13.1 Miles in 3 hrs 12 min.

Yesterday marked a new achievement for me. Back in January I signed up to walk the Music City 1/2 marathon and after several months of training (meaning walking every day and doing long walks on the weekends) I thought I was well prepared. However, I underestimated my team mates! I talked my dear, sweet friend Jen Jones into signing up as well but we only got to walk once together - our 10 mile walk which was supposed to be an "easy" walk. I was sick that day so we didn't really strain ourselves too much. Anyway, I had no idea that she walks about twice as fast as me because her stride is about twice as long as mine. After yesterday I have lovingly dubbed her as my friend with giraffe legs and Jar Jar Binx feet. So, although I signed up to walk the 1/2 marathon I ended up running a good part of it just to keep up! Come next year, Jen is either on somebody else's team or I'm going to have to just train to run it. Well, come to think about it, maybe I'll keep her on my team because she is a great pacesetter.

This picture is of Jenna who couldn't be at the race to cheer us on because she was going to see her other "boyfriend." (She's supposed to grow up and marry Connor!)

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY TO BROOKE

It is hard to believe that 5 years ago today at 9:35 am Brooke was born. Brooke has grown into such a beautiful and sweet little princess (as she likes to be called.) She has a smile that lights up a room and a sparkle in her eye because she is so full of life. She has truly been a blessing to our home!

This is a layout that I did for a template challenge but I decided to use it for Brooke's birthday invitation.

CREDITS:
Template and HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY letters: Jana Billman (word art altered by me) @ kbandfriends.com
Papers, Beads, Flowers, Ribbon: Ali Folendore DELISH papers and elements @ scrapbook-bytes.com
Vellum Overlay: Jenny Binder WINTER FROST kit
Pretty Button: Ashely Olsen Sampler @ scrapbook-bytes.com
Font: Arial

Huncle Dave

My sister, Jennifer has blogged about "Huncle Dave" but I one-upped her because I scrapped him :) Actually, Heather Manning, whose Creative Team I'm part of, has a Soldier Kit and I needed to make a layout with it. At first I was stumped as to what to do with it but then I remembered this picture that I had of Dave. It was alot of fun doing this LO and it brought back lots of fond memories. Oh, the stories I could tell!

The journaling reads, "The Army may call him Lieutentant Colonel David A. Brown but to his nieces he’s “Huncle Dave”... You see, Uncle Dave was the youngest of ten and my father was the oldest so growing up he was more like an older brother - especially to my sister. He would do all kinds of fun stuff with us, like taking us on hikes and even slipping some out to movies they weren’t allowed to see, but all the while we had to call him by his self- given name - “Huncle Dave.” Well, it looks like he grew into the title."

So, Uncle Dave, here's one for you!

Credits:
Papers, Elements - Heather Manning's SOLDIER kit
Fonts: Army Narrow, Arial

Easter Egg Hunt

This layout was done for this week's Lifts with a Twist challenge and it is also my first layout using Heather Manning's Girly Girl Kit.

Our church Easter Egg hunt is always at a farm near us - a church member owns it. The kids look so forward to the egg hunt and then we have a picnic and they can pet the cows, fish in the pond and climb on all the tractors. Well, this year it was so cold there was a bon fire going! Pastor Rich gave an illustration about the Easter story, we hunted eggs and promptly left. It definitely felt more like the fall party than the Easter Egg Hunt. Hopefully, next year we'll be back to the more relaxed routine.

Credits: Girly Girl Kit by Heather Manning; Fonts - Comic Sans, Blomster.

Creative Team Member

I never knew there were such things as "Creative Team Members" until about a month ago a digiscrap site I frequent regularly was asking for applicants for Creative Team Members. Come to find out, designers like to have several people who make layouts from their kits and then post them to different galleries. Well, I completely dismissed it because I didn't think there was anyway I was good enough. And, you had to commit to 4 layouts a month with those specific kits. Well, after viewing some of the LOs from some of the CT members I realized that maybe I was good enough (not to knock anyone's pages)! I just realized you didn't have to be spectacular for someone to want you on their team. Well, the upside of being a Creative Team Member is that you get the kits for free, but I'm one of those that I don't want to be strapped into one designer's "style".

Well, I was keeping my eye out for another CT call and sure enough I applied for one and got it. I am now a Creative Team Member for Heather Manning - you can see her home page here and her store here. The good news for me is that Heather is a new designer so I won't be completely strapped for time. I just have to make 1 to 2 layouts for each kit and 2 LOs for each template that she publishes! So, I'm feeling jazzed and I'll share some of my layouts with you as I finish them!

Everyday Princess

This is a LO that I did for a scraplift challenge at Lifts With a Twist. For those of you who are not familiar with digital scrapbooking - the scrapbooking community gives its blessing on "lifting" other people's scrapbook pages. So, for those of us who lack inspiration and creativity we can cruise the galleries, find a scrapbook page we love and copy it. Now, for a true artist I'm sure that this is unthinkable, but for us wanna be's it's just PERFECT!

This picture is one I took of Brooke earlier in the month. She was dressed up as Jasmine (there's rarely a time she's not dressed as some princess) and she was out in the backyard picking flowers for me. I just couldn't resist snapping some pictures.

Credits:
Blue Paper,Paper Strips: SUMMER FLUTTER KIT by Brenda Kempf
Inked Edge,stitching: Karen Aiken (altered by me)
Font: Stamped Act Jumbled, Arial

100% Cute

Well, I've moved my blog over here so that I can post my digital scrapbooking lo's since that's really all I want to blog about. Of course, all my scrapping has to do with my kids so for those few people who read my yahoo 360 blog you can still keep up with the madness at the Benson house :)

So, for this first blog I'm going to showcase my favorite lo this month! This picture was taken the beginning of March on a unseasonably warm day. I took Connor and Liam on a walk to our pond while Brooke was off playing with a friend. Connor was so relaxed...he just sat back and twirled his hair.




Credits:
Blue dotted Paper,dotted ribbon, ricrac, gosgrain ribbon: Karen Aiken's A IS FOR APPLE kit
Stitching:Michelle Shefveland
Tag:Ali Folendore
Paper Clip:Barbara Catrone
Buttons:Kathryn Balint

FONTS:
Baveuse, Black Jack, Maindra GD

special thanks to Atomic Cupcake