Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt, Continued...

I took lots more photos on our trip, keeping the prompts from http://gallorganico.blogspot.com/2013/05/2013-summertime-photography-scavenger.html in mind, so I am back to share my take on a few more of the prompts:
7. A sign that is unintentionally or intentionally funny:

 

8. A Tower:

Saw this in downtown, Atlanta, and just thought it looked so cool with the light reflecting on it!

10. A Bench that is outside:

 

One of my little girls (Cecilia) taking a break in the Centennial Olympic Park.

 

11. An animal in a zoo, aquarium, nature preserve, etc:

I thought it was very interesting that the turtle could climb on the alligator's back without being "dinner"!

 

13. A Fence: (I have a couple for this one)

 This was taken on a Father's Day trip to the mountains:

And this one was taken at Dauset Trails, near Indian Creek, GA:

 

14.A Stained Glass object or a mosaic  (I have a couple for this prompt as well!):

This one isn't "real" stained glass, but, rather, a stained glass sticker, and I thought it was pretty how the light was reflecting through it:

 And then I went to the Olympic Park, and I saw a beautiful sort of "mosaic" (I know this is a different interpretation of it, but I love when I can put a creative twist on a photography challenge!). This sculpture is called the "Quilt Of Nations", and those little rectangles are the flags of the participating countries:

 

16. A Windmill:

 



Seen at Dauset Trails.

That's it for now-I have until September to try and find the rest of the prompts!

Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt

I have seen this list floating around blog land, and had to go check it out at http://gallorganico.blogspot.com/2013/05/2013-summertime-photography-scavenger.html . I love the idea of looking for those shots that you might not normally take! We just got back from a end of summer trip to Atlanta, GA, so I kept my eyes open, and found some of the shots:
#2. Theater for performing arts (not a movie theater):

This photo was taken in Newnan GA, with my hubby's iPhone. (Do you believe I took the battery out of my camera to charge it and forgot to put it back in?) Oh well, the best camera there is is the one that you have with you!

3. City Hall, Capitol, or other similar Civic building:

 Covington, GA City Courthouse

Newnan, GA City Courthouse (another one taken with the hubs' iPhone).

I love the beautiful, ornate, and historical buildings, and it is so interesting to me to read the plaques and feel the history, knowing that some of these old buildings were used as hospitals during the Civil War-it truly brings history to life for me!

5. A Sunset- I have 2 different takes on this one!
The first is a group of flowers that reminded me of a sunset:

 

The second is of an actual sunset, taken this past Saturday at Stone Mountain:

And #6. Someone or something taking a nap (or faking a nap, as the case may be!)

 

I have more to share- but since my eyes will barely stay open, and the kids start school tomorrow, I had better call it a night for now!

CHA's Hottest Trend?

I think it will be Chalkboard style prints and embellishments. Here is what I am seeing around the web:
From My Mind's Eye and Rhonna Farrer, Chalk Studio:

LOVE the chalk washi:

Cosmo Cricket has a fun new Christmas collection called Chalkboard Cheer:

 We R Memory Keepers has a Chalkboard collection:

 

 And Teresa Collins' new Memorabilia line is Chalkboard themed, as well:

 

And Tim Holtz's Laboratorie Paper Stash has a very "Chalkboard" Style finish to me:

Studio Calico's new Christmas line, Magical, has chalk elements and prints mixed in:

As does Little Yellow Bicycle's Making Merry collection:

What trends are you seeing? Do you like the Chalkboard trend?

The beginning of my CHA Favorites shares... (Glitz Designs)

One company that has been impressing the heck out of me lately is Glitz Designs! Their prints and papers have been the perfect mix of trendy and beautiful to me, and I love some of their embellishments so much...Giant Rhinestones are such a glamorous, glitzy touch to a page, and Bits and Pieces are perfect for tucking and layering on a page. Here is a peek at their new collections:

Wild and Free (my favorite of their new releases, I want some of this collection, ASAP!) The bright watercolors and fun prints seem so summery and girly to me, and I love it:

My favorite papers in the collection:

I love the watercolor side!

I love both sides of this one...who wouldn't? Girly Rainbow chevron, sunny yellow watercolor...

I love, love, love the dream catcher,  and what a unique and pretty twist on ombre! Need 2 pieces of this for sure!

 

And tiny heart washi tape? Swoon!

 

Another new line from Glitz that I love (and it rather surprises me that I love it so much, it is kind of different from the soft, girly collections that I am normally drawn to)- Dapper Dan:

 

I love the beautiful blues and emerald green-and I think that the gorgeous colors are the reason I am so drawn to it. And those woodgrains are yummy!

 

My favorite paper from this collection:

And this roller stamp of bow ties is just about the cutest thing ever:

 

 

There is another new collection that reminds me of summer from Glitz, Finley:

Love the bright colors and geometrics!

And, the gorgeous Giant Rhinestones:

 

 

And last, but not least, they have some fantastic new holiday collections coming out, that I will definitely need bits of!

For Halloween, they are releasing Raven:

 

Love these papers especially:

 

 

And these fantastic vintage-y whatnots:

 

And I definitely need some of this beautiful Christmas collection, Hello December:

The hard part will be cherry picking this line, as I love it all!

Yummy papers:

 

Beautiful Giant Rhinestones and What Nots:

 

So there, have I started your wish list off with a bang? What are you coveting from this season's CHA?
And...feel free to follow my CHA Summer 2013 board to see what I am loving!

It's Time for CHA again! And, a sort of challenge to myself...

Well, this is something that I look forward to almost as much as holidays each summer and winter. It makes my pretty-paper-loving heart go pitter-patter. With the winter CHA, I was fortunate enough to win and be able to buy at least bits and pieces of most of the things I fell in love with. However, with the home renovations and impending move, my beloved scrapbook supplies have been sorely neglected. Now that things have calmed down around our household (more on that story in a minute), I feel like I have to use some of my purchases before I can buy any more... so I am challenging my self: "No scrappy purchases until I make 50 pages/projects". Yikes! With the exception of adhesive, of course... I will post them to my blog to hold myself accountable. Luckily I have lots of kits made up, so I can get crackin'!

Now, about the move...
We were planning to move from our little town in West TN, to Atlanta for my husband's job. He has spent some time there and after a lot of thought and contemplation, we have decided that he will help them out for a short time, but we are quite happy with our life in our small town, so we will stay here for now.  Our house is already on the market, so we may still sell it and move somewhere close by, but if it doesn't sell before the listing is up, we will probably stay in it and continue to work on it. Here is a look at our listing:

http://idx.hickmanrealty.com/idx/10757/photoGallery.php?idxID=318&listingID=157236

I'll be back soon with some of my favorite sneak peeks for CHA new collections!

The carpets went in today...

And the twins were bored, so I gave them each a paint brush, an old, "throw away" piece of furniture, and some leftover paint, and set them up in the back yard-they were occupied for hours, and they had some good old fashioned messy fun!

I've been a bad blogger...

But I have been so busy! My husband was offered a huge promotion in mid-April, which means a move for our family. And with a family of six, that is no easy task! And the other catch-we were right in the middle of remodeling our house! We basically had no kitchen in the house at the time...which of course would make our house almost impossible to sell. So, the last two months have been a mad flurry of hanging cabinets, getting appliances in, installing sink, faucet, and counters, backsplash, and lights. This is what it looks like now:

It makes me really proud to say we did it ourselves! We have also had multiple other projects in the works: painting the ceiling and posts of our back and front porches, installing a new front door and front and back storm doors, painting the front and back doors inside and out, having the bedrooms and trim in the whole house painted, and new carpet is being installed in the bedrooms today. It seems like the list is never ending! I can't wait to get it on the market and relax (well, as much as a mom of 4 kids can...).

Well, I didn't drop off the face of the Earth, but...

I haven't had the internet for most of the month... Dratted storms!! I will be back tomorrow to share a little bit of what I have been up to with no internet. Lots of news and fun stuff for my family!

Happy NSD 2013!

I am excited to share a fun project with you that I worked on this week!I am up with a layout created for National Scrapbook Day 2013, and a scrappy challenge over at Shimelle/AKA Glitter Girl's blog! Hint: it's all about using a mood board!

Head over there to see more!