Blue Flower

    

Since I've decided to work on some CAS skills, I thought it might be fun to try out a couple of challenges that are just for that!   I am combining the sketch at clean&simple with the cue at CASology.

I guess I should have printed out the sketch instead of doing it from memory. :)  I guess my brain can't even handle something that simple these days.  I am having a second cup of coffee, so maybe that will help me the rest of the day.  I used one of my favorite tools, the Fun Flowers die, and two of my favorite colors.  Simple, but sometimes simple is good, right?  

I just love this girl.  We are having such a good week!   

Trying CAS...

I loved the sketch at Retro Sketches last week but didn't find time to play.  Laila went to bed early tonight so I decided to go straighten up my desk and then try it.   As stampers I feel like we should always be trying to improve or try new things, so I have been inspired by my fellow Freshly Made Sketches designer, Jen Mitchell, to try some white cards.  She is such a talented stamper and I love her work.  I know I won't get to her caliber ever, but I would love to be able to make a decent clean-and-simple card with lots of white.  Uh huh.   So here is attempt #1:

So not great, but it's a start, right?   Jen has been using some fun Washi tape on some of her recent cards and I wanted to play with it too!   I had no idea what it really was, but I managed to get it on my card and didn't tape myself up.   I wish I'd done the piercing AFTER I put the tape down, but I was feeling a bit lazy and didn't start over. I guess I didn't realize it was so transparent.   Lesson learned though!  :)

LOL   Gotta love a messy pea-covered face!  :)   We had a nice day today.   We went to the infant program at the library and she did great.  I hope we can go again, but they always seems to fall during her nap times.   She took an early nap today so we were able to hurry and get ready for it.   I really need more social interaction and it was nice to chat a bit with the mom next to me.  

FMS69: Pinwheels!

It's time for a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week is special because our dear Linda S. is the hostess and this is her very first sketch.  Exciting, huh?!  Now I hope she won't mind that I took a lot of liberties with it.  I totally dreamed up this card one night as I was thinking about the sketch and for once, the reality was even better!  I am happy to say that I actually like this one.  :)   I'm usually my own worst critic, so I probably need to frame it and keep it.  

I'm really beginning to wonder how we are going to live without Pool Party.   Island Indigo too really.  I just love those colors.  I mean I guess I can go back to Baja Breeze and Not Quite Navy, but I really do love these guys too.   Sigh.  Change, we can handle it, right?   Maybe SU will be nice and somehow add them to the next catalog.   Do you like the pinwheels?  I love pinwheels and the new die in the Spring catalog makes it so easy to make them!  I am stoked that I bought it now.   No more trying to punch holes in darn paper; the die does that for me!  

A certain someone is growing up way too fast!   I think she's teething AGAIN (does it ever really stop once they start?!), so we are trying an amber teething necklace.  My husband thinks it's a bit crazy, but I'm up for anything that might help her feel better.  She refuses to chew on anything except for her hands and fingers so we are having to put lanolin on them to help with the chapping and redness.   She's really enjoying her solid foods and we are having a blast making baby food for her.   

A Day of Remembrance

I hope to be back on Tuesday with a card and maybe an announcement of a new business venture, but for now my goal is just to survive tomorrow.   January 14, 2009 was the last day that I got to hold my sweet Eli.   At at little after 7pm that night he took his last breath in my arms.  I'll never forget that moment.  If you haven't heard about SMA, I would love for you to take a few minutes today to learn about it.   

FMS68: Giving Starfruit a Chance

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches!  This week Jen Mitchell is our hostess and sketch designer.  We have had some great versatile sketches lately and this is another one that can do so many things.   

So I can't lie, this isn't my favorite card.  I promised myself I'd give new things a try in the new year, but Summer Starfruit and I will never be friends.  I thought I'd give it a chance and I did.   I just can't do it though.  It's not a color that looks good to my eye.  I know other people love it and I'll leave it for them.  :)  Now Gumball Green and Midnight Muse?  I love those guys!   They are awesome.  But anyway, this is a clean version of the quilted heart with lots of different embossing folders.   This one could almost be manly if it wasn't for the flowers on the one panel. 

Laila has been so great about sitting in her chair after eating so that we can eat or clean the kitchen.   Yesterday she was sitting there flipping the pages of her book like a big girl.  I try to read to her a lot in hopes of her loving books as much as I do.   

Club Time!

This week is my fun Friday night stamp club week!  I'm so excited to spend time with my super awesome ladies.   Today I've been working on some ideas of what we'll make, but I have a big problem! I have not been sleeping well, so my creativity is a bit off with the exhaustion.  I wanted to use my much neglected heart framelits and after seeing a similar idea on Pinterest over and over last year, I decided to make a card like Wendy featured here on her blog.

That picture is awful, but you get the idea!  The color is Calypso Coral and I used one of those snazzy clear buttons from the main catalog.   What do you think?   I wish I had a larger Valentine's Day sentiment, but that's all I had to work with.   Hopefully my ladies will like it and it will give them an idea of fun things you can do with the framelits and designer papers.

Here's a shot of Laila waiting on the nurse for her shots yesterday.  Poor thing.  She only cried during the shots and for a minute after.  I have to admit, I did too!   I am not good at seeing my baby girl upset like that.   She didn't have any other issues though. She napped a bit more than normal and then slept from 8pm to 6:30am this morning!   I downloaded a white noise app for the iPod Touch and left it on in her room all night.  I don't know if it was the shots, the noise, or the next serving of solids, but she slept great.   I needed that night of sleep too.  I still work up a few times worried about her, but it was a much better night than I've been having.  

We've been having to bundle up lately to go out!   It has actually been a bit cold here in Texas.

Royalty Queen Valentine

I actually started a third card yesterday but didn't get very far on it.  I finally found a minute to finish it up today!  I just loved the color combination at Stampin' Royalty this week.  They are absolutely perfect for a masculine card!  I combined it with the Queen for a Day challenge over on Splitcoast to CASE ourselves.  Royalty, Queen...they go together perfectly, right?!   I picked this card of mine to do because it is one of my favorites that I've made and I love the sketch! 

I told you I was going to make sure I used that embosslit!  It is getting a workout already and there's like 5 weeks or so left to make Valentines! I pulled out my pile of scraps to make the banners.  Maybe if I made 525,255,825 cards like this I could use up all my scraps!   ;)   Do you hoard them too??   I need an intervention!   I did a bit of sponging and spritzing on this one because manly cards always say distressing to me.   I guess I think men are dirty?  Ha!  

Laila is getting so long!!!   Her blanket is not going to work for floor time pretty soon.  Good thing we had a big quilt made for her.  :)   Tomorrow we go for her 6 month appointment and shots.  I dread it.  I hope she doesn't have a rough time with them and I REALLY hope she doesn't catch anything while we are there!   

colourQ with Fab Friday!

     

I stamped more today and actually completed two cards!  Maybe the Mayans were off a bit and today is actually the day the world will end?!   We'll see I guess...there's a few more hours left.  ;)   For my second card I combined these fun challenges from Fab Friday and colourQ.  

When I first sat down to work on this I almost didn't pick that set of colors from colourQ.  Is it just me or is Certainly Celery bright?!   I sure miss my Pear Pizzazz.  Blushing Bride too!  I need to pull those guys out and use them since I was determined I wouldn't quit just because they were retired.  If you haven't already noticed, I LOVE mixing embossing folders on my cards and I managed to get in 4 of them on this one.  I don't know what it is, but I always feel compelled to use a bunch of them.   Do you do that too?   It might end up being too much sometimes, but that doesn't seem to stop me!   

Look at her being a big girl and sitting up playing.  One day she couldn't do it and then bam! she was an old pro at it.   It's just so amazing, but so crazy how fast she keeps learning things and growing up!