Guess I'll Have to Eat My Words

The sewing machine and I have been at odds with each other ever since high school sewing class. Looking back, I really don't think that a double layer ski coat (think Columbia) was such a stellar project for beginning sewing students....but, I digress. After that class, I swore I would never sew again. But, after my husband has asked me to mend several articles of his clothing, and sew on rank patches for his uniform, I am thinking I need to re-think my decision and start searching for a cheap sewing machine. And then I see cute things like this tutorial, and now I'm tempted to try making cute things for the girls! I guess I'll have to eat my words. Dang, I hate those rare times when I'm wrong. ;)

Wedding Shots

Loving these cool wedding shots over at Snippet & Ink.

A Cut Above the Rest

I've been having fun just playing around here. You can change your hair color (I'm actually not too bad as a dark redhead, but scary with black hair), add highlights or lowlights etc. I need to get my hair done, and I'm thinking I'm going to get it cut shorter. Too bad none of the short hairdo's looked good on me! I look like I'm wearing a wig in almost all of them! So, I had fun with the long hairdo's. I always wondered what I would look like with Jennifer Aniston's hair...

This was the only short one I liked.

The Little Black Book of Style

I just finished reading this. I really enjoyed it. A fun, light read with a lot of good stuff on fashion. Which is perfect for me since I am in the process of rebuilding my wardrobe after having two kids. Until recently, I haven't bought any new clothes for myself (except maternity and those really don't count) since my honeymoon two-and-a-half years ago. If I had all the money in the world, I would just toss everything and start over, but since I don't, I'll just have to take it easy and replace it one piece at a time. *sigh* I've taken Nina's advice to heart since I always agree with her astute comments on Project Runway. The only thing is, I won't be buying designer labels...sorry Nina, but it's just not in my budget right now. When it comes to the pocketbook area of my life, Dave Ramsey is the one I'm listening to!

Photoshop Express

Pretty excited about this. Read about the features here.

MAGPI Update

Well, my sister arrives tomorrow for a visit. Thank goodness. I tried hard, but I feel like I'm on the brink of insanity. Seriously. This has been so so hard and I could use a friendly face and some encouraging words in my house. So, if I can make it 'till tomorrow, I will consider Operation MAGPI a success. I love having a sister.

DIY Dollhouse

I just printed out the directions to make this when the girls are older - we will have so much fun decorating!


seen on Nie Nie Dialogues

Flickr Favorites

1. Umbrella, snow, Rio Grande - Framed Print, 2. Pathway, 3. Capture of a sunset, 4. A walk in the park, 5. 2 Roses, 6. move over jesse, there's a new cowgirl in town, 7. Untitled, 8. Another Tulip, 9. Hors champs, 10. IMG_3955, 11. Untitled, 12. Spring in Sepia, Kyoto, 13. first steps, 14. chirp!, 15. Breakfast with friends, 16. Chair-O-Planes, 17. North love! / L’amour du Nord!, 18. Canzone per l'estate, 19. valentine's day, 20. #12 Bulb Exposure

Leona Lewis

I'm looking forward to checking out this album. Her voice is amazing and I love her single Bleeding Love.

Make a Card Monday

I love the "Make a Card Monday's" here. Such cute card ideas. It's fun to watch how they come together, and the music is fun too!

My Little Irish Girl

"For she is my dear, my darling one
her eyes so sparkling full of fun
no other, no other can match the likes of her.
For she is my dear, my darling one
her eyes so sparkling full of fun
I love the ground she walks upon
my little Irish girl!"

Don't Forget Your Green!

I LOVE St. Patrick's Day! It's the Irish genes, I suppose. I wish this celebration was happening at my house today:

What a fun, rowdy holiday! Because a holiday that involves pinching must be rowdy. Although, the girls and I will probably just end up watching Darby O'Gill and the Little People to celebrate...not very rowdy, I know. But I still adore this holiday and the wearing of the green. I knew my husband-to-be was interested in me when we were still friends and he told me, "I've always wanted to meet an Irish girl that didn't have a problem with alcohol." (no offense to all the sober Irish women out there) HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY EVERYONE!

Image found here

August Rush

I watched this last night and I LOVED it! This is a real music lover's movie, and I enjoyed it so much that I watched it again today, and that's saying a lot because I usually never like to watch a movie I've just seen. It made me want to get better at the piano, learn to play the guitar, and take up the cello again that I haven't played since sixth grade. But, I have to keep reminding myself that I'm no musical prodigy! Really good flick. A++

Fun Signs

Made here found via armelle

To Kill a Mockingbird

I just finished this today. I can't believe I made it through jr. high, high school, and college as an English major without reading this book once. I'm so glad that I added it to my 2008 reading list It was so good! I didn't expect it to be a book I couldn't put down and the kind I looked forward to getting back to when I wasn't reading it, but it really was.

Can I just say that Atticus Finch is one of my all-time favorite characters in fiction now? I really loved Jem and Scout too. It was so well-written and I could just hear their southern accents in my head. It really made me think about how important it is to live up to your beliefs no matter what, and that you should try your very best to see the good in people. Not all people are good, but most people are just people trying to make their way, and we all mess up. I admired the way that Atticus refused to speak badly about people and made sure that his children did the same - it really is ugly to talk badly about people and I'm going to try harder from now on to be less critical and give people the benefit of the doubt. This book fully deserved the Pulitzer. I would recommend this to anyone who hasn't read it!

Spam Spam Go Away

I have decided to enable the letter confirmation when people leave comments due to the amount of spam comments I've been receiving. I know it's a little annoying, and I apologize. I hope you'll keep leaving your comments and, hopefully, I'll only have to have it up for a while. I heard that once it's up for a while. the spammers go somewhere else...I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Shabby Apple

Hooray! I just ordered this for me:

and this for Katie:

and I still want to get both girls this so they can match:


Too fun! I love Shabby Apple

That Charlie

Okay, this made me laugh so hard I cried. I love it when Charlie laughs! Do you think if I started talking in a British accent now, my kids will grow up talking like this? I think it would make them even more funny!

DigiScrappin'

I am just a novice when it comes to digital scrapbooking, but I am already hooked. I love that you can use the same cute paper over and over again and your supplies never run out! I finally got Photoshop and have been learning how to use it, and so far I've been having fun...as long as things turn out the way I want them to that is! I've also spent a lot of time frustrated because I can't seem to figure some things out. I know there are a lot of people out there that are a lot better at this than me and have been doing it for a long time now, but I also know that there are a lot of people like me who are just getting their feet wet. So, after talking to lots of friends and family, and asking them a lot of questions and getting their recommendations, I decided to share the love and make a list of the best things I've found so far. And if you have anything to add, please do! I would love any new info! And a huge thank you to those of you who have already shared with me! :)

For free scrapbook kit downloads:

Shabby Princess (yes Mindy, a given!)

ScrapArtist

Two Peas In A Bucket

For other great kits:

Sweet Shoppe

The Digi Chick

Your Digital Dream

CG Essentials

Jen Wilson Designs

For free kit sampler downloads, template downloads and all-around great finds:

Scrapping With Ikea Goddess

For some inexpensive kits and/or free templates:

Weeds and Wildflowers

Racketty Scrappety

Simply Sarah Designs

Scrap Andrea

For fun, free fonts:

Simply the Best Fonts

Fontstock

Tutorials:

The best for starting your first layout:

The Shabby Shoppe

For how to use templates:

Misty Cato Designs

For random scrapping tutorials:

Just Mommies

For designing your own blog header:

Design Mom Tutorial

and

Tips for New Bloggers

To print scrapbook pages:

Scrapbooks To Share

Bella Scrapbook

Future Hairstylist?

click on image to enlarge

Livs and Onesies

I was so excited to break out the 3-month clothes for Olivia mainly because of the darling onesies that Loretta made! Here's Livs in her first one - there are two more to try out, and I guess I better hurry because she's not even officially 3 months yet, and Michael says that it already looks like she's wearing a muscle T! What can I say? She's my darling little buddha baby!

Life of Pi

I finished one of the books on my 2008 reading list! It took me a little while to get into it, and even when I was really interested to find out what happened next, it was still not one of those books I just couldn't put down. I will say that it is well-written. The main character is on a ship with his family as they are transporting some of their zoo animals, and the ship sinks. He is the only human survivor and ends up on a lifeboat with a zebra, a chimp, a hyena, and a tiger. Pretty soon, it's just him and the tiger!

It was a good story about survival, although there are some pretty gross and somewhat disturbing things that happen. Nothing extremely bad, but still gross.

After finishing it, I thought the most interesting theme of the story was the concept of a story itself. When he finally makes his way to land and is questioned about his experience, people don't believe his story, and ask for the true facts, not a story. Pi asks, "Doesn't the telling of something always become a story?...The world isn't just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn't that make life a story?" I thought that was a very interesting observation, and it really made me think.

Portrait of a Morning

Need I say more? Sheesh!

Books of L-O-V-E

If you know me, you know I love books, and I love to read. Some of my favorite books are written by people I know and love!

One of my favorite things from childhood are the two journals that my mother wrote to me. She started them when I was a baby and used them to write letters to me about all the things I was doing and learning and all the funny things I said and did as a kid growing up. They have pictures every now and then, and they are priceless. I love going back and reading them. They're always good for a laugh, and it is such a good reminder to me of how much my mother loves me. In the beginning of the first book, she wrote that she wanted to record butterfly moments - "those precious times that often go unrecorded; those times that are small and full of joy that we usually tuck away somewhere deep in our hearts."

I've started the same tradition with my girls. Sometimes, it's hard to find time to sit down and write, so I write things I want to remember down on a piece of paper, and then record it later. I hope that these small books will be for my daughters what they have been for me - a record of a mother's love and, hopefully, when they are going through the "my mom doesn't know squat" phase, they'll still read these every now and then and know how much I adore them.

My other favorite book is a book that we got as a wedding gift. The woman who gave it to us said that it was a book for us to write our story in. So, my husband and I trade off writing "chapters" about how we met and fell in love. I love reading the story from his point of view - who wouldn't love reading a romantic story written by the man you love that features you as the main character? It's pretty sweet. I have to say that these books and scrapbooking are my favorite forms of family history right now!

I'm On A Mission People

So, things are pretty crazy in my world these days. Michael left on Sunday morning to attend Boarding Officer school for the Coast Guard in South Carolina. He'll be gone for the next six weeks. If you're quick with the math, you know that means that I am now outnumbered- a situation that I had hoped to avoid until we had child number three giving me more time to prepare myself for the odds being against me!

But, I am now two days into what I have termed Operation MAGPI (Mother Against Going Permanently Insane) and so far, so good. No major catastrophes yet. Just one eventful night last night when Olivia was wide awake until midnight, there were crazy, screaming people in the parking lot at 2am which then made me wide awake, and then Katie took her turn being wide awake at 3am. But, looking on the bright side, both girls eventually fell asleep, and it wasn't me who was screaming like a crazy person, so it's all good!

Wish me luck people - two days down, and only 17 more until help arrives in the form of my awesome sister. I thought begging her and playing up on the pity factor was my smartest move so far in making Operation MAGPI a success!

Image from here

Out With the Old, In With the New

You probably noticed my new blog decor! Nicole gave me a sweet surprise and designed it for me, so I thought I would sport a new look for a while. Nothing like some spring cleaning eh? Thanks for jazzing up my blog Nicole- I love being related to such a creative person.

My Mini Chef

Here is Katie in her new Mia McKell apron. Doesn't she make the cutest little Mama's helper?