As my luck would have it

I am sick.....BOO.....

We have a party set up for tomorrow night at our house, FINALLY I get to do something for New Years instead of watching the ball drop on TV while sitting on my couch, and I get sick...freaking sick!!

I somehow made it out to my photography meeting last night and even went out to the diner afterward with a few of the members but by the end of the night, I had no voice and my head was pounding. Of course when I walk through the door, I hear my youngest crying in her crib....great. No sleep for me.

I was then up for another hour and a half trying to get her to sleep when Sass cries out. She isn't feeling that well either.

Finally I get them to sleep and I crash into bed, only to wake up all too soon and needing to start the day. I tried relaxing on the couch as much as I could this morning, hoping I will get better before tomorrow night, but with my trying to get well, my house work is suffering and I need to have people over tomorrow...*sigh*

Not that the house is a total disaster, but there are things I need to attend to before guests come. Laundry being a bog contender, and my craft table...gah, what a mess.

I actually have plans on moving my craft table out of its location so that I can set up either a table of food there or the photography background. I have plans of having a place to take photos of everyone. Man, this sickness also blows because I wanted to make me a hair piece to wear too...looks like I may just not have time now.

Well....I will post more later, but I need to get my sick, coughing self up and get some things done....

I have an addiction

and it's name? Cigarettes? No....Alcohol? No....Drugs? Nope....well..sort of. Diet Coke. Yup............and it's getting to be really bad.

I used to drink one a day, then it became two, three...and the other day I drank almost a whole 2 liter in a short time. WOAH!

I have been really tried, run down, my weight is a whole other story, I am run down feeling and I am sitting here tonight, drinking my 4th can of the day and I feel awful. My head hurts, I feel unhealthy and icky and I am like STOP...I need a change.

I was googleling about health and I read some articles about the side effects of Diet Coke and it is me...I suffer from a lot of them.

I have a lot of New Years Resolutions to start and I think I am adding this one to my list. I need to beat my addiction to Diet Coke.

Here are my current resolutions for the New Year, in no particular order

1. Have a healthier lifestyle. Including but not limited to, relationships, body, and mind.

2. Blog more

3. Focus on Photography and grow and learn learn learn.

4. Go through my house, throw out things I dont need and organize and KEEP it that way.

5. Cut out TV during the day.

6. Focus on me, taking care of myself.

7. Work on how I manage stress

8. Complete at least 2 scrap pages a week..at LEAST

9. Print off pictures I have on my computer and put them in albums

10. And this one is a lot into one..I want to do things I dont typically do, go do things, see things more so than I do now and have more experiences in life.

11. Have a closer relationship to God.

With that said....what are your New Year's Resolutions?

Change of plans...

My friend had a photoshoot today and she asked me if I wanted to second shoot. I was excited about the opportunity and agreed! It was a friend of hers and 3 other ladies, we had some pretty cute ideas for the shoot too...but as you see by my title, you probably guessed that that isnt what happened today.

When we arrived, she called her friend to ask where she was and she replies that she is at her friends and thought the shoot was next weekend!

UGH!! I was super excited too, brought all my stuff, drove to a different state (granted it wasn't that far, I just like that it makes it sound worse than it was haaha!) just to hear....we can't do the shoot. Bummer...

But my friend brought her cousin along and I looked at her and said...well..you sure are dressed cute today, wanna be our model? Soooo happy she agreed and we had a great time and I think the pics turned out just nice!! Here is a sneak peek from her session!

My Good/Bad night

I had a great night tonight, it is nice to get out and hang with people other than my loving children. Sometimes a mommy just needs a break too!

I went over to my friend Lori's house and we ate, had hot cocoa, munched on banana bread and talked Photography, editing and just stuff. Time sure does fly because I got there around 7:30pm and didn't leave till a little after 1am (on the 3rd, so as you can tell, I fixed the date for this post).

I am just getting my feet wet into being a portrait photographer and she has been helping me tremendously!! I have improved my technique, editing and other technical aspects in one month.

I took her family's photo the other week and we were going over the pics together and sharing how each of us edits. I learned things from her, and she learned a couple things from me.

Gah..............sorry this post is not pleasant to read, I am sooo exhausted and I can barely think straight...but that is because I only had barely a couple hours (literally) of sleep...why you ask?? Well this is why the title says, "bad night".

I leave Lori's house a couple minutes after 1am. I live in a gated community where the gates close at 8 and you need a card to open the gates. Or you can punch in a code and will go to your phone number and they can hit a number and let you in.

Well, like a dumb butt, since I took a different car to her house, I forgot to grab my gate key. So, with it being so early in the morning on a Friday morning, no one was out for me to follow in, no one was going out for me to go through the out gate either for that matter. So, I sat and waited for a bit....no one came. So I was thinking how I didn't want to wake up hubby, but I have no choice because it's early, I am tired, my baby will be up soon and I need some sleep. So I go to the box and call hubby....got his voice mail. Try again, same thing, try again, same...so then I am thinking, ok, let me call from my phone. So I called...and called...and called...over 25 freaking times getting his voice mail EVERY TIME. See, I know it is right by him and on because he uses it has his alarm (its his cell, we have no house phone). I am so tired at this point and no one in site and him not answering the phone I had 2 options....1. wait indefinitely for someone to come or go through the gate or 2. park and walk home, get the key and walk back.

Reluctantly, I parked my car and started home. I was in a wrap sweater with a sleeveless shirt underneath and flat calf length boots...and it was FREEZING out. So I ran all the way home, its close to a half mile away, so not terribly far, but enough. I go up to the room and check his phone and its on...next to his head, but he was passed out cold....so I grab the keys to my other car, get the card, and head back....uphill this time. By time I got home it has been over an hour since I first arrived at the gate. I get dressed, brush my teeth, lie down, close my eyes and in about a half hour, my daughter wakes up....She was up for good around 6 and so have I.

So needless to say I am exhausted and I am about to go to bed, since I have been up since (as I am writing this early on the 4th). I will catch up on Friday's post later! :)

Slackity McSlackster.....

 That should be my name...I have been doing so much stuff, by the end of the night, I always am too tired or just doing something else and I don't blog. It's a shame really, as I would LOVE to look back on things, funny things my child says, updates on life, yet, I don't take the time to make this a priority. This isnt the first post of this kind, I have said it before....but I am going to try (AGAIN) to keep at this.

So December 1st, last month in 2010, 25 days till Christmas...here it goes!

Today I made cameos of the girls...I decided I want to do the entry way in a black and white vintage looking damask. I have always loved this look but had NO idea where to put it, so the entry way sounds like a great place to start. It is kind of bold, therefore I didn't want it all over the house, but I am excited to take on yet another project.

I have a long wooden shelf I found at the habitat for humanity store (pics to come) that I plan to redo. I finished painting the frames black (they were ugly plain wood) with a matte spray paint to put in those house pictures I took, and I have plans to refinish the old walmart special bookshelf down stairs.

Here is what I made, I plan on putting these in frames and setting them on that shelf OR, hang them with ribbon....I haven't decided yet. I will try them both out and see which I like best.

So, without further rambling, here is what I made...
 


Adorable right?? You are thinking...I need one of those of my kids right?? Well, maybe not...but if you are...it is super easy, and here is what you need and how to do it.

1-cute kids (or anything really, try a vase with a single rose...ooooh I just gave myself an idea....)
2-a contrasting background (I used the black side of my reflector)
3-a camera...point and shoot, dslr, whatever...just something that can take a pic, I used flash to freeze the subject and make nice sharp clean lines.
4-some sort of editing software, I use Photo Shop CS5, but you can use anything that allows you to manipulate the photo. Even free programs can do this!

Ok, so step one...have your subject sit and take a good shot of their profiles..., here is what I got, doesnt have to be pretty, and if you can see the look on my daughter's face....she wasn't thrilled of the idea of mommy taking another picture!

 Thankfully my little sweet sweets cooperated better than her older sister. She still smiles when mommy has the camera.

Step 1-
Open the picture in your photo editing software, now again, I am doing this in CS5, if you have earlier versions of CS, it should look similar, I haven't used Elements, but may be similar to that too...anything else, just look for the equivalent in your program.

Open pic
Convert your image to black and white, if you have color sliders that pop up, make your reds go to the right, that will make the skin of the subject go even lighter, if you dont, shouldn't be a big deal.

Step 2-Now go to the level sliders and make the shadow (far left) triangle go right, and the highlight slider (far right) go left till you get something similar to this.

Step 3-I merged the layers, but you just need to make sure you now select the background layer and clean up anything that needs cleaning. As you can see, her eye is still dark. I grabbed a brush in white and "painted" over to make her head solid white. You can clean up any edge lines at this time to make it the way you want.

 {1. ensure the right layer is selected. 2. Select the white color 3. Select your pain brush  4. Paint on subject}

Step 4-(1) Ensure your background layer is selected if you have more than one layer open.
(2) Select your brush (should be already selected) and change your color to black (the background color).
(3) Create the neck part where you want it cut off, using a hard round brush and fill in the rest of the black, leaving just the head of your subject.

Step 5-Go to your magic selector tool (or laso, or whatever will select the whole head), click on your subject and you should get the "marching ants" around your subject completely.

 

Step 6-RIGHT CLICK your head and click copy ( you can select cut, but I like having a whole background as well as the separate cut out).

Step 7-Select the layer that you just made and make the others invisible. Double click that layer and a menu pops up, select COLOR OVERLAY, that will pop up another window, choose the color you want your head to be, in my case, I made it black.

Step 8-Now you can open a paper background of your choice and place the head on top and you get your beautiful cameo! 

**Make sure if you are going to print it, you make your background paper document, the size you want to print. I made mine an 8x10, then placed the head on it, and resized accordingly.

I hope I didn't confuse anyone and you are able to follow this tutorial to make your own!

This would look sweet in your little girls room in a frame hung up by ribbon, you can do this as a family and put on the wall, you can use inanimate objects like fruit, candle sticks, or anything and create beautiful wall decor! You can print just the shape you made on the printer, cut it out, trace it on canvas and paint to have even more personalized artwork! The possibilities are endless (and I just gave myself more ideas and MORE projects haha).

If you make anything and blog it, I'd love to see!

Happy anniversary and perc too...

Today it has been 5 years since I married a man who is so wonderful, terribly good looking, a loving father to our two girls and my best friend. We have had ups and downs but I couldn't be happier to be with him and look forward to the next 5 years and beyond. Ok, enough of the mush! Today was pretty low key, we decided not to buy gifts this year, especially with my big upcoming purchase of my much needed/wanted camera. But I was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful flowers that were delivered today!! It was something little but i loved it. We are the types of people who think flowers are basically a waste of money but in instances like this, its the perfect gesture. Sass was very into the flowers as well, she grabbed her stool so she could smell them too. She loves flowers, well let me clarify... She loves to pop the flower heads from the stems, she is just destructive like that. :)

Today was also a very trying day, sass's attitude and tantrums and limit testing are escalating and I feel like I am going to lose my mind. I don't want to be one of those moms who yells all the time and generally I don't, but the last couple days i have snapped pretty quick and I feel horrible. I really think it has a lot to do with her new jealousy issue she has been displaying over sprout.

I've actually tried very hard to make her not feel that way, if I make cute sounds to sprout or tell her she is cute, I look over at my sass and tell her something equally as nice. I always hug and hold her, I have special time with just her but I suppose this isn't anything I can prevent. In all honesty, I spend more time and energy with sass and I kinda feel like sprout doesn't get the total attention she needs. I mean, she isn't neglected, but I feel I don't have as much quality time with her.

Sass now has me try and feed her her sippy cup, if I'm lying on the floor with sprout she will come lie in-between us, and little things like that. However, she hasn't once acted out or mean to her sister. In fact, she is very loving toward her, which makes me happy. She is a very good big sister and I am proud of her for that.

She is also really doing so well with potty training. I can take her out in public and she doesn't go in her panties. She'll tell me she has to and we beeline it to the nearest bathroom, she is just doing so well, I'm proud of her for that too, and yep, I tell her.

I bought her a huge tinkerbell blanket at Costco today, it was only 14.99 and it's like a full bed size one. She picked the tink over the Disney princess one, which is ok by me as she already has a princess one, but much smaller ( and oddly enough the same price). We had to go there because they have some great steaks, and that's what we had tonight for our anniversary dinner. I just love steaks on the grill!! We had steaks, salad and baked taters and a brownie cake with vanilla ice cream for dessert. And not just any vanilla, but double vanilla!! Hahaaa, you should have seen me at wegmans ( that's the grocery store I got the ice cream from). I stood there and by the same brand , they had vanilla, vanilla bean, french vanilla and double vanilla, I mean really??? I just wanted vanilla ice cream!! So I bought the double niller, but honestly, I can't tell the difference between that and regular, oh well.

In other news, sprout took a nap in her crib, in her room for the first time today! We will soon be transitioning her to sleep in there because she will be getting too mobile for her bassinet soon. I kinda like her right here by me, I even liked cosleeping, though it was very uncomfortable for me. Those were the days when I couldn't move the slightest because she'd wake up if she sensed I wasn't right next to her. Though I kinda miss the act of co sleeping, I do not miss that phase! She has been waking up a lot again lately. I think it might be the new formula, since similac can't get their act together and give us uncontaminated powder. Since she hasn't been doing well since we switched less than a week ago ( due to all powder, the recalled numbers or not, being pulled from shelves) I went to Costco where I know they sell cases of the liquid similac, So I got that and I'm hoping she will not be as fussy and sleep better now. This is another reason I'm so upset about being unable to continue breast feeding her, I already hate the fact she is even getting formula, but now I have to constantly worry if something is wrong with it, or if it'll make her sick because of beetle larvae in it, gah this is exhausting!! With sass, the whole bpa crap was going on and I frantically threw out all our bottles and bought the bpa free ones. Its like, can kid stuff ever be safe? I know everyone is just human but come on!!

To change the subject because all that makes me very heated, my hips aren't getting any better. I don't know what is
going on and I need to make an appointment with the doctor. I could barely get up the stairs earlier because of the pain, so much so, I had to take a percocet just so I could walk and be able to move, it was that bad. Usually it just feels like I've been riding a horse all day but today it was 10 times that, I think exercising might be making it worse. I have no idea what might be causing this, maybe it's delayed pain from sprout, as this has really only been going on for a month or so, and she turned 17 weeks yesterday. ( wow, time just flies!!)

Well, I came to bed early tonight because of sprouts lack of sleep lately, I don't get more than 2 hours of consecutive sleep anymore, yet I can't fall asleep, though I feel exhausted. I love that I can use my phone to write and catch up in my blogs, so at least I can lie down in my bed and do this, instead of at the computer. Hell, my hips wouldn't let me anyway.

We found a babysitter for the girls Saturday so hubby and I can go out to celebrate. I don't like leaving sprout at all, but it'll only be for a couple hours, but I still feel tense about it. I'm just hoping my hip will be ok, I want to dress up, which means heels!

Well, I'm off, I freaking already wrote a novel haha, so I'm gonna do a facebook catch up then try and sleep. True to how things go, as soon as that happens, sprout will wake up. Ooooh and just to say, my kids' names aren't title capped because my phone doesn't recognize them as names, because I already hate typing on the iPhone the way it is, if I had go manually do all the caps and punctuation, I'd be here forever, so I let it do it for me. :). Night!

A crafty day

Today was a busy day in the craft area for me,aside from taking care of my babies and playing with them, I crafted it up!

Well I am just starting out making bows, and let me tell you, I need to practice! I stink at this, bless those who do it for an income. Trying to find tutorials is like pulling teeth, apparently you have to be in some sort of bow cult to unlock the mystery behind bow making because people are very hush hush about how to actually make nice looking bows. Like it might take away from their sales personally, but anyway, I'm doing a lot of trial and error. More error than anything else. I did find some nice sites to help me along, but no site in the world can help with my suckyness when it comes to my bow skills.

So after a few bigger bow fails, I decided to look around the house for some things I could glue on lined clippies and call it a day. I found some old fake flowers I've kept all these years that never make it out of the box when we move from place to place and put them to good use. One of sass's shows on today talked about recycling, well...I did my part. I also used some fake leaves I have that go with my photo props and made some cute( or at least I think) fall clippies. This is what I came up with today in way of hair things.


And here are a couple if pics with cute models. Here is sass with the triple pink bow.
And sprout with the leave, since she is baldy bald, I had to clip it onto a band.

In other news, I need to clean my craft area because it's so full of unorganized clutter I can't use it for crafts, so instead I'm using my dinning room table as my computer desk/craft station and this is how it looks.

I so finally finished my girls' bow holder today, well I kinda need one now. :)

Aaaand I also started a couple more projects.

I made some bow center piece out of baking clay and painted them.

Also sanded down sprouts lamp I found at goodwill that I'm going to refinish, the shade too, hoping to go with a shabby chic look.

Still on my list of projects to do, refinish the shelf I found, paint the frames to put in the downstairs, refinish the carriage, refinish my vanity, make fabric flowers and .... Hmmm at the moment that's it.

In other other news, I'm going back to see my family in 3 weeks. I want to go and see my mom and grandma. Last time I was home was in April when my grandpa was in the hospital and I was only 25 weeks along with sprout. Not sure how long I'll stay, I suppose I'll play it by ear.

Speaking if sprout, she has not been sleeping at all lately and I'm exhausted. I'm actually in bed now typing this on my phone. But I'm not sure what her deal is, an she doesn't wake up from he sleep all happy like sass did either, it's screamathon as soon as she opens those pretty eyes if hers.

So with that, I'm gonna get to sleep, since she only sleeps in 3 hour increments and up for good at 6 and has already been down an hour. * sigh. So later blog land.

P.S. We had tacos tonight, and I have to say I make some pretty yummy tacos!!

all better!

Sorry I went MIA for a while, I was really feeling under the weather! But I am starting to feel better as the days go on.

So I had a nice weekend, I hope you all did as well! I had some friends of mine come down from PA to have a little visit and I got to do a photo session with them as well! If you want to check out their sneak peek, check out my new photography blog...www.melissacrouchphotography.blogspot.com

Family updates:

Hubby is off this week so we decided to take a road trip! YAH! I am so excited, we are thinking nothing too far but something fun so...what is funner than hersey PA??

Sass is doing an awesome job and potty training! I am so proud of my big girl!!! She is so proud of herself too! She loves to wear cute skirts and loves to dance. She gets so excited over things and she is just the cutest she can be! She is starting to let me take more pics of her lately, so for me that is a very good thing!

Sprout is getting so big, I can't believe how fast time is flying by! She loves to laugh and smile and her dimples are beyond cute! She loves to play with her toes and chews on her hands. She can bat and grab at toys and loves to sit up (supported) and stand in your lap. Hard to believe she will be 4 months old in 2 weeks...wow....where did the time go? Here are some recent pics! I know, boring post right? hahaa, sorry, I am really tired and about to go to bed, but didnt want to go another day not blogging! Have a great Monday everyone!

Not good

Oh my, I'm so sick and it hit me all if a sudden. I was having a good time yesterday, had some friends over and around 3 in the afternoon I started having this tickle. Thought it was nothing and it kept getting worse, now I'm drugged up on cold meds but feel soooo awful. I hope this doesn't last long.....

iPhone Wallpaper Freebie!

I have a custom iPhone wallpaper freebie up on my Dream Weaver Designs blog using my Halloween Harvet mini-kit! So head on over to check it out (follow the tab to get to my blog or click the blinkie to the right). Hope you enjoy!

Which kid shows annoy you?

I find myself really shaking my head and being annoyed when they are on, these are the shows that annoy me (and some I have only seen in passing...which was enough for me!)

Pretty much any tween show...I suppose they want our kids to be over dramatic idiots....so without further ado..

In no particular order, and I am sure there are more, but these are at the top of my irk list.

Hannah Montana-I just find this show irritating, why are all these shows ridiculously over dramatic with the acting? It sets our kids up for failure, SO thankful my daughter isnt a tween yet, but I cringe thinking of what will be on when she is one...*sigh*

Seriously, these kids were cute in Big Daddy only, didn't they learn anything from the Olsen Twins? Anyway, these guys, both of their shows...are highly annoying. Mainly the dark haired girl....Suit life on whatever...

Seriously?? How are these guys considered cute?? Not to mention.....annoying....The Jonas Brothers

Ok, these guys make my ears bleed, have you ever just watched the tall white kid? Yah, he is the perfect definition that white boys can't dance, he looks so awkward and what in the world is with the hell awful faces these guys make when singing and talking? Makes them look like buffoons. The Fresh Beat Band

This show is just like the one above, I hate that it is a good show, when its not the acting part from these idiots. The Electric Company-

Gah, can I just say..."I'm a map, I'm a map, I'm a map, I'm a map, I'm a map, I'm a map, I'm a map, I'm a map, I'm a map,  I'm a map,  I'm a map,  I'm a map,  I'm a map,  I'm a map,  I'm a map,  I'm a map, I'm a map,  I'm a map,  I'm a map,  I'm a map,  I'm a map, I'm a map,  I'm a map,  I'm a map,  I'm a map,  I'm a map, I'm a map,  I'm a map, I'M A....... SHUT UP ALREADY!!!!!!! If you haven't guess by now, it's none other than Dora...

And last but not least, Agent Oso......I tried giving this show a chance, but it bothers me to no end. This agent is always sent to help out, but never seems to know what he is doing, and the kids he is sent to help, ends up helping him and he blames it all on his plan.....more or less.....I know why it is set this way, for the kids, but it doesn't make it any less annoying.

So now your turn, which kid shows annoy you? I may even add them to my list if they annoy me but I couldnt think of right off....

Vampire Diaries night!

YAH! Tonight is an all new Vampire Diaries, who else is going to be watching? I wasnt't sure if I would really like this series when it first came on, but I gave it a chance and I am a fan. I made some icons for my page.

I would also be watching Supernatural if they didn't change them to Friday's! GAH, who wants to watch Nikita? Not I! So now I must wait another day to watch the boys, I am really excited for the season premier!

Think of me Thursday

Blog hop time! Make sure to check out all the other bloggers as well!

Sucker!!

I have seen this thing entirely too much this past week, and all the icky goodness that comes along with it! Ewwww gross! And my two cuties whose noses I've developed a close relationship with

First iPhone post!!

Ok...so I just blogged about going to bed, well, I wasn't entirely lying as I am now in bed. I originally sighed up to do the posting through SMS but then it dawned on me, hello??!!?? Smart phone!! So there you have it folks, my first blogger post via smart phone! Am I with the changing times or what? Haha. Anywho, now I'm really going to bed! Goodnight!

How cool?

I finally get a chance to get into bed early, yes, 11:30PM is considered early for me these days, I find that is the only time I can get things done is when the house is quiet and I don't have anyone to care for, except myself.....:) But I decided to bring my iPhone with me into bed and I thought it would be a good idea to set up my phone to post on here and what do I see? That 3 days ago I was awarded a lovely blog award from Sherlyn!! YAH!! I am super excited about that, thank you!!

In other news, I have been MIA the last couple days because I decided to really get started with my photography business. I have been working on designing my logo, getting a few sessions set up, finding wonderful props, working on my marketing package and going location scouting!


So this is what I came up with for my logo so far.

I have been on the lookout for awesome props and I lucked out with some very nice pieces. I got a little wood rocking horse, a larger one I am still waiting to pick up, a wooden kids chair, a wooden bed for newborns, an antique wicker baby carriage, a flowered hat, wire birdcage, and a tulle dress. I have my eye on a white wicker rocker chair, I have gone by the antique place several times wondering about the price, but apparently the lady who works there is trying to find out?? Either way, I want it for Sprout's 3 month photo shoot, and as you may know, she turned 3 months on the 16th so...time is ticking. I may have to think of another shoot.

All my great ideas have been coming to me in dreams lately, it seems like when I am wake, I have nothing, I go to sleep and I am flooded with ideas. I even decorated out bedroom from a dream, next day I went out and bought things to accomplish what I saw. Same thing for decorating our new living room, certain shoots I wanted to do and even my photography logo came to me in a dream. Since I only get about 4 hours of sleep at night, those are very productive 4 hours! Hell, I think I get more done in my sleep than I do when I am awake haha.

Well, since I WAS in bed, but could not let that award go unthanked much longer and I got to my computer to post it, I am going back. I am sure Sprout will wake soon, and give me little sleep again, but hey, can't last forever right? Until next time, and thanks again for my lovely award!

Thursday blog hop!

Hoarders

Ugh...have you seen that show?? My goodness....the one tonight was particularly bad. The lady was living in actual feces 3 feet high, shows like that make me want to clean my house....

And do you ever notice in those shows there is always a random wooden kitchen chair just thrown in the pile in at least one of the rooms? No? I bet you will now when you view those shows...I don't know if it's criteria to be a hoarder to have a chair thrown on a 4 foot pile or what, but they all sure do have one!

Anywho....I'm exhausted...this 4 hours of sleep a night isnt cutting it, and it's not all Sprout's fault. I stay up entirely too late working on my scrap kits and other crafts, since it is the only time I have to do such things. Then I get to bed pretty much in time for her to eat. Once we get back to sleep, its only about 2 hours until my other daughter gets up and demands to go downstairs.

I am going to attempt to go to bed now, but Sprout is sleeping in her swing, and I do not dare attempt to put her in bed, because if I fail and she wakes, I have to feed her, and then she will no doubt go number 2 and its much longer till I get some sleep. So it looks like it is the couch for me again...*sigh*

Well anyway, I am hitting a creative road block for my kit, I am trying to go in too many different directions and I cant make up my mind. Well, I suppose I will sleep on it, I am so exhausted, I think I am going to turn in now. I know, pointless post, but I am trying to update this as much as possible. With everything I am doing, sometimes blogging about things get pushed way down. I am going to really try and make an effort to update about more interesting things. Well....as interesting as they can be in my relatively uninteresting life.

Here is something exciting...the oreo cheesecake blizzard at Dairy Queen is AAAAHH-mazing. Mmmmmm I could actually hear myself getting fatter.

Ok, off to the couch I go!

Halloween early

First off, I slept till 1pm today, I can not tell you how awesome that felt! However, my whole day was shot.

So I got up, got the kids bathed and we took some much needed stuff to goodwill. It cleaned out quite a bit of space from our garage that we have been slowly cleaning out. I am hoping to have a Halloween party this year, and it would be nice to have it in the garage so I dont have a bunch of people and kids running crazy in my house. :) The plan is to have everyone dress up and we can take the kids trick or treating though my huge community. I never get a chance to go places on Halloween because I have kids, so I am hoping to bring the part to me! Now.....what will I be??

Hubby had the day off today, so when we decided to go a few towns over to the goodwill, we didnt put in account that not everyone had the day off and we would end up stuck is rush hour traffic, which all the traffic is coming from DC and it is NOT fun to be stuck in. Especially with kids, so we thought we'd kill some time.

I wanted to stop by the restore to see if there was a desk there I could use for my crafts, I found one I might want but I wasnt 100% so I didnt get it. I did get 2 patio chairs and an unfinished wood shelf I want to finish and hang in the foyer. Yet another craft I added to my pile...I really think I have a problem. :) But shhhh.....let's just keep that between us.

I have to say, bless my hubby's heart, because even though he may think about all these craft things building up and....not getting finished, he doesn't say anything.

We decided to eat at Ruby Tuesday's today and let me say, GOOD PLAN! Man I love their salad bar. I can feed my kid super cheap (as she usually is allowed to eat off mine). I do ask first. :) So I got the turkey minis with the endless salad bar and Sass ate off it too. I am so thankful she loves fruits and veggies. I loaded her plate with green peppers, tomatoes, grapes, zucchini, mushrooms, carrots and that SO good ham with pea pasta stuff. Mmmm Mmmmm Good. I had the same but with lettuce and french dressing and cottage cheese.

Traffic was still bad after we were done eating so what is a way to pass time?? Going to Walmart of course. It was actually inspired because I spilled half of Sprout's bottle at Ruby's and that was all we had, so we had to go get her some food because there is no way we'd make it all the way home on a half full belly.

While there (and she slept the whole time thankfully) we walked over to the Halloween section and I saw the CUTEST elephant infant costume and I had to get it for Eve. I was wanting to do the whole Dorothy and toto thing since I didnt get to with Sass, but the dog costumes just werent that cute, so elephant it is.

Sass saw and Ariel outfit and decided she wanted to be that for halloween but she changed her mind a million times. She told me to put it back when she saw a pink fairy outfit. So I put back Ariel and got her the pink fairy costume. Then she saw a blue one, so I put back the pink and got the blue, then she said she didnt want it either...*sigh*. I turn around and saw some cute skirts that had matching wings so I asked her if she wanted this fairy outfit. Perhaps she agreed since she could see the wings (as the other costume it was wrapped in a bag and couldnt see them). So she agreed, she will be a fairy and I got her some cute accessories for it too. So now she is going to be a pink leopard fairy, whatever the heck that is. ;)

Hubby and I looked for costumes too, why are they so expensive?? I mean they are made up of the cheapest material ever and they charge you like, 40+ dollars for it! Money scams I swear! So I will have to shop around for my outfit, I want to look really cool this year, have no idea no what I will be. I dont want to be Dorothy now that I dont have a toto, which was the whole reason of being her in the first place. Carrying around a blue elephant in a basket just isnt the same. :)

So alas, here are my girls trying on their costumes. I have the cutest leopard fairy and blue elephant on the block!

Too many irons...

...in my fire.....I seem to have the desire to start up and do a lot of things, but because of the mass amount of projects, inevitably, none of it gets done fully. To top it off, almost daily I add to my list of things I want to do, or try to learn...well my friends, I have just done it again. I have decided I want to read more, like I used to, but then stopped due to other things coming up.

So far these things, outside of taking care of my girls and cleaning house and ensuring they have active learning enriched lives, I have going on during my "me" time-

-Another digi scrap kit, Floral reef. I make most of the things by hand in PS so, thats time consuming.
-Scrap pages for my daughters' books
-bow holders
-clippies
-wall letters
-shelves
-trying to keep up with my blog
-my photography
-and I got the bright idea that I need to pay another visit to my habitat for humanity restore warehouse (this spells trouble if anything there interests me)
-decorating the house
-still unpacking and trying to organize the garage (this one has been put WAY down on the list. :) )
-making a tutorial on scrapping
-trying to learn HOW I can sell my kits better
-studying


and honestly, the list goes on.....why cant there be more hours in my day?? :(


So yah, I was looking at other blogs and ran across a book reading thing......................I am still trying to finish Eat, Pray, Love (which is a great book by the way), and now I want to add more to the list. *sigh*

I blame being a Gemini...I really do. We are fickled beings and can never finish a project because something else shiny catches our eye and we set down what we are doing and jump on Mr. Toad's wild ride.

I am still grasping on to the hope that one day I will finish something entirely that I sought out to do...until then!

So that there is color to this post, here are the pages I am working on for Sass's Milestone 8x8 book. (which by the way I didnt meet the deadline for one of them, so now instead of 2 free books, I get one...again...because something shiny caught my eye....)