Hambly Goodness!

After getting that lovely package of goodies from Hambly last week, I had to do some major scrapping. Here's what I've come up with so far. I can't get enough of the rubs and overlays....they are so gorgeous.

PLUS, i just got my copy of Mini Albums II from Scrapbook Trends this weekend. I've got a two page spread in there featuring a mini album I created, called "Sarah @ 2". The book is incredibly inspiring...I've been pouring over everyone's work all weekend :) I haven't submitted any of my work in so long. I really have to start doing that again. Anyone else totally slacking on the submissions lately? It seems like I always need someone to tell me to submit (that someone usually being Tracey!), otherwise I won't do it at all. UGH

I spent the weekend shopping, playing with my daughter, and hosting my family for a delish bbq. Overall, it was a relaxing and fun couple of days with the family. I'm hoping this week is filled with more of the same. The only real plans I have is to go back to Michael's to check out the Martha Stuart line and the gorgeous Amy Butler release. Not that I need any more scrap supplies...eek. I might need a whole new house to store all of the supplies I have right now, lol. Sarah and I will be learning the letter "b" this week, as well as going over her shapes again. We've mastered the colors and letters a, r, s, o, m, w, and i. It amazes me how fast she absorbs her lessons. If only I had a class filled with students like her when I was teaching ;)

Oh, and I got this from Tracy's blog today. My personal DNA...thanks for the link girl :)

Read my VisualDNA™     Get your own VisualDNA™

Could I Cry any MORE??

American Idol Gives Back made be cry for two full hours. The thought that women and children live in such extreme poverty around the world is unbearable to perceive. And to see that the New Orleans victims are still living in such squalor is horrific. We donated as much as we could and I hope many many others did as well. No one in the world should live like that. It's such a sad commentary on the world that we allow children to live and die like that.

Here's my new headshot. It was taken at Easter. I'm liking it since it's probably the last good one I'll have of me before turning 30...eeeeek. But the teenager down the block told me this weekend that she thought I was 23, so judging by the fact that teenagers are SOOO smart, wink wink, I'll take her word for it :P

And can anyone else believe that House has a BRITISH ACCENT!!! That just blew me out of my seat tonight! Who knew he was British?? He does an American accent perfectly. I think I love that show even more now.

I got some awesome scrap mail recently. An overflowing box of Hambly rubons, transparencies and paper...LOVE. And a goodie box filled with buttons, buttons and more buttons. Gotta luv those little discs of happiness! I have two layouts to photograph and put up asap. And I'm working on two mother's day albums for my mom and MIL.

Three of my paper lines with Dream Street were featured on my favorite pattern blog!! It was such an honor to see them up there:) Plus, I won an awesome prize from the ever awesome PageFrames site. I'll post a pic once the goodness gets here.

More scrappin' fun!

This was the ScrapHype Kit club's April kit. Loved the Sass and I added in some Hambly robot rubs just because I love them so much!

Nothing much going on here today. It was a gorgeous day outside so we played with the neighborhood kids and took a few walks to check out sarah's favorite 'doggies'. I learned that I'm not all that great at pitching a ball to kids under four feet tall and my Miss Mary Mack skills could use a little brushing up. Sarah, the ever loving chatterbox that she is, seems to all but become mute when the other kiddos are around. But she prompty begins calling thier names and chatting it up with me the second they leave our property. Hopefully she'll grow out of this shyness soon. We had a little talk about it tonight and she said "ok mommy" to trying to talk to them more tomorrow. Who knows if she grasps the concept but I really do want her to feel comfortable enough to chat it up with them.

I can understand why she doesn't though. These kids are QUITE overwhelming, loud, and BUSY. She kind of gets lost in the chaos, but she has learned some great little things from watching them. She now asks to "take turns" and tells me when it is my turn - sometimes even allowing me to go first, lol. She also tried to climb up the slide backwards today after watching one of the girls do it. She beamed from ear to ear when she finally got up there.

I love when the weather is great like it was today. The weekend promises to be even better...I wonder what wonderful (or not so wonderful) little tidbits she'll pick up this weekend :)

ScrapFest

Be warned...I scrapped...a lot....check it... and there's more to come tomorrow! {materials from the Story of My Own kit, Urban Lily chipboard and urban cut and rubons)

Sarah Update :)

I haven't done one of these in a while! Here are all the things Sarah is doing and saying this month :)

Stuff she does:
Plays dress up with her ballerina skirt and at least five bead necklaces at a time. Not to mention either a pirate hat or her favorite baseball cap.
Spins around like a ballerina on demand, lol.
Sings the whole "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" verse. Including hand movements when "mama calls the doctor" and when she says "no more monkeys jumping on the bed"!
Climbs up and down the stairs on her own (although we TRY not to let her do it...she's a fast little bugger)
Loves her bubble baths and "swimming".
Can spell her name out loud!
Knows a few letters - M is for Mommy, R is for Rhett, S is for Sarah, G is for Grandmom, I is for Icecream, T is for Tub
Loves to swing outside on the big kid swing.
Would eat fruit all day long.
Dances and sings to her favorite kid show songs - little einstiens, backyardigans...
Reads her phonics books back to me! She doesn't get all the words but she gets the main one that repeats and then says "the end!"

New Stuff she says:
Oh My GOODness!
Beep Ready! - for the microwave
It's hot - i blow on it!
Be careful, look for cars!
Sleep in mommy's bed, no sarah's bed
let me see it
Awwwwww, look how cute!
hmmm, maybe deesh one
Where'd it go?
Make pee pees - when she needs to go to the potty
no deesh (this) one - when she doesn't want something
Mommy, want some (to which you must answer yes - becuase she'll give it to you anyway, lol)

Still alive and kickin'

I'm still here, lol. Just not blogging as much this past week. Our final paper designs are due ASAP at Dream Street so I've been up to my eyeballs in layers, overlays, patterns and brushes. Speaking of my eyeballs, I think I'm getting some kind of disorder from staring at the compy screen for hours at a time. Lovely, eh?

I've also just finished The Bolyen Inheritance by Philippa Gregory...LOVED IT. If you love historical fiction, the Tudor family, royality, court life, scandal, gossip and some good old beheadings, you'll love this one. But I would start at the beginning before you dive into this one :) Now I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife. So many people have told me to read it over the past year, so I finally decided to start it. So far so good. It gets a little crazy when he time travels and meets his wife when she's 6 and then when she's 26 and then when she's 40....you get the picture. But I definately am enjoying the escape it brings.

I'll hopefully be posting some work tomorrow. That is if this huge storm doesn't knock down all the power lines around here...knock on wood. Someone remind me, it IS spring, RIGHT???????

We've Launched our New Dream Street BLOG!!

It's finally here! We've wanted to create a Dream Street blog for so long and we finally just went for it. It was launched yesterday and today we announced our April Guest DreamGirl. She has some amazing mulitphoto layouts and I love her cute cards as well. Check it all out here http://dreamstreetpapers.blogspot.com/

We had an amazing Easter Sunday with the family. One of those days when you find yourself saying "wow, this is really wonderful" and you find yourself massaging your cheek muscles after a full day of effortless smiling :) It was the first easter where Sarah was actually able to fully participate. She sat at the table like a "leetle gawl" and hunted for eggs as only a true sugar lover could. Her favorite line of the day - "OH MY GOODNESS!" She melted our hearts every time she said it.

Dinner was, dare I say, cooked to perfection! And that is pretty darn remarkable since I rarely cook on such a large scale. Trey kept laughing at me and calling me "Sally homemaker" while I ran around cooking, serving, setting up activities and photographing everything. I guess it was a pretty funny sight coming from me. I just hope he doesn't expect to meet Sally again any time soon!

I took a ton of photos and actually got some decent headshots of myself for a change. I was in dire need of a new picture of myself...one that I actually didn't mind looking at from time to time, lol.

Happy Easter!!

Have a wonderful Easter! We're having ten of our closest family members over our house for the festivities. This will be the first year Sarah will hunt for eggs!! I can NOT wait! Trey practiced with her today and she a great time. She even knew to "cheat" by peeking out of one eye while he hid them...she's too funny :)

I decided to serve our traditional dishes this Easter. Honey baked ham, green bean cassarole, sweet potatoes (grandma style!), spanish rice and deviled eggs (made according to the tradtional Hardy family recipe-YUM). My mom is making her delicious fruit salad and Trey is making homemade icecream - DOUBLE YUM! It's the absolute best icecream I have ever tasted. Truthfully, I'm more excited about dessert than dinner ;)

Busy Little Beaver

I've been mia lately. Just working on layouts and hanging out with the family. Longing for more Spring weather as I watch the snowflakes fall from the dim grey sky. I love being outside in the fresh air. Fresh air would do our whole little family a lot of good right now.

We have a bird's nest in our bedroom window. It is the most wonderful experience to wake up to thier little chirping and fluttering. Sarah tries to look for the "bawdies" but they are well hidden behind the air conditioner. We can only imagine how adorable they are. We end up coloring cute pictures of birds and making tweeting sounds while we listen to them :)

I finally did this RAW layout that I've been wanting to do before my 30th birthday. I took some self portraits with...gasp....no makeup...and no photoshop touchups....double gasp. I wanted to document what I looked like "in the raw" while I was still in my twenties. It took some bravery to complete it but I am happy to have it in my album now. Hopefully, I'll look back on it when I am older and be grateful that I captured the way I looked during the majority of my days as a young mom.

The rest of these layouts were just for me and just for fun. I used the awesome Poppy Ink kit and was inspired by the ad challenge at 2peas for the piano layout. It felt so refreshing to scrap for ME :)