Stuck?! Sketches Birthday Bash!

Be sure to join in the fun over at Stuck?! Sketches this month! There's extra sketches, a blog hop and lots of prizes to be won! C'mon over and join the party!!!

Two reveals! Lots of Scrappy Fun!

Hello, August!! Can you believe the summer is half gone already? And my sanity is still hangin' in there (though last week gave it a run for its money!!). We still have our vacation in NH to look forward to as well as the addition of a new puppy to our family at the end of August. He's a sweet little Boxer and we've named him Oz. Isn't he a cutie?

The first of August brings my first reveal with the Crop Addict team! I had such fun working with the bright, fun colours in this kit. Perfect for summer fun and great colours for scrapping little boys (had to sneak a girl page in too though ;)). Here are my layouts, but you can check out the whole team's work here.

The birthday card is for a friend of mine and I forgot to give it to her before she went away for a short vacation. I saw her the other night at dinner and was trying to remind myself all day to bring it with me but of course, in the rush of the day, I forgot. I also made her this cute cork board to go along with it. I totally love this project...fun and easy. I followed a tutorial on this blog.

So, C, if you are reading my blog...surprise! Haha!

August first also brings my first Stuck?! Sketches reveal! I've been a busy little scrapper :) Here are the sketch and my layout, but you can check out all the takes on the sketch here.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. We have a long weekend here (extra long for us since Kevin took Friday off). We are having some friends over for a barbecue later. We're really looking forward to it. Kieran's already talking about having hot dogs and marshmallows for supper :) Should be a fun time! Until then there's some cleaning and napping on the agenda! Have a great day!

My Mind's Eye Challenge

I tried out one of the My Mind's Eye challenges from their blog. You can check out the challenge here. Basically I had to work with the sketch given and use the word HOPE. I've been saving these papers for awhile and I think they work so nicely with this picture. And the die cuts and transparency are nice additions as well. I've only tried making my own flowers a couple of times, but I'm really pleased with how these paper roses turned out!

I was checking out some of my competition and the other layouts are all amazing! I'm not sure I stand a chance, but I had a lot of fun creating this one. Gotta love a sketch and a title prompt for getting a layout done quickly. Ok, ok, so it still took me a few days, but I only get very short chunks of time in which to work :)

I also finally received my Crop Addict kits today! Yay! I was getting impatient :) When they were delivered Riley asked what I got and I told him scrapbooking supplies. He said, "Again? That's all you ever get!" Haha, so true :) I can't wait to get creating. The kits are just beautiful!

On a sad note, all of the tadpoles are now dead :( Kevin had changed their pool water. It was seriously gross and we put the logs, rocks, leaves back in and gave them some fish food. But something must have gone wrong. The kids were a little upset. Maybe we'll get the chance to try again someday. It was cool to see them transform and grow. I'm glad I got to see it, but sad that we didn't get a chance to take them back to their home.

Well, who want to end on a sad note like that? I think we need another cute Riley-ism and some sweet kid pics, don't you? That's right, I thought you did!

We were out for a walk the other day and Riley says to me, "I don't need one of those music thingies, I hear my own music in my head." I have no doubt at all that this is true :) I wonder what else he hears in his head, lol. His imaginary friend, Lem (in case you'd forgotten) has cropped up again recently. The other day he was telling me that he and Lem and Kieran and Kieran's Lem (why be crazy and think up another name???) were going to build something. Okidokie.... Crazy kid :)

And for the pics:

Heehee, dress up is so much fun! How cute are they?

Bridget in her pink dress with the pockets (I think the pockets are what makes this one of her favourites) and a yellow Corona hat. Quite the outfit. Especially to wear to drop the boys off at vacation Bible school....

Awww!

Kieran has had a hard time taking a decent picture lately. Doesn't seem to want to smile but this cracks me up, so maybe that's better :)

Ok, I must be off to bed. Bridget has been getting up a lot lately so I need all the rest I can get!

I can't wait....

I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my first kit from Crop Addict. I'm holding out a small hope it will come today before the weekend, but I'm not sure. The kit is available for sale July 20th as well as the add-on option. Want to see what I'm waiting on...

I just love the colours in this kit and I can't wait to play with all my new goodies! You can have your very own kit too in just a few short days ;)

On the tadpole front, I had a fear yesterday that we had lost Bridget's too. I couldn't find him anywhere, but later in the day he was out, just hanging out on the rock. His tail is pretty much gone now so he's a teeny weeny frog. I don't think he's much bigger than my thumbnail. I guess that's why he's so hard to find. We went back to where we got them to look for more, but had no luck. We did have fun chasing and catching minnows though. Riley was pretty good at catching the small ones but the big ones were more elusive. Kept them busy for an afternoon though :)

Here's Maddy. Isn't she (he?) cute?

Riley's little tadpole is still swimming around. It doesn't really even have back legs yet...maybe just the beginnings of some. It's still lively and swimming around though. It was much smaller than the other 2 so Riley just has to have some extra patience, which couldn't hurt, right? :)

Happy Friday everyone! I am glad to see the weekend!

More exciting Scrappy News!!

I'm happy to say that I've made another DT! Woohoo!! I'm now part of Crop Addict's DT and get the pleasure of working with some super talented gals. I'm excited about this new venture. The forum is nice and laid back and the gallery is full of gorgeous work! All you scrappy types should go check it out! My first kits are en route and I can't wait to get designing :)

And...on a sad note. Kieran's tadpole died :( I was transferring them to a tadpole paradise in our broken kiddie pool and went to scoop him out and the poor thing was just floating there :( He was the biggest one too. Poor Haddy. It didn't help that Kieran was having a rough day today anyway. There was much crying the whole day. He saw me going to pour Haddy into the woods and asked what I was doing. I said that we couldn't keep him and he cried and said good-bye. Then I cried because Kieran was so sad. Kieran said he wanted to pour him out himself. Let's face it, he's four and he's over it now, but it was sad. I told him we'd go look for another one where we found those ones. So far the other two are doing fine and living in a pool paradise with logs and rocks and leaves :) Fingers crossed they stay that way!

Well, I must get back to watching Buffy :) We're on the last episode of Season 1. I love it! Heehee.

A song, a race and, of course, more tadpoles!

The other night when I was putting Kieran to bed he wanted to sing me a song rather than me singing to him (can't blame him...I really can never remember the words to very many songs...not like Kevin). Well, that morning I had given them some toys that I had bought at a yard sale awhile back. Kieran's was a big incredible Hulk. I had also bought him a Superman the same day of yard sale-ing...I just spread out giving them the toys :) So, this is the song that he sang me:

Superman is a superhero

He's my favourite superhero

Mommy bought me the Hulk

She's the nicest Mommy in the world

Awww, how cute is he?

Today I ran in my first official race. It was 2.6 miles and I finished in 29.something minutes. I haven't really been running consistently lately so I think that's not too shabby for my first time. We even got medals. We were saying how cool that was when one of the girls said that the only medals she's ever gotten were ones when you're a kid and they give them to everyone for participating. I said, "umm...like this one?" LOL! I thought she was going to kick me out of the car :) We're all very proud of ourselves. Heck, I'm still shocked sometimes that I don't just give up!

Kieran's tadpole has front legs! Woohoo! It's totally cute. Like an itty-bitty little frog. Of course I took pictures on Thursday and on Friday it had it's extra legs. Anyway, I'll post the 2 leg pictures and take some more later. I know you're all enthralled with our tadpole saga!

Aren't they cute? :)

I was scrapping some layouts for Stuck?! last night and I love how they are turning out, but you have to wait for August to see them ;) Have a great Sunday night all!

Tadpoles, Kids, Cards

Tadpoles...still alive! Woohoo! Two of them have back legs now. I must take a picture, but believe me, they are all still alive. I'm as shocked as you are, trust me :)

Kids...still alive! Woohoo! Week 2 of summer vacation and we haven't killed each other yet. It was iffy at the beginning of the week, but they've been pretty good the past two days. Riley has them playing a new game. Animal Rescue League. He gathers all his stuffed animals and takes care of them and tries to find them homes. He has dogs, alligators, snakes, an armadillo, a donkey, a monkey in case you are interested :) He gets the other two involved too and they actually played for a really long time yesterday. The down side was he tried to wake Kieran up this morning so he could go in and feed the animals. I mean, Kieran is the only kid who actually sleeps so I hate to ever wake him. We were actually fighting over it and I had to break it to him that it really was only pretend, lol. He takes his games very seriously, always very in character :)

We went picking strawberries today with Mom and Dad. Always one of my favourite days of the summer. The picking wasn't great but I have 8 boxes of strawberries in my fridge and that makes me happy. I think biscuits are on my to do list for tomorrow, yum!

Here are two birthday cards that I've made recently. I put them in the mail yesterday so I may be ruining a surprise or 2 but, oh well, lol. They served a dual purpose since I also did them for challenges for LCOM's 28 Days of Summer Fun.

Ok, finally time to relax after a long day. With a bowl of strawberries and yogurt topped with All Bran buds, yummy!! I just had to lie down with Bridget so she would go to sleep. She was asking for Mommy to lie with her for a 'long time ago' :) How can I resist that?