I Lift My Eyes (Wordless Wed)

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5 Minutes for Mom

39 Weeks

I know, I know--I'm actually posting a picture of me! I decided I should have at least one pregnancy photo in Little Pumpkin's baby album, so I had my 12yr. old dd take some pictures of me today. I think she did a pretty good job!

In some ways I can't believe that I'm near the end! This is the best I have ever felt toward the end of any of my pregnancies. I only gained 6 pounds this time around (I have no idea how---I wasn't trying to not gain!) Usually I gain a good 30 plus # and feel miserable toward the end. I know that eating more whole foods and less processed made such a big difference. My energy level has dropped tremendously though. I can only do a couple of tasks before I'm wiped out.

I only have a couple more things to check off my mental to-do list of things to get done before baby is born. I have been so blessed with people coming and helping me get things ready in my household over the past couple of months. Three ladies from my church helped me organize my homeschool room, switch out some clothes for my baby, 2yr. old and 3yr. old. Then a couple of my friends came and helped get my 12yr. old daughter's room ready. I had been so overwhelmed by all the room switching, clothes switching, lesson planning, pregnancy that I had been praying for help. And recently two ladies who used to clean my house surprised me by cleaning my house one day! Not only that, they took home baskets and baskets of dirty clothes and washed them for me! What a tremendous blessing! I hate doing laundry and with a household of 7--almost 8, we have a lot! After that, my mom came and we packed up summer clothes, pulled out winter stuff and continued to change toddler sizes. Whew! There is no way on earth I could have done all that on my own! I am so amazed and just blessed that so many people pitched in to help.

So now I feel ready. Ready to meet this new little one.

Tot School Sept. 6-10

DD2yrs. loved playing with pom poms this week. Here she had a bowl of pom poms and used a spoon to put them in the ice cube tray. She also used tongs but preferred the spoon. Then she and her sister played bakery with the pom poms. They baked me lots of pom pom cupcakes! :)

We also met with some friends and did some color activities.  She had a baggie with one ball of yellow playdough and one ball of blue playdough. After mixing and rolling it, she made green!

Here's my little jumping bean at our local state park. This picture just cracks me up! She had so much fun playing.

The weather was so nice that we spent quite a bit of time outside.

And here's a layout of my favorite photos from this week.

All products from Designer Digitals

Click photo for layout credits

For more Tot School Ideas check out:

Photoshop and PSE Digital SB Tips

Digital supplies by www.designerdigitals.com. Click layout for complete supply list.

Last night I spent some time scrapbooking and realized that I've learned lots of little tips and tricks from watching Designer Digitals short videos. They have allowed me to act like I know what I'm talking about---lol! Check out their YouTube channel for a library of digital scrapbooking information. Here's the latest video:

Tot School: 8/23 - 8/27 (24mo)

We're slowly easing into Tot School, Preschool, and big kid school. Since I've organized a little area for my 2 youngest, they have been loving having their own workspace. So even though I don't have anything officially planned yet, I have been putting activities out for them in their bookcase.

This week I let little DD try her hand at beads. It was a little challenging for her but I love how this picture shows how much she was concentrating on the task. I purchased these farm beads from Wal-Mart years ago and have never seen them since.

She also enjoyed working on a puzzle. I really need to get more chunky puzzles because she loved telling me the names of the animals and then putting them in their places.

One evening this week it was so nice out that I felt like going on a walk at our local museum. They have wonderful gardens and we enjoy going on nature walks there. When we arrived we were pleased to find out that the symphony was there! We came on the tail-end of the concert, but the little girls enjoyed hearing the music. I'll have to remember to hit more of these concerts next summer.

Digital Supplies by www.designerdigitals.com

Lovely Day Layered Template by Katie Pertiet
l'Automne Kit by Katie Pertiet
Collageables no. 1 by Katie Pertiet
12x12 Artist Edge Overlays No. 2 by Anna Aspnes

And this layout has two of my favorite pictures of the week. These pictures were taken while at the museum garden after the symphony. The little girls loved looking at the goldfish in the ponds. It was such a nice, unplanned evening!


See more Tot School Ideas:

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School Daze Digital Stickers (and uses)

Isn't this just the cutest kit? These are digital stickers by Mindy Terasawa  from www.designerdigitals.com that you can use for digital scrapbooking or personal crafting projects. What I love about digital products is that you can use the same kit over and over and over again.  Here's what I did:

I thought that these would make adorable labels for our school supplies. I put them on bins and boxes. The blank apple labels actually had my kids' names for labeling specific things.

Then I decided to make some school word-wall cards for my preschooler. I'll laminate the cards and use them on our wall (once I decide where I'm going to put our word-wall) I could print a second set and make a Go-Fish game.

Finally, I made some apple-themed mini-note cards. I thought this would be fun for a little creative writing center at the beginning of the year.

So digital supplies aren't only for digital scrapbooking pages! I love to turn to my digital stash for homeschool and organizing projects. Here are a couple more cute School-Themed digital kits from Designer Digitals (click on image for link):

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Wordless Wednesday: Changes

all supplies from www.designerdigitals.com
Studio DD LayerWorks No. 5
Mapped Paper Pieces Butterflies No. 1 by Katie Pertiet
Chipboard Alpha Pink by Katie Pertiet
Cootchie Coo Paper Pack by Jesse Edwards
Cootchie Coo Solids Paper Pack by Jesse Edwards
Classic Cardstock Jungle by Katie Pertiet

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Big Summer Fun: Wrapping Up

Am I the only one who thinks summer flew by this year? I can't believe August is just around the corner. I've started thinking and planning (kind of) our school year already, and I have been wishing to get back into the school routine again (things run smoother here with a routine).

Worn Frame Edges by Lynn Grieveson

Worn Strips No. 10 by Lynn Grieveson

Petit Jacques Kit by Lynn Grieveson

Home and Garden Papers by Katie Pertiet

Fine Line Border Lines No. 4 by Katie Pertiet

all www.designerdigitals.com (click layout for direct links)

Yet another part of me still wants to take time to soak up these last summer days. We took a family walk around the block last evening. It was so nice to be outdoors as a family. I pulled out our summer bucket list and we've done many of the activities on there, but I had hoped to do more. Due to the heat, my back, and just feeling crummy lately, we've had to nix some bigger outdoor activities (like camping, going to the zoo, hiking etc.) but I'm finding I'm just enjoying being with the kids doing simple things like letting them run through the sprinkler, watching them build sandcastles in the sandbox, and bringing them to the pool. I'm going to enjoy these last care-free days of summer before our schedule gets packed with classes, co-ops, and other activities.

So this will be the final Big Summer Fun link-up! Link up a current summer post or your favorite summer post of the summer!

Scrapbooking Me and other Randomness

I actually took some time this weekend to do a little scrapbooking. I've noticed that I really don't like to scrap about me! My son took this picture and I decided to do something a little artsy with it. Oh, and least you think I'm so creative---the base of this layout is a template by Anna Aspens. She makes doing artsy easy! :) [All products are from www.designerdigitals.com. You can click the layout to see the exact supplies]

Things are slowly starting to shape up around my house. Remember how I posted about the messy homeschool room? Well, I'm happy to report that it still looks the same :) The good thing is that I'm going to go to IKEA in a couple of weeks to see if I can get the Expedit bookshelf system (and maybe a couple of others things if I can tweak the budget). I'm looking forward to going because it will just be my dh and I! I can't remember the last time we've been able to go somewhere without a kid or two.

Things might be a little sparse on here in the next week or two. I've been feeling pretty crummy---I get to take my glucose test this week and I hope that's not the problem!  I've also been having severe back pain. I must be carrying this baby low or something. I usually don't get this pain until closer to 40 weeks and I'm only at 28! Some days I can sit long enough to blog, others I can't. I do plan to have the Big Summer Fun linky posted on Monday---so I'd love to see how you're finishing your summer! I also have another Chalk Talk interview that I'm excited to share later in the week.

Have a great Sunday!

June Summer Memories

Documenting our Big Summer Fun for the month of June. :)
Digital Supplies by Designer Digitals

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Wordless Wednesday: You Shine

Digital Supplies Used:
You Shine Template by Katie Pertiet
Classic Cardstock Carnival by Katie Pertiet
Touches of Paint Paper by Katie Pertiet
RicRacBasics No.1 by Katie Pertiet (recolored)
Tie Em Up Ribbons by Pattie Knox
12x12 Distressed Edge Overlays No. 8 by Anna Aspnes


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Strawberries, Sweetness and Scrapbooking

We have done several memorable things this summer and lots of ordinary things but I have not been motivated to document them. Yes, I am committed to doing one monthly page, but I made myself make that commitment--lol! I have been having scrapper's block and burnout. Since I've been a scrapper for years now, I know that this is a common cycle. The funny thing is, I never know what is going to help get me out of the funk. Well recently I was given a self-paced scrapbooking class to review called Building Pages.  I wasn't sure what to expect but was looking forward to checking it out.

This class is designed by Debbie Hodge. She knows her stuff.  She was a contributing editor to Memory Makers Magazine, and her scrapbook pages and articles have appeared in many scrapbook magazines. She's written Get It Scrapped, published by F+W Media and has a couple of scrapbooking e-books published at Designer Digitals. So yeah, Debbie knows how to scrap! I have long admired how she captures the story of each event on her pages. She also does multi-photo, double-page spreads so well.

I, on the other hand, am not usually a multi-photo layout nor a double-page-spread type of scrapper, After reading the "blocked" section of the class, I was inspired to finally get the story down of our Strawberry Picking festival experience. This was a memorable day not only for the fun and food, but because it was a first for my oldest daughter---the first time she had to go to the ER to get stitches in her leg! All is fine now, but on that day it was quite a big deal.

I used a template included in the class to be the basis, or building block for my page. This is the first page.

As you can see all I basically did was change the photos for the second side of the layout. Using the principles of a "blocked" layout I was finally able to get my Strawberry Festival layout done!

After going through the "shelved" section I was ready to do some more scrapping! I created this layout using that design approach. (You'll have to read the lesson to find out more :) )

I have loved going through this class! I wasn't expecting it to inspire me so much, but this class has jumped-started my scrapbooking again! It is very well laid out and very professional. I'm hooked.

What I like:

* Debbie gives 12 strategies to create a layout, giving starting point ideas which help eliminate that "What am I going to do now?" feeling I often get when staring at a blank layout. Then she show you multiple directions in which you could  go with each approach.

* Lots of page examples are included with each lesson. I'm visual so I need to see what is being taught.

* All the lessons are in  PDF format so that you can print it out as a reference book.

* All lessons also have a video segment to watch if you don't want to read the PDF :)

* Debbie explains things so well that scrappers of all levels can gain a lot of useful design information.

* This class is for paper scrappers and digital scrappers.

* Included are PSD templates which digital scrappers can use as layout templates or paper scrappers can use a page sketches. Lots of resources!


Through July 2nd, the entire “Building Pages” class is $42. On July 3rd, the class price goes up to $54.  For the information, handouts, videos and extras you get, I believe the class is totally worth it.

Disclosure:
I was given this class for review purposes. The opinions are my own. Because I think so highly of this class I have joined as an affiliate, so if you do purchase this class you will be helping to fund our new baby's cover the booty fund (aka cloth diaper fund) We thank you in advance!

Scrapbooking Summer Memories

I have been thinking about how I wanted to document our summer and I think I finally have a plan! I'm going to be making an 8x8 (maybe I'll do 12x12) Shutterfly album of our whole year! That doesn't sound very innovative does it--lol! This is how I hope to accomplish it:

For each season of the year I will have a title page.  Here's my title page for the summer. This was so easy because I used Lynn Grieveson's summer quick page!  All I had to do was drop in my photo and add a title!  Recognize the sun in the layout? Yep, it's the same one used in our Big Summer Fun button. Lynn graciously let me use it for this series. Thanks Lynn! Using quick pages is a super easy way to get a layout done. You can find out more in my article Working with Digital Quick Pages.

See how easy? Page 1 in my album done! :)

Since I am a Project 365 drop-out (when you take a photo a day), I thought that maybe I'll be able to handle "The Monthly" instead. Cathy Zielske came up with this project as a way to document the year. You can read and see examples of this project on her blog: The Monthly Project. I plan on starting now with our summer photos. It doesn't seem as overwhelming to scrap highlights of the month. I always get bogged down with scrapping events that I usually don't scrap them at all! This seems doable to me --scrapping monthly event highlights. :) I'll be using a combination of Cathy's templates and Michelle Martin's template. To keep help keep me accountable, I will post each month's layout during the first week of the following month. Remind me if you don't see it! :)

So how will you be documenting your summer memories? Scrapbooks? Journals? Blogs? I'd love to hear about your plans! :)

Last Minute Teacher GIfts

Sarah from Digital Reflections has featured some wonderful teacher gift ideas on the Designer Digitals blog this week. I think my favorite is her tree thank-you card paired w/ a great gift idea! Be sure to check them out.

Last month I featured how to make altered clothespins which are also nice teacher gift ideas.

Jodi shares an adorable end of the year album idea.

Now that summer's begun, be sure to stay tuned to our Big Summer Fun!

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