All While Wearing My Tiara

Aug 29 2010

Weeee’re Baaaaack!

Published by Jen under I ♥ Photography,Project 52

It seemed to be a long drive down and back but the beaches of Hatteras were worth it.  The fam and I needed that time together… especially since Adam always seems to be traveling for his job.  As fun as it was, I am glad to be back home, in my own house, in my own bed, in my own routine.

I’m not going to get into a long drawn out post about everyday of our week long vacation.  You know how it goes…. wake up, beach/pool, eat, shop, eat, do a fun activity, eat, sleep, repeat.  That’s pretty much how it all went down.  I do, however, have a few of my favorite vacation photos to share with you…. ready?….

the new Baywatch Crew!

Picking up chicks…

the Ferry to Ocracoke….

one of my absolute faves….

Sunset the night we cooked out on the beach…..

kite flying…

annnnnd my other absolute fave…..

So, pick any one of those and we’ll just call it week 34 of Project 52.  I also have week 33′s photo… it was just a real quick point and shoot but it’s special to me!  It’s my new vehicle…..

Oh I just love my H3… and I especially loved being able to drive it right out onto the beach!  Of course, it needed lots of “detailed” love when we returned home from that trip.

Now it’s back to the normal grind… you know… laundry, cleaning, running the kids around to doctor appointments.  Oh what a glamorous life!

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Aug 17 2010

Beach Bound!

Published by Jen under Doing It Digi Style,Project 52

Soooo…. next week I’m going to be digging my toes into the sandy shores on North Carolina.  The fam and I are headed for a week long getaway in Hatteras and I can’t wait!  I’m pretty sure I won’t have internet connection there so please forgive my absense.  I’ll try to pop back in on Friday as I’m sure I’ll have some more digital scrapbook pages to show you… but I wanted to give you a peek at these first:

btw…. it’s CATSCRAP‘S 4thBirthday!!!!!  There are lots of sales and celebrations going on over there so make sure you swing by!

new at CatScrap…

Taking Shape Collab by Tiny Toes Designs and Zinnias and Swallowtails
Dry Painted Alpha by Micheline Martin
Fall Reverie -A CatScrap Collaboration

also new at CatScrap…

Everydays kit by Fruitloop Sally (Birthday Guest Designer)
(I also used another template from Taking Shape by Tiny Toes Designs and Zinnias and Swallowtails)

and finally… new as well…

Mischief Maker Mega kit by Micheline Martin
(also used Taking Shape Templates)

While I’ve got you here I’ll share my Project 52 photo with you.  We’re back on track with week 32…

(I was pretty slack on the picture taking last week but managed to catch Kaleb and his “Pa” aka my Dad together while we were at the pool.)

I’m sure I’ll have a boat load of photos to share with you once we return from our beach trip!  As for now… I need to start packing!

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Aug 10 2010

I Goofed.

Published by Jen under Just Rambling

I was getting ready to put week 32 of Project 52 up when it dawned on me that it just seemed too far into the year.  I went back and checked and sure enough I had done 2 different posts with two different photos calling them “week 31″ and week 32″ in the same week.  My bad.  Since I’m not going to go back and reword my previous blog posts I’m just going to show you what should be this week’s photo and call it a BONUS!

The fam and I decided (at the very last minute) to go to Water Country USA.  I had been wanting to go all summer but wanted Adam to be able to go too.  His travel schedule has been super crazy recently and trying to find a day was getting to be almost impossible.  I woke up Sunday morning with every intention of going to church but then checked Adam’s travel schedule again and quickly realized that was the only day we had left…. so we went.

Johnathan rode every single ride!  According to the signs he was a little shy of being tall enough but I had confidence in his swimming and let him go on them.  I really think they post those height restrictions because they assume that people smaller than that would be very young and not able to swim well.  My kids are both like I was my whole life….. extremely small for their age.  Knowing how infuriated I got when I knew I could do something but a ruler decided otherwise, I decided they should go for it.  It wasn’t that big of a difference anyway!

Kaleb rode almost everything.  My sweet little man is scared of the dark.  We don’t have a problem at night because he’s had a night light in there since the day we brought him home from the hospital.  However, rides that were tunnels were turn offs for him.  It all worked out though.  He and I just found some other low key (kiddie) areas to hang out in nearby while Bubs played dare devil.

It was kind of hard to be a part of the action, supervise the kids, and take pictures of all the fun but we did manage to get a few photos in before just putting the camera away in the locker.  I especially love this one of me and Kaleb…. mostly because of his goggles!  :0)

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Aug 06 2010

Sticking With the Theme

Published by Jen under Doing It Digi Style

Since it seems that this week’s posts (and all of last week’s activities) centered mainly around something Superhero related I figured I’d just stick with the theme in my scrapping… at least for couple of pages…

new at CatScrap today…

pictures + words by guest designer, Paislee Press

also used

  • Comic Hero by K Studio
  • Let the Sunshine In by Designs by Lili (last month’s guest at CS)

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Petite Leon kit and Add-On alpha by Micheline Martin

also new….

Dancing Days by K Studio

Some Inspiration Part 1 by Ju Kneipp

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I loooooooove the beginning of the month for one reason and one reason only…… BYOC at The Lilypad!!!!!

here are a bunch of goodies from just a few of the talented designers over there…

  • Woodsy by Valorie Wibbens
  • Summer Walk alpha by Emily Merritt
  • Summer Words by Designs by Lili
  • Painted Words by Designs by Lili
  • An Open Book by Karah Fredricks

(this is one of most favorite pages I’ve done to date….)

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Well, it’s pool time!  The boys have been a little under the weather this week so they really haven’t gotten a lot of swim time…. and they’ve been bugging me about it.  Both little daredevils have now mastered these….

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Aug 05 2010

Because Superheroes Don’t Just Fly…

Published by Jen under I ♥ Photography,Just Rambling

Sometimes they have to make their own disguises…

run some errands…

and fix and pimp their rides.

Don’t forget about their “day jobs”,….

school,….

the occasional interview, and lending a helping hand….

Yes, yes… they do it all (at The Children’s Museum of Richmond on Superhero and Princess Day)

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Aug 04 2010

Playroom Re-do… again!

Published by Jen under "Home Improvement"

This one particular room has been changed more than any other room in our house in the five and a half years that we’ve been living here.  It started out of my “office” when I thought I was going to run my own business as a wedding planner.  It quickly got changed to a playroom but even in that state has been re-done at least five times now.  As the boys grow and change so do the requirements for storage and my personal taste.  Lately I’ve been all googly over the Pottery Barn look.

I’ve known what I wanted for a long time but was having trouble finding a solution within my bugdet…. until…. (enter Class and Trash and Target)…

($24 at Clash and Trash, nice and sturdy solid wood, added a little Chalkboard Paint…and viola, we have a new art center…)

and these from Target…

(on sale for $59 each… a lot cheaper than the $200 Pottery Barn version)

I don’t know if I ever posted pics of the way the playroom was but here is a before photo…  (and even this photo is after many recent changes that room just underwent in April of this year.)

… so here is what it looks like now….

It’s not a major change or anything but it really makes me happy!  Sometime last year I bought the new desks and futon to go in there for the boys and now it just seems as if everything really pulls together.  As much as I love the true Pottery Barn look… this is probably as close as my wallet is going to let me get to it.  There’s also the whole space issue and that I just don’t have enough of it to fit all the gorgeous Pottery Barn desks and furniture that I see in it.

Oh!… and look… did you see the “clothes lines” for their art work hanging above?  This was something that I had been wanting to do FOREVER but never had the wall space and was one of the main reasons why I wanted smaller bookcases!  I love it!  I love the whole room!

As if Kaleb’s three birthday parties were not enough, this was what I decided to take on the week of them all… but I managed to pull it all off!

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Aug 03 2010

Birthday Extravaganza

Published by Jen under Craft Projects,I ♥ Photography

Three… count them, THREE birthday parties for one little boy who turned five years old!  Geesh!  Since Kaleb’s birthday fell on a Thursday, and because our house is too small to hold a bunch of people at once, I decided to do a “family” party on his actual birthday and a “kid party” on Saturday.  Kaleb’s baseball team had also planned an outing at Pocahontas State Park (which gets two thumbs down from me) on Sunday so we celebrated again with his baseball team!  My favorite party by far (though tons of work on my part) was the Superhero party that he invited his buddies to.

My precious boy was kind enough to choose to have his party at home.  I was thrilled with the idea since it seemed that it would save me lots of money.  Well… not so much…. but who cares?  It was worth it to see all the fun the little ones had!   Having the party at home also gave us the chance to do some things that we wouldn’t normally be able to at a rented facility…. like this….

SUPERHERO WHO? A make your own (any way you want) Superhero!

Like em?  Well, I love them.  Some of the kids got into more than the others but that’s the beauty of it… it’s totally up to them!  (I wanted to get a group shot of all the completed Superheroes but totally forgot before sending them home with their rightful owners.

You can do this too… any way you want… it doesn’t have to be a Superhero.  Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Empty water or soda bottles
  • Spray Paint (if you so desire)
  • Wooden Spoons
  • Googly eyes
  • Fabric (or Paper) for clothes
  • marker(s)
  • yarn
  • glue
  • Super Glue

I promise (in case you can’t tell) this was the easiest kid’s craft ever!

I started out by spray painting a bunch of empty water and soda bottles because we were just using capes.  I didn’t feel like taking the label off but certainly you could.  I would suggest doing so if you’re not going to spray paint the bottles and use paper to decorate as clothes.


I picked up some fabric remnants from JoAnn Fabrics for dirt cheap and cut them almost the length of the bottles.  I let the children pick out what kind of fabric they wanted to use for their “capes” but I super glued them together.  Regular glue nor Modge Podge seemed to do the trick quick enough for this part.


I grabbed some wooden spoons from the dollar store (4 in a pack for $1 = a steal!)  The largest one in each package needed to be cut just a wee bit so the head would rest nicely on the bottle and not wobble around because it was too long.  You may want googly eyes to glue onto your spoons or you can draw them on yourself!


Again, a great place for a bargain… the Dollar Tree!  I grabbed yarn in several different colors so the kiddos would have a variety of hair colors to choose from.  We had black, red, brown, and yellow.  Just cut them up into little pieces.  I had the kids spread a good amount of glue around on the back on their spoons and a little on the front of the spoons with a paintbrush.  Then I just had them lay their spoons down into the piles of “hair”.  We made sure most pieces were secured nicely and then picked off the pieces that didn’t actually get into the glue.

Put the spoon in the bottle and tada… you have a superhero… or whatever other version you want to make.  See… easy peasy!


Oh… and the nifty little emblem on the chest… those came from Jacque Larsen’s “My Super Heroes” at TLP.  I recolored some parts on the computer, left some exactly as they were, printed them out, and the munchkins glued them on.

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Another part that I was super excited about was making capes for them to wear during their obstacle course adventures to save their friends from the villains!  I just knew seeing all those pint sized cuties running around with capes attached would be a moment to capture… and so I did…

Here are a few more of my favorite photos from Saturday’s Superhero party…

and here is birthday party number one…

and birthday party number three…

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Aug 02 2010

A whole lot of catching up to do…

Published by Jen under Doing It Digi Style,Project 52

There’s too much to catch you up on all in one post…. sooooo, I’m going to do my best to make it back here each day this week and fill you in on what all has been happening around here.  To start out with I’m going to show you my layout that I actually sat down and scrapped last night as well as last week’s Project 52 photo.  Throughout the rest of the week I will show you:

  • Our “new” playroom
  • Kaleb’s Birthday Party(ies) photos
  • Superhero Craft (and capes)
  • the boys’ water adventures
  • & Superhero Day 2010 at CMOR

I got waaaaaay behind on all of my scrapping while in the process of preparing for Kaleb’s birthday.  Who knew one little five year old could have so many celebrations for one birthday?!  I did manage, as stated before, to sit down and scrap last night with a kit that came out last week by Boutique Cute Dolls, Loreta Labarca, and Studio Basic called Celebrate Life….

also used

My little man is just growing up waaaay too fast.  While he still has the cutest little baby face I can definitely see where it’s maturing.  Sometimes I wish I could just freeze time!

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WEEK 31 of Project 52… because brotherly love is just too sweet not to share…

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Jul 23 2010

A bit of this… and a bit of that.

My kiddos really amaze me sometimes!  They started swim lessons just a few short weeks ago… not wanting to take them at all.  Now the are both flying off the diving boards at “Pa’s” pool!  Johnathan gave it a go a couple of weeks ago and yesterday Kaleb could not wait for his time to test the deeper waters.  J-man even decided to try flipping off the diving board… and he did quite good!  Check it….

I just love those little guys and their willingness to grow and try new things!

I have another photo for you too…it’s Week 30 of Project 52.  I was just playing with the camera while the boys took a much needed little snooze after the pool.  I looooooove this picture of Cookie… though she is a HOT mess.  She is in terrible need of a doggie spa day!

We’re on our way back to the pool today.  Those fishies just can’t get enough of it now!  With that being said… lets get onto to Friday’s Fabulous (Digi) Finds…

new at The Lilypad

Topography 46 by Valorie Wibbens

Whirlwind by Amy Wolff and Gina Miller

new from Shabby Miss Jenn… a collab with Kate Hadfield

Fruit Stand

Alright… I’m outta here!  -gotta get my tan on.

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Jul 20 2010

Who’s Teaching Who?

I am constantly amazed by what my children can, and do, teach me.  All this time I thought I was suppose to be the educator of life’s lessons but over the course of the last seven years I have learned that it’s a shared ability.  The key is listening.  We always tell our children to listen to us, but how often do we stop to listen closely, feel deeply, and learn something from them.  I’ve really gotten in tune to this over the last few years and I just love, and deeply cherish, what they teach me… without them even being aware.

Yesterday they taught me that I need to dig back into my Bible and go searching for a few answers.  Their curiosity in what happens in Heaven was sparked when I took them to lay flowers at my brother’s graveside.  The innocence in their questions and imagination somehow took a little of the “sad” out of the visit.  As Christians we’re told  how wonderful Heaven is and are taught that it is something we should look forward to.  As humans, however, we often let the thought of death frighten and sadden us.  The boys, totally unaware, reminded me that it is something to look forward to.  Sure, naturally we are saddened by loss and the thought of never seeing our loved ones again…. but we will!  And yes, it is natural to be scared of the unknown but as Christians death should not be considered “final” or unknown.  We’ve been told how amazing it will be.  The boys wanted intricate details and to most of their questions the only answer I had was “We’ll only know that when we get there,” and it seemed to put me in a totally different mood… for the better.

Ok… thanks for sticking it out through my rambling.  I really just wanted to share that.

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I have a different kind of Tuesday treat.  It’s not a “Trashy Tuesday” treat because, well…let’s face it… who has enough patience to go consignment shopping with kids?  Not  me!  However, I did get to sit down and scrap with the new “So Happy” kit by Boutique Cute Dolls at Digiscrappersbrasil.  Here are my little men showing each other the kind of brotherly love I wish continued on every minute of the day…

…and I have week 29′s photo for my Project 52 to share!  The fam and I went to a Richmond Flying Squirrels game Saturday because Kaleb’s T-ball team was being recognized as part of the “Banquet Bash” on the baseball field just before the game started.  This shot is of both boys and Kaleb’s teammates cheering the Flying Squirrels on!

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So that’s it.  We had a cancellation in plans today so it’s allowed for a little “down time”…. I’m gonna go nap with Kaleb.

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