Fall Breeze Digital Scrapbook Kit Freebie

I took some time out of my studies this week to make a new kit. I wish I could keep up the pace of doing one a week, but that's probably not going to happen, so I'm aiming for one or two a month. We are supposed to have nasty weather tomorrow, so it feels appropriate to put up a fall kit.

I don't know what happened last year, but I don't have any fall photos, so this layout is of photos from two years ago. My boys have grown so much! They look so tiny in these photos.(Click to download)

Contents: 5 pattern papers, two styles of journaling blocks, 3 labels, 1 word art ("fall"), 1 background paper mask

David is amazing.

This is a blatant brag post. If you don't feel like reading a gushy post about my husband, back out slowly now and run away. I won't look.

I'm still very slowly adjusting to school. I knew it would be a lot of work, but I was unprepared for the roller coaster of it all. My husband has had to endure a week of texts from me that go something like this:
Tuesday:
"I am feeling really stressed."

Wednesday:
"I can't do it."
"I feel horrible and overwhelmed."

Thursday:
"I am feeling so overwhelmed again."
"I have so much to do."

Ok, those might be direct quotes. And he didn't once tell me to shut up. I know, he's a saint. Not only that, but on Wednesday he came home and cleaned for hours.

After giving me a clean house, he came home on Thursday and Melissa, my friend Heidi, and I were scrapbooking. He spoiled us. He went to the store, got supplies for dinner and made dinner for all us adults and the 7 small children running around. After serving us dinner, he made us brownies and served it with ice cream and caramel sauce. And none of that was hyperbole. I know. He's frickin' amazing.

That is all.

New Etsy Listings

In between studying and taking care of children, I managed to meet up with my sister and sew a bit. We have three new designs of burp rags and yay! we finished a few girly designs too. These would be perfect for new baby gifts if you have any friends or family that are expecting.

First up, this flower applique. I love how cheerful yet sophisticated this one is. The edges of the applique will fray a little with use, giving it a shabby chic look.


I adore this back fabric! So dang cute!
Ok, next up is another girly design, this time with ribbon butterflies. It's here, in our etsy shop. I love the trims used to make this butterfly.



Then, lastly, we have a cute little dinosaur. He's on a lighter leaf green background and so cute. By the way, all the appliques are my original designs, unless they come from the fabric we choose. I'm so proud of this dino, since I drew him in Illustrator, based on a realistic drawing. I didn't think I'd be able to do that!

Crazy School

I'm taking six classes this semester. It's been a while since I took a full load of classes, but I'm basically desperate to finish. I have three semesters left (including this one) if I take them at the full-time level. So, 18 months basically. If I went half time, it would take me three years. That sounds like a long time and I'm ready to have a degree. Crazy thing is, I don't even really want to do anything with it. I just want to have it.

Maybe, once in a great while, I will take out my diploma and stroke it and hiss, "My precious," but that's all I'm planning on doing with it.

I'm finishing up at my original school, BYU-I. They recently introduced an online program for students that have spent some time on the physical campus. This is good and bad. I don't have to do any of my major classes over (good), but I do have to take some classes that are new general education classes, since they restructured the general ed program (bad). I mean bad as in I don't really want to take all these classes, not in that they are a bad idea or bad classes. I'm actually quite enjoying them, even if I wish I didn't have to take them. The one that kills me is English 110. I took English 111 in high school. That was about 10 years ago. Since then, I've taken senior level English classes.

When I left BYU-I in 2004, I had two English classes left to take to finish my major requirements. English 110 is a one credit class, basically to learn more about the English program (which I've already FINISHED) and the emphases available (which I've already FINISHED) and to make an eight semester (EIGHT!) plan, when I have two (TWO!) semesters left and to learn basic English major terms. My adviser tried to get this classed waived for me, but they made me take it anyway. I guess if I want my degree, a certain amount of hoop jumping is required.

So, this semester I'm taking the following classes:
The afore mentioned English 110
English 252
Science Foundations 101
Family Foundations 200 (this is a religion class)
International Foundations 202
Child Development 210

The crazy part is by some synergy constructed by the universe, choosing those classes in this particular semester makes them nearly impossible to tell apart. Let me explain.

In my Family Foundations class, the first unit was on science and religion coexisiting peacefully and the beauty of the creation of the universe. My first unit in Child Development is about the scientific method. My first unit in science was about the scientific method as well, and we've moved on to learning about the big bang theory. In English 252, we are picking a research topic as a group. Since in my group, we happen to be all moms, we decided to pick a topic having to do with child development, which smooshed in my brain with the first few chapters of learning about different grand theories of development in Child Development. Chapter three in my Child Development class is all about genetics and the history and science of genetics, which is confusing the heck out of me. Not the topic, since I'm fairly familiar with how genetics work, but rather my brain can't remember on which class I am working.

I just went to find something related to a video I'm watching. For Child Development. I click on my science course, although I could have just as easily clicked on my religion class on accident.

Thank goodness for the beacon that is International Foundations. So far, it stands alone and apart and has not once crossed wires with any other subject. I love you International Foundations.

The Impromptu Florist

David and the boys went camping for the night, so Aubrey and I are hanging out at home. I painted her nails. Then we went to Iceberg (yes, Heidi, that's two days in a row, I need an intervention). She beguiled everyone there with her eyelashes and her vocabulary. While we were sitting there, my mom calls.

I love my mom. She is fantastic, but she never calls to talk. Might be because I'm pretty much always at her house, since I, um, live in the basement and all and if she wants a chat, she just come down or talks over the intercom. So, calling means she needs something.

So, she asks me what I'm doing for the next 30 minutes. And I was planning on going to Target and ruining our budget and buying Aubrey and me each something. But, she was in a time crunch and she needed my services. As a florist. My floristy knowledge consists of looking at Princess Lasertron's website and accidentally reading a few articles a long time ago. Accidentally because they happened to be in magazines in the doctor's waiting room. I have a black thumb.

She asked me to arrange a bridal bouquet. Two of her dear friends, Gary and Laura, are getting married today. They are on a super tight budget, so my mom picked up some flowers at Costco and wanted me to do a bouquet. In less than 30 minutes.

Ack! Where's the floral tape? I know I have some because I used it to make this cake months ago. I tore through my cake stuff and couldn't find it. Luckily, my mom found a mostly gone roll. I started gathering flowers and wrapping them with floral tape. I felt like one of those cartoons where the gardener is blocking whatever bush he's trimming and bits of rubbish are flying everywhere and he steps back and ta-da! a beautifully trimmed bush in the shape of Daffy Duck or a military man on a stallion, or if you're really lucky, Daffy Duck dressed as an officer on a stallion. There was stuff all over the kitchen. And it worked out pretty well, for my first time. I love the flowers my mom choose--they are just stunning. A little ribbon later and I step aside and you'd see this:


It's not a stallion, but I'm pretty happy with it. It smells so good too, because of the eucalyptus (um, is that what it's called? the sage colored branchy stuff, told you I'm horrible with plants). I have it all over my hands and it's clearing out my sinuses.

Congratulations to Laura and Gary. May your life be beautiful together! I'm happy I could contribute in a small way to your day.

Wrapped in Love Digital Scrapbooking Kit Freebie

This week's kit was inspired by a sweatshirt I saw in Costco a few months ago. I can't even remember exactly what it looked like, but the flower print is the general idea. It looked warm and cozy and for a while, this kit was named "Cozy Sweatshirt." Since I did the layout about Xander's sweetness with his little sis, I renamed it.

Here they are almost a year ago together. He is so kind to her.
Look at this close-up of her eyes in that photo. I think they are so cool. They look a little blue-green here, but really they are gray. I never thought that was a real eye color, but hers haven't changed much at all from the day she was born.

(Click to Download)

Contents: 14 Pattern Papers, 1 Background Paper Mask, 1 Journaling Block, 3 Chipboard Flowers

Tutorial: Dealing with School Papers and Kid Artwork

Since we are at the beginning of the school year, we recently had an Enrichment activity (church meeting for the women held on weekdays doing all sorts of fun and interesting things) on school lunches and how to deal with all those papers kids bring home. They asked me to teach the section on school papers and artwork. I'm no expert, but after poking around the web and combining it with what I already do, here's what I came up with.

1. Have a designated place for each child to put their work throughout the year. I use simple cardboard boxes.

2. At the end of the school year and then go through the pile, keeping only the very best papers and artwork. It will be easier to sort at the end of the year, because the special papers will stand out from the rest and it will be easier to toss or recycle older papers.

To deal with larger/3D artwork: Have the child hold the artwork and take a picture. Here's Xander with his star of the week poster last year. He didn't make it, but you get the idea.

3. Now that you’ve picked your favorites, a few things you can do with them:

Very simple: Decorate a keepsake box. This can last all through the school year.

Simple : Buy a binder for each child and grade and a whole lotta page protectors. Put artwork + pictures of artwork + anything else special from school in the protectors.

A little more complicated : Take your stack of artwork and papers and have them spiral bound at an office supply place. This is relatively inexpensive. Make sure to get a sturdy cover and back.

Most complicated : Scan (or have scanned) all the artwork and have it bound and printed in a photobook. This is the most archivally safe of the methods if this is important to you. Very cool if you can’t bear to part with it and the child wants a copy too. This would be a great way to deal with your own school papers that are lurking about your home. Books range in price and are simple to put together and order. I use mypublisher.com.

4. Ideas for very special art:

• Scrapbook a page featuring the art, artist and story behind it all. Layout of Xander and a spider he drew three (three! three!?!) years ago.
  
• Have them made into a pendent. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22472308
• Frame it. This would look especially cool in an eclectic grouping in their bedroom.

New Etsy Listings! Quilted Flannel Baby Burp Rags

School is kicking my butt so far. The first day I spent 8 hours working on things. I'm not sure I can keep up that pace, but hopefully I'll manage. I sent David out for snacks for the 2nd day. I'm going to have to let my inner perfectionist beastie creature out about keeping a calendar and repress it for when I'm working on assignments. Let's just say that I cannot drive myself crazy trying to get all A's. I need some balance, right?

In other news, my sister and I have been sewing lots and lots and even shopping at fabric stores (with eight children in tow, please, don't ever let me do that again) and we finally got a few of these up on Etsy. They are pretty involved step-wise, but we are getting there. The end result is worth it, because they are so DANG cute! It's not often that I love the end result of one of my crafts (too picky/perfectionistic), but these turned out so cute. They are soft and cuddly and I wish I had them for when my kids were babies.

So far, both sea themes, but we have some more super cute ones coming next week hopefully! We sewed a butterfly set, but someone locally has dibs on them.

Ok, first up, Mr. Octopus. My mom was confused because you can't see all his legs, but some of them have to be in the back, right? Seeing all of them might be chaotic looking.
The front:The back:Close up of octopus:
Then we have the fishes. Their spots are painted, which gives them a certain charm. I like the slightly surprised look on his face.The front:The back:
Close-up of fish:

End of Summer Digital Scrapbook Kit Freebie

My favorite season is just about over. The kids have been in school for a few weeks (so weird right now, Griffin is the only one around and awake--weird) and I start college classes tomorrow. In case you didn't read that carefully, I am going to attempt 13 credit hours, while being Mommy and taxicab and chef and all that to my four children. If I suddenly disappear for several months, don't worry. I'm holed up with my laptop trying to jam information into my over-taxed brain and wringing my hands and mumbling.

The layout is my kids getting ice cream from Grandma via an ice cream truck. This was a highlight of the summer. I love how out of eight feet, only one has a shoe.
(Click to download.)

Contents: 14 full-size pattern papers, 1 journaling block, 1 set stitches, 1 background shape, 1 scallop mask

Etsy Shop Update--New goodies and more to come!

What a bad blogger I've been lately! Honestly, we have so much going on. I'm trying to get into a routine with school before starting my school this next week, I've been dealing with depression on and off, I've been working with my sister on new Etsy stuff, we are thinking about buying a home soon and we've been talking about that, looking at houses and trying to work all that out. Crazy, I tell you!

I've enlisted my sister to help with my (I guess OUR) Etsy shop. She took the pictures and put up the listings, so a big thank you to her! We want to go on a family cruise in March of next year, so we are trying to finance that. We've also been sewing like crazy this week and just wait until you see the cuteness coming your way soon. To borrow a phrase from Rachel Zoe, "I die."

In the meantime, a slew of little girl dresses, all from patterns I came up with myself.

This one is size 12 months and is upcycled from a woman's shirt. It would be so cute with leggings underneath. I have a thing for leggings, especially on little girls. (As opposed to little boys? No, I mean as opposed to me.)
Close-up of the button flower.Next is this size 12 months crocheted skirt. This pattern is one I came up with myself, using a pineapple motif. It's got elastic around the top. I need to make one for Aubrey. This yarn is so cute in person--tan with little gold threads running through it. I'm not sure how many hours this took me to crochet, but totally worth the time, because I'm in love. My mom wants a full-sized one.
This 24 month size dress is possibly one of my favorite upcycled dresses ever. It's white and teal. The white shirt used to be a woman's shirt. I adore all the sequins and embroidery and is stunning in person. The top is a regular old tank top. I used the rest to do the ruffle at the bottom. The flower is a ribbon rose I sewed with a wood button. It does hang straight, but it looks wonky on the hanger. I tried it on Aubrey and if it wasn't just a touch too small for her, I'd be keeping it. I think it would be adorable for winter with a long-sleeved shirt and (cough, cough) leggings.
The back. Close up of the ribbon rose.This 4T dress was my first try at upcycling and I still love it. Made from a woman's long-sleeved blouse, it's just too cute on my niece, Maddy.
Hope you enjoy looking! Let me know if you have any questions or have any special requests.

Dandelion Digital Scrapbooking Kit Freebie

The dandelion graphic was actually something I made for when I was screen-printing with the Yudu, but I loved it so much, it had to be made into digital scrapbooking paper.

The pictures in my layout are from a picnic we had in July. I've been meaning to get pictures of the way Aubrey holds hands and I finally did. The journaling reads: Aubriana, you don’t hold hands, you hold a finger. If we try to do some other arrangement, you will wiggle until you’ve got just one finger. It melts my heart. You often will volunteer to hold hands and you will turn to a brother and ask them to join you as well. Honestly, I don’t know how I cope day to day with that kind of cuteness. Love ya, little girl!

(Click to download.)

Contents: 13 Pattern Papers, 1 journaling block, 1 Dandelion Sticker