Happy Blog Hop!

Well, other than waking up twice with the baby last night and once to pee and then spilling my coffee all over myself this morning I'm doin' good. Surprisingly good! How are you this fine Tuesday?

I've been doing a little scrapbooking lately... and by a little I really mean "a little". It seems like I go through cycles. The gathering cycle and the consuming cycle... and right now I'm definitely gathering more and more and more supplies. They just pile up in their crinkly little cellophane wrappers, all shiny and new. I like to look at them and imagine what I would do with them. And then I go dig through my scraps and squeeze out one over-worked layout. I'm buying a lot more than I'm using! But I know that I'll end this phase (when my hubby stares and my piles and says no. or when I feel guilty about my self-indulgences) and then I'll start using it all up.

Speaking of pretty things to collect... have you SEEN all the cute baby & kids clothes out there? The influx of adorable mermaids, ice creams, robots, dinosaurs, fish, snails, frogs, and fruits is too much to resist! I am constantly inspired by the cutesy little characters embroidered or pieced onto them. Like this adorable little outfit my daughter wears (from Gymboree):


Which leads me to my next topic... paper piecing! Have you ever tried it? Officially? I was feeling particularly crafty the other day and designed a few birdies to put on the layout I was working on. Here's my layout:




Here's the pattern:


I have to run now, but I'll post the printable pattern for you all to download tomorrow!

Tootles!!! ;)

It's a Mosh Posh blog party!!!

Want to win this awesome prize? Go to the Mosh Posh blog today! The party has started!!! Tomorrow we're having a blog hop, so be sure to come by and visit me for a scrapbooking freebie. CLICK HERE!

Mosh Posh May Specials!!!

Lots of great things are going on at Mosh Posh this month, including some awesome deals on new memberships. If you purchase a new 6 month membership you get your choice of a free february or march kit.

Here's this month's kit:

The February kit:

and the March kit:


...how cool is it that you get one of these kits for free just for signing up???

You can also purchase a 3 month membership at the 6 month membership price.

Read about it on the Mosh Posh website.

** also we're having a contest to choose a guest DT member for the month of June. The contest runs until May 15th. You can read more about that here: Mosh Posh blog.

My December Mosh Posh Layouts...

Well, I'm finally posting my December pages! And my January ones are already finished, too... I'm so behind. But I have a really good excuse. I'm SO VERY pregnant right now. Baby #2 is due to arrive in about 12 days. I am tired... exhausted to the bone, but I am getting awful sleep at night. And I'm having the craziest dreams, too!

We are ready for her to come!!! We've chosen the name now, but we're still not sharing until she's born. I love her name... it's beautiful. I'm sure it will fit her perfectly. :) It's been a great couple of weeks because I've had all this time to spend with Benjamin... just me & him. I realize that these are my last days of being a mommy to one, and that pretty soon he will have to share me. It makes me sad in a way, but I know he will be fine. I'm just so overly sentimental and emotional right now, it's kind of skewing my perspective on a lot of things. And causing me to write lots of Honey-Do lists for Aaron. Poor guy. :) LOL!

So, about these pages... I'm not usually one for Christmas things with pink, but this year I had to embrace it. The Dec. Mosh Posh kit forced me to make a real effort to do "pink-ish" Christmas pages. Turns out, I really love the combination of pink, red and green! I even did our card this year in those colors (remember, in my previous post). Anyways, so here are the pages I did with the kit. Sorry, the photos aren't the best... especially the first one. I had to adjust the levels in Photoshop to try to fix it. The sunlight wasn't the best.

I'm taking a 2 month (possibly 3) break from Mosh Posh to adjust to life with 2 kids. So, it will be a few months before I have any pages to share. I can't imagine I'll have much time for scrapbooking. But, I will be taking lots of photos, so I can share those.

Feeling Good...

Yay! Our tree is up (still no star yet, though!)... it's really feeling like Christmas in my cozy little bungalow house. I love Christmas decorations.

I am REALLY REALLY enjoying scrapbooking now that I'm on bedrest... er, "house arrest" as my doctor calls it. Thankfully, I can sit at the table or couch for some time. I don't have to be horizontal all day and THAT is a huge relief. I can live a somewhat normal, albeit lazy & sloth-like, existence. Anyways... back to scrapbooking. I always liked it, but now it's so much more than a hobby. It's sanity. It's therapy!!! :) Here are some sneak peeks as to what I've been up to with the December Mosh Posh kit:


I can't share all of my December Mosh Posh projects with you all yet (I have to upload to the Design Team gallery, first). So those will have to wait for another day. But I CAN share this really neat-o serving tray I made for the online class.


It was an easy project, it just takes a little time... basically waiting for paint to dry. I have it sitting on the lamp table by our front door now. It's going to be the permanent place where I keep all the Christmas cards we recieve this year (hello! send Christmas cards!).


Speaking of Christmas cards... want to see the evolution of our Christmas photo/card? The first year we just did a Costco card, so I only have the photo for that one. But, here they are... my changing family:

2006:


2007:


2008:

Next year our family will change even more on our Christmas card... we'll hopefully have a healthy baby girl, almost 1 year old. :)

She will still enjoy scrapbooking... in bed.

Well, it's been a crazy week for me! I started bleeding on Saturday morning last week and we freaked out completely. There were clots and it was pretty fresh, so we zipped over to the hospital after calling my OB on the emergency line. They checked me in every way possible... we got some very detailed ultrasounds, I was monitored, blood was taken, urine was taken, and my doctor came in to examine me. The bleeding didn't continue for long and wasn't heavy, the baby and I were both fine... so we were released. I was told to take it easy until I called the office on Monday for follow-up.

So, Monday I called and got an appointment with one of the OB's around 2 p.m. She said everything seemed to be fine and that I needed to stop lifting my son, Ben. I agreed to that and left feeling relieved. Well... that relief was short-lived because at about 9:40 p.m. on Monday I used the toilet and started bleeding again. Heavy this time, with huge clots about 3 inches diameter. I called the emergency line, but I already knew the doctor on call would have me come to the hospital, so I was prepared. It was scary. I thought I was losing the baby. My parents came to get Ben and Aaron and I headed to the hospital again. My OB told me on the phone that she would be admitting me this time. So I had my pillow and a small bag packed.

I ended up bleeding that time for about 24 hours. They hooked me up to an IV and monitors and began a round of steroid shots to help mature the baby's lungs just in case of a pre-term delivery. She still seemed to be 100% fine and not in distress at all. A perinatologist (sp?) came in to see me and said it seemed to be a subchorionic (sp?) bleed between the uterus and the sac. The thing is, no one can really say where the bleeding is coming from. So, I've been put on bed rest. I was released in time for Thanksgiving.

Bed rest has been hard so far. I'm mourning the loss of some of the usual activities I've taken for granted up until now. Also, it's the Holiday season and I will be missing out on a lot of that. No hustle and bustle for me. Or shopping. Or tree decorating. But I'm doing OK... my spirits have been up the past 2 days. I'm settling in to a routine, which is nice. My husband, parents, friends, and in-laws have been wonderful to me.

I will learn more about the situation when I visit the OB and perinatologist this week. As long as I am resting, the bleeding is not likely to re-occur. I think I'll be on bed rest until the end of December. At least I think that's when we'll re-evaluate my activity level.

So... that's the scoop. I am able to do digital scrapbooking very easily from the laptop, and I plan to try to use my Mosh Posh kit this month and see how easy (or difficult) it is to scrap in bed. :) I think I need to keep scrapping or else I'll go completely crazy!

Anyways, keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I will probably be better at blogging now that I'm spending all of my time here on the laptop! So, that's a positive!

Can you believe it's November already???

It's been such a fast month... and for that I'm glad! I'm finally in my third trimester, but I'm ready to meet this baby already. Lots of the usual aches & pains, and the kind of exhaustion that just smacks me down. But despite these few complaints I'm really enjoying this pregnancy. I mean, look at me! I'm even scrapbooking. That's a miracle in itself because when I was pregnant with Ben I didn't do anything but nap and stare at the TV like a vegetable (don't get me wrong, I still do those things... just not as often).

So, speaking of scrapbooking. I want to share my contribution to the Mosh Posh Design Team for the month of November. I LOVED this kit... like I love coffee and chocolate. It was THAT good. And even after making these very generous pages I still have gobs of supplies left from it. I was very into hand-stitching with colorful embroidery floss this month, as you can see. I have it on almost every page. It makes the page feel richer and more homespun. If you have the extra time, try it. It's great to do the stitching when you're on the couch watching something with only half your attention (like, say, Sunday and Monday night football). I just punch the holes first with an awl and then go through with the needle and floss... although I've seen newfangled tools that you roll along the page and it punches evenly spaced holes. How cool is that?

So, here are my recent pages (including my first ever attempt ay a 6x12 layout):






And here's a shot of the whole kit:


The December kit is going to rock, too. I designed a custom stamp for Kristen which is hopefully being quickly produced right now! I hope it gets finished in time to make it in the kits. It's pretty swell, if I don't say so myself. I also know we'll be getting some nifty add-ons which involve a cute house to decorate... and messy glitter. Can't have enough of those!!!

Anyways, I'm parched and quite hungry for a nibble of something yummy, so I better go! I'm really going to try my hardest to post before this time next month, OK? Talk at you later!