Par-Tay!!

The highlight of our weekend was the family birthday party we had for Natalie. It was so much different than her first birthday because she actually knew what was going on. A couple of days before, I was talking to her about it and telling her that it was only a few more days until her party with cake and ice cream. And she said, "AND presents?" and I told her "yes, AND presents." :)

We started out the evening at our favorite pizza place. Between Natalie and Abigail, everybody stays pretty entertained.
Before heading back to the house we went to PaPa and MeMe's new house. This picture of N with Uncle A and Aunt K cracks me up. Love that she has her hand on Uncle A's knee.

We then headed back to our house for the real fun with presents. We laughed so much at her as she was opening her gifts. She got so excited jumping up and down. One present she even jumped up and down, threw her hand in the air making a fist and yelled, "I Love it!"


Notice the crossed arms in this one....


We also dressed her up in her Tinkerbell outfit, which was just way too cute. Birthdays with a 2 year old are definitely more fun.


And I had to do this layout just right after I took these pics of her on her actual birthday because I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.

We love you Natalie! So glad you had so much fun!

The Pefect Fall Combo-Brown, Orange and PINK!

My good friend Jamie has started her own kit club as demonstrator for Stampin Up! I am lucky enough that she has asked me to design for her kits. Her debut kit is up for sale now. Love the colors in this one. Of course I can never get enough pink.

So here's what I did.
First off, I am not a card person. I always think about how usually a card is read and then tossed, and it's hard for me to make something that I know is most likely gonna get thrown away. Plus I just don't feel like I'm very good at it. However for whatever reason this kit really put me in the mood for cards. AND I actually enjoyed it, so there may be more cards in my future.
For this first layout, I used sections of several of the patterned papers and 3 tags along the bottom. Everything is from the kit except for the letters which are American Craft thickers. Also used my Fiskars scallop punch.


Stampin Up! Has some really great ribbon. The brown strip with stitching at the bottom of this page is just a piece of what came in the kit. You get 1 yard of three different kinds.

This last page is one I squeezed in at the last minute. Addtional products for this one include; Alpha and number stickers by American Crafts and Making Memories and pink flower and heart felt embellishments by Fancy Pants. Can you tell I really like my scallop border punch?

After I finished this layout I realized 2 of the 3 had "cute" in the title. Ironically I try not to use that very often because it becomes a little cliche. Sometimes it feels like a "go to" word when you're lacking a title idea. In this last layout I actually used it because my letter stickers were an assortment of colors and it was the only word I could come up with using the letters that were orange. HA. Didn't know scrapbookers had little secrets huh?

You can check out the kit here!

Happy Birthday Natalie!

This night two years ago, John and I were still on an emotional high, sitting in our hospital room with our new baby girl.(In this pic, she is just minutes old. Did this layout about a year and a half ago.)

Now she is TWO. She keeps us on our toes and it's very hard to even imagine life before her.


At this stage in her life, those funny things are starting to come out of her mouth. I realized that almost every day I have some funny thing to tell John about when he gets home from work. But, I haven't been writing them down, so now I will start.

--About two weeks ago we spent the night out at the Wrenn's. While we were there we went to Andrew's first soccer game. Last week Natalie was playing with a big ball she has and says to me, "want watch Andew play sucker ball".

--While chatting away on her toy cellphone (which consists of saying "hello" over and over), I asked her who she was talking to and she said, "Daddy John".

Happy Birthday sweet girl. We love you.

Scrapbook Sussie October Reveal

My first month with Sussies was so much fun! I got to work with 2 paper lines that I've never tried before. These kits are kind of like a 2 in 1, because you get 2 sets of coordinating supplies. This month's paper was from Daisy Bucket and Scrap Within Reach.

So here's what I did:

On "123 Slide" I actually mixed one of the daisy bucket papers in with the other papers from scrap within reach. These pictures are from last October's visit to the pumpkin patch. Crazy to see how much Natalie has changed.




We were given a sketch to work with by Julie Bonner, and I used it for this "Tinkabell" layout.
Natalie has always been mesmerized by the Pixie Previews that come on Disney channel. These are short little 1-2 minute cartoons that Disney has been airing that are basically commercials for the new Tinkerbell movie that is coming out this month. A couple of weeks ago when I was really sick John took Natalie with him to go grocery shopping. When they got back, she had a Tinkerbell doll. She pronounces it "Tinkabell", so no, I didn't mispell it. LOL.
You can also head over to the Sussies webpage and see what the other girls did with the kit!

So You Think You Can Scrap

Yep. Another Contest. Your Memories by Design is hosting this one and Round #1 starts today.

There are 53 great entries! All votes are anonymous and you don't have to sign up for anything to vote. Come and help us decide who should move on to Round #2. Head on over HERE and cast your vote for your favorite.

TGIF

Happy Anniversary John! Actually yesterday was our anniversary, but I didn't get a chance to post. 9 Years down and many, many more to go. Look at us! We look like kids!

Thank you sweet hubby for giving me two precious girls and all your love!

Wordless Wednesday

Some Scrappy Stuff

Telah and I are making a habit to get together and scrap as often as possible, so I have 2 pages to share.

Latest word at One Little Word is "Change".

And this one is inspired by the layout over at Unpubbed this week.
Short and sweet tonight y'all. Gotta get caught up on some blog reading!

Nothing to Blog

I have nothing to blog about. The scrapping I've done this week is for the October reveal at Sussies, so I can't share that just yet.
I have some layouts and a mini book that I need to get done for this week's assignments at the Nook. They are due tomorrow night. Yikes!

We've been hanging out at home pretty much all week.

I do have some video to share. This first one is Abigail, just a few hours ago.



And then, here's Natalie at the exact same age.



Some days I think they look just alike and others they don't look alike at all!
What do you think?
edited to add: wow what a difference in video quality. The one of Abigail is with my Flip. The one of Natalie was using the video option on my old Kodak point and shoot.

Scrappy Stuff

The latest sketch is up at Creative Scrappers. Here's what I did for it.

Go take a look at the other gals' pages. Pretty crazy how everyone interprets the sketch so differently.

And then a couple of others from the contest at the Nook.

Physical Ed. - Do a layout that has something to do with movement.

History Extra Credit. Use the title of a Michael Jackson song. I chose Carousel, although I've never even heard this song. I guess I need to go look it up on Utube.
I want to also give a big thanks to both Donna and Jennifer. They both recently nominated me for this:

I'm supposed to nominate 7 more blogs to pass the blog award on to, but I just can't pick only seven. So if you're reading this and you have a blog, consider yourself nominated!

The Great Cheese

Who decided that when you say "cheese" for a picture it will result in the most natural looking of smiles? It looks more like, "yeah, I'm up to something. Let me fake it before mommy figures out what."

John's working today, so we're just hanging out at the house.
Watched Alabama whoop up on Arkansas. Wow, talk about a runaway.
And put Abby in the Bumbo for the first time.
And reading a lot of books.




Happy Saturday!

Today's Update

Yes it's been a week since my last post. That is mainly due to the fact that I've come down with some gunk that started on Saturday and just progressively got worse. I finally went to the dr. yesterday and I have a sinus infection, ear infection, and most likely bronchitis. I am feeling better today, however the coughing seems out of control and I have zip, zero, zilch of a voice.

Before all that fun started we took a trip to the zoo on Saturday morning. I have to say I was a tad disappointed. They have it set up so it's similar to the animals natural habitat, which in most cases means big huge jungle like areas and the animals were never nearby. They were all way on the other side of the "field" and you almost need binoculars to see them. For an almost 2 year old, that just doesn't get it. We needed up close and personal. She was more interested in watching the other kids than the animals. It was also ninety blazing two degrees and had me silently screaming "who's idea was this anyway" before we were halfway through the park. Oh yeah, it was mine.
Anyway, here's a couple of pics from that.





School has continued at the Nook. I've been worried about missing class since I've been under the weather the past 3 or 4 days. But I got some scrap time in this afternoon while the girls were asleep. So here's the latest of those.

History 101 - Scrap something from your history at least 20 years old.
This pic is my great grandparents in 1966.

Science/Chemistry - Do a page about the chemistry you have with another person and journal about what brought you together and what they mean to you.

And then a couple of elective courses.
Dance 102 - We had to "dance" with our layout and put it together at an angle other than it facing you up and down. The journaling on this one says, "your sweet cry is music to my ears. Sing baby girl. Sing."

Family and Consumer Science - A layout about your career.

That get's us caught up. Happy Wednesday!

Nook University

You know I love a good scrapbook challenge, so right now I'm participating in the contest going on at The Nook. They've designed each of the "assignments" around subjects you would take in school. So here's what I've done for this week's assignments.

English 101:Reading Assignment - Take a picture of yourself reading, and journal in 50 words or more.

Math 101 - Base you layout on multiples of 3. For mine I have 3 pics, 6 pieces of paper, 9 letter title, and 15 embellishments.

Art - Find a piece of art and use it as your inspiration. This is the piece of art I used.

And here's the layout using the color scheme and flowers.

Math Extra Credit - Use a Math equation for your title.

Dance 101 - Based on 8 beats per measure, use the numbers 1-8. Pick one number or use them all. I chose the number 1.
Been staying up late this week to get my homework done. Too bad REAL homework wasn't this fun!

The Beginning of Something New

For quite some months now I've been giving some thought to starting a small photography business. I don't claim to be an expert. Not even close. However, I really enjoy taking pictures, and I'm lucky enough to have several people that are interested in paying me to take pictures for them. So while I've been giving it though for some time, I've tried to get some practice in here and there. I also needed to get through the busy, sleep deprived first few months of having a newborn before I got more serious about it. Well now, I'm at that point. Yesterday I had my first official client. She found an awesome location and we basically just let the kids wander around while I took pictures. Here are two of my favorites.


I've started a photography site for showing my work, so if you'd like to see more, go here.

Also had to get a couple of Abigail while we were there.
I'm still working on some of the details but will begin booking some sessions soon. If you're in the area and are interested, shoot me an email at leahcwright@yahoo.com

Creative Scrappers #16

Sketch #16 is up at Creative Scrappers! This is the first sketch with the new Design Team, and they've all done awesome work. Here's what I did for this sketch.



To see the sketch and other girls' takes head on over there and take a look. A new sketch is posted every Sunday and for every one you participate in a month, you get your name in a drawing for a scrappy prize.

Couple of other things from the weekend.

Pencillines #100



The latest scrapjack of Christina Clouse.



And my take on the sketch at Scrapbook Challenges. Worked on using up my ribbon stash in this one.