Just Because

Fall Fun!

2010-10-12T22:59:00.006-04:00

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

2010-09-19T23:38:00.005-04:00

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

2010-07-22T22:39:00.008-04:00

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

2010-07-15T22:11:00.010-04:00

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

2010-07-11T08:27:00.005-04:00

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

2010-06-22T19:00:00.001-04:00

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!

2010-06-18T14:28:00.006-04:00

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!

2010-05-18T21:32:00.003-04:00

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!!!

2010-04-24T07:31:00.001-04:00

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!

2010-03-21T18:41:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-02-11T21:36:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-10T23:00:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-07T19:16:00.000-05:00

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

2010-01-31T09:44:00.000-05:00

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

Snow and Spring

2010-01-17T08:13:00.000-05:00

It's raining here today... and it just may melt away the last of the snow piles remaining from last month's blizzard. I know Adrianna is going to be sad about that. Every night when we come home, she gets out of the car and heads straight for the little mountains of icy snow to climb and slide around while I lock the car and get the mail. She's been begging for rainboots for months... so when she saw these at Walmart, her begging kicked into high gear. It worked and I caved and bought them. Now she is set for spring puddle-jumping! :)

Speaking of spring.... I was reading the Pantone color report for my Big Picture Scrapbooking class "Inspiration Defined" by Elizabeth Dillow. I noticed that soft lavenders were back. Hmmm, I thought. Purples really aren't my favorite colors to work with. Perhaps I'll concentrate more on the turquoise and tomato red. Around the same time, I read on a message board that Becky Fleck was having a sketch contest over at PageMaps and went to take a look. I loved the sketch and decided to try to use one big picture instead of three small ones. Next thing you know, I pulled out this photo of the crocuses a couple of years ago and scrounged through my scraps for some purples. A little adjustment was all it needed to fit. I didn't make it in time to submit for the contest... but at least I finished it!

I totally love this layout and have it displayed on my cookbook stand. With the cold rain, it's good to have a reminder of spring to look at! My favorite part... the journaling tag from Webster's Pages in the Bo Bunny bracket frame and I love, love, LOVE the little orangey-yellow buttons... a perfect match to the stamens peeking out of the centers of the flowers. The little things make me the happiest!

much love,
erin

Yarn It!

2010-01-10T11:18:00.000-05:00

Too cold here to do much! Scrapbooking is taking a back seat to yarn arts. We've bought lots of yarn and a new loom. I already had a loom knitting books plus we visited the library for a couple of crochet books. Soon we will be covered in cozy creations! The loom went pretty well.... got this hat with half a ball of yarn and about three hours. I could probably do it faster now that I've got the hang of it. Adrianna wants to make me a scarf. I'm not sure she be able to keep it up long enough to get it finished, but we'll see! :)

much love,
erin

Good News!

2010-01-01T23:09:00.000-05:00

The first piece of good news.... the computer is finally back and running. We are still reloading software, but what a relief to have it back! I am having a few issues posting and this site is making me type everything into the edit html box, but at least I'm in.

The second piece of good news.... I'm going to get to be on the Scrapbooks Plus Design Team again next year. I was a little worried as the SEI paper was tough for me to work with... foil and glitter accents aren't so much me. :)

Here are my January DT submissions. We used Upsy Daisy Designs - Man About Town line - which is full of soft blues and browns.

This one page layout is my mom and her sisters around 1957. I punched a lacey edge, crumpled it up and pleated it to make it more dimensional. The thicker title is painted with Tim Holtz crackle paint as well as the grungeboard accents.

A totally different style is this one-pager based on a monthly sketch from my fellow design team member, Loretta. I love the clean lines and finally pulled out those colored staples I had to have years ago! :)

This one page layout is my dad in 1969. I tore a piece of cork paper to add some texture. The title is made from some game-style pieces I picked up ages ago for a collage project that never made it to fruition. Isn't he handsome? ;-)

My final layout, my two-pager this month features our favorite ice cream place, Nathan's... it is wonderful! I use some circle punches and Jenni Bowlin chipboard buttons to create my own out of patterned paper. The eyelet holes give them a little more interest than just plain old paper.

That's all for now.... there'll be more later, I promise!

much love,
erin

The Tooth Fairy Was Here!

2009-10-25T16:06:00.000-04:00

I am at the library giving you a little update. Still no internet... but the computer is slowly on it's way back to good health.

Friday night, the Tooth Fairy visited! Adrianna's tooth has been frightfully loose since before school started. I was *supposed* to have called the dentist to schedule an extraction of the stubborn baby tooth, which was barely hanging on by a thread... but with Adrianna having her ILI (influenza like illness) and such, there just hadn't been time. Anyway... she was brushing her teeth and suddenly a yell came from the bathroom. By the time I got there, blood was all over. (I don't remember bleeding when my teeth fell out... but that was a long, long time ago!) She was thrilled! ... and the Tooth Fairy brought her $5, so that was nice too!

much love,
erin

My MInd's Eye - September Projects

2009-09-13T22:31:00.000-04:00

We got sets of My Mind's Eye - Ooh La La line of paper for our projects this month. It comes with a page of die cuts. My goal was to try to use all of them... because, really, if you save them to use later they will just sit there collecting dust. I got one 1-page layout and five 2-page layouts plus 2 cards out of the kit... and I still have a few good-sized scraps left. Not bad!

I just LOVE the MME papers. I almost bought a set similar to this one in pinks and turquoises, but I resisted! Good for me! :) Here's are the pages I made... almost exactly in reverse order:

First off, here is my little sunshine! I recolored the flowers with several shades of Glimmer Mist. Green flowers got green and blue mist, gray flowers got khaki mist and yellow and rust flowers got yellow mist. In real life they have a nice subtle sparkle. I also misted the ribbon (from the packaging of a bulb forcing kit) and the Heidi Swapp title letters with the Simply Khaki Glimmer Mist. This is my favorite color. It just knocks down the brightness of items and makes them look a little bit aged... but still sparkly. Love it! The die cut brackets were from the kit, but the color was too blue-gray... so I ran them through the Xyron upside down, covered it with Martha's Aquamarine Glitter, and then a coat of Glossy Accents to prevent anything from moving. The bling here is the new Basic Gray Bling It On... they are a nice gray/platinum shade... but some of them did not want to release from the backer, ended up separating from the glue, and ended up in the trash. I have better luck with the Kaisercraft ones personally. Oh, and yes, the ribbon was a pain to hand baste... and pain to gather... and a really huge pain to glue down. But it looks nice, right?

The yellow wall at the Taca Cabana inspired this layout. I just *love* the happy shade of yellow... and the food too! :) I used one of the vinyl rubons from Scrapworks over a die cut tag for the small and demure "Family" title. I colored the tag with a Heidi Swapp colored pencil to help it stand out... although in this pic it's hard to tell... perhaps I should go over it one more time!

Here are my two crazies! ... or is it crazys? Either way, they sure are hams for the camera. I wanted to use this older set of thickers... but the black was too much. So I grabbed some black cardstock scraps and added the torn edge to one side and the straight edge to the other. Talk about stretching the paper to make the most of it! The little labels are some super inexpensive ones from 7 Gypsies that came in a little booklet. Of course I sprayed them with some of the Simply Khaki Glimmer Mist since they were too white. What will I do when that bottle runs out?! The shiny dots are just Glossy Accents applied over top of the patterned paper. Simple and eye-catching!

This one is my favorite this month! The dotted paper made me think of the paper on the inside covers of children's book... which made me look for photos of Adrianna reading... and I found Lyle. She didn't like the book that much... only a single read for this one... but the green croc on the cover inspired the page. I rumpled the notebook print paper and inked the edges green to help it stand out from the cream backed dot paper. I accidentally ripped the top edge... so I had to rip a little more to make it look right. Then it needed something else, so the hanging tags were born. I love the framed title and the stitching finishes it off.

Here's a simple romantic page. The title is hand drawn, cut from velvet paper and chalked a bit to help the colors match. I love the gray-blue accents here with the pop of yellow. Very striking to show off our little girl forcing a kiss on Papi at a wedding. I can't remember the date... but I do remember that this was the weekend before the lice episiode... and that was so traumatic that everything else was forgotten! (sorry if you're feeling itchy now!)

Last but not least, here was my first creation of the month. We have to make at least one 2-page layout... and it's always a struggle for me. This is the first time that I used my HP Photosmart D7560 (Yes, I do love it!) to print the photos just for scrapping. I used a few of the die cuts... the photo corner is really a half-frame ... and I love this green honeycomb paper. It is fresh, fun, and modern looking. I paired it with some of the Whitewash Co'ordinations paper. The title is a stamped die cut in a label holder paired with some really, really old Lil Davis chipboard letters. The square letters have sat in my stash forever waiting for the perfect colored layout and this was it. Really, it would be totally easy to recreate these... all you need is some scraps of chipboard, ink or paint, alphabet stamps, and glossy accents to seal it and give it that professional, store-bought look. The journaling is a quote from Laura Ingalls Wilder from a Mary Englebreit card I've been holding onto for 9 years. I knew it would come in handy! :)

much love,

erin

School, pool, and a pooper

2009-09-13T21:57:00.000-04:00

School is in session and we are definitely the parents of a 1st grader. We are watching iCarly daily and I had to remember when the special new episode ("I think they kissed"... I really wanted to see what happened) was coming on yesterday so that Adrianna and I could watch it together. I've been sucked in... I know, it's sad. I'm a little old for it, but it's still fun to have something to sit and watch together and both be entertained. :)

Here is our big little girl on her first day of school:

During the Labor Day holiday weekend, we went to Atlantis Water Park in Bull Run Regional Park and had a great time. The weather was fabulous... not hot and not chilly... and I'm sure that helped. The park really impressed me. It's not huge, but it had everything we needed and it wasn't too crowded. They had several different pool areas of different depths with small slides, a couple of bigger slides, a water play area, a sand digging area, and a baby pool that Adrianna said was just perfect! I liked it way better than the other area water parks we've visited. We'll definitely go back next year!

Adrianna is still in love with out bunny Honeybun. (Aren't they cute?) She is getting bigger by the day and is quite a poop machine! Hopefully the litter training will start to work. I thought we were making progress, but when I cleaned her cage she's using the box as well as every corner... even where her dish and hay are. I think she's going to train us to move her food to the middle instead of us training her to go in the right place! We'll see who wins!

much love,

erin

Welcome Honeybun!

2009-08-20T23:22:00.000-04:00

Adrianna's been asking for a bunny since last year's trip to the fair. When the babysitter's son got a bunny this summer, the pleading really begin in earnest. Someone even took to fixing her bed everyday to prove that she was big enough to have a pet. (I loved that part!)

So, we went to the fair right at the beginning to be sure to have a shot at getting one. As luck would have it... we got there too early and nobody seemed to be selling their bunnies. Uh-oh! Houston, we have a problem. Little girl desperate for a bunny to call her own and no bunnies available.

After making several rounds of barns, rides, games, bunnies, barns, rides, games, bunnies... finally some smaller ones appeared in some of the empty cages and for sale signs with them! Adrianna first choice was for an all white bunny with pink eyes... not my favorite at all.... so I asked if we could check out some of the other white bunnies with spots. It would be easier to tell them apart and get just the right one, after all. She picked out this little one, the smallest of the four in the cage, and named it Honeybun (awwww!). I love how she (the "she" part is just a wild guess) looks like she has elaborate eye makeup on. Perhaps she's a mysterious, exotic bunny... or just ready to party! Her beauty mark is SO Marilyn!

Honeybun is adapting well and Adrianna has a new friend to watch tv with. I'm staying up late as I have all the sheets in the washer and/or dryer since someone had a bit of an accident on them and only the flannels are clean. Gotta find that litterbox training info online! :)

Here are some Fair shots from last Saturday.... Adrianna on her favorite ride - the carousel, having fun on the bumper cars with Papi, and posing with me on some spinning ride. Luckily between the two of us, Adrianna has someone to ride almost anything with... Sergio for the roller coasters and ferris wheel, and me for the scrambler and tilt-o-whirl. She does the swings by herself... and even puts her hands in the air! :)

much love,

erin

August DT Pages and Projects

2009-08-08T15:46:00.000-04:00

Well... since it's the 8th... it's about time that I post my August projects here. I already posted my favorite, but there's more to share! :)

For my 2 page layout this month I really wanted to focus on the orange patterned paper. I love orange! The colors looked great with the photos from the pumpkin patch a couple of years ago. The letters are from KI Memories and were printed to match some paper I've had for ages. I ran some cardstock through my Xyron to cover them. It took some effort to trim, but it's a great way to recyle patterned letters!

My altered item is a 12x12 welcome sign. The base is chipboard from Rusty Pickle. It's meant to be a 4 page book, but I borrowed one page for my wallhanging instead. I used some Maya Road chipboard pieces to accent it and foam Heidi Swapp letters. My favorite part is the roof of the house. I cut strips of cardstock with scalloped edged scissors and glued them on to really give it a cottage feel.

I made an extra 1 page layout featuring a friendly butterfly... actually he's on my knee in the photo! He didn't want to leave me alone! I like the serene color scheme here... lots of cream with green and pops of turquoise. Lovely!

Here are my cards. First a circular Hi card made from one of the die cut frames...

and then a simple patchwork card with a Basic Grey rubon. This Nestabilities die is my favorite... and this bracket shape makes every card look special!

thanks for stopping by!

erin

True Love - Circa 1949

2009-08-03T00:29:00.000-04:00

I am so tired and must get to bed. It was a busy birthday partying weekend. Overall, quite successful... and busy... and tiring. :)

I can't let the weekend end without posting my newest favorite layout. A special thanks goes out to my Shel-bell for scanning the photo and sending it to me. You rawk! :)

I love this photo of Grandma and Grandpa and it took me almost a week to get the layout to be what I saw in my head. I hope that I did it justice. We aren't sure of the year... the photo came from a friend of theirs and nothing is written on it to give us a clue. We *think* it's from before my mother was born... and Grandma's obviously not expecting in the photo. :) We decided to date it "circa 1949" just to be safe. The journaling says "Grandma just adored her Alfred. He felt the same way about her."

Supplies: Lily Bee paper, Bo Bunny chipboard swirls, Kaisercraft pearls, a little die-cut from Recollections (their last Easter line), title is American Crafts Thickers and Making Memories tiny letters, lace from Fancy Pants, velvet ribbon is May Arts, and the white pen (and my horrible handwriting) is Signo Uniball. The buttons are from Grandma's own button jar.

thanks for stopping by,
erin

Peaches and Pages

2009-07-23T21:26:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we went to Hartland Orchard to pick peaches and blueberries. It was a beautiful day and we got a ton of fruit. Now I'm looking for a good peach freezer jam recipe! :)

I'm working on my August class for ScrapbooksPlus. I'm a little nervous about it, but I'm sure it will go just fine. It's a clear layout set of three pages. The first two are on a 12x12 clear base and the third is on regular paper. When you put them together they layer into a beautiful combination.

I recently finished the last 1st birthday layout for Adrianna with July's Design Team kit. Now I just need to do the other four years!

When I was in Houston last I snapped these photos of the house numbers painted on the curbs. I thought they were pretty cool and we had a great time looking for new designs for my photo collection. Of course, this was on our accidental 2-hour walk where we probably walked five miles... so we had to do something to keep it interesting!

much love,

erin

Final July Projects

2009-07-03T09:17:00.000-04:00

Looking over my project files, I only have 2 items that I didn't load yesterday... so I'm not sure why I didn't just put them up! I post on the Scrapbooks Plus Design Team blog on the 3rd, 20th, and 29th. I needed to get my post up for today and decided that it was better to stay up late to get it done than to get up early. I figured I'd post an update over here at the same time. I guess my brain was sleepy! Oh well... at least it's all up now. :)

Here is my 2 page layout featuring the new birthday paper from Bo Bunny. The center pulls off and is a little accordian album with all the details from the day. We tried to get photos of us with all of the different families of guests... and got all but a couple. It's a nice memory of the day. Hard to believe that it was almost 5 years ago! Wow!

My final card uses some of the KI Memories shimmer paper. I used my new Nestabilities dies to cut the bracket shapes. The inside of the card is stamped with "You sure dont' look THAT old! Happy Birthday!" The glitter paper was left over from last month.

Have a great holiday weekend!

much love,

erin

I can't make this stuff up!

2009-07-03T00:58:00.000-04:00

My little girl is amazing... amazingly funny, amazingly cute, amazingly difficult... the list goes on and on.

Tonight she got me to laugh a couple of times. Once on accident... and once on purpose. Read on:

First, she announced that she is going to cancel her vacation for the rest of her life. Why I asked... this is a new topic, previously unvisited; my interest is piqued. Well, she said, I'm going to get a poodle so I need to stay home and take care of her so I'm canceling all my plans to go to Bolivia, and Texas, and Kansas... because I'll need to wash her and feed her and walk her and give her food and brush her and feed her. (This is why dogs have a weight problem... you know!) Last month we discussed getting a bunny or a cat... but poodle was never in the equation. I tried to mention off-hand that we haven't really made any definite plans to get a pet. Well I have, she replied... on July 3rd at 5:00 pm... I planned it. I didn't laugh... you should be proud of me. Totally wanted to. I can't wait to tell Sergio that his little girl has already made plans... and that it involves a poodle. That should be fun!

Second, we were watching the results show of So You Think You Can Dance. As were sitting there, an iPhone commercial comes on. This is good:

Adrianna: Can I get an iPhone?
Me: Well, honey, I don't really think that you need one.
Adrianna: Well... can I get a butt phone then?
Me: {grin} {giggle}
Adrianna: {snort, snort}

I think this was her first real joke ever... or at least the first one that was funny! :)

Anyways... here's a bit of what I just finished for the store. We got papers from multiple lines and colorways... so here is the Doodlebug pink section for now. I'll get the rest up later this weekend.

First off a couple of cards. I love this one... especially the cupcake stamp from Elle's Studio. Too cute!

This card says "too sweet"... but it's a little hard to see here. I stamped in Robin's Egg blue ink on vellum and used clear embossing powder with rainbow sparkles.

I saw a beautiful centerpiece at the Melissa Frances booth at GASC. I am still looking for the parts to copy it. This is the closest I could do using a scalloped tray and an inverted bucket to create the cake plate, and wooden boxes for my cake. I added white tulle circles with silver sparkles from the wedding aisle to glam it up a bit. Crazily enough I cut out 20 ovals to overlap and create fluffy flower petals to intersperse with the Prima flowers on top.

Finally, my one page layout. Pretty simple and prettier in person. The pink is Bazzil bling cardstock and the blue circles and blue strip behind the ribbon is glitter embedded cardstock from last mont's DT kit.

much love,
erin

PS. Adrianna successfully read 25 books for the summer program already and is in possession of her color changing cup. She is a happy camper! :)

Inspired!

2009-06-28T10:22:00.001-04:00

Friday I took a vacation day to go to the Great American Scrapbook Convention just up the road in Chantilly. I signed up for only one class this time around, since the last couple of times I really didn't like the ones I chose. The class was a Pink Paislee class - LOVE their stuff - and we made a really cool altered item/page to display. I stayed up until almost 4am Friday night finishing the project (trying to get the title to fit on it!) and yesterday I made the two coordinating pieces. You know it's a good class when you actually finish it right away! I can't wait to hang them up!

Our instructor was Staci Etheridge and you can see her originals here. The class was great... her instructions were well-timed, commentary interesting, and, since she's a Texan, we got some authentic y'all's in there too. Bonus! It didn't hurt that I won a package of the Pink Paislee fabric strip flowers. Yum! :)

My pieces follow hers fairly closely, with just a few changes... I added a few Rusty Pickle buttons and put Dymo word strips on each one. I liked her photos with the white mats... but I there was no way I could get my little house off and shifted over (wow, self-adhesive chipboard that actually sticks!). Since I couldn't put the mat on each of them, I thought it best to leave them off altogether. I added a little door to my house... in part to add another outlined piece and in part to break up the strong pattern on it.

I had serious difficulty with the tree. Staci used a circle sticker... but since I changed the background, that wasn't an option. After several failed attempts at sketching a cloud-like shape, I pulled out my tin of Maya Road trees and traced one. I wish I could take credit - 'cause it looks fab!

Anyways... back to work. My Design Team projects for the store are due on Wednesday and I have a lot left to do! ... not to mention the yard work, house work, grocery shopping.... bleh! I work on Monday for payroll and then am off the rest of the week... so I may put off the groceries until then. As long as we have enough milk and bread! :)

much love,
erin

Little Reader

2009-06-20T08:41:00.000-04:00

I took yesterday off of work and - after popping by the post office to drop off Papa Louie's belated Father's Day package - Adrianna and I went to the local library. The plan was to check out some books and sign up for the summer reading program. I couldn't find the handout about the program and I didn't want to miss signing up... I thought you had to sign up by June 22nd.... but really you can sign up beginning June 22nd... so we'll be back at the library on Monday! If you read enough books, you can get an extra S+ in first grade... and - the part that Adrianna really likes - you get these cups that change color when you put cold liquids in them. Wow! We'll just keep the extra credit/good for your brain/improve your reading skills over the summer part a secret... after all color-changing cups are worth the time and trouble alone! :)

We ended up having a great day yesterday... running errands and whatnot. Adrianna wanted a haircut... it hasn't been cut since the end of January. So we headed over to Cartoon Cuts for a wash and trim. I asked them to put in some layers. Poor Adrianna has so much hair and just sweats and sweats in the hot weather. The little thing usually has sweaty hair whenever the temp is over 75 degrees. The cut turned out really good, with nice long layers that really activated the curl she's got. She was pleased too... "Mommy, it's SO beautiful!"

Here is before.... reading "Lyle, Lyle Crocodile"...

...and here is after... reading "Harry the Dirty Dog."

Have a great weekend!

much love,

erin

PS. Here is the last layout from last month's DT kit... this was our highly unsucessful kite. After numerous attempts we concluded that it is not easy to fly... at least not for us. I think our biggest success was only about 5 seconds airborne. Oh well, at least it looked cute.... and matched this paper too! After all, that's what's really important! :)

What the..... fungus?

2009-06-15T22:30:00.000-04:00

When I first saw it, I thought that perhaps the sunset was throwing a strange light on the tree stump in the backyard causing it to glow orange.... but then I realized that the glow was on the wrong side.

Here it is... and yes, I think it's a fungus. This was taken a week ago. Yesterday the fungus was brown and gray. When you touch it, the gray sends out puffs of spores, but the brown must not be "ripe" as it just sits there. I hit it with the watering can, and smokey plumes flew up as though you are extinguishing white coals on the grill. I even got Adrianna to come out and take a look... and then a week later check out the spore spewing action. Isn't nature cool?

Lately Adrianna does not want to be outside... and she does not want to be inside by herself. I try to get her to come outside in the garden with me... but 90% of the time she refuses... after all, there are **bugs** out there. A mud dauber got in the laundry room sending her into her room to hide. I have to admit, opening the laundry door and staring a large black waspy thing in the face almost caused me to fall over backwards... darn flip-flops... in my frantic escape attempt. :) I don't like bugs, but she takes it to an entirely new level. Sunday, we did manage a picnic on the lawn... as long and we were together outside... and as long as we left the house at the same time to take up post on the beach towels on the front lawn... she was okay.

The yard and garden still need a lot of work... and some mulch so that I can stop doing so much weeding. In the garden, two tomato plants are in and two are waiting for their chance. The peas are popping up, the beans are coming along nicely, and tiny little carrot sprouts have just appeared. We also planted some beets and zucchini this weekend. The ants had taken over a section of the garden and hopefully we've gotten rid of them for good. My brand new purple phlox is blooming in front. The white will be coming soon, but the pinky-purpley one - although it's the tallest - has yet to show signs of blooming. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll take turns throughout the summer. They are some of my absolute favorite plants in the garden... right up there with hostas. You can see a peek of one of my hostas here with my new copper birdie bath. I thought of getting a feeder too... but haven't found anything I really like yet. I also want some more gazing balls. The design house out at Lucketts had small and medium sized silver gazing balls tossed all over their flower beds. It was quite lovely and I'm not sure why I didn't take a photo of it. I'll have to head back over there some time and snap a pick. Unfortunately I didn't see them for sale there, and I've never seen such small gazing balls before.

I was going to share a new layout or two... but I only have one new one (I'm such a slacker!) and I accidentally saved the photo at work thinking that it was a bulletin board. I'll have to email it over and post it later.

much love,

erin

No New Pics... So New Layouts!

2009-06-07T09:02:00.001-04:00

I've been busy working on my poison ivy abatement program... and with the 2.5 inches of rain we got at the end of the week, yesterday was ideal for pulling that horrible stuff up out of the ground. It didn't have a chance, with the ground being so mushy. We have so many weeds growing together, that I have to pull everything in order to get to the poison ivy.... grass, old plants from several owners back, grapevine, honeysuckle, other assorted thorny weeds... yuck! I should take before and after shots... but never think about it until I'm already knee deep in weeds. I pulled 2 big, black lawn and leaf bags full. There's still a lot more to go, but it's a start.

Since I haven't done anything of real interest and don't have any new photos.... I'll finish sharing my new layouts from June's DT work.

Here's a layout of Neva and Shel-bel at Galveston Beach last June. Adrianna saw the layout and commented, "But Mom, where am I?" Guess I need to expand my subject matter, huh? {grin} This one is loosely based on a Becky Fleck sketch from her PageMaps book... specifically the photo cropped into a circle and the title and journaling placement. Some of the rest I changed around a bit.

I made a pair of cards using a flower stamp as a paper piecing pattern. I actually really like these... and they are all made from scraps.

The orange jewels are from Kaiser craft... just love them!

For my altered project, I made a small mini album of our June 2008 beach day trip. The base was a Rucky Pickle tag book I've had for ages.

The best part is the photos I took going to the beach and leaving the beach. I took these from the middle seat, holding the camera over my head, snapping the girls behind me blind.... a little off center, but really pretty darn good!

The book was long and skinny.... with pages that could accommodate photos about 3 by 5... so I included some vertically oriented photos and just let them hang over the top edge. Who is that gorilla? {wink}

I finished one more layout last night... I try to use everything I can before tossing the bits and putting the leftovers in my stash... but I haven't taken a photo of it yet. I'll share it next time!

much love,
erin

Finally success!

2009-06-02T22:53:00.000-04:00

First the update: the baby robins are gone. We noticed the nest and four chicks first on a Monday or Tuesday... by Thursday one of the little ones was stuck underneath the nest with mom and dad encouraging him. The next day there were definitely only 2 babies left in the next. By Memorial Day the next was empty and abandoned. Wow, they sure grow up fast! ... and next time I know to take photos every single day no matter what. :)

I've been trying to carve out time for a blog update since Saturday... and now that it's Tuesday, it's finally happening. I almost climbed into bed... but decided a quick post was in order.

The weekend was busy. My boss and I went to the Lucketts Fair... lots of antiques and cool finds. Some overpriced, some reasonable, and some cheap.... we like cheap! I found some loose typeface and a Christmas present. It's my first Christmas find this year and I am behind. I like to have all the grownups figured early out so only the kiddies are left. I had better get to work. Jacki had a lot of luck and left with a wicker rocker, wicker planter, chandelier, and candelabra... oh... and a tea ball for only $2! The weather was great during the day and we had a lot of fun.

Sunday I did yardwork and went on full poison ivy detail... the works.... long pants, long-sleeved shirt, hat, and my trusty yellow dish gloves. Mama said that I probably looked like Grandma Matusek out there. I set out to clear some of the weeds in the far back section of the property with my weeding tool, trash bags, and a bucket of soapy water for cleaning my tools afterwards. I dug and pulled and wrestled two trash bag full out of the ground. At one point I discovered one poison ivy vine up against the tree trunk that was truly enormous... over 1 inch in diameter at the root! I got a chunk of it out, but need to do some serious digging to finish it off.

Adrianna was in rare form Sunday night and seemed to be doing a Christina Aguilera impersonation. Here is she is in full "yo" mode. Absolutely hilarious. Six going on sixteen of course. "Peace, dude."

I have more to share... but will save it for now. Here is one of my June projects for Scrapbooks Plus. This was the first layout I made... love the photo with Adrianna's blurred feet in the background waiting for me to finish. I have a love affair with drops of water... they fascinate me completely. Watering the plants can be mesmerizing... I'll find myself just standing there marveling at how they make everything look beautiful and magical and fresh... ahh....

Anyways.... off to bed...

much love,

erin

Moto mania

2009-05-28T21:21:00.000-04:00

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

2009-05-20T22:10:00.000-04:00

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

2009-05-17T22:43:00.000-04:00

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

2009-05-08T23:14:00.000-04:00

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

2009-05-03T09:31:00.000-04:00

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

Saturday... Shoes & Siteseeing - Awesome!!!

2009-04-05T19:44:00.000-04:00

It was a busy Saturday....

First was A~'s soccer class... followed by Sergio taking her over to Soccer Scene for some new shoes, shin guards, and those fancy tall socks (there totally may be an actual name for those things... but my non-athletic self has no idea!). The class is more of a skills class and not a game-playing team, so we didn't have to have all the accoutrements for it. After a good slip and fall, my little girl's knees needed extra protection... hence the impromptu shopping trip!

Second was my lunch of homemade cheese enchiladas, rice (plain so little girl would eat it), and salad. Actually, the salad was more Bolivian style... you chop everything up and put it on a big plate in little piles. Each person just helps themselves to the parts they want... so kind of a salad bar on your table! I like it, and everyone else seems to as well. I think it was excellent and I have 7 enchiladas left for later. Sorry, no photos of the food! :)

Next we went to see the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin. The Metro was packed like I've never seen before. Sardines have more room than we did on our trip! I tried to look at it as just part of the adventure! We walked and walked and gazed and gazed. The weather was fabulous and it's Spring Break... so there were crowds everywhere. Everyone was really friendly and polite, so it wasn't bad. Sergio made the best of it... although crowds are not his thing. Thanks, honey for being so flexible! :)

After the blossoms we watched Sergio play soccer, missed our exit and took the long way home, and crashed upon arrival right into bed.

It was a great Saturday! As A~ would say, it was AWESOME! Beginning this week, everything has been awesome... dinner, tv, whatever... it's all awesome. Sounds too funny! :)

much love,
erin

PS. Here are my last 2 layouts... enjoy!

April Design Team projects

2009-04-03T22:11:00.000-04:00

Wednesday was April 1st... so it was time to turn in my projects for April. This month we used My Mind's Eye's "Bloom and Grow" line and some of the new, yummy chocolate brown Cordinations cardstock. I didn't get as much done as last month... but here's what I've got.

Here is a two page layout of the Weise reunion last June. I put the lines of photos a little bit askew to keep it from being too regimented. I love the journaling block from the MME die cut sheet that coordinated with this line. The tree is a clear accent also from MME. Of course I added buttons... layouts just aren't the same without a few buttons! :) The layout is better in real life... it was very tough to get a photo with no glare with these darn glossy photos!

Staying on the June 2008 theme, I moved to Uncle David's farm and the kids petting the goats. I was a bit nervous about the goats... they are not the little bitty breed and I AM a city girl after all. Luckily Uncle Donnie was there to show the girls that it wasn't scary. I just checked them out from a distance. I added some paper flowers from SEI's Mimosa line, a couple of Fancy Pants pins, and used part of a Prima stamp for the journaling lines. (Actually I stamped them and they weren't complete so I tried to put it back down and failed to ge the same spot... but I thought that the imperfect lines worked fine with the subject and kept them!)

The final June 2008 layout was the group at Pappasito's in Houston. I have been wanting to use a photo of a sign instead of a title... and here the restaurant sign fit the bill! You can see the green core on the brown torn edge... love it! Otherwise a simple layout... cardstock, patterned paper, a few MME die-cuts, buttons, and penwork.

I also did a couple of cards.... one anniversary card, since all guys needs a mushy card every now and then, right?! The Martha Stewart aquamarine glitter is for me though! :) ...and one card with a die cut tag, some of the Bazzil edge sprayed with Glimmer Mist, and a little ribbon. I'm not a great cardmaker, but this turned out very cute. I will probably be copying it with the tags I have left so that I can have a few more.

And a desktop caddy that I found the instructions for on Pinky's Much Ado about Nothing blog. It was the perfect project to feature these papers!

much love,
erin

Homecoming

2009-03-21T09:01:00.000-04:00

I'm back from Houston... and with the frost on the ground outside this morning here, I'm wishing I was back in the lovely springtime weather admiring the azaleas. We have A~ first soccer class today and I hope it goes well. Sometimes she takes things so personally (he pushed me or she took the ball from me), and I've been talking up the fact that this is just part of the game.... I just hope that some of it sunk in and I don't come back with photos of a temper tantrum! :)

I still need to download the photos of the trip... but looking over all the old photos and trying to guess the dates when nothing was written on the backs reminded me that I have a few layouts that are in need of journaling. This one is one of them... so mom, I need your assistance. I think that the year is 1968 or 1969 and I want to add the numbers next to the the picture and over the journaling block on the right. I know that this is Homecoming, but don't know what you did at Homecoming. Does everyone get a huge corsage? Is there a dance? Did Spring Wood H.S. win? Anything you can share would be great!

Off to get ready for soccer....

much love,
erin

The last of the new stuff!

2009-03-07T10:02:00.000-05:00

I finally got everything off of my camera and loaded into Photobucket... so here goes!

I totally love this layout... I love the photo that I caught of A~ running on the playground Thanksgiving 2007. She is having a great time and doesn't even notice that I'm snapping away. A lot of the pics I took that day were blurry... or I wasn't fast enough to catch her in the frame... but this one captures her spirit so well. I was thrilled when I saw it! I distressed the papers and photo edges to fit the feel of the picture. I also punched circles from the papers and crumpled them up before placing them on the page. I wanted to get the magical feel of bubbles floating through the air. The large chipboard corner is filled with blue-green beads to add some more texture.

Here are my March cards... both featuring flowers... it's springtime (almost) after all!

The first has a flower layered over a cardstock sticker from the Marrakech line... it's actually a peacock-designed sticker... but you can't tell with just the tail peeking out. The ribbon was some that I saved from the packaging of a bulb-forcing kit I picked up on sale at Jo-Ann's.

The second card is one of my favorite basic designs... a bunch of boxes with one box missing and filled with something else. In this case it is a flower cut from the blue patterned paper. I just followed the pattern and then used a pencil to curl up the edges of each petal. A tiny button makes the perfect center! :)

I need to get moving and enjoy our beautiful weather... more later!

much love,
erin

Design Team Work

2009-03-04T20:33:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

Some of you know that I am on the Design Team for my local scrapbook store, Scrapbooks Plus in Chantilly, Virginia. We just finished up our first year of Design Team work and are continuing to support the store and plan on being even more active with store events. Each month one member designs the kit for the month... picks out the papers and embellishments and packs it all up for us. The Designer of the Month also plans a class to teach at the store during their month. This is a little different from last year and should be a lot of fun! We recently had a call for new members and started year number two for the team. Last year we received kits on the first of the month and had two weeks to work on our projects and bring them back to the store. Now we are doing our reveal on the first of the month... so we just brought in our projects yesterday, which means that I have some new projects to share!

This month we had the Marrakech line from Basic Grey... a Morrocan inspired line of oranges and blues. The colors were beautiful and versatile too. I only need to make 4 items each month... one 1-page layout, one 2-page layout, one altered item, and one card... but I rarely do the minimum. Once I start pulling out photos that look good with the paper, I just keep going until it's pretty much used up. Besides, I'd rather have too much than too little. This time I had an extra four 1-page layouts and an extra card. Sometimes I see what everyone else has made and then pick what goes up on the wall... especially if one of my layouts uses a paper that wasn't used as much or an embellishment in a different way. We are trying to give customers ideas... so I don't want to repeat the same look if possible! :)

A few of my items are still on my camera... but here's what I've got on the computer so far. I'll put the rest up this weekend.

My 2-page layout of the hotel in Copacabana. I have some notes that will probably go on my hidden journaling on the Scrapbooks Plus DT Blog.

A 1-page layout of the fences in Bolivia. The bottom right is the gate at Sergio's grandparents farm... the other two were in Copacabana.

A 1-page layout of A~ in Kansas a couple of years a ago. Luckily we got this shot before security came over to say that the kids all needed to get down! Oops... missed that sign, officer! :)

My altered chalkboard... a $2.50 steal from the Target dollar spot:

A 1-page layout of the sunset over Lake Titicaca:

I'll post some more later! Have a great week!

much love,
erin

A little bit lonely

2009-02-19T20:38:00.001-05:00

It is way too quiet over here.

I know that Sergio and A~ are having a great time in Bolivia, where it is summer! I talked to her yesterday and she was just bursting with energy.

Over here, I'm just trying to keep extra busy.. organizing recipes, pulling out fabric, baking bread. Sad to say, my Christmas tree is still up... I just haven't had the heart to take it down... BUT I promise it will be down in the month of February! I hope! :)

Our new design team season just started, so I'm working on some new projects with the Marrakech line from Basic Grey. The colors are lovely and the patterns are exotic. I actually finished one project already. I may be pulling out some of my photos of Copacabana and actually scrapping them. So far they have all been waiting for me to create a plan for a vacation album, but I can always get reprints and scrap them again... that it if a great idea hits me!

Since it's too early to show my new project... here are a couple of layouts from last summer...

First is A~ and N~ at Uncle David's house... I like how us mom's are both watching and smiling at our precious little girls together.

The second is our day at the fair. Notice the band-aids since this was also the day of the infamous 5 year check up which included 4 shots, a TB test, and blood draw. Poor baby!

thanks for stopping by!

much love,
erin

Mothers and Daughters

2009-02-07T13:46:00.000-05:00

Here is a recent layout featuring a picture taken last June. I love generations pictures... they are so special! Love you Marmar! :)

Hellooooo Kitty!

2009-01-23T21:58:00.001-05:00

Sorry I haven't been in for a bit! I'm trying to make one scrapbook layout per day for each day in January. Thank goodness January ends on a weekend.. I may just make it! I am also trying to take one picture a day (Project 365) for the year. So far, so good. I don't always have a great picture... but at least one each day!

I forgot to post A~ must have Christmas present this year. It was a Hello Kitty cereal dispenser. We saw it at Target and she begged and begged for it. I told her to put it on her Christmas list. The next day she asked me how to spell cereal. A week later, she commented that we would need to clear some stuff off of the counter to make room for her Hello Kitty cereal dispenser when Santa brought it. I raced down to Target at the beginning of December and got one of the two remaining. Wow, was that lucky!

By the way, she's eating more cereal than ever! :)

much love,
erin

PS. Here are a few new layouts....

Christmas Cookies

2009-01-12T11:00:00.000-05:00

We are finally done with the last of the Christmas cookies. I think we have all gained 10 pounds... but it's Christmas, so it's ok. It's only once a year. A~ loved the Orea truffles and I just had to share this pic. Poor A~ eats them bit by bit. Actually she kind of nibbles at it and doesn't even finish a whole one... just part of it. She was nibbling away and then she looked at me and smiled....

Too funny! Chocolate bits in every nook and cranny!

much love,

erin

Little Ice Skater

2009-01-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

I completely forgot to post the pics of our skating party at work. Oops! A~ had a great time. It was so funny to see her skating... mainly because she was really flitting around more than anything else. Arms out to the side... swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, hop... swoosh, swoosh, hop. A dainty style to say the least! Skating like this requires great concentration... so unless she stopped, there was no way she would even consider looking at the camera.

She really got into it when she started playing hockey with one of the other kids. A~'s pretty competive... so if she couldn't hit the puck with her stick, she'd kick it away, grab it... anything she could do to win!

Here are the cold parents:

We were freezing, but it was worth it! :)

much love,

erin

Smurfette

2009-01-01T21:00:00.000-05:00

Okay... just had to share this really quick. Aunt Coral sent a Smurfette outfit to A~. I don't remember what Smurfette wore... but this looks cute to me! The hat is the best. A~ says that it looks like a banana is coming out of her head! Hilarious!!!

much love,

erin

The Angel Chimes

2008-12-31T20:45:00.000-05:00

I always loved the Angel Chimes at Christmastime. It just wouldn't be the same without them. They are pretty simple, but mesmerizing. I have Grandma's... and they were in mint condition, not a drop of wax or dirt on them. Only the patina gives them away as not being brand new. I could stare at them until the candles burned down to nothing, listening to the gentle ding-ding-ding-ding as the metal drops ring the bells... one of my favorite memories.

... and A~ feels the same way.

much love,

erin

Eat your vegetables!

2008-12-28T21:00:00.000-05:00

I wanted to do a quick post on one of our favorite ways to eat our veggies. A~ really does a pretty good job of eating up beans, broccoli, and brussel sprouts.... but one of our first hits was this fritatta.

First you chop up some onion... however much you like... and saute it in an ovenproof skillet with a little butter. Once it's tender, add one small to medium shredded zucchini. I usually sprinkle it with a little salt and pepper. While that cooks, break six eggs into a bowl... you can do four or five eggs if you are feeding less people... or have less zucchini. Add milk, salt, and pepper and whisk well. Now the veggies should be throughly wilted so you can pour in the egg mixture. Cook until well set, lifting up the edge to let the uncooked egg run underneath. Sometimes mine sticks and won't let me lift... that's okay... just stir it around a bit while being sure there sufficient egg to "glue" everything back together. Sprinkle top with shredded cheese - cheddar or a mix is fine - and pop under the broiler. Be sure to wrap your pan handle with foil! When everything is fully cooked, the cheese is melted, and the top is golden it's ready. Cut into wedges and enjoy! I like to put chopped tomatoes on this... but A~ and Sergio add ketchup. Either way it's yummy!

much love,

erin

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-27T19:59:00.000-05:00

We were lucky to get to open presents on Christmas Eve this year. I so prefer doing the Christmas thing with the candles lit and the tree sparkling... it just adds to the magic of the season.

On the way home from church, A~ crashed in the car. She was sound asleep as I carefully carried her inside and laid her down on our bed - coat and all. Then I tiptoed around to finish with the preparations... coookies on platters, candles, music, ... you know - the whole nine yards. I even snuck into my secret hiding place and stuffed the stockings and everything. My thought was... if we really, really, really needed help getting A~ to wake up, Santa would do the trick. I mean... what child isn't going to jump up once they hear that Santa has been there?

When Sergio got there, we added his presents to the pile and went to get Sleeping Beauty. It took a lot of effort... I didn't think we were going to manage it and almost gave up hope... but Papi worked his magic and we finally had consciousness... grumpy consciousness, but that was ok... the grumpy would fade with presents, right? I wanted a picture FIRST, and Sergio humored me on that one, ... before opening presents. Grumpy-puss was not amused. A~ had no intention of even looking at the camera, much less flashing a smile. This was not what A~ wanted to do... but see how well she fakes happy when there are presents involved? Thanks, honey... now you can go for the presents....

We truly are lucky parents. A~ loves anything wrapped in paper. She squeals, says thank you so much, gives everyone a hug, and moves on to the next item. A little present-unwrapping-machine! She is still asking me who got her this and who got her that. If she can't remember, she assumes that it's from Santa. Favorites this year... anything Hannah Montana, the Crayola Explosion Glow Board thingy... it's already seen a lot of use, and the Build-A-Bear kit. Santa brought a Hello Kitty cereal dispenser... I was lucky to get one of the last two at Target. A~ was so surprised... I mean how does Santa know what to get? I wonder.... ;-) It is pretty cool... and I'm sure that I will be posting about it later! :)

Christmas Day had A~ playing with her new booty while I worked on our feast: yummy glazed ham, creamy mashed potatoes (for Sergio), stuffing (for me - I *heart* Stove Top), salad with apple, goat cheese, and caramelized red onions, crescent rolls, brussel sprouts, and broccoli. Nothing fancy, but lots of comfort food. We thought about dessert, but I'm glad we skipped it... we were way too full!

After dinner and cleanup, we went to the Festival of Lights at Bull Run Park. It's a drive through option that takes about 20 minutes or so to drive through. They have a carnival at the end. We've never stopped before, but this year decided to try it out. I, or course, forgot the camera. Oh well... the cold probably would have zapped the batteries anyways. A~ had a blast even though it was quite cold. She rode a number of the rides and I got to tag along on some of them. Sergio doesn't like anything "spinny," so there weren't a lot of options for him, and nobody wanted to brave the ferris wheel with him. Poor guy! We did get him to try a funnel cake for the first time! A~ got me on the swings. I was really nervous, but I was more nervous for her to go alone... and when it started to tip I didn't think I'd be okay. I had to "talk" my way through the remainder of the ride and make jokes with A~ to keep myself calm. Way to go mommy! I hope I never have to do it again! :)

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday too!

much love,

erin

Finally finished!

2008-12-18T22:19:00.000-05:00

I stayed up last last night to finish the teacher gifts for A~'s Kindergarten teacher and teacher assistant. I got this idea from Michele on the Papertrey Ink design team... it's a dry erase board made from a picture frame! It works better than a real dry erase board and erases really, really well.

I pulled out some wintery papers I've had for a while and embellished them with stickers, felt, and a little bling. I thought about making them more Christmasy... but the winter season is longer than the holiday season... so winter won! I have to say, I need to make these every year... they are so cool and useful. I may need one myself! :)

A~ helped me wrap them up so that she can take them to school tomorrow. Next week is winter break - wow - how did that sneak up so fast???

More later...

much love,

erin

Follow that Star!

2008-12-13T10:22:00.000-05:00

I am SO excited to finally have a star on the top of our Christmas tree. I've been searching for about 3 years for an acceptable topper. I thought about a bow like on Mom's tree... but decided to use that as a backup... I really wanted a star. And there are lots of stars out there, but too many of them are just plain tacky! I didn't want flashing lights or crazy colors or any of that jazz... just a pretty star with white lights. Actually I found two stars that I liked on the same day. The one I didn't buy was a little bigger and more 3-D, but I was afraid that it may be too heavy for my little artificial tree to handle. And althought I'm excited about this star... the little spring-shaped thing that's supposed to go on the top point of the tree is too short and caused that branch to bend in a very Charlie-Brown-Christmas-tree kind of way. Yikes! So I removed that and used a twist-tie from the packaging to secure it onto the tree at the base and the top just rests in place. As long as nobody bumps the tree, we are in business! :)

On another note, here is a recent layout. Wow! Remember those cheeks? What a cutie! I hand felted the butterfly and didn't think it would work out. It was the ugliest thing ever... but I kept fiddling with it and had the brilliant idea to fold it in half and work the felting needle into the body to make it more dimensional. And it actually worked and took the butterful from wonky to wonderful! Thank goodness! :)

I'm working on tons more... most is due on Monday to the scrapbook store, plus teacher gifts for school... only 12 days until Christmas and only 1 week until winter break at school! So next week you'll see some brand new layouts of past winters and Christmases... and hopefully the cool items I was able to pull off for A~'s teachers... I hope!

much love,
erin

Card Carrying Member

2008-12-04T20:52:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally did it. I finally took A~ down to the local library and she is now the proud owner of her very own library card. (I have one now too!) She was quite proud... and the lady and the counter was very nice and quite patient as she slowly printed her name on the card. We spent almost an hour there looking at books and putting together puzzles. She had a great time... and she brought quite a few books home.... as you can see! We've got some reading to do!

much love,
erin

Turkeys - Now & Then

2008-11-26T20:51:00.000-05:00

So A~ came home from school last week with a turkey made from a paper plate. Being the artistic diva that she is, she wanted to add to her turkey by jazzing it up with some plastic beads from her craft stash. I wasn't sure about them sticking... especially to the crayon-covered plate, so I convinced her to make some decorative "plumes" to accent her turkey feathers. We pulled out some metallic chenille stems, bent them around pencils to get a good spring-like shape, and worked the beads into place. Once they were done, I stapled them on and here is her work of art:

Working on A~'s turkey reminded me of the turkey I made quite a few years ago. I'm not actually sure when I made it... but I wrote my own poem on it! I am sure that I created it at Grandma's house in Houston, but that's all that I can remember. Mom sent it to me recently and I've been meaning to get to work on trying to preserve it. I took a picture first... (of course!) ... and then carefully removed the turkey from the backing. It's amazing how sticky that tape still was! I thought that I would remove the "feathers" and put it back together with glue dots... but it was holding together really well. Besides there were a lot of pieces and it would have taken forever. I don't know what possessed me to make it so detailed, with tiny strips folded over for the belly-feathers and long strips curled for the tail. I even cut little feet out of yellow paper and taped them on top of the brown paper back. It was definitely a masterpiece! I decided to cut out out the title and my poem, and mount them on acid free cardstock. Once it was in place I sprayed it with Archival Mist several times. Hopefully it will last for years to come!

Happy Turkey Day Everyone!
erin

We are PUMPED UP!

2008-11-22T11:00:00.000-05:00

Or at least A~ is pumped up!

Last weekend we went to a birthday party at Pump It Up. They have two rooms of giant inflatable slides, bouncers, and obstacle courses. The kids loved it and the parent's enjoyed it too! My favorite was the obstacle course... I felt like a Marine climbing up hills, diving through inflatable "fences" and rolling across the finish line! By the time we got to the pizza and cake everyone was all sweaty and worn out. A~ is dying to have her party there next year! :)

much love,

erin

Old Photos, New Layouts

2008-11-08T08:09:00.000-05:00

I worked on a couple of layouts last weekend using older photos. First was this shot of me and Mamasan. As you can see, I haven't done the journaling... in part because I don't remember the photo being taken and I'm not sure how old I am in the picture. We are definitely at Mamasan's house... and maybe I'm one and a half or two years old? Anyone who can help, please chime in! :)

I also put together this layout using a photo that I took in 1982 with my little 110 camera. It's not a great shot... Grandpa frying fish back in the old shed, but it's one of the only pictures that I took of him. And the memory of that catfish is so special, I decided to immortalize it with a layout. We would always request a fish fry when we visited Texas. Grandpa would pull catfish out of the freezer from his fishing trips, get them ready, fry them up, and watch us enjoy every bite. There were never leftovers... we would eat every morsel! It was simple and wonderful!

enjoy!
erin

A quick hello...

2008-11-06T21:56:00.000-05:00

I am so far behind here! Yikes! Fall is just full of things to do. It's a good thing that the rain we've had for the last couple of days knocked just about all the leaves right off the trees. Now I can get some raking done without worrying that I won't make any progress!

Here are a couple of shots of what we've been up to...

First - new a slightly new do... a little bit shorter and, supposedly, more trendy...at least according to Jennifer, my stylist. I am also sporting a very cool Miley Cyrus sticker courtesy of A~!

Then the annual pumpkin contest at work. We all pitched in and did a fantastic job on this incredible take on Cinderella's coach.

Finally, Dorothy (me) and my little princess on Halloween. We were already pretty frozen here and A~ said that her bucket was too full for any more... thank goodness!

More later!
erin

Fall Weekends and Hayrides

2008-10-19T20:02:00.000-04:00

This weekend was the Fall Festival at the Reston Town Center. We went and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather. We got there right as it started, which was good in some ways... but then it seemed to take forever for the time for the store-to-store Trick or Treating to come. I don’t think it was as fun as last year... but it was still well worth the $5 donation to get in. Last year we looked at the line for face painting, but it was so long we didn’t dare attempt it. This time we arrived just after it began and jumped into the short line right away. The face painters are wonderful. Very talented and quick. It’s a good thing too as they were mobbed the entire event. Also last year we missed out on the hay rides because of the lines and we able to make it on easy peasy this year.... right after the face painting. The giant Belgium horses were going a pretty good clip... making me a little nervous sitting on that slippery hay! I’m such a chicken! Here is me and A~ before the horses took off. You can see the incredible face painting... really made my little princess stand out!

A~ made me a collage Saturday morning. She glued bits of ribbon on to make the flower petals. Turned out very cute. It is now adorning the guest room door.

Before I go... here’s a layout I made for the October wall over at Scrapbooks Plus. This is Sergio and A~ on the hayride at Cox’s Farm about a month ago. We just love hayrides!

much love,
erin

So Far Behind

2008-10-11T22:00:00.000-04:00

It seems that I am always behind. Sometimes it's just a little bit... other times it's bunches and bunches! :) I took the Shimelle class about home months ago... it's in the blog history and I'm afraid to look to see exactly how long ago it was. I've downloaded all the class handouts and read some of them. However, not a single portion has been completed. How sad!

This month's Design Team papers from Scrapbooks Plus were warm and cozy... so I thought that I'd make myself a home mini-book to featured some of the things I like about our first home. It's semi-inspired by the Shimelle class... and one day I'll get around to reading the handouts and doing the assignments... I guess it's my take on the theme having read the class description! lol :)

I still need to add the journaling... but, as you know, I'm a bit behind! ;-)

much love,
erin

The Color Purple

2008-10-05T10:39:00.000-04:00

There's something to be said for a favorite color. Right now A~'s favorite color is purple. Well, actually, if you ask her what her favorite color is she will say, "purple, pink, orange, and red." Apparently one favorite is just not sufficient!

I recently tried a new recipe for a quick and easy version of Chicken Marsala. I didn't have any Marsala wine... so I used some red wine instead... it's only a little bit, so it won't make a different, right? Well, it smelled good and it tasted good... but it was totally purple. When A~ asked what we were having for dinner I told her, "We're having purple chicken." Luckily she bought it... and she ate it... and she actually asked for more! (Way to go, Mom!)

To continue on the theme.... last weekend we went to Disney on Ice and got this cute purple, flower hat with our cotton candy. (She also got a purple t-shirt with all the little fairys on it, but I don't have a picture yet. I thought the green Tinkerbell shirt was cuter, but she had to have the purple... and it was cheaper too! What luck!)

More later...

much love,
erin

Firsts

2008-09-13T20:21:00.000-04:00

Now that school has started, I can say honestly say that I feel a whole new level of stress and relief. Stress that there are extra calendars to keep up with, stress about new deadlines, and stress that bedtime is earlier than even and I need to make the most of the time I have with A~ in the evening. On the other hand, there is relief. Relief that A~ likes school, relief that she's adjusting just fine - even without the daycare experience, and relief that she is willing to take a quick bath every night instead of the extra long ones that we used to indulge in (this could be due to my mommy creativity and the development of the "car wash" bath... it involves sudsing up two mesh scrubbies and bathing my little girl as though she is going through a car wash... complete with sound effects, of course!).

The first day went really smoothly for her... and luckily we survived too. Here are some shots of her waiting for the bus, walking into school (yes, we drove to school to watch her), and running off the bus to give Papi a big hug.

Other firsts... I scrapped a picture from Bolivia. I tend to hold onto these, as well as other vacation pictures, because I'm not sure if I want to keep them separate from the day to day pics or not. This layout is Sergio's mom with A~ the first time that we visited... so A~ is 2 years old in the photo. There is a lot of flocking on the layout... since that is the technique this month over at ScrapGoods. :)

much love,
erin

Can you believe....

2008-09-01T08:57:00.000-04:00

Can you believe it? As I'm writing this at the computer, I'm wearing my fuzzy robe! What is wrong with this picture? A~ is in her sock-monkey robe too! And it's only Labor Day? Wrong I tell you, just wrong!

Later, when Sergio gets up, we have some cookin' out to do and a present for the birthday boy. We may set up the waterslide again and enjoy it before it's too late.... thankfully it is supposed to be hot later on despite the chilly start!

Last week Sergio picked up some back to school jeans for A~. When we tried them on, she promptly announced that she looked just like Hanna Montana. She really is too funny! Here's our starlet photo shoot:

Also, here is my last layout for the SG Telephone Scraplift... you basically get a layout and use it as your inspiration. I really like this one... very simple with lots of white space, but not at all plain.

Supplies: patterned paper is Rusty Pickle (painted with Inkabilities), cardstock from Bazzil, ribbon from Walmart, thickers from American Crafts - colored with an American Crafts marker that I also used for the outlining, Maya Road journaling sheer painted with Inkabilities, part of an American Crafts plastic "&" that I cut down to leave only the flourish, Slick Writer from American Crafts, flower from Making Memories, brad from Scrapgoods, and bling from Scrapgoods, Scraptivity, and a swap (I think?). Wow for a simple layout... there sure is a large supply list! :)

Have a great holiday!

much love,
erin

TGIF!

2008-08-29T20:42:00.000-04:00

How nice that it's Friday! And the Friday of a holiday weekend seems even sweeter than a normal Friday. Ahhhh....

Today we went to the open house at school. After the welcome and introductions, we all went to find A~'s classroom. All the K-level bus riders got a bus-shaped tag for their backpacks with their name, their teacher's name, and their bus number. It's something new to help the drivers, teachers, and helpers get everyone in and out easily. While the parents stayed in the class, the students got a little tour and some activity with one of the specialists. In our case that was the music teacher. A~ was practically at the front of the line, but she wouldn't go anywhere without making sure from us that it was ok. It was too cute to here her calling "Papi, Papi" loudly to make sure that it was ok. She must be listening to our be-careful-to-stranger stories. (We've been practicing!) A~ was fine throughout the morning, and luckily Mom and Dad survived as well. Now we just have to make it through Tuesday! It'll be interesting to say the least. I'm sure that I'll be snapping pictures of her getting ready in the morning, packing her lunch, showing off her new backpack, getting on and off of the bus. etc. So get ready!

Here are a few of my more recent projects:

take care,
erin

PS. These were my last 2 entries for the Crop Til You Drop contest at ScrapGoods. I ended up coming in third! Yeah!

Fairground Fun

2008-08-21T20:16:00.000-04:00

Last week... the same day as A~'s five year check up... we made our first visit to the Prince William County Fair. It's a good-sized fair with a large Midway...and it was Dollar Day and was pretty packed. Some of the lines were really long and it was hard to explain that to a five year old who had a bad day and too many shots. We checked out most of it... although didn't see all the animals and none of the home arts buildings. A~, of course, wanted to go on as many rides as possible... which is why we went on Dollar Day in the first place. That way if it didn't turn out so fun, we didn't really invest a lot in it.

The highlights...

A~ dressed as a princess in the play that anyone could take part in. They filmed it and had DVD's available for purchase. I am STILL hearing about how I didn't buy one from you know who! :)
The funnel cake... which A~ called "fungal" cake (not quite as appetizing!) the entire night. Five dollar each, and SO worth it! Yum!
The rides... any of them... she enjoyed everything she went on! Me, not so much. I still don't know how I managed to climb to the top of that slide on the little metal staircase. The entire way up I was leaning to the right and clutching the slide itself... not the little skinny railing - no way! Let's go back to the carousel, honey.. please?!
A~ wanted to play the games... and most had a good chance of at least someone winning. After one loss though, she had me play... and what do you know - I won! Way to go, Mommy!

Here are the pics! Enjoy!

much love,

erin

New Layouts

2008-08-16T12:31:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the due date for our monthly projects at Scrapbooks Plus. This month we were working with fun and bright papers from American Crafts. They are bright, happy... and you only have to use a little bit to have a big impact. I have tons of scraps leftover (and a couple of projects still in progress... as always!) and these papers will make some lovely birthday cards. If you are lucky, you may get one! ;-)

Here are three layouts:

... and a card:

I have another cute project... but someone special will be getting it as a gift...so no peeks!

much love,

erin

Seeing Green!

2008-08-15T22:33:00.000-04:00

I've got a bunch of things to post, so check back in the next couple of days as I get everything up here!

First off, the garden.

We don't have a big garden... just a little stretch next to the fence that's about 1.5 feet wide by 30 feet long. It's as much as I can do without a tiller or free manual labor. :) This spring, I slowly de-weeded and worked up the soil in hour long stretches after work each day. It took forever! So... everything went in a little late. Oh well! Currently everything is green and doing fine. A few bugs here and there, but I do this for fun and if I happen to get veggies out of it, that's great. If not, no harm done... I just try something different next year. I try to water a little, fertilize a little, weed a little, and let nature take care of the rest.

I planted 5 tomato plants... 3 reds and 2 yellow. Right now we have tons of green tomatoes weighing down the vines. I've gone out a couple of times to tie everything back up! I thought I spaced them apart enough... but I have one plant that I've ended up tying to the tomato cage next to it. Oops! Guess I'll need to spread them out a bit more next year! :)

A~ wanted a watermelon plant SO much. So I bought one... since we really don't have space for it. It had a slow start, but has since taken off. We now have 2 good-sized watermelon laying in the grass... and 3 that have grown through the fence and are in the neighbors yard! Hmm... I guess I should have been more vigilent about pulling those vines back through.

We also planted some brussel sprouts. A~ actually likes them and picked them out at the garden center. Some bugs have been eating the leaves, but the plants seem well enough and we are starting to see the actual sprouts forming. They may be the only veggies that we harvest on schedule!

More later... scrapbooking, the county fair, and whatever else I can think of coming soon!

much love,

erin

Birthday News and More

2008-08-07T21:16:00.000-04:00

Hi All!

I've been a little bit busy and delinquent in getting an update here. Here goes the new news...

A~'s birthday was fun... allbeit last minute. Friday shopping and cleaning was followed by Saturday organization and yard work, but all was fine in time for the party Saturday afternoon. Sergio ordered a giant inflatable slide (which we may rent out to friends for a good price!) that finally arrived on Friday - not cutting it close at all, huh? The kids all loved it... and since it's big enough to hold up to 400 pounds, I went down a number of times too. (I know, I know... I have to watch that weight limit after all the cake!) As you can see, she's in heaven... after all, we used it twice Sunday before putting it away!

I made it through last week's voting at ScrapGoods for the Crop Til You Drop contest. This week's layout had to be any shape but square, use buttons creatively, and have a bird somewhere on it. I decided to make a layout in the shape of clouds featuring A~ sleeping. Everynight when I tuck her in we go through the same "good night" routine... and as I'm leaving the room she hollars, "Mommy, sleep with the angels!" Every night I think how cute that it, and how I don't want to forget it... so now it's captured! :) Now we're in the top five with voting next Monday for the top three! Yikes... I'd better come up with something fab!

I have a new Design Team kit to work on... so I busy creating. With work this weekend, it'll be tight to get everything finished... so cross your fingers for me! Here's a couple more layouts from last month's DT kit:

much love,
erin

Monday Update

2008-07-28T23:39:00.000-04:00

Well it's Monday evening again... so that means that I've just finished my layout for ScrapGoods Crop Til You Drop contest. This week we are 15 and only 10 will move on to the next round. I've got my fingers crossed! :)

This week the challenge was to make a layout that included "love is," paint, and a heart. I found this picture of A~ when she was one and thought it would be perfect! If that isn't love, don't know what is!

This past weekend we had some big thunderstorms roll through and drop almost 2 inches of rain in about 2 hours. During the storm, A~ and I had some "television-free" time and decided to make tissue paper flowers. Now, mind you, I haven't made this since some time in elementary school... so I wasn't sure how they'd turn out. After folding the paper, I cut the ends into points to make it more shapely. Actually I think this is the best tissue paper flower I've ever created! A~ was impressed with my skills too! Of course, one would hope that I'd do a better job now that when I was say nine or so... but nonetheless I was impressed! Now we have 2 gorgeous, handmade tissue paper flowers adorning our house. ;-)

much love,

erin

Hot Off of the Presses!

2008-07-21T21:40:00.000-04:00

First up, my layout for ScrapGoods' Crop Til You Drop Contest. This week's challenge was to use no adhesive at all in creating our layout. I used papers from Pink Paislee and Sassafrass Lass. The orange die cut paper is one I've been holding onto just waiting for the right project! To hold everything in place I used a combination of eyelets, brads, buttons, and photo anchors. I also machine stitched one piece and hand stitched along the design of the journaling block. The title is stamped with some of the Sandylion stamps from Kelly P. and accented with handwriting and doodling. I'm really happy with how it turned out! The photos are from May when our cherry tree was blown down in a storm. A~ always loved the cherries from that tree.... even though they weren't really that tasty. She was excited to be able to reach the fruit... as you can see in the photo, but sad to discover that the tree was not going to make it and that this year was the last crop for us.

Second up is a four generation photo we took in Houston on Mamasan's back patio. I used it for a scraplift challenge with some of the Cordinations cardstock... it has a color-coordinated core that you can see when you tear or distress it. I distressed the edges of the paper and used a ScrapGoods template for the corner design. The vinyl rubons from Scrap Works and ribbon came in the kit. I just had to add the Making Memories journaling stickers and the rubons for the title. Simple and elegant!

Wish me luck in making it through this weeks vote!

much love,

erin

All Wet & Goin' Bananas!

2008-07-19T21:29:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update here! I wanted to share two of A~'s new faves....

First up are these chocolate-covered, frozen bananas from Trader Joe's. Just bought them and, yep... you guessed it... that is an empty box! Yummy... and pretty healthy too! We'll keep that part a secret! ;-)

...and the fountain at Fairfax Corner. She's visited it a couple of times now and has gotten quite brave. She still won't get right into the middle of it.. but she is edging closer and closer. Luckily, this time we were prepared and brought a towel and a change of clothes for her. They planned it well over there... there is a Potbelly's and Ben & Jerry's right behind the fountain. Without those, pulling the kiddies out of the fountain would be difficult at best!

much love,
erin

Mystery Visitor

2008-07-13T22:12:00.000-04:00

I just love the Phlox plants I have out in front. They just get prettier each year! All kinds of bugs and butterflies love to visit them too. Today we got a new visitor... but I don't know what he was. He zipped around and left several times, only to circle right back. I tried to get a picture... but he's a little blurry. Sorry! (FYI-He's at the bottom of the upper white flower... his wings point right into the spaces in the pink flower.) His head is green and his wings were so fast that they might as well have been clear. His tail was red faded into black and kind of reminded me of a lobster tail (crazy, I know). When I zoom in I can see antennae... so no hummingbird. This was the only shot I got as he kept circling behind the flower. So... if you know what it is, please let me know!

much love,

erin

Crop til you Drop Contest

2008-07-13T20:25:00.000-04:00

I'm participating in the Crop til you Drop contest on the ScrapGoods web-board and wanted to share the first two entries. Thursday we get the challenge and it's due by Monday at midnight. Each week we have voting to see who moves one until we get to the top three. We'll see how many weeks I make it!

The first layout required at least 2 patterned papers, bling brads, flower and punches used creatively. We could add anythinge else, but had to include the minimum. I used 4 Basic Grey papers from the Sultry line. Bling brads for the flower center and to accent the flower. I used 2 sized of corners punches with the guards off to make the alternating scallop border. I also used a tag punch and folded the tags to make "petals" for my flower.

The second layout had limited supplies: only 2 patterned papers, 1 sheet of cardstock, pictures, a journaling block, and unlimited ribbon and/or fiber. We couldn't add to this list... no doodling, inking, stickers, or anything. I decided to cut my pictures into the title and made a flower from wide ribbon. I used 2 Basic Grey papers again... this time from the Recess line, and a journaling paper from Making Memories... just love those little notebooks!

Thanks for looking and wish me luck!

erin

Things that make me happy...

2008-07-11T12:22:00.000-04:00

I am probably one of the most difficult people on the face of the earth to shop for. My poor family has to struggle to pick out something that they hope I will like. It is not an easy task. I'm quite picky! :) I try to keep a running list of things I'd like to buy, but haven't yet bought myself, so that if people need an idea, I have some ready and waiting!

This year everyone outdid themselves. Everything they picked was a winner!

First Dad picked out this rotating composter (SO cool)! It was a bit of a struggle to assemble, not to mention get out the door... made me wonder how big is the full sized composter! Luckily I did have a little helper to hand me the washers and nuts on command. She did a great job! That's her inside. She held the nuts still while I worked on tightening the bolts for all the seams. As you can see... I can compost a small child in this thing. Now I need to find enough stuff to fill it up and get it working!

Then, the ladies at work got me, among other things, this uber-cool apron that I've been eyeing for almost 2 years. It's so retro and fun... and I make a big mess when I bake - so an apron really is a necessesity. It's by Jessie Steele and can be found on the Gourmand Apron Creations website under "Apron Boutique." She has some little girl-sized aprons too. Very tempting.. .and wouldn't that look cute on A~ while baking Christmas cookies? The bows are pinned on and I haven't decided if I'll put them back on after I wash it or leave it plain. I love the shaped hem and the red trim... and I think it would look just as cute without the bow accents. A~ loved taking pics of me in it after work yesterday. It's just hard to hold a good smile long enough for her to get ready and actually take the picture. I think my smile looks a little frozen here... but the apron looks good!

I would be remiss if I didn't that my freezer is packed with real Texas sausage, courtesy of Mamasan. (Thanks, Mamasan!) It's actually the second birthday in a row that I've received this treat. Lucky me! Unfortunately everyone here (Sergio and A~) likes the sausage too... so I am obligated to share. Bummer!

Thanks for everything!

much love,

erin

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-05T22:24:00.000-04:00

This year we joined friends as Lake Fairfax park for some 4th of July fun. The weather wasn't ideal with off and on showers... but we still had an enjoyable time. The kids all ran around inside our new (and somewhat giant) tent like maniacs. If we had tried to restrain them to a particular area, I'm sure that they would've balked... but since they choose to run inside, they were as happy as clams! We did the obligatory hot dogs, fireworks and sparklers before walking over to the lake to view the fireworks show. While we waited for everything to start, we noticed several bats darting around over the lake, doing a little hunting and keeping the bugs running. At one point, one actually grazed my shoulder. At least that happened before I realized that bats were around... so it was cool instead of freaky! After the fireworks display, we toasted some mashmallows, the kids crashed and we hung out by the campfire. All in all it was a successful venture. Next time we'll bring more blankets, as it was pretty chilly in the rain overnight... which really affected our sleep with A~ kicking off our only blanket repeatedly!

When we got home today, I headed straight for bed with the intention of getting up when the pot of coffee was done. Some three hours later I finally came to, at which point A~ showed me the new "Keep Out" sign she made for her bedroom door. It's a little hard to see... but the two faces are her "angry faces" and the middle figure is A~ with a sad face. Also prominent is the word "NO." Apparently I hurt somebody's feelings when I said they would have to wait to get their new pink camping chair out of the car! Oh well... I guess her first real guilt trip had to come at some point! Lol!

much love,

erin

Latest creations...

2008-06-29T21:21:00.000-04:00

Here are my latest layouts for the Scrapbooks Plus design team. All the papers this month were from the summer-themed Grafton line by Scenic Route. Everyone has been working on some fabulous summer/pool/beach stuff that's on display at the store. Me... well, I often end up going in different directions, and once I did my obligatory summer/pool layout, I switched it up and made a spring and a fall layout too.

First the fall:

Love the colors in the papers... lots of strong gold, red and orange - which was a great fit for my layout of A~ painting a pumpkin last fall (notice the LONG hair!). The fun, freestyle circle paper really reminded me of art time and the colors were perfect. The sunshine printed paper was trimmed to let all the rays point to the picture. I added the title with foam stamps and paint to keep it in the artsy, handmade theme!

Next came spring:

This line had a lot of dots on the reverse side... plus the brown paper with the little bitty flowers sent me searching for A~ dandelion pics from this spring (notice the shorter hair this time!). The little flowers and dots serve as a great repetition for the dandelion seeds that A~ was sending through the air. I used a sketch that one of the ScrapGoods design team ladies posted online in a challenge (sketch originally from Scrapbooks Etc Feb./Mar. issue). The giant heart was perfect... and these pics and paper were already just waiting on the desk for some inspiration to hit. I used a shot of the flowers thriving in my yard behind the title (sometimes I feel like the only green stuff out in the lawn is the weed collection). It's a good thing that I accidentally got a double... and one wouldn't stretch across the space. The little yellow flower was made with scraps and was inspired by some on Christine Middlecamp's blog.

Thanks for looking!

erin

Wish we were still at the beach!

2008-06-29T21:09:00.000-04:00

We had such a good time in Texas... seeing family, hanging out, and, of course, the trip to the beach! The beach was definitely a high point from A~'s perspective. When we got home, she told Sergio that she really liked Texas - even though it was REALLY hot... it was ok... she liked hot! :) Too funny! It's only two weeks later and she is back to her normal self - very, very heat sensitive... especially when we need to run errands. Apparently my mommy skills are supposed to be able to counteract the hot car in the parking lot issue! Lol!

Here are a few pics of A~ and the girl cousins... on the way to the beach, checking out the beach, and on the way back. I just love to see the progression!

much love,

erin

Four things...

2008-04-03T23:49:00.000-04:00

About a month ago, Shan sent out one of those emails that you are supposed to fill in the blanks with your answers and resend to all of your friends. As you can guess, I haven't done that... but I printed it and am finally getting around to answering... so here goes:

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Assistant in an orthodonist's office
2. Server
3. Cashier at Costco
4. Human Resources Manager

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
2. Say Anything
3. An American President
4. French Kiss

Four places I've lived:
1. Bryan, TX
2. Long Beach, CA
3. Hampton, VA
4. Harrisonburg, VA

Four TV shows that I watch (at the moment):
1. Designed to Sell
2. Project Runway
3. Dancing with the Stars
4. Anything on Noggin

Four places I've been:
1. Kansas
2. Texas
3. Copacabana
4. Bolivia

Four people who email me regularly:
1. My boss (until her last day of work last Friday)
2. My sister
3. My mom
4. Victoria's Secret... like every other day I get a new message trying to get me to make a purchase!

Four of my favorite foods (at the moment):
1. Greek Salad
2. Crab Cakes
3. Pesto filled gnocchi from Trader Joe's
4. Guapo's chicken and yuca... or is it yucca? (either way is YUM!!!)

Four place I would rather be right now:
1. Surfing the internet
2. In bed taking a nap
3. On vacation anywhere
4. At mom's house working on projects

Four things I am looking forward to this year:
1. Planting a garden with A~
2. Learning new things at work
3. Finishing 1 or 2 bathrooms
4. Working the the Design Team for Scrapbooks Plus

much love,
erin

Ribbon Roundup

2008-03-29T16:38:00.000-04:00

Hi all!

Springtime often means Spring Cleaning. Something about the start of warm weather just gets me itching to straighten and organize and such. In that vein... I wanted to share my ribbon storage solution. I moved everything to this method a little over a year ago, and it is still working out really well.

I have most of my ribbon wound on plastic floss bobbins (I believe that DMC makes them) that I've found at WalMart and AC Moore. The bobbins come with a metal ring to hang them on. I have a curtain rod mounted to the wall above my scrap space. The bobbin ring are hanging on C-shaped shower curtain hooks. All the ribbon is sorted by color... making it really easy to find a good match for a card or layout. Generally I'll just grab the color ring I want and fan it out over my project to see if any would be a good match. It's nice to be able to try things out without actually removing them from the ring and/or bobbin.

Now, not all ribbon fits. I can get ribbon up to 3/4 inch-wide on there... but wider or thicker ribbons you have to tuck the end under the ribbon as opposed to using the little slots in the plastic. Really wide or bulky ribbon I wrap around the antique bobbins that sit on my desk top and secure with a straight pin. A~ loves to help put new ribbon on... which makes it even easier to keep it all neat! :)

Home Sweet Home

2008-03-26T21:53:00.000-04:00

I just started a new online class with Shimelle, called No Place Like Home... how appropriate given my Kansas connection (and the fact that I still have the Dorothy costume I slaved over for weeks in my closet!). The class is for five weeks and each week we get five messages in our inbox. Some messages give us journaling prompts, some are some projects and layouts, and some are bigger projects or minibooks. Everything about Home, of course.

This "home" thing always gets me.

Growing up Texas was home... but I don't remember living there myself. It is where Mom and Dad's home was and where all the family was. All my childhood memories are of Newport News and Hampton. In fact, one of my first really distinct memories was when we had just moved to NN's and the furniture wasn't there yet. I got to eat my cereal using a cardboard box as a table. I thought that was SO cool! I was like 3ish... so using boxes for furniture WAS cool for me. :)

When I went to college, I'd be walking across campus and run into friends or co-workers, and they'd ask where I was going. I'd say home and they looked surprised... but I was just going to the dorm. And while I was there, the dorm or apartment, or whatever WAS home. My stuff was there, my pictures were there, my dog... it counted. I love to visit Mom and Dad, but Kansas, as much as I like it there, isn't really home.

When Sergio and I started dating, it got easier. I'd be at a party with him and some of his friends and their friends ... and they'd ask the question, "So, where are you from?" With them, I could just say that I'm from here... I'm American. That was enough.

Now, home isn't so much the place, it's the who... if Sergio and A~ are there, it counts as home. Now I'm still not sure where I'm from... that may always be Texas... but I know where home is.

much love,

erin

Family self portrait

2008-03-23T22:23:00.000-04:00

Here's one of my more recent layouts... and one of the few with all three of us in it. This is a self-portrait of us in DC on the mall... turned out pretty darn good for a self-portrait, if I do say so myself! :)

Later!

erin

It's all about the dress...

2008-03-23T22:15:00.000-04:00

At Easter, it is definitely all about the dress... and the shoes! This dress was A~'s pick... I wanted the pink one with a little green, but she wanted the green with a little pink. Luckily she looks good in either color!

Notice the slightly shorter haircut? She wanted to get her's trimmed after I got my haircut last weekend... so off we went to Cartoon Cuts. When the lady asked how short to cut it, A~ put her hands up to her ears.... Yikes! So I said, how about chin length? So chin length it was... very Dora-esque! I took the time today to blow it dry with a little bit of flip out at the bottom... too cute, but it doesn't last for long. This is just prior to our Easter egg hunt. I had A~ running all over the house to see where the Easter Bunny hid her basket of candy while I raced around back to hide the eggs. She had fun, but I was out of breath! It's tough being the bunny solo! :)

Enjoy!

much love,

erin

It's all about the shoes...

2008-03-23T22:07:00.000-04:00

At least it is when you're bowling! We went on our first family bowling outing last weekend and had a blast. Sergio had only been once before (and he still beat me both games... NOT fair!) and this was totally new for A~. At first she let Papi help her roll the ball up the lane granny-style. By the end of the first game, she was on her own... no helping this little girl! She was even trying to throw it a bit. Luckily she thought that the purpose of the game was to get your ball all the way down the lane. Each time it made it, she would holler "GOAL!" really, really loud and give us the thumbs up. It'll be fun until she figures out about those darn pins! ;-)

Not the best time for a cold...

2008-03-21T20:04:00.000-04:00

The month of March has been a complete blur. I was up for my DT month with ScrapGoods and got my box of goodies at the end of February... but I didn't get to do a thing right away because I was Manager on Duty up at work for that weekend. I survived the weekend without any problems, with the exception of the start of a bad cold. I ended up being out sick part of the week... which is also the same week as our first DT meeting for my local Scrapbook store, Scrapbooks Plus, where we got our DT kits.

So, I needed to get at least 3 projects done for ScrapGoods by the 18th... AND... at least 4 projects done for Scrapbooks Plus by the 19th, all while trying not to ruin them during any given coughing spell. My usual method of laying everything out on several projects and fiddling for a bit before gluing everything down wasn't such a good idea. Everytime I'd start coughing, things would start flying! Yikes! Oh well... I'm starting to feel a bit better and took a couple of shots of some of my creations to show you what I worked on... here goes:

For ScrapGoods, this month's technique was Mitering Frames. It came with a cool tool, the name of which eludes me and some nice chipboard strips to make frames with. The tool is basically a ruler for measuring agles and you can set it where you want to mark perfect placement. I'm not so much a measuring kind of girl... so this was a bit of a challenge for me. I did have a fairly successful 8-sided frame... but the one corner that isn't perfect is hidden under the edge of the pic! :)

I also did this layout with large mitered corners... but used a craft knife to cut the angles in place instead of the ruler. It's a lot easier... and the corners are always perfect since you cut both edges at the same time. The background cardstock is an exact match for the outside of the Mimi's Cafe building. I thought the corners really echoed the window trim. I love the bold color combo and a few extras... it doesn't need a lot to make a statement!

Enough of mitering... so I used some of the chipboard borders to accent my linear layout of the ulta-popular "Windy Hill Homestead Tractor Ride", courtesy of my Shel-bel... and much to the delight of the little ones. It's not quite famous, but it should be. The screams as they ploughed through the tall grasses were definitely equal to an amusement park and it was much cheaper... and I think more fun. No line at all here! Aren't they cute?

Then on to Scrapbook Plus with beach themed paper from Reminisce. I didn't have a lot of beach photos and mom helped out in the search. I'm still working on the "rock collecting" layout that she found pictures for. I want it to be just right... so no rushing on that one!

First up is baby N~ with her toes in the water at about 9 weeks old. I love the look on Shan's face when the cold water hit them... Priceless! I added a lot of buttons and some felt pieces to give it a little-girly feel.

Here's a close-up:

Next up is S~ walking along the beach. I added some Heidi Swapp and Prima bling, K & Company paper and more buttons. It's simple, and really focuses on the beautiful beach and that cutie pie! I sewed so many buttons on these that my index finger was all messed up from poking through the paper. :)

OK, that's it for now. Hope you like everything. I'll post more this weekend to get everything back up to speed, ok? [I made a couple of cards too (both for SG and SP) as well as some altered items... but don't think I'll upload them here... this post is a long, catch up one!]

much love,

erin

I'm back!

2008-02-23T19:48:00.000-05:00

After a couple of crazy, busy weeks... I'm back! The awards banquet last Sunday at work went off without a hitch (yeah!) and everyone seemed to have fun. The classes with shimelle and Donna Downey the night before were a lot of fun. I am SO excited that the "Year in Review" album I started in Donna's class is well on it's way to completion... I've gotten through September 2007... I just need a few more sheets of white cardstock and to finish up the jounaling. Here is a pic of me and Donna... she was riot... lots of fun and very entertaining!

Here is my latest layout... just finished today. The pic I posted a while ago... last October, after the Light the Night walk. It is one of my favorites that actually has me in it. :) I used the February Studio Calio kit... plus a bunch of stuff from my stash and from ScrapGoods too, of course. I've been holding onto it for a while not finding just the right papers to do it justice. Enjoy!

much love,

erin

Busy Sunday

2008-02-10T11:52:00.000-05:00

It's the beginning of a busy Sunday. I've already been in to work once and may need to go again. So much to do and it's easier to go in on the weekend than to get up early during the week. The laundry is almost done. Half of the house is cleaned... of course, that means that half of it is dirty too. Still have groceries, Home Depot, the mall and the scrapbooking store to go. Whew!

Next weekend I am signed up for 2 classes at Scrapbowl 2008... and I need to get my homework done. Hopefully I can get it all taken care of today. For the one class I need 20 pics of myself... Yikes! A~ may get to take some more of me today! Luckily she'll think it's a treat. :)

I finished a layout last night and took a pic this morning. Hopefully I spelled Cabella's right... I wasn't 100% sure. Too late now! This is last summer checking out the cool animal exhibits in Kansas City. We were all there... Mom, Dad, Shan, all the cousins, me and Mamason. I didn't get many pics of the people... mostly just the animals. We had a great time!

I also took a couple of better shots of the weeping pussy willow plant. It's called the Enchanted Tree and has to live inside a year before you can put it outside.... so we are enjoying it. It sure is lovley and magicaly looking! Enjoy!

much love,

erin

Signs of Spring

2008-02-07T21:37:00.000-05:00

It may be only February... but spring is definitely on the way! This weekend I saw three clear signs that spring is coming....

First, I bought a weeping pussy willow a couple of weeks ago. Saturday all the buds were popping out like crazy... just lovely!

When I took those pics, I noticed that my lavendar has flowers on it too! OK, so one tiny cluster of flowers... but if you look closely they ARE there! :)

The third sign... well, I heard this annoying noise and realized that it was a fly up against the window a buzz, buzz, buzzing. Yuck... but it's spring. No picture for this one... I'm sure that's ok!

Yesterday was record highs... 74 degrees... wow! By Sunday we will have a high in the 30's. Spring has a lot of ups and downs. Bummer!

Until then I'll have to gaze at the weeping pussy willow... and keep A~ from rubbing all the buds off! Today the buds have gotten really fat and fuzzy... I guess the flower is in full bloom here. It's hard to see in the picture. Hopefully I can try to get a better shot this weekend with some natural light. Pretty cool!

much love,

erin

New Year, New Look!

2008-01-24T20:16:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in just about forever! Sorry about that. We've been so busy here... first the holidays and then company... and work has been keeping me extra busy too! I'm going to try to get over here at least once a week to keep you up to date with our goings on... promise!

Shan and the gang were a lot of fun. A~ is really missing them. She has moved into her big girl room and big girl bed, and is doing great. I still have more to do on the room... I'd love to find a new dresser that's a bit taller and not as wide, and the shades are still pinned and sitting on the ironing board.. but it is looking pretty good. :)

Last weekend A~ decided that she was ready for another haircut. So we went to Cartoon Cuts on Saturday afternoon and waited in the crowd for our turn. We told the stylist that we wanted it about shoulder length... so she cut off some and asked A~ how it was. She responded, "Nope, a little shorter." What a surprise since she doesn't like to get it cut at all! Here are the before and after shots:

much love,

erin

Trimming the Tree

2007-12-08T10:27:00.000-05:00

I LOVE Christmas! I start playing holiday music the day after Thanksgiving... and I play it through New Year's... EVERY day! (that one makes Sergio crazy!) Although we've had a real tree some years, I really require an artificial tree. That's because I want to set it up the weekend after Thanksgiving and keep it up through January. Generally I have to have it down by Valentine's Day. I know others find that too long a time frame... but I LOVE have it up and I can... so I do! :) The cold of winter just doesn't seem so bad if you get to curl up and watch telly with the glow of the tree next to you... KWIM?

A~ is lovin' the decorating part. She was SO sad when we ran out of ornaments! And this year she's big enough to hand stuff somewhere other than the bottom branches... and she can understand spreading things out so that everything isn't in the same general area. That's a big help for mom who had to sneak behind her last year and secretly rearrange things when somebody was sleeping! :)

Here are a couple of shots to get you in the spirit of the season. We took Christmas card shots last night... but that will be a surprise with your card. Enjoy!

much love,

erin

Very Thankful

2007-11-23T19:29:00.000-05:00

What a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I think A~ had her best Thanksgiving yet. The weather was warm and balmy... into the 70's until almost 3pm.

She played out front while everything cooked and caught parts of the parade on the telly. I think she asked where Santa was every 5 minutes at least! Much to her relief, he showed up... although she wasn't happy to find that he was the END of the parade.

We had a great meal (what a relief!) and A~ really enjoyed the sparkling pomegranate juice I got as a treat for her. (Actually it's all gone today... so I think her and Sergio both enjoyed it a lot! Isn't it always those little things that kids find so special?!). After eating we went to the park for walking, scooter-ing, a little soccer, and fun on the playground. Then the cold front came through and gave us a lot of wind and a little rain. We headed home for pie, naps, and playing computer games. Later came more food, more games (including A~ favorite.. Barrel of Monkeys game..., and our first ever family round of "Hello Kitty" Uno with cookies and milk.

Thanksgiving's been a tough holiday to celebrate... since I'm kind of in charge of the planning and execution of it ... but this year it was a wonderful day with lots to be thankful for!

Much love,

erin

Brave little girl

2007-11-21T19:30:00.000-05:00

On last Friday, we went to get A~'s flu shot. She was not happy about it at all. I had been mentioning it off and on to get her used to the idea... and now the time had finally come. As we got ready to go, she begged and pleaded, "Please, Mommy, can we do the shot tomorrow and not today?" She cried some more and finally decided that she would feel better if she took some fruit snacks with her (thanks, Mamasan... they came in real handy!). One package was finished in the car... and the second one was going fast, except for that last piece. On our way walking into the flu shot clinic, I was trying to hold her hand, but kept ending up with a little fist. Finally I asked, "What ARE you holding?" "My fruit snack," she replied. "It has a funny face, so I can look at it when I get my shot and it will help me forget that the shot hurts."

WOW! I wish I had thought of that!

Unfortunately that only worked until we got 2 feet from the table where the nurse was sitting. Then we were back to crying and screaming and the other nurse had to help. Once the shot was done, she grabbed my purse off the floor and headed for the door... she couldn't wait to get out of there!

Now, she says that she wants to be an angel... since they don't need shots. I think she's already an angel! I am a bit biased, though! :)

Finally figured out the Flickr feed!

2007-11-07T21:07:00.000-05:00

Can you say "alliteration"?! :)

I am SO excited! If you look to the left you'll see that I've finally figured out how to link over to Flickr so you can see my scrapbooking layouts a little bit easier. I am taking my stuff out of the 2Peas Gallery where it was before and reloading it... and, of course, some new stuff... into the Flickr site. It's going to take a little while. I'm hoping that it will make it simpler to see what I'm working on (that's for you Mom!) so you don't have to jump from 2Peas to ScrapGoods, to More Than Scrapbooking to see things. Hopefully it won't take too long to get it in there!

Much love,
erin

Teatime!

2007-11-01T00:20:00.000-04:00

Remember the china tea set that Mamasan got me when I was about 8 years old. I still have it. One teacup is gone... broken I'm sure.... and one saucer is chipped (I actually still have the chipped off piece taped to the plate... in case I ever want to fix it! Ha, ha!). Otherwise it is in excellent condition. A~ got a little teaset for her birthday this year while they were in Bolivia. Unfortunately it is still there. So I pulled out my old one and she has been playing tea party ever since. Some evenings she even decides that she HAS to put on a dress first... can't go to a tea party in the wrong outfit now, can we?

Enjoy!

erin

PS. I just put in a new photo... it looks SO much better with natural light! :)

Trick or Treat!

2007-10-21T22:11:00.000-04:00

This Saturday was the Autumn Adventure at the Reston Town Center. They have face painters, and kid's activities, hay ride, balloons, entertainment, and a hay maze all for the bargain price of $5. I didn't realize that it was so far ahead of Halloween... so Thursday night I was up until 2am and Friday night I finished the mermaid costume at 5:30am. After a 4 1/2 hour nap, I got A~ up and crossed my fingers that the costume would actually fit. Come to find that the measurements printed on the pattern for length use the length of the middle skirt piece... and don't really seem to take into account the fins on each side. So in a flurry of last minute sewing I created a pair of straps to hold the fins and snap around each wrist... so A~ wouldn't have to hold them the entire event. Not bad... but we'll have to come up with something else for the Candy Hunt next weekend! :)

Much love,

erin

Final Note!

2007-10-10T20:32:00.000-04:00

OK... so maybe it's a three for one day! I decided to put up my latest scrapbooking layout. I had a little boo-boo with the title stamping... so I went crazy with buttons to cover it up and make it look somewhat "planned"! Hee, hee! I love the papers as they make me think of vintage fabric.

You may recognize this locale... Monticello! I think this pics are from 1999... but I'm not completely sure since they were on top of the photos in the photo box due to the panaramic shots of Jefferson's grave (doesn't it look cool though?). What a nice visit with Donna and Matthew that summer! I know we saw some other sites... like downtown Roanoke and Natural Bridge... but I can't find any photos of them. I'll keep looking and see if I can put together some more pages of things other than A~. (Ironically, she asked where she was in the pictures and why wasn't Papi there?!)

Until next post,

erin

Light the Night

2007-10-10T20:27:00.000-04:00

Hey again... yes, it's a two for one day... two posts in one day! Lucky, lucky to find a little time and a happy dial-up! :)

Saturday A~ and I walked in the Light the Night walk to help raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma. Everyone gets to carry an illuminated balloon on a course about 2 miles. It starts just before dusk and is really beautiful. Unfortunately my hands were full of balloons, bottled water, snacks, and stroller... so I didn't get a picture until the end. Mom, you've been saying that I'm not in enough pics... so here's a little A~ and Erin self-portrait just for you. (Thanks for the donation too!)

I think that this is my new, favorite photo:

Much love,

erin

The making of a mermaid

2007-10-10T20:20:00.000-04:00

Hi all! It's been a bit busy here lately. The Halloween costume-making season is in full swing and we are surrounded by sparkly satin, organza, and sequins! This year A~ decided that she was going to be a mermaid. And that mermaid HAD to be purple and green. I tried to lure her with the lovely turquoise fabrics.. but... "NO Mommy! Mermaids are purple and green." Then I tried some lovely pinks (girls LOVE pink...right?). Once again I was rebuffed... "NO, NO! Purple and greeeeeennnn!" I tried to explain that the green was fine for a mermaid's tail, but the clothes could be any color at all. Well, as you can see... we have purple and green. :)

I'm sure she'll be lovely. I just hope I don't regret buying extra organza and green, sequiny fabric so that I could double the fins, and ruffles to make it extra special!

Much love,

erin

At the Copa... Copacabana....

2007-09-26T18:58:00.000-04:00

Finally a good enough connection to post again... this time featuring the sleepy, little town of Copacabana, Bolivia, right on the shore of Lake Titicaca. Well...it's almost always a sleepy town... except of course for the festival week right before we got there. And you could tell! Two days later, it was totally different: neat, clean, and a bit quiet... very nice and still quite a few tourists. It was hard to find actually Bolivian foods on the menu... but it was easy to find full English breakfast, espresso, lasagna, and pizza. The only local food I tried (outside of the popcorn-like snacks in the market) was the trucha... I think that it's trout... and it was very tasty! :)

Our hotel was up the hill a bit and we had a wonderful view of the lake and all it's little paddleboats. A~ so wanted to sail one, but the water was a bit choppy and it was quite chilly. Although it was chilly, it's also quite sunny... and all of us had to get hats to protect ourselves from the sun. Just wish I got mine before the major sunburn on my face!

The lake is absolutely beautiful... and when you are looking at it you can't see the other side at all... looks just like an ocean, with a sandy shore to boot. We climbed up the hill behind the hotel to Calvario, where they have the stations of the cross on your way up to the top of the cliff... a little scary and very exhausting. We made it up right at sunset... and it was quite beautiful! Ironically there are vendors at the top selling trinkets... and I thought my commute was bad?!

Many of the city streets are on the hilly side to say the least... Some are paved with cobblestones or pavers, but many are dirt roads. Here's a photo of the steps at the bottom of the road coming from the hotel. Lots of pedestrians with these roads!

The cathedral was gorgeous, but no pics allowed inside. It's massive and the sidewalk outside has beautiful patterns in it using different shades and sizes of stones. The cathedral is famous for the Virgin of Copacabana which was created by one of the last living indigenous persons. She is the Virgin morena or the dark virgin. For the festival they had a replica outside so that people could stop and take pictures and such with it. I took the cathedral's museum tour where they have many medieval works of art, gifts given to the cathedral, and dresses for the Virgin morena... they have enough handmade, embroiderd gowns to last until the 2040's already.

Little things

2007-09-19T21:09:00.000-04:00

Saturday after lots of errands, finally getting A~ to commit to a Halloween costume, finding fabric for said Halloween costume (a mermaid, if you wanted to know)... I got all excited about this cute, child-sized travel cup we saw at Starbucks.

The little birds and books are too adorable (they had stuffed animals just like them for sale - but I resisted!), the the retro colors make the artwork look like something that could have been out when I was little.

Luckily, A~ was excited about it too... so we bought it! She's used it everyday... worth every penny so far! :)

Much love,

erin

Finally the Farm!

2007-09-15T18:02:00.000-04:00

I've had all the farm photos from Papa Abel and Mama Florencia's ready to go for over a week. Alas, the dial-up has not been kind to me and it just wouldn't let me upload anything. Finally today, the connection is good... so here goes! Here's A~ her great-grandparents:

We went out to Carcaje a couple of times. They have quite a bit of land there, although only part of it is cultivated with peach trees. They have a wonderful orange tree right in the front and we picked oranges the first time we were there to take back to the city for orange juice. Not the sweetest oranges, but A~ loved the juice! Here's Tio Martin taking a break from all that work.

They also have a couple of lime trees there... gotta be careful with those... they have thorns! A~ would point out which lime to get and we'd have to carefully pluck it for her! :) They also had a locoto bush there... lovely little purple flowers and small, green, spicy peppers. We didn't pick any peppers, but A~ got a few of the flowers.

Every farm has animals, and this is no exception. They have a little cow... Mama Florencia likes her quite a bit as she's a little petite and doesn't eat a lot, but gives them lots of milk. I even got to try some "ambrosia".... fresh milk (still warm even) with a little bit of liqueur added. Yummy, but different! A~ liked checking out the baby calf, but neither she or it were brave enough to make actual contact. They have a few chickens running around, a pair of dogs (both named Rocky), and guinea pigs.

Sergio, his brother, A~ and I went hiking through some of the undeveloped farmland across the road... it was SO beautiful with the clear, blue sky and cacti. I took a lot of pics. Here are the Bolivian fig trees... love their knobby branches.

I'll try to get the next post up sooner... the next installment is Copacabana and Lake Titicaca.

Much love,

erin

On the street...

2007-09-02T10:10:00.000-04:00

OK... it's time for your next installment of the Bolivia vacation photos. This time we'll take a look around the city of Cochebamba. Actually Cochebamba technically refers to the entire state and the city is really called Cercado... but if you say your going to Cochebamba, everyone knows that you mean Cercado unless you mention another city name specifically.

The house is right in the middle of downtown. Here is the street. The door to the house is just before the little, round, green and blue sign on the right... just past the parking area where the street narrows.

Here is Tito cleaning up the Jeep out in front of the house.

I tried to take a number of street photos, but the streets are a bit narrow and with all of the buildings in the center of the city, it's a bit tough to really capture the feel.

Here is a side street near the house.

Here is Calle San Martin... one of the larger streets near the house.

There are many plazas throughout the city. Some are big and well kept, some are smaller, some are in disrepair. I think most neighborhoods have their own plaza. Generally they feature grassy areas protected by little fences, paved walkways, benches for sitting, and, in the nicer plazas, a fountain or other water feature. My favorite was the Plaza Principal which is by the governmental buildings. A~ loved it too... but for the palomas (pidgeons).

Another beautiful area is the Prada. The Prada has lovley, tree-lined streets with little shops and restaurants. It's a popular place to hang out with friends and family.

The Cristo de la Concordia looks down at the city and you can see him clearly from many parts of city. We didn't go up to see it this time around, but here's a shot from the car. Cercado is in the valley and on the outskirts of town the little houses and business kind of creep up on the hills surrounding the city.

Next time we'll visit the farm in Carcaje!

Much love,
erin