Letters to Blue

Yes, the name Blue has stuck. I'm still having a hard time with it and we are trying to figure out a first name to go with Blue as a middle name, but I hate to say that this poor child is forever going to be called Blue no matter what we put on his birth certificate.
Anyhow, I thought it would be nice for us to each write him a letter right before he is born. So I've made a layout to hold the letters from me and Robert. I'm going to have Anna dictate, then sign her letter, and I thought it would be nice for her to make the layout to go with it. Of course, I'm too much of a control freak to let her totally design the layout, so I'll be sure to give her paper and embellishment options that go along with the rest of the album.

So, while you're here....anyone have a good name to go with Blue? :)

My Day in Photos - By Anna

See more days here.

Rollin'

It's nice when family traits are handed down to your child. It helps them feel a sense of connection. Belonging.
It would have been nice if Anna had been handed a photographic memory or the urge to clean all the time.
But she got clumsiness and belly rolling. Gymnastics has helped the clumsiness a bit. But she'll never get rid of belly rolling. She's way too proud. I have to admit that it is a pretty good control of muscle to be able to do it and I surely don't have that control. I'm not sure I even have those muscles.

At least she's got a leg up on becoming a belly dancer!

Happy Easter!

I hope you all have had a great Easter weekend filled with family and fun!
Here's a few snapshots from Anna's Easter day at school.

Not sure what kind of pose this is!

She loves that Target $2 Easter basket!

Organic Strawberries

Is it just me, or do organic strawberries taste 100x's better than regular old chemically enhanced ones?

Have you seen this?

Archiver's should stop sending out their email coupons on Wednesdays. Because on Wednesdays I go to yoga. And Archivers is on the way home from yoga. So of course I have to stop because I have a coupon. And I only go out towards that direction once a week, so what if my coupon expires before I'm back. Or what if all the cool stuff is gone because everyone's using their coupon! Such tricky little people at Archivers.
Anywhoo....
I was in Archiver's the other day and saw a kit containing Pink Paislee products. I'm in love with the Daily Junque line they have, so of course I had to have it.
I put together the album, but didn't embellish exactly like the kit suggested because instead of it being a mini album of sorts, I'm going to make it a collection spot for a month's worth of "daily junk." Receipts, grocery lists, to do lists - all of those things are going to get stuffed into this cute little album so that years from now we can look back and see a bit about our lives. Cute, huh? Now I just have to keep up with all that paper.

Thanks so Much!

Thanks to everyone who voted in my poll. The majority of you guys like a mix of subjects on here, which is good, because I'm not expert enough to always post about the same thing!
Stayed tuned for some great updates over the next month as I continue working in my class.

Little Girl Layouts

It's all about little girls today at Practical Scrappers!

Patterned Paper - Crate Paper

Letters - Basic Grey, Sassafras

Stickers - Crate Paper, Heidi Grace, My Mind's Eye

Die Cuts - My Mind's Eye

Brads - My Mind's Eye

Flowers - Sassafras, Cosmo Cricket

Journaling spot - Pink Paislee

A Question for You.

It's day 1 of Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers (Actually it's day 2, but I'm a day behind), and the question is raised about who my readers are. I know my normal followers, and I know where a few of the random readers come from, but I want to know you all. And I want to know why you are all here, exactly. And I want to know what I can do to keep you coming around more frequently.
Man, I want to know a lot, huh?
So I've set up a little poll. Please take the time to just click a little button and help me out. And feel free to leave me a comment if you want to say more. I like hearing from you guys!

Rain, Umbrellas, and Puddles

What's better to do on a rainy day than sit around and scrap?
And what's better than scrappy those adorable rainy day pictures?
Today's post over at Practical Scrappers has tons of inspiration for all those rainy day projects.
I came up with a layout featuring one of my latest favorite pictures of Anna.

Paper - Cosmo Cricket, Studio Calico, Crate Paper

Chipboard - Maya Road

Letter stickers - October Afternoon, Pink Paislee

Border stickers - Crate Paper

Butterflies - Cosmo Cricket

Heart - American Crafts

Mist - Studio Calico

Giveaway Day #2

Practical Scrappers is at it again - giving away some great Bella Boulevard goodies.

Run over there and enter!

Announcement & Giveaway Days

 I am thrilled to announce that I have been chosen to be on the Practical Scrappers Design Team!
Practical Scrappers is a wonderful website that has tons of inspiration. Tutorials, videos, sketches, and amazing layouts to inspire you every day.You absolutely have to check them out - 1400 followers can't be wrong!

And today and tomorrow over at Practical Scrappers, there's a great giveaway! Here's the info from the site.

Today we are giving away some paper and stickers from the Family Dynamix and Tail Waggers & Cat Naps lines.  Here's what you can do to win some:

-Make sure you are a follower here & leave us a comment telling us what your favorite line from Bella Blvd is.  You can find their lines on their blog

And if you want some extra chances to win here's some extra things you can do:

-Become a fan of Bella Blvd over on Facebook and let them know we sent you!

-Post on your blog or your facebook page about our giveaway here.

 

So hop over today and tomorrow and  enter to win! And look for some upcoming projects from yours truly!

I'm cool

I'd be cooler if I could cut a straight line, but that's beside the point.
I'm cool because I have a cool mini record player April calendar.
I'm cool because even though I was going to give this to Robert so he could play DJ at work, I'm keeping it.
I'm cool because I thought, "What's better than a picture of a mini record player?  A mini record player picture with a cool vintage wash."

I'm cool just because I am.

Umbrella Girl

We've been going through a bit of a drought around here lately, but that hasn't stopped Anna from wearing her rainboots and playing with her Minnie Mouse umbrella.
Pretend puddles are much more fun anyways, right?

 p.s. ignore the ugly vines in the background. landscaper will be here soon!

February Facebook

I have always thought it would be neat to keep up with my off the wall Facebook postings. I wasn't able to fit all of them on here, but this is a quick way to get a glimpse of my February.

Getting started.

I have to say, I'm on a roll with this baby album. It's super simple now that I've got everything together and don't have to bother with searching for coordinating paper or embellishments. So far I've finished 8 pages.
Here's a few. These aren't my favorite, but this is all you get for now. My favs are being sent off to somewhere special! :)

 

These first two layouts are 8x8, which I had never worked with before. It was difficult to work with this size for some reason, but I like the look of them in the album.

I actually have two layouts with the sonograms from this appt. made up. This is the least favorite, but I think I'll still use it.

9 Pocket Page

Because the album that I'm using for the baby book came with divided page protectors of all sizes, I'm insisting on using them all. I decided to use the 9 pocket pages to stuff in appt cards and highlights of each month. Unfortunately, those included page protectors just weren't big enough for me, so I am using baseball card holders instead. Works wonderfully.

On the front, I used some seriously old rub-ons to label each card. Then my plan is to hand write a few highlights from each month on those cards. I will add some embellishments when all the writing is done. Looks plain now, but in my head, it's going to be super cute when it's all done.

In the back of this page protector, I'm stuffing some of the appt cards that I managed to keep. Not sure if anything else will go in there later, but for now, this is it.

So here's the plan,

Just like I'm struggling to find things for a boy room that aren't so baby, I'm struggling to find a baby book that doesn't scream little blue baby. So I'm going a little off on my own here and making my own. The plan is for it to cover my pregnancy all the way through the hospital. The regular album will start the day he comes home.
But just like all of my well thought out plans, I'm sure this plan will change 47 times before it actually gets completed.

I'm going to use this album by Pink Paislee that I already had for another project. I love the assorted page dividers that came with it and I plan to use all of them.

And most of my papers and embellishments will be from Crate Paper's Toy Box line. I've also collected some older Studio Calico, Cosmo Cricket, and October Afternoon papers that have the same feel to use. I'm afraid that after a while, I'll start getting sick of the same style of papers throughout the album, so again, this plan might change a little.

Stay tuned because I've already gotten a few pages done and will post them sometime this week!

A little Mini

Inspired by a tutorial over at the Crate Paper blog a while back, I came up with this tiny little mini album over the weekend. Super simple. No real journaling, just some of my favorite pictures from the last month or so.

Supplies:
Crate Paper journaling squares - I used 7 from one of their 12x12 sheets
Crate Paper letters, stickers, journaling spot cardstock stickers
American Crafts tape
Making Memories glitter letters and word sticker
Jennie Bowlin butterfly
Handmade embellies with punched embellies and flowers

Couldn't Love Her More

Not exactly my normal style, and not really sure I like it, but I love the papers enough to keep it how it is.
Background is from Basic Grey, patterned paper & stickers from Crate Paper, blue glitter letters from Making Memories, pink alphas from Hobby Lobby, fabric brads & tape from American Crafts, and die cut w/ brad from My Mind's Eye.

Fun with your Friends

One of the best things about visiting the old town is getting to see old friends. Miss these guys!