Photo Challenge!!

Carol has tagged me with a great challenge!! The challenge is to find the 6th picture in the 6th folder and post it on your blog. Isn't that fun??!! So here's mine:

This is a picture from last April. For at least 6 months, this was the face Aaron gave me when I told him to say "Cheese!". Isn't he a stinker??!!

So now I am challenging 6 others: Becky, Veronica, Heather, Okie, Angel, and Liz. Have fun ladies!!

I probably won't be around much this week. I've decided to start my spring cleaning early. I will only be watching the kids 3 days this week, so I thought it would be a good time to start. Between playing with the boys, blog hopping, the Cricut MB, scrapping, and organizing my scrap room, I've been letting the housework slide more than I would like. But no more! So this week I will be cleaning from floor to ceiling. Today I'll be working on the kitchen. I'm also hoping to get rid of some of the clutter by listing some things on Craigslist and freecycle. Maybe I can make some much needed money at the same time!!

I hope you all have a great week! Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Valentines Card for Alex

Here's the Valentine's Day card I made for my little Alexander!
Basically everything was part of a RAK I received last week from Deb on the Cricut MB. The papers are K&Co, I used my new MS punch, some Skittles, and the cupcake is a Studio G stamp. I stamped it twice, cut it out and pop dotted it. And used lots of Stickles of course!!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!! Today Jamie painted and hung up a piece of pegboard in my room. Its hot pink. :) I will take pictures this week and post them. Have a great night!!!

A few layouts and a RAK

Here are the layouts I've been working on. I've done more in the past week than I have in the past 6 months! I feel energized and recharged. :)

This is the first picture of my little Alexander. He was so teeny tiny-3 pounds, 9 ounces. Now he's chubby! :) The papers are Bo Bunny, I journaled on the computer, and the embellishments are Karen Foster. The mobile on the little crib lights up. Its so cute. I think if Aaron pushes it one more time the battery will be dead though!

These are the pics I took on Monday of Aaron playing in the snow! He had so much fun! Last year he played in the snow, but was done after a few minutes. This year, I had to carry him kicking and screaming back into the house! He had so much fun. I had fun too. :) This snowflake paper came from my stash. I've found all sorts of things I forgot about while I was cleaning my room!! Moving on! I also used a Heidi Grace glass snowflake, Jolees snowflakes, DCWV chipboard letters, and a paper pieced snowman that I've had for years. The date at the bottom was done with Magic Scraps adhesive rubons. Have you ever used these? They're awesome! You can cover them with chalk or glitteror whatever you want. I think these are my new favorite thing!

This is my Uncle Lee and Aunt Kristi holding Alex! For this page I used Karen Foster paper, scraps, a Bo Bunny sticker, Making Memories rub-ons and my Opposites Attract cart.

And here's a RAK I received in the mail today! It is from my new friend Deb (Blue-Ridge-Mts-Mom on the Cricut MB) and I can't wait to play with these! The papers are beautiful! And I can't wait to use the punch! She also sent me some dyed skittles which I LOVE! If you read this Deb, THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I'm off to clean for a bit. And maybe I'll scrap a little later! Thanks for stopping in!!

Quick update and more blog candies!

What a busy few days I've had! I've finished 3 or 4 layouts this week in my pretty new scrapbook room. Carol, you were right when you said I would be inspired in there! Every time I walk in, all of these new ideas jump into my head. My old room was a disaster and I barely ever completed anything. Now I'm doing a layout a day and I'm thrilled! Pretty soon the boys albums will be completely caught up! YAY!

Yesterday Jamie was home pretty early from work, and he spent about 6 hours fixing my old laptop from college. He installed all new stuff on it, then he put it, my camera dock and my beloved printer in my scrap room! Then I downloaded all of my Creating Keepsakes fonts on it, so I am set!!

Its been a long, rough few months for me, but so many great things have happened this past week that I feel like things are finally starting to change. Scrap wise, I have my pretty room and computer set up now, I've won a few blog candies and RAKs, and I've made a lot of new friends. I feel very lucky and very, very blessed! Financially, things have been bad for a while. Worse than they've ever been before. After having months of no inquiries of my child care, I've had 3 people contact me this week alone. My ideal situation is to have 2 full time children, so hopefully that will happen!

I have all of my new layouts to show you, but when my hubby hooked everything up in my scrap room, he wasn't thinking about the internet. ;) So I don't have any internet in the room for now, and my camera is in the room... Lol. I will try to upload them later though.

Now for some blog candies! I love goodies! I like to share them too, even the ones I don't enter. (Not that I'm "too good" for something, its just that I don't need to win all girly stuff when I only scrap the boys stuff!) So here are some today:

1. Kim has some great goodies including great Basic Grey papers, ribbons, flowers, and all kinds of fun things! Also go check out her blog because everything she makes is stunning!
2. Melissa also is giving away some "yummy confections" for reaching 10,000 hits! Check out her blog and you'll see why she has so many hits! ;) Tell her Becky sent you!
3. Irene is giving away a stamp set that she designed herself!
4. Sarah from Red Oak Lines hit 10,000 views and she's giving away some ROL loot! Go check out her awesome blog!
5. Katharina from Whiff of Joy is giving away a complete stamp kit. Go check out her blog. Her cards are so detailed and beautiful.
6. Paula has amazing "Blog Sherbert" up for grabs!! RUN to check it out! Also look at her blog because her stamps and creations are gorgeous!!
7. The Creative Cafe is giving away $150 worth of their products. AHHH!!!

I think that's all for today. I will try to post some pictures later. I have the whole day free to spend time with my guys! So I'll be having a great day, and I hope you do the same! Thanks for stopping by!

My scrap room-LOTS of pics!

I've been working so hard trying to get my room organized. At least enough so that I can actually craft in it. ;) So here is my "Scrap Room on a Budget"!

As you can see, this room is VERY small. So trying to fit everything in here AND having room to work has been a challenge! I would love to go to Ikea and buy all of their beautiful storage, or invest in some Jetmax cubes, but I'd rather by groceries! So I improvised! My mom didn't need such a large desk anymore, so she gave it to me! My brother and stepdad put it up for me this weekend and I LOVE it. On the desk I keep all of my cardstock and scraps. The Cropper Hopper paper holders were given to me from my friend Jill for Christmas a few years ago. The container I keep my scraps in was a few dollars at Wal Mart. I also have a pink container that holds my flowers (sorted by color), my Stickles and my bling. In the corner I have a lazy susan that I got at a yard sale for $1. I keep my pens, markers, and pencils in 3 metal buckets that I got in the Target dollar bins on clearance for 25 cents each! Someday I'll alter them... I also keep my adhesives and a few tools that I use often in a little bucket.

The other side of my desk is my work station. Over here I keep my idea book, paper trimmer, and a basket of boy embellishments so they're always handy!!

I bought this 7 drawer container for 50 cents at a yard sale. 50 CENTS! I keep my stamps, ink pads, punches, mini albums, and tools in here.

The small table my stereo is on came from freecycle. And I keep some of my I Love Lucy stuff on top! :) I've had the white table for almost 10 years now. I bought it when I was a junior in high school and first started scrapping. When I got my first job (as a pharmacy tech) I took my first paycheck and went to Lowes to get this table. I still lived with my grandparents then, and I had the whole basement to myself, so I was able to set up a nice little craft area there. Anyway, moving on! I used to use the white shelves in my closet for my shoes, but now that I'm a mom I don't have as many shoes as I used to, so I don't need shelves anymore! I keep my Cricut carts, Xyrons, chalks, glitters, and all of my small embellishments here.

In the drawers are seasons, holidays, alphabets, animals, sports, and school. I bought these years ago at WM. I keep stickers, embellishments, and some papers in here.

These organizers came in a tool box from WM for about $5. They are great for traveling because the lids are super tight so nothing gets mixed up! I have everything mainly sorted by color, but I also have some sorted by theme.

This is where my Cricut and Cuttlebug live. :)

As I said, my room is teeny tiny, so I have to keep things under the table too. Jamie said he was going to hang my ribbon holder on the wall. So maybe that will happen. Someday. ;) I bought this shelf at a yard sale for $3. It is supposed to hold books or movies. But it works great for my ribbon!

I keep my paints and photo case under here too. I also have a rolling organizer with a drawer for Christmas items, baby/kid/family items and a drawer for non-paper crafting items!

Over here is my paper. I LOVE paper. I got the paper rack when the LSS I used to work at closed. :( I have it sorted mainly by brand, but the top 4 shelves hold boy and family papers! On the wire stand I have my albums, things to alter, and kits. On top are my paper stacks.

So that's my room! I still have a few things to do. Pictures to hang and I'd like to get a pegboard for the wall too. I LOVE my room though. I'm so happy. I told Jamie I want to sleep in there! :) Aaron got to play in the snow tonight-first time this winter-so I'm going to print the pictures off that I took and go scrap tonight. I hope you have a wonderful night, and thanks so much for stopping by!!

Blog candies...

I always like to pass along all the blog candies that I come across while hopping! So are some for today! Go check out Kerry's blog!! She has 3 different candies up for grabs, and they're all GREAT! Also check out the So Cal Scrap blog as they're giving away some awesome goodies on Valentine's Day!

Also, check back in this week to see pictures of my newly organized scrap room! I've been working on it for 2 weeks now, and it should be completely done in the next day or two!!! Thanks for stopping in!

I scrapped!!!!! FINALLY!

I honestly haven't had time to scrap for weeks and weeks. I feel so deprived! So this evening I sat down and whipped some pages up. I feel like a new person. ;)

These are pics from Christmas. I love the one of Aaron crying, lol. Jamie asked me why I wanted to put that picture on the page. I want to show all of our memories-even the non happy ones! Aaron was crying here because the first gift he opened was one of those toy organizers with the different bins, and on the box it had a bunch of toys on it, so he thought it was a box of toys! And then he didn't want anything else but that box! Silly boy. Anywho, I used Martha Stewart papers-aren't they yummy? It is glittered. I believe the chipboard letters are Heidi Swapp, and I used some Martha glitters on them. Boy was that M-E-S-S-Y! But worth it! I love glitter!

I finally got to scrap Aaron's first trip to the pumpkin patch. I feel like I'm so far behind! I used MME papers. I've had them in my stash for years. I also used some Dew Drops and the ribbon is from the dollar store.

And I'll leave you with this deliciousness. Isn't he gorgeous?! Thanks for stopping in!!

Mickey Mouse Stamps Winner

Oops-a few days late picking a winner!!! Sorry! Anyway, Aaron picked a winner, and it was Robyn! Congrats!

Blah...

Yuck. I feel really poopy, lol. Pretty sure I have strep throat. Again. I need to break down and have my tonsils removed, but I'm a chicken. Going to the doctor today. But when you get strep throat at least 4 times a year, it gets pretty easy to self diagnose yourself. So I'll be going to get some antibiotics later. I just want to stay in bed for a few days, but that is hard when you have 2 little ones!

Nothing new and crafty to share. Thats because I've been super busy redoing my scrap room. I will be taking a few days rest from that though because I feel really bad. My mom is giving me a desk to put in there, so I've been re-organizing, decluttering and cleaning. My room will be pretty now instead of a big ol' mess.

I hope you all have a great weekend. I know I won't. :( I'll leave you with a few blogs to check out. They are all great and offering wonderful blog candies. I normally like to tell you a bit more about the blogs, but I am just too tired, so here ya go. I'll try to edit it later when I don't feel like I'm going to pass out at any moment!

1. Sally
2. Irina
3. Rach
4. Pink Gem Designs-They're releasing some great new stamps this month!
5. Michelle
6. Lim
7. Simon Says Stamp-All I have to say is...WHOA.

Great candies out there. Good luck. ;)

I'm Walking for Alex!

I'm walking in the March of Dimes March for Babies for my little Alexander. There is a place on my sidebar to donate, but even if you can't donate (I know we can't right now) maybe you could participate in a walk in your own area. And those of you that are local-come join my team! I know for sure that Mom and I will be walking, and depending on the weather I may bring one or both boys! Aaron will make you laugh the whole time! The walk is on April 25 (that was actually my due date for Aaron, and I always remember that!) and it is 5 miles long.

Having Alex so early, and seeing him in the hospital for 22 days was probably the worst thing I've ever experienced. Thankfully he is perfect-5 months old and 15 pounds! He's healthy and one of the happiest babies I've ever seen. It breaks my heart thinking about the babies that never make it home. Thanks for stopping by! :)