My Baby is a Lizard...I think...

It's cold. Okay, not freezing, but definitely cold. My bare feet are screaming for some slippers, a pair of socks, anything! I keep looking at the thermostat wondering if I can hold out, but memories of a $600 oil bill for one month make me realize, I can do it.

Maybe I should go shopping...there are heaters in stores.

Maybe I should go for a drive...I can totally crank up the heat in the car!

But, really...let's talk about the 2 year old. She is crazy! Why do kids kick off the covers on a cold night, on PURPOSE! Why do they strip themselves naked on a cold day, on PURPOSE! Why, when I take the dog out to go potty, does the toddler come running out in just panties, the wind blowing across her body? CRAZY CHILD! It is cold! Don't you know?

So here she is, 67 degrees in the house and she has taken off her clothes. She must be cold blooded to be able to stand the temperature! I'm getting ready to fight the clothes on or off battle, but she did make a concession. How about a hat?!

What a funny girl...

Music in My Soul

So what else have I been working on? Well, as one of her value projects, Jessica and I designed a music quilt. We calculated the yardage in order to make a sheet of music with a large treble clef on it that will center down her bed. After we finished the top we sent it to an amazing quilter who machine quilted a pattern that incorporated music notes.  I worked on the binding over the past two weeks. Jess named it "Music in My Soul" and the quilter made a beautiful tag on the back with the title, name and date.

I couldn't believe it, though, when I got to the last eight inches of the hand stitched binding and discovered I had missed the binding on the front with the machine. With the store event looming I couldn't take the time to work out how to restitch it, but today I will give it a go on the machine and then finish hand stitching the binding. I will be so happy when it is in the mail and on its way to Jessica!  If it is as cold in her apartment as it is here, she will definitely love having it, for warmth as well as looks!

What a whirlwind!

Two weeks of designing, cutting, trimming, organizing, buying....wow!  These are the designs that I created and then had taught at All About Scrapbook's Christmas in November event.  I also did a canvas piece and glass bulbs decorated with alcohol inks.

Was it worth the time?  I hope so!  The till will tell at the end of the day, but as a stay at home mom, which I would not trade for the world, it is so nice to hear praise on your projects and talents.   I hate doing housework, like shoveling the walk in a snowstorm with a toddler in the house.  But I love to make things, or even dream about making things.  I love to learn and grow inspired.  So making something that will last and that people love really lifts my spirits.

It's been awhile...

It's been awhile, and my oldest child reminded me I needed to update my blog. So thanks for being patient.

I finished the album for my brother.  It was called "My Father, My Friend" with the subtitle "In my eyes he is..." and each page used a word that my brother chose that he would use to describe our father.  This is how it turned out.  I think he liked it, at least I got an email that said THANK YOU! so that is good...

I covered the predesigned words with patterned paper and cardstock, I then designed the photos to print out 6 inches high.  This was followed by creating my own overlays in Photoshop, using various brushes and quotes.  After doing a computerized overlay to make sure that everything lined up to where I wanted it, I printed and cut the overlays the same size as the letter below it.  Then I painted the edges, inked and distressed each page, designed and glued in various designs and embellishments.  I allowed room for him to insert his own thoughts and left an envelope with room for him to add in some additional personal writings.  I finished the back with modge podge to allow for holding and then added ribbon to the rings on the spine.  TADA!  A year and a half since he requested it, I finished!  HOORAY!

I am currently preparing for a class I am teaching on Tuesday night.  It looks like a fairly small class size so we should be able to accomplish quite a bit.  I am teaching editing with Photoshop Elements, with a short introduction into composition and the rule of thirds in photography.  I finished the outline and now I just have to gather the photos that I will be demonstrating with.  It's all good! 

I find myself wanting to spend time catching my blog up with everything that has taken place over the past two months, but that would be just crazy!  We had graduation from elementary school, graduation from middle school, graduation from high school; Benae came to visit; EFY and a trip or two for the family to Staunton, Virginia.  Game nights, two birthday parties, girls camp, Grandpa's coming to visit, 8th grade formal dance, prom...and believe it or not, that is just to name a few!  Is it any wonder I am constantly forgetting things?

Jessica got accepted to BYU's marching band and is playing first alto saxophone (a great feat for an incoming freshman).  She has decided to change majors to Criminalist Forensics.  WOW!  Benae has moved to Utah State and found that NO ONE STAYS during the summer.  AHHHH!!!  She is hoping to get a job in the department that is more similar to her BYU job, fingers crossed for you, Nae!  She is also adding a minor in Theater so I think that will be very fun!

Time to run, prepare the last items for my sharing time and then, plan lunch, put the baby down and get ready for church.  Just a couple of things left on the list.   

A little at a time...

This has been a great week for our family.  With Benae home, the family is all here!  It is so wonderful!  There are so many things we want to go and do, but unfortunately school seems to be getting in our way.  Well, (evil laugh) we might have to do something about that!  Actually, tomorrow is senior skip day, which happens to coincide with when we were having the kids skip school so we could go to Busch Gardens together.  Hopefully we can get an afternoon next week to go and visit the Eastern Shore.

I taught a make-n-take a week and a half ago, and a number of people asked if I would teach a class.  They even made the requests directly as they checked out with their purchases.  So, I am getting together items for the first class.  This will be a fun techniques class that highlights all kinds of different things you can do for cards and layouts.  Here is a sample of one of the cards.  I created the original for my brother's birthday that is this weekend and felt it was a great sample of a variety of techniques.

I am working on my brother's birthday present while still trying to work on the card orders for Tanner's fundraiser.  I sent him a sneak peak and I am excited about how it is turning out.  Today I painted a ship's wheel with Distress Crackle Paint in pewter and I am excited about using it as an envelope on the back of one of the pages for personal notes.  This is one of BoBunny's albums that I have added photos that I have taken of our dad.  I then computer designed overlays that I printed on transparency film.  Little by little it is all coming together.

I realized that my list of projects just seems to be getting longer and longer, instead of shorter.  The girls have been asking me for hair flowers and we are trying to get them done before Benae leaves to go back to school.  So, I have taken the flowers apart, inserted the jewels, and now we need to get them glued on the clips.  Looking around my craft room, at all the piles everywhere, I begin to really wish that I was a list person!  Well, little by little, I will get it all done, or mostly done...and then I will finish painting that room!  One more project on the list!

Off to finishing one more thing...getting the girl's props finished for their photo shoots next week.  I am so excited for those photos!  I'll tell you a little more later, but for now, our favorite Virginia Beach photographer is doing a project and the ideas that she has shared with me are so exciting!   I can't wait to see the pictures that are in her mind come to life.  a-MAAA-zing!!

The Winds of Change

...two of them, that is.  The change from a mostly picked up house to TORNADO HIT!  Piano music is everywhere, (guess they couldn't find the right song to play), tablecloths pulled out of the drawers, the foot scrubber is resting in the base of the vacuum, the rhythm toys are all dumped out...yes definitely a change from earlier today...

But really?  Ari and Logan had a blast together!  They always do! Don't ask me why, but she has dubbed him Elmo even though she can say his name.  But he is her Elmo, and she loves him with all her heart.  He came over twice today and both times broke Ari's heart when he left again.  I did find out that the feeling is mutual.  Grandma's house?  Not for Logan!  He wants to be with his Awi.  I love it!  And they play so well together, it makes it a joy having him to visit.

I am still plugging away at cards.  Each one is unique and hopefully worth it! I haven't mastered the art of mass producing, I get bored or the buttons change or I use a different ribbon, or I distress the embellishments a little differently...it means they take longer, but I take joy in the process. 

I got a major "squirrel" today (if you've seen the movie UP, you'll know that those dogs are exactly what life is like for the people who talk to me!) and I realized that my brother's birthday is only a little more that two weeks away!  I have been working on a special mini-album for him that highlights my father.  It's called "My Father, My Eternal Friend".  I used BoBunny's Mywords album and completely covered the page with the photo.  I will be highlighting the finished product in a later post. So today I worked on the overlays that I am designing for the pages.  Overlays are like transparencies with awesome designs on them so you can see the photo beneath them.  Anyway...I hope that it will be something he will love and that will help his sons remember their grandpa. 

But, I should have been prepping for my Make and Take at All About Scrapbooks, so that will be tomorrow.  Watch and see what I make.  I'll upload it tomorrow!

Gotta run, homework takes precedence!

Just thinkin' and inkin'

It's a Monday morning, and there are tons of things to be done.  Fortunately for me we had the missionaries come to dinner, which meant everyone chipped in and tidied up, so mostly I just have another load of dishes.  Of course, the never ending laundry basket showed up too, so I will have to address it sometime too, just not right now...

I am still scrambling to make all of the cards ordered for Tanner.  I want them to all look special, but after I make a couple that look the same, they don't look so special to me any longer.   But, my thought is that if they only show up once or twice in a card set, that shouldn't be too monotonous for everyone else, right?

Saturday, after driving like a mad woman to pick Tanner up from his Scout campout, race him to a soccer game, and then jet over to Jessica's Jazz Band concert, we actually made it just in time to hear the band, but most especially, to listen to Jessica's solo.  She played Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and the notes were played with such feeling that tears came to my eyes.  

We have listened to her saxophone for so many years, and to her piano for almost 12...I just cry thinking of losing that when she goes to college.  After having Benae leave, I know just how I will be feeling this September and how empty it is to have them leave for college.  I don't regret either one of them going away to BYU to study, but oh how the thought of them both being gone...or even just one being gone...makes me feel a little hollow.  Like something that should be there isn't.   


But, until then...less than two weeks until Benae comes back to visit!  Hooray!  Can't wait to have everyone together and takes loads of pictures!  We only get to be together for a couple of weeks in May and then a couple more in August when we go to Utah to take Jess to college.  We have so much planned, hopefully we'll actually accomplish some of it.  Our trip out west will give us some time to visit with family, a day or so at a time, but it is better than nothing, right?


Well, enough for now.  Ari is almost done with her breakfast and off on a walk we go.  Until then....au revoir!