July 2022 Highlights

 A year ago exactly for my July 2021 Highlights I had to write about this very same sad thing. Life sucks sometimes, that's all there is to it. Our sweet Jill passed away in a freak accident and we are forever heartbroken.

Literally half of all the pictures I take are of my kitties. Or were.

One minute we were snuggling and taking an afternoon nap together, the next, she was gone. She got trapped and her circulation was cut off and there was nothing the ER vet could do.

We're absolutely gutted, devastated, and numb. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Amy and Jill were supposed to grow old together.

Now instead Amy is a sole kitty and we are loving up on her so much in hopes to console her.

She definitely misses her sister and was there with her until the very end.

It's really hard to write this, it's hard to try and be happy, when my heart just hurts so freaking much. Alas, there were some wonderful parts of July too.

We flew to Wallace for the 4th of July and I have a whole blog post about it HERE.

And I scrapped the entire trip in a mini album already HERE!

I finished The Wedding and started True Believer by Nicholas Sparks.

Berry and Cherry successfully hatched their 2nd clutch of the season. They now have 10 babies!

This was taken on "fly away day"! Two little babies of the five all ready to go!

We have a bird feeder outside and had a big pot underneath it. Two little mice got stuck overnight so I released them and moved the pot. Amy likes to watch them every night.

We met the local Evans families for dinner at The Spaghetti Factory, always yummy! Jane's specialty drink was outta control!

McDonald's for lunch.

It's Tom & Margi's 50th anniversary coming up here soon and I'm in charge of the decorations.I drove with her to check out the venue and get inspiration. It's a beautiful location!

I've got some ideas brewing.

Fox learned how to mow the lawn.

Me throughout the month. 1) I tried dry needling therapy for my jaws but it didn't stop my headaches unfortunately. Hopefully the neurologist can help when I visit them in October. 2) Crazy hair don't care. 3) French braids for the first time in like 20 years. 4) Ready to see my scrappy friends!

Jane turned 10!! Double digits!! How?! Time flies!! And what's crazier is I've had this blog since even before she was born so you can literally watch her grow before your eyes throughout the posts and pages shared here.

We took her and three of her best girlfriends to Main Event to party!

That night we went to Texas Roadhouse with Jay & Haylie and their kids and Jane fell asleep in the car ride there. You're never too old for car naps!

My sister had her baby! Meet Zula Mae Litchfield.It's a girl!!! They kept it a surprise and were so sure it was a boy! So sure that even when she was born my sister declared, "It's a boy!" But then the doctor said, nope! It's a girl! We're all so happy and I'm ecstatic to have another niece!

This just makes me laugh, the good ol' days of TGIF.

We only saw one movie in the theater in July: Thor Love and Thunder which was aight. I'm not the biggest Marvel fan, but I'm usually always entertained so there's that!

On the scrappy front!

The only project I made and shared here in July was my 4th of July scrapbook. I swear I've been making things non-stop, I just always have a specific date that I can post/share way in the future :)

The rest of my free creative time was spent making kits and putting finishing touches on some upcoming virtual classes with Splendid!

I designed 5 free cut files: two for my newsletters, one for Scrapbook & Cards Today, and two for my Happy Scrappy Place FB group.

From July 8th-31st my 24 Days of Summer Cut Files went out!

They are now available as a bundle in my shop HERE or also in Etsy.

I received another box of samples of Garden Shoppe! Just waiting on the papers now :)

It's been a long time since I changed up anything in my Kallax unit.

So when scrapbook.com sent me their new Stackable Trays I immediately made a space for them to hold all the papers from my past collections!

Behind the scenes looks at putting my 4th of July scrapbook together. I've saved all the stories I shared with my process in an Instagram Highlight.

Chris was the very first person to look through the finished album. He's my biggest supporter!

I got a chance to play with the Garden Shoppe Acrylic Stamps for the upcoming Cards for Kindness campaign with scrapbook.com. It's been a long time since I used colored pencils and I truly love them!

My next big project will be creating the layouts and mini albums for PaigePals3 kits and virtual classes! MAKING is my favorite part of the job so I'm going to try to relish these next few weeks. That is if I can get my mojo back. It's flown out the window since Jill passed.

Sneak of a prototype for a globe mini album! Stay tuned!

Over July 23rd and 24th it was finally time for A Splendid Weekend! (All the info for our upcoming in-person event in November called Garden Shoppe Weekend can be found HERE!). We've been planning this event since our last one in November 2021 and have been counting down the days! And what's better than one day of classes? TWO days of classes! And TWO bonus teachers!

 As guests were flying in from out of town I put an open invite out there for anyone who wanted to stop by and see my happy scrappy place. I think 10 ladies stopped in for a chat!

You can read an entire recap of the event HERE.

Sure gonna miss having Jill with me.

Amy is now the full time watch-cat.

Here's hoping for no more repeats of the last two Julys. Bring on August!