July Layout #?

I am not sure how many layouts I have done this month, but I know it has been a slow one. The weather is just too nice to spend hours hunched over my table.

My practically best friend Tara told me that she has been scrapbooking outside. How nice is that? I would love to try it, but the wind is just a little too unpredictable, and fierce here. So I will plug away at these layouts in my house.

Thank God we have air conditioning.

My Heart Feels Like Dancing

That is what Avery said to me tonite. She had been saying all day that she needed to go to see the doctor because she didn't have a heart anymore. (debateable some days ;)
We told her that she just had a check up a month ago, and the doctor said that her heart was fine. Tonight she was twirling around my scrapbook room in one of her princess dresses, stopped, looked in the mirror, put her hand over her heart, and said , "Mom, my heart feels like dancing."
How perfect a page title is that?

OMG Sassafraslass Paper...

I LUHVE this stuff. I don't want to cover it up. It is so pretty.

I was inspired by an article in Creating Keepsakes magazine about summer feet. I don't like my feet, so I wasn't about to put pictures of those in an album, but I do love my flip flops... and I am passing that obsession on to Avery.

I have at least 15 pairs, and that is after I threw a whole bunch out this winter.

I can't wait until the weather is over zero, so that I can pull them out. I usually start wearing them in about April, and wear them until the snow falls. I love them.

I've Been Shopping!!!

So.... my cousin's son got married in Drayton Valley this weekend, and I was super pumped to go to the wedding. There are three - count 'em - three scrapbook stores there! (and I was happy for him and his new bride as well)

I went on a little bit of a tear between the ceremony and the reception. I got to the first store at 3:50 - it was supposed to close at 4, but it was already closed. Too bad. The sign in the window said everything was 30% off. The second one I went to is a relatively new store that is huge in terms of square footage, and has a lot of stuff I haven't seen anywhere else. I got some wicked cool paper there - but the owner said that by the time she went to place a second order with the company, they had already shut down.

The last store was having their Christmas in July sale...and the whole store was 40% off... yeah - saweeeeeet!

And the other cool thing about this little joint was they had a ton of John Deere stuff so that I can go all out for Cohen's birthday layout (and maybe I will finish that harvest one of Grant as well), and they had the Coredinations cardstock. Super cool, and it was super cheap... Needless to say - if the clean scrapbook room didn't inspire me, the shopping spree certainly did.

Rag Roll Attempt One...

My new friend Kacey is a super smart girl when it comes to hair, and she posted somthing on her blog about curling hair with rags. I remember hearing about this a long time ago, but I have always had short hair, so could never do it.

Avery wakes up every morning with a major rat's nest at the back of her head, and it is a fight to try and tame it. I ragged her hair last night, and this is how it looked this morning. Not perfect, but I don't think too bad for a first attempt.

My cousin is getting married this weekend, and I think I will try this again tomorrow night and see how it looks on Saturday.

Before...(what a freakin' mess!)

I haven't been really inspired or motivated to scrapbook lately, and it certainly isn't for want or desire. I have been craving it, but whenever I try to start something, I lose my "mojo". I think it might have something to do with the fact that my scrapbook room looks a little like a bomb went off in it.

Do you have a room in your house where things get put "just for a little while"? That is my scrapbook room. My room used to be our office, but when we had Cohen, we moved Avery into my scrapbook room upstairs, and I couldn't be without, so Grant sacrificed the office for a scrap space for me (super spoiled; I know) but when he is home, he often dumps his laptop and all the bills in there, as well as I put stuff that I need close at hand in there (like all the stuff for Cohen's birthday party - which I have had for three months, taking up space).

I have also decided to not actively pursue my SU! Stamper's 10 club this year, so I was able to downsize all the stuff that I would drag to that every month, and therefore made room in my closet for my totes.

I think when all is said and done, and I can actually find my computer, desk, and floor again, I will be pumping out the pages like crazy... (hopefully).

After...(much better don't you think?)

So now I think that I might be a little more inspired to get something done... The only problem is, my room is cleaner than it has been in a long time, and I don't know where everything is now!

And.... I have another color caddy for my ink coming, and I don't know where to put it. I need a solution for that silly window area that has dead space between the computer desk and my work table, and the roller cart and my paper storage.

Tara suggested the corner shower shelves, but my corners aren't 90 degrees, so I don't know if that will work. Plus, those darn windows are in the way, and it seems a shame to block any more natural light than I already have.

I have to go to Lethbridge tomorrow for Cohen's one year check up, so I will do some hunting then.... hopefully I find something. I really like how tidy it is now, and would love to be able to keep it that way. (at least for a week or so ;)

Swimming lessons...not so good.

Avery started swimming lessons today. I was super excited, but not as excited as she was. She told me how much fun she would have in the pool, and all the things she wanted to tell her swimming teacher. And that she didn't want me to come in the water with her because she was a big girl and could do it by herself. Whatever. She did really well for the first half of the lesson, until the end of the motorboat song when they go underwater. She wasn't prepared for that and got a little freaked out. Needless to say, Grant will be going in with her tomorrow because my bathing suit is, uh, broken. Yeah, that's it. Broken.

They say it's your birthday!

We celebrated Cohen's first birthday this weekend. Grant was away working on his actual birthday, so we convinced people to come this weekend instead. The weather was perfect, and the kids had such an awesome time playing in the water table, on "play park" and with the new "spray park" sprinkler thingy that we set up in the backyard. Cohen did really well... he even opened a few gifts, but was taken with the John Deere Big Scoop Tractor that his daddy got him.

We had a great time, and I wasn't even as stressed as I was with Avery's... I wonder why that is. Oh yeah - Tara wasn't coming so I didn't have to worry about how clean my house was! ;)

I seriously don't know what to do...

is it possible for a three year old to suffer from anxiety disorders?
My daughter worries all the time. seriously. all the time. the majority of her concerns center around wind, which for those of you who know southern Alberta, know that I live in a windy part of the world. She honestly freaks out. screaming, crying, yelling, hiding. It is a part of my daily life now. Last night she was worried that the wind was going to come into the house and blow her supper off of the table. we went to the spray park yesterday, and she couldn't have unhibited fun because she was worried that her arm band would fall off and blow away. I have no idea how to calm her down. She is completely inconsolable, and nothing helps. is it normal for a preschooler to have such irrational fears? this seriously came out of nowhere. (at least that is how I feel. I know that something must have triggered it, but how to fix it...)
If anyone has any insight, I would LOVE your suggestions!

Beijing Bound

so my little sister left for China on Saturday. She is going as part of an Alberta Education teacher PD program. She will be at a university in Beijing for two weeks, and then will spend the last week touring around.
My dad is a little bit of a worry wart (to put it mildly) and he is already having heart palpitations about her return. Her friend that she is travelling with said that they shouldn't tell him about the trip until August (when they get back). I am waiting for her to facebook me that all is well and that she is having the time of her life, and not too much trouble breathing.
I think now is a great time to go to China. They are so consumed with making the city right for the Olympics that security is at an all time high, they are closing down factories to improve air quality, and whatever... it's China.
I told her to bring me back something cool to scrapbook for her. and also some toys made there with green or red paint for my kids. (this way I will have something for them to chew on when they are driving me nuts... ;) (seriously joking...)

And another one done, and another one done...

I guess I go in spurts. I have put scrapbooking off for longer than usual... (like a week...omg) and I think it is because Grant is gone to work, and I really have been run off my feet with both kids. For the first time, I don't have any back up plan so that I can have a break. My MIL is away at her cabin, and my dayhome isn't really available at the moment, soooo I guess parenting has trumped scrapbooking. ( I can't believe it either...)

Anyhoo, this is a pic of Cohen in October of last year. He was such a little man that day. No matter how many times I pulled his hand out of his pants, he would shove it back in. (and grin, of course.)

TFL.

Another one done...

(double click to enlarge)
so I guess if I put my mind to it, I can get something done. I was just saying to my friend Tara that i am a little worried about the second half of Cohen's first year album. It seems a little less bulky than Avery's. And now that he isn't a "baby" anymore, I don't feel right taking a bunch of pictures to fill it up. Anyhoo, i will work on what has to be done, and will carry on from there.



At least i am finding the motivation to finish some of the older layouts.

a year has passed.

this was Cohen a year ago. He had pneumothorax (??) and had to be intabated for the first day and a half of his life. He spent eight days in the NICU, and it was honestly the scariest time of my life.

There was a time that we didn't think that he would live to see his first week, let alone his first birthday. But that time has come. My baby is one year old.

I am a little sad about it all. I know that he is my last, and therefore the last baby that I will hold as my own, the last baby that will be all mine, the last baby that will let me smother him in kisses (I know that will end all too soon as well). I am thrilled that he is happy and healthy, but a part of me would do anything to keep him as a baby. My baby.

boring...but done.

I have had this layout sitting in Cohen's album forever. Obviously. I don't know why I kept putting it off. I LOVE the paper, and it wasn't that hard to do. Obviously. but it is done. Boring, but done. I want to stay as caught up as I possibly can, and that means, doing the layouts in his first six month album, before finishing his first year pictures...

TFL.

another MNC kit

I started this kit right after finishing the Dream one. I really struggled with this one. I am all for kits... I should be considering I design for Monday Night Class, but I am also all about making a kit your own. My friend Tara told me that I had to quit "shaking things up" on the kits, and to just do them as they come, but I can't. I don't want to have the same layout as 200 other women. I want it to have just a little of my personality. So instead of whipping off a layout, I let this sit in my scrapbook room for a week. (the original can be viewed on the MNC website under "Shop for Kits" http://www.mondaynightclass.ca/

I wanted to include some blue accents on this page to bring out the blue in the patterned paper, and also because Cohen is a boy...

I also knew that the picture I would use would be vertical rather than horizontal as in the original kit. And I had a huge chipboard "C" that I thought would work well on this page.

I am still not thrilled with how it turned out, but I will fill in the info and include it in his album. A finished page is a finished page!

Last minute Birthday Gift!

A friend of mine is having her 30th birthday party this afternoon. I have known about it for a while, but does that mean that I did anything about a gift. nope.

So in a panic, I scrounged in my scrapbook room and made this. I know that lunch kits are old school, but she is relatively new to scrapbooking, and hasn't made a lot of mini albums, so I think this might get her going in that craze!

I used all old stuff (obviously), but I think that it turned out not too badly for a last minute, thrown together, mini album...

Happy Canada Day

I LOVE being Canadian. I really do. I love living in a country that allows freedom of choice, speech, and freedom of expression. I love that we are multicultural, and I love that I will be able to raise my children in a free and tolerant nation.

I love our politeness, our alphabet, our beer, our flag, our knowledge of other nations, our acceptance. I love all things Canadian. And saying that, I love that we have the chance to celebrate our nation's birthday.

Happy Canada Day everyone.