in the thicket

I'm getting ready for 2010. Are you? :)

I don't know about anybody else, and I might just be chatting to myself out here in cyberspace, but I'm SO READY for 2010! A new decade! Hopefully a better year for our country and many families I know who are struggling! Even though things have improved for our family (having sold our old house is the big one) and we have so many blessings, my heart has been heavy for others dealing with financial challenges, unemployment, illness, watching loved ones struggle or any number of other struggles.

But at the same time, even though it is easy (for me) to feel worried or anxious about the future, I still have to live my life each day. I find that it helps to try to stay grounded and focused on both my faith and also just the tasks in front of me each day. Sometimes life can feel so mundane, but I know that these are the days that I will treasure once they are done, and my girls are older. They are changing so much each day, and I'm very thankful for my time with them and the memories we are creating in our family. So in order to document this, I've decided to start participating in Project 365 on January 1st. The goal will be to take a picture each day to document a year in the life of my family. I'd like to also do a quick note about the day or the picture, and then scrap (using a template of some sort I'm sure) a page for each week. The girls change SO much so quickly, I know it will be great to see the change over this year!

I have started a new blog, which I will link to from this blog, but not vice versa. (I might share the other blog with some people that I don't necessarily want to read this blog.) I still need to figure out some details, like a watermark for the pictures possibly, and whether I'll do themes or participate in any challenges around the net, etc. Anyway, I think the new blog is pretty cute, can't wait to get started!

http://inthethicketproject365.blogspot.com/

Thinking about cupcakes, felted and otherwise...

I just lovethis page I just scrapped of Charlotte. See the cupcakes I stuck in there? The kit is cherry-themed, but love those little cupcakes!

 

Anyway, I had so much fun following along (as I assume others did too!) the baking get-together of The Pioneer Woman and Bakerella. Gwen's 3rd birthday is coming up, and I've been trying to think about what goodies to make. We are not doing a big party for her, just a family get-together. So I am wondering if I can get my act together to try some of those cake pops that they made, it looks so fun! And also do some plain old cupcakes, just to feed the hungry hordes, so to speak.

This is sort of a pointless post,  but I couldn't think of a cohesive theme other than cupcakes. Which are sweet. And here are some sweet things that have happened recently...

-Gwendolyn potty learning... BUT if she's tired, then she totally forgets about it. Boo hoo for me, more laundry. But she is having lots of successes!

-Visiting Pullen Park on the first day of spring... it was chilly a bit, but we had fun planting some seeds, having a picnic, playing and letting the girls ride the boats and carosel. Then heading over to feed the ducks at the lake... Funny moment- I was going to take Gwen to potty after feeding the ducks, but unfortunately, as she was crouching on a picnic table bench, she had a little accident... one of the moms noticed as it ran down the bench... oops! Theme: Gwen fell asleep within minutes of leaving the park... so tired Gwen, crouching Gwen means accident-prone Gwen.

-Watching our pea plants grow. Need to post some pictures!

-Learning about birds with Charlotte, then watching her draw a bird and label it.

-Gwendolyn counting how old she is... putting 2 fingers up, then carefully adding the 3rd finger.

-Listening to J and Charlotte's voices murmuring... J usually tries to spend some time with Charlotte, playing a game or something like that, on Saturday.

-Deciding on a kitchen paint color. On the wall- "Ambience", a creamy, slightly-yellow but not too yellow, white...

-Experiements in breadmaking... trying a "soaked" bread recipe in my bread machine

-Finding a picture of J and Gwendolyn on our church's updated website. Guess we have to join now!

Okay, enough rambling. But isn't that what Saturdays are all about? Just sort of "rambling" through your day? Oh, well, theoretically, I am supposed to be productive... never quite get everything done, but that's OK I still love Saturdays.

A new look...

And hopefully this will motivate me to start blogging again! :)

I created the header with a super-cute new kit by one Julie Billingsley, whose creative team I'm privileged to be on. Here's a page I created with the kit... in going through my photos I realized I have very few snow pictures, crazy considering I lived in Michigan for 8 years!

 

So, I am hoping to actually start documenting our lives more, my scrapbooking, what the girls are up to, and any cooking and crafting adventures. I also would like to start doing some book reviews as well!

Sick with a cold, but I accomplished *something* today...

Wow, going crazy with the blogging here! Anyway, managed to contract a lovely cold from Miss Gwennie (as we've been calling her lately) so I'm sort of dragging on the home front. I'm actually supposed to be on a "scrapping hiatus" but I had signed up to post on the team blog for one of my designers, Kristin Cronin-Barrow, so that gave me an excuse to scrap. I created a couple of "quickpages" that are ready for you to pop your photos in this afternoon.

So, here's the link, the download links are on the blog there!

http://kristincbdesigns.com/blog/?p=116

I do this occassionally...

I get some weird idea that I could actually "design" digital scrapbook kits. The last time I made one, it completely burned me out. It's very challenging! This time I attempted to keep it a bit more simple, but nonetheless it has been a challenge and took many hours the past couple of days. I know that if I *were* to attempt to do more of this, even just to give away freebies as part of the learning curve, I simply would have to do it at night on a computer of my own... this computer just cannot handle it because the harddrive is too full. And it causes me to too often say, "Just one more minute!" to my girls. So that's not acceptable.

So this is the first thing I've designed in a while, and it may be the last...

In case anyone stumbles upon this and would like to download it, here are the links:

http://www.4shared.com/file/46674535/f77448/AfternoonVisitwithMimi.html

And here's the "preview"! Mimi is what I called my grandmother when I was little, it is inspired by her, the colors remind me of her home and some of the "elements" I got from her, like the jewelry box and little ceramic name plates.

Happy Saturday...it's National Scrapbooking Day! :)

Well, today is National Scrapbooking Day! If I had any money at all to spend, I would be quite happy about that right now, lol! There are many, many sales going on right now. But it is exciting to see all the beautiful layouts for the Scrapper's Choice Awards at DigishopTalk... last year I was a judge, but I don't think I'm elegible to judge this year as a board moderator. But wow, so many gorgeous pages I missed along the way!

It's also a bit nostalgic for me, because it's now been over a year since I've been digi-scrapping the "second time around." I sometimes have mixed feelings about this hobby- I enjoy it soooooo much, but it does take a lot of time (during the girls' quiet time or in the evening occassionally) and also some money, though much less than traditional scrapbooking I think. It has been quite a few months since I spent any money at all. I'd like a small budget for this hobby again one day, though. But for now, I'm fortunate to be able to get some new products from my creative teams- I just try to keep myself focused on them, and not all the other wonderful new products coming out! It does help that I'm no longer tempted by many things since I know my style and what works or doesn't work for me.

I was excited to create some new pages for two of my creative teams, though... The first one is Charlotte sitting up for the first time, the second one is the girls in our old garden (gosh I miss that yard, someone needs to buy our house and take care of it!), and the last is a recent picture of the baby, not smiling...

credits

credits

credits

Scrapping goals for 2008

One of my favorite digital scrapbooking stores is Sweet Shoppe Designs. They host various challenges, and one of them is called, "From our Blog to yours." The question posed is, "What are your goals in 2008 as a scrapper?"

Mine are fairly simple... first, to take better pictures and learn more about how to "process" them. Second, to continue to refine and develop my personal style in a way that enhances my photos and any journaling on them. Third, I want to actually print my LOs! My very sweet SIL gave me a gift card to have my pages printed, so that should get me started. Oh, one more goal- pace myself to avoid burn-out. :)