Off for a mini-break...

I will be back Wednesday. DS and I are off on a mini-break!
smiles,
christi

Katherine at 31 weeks...

I was in the middle of an ultrasound today and imagine my surprise when the technician froze the frame and this is what came up! Look at my little girl...

I had no idea that my ob clinic had a machine that could even do this. She and I are both doing really well, but she is getting big. They estimate her to already be 4.1 lbs with 9 weeks still to grow. Aackkkk! That's a bit scary. She is also already head down. Because she is measuring big, I get to go back in 4-5 weeks where they will do another ultrasound just to check on her.

smiles,
christi

Rusty Pickle- Old McDonald

Today is upload day for half the DT over at the Cropper's Cottage. This month we received the Rusty Pickle Old McDonald papers and I admit that I was truly stumped on how to use them at first, but I got inspired when I pulled out Ben's old albums (he grew up on a farm.)

For this first layout, the journaling says, "Ben at the age of 8, taking care of his cow for show. I love the look of concentration on his face. As he says now...this was serious business. Notice also his moccasins...he made them himself. September, 1971

In the file folder is a copy of the newspaper clipping that shows he placed 2nd with his cow.


For this second layout, Ben is about 3 or 4 and just the cutest little thing. The journaling says: "Muddy, Ben's grandmother, staged this photo for a newspaper competition. She wanted to show off how cute this little guy was. So she set him up in a corner field with a stick and his grandfather's kerchief to make it look like he was running away."


For this final layout, when I saw this wonderful camouflage paper, I knew that it was absolutely perfect for Jacob. This layout is a lift from Heidi Swapp's newest book and the layout includes a lot of her product also. The journaling says: "This photo is so Jacob- as he is today. I was taking some photos of him reading and he finally gave in and looked at me. I love this kid so much and I want to always remember the way that he looks today. March 27, 2007"


All these fun new Rusty Pickle products can be found over at the Cropper's Cottage Store.smiles,
Christi

Altered states...

Well, over the weekend I went on a little altering phase.

The first thing I altered was this file accordian. First, let me explain the Design Collective. This is a group of 13 uber-talented UK designers who have gotten together to create 4 classes a month. You can join for 10 pounds/month (that equals about $20.) They are just getting started with the first month starting in April. I am so excited because these gals are some seriously inspirational designers. They have a forum and a blog. Right now the forum is open to anyone, but starting (I think this is the right date) March 30th, it will only be open to those that have the monthly membership.

But the classes will go out 4 times a month as pdfs so all of the designers have come up with fun designs/methods to store the pdfs (all of these creations are simply stunning...go check out the gallery!) I created a accordian file folder loosely based upon AmberJane's creation. Here is my version using one of the My Mind's Eye Front Porch Collections.


Way back in January, one of the challenges that I started was the weekly altered cards challenge being hosted by Emily Falconbridge. After a great ambitious start, I fell a bit behind and have slowly been playing catch-up. Here are my 5 latest cards:
The themes in the order that they are posted is
~My symbol...I chose fleur de lis because I love all things French.
~My love...DH
~I miss...some of my body woes with being pregnant
~Things that inspire me... a list of places that I look for creative inspiration
~My initial

I also altered a band-aid tin to hold all of my cards. This is using another line of the My Mind's Eye Front Porch Collection and a bit of Heidi bling....


Finally, I have one last little discovery to show you. If you have been following my blog at all, you may have noticed that I love to use bits of notebook paper. I absolutely love the look that the spiral binding adds to a page. The downside to this is that it is not a very good idea for the life of your scrapbooking because notebook paper is not acid free. Well, yesterday I was cruising my long list of blogs that I like to visit and I came across this post over at Christine's blog. OMG!!! Stampin Up makes a punch that makes that edge. Let me just tell you this...I am definitely ordering that baby so be on the lookout for this effect on upcoming layouts!!! Definitely one of those...Duh! Why didn't someone think of this before!!!

smiles,
Christi

My latest layouts...

I have had a creative surge lately. Today I will share some of my latest layouts. Tomorrow I will be posting a few items that I have been altering.

Over at the Cropper's Cottage, Angie posts 6 monthly challenges. One of these is a sketch that she has drawn. This layout is using Angie's sketch for this month. These are some more photos from our vacation in 2001. I can't believe that I haven't scrapped these photos before!


This weekend I was playing just for the sake of playing and these 2 layouts are a result from that. This first one is using some the new gorgeous Daisy D's papers, the new Fancy Pants journaling card and some photos from our trip to Bath when we lived in England.


When we lived in England, I had a purple powder room. Someday I will have one again and when I do, I will frame up this layout for wall art.


I hope that you managed to create some fun goodies over the weekend!!!
smiles,
christi

Learning to Crochet...

Like I said in Wednesday's post, I taught myself to crochet while I was resting. It's something that I have been wanting to do for ages (either crochet or knit, but I decided that I wasn't smart enough to handle the two needles for knitting! LOL!). The main reason that I wanted to learn is because of baby hats...I love them and need them all, but that gets rather expensive so this works for me...a ball of yarn is MUCH cheaper than shopping at Janie & Jack who makes the cutest baby hats around!!!

My starting point was these two books:

The book on the left is awesome for projects!! They are laid out to build your skills so if you follow the book, then you slowly learn everything that you need to know about crocheting. It was $24.99 at Michael's. Where it is not so good is on the actual clear stitching instructions which is where Crocheting for Dummies comes in. Great stitch instructions in this one!!! And even better, Barnes & Noble is offering a $5 rebate this month on all their Dummies books so this $19.95 book ended up costing me somewhere around $12.

This is my first failed project:

I, being the impatient person that I am, have yet to do a gauge check (although EVERYTHING you read says this is very important!) This was supposed to originally be the baby hat you see in the next photo, but it is about 1/2 the size it should be to fit even a baby's head. So the backup plan for my first piece of crochet is that I am going to use a bit of that fabric above it to make a flap and this little pouch will work great as a pouch to carry my crochet needles in.

This was my second project:

A baby hat for Katherine for her first winter. Later I am supposed to learn how to make crocheted flowers so I will probably add one of those to the cuff to make it a bit more girly. DH loves winter hats with tassels so he was very happy with this...and so am I!

My third project was a technique success, but I don't like the varigated yarn look on this, but DS loves to organize things so he has claimed this as his own...

This fourth project was much harder than it should be. I could not for the life of me figure out how to do the stitch around the metal frame (the book instructions were WAY off on this!!!), but I found a quick tutorial online which made it super easy and fast.

This will be a mobile for Katherine's room. Obviously it is still a work in progress, but I will post photos when I finish with it. BTW, the butterfly garland came from the easter section of Target for $7. I plan on cutting them apart and adding them to the rings and flowers.

My final project that I have done so far is this scarf...

It still needs to be blocked and have the fringe added to it, but since it has been in the 70's and 80's for the last couple of weeks, there doesn't seem to be much urgency in doing that.

That is what I have done so far. I have my next 3 projects planned. My next task to learn are granny squares, but I haven't quite figured them out yet. Then I think it is time for another hat. Yippee!!!
smiles,
christi

Funny thing about blogging...

Ya know, the funny thing about blogging is that the longer you don't do it, the harder it is to come back and catch up. I am sorry for my absense, but I do have a valid excuse. The day of my last entry I started having some pains...I just thought that the baby was in the wrong position and taking it out on me, but I finally realized Saturday night that those pains were coming at regular intervals...uh oh!!!

I finally went to the hospital Sunday morning (in a bit of a panic because DH was out of town, I was only 28 weeks pregnant and definitely having contractions 5 minutes apart.) The good news is that yes, I was having contractions, but it was only because of a bladder infection...not actual labor. The bad news is that they lasted another 2 days...ugh!! 4 days of contractions is something that I never want to go through again!!! I only had 10 hours with DS...and I am very happy to do that again. So I took it easy for a good week there trying to relax on the couch and not upset the balance (sitting at the computer or my scrap space would bring them on again.)

But I am all good again. Katherine is just as active as ever so she is none the worse for wear and I am finally starting to get back into my routine which finally includes some blogging.

So what did I do while spending a week on the couch??? I learned how to crochet!! So fun and relaxing!!! I have made several projects and will be taking photos over the next few days so that you can see.

In the meantime, here are a couple of cj's that I have managed to get done over the last couple of weeks. This first one is a quote themed one...
left side:


right side:


Then this one has a musical theme:


I promise to be back soon with more to share. I cleaned my scraproom yesterday so I am hoping to get something accomplished in there today!!!
smiles,
christi

Good Friday Morning!!

Good morning!!! Did you know that spring is really coming? I had confirmation yesterday when I parked by this tree...


I was lucky that I had my camera with me. We are doing photo challenges over at the Cottage and yesterday's theme was "Little Things". I was hoping to find inspiration as I was out running errands and I did! Yay!

I also did a whole lot of sketching and planning for my upcoming projects so I am hoping to get started on some of those today although I was up til 3:00 am finishing the newest Susan Elizabeth Philips book so I am not sure how productive I will be today. I am foreseeing some naps in my future for today...
smiles,
christi

Wow! A productive day!!

Yesterday was so productive for me. I actually got 4 layouts completed. All of the layouts that I did were in response to various Cottage challenges so that makes it really easy to be productive. I love doing challenges!!


This is my layout for the March Scraplift Linda Peterson challenge.
The journaling says, "This is Junior's position of choice when he is sitting with Ben. Totally relaxed, totally exposed, Totally Spoiled."
Supplies used:
*Bazzill Peacock
*Junkitz Laguna Guy papers
*Heidi Swapp Chipboard letters
*Li'l Davis Journaling stamp


This is the layout that I did for Angie's March color challenge. I never would have put all these papers together if not for this color challenge, but I think that it works.
Lots of Misc. Supplies:
*Rhonna Farrer paper (base)
*MM Anthology papers (blue & green)
*Fancy Pants papers (pink & brown)
*Li'l Davis stamps
*Junkitz flower
*Heidi Swapp Journaling Spot
*Heidi Swapp silhouette Words


I am slowly, but surely getting these challenges done. This is the day 8 challenge from the J. Waters/CK fast & fabulous article. The approach for this one was to layer 3 horizontal photos down the side of the layout. This is also my photo from yesterdays photo challenge (cherished possession.)

The journaling reads "When Junior wants to play, he goes to this rug. He flings himself on it, scoots it across the floor, and will even fold it up so that he can shove his mice into the folds and hunt them. He loves this rug so much. He comes running when he hears one of us straightening it. I don't know what we'll do when we move to a house without wood floors. But for now this is his play place."
Supplies used:
*chatterbox paper (blue background)
*Foofala paper (right border)
*Scenic Route paper (top border)
*Heidi Swapp Chipboard letters and journaling spots
*Basic Grey Wholly Cow rub-ons


This is a layout using my photo from the day 2 challenge and it is also using tons of MM product so it works for Angie's March Challenges too.
The journaling says: "One of the funnest things about expecting a baby girl is looking at this closet full of girly, frilly clothes. So much fun!"
Supplies used:
*Fancy Pants paper (blue background)
*MM Anthology papers (all the rest)
*MM Anthology Velvet brads
*MM Anthology Metal Alphabet
*MM Anthology Metal Tab (which is silver...it just scanned really funky!)
*Heidi Swapp oval Bling
*Prima flower

smiles,
christi

Long time, no post...

Wow! How has a week already passed by since the last time I blogged?!? So sorry about that. I have been here and working, but unfortunately, I don't seem to be using my time to it's best advantage so I feel like I am running a bit behind (but what else is new?!? LOL!)


I continue to work on the Jamie Waters/CK article challenge. This was approach 6 which was to use 2 4x6 photos separated by the title. I print my own photos so I don't usually have 4x6 photos around, but I found these on the recent reorganization of my scraproom. They are photos from our 2001 summer vacation. Jacob is so little! Most of the supplies on here are Scenic Route.


This is the layout that I did using the day 7 prompt from the CK challenges. This prompt was to use a horizontal and a vertical photo and to use word stickers between them. The photos are of two of the barns from the Duke Homestead.
Supplies used:
*Prima Aurora papers**
*Li'l Davis letters**
*Heidi Swapp letters**
*K&Co. word stickers

I have also created the artwork for an article since we last "spoke", but obviously I can't share that yet.

Finally, just a bit of a creative update. I have been crocheting. I will share more in the next couple of days as I have two projects that are just hours away from completion. It's so much fun and relaxing, but I definitely can see a bit of an addiction growing to this!! It is even managing to keep me off of the computer which is unheard of!!
smiles,
christi