Where is the time going?

So, I just enrolled my littlest one in kindergarten and it's really hitting me that she's not a baby anymore and the days of having babies in the house are over. I know that she doesn't start school till the Fall and in so many ways it's such a great thing since she's so excited about school and can't wait to be here-plus, it's not like she's going out of my care when she comes to school since I'm the principal! Life will be so much easier next Fall when all 3 kids come here to work with me and I don't have to do the preschool dropoff and pickup. I just don't know how the time went by so quickly. How did my baby girl turn from a tiny helpless baby into my very independent and self-assured little girl?

I know that this is just another step in her journey and mine but in so many ways it's a bittersweet moment.

Season's Greetings!

My nephew is here today playing with the kidlets. He's a cutie but definitely a handful--good thing I love him!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. My brother, sil, and nephew came over Christmas Eve and the kids all opened presents together in the morning. Much fun was had by all. Here's a cute pic of all the kidlets in their matching pj's Christmas Eve.






DD and I went to see The Nutcracker in San Francisco Friday night. She was really good and just was engrossed in it up till about the last 20-30 minutes when she was a little chatty.

I hope to get some stamping done this week so be sure to come back and visit!

Tagged

My blogging buddy, Marie, just tagged me. This is actually a pretty fun tag. In this tag, you post the 4th picture in the 4th folder of your picture files and then tag 4 others. Since I haven't been stamping much, I can do this one :-) Last month, we went to see the Blue Angels when they were in San Francisco for Fleet Week. Here's a pic of the kids eating their lunch in the back of the car while we're waiting on the planes.

How is everyone? This weekend, we took the kids and my nephew out to the beach for a photo shoot. My SIL and I want to give my parents a nice pic of the grandkids for Christmas. The photographer got some great shots and if you want to see the sneak peek, you can check out her blog here: Angela Chandler. If you're in the Bay Area and looking for a reasonably priced good photographer, check her out!

So, for this one, I'm going to tag the following peeps:

Colleen

Simone

Malieta

Brooke

Thanks for visiting!

Good Intentions

Man, I have not stamped in about 2 weeks and had every intention of doing so tonight until I really looked at my space and decided I need to straighten and organize it a little bit.  Mind you, I  am not the most organized person on the face of the earth and don't mind a little clutter here and there but I seriously could not carve out a card front sized piece of space to work on so it was time to get to work.  Ok, I do admit I left my desk and space in a bit of a shambles during the Dare to Get Dirty Challenges so I had a lot to work with.

I did get all of my paper, ink, ribbons, punches, and acrylic blocks put away as well as the stamps (which need to be organized and cataloged at some point).  I just gotta go through the remainder of the scraps and stuff (random embellishments, dimensionals sheets that that have to be put away, left over dew drops that I find in random places, etc) and then I can create.

Other than that, this is part of what we've been doing this summer.  Enjoy and thanks for visiting!

I really haven't dropped off the face of the earth :-)

Ok, if I had myself in my Google Reader, I'd be about ready to unsubscribe since I really haven't posted much lately. Today is July 8th and I've officially been off work for almost a week and a half now and all I can say is I don't know how you SAHMs do it!!!!!

Last week, I had my oldest with me, kept the middle child home from camp, and only sent the little one to preschool for half the week. . .it was a very busy, fun, and hectic week but I can honestly say, I'm not cut out to stay home with my kids. I get really irritated when they start to get on each other's nerves--I know it's normal and I try to stay out of it but I dislike when my normally well-behaved kids deserve to be sold to the lowest bidder.

That said, we had a ton of fun. I took the boys to the zoo on Monday and the only downer is we missed the alligator feeding. . .tuesday I went in for an interview and dh took the boys to the dentist. . .wednesday we attempted to buy a new washer since ours died and with 3 kids, I gotta do laundry regularly. . .thursday we went to a waterpark with my brother, sil, and nephew. . .friday was the 4th, nuff said. . . saturday dh and I went to see Stevie Wonder in concert---omg, totally amazing show!!!!!. . .sunday we all went to a wedding in St Helena--Napa, Ca seriously one of the most beautiful places in the country!!!! . . .monday I had my 2nd interview. . .and today I planned to stamp but dropped everyone off, went in to work, got the official announcement that I have a NEW JOB, bought a washer, and did the dishes and stuff. . .

I did manage to make a couple cards--one is photographed but is one the camera with the other hundreds of pics from last week--and the other is not set up to be photographed yet. . .

No eye candy this week. . .I have many thoughts in my head but feel free to email me with your suggestions.

I do want to share some incredible blog candy with you. Artfully Ila is offering up some great High Hopes blog candy for you. High Hopes stamps are super cute and you've got to check out her amazing coloring!

Thanks for visiting!

LSC Thanks

I took this pic of my 6yo earlier and played around with it some while editing and I absolutely LOVE how it turned out!!!!!!!! I seriously love his eyelashes and love the fact that he's still my cuddly little guy. Dh thinks I baby him too much but I disagree. Then again, how can you not just baby this little guy?

Anyway, he just turned 6 last weekend and I'm working on his thank you cards. I used Friday's Limited Supplies challenge which was to make 3 cards using the same materials but different layouts. Here were the limitations:

Stamps ~ any, but must be the same for each card.

Cardstock and Ink ~ any, but must be the same for each card.

Techniques ~ any, but must be... ok, do you see the pattern here??

Embellishments ~ you must use hardware (since we were deprived last week, hehe!) and ribbon only, but must, yep, you guessed it, be the same for each card.



















So, I started out with a Soft Sky cardbase and used Neenah Solar White, Regal Rose, and Pumpkin Pie for the other colors. The hardware is from the Stylized silver Hodgepodge Hardware kit and the ribbon is striped Pumpkin Pie Grosgrain. The patterned paper is from Sassafras Lass's Sunshine Lollipop Wee Bundle--I love this stuff because the colors rock!
















I stamped Moon Doggy from The Cat's Pajamas in Memento Tuxedo Black on the white cardstock and colored with the following markers.This image is cut out with my rectangle nestabilities and matted on another rectangle and scalloped rectangle that was also cut out with nestabilities. The sentiment is from SU's All Holidays and is also stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black on the card.

I think these are darling!!!! and I only have about 10 more thank you cards to make :-)

I'll be back--dh has some work to do tonight so I'll get some stamping done when I get the kidlets to bed.

Thanks for visiting!

Sob Sob Sob. . .

Anyone wanna come over and help my clean my dryer? Someone who is almost 6 apparently had some crayons in his pocket and I wash and dried them accidently. . . The inside of my dryer has some melted crayon and is a lovely shade of blue. . .

I had to let out a bunch of f bombs this morning and it looks like I won't be doing any stamping tonight. . .

If my little guy wasn't so darn cute, I don't know if he'd make it till 6.

Before and After

Ok, I really hate pics of myself and I'm usually the one behind the camera. Here's a before and after shot to show you the new haircut :-) In the after pic my hair is slightly damp. We had amazing weather this weekend. Dh took ds to the beach when I was getting my hair done Saturday and we ended up going back on Sunday before I picked my oldest up. We don't get many beach days up here in the Bay Area--I miss Southern California at times--and my 5 yo absolutely loves the beach. I thought I'd share a few pics from Sunday so you can see why I didn't get any stamping done this weekend :-)

Thanks for visiting and don't forget to check back tomorrow for eye candy.

The Kidlets

No Stamping stuff right this second but just wanted to share some cute pics of my kids :-)

Even though Maya is 3, we do still keep her in a highchair at times. She likes to stamp as well and it's easier to contain the areas she'll get inky when she's in the highchair.

Mason and Miles loooooooooooove playing Xbox :-) and Wii.

Thanks for visiting!

Ain't they sweet?

Ok, my dh and I have been having a debate about our kids and who they look like. Ds is a much paler version of dh and at one point, ds and dd looked a lot alike. Right now, I don't think they look a lot alike but dh thinks they're almost identical. Tell me your thoughts. I think they look related but they're definitely not twins.

This and That

I'm still a little swamped around here. Work for me is always extremely hectic the beginning of the school year. However, our district has had a relatively smooth and successful beginning of the school year and I can breathe a tiny bit right now.

My 5 yo started kindergarten last week. He's got the same teacher as my oldest had for kindergarten and she just smiled and told me that they couldn't be any more different. Here's a little recap:

Day 1--Miles loses the ice pack in his lunch box
Day 2--Miles loses the whole lunch box
Day 3--Miles gets his arm stuck in a rail and has to be "rescued" by a custodian who sprayed it with cooking spray so it can slide out. . . .

I love my baby but he does lack concentration and focus at times.

Friday night we had a huge power outage. Dh and I almost bought a generator since we were really worried that we'd miss the UCLA season opener but luckily our power came back on during the middle of the night.

We spent most of Saturday putting together Maya's big girl bed. Now we've just got to convince her to stay in it all night long. Because I had to move my stamping stuff out of her room, it's all in the hallway and needless to say, I have gotten no stamping done in awhile. I'm really feeling some withdrawals and think I might have to get some stamping done.

I bought the CUTEST shoes!!!!! Dh thinks that I need more variety and that all of my shoes look alike but I just had to get these. Aren't they cute? I love Zappos.com and had to get some shoes after reading this customer review:
Gorgeous Mary Jane Inspired Pump - Say you are a thirty something working girl who was a grunge/punk in college and used to wear Fluevog's fun and funky angel shoes. Or maybe you we even more hardcore and used to wear 6 hole Docs with a baby doll dress. Now that you're all grown up you need a real pair of shoes that you can wear with nice slacks or a skirt to work. But you don't want totally give up on that inner riot grrr. Enter Fluevog. Shoes with flair and retro attitude that are also comfortable and sturdy. They are expensive but like the Vogs you bought in college, you expect them to last forever, wear like iron and clean up with a lick of polish. (If you can find polish in lizard green!). These shoes are so beautiful you will probably not be able to stop gazing at your feet while you sit on the bus to work, listening to Babes in Toyland on your Ipod thinking you could imagine Kat Bjelland wearing these shoes and that like the Ipod, anything that takes your mind off your depressing commute is worth the money. If you are familiar with Fluevogs you are probably already aware of the quirks/potential problems with this shoe. If not, I'll fill you in. The fit is a half-size small, I think and if you have long toes they may not work for you even then. I have short toes, so I guess they work for me. I ordered a half size up from my normal size and they are a tad bit loose in the heel, but wratcheting down the strap does take care of that. The leather is firm, more similar to the leather in a sturdy oxford like Dr. Martens than a comfort dress shoe like "Softspots" and "Ecco". It takes a bit of breaking in time, but it’s worth it.

I definitely think I'll be buying more Fluevogs in the near future. I ordered 3 pairs to check them out and ended up returning 2--gotta love free shipping both ways!

We had gorgeous weather this weekend and our neighbors put out their waterslide. The kids had a great time and the grownups barbequed, enjoyed the sun, and had a couple cocktails :-)





Dh and I have a date night Saturday night and I'm sooooooooooooo looking forward to a grown up dinner, just the 2 of us. We're going to check out The Slanted Door in San Francisco and I can't wait :-) Since my parents are moving to Thailand September 18, we have to get one last night of babysitting out of them.

Thanks for visiting and listening to my ramblings. I do want to stamp something soon before I've forgotten how to do it!

My little stamping buddy

My dd loves to stamp and do other things with me. Just had to show you some pics of her from earlier today. She wanted to stamp something for daddy :-) She'd already taken a bath but since she got her fingers inky, she wanted another bath. I managed to talk her out of it for the moment.

Here's the card I was working on earlier. I'm not 100% thrilled with it. I love these little Stampendous Bees but I do have a hard time working with some of the smaller images. I got the bee image in an order that I received recently from Eclectic Paperie. Joy and Daisy give great service and it was very sweet to get some stamped images to use as well. The card base is Wild Wasabi. I stamped the Sanded background stamp in Real Red on Real Red. I wrapped the big blue ribbon from the Jersey Ribbon originals around the front of the card. I used my scallop circle punch from SU to punch out the More Mustard scalloped circled and also punched out the bee image with my 1 3/8" circle punch and matted it on the scalloped circle. The bee is colored in with More Mustard, Real Red, and Basic Black markers and a blender pen & my Wild Wasabi ink pad. The wings are covered with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The sentiment is from Thoughtful Phrases by Verve Visual and is stamped in Basic Gray on More Mustard then punched out with the Word Window punch. It's popped up on dimensionals as is the Real Red layer. So, I know I'm my own worst critic and I like, but not love this card :-)

Ok, I actually have some work to do but I may procrastinate on it for a little bit longer.

Thanks for visiting!

Sleeping babies

I know I said I'd be stamping but I'm actually in the process of unmounting my stamp sets :-) I did three of them in the last 2 evenings--Pick a Petal, Monkey Business, and Eat Cake. I don't know how many more I'll do. It's not horrible but it's tedious work. I'm sure that I'll be thrilled when I'm done, I'm just tired of sticky, gunky stuff all over the place. So, since I'm not stamping, here's a pic from this weekend taken with my camera phone. Isn't the quality great? NOT!!!!! I rarely get all three of them together and still but fortunately, they're all sleeping like babies which means that the bossy one aka Maya isn't screaming orders at the brothers. I love my kids :-) and I love when they're peaceful like this. I swear, I could just stare at them for hours. Dh is always telling me to not stare at them when they're sleeping but I can't help it. They look so angelic and I forget that they were raising a ruckus at the store and just not listening. I'm sure my coworkers would be rolling on the floor laughing. I can handle hard core teenagers but my three kids give me a run for my money :-) In fact, when I was returning some things this morning right when the store opened, the salesperson made a comment about how much energy Mason and Maya had so early (and she remembered them from our purchase the other day--in fact she had to tell her family about Maya and her comments while we were shopping) Yeah, I'm the woman in the store who people just shake their heads at and wonder why the crazy woman had so many if she can't handle them. Fortunately, they have great manners and behave like angels for others. They're just wild and crazy hooligans with me. Aren't I lucky!

Isn't this cute and Colleen's Throwdown Challenge

I took dd with me today when I got a manicure and pedicure as a reward for doing so well with the potty training. She has been dieing to have flowers on her toes so I let her do it. She picked out her own nail polish, told the technician what color flowers she wanted, and told her what color jewel she wanted in the middle. I'm so glad that I'm raising a girl who can speak her mind and advocate for herself--she won't even be 3 until next month!

The card is done using Colleen's sketch challenge as inspiration. This is my first Little Lady card and I had to put it together quickly between doing loads of laundry. In a way, I'm glad that I had to do each step in between doing other things because it forces me to slow down a little and plan things out in my head some more. The card base is Real Red. I stamped the On the Spot Background and ladybugs and sentiment on Shimmery White using Versamagic Red Magic and Midnight Black. The focal point is also edged with the Red Magic and then matted on Basic Black and Real Red. Each mat is 1/16th of an inch and can I tell you how much I love my Perfect Layers tool? I use it frequently and I love how it makes my layers and mats so *perfect*. I usually end up with something wonky when I eyeball it so I turn to my Perfect Layers most of the time. The strip behind the focal image is Basic Black and I put red eyelets in the corners with my Cropodile which is another tool that I love! I gave up on eyelets because pounding them is so noisy but now I can set them again since I've got a Cropodile :-)

Thanks for visiting!

Mohawk Boy!

Dh gave our 4 yo a hair cut this weekend and this is how he came downstairs. He totally loved it and dh took him back upstairs to even it out a bit. . . well, I guess he evened it out too much because when I went upstairs, there was a sad 4 yo with no mohawk :-( Now, I'm not big on mohawks and didn't really like them when they were first in style but since my little guy looked adorable with it and it made him so happy, I'm willing to let him have one. We've decided to let his hair grow out a little again and try it once more in a few weeks.

In other news, my Papertrey sets made it to my local post office this morning so I should have them to play with tonight. Woohooooooooo!!!!! New stamps to ink up!!!!!!

Isn't she sweet?

Is this not the most adorable 2 1/2 year old ever? She's *talking* to her pretend friend, Jamirio. . .I don't know who it is but daddy made the name up. We're enjoying the weekend with daddy home before he has to fly out again. I'll be glad when this project is over and he's got some down time but it's soooooooooo nice to have him home.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi all, it's a gorgeous day here in the Bay Area!!! I'm thrilled that it's about 60 and not raining! I want to thank all of you who visit and read and I'm encouraging you to come out of lurkdom! So, here's a pic for your pleasure :-) I haven't gotten much stamping time lately but I love this pic of me, dh, and the little ones (my oldest was at his grandma's for the summer). My Valentine's and I will be going out for Mexican tonight--margaritas and enchiladas--what more out of life could I want?

On the way in today, the dj on the radio was talking about twisted Valentine's cards. Here's one that cracked me up. "Valentine, I loved you alot and thought you were the tops. . .but if you don't stop stalking me, I'm gonna call the cops!"

Leave me a comment with a twisted Valentine before 10 pm PST tonight and I'll have one of the kids randomly pick a name. The winner will receive a brand new and unmounted Big Blossom stamp set :-) I've got an extra one on the way and thought I could be generous today.

You see this little girl?

Ok, you see this pic of this adorable little girl? Isn't she cute? I love her to death but sometimes I think she'll be the death of me. She's currently going through an "I don't want to sleep" phase and I'm exhausted! She's been my good sleeper, especially compared to the boys but with daddy out of town this week, she's decided that she's not sleeping and she's not sleeping alone. Now, I don't necessarily mind having one of the kids in bed with me but she's not falling asleep at a reasonable hour. . .and she wants to play with my hair, my face, my arms, my shoulders, etc. . .and talk, talk, talk. . .

So, needless to say, I haven't gotten all my laundry folded that I've been diligently washing and I haven't gotten any stamping done! I told the boys I'd made Valentine's cards for them and I have a couple swaps I joined. . .plus, I just want to stamp so I can have some time for me to do something that I enjoy. Sigh. . .dh will be home tomorrow and I'm sure that my little princess will sleep better.

My favorite things

No stamping today. I got an order from Stampin' Up! yesterday and checked it to make sure all was well, then I cut and mounted my stamps. It was all pretty late so there was no time to play with my new toys. I'm planning on getting out of work relatively early today so that the kids can play and so can I :-)

Anyway, here are a few of my favorite things. . .I'm loving these little chicks. You've got to check out Bless this Chick. You can create these really cute little avators and add them to your email, places you post to on the web, etc. Very, very cute!Some of my other favorite things include these three cuties--my kids are wonderful and even though I'm tearing my hair out at times, I couldn't imagine life without them.