Do you need a pick-me-up?

Well, DO YOU???

Then check out the pictures that follow.....

So do you think he should be in Star Trek? Maybe as Captain Jean-Luc Picard????? The thought just popped into my head when I saw this picture. Maybe Mr.Mister has a future at NASA.

Well, maybe not. Don't think he's going to get very far sucking that thumb.

How about his sister? Apparently she thinks she should be in every picture that I take. If I attempt to do some shots of Mr.Mister, she's in there like a dirty shirt. But really, I don't mind.

No, Polly isn't yelling at me. She's eating grass. I didn't know dogs were such prolific grazers until we got our two dogs. You can find them regularly chowing down in the back yard like sheep.

And that is it for today!

Can I just say that I've been on a tear? Yes, a fanatical scrapbooking tear. My beach house mini book is...DONE! DONE PEOPLE! Ha!

No! I have not been neglecting the kids.

Yes! I have been neglecting important housework items, with the exception of laundry, dishes and dinner. Bathrooms = nuclear zones. Ewwwwwww.

Yes! I have been staying up late and I will start paying for that soon I'm sure.

No! I did not use up my scrapbooking supplies. I used to think mini album = mucho scrapbooking supplies. I was wrong. Still have paper, brads, jillibean sprouts (thanks Stacy!), glue and ribbon left. I am in short supply of pop-up dots though. Let the rummaging through old boxes of supplies begin.

Yes! I am happy that I actually finished something in record time (for me!).

Yes! I could add to it but I'm not going to. Pretty sure that done is done.

Now, let's roll out some pictures....shall we??????

There. Not bad if I do say so myself. Now, onto new projects!!

Threadcakes

I baked, I entered, and now we wait. Ok, I won't kid myself. But I think my entry ranks up there with the top 30%. There are some well done cakes. And I would love to have boxes and boxes of cake mix. Please. My sweet tooth must be acting up. I'm feeling a craving to make cupcakes.

Interesting how this.....

Gets to this, and becomes.....

THIS! Wowee!

Random thoughts floating through my noggin....

*I wish this darn sore throat would go away. Think I've now officially had some version of a cold since december 2010. Boooo.

*Bumpity bump, bumpity bump, I'm all green and covered in bumps; Sweeter than a box of sugar lumps; Oh it's nice to be a frog. @Gramma....Cheers!!

*Laundry, dishes, groceries, oh my!

*Big sis, this caramel chamomile tea is quite tasty with a hint of honey!!

*Rain rain go away, I'd like to weed my garden today...or tomorrow, or someday....soon.

*I'm gonna try Mr. mister in the baby bjorn again....I hope he likes it. He just doesn't know what he's missing.

*If that darn truck deserts me in the walmart parking lot, someone is going to get their arse kicked (used demo I'm driving right now. Would be fine if it had reliable starting power).

*back to thinking what to do for supper. Sigh.

I should be sleeping. But I'm not. I'm falling asleep sitting here, but can't seem to make myself go to bed. And the little guy in the crib upstairs is having a heck of a time trying to sleep. I think he's teething. We'll be heading out tomorrow am to re-stock ourselves with tylenol. Not that I think it does a whole lot of good. But just in case.

So today was a cupcake day. I'd have to say these little suckers turned out ok. I did a dry run of sorts a couple of days ago because both the cupcake recipe and the icing recipe I wanted to use were new to me. So I had to make them to see if they were up to standard. They were not. But after some tweaking, I think I got me some good buttercream icing, and perhaps a new tasty lemon cupcake recipe. Gotta expand out of the chocolate sooner or later!

Check out that icing technique. Kind of beats the everyday swirl. Ok, that's code for 'I can't seem to get that swirl mastered yet'.

So lemon cupcakes with pink and white buttercream frosting on top with some fondant flowers for that special added touch. Not bad I'm thinking.

Ok, the bottom of this one looks messy. Just ignore it. It must have been one of the first ones, or Mr.Mister might have been crying and threw me off a bit in a big rush to go and try and soothe him....then beg him to let me have 30 minutes so I could finish these suckers off.

And my cakepop model would like to draw your eye to the robot cakepops mommy spent all night making...without her special model helper! But of course mommy will insist that her model help her in ingesting those lovely cakepops. They are sure to bring a smile to her face. Oh, wait....they already have!!

These were done with additional cupcakes for a neighbors 1st birthday party. If Lil' Missus face is any indication, they were probably very much enjoyed!

Nothing's cuter than a baby in a jolly jumper. Case in point, take a peek at the cutie pics of Mr. Mister having a darn good time in the JJ.

This would be his second time in the jolly jumper. He got the hang of it right away. And his facial expressions were so cute. Big wide open mouth making little squealing noises. And the drool. Needless to say the next time he attempted the JJ, he got slapped with a bib. Which he promptly tried to eat and therefore increased the flow of drool tenfold. Still cute as a button though!

E is a favorite letter around our house. We are reminded almost everytime Lil' Miss sees an E. So yes, she was thrilled when I finally finished this project and hung it in her room. I'd like to add some more small E's; if I could find them. Regardless, this is a good start...or a good finish...depending on what else I can find.

And they're done with pink. Because right now, pink is her favorite colour. I did not push pink on her, she has decided herself that pink is where it's at!

Camping? Anyone?

I dare anybody to go camping with us. ANYBODY!!!! Do you have the guts? Do you have the determination? Do you have the DARE?????

I swear we have some of the worst luck camping. (Yes, I know it could be worse, but for the dramatic flair I need for this story to be interesting, we're going with THE worst luck.) Last summer we had a nice trip planned. Down to Radium Springs, some golfing, a little hot springing, sightseeing. You know, the usual vacation touristy stuff. Then up to Banff to stay overnight at Lake Louise, because we've never been there. Then up through the parks to the Columbia Icefields to do a tour and on to Jasper to camp a couple nights before we headed home. Well, first stumbling block....I was pregnant and sick. My patience was low and I felt like crap. Morning sickness, heartburn, headaches, tired. Made for some really fun camping. Hear my sarcasim. Radium was nice and hot. +30 degrees and sunny. Lake Louise was rainy and cold. Whatever, we can handle the rain. Did I mention we did this trip at the end of July? Columbia Icefields the rain was coming down sideways. So no, we did not stop to tour. Jasper, much more of the same. Whatever, we'd spend a night and see what the next morning was like. Woke up to snow. Yes, people; SNOW! Yes, I know this is Alberta and the weather changes. But we did not pack for snow. Plus we had the slide out on the trailer and the awning down, and the snow piled up and our battery ran low on the trailer....we did NOT have full hook ups. Whatever. It was not a pretty site. We did get luck and were able to pull our awning in still intact. There was a point when I thought we were going to lose it. And the slide leaked like a sieve. But we managed to pack up and head home.

So this past weekend we headed down to Kananaskis. Now it is the end of May and the forecast called for heavy rains and low temps. Whatever...I've been through rain AND snow, I packed appropriately. 1030pm on Thursday we turn into Kananaskis and five minutes down the road the heavy rains turn to SNOW! Yep, snow. AGAIN! Hey, I packed appropriately. Lil' Miss had her rain gear and boots, long sleeves and pants. So did I. Mr. Hubs....he did not. I warned him. We'll leave it at that. So regardless of the snow collecting on the highway, we continue on. Mr. Hubs, he's ok pulling the trailer. He wasn't panicking...yet. We pull into Mt.Kidd and park in our site. The snow is just a-coming down. We don't roll out the awning, we don't put out the slide. Trailer is still somewhat functional without the slide. Tuck the kiddos into bed and roll ourselves up into our sleeping bags.

Yes, it was still snowing when we woke up. The snow plows were out, plowing out the very undeserving campers. Take note that the road Lil' Miss is walking on has already been plowed once.

People, I want you to look at how much snow has accumulated on that picnic table. There is a good foot there. And this is in the morning at about 1000am. So, what does one do when this happens? You can only hangout so long in a crowded trailer colouring, playing 'crazy eyes' (don't ask), and taking family portraits (on a different camera...). So daddy and Lil' Man had a nap and Lil' Miss and I went outside for some winter activities.

This included running through the snow, throwing snowballs at each other, and of course building snowmen. This is Lil' Miss' attempt at stacking snow.

And here are the mommy and daddy snowmen we built together. Take note of the snowman on the left. It sports a had designed and built by the Lil' Miss.

So that killed about an hour. It was 230pm and still snowing. What do fair weather campers like us do at this point? We pack up and head for non-snowing ground. We figured even if we camped somewhere else in the rain, at least we could safely put the slide on the trailer out and roll out the awning. So that is what we did. We headed for Calgary. And visited family. Camped in a nice campground there and got nothing but sunshine (for the most part).

So....the dare is still there.....Any takers? Wanna go camping?????

CAKE POPS

Yes, I'm still addicted to making cake pops. Perhaps it is my affinity for sugar....chocolate.....tasty treats.....

So I make cake pops and pass them around to the neighbors. I'm sure they are sick of me doing. If they are....I'll just start leaving them anonymously in their mailboxes or on their doorsteps.

This time I thought I'd take a little time and make a bouquet. Hey, all the cake poppers are doing it I'm sure. It turned out ok. The children who recieved it were thrilled!

Look at those tastee little morsels. Yeah, they were good. Chocolate cherry flavoured. Double dipped and some in the shape of flowers. Pretty cute.

And a nice little decoration on top. But why waste a pretty flower? It is actually a hair clip. It was pretty cute too....until if fell apart. Note to self. Use stronger adhesive. I kind of knew it was going to. It was made on the spur of the moment at the last second before I delivered the cake pop pot (say that 3 times fast!!). So I've already got ideas on how to make it more durable. Yep, another crafting obsession to add to my list.

I've done it! My first venture into quilting. A lovely wall hanging to bring in spring. Well, spring is already here, so let's just celebrate that spring has arrived. I would love to do some more of these, but it took me almost 2 years to get this one done...or maybe it just took me one year. I don't know, I can't remember. Anyhow onto the next project in my 'Project: FINISH' worklist. I have 4 more to do and two of them are almost finished. I may get one more done before we take off camping for the weekend, we shall see.

Anyhow, how about a cute picture for the masses.

Take note of the 'flex and game face' poser in the background. Apparently her lil' bro thinks she's a funny girl. She is a funny girl. And you should see her dance. Them dancing shoes she's got on in the picture aren't on her feet just for show. They're her 'tappin' shoes. So there.

I'm onto a couple of new projects. Actually one or two of them are ones that really needed to be finished as they were started a loooooong time ago. My goal this week was to finish one project a day. That's how close to finishing these projects I am. But, sad to say I have not finished anything yet and it's Thursday evening at 10:02 pm. So what am I to do? Well, after I've finished this post, I'm going to finish one. And I will be posting it on the blog either late late tonite or tomorrow sometime just to show that I got something done this week! So there. And I shall leave you with this bit of wisdom.

Who needs technology to have fun?

On days when Big J is at work until very late at night, Lil' Miss has a shower with me as her bedtime bath. That way it's quick, the Little Man doesn't have to cry for too long as he misses his mommy, and mommy gets to have a shower too (heaven forbid the thought!!!) But lately getting Lil' Miss into the shower has proved to be very difficult. Not really sure why. It started out as a novelty and very exciting. Not so much anymore. Anyhow, tonight, getting her upstairs and naked wasn't the problem. Getting her into the bathroom itself wasn't a problem (I'm usually chasing her around, she's naked and I'm naked and Little Man is crying because he thinks mommy has deserted him. Lil' Miss is giving mommy the fake out and running into every room except the appropriate bathroom). I told her to strip off her pull up, which she did fine and promptly went to go pee on the toilet. Hey, not going to argue with that.

I start up the shower.

I know she hasn't pooped at all today and she's a pretty regular little girl...at least 2x a day. And so far today....nothing. So of course I'm suspicious.

Drag her into the shower after she launches herself off the toilet.

She starts to cry. "Mommy I have to poooooop. Mommy I HAVE TO POOOOOOOP!!!" What do you do. One doesn't want to discourage her from pooooooping on the potty, so I let her go back to the potty and attempt to poop.

"Mommy I need that book!" Ok, I give her the book. I am promptly informed that this book titled "Learning the 'DIRTY' tricks of the trade when it comes to car sales' is a Daddy and Lil' Miss book. Ok. Whatever. She's reading the book as she sits on the potty. I inform her that I'm taking my shower while she poops, but she'd better not get off that toilet until she's done and when she's done she's heading straight for the shower to get clean. Yes, I'll be watching her! I get a weird look in return. Ok.

I have my shower. I warn her that I'm almost done and that if she's not done pooooping before I'm done my shower I'll be manhandling her into the shower whether she's done or not and she'll be getting cleaned up. I get another weird look.

All of a sudden I get soap in my eyes (disaster for me....I hate getting soap in my eyes...I become extremely blind). Then I hear the book drop. I hear some squirming. I can't see a darn thing except.....this scenario plays out in my mind...Lil' Miss takes advantage of mommy's blinding situation and leaps off the toilet. She races out of the room to the farthest corner of the farthest room, squats and takes the long awaited poop. Then stops in to see the Little Man who is wailing away and is trapped in his crib to tell him "It's ok, mommy is coming!" Then bolts her poooopy bum downstairs to watch Okey Dokey on tv because I forgot to turn the tv off before we headed upstairs and it's one of her favorite shows. Plants said pooooopy bum on my couch and feels really smart with herself.

Fortuneately it did not happen. But, people, what you need to understand is that this could very likely have become a very real event. Because this is how a 2 year old's mind works!!!! All portions of this scenario have played out at different times already. Yes, uh huh.

Anyhow, I ended up hauling her unpoooopy bum into the shower because no poop came and she was crying and mad because she had to poop, but mommy decided that cleanliness was more important than potty training and after 5 minutes of cleaning her up, the tears disappeared and were totally forgotten because by that time she had her yellow towel wrapped around her and promptly discovered that her yellow towel MATCHED HER YELLOW PANTIES THAT SHE WORE TODAY THAT WERE LYING ON THE FLOOR!!! Wowee! Talk about an exciting discovery. Kids!

Happy Scrapbooking Day

I always shake my head when new 'holidays' appear. How about 'shake hands day'. That was on May 5th. I know that Nurses week starts on Monday....Nurses day is on May 12th. Let's celebrate National Maritime Day or National Teacher's day. Those both happen this month too. There is a day next month called Juneteenth. It the day which celebrates the end of slavery in the US. Also known as Emancipation Day. Apparently it's the oldest known holiday. And did you know that the US doesn't celebrate Easter as an official holiday? Interesting. Anyhow today is known as National Scrapbooking Day. All scrapbook stores across the nation are holding sales, hosting crops, and scrapbookers everywhere are scrapping up a storm! Hey, I did my part and finished a layout tonight.

I'm currently working on the Lil' Man's baby album. So generally just scrapping Lil' Man photos. I finished this particular layout up tonight. It's been haunting my table for the past week I think. It just wasn't going together...so I went out on a limb and kind of did a bit of a random layout, although it is based on a Pagemaps sketch (a little lingo for all those scrappers who read this blog...here's looking at you... sistahs!)

This layout is all based on a PageMaps sketch. I don't routinely use sketches....I think I find them too confining....either that or I just don't follow instruction well (thinking back to the Vicki Boutin class I took where she tried and tried and tried to get me to use the TH foam block thingy to ink my pages with. I kept sneaking back to my good old cosmetic sponge....which I still use. the TH foam block thingy is safely hiding somewhere). But this page came together rather quickly. I started and FINISHED IT in ONE NIGHT! Yo GABBA GABBA!!! (Wow, do I let Lil' Miss watch way too much tv). So there you have it. My contribution to National Scrapbooking Day.

Sent little missy outside this morning bright and early. Hey she asked for it. As long as Kona was out with her she was happy. I took a peek out the window and saw/heard this.
Lil' Miss: Kona you stay there. You have to go to the hospital. Now stay there! Kona walked away shortly after this. Probably thought this wasn't the kind of hospital she signed up for. Of course her walking away started a bit of a fit because when Lil' Miss came back with another shovel full of snow, the patient was gone.....and without permission from her!!

So I actually made two layouts. Count that.... 2! layouts. Both were for submission to Canadian Scrapbooker. I submitted, but whatever. Just proud that I did 2! layouts. So girls, here they are, feel free to comment and critique. By the way, they were submitted for the 'use a candy wrapper on your layout' theme. Some of you may recognize these candy wrappers. I really thought I had saved more of them, for this specific purpose, but I can't for the life of me find them. So I must have thrown them out. Phooey. So had to make due with these ones. This layout took me almost 2 weeks to finish. I just couldn't put it together. I made the background hearts our of Lindt chocolate wrappers and they were just so bright and shiny that it was tough to put anything else on the page. But I finally got it done. And I'm quite happy with it. Also happy with the lil' punkin whose posing in the pictures. How cute!

Cake pop anyone? This is Missy's new treat. She knows exactly what they are. You cannot hide any of the ingredients/materials to make cakepops from her because she knows. And then she asks. And she really really wants.

I know you all are just asking for a dose of cuteness. Well, here it is!

Aarrrgh! So Cute!!!!
The princess and her lil' bro. He who likes to cry. And now he's starting to smile.

How to Scrapbook with a Sleeping Baby.

1.) Make sure the 2 year old is napping safely in bed.
2.) Lay baby on cushion positioned on lap with spit cloth handy.
3.) Nurse baby and surf internet until thrashing dissapates and baby falls asleep.
4.) Have all needed supplies within handy reach.
5.) Be sure to be sitting in rolling chair in order to manuver across floor to get anything that you may have forgot.
5a.) If you've forgotten something that is high on a shelf, learn to live without it.
6.) Make sure path across floor to scrap supplies is clear of obstacles such as toddler chairs, dogs, toddler artwork and art supplies, play monies, plastic food and play-doh apparatus. Oh and get that darn doctor's kit out of the way too. It seems to follow me around.
7.) Reiterate: have all scrap supplies within easy reach of sitting position.

8.) Start scrapping.
9.)If your foot falls asleep or numbness occurs in leg...live with it. One move and you may not be scrapping anymore.
10.) Forget flawless and embrace eye-balling. Stuff is going to get stuck on the page crooked whether you like it or not.
11.) Using border punches is not an option (noisy and more easily done in the standing position)
12.) Forget fidgety tools like the brad maker or the bedazzler. Believe it or not, you require more than just your hands to operate these tools. (Knees and body positioning is important)
13.) Be careful of sharp scissors, in fact just put them aside. Let's not tempt fate. Besides, 'ripping' the paper is considered shabby chic and is the trend right now.
14.) If something falls on the floor, it gets left there. Find another embellishment.
15.) That chocolate stash in the drawer is no longer in reach.
16.) Glimmer mist can work if your baby doesn't mind being sparkly.
17.) Oh and now the toddler is up. So much for scrapbooking. Unless you want a helper.

The new one has arrived. Needless to say I'm now kept quite busy with 2 in the house. Lil' Miss loves her new brother. Covers him in kisses and can't keep from touching him. He doesn't seem to mind too much. Has even been seen to smile at her and stare at her....as much as one is able to stare at a shooting star traveling at top speed.

He's a handsome little guy if I do say so myself...but then again, I'm biased. And he likes to be cuddled. Should probably be taking full advantage of that while I can. Already in 3 month sleepers. If he actually stretches out his legs, he's almost to the end of the 3 month sleeper. Currently 56 cm long and 9lbs, 6oz. I still can't believe he's a boy. Funny.