Photography by Alison, San Diego Family photographer

The boys and I went to see Teanna and Savannah today… old friends/neighbors when we lived at the beach.  Teanna and I were pregnant with Tucker and Savannah at the same time.  There was a summer when the kids were just turning one… I wasn’t pregnant with Dallon yet and I don’t think Teanna and I were taking any classes.  But that summe was perfect.  So fulfilling.  We would go to the beach all the time and mostly at dusk it seemed.  The dads would dig big sand holes and the kids would run around naked.  It was just such a satisfying time for me.  This is a picture of Tucker, Savannah and Eamon (our other friends/neighbors who had a baby right when we did) that PJ (Joe’s brother) drew from a picture for Joe and I.  This picture just perfectly captures that time for me. 

It was great to see them again.  Teanna is pregnant with a little boy and we took a few minutes to take some pregnancy pictures.  Next month, we will do some more and take some more time to do them:)  Here is my favorite picture from today.

I have been away so much lately that I barely remember how to post here:P  Remember when I seemed to have it all together… just a few short weeks ago?  Remember how I was doing dinners at the dinner table, boys limited in tv and video games, playing with them, having the neighbor kids over, house cleaned up most of the time, on top of my game???? 

Well it’s not like that anymore!  After being gone for almost three weeks straight, I couldn’t even remember what my routine was.  Did I make dinner?  What time did I wake up?  What do I do everyday.  It sounds crazy, but that is seriously what was going through my head.  And now I have been back for a week and I still can’t figure it out.

We have been an eating out family since my return.  It doesn’t help that a project I turned into a EK over a year ago and have been waiting for them to give the go ahead, has finally been given the go ahead with a time frame of 3 weeks.  I’m a little stressed about it.  So my mental energy and time are all going to that.  We did pull off a five hour game of Monopoly last night.  I’m still here a little:P

So for anyone out there who thought I was near perfect, now you know… i can only last for a few weeks at best;)  I am figuring a few things out though.  Every few 2-3 months, I get a big project with EK and I am in this situation where everything seems to go on hold while I work.  But I know that I need breaks during the design process and usually my breaks would be surfing the internet or checking emails or something.  But now I am realizing that going to the beach for a few hours, or a bike ride, or a game with the boys is actually a lot better.  So when they come in and ask to do something, I say yes instead of feeling bogged down with the looming deadline.  That is different for me, anyway. 

Some good news, I am having to figure out a lot of stuff I don’t know how to do in my graphics programs with this new project. I am figuring out cool stuff.  I made my first font in illustrator… drawing the letters with the tools.  Not only did I do it, but I made a cute one.  It is very exciting for me.  It helps with my problem of what fonts to use when I am designing a scrapbook line… because you can’t just use any font you want.  And the ones you can use aren’t always that cute or they cost a lot to be able to use.  It is an exciting break through for me:)  I could barely fall asleep last night I was so excited (for reals).

It never occured to me to post my product lines.  This one came out in April or May and is called Simply Weathered.  It was presented to EK in the Fall of 2003 so it doesn’t look so fresh and cool at the moment;)… but I still like it:)

The paper whole line has a texture but it basically consists of paper which is either crackle or a brush stroke simply look, frames, corners, rub ons (that fit the frames), and alphabet stickers.  I really like subdued layouts so this product works well for me:)  I’ll post Fresh and Funky which came out last Summer one of these days.  It has some really cute stuff in it.