Scrap Haps

I know I haven't updated this thing in (what feels like) ages, and for that I am sorry. Lately, life has been full of moving, unpacking, reorganizing, readjusting, schooling, settling, goodwill and craigslist hunting...and of course, a little bit of scrapbooking. I plan to update you on the (not-too-exciting) adventures of our move in a later post, but for right now I need to make some **important** announcements for the digiscrap world (that's my disclaimer to skip this post for those of you not interested in my scrapbooking hobby).

First, Funky Playground Designs closed on March 1st, but will re-open under new management as of April 1, 2010. This means they are looking for a fantastic and fabulous NEW design crew:

With the temporary closing of Funky Playground Designs, my CT commitments have changed a little. Sadly, Leah is no longer designing (bummer...but I totally understand and respect her decision to take a break) and I made the difficult decision to step down from Miss Tiina's creative team. I am planning to stay on the FPD CT through the new transition, but I am also trying to expand my horizons in the digiworld. So, I applied for a position on the ScrapMatters Site CT and amazingly, I got it!!

I have been guest creating for the Design Girl, an amazingly talented designer who sells at ScrapMatters. AND, I was also asked to join Sarah Bennett's creative team, a fabulous designer who I met at FPD but now sells exclusively at ScrapMatters.

I am still creating for Rachael, who actually has a new kit that will be released on Friday...here's a sneak peek of the fabulousness to come:

Final announcement/change is that I'm participating on the CT for HodgePodgeArt, a very cool blog site that aims to provide creative scrapbooking inspiration. Each week, there is a new scrapbooking challenge and chance to win fabulous prizes and gift cards from some of the most talented designers in the digital scrapbooking community! The challenge theme for the new year is to create an All About Me book using the ABC's and various journal prompts as inspiration....which means, you'll be seeing a few more pages of me than you have in the past.

While I don't expect you to remember all of this...goodness knows I have a hard enough time keeping it straight most of the time, I guess I just wanted to share how excited I am for the recent changes in my scrapbooking life. I honestly LOVE scrapbooking. It's a type of therapy for me - scrapping about the little, everyday things and photos really helps put things in perspective for me. And, since I don't have the time or space to sprawl out and make paper creations like I used to, I have chosen to embrace the digital scrapbooking world. I'll admit, it's not quite the same as the 3D, cutting and pasting and clipping and inking that I LOVE, but it is what works for me right now...and it's nice to have something that I can do for ME.

Anyway, that's enough of my rambling...thanks for sticking with me this far! Guess the only thing left to do is share my latest scrapping creations (and by latest, I guess I mean all pages since my last scrap haps post on January 12...yikes!)

For the Creations by Rachael CT

For the previous FPD CT and Blog Challenges

Layouts Just Because

For the Hodge Podge Art Blog Challenges

For the Design Girl

For Sarah Bennett Designs

For the ScrapMatters CT, Speed Scraps, and Forum Challenges

Thanks for looking!! I hope you enjoyed my latest creations...

MIA...

Well, if you're reading this then that means you haven't given up on us completely. THANK YOU! You have no idea how much that means to me right now...seriously.

While the four of us have been MIA for a little while, I just wanted to say that we finally get to move into our rental home on Monday. YIPPEE!! Once are moved in and settled, I really hope to get back into a routine that will allow me to post more regularly. Until then, don't lose faith in us. We may be absent from the blogging/virtual world, but we have kept each of you close in our thoughts.

Take care!! (and please pray that we have a DRY moving day on Monday...as much as I love the rain, that would not be a good day for a storm to break loose).

New Years in AZ...

For New Year's, we spent a week in Arizona at Doug's sister's house...it was especially fun, because everyone on the Hoopes side was out there for it. We had a New Year's eve party, where the kids exchanged cousins gifts and the adults exchanged DI gifts and had an ugly sweater contest. It was hilarious (especially my wicked, cool dance moves) - and we all had a lot of fun ringing in the new year.

While we were out there, we also managed to get some family pictures (thank you Bethany and Brandon), but since I don't have access to any of those at the moment, I'll share the candid shots (a.k.a. amateur) I snapped with my camera.

AK

Roo

Hoopes cousins

Papa and his girls


Chatting with Uncle Dan

Me and my girls

Da Boys

Christmas Pics...

As promised, here are some pics from our Christmas morning/day/festivities...I still haven't figured out how to get the videos to upload, so these photos will have to suffice for now.

Roo

AK

AK

Roo

AK

Roo

Roo

AK - getting her zen on

The most handsome guy I know

AK

Roo