Verbally Challenged

Care to guess what we did today?

This was how we arrived home this morning after breakfast – with a car full of herbs and vegetable plants (except for one peony)! Usually the weather is so unpredictable in PA that I wait until late May to get into the vegetable gardens. But since it has been a mild winter we’re starting early this year. And Liam is excited to help! Last year he’d pick cherry tomatoes right off of the vine and eat them…same with the broccoli. He loved it! And this year he’s hoping to do the same. We’re letting him help us plant…he’s excited…we’re excited. It’s good healthy fun.

And after I potted up some of the herbs and patio tomatoes (hence the dirt under the fingernails) I took a moment to appreciate some of the life coming back into our yard. Good stuff.

The warmer weather always reminds me how much I really love our home. Sitting outside, it’s peaceful, private and calming.

I know that I complain so much about the weather and PA…it’s time that I finally open my eyes and appreciate what I have.

I’m eating spicy hummus, watching a movie (OK listening and watching at times) and writing an update here. Why is it that I can’t sit and do ONE thing…EVER! No wonder I get so stressed sometimes!

So today as I mentioned earlier we went to Living Treasures Animal Park. That was AFTER we went shopping for a backyard play set, and AFTER I took pictures for Nate’s company of a dentist office and AFTER we went to lunch. So when I mention that the little dude listened maybe 60 percent of the time today once we got to the park ,you’ll understand why!

So about the park – we had a fantastic time with the animals. Liam fed just about everything at least three times. He got to ride a pony and talked the ENTIRE time to the lady who was guiding him around the circle. He is NOT SHY and will talk to anyone and everyone! Today we enjoyed being outside in 70-degree weather with the sun shining – as a family. I love weekends.

Here are some photos from our day:

This was not taken at the animal park today but instead in my yard! It’s in bloom and smells WONDERFUL!!! It’s a huge bush full of blooms and every year I wonder what this plant is called…so if anyone can tell me what it is I’d be eternally grateful! It smells like Plumeria flowers from Hawaii – heavenly!

And because I don’t like how I altered this photo yesterday I did it by hand today:

As my mom always says. I only have a second here because we’re heading off to Living Treasures Animal Park for the day. It’s such a fun place to go and there are tons of baby animals this time of the year! I’m hoping for some good photo opportunities as well (duh)!

But I wanted to share a few photos that I took yesterday. I met one of my girlfriends for lunch and then we met up with some others moms and kids at the playground. This playground has a huge sand volleyball pit that the kids could play in ALL DAY!!! I like to pretend that I’m shooting beach photos because in Pennsylvania you REALLY never get that chance! Pretty pathetic huh? So here are just a few shots. I have been playing around in photoshop trying to get my color exactly where I want to be. It’s almost there. A couple of my actions have been overemphasizing areas for me and I’ve not been happy with the results. I’m back to working it out on my own. I’m happier that way. I’ll probably do something different next week!

“Make a Mess Art Camp” to be exact. Too bad I’m not 3-5 years old! This camp sounds awesome!

“Children are natural creators. This camp is designed to allow young artists to express themselves without any thought to the mess left behind. In fact, as the name suggests, children will be encouraged to make a mess! Your child’s imagination will be engaged using paints, pastes, glues, and glitter, sidewalk chalk, natural materials, and found objects. On warm days, children can actually attend camp in their bathing suits. At the end of the morning, a romp through the sprinkler will remove any telltale signs of the mess that they have made. At the end of each week, parents will be invited to come at 11:30 on Friday for an exhibition of campers’ work.”

I signed Liam up for four days in July – three hours each day. I’m so excited FOR him! I can’t wait to see what HIS style is! And how cool is that little “exhibition!” Perhaps I can learn a thing or two about free styling from these campers! You think?

And just because I know that the parentals check in here every so often (“to look and not so much read” as my mom puts it), here are a few photos of the dude from today. We were out on the deck and it was VERY sunny!

I’ve been doing some design work for Pink Martini Designs since January. It’s nice to have the occasional break from layout design and play with actual items. Enhancing everyday items, or making others from scratch.

These are three of my projects now available at Pink Martini Designs. These are the images that they’re using to market the projects – not my images (except for the bookends). I posted the bookends here initially, but not the other items.

This is a ribbon pouch that holds four bookmarks. It started with simple chipboard.

This is an altered french bucket. It start out silver and I spray painted it with an enamel paint. PINK! I’m SO not a pink girl – in fact I’m pink impaired (but I’m learning)! I used some of Heidi Swapp’s awesome fuzzy rub-ons, created a market style signs, and created mini-layouts that velcro onto “S” hooks. The hooks hang on the rim of the bucket. You could swap them out seasonally if you wanted too! Oh, and the sign should’t be crooked on the bucket!

And these are the bookends. I’m posting my photo again instead of theirs because you can see the detail better in mine. I used the BasicGrey boy collection.

And today I finished up a new project for them with PINK Paper Salon paper! I have to photograph it tomorrow and see what happens – then I’ll share!

Goodnight!

First off…let me say this. I was eating some gourmet jellybeans that Liam got in his Easter basket today. I came across one that was perhaps the worst one ever tasted, buttered popcorn. A JELLYBEAN! It was so gross – I made Nate try it. he he he So if you ever want a way to torture me, tie me up and shove buttered popcorn flavored jellybeans into my mouth – that’ll do it. And I’m thinking about writing the company because it was a 20-flavor assortment and the 19 others were all fruit related. The buttered popcorn one does not belong…didn’t these people ever watch Sesame Street? Really.

So I’ve had a great couple of days. Yesterday was my day with the gals – playgroup. My friend Tina hosted and because the weather more that cooperated, we were able to sit out on her deck and have adult conversation while the kids played. Love that! And because Liam is the only boy in this group, I always take my camera to get photos of all the little girls! There is just something about shooting sweet little girls! AND they give me permission to play with these photos!

Here are just a few photos from yesterday.

And then today was one of those dreary rainy days. And while we wanted to stay in our pajamas and hang out in the house all day, we knew that Liam would go stir crazy (and end up driving us crazy) – so out we went. We visited the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Liam had a ball! We usually only visit the Children’s Museum, figuring that he’d be bored with the others. But there was a new art exhibit that Nate and I wanted to see, and Liam had been in to dinosaurs lately so we figured what the heck. Liam LOVED the dinosaurs! And he’s learning all of the different names, fun stuff. They had a cute little area for kids where they could dig out “dinosaur bones.” They gave Liam a pair of goggles and a brush and off he went, exploring. So cute! Let’s see how long the dinosaur phase lasts now!

And now, I need to get some work done. I’ve been slacking lately. Catching up on catalogs and magazines. You need days like that occasionally. I gather ideas, get inspiration, study color schemes – take it all in. Love that! Tonight, the June issue of How Design is inspiring me. There was a lovely article in there about a mother/daughter team who design really cool stuff. You can check out some of their creations here. Fun handbags!

I’m off! Sleep well!

Long time no post! But lookout because I’m back and I have photos!

I hope that you had a fantastic Easter weekend! Mine was awesome – gorgeous weather, wonderful family and a new barking dog. Let me explain the dog part.

Let me start by saying that I have animals, ENOUGH animals for one house. There is no more room at the inn. Yet somehow new animals happen upon our house looking for food and affection – and I usually give it to them. I can’t help it, I’m a sucker and love animals. Heck, I almost went to vet school! So on Saturday we found a visitor outside of our house.

A dog, a friendly and very clean dog that really wanted to go into our house. She was obviously somebody’s pet and me being the person I am, couldn’t let her run free and risk her getting hit by a car. So we posted some signs, called around to some places and took a ride in the car with her to talk with folks in our surrounding neighborhoods – nothing. No owner, yet. So we’re now deciding what to do with her. We can’t have another dog right now and besides she barks A LOT – it’s quite maddening at times. So we’re looking into the no-kill shelters in our area. All that I can say is, why me!!!!

Now before you think that this is the first time this has happened, I should tell you this. Just last month a cat showed up at our house. It was a dirty white barn cat that appeared sick, really sick. It wouldn’t let me near it at first but over four days softened…because it was sick. One day I went to leave in my car and the cat was on a suicide mission – it wouldn’t move! So I suited up with my leather gloves, put it in a carrier (no struggle) and called the vet. The poor cat died before the appointment. Nice. The cat comes to MY house to die.

AND THEN back in October…know where I’m going with this one yet? Another cat shows up, this time pregnant with four kittens. I end up fostering the mom and placing each kitten in a home. I spayed the mother. End of story.

So why do all of these animals flock to our house? I’ll never know! Perhaps it’s the “sucker” sign posted on the door. Or maybe it’s the ever-welcoming garden sprite out front.

Or maybe it’s because I wear this shirt too often.

Who knows but heck, they’re picking the right house!!!

Let’s see, Saturday night, we did this!

Fun fun stuff! I hadn’t dyed Easter eggs in FOREVER and figured this year Liam would be ready. I bought three…yes three kits and used two. We started off with the traditional dying methods – submerging the eggs and waiting for the perfect color but Liam wanted to “paint the eggs.” So we painted…with these.

There were dyes and paint brushes in one of the kits but man…this dye REALLY stained the fingers…um…hence the word “dye” I guess! Liam didn’t care and got a kick out of it. Oh it was SO MESSY!

Not sure I’ll go that route again. Maybe chalk that up as a learning experience.

We did get some lovely eggs though.

So Easter…it was awesome! We haven’t had a sunny Easter with mild temperatures in at least four years. It was nice to be outside. We did our own egg and basket hunt here at the house on Sunday morning. I tried to keep it healthy with a few treats but Liam wanted the apple (just like last year). I’m such a proud mom!

We then headed to my folks for the rest of the day. LOVED having all of the family in one place and getting all of the kids together. We had another egg hunt outside and played in the grass. OH – you have to check these things out – rocket balloons! My parents found it in a corner store but apparently these were sold on TV (never saw the infomercial). They’re called rocket balloons and were a HUGE HIT for the kids. You pump up these balloons and let them go – they whistle and fall back to the ground ready to go again. SO COOL! Liam must have run and chased these things for a good two hours! What mom doesn’t love that! We need to order some refills for our next get together. Really fun stuff!

So I have lots of photos from our gathering. Lots of GREAT material for future scrapbook pages – I can’t wait!!! Take a peek!

And I just finished up a few assignments so I’m back to scrapping for me. Hope to post some new projects here in the next few days!

Do you remember that Easter bunny commercial? It makes me smile…reminds me of my sister for some reason. I wonder what year that was made? I have awesome Easter memories. Egg hunts through the house, pink foam curlers in my hair so that I’d look pretty for church and breakfast at grandmas (perhaps I’ll dig some photos out for my Easter post). I even wrote a letter to the Easter bunny one year and he left a paw print for me…I thought that was just the coolest! Good memories. Memories that I’m hoping to create for my family.

So yesterday, we started building on our family Easter tradition by having lunch with the Easter bunny at the zoo. My sister came with her husband and son and it was really nice sharing that with them. The boys had the opportunity to meet some animals up close, watch a really cool juggling/trick act and meet the Easter bunny. It was a really good time.

And I have proof of our good time! What scrapbooker doesn’t, right? I’m not sure why my sister and I didn’t get the boys together with the Easter bunny, other than we weren’t in line together, but I wish that we had! Oh and how about I was appalled that they brought the bunny into the room, sat him/her in a chair in front of those ugly blinds! Only a camera snob would think that…some of you would have thought the same thing…right? Looking for validation here!

So Liam, who is anti-Santa/Easter bunny/anything fun – appeared to like the Easter bunny! He walked up and hugged him and them stood beside him so that I could capture this perfect mug shot of him with the Easter bunny. It works, right?

And here is my nephew, Nico, with the Easter bunny…he’s looking at his daddy off to the side there.

And then we hung out at the zoo for a bit, letting the boys play and enjoying the weather in general.

It was a good day. We’re going to attempt the egg dying later on this week. I’m not sure how it will go with a three year old – does anyone know if egg dye is toxic? It may be worth looking into don’t you think?

Care to see what we did yesterday? This is Liam at 10am.

In his pajamas. Eating cashew on the wiggle couch. Why? Because it was cold and raining outside – MISERABLE! Thanks goodness for the new Laurie Berkner DVD…although for me it’s not all that pleasant having “Pig on her head” lyrics running through the brain all day.

And today, not much better on the weather front. The rain stopped, but our power was on and off all morning. Crazy (and very annoying) stuff. It’s cold and my daffodils are going to freeze and die if this doesn’t change soon!

Tomorrow – It’s supposed to be in the fifties and sunny – that’s an improvement. We have tickets for lunch with the Easter bunny at the zoo. Pretty cool right? You know I’m thinking about photo opportunities and already have my battery charging.

The weather and general negativity on the message boards that I normally frequent have kept me away from the computer a bit. I’ve met so many wonderful people through scrapbooking and want to keep it that way. All that I’m going to say right now is – play nice people! It’s all about having fun and capturing life memories – that’s all.

Happy Saturday!

Whew!!! My to-do list is going down baby…crossing things off and now I have time to play!!! Guilt free! Woooohooooo! I’m hoping to do some layouts for ME (gasp)…over the next week or so and I will enjoy every minute!

Today I squeezed in a mini photoshoot with Liam. It was one of those ten-minute shoots that you squeeze in between Wonder Pets and nap time (just because you get the itch and some nice light coming through the windows), expecting the worst but getting something good! The little dude cooperated today – well as long as I sang silly songs – and I’m digging some of the photos! We went to Red Robin for lunch today and he got a balloon that he was SO proud of – I figured that he’d sit with it for at least a minute! Anyway – I got out the white background since I’ve been using the black velour TO DEATH! Time to switch it up! And here are some of my shots from today. And for the record, I KNOW that my little dude needs a haircut…he’s looking a bit “shelf-y” as Nate and I call it. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll deal with that! And why oh why do my photo look different when I upload them here? I swear they have more contrast! UGH

I forgot to photoshop out the “Red Robin” on this one! Oops!

And yesterday, or the day before, I mentioned my addiction to actions (photoshop actions). It’s still there…I’m constantly looking for cool ways to get my photos where I want them to be. Sure I can tweak everything myself in Photoshop (and I know that I can make my own actions) but there is something about running an action first (one that someone else made) and then building on it. I’m getting some fun results and it’s so darn easy! So here are some of the sites I’ve purchased things from.

Itty Bitty Actions. Right now I have their color wow and B/w conversions sets. You get some great tone options with the b/w sets – love options! And check out Jinky Artfor some photography inspiration.

I have the Very Vintage set from Fall Into Blue. Cool stuff. If you take “actions” off of the address you can see a couple of galleries. So fun!

Let’s see, I have the Vivid color and a couple others from PhotoBlast – can’t remember the exact ones right now but I like what I selected!

And this one I’m tempted to get a couple but haven’t done it yet. Does anyone use any of these? Is there anything that I need? I can be easily persuaded you know!

And are there any more sites that I need to check out? I’ve heard great things about Amber Ludlow’s conversions but I’m thinking that I don’t know the secret handshake or something. I’ve emailed this gal several times and never hear back. I’m getting a complex!

So there are my links! And before you all think that I’m nuts, I really only have 5-6 actions – I just share the love over different sites!