He's turning a corner...

as he gets closer to his 4th birthday! I can't believe my baby is going to be 4 years old in a few months. It's so fun to watch him transform...we've gone from a time of constant battle of wills to a reasonable little boy that will now walk into the kitchen and sit in his time-out chair when he's told. He doesn't resist, he knows he's been bad and that's the punishment. And the time-outs only occur every other day or so and not three to four times a day...I guess all our rules are starting to sink in. And he still does get into trouble but at least we don't feel like we're constantly correcting him. Feels like quite a milestone!

GQ is also gaining more patience, not a lot, but some. A few days ago I found him in the toy room putting together a 46 piece puzzle that a month ago he refused to attempt. He'd dump the pieces, kick them around and then move on. Now he'll sit down, sort them out and start piecing together. Way to go GQ!

He's a curious little guy with a photographic memory! I never thought many people paid attention to commercial on television, but GQ does. He tells me about Super Putty that I need to seal leaks in my bathroom pipes (we don't have leaks, but they show that use on the commercial.) And he explains to me about some water globes that will make my plants stay moist...I could go on and on. It's a little funny and distrubing at the same time.

He's now in love with Spider Man...not sure how I feel about that. I know the cartoon is painful for me to watch, terrible acting, hard to believe a cartoon can have bad acting, but it does. He wants everything Spider Man. He does have a Spider Man lunch box and monster truck and hopefully it will remain at that. He won't be owning any Spider Man clothing or shoes, he seems OK with that. He knows our rule on character stuff...but he still asks, I guess just hoping for a weak moment. Spider Man is everywhere too, so it's hard to avoid the constant requests of Spider Man something or another...I rec'd my Pottery Barn Kids catalog in the mail last week and was browsing through hoping to find bedding for GQ and came across Spider Man sheets! Usually I let GQ look at the catalog but it quickly found a place in the recycle bin. Mean mommy, I know ;)

Sports...he's into them all. GQ watches Reds baseball with his daddy and MLS too. Then there is golf, they go to the driving range and hit balls at home too, with his own driver. He plays baseball out in the yard, learning to ice skate so he can play hockey (he just got a new pair of real hockey skates, they are too cute!) He's 100% boy...

I can't believe I am typing this...but he just came to tell me he had to go to the bathroom and asked me to get a newspaper for him to read in there. Crazy little guy! :D

Thanks for letting me brag a little...

Thanks a latte...

So I love to make cards...for everybody else it seems, because when I need a card for a birthday or thank you I never have one, I've given them all away as gifts. I decided I was going to sit down and make myself some thank-you notes; GQ must have known I needed some crafty time because after our afternoon at the pool he decided to nap for me! YAY! The Thanks a latte sentiment is so perfect for me, because if you really know me, you know that I loves me some coffee!

I found this card while blog surfing. I just loved it and had to CASE it! If you go look at that card you'll notice that it was actually a CASEd card from this one. Both cards are awesome...how could I not try to do the same? Thanks for the inspiration Beth and artystamper!!

I really love my final product. About 1/2 way through I was second guessing my colors, but they are some of my faves, how could I not like that? After it was all together I knew I made the right choice. I've been sticking to my crafty plan of not buying any more paper and using all my scraps up, which I did for this set of cards. It felt so good to almost deplete my yellow scraps and make a small dent in the green. Still have lots of scraps left, but I'm on my way to at least making the pile 1/2 it's original size.

Have a good one!

Counting Challenge

I made this quick card for a counting challenge on my friend Karie's site. It had to contain 1 stamped image, 2 flowers, 3 brads and 4 bling. Here is my interpretation...if you can't tell what the bling is, look in the patterned paper, you'll see four green stones.

...because I love you!

Gavin went grocery shopping with daddy this afternoon and left me home to get my craft on! Just as I was putting my stuff away I heard the truck pull into the drive and went out to help carry groceries in. Gavin hopped out of the truck holding a pot holder and proudly exclaimed "mommy, I bought this for you because I love you!" My heart melted. Mommy loves you too buggy!

12 Days of Christmas - Make a Card

We've entered the 12 Days of Christmas phase at MBI's Christmas in July celebration. Today is my turn to showcase an easy holiday card that can be made in 5 steps or less. I tried to put together a card that can be easily put together, so making your own cards for the holiday mail out list doesn't seem so daunting! You can do it!

1. cut 8.5x11 card stock in half and then fold those halves in half...you now have two card bases.
2. cut patterned paper 4x5.25 and adhere to card base.
3. stamp sentiment on card and image onto white card stock. color image.
4. punch out stamped image and image mat, then layer w/adhesive.
5. adhere finished stamped image to card base. use dimensional adhesive for a cool 3-d effect.

My patterned paper is from the MBI store,it's Daisy D's Magic Stripe. Check out that paper and all the other holiday Daisy D's stuff. Anything that's red and green and Christmasy is currently 30% off! Daisy D's has paper that can work for both fun cards and very traditional holiday cards.

Have a great weekend!

Gift Card Holders

I made some gift card holders for a Christmas in July tutorial on MBI. I didn't do Christmas-themed cards because I had a couple new stamps I was wanted to break in. These are so easy to do, I made six in about an hour. If you want to see how easy these are to make click here.

I think our little guy can read and spell...

seriously. I turned on the television this morning and GQ told me that something about bowling was coming on. I looked up at the television and it said bowling across the screen. No pictures to indicate bowling, just words on the screen. And on several occasions I've spelled things to the husband ( I swore I'd never be a mom that spelled instead of just saying, so I was wrong :D ) and GQ asks why we're talking about whatever it is that I just spelled. **scratching head**

This is all amazing to me because GQ is sooooo stubborn that teaching him letters and numbers is nearly impossible. Though I have gotten through 1/3 of the alphabet with him, sometimes it seems like it'd be more productive to just pound my head on the wall. He thinks it's funny to see how frustrated mommy can get! A home-schooler I will never be.

Maybe GQ doesn't want to sit and learn letters and numbers with me because he already knows them? Maybe he's just playing games with me to make me think he doesn't know them and has no desire to learn them. Maybe he's just a big stinker :D

You know you want one of these babies!

One of my favorite peeps in the world, Paula, is also one my most creative and talented friends! Paula is the reason my boring old ponytail looks so pretty each and every day! She makes and sells these gorgeous ponytail holders at her online shop Plays With Mud. You should click on over and check them out! The ponytail holders would make awesome birthday gifts for little girls or big girls :D They’re also perfect stocking stuffers for the holidays. I just have a small sampling of the fabrics she offers; you can find a fabric to match most anything in your wardrobe. Be sure to click here and take a looksey! While you're checking out the ponytail holders be sure to look at the beautiful pottery and adorable stuffies she makes, too.

Thanks Paula for the beautiful pieces!

Do you believe in Santa?

We're celebrating Christmas in July at Memory Book Inspirations. Last week a gift tag project was posted by Aleta. It's darling, you should check it out, it's a perfect way to recycle your soda-can tabs.

It's my turn to post a Christmas in July project and I'm using Aleta's tag idea and sticking it on a card. It's such a fun idea and it's an easy one to do with the kiddos. GQ helped me add the flocking to the bottom of Santa's coat. He lost interest after that, but the older ones would probably have the attention span for the entire project. And I'm sure your family and friends would be thrilled to get a holiday card in the mail that was handmade by you and/or your little ones.

If you're looking for some early holiday inspiration you should stop on over to MBI and check out their Christmas in July calendar of events. They're also hosting a Christmas in July Cyber Crop this weekend that will be full of games and challenges. The cyber crop will be then lead into our 12 Days of Christmas, there are some nice prizes involved here, so check it out. And while you're checking out all the Christmas in July festivities be sure to stop by the MBI Store, they have over 30 products on sale...anything red and green and Christmas themed is 30% off until July 31st!

Have a good one!

Christmas in July

Want to get a jump start on your Christmas cards this year? Or do you have pictures lying around from Christmas(s) past that your really want to get scrapped? It's Christmas in July at Memory Book Inspirations this month and they have a calendar of events planned to help inspire you to be creative each day.

Yesterday's Christmas in July challenge was to make a Christmas/Holiday card using non-traditional colors. The card I made also happened to fit a challenge that my friend, Karie, created for her Stamping and More board. It sort of killed two birds with one stone for me. I used a very easy design on this card so it could easily be done assembly-line style. And used minimal embellishments to avoid and additional postage charge. The ribbon is organdy and is perfect for cards that are going into the mail because they don't get bulky when you tie knots and poke out of the envelope. The buttons I used are flat backed so they adhered down nicely and shouldn't add to postage either.

Have a wonderful week!

Mad camera skills...

Not sure what happened this afternoon while I was taking pictures of my scrapbook pages. GQ was running around doing his usual 3.5 year old crazy play, so I was in a hurry to get them off the floor before little feet skateboarding on Road Rippers cars came through...I'm blaming the blurriness on that! Anyway, I've posted a couple of these pictures before, but I finally had a bit of time to scrapbook them. They're already in his book and now I'm too lazy to take them out to get better quality pictures...it's Friday :D

Have a great weekend!

After six years of talking about it...

I finally did it; I got a tattoo. ( my mom & dad are probably rolling their eyes :D ) The husband was supposed to get one, but changed his mind because he couldn’t commit to a design…he needs to work on it more. But I had made my mind up to get one and didn’t want to back down.

I’m pretty certain that the staff thought we were completely out of place the moment we walked into the shop. Both of us pale, un-inked and me visibly nervous. And I think the receptionist laughed at me when I told her, size wise, I didn’t want anything big, just an inchy. I know the artist thought it was funny along with the husband.

I have to say the experience was completely not what I expected. We went to Immortal Images in Charlotte and it was a nice, clean and brightly colored shop. The restroom was one of the cleanest public restrooms I’ve been in… Everybody was friendly, knowledgeable and willing to walk this newbie through the process without rushing me into anything.

I knew when I walked in the door that I was getting a dragonfly. It’s in honor of my little bug, GQ. Like I said before, I was thinking an inch in size on my foot. The receptionist explained with the design I wanted I’d need to go bigger, otherwise in a couple years it’d look like a blob. And it would also have to be on the top of my foot vs. under my inside ankle bone. I was OK with the change in placement, the top of my foot it is. Elf, my tattoo artist, drew a design for me and came to talk me out of getting it on my foot. He explained that the foot takes a beating from the body and most foot tattoos require touch-ups to remain nice looking tattoos. Now I want a tattoo, one tattoo, no more, so the thought of touch-ups made me move the dragonfly up onto my ankle area. I choose the inside of my ankle vs. the outside based on a conversation I had with somebody (can’t remember who) years ago that had one on the outside and said she regretted it, wishing it was on the inside, that way it’s not always in plain view.

I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but this baby H-U-R-T! It wasn’t terrible, it was mostly annoying, but I don’t find myself in the *it’s an addicting art form* category. One and done for me :D The husband was awesome, he sat next to me and let me squeeze the crap out of his hand and fingers. I might have been hurting him more than the tattoo hurt me. He didn’t complain. And my tattoo artist, Elf, was so nice and really did anything he could do to make me comfortable. He and the husband seemed to have the same sense of humor, so we joked through it. At one point I stretched my foot and he asked me if I was trying to grab his nipple with my toes…so completely something the husband would ask if he were in that position. He also joked that I was more of a man now than the husband since I had a tattoo and he didn’t! :D

The picture of my tattoo was the morning after, so it’s still quite red and it looks really red on my pale leg. Once it’s healed nicely I’ll have to post another picture.

Happy Monday!

Did a little shopping this afternoon...

at the local scrapbook store and bought some more Copics. I had some cash in my purse and it was literally calling to me tell me to spend it on some markers. So I did. YAY! Aren't they pretty?

Hope y'all have a wonderful 4th of July holiday weekend!