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So, I completely missed a LCTS sketch a few weeks back. My bad!

Here is my take on sketch #152. As per my current 'kick', all the papers used are scraps. The chipboard Joy sentiment is K&Co, and I've had it in my stash for eons. It's pretty Christmas-y, but I like that its versatile enough to use on a layout that's far from Christmas! The netting is from packaging.

The girls always throw a fit when their daddy leaves the house- whether its for a 'yucky smoke' as we call it, or to run out to the garage for something, or to run an errand, mow the lawn...the list is ever-expanding. I will often tell them to go look in the window, because they'll be able to see their daddy if he's doing something outside. In this case, they were able to watch him for a while, as he was mowing the front lawn for us. It made their afternoon!

Great Shots

I got so many good shots of the kids the day we hung out in the garage cleaning up over the summer! Here, Maren is helping her daddy sweep the floor. I love that little tongue hanging out of her mouth!

The latest sketch (#26) is up over at Heathers blog; you should go and check it out! Seriously, the design team is fantabulous! The designs they come up with are incredibly creative, and Heather's sketches are beyond amazing! They are a lot of fun to work with.

As always, if you decide to use Heather's sketch, please let me know. I'd love to see how it inspires you!

And, once again, all the papers here are scraps (and incredibly ancient), except for the green card stock base. The ribbon isn't a scrap either- it came from a bargain basket over at DeSerres. Seriously, I love that store! I could definitely go crazy there...

Another layout will be coming up in the next few days...until then, take care!

~a

Hop Scotch

Hi everyone!

Have I mentioned before the 'sidewalk that leads to nowhere' that was located in our backyard? I say 'was', because its now been torn out. Or, most of it. When we put the shed in the backyard (yes, we bought a shed and had it delivered a couple of weeks ago), Kyle used the sidewalk blocks to level it. Now, we have to re-seed it before the snow flies, so next spring we'll have new grass growing in!

Before the fence was put up, the original owners used the backdoor as their main entrance- which, if you think about it, is a real nuisance, considering you're entering right into the kitchen/dining room. But, that's just me. To other people, its no big deal. There was no grass in the backyard either, so they parked back there- hence the sidewalk.

After it was further developed and closed in, the sidewalk just plain didn't make sense. Why leave the sidewalk when it leads smack dab into the middle of your backyard fence? Silly, if you ask me, but it lead to tons of hours of fun for the girls. They loved taking their sidewalk chalk out into the backyard and play with it. The first thing they always asked for was hop scotch (after I showed them what it was all about one afternoon). Having that sidewalk was a bonus for me, too- I didn't have to worry about my little toddlers playing out in the driveway or along our street, where it is quiet, but local traffic is a constant worry for me.

At first, I didn't really want to cover up as much of this picture as I did, but in the end, I wound up really liking it. I wanted to mimic the numbers in the hop scotch in the picture, so I used my Cricut to cut out the numbers. (I searched high and low for sticker numbers that weren't minuscule or monstrously huge, and apparently I have none! Cricut to the rescue!!) I thought the floral background worked well to highlight the outdoors- even though there were scant flowers growing in my backyard. One day I will remedy that!! (At a time in the kids' life where it isn't fun picking all the heads off the flowers anymore, or playing in the dirt...)

For the title work, I traced out wood veneer letters that I found at Walmart (because the package contains only one of every letter in the alphabet) onto foam and cut them out. To cover up the pencil lines, I used a sponge dauber and inked the outer edges of the letters with SU's Cherry Cobbler ink.

All the papers used on this layout (minus the kraft base) are from my scrap stash- including the papers I used to cut the numbers with.

In a lot of ways, the season change is welcome, but in some ways, I'm sad to see summer leave us already. The kids sure have enjoyed the changes the weather has brought- they loved playing in the snow, and just the other day Maren asked when it was going to snow again. I cringed a little at the thought of cold weather and the white, fluffy stuff, but told her it was coming soon enough. Halloween has me excited enough as it is; don't get me started on Christmas! I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year. Its going to be so much more meaningful for the kids! Eeek! I can hardly wait to put up the tree and decorate!

What are you looking forward to at this time of year?

~a

Fascinate{d}

I love this shot of Addison. It was kind of a fluke, really, but a happy fluke. I get all giddy inside when stuff like this happens!

We were out in the garage helping Kyle clean up and sort through the loads of junk and garbage we've got kicking around, and after a while, the kids discovered daddy had some of his old toys kicking around the garage. They also discovered there were some neato things in there- such as sand paper- which is what Addison is holding in this photo.

Everything on this layout is from scraps- in one way or another. The orange and gold flower sticker is actually a 12 inch border strip (K&Co) that I cut into four strips (all varying lengths), to get more mileage from. The white netting is packaging from toys that I bought from Walmart for the kids' prizes (for their weekly chore charts). You'll see it popping up on a few different projects in the near future!

The flower I am especially fond of. It came from a cheapo flower arrangement that my MIL bought the kids for their bedroom when they were first born. Truthfully, I was never keen on them (there were three), but now they seem to have grown on me a little. Now that the kids (aka Addison) tore them all to  shreds (except for one). I kept some of the flowers from one of them, and plan to incorporate them into my layouts. Here, you can see one of them- I used a black rhinestone for the centre of the flower.

For the title work, I threw together some sticker letters (I don't know where they came from- my sister gave them to me!), but the green banner is MS. The phrase sticker in the top right corner is K&Co.

All this was done for sketch #153 over at Lets Capture These Sketches. If you get the chance, head over there, and see what the design team has come up with. If you choose to use the sketch, let me know- I'd love to see how it inspires you!

~a

Pumpkin Lanterns

Hi everyone!

As usual, life has been pretty busy around here. Last weekend was Thanksgiving, and I had the privilege of cooking my first ever Thanksgiving dinners (times two!!) It was a success! Kyle and I both tackled the turkey together; it was delicious! I also tried out a few new recipes- homemade dinner rolls (which will also be served at Christmas when the family-entire step family and my entire immediate family- comes out) and a yummy way to cook carrots. Both are new family favourites!

The carrots were so amazing, I just have to share the recipe:

Balsamic Glazed Carrots

10 carrots peeled, quartered lengthwise
1/4 cup Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. butter (though I prefer margarine)
1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh parsley

1) cook carrots in boiling water in large saucepan on medium heat 4 to 6 minutes or until crisp-tender. Meanwhile, cook dressing, sugar and butter in small saucepan on low heat 3 to 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally.
2) drain carrots; return to saucepan. Add sauce, stir. Cook 2 to 3 minutes or until carrots are heated through and evenly coated with sauce.
3) sprinkle with parsley

Thanks to Kraft Canada for that delicious recipe! When looking for delicious, simple, new recipes to try out, Kraft Canada is my go-to source. What's yours?

Anyways, it was Sooo (yes--with a capital S--it was that great!!) incredibly delicious!!

There are also a lot of pictures to share over the last little while- Thanksgiving, our first snowfall (and the kids excitement over it- Addison kept saying that the sky was dripping--how cute is that??!), pumpkins (and things affectionately known as pumpkin lanterns--LOL), northern lights and a few other highlights of our humble days. That'll be coming in another post!!

In the meantime, I have another layout to share with everyone. This one is another that I did on my own- without the help of sketches and DT assignments! Ahh I love that my brain is starting to clear up enough that I can churn out some of my own designs, rather than relying on someone else's ideas. Though, don't get me wrong, I LOVE using sketches, too! I love that they take the guesswork (or most of it) out of making up your design.

Way back in July, we spent one afternoon in the garage with Kyle, just hanging out and {kind of} helping him try and organize his 'man cave' a little better. That is, until the kids got distracted with the toys he played with during his childhood. I think he's pretty proud- his girls like trucks. I think they like anything that moves and looks interesting. One day they'll turn into girly girls; at least, one of them is bound to be- their mama is, so one of them has to be, too. I said so.

Speaking of I said you so's, the girls were pretty excited about going to play outside in the snow yesterday. They were even more excited about the hot chocolate I promised I'd make them once they came inside. All I heard the entire time I mixed it and heated it in the microwave was 'you're amazing, mommy!'

So...I have it on good authority that I'm pretty amazing!

That makes a mommy feel pretty good- even if it was over something as simple as a cup of hot chocolate!

~a

Re-Connect

I did some of my own scrapping last night! Woohoo! No sketches, dt assignments on this one, just my regular old brain power. And, I have to say I'm quite proud of the finished product!

I mentioned in my last post, that I had printed out a couple of pictures for my last dt assignment, but at the last minute, two others screamed at me to be used. This is one of the pictures that was originally going to be scrapped. The other isn't very clear, so I opted not to use it at all (at this time).

In the picture, Maren is playing in her tunnel- they love it when mommy and daddy drape a blanket between the couches in the living room, and they can crawl in and out of it at will. Up until everything was secured to the white card stock, that was the direction this layout was going to take. Then, I got to thinking about my relationship with Maren, and the recent re-'connection' we've made- and how relieved and incredibly happy I am that positive changes are occurring between us.

All the paper on this layout is scraps (none of which I remember where they came from- its been so long), though the little strawberry came off a barrette that the girls got as babies. One of them tore it apart, and I've been hanging on to it for quite some time- for the very purpose of being used on a layout, somewhere, some time.

My Spirit{ed} Child

These pictures just screamed at me to be used when I sat down to complete my layout for the LCTS latest sketch (#151). You can find the sketch here.

I originally had other pictures picked out, and after I got them printed, I looked through the rest of the album that they came from, and decided that these pictures of Addison playing in the living room curtains needed to be scrapped instead.

The chipboard 'spirit' piece defines Addison to a tee. She's head strong, and knows what she wants and doesn't want- and when she wants it (or not), and nothing else will persuade her to think or believe otherwise. Learning how to raise her and discipline her has me stumped, but thankfully I've come across some resources lately that will hopefully help out with that!

Having said that, she's also our fun-loving clown in the family. She sure knows how to make us laugh- and she sure knows how to have fun! She isn't shy- she's a bigger social butterfly than her daddy and I combined!

To sum up, I just wanted to capture the essence of Addison in this layout. I think this defines her perfectly!!