Saturday, June 7, 2008

Catch-up Time. . .

WOW! Can you believe how long it has been since I posted to my blog? Where has the time gone? What have you been up to? I personally have been spending lots of time with Monkey and also in my studio. And I have totally enjoyed both!

So, tonight I will share a bunch of pictures with you so you can see what I have been up to. Remember that you can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

Let’s start off with Monkey. . .
I can barely believe it but, she turned 10 months old this week! Monday the 2nd was her “month-day”. Only 2 more months until she will be ONE! She is ridiculously fun to spend time with. She is so active and mobile now. And even though she is not talking yet she is very vocal! Bryanna has taught her to growl and it is the funniest thing I have ever seen a baby do. She is standing on her own now and even took 2 steps this week. Although as soon as she realized what she did she sat down right away and had the most shocked look on her face.

She is also learning how to show her affections now without being prompted. OMGoodness - it is incredible!!!! The other day we were playing on the floor and she was playing with her toys a little ways away from me, when all of a sudden she put her toy down and crawled over to me, pulled herself up on me and threw her arms around me and hugged me so tight and gave me one of those really wet, open mouth kisses that babies give. I tell you I could not control myself! I was reduced to tears immediately. This was the first time she had ever initiated such affection.

Thursday we did a little shopping together, it was time to get her monthly monkey. The monkey we got her is as big as her! And you should have seen her in the cart at Babies-R-Us. She just loved on that monkey, kissing and hugging it and laughing so loud. This monkey is called “Mr Big”. I name them all and lately I have gotten hooked on Sex in the City with Bryanna and Lizzy, and so it just seemed right somehow.


In August, I am taking Bryanna, Lizzy and Monkey to Disneyland for Monkey’s 1st birthday. I have not been there in years and it is B&L’s favorite place on earth. We are meeting Gary & Darwin in San Diego a couple of days later to go to the beach etc. I cannot wait to get pictures of my fat, little Monkey in her swimsuit on the beach! But the other day I decided I needed to make a little autograph book for us to take to Disneyland. As usual, my simple idea got a little out of control. I ended up making this little purse album instead. . .


I really think it is very cute, and I did manage to add a little autograph tag book to it. So now I am all set when we get back - I will be able to just add our photos from Disney to it. It has chipboard pages and even a “page” that is an envelope to hold tickets etc. I made the purse it’s self out of board book, and used a pair of 7 Gypsies handles.

A couple of days later I got this idea for a little board book. I wasn’t sure if my idea would work out or not so I made a little prototype. And guess what? It did work! I just love it when that happens! I made it out of scraps of book board and papers that I had in my stash. I did not make it with a purpose, just to see if my idea would work. So here is my prototype. . .


Since this one worked out so well I decided to make another one a little bit bigger. And I also wanted to see if the parent sheets of art paper would work as well or better than the scrapbook paper I used for the shoe book. Yep, it was a winner too! I even did a little bit of stamping in this one. I am liking using my stamps, something I have not really done in several years. I just love the feel of this book in my hands. I love the book board pages, they just really give the book such substance.


Today I ran down to the Creative Quest and cut a bit more book board for some other projects I have planed. I can’t wait to get started on them! One of them is a note book of sorts for Bryanna. We found some beautiful Paris parent sheets the other day at Papyrus. The paper is very “Bryanna”.


Tomorrow is going to be a sad day for me. I am putting my beloved camera in the shop for a good cleaning and tune-up. I will be without it for a couple of weeks! I just don’t know what I will do without it? I was going to take it in on Friday and just didn’t make it down there. When I woke up on Friday morning I looked out in my back yard and the Texas sage was just exploding with color!!! I had to run in grab my camera and shoot a few pictures.


But now it is all packed up and ready to go to the shop in the morning. I will hate being without it, but as much as it get used it deserves a little TLC from the professionals. Now it will be in great shape for our birthday trip to California in August.


Well, I believe I have caught you all up on the highlights of what has been going on in my world. I hope you have been spending your time with people you love and doing things you love!!!!

1 comment:

Eva said...

Well I sat down to check out and see if you had anything new on your blog and naturally you have knocked my socks off, AS USUAL!! You are such a talent!! I love your latest books, but nothing is as precious as both of those monkeys!!!! We've got to slow down and put our heads together again, I MISS YOU!! Thanks so much for always being such an inspiration.