i am alive!

Yup it has been forever since I have managed to get to my blog and try to catch up with things. After the Disney trip it was a very quick paced end of the school year crunch time. Last minute field trips and parties and just plain fun enjoying the spring sun (in between all the rain clouds). The end of school was bittersweet for Alex as he was totally smitten with Mrs. Butler this year. But he is very excited to be entering second grade!! We are hoping that seventh grade is much better than sixth grade for Kira. We have started prepping already and have all our supplies and managed to pick up some new clothes as well for her.

Summer vacation is slipping by so quickly. The first three weeks were nice for the kids as they got to spend their time hanging with my parents. Always a great time for them. And for hubby and me. We ate out A LOT! Went shopping at IKEA, slept in and totally enjoyed ourselves. Then the work began. You know you have to put that furniture together from IKEA??! It was lots of fun and I am very pleased with how the playroom now looks with the furniture we picked up last year. I need to snap some pictures and share. We also picked up a new desk for Alex as his was becoming the catch all of his room as well as it was a tad too tiny for him. He loves his new desk. Happy mommy.

I also spent time cleaning my office. Oh man the amount of papers that were in here that did not need to be here and other miscellaneous items. Glad they are gone. I also moved my printer/ scanner so that perhaps I can do a better job with the scanning of school work this year. I was so proud of myself for being all caught up a couple years back. Well, not so much anymore. It is a huge pile which I did manage to organize by year and child. I need a few alone minutes to start the scanning/ sorting/ tossing process. It will happen as I really want that file case off of my floor. I have run into it with my little piggie a few too many times already. :(

Now I am trying to go through all my pictures to figure out what I need to print for my Project Life album. I am ashamed to admit I have not had one single picture printed for 2013! I have taken a ton of pictures, just nothing printed. I haven't even set up the album! Hoping to correct that this week. Cross your fingers!!

Off to work on dinner for the family. They somehow always need to be fed. Not sure what is up with that.

project life 2012

I have finally motivated myself into posting all the pictures for 2012 on my Project Life blog. Since I didn't want to overwhelm anyone interested in looking, I will be posting a weeks worth of photos once a day until February 5th.

From now until then, I will also be posting the completed weekly layouts as I get them photographed. Lots on my to do list. 

T H E N... I will start posting our pictures from 2013. This year due to the different elements in the kits, I will be putting the dates on the pictures when I edit them for size. That should help me so much when I get them back from the photo lab.

Thought I would share. Off to get my hind end in gear to work on some of that to do list. It seems to keep getting longer even though I keep crossing things off of it. Does anyone else have this problem?? 

finding my groove again

I have been having some issues with being motivated lately. Not feeling the mojo of creating. Chores are done but only when absolutely necessary. My blog... so far behind. And I won't mention my Project Life blog that is crying out to be updated. 

I am thinking it is the winter time draining me. Short daylight hours and long nights. WHEN the sun shines it is not nearly as bright as I would like so I feel disappointed.

Then this happens.....

This amazing sunrise. Happened to capture it this morning. I LOVE the pink in the blue sky. I love the snow clinging to the branches and blanketing everything. So fresh. So full of possibilities. 

This will help and it is now my wallpaper so I can look at it when things don't look so bright.

Find  your inspiration and grab it firmly with both hands. We can survive winter.

birthday week at beckyhiggins.com

And it's time to share the love!! I totally am in love with Project Life. Capturing the everyday and having fun doing it. I mean seriously it doesn't feel like work at all! Just fun captured. 

Love that!!

Join the celebration on Becky's blog for this week. Click HERE for Monday's blog.

disney 2008 continues

oh heck... who am I kidding? This trip will never be completely scrapped, I can feel it. The good news is is that it doesn't matter and I am having fun reliving the memories and using my stash. So it's all good.

This started with a PageMap and then took on a life of its own. I had more pictures than were on the sketch so I went for it and added them in and played around. The Disney paper is from Downtown Disney as is the sticker on the side. Added the rub on (here comes the parade!) and used alphabet rub ons for the title. Stitched a few sides of pictures here and there. Added some Mickey heads and called it done.

Pretty happy with it. Now if I could manage to work on the page on my desk. I have ignored it all day. I didn't like how it was going and I'm not sure if I will like it any better now. Thinking that in the light of another new day, it might start to grow on me.


But I did get my Project Life photos caught up (see previous post) so that makes me feel oh so happy and joyful. Kira picked up her saxophone from the school. We had forgotten to pick it up and as I was looking over my online calendar, it dawned on me that we were missing it. We tried to get into the school, but they are doing construction at the entrance so I went to the exit and went in that way. All of the office staff was laughing at me since they saw me coming in and then all around the parking lot so I would be heading the correct direction to leave. At least I made them smile!

caught up!

Follow me to my 2012 Project Life picture of the day blog... click HERE! 

I have taken the time, organized all the pictures I have taken since the end of March and have started posting them again. There will be more posts in the coming days. I didn't want to overwhelm anyone with a zillion weeks worth of photos. I have totally been slacking off on the posting and don't even get me started on the actual journaling. I think I am on the second day of January or something like that. Hoping to work on it over the summer months.

This mommy duck and her babies crossed our street, which was quite a miracle they all made it across, hubby was watching at the door in case she slowed down, he could stop traffic for her. She came across our front yard, jumped our retaining wall and continued across our driveway into the neighbor's backyard and to the wet lands. Poor little ducklings had a tumble from the top of the wall to the driveway but they all fell down and stood right back up and followed mommy. So cute. I was shooting the pictures through the screen. I didn't want to scare her by opening the door.

It was a very hot one here today. This was taken at around 2pm EST. oh boy I am so happy hubby put the A/C's in the windows last night. I loves him tons for that.

if you want to....

... but don't feel you have to ;)

I have a second blog to keep track of my Project Life 2012. If you click HERE, you will go there. There is also a link on the right hand side -----> Foltz Family Project Life 2012 to get there from here.

But again... only do it if you want to. It's gonna be a bunch of pictures (hopefully one a day for the entire year) and some boring nothing rambling. I sure am talking it up aren't I?? Makes you want to go and check it out!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

We went to Kelly's today. oh yumm-o. I forgot to take a before picture, but this is the after. Nothing left but the crumbs.

project life weeks 38-43

Here is the last batch of my pages. I know... we don't have that exciting of a life but it's ours. There are many things in this scrapbook that I don't think I would have ever scrapped traditionally but since I only need one quick picture and some journaling... all is preserved for the future.

The best part of Project Life?? You can do it however YOU want to. Love the flexibility of the products. Especially the new ones coming out now and in the future. You do not need to do a picture a day. You can do a layout for a month... or two. Or even a vacation album. Or maybe a few vacations in an album. With the different plastics available, you can set your album up however you choose. There are even these amazing Big Envelope Pages available. Talk about great for souvenirs and other goodies all scrappers collect. 

Sorry for the hard sell on Project Life... but I think it is an amazing way to capture life and all that entails. Enough from me... enjoy the pages.  :) 

project life weeks 31-37

Here are the next group of weeks completed. I am very excited to have this years album done and start working on next years. I am thinking I shall be using the Cobalt kit. Then again, the Clementine kit is very pretty. 

In case you haven't looked before, this year may be the year that you might want to peek. Instead of having to purchase the entire kit (binder, core kit, plastics, dividers, extra papers) for one price, you now have the option of buying just what you want/ need/ can afford. Love this!! Click here to look at prices and options.

The plastics for this coming year are amazing!! I have ordered them and received them. I ordered some for my 2012 Project Life book as well as enough for two school years books. That is when Becky gets them out (hoping for early spring of 2012) It's a start on my journey to organize all that paperwork the kids generate from learning at school.

Anywho... here are a few more weeks of 2011....

project life weeks 25, 26 & 28

I had to print out one picture from each of the following three weeks to finish them up. Finally got around to doing that. Had a bit of help with a great deal from Snapfish... 300 prints for $3. Of course they get you with the shipping fees but it was still a good deal for me to catch up.

I am totally loving doing Project Life this year. When I did it in 2009, I got very far behind both in doing the journaling cards and printing pictures that I was discouraged. This year I am making an effort to keep up with things and it seems to be working well. I have gotten all the pictures printed and journaling done through October 31st. Pretty amazing!!


Gonna post some more weeks to share.

still nothing

Okay... I don't have anything to post scrappy wise. But I am happy to say that I have now gotten all the kids school work scanned and photographed. Everything is now on my computer. Need to do a back up so I don't lose all that work. Plus since I have now recycled a good 75% of it, I won't be able to do this again!


I am happy that I have now saved my kids school years in an easy storage way. I was holding onto BOXES of paper and my wonderful fantastical husband asked why I was doing that. He suggested scanning and photographing (somethings just don't fit in my scanner) the things I wanted to keep and then recycle the rest. I did keep a fair amount of the kids drawings which will fit nicely in one storage box instead of ten.


Feels good to have that off my plate. Not sure what I am going to do with it all. Becky Higgins keeps teasing about a school years kit of some sort so I guess I am waiting to see what she has. Love her Project Life so I figure the school years kit will be just as wonderful.


I got to help out in Alex's classroom today. Love doing that. From now on my day will be Wednesday instead of Mondays. The teacher has a parent that can only do Mondays so I switched. As long as I get to volunteer I am pretty flexible with the days.


Thinking tomorrow I may head over to Michaels and Joanns to see what I can find. I know Michaels has the glass Christmas ornament balls. I have found a great idea for these and they will be great for teacher gifts!! But I'm not telling yet what it is. Totally lifting the idea and credit will be given at the appropriate time.


Anyways... hoping that once I get them, I can get motivated to sit here and not play dumb games on the computer and I will get to scrap a bit. I even managed to straighten my desk up. I have room to work. All I need now is the motivation.


Thanks for listening. Hoping to post something scrappy tomorrow.

project life 2011- weeks 24, 27, 29 and 30

This is the post that is messed up a bit with the missing pictures on three weeks. Soon as those pictures get printed, I'll be good to go on posting them. The journaling blocks are done, waiting on pictures.

Week 24- Kira's friends party at Chuck E Cheese, silly kids, Alex's car seat that he got sick all over, DADDY HOME!! and a haircut for my little man.

Week 27- My Maine lilies from my twin Tania. New ceiling fan since our other one fried (lucky there wasn't a fire) My new bread machine as I over-used our old one. Grandma Clark's desk in Kira's clean room and new ice cream bowls for the kids. Can't go wrong with M&M bowls for a buck (or maybe it was $2) at Walmart. They are so cute!!

Week 29- Me visiting my twin Tania. Had the best time EVER!! Hanging out with the kids at Nana and Papa's. Visiting my forever bestie and her girls.

Week 30- Seeing the Pooh movie, photo shoot with the kiddos, my rose of sharon in the back yard. Needs a trim this year. Price of gas for me with my Stop and Shop gas rewards savings!! So happy!! Truck from my twin's neck of the woods and the farm stand where we get our corn.

So happy I am doing this project as I love looking back at all the silly pictures and how this year is going. Glad the family goes along with all the pictures I need to take to keep this current.

project life 2011- weeks 20-23

Trying not to make the blog posts super photo heavy so instead I'll post three posts today!! That should catch me up with things. LOL

Week 20- Alex is once again wearing mis matched socks on purpose!! So cute. Saturday was a day of shopping ALONE for me. Got through 3 stores without one single complaint!!

Week 21- So much to do and no time to do it!! We have bought our paint to do the garage and the house. Hope it's enough. And yes we know they sell the paint in the 15 gallon tubs but the Home Depot we went to, was out of the proper tint we needed so they sold us 15 gallon cans instead. Turns out it was much easier to use these than worry about lifting a 15 gallon tub up a ladder!!

Week 22- Working on the house time. Must be spring finally!!

Week 23- Kira's birthday this week. Daddy got a new car and Alex graduated from preschool. Good week for the Foltz Family!!

project life 2011- weeks 16-19

Got my photo order from Winkflash and got my Project Life pretty much up to date. There are three weeks that are missing one picture each. Those pictures were on other peoples cameras and I didn't have them when I place my photo order. Those weeks will have to wait to be posted!!

Week 16- Spirit week for Kira and a rainy Easter Egg Hunt for us this week.

Week 17- Easter Sunday and then CKC weekend with Jackie!! That is some sticker shock over the price of gas on Tuesday!! Certainly not driving the car until it is empty anymore!!

Week 18- Kira will learn someday not to take silly pictures as more often than not, they end up in a scrapbook!!

Week 19- Mother's Day and the PTA's Spring Auction. Good week. Especially Monday night's drink with dinner... yummy.

photo shoot 7.27.11 (photo heavy!)

Okay... the following are the pictures I chose to have enlarged to replace the older ones in the house. I try to get the kids pictures taken around their birthdays every year but with the aforementioned dislike of the Picture People I have put off doing it this year. So I got the kids dressed and off around town we went.

We went to Prescott Park down by the Lamprey River, to the park across the street from the post office and to the library. All great spots to take pictures. There are more around town but that day it was starting to get a bit hot to be out and about.

Love this picture of Kira. It is being enlarged to 10X13. So sweet!! And check out all those freckles! The girl has been growing quite a crop of them this summer.

I totally love this one. Hubby not so much. It will be in my office so I can enjoy it.

She has wanted to have her picture taken this year holding up how old she is since last year when she did it. I think it worked out pretty darn well. She was happy with it.

A little rain and umbrella and I think she's set to sing in the rain!! Such a ham!!

Simply stunning picture of my girl. I can't believe how much she has grown and is turning into quite a lovely young lady.

My sweet little man. This one will be a 10X13 next to Kira's on the same wall. It's gonna look amazing!!

Peek a Alex!! He does these things all by himself. So happy they are amazing at posing on their own. Makes it easy on this photographer!

If you saw the photo shoot from yesterday you can see why the kids thought it was neat that the tide was out.

Love this picture!! So him and totally going on the wall!!

You can see in his eyes he's up to something. Love that look!

Adore this one of the two of them. Plus I managed to get our street name in the picture!! Love it!

At the library. I was standing over them and ended up turning this picture all the way around to get it like this. So cute!

Okay.... how can I not get this picture enlarged?? It just shows how much he simply adores his big sister. And her hand on his back... so protective. Love it!

I like this one! So adorable.

Love my kiddos. Those smiles melt my heart.

My wish for them is to remain as close as they are right now. They truly love each other and will protect each other no matter what. I hope they will always remember that as they grow up.

Needless to say my Winkflash order is full of enlargements. I also printed up 77 4X6's so that I could get my Project Life album filled in through July. Happy to say I spent only $34 on all the enlargements and the prints. I have never left Picture People that cheaply. That is even less than their Portrait Club membership! The best part (besides saving a boatload of money) is the satisfaction I have of doing it myself.

Love my kids!