RaptorMama

Oh man.  October was pitiful.  Halloween is pretty much my favorite holiday but I totally phoned it in this year.  Le sigh.  I was just kind of in a funk, but I’m turning over a new leaf!  Tomorrow is another day!  ::insert random platitudes here::  For real though, I was looking through Pinterest last night and I felt my crafty mojo flickering back to life.  Plus it’s NaNoWriMo.  If you’re not familiar, that’s when RaptorDad writes a 50k word novel in the month of November and I’m left to amuse myself in the evenings.  Which means I can watch all the Great British Bake Off I want!  <3  (Have we discussed my obsession with this British baking show?  No?  I’ve now resorted to watching it on YouTube since I’m blown through all of the episodes on Netflix.  Twice.  It’s awesome!)

So how did I do on October goals?  Not very well.  lol.  Let’s take a look.

1.  Scrap February 2015.  Not a darn thing.
2. Finish July and August Project Life.  I got July done and 2 weeks of August.  I need to step up the pace though.
3. Halloween Prep.  Sad sad sad.  The children ended up with costumes, but it was a last minute cluster.  Perhaps deserving of its own blog post…
4. Finish Xander’s stocking.  Nope.  I tried to work on Mia’s a bit, but realized I lost a small piece of black felt and just threw in the towel for a bit.  But it’s crunch time!  I’ve got to get these done this month.
5. Hand Towels.  Done!!!  And I went ahead and gave them to my mom even though they were meant to be a Christmas present and it was only October.  She loved them.  🙂
6. Felt letters.  Well, I got one letter done.  lol.  Sooooo many to go.
7. Cake smash pics.  I gave up on the idea of a cake smash, but I did take some pics of them.  It’s much harder to take pictures of 2 babies than 1…
8. Onesie Papers.  My mom ended up not needing these.
9. Survive Road Trip!  Emphasis on the word survive!  But we did it.  🙂
10. Fix buttons.  Still need to do this.

November Goals.

1.  Take down Halloween decorations.
2. Make some kind of handprint canvas with the babies.
3. Finish stockings.  It’s do or die time!  I’ve got to get these done so the babies aren’t stockingless for their second Christmas.
4. NaNoScrapO!  I just made that up.  lol.  But I’m going to try to do a page a day in November.  Fingers crossed!  I’ve been getting the Hip Kits Project Life kits (and I love them!) but they don’t make one in November.  Instead I’m getting their December Daily kit, their regular scrapbooking kit, and their embellishment kit.  So excited!  Current plan is to set aside the December Daily kit to use for my December Daily (obviously) and then bust into the other 2 kits and try to knock out December of 2015.
5. Oh February 2015.  How I’ve out you off so.  But with NaNoScrapO, I’m going to try to power through.
6. Felt Letters.  This is getting ridiculous.  Must finish these.
7. FALL letters. I have all of the supplies, I just need to sit down and do them.
8. Make a new calendar.  Like this one.  They’re a bit of work, but it’s so nice for Kate to be able to see what’s coming up .
9. Christmas Card pics.  Professional pics just aren’t in the budget this year, but I took some decent enough pics last year.  It’s a but harder with 2 mobile babies, but I’m up for the challenge!
10. Blog!  It keeps me accountable.  I’m going to shoot for 3 posts a week in November.  We’ll see how it goes!

Ah.  Remember these?  Vintage Raptor!  She was just 18 months in this pic, the same age as the babies are now, and I thought she was sooooo grown up.  I thought it was hilarious that she swiped her friends “phone” and jumped in her brand new cozy coupe.  (Side note: might need to look into getting one of these!  I’ll bet it would blow Xander’s mind.)  But the reality is that it’s kind of scary to think of Kate being old enough to drive, especially in the age of cell phones.  Talk about things I’m not ready for!

I know that there are apps that you can use to track your teen’s location (I *might* have one on my phone that I’ve used a time or two when I’ve gotten hopelessly lost) but those always seemed kind of helicoptery to me.  I mean, either you trust your kid or you don’t, right?  (Friends with teenagers, feel free to point and laugh at my naiveté.)  At the same time, the stakes are awfully high.  Motor vehicles are the leading cause of death for 15-19 year olds in the United States.  So even if you trust your teen, it would be super helpful to have some objective information to help them improve their driving, right?

Check this out.  My brother-in-law and his wife created a product to do just that.  I know this is a bit outside the realm of what I usually post about, but I think it’s a really cool product so you get to hear about it anyway.  lol.  Basically, you pop it in your car (it’s super easy to install; RaptorDad and I had tester units) and then it tracks data on your teen’s driving that you can access on your smart phone.  Actual useful stuff like how hard your teen is breaking, or how fast they’re accelerating.  It can also tell when your teen swerves a little, you know, like when they look at their phone or are messing with the radio.  And it gives suggestions to actually improve your teen’s driving.  Win win.  I love that it’s framed as a positive with suggestions for improvement as opposed to a “gotcha” mentality where you’re just trying to catch your teen making a mistake.

Kickstarter Link

Here’s a link to their kick starter campaign where they have a great video that explains more about the product and its features.  I would love it if you would go check it out!  The more safe drivers on the road, the better.  In fact, maybe I should leave RaptorDad’s installed in his truck.  😉

Ah September, don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.  I was sick, Kate was sick, and there was just not enough consecutive napping going on from the babies.  All that to say that I didn’t check too many things off my list completely, but I did make a lot of progress on some ongoing projects.

1.  Scrap February 2015.  I got absolutely zero progress done on this goal.  Whoops.
2. Finish June, July, and August for 2016 Project Life.  Even I knew this goal was insane, but I did make some progress.  I finished June and I only have one more week of July to go.  Of course now I need to add September to the list.  😉
3. Decide on Halloween costumes.  Partial success.  Kate has decided that she wants to be a fairy so we procured some wings.  She already has a dress that she wants to wear so I think we just need to figure out some accessories.  I have no idea what to do for the babies though.  Suggestions?
4. Scrap 10 current (non Project Life) layouts.  Well, I got 5 done.  I need to figure out a way to get these babies napping at the same time!
5. Work on Xander’s stocking.  I got Xander’s stocking almost finished and I was feeling pretty good about then.  So I decided to pull out Mia’s.  Oh my, hers had almost nothing done.  :/  So I put Xander’s aside and worked on Mia’s.  lol.  I’d say that it’s possible that I can finish one, if not both, in October.
6. Finish hand towels.  I’m so stinking close!  I’m on to the dreaded backstitching.  The end is in sight!
7. Make FALL letters.  Well, I bought the letters.  lol.  Baby steps.
8. Organize DVDs.  Nope.  ::sigh::  I really am a terrible housewife.
9. Finish felt letters.  Yikes.  I didn’t even pull these out.  Rolling this goal over to October.
10. Figure out something for family pictures.  I didn’t figure out anything for family pictures, but as the babies are turning 18 months in a few days I’ve decided to embrace my tardiness and do a Half Birthday cake smash.

I did get a lot done, I just didn’t get the satisfaction of crossing many things off.  I also created a fairly elaborate badge workbook for our upcoming Girl Scout camping trip, and photographed/ printed/ laminated a “Me Book” for Mia.

On to October Goals!

1.  Scrap February 2015.  Ugh.  I just need to sit down and power through.  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…
2. Finish July and August Project Life.  I’m stuck on the last week of July which was our family vacation week.  Since I’ve already scrapped a bunch of the pics, I’m a bit tired of working with them.  I need to either buckle down and get it done or just skip ahead.  Or maybe a bit of both…
3. Halloween Prep.  I need to finish Kate’s costume and decide on and create costumes for the babies.
4. Finish Xander’s stocking.  RaptorDad ordered me some new beading needles and I found a new season of the Great British Bake Off on YouTube.  Bring it.
5. Hand Towels.  My thumb is about to fall off from holding the embroidery hoop.  My goal is actually to finish these today!  If not today then tomorrow.  Or you know, the next day.
6. Felt letters.  I feel like these are a goal every month…  Le sigh.  Must.  Finish.
7. Cake smash pics.  Hmm…  They’re a bit old to do them just in diapers.  I’m going to have to ponder further, but I want these done this week.
8. Onesie Papers.  Not sure what to call these really.  My mom is hosting a baby shower and she wants to have little paper onesies for the guests to write advice on.
9. Survive Road Trip!  Kate is off this week for Fall Break so we’re taking a road trip!  We’re going to San Antonio (which is about an hour and a half from us) for 2 days.  RaptorDad has to work so I’m flying solo with the kids.  Don’t worry, I added wine to the packing list.  😉
10. Fix buttons.  I have 2 super cute dresses that need minor button repairs before I can wear them again.  I’m still nursing the RaptorTwins and I think it’s a bit more wear and tear than most designers expect on largely decorative buttons.

Hopefully as I finish some of these things I can photograph some of them and put them on the blog!

Ok.  I have a really nice camera.  And a really nice lens.  And lately they’ve been capturing more dust than memories.  So you know what?  I took some pictures today.  And no, I didn’t dress the babies up in cute matching outfits and take them to a field of flowers or some picturesque barn.  Ain’t nobody got time for that!  I embraced the chaos that is our right now, messy floor, unmatched jammies and all.  And you know what?  I have a feeling that in 10 years I am going to be thrilled to have these pictures.

Here’s the picture that started it all.  I am a sucker for the “baby in the bucket” picture.  The fact that they were surrounded in books made it even better.  So I grabbed my phone and snapped a pic.  But then I thought, wait.  I can do better.  Instead of instagramming that bad boy, I went and dug out my camera and climbed up on the cedar chest that we use for a coffee table and took some pictures.  Xander thought climbing on the cedar chest was a marvelous idea.  Whoops.

Then I just sat on the floor for a while and took pictures.

Some of them are rather extreme close ups because the babies thought my camera was pretty cool, but you know what?  I love them anyway.

Turns out the light in my living room isn’t too crappy in the mornings now that I open the blinds every day. 🙂

And I finally captured her lone baby tooth!  Side note: it is hard to get a picture of a baby tooth!

My happy girl.  🙂  I think I might do this again tomorrow.  But, you know, in matching jammies.  lol.

RaptorDad finally put his foot down and said that Xander’s baby curls mullet had to go by this weekend or he was giving him a buzz cut.  Okay, okay.  I give in.  ::sob::

Xander was not pleased.  The girls at the salon were fantastic, but he just wasn’t having it!  Is it terrible that when I saw this picture later it made me laugh?  He is sooooooooo dramatic.

I sprung for the “first haircut package” because I’m a sucker.  lol.  They’re trying to take a picture for his certificate here and he’s giving them the stink eye.  He looks so handsome and grown up!  Oh man.  I am going to miss his baby curls.

In other news, my allergies are killing me.  The babies have decided that they don’t want to nap at the same time anymore, which is nice in some ways because I get to have some one on one time with them, but has seriously cut into my scrapping time.  And after they go to bed, I cave and take a benadryl which puts me to sleep.  Why did you stop working zyrtec!!!  Why do you hate me nature!!!  lol.  Still, I got a lot done on my stitching projects the first half of the month.  I might even try to take some in progress pictures for my next goals post.

I was cleaning out my dropbox and found that I never actually blogged these!  So enjoy!

I think I basically pulled a bunch of scraps out of my drawers to make this page.  It’s been a while!  I made it back in April.  lol.

Looks like most of this came from an ephemera pack I’ve had for forever.  That and some scraps from a paper pad that I bought back when Kate was a toddler.  lol.  Still, I really like the layered look.

Y’all.  They have a salon in the store.  Where they do the doll’s hair!  If you follow me on Instagram, you know that Raptor got her ears pierced for her birthday this year, and she was desperate to get Samantha’s (her American Girl Doll) ears pierced too.  Luckily, being a full service salon, they can make that happen.  I also sprung for a hairdo (I must have “money bags” tattooed across my forehead.  That or “sucker”.)  It was pretty adorable though.  They even put the girls in salon style chairs out in the store so you can watch them do their hair.

I ran out of the white patterned paper, so I went with some red from the same line.  And I used the last scrap of that transparency.  I wish I had bought more of them!

I brought out some twine this time along with the prima flowers.  I have been having so much fun “shopping” my stash.  Y’all, it turns out that I have some pretty cool stuff.  lol.

Field trip bottom line: Will we go back?  Hmm…  My neighbor is already plotting a trip in December, but I think we will have to bow out of that one.  While it was magical, it was also freaking expensive.  I’m really glad we went, but I don’t know that we’ll go again.  We might go back once Mia is Kate’s age so she can have the experience as well, but I seriously can’t see it becoming an annual event.  That said, I *do* recommend going once if it’s close by.  It seriously blew Kate’s mind.  🙂

If you’re not familiar with the American Girl Doll Store, everything there costs approximately 1 million dollars.  When I called to make our lunch reservations, they talked me into booking a birthday celebration.  Which, yes, was super cute and totally worth it, but damn.  Lunch for Kate and I was $60.  Wowsa.  But no lie, it was pretty magical.  The food was actually pretty good, and it included cake and ice cream.  Plus goodie bags, and crowns, and dishes for the dolls.  lol.  I’ll admit it, I had a blast.  I almost wished I had dug out my American Girl doll (OG Kirsten!).

I used a lot of the same supplies on this page, particularly the transparency,  and I like the feeling of continuity it gives the layouts.  I also dug out my old school prima flowers and I was reminded of how much I love them!  I’ve been using them loads since then.  🙂

I just added a dot of gold stickles to the middle of the flowers and I love the way it turned out.  Then some Heidi Shine OBV!!!

I love love love this color combo.  Pink and gold are my fav.  I will say that I never thought that this day would come, but I’m almost out of Valentine’s Day paper!  I’m torn between thinking that I need to start following blogs and design teams again to restock my stash and being thrilled that I’m actually using up my stash.  I want to clean out my scrap room and organize it all pretty like a magazine though, so I think I’ll continue trying to burn through my stash so I have less to organize.  Lest you think I’ve curbed my shopping addiction, I am currently getting the Hip Kit Project Life kit every month.  🙂  I started getting the Studio Calico one in January and I liked it a lot at first, but it’s kind of fizzled for me lately so I decided to cancel it and sign up for the Hip Kit one.  Totally the right decision.  I <3 <3 <3 it.  It’s pricier, but amazing.  One day I’ll figure how to photograph my Project Life layout without the glare (tips anyone?) and then I’ll put some pics of it on the blog.

 

 

So.  Kate and her friend H are obsessed with their American Girl dolls.  H’s mom has been trying to convince me for months that we needed to take the girls to the American Girl Doll Store in Houston (about 3 hours away) and she finally wore me down.  😉  Time for a road trip!  Since we are totally crazy, we decided to take the twins and her 2 year old along as well.  And since our daughters are also crazy, they decided to coordinate everyone’s outfits.  We looked a bit like a Gymboree commercial.  lol.

It’s not February, but I have a ton of Valentine’s Day supplies (what can I say, I love pink!) and I’m trying to use up some of my stash instead of buying new things constantly.  And the whole American Girl experience is so girly that it seemed perfect,

I’ve been saving the scraps of this transparency forever and I finally decided to go ahead and use it.  I’m so glad I did!  I’ve been trying to actually USE my supplies instead of just hoarding them.  Maybe I’ll need to shop again in another 3 years.  lol.

 

I ended up making 3 layouts for the trip even though we were just there for a few hours.  In the past, I would have combined the photos onto one spread, but I was having so much fun with my Valentine’s Day papers that I spread them out.  I also found 3 different stories to tell.  I used coordinating papers, but did not try to make a 2 page layout.  I’ll post more tomorrow and Friday!

More fun beachy layouts!

More from The Pier.  When I bought this collection, I wasn’t a huge fan of the more neutral patterns, but now I’m loving them which is convenient since I have a bunch left over from the paper pads.  🙂

I’ve gotten several roller stamps in my Studio Calico kits, but I haven’t used them much.  I’m trying to use my stash though so I’m playing around with them.  I think I like them?

I loved this washi tape, but it was a little thick for the top of the page so I cut it in half.  I’m on a one picture per page kick and I really like it.  Since I’m still doing project life, I don’t feel bad about leaving out some of the pics.  Plus, probably 90% of what I scrap now is from my instagram feed.  lol.