Higher!

Every time Anna swings, she yells "higher." This child is going to love rollercoasters when she gets older!

Aargh...

No, this post is not about pirates. :) But I do wish I was on a big ship in the middle of the ocean right now. Oh, that would be fun. Just sitting and soaking up the sun.
Ok, back to my point. I'm frustrated. I've been doing this weight loss challenge for 3 weeks now. Or is it 4? Yeah, this is my 4th week. Oh, that makes this even worse. My first two weeks were good. I lost about 3 1/2 pounds. Third week was a bust. I lost nothing. So yesterday I got on the scale just for the fun of it (yeah, I know - getting on the scale is never fun). And yet again - Nothing. I'm stuck. Now, I know I could've done better these past 4 weeks, but I haven't done any worse these past two weeks than I did the first week. Actually I think I've done better in the exercise department. But I'm still stuck. Last year I did boot camp for a month and after the first 3 weeks I got stuck at this same weight.
So tomorrow I'm going to do great. I'm going to eat tons of fruit, drink gallons of water, have four dance parties (which I consider cardio because I do sweat!) and hit my 10,000 steps. And yes, by the way, I did finally hit 10,000 steps. Actually I got over 15,000. I will admit that it's because I went to the mall and then went walking with a friend that afternoon. But still. I made it! I haven't worn the pedometer much lately, so I'm probably not getting close to 10,000 here lately.
Ok, that was my venting for the night. Off to bed!

Inspired

I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted. Ooops!
Lately I've been trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with my scrapbook for this year. I like my 12 x 12 layouts, but I'm really loving the smaller layouts and different sized divided page protectors. I occasionally read Ali Edwards' blog and today she had a post that really inspired me to get moving on my decision. I love that she includes little bits of life - receipts, tags, mail.. She's doing more of a picture a day thing, and I don't know that she's including 12 x 12 layouts, but I love the idea. Check out her blog posting and just see how cool it is. How fun would it be to look through that album  in 20 years?
I'm definitely going to have to order the Simple Stories album set from MemoryWorks now. I love the different sized page protectors and all the elements that fit right into them. Takes the hard work out.

Cosmo Cricket Sketch

I love sketches and I love Cosmo Cricket, so what could be better than a sketch from Cosmo Cricket?!
I took the challenge at their blog to create a layout from this sketch

And here's what I came up with. Yes, it differs a bit from the sketch, but the basics are there.

I used all Girl Friday products. I cut the butterflies and flowers from one of the patterned papers and then layered the grass and flowers to try my hand at a little 3D effect. How do you like it?

Latest Challenge!

Every so often I get the chance to do a post for Technique Tuesday and Fabulous Friday challenges over at Happy Scrappin' Scrapbooking. After rearranging my scheduled posts because of my vacation, last week was my turn to do both! Technique Tuesday happened to be a post about how to do resist paintings with crayons and watered down acrylic paints. It was fun, but my favorite was the Fab Friday challenge. My challenge to the community over there was to use circles on layouts. I never use circles even though I just love the look of them. So, I thought I'd share the layouts with you guys.
Let me say, here, that I will never ever cut scalloped circles by hand again! Sure, I used decorative edged scissors, but still. Do you know how hard it is to cut circles, when you can't even cut straight lines??? I've already put the circle punches on my wish list over at the store!

The smaller picture in the bottom corner of this layout was taken almost exactly a year before the harmonica pictures. I had to add it just to show how much she has changed in only a year!

Sorry about the terrible picture angles! I had to take them indoors with a flash, so I had to angle myself to keep the glare off.

Oh yeah, I'm still working on the 10,000 steps. I AM going to hit it!!

Attempted Photo Shoot

I tried really hard to get some decent pictures of Anna today. But she's 2 going on 16 and I haven't taken pictures in Manual in so long that it took me a while to get going. So the outside pics didn't turn out all that well. But I did get some cute inside ones while we were playing on the bed and in the tub. - The best lighting in my house is in the master bathroom tub. It's worked wonders!

She went on a spinning trip & I got a couple of cute pics from it!

I can't decide if I like this in sepia.?

 

 

 

 By the way, I only made it to about 7500 steps the other day. And today I'm doing even worse! How in the world do I get to 10000?

10,000 steps my rear!

Ok, so I bought a pedometer yesterday so I could be sure and get my 10,000 steps a day for maximum health! ha ha...Anyways, I really had no idea how many steps I take in a day, but I was sure it would be lots. Maybe a couple thousand steps away from the goal, but still close - especially on the days I keep Lorelei. But oh my gosh!
I got up at 6:15, put the pedometer on at 6:30, it fell off of me around 9:30 this morning with approx. 1000 steps on it (it was 900something, but by the time I figured out it wasn't on me and added in the 15 mins I didn't wear it this morning, I came up with 1000) and now this is what I've got.

So, it's 10:59 and I've only got 1939 steps!

I guess if I'm going to make it, I better get off the computer and start walking laps around the living room! I'll let you know how it goes.

Hair Cutting Time!

I just couldn't handle the straggly bottom layer of Anna's hair anymore. So I somehow convinced her to let me cut her hair. And even blow-dry it! I didn't cut much - maybe an inch. And I tried to cut it straight across to get rid of the "v" shape she had going on. I know this isn't much of a big deal to many people, but it was a huge ordeal to us!

Here's the starting point.

Here's after the cut - not much difference!

And here's the bow-dried version. It's the first time it's ever been blow-dried. She has an issue with loud noises.

Favorites

I am stealing an idea from over at Happy Scrappin' Scrapbooking to post my favorite layouts from 2009.

I think I like this one just because of the picture. She still drags that blanket around.

This one I like just because of the pitiful face she's making. This one was featured on GCD Studios' blog.

This one makes me laugh thinking about how many walls she ran into trying to look through those things. It was done for a design team project at the Let's Scrap sketch blog.

I like the colors in this one.

I have a thing about taking pictures of them from behind.

Happy New Year!

Well, last night was pretty uneventful. We went out to eat with friends. Showed sparklers to an unimpressed 2 year old. Put said two year old to be at 10:30!, then sat around and talked with friends until 1:00. We even missed watching the ball drop! Oh well. It was a nice, quiet way to start off the year. And Anna (and Robert) slept in this morning, so I was able to take a shower and get dressed in peace and quiet. I only took 1 picture for the night and it turned out pretty poorly.
We did some yard work to help with the house showings that we KNOW are going to start rolling in soon. And then I had to take a 4 hour nap. This cold is killing me. Everytime I think I'm getting better, it gets worse. Killing me, I say! But maybe with my 4 hour nap, I'll be able to stay up later tonight and get some much needed scrapping done. Things are due soon!
I'm going to try very hard to do better at posting on my blog. It sure would be nice to have those cute little pictures posted on here everyday with some witty remark underneath them. But I would need photoshop for those cute pictures and uninterrupted time to think up those witty remarks. I don't think I'm getting either anytime soon. But I'll do what I can.