CREDITS:

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

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Saturday Night In

Brian and I really need a night in to relax in front of the TV, unwind and maybe get some extra sleep. I know the rest of the crew was headed out to The Woodlands for dinner. A delicious meal out would be nice but carting a still-mildly-sick and fussy Aiden around would not be enjoyable. So we're opting to put him to bed early for some "us" time.

Diet Update: I really am going to use my blog for motivation. I need to 'report' to someone so I don't go whip up a huge batch of brownies right about now! The diet is working it's magic. It's day four and my sense of smell has really increased. (This happens when you cut a lot of white sugar out of your diet.) I have stopped drinking artificially sweetened drinks for these three weeks and the only sugars I am getting come from yogurt, peanutbutter, fruits, etc. Funny how foods that might have tasted bland a few days ago are suddenly so flavorful. I had a pita today for lunch with the Laughing Cow light swiss cheese spread (it's delicious!), stuffed with turkey lunch meat, fresh spinach, red bell pepper slices and black olives. It tasted really, really good! Sorry if it sounds gross but Brian and I really like making them for lunch. It's his own invention and honestly, it's a pretty tasty way to slim down! Speaking of which, the scale is reporting new, lower numbers which I like to see. I'll let you know how much weight I lost when it's all over but I am soooooooo hoping that it will be a noticeable difference!

I did a super-fast layout this afternoon while Aiden napped & Brian ran up to Lowe's for some project stuff:



This kid is such a ham! I know lots of babies probably play under their exersaucers but he actually hauls his own toys in there with him and then frequently gets stuck because there are too many toys in his way when he wants out! LOL!

Friday, February 1, 2008

Baby Daze and The Surprise After...

As I was picking up a scattering of toys that began in our master closet and ended at the front door, I smiled to myself and remembered how adamant I had been about not wanting my house to look like a daycare. When I was pregnant, I was very concerned with buying baby gear that matched my black & khaki decor or at the very least, big black baskets to hide all the hiddeously colored toys in. Now that Aiden is here, I couldn't care less. There are bright colored toys visible when people come to the door, they get scatered all over my house every day and while they do have a nice, coordinating black basket they all go in, Aiden has such a good time making sure they don't stay there. I guess what I was really chuckling at is the fact that so many times I said I wouldn't do something and now that I am in the thick of motherhood, I am realizing those are the things that don't even matter!

I am fresh back from Baby Daze with several more neon-colored toys for Aiden to strew around the house and a few other good deals. I picked up some play clothes pants & jeans in the next two sizes that he can destroy while playing at the parks, a still-brand-new, non-skid tub mat to prevent any more slipping in the tub (we've had LOTS of these lately) and several fun toys. I just finished scrubbing them down with Chlorox wipes, in the hopes that Aiden won't catch the flu from one of my great finds. For now I am going to hide most of them and bring them out over the next few weeks when I need something new to distract him. (Yeah, right. I'll probably be so excited to show him that they'll all come out tomorrow but it would be SMART for me to put them away!) I really need to get in the habit of rotating toys...

While I was at Baby Daze Brian gave Aiden a haircut. Actually, he cut all of Aiden's gorgeous, spikey blonde hair OFF. I can't tell the extent of the damage because he's asleep in his crib and I don't want to wake him but it's SHORT. It was an accident - Brian didn't realize how much he had trimmed until afterwards and was immediately afraid for his life! He knows how much I like to spike the kiddo's hair. Luckily it is just hair and it will grow back. But for now you'll probably see Aiden sporting a new doo. (Maybe we can finally teach him to wear hats.)

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Bead Room Blitz

I had a productive day in the bead room. I went through all my beads, pulled out the ones I am getting rid of, poured them into bowls organized by color and I am now in the process of re-organizing the ones I am keeping. I worked on it for 4 straight hours this afternoon while Aiden crawled around and played with (read: destroyed) everything he could get his hands on in the four surrounding rooms.

At one point, I heard him giggle, then I heard a small crash and his "I'm hurt" cry. I went running to find him on top of a pile of books in the reading corner of his room. I guessed he had been standing on his octopus plush chair while pulling books out of the organizer we have mounted to the wall when he lost his balance and fell. My guess was close. Five minutes later I heard the same giggle so I snuck around the corner to peek in. He was indeed standing on his octopus chair so that he could reach the book organizer but he wasn't thumbing through book titles. He was BOUNCING! He's figured out he can get some pretty good air off the octopus if he stands up on it and holds on to the book rack while he jumps. The books probably were in his way, so he removed them and lost his balance while throwing them over his shoulder. Little stinker! He's addicted to this type of movement. (We call it "bounce, bounce". He responds to it faster than "Ritz" and that's really saying something!) He's going to be a total daredevil, I just know it.

I still have HOURS left of work to do before the bead room is officially the playroom but it's coming along slowly. At least it's distracting me from the diet I started this week. I've told some of my friends about it and I had hoped they would join me but they seemed skeptical. Probably because you only do a reduced calorie diet (all lean meats, grains, fruits & veggies) for 3 weeks then return to your "regular" diet of 1800-2000 calories so your metabolism doesn't slow down. (This is done with 45 minutes per day of any exercise.) After a couple of weeks on your regular diet, you can do another 3 week reduced calorie roatation to continue loosing weight.

You know how you always loose the most weight in the first few weeks when you begin a diet? Well, this diet takes advantage of that. It fools your body into never slowing it's metabolism so you drop fat pounds. (You're eating enough protien/meat that you don't loose muscle IF you exercise.) About the time your body figures out what is going on, you're off the diet and it no longer "needs" to slow down because your calorie intake has increased, so it keeps going at it's normal, fast pace but you're several pounds lighter. In three weeks when I'm suddenly a jean size smaller, I'm sure I'll be talking much more about it. For now I'm determined to be back in my entire wardrobe of 6's and 8's before summer. My blog is going to be a great motivator because it will keep me accountable since I know people are reading!!! I should post some of the recipes. The chicken caesar salad we had tonight was pretty good but the herbed pork chops and french style steaks are THE BEST! We eat those all the time, diet or not. (I've done this before, two years ago and had great luck with only one rotation. That's when I put together the recipes.) So stay tuned and let's see how I do!

Before I go, here is a parting shot of Aiden's blatant disregard for Evenflo's intended product usage:

I will DEFINATELY be scrapping this!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Where do the days go?

Geez, I am getting bad about blog posting this week! Well, to catch you up on everything, this is week THREE of Aiden being sick. He's had back-to-back-to-back colds and seems to have yet another on top of his sinus infection, which he is still on antibiotics for. Sick kids are the WORST. He has been super clingy and fussy, which makes getting things done around the house impossible.

I haven't been scrapping much. I'm kind of waiting for new kits but really, I don't have anything terribly exciting to scrap. I do, however, have several projects around the house that are waiting on me so the break from Photoshop is needed!

For those of you that don't know, this weekend is Baby Daze. You can click on that purple link to read about it but let me give you the run down. It's like one huge garage sale of really GOOD baby stuff! Most of it is clothes and newborn necessities, like Boppy pillows, head supports, bath tubs, blankets & the like. I have gotten some awesome deals at BD, like Tommy jeans for $2 and Gymboree shirts in practically new condition for $4. This year I am shopping for some play clothes that Aiden can ruin while crawling around at the parks... If you're interested, I know a few of us that are going but you WILL need to bring your checkbook and an SUV! LOL! We'll see you out there! (If you want any of the big baby items, you'll need to shop on Friday night.)


Names With Faces: Okay, family, I am going to start putting some faces with names! These pictures are from Danielle's birthday dinner out. The first one is Dani, Kelsey and me. The next picture is Maren, Tara and Keri. This is only a fraction of our "group" but I'll try to get more pics on here!



Monday, January 28, 2008

Take Two and Stay Up Until Morning

What happens when you take two Excedrin with a Diet Coke for a splitting headache when you have been avoiding caffeine for two years? You are wired until about two in the morning with nothing to do but re-design your website and make a new blog header!

If you stumble onto my site, you'll see I have a whole new color scheme and I have removed several jewelry items. (Friends can order binky clips and earrings through me so long as I still have the supplies. Otherwise I am done making them.) Don't freak out, the bracelets are staying up. I will still make those but since my moods tend to change swiftly, you might want to place an order for anything you have really been wanting. I am dropping my bead inventory to a more manageable size and there will be some bead colors I no longer stock. This is so we can turn the new playroom closet into my "bead room" and I can close and lock the doors to keep Aiden from swallowing too many of my supplies!

You might also notice I added birth announcements and photo editing to my site. While I am spending all this time in photoshop any ways, I might as well be paid for it! I need to put up some example images in the next several weeks. Ohhhhh, the projects!

Speaking of which, I came home from San Marcos with an Xterra full of goodies! We hit the Pottery Barn outlet pretty hard. Half of the items are gifts but I did find the COOLEST magnetic chalkboard for FIVE DOLLARS!!! No lie! It's about two feet long and a foot wide and is ridiculously heavy. But I can't wait to get it up on the wall! I got a few other decorating and organizing items and Aiden got a set of surfer twin sheets that match the brown & blue surf bedding I got from PBK on clearance last year. SCORE! Honestly, I didn't pay more than $20 for any one item. The savings from that store alone were worth the trip and the cost of the gas. Girls, we need to do a run out there later this spring before the back-to-college rush hits. The clearance aisles were the best things ever. Some of my things were $2 - $5 that are regularly $29-$60 in the catalogs. We'll organize a caravan road trip!

PC News: Kits will come but maybe not this week. TONS of new things going on. You'll hear a lot more in February. I know we are all excited for new stuff to scrap with!


Brian & Aiden: You two really are my whole life. I love you both very much and truly am beyond happy. It's hard to believe that things could possibly get any MORE fun but I know they will as Aiden grows. We're in for some really great times this year!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Do you REALLY know your friends?

This is my blog so I can brag. It hit me late this evening that I have been hiding a talent. Behind the photoshop junkie you all know and love is an even older artist. I first put pencil to paper during these SUPER boring videos we used to watch in 4th grade. They were fun to watch the first time through but by the sixth showing, we were all falling asleep. (Probably why the teachers showed us the videos...to shut us all up!) We were supposed to be taking notes but somehow my spiral pages filled up with little cartoons and doodles. A couple years later I figured out I could draw Disney characters well enough that I was accused by my classmates of tracing them. I have cartooned animals since then but I bet most of you have never seen any of them. Until now!

I sketched these really quick. They're pencil on computer paper that's been photographed badly. Hope you don't mind! Dogs were always my favorite to draw because I have always had them. This is Scout, my dad's dog that we grew up with who passed away long ago:






This one is for Kelsey. This is Kiko: (perhaps a few years younger! Sorry I couldn't exactly remember her markings)



Of course Major has to be included, too. Here he is keeping all his toys away from Aiden. (He really does this. Rotten doberman...)



When I was in high school I always imagined cartooning would be so handy. I could simply sharpie a quick character on blank white paper for my children to color for endless hours of entertainment. Hopefully Aiden likes to color!!

So there you have it. Before Photoshop channeled all of my creativity into a digital medium, I was cartooning and going through blank paper as fast as my parents could buy it.

Now back to the digital decay of my drawing talents: scrapping!!! LOL!