A Walk Down Memory Lane

Sahlin Studio just released another Project Mouse collaboration, this one is called Paradise.

There are a lot of pineapples and palms trees in this collection, which leads you to believe you have to focus on capturing more  of a 'tropical' type of memory. 

But living somewhere that it rarely feels like the tropics, challenges me to use these products to suit my needs. 

Exactly what I did with the following layout. 

Back in October 2016, we made a quick trip out to the West Coast, [Vancouver Island]. You can click here and read the blog post I had done, shortly after returning home from our trip.

Back then, I had created a single page layout shortly after our trip, but never actually documented our little get away.

Until now...

To create these pages, I simply cut down the page protector. This will slide nicely into either my project life album for that year, or I'll put it in my 'scrapbook' album. 

Either way, it gives a little insight into our trip to the coast. 

When we picked up our rental car, at the airport, it was absolutely P O U R I N G. And when I say pouring, I mean the windshield wipes were on full speed, most of the time, pouring. We made the trip to where we were staying, probably about an hour ride from the airport. We checked into our hotel, while it was POURING... We went for lunch, and when we came out of the restaurant, it had stopped raining. And I'm not kidding, when I say, this was the only time during our stay, that it wasn't pouring. As in P O U R I N G...

So the photos where it's not raining, all happened within a few hours. And the rest of time it rained. 

We hit 3 beaches during our trip. Day 1, French Beach, where it stopped raining, and we could wander up and down the waters edge, searching for treasure. The sun actually came out that afternoon, giving the beach a misty look, that my heart so desires.

Day 2 we made our way up to Botanical Beach, in monsoon-type weather. Power had been knocked out to many of the places along the way, due to the storm. The island was preparing for an epic storm, the tail end of the Super Typhoon Songda. How lucky that we just happened to be there for it!

Our trip to Botanical beach, was CRAZY. Windshield wipers never stopped and were on high speed most of the drive. We learned quickly, that water resistant and water proof are vastly different.

Day 3 and 4, we hiked down to China Beach. In the past, it's been my favourite. But the tide was high, and it was stormy, so we really weren't able to get close to the waters edge.

The coast has our heart, for sure. And I'm glad I was able to use this product to capture these photos. Sometimes when you see paper, elements, paper etc, that scream tropical and it's hard to imagine using them anywhere else. I hope this shows how flexible you can be with different kits.

The following Sahlin Studio product was used:

PM Paradise - Journal Cards: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Paradise-Cards.html

PM Paradise - Paper: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Paradise-Papers.html

PM Paradise - Elements: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Paradise-Elements.html

PM Paradise -  Word Art http://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Paradise-Word-Art.html

PL2018 - Week 7

Oops! Forgot to hit publish on this one!

Here is week 7 of this years project life album. 

• 'Fancy-ing' up the table for Valentine's Day. 
• A visit to the pet store and Madelyn loving on every single creature in the place.                   This one happened to be a ferret. 
• Valentine's Day Minion treats for the kids. 
• Libby watches TV. Actually watches it. I loved that I caught a picture of her watching a miniature Schnauzer during the Westminster Dog show.
• I was a time keeper for one of Madelyn's play off games. Stressful...
• What this photo doesn't show, is all the strobe lights flashing, because the fire alarm got pulled. Sorry to have missed that, while the boys were at their hockey tourney [not].
• Miss Libby LOVES ice-cream... And gets a bit silly about it. She usually gets some, and that's why she's acting like that. Insisting she get some...

The following Sahlin Studio products were used: 

Documentary - Elements http://the-lilypad.com/store/documentary-elements.html

Calendar Card Stamps - http://the-lilypad.com/store/2018-Calendar-Cards-Stamps.html

March Layout Freebie

This template is available from Sahlin Studio. It's free through the month of March. To check it out, click here. 

I've kind of gotten away from creating 12x12 sized layouts. Simply put, they're too expensive for me to print. I haven't found anywhere that I think do such a great job, quality-wise, that I feel like it's worth the money. I typically create these layouts, in the 12x12 size, but when I go to print them, I shrink them down to 8x8 size. 

Mason had asked me to bring my good camera to the rink. He actually 'asked me' to take pictures of him playing hockey. On several different occasions, he asked 'You're planning on bringing your camera to the rink, right?". So of course I took my camera to the rink and stood in the corner, and took photos. It was my pleasure actually. And I have to say, I have missed my Nikon something fierce. 

I really haven't used it a lot in the past year or so, and I realized what I've been missing. Needless to say, it's been pulled out, charged up, and used on a more regular basis lately. 

Back to the hockey photos... Once he looked through them all, he was like... 'Yeah.... They're okay...". Turns out, he was looking for some pretty specific photos to be taken. I told him to send me a couple of screen shots of the photos he was looking for, and I'd do my best to 're-create' those types of photos. None of them were these photos however. I, on the other hand, thought they were pretty decent pictures, so I created this layout. 

It's a pretty photo heavy layout and I'm okay with it. Usually when I'm creating a page like this, I would add some patterned paper into the grid, to match colours and add a little bit of interest. But there were so many photos to choose from, that I just included them. 

In the little banner on the bottom right,  the heart was originally red, I colour matched it to the orange in the jersey, so it tied in. 

I know years down he road I'll be glad i have these photos to remind me of Mason's first year in Midget.  

The following Sahlin Studio products were used: 

Currently Photo Templates: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Currently-PhotoTemplates.html

Currently Flair pack: http://the-lilypad.com/store/-currently-flairs.html 

PM - Classic - Elements: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Classic-Elements.html

PM - Classic - Paper: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Classics-Papers.html

PL2018 - Weeks 5 & 6

These couple of weeks have of an usual amount of photos of Mason. 

He's 15. Enough said. He doesn't pose for the camera the way he used to. 

On a side note, last week I went through a some snippets of videos I had taken when the kids were much younger. I had my first digital camera, and there was functionality to actually take short videos. It's was so great to stumble across them. I'm thankful I have those little memories, and am attempting to learn iMovie, so I can hopefully do something with them. 

I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I love having all these documented photos and stories. LOVE IT. But when looking back at them, it's like you're life is just going by at super sonic speed...  

Here are a couple more weeks from my project life album. It's coming right along. 

Week 5:

• Miss Libby in one of her favourite 'see all' spots in the house. 
• Mason at hockey.
• A Tim Horton's donut date, he's off school between semesters, so he's been around the house more. 
• Home made donuts, that were pretty darn good. [Next I was told, should be chocolate]
• An outtake in the ringette dressing room. Barry forgot his stick at a practice, and came to the next practice to find it totally 'bedazzled' with hockey tape and all the girls signed the stick. 
• Reading and hot chocolate. She has a cup of hot chocolate every day after school.
• Watching the snow fall with Libby. 

Week 6:

• Mason has been practicing playing his guitar more lately.
• Hanging out and playing Minecraft, the bonus, Miss Libby snuggles. 
• Preparing for Valentine's Day, these peanut butter blossom cookies are awesome. 
• Mason's before and after... Braces are gone! So exciting!
• A car selfie with my boy. His first request once the braces came off, was for bubble gum. So we went and picked some out. [I think he chewed the whole pack that first afternoon]

The following Sahlin Studio product was used:

Week 5

Calendar Card Stamps = http://the-lilypad.com/store/2018-Calendar-Cards-Stamps.html

Beginnings Elements http://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Beginning-Elements.html

Beginnings - journal cards  http://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Beginning-Journal-Cards.html

Week 6  

For Real Elements - http://the-lilypad.com/store/For-Real-Elements.html

For Real Journal Cards - http://the-lilypad.com/store/For-Real-Journal-Cards.html

Calendar Card Stamps - http://the-lilypad.com/store/2018-Calendar-Cards-Stamps.html

PL2018 - Week 4

This weeks layout was super simple. I didn't embellish the photos very much. I simply added the day of the week circles onto the photos. I also added my journaling right onto the photos, in strips.  

Week 4: 

• This week there were lack of ice times, so the ringette girls met at a nearby outdoor rink for some practice. 
• Miss Libby and I, on our way to pick up Madelyn from the bus. 
• Mad was beyond thrilled to go to a Flames game with her Dad. The game was kind of a bore, Calgary played the Buffalo Sabres, and lost 2-1. So she didn't get to have the full electric experience that can happen at the Saddledome. 
• Love the snapchat filters. Trying on my angry eyes.
• Mad and Tess. Both play ringette/hockey, and they still hang out at the arenas while they're brothers play. 
• Exam week for Mason, his schedule is all over the place.

The following Sahlin Studio products were used: 

Calendar Card Stamps: http://the-lilypad.com/store/2018-Calendar-Cards-Stamps.html

Photo Rounds Days: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Photo-Rounds-Days.html