CREDITS:

Digital scrap items in the header, layouts and sidebar are by Miss Mint at PeppermintCreative.com or Jen Wilson at JenWilsonDesigns.com

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Whew!

The wedding is FINALLY over! It was absolutely gorgeous and I did have fun dancing with Aiden & Brian but I'm glad it's done. It was a very busy day trying to be where we needed to be with Aiden fed, nursed and everyone dressed in the right clothes with no spills or stains. Poor Aiden had to be fed baby food in his car seat in the parking lot of the country club. (It would have taken too long to drive all the way from Champions home and then back.) But we survived and with Sheena being the last of all the siblings married, WE ARE DONE WITH WEDDINGS! (We've done 3 in the last 18 months. We needed a break.) Brian and I couldn't be happier.

Now for some peppermint creative news: My scrapped monogram has been a hit. Miss Mint is making one for her house - I'm so flattered! - and posting directions on her blog. We have also been chatting on our message board about January's kit. Nothing set in stone, just tossing around ideas, but if we get hints about what is coming, I'll pass it on! ;)

I have some free time so I'm going to get working on some LO's - I have gobs of pictures from this weekend, not including all the ones Kelsey took at the reception! Watch for some new pages soon!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The Hybrid Projects

Digital scrapping is cool, but hybrid items are REALLY cool to decorate with! Here are some of my newest projects:



I have had this shadow box for about a year and while I always meant to put pictures in it, I never have. Since I have the bad habit of having lots of photos printed and no where to put the extras, I thought this would be a great use for this item. Whenever I have extra prints or other neat paper items, I'll just change out the pictures in the shadow box. Such practical decor! (The tags & metal items are from Hobby Lobby.)



This turned out better than I expected and it has a lot of depth, even for a print. All of the hybrid projects use Miss Mint's stuff, but this has a lot of layering & recoloring because I wanted it to match the house. It's a framed monogram that is now hanging on the picture wall in the hallway. Digitally Scrapped Monograms - you saw it here first! Cute way to fill an extra frame and add some oomph to your wall.

Ugh, I could so use one of those easy wall hangers right now Miss Mint!

Maybe This Week?

So much to do and so little time to do it in. Sheena's wedding is this week and it seems like I talk to her every few hours about some detail or a picture she needs photoshopped last-minute. My holiday to-do list is growing and I'm wondering when I'll get a moment to scrap!

There are lots of new products, including holiday cardboard grunge papers that I have only used once. Here is a layout I did recently. I was trying to see if I could scrap in my old, boring paper style, just to see how it would turn out. Pretty blah, right? I figured a Sick Day LO was the best type of page to do that on! Makes the boys look even more miserable somehow...



I am excited for our family pictures this weekend. I've got some neat things planned for the family pics. Can't wait to have them all done & printed! I'll post 'em whenever they're ready.

Monday, December 10, 2007

A woman's work is never done

If you have tile, you know those annoying splats & drip marks you get that you can see when the sunlight gleams across the surface just right? They're invisible when you're standing right over them but glance along your floor during the late afternoon and it looks like it's been splatter painted with water spots. I hate 'em. I usually wet mop once or twice a week to get up all the grit and *try* to get rid of these splatters but they don't always mop away. Today I finally got sick of it. I broke out the heavy duty yellow scrub brush I bought at ACE hardware for the shower, some rubber gloves and the mop bucket. I also pulled out the citrus scented rubbing alcohol I bought from HEB a couple weeks ago.

Now, really quick, if you have never cleaned with rubbing alcohol, you simply MUST try it. Not only is it nearly as cheap as water, it cuts through grime FAST. I use it on lots of things but it works especially well at getting the dirt film off glass and windows, leaving them so clear it doesn't even look like glass is there. Oh, and try it for polishing anything chrome. Faucets will shine clean & bright, as if you just replaced them with all new fixtures, and mirrors gleam like they did when you first moved in.

Any ways, I mixed up some of the rubbing alcohol (1/2 cup?) with 1/3 mop bucket of warm water. I put Aiden in his high chair with some snacks and started scrubbing. It was quite the workout! I hand scrubbed the large, main traffic area in the living room and hallway plus a majority of the kitchen that had the worst splatters. I dumped the bucket of now dirty water in the hall bath, filled it back up and then rinse-mopped the floor with just my regular sponge mop and the clear water. I flipped on the ceiling fan to let it dry and went to check on Aiden, who had been surprisingly quiet the entire time.

I didn't mention it before, but I gave him the top half of an oreo cookie, with the cream filling scraped off, along with an arrowroot cookie, a couple of Ritz and the usual Cheerio-and-Gerber-Puff mix. (I have begun referring to this as baby trail mix - it's a staple around here.) I came back to find THIS waiting for me in the kitchen:



Yes, ONE oreo cookie half did all this! I don't think he got a crumb of it in his tummy. He just smeared it all over. Even better, Brian, in his superior wisdom of where he thinks things *should* go, had moved my hand and face wipes from under the kitchen sink to under the bathroom sink where they used to reside before we had kids. So I had to haul a cookie-smeared Aiden to his changing table for a wipe-down, leaving a tiny crumb trail across my freshly scrubbed floors. (Seriously Bri, just leave the wipes under the kitchen sink! Please?) I got Aiden wiped down & completely changed then walked back to the living room to examine my back-breaking scrub job.

The floors are gorgeous. Beyond gorgeous. They haven't looked this good yet. The matte finish is flawlessly streak-and-spot free, even in direct sunlight, and I'm frustrated I didn't scrub every single tile in the whole house. The rubbing alcohol & water mix was an amazing cleaner and since I used the citrus scent, the place smells pretty good, too. Aiden is down for a nap and I'm blogging while I let my back recover because I'm about to re-do the entire kitchen and hand scrub every tile in there. I'll do each room on other days and see if I can't finally stay on top of these mystery spots. After that I need to scrub Aiden's bib & tray. I've got them in soapy water, trying to soak off the oreo paste at the moment. Honestly, a woman's work is just never done!!!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

The Plague Has Ended!

My boys suddenly seem better this evening, completely out of the blue. Aiden has been much happier and in the mood to play so we opened the ball popper I found on sale at Kohl's and let him play with the box for quite a while before showing him how the popper worked. I thought it would be a harmless ball-and-chute toy. Not so. It's reminiscant of a 1970's pop corn popper gone awry. First of all, the toy takes four D batteries to power the leaf-blower engine. The balls don't just pop out, they launch out in six different directions and scatter under the furniture faster than even Major can move to catch them. (Bad dog.) I had hoped the mild little toy pictured on the box would keep Aiden entertained and kick out a loose ball now and then for him to crawl after. Looks like this toy is more likely going to provide his first lesson on how to duck-and-cover. They should package it with an air raid siren.....

In other news, I am still enjoying the creative team and all the scrapping with free products. (You know how I love free stuff!) Here are a few layouts that I made with the new items:





Oh, and remember the picture of Aiden that I applied my Rugged finish to? Kelsey ordered me a large print and it arrived on Friday. It's GORGEOUS! I absolutely love it! I want to do a whole wall of interesting pictures just like it. Picked up a really neat frame set at Kohl's, too, that should get our wall started. ;) I'll post pictures when I get it all up!