My New Adventure

Hey everyone!!! Have you heard I have a new adventure? I'm a new Trunk Keeper for Matilda Jane Clothing!!! Have you seen these clothes? They are gorgeous for your sweet little girls and fabulous for us grown-ups, as well! The new Fall 2011 line, You and Me, debuts August 1st. You can see the clothes online beginning Aug. 1 and I'll be accepting phone and email orders for my wonderful out-of-town friends that day.

I'm also booking Trunk Shows AND Online Catalog shows for August and September. Those dates are filling up fast, so if you'd like to host your own Trunk Show and find out about all the perks of being a "Jane," send me an email at jenniferf@matildajaneclothing.com today! I'd love to work with you and your friends, so don't hestiate to contact me soon.

Have a wonderful weekend!!
xoxo,
Jennifer

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4th of July Fun

We like the 4th of July. We like to dress up in red, white, and blue. We like parades and parade candy. We like being outside and picnics and fireworks. This year, we missed our normal parade so we decided to go to a different one instead. I'm so happy that we did! We really had an awesome time and met a couple of super nice people that started our day off in a nice way.

Here's Miss C with a flag she's been wanting for weeks now...so glad she got one today!

Ry ready for the parade to start...

Me sitting with Miss C right before parade time. Yep, she's eating a cookie!


My babies, rocking their patriotic colors. If you look closely, you'll see that C's nails are red, blue, and sparkly. Perfection.

Awwwww...cute family pic of all of us right before the parade began. The older gentleman using my iPhone to take the pic was so nice...and it was fun to watch him trying to figure it out! Am I the luckiest girl out there or what?!?

That's all...short and sweet. Of course I'll have to scrap these photos, and when I'll do, I'll come back to share. I just need that perfect Independence Day kit.

I hope you've all had an amazing day!

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Swim Day!

We love to spend hot summer days at the pool. The kids could swim and play all day if we let them. We really like that it's an inexpensive (FREE!) way to get some fun family time together and that it lets us be outside enjoying the gorgeous weather without being too hot.

Here's Miss C showing off a new bathing suit. I couldn't resist this ruffled top. Too cute. She loves it.

Ry has learned the fine art of the cannon ball. He's in and out of the pool over and over practicing. Love it!

Wonder how Ry learned? Check out Shane's super high and crazy splashing cannon ball. Pretty sure it had to hurt, though.

The guys love goofing around. They are so funny to watch! I love that Ry has finally leared to love the water as much as I do. Oh, ok...I have to give diving a shot. But not off the board. That thing's loose and it scares me!

Nice, huh?!? :p After all that diving and swimming, I found my favorite place to be...in the big float with Miss C. This is MY idea of fun at the pool.

It seems the only thing left to do is scrap these pics. I'm thinking of using a multi-photo layout to get them all on one or two pages. Of course, I'll also need a fun summer/pool themed kit. Have any suggestions for me? Want to show off some of your fave summer layouts? I'd love to see them! Just link me up in the comments and I'll leave you some love.

Happy Sunday!

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School's Out! Let's Scrap!

School ended here a couple of weeks ago, and I did remember to take my annual end-of-the-year photo of Ry. However, it's taken me this long to decide to scrap it. I don't know why that is...every year I scrap a beginning and end of school photo, but for some reason it was a bit harder to scrap this time.

I ended up going to a couple of my fave kits. I used At The Bus Stop by Lauren Grier and Smarty Pants by Shawna Clingerman and Julie Billingsley. I used a brand new font from Darcy Baldwin called Me and My Shadow Light. It will be available at SSD this weekend. Here's what I ended up doing:



I love to compare the first day with the last day. It's amazing what a difference a school year makes! Here's Ry on his first day of 2nd grade:

Also, since this was such an unusual year with the school switch in November, I thought it would be fun to compare that, too:

My little guy is growing up...I love it and hate it at the same time! As always, you can find my complete layout credits in my gallery at Sweet Shoppe.

Have you scrapped the end of school for your kids? I'd love to see how you're scrapping these milestones. Link me up to your pages here in the comment section and I'll leave you some gallery love. <3

xoxo

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Father's Day

I love Father's Day. It's so much fun to celebrate what an amazing dad my husband is to our children. They love "Daddy Day" and go out of their way to make daddy happy on this special day. It really is so cute!

The kids and I worked together to make these cute books for daddy. We searched the Family Fun website for just the right thing and the kids really wanted to make these. I just used some scrapbook paper for the covers (glued to cardboard), some stickers for the title, and of course, the adorable stick. The kids didn't want it to be a notepad, as the directions suggest. Instead, they filled each page with little stories and pictures about how much the love daddy. It doesn't get much sweeter than that.


Since I'm back to scrapping more, I wanted to do a Father's Day-ish page for my hubby. I love this photo, and decided to use it. The title, You Make Me Smile, is so true! I used Lauren Grier's newest kit, You Give Me a Reason To Smile, and my fave font ever, Gimme Space by Darcy Baldwin and Lauren Reid. You can find this page in my SSD gallery. :)

I really love being able to use this space to share what I'm doing with all of you and I sure hope you enjoy it, too! Please feel free to leave comments with ideas, suggestions, or inspiration of things you'd like to see here.

See you soon!

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Time for a change

Since the end of my designing days, I haven't been sure what to do with this blog. I love the following I have on here and hate the idea of just leaving the blog unattended and unloved. So, I've decided to blend in my real life and my scrapping here. You'll see layouts from me, I'll talk about the wonderful designers I create for, there will be LOTS of Matilda Jane talk, and even some real life stuff from me. If you're already following me here, I sure hope you'll continue to do so! I will leave the freebies, tutorials, recipes, etc. here just like always. If you're new to the blog...welcome! I hope you'll enjoy it!

Here's a page I created just today, using goodies from Lauren Grier and a fabulous font by Darcy Baldwin:

Hope you all have a fabulous Friday!

xoxo

Jennifer

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Tomorrow's the FINAL DAY and EVERYTHING'S $1.00

Yep, you read that right. My store at the fabulous 9th&Bloom will be closing tomorrow at midnight. As I retire from designing, I want to leave you all with one final, amazing, blow-your-mind sale: EVERYTHING in my store is $1.00.

Insane, right? Once again, I just want to mention how thankful I am to all of my team members, my amazing store owners at 9th&B, my fellow designers, and my customers. It's been an amazing two years and I'm so happy to have been able to share it all with you. THANK YOU!!!

Lots of love,

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Memorial Day.....

Tara here with some thoughts on Memorial Day!

Here in the states we are celebrating Memorial Day. There will be people visiting graves to pay respects, there will be cook outs, there will be patriotic songs played, American flags flown and time spent with family. I hope and pray that all my American friends takes the time to thank a soldier. If you agree with wars or not.....the bottom line is that soldier is putting their life on the line to protect our country. They are brave, patriotic and heroic.

On this Memorial Day, I will also be shopping!!!!! Sales are my very best friend. Jennifer is having the best sale of all! Check this out!!!!!



You better hurry! This is only good for today and tomorrow!!!! After that, all of these beautiful designs will go away! I know, I am sad too. I tend to shop when I am sad, so it works out. :)

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These are a few of my favorite kits....

Since Jennifer is retiring at the end of this month {*tear*}, I thought I'd showcase a couple of my favorite kits of hers. 

I love this bundle! Since I have both a boy and a girl, I've gotten a LOT of use out of these kits. They are also available separately.

The other kit I really really love {and it's so hard to pick favorites!} is this one:

It's perfect for scrapping those "off" days that seem to happen every so often. 

So, what are you waiting for? Head over to Jennifer's store and take advantage of her fabulous sale!

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No More First Looks!

Obviously, since Jennifer is retiring {so sad!}, there will be no more First Looks from her. With that said, have you checked out her retirement sale, yet? Holy smokes! 

Be sure to take advantage of this fabulous sale because when Jen closes her store, the products will be gone for good!

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Desktop Freebie

Hey Scrappers- My apologies for the lateness of my post. We had some storms blow through my area today, and in doing some repair work, they cut a line running to our internet provider, so I had no access most of the day.

This is going to be the final desktop freebie (for now) for Jennifer Fox Designs. I am REALLY hoping she decides to come back after a short break... It sure has been fun working with Jen, and getting to create beautiful layouts using her awesome kits! Make sure that you head over to her shop at 9th&Bloom and get in on her retirement sale.. 65% off everything in her store through May 31st! Make sure you get everything before it is gone for good!!

So without further ado, here is the desktop freebie. I created it using Jen's kit, One of those days.. I love this kit. I love the funky colors, and all the great elements. It is a pretty versatile kit. Make sure you pick this one up!! To download the file please click here

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Tidbit Tuesday & More

Good afternoon all, Kara here with Tuesday's Tidbit. Summer is just around the corner, that means summer break for our kiddo's! You know how it goes, they drive us crazy because they are bored, and so on. A friend of mine pointed out a very cool blog to me. Positively Splendid I LOVE this blog. They have so many cool summer ideas to do with your kids, and so much more. Be sure to stop by the blog and check out all their cool idea. One of my favorites is Sponge Water Bombs totally doing this with my little man as soon as we can.

Just a reminder, Jennifer is having a HUGE retiring sale, on now until May 31st. Be sure to stop by here 9th&B Shoppe and pick up your favorites by Jennifer. We are gonna miss Jennifer, she is such a wonderful lady to work for, and we hope once things calm down she will be back. That is all for today, enjoy your day, and enjoy shopping :p

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My Big Announcement: I'm Retiring

Those are some words I'm shocked to be typing to all of you. I'm still surprised that I'm actually going through with it and retiring from designing. However, due to some personal situations in my family, I'm over-extended, over-stressed, and overwhelmed. This decision isn't one I came to lightly, but it is one that I'm confident in.

I have loved designing for the past 2+ years. I love 9th&Bloom. I love all the fabulous friendships I've made as a result. I love seeing your creations with my products, talking with all of you via this blog, facebook, and twitter. I love this little digiscrap world. That's why I don't plan to leave digiscrapping entirely. At heart, I'm a scrapper first, and I need to get back to that. I'll be around in the forums, and I plan to leave this blog (and all the freebies on it!) intact. Just look for more personal and scrapping posts from me rather than design related team posts. My facebook fan page...I'm still not sure what to do with it, so I just may do nothing for a while. It will be around through May 31 at the very least. My Twitter account will also remain active, though look for me to change user names soon. All in all, I'll still be "around," just in a different capacity.

I suppose you're looking for the good part? Check this out...a super fabulous retirement sale, effective immediately and running through May 31, 2011.

This is a pretty awesome sale, right? These products are leaving for good, so if you need anything, be sure to grab it by May 31st.

Finally, I want to thank my Creative Team...you are the best group of girls and I'm so proud to have been able to work with each and every one of you. I love you all and wish you so much happiness! To 9th&B, Lizzy, Holly, and my fellow designers...I'm going to miss you guys! Thanks so much for having me, believing in me, and understanding why I have to go. You guys are amazing! To my "fans," THANK YOU!!! Thank you for being supportive, for enjoying my products, and for coming along with me on this journey. I appreciate you all and am so blessed to have been part of your scrapping lives. Take care.

xoxo,

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Sunday Spotlight

Happy Sunday fellow bloggers/scrappers. Kara here with today's spotlight. Do you have a best friend? Maybe a brother or a sister who you consider to be your best friend, or maybe your husband is your best friend? Whoever it may be, Jennifer has this great kit to scrap those memories with your BFF. My Best Friend

This kit has pretty much everything you need to create a wonderful layout. Here are a few from some scrappers who used this kit. Be sure to stop by Jennifer's Shoppe at 9th&Bloom to get My best friend for only $6.00! Have a great Sunday!!

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Tidbit Tuesday

Hey Everyone! Tricia here with my very first tidbit Tuesday! I had a thousand ideas running through my head for this post and had a horrible time trying to narrow it down. Finally it just hit me.. duh I have this amazing friend who just happens to make amazing things!!  Catherine of Hats by Cat creates not only adorable hats, scarfs, etc for winter BUT also has hairbows, shirts, dresses, etc that are just perfect for summer time! 

Not only is she one of the sweetest ladies I've ever got to know; she is excessively talented! She is a doll to work with and gets your order down in a very timely manner. Hope you guys fall in love with her stuff as much as I did!

Have a great Tuesday!

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Meal in Minutes Monday!

Hello! Tara here with a great recipe that will not only be quick but REALLY yummy!

Coconut Chicken Strips with Pina Colata Sauce

1 cup sweetened coconut
½ all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp garlic powder (I doubled this part)
1½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch strips
1 egg, lightly beaten
¼ cup melted butter

Mix coconut, flour, salt, pepper and garlic in a shallow, flat-bottom dish. Dip chicken in egg then coat with coconut mixture. Place in shallow baking dish and drizzle with melted butter.

Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes or until chicken is browned and cooked through, turning once.

Dipping sauce :
½ cup sour cream
¼ pina colada mix
¼ cup crushed pineapple
2 Tbsp sugar

Mix ingredients until fully incorporated.


I really hope that you enjoy this recipe! My family really enjoyed it!

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Scissors Sunday - Hybrid Rewind

Hi, all, Sarah here. I was browsing through the Hybrid category on the blog and came across this project that I did last summer. I absolutely love how cute and easy they are to make so I wanted to share them again so that the newer readers will see them, and maybe give them a try.


I found the initial inspiration for these notebooks here. The instructions on how I adapted them for using with digital paper is found here on Jennifer's blog.

If you're new to the blog or new to hybrid be sure to click the hybrid link under the categories header to see all the amazing projects that Jennifer's hybrid team has created and shared with you on her blog. You can also click the other categories that interest you to see the posts on those specific topics.

I hope you have a fantastic Sunday!

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Saturday School-Image Inside Text

Good morning scrappers, Kara here with today's Saturday school. I've been scrapping for 4 or 5 years now and I love learning new things. Last year I learned how to place an image inside my text, and now I'd like to share this with you.

1. Open a new image, make a new layer, and drag and drop a photo onto your canvas.

2. With the Text tool, click on the canvas and type your text. A bold, fat font works best. Pictured is Aharoni Bold, but there are many others that are similar. Here I added a Stroke Layer Style to give the letters a black outline.

3. If your text is on the layer above the image, move it below the image by clicking and dragging the Text layer thumbnail below the image in the Layers Palette.

4. To make the clipping mask, go to Layers>Create Clipping Mask, or type Ctrl-G, or Alt-Click on the line between the two layers in the Layers Palette.

5. Now resize your image to fit in the lettering better. Here I resized and duplicated the layer and moved it over to give more coverage. Remember to add the Stroke Layer Style to the text layer if you want an outline.

*Info from digitalscrapbookplace.com*

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Tidbit Tuesday - Meal Planning

Hi Scrappers! With the start of spring, I get inspired to try to organize, clean, and generally make my life easier... I recently discovered a website called Say Mmm. It is a meal planning website, that combines recipes, and shopping lists, coupons etc all in one place. You can go in, search for a recipe, add it to your menu, and it will add the ingredients to your shopping list. Then you can also search for coupons for the items on your list... I haven't used it much yet (as I just found it) but I can see how this could be a very useful tool. Oh and did I mention that it is free?? They do offer a paid subscription, but their free plan is pretty awesome! What ways have you found to better organize your life? Share with us!!

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Scissors Sunday - Hybrid Project

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mom's out there.  I hope you are enjoying some time with those you love. 

For today's Scissors Sunday post I thought I would share a little project I put together this week for my son's teachers in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week.  Who doesn't love chocolate, right?  As a small token of our gratitude I created a candy bar wrapper using Jennifer's kit:  Bloom

along with her contribution to the blog train: iNSD Freebie Alpha

Here's is what I came up with after using some ribbon and flowers I had on hand.....

Enjoy your day!!!

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Happy iNSD!!!! Sales, Freebies, Blog Train, and MORE!

Happy Saturday and Happy iNSD!!! We've already shown you lots of goodies over the past couple of days, and today I'm thrilled to bring you ANOTHER Blog Train!!! This train, sponsered by DSA, will help you collect all the pieces for a mega vacation themed collab, including alphas and templates!

Here is my contribution to the train:


I sure hope you enjoy it! You probably arrived here at my blog from the MScraps blog, and once you leave, you should head over to Traci Reed's blog. If you get lost at any time, go on back to DSA, where you can find the complete list of blog train participants.

Enjoy and Happy iNSD!!!

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iNSD Template Freebies

Happy Friday Scrappers!!! Lori here, and I am so excited to be here to post today! Finally the kickoff to iNSD is finally here! YAY!! This is stop #5 on the 9th&Bloom Blog Hop. From here, you should head to stop #6, Crystal Livesay's blog. If you get lost along the hop, you can head back to the 9th&B forums for the full list.

Jen's CT team came together to create a great layout template pack!! There are 6 layout templates included, as a thank you to all of Jen's fans and followers!!

Make sure you visit 9th & Bloom to get in on all the fun activities they have planned, and also make sure you visit Jen's Facebook Fan page for more fun!

So without further ado, here is your template pack. There are two files to download.



Set 1
Set 2

Hope everyone has a great time this weekend!! Be sure to spend some time at 9th&Bloom. There are so many fabulous things going on over there! You could even WIN your ENTIRE WISH LIST for FREE!!! Head on over and check it out.

Have a happy iNSD, a wonderful weekend, and a Happy Mother's Day!!!

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