Well…..after 10 days, 1500+ miles, 2 Funerals, a baby shower, two double ear infections and a pile of laundry the size of Mount Everest we are back home safe and deep into recovery mode. It was a good trip back home. It would have been even better under different circumstances but I’m really grateful we were still able to get out to Arizona to be with my family for a visit. A much needed visit.

I’ve been so caught up this last couple of years with “missing home” that I haven’t spent the much needed energy on making Mississippi home for myself and my family. Visiting Arizona was good but hard. Watching how life has moved on there without us wasn’t easy but something I needed. I haven’t exactly made the transition here still even after this long. But I am back here at our home in Mississippi and feeling really grateful and blessed for everything I’ve had right in front of me the whole time. Especially my amazing husband whose life I haven’t made very easy at all. I am very lucky he’s so patient and loving and understanding. He’s been a rock through it all and I couldn’t have pulled through without him. Even though at times I still felt very much alone. I came home to a clean house. Even the dusting and bathrooms were done! I know…. Lucky me!!!!!! I ♥ you Shane!

This time feels much different. Arizona will always have a special place in my heart and will always be home. But it’s time to live in the here and now and focus on a better future. One that doesn’t waste time and emotions on missing everything I don’t have in my life anymore but enjoying all that I do have. Road trips are good. They give you hours and hours to roll thoughts around in your head and get it on straight again.

Thanks so much for all your prayers and sweet messages during the last week! Hugs to each of you!

Like I’ve said in the last couple of posts…. Life has been crazy. I’m ready for things to settle down a bit.

I haven’t even gotten August’s card kits out yet! I expected to have some time in AZ to put them together but got out there and lost another Grandma and had a whole other funeral and side of family to visit and spend time with. So please bare with me! I’m working away on them right now! And they will go out as soon as humanly possible! So…. needless to say…. The September peeks will be posted late this month. Thanks for your patience!

Okay…. just wanted to post and give you an update. I will leave you with the projects I posted the last two Mondays over on the Bo Bunny blog! Can’t wait to get back into creative mode. Gotta put a dent in “Mount Everest” first!

Toodles!♥

It’s good to be home. I’m posting from AZ where I’ve been enjoying spending time with my family that I miss so much. We had somewhat of a rough time getting here but we made it. That’s a long drive. Long. Did I mention it’s long? LOL Really.

Anyway, As if the reason for our trip wasn’t heartbreaking enough. Yesterday, the morning after we arrived safely into town, I got a phone call that my Grandma Jones passed away too. Crazy huh? That’s my Dad’s mom. Granny was my Step-dad’s mom. So Thursday and Friday I will be at two different funerals while I am here. I have deeply mixed emotions going on right now. It’s hard to lose these wonderful ladies but I am really grateful I could be here with my family through this time. They both lived full and beautiful lives so I am focusing more on the celebration of that rather than the loss involved. That’s how they would want it and they are both being reunited now with my sweet Grandpas.

Life is messy crazy sometimes…. but still GOOD.

Thanks for all your sweet comments and prayers for my family!

Hugs ~ Shanna

What a stinky name for a blog post title right?

Here’s the good news.

These three ladies had their names drawn to receive one of the new card kits that I designed for Bo Bunny:

Shannon Morgan
sharon owens
Kim Bays

Yay for you girls! Please email me with your mailing address so I can get your goodies in the mail. I can’t mail it until the 31st…. but I will mail it. See below. ♥

The bad news….

My sweet Granny Mortensen passed away a few nights ago. Loved that lady to pieces. ♥
The kids and I are hitting the road early in the morning and heading home to Arizona to be with family and attend Granny’s funeral. I wish Shane could come with us but he can’t leave his job for a week. I will probably still check in from there but not too much over the next 10 days as I will be enjoying the time I get to reunite with my family.

Please keep my family in your prayers!

Love and hugs!

Shanna ♥

Bo Bunny’s got some fun news…

CLICK HERE!!!

I have never really left Bo Bunny’s design team….. just kept designing behind the scenes and not so much on the blog the last year or so. But as most of you know…. I’m the newly introduced “Mad Scrapper” and that’s not about to go away! Fun times! I get to keep my Monday’s on the Bo Bunny blog and that makes me happy! I plan on having lots of fun with my new title! WOOT! WOOT!!!!

Congrats to all those talented ladies who have joined this fantastic team! Lots and lots of international girls! How exciting is that??? Can’t wait to be inspired by ya’ll….. and play along with you too! ♥♥♥

I’ve been with Bo Bunny a very long time now and I was just telling my hubby last night how much of a dream come true it’s been to be able to grow right along with them! Watching new product ideas and lines come to fruition. Amazing!

Thanks for all your kinds words and sweet comments of support over the years! I wish I could personally hug each one of you!

BUT!!!!!

I CAN do the next best thing and give away a few Thank You gifts! Have you seen these new kits by Bo Bunny???? These card kits? And this fun school memories project kit that is actually the CUTEST little schoolhouse mini album??? I’m elated to say I actually got to design these myself! It’s insane to me…. and I still get scrappy goose-bimples just thinking about it!!!!! I’m truly blessed and grateful to be working for such an incredible company! Okay….. I will stop gushing. I just ♥ Bo Bunny. LOL

Here’s the dealio…… LEAVE a comment and I will pick THREE winners by NEXT Friday the 20th to recieve one of these new kits and a little sumpin’-sumpin’ thrown in too! Just trying to give back a little love!

Have a fabulous weekend! Hugs!

Shanna ♥

I’m.

in.

Love. ♥♥♥

Really?

I am pinching myself still.

Shaking my head at WHO I dropped off at school this morning. They weren’t the piggy-tailed, shorts and tennis shoes wearing girls of school years gone by. I have SERIOUSLY mixed emotions today. This is, believe it or not, the first school year that I have EVER felt a saddness about my girls going back. Was the summer like 6 weeks short this year? In the past I have always been counting the days until school started again. Why is this year so different? Ugh. Here’s my three beauties all decked out in all their back-to-school-dressed-to-impress-glory!!!

I ran across this quote yesterday and it really touched me. I shared it on Facebook but I thought I would post it here too since it’s insanely in-tune with how I’ve been feeling.

“If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware. The tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered around the house, the piles and piles of laundry lying around to be tackled, will disappear all too soon. And, you will, to your surprise, miss them profoundly.”~President Thomas S. Monson

Yeah….. Amen. That’s all I can say to that as I rubbed the goosebumps on my arms. ♥♥♥

I haven’t posted since last week. Missed sharing my Monday post on the Bo Bunny blog…. here it is… if ya wanna check it out. (They are also announcing their new Design Team on Friday! yay!) Things have been a bit crazy here gearing up for school and all. But we made it through unscathed so can’t complain! I will leave you with a few things I’ve created recently. Hope everyone’s week is going well. I’m already wishing it were Friday! HA! Toodles! ♥

Here’s the peeks of the August cards! Running a few days behind! Sorry! Trying to get kids ready to go back to school and this summer went by way too fast if ya ask me! Anyhoooo… PayPal requests are going out in a few! Happy Friday!!!

That means it’s fun stuff over at the Bo Bunny blog with The Mad Scrapper! Go check out the fun ways you can use the cool transparencies that come with the new Noteworthy journaling books!

Here’s the projects I posted! You will have to head over there to see the deets on them!

I just lowered the prices on all my ETSY stuff. Trying to clear it out and add a bunch of new things. It’s not happening as quickly as I’d like but hey…. slowly but surely.

Oh! And I will have the August card kit peeks up tomorrow! Running behind as usual.

I am in total shock that the girls will all be heading back to school next week! This summer feels like it just flew by!

One more fun thing about today…. Just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY KACIE!!! Today is sweet Kacie’s actual 11th Birthday. We celebrated Friday night playing kickball at the park. Well….. I didn’t play. But it was fun watching the kids and other parents play! It’s hard to believe she’s 11 already. Where has the time gone? She will be getting her driver’s license and going on her first date (it’s gonna happen Dad!) before we know it! She’s a sweet, sweet girl and we are blessed to have her a part of our family! Love ya Kacie girl! ♥

I had a special order requested this week for 100 Baby Girl Thank you cards. I know….. I’m crazy…. but I love making cards! What can I say? This is what I came up with. Love the little classic feet stamp and the sentiment just steals my heart. I love that it doesn’t just say “Thank You” but SO SWEET OF YOU!!! That stamp comes is in this set from PaperTrey Ink. Love it! I use this set A LOT!!!

So it’s Finally FRIDAY!!! And that means the weekend! Wahooooo! That also means it’s time for me to announce the winner of the Go-to-Sketches book from the previous post! Thanks for all the sweet, kind, comments! Ya’ll made my heart swell! Drum roll please…..

…..
…..
….

RHONDA HANSEN!!!!!!!!!!

Email me girl with your mailing address so I can get this out to you! Fun way to start the weekend huh?

Okay…. we are heading out in a few for Kacie’s 11th Birthday Kickball party at the park. Fun stuff! But I want to share this photo with you before I go! I was looking through my photo stash last week when I came across this OLD photo of my girls when they were only about 2 yrs and 9 months old. Sidney, is their oldest sister and daughter of my ex-husband. She was my step-daughter for 10 years! CRAZY! She’s 18 going on 19 in September so that tells you how old this photo is. Anyhoooooo….. look at my little Macey as a baby!!!! My jaw dropped when I saw her and immediately saw MY CHLOE!!!! They look so similar! it’s just strange! Here’s that photo of Chloe I took on Easter Sunday so you can compare! Dang I have some CUUUUUUTE KIDS!!!! LOL! I know….. I’m proud.

Anyway….. off to start the weekend! Hope yours is good! Stay Cool! ♥

< -------- This is just plain cRaZy to me!

But you have NO IDEA how excited I am! I threw my hat in the ring for the "Hybrid scrapping" call and never imagined in a million years I would get the DT Invite! I look forward to learning soooo many new things! I refuse to ever put away my scissors, paper, and glue.... but I am excited to combine the two a bit! Fun stuff! Come play with us over at For the Luv of Art!

I got a huge happy scrappy package in the mail from Paper Crafts Magazine for making it into the Top 5 of Gallery Idol! Holey Schmoley! So many amazing new goodies! I also received a copy of this awesome special issue called Go to Sketches! But since I already have one I thought it would be fun to give it away! And a few other scrappy goodies! Just leave a comment and I will pick a winner sometime on Friday the 30th! I love my copy and refer to it alot when I’m scrapping!

Renee and I scrapped this weekend and I got this layout created. This is my sweet, young, beautiful cousin Heather who I used to babysit back in the day! She sent this photo in her graduation announcement and I just loved it with this paper! Everything just comes together when you have an awesome photo to play with! It was fun creating something for me since I’ve been working on CHA projects forever!

Okay…. gotta get some laundry caught up today but I wanted to share one last thing before I scoot! I haven’t mentioned my other blog in quite a while so I wanted to mention it for those who might find it useful. It’s called PaperCakes and Icing. I create handouts to go along with the Young Women’s lessons that we teach in our church. This is the latest one and the Word Doc and PDF file you are sent after completing the payment process includes the pattern to create it. It also includes a print-ready version so you can just print them on white cardstock, cut them out, and give them to your girls. The fun thing about my handouts is that a lot of them are super versatile and can be used for lots of different projects that aren’t even religion based. And they are only $2.50 each! Anyhoooo….. just wanted to share!

Hope everyone has a great week! Toodles! ♥