The Story of the Fluffy (pt 1)

First, let me tell you that I was the pick of the day yesterday at a cherry on top.com for this layout that I made with my scarlet lime kit and the journaling card from my scrapperie kit.


The story of Fluffy Part 1

You may or may not know that we STILL have problems with Ellie sleeping through the night. Well I was reading an article in a magazine by an author with three kids who each had a different way of soothing themselves at night. Child 1 used Mommy for soothing (yep that's ellie). Child 2 used her thumb. Child 3 used a special stuffed animal. Well, Ellie uses Mommy, but that is the problem because she wants to sleep with me but then Seth and I can't sleep. So we are trying to get around that. So, we can't and dont want to, encourage her to suck her thumb, so what does that leave but a stuffed animal or 'blankie'. However, she has tons of both of those but never made a particular connection. So, two nights ago in the middle of the night while she was begging me to sleep with her, I thought, hmmm, what if I gave her a special animal that was MINE when I was a baby. I could make a big deal out of it and tell her how special it is and how I slept with it, yadda yadda yadda. Only problem is that my stuffed animal , Fluffy Duck, got so grungy that he was thrown away. (not that I was ever particularly bonded to him either, but I was a little) Soooo, I thought, ok I will get an animal LIKE fluffy duck and tell her that it is mine. So there begins the deception. I also had a 'gund' brand bear that I loved when I was a little older, because it was so soft. So I set out to find a gund duck - or bear if I couldnt find a duck - and name him fluffy. I found a pink bear, super soft, named him fluffy, carried him around at work all day to 'season' him, wrote my name on his foot and smuggled him into the cedar chest at the foot of my bed. (yes, believe me the irony that I call it a 'him' despite the fact that it is a pink bear is not lost on me, but Fluffy was a him, and I have had to sort of convince myself that this is a reincarnation of Fluffy or else I feel like a liar, so yeah it's a pink BOY bear) Well that night she fell asleep at her grandparents and I didnt have a chance to give Fluffy to her. So last night I did. Around 7pm I started explaining to her about Fluffy and how he was mine and he kept me company at night and now I wanted her to have him, and would she please take good care of him. She said yes. So we went to the cedar chest and got him out. She was TOTALLY convinced that he was MY special bear. She had this total look of awe on her face as she clasped him to her chest. Then she proceeded to go pick up one of her old toys and tell me how that dog is hers and the bear is mine. She had one in each hand. I kept trying to explain that I was giving the bear to her, but she didnt buy it. Fast forward to bed time, and I am tired and go up to bed, but she is hungry so seth gets her something to eat. I hold the bear, intending for her to come upstairs and see me in bed with the bear and then I will give it to her. Well, I fall asleep. At around 1:50 (ok exactly because I looked at the clock) she wakes up crying. So I get up and go in, still holding the bear. Give her the bear and tell her that HE will keep her company tonight and Mommy has to go potty. She whines a little as I leave the room but falls back to sleep with the bear in her arms. (I almost went for my camera but it was 2am that would be crazy!) Well, she slept with the bear until around 6am when I was in the basement working out and she came downstairs dragging the bear behind her by the foot. She then gave the bear to me and said it was mine. I told her yes but I gave it to her! but she didnt buy it. She ate breakfast with the bear sitting next to her, then gave it back to me again. she was upset when I wouldnt hold it. Every time I tried to put it down, she would tell me that the bear was mine and I should hold him. So finally I asked her if we should put him back in the trunk because I had to go to work and she wouldnt let me put him on the bed, and she said yes. So there lies the bear - back in the trunk at the foot of my bed. Hmmmmm.

Spring Fever

Here is a page that I made with the new Fancy Pants paper!
Everything on this page is from scrapwords except the stamp, and the bazzill.
Felt is fancy pants, paper is fancy pants, letters are daisy d's. I used a pagemaps sketch. The journaling is actually lyrics to the song springfever, then I added the date and location on the stamp.



Wow, I really think that this working out thing is giving me more energy! this morning ellie woke me up at 5 and I was ready to get up! In fact I was yearning to go work out! But I had to lay there with her a while, so I didnt get up until 5:30 - at which time I was pretty tired and had to drag myself out. But once I was up, I was raring to go again. I watched Gossip Girl - my new favorite show, while I worked out, then had a leisurely morning of coffee, oatmeal, the rest of Gossip Girl, cuddling with ellie, a little scrapping, and some photo editing (of the work that I did this weekend)

update

I have been a little lax lately about updating my blog- sorry. Things have just been crazy! Anyway, this is a copy from my scrapwords blog so if you read that then this is nothing new - sorry.

Well, I did a little scrapping this weekend but I dont have anything to share right now because one is for a contest so I can't share that until the contest is over. The other stuff, I didnt take pics of yet because the weather has been awful so I cant get good light.
Here are a couple that I found from last weekend though. these are for my Scrapperie Design team work and the letters on the first one are from ymbd.etsy.com.

This one is the second of a two page spread. The first side was the one I did for Selena's sketch challenge. This one is just some supporting photos. I used my threading water punch on the red background paper. I still have to get the corners figured out, but other than that I think it worked pretty well!

Oh I forgot to give you the update. Hmmm, I can't remember what we did Friday night -oh wait, yeah we had ice cream for dinner again. LOL! It was still Passover so DH made some meat but no side dishes and we were all still hungry and I needed to get gas in my car and the gas station is next to the ice cream shop, so we went and had ice cream for dinner. Saturday morning Ellie went to gymnastics and I stayed home and straightened up the house because the cleaning people were coming, and I worked out and did some cleaning of my scrap room. Then DH and DD brought me my coffee - our Sat ritual (hmmm maybe I should scrap that) and then we did laundry and cleaned the scrap room. Ellie helped me sort the laundry and sort coupons and sort my buttons into my new button organizer. She loves being helpful and she is really into sorting right now. I was amazed at how good she was at sorting the buttons! We sorted them by colors into the new organizer, and she was slower than me, looking at each button and proclaiming it 'big' or 'little' or 'little-tiny' and then the color, and then she would put it in the right section, and if one of us dropped a button into the wrong compartment she would fish it out and get it in the right one. It was so cute! Then DH took Ellie over to my parents house to spend the night. I was a little bummed to see her go because I didnt get to spend much time with her this week, but my parents hadnt seen her in a while, and it was cool because Seth and I went out with some friends for dinner at a Hibachi restaurant. If you havent been to one you have to go because they are so much fun - it is like dinner and a show! LOL! Then we hung out at their house and talked until MIDNIGHT! can you believe that - sooo very way past my bedtime. (on and I scrapped while he was driving her to my parents)
Sunday we of course slept in because we were up late. Then we went to starbucks for coffee and I had an egg sandwhich. Then we went to JoAnn's and BJ's and then met my parents and ellie for lunch. Then we went to a fish store and got some algae eater fish. And ellie and I looked at all the other pets that they had there - kittens and puppies and rabbits oh my! LOL! they were so cute!
When we got home, more laundry ( I think I did 10 loads this weekend!) and more scrapping, and more organizing my scrap room, and we used our new dremel on the dog's nails. Our poor dog - she always has the longest nails because it is such an ordeal to trim them! Forget clippers. When we lived in an apartment and were clipping her nails with clippers, she would scream so much that I thought for sure someone would call the cops on us for animal cruelty. The fact that they didnt is actually kinda scary. So we started using a dremel and she hates that less, but she still whines and thrashes and it is a two person job and takes like half an hour. So anyway, seth bought this new cordless small dremel and that makes it easier, plus he thought maybe I could use it in my scrapping. I havent quite figured out how yet, but I will! It has little tiny attachments and can etch glass and stuff. so we'll see.

Salads are bad for me!

Seriously! I know that some people swear by them, and I like them sometimes, but they just dont seem to work for me diet wise. I mean, maybe it is all in my head - which is entirely possible, but it seems that whenever I eat a salad, it leaves me feeling even more hungry than before! I had a cobb salad for lunch today - tomatoes, lettuce, onions, eggs, chicken and blue cheese. Although I must say that they went really easy on the blue cheese. I had the dressing on the side and didnt eat any of it. I did not eat the roll. Then I left for work. Well on teh way to work I got hungry. So when I got into work and saw all the donuts and soft pretzels in the kitchen, I opened my yogurt. Not all yogurts are created equal! This one was mighty tasty (well once I added my little bit of fat free granola just for crunch because I can't stand the texture of yogurt) but it was 180 calories!!! so now I am almost at my limit for my 'before dinner' number of calories, and it is only 2pm and I am snacking on my whole wheat pretzels again. So yeah, I made 'good' choices, but it just doesnt seem to be working for me :( I did work out today though - and harder than normal. Oh and the scale says I am down 2lbs! woohoo! but I am not getting too excited about that because it is probably just water weight and I can't tell you how many times I have said down 2lbs - enough that by now I should weigh nothing at all! (Of course I never mention when I gain it back - LOL - shhhh, its our little secret, OK?)

Now, I just have to give a shout out to Leslie because we have been talking about our plans for CHA in July and I sooooo can't wait!!! Not only do I get to go to the convention but I get to meet Les, FINALLY!!

Ok, now to the fun part, some pages - or cards rather:

These cards are not the most beautiful ever, but I am rather proud of them. I tried a few new techniques on them and used some paper and stickers that are so old that I thought I was truly never going to use - and which I honestly hated so much that I didnt even want to RAK them away! LOL! So, yeah, I am pretty proud of them. And if you want to learn more about them, I wrote about them in my article at Scrapwords this week.



Wow, today is a day for randomness, so here is something that I made last week and never shared. It was tough, I seriously did not know what to do with this. and I never claimed altering (or card making to be honest) as a strength of mine. But here is the mirror that I got at good will to hang in my scrap room
before:


after: (Daisy D's papers and rub-ons, some misc buttons and ribbons and a lot of paint and glimmer mist)


Finally, back to the boring stuff - no pics here - a little story (or two).

First: what a genius my daughter is! Yesterday I got a call from DH. He says this, "So, I was singing Love Shack along with the radio while I was making dinner, and I get to the part where it goes - new tires, it's as big as a whale and its about to set sail - and Ellie says 'Daddy, it's not a whale, it's a car. Cars don't sail, they roll.'" She is two and a half! How genius is that?!

Ok, now onto something even MORE boring - lol! So, yesterday we took DH's car to the shop. Today Ellie had gym class, so I worked from home this morning to let Seth borrow my car and take Ellie to gym class. Well, Ellie didnt want to go to gym class. She was literally throwing a fit (rather unlike her) and screaming and crying that she wanted to stay with mommy! She thought I was staying home and she wanted to play games with me and read stories. We tried to explain to her that mommy still had to work and that I was only home so she could go to gym class, and that if she didnt go to gym class I would just have to go to work, but she didnt believe us. So Seth had to take her out kicking and screaming. Gosh, it totally broke my heart! on so many levels!

Another Day, Another Page

Well, it is 9:30, I am at work and already today I have worked out, watched a tv show and VOTED!! Yes, I went and voted! I have never voted in a primary election before and you know what? It was anticlimactic. Eh, oh well, I made my voice heard, or whatever - lol!

On to more interesting stuff. there is another new contest at scrapwords!!! This one is SOOO exciting that it has all the DT gals totally bummed that they can't compete. but YOU can!!

This is what Leslie had to say on her blog:
I am so excited to announce a FABULOUS Contest brought to you by my friendLisa Bearnson!! Lisa's new book "50 Moments: Scrapbook the Pages that Matter Most" will be released in May. She has generously agreed to give 5 people a copy of this amazing book! AND to make it even sweeter Lisa will autograph each book to the winner personally!!

Here's what I need from YOU! I want to see YOUR most memorable moments in a scrapbook page. Please e-mail me your layout (8x8 and up) to
les262@embarqmail.com
Contest starts today. I'll need your layouts by midnight May 9th.

Any questions...just PM me or leave a comment here. Thanks and good luck!!!!
http://www.scrapwords.com/
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and now, finally, the page for the day. I am sooooo in love with this one. I think it is the title and the photo editing, but I am sure part of it is the fabulous kit from scrapperie that made it all come together so perfectly! the only thing not in the scrapperie kit was the green letters from scenic route which I altered by sanding and painting and sanding again.

Thoughts of the Day

Beware: I actually have some 'real' thoughts to share today - imagine that?!
My thoughts today pertain to the presidential election - but dont worry, I am not going to take a stand on any one candidate - just tactics. Ok, so as you may or may not know, I live in Pennsylvania and am registered democrat, and as yet I am undecided on who I am going to vote for. More or less, I am the target audience of both Hillary and Obama. And yet both of them have managed to annoy me! We have been getting phone calls at all hours of the day and night from both live people trying to convince us to vote one way or the other, or from recordings. It is to the point that I almost am not answering the phone anymore. Is this the way that they think they are going to get votes? Oh and we also had a visit from one person. It is just ridiculous! On the other hand, I heard an interview this morning on the radio and I believe it really got me thinking. Even though no real issues were discussed, it had an impact on me. And you know what the impact was? That this is truly a popularity contest. There really isnt a big difference in the issues - especially because they are both from the same party. They have both had 'scandals'. so what it really comes down to is, who do you like better? I just dont know. I mean, I think that Obama has real charisma. I guess you could say that I like him better. But I really think that Hillary would do a great job, and Obama I am not so sure of. So I guess the answer there is that I am leaning towards Hillary. BUT, then I wonder if maybe Obama's charisma really does make a difference, and if having lots of people strongly support him would mean that he has a better chance of winning the general election, and of motivating people to really make the changes that everyone is talking about. So, that's it, those are my thoughts. I still dont know who I am voting for, but I have to make up my mind quickly I guess. Gosh, I am feeling a lot of pressure about this decision. Usually I take the stance that my vote really doesnt matter. But this time it really could make a difference. Hmmm.

Ok enough of that. I had a long busy week and I will talk about that later, but now here is a page that I worked on this weekend. Using my DT stuff from Scrapwords - new Prima paper, rub-ons from Flair Designs, stickers from Daisy d's, flowers from Prima, rub-ons from Scenic route and rub-ons from IOD Prima. I also colored in the designs with markers, and used rub-ons from american crafts, and a stamp from Scarlet Lime. and some misc fabric

new contest at scrapperie

Do you want to participate in an exciting new scrapbooker's challenge for a chance to win some great prizes and maybe even become a Très Chic Girl? To celebrate our first anniversary, Scrapperie will be hosting a new contest to get your creative juices flowing! The contest, called The Gauntlet, will be completed in seven challenge-filled stages and will run from May 1-June 30, when the Grand Prize winner is announced.

Starting on Sunday, April 27, those interested in participating in The Gauntlet must submit one layout into The Gauntlet Gallerie and sign in on the http://www.scrapperie.com/forums/index.php?act=idx. Anyone interested in participating has until 11:59 PM CST on May 3 to sign up and enter an initial layout into the Gallerie. The initial layout may be something previously made, published, etc- it should just showcase your best work. (Any project from that point on needs to be never before seen and specifically made for The Gauntlet's challenges.) Sorry, but any projects submitted to this contest must be primarily paper based. No all digital layouts will be accepted. Hybrid layouts are welcome, but it must be obvious that the layout is mostly tangible products.

Prizes will include a Grand Prize package valued at over $75 and a position as a Très Chic Girl for the upcoming term (July-October). First place is a prize package valued at over $50. Second place's prize package is valued over $35 and third place's prize package is valued over $25. Other prizes may be awarded at the judges' discretion. Everyone entering the challenge will have chances to win Scrapperie gift certificates for the Boutique.

The Gauntlet's winner will be determined by a non-biased panel of judges. Projects will be judged on creativity, originality, design and how closely each challenge is followed. Please come visit Scrapperie's contest forum for complete rules and details of The Gauntlet.

If you're stuck in a rut and wanting to win some great prizes, come play along in Scrapperie's Gauntlet!

Scrapwords' April Contest

This was just announced at Scrapwords and will be announced on Pub Calls later today. Scrapwords is having a giant contest. Check it out:

"Starting April 16th and running through May 11th for every layout or other creative project you post OR Blog entry you make you will get an entry into the contest. Let's say you post 2 layouts and write one Blog entry on Thursday...you'll get THREE entries into the contest!! The more you post the better your chance of winning!!!What can you win??? A HUGE gift pack of Fancy Pants and Prima products including one of everything new in the store from these two fabulous companies!! This gift is worth over $50.00!!!!! So what are you waiting for??? Start posting on Wednesday April 16th!!!!"

And if you dont have a Scrapwords account or a Scrapwords blog, get one! it's free and easy and you are going to LOVE the community there!
http://www.scrapwords.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=April-Contest.html&Itemid=141&osCsid=172f347e9fd2b616fcd5e1f32418be4

Fitness Inspiration

I know I havent blogged in a while. That is because I havent had anything scrappy to say. and actually, I have been kinda down and didnt really have ANYTHING to say.

Don't worry I am not going to bore you with all the details of these upcoming 12 weeks, but I just wanted to put this out there, for myself. So here ya go:

So, this morning I woke up at 4:30 WIDE AWAKE. I have no idea why. But I couldnt stay in bed, my feet were like itching to work out.
that is not a feeling that I am used to. So I lay there for a while thinking. Thinking about what kind of a difference losing weight could make in my life. Thinking about how CHA is 12 weeks away and I am going to Chicago to meet some friends that I have never met in person before. Thinking about how much change I could do in those 12 weeks. Thinking about how my friend joined weight watchers about 12 weeks ago and she is like a whole different person. Thinking about how OLD I feel. I am tired all the time. I got really drunk on Saturday and I was hung over for TWO DAYS. I have the beginning of vericose veins. I have so much pudge around my middle that it makes it hard for me to cut my toenails. I wake up every morning all achey and tense. I have a 2 year old, and I am almost always too tired to play with her. I NEVER want to take her to the park, even though it is five houses down, because I am just too lazy.
Then I was thinking about how we are going to Disney World in August and it is going to be hot, HOT. And I am embarrassed to wear shorts, let alone a bathing suit. I want to take lots of pictures, and I want to be in them, but I know that I wont want to scrap them when I see how I look in the pictures.
And you know what I did? I got up and worked out - at 4:30! Then I took a shower and DD had gotten up and come looking for me, so I lay down with her for about 20mins, then I got up and did my hair and cleaned my scrap room and ate breakfast and left for work. It is not even 8am and I feel like I have accomplished so much!
I made a pact with myself to really really try for the next 12 weeks. I WILL work out! And you know what, since I am a numbers person I did this math too - that is only 36 work outs! I can do that right?!

My first Guest Designer Spot!

Guess what? I just found out that I was chosen as the Guest Designer for the month of may at Scrapbook Dreamer . I am really excited to be a guest, I can't wait to see what this opportunity will bring.

The first thing that it brought already is that I headed over to the site and heard about their crop which is going on this weekend. I love crops! And this one is loaded with challenges, prizes and the grand prize is a Clip It Up! can you imagine?!

I will be stopping by on Saturday for a while, and you know I love challenges so I know I will be doing a few of those. You should check it out too!

a find at goodwill

Ok, don't think that I am turning into one of those scrap celebs or scrap celeb wanna be's who adore anything vintage. Not that I have a problem with vintage, there are certain things that I love for their vintage look - like a copper rooster baking pan that I checked out at goodwill but didnt buy. I thought it was cute and might look cute in my kitchen, but couldnt think where I would hang it. Really, I hate 'stuff'. I hate having too many doo-dads around my house collecting dust and taking up space.

But I went to goodwill because I am having a really rough day at work and I wanted to get out. But once I was in the car I had no idea where to go. I didnt have a coupon for ACMoore (can you imagine?) and I absolutely refuse to go there if I dont have a coupon. And I thought about old navy but I hate shopping for clothes since I need to lose weight and I knew I wasnt in the mood for that. Then I remembered the goodwill. I keep passing it and thinking that I should stop in sometime just to check it out, but I never do. Well today I did. It is a really big store with a good selection of 'stuff' - i.e. not clothes - although there is a big selection of clothes too. I found a black tv stand that I am almost positive came from target and I almost bought it to use in my dining room but it was $50 and I dont really need it.

What I DID buy is a tiny little glass mason jar with a handle that I intend to put small cut flowers from my garden in. (I cut some daffodils the other day and had nothing that was the right size to put them in)

And I got a mirror. It is just a smallish oval mirror with a stand and a hanger so you can do either, and it has a not too bad but not too great wood frame with a bunch of details on it. I plan to paint it black and funk it up and hang it in my scrap room because I do my hair down there all the time and have no mirror. It was only .97 !!

I am going to go wild with it, because for that price, who cares if I mess it up?!

Mini Book

I am so proud of this mini book! I made it for my sister because her camera was not working on the day of my niece's second birthday party. Oh and it is going to be my entry into the Teresa Collins mini book competition at Coordinates Collections. As soon as I make sure that I like these photos. what do you think? do you like the composite photos, or should I just take a photo of the one or two best pages with the whole book showing but open to those pages?

The album is 7 Gypsies. I took it completely apart and stamped each of the pages with Fancy Pants stamps. (Love those stamps! And you can get them in the Scrapwords store). I also used a bunch of stuff from ymbd.etsy.com : the vellum flowers, the paisley tag, the flower tag, and one of the journaling tags. Aslo there is a ton of Teresa Collins stuff here. Including the damask design that is on the cover. I will be posting tips about that in an article later today. Other supplies include: mini die cut paper from Jenni Bowlin, ribbon from AC, letters from MM, letters from AC, chipboard buttons from MM, chipboard from Scenic route, Jenni Bowlin tickets, Daisy D's rub-ons, coasters from imagination project, stickers from CI, and paper from CI.

Wonderful World LO

This page is inspired by the Got Mojo blog challenge and by Sandy's lyrics challenge at Scrapwords.


Paper is Teresa Collins and Creative Imaginations. Letters are American crafts and Making Memories. Corner Coasters are Imagination Project. Tags are from ymbd.etsy.com Also their is a piece of envelope on there, and an office style date stamp.

Woohoo! Check it out!

I won a Bad Girls Kit from the scrap scene giveaway!
http://www.scrapscene.com/2008/04/giveaway-winner-for-bad-girls-kit.html

I am just in total shock because there were so many entries that I didnt think I had a shot, but I got lucky! Woohoo!

Here are a couple more pages from this past weekend. I am sure you will notice that they all are more or less the same colors. That is because I took a kit that was based on black, blue and green. Then I added some extra cardstock and addons, in the same colors.

In both of these pages, notice the floral paper. Where you see the blue and green flowers, that is actually cutouts from the paper, and I glued colored paper behind the cutouts. The paper came with those cutouts - pretty neat huh?

Oh, you will also notice that I have been working more on clustering my embellishments. It isnt somethign that really comes naturally to me. Usually I will only put one or two together, so I have been trying to put more in a cluster for visual interest.

On the first one here, I used the cosmo cricket blackboard and fancy pants felt. In the openings of the flowers, I glued scraps of the felt to the back of the flower so that the bright blue peeks through. That scallopped circle paper is also from the MM journal book.

Here the journaling is on a sheet from the MM journal book. the black flower is a fabric rosette from etsy. And the patterned paper on the right is from Scenic Route. Pretty much everythign else on these pages is MM.

Here is a two page LO that I did on vacation. I dont do two pagers that much lately, but I just couldnt give up any of these photos.

More of the MM paper, journaling paper (which I cut into a frame), chipboard buttons, acrylic tag, and stickers. ribbon is from Target, Two Maya Road sheer journaling spots, fancy pants felt, doodlebug and AC letters.

A random 'dirty little secret': I made a mistake with the lace. I cut it too short, so I used the acrylic tag to cover up the joint.

Here is another page that I made with my selection of Making Memories stuff that I took on vacation.

The background paper is from the MM Noteworthy collection. The stickers, black patterned paper, journaling sheet, and chipboard buttons are from the 5th avenue collection. the transparency is hambly, the floral PP is scenic route, the buttons and lace are misc. And there is some cosmo cricket blackboard on there too.

Oh and here is another 'dirty little secret' for you: the two big circles there arent really circles! I didnt have enough left of either one of those papers to make a whole circle, so I cut as much of the circle as I could and hid the unfinished side under the layering.

Home from GA

So, I am finally home, after a long long day! We left the house in Savannah at around 9 am. And then our bad luck started. First our bag was overweight, so we had to buy another bag and move some stuff into it in order to not pay the $50 fine for an overweight bag. The bag that we bought only cost $16 and hey, now we have a bag to keep for next time – thank you to the really great gate agent who suggested that we visit the gift shop for a new bag! Then we went through security. And the threat level was orange – I have no idea why. And I don know if that has anything to do with it or not, but they found two suspicious things in our bags from the xray, so we had to have two separate bags searched. The first thing was ellie’s m&ms and crayons which were in a pencil case and apparently looked like a liquid on the xray, and then the other thing was the packages of sliced cheese that Kenny and Phyllis asked us to bring back for them because apparently you can’t get that kind in our area. Oh well, on we went, to wait at the gate, have lunch and take ellie to the bathroom – which is always an event in a public restroom because I am super paranoid about her touching stuff. But we made it, on the plane. Then they told us that we were delayed, and would sit on the tarmac for an hour, then they told us that we were further delayed and would sit for another hour. Our flight was supposed to leave at 12:30 and ended up taking off at 3:15!! Now that would have been bad enough if we were waiting in the terminal, but of course we were sitting on the plane with a 2.5 year old. Luckily, I have the best behaved child EVER!! No less than five people stopped to tell us how great she was. Then of course after sitting for hours and having the really nice flight attendant stop by with drinks more than a couple times, she had to go potty. I was dreading that! If you don’t know – ellie insists on going potty by herself with no assistance from anyone except for the help of stripping her pants, undies and shoes. She doesn’t use a seat, steps or a chair, rather she acrobatically climbs up onto the seat and straddles the seat. So as you can imagine, even a not so paranoid about germs person like me, is a little skeeved out by the idea of her walking barefoot on a public restroom floor and then holding on and climbing up, but she WILL NOT let me hold her over the potty or help in any way. She did compromise by allowing me to have her stand on my leg in her barefeet rather than standing on the gross floor. ANYWAY, obviously in the tiny bathroom on the airplane that was out of the question, and I explained that to her and despite being tired and bored from sitting on the airplane for three hours, she let me hold her over the potty and not take her pants all the way off!!I am sooooo proud of her!! Then we took off and she SCREAMED, so much that I was almost crying! But luckily pretty much as soon as we were in the air, she fell asleep and I was able to get a glass of wine, which I desperately needed after all that screaming! I felt so bad for her!

These are both pages that I worked on while I was on vacation. They both use a lot of the making memories 5th avenue collection almost everything is from the Scarlet Lime March kit.

Those black flowers are cosmo cricket's new blackboard stuff - pretty cool!

oh and in the second one, the mat behind the main photo (the black with small polka dots) is part of the packaging!!

Oh and can I just say that I got a new appreciation for all my tools since I had only a pair of scissors, a 9x9 mat, two rulers and an exacto knife. No paper trimmer!! it was CRAZY!!