THREE!

So this is the part where I'm supposed to say, boo hoo, my youngest is three.. how did that happen? why does time go so fast? I am officially out of the baby/toddler stage forever! *sniff, sniff. tear. Nope. Not this girl. I mean, I guess it is strange in a way that he's three... but guys, he is seriously so THREE. If you met him you'd be like, yup. (except for he's living in a 4 year olds body. yet he uses a pacifier. *momfail. I swear the kids has stashes somewhere because I take one away, turn my back and he has three more! Eh. Whatever works. *fourth child) But I'm not sad about it. I kinda love/hate this stage. (I mean, I only hate it when I'm trying to get him to do something.. or, not do something, come to think of it.)

Dez is obsessed with reallllly likes minions. His mood changes on a dime. He speaks in full clear mostly clear sentences. He stands up for himself when opposed. His favorite color is orange. He wants to be carried around inside of stores, but refuses to even hold hands in the street. He won't sleep in his bed because it's pink and "I no wike dat color!" (all of the sudden.) He can't get enough cars in his life. He wants to buckle himself in, and climb in and out of things alone.. but loves being pushed in the stroller and carried down the stairs. He calls his sister, "Why-O." and when you tell him it's bedtime he sighs and says, "awwwwwwight." (alright) in a very resigned, adult manner.. and then runs and "hides" somewhere as quickly and quietly as possible. (He's getting pretty stealthy too.) I could go on and on about his three-ness. The proof is in the photos...

his reaction to visiting a bounce yard to celebrate..

tugging at Hottie's face and finding it hilarious..

not so happy about waiting for the whole candle thing...

two seconds later... (after sneaking some frosting.)

taking matters into his own two hands when the fork failed him...

That's our Dezmond. Three years old. He is funny and stubborn, rough and sweet, smart and silly....

and has the best eyebrows I'VE ever seen on a kid this age *blog brag... I'm going to soak up every part of this year with him (and want to pull my hair a lot too, I'm sure!). *mumbles, "parenting is rad."

Must. Make. Immediately.

Do you ever come across something on your inspiration endeavors and think, "SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. THIS IS SO EPIC I HAVE TO RECREATE IT AND MAKE MY OWN!" Yeah, it doesn't happen to me often... but this one had me, hook, line, and sinker. I was scrolling innocently through Instagram and BOOM! There it was. The most. glorious. rainbow. quilt. ever. (In Elise Blaha's feed. @elisejoy) I knew the second I saw it that I had to make one...

but first I should probably figure out how to quilt, right?....

nah, I can wing it. i wasn't letting a little thing like, not having ever made a quilt before, stop me from... making a quilt... I had wanted to make one for quite some time and this was just the push I needed.

Elise has a cool write up about how she made hers, complete with suggestions on how much fabric in each color she needed. That was an awesome start. (the rest I learned from youtube. #killingit)

I started my quilting journey at JoAnns. Carefully selecting 6 shades of 6 different colors... and then apologizing profusely to the woman who had to cut each one. (am I the only one who actually apologizes for my patronage?) #weirdo This sight made me so happy though... oh! and I did this on a day where I could use a number of coupons at once (did you know they let you do that?) including a 20% entire order one. I spent $80. and saved $82. Pretty much winning life, at this point.

then I organized them and oohed and ahhhed over how cool this blanket would be.. and then immediately started to feel some serious heart palpitations because.. oh yeah, I still don't know what the heck I'm doing! and I just spent $80 on this project!

After calming my tits... I followed Elise's cutting directions, and youtubed through each step... and after 2 very tedious and hyper focused (if you know me, you're probably familiar with this version of me, and you know to just move over and let it happen. I'll recover when it's over.) days.. I had this...

My very first quilt! (that is so epic I can't even handle it.)(my arms hurt from patting myself on the back so hard.) Ok. maybe it's not the most epic thing on Earth.. but look! It's pretty cool. I'm a quilter!

I originally made it for Ev, to go in her rainbow room... but this is the one and only moment she used it... in fact she has basically shunned it....

Dez seems to like it though.. and it still brings a swell of pride and a smile to my face.

So the moral of the story is... if you see something and you want to make it because everything in the universe is shouting "YOU HAVE TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO THAT AND DO IT!" then instead of yelling back, "SHUT UP, UNIVERSE! YOU DON'T KNOW ME!" Just do it! It will be fun, and challenging, and you will probably have chest pains (just me?) and worry that you'll screw it up and never do a craft ever ever again in your entire life... but you will pull it off! and then you'll have a really cool thing.. that YOU made! Step outside of your comfort zone and do something fun! and for God's sake, do it on a good coupon day! (we can all be winners.)

Hi. Hello.

Hi! Hello. How are you?

I feel like it's been for-eh-ver since I last posted. A lot of life-ing going on around here, ya know? So let me tell you a bit about what I'm up to in these here parts... in case you were wondering. ;)

Watching: Hell on Wheels on Netflix (Cullen Bohanan, I DO declare! *fans herself to stop from passing out.) & finales for everything. SYTYCD. AGT. ANW (that one's American Ninja Warrior.. I just threw in initials because it felt right.) & BB (Big Brother) winds up soon too. (too much TV! don't judge me!)

Eating: The most healthy foods on planet Earth, so help me baby Jesus. I could not be more healthy and conscious of what is going into my body if I tried! Well I am trying, super hard.

Doing: The Whole 30. one. day. at a time. (Day 11 here!)

Wanting: A really great pair of go-to jeans. Like ones that fit just perfectly and can go with a zillion outfits. and don't cause muffin top. and don't cost a small fortune (lets be real, if they aren't on a Target sale rack I'll never find them.) Oh! and a pair of kick @$$ boots. well, one in black and also in brown. (I probably won't buy any of these things. #frugalforlife)

Buying: Canvases and paints. (yes!) and all of the fruits and vegetables. literally. every single one of them. If you have scurvy you should come to my house, I could probably help you out.

Reading: The Rosie Effect. (sequel to The Rosie Project. one of the best books ever!) (I'm pretty worried about Don. He seems like he's getting himself into a lot of trouble.)(Note: I might be a little to invested in the characters of books I read.)

Making: Some projects outside of the scrapbook realm. (gasp. I have other abilities and passions! I forgot about that!)

Realizing: I totes met the guy who invented the compact disc when I was a kid. It's so random but it dawned on me today that it was possible and I did some internet-ing and found out it's true. He came to our classroom and held up the disc and explained that "this one disc will hold an entire album of music! a computer program! the possibilities are endless!" I remember taking home a disc and my stepdad tapping it on the counter, flipping it over and saying, "huh, I don't get it." (also I felt kinda old telling my 13 year old this... life before discs. I am a dinosaur.)

Planning: To decorate our house. finally! After almost a year of living here I can finally say I'm ready, and I want to do it like, all at once, because I have all of these ideas and they will be SO cool if I can just magically find all of the stuff I want and then have the money to pay for them! It seems totally realistic and doable! *slight sarcasm. 

So that's a little bit more than you probably cared about. Thanks for reading it, though!

So, lets talk Whole 30... wait. actually, I think it really deserves it's own post. Like, how and why even do I think 30 full days of deprivation is a good idea?? (PS-it's not really deprivation. I promise. Although, I am feeling very deprived of my Slurpees and Beer-ritas! *grumbles and feels sorry for self.) I'll be back soon to share all about it, since I'm pretttty sure I won't quit. *says with only a tiny bit of confidence.

Paper Camellia: September Part Two

Hello again. Here are the rest of my Sept. projects. This month I used only the Main Scrapbooking Kit. Loved the color combos and painting the giant veneer...

the photo doesn't really do it justice, but the gold sparkle "hello" is super shiny in person...

Didn't even realize until now that I did multiple grid-like layouts this month. I'm telling you, it is one of the easiest way to get a page done. Grid some paper, embellish, and be on your merry way!

So that's the whole month. Be sure to check out the Paper Camellia blog to see what the other designers created. I can't wait to get to work on next months projects! 

Paper Camellia: September

You may have noticed that this post is a bit later than usual. Ria, who owns Paper Camellia, suffered the loss of her Mother early in the month. Words can not express how sorry I am for her loss. I can't begin to imagine how difficult it must be. Understandably, this put business on hold and so the design team members waited to share projects. I'm not entirely sure what will happen with the sales on this September kit (other than that subscribers received theirs).. but we were asked to go ahead and share.. so here are a couple of my projects...

Originally I left the veneer wood grained but in the end I'm so happy with my decision to make it bright yellow. It pops so sweetly on the otherwise mono-chromatic page...

I have a few pages left and I'll be back to share them soon.

Project Life: July

Hello! Happy Friday. I have my July pages for you, as promised. These ones came together in no time. So glad I'm still doing the thing!

July 1-5 full (not a full week. shoot me.)

left.

right.

July 6-12 full.

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right.

(yes I call Hotties annual fancy work party "the prom"..that's what it feels like!)

July 13-19 full.

left.

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and an insert because apparently we had a lot of fun that week.

July 20-26 full.

right. our 48 hr vacation and anniversary at a candy store.

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I am really going to miss the cool labels. (sound pathetic? it's true though!) I use them on just about every PL spread and love the way they look. Too bad I didn't grab more when Targets $ spot had the pink/blue ones last year. I'm low on my thinner Martha Stewart Staples ones too & just discovered those are old news as well. Anyone have a label dealer they can hook me up with?

July 27- Aug 2 full.

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right.

So that's July for ya. and guess what?? Hottie and I are actually going out of town with some friends for the weekend! alone. with no kids. did you hear that?? I said NO KIDS! (yes, I am more than a little excited.) It's the first overnight outing we've had in over a year..  I can't wait! It's almost worth all of the anxiety I've had getting ready for our trip. (go away, anxiety, you're not welcome here.) I'll let you know how it went  brag about it later! Have a great weekend!

Must. Scrap. Immediately.

I'm not one to brag much about my kids (right?).. I'm usually telling you how rotten they are. As a stay at home Mom I have a lot of days moments when I want to hide in the closet until they chill... but then something like this happens...

He's just sitting next to me. giggling. Happy it's Monday, I guess. He gets me all to himself for a bit.. 

and my heart melts and I immediately Instabrag and think about how freaking adorable this kid is.. and how lucky I am to have him... & to be able to stay home to catch these things.. these fleeting moments, where it's just giggles and tickles, and my heart grows three sizes..  must. scrap. immediately.