this is way too long for my facebook status...

Roman has a a cold so I kept him home from school today. He was really dragging and said he was sleepy so I told him that we could take a nap.  I tucked him in, said goodnight......and promptly fell asleep myself.  I wake up to Roman running in to happily tell me that Sally (his fish) was dead and we can now get a cleaner shrimp.  At first I thought he had a really bad dream but I was sooo horribly wrong.

So I go into his room and see that his fish tank looks suspiciously empty.  Then I see that he has taken all of the big rocks and plants out of it and put the soggy bunch on top of his paperback books (of course).  Then he had climbed on top of his desk to get the fish net and the rock vacuum - both were completely wet (the rock vacuum even had a rubber snake stuffed inside).  Then I noticed something in the net.  Yup, he had caught one of his little fishies and it looked like lights out for Sally.

So we take the net into the bathroom and Roman says that he wants to say a "pare" (prayer) for Sally.  I said, okay, go ahead.  This is what he said, completely uncut and uncensored,

I caughted Sally in the net

and now she is dead

now we can get a cleaner shrimp

in Jesus name amen

Then we empty the net into the toilet...and the fish starts swimming!  It wasn't dead after all!  I contemplate catching it again in the net and putting it back into the fish tank when it swims down the toilet drain.  This sealed Sally's fate and she is now (no pun intended) sleeping with the fishes.

What did we learn from this crazy mishap?  Roman is too young to have his own fish tank.  We told him over and over again to never ever ever touch his fish tank, but the temptation was just too strong.

RIP Sally...and Max, Mary, Mel, Jack and of course Saggy the mystery snail. You will all be missed.

autism screening tomorrow

Roman starts his Autism screening tomorrow, it will last the week (he has evaluations with his speech, occupational and physical therapists) and then an eval with their psychologist.

I do want to stress that if he is diagnosed with autism that it doesn't change anything. It's not bad, it's not good, it just is.  The only thing that may change is that we may be able to be eligible for funding which would be awesome. Being in constant debt because of medical bills just plain sucks.

I'll be posting a lot this week, I have a lot of projects up my sleeve that I want to talk about. Ali's December Daily project inspired me so much that I want to do a daily project in October too.  Every year I look forward to October and I always feel like it goes by way too fast - hands down it is my favorite month of the year.

Have a great day everyone!

December Daily 2009: Days 29, 30 & 31

This is my last post about DD 2009. "boo" and "yay" are running through my mind right now, I really loved running around like a total geek with my camera around my neck taking pictures of everything every day (which really isn't too different from my everyday life...but whatever). This was really really fun. I will be doing this next year with bells on.

Onto the goods - here is day 29 before:

and after:

stuff I used: word stickers by Making Memories; patterned paper by My Mind's Eye; pages from an antique dictionary; my old typewriter; font used: avenir.

This was our last day in Wenatchee and the first day I started to feel better.  Murphy's Law I tell you.

Here is day 30 before (now this one was fun):

and after (the pics turned out a wee bit blurry):

Stuff I used: Starbucks bag;  tab punch by McGill; word stickers by Making Memories; old school dymo label maker. 

I was so happy to have my SLR that day, the views from the train coming home were breathtaking! Living here is so awesome, I love Washington.

And now my last day....day 31 before!

and after (I have two pages of after...will explain below):

Stuff I used: transparency talked about here; lined scalloped journaling page, unknown; December calendar embellishment by Jenni Bowlin Studio; word stickers by Making Memories.

I finished this page with a transparency pocket on both sides so that I could put some thoughts on the very last page.

Stuff I learned from December Daily: the little things matter most; before printing journaling on photos, keep in mind where you holes will be; eyelets look nice but make your book thicker and the pages harder to turn (won't be using them next year); it really is fun if you challenge yourself to use what you have on hand; don't use felt to cover an album if you have pets (I've sticky rolled it about 50 times so far); a daily book is fun for me but is like Disneyland for my kiddo (which is awesome, he loves looking at it); I will so totally be doing this next year.

Thank you to Ali Edwards who inspired this project and thank you to my husband and son who put up with 31 days of me shoving my camera in their faces...even more than usual.  Love you boys.

December Daily 2009: Days 25, 26, 27 & 28

Happy New Year everyone!  I am incredibly stoked (did I just say that?!) to write this email, man did I have fun with this project.  I will seriously be doing more mini-books now.  So much fun.

Without further ado.....here is Day 25 before:

And here it is after:

Stuff I used: patterned paper from behind both photos from My Mind's Eye; word stickers by Making Memories; paint on left page, "spotlight" by Making Memories; transparency on right page talked about on my day five page here; font used: avenir.

Lots of fun.  And yes that is Skype on the page on the right, my sister and her boyfriend are in England for the holiday. Technology rocks.

And now on to day 26!  Here is the layout before:

And here are the "after" pages, I have two because of the file folder:

on this page I put memorabilia in the left pocket and I covered the file folder on the right with photos.  That was fun.  I designed a fun journaling box in Illustrator (I'm really loving doing that lately) and wrote in with white pen.  All aboard!

Stuff I used: File folder from Staples (cut down and corners rounded); white journaling pen by Signo (this is by far the best white pen I have found and I have gone through a bunch); gaffer tape by 7gypsies; word stickers by Making Memories; "26" letters by Thickers (I think this is the funniest, wittiest name for a product ever by the way).

This was fun to put together but a little time consuming, I traced around the photo (stuck on the file folder) with a finger tip craft knife (which I highly recommend for doing detailed cutting).

Here is day 27 before:

and after:

Stuff I used: random ledger paper from Bartell Drugstore; pages from an antique dictionary; word stickers from Making Memories; mini letter stickers from Making Memories; stamp set is an oldie I got for a great deal on eBay; ornament on right page, unknown; "27" number stickers from Creative Memories (I think they may be retired, I got them a really long time ago).

I didn't take many pictures that day, my cold had gone from bad to worse and I slept most of the day.  Now onto day 28 before:

and after:

for this layout I ended up using two ways of showing the number 28.  Why?  I found this awesome website called Sky Blue Pink, if you are looking for fun playing cards to use in altered art projects or scrapbooking - you must see this website.  It is awesome.  Anyways, I found some fun Christmas playing cards and thought I would use them for next year's album. I got them and couldn't wait.  They are really, really cute.

Stuff I used: patterned paper from My Mind's Eye; stocking graphic behind "28" from Making Memories; "28" numbers unknown; word stickers by Making Memories; font used: bookman.

29, 30 and 31 coming tomorrow, stay tuned sports fans!

my one little word for 2010: strength

Happy New Year!  We are back home after a fun yet sick time in Wenatchee visiting family.  Zach and Roman are doing much better but I still have a bit of a cold.  **sniff**

I also have some fun news to report...I am done with my December Daily!  Which makes me happy and sad at the same time.  This is the first time I've done a project like this and I didn't just like it...I loved it.  I adored it.  It was SO much fun, I can't wait until next year.  This project helped me grow as a story teller, an artist and a scrapbooker.  I am seriously happy about this. I'll take some pictures hopefully today and have my blog post up in the next couple of days.

Now onto another Ali-inspired project - one little word.  My one little word this year is

Strength

I chose this word for a few reasons. The first one is obvious, I would like to exercise more to get stronger. A healthy mind definitely lives in a healthy body. And this body will hopefully be pregnant again in this next year.  Dealing with two kids definitely warrants more strength. Alot more strength. The second is emotional strength. Way too often I have a "poor me" attitude when things get hard and it seriously needs to stop. The third is strength with integrity. Being a strong person with my values and living them (not just talking about them).

Are you going to do this project?  If so, leave me a comment with your one little word and your reason for choosing it, I'd love to see it!

Wishing you all beauty, prosperity, love and strength in the new year!

APA closed from 12/26 - 12/31

Just a quick note to let you know that Amybug's Primitive Attic wil be closed from December 26th - 31st.  My website will stay up but please remember that all orders will be filled on the 31st.

Please visit my "Common Q and A" section here if you have any questions.

Have a happy and safe holiday!

December Daily 2009: Day 23 & 24

Merry Christmas Eve! Our stockings are hung, our presents are wrapped and I am ready to share some December Daily pages!  here is Day 23's layout before:

And here is the layout after:

This layout was inspired by Ali's day eleven page, I fell in love with that fabric tag the moment I saw it.  This was really fun to put together and I'm sure that many parents out there can relate.  Here is a close up of the picture collage on the left (I put this together in Adobe Photoshop CS):

And here is a close up of the list on the right:

And here is the stuff I used: canvas tag by Pink Paislee; small letter stickers by Making Memories; printed paper behind clear acrylic by My Mind's Eye; font used: Rockwell Condensed.

Here is today's layout before:

and after:

I did this almost 100% digital, collage on the left and layout on the right was designed in Photoshop CS, snowflake was downloaded from Microsoft.com's free clip art section and altered in Adobe Illustrator; "hello" drawn with my Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet (this is super fun for putting hand-drawn elements on your digital layouts); "24" cut from this page by Making Memories; font used: avenir.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year!  We will be on the road the day after Christmas so no blog posts until the 31st.  But then I hope to have the rest of the album finished.  Gotta go, I think I hear something on the roof...and bells too...