

This cartridge is full of cute cuts featuring Cricut Logos, Machines, Scrappy Supplies, an alphabet, phrases, and more!

Here are the projects I created with it this week, more to come! :)

I made this framed wall hanging for my scrap room. Now I need to make one about how much I love my Cuttlebug and Imagine too, lol! I'll have a whole matching set!




And since I have fallen in love with the Cricut Circle soo much I had to make a layout about it. I ADORE the cute Circle logo, don't you?? :)




If you are interested in joining the Cricut Circle you can join on the Cricut Website HERE.

Make sure to stop by Jana Eubank's and Cindy Royal's blogs today as well, they made lots of cute stuff with the new Circle cartridge too!

Ohh Goodness

I mentioned that I took Alex to his first dentist appointment a couple weeks ago but... I didn't want to admit just then that he has a bunch of cavities. I honestly had no idea, I thought his teeth were just fine. I've always taken fairly good care of his teeth. John and I skip brushing his teeth every now and then, usually just when we are both soo tired and we don't want to deal with his fits. Seriously, he has been getting his teeth brushed since before he was one when he first got his teeth but his still throws HUGE fits over it. I used to have to hold him down to brush his teeth most times up until last year but now I can usually get him to sit still- usually after lots of yelling and threatening. I definitely wasn't flossing his teeth like I should have but I thought since I was brushing his teeth 2 to 3 times a day most days it would be okay. Obviously not! My dentist says he probably has really sensitive teeth too. She lectured me for letting him drink too much juice AND for keeping him on the bottle too long when he was younger. Sighhh. I definitely don't have sensitive teeth. I take care of them but not the BEST care, I just brush twice a day and floss... SOMETIMES, lol. I still have never had a cavity in my life! I guess I just thought if I treated his teeth like I treated mine they would have been just fine.

Soo I've been feeling really guilty about Alex's teeth. I've gotten over it for the most part, I know that I made a mistake and it won't happen again. He's gotten REALLY sick of me being so strict about brushing and flossing his teeth a TON over these past couple of weeks but he's just going to have to deal, lol. We went to the dentist on Monday to get his first two cavities filled. I was SO nervous I could barely sleep the night before! He was JUST fine though, thank goodness. It only took about an hour, they didn't hurt him at all, he cooperated and didn't cry at all. Hooray! We're going back today, I'm hoping that every appointment will go as smoothly as the first.

Sorry to blab on and on about my son's teeth! :) On to the fun stuff...

Here is a layout that I created for Zva Creative this week. About how girly I am... hahaaa. I just needed an excuse to use these fabulous papers that Amber and My Minds Eye sent to me, I am in looove with them! :D



Zva Creative products Used: PE02CB148

Happy Belated Halloween!

Happy day after Halloween! :)

Alex's school Halloween party was on Friday, it was so cute. The kids had a Halloween parade and walked around the school to show off their costumes and then we put on a little party for them in their class room. They sang us some Halloween songs and then they sat down to eat the cookies that I made!


I tried. My cooking decorating skills aren't really up to par but they're better than nothing, right? :) Lots of parents brought in candy and little goodies for the kids as well and the other home room mom put together big goody bags for everyone!

Here are the photos that I got of Alex in his Lightning Mcqueen race car driver costume that morning (that he picked out himself!) My new camera is awful so most of the photos didn't come out, these are the few that turned out, boo. :( He was posing and laughing like crazy though, so cute!




After the party we headed off to Texas right away to see Jennifer. She had a Halloween party on Saturday and it was so much fun! :) Here we are in our costumes!





I was a flapper, Jennifer was a sexy sailor girl and Dakota was Ariel.

Can you tell what Jen's husband, Chris was?


Yeah, I couldn't tell right away either, but he's Zack Galafinakis from The Hangover! Best costume EVER! He carried "Carlos" the baby around for most of the night too, lol!

And this was too good not to share. This was my favorite snack display of the night!


Don't worry, we bought the toilet seat at Wal Mart the night before. It was kind of a joint idea of ours, lol! Soo gross and awesome! :)

Oh and can't forget my little devil dog Riley. He got to wear a costume too! I thought this one was pretty fitting for him.


Alex and I headed home early on Sunday afternoon. I was planning on taking him trick or treating yesterday night but found out that my town decided to change trick or treat night to Saturday instead of letting kids trick or treat on Halloween night! How messed up is that? I guess a lot of places are doing that now but I just don't think it's right. :( Alex totally missed out on trick or treating, boo. :( We stayed home last night watching halloween shows and eating the left over candy that I bought for our trick or treaters.

How was your Halloween?