No one can ever say Christina is a wimp

Author: MiniBullyMom aka Laura B. // Category: ,
We have done some crazy things while camping but this one probably is up there with some of the craziest things we've done when bored. Christina obviously has immense trust in her boyfriend.

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It's hard to believe that fall is almost here!

Author: MiniBullyMom aka Laura B. // Category: , , ,
It's sneaking up quickly and I just realized that the kids start school in about three weeks! Everyone is wanting to enjoy these final days of summer. Here in the Pacific Northwest we've had a pretty hot, dry summer this year. I joke with family members who live in the Midwest and East Coast that we've swapped weather. They are having a milder summer with temperatures in the 80's instead of the 90's. After a couple of days of mid to high 60's weather we are supposed to hit the mid 80's this coming week. But since its Washington and Labor Day weekend is quickly approaching it means that summer will be coming to an end and we will go back to being the happy, blue-tarp, campers you see on the PEMCO commercials.

I have had a fun week playing with Kim's Punkin Patch kit and I am excited to say that she gave me permission to create a quickpage and share it with everyone. Please take a moment to visit her blog and check out her other designs and you can even download a freebie or two there!!


Click HERE TO DOWNLOAD the quickpage!
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It's raining and I have a fall freebie!!

Author: MiniBullyMom aka Laura B. // Category: ,
....it's pouring and the thunder was a rollin'. Yup we got a bit of "Midwestern style" thunder today here in Washington State. Unfortunately I missed it all because I was up in our front office area at work and there are no windows in that section of the office. But from what I hear it was a pretty rollicking storm....Mike was in seventh heaven and said it felt like the storms in Indiana.
I did a couple of layouts this week that used what I call "folksy/country" looking elements. Normally I don't like this particular style but the preview I saw of it just caught my eye and I immediately knew that I had to have it and that I would use it to do a layout about one of our trips to the Pumpkin Farm/Corn Maze a couple years ago. The kit is called Punkin Patch and was designed by Kimeric Kreations.

I saw that there was a free add-on for the kit which included a cute "grapevine" style wreath at Kim's blog so I snagged it and created this layout which features a photo of my baby brother (yes he is sticking his tongue out in the photo)...I'm still playing around with the layout itself since it's "not quite right to me" but everyone else seems to think it's perfect just like it is.
The kit is available at
DigiTop3
ScrapItSassy
Bouqet of Pixels

When I ordered the kit I didn't realize that the chicken wire was part of the preview packaging. So I emailed her and asked if she would consider including the wire or create an add-on. Turns out that she thought that was a great idea so she has a cute FREE ADD-ON you can pick up by zipping over to her blog.
The link for the freebie is HERE




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All Stitched Up!!!

Author: MiniBullyMom aka Laura B. // Category: ,
Alpha, Background Paper and Elements designed by Royanna Fritschmann
Border from Vivaldi Seasons by CanDesigns

Saturday evening proved to be rather interesting as you can see from the photo. Miss Camryn has no fear and thinks that anything her brothers can do she can do. The difference is that they are about 5 and 6 years older than she is. Well somehow she fell off the skateboard tabletop and landed right on her chin. Thank goodness for bike helmets or she probably would have landed right on her nose or forehead.
I decided that because Camryn is such a tomboy that I would use papers/elements that one would normally use for a boy's layout. But since I could not find one kit that had everything in it I ended up using about four different kits that were all designed by Royanna Fritschmann. The border cluster I picked up a couple years ago from a Designer Challenge and I have been unable to find it again.


I was poking around Hummiesworld earlier this evening and noticed that Binty had posted a free template. So I went and checked it out and was totally amazed at it's versatility and the fact that she does it in three different sizes - The 5x7 size is perfect for brag books and you can get the template HERE!!!
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New look to my blog and a link to a freebie!!

Author: MiniBullyMom aka Laura B. // Category:
I decided that the "stock" Blogger template was boring earlier today. But I knew that I wasn't tech saavy enough to customize it myself. So I got to poking around the internet and found out that I could change it using a template not supplied by Blogger. I did a Google search and found Amanda, a blogger who designs templates and provides instructions on how to install, use and customize them further. So I downloaded her "Gourmet Menu" from the "Blogger Buster". She has links to great templates and provides simple instructions which make it easy to upgrade and customize your blogs! Now I think I'm going to go see if I can find one for the Smith Family Blog I'm considering starting.


I ran across the most awesome freebie tonight from GallimaufryUK.
She has designed the most awesome coastal series of kits.
We go camping at the ocean a couple of times a year so it's perfect for some of my photos.
Get the details on the freebie HERE!!
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The lazy days of summer...

Author: MiniBullyMom aka Laura B. // Category: ,
...are in full swing everywhere else but here. Every year I tell myself that life will slow down when hockey season winds down but it never seems to do that. I think it's because we put off doing a bunch of stuff until the "off-season". Toss in a family reunion, garage roofing, upgrading some wiring, reseed or rebark half the lawn on top of all the normal stuff we do during the summertime. It just gets overwhelming and then we do a bit of this and a bit of that. The scary part is that none of it gets totally done. But I can say that about 10 other "little projects" that aren't part of the big projects do end up getting done.
One of the major "little projects" I recently completed was unzipping, organizing 7 gigs of digital scrapbooking stuff. I still have 3 gigs left, although I did clean out over 15 gigs of freebies that I never bothered to unzip/use in anyway. I've about decided that I'm only going to download what I'll use and that I can't download something else until I use what I downloaded last. Not sure how long I'll last with that mindset but I fully admit that digiscrapping is an addiction. I knew that I was taking a chance five years ago when I started paper scrapping and now I'm three years into digiscrapping. But I have well over 200 pages completed (although I've only printed about 50) and have started a Family Scrapbook for one branch of my family.
Now hockey season is starting up and I've decided that the constant "scheduling" we do during those 8 months help me stay on task and as a result I get more done. Go figure I guess I need the structure not free time.
Although I do admit that I get more scrapping done when we go camping during the wintertime. I think it's because generally it's just my husband and I camping without anyone else and we just relax and don't have the internet to distract us.
Now about those big projects....I think I need to make sure we complete at least one of them before the end of the year. I need to make a New Years Resolution in the middle of August to complete the garage roof this year - since we've talked about getting it done for the past two years - and now that I've made a resolution I need to get to work on it.....well after I finish organizing/tagging two more digital kits and worked on the mental planning on the next layout I'm going to complete using some photos we took at the Corn Maze about 5 years ago.
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