...CLEVER LITTLE SNAKE...

Ah, the wonderful world of all things Harry Potter. I remember my husband started reading the first book when our oldest was a little, tiny baby. And, at some point, I started reading it as well. We both enjoyed the stories and were excited about the movies, but that's about as far as our fandemonium went. I didn't imagine that almost 20 years later, it would still be a thing. 

But almost 20 years later, it was still a thing. And we now had at least three children on the Harry Potter fandom train. Our oldest is, by far, the biggest fan. Fandom for children numbers four and five is somewhere between their parents and big brother. 

Recently, ScrapChat Designs created a kit about this famous wizarding world, and though I had a few pictures I could've chosen to use with this kit, I decided to focus on the year child number four dressed up as a Slytherin for Halloween. I guess this kid had done the 'Which House Do You Belong To' test online and he ended up a Slytherin. It's something he's quite proud of. So yes, he couldn't dress up as a kid in any other house, except Slytherin. 

I'll be honest. This layout was a tricky one. I was excited about it and had a vision for it, but there were things I kept thinking were just lacking. This is one layout that took a bit longer than I generally take to create a layout. But, I'm fairly pleased with the overall result, even if I did have to stare at snake embellishments for longer than I liked. 

SUPPLY LIST 

TEMPLATE: Yer A Wizard by ScrapChat Designs 

KIT: Yer A Wizard by ScrapChat Designs 

BLACK STITCHES: Promise of Spring by Gingerbread Ladies 

WHITE STITCHES: Let's Stay Home by Connie Prince 

FONTS: Harry P (Title)
Wizardry Night (Subtitle and Date)

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...THANKFUL FOR YOU...

Ah, Thanksgiving. It truly is one of my favorite holidays. 

I was lucky enough to live a close distance from my mom's side of the family and my dad's, so we were able to spend every Thanksgiving with family and it was always a big to-do. We switched off which family we visited every year, but I always knew there'd be a big family get-together and I had cousins on each side that I was excited to see. 

As families got larger and individual families grew with marriages and babies, etc. the big family gatherings stopped happening and it was up to our moms to have the parties. Although truth be told, Eric's mom had been the one to have Thanksgiving at her home for years before I joined the family. 

I grew up in a large family so there's a good number of people when we all get together. Eric grew up in a small family one brother lives out of state and his other brother is a wild card. There's never a guarantee we'll see him. So the years when Eric's mom doesn't have her brothers and sisters' family to feed, it's just us. It makes for a small group, but sometimes, I enjoy the quiet and familiar. 

Thanksgiving 2021 was just one such year. At that time, I was determined to 'get in the picture', since I'm usually on the other side of the camera and don't necessarily love being in front of the camera. I tried my best to get selfies with each of my kids, and well, some kids just aren't as cooperative as others. 

SUPPLY LIST 

TEMPLATE: April 2021 by Connie Prince 

COLLECTION: Forever Thankful by Aimee Harrison 

FONTS: Thankful Sunday (Journaling) 

Quote (Quote)

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...CAAAARL!!!...

This layout really was so much fun to do. 

I saw that one of the Fresh Baked, new releases for today featured llamas and I knew exactly which direction to go with this layout. It took a bit of time to find a template I was happy with but when I found one, I was off. 

For Halloween 2020, two of my kids decided to dress up as the characters from the YouTube hit, Llamas with Hats. These two kids had fallen in love with the series, and they had decided who would be which llama and had gotten most of their costumes put together. 

But then my daughter was involved in her car accident and was in a coma during Halloween, so their Halloween costumes never happened and the party they had planned to have also didn't happen. 

However, a year later, after most wounds had been healed, these two decided that their Llamas with Hats costumes still needed to happen. So in 2021 they decked out in their llama costumes and had a fun party. I was so glad they still made this happen, even if it was a year later than originally planned. 

SUPPLY LIST 

TEMPLATE: Connected (Retired) by Connie Prince 

KIT: No Prob-llama (Unavailable) by Memory Mosaic 

FONT: Carl John

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...BREATHE...

I sometimes find it hard to express how I'm really feeling and I'm one of those people who hates crying in front of others. If you ask how I'm doing, I'll spout off something like "Good" even if my world seems to be falling apart. However, I do cry easily and I show my true emotions around those I feel safe doing it around. In a public setting...uh, no. 

So it's sometimes hard to scrap pages that force me to bear a part of my soul and even harder to share them with the public. But here's one of those rare times it's going to happen. 

Like most of the world, TikTok is something that I watch to pass the time. Even then, what I see comes through Instagram and not TikTok. One of the sounds that resonated with me that I kept hearing, over and over, was the one that ends with "...for the forest said nothing. It just let her breathe." 

The past few months have been emotionally taxing and just overly busy. I've never really felt quite this weighed down in my life. And how I long to just take a moment to myself to breathe. I recently discussed how much I love the outdoors, so the idea of just sitting and breathing in the quiet mountain air is quite enticing at this moment in time. 

I was originally stumped with an idea when I saw the Free with $20 Purchase Mega Collab the Gingerbread ladies were releasing for DSD this year. It's called Relax and Rejuvenate and I really struggled to come up with any sort of idea until I saw the Just Breathe wordbit then the wheels started turning and I came up with the following: 

SUPPLY LIST 

TEMPLATE: Relax and Rejuvenate by Gingerbread Ladies
KIT: Relax and Rejuvenate by Gingerbread Ladies
FONT: Breathe Easy

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...FIELDS OF GOLD...

If you know me, or you've been around long enough, you know that Fall is one of my favorite seasons, and for that reason, I'm also drawn to many Fall-themed kits, but I don't always have the 'right' pictures to use with them. It's a frustrating thing for me. 

Then comes along Gingerscraps October Buffet with its many Fall offerings, but I am cutting it super close to the deadline. I would have loved to have created more layouts, but I just didn't have the time. 

I decided to go with the kit I kept being drawn to: Corn Maze by Aimee Harrison. There were so many ways I could have scrapped a page with this collection, but the word art, Fields of Gold stood out to me. 

Maybe it's because I was a new teenager when Sting's Fields of Gold song was released, or maybe, it was because I didn't have to think of a title if I used the word art, or maybe it was because I love the imagery those few words create. It could be a combination of the three. 

As I mentioned, I was cutting things close to the deadline. And because I was also in the middle of a zillion other projects (like I like to do to myself),  I felt like my creativity wasn't quite as great as it could be. I guess the important thing is that I got the layout done and it's not awful. 

SUPPLY LIST 

TEMPLATE: Tattered Not Torn (Retired) by Connie Prince

KIT: Corn Maze by Aimee Harrison
FONT: Corn Kernels

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...srsly...

If you like challenges and enjoy being rewarded for competing in challenges, make sure you're doing the monthly challenges each month at Gingerscraps. If you complete 10 challenges each month, you can earn a free kit. And really, the challenges aren't that difficult and it helps you get layouts completed. The reward kit for October 2022 is called We Are Family and has a Fall-based color palette. 

I decided that, of course, I would do family pictures taken in the Fall. It seemed like a no-brainer. But instead of focusing on the serious side of life, I decided to go with the more light-hearted side. Most of the time we are joking, and laughing, and playing when we're together as a family. We're only serious when we need to be, so I'm glad the photographer had us do a couple of more relaxed and fun shots. 

There's a commercial for sort of drink out right now that features a lyric from Rabbit Hole by Qveen Herby and thanks to Hulu (or some other streaming service), they play the commercial over and over and so I've had the lyric: "...seriously, like have you seen my silhouette..." stuck in my head for a long time now and that's how the title for this layout came about.
 

SUPPLY LIST 

TEMPLATE: Fall Festival by Gingerbread Ladies 

KIT: We Are Family by Gingerbread Ladies 

FONT: Seriously

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...OUR FAMILY...

Though I was originally concerned about finding the time to complete even one offering for the October Buffet at Gingerscraps, somehow I found the time to create a second layout. Don't ask me how, or what household chores I may have skipped to do so. 

Something about this collection reminded me of family photos we had taken way back in 2004, which seems like a lifetime ago. So I had to find the photos I wanted to work with as it was a time before digital photos and I scanned them in. 

I'm glad the photos I chose worked okay with the whole of the layout. I wasn't very educated way back when, and I chose as many different backgrounds as I could instead of opting for some sort of uniformity. Time teaches lessons well... 

It really is strange to look at these photos and realize this was our life. And, at that time, I kind of thought we'd be done having kids. I'm glad we didn't. But, it is kind of interesting to think about how life would be had we only had these three kiddos (who are all now young adults). 

SUPPLY LIST 

TEMPLATE: Home (Picture Perfect 256) by Aprilisa Designs 

KIT: Home by Aprilisa Designs

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