My Cutie, and January in Review

Time for more scrapbook pages! :-)
Jasmine was soooo cute! If you keep up with our website you've likely already seen these pictures, but the page is new.
Credits: Sandra Boddington's Dotted Daisies, Staple is from Heather Roselli's January "it's a chick's life" collection.
Fonts: Matisse, Palatino Linotype

Here is my month-in-review page, for week 4 of "It's a Chick's Life, Scrap it" on thedigichick.com.
The text reads: unseasonably warm ~ Jasmine eating banana ~ new paint and floors at mom and dad's ~ playing with the cat ~ walking ~ jasmine being really cute ~ playing peek-a-boo ~ growing ~

Fonts: Bradley Hand ITC, Book Antiqua

a semi-scraplift from Lisa Brown Caveney's book

My First Paycheck

(Another Blog Challenge)

My very first job lasted three months. I worked at Capers, otherwise known as The 9.99 Stockroom. It was minimum-wage ($4.25 way back then) and at the mall, a 15-minute drive. Dad had to take me, and he usually let me practice driving on our way home. The turnover there was horrible: I lasted much longer than any of the other "peons" or whatever they wanted to call us (our "name" tags didn't have our names on them. They knew how long we'd last!)
It wasn't a horrible job, really.
I honestly don't remember my very first paycheck, though, or what I did with it. It was probably about $20, and I likely blew it on something really important, like a Fribble Milkshake from the Friendly's next door to the store.
I did learn how to make shirts on hangers look nice, though, and when I'm trying to make our closet look amazing I'll do that to Josh's dress shirts. But I have to be pretty desparate to do that!

Jasmine page, and a mushy one

I've been making more scrapbook pages. I won't put all the pictures up of the ones I've done, but here are my favorite two from this week.

This is my all-time favorite picture of Jasmine. I've played with it so many times, always turning the picture black&white (or sepia, this time) and leaving her eyes blue so it's apparent just how blue and intense they really are. This was a scraplifting challenge, and a lot of fun to do.
Text (Jasmine's nicknames) reads: Kewpie Doll, Angel Baby, Punkin Head, Cutie Patootie, Baby Doll
Credits: Kit: "Vintage Artistry" kit from SBB.
Font: Ancestory SF

The other one I'm really proud of was a color challenge, using one of my two least-favorite colors. I don't like brown (the challenge color) or orange, simply because I look like I'm deathly ill if I wear them. A silly reason to avoid them when I'm scrapping!! So I did this page, using a picture the Schwalms took at our wedding.
Credits: Ink overlay: Zoe collection by Clara Wallace; all else: Your Love is Better Than Chocolate by Ams Digi Scraps; picture by Tim and Nancy Schwalm
Font: AceBingham SH

More pages

I know I need to get in and update the website, but this is so much quicker and easier!

I made two pages yesterday. One is my beloved Buffy, the other of myself.
Buffy's page was a lot of fun, since I had a couple pictures of him I've always wanted to scrap. Unlike Jasmine, who I have a hard time getting a still photo of, I can always get one of Buffy not moving :)
Credits: Heather Roselli's Soft Sherbert
Fonts: Conga Brava Std., Commercial Script BT

My page was harder. I had Josh take a picture of me yesterday morning, and I got pictures of him, Jasmine, and our lunch and the coffee pot. It was fun, though, since I nearly never do pages about myself (until this week, when I've done two!!)

Credits: my own design
Fonts: Adobe Garamond Pro, Bernhard Modern Std, Ancestory SF

It's A Chick's Life, week 3

This week's challenge was to write about ourselves, with a recent picture. It was hard, but really fun once I really dug into it. I had to use blue...what other color could I use, for a page devoted to all things "me"??

Credits: Christy Lyle's Pacific Solace paperpack. stitching and brads by me.
Fonts: Bernstein SF, Commercial Script BT, Book Antiqua

Lies

(so, how many Blog Challenges can I give a song title to? :-)

This is hard. I'm sure I've lied, stretched the truth, left out details...but I typically choose truthfulness over tact, so it's hard to come up with anything specific.

One thing I do know I do: I tend to say I "can't" do something, when in reality, I just don't want to. I lean towards being passive-agressive, hoping by dragging my feet I can avoid the unpleasant.

Even this challenge. I seriously considered skipping it altogether, just because I couldn't come up with something on the spot. But what's the fun in that? I enjoy looking deeper into myself, trying to figure out what really makes me tick (then maybe I can figure out what Josh sees in me!) (so why was it so hard to make a scrapbook page about myself??)

The other thing that sticks out at me is memories of what a terrible liar I am. Any time I try to pretend anything, I get myself in far worse trouble. When I was in third grade, we had a writing assignment. The teacher was out of the room for a few minutes, and when I finished, I put it on her desk. A couple other students said they didn't like theirs, so ripped them up and started again. So I did the same, even though I really liked mine. So, wouldn't you know it, the teacher walked in, as I stood at her desk, ripping up my assignment!! I turned purple!!

So I make it a point to be honest, or at the very least keep my mouth shut!!

Reliving Thanksgiving 2003

...which is pretty funny, since I wasn't there the first time.

I went through the 125+ pictures Kenny, Daniel, Evan and Katie took on the 3rd, and final, Annual Thanksgiving Photo Shoot, chose about 30 of the best (or the best I could make into a square) and made a scrapbook page, "scraplifting" an ad posted on thedigichicks.com. (you can see the ad here) Here's what I came up with!
(credits: Katie the Scrapbook Lady's Burst of Sunshine kit
Fonts: CK Tailor Sloppy, Warnock Pro, Aharoni)

Make 'em laugh!

I've always loved a good sense of humor. Mom told me I should marry someone funny, since I'm not necessarily always funny but I like it when others are. So I listened to her advice (see a hint of his humor here...click on the pictures for more).

The person who has always made me laugh, though (sorry, Josh...I met him when I was three and he started making me laugh when he started to talk) is my "little" brother Daniel. (his website is having technical difficulties right now, but when it's working, you can click here. Check out his coffee reviews!) He really has an amazing gift (and he knows it).

If only more of their humor would rub off on me...

(Josh says I'm funny...don't know if he sees a different side of me than most others or if he brings out my humor, or he just loves me...but I'll take it!)

2006 "It's a Chick's Life: Scrap it!"

I now have two pages done in my 2006 album.
The first "challenge" was to make a page looking back at 2005.
(click on picture for larger image)







The second week, this week, the challenge was to write our "intentions" for the year.
I'm excited. These challenges are pushing me out of my comfort zone...far, far out. I've never made a page without a single picture. So I could choose any color scheme I wanted, any style...any anything! I purposely stayed away from blue, since if I had my way absolutely everything I did, wore, and decorated would be blue! And you know what? I like it!

More cute things Jasmine can do!

Jasmine has discovered that she can clap! She claps all the time now, any time she stands (and when she falls down) and when she's in my arms. Her clap gets slightly louder each time and it's so adorable to watch!

It looks like her 8th tooth is through. Now can she be done for a little bit? Poor baby has been teething for something like 5 1/2 months, maybe more.

She plays peek-a-boo all the time, with anyone or no-one. She's gotten much stronger and more balanced, and can crouch down and get back up without holding anything. She's got some amazing quads!

She's asleep now, and since none of us got much sleep last night, I may see if she'll let me sleep some more now.

Header!

I had fun making a new header. I'm excited that I could personalize it, make it us.

Jasmine was looking under an arm chair for her toys, and she loved the company. She's such a ham!

So, to give credit where it is due:
The "paper" is from a collection called "Dots-a-fun" by Cottage Arts.
The font is "Last Words" and can be found here.
And I made the stitching.
The whole thing was made in Photoshop.

Problem Solved

Thank you, Josh.

The website is normal again. Yay!!

One of my best friends had her baby Tuesday morning. You can see their blog here. I'm so excited for them. The adventure begins! Or, rather, continues, but in a completely different way.

In other news...
I got hooked on a digital scrapbook site. Yeah. Not a good thing. I'm having a blast, learning a ton, and pushing my creativity to new limits. So why is that not good? I scrapbooked in my sleep last night, and I could hardly wait to get back online this morning.
I posted my first layout last night (you can see it here) and got some positive feedback. Yay!!
I'm now working on another page. I'm excited that I'm finally getting comfortable on Photoshop, so I'm doing my whole layout there, rather than dragging pieces of it into InDesign and then back again when I'm done. It's so much fun!!

technical difficulties

Please forgive me; I tried to update the website but seem to be having technical difficulties.
Josh will have to come rescue me tonight.
There are new pictures of Jasmine up (two albums, actually) but for some reason the homepage isn't working right.

Though, if you got this far, you probably already saw the new pictures...

Growing up

Jasmine seems to be in a big hurry to grow up.
Not only is she walking, but she has gotten in 7 teeth already, and if number 8 isn't through yet, it will be very soon.

She babbles up a storm. Her newest (and my favorite so far, sorry, Josh) is "mmmmmmmmm mama." I'm not totally sure she knows what she's saying, but she's realized it makes me very excited, so she says it more around and to me than elsewhere.


The other exciting thing we're doing: we're trying to teach her some baby signs. We started a little later than many (I read that 5 months is the typical start time) but I know she'll pick up on them quickly and can start telling me she wants to nurse or get a new diaper, and we're teaching her "mommy" and "daddy" and cat (just since she's so interested in them).


I'm very thankful to say she's been taking better naps the last few weeks. They're still in my arms, but I'm fine with that. That's what I'm here for :-) and it gives me the opportunity to relax and spend time online, instead of chasing her and taking the floor fuzzies out of her mouth!