Crafty Brenna

I feel like I might be putting a curse on the whole process by mentioning it, but Brenna is doing very well with the potty training this last week. I'm not sure what made her to decide to start being an active part of the process exactly, but I'll take it. She loves candy corn and mallowcreme pumpkins as her treat for a job well done, and I don't think the bag of Halloween crafts I bought at JoAnn's is hurting either. We do a craft at the end of the day if she doesn't have any accidents. She is loving that, and picks out one of the crafts in the morning and carries it around all day talking about it.
Monday we made this jinglebell ghost.
Tuesday we made pipecleaner mummies.
Yesterday and today we made these witches- it took two days because we had to let the glue dry on the body parts before we could add the arms, legs and all-important glitter. (plus that stretched out the craft for an extra day).
My bag of crafts is starting to get a bit low, I may have to go to Michael's soon and look for some more. ;) Whatever works!

I have managed to do a bit of scrapping the last couple of days while trying to keep up with the laundry, cooking, and dishes. I got out some really old pictures for this LO- some of the first ones I ever took with my 110mm camera I got as a gift. PSE cleaned them up pretty well- the color adjustments got rid of the orangy-yellow cast they had pretty well. The frogs in Kelley's kit are amazing in their detail and look like they are made of a very fine metal mesh- very cool! That fuzzy speck I am holding in my hand is a tiny frog I found on the walk back from the local fish hatchery we went to visit - the brown specks in the water of the picture next to it is one of the fish ponds with the baby fish in a frenzy because they had just been fed. I guess I was a budding scrapbooker even way back as a youngster, since I took a picture of the camp sign that was at the road turnoff :)

journaling: Because I was in a 4th/5th combination class, I got to go to 5th grade camp twice. I
remember enjoying it a lot the first year, but the second year the other girls I was bunking with were not very nice and that spoiled a lot of it for me. Some other things I remember: hiking to the top of the butte, rapelling down the cliff and loving it!, late night campfire songs, keeping sodas cold in the stream behind our cabin, crafts class, 'Survival' unit, visiting the local fish hatchery and finding a baby frog during the walk back to camp, cabin skits on the last night of camp, boy vs girl Tug of War games on the last day of camp, gathering at the flag pole before meal times, and for the most part thoroughly enjoying the whole week long camping experience.
credits: My 3 Sons and Denim Collection Solids by Kelley McDonald at DigiDesignShoppe; painted metal action by Atomic Cupcake; circular zigzag stitching from Olivia Collection by Shabby Princess at The ShabbyShoppe; fonts: Another Typewriter and Trash

I did this LO yesterday for a CT challenge at Scrapdish. We have to do two LOs with themes picked from a list of topics that we were given. So, here is my 'guilty pleasure':

journaling: Maybe it is a family trait, as my grandmother loved Coca-Cola too, but Diet Coke is my guilty pleasure these days. I love the taste and the bubbles and knowing it is an indulgance because there are other things I could drink that would be much better for me. ~ October 2006
credits: Retro Flavour by Kim Jensen at Scrapdish; gray paper from Wild Child by Jeanine Baechtold, Robin Cabana, Rachel Dickson, and Correen Silke; bubble overlay by me; fonts: CK Extra and Loki Cola

I keep getting comments on this LO about how many empty cans are in the picture LOL I only have 1, sometimes 2, a day. I just let the can pile up on the kitchen counter until I can 'recruit' one of my older children to remove the tabs for my Dad and then take them out and stomp on them for me ;) So, that is probably a week's worth of can there in the photo.

and lastly, the favorite things minialbum project is underway. I've seen some familiar faces pop up in the thread and gallery this week, which has been very fun! Here's my LO about my favorite color.

journaling: Blue is my favorite color- it can express so many moods, depending on the shade that it is. A light blue is peaceful and calm, the dusty gray-blues indicate a storm is coming, and the rich sapphire blue gives me the feeling of strength and happiness. .....the color of Mark's, Brenna's and Sarah's eyes * the Colorado sky * jeans * the label on my favorite tennis shoes
credits: matchbook album template by Melinda Staley; Hampton kit and crystal flower by Gina Miller; buttons by Traci Sims, Amy Wolff, Ali Folendore, and Terry Himes; butterflies by me; smootzy alpha stamps by Nancie Rowe Janitz; fonts: CK Extra and CK Holiday Spirit

I can't believe that Sarah's first birthday is only a couple of weeks away. I hav to start thinking about what we are going to do for her party. We'll probably have Becky and family over - they are our 'extended family' here and have helped us celebrate our children's arrival into the world for quite a few years now. It wouldn't be the same without them. :)
I picked up Sarah's birthday present the other day while at Walmart, the Fisher Price Drop and Roar Dinosaur.
I think she will enjoy it. If it goes anything like how Brenna's first birthday party went, Sarah will have a hard time getting anywhere near it after it comes out of the box because all of the big kids will want to play with it too LOL

I'm off- have to go move some more laundry around downstairs and try to whip out another LO before I crash. I have a huge 'to-do' list for CT stuff and a newsletter contribution that I still need to write in the next few days. The kids are out of school on fall break through the 20th now, so I can sleep in tomorrow if Sarah lets me. She's slept until 9:30 the last couple of days, but watch her get up at 6 tomorrow because I have the opportunity to sleep late for a change. Mark has been going to work early and getting home late the last few days, trying to get some major things done on the program he wrote. Life is never dull at our house!