Feeling Scrappy and another James moment

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!

Bit of Everything

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. :)

CatWalk Blog Hop

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

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!

bump...

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!!

Project E and John's Birthday

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?

Custom Doodle Contest

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

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

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!

One step forward, two steps back...

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!