A Happier Aiden

Aiden had a much better day yesterday and Brian agreed yesterday evening that he was in an exceptionally happy mood. I noticed, too, and I think it's because I have been spoiling him with attention, extra cuddles and lots of book reading. I have been picking him up when he's asked, I work on chores closeby when he plays and I have been good about keeping all the doors closed and providing new rotations of toys around mid-afternoon. It really has helped keep him happy and comfortable. I'm sure his burns still hurt him. In fact, I burned my thumb on the same flat iron three weeks ago and suddenly I am grateful that the event is fresh in my memory. My thumb hurt for a week but soaking it in ice water and keeping a bandaid on it did help. I've been doing the same for Aiden. His hand is looking better. You can barely see where he was burned on the back of his hand and wrist. His thumb still has a blister and he holds very still when it comes time to re-wrap it. I know he wants it covered. He's even been good about keeping the sock on his hand. He can remove it in an instant, like he did at nap time yesterday, but he seems to like the protection it offers. I'd say he's healing faster and feeling better than I expected.

Yogo Junkie: Aiden is crazy about yogos. It was only yesterday that I figured out this constant "oh-yoh" he says, which sounds more like 'oreo', is in fact "yogo". LOL! He babbles oh-yoh-oh-yoh pretty much all day but when I pulled a package out of the pantry at lunch time, his loud chatter and banging on the high chair stopped instantly and he said in a deeper, much more serious, matter-of-fact voice "OH-YOH". I really appreciated him labeling something for me!

Over the last few days he's started to fight when I try to get him seated in his high chair. He refuses to bend at the waist and sit! I don't know why, but I do know if he resists, all I have to say is "Yogos?" and he plops his butt straight onto the high chair about as fast as he can! Stinker!

Yogos aren't the cheapest snack but I am cheap and can make one package last a full day by giving him a few at each meal and snack time. I fold the top down on the package, clip it with one of my scrapped clothespins and store it in a little spot in the pantry where it's easy for Bri or I to grab. HEB is also helping us out this week. They have yogos on sale 3 for $5 ($1.67 each) and then there is a $1 off of one box coupon hanging nearby. So by the time you check out, you get a box of 6 snacks for 67¢! Thank you Brian for picking up a box last night AND bringing home an extra coupon. I'm going back to stock up because I can't beat a 67¢ snack that lasts for 6 days! Our demand for yogos has been pretty inelastic these last few weeks and I am sorry to say I've paid up to $2.50 for a box. The way Aiden screams in the checkout line, I'm sure they'll let me buy five boxes and use five coupons all in one transaction just to get me out of there!

Hybrids: I hadn't touched my craft supplies in days so I assembled two hybrid projects last night. The first is this fortune cookie keeper:




I got the idea from an item for sale on eBay that was a square board with a printed picture of a fortune cookie and clear photo corners to hold the fortune. I used a small, flat piece of wood I had on-hand and decided to add the origami cookie and hanging tag to give it a little more whimsy! It really is charming in person and that fortune, which reads "You create enthusiasm around you" is one I got about a month ago that I really loved. I'm glad it now has a better home than just the zipper pocket on my wallet! LOL!




This is an example image of the hybrid items I gave Marissa for her baby shower. The sign reads "Our Litte Bird" and the green bird at the top was painted with the nursery's wall paint and then I added polka dots by hand with a paint pen. The other bird is a scrapped door hanger and the clothespins are scrapped on one side and have paint pen polka dots on the other.

I have to admit I thought I was being so creative when I scrapped painted clothespins but I've had a couple people tell me they've seen it done before in Kindergarten classrooms to clip up finger paintings and artwork. That's okay, I still love how they look and I'm glad to hear other people enjoy them, too. That means they'll make good gifts!




These are little boxes that hold our stamps. It's a great way to keep all the little booklets organized and the black box looks adorable sitting on the mail center in our entry way!




Okay, these baby shower gift tags were the easiest things to make EVER! Just try and make some. I promise they'll turn out adorable no matter what. Seriously, these are made with paper, ink and glue with a ribbon loop. You can't mess them up!




You've probably seen the bath sign on the bathroom door and now it's sporting a little bit of Tay humor, too! What better way to excuse a tub full of toys than admit every night at 6:30 the place really does turn into a miniature water park? LOL!

More hybrids are coming! No word on new kits from Miss Mint or Jen but I'll keep you posted!

Bluebonnet Pictures

I have to admit that I really thought bluebonnet pictures for boys would be a little silly. I love outside photo shoots but I just didn't know about all those flowers. I shouldn't have worried! Waiting for me on my disk of images were several stunning shots, including these two that I absolutely LOVE!





The black & white one of Aiden gazing off is going in our room. Aiden doesn't sit still for long but I love that Kelsey captured him daydreaming for just a moment! The rest of the gorgeous shots are being saved for layouts that you'll see when new kits debut. ;)

90 Seconds to Ruin Your Day

I don't usually leave my flat iron plugged in. I don't usually leave my bedroom door open when Aiden is awake. And I don't usually have so much laundry to pre-treat. But all of those things happened yesterday and conspired to result in an accident.

Yesterday morning around 9:45 I gathered up all the laundry, bringing the clothes from our room out last. I passed Aiden playing in the living room and dumped the pile on the floor of the laundry room. About 90 second later I was scrubbing stains in the laundry room, with the washer filling (loudly) when I heard Aiden scream bloody murder. I know this scream, it means he's injuired, and this was the worst one I've heard yet. I dashed from the landry room, through the living room and down the hall. He had fallen quiet, in those long seconds before his lungs can fill with air and he can scream again, while I frantically called his name, unsure of where he was. Another gut-wrenching wail came from our master bathroom. I rushed in to find him red-faced, clutching my hair straightening iron to his body and - OH MY GOSH - he had turned it on. Acting on adrenaline, I grabbed the iron by the hot plate and jerked it from him, unplugging it and tossing it back onto the counter in one smooth motion. It was hot, but not all the way heated up and not hot enough to burn me. But only me.

I scooped up Aiden and let my legs instinctively carry him to the hall bath where I ran cool water and put him in. He was red all over from screaming and I couldn't tell what had been burned. I had seen one hand touching the hot plate and I somehow knew he'd burned his lips trying to put it in his mouth. I held both his hands under cool running water and used my hands to wipe cool water on his face. Thank goodness I keep an "emergency" hooded towel hanging behind the bathroom doors, so I don't have to leave him in the tub to go get one, because by the time I had cooled his skin enough to calm him, he was shivering. I wrapped him up and rushed for some Tylenol and my phone to call the nurse's line at his pediatrician's office. The nurse was great and told me to put a few ice cubes in a tupperware bowl and fill it with water for him to play in to cool the burns on his hands. I threw in some take-n-toss spoons for him to fish out. I grabbed my soft silicone basting brush and basted his hands and lips with the cool water. So here we were, both of us sitting on the floor in the kitchen, Aiden naked and wrapped in a towel, playing in a bowl of ice water. He was actually laughing and I thought for a second I had dodged a bullet. But only for a second. His cherry red lips were starting to swell. I called the pediatrician's office back and scheduled an appointment. They could squeeze me in around 1:30. I managed to keep Aiden comfortable, even getting him to nap for an hour before his appointment. When I heard him stirring, I went in to get him and immediately felt ill. His lips had a small, thin, light-colored blister over them and his right hand was blistering in several places. I wanted to faint.

We didn't wait long to see Dr. Smoot and Aiden was actually quite pleasant in the waiting room, despite the fact he hadn't eaten (he was refusing food) and hadn't gotten but half his usual nap. One mother, who was there with her daughter, commented playfully on what a busy boy he was. (We get this comment a LOT! LOL!) I agreed and told her we were actually in for burns he'd gotten from being too curious. I caught a couple compassionate, understanding looks from the moms with boys, which made me feel like maybe Aiden wasn't the only child to ever be burned by a hot iron. Dr. Smoot confirmed it was a very common household accident. However MOUTH burns were quite unusual. We figured he must have been mouthing the plates when he nudged the on button, which is far too sensitive, and began the 30 second heat-up. It probably burned his mouth first and then his hands as he screamed for me to help. (You should know that babies won't drop things that are burning them. You have to pull it away from them. And no matter how badly you bruised yourself flying through the house, slipping on the tile in your socks and slamming into door frames, you don't feel like you moved fast enough.)

Dr. Smoot located burns on his gums, tongue, lips, hands, fingers, knuckles and wrist. His right hand was by far the worst, with the worst burns being on the back of his hand, below his pinkie and the pad of his thumb. Both had large white blisters. The rest of the burns were smaller, thinner, and were red and slightly raised but didn't blister as badly. She promised the mouth burns would heal quickly, in 24-48 hours and she was right. His lips look better this morning and the burn on his gum is vanishing rapidly. His hand will take much longer to heal. We'll need to protect the skin with Neosporin-and-guaze wraps for two weeks to ensure he doesn't get a secondary infection since the skin is injured and vulnerable. We have already found wrapping his hand and then putting a sock over it has really helped keep food bits and outside grunge from walks off his bandages and skin. He's on Children's Motrin and perscription Tylenol with Codine to manage the pain. It is working, he doesn't seem to get uncomfortable until his next dosage time. I am eternally grateful to Dr. Smoot for writing him the tylenol perscription. And for being so sweet in general when I was in the examination room crying about how awful I felt while Aiden giggled at her and played coy from behind his sippy cup.

So that's how an accident happened in 90 seconds and ate up my entire day yesterday. I probably deserve the extra work per day of medicine dosing, bandage unwrapping, hand cleaning, cool water soaks and bandage re-wrapping morning and evening. You can bet I have made sure my hair tools are put away and that ALL doors are staying CLOSED! I even put a latch on the fridge yesterday because I saw Aiden open it and pull out a glass bottle of tabasco sauce before I could cross the kitchen to stop him. Tabasco sauce on mouth burns is NOT what we need! This baby of mine is something else. He keeps me so busy and when he's not injuring himself, his antics crack me up. I absolutely, positively MUST MUST MUST have another boy!

Hybrid Crazy

I've made enough stuff, I could probably open a boutique! LOL! So here is what I've finished in the last 24 hours: (click for credits)



Hybrid jewelry. Only me, right? Hehehe! (Kels & Michell, I still LOOOOOVE my purse!!!)



These are some SUPER easy gift tags. If you want to try a little hybrid project, start here. All you need is the $2 Party Pants kit, scissors and glue. The ink & rhinestones are optional!



It never fails, ten minutes in to Aiden's afternoon nap I'll get solicitors pounding on the door, sending the dog into a barking frienzy and waking up the baby. So far so good but if this polite sign doesn't work...



I can flip that bad boy over to reveal this slightly more menacing threat! Honestly, these men that come to my door just don't understand the kind of danger they're in if they shorten a nap time by so much as a nanosecond!




And last is one of my favorites! This is my own quote and is sure to get you a laugh, no matter how bad the small kitchen fire was. LOL!

Have a baby and want to see something REALLY cute? Adorable, right?!! I loved it! Best baby decor hybrid ever!

Any ways, if any of my friends would like to learn how to hybrid, I'm willing to show you! I do require that you purchase your own digital products and the wood, but you're more than welcome to come over and use my craft paints while we chat and assemble together! If you're not sure about how to measure, scrap and print your image to fit the wood, I can give you a quick photoshop tutorial, too. (I might also insist on taking a picture of your project to show off how creative you are in the gallery if you aren't interested in uploading it yourself!) Marissa already has dibs on the first hybrid lesson! ;)

Eye Candy

More hybrids! And let me tell you, they're addicting! These four I finished on Friday and posted over the weekend: (click for credits)



This one will go above the dress up trunk in Aiden's playroom. He has some pretty cool pirate and cowboy dress ups already! Now if only he would keep hats on his head....



Just a cute, quick label for my little glass jar! I used mini glue dots to adhere the label to the glass and it has held well but is completely removeable if I need to re-label. Love those glue dots!



Okay, I thought for sure I was going to get laughed out of the gallery with these scrapped clothespins! (You'll see why else I need them soon...) I use clothespins a lot so I figured some that matched the house would be cute. They've kind of been a hit with everyone and they are SO EASY to make!



A cute, quick label so I can tell which hot pink bin has my craft supplies!

You can see the work of the entire team in the hybrid project gallery at Peppermint Creative.


This Weekend: Brian got a TON of work done in the playroom/bead room on Saturday! We had an arrangement where I would take Aiden and leave the house while he was awake so Brian could work distraction-free. When Aiden needed to nap, I brought him home and I took a break while Brian did the quieter project work so Aiden could sleep. (ie: no pneumatic nailing in the house) It worked out well! I hit a couple of stores for hybrid supplies and ran a few other errands. Brian was a total stud and not only pimped out the closet that is now my bead "room" but he also helped me by cutting and drilling several hyrbid items. He even made a custom frame for a little project going in Aiden's room. What a handy guy!

For the Grandmas: Aiden is growing up too fast and doing new things every day. His vocabulary is amazing. Out of nowhere he'll suddenly say a word and it is so much fun to hear him talk! He'll randomly label colors (mostly blue & green), shout for books and balls and is finally saying "dink" more often when he's thirsty, as opposed to screaming. The newest word this weekend was "kacker" (cracker). He said it several times Friday & Saturday morning and stopped traffic at the grocery store when we cruised past the teddy grahams on the cracker aisle. (Thank goodness Aiden can point because you don't know confusion until your one year-old is screaming "KACKER!" at the top of his lungs on a crowded store aisle while eighty some-odd varieties of said crackers line your field of vision for twenty feet in each direction.) How freaky is this? He recognized the product packaging from six feet away and was insistent about his craving for teddy grahams. I let him hold the box while we finished shopping and by the time we got to the checkout lane, it was so chewed up and mangled it could hardly stand on it's own and dropped flat on it's face as soon as the conveyor belt ended at the scanner, like a triathalon competitor on his last leg who is just greatful to cross the finish line. I think Aiden has a bright future as a USPS package handler. (I'm pretty sure whoever sorts our mail must be teething, too.)

My to-do list is long today and I'm picking up prints for 6 more projects. I'll post them here when I'm done!

Back in the Saddle

And hybriding again! Okay, as I mentioned, more laundry signs were coming. Two new ones using Jen Wilson's products: (click for credits)



This one says "Today I will leave the laundry and enjoy my children". (I used the plural because it sounded the best. This is not a pregnancy announcement!)



Here is a shot of all three hanging! You already know what the first two say. The last one reads: "The most memorable days usually end with the dirtiest clothes". I made that one up because I wanted a sign that mentioned dirty clothes (since wash & laundry had already been used) but it had to be uplifting! These were SUCH fun projects!!!

And here is my favorite project of the day: (click for credits)



Parent's magazine published a tip from a reader who clothespins unmatched socks in her laundry room so she'll know where to find them when the mate shows up. I thought that was a GREAT idea, since I already have two that are lost. I didn't really have anything to clip the clothespin and single socks to, so I thought of glueing the clothespin to a board and mounting it. Well, of course, the board would have to be decorated and I thought it would be really funny if the lost sock had it's own personal ad. (Remember, Match.com says "It's okay to look"... LOL!) And that's how this idea was born.

Okay, back to work. I still have THREE hybrids that are done but not yet photographed. (One uses products not yet released so I can't post it yet.) And then there's all the stuff I bought at Michael's this afternoon.....LOL!

I'm here! I really am!

I have been horrible about blogging lately because my attention has been elsewhere. Brian asks me every day where Aiden's birthday pictures are. (Sorry babe, they're STILL not up.) But here is a VERY small sampling of the things I have been up to!



This layout features Miss Mint's new Family Tree kit, a re-release of a coordinated kit she did 2 years ago. The new one is beautiful and has a vintage chipboard alpha I am in love with! Funny story: I scrapped this page around 10 am on Monday morning and uploaded to the galleries. About 2 hours later I got a private message asking permission to post my layout on the DigiScrapChat blog for their Wednesday WOW column. I have never had such a fast turn-around on a layout! I am always so flattered to be highlighted and I love the attention it brings my designers. Home run on this kit Miss Mint!

Next, I have been a hybriding fool! The desk in the computer room and our kitchen table have been taken over by Hobby Lobby purchases, craft paints and dry adhesives so I could complete these: (images are clickable & go to credits)



My favorite project of the group! This is a small 3x3 sign that I made to hang off the peg hooks on our laundry room door sign. I have ornaments for all the other holidays but nothing to keep up there the rest of the year. When I stumbled across this quote, I had to use it! (Others are coming, too!)



This one was a little surprise for Brian. He likes to keep mints at work and I thought it would be cute if he had a tin with a photo of Aiden on it. This one was REALLY easy so if you're thinking of trying hybrids, start here!



A little hybrid housewarming card for my grandparents. They just fixed up a beautiful house in the Champions area and moved in this last week. They have a great sense of humor and since I couldn't find a funny card, I made one! (Click to see larger so you can read it!)

What else is new: Miss Mint has organized a hybrid team and if you peek in the gallery, you can see we're already hard at work! Most of the projects are quite easy so if you are looking for inexpensive ways to make custom gifts and home decor items, bookmark the gallery and check it for new ideas. Your house will be full of gorgeous items in no time!

JW News: You've been reading Jen's blog and picking up all the freebies and coupon codes, right? There's a special $1 item today and you never know what fun little thing will be popping up next! (Hint, hint!) Blog freebies & coupon codes are only good for one day because they're a treat for loyal blog readers so be sure you're one of them! Also, Jen's been so busy that she hasn't marked up the 75¢ sock monster items yet. These will be going up to $1.50 the second she has a free moment so NOW would be a good time to get them!

Whenever I get a chance, I'll keep sorting through the 400 pics from Aiden's birthday weekend and *finally* get some scrapped and posted. (But don't hold your breath. I'm waiting for new kits that are coming!)