Pink Hair.

Here is my newest hair color: My facebook friends say it looks like My Little Pony.

I love it! :)

Brian likes this one much more than the dark turquoise.

Recent Nails, featuring a rad French Mani.

Here are some recent nails. The top right was a fun SUPER pink one. The top left was just me playing with some new polish. I don't love that one. Wouldn't you know it lasted days and days. The bottom two pics are what I'm sporting right now. I love how it turned out. My first French. I liked it so well I did my toes too.

I have mixed feelings about loving a mani though. I like changing my polish every second day. This is day three though and it still looks great so I can't justify changing it. That's fine I rekon, I have laundry I should fold instead of polishing my nails.

Well that's about it around here.

My A Muse Studio Came

My HUGE package from A Muse Studio came with my starter kit. I'm about to give you the painfully honest review.But first here are some things I made:

Ok first I'll talk about the kit contents as a whole. I think it's a great kit. I went with the delux kit and I'm glad I did because I love the inks (more on that in a second) and I got the print paper as well. I mostly wanted the inks and the extra catalogs. I think it's a brilliant kit because you get the sampler stamp sets, they put together a wide range of the stamps they offer. They are fun sets. No Christmas I noticed. I wonder if they will change WHAT the sampler sets are ever? Anyhow they are a great sampling of the A Muse stamp line. The downside is if I buy the sets some of the stamps came out of I'll have doubles. My only complaint about the kit is that there should be more cardstock. Two sheets each of about 10 colors isn't enough for me. I feel super stingy making cards. Of course I'm used to having nearly unlimited cardstock. I'll just have to order more. But I wish the kit had two packs of the assortment and a whole pack of white.

Specific reviews:

Ink. I personally LOVE this ink. It sits so nicely on the paper and the colors are fresh and true to what you see on the inkpad. It is pigment though and does NOT dry quickly. In some environments you may need to heat set it. It's crazy humid here and I didn't have to heat set, but I keep hearing that it's smearing for people. That is a shame. I think I'm willing to run that risk because I'm such a freak about color looking right. I absolutely disliked most dye inks. So I'm happy.

Cardstock: It's totally different from all other cardstock I've used. It's more like cardstock weight paper. The color is fresh and vivid, but only printed on one side. I love this because the inside of cards is a nice white. I think it's very professional looking.

Print Paper: It's the same as the cardstock but with a print.

Stamps: this is important.! They are cling mounted, and come in DVD cases much like the new SU stamps. You do NOT have to mess with the sticker lables though. They are printed on the foam! So you won't have that sticker not being clingy enough issue some folks had with SU. I LOVE that! They are also already die cut for you. They stamp great.

I think the rest of the supplies I got are pretty standard. The cleaner works great, the ribbon feels good. OH! You get a swatch book with all the cardstock colors. I love that because the kit doesn't include all the cardstock colors so I can at least see them all.

I'll let you know as I discover any new characteristics of the A Muse Studio stuff. I plan to make an order next week, I need more of the cardstock.

Hair and A Muse

Look: I always want to dye my hair weird colors. Well I did. Hurray! I love it. I mean I super freakoutcrazy love it.

Also I signed up to be an A Muse Studio consultant! I'm so excited. I don't have anything to show you for that yet but I will.

That could be good news for you if you love a bargain. I'm thinking about selling off a large portion of my other stamps. I think I could get down to almost all A Muse. I'll keep you posted.

Bouncy Ball Nails.

This is my current nail polish job. I kept thinking this manacure reminded me of something. Then I realized what it was. THESE super bouncy balls I used to get from gum machines as a kid. Doesn't it look like that?

I did this with water marbling technique. If you are interested in that google it or look it up on youtube because there are so many great videos and I could never do it justice. The short of it is that you swirl polish on the surface of a cup of water then dip the nail into the water to catch the swirl design on your nail. I used scotch tape to tape off my finger tips so I didn't make a huge mess. Oh, and I painted my nails white first so the colors would really show up. Which was good because I ended up doing it so a lot of the white showed.

I love this manacure. In these crazy bold colors it really appeals to kids. My boys cannot stop looking at it. It couldn't be more fun.

Non Nail News:

I haven't stamped in a few weeks, but I did get the new A Muse catalog from my good friend Sherri and it's ADORABLE. I can't spend any more money for the rest of the month, but Sherri can expect an order from me next month. I do wish they were clear, but I'm sure there are just as many folks who are thankful they are rubber.

I've done two Zumba classes now. I LOVE ZUMBA. It's so crazy fun. My class is an hour of really intense cardio but it just flies by. I'm super uncordinated so I'm sure I look a fool, but I'm having fun. I did have to get new tank tops to work out in. I have a really long torso and super short legs. I don't really mind except clothes are not made for that. When I'd throw my arms over my head to do the dance moves in Zumba my floppy, stretch mark scarred stomache would pop out. It's all mirrors in there. It freaked me out. So vanity won the day and I got some el cheapo $7 Target tanks. I think they are strictly speaking sleepwear, but they are thin, long and cute. So I'll be the girl at Zumba in the sleep top. haha.

St. Patty's Day Nails

So I let Ethan pick my polish this time. I had a feeling he'd go for green. But when he handed it to me he said, "not a silly design Mommy, a classy design this time." After I got over the complex that gave me for a few moments I figured a kid would think glitter tips are "classy". I was right. The green is some shimmery Mabeline polish I've had for EVER. I half expected it to be dried out really. But it was ok. So two coats of that, then I painted just the tips with topcoat and dipped the tips of my nails into Martha Stewart Antique Gold craft glitter. After that I put about 6 coats of SV topcoat on top. It needed that to get rid of the catchy feeling of the glitter which was driving me INSANE. They feel all smoothe and normal now. :)

I bought a lot of polish lately. I must stop! I only have the two hands. haha. But anyhow I ordered online some black, gray and topcoat in a matte finish. I also got a metalic gold, metalic sliver, royal blue and a dark brown. Dark brown looks very trendy/hip on me, but I did it on Roniece yesterday and with her fab dark skin it looked really neutral/classy! So that polish is a WIN. I also figured out two things. 1. I can't swatch polish on Roniece. Her nails are way darker than mine and her skin is also way darker. It tells me nothing. 2. I CAN swatch polish on my boys! They have my same skin color so I can really tell what it will look like. Ethan thinks it's funny to have a handful of polish swatches. Stephen has entered the phase where he worries what people will think of him, so he's into me doing it, but requests it get removed before school the next day. *sigh* growing up.

In other news:
Calvin is HUGE. Super grown up looking to me. And a fatty too. I mean a nice round baby fat, the good kind.
I am still working out. I tried a Zumba class last night. I've never sweat so much in my life, but the hour class went by so quickly because it is so fast paced and the music is great. I'm really seeing results from all my working out/dieting. I decided on a reward system for myself:
15lbs lost - pedicure
20lbs lost - 1 hour massage professional.
30lbs lost - new jeans, nice ones, any brand I want.
40lbs lost - Brian said he would get me a Day at the Spa package.
50lbs lost - New Wardrobe
60 lbs lost - Brian said he would get me anything I want. Like a vacation to Alaska or something, although he'd REALLY like to go tropical with me if I'm down 60lbs and get me new bathing suits and all. *wink*

So I need to stay on it. Because I'm sore! I'd kick a baby seal right now for a massage.

More playing with my nails.

This is my newest nail art. I hand painted Chococat on my nail. It's not perfect, his ears should be fatter and more to the sides of his head and I have one of his wiskers sort of growing out of under his ear instead of nearer to where it should. But it's definately recognizable as Chococat, so I'm happy!

This really intense turquoise is two coats of Sally Hansen's Hi-Definition nail color in number 14 Spectrum, over two coats of Ulta's white polish. I love this HD polish because I've done it over a few colors now with totally different looks. It has a slight holographic effect to a purple-ish color. Fun stuff.

I'm really having fun doing my nails. I know it's such a simple thing, but making that 30 minutes or so every few days to pamper myself is bringing me great joy. All the kids in my life are enjoying it too. Kinda makes me wish I had girls so I could have all their little girl friends over for a nail art party.

TSG97 Get Crafty Birthday Girl

I needed a card for a birthday we are going to this weekend. The birthday is at Pump it Up which is a huge inflatable bounce house place that is apparently super fun. We are all looking forward to it. When I saw that the There She Goes challange for the week was to use kraft I knew I would do the challange for the card. I bought the entire March Release of new stamps last week, they were so stinking cute, so I had this adorable girl to make the card with. I was holding Calvin while I colored. I'm not totally in love with this coloring job and I'm thinking that's why. I didn't really focus on my shading or anything. Basicly just tried to stay inside the lines. :)

have a great day

Been a while. I'm not even going to apologize or make promises to do better. I'll just do what I can. :)

I did clean my craft room and made a fun card to celebrate: The girl is by The Greeting Farm and the sentiment is by Hero Arts, the print paper is from the line Cherry Delicious by Sassafrass. I cut several layers for the girl. Stephen tells me it makes it 3D. He might be a bit obsessed with 3D.

In Other News:

My new obsession is doing my nails. Fancy fun nails. I don't know how long this mania will last but for now it's fun. Here are my current nails:

Quick Smile

So these accents. I've had them for ever. I bought them in huge packs years ago. They are by Making Memories. I do love them but I feel like I'm never going to use them up. haha. So I just grabbed two of them and paired them up with some thickers to make a really quick card.

tooty fruity

I recently bought a bunch of Sassafrasslass stuff from Crafty Steals. Some papers and a ton of the cute felt stickers. I love these fruit ones, so I used every single one on these 6 cards:

The ribbon and cardstock is all Stampin' Up, the papers are various neutrals from different Sassafrass paper pads. The adorable sentiment stamp is My Favorite Things.

All 6 of these cards took about 20 minutes total to make and they are stinking cute. Success!

Art and Children

I think it's super important to give kids lots of access to art. I'm sure that has a lot to do with my own personal value for art, but whatever. I just think kids are so full of creativity.

So today when Ethie asked if he could use a paintbrush he found I not only said yes, but I got him out a large canvas I've been holding onto for no good reason. He wanted to paint his own version of one of my favorite paintings. It is just some unknown artist's flamingo. My mom got it at a thrift shop and had it hanging in her laundry room. I stole it from her.

Here is the original and Ethie's version: Both are now hanging in my room. Which is decorated in "Stuff Erin Loves" theme. :) Do you like his shades of pink and turquoise? We didn't even have pink, he made that coral-ish pink out of other colors. Love that.

In other news:
Calvin is still perfect. I'm still working on the baby girl quilt. I'm almost done with the quilting. :)

Baby Girl Quilt

I felt like making a baby quilt. But Calvin has a mountian of them already. So I posted on facebook that whoever first wanted one I'd make a baby quilt for them. My friend Gail took the bait. The quilt is not actually for her, it's for a friend of hers. Love it! :) AND the baby in question is a GIRL. Love a chance to make a girl project.

I searched etsy for perfect fabrics, but decided in the end to use fun stuff from my stash instead. And here is what I came up with:
Closeup:

So I have some super fun sewing to do. I'm going to use the bright pink for binding I think.

In other news I really want to make these but all m&m's aggrivate Stephen's peanut allergy. :(

Also I'm hosting Christmas dinner and I invited almost 20 people! FUN. Of course I think only half will make it.

She has a baby then just drops off the planet...

I know! The thing is I've been tired. And in love with Calvin. I can't tell you how much time I spend staring at him. Not enough time actually! I love it! We are all good. It's cold season so we all have or are getting over colds. Ethie is the worst right now.

I did do a bit of crafting. I made this wreath with Roniece:

I got the idea from THIS Junkmail Greetings post. Mine doesn't look as good as hers. I just realized that. Oh well.

Otherwise my craft room is the same horrid mess it was BEFORE I had Calvin. I've barely set foot in there. It's a shame. The good news is with no muse lately I've not bought any craft stuff. Saving money is good. Boring, but good.

I don't know when I'll get back into crafting. But when I do I'll post again. I know it's lame to have a blog and only post once a month. Maybe next month I'll get regular.

See you then. And Merry Christmas!

Calvin is home!

I went in yesterday for the induction. Here is the birth story:
They induced me at 9:30am and I had him at 12:30pm.

It sort of went too fast for Brian. He had left to go home, make lunch, vote and come back. When she came in to check me a few moments after he left (without our one cell phone) she said, "Oh where is your husband, you are really close at 7cm" Well with Ethan, the time between 7cm and baby delivered was just an hour. So I called home hoping to catch him and tell him to skip the voting. 20 minutes later I felt the "urge to push". I was shocked. I called her in and yup, baby was right there. Like I could touch him. RIGHT THERE. I didn't catch Brian! He was on his way, but I was ready to push NOW. Thank heavens we live close. My Dr said it was ok to wait as long as I could stand it. Baby was looking great on monitor. Brian walked in expecting more labor, baby was out within 3 minutes of him walking in. Everyone was suprised at how fast the delivery went. I loved it. I mean I was overjoyed. I didn't break a sweat, didn't strain, just popped him right out.

I guess because the delivery was so super easy I've felt great. I'm sleepy, I didn't sleep great the night before and last night I had a brand new baby wanting to nurse every few hours. But otherwise I'm fine. (Yeah, a bit sore, that's expected) I cannot believe how easy it all was. Makes up totally for the rough pregnancy.

Calvin is perfect. He has brown hair, which was my wish. He barely cries, the nurses were all amazed. I mean like he's cried out twice at all. But he's breathing fine, nurses great, no jaundice at all. Sleeps in nice chunks mostly. He fell alseep in the car on the way home and is still sleeping in the carseat right now. (about 1.5 hours) He is already trying to hold his head up.

Well that's the birth story. :) Love you all.

This is one of my favorite pics. Ethan is in LOVE with his new baby brother. Stephen is not so much. He's ok about him but he doesn't like babies just on principle.

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!