today: i celebrate; i remember; i mourn; i pray

today: i celebrate my beautiful, silly, and so very sweet sophia. she's 7!

today: i remember my uncle stanley, who died on the very day sophia was born. he's dearly missed and forever in our hearts.

today: i mourn the passing of my cousin, steve. my heart breaks for his wife, son, mother, and the rest of our family.

today: i pray for strength & comfort for my family and i thank God for my sophia. my life is so blessed with her shining spirit in it, and i am so thankful that she calls ME mama!

{somewhat} New Designs & Back to School

I have 3 (somewhat) new items in my ScrapArtist shoppe and am working on something new for back to school! It's been fun at ScrapArtist this last month or so and I look forward to having more design time once school is back in session! I have all these ideas and not enough time to create!







The girls and I went to Conner Prairie last week. I vividly remember some of the field trips I took there as a little girl, so it's exciting to take my own girls there! It's such a great place to visit! The girls especially love the recently added Discovery Station. It's a great place to be able to go to on rainy and snowy days!

Isabella started school yesterday. 1st grade. So hard to believe! We went to meet her teacher and see her classroom last week. It was rather bittersweet for Mike and me ...she looked so big and seemed so much more mature than last year. We were commenting to each other on her confidence as she was walking down the hall. Isabella is such a strong-willed and independent girl! She continues to take ice-skating lessons, which she absolutely loves, and has recently learned to ride her bike without training wheels! It's amazing how fast they grow up! I may have a photo or two to post later ... ;)

My Scrap Artist Shoppe

I am thrilled to introduce you to Studio Sonja Designs at Scrap Artist!



This has been a huge dream-come-true for me, as Scrap Artist has been my true digi-love from the beginning! It is *the* best digital scrap site there is! The designers, the creative team, the scrappers that call SA home ...they're all fabulous! Don't pinch me, because if this is a dream, I don't want to wake up! Thank you, Nancie, for this amazing opportunity!
I will be loading more into the shoppe soon, so stay tuned.

xoxo,
sonja

Books

My Sister's Keeper (Jodi Picoult): I just finished this book last night and literally cried like a big ole baby! The ugly cry. NOT pretty! This book is brilliant and may just be my very favorite yet! I'm looking forward to the movie coming out, even though they are never quite as good as the book they're adapted from!

I picked up 2 more of Picoult's books at a garage sale about a month ago ...Harvesting the Heart and Picture Perfect. I'm looking forward to reading these as well.

Have any of you heard of/read The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer? I'm curious about the hype. I may have to check them out at the library soon.

Another book I've read recently, After the Leaves Fall (Nicole Baart), comes highly recommended by me. It's quite profound!!!

A couple other books that I still haven't read, but fully intend to are: The Alchemist (Paulo Coehlo) and Eat, Pray, Love (Elizabeth Gilbert)

Happy Reading,
Sonja

New Stuff

So, I've been working on some new stuff, but ya can't see it just yet ...exciting news, just around the bend! Stay tuned ................

oooooh, I'm such a tease! :)

I do, however, want to show you some photos from my recent trip to AZ. Some girlfriends and I went out to see our dear friend Kimmy last month. We had sooo much fun! These are a few of the landscape shots I took as well as a couple from above the clouds.







Miss you girls! Let's start planning our next getaway soon!!!

love-love,
sonja

Kate's Tropical Vacation

Here she is poolside ...

...and here she is as she savors the guava nectar ...

...and vacationing at Turtle Bay ...

These papers are a must-have for all of your upcoming (and past, for all the heritage scrappers out there!) spring & summer layouts! The colors are HOT and the texture is fabulous!

Oh, and don't forget to check out Greta down below! If you create a LO with her and post a link in the comments section, you'll have a chance of winning a $10 gift certificate to CatScrap! Who doesn't love CatScrap?!! I'll choose one random winner on Friday, April 4th.

xoxo,
Sonja

Introducing ...

GRETA {she's going green}


Greta believes that Green is the new Black! She's passionate about helping her fellow man in keeping our planet beautiful. "GRETA {she's going green}" includes 8 beautifully textured papers in a refreshing color palette, a gorgeous embellished frame, a button, tie, beaded cardboard, journaling sticker, hand-drawn watercolor wordart, puffy-paint flourish, and a fun sticky tape strip.

I truly hope you like this kit. It was so much fun to create! I would love to see your layouts made with GRETA. Leave a link to your layout in the comments and on Friday, April 4th, I will choose one random winner for a $10 gift certificate to Cat Scrap!

xoxo,
sonja