Have a Rockin' Good Birthday

Today is our friend Mark's b-day and this is the card I made for him. I made the card with Sparkle's challenge this last week, which is to use punches. I don't really have any manly punches so I figured circles would have to do. I really like the way this card came out. It's just circles punched out and put on top of another piece of pattern paper, so the card is really simple, but the patterns make it so fun! Anyway, I've been bombarded with homework and life this past week, so finally getting to make this card was a much needed pick-me-up. At least for the next few hours ;)

Last Thursday we got a call from the dermatologist. They had gotten the results back on Paul's biopsy and the test came back that the mole was malignant, meaning it was a melanoma cancer. However, the good news is that it hasn't metastasized at all and he'll just need a simple surgery to make sure they get all of it out, plus we're getting an amazing doctor, apparently, for the surgery. We go up to SLC on Tuesday for that and they'll do a full body scan to make sure there are no more. The part that really sucked for Paul was that he called his mom to tell her about what was going on, and found out that his parents are getting divorced. My poor hubby. So far he says he's actually fine with it all and said he had seen signs of the problems mom had mentioned to him were the reasons for the split back 16 years ago when he lived at home, but I can't help but worry about the poor guy.

Then on top of the worrying I found out that the House passed a bill to lower the amount of Pell Grants given out, drastically reduce the amount any person can receive for the Pell, and completely cut out other student programs to help with funding. I wrote my letters to our senators against passing it in the Senate but it's hard to know what will happen. The Pell Grant has been the only way I've been able to afford going back to school, so I'm stressed about what we'll do if the bill actually passes. I really hope it doesn't. Add that to mid-terms week. Blah. Next weeks schedule promises to be busy still but after that it's spring break and I totally need it! Hopefully I can hold out going crazy with life until then. Anyway, thanks for letting me spout about our weekly drama. On a happier note, I was featured as the sketch artist Thursday on Eat Sleep and Stamp for my ketto card last week using the #119 sketch! So a definite ego pick-up for me ;) I hope you all enjoy the card and have a wonderful Sunday!

Lantern Bloom Quilt

Less than a week before classes started I went a bit crazy and decided to make my lap quilt from the lantern bloom fabrics I had bought in the spring. I had finished everything but hand sewing the back of the binding when classes started and I wrapped that up over the first couple of nights of school. I'm so happy it's done and it has already been hard at work keeping me nice and toasty (yes I know it's summer but Paul has to keep the thermostat low because of his MS so it's always freezing in our place). These blocks were new for me, I hadn't ever pieced like that before. It was fun and actually went much quicker than I thought it would. My quilt was also quite a bit more scrappy than I thought I would be making. I didn't have enough of the patterns to make the whole thing so I ended up using whatever solids I had onhand that coordinated.


Here's the back. I'm so happy I opted to do a square with square border rather than the strips I had planned to at first. I think it goes better with the quilt to have the square theme on both sides! This is my last future post so I might be MIA for a while until there's a break or vacation, with the exception of Sparkle's weekly stamp challenge. They are my creative break every week! The labor day weekend won't really count for me since I'm hoping to finish up the majority of the work and quizzes for my other online class. If I can squeeze it all in I'll be done with that class as well and be able to take the final on Friday. That will leave me with just 3 classes and the fitness center course for this semester, yay! And in case you were wondering my test outs went great and I ended up with an A ;) I hope you enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Emboss Josh

Isn't he a cutie pie?! This weeks Sparkle's Creations Challenge is to use embossing, dry or wet, on your card. I picked dry embossing since I haven't played with my emboss cards in forever! I also embossed the sentiment circle to define it a little more. I used the Laura's #58 Sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You for the layout of the card and tried something a little different with my pencils, using the white pencil for shading/blending. It actually worked pretty well. I'll have to remember that like with gamsol it tends to blend darker, which means I'll have to lighten up my coloring a bit. The vibrant colors look great with Josh in this though so I'll take this as a coloring win for me ;)

Between our internet (it took them 3 days and 3 different techs to figure out the problem which ended up not being the modem and something with the signal to our entire building) and back to school we've been pretty crazy the past week. C loves her new teacher and class, and the best part is she still gets to see all her old friends from Kindergarten during lunch and recess! She's making new friends and having a lot of fun ;) And here I was worried she would have a hard time handling full day school, hehe. Over the weekend some friends and I got in our last hurrahs before school started with a few crops and I've got some fun layouts to share with you later after I snap some photos of them ;) Anyway, enjoy the card and have a great weekend!

Summer Scrap Shopping

It's been a couple months since I've gotten any scrappin' stuff and with all these new fun summer pictures we've been taking I was inspired to pick up some new goodies. This is what a I got with my $20 at Pebbles ;) Here are the details :

Colored Cardstock by American Crafts
Papers are Sweet Summertime by Crystal Wilkerson from Echo Park Paper Co. - I've never seen that brand before or the designer, but aren't these just too fun!

Here are the two sticker sheets, one full of alphas and some darling scallop borders and the other of elements and titles/subtitles both from the Sweet Summertime set. I love the hot air ballon, the big dotted cloud, and the fun bright pendent banner!

The goodies were mixed and matched, though a lot of them came from My Minds Eye

Quite Contrary Jack & Jill Cute Alphabet by My Minds Eye (multi)
So Sophie Savvy "Best Thing" Alphabet by My Minds Eye (red)
Tree House Epoxy Brads by Pebbles
Quite Contrary Jack & Jill "Be Happy" Title by My Minds Eye
Quite Contrary Jack & Jill "Cute" Tickets by My Minds Eye
Quite Contrary Little Boy Blue "When I Grow Up" Title by My Minds Eye
Cloud and Sun Die Cuts Precut by Pebbles in my Pocket
Chipboard Mini Book Covers Precut by Pebbles in my Pocket
Colored Album Ring by Pebbles in my Pocket

I'll be posting projects made from these real soon! Thanks for popping by ;)

The Past 3 Weeks

I hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day and a great Graduation weekend! We've been so busy with family and celebrating, it'll be nice next week when things finally wind down for summer vacation! The first week of May was our week for Teacher Appreciation. I didn't get a chance to get it posted earlier and the pictures aren't great because I took them in a hurry, but here's the card I made for Caitlyn's teacher. Inside Caitlyn drew a picture of her teacher with a rainbow, clouds, and a happy sun inside and wrote a short sweet message. At the bottom I added a message from Paul and I. I was so pleased with how cute it came out! Mrs. F's favorite color is red so that made using red apples all the more fun! This was the first time I used this set for a teacher gift and I can just tell I'm going to be loving using it for teacher projects for years to come!

Here's the card and matching tag on the bag together. I love kraft bags and the really fun part is the quilt shop I frequent puts your purchase in these plain kraft totes so I not only get lovely fabric to play with but also a free gift bag to use later ;) As for us, we had a neurology appointment for Paul a couple weeks before graduation. While his drop-leg has been getting worse and he now wears a knee brace most days to help with that, he did have more sensation in his legs than he did at his appointment back in October which is a good sign. He also had slightly better balance and didn't fall over this time when he had to do some of the closed eye balance tests. Hopefully that means his injections are helping his system retain as much functionality as possible ;) We also got some good news about a new medication that's going through approval right now that's specifically for MS patients to help with walking. It's supposed to help with symptoms like drop-leg so Paul and I are excited for when the FDA approves it and he can try it out.

Mother's Day was fun for me. I got to be lazy and Paul did the dishes, vacuumed, and took care of the girls. Paul got me this gorgeous top, it looks lovely with my olive skin ;) Then we went to see Iron Man 2 and out to dinner. His sister spoiled us by watching the girls for 4 hours, so nice! Paul is finally graduated now with his bachelors, yay! He graduated with Honors in English Literature and hopefully now can take a little time off to write before he takes the GRE and heads back for more school to get his Masters, lol. It's strange to think he's been in school since before Audrey was born. She was born just before midterms his first semester.

This week has been all about Caitlyn. Her class spent Monday and Tuesday getting ready for their program on Wednesday. The theme was 'When I Grow Up' and Cait was a Vet ;) It was SO cute! I can't wait to see more of these as she goes through school. And she was so hilarious, she really gets into the dance moves and has such an expressive face! We loved it especially the Macarena Month song and the First Grade song, she was really swinging her little hips and having a great time up there, lol. Thursday was the Teddy Bear Picnic, where they got to bring lunch and a stuffed animal for a picnic out on the lawn, and today they are doing a Reading Party. Tuesday they get to have a water party and then the next day we meet with the first grade teacher and she's done until fall! I can't believe it's been a whole school year already and that she's going to be in first grade, never mind that my girl is going to be 7! Crazy eh? Anyway, I have done a little crafting the past few weeks, very little but some none the less and I'll be posting those later on ;) I hope you enjoyed and have a fab Friday!

Pout Pout Face

Supplies : Paper by Cosmo Cricket, Bo Bunny, Scenic Route, and My Minds Eye; Flowers by Sassafrass; Glazed Brads by Basic Grey; Thickers Letter Stickers by American Crafts; Mini Circle Letters by Jenni Bowlin; Apron Lace Punch by Fiskars; Kraft Cardstock;

Her Pout Pout Fish Face. Have any of you read The Pout Pout Fish? We picked up ours at the school book fair in the fall. I remember flipping through it and thinking it was just so Audrey. It's currently her favorite book and she even reads the chorus line of "I'm a pout pout fish with a pout pout face, so I spread the dreary wearies all over the place. Blub, bluubbb, bllluuuubbb." And she is HILARIOUS when she says it because she tries to make her voice all low and slow like a sad fish, lol. I posted this picture on my year review and what's awesome is the author even left a comment here about her pout fish face. How fun is that!

I found some more woodgrain paper in my stash, which worked perfectly with the photo and with my desire to play more with woodgrain goodies ;) A couple months back I made a bunch of layouts with some BoBunny paper that I loved and practically used all up. This is the very last of it, the white floral. I didn't buy every pattern, but each piece I bought I have used up. In a hobby that's so easy to collect things I get a huge feeling of accomplishment when I finish off a paper line, lol. Enjoy and have a fab weekend!

Paperscrapsville

It started out as a speech therapy homework assignment. Then it turned into a sketch. The next day it ended up being an entire papercrafted town! So maybe I went a little crazy with this... maybe ;) Crazy aside though one of my crafting goals this year is to whittle down my scraps and this project used up an enormous amount of them since nearly everything here uses scraps! The homework assignment was fairly simple, to talk about different places in town to help build vocabulary and familiarity. Just a warning this is a long rambly post ;)

I made this sketch on my dying poster board for the activity, the one I use to back my layouts for pictures. This way it didn't end up in the recycling bin and we could play with the Littlest Pet Shops to work on Audrey's speech therapy questions like "Where should kitty go to buy bread?" "Who is in the grocery store?" "Where is Lizard?" and there would be a good visual to help her. So now homework is more of a game rather than information regurgitation and she loves it, both the therapy game and playing on her own.

Here are some close ups. The idea to do this initially came because Caitlyn said "Now color it Mom!!" I will admit I am hard pressed to color even a whole page in the coloring book let alone an entire poster board! So the idea of coloring this board was incredibly daunting to me. Even so, looking back coloring probably would have gone faster, lol. But I had a lot more fun this way. And then using up all those scraps... major plus! I didn't glue the buildings down until I was almost done making all of them since I was using my sketch as a reference and it also allowed them to play with the board until I finished.

Each building was made separately, doing it in those tiny chunks made the project seem easy and the best part was that I wasn't worried about matching the entire board, just the one building I was working on. Plus perfection wasn't the goal, I hand cut all of the curvy stuff and hand wrote everything, I think it looks more fun and whimsical that way ;) The road was made using 2 full sheets of textured navy cardstock, the sky and park grass each used a sheet of MME paper - all from my to be purged pile so that was another plus too. All the other patterns and cardstock were scraps.

The Police Station is one of my favorites, simply because of the silly little jailed guy. I changed the officer from a guy to a gal after gluing it to the board. The firefighters were requested by both Cait and Audrey since I drew them on the sketch. I was actually planning on not making them since I didn't think I could make them look any sort of decent but they turned out alright. We've decided the little guy is in jail because he tried to rob the bank.

Some stores changed between the sketch and finished project, namely the coffee shop and Target. While putting together buildings I realized we didn't have a bank and also that an ice cream shop suited a kiddo project better than a coffee shop since I won't let them try more than a teensy sip, lol. Anyway, that was my creation from homework assignment to massive play project ;) The even crazier part is now I'm thinking of other places to make like the zoo, the inside of a house, the school, camping grounds, etc. I still have a lot of scraps left...

Passing By

Supplies : Paper by October Afternoon, Scenic Route, and My Minds Eye; Flowers from Prima; Buttons and Jute from Papertrey Ink; Candy Dot by Pebbles; Thickers and Remarks letter stickers from American Crafts;

I used some of those fun embellies I posted on Saturday on this layout I made using the Inspired Blueprints #37 sketch. March of last year Caitlyn was in speech therapy 1-2 times a week and at that time the rehab clinic was in the main hospital building. They have an area with a fountain that goes down to a stream and a little bridge that takes you over to some seating where they created a spot of lovely desert landscaping. It's an area we usually rushed past because there was always someplace to be and because it's nothing all that special, just an area around a hospital. After therapy it was errands or going to the preschool, another doctors appointment, picking up Paul, etc. And every visit Caitlyn would ask to see the fountain and go across the bridge, each time receiving the 'we don't have time' answer that seemed to become so commonplace in our lives. One day I finally realized we needed to slow down and so after the therapy session that day we crossed the bridge and played. Caitlyn spent most of the time just sitting near the water, listening and watching it and in those quiet unrushed moments I saw that this was something she needed and she needed this more than I needed to finish some other errand right at that moment, or to be early to another doctors appointment for her where we would wait another 20 minutes before being seen. So almost every time we had therapy after that we spent a little time across the bridge or by the fountain wall. And it made all the difference, not just for her but Audrey and I as well. I no longer had to drag her to therapy and running errands afterwards seemed to go more smoothly. I was more patient with them and they were more tolerant of doing things that weren't fun. Just 5 minutes to get away from the hustle. Five minutes in someplace beautiful and quiet. And I wonder how much we miss when we're just passing by. I've noticed since she's started Kindergarten that we've been in that rush again and I need to break us out of it. Take some time today to enjoy something you haven't noticed and have a lovely Monday! Thanks for visiting ;)

Scrappy Embellies and Resolutions

I have sooooo many scraps. And making cards or trying to find ways to put them on a page is more thinking work than I want to do sometimes. What can I say, I've become a lazy crafter ;) So I thought about trying to use them up by making little embellishments, which is funny because I made these last week and yesterday I popped on Nichol's blog and saw that PTI was doing a use up your scraps challenge so I'll be making more of these with some of my PTI valentine's scraps soon for fun. I made two sets of these, one which I've been using for myself and the other I think I might gift, save for later, or if I get really ambitious - start an Etsy and be putting them there. I've made a couple things with these already and will be posting them laters ;)

And as is customary I made myself some New Year's Resolutions. I have this notebook that I keep in my purse all the time where I can make lists, jot down notes, schedule my day. The current version is a pretty little GreenRoom book, which I don't have a picture of and should probably take one to scrap ;) Anyway, I ended up with a ton of resolutions once I started writing, most of them involving fairly simple tasks such as get the new curtains I've been oogling at Pier 1 for the living room or get a cute lined basket to hold my dryer and straightener for the bathroom, lol. Some of them are more ambitious like make both Paul and I quilts, learn how to topstitch with Mom's sewing machine (mine is just a little cheapo), and make the backing, quilt, and bind the king size quilt top I finished 3 years ago that's still sitting in storage under my bed along with making the other kiddos quilts I have the material for and take a class to learn to sew clothes. Then there's my papercrafty goals, like streamlining my supplies, using up scraps, and starting an Etsy to sell extra cards, embellies and maybe even the extra dolls I made this past year. And of course the everlasting lose the baby fat goal which I am sorely tempted to get a gym membership for because if I spend the money I'll guilt myself into going in and then maybe I will finally shed this muffin top, lol. I also have Mommy goals such as try to be more patient and find more healthy foods my kids will eat, plus explore more of the fun things to do in town as a family since we always tend to go to the same places. Then my blogger goals such as to have a post at least once a week and to be more personable which is hard for me since I don't type at all like I talk (think a whole lot of spoonerisms and mixed up words, lol. Now think of my hubby the Lit major and how much fun he has with that ^_~) and a lot of what I would say is usually filtered out when I edit. I filled a page both sides with my goals for the year. Sometimes I think having less goals is easier, but this year I'm taking on my SIL's approach and setting many goals. That way if I even only get to doing half of them, then I've still done a lot. Anyway, whether or not you make resolutions I wish you luck in the New Year and I hope you had fun reading some of mine. Thanks for visiting and have a fab Saturday!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years Eve. Audrey fell asleep before midnight but Caitlyn stayed up with us as and we watched a couple movies and played some Lego Indiana Jones 2 ;) The big booms of fireworks going off alerted us to the ringing in of the new year, otherwise we might have missed it, we were having so much fun. And Caitlyn actually wanted to see the fireworks, so maybe that means this year will finally be the one where we can see fireworks on the 4th! We didn't want to wake up Audrey so we didn't see them last night. Poor girl has been sick like her momma with a sore throat and fever. We also haven't gotten to see our nephew yet because we've been sick but hopefully we'll get over it soon! Anyway, my head is still fuzzy so instead of a year in review for 2009 I thought it would be fun to simply share a picture and small caption for each month. Enjoy ;)



January - We actually got some snow! It only lasted a couple days but the girls had a blast and were spoiled with hot cocoa and marshmallows afterward. Our friend Mark edited this shot I took of Audrey, I love the way it turned out!


February - The girls had a blast for Valentines. We spent a whole week between preschool and home doing fun stuff for the heart holiday!


March - I love this sister picture. March was by far my most photo shot month of the year.

April - It rained Easter weekend so we didn't do an egg hunt. I got this shot later in the month and it is still one of my all time favs of Audrey.


May - I think this is all Caitlyn did outside for April and May : blow bubbles, lol. We must have gone through 3 six packs just in that time I remember always having to pick up another pack of bubbles whenever we went to the store!


June - Caitlyn broke free from her water fear and started swimming by the 3rd time we went to the pool. We're so proud of her!


July - No fireworks for Caitlyn again this year but Audrey watched though she was afraid the sparklers would 'shock' her, hehe. We got some cute family pictures even though the girls were not being cooperative at all ;)


August - Cait started Kindergarten! Their class theme is pirates which used to scare her but after the 2nd day she loved it!


September - Paul and I celebrated our 8th anniversary, crazy! Cait lost her first tooth in the car of all places, lol.


October - My baby turned 4! Where does time go? Both the girls were superheroes for Halloween and Caitlyn was able to trick or treat for the first time! Here's hoping 2010 is completely panic attack free!. Hey, I can dream ;)


November - I took less than a dozen pictures this month, which is just soooo unlike me. I spent a lot of time sick that month so that's probably why. I did get this adorable shot of Audrey with her Pout Pout fish face though, lol. And we had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We made 2 new recipes this year and loved them!


December - My Caitie-bean turned 6! She's getting so tall, I swear by the time she's 10 she'll be as tall as I am, lol. We had such a fun Christmas season this year. The girls got their own mini trees to decorate even and we had a terrific Christmas day and weekend with family and friends.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I've really enjoyed blogging and reading your wonderful comments this past year. You have all been such a great support to me. I know most of the time all I post is art and I don't always talk about our lives, but whenever I do it's so heartwarming to read your comments and it always puts me in a better mood. Thank you for being a part of my life this past year. Our family wishes you all a blessed and prosperous 2010! Happy New Year!!

Baby Before the New Year

We've have a new addition to our extended family! Our little nephew was born yesterday morning ;) He's a premie at 4 weeks early but he was a good 5 lbs and 11 oz and they didn't need to put him in the ICU so we're really happy. Yesterday I went fabric shopping since I realized I don't have any boyish fabric. They want everything done in classic camo or with that type of theme so this is the quilt I made for them. It's a simple tied baby quilt with binding made from the scraps and even though the patterns aren't my style I think it turned out pretty cute ;D The white is actually a lighter beige plaid but the print is really tiny. I backed the quilt in the camo since that's the theme and I think I was lucky in finding a 100% cotton version since most all the rest of the camo fabric at the Joann's was that really rough stuff. I finished the quilt this morning and snapped some quick pics of it before they get it Saturday at the shower. Anyway, just thought I'd share. Have a happy hump day and thanks for stopping by!

Holiday Hair

Supplies : Paper and Elements by Cosmo Cricket; Flair Button and Thickers Letter Stickers by American Crafts

A simple layout to start off the holiday season. These were some silly photos of the girls with Christmas bows on their head from Christmas morning and I just had to include the one of Paul when Caitlyn had put her hairband on him so she could wear the tiara she got from her Aunt at our family Christmas party last year. I loved the little element that said "The season just isn't complete without a few ding-dongs" It matched the goofy photos so well! I had ordered the Cosmo Cricket craft pack right before I got sick earlier this month and am finally getting around to play with it. November has been pretty batty with all of us getting sick with colds, the flu, even a stomach bug and to top it off some vandal completely shattered one of our backseat car windows. Thankfully we were able to get the window fixed that next morning and we are all getting better finally :D I'm keeping my fingers crossed that none of us catch anything else for a while. While Caitlyn and Paul get over those things quickly, Audrey and I tend to have a much harder time. We have higher fevers, worse symptoms, and feels like it takes forever for us to get better. You can tell who got who's genes, lol. I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving though. We definitely had a great one. The meal was wonderful and the girls had such a blast playing with their cousins. With all the flu going around and the holiday craze our family hasn't gotten together since early October and it was so nice to see and chat with everyone. Hopefully I'll have at least a couple posts for you each week as I've got lots of Christmas goodies and such to make. So to get in the holiday mood this weekend we listened to Christmas music, put up the tree and decor, and I scrapped a quick and simple page to get my crafting mojo going. Enjoy and have a terrific Tuesday!

Happy Halloween!

Supplies : Paper by Pebbles Inc., My Minds Eye, and Creative Imaginations; Stickers by Pebbles Inc; Bat Ribbon by Making Memories; Glazed Brads Eerie by Basic Grey;

Happy Halloween! We have a fun day ahead for us with the festival at Tuachan and then a little Trick or Treating with their Aunt Mich. Everything is family friendly so no scary stuff allowed, my kind of Halloween festival! I love whimsical holiday decor. Most of our Halloween decor is black, orange, and white and the pieces are usually witchy. I did pick up a fun zombie thing this year and a darling vampire ornament from Pier 1 (links will take you to pictures of some of my favorite Halloween pieces of ours). Since the girls have gotten older decorating for holidays has become a bigger thing for us so I've enjoyed shopping for fun Halloween pieces to add to our little collection. This is a very simple layout of the girls last year. It's a very Pebbles style layout using some fun Pebbles paper and stickers! If you've seen their kits you know what I mean. The style is simple, blocked, and cutesy. The journaling is about how last year was the first year the girls ever picked matching costumes. I know they aren't from the same movie or comic but the fact that they were both superheroes is close enough for me! Since they are superheroes again this year I'm hoping we've started a trend of them matching for Halloween, at least for a little while! It's just so cute to see their costumes be all matchy :D

By the way both the girls did great at the Halloween party in class. Cait didn't melt down at all going through the older kids classrooms and seeing their scary costumes for the costume parade. She was even able to give some of them high fives. I think it really helped that the big kids were so encourging of all the Kindergarteners rather than trying to scare them :) They also got to go to a Halloween birthday party as well as our neighborhood party later that evening. All Friday they got to party! Here's a picture of them before class. I'm a bit sad that Audrey lost her mask someplace so she won't have it for Trick or Treating or the Festival today but oh well, at least I got some pictures of her before it happened. Maybe I can draw/paint one on her tonight. We'll see if she lets me :D Anyway enjoy and have a Hauntingly Happy Halloween!

October 31st

Supplies : Paper and Stickers by Pebbles Inc; Brad by Imaginescence; Rhinestones by Kaiser; White Cardstock; Apron Lace punch by Fiskars; 3D foam squares

I have been loving this Pebbles sticker sheet. It's only about 6x12 but boy all those images sure do go a long way! I used basically the same style for this card as I was with the sticker minis, matting the sticker on cardstock and using 3D foam squares to pop it up. I added more rhinestones for some fun bling in the background and then substituted the O in October with a circle Trick or Treat brad. A very quick and simple card, can you tell I've been so in to those lately!

We'll be having Caitlyn's class party today. She's done SO much better this year. Last year I couldn't even take her to the grocery stores it was that bad! Carrying an ASD child whose having a major meltdown out of a crowded store while still keeping track of your other toddler is totally no fun. I was dreading when everyone would start putting out the Halloween stuff this year but Caitlyn hasn't seemed to be affected like she was last year. So we'll see how she handles the kids wearing their costumes in class. Audrey and I will be there to help if anything crops up but I'm hoping she'll be able to just have fun like the other kids ^_~ Thanks for popping on by and have a Freaky Friday! I'm pretty sure mine is going to be a least a little freaky with all those dressed up Kindergarteners!

Cinderella's Pumpkin

Supplies : Paper by Basic Grey, Making Memories, and My Minds Eye; Lace Butterfly Cardstock by KI; Shoe Abbey Road by My Minds Eye; Rhinestones by Kaiser; Remarks Letter Stickers and Thickers Letters by American Crafts; Pumpkin Brad by Basic Grey;

I love the rich colors in the new Basic Grey fall set. Sparkle sent me a card earlier this month and her card actually sent me in search of the paper here in town it was so pretty! I was lucky to find that my favorite LSS had some of the patterns and picked up a few of my favorite sheets. The paper I used here was so gorgeous, I was falling all over it when I saw the blend of pink and orange with that bleach like effect of the bloom stems. When I got home I knew I had to use it for my layout for the Practical Scrappers Challenge on lace cardstock. If you visit/follow the Practical Scrappers site you've already seen this since it posted Monday. The lace cardstock was a bit of a challenge since the stores here don't carry much of it and so our choices are quite limited. I found this glitter butterfly cardstock by KI at Michaels and thought it would be so pretty as just a bit of border and diecuts. Don't be afraid to cut your lace cardstock as borders, diecuts, detailing, etc. Old school style it with plain scissors and simply follow the shape of the object your cutting. Another thing to get you out of the box is don't be afraid to use non-traditional colors or papers when scrapping your Halloween photos. I used pink and orange for this layout and I love how it brings out the pumpkin in her lap and lets her blue dress really pop from the page. The 'glass slipper' is a die cut from My Minds Eye in white and pale blue. I added some rhinestones for some shoe bling and to reinforce the Cinderella theme. A fun and gorgeous Halloween page with not a bit of black in sight!

October has been such a fun month for the girls and just all over a busy month for us which is why I've had a lack of posts half the month. We had Audrey's birthday on the 5th and we celebrated our extended families birthdays and Audrey's again at their Nana's house on the 8th. Sparkle sent me a gorgeous fall Ketto card along with some Greeting Farm images (thank you so much!) which was such a treat for me and really made day! The busy stuff has been doctor appointments. Audrey had her well-child and was such a trooper with her shots. She cried but didn't try to get away, I'm so proud of her. She had a Speech Evaluation and was such a shy cutie. She's been having difficulties telling us what she wants and using general terms like 'that one' and 'doing' for everything so we had her tested. She has normal receptive (what she hears and understands) but has a mild - moderate delay in her expressive (what she can put into words). She also has a bit of echolalia - repeating the end of a question instead of answering it. Part of it could be Caitlyn's modeling but the therapist thinks it might Audrey's own delay with Caitlyn's language difficulties simply not helping her work past it. So now I am working on helping Audrey with her speech as well though she was kind of getting it already since I did Caitlyn's speech homework with both of them. The good new is Audrey isn't delayed in anything else or showing any warning signs that would lead to us to think she has any disorder.

For the more worrisome stuff this month we think Paul has been having another relapse, one of his legs feel strange and tingly plus he hasn't been doing well at all this past month. He's already had one appointment up in Salt Lake for a total body scan which they had to cut short because of a panic attack. They will finish when we go up again Tuesday and we'll also get to see the results of the first scan and that should tell us if he's having a relapse. As I look back over the past two years his relapses have happened April, October, and April again with each one lasting about 2 1/2 - 3 months, so the timing fits. Also if it follows the same pattern this time that would mean by around Christmas Paul could be back in remission, and that is something to hope for. So it's been a little crazy around here. But amidst the craziness I've gotten to craft a bit of fun Halloween goodies, I just haven't had the time to take pictures and post them until now. So I have some fun future posts sets up now ^_~ Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous Friday!

Doggone It

Supplies : Paper - Scenic Route and Basic Grey

A super simple dog card! I really love these dogs from the June Bug Basic Grey line, they are so quirky and cute. And even though I don't much care for my own handwriting I find that it goes okay with these pups. This one I made just to use up some more of these layout scraps. They are too small to really put on another page so I thought if I could make some cards with them right after then the scraps won't just sit in my stash forever ^_~. And Paul finally got a chance to take a look at my laptop and got my connection fixed so now I can get online again, yay! The first few days were hard but after that it was actually really nice. I got a lot of things done that normally I wouldn't have gotten around to until weeks later and our home's energy is so much clearer now. I did a lot of reorganizing and purging that I've been meaning to do for weeks. I've also gotten in a lot more time with Caitlyn working on all the things she's struggling with. This next part is a lot of venting, just to warn you.

Caitlyn had been working in speech therapy as well as going to preschool for a year and half before Kindergarten and this first month of school has really tested her limits with 1-3 hours of work at home a day between homework from school, therapy homework, and then trying to work on the skills her classmates have already mastered that she is having a hard time with. She's still pretty behind in her speech but at least her educational skills are starting to catch up more to her peers' levels. I feel bad because there are so many times where I think she finally gets something after months of working and then I hear about how other kids master the same thing in a week. One of our nephews who will start Kindergarten next year is already so ahead of Caitlyn and his mom says she only spends 10 or 15 minutes a day working on kindergarten prep with him. I feel so jealous and discouraged when I see how easy it is for her kids and all the time I spend working with Caitlyn to not even get half the results. When I mentioned we've been working on the alphabet for over a year she gave me this unbelieving look like how can it be possible to work with a child so long and they still not be able to identify all of the letters.

I know we're so lucky to have Caitlyn. She's hilarious and loving, energetic and creative, and even our speech therapist has said if you have to have a kid on the spectrum, she's the kid to have. I love her so much and I would never change the person she is, but even with all that I still feel these swells of sadness that we have to work so hard, that she has to work so hard, to learn things that take other kids less than half the time with half the effort to learn. Sorry, I'm falling into a little pity party here, it's just so hard to work and work and then celebrate a small victory only to have other mothers mention how if every parent would only spend 15 minutes a day with their child, the kids would never be behind. I spend sometimes hours in a day and Caitlyn's always been behind. Those comments break me down so badly because so often even though I know most of these moms don't know what it's like to have a disabled child, I feel like they are blaming me for why Caitlyn's not doing what all the other kids are doing. I know I just need to keep at it, to keep encouraging her and helping her to learn and her therapist and even other mothers with older disabled children have assured me that she'll be fine, the people I should be listening to are saying she's doing great. But all those other people, the ones that just have to get their comments in about parenting when they have healthy normal kids, they always strike that nerve that seems to say 'You're a bad mom. It's all your fault that Caitlyn's behind.' Some days I get angry because they don't know what it's like to work so hard and watch your child fail again and again on the same things. Most the time I'm just sad because Caitlyn spends so much time working and every time someones has a comment about Caitlyn's shortcomings it makes me feel hopeless because it feels like all that work doesn't show.

It just wears me down, day after day. When it comes to disabilities people seem to only see it as you have to be severe or you're not handicapped at all. Caitlyn is one of those kids who can run and will sing and is friendly. At first glance she seems like a normal kid, you wouldn't know she's on the Autism Spectrum, you can't really see that she has SPD. You have to spend time trying to talk to her to see her handicap and sometimes even then it doesn't seem like much until you have her right next to another kid or ask open ended questions. So many other parents I've met have viewed her as there can't be anything wrong. Most of our family members treat it like it's nothing as well, the same as with Paul's MS, so we don't even get family support. In fact it's usually only from other moms I've met at the preschool or at therapy that have ever even shown an interest in listening to what Caitlyn goes through. Even if our kids don't have the same difficulties, it seems that a lot of us have the same struggles and I've learned so much with all of my conversations with these other moms even if it was just one time. But I have such a hard time really connecting with them. Most the gals I've met are 10 or more years older than I am, and none of them I've met have a disabled husband as well. I feel so alone so often because I'm constantly dealing with worries about Paul's MS, especially since he hasn't recovered much at all from these past relapses, while also dealing with trying to help Caitlyn's challenges.

Kindergarten has really been an eye opener, both good and sad. It's great to know what we need to work on each day to help her but to watch and see when I'm volunteering how far the gap is between where she is and where the other kids are is tough. That first day was really difficult for me. I wanted so badly for her to be one of the girls breezing through the work stations, but she wasn't. Her behavior was good and I was so proud of that and she had a lot of fun so that it made it a lot easier. It's just so hard to watch her be unable to do what the other kids can, harder than it is for me to watch Paul with that same struggle, though his is mostly physical. There's something about having to watch your child work through a disability that hurts so much more than watching your spouse. I always thought that his first relapse would be the hardest thing in our marriage I'd have to go through, that after those really hard 4 years I wouldn't have to go through that again. It's never gotten easier to watch him go through a relapse and in fact it's only gotten more worrisome since we have kids now and I worry how it'll effect them. But even all that doesn't compare to how hard it is to watch Caitlyn not be able to keep up with her peers. The amazing blessing about her is that she doesn't even know she's behind. She takes each success as a huge victory and we celebrate it with her even though inside I'm still worried because I know she still has so far to go. And her being so happy about every little thing helps so much every day. I don't know if I could do it if she weren't such a funny and positive girl all the time. I pray she keeps that her entire life, even after she understands her challenges and the hardship they might bring. Thanks for reading my spout and I hope you enjoy the card and have a happy Thursday!

Having a Ruff Day?

Supplies : Paper by Scenic Route, Piggytales, and Basic Grey

This is what it's been like the last two weeks here. Remember my last Saturday post where I was hoping for some relax time? Well, that totally didn't happen! Long story short from that Saturday until the next we had major construction going on in our kitchen and bathroom because the water and sewer line broke underneath us. Luckily there was no flooding and the manager is so great so it wasn't horrible. In fact the girls loved having to hang out in the club house until bedtime and Paul and I really enjoyed the free dinners. We got new flooring and a professional steam cleaning for not just the hall they used but our livingroom as well. It was during SEP week here so Caitlyn happened to be out of school which helped a lot. She has afternoon kindergarten and I'm sure we would have managed somehow, but I'm glad we didn't have to worry about juggling school for her and me volunteering without us having our apartment available during the day.

Then this last week my laptop hasn't been able to connect to our network so I've had no internet. My hubby's computer and our other things like the 360 can get online but my laptop keeps saying I don't have security access even after we've put in the password. Out of the blue it does this so we've been trying to fix it but it's just not happening. Paul's had so much homework that he's always on the desktop when I get free time and that definitely takes priority over me checking emails and blogging. Aside from the fact that I haven't had much free time at all, this last night was the first time I've made anything in over two weeks. It's just been a crazy crazy month so far. I keep hoping things will settle down but I think with flu season, all the birthdays in our family, and the holidays coming up it's just going to stay busy. Thankfully Paul was taking a break so I was able to get online and check up on my emails and update my blog with what I made today :D So I hope you enjoy my simple card. It's made from scraps from my Practical Scrappers design team pages that will be posted starting Monday. Thanks for stopping by, reading my soap of a life, and have a wonderful weekend!

Christmas Card Challenge #37

Supplies : Paper by Basic Grey; Stamps by Papertrey Ink; White Embossing powder, White Gel Pen; Black ink by CTMH; Rhinestones

I finally got around to making my card for last Sunday's Christmas Card challenge on Sparkle's Blog. The added challenge was to make a hot cocoa or similar themed card. I did a tea theme since I've been wanting to play with my Tea for Two stamp set. I love this paper but I think I'll be happy when it's all used up since I feel like I've been using it for so long and on so many Christmas projects.

Sometimes I wonder where I find the time. Time to craft, time to watch a show with my hubby, time to organize .... with what seems to be a never ending to do list and new responsibilities cropping up like volunteering at the school, PTA, and being called as a Primary President, I really wonder - where do I find the time and do I really have this time I think I've found. I've had more work this past week with Caitlyn between her school homework every weeknight, her therapy homework, and dealing with her re-emerged tantrums than in the past month all together. Somehow even with that I've managed to volunteer at the school, organize getting the primary started for our new ward, along with all the regular hair brained things I feel I have to do at random moments like completely reorganize our room and clean out the storage closet as well as the refrigerator this past week.

I recount the week and have found that despite my busier schedule I actually got 4 nights with my hubby to watch a show after the girls were in bed, a movie with my hubby and a friend (District 9), plus a couple layouts, two more dolls, and this card. Maybe it's all the insomnia from the stress I've been having. Getting less than 5 hours of sleep a night allows me approximately 21 more hours in the week to complete more tasks but it definitely has some mean consequences. Like the coming down with a sinus cold and a horrid stomach ache at the same time though I'm pretty sure the stomach ache is stress combined with hormones.

How do mom's find the time? Do we get some sort of dimensional time lapse to allow us enough moments to get homework and reading time done as well as play chauffer and get dinner on the table every night? Somedays I feel like I've done it all and others I feel like the day just disappeared in a black hole. Are those black hole days payment for the done it all days? And how do the mom's of more kids do all this? I just have 2 and only one of them is in school right now. I feel like I'm ready to come apart yet I see all these other moms with 4 and 5 kids running through activities like a well practiced dance routine. Will I get to that point sometime or do I look like that with my girls too and we're all just going crazy with everything that happens in our lives?

I've run out of future posts after Monday. I am hoping today I can take a day off and create though I'm sure all the other moms reading this are going "A day off? What's that?" Maybe I won't get a complete day off, but I can get as much me time as possible in. We'll see and you'll know for sure if I got that time to play if I get to post a creation for the Christmas challenge for today. Don't forget to visit Sparkle's Blog for the Christmas Card Challenge if you want to play and see the links to the other cards. Thanks for visiting, enjoy the card, and have a lovely Sunday!

My Crafty Cubby

Last week when I said my scrap space was a mess I wasn't kidding and I decided to do more than just tidy up. That next day I made a plan to completely reorganize my paper crafting supplies. I got 2 white foam boards and decided to get organizationally crafty. Three hours (with many interruptions from my kidlets) and $3 got me this awesome little ink organizational system. I had seen so many different ink holders I thought I could probably come up with something that works for me. The best part is that while the system is stable, it's not permanent. So if I ever want my armoire back for computer or some other use, I won't ruin anything taking out the little ink system. It was really simple to put together. I used a craft knife, a tape measure, pencil and my 6"x24" acrylic quilting thingie. Just measure, line up, and slice. I used simple glue dots to keep the sections in their spots. The bottom holds my PTI stamps with room to grow, then next is my inks separated by color, markers, then ribbon spools. Most ribbon I buy by the yard so I don't need a lot of spool space. Also up there for now is a tube of stickles, the last of my white flowers, and then a repurposed prima tin filled with ribbon scraps.

Here is the entire inside of my armoire. Yes this is all of my paper crafting supplies. The photo boxes on the bottom are labeled as Photos, Buttons, Punches, and Embossing Tools though the embossing box holds other things like my brayer, glitters, paints, etc. There is space behind those boxes that hold my other stamps and other tools I don't use very often like my cropadile. The papers on the left are all patterned and then the ones in the paper organizers are all cardstock. On the second shelf I have two 13 inch deep cubby drawers. The top one is all flowers separated by color and then the bottom is embellishments and chipboard. Next to that is more chipboard in plastic, my coluzzle system, my E size CTMH stamps, embellishment organizer, cuttlebug plates and the cuttlebug. The craft cases contain embroidery floss and ribbon and then there is my box of CTMH stamps. The keyboard tray holds my paper cutter and those 12x12 bags are all holding scrap paper (yikes!). Everything else you can pretty much see, my pen holder with pens, adhesive, and scissors (extras behind), stamping blocks, cleaner and other occassionally used tools, and then the top is my stack of thickers stickers. The best part is I have a laptop now instead of a desktop and guess what? Yup, it fits perfectly in the remaining space where my desktop monitor used to be! I usually craft on the dining table or the floor so I don't need a lot of 'counter space'. Just space to store everything. My favorite part is that I can just close the doors and viola, clean! Even if it isn't ^_~ I hope you enjoyed this peek into my little craft cubby. Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Sassy Brat

Supplies : Paper Tres Jolie and Confetti by My Minds Eye; Cardstock, Ink, and Friendship Alpha stamp set by CTMH; Buttons by PTI; Thickers and Orange Flair button by American Crafts; White Embroidery Floss

"I have to admit most the time you are a sweetie. But sometimes that sour spoiled little tart comes out. You're suddenly a defiant diva and while there are times when it's annoying there are more times when it's just darn cute! Audrey @ 3 years" - journaling. I used a new page maps sketch from July '09. It was one of the 8x11s that I altered to fit my 12x12 page since I had such a large picture. Some of you may remember this picture from earlier this year. This wasn't one of Audrey's snotty moments, she was actually just making funny faces for the camera and this one came out so spoiled and cute I had to keep it for a page like this. She purses her brow a bit more when she's being bratty ^_~. In fact her diva moments are more often funny than anything else. She's so dramatic and has the craziest facial expressions. Audrey also loves to shout. It cracks me up when she starts yelling something like "NO MOM-MOM! I don't like to have my hair brush! No Mom! Go Away!!" and literally 3 seconds later "I want my hair brushed MOM-MOM!!" in that same mad little voice! It cracks me up every time and it makes it hard to stay serious around her, even when I need to! I don't think I've done a page about how my girls call me mom-mom yet but that's what both of them call me instead of mommy. Audrey began saying it around 18 months and I think it was because she thought that's what Caitlyn was saying when she said Mama. Sometimes Cait would call me Mom, other times it was Mama. So Audrey started calling me Mom-Mom, then a couple weeks later Cait did too and it's stuck ever since. Enjoy and have a fabulous Friday!