New Layouts

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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

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