Garnish, Deanna, Garnish!

December Daily: pages part 2

2012-01-27T07:00:00.001-06:00

Today I'm showing a few pages from the middle of the book where I worked on capturing the boys school art and events. They bring home so much stuff that I'm always completely overwhelmed. I am ok with recycling the worksheets but the stuff with their writing or art on it is harder. I try to narrow down and keep only best or the most representative items... but that requires thinking so I put it off. And when I do bring myself to do it, I find that even the "best" stuff still ends up just sitting there, without anything done with it.

For this album I picked one page from each boys stash of creations and folded it up to 5x7 and put it in the book. I really like it in there. Because it is squared off, it has a neater look than I though it might. I added it on the day I was showing pictures and journaling from Sammy's program and Zack's class party. These were also their last days of school for the semester so it forms a big finish for the "at home" portion of the book. After that it's all travel - a "most delightful journey" (if the fortune cookie says it, it must be true).

December Daily: Pages part 1

2012-01-26T16:41:00.000-06:00

Sammy was so funny with the chopsticks this day! I couldn't resist pulling out the camera in the restaurant and getting a series of pics. Then when he resorted to the fork it was priceless! I didn't show the picture here, but on the back I put in our fortunes from the fortune cookie - it said Sammy has "a magnetic personality". Well, I think so!
I wanted the pictures all in one long row, so that the progression would show, but to print them small enough to do that in 7 inches really wasn't cutting it. I ended up making this accordion fold so that you have to pull out the tab to see the final (fork) picture. I just used three sheets of heavy cardstock with "hinges" made out of brown paper punched with the Stampin' Up Modern Label punch.

I like the view of various pages and embellishments that peeks through when you are looking at a different page. Here, the little heart from the picture of James reading to Sammy shows up after two more pages are turned.

And how could I have a December Daily album without a Starbucks sleeve? That would be as wrong as a December without a Peppermint Mocha! In this case it gave me a place to talk about the evening James and I spent shopping, just the two of us. I didn't have any pictures of us but it was a memory I wanted included.

I'll be back tomorrow to show how I included some of the kids school events/work!

December Daily: Finished Album!

2012-01-25T16:42:00.000-06:00

I am sure many people are soooo over the holidays and December, but I'm excited to have finished my December project! I don't care that it's the end January - I'm thrilled to have finished anything. I mean seriously, how often do I start AND finish something, and all in a row too? (You don't need to answer that.)

This is a December Daily album, as inspired by Ali Edwards and many others (here's another extremely pretty one). I showed my kit a while ago. I finished (notice how I am repeating that word finish?) it Monday but it took me until today to work up the energy to photograph it! It turned out kind of large. But hey, it's a whole month!

I do this project a little differently than some - I don't fully make the pages ahead of time and I don't work on it daily. The upside of making a kit instead of pages is that I can choose the papers that I like for each photo and I'm not locked into a certain page size for each one. The downside is that it takes a little longer during December, a month that is already over-full. But, the creative part is what interests me and draws me to the project, so that's better for me. One big mistake I made was not making the cover ahead of time. Somehow I had a hard time getting started on the pages without a cover to draw a color scheme/style from. And making the cover was daunting so I kept putting it off. That led to me starting way late in the month, which I hadn't intended. Next time I want to stick with making the kit rather than finished pages but finish the cover ahead of time.

There are a couple of reasons that it works better for me not to work on this daily. The first is that I print my photos at a photo shop (meaning not at my own house, on my own printer), so I don't have the photo for today at the end of each day. I like the color by sending them out to be printed and Costco is close, cheap and our local Costco's prints are great (I think they calibrate their machines more often than other places). I don't my going by there a few times a week so it isn't a big delay, but it isn't daily. The second reason is that I can't really work in the time to make things every day. My time is organized more by week. I have two or three two-hour blocks that I try to use for creativity. A lot of times I can do a little more here or there, but I just don't like the pressure of trying to work EVERY day. Too much stress! And this is supposed to be fun :) When I realized that my time is structured weekly like this, it was very freeing and inspiring. And fun!

The think I like best about my finished album is the way the pieces peek out the sides and top, and out from behind the other pieces, but without the whole thing feeling too messy. And the fact that it is finished!

I'll be back with some pages to show soon.

12 x 12 in 2012

2012-01-18T16:51:00.001-06:00

Wouldn't it be fun to take 12 photos on the 12th of each month in 2012 and put them together for a look at what our everyday life is like this year? At the end of the day on the 12th I suddenly remembered I wanted to do this... I had to scramble for some photos and several I filled in from other days, but no big deal! This is still what our life looks like in January (notice I left out my hiding indoors from the cedar pollen. Hm. I don't know that I really want that included anyway!).

It turns out this is not an original idea. Lots of people are doing it - check it out here!

as promised...

2012-01-13T18:12:00.001-06:00

...another desert picture, this one taken by my dad!

Pics from the Desert

2012-01-12T08:40:00.001-06:00

Since I haven't had time to write anything, I am going to try to put up a few recent pics instead. Here's one of Zack hiking in the mountains outside Tucson!

Handmade Card: Merry Christmas

2011-12-02T09:17:00.000-06:00

I guess I'm addicted to woodgrain patterns! I can't seem to resist using either my woodgrain stamp or my woodgrain embossing folder on card after card. I like how very shiny the gold detailing on these leaves is! Also, see the ends of the light green piece? I punched just the ends with the Decorative Label Punch, one of my favorites.

I am excited for the card sale tonight!

Handmade Card: Warm wishes

2011-11-30T11:41:00.000-06:00

This toasty little gingerbread baby wishes you a warm and happy holiday!

I don't naturally gravitate to cute designs, but I really wanted to use this guy. My kids love the story Gingerbread Baby (the Jan Brett one, becasue she is just awesome!) so looking at this little man makes me happy. I filled in his hands and feet with white heat embossing to make it look like icing.

And check out those buttons! They are cut out and embossed in one step with the Stampin' Up Sweet Buttons Embosslit Die and the Big Shot. Then of course I had to ink 'em and add some glitter!

Handmade Cards: Photo Cards

2011-11-29T07:00:00.000-06:00

I've also been making some cards using photo art. I have a lot of different styles of these! I really like them and will be using some myself for some of my greeting card needs in the future. They use photos I took and editied and are on really nice quality cardstock bases. I don't know if they are less work than the regular handmade cards (all that photo editing is quite a learning curve for me!), but most of the work is up front so I can easily make multiples - thus, I'll be offering a little sale on sets of four of these!

Handmade Card: Baby

2011-11-28T14:00:00.004-06:00

This baby is one-of-a-kind! I had that adorable b-a-b-y pennant set (but only one) and couldn't WAIT to make it into a card. This is another large, 5x7 beauty. Those raised dots (a Big Shot creation) are so sweet. The flower has a lot of soft dimension.

It was so much fun to make something soft and pink after all the BOY scrapbooking I do!

This will be for sale along with all the others I've been posting at the Holiday Sale. Come check it out!

P.S. Do the larger pictures work for you? Let me know if it looks right on your computer!!

December Daily: Foundation Pages (sort of)

2011-11-28T08:52:00.002-06:00

It's almost December! I'm very excited that I'll soon be starting my third annual December Daily album, as inspired by Ali Edwards. I have enjoyed this project very much the past two years - here is the album I made two years ago. I guess I didn't post last year's album, though I did make it and finished it pretty promptly! The idea is to add a photo and/or story for every day of December to document the month. Sometimes I do two pictures. Sometimes I don't have a picture for a day and use something representative. It's not strict! It also doesn't need to be all holiday related - in some way it's a chance to document every day life alongside the Christmas season.

Most people completely make their foundation pages ahead of time (here's a beautiful example) but I find that doesn't quite work for me. The idea is to make it easy to do during the busy December month... but I need it to be easy AND have the lure of a little creative play to keep me going. So, I make pages, numbers and a few extras and let myself choose which to use each day. I have them in a clear, zippered pencil pouch to keep the main items together.

The first photo is an idea of what the pages may look like when I choose what to use. But I'll also probably make some pages that are just photos printed with borders and glued back to back. The pages themselves are 5x7". That way, I can use an occasional trimmed portrait-direction picture in amongst mostly landscape-direction pictures.

This set-up is the same as my traveling vacation mini-book from 2010 (and the results are here). This has been my favorite mini-book, both in process and in final product, so I decided to follow the pattern for my December Daily this year.

I even have it in the same traveling clipboard, along with some scraps and random Christmas supplies.

Seeing that puts me in the holiday spirit! Now I just need to get my Christmas decorations out of the attic!

Handmade Card: Count your blessings, not your birthdays

2011-11-26T07:00:00.016-06:00

This card started out as something entirely different - it was going to have red and a chicken on it. However, I'm so happy with how it turned out that I may make a few more! I think the little circle of cork is a fun texture and of course I love those embossed butterflies, made with the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die. That's even a sparkly blue staple holding on the ribbon.

I'm really getting excited for my card sale on Friday and Saturday! Stay tuned for more pictures of cards!

Handmade Cards: All things bright and beautiful

2011-11-25T07:00:00.000-06:00

Have you been out Black Friday shopping this morning? That's our plan - it's a little tradition that always feels fun and adventurous. We're a little disgruntled about shops being open on Thanksgiving. I hope that doesn't ruin our Friday fun this year!

And now that we can officially kick off the Christmas season, here is my next card to show you. These are also for the Holiday Sale and they were really fun to make with my new stamp set, Beautiful Season. I made several of them, since I enjoyed them so much. The holly and bird image is stamped and embossed (so that it is raised) and then hand painted with a combination of Stampin' Up! Watercolor Crayons and Luminarte paints. Doing these little paintings is therapeutic at the end of a long day! The background is stamped and embossed with gold embossing powder in the Woodgrain Background stamp - one of my favorites.

The inside reads "May your season be blessed with all things bright & beautiful": may your season start off that way, today!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T07:00:00.003-06:00

Here's wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving holiday, with good food and grateful hearts.

Today I'm sharing with you a floral arrangement I made from a flower bunch I bought at Costco and a thrift-store (Valentine's day patterned) glass bowl.

I was really intimidated to make it when I started! I wanted it in a low bowl, but cutting the flowers down that much made me nervous. I find the most likely mistake I make when arranging flowers is leaving the stems too long for the container - when the stems are not cut down enough, you end up with something that looks like a flower bunch, stuck in a vase, rather than like a finished arrangement. But once you cut them you can't get them any longer, so I always feel that I'm overdoing it and messing it up! In the end the stems are almost always slightly too long (or a lot too long), if anything.

In this case I had to cut them down by half, and even then the tallest pieces ended up taller than I had planned. But, it looked good enough that I wasn't anxious to start over. I wrapped the decorative wrap from the original bunch around the bowl to make it match the arrangement and tied it with some rafia.

This is for my mother-in-law's birthday, and hopefully can double as decoration for her Thanksgiving table. We'll be spending our holiday there, for which we are very grateful! Have a lovely day, everyone.

Handmade Cards: happy birthday

2011-11-23T09:48:00.001-06:00

Here is the turquoise version with a "happy birthday" sentiment. I chose to use the same stamps just because I was loving them so much! The large floral medallion-style stamp is from Day of Gratitude by Stampin' Up. That flourish from the background and the envelope is part of the Bliss set, which unfortunately can't be purchased right now. The little tag is stamped with a tiny flourish from the Tiny Tags stamp set and punched out with the Jewelry Tag punch. I love that punch! I have a set of these done to sell... if someone buys all of them I'm going to have to make some more!

Handmade Cards: Thinking of You -and- Holiday Sale!

2011-11-22T15:50:00.001-06:00

I've been busy making lots and lots of cards! I'm going to be participating in a holiday sale by Amanda, at whose class I made my fused glass plate. She is bringing together a few women to make or sell items here southwest Austin for a fun holiday event.

I've never sold my cards before but I'm excited about it.

This card (I have a set of these) is a large, 5x7 kraft card with matching envelope. I've used stamps, ribbon, a tiny tag attached with a silver jump ring. The sentiment reads "Thinking of You" in raised cream-colored ink. The stamps are mostly by Stamin' Up! - aren't they pretty?

Fused Glass Plate

2011-11-14T16:51:00.000-06:00

Check it out!! I'm so excited: I made a fused glass plate! I went to a class by my friend Amanda, otherwise known as icandyartglass.com . She had the tools and supplies in her glass studio at her home and we each got to make a plate in one of two shapes. It was very fun. No two looked ANYTHING alike! Everyone chose their own color combination and totally different designs. It was pretty cool to be able to create with glass and even though it sounds intimidating, it wasn't at all.

I intentionally chose a simple design so I wouldn't disappoint myself on the execution of my idea and I was happy with it. But the fired version is sooooo much prettier than I realized it would be! I was impressed! I loooove my plate. It was hard to photograph but it is very shiny and smooth and the glass has sparkles in it that didn't show up until after firing. It's very inspiring!

Also, if you live in the Austin area, Amanda is having an artist showcase in her studio on December 2 and 3. She'll be selling her work, as will other artists in the area. I'm going to sell some of my cards - something totally new for me! I'll post details as it gets closer.

Scrapbook Layout: Poetry Winner

2011-11-04T16:37:00.000-05:00

Here is a scrapbook layout I did as an addition/complement to Zack's Kindergarten overview - the story of his poem he wrote for the school poetry contest. When he first heard there was a contest, with a winner for each grade, he dashed off a poem on the back of a page in a spiral notebook. It was written in green sparkly pen, very messy, with lots of random "decorations" all around. The spelling wasn't so great either! I knew we'd have to re-write it to submit it, but boy, was that a hard sell to Zack! He just hated having to write something already written and trying to use lowercase letters was really a trial. In desperation I resorted to... candy, of course!

I put an m&m at the end of every line, plus one for the title and one for his name and grade. He got to copy a line in his best handwriting and then take a "refreshing pause" and eat the m&m. Nothing could have worked better to get him to finish the copying! Since we didn't get the original back, I snapped a photo before turning it in.

Zack's teacher told me that when the results were read over the loudspeaker at school that they didn't name a winner for kindergarten. She had to run down and have them look again for K entries! Maybe he was the only entry for Kindergarten... but I think he might have won anyway, don't you? Hee hee.

What I liked most about Zack's poem was how it captured his love of books and alluded to the way he finds little hiding spots to squeeze into so he can be cozy while he reads. Someday I'm going to make a mini-book about the boys and reading - right now I tag photos with "books" in Picasa as I go so that later I can find them to capture the reading moments over the years. In the meantime, I wanted to make a layout about this particular story.

I normally make double-page layouts but I wanted some more variety and really, not every story needs two pages. So, I was determined to make this a single page, even when it was a lot harder to switch than I expected! I originally had printed the photos in 4x6 but then had to reprint some of them in different sizes to make it work. I put the poem itself in 5x7 and then cropped it down to the right proportions for the writing. The others I printed at half size. The two small photos of the original poem I wanted small because although they are repetitive, I wanted to use both of them. Small prints was the only way to make room. The photo of Zack in the Reading Loft I printed small because it was so busy and so high-color that it overwhelmed the page in a 4x6 size.

I ended up struggling with this layout a very long time, walking away and returning to it a few times over a few weeks (yes, weeks!). I wanted to use the blue construction paper "ribbon" they had given Zack but then had a hard time because it seemed so ugly with the dull color and uneven writing (I like handwriting, but usually I like writing of people I at least know!). I finally decided it just "is what it is" and put it on there as the title. I pumped up the contrast on the writing by going over it with Ranger black Enamel Accents. I also sprayed it with Archival Mist since construction paper seems to fade soooo quickly, so we'll see if that helps long-term.

I also had a hard time fitting in that giant journaling block. I wanted the whole thing to be balanced but I kept juggling the pictures. Finally I got an arrangement I liked, but then when I added the paint and glued it down I realized I put everything farther to the left than I had planned. Argh! It turned out like this:

which I felt was pretty, but lop-sided. I added my punched and inked leaves, echoing the foliage on the reading loft, a twisty ribbon flower, and a little paper pinwheel inspired by this quick video, but it still seemed lop-sided.

Recently Noell from Paperclipping, a great instructional video site with some free and some paid content, has had some excellent posts on the visual weight of different items and how to use it to achieve balance. There is some content you can read, though you do have to be a member to watch the entire videos (I think the membership is totally worth the cost!). I remembered how high-contrast things have high visual weight for their size, so I grabbed one of the label-sticker name tags Zack would come home from school wearing whenever the kids were meeting new people - I had saved several, in bad shape though they were. I added a little blue and green inking along the curled up edges and also inked up a chipboard z. After adding these I liked the balance of the whole thing. Compare the first and last pictures (click on them for a better view) and see the difference!

Lookout, there's a ninjashark behind you...

2011-11-02T15:16:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! We did, though my boys were VERY tired by the end of the weekend fun + Monday holiday. They made it through trick or treating with lots of smiles and lots of fun, though. And, neither had a meltdown at school yesterday so we're calling that a success. EARLY bedtimes this week!

October Memories

2011-10-28T20:57:00.000-05:00

We are loving watchingthe World Series together as a family. Every game is party time!

Roasted "Baby Cabbages!" or Brussel Sprouts

2011-10-24T07:00:00.000-05:00

I have been looking forward to roasting these Brussels sprouts for days and we've just been too busy to do it - which is silly because it was really fast! I cut each sprout in half, tossed them with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them in a 450 degree oven until they were crispy and caramelized.

I told the boys they were "baby cabbages" and they thought they were adorable. Maybe they will grow up associating Brussels sprouts with YUM instead of yuck.

One word of caution: you can see that I sliced my garlic - bad idea. It got too done - not burned but over-browned. I had to pull it out halfway through cooking and toss it (head in the oven, frying off my eyelashes...). I should have done what I usually do, which is to crush each clove with the flat of a knife and toss them in whole.

Give it a try, and Happy Roasting!

Happy Saturday!

2011-10-22T07:00:00.004-05:00

Check out Sammy at a Star Wars themed birthday party (by the way, the party was super cute with brown "padawan learner" tunics and a foam and duct tape light saber for each kid). He thought himself quite fierce, though I thought him quite cute!

Have a great weekend!

Mini-Book: BEACH

2011-10-21T16:01:00.001-05:00

I wanted to make a really simple little book from our trip and I wanted it finished the week we came back. Sound unlikely? Well, I did it! It was fun and came together soooo quickly! Now I have a casual little booklet that the kids are enjoying looking at and I've carried around to a couple of people to show about our trip.

How could it possibly be fast, you ask? Especially since we came back with over 500 pictures (from two cameras) and I loved lots of them! I really did have to simplify in order to make the goal of a quick mini book practical.

Here are a few things I used to make it happen:

Since I usually spend some time during the trip itself enjoying looking at my photos, I put that time to work and started choosing favorites during the trip. That way after we got home I could finish narrowing down pretty quickly. I chose 54 pictures to print so I obviously didn't narrow that much! Since the book design is so simple, having that many pictures wasn't a problem.
I cropped all of my pictures in portrait (up and down). This was my first instinct, but then because there were a few that wouldn't work that way I rethought and rethought it before I came back around to it again. The whole book would have been even faster if I had just accepted this idea to start with. Luckily, in the struggle I found a couple of helpful things to do to make it easier. I hope to post soon with more about that. But however it is managed, having all the pics in the same orientation made the book come together very quickly.
I wrote the story right on the pictures before I even printed them. I used Picasa (a free program from Google) but lots of programs have a text tool. I chose a cute font and added all my text in white over the darkest corner of the photo. I only wrote on 23 of the photos, since a lot of them were just fun pics of the kids playing. I included a couple of stories - like Sammy's fear of the sand - by using brief comments over a couple of photos (see below).
I printed the photos with a white border to add a double-matted look with a single matting. I love my Costco's print lab - cheap, fast and good quality (not all Costco's calibrate their printers as often... you'll have to check out yours) and the white border doesn't add to the $.13/print cost.
I used nothing but plain black cardstock and a ribbon for the book. I cut 8.5x11" cardstock into 5.5x6.5 pieces, getting two out of each sheet. I scored each sheet just short of 1" from the edge, glued photos front and back, punched two holes and tied the whole lot together with a ribbon. It took less than an hour, with interruptions from Sammy, to put it together.

Didn't it turn out pretty? One thing, though, it isn't the most robust. It's just cardstock so it won't last forever. I could easily make it tougher by adding some chipboard covers but I'm ok with it as it is - it's fun and most of all, it's DONE!

Port Aransas

2011-10-15T20:04:00.001-05:00

(click on photos for larger images)

Every year we head to the Texas Gulf coast for a long weekend. I seem to have yearly posts on the trip (although we've been going many more years than I've been blogging!) and it's fun to look back. I was shocked, however, to realize how easily Sammy took to the sand and the water the past couple of years because this year, from the very first step off the end of the boardwalk, he had an absolute phobia of sand.

Yes, sand. Terrified, I tell you.

As you can imagine, it isn't so easy to avoid sand at the beach! We never figured out what the problem was and he never got past it. He was convinced that the sand was scary in some way. It was a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy because his instinct was to try to wipe the horrific substance off the bottom of his foot on the inside of the other leg... and that is exactly where he has the most trouble with his eczema. It's not surprising that salty sand is really painful on eczema-cracked skin. But even when he seemed to be able to accept that no rattlesnake or sand crab was going to get him, and the sand wouldn't hurt if he didn't rub it into his wounds, he was still frightened!

James went to town and bought Sammy some water shoes that encased his feet more than his little flip-flops and they helped... but they didn't fix the problem. He wanted to be carried from the boardwalk to a chaise lounge, where he would sit on his platform and lean over to dig in the sand with a shovel. He seemed to have a good time and was mostly happy doing that. Occasionally he would venture onto the hard-packed sand near the water but never, never onto the softer sand farther from the shore. We really tried to talk him into it, coax him along, insist that we weren't carrying him... but he was frozen with fear and screaming in terror. And then he would end up grinding the sand into the already bleeding skin from the last time and we had to scoop him up and go wash him off in fresh water... so it ended up seeming just not worth it.

I showed Sammy pictures of last year when he played in the sand with no problem. He says he's going to be done with being scared of the sand next year. Even with the strange sand-o-phobia we had a great time overall! The weather was beautiful. Two days were sunny and hot and two days had some rain and a lovely little fall chill, though still plenty of time to be on the beach.

I've been playing around with some of the images I liked from the trip, so I thought I'd share those. (As always, click on the images to see them bigger.)

[If you are interested in the post processing done on these photos, check out Pioneer Woman's FREE photoshop/elements actions. Those are what I used and they are really fun!]

These Days: Sammy

2011-10-01T07:00:00.002-05:00

These days Sammy is full of personality. He wants to (in this order): play baseball, go to school, do helper jobs. He talks about being a baseball player ALL the time! His belt is like a baseball player, his shoes are like a baseball player, he needs to carry his bat (foam, thank goodness), he wants his daddy to play baseball with him, he was Zack to help him hit the baseball off the tee... et cetera! He's getting pretty good at connecting with the ball on the tee. He then takes great pleasure in flinging down the bat and racing around the far tree while Zack shouts, "Home run, Sammy, HOME RUN!"

He is also going to "Ducks Class", the name of his little class at his pre-school. He's pretty disgruntled that he doesn't get to go every day. If I say something like, "Oh, you are a cutie-pie!" He says, "No. I am not a cutie-pie. I am a cutie--pie DUCK!" In lieu of Ducks class every day, Sammy would be glad to go to Zack's school every day - either to pick him up or to help in the classroom like we did last year. Since we don't get to help in the classroom in the same way (we do go help in the library once every two weeks and I'm about to start helping with something while Sammy's at school), he would settle for picking Zack up every day. He wants to bring either his cowboy dressup outfit or his phone or his Elmo with him. I don't know if he doesn't want to give them up right then or if he likes all the attention he gets from the other moms! Since carpool is taking care of Zack's school pickup for us two or three days each week, he keeps finding himself disappointed, which he makes sure to show by drooping his head and shoulders, putting on his saddest face and swinging his arms loose in a full-body display of moping.

We've realized we let those adorable, personality-full, little faces he puts on keep us from following through on consequences like we mean to! It doesn't take much in the consequence department - a quick break in a chair, a removal of some item - but sometimes he seems so heartbroken that it's easy to believe he must already be corrected enough. Think he's playing us? Ha. We're going to refocus on positive, consistent disciple (mostly from this book)... and try not to be such suckers for those expressions!

One thing I'm loving about right now is that Sammy is so excited whenever I can think of some little helper job he can do around the house. It almost always gets a positive response and a request for another helper job.

These Days: Zack

2011-09-30T09:28:00.001-05:00

These days Zack is adjusting to First Grade. It's pretty different than kindergarten for him. For us, we see playful lessons and minimal homework. But for him, he's sitting at a desk instead of a carpet square and expected to do lessons most of the day instead of just a little of the day. We see a classroom discipline system that's essentially the same with positive rewards and mild negative consequences. But he sees a stricter system and not much time to talk to his buddies.

What we both see is a good class and some good friends! We have started letting him go in earlier - sometimes thirty minutes before school starts when everyone goes to the cafeteria before they are allowed to go to their classrooms. It always seemed too early last year - we tried to keep the length of his school day from getting longer than it needed to be. But this way he can see his friends and talk to them before they go to the classroom (where they immediately start their lessons without any play time). We are starting to carpool after school, which is leading to some short playdates on a regular basis, which seems to be a great thing.

We also let him join some extracurricular activities: Cub Scouts and Chess Club. We've only been to one meeting of each but I think they are going to be a good fit. We're still waiting for our Tiger Cub den assignment but Zack's already asking how he can earn badges (they are actually belt loops at this age). Chess Club is pretty interesting - they have 110 kids! Almost all of them are second graders and older but Zack and a buddy are some of the few first graders and I think they'll be able to hang.

Scrapbook Layout: Elk Camp

2011-09-23T07:00:00.001-05:00

I've been thinking this week about Elk Camp since my extended family has been there the past few weeks. This is a two to three week camping trip out in the woods in northern Arizona. Those who want (my dad, uncle, brother-in-law, etc) apply to a state drawing to get to do an archery hunt for elk. We have gone in the past but did not go this year since Zack is in school now. It's quite an experience! you can read about the last time we went here.

While I was talking to my family members on the phone and hearing about the crazy hail storms and incessant rain they've had, I realized I hadn't ever shown my layout about our previous trip. I thought I'd go back and pull it out to show.

One thing that made this layout a challenge was that I had SO many pictures and so much journaling. There was no way I could get down to just two or three pictures. I managed to narrow it down to 16 photos - and that was hard enough! Then I needed to have room to tell the main story of the trip plus some notes on each photo. To me, the challenging thing about having so much is that the more you have, the more whitespace you need for the eye to be able to make sense of what is there. I settled on a design that allowed me to include all those pictures and all that text and still have plenty of empty space (green space functioning as whitespace this time).

To do that I really had to rely heavily on the structure provided by a grid, so I made several small collage photos in Picasa, printed them as 4x6s, and cut them apart to be used in a long strip of images. I put them at the bottom of the page since the block seemed so weighty. That allowed space for some featured images at the top.

Finally, I used number stickers to number each image and journaled it's corresponding note below the grid. This has given me a formula I can return to when I have tons of pictures for one story. You make recognize I used it again here in the Kindergarten year-in-review layout. Give it a try if you need a design for lots of photos!

Layout: Expert Road-Trippers

2011-09-16T23:12:00.001-05:00

(as always, click on photos for larger versions)

Here is a layout I just finished about how the boys have really grown into car travel. They can now hang out in the car for an all-day car ride like it's nothing! It's soooo much easier than when they were little! It started after the last of our Christmas travels, a ski trip just days after we got back from a family visit. We could really tell we had turned the corner then, and sure enough they have been champs all summer. If you have little ones, take heart: they can adjust to it... with enough practice!

The original design for this layout was by Cheryl at one of her Stamp Classes. I love love love these "Travel Log" stamps from Stampin' Up! Right now they are not available, as they were in a previous seasonal mini-catalog. But they could always come back in next year's full catalog so cross your fingers. Here is the original design:

Cheryl had us make all the elements including that awesome little map. I usually take her designs and spin them just a little. For one thing, I like to accommodate a lot of pictures. Also, between printing and cutting, I end up with various picture sizes. I find I like things grouped together. But mostly, I really enjoy starting with something neat and making it my own.

This time, I ended up with a lot of red accents in the photos and decided I also wanted a little red in my embellishments. Also, I wanted to cluster the embellishments and didn't have quite enough to give it a layered look. So, I made a tag out of an office supply tag and some matching circles. I used a rosette my sister had made during her visit that happened to match. Finally, I added a scrap of patterned paper (leftover from Money-Pocket) that tied the page colors together and filled in the gaps in my photo grid. That gave me enough stuff to make some embellishment clusters and a nice visual triangle out of the red bits.

One thing I found interesting was that I had it like this and then tore up a few things and changed it to the version at the top of the post (yes, one of the tabs has fallen askew here but I've fixed that too).

I don't know if the difference is noticeable when you aren't looking at them side by side, but in this one the tag is tilted the other direction. I thought I had everything like I wanted it but then it felt unbalanced. I decided the lines of the tag were leading the eye off the page instead of onto it and switched the direction. I don't know if anyone but me even sees the difference but I'm happier with it switched!

He's a Footsie Jammie Cowboy

2011-09-03T09:29:00.000-05:00

...and very proud of his outfit, too!

Scrapbook Layout: Money-Pocket

2011-09-02T15:30:00.000-05:00

(as always, click on photo to see a larger version)

I wrote about Sammy's love for money in his pocket quite some time ago, but recently I was looking through our pictures and I decided I wanted a scrapbook layout about it too. It was really fun to make because:
1) The journaling was already written in the blog post, so I could just play and not have to think too much, and
2) I threw in some non-traditional embellishments.

That pocket is off a little pair of overalls Sammy had outgrown. They had a hole in the front so I have been using them for various projects. I pulled the strap hardware off for an earlier project and cut the little pocket out for this layout. I like how the lighter fabric makes the pocket show up. I also frayed out the edges of the surrounding denim to give it a well-worn look.

Also, those are real pennies - a shiny one for the embellishment on the photo strip and three darker ones to peek out of the pocket. I was pretty amused by the idea of putting them on my layout. The shiny one is dated the same year the photos are taken. These are probably the cheapest embellishment around! Hee hee.

There are some random re-purposed bit in there too - the decorative labels are punched out of the pretty envelope this year's calendar came in, the green ribbon was a hanger strap off a dress (I always cut them off anyway so they aren't showing when I'm wearing the dress, but then I really liked the color), and the copper photo mat was a piece of a wedding invitation. Strange stuff to save but pretty fun to use!

Layout: A capitol outing on a misty morning

2011-08-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

You may remember this photo that James took this spring when he took the boys on an outing to the Texas state capitol building. I really liked the drama of the photograph, with that scraggly tree silhouette, the dark lamppost and no one else in sight!

For some reason the layout didn't photograph well - I tried it in a couple of different lights but the picture part of the layout always looked dull and blurry. Oh well, you can see the real image in the link above if you would like to.

I wanted to use a black and cream/kraft color scheme to highlight the image. I chose a black background and black photo matte and then filled in the other colors from there. I had everything designed and then added the black flourish to the background. It reminds me of the metal work in old fashioned trim and air registers. I really really like it - it turned out to be my favorite part of the layout!

I'm going to a brayer workshop!

2011-08-26T07:00:00.002-05:00

But not until February. Still, I'm excited. This is the instructor:

http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

She does really cool stuff. Like check this out. The apple basket is a stamp and the rest of the scene was created with a brayer. (Click on the picture to see the full post - lots of larger pictures and step by step instructions.)

Or this one. Again, the tree is a stamp but the whole scene looks much different than it would with only the stamp.

Pretty impressive, right? I'm really looking forward to the class!

Scrapbook Layout: Kindergarten

2011-08-25T08:31:00.000-05:00

I wanted to do a single layout looking back over Zack's whole Kindergarten year, so I put together this review. That framed picture on the top left is from the first day of school and the one of Zack and his teacher at the bottom right is from the last day of school.

There are lots of photos- 16! - so I made sure to group them pretty tightly to leave quite a bit of whitespace (or bluespace in this case) in order to give the eye some rest on the page. To print my photos in sizes that make this easy, I made collages of two, three or four photos in Picasa and print them as 4x6's. It's cheap and it turns out even!

The large letters are stickers. I had a sheet of the alphabet with only one of each letter, all capitals, all different fonts. It was a really cute sheet but I wasn't sure what words I could make with it and I didn't have plans for an alphabet album. I decided to jazz up my background with the alphabet tucked behind my photos instead. A few of the letters were bright green and stood out too much, so instead of using the green ones I stamped those letters in Stampin Up Tempting Turquoise ink.

I like how it turned out, but I think I'll go back and add some notes identifying the first and last day photos and I think I should put Zack's name in it somewhere - I missed that somehow! Zack still likes it:

Back to School

2011-08-22T09:44:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe Zack is starting First Grade! We went and met the teacher on Friday. She seems very warm and organized and even though she looks young she has many years of teaching experience. That's her in the first photo.

Today we headed off bright and EARLY for his first day. He has three boys, favorite friends from kindergarten, in his class plus some of the girls he is friends with. He's sitting next to two of the boys and back to back with the other, so he's thrilled. The mom's have already warned them that friends get separated if they talk while the teacher is talking! The kids were all a-buzz with their new desks and their supplies all set up for them. Very cute. I didn't cry, but it does seem like he's growing up fast. Sniff, sniff!

Scrapbook Layout: Pieces

2011-08-13T10:24:00.000-05:00

This is a layout Cheryl designed at her Stamp Class, but that I put together in a different way. I used almost all the same pieces, but it turned out so different! (I hope Cheryl doesn't think I wrecked her design!)

These pictures are ones that my sister has recently scanned in her effort to digitize all our family photos (quite a project, and one I'm really grateful for!). These are all me as a toddler or pre-schooler. We have been so entertained by looking at these types of pictures because we immediately see features that we notice in our own kids. I think Sammy does a little side bend like the top left picture, and the older pictures of me remind me of Zack's smile. My mom looked at these and could remember where several of the dresses came from - she made the red with white rickrack hat and long-sleeved set (at the bottom of the title) so I would be shaded in the boat while my dad fished.

If you are curious about the puzzle pieces, check out Cheryl's post here - she has the supplies listed too. One thing she doesn't mention is the crumpled style flower at the left. We had three flowers punched with the Fancy Flowers Punch. We misted all of them with water and then crumpled them up into a tiny ball! It was intimidating to crunch our pretty flowers! But then we opened them up, let them dry and inked them a bit and it made a beautiful vintage effect, especially fastened together with that fancy Antique Brad.

TCBY, here we come!

2011-07-27T07:00:00.002-05:00

Finally it's Wednesday. The day known in my brain as Waffle Cone Wednesday.

There is a TCBY shop across the street from our church. I managed to attend church there for fifteen years (oh wow. I'm old.) without ever setting foot in TCBY. I'm not a sweet-tooth person - I want dessert if it's being served, but I don't crave sweets (I'm too busy craving chips and salsa. Or chips and guacamole. Or chips and queso. Or chips). I think James had taken the kids over there once but I didn't go with them. But then a few weeks ago we walked over for their Wednesday special: the 99-cent waffle cone.

And now I'm obsessed.

It might be because I quit drinking diet sodas (which means all sodas, since I only drank diet) or maybe the yogurt is just that good. Or maybe it's the cone itself. It's a kid-sized waffle cone filled with an adult-sized portion of any of their soft serve flavors, which change by the day. I have been wracking my brain trying to remember if I've ever actually eaten a waffle cone before now. I may not have - it's usually an upcharge and it's messier than a cup and all that. Either way, I'm really keen on the waffle cone now. My kids are happy with my current obsession with the waffle cone as well. Since I'm waiting all week for the special (which is a good way to avoid just splurging on frozen yogurt every day of the week), I can't very well pass up the waffle cone just because it's getting to be past bedtime, can I?

Now I just have to make it until 7:30. The time known in brain as Waffle Cone time.

Thinking of You card

2011-07-26T14:19:00.000-05:00

Hello! I thought I'd pop in to show you another card we made with the service project group at my church. I was really impressed with all the individual coloring-in work by all the ladies! They think they aren't artistic but it was really pretty. The card background was embossed using the Big Shot and the butterflies were cut and embossed in one step using a Stampin' Up! Embosslit. Simple but pretty.

Diamond Crater State Park

2011-07-14T01:13:00.000-05:00

Zack is crazy about collecting rocks. He is convinced his finds are very valuable. He stores them in treasure boxes varying from paperboard boxes from the craft store that he painted himself, to clear stacking screw-top organizers, to shoe boxes, to the old dog house in the back yard. He even has some extra boxes from my jewelry on which he as written "PResHus RocKs GeMs". Sometimes I have to do a sweep of the house and send a big pile of rocks back outside. James had the idea to structure some actual rock collecting into our summer trip, so one of our destinations was Diamond Crater State Park in southwestern Arkansas.

We spoke to several people who thought it might not be worth a day but for us, it was great. This may not be something the kids will love in a few years but they loved it at this time! The diamond area in the state park is a field in which diamond-containing rock runs seven miles deep. Every month or so they plow the field, exposing new soil and rocks. You pay an admission fee and dig as long as you want (all day! It's only 100 degrees!), keeping anything you find. There are diamonds found regularly - mostly yellow or brown but some white too. Half-carat diamonds were found right before our visit so they are definitely there!

You can walk along and look, dig in the furrows and do "dry sifting", or use the ramadas (shade!!) to do "wet sifting". Zack dug, Sammy roamed around, and I did wet sifting. It was more work than Zack was expecting and the weather was really hot but we all had fun.

By mid-day we'd had our fill of dirt and heat and not found any diamonds so we decided to call it quits and headed to the attached splash park and pool. Now, someone was really thinking with that pool attached to the hot, dry diamond field! That was at least as good as the diamond hunting. The pool was mostly two and two and a half feet deep - a great depth for our young kids. With the slides, fountains and play structures, it was a great place to play. Before this both Zack and Sammy had been really timid in the water, clinging to our necks or the side of the pool. But there the shallow water and beach entry gave them a chance to play without being nervous - I think they gained a lot of confidence that has been benefiting us going forward!

Vintage Rail in Grapevine, Texas

2011-07-09T15:44:00.000-05:00

Well, I had really good intentions for posting pictures right away! But, here are some from the Grapevine Vintage Railroad in the Ft. Worth area. It leaves from a cute little station in Grapevine and chugs to the Ft Worth Stockyards (or you can ride it the other direction, or take an excursion from there, or get a round trip). The Stockyards are only a few blocks wide but pretty interesting - though a little touristy nowadays. You can adjust how much time it takes or the cost by going one direction and having someone pick you up or taking the open air car if you can take the heat. This is a good activity for little ones or train nuts - our family is full of both!

Fill up the backseat with books and start driving!

2011-07-01T16:41:00.000-05:00

We are just back from a trip to Arkansas - we decided to go on Monday, planned it on Tuesday and Wednesday, and left (a night early!) on Thursday evening for a week of checking out various sights. We were planning to leave on Friday when our Thursday evening plans were unexpectedly canceled James declared, "Let's leave tonight!" and promptly left for work. The boys spent the day crying, "I want to go on a trip, I want to go to hotel, I was to go to museuuuuuuuuum!" so I packed as best I could (I am LOUSY at packing!) and James got us on the road just a couple hours after he got off work.

We just went to Ft. Worth the first night. It would have been an easy drive except the highways were closed for roadwork at TWO different places on the way to the hotel. It was midnight and we were stuck stopped on the road with all the other late-night drivers even though the hotel was only two miles away. The boys were so excited to be going that I don't think they even slept. On the bright side, they seemed to have learned to love road trips!

I'm hoping to post some travel highlights over the next few days.

I'm a little too excited about these books...

2011-06-09T11:26:00.000-05:00

I've been eying this 39 Clues series for a while now. I like Rick Riordan (from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series) who wrote the first book plus the overall story arc. There are ten books (or possibly more, or maybe the later ones are another series) written by various authors. I finally decided they would be age-appropriate for Zack and I to read together so it's our first "summer project". We're reading a little every day (and he's begging for more! Me? I read the whole thing to start with or I wouldn't have been able to stand it!).

There is a mystery for the child heroes of the book to solve plus plenty of adventure and danger. Until this year I've been limiting the amount of "high peril" (as it's called in some book reviews) in Zack's reading material, but he's matured a lot since starting school. I still don't know where the quite right lines are, but I'm glad we're reading these!

There are lots of hard words, I've discovered, that I didn't notice while previewing it (all the six year olds tell me what rendezvous means!). But, he hasn't lost patience so here we go, off on our 39 Clues adventure!

Cardmaking

2011-06-07T16:05:00.001-05:00

A group of ladies at my church wanted to try out some card making. We have a workday twice a month in the summertime and do a variety of projects such as sewing pillows for a hospital ministry called Lifeline Chaplaincy, making towels for the Salvation Army, making up a lot of casseroles to be frozen so that when a family has and illness there is a ready-made dinner to take to them, even double-bagging recycled grocery bags or sorting supplies for the Micah 6 Food Pantry. The group sends a lot of cards to the elderly, ill, or home-bound in the church or known by the church.

This project had each person making two cards - one to go into the class stash of cards and one to take home and use. I was really nervous about setting this up! I go to Cheryl's classes and I love it, but I see how much goes into the planning and how hard it is to design a pretty card that people can actually make easily and quickly. Cheryl is mighty good at it but she has lots more experience! This was the design I came up with. I knew I didn't want to use any heat embossing or hand cutting this first time and I wanted to keep the stamping to a minimum.

I chose a variant on these large cards because it was fun and easy to use the Big Shot for the Top Note and the Bird Punch. The stamping could be done and then punched out so that it would be easier to get it straight and centered and all that. The only technique involved was inking the edges of the punched pieces with a sponge, which everyone really liked doing. Interestingly, the hardest part was tying that ribbon in a bow!

I forgot some supplies of course. I hadn't made all the card bases but I left my paper trimmer at home. I also forgot envelopes but I can bring those to people later. I almost ran out of ribbon - I didn't realize how much it would take to make that many cards!

Here is one of the cards they made - didn't they do a good job?

I thought I was being soooo clever...

2011-06-03T12:25:00.000-05:00

All the local grocery stores quit carrying the Ramen I like, isn't that terrible?? I'm a little bit of a Ramen junkie - I like to have it (dressed up a little!) for lunches. A little while back I found I couldn't get the Lime Chili Shrimp anymore so I started buying the Lime Shrimp. Now it's gone too and all they have is Chicken, bah.

So, I bought a whole case on Amazon! Isn't that a super idea? I have this free two-day shipping deal right now through Amazon Mom (which is available free for anyone who is a parent/grandparent/caretaker - check it out!) so I thought, why not? And it's been great. EXCEPT, I forgot how SPICY this kind is! It's much much spicier than Lime Shrimp. And lucky me, I have a whole case :)

Turtle Spotting

2011-05-30T10:55:00.000-05:00

We rented a paddle boat on Town Lake for a fun outing with the boys this weekend. We paddled west along the bank seeing lots of turtle families. Sammy started out freaked out and crying but he was able to adjust and have fun. We were really relieved since he's been scared by a wide variety of things lately.

We all had a great time but let me share a word to the wimpy: paddling back against the wind was really hard! We kept getting stuck and pushed backwards. Kayaks were sailing along next to us with no trouble but our big paddle boat was not very easy to get back to the dock!

Afterward, what else but burgers at Sandy's on Barton Springs?

Teacher Gifts

2011-05-26T07:00:00.008-05:00

(click on any row to see photo larger)

This is a set of four cards - I've made two identical sets to be end-of-year gifts for Sammy's two pre-school teachers. The cards are huge compared to what I usually make - 6x8inches - though they don't require extra postage. They are the size of a large Christmas card, so they look really nice.

For the blue one, I wanted something masculine since it's sometimes hard to find or make handmade cards for guys. I guess we just get all girly with our crafting! The strip of lattice paper is silver paper that was embossed with the Stampin' Up Square Lattice Embossing Folder. The sentiment is embossed in beautiful silver and then punched out with the Decorative Label punch. The white frame is hand cut around the negative from the same punch, then attached with dimensional adhesive so that it stands up from the card. Such a good idea and I got it from Britta, a college girl with great stamping videos.

The other three cards are made with a Top Note cut out of vellum paper and a punched bird. For the orange card, I left the vellum smooth for a more graphic look. For the pink and green cards, on the other hand, I wanted more of the distressed look so I dampened the vellum, crumpled it into a little ball, then smoothed it out again (thanks to Cheryl's technique lesson during her class teaching this layout, the subdued version). It feels a little scary the first time you totally crumple up your little paper you are planning to use, but it turns out to be a super easy technique!

I made a few of the pink ones for myself and I'll be using them to safely mail some 5x7 photos since they are not only large but really sturdy and the envelopes are nice and stiff too.

2011-05-24T07:00:00.001-05:00

How can kindergarten be almost over? These guys - prizes from the school treasure box - will probably continue to be favorites, though.

Scrapbook Layout: Enchanted Rock

2011-05-23T07:00:00.010-05:00

This is the layout detailing our Spring Break day trip to Enchanted Rock. I know it doesn't show, but the background paper has glitter embedded in the polka dots and the striped paper has glitter in some of the stripes. The copper paper in the matting of the large photo and the little leaves is really nice and metallic! It came from Michaels and it's really pretty.

I originally had this layout designed with the two striped paper strips even with one another but it just seemed so boring. I was unhappy with not having any "art" in it. I had to add the white torn pieces, stamping, and the copper wire and beads. Then it was artsy enough for me to call it done!

McKinney Falls State Park

2011-05-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

Looking for a little day hike in the Austin area? McKinney Falls State Park is perfect for hikes, picnics and swimming. There are also some cool activities at their nature center. We started at the nature center, walked through the rock overhang and down to the falls. Sammy was able to walk all the way there and back! Doesn't he look big?

Here was something creepy (April, skip this paragraph) - there are these fuzzy areas on the ceiling of the rock overhang. I walked under them without thinking much about them until Zack asked James about them. Even looking closer it seemed to be some kind of loose moss. James held the boys up and then touched the edge of one clump. It spread out and started pulsing, hundreds of spiders moving up and down in a loose rhythm. We had to really look to see they were just daddy long legs, but it was nonetheless a little icky. I just took a deep breath and walked right underneath like the boy-mom I'm supposed to be!

Overall, check out the park, it was really pleasant.

Peeking Through the Stacks

2011-05-17T23:46:00.003-05:00

I never tire of photos of these two boys with their books.

Card: Wonderful Mother

2011-05-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

This card is for my own mom! (I think she should have gotten it in the mail by today so hopefully she won't see it here first...) The most fun item on this card was the die cut leaves. They were cut out of plain vanilla paper, but then stamped and inked in several colors of green and embossed with gold embossing powder. The other fun thing was the row of small punched shapes from the Itty Bitty Punch Pack. Even though these shapes are small I like the effect when they are combined in a row or a group!

Cards: Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-06T14:01:00.000-05:00

These are the Mothers Day cards I made for my two grandmothers - both pretty impressive ladies!

I used the same cardbase, strip of scallop punched pink paper and stamped image for each. The cardbase is black cardstock embossed with the Stampin Up! Elegant Lines embossing folder. The stamped image (from retired SU! set Eastern Influences) is stamped in black and colored with colored pencils but for one card I mounted the stamped rectangle on silver paper and for the other I cut it out and mounted it on a strip with decorative label ends.

I learned something that Julie says she tried to explain to me but it went so far over my head I didn't even know this is what she was telling me! But, it's simple to do:

To make a decorative end on a paper strip like this, stick just the end of the strip into the punch from the underside of the punch instead of slipping it in slit as you would to punch the whole shape. Position your strip to square up the edge of the image with the edge of the strip and punch! (This will give you the inverse shape from the shape you would get by slipping the paper in the normal slit and just punching the edge). If my explanation doesn't make sense, just try it both ways and it will become clear right away!

Project: Recovered Kitchen Chairs

2011-04-29T10:40:00.001-05:00

This was at the top of my list of projects for while my mom was here for a recent visit. As is so often the case when Mom is doing all the work, it was really easy! Well, I helped. In a tangential capacity. I think I could do it again myself now.

I didn't remember how we (probably she) did these the last time, so I was interested to see that the seat juts unscrews from underneath, revealing a later of wood seat, a layer of foam, a fabric cover over the foam and then the top fabric. We added another layer of foam for a more comfortable seat, tracing the old foam and cutting the new out with scissors. The new cover was stacked with both pieces of foam and the wooden seat. The cover fabric just wraps around and staples underneath so there is no precision measuring required. We used a staple gun from the underside of the seat to staple it snugly on, then screwed it back onto the chair. Ta-da! And easy.

Sammy faces on...

2011-04-28T09:33:00.002-05:00

Sammy showing what it feels like to be home sick today:

Sammy showing what it's like to watch Sesame Street during normally non-TV time:

I should be worried that he can put on these faces at will, right??

The Funky Chicken Coop Tour is Saturday!

2011-04-20T17:02:00.000-05:00

It's that time again! Check out the FREE and very interesting Funky Chicken Coop Tour of Austin, held all over Austin on the Saturday before Easter. It's self-guided so see a couple in your area or travel around to all of it. We went last year and the year before - it's always great!

Wow, that's quite a prize pack!

2011-04-16T11:41:00.000-05:00

**Please tell me the photos worked this time? I'm getting so tired of uploading them only to find that I can see them but others can't!

A little while back I won a weekly giveaway from Write.Click.Scrapbook. I really like the blog there, or "the inspiration collective", as they call it. There is a different author every week, who posts each day on a themed subject - it may be about mini books one week, or journaling or taking better photos, or incorporating art techniques. Always different perspectives and a lot of talented scrapbookers showing their work. The giveaways are on Thursdays if you are interested in entering.

I was thrilled to win, but I will say the packs they showed did not do my prize pack justice!!

From this photo, you see four packs of Basic Grey paper, but not how rich the packs are. I had to spread them all out and take pictures of all the sheets! Also, when I got my packs there were FIVE instead of four, plus a bunch of 3D embellishments! The girl who was mailing them was out of town and they came later than I expected, so maybe she threw in some extra goodies because of that? The last pack was missing the alphas and stickers, but the 3D stuff I wasn't expecting matches it. Whatever the reason, I say Lucky Me!

Also, I guess I've never actually purchased Basic Grey before (how could that be? It's soooo beautiful!) so I didn't know how really lovely the paper quality is or how sturdy the cardstock stickers are. There are 18 pages of patterned cardstock per pack. They are double sided with great designs front and back. And each set comes with TWO designs of matching alphas and a full sheet of coordinating cardstock stickers with a really nice matte finish (no old-school "sticker" look here). If Basic Grey thought they were going two make a new convert with their giveaway, they were right!

It's Finished!

2011-04-06T19:17:00.001-05:00

Just in time for Sammy's third birthday, I finished his first year baby book! This is the title page. I've always really loved his eyes in this picture.

I did learn something doing this layout. I stamped that lower area of damask looking background in Versamark, then tried to emboss over it with Chocolate Chip pigment ink and clear embossing powder. But the powder stuck to the Versamark. So, I dried the Versamark ink with a heat tool and repeated my effort. Still the embossing powder stuck to the Versamark. So, I left it OVERNIGHT after drying it with the eat tool and repeated. STILL it stuck to the Versamark! I had to just brush off as much powder as possible with the heat tool and call the rest an "effect". I don't mind it, but I was surprised!

More Pink Poodles

2011-03-31T08:37:00.002-05:00

I really did make more of them. Hee hee. James likes the black ones even better. Julie still likes the original. I just think they are funny!

It's a Challenge, all right!

2011-03-29T16:00:00.002-05:00

This past Christmas, we had several family members sharing some papercrafting supplies - especially anything of which we had extra or were tired. This patterned paper belonged to my Mother-In-Law and I just couldn't resist saying it should go straight out to Goodwill. "Too silly! Ridiculous!" I said. "Are you EVER going to find a use for pink poodle paper?" I said.

My own mother commented that since the other side of my family has a quilting challenge (quilt one, quilt two, and quilt three) maybe we should have a papercrafting challenge. Funny, because she's much more of a quilter. Maybe she was joking but the idea took hold. We all had an entire year to come up with some card using this crazy paper. My sister already did hers so I thought I'd better go ahead and try to figure something out.

I can't believe that I actually like what I came up with! I like it so much I made another. And saved some bits to make still more. I mean, who would have thought a cute card could evolve out of these pink poodles?? I might just owe my Mother In Law an apology, hee hee!

Oh, and here's Julie's creation!!

San Antonio Zoo

2011-03-28T18:29:00.000-05:00

Here's another great springtime activity! We like to go down to San Antonio and spend the day at the zoo there. This time Zack declared that he didn't want to go (he had a museum picked out instead) but Sammy was so keen on going that we decided it would be the best plan. That and the fact that we usually go in the summer and we really wanted to try it when it wasn't crazy hot instead.

As you can see from that first picture, taken in the first ten minutes, it didn't take long for Zack to get on board! We had a great time and it WAS a beautiful time of year to be there. Afterward we rode the zoo train and then got on the road to head back to Austin. We could see immediately that traffic was terrible so we did an about face and had a mid-afternoon dinner on the Riverwalk instead. We sat outside, right on the water, with no waiting - that makes a trip to San Antonio complete!

Scrapbook Layout: Waiting

2011-03-24T07:00:00.000-05:00

This was one of the later pages to go into Sammy's baby album, though it's at the beginning of the book. When we had these photos taken, I mainly wanted to get some pregnant photos I didn't completely hate and capture how sweet Zack had been taking care of me when I didn't feel well. Looking at them three years later, I'm pretty happy we did! One thing I really like is that they are in our home. I didn't think that would matter to me much, but it really does. That painting in the background of my picture is this giant green abstract scene that I saw randomly and James got me for my birthday. I love love love it. And in the family one, we are in Zack's new room that had just barely been finished - I painted the silhouette of an oak tree on the wall (there are also two deer on the wall that don't show - it's his Walking in the Woods room). Something about the setting brings out the ideas I had about what I wanted to capture, which is really cool.

Enchanted Rock

2011-03-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

What a beautiful time of year to head to Enchanted Rock! If you haven't been it's a great central Texas outing. We drove out there over spring break and had a really great time. At the very beginning of the summit trail (which is short but steep!) Zack bounded up, no problem. Sammy tried to insist on being carried. We got him excited about walking and he went five steps before crashing and skinning one palm and the other elbow! Still he got going again and then walked almost all of it, up and down.

Is it always windy on the top? I think it must be. I've been at different times of year but it always feels like the wind will knock you over. When we were on the steepest part I really did fear for Sammy being blown over! We insisted he hold someone's hand - otherwise we could just see him starting to tumble down and just never stopping!

Some tips: If you want to camp there make reservations far in advance. If you just want to hike, get there early! We arrived at 9:30 (it's a two hour drive from Austin) and only had to wait a little but later the park was closed, only letting a car in when a car left. As we left we counted about 120 cars waiting to get in. Bring a flashlight if you want to explore the caves. Finally, dress in layers - it's cooler in the wind but HOT down at the base!

Family Game Night

2011-03-02T18:00:00.003-06:00

It's just Candyland, but it's a start! I love games. My family has played cards at every family gathering my whole life. When we were little, the adults would play Pinochle or 42 (a game with dominoes that is played like Spades or Hearts) and the four cousins would play Hearts. My sister and I were four years apart and our two cousins were three years apart - one my age and one older. When we started my sister was so young she could barely follow the rules, much less a strategy, so we paired her up with the older cousin. It evened out, except when they cheated, hee hee. Well, it probably evened out then too. Later we moved up to Pinochle, a game I still love. When we visit my parents or my parents visit here we play 42. When my Granny gets to come along we play 5-handed Pinochle. When it's my parents and my in-laws (or my sister and her husband) together with us, we play 6-handed Pinochle. There's nothing better than a few games of 42 to get everyone really laughing. It's some of our best times and best memories as a family.

Won't it be fun when my own kids get old enough for a family game night more complex than Candyland? I know kids start getting less interested in games with their parents as they get older but I'm not above making a rule they have to play. They'll thank us for it later, right? Not to wish these days away - I am in love with how cute an age Sammy is at right now, and Zack is learning so much every day. But I'm thinking later will be really cool too.

In the Next Moment...

2011-03-01T18:00:00.010-06:00

We're having some pretty days here so we took some time just to go to the park and hang out. After this picture was taken, Zack shimmied over this limb to the higher section at the upper right of the photo. He hung there for a good long while until I decided he must be stuck and headed over to see if he'd like some help getting down. I was going to be discreet and not embarrass him in front of the bigger boy who had climbed another part of the same tree, really I was!

But when I was still fifteen feet away, he just jumped. I don't think this photo conveys how high it really was. He landed on his feet but the impact of the landing crumpled him into a little accordion fold of a boy. I gasped out loud and another mother gave a short little shriek. Then he popped up with a mouthful of dirt, bark embedded into his forehead, and big smile. I picked the bark out of his skin, which left a little puncture underneath, he spit out the dirt and the other mother offered me a defibrillator for myself.

We've since set some firm guidelines on heights too high for jumping.

Lots of Paper Flowers Happening Here

2011-02-28T21:30:00.001-06:00

Now that I have learned to make these flowers, I find myself going to town with them! The punch I mentioned cuts out four shapes at once - two broad (large and small) and two narrow (large and small). They can each be used for petals or leaves and there is quite a combination of effects possible. After making the blue one on my Cherish layout I was so enthused that I punched an entire page of white paper into petals and started creating.

[Technical details] Although I enjoyed the blue one, I wanted to make something with layers of color and pattern, so I used a burnt orange ink to stamp a background script text stamp on the broad petals, then a combination of red reinker and red perfect pearls in a spray bottle and a red stamp marker to color the petals. I added gold perfect pearls, then a brocade background pattern in versamark and clear embossing powder to finish them off. I like working with these petals with a little embossed area on them - they seem tougher and more able to hold their shape.
[Technical details over]

I was really thrilled with the result. I put it on a card that I could hand-deliver since I didn't think it would stand up to being mailed without a padded envelope and I just didn't want to bother with that. Next I tried the narrow shape as petals to make more of a daisy shape.

Finally, I redid the pink/coral one with kraft paper and gold embossing. The woodgrain was supposed to just be brown and only the script text be embossed gold but it turned out all gold and it's a pretty nice effect.

It's pretty funny but the centers of the flowers are all just a snowflake stamp I already had. I had that baby put away with my Christmas things until making the Archivers flower and realizing the stamens for the center were a snowflake! Cool use for a previously seasonal item!

At the Capitol

2011-02-25T07:00:00.003-06:00

Check out these two boys. Their daddy took them to the Texas state capitol building to walk around and look at all sorts of things. Didn't he get a neat shot on a rainy winter morning?

Wishes

2011-02-24T07:00:00.001-06:00

Now that I'm back to scrapbooking again, I have to share a few layouts I've been doing!

This is a single page that serves as the last page in Sammy's baby album. It isn't the last page as in, "I'm done!", just the final page in the book. I did a double page spread about his party and then followed it with a little about his candle and cupcake that we did with just our immediate family.

A couple of things make me really excited about this layout. First, I learned to make the rosettes I'm seeing everywhere! I didn't get a die or anything and it turned out to be no big deal to make them by hand. I don't even have a score board but it didn't matter. My paper trimmer has some light lines in it so that I was able to use those as a guideline and score every quarter inch on a scrap strip of paper. Then accordion fold, glue into a loop and squish the center. Glue to a circle on the back to hold it in place and voila, rosette! If that's not a good explanation (and I admit it was a pretty sparse one) here's a video of Tim Holtz doing it. He's always fun to watch, though of course he's using the die he designed.

The second thing was that I picked up a little pack of metal keyhole embellishments at Joann's on extreme clearance and it was fun to stick one of them on here. I put a little cork circle behind it as a base.

Finally, I was really thrilled to work in another layer of journaling to my story on this page. It's titled Wishes and I show Sammy blowing out his candle. But, I also wanted our prayer for our boys that we pray as a family each night to be in his book so I wrote that out as our wishes for him. I'm glad that's the last thing in the book, because it wraps up who we are as a family and what we wish for Sammy in a way that is meaningful for us.

Look, Mom!

2011-02-23T07:00:00.001-06:00

This boy has been working on riding without training wheels for a looong time! He really wants to do it, but he doesn't like our holding him and running along with him and he's taking a while to gain his balance. We took the pedals off entirely for a time so that he could scoot around and get a feel for the balance and that was fun. Now he's asked for the pedals back on and it's starting to come together for him. He's still frustrated a lot of the time, but it's coming.

Scrapbook Layout: Cherish

2011-02-22T07:00:00.063-06:00

Do you have pictures of your kids or other loved ones you love so much they make your catch your breath every time you see them? I love, love, love this closeup of Sammy. His eyes are just so pretty. He does have pretty eyes and this really captures them. I had to do a layout that captured the feeling I have about his eyes in this photo. It might seem too flowery for a boy... but it is designed to show how I feel more than anything else.

Some of the items are pre-made - the large paper frame was from a die cut stack and I hand cut the narrower frame from the over-print to echo it. The bracket-edged paper on the left side was from the same stack and I added the narrow echo of the shape, again by hand-cutting the over-print. The word cherish was a K&Company adhesive chipboard that came just like that, except that it had a dot for the i. I lost the dot somewhere between designing the page and gluing everything down, but I thought the butterfly made a good substitute. The butterflies were made with a Stampin' Up Embosslit die on the Big Shot, which is an awesome little die that cuts and creates a raised texture at the same time. The shiniest ones are made out of metal tape from the hardware store (ours was $3 and leftover from a minor house repair!) and the others are made of regular silver paper. The little dark blue flower at the bottom of the word cherish is a spiral flower (brief instructions here).

But my big news on this layout is about that large blue flower in the upper left: I made it!! I'm so excited. I bought the Stampin' Up Blossom Petals Punch which punches out several petal shapes, but then I sat around trying to make my petals into a three dimensional shape with no luck whatsoever. They don't look so awesome stuck together into a flower without any dimension. As luck would have it, though, Cheryl and I headed up to Archiver's (great store but a little far away from us!) this weekend for a little coupon-shopping and their weekend Make-and-Takes. We made a card, a 12x12 scrapbook page and a tag. All three were cute (and it was mighty cool to leave with a full 12x12 page!) but the tag had this three-dimensional flower made with the very techniques I was having trouble inventing for myself the night before! It was soooo much fun to do, and I was so proud of the flower I created, that I came right home and made another flower from my punched petals and added it to my pretty pretty layout!

Where Did January (and most of February) Go?

2011-02-21T17:44:00.001-06:00

Where did the time go? Mostly to road-tripping and reading! We added another trip, this one to west Texas, to our mileage count, which does take a lot of time investment between preparing, going, and recovering.

But a LOT of time went to fiction. Oh, fiction. I continue to find myself unable to stop once I get started! A friend brought me a series of eleven books. ELEVEN fun, suspenseful, page-turning, can't-stop novels, so of course I had to read them all, in a row. Sheesh. Then once I was on a reading roll I had to read four or five more novels. Fun stuff but it takes all my blogging, picture taking, scrapbooking and card making time (and some of my sleeping time too. And perhaps some of my time that should be going to everything else). I think I'm taking a little break from obsessive fiction reading. I've started back on some scrapbooking that I want to show you and I even took some new pictures of my children - wow.

These are from last month, but hey, here they are - a rare snow event for Austin.

School Valentines

2011-02-14T16:44:00.000-06:00

Aren't these cute? My friend Cheryl designed them and we made them at a little workshop. It was fun to makes something homemade but I didn't really see myself making 34 valentines (for both Zack and Sammy's classes combined) without some assistance, so this worked out perfectly. The kids each got a covered lolipop (heart shaped, of course) and the teachers got a matchbox with four Dove chocolates.

Where to eat in Roswell, NM

2011-01-25T17:57:00.001-06:00

If you find yourself in Roswell, heading for the slopes in Ruidoso or searching for signs of aliens or whatever, be sure to eat at Tia Juana's Mexican Grille and Cantina (it's on the Main Street). Whoo, was it good! If you like it HOT, go for the red chile stacked enchiladas with an egg, over medium. Delicioso!

What, you weren't planning to be in Roswell anytime soon? You're missing out!

Oh, and another milestone

2011-01-22T07:00:00.000-06:00

This is just so handy: we can put the boys in a double bed! This makes hotel stays (and family visits) soooo much easier. And cuter. Gotta enjoy the little things!

Little Travelers

2011-01-21T17:44:00.000-06:00

In the last month, we've had our kids on the open road for over 3,033 miles of traveling. Google maps claims that's approximately 54 hours of driving. Sounds about right. We went to Alamagordo to see my Granny, then on to Tucson for Christmas, stayed for a wedding, then home for less than two weeks, then back to Ruidoso to Ski Apache and home again. When we booked our ski trip, MLK weekend didn't sound quite as close to our Christmas trip as it turned out to be! But here's the thing:

It was fine!

Sure, there was some whining, some "are we there yet"s and even a "do NOT ask again how much farther this ENTIRE day!" But, all in all, the kids have really grown into car travel. I'm amazed, and rather relieved. We thought back to how much Sammy fussed and cried on our car trip the year before (some extra views here), and how hard travel was when we couldn't explain ahead of time that it would be ALL day long... and realized how easy we have it now. The boys read and looked and books, colored on pages on their clipboards and played little cardboard travel games. On the Christmas trip they didn't even sleep except for maybe two hours at the very end. We actually enjoyed the time - how crazy is that?! I'm impressed with them and really grateful... especially as our next road trip looms on the horizon.

Hello!

2011-01-19T12:02:00.000-06:00

Just popping in to my blog to say hello! I hope to be writing more soon!

A Wintery Thank You card

2010-12-09T12:59:00.000-06:00

At our last Stamp Class the challenge project was to bring a card made of all neutrals such as white-ivory. This was my effort at an all white card. I decided silver qualified to add some shine and contrast. It is stamped, punch, embossed, glittered and glossed. I was going to wait to post it until I could put in links to a few of the details but I'm not sure that's going to happen so I'm just posting it.

Hope your winter is wintery, but only in a good way!

Really exciting craft art

2010-12-08T09:08:00.001-06:00

I am enjoying the 12 Tags of Christmas series on Tim Holtz's blog so much. So far, Day 6 is my favorite favorite. Please, please go check it out. It's mighty inspiring.

Making a list, and making it again, and

2010-12-06T16:27:00.001-06:00

...making it again.

My mind seems to be in an endless loop. It seems to think that if I just write down everything that's scheduled or needs done it'll all happen. So I keep writing it all down. I have at least three separate formats of everything written down and was considering making a fourth when I realized all that list-making wasn't actually accomplishing anything. I have no resolution to this situation to share. Just thought I'd share my crazy. I'm sure everyone else has their own crazy going now too so I bet you'll understand!

Another card to share

2010-11-24T14:00:00.001-06:00

This one was for my sister, of whom I am very proud! She's a mighty accomplished gal - and brave too.

This is the rest of the new stamp set I used in the last card I posted and I was soooo excited to use it. That large medallion is a single stamp but I inked it by coloring different parts with different color stamp markers so that when it was stamped it would be multiple colors. All the elements are hand cut and the sentiment is embossed using the Elegant Lines embossing folder for the Big Shot. Good times!

Bountiful

2010-11-23T07:00:00.004-06:00

I know this time of year you'd expect to see a different harvest, but bounty is still bounty even when it comes in the form of jalapenos.

We had one pepper plant and it's some kind of "faux" jalepeno- it has no heat whatsoever. I mean literally, my spice-averse children can eat them raw with the seeds. I picked 33 on Saturday and left another dozen on the plant. What to do with that many jalapenos?? I made a jalapeno relish that I like. It's a different flavor, but addictive. And without any heat, easy to eat in mass quantities.

If you have mild peppers like I do, cut way down on the oil and salt. Without the heat it just doesn't need as much. In my case, I just kept adding peppers and lemon zest until I'd tripled those ingredients. If you have extra spicy pepper, deseed and devein them before you mince them - it will make a big difference.

Jalapeno Relish

6 minced jalapenos (by hand or in a food processor)
1/2 c olive oil
julienned zest of 1 lemon
2 t kosher salt

Combine. Let stand at room temperature 6 hrs. Refrigerate up to 2 weeks.

It's a good week to be Thankful

2010-11-22T07:00:00.010-06:00

And I'm thankful for good friends. It's true that I wish I had the time/opportunity/ability to connect more and better. But when I think of my friends I'm really, really grateful. This card went to a sweet friend who made it seem easy for her to make me feel better when I could have been totally embarrassed. But I could write a bunch more notes to friends who deserve them (and yes, I probably should). That makes me realize I'm really blessed.

This was a fun card. My sister called it "lush" - that captured what I was going for so it made me feel great to hear that description! The gratitude sentiment and flower stamps are from the Day of Gratitude set from Stampin' Up. The little outline was hand cut from the negative after I punched a shape using this awesome punch from Stampin' Up / EK Success. The flourish was a (big surprise) Big Shot die cut using the QuicKutz Flourish Border.

See those two spiral flowers? I learned how to make them from Miss Fancy Pants and you can too. The larger white one started as a 2.25" circle, spiral cut with wavy decorative scissors (and to think I was going to get rid of those!). Once it was glued, I used purple Perfect Pearls to give it some color. The smaller one started as a silk flower petal. It was harder to make come together. I usually like to use a strong liquid glue like Glossy Accents to stick these flowers together, but the (not actual silk) silk just seems to wick it up without adhering. So a big glue dot (like these Zots) is better for the silk flower. I've always wanted to use a pretty straight pin on a card but those sharp ends sticking out just look to dangerous! It was a workable solution to land the sharp end into the fat spiral flowers.

I like how fluffy it turned out. Good thing it didn't need to fit in an envelope!

Sammy said:

2010-11-20T07:00:00.002-06:00

"I got my Cowboy on!"

Yes, Mr. Sammy Man, you do!

Favorite Spot

2010-11-17T07:00:00.012-06:00

This is Zack's favorite spot in his classroom. It's the loft and I admit, it's pretty cool. There are a few times the kids can ask to go up there with one or two friends and hang out or read. There is just something about a little hiding spot that is thrilling. Is this universal? When I was a child our favorite bookstore had a little tunnel down to a children's reading nook - it's somehow magical to climb down and play and read. Come to think of it, that still sounds really good. Do you think I could get away with a little reading hideaway for Mommy??

Scrapbook Layout: 1

2010-11-05T09:27:00.002-05:00

Back to blue! Good thing this and last week's layout are not right in a row in my book. I would be on blue overload everytime I looked at them. And do you know what just killed me? The backs of these blue cardstock pages I used as a base are a beautiful GREEN color. But, this blue called to me so here it is.

This was the day Sammy turned one. Daddy took off work and we went to the Austin Zoo. It was a really beautiful spring day.

The chipboard 1 is flocked with black - my first time to try flocking. I found it easy, but a little dusty. I hope the flocking doesn't flake off over time! The "happy Birthday" sentiment was on plain white but it just looked too stark on the dark layout, so I pierced around the edges and sprayed it with my blue Perfect Pearls. I also took my Perfect Pearls to the little black flower and leaves. I made the leaves using my beloved Bird Punch and the flower by a cool little technique I found here. The spiral flowers turn out really thick, so I tend to make them but then dampen and rough them up until they have a little softer profile.

And last but not least, that's my brand new Decorative Label Punch to make the shapes along the bottom right - so fun!

Swashbuckling

2010-11-04T07:00:00.001-05:00

I realized that I showed Sammy's costume but not Zack's. Wouldn't want to be unfair, right?

I didn't do very well with my Halloween pictures this year. I don't have any of Zack that I love. But, I'll still post a little pirate action.

We really picked this costume because it took no effort. We had some pirate stuff from Zack's party and the rest came out of his closet. I was relieved not to be Halloween crafting this year. But, at the last minute I did do one little thing. It was mighty easy. See that earring - I had a silver (fake silver) hoop with a purple stone in it that I'd lost the mate to. I got out my little pliers and removed the stone, then inked and embossed it gold. Who knew scrapbooking supplies would come in handy for so many things! It gave a cool hammered-metal look. It was on a fishhook style post so we just hooked it through his bandanna. Voila! Pirate jewelry.

Cranberry Walnut Spaghetti Squash

2010-11-03T13:15:00.000-05:00

I really like spaghetti squash but boy, is that a lot of the same vegetable! I always buy the smallest one I can but by the time we've eaten it the kids and James are tired of spaghetti squash and really don't want it again for a while. Either that or part of it goes to waste. This time I did it a little differently. I cooked the first half and served it with just salt, pepper and butter as a side dish. I wrapped the second half really well in plastic wrap and waited about a week. Then I made this recipe, which I altered from one I found in a Better Homes and Gardens Thanksgiving menu. I really like that it has a nice fall flavor that reminds me of Thanksgiving food but works very easily for a weeknight meal.

Cranberry Walnut Spaghetti Squash
1/2 a Spaghetti Squash
1/4 c orange juice
1/4 + (a heaping quarter) cup craisins
2 T chopped walnuts
2 T fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 T brown sugar
salt
fresh black pepper

1. Cook Spaghetti Squash: With squash cut in half lengthwise, scoop out and discard seeds and stringy pulp. Place cut side down in a flat dish with apx. 1/4 cup water. Cover loosely and microwave apx. 9 minutes (will vary by microwave) until the flesh is soft but not mushy.

2. Scoop out the spaghetti-like pieces with a fork - pierce into the flesh with the tines of the fork on one side and you'll find the pieces will just peel out in long strings. Discard the empty shell.

3. Bring the OJ to a boil then take off the heat and add the craisins. Let them plump for about 10 minutes.

4. In a skillet toast the walnuts in the butter for two to three minutes, until fragrant. Add walnuts, parsley, brown sugar, salt and pepper to OJ mixture. Toss everything with the warm squash and serve.

YUM!

Scrapbook Layout. And it's really really blue

2010-10-29T07:00:00.021-05:00

I like this layout in person, I really do. But every time I think about posting it, it's just so blue I bypass it in favor of something, anything, else. So many times blue is a great choice for my photos of little boys, but it's hard to go for - give me green any day!

On this set, though, I had printed this 12x12 photo of the sky through the trees (on the left side of the layout) that I had taken on a fun family outing and it begged for some blue to complement it. I added velum to ground the smaller photos without covering too much of the very large photo or making it too busy. Silver and clear, shiny accents completed the wintry mood (although you can tell from our shirts that the weather was more "Texas" than "winter"!).

Most of the photos were from a trip to Boggy Creek Farm here in Austin. It's right in the city but a fun, small farm to visit with little ones or to score some farmstand produce. It's really fun to be reliving Sammy's almost-one-year-old days through scrapbooking!

Sammy's Psyched for Halloween

2010-10-28T16:10:00.001-05:00

You think Sammy's excited to be wearing his dinosaur costume to school today? He woke up asking, "I wear my costume dinosaur? I wear it to Turtles Class?"

My mom made this last year for my nephew and I'm beyond thrilled that it fit's Sammy this year. He's mighty proud of that tail.

After school he wanted to wear it to Walmart. I said sure. I mean, we were an over-tired extra-whiney spectacle, but at least it was a cute over-tired extra-whiney spectacle! He didn't want to take it off to nap but I assured him he had a few more days of costume wearing to enjoy.

Roasted Winter Squash

2010-10-27T15:44:00.000-05:00

Here is a super easy way to a great veggie side dish. The winter squashes tend to be hard and really sweet - more like a sweet potato in flavor than a zucchini. This is a Red Kuri squash but the method is the same for Butternut, Acorn (peel more of it because the peelings are just too tough) and all the odd winter squashes you see in the store. And even though I'd never heard of Red Kuri, it didn't matter because this method is so versatile.

The only downside is that you need to start a little in advance of dinner - you can't walk in the kitchen at 5 and be done by 5:30! But, once it's in the oven there is nothing left to do and you can focus on the rest of the meal.

*1. Peel as much of the squash as you want. I like it about half peeled. My sister leaves all the peeling on or you could take it all off (the peeling, that is).
*2. Cut a sliver of the bottom end off so it will be stable on your cutting board and cut it in half. Scoop out the seeds and such with a spoon.
3. Chop it into bite-sized pieces. Toss with olive oil and coarse salt and pepper. Add some rosemary if you like.
4. Bake in a single layer at 425 for 25-45 minutes (it just depends on how big you cut the pieces and how much crispy caramelized edges you like).

*If it's too hard to peel or cut, prick the skin all over with a fork and microwave it for 3 minutes, then when it cool enough, peel and cut it as directed.

So sweet and tasty!

First Fieldtrip

2010-10-25T10:23:00.000-05:00

First ride on a school bus. First out-and-about with his school class.

Exciting days.

Scrapbook Layout: Valentines Day

2010-10-22T10:34:00.001-05:00

Here is a layout showing Sammy's first Valentines Day. I had to go back to this post detailing Zack's imagination about Valentines presents to remember the full story.

As far as the creative highlights for this layout go, there are several things that I thought were really fun to do. You may recognize that curvy shape around the two red pictures as the frame left by the Top Note* die for the Big Shot. I love those frames as much as the note itself. The white journaling block is also a Top Note, that was cut, then turned horizontally and cut again to leave a square note and two curvy bracket shapes. Awwwe-some! I didn't think of it. But I like it a lot. I did fine tune it a bit - the brackets left by a single cut are a little heavy-handed looking, I think. I scooted them in and ran them again to make them a little skinnier and give a more delicate look.

The second fun thing was a new embossing powder I have in a color called Red Chile. It's a really interesting combination of clear, red and black embossing powder. I used it at the bottom of the red journaling paper over clear ink, on the chipboard pieces and on the metal hearts. The chipboard was all raw pieces which I inked with brown and red in a mottled pattern. When I melted the embossing powder on the flower, the color wasn't quite right so I inked and embossed again, which ended up burning some of the embossing powder. The burned powder changed to a matte color with a whole different look! I decided I liked it that way.

The metal hearts were hand cut with regular scissors out of some (washed!) heavy foil takeout packaging. I find it really satisfying to make something out of throwaway stuff - like it increases the total amount of beauty in the world. Cheesy, yes but hey, it's true! The embossing powder behaved differently on the metal too - it melted and moved around, blown by the heat gun. Interesting stuff.

*Top Note die - this is an exclusive Sizzix die from Stampin Up. I have a favorite ~~drug dealer~~ Stampin Up consultant, but when I link directly to products it takes you to a generic site, not giving Cheryl credit for all the inspiration and design work she contributes to my papercrafting hobby and not giving you the preferred pricing you get by going through a consultant. Which is a very long way to say - if you actually want to buy the Top Note, go to this Stampin Up site, click Products / Shop Now, and search for "Top Note".

** Edited to add: Stampin Up added a feature so that I can make my links go directly to Cheryl's site - yay! You can use that link now and go directly to the product, benefit Cheryl and get preferred pricing.

I love my new bird punch

2010-10-21T11:00:00.001-05:00

I have a new paper punch and it's so much fun! I just got the EK Success Extra Large Two Step Bird Punch from Stampin' Up!. I don't think the descriptor "two step" really makes sense - you punch once and get three pieces: the bird, the wing and a little branch.

On this card I punched a whole set - bird, wing and branch - out of chocolate brown and inked it with gold. I also punched some wing shapes out of a patterned paper to put behind the bird like leaves. I had been wanting to make something with a random ruffly look after seeing this layout. The green spotted fabric is a scrap from this quilt - I didn't cut it to a specific shape or anything, just took the wedge I had and bunched it up, gluing it down with Glossy Accents for a really good hold.

That raffia bow turned out really thick. I had to double up my foam raised adhesive to get it tall enough for the bird to sit over the bow! Everything was just kind of piled up for a free form look. A little different that what I usually do, which made me happy.

Port Aransas

2010-10-20T20:55:00.004-05:00

We love to spend a weekend at the Texas coast each October. We've normally visited an elderly friend there and gone with a group of friends and other families. This year nobody could make it so we weren't planning to go... but Zack had a day off school and we just hated to miss it. So we went just the four of us and ended up having a fabulous time. We stayed in the same condo place we like, the Sandpiper, and brought groceries for our meals. That way we didn't have to drive to the beach or to meals and could really enjoy our time.

Zack has always been wary of the waves, but this year he just ran right in. We couldn't believe how much braver he was about getting knocked over and getting water in his face.

See Zack waaaay out in the distance (above) ?

Sammy was much more inclined to play in the sand. I can't blame him - those waves are a lot higher on him compared to his hieght than on the rest of us!

I borrowed my dad's big digital SLR camera and tried it out to see what I could capture. I really don't know what I'm doing with it, but it was fun to experiment. I would have liked to do more but I was nervous about getting sand or seawater on it. I definitely need to try playing around more with the camera to see what I can figure out!

Yippee for my Vintage Flower Frog!

2010-10-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

Have you seen how people sometimes photograph cards or layouts standing up in a vintage flower frog? Here's an example from Jennifer McGuire Ink. I like it for a couple of reasons. For one, it's sometimes easier to see how a card looks when it is standing up. But mostly I just love the vintage look of the flower frog!

I've been keeping an eye out for a vintage frog at garage sales and thrift shops for a while, but I just don't get to them often and hadn't found any. A lovely woman at church found out I was looking for one and gave me three! This is the large one, plus there are two small ones that I thought I might use to stand up a layout. They are heavy - James thinks possibly lead (therefore, he says, I should avoid licking them. Hard to resist, right?). They belonged to another church friend's grandmother who liked Japanese flower arranging. So awesome.

Oh, and this is the thank-you card I'm sending!

Progress Report - Kit Quilt

2010-10-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

Do these fabrics look familiar? This is a quilt I started from some bargain quilt block kits I picked up just because I liked the colors. It started out a little randomly and has continued on the same path!

I posted about piecing it with my mom (amidst some harassment for never finishing sewing projects!) and about leaving in the mistakes instead of trying for perfection (which I'd never manage anyway). This September during my mom's visit we made yet more progress on it. It is now bordered and backed, pin basted and ready for quilting.

The batting and backing was a bit of a study in imperfection itself. We calculated the amount of material we would need for backing, but then decided to add a border in the backing material. For some reason, we thought we could get the borders out of the backing scraps, so we bought the same amount of material we had calculated for just the backing. Well, duh. That didn't work. We got the borders on and then didn't have enough material to do the back. We had to go back to the store and get more and then piece together a back with multiple seams. I guess that's no big deal (yes, it made me twitch).

Then, we cut off the batting material at just the right length for the measured size of the quilt. But when we sandwiched the quilt top with the batting and backing, guess what was too short? The already cut off batting! So dumb. How hard would it have been to sandwhich and pin and then cut off the excess batting!?? Most people don't even cut it off, but I'm quilting on a small machine and I didn't want extra bulk to fight with. I know how to patch the batting it but it's discouraging so I didn't do it (ha! what does reveal about me?).

After the visit I made a little more progress. I quilted a few lines in it (starting from the center and going out to the side with enough batting) but then I needed the table space back and my scrapbooking was calling me so I (again) put it away. I guess I like sewing together more than sewing alone? Or maybe I have to do too much of the work myself when my mom isn't around!

Roasted Potatoes

2010-10-13T09:02:00.000-05:00

Don't these roasted potatoes look tasty? I bet they would have been really good. But, Sammy got sick right as I took them out of the oven, so by the time we ate them they were cold. Chilly doesn't really do potatoes justice. James had recently seen roasted potatoes somewhere (a steaming plate being taken to someone else's table?) and wished he was having some. He asked if I could make us some this week. I was disappointed to serve them "as is", but I didn't really know a great way of reheating them either. And I was tired by that point.

I also had trouble with the garlic cloves. They were supposed to roast, in their skins, tossed in with the potatoes. But, they smelled like they were burning. I kept checking them to see what was up and finally just picked them out and threw them away, letting the potatoes finish roasting without them.

Do you have a tried and true roasted potato method? I'd love to hear it!

Awesome Candy Card

2010-10-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

Check out this great card Julie made Zack for his birthday! It is filled with skittles and as you can imagine, was a big hit with Zack. It went with pirate party perfectly.

The candy box is made from some packaging - very cool recycling! And, she made a slide-out back so that the card doesn't have to be torn to get to the candy. Cheryl's Halloween treats are done that way too this year and I really like it. Clever stuff.

That's Mister to You

2010-10-09T16:31:00.000-05:00

"I not a cu-tie pie. I a mister cu-tie pie," said Sammy. The child cracks me up.

Happy Saturday!

A Scrapbook Layout: First Christmas

2010-10-08T07:00:00.001-05:00

This was a really enjoyable layout to assemble. The original design was Cheryl's and looked like this:

I made it at one of her Stamp Classes - so much fun! Some of the white pieces are smooth and some are textured. The pearlescent pieces are resist-printed paper that we got to ink with Smooch inks to create this richly colored, shimmery look. I chose a different pattern of resist-paper than in Cheryl's example and you can see the difference created in the final look. I also intentionally left more color variation when I did the inking, liking the more artsy look.

I was really excited to find that the red and brown went perfectly with my pictures from Sammy's first Christmas. I love using a little spin on traditional color schemes to freshen up the effect. But when I went to add my photos, I had to make some adjustments. Although there was plenty of room in the original design for multiple pictures, I wanted a certain number of photos with a certain combination of horizontal and vertical alignment.

I also found that my own photos were so visually busy that I needed to free up a little whitespace (well, redspace and brownspace) in the layout to give the eye a little room to rest. The difference in the pattern of the resist-paper and the variation in ink color only increased the need for open space. When I thought the layout was finished, those open spaces were totally blank. The effect was too stark in comparison to the visual intensity of the rest of the layout. At the advice of my favorite scrapbook consultant, my sister, I added those tone-on-tone leaves (cut with my Big Shot) to the brown side and just a little accent to the red side. I love the whole sparkly result!

Chicken Alfredo Pizza with Basil and Roasted Tomatoes

2010-10-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

This pizza was so easy. I used leftover Alfredo sauce, leftover chicken, basil from the garden and some grape tomatoes I had left from another recipe. It is really tasty and goes together quickly. I go through stages when I make my own sauce, but this isn't one of them. I go through other stages when I think I'm going to start making my own crust, but this was a refrigerated crust. It turned out delicious.

To roast the tomatoes, toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper and put them in the oven at 400 for 10 minutes or until they've all burst. You can use a roasting pan or a cast iron skillet. Bursting them in the oven ensures they'll be cooked to a sweet caramelized state by the time the pizza is done and prevents you from having an unappetizing puddle of tomato liquid on your pizza.

Spread alfredo sauce on the crust, top with cheese, cooked chicken and fresh basil leaves. Add the tomatoes straight from the roasting pan using tongs (discard the liquid) and cook at 450 for 9-11 minutes or as directed for your crust.

Garnish with Parmesan and freshly ground pepper. Yum!

Cool Videos and Perfect Pearls

2010-10-06T07:00:00.001-05:00

I have to tell you about this cool set of crafting/scrapbooking videos by Jennifer McGuire. Jennifer posted a series of classes to the scrapbooking website Two Peas in a Bucket last summer. There are free photos, a video, a downloadable PDF and discussion in each of twenty-seven classes! It's a great introduction to multiple products and techniques but also provides multiple ideas for expanding how you use your products. There is so much awesome information here!

For example, one product I am really loving lately is called Perfect Pearls. I usually mix them with water and spray on finished decorative elements to give them a little sparkle (like in the picture here). Now that I've had some for a little while I'm ready to expand what I do with them. I just re-watched this video class and I'm so excited to try the things she recommends. I'm going to go make some dots out of Glossy Accents and color them with perfect pearls right away!

Please, somebody, go check out these video classes and let me know what you are trying out!