Life's Trivialities

9 / The Project Bin

This girl and her horses... I think when Michael first signed her up for lessons that he was hoping it was a passing fancy. Given our second trip to Dover Saddlery and that she is registered for her second shoe, I'm thinking not so much. I have weekly pictures still of her at the barn. She works hard in that short half hour lesson and she always walks away with a giant smile stretching from ear to ear.

The Cowgirl Up! stamp set from The Project Bin inspired this layout. I love that I have a whole set of stamps that are just perfect for the now hundreds of pictures of this young lady and her time at the barn. As far as I'm concerned, Mia is a legend. Having been reared from a horse after being kicked by another, after the number of times she has stayed on a spooked or fussy horse, she is pretty darn brave and a legend in her own right. At age 9.

I had toyed with the idea of going a bit more grunge with this piece and crinkling the paper then rubbing some Distress Ink on the creases. I decided against it as I really liked it just the way it was. It really didn't need more "roughin up".

Both chipboard pieces were naked and they did need some dressing - a nice embossed layer of Distressed embossing powder! Made for the perfect lucky horse shoe, don't you think? There are lots of random bits and pieces on this layout; October Afternoon, Studio Calico, Bella Blvd, Basic Grey... I just pulled things that were in the color hues I wanted to work with for that rustic, country cowgirl effect.

Thanks for stopping in today!

Good Times / October Afternoon

Good times indeed! For the past couple of years, we have spent our Spring Break down in or around Clearwater, Florida thanks to a swim meet. This year was no different. And every year we take a family selfie (or groupie?) on the beach. Without much further ado, here's this year's picture.

Treasure Map from October Afternoon is the perfect collection for our beach pictures! I just LOVE that whole. And he looks so happy popped up on foam dots swimming along in the waves, don't you think?

I love selfies converted to black and white, especially when the four of us are wearing competing colors. The picture becomes less visually distracting and more of a uniform focal point.

That little strip of zig zag brown down the edge between the map and the anchors really just pops that seam. It makes the anchors more visible and distinct. Love the stripes too!

Not quite where we were but still a very cool nautical map that supports our nautical'ish theme! Those blue stars from Bella Blvd are the shining light, punctuating the way as a darker element to compliment the black and white picture.

Thanks for sharing our "good times" with us today! Hope you are having some good times too!
 

Under The Sea / October Afternoon

The other day I mentioned a stash of (thousands) of pictures that I had edited and printed awaiting THAT collection or inspiration to be scrapped. You will be inundated with them this week!

Treasure Map from October Afternoon sure is a treasure trove in my stash lately! This is my second, possibly third layout and I see many more coming your way!

I fussy cut the "scallop" pattern in the top part and what remainder I had, I used below. The letter stickers that came with the set didn't really stand out so I used a navy blue penned and outlined the outer edge for a tad more visibility.

With my swimmers and the amount of time we spend beside, on top of bodies of water, I had to the coordinating washi tape! The bright red contrasts so sharply with the yellow and blue.

The circles remind me of air bubbles underwater and they worked perfectly with the theme and background paper.

A little history on the photo; every year in June, on the last weekend of school, there is an away travel swim meet. This meet has a theme and the kids are invited to dress up and there is a parade. This particular year, the theme was "under the sea". I spent HOURS on departure date putting this costume together; a jellyfish made from a clear umbrella, colored shower curtain, bath puff and hot glue. For the 10 minutes that it was utilized... My token picture thanks to Michael who was chaperoning!