Moto mania

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. Our Saturday was lovely with perfect weather. Unfortunately the other days weren't as good. Sergio worked outside for much of the afternoon and got his motocycle out to give it a little exercise. Adrianna decided that she wanted to join him, so they rode in circles around the back yard. She had a great time and you could hear her little "wheeeee" as they went around the turns. Look at that grin!

Saturday we also got out the grill to cook some dinner... Flatiron Steak in a Chipotle marinade from Trader Joe's (really fabulously delicious), hotdogs, Southwestern Bean Salad, fresh veggies, and homemade bread. Adrianna called it an "eat out," and it turned out to be a great "eat out" kind of evening... sitting around the picnic table, eating, drinking and just enjoying the time together!

I'm still tired from the weekend, so off to bed I go!

much love,

erin

Robins & Eggs

When we pulled into the driveway Monday evening, I saw a Robin right in front of the car holding a worm in his mouth. I excitedly got Adrianna out of the car so that she could see when suddenly he flew up to the trellis right next to the house. Looking closer I realized that - hey - there's a nest in there... and it's full of baby Robins! We watched off and on as the mom and dad brought food to the babies. It was amazing how still they sat there waiting... not even a peep!

The trellis isn't all that big and actually was blown down last year. I set it back in place and propped a stepping stone against it and forgot about it. It had been covered in beautiful Clematis flowers which hid the nest from view. Now that the flowers have dropped off they seem a little bit exposed. Hopefully they don't attract anyone's attention.

Here they are today... looking a lot more like real birds instead of little babies. It's a shame that we missed the eggs and the babies hatching... although it was probably during all that rain. It will still be fun to see them get bigger and fly off!

Onto the eggs that I do have.... blue-green eggs from the farmer's market at work. Adrianna was really excited that I got them. After all, Green Eggs & Ham is her *favorite* book ever! We took care to poke holes in the each end and blow the insides out... yea - I don't recommend doing that ever. It's kind of like trying to blow up a balloon that just won't inflate, but like for 10 minutes straight... and that was just one egg! Exhausting! After the hard work of emptying them and rinsing them out, I decorated them with some leftover rubons from a swap kit. I may still add some bling and flowers or something when I recover my strength. The things I do for my baby girl and the sake of creativity! ;-)

Speaking of my baby girl.... here is my most recent layout of her posing with her wheelbarrow. What a ham!

much love,

erin

Inside Work vs. Outside Work

This is the time of year that it gets a little crazy. The regular indoor chores are still there... plus a little spring cleaning to boot. And the outdoor chores are multiplying like bunnies... weeds here, edging there, tall grass everywhere. I find myself heading outside to take out the trash and notice a few new weeds. I pause to pull *just them* nothing more..... and 30 to 45 minutes later I'm still at it. Yikes! Sometimes Adrianna will say "are you going outside, mommy?" ... 'cause she knows it *could* take a while to make a quick trip to the recycle bin. :)


Last weekend was so nice weather-wise that I think I spent the entire time outside. Despite that, there is still so much more to go... and the plans in my head would take years of work and a bigger budget. Adrianna and I had a great time at the garden center. I got a pink cultivater so she is psyched to help out. Anything pink, right? She picks out an annual each year to plant in a pot. Ironically, every year she picks out a geranium. She looks through the entire greenhouse to find the perfect plant... and always a geranium. This year it is peachy-pink with purple streaks on the leaves. I'm not really a geranium fan, but she does look pretty cute planting it - don't ya' think?






New for me... a spirea (I think "Reeves", but got one without a tag... must go back and check), a bee balm, shasta daisy, a new phlox - purple with white centers and a silver and gold plant( of the chrysanthemum family).


This weekend I was forced to come inside and clean all the stuff I skipped last weekend.... or at least *some* of it! Mom, I actually dusted AND vacuumed. Usually I just straighten and vacuum. Dusting is to be avoided at all costs, at least in my humble opinion. :)


I also am attempting to organize the scrapping area... although it's stuck in disaster mode right now. I know it has to get worse before it gets better... but why THAT much worse? I had to take a break from organizing to get some actual scrapbooking done. I am working on a new DT kit and finshed one layout today. I forgot to share April's projects... so here goes. I had a great time with the Bo Bunny papers. The backs with the tone-on-tone prints are so versatile you could use them for almost any style. The coordinating stickers/alpha sheet was nice to have too... and I used those alphas for 2 layouts and the altered item and I still have quite a few left!


First my little skater girl. The colors in her shirt were just perfect for these Bo Bunny papers. Love the black Prima bling flourish! I cut the part that was going to be hidden underneath the journaling tag and put it on the other side. A little harder to place and keep the shape... but nice to get a two-fer.

Next up - and old photo of Sergio and Adrianna outside Famous Dave's. I love this pic... and ordered an 8x12 enlargement... but they gave me 4 copies on accident! I cut this one down and hid another photo and the journaling behind it.

And the inside....

My final layout was of me and Donna Downey at the Get Croppin' event a couple of years ago. The shadow around the photo is a transparency lifted with pop dots. I finished everything and couldn't come up with a title... so I ended up having to squeeze it in. Funny thing is I love how it turned out. I guess I was right to keep plugging away at it... this was option number four at least. :)

Here is my all-occasion card with a sticker from BB's sticker sheet, and button and a little doodling with the AC gel pen. Simple and cute! I love how the double-side paper on the inside peeks out!

My altered item was a little gift card holder I picked up at WalMart a few years ago. A perfect blank slate.... and I know I took pics of it, but who knows where I put them or what I called them. So just trust me that it was simple and cute! ;-)

Anyways... gotta get to bed. Work tomorrow after all!

much love,

erin

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Happy Friday! Even the flowers knew that it was a good day. My clematis were all opened up suddenly this morning. What a nice surprise!

Yesterday, Thursday, was day 9 in our streak of rainy days. Today is supposed to be day 10 with rain moving in after 10pm tonight. Right now it's 11:30ish and no rain. Looks like we may squeak through and miss that double digit mark... thank goodness!

On Wednesday I realized that I hadn't put the rain guage out. We already had showers in progress, but A~ wanted the rain guage out there to see how much. Around 7pm I dashed out, put the guage in the garden bed, and ran back in. Within hours we had torrents of rain and thunderstorms... and almost 2 inches of rain to boot! A~ was thrilled to get to tell my how much we got the next day. I have a feeling the rain guage is going to be her new toy! :)

much love,

erin

PS. Here my last layout based on an ad challenge... simple, clean and perfect for this busy shot of A~ and Sergio at Sesame Place.

Out Of My Comfort Zone

I've been lurking over at Method Playground for some time, checking out the bi-weekly challenges. I often add the challenge to my to-do list... but, as is often the case with lists, I just don't get to everything on it. Yesterday I looked at the challenge again. I had seen it before and dismissed it as not really for *me*. The challenge was to use magazine pages in/on your layout. I don't have many magazines... and the ones I do get are promptly recycled after reading (well... except for the new Family Handyman mags from my parents - I am saving those in hopes of putting them to good use!). I figured I would just wait until Monday and a new challenge was posted.





Late last night I started cleaning up my guestroom/scrap space/storage area. I happened upon a couple of mags that I bought for my last plane ride and started flipping through them... was there anything I needed to keep, I thought? I passed an ad for Children's Place with pretty spring dresses and the title "Spread a little sunshine." Aha!!! There it was! I pulled out my punches and started punching out parts for my page. I pulled out some new sheets of paper I just picked up... some Basic Grey, Sassafrass Lass, and Pink Paislee. I flipped through some older pics..... and about an hour later it was all done. The magazine, collage thing isn't me.... but I think I pulled off a very "erin" page even though it wasn't something I would normally do! Yeah me! :)

These pictures were taken in Atchison, Kansas, at Shel-bel's softball game. The other team was beating them to a pulp, and it was a long and painful event. I brought some bubbles for Wyatt and Adrianna to play with... and Neva took over the bubble blowing so that they could concentrate on the bubble popping. We were having such a great time!

much love,
erin