Pay It Forward Game and Thank you!

I came across one of Charmaine's posts last week about a game called "Pay it Forward".

I received a wonderful little package from Charmaine today (which I'm far too lazy to photograph right now) filled with lots of flowers (primas and plastics), some little mini clips, ribbons, chipboard, cord and a Studio G stamp set. Charmaine is also due with her 3rd baby in just a few short weeks!

Now, the second part of the "Pay It Forward" thing is, that I agreed to "Pay It Forward" as well. So, for the first three people who comment on this post, if they agree to "Pay It Forward" themselves, I'll send them a little "gift" in the mail. How does that sound? I'll contact those first three people via email, so please be sure to leave an email address in your post! Thanks for playing along!

Blogger Challenge, Week #18

This week our challenge was to make a card using primarily designer paper as our focus. This was a double challenge for me this week as I also made a double pocket card based on Beate's tutorial.

Hopefully whoever my partner is doesn't peek at this.

Stamp Sets: Little Flowers
Colors: Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Cutie Pie DS paper, Whisper White
Accessories: White Taffeta Ribbon, Stapler, Key Tag punch, 1 3/8" circle punch

Enjoy the other challenge participants to the right------------------> sidebar

October Swappin' Divas Challenge

I participate in a small swap every month with some other SU! Demos and this month our Challenge/Swap Theme was to only use Earth Elements colors. While I love Earth Elements colors, I have a hard time staying within that color group without using another color.

Stamp Set: Bundle of Joy, Canvas background

Colors: Pumpkin Pie, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Confetti Cream Paper

Accessories: Gold Brads, Aquapainter, Chocolate Taffeta Ribbon

Blogger Challenge, Week #17

This week was a challenge to find some inspiration somewhere. This was perfect as last week I was challenged to case someone's card that I loved, using different colors and sets. This card to the left is Sharon King's card that I received in a 3 x 3 swap I did. I loved the colors and the simplicity of it but also the layout.

My card uses the following:
Stamp Sets: So Many Sayings, Bud Basics
Cardstock/Ink: Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla (ink add Always Artichoke)
Accessories: Ticket Corner Punch

Make sure to check out the other bloggers in this challenge for their wonderful work. Their blog sites are listed to the right --------------------------------------------------------------->>>>

Family share

I very rarely share pictures of my family...I don't know why...they are so darn cute, but I'm a little biased ;-) Here's one I took the other day of Sydney (aka, crabbypants) when she was at Scott's desk working. The other pic is of Tristan at his 8th birthday party (Mr. Cheeseball)

So far, so good with baby #3. I see the Dr. twice a week and while I'm measuring a little big (peanut weighed about 5 lbs. last week), my weight gain this time has been awesome (only 9 lbs.). I have to say I am looking forward to baby's arrival and working this weight back off again. Still no girls names picked out which was kind of the predicament we were in last pregnancy, changed the girls name after she arrived. I wanted to go in to the birth this time with name picked out but don't think that's going to happen.

Scott and I like names that are a little different and mostly we love movies so Tristan was named for Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall. Sydney...well that wasn't her original name that we had picked out so no movie story there (although my friend said we could say she was named after Sydney in the movie Scream). Our boys name this time is Finley (Fin) which we fell in love with watching Great Expectations with Ethan Hawke, but Finnegan was a little too much so someone suggested Finley which we both equally loved.

So, any name suggestions, we are open to them!!! Only 4-5 more weeks to decide as I think they will be inducing a week or two early depending on how things go the next few weeks. Also, any tips for getting my toddler to sleep in her OWN bed in her OWN room at night? We have been working on it for 2 months now and it's still taking an hour or two of putting her back in her bed, her getting up, etc. before she finally falls asleep. Baby and her will be sharing a room eventually for a few months so I REALLY need to her to sleep in there ;-)

Thanks for any name suggestions and always for the well wishes!

Blogger Challenge, Week #16

I'm sorry I am not participating this week...I can only blame myself for poor planning.

Make sure to check out the bloggers who have completed theirs (right side-bar). Our challenge this week was to make an ornament and I've seen a few so far that are AWESOME!!!

Kim

Blogger Challenge, Week #15

This week our challenge was to use orange and black in our card/project. I had a hard time not using any other color on my card, so I had to cheat and use a few other colors, really only one primary color (certainly celery). I loved how they came out and I also incorporated the challenge for one of my other groups (layout) in this card as well. Both cards are square cards, the larger is 5.5 x 5.5 and the smaller is 4.25 x 4.25.

Stamp Sets: Fresh Fruits (retired)

Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Kraft, Very Vanilla, Junkitz Halloween Paperz

Inks: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery

Accessories: Black Brads

Make sure to check out the right hand side bar on my blog for the other members, there are some awesome cards this week! (not unlike any other week though)

Going Pink for October

I am going pink for October in order to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. You can do so too by visiting this site Going Pink.

This year I started off with taking a leap of faith and signing up to do the Breast Cancer 3-Day with my neighbor. I was walking, losing weight, enjoying myself and doing a great job at my fundraising efforts. Family, friends, stamping buddies, scrapbookin' girls, and even people I had never met before offered to help.

In April (April Fools to be exact) we were happily suprised to learn I was expecting again. This came as a huge shock to us for 1. we were told we would probably never conceive without the help of fertility treatments even though I had conceived my 2nd without, 2. we weren't really trying, just merely discussing the fact that we might want a 3rd child. It's amazing what happens when you don't really think about it and even though it took me a few months to adjust to the idea of being pregnant again, I was overjoyed (2 under 2 is going to be challenging since there is a 6 yr age difference between my 1rst and 2nd).

I continued to walk with the anticipation of doing the walk even though I would be 34 weeks pregnant at the time. Everyone laughed at the thought of me doing this 3 day walk for 60 miles waddling my hiney down the streets. I tried not to let it get me down and tried to keep my spirits up.

I held a fundraiser in August with over 15 vendors donating products for my event. I was hoping to raise $500 and met and exceeded my goal at that event. I was oh so close to meeting the goal of $2200 and I was so appreciative of all that came to the event to support me.

Then came the hard fact that I more than likely was not going to be able to participate in the event. After all the hard work I had done to lobby the cause and raise money, it was so disappointing to come to the conclusion that because of my health and pregnancy problems in the past that me doing that amount of walking probably was not in the best interest of myself or our baby. So, I decided that I would not walk this year, but felt great about the money that I was able to donate to the Breast Cancer 3-Day and knowing that I helped my team captain out.

So, if you are reading this and feel so inspired to donate, please do so not to my site, but to my walking partner and team captain, she is continuing on without me (her 2nd time doing the walk) and I would love to continue to help her reach her goal of $3000. She's done so much in supporting me and although I'm sure she was disappointed that I wasn't walking, she never let it show. Donate to Tied Tight for Tatas and to the Breast Cancer 3-Day, every dollar helps!