spoon feeding

One of the things I love about having kids is watching them learn to do stuff. They seem to grow so quickly. This page was done with Braelyn's first experience eating from a spoon. She did really well, but wasn't exactly thrilled the whole time. I sort of miss the days of spoon feedings. Now she feeds the dogs and smears food all over the tray. And of course, tries to fling herself out of the highchair when she is done.

Lots of clusters of embellishments and some photo booth style pictures. And I even included a close-up picture for you. Its been awhile since I've done that!



Supplies include American Crafts (paper, cardstock & embellishments), Pink Paislee Alphabet Stickers, Prima Flowers & Pearls, MAMBI Bling Star, Dimensional Pearls, Misc. Buttons

Enjoy - and I hope all my readers have a fabulous weekend! I'm excited that the weather is getting nicer and we should be able to get out and do stuff. Which equals more pictures!!

Safety 1st {and a winner}

Happy Thursday Morning!

I've been in a bit of a funk the past few days. We got some news on Tuesday, that while I completely expected it, it has still thrown me 'off' just a bit. So I will admit that yesterday I sort of moped around. Add into that Grayson having a really rough day, and well, I just forgot all about it being Wednesday and that I was supposed to post a winner. I hope you will forgive me.

At any rate, today I'm sharing a digital layout I did. I recently joined the forum at A Cherry On Top and found a challenge to scraplift the guest creative team. So I snagged this great digital kit called Tuesday Morning and got to work. Here is what I came up with. The pictures are of Grayson, his safety gear and his scooter. At this point, the boy has grown so much that the helmet doesn't fit him. I guess we'll have to look into getting him another one. Sometimes I wish he would stop growing.


If you would like to see the page I lifted, you can snag a glance here.

And in case you didn't notice - that digital kit is on sale for $1. 100 pennies, 10 dimes or 4 quarters. Really, you can't beat that! I love a good sale, so I thought I would share with you guys. There are a bunch of other great kits in the 'sale bin' there as well.

Yes, I know... I made you look at the layout and read my junk first. You don't care, do you?! LOL! So let's go on and pick a winner, shall we?!

There were 22 comments on the Win It post. Some were duplicates, I took those out and there were 19 all together. Random.org picked number 10!

That would be...

mindakims

Congrats! Please contact me through a forum or email me so I can get your prize out!

And thank you to all the new followers. I hope you will stick around - I'll be doing more prizes and such in the future!

Life is all about moments

I know its a cliche... but it is the honest truth. So many times when we are upset, we tend to forget about the great things that constantly happen to us. At least I know I do. I always thought I was mostly normal, so I would assume everybody else does too. Maybe not though, who knows?

I started plotting this layout over the weekend (as one of the things that is on the list happened, you'll just have to guess which) and finished it up this morning. A reminder that it is the little moments that make up our life. The big ones count, but the little moments make it all worth it - good and bad. I didn't want to only scrap about bad moments, so I included some really great ones as well.



Moments I Love =>
When Jeff Walks In The Door
Hugs From The Kids
Hearing I Love You

Moments I Dislike =>
The Bathroom Is Out Of TP
You Spill Your Drink
Your Pants Are Too Tight
You Realize You Left Your Wallet

Hope you can get out and enjoy this wonderful Monday! It looks gorgeous here, hopefully it will stay that way and we can use the grill for dinner tonight. :)

And don't forget, you've got another day or two to enter the giveaway for the mystery box - so head on over!!

Storytime

My children can be destructive little demons. I'm pretty sure they have horns, pitchforks and the whole works. Some days I even believe they glow red and speak in tongues (pretty sure that is the only language Braelyn knows at this point).*

I always thought the dogs were destructive - chewing on random toys, snagging socks out of the dirty laundry, gnawing on the corner of the carpeted stairs, eating the scrapbook supplies I left sitting on the bottom shelf.

Then I had two kids.

At least the dogs can't pick up the paint roller you thought you put up high enough (and wrapped in a plastic bag). Or the nail polish bottle you left sitting on your desk (all be it closed). Or your drink (which you set down long enough to grab the remote before getting comfy in your recliner). And by far, the dogs are easier to house break.

My kids - they find everything. And they have to explore it. I mean, its a cup... why shouldn't they try to drink out of it?! Or... I just saw you paint the walls with this, so they think they'll try it (and paint walls, furniture, the bed, etc). I swear the motto of both of my kids is "determination". I can only hope they keep that determination and turn it into something positive later in life. Maybe something along the lines of, not trying to give our mother a stroke or not graying her hair before she hits 35 (oh wait, its too late for that).

The point of my ramble?! There are times when said demons revive my faith and act like absolute angels. The moments when they sit quietly and love each other unconditionally. Those moments, they melt my heart. Sometimes I even think I can see wings. So my page today is one of those such moments - they were sitting so nicely in my chair and reading a book together. They absolutely love each other, no doubt about it!


I would wish for all moments to be like this, but I'm pretty sure life would be boring. I mean, what would I do all day if I didn't have to moderate toy sharing? I would be confused if I could actually sit down with a cup of coffee and not be pummeled with little hands and feet. So I'll take the demon children, and their rarely visiting angel counterparts. Cause, no matter what I say, I love it that way!

Now, if you'll excuse me... I must go fix the curtain rod the kids have started to pull out of the wall by playing hide and seek and/or peekaboo. See ---------->


*disclaimer - my children are not demons. I've seen no evidence of horns (unless you count pigtails), pitchforks, glowing red or pointed tails. They are actually well taken care of, polite, wonderful normal children - with their ups and downs, learning along the way, testing the limits, mood swinging, potty training, booger picking, dirt collecting, exploring mud puddles and scraped knees. Both of whom I'm sure would rather have their mother to play with than see her type this blog post. :)

Wonderful {Win It} Wednesday

Over the past few weeks I have really been working on cleaning up around the house, getting the yard ready for spring and just knocking out some major chores. As I mentioned the other day, one of the chores was to clean out the drawers under my craft table. Because I have tons of stuff sitting around, I thought I would do a giveaway. So read to the bottom to find out what it is and how you enter!

All this cleaning up really limits my scrapping time. :( But I've been doing a few digitals here and there. Here are a couple more I have to share. I love that little hands can't steal my supplies when I'm working with digi's - that in and of itself is a huge bonus! Plus, they come together so quickly (which probably also has to do with little hands not making off with supplies).

I did take today off and worked on some paper projects, so you'll see those soon. Here are a couple digitals I've done over the past few days... hope you enjoy!



I realize I am focusing on layouts of Braelyn. But, I have some catching up to do. As my husband pointed out, Grayson has a bazillion layouts and Braelyn only had around 10.

Now, onto the giveaway.
Who would like to win a mystery box of goods?
Some things in the mystery box are... paper, page kits, chipboard, rubons, stickers
Some manufacturers in the box are... Momenta, Basic Grey, Pink Paislee, KI Memories
* Please note that these may be older products in the box. Winner takes all - no returns or complaints. ;)

Here is a sample of the box (yes, I realize it isn't actually in a box).



Three simple steps to enter -
1. Comment on any post from my blog.
2. Follow my blog.
3. Come back to this post and tell me that you did it.

I'll draw a winner next Wednesday (3/28).

Funny Faces

Happy Tuesday! It is such a lovely day here in NC, we really should get out and do something. But in the meantime I'm going to share a digital page with you.


I did this for a challenge over at Tally Scrapper, which was definitely a challenge for me. I usually have lots of white space on my pages, so trying to do a page fully covered really threw me. I think it turned out pretty well though, plus I love these pictures of Braelyn. She is such a character!

Have a wonderful Tuesday - and be sure to check back as I'll be doing a giveaway later this week!

Just Another Manic Monday

It's just another manic Monday

I wish it was Sunday
'Cause that's my funday
My I don't have to run day

Yeah, I can't come up with a better title than that. And you know that song is now stuck in your head and you'll be singing it all day. You can thank me for it later. You know you will. And by thanking, I definitely don't mean throwing rocks at my head. :)

I hope everyone had a great weekend. The weather was nice here (despite the occasional storm) and we had lots of errands to run, but I managed to get some scrapping time in. I even picked up a few new supplies on one of our trips out. But today I'm sharing a digital page. The papers are from Audrey Neal. Her kits are fabulous, I highly recommend looking at her goods if you are into digitals. For this kit, I use papers from Rainy Day Love and a banner from Just My Type (although I adjusted the colors to match). I used a sketch challenge over at Tally Scrapper for the design on this one - it was such a great sketch I just couldn't pass it up.



Grayson and I are always calling each other 'silly butt' around the house. Usually it starts with me saying it to him and he says, "I not silly butt, you silly butt!!!" and then takes off running so I can't catch him. This particular day he was taking pictures and asking me to pose. Poor Braelyn just looks at us like we're crazy (i'm sure you are right sweetheart, we are beyond help, you'll get it soon).

On another note - I spent Friday cleaning out and organizing my embellishment drawer. Good Golley! I got half way through and decided I wasn't motivated to finish it. So I walked away only to have Braelyn find the piles and start dragging stuff out. So now I'm cleaned out and organized! Why should you care?! Good question. I've decided to do a giveaway. So stay tuned this week (probably Wednesday) and you could win something!

Beautiful

I stayed up way too late last night, but let me share the beauty of that...

• No stopping every 5 minutes because someone is crying
• No listening to someone complain because the tv isn't on the right channel (or even on)
• Nobody saying "I need chocolate milk"
• No separating siblings because they both want the same toy.

Simply peaceful, quiet time for me to do whatever I wanted, watch whatever I wanted, listen to the music I wanted. I enjoyed that, I might have to work it in more often. However, I'm a little older and the lack of sleep will likely kick in soon. Hmmmm... will the pro's outweigh the con's?!

Now, I do love being a mom. With nearly every fiber of my being. My children are precious, wonderful gifts that make me smile on a daily basis. But I have to admit to being human. Sometimes it is nice to have a little time to yourself.

At any rate - I got two (yup, 2) whole layouts done. I pulled out all my kits and started sorting through them. Oh how much quicker scrapping goes when everything coordinates! The problem with my kits is that they are not clearly marked where they are from. (Note to self - start labeling them better.) So if you happen to read this, and know what kit this was please let me know and I'll give credit! Thanks to Mel and my memory (way more mel than me) this kit was from Citrus Tree Studio. Sadly, the site is down right now, but be sure to check back cause I think there are some neat things in store. I also remembered how much I just love to scrap, no challenges for these pages - just plain creative juices flowing!

This was a quick one I put together. Paper & Embellishments from KI Memories, AC Thickers, Prima Flowers.


And on a side note - I have a very similar (almost exact) picture of Grayson. I'll have to see if I can find the page/picture and post it!

Hope you have a fabulous Friday and wonderful weekend. I think it is supposed to rain here, so I'm sure whatever we do will be indoors!

It is Thursday already?!

Since the weather has been nice, I've spent the past three days digging in and rearranging our basement garage. To say it was disgusting is an understatement. However, after one trip to the landfill, one trip to goodwill and lots of moving and sweeping I am done! I did some reorganizing and am happy to say I now have a home for my 'projects'. I've long wanted to blame Jeff for the demise (sorry hon, you know I love you), but after cleaning up I realized that it seems to be my 'projects' that are taking over the space. Guess that means I need to get crackin' and get some things done.

Maybe I will even get the nerve to share before/after pictures, but I don't think it will stay this clean for long.

At any rate, I was going to take today off but I decided to finish up a page I started. I love my son's facial expressions, and he has some of the weirdest errr, cutest placements of his head. He is like me in that he can't hide what he is thinking. So I'll apologize if you get the 'really?!' look, we probably aren't referring it to you, just whatever thought is in our brains at the moment.


This one is for a challenge over at Tally Scrapper (to use ribbon as a border). I rolled the edge of my 'banner' to give it some dimension. I'm not terribly happy with the ribbon strips I put on there so I think I will pull them back off. The paper is Rose Moka and the cardstock is from Momenta.

Braelyn & Daddy

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. It was nice here, we did some shopping and managed to keep the kids in check!

I did this page for a challenge over at Tally Scrapper. I lifted the general idea from a page I saw on page maps. I had to go search out this scrappers blog and oh my word - she is awesome! Do take some time to check out her blog, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

At any rate, I am happy with how my page turned out. I used momenta papers and strips of cardstock from my scraps stash.


Now if I can get back to coming up with my own ideas, life will be good! Enjoy your Monday folks!

Wedding Smash Book

So I've been working on a smash book with stuff from our wedding. I feel like I'm channeling my junior high self, which is what it looks like. LOL! I am happy to say that all the memorabilia is now in one place and I can throw away all the extras. These days I am all about decluttering, but I didn't want to just toss everything. So now it has a home, and the book (which I finished in record time) is easy to grab if I want to reminisce.

I used the notebook that I originally used to plan the wedding, since I thought that would have a little more meaning. I decorated the front and then went to work on getting everything inside. Here are the first few pages, I'll share some more later.





I'm not sure I'm sold on the smash books yet. Maybe cause mine looks like a 10 year old did it?!

I do think it would be a great way to document fun, everyday things about the kids. I might make one for each of them and fill it with their little quirks, then I can keep up with it and write down the little things about them that make me smile.

In my research, I've seen some awesome journal style smash books. Unfortunately, I'm not sure my life is interesting enough to occupy a full book! LOL!

If you've seen some out of the ordinary uses for them, please share!

Pumpkin Pickin'

Happy Tuesday - hope everyone is having a great day! The weather here looks nice, but I think it is on the chilly side (more incentive to stay inside and get crafty, right?!).

For this layout I used a sketch from My Sketch World along with papers and elements I created. I absolutely love digital pages, they go together quickly and the kids can't steal my supplies!

Grayson loved the pumpkin patch last year, but honestly he had more fun with the wagon!


Yesterday I started working on the smash* book with memorabilia from our wedding. I decided to use the notebook that I used for planning the wedding to begin with, so it isn't an official smash* book, but it has a bit more meaning for me. I'm surprised at how quickly it is coming together. Matter of fact, I'm almost done with it (it helps that everything was in one place to begin with). I want to add some pictures to some of the pages, but for the most part I would consider it done. Which means that I'll get to toss all the 'extras' which have been sitting around in a box. How is that for decluttering?!

1st Beach Trip

This was a challenge I did back in January at CTS. Being that this was the first layout I had done in months, I love how it turned out!

Grayson's first trip to the beach was in April 2011. He loved access to the HUGE sandbox. He still talks about it, and lately has been asking to go back. I just love this picture of him, his expression seems so somber which is rarely the case for him.


I've decided to join in a smash* book challenge over at Tally Scrapper. I have loads of empty journals around so I thought it might be a good way to use them up. I actually think I'm going to start with the junk errr... sentimentals from our wedding. They have been sitting in a box for the past few years, so I figured I might as well do something with them! It is part of my quest to declutter!

And, in case you haven't read, My Sketch World is having a DT call right now. There are great sketches there, and the forum seems like a great place to hang out! Check it out and good luck if you apply!

Brown Eyed Girl

You all should know I have a special place in my heart for pups. I love all of them, even the annoying ones like mine. Right now, this is our oldest pup Sofee (she is only 5). She started having seizures late last year. She has 1 or 2 a month, so right now we are waiting it out to see if the frequency of them changes before we put her on medication.

For this page, I glittered up some random chipboard alphabets I had, I also used the packaging from some Sassafras embellishments and painted up a doily with some caramel colored shimmerz. The bird is actually a metal garden stick I had in my drawer (who knows where I got it from).


The inspiration for this page was an upcycle challenge at Tally Scrapper. Sorry the picture isn't the greatest, I didn't see the glare on the transparency until I started to edit.

Hope you are having a terrific Thursday!