Me Series: February

Still managing to keep up with this one page about me/month thing. (I say that like it's some feat, but really it's only February. ha.) Kinda loving the easy breezy aspect of it… no pressure on when to get it done, as long as it's in the month somewhere… no worries about what to write, it's just whatever or however I'm feeling the day I make the page… I share as little or much as I want… and use whatever products I'm drawn to at the moment. It's lovely to do some just for fun pages, especially when they help contribute to a goal like this of 12 pages about me by the end of the year. 

The only real challenges with this series so far are that I'm still not loving photos of me so I tend to make goofy or pissy faces in them (whatevs, that's just me I guess)… and that life right now is still a bit of the pits (although I'm handling it much better and there are things on the horizon that I *think* I can look forward to, finally). But that's ok because the point of doing this for me is that I have these pages that look back over the past year and show what I was thinking/feeling/doing at any given time. All about me, good, bad, ugly. My story is there just like all of the others. :)

Here's the link to my other page in the series so far. 

Winner Winner Dancing Dinner

Ok ya'll, I promised (another) dancing video for you to giggle at on this Monday morn… it's ok to be impressed, I'm pretty much the coolest. Also you get to hear my Nakiah (cameraman) laugh at me and with me and a very obvious Mom shush (my specialty) (I'm like a pro shush-er at this point).  

Disclamer: No torn MCL's were further damaged during the making of this video… thank you, chair dancing, for allowing me to still get my groove on in a safe and very silly way.

and the real reason you're here… a winner!


Congrats to randomly drawn:

Lisa's Creative Niche

Who said:

"Oh I def think another video is in order hehehehe! Beautiful layout! And so happy to be a follower!"

So you can all blame her for the video (enabler). ;) Lisa, please email your address to me at elizgardner@me.com so I can send along the prize!

and if you have two more minutes of time to waste, and since I haven't done enough already to scar my children…. (everything he knows he learned from his Mother.

Two Peas Feature

I was so excited to head over to Two Peas in a Bucket today to find that I have a Featured Project!

Check it out! I LOVE Two Peas and spend a great deal of time there perusing new products, building my wish list, and ooo-ing and awww-ing over the gallery. It's even one of my dreams to be on their seriously stellar design team one day (I know, I know, way out of my league.. but a girl can dream.).

#rottenkids

So I made this layout about an outing with just me and the kiddos last September. I just had to laugh looking back because they were SO DANG ROTTEN during the whole trip! …

Yeah well, seasons change but some things stay the same. I mean I love them to bits but they are working my last nerve lately! I think it's a combination of the endless snow limiting our ability to go out and play, the tight living quarters, the general stress I'm under right now…. aaaaand, maybe the fact that I'm not very mobile right now which makes doing anything for/with them taxing… snow days and long weekends (thank you, 5 days off for Presidents Day) are not helping either.. nor is the fact that Ev is still not in a new Preschool yet. Grrr. I'm up to here with these rotten children! Anyone else feel my pain?! (Not my knee pain, my high maintenance children pain.)

#alldaylong #goodthinghescute ;)

Dezi & Evie

It's been fun watching the connection between these two. They are three years apart and have been inseparable from the beginning. I'll admit, when I was pregnant with Dez I was concerned about what the dynamic might be between them… but it turns out they are like built in best friends. She whispers secrets in his ears and he laughs most heartily at her shenanigans. It seems like the ideal age gap.

(Layout published in November issue of Scrapbook Trends.)

Evareaux even tries to convince me that he doesn't want a nap just so that she can hang out with him more, it's pretty cool. Nowadays they are closer than ever, always by each others side… sometimes even sitting right on top of each other.

I took these photos just this morning and it's a very common scene… now Fritz gets in the mix too to  lavish puppy kisses on them (licking banana off of pajamas and stealing pacifiers). I look forward to watching these relationships develop even more. Just can't help but smile when I think about them.

(Please excuse the mess and crutches in the background. I am still very gimpy, and also, this is real life.) :)

Valentine's Day Blog Hop

Happy Valentine's Day! Two of my favorite things in one place, love layouts and American Crafts…be still my heart.. Here's what I created for the blog hop….

Lots of Amy Tangerine Plus One goodies in there but the heart stamp is from the Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party line. (cue heart bubbles popping out of my brain like a cartoon character).

American Crafts is giving away a swoon worthy prize so I figured why not jump on the band love wagon? I'm going to have a giveaway too, a collection of goodies that will make you want to say, "mwah!" (I mean, come on, I had WAY too much fun on the last blog hop to not do a giveaway again.. maybe I'll even do another dance video for you all to laugh at when I announce the winner.) All you need to do to enter my giveaway is sign up to be a follower of this blog and leave a comment telling me what AC product you love the most. I'll draw a winner on Monday, February 24th. Good luck and happy love day!

Next on the hop is the love-ly (see what I did there) Gina Lideros.

Project Life 2014

This is the third year I've been doing project life and I still love it. I started on a whim when I became pregnant with my littlest… I thought, I don't know if this is something I'll keep up with, or even want to.. but what the heck, I'll try. I've been hooked since that first week. It's something I look forward to every month. I gather my photos for 4-5 weeks worth of time and after a few hours of paper and embellishment pushing and some journaling it's all there documented. Easy breezy. It's a nice break from the regular layouts I create and usually even jump starts my creativity for both formats. Also gives me a chance to use up all of the random odds and ends supply wise that might not fit elsewhere. Win, win, win.

Here's a few of January's pages...

I'm pretty pleased with the way this years project is starting out. I'm doing a much better job of including all members of the family.. the older boys are a bit more challenging since there are far less photos of them.. but I make an effort to take photos when I remember (when they come out of hibernation in their rooms) and if not at least include a story about what they are up to. I plan to get better and better at that.

Love-ly Favorites

Just a couple of layouts that are great for this week… Valentines and Love layouts are actually my favorite ones to create. I'm a sucker for hearts, so this is a busy time of year for me! :) I LOVE that you can make pages with these themes that are not limited to your significant other… although the hallmark holiday is a great reminder for me to create something about my Hottie and I (since these layouts and photos of us together are few and far between normally.)

Set Backs

Ok. So. Time for a little mental health update. (it's ok if that sentence was enough to make you click onto the next blog.. if not, hey! thanks for reading on! haha) I've been sharing here and there how challenging the past several months have been. It seems like ever since the day Hottie was promoted to a store out of state our lives have been dramatically different, in a very negative way. I haven't written about everything that's been going on.. or explained many of the details… and I still won't for now. But it's been hard. I've been hanging by a very delicate thread. I'm a shadow of my former self, and I kinda liked that girl, I want her back.

A few nights ago I told Hottie that I feel like we are being continually tested. Things just keep piling on. Everything just gets worse. There is hurdle after hurdle and a lot of them leave us suspended in the air, trying desperately to clear, but there we are frozen in time waiting to sail over to safety.. (probably a terrible analogy, but you get the idea.) Life is in limbo, everything is uncertain.

That being said, over the past two weeks I was actually managing to cope with things a bit better. I had maintained some perspective, was more patient, less stressed. I felt for the first time in a long time like things would pan out ok if we just hung in there and waited it out. One of my Facebook friends shared this on their wall randomly (8 Things to Remember When Everything Goes Wrong) and it really resonated with me. I agree with a lot of things in the post and going through the days with these thoughts in mind totally helped me deal.

and I'm still dealing…. but we have another test because on Thursday night during a roller derby scrimmage I tore a ligament in my knee. When I fell and watched my leg go in the wrong direction and heard it pop I knew something was terribly wrong.. but I just calmly laid there, waiting for a medical assessment and help off of the track. I remained calm. I didn't cry from pain or frustration (although that came later, admittedly.). I just waited. I waited for the emotions to build, assumed that any moment I would want to explode (because you know, it HURT and I knew it would be a huge set back.) but I sat there calmly, knowing that exploding would not help in any way. I breathed deeply and waited for a plan.

One of the things that all of these set backs and challenges has taught me is patience. Could I be mad at the world (some more)? Sure I could. I actually vocalized earlier in the week that while all that we are dealing with is super stressful and frustrating, at least I have my health.. and now an injury. It's going to effect my ability to take care of my family. It's going to take time and money to fix. It's going to hurt, a lot, for a long while. I'm going to have to wait to get back on skates with my team and continue the bonding process. I'm going to lose a lot of the strength and conditioning I've worked so hard to achieve.  But you know what, I don't have control over any of that stuff. All of that will play out the way it's meant to...

I'm going to have to put my big girl panties on and move forward…. deal. I have control of the way I look at this injury, just like the way I handle the issues in the rest of my life. I have to take care of myself. Ask for help (a LOT of help). Be patient. Be nice to myself (even though my typical reaction would be to beat myself up over and over for costing this family so much because I want to play some silly sport). Take the recovery one day at a time. Wait to heal. Start over. Do my best. Rest. That's all I can do.

This injury is a set back. Life is made of these… I'm learning that it's how you handle them that determines your happiness and the course of your future. This is an opportunity to show my kids strength and resilience… a chance for them to step up to the plate a help because I simply can't do things right now.  So. That's where I'm at right now, mentally. Hopefully I will be able to keep this frame of mind long enough to clear some major hurdles.

(Also want to clarify that I tore my MCL, a ligament in the knee. It will not require surgery, which is awesome news… and I will be back on skate in 6 weeks… walking in the next two without crutches. It is a fairly minor, considering it's a knee injury (although it does NOT feel minor right now with the amount of pain I'm in.))  

Pet Treat Holder

Who doesn't love a good treat? (I myself have been consuming far too many of them lately.) When I was asked to create a tutorial of some kind for the Pet Theme week on the American Crafts blog I honestly had no idea what to do. Then it clicked, a chart or holder of some kind! My kids always want to give Snickelfritz treats and I have a hard time remembering what exactly he's been given. This is an awesome way to keep track and it's easy for the kids to just pull the string to grab one bone at a time.

Head over to the American Crafts blog to see my step by step tutorial on how to make this bad boy (for your good boy or girl.)

American Crafts Gallery Assignments

Here's my January gallery assignments (and in full disclosure I originally typed March (!?).. because I'm slowly losing my mind.. or maybe not so slowly.) Check out the other projects here. 

A couple of different Dear Lizzy lines going on here. I just love the way they mix flawlessly together. Also loving blown up Instas that were printed at 8x8 by Costco.

And evidently I can't get enough of scrapping photos of me and my sister in the snow. :)

Lucky Duck

Two things to share with you today…

One. American Crafts sent a big fat happy box of their latest lines to me recently!!

DIY Shop. Complete with the most spectacular brayers and washi tape and tags and chalkboard stuff and the thickers are to die for… ok ok. I have to stop myself from gushing. You can see for yourself how epic everything is….

Amy Tangerine Plus One. The colors on this are the bomb ya'll. seriously (my photo does not do them justice). I am ridiculously excited about the bright floss assortment and super thin wash tapes and stamps and new stitch kits.. there I go again.

Dear Lizzy Day Dreamer. I love the glitter thickers that have some serious bling and the dots and the project life possibilities with the stitched pockets and the patterned papers are gorge… and the die cuts! Ok. So it's really hard not to gush.

I feel like the luckiest woman alive whenever one of these design team boxes lands on my doorstep. The products are all so unbelievably wonderful and American Crafts is so stunningly generous. I always lose my breath when I start to pull out the supplies… Hottie and the kids all say, "WHOA! They sent all of that? to you?!" haha.  I've already cracked into some of the supplies, I just couldn't help myself… and I can't wait to work some more. :)

Two. I posted this on my Instagram a few days ago after reading an email that informed me I had made the Travel Team! I'm officially skating with the Burning River HazMat Crew (which is kind of a big deal for me!).  (also, is this not like the LEAST hard core derby-like way to announce that you made the team?) haha. typical me.

It's both terrifying and exhilarating. I'm going to get my butt kicked so much! --but I'm also going to get so much better, very quickly. Lucky me… now if I could just keep this on a roll!