Newness

Just some new shots of the boys.

Breakfast time!



Ian playing with his trains




I keep forgetting to take pics of the apartment and Ian's new "Thomas" bed for my sister, (Sorry Tanya!) - hopefully I will have that done this weekend.

Designing

I have been tackling the ins and outs of Photoshop for almost a year now. I feel like I am finally comfortable with designing digital scrapbooking kits. It's so great that there are other designers out there who create greyscale templates for commercial use purposes. I strive to be able to create at their level. I am almost almost done with my first kit. I need a name. It's a spring-like kit with some easter elements too. I'm also thinking about adding a few more papers because I started working outside my original color palette. Of course, I don't want to go overboard and use all my ideas on one shot.

I am really loving graphic design - maybe that's the career field I should have chosen in the first place!

As always, you can visit my scrap blog here: http://scrappaperie.blogspot.com

Currently, I am creating layouts for designers - they in turn use my layouts *and other people's layouts who are on the creative team* to feature and promote their kits.

So much fun!!

Awake.

We moved this weekend. Not completely but enough to live in the new place. Ian got a twin bed and a cool Thomas the Train bed tent.


Right now I am so tired but I can't sleep. I lay down, close my eyes - I even nod off a bit, but can't get to sleep. So I have resorted to catching up on episodes of United States of Tara on Showtime and Big Love on HBO.

Tomorrow will be a loooooooong day.

Mr. 5 Monther

Baby A is 5 months old (as of Feb 11). He's such a little lover too. I love seeing how different my boys have been at each milestone month. At this age, Ian was doing gymnastics (ok, not really), while Aidan has just finally rolled from back to tummy. But at 5 months, Ian wasn't interested in solids all that much while Aidan made a go for Auntie Autemn's rosemary mashed potatoes at Christmas Eve dinner (reached for them right off my plate!) and has been an avid eater ever since. Ian & Aidan already show brotherly love for each other - Ian is constantly "baby this" or "baby that" and Aidan is always smiling and laughing. Dan and I often feel out of the loop, like maybe the boys have a secret language.

A is growing well: 20 lbs 12 oz and 27" tall

Here's our little baby model (courtesy of Dan's photography :) )

509 Designs

Our friend Heather has a cool Etsy store, 509 designs.

First off, let me tell you, this woman is one of the most talented I have ever met. She made the most incredible baby keepsake buckets for both my boys. (I was going to take a pic but she's got them right now, lol!) I am so glad she has opened an Etsy store. She is a fabulous paper scrapper as well as an amazing digi scrapper. She's hybrid too! And Heather's creations go well beyond scrapping. The woman is just amazing. Please check out her Etsy store, 509 Designs, as well as her blog, Sporadic Scrapper.
Here's just one of her creations, a mini brag book (and she can whip them out in a matter of hours! Can you believe that?) I'm pretty excited to see what else Heather adds to her shop.

Train Show

Yesterday, Steve took Dan, Ian, and Cousin Skyler to the train show at SCC. From what I hear, they had a good time. The videos Dan shot show Ian excited and interested in all the model trains. He even came home with a wooden Percy car and a wooden Sir Topham Hat car.

Valentine's Day

This year, Dan and I tried something new for Valentine's Day.

We had a date with Ian.

Great Grandpa Don and Great Grandma Joan watched baby A for a couple hours and we took Ian downtown to Mobius Kids. We took pictures until our camera battery died :)

Ian absolutely LOVED being there. Plus he gained some one on one time with mom and dad. No cranky toddler at all. It was a great day. We had never been to Mobius and were quite pleased with the experience. There were so many things for Ian to do there: drive a plasma car through a "street," arts and crafts, eat and prepare play food in a bamboo house, play musical instruments, dress up in costumes and sports uniforms, play in dirt and sand and water, etc etc! There was also a toddler area that had a train table among other things.

After Mobius, we went to Ben & Jerry's where Ian wanted a "Shake Mom, Shake" and then off to Target where he picked out a Thomas bath toy and a wooden Thomas train set. Busy day but it was so much fun.

We are going to try and do some kind of date day with Ian at least once a month.

Avon

I sold Avon when I had my first full time (post high school) job about six years ago. I loved it and it was great part time income. Right now, Dan and I are in the middle of our second campaign (Campaign 5) with the first one having been a super success. We've opened our online store too! I debated blogging about this - it goes with the territory that the more you share, the more opinions (like em or not) you get.

Here's the link if you happen to be interested.


http://www.youravon.com/danobrien

Until Feb 22nd, all new orders receive 10% off as long as you choose Representative Delivery. (Orders outside our vicinity or shipped direct delivery do not qualify for the discount, sorry!)

I am so terrible for using parenthesis all the time. :P

The Boys

Human Calendar

I found this creepily awesome calendar widget at www.humancalendar.com - I've seen it on a couple websites here and there (and I can't remember where or I'd give some credit!). Anyway, I am going to add this to my sidebar somewhere. Just because.

Oh and btw, I am still working on a layout for this blog. I have to finish tweaking my scrap blog first!

Blogging

Yes, I am open. Ask me anything (well, almost anything). My life has always pretty much been an open book and there has never been an issue I couldn't talk about with my family. That's just how we operate. And yes, there are things I do keep private - for myself and between myself and my husband or other family members. I guess the point of this blog is that it's just my random writings. It's sort of like journaling except that someday, I'd be the person to write some kind of memoir that's really supposed to be fiction. (You know the type.)

I love who I am, I have confidence in who I am and being a SAHM, this is part of my outlet. My skin is only so thick and to be told by someone that my blog is too revealing and unguarded, that I share too much -- well then just stop reading it. I ask this nicely. I can shrug it off the first time, but when you constantly stoke the fire (over months and months) I can't help but give a response. Therefore if you keep coming back to read then I don't know what to tell you. Maybe, secretly, you like reading it. (I could put a great simile here but I'll most likely catch flack for it later and I don't have the medicine to deal with that migraine)

Frankly, I don't understand what all the fuss is about - which posts irked you? was it the pregnancy puking? the sick kids? the small pockets of life's misery that I relay with my sense of sarcasm? the posts that conveyed a real person sits at this desk? if you only knew the kinds of things I could write about, you'd see this blog is pretty tame. If I only ever wrote about Roses, Rainbows, and my Pottery Barn couch then I'd be a fake. Just as much as you might not like my posts, I equally hate your facade that screams of Ward and the Beav -

To each his own, right?