steph's stuff

Templates = fast pages

I am loving digital templates right now! Our schedule is very full with school, volunteering, horsebacking riding lessons, volleyball games, speech team and more. Templates make it so easy for me to get photos scrapped quickly and I love that. I find that I often forget what I want to journal if I don't get the pages done while the photos are fresh, so when I'm pressed for time, I always turn to a template.

This template is from Ali Edwards and I just love it. I think I'm going to do one of these for all the members of the family from September. Especially the kids - just a nice quick way to capture the kids as they all start school this year. :)

All of the supplies are from Designer Digitals and can be found with links and descriptions here.

Eating healthy is too expensive

For the past month, I've been waging war on our grocery bill. About eighteen months ago, we switched to organic foods, as well as environmentally-friendly detergents and cleaners. And our grocery bill went through the roof. We endured it for a few months, priding ourselves on having healthier meals for our kids and helping the environment by polluting significantly less.

Some changes involved some purchases that were one-time deals and we were fine with that a year ago. And we're still good with that. I don't mind paying a higher price for something that will last for a really long time.

For example, we spent about $80 on resuable snack and lunch sacks for the kids.

We bought them from WasteNot Saks on Etsy and I highly recommend them. The kids take these in their lunches every day and we no longer use plastic baggies. Cheaper in the long run and much better for the environment. We could use a few more and this is an expense I won't mind adding in this month.

Other prices and products, however, are simply ridiculous. And, frankly, now as I'm trying to cut back down on grocery prices, I'm appalled at how difficult it is to keep the prices down and eat healthy at the same time.

For example, I could buy the kids a bag of potato chips for their after-school snack.

This bag of chips was on sale this week for only $1.50.

Compare that to these apples.

These apples cost over $4.00 - and they were fresh and in season.

I went with the apples, anyway.

I could feed the kids their sandwiches on white bread for about 99 cents.

Or I could make their sandwiches using 100% whole wheat bread for $3.79.

I went with the whole wheat bread. I'm never going to win any cheapskate honors the way this is going, am I? Did I mention that we go through 3+ loaves of bread every week? Yeah, it bites.

And milk. Oh milk.

$2.00/gallon for regular milk.

Or $6.00/gallon for organic milk.

Seems like a no-brainer. But for whom? If you're a card-carrying cheapskate, it's a no-brainer to go with the $2 milk. But, if you're a card-carrying organic food buyer, it's also a no-brainer to go with the $6 milk.

Well, what happens to those of us who need to subscribe to both camps? It simply isn't possible.

We do have a few tricks up our sleeves still - we buy in bulk, we don't buy expensive cuts of meat, we'll go to the orchard and pick our own apples for this month, and we'll find other ways to cut back.

But, it shouldn't be this difficult. And it shouldn't be easier to feed your family food that is full of fat and preservatives than it is to feed them fresh produce and whole wheat bread.

Wonky Monday

I'm feeling wonky today!

This is one of the squares for my first wonky log cabin quilt. This is for Elizabeth's room - she wanted one to match her bed and this is the fabric she chose. Most of it is Amy Butler fabric - she's got good taste. LOL! And the pattern is called wonky because it's not straight and it's just so me. :)

The finished quilt will be made of 25 blocks - each 12" square so it will be approximately 60" x 60" after it's bound. I'm debating about adding a border but I'll wait and see after all the blocks are done.  I only have 7 blocks left to do!

Good things

This was a good week. And much needed after the last couple of weeks. The highlights include:

• volunteering at school as a coach and judge for the speech team - i miss teaching and especially miss teaching oral advocacy, so this is just fun for me
• loving our new library - they tore down ours at the beginning of the summer and the new one is open and only 3 blocks away - it's a "smart" library and is just a marvel to use - we all wish we could live there. lol.
• having time to myself to work on a new quilt during the week - both girls picked out fabric months ago and i'm making each of them a wonky log cabin quilt.
• working on a new household budget - while it's agony to do and i hate cutting back on things, it feels good to be gaining control of our money again and to, at the very least, have a plan.
• starting to enjoy the fall and i can't wait to clean out the house a bit and get out our fall decorations - we don't do much but it will be nice.
• keeping the house fairly clean - about 6 months ago, we started cleaning the house every Saturday morning and being fairly strict on having the kids pick up their messes every single day. now, it's become routine and i feel okay with the occasional unexpected visitor popping over instead of absolute panic at how messy the house is.
• watching Elizabeth at her riding lessons - this is one expense that will stay in the budget even as we cut back on other things - it's such a joy to watch her be this happy.
• being more content with what we have rather than wishing for things we didn't have, especially a bigger house - i've come to terms with staying in this house and now we'll go about making it more comfortable and i'm enjoying that.
• being grateful that we all have each other and we are all healthy. :)

Have a great weekend! I'm going to do some cleaning (it's Saturday, afterall), watch a lot of football, eat some bread and cheese this afternoon from Panera, and maybe even scrapbook.

Layout share

It's been awhile since I've talked a lot about scrapbooking. Besides recently leaving Creative Memories, one of the reasons I haven't shared too much about digital scrapbooking is because I've spent most of the summer scrapping almost around the clock for a huge project that I can't yet talk about. I'm very excited about it and, of course, it's for Designer Digitals - only the best digital scrapbooking site ever. :) Over the past year, I've gone from being on 4 design teams down to just 1 now. And it feels great. It was needed to help balance out my life. And it allows me to concentrate on what I truly, truly love - and that is Designer Digitals. I'm a lucky, lucky girl to be a part of their Creative Team.

While I can't show you much of my recent work, I do have a few layouts I can show you right now, though.

Remember when I documented 9-09-09 with my cell phone? Well, here's that layout.

All of the supplies can be found here. This is based on a template by Anna Aspnes. Templates really allow you to fit in a ton of photos and I almost always use them when I'm trying to fit in more than 5 photos. And they can be completely customized so that the layout still feels like you. Think of templates as digital sketches to follow.

This is a layout about our poor crazy puppy, Sawyer. All of the digital supplies can be found here. I've been on a huge kraft paper kick lately, as you can probably tell. My absolute favorite kraft paper is Katie Pertiet's Naturally Krafty Paper Pack No. 1. Just love it! 

And, finally, this layout was based on a fun challenge we do every week called the Saturday Scraplift. Lynn chooses a member's layout and we all scraplift her layout. It's a great way to find inspiration and lots of fun to do! This layout and its inspiration can be found on the Designer Digitals blog. 

Oh, and see that sweet kraft paper? That's my next favorite product ever!!! It's Katie Pertiet's Krafty Ledger Paper Pack and it's just to die for. :) Ledger brushes and kraft paper together are just the best!

I am off to middle school again today to coach the speech team. Can't wait!

A happy day

Thanks so very much for the comments on the quilt yesterday. Totally made my day. :)

And, for the record, this week is a great week and I'm feeling wonderful! Back to my normal self and ready to kick menopause's butt. LOL!

I spent part of yesterday coaching the middle school's speech team and, OMG, I loved it!!!!!! I have missed teaching so much over the past few years but I don't think I realized how much. Yesterday was so much fun that I didn't want to leave. I just loved it!!! I'm going back tomorrow and then will settle into a once/week shift as a volunteer. It's going to be a really fun fall. I'm not allowed to coach Emily, for obvious reasons, but I can't wait to see her compete in the meets.

Today is going to be spent working on another quilt. Might have something to do with my good mood. LOL!

And this weekend is going to be spent cleaning up the yard, I'm afraid. We've had some very blusterly, fallish weather and those roses you see above no longer exist. Sigh. Time to accept fall's arrival, I guess.

Burnt orange + quilt

My hubby is now the happy owner of a one-of-a-kind University of Texas quilt. This was very tricky to make, although looking back now, it was quite simple. But, I had never made up my own pattern and I simply went into it blind, so it took some figuring to get it to work and to get even sashing with such irregular blocks.

Tom had a ton of input in this and many of the blocks are based on what he likes. I designed the backing and it's my favorite part. I think we both love that it's completely reversible.

Although the gray binding might just be my favorite part. It was all fun. :)

 Related links:

Line Art Quilt Pattern College Quilt Blue Belle 9-Patch Quilt Colorbrick Quilt Colorbrick Pillow Shams My First Quilt Wonky Log Cabin Quilt Pink Lemonade Quilt Emily's Patchwork Quilt

InLinkz.com

News Flash: Woman Loses Her Mind

Yeah, that woman would be me. I know I posted a bit about it last week but let me tell you: perimenopause is NOT for wimps. Whew. I wasn't sure I was going to make it last week for awhile. Shaunte posted about it at the same time I was going through it and her post just about saved me. Just knowing that someone else was going through it helped me to stay sane.

Without going into too many details, I will say that my mind was the first to go. I woke up one day suddenly furious. Furious that I was awake. Furious that I had to get up. Furious that I had family members that actually expected me to be a part of the family. Fun, fun times that was. And then, with no warning, I woke up a few days later certain that my life was over and that it was not worth living. I was sure that my life was hopeless and I wanted to cry all the time. Luckily, there was a voice in the back of my head telling me that this was not normal and that it must be perimenopause and I reached out to my amazing fellow Creative Team members at Designer Digitals. Needless to say, I will be seeing my doctor and we will find a way to handle this.

The best part is that I was smart enough not to blog much while going through all of that. What a hoot that would have been, right? I would have had either CPS here to investigate my fitness as a mother or someone knocking at my door with a straight jacket. I knew enough to keep most of my feelings inside my head and not to let all of it come out of my mouth. Both when talking to my hubby and kids and when blogging. Which is a rarity for me. LOL!

But, a good thing happened, too! We met Angel. :) Full credits at Designer Digitals.

Journaling: Elizabeth had her first horseback riding lesson this week and it was love at first sight! We signed her up on a whim, thinking it would be fun for her to try for a 6-week period. But, wow, did she love it! When she arrived, she had to brush her horse, learn how to walk Angel around the ring, and then ride her. As Elizabeth walked Angel around the ring, I could almost feel Libby's reverence for what was happening. It was so quiet and Libby was so calm and really in tune with what was going on. And Angel was so wonderfully behaved. You could almost feel her understand how much Libby was loving every minute of it. Every few minutes, Angel would lean forward and smell Libby and I got goosebumps watching them get to know each other. It was just joyful to watch and I think Libby has a new love!

Just keep swimming

We love "Finding Nemo" at our house. LOVE it! One of our most often used phrases is Dory's mantra, "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming." Whenever life gets rough or the kids don't want to do something or something feels too hard, we all chime in with "Just keep swimming..." It's a little reminder that you can't give up and give in. You have to keep working to reach your goal.

Right now, I need a billboard with this mantra written on it flashing in front of me at all times. A bunch of not-fun and difficult issues seem to have hit me all at the same time and I'm struggling to get through them. None of them are insurmountable. Yet, it feels like someone's holding my shoulders back as I try to swim through them. (And, yes, I think it's time to see that doctor about peri-menopause issues. I know this is probably playing a large part in all of this and thanks to my DD friends for propping me up about them!)

In the meantime, I'm gonna just keep swimming.

And looking at this picture helps. You'll never guess what made her this happy! Sifting flour. Yep, sifting flour. Tom was making waffles and she was totally entranced with the sifter. So, I gave her a cup of flour, a bowl and the sifter and she sat and sifted and re-sifted that cup of flour for an hour. And laughing every single time because it was so much fun and the sifted flour was so soft to touch.

Finally

I am breathing a sigh of relief this morning. The weekend is here. This has been a very eventful week and I am glad that this weekend is finally here. A couple of days to breathe in and out, catch up mentally, get the house clean again, re-stock the fridge, and get ready for a fresh start.

I had to make the very tough decision to leave Creative Memories this week. I love all of their products, I have LOVED working with them and I felt good about the work I was doing. But, like everything, things change and leaving CM was the best thing for my family right now. And, while I'm terribly sad to not be working with their products anymore, I am relieved that the decision is over.

I also had to take Sawyer across state on Thursday to have a re-check with the surgeon. We had been told to expect crate confinement for 8 - 12 weeks for him. His 2 week check-up had gone fantastically well so we were very hopeful about this one. Well, it wasn't what we expected. I was a little heartbroken at first and it took me a day or so to see the good in the results. The good news is that the bone is completely healed and is fused together. The bad news is that the part of the bone that has the pins in it is very thin and fragile. Think of an apple core and that's what his bone looks like - the weak thin middle is where the pins are. So, he is still partially confined. He is not allowed to run, jump or play until November 3 (which is his 1st birthday, by the way). So, we have 7 more weeks to go. However, he is allowed to go for walks outside and to be out of his crate if he's on a leash and attached to an adult. And what it took me a couple of days to realize is that he's totally wild after being completely confined. So, this partial release is probably for the best. He needs to be completely re-trained and keeping him leashed at all times will certainly force us to train him well. So, I'm going with the positive.

I also made the decision not to go to the U2 concert that we have tickets for this weekend. We bought 3 tickets 6 months ago and Tom and I were going to take Emily. Well, I have been dreading it for weeks now. Finding someone to take Sawyer was turning into a real pain, plus the cost of boarding him was killing me since that was the only option left, finding someone to have Andrew and Libby for the night was almost impossible, and Emily didn't really want to go after all. Sigh. It became something that I was dreading because it was getting too complicated. After much discussion, Emily and I sold our tickets to some friends of Tom and he will go with them tomorrow night. And I feel better and am heaving a sigh of relief. It's not without regret for missing a once-in-a-lifetime concert but it still feels better.

Plus, I ended up having a garage sale AGAIN this week and our house is trashed as a result of our kitchen table having been in the garage all week, me being outside working and getting set up again, and simply neglecting chores while I dealt with all of the above.

So, today is about reclaiming our house and recovering from the week. I can't wait to get it all put back together again and to get re-organized, both physically and mentally.

And, maybe we'll even find time to get back to the duck pond and feed the ducks. And the greedy swan. :)

Have a great weekend!