Scrappy days

Well, I decided one of the ways to make me scrap more is to join in on a contest or two. Always guaranteed to get me scrapping again. I loved the kit for this weeks round and the only thing I would change about this one is the lettering for the title. I still don't have everything loaded on to the new computer so my font choices were limited and I wasn't able to use an alphabet from another kit. But this turned out cute in my opinion so I was happy. Cameron was thrilled to get this little orange car finally! You can check out my layout if you want over here for my entry.

Credits: Kit was A New Day by Christy Skaggs

Fonts: Impact, Times New Yorker, and VT Portable Remington

Fun kit to work with and I can see me using this a lot for pictures from this summer. Has some fun colors and of course Cameron's favorite orange in it. That is actually harder to find than one might think. But it was the perfect match for his new favorite shirt. :)

Progress...

Slowly making progress on their 2008 book. Was hoping to be further along by now but I'll take what I can get at the moment. Napping woes are still in our lives and so I have no free time several days of the week now. Sigh. And one of my children (who will remain nameless other than saying his name starts with a C) is one grouchy child who is VERY demanding when he doesn't nap. So nothing is getting done around my house these days. I should be used to this but just not. Ugh!

Oh, I forgot, today I hear Cameron saying he needs help, he is stuck. I run upstairs and into their room (remind you both are supposed to be sleeping) and Noah is totally undressed except for his socks and Cameron has his shirt that he can't get off and is stuck with it on his head (he can't unbutton the button so it got stuck but he had socks and all off). Oh lovely. And I was praying last weeks episode was just an isolated incident. Sigh. Oh well, the adventures in motherhood!

Chugga, chugga choo-choo!

Here is March! Woo-hoo! Just chugging along. So nice to feel like I am getting things done again with the scrapping.

Rambling once again...

Two more pages I managed to get done last week. Oh the joy of scrapping again! It has also been a lot of fun to go back and read my journals from the last year. Working on getting 2008 all finished up within the next month and hopefully get a head start on 2009! My goal is to keep up with each month or two as they go by. Oh what a lovely thing that would be to do. Loving these templates by Katie Pertiet. They make short work of this to say the least!

So I found out yesterday that my test results came back positive for rheumatoid antibodies. It explains a lot but it kind of has me a little anxious about what lies ahead. I knew I was in a lot of pain this last year especially, but didn't think it was anything like this. Just praying for some answers to so many questions I have at the moment.

Can you believe it?

Look what I finished up tonight...


And can I just say Margaret was so right on the learning the new computer! I didn't think it would be that much different but Vista is a whole new animal for me. It took me 30 minutes just to find where they hide the fonts folder. Ha! Guess I know what I will be doing the rest of the week when I have a few minutes here and there. But I do have to say how fast this thing is compared to my laptop. OH.MY.GOSH! I love, love, love it. The only down side I can find at the moment is there is no wireless card in the thing so no internet. Hmm...have to fix that at some point but for now I will enjoy my digi scrapping with no distractions. Maybe no internet is a good thing...

Sweet Slumber

Well, Noah finally gave up the ghost. Over an hour after I put them down for their nap he finally fell asleep. With much protesting I might add today. I guess the last time I went in there he took me seriously when I ignored his efforts to get me to pick him up with his sleepy head self. He is so tired and yet wants so much to stay awake. Silly boy.

This is another layout I did the other day at the crop. It was nice to finally get some pages done as it seems to have been ages since I had. I used Colie's new kit, Sweet Slumber, and have fallen in love with it! Now I just have two more pages to finish up I had started that day and I will have finished six pages total in the last week. Woo-hoo!

I love this picture of the boys. When they were around three or four months old I would put them to bed each night and in the morning I would wake to find them with their little heads together. They did this for about a month until we actually had to put them each in their own cribs. They were getting too big and were moving around too much and beginning to disturb each other. Man, it always melted my heart to wake to this site. They are just so precious and this is one of those photos that brings that flood of memories back of these special moments in time.

Happy meals

Holy schnikies Batman, it's supposed to be up to 80 degrees in a few days! Woo-hoo! I can't wait. It has been raining the last few days and hovering in the 40s and 50s. So very ready for Spring!

We stayed well for nearly 2 weeks and then Saturday and Sunday Cameron ran a fever. Poor guy. I just want to make him feel better and stay that way. He seems okay today so hoping it was a short bug and all is well again.

Been super busy, more so than usual. Was able to scrap some pages. Here is one of my favorites I did Saturday.



I had different things I wanted to say for each child so did a page for each of their books. And speaking of books. I am just having such a hard time actually doing the pages for their baby books. I can't begin to tell you how many times I have sat down to scrap those pages and can just never come up with something I like. Ugh. Will get this done this year if it kills me!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just popping in for a quick post. Will get a better update some time later this week. Plus need to add all my pictures for the 365 blog. So far behind these days!

Snippits

Wow...the days are back to running together. I went and scrapped last night and got a page finished. One page...it was worth it though. I did get some files organized (that tends to take my first hour I am scrapping). I, like always, have too much stuff.

Kit is Changing Wind and template is Blog Template 1 by Colie's Corner
Fonts are Yorktown and Will & Grace

I am really into the typography thing and would love to spend time over the next year learning more about it. But then again I guess that will just have to go on the list...along with the 50 other things I would like to learn this year. Ya think it will happen?

We ventured to a pre-school fair today. The fair was nice, the boys seemed okay with it all. It was mostly just booths of people with info but they were taken with the noise and hustle and bustle. They even got a tooth brush that lights up...they will enjoy that I am sure since they love to bring their toothbrush to bed with them!

Learned a very cool trick for those of you who love salt scrubs. Get some sea salt and mix it with olive oil and vanilla and make your own! You can mix it with any kind of fragrance oils but vanilla is something I typically have on hand at all times. :) Put it in an airtight jar and voila...you have your very own salt scrub that will make your hands, elbows, whatever feel soft and smooth. Let me know how you like it if you end up trying it.

This was a page I actually finished Friday night at the crop. I LOVE the sayings that Ana Aspens has created and want to use every single one of them at some point on layouts for the boys. I remember this day like it was just yesterday. The boys were just over 2 months old and this was our first little "photo shoot" mommy was doing. Noah couldn't even stay awake! It was funny and a special day to me. And of course you gotta love little boys in overalls. :)

For February, I challenged myself to take more pictures of other things. Not just of the boys. I want to learn as much as I can about composition and lighting over the next year. The more active the boys become the more I think I will want to have this knowledge. It's amazing what kind of shots you can capture with just that little bit of extra knowledge. So now I am on the hunt for good books and web sites to find useful information.

Poor Cameron last night woke up around 12:30 am. He was just crying and crying. I think I finally figured out after an hour of off and on crying that he has a 2-year molar coming in. This will be our first for either one of them. Hmm...could be part of the crankiness we have been experiencing this last week. Oh...if they could only come with manuals. The good thing is he can now tell us where it hurts so after a while last night we finally got him to tell us his mouth was hurting. And here I was thinking of giving up the binkofier. Uh...not until these molars come in for sure now! He was gnawing on that thing like there was no tomorrow. For a while there he looked like a dog you had just given a big old juicy bone to. Poor little guy, hope this one comes in quickly and the other 3 are not far behind. Just knock it all out in one shot!

Brrr...chilly!

Brrr...chilly as Cameron would say. It is supposed to be -7 degrees on Thursday with a high of 2 degrees! Umm...can you say cold?!?!?!?!?!?

I was so bummed. I got my whole project together, punched the holes and got ready to bind it and...didn't have the right size rings to bind it! Ugh. I thought I had bought them a while back but I was sadly mistaken. Sigh. Guess I will have to wait until later this week to be able to go and get them. Grrr...and I was so excited about finishing up a project too! But I did do these and take some pictures I haven't posted yet so at least it is something crafty.



And yes, they were from Christmas. I had baked a bunch of stuff for the kiddos teachers and when their class was canceled just before Christmas had to find another option. So this was it.

Naps, bread and fun stuff

And so it begins...the process of dropping the nap. I believe my little ones are starting the process of dropping their nap. The last few weeks they have went from a 2-3 hour nap a day to 1.5-2 hours...if I am lucky. I am praying it is just winter and we are not as active as usual but I have a feeling it is the beginning of the dreaded dropping of the nap. As with everything when it comes to kiddos, this will more than likely take several months to happen...which I am thankful for. We are just back to the "you never know how long they will nap" stage. But that's okay, keeps me on my toes and it was time for a new schedule anyway. :)

I made bread today. Whole wheat bread even. My in-laws gave us their bread machine they no longer use (thank you!) and I have just not taken the time (until today) to figure out how to use it. I had bought everything a few weeks ago and was ready to go. Just wasn't sure how long I needed to throw everything in, etc and kept putting it off. We were almost out of bread today so I thought what the heck, I have everything, let's give it a go. It was a huge hit! Noah ate about a slice and a half and they are big slices.

He liked it so much he wiped it all over his face. I guess since it was so soft and fluffy he thought it felt funny on his face. Cameron didn't care for the crust so he ate the inside and left the crust.

Cameron decided he wanted to eat ketchup for dinner. So funny how much that kid loves ketchup...and we don't even have it all that often!

I signed up for a class at Big Picture Scrapbooking this month and am so happy I did. So far I am really enjoying it. It's called A Life Well Crafted. I have been so happy with the other classes (some of them free even!) I have taken there so have signed up for the month by month version of this one. I just did January to "test it out" but I think I will do the entire year after what I have experienced so far. Very happy with the content and the projects. Always a good thing! I guess after having kids and spending 8 months moving I needed to do something to find myself again. Hopefully this is a step in that direction.

Just rambling...

I can't believe the first week of January is behind us already. It just was gone and I can hardly even remember it happening. Can you make it slow down just a little, okay?

We had class this morning and did nothing real special the rest of the day. I worked on printing out things for 3 different projects I am wanting to make. Kind of excited to be working in the hybrid world (digital and paper scrapping together in the same project). I am loving pulling out all my old things and even going to the scrapbook store again. I went this past weekend and picked up a "naked" album. They are actually very cool and I wish they had come out with these a long time ago. It is basically chipboard that you can decorate yourself with paper or whatever may strike you at the time. So much easier than trying to recover one or add to one that is already decorated in my opinion. I have already made one. I need to post pictures, now don't I? I was going to give them as Christmas gifts but just never got the chance to finish them all. So maybe I will get around to posting some pictures soon. It was a pretty cool project.
I only took like five pictures today. Sad. I always take a ton of pictures but today just had my mind on other things I guess. But I did take this one of Noah I thought was cute. They love to play with those inflatable beach balls. Cameron has taken to sitting on it and balancing. He used to do that on his stomach but now he actually sits on it at his little table. Oh child, keep it up...do that the rest of your life and you will stay healthy and strong!

Another week almost come and gone...

I really need to sit and download the gazillion pictures on both of my cameras. I have resorted to the point and shoot when the other is upstairs and no handy. So now I have 200+ on that one and I am sure much the same on the other. How can I take that many photos in just a few days? I guess I just love my boys!

Rough night with Noah, he was up twice and both times I had to hold him and he just wouldn't go back to sleep. Strange. Then Cameron woke up the second time and decided he wanted to stand in his crib and dance and talk away...at 2:30 in the morning. Okay, the dog felt left out so he woke me at 3:00 to go outside...to walk around the patio! Then hubby got up at 5:00 because he was going out of town. So, did I get any sleep last night? I think I am on adrenaline now...which probably isn't going to bode well for tomorrow night when I actually get to go and do something fun...like BUNCO!

So I don't think I ever got around to posting this layout. Noah had just learned to give hugs and he walked up and gave Cameron a big hug, it knocked him over! It was the cutest thing. What made me think about this today was Noah was sitting in his little chair today and Cameron came up and climbed up next to him. Noah leaned over and hugged Cameron (which looked like he was actually trying to strangle him more than hug him) and the both fell on the floor again. I just had to laugh, every time Noah gives Cameron a hug they end up on the floor!

He's how old?

Okay, so is a 13 month old supposed to be able to get those socket covers out of the thing? I can't even get them out and my child can. Ugh! Now I have to find something to put in them that he can't remove. And I will be moving his crib this weekend. Lovely.

Here is my layout for the CT Challenge over at JFTSOI...

When the boys were just days old it looked like Cameron was helping Noah put his hat back on. I made M grab the camera and I am so glad I did. This is just a priceless photo to me and always will be. And Sweet Digi Scraps "Handle with Care" kit was just the perfect thing to work with for these photos!

**Update: I went in while they were napping this afternoon and Cameron had gotten BOTH of the plug covered out! Thank goodness he didn't stick his fingers in there. Needless to say his crib has been pulled away from the wall and will be getting moved tomorrow...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Okay, so what happened to Wednesday? Hmm...not sure but I think I lost a day somewhere. Ha!
I have been a busy scrappin' gal the last day. I got a thank you finished I was doing for the gal I did the train invitation for in January. One check. Finished my layout over at JFTSOI for the final round of the CT Challenge (biting my nails until next week). Two checks. And I did a layout for the challenge I host for my playgroup. Three checks today! Woo-hoo...happy dance. Creative day. :)

Here is my layout I did for the Playgroup Challenge:Credit: Andrea Gold's "Brothers" Kit. I thought that was very fitting for the boys. He, he...

Latest layout...

This was my entry for week 3 of the CT Challenge over at JFTSOI. Hopefully it will get me on to the next and final round. I am excited and nervous. Last week I was so afraid I wasn't going to make it through. Had a rough week all the way around and my layout wasn't what it usually would have been. But I got to breathe a sigh of relief at midnight when they announced who would be going on. Can you believe I stayed up chatting with the other gals to get the results? Am I addicted or what?

I will say the kit was amazing this week. I couldn't believe how big it was. So much to choose from it was hard to make a decision. I fiddled with this for 3 days before I finally just said forget it...have to get it done and posted before the deadline. He, he...

Still nothing on the move. Dragging, dragging, dragging on!

Cameron letting go...

My boys are trying really hard to walk. I am SO not ready. But in several ways I do want them to. It is exciting to watch them and try to help them walk on their own. They will walk holding one little finger of mine...I guess it's a confidence thing. Here is the layout I did for the challenge this week...all about my little Cameron letting go.

Week 2 Challenge

Be back to explain later...

Another CT Challenge

Well, I came across this challenge and the kit was so cute I just had to enter. With me losing all my digital stuff for a while it really forced me to be creative with just the kit given. Kind of fun and I am happy with the result. Go check out Flergs, she has some beautiful stuff on her blog. So here is my entry...tell me what ya think.

So excited!

I am so excited right now. I decided to bite the bullet and find a scrapbooking site that I was comfortable with and post a digital layout I had done. I can't believe it...they gave me the layout of the week! Go check it out over at Just for the Scrap of it! This was actually the very first digital layout I did and I didn't think anyone would think it was anything special. I am very honored they chose it and it is giving me the boost and confidence I needed right now.

I had inquired somewhere else about how to become a designer some time in the future. If they had any advice on what I needed to do to head in that direction. I got a snooty answer back about how I needed all this experience, yada, yada, yada. I am sorry...I don't believe that. If you have a passion and you put your mind to it having a bunch of schooling doesn't make a hill of beans difference. I have a freaking Master's degree and what does that get me???? I'm a stay at home mom with two beautiful children who loves to scrapbook, loves the computer and is easily self taught on the computer. I don't mind taking classes and things like that to get better but to tell me I basically need a degree in design or something of that nature is crazy. You know...the last time something like this happened I went back the next year and made 1st place in the division I was in. Don't tell me I can't do something....

And as for Just for the Scrap of it...the ladies there are warm and friendly and make me feel at home. I even decided to try for their Creative Team (CT) and will start the challenge for that next week. Nervous but I am going to give it a shot. Glad I came across them a few weeks ago.