Ugly Shoes

Oh my son and these dinosaur shoes. He loves them and over time I guess they've grown on me. They are so ugly, they're (almost) cute. I bought him a bunch of dinosaur shirts so at least they match. He asks to wear them almost every day. I wonder if these will be one of those "favorite things" that he'll remember about his childhood. I think it will be funny to look back at this layout in a few years when Nico wouldn't be caught dead in dino shoes.

I had a huge pile of this Stomp line by My Mind's Eye and I'm happy to say that it is just about all gone. That's really rare for me. I usually buy way too much from lines like this and never use it all. It must be the bold color scheme and the way that the patterns mix together. I love MME for that reason alone.

All of the paper, chip and brads are MME. The letters are chip stickers from Basic Grey and old Pressed Petals.

Thanks for taking a peek. I'll be back Thursday with Disney...

The Boy Rides

This is hands down my favorite page from last weekend. I have so many pictures of my son's first time on the boardwalk rides. I narrowed it down to three of my favorites to tell the story of what a little daredevil he was from the start.

I'm drawn to the crisp red, white and blue color palette and who doesn't love a banner? All of the paper is from one of my current favorites, The Girls Paperie. I love the colors and the vintage feel. I cut out the ticket strip from one of KI Memories lace die cut sheets and backed it with white. I added some metal studs in between the tickets for texture.

I wanted to do something different with the journaling so I cut out a circle from the ledger paper and backed it with my journaling on kraft cardstock. Getting it to line up is tricky, but using the text tool in Photoshop Elements helps. I layed a transparent frame from last year's Little Yellow Bicycle travel line on top of the third picture just to add a focal point. It had some printed travel words on the bottom that I cut off.

The title is made up of Thickers and those huge red letters are Pink Paislee. I love'em, although you can't spell much since you only get one of each letter. The ferris wheel charm is what I like to call vintage (Karen Foster). I love it when I find the perfect little finishing touch in my stash of old stuff. It justifies the supply hoarding that I tend to do.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Until the next post......(should be tomorrow).

The Beach House

Last week I got to spend the weekend scrapping in this beautiful house in Long Beach Island. It belongs to a friend of one of my scrappy friends and he was generous enough to let our group stay for the weekend. So last Friday the five of us packed up and headed down the shore for a girls' weekend.

The kitchen where we made coffee, set up the sewing machine and ate chinese chicken salad.

The view from the roof top deck. It was windy but the sunset and the view were beautiful!

And the most important area, the scrapping spot. I had such a great time. Laughing, making stuff and sharing stories with my peeps. A creative girl break from the everday mom routine. Perfection.

And now on to the pages that I created...

Sans Camera

I'm sitting here with a pile of layouts ready to be photographed. I have a T-ball game tomorrow. My FIL is turning 70 on Sunday and we're having a big family party. And I have NO camera. For a shutterbug like me, this is painful.

So on Monday & Tuesday I spent some time in Atlantic City with DH. He was at a conference and I was soaking up the sun and playing poker. Apparently when we checked out on Tuesday, we left the camera on the 29th floor lobby of the Borgata. I didn't even realize it until Thursday. I was ready to kiss my baby goodbye. Now what are the chances that someone would turn in a nice Canon digital camera in Atlantic City of all places?

My faith in good peeps was restored. Someone turned it in. And so on Saturday we'll be taking a nice long family drive down to AC to get it back. Yes!

I'll be back on Monday, with layouts and my baby.

Our Soccer Star

The first thing that I noticed when I uploaded these pictures, is that little drooping letter "r" in the title. It is not like this on the layout. It just shifted when I was taking the pictures. It's driving me nuts, but not enough to take the pictures all over again. My apologies!

Nico started T-Ball this week and it reminded me that I still hadn't touched his soccer pictures from this past Fall. I wanted to tell the funny stories from his first time participating on a sports team. I've never been a big fan of sports, so I was surprised at how into it I got. Patrick was the coach, so I felt a certain responsibility to the team I guess. There I found myself week after week, snacks in hand, rooting for the team, screaming like a woman when my son actually made a goal and keeping score (even though we're not supposed to). I spread all of my pictures out and realized that there were no real "stellar" shots that I was in love with. Most weeks I forgot to take pictures or I was so into the game, that I didn't take enough shots.

I did however, get enough pictures to show Nico's personality on the field. His bossiness, his tenacity and his lack of fear. He wasn't afraid, but every time he went head to head with a child who was clearly a foot taller and double his weight, I cringed. Nico reminded me of a chihuahua trying to run with the big dogs.

I love these mediocre shots and wanted to use them all. That's where the idea of the grid came from. I went all the way across the two pages and then decided to plant the huge blue star on the side as a bold splash of color and form. It's simple, clean and to the point.

The dotted cardstock is from Bo Bunny. The big blue star is from an old school line by Creative Imaginations. The soccer tag and balls are from Karen Foster and the title is a combination of Doodlebug and Thickers. Thanks for taking a look!

I am off for a scrappy weekend down the shore with my girls. I should have plenty of scrappy goodness to share when I get back.

Until the next post..

Sleep is Key

I love this Quite Contrary collection from My Mind's Eye. The colors are beautiful and that cloud paper is one of my current favorites. The soft colors and the owl inspired me to go back in time and do a baby page. The one thing that I was most grateful for was when Nico finally started sleeping through the night. Once he did, it was a straight 12-hour sleep and he never got up in the middle of the night. What a blessing. I always said that I could handle anything that he threw at me during the day, if I could just sleep through the night uninterrupted. I think that because he was a well-rested baby, he was also a very happy baby. I loved going back and reminiscing about his babyhood. That is basically the jist of the journaling on the page.

To create the rolled up shade at the top, I cut a 6" piece of double-sided patterned paper and rolled it onto an empty paper towel roll to shape it. I crinkled up the paper a bit and rubbed some light brown chalk to age it a little. Then I removed the paper towel roll and flattened it out a bit. I added some twill ties to complete the look. I like how it looks like you are peeking into a window. This was a quick and simple layout for me.

All of the paper and die cuts are from My Mind's Eye. The letters are all Thickers by American Crafts. The cloud is a Maya Road cupcake top (again) and the clock is from an old Paper Bliss.

Thanks for taking a peek into Nico's world. Until the next post...

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! Here are a few shots from Easter morning. This is Nico following the bunny trail.

The Easter bunny leaves a trail of little nests all over our house. That sneaky, messy bunny! Nico loves this and it's my favorite Easter tradition.

He was so excited about his baskets that he would not look up for a picture. This was the best I could get. And I tried, I really did. I guess it is kind of cruel to have him sit between all those toys and not be able to touch them. This year's theme was SUPERHEROES for sure (with a little Toy Story thrown in for variety). I can't wait to scrap these. I guess I'll have to figure out a way to mix Batman and Easter - that should be really interesting!

I've been busy working on some old baby pictures and soccer league. One of these should be up later this week.

Until the next post...

Snow Sledding

I posted these pictures of Nico snow sledding for the first time not so long ago. So it seems appropriate in a weird way to post them today, on a beautiful 70-degree Spring day. Goodbye to winter and goodbye to sledding - it was fun!

This page ended up nothing like I had planned. First, I thought it would be a 2-page spread but I didn't have enough really great different photos for that. Then I wanted to use the snowman paper from My Mind's Eye except there was something about the powder blue color that I wasn't crazy about. So I threw in a few shades of aqua (surprise, surprise) and some bright orange. The color of the sled really determined the choice of blue to balance it out.

I think that the title is my favorite part of the entire layout. I used two swirls from Cosmo Cricket and connected them with a giant snowflake in the middle. This gave me room for a long title. One short swirl tucked behind a picture gave me a place to hang the cute mittens from.

All of the paper is My Mind's Eye. All of the chipboard accents are from Cosmo Cricket. The white title is American Crafts and the tiny orange letters are brand new Basic Grey. I'm betting that you will see those orange letters on lots of my layouts in the near future.

Thanks for taking a peek! Until the next post...

Thank You

I just wanted to say thank you for all of the emails that I've gotten on the layout about my son's premature birth. Thank you for every story that you shared with me, every prayer and every well wish. I was floored by the response!

I rarely talk about the details of my son's birth, so it was good to get it out and on to a page. Sorry that I made so many folks sad. I know that the journaling and the photos are raw. But that's how it came out, so I stuck with it.

And for everyone that has asked - YES! - that tiny baby is the same Nico that you see on all of my pages. He's made a full recovery with some minor exceptions here and there. He's a little pip of a boy who lights up my life!

Prematurity

This was a hard page for me to get through, yet it was an important story that I wanted to tell. I've done some pages about my son's prematurity and our time in the NICU, but I haven't done a new one in years. Last week I was watching the Discovery channel and they had a show on about micropreemies. I remembered that there was a time before Nico was born that I would flinch at the site of a premature baby and I would quickly flip the channel. It's ironic how life throws challenges at you that you think that you could never handle - but you do. And you come out a different, stronger person in the end.

I know just how lucky we are that Nico survived the NICU with no long-lasting effects. I watched way too many babies pass away during our two months in the hospital to take that for granted. The experience though, was horrific and it changed me. It's a very big part of my life's story.

The journaling reads:
There was a time when I could not stand to look at a sick or premature baby. I remember having to change the channel anytime those type of stories were on the news or on TLC. I just couldn’t watch. The image of those tiny fetal looking babies made me flinch. How ironic that I would become a mom at just 28 weeks gestation to a tiny, sick, 2-pound boy. I found myself right smack in the middle of a nightmare that seemingly would never end.

And so I watched.

I watched a respirator breathe for him because he couldn’t.

I watched as all of his little veins collapsed from too many IVs. They put one in his forehead.

I watched as he turned blue one day because of apnea.

I watched a team of doctors rush in to save him at 3 weeks old when he developed sepsis and almost died.

I watched as he developed a hole in his heart.

I watched when an IV leaked a caustic substance onto his skin and burned a big hole in his forearm.

For 58 days I watched my boy struggle and suffer. I couldn’t change the channel, because this was now my life. I didn’t flinch anymore and this became my normal.

In the tiny envelope at the top is a note from me to Nico. I just wanted him to know that even though this was the most difficult thing I had to go through in my life, that he was so so worth it! And how blessed and lucky we are to have him in our lives.

Okay, so on to the details of the layout - almost all of the paper, the trees and the cloud are the Quite Contrary line by My Mind's Eye (love their paper). I made the "life" banner with some twine, cardstock, and tiny rub-ons from Doodlebug. The title is from Making Memories (cork) and Thickers (aqua).

Leaf Monster

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year in the northeast. The weather is perfect, the humidity low and the days are still long. This was the first year that we had to rake leaves. The one downside to living in a newer neighborhood - no mature trees = no leaves. We scraped up every leaf we could find to make Nico this pile to jump in. And jump he did - laughing and screaming "cannonball" the entire time. We buried him and he would jump out and growl at us. He said he was a "leaf monster" and this was the perfect title for my layout. The fact that his hoodie matched the theme was the proverbial icing.

I love these woodgrain papers from Cosmo Cricket and they were perfect for these pictures. Actually all of the chipboard accents, the letters and the paper are from Cosmo. The stripe paper is October Afternoon and the owl is from Michael's Recollections line. The wood tree is actually made out of wood and I found it at the NJ Scrapbook Expo this past year. A little bit of twine and you have my first fall layout since 2005. I guess that can be blamed on the lack of leaves?!

Until the next post...

Christmas Morning

I've been digging into my stash of Crate Paper and reminiscing about Christmas lately. This is what I came up with for our Christmas morning pictures. I love this mix of traditional red and green colors with a pop of aqua and lime. It was perfect for the vibrant reds in my photos. I always have so many photos of Christmas morning, so this is always a 2-page layout for me. I pared down from the dozens of photos and these are my favorites.

All of the paper is from Crate Paper's North Pole collection. I love the weight and texture of their papers. The chipboard accents are also Crate and I strung them along the top with some Martha Stewart baker's twine.

I added some ribbon from an old Creating Keepsakes kit since the colors matched perfectly. The red letters are Scenic Route and the pins are Making Memories. It's just a big old mix of new products and some of my old stash.

Until the next post...

It's a Halloween Parade!

These photos are from my son's Halloween preschool parade. I had tons of photos so I decided to make this one a 2-pager. Actually it's more like a 1-pager stuck in the middle and a bunch of plain old 4x6 photos on the sides. Almost like a portfolio. It was a quick way to get alot of photos down.

Most of the paper and chipboard is My Mind's Eye. The green scallop paper and black title are Fancy Pants. The green letters are Thickers.

This was so hard to photograph. Sorry about the glare! It really washes out the colors and you can't see the studs on the scallop paper - but you get the general idea!

Until the next post...

The Magic Number at Disney

I'm still plugging away at all of the Disney layouts from our trip in September. There are so many pictures and stories that I want to tell, that sometimes it's overwhelming!

I love this monster line from Sassafrass Lass. When I saw the playing card with the "tall" monster, I knew it was perfect for this story that I wanted to tell. Finally, Nico was tall enough to go on all the rides that DH and I love at Disneyworld. This was a big milestone for him and us.

I made the huge arrow out of red Bazzill dotted swiss cardstock and sewed up the center just to add some dimension. The black ticket is from MME and the letters are a mish mosh of old painted Heidi Swapp and A-Z Essentials (teal).

My favorite part of the layout is the little blue monster on the lower right hand side. I poked holes in his hands and added string with the #40. I love to add little details like that when I can. It was fun making this, I really love the bold colors and the monsters remind me of my boy.

Until the next post...