Yep, genius

Just in case you think I am presumptuous by calling my kid a genius in public, (it does say in the journaling that clearly I am biased!) yesterday J and I spent the afternoon trying to sneak up on birds in the park. (Like I said, genius.)Now, we have absolutely no intention of catching or harming any birds in any way. But my goodness it was fun.



I'm feeling the need to update, update the blog (I hate dead links), update the scenery, update the resume, everything. A little spring cleaning on the old blog. And I so don't have time for that this week with National Scrapbook Day/weekend fast approaching. Maybe next week. I had meant to have a RAK when I reached 1000 new hits, but that happened so fast that now we are almost to 2000 (in less than 1 month?). So, heads up, RAK soon. :)

I did a Christmas layout last night, so weird to do those in April?? I love it though, one of my most favorite layouts I've ever done. I can't share it, at least not yet. :( I need to do some shopping, I have no vowels left on my AC thickers! Why does that keep happening? (Genius, I told you. Runs in the family.)

Manic Monday

I didn't think rainy, crappy Monday was a good title. :) Oh, I'm stressed, so much to do and my mojo is hiding. I've cleaned my room, edited and printed new photos, organized my stuff, started purging things I don't need/use, and I even sat down and made this card. This is a highly unusual event for me, I hope to send it to my grandmother since she sent me a family recipe I have been asking for.

I'm this close to shelving my Mother's day gift plans. See I was trying to make an iphoto book for my mom and my mother-in-law, but iphoto is giving me a fit. It won't recognize any of my edited photoshoped photos. They are jpeg, I can't import them into iphoto (it tells me they are already there. At this point to make another folder with edited photos on the desk top and try to import that into iphoto is going to take longer than 2 days. I can't decide if I should scale back my idea and do a calendar (only 12 photos) or just give up altogether and go with flowers, again. I wish I didn't wait until the last minute to do everything, darn that stupid test!!

I am doing lots of stuff for Memorable Seasons, so if you have a moment over the scrapping holiday weekend coming up (May 2-4), please stop by. There is a crop, I'm working on my sketch/color challenge for Friday evening. There will be games, prizes and challenges all weekend. It is going to be really fun. I am getting my bio/pic together as well. I'm so not good at bio writing.

If you happen to pick up the latest Memory Maker Magazine for May, you will see my little cutie in the Baby section. I'll edit with the page number in a few.
Hope your Monday is way better!

Mr. Bones

There is a saying in medicine that I think also applies so perfectly to photography. "The eye doesn't see what the mind doesn't know." This photo is the merging of my two loves, my two lives, the art and the science. I've had Mr. Bones a long time, and I whispered in his ear this morning that I hope he gives me luck tonight as the test ends and the scoring begins.

I just got back from taking the puppy to the vet for an ear re-check. I have serious sticker shock. The running tally on the ear infection, which requires another two weeks of antibiotics (gorilla-zillin), is $700. That includes updating every vaccine since he is having to go to the vet and be around sick dogs. I love my pug silly, but good heavens. I feel like I am single handedly paying for the vet's new building. I know it was a horrible infection, but it's starting to feel excessive. As long as he is doing well (and he is), I won't go back in 2 weeks for the re-check, to the tune of another $40 plus $39 for a culture plus whatever else they decide I *need*.

TGIF, hope you all have a great one!
Danielle

The Sun's back!

I'm so grateful the sun is shining this afternoon. I don't think I could handle one more minute of rain, I really don't. Can't wait to go to the playground.


I wanted to share this layout with you, it's my favorite layout for J's baby book I think. It's just exactly what I had in mind for his book. I'm so pleased with the Scribble Scrabble papers and accents. You know that strip one a 12 x 12 piece of patterned paper that has the company name, paper name, logo, etc that you have to cut off to use it? Well, Scribble Scrabble papers have all that on one side of a double sided sheet, but on the other there is a strip of accent paper, like customized looking ribbon or something. Only it's paper. It's hard to describe, but when I figured that out, Oh my gosh! Like getting something for nothing, how cool is that? I wish other paper companies would do that, we just cut it off and throw it away anyway. I thought that was genius! I wish you could see the buttons in my room, twinkling in the sunlight. So cool. Can you tell I love paper crafting?

It just makes me happy. And sane, which is so key in this crazy life. Only 4 more questions to review, deadline is Friday for the exam. Then I send it off with a prayer and wait 6-8 weeks. Wish me luck.

New day

Temper tantrums are the order of the day, and it's only 9 am. J has not been sleeping enough again and he is awfully cranky. I swear he thinks he is going to miss something. I was researching developmental milestones for this age, and he does so many things that are advanced, except verbally. I don't think there is a problem, it just perplexes me. It says he should say 3 words regularly. Ok he says Mum, Gee (for dog-gee), and Help. But sometimes he puts together phrases--my room, help me Mum. But then he forgets them a couple days later. It's very confusing to me because I don't know if he knows the words/phrase or if it was all a passing fancy. And he has been doing the Mum and gee thing since he was 8 months, shouldn't he progress on to other words? We read books at least 3 times a day, he points at pictures and I tell him the names. My sincere hope, is that this doesn't even matter. That in a year or two he will be talking normally.

Here are the sneak peaks of Scribble Scrabble papers I promised. I LOVE, LOVE the Circus Baby line. I think it is the cutest papers for baby/children I've seen in a while. And believe me it is Hard to find papers that are for boys period, and these are just the right about of baby/shabby chic/classic. I think the rest of the papers are really cute too, but I'm just itching to use the Circus Baby. I've got my pictures printed and I hope to play at J's nap time.

I have to go, J is eating prima paper flowers!

What a day!

Today we spent the afternoon with my in-laws and J got to meet his great grandfather. I got pictures, but lighting in the mall in the middle of a storm is not the best lighting, even with skylights.

I found out that I was selected for the Memorable Seasons Design Team! I'm very excited, I love the girls over on the site! It has become one of my favorite places online to hang out because the girls over there are serious about scrapping and they encourage and inspire one another. It's a great site and I'm over the moon to be a part of it!

I also have some sneak peeks of a very cool package I received over the weekend. Check back here tomorrow to see them! Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Girls are mean

Well, I finally found my mother. She was about as happy as a person who has just had their vacation ruined could be. But my mission was to find her and tell her about Grandma and to call her brother. So, my mission is complete. I haven't heard anything from my uncle, but I figure no news is good news at this point. I have to hand it to the emergency service, they never gave up looking for her. It was bad timing, right about the time we started looking for her, the ship docked in Cozumel, Mexico. It is hard to find people when the ship is in port. My mom said her cell phone didn't work either, she kept having to go through a Spanish speaking operator and my mom doesn't know Spanish. Yet everyone thought a cruise to the Caribbean was a fabulous idea. :)


J and I took our new trucks to the park yesterday, only to have them promptly taken away by a little girl. She was about 2 and very pushy. She pushed J out of going down the slide, and then proceeded to run over and take his toys. I told J, "Now let that be a lesson to you son, girls are mean." I dare any woman on the planet to argue with me, because you know it's true. I think the thing that shocked me the most was that her mom just let her do all of it. I'm not used to other people's children, so maybe this is normal?? Until I had a child, I didn't hang out with children.

2 layouts for you, and neither with any AC Thickers.
Will wonders never cease?
Have a great weekend!

Captain we have a situation

How hard could it be to find someone at sea? Let me just tell you. We have been trying to get a hold of my mom in the middle of the Caribbean for two days now. She isn't getting or checking her cell phone. My Grandmother (her mom) was taken to the hospital Sunday night, and at first my uncle told me not to say anything. But it became very clear last night that he was going to have to go to Florida and that someone needed to find my mom. Now, I had already dragged my sister into this tangled web and we had decided after the first phone call from my uncle that we had to find my mom. But now, well, we need to find her pronto.

I've contacted the emergency service, I have a case number, but I still don't know if she got my message. We got all the info on her cruise because my sister the computer hacker, hacked into her email. (Nice job Bec!) Otherwise we would have nothing to go off of. She didn't leave us an itinerary. Let that be a lesson to all you would be cruisers--figure out the emergency plan in advance!!!

Otherwise, J and I would be having a nice relaxing day. But, since we can't go outside because we must stay by the phone, J is unhappy and that makes me unhappy. I'm cleaning the scraproom, trying to fix my fung shui and fight my way out of scrappers block.

Breaking the Silence

This is a layout I did for the Colorstory challenge. It's a really cool site and I was deep in scrappers block when I found it. I was so grateful for the inspiration.

Apparently J can talk now. He went from saying only Mum, and Gee (dog-gee) for the past 7 months to talking in complete sentences. We went to the playground on Friday, and he ran up to the tall horse and said (I kid you not), "Mum help me." I was floored and stood there like an idiot. Which of course prompted him to speak again. "Mum, mum. Help!" I went that time. Wow, I'm so amazed.

He also communicates better now too. He can say "Yes" and "No", and mean it. He says "done." He even gets the concept of do this first then that. For example, let's clean up this mess before we get another game out. He understands that, it's amazing! I was almost to the point where I was starting to worry that he was not talking. He is also pretending to do everything I do, and is playing with things and pretending they are other things. For example, if I am cooking, he has fake food and pretends to chop it and cook it. Another example, he was playing with his high chair, driving it around making his car noise and going beep, beep. Over night he is a different kid, I guess childhood is like that. Fleeting. I'm just desperately trying to capture a little bit of it.

Guess I should get off the computer and go do that, uh?

Life, liberty and the pursuit of . . .

paper. You thought I was going to say happiness. To me, they are one in the same. Spent the morning at Michael's, desperately in need of some black and white cardstock. While I was there, they had the cutest little spools of ribbon for $1. I also finally found some blank cards to make cards with, so I'm very excited about that. It was a good trip. I'm busy checking and re-checking my test tonight, I just want to make sure it is as good as I can do. But, you know what they say about sticking to your first answer. That has some merit too. I finished up a layout last night, can't wait to post it.
Hope you are having a great weekend!

Sick as a dog

No, not me. My pug, my dog. He is sick. He has a horrible ear infection, and I spent a small fortune on big gun antibiotics and steroids. It's been an incredibly long day for all of us. Me and the little ones.

This is the project I promised you over the weekend, that I forgot about and then remembered. I think the key to this look is to buy a nice frame. This one is from Barnes of Boston at Linens and Things $20. Other than that, scraps of paper and a transparency. I love that it matches my master bedroom and bathroom perfectly. (I know because I held the scraps up to the bedding and the towels. How anal is that?!)

Well, I have to go scrap something. Between the vet bills and the recent increase in food bills, I feel a little guilty buying more cardstock and stickers. But it is cheaper than therapy.

Forecast looks like Tornados

I never knew that a toddler could level a room in 0.5 seconds flat. This is a new development. Sometimes I feel like we are running from room to room, level to level in this house trying to escape the mess that inevitably follows us. Nothing is unclean, just toys all over the floor. I trip over something every night to turn the kitchen light off. I know that someday I'll miss this, but it's awfully hard to make dinner when you can't walk in the kitchen.

Something else that changes on a dime, his mood. Happy go lucky and then bam, full blown tantrum on the floor. And he has a mind like a steel trap, there is very little distracting him to something else. He has a great memory, something is both an asset in life and a curse. I know that all too well.

I found a memory card with some pics from Valentines day, so I'm off to upload. Provided I can make it to the Mac without breaking a ankle.

Susan Lucci has left the building!

I was invited to join Scribble Scrabble's Design Team! It's a manufacturer's design team, which is way more than I dared to hope for. I am beyond excited, and so grateful to Cynthia for the opportunity. So, it appears that Susan Lucci has left the building with her Emmy! See, dreams do come true, so never give up.

It sure is a Monday, dreary and rainy. I have some calls to make today, to get some things off my to-do list. I think I have some scrapbooking news, but it does not appear to be official yet. I'll let you know when I know I promise.

We had a great weekend, spent a lot of time with my better half. J dumped orange juice on the floor Sat. morning. I know he isn't doing it to be a pain, but rather to test the aerodynamics of the OJ, but everything is still sticky!

I love everyday pictures. The kind that aren't staged, no backdrop, no professional portrait. That is what really gets me excited about scrapbooking. I love the colors in this photo, and of course J is the cutest. I'm loving scrapbooking our lives now, it is getting harder to remember when he was a tiny baby. I'm glad I have a journal to help me remember.

I have a good friend who refers to my scrapbooking style as "Talbot's" and "the little black dress." When I went up to my room to scrap this photo last night, all I could think about was black. So, this one's for you sunny j.

Friday

Well, J and I are cleaning the bedrooms. Just wanted to share what was on my desk. It is my sketchbook full of inspiration with a facelift. I altered it for a design team submission for Memorable Seasons. I think I've only done 3 altered projects total ever, so please don't judge too harshly. I did create a collage for my bathroom, does that count? I'll take a pic and upload it this weekend. Happy Friday all who stop by!

Sorry in advance. . .

See I lost all sense of time while taking that test, and I missed St. Patricks day and Easter (scrapping wise) and I have all these pics. This layout has been on my table since March 16th, so happy to have finished it. Not sure about this whole photographing 12 x 12 layouts thing, it's not as easy as it looks I think. Definitely some technique to it.
Happy Thursday everyone!

"Red, red, they call me red."

It's from Dr. Seuss, Hop on Pop.
For as long as I can remember, my hair has always appeared red in photos. I think it is an optical illusion, that the brown has some golden blond and it just appears red. I really don't like photos of myself though, not because of the red thing.
I'm just shy I guess.

I'm having trouble sleeping, and I can't even blame it on J. So, I'm exercising more and eating healthy and going outside every chance we get. I don't know many people where we live, and I'm worried that I might get depressed if I just keep hanging around the house. The test didn't help anything either. It got me in a pattern of isolation for 3 weeks straight. Not good.

My better half is brilliant. He suggested giving the guest bed to J, and getting a futon for the scraproom. That way, the 1-2 times a year when I need it, I have a bed, but otherwise I will have lots of floor space to scrap or play with J. I love that, we are going to move the bed ASAP, since we have nothing to lose and try it out.

I'm also thinking of shaking up the scrapping, possibly doing 12 x 12. I'm a little worried about the photographing, but, I take pictures of a constantly in motion toddler--how much harder could it be? I figure that like the futon, I'll try it. If I like it, wide-format printer here I come baby.

Have a great Wednesday and thank you everyone who stopped by to encourage me to keep at it.
Danielle

Tuesday random

Hi, not much to say today. I'll let my layout do the talking for me.
I'm feeling kind of lonely here on my blog, if you are out there say hi, K?
I could really use some encouragement to keep blogging. :)