Bits & Pieces Swap...

A while back a blogging friend, Joyce at Scrap for Joy, had posted about a decorated canvas she made for a friend. It was an 8x8 board with nine squares on it. The squares were all different, but made up a theme of some sort. She asked if anyone was interested and it looked so fun I jumped at the chance. She picked the general theme... it was Spring, but within that theme we could do whatever theme(s) we wanted.

We got assigned swap partners. I got Laurie at Laurie Star as my partner. It was nice to email back and forth to get to know each other. After a few weeks of creating, we mailed off our packages and this is what I received:

It looks awesome. I love that is has a bunch of dog pictures. They are so cute! Flowers and bunting round out the thoughtful canvas. There are so many little details to look at. My favorite is the J right in the middle. I plan to hang it in my craft room when I am finished reorganizing it.

I was so glad to have committed to this swap before my hiatus, as it helped keep my sanity in the middle of everything. I'm still along for the ride of my crazy life and many things have changed since I started this break. They have actually been good changes, so I will be back soon with some posts about life, places to visit, birthday parties, books and the like.

Until then...

Project SCRAP Layouts...

Remember how excited I was to start creating things again? Well, it really came through this month. With the help of Joe taking care of Caleb more than he usually does and Elijah being independent... to a certain point, it has given me some extra time to be creative.

Project SCRAP is in full swing, so with my "resolution" to keep up. I did some pages... Four pages, to be exact. *The kits used are Maria LaFrance - Buddy Boy, Shabby Princess - Bounce, and DC Designs - Pitter Patter

Every month I plan on recapping the "milestones" of both boys, no matter how small.

 Elijah is full of weird/funny sayings and want to remember them, not only on twitter (sharing them on my side panel), but in scrapbook form. I will probably do the same when Caleb starts talking.

This is a recap of the month from a family point of view. I also tried to include small things, like how the weather was.

Photo recap of the month.

I think I'm going to hand write a description sheet to attach to this layout. Similar to this:

1. Wearing a Flacco Fanstache, for good luck in the playoffs. It didn't work.  2. Having a sleep over with his friends.  3. Playing the Scooby Doo Game.  4. Showing off the Happy Tongue  5. Brothers!  6. Celebrating, in style  7. Also wearing the Fanstache  8. Playing in the snow/slush/ice  9. Hiding out from the paparazzi.

I'm really happy with how they turned out. I hope you enjoyed looking at them, also. Have you created any layouts recently? If so, I would love to see them.

Movie of the month (haha) and a layout

I have been slacking... which is horrible, especially when in my last post I said I wanted to get better at updating. After that post a new lady started in Petty Cash and I have been so stressed out that I have to go out somewhere during lunch, plus it gives my nose a break since she smokes, so half the time I can hardly breathe and I sneeze all the time. Then today my nose started bleeding because it's so irritated all week. Thank God I will be out of there on the 27th, then hopefully I'll be able to start posting again during lunch, on a regular basis.

Ok, enough complaining out of me, onto the movie of the week:




Elijah was helping his Grandma vaccum her kitchen.


I also finally got a layout done today. Apparently the only way for me to get a layout done the same day that I start it is if all the following happens

1. I start with a sketch
2. Elijah sleep for 2-2.5 hours
3. Joe is not around
4. I am at my parents house doing laundry (cause my washer died)
5. I can't log onto the Internet
6. I have an assigned kit that I need to use
7. I know the pictures and subject I want to use, ahead of time.

And this was the outcome:

Everything is the Digital Freebies Mega Kit "Arizona Summer"

The journaling reads: "You certainly love your bubbles. You could play with them for a good 30 minutes, just trying to catch them and pop them. You are facinated by the fact that some hit the ground, but don't pop. Of course, when they do, they are no match for your little fingers.

I love how you take joy in the little things, like popping bubbles and swinging. I hope you continue to for the rest of your life."

I'm out. I'll try to update again soon, atleast with another video.

Layout

Just thought I would share a layout I did this week.

This would have been for OLW "Ready" if it would have been done in time.

Everything is The Good Life - Karen Lewis

Based on a sketch from 52 sketches 52 weeks

Layout and a cool blog

So you know how last week I was stressing and pulling my hair out about this whole "I gotta make a layout fast" thing. Well, turns out that what was suppose to happen on the 15th got postponed(after I finished my layout of course) til today because the store manager went out of town for the weekend and stuff happened with files in the kit. I just love to hurry up and wait. It's my favorite thing.

But enough of my rambling, I can finally post my layout and here it is:

Everything is the Spring Mega Kit from Digital Freebies - Burst of Spring

Made from a sketch from 52sketches52weeks

Also, I wanted to mention a blog I just LOVE and I'm sure some of you have already heard of her, but I'm so behind the times in lots of stuff (I guess that's what happens when you're a mom). It's Kwernerdesign. She is apparently part of the Two Peas In A Bucket staff, but I didn't find that out until I started reading her blog. She has some awesome stuff on there. Almost every Monday and Friday she has a video of how to make a card. I love watching her make them, it's so relaxing... like watching cooking shows. It's made me want to get back into making cards again, but alas I have no room or time, so that will have to wait at least another year or two. The other thing that's on there is (I think it's every week) a color inspiration, where she'll pick out 3 or 4 colors and challenges the readers to make something with those colors, be it a layout or a card or project... whatever. It's really cool, you should check it out. Ok enough gushing...

Nothing is really going on in my life. Joe is enjoying his job. I'm tolerating my job. Elijah is talking up a storm. Yesterday we were playing with bubbles and I swore he said "bubbas". I'm also told he said "gop gop" the other day referring to my dad who is pop-pop. His new favorite things to say are "gaga" for either "I'm hungry" or "food" and "Daaaaaaaaaad(very hard emphasis on the d at the end)" I'm not sure if he'll talk early, but he's well on his way. I talked in complete sentences when I was 2, but I have no idea if it's genetic or not. I guess we'll see. Other than that, I've just been spring cleaning and boxing things up, cause my living room just looked too cluttered. Usually I don't mind, but this was getting out of hand.

I'm out...

Layout

I did another layout. It's about our crappy Valentines Day.

Still nothing really interesting happening in my life... Just the way I like it. :-)

Layout and News

I did another layout. It kind of speaks for itself.

This was the day of Elijah's dedication. He looked so handsome in his dress shirt and tie. He reminded me of a little man, so I decided to scrapbook about it.

Now the news... I wasn't posting about my life because, to me, nothing was going right and I was waiting for everything to blow over. I don't like to vent on here, so there was pretty much nothing to post about, except the new stuff Elijah was doing. So, without further ado - Joe got a job. It's permanate, it's full time, it pays well and has great benefits. He was told yesterday that he would find out in 2 weeks, but the guy met with the other guy and they decided to offer it to him today. Of course he accepted. :-) He starts March 9th. Yayness!!

On top of that, Spring is almost here and I'm really excited about that too. Hehe. But, for now, I'm out.

And another layout

I'm apparently on a roll...

I actually did another layout

It's amazing how much time it takes me to do a layout now...

... I'm out.