wally the wabbit

Good morning, meet Wally.  Wally the Wabbit. Today he is eight weeks old, and he has been ours for a week.  We love him.

B. and I drove about an hour north to pick him up.  We purchased him from a young high school FFA/4H-er that raises, breeds, and shows rabbits. There were five kits to choose from. I think we made a great choice!  B. petted him all the way home.

And as soon as we got home, they were literally nose to nose. We did have a difficult time choosing a name, though.

I wanted to name him Groucho, Groucho Marx.  I mean, right?  You see it, right????!!! From the beginning, B. was having NONE of that!  I think she was having a difficult time getting past the whole "Grouch" part of Groucho. B. wanted to name him "Stripy" because he (sort of) has a stripe on his back, but I quickly vetoed that one.

B. decided to make a list of acceptable (to her) names:

Wally was one of her early ideas, and it made the list.  Then we had to vote. Well, first we all had to close our eyes (because that's what you do when you vote), then we voted. Two votes for Wally and one vote for Stripy. 

So Wally it is.

Hoppy Happy Friday!

..::currently::..

Currently I am...

smelling bread baking.  Well, not right now, but I did bake bread for Thanksgiving this year.  I love the smell of baking bread.  This was my first time from scratch.  It wasn't horrible. Next time, and there will be a next time, I will make sure to listen for the timer and take it out before it gets too crispy!

anticipating the Christmas Season.  I just know it's going to be amazingly magical this year.  B. is really getting excited about it, too.  She is loving all the Christmas lights that she sees around town and has informed us that we need to put up lights on our house this year (I think it will happen this weekend).

excited about documenting the season in my December Daily mini book!

coughing way too much.

watching Christmas movies as a family.  B. is loving them and is so much fun this year.

popping popcorn, real popcorn, on the stove (B.'s first time was amazing to watch, and we captured it on video)!

listening to B. talk...All. The. Time.

scraping frost off the car in the mornings.  I would mind this a lot more if B. wasn't so funny about it.  Here's a conversation from this week:

     B: Mommy what is that stuff on the windows?
     Me: That's frost, honey. Like ice.
     B: You need to wipe it off
     Me: Yes I do
     *squeals from B*
     Me: Do you like it when I scrape the windows?
     B: YES! It's so loud!!!!!


drinking coffee to keep warm.

hearing B. coughing way too much.

wearing cozy pajamas

celebrating that my Dad's body was able to accept one of my kidneys five years ago today.

so thankful that we've had five more years with him.

loving my Soul Mate even more today than yesterday.

~ hide and sneak ~

Yep, you read that correctly.  B. says, "Hide and Sneak".  She's cute like that.  She also confuses the game often. For example, she hides, but then when you say something like, "I wonder where B is hiding." she will say, "I'm here!" and jump out!  Then she tells you to hide (but tells you where to hide)!  After counting (sometimes correctly, sometimes not), she doesn't yell, "Ready or not, here I come", she says, "Here or not, here I come"!  So, we have a few things to work on.

In early May, only a week after Mikaela's funeral, it was beautiful outside and we were trying to find our new normal.  On that particular evening she was loving the hide and seek.  She was hiding behind the trees, and then telling us to hide behind the trees.  There was lots of running and screaming just because it was fun.  At one point she was hiding behind the tree and "shushing" those around.  I caught it with my iPhone.  It's not the best photograph, in that it's quite blurry.  But it's also the BEST photograph, and had to be documented.

Glitter Girl challenged us over at 2 Peas to create clustered embellishments, so I tried that.  Erika at Club CK challenged us to use numbers on a layout, so I tried that! Scrapbook Circle's Challenge is to use speech bubbles, so I did that!  AND, if that wasn't enough, Paper Issues is Fall'n for flair (and I never need a challenge to use flair), so I did that!  Whew!

embellishment cluster

numbers

speech bubbles

more speech bubbles

Have you ever had a layout that you like the parts better than the whole?  This one is like that for me!  And, you guessed it, much like the last layout, it's the title (blah) and journal spot (not even close to being straight) that I'm not happy about.  Also the colors in the photo below are off -- the colors are really orange, blue and white (inspired by a coffee mug that I purchased a Target)!  The closeup photos are closer to the right colors.  :-)

I like the paint spots (really gesso spots), the misting, the colors and the washi (especially the washi over the speech bubbles).  This patterned paper was actually pretty light, and I made it blue by misting quite a bit.  Also the orange behind the photo was white.  I tried to ombre it with mist (apparently "ombre" is now a verb).  Sorta worked, but I had to use a lot, and it was difficult to find any adhesive that wanted to stick (even after letting it dry for over 24 hours)!  I used mostly the Scrapbook Circle September kit :: Talk of the Town, but everything is linked below except the hello stamp, found at Target, and the striped washi, which is recollections.  

On Thursday expect another post.  My first "currently" post (challenge by the great Ali Edwards).

Happy Fall!

~ super {hero} fun ~

I'm beginning to dread Mondays!  Even though I am not officially back to work for another few weeks we keep receiving bad news in our family!  Last Monday I received the news that my cousin and her husband lost their daughter in a four-wheeler accident.  It's actually my cousin's stepdaughter, but it doesn't matter.  Just over two years ago this same cousin lost her nineteen (almost twenty) year old daughter in a car accident (leaving a child motherless).  I don't even know Angela, I've never met her, but the news of her death, and my cousin's loss, hit me hard.

This week, I received news that a different cousin's thirty-three year old son had a heart attack and died!  He leaves a wife and four young children.  Their youngest was due only a week apart from me with the baby I miscarried, and was born the morning of Mikaela's visitation!

To all this I say, WHAT IS GOING ON???  (I'm editing my language, of course).  And it all brings back the losses that I've suffered more personally this past year, of course, not that it ever seems to go too far away.

We received the news just before supper, and there were phone calls to make and details to process.  So we just went out to eat.  When we got home, we spent some time outside, which led to impromptu sprinkler fun and a visit from super heroes.  I am so thankful for these times.  I took TONS of photos, pared it down to about 37 for Facebook.  I've done my best to pick only a few for the blog!  I know this story will be documented via scrapbook, I have no idea how I will choose photos!

They aren't sleeping, she is trying to convince him to have a picnic and sleep outside!

I leave you with a B. story:  She was playing by herself for quite a long time, and it was "that time" of day, so...
Me: B, are you pooping?
B: Don't check, OK?

~ makes me smile ~

Everyone says that you should write down the stories, so that later, when you scrap 'em, you remember them.  They also say that to do that you should have places to write it down available at all times.  I found this cute, striped, hard-cover, little notebook, added some washi and text and voila, I now have something to write down the stories that "make me smile".

Soon I will update you all on my park mini book progress.  I've sorta been at a stalemate because I've been trying to make a decision about just how to scrap the last time we took Mikaela to the park with us.  I made some decisions and progress over the last few days and hope to update soon.  I have family coming to town tomorrow and I've really been trying to spend as much quality time with B. as possible, so I've backed off a bit on the blog and the crafty projects!  If you recall, my mini book has mostly pink, green, a hint of blue, and orange (of course), with all orange stitching.  Well, one decision I made was that this page would have purple for Mikaela.  

Here are a few photos of my sweet B. over the last couple of days.  (I LOVE INSTAGRAM, BTW)!

~ such personality ~

"Sometimes B. requests a 'walk' riding in the stroller, sometimes she prefers the wagon.  On this particular evening, she asked her daddy for the red wagon and demanded that he also provide her with ear protection!"

True story.  She didn't actually say "ear protection", but she did request to wear them.  I love these photos that My Soul Mate took because I can totally see her personality in them!  She is tilting her head from side to side as if she is dancing to the music in her head.

I based my layout on this sketch by Ashley Horton, as part of the June Sketch it Out Challenge over at Club CK.  Club CK is an online community full of great people and I love all of the forums, specifically the  creative challenges forum.  When I am at a loss for ideas, Club CK is one of my go to places!  Ashley Horton specifically inspires me!  I was excited to try her sketch!

Lately I've been challenging myself a bit by trying something new in each of my layouts or projects.  For this one my "new" was STAMPING ON WASHI!  I hadn't seen that done before, but I tried it, and it worked! I'm sure it's probably been done before, but please don't tell me so that I can feel like I'm being creative and original.  

This photo was taken when I was first trying it out.  I used the wrong ink.  I thought I was using StazOn ink, but I wasn't.  So the photo is the trial run (which didn't work), but when I did for real, I used StazOn (because it stays on, of course) and it totally worked (see below)!  The Dear Lizzy Camera stamps came in my Scrapbook Circle June kit, Field Notes.  I primarily used the kit for this layout, but I did add a few other items.  A full list of supplies at the bottom of this post!  (Have I mentioned how much I love Scrapbook Circle?? -- LOVE).

Washi (from Target) + StazOn ink + Dear Lizzy Camera Stamps = awesome!

I probably got a bit excessive with the machine stitching.  I think I'm addicted!

The camera flair button is a tin pin from October Afternoon (the boarding pass collection), it it matches the teal colored washi and camera stamps from the kit, so I went with it.

I found this "Daddy's Girl" sticker from Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe Collection in my stash and thought it fit this layout perfectly -- added some brads for fun.  (more excessive stitching visible here, along with a "typo" that I fixed after the photo was taken).

I had a difficult time coming up with a title for this one, but decided that her personality was the important part of this story.  The yellow letters are from Cosmo Cricket.  The teal letters are from the kit!

That's all I have for now!  Look for a mini book update soon!!  (I've been busy!)

Scrapbook Circle kit items used below (+ the other extras from my stash that weren't included above):

Bella Blvd Teal Stripe Washi Tape
Echo Park This & That Tickets Please (yellow PP -- I used the 'back side')
Echo Park This & That Alpha Stickers ("SUCH"
Echo Park This & That Instamatic (one little strip of it at the top among all the washi)
Glitz Happy Travels Planes (the main background paper -- I used the 'back side' again)

other items from my stash that were not mentioned in the main post include:
black and white polkadot washi from K and Company's SMASH collection
teal "Like this" washi (with text) from K and Company's SMASH collection
Doodlebug Doodle twine

~ this moment in time ~

For about a week or more I have had this layout sitting on my desk just waiting to be put together.  Before Mikaela's accident and death, I knew I loved this photo of my daughter and granddaughter and wanted to get the memory in the book.  After the accident, I felt like I needed to get it down now.  Even with this sense of urgency, it took me a week or more to actually get it done.

I started back to work this past week, that's part of the delay.  It's amazing to me how everyone else's life has just gone on, while mine seems to be standing still in this sad space. That being said, going back to work is probably good for me.  The stressful week, combined with the fact that I am still having a difficult time sleeping through the night, has added to my mood, though.  I feel like every little thing is more difficult than it needs to be, and my thoughts just aren't as clear as I would like.  But, I've had wine nearly every night, and taken several photos as evidence.  :-) Here's one of my favorites taken after finally getting all of my photos for my 365 project uploaded to flickr (loving all the orange here).

Lots of iPhone photos have made up my 365 lately, but slowly I'm getting back in to using the Canon.  B. has enjoyed playing in the mud in our backyard and I've gotten several good ones from that!

More on flickr, of course!  One B. story from this day:  at one point she decided that we should all take our clothes off and swim in the mud "like Shrek".  We didn't...as far as you know.

OK, so to the layout...Here's the lowdown!  Even knowing the photos that I wanted to use, I decided to wait until my Scrapbook Circle kit arrived!  It's always an exciting day when that pizza-box-looking package arrives!  The Story lived up to my expectations.  In fact, while combing through the items I quickly found perfect pieces to use for this layout!  Two standouts, both from Cosmo Cricket, the Twenty-thr3e Element Deck and Tiny Text Typewriter stickers were pieces that I knew I would use.  There were so many sentences in the latter that worked perfectly with these photos, which were taken the last time we went to the park as a complete family.  I chose the following (click if you want to see it bigger):

tiny text typewriter stickers

Besides the pizza-box-looking package I also got another package in the mail this week! Stamps from Elise!!  I put them to use in this project as well!  Have I mentioned lately that I adore her and her cuteness?  Her package was even cute.  There were great postage stamps, it was machine stitched shut, and had a stamped message that read "get excited"!  I got excited.

this (by elise)

today is (by elise)

I have quite a few stamps, but I hardly ever use them, so that was fun for me.  I also added more machine stitching to this layout than I have in the past.  If that weren't enough to excite you all, I was a Washi tape virgin until now (I scored the Washi tape you'll see below from Target)!  Here's the big picture:

I based this loosly on the May sketch challenge from Scrapbook Circle (design by Diana).

Doing this layout was really a type of therapy for me.  It always helps to create.  I had an interesting email conversation with my mother.  I sent her photos as I was working on this, and she responded that she had a difficult time seeing photos of M. smiling so wonderfully.  I can totally understand that.  I would say that I had quite a few tears as I attempted to finish this, for just that reason.  Looking at her beautiful face, smiling and having such a good time, makes me cry because I know that it's over.  But also, I had the privilege of being there on this day and I have that memory forever.  It was a good memory.  I did some journaling about it, but because I didn't really want to mix those sometimes sad words with the beautiful smile and I wanted the photograph to be the focus, I hid the journaling under the photograph.  

The process of creating this was cleansing for me.  It's why art therapy and music therapy exist.  Don't get me wrong, I don't really feel any better.  :-)  But still, the process was helpful and I'm glad I did it.  I finished it on Mother's Day, which was a difficult day for all of us, and I'm glad it's over.  I don't know if my daughter H. will keep this in her scrapbook, or if it will stay with my things, either way, I got the memory documented and learned a few things in the process.

Thank you for reading!