{grow with love: kids} day nine

Happy New Week!  And seriously I’m in bafflement (is that a word? no?) that we are already one week in to December.  This month seems to fly faster than any other and I know it has a lot ot do with the fact that there is so much to be treasured and so much to be done that we wish everything would just slowww a little.  Which is partly one of our goals of Grow With Love: Holiday if you’re following along with that.

ANYway..I’m digressing already.  Today I’m happy to bring us in to week five and Day 9 of our Grow With Love: Kids project.  We are keeping up with the prompts as scheduled, though as always you can follow along or join in at ANY time.  Crystal and I contemplated putting these on hold until after the holidays, but we really wanted to keep inspiring you with the everyday things and your kids amidst the holiday hub-bub.  This project will take us in to January and will remain available indefinitely so there will be plenty of time to hop in and get inspired.  You can click on the “storytelling” tab to catch up or look over any Grow With Love posts (from any edition) {HERE}.

So let’s take a look at today’s prompt:


This has room for A LOT of possibility.  And a lot of fun!  You can really go in any direction with this one as you capture what your child(ren) think right now, at this moment.  I am actually thinking of revisiting this prompt every year and creating an album (or including the pages in an album) for these interviews.  I had a lot of fun playing “reporter” with Bugga today and asking her some fun questions.  She really had a great time playing along too!

Here’s Crystal’s page with her eldest…it’s so fun to see his responses.  This is the kind of page that would be fun to revisit over time I think.

We can’t wait to see yours too too!

{grow with love: holiday} day two

So remember when, at the close of yesterday’s Grow With Love: Holiday post, I told you to hop over to Crystal’s blog today for Day Two?  Yeah well, the Technology Gremlins had other plans and our sweet Crystal’s internet has been very uncooperative today, to say the least.  So I’m here to happily share {Day Two} of the Holiday Edition with you!

Now that we’ve set the foundation for our attitudes and our perspective in our scrapping for the rest of the project, let’s let ourselves do a little dreaming with the prompt for today:

I have to confess the song that kept floating into my head when conceiving of this prompt was this one by Amy Grant, wherein she sings about her hopes, her BIG hopes her IDEAL hopes for Christmastime.  (incidentally, there have been other versions of this song, including a most fabulous one by Michael Buble but this is the one that I remember from my childhood and so its nostalgia really brought on the extra holiday-y inspiration for me).

Cheesy? Perhaps Completely.  But also warm and fuzzy and full of heart and hope, in an earnest kind of way.  Which is just the recipe for a touching and amazing scrapbook page.  So let your “heart dream” and scrap your Grown Up Christmas List.  It could be on a personal scale..the kind of rarely spoken whispers of your heart: wishes for you and your loved ones.  It could be about your hopes for the world in which we live.  It is where-ever your own heart leads you.  And I have a feeling, in the spirit of this beautiful season, it will lead you somewhere really special, really meaningful.

Here is where it lead Crystal’s:

We hope you feel inspired to share your heartfelt lists…can’t wait to see your beautiful pages!

And with that I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!  Don’t forget to swing by again on Monday for the next Grow With Love: Kids prompt…♥

 

{grow with love: holiday} day one

Happy Friday!  And welcome to the first post of our Grow With Love: Holiday Edition. Crystal and I are really happy to be walking along side you in storytelling as we navigate this very special time of year!  We hope that you are enjoying the moments of anticipation and preparation and advent and all things holiday-y so far and that you’re not feeling as though the month is getting away from you yet.  I always end up feeling that way at some point during this season (usually when I’m contemplating my to-do lists).  It is my hope that this project will help me to slow a bit, to pause a bit, to go with the flow a bit more, to smile a bit more and to just soak everything up.

We’ve mapped out the schedule for our blogging {here}…and let’s not get caught up in the word “schedule” or the whole idea of it really.  This project doesn’t need to be another item on your to-do list..in fact we hope, rather, that it will be something you can unwind with as you reflect and as you walk through these holly jolly days.  Remember, this is (as are all the Grow With Love projects) a self-paced workshop.  We will blog (and hopefully inspire) and you check in when at your own pace.  The prompts can be your jumping off point for documenting your holiday in and of itself or in conjunction with any other holiday project.  We can’t wait to see your pages and process as we go along!  So..let’s get started!

Here’s our prompt for {Day One}:

This is a lay-the-groundwork kind of prompt.  It may, at first glance, seem an almost obvious or “easy” something to scrap about…like “well of course THIS is why the holiday is important to me” because the meaning we each find in the holidays is something that is so within us and so a part of our history that we don’t often give it second thoughts.  It’s just a given.

But we really want you to give this a good think.  We really want to get you thinking about what you love about the holidays.  And more importantly, why.  Because it will be the why that will help you stay focused on what you love most and really enjoy everything all the more.  This kind of foundation building can really be a game-changer.  It can turn something “unpleasant” into something appreciated for its blessing.  It can change the way you consider others’ actions and intentions.  It can change the way you consider your own.  It can help give you a fresh perspective on the “old”. It can help you re-focus throughout the busy.  It can really transform and enrich your holidays.

So..whatever it is that you think of, whatever it is that you feel when you consider the holidays, scrap about it.  Get to the meat of it.  For a lot of us, it could be our faith that guides our attitudes and actions and traditions and everything about this time of year.  For others it could be family.  It could be a whole mosaic of things that really give the holidays meaning for you.  Whatever it is, map that out.

Here’s where this prompt lead me:

And Crystal:

We hope that you let yourself get a little lost in the reflecting and have fun scrapping your own “why” and then let it guide you through the holidays..and the next prompts.  The very next of which will be coming tomorrow.  Can’t wait to see your pages!

Hope you have a beautiful weekend!  Happy Scrapping!

 

{fresh seeds} Paper Garden {volume two} and Cranberry

Happy Friday!! I hope that everyone has had a beautiful week!

December is, quite literally, THE busiest month for us in our house and family.  Apart from all the holiday-y fabulousness (which you already know makes my heart so happy), there are no fewer than 9 birthdays to be celebrated this month.  And not even like John Doe the random neighbor down the street birthdays.  I’m talking family and such-close-friends-they-should-be-family kinds of birthdays.  Today was my dear husband’s birthday.  He’s one of the reasons I love scrapping so much.  He makes me laugh every.single.day.  He makes life beautiful.  You have a person in your life like that?  I hope so.

All this to say…it only seemed fitting to smooosh lots of news into one post, since December is all about smooshing as many celebrations and as much love and happy into each day as is humanely possible.  And so today I’m happy to share two {fresh seeds} arriving in two different places.  That’s right…I say two, because I’m so very happy to be guesting at Scrap Orchard for the month of December!!  I am so lucky to be among such wonderful company there and all the fun happening this month with their wonderful Advent Calendar event.

And today I’ve released Paper Garden {volume two} there.  I am a paper lover.  I love pretty paper.  I love paper play and fun with shapes and all things paper-y and layer-y.  Paper Garden is inspired by all of that.  And this is the latest.

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You can snag Paper Garden {volume two} at Scrap Orchard for 20% off through the weekend. Woot!

Next, it’s BYOC time at The Pad!!  I have always loved the amazing and unique products the girls release at the start of the month, and this month’s BYOC is no exception.  I am in love.  And, as ever, so grateful to be a part of this amazing team of designers.

Meet my offering for the December BYOC: Cranberry

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I so hope you like it!  And as always you can grab Cranberry for 20% off through the weekend.  Double woot!

If you are a newsletter subscriber, you will have received special coupon for a bit of extra exclusive subscriber savings.  If you aren’t, feel free to sign up so you can get extra little gifties too in the future. ♥

And I will leave you this evening with a smattering of amazing inspiration from the girls and Pollys.  Wow!

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Inspirationcranberry

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I hope you all enjoy your Friday!  I am unplugging a bit to say “yes” to my Bugga as part of the latest Grow With Love:Kids prompt and challenge, but I’ll be back later with our first Grow With Love: Holiday post and some encouragement for the busy weekend.

Happy Scrapping!

{grow with love: holiday} details and a {freebie}

So it’s officially that time of year.  That beautiful time of year.  And we are about to embark upon Grow With Love: Holiday.  As per usual, Crystal and I will alternate blog postings, wherein we share the prompts, a smattering of inspiration and some insight and encouragement along the way.  All the while we *will* be continuing with GWL: Kids posts on Mondays (here) and Thursdays (at Crystal’s blog)…yes, we may very well be totally cuckoo.  BUT, as always all the Grow With Love posts and projects will remain on our blogs indefinitely so anyone can dive in anytime or come back when the time suits them best.  We know it’s quite a lot to be getting on with, but we wanted to get these holiday posts up during the holidays and hope they will enrich and encourage you in your storytelling and in your living this season.  And so without further ado the holiday blog schedule will look like this:

Day One: Friday 3 December at Sara’s blog (plantyourstory.com/blog)

Day Two: Saturday 4 December at Crystal’s blog (liveyourstories.com)

Day Three: Tuesday 7 December at Sara’s

Day Four: Wednesday 8 December at Crystal’s

Day Five: Friday 10 December at Sara’s

Day Six: Saturday 11 December at Crystal’s

Day Seven: Tuesday 14 December at Sara’s

Day Eight: Wednesday 15 December at Crystal’s

Day Nine: Friday 17 December at Sara’s

Day Ten: Saturday 18 December at Crystal’s

Day Eleven: Tuesday 21 December at Sara’s

Day Twelve: Wednesday 22 December at Crystal’s

Whew!  Wish us luck!  Hope to see you along the way!

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if you are coming to this post anytime after the end of year 2011, you can now find all the posts in one happy, coordinated place in the Grow With Love: Archive {HERE}

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Also wanted to point you in the direction of a fabulous post from Crystal over at Vanillabees.  She created a compilation of her favorite picks for all the latest and greatest holiday kits..which will be a great resource for picking kits for this or any other holiday project.  Woot!

Now for another little something fun…I created these layered tag templates that can be used for this or any holiday project and pages.  They are completely customizable (and completely free!) and each tag includes many options for building your own tag.  You can create tags with scalloped edges, with punched edges, with alphas, with cut-out numbers and combinations of each.  Lots of possibilities to create tags that really fit your page design.

You can snag them by clicking the image below or by clicking {HERE}

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So hope you like them and have fun with them!  Happy Scrapping!

Ooh and stay tuned because I have two fabulous {fresh seeds} coming Friday. Can’t wait to show you!

 

{anticipation} elf magic edition

So I know I’ve mentioned once or twice 191 times how much I love this time of year and everything advent-y and holiday-y: all the anticipation and fun and family and tradition infused into every day of the season.  One of our (very) new favorite holiday experiences is Elf Magic.

Last year we decided to add this extra element of fun into our December.  Elf Magic, for those who aren’t familiar, is quite a lot like the Elf on a Shelf only maybe a little more “cutesy” in appearance and a little less focused on the “I’m-watching-you-and-reporting-back-to-Santa”.  It’s a little more on “let’s-make-holiday-memories-and-have-mischief-and-fun” and said fun can really be tailored to underscore what is most important to you and your family during this season.

So, last year, shortly before Thanksgiving, we wrote a letter to Santa asking if one of his elves could stay with us during December in the time leading up to Christmas.  We had heard that some elves do just that and they always have tons of fun.  So we wrote and we left out some ice water and crackers (which apparently are the favorite eats of elves) and then we waited patiently to see if the elf would arrive.  And sure enough, our elf arrived at the start of December!!  Her name is “Rachel”, which we thought was pretty special because Rachael was my grandmother’s name.

ANYway…so throughout the month we would wake each morning to see what fun and adventures Rachel (isn’t she cute?!) had been having.  One morning we woke to see she had set up our nativity sets, another we saw that she spent the evening watching A Charlie Brown Christmas while eating popcorn (both of which she brought for us from the North Pole).  Yet another, she had built a huge tower out of Bugga’s blocks and “repelled” from the ceiling fan.  Some of our favorite elf adventures were when she: took a bath in a sink full of marshmallows, went for a joyride on Bugga’s tricycle, went “fishing” for Goldfish crackers, wrapped presents, made a candy cane reindeer and left instructions for us to make some too, read the Christmas story in the Bible, and made a candy train and set up a cottonball winter wonderland.  Well, as you can tell, she really had loads of fun.  And so did Bugga.  And so did we.  It was a fun way to create fun with David and for us to really enrich our holidaytime with Bugga.

Let me tell you, Bugga’s face and anticipation each morning was a treasure.  She LOVED this experience.  And so we were excited to write Santa again last week to see if Rachel could spend time with us again this year.  I made a fun little template for us to write and then Bugga signed it and we gave it to Daddy to mail to the North Pole.

Tonight we put out the ice water and crackers.  Here’s hoping Rachel arrives tonight.  I have a good feeling she will.  🙂

Let the magic begin!

Since I created it for us and for fun anyway, I thought I’d share our “Dear Santa” template with you.  It’s just a simple little something you can customize for your own Elf experience or just for writing Santa in general.

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Anyone who wants to can snag it by clicking the image above or by clicking {here}.

Hope you have a fabulous and fun first day of December!

 

Sig

 

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