What is special about this Cinco de Mayo?

Let me tell you...It is our youngest child’s 16th birthday today...Yup, Kylie is sweet 16! Tomorrow we go for her driver's license. Today is also the day I cut off my long hair to raise money for EE and to donate the hair to Locks of Love. 1:30 is my appt. time! Wish me luck! Another fantastic thing about today is that mygrafico is having a 1-day sale. That means you can save big on all the sets in my shop! 40% off...Ole!!!

Project 365 - Days 110 - 115 Photography & Designing

It seems like the days are in hyper speed lately. Not enough hours in the day to keep up with work and all the events and to-do’s. With graduation, Kylie's Sweet 16, Mother's Day and family coming to town soon, our house has been a bee hive of activity. Here are some of the creative things that I have been up to. (Bear with me as I am still way behind on posting!)

Day 110 - Sweet 16 photo shoot

Now that Ashley's senior portrait shoot was accomplished, it was time for lil’ sis to get her photos taken.

Kylie and I worked within that hour and a half frame of good lighting to accomplish taking these in our back yard, lanai and a few at the front of our subdivision. We had to save time for our mommy/daughter shoot once Ashley got home from work! She just bought this vibrant leopard shirt and couldn’t wait to wear it in the photo shoot. Then she changed into the teal shirt. Here are a few of our favorites...

Day 111 - Formatting the Mommy/Daughter Pics

There is more to it than taking a good photo. Afterwards, there is the color correcting, cropping, etc. that goes into a good photo session. If you only knew how fast these were taken using a self timer and fighting against a very windy day, you would really appreciate the end result. We took less than a dozen photos, all the while my girls kept asking if it was the last shot since they were ready for Chinese food. And I  would answer as usual, “Just a couple more!” And the last frame was one of my favorites. ;D

I had to get a couple of just Ashley and I before she left for college in the fall...

Day 112 - Ashley’s Grad Announcements

This week I have been busy working on Grad announcements and party invites for Ashley’s friend David and of course, her announcements, too. Where did this year go? It seems to have gone extra fast!

Day 113 - Me & My Girls Album

This was a guest Design Team project for Glue Arts blog...a mommy & me album. I recycled an old spiral notepad (cut off the spiral section and remade holes for the rings. I used glue arts adhesives, Basic Grey papers and Maya Road chipboard and canvas heart with some ribbons to accessorize.

You have to see a close up on the ribbon flower. I will include a tutorial on another day!

Day 114 - Ashley’s Status Card

What is a status card? I had no clue, but apparently it is like a business card for seniors with information that they would like to include for keeping in touch with one another. And of course, it has a photo or 2, or 3, or 4! LOL Here is Ashley's with the real information changed for privacy purposes.

Day 115 - Easter Sunrise Photos

We drug ourselves out of bed at 5 am to make it to the Easter sunsrise service held by our church at the beach. We had to make sure we were also packed and ready to stay beachside, go to breakfast afterwards and then head straight to the finals of the Ron Jons Surf Tournament in Cocoa Beach.

The sunrise was so interesting The service was wonderful and the day was glorious! Alleluia!

Just 2 days til I cut off my long locks!

In just 2 more days, I will be cutting off my hair to benefit Locks of Love and CURED, a foundation that 100% of funds raised goes to research in finding a cure for Eosinophilic Gastro Intestinal Disorders, such as EE (Eosinophilic Esophagitis) which my daughter and Kylie are diagnosed with. Cinco de Mayo marks Kylie's 16th birthday and earlier this year she had a scare with lymphoma started by enlarged lymph nodes. We were relieved after months of testing to find out that it wasn’t cancer, but my heart kept telling me that after what we went through I needed to pay back my gratitude by donating my hair to Locks of Love so that they could make a wig for some child who was fighting that battle. Kylie and I talked about how I could turn that into a fundraiser to raise awareness and money towards helping doctors find a cure for EE.




If you are interesting in knowing more about this disorder, you can go to the CURED website and follow the links. Each case is so different, but for some people it means relying solely on liquid nutrition or being fed through a feeding tube to exist. The social, emotional and other auto immune side effects of this illness can be very devastating. I know for my teen, the difficulties of planning meals on the go so she can lead a “normal life” of being involved in sports, attending parties and social events can be very challenging, not to manage very difficult on her. She sees foods that she used to be able to enjoy and can no longer have, but we are very grateful that she has many options. Some kids can only eat one or two things such as apples or potatoes. Imagine how that would feel to eat the same thing for every meal, for every snack, simply to survive?


The fundraiser has already begun and if you would like to participate by donating, you can go directly to the CURED website to make a donation. It is marked Inching Towards a Cure. You will see this photo and a link. Just type in the amount and it will take you to the cart. I have made a suggestion to donate money based upon the inches of hair I am cutting off (atleast 10), however the donation is simply a flat amount, and nothing is too small a donation. Every bit helps.


To find out more about donating your hair to Locks of Love (10 inches is the minimum), you can go to their website. They also accept donations to offset the cost of $900 involved in creating each new wig.