Andrea's blog

Why didn't I think to do this? It's fabulous:

The First Year

I've always liked my Baby Bjorn and carried Ayla all over Rochester in it her entire first year (and a little beyond!).  Paxton is going to prove to be a little more difficult to carry with it, because he's so big! 

A friend of mine here in Birmingham uses a sling that she made to hold any of her three kids (3, 1, and 1 month), and it's SO cute.  She was nice enough to make me one too (I even got to pick the fabrics), and I'm in love with it.

Paxton loves it too.  I carried him around tonight for about an hour when I went to pick Ayla up from VBS, and he never made a peep.  Just sat there and enjoyed the ride with his little hands folded in front of him, smiling at everyone. 

Thanks to Hilarie (who SO needs to open her own Etsy shop with these and the adorable bags she makes) who made it for me! (She didn't ask me to drum up business for her, but I could probably convince her to make a few more if any of you want to buy one from her...just let me know!)

I got my new Canon 40D today and got to play a little bit.  Holy megapixels! And I didn't even get the newest, biggest, fastest camera on the market right now. 

This photo originally was 54 x 36 INCHES! 

That's massive.  Want to see just HOW massive?  Here's a cropped section of it at original size.

oooh, I'm gonna have fun!

Remember this album?

Just finished Ayla's 3rd year pages...

I love albums with only one page a year...so easy.

And if you like this style of album...you'll also like my e-book available at Scrapbook.com:

A Scrapbooker's Quick Guide - 365 Special Days (E-Book)

Consider it mine.  Should arrive on Tuesday.

A refurbished Canon 40D.  Can't wait!

I threw a lingerie shower for my friend Tiffany this past weekend and wanted to share my centerpiece idea....a little bit of tulle, lace trim, beaded trim and a hot glue gun...so easy!

Plus, I HAD to make her one of my signs....every bride should get one:

I finally got a little bit of scrapbookingdone this week.  It was fun working with pictures of Paxton for the first time.  Here's what I got:

First, my maternoty pics (by Molly Bridges).  I used the exact same sketch as my page for Ayla's album.

Next, an Easter page for our family album:

And the first calendar pages for Paxton's First Year album...Check out my e-book "365 Special Days" for more info about the format of the album.

Feels good to scrapbook again...

Saturday (May 2nd) was National Scrapbook Day.  That's right....we get a whole day. 

So, even though I was beyond exhausted and we had already crammed in a soccer game (in the rain), lunch with our extended family, and a birthday party, I managed to still squeeze in a couple of layouts before the day was done:

I can't take credit for the overall design of this first one...the sketch is for an upcoming Scrapjazz sketch challenge..and I believe it's inspired from a Bahamas advertisement.  But it seemed to be the perfect "airy" design for these dandelion photos of Ayla.

And my regular monthly collage of photos.  This is my solution for not scrapbooking EVERY little thing we do (because each of these photos could easily have been a layout of its own).  I take photos from throughout the month, stick them all on one page and do a quick summary of what we did that month.  Much more do-able! 

Hope you enjoyed National Scrapbook Day too!

While my mom was here this weekend, she and Ayla went shopping for flowers to put in the hanging basket by our front door.  They also picked up some extras for the steps and another big pot next to the door. 

We can always count on my mom to help make the outside of the house look good.  Seems like we did something very similar to our house in Rochester not long after Ayla was born. 

It'll definitely make for a nicer welcome when visitors come by! 

Thanks Mom! :)

Looking for something to do this afternoon, I decided to see if I could make Ayla some Easter puppets to play with this week.  A little bit of scrap fabric, buttons, and a hot glue gun, and here's what we came up with: