Pining

Did we skip right from summer to winter? I miss warmer days.

I Got You, You Got Me

It would seem that we have a budding rock star in the family. Check out my 5 year old niece, Kaiomhe. Singing and playing her own composition. Awesome. I think my favorite part is the very extended ending, with a few extra strums thrown in for good measure. Now that's talent!

Monster Beetle Baby

Maybe it's a cop-out, but sometimes I love using large photos on a LO! It definitely makes a statement, and it can help keep embellishments simple.

Summertime Fun

Hence, the lack of blog posting. We are too busy trying to enjoy the nice weather amidst continuing to keep on top of our everyday existence.

Fun things about Otto right now (at 14 months):

>he can't just walk anywhere, he needs to run.
>he spends a lot of time in the front entryway, circling around his shoes, laying them in different positions in order to try to get them on his feet. then he gets out Mama's shoes and tries to get those on too.
>he still has a great love for books and will sit for great lengths of time flipping through books by himself, or being read to
>he started associating a picture of a lion in one of his books with growling. So now we ask him what a lion says and he does this cute little growl in his throat. Sometimes I hear him in the living room, growling away and I know that he's got that book out.
>when asked where his noes is, he exhales loudly out of his nose. pretty cute.
>will do the actions to "Rain is falling down" song we sing.... if you're lucky. Only a few people have actually witnessed this. Apparently he does not perform for an audience.
>loves to help Mama, especially if it is getting produce from the garden.
>absolutely LOVES the spray park. This kid has no fear going head-first into the biggest sprays. Won't stop for anything (I practically have to tie him down to stop for a snack/bottle!)

I hope you are all having a fun summer, even if it means that you are away from your computer for long bouts of time! Enjoy what is out there!

Foray into Digi

It's a long story. Here's the short of it: Andy bought me Photoshop Elements for Christmas (completely a surprise, but something I've been wanting for a long time). However, it was the newest version, which my Mac does not support. So we took that back and I searched online for the last version for Mac. PSE 6. Brand new, great. Tried to install it. Did not work. Looked online for help, finally called Adobe support. The guy I got was completely useless. They did not do phone support for older versions of PSE. So I went back online. Did everything to my computer that I was told to do in the support forums. Tried to install. Didn't work, didn't work, didn't work! I was so frustrated! Finally, a month or so later, I called support again and spoke to a nice gentleman who totally helped me out! Hallelujah. Now it is installed and I've already done two lessons of my Jessica Sprague class and two complete layouts! This is so much more user friendly than my dinosaur version of Photoshop CS!

I'm so excited for all the layouts and tweaking of photos to come!

Catch Up: Part 1: The Many Crafts

I've been missing from the blogging world for 2 months now! I don't know where the time went or what I've really been doing. Well, doing a lot of things but that isn't really an excuse. So here's a bit of catch up.

Crafts: many.


Sock Monsters
Originally the plan was to make a bunch and sell them at a Mom-to-Mom sale in Lethbridge. So I got busy making them on a scrapbook weekend at the church with the ladies. However, I ended up not making one sock monster to sell at the sale! Instead, every sock monster I made that weekend was promptly snatched up, and one in particular was an extra long (in actual length!) custom order for one of the ladies present. I even left the weekend with an order for one not made yet! So, really a success all around. It turns out that the sale in Lethbridge fell through for us, so if anyone is interested, the two small ones on the end are available now!

Scrapbooking
This is actually the only layout I've done in the past three months, but it's a favorite already. I saved several shots I had of Otto sleeping in his first 3 months and compiled them on one layout.

Silversmithing
Andy and I took a silversmithing course and I came out of the weekend with these two pendants. I actually made one other pendant, but it didn't exactly turn out the way I invisioned, and I'm still a bit embarrassed by it. (It's sitting upside down on my dresser so I won't have to look at it, but it is there anyway to remind me that I actually need to finish it.) Anyway, the course was really fun. Andy made me a ring with a stone setting and he began to make a copper LEGO man replica. I told him he needed to make something for himself in this class, and his mind immediately turned to LEGO. Anyway, it all turned out awesome.

Stitching
I'd had fabric yo-yo's in the back of my mind for forever! Then one night, I just decided that they would look cool on a necklace. I'd seen similar looking neck pieces in different places online, but made out of different materials. So, I got out my cool green fabrics and whipped this up. I plan on making a multi-colored one as a bright summer piece. It really dresses up a plain old T-Shirt, and often people think it's actually attached to the shirt. This way, I can wear it with any shirt!

Happy Easter

It's been a busy weekend! But I think we've all had a happy Easter.

It all started on Friday with the Easter Egg Hunt! Martha did such a great job organizing it all- thanks Martha! There were so many kids there, and I even got to see some of my old Kids Are Special kids! It was a special kick to see the twins who always saved me seats for snack and games. So cute!

We were invited to camp out with some friends on their land Friday night, but we're [read: I'm] not that adventurous when it's still so cold out, so we just went to hang out until late. Otto had a great time, all bundled up in his weird blue ruffled Russian snowsuit. Andy and Paul took turns rocking him to sleep in his car seat.

Saturday we listened to 4 hours of conference while going around the house getting things done, preparing food for Sunday, and playing with Otto. Andy always sets it up so we can hear it all throughout the house; it's awesome. I find that when I'm busy doing things (in the kitchen, folding laundry, etc) I listen a whole lot better than when I'm just sitting there. Andy went to the church for 2 more hours in the evening.

Sunday we listened to 4 more hours of conference, then had my Uncle Tim and Gramma over for Easter dinner.

Monday I drove Tim to the airport and did a few errands in the city only to rush back to get Easter supper ready again, this time for my parents and sister. (We had so many leftovers from last night!)

1 Easter egg hunt, 10 hours of conference, and 2 Easter dinners= fun, but tiring weekend!

p.s. See if you can spot the awesome piece of jewelry I made! I'll post a better picture soon.