She got her way and we set up her blog tonight. Lots of rules and regulations have been discussed. Scrapbook pages will need to be scanned. Her cuteness through all this was unbelievable. This is going to be fun.
Check her out: All About Me.
My not-yet-seven-year old wants a blog. She wants to write all about everything and post her scrapbook pages. Where does she get these ideas?
She will not be deterred.
Stay tuned.
Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. For years we've called this day "our family's birthday" and try to make a big deal out of it for the kids, too. So in the morning we all went to see Shrek the Third . The movie wasn't the greatest, but Mr. Bunch cooperated by falling asleep pretty quickly and we had a good time. From there we dropped off the kids and headed out for an afternoon of shopping, including a blissful hour at The Container Store. Ah, such fun. For dinner, we had reservations at Mastro's Steak House, a much recommended Beverly Hills restaurant which we had both looked forward to trying. That's where things started going downhill.
Somewhere between the nice-enough appetizer and the not-very-flavorful Caesar salad, I started losing my appetite. By the time my gigantic steak got there, 2 bites were all I could manage. The sides were too rich, the steak too tough and the wine made my head feel quite strange. Pretty soon, I couldn't even stand the butter and meat smells that permeated the restaurant and nausea started to set in. Needless to say, this did not enhance my poor husband's enjoyment of his meal.
For those of you who don't know, I've been having some strange and unpleasant emotional ups and downs for the last month or so. This has been taking a toll on my husband as well. As the conversation turned to this subject, our dinner took another turn in the wrong direction. In the end, we did talk a lot more than we have recently, and I know we'll get through this together. Things just haven't been easy lately. But I've always said, just because something isn't easy doesn't mean it's not worth it (except for dinner at Mastro's; that's definitely not worth it).
By the way, on the way out of the restaurant, we passed a homeless woman who was asking for food or money. We had our leftover sides of much-too-rich creamed spinach and nowhere-nearly-as-good-as-it-sounded lobster mashed potatoes and it took about a second to decide to give them to her. I love thinking about her eating her lobster and hopefully going to sleep with a full stomach for once.
You all were so nice about posting lovely comments about the last layout I posted. So now I'm sharing this one, which I created for the National Scrapbook Day 20 Layout Crop at The Untamed Scrapper. Our mission was to create simple layouts that could easily be copied and modified. Because the background paper is so busy, I really had no choice but to keep the rest of it simple. This layout was an exercise in perseverance. I think I had to print the journaling out something like 11 times to get it to work right. Maybe I'm just a moron. It's possible.
Boring details: pattern paper: Daisy D's; title: American Craft rub-ons, journaling font: can't remember (email me if you're dying to know and I'll look it up); really cool brass filigree photo corners: Abby's Awesome Offerings. The link is to Abby's blog. Post there if you'd like info on how to join her yahoo group to shop. I don't remember who makes the vellum, but I did learn that vellum, especially colored vellum, is becoming harder to find. Bummer.
The pictures are of a trip we took before Julia was born. We stayed at The Inn on Summer Hill, a lovely lovely bed and breakfast in Summerland, just south of Santa Barbara. If you're ever in the area, you should definitely check it out.
It's taken probably a month, but I did actually finish a layout last night. This brings our grand total for this year to 4 pages done, which actually doubles last year's output. Pathetic? Yes. Miraculous? Also yes.
Boring details: yellow paper is from Two Busy Moms from my stash and is ages old. The orange is Scenic Route, I think, maybe? It was in my scrap pile. Foam stamps are MM, paint is cheap stuff from Michael's. I had a thought to sponge ink over the letters and emboss with clear embossing powder and then the rational, lazy part of my brain took over and it didn't happen. Ribbon is Carolee's Creations, I think. Font is Whackadoo, which isn't really all that important, but I just like saying Whackadoo.
When coming up with this color scheme, I knew I wanted to use the yellow and blue from the high chair but wanted to add a third color. I googled "online color wheel" and played at a couple of the sites that came up. One suggested the orange which I liked. This definitely isn't my favorite page ever, but the fact that I got another one done is pretty huge and I like it enough to not want to redo it. That's definitely good enough these days.
We've all had Mom on our mind lately. Between Hallmark and all the jewelry store commercials on TV, you'd have to be pretty out of it not to know today is Mother's Day.
My brain has been doing some wonky things to me the last couple of weeks, so I've been much, much more introspective than usual when it comes to today. I've been thinking of all those who are missing their moms so much today, and the moms whose arms and hearts are aching to hold their babies but who can't. I've been thinking of the moms who wonder if this will be the last Mother's Day they'll spend with their kids, if illness or accidents will take them away from each other all too soon.
Through the darkness that I've found myself in recently, some rays of light have been starting to shine in. So I've also been thinking how very, very fortunate I am to get to spend every day with my 3 healthy children. How already we have experienced so much good fortune than some families ever do. I find the joy in my baby's squeals of laughter, in our family dinners together, in our first months living in our new nest. And while I tremble at how frail and fragile and precious it all is, I also marvel at the family we've created and pray for good health and happy days ahead.
I also pause to appreciate all the moms around me. From my friends who are as frazzled every day as I am, to my own mom whose endless help allows me to better mother my own babies. It's true what they say: once you become a mother, it feels like your heart no longer beats in your own body. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Happy Mother's Day to all you beautiful moms.
Ah, picture a beautiful spring Saturday at the local neighborhood park. The sun is shining, there is a mild breeze blowing, and the air is filled with the sound of children laughing and playing. A little pizza, a little cake, what could be better?
But this is LA, or at least the LA suburbs, so you know it doesn't end right there, right? That would be boring.
For one thing, it really is a picture perfect day and there are not just one, but two birthday parties going on simultaneously. Two piles of presents, twice as many kids running around and twice the number of Israeli party guests. To entertain all the little cherubs, we have not just Tinkerbell and Peter Pan (and their teeny tiny little dogs which they stopped every so often to hug and kiss) but also Superman, whose pinata likeness ended up being sadly decapitated later in the day.
Our particular birthday girl was adopted from China by her American/Israeli family and, in addition to her school friends, there are a lot of other Chinese girls running around in their princess makeup. While the girls decorate angel wings, the boys create pirate hats. My boy, scary swashbuckler that he is, decided to go all out and put all kinds of sparkly glitter and jewels on his hat. As the kids work on their crafts, they are serenaded by a random guest who sings operatic Princess movie songs a Capella. I am not making this up.
Because this is LA and you can't go out and get your morning paper without tripping over a celebrity, we notice that one of the moms at the party is an actress & director, most recently from ER. Much whispering and pointing ensues as we pretend that we are all so cool and not at all star struck.
Finally, as if all this weren't enough, a guest at the other party provides this:
even without the front view, which would showcase her Cleopatra pony tail which is not quite the same color as the rest of her hair, she has inspired me to start my own civilian version of GoFugYourself, which I would do if I was one iota as good of a writer as the Fug girls and had given up all hope of ever getting into heaven and also didn't mind getting sued.
Where else can you get all this, and birthday cake too? I love L.A.
Help this cute isn't easy to come by. And I might add, it ain't cheap!
And now, because it's Friday and I'm feeling generous, here's a bonus toes shot...because you just can never get too many pictures of baby toes.
My friend Kim is not only a great scrapper with a keen eye for decorating - I mean, she has a red front door; how cool is that? - but she has a really cool new blog that's taking off big time. Today'sCreativeBlog is a blog blog in that each day Kim showcases another creative blog of some sort. So far she's touched upon decorating, scrapbooking and photography. Who knows what she'll find next? Each of the blogs she features are inspirational, with lots of photos and plenty of eye candy and ideas.
So far I see two major problems with this. First, checking out all her cool posts is going to seriously cut into my computer time for things like ordering groceries. Second, it's starting to give me a complex about my own scrapping and decorating (ha ha, as if) not to mention this pitiful little blog. I feel like all these other talented ladies are fairy princesses and I'm a big brown bumpy toad.
Seeing as that kind of pressure will only lead to anxiety, and I don't need any of that right now - oy, that's a whole other post - I'll just focus on how cool Kim and her blogs are and encourage you to check them out. I, for one, am definitely stockpiling inspiration for when I'm out of boxes and unpacking mode and decorating and scrapping for real.
On a side note, this marks my 100th post here. Thanks to those of you who have come by and read and commented, or just lurked. Hope it's been worth the click.
