Verbally Challenged

Breathing a little easier. I think that everything I needed to get done was due yesterday. It’s all finished and now I can relax. That’s always a good feeling.

We had a really great weekend. There is so much to do here in the fall and I’m determined to keep us outdoors and enjoying the season – as a family. On Saturday we went to Beechwood Farms for the “AppleJamm”. Beechwood farms is a beautiful nature reserve and with the AppleJamm they had tons of activities for kids: building a scarecrow, making turkey apples, finding a needle in a haystack – all good family fun. And the grounds are filled with gardens and perfect for taking photos – I made a mental note of that one! Anyway – here are a few photos from our day.

My boys and their boots:

Liam with the remainder of the turkey apply he crafted:

Our first attempt at scarecrow building:

Sunday we went to a wedding, a traditional Hindu wedding. We had never experienced one before – it was AMAZING! It was such a celebration, so much to learn, observe, take in. I can’t even begin to explain some of the details but here are a few photos. This is the beautiful bride – look at the henna detail on her hands and the gorgeous flowers around her neck.

And then some other details.

And the color, so much color! The women in their Sari’s were incredible! It was a fantastic experience. I hope to attend another ceremony like this in the future.

Back to work for me. Have a great day!

Proof!

That Liam isn’t the only one growing in this house:

Yikes! I’m growing fast!!! Christmas will be here before I know it (that means baby too) and it’s really starting to freak me out! I still need to shop (heck I still need to figure out what to buy) and then organize a birthday party (Liam will be FOUR), get through the holidays…yeah I’m freaking out.

And while I LOVE being pregnant, my waistline (or lack thereof) is getting more and more difficult to dress. My physique with this pregnancy is SO different from my last! I l was little last time – but in my defense still did wicked cardio and minor weight lifting through the whole thing. This pregnancy I’m only permitted to walk and that was only recently granted to me. But to be honest, I wouldn’t trade any of this!!!

On another note – I did a layout using some new Piggy Tales goodies that I received last week. They have some really cool nursery rhyme names for their papers and fun color palettes. This layout explains Liam’s laugh – when he really gets going he sounds like Snoopy and I LOVE THAT!

What else, we’ve been keeping busy around the house. I love spending my afternoons with Liam after school. We’re trying to squeeze in as much playtime outside before the weather turns and it gets too icky. I know that we can still go out in the fall but it’s not as predictable! And I’m snapping as many photos as I can in natural light before winter forces me indoors! Here are a few of my favorites!

And then on Sunday (it has been forever since my last update!!!) we went downtown to watch the Penguins play. I can’t believe it’s football AND hockey season already! It was just a practice game but nice because it was free and Liam could go with us and see how the pros ice-skate. We think that his ice-skating lessons last year helped him appreciate the sport – at least Nate hopes so. He’d like Liam to play hockey. That’s a little scary for me. I prefer soccer! But he’ll do whatever HE wants to do, right?

That’s all for now!

So I’m in week one of school for Liam and it’s going well EXCEPT, he already has a cold. Just a reminder that kids are little germ filled beings and the have the nasty habit of sharing it with everyone – lovely. I’ve been keeping busy at home, straightening up the house, getting some work done – it’s nice but I still worry about Liam adjusting to school. I’m a mom, what can I say.

On a completely unrelated school note – let me share what bloomed in the house the other night. Yep night – this is an orchid cactus and only blooms after 9pm and for ONE NIGHT only.

Crazy isn’t it? By morning the bloom is falling off of the plant. The bloom is gorgeous and smells heavenly. But it’s a plant that only I seem to like because it’s a bit unruly. I think that it has character but family and friends call it my Little Shop of Horror Plants.

What do they know!

And then because I’m feeling a bit sentimental with the whole school adjustment going on (I promise that I’m going to drop the subject after this post) – here is a book that I made for 7Gypsies. They used it in the summer CHA show at Chicago. It features my family and I love the simplicity of it all.

Have a great Wednesday!

Yesterday’s yard sale at the local scrap store – a success! My efforts paid off and I’ll be adding some new supplies to my stash. The difference will be that I’ll be smarter about my purchases…and a bit more selective. I’m sure that I’ll never use everything that I buy – but I can try. Right? So while I’m happy about my success, I’m sad because my little dude starts school tomorrow. Where does the time go? I know that every parent asks that question – but it’s because we ALL go through it! Sure he’s only starting preschool and it’ll only be for a few hours a day but I’m going to miss him something awful. He’s my buddy and I’m selfish. I want him all to myself. It’ll take some time to adjust – for both of us.

So lets hope that I do ok tomorrow as I drive down the hill from the school with an empty backseat. And I really hope that HE does well or it’ll be that much more difficult.

Love my boy.

What have I been doing over the past few days? Check it out:

And just how much “stuff” is in those boxes???

It all went to the yard sale that my local scrapbook store had today (over 150 bags of grouped items). It’s all stuff that I NEEDED at one point and now, I can’t be bothered. It annoys me, gets in the way – bogs me down. I have too much stuff – no surprises there – and with a new studio that I’m trying to organize I just want it out! This sale at the store gave me the perfect opportunity. I package, mark with my number, price and drop everything off on my table. That’s it! I don’t even have to stay all day, which is good because that’s where I fail miserably with yard/garage sales.

Out with the old and in with the new. Wait, that hardly leaves room for the extra space I’m hoping for in my studio, right?

I need help.

I have a few things to share. I love getting pages and projects picked up for publication but it feels like forever before I can share them with everyone! I’m impatient I guess. But humor me here while I share a few things that I did ages ago (ok…four to six months)…

this is one of my all time favorite layouts. It’s one that I did for the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame contest. It’s journaling intensive but that was the point – sharing my story – getting it down onto paper. Anyway – I’m so happy that they used it in the current issue where they are introducing the second half of the winners. Here is the layout – it’s called “Drummer Girl”

The photo was fun to capture. I had to use the camera remote with my foot since both hands were occupied – that was interesting. And I used my fish eye lens to warp the image so that the drumsticks were exaggerated. I just love the layout (and I don’t say that very often folks)!

Here is the journaling if you’re interested:

Kindergarten, five years old and the question is asked:

“Marla, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

All around me, kids had blurted out answers. Fireman. Doctor. Pilot. Chef. Movie Star.

My answer: A drummer.

And if you knew me, I mean truly knew me, you wouldn’t believe it. I was a shy, quiet girl who was never in the spotlight. Yet something drew me to drums. Or at least the idea of the drums.

Growing up I was always into music. I played the flute for four years and taught myself piano. During grade school band practice, I would jealously watch the only female drummer in my school let loose during the concerts. After school, I’d study music videos imagining myself behind a monster drum kit. I really wanted to be Shiela E! But it’s just something I never got around to doing.

Over the years, I remained obsessed with drummers. I loved how Dave Grohl was the backbone of Nirvana. Phil Collins was a hero (a drummer that sang!). Ringo was my favorite Beatle. At concerts, I was one of the few people staring at the guy (or girl) going nuts behind the big bass drum and really feeling the music. And I love that they can be as loud as they want and it doesn’t matter. They’re drummers.

Today, I’d still love to learn how to play, but I wonder what’s the point. I’m a wife, a mom and couldn’t possibly play in a band. I don’t have the time, couldn’t travel and I’m just (let’s face it) a little old to be a rock star! So my dream of becoming a drummer will probably remain just that.

In the meantime, I’m having a great time dreaming! My resting foot pedal in my car is my bass drum and the steering wheel is my high hat. And I’m compiling a great list of bands names that I can pull out at a moments notice if a group of young hipsters happened to ask me out of the blue to drum in their band. Did I mention that I’m a dreamer?

But I can photograph my bad self with a pair of drumsticks and pretend that I know how to use them. And I can tell folks to follow their dreams, no matter how crazy they sound!

Rock on.

And this is another layout that came out this month.

It’s obviously a Halloween page and I was asked to use themed product. I used photos from last Halloween when Liam was a eagle. I made that costume (but that’s another layout that I can’t share at this time)!

And finally, this is part of the online extension for CK.

I had to alter a plain white Chinese take-out container and make something Halloween related. I chose to go the decor route and add some of Hambly Screenprints awesome papers (both the black web and vellum on the shade) to an old tarnished tea light lamp that I had. I LOVE Halloween and decorating that goes along with it! I’ve been collecting the tin mansions from Illuminations since Liam was born. So it’s no surprise that I’m loving this little lamp!

Also, I’m excited to be the designer of the month for Three Bugs in a Rug. I love their products and the company is so fantastic to design for. I can’t say enough awesome things about them!!! And for the record, there is a typo on my bio and I’ve been married over SIX years!!! So family…I KNOW!!!

That’s enough sharing for today! Thanks for humoring me! I don’t get to do this all that often!

I hope that you all had a fantastic holiday weekend! I know that I did and I’m happy to report that I didn’t do ONE thing scrap related (unless cleaning counts). I didn’t use my trimmer, pick up the glue, print out photos – NOTHING! And the break actually felt nice. The break however was a bit forced, for several reasons. The first beings that my studio was still a total mess. Everything in boxes, buried or in the hallway with no surface to work. But I am making progress thanks to Nate and his awesome motivation and furniture building abilities! The second reason being that I’m participating in a scrapbooking yard sale at a somewhat local scrapbook store. I basically rented a table for five dollars, package all of my stuff to sell in bags, price the bags, add my assigned number and take them to the store. The store will keep track of my number and how much sells and I get the money back in the way of store credit (and I don’t have to stay there all day long). This is stuff that I’d either give away or planned to put on eBay (which I NEVER find the time to do). And let’s face it, I’d use whatever money I make to buy more stuff anyway. So I figured that the timing couldn’t get any better. And the final reason is that I’ve been distracted! All of this modifying feels good in the house. The painting, the organizing, the purging – feels good! So it got me thinking about the new nursery. I’m having a hard time settling on an idea. With Liam, I was set. I knew from day one what his theme was. I did this layout in December 2004 for BasicGrey about his room (scrapbooking styles change…this is proof).

I wanted the safari theme going full force. We got this amazing artist to do the murals (realistic animal looking murals) and to this day Liam loves it. It’s HIS room, always will be. So this next nursery has me confused. I have bedding that I love – but the rest of the room isn’t clicking. And I have a color palette and décor ideas that I love – but can’t find the perfect bedding. Oy. SO I’ve been distracted on the Internet looking at FABRIC! And oh my gosh, could that be another obsession. I guess it’s similar to paper, perhaps that’s the problem. But I’ve been lost in craft and fabric blogs all weekend long (and have around 800 bags that I could purchase if I had limitless funds and storage)! I’m thinking about making some of the bedding on my own – assuming I find the fabric design that’s in my head. And everything else comes together perfectly. We’ll see what happens. There is still plenty of time.

So that was my weekend. Oh with a picnic at my mom’s and a few games of hide-and-seek outside with my boys today thrown in for good measure. Liam is obsessed with hide and seek. See how good he is at hiding?

And he LOVES being found!

Also – if you have any cool fabric sites to share will you please drop me an email (or feel free to comment)? I’ve found some really neat sites but I’m still on the lookout for the perfect fabric for this nursery! THANKS!!!!