My Boy Crazy Life

Winter Wonderland

2010-11-27T16:42:00.000-08:00

Just popping in with a quick post for a challenge on Mo's Challenge Blog. One of my favorite things about digital stamps is the ability to work with them in Photoshop. For this challenge, Winter Wonderland, I added Siku and Shiya on top of Door with Wreath.

I added it to the back of a monthly calendar that I made:

Feeling Scrappy and another James moment

2010-09-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

Scrappy in a good way though! For the first time in two weeks I felt like opening up Photoshop in the afternoon instead of just taking my (now normal) nap. Maybe I'm doing the digi version of nesting? Looking around my house I think a more traditional nesting might be in order, but since my sciatica is getting worse the lower this baby drops, sitting on my behind in my comfy chair is a lot more appealing. Plus, I have online commitments... yeah, that's it!

Templates have become my friend lately since the basic design is all set out for me, which saves valuable brain cells that would otherwise get fried trying to decide where to put everything, and Sahlin Studio's templates are all on sale right now. For the first page I started with a template from the In Review: Modern set, although you might not recognize it now because it kind of evolved as I went.

I can't believe a year and a half has already gone by since these photos were taken. Peter has definitely lost that baby look, as well as most of his hair. Apparently we hadn't discovered the many benefits of the buzz cut back then! Now I know it's time to cut all their hair off whenever they wake up with bed head. Hey, if I'm going to have all boys, there should be some perks, right? I consider being able to get them up, throw some clothes on them and walk out the door a major benefit of having sons! Saves lots of time on Sunday mornings!!

Grabbed the camera and took a photo of Andrew baking away in there; thank goodness for the bathroom mirror. I tried just holding the camera out to my side, but my arm didn't seem to be long enough anymore! We are so ready to welcome this baby into our family... these last few days seem to be dragging by so slowly. I think the boys are starting to doubt that he'll ever arrive.

Okay, so my James moment...

The boys were sitting around the breakfast table this morning, happily consuming donuts (I know, I'm a bad mom) that Simon had brought home from work yesterday, when the proverbial lightbulb went on above James's head...

him: Mom, I have an idea. Let's pretend this is a restaurant.

me: mmm-hmmm

him: You can be the cooker person...

me: the chef

him: yes, the chef, and the boys and daddy can sit at the dining room table

me: mmm-hmmm

him: then you can bring us a list and we can look at it (pretending like he's scanning a menu) and then tell you what we want, and you can cook it and bring it to us

me: uh-huh, well that's an idea all right

Chief chef, diaper changer, bottom wiper, maid, and comforter of all kinds of injuries... that's me! But, all in all, it's a pretty good job and I wouldn't trade it for the world (most days!) Check back with me in a couple of months when I won't even be able to remember the last time I slept through the night!

Card Patterns

2010-08-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

The Hybrid Chick Card Caravan decided to play along with Sketch 78 at the Card Patterns blog this week. The sketch was pretty simple this time and that suited me just fine because with only three weeks until my due date, energy seems to be at a premium! In fact, I've taken advantage of the boys' nap time the past couple of days to take a nap myself, and I'm not normally a nap girl. So, on to my card...

I used Your Mother, a digital kit collaboration between Pixel Gypsy & Dysfunctional Design, available at The Digichick for my patterned papers and sketchy flower image, printed on Red River Paper Polar Matte Double-Sided which is thick enough to be used as a card base. The cardstock matting is DCWV, the ribbon came from Michaels, the clear buttons are Autumn Leaves, backed with pieces printed from the digital kit, and the font is CK Noah.

Be sure to stop by the Hybrid Chick Caravan Facebook page tomorrow for all the rest of the girls' cards!

Bit of Everything

2010-08-18T09:11:00.000-07:00

Well, my friend Shen over at CatScrap talked me into trying my hand at a bit of hybrid design of my own, so you can now find my shop, Paper Crush Studio, there. You have no idea how I agonized over the name and logo!!

I think she's pretty cute; and she looks just like me (well, minus the eight-month pregnant baby belly anyway!!) There's a free sample in my shop, and I've started a design blog and am hosting a chance to win a gift certificate there, so please come check it out if you're so inclined!

Paper Crush Studio blog

That's been taking up a good bit of my available "craft" time the past couple of weeks, but I did find a bit of time to do some scrapping too. With Simon traveling for work this week, it's hard to go to bed at my normal hour so I tend to stay up too late!

and a couple of cards...

One last thing... there's a CatScrap blog hop tomorrow to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the shop, so make sure you stop by the CatScrap blog tomorrow to collect all the beautiful quickpages. I'll have a greeting card printable for my contribution, but I'll be hosting it on the other blog. :)

Making Some Cards

2010-08-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

I seem to be in a card-making mood lately. In fact, I've probably put together more cards in the past three weeks than I have in months. Card making is really where this whole crafting addiction started, and I seem to be returning to my roots these days. In fact, I have a fun new venture that I'm embarking on this week... but more about that in another post!

Some of the girls over at The Digichick have put together a Facebook group called the Hybrid Chick Caravan and have invited me to play along. Basically it's just participating in various card sketches and challenges around the blog world using digital papers and elements from The Digichick shop, along with whatever traditional crafting supplies you happen to have. Pretty much right up my alley!!

This week I happened across a fun sketch on The Sweetest Thing blog and decided to play along. Here's the card I made:

I'm loving the excuse to pull out the colored pencils and play again!! I'm sure you'll be seeing more from me in the days to come!

__________________________________________

What's in it?

papers and elements from Just a Girl collab by Sugarplum Paperie & Laura Banasiak
little girl stamp is by Gorjuss - Sent With Love
ribbon is Basic Grey
cardstock base is Bazzill

ink is Versafine

Prismacolor pencils & gamsol to blend

Glamour Dust glitter
sketch is SSSC80

CatWalk Blog Hop

2010-06-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to participate in my first Blog Hop as part of the CatScrap creative team. A group of us girls have each made some quickpages for you all to celebrate the arrival of the 2010 Summer CatWalk collection. You can find the links for the ones I made below the previews. They are completely different styles, so feel free to grab the one that appeals to you most, or take both; it's totally up to you!

DOWNLOAD HERE

DOWNLOAD HERE

If you just happened upon my blog by some random chance, you'll want to start at the CatScrap blog so you don't miss out on any of the goodies. If you've come from Claire's blog then you're on the right track and your next stop will be Lex's blog --- HERE.

Don't forget to stop by the chat at CatScrap tonight if you can. There's sure to be fun and prizes in store!!

On to the next stop on the hop and ENJOY!!

my dreams v. my reality

2010-06-24T20:16:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been six months since I posted anything on the blog. There just doesn't seem to be enough time to keep up with everything. In my dreams, I'm able to keep the house perfectly clean, be a patient and creative first grade teacher for James, cook gourmet and healthy meals for the family, craft in my free time and blog about it, and sail through the third trimester of pregnancy with grace and composure. In reality, I have a sink full of dirty dishes that I'm ignoring in order to blog right now. There's no way I can cover all that's happened in the last six months, so I figured I'd just hit the highlights and pick up where we are now.

As far as Project 365 goes, I just about finished January and then barely picked up the camera until April. In fact, I didn't take any photos at all in March. I decided I'd go ahead and scrap what I do manage to take this year anyway, so here's January & February's pages (as always, click to see credits)...

In the past couple of weeks, I've picked up my camera more to try to capture the craziness that is the Pranaitis family. I can hardly believe that we're only three months away from adding another boy to our motley crew. Simon already calls me the "token female" of the family! It's a position I really enjoy for the most part. The weeks when he's working out of state are always hard, but they make me even more thankful for the days he's home. Two months ago we were on our way to some event and were (miraculously) ready about 20 minutes early so we grabbed the tripod and took some family photos on self-timer. The 20 minutes consisted of me pushing the button to start the 10 second countdown, then rushing back to the front porch steps to try to get settled before the photo was taken. We only got one decent photo, and it would never win any awards, but I'm so happy we made the effort because I know we can never get these days back. The photo:

and one of the photos I snapped while I was trying to get the settings right...

Yep, these are my boys!

Okay! I'm off to go tackle those dishes. I really am hoping to get back to blogging more regularly though. I seem to have finally gotten a bit of energy back!

01.04.2010

2010-01-06T08:42:00.000-08:00

01.04.2010 . the christmas angel

I had created a blog last year for my P365 photos which I never used... so I decided I'll start using it this year. My daily photos will be here now: justJess | Project 365, although I might occasionally post a favorite at both blogs.

I'll be back later with a fun hybrid project!

01.03.2010

2010-01-04T08:56:00.001-08:00

Peter finally figured out how to blow out... every time he made this little party favor inflate, he'd let out a giggle and stomp his feet in glee!

Project 365... Days 1 & 2

2010-01-03T20:27:00.000-08:00

Never one to be too discouraged by past failure, I've decided to try to keep up with Project 365 again this year, taking one photo a day. I don't even remember how long I made it last year, but we'll see how this year goes.

01.01.2010

We spent New Year's Day in the car, driving home from CO after our halfway stop in Utah. The snow lasted for well over half the trip and I rolled down the window and snapped some photos while we were cruising along the highway.

01.02.2010

While we were gone, we had our closet redone so I got to come home to a much more organized clothes storage system. Having a new-found love for scarves, I was very excited to finally have a place to keep them, so I took a quick photo while I was unpacking everything.

Bellarific Friday

2009-12-18T09:45:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post with my card for the last Stamping Bella challenge of the year. We were supposed to use stitching somewhere on the card, and even though faux stitching was allowed, I pulled out my sewing machine and gave it a whirl. I think I'm slowly getting better at it, but there's no way I'd show you the back of the stitched circle. It's pretty ugly... maybe I have the wrong kind of needle for stitching through cardstock?

I'm so glad it's Friday! We're off to see Christmas lights this weekend, and I have just a bit of gift buying left to do, and lots of wrapping and maybe even a bit of Christmas card making. Time to turn on the Christmas tunes and get to work!

bump...

2009-12-17T15:16:00.000-08:00

That was me falling off the Project E bandwagon. I would still love to do something like this, but I just don't have time every day to scrap. So maybe for 2010 I'll do it once or week or something. I did do one more page before I hit the ground...

There's nothing quite like a clean set of cozy flannel sheets and a pair of pretty pink jammies, especially when it's cold outside!!

Bella Birthday Bash Hop

2009-12-05T06:50:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Bella Birthday Bash Blop Hop sponsored by Stamping Bella! If you've just happened upon my blog, you can CLICK HERE to start from the beginning at Bloggabella.

For my card I colored up Poppy Bittybloom using Prismas and gamsol to blend and then added a bit of sparkle with some glitter and a couple of Heidi Swapp jewels in the corner.

Three gift certificates for $100 in Bella Bucks will be hidden along the hop, but we’re not telling you where so be sure to leave some love as you hop!!! Make sure you leave comments on every post so you have a chance to win!! The winners will be announced on Monday, December 7 at the Stamping Bella Blog. MWAH!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Now it's time to hop on over to another Jessica's blog Farm Fresh Designs and see what crafty goodness she has for you!

Project E and John's Birthday

2009-11-24T10:17:00.001-08:00

I came across a challenge to think of one positive thought a day and scrap it if you can that intrigued me. While I'm not much a believer in the power of positive thinking, I do believe in counting my blessings, especially on those days that I feel prone to grumbling. So here are some of the first pages that I've done for this project, called Project E for "essence of the day."

Working on Awana verses with the boys... I'm always amazed at how easily they are able to memorize the Bible.

Another week where Simon was traveling, and yet it gave me opportunity to get together with a friend whose husband was also gone.

Even though he's 1000's of miles away, I can still talk to my hubby!

This page isn't for project e, but is definitely a page full of thankfulness for one of my biggest blessings.

This little guy turned three this week... where does the time go? I still remember the first time I held him. (He's gotten a LOT bigger since then!)
Here he is blowing out his candles and probably getting some spit on the cake at the same time:

Cake was his one birthday request... the last family party we just had cookies and I think he felt like it wasn't really a celebration without cake! So when I saw this digital image from Mo's of the hamster stuffing his cheeks with cupcake, I knew it was perfect!

Well, I'd better get moving because I still have a sink full of dirty dishes and we're having 15 people over tonight for dinner! I need a house-cleaning fairy... if anyone has one, can you send her my way?

some new friends

2009-11-17T11:22:00.001-08:00

came to play at my house last week...

These cute little Gorjuss girls were on sale and flew all the way from Scotland to hang out and color with me. I've been happily stamping, coloring, making cards and other projects as I find time during the week. We even rearranged our office space so that there was more room for me to craft down there in the evenings and still be with Simon while he works on his seminary studies. This is what my desk looked like last night... I have so many different projects going that it's hard to find space to work anymore. I guess it's time to clean up!

I made a card for the Sugarbowl challenge blog (now that I have some stamps to play with, I figured I might as well have a shot at some free goodies! You can see the sketch on the Sugarbowl blog, and here's my card:

Custom Doodle Contest

2009-11-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd pop in to let you know about a contest Kate Hadfield is running on her blog right now. Image is linked to her blog so you can go enter to win some custom doodles:

And a quick card I put together with her latest doodle pack.

On a side note, my latest hybrid project is up on the Hybrid Chick blog today if you want to go check it out...

Crazy Hair Night

2009-11-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

Last week was crazy hair night at the Awana club that the boys go to. And of course there's a funny story that goes with it! Three weeks ago James came home that Sunday night and told me that the next week was "crazy hair night" at the club. Indeed, I had seen on the schedule for the year that this date was coming up, and so when the next Sunday rolled around, we got James and John up from their naps and trundled them into the bathroom where we applied various gels and hairsprays in an attempt to get their hair to stand straight out from their heads. Their hair was pretty long at this point because I had not cut it on purpose, just for this night, and the effect was pretty impressive I must say. Then we loaded them up into the car and headed off to church. As we pulled into the parking lot, I started looking around (to size up the competition for the craziest hair award) and what should meet my eyes? Normal hair everywhere I looked! That's right... not a single crazy head in sight, except for my two goobers in the back seat. Apparently James was off by one week; NEXT week was crazy hair night. Well, there was nothing to do but swallow my pride and send them in, looking like complete goofballs. We were all practiced up for next week though... and here was the result:

And you know I had to scrap it!!

(image is linked)

So there ya go! Crazy Hair Night, take 2!!

The Craft Stuff

2009-10-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

Some recent pages and projects that I've been up to...

Two more months and two projects for The Hybrid Chick blog, and I'm already working on my next post for November (me? work ahead? hard to believe, isn't it! Usually I'm writing the post and editing the photos late into the night before the day it's due. This time I've sworn that I'll get it done early though!)

I've also been doing my hybrid projects for Shabby Pickle. The frame is sitting on my piano right now, a reminder when I start to worry that God is sovereign and knows exactly what I need. The little jewelry box came out so cute and I was trying to decide what to put in it and who to give it to, but unfortunately I left it sitting on the dining room table and one of the boys must have found it. It did not survive. Ah well... that's the beauty of hybrid. If there comes a time I need another box, I can just print one more out.

I have been scrapping as I get the chance, although I haven't been as good about taking photos lately so I'm starting to run a bit low on material. (Mental note to self: get out the camera tomorrow and use it!) Kate asked me if I would stay on her team after my guest spot was up and of course I had to say yes. I've been having so much fun scrapping and crafting with her goodies. Here is Simon, my math & physics nerd; a birthday card for my big five year old; and a page about my Grandma. The last two are also from the trip we made in May to see my family in New England. The photos might seem like just a little moment, but each of the pictures I have of my grandparents and my boys together is special to me. I want to be able to capture these memories for them so they can look back and see how much they are loved by their great-grandparents.

Some pages with Creashens goodies... my sweet, sleeping Pete; a redo of a page that I'd done three months after I discovered digital scrapping back in 2008 (here's the original); and me with my new fall haircut. It's wonderful having a hairdresser in the family!!

And, of course I'm still scrapping with Nicole's wonderful designs. The first page is some photos of John and me the day we left for India; then my sweet little niece, and finally a page with a mix of (mostly) goodies from the Digichick for the last speed scrap there.

Whew!! Are you totally crafted out?? I am! At least for tonight. I'm sure I'll find some more creative juice tomorrow to work on another project. I have been doing some stamping so I'll have to come back and show you what I've been making. For now it's off to bed for me though, morning always seems to come early on Sundays!

(I'm too tired tonight to go through and link up each of the projects individually, so here's the link to my DST gallery where you can find them all if you're interested in seeing the credits, or you can check out my new Flikr gallery where you'll find the most recent projects. Okay, off to bed for reals this time!)

Nite!

What I've Been Up To

2009-10-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe that it's been two months since the last blog post... life has been busy! I started kindergarten with James last month and it's been going surprisingly well. I had started him last year on the book Teach Your Child to Read in a Hundred Easy Lessons but he just wasn't getting it and I had taken too many breaks in between the lessons so we eventually gave up. We started at the beginning again last month and this time it's going great! I can't wait for him to be able to read on his own and if he's anything like me, I'll be prying his nose out of a book whenever I need him to do something else. I haven't had as much time to read as I used to (read: before I had kids) but I did discover that I am able to borrow audio books for free online through a program that our local library has. I just listened to a mystery book called Maisie Dobbs while scrapping, or doing housework, or before falling asleep. In fact, just this week I was extolling to Simon the benefits of listening to a book rather than reading it for, I said, "if I were reading it I'd no doubt be up all night in order to finish it, but when I listen it puts me to sleep." Of course, that very night I stayed up until two in the morning in order to hear the end of the book! So much for that theory.

In September we participated in a park outreach event that the church we are part of hosted. It was fun to meet people in the neighborhood and for the boys to jump in the jump house and get their faces painted. However I came home with three creatures:
this big tiger...

this little tiger...

and this furry dog...

who was a stray wandering the streets. We've had her now for a month, watched for signs advertising a lost dog, checked to see if she has a microchip, discussed multiple times whether we really want another dog, and named her Mocha. (Well, actually I named her Mocha, because the only thing better than coffee is chocolate AND coffee.) We're keeping her. The boys love her. She sleeps next to my side of the bed. She fills a little spot in my heart that's been empty since my last pomeranian died. And that's the end of that story.

I'll be back in a bit with some of the crafty things I've been up to; there's a stench wafting from the boys' room that needs to be attended to and I guess it's time to start school for the day...

First class all the way...

2009-08-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

Well, not really first class actually... more like World Traveler, which is British Airline's way of communicating that they will pack you in as tightly as possible, with only enough room to cross your legs if you don't mind your knee up your nose. And believe me, that gets mighty uncomfortable really fast!

This was our transportation the first leg of our journey... the most ginormous plane I've ever seen. I honestly didn't know that you could get a two-story plane. As we were hurtling down the runway, I was trying not to think about how huge the force of gravity that we were attempting to overcome must have been. Simon, aka Mr. Physics, never worries about the takeoff because he knows all about the different physical laws that work together to get the plane up into the air. He only gets nervous about the landing. Me? I never get nervous about the landing because at least we're headed in the direction I want to be going... down. I've discovered that the older I get, the less I like to fly.

Ironically enough, the only stress on the trip over was while we were on the ground in London. Our flight was delayed getting in because of bad weather, and the flight attendant was assuring everyone that all the connecting flights would also be delayed. We also had some kind of medical emergency on the flight which delayed the disembarking by an additional 45 minutes while the paramedics came on to tend to the woman. By the time we finally got off and got through security, the monitor showed our flight to Delhi as closing in 15 minutes. Of course, right next to the monitor was a sign estimating the time necessary to reach our gate... 15 minutes, hence the stress. Now, no lie, Heathrow airport has the world's longest escalator... and it feels even longer when you're running up it in flipflops, carrying a backpack that's getting heavier by the millisecond, and gasping for air because you think your lungs are about to explode or maybe you'll just have a heart attack! We were second to last to board the plane and I was actually happy to have a chance to sit down again. It was a good thing we ran, because the plane took off right away... wait, just kidding... we sat on the runway for an hour before taking off. Oh well, at least I got some exercise.

Here's my first (of many, no doubt) page about our trip...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been slowly trying to catch up on things I missed while I was gone. This is with one of Creashen's new kits and is Simon & I on our anniversary trip to Seattle last December.

And, speaking of Seattle... lots of families that love my mom and dad got together and sent them on a surprise trip to Seattle for their 30th anniversary this week. I am so excited for them (and amazed that with all the people in on the secret, no one spilled the beans!) I made a card for them... inside it says {you two make the cutest couple}.

And one last project: this one was so easy, but it turned out super cute (if I do say so myself!) A set of thank you notes for James to send out after his birthday this year...

Well, that's it for now. Way too much happened in India to put it all in one post, so I thought I'd spread it out as I have time to sort through photos and process everything that happened. It was an amazing trip though and I'm so glad that we were able to go!

Time for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up...

Another conversation with James

2009-07-22T18:44:00.001-07:00

sitting around the dinner table tonight...

Me: I'm going to miss you boys.
John: You're not going to miss us!
Me: Yes I am.
James: Yeah, because we're going to Grandma's house and they're going to India for forever.
Me: not forever, just two weeks
James: Yes I know; forever is two weeks!

I guess when you're four, two weeks probably does feel like forever!

Getting Ready...

2009-07-22T14:55:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow's the day... this is what my dining room table looked like this morning:

...everyone's clothes laid out in stacks, being double-checked and then crossed off the list. Slowly the piles are getting packed into the suitcases; there's only one load of laundry left to do and our carry-ons to be packed and then we're set.

One step forward, two steps back...

2009-07-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

I felt like I had too many online commitments, so I left two of my teams over the past few weeks, but then one of the applications to a team that I had sent in on a whim was accepted, so I added a new team. Fortunately the requirements are much lighter than the two that I left, so I feel more confident that I'll be able to keep up with everything. It's been so long since I posted that I'll just share some of my favorite pages and projects that I've done over the last month or so. (Pages are linked for credits as always!)

First I want you to know that I have been using ALL those pencils that I bought! As I have time, I've been participating in the sketch challenges on the Stamping Bella blog. I'm really enjoying the coloring and blending process, and it's something that I can sit down and do with the boys... they LOVE to color together. The second card is made with digital paper and elements from Sugarplum Paperie's Pretty Little Picnic kit which is available in this month's Digi Files. I love being able to resize papers until the pattern is the right size for a card, and then just print what I need.

Nicole is putting one of the kits in her Twist collection on sale each Tuesday during the month of July. It's hard to believe that these are already a year old... she was releasing them right around the time that I first joined her team. I never got a chance to play with the Tangerine Twist when it came out, so it was fun to have a chance to scrap with it this week. I mixed it with a few other goodies and this photo of John from last year that's been sitting on my harddrive waiting to be scrapped and came up with this page. I love this picture of John; it seems to perfectly capture the carefree way he goes through life (well, that and his love for cereal. We go through cereal so fast in our house!)

I got to continue guesting for Kate Hadfield this month since she didn't have any guests already lined up. I was so excited that she asked us all to stay, because I'm loving her handcrafted style. These first photos are of Peter and my little brother when he got back from Marine boot camp last summer. Actually, I had accidentally deleted these photos from my memory card, and my brother was able to retrieve them for me so I'm doubly indebted to him for these photos now! The second photos are of James on the beach in Hawaii two summers ago. He loved playing in the sand and the beaches were not nearly as crowded as the Southern California ones are so there was plenty of room to build sandcastles and drive trucks and all those other boy things.

I've done two more projects for The Hybrid Chick blog. The first was for the Baby Shower and was a box to put in the back of your car to keep an extra set of clothes, some diapers, etc. That was actually for a giveaway and has since left my house via the ever-faithful postal service and is (hopefully) now residing in someone's trunk! The second project was a quick little album made out of printed digital pages and ordinary lunch sacks. I've linked the finished project pictures to the directions on the blog. There are some really adorable projects that the other girls have done so you definitely should go check them out! One of my recent favorites is these Hybrid Hairclips. I know what my nieces are getting as stocking stuffers this year!!

One last hybrid project; the first for my new team at Shabby Pickle Designs. I actually already owned this kit, but hadn't used it yet. This was probably the hardest hybrid project I've done so far because trying to figure out the measurements and how to cover it neatly when I was limited to 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper was very challenging! I think it came out pretty cute though (at least the front... notice there's no picture of the bottom!) and it actually was mentioned on the GSO blog yesterday. (That's a good thing Mom, in case you're reading this!) Anyway, now that I've done one, I'm thinking about heading back over to Michaels some more of these boxes to see if it gets easier the second time around.

Even though I'm not creating for Funky Playground anymore, I had to show you this page because I love how it came out. Kitty Designs is guesting there this month, and I used her Toy Box kit and made this page with a photo of my sweet Pete. This was definitely outside of my normal scrapping zone, but it was so fun to try to think of creative ways to use the same photo.

Last pages to share, I promise!! These are with Shen's newest products. The first one is just a photo of Simon and me that James snapped in the front yard a few nights ago after we got home from a walk. The camera's pretty heavy and you have to actually look through the viewfinder, there's no display like with a normal point and shoot camera, so I'm pretty impressed that he got both of us (mostly) in the frame! This is the "real" me... no makeup, hair's a mess, and "kick-around" clothes. (Kick-around is my word for anything that you would wear around the house, or maybe for a quick trip to the grocery store, but other than that you wouldn't want to be caught dead in it! I come from a family that's big into making up our own words... like gulch - defined as a pile of stuff that isn't junk, it's just where it's not supposed to be. For instance, "stop gulching up the dining room table; we have to eat there you know." I'm pretty sure it's a real word; look it up!) Returning from my rabbit trail, the second page is photos that I've been waiting for the perfect kit with which to scrap them, and when Shen created Lulu & Rocko I found it. Love, love, love this kit!!

Real life stuff alert: In under a week now, Simon and I are headed to India for two weeks to visit some friends who run a NGO there that does work on university campuses and in slums. The purpose is to work alongside them, but we will get a chance to do a little bit of sightseeing while we're there, so I'm going to do my best to update the blog and post some pictures of our days. Our boys are staying here with my mom and dad, and I know I'm going to miss them like crazy, but I have to confess that the thought of taking them on the 22 hour plane flight also made me crazy!

Well, we're having company for dinner tonight so I suppose I ought to pick up some of the gulch around this place and take the meat out of the freezer! Hopefully I'll be back before we leave on Thursday, but if not, I guess my next post will be from halfway around the world!

Part Two!

2009-06-14T14:05:00.000-07:00

More catchup

First off, my sweet niece as promised! She is so tiny and light; it's like holding a baby doll. We're planning to get together again this week; I can't wait to see her again.

This month I am getting a chance to guest for Kate Hadfield. She has such a fun, hand-doodled style and it is perfect for hybrid. I applied for her guest team in April and was so excited to get an email from her asking me to be her guest. I've been busily printing, cutting and gluing up a storm! Here's a card I made with some of her new doodles and a piece of cardboard I ripped off of one of the empty diaper boxes that I had. Of these, there always seems to be an endless supply; how I look forward to the day when I purchase the last pack of diapers!

And this one is for Simon for Father's Day from the boys. The razor is kind of an inside joke... everytime a new razor comes out, I always want to try it out and I'm always asking Simon if he wouldn't like to try a new one, but of course he's totally happy with the one he has! Now I ooh and aah over the new ones just to make him laugh. I'd seen the pattern for this somewhere on my blog travels, but I can't remember exactly where. After I'd creased and folded the cardstock, I measured out each piece that I would need and created a template in photoshop for them. I can't wait to see his face when the boys give it to him!

There's some more fun hybrid-ness coming up the end of this month over at the The Hybrid Chick... it's definitely baby season around The DigiChick with lots of the designers either expecting, or having just delivered their precious bundles of joy. The fun starts June 15, so be sure to stop by for some wonderful project ideas and even door prizes. I'm not quite sure what I'll be making yet, but I'm planning a trip to Michael's tomorrow to see what kind of fun things I can find to alter.

I added one more creative team last month; you can see my little FunkyPlayground Design blinkie over on the side there. They added lots of new designers at the beginning of the month so there's been all kinds of fun products to play with. Here's a couple of pages featuring James...

Another layout of James, this time with Creashen's Candid kit... that boy has the most expressive face! I'll never have to wonder what he's thinking. I know that he gets that from me though; I used to get in trouble without even having to say anything because my mom could see it all written on my face.

One last bit of fun stuff for today... during my blog hopping I stumbled across this blog called Paper Possibilities and loved her gorgeous cards so much, I really wanted to try her method of coloring and blending myself. I've always loved to color, and even now I'll sit and color with the boys (I have my own box of crayons!) So I decided to go on ebay and see if I could find some colored pencils... I put in a bid on a set of 120, but all the other sets were going for more than I had bid and I started thinking that I didn't really need THAT many colored pencils, so I decided to simply purchase a 72 piece set on buy-it-now and not rebid on the higher set. Unfortunately, no one outbid me on the first set, so I'm now the proud owner of 192 colored pencils. I have now sworn off ebay... way too dangerous for someone so indecisive as I am!! Anyway, as I was browsing through Paula's cards, admiring the eye candy, I came across some really fun stamp companies that I'd never heard of. One of them is called Elzybells, and it just so happens that their blog is celebrating it's first anniversary this month with giveaways and a discount on all orders so if you like to stamp, go check it out! I'm loving this set here (which will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me!)

Well, we're off to the wedding of my long-time friend's little brother so that's all for me today... I'll try to get some good photos!

Happy scrapping and crafting!

Freestyle Flair

2009-06-13T19:48:00.000-07:00

A page for the current HodgePodge challenge which is to scrap a summer memory using bright colors. I mixed up all kinds of goodies for this page, including some stuff I downloaded back when I first discovered digi and was downloading everything in sight, but never got around to using most of it!

You can find the challenge here if you're interested. It closes on Sunday night.

Journaling:
it’s so much fun to watch the two
of you in the pool together! I have
many happy memories of summer days
spent mostly in the water. Grandma
and Grampy’s pool was also the scene
of the infamous Labor Day get-
together when it became obvious to
all that your mommy and daddy liked
each other. Seeing you paddle around
in your little float just makes me
smile, and although I hope that
someday you will learn how to swim,
I get such a kick out of the way
your feet thrash around in an attempt
to propel you forward! I am so thank-
ful that we live close enough to my
parents for you to play in their pool.
June 28, 2008

Part One :)

2009-05-30T08:47:00.001-07:00

Overdue
What do I do?
What do I do?
This library book is 42
Years overdue.
I admit that it's mine
But I can't pay the fine--
Should I turn it in
Or hide it again?
What do I do?
What do I do?

Shel Silverstein

This little poem perfectly sums up how I feel about blogging right now... I want to, but it's been so long that it seems a bit overwhelming at the same time. I decided that the best way to catch up was to just post a little bit as I have time over the next couple of days.

Let's see... first happy thing is that I have a new little niece. I'm going to go see her again tomorrow, so I'll be sure to take some photos. She's so sweet and little and all of a sudden my boys seem a lot older and bigger!

I added a couple more CT's this month, and Shen invited me to stay after my guest term was up. I ended up winning the Hodge Podge challenge that I'd entered with her designs, and the kit is now available in both of her shop. I still can't believe how fortunate I am to get to scrap with her stuff! Here's a page I made this month with her Green collab and underneath are a few of her new kits that are just gorgeous!

The other fun thing I did was join the team at The Hybrid Chick blog. You can see the blinkie over on the side there. I feel a bit as if I jumped into water that is way over my head because there are some seriously talented girls on the team, but it's been so fun and the more hybrid I do, the more I am loving the flexibility of using the computer to plan out a project! It's also been fun to actually use some of my physical scrapbooking stash again. In fact, today was my first day to post to the blog and I created a fun little goodie can... click on the photo if you want to go check it out!

Well, the boys are up from their naps now so I'll have to share about my Ebay foibles later

Hodge Podge challenge

2009-05-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

I've been watching all of the challenges over at the Hodge Podge blog for a couple of months now, and finally decided to join in the fun and play. This week's challenge was to scrap a page listing 10 simple pleasures and use a white background. Here's what I came up with:

The journaling reads:

As I sit down to make a list of life’s simple pleasures, the first thing
to come to mind is holding Simon’s hand. Maybe it’s because
I associate that with the joy of those early days of our engagement,
or maybe it’s because of the feeling of reassurance his warm, strong
grip provides, or maybe it’s a combination of those things plus lots of
other little factors, but whatever the reasons, there’s nothing like
reaching over and tucking my hand into his.
I’m ashamed to confess that dark chocolate made my list as
number two. Call me shallow, but there’s something so satisfying about
the smooth taste of it in my mouth, and if it has nuts in it, even
better! Right up there with chocolate is a good cup of coffee.
Maybe I should have put that as number two, because I love the
comfort of the smooth taste and the warmth of the mug between
my hands first thing in the morning.
The joys of family also made my list in a variety of ways: sweet, honest
compliments from James, who simply delights in making me
smile, and spontaneous hugs from Peter, whose childlike
affection has a way of lifting my spirits no matter how hard the day
has been. These remind me of the Lord’s daily blessings in my life with
his gracious gift of children. Another blessing is my mom, and her
willingness to speak the truth to me when I need to hear it and her
constant love for me and my family. Perhaps the treasure of this
relationship is close to my heart today because of the providental timing
of her call to encourage me to choose carefully what battles to fight
with the boys, and the anticipation of a family dinner tomorrow night.
It’s not just the sense of taste that provides pleasure in life,
certainly. As I hear the dryer buzzer sound, I am reminded of the
very great pleasure I find in sliding into a bed made with clean,
white linens. I also appreciate the warmth of the sun when I
step outside. I know that in a few months, I’ll be sweating in the heat
and wishing for the winter again, but for right now, I’m thankful for
the gentle spring sun warming the air and causing the plants
to burst into bloom.
Rounding out my list of simple pleasures that I’m enjoying this day are
two that relate to finishing something that I started. The first is the
little finished hybrid album that I can see from my spot at
the kitchen table. Remembering the delight of my boys when I handed it
to them and the number of times we’ve already read it aloud together
gives me incentive to finish the other assorted projects that are
currently cluttering my craft table! Lastly is a simple pleasure that I
haven’t experienced yet today, but certainly plan to... the satisfaction
of a clean kitchen. Although right now the counter is covered in
unwashed dishes, and they’re overflowing out of the sink, I know how
productive I will feel when I get them all washed and put
away, and the sense of accomplishment that a clean
kitchen provides is enough to motivate me to
put away the computer for a while, and
take care of my responsibilities.
April 27, 2009

I used Creashen's Pure paper pack for the background, and her brand new Sprung kit available only in The Digi Files this month. It was a lot of fun to make, and I had forgotten how much I enjoy the journaling process when I'm able to just sit and write as the thoughts occur to me. Anyway, wish me luck!

Checking in...

2009-04-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

Tap, tap, tap... Is this thing still on?

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last blogged. I guess that shows what a boring life I lead; I couldn't think of anything to talk about. But this morning, sitting here listening to the melodious sounds of the garbage truck cruising through the neighborhood, hoping that it won't wake up the boys, I felt like writing.

But wait, now I hear the boys stirring in the bedroom, so it looks like my attempt is ill-fated. Maybe I'll be back this afternoon, or maybe it'll be another whole month before I hit that little blogger icon in my browser...

goodbye for now,

me

Doing My Part to Help the Economy

2009-03-11T15:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks to us, Sudafed and Kleenex should have their best quarter ever. We've been going through it like crazy around here. Lucky Peter is the only one not sick. I'm hoping that once we all get well again, we'll have developed some kind of immunity to it so that the next time it comes around we won't have to worry about it! Sick children are cranky children, so other than a quick trip to Costco for the essentials (milk, bread, and chocolate muffins ) we've stuck pretty close to home so far this week. After getting home from our shopping trip yesterday, I was carrying the last of the groceries in, and when I got into the kitchen, there was John, with the whole package of muffins (12 big ones) hanging from his mouth. He'd bit into one right through the plastic and was walking around with it dangling from his teeth. Before we left for Costco, I found him sitting in the fireplace. When he saw me, he crawled out and started running across the living room, ashes falling off the seat of his pants behind him. I think he woke up that morning and decided to see how far he could push his mom! Fortunately for both of us, today has been a MUCH better day!!

I haven't had as much time for scrapping the past couple of weeks, but I did finish my hybrid project for Valentine's Day; I made a little mint tin album for Simon with whatever photos of the two of us I could find on my hard drive. It was more work than I thought it was going to be, but fun to put together. The process of trying to find some picture of us made me realize that we don't have too many! Maybe I should hand the camera over to James and have him take some of us. Or maybe not. I'll have to think about that some more. Anyway, here's how the mint tin turned out:

I decided after I had already glued the album in to paint the outside. Next time, I'm definitely doing the painting first!

I'm still having fun guesting for Shen. I made a couple more pages; the first with her fun new set of photo masks, and the second one with Swell Set no. 2. I filled it up with photos from our trip to Seattle last December. It was just the push I needed to sort through the hundreds of photos we took and pick out some of my favorites.

Brittney's new kit this week was just perfect for this photo of my nephew. He's the funniest little kid; always going around with this look on his face like he knows something you don't know. My mom took this picture of him when she was at my sister's house one day; he'd just emptied his milk cup onto his highchair tray and was happily playing in the mess. If you buy the kit this week, you get a fun pack of glitter papers included in your download.

This last page is one of my favorites. The boys had so much fun at the children's museum; I can't wait until we have the opportunity to go back.

I think one of the best things about this hobby is that it forces me to get out my camera and take pictures otherwise I don't have anything to scrap! Before I loaded everyone in the van for our trip yesterday, I grabbed my camera and took a few snaps of Peter in the front yard. He's just started walking and can take 6 or 7 steps before he loses his balance and falls. (Don't look at his hair; he desperately needs a hair cut!) He's tremendously proud of his new skill, and always looks around to see if anyone's watching him.

(Frame & elements from the new Sugarplum Paperie collab kit coming to the DigiChick tomorrow.)
Well, I'd better go figure out what to make all these hungry boys for dinner before I find another bite out of the chocolate muffins with a bite out of it!

Photos & More

2009-02-12T15:00:00.000-08:00

I can never seem to think of an interesting title...

Anyway, I finally made it through all the photos and picked out some of my favorites.

Just a couple of quick layouts... this one is John from over a year ago. There's just something about it that makes me smile everytime I see it. I don't know if it's the hat, or his sweet little face, or both, but it's one of my favorite photos of him. I used Creashen's Pillowtalk again, and also Torn Bits 1 for the photo.

Yesterday was Peter's first birthday and it's so hard for me to believe that a whole year could have gone by since he was born... wasn't it just a few months ago that we brought him home from the hospital? Where does the time go?

We're going to celebrate on Saturday... I'll be sure to get some photos!

Long time, no post

2009-02-05T10:00:00.000-08:00

Maybe I should just start every post with "bad blogger!" It's just one of those things on my to do list that never seems to get from "to do" to "done." I have finally gotten back to scrapping a bit after the holidays though. I found my favorite photo of each of the boys in 2008 and scrapped that as well using some Sugarplum goodies and a few blog gifts from Creashens. How I wish I could keep them little some days (and some days I can't wait for them to be grown and gone!)

The page earned me a two month guest spot on Shen's team, so I've been busily scrapping with more Creashens goodies over the past few days. I've already done a couple of pages with her newest kit, Pillow Talk, but I'll have to post the second page tomorrow when all the goodies I used have been loaded into the shop.

This first one is my new favorite photo of Peter and I love the way the colors look against the brown background. The was taken at the Children's Museum in Pasadena last week. We were on vacation with my in-laws and just had so much fun there!

In other digiscrapping news ... Nicole has a new grabbag out for February at the Digichick (which she owns now!!) and trust me, you don't want to miss it! I'm working on a little hybrid goodie with it and I'll post some photos as soon as I'm done. The little alpha in the the last page is from the bag...

I'll be back in a bit with some photos from the children's museum. I just need to sort through the HUNDREDS of them that I took and find the best. Here's one more of Peter that I loved almost as much as the one I scrapped (it'll probably show up on a page eventually!) The frame is from the new grabbag... go get it... seriously!

Happy scrapping!

All kinds of stuff...

2008-12-11T12:33:00.000-08:00

Since we got back from our Seattle vacation, I've been trying to catch up on all my CT pages! I was excited to start scrapping again, especially when I saw the fun new kit that Britt created: Hustle & Bustle. (Don't forget the coordinating alpha free with purchase for a limited time.)

We went to get our Christmas tree on Saturday afternoon after we got home, so now I have lots of fun pictures of the boys in their santa outfits to scrap. I took some cute ones right after we got to the tree lot and we could still coax a few smiles out of the boys. By the time we finally found our tree, "grumpy" was the operating emotion! Plus we suffered from the problem of having the too-helpful workers... they followed us around the lot, asking if we knew what kind of tree we wanted, if we wanted them to open up some more trees, pushing our stroller, taking pictures of our boys in their outfits, and generally adding to the stress level of the outing. I was hoping for a relaxing stroll through the trees, stopping to take some photos, but it was not to be!! For example...

Anyway, here's the page I did with Britt's new kit and some pictures that do NOT include strangers...

I am also guesting for Krystal Hartley this month and she's already put out two fun holiday kits this week! The first, Happy Feet, is a collab with Ziggle Designs, and is available at Scrap Orchard.

There's lots of fun elements in here and I didn't even get to the orange ones, so I'll definitely have to make another page with it! I took the snow pictures when we were driving through the Rocky Mountains three years ago on our way to Colorado for my sister-in-law's wedding. It was so beautiful, but as a Southern CA girl, I was glad that I didn't have to drive!

And at Funky Playground Designs is Heaven and Nature Sing, a kit full of fun, blue and green goodness.

I found a photo of my niece taken about three years ago that was perfect to use with this color scheme. I love those little chubby cheeks!

I ended up resigning from a couple of teams last month because I just didn't feel like I had enough time to keep up with everything, but I did stay on Sugarplum Paperie's hybrid team (even though I haven't done any hybriding in a couple of weeks... I'm planning to do some Christmas goodies!) Nicole has a brand new grabbag coming out tomorrow and it's full of sugarplum goodness, so be sure to keep an eye out for that at either her personal store or at her Digichick shop. Here's a page I created (and there's tons more I didn't use yet):

And one more *just for fun* kind of page... Sleepy Pete

It's good to be home!

Just a few pages

2008-11-20T21:37:00.001-08:00

Britt-ish Designs has a fabulous new Christmas collab out today and the free gift with purchase are these great printable gift tags.

There are so many fun elements in the kit, and I love the mix of green and red with the grey. Here's the page I made with it...

These are just some of the pages I've made for Brittney over the past couple of weeks.

And some note cards for Sugarplum Paperie... still dipping my toes into the hybrid waters!

He just makes me smile!

2008-10-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd pop in with a photo of John from last week. Every time I see it I can't help but grin back at that little face!

Hope you're having a great day!

A Walk on the Bright Side

2008-10-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

Brittney has a great new kit, "The Bright Side," out this week with a special offer for a free coordinating alpha when you buy before Thursday, Oct 30.

I had so much fun scrapping with the kit! Here's the page I did (and don't forget to pick up the coordinating addon free on Brittney's blog!

Happy weekend!

The Birthday Boy

2008-10-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

James turned four a couple of weeks ago. When I stop and look at him, I realize that he has left toddler-hood far behind. I know that in the blink of an eye the next four years will be gone too. He has already become such fun to be around (when he isn't grumpy, of course) and the funny things he says and does keep us laughing.

I went looking for some pictures of him taken on or around each of his birthdays just so I could see how he'd grown, and thought I'd share them with you too. Here we are in the hospital.

I think by his first birthday he was already running, and he's been mostly a blur of action ever since!

Two years old and already a style icon.

Last summer in Hawaii (our camera broke while we were there so I don't have any pictures for a couple of months)... muscle man.

Last week...

How I love that kid! Thanks for walking down memory lane with me.

Bad blogger, bad blogger!

2008-10-21T10:39:00.000-07:00

(slapping my hand)

I can't believe that it's been weeks since I posted anything. Time flies! I don't know how it's possible, but life seems to have gotten busier as we've gotten further into the school year (not for my boys of course, but for everyone else). I've been trying to squeeze some scrap therapy in around the edges of everything, but it's not easy. Here's the CT pages I've done and then I'll be back later with some pictures of the kiddos for those of you wondering if we still have them all. (I crack myself up sometimes, especially when I'm short on sleep, which I am at the moment...)

Anyway...

First for Brittney (who just got back from Disneyland, that lucky girl!):

Miss Tiina just came out with a fun new Halloween kit, but since we don't celebrate Halloween, I thought I'd use a few of the spiders to document the fear I've created in James's mind.

Lastly is a page with Zakirah's new kit that made the GSO.

I did a few "just for fun" pages too, so I'll try to get those posted in the next day or two as well.

Sugarplum Blog Challenge

2008-09-29T19:39:00.001-07:00

There is a Scrap Pink challenge right now on the Sugarplum Paperie blog. I decided to scrap one of my favorite pictures of my sister and one of my nieces reading a book together.

Somebody's crying... off to investigate!

Some graduation pictures

2008-09-27T14:03:00.001-07:00

(If you're here for the blog train, scroll down a post... )

Out of all the photos I took the two days we were in San Diego for William's graduation from boot camp, most of them didn't come out very good. It was such an emotional time, that I guess I must have had trouble focusing the camera well. These are a few of the better pictures.
The first ones here are photos I took while walking to the stands on Family Day. These are all the new Marines that were about to be released for their first liberty in months, five hours worth.This is Will's platoon marching out and then all lined up, waiting to be dismissed.Our family
These are two of my favorites: My mom getting her first hug, and James who wanted to hold Uncle's hand.
These last two of Will's platoon are from graduation day. I wish I could convey to you the excitement that built in the crowd as they marched out; the amazement of watching 585 men move and speak as one; and the pride that radiated from the new Marines.And now he leaves in just a few more days for combat training, and I will miss him again but at least this time he'll be allowed to bring a cell phone! And I'm sure my mom will continue to update the blog as his exploits continue!

Thanks for dropping by!

Family Matters blog train!

2008-09-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's time for another blog train! This time there are quickpages and addons to be collected from this kit by Matahati Designs and Sya's Blueprints:

Here's the layout that I've made and turned into a quick page:

Just click on the layout or ~~ here ~~ to download the quickpage!

These are all the blogs where you can find a goodie:
1. Zakirah htpp://matahatiseni.blogspot.com/
2. Sya - http://scrap-stuff.blogspot.com
3. Jess http://myboycrazylife.blogspot.com
4. Stefanie - http://stefgonedigi.blogspot.com
5. Holly http://mommaholly.blogspot.com/
6. Lisa - http://www.kandykanekreations.blogspot.com
7. Alice http://designsbyarisu.blogspot.com/
8. Kim - http://kimbytx.blogspot.com/
9. Fliffy http://funwithfliffy.blogspot.com/
10. Len http://celebratinglifesmemories.com/blog

Thanks for stopping by!!

New Miss Tiina Collection

2008-09-25T18:00:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to "pop" in with a quick post about Miss Tiina's fun new collection at Funky Playground: Splendor Pop.

You can buy the whole collection and save, or you can pick up the pieces individually. Here's the page I scrapped with it:

To get my page as a quickpage and see all of the pieces in the collection, just visit the Lil Missies team blog here and you can also take part in a fun challenge that will give you the chance to win a gift card for Miss Tiina's stuff (just scroll down one post)!

Photoshop Magic

2008-09-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

Someone with too much time on his hands must have come up with this:

http://producten.hema.nl/

Give it a few seconds to start.

Hugs!!

Just a couple of pages...

2008-09-23T12:29:00.001-07:00

For the challenges over at the Shabby Pickle...

Here is John enjoying the perks of hanging out in the kitchen while I'm baking:

And this is just a snapshot I took a couple of days ago while trying to get the hang of the camera we just bought. Since I have so few recent pictures of Simon and I together though, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to scrap it!

Okey dokey... off to get some important work done now...

It's Motor Mania!!!

2008-09-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

This is such a fun kit; perfect for all kinds of pictures!! And Britt has a free addon on her blog so go check that out as well! Here's my page...

As always, thanks for stopping by!

So proud!

2008-09-19T20:44:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update... see that handsome Marine surrounded by a beaming family? That's my little brother and us (well, not me because I was taking the picture) on Thursday at MCRD (Marine Corp Recruit Depot) in San Diego. Today we got to see the graduation ceremony which was amazing. I wish I could convey the sense of pride and history the ceremony had. I have to sort through the couple hundred pictures I took and then I can put up a picture of him in his dress blues. What a wonderful, emotional couple of days it's been, and I can't wait to get a chance to spend some time just talking to him and catching up on life. He's home for ten days on leave, then gone again, so for ten days, the world will be as it should for my family!

Color Me Happy

2008-09-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

Zakirah has a fabulous new collab with Jana M. and I made not 1, but 2 pages with it! The colors are so bright and happy and I love all the fun embellishments! There's one that reminds me of a toy we had as a kid where you would turn the spinning motor on and then drop paint onto it and it would make a swirly pattern... now what was that thing called? Oh well, it'll come to me, probably at two in the morning! Anyway, enough of my rambling, here's the kit and the pages I made:

It will be available tomorrow at The DigiChick, but you can find it at ScrapOrchard today.

(Do you see the paint splat I'm talking about? What was that thing called, it's really bugging me now. Spiro-something maybe? Somebody help me out here... I think my brain might be dying! )

Now Playing at the Funky Playground!

2008-09-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

Miss Tiina made it through all the rounds of the Teacher's Pet contest and you can now find her fun kits and fonts at the Funky Playground. She has so much fun new stuff out to celebrate the opening of her new store that there's no way I could scrap with everything, but I did manage to make a couple of pages.
Here are James and John enjoying one of their favorite books together; I always love hearing James "read" to John.
For the photo on this one, I tried a fun new technique of turning the photo into a pencil drawing.
Off to pack for our graduation trip... I can't wait to see my brother!

my morning

2008-09-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

Yep, this pretty much sums it up:

They're all crying, and I want to just sit down and cry with them!

So, how's your morning going?

Some "Shabby" Challenges

2008-09-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

I've been working on completing some of this month's challenges at Shabby Pickle using two fun new kits. The first challenge was to pick a LO from Sabrina Dupre's gallery and scraplift it. Here is the page I picked and here is the page I created:

The challenge on this one was to do a page using colors from your favorite room in your house. I picked my living room, and did this page. The pictures are of my mom and dad in Japan this spring. They just celebrated their 29th anniversary a few weeks ago.

This next one was probably the most challenging, because you were only allowed to use three items from each designer you chose.
This last one was the easiest because the only requirement was to use a particular font. The photo is of me and James the day after he was born.

I'll be back with some CT layouts for Miss Tiina Designs this afternoon.

Just a few photos

2008-09-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a few weeks since I posted any pictures of the boys, so I thought I'd share a few that I took this week. The first ones of Peter are from this morning... I think it's the first time he's worn a hat since right after birth. The weather here has been so cool in the mornings this week that it makes me long for autumn to really come. I even got out some of the fall candles and decorations yesterday (of course, it's supposed to be 101 on Monday, but maybe I'll just crank the air down to 68 and pretend!) Notice his two teeth; I think another one is coming in right next to the bottom right one. He's going to look pretty funny if he never gets any top teeth, don't you think?

Because it's been so nice, the boys have been able to play outside a lot. And because Simon's been working or gone much of the week, they've been sent outside a lot! I think these are from Thursday... if you notice the peanut butter on James' cheek that'll give you a clue about what kind of a day it was. By the time lunch was over they must have been bugging me so much that I didn't even bother cleaning them up before I sent them out!

This is John's newest "look" and we see it often now. It's the "I don't want to do what you are saying" look, the "I'm going to pretend I don't know you" look, the "don't touch me, James" look, the "things aren't going the way I want them to" look, the... well, you get the idea. It's pretty funny really, but we're trying to work on the attitude behind it, because it won't be too funny if it continues into the teen years!!

Peter, again. I can't help it. He's so doggone photogenic... must get that from his father! He is sitting up by himself pretty reliably now so we should finally be able to ditch the infant carrier this week. Thank goodness, his feet were hanging off the edge! He loves to be with the "big boys," especially if they're outside, so he's spent three or four mornings out there this week too. (If you're reading this, Mom P., he LOVES that blanket that you made for James, and we frequently go in to get him up from naps only to find him with his fingers through the holes all wrapped up in it. I'll try to get a picture for you!)

On Thursday night at Biblestudy, the girls in charge of childcare for the night brought gel to give Peter a mohawk. His hair wasn't thick enough or long enough, but guess who's was? This is the next morning and it isn't quite as impressive as it was Thursday night (when it was kind of like a preview of the rebel teen hairstyle that would go with his new "look") but it's still pretty wild. The best part about it was that when the boys went outside to play that afternoon, they threw dirt and little leaf pieces in each other's hair, and because of the gel residue -- well, let's just say that it wasn't coming out easily! You wouldn't have wanted to see the bathtub after that bath. So thanks girls! I can only pray that I will have the opportunity to return the favor someday when you're both married and have kids!

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week! Only five more days until we get to see Will! (Not that I'm excited or anything! )

Time for a New Couch

2008-09-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

No, not for me! For Brittney of Britt-ish Designs. She put together a bundle of new products and all the proceeds are going to her new couch fund... and boy does she need a new one!

I scrapped a page using these new products. The sweet little baby is my niece. It's hard for me to believe that she'll be three in two months... where does the time go to? (Come to think of it, my brother is still only four, so I guess she can't be turning three after all!)
For this fun LO I used her Space Ranger kit. James (who will be four in a couple of weeks... my goodness there's a lot of four year olds around here) loves his Buzz toy, even if he can't always remember what it's called!

Well, that's all from me for now. I'm off to put a few bricks on the boy's heads to keep them from growing anymore!!

Semper Fi!

2008-09-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

Remember this guy?

It's a picture of my brother taken a few days before he left for Marine bootcamp. This is how I remember him, my little brother. (Okay. To tell the truth, this is how I remember him:

But, we don't have to talk about my problem dealing with change right now, do we?)

Here's a picture taken the morning he left... EARLY in the morning... (sorry Mom and Dad, but you are standing too close to him, so I couldn't crop you out! )

Notice that serious face. Right about then he was probably thinking, "what in the world did I get myself into?"

Well, this is my new little brother. His platoon picture was posted on Saturday.

And today, he officially becomes a Marine. At ten o'clock this morning, the Crucible is over, and he is awarded his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor pin. And one week from today, we will finally be able to see him for the first time in almost four months. I am so excited I can hardly stand it!! And so proud of him! My little brother, a Marine... (but I still can't figure out why they let such little kids enlist!)

One week and counting, Will!

Choo Choo!

2008-08-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

It's a blog train! We're celebrating Malaysia's Independence Day... so Happy Merdeka Day to all you scrappers from Malaysia!
And for all the rest of us, who have no idea what that card even says... well, we can just enjoy the free kit that Zakirah has made to celebrate this special day in her country!

So, without further ado....

here is the next part of the kit...

Just click on the kit preview to download!

Next station in the blog train is Holly's blog............here. Thanks for stopping by!! Have a wonderful day!

ETA: The blog train has pulled into the final station and the links are no longer available. I hope you all had fun!

He's famous!! He's famous!!

2008-08-29T11:18:00.001-07:00

Well, at least his right arm is! That's all you can see of him, but it's a nice arm... and sporting his "Pray for China" band to boot! Talk about mass evangelism!

If you've ever wondered what Simon does at work, this'll sort of give you a clue. He plays with big, powerful computers. If only I could sneak in there and install Photoshop I could scrap at the speed of light! (The picture is linked to the article in the Orange County Register if you're interested in finding out more about the wonderful medical advances that are being made in the cardiac field.)

New Kit and a Party!

2008-08-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

The new kit by Matahati Designs is available exclusively at Scrap Orchard today, and it's fun, fun, fun to scrap with! Right now, there's a deal where if you buy the kit, you get the luggage tag album free!

Here's my LO with Summer Bling:

And... check out what's coming this weekend...

Be sure to stop back by for that! Check in with you all later!

Sooooo behind!!

2008-08-27T14:22:00.001-07:00

Because I've been SO bad about blogging over the past few weeks, I've lots of CT news and LO's to share. First a LO for Miss Tiina Designs using her minikit created for the Funky Playground Teacher's Pet contest. The results of the final round aren't in yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her!

Here's a couple for Matahati Designs:

Zakirah has a fun new kit coming out on Friday so watch for that. Here's a little sneak peek for you!

For Britt-ish Designs I have a LO using her grabbag which was full of stuff perfect for scrapping all my boys (well, except for Peter since he's not too active in outside play yet! )
And one with the Gretchen kit:
I also have one with her newest kit, Fairchild. It's just full of fun, graphic papers and elements and if you purchase it by midnight Thursday, you'll automatically receive the coordinating brag book in your download!

And my page:

And finally, I'm really happy to have been accepted to the Sugarplum Paperie hybrid team!
I'm not too experienced in hybrid yet, but I'm throwing myself enthusiastically into the process of learning and creating. You can see the announcement on her blog along with my first hybrid card here.

Whew! I think I'm all caught up now! With any luck, I'll stay that way! (As usual, click the LOs for the credits.)
Happy scrapping!!

I'm Back!

2008-08-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

**Tap, tap, tap**

Is this thing on anymore?

Is anyone even still out there??

Wake up!!!

I know you all probably thought I'd dropped off the face of the earth, but life has just gotten so busy this month that something had to go, and blogging was it! But, hopefully I'll be able to post a bit more regularly now that some of the month's activities have ended. You might wonder if Peter is walking and talking with a full set of teeth by now, but I'm happy to report that none of you have missed THAT much of his short life, although he did get his two bottom teeth in last week. He LOVES the saucer and is just on the verge of being able to sit up by himself. He is quite popular at church, since he bestows a happy smile on anyone willing to take the time to talk to him. I generally have to pry him away from someone's arms when I go to pick him up in the nursery.

We've spent quite a few of the evenings enjoying the unseasonably mild weather. The boys like to run around and play, but I like to sit on the patio and take pictures...
Here's the big boys having a race. John was the smart one ~ he'd take off from the starting line with the rest, but as soon everyone passed him, he'd turn around and "run" back to the starting line and be there waiting when everyone got back! Poor Peter had to sit and watch, but next summer I'm sure he'll be right in there with the rest of them.
Now that Rascal is our only dog, the boys dote on her more than ever. Here's John chasing her down in order to brush her. That's not a black eye, just dirt. More than James, he's always dirty! Doesn't matter how many times I bathe him, wash his face, or trim and clean his fingernails... he and dirt have a magnetic attraction!

We enrolled James in AWANA Cubbies this year, and he'll be starting in a few weeks. He's very excited and already wants to wear his little vest around the house, but I'm making him wait until it actually starts. No point in it getting dirty and having to be washed more than necessary! We've been working on memorizing some Bible verses at meal times. One of them is James 1:22, "But prove yourselves doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves." Because of his propensity to say the letter "L" as a "W" sound, it sounds like, "who dewude themselves," much to the endless amusement of all, but especially Simon. It never fails to make him laugh. James loves to play with Peter, and is always asking to hold, play, or help feed him. He even likes to "read" stories to him.

John surprised us the other day by counting to 10 all by himself. I think that we will constantly be amazed at how much he picks up just by listening to our conversations with James. He loves to sing and dance with James, and we get numerous noisy (but not terribly musical) concerts. His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds right now, and it's so much fun to hear his little voice.

Off to get my hair cut... I'll be back with more random news and some scrapping CT stuff later...

I'm a Britt Girl!

2008-07-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

I joined one more CT this week...

I love Brittney's designs and can't wait to start creating pages for her!

A Page for Miss Tiina Designs

2008-07-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

A Page for Matahati Designs

2008-07-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

credits:
Boys of Summer by The Seedlings at Scrap Orchard

Been Scrapping Up a Storm

2008-07-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

Here are some recent LO's. The first two are for Miss Tiina Designs, and the second two are for challenges at the Shabby Pickle forum.

I just registered at the Shabby Pickle because you earn points toward gift certificates to the shop there for completing their challenges, and they have some fabulous designers! I still need to do three more challenges before I have enough points for my first gift certificate. Once I get it, I'll make sure to show off my purchase!

The Reason I...

2008-07-21T14:30:00.000-07:00

...love the security of digital scrapping

A few days ago I felt like actually getting out some real paper and quilling. Notice the pink flower in the background that's out of focus?
Here's the same flower after I stepped out of the room for a few minutes and then returned:
I guess John thought it would look better with a few of the pieces missing. I can just imagine him standing there plucking off petals, "she loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she won't be too happy with me, I'd better vamoose!" If that had been a paper scrapbook page, I would've been really upset!

...felt like it might be time to give Peter a haircut

...know I take too many photos

We gave James the first digital camera we bought that no longer works, and he loves to "take pictures" with it. After "snapping" one, he studies the back of the camera intently, then announces, "just one or two more."

...don't find early mornings quite as pleasant as I used to

All my boys wake up a bit disoriented and grumpy!

Another Layout

2008-07-15T12:15:00.000-07:00

A LO made with a RAK from Line Designs of her Jardin d'Eden kit. This page was mentioned at the GSO yesterday.

A Couple of Layouts

2008-07-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

I haven't created a layout all week... I just couldn't seem to get a page to come together right. But, this afternoon I finally found my creative mojo hiding under the couch, along with one of my flip flops, about a dozen matchbox cars, assorted boy toys, and an unbelievable number of dust bunnies (which are a protected species by the way). I was able to finish not one, but two, pages this afternoon. The first is with Matahati Design's new kit which will be available tomorrow at ScrapMatters. It is packed full of beautiful papers and elements, both natural and graphic styles are represented. I'm looking forward to playing with it some more.
For this second page I used Sugarplum Paperie's new Twitter Blossoms kit. I just love the colors and the fun, hand-drawn elements.

Anyone have the number for Terminex?

2008-07-10T13:54:00.000-07:00

You all remember the spider incident, right? Well, check out what I found when I opened my cupboard this morning:

It's an infestation I tell you! Send help quick!!

More Conversations with James

2008-07-08T14:35:00.001-07:00

Yesterday...
James: "hurry Mom, Johnny's bottom is very dirty. He needs a diaper change!"
Me: going to check, and yes indeed a diaper change was in order
James: "he's very dirty Mom"
Me: "uh-huh" while carrying him into the bedroom
James: following me into the bedroom talking the whole time
Me: changing John's diaper
James: climbing on to the bed to oversee the process
James: "hurry Mom, he's stinkin' up the whole house!"

About a month ago I was standing in the bathroom putting on some makeup one afternoon in preparation for my first trip out with just my hubby since two weeks before Peter was born (about four months prior.) It wasn't a big date, just a trip to drop off the van at the shop and grab a quick bite to eat, but still, I didn't want to look like a tired mother of three! James wandered in...
James: "what are you doing? are you curling your hair?"
Me: "no, I'm putting on some mascara"
James: "why are you doing that?"
Me: "I want to look nice for your daddy"
James: "more, you need more!!"
Me: look in the mirror and sigh, no amount of mascara was going to help! :)

A number of months ago now, when Peter was still up in the middle of the night and I was still finding it impossible to drag myself out of bed when I heard James yell "awake" in the morning, I ignored that very same cry. Then I felt a presence next to me and when I pried open one eyelid, there he was staring at me.
James: "you need to get up Mommy and make the boys breakfast" (he's gotten into the habit of refering to himself and John in the third person)
Me: trying to delay the inevitable, "why?"
James: "because the boys are hungry"
Me: "why don't you make breakfast?"
James: "because I don't know how"
Me: "how come I always have to make breakfast?"
James: "that's the way God made you to do!"
Me: groan and roll out of bed, outmaneuvered by a three year old

If One is Fun...

2008-07-07T16:21:00.001-07:00

Two is Funner!

I joined my second Creative Team this week and am really enjoying working with Zakirah's wonderful designs! Here's my first LO as part of her team:

This beautiful photo of my mom and dad was taken while they were in Japan this spring. Unfortunately whoever took it had the camera at a strange angle, so rather than try to crop the picture so that it was straight, I decided to just scrap it as is. :)

You can just imagine...

2008-07-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

my surprise when I stepped out of the back door this evening to check on the grill, and the first thing I saw was James with his shorts down, "watering" the lawn. Ah yes, one more item for my list of "Things I Regret Teaching My Children."

Take the Cake! (again)

2008-07-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

Miss Tiina Designs is offering an incredible opportunity to purchase her entire store this month for only $25 personal use, or $50 commercial use. Click my new "Take the Cake" blinkie on the right for all the details. Here are a couple more pages I've made with her fabulous designs...

(As always, click on the layout for complete credits! )

Promised Pool Pics

2008-07-03T09:18:00.001-07:00

ahhh... don't you just love alliteration?

Here's James. White and happy, and white. Gee whiz, where does he get that lack of color from? Must be from Simon, that's all I can figure. Excuse me while I go slather on some more tan-in-a-can...

Next up: John. See that look in his eyes? No driving for him anytime soon, maybe not ever. Actually, I think he's just gloating because he got to spend the most time in the race car float, which was of course the favorite float. "James, you're older. You need to show preference to your brother." Yes siree, firstborns always get the short end of the stick. I can totally empathize with him, but I figure it must be good for him. I mean, look at me? I turned out ok! Moving right along...

Simon and James. Lessons in trust. Painful, but oh so necessary. At some point every child has to learn that dad isn't going to drop him, or drown him. This is the only picture where he doesn't have a float on and yet is still smiling. In the others, he just looks terrified.

John again. White and happy, and huge. Where does he get that tummy... oh, never mind.

My First Creative Team

2008-07-02T08:57:00.001-07:00

Time to spill the secret... I'm on Miss Tiina Designs CT! This is my first time and I was so excited when she contacted me asking if I'd be interested in joining! I'm having lots of fun. WAY more fun than I'd be having if the big secret was another pregnancy like my mom and sister were thinking it was!! In fact, if it were another baby, you'd find me in a straight jacket being carted away to a loony bin. (Not that I don't want any more children mind you; I just don't want any more right now!)

After winning my blog blinkie at DST, I decided I wanted to try my hand at making one of my own. I finally finished last night.
I've decided that the most important skill you need if you want to make blinkies is not creativity; it's patience! It took forever to finish!! But, I'm pretty happy with the result. I think the word "MY" is too small in most of it, and maybe I'll go back and fix it (but then again, maybe not! There's a lot of layers that would have to be redone.) It was fun though, so I think I will try making another sometime.

Here's my latest layout. The old picture is of my mom's parents on their wedding day (my grandfather passed away almost five years ago now, so this photo is very special), the middle photo is of my mom and dad when they were in Japan this summer (the love they have for each other is such a blessing to me!), and the last is of Simon and I (and Peter too! ) in Hawaii last summer. I extracted each of the boys from a different picture. (Don't you think Peter looks like he has bulldog jowls?)

Random News

2008-07-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

My "little" brother left for Marine bootcamp about two and a half weeks ago. I miss him, not that I used to see him all the time, but I always looked forward to a smile and hug on Sunday mornings when we got to church. I really miss his funny stories. Simon always says that no one makes me laugh like Will, and it's so true. He's one of the funniest people I know. You can find the latest updates on how he's doing, plus snippets of letters we've gotten from him here. I highly recommend checking it out~the letters are pretty entertaining! We went up the Saturday we left for vacation to say goodbye to him since he was leaving while we were gone, and I took some pictures of him and my boys. Here's one of the best of the bunch:

On to one of John's latest misdeeds. Last Saturday morning I decided to make muffins for breakfast so I mixed up the batter, poured it in the tins, put it in the oven and set the timer (always important for me to do because every time I tell myself I can remember without a timer, I end up forgetting!) When the timer went off and I came back to check on them, this is what met my unbelieving eyes:
There's John, up to his elbows in flour which he had been happily dumping on the floor by the fistful. (And yes, I do buy flour and sugar in bulk.) Our scolding was met with this dirty look, after which he took off, leaving a trail of flour behind. Yes indeedy, we're going to have our hands full with that child!

Peter's personality is really starting to develop. Even now while I'm writing this, he's sitting in his car seat talking away to himself. I think he just likes to hear the sound of his own voice. Even James didn't talk this much as a baby. Considering how much he talks now, it's kind of scary to think that Peter might talk even more!

I started a Bible study last Wednesday. We're going through the book "Feminine Appeal" by Carolyn Mahaney. During the discussion time the subject of laundry somehow came up, and everyone in my group was amazed when my sister and I said we don't sort our laundry before throwing it in the washer. We've never had anything change colors on us, but no one could believe we don't sort. So I ask you... do you sort your laundry? Anyway, I signed up to bring snacks the next week (which would be tonight) so last night when we were at Costco I picked up some yummy looking cupcakes. After we got home and unloaded everything, Simon noticed that there was one cupcake missing.
I can't believe someone ate one of the cupcakes right in the store and we didn't even realize... What? You say there's chocolate crumbs on my face? Please excuse me for a minute while I brush them off...
...
...
...
...and we didn't even realize it when we bought them!

The boys are playing in room time right now. I'm pretending I can't hear them.

A number of weeks ago I dragged myself out of bed in the morning, and stumbled down the hall on my way to make some coffee, when I was confronted by the biggest spider ever seen in North America. My heart started pounding; I stood absolutely still trying to figure out what I was going to do. (I'll show you a picture of the spider, but you must promise to remember that it was early in the morning, it was dark, and I wasn't wearing my contacts! Here's what it looked like to me; click the image to see what someone who wasn't practically blind or totally exhausted would have seen:)
Scary, isn't it? After a minute or two, I finally figured out that what I was looking at was one of the boys' animals, but rather than pick it up, I just left it there, and all morning my heart jumped every time I saw it lying on the floor. Watch out, you never know when a huge spider will invade your house!

Be back later today with some pool pictures! :)

(Hey Laura, I changed the commenting options so that anyone can leave a comment, and I know you read this nonsense just to see pictures of your nephews, so next time you're here, leave me a comment!)

You know you're addicted...

2008-06-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

...to digital scrapbooking when your most recent electronic purchase is a 1 TB EHD. I moved all our pictures, videos, and my 60 GB of scrapping files over, and there is still over 800 GB of free space! All I can say is, "bring on the downloads, baby!!" :)

I decided to go ahead and purchase a subscription to DST and had so much fun playing with this month's kit. I just love this picture of John!

Shhh....

2008-06-26T08:35:00.001-07:00

I've got a secret! But I can't tell for another week. Want a clue? Check out the new blinkie on the right! And here are two more clues:

27 [another layout]

2008-06-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post with the layout I made today using mostly Nicole's Plumberry Teacakes kit again. I won this at DST and am just loving the papers in it!! The yummy looking cake was for my birthday this year... chocolate, of course... is there really any other flavor? ;)

hiding behind my lens

2008-06-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a page I did for a challenge at the Sugarplum Paperie blog. I titled it "hiding behind my lens" because the real reason I wanted to be the picture taker in the family originally was so that I didn't have to be in the pictures. I've since discovered that I love taking the pictures, and I'd even be interested in taking a photography class someday, but I have to confess that I still like having that excuse to not be in the picture! :)

Fun with Playdoh

2008-06-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

Since we arrived in CO, Simon's brother Jason has had a number of fun activities planned for the older boys. From indoor bowling to digging for dinosaur bones, they are having a blast. He's such a great uncle; I just wish I could convince him to ride back with us to CA to keep the boys entertained. I wonder why he doesn't want to? ;)

Here's a page I just finished with pictures of the boys playing with the playdoh he helped them make (click for credits):

Counting My Blessings

2008-06-18T20:11:00.001-07:00

Have you ever had a day where something happened that really made you stop and consider how gracious God is to you? Tuesday was one of those days for me. Monday night James woke up crying with a bloody nose, saying that he'd fallen out of bed. We cleaned him up and got him settled back down and didn't give it another thought, until Tuesday morning when he woke up looking like this:

His telling of what happened is not the clearest, so the best that we can figure is that he was standing in the bed looking out of the window, and he either had the cord to the blinds wrapped around his neck, or he grabbed for it when he lost his balance, and as he fell it made a ragged cut from the middle of his throat to the back of his head. You can imagine the sick feeling I got in the pit of my stomach when I realized how much worse it could have turned out. Now every time I hug him, I squeeze a little bit tighter, and I tell him more often how much I love him. It's so easy to take God's blessings for granted, but that mark on my James's neck is a vivid reminder that each breath we take is a gift from Him.

Vacation at Last

2008-06-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

Well, after two long days of driving, we did arrive safely in CO Sunday night. It wasn't quite the happy family experience I thought it would be, and I am certainly not looking forward to the drive home this weekend (in fact, I already told Simon I'd fly home and meet him and the boys there!) Here's a picture that pretty much sums up the trip:

James and John got to go visit the goats yesterday morning, and Grammie and Grandpa are boarding three horses right now, so we got to see those as well. I even touched one. ;) The goats were a little skittish around the boys (of course, with the way John squealed whenever he saw one and took off after it, it's hard to blame them!) Poor James reached out his hand to touch one, and the goat lowered her horns and just barely caught his hand with one. It didn't hurt him, but he was pretty scared and after that he wouldn't touch one; he didn't even want to touch the horses. Years from now we'll probably look back on this event as the beginning of a deep-seated fear of animals!! LOL I took lots of pictures, but here are just a few of the morning's activities:

Kit for Charity

2008-06-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

I purchased a beautiful kit last month from Songbird Avenue, which works with a designer each month to put together a kit and then donate all proceeds to the charity that the designer chooses. Well, this month Vickie Stegall is the guest designer and has put together another wonderful kit called "Leap of Faith." All the proceeds from the sale of this month's kit will go to Mercy Corps. The kit is only available until the end of the month, so go check it out. The papers and elements are fabulous!!

Lotsa Layouts

2008-06-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

Even though I haven't posted any recent layouts, I've been busy making pages for lots of different challenges. There are so many challenges that I'd love to participate in, but I just don't have enough time, so I decided I'd just do the ones that I really like, or that have a participation bonus that I really want. I went ahead and added my Scrap Shanty layout gallery link on the right, because I really like their scraplift conversion challenge, and also because they are not associated with any particular store, so you're allowed to post layouts using any designer's products. Here are a couple of the recent pages that I've been working on (everything in the first layout is from Brittney of Britt-ish Designs):

Playing in the Grass

2008-06-08T21:55:00.002-07:00

The boys were out "helping Dad" with the yard work last night and I thought I'd take a few pictures of the mayhem.

I swear I do wash that child's face occasionally. How in the world he gets so dirty I have no idea. I'm pretty sure that there's some strange magnetic field between him and dirt that no scientist has ever discovered.

Here are my two trouble makers; undoubtedly cooking up some plot that involves a big mess and the resulting frustrated mother. It's such a joy to watch their friendship grow, but scary at the same time!

Johnny again... I know I take way more pictures of him than the other boys, but he's usually willing to stay still long enough to snap a shot, he's awake for more than five hours a day, and he hasn't entered into the cheesy grin phase yet. Poor Peter is going to think he was adopted if I don't start taking some more pictures of him! Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

Conversations with James

2008-06-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

This is one half of a conversation that took place a couple of weeks ago between Simon and James. (I could only hear James, so you'll have to use your imagination for Simon's part!) If we drag ourselves out of bed early enough, we can catch Simon before he gets to work and James is able to chat for a few minutes on the phone. This was one of those mornings...

She (that would be me), she's burping Peter...
She's going to make coffee in a few minutes...
coffee before breakfast...
moms always needs coffee...
she's getting very thirsty for coffee...

I'm a bit disconcerted by this shrewd assessment of my character. Breakfast for the boys? Heck no! Give me a cup of coffee first and let life slowly return to my sleep deprived body. I'm wondering if I have any secrets left if even my 3 year old can so clearly see the way things work around here!

Warm Summer Sun

2008-05-29T16:02:00.000-07:00

My first try at using an extracted photo in a scene. It was a lot of fun to create and I'll definitely be trying my hand at it again!

Small & Sweet

2008-05-28T17:00:00.000-07:00

Another layout for a Sunshine Studios challenge. The pictures are of John when he was three weeks old. I can hardly believe that he'll be eighteen months old in another week. Where has the time gone?

Memorial Day Picnic

2008-05-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

The church we attend usually has a picnic every Labor Day, but since for the past two years it's been over 100 degrees at that time in September, they moved it to Memorial Day this year. The high was around 68, so sweatshirts were in order. What a nice change! Here are a couple of the pictures I managed to take. The boys had a wonderful time (in fact, there are no good pictures of James because I couldn't get him to stay still long enough!)

John trying to keep up with James. This is actually pretty representative of how life usually is for Johnny!

Like I said, hard to get this kid to stay still! Here he is with his snow cone, off to find his cousins to play with.

John and the football. He had so much fun playing with this and could always find someone willing to run around with him!

Last, but not least, here's Peter, bundled up in his blanket with dad because I put him in shorts and a short-sleeve shirt so he could match his brothers, never mind that it was pretty chilly for someone without a lot of body fat! He spent most of the day being passed from one person to another, and of course he greatly enjoyed that. I think he looks a lot like his daddy in this picture!

Fun Challenge

2008-05-24T21:38:00.001-07:00

I just discovered another fun challenge at another forum, the Scrap Shanty. The goal is to copy a paper layout as closely as possible with digital supplies. Here's the layout I did for this week (and here's the original.

Happy Girl

2008-05-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

I made this layout as a "Show-off" for Brittney of Britt-ish Designs. (She kindly gives each person who uses her designs on a page a little gift.) The little girl is the daughter of a friend. Isn't she too cute?

Friendship Bread?

2008-05-21T13:38:00.000-07:00

Two weeks before my sister left on vacation, someone gave her a bag of Amish Friendship Bread starter. She really enjoys things like that, so she follows the direction, bakes the bread, and then off she goes on vacation, leaving me a starter so that when she gets back, she can have a starter back from me. (After all, the directions say, and I quote: "Only the Amish know how to create a "starter" so if you give them all away, you will have to wait until someone gives you one back to make more bread!" Now, personally, I highly doubt the veracity of this statement. Surely, some Amish woman somewhere spilled the secret.) Anyway, I have been faithfully following the directions (I did make one mistake, but apparently the dough is very forgiving!) so that I can fulfill my one and only duty while she's away~keeping this starter thing going.

I've discovered why they call it Friendship bread though; not because giving it away is a sign of friendship; no, it's because after trying to pawn off the starters on everyone you know, you'll have no friends left. And here's where I've run into a bit of a problem. Each starter makes two loaves of bread, and four more starters. Out of the original batch I was given, I managed to give away ONE starter. So, now I have three starters sitting on my kitchen counter, doing their thing. Each one of those will make four more starters, and assuming I'm able to get rid of even four of them, I'll have eight starters sitting on my counter next week, each of which will make four more... I think you can probably see where this is going. (It kills me to throw them away, but I'm going to have to, either that or buy a bigger house to put them all in!) So, if anyone would like to have an Amish Friendship Bread starter, just let me know!

Dinnertime Drama

2008-05-19T21:58:00.000-07:00

Is it just my kids, or has anyone else noticed that you can serve something for dinner one night and the kids devour it and ask for seconds, but try to serve it leftover the next night and you get major drama? It doesn't matter how many times you try to explain that just last night they thought it was delicious; they won't go for it! Frustrating! :)

On a cheerier note, I picked up this adorable kit when it was on sale for $1 at Little Dreamer Designs and I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do with it (it is mostly pink after all, and I do have three boys) but I couldn't pass up such a good deal! :)

Fortunately it did have a couple of blue papers, and it was the perfect color to go with the shirts the boys were wearing this day. (The layout is linked to a bigger version if you want to read the journaling.)

Brotherly Love

2008-05-18T15:16:00.001-07:00

All right Mom P~here are your promised pictures! Just a few more weeks and then you'll be able to see these boys in person! James is already telling me every day that we're going to see you. He's pretty excited!!

Here's Peter with the "wave" hairdo. :)

And his first time in the Bumbo. He wasn't too crazy about it, so we'll have to try again when he gets a little older.

John

The last two are my favorite from the day. The boys both love little Peter (even though we have to keep an eye on John. Apparently "gentle" doesn't mean much when you're not quite 18 months old yet!!) :)

Another Layout

2008-05-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

I finished another layout for the Snap & Scrap monthly challenges, and I think it's one of my favorites so far. I just love this picture of Peter; how often do you see a baby with enough hair to do this? ;) I took some more pictures of the boys yesterday, so as soon as I sort through them all I'll put up some new ones for you Mom P!

Two More Layouts

2008-05-14T20:06:00.001-07:00

I finished a couple more layouts the past couple of nights that I thought I'd share with whoever reads this (I guess that's assuming someone actually does!)

The first was for a challenge that gives you a list of things that must be included on your page. I love these pictures of John, so it was fun to scrap them!

The second one is a picture I took of my niece Chloe for a project I made for my mom and Simon's mom for Mother's Day. [I still haven't mailed out yours Mom P (reference previous post regarding my inability to get anything out on time!), but I promise it's on its way!)] I love the way this turned out and the photo is one of my favorites of her.

I just wanted to say

2008-05-10T15:18:00.001-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to you Mom and Mom-in-Law. You've been so instrumental in my life and Simon's life respectively and we appreciate and love you both! Consider this to be your on-time Mother's Day card!

*May 14 Edit ~ Well, I guess even when I have a card made, it uploaded to the site, and the blog post already written, even then I still can't get anything out on time!! So, the Mother's Day wishes are just as sincere, even though they're late. :) Happy Mother's Day Moms!

Good News! (and a layout)

2008-05-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

Well, the good news is that after a day of eating barely anything (due to tummy trouble), I've dropped two pounds! It could be that I've discovered the next miracle diet! Now all I need is some clever marketing and dh and I can retire to Hawaii, rich, happy, and twenty pounds lighter! LOL What? You don't think it'll catch on? Oh well, back to the daily grind for him, and back to the pantry for me!

Finally finished a page this morning that I've been working on all week. I just couldn't seem to translate my mental picture of what it should look like onto the computer screen. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out now.

Just when you think it couldn't get worse...

2008-05-08T08:07:00.000-07:00

...it does! Well, unfortunately, the spilled cup of water was not the end of the day. Oh no, not even close! At eleven o'clock, just as I was halfway through feeding Peter, we heard a horrible noise coming from the boys bedroom. Simon went to investigate and I heard him say "oh no!" When I asked if he needed help he said that James had gotten sick. So, I put Peter down (who apparently wasn't full yet since he started to scream!) and went to help. Sure enough, the bed was a mess, his clothes were a mess, well, you get the idea! After getting everything cleaned up, the sheets changed, and Peter fed, we got ready for bed. By this time, I wasn't feeling so good either. I spent the whole night alternating between sweating and freezing, and fighting off the urge to vomit. The boys and I spent Thursday camped on the couch in our jammies. I only ventured off to make them breakfast and lunch, and to change diapers and feed Peter. I was afraid I'd given us all food poisoning, but I talked to my sister and she said they had it too, so I'm guessing it was just a nasty bug we picked up somewhere. I'm not eager to repeat that experience again!!

What a Week!

2008-05-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

It was a week of ups and downs. Down because our pomeranian puppy Boo got underneath our fence into the neighbor's yard and his pit bull killed her. The same thing happened to the pomeranian that I'd had for nine years just six months ago and we thought we'd taken care of the problem and secured the fence line, but apparently not. The neighbor refuses to even consider getting rid of the dog, and needless to say, with three small boys we are concerned. We asked a friend at church who's a lawyer to see if there's something we can do, but since our dog got into his yard, I'm not too hopeful. I just don't understand what kind of person would want to keep a dog that he knows is dangerous. Our dogs were under five pounds, not really a threat!

On the up side, Saturday was National Scrapbooking Day and I was able to shop, chat with others who enjoy scrapping, and even finish a couple of pages! It was so much fun, and I'm already looking forward to Digital Scrapbooking Day in November.

(I just knocked a whole cup of water off the desk, luckily it missed the computer, but it seems like a fitting end to a long day! The boys were fussy, John was sick, and I still feel terrible. I sound like a bullfrog :( Oh well, I'm sure a good night's sleep will work wonders! )

I'll exit on a positive note: the layout I finished tonight for a Snap & Scrap challenge:

Night all!

Zoo Trip

2008-04-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

After renewing our LA Zoo membership for the year, we finally made our first trip. Taking all three boys to the zoo seemed a bit daunting, but after being reassured by DH that the weather was only supposed to be in the 80's, we packed everyone up and went. Well, by the time we got there at 11:00, it was already 92 degrees and the zoo was packed! I don't think we've ever seen it so crowded. James had fun looking at all the animals, with the zebras, giraffes, and elephants making it onto his "must see" list. After seeing the absolute necessities, we decided to pack up and call it a day around 2:00. I don't think that John really got the whole "zoo thing" since he really couldn't pick the animals out from their surroundings, and Peter was wide awake for the first part, but after lunch fell fast asleep. We must have made quite the impression with our single and double strollers! At least I only had to push the single; I'm afraid I might have fainted if I would have had to push the double (with James, Peter & his carseat, plus the weight of the stroller, it must have weighed close to a 100 pounds!!) Here are some of the best photos from the day (no animals since everyone knows what they look like!) :)

John fell asleep before we even got there.

Here's Peter at the beginning of the day.

Looking through the glass at the new gorilla exhibit.

Simon & James

Watching the zebras.

What in The World

2008-04-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

am I doing writing a blog?? Simon (aka dear husband, aka dh) says that I've joined the 21st century and left him in the dust! Mostly this is for those who love me (okay, love my kids), live far, far away, and want to see updated pictures (that's you Mom P!) :) I should have some recent pictures to put up soon, and I also have a scrapping project in the works. For now, here's the last layout I did for a challenge at the new Sunshine Studio Forum.

[heart] happy

This is my little Peter at two months; gotta love those first baby smiles! I can't wait until the laughing starts!