I love you a bushel and a… err… monster?

As a birthday present to myself I got myself a copy of “Knit a Monster Nursery” by Rebecca Danger. No, I’m not pregnant and secretly hiding the news and letting my purchases hint at it. I’ve been eyeing this lady’s monsters for a long while now, and this was the only one of her pattern books the store had. If you’ve never seen her cute creations you should totally go check her out, and then you will understand why I didn’t care that it was a baby geared book.

I was so excited and just didn’t know where to start first. Ryan solved that by telling me a little after his birthday that he really wanted me to make him a monster after I had told him that it was his turn to have something made next. So I sat down with him and we went through the book, looking at all of the patterns and deciding if he wanted a monster someTHING or an actual monster. He ended up picking out the striped mini-monster (from the monster mobile) as the one that he had to have. To make it a little bigger than the one in the book I went up several needle sizes and double stranded the yarn.

Wordless Wednesday

this is our normal

An InLinkz Link-up

“… the light in my world …”

For the past almost ten years I have been holding onto a little scrap of paper. And I do mean little. It’s about 1/2 an inch tall and maybe two inches long. About 9 years ago I took the little scrap and taped it into the back of a rather pitiful scrapbook that I had to make for my senior year of high school. Since the scrap was from high school it seemed like a fitting place for it.

When I feel like maybe I’m failing as a wife, or maybe failing as a mom, or just kind of sucking at life in general, I look at the scrap of paper. After all of this time I have it memorized like a favorite part of a poem. I even have the writing memorized. That little scrap is one of my most treasured things.

2014 Project Life!

Last week I wrapped up 2013’s Project Life on the blog, so this week I thought I’d go over this year’s.

Before I start sharing my page spreads from January, let me first address a few changes that I’m doing…

First off, I am not breaking it all down by weeks. Instead I am breaking it all down by months instead. This makes it a little easier for me as I just open up a template and stick in my favorite photos from the photos I just uploaded. I make sure I leave blank spots for cards, especially next to photos that I know I’ll want to add a snippet about, and as each template fills up, I just open a new one. At the end of the month I just stick in the cards and add the journaling.

He dreams.

he dreams.

and there he lay;
his head softly pillowed,
his mind off on adventures.
his dreams taking him off
to lands so far away.

he sleeps and he dreams.
he dreams and he flies.
he dreams
and he builds worlds
and futures
so bright.

he dreams.

(digital scrapbooking supplies from Sweet Shoppe Designs)

In which we discover the little girl next door.

The little girl (and boy too) next door has been there for quite a while. Actually she has been there since about 7-8 months after Bella got here. The fact that Bella has really just noticed this is rather humorous to me.

When we bought our house back in 2008 we had high hopes and dreams of having the sort of friendship and relationship that my parents have with their neighbors. Alas, that has not been the case at all. In the past 6 years we have spoken to the neighbors right next to us less than a handful of times, never to the people in the house behind us (or to the 2 families that lived there before them – it’s a rental), and very rarely to the people across the street. I don’t know any of their names. I don’t know anything about them. And we never have each other over for chats or dinners. As I am a rather social person, I kind of hate it, but not enough to try any harder than I have in the past to get to know them all.

Project Life 2013 Wrap Up!

I am so, so, so happy to announce that I finally finished up all of last year’s Project Life pages. This is such a huge big deal for me since I have NEVER finished any sort of project like this. (This includes A Week in the Life.) This was my third year starting Project Life and the first year that I have ever gotten past the first few weeks.

It’s sort of amazing.

(image source)

I went into church today and I was not at peace. I mean there is a slew of things going on in my life and family right now that I am just not even a little at peace with. Not to say that I am always a calm and at peace person, but I try put faith in God that He will get us through the bad times in life and that he will always see us through. Generally – the majority of the time actually – I can do this.

It’s the day for hearts full of chocolates.

But not like REAL bloody, gooey hearts stuffed with chocolate. And not real looking hearts stuffed full of chocolate.
*though admit it, that sounds cool*

Today is a day full of these odd shaped things that look nothing like hearts to be full of chocolate. And flowers. Because it’s more romantic to pay a ton on flowers out of season. That’s true love, yo. And all of the other traps and frivolities that prove how much you love the person you are sending them to.

If you aren’t picking up on my subtleties, John and I don’t really do Valentine’s Day. Mainly because we are cheap and broke. Also because John’s grandparents taught him that you should prove how much you love and respect your partner everyday, not just one single day that the rest of the world gives you the OK to be a sap on. His grandfather always told him it was better to go all out on days for no reason, other than something that day made you remember just how much you love and respect that person.

I won’t lie, the first few years this sort of bugged me. I was like “Dude! Your grandfather ruined the most romantic, loving day of the year! Everyone else gets all this special treatment, and special gifts, and goes and does special things! I’m lucky to get a dang card!!” It didn’t matter that I am not exactly a romantic, card wanting, flower loving, chocolate eating kind of female. It didn’t matter that I actually don’t even like most chocolate. I wanted my something special just like how everyone else around me was getting their something special. It was my due as his girlfriend and then wife. Everyone and everything said so. I was told over and over that if he really loved me he would get me all of these special things to prove it on Valentine’s Day.

Wordless Wednesday

Dear Person.

You and I, we have a problem. You frustrate me. You annoy me. You make me want to scream and cuss and wish horrible curses and illness on you. You make me this angry being who I normally am not.

Before this year I’ve always rocked this scene. Or well, I always did fairly well. However, this year we’ve had lots of changes and shifts in responsibilities and focuses, and I’ll admit, this area has taken a hit. I make sure most things get done; but sometimes some things slip by me, or I think John took care of it, or he thinks I did, and in the end neither of us did. I am by no means perfect and I know, deep down, that you aren’t the evil monster you currently are in my head. You do what you have to do and what you are told do. The fact that I don’t agree with some of it isn’t entirely your fault.

New Releases–February 1st

I am planning to get this blog back on its regularly scheduled program. So here’s to hoping. And first thing first, lets start back with a new edition of the New Releases that I got to work with this week.