WOW HAS IT REALLY BEEN THIS LONG...

REALLY... more than a YEAR since my last post.... craziness for sure...

lots has happened since my last post... 

the twins turned TWO... and now they are almost THREE!!!  OMG where does the time go???  They fulfill their terrible twos exactly when we don't want them too... like the family beach trip, when sand would cause a meltdown or during family pics when all we want is a smile or two... but hey they are TWO and there have been lots more times when they weren't terrible.. they talk up a storm and as this moment they are no longer Cannon and Deacon, but you must refer to them as Superman and Batman.

My mom had open heart surgery, almost a year ago, to repair a valve... she did really well and has spent the year juggling dr. appt's and trying to get meds adjusted properly... and found out she is pretty anemic...but now we seem to be on the proper meds (no Cumidin-YEA!!) and the anemia seems to be getting better as well... Dad and sister are doing great too... my sister turned 38 this year!

As for me... going to the heart doc with your mom is an EYE-OPENING experience and will change the way you live that is for sure... as I sat in the dr. office with her last December I realized I needed to make some changes... nothing like a bunch of overweight people talking about their horrible surgery experiences, and seeing all the amputees due to diabetes and bad health that the light clicked in my head that I knew that I didn't want to end up in this office ever again.  So right after my mom's surgery in January, I signed up with a gym, started a wellness program and hired a trainer (some of the best money I have ever spent). Let me tell you... start paying attention to what you are eating and looking up restaurant food calories and you will be SHOCKED at how much excess food goes in your body!!!  Things I thought were "healthy" were FAR, FAR from that!!!
Since January I have lost 35 pounds, lowered my body fat% by almost 10% and lost a total of 21" and dropped 2-3 clothes sizes... still have about 15 more pounds to hit my goal weight...

so once again I will try to not go a year without a post... we will see how that works out  LOL...

It finally here....

Football Season... woo-hoo.... and my latest craftiness to celebrate it at our house "divided"

War Eagle and Roll Tide!!!

Been even busier

here lately... work has been crazy for the past few months so I do apologize for the LLLLOOONNNGGG intervals between posts!!!

I have still found time to be somewhat scrappy and I have been designing stuff for The Scrapbook Princess, like this cute mini album that will be available exclusively at the Scrapbook Expo in Duluth, GA next weekend.

I have another one in the works that will be teaching a class for at TSP's anniversary 2-day crop at the end of July and I would love for all my scrappy friends to come join us!!

Off to finish some scrappiness now.... until next time

And here is another one

of my super cute twin nephews, Cannon & Deacon, from their 1st b'day pics-and yes I am responsible for those "jailbird" outfits-too stinkin' cute aren't they??? 

I made this layout from the Authentique Miracle line that I bought from TSP and the design I "stole" from Christine Ousley because I just loved the simplicity and how it focused on the pics of these cutie pies!!  I know it is a little "matchy-matchy", but they are twins, isn't that rule for all twins??  :)

A little scrappiness

Although is has been a busy year so far... I have found time to do some scrapping.... I did a whole album for my nephews 1st year and gave to Shelli & Mark on their 1st birthday... while I am not going to share all the layout here are the ones from their birthday party.

I also completed this quicky today of the design team from The Scrapbook Princess...

I took a sketch from Scrapbook Generation and I love how simple and clean it turned out and I also dug deep into my stash for this 3BugsinaRug paper that I have had for several years and have been saving to use for a layout about by scrapping buddies.  Shan cut the title and bunnies on her silhoutte for me :)

It has been a long time...

since I have posted anything, although not for lack of wanting to, I have just been really busy with work and life in general.  January was busy getting ready for the peas 1st birthday and all I can say is WOW, they are truly loved by so many wonderful friends and family and I am truly blessed to be their aunt!!

I also taught a mini album class (my 1st ever!!) at The Scrapbook Princess and while I was nervous when we first started things started flowing smoothly and I think all the girls did a wonderful job!!

Work has also been really busy and we took a little mini vacay with the in-laws to the mtns and went to the TITANIC exhibit which I highly recommend, expensive at $25 a ticket but well worth the 2 hours it takes to go thru it.

Been working on eating better (not so good) and exercising more (getting better) and hoping to be down 30-40 more pounds over the next several months.  I started out really good then things got crazy with work and birthday and trips and me making excuses :)  what I wouldn't give for my 20 year old metabolism...geez it is so much harder losing than gaining!!!

Anywho.... I am going to try and post a little more than I have been... until next time :)

So I have been a little busy

trying to get this finished for the twins 1st birthday party next weekend.  Yes you read right next Friday, the peas will be ONE!!!  It is so hard to believe that this time last year we were recovering from Shelli's shower, little did we know the boys would be arriving later the next week-boy does time fly!!!!

I have lots of things to share, but will have to wait till after next week, partly because I am still working on it and partly because it is a surprise too!! 

Also, I was lucky enough to be chosen to the Design Team for The Scrapbook Princess and will be teaching my very 1st mini album class Feb. 11th and I would tell everyone to join me but the class sold out in 2 days!!!  WOO-HOO

That is all for now... gotta get busy finishing up some scrappy surprises :)

Failing miserably

at trying to post weekly on the blog, and yes I know it is only 2 weeks into the new year-LOL
I have a good excuse or being sick for most of the week and awfully busy at work.  I am sure these next pics will make up for my laziness seeing as they are from our Christmas celebration this year. 

Memaw's christmas tree engulfed with presents

Deacon and his first taste of chocolate gravy

autographed pic from "Dolly"

Cannon opening a present

another autograph pic from "Dolly"

WOW.. 2012 is here

May 2012 be all that you want it to be... we are in charge of our destiny so make the most of
everyday!!!  I promise to be a little more consistent this year as I really work towards several "resolutions" that I am hoping to stick with, one of them being better about blogging, along with the standard losing weight and purging the house out. 

9 Years...

ago I married the most wonderful man in the world!!!  I wouldn't trade him for all the tea in China either... we just complete each other.  So all you single ladies out there have faith because your prince charming will come along and I PROMISE you it is worth the wait!!

Spooky cuteness!!!

We just finished up Halloween at the Carson abode and tell me if these aren't the cutest trick-or-treaters you have ever seen??

Deacon was the cuddly lion and Cannon was the isty bitsy spider.

Here are a couple of pics of the house once it was spookified too...

Sketchy Thursdays

Now that I have been able to get a little scrappy time in, one of my favorite places for inspiration is Sketchy Thursdays , every Thursday they have a new sketch posted and it is great way to jump start a layout.

Here is mine for this week

I used this great Echo Park Happy Days line to showcase my oh so cute cousin Brooke as she wore ate a cupcake one day at the ballpark.

So if your mojo isn't flowing stop by Sketchy Thursdays and let them help you out!! :)

I'm Back.... Finally

So I have finally made it back to the blog and I am going to try and be better about posting on a more regular basis...  :)

We have a new addition to our family and her name is Blaze

For those you out of the loop, this brings our inside count back to FOUR and TWO outside that we officially claim, I guess you can classify us as crazy cat lovers.  But she is awfully sweet and playful and the other kitties seem to be adjusting pretty well to her being in the house, we are down to just an occasional hiss-hahaha.

Lots of things going on in the Carson household and we stay pretty busy... in case anybody forgot I have twin nephews that require my spoiling at least once a week or so,  and I am slowly getting back to some scrappiness, which I will be showing off in a later post after I take a few pics.  The Scrapbook Princess, my favorite scrappy store and now only store in the area, is going to have a design team and I am trying out for it, so I have been busy working on my submissions.

That's a quick synopsis of the past few weeks and I promise to be back with more later this week!!!

Slacker, Slacker, Slacker....

Blog is going under construction.... and will be back soon

I know I have been a TOTAL slacker when it comes to my blog, it has been almost 2 months since my last post...geez!!!  I have good intentions to post every week, but here lately I only get on the computer to check email and buzz through Facebook.

Do not worry I will be back, we have had a crazy few months with vacation, birthdays, school, work, house projects and unexpected (but welcome) visitors, and we are slowly starting to get back to normal non-crazy life.... and I have lots of pics and scrappy layouts to show off, just not right now  ;)

TrailMakers Sketch Re-run

I am definitely on a roll lately actually getting some scrappy work finished-yea for me!!!  This is a layout that I did for the sketch re-run over at TrailMakers, this was the DT sketch for design team applications.
This is my father-in-law, aka Grandaddy, with the twins on his 70th birthday.  They are so very lucky to have him as a Grandaddy, he is one of the most awesome Christian men I have ever known!!

I love the simplicity of this layout and other than the cardstock, which I spritzed with Glimmermist, this was made with scraps of LYB from my stash.  If I keep it up I will have gone thru my stash and need to buy more stuff, well that is highly doubtful, and I will probably buy more stuff before that happens... LOL

Re-run # 2 at TrailMakers

Another "re-run" over at TrailMakers was to use multiple photos on a layout.  Anybody who scraps with me knows that I ♥ collage prints (Walgreens is my fav-but most any photo site has them), they are the greatest invention EVER, you get some many options with your pictures.  Here is a layout I did of all the hummingbirds that visited our backyard last summer, at one time we counted 13 and all these pics are courtesy of my hubby who will sit for hours taking pics of them.

TrailMakers and Banners

I am just on a roll here lately, and I am loving myself for getting back into scrapping.  This layout is one that has been sitting on my desk in a 1/2 finished state and Karen over at TrailMakers issued some "re-run" challenges and I knew this was perfect to throw the mix.  Banners are a really hot trend right now and this paper kind helped me "cheat" with the challenge but I did add little stickles to help dress up the banners :)

This cutie pie is my cousin's little girl Brooke at her 2nd birthday party where she was anxiously awaiting her cake!!

and another one...

While I was doing my daily lurking on blogs, I came across this great site, The ScrapRoom and notice that they also have a monthly sketch challenge and in an effort to increase my scrappy productivity I also used their sketch over the weekend...  along with some more MME papers (I have TONS in my stash, they are one of my fav manufacturers!!) and some pictures from the Botanical Gardens we took this spring and VIOLA...

Another favorite sketch site

is Sassy Lil' Sketches, they offer 2 card sketches and 2 layout sketches every month on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th.  I can always find some great inspiration and the July 7th sketch is no exception.

Again using some MME papers out of my stash and this picture that I absolutely love of my brother-in-law, Mark and his 2 oldest, Paige and Kyle.  They are so very lucky to have him!!!

and another one....

Yes, I know 3 weeks in a row I have used the sketch from Sketchy Thursdays and I have actually had this one finished since the weekend!!  This is my hubby, who loves to photograph, mostly nature but will do occasional people shots :)

Since I am on spending arrest, I dug thru my stash and found these great papers by MME, threw in some AC letter stickers and a couple of pieces of chipboard.  My banner across the top is made from CTMH stamps, which also has a whole alphabet of banners.