Fall Fun!

This weekend was our regular trip to Cox Farm. They have the best pumpkin patch around... and slides and music and food too. Adrianna just adores it. Trying to get her to leave is an effort in futility. So this year Sergio went early while I had a scrapbooking class... then we did the switcheroo so that he could play soccer and I could take over. So the lucky girl spent pretty much the entire day running and sliding and more. Once you get her into the car it's only a couple of minutes down the road and she is out!


I can't believe that my okra is still producing in the garden. Not as much as before, and the pods are short and fat... and a bit lumpy. Many of the leaves are brown, and ants are eating up the rest... and yet it's still putting out flowers and chugging along. I have 3 bags in the freezer (one blanched and two breaded) to hold me over. Sergio and Adrianna didn't go for the gumbo, but the plain fried stuff goes down quick. Darn, I was hoping to eat all of it myself! :)



Here is Adrianna's imitation of the Cosmos flower (the actual flower is just over her head):

The flower behind her was a seedling she brought home for Mother's Day from school. It struggled a bit, got attacked by various aphid-y looking bugs and we did our best to nurse it back to health... 'cause you know you can't just toss a bug-infested plant when it was her special Mother's Day gift to you... well you could, but then you will get the cold shoulder for an extended period of time. So I carefully sprayed insect killer on it and used a toothpick to remove the offensive intruders. We put it out in the flower bed and hoped for the best. It just kind of sat there doing nothing... then in August it got really tall and gangly... and then on Sunday... voila! a bloom! And it was really hard to get the closeup photo... since it's actually above eye level. I guess all that extra love and attention with the bug removal gave it a big heart. Plus... it was planted with great love, after all!

much love,

erin

Catching Up

Has it really been almost 2 months since I posted? How sad! I don't know if I've been too lazy, too busy, or a combination of the two... ;-)

Fall is in full swing and Adrianna started up with her first official soccer team a couple of weeks ago. They named themselves the Fireballs and are 1-0-1 after two games. Not bad and she's having a pretty good time too. It's only for 9 weeks, so it's a good test to see if this is something she'll want to continue or not.

I took a couple of quick videos on my iPod, but I don't know if I can edit them or not. I guess I need to play with it a bit more and see. I can take them in either landscape or portrait and my PSE will let me view it back right-side up... but not sure that it will upload here that way... and the ones I have that would be the correct orientation have the other side scoring. Oops!

This week we went into full chestnut mode. Early on in the week we picked up a few here and there... and on Friday they really started falling and picked up 5 pounds worth. Add in the pound-ish for the beginning of the week and the ones from Saturday and Sunday and we are at about 15 pounds of chestnuts. We have friends lined up to take them... since we've tried them a couple of times and they just aren't for us. They are still falling.... actually it's frightening as sometimes you can hear them as they hurtle through the tree bouncing off branches as they head toward you. If the whole pod falls, it's like a giant, pointy tennis ball. Ouch!

Lastly, one new layout from the Apple Cider collectioin from Imaginisce. I loved these pics of Adrianna, Neva, and Wyatt from a couple of years ago... they look so cute holding onto each other!





much love,
erin

October Afternoon In June

You know that the October Afternoon papers I picked out didn't make it in time for my DT month at the store. Lucky for me, they did decide to use them the following month... so I did get to play with the yummy patterns after all.


I was really happy with my two-pager. The idea to make my larger photos look like old postcards using deckle-edged scissors was a winner. I added the title to the large photo in Photoshop Elements and then finished the title with a shot I took of the orchard sign.

My sketch layout took a little finessing until I was happy with it. The bright papers just made me smile... the blue is Sprinklers and the yellow is Dandelions. Yummy!

This one of Adrianna at the playground was the last one I finished, but I think I love it the most. Love the orange, love the buttons, and love, love, love her pose!

It's hard to believe that this layout is from the same papers. Using the pale pink cardstock and selectively cutting up the Ice Cream paper gives the line a completely different look. Alas, I still have to add the journaling... but I'm not sure if I want to talk about books in general or the book she's holding (It's time for bed... the illustrations are so beautiful and the words just lul you to sleep). Hey mom, recognize the onesie? :)

I still have a few more to share, but it's getting late and I need to get to sleep.

much love to everyone,

erin

Cards, Cousins & Good Times

I just wanted to share a couple of the projects I finished up for July. I was really inspired by the Bo Bunny papers and found everything coming together really quickly this month. The red, white, and blue is not what I normally pick up... I'm more of a greens and browns person. And, well, Adrianna's outfits usually require a fair amount of pink. But I guess it's good to do something a wee bit different.

First up, this great photo of Adriana with Neva and Wyatt outside of Pappadeaux's in Houston. {The dinner there was fabulous. I'm still wishing for more of the spaghetti squash that was on Shan's plate. It was SO good! My food was delicious too... 'cept I can't remember what it was. That's how it goes sometimes... I remember what I missed rather than what I got. Sad but true!}

I really worked on the little details, trying to layer pieces together. The papers are all Bo Bunny and the red scalloped floral piece under the title came from the little journaling spiral notebook that goes with the line. I added Basic Grey paper lace as well as kraft journaling stickers and borders. The large flowers are from Making Memories and the buttons are from Rusty Pickle. Although it's more layered than my usual, it's still fairly clean and neat. The title was causing me trouble... but finally a freak cutting accident brought it all together. Accidents work out for the best sometimes! :)

I am especially proud of my cards this month. The papers immediately reminded me of the Star Prints stamp set from Papertrey Ink last year. I splurged and ordered them just to get me motivated for the cards I knew I'd have to make. Their stamps are so very nice. Great quality, great packaging, very well thought out. Perfect for card makers. I drool over them often.

When I was window shopping in Reston, I popped into Paper Source and saw this woodgrain stamp from Hero Arts. Right away I knew it would be perfect for card fronts... it's just the size to cover a standard card. I picked it up and tried stamping with embossing ink and clear embossing powder on brown cardstock. I love how it turned out! Simple and fun! I only added a photo corner sticker and some scraps leftover from layouts to finish it off.

I have a few more projects... but I'll share them next time.

much love,

erin

In The Pink

Yesterday was Adrianna's first dance class. She picked out a couple of leotards... including this one with a little attached skirt. Of course they both are pink. Pink is her favorite, and it works well for little ballerinas, so it's a good fit. I have to admit, it is totally adorable! The class is a Ballet/Jazz/Tap combo class... so maybe next week I'll get some tap shots to share.

Although I was tempted to take some pictures through the classroom window, there was a mob of moms and grandmoms blocking the way for almost the entire time. That's okay... these turned out very cute!

Not cute at all... but kind of funny are my surprise pink feet. I was spray painting the new lamp we bought for Adrianna's room. Later, we headed to Walmart to take care of our shopping list. On the way into the store I noticed a pink line on my foot. Upon closer inspection, I found that I had the outlines of my flip flops sprayed on my feet... but not around the flip flops, only underneath. How exactly does that happen? Not sure, but I got to walk around all day making sure that my flip flops didn't shift and expose my "operator error"... too funny!

We finally got some rain yesterday and I went out to check on the garden. We've kept the rabbits and groundhogs at bay with my little 3 foot fence... but the deer discovered my tomatoes and did a number on them. :( I had put extra cages up around my Juliette to make it a little bit harder to reach and they don't seem to like the squatty Roma plants much, so my two Lemon Boys took the brunt of the attack. Hopefully they'll recover. The neighbor has lost most of her plants to the deer so I guess they are shifting over to us. I keep turning the side house light on at night and checking on them periodically, but no deer sighting yet.

This is the garden in mid-June. My great idea this year was to snake a soaker hose through the length of the garden as I planted everything. I can pop out first thing in the morning and turn the water on and then turn it off an hour later when I go to work. Much easier than dragging watering cans back and forth! I may get more of these for the side flower beds once they are finished and planted and do the same thing.

That's all for now!

much love,
erin

Bo Bunny's Sophie

In April I got the bad news that the October Afternoon papers I picked out to use for the Design Team at ScrapbooksPlus were not shipping in time. So... after a quick panic attack... I popped into the store to see what was new, what was pretty, and what we had enough of in stock to make 9 kits and still have extra for sale. In a record two hours, I pulled papers from Bo Bunny's new Sophie line. I loved the tealy-blues and chocolate browns, and even though I'm not usually a lavender fan, these lilac shades won me over. Anther half-hour of math and putting items in baggies and we were set!


Then the hard part came... when I'm contemplating my layouts for the month, generally I pull some photos and have a rough draft in my head before I even have the paper in hand. But now I had to set those aside and start from scratch. I had a hard time getting started... and I pulled my first all-nighter to get everything finished on May 1st. Yikes - I'm too old for that anymore!


Here's what I came up with:

One of the backs of the patterned paper had this great lime green tone-on-tone print. It was totally bright and happy. I paired it with some of the paper and added lavender accents. This is the carousel at the mall in Houston. It broke down right after we took our turn... lucky us!

Next I used an embroidery hoop to make a layout using the photo my sister sent in her Christmas card. Love the photo! The background paper had enough detail, so I just added a few accents here and there.

Here's Adrianna at two with the puppy dog that Papi got her in Bolivia. She just didn't want to let go of it! The title holder is cut from Bo Bunny's page of journaling cards and shapes.

Here's a layout of me.... I know I'm usually absent from my pages... but the pretty floral reminded me of my wedding bouquet. The big Prima flower is accented with some smaller Melissa Frances vintage blossoms and lace. I love the tone-on-tone title... very sophisticated and subtle. The letter stickers are some glittered K & Co. that I've had for some time.

Another Adrianna shot... this time on the beach in Galveston. Very simple layout to show off the background design. I made a mitered frame of Bo Bunny's double dot paper... LOVE that stuff to ground the layout but not cover up too much of the floral spray on the right.

That's all for now!

much love,

erin

Today's the Last Day!

It's the last day of school! I have to say... although I didn't plan my vacation day around the last day of school, it was really nice to put Adrianna on the bus this morning. Today is mismatch day, hence the different shoes and socks.

After coming back to the house, I got a few shots of the bees enjoying the Veronica plants I picked up a week or so ago. The wildlife just loves our front flower bed. Adrianna is not so thrilled that the bees are frequenting our yard!

I finished a new layout yesterday... just a quick page using up some scraps I had laying around and a photo that was leftover - pulled for another page, but not actually used! A better option compared to trying to find the box it came from. I'm so lazy! ;)

much love,

erin

Family Fun!

The beginning of May, Adrianna and I went to the Family Day at Glen Echo Park in Maryland. It's a bit of a drive, but we decided that it would be worth it. On the way there, I got to use Adrianna as my official navigator... and she did great! Some of the street names were a little shaky, but, you know, they are hard! I was really impressed with her reading. And it was a big, huge, gigantic help. Those old, curvy roads in parts of Maryland require both hands to be firmly on the wheel, kwim?

Anyways, the park had family activities like a magic show, face painting, craft projects, and such. The antique carousel was open for rides and many of the artists studios were open and items for sale. Yea, there was an $8,000 painting that I just loved... too bad it won't match my decor, right? (Yikes! But it was pretty!) The little ceramics studios were in funny little buildings that reminded me of an upside down cupcake liner. I so wish I took a picture. We got to tie-dye a t-shirt and watch a glass blowing demonstration. Very cool!

Adrianna got to show off her hula hoop skills in the family games area. Luckily they had adult-sized hoops so that I could redeem myself. It's good to know that it is possible... you just need a hoop sized for a wider load! :) The other kids and parents were pointing out Adrianna's prowess to their kids... see how she does it... try again, it's possible... she's doing it. And she was more than happy to show off. Hee, hee!

Here I am, courtesy of Adrianna's photographic skills, standing in line waiting for the carousel. She was worried that she wouldn't get one of the bunnies. She counted out the number available... I think it was four, and exactly where each was located....

Well, she was in luck as you can see.

One the way back to the car, with blistered feet from all the walking, we picked up Slurpees and all was good!

much love,

erin

I know someone famous!!!

Well, actually, I'm related to someone famous....

my niece Shelby!



I am so proud of her being part of the winning Real World Desing Challenge Team 2009-2010. It was fabulous for their team to win the state competition and meet the govenor of Kansas.... and then to make the top three in the national competition and get to present at the National Air and Space Musuem on the IMAX theatre screen... WOW... But obviously it's even more fabulous to win! Here's the winning presentation (click on See Last Year's Champions Present). She's even been interviewed. You know you've made it when they ask for a quote, right? (Can you tell that I'm excited?!) Love you, Shel-bel!

We were all excited to get to see her when she was in town last month. Adrianna wanted to spend every second with her.

much love,

the extra proud aunt,

erin

:)

Catch Up!

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. We have a new computer and new internet access (Go Fios!) and .... although one would think that would make it easier to post .... it hasn't worked that way. It's taken a while to get all of the files moved from the old computer to the new computer and I am having a little trouble resizing my photos to post. I used to use the software that came with my old camera, but it doesn't make sense to load that on since I'm no longer using that camera... it may not work with Windows 7 anyway. I tried out the new camera software on the old computer, but doesn't really work the same way and I wasn't completely happy with the results. I didn't bother to load it on the new computer yet and am trying to use Adobe PSE instead... but with limited success so far. Hopefully I'll get it figured out soon!


In the meantime, here are the March Design Team layouts I made for ScrapbooksPlus.

First up, the obligatory card... pretty simple, but overall a good card for me! :)




Next, my sketch layout. I had fun with this. It's the first time that I took pics specifically for a layout. I love having a photo printer... it makes it soooo easy! :)




This was the first layout I finished. I fell in love with the yellow Thickers and got some Bazzil swiss dot paper to go with the patterned paper. The colors reminded me of baby Adrianna enjoying my homemade butternut squash baby food. Isn't she cute?!

The soft colors in the American Crafts papers really worked well with Easter photos. Here is Adrianna's first Easter dress. As you can tell, I love the kraft paper with this line. So many of the papers are busy, so a little kraft paper gives your eye a place to rest and shows off the papers. The yellow is BoBunny's double dot paper. It is a favorite of mine... it comes in lots of colors and is a great go-to paper to mix with many lines.

Here is my two-pager. Sergio got these ultra closeups of Adrianna trying not smile. It's so funny looking at her "mean" face. What a cutie pie!

I am in charge of the May kit and am working on getting the October Afternoon "Fly A Kite" line. The colors are absolutely lovely and I can't wait to get my hands on them!

I'll try to get some updating done before then... promise! :)

much love,

erin

Holy Icicles, Batman!

We have been indundated with snow.... about 40 inches since last weekend, but the snow is a bit boring. Sure it's pretty and all when it first falls, but then it's just a big mess and a lot of shoveling. Now what's really interesting is the icicles. We have them everywhere. They're on the gutters, the windows, and even the door frame. The ones in our path I knock down... don't want any falling on me! But the rest I just love to look at. They are pretty magical and sparkly... and there is no shoveling involved! :) The first specimens are from outside our bedroom window and the giant dagger formation is outside the side door.



much love,
erin

A Dandy Layout

Just a quick note to share a new layout. Hopefully spring (with a few less dandelions than last year) will be here soon!



much love,
erin

Snow and Silliness

It was here.... snowstorm number six. Usually we only get two or three... and number six was a doosie (or it is a doozy?). Dulles International Airport ended up with just over 34 inches. I did not measure myself... and we are expecting 3 to 6 more inches on Tuesday to Wednesday. Yikes!

The Barretts took care of us with their plow and snowblower. Thank goodness! We made them homemade cutout sugar cookies (snowmen, of course!) and white chocoolate dipped Rice Krispie treats (the old recipe with all of the butter). Yum!

We had no television from late Friday until only an hour ago... I think the dish was buried on the roof... so Adrianna practiced her hula hoop spinning and hit a new record. 150 consecutive spins! Very impressive don't you think?





On another note, Adrianna got a pair of kid-sized Groucho Marz glasses at a birthday party last weekend (snowstorm number four!) and wanted one of us to try them on for a photo. Well, you know that nose and ears grow forever, right? And apparently I'm getting older... or at least my nose is getting bigger... because at first glance the picture here didn't appear to have a big, fake nose at all. In fact, it looked a lot like my real nose. Not fair! It looks cute on her though:



much love,
erin

2010 Design Team Projects

I forgot that I never posted the projects I made for the Scrapbooks Plus Design Team tryouts. So here goes....

This is my 2 page layout. Almost all of the papers in this SEI line were pinks, lavenders and grays, but the soft plaid patterned paper really worked with Adrianna's little plaid dress. I actually got in trouble for this one. Adrianna did not want anyone else to see these pics (so, shush... don't tell her!). She says that they are embarrassing. Who knew?!



The DT kit came with this really wide lace that is totally yummy. Adding a big folded flower was really all that it needed to come together. Simple and lovely!



We needed to make a layout that was not 12x12. I bought some 6x12 page protectors like a year ago.... so I decided to make something that size. I added some blue and green vellum - kind of reminded me of the colors of sea glass - and some buttons (my favorite embellishment).



This is one of my favorite photos of all time. The entire picture lifts so there is lots and lots of space behind it for journaling. It's still empty now.... gotta think of what I want to say! Hopefully I got the title right. I wasn't sure if it should be backward glance or backwards glance.....



thanks for stopping by!
erin