What have I been up to?

Just a family update today...

My poor babies. Everyone of them has been sick.
Lilli started it.
Came home from school with a 103 fever. No other symptoms at all. Slept for 3 days straight and then bounced back.

Declan and Tayvan got hit next (despite all my disinfecting...grrr!).
Declan did the fever & a little cough, but is back to his usual self now.

Tayvan.
Oh Tayvan.
Poor thing gets hit so hard with every.little.thing.
She's on day 9.
Still has a very low fever. Snot coming out every hole in her head. Coughing. Sneezing.

Sounds like a typical cold, right?
Yeah, except she has the cold buggie in her body and *in her eyes*.
Did I say poor baby yet?
Her eyes are about swollen shut. And they keep crusting over.

We've spent the better part of the last week either in the steamy shower with menthol bodywash lathered up or laying on the couch while she sleeps on me or watches Yo Gabba Gabba for the 20th time that day.

Fingers crossed that my baby gets better soon.
I promise that when she does, I'll be back.
Till then, I'm off to the couch for more cuddling.
Gotta find time to finish out my Christmas stuff and get started on HOF stuff! ;)

Giving Thanks...

1. Family Update: Went to Burleson for Thanksgiving. Had a nice, chill day of food and family. We ended up spending the night at SIL's house so that we could get in line at Best Buy at 2am. It was cold, windy and sucked b/c we didn't get the computer bundle we were in line for. :( But after heading back to SIL's to warm up & sleep, SIL saved Black Friday for us. She'd hit a store for what she needed & then call me for my list. While I watched the kids, she did the shopping for both of us. She *RocKs!*! :)

Settling back in to daily life now. School's back in. Hitting the gym hard-core to make up for the T.giving foodie binge. ;)

2. MotD: This is supposed to be kid related, but the biggest thing that happened lately is...

I got my copy of Espirit Scrapbooking yesterday!!!! It is so weird in the coolest way to see a whole big article about me. Still kinda thinking "Why?" but I hope that the European scrappers like the layouts I did. :) Gotta say...EEEEEKKKKKK! (picture odd little happy dance here!) Check it out...



3. Inspiration: Uhm, check me out!! ^^^^^^ Bwhahaha! Sorry, couldn't help it. ;)

Ooh, realized the scans are pretty bad. Here's some better pics of the layouts themselves. :)

Yeah, I suck and I'm sorry...

This blog thing has totally gotten away from me. :(
I had a crazy-busy last bit of October. (being Red Ribbon Parent for Lilli's class took *so much time*!)
And posted to the MMM blog every week.
So I was neglectful.
And I'm sorry.
Don't know who I'm apologizing too really, b/c not many read this blog anyways...and y'all have probably left since I haven't written in a month. Maybe to myself.
Okay.

1. MotD: Bad day. Mean kids at the playground (mine and others). No one wanted to do homework. Kids in bed early. I'm eating chocolate chip cookies & waiting for Heroes to start. Good news: tomorrow is a new day. That's what I tell the kids when we have a sucky day, so now I'm telling it to myself. :)

2. Family Update: Red Ribbon Week. Halloween (Queen, Darth Vader, & Snow Princess). Pumpkin Patch trip. Boo at the Zoo. Bob out of town for races or at work all night. Pulled a hamstring doing the splits (yeah that I did them to the floor, wah that I hurt myself). Thinking a lot about a boob job.

3. Inspiration: Got a great one today...straight from 2peas. They called it "organizational porn". Bwhahaha! Okay, maybe not, but its GOOD! Enjoy!
http://www.cluttercontrolfreak.com/

I promise to be back sooner rather than later. Okay? :)

What a week...

1. MotD: Declan sounded out 3 words!!!!! I could literally start flipping cartwheels!!! I am so excited and proud of him!!! A couple of weeks ago, we were sitting at a stoplight & he "read" the sign beside us..."That says 'no'!" We were shocked to say the least. I've continued working on the letter names (he knows sounds 110% but not the names as well) & writing them & his name. Today, we had a few minutes & sat down in front of the fridge to play with Tayvan's magnet letters. I made "cat", "dog", "rat", "jog" & a few letter blends & we went to town. I had to help a little bit, but he totally sounded them out & figured out the words!!!

2. Family Update: Allergies Suck. Big Time. I am absolutely miserable with allergies, but its my own fault. In some bad idea version of my day yesterday, I decided to walk outside, weed the flower beds, & air out the house in the same day. Bad Idea. But Clairitin is my friend. Vapo-rub too. Lilli's taking care of me & Bob took me to dinner b/c I was not cooking. ;)

3. Inspiration: Gonna be a tad bit selfish here. Check out the new DT gallery at KI! All the girls did layouts about themselves & each one is absolutely fabulous!! My layout is one of my faves in ages!!! :)
http://kimemories.typepad.com/photos/ki_design_team/mesmall.html

Ta-Da..I'm here! :)

See, I can be good...sometimes. I'm back and just a couple of days later to boot! :)

1. MotD: Whoops, didn't happen today by a long stretch. We were busy. We were running around. It was just a busy day...and I wasn't able to set aside time for something special. Well, the kids would probably say that dinner was special...Mickey D's (every kids fave) eaten in the van on the way home! LOL Yeah, not a Great Mom day, but its cool. Just one of those things.

2. Family Update: We were so busy today b/c unfortunately my lss is closing!! I love my lss and shop there whenever I can, but with my budget I'm not exactly floating their business by any stretch. I'm sad to see them go for sure though. And of course I had to hit the 50% sale today...along with every other scrapper in the whole freakin' area!!!! Ultimately, it took me 3 trips to the store (~20 min each way!) to shop, get a number to pay, and actually pay. UGH! But I got some cool goodies that I'm thrilled with so that's what counts right! :)

Oh, Amy...I'm redecorating our living room. Its been a sorta Pottery Barn chic (well, knock-off PB anyways)...lots of tan, red, chocolate. But I've gotten where I feel it doesn't reflect me & my love of color & funk so much anymore. I'm moving towards a more flea market chic look...vintagey, collected, random. Just kinda "if I like it, it goes"...regardless of what it is. :) I've traded tan couches for bright red ones. Bought the vintage turquoise chair. And once it gets here, I'm going to paint a focal wall turquoise to coordinate with the chair and order fabric for a couple of pillows. Just a deliciously fun process for me b/c I LOVE LOVE LOVE to decorate! :)

3. Inspiration: Okay, I've been hoarding this one. Its one of my absolute favorites. But I'm feeling guilty at such a blah blog entry so I'm doling out the good stuff! Check this site out and fall in love...I want to own every tshirt. But the best part is...even if I can't buy them, I can totally use them as scrap-inspiration! :)
http://www.bellamuse.com/silkscreens.html

La-la-la...

So, uhm...I knew I'd been neglectful. Didn't realize it had been that long! I'm just gonna gloss right over that little factoid and continue on like I blogged more recently than 2 weeks ago! LOL

1. MotD/Family Update: Today's Tayvan's 2nd birthday!!! WOO HOO to my baby girl! :) We had her party yesterday...fun with family, presents, and best of all--CAKE! :) Its tradition for us to re-do the kids nursery into a Big Kid room for their 2nd birthday. But since Tayvan is still totally content in her crib & we don't need it for another baby like usual, we've decided to let her redecorating wait just a little bit. But I'm looking forward to it. :)

Today, we went to Canton to find some coolio furniture. We didn't really have any furniture luck, but I found the most fabulous doors from an old school. They are HUGE 8ft tall, 2in thick solid wood with glass panels! One of them is already turquoise and still has the steel hardware on it. And the best part? $20 for both!!!!! Total huge !!

Then we came home & I searched ebay again for a chair. JACKPOT!! I actually found and won a fabulous turquoise chair! Finally! :) Check it out...

Yeah! So now that its on its way, I can almost finalize fabrics and paint swatches. Soon! :)

2. Inspiration: Okay, I'm just gonna go with this...*everywhere* I looked at Canton today was...turquoise/aqua & hot pink. Granted, I was looking for turquoise stuff but it was all.over.the.place. And mixed with hot pink a lot, but not for girly frou frou stuff. Just for regular stuff--home decor, clothes, knick knacks. So use that as a jump point! And if you need more inspiration for those colors...check out the MyFavoriteMemories.net October 1st gallery tomorrow morning. The October kit is full of bright colors! :)

Back in Town...

So much for regular blogging, but I have a good excuse...
I was busy having a great weekend! :)

1. Family Update:

We went to Bob's family reunion this weekend. Two days out on Possum Kingdom lake. Lots of fun, some not-so fun...but all in all, a great time!

Good Highlights: Kids swimming in the lake. Jumping on the water trampoline and rolling off into the water. Paddleboats. Good food. Family fun. Lots of laughs. Lilli caught her first fish. "Camping" in a cabin just like my grandparents old one (brought back memories). Kids all piled up in the tiny living room to sleep. Family breakfasts with lots of kids helping. Feeding the deer by hand in the morning light.

Bad Highlights: Drive taking twice as long as we thought. Tayvan falling IN the lake and bashing her head on a rock. (still makes my heart race) Not nearly enough sleep b/c I don't sleep well in weird places. A honkin' water bug dive-bombing our bed right as we drifted off. (still makes my heart race) Leaving early so that I could make a OPT Team function that was kinda jacked up.

But all in all...a Fantabulous Weekend!!!
:)

2. MotD:
Trying to work with Lilli on enjoying school work more. Since the weather was great today...I decided to take homework outside. Grabbed the chalk & drew her math table on the porch so that she could fill in her numbers to 50. Still not selling it 100% so at the end of every row, we did a Super Silly Dance! SUCCESS! ;) We did it for 2 rows & I started weeding the flowerbeds with a promise that she'd tell me when she was ready for more silly dancing. *Several* minutes later, she says she's ready. I'm thinking "ugh, girl...do you know how long it took you to do 1 row??!! Focus child, focus!!" So I go over & She'd Finished The Whole Thing!!!!!! WOO HOO!!! Major focus, major initiative for her. Silly Dance. Silly Dance. Silly Dance! :)

3. Inspiration:
Been playing with some super simple digi stuff for Tayvan's invite (which you can see on the MMM blog). Wanted to share some fab digi downloads...fonts, brushes, etc. :)
http://www.misprintedtype.com/v3/goodies.php
Enjoy!!! :)

Have a great day!
...S

Mixing It Up...

Just now posting what I half-way wrote last night! LOL :) It's still Tuesday right? ;)

1. MotD:

Adding Declan into the mix with our RAK's. He helped me hand out a couple of candy bars to folks at the grocery store on the way out. He was so cute..."here ya go! Have a sweet day!" Went to lunch with Tayvan and Bob while Dec was at school on Monday. She was in *rare form*--crazy laughing, noise making, smack talking baby girl. Bob & I were cracking up at her! Great to be able to spend some one on one time with her and us.

2. Family Update:

Okay, not really *family* but I'm going to look at the yummy chair that I found on Craigslist tonight. Its awesome to me and fugly to Bob, but he's said that I can go for it...he's okay with it if I love it. that I love IRL tonight & that the guy is negotiable on the price. Check it out...

3. Inspiration:

Music today mostly but I don't know how to post it so that it plays on my blog yet. So I'll do the link thing instead...

Flyleaf (one of my mega faves)

http://www.flyleafmusic.com/

And a new band I heard on the radio this week...best place I can find is on this guys blog but its a cool song...

http://www.johnmortell.com/2007/06/21/paramour-misery-business/

Smooches all! :) ...S

Hi!

Sorry...went out of town for the weekend. Catch up time...

1. MotD:
My faves of the weekend:
* watching Lilli play with the "big girls" under the bleachers at the football game. It was a lesson for me to learn to let go a bit...she was under the bleachers out of sight, but not out of hearing range with her older cousin to watch her. She did great and followed the rules. I did sneak down to peek on her every once in a while though! Loved watching how she interacts and how animated she is. :)
* Bob playing Kerplunk with the kids at the kitchen table. They were loving playing with Daddy and its a strategy game (albeit an easy one) and he's so good at those!

2. Family Update:
Same old, same old. Lilli=school. Declan=school. Tayvan=crazy silly funny girl. Bob=feeling better, back to biking, working a lot. Me=dancing fool, scrapping nut. Been scrapping a *ton*...can't post anything though. :( Oh, I had a dr appt today. He removed the mole from below my right eye. Its been bugging me...don't want to be "that lady with the mole" so gone it is. :)

3. Inspiration:
I think that this is the new fabric for my couch pillows. I'm going for a vintage-y flea market-y kinda vibe. What do y'all think? Does this fabric look like an old tablecloth to you? It kinda does to me! Yeah!!!!

http://www.freespiritfabric.com/core-pages/gallery.php?gal_id=97&sw_id=2028&add=ok&add=exist

Gonna party like its your Birthday...

1. Memory of the Day:
Today is Bob's 33rd birthday. I should say that our MotD is cooking him a cake, or taking him out to dinner, or something fancy and nice like that. But its not. When I told the kids that Daddy would be home soon, they started to clean on their own so that the house would look nice. Then when the garage door started its grinding noise, they ran and hid (Lilli behind the couch, Declan under the slide, Tayvan and me around the corner in the toy room) so that we could yell....SURPRISE!!!! when he walked in the door. Just lots of love and happiness...yeah, MotD! :)

2. Family Update:
Lilli was Table Master today. A big woo hoo for her b/c its a reward for good behavior. Once the teacher can trust you to make good choices, you get to be a Table Master for a couple of days. I'm not sure what all it entails, but I know she gets to take some extra funsie books for storytime and she was excited about getting the papers to pass out and keeping the table clean. :) WTG girl! :) Especially great b/c Lilli's been talking about how she keeps working hard to make good choices, but not everyone in her class does and she doesn't understand why. I've been telling her to just keep doing HER best and she would be a good example for the other kids. Love that that was reinforced in such a great way for her! :) (Now, if she'd do this at home to be a good example for Dec & Van all the time I'd be set! LOL)

3. Inspiration:
My KI girl, Danni, sent me this link today. Totally yummy fabric goodness. Makes it really hard to stay true to my self-imposed "not gonna take up sewing until I work on my photography" rule. But the fabric is droolworthy. Maybe if I just don't sew with it, if I did something else, I could treat myself to a smidge of it? ;)

http://www.joeldewberry.com/

Tough Sell...

1. Memory of the Day:

Well, my planned MotD didn't pan out b/c Dec's little friend didn't come over to play. But we made the best of it and sang & danced around to the little karaoke machine. Thank goodness for microphones & a hubby who doesn't think I'm crazy when I ask him to put in a stage & mirror in the toy room. The kids LOVE it! :) And I got to snuggle with Lilli for almost 45 minutes while we went through her word family booklet! Perfect! :)

2. Family Update:

Not a whole lot going on today. Dec starts pre-k tomorrow. He's excited! :) Worked on lots of mail prep stuff today--contracts, packaging, supply lists, etc. Oh, I took a pic of the potential pillow fabric. See what y'all think!! And tell me the truth! :) Remember, the wall behind the couch is ultimately going to be turquoise. I like that the cherries are kinda funky cool and the colors are good, but not sure its retro enough to give the flea market vibe that I was wanting, kwim?

3. Cool Inspiration of the Day:

Love this dress. Makes me wish that I was a girly girl...at least for a second. But I'm not, and I'm cheap to boot, so it'll never be mine, but I can glean a little inspiration, right? LOL :)

http://www.betseyjohnson.com/Evening_Graceland_Dress/pd/c/1101/np/1101/p/3223.html

Family Fun Day...

1. Memory of the Day:
So we got up this morning with all kinds of plans. Decided to scratch those and head to the zoo with the kiddos. We had fun walking around for a while, before the skies decided to open up and dump a ton of rain in as short a period of time as possible. LOL We took cover under an awning but Lilli had other plans. She kicked off her shoes and danced all through the rain, in and out and all around, twirling and jumping, and having a ball. Declan and Tayvan joined her a bit...laughing all the way before retiring to shelter with Bob & me to watch Lilli. :) And we got to be the RockStar parents today to the kids. We let them all ride the big carousel at the zoo! They had a blast and gave me & Bob a hug afterwards, saying "Y'all are the best parents ever!" Aaaaaawwww! :)




2. Family Update:
Y'all are not gonna believe what Tayvan did today!!!! She was running around nakie after a bath and told me "Mommy! Potty!" I sat her on the potty & she peed!!!!! Oh.My.Gosh. We did the whole pee-pee party song & dance & YEAH! Probably not really full-on ready to train (she's not even 2 quite yet), but at least its a good move in the right direction!! :)

3. Inspiration of the Day:
What do you need for inspiration? Cute, colorful, cool technique...gotcha covered! :) Check out these super cute little pins on etsy! :)

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5231330

Quick & Lovey...

1. Memory of the Day:

As another of my new ideas, I am making a goal to do some little RAK every day. Some days, little. Some days, bigger. But something to make the world a little more smiley for someone. Today, the kids & I made a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies for the folks that work at the child center at the gym. They take awesome care of my kiddos while I get my groove on, for which I am so grateful. They always know us by name, love on my kids like they are their own, offer smiles & hugs everytime, and just generally make my life so much easier. So I wanted to return the favor. We made cookies and made a Thank You card to put with it. They were all shocked, said they'd never had a parent do that before, which shocked me. Made me want to do it more often for them! :) Here's the card that we made this morning...






2. Cool Inspiration:
On the same RAK note, my daily inspiration isn't scrappy related exactly. But its worth it. Its a website FULL of RAK ideas and stories. If you need a good cry, need to have your faith restored in humanity, this is for you...

www.actsofkindness.org

3. Family Update:
Off to my dad's for a Labor Day cookout tonight. Hope to have lots of fun, lots of laughs, and get lots of pics! :) CU tomorrow! :)

I'm calling it Saturday "night"...

So technically, its 2am on Sunday, but this is my Saturday post, 'kay? I have a good excuse for my tardiness...I was finishing up a layout for the MFM gallery! :) That's good, right? :)

1. Memory of the Day:
So the kids MotD doesn't actually involve me and Bob. That's gotta be okay sometimes! I got a fabulously HUGE Rescue Heroes station toy off freecycle today. It's awesome..lights, sounds, moving stuff. Declan is In Love. And Lilli and him actually played together super well for a while...she with her Barbie house, he with his RH station. Apparently, Barbie wouldn't leave Billy (Blazes) alone at work and kept calling him to come home. LOL :) But all's well that ends well...Lilli, I mean Barbie, talked "Billy" into coming to the house b/c their kitty (Lil Pet Shop) was stuck in the tree! LOL :) I loved listening to them play together...happy, imagination, love. Its not so common these days...the argue more than play together, so it was nice to hear & see that they still like each other! ;)

2. E-Crew Update:
I think I found some fabric for my couch pillows!!! YEAH! Its been a major long ordeal with lots of searching that ended with 4.99/yd fabric at Joann's. LOL I'll take a pic of the fabric laying on the couch tomorrow so that y'all can tell me yeah/nay. I *really* want opinions! :)

3. Cool Inspiration:
So, I'm sharing a biggie with y'all here b/c I'm too tired to search etsy/ebay/et al. right now. This is one of those sites that you're gonna get lost in, so don't click till you have a few minutes to look around. Its a children's clothing company in Australia. Every page of their site is pure eye candy...the layers, the elements, the design. And then you get to the clothes! Check the layers, the buttons, the texture, the details. Absolutely Amazing Inspiration. It always makes me wanna sew something though! :)

http://www.paperwings.com.au/

Back to School Day thank goodness!

1. Memory of the Day:

D/T/me had a blast playing today. Lots of finger-skateboarding, dinosaurs, and blocks. We decided to make a block tower taller than Dec and we suceeded several times. Of course, before I could get any pics, they kept falling! LOL But I managed to get one pic from the probably 10 towers that we built! :)

2. E-Crew Update:

I finally found Declan a pre-k program! YEAH!!! I have been so stressed abot this since getting the letter from Ms. Diana that she wasn't going to be able to have school this year. After lots of phone calls & asking every woman that I met where their kids go to pre-k, I found one that will work. Its a great program, close to home, and somewhat reasonably priced (LOL). Dec had his Back to School day today so we got to meet the teacher, see the room, and meet lots of his classmates. He'll be going M/W/F from 9-2 so I hope he loves it and learns a lot!! :)

3. Cool Inspiration:

Etst again. You just can't beat it for finding the coolest things. :) This is one of my fave sellers. Her whole shop if filled with pretty stitched felt pillows and goodies. Check out her items sold to get the full effect. :)

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5073197

>
1. Memory of the Day & Family Update at the same time. :)

Lilli went to the dentist today for 3 fillings. Yes, 3...poor girl. But she did soooo great! I'm so glad that we got a second opinion on her dental work & that we went with the 2nd dentist to do the work. Afterwards, on the way home, she ASKED if she could go back to school! So, with 1.5 hrs left, back she went! :)

Me/D/T went home to find my boxes from MMM and my MFM kit! WHAT A DAY!!! Pics in a sec. But the funnest part was the kids all playing in the boxes (esp. when Lilli came home too). They were playing house, making "baths" with the bubble wrap, pushing each other around in a train. I ended up doing the train thing too, pushing them all! Got my work-out for the day! LOL :)

So, I know that everyone is just dying to see my MMM loot. Heck, I've been stalking for the UPS man for a few days since they told me it was on its way! LOL :) Y'all have to understand, I don't really spend much on scrap stuff...maybe $10 a month and some months, not even that. I mostly use what MFM sends me & whatevers on sale at HL b/c I'm cheap...I mean frugal! So, just the boxes of stuff was enough to about send me into hyperventilation. But I was/am so overwhelmed with the generosity of the contest sponsers. They truly went waaaaay above & beyond any hopes/dreams I could have ever had! Now my problem is figuring out where I'm gonna put it all! And that's not a bad problem to have! LOL :) So, here it is...

Whew! Now that's a tough act to follow, but I'm gonna try b/c I have to start out being good to my topic limits! LOL :) Onto...

2. Inspiration of the Day:

I saw the cutest little coaster on etsy today! Check out the color combo (a la my in-progress living room! LOL) and the cool way she stitched the ric rac down! Love it! :) Enjoy...

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6849127

Welcome, welcome...hello to all!

Bwhaha! "all" like anybody's reading this but me! But that's okay. It's been a whirlwind time lately and I'm expecting this year to be awesome too. So I'm gonna blog so that I don't forget the coolio things that happen along the way!

For the record, I guess I should introduce myself...
Staci
31yo
wife to Bobby, my hs sweetheart that I married on 1/27/97
3 cool kids--Lilli 6yo, Declan 4yo, and Tayvan almost 2yo
live in McKinney TX
love to scrap, love to dance (other than my family, these are my passions)

So, the latest...
I was selected to be a Memory Makers Master (aaaaaaaahhhhh!) and to be on the KI Memories design team (aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!) Two supa-dupa mega-huge, blow my mind opportunities! I was and still am shocked but its starting to sink in a little bit as I get to know the other girls on the teams, who have all been so friendly! :) Add these fabulous gigs to my beloved MyFavoriteMemories.net & Provocraft teams and Staci's a busy girl! :) But busy in the bestest possible way...doing something that I love!!! :)

My Plan and Proposal:
I am a crazy-wordy girl. That does not work well in blogs. So I'm going to try to keep my posts kinda limited to 3 areas--

1. Memory of the Day: This is a fabulous idea that I've been doing with the kids. Every day, I make sure that we do something special that is worthy of being the Memory of the Day. Some days, its little...playing their fave game uninterrupted by siblings; some days, its bigger...trip to the zoo. Or anything else that happens to happen. But I want to be conscious of what's happening in their lives. And I want to make myself accountable by posting up lots of what these Memories are. :)

2. Cool Finds & Inspirations: Exactly what it sounds like. Just posting up fun things that I find online or IRL.

3. Family Update: I will try to keep this brief! But I want to remember the day-to-day stuff that happens to the E-crew! :)

So there you have it...me in a nutshell & the gameplan. If you wanna play along, GREAT!