Saturday, February 28, 2009

Template 14 and Bath Time

Wow, my baby girl is 15 months old now! Technically, she hit 15 months yesterday, since it's 4 AM, but I didn't write anything about it yet. I can't believe she's 15 months already!! LOL, 3 more months and she gets to go to nursery at church:D I think she'll love playing with all the other kids in there. She's a VERY social little girl. I've been taking lots of videos of her with my new camera! I need to post some of those soon, but not tonight. My wrist is KILLING me because I've spent way too much time at the computer lately. So, I need to stay away for a bit...we'll see if I can. My addiction is likely stronger than my sore wrist!

I have a new template for you! I made a page using it, too. I made this page for a challenge on my LiveJournal digiscrap group. This is our first challenge. The challenge is to use only Shabby Princess' new kit, Happy Go Lucky (and whatever fonts and actions we want). It's a really cute kit! I had a lot of fun making this page. These aren't colors I typically use, but that makes it more of a challenge/more fun. I used pictures from Emma's bath the other day. I took these with my new camera, and they didn't even need any editing!! Woohoo! I am SO in love with my new camera. Anyway, here's the page:



Credits:
Template - me:)
Kit - Shabby Princess, Happy Go Lucky
Atomic Cupcake actions - wild tear

And now for the template! Template 14 is a single page LO in PSD format. As always, I'd love to hear your comments and see your pages using my templates. Here's the preview:



You can download it here.

My wrist hurts and it's late (early?). Night all!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Template 13 and LOTS of pages!

I have an awesome new template for you!! I love it! See, you lucked out - the template I planned to use for this LO (template 6) just didn't have enough pictures for what I needed to do. Sooo...I made a new template for it, that is similar in design to template 6 (my most popular template so far). I hope you like it!!

But first, I have a whole bunch of pages for you! First, a few pages for Emma's ABC book:



Credits:
Cherry Moka kit by digiscrapbooking.ch (several designers)
Newspaper alpha - Ginger Scraps, Jack O' Lantern
White alpha - A Work in Progress, Granny's Attic (fitting, no?)
Word art - Elegant Word Art by Bethany

You may be wondering why there are only 3 grandparents. Emma only has 3 living grandparents. For various reasons, adding the deceased would be inappropriate for our family. Besides, I don't have any pictures of him anyway - I never met him.



Credits:
Cherry Moka kit by digiscrapbooking.ch (several designers)
Stitched alpha - Melany Violette, Brown Stitched Alpha
Block alpha - Jillybean, Wooden Block

The house is my parent's house^_^ I wanted to put my inlaw's house, too, but I don't have any pictures of it. Oh well. Now that the page is done, I don't think it would look good to add it later.

And now, for something exciting!! My awesome friend Kimi made her very first kit, and it is GORGEOUS! She asked me if I'd be on her "unofficial CT" and make a page using her new kit before she made it available on her blog. LOL, I have now made 4 pages (one of which is a 2 page LO using my new template) using this kit! If you haven't already, you should check it out on her blog. It's an awesome free kit! Pretty dang impressive for a debut kit in my opinion! Kimi makes great templates, too.

So, onto the "unofficial CT" pages:)



Credits:
Peaches & Cream kit by Kimi's Scrap Kreations
Ice cream elements - ScrapGirls, Refresh
Ice cream photos - Google image search, extracted by me



Credits:
Peaches & Cream kit by Kimi's Scrap Kreations
Alpha - Ginger Scraps, Oh Holy Night (appropriate, don't you think?)
Painting - The Lord is My Shepherd by Simon Dewey, scanned in from March 2008 Ensign
The Living Christ - PDF available on lds.org (I printed the PDF, scanned it as a PNG, and changed the opacity to 50% over the painting)

That's it for the ABC book today. I'm hoping to have it ready and printed in time to give it to Emma for Easter, so I'm trying to get it done as fast as I can. But I have another "unofficial CT" page for you:)



Credits:
Template - Kimi's Scrap Kreations, Template 6
Peaches & Cream kit by Kimi's Scrap Kreations
Word art - Elegant Word Art by Bethany
Atomic Cupcake actions - painted wood, tear, wild tear, rub on

And that brings me to my brand new page and template!! I love Kimi's kit so much that I used it again on this LO^_^ This page is for the weekly challenge on my mommy forum. The challenge is to scrap a typical day in the life of your family. I had SO much fun taking pictures all day long! The new camera I ordered with our tax return came today, so I got to use it for the latter half of the pictures. The quality of photos is SOOO much better!! And I can finally get decent video! Woohoo! I'll likely be posting videos soon:) Anyway, here's the page:



Credits:
Template 13 - me!
Peaches & Cream kit by Kimi's Scrap Kreations

Since you can't read the text in the tiny saved-for-web version, here's what it says:

Journaling:
Emma woke up at 7:15 this morning. She was grouchy at first!
Daddy kept Emma entertained so Mommy could sleep in more.
Emma had fun playing with Daddy! But Daddy had to go
to school - Emma did NOT like that! Mommy and Emma ate
a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast. Emma helped with
the laundry today. We did 3 loads! Mommy got 2 packages
today! Yay! Mommy’s new camera and new hard drive came!
Mommy charged the camera battery while Emma ate a good
lunch of ham, chicken, cheese, and milk. After lunch, Emma took
a nap. She napped for 2.5-3 hours! Mommy had fun playing
on the computer while Emma slept. Mommy and Emma played
with the new camera when Emma woke up. We had fun taking
video of Emma! Emma loved watching herself on video. Then,
Daddy came home! Yay! Emma helped Daddy take out the
garbage. Mommy made a yummy dinner of penne and sauce.
It was really good! Emma got SO messy! She had to take
a bath. Emma had tons of fun playing in the bathtub. Then,
Emma got ready for bed. Daddy did the dishes while Mommy
did some digital scrapbooking and made this special page!

Labels:
1. Good Morning, Sunshine!
2. Playing with a Balloon
3. Knocking on Mommy’s Door
4. Talking on the Phone
5. Mommy, it’s your turn!
6. Helping Mom do Laundry
7. Throwing Away Garbage
8. Climbing the Drawer!
9. Putting Garbage in the Diaper Champ
10. Washing Clothes
11. Climbing in the Laundry
12. Mommy got Packages!
13. Cups on Feet!
14. Smile!
15. Carrying Mommy’s New Toy
16 & 17. Mmm, lunchtime! Cheese and meat.
18. Mmm, milk!
19. Naptime!!!
20. Just Woke Up
21. Helping Daddy with Garbage
22. Snack time!
23. What a cutie!
24. Mmm, dinner!
25. Dinner time!
26. Bath time!
27 & 28. Getting ready for bed.

Oh, and be sure to follow the arrows around the page - that's the order everything goes in.

And now, what you REALLY wanted out of this post! A brand new free template. I love how this template (and the page I did with it) turned out! Template 13 is a 2 page LO in PSD format. As always, I'd love to hear your comments and see your work:)

Here's the preview:


You can download it here.

Apparently there are viruses getting through on 4shared? That's what I've seen on other blogs I've come across, anyway. I can promise you that there is no such crap in my downloads:)

Aaaand I think that's a long enough post for tonight. Enjoy!! Night!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Our Feelings on Formula

A little back story. When Emma was 3 months old, we discovered that I had supply problems. I worked closely with an LC to get my supply up. But just in case Emma screamed with hunger and I had nothing left, she gave me a sample pack of pre-made formula. I'm proud to say I never needed it :) So, of course, it was still sitting on the bottom shelf of the changing table until today. I pulled it out since I'd been meaning to for awhile. It's expired, so I was about to go throw it away when Emma decided it was fun to play with. Here's what she did with it:

















LOL, yep, she shoved it into the Diaper Champ :lol: Guess she knows where it belongs ;)

Of course, she was just doing that for fun...and she kept taking them out and putting them back in...but still. I thought it was pretty funny :D

Template 12 and 1st Kit Preview

Blech. Still hacking up lungs here. Emma and I are both still sick. John has lucked out so far! Let's hope it stays that way. He doesn't need this nastiness.

Just a shameless plug to vote in my poll if you haven't already! It's all about helping me make templates you want, so I'd really appreciate your vote.

And just for fun, here's a really cute picture I took of Emma the other day.



She LOVES putting these rings on her wrists, and we accidentally got one on her ankle. I took it off, but she wanted it back on! So I put one on her OTHER ankle, and she wandered around the house with rings on both wrists and ankles! Of course, I had to break out the camera;)

Which reminds me. I'm getting a new camera!! And a new hard drive just for digiscrapping. Our tax return came in yesterday, so I placed my order on Newegg as soon as I could:) I can't wait!!

I don't have any new pages to post, but I HAVE been working on a kit. Don't laugh. It's my first try. And I went WAY overboard! I made 60 papers and 36 elements!! I'm going to play around with it a bit more before I post it, but here's a preview:

***Edit: removed ugly preview - trust me, it's not worth looking at;)***

So, would you download it when I get around to uploading? LOL, I still need to name it, too. And list my CU credits. Pretty much everything I used was a CU freebie. I did a few things on my own, but not much. I'm thinking of doing a QP with it, too.

I have a new template for you. This one is a cute baby's first year template. The inspiration for this one comes from the awesome Christmas present from my brother, his wife, and their daughters. Well, more my SIL and neices; they picked out all the pictures (from my family website) and put them in. Ignore the flash; I tried without, but it was way fuzzy. Here's the present:



Isn't that cute? I love it! So, I made a similar template. I used circles instead of ovals because they worked better on a 12x12 page. As always, it's in PSD format. Here's the preview:



You can download it here.

As always, I'd love to see your work! Comments are appreciated as well:)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Template 11 and D, E, and F

Would you believe that Emma and I are sick AGAIN?! UGH! We just got over being sick 3 weeks ago! No fair! This time, it's coughing, sneezing, congestion/runny nose, dizziness/headache (for me, at least - Emma can't exactly tell me if she as those symptoms), fever, chills, and just all around exhaustion. Yeah, it pretty much sucks. I threw up from it all yesterday, but I think it's because I took meds on an empty stomach. It was the first time I've thrown up since I was in labor. Emma's fever was up to 104.7 this morning!! Eeep! Needless to say, we called the pediatrician right away and got her in as soon as possible. They gave her a couple of precriptions that should help. Her throat is a bit infected, so she is now on amoxicillan.

Oh, and Emma's cutting another tooth while we're at it. Didn't we just go through this teething while sick thing last time? Oh yes, we did. Yeah, it sucks. Hopefully we'll all start feeling better soon. Thankfully, John doesn't have it...yet. Hopefully he won't catch it!

I do have a new template for you today, though. And a few new pages! Yay! But first, could you all do me a little favor? Can you vote in my poll on the side? You don't have to, of course, but it WILL help me to know what you want in a template. So, by helping me, you're really helping yourself;)

Oh, so, some random person subscribed to my Photobucket album. I have no idea who it is (though it's probably a digiscrapper, since I don't think anyone else I don't know comes here). I tried to click on their username, but they have their images private or something. Um...ok, if you want to see my images when I upload them, I need to be able to see yours. It's only fair, right? I'm not really comfortable with someone viewing my images unless I specifically post them somewhere. Does anyone know if I can set it up as private but yet still post my images wherever I want to? If you tell me who you are, I'm fine with it. Everything I put up there is for sharing purposes anyway. I just don't like the fact that I don't know who subscribed to my album!

As for the CT I applied for, I was JUST typing that I hadn't heard anything, when Gmail notifier informed me I had a new message from them! Of course, Gmail then decided to be ridiculously slow to load... Unfortunately, they received WAY too many applications and had to turn down a lot of them...including me. Dang. I'm a bit bummed, but I can't say I'm too surprised. I'll just have to find another CT to join, that's all. Ah well. They did say they're considering having guest spots, so I applied for that. And it was very nice for a rejection letter.

Anyway, moving on to funner things. First of all, I'm getting CS2 soon!!! Woohoo! Not exactly sure when, but it will be soon. Just need to harass the person who's getting it for me;)

Also, Kimi used one of my templates!! This is the first time I've seen someone other than ME use one of them, so this is really special for me - even though she IS one of my closest friends;) (If you use one of my templates, I'd LOVE to see your work!) She used template 7 - which, ironically, is the least downloaded template - to create this beautiful CT spread:





She's on the CT for Simply Susan Godfrey, and she used one of her kits (Love Letter) to make this page. She also used some Atomic Cupcake actions and a glitter layer style from Scrappin' Cop. Kimi also makes awesome templates, so please stop by her blog to download them if you haven't already!

I have a few more pages for Emma's ABC book to share. Next, we have D is for Daddy:



Credits:
Red paper (slightly recolored), stack of books - AllieKat Creations, A Good Read
Blue paper - SSarducci, A Walk in the Park
Alpha - Red Set, no TOU
Brackets - Ginger Scraps, Beach Glass
Knight - Russian-Dutch Heart Design, Knighthood
Glitter - Gwen, Cherry Moka
Stars and photo corners - Manuella Zimmerman, Boy's World Add-on
Word art - Elegant Word art by Bethany
Atomic Cupcake - simple tear

This isn't the most interesting page, but it's stuff that John likes. His favorite colors are blue and red, he loves to read, and he loves fantasy. I couldn't make a page about John that didn't incorporate his interests. Sorry, no pink hearts and flowers on this page;) Oh, and if you're wondering what John and Emma are eating, they're having lemon cookies. Mmmm. Yum.

And then, of course, E is for Emma:



Credits:
Papers and elements - Jessica Edwards, How Sweet It Is
Alpha - Ellie Lash, Kiss Me
Atomic Cupcake - simple tear

Why yes, I DID use that same alpha on the B is for Baby page:) Thanks for noticing! I tried to use something else, since I jused used it for B, but of all the alphas in my stash, this one worked best. I love how this page turned out!

And lastly, F is for Family:



Credits:
Papers and elements - Jessica Edwards, How Sweet It Is
Alpha - Christie Lemon Designs, Wonderland
Word art - Elegant Word art by Bethany
Atomic Cupcake - simple tear

Haha, how ironic. The alpha I used for F is by one of the girls whose combined CT I applied for. I didn't realize it until I was typing up the credits. As for the family pictures, yes, they're all old pictures. Like, from last April and May. We don't really HAVE any good recent ones, and most of our family lives 800 miles away anyway. I wish we'd taken more at Christmas. Ah well. We took a family picture at John's mom's house, but so many people were missing that I'd rather use this one. Only 2 people are missing from this one (not counting Noah, who wasn't born yet;) - he's technically in this shot). Plus, I don't have the other one anyway;) And chances are, I look awful in it. I know that Emma is all blurred out because she was moving. LOL, and look - in both family shots, I'm wearing the same shirts!! Too funny.

Now that you've scrolled through all my rambling, here's my latest template. Template 11 is a 2 page LO in PSD format. Here's the preview:



You can download it here. As always, comments are welcome, and I would LOVE to see your pages with my templates!

I'd best get to bed at a decent hour tonight - Emma and I are sick and John will be gone from 9 AM to 9 PM. Loooong day! Anyone wanna come over and take care of 2 sickies? Anyone? No? Drat. Didn't think so, but it was worth a shot. You don't want to catch this nastiness, anyway. Of course, if people would avoid going out unnecessarily when sick, we wouldn't have this...*ahem* but that's another rant for another day. Night all!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day!

No new template today; we've been busy ALL day. It's been crazy, with both good AND bad. I'm tired and need to go to bed (yes, it's nearly 5 AM and I'm still up), but I wanted to post the page I finished tonight:) I majorly procrastinated on making Emma's Valentine's card, but it's done! LOL, just in time;) It turned out super cute!! I absolutely love it! I love the soft colors and everything. Take a look:



Credits:
Template - me (template # 2)
Background paper, candy heart, red glitter framed heart - Digiscrap_ch, Je T'aime
Striped paper - Christy Kaggs, Forever Mine
Solid purple paper - bzb designs, Wish Dream Fly
Pink frame heart paper - LiviaY, Forever Mine
Purple heart paper - Madame Wing, Sunshine Studio Scraps, Love Me Not add on
Love paper, balloon - goth kittie, You're My Valentine
Purple dot paper (modified), butterfly, love me word art - Cynthia C, Love Me
Purple heart - kuznyec, Dream minikit
Leather heart, single pink rose - Penny57, You're My Valentine
Rose petal heart, double pink roses (modified) - scrap23, Nadya's Scraps
Pink glitter heart - Jamie Dell, Glitter Valentine
Silver glitter frame heart - Claire7799, Mushrooms (modified)
Red glitter heart - genia Beana, Be Mine
Diamond cluster hearts - Little Dragon, Forever Mine
Glass hearts - 3's enough, Adore Megakit
Bear - Ninie, Je T'aime
Glitter swirl - Gwen, Je T'aime
Felt heart with flowers, angels - le Journal du Scrap, Juliegoodgirl and Merepoule, Tout le Monde dit I Love You
Glitter splatters, buttons - Choukette, Sweet Candy add on
Love you forever word art - Choukette
Daughter word art - Elegant word art by Bethany

I love the Carter-esque butterfly and love me elements. Totally reminds me of Carter's baby clothes! I LOVE Carter's. The vast majority of Emma's wardrobe is Carter's. Their clothes are so cute! And they're good quality, too, and depending on where you go, not too expensive.

Please take the time to vote in my poll. No one's voted yet:( I want to know what you're looking for in a template so I can design better. If you don't tell me, I just have to guess on my own, which can be hit and miss.

Hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day! I'm off to bed before I konk out at the computer!! Night (morning...whatever). Night!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Template 10 and About Me

I've got another template for you! And, I have a new page made with my new template. Aren't I nice? Ok, so the reason I made the template is because I needed a LO for this page, but you know, it works;) You get a freebie regardless.

But first, a few Emma-isms from today. Ok, so Emma likes to follow me into the bathroom. Normally, we keep the door closed, but when Emma and I are home alone, I have to be able to see what she's up to while I'm in there. Like all toddlers, she thinks toilet paper is fun to play with. Specifically, to unravel. And she waits until I'm unable to stop her. So anyway. Today, Emma had a couple squares of TP. She likes to rip it up, so she was doing that. But then, she started putting the ripped pieces into the garbage can!! What a smart little cookie!

However...she later nullified her brilliance by trying to EAT the toilet paper...several times. Yeah...I think it's time to move the TP out of her reach.

Emma kept trying to feed me HER food again today. It's really cute and sweet, but SHE needs to eat it! Not to mention some of her toddler snacks are gross to me, like the whole grain graham crackers. *gag* She likes them, so that's good:)

Oh, I keep forgetting to mention this, but I applied for a CT. I haven't heard anything yet, but applications are being accepted until Saturday and an announcement will be made a few days or so after that. I hope I get on it! It'd be so fun! We'll see.

I might not be on as much the next few days; we have a friend coming to visit her boyfriend here this weekend, and she'll be crashing with us. I still need to clean the house...ahahaha. Yeah, that's what I was supposed to be doing tonight...but instead I did digiscrapping;) And I didn't even get as much done with that as I wanted to. I still need to do Emma's Valentine's card and continue her ABC book. I was trying to figure out which AC actions would work best with the page I did, and of course, some of those actions take FOREVER. And I didn't end up using most of them after all!

I've got a couple more digiscrapping pet peeves to share with you today. LOL, looks like this is becoming a trend:P I hate it when you have to enter a password to download a file. But even worse is when designers password protect the zip file! I don't always unzip right away, sometimes even days later, so of course by the time I unzip I have no idea what the password is. I then have to Google it to get the stupid password. Password protected freebies = BAD.

Another pet peeve is when designers only have their work in PSP files. I HAVE PSP6, but their files won't open in it. If you want people to be able to use your freebies, put them in a file format everyone can use! Most graphics programs can read PSDs, JPGs, and PNGs - hence why the vast majority of designers use those formats. But only PSP can read PSP files. So putting files in that format limits the usability of your kits. I know for a fact that you can "save as PSD" in PSP. I've done it before.

And that brings me to my new page. This page is for this week's challenge on my mommy forum, Baby and Me. The challenge this week is to scrap yourself, using your favorite color and a quote (preferably one that means something to you). You know, I'm not really a favorite color type of person. I like LOTS of colors. But if I had to pick one, I'd have to say green. Pink is creeping up there nowadays, too. Probably because I have a little girl LOL! Ironically, I used to hate pink - and now I love it! So, I used pink and green for my page. Here it is:



Credits:
Papers - Happy Birthday collab by Tinette, MissVivi, and Nini-lolo
Alpha - Ellie Lash, Kiss Me
Green glitter frame - Happy Birthday collab, Gwenn
Rose (slightly recolored) - Miss13, Storia Bella Add-on
Butterflies and swirl - Fairly Fabulous, Love Thee
Glitter hearts - Cherry Moka, Kafrounette
Glitter splatter - Cherry Moka, Gwenn
Word art - Genuine Jackie
Atomic Cupcake actions - painted wood, simple tear, rub on

I used template 10 for the page above. Template 10 is a single page LO in PSD format. The little stars (courtesy of Photoshop's build in brushes) are on their own layer, so you can toggle them if you'd like. I didn't end up using them on my page, but I thought I would. I also ended up adding a paper behind the diagonal one. I thought about adding that to the template, but I already had the preview uploaded, so I didn't;) It's easy enough to do on your own if you want another paper there:) Anyway, here's the preview:



You can download it here.

Feel free to leave C&C on my templates! I'd love to know what you think, and to see your pages. I'd also like to know what you're looking for in a template, so I'm posting a poll as soon as I finish this entry.

Wow, it's late! Or early, depending on how you look at it. I'd better go to bed before my teething toddler decides it's time to get up for the day!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Template 9 and A Few Pages

I've got another free template for you! But first, I want to show you my latest pages. I've been busy today! John had to do some things at church (he's the financial clerk), and he took Emma along with him! Woohoo! So, I got time to work on a few pages:)

Oh, before we go on, Emma did the cutest thing today! Some milk spilled out of her sippy cup onto the couch. She picked up a paper towel off the floor that we'd been using earlier for her lunch and wiped up the milk!! What a smartie! She is, after all, only 14 months old. She likes to "help" with lots of things. It's cute. She even uses a washcloth to "clean" the tub during baths LOL! And she tries to clean herself. She's also discovered that she can feed Mommy and Daddy...

First, is a small household project. We needed a sign for the dishwasher so we can very easily tell if the dishes are clean or dirty. So I made this:



Credits:
Background papers - CuddleBeez, Blues and Browns
Ric rac - Snippets Ink, Bentley Natural
Clear alpha - Marie Stones
Rain drop paper (grouped with alpha), umbrella - MeganB Designs, Rainy Days
Rain drops - A Work in Progress, Down by the Lily Pond
Wood alpha - Dawn Mills, Romantic Heritage
Snail - Wee Faerie, Walking in the Woods
Shovel - Water Lo Project, In the Sleeping Orchard

Yes, I know the dirty side is upside down. It's supposed to be that way! When the dishes are dirty, you flip it around:) At the moment, ours are clean;)

Next, I worked more on Emma's ABC book. I did letters B and C today! I absolutely LOVE how these pages came out. Here they are:



Credits:
Baby girl paper (slightly recolored) - DitaB, Baby
Pink argyle paper - Brahm's Lullabye, Plum Dumpling Designs
Alpha - Ellie Lash, Kiss Me Sweetheart
Frame - Penny57, You're My Valentine
Teddy bear - Ninie, Je T'aime
Bottle/pacifier doodle, stroller, baby girl label, crocheted flower - Raspberry Road Designs, Kimmy
Moon, baby girl stitched element - Kaccii, Sweet Moonshine Baby
Shoes, baby blocks word art - Kaccii, Baby
Atomic Cupcake actions - simple tear

Aw, wasn't Emma the cutest newborn? I took that picture in the hospital. I think it was the day we went home.

Oh yes, this page reminds me. I seem to have a hard time finding baby girl kits that are free, full size, and NOT ugly! So many of them have this hideous pink that is NOT cute at all! And what's with the tagger size kits?! I don't get it. It's a pain, because you can always make bigger elements smaller, but when you try to make small elements bigger, it gets all pixelated and yucky. Grrr. Stupid tagger size. Oh, and if you make tagger size kits, you better dang well SAY SO on your blog!

I also have a hard time finding cute (and free - buying kits just isn't in the budget right now) girl kits in general. I have more boy kits than girl ones...and I don't have any boys!! Well, not yet. Someday I probably will, but for now, we just have one beautiful little girl.

And now for letter C:



Credits:
Papers, pawprint alpha, meow word art - Audra's Little Scraps, Love My Pet
Brown alpha - A Work in Progress, Breakfast at Tiffany's
White frames, cat frame - Gunhild Storeide
Cat and mouse frame, bowl, yarn - JenV, Love My Pet
Circle frame, button - Monique Drost, Love My Pet
Paw print - Kreative Karma, Love My Pet
Cat element - Paula Phillips Designs, Love My Pet
Word art - Elegant Word Art by Bethany
Papers grouped with word art and frame - juliemarie, Love My Pet
Atomic Cupcake actions - puffy felt (on paper, bowl, and yarn)

Notice the 5 cats? Yeah, they're all mine. But they're at my parents' house. My sister claims they're all hers, but she's wrong;) Emma LOVED chasing the cats around when we went home for Christmas! The cats, however...they weren't too thrilled with her.

Oh, there were a few pet peeves I forgot to write about last night. Don't worry, this won't be as long;) I just mentioned the tagger size thing above, so I'm covered there. But another thing that irritates me are downloads that don't have all the files in a folder. When you unzip them, the files are just THERE, not in any organized fashion whatsoever. I then have to make a folder for the files. Irritating. Put your files in a folder BEFORE you zip them!! Oh, and TOUs in PDF are annoying, too, because I have to wait for the program to load to get the info I need. Txt files are way easier (notice, my TOU is a txt;)).

Anyway, now that you've read my rambling, you probably want the new template, yes? LOL, I wonder how many people actually bother reading what I write here rather than just go straight for the download.

Template 9 is a single page LO in PSD format with 7 photos - perfect for those of you doing Project 365. I'm not - I'm not consistent enough about taking pictures! Maybe next year;) I didn't know about it until the new year started anyway. Aaaanyway. Here's the preview:



You can download it here. Comments are welcome, as always:)

I was going to work on this week's challenge page for my mommy forum, but it's 2 AM and I still need a shower. I planned to use template 9 for it, but we'll see if I actually do. Time to shower! Though it's tempting to put it off and shower during nap time tomorrow...hmm...decisions decisions. In any case, I'm done here! Night all!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Template 8 and FHE Chart

During FHE tonight, we decided we needed an FHE chart. So, after Emma went to bed (and after I did some grocery shopping - after she goes to bed is a great time for that!), I made an FHE chart for our little family. I also made these cute little buttons for it. I put magnetic tape on the back, and stuck it on our magnetic front door (the fridge is covered with family pictures). Unfortunately, the magnetic tape won't work for the buttons over the chart. I guess the photo paper I used is too thick for it. So I'll have to get some magnets and glue them on or something. Anyway, it turned out really cute! Here's the chart:



Credits:
Checkered paper and painted blue paper - Unica, A Walk in the Park
Plaid paper - Raspberry Road Designs, My Baby Love - Boy
Alphas - A Work in Progress, Brit Pop
Word arts - Elegant Word art by Bethany
Atomic Cupcake actions - simple tear, rub on

And for the buttons:



Credits for John's:
Paper - Sarducci, A Walk in the Park

Credit's for mine (Sara):
Paper - BZD Designs, Wish Dream Fly
Gem frame - Tbugz CU gem frame
Brackets - Flutterby Hollow, Blingy Brackets

Credits for Emma's:
Paper and flower - A Work in Progress, Candy Dream

Cute, huh? I'm happy with it:) Well, except for the magnet thing. But that's easily fixed.

So, the longer I digiscrap, the more I see things that bug me. I want to share my list of digiscrapping pet peeves with you;) If you're a designer, please keep these in mind;) My digiscrapping pet peeves:
  • Expired links. Do you know how annoying it is to go to Digifree, see a freebie you want, and then by the time you actually get to the blog, it's no longer valid? Ugh. Annoying. I hate when people only have freebies available for one day only. I don't always get a chance to look each day, and when I do, it's late at night after the baby's gone to bed. Not to mention that Digifree is on a delayed schedule anyway. So, if you're only going to have a freebie available for one day, DON'T ADVERTISE THROUGH DIGIFREE!

  • Music on blogs. This doesn't just apply to the digiscrapping world. This is one of the reasons I've always hated/avoided MySpace. I don't mind if it gives you the option to play it, but the autoplay thing is SO irritating! I especially hate when I can't find the little box to turn it off. Some blogs don't even HAVE that. Grrr.

  • When the preview listed on Digifree or Digiscrap Depot is NOT the actual freebie. I hate when I see a kit that I want to download on one of those sites only to find out the freebie is only a QP or an add on, rather than what the preview showed. Granted, this is probably not the designer's fault, but it's STILL annoying.

  • Ugly kits LOL. There are some hideous things out there. I honestly don't understand why people make the ugly ones. And along with that, ugly blogs. Ew. If you're going to have freebies, at least make your blog presentable.

  • Pages with a single picture shoved into the corner/edge of the page. I just don't get it. Isn't the entire purpose of scrapbooking to display photos? So...why is the picture teeny tiny with all this dead paper space taking up the whole page? I see it all the time on CTs. I honestly don't find it artistic or appealing. But that's just my opinion:)

  • No TOUs. It drives me crazy when people don't include a TOU with their freebies. How can I give you credit later if I have no idea who made it? If you have word art in PNG format for download, put your name or SOMEthing in the file name so I know who to give the credit to.

  • People who DEMAND that others leave them love. I like positive feedback as much as anyone else, but to flat out DEMAND it seems a bit extreme. I recently encountered a site where the designer had a JavaScript pop up that essentially said, "don't forget to leave me some love." Um...when people do that, I make a point of NOT leaving any comments! It seems rude to me.

  • And last but not least, I hate when I have to register to get a freebie. I don't really want to go through a "check out" process for something that's free. I've done it here and there, but only when I really wanted the freebie. I'm sorry, but why do you need my personal information if you're giving your work out for free? It bugs me. Most of the time, if I'm not already registered on the site, I decide I don't really need the kit. So, really, this hinders the amount of downloads a given freebie will receive. At least from my end;)


LOL, now that I've got that off my chest, it's time for a new template!! Template 6 has been the most popular by far, with over 200 downloads! I know, compared to a lot of designers, that's hardly anything, but considering that I'm just staring out, I think it's pretty good:) Template 7 has had the least, which honestly surprises me. Maybe people are starting to get sick of Valentine's freebies? *shrug* Oh well.

Anyway, enough late-night babbling from me. Template 8 is another double page template in PSD format. Here's the preview:



You can download it here.

Feel free to give me feedback! LOL, but it's not required;) I'd also love to see your pages with my templates. Do you prefer double or single page templates? I can make either, I just want to know what people want:) I'm also toying around with the idea of making a kit...it's kind of a scary prospect, but it could be fun. I have an idea for one that I think would be fun:)

Anyway. You've probably all stopped reading by now, and I REALLY should be in bed. I keep staying up this late. I'm just not tired at 3 AM. Weird. I'm wide awake. And majorly rambly. Sorry! Ok, I need to stop typing now LOL. Night all!

Monday, February 9, 2009

A is for Apple

Hi all! No new template this time, sorry. I was going to make one, but got caught up in a fun new project. I totally stole the idea from one of the girls on my mommy forum (genia Beana; she also makes awesome kits, templates, and word arts). Anyway. The idea that I'm stealing is ABC books. I'm going to make one for Emma! I figured out what I'm going to do for each letter. Should I post my list, or just surprise you each time? I plan to do numbers, too, but they'll probably be in a separate book. Or I might just do the letters. Who knows. We'll see.

I originally planned to use letter templates, but the link is now invalid. Boo. But I think it'll be better without those now, anyway. If I want pictures in the letters, I can always make them myself;)

Anyway, I did my first letter page tonight! Of course, it's the letter A. Here's my page:



Credits:
Background paper - SSarducci, A Walk in the Park
Green (now torn) paper - NewlifeDreams, A Walk in the Park
Scalloped paper - JG, A Walk in the Park
Tree and apple tag - Raspberry Road Designs, Apple Festival
Alpha - Marie Stones, Apple A Day
Apple pyrimad and WA state - Kyra, Washington State
Other apples - courtesy of a Google image search, extracted by me
Atomic Cupcake actions - simple tear, rub on

A Walk in the Park series is one of the first I downloaded. I'm glad I finally got a chance to use parts of it!

LOL, I know, the WA state tag REALLY isn't necessary, but...I love it^_^ It is, after all, where we're from, and where we plan to move back someday. So, seeing as Washington is famous for apples, I HAD to add it;)

I also have the Idaho kit from the same designer, since I went to college there. Of course, it has potato elements. Random tidbit of informoation for you: did you know Washington actually grows more potatoes than Idaho? Yep, it's true! But not much else grows in Idaho:P Probably because the winters are so ridiculously butt freezing cold. I should know; I spent 4 winters walking to and from campus (and the grocery store) in the freezing cold. Man, I'm glad I graduated!

Anyway, it's 3:30 AM and Emma has taken to waking up before 7 the last few days. Not too thrilled with that. Thankfully, John is usually home at that time of day, so he gets up and takes care of her so I can sleep more. Yay! I've got a great husband:) He's a sweetheart. And he's the best daddy ever, too. But he's still up now, too, so we'll see how things go tomorrow!! Thankfully, he'll be home all day;)

And I'm off. Need to get some sleep. But I'm not tired. At all. I know I totally should be. I'll be a zombie for the first few hours tomorrow...well, time to try to sleep. Night!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Holy Cow!!

I have 42 gigs of digiscrapping stuff on my hard drive!! This is also including my pages (8.69 gigs). And I've only been digiscrapping for 3 months! Uh, time to do some weeding. When I started, I downloaded pretty much everything. I'm more selective now. Plus, some kits look cute in the preview, and then once they're downloaded, I find they're not so cute after all. On the other hand, some of the kits I pass by I later see others use in cute ways. Such is the life of a digiscrapper I guess.

I need to do some reorganizing of my stash anyway. Time to weed out the stuff I will never use! I may delete parts of some kits and not the rest. For instance, one kit I DL'ed has some cute word arts and templates, but the papers are hideous. So I'll delete the papers :)

I'll work on it tomorrow. Don't expect anything new from me until I fix it! It's a good thing I have a big hard drive! But it's not THAT big - it's 160. Hm, I may have to get an external drive for digiscrapping in the future. Anyway. It's waaay late and I need to get some sleep. Night all!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Template 7 and My Loves

Wow, template 6 is popular!! 173 downloads so far. Cool! Template 2 has 98, and all the others are somewhere in the 70s. Hm, where will 7 end up? We shall see;)

I made a new template, and a spread using it. Template 7 is a double page LO in PSD format. Yet another Valentine-y template for you to play with:)

But first, my new page. This is my entry for the weekly digiscrapping challenge on my mommy forum. This week's challenge was to use the Amour Toujours collab, have the word "love" somewhere on the page, and use at least one black and white photo. I think it'd look funny to do one black and white and the rest in color, so I put all the pictures in black and white. Here's the page:



Credits:
Elements and Papers - Amour Toujours collab kit by Cristaly, Scrapdoll, Ugo15, Gaëll'Création/scrapanges, fanfanm, and digidoux.
Love irrisistably, Today yesterday tomorrow, Family Love, Love Stories, and Forever Families word art - Elegant Word Art by Bethany
Black love heart word art - geniaBeana
Love you forever word art - Choukette
Life is not measured word art - Shannon Adellois
How do I love thee word art - Morgaine Creations
I love you tag - Mandamayd

And now for the template! Here's the preview:



You can download it here. Enjoy! And please feel free to leave me comments! I love hearing back from you:)

Thursday, February 5, 2009

The Emma-nator!

I haven't done an actual update on Emma's ever-increasing skills in awhile. And never on this blog, since it's so new. So, it's time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the antics of a very adorable little toddler! You may want to grab a nice cup of hot chocolate, cuz this is gonna be long;)

Little Emma is now 14 months old. Isn't that crazy? The last time she was weighed was while she was sick, and she weighed in at 16 lbs 11 oz. Yeah, she lost weight from having diarrhea for a week. Rather disconcerting when she's in the 2nd percentile to begin with. I think she's gained quite a bit back already, though, since she's been eating non-stop lately. Her next appt is in a month, so we'll find out where she is then. Our bathroom scale says she's 17 lbs, but those aren't accurate for small children.

She's wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes. She still wears 3-6 month onesies, and SOME outfits. Sleepers are 6-9 months, as are most outfits. Yeah, she's teeny tiny! I love how little she is^_^ She can wear her clothes longer this way and I love it.

Ever since Emma discovered she could walk, she hasn't stopped! She almost never crawls now. She walks aaaall the time. She also likes to walk around in the store...and to follow other children around if we let her. She LOVES other kids - especially older mobile ones. She threw a fit once when we wouldn't let her follow some older kids at the store...she was super tired at the time, though. But she really likes other kids. I think she'll love nursery at church in 4 months:)

Speaking of church, we meet at 1 this year. Sounds great, doesn't it? Well...it majorly interferes with nap time. She usually goes down for a nap around 1 now...this week, she didn't take a nap at all on Sunday. Well, maybe for about 10 minutes during choir practice, but that's IT. She was so tired by the time she went to bed...

And speaking of naps and bed, we are on an awesome schedule for both nowadays. She usually wakes up around 8 AM, naps around 1 (after lunch), and goes to bed around 8 PM. It's awesome! Honestly, cutting out that mid-day nap nursing session is what put us on this amazing schedule. She now naps on her own in her crib! Woohoo, I have me time during the day again! It took a couple days of CIO for nap time, but hey, it works. Some days she has a hard time with it (like yesterday...and then the fire alarm went off JUST after she calmed down...), but she naps for 1.5-2 hours most days.

As for nursing, we are currently down to once a day - right before bed. We'll be cutting that out very soon, probably later this week. I should probably establish a better bed time routine first, though. Currently, it's dinner, brush teeth (which she hates), nurse, family prayer, kisses and cuddles, bed. I need to add in bed time stories. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. I need to be more consistent with it. I COULD give her a bath before bed, but I really don't want to do that every single day. Plus, by the time we finish dinner, it's pretty much bed time.

Oh, I ran into my lactaction consultant at Walmart today. You know, the one who we saw when I was having all those supply issues way back when. Wow, that was almost a year ago. Crazy. She asked us how we're doing and I gave her an update. It was neat. She thinks we're doing great^_^

Emma hates hates hates having her teeth brushed. Not as much as she hates having her fingernails trimmed (MAJOR tantrum!), but she definitely doesn't like it. She puts her tongue over her bottom teeth, so it's REALLY hard to brush them. But tonight, after I brushed her teeth, she grabbed her toothbrush and chewed on it. So, maybe she'll "brush" her teeth herself? We'll try it tomorrow and see how it goes. She only has 3 teeth right now, and a 4th is just about to cut through, so it's not AS important as it would be if she had a full mouth of teeth. The 3rd tooth cut while she was sick - fun...and it was TORTURE coming in. And I thought the bottom teeth were bad...wow. Top teeth SUCK. But this 4th doesn't seem to bother her AT ALL. She's perfectly happy. But, it hasn't fully broken through yet...so we'll see how the next few days go. I hope it comes in quickly. I hate teething. In the next life, I'm seriously going to have a talk with Heavenly Father about WHY teething misery is necessary.

Emma isn't really talking at all yet. She says mama and dada, and she said baby once (to her cousin^_^), but that's about it. I THINK she might have said kitty during Christmas break, but it sounded more like "DIE-dee." But she kept saying it as she chased the cats around my parent's house.

Speaking of cats, there's this sweet little black stray that hangs out at our complex. It meows at doors all the time. Apparently one of our neighbors is leaving food out for it, so it's gonna stick around for awhile;) Anyway. Emma hears it meowing and wants to go see it. She got all excited last week when I asked her if she wanted to go outside and see the kitty. I needed to check the mail anyway. So we went to visit the cat, and it came over to us and rubbed against us and everything! It even let EMMA pet it (we washed our hands thoroughly afterwards)! I tried to take a peek at the kitty's gender, but couldn't see anything. I think it's a girl, but I could be wrong. After all, we thought Wedge was a girl at first;) It's a VERY affectionate little kitty. It even followed us to the mailbox. Later that day, we were getting in the car to go to a ward activity. John was buckling Emma into her car seat when the cat started meowing at us. I meowed back, and then it jumped into the car!! Eeep! We had to get the cat out before we left;) And I made sure the cat wasn't in the path of the car as we backed up.

Anyway. Back to Emma's communication. Instead of saying words, she points a lot. She makes her wants known by pointing at the objects she wants. Sometimes she wants forbidden objects, like my cell phone or camera. And when I say no, she throws a little tantrum. Ah, the joys of toddlerhood. She also grabs our hands and pulls us to things she wants, or to things she wants us to do for her. For instance, she has one of those toys that has animals pop up when you push/twist/slide the various little controls. She likes to grab my hand and make ME make the animal pop up! She also has several books with textured pictures (furry, scaly, etc) and she likes to grab my finger and make me feel it, too! It's really cute.

She will also bring objects she wants to us. When she wants to eat yogurt melts or another snack that's in a sealed container, she'll bring the container to us and very obviously "ask" us to open it. We always comply, because we are definitely not going to say she can't eat when she's such a tiny little girl!

Emma knows one sign so far. She signs "light" aaaall the time. She points at the lights and then signs it. I'm working on teaching her more signs, such as please, more, banana, drink, and eat. At this point, please is my number one sign to teach her...as you'll see in the next paragraph.

In addition to pointing at what she wants, she has decided the screaming is a good way to make her wants known. Um, no. It's not. Not ok. We're trying to teach her that screaming does NOT get her what she wants. We wait until she calms down and is quiet before giving her what she wants. While we do so, we try to teach her the sign for please.

Emma loooooves food. She eats almost everything we eat now. We're holding off on peanut butter until she's at least 2 for allergy reasons (especially since my dad's allergic), and her pediatrician says it's also a choking hazard. Some of Emma's favorite foods include: bananas, yogurt melts, yogurt, graham crackers, Goldfish, pasta, corn, and, of course, desserts. She knows where we keep the bananas and specifically points to them every morning. She eats almost a whole banana for breakfast everyday! (Well, she won't tomorrow because we're out - need to go buy more.) Yesterday, I didn't know she had a banana for breakfast, since John fed her. So later in the day, she requested a banana, and I gave her one. And then later that evening before dinner, she asked for ANOTHER! We didn't let her have that one; 2 bananas in one day are more than enough for a tiny 14 month old! Besides, she needed some veggies and protein instead. That, and I don't want her to get constipated from eating too many bananas!

There are a few foods that she does NOT like. She hates eggs. She is definitely my child in that. I only like eggs if they're scrambled, and only if they're done right. Every single time we try to give her eggs, she spits it right out. Good thing she likes meat, beans, and cheese! She also refuses to eat jello. And when I've tried to give her pieces of canned peaches, she wouldn't eat it. But that was the week we were all sick AND she was teething, so that might have been part of it. I'll have to try that again. She doesn't seem to care for pineapple, either. Oh, and she's not really interested in eating pureed squash anymore, but we're veering away from the purees anyway. She also refused toast when she was sick; we think she doesn't like the texture. She likes bread just fine. But other than that, she eats pretty much everything - even cooked onions and cooked green peppers!

We have, however, had issues with getting her to drink whole milk. She just wasn't interested in it. John and I drink skim. When she sees us drinking it, she points and very clearly wants some. We let her drink a little, but she NEEDS the fat of the whole milk. She LOVES the skim, but she doesn't care for the whole milk. We even tried to trick her by putting whole milk in a regular cup (she loves drinking from our cups), but she wasn't fooled. Today, though, we had a good day with whole milk - she drank almost the entire sippy cup full! Yay! I kept offering it to her during meals. When John and I drank our milk and she asked for it, instead of letting her drink mine, I gave her HER cup instead. And she drank it! I'm hoping we can keep this up.

As for sippy cups, once she mastered drinking from the Nuby ones we got her, she decided she wanted to drink from the Gerber ones we already had. So now she'll drink from both types of sippy cups we have! Yay! She can drink from the ones with handles all by herself, but she still prefers to have US hold it for her...we're working on that.

For a long time, she was only interested in feeding herself foods that were NOT messy. Well, during Christmas break, she decided that she wanted to feed herself messy foods, too! Now she sticks her hand in my cereal bowl, pasta, stir fry over rice, cake, ice cream...pretty much everything. While she was sick, she decided to try feeding herself with a spoon, too! She wasn't really interested before that. But, I didn't really give her that many opportunities for it, either. She also wants to feed herself with one of OUR forks! If you've seen our silverware, it's particularly large, so a tiny toddler feeding herself with a big fork is pretty funny. Don't worry, we don't let her poke herself with it;)

When Emma eats snacks like yogurt melts or puffs, she likes to "pretend" to share with us. She'll put a piece in our hands and then take it back. Or, she reaches out like she's going to put a piece in my mouth. I open my mouth and say "aah" - and then, at the last second, she pulls it away and eats it!! She thinks it's the funniest thing! Yesterday, she accidentally dropped it in my mouth, so I ate it. She gave me the funniest look! It was a mixture of confusion and anger. She tried to take it back! Too late!

Emma loves to watch me cook. At first, she was pretty impatient with the whole food not being ready thing. She just wanted to eat it right away! But we explained to her that it wasn't ready to eat yet and that it needed to cook. Now, she loves to watch! She wants John to hold her up nearby while I'm cooking dinner. Yesterday, I made a cake for Victoria's birthday, and I asked Emma beforehand if she wanted to help me bake a cake. She had the biggest grin on her face!! She was so excited! She loved watching me pour all the ingredients together, and she especially loved watching my KitchenAid blend the cake batter. Then, she stood by the oven and watched it bake for a minute or so. She does that with the microwave, too, but we have to hold her up for that one;)

Emma has discovered that the fridge is a fun place to play. Greeeat. Thankfully, she can't open it. Yet. When she can, we'll get one of those fridge latches. She likes to pull aaaall the food off the bottom shelf (it's all she can reach LOL) and bring it over to me. We had a fun photoshoot with that recently. I don't let her do it very often, though. She gets mad, but she gets over it. Distraction helps;) She was also trying to climb IN the fridge! I got an awesome shot of that. One of these days, I'll digiscrap it and then post the page.

Today, Emma discovered that magnets are fun. She pulled a magnet off the fridge and then put it on our magnetic front door. I want to get her some of those alphabet magnets, but I couldn't find any at Walmart. I'll check a dollar store another time.

Another object that Emma loves to play with (that I'd rather she didn't) is the toilet paper. Joy. We keep the bathroom door closed, but when I'm home alone with Emma, I have to leave the door open when I use it so I can keep an eye on her. Of course, 95% of the time, she follows me in. And, of course, she waits until I'm wiping or washing my hands to completely unroll the TP...

Emma is SO totally a girl. She's already interested in clothes and shoes. Yep, she's definitely MY daughter!! Some days, I ask her what she wants to wear and let her pick between 2 outfits. She frequently grabs OUR clothes and wants to wear them over hers! One time, when I was sorting through her bigger sized clothes (right after I'd hit a couple consignment stores and washed the clothes), she grabbed one of her 2T dresses and wanted to wear it! So, I put it on over her clothes, and she walked around the apartment in it for a good 20 minutes or so! She LOVED it! When she sees her shoes, she wants me to put them on her. But then she wants to take them off again...and put them back on...yeah, I don't want to make a game out of that. I usually keep her shoes where she can't see/reach them;) She also loves our shoes. She picks them up and carries them around. I got some adorable shots of her wearing John's boots. I made a super cute digiscrap page of it, too. She likes to play with socks, too. Especially John's dirty stinky ones. Ew. And she likes to play in the laundry. She tried to take our dirty undies out of the hamper the other day...nasty. Folding laundry with her is difficult, because as soon as I get something folded and stacked up in the appropriate pile, she grabs it and UNfolds it. She likes to play with clothes. Emma also loves to look at clothes on the racks at stores. Yeah, she's definitely my little girl! She's also GREAT about changing clothes and getting dressed. Some days, I'm lazy and don't change her out of PJs, but on one of those days, she flat out WANTED to get dressed! So, I let her get dressed.

Emma likes to put things on her head. Or rather, have ME put things on her head. This is partially my fault. Ok, it probably is entirely my fault. When she got her stacking rings for her birthday, I put one of the rings on my head, and put another on hers. She thought it was SO funny, that for the longest time, she thought that's what they were for! Now, she knows how to stack them on the pole. But she mostly likes to put them on her wrists like bracelets. She loves jewelry, too, especially necklaces. Thankfully, she hasn't been that interested in earrings on the rare occassion that I wear them. She looks at them and touches them, but doesn't pull on them or anything. Phew!

Now that her hair is getting longer, I sometimes put pigtails or barrettes in her hair. It's so cute! At first, she kept pulling the little scrunchies out, but she left them alone all day Sunday. I think she likes the fact that I'm pulling it out of her face.

Emma LOVES baths in the big tub. Loves them. She plays with her duckies and other bath toys and splashes around. It's a lot of fun! But she HATES showers. I've only tried a couple of times, but she did NOT like it at all! So, baths it is;)

Most days, Emma is wide awake by the time John leaves for school or work. She gets upset when she sees him leave:( It's sweet, but sad at the same time. She does the same when I leave her with John, too - even if it's just to check the mail. But, she does this a little when other people come to visit and leave again, so I think part of it is she wants to go outside, too.

She loves to laugh! She's ticklish, so we have a lot of fun tickling her and making her laugh. She also likes to pull on John's leg hair and laughs so hard when she does! Though...that's probably because I'M laughing too, and John usually reacts very vocally to it. She laughs whenever we laugh, even if it's not because of her. The other day, I was reading a conference talk, read something funny in it, and I laughed. Well, Emma laughed, too! It was so cute!!

Emma loves to ride in or on things. If we put her in a box, she wants us to push the box around the house like a little car. John has more energy for that than I do!! He's way more fun with it than I am. She has one of those walk-n-ride toys. Now that she's walking, I converted it to the ride on vehicle. She LOVES it!!

Like all toddlers, Emma has her moments. She throws tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants. She's more likely to do this when she's tired. Her tantrums are short lived, though, because I either distract her or just wait until she's done (when distraction doesn't work or I don't have the patience for it). Usually I'm justified in saying no. For instance, when we were watching something cook in the microwave, Emma decided that the knives looked like they'd be fun to play with, so she reached for them. NO!! I pulled her away before she could grab one and she got mad. Too bad! Yeah, things like that. I know, I'm such a mean mommy for not letting her get her way...*rolls eyes*

But overall, she's a happy, sweet, loveable, cuddly, content little tot. She's always been a really easy going little girl. I don't know how we got so lucky with her. She now comes up to me and hugs me all the time and just loves to cuddle. Yes, she has her moments, but who doesn't? She brightens my life every single day. She really is a joy and we are so blessed to have such a little sweetheart in our lives. I love her so very much^_^

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Template 6

As promised, here's template 6. I love this one! I hope you'll like it as well:) This template is inspired by Simply Yin's designs. I love her work! I don't know how to do the nifty warped matte thing yet, though. Oh well. Enjoy!

As always, it's in PSD format. This is a double page LO. Here's the preview:



You can download it here.

My next 2 goals in the digiscrapping world:
1. Join a CT (not sure whose, though - I have yet to apply to any)
2. Have one of my templates show up on IkeaGoddess' blog:D

Template 5 and Birthday Cards

I just gave my blog a facelift:) I needed a cute background, but I wanted to do it myself. Make it more personalized. I had a hard time getting things to line up right without sacrificing my image sizes. I DID end up having to resize the double page LO's, but no big deal. They WERE a bit big. But now they're fixed, so everyone should be able to see them now.

I made a couple of cute birthday cards this week, too. Our neighbor's birthday was on Thursday, and we WERE going to go over and celebrate with them, but it didn't work out. But I gave him a card anyway. Today (er, yesterday since it's 2 AM^_^) was John's sister's birthday. I used the same card, but used the pink versions in the kit:) There were a couple of things I needed to recolor, or replace, but that's about it. Anyway, here are the cards:





Credits:
Everything is from the Happy Birthday Collab kit by Angie, Fanfan, NewlifeDreams, Nini-lolo, Sylvie, Tinette, MissVivi, Choukette, Gwenn, and Kafrounette. I can't remember which artists I pulled pieces from for these, so I'm just playing it safe and listing them all:)
Simple tear action - Atomic Cupcake

Aren't they cute? You know what I love best about these? I can reuse them as many times as I want!! All I have to do is change the text^__^ So...if you know me in real life, don't be surprised if you get one of these for your birthday;) If you'd like, I can make a template out of the card LO.

For Victoria's birthday tonight, I made yummy homemade pizza. Ok, so Pillbury made the crust;) But I made the sauce from scratch (I make awesome awesome sauce) and put all the ingredients on. One was a Hawaiian pizza, per the birthday girl's request. The other was a chicken and veggie pizza. Soooo good. I cooked bite-sized pieces of boneless skinless chicken breast in a little bit of olive oil with salt and pepper. Then I cut up an onion, green pepper, yellow pepper, small yellow squash (not sure what it's called), zucchini, tomatoes, and topped it all off with a pre-shredded Italian cheese blend. Oh my goodness, it was to die for!! Yum. And I get to have leftovers for lunch!

I also made a cherry chip cake (birthday girl's favorite) and topped it off with cherry frosting and some cute Valentine's Day sprinkles. I shaped some of the sprinkles into a 21, since that's how old she turned today. It was really cute! And, better yet, it was yummy. I made brownies, too, since she doesn't get to eat junk food much (college student on a budget kind of thing). Oh, and we had ice cream and root beer, as well. We sent her home with tons of food, too! Less junk for us to eat. I'm trying to eat healthier - I need to lose some flab.

Anyway. Most of you have probably just scrolled through my rambling and only want my freebie template anyway;) So, without any further adieu, here is template 5:



You can download it here. Like my other templates, it's in PSD format. This is a double page LO:) And I would LOVE to see what you do with it, so please feel free to send me your pages.

I will be posting template 6 in another post momentarily.