Scrappin Addiction

Hello.. my name is Leah, an I'm a scrapaholic. This past time of mine is out of control. When you're laying in bed at night and can't go to sleep because you're thinking of different ways to do a layout and what colors and pictures.. you may be a scrapaholic. This happened to me the last two nights. I know. It's crazy. But it's so much fun! Natalie is falling into a routine of going to bed right at 8pm, so that gives me a couple of hours to scrap before I need to go to bed myself.

Here's what I've done the past two evenings.


I finally downloaded Picasa and I don't know why I didn't get this software a long time ago. It is very easy to use and does some neat stuff. And, best of all, it's FREE. I used the program to do the black and white pictures and keeping her outfit red. Too cool huh? I'm off to bed, where visions of scrapbook pages dance in my head.

Circle Journals

Beginning in February, I begin a new round of circle journals with the gals I scrap with. If you are not familiar with circle journals, what we do is each choose a theme and do a layout based on that theme. Then your book is passed around month by month, and each person participating does a layout in your book about the theme you've chosen. The books "circle" around from month to month. So each month I will have someone else's book and will do a layout for their book based on their theme. I feel like I just repeated myself, but hopefully you get the picture.

I chose "The Girl in the Mirror" as my theme. What I want everyone to do is come up with a word that describes them for each letter of their name. This was the first time I ever did pages that were just about me, but as you'll see from the pictures I found a way to sneak Natalie in there too!



These two pages do go together.. can you tell my lighting was different for each one? Ha..

I've been looking at monthly scrap kits and am considering trying one out. Any of you fellow scrappers have a suggestion on which one to try? There are lots to choose from on this site. I just can't make up my mind..

Love is in the air

Tell me that's not the cutest baby you've ever seen? I've been working on layouts of pictures from Natalie's first few weeks of life. I'm amazed at how much she's changed in these short 3 1/2 months. She is really starting to make lots of sounds and she loves blowing spit bubbles. It's just so much fun to sit and talk to her and watch her react.

I have to give credit for this layout to Heidi Swapp. It's adapted from one that she posted of her little Capri back last summer. It is a two page layout, however I don't have the other side finished yet. I had a lot of fun with this... finally used some chipboard letters that I bought months ago, and the clocks on this page were purchased over a year ago. I finally found a use for them.Thought I'd try to get ahead of the game, so I finished up my Valentine's gift for John. The frame is an unfinished wood frame from Michael's. I used mod podge to cover it with paper and then used chipboard hearts and letters to decorate. I'm trying to make good use of my scraps so I used some of them to make this LOVE card.
Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Don't forget to do something special for the one you love!

Ten On Tuesday

I haven't had anything really specific to post about the last few days. I've got a couple of projects I'm working on but want to get them completed before I share them so.. Thanks to Cheryl for the inspiration for today's post.

(1) What's under your bed right now?
Nothing. We have a water bed, so there is no "under the bed".
(2) What size shoe do you wear?
7 1/2
(3) What's the last restaurant you ate at?
El Camino Real - Sunday night after church with our friend Jeff
(4) How many siblings do you have?
Just one--a younger brother
(5) What side of the bed do you sleep on?
I don't know.. is that when you're facing the bed or laying in it? Right side.. If we're talking about laying in it. Left side if we're facing it. LOL
(6) Who taught you to drive, and in what kind of car?
My dad, in a Chevy S-10. He used to do workman's comp investigations as a side job. I got to be the driver as he went around checking these people out for North Alabama counties.
(7) If you could have a different career, what would it be?
I am just beginning my career as a stay at home mom. I wouldn't want it any other way.
(8) What color looks best on you?
Not sure about this one, but my favorite colors to wear are pink, black and white.
(9) What's your favorite board game?
Used to love Balderdash and Pictionary, but haven't played either in a LONG time.
(10) How tall are you?
5' 8"

The Power of Music and Some Other Stuff

This afternoon I saw something that brought me to tears. If you watch Oprah on a regular basis, you may have already seen this before. Today's episode was a repeat, and she had some amazing kids on today. I was particularly impressed by Jennifer Lin. She had Oprah pick out 5 notes, she played the 5 notes so that Oprah could hear what they sounded like, she then took a few seconds to gather her thoughts, and then she composed a song on the spot using that series of notes. I don't know what it was about the melody that brought me to tears, but it was absolutely beautiful. I don't know if part of it was because she did this on the spot or what, but it was something else. You can see and hear the video here.

On another note (no pun intended..ha) I worked on some pages tonight. This one was my favorite.The pictures aren't messed up, I just didn't realize I got a bad glare on the layout when I took it. I don't have the energy tonight to redo it. I had planned on scrappin' the night away because I know hubby will be up late playing his new video game. However I'm having a scrapping block. So rather than sitting there staring at the pictures and paper trying to come up with something, I figured I'd call it a night.

One last note.. please say a prayer for Brody. He is the 5 week old son of a friend of mine and is in the hospital with RSV. As a new mom myself I really have this family on my mind. We love you guys and are praying for Brody's speedy recovery.

A Layout and some Tuesday Thoughts

I don't normally do one picture layouts. I have all my pictures, I scrap most all of them to document and preserve our memories and I try to always scrap in date order. But every once in awhile you just have to get outside of the box. Do something you're not use to doing. I want to grow as a "scrapbooking artist" so to speak, and the above is the result. This little sweetheart is going to give me plenty scrappin' opportunities.

It's been in the 60's and even 70's this past weekend, but over the last day and a half, the temperature's bottomed out. I don't think the high today was more than 39 or 40 degrees. We had tons to do today, so we bundled up and headed out. Natalie hated this hat. This was a calm moment before the tears start flowing. She finally got used to it after a few minutes, but even after we left the house it didn't last long. It kept covering her eyes which she also did not like.

John picked up his WoW Expansion Pack, then we went to Best Buy for him to pick up the strategy guide. Also went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some more acrylic stamps. One of them was the "n" that was used in the above layout.

So about tonight's episode of American Idol. I had very mixed emotions going into tonight. Four years ago, when I became such an Idol Fan, I joined an American Idol online community. I've made several online friends from that community and the little group of about 20-25 people have become like a little AI family. The American Idol forum that we all post and chat on stays active year round. One of the most beloved members, who posted almost every day without fail had not been around for several weeks. The group found out today that she passed away on December 30th. She was only in her early 40's and it was such a shock to the entire forum. She has a 19yr old son and a 15 yr old daughter.. so my prayers go out to this family in North Dakota.

I don't want to end this post on a sad note, so here are my random thoughts about tonights show.

• The singing was really bad, but we all knew to expect that.
• The very first girl that was "inspired" by Jewel seemed to be an act. I didn't buy all that crying.
• Overall I was disappointed. The bad ones weren't all that funny and the good one's were just okay.
  
• I think my favorite was the Jackson girl. I think her first name was Denise.
• Somebody should have unlocked that left door for crying out loud.
  

It's that time again...

Tomorrow night begins the four month journey to our next American Idol! I had no interest at all in this show in it's first season, though I am a huge Kelly Clarkson fan now. However, a good ole' boy from Alabama made it to Hollywood in Season 2 and I have been hooked ever since. I even received a DVD recorder from my husband 3 Christmases ago specifically to record every episode. Last year, I was privileged enough to know about Taylor Hicks before the show even started. So I was rooting for him from the very first note he sang at his audition in Vegas. This past summer, my mother and I attended the Top 10 Tour in Birmingham and Mr. Hicks stole the show. My state has always been represented well and I am so excited for another season!

So what else is going on... today was such a busy day. I have jumped into FlyLady with both wings. Telah sent me her version of the Routine sheets that she adapted from Jamie. I worked last night to revise them to fit my household, printed them out, tied them together with ribbon, and posted them on my frig. I did really well today and I'm even a little ahead for week 1. Thanks so much to you gals for giving me the motivation to do this. Now we can help keep each other accountable. I'm a long, LONG way from being as organized as Amy, but I feel like I'm off to a good start.

And now for a little bit about little bit. She rolled over twice today! She actually rolled over for the first time last Wednesday, but I was spaced out on the couch, sick with a stomach bug, so I didn't get to see. Here she is before and after.

How fun is this??

I know a lot of my blog readers aren't in the business of getting married, but I just had to share what I am working on. Before I went on maternity leave I was working full time as Support/Help for a Web Application that helps Government offices manage their PPBE process. You may be thinking, ok, please speak English. Let's just say that the Planning and Execution of our tax dollars is in total chaos and you would be horrified if you could see the details of how our money is mismanaged, wasted, and spent. But that's a whole different blog post.

Anyway.. when I returned to work last week, I find out that I'm going to be working on something totally different, and a whole lot more fun! It's a wedding website. It's in the beginning stages but it's going so well. It's such a cute site and I'm so proud of the company I work for putting this together. So if any of my Alabama readers know anyone in North Alabama that's getting married, be sure to turn them onto this site. It's great!

Why am I Still Up...

It's just a little before midnight and I'm still up. I spent the evening scrapbooking and have been browsing the internet for the last hour. I know what's going to happen. As soon as I shut my laptop down, brush my teeth, and get all snug in my bed, the baby will wake up wanting to eat. I know we're so close to sleeping through the night, in fact, she did it Monday night. That's right, she went 8 hours. She's been averaging between 5-7 for several weeks. Monday night was just a tease though because she's been up about every 3 and a half the rest of this week. I really can't complain though, because I know it could be much worse. She's done really well for the most part and once she eats she goes right back to sleep, so that's a blessing! I'm just getting ready for several nights in a row of uninterrupted sleep.

John's taking the paint off the walls with his snoring as I type this and her bedroom is just right across the hall. I guess she's used to hearing that because she hasn't stirred yet.

Here are a couple more pictures from our session at Portrait Innovations. I'm ready to do my pages with these pictures but I've promised myself I'm not going to go out of order. I did the last of the pictures in the hospital tonight. Next up are the going home pics. If I can just get through all the pictures from October I'll feel caught up. It's a good thing I have several books to fill and lots of refill pages!

The faces of a girl

I worked about 4 and a half hours today. For the most part, it went really well. Of course Natalie started crying her little heart out in the middle of a telecon with the office, but we made it through. Here's my little girly girl.. all of the pictures were taken within about 20 minutes of each other. Not sure who she gets her moodiness from..me or her dad. It's a toss up because it could be either! :)

Creative Gallery

Last night at our monthly crop I worked the majority of the time on two circle journals I needed to complete. We are about to start another round and we have 10 people participating. Should be fun!

But tonight Natalie went to sleep just a little after 8pm.. Woo Hoo.. so I worked on a page for her book. I haven't used stickers much lately but I used some for this along with some Heidi Swapp jewels and flower. I also added some stamping to some other pages that just looked too plain. I am really loving all the Autumn Leaves stamps I've aquired over the last few months.

Telah had mentioned that she made me a book for Christmas. Well since she didn't take pictures of it, I had to. This little book is awesome and I think she did such a great job on it. I'll warn you though that some of these pictures go as far back as 1991. Not only were we crazy teenagers, but our hairdos are quite interesting in some of the pics. Enjoy!

The Mother of All Tape Runners

So what do I think about the Scotch ATG 700?

It rocks! The thing is so huge though, I just had to share some of the comments I got tonight at our monthly crop:

• Are you packing boxes tonight? (this one was almost everyone's first reaction)
• You planning on pricing stuff?
• That looks like the warehouse/Office Depot version of a tape gun
• You sure you're gonna have enough adhesive for tonight?

And my favorite:

• That's not just a tape runner, that's a tape bazooka

My friends... such comedians.

Scrapbook Jackpot!

Almost didn't get out today, but I am so glad that we did. For some reason when you have a new baby, it seems to take twice as long to get ready to go anywhere than before. But my Christmas money was burning a hole in my pocket and today was John's off day, so we decided to venture out. First we went to Kohl's to return some clothes that were the wrong size. John found a bunch of stuff and ended up with some new shirts, new khakis and a whole truckload of socks. Now if I can just convince him to throw away all the worn out holey ones.

After finishing up at Kohl's we headed over to Hobby Lobby. Shopping here is not exactly John's idea of a good time, so he and Natalie napped in the car. I had several great surprises when I got inside. Just minutes after I walked in, they announced over the intercom that for the next 15 minutes, all Christmas merchendise would be 80% off. I was already looking over the leftover scrapbooking stuff. I went crazy! I got over $100 worth of stuff for $24. Here's my Christmas stash.-----> It consists of three huge embellishment kits, a tag kit, bunches of rolls of ribbon and four other small packs of embellishments.

And that's not all! Once I purchased that stuff, I headed back to the regular scrapbook area, and to my surprise, discovered that Hobby Lobby is now carrying Autumn Leaves stamps AND they are 50% off this week. They also had their storage boxes and Spare Parts embellishments on sale, so here's the rest of my purchase. They have a really good 50% off sale going on this week, so if John and Natalie hadn't of been waiting in the car, I probably eould have done a lot more damage than I did. Thanks Alan and Kelli for my Gift Card, I used it all up today! When I left there, I gave Telah a call to tell her they were carrying Autumn Leaves. Before the store closed tonight, I think between Telah, Heather, and our friend Amy C, they are now out of stock!

Then when we got home tonight, guess what was on my front doorstep? This thing!

I first heard about this awesome tape runner from Amy's Blog. Then after one of my posts asking about adhesive, another blog buddy, Jolene recommended it to me. Wow, this thing is huge! I have a crop with friends on Friday night, and I can't wait to use it. I'm so glad I've "met" these scrappy ladies, becuase both of them are so creative and always have good ideas and products to share.

Well I'm headed to bed, tomorrow is my first day back at work. While I am only going back part time and also going to be able to work from home, I do have to go into the office in the morning for a little while to meet with the powers that be and discuss the details of my 'work from home' position. Here's one last picture for my non-scrappy friends and family. Isn't daddy so cute with his girl? The light from the lamp made this picture look really neat to me.