AHHHH!! SO exciting!!!

Imagine my excitement as I was doing my daily check of my favorite blogs

and I came upon this photo on Elizabeth Kartchner's site Dear Lizzy.

The one in the middle is my daughter!!

Dear Lizzy is giving away a $50 dollar gift to Ruche 

and check out more photos of their vintage bridal collection

(and my daughter) in their lookbook.

SO EXCITING!!!

xoxo-Kim

Winter Formal

Jessica went to her first dance last night,

the Winter Formal.

She looked beautiful!

Can't believe my baby girl is so grown up!

dress to impress

Now that I can fit into clothes better, it fun to dream about outfits I could have! Love this!

dress to impress by kimstrother featuring logos jewelry

Nude dress
$28 - everbuying.com

Vince Camuto double breasted coat
$235 - vincecamuto.com

Zara two tone shoes
$90 - zara.com

Anya Hindmarch clutch hand bag
$395 - net-a-porter.com

Chanel logos jewelry
€376 - lindestore.com

H M flower hair accessory
£1.99 - hm.com

Chloé acetate sunglasses
$114 - theoutnet.com

And were off...

what? you ask

Well, it seems as if it's THAT time of the year again...

CHA time that is!

It seems as if every blog I go to says something about CHA and

new release, sneak peaks, booth make n takes, etc, etc.

CHA time drives me crazy. It's a love/hate thing!

I love seeing all the new paper lines

so much inspiration and talent from the

design teams. Videos live from CHA.

Awesome, right?

But then the I wants, the I must haves start within me.

The dollar signs add up in my head and that's before 

the product even arrives in the stores.

And I have to order online as there is not

a close by LSS, so that's if they don't sell out!

and so I say.."were off" as it is official CHA season!

What's you thought on CHA?

Do you already have a favorite line?

(I want this one!)

Please share your thoughts!

xoxo-Kim

Focus

Hello!

Today I'm sharing my layout for the CKCB challenge #1,

to make a layout about  my 2012 goals/resolutions.

Well, I don't make resolutions. Of course I have goals, but they

are something I look at differently, some of my goals are long term, more than

a year. Some goals are short term. And they are evolving all the time.

So what do I do for 2012?

I have been choosing One Little Word for each new year since 2009.

This is a concept from Ali Edwards.

This year my word is FOCUS

and here's my layout:

Each of the tabs pull out and have journaling on them.

This year I want to focus on what matters most, on the things

I can do to make life better. On my faith and my family.

On my health, keeping my weight off and

working on a fitness program. On telling meaningful stories

on my layouts.  On changing the things I can, and letting go of the rest.

What are your goals/ resolution/One Little Word for 2012?

I'd love to hear, please leave me a comment and/or a link to your layout.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog. 

I hope you have a great day!

xoxo-Kim

Project Life

There is so much buzz about Project Life.

Are you in?

I did the first project life back in 2009, when you had to but the kit

from Creating Keepsakes on January 1st,

I tried on line for several hours and finally got my

order to go through...I believe their whole site ended up

crashing from all people trying to order that morning.

The crazy thing is I ended up with 6 kits in my basket

and over $200 charged to my credit card! 

I sold the extra kits to online friends who weren't

lucky enough to get one so all was well.

I faithfully took my daily photo till the middle of July

and then I stopped, and my album is unfinished.

But I love what IS in the album!

So I have battled if I should so project life this year.

I love the Clementine kit, and now you buy it at Amazon,

so it costs a little more, but much easier to order!

what to do? what to do????

I have decided I am going to do Project Life.

My thinking is this...

I know this year (and next year) will be big for our family.

I want to capture it.

But I have decided I do not have to do it everyday,

I am going to span the project over the next 2 years,

some weeks might have a photo every day,

some weeks might be several photos from one event

like a birthday, or graduations (Jessica will be a senior this fall), 

ans some weeks might be skipped.

I am also going to buy the big envelope pockets (they are out

of stock right now) to throw in tickets, receipts, cards, etc.

I have ordered my kit and even though I am a little behind

since the year already started I have been keeping a little note

book with notes for each day. This is the way I did it in 2009

and it was very easy to just look back at the note book and know

what photo was for what day and I also wrote a little note about it.

The other thing I did was to make a 2009 album in my iphoto program

and as I uploaded my photos I dated the photo of the day and added to the album.

Then they were all together and ready to print.

So tell me, are you doing Project Life and what are your

tips for keeping up with it?

xoxo-Kim

Resolutions

I don't make resolutions!

First, I figure whay wait to New Years?

If there's something I need/want to do I can start that day.

Perfect example...back in September I stated I wanted to

loose weight, well actually I've wanted to do it for a long time,

but everything just feel into place in September, timing is everything, right?

And here we are, only Jan 7, 2012 and I have lost

40 pounds! I feel so much better! and I'm proud of myself,
it took will power during Christmas!!!

I still want to loose a little more, but if I had waited for New Years

I would have just started. Now I am almost there! The best part...
I fit into jeans I haven't worn for 4 years! (yes, I kept them that long...!)

However, I am not hopeless, and what I do like to do for New Years

is pick One Little Word! (in case you've been under a rock and don"t know about

One Little Word (OLW), it is a concept by Ali Edwards and you can 

learn all about it on her blog).

 My word for this year is

FOCUS

I want to really focus on what matters most to me. Family, faith, 

career (lots more on this in the coming weeks).

Also, I seem to get a bit side tracked, for instance with

scrapbooking. My interests are all over the place, mini books,

 art journals, blog, challenge sites, you know how it is, right?

I want to focus on the telling the story this year.

2011 was a good year. I think I can make 2012 a great year!

That will be my main focus!

do you have a word?

xoxo-Kim