Get Inspired

Disclaimer: There are a lot of layouts here....BUT only because I had the privilege of attending a weekend long crop. I have to manage expectations here for future pep rallies. I think what I enjoyed the most about this kit were the little square that I cut out. They worked with my love of grid layouts. At first they seemed a little feminine but I was able to work them into my boyish layouts.

My cousin's at the beach - I love this pink rose and chevron paper. These girls are awesome too. Makes me wish I had a sister.

Here's another summer photo. This is 4th of July at Coney Island.

My mom and her cousin when they came to this country and then Mother's Day 2014.

The next 3 are from our Christmas card photo shoot in the park. a few weeks back. These are the proofs. I never let a good pohto go to waste. If you haven't noticed from these photos and others, my son is quite the ham. 

Bonus  layouts

       

Hope you enjoyed my project marathon. Mosy on over to Tyra's blog and have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Clique Kits
Gia
Jody
Erica
Lacey
Marcia
Mariah
Rosann
Tyra
Charity
Allie
Kat 
Aliza 
Nicole
Stephanie
Sarah
Carolina
Danielle
Cassandra
Alisha 
Donna

What Makes October Great

I am so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers--L.M. Montgomery from Anne of Green Gables

The Clique Kits crew has done it again. And the prompt is fabulous. There were so many titles to  choose from! October in the City....Hello October....I  {heart} October. In my house football, baseball and Halloween mean October.

Enjoy the rest of the hop and see you in November.

Clique Kits
Gia
Jody
Erica
Lacey
Stephanie
Rosann
Cassandra
Charity
Alisha 
Regina 
Wendy
Marcia
Mariah
Tyra
Allie
Kat 
Aliza 
Nicole
Stephanie
Donna
Carolina
Danielle
Cassandra
Sophie

Be Daring, Be Different, Be Impractical....

It's Hispanic Heritage Month and I decided to scrap about women who I admire and view as DARING and DIFFERENT and IMPRACTICAL in a good way!

Last week, I had the privilege of hosting a Q&A between students and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor at my job. I have so much admiration and awe for this woman. I thought I was going to lose it when we took these photos. She's from the Bronx, like me. She's Hispanic, like me. And it makes us Latinas feel like we can do anything we put our minds to. We have a role model to prove it.

This next layout is of my cousin. She is DARING. I mean look at that gorgeous face and hair under that uniform and equipment. She's the only girl on her team, and I'm pretty sure, in the league. I'll have to call her mom and ask. I find her so so awesome. If girls like her are our future, we are in good shape. I tried to get creative and used the white space to draw fake football plays. There's a little note at the bottom right that says, "These aren't hugs and kisses."

Enjoy the rest of the blog hop.

Clique Kits
Gia
Jody
Erica
Lacey
Stephanie
Rosann ----> You are here
Next stop ---->Tyra
Danielle
CharityCassandra
Sarah
Alisha
Mariah

Wild and Free

Hello, Hello Everyone,
So glad to be here this month, but oh so sad that it's the end of summer. I have so many summer photos to scrap so I'll just have to keep scrapping summer throughout the fall to extend the season.

So this month I did 2 layouts and a card. I hope you enjoy. I'll start with the card which is really only done with some scrap as the the background paper. The rest of the stuff are left over goodies from previous kits. I really loved this green paper and I wanted to use every strip and scrap I had left. The card is for my boss's bday, a lady I greatly admire. I want it to represent her as a classic beauty and a classy lady. I just hope she doesn't take the vintage look as a your-getting-old card...because that's not how I mean it. So if it reads that way, tell me so I can make her something different.

#hehatesselfies

Next is a layout from my birthday. It happened to fall on a Saturday and we made dinner plans at The Palm Restaurant in Tribeca with 2 other couples....our partners in crime for years. In any case, I was feeling pretty and I experimented with blue eye shadow (which I NEVER do)...but hey I'm 43 so why should I care what anyone thinks anymore right? So there's the photo bomber in the background giving me all his 'tude and huffin' and puffin' about being photographed. He hates being in pictures. I mean hates it. As you can tell, I didn't care. "Say Cheese, honey!" I probably should have made the title bigger but oh well. I was fine with the look of it overall. I think the photos speak for themselves. He is genuinely annoyed! Hilarious.

Sun Kissed

Finally here's a layout from just last week at Coney Island. I really liked how the sun rays streaked the photo, by no fault or plan of my own. I put a soft, little filter on it and used a free app to add a doodled frame, the title and some lips. It's a classic bye-bye-summer, bye-bye-beach photo. Unlike his father, my son LOVES to be in pictures, he loves to take pictures and he absolutely loves taking selfies. A boy after my own heart. Loving the pink and green and polka dots. 

Thanks for visiting. Here's the rest of the line up. So mozie (is that how you spell that?) on over to Tyra as she's the last stop on the hop. Enjoy these last 2 weeks of summer and hopefully I'll see you in September.

Clique Kits

Gia

Jody

Erica

Lacey

Katie

Sarah

Cassandra

Stephanie

Mariah

Danielle

Alisha

Charity

Madge

Rosann ------- ME

Tyra -------- NEXT

Captured on Film

I am so loving the trend around old school cameras and photography. And this month's kit is right on trend and one of my faves.

Luckily for me our newest addition to the family came to visit. My son loved being with his cousin and insisted on feeding him everyday and taking lots of pictures with him. My husband and I are in trouble because he's been insisting on a sibling. But that's for another blog post. :)

We spent 5 days in Disney this month and we had a great time. The next two layouts are from that trip.

Thanks for stopping by. Next check out Tess's page.

Clique Kits
Gia
Jody
Erica
Lacey
Madge
Mariah
Danielle
Alisha
Tyra
Charity
Cassandra
Rosann - YOU ARE HERE
Tess - NEXT STOP
Sarah

Show and Tell Your Favorite Things

I always did love show and tell and I don't think that has changed much. I know they aren't "things" but my show and tell are the students I work with everyday at my college. They come from all walks of life and most don't come from much, but they strive and they persevere.

One of the things I love about NYC is street art. I am not talking about messy and vandalizing graffiti, but genuine street art that is either commissioned or done with the proper permission. It always take a familiar approach and always feels like you can relate to it, at least to me. 

I hope you enjoyed today's show and tell. Now head on over to Sayne's blog to see what's in store.

Clique Kits
Gia
Jody
Erica
Lacey
Stephanie
Madge
Charity
Rosann
Shayne
Alisha
Danielle
Tyra
Tess
Cassandra
Mariah

Be Brave

This month's Clique Kits theme and challenge is BE BRAVE. May is the perfect month to express that sentiment...at least for me. First, I had the honor of participating in John Jay College's Justice Awards Ceremony. It was beautiful and the honoree was Elie Wiesel. He epitomizes what it means to be brave. His message was simple: being brave is as simple as as remembering what has happened so that it doesn't happen again. Being brave means NOT being a bystander. His storytelling is brave. His message is brave. His life story is one of bravery.

My next layout is not so noble. It's more UN-BRAVE than anything else. I was celebrating an old friend's birthday in a Cigar Lounge on a Saturday evening!!!! That was my first mistake. I gave in to the peer pressure and tried a cigar. It was fun while I was there. But then it caught up to me. I got extremely sick the next day and wasn't fully recovered even by Monday. Can you say, Never Again?!? Don't let the photos fool you. That was in the moment. I didn't take photos Sunday. Just say no to all tobacco.

Thanks for stopping by. You are at the end of the road. If you started here, make your way back to Clique Kits. I know you can't wait to see what June has in store. I know I can't.

Clique Kits

Gia
Jody
Erica
Lacey
Sophie
Brooke
Madge
Charity
Gina
Rosann

Presenting Clique Kits

I am super excited and proud of my Memory Works sisters for taking the cricut machine by the horns and plunging into entreprenerial madness. Sadly, Memory Works closed on December 31, 2013. But happily, these ladies are quickly filling the void that MW left behind. Congratulations and I am so happy to be part of the clique.

The challenge was to use the Debutante kit, CliqueKits inaugural collection, and share a little bit about who I am. I SOOO LOVE the bright, rich colors...perfect for spring. Here's a layout that describes me to a T - NYC Girl, featuring Debutante. These selfies are right before I was on my way to do a presentation and I was happy with the hair, makeup and outfit - a rare trifecta.

In this next layout, I show my son going from training wheels to a cool green machine. Summer, here we come. And of course, he is a big part of who I am.

Finally, I made a quick layout (15 minutes) using some of the scraps from the above layouts to document my son's karate classes right now. The children at his level are learning how to wield a bokken, or wooden sword. When I heard that this was the next step in his training, I was a little shocked and scared. It may not be a blade, but that thing can do some damage if you're not careful. Either way, he loves his karate classes and they have really been good for him.

To see more from the fabulous clique, check out their blogs.

Clique Kits
Gia
Jody
Erica
Lacey
Danielle
Brooke
Madge
Gina
Charity
Rosann

Catching up with Project Life

February 2014

March 2014

Party All the Time

Tonight I had the honor of being a guest on Give Your Photos Stories Podcast. It was so much fun to record it and to speak to the women who were part of the panel of guests: Marcia Fortunato and Gretchen Henninger. The host, Debbie Hodge, owns getitscrapped.com and is so wonderful at what she does.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to take photos and look at photos. I am the family member that wants to get all of the family photos when no one else wants them. And I am the nosy relative who wants every detail about the photo. Who is in it? Why are they dressed that way? Where were they going and why were they going there? So the opportunity to talk about some of my photos was right up my alley.

The podcast topic was parties. As I looked through my photos and layouts, I realized that there have been a lot of parties in my life both as a child and as an adult. And today, I love planning parties.

Here are some of the photos I highlighted in the podcast along with their stories.

Here's a layout of a photo from my 2nd birthday. I'm surrounded by my uncles, a cousin, my grandparents and my dad whose head is cut off at the top of the photo. The 2nd photo is my 3rd birthday. Same group. Can you tell what decade it was? What girl doesn't love to be the center of attention? And for a little while, I was the only grandchild/niece. I was the first American-born grandchild and these photos are representative of how tight-knit our family was and still is. I feel so fortunate to have photos like this. It makes me so very nostalgic.

And who doesn't remember the parties in the classroom? My parents would take the day off (or half a day) to cut a cake for me at my school.

My parents were really into taking photos of the big moments. I can document almost every birthday party I have ever had with at least one photo. Below is a two-page layout of 4 birthday parties over the years.

Here I am in the last bash I planned, my 40th, birthday. 40 is the new 30, just in case you weren't sure.

Finally, I cannot talk about a party without mentioning my baby shower. I didn't have a formal, fancy wedding but I did have a baby shower with over 150 guests. It was the group of people who would have been at my wedding if I had one! It's also where I received my first scrapbook. It was the beginning of the end. Here, 2 of my very good friends from drove all the way from Albany, NY to attend my shower!

Now my life is full of kiddie parties. And I wouldn't have it any other way.