Into The Thick of It

New store, new start!

Whew - things have been so in flux lately!! My family has moved back into town (closer than you'd think), and there have been other changes personally and professionally.  The one I'm most excited about is my new home for scrapbooking, One Story Down. 

This also means that after a 4 year exile, I can now collab again with my BFF, Libby Pritchett!  She is my favorite design partner, and we have SO much fun working together.  Here is our latest work, Shut the Front Door, and I think it is my favorite thing that we've ever made, and that I have made personally. It's available for sale right now - you don't want to miss all the coolness in this collection!

Stay tuned for more about the wonderful ladies at OSD, new goodies coming up, Melanie stories, and other assorted goofiness.  I've missed blogging, and those of you who follow.  More to come!

Knitting and other deep thoughts

I've been doing a good share of knitting as of late. Even though my right eye still has that infernal twitch, it does seem to be relaxing me. Melanie has the casting on and the basic knit stitch down, and is currently working on a blanket for one of her stuffed animals. I have to be honest and say she did tell me which one, but as she has close to a hundred if them, and knows them all by heart (along with their personalities), I have a hard time keeping up with who's who!

It used to bug me that she always went for stuffed animals. They do tend to spread out hither and yon. It has slowly become more evident, however, that these things really are her friends and family. She has no siblings; she does not have any imaginary friends, except that is not totally true. THESE are her imaginary friends. They are no skin off of my nose, and she still gets hours of enjoyment from them each day. Who am I to scoff at that? Sooner than I want, she'll be talking or texting her "real" friends, talking about boys or makeup or other too grown up things. May the stuffed animals, and their knitted blankets, live long and continue to prosper her imagination!

Lots of other thoughts bubbling and brewing lately too. Perhaps I'll let them simmer a little longer. The realization about my awesome kid and her herd of pals was ready and worthy though.

Don't grow up too fast, little girl!

Tomorrow is the big day...

Yippee for me :) I have a newly redressed blog, a quiet house, and the preparation for yet another "lets-look-inside-your-stomach-while-you-are-asleep" test. This time it's an endoscopic ultrasound, which basically means that they're putting the camera and the ultrasound probe down my throat, and doing some aspirations in there, taking some biopsies, etc. The good news about this is that I get to see my sister, Amanda. She rocks, you know. The kidlett got to stay with the grandparents tonight because of my test tomorrow. Brian has some doctors appointments as well, plus I will be all high and stuff (legally). I'm really blessed to have them around and have them want to be such a vital part of our lives. They rock. I have one of those headaches this evening that is making me ill. One that feels like a knife is stabbing me in the head. It is not pleasant. To make matters worse, I cannot take any pain killers because of the procedure tomorrow. So I'm about to go bum me a head rub! Not to be dismissed, my "Bliss" collection released this week at Scrap Girls. Be sure to take a look at it and leave me any advice or comments. I have new things in the works, which is always fun. I can't wait to sketch out some new ideas this week!

Colors

Have you ever noticed that sometimes you see the same things over and over and over again until you really begin to notice that you're seeing the same things over and over and over again? That has happened to me lately. These last few days, I feel like I've seen a zillion and three of those kind of metallic-dark-orange colored cars. At first I was just thinking that, "hmmm...ok - there's an orange car". But I've noticed my train of thought shifting to, "Man! I really love that color on that car!" I don't know what changed for me, except that it's grown on me so quickly. I'm not a trendy color kind of girl, or at least I didn't think I was in the vehicle department - but it appears as if I might end up being that way now. It makes me want to put some sort of metallic orange into one of my collections. I'll have to work on that!

Another thing about color that's been poking at me is yarn. I am eyebrow deep in crocheting, and I'd like to be that deep in knitting, too. I'm not as an accomplished knitter as I am crocheter, but I would really love to be. With all the videos on youtube, and the basic knowledge that I already have, it shouldn't be too terribly difficult to dive into that. I figure if I start now, I can be ahead for next winter so that I'm not making scarves in March. Plus, I might be able to get a few gifts done. I can't seem to find the fault in any of that reasoning.

Melanie has school pictures coming up here this week. This is a first for us. She is very excited, and wants to be modeling outfits for me so that we can choose the perfect one. She hasn't decided yet if she's going to let me "do" her hair, or if she's going to leave it down and just tuck it behind her ears (her preference). I think I'm going to end up loving the pictures if I can get her to show her (lack of) teeth in the photo - she has 3 missing right now (and 3 more loose). Sometimes it's hard to believe she's growing up as fast as she is. I sort of love it, and I sort of hate it at the same time. I love all these different phases, but it's sad to see the "little girl" or "baby" parts going away so quickly!

I'm working on updating things here on the blog. You'll notice that I'm trying to add some things to the sidebar and they don't quite match yet. I hope you'll be patient with me, as I try to master the world that is WordPress and the widgets therein. I do have a new blog to recommend - www.brianmatthewbeck.com. And there will be another recommendation coming very soon that I'm really excited about! Also, don't forget to visit my store - new things are released each week. ScrapGirls has a terrific newsletter that has tons of tips and freebies. Don't miss out!

Cat in the Fish …

Yes, you read that correctly. We have this crinkly thing that’s shaped like a huge fish with it’s mouth open that Alexander loves. He has taken lately to laying in it; he used to just hide his toys in it, and then pretend to find them in excitement. Now he takes long naps in there and stuff. It’s a little strange, truth be told. “Where’s Alex?” “He’s in the fish.” If you aren’t here, it’s a pretty strange conversation.

In other cat news, Fina (Seraphina) is great with kitten (as opposed to great with child, as a cat can’t have children). Her fluffy belly is getting bigger and bigger. I need to do some more research and figure out what to do when THE MOMENT comes. Cause let me tell you – I know next to nothing about birth – especially that of the feline (or fee-lion, as Melanie says) variety. We did make her a box that’s all nice and padded and put it in a place where she and the babies can have some warmth and peace and quiet. Don’t you know she won’t stay in the doggon box? But Alex loves it. I swear that he does things just to annoy me. It is the way of the boy.

We had chicken with herbs tonight from the Crockpot. Totally a made up recipe, but my family loved it, so it will go on our regular rotation. And, I cooked, which cannot be discounted these days. It was quite yummy.

Wii Fit kicked my tail today. I did 45 minutes, and unlocked a few new things, which I did not try except for the Super Hula Hoop which I quite enjoy even though it hurts after you do it twice. It’s a fun thing this Wii Fit. And I’m glad that we have it – I’ve lost some weight and am feeling better. The yoga definitely helps stretch things out and relax me.

We also got the car back tonight. We’ve been without it for months – and it is now fixed and back in our possession. The thing was on it’s last leg…err…wheel – and has made a miraculous recovery. This is a good thing. Now Melanie and I are not stuck here at home and can go and do without having a taxi service (aka – Brian) take us everywhere in the little truck. I don’t know that I have anywhere TO go, but we can at least go if we want to.

I’m knitting – this time with needles. I picked this really nice yarn I had in my stash, that is varigated, and it will match my coat, which will be fun. For some reason I chose to use these really small (size 3) needles. It’s making it really cool looking, but it’s harder than I thought it would be to work with needles that small. I’ll post some pictures as I get some stuff done.

Off to get a few things done :) Happy weekend!