And even more...

I'll bet you can't guess what this post is going to be about! I have been feeling the itch to haul the sewing machine back out, lately, but finding the time to actually do it, while maintaining everything else, is hard, hard work! Hauling out my laptop to create scrapbook pages is easy to do, and still satisfies that creative urge. 

Kit is Bella Gypsy's Hello Summer with bonus papers.

Last week we went to the beach and hit one of our favorite places for lunch. Dog N Suds is a drive in restaurant from the 50's with car hops and phones at the tables to place your order. Caroline was infatuated with the phones and paper hats. It was really fun watching her explore. 

I took these photos with my phone and edited them on Instagram. It's my latest obsession and I'm so late to the party on that! But, I'm loving them for digital pages. My phone is with me everywhere, unlike my camera, and it's really great for capturing everyday moments like these ones. 

Kit is Hello Summer again. Layout inspiration via Pinterest here. 

I scrapped these photos once already on a Speed Scrap (like the page above this one), but I really wasn't happy with how busy it turned out. I decided to start completely over and I'm really happy I did. This page has more photos, but a cleaner feel. Without using a golf themed kit, I really think just a few embellishments is the way to go. 

My Memories Workshop and layout inspiration

If you have been following me on this blog (or maybe on Pinterest) for any amount of time, then you have undoubtedly seen some really fun digital scrapbook pages I have created with My Memories Suite. 

Kit is Sweetness with added ice cream. Page inspiration from a Speed Scrap.

Right now, there is a really unique opportunity if you live anywhere near the Ohio area or are willing to travel, to go to a My Memories Workshop! You get a copy of the latest My Memories software free with your paid registration, so even if you are just starting out, this is perfect for you. It also sounds like a complete blast with a scheduled pajama party and 16 hours of kid-free scrapbooking time! The dates are June 21-23 and there is a discount code (it was still working a few days ago even though they said it ended the first) on the event page if you're interested. 

Kit is Cool Change with added stitching and string. Layout inspired by this template.

I finally finished up my 2011 book, just in time to order it with a huge Father's Day discount. I'm so excited to see these pages printed and get caught up with 2013.

I lost the template I was trying to recreate with this page. I thought I had it pinned, but I can't find it now and there is just way too much inspiration to sort through over there! The papers and elements on this layout are a hodgepodge of items from different designers, because I couldn't find just one kit that had all of the colors of my baby showers. I know there is some Bella Gypsy, Just Jaimee, and Megan Turnidge in there if you'd really like to try to hunt it down, though. 

Coupons, scrapbook page and where I've been

Wow, long time no see! How are you all? I would like to say that this is a foray back into regular blogging, but it probably isn't. Life is happening here, big time. We finally finished moving, after some really awful flooding that ended up destroying a lot of our possessions. It takes a lot longer, when instead of just moving boxes, you're sorting through them for water damage and throwing out photos of long passed relatives. 

Kit is Bella Gypsy's Basket Case bundle, Kitten embellishment is from The Cat's Meow.

I obviously haven't had much time to keep up with my hobbies lately, but I did get a really good coupon for a photo book that expires next month, so I'm making an effort to finish my 2011 book. I love these photos taken of Caroline in the hospital, but I was so uninspired on a page. I'm pretty happy with the way it finally came together..after about five attempts!  

Speaking of really good coupons, My Memories (the software I use to create all of my pages) has a great coupon for Memorial Day. Enter the code 15Mem5day for $5 off of a $15 purchase, and as always if you don't have My Memories and would like to try it out, my discount code is in the sidebar! 

What I'm doing when I should be packing

Some Megan Turnidge, some Bella Gypsy and some Just Jaimee. 

I participated in the Speed Scrap on the My Memories Facebook page on Sunday. Probably shouldn't have, but I am trying to maintain some kind of schedule with regards to my 2011 and 2013 scrapbooks. These are photos of Caroline's part of the bedroom she shares with her brother. I find it a little ironic that I'm scrapping these now, as I'm getting ready to put all of this stuff in place in our new home. 

Kit is Forest Friends by Mye De Leon, alpha is Bella Gypsy. 

Here is another page from my 2011 book. I had scrapped this photo already, but I felt the page was really lacking. I wanted to tell the story of why this iPhone photo is the first photo ever taken of Caroline. This version is much better, I think. I had originally planned on (and tried) scrapping this picture with a much different kit with a deer in it, but I felt the dark recovery room picture needed a kit that was a little darker too, so thankfully I had another cute little deer in my stash. (Funny, I always seem to scrap this kit with circles. What is it about these papers?)

Monday Moments: Scrapbook Edition

It's Monday! Okay, I'm really not excited about it being Monday. It is the first Monday in February, though which means Riley Blake will be releasing the second block in their Mystery Block of the Month in one week. You can still join and be completely caught up! If you need inspiration check out the board on Pinterest, mine is the owl one. 

Monday also means that last night was a Speed Scrap (yes, even with the Superbowl on...and I was thankful for it during the half hour of "Let's report what's going on with the lights"). I made a page for my 2013 book that I had been wanting to scrap for awhile. 

Kit is All the Pretty Ponies with added princess from here.

This is a photo from our granddaughter's visit with us. She loved playing with that Little People castle, and even though her mom says she doesn't want princess stuff, I am seriously tempted to buy one for her first birthday just to see that little grin again! So cute! 

All the Pretty Ponies again. Sketch inspiration found here. 

I used the same kit to scrap Caroline's first birthday, which was one of the few pages I needed to finish for 2012! I'm happy to say that book is now done and you won't see quite as many layout posts from me now! 

Kit is On the Road with extra papers & embellishments from Flakes and Fun

I had a hole in my book in the tail end. I wasn't going to scrap any more Christmas pictures, but I absolutely needed an extra in order to keep a two page layout together, so now each of the kids have their own page about driving through the tree farm (the other is here). 

I made this page for a layout contest on Persnickety Prints Facebook page. You had to use a free kit that was provided for 90% of your page. I didn't win, but the woman who did deserved it so much more than I did! You can see the winners and download the kit (still free) for a limited time on their website! 

You can see a little more of the kit here in the back cover I made for my book. The front cover was just a mirror image of this with a title instead of a photo. I figured the back is probably more interesting to view on its own..ha!

Monday Moments: Scrapbook Edition & a freebie!

This layout is the result of last week's Speed Scrap on the My Memories Facebook page. I thought the colors in the All the Pretty Ponies kit I bought to scrap her first birthday worked really well with the cupcake costume we bought her. I added the little cupcake in the corner from another kit, but everything else was all from the pony kit, and I love it! 

If you liked that page, then you might be interested in the free kit currently available to fans of Megan Turnidge on Facebook! How adorable is this? You can't beat the price, either! Just hurry, because I think the links expire tomorrow! 

Monday Moments & Free printable child's party hat!

Available for free download here

Available for free download here

Available for free download here

Are you aware that Miss Caroline is one? One whole year ago I was in the hospital meeting that tiny little girl for the first time. I am in shock! 

And very nearly on cue, My Memories offered these party hats as a free printable (or as a completely customizeable template for My Memories software owners...and if you don't own the software and would like to, there is a discount code in my sidebar!)

These are free for one week only! After that they will be available for purchase in the My Memories Store under the "craftables" category along with some of the past freebies like birthday crowns, coffin shaped treat boxes and gift bags! 

Look at how cute they are in the All the Pretty Ponies kit I featured here! Not as cute as the first time birthday girl, but pretty adorable all the same! 

Of course, her hat was pretty quickly ripped off and covered in rainbow icing, but I'm thinking of printing a second one for her keepsake box!

Monday Moments: Tuesday Edition

I took the kids on a walk on what was probably the last 70 degree day we'll see in awhile. The wind has been blowing, the leaves are turning and the winter coats have been pulled from the closets. Tomorrow's high is 47!

The upside to the cooler temperatures (other than the gorgeous fall color) is that it's oven weather again! Hello comfort food! Today I will be roasting and shredding chicken for soup and alfredo. Yum! It's always a big pain on the day of, but so worth it when I'm able to pull bags of shredded frozen chicken from the freezer and put together a great homemade dinner in a quarter of the time!

Monday Moments: Tuesday Edition

Yesterday I was busy telling you all about how I completed my quilt top, so you get your cute baby picture fix today. 

Caroline is nine months old, and getting bigger...but not. She is wearing a 3-6 month onsie and pair of capris here. I will concede that it is a store brand (Kohls) which usually run large, and that it is one of the few 3-6 month things that still fits her. Her doctor is not concerned. She was born in about the 5th percentile and he expects her to stay there through her childhood, even if she did jump out to about the 17th for awhile. 

I took her to my friend's house over the weekend and she crawled all around, pulling herself to stand on just about anything. My friend has a niece who is only a month older than her and she marveled at how my daughter was so much smaller, but able to do so much more. I have a feeling that when she begins walking (probably soon, girl is cruising like a champ) I will be getting a lot of bewildered stares!

Monday Moments, and vote for me!

How did it happen that it's Monday again? Wow! Kind of the same way I feel about Caroline being nine months old. She has officially been out just as long as she was in...

I posted this photo of her in the dress I made over on the Michael Miller Facebook page. If you "like" it, I have a chance to win 10 yards of fabric! So go visit and like the photos of people's projects, and if you have a project of your own made exclusively of Michael Miller Fabrics, enter along with me! 

In other news, I have been slacking at posting my Speed Scrap layouts here. I really enjoy the prompts as they force me to try things I wouldn't normally. 

Made with the adorable Brickworks kit.

Last Sunday I did this cute Lego page for Gabe. This Sunday I scrapped some more pictures from the photographer. 

Created with Siblings are Forever

Instead of paying for prints of all of these, then buying a photo album to put them into, I'm making a book. I'm going to try to put most of the 93 photos I got back into it. Some of them are definitely not frame worthy, but they do tell a story and are perfect for a scrapbook! 

Layout made with free mini kit

I am always so late posting these challenges, but this week's challenge at the My Memories blog was a great one! They call it "Footloose and Fancy Free" and the only rule was you had to incorporate a freebie from their site. I made this entire page from this Connie Prince Sampler. Connie is also the creator of that adorable Rock N' Roll kit I used in one of my purse cards. She is definitely becoming a "go-to" designer for me when I am kit shopping!


Content from the My Memories store can be downloaded under a general installer, so even if you use another software to do your digital layouts you can still go grab any of their freebies! 

Monday Moments

Standing inside a dinosaur footprint

We took the kids to Chicago last weekend. We had been planning it for awhile when Victoria came bounding home from school one day to excitedly tell us that her field trip this year was going to be to the exact museum we had been planning on visiting this summer. Ugh! Fortunately, at the last minute they offered her class a vote and all of the kids banded together and chose a different activity! 

There's nothing like experiencing a new place together, as a family. When even one person has been it can sometimes be a race to get to their favorite places, a race where you miss everything else along the way. 

Needless to say, Chicago kept us busy, and when we came home my husband and I needed a few days to recover. 

Only recovering isn't so easy anymore. Caroline wants to walk, so badly! She crawls everywhere and pulls herself up to stand on everything. Which is amazing, because at her 7 month pictures she couldn't even get on all fours without falling down every few times. 

Now I'm chasing that cute little butt everywhere! She wants to know about the refrigerator, and electrical outlets and the foot pedal for my sewing machine. She wants to chew on the dog toys (even the raw hide ones) and her brother's shoes, she wants to crawl in the grocery store...

So when I say that I have sewing plans for this week (and I do, I really mean it!) you can now maybe understand if they don't get done. 

Monday Moments: Tuesday Edition

I got my pictures back from the photographer last week, and I thought I'd share just a few of them that I have put into scrapbook pages lately. 

First off, is my entry into the "I want to remember" challenge on the My Memories blog this week.

I want to remember Caroline's milestones. They're coming so fast now! She sat up, and nine days later she crawled for the first time, just a few inches, and now she's completely mobile working on standing on her own! I need to get out the baby book and write these down before I forget! 

Next is the result of my Speed Scrap on the My Memories Facebook page Sunday night. 

I have been looking at these photos for a week now and they still make me melt! Look at those expressions! 

Lastly, because it doesn't fit anywhere else, the challenge a week ago was to create a list of pictures we wanted to capture over the summer. I love this idea! I really think a list like this will make me more likely to get out and take the kids places instead of waiting for the weekends when their daddy is home. Three kids on my own can be a bit intimidating! 

Monday Moments

I can't believe it's Monday again, already! This is Caroline in one of the two outfits she wore during her pictures. I cannot wait to get the photos from the photographer! 


I had originally picked out a dress for her, but started to panic and second guess myself, so I bought this little outfit as well. When I asked the photographer which she thought the baby should wear, she immediately pointed to my first choice and said it was better. As, a matter of fact, the only sewing I finished last week was shortening the straps on that dress. 


I started the diaper cover, but my machine was giving me fits about it. It looks so cute with what I have done so far! My mother-in-law told me it might be the type of needle I was using, so I am going to try that and see if I can finish it. I have another plan for it, even though pictures are done. 

Monday Moments

Something monumental happened this weekend. My husband and I became grandparents. 

I am, obviously, step-grandma, but my husband is 100% grandpa to this little cutie. It's kind of bittersweet, as this baby lives across the country and we probably won't meet her until late this summer. A family of five living on a single income cannot swing that trip, even for something this adorable. But we will get to meet her, and we're so happy for my step-son and his wife. 


Happy, of course, while teasing my husband about how old he is. He only has eight years on me, but now that he is a grandpa I have to get a jab in when he complains about the heat, or people driving too fast, or the neighborhood kids gathering on our lawn. It has really been too fun! 

Monday Moments: Tuesday Edition

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the moms and moms-to-be out there!


My Memories blog hosts a challenge every Wednesday and this week the rules were that you had to create a page about a mom. I had been wanting for awhile to make a page for my grandma, who didn't live to meet any of my mom's grandchildren (she died just days before my niece was born). 

That first little blurb tells a story about how my grandmother hated having her picture taken. It was sort of a running joke in the family about who could get the worst picture of her, because once she saw the camera she would turn her head or sneer. Then one year, she went and got her picture taken at a studio. She smiled and looked right at the camera, and gave a copy to all of us, because she wanted there to be one good photo of her when she was gone. 

I had planned for that beautiful photo to be in this scrapbook page, but discovered that I lost it. I lost my one and only good studio picture of my grandma. Not a happy discovery. This is a crop of a picture I took at the last family reunion I went to of her with six of her seven children. 

As usual, I cobbled together bits and pieces of several different kits for my page. The glitter alpha was a freebie from Megan Turnidge, the wings are from a baby kit, the papers and cloud are Mye De Leon (same kit I used to make this other page), brads are from a mothers and daughters kit, and butterflies are from a photo kit. 

In other news, I did not complete my goal of finishing my quilting. Ugh! I didn't even start working on it until Wednesday, ran out of thread Thursday and got to the fabric shop on Friday just in time to grab the last spool in my color. Whew! I'm beginning to think of this as the quilt that never ends. 

I took the kids outside to play yesterday. My neighbor was pulling out of her driveway in her minivan and stopped in front of my house to say, "You would think, as a stay at home mom, that I would have all of this time, but I just don't! I'm so busy!" I smiled at her and yelled a very supportive, "I know!", because I had just been thinking about all of the laundry and dishes and sewing that wasn't getting done while I was in the yard watching my kids. Sadly, I don't think "It's the thought that counts" quite works when all you're doing is thinking about cleaning the house. 

Three things...

I am joining the One Thing, One Week Challenge again over at Amy's Creative Side.

Up for grabs this week is thread and a whole stack of mini charm packs, so hopefully that will be enough motivation for me to complete my goal of finishing the quilting I am doing.

I took a small break from the quilt this weekend and kind of learned to paper piece. I wouldn't say I'm an expert or anything, but I definitely have some sort of comfort level with it, which is a lot more than I could say on Friday!

I used a pattern from During Quiet Time's Amy for this. I had been gushing over her paper pieced gardening patterns for awhile and she recommended this tea kettle as a good place to start. It wasn't near as fiddly as I thought it would be, but right now I am wasting a ton of fabric as I'm not really sure yet how to gauge things. That should come with practice, I think. Not bad for my first attempt, though. 

Now what do I turn it into? 

And last, but not least, did you get your National Scrapbooking Day freebies? Some are still available! I know I talk about scrapbooking a lot lately, but it's the only hobby I have that I can do one handed while nursing the baby. I made a page Saturday night from this kit (that was free on Saturday) for a special speed scrap on the My Memories Facebook page. There were a lot of rules to this one, but I stuck with it (and did not re-size my photos after I found out how many embellishments we had to add), and ended up winning a small prize for my page. 

I'm still working on a page to enter for the $100 prize. I will hopefully post that tomorrow!

Monday Moments

I'm going to go a little retro today. 

I did say a little! I can't believe this photo was taken almost six months ago! It seems like so much has happened and it can't possibly have been less than a year, while simultaneously it seems like there is no way my baby is nearly that old! 

I made this page during one of the Speed Scraps on the My Memories Facebook page. It's something you just cannot do with paper scrapbooking and so fun. You get one step at a time, and usually about ten minutes to complete a step, but it really isn't timed. All of the steps are listed in a page at the end so you can go back and complete the challenge whenever! For this one we had to use a patterned background paper, one photo in black and white or sepia tone, two different shapes, a title longer than three letters, a word art longer than three words, and a small heart. Seriously simple, but also cute, and it's amazing how different the pages looked when we were all following the same rules. 

(Sometimes they don't turn out so cute. Mine last night was a disaster, but I only wasted a few minutes of time and not that last scrap of my favorite paper or anything!)

Speaking of My Memories, they were featured on Lifetime Television recently and are doing a great promo to go along with it! Right now they have a free trial version of the software (should you decide you want the full software my discount code is here in the sidebar) and a free photo book, with a video tutorial for how to put it all together! 

The diaper

After three attempts at taking photos of the diaper I made in three different lighting situations and on three different colored backgrounds, I have determined that I'm not going to get perfect coloring on these. 

This is probably closest to the actual coloring, but the yellow is still too green and the blue/green color on the background (lining fabric) is not green enough. ::Grumble::

If you've been to JoAnn or The Hobby Lobby recently you have probably seen the Babyville products, even Fabric.com carries them now! My mother-in-law decided to see what the hype was about and bought a three pack of PUL each for me and her, and the cute matching fold over elastic and label packets for each of us too! 

I made the sham pocket flannel lined diaper from the Babyville book in a size small slim. I had all of these ideas on what I wanted to make first, combining what I thought were the best parts of each diaper pattern. I decided to follow my own advice though, and do the pattern as is the first time out, with the exception of the added gussets. That breastfed baby poop is scary stuff, I wanted the extra barrier. 

The "soaker" pattern was kind of a pain. It says that you can either serge, zig-zag or turn and top-stitch and since I don't have a serger I decided to go for the second most professional type finishing option. Yeah...the soakers (or what my husband called that maxi-pad type thing) are four layers of flannel and two layers of cotton batting. Hard to turn and top-stitch! And one of the patterns calls for two of these sewn together down the center! I may get brave enough to try it though. 

I have yet to actually use the diaper for more than a photo shoot, which she refrained from soiling it for. I'm curious to try though and see how this works out before I cut into the rest of my PUL. I figure even if this doesn't convert me to full fledged cloth diapering, at the very least I can use it at the beach this summer and save myself a ton of money on those cheap, do-nothing swim diapers. 

Monday Moments: Tuesday Edition

Since I was busy entering Amy's challenge yesterday, I thought I'd throw some Easter scrapbook pages your way today! 

Do you know what I love about digital scrapbooking? I made these layouts Saturday night, not having any idea if I would have any photos to fit them, and not having to worry about it because I can just hit the delete button! No wasted supplies, just a little time..but thankfully they did work out, and now my Easter is scrapped just two days after the holiday! (Though I might add in a date to Caroline's page and change that orange paper on Gabe's to something  in a springy yellow.)

I don't know if you can read my journal tag, but Gabe named the colored eggs and called them his friends! Now all eggs are friends and he has to be reminded at least once a day not to play with his "raw friends" lest he make a huge, sticky mess! I'm thinking I need to invest in some wooden eggs to decorate so he can get this out of his system...

I threw together a bunch of kits for these. I know there are a few Mye De Leon things in there, some freebies I got from Just Jaimee and the adorable bunny, chick and eggs came from this element kit. As always, if you'd like to do your own digital scrapbooking the link to the software I use and a discount code to purchase it is in my sidebar!