My 1st Mothers Day

My first Mothers' Day!! Fittingly, I woke up to Natalie throwing up on me at 6am :)

This layout came together really quickly yesterday, once I decided to use the last sketch template for May from the SimpleScrapper.com! The sketch used a 3x4 photo, so I swapped one of the layers behind it that was a 4x6 so I could print my photo 4x6 and use that instead!

I decided to find an old Studio Calico kit to use since I have used up most of Bluegrass Farm and Camelot now, so I went back and chose last May's kit, Planetarium! I chose that one specifically because generally all the "May" kits sort of go with May photos. I was able to use a whole pack of those banner clip embellishments and then I added some tags and found a doily and some letter stickers and really came together very fast!

Better Eat Fast

Not sure what we were thinking, but on Easter Sunday, after church we decided to stop at Chili's for lunch... WITH NATALIE! So we weren't prepared, aka we brought one toy which fell to the ground pretty soon after we sat down and she wasn't yet snacking on anything, so um... yeah we inhaled our food and were in and out so fast, I wouldn't remember we even went unless I had this photographic evidence!

This layout came together very quickly, about 45 minutes or so not including the time I spent earlier in the day pushing these pics and papers around until I finally decided to use one of this month's sketch templates from the SimpleScrapper.com! I had printed out the pics 3x4 so decided I could still use the sketch that had just one 4x6 on it and put them together!

Then I just went to work and used papers from last month's Bluegrass Farm kit and this month's Camelot kit, by Studio Calico - with the exception of the background piece of paper since I needed something not too busy and am now out of fully intact pieces of paper from either kit, so I grabbed that one from last year's Antiquary kit! The embellishments are from Bluegrass Farm and I have now used up all of those fabric badges woohoo! Feels great to be using up more of my kits now that I am buying less and trying to save money! Finally, I did a quick outline in pen around the edge since it just needed that little something!

That Clock!

I didn't have any plans to go back and scrap these pics of me in that labor room... but then I took on a challenge issued by Stacy Julian for the Art + Science of Scrapbooking class I'm taking at BigPictureClasses.com, which was to go through my papers until I found one that reminded me of a place or space and scrapbook that. This was going to be extremely difficult for me as I never scrap a place or space and I certainly don't start with a random piece of paper! I opened a random drawer to start and found the Cuppa kit from Studio Calico, with only that clock paper left from it. I thought, does that paper remind me of anything...that's when I thought, hospital... then I thought... THAT CLOCK!! Ahhhh!!

Sure enough I found these pics I made my husband take (haha a true scrapbooker right?) and the funny thing is, he says he doesn't even remember that clock, when that clock is just about all I remember! After 4 hours and 15 minutes of heavy pushing, I guess that clock sort of torments you haha. I started pushing around 1pm and I remember thinking at 5pm that I really hoped my baby would appear before 7pm! It was 31 hours of labor and I was TIRED!

I added my journaling around the border and kept the accents minimal. Oh I finished this layout just now in 20 minutes (after I printed the photos the other day)! Now if only today were Labor Day instead of Memorial Day, it'd really come full circle :)

P.S. Thank you to all who have served and are serving our country!! I am blessed to enjoy so many freedoms in this life!!

New Baby cards!

While my passion isn't making cards, I enjoy making cards for new babies because I can always center it around the baby's name - and that has so much meaning for all moms (and dads)! So here are a couple of new baby cards I've made recently - one for a boy and one for a girl :)

This first one was made for a girl (obviously) and I wanted to include her middle name because it has extra special meaning to her parent's. I really wanted her name to stand out, so I was thinking I wanted to use my brush script technique to do so.

To make it stand out more, I first wrote "Jesus loves" over and over again on the background. It was actually a blessing to write this and just think about that phrase - Jesus loves, over and over again! Then I painted on top with jet black goache paint. I had taken Kal Barteski's Life Scripted class at Studio Calico a few months ago. This wasn't my best version of her name, but I only had one shot at the final product!

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For this next card, it ended up taking about 15 minutes to do! I chose those letter thickers from Amy Tangerine's Plus One collection (a collaboration with Kal Barteski as well) and then decided to use papers from the same collection. When I opened my 6x6 pad of paper, I saw that I had leftover cut out pieces from this layout I created back in January and the lightbulb went off!

I adhered the papers coming off the card at an angle, then just trimmed the excess. I also had some leftover black stars from the Cuppa kit by Studio Calico laying out on my table and decided those would go perfectly and "sprinkled" them and adhered them (almost) wherever they landed. Quick and easy and the only people that would know I borrowed the design from a previous layout are you readers :)

Snapshots of Life

OK so my photos are me and my husband each with our daughter... but the story is about us being ridiculous a couple weeks ago walking straight into each other in our house, having a full on collision! It was so funny!

I tackled my first challenge for the Art and Science of Scrapbooking class I'm taking over at BigPictureClasses.com! I had this story in my head that I wanted to tell, but didn't have any matching photos, so I found just some recent photos of me and Chris and went with it! I used Jennifer Wilson's layout as inspiration, but ended up using a couple of 4x6 journal cards which worked perfectly here!

I actually dug into the Roundabout kit from Studio Calico last year - a kit I hardly used because I was preggo and tired! I haven't really gone back to it either because it didn't really inspire me, especially with all the travel-themed stuff and I haven't traveled in a LONG time... but it worked great and I kept it very simple!

Easter Dress

OK so as a Christ-follower, it seems silly to make this layout about a silly dress! Easter is the celebration of Christ's resurrection from the dead, and the forgiveness of all our sins so we can one day be in God's holy presence and spend eternity with Him! But I digress... the title was going to be "Happy Easter" except the way my letter stickers happened to work out... oh well!

I didn't know what to do with this layout and now that I've been using so many sketches and sketch templates, I have become accustomed to having instant inspiration and just digging right in instead of humming and hawing over what I should do and where I should begin. So for this one I decided just to print my one photo and then search for possibly an older sketch template at SimpleScrapper.com to match what I had - 1 vertical 4x6 photo. I didn't have to go far because of the way Simple Scrapper is arranged - you can sort by number of photos or sizes of photos etc. I found a template from March 2013 (even though I've only been a member for a couple months, you get access to the archives). So I went to work!

The older sketch template came with a separate pdf of inspiration layouts based on the sketch - and what I loved about Jennifer Wilson's layout was her tip to use pop dots to add dimension to the paper layers! I used a mix of papers from this month's Camelot kit by Studio Calico, and last month's Bluegrass Farm kit! I found a 3x4 stitched card from the Printshop collection by Shanna Noel for Studio Calico that matched perfectly and used Amy Tangerine thickers for the title, and BasicGrey for the smaller part of the title. It was another mix of elements, loving this way of making layouts!

Another Walk

We definitely have a lot of pics of us taking a walk, hence the title! We went for a walk along the canal last month when it was finally starting to warm up around here!

I used a sketch from Kelly Purkey's Sketchbook class over at Studio Calico to make this! I ended up making a weaved shape with the paper after it started off with just the vertical strips, but it needed a little contrast and extra color so I added the horizontal yellow strips.

I used this month's Camelot kit and older letter thickers.

Take Note

Here are a couple more pictures right before Natalie turned 8 months old and since I didn't have any good pics from the actual day, I decided to make this layout her official list of things she can do at 8 months old!

I used a sketch template from this month at SimpleScrapper.com to print my photos at 3x3 and 4x3 and complete this layout! I specifically really enjoyed Kim Kalil's layout as inpsiration from p. 24 of Spark Magazine from the Simple Scrapper as well!

I used papers from this month's Camelot kit by Studio Calico, but the wood veneer and the patch are from their Bluegrass Farm kit from last month. I also used some older fabric washi tape I think I purchased from TwoPeasInABucket.com or maybe directly from Freckled Fawn? I cut the little mason jars from one of the patterned papers this month and the journal card came with the Process class kit with Catherine Davis over at BigPictureClasses... phew! Now that I am a stay at home mom and really need to cut back on what I am spending on scrapbooking supplies, you will notice I am trying more at mixing in my stash and older products or mixing up items from different kits! It has been really nice actually to do this, BUT sometimes takes up more time! Because I have SO much paper, I am going to try to stick with the same kit for papers and then pull embellishments from wherever.

I am really enjoying my membership at the Simple Scrapper! It has helped me be thoughtful of how I am spending my time and really trying to utilize it better overall. For example, today I posted to the Facebook community page, a photo of my twine all entangled in knots when all I needed was that small piece for the wood veneer. Instead of spending 20 minutes right then detangling the knots like I really wanted to do, I decided I could do that later and should spend my time while I had it (while my DD was napping this morning) to work on my layout and maybe I can detangle while she is awake later or something! It helped a lot and today during her second nap I finished up this layout and now am finishing up this blog post - yay!!

Day In The Life | May 8, 2014

Wow, so this was my first time participating in Ali Edwards' Day In The Life! She chose Thursday, May 8th, 2014 and so I played along... it was great since it was going to be a pretty typical weekday in my new life as a stay at home mom... so for all those wondering what a stay at home mom with only one baby who can't crawl/walk yet does, here is my story.

5:15 AM
Natalie woke up for her (?th) time to nurse, so since Chris was awake, he brought her into our bedroom to nurse and sleep a little longer with me. If I'm already awake, I'll just nurse her and put her back in her crib, but lots of time I want the extra bit to "sleep in" when we can.

6:46 AM
Natalie wakes up and pulls off her socks. I remembered that it was time to start documenting Day In The Life, so I pulled out my iPhone and snapped some pics.

6:48 AM
Rediscover our hands.

6:51 AM
Sit her up and think about if I want to shower or give her a bath. She decides for me and spits up a little down herself (plus she was so sweaty and greasy from sleeping).

6:56 AM
Set her down and run around and grab bath stuff and start the bath for US (I have to jump in with her since our bathroom is so small and it would just kill my knees or back to bend over to bathe her).

6:58 AM
Get Natalie and set her down on the floor outside the bathroom

7:00 AM
Bath time with Mama!

7:13 AM
Wow I never realized how quickly I can get her bathed, it always feels like forever with her squirming around and trying to grab the cup I use to pour water over her, and not wanting to give me her hands or feet to wash... got her out and wrapped up in some towels now.

7:18 AM
After she's dried a little more, I get a toy, a plastic piece of cake for her to occupy herself, then come back to the bathroom to take a selfie together!

7:22 AM
First diaper change of the day! Also, we do our "processing" as Chris calls it - I put some cream on her extra dry spots, some lotion all over her body, and tip back a Vitamin D drop into her mouth (if I can). She gets processed twice a day (Vitamin D only once though).

7:23 AM
Sigh, I threw the dirty baby laundry in the hallway to remind myself to get that done today - my only task for the day!

7:26 AM
Finally time to get this baby dressed! She fights it though, of course.

7:33 AM
This is what my husband calls "Lark mode" that I call "Rot mode"... he says she's happy as a lark when all I see is a baby left to rot by herself... but it needs to be done if I am going to accomplish my one task of the day!

7:34 AM
My one task of the day has doubled in size in the past 12 minutes somehow.

7:34 AM part 2
I don't know why but I went back into the kitchen for something (maybe to check on her?) and then passed by the coffee maker which was still on - a wonderful gift from my husband this morning yay! I will try to remember to enjoy that later!

7:37 AM
While I am going room to room to find random baby clothes for this load of laundry, I might as well use the "Lark mode" that I can tell she is still in to do whatever I can to prep for anything else that I can later - or in this case, I prep the nursery for her nap time... oh sad to say, she naps in her car seat with the blanket over it to shield the light.

7:39 AM
Throw the laundry in the wash! Woohoo!

7:44 AM
Sneak back into the kitchen quietly so Natalie doesn't see me and can stay in Lark mode. This is where I have to plan - I get a water from the kitchen to take with me to the living room because otherwise I will have to either let her cry later while I waste time going back to the kitchen to get a water but more likely, I would end up going thirsty all morning - the bane of any nursing mama's existence! Also, I record the day's nap and awake times as well as nursings (marked "F" for feedings) so I know when she will be hungry/tired/awake etc.

7:45 AM
Playtime! How did an hour already go by!?

7:47 AM
I try not to let Natalie see me on the phone too much because then it just becomes a replacement for the television that I also never turn on. But I guess for the sake of DITL it's ok and she can see me taking some pictures of her :)

7:57 AM
She was getting fussy, so I picked her up and then I smelled her first poop of the day and second diaper (we call it, pooperoo) and of course I plan ahead and grabbed a plastic teacup for her to play with before heading to the nursery to change her.

8:00 AM
Time to use the opportunity of me carrying her back into the living room to take our daily tour of the kitchen so I can point to objects and teach her the words. She loves the calendar the best, although she was a little distracted when I went to get a selfie!

8:15 AM
She walked over to the book shelf (with help from her walker toy) and grabbed a bunch of books, so whenever she grabs a book I sit down and read it with her in my lap... unless it's DITL and I need to let her read to herself while I take a picture!

8:16 AM
Attention diverted, there's a stack of just-read books! Let me reach until I land on my belly, she says!

8:17 AM
Oh I HATE being on my belly, I will lay here and cry!

8:21 AM
I sense Natalie is getting tired and just about ready to nurse and go down for her first nap of the day, so I am trying to remember to take more advantage of the time she is awake to do things like clean up the living room - hoping to show her that we clean up before we eat/nap... oh whatever, I just can't stand a mess!

8:24 AM
Nursery is ready - lights out, fan on, commence nursing.

8:25 AM
Oh the horror! I smelled a poop, and because her pants still aren't washed yet, I was able to check her onesie while she was nursing and saw another brown log in there, so I had to... de-latch her to change her diaper ahhh!!

8:41 AM
She's down in her car seat for a nap, the video monitor is on... time to sneak out!!

8:42 AM
Chris checks in on us :)

8:43 AM
Phew still asleep! Time for some COFFEE!!!!

8:48 AM
Other than spending time with Natalie of course, this is the BEST time of the day! Napping baby, big cup of coffee in my favorite mug, computer off, and Bible out! Yes, it is the MacArthur daily Bible, and yes it is open to where I left off on the reading for February 28th. Yes I realize it's May 8th, but I am going at my own pace!

9:10 AM
Who says Mom's don't have time to shower? Not me, not today, not with my 1 child who doesn't walk yet and who is napping! I will remove this part of the post in a few more months :)

9:26 AM
Done with shower, time for my first solo selfie. What's the big deal?

9:30 AM
Contemplate setting the dryer to the star, as Chris repeatedly keeps asking me to do to save money, power etc. But then I decide, what if I do that, then she gets up, then I come down my only chance to get the laundry and it's still wet? Sorry Chris, I can't take that chance! So I set it to where I want to set it - PAST the star... oooh!

9:33 AM
Oops, forgot to have breakfast, now's a good time.

9:51 AM
Finished yogurt, got dressed, brushed hair, brushed teeth, etc. Now 19 minutes trying to edit some pictures, but don't get to it. 19 minutes of guilt that I am not doing any work, nor am cleaning or maybe if I learned to cook am I doing that. 19 minutes of thinking, "she could wake up at any minute now." 19 minutes of free time. 19 minutes on edge and not really accomplishing anything.

10:10 AM
Aaannnd, she's awake! Time to nurse her while she's still groggy and calm and not distracted.

10:20 AM
Do I smell another poop!? Why yes, yes I do!

10:28 AM
I managed to get Natalie into Lark mode again so I could run downstairs and grab the laundry!

10:35 AM
Laundry's half folded and I think she is pooping again... ugh. Let me just finish folding this laundry...

10:42 AM
Just as I suspected - poop #4 (5th diaper)!! Yes, I made her take her toy remote control to play with.

10:45 AM
Back into the living room... oh no, oh no - ANTS!!! Ahhh!!! Panic!!!!!

11:02 AM
Natalie in lark mode in the kitchen while I frantically vacuumed up as many ants as I could find and send messages to Chris about the situation!

11:09 AM
I was planning to wait till 11:30am to get our lunches ready but now we canNOT go back into the living room with the ants! I will have to bump up our schedule! While she's in lark mode in her high chair, I throw together a ham sandwich and bag of chips and get out her baby food.

11:12 AM
She likes to do her sideways look at me while she eats.

11:20 AM
My turn to eat, she can have an empty water bottle to keep her busy.

11:22 AM
Yes, there's my sharing monster. She always wants to hand me stuff and then I say "thank you thank you thank you" really excited, and she loves it! Then she does it like 5 more times until I have to pretend not to see her, poor thing :)

11:32 AM
Lunches are cleaned up and I still refuse to go back in the living room, so we will play in our bedroom in the back of the house for a few minutes.

11:45 AM
This is sad, but this is what I have to do when I want to go to the bathroom when she's not in lark mode, because otherwise she will cry if I leave her. I set her in our closet and open the door to the bathroom and go right in front of her... oh the things you do as a parent... yes I have decided to keep a few toys in there now so I don't have to keep bringing toys around with me!

11:54 AM
This is the part of the day where I might feel the "most" guilty because it feels like I've gotten off the hook from doing work. I get to enjoy 20 minutes outside on a beautiful day with my baby!

12:01 PM
I love that this happened on a random day because it is still fairly "typical"... while I am walking I see these 2 women outside their house on another street in our neighborhood. They say, "Is that Natalie Jordan!?" excitedly, and then they ask if I am Emily. I say yes and then I think for a few seconds... then I decide how they know this, "Oh you must've met my husband Chris" and they both say "Yes!" How is this exchange typical? It is for the girl who married the guy that knows EVERYONE in town! People just love him too and they all remember his name and he always remembers their names, it's so crazy! Just another random reason I love my husband. Anyway, yes I told them briefly how I am doing DITL and they obliged and got in a picture for me! Then they took my picture too :)

12:12 PM
Just an extra beautiful spring day!

12:49 PM
Back inside the house... oh no please don't tell me. ANOTHER poop! That's 5...

12:56 PM
Look how much fun a couple of cupholders can be...

1:07 PM
We need a change of scenery...

1:10 PM
Nope, she was getting sleeping/hungry. Time to nurse her again.

1:23 PM
Ahhh she is back down for a nap!

1:33 PM
Find the ONLY snack left in the house... a frozen surprise bagel! It turned out to be a sundried tomato bagel I think... who cares, it's so good! Maybe I can edit and print some pictures for scrapbooking? Nope, this is when I offloaded the pics from the first half of the day from my phone and camera and just started to organize them.

2:00 PM
She wakes up.

2:12 PM
I guess we can go back into the living room, but I will need to do some more vacuuming!

2:18 PM
Lots of good playtime!

3:03 PM
7th diaper of the day, but this time not a poop thankfully!

3:13 PM
I don't know why I taught her this, but I put the fishbowl up to my face and then looked at her through it, so now of course she does it and it's hilarious! What did I teach her?

4:02 PM, aka the BEST TIME OF THE DAY!!
Daddy's home!!! This is when she really starts saying "Dada" and gets excited!

4:04 PM
Daddy takes Natalie from me and usually gives me a few minutes to go to the bathroom and do some things I might've been waiting to do, like put away some laundry or something.

4:20 PM
Since we're having company later, I decide to lie down and take a nap with her so she sleeps longer and will hopefully be in a good mood!

5:15 PM
I am awake, but Natalie is still sleeping and nursing so I am glued to the bed unless I want her to wake up. I look at my phone one-handed.

5:40 PM
I hear Chris' friend Johnny come over to set up some bait for the ants! I hear them talking loudly but she stays asleep, phew!

6:03 PM
She is finally waking up! Good, my back was starting to hurt lying in that same position so she could nurse while she slept...

6:20 PM
I guess 10 minutes before your guests are supposed to arrive is a good time to have your 6th poop of the day and your pièce de résistance! This one is a poop up the back, wonderful! At least Chris is home to take the onesie and rinse it off while I change her!

6:34 PM
Mommy passes off Natalie to Daddy for a few minutes!

6:34 PM part 2
But Daddy did GOOD while Mommy was glued to bed with the baby and he cleaned the house and ordered a pizza pie!! We don't normally order pizza (anymore), but on your typical day my husband would have dinner ready AND the place cleaned anyway because he is a maniac. Did I tell you how much I love this man!?

6:40 PM
Our guests arrive, and later the pizza and wings arrive and we all eat in the kitchen and enjoy each other's company!

7:49 PM
How cute are these two!? They are about 3 weeks apart (Natalie is younger but of course, slightly bigger hehe).

8:45 PM
Babies are getting tired, so our guests say goodbye.

9:03 PM
Mommy wants Natalie to show Daddy how she can pull herself up in the crib now! This is all she wants to do now!

9:05 PM
It's too late to do any processing because Natalie is wiped out! So I just do her 8th and final diaper change of the day and change her into her pajamas... she would define this as murder.

9:25 PM
Our almost nightly car ride together as a family to get Natalie to sleep.

9:30 PM
Success, she is asleep and lightly snoring.

9:51 PM
Time for a late night snack and some fellowship with my husband!

9:55 PM
Some cross-referencing our Bibles and notes etc. Love this man!!

10:13 PM
I am sad when Chris announces he is going to bed, and since I am tired, I will go to bed too.

10:15 PM
One last picture - the day's nursing/feeding and napping schedule.

In conclusion, this day was pretty typical, but on the easier side because the feedings happened to coincide very well with the naps. I see only 6 feedings during this day. That is EXTREMELY light (two days earlier she had done 13). After that, she woke up to nurse 4 more times throughout the night. I am still one tired, but happy and thankful mama!