:: firsts ::

So many "firsts" this past week :

• first hair cut
• first time registering for school (4-year old preschool)
• first time school shopping

These are all significant things. They are each a step that deepens my understanding that my baby is no longer a baby, or even a toddler (as if I couldn't tell from the outgrown shoes, long legs and thinning face).  She is a Little Girl! I have to admit that I am sad about it. But, I have to be happy about it. Have to! Every stage is just that, a new stage to experience and enjoy.  Before I know it she will be tying her own shoes (won't that be nice?), reading books (magic), and eventually we will have the same shoe size!  I realize, of course, that the shoe thing is a long way off, but I also know from raising my older daughter that this 'long way off', comes so unbelievably quickly (and how awesome it will be to have twice as many shoes)!

Over the next couple of weeks we will have a "home visit" with her teacher, attend open house, and she will go to school for the first time. She will have a teacher named Miss Amy, and she will continue to become more and more independent. And I will embrace it, be proud of her, and  never let her know I'm quietly grieving the passing of that baby stage. I only want her to see me be excited with her.

Because, after all, it is magically exciting.

Scrap Your Story :: growing up

Hello Friday! Today is my last Friday before returning to work -- Boo! However, it is Friday, so there is a new challenge up at Scrap Your Story and it's a fun one!  This week's "use it" challenge is ARROWS!

For this challenge I used several types of arrows. One of the scraps that I used has arrows right on the patterned paper, I used chevron wood veneer pieces to point to the photo, there is an arrow on the flair, and the word "epic" is also in an arrow. Until this challenge, I didn't even realize how trendy arrows are right now, I started seeing them everywhere!  This was a fun one!

This was an important story to tell!  For months B. has been talking about "Getting bigger" and measures "getting bigger" by being able to touch the monkey bars.  Well, this summer she did that and a few weeks later, she was also going across the monkey bars by herself. I grabbed this photo the night she cross those monkey bars for the first time. 

Where is the journaling you ask? Hidden behind the title! I popped up the photo and the title with pop dots to make it a bit more interesting.  Then I journaled on a small square, put a tab on it and stuck it behind the title!

I hope you join us this week at Scrap Your Story for this fun "use it" challenge!

and the winner is....

Christy at Scrap Your Story had to deal with some health issues and was unable to post the challenge last week. So, Jessica and I will be trying our best to fill her shoes for a while.  Here is the most recent post at SYS, please play along! :-)

My SYS post with tutorial can be found here.  I still have something to give away! These lovely little wood veneers go to:

Chelsea! She said:  

Chelsea  July 19, 2013 at 12:44 PM

I love that little pocket you made for your PL! Thanks for a chance to win I love wood veneers too :) I follow you on Bloglovin!

Thanks for following me Chelsea! Please email me with your info. and I'll get that right out to you!  orange-gearle (at) mchsi (dot) com.

That felt so good I'm going to do it again!  See below for another give away! But first here's a simple layout that I did this week:

This lovely paper was in my stash and is probably old (I think Echo Park, playground maybe?)! All I did for this LO was outline "love" with my white pen, add a few heart stamps in the corners, stitch around it, and add a little journaling. Love how easy this was!

I have another little giveaway for you. Once again, to be eligible to win you need to:

1. Become a follower of my blog.
2. Leave a comment below.

I don't have a photo of the prize, but I will add it as soon as I can!