A Day in the Life: 02/09

Friday, February 27, 2009

Thursday, February 26, 2009

This week we've had some pretty nice weather. It hasn't been San Diego weather - but it has been nicer, a bit warmer. On Tuesday Gabe was enjoying the warm weather and came out of his room in his snazzy Lightening McQueen swimming suit - insisting on going back outside to run through the sprinklers (it was 53 degrees). I had to stop him from doing it, but my little guy isn't deterred easily. He set up his own "swimming pool" in the basement with blankets, our big love sac and a bunch of pillows. Silly kid.

Today however, the weather was nice enough for us to play outside for a while - it was nice. A little breezy still (it's Enoch - right?) - but still nice to get some fresh air. It really made me anxious for the real springtime. Hunter loved climbing up the wood steps up to the slide and was quite daring on the swing set. He's a little dare-devil - it scares me for the future!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Layouts

The layouts "My Boys, My Joys" and "Saturday Ranger Ride" are both using a new kit from Mandy Mystiques - Feeling Froggy. Fun little boy kit - check it out .

My Boy's layout - Template from ChrissyW's kit "Just the 2 of us"

4th of July layout - Americana kit from Sweet Shoppe Design (Dani Mogstad)

Gabe's Bed Buddies - Kit from Sweet Shoppe Design's Quarterly Assortment - Kicky Rainboots by Julie Billingsley

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Tag - 6 things

I was tagged by Chrissy, so here it goes: Post 6 interesting things about you.

I have a lot of hair - thick hair, and it drives me NUTS! My face is hyper-sensitive to the feeling of things on it and if I have hair on my face it makes me crazy. Static-y hair makes me extra nuts. If my hair is long enough - it's generally in a pony tail, and if it's short I can be found at home with those elastic/fabric headbands on to keep it off of my face. I'm kind of fanatical about it.
I don't like to try something new unless I think I can master it. This fear keeps me from trying a lot of things I'd probably enjoy.
Right now my backyard (and front yard) is full of tumble-weeds. I'm not sure where they came from - but I need to take care of them. Apparently waiting for the next wind to come and whisk them away isn't working for me...
I went through a phase where I didn't make my bed. I think it was a rebellion - just to prove that I was an adult and could leave my bed unmade if I wanted to because I was in charge. Then one day a friend of mine (Tammy Jensen) made the comment that "If I make my bed I feel like at least I got one thing done - at least my bed is clean and neat - even if the rest of my life/house isn't." After that everytime I'd look at my bed unmade I'd think, "I can't even get my darn bed made - I'm a mess!" I'm pretty sure that ever since that comment my bed gets made almost first thing every morning. I kind of laugh about it actually. Thanks Tammy!
I would love to be a professional photographer, a labor and delivery nurse, a graphic designer, or an "idea person". I am really good at looking at *other people's* businesses and thinking of awesome marketing ideas for them - however, if I try to work on our own business there is a major block and I can't figure things out. However - if you want to ask me how the local pizza place could increase sales I have an earfull for ya. Also - I don't want to have to implement the ideas - I just want to be paid for my brilliant IDEAS.
People *think* I am organized - it's all a facade. Underneath it all I'm a bit crazy and a total mess. You would know this if you looked at the piles on my desk and kitchen counter right now. I do dream of being organized though - labels on everything, millions of rubbermaid containers for everthing to be seperated into....ah....Oh - and I am slightly OCD about piles even - if they are stacked neatly I can handle it - but if things aren't lined up and straight - it makes me nuts.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Layouts

Rumble:

Kit - freebie from Scrap Matters February Newsletter by GG Designs
Template - altered version of one of ChrissyW's templates from Sample Pack #1 @ Elemental Scraps.

Silly Kiddo:

Kit - from Amanda Heimann (normally from http://www.scraporchard.com/) in this months digi files from http://www.thedailydigi.com/
Template - old one from Janet Phillips (who sadly doesn't have a shop anymore....)

Happy Birthday Paul!

Paul, we hope you have a great birthday! We sure love you!!!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Valentine Recap

Oh my goodness - I am about to cry. I just spent forever writing up a HUGE post. As I went to add the photos to my post I thought "I should save this post before I add pictures - just in case". Did I save it? Nope. Are you reading it? Nope. Did it somehow get deleted? Yup. Almost in tears....

Ok - what I said was that we had a fun Valentine season this year. Lot of fun little touches - having kids has made holidays so much funner. Gabe gets into it, loves traditions we've had and I love it! So I wanted to keep you filled into what we did the last couple of weeks.

My mother-in-law made the boy's Valentine fun last all month long. She sent us home with a big box a few weeks ago when we were visiting that was full of little wrapped gifts for the boys for every single day of the month leading up to Valentine's Day. If it was the 4th of the month they got to unwrap a package that had 4 gifts in it. There were cute little ducks that flipped, Cars puzzles, candy treats, cards, cookies, cars - fun cute things every day. Gabe would get so excited every morning for their presents and he'd wait until Hunter woke up and then insist that I put the present behind my back and surprise them. It was so fun to have it last for 2 weeks. Thanks Grandma for all of the thought and effort that went into this sweet surprise for the boys.
One of the things we did this month was to have as many heart shaped treats as possible. We started with heart shaped grilled cheese - but those were a disaster....But we had heart peanut butter sandwiches, heart pizza, heart sugar cookies and yummy hug cookies. My favorite was that our local pizza place - a DELICOUS pizza place was willing to make us a heart pizza, even though they weren't making them. I had to tell them that my 3 year old wanted a heart shaped pizza, and that one of their competitors was making heart pizzas, but that I didn't want their pizza - we wanted Pioneer Pizza. Anyway, they obliged and I thought it was one of the cutest pizzas! (And yummy!)
Gabe had his first preschool Valentine's Party. We had fun putting together his treats and valentine's for his classmates and he loved the party they had. Yummy treats, games and fun.
One of the fun things we did this year was since we went up north and saw grandparents at the end of January we took them fun Valentine's that we made. I cut out a bunch of different hearts on my Cricut machine. Then we added stickers, foam shapes, pictures, glitter, etc to the hearts. I hot glued skewers to the hearts (one heart on each side so the glue didn't show) and added them to cute Valentine cups which I filled with floral foam and cute paper filler. It was a very inexpensive craft, but Gabe had fun helping and I thought they turned out cute. It was fun to give them to our grandparents that we visited.
The boys had fun opening their Valentine from Cory and I - just some little books and treats. It's fun to see them get excited about small and simple things.
Cory got me a sweet Valentine present - some yummy bath products from The Body Shop. Thanks sweetie it's yummy!
Cory took me out Saturday night. I was amazed that we got one of our favorite babysitters at the last minute! We went to dinner at Applebees (not my favorite, but we had some friends there in line already, so it saved us waiting forever somewhere else). Then we went to a movie (where we sat on the FRONT row - not fun) and ended the evening with YUMMY ice cream from our new favorite ice cream place - Maggie Moos. It's been a hectic time for us so it was great to reconnect with each other for a few hours. Love you sweetheart.
One of my favorite parts of Valentine's was that we took the boys sledding. It had nothing to do with Valentine's Day, but it was the PERFECT way to spend a day that focuses on love. Gabe was much more daring than normal and had a great time zooming down the hill. He'd even trek back up by himself too (now we just need to teach him how to pull Hunter back up in the sled!) We laughed, did snow angels, had a snowball fight, and had a great time! There was a moment when all 3 boys were climbing back up the hill and I was watching them from down below. There was an instant when I was filled with a HUGE amount of joy and love. The sun was shining, the air was clear, I heard laughter of my family, and I felt just FULL of love. I wanted to take that feeling and box it up so I could open it and feel a glimpse of it every day (especially days that are rough). It was just one of those fulfilling moments - I felt blessed to feel that way and will look back on that moment as what this Valentine's Day was all about.

layouts & some of my recent favorites

Our House:

Kit: Our House - a Collaboration with Angie Kovacs and Chrissy W @ www.elementalscraps.com. An adoreable kit! I love the colors in it!

Nursery:

Template: Freebie template for the template challenge at Elemental Scraps this week.
Kit: She & Him from Sweet Shoppe Designs

A Boy and His Pie:

Template: Freebie template for the template challenge at Elemental Scraps this week.
Kit: Our House - a Collaboration with Angie Kovacs and Chrissy W @ http://www.elementalscraps.com/. An adoreable kit! I love the colors in it!

Week 7

Template (altered): Penny's Miscellany 2 pagers #20 (www.sweetshoppedesigns.com)
Kit: Amanda Heimann Designs - a freebie from Scrap Orchard "Sweetness"

Grinch Layout

Kit - Slowpoke by Bella Gypsy @ www.elementalscraps.com

Sweet Shoppe Designs has some GREAT products. One of my favorites - and a GREAT deal is the Quarte http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=17935&cat=0&page=1 rly Assortment. It's only $3.99 and you get a whole bunch of adoreable mini-kits. A lot of times I buy into these grab bag type of products and end up opening them and being disappointed - but this time around I LOVE everything in the set!

2009 Sweet Shoppe Quarterly Assortment - Vol 1

Also - check out this fantastic website: http://thedailydigi.com . They offer another grab bag style kit once a month too called The Digi Files. Once again - really cute. It's definetly worth the $5.00. It's only available for 1 month, and a fun way to try products from several different designers.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Mandy Mystiques SALE!

One of the designers I am designing layouts for is having a GREAT sale this weekend! So go check out her fun designs and save some money while you're at it!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Speed Scrap

I tried something kind of fun tonight called a Speed Scrap online. What happens is that there is someone who hosts the Speed Scrap. They go online and list instructions through an hour of time of things to do on a layout. It can be things like, "Choose 3 papers - one for the background, one for photo mat and one for decoration", or use 3 ribbons, etc. Then you have a set amount of time to finish the layout and post it online.

Anyway - I joined in and had fun. Here's my layout:

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Week #6

Stamps - Life 365 Stamp It Add On @ Weeds & Wildflowers
Red paper - Sweetness FREEBIE by Amanda Heimann @ Scrap Orchard
Patterned paper - Sweet Valentine FREEBIE add-on by Sweet Blossom Designs
Red border stitching - In Stitches - The Basics by Angie Kovac @ Elemental Scraps
Background paper - Digital Design Essentials
Template: FREEBIE - http://www.moriginalsblog.com/

Monday, February 09, 2009

New creative team gig - "Mandy Mystiques"

So last week on a whim I sent in an "application" to be on a creative team. It was seriously just a spur of the moment idea - didn't think I'd get the time of day. Anyway - I ended up getting asked to join Mandy Mystiques's design team! I am excited - she has some great products and I'm looking forward to getting to promote them.

One of my favorite kits is an older one of hers "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" - but I love daisies. Today it's only $1.00 at http://www.elementalscraps.com/! (There are lots of great $1.00 deals there today! Go check them out.)

A couple of her other cute kits that I have really enjoyed are Little Back Pocket and Batteries Not Included - both boy themed.

Anyway, lots of fun, and another reason for me to waste time on the computer :) I think the reason I like working on Creative Teams (other than getting to work with great products) is that it gives me some focus. I have too many fun kits and elements, and if I have a little bit of an assignment I don't end up wasting quite as much time browsing through what I could work with. Does that make sense? Anyway, should be fun. Thanks for the opportunity Mandy!