Sorry---it's been a while.

Ok, so it has been a LONG time since I have posted...sorry! It has been busy. Plus, my laptop broke (which is the one I usually blog on since I can do it upstairs while watching the kiddos). It is in the process of getting fixed, thank goodness! Anyway, here is what we have been up to since February:

Visited Angie and Rich in Colorado for another scrapbook weekend (last time in their apartment as they bought a house-yay!).

Finished renovating the building, had an Open House and have held some crops this summer in the new 'studio'.

Keaton finished her kindergarten year, did awesome at her dance recital (featuring ballet, tap, and clogging). She is now taking a cooking class and doing swimming lessons and overall enjoying what summer has to offer.

Mallory turned 3. This summer she moved into her own big girl room (more on that later). She is signed up for preschool this fall!

I said goodbye to my "boys" Remmington and Owen, who I watched in the mornings during the school year. 8 (

Enjoyed a visit from Katie and Family during Easter, John and Family during the 4th, and this weekend will be enjoying a visit from Shea and Family. 8 )

I got to meet Sarah Palin and get a photo taken with her in May. I did this at an event called Preserving American Liberty in Kansas City, where I got to see JC Watts, Fred and Jeri Thompson, Sarah Palin and others speak. Awesome!!!

Held a huge garage sale, getting rid of lots of baby stuff (yep, think we are done). It was quite successful. 8 )

Repainted the upstairs bathroom. Repainted the guest room to make it into Mallory's new room. Repainted the nursery to be a new playroom. Moved playroom upstairs. Repainted old playroom and moved my scraproom into it. Repainted my old scraproom and moved Dan's office into it. Repainted main floor bathroom. Done painting for a long while. 8 )

That is all I can think of now...it has been such a great and busy summer! Next weekend, we are heading to Colorado to go to Dan's 20 year reunion and for Dan to play in the annual Two Angels Fundraising Golf Tournament. I will check in again soon and add some pics!

Weekends at Angie's...

About every 3 months or so I drive out to Denver and spend the weekend scrapbooking with Angie. I recently just went over Valentine's Weekend, where we shared a heart pizza (thanks to her husband Rich who let me crash the romantic holday). 8 )

We literally do nothing but scrapbook, eat, sleep and occasionally shop (no-not us!). I LOVE these weekends. I even love the drive-it is so nice and quiet. 8 ) By Monday I am missing the fam and ready to come home, but I truly cherish these weekends with such a special friend.

Valentine Project

I made this yesterday. I saw the idea on Ali Edward's blog http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/ and I totally love it! 8 )

I used a vintage frame I had purchased from Goodwill for $2 and I plan to reuse it and switch out the picture based on the seasons. It was so easy to make-I used a vintage piece of patterned paper for the background. I then punched hearts out of random scrap pieces of paper, adhered them with pop-up squares, added some adhesive backed mini-pearls to a few hearts and done! The bottom right side of the frame was in bad shape, so I made a fabric flower and put a pearl pin through it with a heart dangling from it.

Thanks for looking! 8 )

Website Wednesday

I added some word albums for sale to my website today...only 5 because that is what my "free" limit is...lol--check them out!

http://memories2cherish.webs.com/index.htm

If you would like to order a custom album (any name, word, etc) leave me a comment or email me at nicmackin@hotmail.com I am happy to mail it to you!

Sweetness

So this morning, I woke up at 4am. Very reluctantly. Keaton had already made her way down to my bed (I say 'my' because Dan is gone) which didn't phase me too much, but at 4am, in comes walking sweet miss Mallory. She is holding a new pull-up, which makes me assume she woke herself up going to the bathroom in her pullup (sorry-too much info, I am sure). So after we got dry pullups on and settled back in to go back to sleep, I experienced one of the "life can't get any better than this" moments. It took us both a while to get back to sleep, but that time was so precious. She lay next to me, looking at me tiredly, holding my face between her two sweet little hands, quietly singing some of her favorite songs...until she finally drifted back to sleep.

Moments like that are the moments that remind me how incredibly blessed I am. How nothing else matters but the two precious girls who are laying next to me...and of course, my wonderful husband who I miss these nights he is away.

Website Wednesday

Some more of my fave websites:

Oh, if I had unlimited funds...
http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/index.jsp

Need some sketches for inspiration?
http://pagemaps.com/

Another site with great online scrapbooking, art journaling and photography classes:
http://debbiehodge.com/

Love Tim Holtz--lots of grungy fun. 8 )
http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/

My website. 8 ) I am still building it and it is pretty simplistic but it is getting there...
http://memories2cherish.webs.com/index.htm

Loving Vintage...

For "Mackin Monday" I thought I'd highlight some fun vintage pieces I have found that I have in my scrapbook room. I am in LOVE with vintage goodies. There is nothing like discovering an amazing find and digging to find it is almost just as fun as the find itself. Enjoy!

These are storage pieces for fabric, ribbons, fibers, etc. The box is an old WWII ammo box and is one of my absolute favorite pieces.
I found this vintage suitcase to be a home to my sewing supplies.
I LOVE old scales. This is one of them...
This is another one with old skeleton keys on the top.
Some old texts, dictionaries and music books that I use for scrapbooking.
A really fun vintage camera and vintage buttons (yes, I have quite the collection).
A vintage platter that holds vintage jewelry on the top and my brads on the bottom.
An antique platter with old salt-n-pepper shakers that hold my glass glitter.
I use this old lamp to hang my jewels.
An old match holder-I use this to hold pins, LOVE it and want to collect more!
Another photo of the white scale...
Quite a few yummy goodies here-love his old chair which doubles as a shelf.
The 'M' is not old, but the two record albums that are soon-to-be scrapbooks are fun. Oh yeah, and that yellow clock is one of my favorite finds!
The aqua dish was once my Grandmothers. I found the pail in an antique store and they hold more fabric/ribbon goodies.
I found this antique music stand and it displays layouts.

Freedom Friday-the Haiti Tragedy

My heart is so sad for the people of Haiti. What a tragedy, it truly breaks my heart. I pray for everyone who is experiencing the tragedy as well as those who are helping with recovery-the troops, the aid workers, the people who are donating money and food, etc...

What an amazing country we live in. Over $5 million has been donated just to the Red Cross alone! Hundreds if not thousands of Americans have gone over there to help. The Govt. has provided hundreds of millions of dollars and manpower to assist. Man, what a great country we live in. It just goes to show that Americans are the most generous in the world. God bless America. God bless the people of Haiti as they heal and recover from this tragedy.

Thankful Thursday

I am posting late...but I am incredibly thankful that my mom made it through her back surgery without any problems. It all went smoothly, thank God! These next few weeks of healing will be tough, but hopefully this will fix her back and leg problems FOR GOOD!

Website Wednesday-Favorite Websites

Here are some of my most visited websites (besides Facebook and Twitter). They make me happy. 8 )

http://www.abeautifulmess.typepad.com/
I first became familiar with Elsie because she has some scrapbook lines. Her stuff is very funky, I love it! She is very spunky and vintage and fun and I love looking at her creations and her photos (she is very pretty).

http://elizabethkartchner.blogspot.com/
Elizabeth has become a part of the scrapbooking industry within the last few years and I LOVE her style.

http://jennibowlin.blogspot.com/
Love love love Jenni Bowlin! She has a scrapbook line as well and it is totally vintage. She has the most amazing antique stash and is amazing at creating scrapbook pages and projects using antique pieces. She is very inspiring.

http://www.etsy.com/
Check it out and it will speak for itself...8 )

http://www.thefoxnation.com/
A story and opinion website from Fox. I visit a lot of political websites, but this is one I visit more often than others.

http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/
Ali is an amazing scrapbook enthusiast, she is all about telling your story in whichever way you want. Simple is good.

http://www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com/
I take a ton of online classes thru this site. If you are interested, shoot me a message and I can recommend some great classes for you!

http://www.scrapbook.com/
I visit this site almost everyday. I have a gallery on it, but I also shop and look for inspiration on this site. Amazing array of ways to play on this site! 8 )

Enjoy!!!