Marathon Mom

I have a confession to make. A couple of days ago when I said I had Disneyland on my mind it may be for one very specific reason. One that I failed to mention. This Sunday I will run the Disney half marathon. (Yikes!) I've been training for about three months now and yet I feel shocked that the time has come.

All summer I've been running while picturing myself in the park and wondering how it might feel. For some reason I'm super nervous about this Sunday, although I shouldn't be. In March I completed the LA marathon. FULL marathon. That's 26.2 miles people! So there is no good reason to be concerned, really. But that's not stopping me from doubting myself and my capabilities.

I guess the thing that's scaring me is that they close the field after a certain time. Vehicles are sent out to pick up the stragglers and transport them to the finish. I am slow, really slow. In my mind the worst feeling in the world would be getting picked up in that truck. I would fail to cross the finish line. Fail to earn a medal. Fail to make myself and others proud. Fail, fail, fail. (Wouldn't that be terrible?)

So I am blogging about it in an attempt to rid my mind of all of this negative chatter. I plan to hit the publish button and with it banish any doubt of failure. I vow to visualize the finish line and make it happen. Trust in my training and determination. Focus on the excitement of the event and embrace all that comes with a half marathon.

And on that positive note here is a layout I created to tell the story of my crazy day in LA...

I hope that I will have another successful marathon story to document after this weekend. I mean, if I can pull off 26.2 miles then 13.1 should be a walk in the park, right? Hahaha. Walk in the park. Look at that I am feeling better about it already.

Disneyland On My Mind

All summer long it seems one thing has been on my mind. Disneyland. I just can't help but love going there. Can you blame me? It is the happiest place on earth. So I waited and waited and waited some more for our annual passes to be valid for entry. You see the whole month of July and part of August is blocked out for us. Which means we can't go during that time. That's probably for the best since it is inevitably super crowded and hot hot hot. Still, I miss it. So when I looked at the calendar and realized we could finally go that is what we did.

As soon as we arrived I knew exactly why it is that I love this place. The decor, the ambiance, the smiling faces, the smells, the music, the characters, the fairy dust. Every detail is carefully thought out and planned. I love to take it all in. One of these days I will make a mini album to profess my favorite things about this magical place.  For today I will just show you some of the highlights.

Right after we stepped foot onto Main Street we spotted Goof Goof. So of course we had to say hello...

Evareaux is not too sure about him in person because the first thing he did is grab both Minnie and Mickey.

How can you not just love this castle? 

First stop carousel.

Then off to pull the Sword from the Stone. Better luck next time boys.

It's a Small World. Isn't this so intricate and fabulous?

There is actually a TON of scrap inspiration for me in this ride. One day soon I will attempt to take better photos to show you what I mean.

I especially love the exit of this ride...

Beautiful postcards from around the world.

Off to Toon Town. 

Of course no visit to Toon Town would be complete with stopping in to say hi to Minnie Mouse.

Isn't her house the cutest? And you know what? She is always home.

I assure you she is enjoying this visit, even if she does look super nervous.

Inside there are awesome details like these. Cosmousepolitan (should I subscribe?) and a fridge FULL of cheese cheese and more cheese. Evareaux can relate to Minnie's love of cheese.

When I tell my husband I want us to have a Mickey Mouse kitchen I don't think he quite understands what I mean. I am really jealous of Minnie's and I want ours to look like this. :)

Ev likes it too. She never wants to leave this chair...

Once outside again we admire the new fountain...

And then stop by to see Mickey. This is where I find these lovely pieces of history...

Look at those first edition dolls! I have to admit it is really cool to see where they started but I am much happier with how they look now. I would be a bit creeped out if these guys were scattered all over my house.

Nakiah drove Mickey's car for awhile...

After lunch we made it to the Jungle Cruise...

Then I decided to do something really special. These kids were being so good and needed a treat! So we stopped by the Gibson Ice Cream Parlor and went to cool down in the Mickey Theatre. Someone liked it...

She was too excited to eat her ice cream because there were six different screens playing classic Mickey films. She squeeled with glee and pointed at all of the characters. (For the record the classic Donald is pretty weird looking too. And I learned that Mickey was a bit of a trouble maker back in the day) We had never gone in and now we will have to make it part of the routine.

Even the movie posters are fantastic...

Well, that was pretty much it. Now I can wait for about a week before the burning desire to go again sets in. 

Oh...for those of you who have wondered where I have been, thank you for noticing. AND. I was in St. Louis for my cousins wedding. I didn't have any internet but I did take a lot of photos and will be telling you more than you really want to know about it soon.

Reasons to Smile

I have one word for the Amy Tangerine class that I took on Friday night. AWESOME. It was so cool to meet her in person. She is sweet and funny and seemed to love teaching us as much as we loved learning from her. The kit was epic. Amy also provided some really fun stamps from Lawn Fawn and Studio Calico, some vibrant paints, and new Tim Holtz distress stains. FUN! And the Scrapbook Oasis had tons of her new American Crafts line in stock....well, maybe they will need to re-stock after we were all done shopping that night! :)

Here is a look at what I did with the mini book...

It was fun to choose the colors I wanted and put everything together. We also learned how to sew on the tag.

Here are some inside pages...

The inside pages in this mini book are a great mix of designs and plain paper in different shapes and sizes. 

Pretty cool, huh. I can see filling this up rather easily.

 

Above is the envelope that's in the middle of the book to hold all of your random goodies.

Here is the back inside cover. I used a couple of her "potty people," as she calls them, stamps.

I also can't wait to decorate the film canister that came in the kit. I have so many ideas about how to make it special for me. I like her idea of using it to hold washi tapes. All in all I am so glad I was able to take this class. Amy told us a bit about the story of her line and how the mini book came to be....as I fill it up I can't help but love the fact that she fought to make it happen. It is a dream to have such a perfectly blank (well, not technically blank, but you know what I mean) slate to work in. I could see them being used for travel journals, family record books, everyday life, or....for your reasons to smile. :)

I think that about covers it...Oh! How could I forget? Her Mom is SUPER sweet as well....and made these D-LISH cream cheese rolls. mmmmmmmm....now I know you are really jealous. And just to push you over the edge here is Amy and I...

YAY! (I think I am easily twice her size)

So So So Excited

Today is a big day for me and I am super excited! I get to take my first scrapbook class (other than online). And who better to instruct me than one Amy Tan? The class happens tonight in Irvine,CA and will use some of her newest American Crafts line. (The one you have all heard me rave about like a lunatic.) I'm planning on buying whatever we don't get in our class kit & maybe some more of what we do as well, because I want it all x10!

Here is a photo she posted on her blog (yes, I blog stalk her, don't judge) of the kit for tonight:

It's ok to be jealous if you're not lucky enough to be in this sold out class. :)

I am so so so so excited to meet her in person (make a fool of myself) and have some time to do something I really love. Oh, and did I mention I am fully prepared to shop as well? Scrapbook Oasis here I come! (Aptly named in my opinion!)

Oh. And I went RED today....so now I am feeling EXTRA sassy!

Make It Work

Ok. I've been watching too much Project Runway...as if THAT is possible. :) Recently I stumbled across an adorable Minnie onesie that did not come in Evareaux's size. (Probably because she no longer wears baby sizes...sigh, pout.) But it was just too adorable to pass up and on sale so the price was right. I thought, couldn't I make it work? So I bought a couple of tshirt options in her size that would correspond nicely with the colors....

I cut around the design in a big circle...and then pinned it onto the pink polka shirt. I used simple hand stitching just 1/4 inch inside of the border. And it turned out like this...

Ok. You caught me. I forgot to take a proper "after" photo (BAD blogger!) But I figured you'd get the idea with this one. :)

And this one...

Besides, these photos show just how much this little girl missed her biggest bro while he was at his Mom's house for the past month. He couldn't wait to tickle and play with her too.

BFF's

This one is for my Nakiah and his Gram Gram. I swear the two of them are like best friends. Even a move to Chicago (good one Gram Gram) couldn't tear them apart. :)

Gaggles of Giggles

Not much going on around here lately. My hand hurts pretty bad and my foot is taking it's sweet time to heal after sad summer dryness and cracking...so not even a lot of running going on. Just a lot of the same chores over and over and over. Dishes, laundry, vacuum, repeat.

But to break up the monotony of summer to-do's there is Evareaux. She is cuter by the day and always engages us in hours upon hours of gleeful giggles. I swear her sweet happiness is contagious and it spreads like wild fire around the house.

Every morning and every night she makes her way into our giant California King to play for awhile. This usually consists of...rolling over the top of up back and forth like a baby steam roller...hiding under the covers....dancing Minnie's around us...flinging her legs around as hard as possible...and jumping up and down like a lunatic.  All the while giggling her fool head off.

I have to say I enjoy every single second of this time (even though sometimes I DO get kicked in the face). I would gladly do mountains of dishes, laundry and vacuuming if it meant spending all of my spare time giggling with this little girl.

Random Acts of Scrappiness...

Here is some recent random-ness...

This is one of my layouts featuring adorable Pebbles Inc. products...

 I just love the felt embellishments from Pebbles. 

Here is a couple of the layouts I made for American Crafts design team submission...

Loving the Delights stickers and of course Thickers (you can NEVER have too many Thickers!).

I also get really excited to use American Crafts ribbons. They co-ordiante so well with the different patterned papers...

I've been figuring out how to take better and more detailed photos of my projects. Hopefully this will help me when submitting to magazines and for design teams. I have a lot of really cool things(in my humble opinion) I've been creating lately. I will share them with you in the near future. 

Here is an American Crafts card...

I wanted to do something on the funny side. I'm not gonna lie it was my first card ever. And I get a little freaked out when the submissions ask for a card. But it was a lot of fun to make...and I have some ideas for more. Besides, who wouldn't love to receive a hand made card?

And here are some recent random photos...

I just love how much he adores his little girl.

 Here are some from my Iphone that I edited with the handy dandy Instagram app (Free!).

Lately I've been feeling it's a good time to attack potty training. (Shoot me now!) So that means I have been reading any and everything I can get my hands on in the subject....Needless to say that as much as I thought she was ready and I made myself ready it turns out she is not. So now I feel like I failed as a Mom....but really, she is 2 and 3 months, not 13. So, I have to slow my roll a little and focus on more enjoyable things...

I've also been gearing up for my upcoming half marathon. I have about a month of training left and am just beginning to get my confidence back after a nine mile run on Sunday....better late than never.

Ok. Thats enough randomness for one day....