Engaging

ok so the picture doesn't really have anything to do with the post but its cute, ah the life of a wiener 

Remember this post at the beginning of the year?  The one where I chose ENGAGE as my one little word of the year.  Well like most things I started off well and then faltered. I am sad to say that I have been spending much to much time on the internet, and not even quality time doing things that I love like blogging.  No, I have been obsessively checking Facebook to see what's going on, chatting with friends, and 'pinning' on Pinterest.  I don't like the person I am when I spend to much time online, I don't like how I half listen to my children and how I sometimes blatantly ignore them.  I tell myself its because I am a stay at home mom that I chat with my friends online so much.  That if I was in an office with 'real' people to talk to I wouldn't need to do this.  I tell myself that its my 'escape'/break from the craziness of the kids.  But here's the thing, if I was engaging with the kids, actually paying attention to them, and playing with them, they are not whiny, they don't fight, and they are may I saw AWESOME.  Time is passing so fast, and they are at such a cool age right now.  I am missing the moments of this age, I am missing out on truly getting to know these little people.  The past two night after dinner, instead of 'escaping' off into the land of the internet I have played with the kids.  I have sat on the floor and played jacks and lego.  I have laughed, the kids have laughed, I have peed my pants from laughing, and Kasey peed her pants because she was having too much fun to go to the bathroom!  Dude, these are not moments to be missed!  A couple weeks ago, the girls and I made an impromptu road trip to Grandma's and I left my laptop behind.  I can't tell you how good it felt to 'unplug' for a couple days.  The girls and I were outside by 7:30 AM picking wildflowers and walking to the park.  We played together all day and when it came time for bed I went to sleep right along side them.  I truly enjoyed those days.   So I am hereby on a strict internet DIET, a little time with my JAVA in the am, a peak at lunch, and then I may do as I please at night when the kids are in bed.  Its time to truly LIVE this LIFE of mine.

I am scrappy happy

Its been a good weekend, as I have been able to carve out sometime here and there while the girls play 'BIG GIRLS' to scrap.

Based on the Sketch below by the talented Becky Fleck

A LO on our fitness journey, a reminder of 'how good it feels' :)

I glimmer misted and inked the white ribbon

I used my distress ink and a stencil on this LO, and some glimmer mist on the wooden hand too :) 

Scrappies Scrappies Here Come the Scrappies

I have some scrappies to share, some that have been sitting on my desk for a while and some that I have done just recently.

This is done on a large brown mailing envelope, I mod podged a collage of papers on it

Art journal meets LO in this one, there are many layers of paint on this

A LO of my fav guy :)

Heather took this pic for me, a fun bright pink LO

I made this mini out of a brown paper bag, its of the race we just did as a family, I loved journalling in this, reliving the event again, one of my favorite memories for sure

A few of the inside pages, truly scrappy made out of scraps of PP and odds and ends

Thanks for looking, and happy scrapping to you all :)

Best in Show

We had Beau's picture taken at Westfest by Elisabeth & Jane.  We got to dress Beau up, we chose a cute houndstooth bow tie which you can't see in the pic because we had to hold Beau down, he wasn't very keen on the idea of dressing up and having his picture taken.  Just so you don't think we are one of THOSE TYPES...the fee went to a Dog Recue Charity (and we got some cool treats too) LOL

Squires Summer Fun List

The girls helped me come up with this list to celebrate the first OFFICIAL DAY OF SUMMER, which we will be celebrating while wading in Big Sister Cate's Pool!  A special thank-you to the inspiring Nora for the idea.

Bubbles and Pearls

  Her hair is a constant halo of blond crazy curls, that she twirls in her fingers.  She has taken to wearing pearls and pretty dresses most days.  Today when she got dressed she proudly asked Daddy, "How I look?"  She speaks in the cutest little voice, and stammers over her words sometimes.  When her big sister is at school, she can be found playing quietly all on her own, talking to herself and her dolls.  She looks like this little tiny angel and then she doesn't get her way, and she balls up her fists and shakes them, and the crying and yelling begins.  Oh boy do you have a tempter right now! You are a terrible eater at dinner time and getting you to eat anything but wiener wraps is an exercise in frustration.  You still love to watch Dora, and you can play computer games all on your own now.  You navigate your way around Nick Jr/PBS Kids site all on your own figuring out how to play new games.  Your love to dance, even though your a clutz,  and can be heard saying "check this out!" Your so easy to put to bed at night, and I love it when I tuck you in and you say "I love you Mom".

Kasey at 3.

Cupcake Fondue

Kasey and I made these yummies Friday for a group of girls that were coming over for an art journal party. I got the idea on Pinterest, and then found this recipe.  The cupcakes were actually the 2nd attempt, the previous attempt having failed miserably the night before. Yes I messed up cupcakes from a box LOL.  But in the end they did look awfully pretty.  No one really ate them, but they did look good.  So now what do I do with all the left over cupcakes?

Magic of ACTIONS

I don't have a fancy camera, and I truthfully I am not very good with a camera. But as a scrapbooker I want 'pretty' pictures to scrapbook and I can't rely on my sweet friends all the time for taking pictures. So photo ACTIONS to the rescue! All you do is 'press a button' and the ACTION takes you through a number of fancy editing steps automatically. Best part, many are free! I love THE COFFEE SHOP BLOG, it has many fantastic free actions and tutorials on how to use them.

These photos have been edited with actions from the coffeeshop blog, mainly ICEPOP, COLOR POP and MOODY POP,

Finally Donna Downey!

Thank-you Natasha for taking our picture, I am so going to treasure this :)

I know its a bit silly but I do think of certain 'scrapbookers' and 'artists' as celebrities and meeting them is akin to meeting a movie star in my book. So when I had the chance to take a class from non other than Donna Downey herself on Friday I was a little awe struck and shy LOL. Truly a bucket list moment for me. I loved the artsy little album we made and I finished the inside of it up this weekend with my favorite quotes that I have been collecting on Pinterest. Its messy and full of sloppy writing but I love it. Thank-you Donna.

Scrapbook and Cards Today Challenge

Heather posted a challenge to our little FB scrappy group to do the June Scrapbook and Cards Today Project 12 Sketch.   I am all for a challenge and I am surprisingly loving 2 page LO's of late.  I think the secret is the sketch, I am loving the sketches.  So here's my take, a LO with some fun memories from a recent girls night.  I used Pink Paislee's Soiree line, an all time favorite, and the corresponding Color Connection Clam pack from Tattered Angels.  

Scrapbook Challenges

A group of friends and I have been putting scrapbook challenges back and forth on a Facebook Group. I love doing this its like being at a crop playing together and I love working from a challenge as it makes scrapping even more fun. I stayed home from the gym today feeling pretty blah with a cold, as is Kasey. Funny thing is I actually scrapped 2 pages this morning, somehow the combination of cold pills, slowing down and the kids playing really nicely just worked out LOL!.

Inspiration for the LO below, challenge posted by Rachel

I painted green and blue glimmer mist onto the cardstock. 

Challenge: To scrap a page about yourself and journal about where you are or where you are going. 

The Journalling in the LO above reads: I feel like I am living a fairytale. My fairy godmother has come and granted me self confidence, words to write, and self love....for the first time in YEARS! I feel pretty. For so long I truly felt 'ugly' in my skin...its about so much more than loosing weight...its about finding me.

Challenge:  Create a LO where you mimic images from a PP by doodling AND/OR use a variety of text in a title. 

So does anyone else feel like playing along?