4 years old....

Hi Everyone! Been a long time. (I honestly have no clue if I still have readers or not! LOL! Hopefully not all of you have abandoned me!) Lots been going on, but mostly we have just been either busy or sick. :P Seems we always get sick this time of year. Last year at Thanksgiving we were taken out by a serious cold or something and it lasted for FOREVER! Well we are kinda going through another one as it just won't go away. We are non stop runny noses and coughs and feeling icky. Which really stinks because that means Creedence is missing speech therapy and play and learn classes. But she has recently been making a lot of great improvements so after talking with her speech therapist, we both feel she will be just fine waiting to resume sessions til she is fully recovered. Which she pretty much is, it is just me and the baby now that need to get better! LOL! I am always the last to get anything and it always takes me a really long time to get better. But lots of rest and vitamins should start helping soon. :D

So I wanted to share with you all some pictures from this last couple months. Creedence's birthday was the 12th of September (!!), and I realized I had never shown any pictures from then. She turned 4! 4 PEOPLE! I can't even believe it. It is incredible to think that 4 years have passed!
This little girl changed my life. She made me a mommy and it is the greatest thing to have ever happened to me. Even though she is wild and crazy and loud and extremely energetic, I adore her! She is funny and silly and creative and resourceful, proactive and determined. She can be so caring and sensitive and emotional and loving. But she is also a force to be reckoned with. She is headstrong and stubborn, eager and strong-willed. She is also still extremely impressionable, as she still is only a little girl. I think Jed and I tend to forget that every now and then.

She is a non-stop chatterbox anymore, and is always some sort of character or animal. And even though I LOVE this about her, I do worry for her with always being something else. Sometimes other little kids don't really 'get' her, and it really breaks my heart to see that. I want so much for her, but I am realizing there is very little I can do at times to help her. She just kinda has to figure some stuff out on her own, and making friends and fitting in with them is one of those things. Once she gets a little older and understands other kids better, then I think I will be more helpful, but for now I just have to let her be. Letting go of that control is a hard thing to do!

Real soon we are going to be putting her name in for a couple schools around here, and OMGOODNESS I am so nervous about that! I have no clue as to whether or not she will be really ready for it then, development-wise, but we have to put our name in early if we hope to have a chance when the lottery is drawn in February. If she makes it into one of the schools then we will start assessing her to see where she is. And that is still a few months off so we are working hard to try and get all ready for it! :D She is very excited!

So that is what is going on right now with the Munchkin. :D She is being as great a big sister as ever and is just busy being a crazy happy 4 year old.

And because I probably should start catching up with my scrapping shares that I have been making, here is a layout that went up on the Crate Blog on Tuesday for the Farmhouse Harvest Week event going on right now! :D I made a layout about our Autumn tradition of visiting the Hacienda Hay and Feed store here in Carmel Valley. I love that place so much, and these photos are some of my favs from our visits there.

I have to give credit to April Foster for the TTV tutorial! Be sure to check it out as I am in love and have been converting my photos into these non-stop! :D

Til next time! Take care!

~Amy

Today I....

Hi Everyone!!! First off, I want to thank you all soooooo much for all your wonderful comments! From the bottom of my heart! Thank you! :D You are the sweetest blog readers ever!

Now I know I said I would be back with birthday photos, but we had a snag with that and it is taking longer than expected. They will be soon though! :D

Instead today, I am going to share with you my first posting over at the Authentique blog. I chose to talk about different things with this post: scrapping from the heart and not being afraid to document the hard times too, and also a twist on patterned paper blocking on your layouts. I decided I wanted to go ahead and share the whole thing over here too for all of you to see as well! Just in case you don't make it over to the Authentique blog that is...:D

So here it is:

Hi Everyone!!! This is Amy Parker, and I am so excited to be posting my first post here at Authentique! :D I was gonna cover two things today, and I really hope you will be inspired by both of them.

Over the years, since I have started scrapbooking, I have noticed that I tend to not use large blocks of patterned paper on my layouts. I like strips of it or hints of it here and there, or in shapes or something. Anything, as long as it isn't just a rectangle or square, but is altered in some way. I am not sure why, but something in my just has to chop it up into something different! LOL! But I will admit, I am very jealous of those scrappers who can pull off blocks of patterened paper on their layouts. I have tried so many times in the past, and been so disappointed that my layouts came out looking NOTHING like theirs, or even remotely as good.

Well, I decided to give it one more try this time. And again it just wasn't working for me. I had my piece of paper behind my photo and it just looked so flat. Then a lightbulb went off! And this may not be anything new to lots of other scrappers out there, but I was so excited when I got this idea that I was literally bouncing in my chair while cutting the paper! :P Anyway, one thing I am addicted to on my pages is texture. I LOVE creating depth and movement on my pages with different texture techniques. Now I don't mean mixed mediums and whatnot (although those are fun!), what I mean is layers upon layers upon layers of papers, embellishments, and pretty much anything that I find in my house that will work. :D So this idea I had was to create the same color block with the patterend paper, in the same spot as I intended before, but this time I chopped the paper into a whole bunch of squares and rectangles (just free-handed it)and just started stacking them on top of one another. :D This created a very layered and piecey and textured look! I was soooo happy with it! And because I seem to NEVER be able to do a layout without sewing anymore, I stitched vertical lines across my paper pieces. This created even more texture and I just love it!


This technique is really easy and so fun, and freeing! I know I will certainly be doing it more in the future! :D



So the subject of my layout you may notice is not the happiest in the world. Since we became a family of four, we have mostly been indoorsy kind of people. Or at least stay in the front yard kind of people. So for our first real big outing as a family of four we went to the County Fair a couple weekends ago. We had a wonderful time, and the Munchkin (just in case you aren't familiar with my blog-that is what we call our eldest daughter Creedence, and that nickname comes as natural to us all as her actual name) was beside herself she was so excited! She went on rides and saw livestock and played games! It was seriously like the best day of her life so far. Up until the last 15 minutes we were there. While eating some food that we picked up last minute while heading back to the front gate area, both Jed and I took our eyes off Creedence. It was only seconds, but that was all it took and she was completely out of our sight. Seriously I am shaking as I type this I am still so scared by what happened. Luckily there was a guy who saw where she went and he helped me find her, as Jed had to stay with Aurelia in the stroller. I felt like I was running in circles, my mind was racing yet empty at the same time and I could hear my heart pounding in my head. The whole thing lasted for no more than 5 minutes as I saw her little ponytail in between some chairs in front of the stage area, and I ran at her and grabbed her. And I just started bawling. Almost losing her was the scariest thing I have ever been through, and the that was hands down the worst day of my life. I felt sick for days afterward. And I made a promise right then and there-to Creedence, to my husband, to our youngest Aurelia, and to myself-I would never ever let go of her hand again like that. Ever. My heart can't go through that ever again.

I shared the story behind my layout with you because it goes along with the next thing I wanted to tell you about. I use scrapbooking as a form of therapy. It is extremely helpful for me to have this outlet, and to be able to let those feelings and emotions go by scrapping them. I felt the need to get this particular memory down on paper, as it was not only a milestone in my mommy years (not a good milestone but something I learned a huge lesson from), but it was also a big day in our family, and one that I never want to forget. I wanted you all to see that it is just as important to document the hard times, as it is the good times. Don't be afraid to scrap something difficult, cause it is incredible how therapeutic it is to get it down on paper, and that has helped me so much through the years.



Well I hope you all enjoyed my first posting here at Authentique! (And I hope I didn't talk your ear off! LOL!)

~Amy

What did you think??! I actually wanted to ask you all: is there something you would like to see me do tutorials on in the future? Topics you would like me to cover? I would LOVE your feedback, as I have lots of tutorials that I need to plan and need some ideas for them and could really use your help! Thanks so much! :D

I will be back soon with the birthday pictures....kinda. :P

~Amy

Basic Grey!!!!

Holy Cow everyone!!! I can't believe it! Seriously I just can't. :P Not until I saw this on the BG Blog this morning! That made it official! :D


I'm so excited!!! Yay!! And I am so so honored to working with this amazing company and all those incredible designers listed! Thank you so much BG for this awesome opportunity!

Be back tomorrow with a birthday post! :D

~Amy

Authentique and Basic Grey

Hi Everyone!!! Got a couple shares for you all today. :D I have been crafting! It feels so great to be scrapping on a regular basis. But after I get this up I have some major house cleaning to do! :P

First of all I wanted to share with you my very first Authentique Paper layout! :D Yay! It is up on the Authentique blog today for our first challenge as a DT! You should totally come check it out as the DT just did an amazing job with the sketch! Hope you all get a chance to play along as we would love to see what you do with the sketch too!

On this layout I mixed a couple different lines, using my favs from them. :D It is so awesome how well all the lines work together! I put my own twist on the sketch for the challenge, while still somewhat keeping the basic design. This layout is sized 8x8.


And a few close ups...

Next I have just a real quick share for ya. A layout that I just finished yesterday and barely got sent off in time for the BG DT Call! :D Yep that is right, I just couldn't resist!! Who can though right? I LOVE BG, and have wished they would do a DT call for a long while now.

I had intended on creating more than just one new layout, but ran out of time. It takes me a while to do a layout and I just didn't have enough time to get all I had wanted done for this call's deadline. Oh well. :D I will have some more time this week to work on more of them.

I made this layout using several different BG collections: Nook and Pantry, Out of Print and Basics. I used my absolute fav things from my fav lines on this layout and really love how it turned out. :D I was tempted to put some of my Prima flowers on it but decided to keep it pretty much just paper instead, and I am glad I did!

And here are some close ups...


I sent several other layouts with my submission, and I am hoping they loved them as much as I do! :D I sent these:







And also these 4 projects from waaay back when I was with Scrapbook Nook:

Simply Crate!

Hi everyone!!! Morning! First I wanted to thank you all so much for your sweet comments! They mean the world to me! :D

I am so excited this morning because my first tutorial for the Crate Paper blog is finally up today!!! :D I LOVE this layout that I made and really worked hard on typing out thorough instructions on how to make it.

I was assigned a Simply Crate, which means you are only supposed to use a limited amount of supplies in order to keep it simple. And this is a HUGE challenge for me! But I really really had a lot of fun with this one, and created something I am so happy with.

Be sure to check out the Crate Paper blog if you would like to remake this layout yourself! :D Take care!

~Amy

Authentique Paper Design Team!!

Hi yall!! Been a little bit since I have been back and posting. Sorry bout that! I have all these posts that are half done that I just need to finish up and then I can schedule them. :P I have a bad habit of starting them but just not finishing them at all on the time schedule I had planned. LOL! Anyone else like that?

Anyway, I have some awesome news that I am actually a few days late in sharing.....I am a designer for the new paper company Authentique Paper!!!


I put my name in for this call (almost completely last minute!) and I got an email from them the other day! I am very excited and honored to be a part of this company's new adventure, and can't wait to get started! I really do think their lines are gorgeous and am especially in love with all the alpha and text stickers! :D I am a sucker for those!

Here are a few of my favs from their 6 new lines!!





















Awesome stuff right?! Hopefully I will have some projects to show you soon, but right now I am still awaiting my box! :D Getting things all ready for it to arrive though!

Hope you all are well! I will be back real soon with some more scrappy shares, and also an update on the girlies! We had a 6 month birthday recently and I have the most adorable pictures of Aurelia eating her first birthday cake! :D See you again soon!

~Amy