Suzanne McGrath Photography

Six on Sunday...Happy Easter!

For those of you who celebrate, Happy Easter!  And for those of you who don't, Happy Sunday!  

Let's get right to it, shall we?

1.  We had a very lovely Easter Sunday.  The little girls woke up bright and early due to an early bedtime the night before.  They were PUMPED!  Thankfully the Easter Bunny delivered.  As usual. The girls had a color coded Easter egg hunt and baskets filled with goodies.  (Mainly shorts and T-shirts because that is what the girls need.  That Easter Bunny is smart!)  After an extra long church service, we headed over to my sister's house to celebrate.  

Here is a picture I took and please know it is 100% candid!

My mom was up from Arkansas with her friend, Jim.  And the rest of our crazy crew.  We out-stayed our welcome drinking beer, wine, and watching Fixer Upper.  Seriously, it was a perfect day!

 

2.  I feel like I owe you all an update on #1's broken arm.  She went to the doctor on Monday and came home without a cast.  Womp womp.  Apparently, the type of break she has is rather fragile.  Since her splint was on so well (probably because Breckenridge's medical facility specializes in broken wrists!) and the bone was perfectly in place, they left everything undisturbed.  I guess there is always a risk of the bone moving when the splint comes off and the cast goes on so rather than chance it, they gave it one more week.  I think she'll get her cast tomorrow.  My fingers are crossed because she can't get in the pool until she she has had the cast for 24 hours.  She is still doing so well and has stayed more positive than I ever could if I was in her position!

 

3.  Last year I saw an ad on Facebook and ended up clicking over and shelling out a bunch of money for ThingCHARGER. Well, we FINALLY received our order in the mail and we love them!  I hate all the cords associated with our devices and this little guy does away with ALL CORDS.  It is fantastic!

We all have one in our room and I was able to get rid of our charging station in the kitchen.  I am so happy!

 

4.  I have been slowly catching up on Project Life.  I now have one family scrapbook per year dating back to 2007.  I have a designated spot in my house where I set out one book at a time.  It's really fun to look through the old books when we have a few minutes.  I just printed all my pictures for this year and I feel great.  While all the pictures are in pockets, I haven't added the cute stuff and need to go back and do that from July 2014 to the present.  But I will only do what I want and not stress about it.  It's just so great to have the pictures printed and in the books!

 

5.  Yesterday I spent some time finally taking official pictures of our bathroom.  I still have to edit the pictures but I hope to do that this week so I can post the final "Reveal" here on the blog. Here is a sneak peek from my iPhone:

 

6.  Thursday marks the end of an era for me.  It will be my last day at work after more than 18 years with the same company.  18 YEARS?!  That's crazy, right?!  I am so excited for the future, though.  It was definitely time to make a move.  

I plan on taking the summer off and hanging out with my kids.  In an ideal world I would go back to work at the same time they go back to school.  I'm hoping I can somehow make the dates jive and find an awesome company to work for that isn't a gazillion miles away.  

In the meantime, I am making myself a list of things to do around the house to keep me occupied until May 20th (their last day of school).  I thrive on being busy and don't know what I will do with myself.  After all, I have never spent any time at home by myself.  The only time I've ever taken off work for an extended period of time was for maternity leave!  So I'm crazy excited for a month and a half to myself.  I feel like the house will be in tip top shape by the time they are home with me for the summer.  Thursday will be a great day!

 

And with that, I'm out of here.  Have a fantastic week! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thrifty Thursday...How to make your own scrapbook shelf

Well hello!  It's been awhile since I've posted a project and I thought I should rectify the situation.  The project I am going to show you today is SUPER easy.  But it's one the hubby and I are thrilled to have completed!

It's a small shelf or ledge for my journal cards that I use for Project Life.  And it's AWESOME.

I showed you my scrapbook desk awhile back.

Everything was running smoothly until the hubby got a new job.  And started working from home about once or twice a week.  Not good.  Not that I don't like him being at home but that he was MESSING UP MY DESK!  And yes, I do claim BOTH desks in the office as mine:  one for work and one for projects.  Something needed to change.

I designed a simple little shelf with a groove cut out and now I can put all my journal cards up and off the desk.  Now he doesn't have to do anything but move my scrapbook out of the way.  

Much sleeker.  I like.

Here's how I did it.  And honestly, I gave the instructions to the hubby who ran the big piece of trim through the table saw to get the groove and then glued the wood pieces together.  The hardest part was painting it!

We literally just screwed this into the wall.  We found the studs and made sure the drill hit the stud and that was there was to it.  The journal cards hide the screws.

The box you see above was a Target find.  (duh.  Target.)  It's from their Threshold line that I love and I found it in the drawer organizer section.  It is perfect for my needs and corrals all my little tools together.

And one last shot for you:

Holler if you have any questions!  This project was truly super easy and best of all?  It was free!  We had all of the supplies just laying around.  I hope you enjoyed this one:)

 

Project Life Weeks 35 and 36

Welcome to Project Life.  Of course I am still playing catch-up so I am going to feature two weeks again.

Week 35:  August 26 - September 1

Full spread:

Left side:

 

I couldn't help putting in this little snippet about my paint stash.  It's just so me!

And #3 was so proud of her Bucket Slip:

Right side:

Admittedly, the whole right side highighted our last trip to the lake for the season.  

I just kept it simple this week and feel like it's all good.  Sometimes I feel like playing around sometimes I don't!

Moving on to Week 36:  September 2 - 8

Full spread:

Left side:

It's really strange to be blogging about what happened on Labor Day here on the 6th day of November.  Clearly I need to get caught up.  ASAP.

Ahhhh...I can almost smell the chorine!  

 

Right side:

I included a cute little notecard I rec'd in the mail:

 

I enjoyed typing on the "white space" of the picture below.  Such an easy way to tell a small story.

And there you have it!  Two more weeks of Project Life.  

Project Life: Week 29

Finally...I'm catchin up.  Again.

Week 29:  July 15 - 21

Full spread:

As you can see, I stuck in race bibs again.  I can't seem to stop!

 

Left side:

We spent a few hours at the mall one day and I couldn't resist slipping in these pictures of #3 and #4 on the merry-go-round.  So cute.

 

Right side:

 

I loved this picture of my four girls and just wanted something simple to highlight it.  Mission accomplished.

 

I walked into the kitchen and caught our cat licking the butter.  Yuck!  But than again, I thought it was kind of funny so I highlighted Darby this week:

 

My friend, Christi, and I took our kids to the Color Storm race.  The kids had a blast and we're now documented permanently.  I simply used a cut-up journal card to showcase the "before" and "after" pictures.

 

Last, but not least, I captured Lori's last run.  Of course I wanted to document our time together!

This week was super simple.  That's just how I roll.  Some weeks I feel like adding a lot and other weeks I'm fine leaving it simple.  This was one of those weeks.

 

 

Project Life: Week 20

OK.  I finally got weeks 20 - 24 photographed.  That is a feat in and of itself!

Some weeks I seem to "feel" it more than others.  This week was a week with few photographs and not a lot of stories to tell.  Therefore it feels a little meh to me.  But you know what?  It's still documented.  It's still life.  It's all good.

Full spread:

I had a program from a strings concert and I also printed out the Daily sheet I receive from #4's daycare.  I love that they take the time to put it together and wanted to remember that.  So I took each and slipped them into a page protecter.  

Left side:

This was the week I discovered Sonic's half price shakes.  Of course I had to document it!

 

Like I said above, I didn't have a lot of photos this week so I used the one below and just pointed to my daughter:

 

I made my own overlay in Photoshop for the picture below.  I LOVE organization - it seriously gives me a non-drug-induced high!  So of course I had to document my Mother's Day gift:

 

The right side:

 

I used an old star to sort-of highlight #3's soccer team since their names is the Stars:

And there you have it.  Week 20.  Done.

Project Life Week 19

Welcome to Week 19 (May 6 - May 12)

I can't believe I've been keeping up on this project so well this year.  (Although I'm behind on the blog I'm practically caught up IRL.)

Full spread:

I paced a race back in May so of course I just stuck the race bib in there, per my usual routine.

The back of the race bib is pretty ugly so I might just put plain cardstock on it?

Left side:

I wanted to point out my new umbrella holder so I just cut the green arrow from cardstock.  I like how it turned out!

I used the negative space (don't I sound like a graphic artist???) to simply type a few words onto the picture below:

Right side:

 

Of course I had to document my thrifting finds!  I just added a cute little arrow I picked up at Target.  Simple.  But I love the hit of red:

 

I loved this soccer picture so much!  I simply cut up a journal card that matched their uniforms perfectly and attached it to the bottom of the picture.  I like the simple "friends" sticker I picked up at Hobby Lobby.  

 

I stuck the pace band on the "Recorded" journal card.  I really like the black/white/yellow colors:

 

See?  Here's more black/white/yellow going on below.  To make the card I cut up the "Currently" journal card and attached it to the grid journal card.  I like that it gave it a little pop of something unexpected:

 

Last but not least, this picture of #4 was too good to pass up.  I highlighted it with the letter "K" sticker that is probably 10 years old!  

There you have it.  Week 19!

 

 

Project Life Week 18

I'm just popping in tonight to show you Week 18 (April 29th - May 5th)

Here's the full spread:

That piece of paper you see in the middle is actually the program from #2's orchestra concert.  I like just making a couple holes and sticking right in the middle.  It's much easier than putting it in its own page protector.

Left side (I totally forgot to photograph the right side.  Whoops!):

I just used a card I thought appropriate ("!") to showcase my dislike of the weather.  

The tag above was purchased in a pack at Target.  I've used one or two before and I still like them.  They just add a little fun to a photo!

The photo above was actually received in a text message from my mom!  I just put each picture onto a new canvas and added the overlay myself.  I like how the box ties the two disparate photos together and makes sense of them.

The photo above captures my ability to make a mess!  I just cut out a grid journal card and stapled it to the photo.  Simple.  Quick.  

And there you have it!  Week 18.  

Project Life Week 17

Wowsers!  17 weeks already?  Love it.  April 22 - 28.

Full spread:

I'm gonna be honest - I barely had enough photos.  Well, actually, I didn't have enough photos.  Hence, you see the art work on the bottom right.  Regardless, I really like how this turned out!

Left side, including a fun Before/After:

I didn't have enough - or the right - letters to spell out "before" so I went with the text short-cut version.

Around here we drink Starbucks (Yukon blend, of course) like we drink water.  I highlighted it:

Right side:

So I love office supply stores (hey Staples!) because they have fun pens and other goodies.  I used a Martha Stewart label for the picture below:

Here is #3's artwork I talked about above.  It was so cute I loved including it!

Short and sweet this week.  But there you have!  I'll be back next week with Weeks 18 and 19.

 

Project Life Week 15

I had this post all scheduled and ready to go.  But I wanted to take just a moment to say those in Oklahoma dealing with the aftermath of the tornado are in my heart and mind today.  I am wishing them a safe and speedy recovery.  If you'd like to do something, you can donate to the Red Cross.

On a lighter note...

I'm getting caught up...Welcome to week 15!  April 8th - 14th

Full spread:

I included both the hubby's and my race bib this week.  I just stuck them together so you can see it from the front and back.  I chose not to put it into a plastic page protector again because it's just so easy to do it this way.  Easy is good.

Here's the left side:

This page makes me happy.  I think it's all the green repeated throughout.  Green is one of my favorite colors!  (And pink.  Duh.)

This notecard below just happened to be the perfect size for the 6x4 pocket so naturally I had to include it!  I mean, seriously, how cute is that?!  Love #3.

I thought it was a fun idea to include the paint swatch that matched the walls of #2's room.  I just put a little asterick next to the color we used.  

Right side:

I just loved this Instagram shot I took of the big girls and their friends.  Since Instagram is only 4x4 I just put an inch of black on either side of the photo before printing.  (Basically, just opened a new canvas in Photoshop, Filled with black, and Moved my picture on top before flattening.)  I wanted to give it a little something-something so I added the glittered SONIC letters.  Fun!

I loved this picture of me and my "sole" sisters.  And I wanted to highlight it in some way.  Hence, the Ali Edwards-inspired rectangle and arrow.  

And of course I had to document my PR (personal record for those of you non-runners).  And what better way to do that then with green, sparkly stickers?

I'm still loving adding journaling using a bit of a journal card cut to size and adhered to the photo.  It's a great way to add just a little bit of oomph.

And there you have it.  Week 15 done!  

Project Life Week 14

Two days in a row!  I'm catching up, I tell ya!

Week 14.  I worried I wouldn't have enough photos and I have to say, I stretched it.  But it worked out, as usual.  I'm still loving this process.

I stuck the bib from my Bentonville half marathon in here.

Left side:

As you can see above, the bottom left picture shows our new dining chairs.  And below you can see the small journal card on the far left tells "their" story.  A story of compromise:

 

I used my trusty old Photoshop to add words to the photo below.  That is so easy because, print. Done.  I love that.  

 

And now for the right side:

I wish the hubby was better at taking pictures because this entire side documents our trip to Bella Vista but fails to touch on what the hubby and big girls were doing back here.  I suppose I'll have to lean on my girls to fill in when I'm gone.

I included this letter #3 wrote to my parents shortly after we left town.  I added the transcription notes so I'll remember what it says when I'm old and can no longer read 6-year-old writing:

It says, "I do not want to leave Arkansas because I had too much fun.  Bye Gamma.  Bye Papa."  Seriously, how sweet is that?!

Since I run with my iPhone, I had it handy and took a picture of the start of the half marathon:

I added the stickers to give it a little oomph.  I used two different kinds of stickers but thought it was a great way to use up letters or make up for missing letters in one set.

And finally, I added my race bib.  Since the material is somewhat silky and tear-resistent, I just threw it in here by itself rather than using a page protector.  Easy peasy.

And there you have it. One more week COMPLETE.  Score!