That was a mistake!

Over the past couple of years we have made pinecone bird feeders for our feathered friends.  We were a little late getting to it this winter but we do have a regular bird feeder that is stocked all year round so it wasn’t a big deal. 

Since the girlies like to help make these feeders we took a few minutes this afternoon and spread lots of peanut butter into the pinecones and then rolled it in some bird seed.  We tied on some pretty pieces of yarn and I put them in the tree outside of my office window. I snapped a photo and came in. 

No sooner than I had shut the front door my girls yelled that we already had a visitor in the tree!  Awesome!  That was so fast.  I came into the office and lo and behold there is a squirrel attempting to reach our newly hung feeders.  The sneaky little rodent made off with one of the feeders in less than 2 minutes!  I caught him on the roof before he bolted away.

My oldest said “That’s okay.  I wanted the squirrel to have mine.  I wanted to be kind.”  Bless her little heart.  In the moments like this, where she chooses to be positive and thoughtful, I feel like I may just be doing an okay job as a mommy after all. 

I hope you are having a great weekend!

Project Life Weeks 5 & 6

I really, really have the hardest time photographing the weeks through the page protectors. This week I tried my point and shoot rather than the DSLR and ended up with worse shots.  I really struggle to get good light in this house.

Week 5:

I didn’t get a clean image when I stamped the date but I just left it.  It doesn’t bother me too much.  A photo of some of my girls dress up clothes and some of our crazy weather.  The ice on the pool cover started to melt in an pretty cool way so I took a photo of it (bottom left).  I used some Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type stickers on the last card to spell out “Favorite Songs” and listed a few songs my girls are loving right now.

Aubrey celebrated 100 days of school this week and we had to make a shirt with 100 things.  She brought home the 100th Day sticker so I just added it.  I found a drawing the girls made from one of Aubrey’s school projects so I reduced it and printed it out.  The bottom right is my grandma’s writing on the back of a quilt she made.  My family had saved me some of her things after she passed away so this is extra special to me. 

Week 6:

Last week I shampooed our living room carpet, it was a mess!  It looks so much better and the photo is before I moved the furniture back in.  The Daisy girls made Valentines cards for the elderly and Josh Groban’s album “All That Echoes” was finally released.  I love it so much I dedicate a few pockets to music this week.  I found the photo of Josh Groban on his website and added my journaling right to the photo.  I cut the heart music note on the Cameo and then found a music quote I liked, typed it and left a spot for me to write in a word.  P.S. – The CD is AMAZING!

The Fraizer History Museum in Louisville has a temporary exhibit, “Spirits of the Passage: The Story of the Transatlantic Slave Trade”, so we went to check it out.  It was a great exhibit.  The museum usually has some kind of interactive element in front and this time it was a long blackboard where you completed the phrase “Freedom is…”.  Aubrey wrote helpful, Lolo just wrote her name. 

The weather was mild this week so we spent some time playing outside.  I used a brush from Ali Edwards for the <3 Today and just stamped it off the edge of the photo before I printed it.  I used Cathy Zielski’s Tiny Templates for the 3x4 cards this week.  I love these little templates so much!  I can add a little bit of journaling and have extra photos.  By the way, you can find both Ali Edwards and Cathy Zielski’s stuff at Designer Digitals (the quarterly sale is still going on until tomorrow 2/15). 

I love this project more and more every week.  I cannot wait to have our entire year documented! 

Paris!

While we were at Disneyland Paris we took the train into Paris for the day.  It is nearly an hour train ride into the city but the trains are efficient and there is a station right at the Disneyland entrance so it doesn’t get more convenient than that. 

Our first stop was the Memorial de la Shoah (the French do not use the word Holocaust which is Greek, they use Shoah which is a Hebrew word).  It is interesting to see how each country has dealt with this tragic part of their history and then decided to share the information.  We have been to museums in Poland, the Netherlands, Berlin and now Paris and each one has shared how events leading up to, during and after World War II has affected their country and it’s citizens. 

This wall had names of people who helped the Jewish during WWII.  It was a very long monument.  Below is the crypt and the only place inside where we were allowed to take a photo. 

The memorial was well put together with a lot of information and artifacts on display.  My girls are very well behaved while we visit museums but they do get bored so we don’t always get to spend as much time as we would like to thoroughly read over displays but we did get a chance to see everything.  I would highly recommend a visit to the memorial if you get the chance.  Admission is free and it is fairly easy to get to.

We also visited the Musee Marmottan Monet.  We had wanted to visit the Orsay but we didn’t plan well and purchase admission tickets ahead of time.  So we visited this smaller, less crowded, more focused museum and enjoyed it.  Of course we couldn’t take photos here, either, but I wanted to mention it since it was a nice museum.

After a late lunch we made our way towards the Eiffel Tower, where we did plan ahead and had a reserved time to take the elevator up to the second level.  We took some photos from across the river looking at the Eiffel Tower and these may be my most favorite photos from our entire trip!  I did not pose them, just asked them to stand there so I could take their photos!  I love these so much!

While you are sitting near the Eiffel Tower it looks tall, of course, but it feels soooo much taller once you go up.  The first we visited Paris we didn’t go up because one of the elevators were under repair and we didn’t want to wait in line or climb up the stairs carrying  2 and 3 year old kids. 

Once in the elevator the ride is quick!  I liked the “man” sitting on the outside.

And here is a view looking up from the observation deck.

I could take photos of the Eiffel Tower all day long and as we walked away I kept looking back over my shoulder so I could get just one more look. 

I love Paris!  The coffee is delicious, the macaron’s are ah.maze.ing!  The city is gorgeous!  I hope to go back someday and spend more time there.

Project Life Weeks 3 & 4

I’ve been staying current with my Project Life so far and I do love this project!  Due to some less than perfect weather days I haven’t had many chances to photograph my weekly spreads because the lighting has been off.  I gave it a go last Friday and it looks ok.

I mostly used the Seafoam Core Kit cards but added a little bit of Echo Park digital patterned paper that I sized to a 3x4 card to use as a filler.  It is bright and cheery, unlike the dreary start to our week.

My hubby and I had our first date night in over 5 years!  Crazy, huh?  We dropped the girls off with my mom and spent a night in Nashville!  We met up with one of JG’s old military friends and we went to dinner and did a little bit of bar hopping.  We ended the night at Margaritaville.  I love live music and Josh Helms was fantastic!

Week 4 included Aub’s first bad weather day!  She was excited to get a long weekend.

I used another card for Technique Tuesday here (everyday) and the Seafoam kit for the rest.  I found my cats in their usually spot on my bed and was treated to an impromptu puppet show.

I went to Starbucks and picked up their free song of the week offering so I attached it to a blank grid card with a piece of washi tape.  I found some old stamps and used them for the “No School” title.  I went to wake Aub up and found Lolo in bed with her sissy!  They love each other so much and have been having “sleep overs” in each other’s bedrooms on the weekends.  Aub was also invited to her first birthday party and she had a blast!

I love this project so much!  It is forcing me to pick up my big girl camera more often.  I do use my iPhone a lot.  I decided not to fret if I don’t get a photo every day.  It just fill it in with something else.  It is not a big deal to me at all.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Disneyland Paris 2012–Part I (finally)

My husband was looking at the blog and asked me when I planned on posting photos from our final trips in Europe, because, well, you know our trip to France was last March!  Gah!  I must confess that I haven’t even edited them let alone had them printed. 

I do have a few photos from Disneyland ready to be printed so I figured I would share some here. 

We had some fantastic weather and an amazing husband/daddy who splurged on a few experiences for us since this trip was the girls’ birthday present.  Our first night there we had dinner at Café Mickey.  The girls liked their food but the characters,um, they were not so sure.  You’ll see a few photos without Lolo because she was too scared to sit over there!

The food was good here.  We had read some reviews where people slammed it but we enjoyed it.  The girls had chocolate mousse for dessert and it was a huge hit!

Another evening we went to a dinner show, Buffalo Bills Wild West show.  Wow!  That was sooooo much fun!  We got cowboy hats to wear and we did a lot of yee-hawing!  The girls were so into this show and the food was delicious, too!  It was some serious cowboy food with chili, cornbread, chicken, potatoes and dessert. 

The show was super interactive and had cowboy games where you cheered on your team (based on the color of your hats) and our team won.  The show was for sure one of the highlights of the trip. Besides, little girls yelling yee-haw for days straight is too cute and a solid indication that they enjoyed the experience.

These photos are not great but we couldn’t use the flash because it could distract/startle the animals.

We had such an amazing time on this trip!  The girls were at a much better age this time and really enjoyed every moment.  I loved their enthusiasm and excitement at everything we did and it was contagious.

I’ll have just one more post on Disneyland Paris sometime this week and then I’ll share our visit to Normandy!  I feel in love with the Normandy countryside and our American history is so rich and intertwined with French history in that region that it was a true learning experience for us.

Winter Weather

The weather has been an extreme roller coaster of temperatures so far this winter and I think it has some of the wildlife confused!  I have had a ton of robins visiting my yard lately and the freezing rain didn’t keep them away this morning.

Now if only the cardinal and his lady bird would not fly away when I try to take their photos I would be a happy photographer!

Project Life Weeks 1 and 2

I fell flat last year on Project Life and have about 2months finished.  While I loved the process and the end result I just couldn’t maintain it while we were in transition due to our move.  I gave up on it and just decided to start fresh for 2013.

This year I will be mostly using the Seafoam kit with bits leftover from the Clementine kit and some of my own stuff as well as printables that I come across.

Week one is a mix of different projects as I was waiting for the Seafoam kit to come available. The title card is from the Seafoam kit, the Love card is some rub-ons from my stash and the Today card is from Technique Tuesday.  The Happy New Year and 2013 die cuts are from Silhouette.

Week 2 is just as simple, I don’t think I am going to make these weeks difficult.  I want to document our lives without being too product crazy.  Some weeks I may be more creative but I imagine simplicity is what will help me stay current with this.

Aubrey brought her second quarter report card home so I photo copied it and stuck it into a 8.5x11 page protector.

I had these fun little coffee stickers sitting on my desk for a few months.  I picked them up from the Target Dollar spot and was waiting for something to add them to.  I just grabbed a grid card and stuck them on there. 

The photo with the EEEEK! journaling was made using one of Cathy Zielski’s mini templates.  I love these for small prints! 

I have week 3 finished but need to wait for better light to photograph it.  Does anyone have tips for helping these photos look better?  I have such a hard time photography through the page protectors!

On another note, I just sold my Cricut Expression so I could purchase a Silhouette Cameo!  It was such a tough decision for me since I loved the Cricut but the flexibility of the Silhouette better suits me right now.  At least the Cricut stayed in the family since my aunt bought it off me so I can have visitation when I feel the need for some super cute Create A Critters!