Five for Friday

1. The weather has been gorgeous lately! Seriously, this is the nicest, longest fall we've ever enjoyed. Taking advantage of this nice weather, we've been going for walks lately. Here are some pictures that I took two weeks ago, around the lake near our house...


(Austin took this one of me.)







I often travel at the back of the pack, so I take quite a few shots from behind...



LOVE this one...

.... and this one!

This one is great, too! There's just something about fall lighting...

And last weekend, we went for a walk in the Pembina Valley with friends from church. We had such a great time! And, my friend, Mary, took this nice family photo of the five of us...




2. My name was on the list of winners for the Pink Paislee WCMD challenges that I participated in last weekend! Super excited to get some Pink Paislee goodies in the mail!


3. Sage got some birthday money from my mom and decided that she wanted to use it to get her ears pierced. I was all for it. This was actually the subject of one of my very first conversations with Sage-- she was a couple of hours old and I was holding her in the hospital. It was just the two of us & I remember saying how we would go for pedicures together and that I would take her to get her ears pierced. (Can you tell that I was excited to have a girl after my two boys?) And now, seven short years later, she was ready.

I took her to a salon in town and she got to pick out her studs (the sleepers weren't pretty enough!) Here's the before shot (doesn't she look excited?)


She did great! I think it hurt a little more than she was anticipating, but she was such a trooper. And the end result:


Her little ear lobes are so close to her head, you actually can't see them when you look at her straight on.

But, yeah, she's thrilled.


4. I wanted to share the layout that I made for a challenge at Scrapping Everyday Miracles. (This is, by the way, the last challenge I will be participating in as a part of their design team as I decided not to continue on for another term.) Jeannine provided me with the hardest challenge yet-- creating a layout that celebrates the miracle of grandparents. This challenge was hard for me, because I didn't have a great relationship with my grandma. I found it hard to journal about the "miracle" of a relationship with her. So, instead, I decided to focus on God and how wonderful He is and how He can break destructive family cycles and bring life.

Here's my layout:


I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic white, aqua mist, simply chartreuse) & die (limitless layers), The Girls's Paperie patterned paper and Fancy Pants (pink) and October Afternoon (green) letter stickers. The fabric brad is Basic Grey.

Here's a close up of the journaling:


And another close up:



5. And lastly (are you still reading? Sorry for the long post!), a card I made this week:


For this card, I used PTI cardstock (fine linen, ocean tides), stamps (Think Big Favourites #4) and dies (Fillable Frames #10, Mat Stack #1, Bloom Builders #3). I also used Cosmo Cricket patterned paper.

Thanks for looking!