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.