More Layouts

Well I have made it to round 4 at Camp Friendzy! I wanted to share the last couple layouts I have done lately.

Week 2 was called SMORES. It was a color combo challenge and we had to make our layout the color of smores. Tan/Dark Brown/White with a little bit of Red, Orange, or Yellow mixed in to represent the fire.

Week 3 was called Nature. You had to use a shade of green, at least 2 different kids of flowers, and either butterflies or birds (or both). I was so excited because I had the perfect pictures, and the perfect kit for this!

I have also joined another contest going on at Memorable Seasons. It is called the Last Scrapper Standing. I have made it through the first round and just put up a layout for round 2. This is also an elimination contest with voting.

The first challenge was to use the subject “an American Child” and to use stars and stripes on your layout. I chose to do one about my All American Girl! :)

And the second challenge just ended and it was to use black cardstock as a base and have at least 2 handmade flowers! This one was fun, and believe it or not I whipped it up in 20 minutes! A record for me!! (I had to get it in before the deadline of 3pm today).

I am so excited that I have made it through the first couple rounds and am looking forward to the next ones! I’m still trying to figure out how I am going to make it work while we are on vacation next week! I may just have to pack a few supplies :)

I’m a Big Girl Now!

We got some new furniture from my Great Grandmother (who passed away) and Great Aunt Diane yesterday! It is beautiful! I will have more pictures to show you very soon. While we were clearing out Kalen’s room, we decided to just take down the crib and let her sleep in the new “big girl” bed.

Here she is last night before I shut the door. (It was late and she was tired and cranky…hence the tears)

She did GREAT! She fell right to sleep and didn’t get out of the bed at all! This morning I heard her saying, “Mommy,” so I went in and she was sitting up on her bed waiting for me! At nap time today she just crawled right up in her bed, said “night night,” and I haven’t heard anything since!

I’m SO excited! Hopefully she will be easier than trying to keep Tyler in his bed ;) I need a break! The pacifier will be the next thing to go!

Look at Our Garden Grow!

We are starting to see some fruit(and vegetables) from our labor!

We have peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers climbing the trellis.

The kids get very excited when we go out and check on the garden every day!

Today we pulled up the last couple radishes from the first planting. We planted seeds every time we pulled one out, so we should have more again soon!

We found a couple strawberries (we are going to wait another day to pick them),

and we picked some beans.

Our lettuce is growing nicely.

And we can see that the baby carrots are almost ready!

We are still waiting on the tomatoes to get bigger and turn red.

Tyler likes the cute little baby tomatoes!

Gardening has been really fun! The kids are enjoying it and I have enjoyed sharing with them the ways to take care of it and how God caused these fruits and vegetables to grow from little tiny seeds!

Gen 1:11-12  And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Summer Scrap Camp

What a cute idea! Scrap Friendzy is having Camp Friendzy this summer. I decided to join in, this is my kind of camping! :) You should head over and check it out too. There is one main challenge each week and some bonus ones added in too. I have already done a couple of layouts.

This one is a Pre-Camp challenge called Meet at the Flagpole: you had to use some type of banners or flags on your page. I used pictures from Kalen’s first birthday.

Here is the layout I did for Week#1-Archery. You had to have 3 circle elements and an arrow on the page.

One neat thing about this challenge is that it is an elimination contest. So at the end of each week they are going to put all the layouts up on their blog and then have a vote to see which ones will make it to the next round. At the end whoever is left will be named Camper of the Year! Sound fun? There is still time to register for camp, so come on over!

I used the Paper Posies May kit to create these layouts and I also did a couple more! I just love all these Dear Lizzy products!!

On this next one I got the idea for using the tree branch and the dress from the May idea gallery. They really have some beautiful layouts and great ideas over there!

Sewing Night

Last night a friend, Sara, and I had a sewing night at my house! It was so much fun and I learned a lot! Sara is an experienced seamstress and was very helpful! I wanted to make a pillowcase dress. I thought I could have done it on my own, but I just wanted her there for moral support (and someone to talk to). She showed me how to use a pattern and then we cut the fabric, pinned it together, and I sat down at my machine to start sewing. It didn’t take too long to realize that my sewing machine is old and doesn’t work very good!

No wonder I have been getting frustrated every time I used the thing. I mean I did find it at a thrift store so I can’t be too upset. Sara even had a hard time with it, the thread kept bunching up and jamming the machine. Changing the tension, thread, or bobbin didn’t help. So Sarah brought in her newer machine and I got the dress finished with no problems!

(Don’t worry grandparents, I will have a picture with it on my little model soon)

It was SO nice to not have to rip seams and start over!! I then said to myself, “So this is what sewing is supposed to be like?!?!”

So now that I realize that it is my machine and not me that is the problem, I’m looking at new sewing machines. I need your opinion though. I know a lot of you sew so please tell me what you think, or what you have!  By looking online and at reviews I think I’ve narrowed it down to 2.

A Brother XL2600i which is a more basic machine.

Or a Brother CS6000i which is a little more advanced and computerized.

So what do you think? I may not be able to go and get it right away, but I will be getting opinions and putting it on the wish list. :)

Donut Day

Did you know that today is National Donut Day? We did!! We headed out to Krispy Kreme this morning to get our free donuts to celebrate! YUM! I forgot my camera, but managed to take a few pictures on my cell phone.

Tyler picked the strawberry filled one with sugar on top.

Kalen picked the chocolate one with sprinkles (no surprise there).

They really enjoyed their free donuts and first trip to Krispy Kreme!

It was so neat to see the donuts being made and glazed right there.

I think I’m going to have to take them more than once a year! They really liked it!

Little Monkey

Tyler has really taken to climbing trees this year!

We have a Crape Myrtle tree in the front yard that is just perfect for him.

He was more than happy to climb the tree while I took pictures of him!

Now anytime we go somewhere Tyler is always looking for the perfect tree to climb! As long as it’s not too big for him!

He can be a bit goofy at times.

And he likes to pretend to be a monkey!

Silly Boy!!

So if you know of any good climbing trees, be sure to let this active boy know!