Preschool is OVER!

We made it!  Bubba got through his first year of school with no major incidents and only a few minor ones.  His teachers have been great and I wanted to send a little "Thank You" to them.  Same as with my Christmas gifts, I wanted to avoid food products and gift cards.  I've seen several different versions of this idea on Pinterest, but I put my own twist on this.  I wanted to keep it simple and good quality.  This is what I came up with:

I got a couple of mason jars (no shortage of those here!) and decided to fill it with orange paper shreds/gift filler.  The problem?  I couldn't find that stuff in orange ANYWHERE!  Finally I gave up searching and just bought orange gift tissue.  I took out two sheets, folded them back up, and cut them into thin slivers with my paper trimmer.  Then I took the pile of sliced tissue and just separated it with my fingertips.  Easy peasy, inexpensive, and I have most of the package leftover to use for something else.

In the jars I put a tube of L'Occitane Passionate Jasmine Shea Butter hand cream and a bottle of orange Essie nail polish. I cut a circle of patterned paper from the Doodlebug Happy Harvest 6" x 6" pad (the Fall Flowers double sided cardstock) for each jar and also two circles of orange cardstock in slightly different shades using a die cutter and wafer dies. (Um... when did QK become WRMK???  Totally out of the look here!!!) I used a ruler to draw the lines for the orange sections on the back of the darker shade and cut them out with my X-Acto knife.  I then glued it to the top of the other cardstock circle and used a blending tool to apply Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade to the edges. I punched a few hearts using the Stampin' Up Owl punch (that my neighbor kindly loaned me - DANG I need one of these things!!!) from a third color of orange cardstock. I cut the hearts in half to make the seeds.

For the bird I used the smaller of the Spellbinders Mixed Media Birds One dies.  I cut them from a blue paper that coordinated with my patterned paper and inked the edges using a blending tool and Distress Ink in Salty Ocean.  I outlined the bird and its wing with a fine tipped black pen and also used that to draw its eye.  I added a tiny dot of white ink with a gel pen to give the eye dimension.

I typed up my sentiment in Photoshop and printed it on white cardstock.  I trimmed it, adding the little flag to one side.  I glued the bird to one side of the banner and adhered it to my orange slice with foam squares for dimension. A little ribbon to tie it to the jar ring and BOOM!  Done. I made one for his teacher and one for her aide.

Kindergarten in two months!!!  ACK!  Where has the time gone?

The FAUXlifax

Remember that one time when I was all like OOH I NEEEEED A FILOFAX BUT I HAVE NO NEED FOR ONE!!!  WAHHHHH!!!

Yeah.

I couldn't shake it, so I decided to compromise.  A real Filofax (I know I want an A5, either a Domino or a Finsbury) will easily set you back a hundred bucks, and honestly, my cheap self isn't really willing to take the risk of dropping that kind of dough only to use it for a few weeks then get bored with it.

Enter:  The FAUXlifax.

Hee hee.  Get it?

I dug around in my craft room and came up with this little plastic three ring binder.  It's about eight inches wide, nine inches tall, and one and 3/4 inches thick.  I used to have ideas for scrapbook layouts that I had clipped from magazines pasted inside.  Unfortunately, those ideas were looking pretty dated so I decided to go ahead and repurpose the binder!

You can find these little half size binders anywhere - Staples, Walmart.  Target has some really cute ones right now.  They're pretty reasonably priced, especially when compared to buying a planner.  Even the cheaper brands like Day Runner will still set you back about $30.

The ribbon was already on there to hide that this binder has two random holes punched there in the cover.  I have no idea what they're for - heck, I don't even remember where I got this binder because I've had it so long!  The elastic holds it closed for now until I can decide what I want to do about that situation, since obviously it doesn't have a closure like a real Filofax would.

The smartphone sticky notes were 97 cents at Walmart, and the pad was pretty thick.  I took just the top fourth or so to put in here.  The houndstooth is a plastic sheet by KI Memories that I had in my stash.  I cut off the decorative edges to make the protective top sheet for my binder. I put a little washi tape on a mini binder clip and used that to hold the notepad to the plastic.

Every planner needs a Year at a Glance page, so I Googled "year at a glance 2013" and found one that I liked. They're FREEE!!!  I added Hello Kitty and the year at the top in Photoshop. Again, Google image searches will help you find just about anything you're interested in to put up in that space.

Since 2013 is almost over I went ahead and did one for 2014 as well.

The dividers for my sections are pretty simple.  I found four sheets of heavyweight, double-sided patterned paper in my stash.  I trimmed them down to 5 3/4" x 8 1/2" and reinforced both sides with washi tape where I planned on punching holes.  The tabs are old Heidi Swapp self-adhesive tabs that I've had forever.  I loved them so much when they came out that I may have hoarded a few.  You know how it is.

I added the subjects with my P-Touch labeler.  I plan on putting colored bits of paper in the plastic eventually to make them sturdier and easier to tell apart.

This is what a week spread looks like when I open the binder.  I used some of the scraps from the KI Memories houndstooth to make two page markers. They're two inches wide and nine inches tall.  I traced one of the self adhesive tabs on the top with a fine Sharpie then trimmed it to give them some shape.  This way, I can just grab that tab on top and open to the current week.

Can I tell you how much I love having a reason to buy cute stickers now when I see them?  I would have skipped the Hello Kitty stickers before, but now they have a purpose!  Hooray for reasons to bring more cuteness into your life!

Instead of having a separate section for Monthly pages, I decided to make a monthly calendar that I could move in the planner.  Instead of having to flip back and forth between sections to see important dates, it's right there in the middle of my current week for reference.  When the week is over I just move the calendar along with the page marker to the next page. When I get to November, this one will stop moving and the one for November will start.

This is my current week's spread.  You can see I haven't written anything down yet.  I don't have a lot going on next week.  Honestly, I don't have a lot planned most weeks.  So why do I do this?  Well, for starters, I love to decorate the pages.  I'm really starting to feel out my style here in the fourth week of doing this.  I also make notes at the end of the day of things that happened, what we had for dinner, and any funny things the kids did or said.  This way when I go to work on my Project Life pages for those weeks, it's easy to flip back and see things that I may have forgotten about because I didn't take a photo. I also add reminders to mail out birthday cards and what appointments we may have when they come up.

I will go into details about what I used on this page in another post, as this one is already getting pretty long.

The next section is the Meal Planning section.  I've shared these printables from Hello Cuteness before. This one comes two to a page, so all i had to do is print, cut the page in half, punch holes, and pop them in the binder.  Easy Peasy.

After the meal planning page I have a pocket page that I made from a sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock.  Just cut the sheet in half, then take one half and fold that in half widthwise.  Cut from the top corner to just about an inch and a half from the bottom corner at an angle.  Put adhesive along the side edges (not on the fold or where you cut), slide it over one end of the other half of the cardstock, and glue.  Ta da!  Pocket.

I put washi tape along the edges of the pocket to reinforce it and also give a visual guide to where the opening is.  This pocket can be used to hold recipes, coupons, etc.  There's a Hello Kitty paper clip (found them at Walgreen's a while back) at the top to hold things as well.  This serves as a sort of "this week" page marker for this section.

Behind that is my grocery list.  It is also from Hello Cuteness, but I've modified it a bit.  I made it smaller to fit in my binder, for starters, since the original was a full sheet.  I also modified some of the categories to suit my needs.  For instance, the produce category was just not big enough.  I never had enough spaces.  However, there were whole categories, such as paper products, that I knew I would not use very often.  Honestly, the only paper product we use is bathroom tissue and that can go under Misc. when I need to buy it.  So I got rid of that and added a Costco section because that is something that I do need.

You have to make your planner work for you, or you won't use it, right?

The next section is dedicated to Project Life.  I designed these sheets so there were two on a page.  All I did was print, cut, punch, and put them in the binder.  Easy.  Here's what the blank sheets look like:

If you've seen any of my PL posts, you know that I generally go for this basic layout.  Sometimes I'll put three cards across instead of two or four, but I always have three rows of cards.  I just don't really like the look of vertical 4" x 6" photos.  I don't know why.  There are very light lines in there to help me mark off where I am putting what.

If you click on the sheet, you will see an enlarged version.  You can right click it and either save it to your computer or print it.  It's a surprise freebie, from me to you!

The lines under the grid are to write down what happened when and what you're putting where.  You can look at the first photo of this section to see an example of the week I'm working on.

YES I AM BEHIND.  :(

The last section in my FAUXlifax is the Lists section.  Right now, there is only one list in there - my Daily Chore check list printed on cardstock.  I put another one of those clear self-adhesive tabs on this, only on the top this time.  This will make it easy to thumb through the pages without the divider tabs getting in the way.  I need to label it still.  Slacker.

Eventually I'll add Christmas shopping lists, a master birthday list and probably other random stuff.

That's my FAUXlifax!  It has just what I need, and nothing more.  I have no need for an address section because I keep my contacts on my phone and laptop, so I left it out. I don't need a notes section - I can either write notes on the notepad up front, or on my calendar pages.  When you start from scratch it makes it easier to just add stuff as you decide you need it without paying for stuff you don't.

I'm thinking if I stick to doing this for a while, maybe I'll upgrade to the real thing.  Then again, maybe I'll get so set in my ways of using this one I won't want to upgrade!  Only time will tell.

If you don't already, you can follow me on Instagram.  My user name is splendidmissm. I've been posting my weekly pages (along with many other people - seriously the creativity  there is amazing) under the "filofax" hashtag.  I also use #fauxlifax to mark my pages. 

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions!

Quick and Simple Baby Bibs

A couple of weeks ago, this girl started to drool.  At first it was just a little here and there, but eventually it became enough that her clothes were getting pretty wet.  Then, last week she had a couple of really cranky days.  She was constantly gnawing on her hands and had a slight temperature of 99.3 when I checked.  The drool situation got worse too.

Could she be teething already?  Bubba started the drooling about the same age, but he drooled like a machine for months before any teeth came in.  I checked her mouth and didn't see or feel anything.  Either way, the drooling needed to be addressed.

Did I mention she also learned how to blow raspberries this week with all that drool?

Time for mama to make some bibs.

I sketched out a basic bib shape.  I used one we already had to be sure the neck was going to be the right size.  I didn't want it to be so big that it covered her cute outfits.  I scanned the pattern and put it on Scribd so you can make one (or a dozen) for yourself if you like!  All you need is a piece of regular cotton, a piece of cotton flannel, and some Velcro.

Print and cut out the pattern, pin it to some cotton quilting fabric that is folded in half, and cut it out.  I repeated the process with a piece of flannel too, so I ended up with two pieces.

Next, I pinned the right sides together.

Then I sewed all the way around 1/4 inch from the edge, going slowly on the curves and leaving a two inch opening on one side.  I made sure to backstitch at the beginning and end too.

Next I clipped my curves so it would lie flat when I turned it inside out...

Then turned it inside out and pressed it flat.

I then topstiched around the edges.  This closed the opening where I turned the bib and also makes it look more finished.  I just lined up the edge of the fabric with the edge of my presser foot and put my needle to the far right position.  I did NOT backstitch at the beginning and end here.

Instead, I pulled my thread to one side and secured it with a square knot.  After you snip off the extra thread you can barely tell it's there!

Finally, I cut a one inch length of 5/8" Velcro and sewed it to the top.  Piece of cake!  These are done so fast and with so little fabric.  I spent $25 on fabric and Velcro yesterday.  I ended up making 11 bibs in the past 24 hours, so that's roughly $2 per bib, AND I have a ton of fabric left over.  Seriously, I could make another 20 bibs I think.  Whoops.

So much cuter than anything I can buy!  If I had been feeling fancier, I could have embroidered something on there or put some shape using Steam A Seam, but I'm lazy.  Bonus though - this one coordinates with the baby leg warmers I made her last week from a pair of socks!  She likes to sit and admire them. I found the tutorial here, via Pinterest.  So easy, and they come out really cute too.

When you consider that baby leg warmers can run up to $12 a pair, how can you resist making your own?

Halloween House

I've been plugging along with getting my Halloween decor up and out!  Today's offering - the outside of my house.  I tend to do very minimal decorating outside for two reasons:  

1.  It's still over 100 degrees where I live.  Not only do I not want to be outside for very long putting things up, the sun pretty much destroys anything that it sees on a regular basis.  Therefore, what I do put up is against the house where it will get shade most of the day and not be ruined.

2.  I grew up in pretty shady neighborhoods and I have low trust of people I don't know in general.  I don't want to spend a whole lot of money on outdoor decorations only to have someone come steal or vandalize them.

That being said, I like to have a little something festive outside to greet people!

I already showed you my cute new Welcome pumpkin last week.  I hung a garland I made from paper bats and string last year to across the walkway.  Most of my decorating was concentrated around the front door.

There's a little old and a little new out there.

The feather wreath is new.  Kristy at The Diary of Dave's Wife, who I met at the first DownEast Basics Mixer I attended last year posted a photo of one on Instagram a week or so ago.  I loved it so much I knew I just had to recreate it.  I wrapped two black feather boas (40% off using my coupon app at Hobby Lobby) around a wreath form ($2.99) and securing it with Christmas ornament hooks that I straightened out then wrapped like twist ties.  The bow has an alligator hair clip like I've been using to make hair bows on the back so I can change it out if I'm so inclined.

The sign underneath is from the Dollar Tree.

The electric Jack o'Lantern I bought at Target last year.  I am trying to figure out where to plug it in though because I don't have any outside outlets in the front of my house.  My friend told me it's city ordinance/code to have them in Phoenix, but I don't know if it's the same in Chandler.  I should look into that.

The faux fern was $2 on sale at Hobby Lobby.  I can't keep outside plants alive this time of year due to my refusal to exit the house when it's over 100 degrees, so faux it is.  You can see one of my silver spoon plant markers in there.  It says Casa de Fehling.  :)

The wooden cat was found at Goodwill last year.  It's a bit funky, but that's why I think I like it.

And that's outside!  Next up - the piano!

Sausage and Vegetable Soup

It's September, and there is a light at the end of this tunnel we call summer!  Of course, it will be stupid hot here until least Halloween, but hey, I can pretend, right?  I'm forcing myself to leave all the fall decor packed away until at least the middle of this month.  We'll see how I do with that.  I love my bin of fake pumpkins though!

Another part of fall that I love?  Big pots of yummy soup in my pretty green dutch oven.  That makes me so happy!  I decided to bust out some old recipes that I haven't made in a long time and revisit them here.  First up - Sausage and Vegetable soup.  It's super easy and tastes really good.

Ingredients:  a large chopped onion, a 1lb chub of sausage, two 32 oz boxes of chicken stock, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, a teaspoon of dried basil, salt and pepper to taste, 1/2 cup small pasta such as stelline, mini shells, orzo, etc, and 3 cups frozen mixed vegetables.

I accidentally grabbed vegetable broth instead of chicken, but to be honest, I wouldn't have known if I hadn't been the one to buy it.  It tasted like I remembered.  Also, I used cancer tomatoes because I used up all my home canned ones and I didn't find a good deal late enough in the summer this year.  The only ones I saw were back in early June and no way I was canning  tomatoes nine months pregnant!!!

Sauté the onion until softened and slightly translucent.  Add the sausage and brown it until it's crumbly and there are brown bits for you to scrape from the bottom of the pot.  Add tomatoes, broth, basil, salt and pepper; bring to a boil. Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning as needed.  Stir in pasta and reduce heat to medium. Simmer 10 minutes.  Add frozen vegetables and simmer an additional 5 minutes.

I only wish I had made some rolls to go with this.

Happy Due Date, Miss Kelly Lynn!

Yup - today is my estimated due date.  I know the ticker over there says 8 days to go, but that's the countdown to my c-section date.  You know, the date she'll probably actually get here because she is showing no sign at all of wanting to "come on down," so to speak.  

Many people have expressed surprise that my OB would schedule my surgery for over a week after my due date.  She actually did this at my request.  See, it's the fiscal year end where my husband works this week.  This is the week where EVERYONE on his team works late every day, trying to get everything done and wrapped up so the correct numbers can be submitted.  They've had a few people get promoted up and off their team in the past couple of years, but they never really added anyone to replace them, so they're slightly understaffed.  Also, they switched their computer software and my husband is a trainer. Since this is the first year end since the change in February, this means that in addition to doing his regular job, he also needs to be available to help people with any problems they may encounter at this important time.

Yeah.  Not the best time to be taking paternity leave.  I mean, if the baby comes, the baby comes and there's nothing we can do about it.  I know he'd spend the whole time at home worried about what's going on at work though.  There's also the bit about his coworkers, who are already short staffed and going to have to work late. Him being gone will be one person less on the team so they'll have to miss even more time with their families and have to work even later than they would normally this week, which is already pretty substantial.

So, while I have no power over when this baby comes if she decides to come on her own, I do have a little bit of power over a procedure that is scheduled.  I explained all this to my OB and she agreed with me that it would be best to wait a little longer.  After all, technically you're not really overdue until AFTER 42 weeks.  I explain this to people when they ask why the c-section is so far from my estimated due date, and they're always surprised I opted to wait.  After all, the more common thing to hear is women at 38 weeks whining for an induction.  

DUDE.  I took that route last time, and Pitocin SUCKS.  Also, I know two truths about being pregnant:

1.  It's better for the baby to stay in there and develop as much as possible before being born.  37 weeks may be enough to be considered "full term", but 41 is better in terms of brain and lung development.

2.  A baby inside the belly is relatively quiet.  There is no worrying about why she is crying, or not sleeping.  Also, while a baby on the inside is uncomfortable, recovering from surgery is MORE uncomfortable, especially when you are dealing with a newborn.

There was one woman with whom I had a discussion about this, and she literally laughed in my face.  She said "YEAH RIGHT.  I bet you when you get to 38 weeks you'll be singing a different tune and BEGGING your doctor to do it earlier."  Well, IN YOUR FACE.  Pregnancy is not a disease.  It's something I chose to do knowing full well what was involved, and I made my choices in the matter, including my surgery date, as well informed and thought out decisions.  I'm mature enough to realize that my decisions do affect others, and not everything is all about me.

I don't speak to her anymore, btw.  :)

To get through these last few days, I've saved all the "fun" girly projects for this week.  I've got some meals in the freezer (not as many as I'd like, but some), we made the last of our baby related needs purchases Friday (glass baby bottles!!!  nursing tanks!!!), and we have a detailed list of all the things that need to be done, room by room, so the house will be deep cleaned by the time my mother in law arrives on Thursday.  As a treat, we went to check out this store that pretty much sells just little girl specialty items yesterday.

OH.  MY.  WORD.

Can I just tell you how many times I've chanted "BABY SHOES ARE A WASTE OF MONEY" in the past few weeks?  They were really hard to resist here, because they were SO CHEAP!  I was especially smitten with the brown leopard print pair with the pink flower on the toes on the second shelf.  Price?  $7.  WHOA. If you buy them plain on their website, they're only about three bucks.  Shoot - I can hot glue a flower!

I also picked up my absolute favorite baby purchase to date:

There will be newborn photos taken in this, oh yes.  Mark my words!!!  Best part?  Only $17.  I've never seen one this inexpensive before, and trust me, I've been looking. They also have the cutest little swimsuits, a whole wall of hair bows, flowers, and supplies to make your own hair accessories, and the sizes range from newborn to age 12!!!  They even have cute little rhinestone doo hickeys to put in the centers of flowers for the best price I've seen.  The prices are more than reasonable on pretty much everything in the store and everything is cute cute cute.

Thank you Facebook, for putting the ad in my sidebar.  That's how I found them, no joke.  Check out the website and buy stuff because I need them to not go out of business any time soon, okay?  (And no, they didn't pay me to say any of these things.  I'm just way excited for cute girl stuff I can afford!)

After we left there, we swung by Hobby Lobby and JoAnn because I haven't made a single hair bow.  I plan on using the same tactic with the headbands/bows as we used with the hats for the boy - if he's always worn them, he'll always be used to having one on his head.  He's still wearing his signature newsboy caps at 3 1/2 (first one purchased when he was about two or three months) so it worked for him!

I came home with a bag full of stuff that looked like this!  I set it on the sofa next to me and just admired all the girliness that radiated from my selections.  After dinner, I put everything on the kitchen table, plus some stuff I already had, and got to work.

Some of the bows I made were smallish.  Some were massive, and will probably only be used for pictures.  I had a few medium sized ones in there as well.  It felt so good to just sit there and be crafty for fun!  I haven't done that in a long time.

I was reading someone's blog last week and she referred to these as BFBs - Big Effin' Bows. That made me laugh because really, isn't that what they are? I've been unable to think of them as anything but since. I know some people think they're ridiculous, but hey - if I want to make my child look ridiculous I suppose that's my prerogative as a mother, right? ;)

Here's what I ended up with.  I used the bow tutorial from here because I felt that sewing the ribbon would not only be more secure than using wire, but then I wouldn't have to worry about the wire coming undone and scratching the baby's head.  Also, I didn't BUY any wire, haha!

The first bow I made was pretty crooked so I tossed it, but after that they were all pretty even. The yellow, hot pink, and patriotic bows were straight from the tutorial.  They're about six or seven inches in diameter, and are apparently considered "average" or even "small" in the south.  Crazy! Instead of covering the centers with knotted ribbon as instructed in the tutorial, I glued on little embellishments that I picked up on our outing.  Since there was no ribbon to cover the clip in the back, I hot glued a little scrap of felt over it instead.

After I got used to the basic technique, I tweaked the measurements to make smaller bows with narrower ribbon.  I did a few with the basic knotted centers, one with an embellished center, and one where I got crazy and layered TWO bows, one slightly smaller than the other, and then added the rhinestone center.

Then there were the flowers. One I layered over a big bow and added a rhinestone center. One, I layered over a scrap of felt with a rhinestone center. Since this is white, it can be clipped onto any color headband and go with any outfit! Finally, there was my Big Honking Flower. I paid six bucks for this thing at JoAnn and it seriously looks like one of those heads of Boston Lettuce they sell at the grocery store in plastic boxes. It's HUGE, and will only be for photos. Seriously - this thing is huge on my head! I love it!


Today - binkie clips and a banner for over the crib with her name on it. Time to bust out ye olde sewing machine!

Embellishing a Bed Skirt

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I've been feeling a bit more like getting stuff done around here.  One of the things I did yesterday was to pull out all the crib bedding.  I'm really glad I did because I realized that two of my crib sheets are missing.  I'm really annoyed because I planned on reusing the nice Pottery Barn Kids ones I bought  for Bubba since they're gender neutral and I like the colors.  I can't think of where they would have gone!  I guess I'm going to have to pick up some new ones... probably pink ones.  :)  For now, I have the one green one I did find on the crib.

I also added the pink minky Boppy cover I found at Goodwill, the baby quilt my friend Gail made, Kelly's Ugly Doll, and the yellow crib skirt that also came from PBK... but I messed with that first.   Of course.

The first order of business, naturally, was to wash everything.  It's been put away for a couple of years.  After the crib skirt was dry I ironed it. HOLY MOLY was this thing a pain to iron!  I hate ironing anyway, but with all those little gathers it was just awful.

A few weeks ago I was looking for something in my craft room (I'm prone to losing stuff lately - so much for being organized!) when I came across this.  My friend Suzy travels to LA for work and likes to stop at the ribbon stores in the garment district.  She got a great deal on this pom pom trim and brought me back this huge spool.  I love pom pom trim, but I hate the price!  It's ridiculous what they charge for this stuff around here.

Anyway, when I came across this spool, I knew exactly what I'd be using it to embellish.  My crib skirt!  It was really easy too.  I'm a lazy seamstress, so I hate to pin things.  Not only does it take forever, I always end up scratching myself with the pins through my shirt and I'm allergic to the metal (nickel allergy) so I end up all itchy.  If I can avoid pinning, I do.  Here, no pins were needed!

First, you take the end of your trim and just fold over the last half inch or so.  If you have to cut off one of the pom poms, that's fine.  I just laid that folded under end along the edge of my skirt.  Be sure to backstitch so that it's secure.

How did I keep it straight?  Easy.  I just lined it up along the stitching for the hem that was already there.  The main thing to remember is to NOT stretch the trim.  That will lead to you having a puckered hem.  Just sew a few inches, pause to line up the next few inches, then sew some more.  If you're not sewing in a straight line, it won't matter at all as long as your thread matches your trim.  I couldn't see my stitches at all when I was done.  Just keep the trim pretty straight across the hem and it will be fine.

I didn't even measure or cut my trim.  I just unrolled it from the spool as I went, and when I got to the end of where I was sewing I cut it an inch or so from the end. No waste!

Stop sewing about an inch and a half from the end.  Fold that end under (again, cutting off the last pom pom if you need to) and sew it in place, again back stitching to secure.  This would work with regular ribbon too! It's a fun little detail to add that doesn't take much time at all.  Honestly, the hardest part of all this was ironing the skirt.

Once you're done embellishing the skirt you can put it on your crib, only to find the trim sits neatly behind the wooden edge.  WHOOPS!  Ah well.  You'll be able to see it once we lower it, right?

Project Life Update - Week of 1/29 to 2/4

Here are this week's layouts!  Sorry for the delay in getting them up.  Blogger was giving me issues all day, and then I decided to take a really long (like 3.5 hours long) nap with the boy.

I took a lot of inspiration from Pinterest this week.  The title card I copied from here.  I think I even used the same font!  It's called Wendy Medium.    The "Lap Monkey" card was inspired by a combination of this one and this one.  I just cut a little flag out of a scrap of cardstock, stuck some old Heidi Swapp tape across the top (because I am not cool enough to own washi tape - someone please send washi tape!!!) and then stapled it to the card with my flat stapler.

Seriously, if you like to staple things to your pages, look for a flat stapler.  It doesn't leave those little loops on the back of the staple so it's easier to keep things flat on your page.  It's awesome.

Here's the other side.  I started to do the Photo A Day challenge that's been going around on blogs and Facebook this month.  I don't think I'll put every photo on these pages, but they will be nice to fill some empty spaces.

Something to note - on a few cards (the coonskin cap, pancakes) the journaling card had a "label" of sorts printed on it, but when I added the photo, the picture covered it up.  I just used my X-Acto knife to trim the part of the label that was covered and then lifted it so I could tuck the photo underneath.  Ta da!

Also worth noting - this month I sketched out my pages as I edited photos, to be sure that I had a space for everything and that my photos were the appropriate size for the space.  Talk about a "duh" moment!  It make everything go so much smoother because I wasn't forgetting what went where and what still needed to be done.  When I got my photos back from the printer, remembering what went where was a cinch and things came together much more quickly.

I also made more journaling cards this week.  I really tried to branch out a bit with these.  All the ones I made before were pretty basic, but these have a bit more going on.  I even downloaded the font the Twitter logo was based so I could make a tweet card!  This is how you know I'm a nerd.

I used three of my cards on this week's pages.  As usual, I've added them to my Facebook page where you can download them for free for your own personal use.  All you have to do is "like" the page to gain access to them!  Enjoy!

Oh!  One more thing.  Last week I mentioned that I was bummed that I forgot to leave a space for my Twitter cards on my layouts.  This week when I was cruising through Staples to look at the new Martha stuff buy printer ink I found these:

They were about four bucks.  Keep in mind though, that these are a bit smaller than the 3" x 4" cards, so you will have to trim things a little if you want to use them.

I took one and cut it in half horizontally. Now I could add those extra cards I forgot!  Of course, the holes were too close together to fit in the rings of an album, and the whole thing was too short to span the space between two rings.  What to do?

Well, I measured the distance between the rings in an album first.  Then I cut a strip of paper that long and twice as wide as the area of the protector with the holes.  I folded that strip in half lengthwise, then unfolded it and ran it through my Xyron.  I then folded the strip around the protector.

Now all I have to do is punch holes in it to match the ones in my album.  You know, when I actually get around to buying one.  :)