A brand new Ella Sketch and a brand new kit

See, for a while I've been checking out Cocoa Daisy. Looking at their kits, reading the blog, following the designers. But, thought I, "I'm not one of those scrapbooking kit club people." Except that now I am. I finally took the plunge, and got a 6 month subscription to Cocoa Daisy. My first kit arrived on Saturday, and I got to work with it by Saturday night.

It's nice to have new supplies to work with. It gets the juices flowing. I want to work fast and make as much as I can before the novelty wears off. And, since more supplies are coming in a month, I've got to use it up before I get overloaded with stuff.

So without further ado, with the help of the September Cocoa Daisy kit , some Prima paper, and some Basic Grey stickers from my stash, I bring the latest in the series:

I love how simple these sketches are.  Here's my take:

Another layout trying to capture every morsel of this summer's trip to Israel. 

Same place, different kid, different color scheme

I'm not done talking about Israel yet. I'm still thinking about our amazing trip to Caesaria. It was from those pictures that I made this layout that I used for Ella Stretch Your Sketch.

The photos of Max at the beach, made me think about how he has grown and matured. See how pensive he looks? I wrote all about some of those changes in those little journaling blocks. As for scrapbooking:  I used some gorgeous Basic Grey paper, brads, and stickers to compliment the blues of the sky and the ocean.

Compare that to this little fella:

When I showed Dave this picture of Sam, from the same trip to the same beach,  Dave said, "That is so Sam." Always ready to take on the world, no matter how big it is. When I started this layout, I had other photos, and again looked to oranges and blues to compliment the amazing blues in the photo. But, I found this photo captured so much, that I left it by itself, and added as little color, and as few words as possible. I started with some American Crafts paper in the back, and then layered on some Basic Grey beauties. And, nothing would be complete without a butterfly or two, or three, thrown in for good measure.

Brother and Sister

See these two?

That's my niece and nephew, Joey and Meital. Joey is six, and Meital is four. For two siblings close in age they get along smurfingly well.

One evening while sitting in my sister's home, Joey sat at the table, saying: "You know what? Meital is stupid." And Meital said, "I'm not stupid. You're stupid." And Joey said, "No. Meital is stupid, because she farts a lot." As this kind of discourse went on, my sister said, "That's how I know Joey is tired. When he is mean to Meital. Because otherwise, he would never be mean to her." Which is a pretty good deal, I have to say. And, anyway, you can;t get too mad at someone who looks like this:

some craftiness

It was a bit daunting to get back to crafting. I had a strange fear that I wouldn't have any more ideas anymore. What if I forgot how?! But, nothing like a deadline and a sketch to help jump start one's creativity.

First up is a Rosh Hashana card with my handy dandy, and ever so lovely Crafting Jewish Style kit. Keep an eye on their blog for more cards in the coming weeks. Really all the elements are so beautiful, and look great together that it is almost too easy.

And I made it just in the nick of time for another Ella Stretch Your Sketch:

And my take:

When there's nothing good on TV...

So after a day of  exploring ancient ruins in Caesaria, swimming in the pool, eating a decadent, and extremely carnivorous dinner, we headed back to our hotel room to watch some TV before bed. We weren't expecting anything fancy, just a little something to allow us to do nothing for a while. But, alas, there was not one decent show on TV there.

But there was a Spanish soap opera...tele-novella...tv show...? I don't know what it was. It was in Spanish. But I do know that it had a low production value, and some cowboys. Dave managed to create an entire made up story line which he narrated as we all watched.

I don't really recall all the details. Something about a cowboy hat, a mustache, missing donuts, and a man whose sister was horse. What I do remember is that it was very funny.

And sweet.

And somewhere in there is a moral about using your imagination.

rocks and stones

I'm not sure why, but I have a thing for rocks. I buy those bags of them in Ikea, and I put them all over my home. I have been known to pocket rocks from beaches and parks, and sometimes that is definitely against the rules. But I can't resist the colors and shapes  and feel of them. On this trip to Israel, I tried to capture my love of rocks in photos, rather than in my backpack.

Observe:

So, another lovely thing about Israel is that lots of buildings- new, old, and ancient, are made from stone. And I love them. The older and crumblier the better. We visited Caesaria, a small town (no street names, even) on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, where ancient Roman ruins abound.

And against the blue sky, those old rocks look beautiful. Every time.

And I would be a remiss scrapbooker if I didn't include the stories of that day. Sam was actually pretty hot, tired, and cranky during a lot of the sightseeing. But, really the sights were too magnificent  for us to rush through on his behalf. In the middle, though, we bought some ice cream, and that gave him a boost for at least an hour. And then even he couldn't contain how cool it all was. As for all the climbing, well, it wasn't very well labeled. Some places seemed to be open to the public to go in and out and up and down, and others not. Once we found a sign after the fact, asking us to please keep out. Oops. So, Max and Dave loved the history, I loved the stones, Sam loved to climb, and who can't be enamored by the sheer scale of some things?

I mean look at him! He's huge!

Next up: What to do when you get back to the hotel, eat an amazing and decadent dinner, and then find out that absolutely NOTHING is on TV?

Welcome Back!

I am welcoming myself back to America, and back to blogging after a 3 week hiatus. As I said in my last post, I went into complete Bar Mitzvah preparation mode. In those 3 weeks I bought paper goods, hired a caterer, made centerpieces and place cards, designed benchers, re-designed benchers, bought more paper goods, met with the waitresses, and all while also traveling a bit with Dave and the kids. Oh, and we celebrated Max's Bar Mitzvah.

So now I must face the task of going through about 1,000 pictures, and try to get back into scrapping mode. I have no pictures of the Bar Mitzvah itself; for that I hired a photographer, and I can't wait to see those.

So how to sort through 7 weeks of vacation photos?
Well, I'll start like this:
There are photos of:

Old Things:

And New Things:

Big Things:

And Small Things:

Red Things:

And Blue Things:

Things that Crawl:

And things that Fly:

And now it's time to say goodbye.

What will I do next?