Bl{OH} Joy!

Good afternoon! How's your weather today? After several days of glorious Indian Summer, we're getting wet, cold rain. On the upshot, some of it is actually getting down to the grass for one of the last drinks before winter. I saw to that when I spent two days raking. Granted, it was the same flipping area two days in a row...Because the trees have a sense of humor and like to drop more where I've already raked! Evidently, my son has a sense of humor to, as he decided to run through my piles again and again. Then I made one just for him at the bottom of his slide and life was good. I'll share a picture of that at the bottom, because what I really want to share is something else My Little Wonder did yesterday. Actually, he did about 100 different things, but this one, I got on camera. He discovered...THE LEAF BLOWER!!!!

This was fun for two reasons. He doesn't like machines that make loud noises; but the blower certainly isn't quiet. He learned that he could ruffle my mom's feathers by blowing out her leaf piles...and create a general mess. We have my father to thank for showing him how. Thanks, Dad! Sometimes, I get this compulsion to make a page almost as soon as I take the photos. This was one of those moments. I'm so glad I stumbled upon the latest sketch at Sketches In Thyme. The sketch image is a bit blurry, but I think I was still able to figure it out.



My take on the sketch:



I really had fun with this one. Using the Amber Autumn stack (DCWV), layered the background, then masked flourishes (created with the Cricut and Cindy Loo cartridge). On top, I painted a chipboard circle and added my favorite of the two photos on top to try to draw more attention to it. In the bottom corner, I have used three hand-cut leaves from the same paper stack and a squirrel cut from the Cindy Loo cartridge just for fun.

I do hope to steal more time soon to post detail photos for these. Thank you for stopping by either before or after... or both!

Identity Crisis...or...Woohoo! I get to say I've been published!

Good Monday Afternoon! I thought I'd steal a few minutes from playing with DS to prove that I do check my email and have some personally happy news to share. Oddly, this happy news has a bit of an edge to it. In the process of sharing IT, I have to do something I hadn't realized would ever happen... I know, confusing, huh?

Here's my good news...

There's a fun little site, called Practical Scrappers. They've recently updated their format and posted calls for scrapbook and cards that have quality examples of multiple photos, black/white photos, distressing, specific paper companies, etc. While I've submitted past LO's in a few categories, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they published one of my pages featuring black/white photos in one of their recent blogs. You can actually find it right here! I even get a badge to place on my page. For me, this is pretty cool. This is a first for me; at least to the point of having an "official" badge.

Here's my sticky wicket:

In the process of sending people over to Practical Scrappers, I also reveal some slightly personal information... Like my real name.... First and Last... I understand I'm being silly.

Point the first: There are several in the paper crafting community who have access to even more information than just my name. I've instilled a great deal of trust in them and have not been let down.

Point the second: Hundreds of thousands of paper crafters have used their full names as their blog titles or somewhere on their blog page.

Point the third, I evidently share my name with a very popular scientist who has done loads more to be recognized so it's not like I'll be all over a google search.

Point the fourth, I've posted soo many photos of family -- primarily my own son -- and friends that I should be more concerned for their well being than my own. Soo....

I'm silly.

I'm human.

I'm certainly not hiding from the mob...Nor the FBI.

My name is Anne. Nice to meet ya; a little more than I already have.

And with that, I'm going to post a photo of the layout that they are sharing. Then, I'm going to copy the badge info over to the right. THEN, I'm going to remember that there is another site on which I need to make amends because I do love the people and inspiration there sooo much and I have been away for quite a while *coughPagesInTime, I'm sorrycough*



It's a photo of my great grandfather, on my dad's side. When it was first shown to me, he wasn't pointed out, but I could tell which one I belonged to me. I've seen the same look of "bullpuckies" on a face much closer to my everyday life.

What the Doctor Ordererd....

Good Wednesday evening... At least, that's when I started typing this post. I can't guarantee I'll publish on time, but ya never know.

Oh, and this is not a scrappy post. There are no pages to share down below; just a few photos of my accomplishments and my son.

There were accomplishments today. Backtrack to Monday, I had a physical with my new doctor. Totally blog worthy, huh? I know, but it was a good interaction with her. We talked about eating properly and being more active. This made me love her on the spot. My former doctor never once discussed my weight and lack of healthy living. He always laughed it off when I opened the door to do exactly that.

She, on the other hand, noted my desire to exercise more often, but lack of ability to follow through. So she gave me an oral prescription (and I adored her Indian accent as she did it): Exercise three to four times each week, at least 30 minutes each time. Not earth shattering for me. There was a time in my life when I'd spend 2 or three hours at the gym, three to five days each week. I was spinning. I was stepping. I was lifting. I was yoga-ing. I was awesome. Eventually, I was also exhausted. Then, I was pregnant.

I digress. My point was, I do enjoy exercise. I also have a hard time committing to it now because I'm (to an extent) at the whims of a three year old child. Sometimes I can bribe him with a cup of cocoa once we get home. Sometimes I can't. Some days he wakes up toooooooo early for my liking and I'm in pain and nausea for the rest of the morning. Some days, I'm just in pain and nautious because I'm alive.

Today was a special day. Despite my child's 4 AM wake up call, I got some laundry done. I started cleaning the Living Room (like deep cleaning). Today I showered. Today...I got exercise. I had to do it on the sly, but I got it done, damnit!

Today, I raked leaves!

Did you know that you (or I, because I only tracked it for my current weight) can burn about 180 calories by raking the lawn for 30 minutes? That's not bad! It might not look like much to some, but this is what I accomplished today:



As you can see, my son also accomplished a bit, too. The planets aligned and he was all about "helping" me rake the leaves this afternoon. He was also all about dismantling the pile as he saw fit.





There's another reason I'm pretty proud today. About a year ago (give or take a month) I tried raking leaves. Over the course of three days, I got about half the back yard done...with a lot of breaks to catch my breath and regain my focus. A year ago, I was over 40 lbs heavier. A year ago, as I took one break, I heard an ambulance siren coming closer to my home. I knew it wasn't coming for me, but they way I felt physically...It wouldn't have been out of the question.

So, today I raked. I huffed. I puffed. But I didn't get knocked down

I'm on my way, baby.

I'm on my way. And this is good because the leaves are far from done falling. We are surrounded by a dozen trees that look a lot like this tonight:

Global Knowledge

Good Tuesday Morning! Somehow the planets are aligning this morning for me. My son is not yet awake before 5:30 AM and I remembered to have my laptop in my bedroom.

Why not a blog post?

A few weeks ago, my son and my father had an opportunity to sit and snuggle with each other. It's something zee child doesn't do as often any more because he's finding out more each day that toys are far more intriguing to his curiosity and imagination. He'd rather PLAY with someone than snuggle for hours on end. I can dig that. My dad's back, however, isn't so much a fan anymore. He is 71, after all. My back argues with me, at the tender age of 34, so this doesn't surprise me.

I digress, they got to snuggle...And watch Arthur on TV...and my son asked one of the biggest questions on the planet...To a man who is pretty sure he KNOWS everything on the planet.

"Papa, can you tell me about the world?"

This question warmed my dad's heart. They sat, snuggled, and my dad tried to impart as much as he understood about the world to fit the attention span and understanding of a three-year-old boy. They talked about God and Creation. They talked about love and protection. My dad tried his best to cover it all in about a half hour. I tried to take pictures of it all while he did; then came up with this:



The overall design can be credited to this sketch, which can be found at Let's Scrap.



One of my favorite details about these pages are the little deer embellishments on each page:



Both the shadow and it's image were cut on a Cricut, using the Cindy Loo cartridge at 3". Originally, the deer, squirrel and trees were cut on green paper; then I misted them with Glimmer mist (Coffee Shop) to make them pop more. Still wanting to do something special for the deer, I then covered them with Stickles (Cinnamon). Finally, I added the stitching on the outside. The circle on the left has been raised with foam dots, while the image on the right is being used for some hidden journaling.

The frames are my other favorite detail.



These are chipboard frames (Technique Tuesday) that I've been hanging onto forever. I painted them with Crackle Paint; then stamped them with a string of arrows (Sassafras Lass) to make them more interesting. It was fun and inspired by one of the last challenges at Practical Scrappers.

And now, my son is awake and needs to use the potty. Glad you know that, huh? That reminds me. I'm totally geeked to feel he has mastered enough of potty training that I can finally create a couple pages on that! Yes, I'm *that* mom. I'm doing it to celebrate the milestone AND to hold over his head... As in, "Do it or I'll show your prom date the Potty Training pages!"

Thanks for reading and looking!

Blog Candy Link!

Do you love reading new blogs?

Do you love to see pretty new things?

Do you have a slight tingle at the mention of Tim Holtz?

Do you now want to know who the heck Tim Holtz is?!

If you answered yes to any of these, you may want to check out a new blog I've recently discovered. I'm just beginning to peruse her creativity, but there's plenty of it AND she's being SUPER Generous in sharing a ton of goodies by the ever-loved Tim Holtz!



Go on, check out Scrap With Stacy!

Weight Loss and Focus Gain

I just want to take a few moments to relish this little tidbit. Normally, there are specific numbers that I believe a lady has no need to disclose to the world at large, but I'm digging this one, so...

194.2

Progress; partially by accident.

Toward the end of June, I went from 204.x to 200.x; thereby putting my body just on the teetering edge of being a bajillion miles closer to where I wanted to be. Then, my body waged war on itself. There was intense pain and so much confusion that the last thing I wanted to do was eat. I lost another four pounds; down to 196.8. I managed to stay there, even after getting my eating (slowly) back on track and that was okay.

In January, I made three resolutions. One was to lose 40 lbs. With those two incidents; I reached that goal and then some. I've been coasting and happily hanging at 196.8 for about 3 months now. Normally, that would piss me off, but I haven't bee able to afford Weight Watchers meetings in the exact same amount of time. For me, holding steading rocks right about now because it means I'm not gaining anything back.

Recently, I tried to get back on the weight-loss wagon. More than anything, it was an attempt to create continued success in my life overall. If I can't do one thing, I know I can do the other. So I started, then I got distracted for a few days and am working to get back on track. In the mean time, I hopped on the scale to see the damages.

194.2!!!! That's a loss of -- what? -- 2.6 pounds, right? Not too shabby, by my book. I'll take some time to enjoy this and use it to get my head straight again.

My new goal for now: Get to 190.0 I was 189 when my son was conceived over four years ago.... and 220 just after he was born...and 240 when I rejoined WW December, 2009

Then, 180.0

Then, I'll have to hold steady until I'm in the mood to knock out the last 20 pounds which didn't bother me a whole lot when they crept back in about five years ago.

194.2.... I can dig that today.

Dorkfish

Yep! I'm back! The sun is shining. The grass is green. I was productive and feel worthwhile. Today, I smiled. I laughed. I played and had silly fun.

I was a Dorkfish, and I blame Bill Engvall.



Seriously, I adore this man. If I weren't married with a child, I'd be his groupie. He's funny. In a way he's grounded. He thinks of the most unusual things and makes them funny.... Like Dorkfish. It's one of his routines to talk about a fish, known as the dorkfish, and what it must have sounded/ acted like... if fish could talk.

Certainly, there have been a number of times in my life which I felt like a dorkfish. One of the most recent times I felt this way was on the way to Georgia with my good friend, Mel. Out of nowhere, while she was trying to tell me about X, Y or Z, I just clapped my hands together and excaimed, "I'm a dorkfish!" She laughed. I laughed. Life was good.

Eventually, I had done this enough times during the trip that my son started to do it spontaneously, too. It became our group tagline; so naturally, while we dined at the Whistle Stop Cafe, near Macon, it just kinda happened and Mel just kinda took our picture in the process.



Originally, I made this page to submit in a challenge at scrapbook.com -- Weekly Old Page Maps. This is pretty true to the sketch. I added a couple layers of paper and the branch and flowers because I wanted to. It is from the Cricut cartridge, Winter Woodland The Prima flowers were just something fun. The birds are stamped images -- stamped with crackle paint -- that I cut out, then attached with foam dots to add dimension.



I also stamped (Sassafras Lass), then Stickled a deer at the base for kicks and giggles. I know the embellishments don't really seem to echo the theme of the page, but to me they are something fun, that also makes me smile. I think, if dorkfish were real, they'd probably smile...and then say, "I don' get it."