Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Summer Joy

I know, I know. Now I'm getting a little ahead of myself talking about summer. But these are a couple of pictures from last Labor Day that I still love. So I thought I'd scrap them of course!

I'm also trying to channel my inner Maggie Holmes and trying to add more embellishments and a variety of them on my layouts. Jana gave some great advice about when she's stuck in a rut. She said she goes back through all her favorite LOs, and writes down what she loves about them. As a theme or pattern starts to develop, she realizes that THOSE are what she focuses on in her own creations. Sooo, after making my own list, it was Maggie Holmes' way of embellishing that I truly adored. This was my attempt after her inspiration.

Summer Joy



This ribbon technique is my favorite right now. I use Helmar Quick Dry 450 to adhere it.





k, that's all for today! Off to play in the sunshine! :D

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Hopscotch, Hula Hoops, and a photo shoot

We've been enjoying the fact that Spring has arrived, and even though it was windy yesterday, we still got out for some fresh air. We pulled out the sidewalk chalks and I made a hopscotch grid on the driveway (Caroline's new favorite game).






And then it was on to the hula hoops.



She caught on eventually.

Then Caroline decided to climb the Dogwood tree, which led to an impromptu photo shoot. Here are a few favorites.



nice fake smile. still an epidemic for SK. Which is why I like this candid of her better than any I got of her in the tree.



So that's what we've been up to. We're hoping for more of the same again today and the rest of the week! I LOOOOVE that Spring is finally here! :D

Monday, March 29, 2010

Spring has Sprung!



As promised, here's the Spring sign that I just finished up. I bought the wooden sign at Hobby Lobby for $1 (Easter crafts are half price this week), and then used my stash of October Afternoon papers to create the scene. In fact, I think I used six different paper lines to make it (Detours, Daydreams, Farm Fresh, Ducks in a Row, Weathervane, and Hometown)! Can you say addicted to OA?!

I also used Helmar adhesives for the whole thing, including their liquid Scrap Dots (like 3D foam squares but glue-y), Acid Free glue (I used it like Mod Podge), and 450 Quick Dry adhesive! They're quickly becoming my FAVORITE adhesive out there! Especially the 450 Quick Dry, an the liquid Scrap Dots. Here are a couple of close-ups so you get an idea of the dimension.





Hope you've been enjoying your first few days of Spring!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

"It's Pom Pom Sunday, Mom!"

We're gearing up for Easter around here, and my sweet Caroline met me at the car with such excitement. She thinks it's Pom Pom Sunday, which I think is too cute. We'd talked about it a little bit in the car yesterday, and in the store as we were looking at Easter crafts, but apparently she listened more to her Sunday School teachers. Only she thought they were saying Pom Pom instead of Palm Sunday. I'm just excited that she listened, and understood what they were saying (mostly).

This is what got and kept her attention:

It's her "very own" folder with palms to wave, and a "coat" (see pink fabric)to lay on the ground. She was very excited to act out the story for us at the table, and I was excited to see what she was learning. Even if she still calls them pom poms! hee! :) :)

The house is starting to spring to life too. I put up just a few decorations yesterday. My favorite little ceramic pieces from my childhood. (Mom made them, I think, in her ceramics class back in the day.)




And the mantle is slowly but surely getting decorated too.


I'm currently in the process of making a Spring sign to hang using my stash of October Afternoon papers. Hopefully I'll have it finished today so I can post it later on this week.

Hope you're having a good weekend!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

21 weeks and a layout

Hey everyone! Hope you're enjoying your week. I'm going to be quick because I'm told that Ole Miss is playing basketball right now and my DH wants to watch online. So without any further ado, a layout and 21 weeks....

When I first saw the Umbrella paper that Prima was coming out with this Spring, I knew immediately that I had to have it. I knew I had these pics of Caroline playing in the rain. So I snapped the paper up a couple of weekends ago, and this weekend I finally got a chance to use them!

When there's rain..





There's long drawn out story to this LO. It had a life of its own. This weekend I participated in the Noel Mignon Spring crop, and this LO started out as a part of Jana's challenge. Eventually though, I ended up using this month's sketch from Prima's Build-a-Page, and voila! This is what I got! I'm actually pretty happy with it. It's a little different for me, but I really like the bold colors.

21 weeks

Okay, so I bit the bullet. I took pics of myself, as cheesy as I felt doing it, this past Saturday. It marked 21 weeks. Halfway there! Woohoo! Little guy is kicking a lot, more some days than others, but enough to keep me from worrying (mostly). And while I feel A LOT bigger than I look, I'm glad I got these taken. This'll probably be our last kiddo, and so it's nice to know it's documented. I may even scrap it since my fave color combo is still blue and red.

That's all for now.
Hope you're enjoying your week!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Some Egg Drop Soup for ya!

Since the first day of Spring is officially this Saturday, I thought I'd share some springtime LOs with ya. These of course are using Jillibean Soup's "Egg Drop Soup" line. I love how spring-y they are, but that you don't just have to use them for Easter, and they totally put me in the mood for picnics in the park, flower beds finally in bloom, and the blissful days that come with Spring.

Grab & Go



This was Sarah Kate's strategy to last year's egg hunt. Forget the basket, just grab the eggs and Go!

Egg Hunt 2009



Caroline was quite proud of herself too. She didn't get as many eggs, because she kept stopping to open them and eat the candy! Ha!

In other news my mom and I, but mostly Mom, have also been doing some spring cleaning around the house. She and I have cleaned out the girls' closet, moved them into the same room, gotten half of it decorated (the other half is arriving by mail next week), and we also tackled the master bedroom. I can't TELL you how nice it is to have so much clutter out of the house! For first trip to the thrift store we took 6-7 bags full of clothes and toys. And I have 3 more bags waiting to be dropped off. What a relief it is to have de-cluttered some!

And so, now I hope to reward myself a little by participating in this:


Hope you have a good weekend!

Monday, March 15, 2010

So I've been scrapping a little bit lately. For so long I was stuck in such a rut that it's been hard to snap out of it. To try and remedy that, I've been scraplifting some layouts I've seen online that I just love. And while I was in the process, lo and behold my creativity came back! Woohoo! So I have some lifts to share as well as a couple of originals. ;) Hope you enjoy!

Adore



A scraplift from the wonderful Becky Williams. I just LOVED her version, and so I had to make my own. I added several touches that are definitely more "me" but the overall design credit still goes to Becky. And I absolutely LOVE this photo too. Virginia took it while we were visiting in February, and I couldn't be more excited to share it!

She was glowing



And that she was! Sarah Kate totally ate up all the attention she got at her birthday party! I don't think I've seen her radiate (cheesy but it's true) like that. She was definitely on cloud 9. And this is another almost exact scraplift. This time from the extremely talented Stephanie Howell. I've got a scrap crush on her, and when I saw what she did with the Dear Lizzy products, and I couldn't HELP but copy hers!

Sneak peeks...

And then we have this little guy! (which we hope is still a little GUY! hehe!! At my last appt. his legs were so tightly crossed there was no WAY of confirming! But the 1st set of gender pics were very obvious so we're still sticking with the boy theory.) And this one is NOT a scraplift, but it is my very first baby boy page! Scrapping boys is hard! But I really liked these Anthology papers from Studio Calico. They were fun to work with!

And last but not least

Not so sure...



I did this one way back before Christmas, and just never photographed it. At the time it was a pretty special LO because we NEVER get snow! But now, 5 snows later, it's not as meaningful I guess. It IS funny to look back and see how timid she was, because she's definitely not timid now!

And there you have it! The layouts I've been working on lately.

I also just turned 20 wks. and I hope to do a LO about being halfway there! I'm still trying to get up the nerve to take pics of my belly though. As of my last appt. I'd only gained 4 lbs. but then today on the phone Caroline told my mom, "Mommy's belly keeps getting bigger and bigger EVERY DAY!!!" Gee, thanks. Just what I wanted to hear! :) So we'll see if that idea actually makes it to fruition.

Anyway, I hope all of you are doing well, enjoying the early signs of Spring, and creating some too! Hopefully I'll be back soon with those belly pics. We'll see. ;)

Monday, March 1, 2010

Sweet, Happy Singing....


Our sweet friends love to make movies, and this is one they got of the girls on Friday.

(For clarification: SK says, "I GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE" at the end. :)