6 Degrees

The BEST Way to Start Today!

Started the day off THE BEST way this morning - woke up bright and early and headed off to the Cottonwood Heights Thanksgiving Day 5K race.  Nick and I ran it last year for the first time and had a blast, so this time we thought we'd ask, insist, con, bribe, encourage Jack and Sam to join us.

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day - 55 degrees and overcast.  MUCH preferred over the FRIGID 0 degrees (seriously, it was ZERO!), blinding sunlight and icy roads of last year's race!

They cap the race registration at 2000 people, but it fills up so fast that people run it that aren't registered, so all you see is a sea of bodies!

This was the first race the boys have run, and both have had head colds all week.  AND, the course is tough - lots of uphill.  They both did awesome though, just under a 12 minute pace.  You should have seen Sam sprint across the finish line, he was on fire!  Wish I would have had a picture of that!  This one will have to do - the 4 of us together right after Nick and the boys crossed the finish line.

On the way home we were talking about running the Valentines Day race together and the boys agree - so excited and thankful that they loved the race!  Hoping for many more to run together as a family!

Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends, have a fabulous day with your friends and family!

Winner, Winner, Turkey Dinner

Excuse my take on the title of this blog post, but with it being Thanksgiving Eve and all, it seemed like the switch from chicken to turkey was appropriate... ;) Loved reading all of the different reasons everyone has to be thankful, thanks for sharing here! With that said, I have a winner to announce! The random winner of the Echo Park Season's Greetings collection is Miriam Prantner Congrats Miriam!!! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Echo Park Guest Designer & Giveaway

I was super flattered when I was asked by Echo Park to guest design for them this month!

I selected 2 of their collections to work with - Season's Greetings and Times & Seasons.

I'm such a sucker for a good Christmas line, and this one ranks right up there with the best of them!  I have to tell you though, I don't find myself scrapping Christmas photos too often.  But I DO put together a December Daily mini every year, and you can bet you'll see this line popping up in a quite a few places in my mini this year ;)

Here's what I've done so far with Season's Greetings -

Oh Sam.  I just love that sweet boy!  A few years ago he became enamored with nutcrackers.  And when I say enamored, I really mean obsessed.  This pic shows only 'part' of his collection!

Would you believe I only used one piece of paper on this layout (in addition to the background)?!  All made possible by this awesome Borders paper -

Don't  you just love it?!  Great mix of patterns on this one.  So versatile!

We're so fortunate to live where we do - literally 10 minutes from our driveway to Alta Ski Resort.  One of the benefits of living so close is that we can pretty much go whenever we want.  And in my mind, the time to go is a no brainer - a bluebird day (sunny and blue skys).

Love the reds mixed with light  blues in this line.  I misted black cardstock to use as a base for the layout to create the illusion of snow.

And here's what I did using Times & Seasons -

I'm a sucker for banners (still!) and knew right away I wanted to cut apart this piece of paper to create a banner on this one.

And this one - THIS ONE - has to be one of my favorite projects in a long time...

The reason it's my favorite?  It's not the design, nothing special there.  It's the combination of the paper and the photo - they were meant for each other!

The pic is my Dad from sometime in the 60's.  He was a fighter pilot in the Navy.  Actually, I can brag a little here (and I will...) - he was a Top Gun pilot.  Yep.  Just like the movie.  So this is a picture of him from back in the day, holding his flight helmet, standing in front of his plane.  And how about that mustache?!!

Now for the fun - Echo Park has graciously offered a Season's Greetings collection to one of my lucky readers! 

So here's the deal.  Thanksgiving is less than a week away (I know, can you believe it?!!).  Leave a comment telling me what you're thankful for by midnight mountain time on Tuesday,the 22nd.  On Wednesday, I'll draw one lucky winner and Echo Park will send you Season's Greetings!  

Me?  I'm thankful for lots of things.  Thankful to Echo Park for designing that perfect piece of paper to scrap that photo of my dad!! 

Thankful that after being out of town all week on business that I'm headed home tonight to see Nick and the boys, despite the fact that my plane has now been delayed by an hour.  Although it could be worse.  I could be the guy that was just pounding on the window in the terminal in Phoenix airport, frantically waving to the plane I can only assume he was supposed to be on and yelling "DON'T LEAVE!  PLEASE!".  Seriously.  So bizarre, I could not make that up!

Thankful for an AWESOME mother in law that lives close and is able to watch the boys when Nick and I both end up traveling for work at the same time - case in point, this week!

Now it's your turn - tell me what you're thankful for!

Good luck!!

at this point.

Hi all!

Wanted to share a layout I made a few weeks back for the BasicGrey blog using their new Little Black Dress line

On my last post I talked about how versatile this line is.  Who would have thought it would work for boys and old Chevy trucks?!!  

Sam when he was 5.  

Not the type of photo you’d initially think to use with a sophisticated line like Little Black Dress! But that’s what’s so great about this line, it’s versatile enough to use for weddings, formal events, heritage photos – even for boys!

I love the lace stickers in the line, they have an old, vintage feel to them and I thought they would tie in nicely with the old truck; to make them stretch a little further, I cut them apart to use in several places on my layout.

Journaling reads - 

I distinctly remember thinking you had reached the age where you were you.  Your sweet little personality had developed - such a happy go lucky boy!

Gosh, what I wouldn't do now to go back and give those sweet little cheeks a pinch!