Another My Mind's Eye Challenge

I really like the sketches they put up for My Mind's Eye. This most recent one was fun. Cute photos, great paper and an inspiring sketch. Who needs more?

What a week!

What a great week we've had! My first mother's day was fantastic! I got completely spoiled and had a great day hanging out with Brad and Gracie. My parent's brought gifts when they came to visit too, so life is good for this first time mom. Flowers, planters full of herbs, flowers, spinach and tomatoes, a gift certificate to a spa, a new CD, and Gracie even wrote me a little note (she dictated and Brad typed apparently) which was quite nice. As Brad says, "It's like getting an extra birthday every year!"

I'm very blessed.

And the week hasn't slowed down, it started out good and it's staying good. Monday, G and I headed to strollercise and yesterday, Jacqueline came over to scrapbook with me for a few hours, which was great. Plus, she brought the most delicious muffins. mmmmmm...

Now, we have nothing planned today except possibly a grocery run and a ball game tonight (brad). Tomorrow, we've got company coming for supper, Friday I'm meeting a friend for some shopping, Saturday we have a birthday party and Sunday we're going to the mall to meet some other friends. Whew! Sometime, I will need to clean my house and do laundry as well....

Here are some pictures of my parents playing with Gracie on their last visit:





Gracie loves to walk everywhere now since they came to visit.



And my beautiful bouquet:

The Courtyard Hound

Interested in how the Dixie Chick's new band, Courtyard Hounds got their name?

It's from a quote in a book called The Courtyard Hound about using your talent, and I love it. I'm looking for the book now, because the quote is so interesting and inspires a sort of melodic imagery for me. It's such an interesting metaphor.....

"Talent must be a fanatical mistress. She's beautiful. When you're with her, people watch you, they notice, but she bangs on your door at odd hours and she disappears for long stretches and has no patience for the rest of your existence: your wife, your children, your friends.

She is the most thrilling evening of your week, but some day she'll leave you for good.

One night, after she's been gone for years, you will see her, on the arm of a younger man and she will pretend not to recognize you."

Use your talent folks!

Grams and Papa's Visit

We just had a fantastic, but too short visit from Grams and Papa! Even while fighting through teething, Gracie loved spending time with them. They make funny faces, feed her, play dog pile, listen to her stories, read her books, and take her walking. Who could ask for more?

Unfortunately, I haven't downloaded any pictures, yet, but I will. Until then, here's a few of Gracie's new favourite things (besides Grams and Papa):

Pear slices



Laundry baskets (maybe they're a little more fun when mom gives me rides in the basket, instead of jumping in with me...)

This girl can move!

We had to move the crib down tonight, because Gracie is on the move now. She loves to pull herself up on her exersaucer, in a laundry basket (which is her new favourite toy - mine toy, she's trapped!) or on Brad or I.

She can move pretty fast, too for not really crawling. She crawls, but she only goes backwards, a trait she apparently picked up from me. Between rolling, scooting and backwards crawling, she gets around!

The other day, I was getting ready and had her sitting in the middle of our bed playing. I pulled my shirt over my head and in that instant, she was laying on the edge of the bed, with her head hanging off. Yikes! Thank God I was leaning up against the bed and I didn't get my shirt caught on a ponytail or something!

Now, the baby proofing begins....

Here's a little glimpse of her trying to play with the toys on her exersaucer from the outside:




See how much strength this takes?



This is me trying to make her laugh, to see if she'll let go.... (kidding-but she wouldn't)


What a kid!

Music Love

I am thinking about buying tickets to see lilith fair this June...

They're coming to Edmonton and the line up is amazing, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Sugarland, Erykah Badu, Colbie Caillat and a bunch more. The tickets cost a small fortune, but it would be like going to ten concerts at once... hmmmm...... temptation.

And you know who else is going to be performing at Lilith? (unfortunately not in Edmonton or Calgary, but maybe they'll make a surprise appearance)

The Courtyard Hounds! Do you know who that is? It's two of the Dixie Chicks, Emily and Martie! Don't worry, the band hasn't broken up, Natalie just wanted to stay home with her kids a little longer :)

If you know me at all, you know I love the Dixie Chicks. They're doing a stadium tour with the Eagles this summer, but the closest they get is Toronto, so I doubt I'll make that one...

Sigh.

Anyhow, go listen to the Courtyard Hounds and let me know if you're going to Lilith Fair.

Teething Pains

Poor Gracie has been teething lately and she's chewing on everything in site. Her little tooth-and-a-half have been working on everything she can get her hands on. I gave her a slice of an under ripe pear to gnaw on and she loved that, too. She even bit my big toe the other night while I was playing with her on the floor.... To help numb her gums and ease the pain, we gave her one of these mesh soothers to chew on with frozen berries in it. She loved it. It was messy, as you can see, but it made her feel better and she loved the sweet taste.













I can hear you all now....Really? You picked red berries? You must like laundry.... I know. It's what I had on hand and she liked it.

National Scrapbooking Day

Did you know that yesterday was National Scrapbooking Day? That's right, we have a holiday! Since sleep has been elusive in our house lately, I didn't do much to celebrate other than visit my favourite local store to partake in their celebrations.

Treasured Memories is a fantastic store in Edmonton and they had 30% off everything yesterday and a goodie bag for the first 50 people through the doors. Also, thanks to Curtis, Brandi and Jada, I had a gift certificate! Yay! What better way to lure a person in? I actually didn't get much, but I really NEEDED a few things, so I had to add them to my stash. :)

Plus, I ran into a friend, Jacqueline and her son, Jake, that I've been meaning to call for months. If only I had gotten some sleep the night before, I may have had something interesting to say, unfortunately, basic communications were all I could muster. I will rectify it, though. This week, Jacqueline, we'll set a scrapbook date.

Otherwise, I spent NSD cleaning the house, playing with Miss Gracie, and visiting an old friend who stopped by.

Even though we haven't been getting much sleep here, can you think of a cuter reason to be up at night?? :)

Great Day~

We had a great day today. It was still cold and windy up here, so we stayed in all day. Gracie slept so well - she napped for two hours this morning and nearly three this afternoon.... and I played while she slept!

It's just so nice to play with a happy baby who's gotten lots of sleep, and also get something done with your day. Sigh. Simple pleasures.

I did a bit of scrapbooking, took a few pictures, surfed around online, organized Gracie's albums (that's right, she's 7 months old and has three scrapbook albums), and flipped through a new cookbook. Nice.

I also found two quotes, that I like:

"Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground. Let their spirit ignite a fire within you to leave this world better than when you found it."

"What would you do if you knew you could not fail?"

I should put these up on a wall somewhere. Very inspirational.

Here's my little dreamer.



Thanks for those cute hand-me-down jeans, Jada. Gracie loves them. She looks like such a little grown up.

On a side note, does anyone have any good lactose-free recipes? I'd like to get copies if you do.

Gracie and I went to my parents last weekend for a scrapbooking weekend with some family and friends. It was so much fun! Even with a teething 7 month old, who was not herself, we still had good food, got lots of visiting in, and even got a few things done.

I would go back to the Benedict Bed and Breakfast Scrapbooking Retreat any day!

I'll try and take some photos of what I got done tomorrow, but for now, here's some shots of Miss Gracie enjoying her supper. She just started eating yogourt last week, and she loves it! She also tried chicken and creamed corn, but those weren't such a big hit.

New Crafts and a Bathing Beauty

My mom made this super cute blankie for Gracie for Easter. Don't you just love the colours and the cute font she used for her name? It's so soft and cuddly, too. Just perfect.


She also made a miniature version for her teddy bear, which is perfect for a game of peek-a-boo. Sweet.

This is a little ribbon holder that I made to get my ribbons out of the drawer they were shoved in and out on my table, so i use them.

Looks messy, but it takes up much less space and I can easily hold a layout or card up to the bag and see which ribbon goes with it.

Lastly, here's the Bathing Beauty:

What a sweetie-pie, with her little Buddha Belly. She loves to take a bath. It's easy to scooch around on her bum in the water and there are so many toys that can go directly into her mouth.

Happy Girl

Here's my little happy girl in her cute new pants. She really hasn't grown into them, yet, but with a washable diaper on, they at least stay up. Gotta get them worn while you can.





It's impossible to keep socks on her. As soon as you put them on, she's working on getting them back off.

Education, Eh!

Here's a quick peak at some of the projects we made last weekend at Education, eh!

The first few were all about new techniques: masking, copic markers, and stamping with glitter.



I need to add an 'a' to that one, I see....




And then just some little projects to showcase their products:




This was actually not what we were supposed to make with this kit, but I wanted to change the project... It's about being creative, right??



Kinda fun, but the colours are really bright.. not sure how I'll use it. I'm sure I will take a Gracie picture this summer that will work.

It was a very fun little getaway. Learned some new techniques, got to hear from some of my favourite companies and see new products. Plus, it was a fun time with friends. Poor Brad was surrounded by ladies, but he held his own and even got to go to the Bike Shop...

New rug

I have been looking for a rug for our living room so Gracie has something other than hardwood and folded up quilts to play on and I finally found one at Bed, Bath and Beyond (I also found sheets that I was looking for there - both on sale!)





It's quite big, as you can probably tell by how tiny Gracie looks on it, but it's perfect for her to play on. Once we get it all flattened out it will look better, too.

Of course, within an hour of setting it up, a glass of milk got spilt on it....gotta break things in fast in our household.

As a side note, in some scrapbooking catalogues I was leafing through, I found this website
http://www.bighugelabs.com/colors.php

You can upload a picture to this site and it will give you 9 + swatches of colours that they pulled out of your photo. Could be handy for picking out papers... or painting a room or decorating...

Universal Truths and some Scrappy stuff

First, a layout of Gracie chewing on her poor blankie. This was just before we started her on solids and I think she was letting us know that she was ready:





It was a good way to use up lots of flowers that I have...

I pulled these Universal Truths off the Cosmo Cricket blog the other day. Some of them are so true and so bizarre, it's funny.

UNIVERSAL TRUTHS

1. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

2. Was learning cursive really necessary?

3. Bad decisions make good stories.

4. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

5. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this - ever.

6. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

7. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

8. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

9. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

10. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

Can you relate to any of those? Did they at least make you smile? I love #6, who doesn't hate a good hair day gone to waste?

Now that you had a bit of a giggle, here are a few more layouts.



This was one we made at Education, Eh! last year and I never added a picture until now. It seems funny to use this horrible, blurry picture, but it's such a good memory, I had to use it. Both of us were laughing so hard at the time, we couldn't get a picture that wasn't blurry.



Playing with (chewing on) her favourite peacock toy.


I love this Smile Laughter Joy rub on (bottom with the green leafy vine).

So many Firsts!

Gracie had all kinds of firsts this past weekend - first stay in a hotel, first meal in a restaurant, first complete day with dad, first time meeting her cousin Paige, and her first swim!

Lucky girl.

Here are a few pictures of us getting ready to go in (note the super cute housecoat/swimsuit cover):




playing in the pool:







and getting warmed up after:




How cute are those thighs??

We also went to the paediatrician this morning and she confirmed that Gracie is perfect :) She's 17 pounds, 2 ounces (right at the 50th percentile) and 27 inches tall (in the 75th percentile), and her head is still full of brains (she's in the 97th percentile for head circumference). She was full of smiles for her doctor, too which was nice because she missed a nap to get there... We'll see how that affects her sleep tonight. Hopefully, the smiles continue...