Happy Halloween!

Getting ready for Halloween got me in the mood to make a Halloween page. It's crazy to look back and see how little Drew was. We thought he was a chunky baby but now looking back he's not even close to how big Jackson is!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. At our house the last few days have been busy with Halloween activities...

The pumpkins have been carved,



Cookies have been made,


and because I love this day so much (and I'm in a great mood), I thought I would do my very first giveaway!

Just leave a comment telling me your favorite thing about Halloween. I'll leave it open for a few days!

Happy Halloween!

Random

I had bought this wall hanging thing with five pegs at an antique store a few months ago and had been wanting to make some stuff to hang on it. Finally I made one. There are still four to go. I was thinking about making one for each of us and then something about family for the middle one. Who knows. It's one of those projects that gets pushed back when something else comes up. Then I usually forget about, which is pretty crazy since I walk past it about 20 times a day. 

One of the things I love most about this project is the good mistake I made. Don't you love it when that happens? I had originally covered the chipboard letters with paper and a super strong liquid adhesive only to find that I didn't like the way it looked. I was hoping that I could salvage the letters and get the paper off. Well half the paper came off and the other half did not. Before I tossed them, I decided to try inking them to see what they would look like. I ended up loving them. The roughed up look goes great for a boy theme. 

The other day I was cooking dinner and Drew was sitting at the kitchen table painting. Usually when he paints he globs the colors on top of each other and then smears it all around until the picture is a big brown smudge. He never rinses the brush between colors or ever worries about staying in the lines. I'm chopping away when I hear Drew say, "Mommy, I'm going to paint you a picture." When he proudly announced that he was done I walked over expecting to see the same brown mush I had always seen. Instead I saw a painting where he had obviously concentrated very hard on. He even took the time to rinse his brush and tried to stay in the lines. I was so impressed. After it dried it went up for display on the fridge. Afterwards, Drew gave me a big hug and said, "Thank you for making me happy Mommy." What a sweetie!

Mr. Pouty Pants Goes to the Pumpkin Patch

This picture pretty much sums up our trip to the pumpkin patch. I've got so many pictures from the day that include this face and even a few with wide mouthed screams. And not those happy "weeeeeee" screams. I mean those "ahhhhhhhhhhhh, I don't WANT to!" screams. Terrible twos my ass! Threes are so much tougher! I still think he really had a good time. It was just the transitioning from activity to activity that was tough. He didn't want to get out of the big inflatable jumping thing to go paint pumpkins. He didn't want to quit painting pumpkins to go through the maze. He didn't want to leave the maze to go....you get the idea.

This little guy was content with whatever we did.


There was only one time that he got fussy. When were trying to take a family picture he decided to break out the frown. He's got that puckered bottom lip down to an art. I think he got that from his mama.

It's about time for Jackson to get a haircut. I just don't know how I feel about sharp objects around his wobbly head. He can support his head really well but he gets so excited that he won't sit still. But, before we make the trip to Cookie Cutters, we decided to have a little fun with his abundance of hair....


and gave him a mohawk. It was hilarious!

We had really wanted to dress him up as Elvis for Halloween since no wig was required. I looked and looked but never could find a costume in his size. I don't think I've practiced enough with my sewing machine to give it a shot so he's going to have to settle for rocker with a mohawk.

*Linda J, I completely forgot to answer your question! I'm sorry! :) I always do hand stitching, mostly because I've yet to attempt machine stitching on paper! I stitch so often that I just eyeball the spacing when I'm piercing the holes. If you are just starting, Timeless Touches has a stitching template that is a ruler with a line of holes to use as a guide for piercing evenly spaces holes.

Gotta blog and run...

So CKC Kansas City was awesome! I had so much fun. Plus it was so much easier this time knowing what to expect. All of my classes went great and I got to meet a lot of people that I know through the online world.

I just finished up a huge deadline. That's got to be one of the best feelings out there. When you've really worked hard on something and you finish it. Like you can kind of step back and be proud of yourself for putting that much into something and finishing it. Maybe it's just me since I used to be someone who would start something, get burned out and then maybe pick it back up a few months later. Maybe I just happened to find my "thing" this time! :)

A new layout.

It almost looks a little odd at first. You might notice that it appears to have no journaling...but it does. It's hidden behind one of the pictures. I had so many pictures that I wanted to use and I had so much that I wanted to say. So, I created a card/flap that one of the pictures is on and you just open it to read the journaling.

I don't have much time to blog since I've got another big deadline coming up at the end of this week. October always ends up being so busy for me!

One photo. It's not just for 1-page layouts.

Yes, that is just one teeny photo on this two page layout. If I wouldn't have had that picture I still would have done a layout. This is a page that is more about the story, not the pictures. That doesn't seem to happen very often in scrapbooking since it's traditionally a combination of the two that tells the story, usually supporting each other and telling what the other can't.

Of course, because I'm a 2-page girl at heart, I couldn't let the fact that I just had this one picture push me into doing a 1-page layout. And in usual Allison fashion, I just had way too much to say.

The reason I didn't use any ultrasound photos on this layout is mainly because I've got a whole other layout planned out for those. I did try to use some memorabilia on this layout by cutting one of my appointment cards into a heart. I didn't end up getting as much info in the heart shape as I wanted but, oh well. It'll do.

I don't know if I'll get any more time this week to blog or not since I leave for CKC on Thursday. I might try to squeeze one more in before I go! :)

No more red velvet cupcakes!

A couple of weeks ago Drew and I found a cookbook that features only cupcakes. Lots and lots of cupcakes. The book is even shaped like a big giant cupcake. Drew always wants to help me cook dinner so I thought this cookbook would be fun for us. The book is filled with a ton of cute and very tasty recipes that are great for kids. Including these...


hot fudge marshmallow sundae cupcakes. I did most of the work but Drew was my lead sprinkle man and did a great job of marshmallow distribution. He loved it.

Anyway, the other night we made red velvet cupcakes. Afterwards Mike and Drew cuddled up in the big chair and feasted on the blood red cake batter as Jackson watched from his chair. The next day I was greeted with three things that almost made me have a panic attack. Jackson had some red crusty stuff on his hand, a burp cloth was covered with red stains, his chair had red streaks down the side of it... "Oh my god! Jackson is spitting up blood!", was the thought that instantly fluttered into my head when I discovered all the mysterious red stains.

I called Mike and very calmly, ok who am I kidding, I frantically told him my discovery. I was pissed when I received the reply of a good hearty chuckle. How in the world could this situation possibly be funny! (I'm sure most of you have figured it out by now!) It was funny because Drew had managed to drop several globs of red velvet cake batter all over Jackson's chair and Mike had tried to clean it up with a burp cloth. So I've put a household ban on red velvet cake batter in this house!

(This layout has a few pictures that are similar to some that I used on my last fall layout. They aren't the exact same pictures but it is the exact same setting. Similar pictures, completely different story.)

I told you guys I would use those pumpkins on a ton of fall pages. I think this might be the sixth or seventh time that I've used this photo placement on a layout. Each one looks totally different. I used different papers and different designs. I love doing that! It makes a layout go together so much quicker when you don't sit there pushing pictures around a page trying to figure out where to put them.

Thanks to everyone who left such nice comments on my last post!