vacation album

long time no blog posts :-/  just super busy here.  tonight i'm going to start being on call 24/7 with our printer who's printing some catalog updates for the company i work for.  every time they put a page on press i have to be there to approve it, which is every 2-4hrs.  unfortunately i live about 30 min away, so it can make for some LONG nights.  during the day my office is only about 15 min away so that isn't nearly as bad.  looks like it's going to take them about all week to get all of our job printed, so i'm already looking forward to next weekend. ha!

anywho, i had a few minutes today and thought i'd try to get at least one post up this week.  i found these pics on my desktop and realized i'd never blogged them!

last may my parents used their timeshare to go to a condo in panama city, florida and i was able to go with them and also take one of my really good friends, alyssa.  we were there for a week and it was AMAZING!  i definitely want to go back again.  oh, we also spent a day at destin...

we spent a few days shopping, my favorite past-time ;-)  one day we went to shell island.  and of course we went to the beach several days...and i even had an encounter with a shark!  here's a video clip we took on the beach talking about the shark.

alyssa's birthday is in july, so for her birthday last year i made her this album from our vacation.  funny thing is i never got around to making myself an album!  i need to get around to that soon...lol.

~ jess

...{...Christmas Gifts - GIft Books...}...

Today I thought I'd share some Gift Books that I made for some friends for this past Christmas.  I had seen several of these styles and thought they would be a great idea.  A while back myself and some of my closest friends exchanged emails listing some of our favorite things.  These are SOOO handy during the Christmas season, Birthdays and just any time I'd like to pick up a gift for a friend.  But we were always trying to recall the name of the email and I thought, surely there has to be an easier way.

The first section of the book has an envelope to store receipts.  Next section is a group of sheets I designed - one side you list the person's name, birthday, anniversary and their favorite things which are divided into sections.  On the other side of that sheet you can list gifts you have given them along with the prices for up to 5 years (I know I struggle a lot with trying to remember what gifts I've given friends).  Then there is a divider tab followed by blank sheets of paper to record notes.

I created 4 of these for my friends.  Of course I wanted one and had all the pieces laid out, but have just been so busy that I haven't gotten around to working on mine.  I think they really liked them and were pleased...maybe a bit too well.  When I asked about them they said they liked them so much they just wanted to display them and not use them :-)

ps...I didn't get a picture w/ the 4th book due to that friend missing our Christmas party.