Give Thanks in November Day #6

     

We have already highlighted our gratitude for our families, but today we are going to highlight another special group of people in our lives.  For day #6 we want to show how grateful we are for wonderful FRIENDS!

Have a great and wonderful friend who will stick by you no matter what?  If you are fortunate to have a true friend, treasure that relationship because they are not easy to come by.  Some people are not fortunate enough to have a strong family relationship and in some cases these friendships turn into a family.  No matter what, friends are an amazing part of our lives.  They are there to laugh with you in the hilarious moments and to wipe your tears during life's trying times.

I personally have been blessed with having a friend that we have literally been friends our whole lives.  Our mother's were friends and had us within a week of each other.  We went through our entire childhood, all the way through school, and remain good friends even after we got married and started our own families.  I would have loved to do a layout a with her, but we are in the process of moving and I didn't have any fun, older photos with us.  So I decided to kind of cheat and make a layout of my sister and me.  She is not only my awesome sister, but she is one of my best friends!  I decided to use a getting some work done photo and a glam shot of us at our cousin's wedding.  For this layout I used one of Aimee Harrison's sample layouts as my inspiration to create this page from scratch using her Kindred Spirits Collection.

Here are some other friend oriented kits that are just right for those cherished memories!

Be sure to follow us and check in tomorrow for #7!

Have a great day!

Love, Carly

Give Thanks in November Day #5

    

We are continuing our gratitude journey and today, day #5, we are going to focus on the wonderful world around us and our ability to experience it through TRAVEL!

When you travel it affects you in so many different ways that I think some people really don't take a moment to really think about it.  When traveling we get to experience wonderful foods, new cultures, awe-inspiring views, different points of view, and so many other things!  While it is always wonderful to be home, when we travel we get to experience things that we may not be able to when staying at home.  I am also personally grateful for the different view points I am introduced to when traveling and meeting new people.  Traveling really opens up your connection to humanity.

Another awesome thing about traveling is the many different modes of transportation you can use to get from Point A to Point B!  Soar in a jet, roll along in a car, cut through the water on a cruise, pedal your way through the countryside on a bicycle, or ride the rails on a train.

This summer our family went on a cross country RV trip which was really exciting considering my husband and I had NEVER driven an RV before!  We experienced so many things that I am so grateful for and met some of the most wonderful people!  There were too many pictures to choose from, especially considering we could easily take up a 100 page photobook of our adventures!  There were wonderful moments, stressful moments (try realizing that you are not in the RV parking lot at Niagara Falls just as you entered it with a line of cars behind you), frustrating moments (speaking of grateful, you realize how grateful you are for a flushing toilet once your toilet no longer flushes!), and memories we will never forget!  To highlight our more casual memories I used quick pages from the RV Road Trip Collection by Sugar Moon Designs.

Here are some other travel oriented kits that are just right for those wanderlust memories!

Be sure to follow us and check in tomorrow for #6!

Have a great day!

Love, Carly

Give Thanks in November Day #4

   

We are showing our gratitude for basic human functions today!  For day #4 we are going to highlight catching some ZZZs with some SLEEP!

After being up late last night, I figured why not highlight something that I can personally relate to its importance!  Sleep is such a critical part of our health and it is amazing how it is an essential component to us as humans!  Lack of sleep obviously affects your energy, your mood, it can be a contributor to weight gain and stress, and you generally are just not the most pleasant person to be around when you haven't had enough sleep!

Now one of my favorite things about sleep...holding a sleeping baby!  Having a sleeping baby on you is one of the most effective ways to relax.  So effective that practically every time a baby fell asleep in my husbands arms you would look over five minutes later and there he was asleep as well.  I could fill an entire photobook just with photos of my husband sleeping with a sleeping baby in his arms!

 Naturally when putting together a layout I had to have a photo of my husband and a sleeping baby.  For today's layout I used the quick pages from Scraps N Pieces' Sweet Dreams Collection.

Here are some other sleep oriented kits that are perfect for snoozing moments!

Be sure to follow us and check in tomorrow for #5!

Have a great day!

Love, Carly

Give Thanks in November Day #3

  

A new day, a new thing to be thankful for!  For day #3 we are going to highlight our precious MEMORIES!

Can you imagine going through life without being able to remember all of the moments that make up our lives as a whole?  I am so grateful for the ability to recall some of my most cherished memories which include special holidays as a child, school dances with friends, my graduation, my wedding, the birth of my children, tender moments with my grandparents, and many wonderful trips.

Not only does our mind help us with keeping these memories safe, but we also have the wonderful invention of the camera so we can create timeless keepsakes with those captured memories to not only remember for ourselves but to share with others!

 I thought it would be fun to go back in time a bit and share a family photo of my brother, sister and me from the 80s (I am the baby).  One thing I remember as a kid you didn't have unlimited opportunities to take photos so your mom would say alright let's make this a good one because it is the last photo on the roll.  We never got family photos very often, being a mother myself now I understand why, they can be expensive and a lot of work getting it organized and keeping everyone happy!  Because we didn't get them often I really prize the ones that we have!  For this layout I used the Sweet Memories Collection from Florju Designs.

Here are some other memories oriented kits that are perfect for timeless moments!

Be sure to follow us and check in tomorrow for #4!

Have a great day!

Love, Carly

Give Thanks in November Day #2

 

A new day, a new thing to be thankful for!  For day #2 we are going to highlight having a place to call HOME!

Having a home is such a daily blessing and I think it is easy to take that for granted.  A house is a huge thing to be grateful for and one that has so many other little blessings connected to it such as warmth when it is cold, a dishwasher (for some), a roof that hopefully doesn't leak, electricity that you can turn on just by the flick of the switch, indoor plumbing, a cozy place to sleep at night, and so many other things!

But even more than having a material home, having a safe place that you share with loved ones is so important!  We are always telling our kids, a house is an address, and a home is wherever we all are.

No matter what your home looks like, big or small, colorful, in the city or out in the country, we have so many beautiful home kits that will make it easy to create cozy home layouts just perfect for your coffee table!

Below I have decided to scrap our two wonderful homes that we have had the pleasure of living in.  The one on the right, my husband and I purchased right before we got married.  We lived in it for 9 wonderful years and then built our house on the left.  I loved our new house, but I had such a hard time letting our old house go...it was like it was a part of the family!  For this layout I used the quick page pack from Kristmess Designs' Home Tweet Home Collection.

Here are some other home oriented kits that are perfect for those cozy moments spent at home!

Be sure to follow us and check in tomorrow for #3!

Have a great day!

Love, Carly