{happy halloween 2012}

Happy Halloween friends!! I hope that you are planning on having a fun, trick or treating, festive, and safe time today with the youngsters in your family.

My daughter is at school today preparing for her classroom trick or treating and Halloween party later today.  She is dressed as Rapunzel with combat boots; that's my girl :)

Sawyer and Daddy will be dressing up as Walt aka Heisenburg and Jesse from Breaking Bad. Sawyer is Walt, and Daddy is Jesse.

Today, Mama (that's me) is dressed up as Amy Winehouse for our "Rock On with the College of Education" Halloween and Preview Day theme.

Here's a little pic:

 

So Happy Halloween to all you guys out there!! I hope that you can get out tonight and trick or treat with the kiddos!!

Also, yesterday was the one year anniversary of the death of my grandmother Patricia Strickland.  Although saddened by her unexpected departure, we have many blessings and joys in our life to weather our grief. Thinking of you Gran. Love and miss you!

With Love,
Gabrielle Watson

{happy day}

Today my simple strategy for quick and beautiful layouts was featured on the Citrus Twist Kits blog.  I am a certified queen of simple and quick scrapbook page and spreads as I have such little time to craft!!

Feel free to hop on over to the Citrus Twist blog to see if my simple strategy to quick pages might help you to create beautiful layouts 30 minutes or less.

http://www.citrustwistkits.com/simple-strategies-by-gabi-watson/

On a personal note, my family had such a lovely weekend.  Friday night I stayed up till the wee hours in the morning putting together a scrapbook for a good friend who recently had a beatiful baby boy.  When this project is complete, I will be sure to post pictures.  I make a lot of mini scrapbooks for the women in my life who have children; maybe I should start a little business because I really love making these beautiful gifts, and they've become popular commodities amongst my girlfriends, lol.

Saturday my little brood attended Denton's Day of the Dead Festival - it was a lot of fun. There were vendors, music, coffin races, and trunk or treat for the kiddos; they even had a smallish pumpkin patch, so we took a couple pictures of the kids with pumpkins.  Harper was dressed in last year's Cinderella costume with leggings and long sleeves because it got COLD here this weekend, down in the 30s last night!! Isn't it crazy how it can be a high of 87 one day and BITTERLY cold at 35 the next!! Only in Texas :) Sawyer was dressed in his skeleton footie pjs with a skull hat. They rocked their costumes!! Also, Saturday was very busy for me as I took my car in got the oil changed, new wiper blades, new air filter, car wash, and I loaded it up with pumpkins before visiting my parents and relatives for a yummy Mexican fall feast :) we love Mexican food in this family, so we had enchiladas, guacamole, rice, and sopapilla cheesecake.

Sunday we went shopping at the updated JCPenney in Denton, and I was surprised at all the savings :) I seriously got some great warm weather outfits for both kids as Harper had NO warm weather clothes that still fit from last year, and Sawyer, well he's growing like a weed. All for under $100!! All of their blue ticketed items were an additional 30% off, so I got some GREAT deals on their clearence clothing!!

Here are the photos from the layouts I shared on the Simple Stratgeties blog for Citrus Twist Kits :)

Thanks for looking, and have a lovely week!! I know that I will since I'm in charge of getting the kids, house, and homework (finished) in order before our big weekend expedition to Austin/San Antonio!!

With Love,
Gabrielle Watson

{it's getting better all the time}

 

 

I feel good about it. I just did it.

I just dropped one of my classes for this semester.  I was enrolled in 6 hours of graduate work, but I was literally breaking my back and going to bed after midnight some nights (during the work week) only to wake up at 5:00 AM the next morning and do it all over again.

My husband made a good point.  What am I trying to prove?  I didn't have an answer for that.  I guess I was just trying to show that I can do it.  I can be a superwoman.  I can raise my kids, spend time with family, scrapbook, do homework, go to work Monday through Friday 7:40 AM to 5:00 PM, get dinner on the table, do the laundry... I can do it all, but I can't.  At least right now I can't.

I feel like I spend so much time worrying about school and not enough time doing the things I love. Some nights I just want to veg out in front of a movie with my lover - Gavin Watson. And sometimes I just want to draw pictures with my little girl.  Sometimes I just want to nurse my son, not be taking exams, etc.  AND sometimes I want to just sit down and get crafty!

Well now I'm going to. I am down to taking just one class this semester, and I am going to make the the most of it and put forth the effort to do well. Slow and steady wins the race.  Granted it will be a tough go for me bright things are on the horizon. 

Say a little prayer for me that I can be successful in my ONE class this semester.  I just want to focus on living my life, not barely living because I'm so stressed from school because it's always on the back of my mind.

 I will no longer feel guilty for playing rather than studying, and I will no longer feel guilty for studying when I'd rather be playing.

Do you have any obstacles that you are trying to overcome? Right now it's my pride and determination.  For me, honesty is admitting that I AM burned out on school right now.  I know what I want to do with my future, and yes, I need a master's degree to do it, but NOT right away.  I can totally be comfortable in the here and now.  I don't want to miss all the 'little' things going on in my life, especially in regards to my babies.  They grow up in the blink of an eye, and I already feel like I've missed so much with Harper because I was busy with my undergrad during her first 3 years of life.

It's time that I come clean to the world and myself. Thank you for your support my dear friends!!


Stop and Smell the Flowers by Gabrielle Watson - Made with Citrus Twist Kit "Tropical Heat" and patterned paper add on from August
Brads and sticker letters from my personal stash.

Here is a lovely layout of my beautiful girl stopping to smell the flowers and look through windows of the Downtown Denton Square. Maybe I should take a hint from her to just slow down.  Stop and smell the flowers mom :)

With Love,
Gabrielle Watson

{PL}

My lovely scrapper gals out there know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm jumping on the Project Life bandwagon, except, I'm doing this my own way.

I know that it's about quick and easy memory keeping for everyday.  It's a weekly thing, but I don't want to treat it as such.

My PL will just be a normal scrapbook of everyday events and special times too. I plan to scrap Sawyer's first year  this way. I think this will be GREAT for me, and I can still create LOs in the mean time, but all my photos won't be tied up in boxes anymore.

I found some lovely freebies on Becky Higgin's site, so feel free to download and use them if you are a Project Lifer. Also, the PL Page Protectors are sold on Amazon.


Looking forward to this weekend, I'm going to read, read, read for class, and THEN I'm going to scrapbook!! It's gonna be a LATE night!

With Love,
Gabrielle

[www.BeckyHiggins.com]

{past weekend and crops}

This weekend wasn't necessarily busy, but we got a lot of stuff done. 

• Cleaned the house from top to bottom, literally. I mean from fans to floors.
• Watched the Avengers
• Had a mommy-daughter date to see Hotel Transylvania and shopping at TJ Maxx and Old Navy
• Bought groceries
• Scrapbooked, a little
• Visited the library
• and Studied (how could I forget that...)

I felt accomplished.  Here is a sneak peak of my scrapbook table and layout that I finished this weekend.

Featuring Citrus Twist Kit - Tropical Heat (August 2012)

So everyone knows that I host monthly crops at my house now.  If you're local and want to sign up, please do... Scrap Happens - North Texas but I also like to travel to crops and retreats.  My favorite local retreats are Memory Lane Inn - McKinney and Elm Street Crafters Retreat - Denton, owned by my good friend Penni Abbot. Today I wanted to share with you a list of what I bring to crops and how I travel in style (or not)!

1. Pictures -  What would I do at crop without my pictures?! I guess make cards. I store mine at home in Iris Photo Keepers, which makes it very easy to see what I have and grab a few of the inserts to bring with me. You can generally get these very cheap at Michaels.

2. Paper Kits or Patterned Paper - I am currently subbing to Citrus Twist Kits, Gossamer Blue, and Scraptastic Kit Club. I keep my kits separated in a Scrapfolio. I have purchased these for cheap at Hobby Lobby. When I'm not traveling solely with kits, like to a retreat, I keep all my patterned paper organized in Iris Containers by brand.

3. Colored Cardstock - At home I store my cardstock by color in display dynamics, but for a crop, I'll keep them separated by color in a Scrapfolio.  Can you tell I love these things?

4. Tools/Adhesive/Pens - I like to keep all of my tools/adhesives/pens in a handy dandy tote with a handle. Right now I'm using a utensil organizer instead of my old bulky tool organizer. The tools I keep with me are: paper trimmer, scissors, journaling pens, white pen, ruler, atg gun, pop dots, glue dots, and a glue pen.

5. Ribbon/Embellishments/Stickers/Thickers - I have a large old Creative Memories tote that my mom gave me. I use it to transport all of my ribbons, embellishments, and rub ons which I keep organized by pattern (ribbon) and brand (embellies) in small ziploc baggies.  I transport my stickers/Thickers in a small Sterilite container.

6. Laptop/Punches/Inspiration Mags - I use my rolling bag to hold my computer, punches, and inspiration folder and magazines. I also put my larger tools in this bag as well, whatever will fit.  Also my inks and cords have a place in the front pocket.  It is a small bag from Michaels. Eventually I might invest in a larger bag with more space or something else, haven't though much about it.

7. Cameo - I just carry my cameo machine! I don't go anywhere without it!

And I think I've got it all covered! Yay!! I hope this list helps you to travel a bit lighter...just maybe. I seems to have lightened the load quite a bit for myself.

Have a lovely Monday!!

With Love,

Gabrielle Watson