Zoo Scavenger Hunt: Part 2

Last week, I shared page 1 of my 2-page Zoo Scavenger Hunt layout. I'm back to share the other side! Here they are together:

 

On the right side page, I used an orange and aqua theme. That polar bear pool was the inspiration for this color theme. Plus, it ties in with the aqua on the left page.

 

 

I thought that little cut apart tag looked like a clipboard and I stamped a little checklist on it ("Love it" x3) from that Foodie stamp in the shop. Another gold clip shows up in this layout. I just had to use the elephant clip on this zoo layout!

 

The whimsical arrow stamp is a fun one, which for this use I paired with the #favorite stamp from the same Wonder stamp set in the kit. 

 

I used this month's television stamp set to give our zoo scavenger hunt a 5-star rating. I see lots uses for that particular stamp. (Books, movies, food in addition to TV shows!)

 

You can stop by at the previous post to download a free zoo scavenger hunt print out!

Thanks,

Holly

Week in the Life- Day Four

The I'm I am still amazed at how much I have enjoyed this project and so thankful that family has embraced ( as much as young men embrace anything...) this has been a week to realize the blessings I have and may take for granted.

Again my work week revolves around work. But today I had an out of office meeting to look at a potential future project. I am so luck that my oldest son drove me to the meeting and got a ride back from an office mate that also attended the walk through. I got to spend some time with my son and even got a great selfie too! I am so blessed that I don't need to drive to work !

So love spending time with my boys! Even if it is just driving to a morning meeting!

I am actually happy with this selfie- I am definitely my worst critic but I need to be better. 

So not every new project is exciting but they are important to have the right volume and variety of work to keep everyone busy and profitable.

I am currently obsessed with this building along the river. I noticed it about 2 months ago and I'm not sure when this occurred but they have a map of their building location ( their building is the red block) - brilliant!

So back to the office and my lunch date with a potential new client got rescheduled. So I went to a new place for lunch- truly a "food court" in a nearby office building- great to find a new place. 

And then back to work with my lunch to eat at my desk- that happens too often but I also can have lots of flexibility so that is the trade off. Yummy shrimp tacos with chipotle mayo and avocado. 

Part of the great part of this week was also able to get both of my kids have joined in to share photos with me. 

Younger son already at school- walk to class and lecture hall. 

So happy to have these! And now the older son - his day still at home is documented - at the gym, watching videos (he LOVES the piano guys since he is a string player..)

He even got a "foot" picture!

 And practice time selfie...

So the rest of the day I was not so good at taking pictures and it was still a busy day as I volunteered to serve on an alumni panel from my University from a diverse background.  I was an amazing amount of fun talking with these potential incoming students and their parents.  I even ran into a gal whose son was in Cub Scouts with my kids way back in the day - small world right??

While I was at the presentation, my hubby and son were upstairs enjoying their own pizza! Pepperoni is pretty much everyone's favorite...

And to end on a very big irony note - the location for the presentation was where I had my Sweet Sixteen party!  See you all tomorrow...

Week in the Life Day Three

I have been amazed at how aware of my everyday routines this project has made me.  I am truly blessed even if some days I feel harried (and mostly feel behind).  I am not always smiley happy every minute of the day - and sometimes I expect my family/co-workers to read my mind - which of course is an unrealistic expectation... but more about that later.

I had asked my son at college to take some photos of his day - I got a few in the morning, not so many after that... hoping that today will be better.  The transition back to college is always a little tough - and he has been rather contemplative this year.  He is usually rather contemplative - and that's ok!

Here is his routine from getting up to walking out his apartment door and the view on the main street walking to campus.

He is spoiled with his own bathroom. Boy I'm jealous!

I love that he's got all the important stuff right near him. His beloved Bears (pillow), flag for family and roots and the framed scene from Barcelona that he bought on our vacation in December. That reminds him that maybe his parents ( and especially his mom :-) might be cool to hang out with he is an "adult". 

True college guy apartment with the dogs playing poker!

Walking to campus. I asked for a few more today. Let's see how that goes!

My day started the same as most.  My lab loves to follow me around in the morning - here he is waiting outside the bathroom door for me to finish drying my hair.

Again my hubby drives me to the train which I take to work. I am an early riser so I often see them raising the flags on the building across the river.  It is nice to see this as a start to my day.

Work was completely crazy today - back to back meeting, including our monthly division meeting - with one 1/2 time slot to get the rest of my work done - ha!

While I was at work, hubby and son worked on painting front door and back windows- an extremely long over due projects!

Headed out to our suburban office for a special strategy meeting (took the train out) and had a good meeting.  But first another view of the river and tourist boats- my favorite!

My boss (& President of company) happens to live very close to my house and even closer to my grandmother's house.  I went to visit her again today - as I have almost every day I have been able for the last 2 months since she fell and broke her arm and hip.  She is one very tough cookie for almost 92 years old.  Forgot again to get a photo.... tonight for sure!

On the way home, my boss had to pick up his dog from doggie day care - another lab (this time a chocolate like our first lab!).

From the big lunch at work I wasn't hungry and I was excited our dance class, lesson and demo!

So class tonight was merengue ( we can totally handle that), then our lesson was different in that we had 2 instructors- so each could work and go twice as fast! We worked on rhumba, cha-cha and bachata!

Here's the hubby with our instructor whom we love!! Next the demo included more advanced steps ( where we could be) if/when we continue on lessons. Tango, hustle, salsa etc....

Definitely!!

But wait the evening was still not over as when I got home I ran right to the computer to join the Scrap Orchard chat with the featured designer - Kristin Aagard for part of her freebies. My oldest son had logged in for me. 

Final goodnight for tonight for my son, as he watches Netflix - I will miss him...

Till tomorrow!

Week in the Life- 2015 Edition:Day 2

I have already so enjoyed this process of documenting my everyday life. This is a great adventure- and even more importantly I am getting my family to help me in my documenting journey. This day I am going to document myself.. You would think it would be easier but maybe not so much... We will see as the day progresses

I am very fortunate that I work in a beautiful city with some spectacular views. Here I was at a meeting and I got to enjoy the spectacular view. But let me not get ahead of myself. 

Starting first thing in the morning, my work day routine is not too different. I get up around 5:00am ( well the alarm technical my goes off at 4;50am- but then there are a couple to more snoozes depending on my hubby who is in that side of the bed), feed the dogs, start the water for coffe (him) and tea (me) and let them out. Shower, dress and makeup- while hubby takes 10 minutes to get ready-I am not that quick (although I don't take too long...). I got hubby to take pics of me this morning putting on my makeup 

Here you can see part of our big bathroom renovation. That took a huge part of our summer ( and summer money's) but I am so happy being able to use this shower again. Now to decide on a shower curtain...

Jack always hangs out on our bed while I'm getting ready. 

Since I was out of town last week- still not organized with the grocery thing, so my favorite fast restaurant is McD's- egg white delight for breakfast 

Train to work and walk to office in morning is always great- even in bad weather. 

Mostly in my office today, but the view to the river is really nice (except when they ring the bells when testing the bridges- instant headache day!) 

I did get this pic when I got to office and published my blog post yesterday. 

As I said the view is VERY nice. But not as nice as the view from the 30th floor where my afternoon meeting was and my cover photo for today!

Lunchtime is usually spent at my desk checking emails and my favorite digi shop forums but again, lunch/grocery thing not organized so I had to step out- not that I mind in beautiful weather like we have been having! Here I went to my favorite Mediterranean food place- Roti. Yummy falafel salad. 

Lots of folk out in the afternoon as well on the way to the train- lots of outdoor patio areas to take advantage of in summer, plus the water taxi and other tourist boats- very nice on a nice day. Sometimes makes you forget your day at work. 

After work was not as exciting- visited my grandmother ( where I promptly forgot to take a pic! Although  I am going again today- so need to remember!!!), diner of pulled pork I made on Sunday night in the crock pot (also trying to use up all the stuff in my freezers which are out of control!), order some of my son's books for school then we did something fun! We had taken dance lessons about 8 years ago for almost 2 years (so 6 six years ago). Well about 2 months ago they had a "reunion" party and we were hooked again!! We got a free lesson and then hubby got me a few lessons for my b-day present. We both are loving it!! We are trying to make it to more classes- since otherwise it's super expensive and you don't get proficient. We went to a practice party last night- tonight is another lesson and "demo"- their version of the hard sell. The folks are all super, super nice and we have the same instructor we had 6 years ago- who we adore!!

Huge rainstorm while we were dancing but basically stopped while we were driving home. A little TV ( we almost only watch Travel channel or travel shows at night) then off to bed at nearly 11pm. Late for us but hubby is off tomorrow so he didn't feel the need to sleep so early. 

Tomorrow I'm going to get my son to take pics of his day at school. 

Ali Edwards Week in the Life - you are genius!! Till tomorrow- love this project!

Week in the Life - 2015 Edition Day One

So I decided last week that I really needed to get into the groove and attempt Ali Edward's Week in the Life. I thought about doing it last week since it was my birthday and I was traveling for work, and both of my sons were home ( most importantly) but in the end I thought I really wanted to follow along with everyone else and enjoy the enthusiasm!

Capturing the everyday details in my life is something I do occasionally but not on a regular basis. Understanding where I am now and looking back later is a real gift- it especially resonated after I read Cathy Zielski's blog post . 

So my plan is to include this in my regular  2015 digital book, but that also might change. I bought some of the digi files from Ali's site and I will use The Lilypad's Memory Pockets Monthly August Edition - Almanac. There are some great cards that fit this theme perfectly!

Another great resource was a few things I heard on the Scrap Gals podcast- specifically talking about Ali's #WITL. Megan from the Nerd Nest talk about things that she has been successful in the past. I lived the idea of focusing one day on each member of my family. Since one of the boys is already at school it might be a little more difficult but I will keep to it and figure it out!

Now on to my day and some photos and my first spread. 

Here is my cover photo for this project. I love it from our recent trip to central IL. 

Our morning routine is back to normal since hubby is back at school so early alarm and both of us getting up

At the train station. And then heading to the office in the morning which included a meeting outside of the office. Since I work downtown and take the train downtown, I got a rental car and took some selfie photos in the car and some of the typical site downtown- both in the car and walking back after dropping off the car. 

I had left my son a "to do list" for outside work so he had questions and we did FaceTime for further details. 

We had an employee event with lots of fun Olympic "games" that I documented. Here is Bozo buckets with bean bags. 

After work was fairly simple-  life was crazy last week so I really wanted to spend time just hanging out with my oldest before he goes back next week. Dinner was a mixture of cheese quesadillas and leftovers.

Loading the dishwasher with "help" from the puppy. He licks each plate and fork, spoon just in case they aren't clean enough to go into the machine.

Today I will interview my hubby, so I got him to take a selfie at work too!

I will come back later to share my day each day and then my layouts to go along with each day.  I am so excited to document my Week in the Life