First Day of Preschool

Here is my baby boy on his first day of preschool!

Can you tell he's a little excited? heehee!

Here is is walking into his school.

And here he is standing in front of his cubby! Awww.....

See how he's holding his right hand? Poor kid had a big fall on Sunday. It still hurts him and he still isn't using it.

So make sure and check back tomorrow afternoon(thursday) or Friday moring. Scrap A Little is having our very first blog hop! You won't want to miss it. I might even have a little something to give away!

Looks Who Is Taking Steps? Monkey Invites

Yep, that would be Miss Madeline!

She is sssooo darn cute! Chris will set her out in front of him a bit and she'll take a couple steps and dive right into him!

I finished up Peytons 4th birthday invites over the weekend. He wants a Curious George birthday party so Curious George it is. I made monkey invites and bought some cake toppers, plates, party hats, etc. These boogers took a while. I had to cut 9 circles for each one! Yep...I thought about inking the edges, cause they'd look tons better. But I just didn't have it in me!

Being the frugal person I am, I used up some of the scraps that were big enough to cut circles out of, so we got a variety of colors!

Thats it for now! Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to check back often this week. I have another DT project for Creative Cuts and More I finished up today and a new layout for Scrap A Little who will be having a blog hop Thursday! Wanna sneak of that one? Here ya go....

Creative Cuts & More Shaker Card with Envelope

Here is another Design Team project for Creative Cuts and More. I used the Shaker Card & 3D Shaker Envelope Set. I am such a fan of minis that I decided to make it a little mini album.

A close up of the flower.

The accordion mini in the shaker box (which was super simple to adhere together using the tacky tape I got from Creative Cuts & More):

The accordion mini.

I used the Cosmo Cricket Early Bird line and was able to find bits and pieces of cardstock that worked perfect.

A scrappy friend share a new challenge blog with me called Pals Paper Arts. There current challenge is to make anything but a card. That inspired me to create a mini out of this shaker box card. If you get a chance, pop over there, there are some great projects there!

Cosmo Cricket Give-away

I came across this blog called Vintage Tearooms. She is giving away not one, but TWO Cosmo Cricket Crafting Kits of YOUR CHOICE! Wahoo! How fab would that be? Check out her giveaway here. Plus she has some really cute CC projects posted also!

More House Pictures

Here is Maddy's room. I can't tell you how much I am LOVING the purple and green! I have big plans for decorating, but unfortunately don't have easy access to stores to shop for what I want. Who knew that it would be hard to find inexpensive white square frames. Or just square frames for that matter as I could paint them! Yep...it is here! :) Anywho, here is Miss Maddy's room:


There is still a little bit of rearranging to do. I'm debating switching the placement of the crib and the dresser, I feel like the chair is out of place. Or maybe I'll move the stuffed animals to the opposite corner and put the chair there. We'll see. I'll have to just move it and see I guess.
Here is another view. The ball pit is a lot bigger than I thought it was. but thats okay I guess, the kids love it. Often you find Peyton in Maddy's room playing in the ball pit and Maddy in Peytons room playing with his cars! lol...

Next up in Mr. Peytons room. This is how we had it painted in our last house. I still love it and so does he. I think I've talked him out of the Punching Hulk (The Incredible Hulk) and into dinosaurs. We've been watching lots of Land Before Time and picking up dinosaur books at garage sales.
I still have lots to do in Peytons room. The furniture is pretty much where its going to be (I think...haha). But I need to figure out toy organization and decorations for his room. There is random clutter I still need to deal with too, as you can see around the tv.

Here is our bonus room. The couch didn't make it up to the room and I don't think it will. As you an tell, I'm in desperate need for another piece of scrapbooking furniture. Something to help contain my stuff.

The coffee table is now a blocker to prevent Maddy from turning the tv on and off and opening the drawers and smashing her fingers in it.

This is a picture shortly after we moved in from the top of the stairs into our living room.

And here it is now:

I have a much smaller amount of stuff in the corner. It is awaiting my mom to help me go through it. Some of it is pictures and decor to hand and I just can't decide where I want it. I don't want to poke a bunch of holes in the walls till I know where I want it.

So there you have it! Our bedroom is coming along also. I feel like I push stuff from one area to another. Our Direct TV guy came out to set up a new box for us and needed to get into the crawl space. I just laughed...the crawl space is in the closet under the stairs that is JAM PACKED full of 'I don't know what to do with' stuff!

My garage sale pile is growing by leaps and bounds. Lots of misc. stuff that I am finally letting go of. A velvet pillow with beads that I just LOVE and have moved I don't know how many times but goes with NOTHING I have! Stuff like that!

I was able to finish up a project for an upcoming Creativee Cuts and More blog hop. I also finished up a layout for next months challenge over at Scrap A Little. Check back soon and I'll try to get sneak peeks up!

Have a FABULOUS weekend!

Catalog Inspiration and More Pictures

Yikes, how I miss my scrapbooking time! I do have a few new projects in the works, so hang in there with me scrappy friends! I hopped on-line and ordered a TON of catalogs when I found out our new address. I don't recall ever ordered from one, but I love browsing them for ideas. I tend to take their ideas and look for similar options at garage sales or on Craigslist.

Here is one I came across in the Pottery Barn catalog (the photo is from their site, you can see them here).

How cute are those? I can picture them full of ribbon and buttons! I will definitely be keeping my eye out for unique glass containers like this! I saw in another magazine a neat glass container like this with wine corks in it. It looked super cook in the beach themed room it was in!

I'm trying to figure out my scrap area. I am in major need of another piece of furniture, but not sure what would work best. I came across this idea in the Improvements catalog (it can be found here on-line) and really liked it.

I then remembered this

Found at Lowes.com here. Much much cheaper and you can even find it on sale at Lowe's or Target on occasion. While the one above has adjustable shelving, the one from Lowe's is MUCH cheaper! I have that same shelf in Peytons room and really like it. Only thing is...Miss Maddy. She likes to de-shelf anything and EVERYTHING she can! haha!

**added this later** I just got back from a garage sale and spotted something. It wasn't til I got home I got my idea and wish I would have grabbed it and tried it. I googled for a image.

Its a cupcake holder. How cute would it be to put little glass containers (maybe even the baby food jars I've been holding onto) filled with little embellies like buttons, flowers, brads, etc?

So what do you think? Do you browse catalogs for scrappy or decorating inspiration? What are some of your favorite catalogs?

Here are a couple pictures of my outside boy! Oh, how I have missed a fenced backyard! I'd get his jacket, hat and shoes on and send him out to play! We don't have a yard at the moment or a fence for that matter so this poor kid doesn't get nearly the outside time he would like! He just cracks me up. He pulled the horse rocker and the wagon of blocks into the center of the yard and sat down and started building!

Here he is with Sedona. Unfortunately we weren't able to bring Sedona with us. She was such a pretty dog and so good with the kids!

I took pictures of the kids rooms yesterday and hope to get them uploaded to share soon! Have a great day all!

Where do my days go?

The last couple of days I feel like I haven't gotten anything accomplished. Those kind of days drive me nuts!

I didn't want you all to think I got tossed out with the boxes so I thought I'd pop in and say 'hi' and share an old layout and some pictures. Right now I am working on Peyton's 4th birthday invitations. I don't know why I do it to myself but I do. Each card requires me to cut 9 circles! Yep, lots of cutting and lots of gluing!

Here is a layout I did a while ago and don't remember if I shared or not.
I just love the Imaginisce Twitterpated line! Those critters are so darn cute! I popped some clouds up for some depth and did a lot of stitching.

Here are a few pictures I took before we moved. Peyton wanted to help feed Maddy her bottle! He helped by giving her kisses!

Gotta love those teeth!

She thought Papa was pretty funny here.

They've started to somewhat play together. I just LOVE this shopping cart. Peyton hauls all sorts of stuff around in it and has an absolute blast with it!

Make sure and go here. Not only is a fantastic blog, Glynis is having one heck of a giveaway! Really....you don't want to miss it! On second thought...I'd really like to win it, so REALLY don't want to go visit! ;) heehee!

Hopefully I'll be able to scrapbook soon! I have to...I have a few DT projects I need to do!

My Sketch World March Challenge And Paper Poppy Kit Co. Challenge

Update: When I originally started this layout , I had in mind to conquer two challenges with one layout! I had two challenges I really wanted to play along with, but being so short on time with the move and all I decided to do both challenges with one layout.

Paper Poppy Kit Co. had a challenge to create handmade flowers. Well, I knew it would work perfect with the My Sketch World challenge. If you haven't checked out the Paper Poppy Kit Co blog yet, you should.

Citrus Tree Studio is sponsoring My Sketch World this month. I am such a big fan of sketches I had to hop over and check it out. Along with using their sketch they wanted you to use shabby techniques. Here is my take on the sketch:

Here I hand cut flowers from sheets of music and patterned paper. I then wrinkled them up, inked the edges and layered them. I also embossed the scallops on the black paper and sanded them down to give them a distressed look.

I came across these pictures recently. They were of my brother and I up at my Grandparents house. We were playing dress up and doing a performance. They just crack me up!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful day!

A BIG Mess and a New Project

First off, Heather, if you are looking at this, come back after your mom has given you your birthday present from me that I sent with her.

I have been asked how the unpacking is coming. Its coming along slowly and not like I planned. I wasn't going to unpack anything before I decided if I was keeping or tossing it. Well, with the help of a 1 year old and almost 4 year old, that just wasn't possible. heehee!
This picture is looking down over the living room from the top of the stairs. Most of the boxes in the corner are decorations, stuff I need to go through or garage sale items. Not to bad you say....we have no empty closet and a full garage! So these items are either going to find a home or go in the garage sale box as I unpack them. This will be my last area I attack.

Here is our family room. The couch...well...lets just say its staying downstairs for a while! haha! This room is coming along. I have my scrappy area to set up but its pretty much unpacked for the most part. We still have a little to do with the computer hutch and figuring out how to hide all of our paper work and misc. things like that. It will quite the little task.

This is the hall, it looks a million times better. Since last Friday there was a little tiny space to walk through to get to the bedrooms. I've been able to clean up a bit since this picture. It now only has that large box (the garage sale box that is filling up with the kids stuff) and my baby play mat. I loved that thing so much I am having a hard time getting rid of it. Why I would hold onto I don't know as we are done having kids...but it was SSSSOOO handy for Peyton and Maddy.

So here is a tip I learned. When packing and marking boxes...make sure you cross out the description/label of whats in the box from the previous move, and the move before that, and the move before that! lol...I have found numerous boxes with 2-3 different descriptions on them! :)

My cousin turned 30 last week and I wanted to make her gift. I made a magnetic board for myself a while back and loved it. I thought she might enjoy one also. With the move and everything happening I didn't get very good pictures. I couldn't decide what color scheme to use so I decided to do a double sided magnetic board. This is one side:

I took a few pictures off of her facebook page and created little magnets using her sons photo.

The other side...well...I can't locate the pictures at the moment. That is if I took them! :0) Maybe she'll take a picture of it and e-mail it to me so I can share it with you.

Thats it for now! I was able to make it to my scrappy night last night and finish up a layout that I'll hopefully be sharing soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Chaos

I feel like my life is nothing but chaos at the moment! We got mostly moved into our new house. We have the cleaning of the old place still to do (which we hope to to today). We have boxes and messes everywhere. The kiddos haven't overly cooperated. Peyton hasn't been to bad, but Miss Madeline....wel....lets just say she liked to complicate the whole moving process.

Maddy's Grandpa taught her this one. lol... If you tell her 'no', this is what she does to you!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to have a post soon! I'm fighting with the internet connection as well as my computers not being able to open websites that it once did.

Easter Layout and Garage Sale Find

I used a sketch from Pam over at Ideas for Scrapbookers for this layout. I don't often have layouts that I really like, but for some reason I really like how this one came out! I kept waiting to find some fun Easter papers. Well that never happened and I thought these papers would be perfect!

Its kinda hard to see, but I fussy cut little circles out of one of the patterned papers to make a butterfly flight trail.

I am getting so excited for garage sale season! I have already been to a few this year! I love it that freezing weather doesn't stop people from having them! Check out what I found over the weekend:
I'm going to alter it and use it in Maddy's room. I think it would be fun to sit on her dresser. And wouldn't these be cute sitting in it?

I found this great blog called Tatertots and Jello. Cute blog name, huh? They posted a tutorial on how to make these Monday! Girly and frilly huh....y'all surprised I'd make something like this? I sure am!

Scrap A Littles March Challenge

Helen has posted her March challenge over at Scrap A Little. This months challenge is one of my favorites types of challenges...a sketch challenge! Here is Helen's fabulous sketch:


Here is my take on the sketch:

Here is a close up of my flowers. I saw these somewhere...can't remember the manufacturer and I thought, 'those would be so easy to make'. I gave it a try and I think they turned out to be a lot of fun! You'll definitely be seeing more of them in the future. I just twisted a pipe cleaner into a flower shape and glued a brad on!

Now make sure to head over to Scrap A Little and play along! There is a fabulous prize up for grabs. Scrap For a Cure is this months sponsor and they have a pack up super fun goodies together (can you say Dear Lizzy?)!