Have a Happy Christmas!

Just popping in to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday season! 

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!

Wordless Wednesday

I've seen a few of these out on the blogosphere and thought it would be fun to give it a try ;) A sweet little message I made for my DDs yesterday.

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!

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!!

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!

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!

Pictures of the Week

Spring is here and it's photo fever for me. I have snapped over 200 shots this past week, though I've only kept about a fourth of them. I'm very trial and error with my photos, lol. One of these days I'll brave the manual capabilities of my camera, but for now the auto takes good enough pictures to satisfy me ^_~ Here are just a few of my favs. Isn't Audrey too cute in this picture? She is such a doll and I love that she will pose for the camera!

Lately Caitlyn's been a bit more camera shy and her best smiles seem to appear when she's not looking at the camera. I thought this one came out so sweet, it just captured one of her precious happy smiles that I haven't been able to catch in a while. She wasn't looking up at me but I think that made the photo even sweeter. Usually Caitlyn is so wild and fiery, but every once in a while she has her shy moments and this shot captured that feeling so well.

This last photo is of Audrey wearing one of my favorite hand-me-down outfits from Cait. I wished she would have given me some smiles (look at that almost pout!), but we were in a hurry to get Paul to the college so I didn't have time to snap more than just a few photos. After we came back home we ate lunch since hungry kids don't make happy models and Audrey spilt yogurt all over her dress, lol. I'll have to try again later because it's getting warmer and soon she won't even let me put the jacket on her, though the dress is darling without. I hope you enjoyed seeing a few peeks at the photos I've been taking. I have been thinking about doing that photo-a-day challenge, but we'll see ^_~ Anyhoo, have a wonderful Saturday!

Little Sass

Usually my girls are sweethearts, but every once in a while they can get so very bratty! While Audrey wasn't actually trying to be a sass while taking this pic, the look I caught was so perfectly snotty that I had to keep it for future scrapbooking about what a stinker she can be sometimes! And to go along with that, I thought I'd just post some fun quotes about kids :

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. ~Franklin P. Jones

Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music. ~William Stafford

A little girl is sugar and spice and everything nice - especially when she's taking a nap. ~Author Unknown

While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about. ~Angela Schwindt

Anyone who thinks the art of conversation is dead ought to tell a child to go to bed. ~Robert Gallagher (this is an every night thing for us right now, lol!!)

There are a lot more that I like, but these have been on the top of my list lately ^_~. Also, over the past couple weeks I've spent hardly any time at all on the internet, and even though I didn't respond immediately these awards really brightened up my day!

Laurel gave me this darling Ladybug Award. Thanks dearie!

And Stephanie gave me the Kreativ Blogger award which I've had before, but it's always fun to get ^_~ Thanks Steph!

I'm so happy that there are so many people that like my creations enough to visit my blog! I might not interact a whole lot online of late, but I love being able to share and reading your comments on my work. Thanks for being such sweet readers! And have a marvelous Monday!

Back to School

For Caitlyn, coming back to school after winter break has pretty much been like starting a new year. She has a new teacher, a new class full of new friends, and an entirely new schedule. They do a lot of things differently than in her other class. She doesn't have her own schedule board, the activities they do are as a group, and there are more kids in the class. It's more like a preschool. So far she's done alright. She was really afraid of some of the new things, like the game where they pop the balloon and the Alligator game, but other than that she has been able to listen which was my main concern.

The first day back for her was both so fun and a bit sad. This semester it worked out to where both Paul and Cait have afternoon classes. It wasn't planned that way, Paul had signed up for his classes before we knew about Cait moving up to the higher level class. So I drop him off right before dropping of Cait since his first class is at 1pm and Cait's class starts at 1:15. We had just dropped Paul off at the college and were headed back to Caitlyn's school which is closer to home. One of my favorite songs, In My Arms by Plumb, was playing and the girls were singing at the top of their lungs. It made me laugh, they were so cute, and when I laughed they started to laugh and then tried to sing even louder, lol. This is one of the many things I love about having little girls. They sound so darling, singing the words they know and making up words for the parts they don't, it's just too adorable.

Caitlyn was so funny on her first day. She apparently kept telling her new teacher 'That's not how we do it.' LOL All of the new things she had to do, like the games and not having a schedule she would tell her teacher or the aide 'Teacher Collette doesn't do it like that.' I just had to laugh! She would do what she was supposed to after her teacher told her that this is how we do it in this class, but I can just imagine Cait doing her little 'well' stance and saying that to her new teacher, lol. Caitlyn has such a funny little stance where she stands with one hip sticking out a little and her head slightly tipped when she tries to convince me of something. Her tell for trying to change my mind almost always starts will a long drawn out 'wellll.....' followed by what she wants, lol. Sometimes it's 'but', but usually it's well. It cracks me up.

Anyway, to go on Audrey and I dropped off Caitie and half way home Audrey started sobbing. She was crying so badly and I kept asking her what was wrong but all she would do is cry harder. So finally I asked if she missed Caitie, since I remembered this happening on Caitlyn's first day of school back in September. She said 'miss Caitie' in the saddest little voice then did that little shaky breath in before whimpering and calming down somewhat. It was the saddest thing, she even had huge tears on her cheeks still when I got her out of the car! She was so happy when we finally picked Caitie up. Every ten minutes or so she was asking 'pick up Caitie?' or 'go get Caitie now?' She's fine with it now, but that first day... boy was it a roller coaster ride of emotions between the both of them. Of course that's what I get for having girls, lol!! Have a happy Saturday and thanks for stopping by!

Let it Snow. . .

Let it snow, let it snow!! We have had some fun snow the past couple days and yesterday morning we had gotten enough the night before for it to actually stick :D The girls LOVED it!! It's rare for us to get more than a single day of snow here so they even had a snow day Thursday, lol. Cait doesn't go to school on Thrusday so it didn't make any difference to her, but a lot of my friend's kids were totally ecstatic!

Cait and Audrey got to play in the snow for a while. Aren't they too cute!!! I wish Cait had kept her scarf on at least long enough for the pics, she looked so darling! Audrey took hers off shortly after as well, but I had gotten a couple shots before she did. My camera was wrapped in a scarf to protect it from the melting snow off all the trees in front of our apartment, lol. We had so much fun and then came in when the girls' hands got too cold for some hot cocoa with marshmallows and soft peppermint sticks. What a fun day we had yesterday!

I didn't have a chance to play in the bella challenges this week. It is crunch time for us to finish up some last minute Christmas treats, mostly cookies and shortbread. Remember these fun little candy cane reindeer? I used to make these in gradeschool and thought Cait would love making them for the treats she wants to give today at school. We used glue dots instead of a glue gun like we did when I was little. And it is A LOT easier, let me tell you, lol. Cait put on a couple of the noses but mostly just delegated - "Mom put the eyeball here" "Mom, nose goes here" "Mom, fix the horns please" or Audrey's matter-of-factly "It's dead. The reindeer is dead. Eyeballs are gone, oh no," about the candycane I forgot to put eyes on and was just laying on the floor with antlers, lol. We've been having a lot of fun this past week!! And today is my birthday so I get to have extra fun along with no cleaning or cooking, yay! Anyway, I hope you all have a fabulous Friday!! Thanks for stopping by!

Penguins!

This card was made for the day 7 challenge on Paper Crafter Planet's 12 days of Christmas challenge. The challenge was to create a black and white card - think formal wedding - and if you want a dash of color. The penguins were already black and white so I took inspiration from them to try and make a simple but pretty card with them. I signed up on PCP just so I could participate in these challenges, lol. I'm still getting used to it. I think they are using the same engine that Inspired Blueprints is using but all I really do there is upload and leave some comments, lol. PCP has groups and so many more events and options and tabs that I'm still a little overwhelmed. Someone said it's like facebook but for scrappers. I don't have a facebook so I have no idea, lol, but so far it's been pretty fun.

Here's Caitie with her pizza face and wearing a couple of her prezzies (the Tink shirt and purse). Yesterday was her birthday. Where does the time go? It doesn't seem so long ago that she was Audrey's size and Audrey.... well I still rock and cuddle her like she's a baby even though she weighs almost as much as Cait!! LOL We had a small party at home since she has been sick. Today she woke up with a low fever and a sore throat still, but nothing too serious. She didn't get to go to school, but that didn't dampen her spirits, lol. She has been so cheerful and happy all day ^_~ We won't be able to celebrate with family for a couple weeks because of schedules, so we just did little special things throughout the day with her to celebrate and she got a couple prezzies which she loved! She picked pizza and cupcakes for dinner though I have to say my cupcakes came out all wonky this time. I filled the first batch cupcakes too full so the tops were all funny, lol, but of course no one minded but me. The main thing was that she had a blast and I'm so glad she did even though she was sick! Anyway, thanks for visiting and have a happy Tuesday!

Bella Challenges #54

My card for the #54 bella sketch challenge. I was trying to do a cross between a support the troops card for a SCS lady I RAKed some images to for her Soldier project and a Christmas card since the images are for Christmas presents. I love the colors and think it turned out way cute with the exception of one thing... I think it's hard to tell what Cause she is actually supporting, lol. Anyway, I know about the wearing Red on Fridays so I figured the ribbon should be red and then just did a Christmas color theme for the rest. You can't tell in the pic but I also gave her gold sparkly tights as well as added a little gold to the flower on her dress ^_~

And this cute little Cuppa Wishes is for the Color Challenge this week :D I went by the SU colors which were Rose Red, So Saffron and Celery. I used the SU Color Combo site to see the colors myself since I couldn't see the sample yesterday morning for some reason and they looked to me like Hollyhock, Buttercup, and Sweet Leaf, so those were the ones I used ^_~ I have had this cup stamped out for a little while now, but just hadn't gotten around to playing with it yet, so today I made the leap and did another non-traditional colored Christmas card. And I'm really liking these colors together too!! The heat swirls are done up with my silver glitter pen so it's a little sparkly on this card too ^_~

I've noticed that I haven't been taking pictures of me like I had planned, or at least not that many. So the other morning, without doing my hair, makeup, nada, I got a couple snaps of Audrey and me in the morning. We are both grumpy morning girls. Audrey stays in bed f-o-r-e-v-e-r!! She gets it from me, lol. Here we are just cuddling in what we consider early morning time, 10 am lol!! Anyway, I will be working on the papertrey template, it will take me a few days since we've got a birthday this weekend and a friend coming over that we haven't seen in a long while. You all have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by :D

Color Challenge #37

It's November already! I can't believe how fast the past few months have flown by. It's finally fall weather here. The days are cooler more often than not and the nights have been getting quite chilly. I wanted to do more fall colors this week. When Sparkle put petal with the pansy purple I had in the last color challenge I immediately knew I wanted to do something using those colors together for this weeks challenge. To play use at least 3 of the colors and send me a link to your artwork so I can add it here. Have fun with the combo this week and thanks for playing!


Tulip
Petal
Pansy Purple
Creme Brulee

Sparkle's Sweet Vase of Flowers Card
Alanna's Pretty Laugh Card
Kim's Beautiful Love is Blooming Card
Jena's Lovely Butterfly Card (2nd Card down)

My Sample:

Supplies: Treasure Life, Homestead Alpha, and Spot on Backgrounds stamp sets, Creme Brulee Ribbon Collection, and Hollyhock brads and photo clip all by CTMH

I used the SC200 sketch for this card. I had seen quite a few cards using the pretty silhoutte flowers like this and thought I'd give it a try. My Mom's birthday is coming up so I think I'm going to be sending this to her. I also stamped on the inside which gave me a great idea on making a simple card set for her as a gift too. I'll be posting that later as I get to it.


We had a lot of fun on Halloween. Caitlyn had a blast at school and got a lot of fun treats, then we saw Poppa at work. He was dressed up as a Pirate. Cait was a little scared at first but then asked "Are you nice?" Poppa of course responded with yes, that he was a very nice pirate and immediately Caitlyn was fine again, lol. Paul and I also voted early, the last day to do so for us here in town and boy was an adventure for me since they said I had already voted. Long story short there was a mistake when my MIL voted and the computer said that I had voted right after her, which I didn't. The log said I hadn't voted so they fixed it and I got to vote. Of course I also held up the line a good bit on the last day of early voting, lol. But at least I got it done! We took some fun pictures and just hung out as a family most of the day :D

As for the other not so fun stuff, Paul has his dentist appointment later today so we will see how that goes. And the VA had to special order his Rebif prescription as well as get it approved first since it comes in different doses, so we still haven't received it yet. He's been up and down the past week, the pain in his mouth is what is bugging him the most. He's such a trooper and usually just pushes past his fatigue and other symptoms to try and at least get what he needs to do done for his classes and I do my best to take care of everything else. Such far we are doing as well as can be expected. I'm doing much better now emotionally. Thankfully it doesn't take me long to get out of those slumps and all the feedback from everyone here really helped me a lot. I mostly just worry about Paul still. He's doing his best right now to keep going with all his classes and stuff but the tooth thing and this relapse is wearing him down fast. I'm hoping the dental work he has done today helps a lot. I know it's been giving him headaches as well as a jaw ache so I'm sure if those were gone he'd be able to cope a whole lot better. Anyway, just know we are hanging in there! I hope you all had a great Halloween weekend! :D Thanks for stopping by and have fun with the color challenge!!

Happy Halloween!!

I hope everyone has a great Halloween tonight!! Each year we gauge whether or not Caitie has outgrown her phobia of people in black and the Halloween decor and she hasn't. I can't even take her grocery shopping with me right now because of all the scary Halloween stuff at the stores. So for the past few weeks I've been going shopping with Audrey while Cait is in school. We decorate with cutesy stuff in our home but all the stores around decorate pretty scary to sell the Halloween merchandise. She actually has panic attacks so it's not just a little thing that we can get around. Anyway, it has been the same this year so no trick-or-treating again. But my girls never seem to mind, their favorite part is just getting dressed up and it's become our own little tradition to do a fun photo shoot, make goodies, and just have a good time at home ^_~

This bella I made for the #52 color challenge. The colors this week are more Halloween - Orange, Taffy, Grey Wool, and Black. Anytime I see grey I automatically cringe, lol. I'm usually not good with grey. But I LOVE the way this came out. I was trying to color Witchybella's hat like a candy corn and it totally did not work, hehehe. But that's okay because I ended up doing some shading on her entire outfit and putting the candy corn theme on her socks and I am loving the result! The shadow, pumpkin's face, straps on her dress, and her hat's stripe are all done up with my stardust pen so that they shimmer. This has got to be my favorite Halloween card that I've made :D

I also played with the #52 sketch challenge. This one was so hard for me!! I wasn't liking anything I was doing. I had a cup stamped out and paper pieced and tried to make a cute scallop circle around it for the circle element... just everything I was doing didn't look right. The ribbon is there to cover up a huge coloring botch and the flowers are there because my center circle seemed to completely clash with the card. I think it came out alright in the end, but boy was this one frustrating for me, lol!

Aren't they just too cute!! I love their huggy poses :D Lately though I can't get them to smile. Or Cait will smile now, but Audrey won't. I'm sure all the moms out there know exactly what that's like, lol.

Here is my Supergirl!! She did this little pose all by herself! I think tonight for their photos I'm going to have her wear her red headband. We'll see how it works out ^_~

And Audrey was Cinderella yesterday :D The dress is too big for her but she still looks so darling in it! She was in her Batgirl costume earlier but traded it out before we went outside for the Princess dress. I'm still wondering how in the world I'm going to do her hair tonight. I'm sure whatever we come up with will be cute though. Have a Happy Halloween everyone!!