RaptorMama

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.

Once in a blue moon, the babies (do I have to start calling them toddlers?!?  Say it ain’t so!!!) actually play nicely together.  And even more rarely, I actually manage to snap a picture of it!

Y’all.  Xander was actually giving a hug.  ::swoon:: And Mia was tolerating it!  They were actually giggling together at one point, but I’ll take what I can get in the non-screaming photo department.  lol.

I think the papers are mostly from one of the Shimelle collections with a few Project Life cards and doilies thrown in for good measure.  I actually didn’t plan on matting it on the green paper initially, but then I stuck the washi tape down too far down on the page and it looked weird.  So I cut off the top and taped it to the green cardstock.  Problem solved.  😉

I love these tiny wood veneer hearts!  They came in one of my Studio Calico kits and I’m in love.  I wish I could buy a million of them, but I’m pretty sure they were an exclusive.

I thought this XOXO embellie was perfect because 1.  hugs.  2.  X for Xander!  And yes, I’m a huge dork like that.  lol.

These pictures were just so cute and springy that I couldn’t wait to scrap them.  I think I scrapped them the same week I took them which is saying something around here!  They’ve just been languishing in my to-be-blogged pile, but I’m dealing with the backlog people!

I think if you’ve read the blog for long, you know that I love October Afternoon and I love summery collections.  This one ticked all the boxes.  And as I have it in the same drawer ad the Crate Paper summery line that I bought at the same time, it’s highly likely that there’s some of that mixed in there too.  And I’m pretty sure the frames are from The Pier, my favorite Crate Paper collection ever.  🙂

I used the frames to highlight the places where the layers intersected and added some butterflies because butterflies make everything better.

I love that heart paper so much.  I bought a ton and I think I’m out.  Same goes for the yellow sunburst I’m using as the background paper.  Whomp whomp.

And can we talk about gold?  I resisted for so long, but I have finally drunk the koolaid.  In fact, you might say that I’m drunk on the koolaid.  Gold washi and glitter forever!

 

Oh my gosh, I really am behind on the blogging as this happened in May.  Kate has loved Girl Scouts so much.  We have been truly blessed in finding the perfect troop.  I think she has learned so much and gained so much independence this year.  She even went on a 2 night camping trip without me!  Her troop had their bridging ceremony back in May for the girls who are moving up to Brownies.  Unfortunately, one of their cohort couldn’t be there, but they were still so excited to put on their Brownie vests.  And, um, I may have cried when her leader took off her Daisy apron for the last time.  So many great memories!  And can I just say that she looks soooo much more grown up in a vest than an apron?  I’m just going to go cry into my Diet Coke, you guys enjoy the layout.

Such a great group of girls!  I kind of threw everything but the kitchen sink on this layout.  lol.  I started with same stencil/ paint, then I layered a bunch of scraps of paper, and then I added some ephemera and stickers.  I finished it off with some gold Heidi Shine because, duh.  😉

Here’s a close up of one of the embellishment clusters.

And here’s a close up of the photo frame.

We start scouts again this week and I cannot wait!!!