It's now available!

The kit I mentioned a few posts ago is now available for download at Make It Scrappy! You can get it here. Look for the picture.

Monday Funny

A drive-by post this morning...Wanted to tell you a funny thing A said this weekend. Let me set the stage...

He received from Grammie and Grandad, a book with some Christmas stories and some carols in it. It's one of his favorites, and we read it many many many times during the weeks. Inside the covers is a picture of a little tree and some presents next to it. He's started identifying who will receive those presents. Most of them are for him, as you might imagine. But, he has identified one for Mommy, one for Daddy and one for Krinkle. We talked a little about buying presents for each other. Here's how our conversation went:

Me: So are you going to buy Mommy lots of Christmas presents?
A: No - not presents. Groceries. I buy you groceries.

Great. I guess I'll keep an eye out for bread, eggs and milk under the tree. Merry Christmas to me!

On another note, he's gotten over his tummy bug. It was pretty quick. We spend most of Thursday on the sofa watching different videos. Friday I kept him home 'cause the bug presented itself again in a form where if day care had seen it, they would have called me to come get him. So, we met Daddy for lunch and played. Oh, and he actually said he *wanted* to go to school Friday. I almost fell over. It's the first time we've heard that!

The timing of it all means I missed my quick trip to California to see my brother graduate with his MBA. I wish I could have gone, but duty called. It's the first time we've dealt with a tummy bug affecting A and I needed to be there for him (uh, and me too - my poor baby!).

But he's back at "school" this morning and while getting him into the car was a little challenge, there were no tears once we got to school.

Well, I've done it...

My first foray into digiscrap designing! One of the digiscrap communities I visit, Make It Scrappy, is hosting a challenge. Members submitted color swatches and we voted on them. The winning swatch was to be used to create a digiscrap supplies in a Thanksgiving Theme. I created 11 different papers, some ribbons, some tags and a word art for my contribution. Come the 18th, if my collection is deemed "worthy" (as in pieces of it aren't pirated - they're not!), it will be released to the public at Make It Scrappy!

It was fun to create my submission. First, I tried to create my own papers based on the color swatch using default settings in Photoshop Elements 5. Not bad, but not what I was looking for (but I included them anyway). Then I read some tutorials, and ended up creating my own textured overlay which was sampled from a picture I took of some Cyprus trees on my walk into work. I also found some commercial use (for items given away only) ribbons from The Ephemeral Victorian and recolored them to match the color swatch. Then, I found a tutorial on Misty Cato's blog on how to create simple tags. Finally, I found a Thanksgiving themed quote and played with the fonts and sizing to create some word art.

I really enjoyed this creative process and look forward to doing more. Here's what the pieces of the final product look like:


So, what do you think? Next up is to actually use this stuff for some pages of my own!

Didn't know we lived on the prarie, did you?

Yeah, well this is our local lake. Well, it was...before we had no rain this year. It should be full of water from tree line to tree line. It has a little more water in it today than it did last week since we had three days of rain, but it's not nearly enough.

Another view from a few feet away. This is off the access road near I-85 and Exit 186. I'll try to get some other pictures off the bridges another day.

It's done! And he put it on!!!

Well, the hands still need the elastic sewn onto them, but they're the last bit! He was okay with putting it on, and even wanted to wear it for a little while. He doesn't really like the tail, but that's okay. We made it detachable as well as the little crest between the head and the tail.

You can see we were practicing Trick Or Treating too. We have a picture of A with some of the kids in Mom and Dad's neighborhood, including the granddaughter of A's former sitter attached to the door to the garage. A went over and talked to the kids to tell them about his costume. I hope we can see them on Halloween. I think our plans will be to head over to Mom and Dad's house for A to Trick or Treat, and then he can help them hand out candy. I think with his shyness, he might not want to go door to door. But if he does, we can do that in their neighborhood.

Special thanks to Mom for helping me make this costume! Yay Mom!

Friday, lovely Friday!

No picture today! We went to the nursery last weekend, but not the Fireman's Day parade. I got a few good pics of A, but keep forgetting the camera this week so I can upload them! The nursery is a family owned, very friendly place, so all the staff wanted to talk to A. He was very shy and was very happy to have his little (it went with a 9 month outfit!) baseball hat on, covering his eyes. The last picture I attempted of him was to get him in front of a couple of huge mums with his hat off. I said, "Say cheese!" and he said "no" and lowered his head. Click! It spoke volumes about the day. :-) I'll try to get it uploaded this weekend.

Have a good one!

**Edited 10/24 - this is the picture I was talking about. Not as bad as I thought it was.

Fallish Friday

Yay, it's Friday! We have a busy Saturday planned, but nothing on Sunday yet, although there's always cleaning and working on A's costume to do. We're thinking of heading over to a local nursery for their Fall Festival in the morning, and then to the Fireman's Day parade tomorrow afternoon. A has been told (and has repeated back to us) that the parade could be very loud tomorrow. Let's hope he can manage it. This summer when we saw the Nova Scotia Tattoo parade, he was a little afraid of the loud bagpipes and bands. He still talks about it!

A has still been a clingy this week at day care drop-offs, and even at bed time. I'm not sure why. He did seem a little warm one evening, and his nose was a little stuffy. Maybe that had something to do with it. The rest of the time, he's his crazy self. The fun at bedtime this week has been that he wants one of us to play horsey. Once he climbs off, he runs over to the other parent and declares "Your turn!". Back and forth. Back and forth. He doesn't even make the horse go around the room. He'll just climb on, sit for a second or two and then slide off. Silly kid!

Here's another digiscrap page. I used the same papers as yesterday (I really like them) to complete a challenge at oscraps. The challenge is to use only two sheets of paper, three pictures, three elements and one font. The beige edge along the green column is part of the frame, so it's still one of the elements and doesn't have to be counted separately. :-)

Credits: Everything from Rebecca Lynn's Fall Days Freebie at http://www.oscraps.com

Still a quiet week at home. We're hoping to go to the Fireman's Day parade on Saturday. It starts at 3:30, though and that's usually prime nap time (for *all* of us!).

Yes, I'm a year behind in my scrapbooking. I think that's part of why I'm enjoying the digital scrapbooking so much. I can take my lunch hour and work on a page. This is the one I did today. I still need to add the month/year to it, and I think I might tweak the word art in the upper corner. That's the other beauty - I *can* go back and tweak! This was my first try at getting a pin to go "through" the embellishment. I used Misty Cato's tutorial (http://mistycatodesigns.blogspot.com/).

Credits:
Template "The Big Picture" by Tracy Dane at http://dranet.blogspot.com/
Everything else from Rebecca Lynn's Fall Days Freebie at http://www.oscraps.com

Wednesday Already?!?!

Yikes. Where does the time go? Not much new in our household. A has been a little clingier this week than past weeks, but I'll hope it's just a phase. He doesn't seem ill.

We're finally going to be seeing some cooler weather. And we had a little rain last night. The skies opened up about 4:00 a.m. and woke me up! It was great to hear though. We need the rain!

Here's another one of the cards we made on World Card Making Day. This one was pretty easy - just a little stamping and coloring, and a little ribbon to cap it off! I really like the snow people in this set. I think I've used this set for our Christmas Cards multiple years!

Supplies (All Stampin' Up!):
Card Stock: Always Artichoke, Kraft
Ink: Basic Black, Always Artichoke, Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip
Stamps: It's Snow Time
Accessories: Uniball Signo Gel Pen, Stampin' Pastels, White 1/4 inch Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Real Red and Only Orange Stampin' Write Markers, Aquapainter

Visiting with Uncle Mark

My first attempt at "colorizing" a black and white photo using Photoshop Elements. That was pretty fun, and I'm sure you'll be seeing more of this technique. Also, I used some a torn paper element. That's a neat look too - makes you want to reach out and touch it to see if it's real!

It's nearly the weekend! We'll be going to M&D's for supper and another visit with Uncle Mark (Stan). We had a great time with them last night - A took less time to warm up to Uncle Mark than I thought he would. A finished eating before the adults did, so he got down from the table. Dad commented that A had been really quiet, then all of a sudden, A flopped down on the floor and exclaimed "I falled down!". P asked if he needed to go to the hospital (a common question in our house, even for the littlest bumps). A said "yeah" and ran off into the living room. Then he ran back, saying "I went hospital". Then he flopped down on the floor and repeated the whole thing for about five minutes! All the while, he kept his head turned towards the adults, making sure they were watching him! He even ran into the fridge 'cause he wasn't looking where he was going. When the adults conspired to not look at A, it didn't take long for him to notice. He came over, got in my face and said "I falled down. I go hospital.". In other words - LOOK AT ME!

Credits:
Papers, frames and embellishments by Merkeley Designs from the Oscraps September Spotlight Designer (http://www.oscraps.com/news.php)

Torn paper edge by by Jessica Gordon at Scrapbook Ideas: http://scrapbookideas.wordpress.com/

I've been stamping too!

I've created a few cards for the World Card Making class I'm hosting on Saturday, some birthday cards and the card above for a colleague who recently married. Maybe some of my stampin' mojo is coming back. It's hard to feel creative when you're sleep deprived.

This card was an attempt at a technique called Split Negative. You can see a tutorial from my favorite stamping site here.

I've posted a few more cards and my scrapbook pages to my Splitcoast gallery too. You can see them here.

Not much going on "on the home front". Everyone is happy and healthy. Not much more to ask!

Supplies for the card above are all Stampin Up! (Basic Black, Going Gray, Whisper White and Purely Pomegranate cardstock, Black embossing podwer, Versamark and Purely Pomegranate ink, Baroque Motifs stamp set) except for the silver embossing powder.

The Son Shines Bright

This is the fun of a two-year-old. He's very into making silly faces and laughing hysterically at nothing. What a goof! He obviously takes after his father (maybe me too!). Love ya, dear!

I just had to scrap this picture as soon as I got it. And then I found this wonderful brush/word art that was listed in the digifree blog (http://digifree.blogspot.com/). Maybe I should add some more staples to the image. That's part of the beauty, I've found, of doing digital pages. As long as I save the Photoshop file type (not merged or flattened), I can go back and tweak to my heart's delight. I'm really lucky that here at work we have computers I can use over my lunch hour to play with this. The only drawback of using work computers over my lunch hour is that I'd love to play longer!!!

Credits:

Papers, label and string closer by Danielle Corbitt in her Little Rascal Freebie at
http://atexaschickie.blogspot.com/

Smile Shine Brush Freebie by Donna Duncombe at http://hickorydickory.blogspot.com

Scalloped Frame by Misty Cato at http://mistycatodesigns.com (freebie)

Happy October!

We had a lovely weekend weather-wise here - nice temps, clear blue sky... We just wish it would rain! It was a good weekend for some house cleaning. I sent P and A out to do some shopping and I scrubbed, vacuumed, and for a few hours. There's more to be done, but it's a start. Mom and Dad came up for supper Saturday night. Sunday, we played, did a little shopping with lunch at Mc'D's and then rest time. Once the boys were down for their rests, I packed up my sewing machine and the pieces of A's Halloween costume and headed down to Mom and Dad's to do some work on it. A is going to be a "Big Green Crocodile" for Halloween. We saw this inflatable croc when we were on vacation in early August. A loved driving past it! We'd have to stop and wave every time. He's still a favorite two months later!

On another "kreative" note, I've scheduled a card workshop on World Card Making Day. We'll be doing a few cards and some gift items. When I get some pictures taken of the projects, I'll be sure to share them.

Have a good day!

I thought I'd try blogging again in a different location. So, here I am!

A is now just over two years old and talking up a storm!!! The terrible two's are in full force these days, but even so, we have a great time in our house. Lots of laughing and playing (in between those tantrums). He's gotten to be a bit bossy these days, insisting that we play on the linoleum in the kitchen or grabbing our shirts to drag us to wherever he wants us. It's all in good fun though.

He's doing well with his transition to the "new" day care. It's been six weeks now, so it's not really "new" any more. This morning, his class was outside when we got there. He insisted that I carry him, and I obliged. Once we got outside, his teacher, Mrs. Wanda came over to greet us and asked for a hug from A. He leaned over and she took him in her arms. No tears! I drove past the play area as I left and he was already on his own. I watched as he took his hands out of his pockets, then patted down the pockets (this is the way he does it!). Then he scrambled off and played. Makes a mom happy.

I've been spending my lunch hours playing with some digital scrapbooking here at work. This is one of the pages I worked on today. Notice that I figured out how to get a copy of the main picture blended into the background "paper" on the right side. Neat, huh? (Yes, I smudged his face a little on purpose.)

Credits:

Frame by Misty Cato at http://mistycatodesigns.blogspot.com/
Paper by Scrappy Pony Designs/Heather Green in her Grungy Solids freebie collection at http://horseshirts.blogspot.com

Entry for November 29, 2006

It's been a while since an update -

We had a GREAT Thanksgiving with Pete, Jo and Uncle Tom visiting. We enjoyed a big turkey dinner, toured campus, had family portraits taken and relaxed! It took A a little to warm up to our visitors, but I think he'll miss them now.

He did a bunch of things that surprised us over the long weekend. One night as we were finishing up dinner, he looked like he was done so I asked, "Are you ready to get down?". He gathered up his remaining animal crackers and looked at me as if to say, "Okay - I've got what I need. I'll get down now." So cute!

Outside Mom's office, there were little flowers still growing. A was so excited to see all of them. He kept pointing to them and saying "Flow(er) flow(er) flow(er)".

He's starting to speak in short sentences too. Yesterday morning, he left his brush on the toilet. I told him where it was and pointed. He went over to it and said "it's here".

This morning, as I opened the car door to get him out of the car, a wren was singing. He pointed and said "bir(d)". I hadn't said anything! He made the connection all his own.

Now, you have to remember that his speech isn't perfectly clear - most of the time the first consanent and the vowel are what comes out, but it's quite clear that he's connecting things and words.

Entry for November 13, 2006

I've been thinking about this for a while, and figured I'd just take the time to put it down. Here's a list of words that A says. Some are clear, others are mostly the consonants, and some it takes a trained ear to figure out. But here's the list in no particular order. Remember he's almost 15 months old.

da shoes

his name (you have to listen closely)
moon

car

flower
star

train

butterfly (or something like this)
my

mama

door

pumpkin
chair

nose

frog
cat

belly (button)

more (or so Brenda claims)
dog

hat
bird

go
bear

up
ball

fan

Did I miss any?

Entry for November 10, 2006

TGIF everyone! Last night was bath night for Little Man. He fits in his little yellow bathrobe with the NS tartan trim so he wore that for a little while last night. I'm waiting for pictures to be uploaded, and then maybe I'll post one.

He played a little with his spoon and my fork at supper. He's getting the hang of getting it into his mouth, but hasn't figured out how to get food onto the spoon yet. He turns the bowl upside down and pushes against the food on his plate. It works well when dinner includes mashed sweet potatoes from Boston Market, but with ground beef and corn in the dish, it doesn't work so well. We need to get him a toddler fork so he can practice stabbing his food. That might help. He was trying that process with my fork last night, but wouldn't let me help much. He was too afraid I'd take it away from him, I think.

We'll have supper at G-ma's and G-pa's tonight. We always like that!

Post Election Day 2006

Nifong won. Bleh. Glad I don't live in Durham County. /political comments

Well folks, last night was the same as the night before - one wound up toddler! After some researching, we decided to take the tray off A's high chair and slide it up to the table. He seemed to like it, but didn't eat much. I talked to the baby sitter today and she said he's getting about 24 oz of milk during the day. Plus breakfast (sausage and pancakes or french toast usually), and lunch (frequently fast food) and snacks. No wonder he's not hungry for supper!!! She agreed to try to give milk only with meals and water the rest of the time. A likes water, so it should be okay. We'll see! It's too bad he didn't want supper - he was offered an English muffin pizza with turkey pepperoni. We were waiting for the "yum" to come from him, but didn't get to hear it much. It's so cute when he does it! Makes me feel like he's appreciating my work at putting supper on the table.

Entry for November 07, 2006

Good morning folks! We had on our hands one wound-up toddler last night! He was running around, shrieking and flopping on pillows. He teased us by climbing up on the couch, flopping around and finally landing on his back with this look in his eye saying "Go ahead - I dare you to tickle me!" What could we do but oblige him? He didn't care much for dinner. I tried a new recipe using chicken, ramen noodles and stir-fry veggies. Either he wasn't hungry or there were too many veggies! Fortunately, he decided to hand his food back to me - one noodle at a time - instead of dumping it on the floor. He's learning! We made a big deal about him being such a good help, hoping that he'll continue with that behavior.

Once we got upstairs for bed time, he was pretty ready for bed. He willingly layed down on his pj's so we could put them on, and only ran around for a few minutes. We read for a little then he just layed down on the floor. After we said night-nights to all his kites, Daddy said good night and Mommy and A had a last few minutes to chat before A wanted to go to bed.

Cleaning up after dinner, a few minutes to make a birthday card, and a little rest, then it was bedtime for the grown-ups!