The ABCs of Brenna have begun

Credits for ABC page: inked frame by me; fonts are Guanine and Century Gothic
Still in Love with Bear LO credits:
Journaling: At the age of 2 and a half years, Brenna still adores her bear blanket as much now as she did at one year old. His edges are losing their color, he doesn’t sing anymore, and he has a hole in his purple silk heart. It is rare that we can leave the house without him in tow. If he can’t be found, then Brenna will walk around the house yelling for him- it is almost as if she expects Bear to answer her and tell her where he is hiding. Bear is the 8th member of our family.
credits: Jessica's Hearts by Jen Reed, sketch by Amy Knepper for RAKscraps
fonts: FG Vilma, Adobe Caslon Pro

I've been having an internal conflict over how to do this ABC book for Brenna for a couple of months now, and I think I might have come to a compromise with myself finally ;) My trouble has been that I've been planning to do a book for her for her third birthday since before she was born since I've done one for all of the older kids- that means that I began saving paper supplies for it since I was doing paper scrapping back then. But, now that I am doing just about all of my scrapping digitally I, of course, would rather work in that medium. So, I decided I would do a little of both. The 'B' page above is an example- I am going to take the CM 7x7 album I've been saving and go ahead and use that. I will do the bulk of the pages digitally- the inked border, a LO representing that letter and maybe a small picture or two if needed for something. The LO size will be 5x5 in the end so that there is some blank border space along 2 edges. Once the pages are printed then I can go through the zillion stickers and embellishments I still have and fill the blank space up with small extra items. The CM 5x7 ABC snap pack I was saving to use for this can then be sold either to another consultant or at the scrapping garage sale my group of friends is considering holding this summer. I thought I was going to be able to use more of the LOs I've already done over the last year, but it looks like I will be creating at least half of them just for this project with pics I haven't scrapped yet. I have a month to get this done, so you will be seeing lots of Brenna LOs posted here over the next few weeks LOL!

Here's the LO I did last night for the 'C' page- I used AmyK's current sketch for the sketch challenge at RAKs.
journaling: Sammy was always very good with all of the kids, but he seemed to be just a bit fonder of Brenna- maybe because she was always so gentle with him. I cherish these pictures of Brenna with Sammy giving him hugs and kisses as they were taken just a few days before he left us for kitty heaven.
credits: Cat's Meow by Lyndsay Riches; black and brown papers by Dani Brath from Black Cherry and Chocolate Vanilla kits; sketch by Amy Knepper
fonts: Century Gothic


Other goings on this weekend have been trying to get the house cleaned up a little. Most of the time I feel that it is an impossible task as the kids make messes faster than I can get it cleaned up. So, I hope by tackling it a little bit at a time during the day while they are at school that it will get done before my parents arrive for their visit over Spring Break on March 22. Scrapping is my 'reward' for getting a little cleaning done. A big hunk of what I have to clean up in the LR is the stacks of scrapping magazines waiting to be cut up and saved LOs waiting to be put into the appropriate place in my filing system. I, at least, should be able to get lots of inspiration from my cleaning efforts, right?

You know those pulled muscles I got last week wrestling that shelf? they aren't getting any better :( In fact, every morning when I try to get out of bed they seem to be a bit worse. After I am up and moving around for a little while it doesn't seem so bad. This situation reminds me though of when I had the pulled muscles in my side from the roller coaster up in Denver and I ended up in the ER a couple of weeks afterward because they had tightened up so much that it was painful to breathe and move. I'm not sure what all I should be doing to try and keep that from happening again other than trying not to stress them any more by lifting things the wrong way.

Oh, and we went to the zoo this afternoon and saw the new baby gorilla that was born a couple of weeks ago. I have a few pics on the camera, but I'm not sure how in focus they are yet since I couldn't use the flash. I guess we will see when I get them off- they look fine on the teeny screen, but we all know how accurate that is, right?

Sarah had her first taste of rice cereal at lunch today. She did pretty well with it. The first couple of times are more for exploring and trying to figure out what to do with that mush Mom keeps shoving in her mouth. At least she didn't scream at me over it like Brenna did the first time I tried cereal with her ;)

And lastly, it's official now that I'm on Tracy Blankenships new CT! whoo hoo!! I think I have most everything she has every created- or at least parts of them- already. I'm looking forward to working with her and the other ladies of the team! You can check out who else is on the team over at Tracy's blog -> Scrappin Digi Style