Baby Girl Embellies

I did another couple embellishment sets, this time in baby girl colors. I'm so excited about these. When I go on crops it's hard to take everything I want to for making pages. Even cards I have a hard time with because I don't always know which stamps or inks I want to bring and then with both cards and pages I want to bring ALL my paper.... just in case. On my last crop all I brought was my scraps, nesties and cuttlebug, plus a box of embellishments like my buttons, candy dots, rhinestones, etc. I also took my Slice since it makes some fun shapes but I didn't have time to use it. That may sound like a lot but usually I'm bringing all my papers, chipboard, flowers, photos, embellishments, it's crazy because I feel like if I don't bring everything I'll miss the one item that would have 'made the page'. Anyway, deciding to create these instead of scrapping made packing for the crop so much easier and I was much more productive too! And these are way easier to clean up after, a big plus at my friend Julie's house since we have dinner on the same table we scrap at ^_~ And my my dinner was soooo good that night - Chicken Marsai with homemade french bread. So delish! Jules is an amazing cook, I would rather eat at her place than any resturant in town. And the company is awesome as well ;) Anyway, these make a great small project that's fun to do whether at home or away and makes your scrapping or cardmaking go by quicker later down the road. The added bonus - I'm reducing my huge mountain of scraps, yay! Have a happy hump day and thanks for visiting!

The Second and Third Days of Christmas

Supplies : Paper by Basic Grey and My Minds Eye; Cardstock by Bazzil; Rhinestones by Kaiser; Button by Papertrey Ink; Slice and Mistletoe Card

I missed Sparkle's Christmas challenge last week so this week I did them both ;) The extra challenge this week is to use embossing and that worked perfectly with these little doves! A couple challenges ago I started with the little partridge image. I'm hoping to make an entire set of the 12 days of Christmas. We'll see how it goes. I used a bit of some border paper I had left of that My Minds Eye birdy set. The little cage was just what the card needed. It's really different trying to make cards with die cuts instead of stamped images, but so far I think I'm doing alright. Below is the card for last week. The extra challenge for week 5 was buttons. I tried to work more into the card but I wasn't loving it so I added just the one big button. I've started printing out the sentiments for these on the computer. I'm not sure how much I like them yet. Maybe if I print them on some colors next time instead of white cardstock.

This first week of school has been kind of hectic. New Years I was coming down with some sniffles and a couple days later I had the worst flu. Not the worst I've ever had, but definitely one of them. Luckily by this weekend it was back to simple congestion but I have to say that week was really a doozy. I'm so glad Mich and Paul helped out the first few days Caitlyn was back in school otherwise she might have ended up stuck at home. Then yesterday I was walking down the sidewalk to our apartment and I tripped and fell hard. I haven't fallen like that since I used to skate back before I had babies! Oh it hurt so bad, I have a huge palm size bruise below my knee now and my knee caps are still sore. No broken bones or anything, but still... ouch! I got to be a big baby all night and nurse my sore legs lazying on the couch with some tea, orange rolls, and the first episodes of Lost. Anyway, today has been much better so I'm hoping that's a good sign that the rest of the month will be too. I hope the New Year has been treating you all well ;) Enjoy the cards and have a lovely Monday!

Pretty Prima Tin

Supplies : Marrakech paper by Basic Grey; Buttons by My Minds Eye; Flowers by Prima; Ribbon in Ocean Tides and Jute by Papertrey Ink; Repurposed Calypso Prima Tin

The Practical Scrappers challenge this week is to use up buttons! I have so many buttons and I love using them on EVERYTHING! It seems like I'm always sticking a button on something here or there, but for the challenge this week I really wanted to make something that uses more buttons than my usual. This darling Calypso Prima tin that I had hanging about was just waiting to be altered! I picked out the buttons first and decorated the top then found some paper to match. Thinking back I probably should have picked the paper first, but everything worked out ;) Doesn't it make such a pretty little jewelry tin! Or for a crafter I think it would be darling holding prestamped images, flowers, or a kit! I stuck my current watch in there for the picture, I love how the turquoise looks against that paper. I'm so addicted to these watch bands and am always excited to see the news ones at our Pebbles store. Anyway, enjoy and have a great Tuesday!

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!!