Hi there.

Hi friends. I don't have a crafty project to share today. My sister-in-law and niece are visiting from New York for the weekend, and between that and my mom being so sick it's been a bit crazy around here. No crafting what so ever.

I did want to share some pictures. A teensy peek into my weekend ;).

My kids & the New Yorkers :)
We did pumpkin carving yesterday after church:

Of course, after an hour it was just me carving 4 pumpkins alone. My carving knife broke... and I killed Yoda

We also spent some time down on the (Hollywood) Beach - just us and the kids, while my sis-in-law/niece were at a wedding. It was a beautiful night. Our 1st of the year below 80!



Also, my niece, Kristen, fell in love with our guinea pigs. This is her, my Alivia, and Krystal (guinea pig #2)
All in all this has been a great weekend. Filled with family. I really needed my sister in law. It's been an incredibly rough few weeks. I'm so blessed to have her in my life. I love her like a sister, and she is amazing to our kids.

Tomorrow is my birthday ;). I'll be 32. I've been making a list - "32 things I want to do while I'm 32" - and I'll share it with you guys tomorrow. I think that if I start & stay motivated, I can really accomplish most of it. I have hope anyway, and sometimes that's all you need. Anyway, I hope you have an amazing day. Thanks for peeking into my world today ;)

Routine...hmmmm...

Ok, no crafty project today - although - I’m thinking up one. I want to make a mini-book based on what I do everyday - you know, my Routine. The Crate Paper Blog’s current challenge is to create a project using (75% of their fabulous products and) the word Routine as inspiration. I’ve actually wanted to do something like this for a while and kind of have a little something started. Hopefully I actually finish it by the deadline (8/31/11).

Last night I started thinking about my daily routine. It’s clear to me that NO mom could make a “mini” book about her daily routine, right? It’ll have to be just a few highlights.

Most of the main parts of my daily routine revolve around these two amazing little creatures right here:


I still can't believe God let me help make them! Anyway these pics are from Last night. We did our new school year measurements - and I got a mini Photoshoot!.
One of the things that is fairly new to my daily routine is taking care of our new/used Guinea Pigs. Meet Krystal (named by Christian):

and Sunny (named by Alivia):

He's not really "redish" my camera just reflected funny on him. Anyway, they're mainly a part of my daily routine because I CAN NOT have smelliness in my house, which means cleaning the cage often. I’m actually potty/litter training them. Sounds funny - but it’s working!!! We also have a fun little family thing every night feeding & playing with them.

The scoop:
They’re both girls. I got them off Craigs List about 3 weeks ago. They are about 3 years old. Did I want little critters, you ask... NOOOOOO, I most certainly did not! This is all my hubby’s doing.

He went & promised the kiddos that if they were good (meant mainly for my son) at Summer Camp ALL summer, we could get a Hamster (he’s been begging for one for months). I don’t know what’s wrong with him - making promises like that without even asking me - you know. When I (er...) “questioned” him about it, he said something like “come one, this is Christian, he’s bound to wack someone at SOME point there over the summer!” He had a point. I know my son, and he gets “handsy” sometimes. I went along with it... You know, I’m really surprised how good a kid can be when something they REALLY want is at stake.

I was really freaking out when I realized we were going to have to get a hamster, so, I started researching them online and at pet stores. I found out that Guinea Pigs are actually MUCH better pets than hamsters. They don’t bite (my son was terrified of being bit), and are not nocturnal (HUGE PLUS!!!) - so they sleep when we sleep, and they’re really friendly little pets.

Craigs List??? Yes, I looked for them on Craigs List at the referral of a friend who also bought hers from - isn’t that the strangest thing?!? I got them from a family 15 mins away from me for less than the price of 1 store bought Guinea Pig, I got 2 piggies (they do best, and are generally happier, in - same sex - families/pairs) and the cage/bedding/food/toys/accessories for $25.00! They’re actually really nice little critters. Wish me luck - it's been quite a bit of work so far, but they are sweet little things.

Relay for Life - this Saturday

Good morning.

Ok, we made it to hump day... the weekend is on the horizon! I haven't had much to share this week. I've been crafting like crazy with Paper Niche's April kit. It's amazing and keeping me SUPER busy!! I can't share my goodies just yet though, stay tuned!

Any weekend plans? I'm walking in the Relay for Life this weekend, here in Cooper City, Florida. My office formed a team and so, myself and 3 of my coworkers - including my mom - are all doing our part and "walking for a cure".
I've never participated in a Relay for Life before, so this will be a new experience for me. It starts Saturday @ 12:00pm and ands at 8:00am on Sunday. I'm borrowing a 6 people tent from a friend and we'll all be camping out and walking our tushes off. I'm also really excited to be bringing my son. I think it'll be a great experience for him! To see his Nana walking in the Survivor line. To cheer her (and all the other survivors) on. I think it's a really good thing for him to be there. Plus, in our family - it's probably the only "camping" he'll ever do ;).

I don't usually wander too far into my personal dramady (get it... drama/comedy) that is my life, here on my blog. Besides the random, everyday family stuff, I mainly focus on crafting here - it is my crafty place - after all. But I have mentioned on my blog before, my mom was diagnosed with Stage 4 Adenocarcinoma in her lungs back in July (2010). July 23rd, to be exact. Three days after my little one's 2nd birthday. Not the best day. Lots of tears and prayers since. The strengthening of our faith muscles started working out that day. I though they were strong, but we hadn't really tested them too awful much - now that I think about it. This kinda burst in and pushed us down a little bit. But my mom's one strong lady - you don't knock her down without a fight.

Last week, she had new scans. The results are not exactly what I had hoped for. So this pill isn't the miracle cure. That's OK. We know God's in charge. Honestly, I feel like the little neighbor kid in “The Incredibles”. He’s staring up at Mr. Incredible, and he says (to the kid) “What are you waiting for?!?” and kid answers “I DONO, SOMETHIN' AMAZIN' TO HAPPEN!!”. Yep, I’m waiting on something amazing to happen.

She'll start a new kind of Chemo next week and we're just going to continue to put our faith in God and know that he has a {PERFECT} plan. For her, me and everyone. She still has no signs of her cancer. She's been very sick - only from the Chemo. Started loosing her hair back in January (due to radiation she had to get because of a spot they found on her brain over the course of treatment). At first, the hair loss didn't really bother her. Until it started coming out more and more. Coming out in clumps. The loss of control was too much.

She read on the American Cancer Society's website that sometimes it helps people to take matters into their own hands and shave their heads themselves - helps with the lack of control. Gives them back the power. She decided to shave it - I did it for her. Here are some pics:
So, this is my mom before we found out about her Cancer (June 2010):

This is the day we shaved her (January 2011)
The before:


The after:

She's a trooper, because right after that, she took my son & niece to sell girl scout cookies in the neighborhood:

Then we all tried on her wig... for fun... lightened up the mood:
Here's Sal, my hubby - always the comedian:


My niece Paige:

My little Christian (the future wife is gunna LOVE this huh?!?):

And my little Lulu:

I just can't stop laughing when I see these pics!! Sal cracks me up!!! Also, Christian... I think he's really working that wig!! In case you're wondering why there's not a picture of me in here, it's because I looked REDONKULOUS in it... but also my camera's batteries died right at that moment {just in the nick of time, if you ask me}. I thought I actually broke the camera with how crazy I looked in it - alas, I did not.

So, wish me luck. I plan on walking/staying up all night. I'm hoping that my Black Friday shopping excursion fully prepared me for this adventure! I'm also hoping I'm not the fat girl they have to have air lifted out of there for, like, heat exhaustion, or something. Drink lots of water - check! All joking aside, I'm really excited. I'm sure I'll also be super emotional. What a year! I never imagined my mom would get cancer. She's always been so healthy. And she still is. If she didn't get kidney stones (and have a CT scan to check them out) we probably STILL wouldn't even know she was "sick". She has no symptoms. It's only the Chemo that's kicking her butt. Everything happens for a reason. I can tell you, it's been quite an experiance. Before I forget, if you'd like to donate to our team, here is the link to our team's page. You can read our stories there as well as get info on the event.

Lastly, Paige (WHO WILL BE 10 TOMORROW - YAY!!) drew this picture of herself & my mom. In it, my mom is wearing the knitted cap the ladies at the VA made for her :). This is what she wears around the house (the wig is itchy).
I love that little girl. And I love my mom. I hope to have her around for MANY years to come.

I just thought I'd share that with you today, just a little snippet from my everyday. Thanks for listening ;). My blog readers are simply the best, I'm so grateful to "know" you all!! I hope you have a great day - and a great weekend, just in case I don't get to post anymore craftiness this week :). Next week will be full of crafty goodness though :D.

Auntie's Brag Book - using Say Cheese!!

Good morning! Today I wanted to share a mini book I made for my sister-in-law. Her birthday is fast approaching & she loves nothing more than pics of my kiddies (she lives in NYC - and is coming for a visit in 29 days!!!!). I wanted to make a little something that she could just throw into her purse and show off ;).

I have been wanting to try Lowri's awesome mini book tutorial for a while!! Her blog is PaperVine & she is an amazing crafter!! Go check it out!

I changed mine up a bit because I REALLY wanted to use the adorable Polaroid Pic stamp from Lawn Fawn's new Say Cheese stamp set and 4" wouldn't cut it (well, it would, but not really). So, instead of using a 12x12 piece of paper and cutting a 12x4 strip off, I used a full sheet of 12x12 paper and did the folding/cutting. The difference is, I had to add a strip of coordinating 6 by 6 & 1/2 paper (and just trimmed off the excess). I also added a strip of ribbon between the folded project and the cover so she could tie it closed. Here is a look at my finished project:

The first one is to show the size of the book & details, the second is the book laying open so you can see both the fron/back (or shall I say, back/front):
We {heart} our aunt dawn lots:

Wouldn't be perfection without some butterflies attached with the tiny attacher and bakers twine:

I stumbled on this little makeshift (and totally ca~ute) banner by punching the big scalloped border punch (EK Success)... these are the insides of the scallop (which I'd normally just trash):

I love how my son always has this huge (sometimes very mischievous) smile on his face. Both my babies have amazing smiles, makes me happy:


My finished project measures 6 by 3. I thought it would be flimsy (it is just paper), but it's not at all!!! The glue (I used Mod Podge) and extra layers of paper that I decorated it with made it pretty sturdy!! Every page in the book (and all patterned paper, for the most part) has been chalked using ColorBox Red, chalk ink. As you can see, I used the Polaroid Pic Stamp to matte all of my pictures, and added in a few other Lawn Fawn Stamps as well (look for little bits from Say Cheese; Say Cheese Too; Hello Friend; Silly Valentine; & Fly Free). The paper and stickers are all October Afternoon's "Cherry Hill", which I misted with Studio Calico's Mister Huey (Red). I think she'll like it. It goes perfectly with her card too :).

As a side note, if you want to try this (which you totally should!!) please practice at least once on a paper you don't really care that much about first. That way you don't experiment (say... if you're using a really pretty piece of paper that you don't want ruined... hee hee). By the time you start your project, you have your technique down ;).

What are you working on this week? Anything good? If so let me know, so I can stop by and peek. Hope you have a great day!!!

My BESTEST creations ;)

Are these sweet little ones right here!





It's amazing how quickly time goes by. It really does fly by. (I don't think) you really even notice "time" until you have (or are around) children. I didn't anyway. One day you look at pictures that you JUST took, and say "Oh. My. God! When in the world did my babies get so darn big"! It almost made me sad to see this, my Lil little Lulu especially! Maybe it's the outfit?!? I dono, but she looks alot like a big girl here. Two years have flown by. My Christian too. Where have the last 5 and a half years gone?!? I must say, it was much harder to get "good" pictures of him. He just wanted to be wild and crazy (making silly faces only) just because he could, I guess. My babies. They're so cute. We made beautiful babies. They're keepers. I love them so! So lucky to be their mama. So blessed by them. Their sweet and spunkiness. Grateful for their health and hearts! It's an amazing thing to be a mom. To be a part of this process. To feel so connected to someone so completely. The hard part must be staying that way. Helping them grow and giving them wings. Hoping you do your best to make them whole and complete and of good character. I feel really happy to be their mama. Happy to be doing this with my best friend. Happy that we're a great team (even on the rough days!).


Happy Tuesday, everyone.

Christian's Mini-book

And this is my beautiful spunky boy. While I crafted a good part of 2 hours away on Saturday - so did he. I love that he loves drawing, cutting, gluing, and doing all things crafty! It allows me to be crafty AND still spend quality time with him at the same time. We love playing with craft goodies together! So this is what he was making while I was making my Lawn Fawn Stamp home.




It’s a “mini book about my family n stuff” as he called it. He got it for his birthday in April, It has a bunch of foam shapes, a glue stick, a bunch of cute funky patterned papers, and a spiral book to put it all in. He’s definitely a keeper, this little boy of mine. I can’t wait for Lulu to get a little bigger so we can put her creativity to the test.

Family time

Today, I’ll do a lil "family" blogging. I had a very nice weekend. I basically only did 1 project, working on it then whole weekend in every bit of "spare" time I got. It’s for my mom - will it share tomorrow ;). Had lots of fun family-time with my hubby and babies. I just feel so blessed to be these 2 babies mama! Excuse the quality of the pics, as most of them came from my phone. These are my babies. Christian and Alivia. I love these two little people so much. Even when they cant stop screaming and swatting at each other (which is very often now-a-days).





Even when the oh-so-cute little one does DISGUSTING things with her poop (notice the tights with shorts on).

Even when my son dances around so wild and crazy, and does "wipeout" all over my living room, and plays music from his toys so repetitively that my brain wants to relocate.

Even when I feel so overwhelmed and am at my wits-end, I have to remember that all (ALL) I've ever wanted out of this life is to marry a man that I LOVE and to have my babies. It's what I wanted to be when I grew up! I always knew I wanted to be a mommy. I didn't know at that time exactly what went into being a mommy. Having a Christian and an Alivia. It can be hard work, tiring. But it is an amazing journey - and I'm just at the beginning. I can't believe how amazing these little people are. They're so cool! I can't beleiev I get to call them my kids! Yes, I have no clue what I'm doing, or what the future has in store. I may NEVER sleep more than 6 hours again (and that's on a good night). But I love this life. I love these children, and the man who helped me create them and helps me raise them. I love God and that he has allowed us to take part in these two miracles lives. I am blessed. I am in awe. And I am so grateful.