Villere House Halloween Blog Tour & Giveaway

While I might be a book junkie I’m not exactly a book snob. If you’ve been following along on my book challenge then you’ll know that I’ll give most books a chance, and a book has to be really bad for me to give it less than 3 stars. I figure if a book is good enough to get published it deserves at least 2, and if I can finish it then it deserves 3. Of course now that people can self-publish so much more easily I should change that, but then again, most of my books are from my library, and they don’t carry many self-published books.

When a friend of mine, Laura, mentioned that the authors of Villere House were looking for some bloggers to read the book, review it, and blog about it, my interest was sparked. I don’t do many reviews, despite getting emailed to on a regular basis, but the synopsis sparked my interest and sounded like something I would enjoy, so I decided to do it. And in case that wasn’t clear enough – yes, I was given this book for the purpose of reading, reviewing, and blogging.

Project Life Update

I am so hopelessly very, very, very behind on my Project Life pages.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I always say I’m behind. You, dear reader, probably just know to expect it by now. However, I believe I’m behind even for me. Lets see, the last week I finished was week 30. We are now on week 42 I think.

I take heart in the fact though that I’m nowhere near behind as it seems from my blog, which is just today getting updated to week 20.

The next free weekend I get I’ve really got to spend knocking out several weeks at a time again. (Which, as you know, is what I normally do anyway.) Or I could just start on them now… but I don’t know… I think I might want to do anything but that at the moment. Like clean. Or fold clothes. Catching up on 12 weeks just seems daunting.

But I’ll do it. I will make it through this year dangitall.

Now, enjoy these pages and let me know, if you’re doing Project Life, are you all caught up, or are you behind too?

Wordless Wednesday

*Gasp* Did I really go black and white this week? I know. I’m shocked too.

Give a mom a webcam.

Each month I make a new scrapbook page all about the things that I love about the month. And, well, I need a new photo of just me for the page. Those are the rules.

I didn’t light a candle at 7 PM.

Tuesday was one of the hardest days of the year for me  - Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness day. It’s the day that people all over the world use to recognize their grief and love for the babies that they have lost. This covers miscarriages, infant loss, and stillbirths. And one thing that people do is at 7 PM (their own time) all over the world they light a candle so that it is a wave of light.

But I didn’t light a candle.

It’s not that I’ve never had a loss. I have. But I still didn’t light a candle at 7 PM.

Bella’s Fall 2013 Hat (Wordless-ish Wednesday)

Bella gets a new hat every fall. This year she wanted a long, squishy, warm hat. (Her words) So, I made her a long, squishy, warm hat. Keep reading for directions.

Our Life in Crafts–October Pt. 1

In case you were unaware – Bella is a crafting fiend. No really. The girl absolutely loves to get her craft on. I decided that once or twice a month I would post and share our crafts that we have done each moth, along with some very basic steps on how you can do them as well. A lot of them are pretty basic and can be done with stuff you already have around the house, and some I got from Pinterest. Now, they aren’t all Halloween (or even fall) themed, but most are, and the others could probably be mixed up some to make them fall themed.

New Releases–October 12

I have several things to get done today – including a few more scrapbook pages, some laundry, and countless knitting and crocheting projects that need to get done as they are Christmas presents. Instead of my usual break down of each product, I’ll just link the product to where you can buy it, and then show you my pages with them.

Sharing–Not quite what I meant.

I’ve been working on Mason and sharing. His version of sharing is usually – here, I don’t want this anymore, you take it now and I’ll take what you have. Or it’s I’m going to stick my face right in your face and yell at you until you give me what you have that I want. OR it’s no, this is mine, you can’t have it ever and if you take it I will lay on the floor and scream until you give it back to me or I forget that it exists.

Ah, one and half year olds, so much fun.

Zach stayed home from school sick today (though I slightly doubt his level of sickness…) which made Mason happier than all get out. His “Acky” is his favorite person in the whole wide world. When Mason got up from his nap he did what he always does – he nursed for a good twenty-thirty minutes. About 15 minutes into his breastfeeding session Zach came in to the living room to wax on about how bored he was. Mason noticed the introduction of his favorite person to the room so he popped up and started yelling “Acky! Acky!” After Zach acknowledged him Mason started calling for him again while signing milk over and over. And just in case Zach didn’t get what Mason was hinting at, Mason would yell and sign, then latch on, then pat my chest, call Zach again, and sign again.

Zach finally did in fact catch on to what his brother was wanting. He gave a big sigh, rolled his eyes, and said “No Mason, I don’t want a boob.” It was at this point Mason decided that he actually didn’t want one either, got off my lap, and went to get on to the couch next to his brother.

That lasted a whole 5 minutes before he decided, no, he really did want to nurse after all, not sit on the couch with Zach.

Wordless Wednesday

Ryan has vitiligo. If you want to learn more about it, click here.

Project Life pages with an art journal twist.

How ironic. I take time off from the blog to relax and give some thought into reorganizing it and planning more for it and what is the first thing I do in my return… a post that doesn’t go with the calendar I mapped out. (Yesterday’s Edit like this…. doesn’t count since it was planned a bit back and scheduled.) Of course, you the reader, don’t know the new schedule of posts, so I’m just ratting myself out, but I just thought it was a funny tidbit to share.

I’m part of a digital Project Life group on Facebook and a question was asked about how to create Project Life pages that had a strong art journal feel, but were still noticeably Project Life. The question was asked with this page linked as an example: mumkaa_’s Project Life::week11 on Flickr. Now, I don’t necessarily consider myself to be an expert on Project Life or art journal pages, but I am really good with messy pages. If you’ve ever seen my Project Life spreads you’re probably aware that they are very simple with more of a focus on photos and journaling and color, the pages generally don’t have a ton of extra stuff on them. However, if you’ve ever followed my regular scrapbooking pages you would know that messy pages and I go way back.

Edit like this…

Edit like this… is a set of simple picture only photo editing tutorials. If you need something more clearly explained, or you have a question feel free to comment with it. I used Photoshop CS3 to complete this edit.