ADSR season 6 officially started today and I managed to get my first challenge completed.  Very few regulations on this one, we had to write 6 facts about our family and have at least one photo.  Pretty easy once I finally decided on a kit to use!

I’ve also loved my partners in the past (this is my third year) but I’m totally excited about getting to race this year with Kate, a good friend from college.  It’s just really cool to have an “irl” friend who is into this digital scrapbooking stuff with me… who I’m also excited about having a photo session with her family next week, if the weather holds!

So, yay for me, getting right on it.  Let’s hope the rest of the challenges aren’t sent in at the very last minute. :)

The kit for this one is also by Irene Alexeeva.

I’ve been trying to get pictures of K playing behind the chair and was finally successful earlier today. She loves to go back there and sits against the wall and kicks her legs out in front of her. I don’t mind her being back there so much, as long as she doesn’t stand up and bang on the nearby window or try to mess with a nearby outlet. If she heads for those things, she’s outta there! But for the most part, she just sits back there and kicks her feet and laughs!

Now I need to do one with my other kid, gotta find some pics from when he was littler… during my no-scrapbooking years, ha.

Okay, okay, so an idea popped into my head and I did a page with E, too!

I don’t really know what it’s called, if anything, but I call it whimsical scrapbooking, ha. Just a different look, dreamy concepts, etc. The kit I used is called A Place to Treasure by Irene Alexeeva.

I’ve also learned it’s a great way to salvage an otherwise crappy photo. In the original photo I used, I’d once again put my finger in front of my pop-up flash (SOOO not used to using it anymore, now used to my flash being a foot over the top of my camera, ha) and the whole right side of the photo was pretty dark. Not to mention the surroundings were just, meh. However, K was discovering at the time, she was checking out her brand new play kitchen on Christmas morning. She had the two coffee cups in her hands.

And though it doesn’t seem like it, I have been doing a lot of scrapbook-like stuff, just not for me. Been working pretty solid on finally getting my sister-in-law’s wedding book done. This one’s taken me longer than any of the others I’ve done, in part because we’ve been so insanely busy the last couple of months in this area, and in part because it’s longer than any other book I’ve done. I think it’s come out very nice. Waiting for it to upload to the publisher now so they can print it and ship it to me! All I have to say is that it had better be good, more stellar than other companies I’ve used, ’cause they are charging me a friggin $17 to get it shipped.

We gabbed so much I only got 2 layouts done. Ha! But that’s ok, it was nice to work on something of my OWN for a change. Lately I’ve been doing so much on the computer but it’s been someone else’s website, someone else’s photo editing, someone else’s book to put together, etc. I feel like I haven’t scrapped in a long time. Heck, when I got home that eventing, I had to sit down and use photos I’d taken of my friend’s kids to design her a Christmas card!

So, when can we do this again? :)

So here’s what I came up with:

The kit I used is Baby on Board by Brenshevia Taylor-Boone.
The word art (“Sweet Little Miracle”) is my first try at something like that. The fonts used in there are Pea Mushi and Pea Jamie which can be found for free at kevinandamanda.com/scrapbook/fonts/fontsforpeas/.

And if you like, you can download the word art here. There are two versions, high and low (referring to footprint placement). Click the images to download, both versions are included in the same file.

Please tell me what you think, if you download, and seasoned scrap designers, feel free to tell me what I’ve done wrong. :P

But, anyway, hopefully I’ll start finding more time to catch back up on scrapbooking. This page, by the way, is Kayleigh’s version of this one I did for Elijah over a year ago.

Oh, and maybe I should mention that the footprints are Kayleigh’s actual footprints that were done a day or two after she was born. They’re only about an inch long in actual size.

– Elijah’s chin seems to be healing quite nicely. Poor thing though, having band-aids so much on it has made his skin very dry. I’ve tried moisturizing but it hasn’t helped yet so I’m trying to keep from putting band-aids on. As long as that scab holds, we’ll be good.

– We started, or rather, Steve started up the wood stove for the first time tonight. Ah, warmth. And fairly cheap, too. Too bad it’s all such a pain in the butt!

– I ate 3/4 of a box of Mike & Ike tonight (Elijah ate the other 1/4). Thank you, Sarah, for reminding the pregnant lady that those things exist! And thank goodness for fat free Mike & Ike!

– Oh, crap. Now I’m craving fried chicken for the second time in 3 days.

– I’ve done a little scrapbooking here lately:

Cute, aye? ;-)

— We put up the Christmas tree the other night. Or rather, I put the thing together and arranged the branches and put the lights on, then Elijah hit it with the ornaments. Most of the ornaments got put on the “front” of the tree (in the photo) and very few are on the “back.” He likes to group them together. He’s quite proud of the tree, though, so as long as it doesn’t fall over, who cares!?

– I did realize though, as I do every year, that our little collection of Dr. Suess’ Cat in the Hat ornaments are not complete. These things were sold by Burger King several years ago and I was able to get all but one, the fish. They’re silver plated or something, and of a good size, I love them. I wonder if I can find the fish on Ebay or something? Hmmm… Well that was easy, found several and not overly expensive, bought & paid for!

– I’ve been thinking a lot about my sister-in-law’s wedding in April that I am the photographer for. I’ve only officially done two weddings before, as you know, including the one in August. The previous one was several years ago when I was shooting film. So this will be my first indoor wedding with this dSLR. SO, I’ve already decided I need to get the SB-600, after research I don’t think that the increase in cost is worth it for the SB-800. But, I do think I will get this Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Lens. Happy, too, to find that buying both of those at amazon will save me $60 over the prices at where I bought my camera (which at the time was cheaper than amazon, heh).

– Um, that’s it for now!