Aug 31, 2009

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose...

either way it's ok, we're just having fun today...." This is the lesson that we (and Foofa from Yo Gabba Gabba) are trying to teach Little Miss these days. She has been playing a lot of Go Fish and a kids' version of Uno and loving it. But sometimes she gets in a funk where she starts whining at the start of a game that she's never going to win. So we are trying to teach her about the power of positive thinking. At the same time, we are trying to instill the values of good sportsmanship and ways to encourage others to do their best too.

I am realizing that these are ongoing lessons. I had a few scrapbooking disappointments lately and started to get into my own version of Little Miss' funk, quickly realized what I was doing and so chatted with her about how I was feeling. And lo and behold, before I knew it, I had an achievement to share with her as well.

I was selected to be the October Guest Designer for Coordinates Collections! They had a sketch challenge for this selection. Here is both their sketch and my take on it. I am so excited to receive the kit and start working on it and will share as soon as I can.

In case you didn't recognize the malaise you were feeling today, it is Monday. And Monday means the new ScrapTiffany challenge has been posted. This week's challenge is to scrap your All Star. Here is my layout. Be sure to stop by, check out the other amazing creations and submit yours to Tiffany for your chance to enter the monthly drawing for a free kit!

Aug 24, 2009

Fun from Friday to Monday

So, I have a few things to catch up on from the weekend. On Friday, one of my layouts was posted on the Cosmo Cricket blog. I love CC so it was so fun to see my little guy (and my layout :0)  on their blog).

We had a pretty relaxing weekend. Not too much to share there. I did take a couple of pictures, but they haven't been loaded up yet so I'll have to share those later.

And Monday means the new ScrapTiffany challenge is up. This week's challenge is to scrap Time. The challenge is open to your interpretation. Go check out  everyone's take on the challenge--everyone's take was different. Here is mine. I don't usually do tons of distressing, but I really got into it on this one LOL. Some Tattered Angels mist on the background patterned paper. Plus all the October Afternoon patterned paper was distressed with an edge distresser. The scallop circle from Little Yellow Bicycle was also crumpled. And I swiped some ink on the October Afternoon card. Since I am not usually a big distresser I had a lot of fun stepping out of my comfort zone. 
Don't forget to get your take on the challenge to Tiffany before the end of the month for a chance to win a free ScrapTiffany kit!

Aug 19, 2009

Monday +2

I am really glad it is not still Monday because I am wiped! A four day weekend made getting back into the grind THAT much harder. Two dentists appointments later and I am ready for the weekend again.

The ScrapTiffany challenge this week is to scrap your bucket list. I had a hard time with this one so I ended up doing a photoless layout. I always forget how fun photoless layouts are. You get to use what ever product you want and really focus on the journaling. Here is my take on the challenge.
Go on over to ScrapTiffany and check out all the other layouts. If you take the challenge be sure to email it to Tiffany HERE to be entered into the monthly drawing for a free kit!

I also took October Afternoon's challenge to create a card using a pun as the sentiment. Here is mine:
I think I have a few new photos to share but those will have to wait until tomorrow when my lip is not so swollen and my eyes are not shutting :)

Aug 11, 2009

What happened to Monday?

Where is time going? I don't know if it is just moving faster or actually taking leaps ahead these days. Enough prattle, got lots to report.

First of all, the new challenge is up at ScrapTiffany. This week's challenge is to use something hideous from your stash that you can't believe you purchased. The explanation of what I used and why I purchased it is here so I am not going to recount it again, but this is my layout. Go on over and take a look at the amazing projects everyone created with product that they considered to be less than delightful. And don't forget to take the challenge and send an image or scan to Tiffany HERE for your chance to be entered in a drawing for a free kit.

Next, I can't believe I missed blogging yesterday because one member of our family had a really big day. Little Miss had her first day of Pre-K. She is still at the same school, but she moved up to a new room and will remain there for the next year until she starts kindergarten. Let me just take a minute to stop my head from spinning.

She was super excited about her big day. We got up early, she picked out her outfit and hairstyle and we ate breakfast. All was dandy until we set foot in the new classroom. She didn't cry or even tear up but the excitement dissipated fast and I had a hard time getting a real smile out of her.

By some stroke of luck, her teacher from the last room also moved into this new space, so she has some continuity. Also many of her friends are starting Pre K with her. The room itself is huge and when I picked her up after lunch her teacher told me she had a great first day exploring all the new toys and that she is the best counter in the class! (She does not get her math skills from me LOL!)

I just can't believe how far she has come. When we started preschool she was 2 1/2 and cried just about every morning I dropped her off. All in all we are so proud of her and hope that her excitement for school continues to grow.

Her little brother didn't start anything new yesterday, but he looked so cute coming along for the ride, I couldn't help but include a picture of him in his car seat.

Aug 8, 2009

Random Saturday Blathering

Would you like to know the one good thing about 100 degree nights? Night swimming. We have been taking a quick dip once the kids go to sleep almost every night this week. Of course last night was a little cooler. But that was nice too and then this morning it was 73 degrees and only in the upper 90s by 9am. This is a HUGE break in our heat and even if it only lasts one day, it was a pleasant surprise and helped keep the pool from getting unbearably warm.

Since we had some nice weather we got outside to play a little which means some fun pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.


Also, I had such a fun surprise this morning. Go HERE to see my layout at Create My Keepsake, which was given the nod for layout of the day. *smile*

And I participated in a sketch challenge here at Danielle Flanders' blog. Here is her sketch and here is the layout I created.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Aug 3, 2009

Somebody's Got a Case of the Mondays...

Remember Office Space? Some very hilarious moments in that movie.

Anyway, Monday means the new ScrapTiffany challenge is up and running. This week's challenge references the lyrics to Jamey Johnson's "You Should Have Seen it in Color." Go on over there to check out some amazing layouts and if you participate be sure to email Tiffany for your chance to win this month's kit.

Here is my take on the challenge. You should be able to click on the image to see it larger.

Speaking of seeing the images larger, I just found out why it is that sometimes you can click and enlarge the image and sometimes, not so much. For those of you who use Blogger and haven't heard this... when you upload pictures from your computer, Blogger immediately puts them at the beginning of the post. The easy way to move them to another spot in the post is to cut and paste, BUT it turns out that when you do that sometimes you break the link to the image and therefore can no longer view the larger format. From what I have read the best thing to do is to upload the image then go into edit HTML and cut the whole code of the image then paste it where you want. A little more difficult, but you save the ability to both move the image and view it enlarged once it is moved. Here's to hoping it works ;)

Aug 2, 2009

Why Legos and Nostrils Just Don't Mix

Thursday night I spent several hours in the emergency room. Wait... let me back up.

Little Miss received a tub of Legos for her birthday. It is the first set either kid has ever seen. They were enough to make a little house and a few little people jumping rope and they came in a cute pink bucket. Little Man loved them too and built tall intricate towers. But the pieces were really small and we kind of worried about them in the hands of our two crazy and not always great decision making children. Then they started dumping them all over the place and even throwing them up in the air. They were everywhere, all the time. So we decided to quietly pack them away during one nap time until they were better with playing with them. Weeks went by and luckily no one even noticed their absence.

Fast forward to Thursday evening. The two monkeys (we often call them the BoBos from GoDiegoGo) went upstairs after dinner and we heard raucous play but no one was crying so we let them be. A little bit later they came down and Little Man started complaining that his nose hurt. It looked a little runny and he is a big baby about things like that so I figured that was all it was. A few hours went by and I even put him to bed. After about 2 hours he woke up crying. I went up to try and calm him down and he was getting upset enough that I thought he might throw up so I turned on the light and took him out of his crib. He was sitting in his comfy chair and I was on the floor in front of him and I suddenly got just the right angle and light and noticed something orange and strangely shaped up his right nostril. I called down to Scott to ask him to bring up a flashlight. When he asked why I barked, "Because I think he has a flippin' Lego up his nose." With the flashlight it was immediately obvious that yes, indeed he did have a lego in his nose. I rushed him to the ER at the hospital where he was born, which fortunately is very close to our house. Scott stayed home with Little Miss who slept through the whole debacle.

After waiting for 2 hours for a room, a nurse wrapped his arms in a pillow case and his body in a sheet and we held him down while the doctor inserted a thin straw which inflated a tiny balloon behind the "obstruction" and pushed it out of his nose. After the hours of waiting and worrying the procedure maybe took 2 minutes. They checked to make sure there weren't any others up there or in any other facial orifice and sent us home. He slept the rest of the night and was fine, other than a little extra tired, the next day. Now that the ordeal is over I can laugh. I mean, how did he find this one teeny, tiny, little lego after the rest had been packed away? And when he did find it why was his first thought, "hmmm, look what I found, I think I need to stick this up my nose"? After telling everyone we ran into on Friday about the ordeal in attempts to shame him into never considering it again, I have found that this is very common, especially for boys.

Fortunately, our weekend was uneventful. We did some swimming, especially at night when the temps are dropping to a cool 107 ;) We watched some movies. We went to the outdoor mall and the kids played in the splash pad. Hope everyone else's weekend was pleasant too.

Before I go, I just want to share some of the things I worked on this weekend. I had bought these Sassafras papers and had not cut into them yet. I just love the patterns and the fun summery colors.

And finally, here is the layout I did for the Hero Arts tag challenge.