April was a pretty great month.

I thought it’d be a good idea for me to chronicle all the good things that happened in April before the end of May (when I hope to chronicle all the good things that happened this month).  So, better late than never!

April was a pretty fantastic month mostly because CK spoiled me both for Mother’s Day weekend and because he was home for 7 days straight because of the Easter school closures! 

1 – Oh, what a fabulous first day of April!  No fooling around here!  CK brought sweet flowers home and I got my first Mother’s Day card (as Mother’s Day in the UK is linked to Lent and therefore never falls on the same weekend as in the US).  There were sweet coupons in the card (that I’ve been holding on to!) for bathroom cleanings and leaving work early!  He also brought home ice cream and we watched the musical episode of Grey’s Anatomy (which we both loved and still don’t understand why it got so much criticism).  Oh, and to top it all off?  Sweet, silly Simon laughed out loud.  Whew!  What a great day, right?

2 – CK cooked bacon and pancakes and Simon gave me a sweet Mother’s Day card with four Divine chocolate bars.  AND, we FINALLY got around to hanging things in the bedroom and I organized Simon’s bookshelf.  It was a gloriously relaxing-while-still-being-productive day!

3 – My first Mother’s Day!  CK got up early allowing me to sleep in until 9 am!  He cooked another fabulous breakfast.  I got sweet Mother’s Day presents and we had lunch at a couple’s house after church during which Simon behaved beautifully!

4 – The grocery delivery was 20 minutes early!  This NEVER happens.  It usually arrives at the very last minute of the two hour delivery window.

5 – CK got a paper accepted for publication!  After speaking with the Home Office, we figured out how to apply for Simon’s immigration documents in the US *huge sigh of relief AND savings!*.

6 – I got 101 free prints from Shutterfly and we had brie for dinner.  Oh, and my new wet bag arrived.

7 – I captured Simon demonstrating his latest skill (foot grabbing).  Simon got his final round of immunizations until his first birthday and I was able to wear him in the Sleepy Wrap the entire time (which meant he did just fine).  He was asleep by 7:45!

8 – Worked on and finished up a mini scrapbook for my mom and Simon took all his naps in the Sleepy Wrap.

9 – Went to Toys R Us and bought Simon the LeapFrog caterpillar.

10 – Simon went in the Johnny Jump Up for the first time and seemed to enjoy it.  I had a delicious salmon and brie sandwich for lunch after church.

11 – Art work ordered from etsy arrived!

12 – My friend Susanne took Simon and me to Dinton Pastures for a walk and nice lunch in their cafe.  Then we had tea and chocolates at her house.

13 - The weather turned chilly again and I got a call from my friend Karen who shared the name of her daughter due in August.

14 – Went into campus to have lunch with CK and then a purple-y family photo shoot in the campus gardens.

15 – Went to Woodley where I got pictures printed (always fun!) and was finally able to put together my Mother’s Day frame present.  Found a wonderful book for CK for an Easter present and an entire season of The West Wing for just £2.99 at Oxfam.  CK brought fish + chips home for dinner!

16 – Enjoyed a lazy Saturday which included a bacon and egg breakfast and enough time in my office to make CK a special mini scrapbook and card to surprise him when he went away for a conference.

17 – We had brie for dinner (always a highlight for me!).

18 –  CK left for a conference and Simon and I walked him to the bus stop (which isn’t the good thing about today).  On our way home from the bus stop, we went in a charity shop where I found a cute Hawaiian shirt for Simon for a mere 79p.  Then, Simon and I took a three hour nap together.

19 – Took a 2.5 hour nap with Simon and gave him a bath all by myself!

20 – CK got  back from his conference!  Yay!  I finally reached the bottom of the laundry basket and I found out The Help was made into a movie!

21 – Simon’s passport arrived (at long last!!).

22 – Did lots of organizing and rearranging at home in the morning and then went into town where I got a peacock folder and some scrapbooking supplies.

23 - Took the train to Oxford and had a wonderful time!  Lunch at The Eagle and Child, a decadent block of fudge, books at Blackwells, pastries from Patisserie Valerie, and brie for dinner!

24 – Easter Sunday!  CK surprised me with a wonderful Flannery O’Connor book I didn’t even know existed.

25 – Easter Monday which CK had off.  Even though Simon was super fussy all day long, we had a nice time together watching lots of The West Wing.

26 – Slept in a bit because CK got up with Simon.  We went into Woodley where I scored a peacock shirt from a charity shop.

27 - A box from my mom arrived and Simon sat unassisted for the first time.  Among the box’s treasures were a cute bunny outfit and Simon the chipmunk.

28 – Pay day!

29 – CK had the day off because of the Royal Wedding (which we caught the tail end of).  Bought paint for the kitchen and living room and ate at McDonald’s.

30 – Went to Dinton Pastures together where we had a wonderful lunch in the cafe.

 

The last of the layout challenges (for now)

The fourth layout challenge for National Scrapbook Day (hosted at www.shimelle.com) was to create a page around a photo with a hidden story.  This challenge should have been a piece of cake for me — for I love to tell a good story.  But, I labored over what photo to choose, what story to tell, and I finally settled on this photo as the focus of my page:

This photo was taken just days before Christmas and Simon is in fact wearing his first of several festive outfits (Santa’s Little Helper shirt gifted by friends from church), but I decided to step away from all the Christmas papers and stickers and embellishments and so I turned to a few pieces of paper from K & Company in the Blue Awning line that I’ve been saving.  I wanted to include some photos other than the one with the hidden story and this is what I came up with:

I remember this day like it was yesterday!  It was just a couple days before Christmas and we spent the afternoon shopping in town.  I needed to find a place to nurse, and fast, and so that meant tea or coffee somewhere.  We decided to give the cafe in Marks & Spencer a whirl…and it was fabulous!  My mom enjoyed a slice of Victoria Sponge and I gambled on a slice of Sticky Toffee Cake (and was SO glad I took the risk).  We enjoyed tea and then snapped some photos of sweet Simon, trying to capture his festive attire.

We headed to the bathroom to change his diaper and this is where the hidden story comes into play.  Up until this point, Simon had cried his way through every single diaper change.  No, I’m not exaggerating — every.single.one.  We went into the baby change room and fully expected a screaming fit, but much to our surprise, he didn’t make a peep.  I was dumbfounded and immediately reached for the camera because I just knew at any moment the screaming would commence.  It never did.  Our little boy made it through an entire diaper change without making a single sound.  I guess he decided all was well in the world right there in Marks & Spencer.  I left the bathroom in utter disbelief and awe and reported the fantastic news to my mom — who promptly cheered for Simon as any good grandmother would do!

I wish I could say that he never again wailed through a diaper change.  He has on several occasions since screamed bloody murder.  He’s gotten a bit better now (thank goodness since he’s staring down six months next weekend!).

A few more details about the page: I love the journaling cards and sticky border tape, both by K & Company.

I don’t have a fancy border punch yet (I plan on using a Jo-Ann’s or Michael’s coupon for one this summer when I’m home), so I made my own border by punching several one inch circles, inking the edges, and then just assembling them in a straight line underneath a photo.  I am pleased with how it turned out:

This layout took the most time to put together and I’m so grateful to CK for giving me so much time in my office this afternoon and evening!  It’s been such a fun week of scrapbooking and creating these layouts to participate in the Scrapbooking Day challenges.  I hope I don’t lose my motivation.

 

Layout 3: The Owl and the Pussycat Tea Party

I first saw the Owl and the Pussycat cookies at a Starbucks during our visit to the US last summer.  My mom had her eye on them, so I bought a box and we had them at a special tea party

It was a great excuse to break out the special Wind in the Willows plates, too.  And, since I just got a new camera, it was fun to pull out all the Owl and the Pussycat things to take a picture (or two or ten):

The little Golden Book that is propped open is what started my love of the Owl and the Pussycat.  It was one of a few special books my mom gave me when I had the chicken pox back in 1984 and I remember looking through the book and falling in love with the illustrations. 

Anyway, it was a nice tea party we had together back in June.

Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon the Owl and the Pussycat cookies in my neighborhood Waitrose!  And, for just £1.99, which seemed like such a bargain compared to the $5.00 price tag they had at Starbucks.  I promptly bought three boxes, sent one to my mom in a back-to-school box, and kept the other two in the back of my cupboard squirrelling them away so we could have a tea party when she came to visit at Christmas.  I was just sure that Waitrose was going to sell out of the special cookies (of course, they did not).

Then, one day while I was searching eBay for cute Owl and the Pussycat things (like onesies and pajamas, both of which I scored for Simon), I stumbled upon a set of Royal Daulton plates (just like the Wind in the Willows ones my mom has) and so, on a whim, I bid on them.  It was a ridiculously low bid for the set of four and I never thought I’d actually win.  I did.

The plates and the cookies sealed the deal: we were going to have an Owl and the Pussycat tea party when my mom visited at Christmas.  I was going to dress Simon in his Owl and the Pussycat pajamas, we’d eat the special cookies off the special plates, and I might even christen my cupcake maker and make owl cupcakes (that has yet to happen).

I had no idea that my mom was going to gift Simon with some wonderful Owl and the Pussycat things: a beautiful quilt, a double handled baby mug, a pea green boat, and two wonderful copies of the book.  Those gifts served as the decorations for our tea party and on December 29, 2010, we enjoyed those sweet cookies on the sweet plates…along with some other sweet treats. 

I chose to scrap the pictures from that tea party for this next challenge.  The mission was to create a layout with a border between two photos.  We could use as many photos and as many borders as we wanted, but the border had to go between the photos – not off to the side or above or below.  This time I just tried to come up with something on my own and not try to completely copy Shimelle’s example.  Here’s the end result:

I wanted to use all four photos, so I came up with this layout -a grid of sorts, with four pictures and four combinations of borders.  My favorite border, of course, is the sparkly, glittery TEA PARTY against the sparkly, glittery blue snowflake paper:

I used a stocking embellishment that says TREATS which I tied in with a glittery sticker on a plate full of treats:

Aren’t the pastel Owl and Pussycat plates the perfect dish for this tea party?  And those sweet little teapot lemon cookies added a nice touch, I think.  The border between the plate of goodies and the silver plate of the star of the party (macarons) was a simple pale blue ribbon and gingerbread house embellishment:

The final border on the page is the journaling space – a stamp from the 7 Gypsies set I just discovered I had:

I’m so happy to have these photos scrapped so I can look back and remember the great tea party I shared with my mom.

 

Numbered Days

Simon has never slept particularly great – not since he woke up from his post-birth-and-initial-nursing 14 hour coma at around 9 pm the day he was born.  CK and I think back to those first hours and chuckle to ourselves.  He remembers thinking on that most blissful of days how shockingly easy having a newborn was going to be!  We marveled at how sweet his little coo was while he slept, we took pictures, we took video, and then we sat on the edge of my hospital bed peering into his little cot just waiting for him to stir.  And he never did.  He just kept sleeping, and cooing.

But once he woke up from that 14 hour first nap of his, we’ve been absolutely amazed ever since by how little he’ll sleep or how long he can stay awake or how he just needs one of us to hold him, wear him, or lay down with and cuddle him in order for him to go to sleep.  I think we’ve stopped trying to figure out how to fix Simon’s sleeping and we’ve accepted that he’s a bit of a sparkler – that is, he’s a bit difficult when it comes to sleep (and a few other things, too). 

We had a few deceptively amazing moments back in February when we were sure he turned the corner and began “sleeping through the night.”  For a two week stretch, Simon was going 5-7 hours every night before waking.  I remember once waking CK up and saying, “Look, he went 7 hours!”  Maybe he was just sleeping through a growth spurt or something, because no corner was actually turned, it was just a fluke.

And so we press on with our little sparkling Simon and many of my mornings are spent under the weight of this growing boy

His deepest, soundest, longest sleep happens when he’s nestled in the Sleepy Wrap or lain across my chest.  Sometimes I think of all the scrapbook pages I could be making or things I could be doing and I just wish Simon was the baby who could be put down awake and moments later be soundly asleep for a nap or at the very least transfer easily from arms to bed (that practically never happens; once we attempt a move, game over!).  But then I hear his heavy breathing or I feel the wet puddle collecting on my bare skin from his sleepy drool and I realize that these days are so, so numbered.  I don’t care about good intentioned warnings that we’re creating bad habits (we don’t believe it’s possible to “spoil” a baby nor do we believe in letting Simon “cry it out”).  The scrapbook pages can wait and the laundry, dishes, and dinner certainly can wait while I help my boy sleep a bit more soundly.  We spent money on the cutest IKEA crib bedding that goes with the curtains and the bright walls of our bedroom and I wonder if we’ll ever use it because Simon is happy as a clam sleeping in bed with us.  Sometimes I wish he was the baby who’d go down for the night in his own bed and stay down for 12 hours, but it seems that as soon as CK and I tip-toe out of the bedroom and try to avoid the creaky floor boards just outside of the bedroom, I look over at CK and say, “I miss him already.”  I snuggle up next to Simon in bed each night and while I am tired a lot of the time, I’m grateful all of the time that I get to lay next to my baby because I know the days are numbered.

I’m going to try to remember in the middle of a bad night like we had yesterday.  I’m going to try to remember in the middle of a bad day when I look at the clock and find out it’s only 1:00 and CK won’t be home for hours still!  I probably won’t do a very good job of remembering in the midst of it, but it’s there.

 

Layout Challenge #2

CK came home from work and after greeting him with just a diaper-clad baby at the front gate I said, “Just give me 30 minutes, ok?”  Well, I needed 46 to create (and completely finish!) this next layout for another Scrapbooking Day challenge hosted  by Shimelle.

My office is still a wild mess, but it’s what I like to call an organized mess.  Only Christmasy things are strewn about: pretty papers with names like Peppermint Twist and Swell Noel; big, chunky, cutesy chipboard stickers that say HO HO HO and BELIEVE; and hundreds (yes, hundreds) of photos taken in the last two weeks of December.  It’s definitely putting me in the mood to deck the halls and put on some Christmas music already…and it’s just May!

Anyway, this challenge was a bit more difficult to tackle than simply making a layout on a piece of patterned paper.  The challenge was to create a triangle, which seems easy enough  because I could’ve just arranged three photos on a page in a triangular format.  But, I wanted to copy Shimelle’s layout and have three things such as an embellishment, a title, and a journaling spot that together create a triangle if a line were drawn connecting the items and to place my photos within the triangle.  Apparently, once upon a time, this technique was widely used (maybe it still is?) in the scrapping world.

So, here it is:

I created this layout on the backside of the page from the last challenge (I love double sided paper!).  I also used all Peppermint Twist and Swell Noel supplies, so both pages are similar in color.

The page is all about Simon’s Christmas presents from Grandma and the triangle effect comes from the title tag that I stamped using my handy 99 p alphabet stamps from The Range

the gift embellishment to tie in the Christmas presents

and the journaling circle that I stamped using a set of 7 Gypsies stamps I got on the scrapbooking cruise I went on back in September 2007 and just now opened for the first time!

 

First Layout Challenge

It took about a week for me to straighten up my office and organize my scrapbook supplies and then it took about 30 minutes to mess it all up.

I wish I had a before picture, but you’ll just have to trust me that everything was in its proper place and looked beautiful.  While I loved the clean look of everything, I think I love the mess even more because it means I’ve been able to dive into embellishments and stickers and pretty papers and stacks of pictures (oh, my!).  With CK’s help yesterday, I stole away into my office for 30 minutes (though I might’ve stretched it to about 40) so I could create a layout for one of Shimelle’s Scrapbooking Day challenges.

The challenge was about as simple as could be: create a layout on a piece of patterned paper.  I already knew I wanted to do a Christmas page, but I always have such a hard time getting started.  I spent all of Simon’s hour nap yesterday just looking through photos trying to decide which one/s I wanted to use.  Did you get that?  I spent an hour just trying to decide what photo/s to use!  By the time CK got home from work and took Simon on a walk around the yard for 30 minutes, I knew I had to spring into high gear if I wanted to get anything accomplished and chose the only two photos from Christmas day that had all three of us.

With no guidelines other than using a piece of patterned paper, I was having a bit of difficulty starting.  I kept staring at the piece of paper and two photos I chose and just didn’t know where to start.  So, I decided that I would just do my best to copy Shimelle’s layout and by the time CK and Simon came back inside, I was just about finished with my page.

It took just a few more minutes after Simon went down for the night to finish adhering everything to the page and to add the journaling.  All in all, I’m thrilled with how it turned out.  I love the sparkle and I also love having lots of different items from the same line that complement each other. 

I can’t wait to put a layout together for the next challenge!

I used paper, chipboard letters, grand adhesions, and stickers all from K & Company in either Swell Noel or Peppermint Twist.

 

My introduction to photo editing

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered a new blog that made me absolutely, positively giddy!  It’s predominantly a scrapbooking blog with a sprinkling of cupcakes and travel and other craftiness.  Making me even giddier was the little detail that the blogger is an American living in London, so I felt instantly connected – like we were automatic friends because we’re probably the only two scrapbooking Americans living in England, right?  (I know I’m definitely not right, but sometimes it just feels like I’m the only one!)  Her designs, layouts, tutorials, and just general splendor have definitely inspired me.  The photo she posted of her stack of near-700 4×6 prints, along with the monthly class that she’s running during 2011, have motivated me and now I have my own stack of near-400 4×6 prints just waiting to be scrapped (which just about covers November and December 2010).  I spent last week cleaning up my office and organizing my scrapbook supplies and today I even went so far as pulling together all my Christmas papers, stickers, and embellishments.  My point is, we’re talking serious inspiration and motivation.

But, before I dove into scrapping Baby’s First Christmas this evening, I thought I’d take the plunge and give one of Shimelle’s challenges (from the great National Scrapbooking Day/Weekend this past weekend) a whirl.  I’ve seen challenges posted on other blogs and have always, always been intimidated by them.  But, this particular photo editing challenge seemed completely approachable – afterall, Shimelle even posted step-by-step instructions. 

This first is a photo I took in Giverny, France in Monet’s garden.  Monet’s home and garden are so, so beautiful and I have several hundred pictures of willows and flowers making it hard to choose just one to play around with.  But, I do love yellow:

And here’s the edited photo I got from playing around with a few things on Picnick in flickr, following Shimelle’s instructions exactly:

I couldn’t stop with just one photo edit (I’m afraid that this is going to be very addictive!).  I decided to choose my favorite picture of the Eiffel Tower that I took on our trip to Paris in August 2009.  It was a bright, extremely hot August day:

I’ve always liked this picture because I thought it was perfect – the bright, blue sky, the green trees…and then I played in Picnick and got this even brighter and prettier picture:

So what if the sky *might* just look a little fake.  This photo editing business sure is fun.  I had to do just one more before calling it quits.  This photo was taken at the very near-to-where-I-live Palmer Park.  I remember taking this photo during our first spring here, totally in awe of how these trees were completely bare one day and seemingly overnight they were bursting in color:

And here’s the edit (again, following Shimelle’s instructions):

I’m feeling absolutely thrilled that I’ve actually edited a photo (three, even!) using more than just the crop feature; I’m feeling absolutely proud that I’ve gone ahead and given a blog challenge a try; and I’m feeling absolutely inspired to begin scrapbooking our family’s special Christmas (tomorrow).

It is now time for an episode of The West Wing and a bit of ice cream!