Weekly Favorites - Getting SMASHED!

♫ School's...OUT...for - SUMMER! ♫ 

Every year I sing that Alice Cooper song in my head for like 3 days after the last day of school.  But that's the only line of the song I know so it gets pretty old, pretty fast.

It's officially DAY 1 of summer vacation.....and the Things and I are spending the morning waiting to getting our hair 'did' - at home.
Seriously, our favorite hairstylist is making a house call.  We're that special.
Okay, I'm kind of lying, she's actually on maternity leave and since there is no one else I trust to not make my highlights look like skunky streaks, and because she's become a good friend to our family, she's loading up the car with all her magic (and her kids) and coming over.  And the fact that her 4 year old daughter is an adorable pixie that my girls adore and I get to hold a new baby girl (and try not to cover her in hair color) makes for a pretty awesome Day 1.

But other than new babies and fresh highlights, I only have a couple of favorites this week (or...I need to run clean my bathroom and only have time to list 2).

1.  SMASH Journals -
Okay, if I ever decide to do a 'Best Of the Weekly Favorites - Year End Edition', I'm pretty positive this will not only make the cut but be high up on the list.

Behold...the SMASH Journal -

Have you seen these?

May be one of the most fabulous little things I've come across in a long time.

It's basically just a regular old journal where you can glue/tape/write lots of crap that says something about you or things you want to remember or things you love or places you want to visit or things you want to do....basically, its a hard-copy of a Pinterest board and I love it.

Here, watch this.  It's what sold me.

The girls and I each got one to work on this summer and we can't wait to start SMASHing. They come in like 6 different styles and the pages are all different depending on the style you choose.

I got the pretty style which has a lot of vintage looking pages -

Thing 1 has the Mod style -

and Thing 2's is the Doodle style - 

And we have all sorts of fun stuff to help us get SMASHed (and is it wrong that we think it is hilarious when I say, "C'mon girls! Let's go get Smashed!"??) -

Fingers crossed that it doesn't turn into the 2012 version of my scrapbooking obsession of the late 90's.  If so, you can expect to see all the above crammed in a cabinet for the next 10 years.

SMASHing away...

And FYI - you can get them at Target, Michael's or JoAnn (where I got all our stuff for 50% off a couple of weeks ago which then made me do a short happy jig on the way to the car. I'm not lying).

2.  12 years of dance - DONE. FINISHED. O-V-E-R. (cue the champagne and confetti) -

Both my girls have taken dance lessons since they were toddlers, and as they got into elementary school they danced on competition lines at their studio, which meant years and years of extra classes, tedious rhinestoning and sequining of costumes, $$$, many many weekends of competitions, 'Toddler & Tiara'-esque make-up (and moms), $$$, and a mere 2 week break in the summer before it all started back up again.

2 years ago Thing 1 decided to hang up the old dancin' shoes for life on the other stage and followed her true passion and took the theatre path. This year, Thing 2 has decided to do the same thing. 

And I couldn't be more thrilled.

And before any of my friends with dancin' daughters get all worked up, hear me out.

Sure, sure, sure...the past 12 years were (mostly) all fun and wonderful and exciting and gave my girls tons of self-confidence and created a lot of nice memories (I guess the fact that it being OVER is on my favorites list says otherwise, but I mostly mean it).

I'm frankly just burned out.  My girls also got burned out by a lot of things I won't go into here, but let's just say their decision to quit the studio dance scene and follow their passion for performing through theatre was a positive and healthy decision, and one that Husband and I wholeheartedly supported.

It just wasn't their thing anymore.  Simple as that.  (And by the amount of time and $$ you put into it, it really needs to be your thing).  

So since it's Thing 2's very last round of recitals, I made her a photo book (dug out all the unused scrapbooking supplies) with pictures from every year she danced.

Made me smile.

Made me glad she has these 8 years of memories to tuck away.

Made me glad I don't scrapbook like I used to.  I'm exhausted.

What about you? Do you SMASH??  If so, I'd love to know what fun things you put in your Smash Journal!

Enjoy your weekend!