Thursday, May 28, 2009

Nothing cuter!

There is nothing on this planet that is cuter, as far as I think, right now than Jackson waving.


It all starts with his hand in a fist, turned towards his face. Slowly he opens and closes his chubby little fingers, usually with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, (the definite sign of deep concentration.) Once he gets his fingers going he turns his hand around to face whoever he's waving bye bye to and of course he throws in a big grin to make it even cuter. (That whole I'm-so-excited-that-I'm doing-it-grin.)


My favorite is when he gets super excited and this action requires two hands. Both hands frantically opening and closing, the grin growing even larger to show his two teeth...I love this age! I love that everything is new to him. The other day I managed to entertain him for at least 10 minutes with the wrapper of a straw. Boring to you and me but it was pure discovery bliss to him. I love that!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The big ONE recap...

I don't know if it was due to great organization, a few years of experience or just some freak accident but this birthday party went together without even the slightest of a snag. So not our usual party experience. Let's see, the year of the big cake mishap, the days spent on the swing set construction...okay, I won't dull this post with all that information.

After last year I was positive that I had learned my lesson and this time I was not going to spend the whole birthday party eve getting the cake together. The big kicker is that I actually had it done by 10:00 p.m. What!?! Last year I was still filling in the icing at 5:00 a.m.!


Much to my surprise the cake turned out exactly the way I had pictured it in my head. The only big "uh oh" I encountered was forgetting to put one batch of the candy stars up. Thirty minutes of melted candy madness destroyed by two dogs in about thirty seconds. Lesson learned, always push in the chairs!

The day finally arrived and unlike the years before we weren't rushing around trying to stuff a few last minute messes in unknown and hidden places. We were good to go.

We waited...

and waited...

and waited...

and waited. Where in the world was everyone? It was almost like everyone called each other and said, "Hey, let's all be 30 minutes late just for fun!" I was starting to worry that I had written the wrong date or time. Drew and Jackson got pretty impatient too.


Well I don't technically know if Jackson was as impatient as Drew was or if he just liked banging his hands on the door. I'm going to go with the last one.

Finally everyone arrived and before the cake and decorations were destroyed I had to get a picture of the birthday boy with his favorite birthday aunt.


The star decorations were a little too distracting and it was near impossible to get Jackson to even consider breaking out his usual big, happy, I-love-the-camera, smile.


We started off with opening presents but Jackson the fearless adventurer was only interested in climbing everything.

When it came to the cake destruction part we did have a minor foot in the cake problem when it was time to blow out the candle. I'm anxious to see the pictures of that hilarious moment.


Jackson didn't waste much time when we put the whole top of the cake down in front of him. He made a few funny faces with the first few tastes but after that he was shoveling it in.


He even flashed us a cake and frosting covered "1"!


And then it was time for the "after bath". You know it's a good party when it ends in a bath!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

And the winners are...

RAP said...
My time saver is using kits. All my supplies come ready matched and ready to go.


Jennifer said...
Definitely my favorite time saver is using a sketch (or a template!) to give my creative juices a jump start.


Congrats! Email me at alidavis1919@hotmail.com :)

I loved reading all of your solutions and time savers. I might have to try out putting things together in a kit beforehand. It sound like that would save a lot of time to already have everything picked out and ready to go. Thanks so much for all the great ideas! :)

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Easier than Ever, new Lefty/Righty Collection and a GIVEAWAY!

I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Creating Keepsakes special issue Easier-than-Ever Scrapbooking 2 for a long time. Not just because I've got several layouts in it but because I was so in love with Easier-than-Ever the first time around. It has always been a go to for those times when I'm stuck in a creative rut.

If you are like me and loved the first one, wait to you see number two. It won't disappoint! Page after page of beautiful layouts that are simple and doable but also eye catching and fun. Even if you aren't a simple scrapbooker you can always use these pages a inspiration for a starting point and add your own style in your own way. See, a great book for scrapbookers of all sorts.

You can check out a sneak peek here or click here to order AND until May 31 you can use the coupon code QEYB-5778-ULYB for 15% off! (The coupon code is not valid if combined with any other discount offer.)

AND just for fun, I've got two copies of Easier-than-Ever Scrapbooking 2 to give away! Leave a comment with your favorite time saver and easier than ever solution for scrapbooking and I'll pick two winners on Sunday! :)

Lefty and Righty Collection 2 is in the store! Woohoo!


Four new 2-page templates are available at Little Dreamer Designs. Don't forget that you can also purchase them as individuals too! :)