It’s been a long time since I have done a shoot. But, I have some close friends that were moving out of the area. They wanted something to remember the area by. So we went out to the sand and had some fun. I’m in love with the colors in these photos. They were such fun to photograph! I’m going to miss you!
Here’s a sample of what we got:
is up on the Hawt Mama Team Blog today. It’s the third in a series of templates that are built around an actual element from one of Traci Reed’s goodies. This one uses a bracket frame from her Acrylic-O-Holics set. Go HERE to pick it up. 
I have so much on my mind, that I would like to blog about, that it’s a little overwhelming. So I can keep track, I’ll start with the most recent and move backwards.
Yesterday, we all slept in, really enjoying the start of the weekend. The boys even let me sleep a little longer after they got up. What more could I ask for? To reward them, after I had my ritual cup of coffee (decaf), I asked what they would like for breakfast. I was prepared to do the works, bacon and eggs. E yells, “I’m hungry! I want some pancakes and potato chips, please!” Uh, what?! Potato chips for breakfast? “Yeah!!!” Sorry, not for breakfast. Wonder where the boy gets his taste buds from? 
He ended up settling for pancakes and oj. Poor guy!
I stumbled on to a great site, today. Maybe it’s because of our recent experience, which I’ll blog about later, but it really touched my heart. It’s a site called, its 4 the kids and it’s definitely worth a visit. I really respect what these ladies are doing and all the good that must come from it.
I am having fun creating these layered templates that are built around an actual element from a Traci Reed kit. I just put up my second in the series on the Hawt Mama Team Blog. Be sure to swing by and pick it up. Want a peek?
And here’s what I did with it.
Credits:
Traci Reed products:
Bowl-a-Rama a collab with Dani Mogstad
single cross stitch – Frosty Fingers
Cardboard – Essentially Fall
Other:
Grunge Me brush by Robyn Gough
Pop on over to the blog to see what the Hawt Mamas have done with it. Happy Scrapping!
Do you ever just stop and enjoy the moment? I don’t do that enough. Maybe my stress level would go down if I did it more. Even the little things can you make you stop and just smile. I was pumping gas yesterday and it was a little bit breezy. The temperature outside was warm without being hot and I suddenly I just stopped my furious thinking and noticed. The breeze ruffled my hair and was so soft on my face that I couldn’t help but relax and just empty my mind. Ok, so the emptying my mind part is not so hard to do.
The other day had another moment that demanded simple enjoyment. E was standing in front of me, so earnestly explaining how the package of hamburger buns on the counter got all wet. I couldn’t help it. I froze time in my mind and just enjoyed the earnest expression on his face. He had his hands turned up into the air, so seriously trying to explain that it was an accident. I just wanted to hug him. Of course, I refrained. The mind of an earnest 4 year old would not have understood the wacky timing of hugs from his mother.
But those are the moments, when I am old and feeble, that I want to remember of life. I don’t want to look back and only remember the stress of this past year. It really is the little things that make up the quality of life. I’m going to try to pay attentnion to more of those little things.
I haven’t blogged in so long that I have a ton of scrapbook pages to show. But, I won’t put them all up at once.
Here are just a few recent favorite ones. Click on images for full credits.
I’ll be back tomorrow with a link to a template freebie!
Last night, my back was aching, I had a headache and I was tired. I really wanted a bath! So I got the boys into bed and told them I was going to take one. We had had our cuddle time, Bible story, prayer and good night kisses. They were all settled in.
I filled the tub and got in. The hot water felt wonderful! I had just started to read my book when I heard a noise from the bedroom. It was Ethan crying. Now, I was really feeling like a bad mom, because I did not want to get out of the tub! I waited a few minutes but the crying didn’t stop. It was not a forced cry or a ”I don’t want to go to bed” cry. So, I yelled, from my tub and asked them what was wrong. Andrew answered me and said that Ethan was crying because he couldn’t stop thinking about a bad dream. I REALLY did NOT want to get out of the tub! Feeling guilty, I yelled back, “Andrew, pray with Ethan and ask God to help him put away his fear and help him to go to sleep.” I heard the crying stop and Andrew’s voice saying, “Dear God…”. I couldn’t hear the rest of his prayer but God did. The crying never started again and it was quiet. I finished my soak and when I came out, both boys were asleep, side by side. I stopped and thanked Him for listening to my boys.
Today, we thanked God for listening and answering their prayer last night. It meant something to Ethan, too. He has not been taking his turn at prayer at bedtime. So, tonight, I was surprised, when after Andrew and I had finished, Ethan said, ”wait!” and he said one. I was very touched and I’m sure it meant something to God, too.
I almost had myself a heap of trouble. My 4 yr. old almost successfully pulled one over on me. This morning, after I got out of the shower and was blow drying my hair, ‘E’ came in several times to ask me a question. Each time he came in the room he would ask me something unintelligible over the sound of the hair dryer. Each time, I would turn off the hair dryer and say, “What?” ”Can I draw a picture?” “Yes.” A few minutes later he was back, “Can I cut out my picture?” “Yes, as long as you are careful.” Pretty soon he’s back, “Can I cut it up into little pieces?” “Yes, as long as you are careful and you clean up your mess when you are done.” This time he’s only gone a minute or two. I’m never going to get my hair dry at this rate so I keep the hair dryer on and yell, “What?!” He says something that I can’t understand. Just wanting to get him to leave, I yell, “yes!” He grins really big and takes off down the hallway. Ok, my internal alarms are going off. The hair dryer goes off. “Wait! ‘E’ get back here!” He pops back around the corner with an innocent, “what?” I say, “What did you just ask me?” He mumbles something. Try again, buddy. Finally, he says, “I asked if I can do anything that I want to do.” No way, buddy! Nice try. You almost got away with it. Images of the possible havoc that could have resulted from that one little word, yes, flashed across my mind. “No, ‘E’! You know better than that.” He shrugged and went back down the hallway. I know he was thinking that it was worth a try. Whew, that was a close one! Lesson learned: Always know the question that you are answering. Especially to a mischievous little boy.
Yesterday was my birthday. Yes, it’s on Valentine’s Day. All my life I’ve heard, “Oh, a Valentine’s Day baby!” Um, not anymore. I haven’t been a baby for many years! Well, the boys wanted to take me out to dinner for my birthday. I knew it would be tough since every Manny, Mo and Jack would be taking their honeys out to dinner. So I thought we would beat the crowd and have an early dinner. Well, I wasn’t thinking clearly. We live in a community that Snow Birds flock to in the winter. They clog up our streets, they fill up our hospital, and they like to go out to eat early. I guess they have nothing better to do, so they go eat an early dinner. Well, last night I get to The Olive Garden well before the dinner hour. I can tell as I drive in the parking lot that they are lined up outside the door. I park and start walking up to the door (my father is meeting me here with the boys) planning to put my name in. I reached the sidewalk and I can hear footsteps coming up rapidly behind me. I picked up my pace a little bit to avoid slowing them down. They got faster. As I reached the corner of the sidewalk, where it turns to the door, this little old lady rushes past me, literally running through the flower beds to beat me to the door. She barely made it. The people lined up outside looked like they were very entertained. We must have presented quite a little scenario. Unknowingly, I was racing this little old lady to get our names put on the list. I stopped in shock, and just started to laugh. She never even looked over her shoulder at me. She just continued up to the desk and got her name in. I thought with age comes maturity and wisdom and the real meaning of life. I guess the real meaning to her life at that moment was beating me to the door of The Olive Garden so she could eat her dinner and hurry home to watch QVC. She certainly earned it.
We didn’t eat there after all anyway. The wait was at least 2 hrs. so we went over to my dad’s and made pizza. It was a nice evening after all, spent with my family. And I still got my dinner at The Olive Garden. We ate there tonight at a normal dinner hour and only had to wait a few minutes. It was very good, too!
He uses a Netti Pot and he’s only 7 years old! I was reading a thread at DST about the Netti Pot, a homeopathic remedy for sinus congestion. My poor dude seems to always be stuffy or running. So, I Googled it. I couldn’t find anything negative or harmful about it and did find lots of testimonials saying how well it worked. I found this video, showing how to use it and I had Andrew watch it. I asked him if he would try it and he said sure! I got one and he actually used it! I was impressed! He is much braver than I am. (except when it comes to the dentist chair, but that’s a whole ‘nother post!) It does help him get to sleep at night. He’s very good at using it and it’s very effective.
I’ve got a lot to catch up on but I’m not going to make this a super long post and bore poor Nancy, if she’s still reading this. So, I’ll just catch you up on some scrapping stuff and post more later.
My guest spot with Laura Burger has turned into a permanant one. Yay! I am loving her designs. They just seem to fit my current style and the pages just flow. Here are some recents layouts using her stuff. Click on images for full credits.
My grandparents on their wedding day
Thank goodness for friends with daughters!
‘E’ in a rare moment of cooperation.
A’s funny face.
I completed several more blinkies, too.
I think I’m done for awhile now. I’m not going to take any more blinkie orders. Takin’ a blinkie break!
Lol, ok, maybe not that big. But, it’s big to me. I have a layout published! I didn’t even submit anything so it came as a huge surprise. Last month I received their request to use my LO for the January issue of the Artisan Notebook. It’s a double issue and it’s huge! I’m honored that they selected my LO to be high lighted in it. The e-zine is published by the Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the ladies over there. So… I downloaded my free issue today and was thrilled to see my page in the middle of it. Stacey Stahl did a little write up about it. I thought that was pretty cool!
My other news is that I’m a Guest CT for Laura Burger this month! I have to tell you, I’m lovin’ her stuff. My style has been leaning towards grunge, lately, and her stuff enables me. lol She sells at Eclectic Digial Designs, Treasures to Scrap and Digi Scrap Shak. I have done two pages already with her products.
This first on is my niece, using pics my brother took of her. I used Laura’s Sierra Shivers kit.
This one I did for Andrew using pics he took with his camera. I did no cropping or rotating the photos. He did! He loves this page. It was inspired by the background paper. I really liked the colors. I used pieces that are in Laura’s January Goodie Pouch.
Click on the images for full credits.
I’m really looking forward to working with her stuff this month.
I finished another blinkie, too. I can’t show you though until I show the designer first. and I think she’s on vacation. I haven’t seen her around the boards so I’ll show you after she comes back and sees it.
The year 2008 has gotten off to a scrapping start!
Ugh, nothing like spending Christmas down with the flu. My poor boys! Our first Christmas with just the 3 of us and I’m too sick to do anything with them. Papa came and picked them up when I got so sick I couldn’t even care for them. My sensitive boy was worried about his Marnie. Our conversation went like this…
A: “Marnie, why are there tears on your face?”
M: “Because I’m sick and I’m hurting.”
M: “Andrew, why are there tears on your face?”
A: “Because I feel bad for you.”
I can picture him being the one taking care of me when I’m old and feeble.
I did recover enough on Christmas day to go to dinner at my dad’s and open gifts but I’m afraid I wasn’t very sociable. I’m happy these holidays are almost over!
But, there’s nothing like scrapping to help a person feel better! I got a page done today. I’ve had this photo that I took of the little boy that I take care of for about a month. I didn’t know what to do with it until I saw Wendy Page’s new Winter 2007 kit. It was perfect for it!
Click here for full credits.
And tomorrow, I clean house and start a new blinkie. I feel my mojo coming back!
