What all have you been up to Erin?

Honestly no one asks that because they know the answer will be, "What do you mean what have I been up to? I'm 39 weeks pregnant you fool! I just try to make it through the day without crying mostly!" I'm kidding. It hasn't been too bad. Some false labor, went to the hospital and everything. Totally lame. I'm inducing on Tuesday, so the end is in sight.

I did get to do most of the weekend's parties I wanted to do. The kid school ones, Brian's work one and the church one. I had to miss Roniece's birthday though and I was bummed. I was just soooo tired, I had already been to THREE parties that day.

Anyhow here are pictures from Halloween. I love the horse dressed up as a ladybug.

Also you may have heard our whole family has become obsessed with Lego. I never had lego as a kid. It's not woe as me, I mean I had plenty of toys, just not lego. So it's all new to me! We rescued a bunch of lego from Brian's Gram's closet. Some of it belongs to Dan, but we are putting everything together (OCD Brian and Dan saved all instructions of course) then sorting what was Brian's, what was Dan's and returning Dan's stuff to him. As we finish a set we are taking photos: In the first set the last 4 pics are a cool 4 level jail Stephen made up. The guys all on top are not fenced in, but if they jump they will most likely die as shown by the random body parts on the street. Even if not die then the huge scary drago in the last pic will get them. It's not a very friendly jail situation.

I build that gas station all by myself by the way. I'm getting better with my lego skillz.

I also built that beach scene. Alas, it belongs to Dan. The pirate ship is one of Brian's most favorite sets ever. He has been talking about it for years. Good to finally see it all built and such. He won't let the boys play with it yet though. It's on top of the fireplace.

A few more small sets (I really like building those small sets) and some "Islands" sets that are definately Dan's. (Ethan is bummed because all the alligators are Dan's.) The Race Way set is ours though.

As we finish a set that is "ours" after looking at it for a few days we are letting the boys take it apart or play with it or whatever. We therefore have a TON of fun lego to play with now.

Well that's about it for us. Oh random: Brian won't give out candy today because it's Sunday and no Trick or Treat on Sunday. We just got our first and only Trick or Treaters right now. I feel so bad ignoreing them. :( Come back next year. Also isn't 8:30 a bit late for trick or treating? It's been dark for 2 hours... Anyhow I thought we were going to get away with it, lights off and all, but I guess not.

Basket Kitties

Oh look, another There She Goes kitty card! This one was for the weekly Sketch Challange over on Splitcoaststampers. Colored them with copic markers. The paper is all Stamin' Up! So my background papers. I saw on a few blogs people using print paper for their background and I loved it. I had some really fine print papers from my subscription to Scarlet Lime so I decided to start doing it. I love the look. But then I noticed I would intentionally NOT use a print paper because I really liked using that print as a backdrop for photos. I'm not sure that's a valuable enough use for a paper. So these two prints, the orange flower dot and the writing looking paper I used together on a card I made yesterday. I'll put up a pic in the next few days. I love the card, but now I don't have that awesome orange (which I use a lot) to use for a backdrop! Not sure how I feel about that.

In other news:
Still pregnant. I still feel good. Tired easily but good. So I'm ok with not having Calvin yet. I have a fun weekend this weekend to keep me busy. Next weekend though I have no plans at all. Then the weekend after that I have THREE super fun parties if I'm still moving around. Brian's work Hallowen party, my bff Roniece's birthday party and the church Halloween party. I'd love to be able to do all that, I had kinda figured I would not be able to. So I'm torn now. I'm ready for Calvin to come, but I want to have all that fun too!
Ethan is on his first ever campout right now. I'm very excited to hear how it went. Stephen and I watched Back to the Future last night, ate some Twizzlers and he slept in the big bed with me. In a few hours we are meeting Marcia, Gram and Aunt Ann for lunch. Brian and Ethie E will be home late this afternoon.

sweet friend

Today's card uses more of my new There She Goes stamps. Have I mentioned I'm a bit addicted to TSG lately? I decided to keep this card super clean and simple. I colored the flowers with orange then shaded in with some red copic marker. Cut it down, stamped a greeting and mounted on black. Added some pearls and done.

Funny story: I showed the boys how to do this blending with copics. I use an acrylic board and scribble the darker color on it, then pick up a bit on my lighter marker and use that to shade. So I show all this to the boys. Am I daft? Now they have no interest in their 100 crayola markers, they want their own copics. They are 4 and 5. Copics are $4 each. Um... NO. I told them to try to do some shading with the crayola ones. I may be mean but I don't even let them use the copics. I mean I did buy them one HUNDRED crayola markers! Stephen also mentioned to me the other day that the quality of white cardstock he has isn't cutting it. Which is likely becaue I gave him all the el cheapo cardstock I had as I only use high end. I'm breeding craft snobs!

Had my 37 week baby appt today. Everything is fine. Kinda boring report, but a good one! My dr thinks I'll go all the way to 40 weeks. I'm shocked, I've never gone all the way. Of course no one knows when a baby will come. I just want to get through this weekend. I have several fun things planned. After that I'm good with whenever.

here kitty kitty

I played with some more of my new There She Goes stamps today. I absolutely and loving this company! I think it's because for a while I was so hooked on the simple style of Papertrey and similar that I got into a bit of a rut. Then I remembered how fun really adorable images are to work with so I'm really into TSG for now. I'm ok with the inconsistancy. :) I still love the simple style, but right now I'm into cute.

Today I'm sharing two kitty cards. The base cardstock is gray, not quite as dark as it is in my photos. I'm not sure why they came out darker, the pattern paper and coloring is right, just the gray. Whatever...

The one with two kittens I colored to mimic the kittens that have moved into the backyard. I guess they didn't "move into" it as they were born under our shed, I guess they have always called the back yard home. Anyhow one is mostly gray and one is white and orange. They are super playful but have never spelt anything for me with blocks.

Stephen's card and a personal challange

First up is Stephen's card from the Sketch Challange a few weeks back. He loves doing those sketches. This card he calls "Party chicken" Dan you see the really lightly stamped party chicken up there near the sky? Interesting note: Almost all Stephen's cards lately are trifold cards. He learned this "Taco fold" watching his teacher fold letters. He's actually quite good at getting a really straight tri fold. Something I'll be sure to remember next time I need to send out a pile of letters. ;) So I'm doing a double personal challange. Ready?

No more buying lego OR craft stuff for the rest OF THE YEAR. Now this sounds crazy but I'm having a baby in a few weeks. I know I'll be busy and tired. Also my boys have asked the grandparents for lego, so I'm sure they will get plenty for Christmas. And I have TONS of craft supplies already. I mean I have sets and sets that I've barely used. I have about 15 refills for my adhesive gun still. I have about 8 feet of cardstock stacked up. I don't NEED anything. I love to buy, it's super fun, but I'm going to see if the buying is my addiction or if the crafting is.

Oh in other news!:
I really wanted this kind of baby carrier wrap thing I see sometimes. Couldn't figure out what it was called. "It wraps around, thin material, sort of makes an "x" your baby goes in the front, weight even on your back so it doesn't hurt" Wasn't cutting it. My family tried to find such a crazy thing. They could not. Because of my lame description. But my good friend Savin knew exactly what I wanted! She bought me a Moby Wrap at Target of all places last week! I LOVE IT! I came right home from church (where she gave it to me) and wrapped several sized stuffed animals in it. It's so comfortable. I had a sling the over the one sholder type, but it always hurt my back if I wore it for any length of time. This wrap is so nice!
I also bought a pack of binkies for Calvin. I guess I'm ready. I cleaned out the purse I'm using as a diaper bag and stocked it with diapers and wipes. OH you know what I don't have any of? Diaper rash cream. I'll have to get a tub. (Do they have it at the hospital for me to steal?)

ETA: I do have a SU order on it's way to me... That doesn't count! I mean starting with new purchases!

MOre fun with my new stamps

I had to do a few challanges with my new There She Goes stamps. This is for the TSG blog challange this week and for the Sketch Challange from last week on Splitcoast. You can't tell, I think, but the girl's hair is glittery. And here is a photo of the kid's side of the craft room. It's not usually this clean. They both like to craft on the floor (there is a whole bunch of open floor in this room too) and they make a huge mess. We have to sweep almost every day. But when it's all clean it sure looks nice doesn't it?

Treats and clean!

I had to jump on the bandwagon and get some of those 1x8inch bags to make treats in. Here is my first one. I am thinking I'll give these out this Halloween. (Or Brian will, I'll likely be having a baby or so huge and tired of being pregnant that I'll just laze in bed.) I used leftover Jelly Belly candies from my baby shower. I only had enough for this handful of them, clearly I'll be needing more candy. This ADORABLE stamp is one of the new ones I got from There She Goes stamps. LOVE IT.

ETA: Sorry I forgot the link to the tube bags! HERE is where I got them. They shipped super quick. Shipping was 4.95 for 100 or 400, I got 400 of them. Seemed like an ok shipping for that many, but lame shipping for just one pack of 100. Gotta justify that shipping you know. They also hold m&m's, skittles and decorated pens well accoring to the girls on splitcoaststampers.

Also I thought I'd share pictures of my craft room as it's clean for now:

It hasn't changed in a while really so you may not see much difference. I'm really happy with this arrangement. I've kept this basic arrangement for several years and don't have any plans to change.

None of the sports stuff is mine. We all share this room as a hobby room. Brian collects sports crap and the kids have a little craft table and their own craft supplies organized on the other side of my desk. (I need to show that to you, It's pretty cute)

The shiny gift bag you can barely see on the bottom left of the second photo is STUFFED full of stuff I cleared out when I cleaned. Tomorrow on Facebook I'm going to sell that stuff. I arranged it in 9 "lots" or sort of related groupings. The prices are going to be pretty cheap, I'm trying to get rid of this stuff. All the money goes to Brian's TV fund. We have never had a new TV, all hand-me-downs or thrift shop ones. Ours is on it's last leg, so it's time to enter adulthood and buy our own TV. (Because none of our family happens to be upgrading right now.) He really wants one of those new flat ones in 42inches. He never really wants big stuff like that so I'm giving all the money from selling my stamps to the TV fund. I mean I watch TV too so it's not totally altruistic, although I would be happy with a tiny TV I don't really care. I'm sure I'll enjoy a nice big one though.

See how nice I am not using the money for the "zip up to my knees" boots? I'm such a nice wife. He should buy me boots to thank me. haha.

Baby Shower photos

Yesterday was my baby shower! It was super fun and I think everyone had a good time. I got gobs of presents for Calvin, diapers, clothes, fun toys. :) The food was delicious. Savin made her famous egg rolls *swoon*. Right after the party Brian and I went in attack mode and we had it all cleaned up in less than an hour, so now I'm in a perfectly clean house, with a fridge stocked with all my favorite foods as leftovers! How awesome is that?

So here are photos. I want you to pay especial attention to the horrible look on my face in some of them. I'm not sure what to say! Let's all just laugh about it and remember me at cuter times. In this next set it looks like I'm horrified of Ethan doesn't it? I am NOT horrified of Ethan, I love him to pieces.

This set has pictures of the decorations and food. Yup, those are CamiCakes. Jealous? Everyone loved them. I had ordered everyone's choice of flavor and made pics to label them.

Here we are playing that game where there is a melted candybar in a diaper and you have to figure out what kind of candybar it is. (and it looks like poop) Ewwwwww. This game scared me because Stephen was home and the candy bars all had peanut. We handled them like they were rat poision after the game was done. Oh I'm also getting some adorable shoes for baby Calvin in this set! SHOES for babies are soooo cute. Silly but cute.

Well that's all for photos. We had such a fun time. Well I did at least.

After all this we went down to St. Augustine to see Brian's mom and Gram. they didn't get to come up because they have been sick. We brought them some party food and their cupcakes. They gave us bunches of presents. Some for Calvin, but some just for us! Fun. Then we went to a pizza place (yum) and the outlet mall. I finally bought the size and stuff of my bowl for my Kitchen Aid mixer and got a pouring shield for it. Brian got three pairs of jeans, his were ratty.

At the Bass outlet there was a pair of boots. I desperately want black dressy boots that go to my knees. I feel that no other item of clothing can make me happier. But I have HUGE calfs. It's all muscle, but they are really thick. So high boots never zip over them. But last night this pair DID. And they looked HOT. A few ladies trying on clothes gathered around to discuss the hotness. I want them SO BADLY. Alas they were $60 and Brian, voice of reason that he is, talked me out of them. I feel kinda ill about it. I've had buyers remorse, but never "not buying remorse". If I keep dreaming about them I'm going to have to just go get them. They were so cool!