5 on Friday - July 15th

I was talking to Greg last night about turning my 5 on Friday into a Week In Review type post as I'm finding it hard to always come up with 5 things to talk about. I also said something about trying to keep it family content only so my family overseas and out of town (with zero interest in my scrapbooking) can know to check in once a week for an update on our lives and not be bombarded with layouts and paper talk.

But ...

Today I have very little to talk about besides scrapbooking!!

I fully admit to holing away in my scrap room whenever I can and for as long as the girls will play nicely together. The laundry isn't folded yet. The dishes get done when I'm preparing dinner (and just get stacked on the counter all day up to then!) The girls are having a ball developing Pixie Hollow to their hearts content and, in Marley's case, reading about owls and eagles as much as they like. Meals are offered. Snacks are prepared. Diapers are changed. But really, it's summer so there is little structure and lots of free playtime. As an added bonus the weather hasn't been overly nice so I don't feel too terrible NOT taking them to the park/beach/playground/etc.

I suppose it can't last forever though. LC has been having trouble sleeping lately and I'm starting to wonder if it's not directly related to how much outside time she's not getting. Does that make sense? :)
Ah the Guilt Trips of Motherhood!

So, what have we been doing this week? Well, I will start with my scrappy stuff and go from there.

1. MotherLOAD Week 2

We're actually in Week 3 now but I got caught up in other stuff and forgot to post/do my Week 2 assignments. Our photo homework was to take a picture of something that makes us smile. Well, that was easy! LC tortured me for the entire 9 months she lived inside me but since being born she has made us smile every day. Last Saturday we went over to Andrew and Jonina's for my nephew Matthew's birthday and she was at it again. Check her out here.

I mean really, how can you help but not smile at that?!

2. Caught on Film!

Yup. That's a real live Fairy in the Fairy Garden! In fact, she wasn't the only one we spied.

The costume was Jonina's when she was a child (made by her Mom might I add - wowzers!)

All the girls had costumes on at some point in the evening. It was hilarious!

Princesses Paige and Sophie were "taking care of" the little fairies. Doesn't look to me like Fearless Fairy Christine needs any taking care of, does it? Headfirst down the slide! I ask you? Where does she get it from? What's that you say Aunt Jean? Me?! NEVER!!!

:)

Sadie has such a serious look! She was very serious about holding her dress up while walking too. It was pretty cute! And how she managed to climb the slide with it and not slip, I'll never know.

Sister Sophie can get big smiles!

The Fairy Garden was getting a little crowded.

Then they were called for cake.

I almost got run over!!

Hard to believe that Matthew is 8. Where have those 8 years gone?!

3 kids apiece for each of us will make the years fly past.

I am so glad they are so close in age and that we live so close to each other. Growing up, Andrew and I missed out on having our cousins around which makes it more meaningful now to see them get along so well together. There really is nothing like family, is there?

3. More MotherLOAD - Organization

Our main homework assignment for Week 2 was to think about how we scrap and how our space is organized and identify any places where these two things get in each others way. I used to scrap in the dining room where my biggest stumbling block was having to clean up everything when people were coming over and we needed to use the dining room to eat in (we have an eating area in our kitchen which is where our family meals are eaten normally.) Stumbling block #2 came along in the form of LC who (as I may have mentioned once or twice - insert unladylike snort here) LOVES to get into everything! It became neccessary to have a door that not only closed but locked.

We are blessed to have a little room tucked off from our entrance that Greg's computer and my drafting table are in. Since I'd finished my schooling and didn't see any immediate need for my drafting table to draft on, I turned my half of the room into a scrapbook room. I've loved it ever since but it does have some drawbacks. The main one being that everything is so tucked away that it sometimes takes me a half hour or more just to dig out all the papers and product I want to use on a layout. Let's just say it's still a work in progress!

I have WAY too much product (what scrapper doesn't?) and lately was noticing my embellishment drawer wasn't closing properly. Partly due to too much stuff in it, partly due to the fact that I'd been delving into it so often this month that it had gotten out of control. So for my 15 minute assignment from Lain, I decided to tackle this drawer. Here are some pictures of my progress.

The before shot. This little unit holds about half of my paper (still to be organized/culled), embellishments, ribbon, and so many other little bits and pieces it's hard to name them all.

This is the offending embellishments drawer!

And the after shot. I switched things around and now that top drawer holds all my alphas (and my embellishments are in my old alpha bin). The little basket on top now neatly sits into the top of the unit and holds all my extra ribbon, embroidery thread and twine.

Here's my new alpha drawer. Wanna take bets on how long it can look this neat?

My ribbon basket.

And what's underneath it - my stash of paper bags and some oversized chipboard embellishments.

My new embellishment caddy. When it stored my alpha's I didn't have all the dividers in it.

I also took the opportunity to go through my "sticker/rub ons" bin and my "buttons/brads" bin. In the process I found I had a) piles of brads! (really have to start using them on layouts!!) and b) brad packages leaking brads in more than one location of my room. So I opened them all and put them into this little drawer.

May have been a bad idea. Only time will tell!

And last but not least I borrowed an idea from Lain - to have a box by your desk and as you come across something you no longer want/need you pop it into the box. Once the box is full  you send it on to a friend or give it to someone in need who can make good use of it. This is my box o' goodies which I think I will hang onto until September and give to Paige's Kindergarten classroom.

Oh, and you may be thinking - wow! She did all that in 15 minutes?! Well, no. What started as "take 15 minutes to clean up the embellishments drawer" turned into "take 3 hours to clean up half your scrapping room"! Time well spent!

The final part of my Week 2 Homework is to do a layout using something found during our cleanup that we'd forgotten about. Haven't done this yet but ... soon.

4. Apron Strings Day 8

The challenge over at Apron Strings for Say 8 was "to use the older kit of your choice and combine it with one of Kailyn's techniques. She's got several on the above layout, which may be new to you: the pleated flower, the glitter, the use of more than one patterned paper, even the layering she's done. " I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to attempt to make her pleated flower but was having trouble. Well, I finally got something resembling her flowers done and scrapped. Check it out.

On the left was the first attempt which I hated from the get-go. The ones on the left are the ones I used in the layout below. They are admittedly made with more of a rosette technique than a pleated flower but I smushed them to give them more of a flower look. I just realized that I forgot to add glitter to them like Kailyn did .... oh well, a bit late now!

And here is the finished layout.

A close up of one of the flowers complete with brad.

Products used: Green cardstock from my friend Kara; Patterned paper - DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Girl, AC Tea Party and Elsie Zoe's Brainstorm; Fabric paper was acquired at the Clipper Street garage sale last year and I can't remember the manufacturer anymore, sorry; Journalling card - Colorbok Sticky Journal Stax in Pastel Baby; Phrase stickers - Deja Views Baby Girl Sticker Tablet; Flash card - K&Company Alphabet Cards; Brads - Lush; Chipboard sticker is unknown; Alphas - Thickers Sprinkles Glitter Letter Stickers in white.

5. This just happened

Just to prove that the girls don't stay indoors ALL the time ...

These were taken about a half hour ago. Barbies on the grass and melon for snack.

Ah! Summer!!

That's all from me today. Have a great weekend everyone. Marley will be participating in the Portraits of Honour ceremony here in Ladner tomorrow and then I hope to visit my sister-in-law's table at Summerfest in New West's Grimston Park. Greg will be busy killing himself playing in a soccer tournament this weekend so I think it's going to be just me and the girls again.

What are you up to this weekend?