Fun in the Sun

Fun in the Sun
Originally uploaded by mawkinberd

I was lucky enough to get the chance to win a copy of BrittBree's new kit, Spring Candy. How fun! I thought it only right that I share with everyone how cute this new kit is. I'm afraid I don't do it justice with my little layout, but as soon as I saw these elements, I fell in love. :) Very fun for a spring layout with the little ones in your life.

Today's been a strange day. I guess I'm not exactly feeling my best. Joe has been very mischievous, which is fun, but he hasn't liked being put in his pen for the number of times he's tried playing with the wires behind the television. He loves to pull plugs out and put them back in. Luckily, it hasn't been the dangerous cords, but we've had a time trying to convince him to come out and leave them alone. He's not terribly fond of being in his "box," which is what we call his playpen. Wish there was a way I could reason with him; I hate it when he's this upset.

Well, wish I had something exciting and interesting and fantastic to share, but I just don't. Which is probably a good thing; if every day was exciting, I'd have no need to blog. And I wouldn't want to miss out on that. lol Take care, everyone!

Boy's Picnic freebie

You know, I don't know how on earth I would have the chutzpah to do this, but I'm going to anyway. I have so many people that I've come to admire for their creativity and experience, but I've also just wanted to put my hand in for the fun of it all. So, I finally gave in to the craze. I made a freebie kit for scrapping!



(I'm having issues with feeling pretentious now, so bear with me. lol)
Download elements at 4-shared
Download papers at 4-shared

Download elements at Mediafire
Download papers at Mediafire

Wow, I keep having to pinch myself. lol I had so much fun putting this together, that it felt like I was getting away with something. Besides that, it happened so much faster than I had anticipated! Don't worry, I didn't rush. I was especially careful with it.

Hope you like! :)

Doing my best Sinatra impression

Doing my best Sinatra impression
Originally uploaded by mawkinberd

I had a lot of fun doing this layout. There's not really much of a story behind it; Daniel, Joe and I were out for Saturday grocery shopping and stopped for breakfast at Shoney's first. When we got back in the car, Joe was looking so cute in his little blue outfit that I whipped out the camera and got a couple of shots in. Of course, I'm always torturing him this way. lol Actually, he loves to ham it up for the camera, just seconds before he attempts to take it from me and push buttons or pretend it's a cell phone. (sigh) Children. ;)

I probably should have picked a kit that had some good navy blues in it along with the greens, but something about this one hit me as regal and perfect for the look on his face. Then again, maybe I'm a weirdo. After all, I do like to look at single pictures for long periods of time. :P

Live is going fairly well at the moment, just busy. We're gonna get a breather here soon enough, so I think I'll make it to the weekend. Jo, Joe, Daniel, and I are going to the park this weekend, so it's something to hold out for. Park trip! :D

Hope you all have a lovely evening!

RAK for Angi

RAK for Angi
Originally uploaded by mawkinberd

This layout is a bit of a departure for me. For one, I don't think I've ever used characters as big elements in a layout before. Well, kind of. I've used some extractions of Joe as big elements in a layout before, but that's kind of different. Plus, since we didn't do Halloween with Joe last year, I haven't ever done a Halloween layout before this one. It was fun! :) Angi also made a lovely layout of Joe for me. She's obviously a bit more experienced than I am with the wonderful clustering you see in some folks' layouts. It was gorgeous. I just like to look at it. :) But then again, I just like to look at photos in general anyway, so maybe I'm just strange. lol Though this may not look it, the elements are all from Twisted Halloween by Bubblescrap Designs. I know, different from her style now. It's neat to see how her design has changed over the last year. Awesome!

I'm amazed that I got any layouts done today. I'm feeling better than I have for the last couple of days, but I still feel like I may cough up a lung at any moment. I haven't been as tired by it today, though. It's walking around and getting too hot or cold that really get me now. Then, the wheezing starts again. I hope it's just a minor virus, but I'm not holding my breath. Especially not right now, when I can really use any breath I can get. (snort)

Precious (our dog) is looking much better. She is still holding her hind paw high, but she is favoring it much less. I think the saddest moment today was when she ran back to the steps to come in and hit that hind leg kind of hard on the first step. She was so disappointed. I almost thought she'd want me to carry her up the steps again like I did the first night, but she didn't. I was proud of her. We'll probably still need to give her more ibuprofen for a couple of days, but it looks like she'll be ready to run au naturel before the week is out. I'm glad; I was so worried when she first limped home on Friday.

Have a great work week, everyone!

Park Buddy

Park Buddy
Originally uploaded by mawkinberd

I'm getting so close! For a while, it seemed like I would *never* finish Joe's first year album. Now, I've finished 9 and 10 months old with one page each, and 11 months old looks to be the same deal. After that, I have the 1st birthday, the party, and the wrap-up. I see the light! Now, I get to work on making the video out of the pages, picking out music, burning to dvd... lol. Perhaps I was a bit too ambitious with this project. Then again, you only get to live your first year once! Besides, Joe deserves it. :)

I also have to go back and fix some pages. I started this album when I first started doing digiscrapping, so there are some pages that are so different in quality from the other pages as to make them look like they don't belong. Yeah, my pride is talking here. lol Luckily, it's really only about ten pages, and I only really have to do some embellishment work on most of them. I can handle that.

Joe is doing better today, but he has definitely wanted to be snuggly. I *love* being snuggly with Joe, but I worry when he wants to be with Mommy so much that no one else will do. I have a hard time letting go of him, so I have to watch myself to attempt to keep from holding on too hard. I always make a point to honor when he wants to be let go unless there is a compelling reason not to, like his safety. But it sure is hard to let him go when he's sick. Mommy needs to calm down and let it be. But Mommy doesn't necessarily want to. :D

I think that almost everyone that reads my blog right now is involved, but for anyone who isn't and enjoys digiscrapping, I highly recommend attending the celebrations at MLAS. The birthday stuff right now is really awesome, and everyone is very good to each other. Having taken part in various online groups on different occasions, I can only think of one other time where I was so impressed with the atmosphere of caring, compassion, and friendship that is being fostered there by its owners, designers, and active participants. (Can you tell I love MLAS? LOL!) So come visit!

Ok, gotta get back to it. Hope everyone has a wonderful afternoon!