September Blue

START SPREADING THE NEWS!!!

kelly sill — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:00:00 -0400

There is a new class of online digital education for scrapbookers coming into session and I'm beyond thrilled that I am going to be a part of it!

Scrapaneers is dream team of incredibly talented designers and instructors brought together by Tiffany Tillman–graphic designer, illustrator and instructor extraordinaire! When I received an email from Tiffany asking if I would be interested in being a guest instructor with Scrapaneers, I jumped at the chance. Of course I had to dry the tears of joy from my eyes and stop doing the happy dance first, but needless to say, I was not going to let this opportunity to pass me by!!! I am truly in awe to be teaching along side these ladies. We are going to WOW you! You can read more about the team here.

So I bet you are wondering what I’ll be teaching! Well, you are just going to have to wait a bit longer! What I can tell you is this: The workshop I am developing covers a topic that, as far as we know, hasn’t been covered in any other online workshop! Totally cool! It is scheduled to take place in October and as soon as I am given the green light to share more information with you, I will do so on my blog, Facebook Fan Page, Instagram and Pinterest. In the mean time there will be other super-fantastic classes offered at Scrapaneers. The first being:

Be sure to click on the image above to learn more about this amazing class that you won't want to miss (By the way...I just love that class logo, don't you? Tiffany is awesome!).

Before I go I need to give a BIG thank you and virtual {{{HUG}}} to designer Melanie Ritchie from MellyBird Designs. Melanie and I met a year or two ago while taking an online class together and is also a guest instructor at Scrapaneers. She is an incredible designer with Carte Bella Paper and without her this opportunity would not have happened. I am so grateful to her and to be teaching in her company. I hope we get the chance to meet in person someday Melanie! You rock!

{HOME SWEET} HOME FOR SALE

kelly sill — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 01:04:26 -0400

After much discussion, prayer and sleepless nights Chris and I decided to sell our house in Stafford.

We moved our family to Stafford in 2002 after spending two years in Kiev, Ukraine. Chris was going through a year-long school in Quantico and because we weren't sure where we would end up after that, we rented a house for a year when we first arrived. Once the Marine Corps decided that we were going to stay in the Virginia area for a while we bought "The Zachery" floor plan by Ryan Homes in "The Greens of Amyclae" subdivision in 2003.

We laughed here.

We cried here.

We played here.

We sang and we danced here.

Ryley even had a band here.

We celebrated holidays and birthdays here.

We entertained family, friends and neighbors here.

For nine years we raised our kids here.

Love lived here.

Its time for another family to build memories in this house and make it their own. It's in a great location with the most sought-after schools in the county. The house is listed with Natalie Holt from Century 21 New Millennium. You can view the listing here.

MOVE MORE EAT WELL | MONTHLY UPDATE: JUNE

kelly sill — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 06:00:00 -0400

Wow! It's hard to believe that I am halfway through this year-long journey on the road to a healthy lifestyle with Cathy Zielske over at Big Picture Classes in her Move More Eat Well Workshop. This year is flying. Why is it the older you get the faster time goes?

It also seems older you get you seem to be more in tune with your body and are more mature to listen to what it is telling you. During the month of April, I found that I wasn't in the gym as often as in previous months. The first few days of May I tried to overcompensate and hit the gym hard with a lot of cardio on the treadmill. I didn't injure myself, but I did feel that my left knee was bothering me a bit. So I listened to my body and decided to scale back my gym time–2 gym days and 1 yoga day. Then we went to France and I didn't work out for 10+ days. Upon our return that is when I noticed something–more muscle tone and definition in my arms, legs and abs. I know. It's weird. How could that be?

I went to Lisa (my trainer) and asked her about this "phenomena." She said it could be for a few reasons:

Working out causes inflammation, so maybe that is reduced.
Walking so much is great for lower body.
Maybe you lost a bit of weight? (um, no, that's not it)
Maybe you are slightly dehydrated. (not that either drinking tons of water just because!)

So I am chalking up my new-found muscle tone to scaling back a bit at the gym, reducing any inflammation and all of that walking we did in Paris. So during the month of June, I am going to conduct my own little experiment. I'm going to stick with my plan of going to the gym twice a week (probably Mondays and Fridays) and attend my Wednesday morning yoga class. Combining that with my healthy diet, it will be interesting to see if my numbers go up, down or stay the same (FYI–I am perfectly happy maintaining my current weight. I'm happy to say that my numbers stayed right where they were from the month before).

This month Cathy wanted us to find a few photos of what represents "healthy" to us. You can see the ones I chose above. I'm loving the edamame pic. We can't get it here in Riga and I am craving it. It will be one of the first things I buy at the grocery store when I go back to the States!

Have a healthy June!