A kick in the butt from a good friend..

A very good friend of mine left me a comment, reminding me that I am neglecting my blog. (Thank you so much Sasha!! It meant so much to me for you to give me a little kick in the butt! LOL!) Crazy thing is that I don't realize I'm doing it even when weeks have passed! :P My concept of time is very bad. And because I am always at home, I can almost never tell you what day of the week it is because it just really doesn't matter when it comes to the everyday things that I need to do. LOL! So the fact that weeks have passed is always a shocker to me! :P I really need to get a handle on that.

I was going to get posts prescheduled but finding time on the computer is just hard these days! And with Jed home now all the time, I feel like I have two toddlers here constantly pulling me away from the computer! LOL! Not that that is a bad thing, it just doesn't make for a good blogger.

Well a couple updates for you here: we did NOT find out the sex of the baby because the little stinker was in the worst position to try and determine! LOL! I kinda had a feeling when we went in that we were gonna come out of there still not knowing. And for some reason, with both Jed and myself, we really REALLY want to know this time! But the next available time for us to do it is when we have another ultrasound at like 30-something weeks. Which is 10 plus weeks away. I had really hoped to have the room set up with all the clothes and such by then but oh well. We will just have to do a last minute dash when we find out! :D

Next up, I have a few LOs to share that I made recently with the new Sweet Sue kit from Noel Mignon. There are still a few left in case you are interested!

This first one is for the newest challenge at Noel Mignon-"I Gotta Be Me"-where you are challenged to scrap your style. Hehe. Does this LO say enough about who I am or what?!! Everything is everywhere, but hey it all color coordinates!! LOL! No really, this challenge was truly a bit challenging for me because I find it impossible to pinpoint my exact scrapping style. The only way I can describe it is that I tend to 'fly by the seat of my pants!' :D It really all depends on what I am scrapping, how I feel right then, the products I am working with, and what I am inspired by as of recent! Which means that a LO could go a million different ways! I did a post over at Noel Mignon about this LO and the process through making it-check it out here. And in case you were wondering-Thursday afternoons are my day to post over there so you can expect a new post from me every week at that time. And if there is anything you wish my to cover over there, or on here for that matter-please don't hesitate to ask. :D I tend to get clueless on what to talk about. LOL!

And some close ups:

And this LO is from the previous challenge where we were supposed to take Fall Fashion and use that as our inspo. :D It was a lot of fun too! I hadn't done a two pager in a long time! And I had never done a collage to this extent so it was most certainly challenging! That collage took the most time to make because my pics weren't lineing up right and nothing was working out like I wanted. :P But I stuck with it and kept going! It is far from perfect, so I am on the hunt for a good photo collage site-any suggestions would be awesome!!! :D I kept the embellishing really simple on this one, but did a lot of hand cutting.

Close ups:

Now I still have tons more shares from previous Noel Mignon kits, but I will save those for other posts. Preorder just went up for the October Halloween kit-featuring manufacturers like Pink Paislee, Girl's Paperie, My Mind's Eye, We Are Memory Keepers, SEI and Making Memories! I can't wait to get mine!! So excited about it! Although I have no clue what I am going to scrap it with because I have no Halloween photos-except ones from when I was tiny! LOL! But I have plans for a banner, and a wreath hopefully and who knows what else. All that will be coming soon! I just have to get my kit first. LOL!

So recently I have been working like mad to get this house purged!!! Especially in my scraproom! LOL! Can you say nesting?! I have been itching to get the baby clothes out of the bags for almost a month now, but I truly want to wait until we know what it is before I start getting it all perfectly clean and set up. Logical thing to do, but so not easy to hold myself to. LOL! In my scraproom I have filled 9 12x12x4 inch boxes with stuff! Paper, and embies and tons of scrappy stuff that I just really REALLY don't need anymore. So expect a few giveaways coming up soon, and also I will be trying to sell the rest on Craigslist (with a link back to a blog of mine set up with all the images and prices of things), so I will let you all know when that happens in case you are interested in any of it. I hate in this economy right now to be like 'Hey, why don't you buy my stuff so that I have money!' but with Jed out of work, I am kinda left to do that. LOL! But trust me I will be giving LOTS of really good stuff away, so buying won't be your only way of getting things from me. :D Everything else in the house is getting put in the garage so that when it comes time for a garage sale it is all there and ready. :D My house is just too filled and it is driving me nuts to have to clean it all! LOL!

The need for simplicity is necessary for me now. I am at the point where I have to lay down several times a day in order to get my back to stop hurting, and that is really cutting into my productivity and bringing me down. So I think the best solution is to just get rid of a lot of stuff, so there is less to do. :D Makes sense to me.

On the scrappy side, I am working on finishing up a couple projects for Polka Dot Whimsy kit club-the September kit is so gorgeous and filled with fun stuff! :D At the same time I am working on some Cosmo stuff, and getting my Crate tutorial finalized. I am super busy on the scrappy front! Just not enough time to do everything that I want you know? :P Stayed up til almost 1 last night, and it kicked my butt. I haven't stayed up like that in months! But I got a little headway on projects. :D

For future posts I am getting some things together for inspiration posts! I have lots of things I have been bookmarking online for awesome decoration and project ideas that I want to share-even stuff for Christmas already!! So if you have anything certainly let me know, as I am always on the search for holiday ideas! :D

Well I should probably take off now, as it is snack time for both Cree and me. :D And I have a super dirty kitchen that is only going to get dirtier unless I do something about it.

Take care everyone! I will be back again real soon!

Crate Paper shares.....

Well I am here today to share all the Crate Paper stuff that I have been meaning to share for far too long! :D I have one of my newest creations made with the Restoration line, and 2 other projects that were up on the Crate blog a looooong time ago!

First up is Vintage Love, that features some of my fav things: a few pics of my antique treasures and the gorgeous Restoration line!! Please forgive the awful picture. :P I am having sooo much trouble photographing here at our new home. (I hate it! I want my old spot back! LOL!) But I am working on finding a better spot. :D Anyway, I really actually had a hard time doing this LO because I just could not get my LO to look good enough to do the collection justice!!! I look at what the other girls did and I just gasp! They are phenomenal! But I really tried and did have fun doing this LO! And I have many more opportunities to give this collection a go so I am pumped about that! :D The background scallop I cut myself after tracing the die cut paper from the Crate Paper collection Lemongrass. (Anyone remember that collection? Feels like a million years ago but I still love that paper!) I love the wonky scallops, but the only things I changed was the fact that I didn't punch the holes that are in the die cut. Next I just decided to play with all the colors in the collection and started lining papers up to see what looked good. I cut flowers and leaves out of the Slipcover paper and mixed them with some of the chipboard, and also cut a few of the doilies out of the gorgeous Doilies paper. The rest just sort of came together, and I found a few alphas in my stash to match-American Crafts Letterbox Geyser chipboard and Webster's Pages Polka Dot alphas.

I do have one more LO that I made with the new line School Spirit, but it has yet to be shown on the Crate blog so I can't show it here yet. Buuuut, they did put up a pic from CHA that had it on their displays, so I think it is ok to show that as sort of a teaser. :D It is the one on the bottom far left. Doesn't look like much from here but it is one of my favs. The pics of Cree smiling are priceless. :D

Next up are the older projects that I had yet to share with you all on here. :P So sorry about that! But here they are!

The first one is a album I made to first help me plan Jed's and my official wedding and then after the wedding it can easily transition into our actual wedding album. :D *Now you may be wondering if you are a blog follower what is going on because Jed and I are already married? The simple way to put it is we eloped! We didn't let anyone know until a few months later when we were already married. :D They knew we were going to get married, but just not right then and most certainly not without the whole family! So we made a promise to the family to have an actual celebration wedding where the whole family can get together to celebrate with us! And that is what I mean by planning our "wedding"* Anyway I made this with a few different Crate Paper lines (Pink Plum, Paper Doll and Lillian) and some things from my stash that I thought mixed in nicely. :D First few pics are the cover and close ups. Oh BTW this binder I got at Target for $3! I upcycled it! :D Fun stuff. And what is even more awesome is that it is made out of all 100% recycled papers so I feel doubley good about it! LOL!

First inside page. The half circle across the right page is actually a pocket. :D So it is handy for putting all sorts of little paper things in to remember to look at.

Next up is the middle folder that I always want to break down and cry about. :P Creedence took a pencil to it! And it's not like an easy erase off sort of thing either. She full on gouged into the paper with that pencil, and there was no way I could hide it! So I tried painting over it and it just turned out like bleh. So sad!! My favorite page: RUINED! Oh well.

And lastly, the cute and simple page. :D I had a blast making this little album! Loads of fun!

And lastly, this LO is very near and dear to me. It is about my mom. And how I miss her so. I really wish she could be here, as I know she would just adore being a Grandma. She loved babies and little ones. Cree is getting a little bit older than baby stage but she is still little. My mom's fav age. :D

I used a butt load of products on this LO! LOL! I really wanted to do a list of all the products but it is just too crazy at the moment, and would take a lot longer than I have time for at this exact second to research and type up! :P So if you are desperately interested in any of things you see on this LO (or any project I have done and not given the products list for) then PLEASE don't hesitate to leave me a comment askin about it! :D I would be happy to answer. So many details and layers on here that I am not exactly sure how I even did it. LOL! But I have this LO sitting on my desk so that I can always have it to look at. I am planning on getting it hung soon in my craft/baby room. I think it will be perfect hung in there.

Well I am in the process right now with pre-scheduling some posts for the next week and maybe even later! It all depends on how much Cree will let me sit here on the comp. I have some projects to finish this weekend and Cree starts speech class again on Monday, so I am trying to get a few posts done before all that starts. Do let me know if there is anything particular you want me to cover or whatnot as I am pre-scheduling. I always just kinda mumble through my posts sharing my stuff, and don't really have any purpose behind them. LOL! Aside from sharing that is. :D I am going to do an update on my belly soon too! I have my 20 week ultrasound coming up and will share the pictures and whatnot as soon as that happens! :D Been feeling lots of moving around and everything! Which is always a wonderful feeling. But it is definitely starting to make me feel sick again! LOL! All the movement means this babe is pushing things around that don't particularly like it. But I am trying to enjoy it all before the wee one gets too big and it becomes just straight uncomfortable! :P

Til next time! Take care!

~Amy

Noel Mignon shares...

Hi Everyone!! I am going to start off slow and try not to overwhelm both you and myself! :P Because I have a lot of catching up to do as far as what I have to share LO wise! So we will just do small shares until it is all up. :D Sounds good!

Here I have a LO that I did for my most recent Noel Mignon post that talks about my fav kit item, the Maya Road Kraft Envelopes! As I say in the post I have about 3 full packs of these but I didn't actually ever use an envelope until I received a couple in my Sunkissed kit.

This was an extremely fun LO to do, as I love doing the patchwork, and the colors in the kit were so awesome all together that I think it just worked out well. :D This LO is about all the different emotions and things going through my head now knowing that we are expecting baby number 2.

I worry for Creedence, I worry for the new baby as I am wiped out enough with Cree, and I am worried for me because I know this will mean a lot less me time. (wow that last one really sounds selfish! :( it's not meant to be, I just know that if I don't get a certain amount of time without a break to just be me then I start to go nuts. don't we all a little bit though?)

I guess I am just in worry mode. I worry about the delivery as I don't want it to be anything like it was with Cree.

I worry about the money of all this (our insurance doesn't cover maternity-and we knew that going into this-so that means it all comes out of pocket. Cree was in the NICU for 5 days because of a long and traumatic delivery. I know that if that happens again that we are going to be in some serious debt. :P Which we are more than willing to go into but it is just a scary thought. And on top of that if it is a boy we don't own anything boyish!!! LOL! I have so much pink from when Cree was little that we are kinda hoping for a girl just out of convenience! :D Makes me sound really cheap. :P)

Gah! You can see that this will never stop if I am allowed to go on all day! LOL! The worries just never end, but I am working real hard on not dwelling on anything, and spending these days that I have with Cree, as she is cuter than ever and is blossoming more and more everyday! Right now she is obbsessed with putting all the baby shoes she found in a bag on all of her dolls. She gave up a while ago on getting them on her feet, and realized that her dolls and stuffed animals fit them much better. But of course, mommy needs to be the one to put them on! LOL! So I am interrupted about 20 times an hour to put little bitty shoes back on feet that the shoes don't fit. :P I think a LO needs to be in the works here. :D

Back to the program now. :D I have a few things Noel Mignon related to share! :D First up, my friend from the Noel Mignon kit club DT, Brittny Lejeune, is hosting a mini book class called My Growing Up Book!!! It looks fantastic!! Click this link to go directly to her website and see all about it! Here is the poster!

Better yet-she is giving away two instruction spots in the class for Free!!! Here is the link to the thread on the message board where you can enter to win! You have until August 7th to get two chances to win!! Good Luck!

And last I am happy to annouce that Noel Mignon kit club is going to be doing a Fun in the Sun Crop from August 9th to the 13th!!! Woohoo!!! I am so excited!!! I have never been a part of a crop so I am really looking forward to it! (Still not sure exactly how things work and what not but that is ok! I'll find out soon enough!) So save the dates! And I hope to see you there!! :D

Well that is it from here! I will be back next time with my CHA stuff for Crate Paper (which was the only CHA stuff I got done! So glad a lot of the morning sickness is going away!). And I'll also catch you up on a few past LOs I still need to share. :D Take care!!!

~Amy

Amy...You got some 'splainin to do!

Said in the best Ricky Ricardo voice I can muster. :P

I look back on my last post and seriously want to bang my head on my desk when I see the date that it was written. :P But seriously can not help but laugh at the title of the post. If only we both knew what was in store after that! LOL!

I can not even begin to explain where I have been or what I have been doing lately, and not have it be an hour long read. The pictures alone would be one of my longest posts ever! :P So, I will be explaining over the length of quite a while, but to kinda sum it up for now it goes something like this: We moved. Which took about a month to do. :P And lost internet during that whole time. Which left me in a huge panic. Finally got out of old house, and got internet set up in the new house. Found out just before the move that we are expecting baby number 2! But a few days after that extreme morning sickness and fatigue set in. Morning sickness and fatigue like I have never felt before in my life. And it has not. stopped. SINCE. And if that wasn't bad enough I for some reason now get the migraines I had quite a while ago back. So needless to say I wake every morning just really not wanting to even get out of bed! LOL! Sigh. (pity party over now! :D) Everyone else is doing great here! Creedence is almost 100% potty trained! :D We are still working on the communicating when she needs to go, and the wearing clothes part. Oh and she still wears a diaper to bed. Other than that she rarely has an accident because she gets up when she needs to go and heads to the bathroom all on her own! :D Of course I follow, but the telling me that she needs to go isn't happening so much. And she is always naked, because she confuses panties with her diaper. So those are the only hiccups. LOL! I can't tell you how proud I am of her for changing to this so quickly! And I am also super happy that she is almost 100% out of diapers, as we were going through a pack in a matter of days! :P That is how much she goes. Yeah I know. Crazy. My house is still in shambles as unpacking hasn't gone so well with me being sick, and Jed has had to work a lot more than usual lately. Which means that my scrap area is in extreme shambles too. But I get my own room now! With a door and everything! :D Which means that Cree won't be getting into any of it anymore. But I will have to have the baby crib and what not in there (which there is plenty of room for) as Cree will be getting her own room now. And I think it works fine because the baby isn't gonna need a whole lot of room anyway. And having the baby seperated from Creedence at night when Cree is learning to sleep in her own room I think will work out much better. Any advice you have on that would be awesome, as having two little ones is going to be a whole different ballgame that we are totally unfamiliar with!

Well that is about all that has been going on personally. The scrappy side of me has been a bit busy lately too! I won't share a whole lot right now as I don't want this to be a super long post but I have lots of LOs and stuff to share! I am very sorry that I haven't kept this place up to date, or even been around to share anything! I'm sure there are lots of you that think I have fallen off the face of the planet! LOL! There have been a few of my fav scrappers that have, and I still miss their blogs and scrappy work! But I am totally here! Just running at about 45% capacity. :P Second trimester is upon me so hopefully I will start feeling a whole lot better soon! :D I am busy right now finishing up CHA stuff, and am really desperately needing to answer some emails that I got months ago and just haven't responded to yet. If you are one of those people-my deepest apologies! A response email is in the works! :D I hope that is comforting.

Well until my next update: Thank you all for still supporting me and sticking around here! :D Be back soon! Take care!

~Amy