Chicco Keyfit 30

So here is the little boy I bought home 11 and a half months ago.
This cute little Peanut in his Chicco KeyFit 30. All snuggled up and happy. If you are having a baby - splurge and get this seat, it's worth every penny. If you aren't then go for a weekend in Vermont instead.
Here he is last month with bestest best Friend Finn, see how his girth fills his Chicco?Now see him here in his Graco box, the box he almost fills.
How did my little boy get this big? I really would like to know.
As he gets bigger I worry that I haven't appreciated his babydom more. But then he crawls onto my lap lies down and snuggle to The Lion King and I know that I treasure every moment. He is so much happier to be facing forward and it is nice to play peek a boo with him while Husby drives.

First Birthday coming up!

Friday Brain Fog

Monday - Daycare closed + Day with Toby = wonderful
Tuesday - Daycare closed + Toby with friends = okay
Wednesday - Daycare closed + Toby home with Daddy = wonderful
Thursday - Daycare closed + Day with Toby + Library storytime = wonderful
Friday - Daycare closed + Toby with Grandma + two days out of work this week = Friday Brain Fog

Scrapbook Stickers

I am obsessed with Stickers, I collected them as a child and stuck them all over my bureau. My friend Amanda also collected stickers but kept the backing and so has much more usable stickers still available. Stickers play a huge part in my scrapbooking, as photo backing, decoration and most recently for journaling.

These are cute little journaling labels that also help reduce, reuse, recycle. Amongst Husby's old computing paraphanelia I came across some Floppy Disc Labels and voila

They look better than this image I promise!

Family Stickers (PDF)

I printed mine on Floppy Disc labels from Avery - #6490. I imagine any old floppy disc label would be in the same format.

Thanks to moneysavingmom I know have a program at home on which paper and labels may be designed easily, expect more scrapbook supplies!

My son loves me

Read this and cry

My Kid likes me better than you

The Wind Beneath Her Wings

And just because Sarah got her own post yesterday, her husband can have his today. If you want to hear what the next generation of worship music to come out of England is going to sound like then check this out:
If you like Matt Redman, Delirious or Brenton Brown you are going to love this guy. I knew he was an amazing guy who loved my best friend, an LL Bean aficionado and a man of God but who knew he could sing too!

The Wind Beneath My Wings (snort)

My Best friend Sarah and I have known each other since we were four years old and I skipped out of my classroom to be in hers.
We did everything together, went on family vacations, went to Dance class (she was the talented one) and made up routines to NKOTB (oh you know!)
I was the bossy one for about six months, then she was the bossy one for the next 24.5 years.
She played the violin, so I played the violin. I joined the Press Pack and wrote about Anne Fine, so she joined the Press Pack and wrote about Anne Fine (she'll kill me for that). She went to Sunday School so I went to Sunday School. Years later I went to Church and so she went to church and thank God we both did.
I got married in Maine and she came with me to be my Maid of Honour.
She got married in England so I flew back to be her Matron of Honour. That's right, Matron.
I had a baby and she loved him heart and soul.
She's having a baby and I'm already dreaming of the day I can hold him or her (I think it's a her) in my arms and tell her that her mummy is the most wonderful friend and sister I could ever have wished for.
And assuming she can still carry a tune she will be singing The Wind Beneath My Wings at my funeral or, should she die first, recording it on her death bed to be played at my funeral. When Greggy Weggy and Husby both pass away to the early grave we will both drive them to, Sarah and I will sit at the beach house in Maine talking about Mabel and swinging our necklaces.

Falling for Fall

Husby noticed the leaves starting to fall last night as we sat on our lawn playing with Toby. Fall is one of my favourite seasons and one of the best things about living in New England. The lovely Kellie is celebrating Fall on her blog this September and I just have to join her...

September brings Toby's 1st Birthday, Husby's 29th, our 7th wedding anniversary, a two week visit from my parents, Adelaide's first Apple Festival in Cornish, the start of another school year and Pumpkin Pie, oh yes, Pumpkin Pie.

So many Peaches

Toby has Peaches everyday with his Oatmeal, but he's only eleven months old and there are only so many peaches he an eat. This year our tree is covered in Peaches and Toby just can't keep up. So I got to work.

Dipping Peaches in Boiling Hot Water for 40 seconds

Then in ice water

Then the skins fall right off
And the stone pops out
And we have a Giant Batch of Peaches
So we prep the zone
Smush the peaches - so much fun - and measure out 4 cups peach, 1 cup sugar and the juice of one lemon
And bag that two cups at a time
Stack it
Freeze it
Enjoy for months on end.

Sketches in Thyme

Okay I did it, I tried a scrapbook challenge from Sketches in Thyme , who knew that either scrapbooking or blogging could be so interactive, well I guess I knew that about blogging already but anyway...

Here's the challenge
and here's my pageI have a $90 camera from Target and very little skill with lighting or photoshop but there you have it.

I didn't veer too far away, I was nervous! I'm not very happy with the journaling but I love the stripes. Rockets are Toby's signature thing since his nursery is decorated that way. Incidentally this is the first "New" Toby page I have done, everything else is from when he was teeny tiny, it's kind of fun to do a page in which more of his personality comes through. I really liked the texture that came through when I layered the stripes instead of just lying them next to each other.

Adelaide

Now you tell me. Does Amanda really look like she just had a baby a few hours ago?

I mean really?

Words cannot describe how much I love this little girl.

Makes me want to have another...

...now...

...seriously.

I'm insane!

My first Scrapbook Design

Hello my name is Sarah and I am a Scrapbook addict.

I have become addicted to a new kind of blog, the scrapbook blog. While I am becoming frustrated with those scrapbook blogs that do one scrapbook post for every ten posts about greeting cards, I have found a few gems. One of which Sketches in Thyme led me to something previously foreign to me in this world of Scrapbooking I dabble in, Scrapbook layouts. I have seen books on Scrapbooking with pre made pages on display but never the oh so beautiful geometry of the scrapbook layout! From their site I went to Scrap a little Sketches and oh my. Oh my, oh my, oh my.

So I dabbled and while putting off the page I planned to do for this week's Sketches in Thyme challenge, I challenged myself. So here's my layout


and here's my page...Then, just because I prefer two page spreads, here's the spread...

Adelaide Alice Whitegiver

My dear friend Amanda just had her baby. She went into hospital at midnight and was all done by 10am. My three day ordeal looks at her with envy. So now all I can do is sit and think about leaving work this afternoon to visit the newest Whitegiver! Oh little babies!

Toby's Scrapbook

Toby's Scrapbook is a work in progress. I am not even up to week three of his life yet and I have used about fifty pages! He's 11 months old, I may never catch up as he just keeps getting cuter and cuter.

The scrapbook was a shower gift from Ben's Aunt Jeanne in NH. It came with pre-made pages which I both like and dislike. I have used some but mostly I enjoy the freedom of making my own.

This is the front page and one of my favourite photos taken of Toby. Sorry about the glare!
This is Toby's room being decorated. The little stickers were the inspiration behind his theme. The Blue Rocket was a decoration at my baby shower and the bottom border is the border in his room. The crib is a story in and of itself.
Every few weeks I took the same picture in the same spot. It's fun to look back at. That last stripey picture is me this time last year!
This is one of the pre made pages and I love it. That picture of Husby lying in our garden with Toby is another of my favourites.
I decided I had to do an ultra sound spread because he was such an obliging subject, I even convinved Husby to write a little something for me. This is, I believe, the first time I've ever used white pages as the background.

I've always had an addiction to stationery and paper products, God Bless this country for coming up with a hobby so suited to me!

Where to sit

A chill in the air does not stop me from sitting outside on my swing at 6am. I have a blanket and a mug of tea and I like the crispness that comes to the air as fall approaches - yes in Maine we start thinking about Fall in August. I love it here! This morning however it was a cloudy wet day, I'll start needing candle light in the morning soon but nothing can get me on that swing in the rain. So where do I go for my morning quiet time when the elements are against me. Let me tell you a wonderful story about a young bookish British girl who married a handy dandy American who used his handy dandy skills to build a book nook in their New England home. Oh how he loves me!

This was Husby's first big project in the new house over the winter of 08-09









And this is current day. The Little Brown Bag holds my Bible, Journal and study book.

Note that the wifey portion of this project (upholstered seat) still has not taken place. Marden's anyone?