Lately

These past few days I have almost felt like I have been living in a bubble. Under a rock or something. If I find a new project I want to start, I get completely consumed with it. First, it was reading this HTML/CSS book. I could not focus on anything else and now, it is scrap booking but with paper materials instead of digital. By Friday, I will be ready to start my scrap journal. I am even contemplating a hybrid 2013 project life which I am still not sure that's a good choice (considering I am behind on 2012).  I am pacing myself though - one step at a time. 

I got a nice surprise as I clicked a link from my email today. One of my pages was included as inspiration on the Creating Keepsakes blog. I was shocked! I am over here ready to learn to scrap as well as those ladies with the paper goodies...I am really honored, smitten and all of that. You know, when I get comments on my pages, most times I do not know how to respond. It makes me feel good and I am excited to read each one... I smile.... I even get surprised when people I do not think would look at my page will stop to make a comment. It really and truly is a feeling I cannot describe and so, sometimes I may not respond just because I cannot find the words. I am not good at all at being social but I am trying my best to do better. My child is very social and loves interacting with others. I know that she has gotten this from her dad, and her grandparents, even. I mean - I am an extreme introvert about some things and it has always been easy to write it down (or type it out onto a blog). I have all of my old journals and diaries and I even kept up with some of my web URLs that I have had in the past. I have a lot of thoughts that go through my head and I wish I could express them as well as I think them. Now...surely...that is not why I started this post but it came out as I typed...lol!

Scrapbooking: New Goodies and More

So. It is Saturday and almost 2 am on my side of the world. It feels like it has been longer than a couple of days but Aida and I went out for breakfast Thursday morning. We went to IHOP. I decided to wait to go to the two local places I had scouted to try. We did go to a local cupcake & cafe afterwards just to try the cupcakes that got them named in the newspaper for three years. The cupcakes were delicious but the lady that actually helped my child and I was just not that friendly. I almost tired of hearing myself say that. And I do need to clarify.

I myself, when I am around people I do not know, I am quiet. I smile, greet them will respond in conversation if we happen to start talking. I do not have a problem with others that are just like me - kind of hesitant to speak to someone else, because I understand being that way...but a business owner being that way is kind of odd. You have a business, which means you would like customers and that should mean at least being cordial. You do not have to speak to me like I am your best friend but please do not look at my child and I like you wish we would run out the front door. Now I will say it was rather humid inside the place. They had fans on but it was still hot. No need for AC because it was barely 50 degrees, rainy and very windy. I thought that maybe the lady was flustered because it was hot and she was doing a lot of moving around. Either way, I will not be going back. Good cupcakes...perfect amount of sweetness...and not too much icing.Oh well! Not like I needed them. (lol!)

This girl!

My daughter and I have been enjoying our time together these days. I am still trying to find my 'fit' as a stay-at-home-mom. Gosh! I am not really sure I am even worthy of that label. I hate labels but it is what it is. I am a mama and very grateful to have this man in my life that says "take care of the child and I will take care of you all." My little ladybug, on the other hand, is taking advantage of mama. At least I think so....lol! Every day starts with breakfast of her choosing. It is either cereal with fruit or waffles/pancakes with fruit. At some point during the day, she tells me "I am tired of this." I know that means she is bored, so I try to find us something to do.

This Monday I beat her to the punch and decided to wash her hair. At first, I was going to style her hair as normal with mini twists, but instead, I decided to straighten it (temporarily) with flat irons. We deep conditioned, conditioned again after washing and applied my favorite leave-in. Since my hair is natural and I use no heat, it was weird to smell that familiar scent of heat being applied to hair. It will be a long while (years...yearrrrss...) before we do this again, but I thought it would be fun. She loved her hair once it was done...and there is a lot of it. This is just one of the photos I got of her before she made outfit changes (photos to come later).

I used grapeseed oil, coconut oil and Camille Rose Naturals Moisture milk as I blew her hair dry. Then before flat-ironing each section, I used a dab of shea butter and Darcy's Botanicals Madagascar Vanilla styling creme. I love love Darcy's and Camille Rose's product lines for our hair, so I had to experiment with them when styling my daughter's hair this time around. Her hair was still big but it was also soft and bouncy. Detangling, as usual, was torture. I need to find an easier way for both of us. I can use my fingers to detangle when our hair is wet and it is super easy, but as soon as it dries, those little curls bunch back together. It really drives me crazy. Maybe one day I will solve that dilemma. :-)

Lots of Blue

Not sure why I am so obsessed with blue lately. Funny thing. I was on Education.com with Aida the other day and they had these mask templates for the Chinese birth year animals. My daughter, fiance and I are all born in the year of the rat. One of our "colors" is blue. I was thinking maybe that is why I am so into blue. I mean, I love colors-most of them, but I was never fond of blue until I was trying to find blog colors and I realized I needed blue. Then, I got to thinking about my project life album and how it is mostly shades of blue and yellow. I thought that was kind of cool. Probably just my weirdness to connect all of that....lol!

I have been happily scrapping these past few days and have a few pages to share. This first page uses photos I recently converted. I have been converting my RAW files to DNG, and I was looking at a few and figured I really need to get to processing and using these photos. I tried to do a nice, clean edit on these which I posted on my photo blog. 

Cold, maybe?

Looking through photos and I realize why I do not post nearly as many as I have taken. I hate converting and editing! Lately, I have not done much editing to my photos but even the little touch ups on white balance or the brightness or adding a little matte finish or even converting to black and white, I just do not have the drive to do it. It has been a very rainy week and I was hoping that we would be able to get out and explore. It would be nice to take photos elsewhere and maybe of some things, so that my daughter is not bombarded and so that I can have some to look back on of where we lived for this time. 

I do have one to share today of my daughter. This was taken at the end of March. She had gotten some new boots in a larger size for next winter, but she really wanted to try them on. I kept telling her it may be cold. Well, she ran outside so quickly and once she felt the wind, it was over. I told her we would make it quick and this is all she would do.

Decision Made...

Since I have had more time to actually think through things, I have come to a decision. I have a Marketing degree. When I was about 14 or 15, I said I wanted to be in advertising. I grew up and learned that I am too much of an introvert for that. I could never be easily sociable and explain to others the ideas in my head. For a long time I had a cloud over my thoughts. Like I was afraid to process and sort through them..in my own mind, which is just crazy. I know why I chose Marketing. I get bored easily. I change my mind frequently. Marketing was the one area of study that could be used in any field I ever decided to learn more about. My first thought upon entering college in the Fall of 2002 was that I should do something computer related. 

First two years of college are like a "buffer" zone, so I had that time to really decide what my major would be. I stuck with Marketing. Now...I wish I had done web design or something programming related. Those things speak to me. Computer geek stuff excites me. It is like breathing for me. So why did I not do that? It seemed like so many people were going to school for that. What would set me apart? Knowing how to market myself. My favorite professor at UAB taught my International Business course, Mr. Pang. He would always ask us: "What is Marketing?" I would never respond...quiet old me..and most everyone would look around in a daze or confused or just sleep...mostly because that's what we were there to find out...and he would laugh and tell us that it was easy, it was "market things." Really and truly...that is all it is. Market things...whatever your business is..market it...sell it...make someone else want it. I wish I had opened up more in class because now I get it...I get the point of it all, the big picture. So! Know how to market your skills and no matter if you are the best or moderately good, if you market yourself the right way....it will work. 

Monday Blahs

Monday still feels like Monday- whether I work in an office or home, it is still my least favorite day of the week. I have no idea why! It is like everything that annoyed me all during the week is compounded on Monday. No idea why...probably all in my mind. Anywhhooo... I have not been scrapping as much as I would like. I thought if I had more time at home, got in some family time and got away from the stress of my job that I would scrap so much and that has not been the case. I even think my child believes she has her own personal server (i.e. me!). Her dad says this my fault for always being right there when she needed something when she was a little younger, but what was I supposed to do? Lol!! I will admit I may have and still do go overboard, but I cannot help it. The before-a-child me was selfish and hated to share, but after meeting my fiance and having a child, I am mostly different...lol! Mostly because I still do not believe in helping others that are not helping their self first. As far as my child, I would do anything for her...as most parents would agree when it comes to their children. 

I remember when I had to save as much money as possible to cover the bills for maternity leave. Or when we were eating sandwiches and spaghetti almost every other day to keep down the grocery bill. I even remember eating Cheerios on the way to work and taking sandwiches for lunch with peanuts, chips and water because I had no lunch money. BUT...it did not matter. My daughter was at a daycare with teachers/caregivers that loved her and took very good care of her; she had a closet full of clothes and plenty of diapers; and, we enjoyed weekends at home or visiting our families who always fed us and even were sweet enough to pay for the gas for our trip to their house and back. We were blessed in so many ways, so then and now I feel like I have to give her all of that and more. 

Sorry about that entire thought ramble...it all just came out...surely my hands were possessed.. lol! 

Now...I do have a few recent pages to share. I dug deep into my older photos to find some that really needed to be scrapped (or re-scrapped) and I loved going back and seeing how much has changed since those times and now.

My daughter was a month away from her 3rd birthday in these photos and it was Easter Sunday.

Why I Made the Switch

I have been meaning to post about this and now I am finally sitting down to do it. 

A little before I relocated, my hosting with Ultra Web Hosting was going to expire. I loved them as a hosting company. I googled for weeks to find out who I would first try and they were who I decided on. I could not find one bad review and the ones I found were rare finds. Now, this would have scared me except all the big hosting companies that I knew of, I had heard about all types of issues. With Ultra Web, I paid roughly $80 a year for unlimited everything and they kept everything up to date. Whenever they were going to do an update, I received an email in advance. I got my domain name (which I still have) hosted through Namecheap with a coupon and shortly after, I started building my first WordPress blog. I had maybe ONE day of downtime with Ultra Web in the entire year and a half I was with them. It was easy to set up and their support team responded in a timely manner when I had no idea what I was doing trying to set up name servers (lol!).

Our Day

Today was pretty quiet. Normal stuff going on..nothing too fun. Ohh! The other day we went to get the enrollment information for my dd to start kindergarten in the Fall. She was very excited about that (as she is about most things)! Mommy is still nervous and will be until, and after, that first day. I am going to try this. There is a virtual academy and there is home school, soooo....if it is not to my liking...who knows what will happen.... I really want her to go because I know she is different than I. She loves interacting with other children whereas I enjoy the quiet more, away from others. That and all of the sad, tragic news stories...scare me about sending my child to school. I figure I can say that here...but at the same it SCARES me to even say it...think it...but I am a realist and cannot ignore the negative things in life. At the same time, I do believe there is a higher power in charge and the fate of the world has already been written. And if I believe it's written, then I know it cannot be changed. So...I live my life day to day. I do everything I can to have a good day and to make it through one day and then I deal with the others as they come. School and my child - I definitely see it the same way. Things can happen walking out the front door or just driving down the street....one day at a time and I am breathing, slow and steady...lol! 

Her Words...Not Mine

April is here and the anxiety of my child turning 5 years old in May is really getting to me. I have never been one to ask others to babysit. She is my child and I wanted to have her for a reason. I love being around her. Yes, she jumps on every last nerve I have...and at the end of the day, I laugh about. How can a little person come up with all of these things to do? Lately, her vocabulary has been changing and she is using new words. It is FUNNY to hear her come up with these outlandish phrases.