Weekend fun

Wow is it really Sunday night already??? I can't believe how fast the weekends go by. I had my last major leg treatment on Friday afternoon, and spent the weekend hobbling around. But it didn't hurt nearly as bad as the last two. So just several more injections and the pregnancy induced blood clots and vein issues will hopefully be history. It's been a while since I blogged. Nicholas is chatting up a storm, new words and parroting going on at all times. Jackson will be walking at any time. He tries to take a step, but then hesitates and falls on his bottom. He started saying dadadadada. You would think for a kiddo that was pretty clingy to his momma and so attached to the nursing, he'd say mama first, but go figure. So anyway, this morning I walked in the kitchen and he looked up at me and said mamamamama. So sweet!

I have had Valley Fever for 61 days now. I have good and bad days. It seems the past week has been more good than bad. So maybe I am finally on the uptrend to kicking this thing. It really has thrown a monkey wrench in life. I don't have the energy to get as much done and I have a lot on my plate all the time, so I didn't really have time for a long term illness. But I guess you get what you can handle, so I am dealing.

Today Nicholas and I went to Michael's so I could pick up some of the new Cricut cartridges. I ended up getting Winter Woodland, From My Kitchen and Everyday Paper Dolls. I can't wait to play with them. I also picked up a couple of EK border punches I love how compact they are (and yes I really did need more, just don't ask how many I already have). I also picked up some more of the craft pumpkins, I have some ideas for Halloween decorations that I hope to get to next weekend.

After M's we hit up Cost Plus. I decided if we have to wait for the weather to turn to fall outside it will be Christmastime. We are going to start some fall inside. We stocked up on Pumpkin Coffee, Pumpkin Scone Mix, Pumpkin Soup, Pumpkin Pie syrup, Pumpkin Chocolate bark and Pumpkin Ale as well as a few other holiday goodies.

I came home and made Pumpkin iced lattes that were just as good as Starbucks and I got the whole bottle for $6. I will be in Pumpkin Latte heaven as long as we have that bottle.

Speaking of fall, I spent a lot of time this weekend on custom items for the limited edition Color Me Daisy Halloween kit. We also unpacked a lot of the boxes that have been coming in with all of the product for the Halloween kit as well as the October main kit. We have 2 more shipments that should be in this week and we can start getting some sneak peeks up.

I tried to take a picture tonight to give a little peek at the custom items for the Halloween kit. But my camera is not my friend and they came out lousy. I need a new camera, I want a good point and shoot with some manual options. I have an DSLR and hate using it. I want some control without the bulk and hassle. Any suggestions welcome.

Anyway, since I couldn't share any Halloween peeks, I thought I would share the layouts I have done so far with the Color Me Daisy September kit, ABC's & 123's.

Nicholas has always had issues with food texture and hates his face to be messy. So one day recently Mike had given him some sweet potatoes (baby food) to start on while he was fixing his lunch. Mike turned around and Nicholas had smeared the bowl all over his face and in his hair and he was pretty proud of himself. We were too, since this was a big step for him.

I love this sweet picture of Mike and Jackson, there were a couple of other good ones with both of them looking at the camera but this one is just so sweet of them looking at each other.

Nicholas has been counting for a little while now. Originally this layout title was supposed to be 19, because that was where he would stop counting. But recently he added 20. We do numbers in the tub with bath paints every night. We are working on letters now so he can learn his ABC's.

Well that's about it for tonight. Sorry for the long post. I'll try to be a better blogger, so I don't write a book next time. Have a great week!

Oh one more thing....Heidi Sonboul is the Featured Guest Designer at Color Me Daisy this month. Love the amazing work she did for us.

Color Me Daisy September Kits

I love the September Color Me Daisy kit! Perfect if you have little kiddies headed back to school, and if not so versitle to wrap up those end of summer pictures or the fall activities that are going to be filling your days. Hurry over and pick one up!

Color Me Daisy Celebrate Blog Hop

Hello! Thanks for joining me for the Color Me Daisy Blog Hop and Online Crop. To be entered for the Blog Hop prize drawing you need to leave a comment on this post. Visit the other Daisy Girls and leave comments for them too for more chances to win a fun surprise. Our theme for our Blog Hop and Online Crop is Celebrate. So I chose to celebrate my home. We have lived here a little over 4 years. We were fortunate to build this home and choose much of the design. I designed our pool and landscaping and I am so happy when I look out the windows and see what I drew on paper actually came to life.

It's our version of our dream home. And to me it is so much more than just a house, it's the only home my 2 little boys have ever known, it's where we got our two sweet puppies, it's where we have made many memories already over the past 4 years. I can see us living here until we are old and grey. It is simply my favorite place to be.

My challenge to you is to design a layout (or go all out and do a mini book), celebrating something about home. It could be your childhood home, where you live now, or just something special about your home. Include some fussy cutting or a border punch and a handmade flower.

Here is my example:

In addition to the Color Me Daisy August kit, I used the Rouge Glitter Thicker add-on, Fiskars Apron Lace and Threading Water border punches, scallop edge scissors and a strip of red cardstock.

Here are some details:

I fussy cut one of the Cosmo Cricket Early Bird papers to create the flower border, then filled the centers with hand dyed gems. The quote came from the Early Bird paper border strips, I just cut it down and used scalloped scissors to create a border and then cut out the flowers from the borders and popped them up, so it would fit with my design.

I learned how to make this flower from this tutorial here at SplitcoastStampers. It's a bit tricky at first, but watch the video, I think it helps. If you try it you just need a little patience and some strong glue (I used Tacky Glue) and you will get it.

So recap on the challenge:

• Make a layout (or a mini book) that "Celebrates" something that means home to you

• Fussy cut or use a border punch

• Include a handmade flower (can be any kind, I just gave you an idea if you want to make one like mine)

When you finish the challenge upload your entry to the Color Me Daisy Celebrate Crop Gallery and link it back to the thread for "Michelle's Celebrate Home Challenge" in the Celebrate Crop Forum on our message board.

Finally, don't forget to finish the Blog Hop. Follow this link back to the Color Me Daisy Blog to visit your next Daisy Girl.

Color Me Daisy August Kits

Go check them out here!

We have an updated new subscriber offer too. Look towards the bottom.

Depending on renewals this month, we may not end up with many extra kits this month.

So if you are on the fence you may want to act sooner rather than later.

Oh and we have some great Birthday Grab Bags this month and the prices are a steal.

Happy scrappin'!

Win a Color Me Daisy Kit

Check out http://www.writeclickscrapbook.com/ today for a chance to win the July kit from http://www.colormedaisy.com/.

Happy 4th!

Happy Thoughts for Our Marti

We have had a very scary weekend with our little sweet Boston Terrier, Marti. She started throwing up a week ago on Friday sporadically. After a vet visit on Wednesday they thought it was a stomach issue and told us to do a bland diet and gave us some medicine to give her. On Thursday the vomiting got more frequent after giving her the medicine, but then stopped. Friday we were gone for a few hours and got the test results for her blood work on our way back.

They suggested we bring her in for a IV to get her some fluids, because the results showed she was dehydrated. When we got home we found her laying by the door, barely moving and she had thrown up several times and it was rust colored.

Mike took her to the vet and they thought she could have an obstruction so they x-rayed her again and gave her barium. After the results we found she had a blockage but they couldn't see what it was on the X Ray. They recommended we take her to the emergency animal hospital for exploratory surgery.

On the way to the animal hospital

I picked her up and took her there. The doctor thought she was throwing up blood and was concerned part of her stomach was dying. They called about 2 hours after I had dropped her off. She had been very unstable and they recommended we bring in a specialist to do her surgery, because of the anticipated complications.

I went back to the hospital for the surgery, and was able to hold her before she went in. It was so terribly frightening as the doctor had told us she only had a 30-50% chance of surviving the surgery and if she lost part of her stomach she could survive the surgery and not survive the post-op.

After the 2 hour surgery they found no obstruction in her stomach, only that her intestines were in bad shape. She was out of it when I saw her and looked pretty sick. I got home at about 3 in the morning, and waited to hear an update in the morning.

In the morning she was doing better, but still throwing up blood. The doctor on the day shift had started to think her liver was failing. After a lot of talking about possible things that could have poisoned her, we came to the Sago palms by the pool. She normally can't get to them, but one day the pool fence was open and she probably chewed on them and got enough to poison her.

They changed the direction of her treatment and she is so much better today then yesterday. She isn't throwing up blood and the tests came back showing the treatment is working. It looks like she is going to be okay and should have no long term affects. But she will probably be in the hospital until at least tomorrow. It will take a few weeks for her to fully recover but to know she should be okay is the best news we could possibly hope for.

She is such a huge part of our family, she was our first dog and we got her before we had children. She is the sweetest most loving dog I have ever known. Our house this weekend has not been the same without her here.

Please pray for a quick recovery for our sweet "stinker binker". Here is one of my favorite pictures of our sweet little girly girl.

Say What

Nicholas has been chatting up a storm and there are some words and phrases he says that are just so sweet. I may be biased but I think he has the sweetest voice ever. So to make sure I remember these things I made this layout based on a Pagemaps sketch using mostly BG Offbeat with some American Crafts thickers.

Journaling says: These are my favorite things you say: bubbles, bye-bye, more, purple, ma-me, okay, Ha (Hi)!!, night night, cookies, Nicholas, Yes, oh-oh. All said in your sweet voice.

A Peek In My Week

I finished up a project from one of my CKC Mesa Classes which was called "A Peek Into My Week" It was a mini album for a week in your life. The class was taught by Elizabeth Kartchner, Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooker of the Year from a year or two ago. The mini was pretty easy to put together. I worked on it a bit in class and then finished it up after having a week documented and pictures printed out. I added some extra ribbon, doodling to finish it off. A few weeks ago I carried around a camera and jotted down some notes to get a slice of life type of week. I picked a normal week on purpose. The only unusual thing was we were extra busy with Color Me Daisy that week due to a last minute advertising change which moved up our May kit release so it would be available when the ad dropped.

Definitely a fun little project I am glad I did. I am doing the 365 project which is fun to document our daily happenings, but the Peek in My Week was purely from my perspective. I will enjoy looking back at it, even today when I was copying the journaling from my index cards to the mini book it was funny how many minute things in a day you just forget.

Try it sometime.

More LOAD's

I have been having so much fun scrapping with the May Color Me Daisy Happiness kit. I have been using it up finishing my Layout of the Day challenges. I have made 10 layouts, 3 cards and 2 gift bags from this kit, and I still have stuff left for a banner and card or two. Here are a few layouts I did with this kit in the past 2 weeks: