Rita Oliverio

Summer Fun

A few summer pictures to share:

 

Nick at Cannon Beach on a school field trip the day before the last day of school.  We had a great time, but it was a long bus ride there and back!

 

Ashley and her "po-do", as she refers to popsicles.  Tony found these great popsicles that are called "mini-melts."  They are the perfect size for her, have a longer stick so she doesn't get her hands all messy and they melt really slowly so she always finishes them and never drips everywhere. 

 

Eating a gummy worm, another of her favorite outside treats.

 

The kids in the hot tub.  This is probably their favorite thing to do! 

 

Ashley and Logan are such a funny pair.  Sometimes they fight like cats and dogs, other times they are so sweet together.

 

 

I got my hair cut!  It had gotten to the length that I was pulling it into a pony tail every day, and that is when I know it's time to get it cut.  I'm always very spontaneous about it, and fairly trusting, so I tend to go to those walk-in places.  This was the first time I ever had a guy cut my hair, and he was bald, so I was extremely nervous the whole time!  Honestly, who doesn't judge a hairstylist by his or her own hair?? (And no, you don't need to adjust your monitor...I really am that pale, lol.)

And of course, a layout.  I finished my April layout for the A Year of You class at Two Peas.  This is probably my favorite layout of the class to date. 

 

The journaling card pulls out and has a list of what we did during the month of April.  Now I just have May and June to do and I am completely caught up!

Still playing catch-up

but at least it's only been a week this time instead of two months!

We have an unbelievable amount of home improvement projects going on simultaneously and that is really taking up most of our time and energy.  Well, mostly Tony is doing them, but I'm keeping him well fed and am working on lots of stuff indoors.  We are racing against the clock because Logan turns four next month and we are planning a family barbecue and Batman birthday party for him.

I managed to squeeze in a little scrapping time and have two new layouts to share.

This picture of Logan is from a year ago.  I can't believe how time flies...

 

 

And these pictures are even older...this is three years ago on the Oregon Coast!  I've been rummaging through my old pics I already printed since I haven't had much time to get any new ones printed.

 

Pretty much everything is from one Studio Calico kit or another :)  My latest favorite supply has got to be those SC Story Times stamps that I used for "at the".  Love, love, love them! 

Early Bird

Summer break usually means sleeping in and lazy starts to the day around here.  We all slept in until 8:30 yesterday morning and that is unheard of around here.  Our kids have always been early risers.  Nick doesn't always get up right away, but he actually wakes up pretty early.

I felt so tired and sluggish all day, I couldn't believe it!  So today I got out of bed the first time I woke up instead of trying to squeeze out every last minute of sleep.  We'll see how the day goes :)  I'm kind of hoping it will allow me to have some early morning scrapping time before Ashley wakes up.

Tony finished replacing the well pump last night, so we have water back in the house!   Thank goodness for handy husbands! Twenty-four hours without water was long enough.

I finished another layout yesterday to share.  In the May Studio Calico kit I got three of the new October Afternoon Cherry Hill Wild cards.  One of mine had a little doggy on it and I knew instantly I wanted to use it on a page about Logan and his doggy.  I was looking through pictures and came across a picture of Logan from March of 2007 holding his beloved doggy.  It's actually a professional picture from JC Penney's, and it's one of the few studio-type pictures I really love because it really shows his personality and how he always carries doggy around. 

Looking at this picture fascinates me for two reasons:

1. He's the same age in this picture as Ashley is right now, so it's fun to compare them and remember what he was like at this stage.

2.  I can't believe how clean and plump his doggy is!  His doggy right now is about half as full, has had a few stitches and isn't even close to the same color!  A true testament to how much he loves him!

 

 

 

This one is definitely ranking as one of my favorite pages right now!  I used products from the last four Studio Calico kits.  The grey-dot October Afternoon paper, the yellow thickers and the MM flowers are the only things not from a kit.

And now Miss Ashley is awake so it's time to start our day!

Right Now

I am sitting in my scraproom {finally!} listening to Ashley sing her version of the abc's through the baby monitor.  She is such a little character!

And Tony is outside replacing the water pump that runs the well.  It hasn't even been quite 24 hours without water and I'm already starting to get a little crazy.  Washing our hands with bottled water is going to get expensive, fast!

School is out for the summer and the boys are loving our backyard campground, complete with a real fire pit!  They would never come inside if they could get away with it!

LIfe is good, just very busy!  My grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in May and I made a 28-page scrapbook album of our extended family.  It was so much fun going through all of the pictures and seeing everyone grow and change over the years.  For about six weeks, that was my scrapping focus.  I won't share all 28 pages here, because that would be a little crazy, but here are a couple of my favorites:

This is the two-page spread of my little family.  I loved working with the Cosmo Cricket Everafter line; it was perfect for this project.

My other favorite page was of my cousins and I growing up together.  There are six of us, all very close in age.  My grandparents did a great job taking lots of pictures of us growing up together.

I'm trying to get back into scrapping and blogging on a daily basis.  I have a few other layouts to share:

 

This one is a direct lift of a layout Scarlet did for the March gallery at Studio Calico. 

 

I love this picture of Nick, and I just wanted to document some of my frustrations as a parent.  He definitely gives me a run for my money! 

 

This is an old picture of Nick and Logan.  I showed it to Logan and he thought it was of Nick and Ashley!  He has a hard time understanding he used to be a baby too! 

 

I wasn't crazy about how my stamping turned out, so I stitched around it.  Much better :)

If Ashley decides to take a decent nap, hopefully I'll have another layout to share tomorrow!

Quick Share

So much to share, and just not enough time.  Life with three kids is busy and I feel like I am being pulled in a million different directions.  I am constantly seeking balance and trying to juggle activities with the kids, keeping the house {semi} clean, and taking a little time for myself. 

I did manage to finish a layout with the new Studio Calico kit, but now I need to spend some serious time uncovering my desk so I can start a new project :)

This was my first time playing with masks and the Maya Road mists.  I had to use them right away to justify adding them to my kit this month :)  I mixed in some October Afternoon alpha stickers from the January kit and some Scenic Route rub-ons that I'm trying to use up.

 

 

I just wanted to document this stage Nick is in right now.  Definitely growing up, but at least he hasn't started calling me "Mom" yet, lol.

Rain or Shine

The weather is notoriously unpredictable this time of year. We had a taste of warm weather last week, and then the temperatures dropped again.  It is supposed to warm up again this weekend.

I hope the prediction is true so we can make more trips to the park like this:

By the end of the morning, she was actually going down the slide all by herself!

 

 

 

 

I didn't get as many pictures of Logan, mostly because I had to be within arms reach of Ashley the whole time as she navigated the play structure.  I thought she would be scared, but she loved every minute of it and was even jumping on the wobbly bridge.

Logan can be very shy at times, but he made some fast friends.  He was playing with another little girl there and they kept hugging each other.  It was so sweet.

I did capture these two pictures of him at home before we left...I was lucky to catch him holding still!

 

 

So handsome.

And on the flip side, even though we have lots of rain here it doesn't usually stop the kids from wanting to play outside.

Case in point:

 

I used a little bit of everything here :)  Bits and pieces from the last two Studio Calico kits, some My Little Bicycle and Making Memories products and a vintage button.

Coming down...

from a sugar high.  Yuck. And no one to blame but myself because I am the one that did all of the Easter shopping. 

We had a very low-key Easter.  Ashley came down with some sort of a virus/stomach bug on Friday night so we postponed our weekend plans.  I did take the boys to the local Easter egg hunt and they had a good time.

Here are a few pics:

 

{Not at all interested in having their pictures taken.}

 

{Fine.  If you insist Mom, but I'm going to make goofy faces.}

 

{Much better, even if it is a slightly forced smile.}

 

{I can be silly too.}

 

{Are we done yet?  I want to go find some eggs!}

 

{Finally!!}

It was crazy how busy the egg hunt was this year!  I think the fact that the weather cooperated made a huge difference in how many families attended. 

I finished my March layout for the Year of You class at Two Peas.  It is pretty much the only thing I've finished lately.  The good news is I've been taking lots of pictures, now I just need to get them printed so I can scrap!

 

 

I love this little pocket for picture collages!  I have one more to include but I am currently having lots of issues with Wal-Mart's photo center.  They keep cutting off the text if it's too close to the edge so it's back to square one in PSE.  I love this class and am so happy with how my album is turning out!

Hoping to be more consistent with blogging, scrapping and sharing pics!

Making Progress

1. On my knee.  I haven't talked about it here, but I slipped and nearly fell when we had all of that snow in late December. I twisted my knee in the process and have been dealing with pain, stiffness, weakness and all sorts of other fun stuff.  I finally went to the doctor and started physical therapy at the end of February.  I am just now starting to see some real progress.  I walked up the stairs without wincing or limping for the first time since December!

2. With my sewing machine.  It took me a long time to get it threaded and raise the bobbin, but now I'm busy practicing my stitches.  I've stitched on a few layouts and am hoping to pick up a simple pattern and some cheap fabric soon to practice on.

3. On the massive amount of toys and clutter we have.  I decided at the beginning of this year that my goal was to organize our home.  Tony and I have been married for almost 12 years, have three kids and have never purged.  I'm sure you can imagine how quickly stuff piles up.  I'm working on a small area at a time and everything gets a "home".  When that home is full, stuff starts getting donated.  Ashley's room is done, and as I find more toys and stuffed animals for her age range, I'm deciding what stays and what goes.  It is nice to have that "cap" and not feel guilty getting rid of stuff.  We are all tired of not being able to enjoy what we have because there is just too much of it.

4. Using some old scrap supplies.  I figure I better make room for the jam-packed  Studio Calico box I will be receiving in a few weeks. On this layout:

 

I mixed some of the Pink Paislee Vintage Moon with some Heidi Grace Halloween stickers from 2006 (gasp!).  I love this picture of Nick from Halloween last year.  He absolutely loved his costume, although he informed me when he saw this layout that he hated my page!  In particular, he thought the cut-out leaves and heart sticker were too girly or babyish.  Sigh.  Little does he know he just gave me another great idea for a layout, lol!

Short and Sweet

Just wanted to share a layout I finished the other day of Logan.  I gathered inspiration for this one from a few different places.  I loved the design of one of Robyn Werlich's layouts, which you can see here.  I also pulled some inspiration from the fabulous Studio Calico design team gallery.  I loved how Davinie layered the two different alphabets and how Scarlet used the AC Fabric buttons to embellish the MM Polka-Dot paper.

   

 

Pretty much everything is from the kit.  I did use a few MM star embellishments I had on hand and the new My Little Shoebox mini-alphas I picked up this weekend.

Other than that, I'm trying not to lose my mind in a very full house on day two of Spring Break.  I get to duck out of mom-duty early tonight and go bowling with my MOPS group so I'm looking forward to that.  I'm a terrible bowler, but I know I'll have a great time because our group is filled with a lot of fantastic ladies!

Sew Fine

 

I'm so excited about getting this sewing machine for my birthday from my parents!  So many possibilities...and it's not just for sewing on paper, although that is a huge perk!    I need to spend some time reading the manual and figuring out how it works, but I'm looking forward to learning to sew!

Saturday was a pretty perfect day.  The kids had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's house, and Tony and I had a great time on our day out.

Our first stop at the barn sale here yielded these results:

 

I got some great vintage buttons to use on my pages, and this little vase.  I'm thinking about using the vase as a toothbrush holder, but as it sits in my scraproom right now I'm also thinking of some other decorative uses.  There was lots of great stuff I would have loved to get my hands on, but I went in with a pretty small budget.  I'm definitely hoping to be able to visit their other events and slowly add these little touches to our house.

We saw the new Nicolas Cage movie Knowing and really enjoyed it.  We are lucky if we get to the movies twice a year so I'm really glad we picked a good one!

Since we had some time to kill before the movie, what better way to spend it than stopping at a Scrapbook Store?  Especially when I also got a wonderful gift certificate from my sister.

I was immediately drawn to all of the new Pink Paislee and Cosmo Cricket lines.  I resisted the need for instant gratification since I'm pretty sure the April Studio Calico kit and add-ons are packed with them and I'm pinching my pennies in anticipation for the reveal later this week.

I'm a layout stacker, so I opted for a new album to house my monthly layouts I've been working on.  I've heard good things about the AC Modern Albums and decided to give them a try.  I'm thinking about finishing the cover with some fabric to make it more durable.  Has anyone every tried that, or have any suggestions?  I also picked up a few fun things:

 

I'm in love with the My Little Shoebox mini alpha stickers!  Some fun colors and font variations from the Making Memories brand.  I also loved their new die-cut papers!  I'm really excited to use the Bo Bunny Cascading Chipboard album!  It's very similar to the Maya Road one, except it's approximately 6x12 in size.

I also picked up some more Making Memories Whimsy chipboard and Just Chillin' chipboard stickers from Target.

Definitely a VERY good weekend :)