Tuesday's Tid Bits

1. I haven't been sleeping enough. I'm exhausted. On top of that, I've had a constant headache for a few days now. No good!
2. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 comes out Saturday. I am not a twi-hard or whatever it's called, but the books were actually pretty good {way better than the movies...seriously all they do is stare and breathe at each other}. I don't have the fourth book yet so I would like to add that to my collection and get the movie, since Santa brought me the first three for Christmas.
3. Valentine's Day is in a week and I am in no way prepared. I need to finish B's Valentine's for school, get going on J's present, and go pick up a few gifts for the girls. Better get cracking!
4. My hair needs to be revitalized. I was thinking about changing it up, too...maybe some red? Never done that before. I can't wait for it to grow out, I really miss my long hair!
5. B wants to be a lot of things when she grows up: a teacher, doctor, artist, and most recently a zookeeper...but no matter which occupation she declares she wants to have when she's older, she always adds, "...and a mommy." at the end of it.
6. I blinked my contact out today. How does that even happen?
7. Minnesota hasn't had much of a winter this year. It's kind of disappointing...I was hoping to take the girls sledding and build snowmen in the park but there hasn't been a decent dump of snow in what feels like forever. I didn't realize I'd miss it so much.
8. Friday is my grandma's birthday...She would have been 81.
9. I went to the tattoo parlor last week to show the owner my crappy tattoo but he wasn't in. Three of his employees were though and I got an apology for the inconvenience, suggestion to buy emu oil to speed up the healing, and was told to wait another month before they could fix it and make it look "beautiful again". First off, I'm not buying any special oils. That's more money to add to this tattoo process. Secondly, it wasn't beautiful in the first place. I was hoping for an offer of getting my money back on top of fixing the tattoo. Who knows if they even told the owner of the shop what was going on, but I will be calling him later this week to make sure he's aware and tell him I'm pretty disappointed in the whole experience. Maybe by summer my tattoos will actually look good. Maybe.
10. Do you think if I paint eyeballs on my eyelids I could sleep at work and nobody would know? Savvy?



{via}



2012: Week Five

Recap time!

Last week I spent a lot of time with the girls, but E was sick though so she got a little more lovey attention from both of us. On Friday J and I took a couple hours to see some friends for their birthdays {twins, J's bestests} while my mom EVER SO GRACIOUSLY kept an eye on the girlies. Hello, date night! It was fun too - we went to Dave & Busters. Ever been? It was my first time too. The food was good and it was hilarious to play arcade games with the hubster. We won enough tickets to get the girlies some small gifts, which they happened to deflate over the weekend because they loved them too much!

On Saturday I got a bit of cleaning done - and purging! I'm so proud of B because when it came to her toys, she was smart about things she played with and things she didn't anymore. Yes, I coaxed her a bit on an item or two, but she would wave her hand and say, "Toss it!" so I obliged. Princesses orders. Even though I only tackled one small space...their closet...I got rid of a whole garbage bag of stuff! If I keep this up we will be able to get rid of all the junk in our trunk and it will be so much easier to keep up with housework.

Also on Saturday, my BFF and B's BFF came over for a few hours. B's BFF got to stay a bit longer though. That's ok, I made dinner and kept E busy while they galavanted in princess dresses and fairy wings pretending to be Tinkerbell and the animal fairy...whatever her name is {Fawn?}. Made for some good friendship time for all of us girlies!

Yesterday, as you all know, was the Super Bowl. Needless to say I was pretty bitter that the Packers lost to the Giants in the final playoff game, but I had to root for them to beat the Patriots because that made me feel better {only a little} about losing to them two weeks ago. B decided she wanted the Giants to win, too. When I tucked her in and told her they did, she looked at me with her big, baby blue eyes, smiled and said, "Mommy, we made them win. Next year the Packers are going to the Super Bowl and they are going to win it!" Be still my beating heart. She melts me.

Speaking of melting, B and I got to serious work on her Valentine's for school. I'm going to make you wait until next week to see what I mean though.

No church this week, but lots of prayers for a few reasons...family related and personal.

I also hit 40 hours at work which is good news because my benefits kick in and I will be losing part of that paycheck we've been used to the last few months. Adjustment time.

You're all fully aware of my creative progress, and I hope if you're following along you're getting a lot done or at least trying something new here and there!

I'm avoid the "F" word. Fi---fit----fitnesssssss. UGGGGH. I've gained 2-ish LBS over the last two weeks and I have no motivation to eat right. I just want to chow down on Tostino's Restaurant Style chips and Frito's Jalepeño and Cheddar Cheese Dip. DELISH. Oh, and smother my marinated chicken with mushrooms, cheese, and gravy. More delish. I stopped with my Calorie Count the week we went fishing, but I started keeping track of what I eat again. Also, I have an opportunity to join a gym for dirt cheap...and dirt cheap membership each month...so dirt cheap that I wouldn't feel guilty if I didn't go, but it's so close to work I could go on my break and at least hit the treadmill. I'm sick of sitting on my butt. We'll see what happens, that window of opportunity isn't open for another two weeks so I have some time to think about it.

This week I want to purge some more! I'm in a mood to do it. Also, I'm going to eat healthy and maybe start doing a 10-minute workout when I can {maybe}. On Saturday I have a scrap day planned with my family {and hopefully a friend!} so I intend on getting a ton done!

Who were you rooting for yesterday?

February Challenge: Scrapbooking Day 6

What's Black & White & ??? All Over?: Use only black and white papers and embellishments with one color of choice to pop on the page. Pull it from the photo(s) to really make a statement!

This challenge fit perfectly with my wedding album. I thought about going with any color to scrapbook that big event, but in the end decided that there were enough patterns and papers to go with black, white, grey {gray?}, yellow and a touch of green. Once in a while the layouts will have champagne in them too, but it's very subtle. It's making for a very uniform scrapbook which, in this situation, is fantabulous!

I went with black, white, and yellow for a double layout featuring the wedding party walking down the aisle. Don't they all look amazing? I love my wedding pictures so much and am so lucky to have had such a wonderful photographer!

What color combo did you use?

February Challenge: Scrapbooking Day 5

Exacto-Mundo: Use an exacto knife on patterned paper to remove designs and feature them popped up on your page.

This one was fun. I got the idea from a book I have, which I will feature next week {as much as I wish I could say I was talented enough to come up with layouts, designs, themes, etc on my own, I get some help from creative geniuses}. I found a pattern that featured easy-to-extract flowers and began putting my page together. I love the finished look! It's subtle yet daring and I'm adding this to my "go-to" list for sure!

I love the feminine colors in the papers but I wanted a bit of "sass" so I added a touch of black. E used to charge across the living room floor when she could only crawl; head down, ready to butt somebody with her noggin! It was so funny!

Can you see the flowers popped up? I added brads and buttons along with black flourishes {I apologize for my shadow...kitchen didn't work and apparently living room doesn't either}.

Eek! I just ADORE how this turned out! What do you think?

February Challenge: Scrapbooking Day 4

Self-Portrayed: How often do you scrapbook just you? Take time to create a page surrounding you and what you love to do, your favorite things, or even quirky facts.

I decided to interpret this challenge a little differently...after all, this is all about what you make it! I don't have very many pictures of myself, and the few I do I don't have printed off and I wasn't about to make a special order for just a few pictures. So, I took my favorite wedding photograph of myself and paired it with a poem I found that spoke to me about that day. It's weird to say I love a picture of myself, but I remember feeling so ready and so at peace and my photographer happened to snap a picture as she was walking away to begin taking pictures of the ceremony.

I kept it fairly simple with just using greys {grays?} and silvers. I felt it added that nice, calming touch.

Found these cute little embellishments at Target, can you believe it?

Did you find this day's challenge as difficult as I did? 

February Challenge: Scrapbooking Day 3

Hot & Cold: With the weather so back and forth here in Minnesota {can't decide whether to be warm or freezing cold} pick a color out of each category and use them on a page together. Feel free to add neutrals, but let the focus be on the battle between warm colors (red, orange, yellow) and cool colors (blue, purple, green). 

This one was kind of tough for me as well because I kept finding papers I wanted to use, but they were from the same group! Finally, I settled on a subtle purple vs yellow combo.

I diverted back to my "gridlock" layout - easy and a favorite of mine. Plus, I couldn't decide which of these pictures to not include since B is such an entertainer! {She wasn't really sad in the one picture, either...good actress, huh?}

I am trying out the kitchen lighting to see if that helps on my pages. So far, I'm not a fan. But, here's a closeup of some detail and the shot happens to include my favorite picture of the lil' turkey.

How did you do with this challenge? 

Card Corral

Over the last couple years, B has become a collector of cards. Before last night they were all tossed in a bucket just to keep them in one place. No organization at all. Recently, she has started to read and spell words so I decided that it would be beneficial if her flash cards were accessible and in one place so she didn't have to dig through the bucket o'cards just to find them all. She'd probably be bored halfway through the hunt anyhow.

I bought a pack of different sized binder rings from Walmart for under $2 and although I have plans for three of them already {eek!}, I had plenty of extras. Ding, ding, ding! I knew exactly what to use them for!

First, I had B sort through all the cards and put them alphabetically and numerically. {My smart lil' cookie decided to sort them the long way, by having the pictures face-up and trying to determine what they were. She was confused why "airplane" had a "j" on it. I told her it was a jet and she seemed skeptical but got the job done.}

She took this part very seriously...

But I demanded a quick smile break. Cheese!

When she was done with her task, I grabbed my handy dandy Crop-o-Dile and punched large holes in the same corner of all the cards. This was way too stinking hard to do and photograph at the same time, so no pictures "in action", sorry.

Next, I took out my shiny new binder rings {maybe I can find my hand twin!}...

And put it through my professionally punched holes {you know it takes a master of the arts to do that, right?}!

Ta-da! An easy way to keep them all together for my lil learner. Since the binder rings are fairly easy to get open {for the most part, ha!}, I can mix it up if I feel the need. Just seemed logical to put them in order for now. Maybe that's my Alphabetical OCD kicking in though.

I also did this for the counting and number sets she has. She can count to 100 though so this is "easy peasy" for her {yes, she says that. cutest. thing. ever.}

Can I get a whoop, whoop? {whoop, whoop!} What a fun little 10 minute project for me and B to do together!

What are some tricks you use for keeping your rugrat's toys handy?

PS Tune in later tonight for my scrapbook layout!

February Challenge: Scrapbooking Day 2

Just getting our toes wet here...

For today's challenge I chose to do a layout of B and my BFF's daughter who is now one of her BFFs. Totally predictable, right? Anyway, these two are such a hoot when they get together to play and I just love them to pieces. 

BFF: We all have a BFF...even when we're little. Scrapbook a page that really showcases a friendship of some sort, whether it be you and your soul sister, your child and their favorite toy, or even your secret {or not-so-secret} love of M&Ms.

Again I've displayed my love of pop dots {I can't help it, they make everything so much cuter}. I'm also a huge fan of chipboard. I heart this page.

Who's ready for Day 3?!

PS Yes, I fixed the date from the layout yesterday :)

February Challenge: Scrapbooking Day 1

BAM! The gun has gone off and the challenge has begun! Check out Day 1 below. This was actually really tough for me. I've come to love patterned papers. Using one I was like, whaaa? But, I'm glad I threw in the last bit about the title because that definitely spiced the page up a bit. You can't really tell, but the blue background is shiny {oooh, ahhh!}, otherwise I used white and just three teeny tiny embellishments since the title was HUGE!

Simple Start: 1 patterned paper, 2 photos, 3 embellishments total...use space on this page and really focus on the photos. Also, for fun, let's use different letters/fonts for the title {can't be too simple, right?}.

 

I think I may go back and matte the pictures onto pink to add a bit more "umph" to the page though. How did yours turn out? 

PS I just noticed I wrote "March" for the month...crapola. It's April. Oh well...something I will have to fix tomorrow!

February Challenge: Scrapbooking

This month it's all about scrapbooking. I am determined to plow through 2011 and my wedding albums with grace and dignity and cross that finish line. Each day this month will feature a new challenge for scrapbooking...maybe it's something you've never tried and maybe it's something you do all the time. There's enough of a mix on here to expand on colors, embellishments, techniques, content, journaling, etc to keep your creative juices flowing. Mine too.

Let me tell you, a 30 day scrapbook challenge is tough. My friend and I succeeded once and failed twice. Life gets in the way. You get busy, you get tired, you look at your space and have no motivation and don't feel inspired. I hope presenting daily challenges will help instead of leaving a free for all "anything goes" each day. Keep up with me and at the end of the month {only 29 days, mind you!} you can look back at how much you got done!

Here's a complete list of the Scrapbook Challenges by day:

1. Simple Start: 1 patterned paper, 2 photos, 3 embellishments total...use space on this page and really focus on the photos. Also, for fun, let's use different letters/fonts for the title {can't be too simple, right?}.
2. BFF: We all have a BFF...even when we're little. Scrapbook a page that really showcases a friendship of some sort, whether it be you and your soul sister, your child and their favorite toy, or even your secret {or not-so-secret} love of M&Ms.
3. Hot & Cold: With the weather so back and forth here in Minnesota {can't decide whether to be warm or freezing cold} pick a color out of each catagory and use them on a page together. Feel free to add neutrals, but let the focus be on the battle between warm colors (red, orange, yellow) and cool colors (blue, purple green).
4. Self-Portrayed: How often do you scrapbook just you? Take time to create a page surrounding you and what you love to do, your favorite things, or even quirky facts.
5. Exacto-Mundo: Use an exacto knife on patterned paper to remove designs and feature them popped up on your page.
6. What's Black & White & ??? All Over?: Use only black and white papers and embellishments with one color of choice to pop on the page. Pull it from the photo(s) to really make a statement!
7. Circular Argument: Anything from embellishments to paper to photos...feature circles!
8. Monogram-oholic: I love the look of monograms but I never use them. It's an easy, simple title but sometimes that can explain it all. Feature a monogram of sorts on your page and see how it stands out!
9. Got Ribbon?: I do. Too much of it that is never used. Make an effort to pull out all the stops on your page with ribbon today.
10. Shady Feature: Pick a color, any color, and use only that color on your page. From paper to letters to embellishments...combine different shades for dimension and highlight the photo.
11. Eyelets & Brads Party: Use brads and eyelets to adhere components to your page - journaling, photos, embellishments, ribbon, etc.
12. Dear Diary: Create a scrapbook page that features extensive journaling about how you felt at the very moment the picture was taken. It doesn't have to be a picture of you, or anybody for that matter. Maybe you snapped a picture of the sunset one night because you thought it was so beautiful. Remind yourself of that moment.
13. Stacked: Layer and stack every and anything from borders to pictures to paper to embellishments.
14. Scrap Your Love: Well, this is a given for today! Scrap a page of your significant other, child, whoever…take your time and note what you find special about this person that you love.
15. Scrapbook Scrapbooking: You do it, but why? Remind yourself why you scrapbook to help find motivation…we're halfway through the challenge so it's a good way to regain focus!
16. Scrap-lift Yourself: Find a layout you've done in the past that you enjoyed. Copy it, rotate it, or change it up, but use it as inspiration for today's challenge.
17. Sincerely Yours: Scrapbook a letter to someone - often times journaling is forgotten if hurrying to finish a page or if a layout doesn't plan for it. Take your time and write something meaningful - or even scrapbook a letter that was given to you. Heck, even write a letter to yourself for this challenge!
18. Double Up: Sometimes it's hard to decide which photos to scrapbook…for this challenge, keep them all. Use two pages to showcase these photos and let them all shine…even if they look similar!
19. Stamp-tastic: I am not a stamper, but I'm challenging myself and you to use stamp(s) to embellish your page. You never know, might be hooked after this!
20. Stitching Crazy: No, I don't sew either. But I think stitches on scrapbook pages looks awesome. Since I don't have a sewing machine, I will be hand-stitching a design on my page. Find a way to incorporate stitching on to yours as well!
21. Recipe: 1 image, 2 patterned papers, 3 buttons (can use more embellishments).
22. Texturize: Use your embossing machine if you have one or create your own texture on your page - even use something OTHER than paper on your page! Get creative!
23. Technology: Use a computer to print out journaling, a title, a letter, whatever.
24. Interior Inspiration: Find an item in your home to use as inspiration…color, design, even the feelings you get when you see it - set it in front of you when scrapbooking today and use that inspiration for your page.
25. Lyrics: Use lyrics from any song to describe the page you're working on…whether in the title of the layout, journaling, etc.
26. Sparkles: Any way you can add glitter or sparkles to a page today, do it!
27. Revitalize: Everyone has a page that they aren't completely happy with…take that page and re-do it.
28. Leftovers: Last lap! Go back to previous pages this month and use only scraps except for base page…paper, stickers, etc.
29. Anything Goes: You've worked hard all month long keeping up with me, so reward yourself by using YOUR favorite technique, new or old!

Since I will be highlighting page layouts on a daily basis, Scrapbook Sundays will temporarily feature tools and organization this month.

Are you as excited as I am? Get fired up because the 29-Day Scrapbook Challenge begins NOW!