A Father's Love

I LOVE these pictures of Ellie and Leif. We were hiking around the river near our house and on the way back, she got tired. So Leif picked her up and carried her home, and she just laid her head on his shoulder the whole way. It was so sweet and I am so thankful for these pictures!

When I showed Eliana this page, she pointed to the feather and said, "I don't think that belongs there." When I asked why not, she told me very matter-of-factly that, "I think it belongs in my feather duster." And so it did! It fell out at some point and I swiped it, knowing it would be fun to use on a page. Ha ha! She caught me! I thought it went well with the outdoorsy theme, though...

A little bit of PAINT

I love these pictures of Ellie painting my mom's toenails. These are the simple every day things I want to remember about my family!

Window Shopping

Do you ever go window shopping online? Add things to your cart, just for the satisfaction of doing so, and see how much your whims would cost you?

I am not feeling well today. So I am window shopping. Who knows, maybe I will buy something but right now, I'm just looking. And it makes me happy. =D

From Ormolu's Etsy shop, I apparently want $53 of stuff. Her shop also makes me inspired to pull out some stamps and make some of my own tags and labels and such. Pretty, pretty things!

From Bake It Pretty, if they were a retail shop and I were walking down the aisles, I would apparently have just over $73 of stuff in my cart. It makes me want to bake!

If I got every stamp set I want from Paper Trey Ink, I'd spend a whopping $459. Wow!! If "I really scale it back to the ones that are on my I really "need" that list, the cost drops to $140. Still, wow! I love their stamps...

From Hambly I have a list of papers and overlays totaling $50.40 that I'd love.

So there you have it. My window shopping for the day. =D It's much later now than when I started making this list, and I'm happy to say that all my money is still in my wallet. =D Success!

I believe I can fly...

I am not nearly as graceful as Cathy, but I am learning. I LOVE my aerial dance class!

Learn to FLY

I love these pictures of Cathy. She is so graceful, so elegant, and she makes aerial dance look like a breeze! I feel privileged to get to learn from her!

Lake Fun

This isn't one of my favorite pages, but it turned out okay. I still have more of these pictures from camping at the Hyalite Reservoir last year, too. What am I going to do with them all??

Sweet Davey

Sweet Davey, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

I was really excited to use these double sided papers for this layout. I didn't have any pictures in mind when I started, just the layout itself, but then I went digging through my box of photos and found these - aren't they perfect for this paper?? Pictures of my dear friend Tam's little boy. He's so sweet!

winter cookies

winter cookies
Originally uploaded by sweetopia*

I'm thinking these I might actually be able to do... wouldn't they be a fun addition to a Christmas gift? I'm thinking they'd make good tags... ;)

decorated owl cookies

decorated owl cookies
Originally uploaded by sweetopia*

Aren't these the most adorable owl cookies you've ever seen?? I am pretty sure I don't have the ability or patience to make them myself, but I love them!

Inspiration...

Do you ever find that there are just some blogs that continually inspire you? I have not been crafting of late again, but I have been finding a few snippets of inspiration. I went through my starred items in Google Reader this morning and thought I'd share what inspires me lately...

Jana Eubank is one of the bloggers whose work I often LOVE. She was one of the SPS designers and I could always find inspiration from her layouts for my kits if I was stuck! This layout I LOVE! It inspires me to play with my die cut paper and do some fussy cutting!

Allie Edwards, queen of simplicity. She ties in more digital elements than I would, but I have a 12x12 black and white baby photo of Eliana that I love and I'm thinking this would be a perfect layout to mimic with it. I love it!

Danielle Flanders is another blogger whose work I love. I have pulled so much inspiration from her blog, especially from her cards! I think this is such a fun layout, though... I love the stitching, and the hopping stars. It's just so cute!
The Prima blog always has beautiful work from their designers. I'm a HUGE fan of Prima products, so I love to see what everyone does with them! I particularly LOOOVE this layout by Jaime Warren. It just makes me want to pull out my patterned papers and start playing with texture and layering!

Anilu Magliore's work first caught my eye when I fell in love with her jewelry designs. She has inspired some of my own favorite pieces and I started following her blog. Then, I watched her get into digiscrapping and it has been fun to see her great eye for design carry over there, too! I'm not a digiscrapper, but I really like this layout. I think as a sketch there's a lot you can do with it!

Jana Eubank again. Love this layout. Love the stars. Love the buttons. Love the twine on the photo. I pretty much love everything about it.

A lot of what I find on the Hambly blog is a little too funky for my tastes. I love their products, though, and I'm glad I follow the blog because occasionally jewels like these come through! I don't know who Kerry Lynn is, but I LOVE the Old School layout. I have old photos. I have lace. And now I have inspiration...

Danielle Flanders again. I am not so much a Halloween person, though I do like the cute things you can make for the holiday. I am thinking, however, that these would make adorable Christmas goodies! I'm tucking that inspiration away in my head for winter...

Is this not the most precious baby album you've ever seen? I absolutely adore it. I love all the detail, its monochromatic beauty. It is so soft, so precious, just like a newborn! I found this gem on the Melissa Francis blog, which I follow just so I can see beautiful stuff like this! The designer was Kileigh Wirth. As a side note, Danielle Flanders designs for this blog, too, which is probably how I found it...

Like I said, not much for Halloween as a holiday, but I love this card! And I have that stamp set. So I might just have to make a few of these cuties! Melissa Phillips' blog is another place I've gotten lots of inspiration over the last couple years. Cute stuff abounds over there!

Again with the hybrid scrappery, I LOVE this layout. It's so fun, so fresh, so artsy. It makes me want to play. CD Muckosky does some really fun stuff.

Lauren Hagerman is someone I "met" on 2peas and then started following her blog. She had a subscription to SPS, too, so that was another connection we had. Recently she posted this project on her blog, and I'd really like to do the same thing one of these days. I love how simple hers is, and yet includes a ton of details. I want to do this.

Danielle Flanders again. I just think this layout is beautiful. Stunning. Gorgeous. It inspires me in so many ways.

So there you have it. A little of what inspires me these days. Now if I could only sit down and scrap for a bit and actually put this inspiration to use!

I really want to make these...

I saw these beautiful candied apples on one of the blogs I follow. I really want to do this with the apples we picked off our tree this year...

Let them eat cake?

While I love the idea of cake decorating, I have to admit that I am much more enamored with cupcakes. They're easy. They're cute. They don't require cutlery, or a plate, for that matter. Cupcakes are an afternoon. Cakes are, well, a project. So I have been resolved to make Eliana cupcakes for as long as I am able.

I might change my mind, though, since I got a princess crown cake pan today. =D Not something I would ordinarily buy, but Michael's had all (and I mean ALL - even the cake pans!) their princess (and pirate) party supplies on clearance. For $0.25 each. Everything. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I got a princess crown Wilton cake pan for 25 cents.

So don't be surprised if we have a princess themed party in July for a little 4 year old. (And since I got the tip-off from a friend of mine and let another know, don't be surprised if Ellie and ALL her little friends have princess parties with the same decorations, LOL! They're 3 and 4 - are they really going to tire of princesses?) And don't be surprised if there's a princess cake involved. Since I'm not making all the decorations and whatnot, I'll theoretically have a little more time to decorate the cake, right?

Hello? Hello?

Anyone out there?

I've been a little quiet in the blogosphere lately... I've been pretty quiet in the crafting world, too. Some personal stuff going on that makes me not want to blog, and a lack of mojo that makes me not want to craft!

BUT.... TOMORROW WILL BE DIFFERENT!

Why, you ask? Because Erika and I have hired a babysitter and we will be using purchased time to head over to Kristii's Open House to scrapbook!! Hooray!

So tomorrow, I will scrapbook. (And maybe that will be just the motivation I need to actually take pictures of the couple layouts I have finished and still need to post!)

Stay tuned...

And a 2 pager!

More 2 year photos. I told you I had a lot of them! This layout changed orientation a few times throughout the process! When I started the green ribbon was along the outside edges instead of along the top. Then it was at the bottom, then finally at the top. I really like it! I decided it needed just a little something else, too, so it's got an apron scallop strip along the bottom. Somehow that made a world of difference on the white cardstock! Then it needed a smidge of dimension (because how can *I* not have dimension on a layout, LOL!) and the dots needed a bit of sprucing up, too, so I dug in my stash of flowers and brads and voila! the finished product! Here's a close up...

Curiosity...

Not A Baby Anymore

It's true... they grow up. More pictures from her 2 year photo shoot last year. I used the same paper cut into strips the same way as on the last layout, as well as the same letters and even the same background cardstock. But I wanted to see if I could make a different looking layout using the same supplies and I think it worked. I like them both! This one is mainly A.C. Bailey paper...

On a separate note, though, last night we finally went and took 3 year pictures of her! Woohoo! So I suppose I can move on to those next month. ;) But I HAVE been making time for regular crafting, one scrapbook page at a time. That is huge for me since scrapbooking has been sporadic at best this year. Now I'm doing a page a day or perhaps a few cards one day in between pages. It's relaxing, and I have something pretty to show for it. ;)

Water Slide Party '09

Playing with more stuff from my stash and trying to use up scraps of a SPS kit and some of the A.C. Bailey I've used on other layouts. =D Here are some details...

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner?

Elizabeth: "Hey Leif! Pick a number between 1 and 9."
Leif: "Um.... 3?"

That's right... comment number 3 is the winner of the blog giveaway, thanks to my husband! =D And the prize package goes to.... Kate!

Kate said...

Hey! Wow, that's a ton of visitors! =) That is an awesome giveaway. =P I was bummed that I missed your garage sale! I so would have been there! =) You should totally come up to Sandpoint. I think it would be so much fun! I still have tons of boxes in the craft room/office, but once I have them taken care of, there is plenty of room in there for air beds and pack n plays! =)

So there you have it. Kate, send me your new address and  I'll send you some fun goodies!!

Picture Frenzy

Well, here I sit, uploading pictures to Costco. Leif and Eliana are sick and sleeping, so I have the house in silence to myself. And you know, as I browse Picasa and upload, I am realizing just how long it has been since I've printed pictures and just how many I have to print! I finally found where I need to start if I want to get caught up on the printing... May 2008! I've printed a few pictures in between there (Eliana's 2-year photos, Halloween, the Christmas wallets we sent out with our cards...), but not much. We are heading into Fall again, which means we will (hopefully) be taking a camping trip or two in Yellowstone, and a drive up the Beartooth Pass to see the colors change in a week or two. That means more pictures. We still need to take Eliana's 3 year pictures, too. All in all, I suppose it's good (even though it's expensive to do in one shot like this!) that I'm printing all of last year's pictures now. That way I'm caught up and I can just focus on scrapbooking them.

Speaking of scrapbooking, perhaps that's what I should be doing while this batch uploads and the house is quiet....

Two Peas in a Pod

And now for some older pictures! These were taken back when Ellie was about 8 months old and just getting to know her friend Corinne. They were like two peas in a pod and had a great time together!

I had a lot of fun layering things for the title on this one!