Creatively Speaking

Well at 8:04pm we had the biggest earthquake I have felt since high school (since I wasn’t here for the big one in 89).  We get them often, living in the Bay Area, but tonight was pretty strong.  It was centered near San Jose and about 49 miles from us.  It was loud, strong and rolling and slowed and then started up again, so it felt like 2 earthquakes.  Brad and my brother got the kids out of bed and we were dancing around hyped up for a few minutes, but everything is fine.  The pictures are all askew, but nothing fell.  Just reminds me how I have been talking of making a survival kit for a long time and the time is NOW! The kids thought it was kind of cool.  James commented on what a weird week it has been because we had a bizarre thunderstorm in the afternoon yesterday too.  Kind of spooky!

Today we went to the best pumpkin patch in our area.  We go every year and every year it gets bigger and has more to do.   Today we went through the Bee maze and the Storybook maze and James and Brad took a ride on the train.  The kids ran around the pumpkins and jumped on hay bales and mommy got to take a lot of pictures.  I thought the blue pumpkins were very cool. 

James lost his 1st tooth today.  His bottom, center, right one.  It’s been lose for a while and lately he has been moving it around a lot.  It has been hurting when he eats.  I thought it might come out in the next week, but boy was I surprised when it happened today.  I had made him a pb cracker for snack and when he took a bite into it, he really moved it.  It was bleeding and he was crying.  He used a kleenex on it and didn’t want me to touch it.  He went it to the other room to show Guncle (Uncle Jim) and when he was wiggling it with the kleenex out it popped.  I think we were all a bit surprised.  He was so cute looking at himself in the mirror.  He is almost 7 and he has been waiting so long to go to school and be able to tell about losing a tooth.  What a big boy he is becoming.  So it was tucked into his tooth fairy box tonight all ready to get picked up and he came out of his room and told us that he doesn’t want to give his tooth to the tooth fairy.  I think he doesn’t want to let it go yet.  I said no problem, we will hang onto it until he is ready.  I will post a picture tomorrow. 

My November layouts for Sweet Pea Scraps are finished and have been posted in their gallery.   This is my last month on that Design Team and I am going to miss it! 

We thought we would visit a pumpkin patch this weekend.  We normally take the kids a few times each October, but we are a bit behind this year.  Our favorite one was so busy, we decided to save that for another day.  We did visit one up the street and the kids got to run around for a bit and then take a pony ride.  They loved that.  We ended up buying our pumpkins at a local farm stand that has a small pumpkin patch.  I got this cute picture of them in front of the tractor.  It was a fun spot to get some fall pictures.  Of course the kids wanted to carve the pumpkins right away, but we usually wait until a day or two before Halloween so they are still fresh on Halloween. 

I was very excited to see my October project posted on the Maya Road Blog today.  I had a lot of fun making it.  The paper line is Rue 88 by Prima, which is beautiful by the way.  Obviously there are a lot of Maya Road products used.  They work so well together.  The cards have pictures of my kids on them from every month this year- so far.  Take a peek: http://mayaroad.typepad.com/dt/

I’m a big book lover.  If fact I am normally reading a few at a time.  I just happen to be checking out Amazon.com on Friday night and saw that Ken Follett had published the sequel to Pillars of the Earth!! What??? That book is on my all time favorites list.  I hadn’t heard a word about it and normally I know when a favorite author is publishing a book I want and I am counting down the days.  So I have been reading this massive (over 1,000 page hardback) book all weekend.  I am glued to it.  I love it already.  If you are a fan of historical fiction – (Pillars takes place in the 12th century, World Without End takes place in the 14th century) then go out and get yourself a copy.  Not to be missed!

The November kit is my last kit at Sweet Pea Scraps and I just got it in the mail.  I have been on the DT for Sweet Pea Scraps Kits for 15 months.  It’s been amazing and a lot of fun.  I know no matter what, I will get at least 8 pages completed for any given month, since that is my DT committment.  Kristin and Julie have been just super to work for.  I am going to miss being on the DT team.  They have a sneak peek of the November kit on their website.  http://www.sweetpeascraps.com/pages/kit.php?id=48.  I will post some of those pages here closer to the end of the month and they can also be seen in the Sweet Pea Scraps Gallery. 

Well it’s finished and I think it is rather cute.  It was a lot of fun to make.  It’s actually a Christmas gift, but I can’t say who it is for.    I make something of this nature every year and then I always wish that I had made two so I can keep one for myself.  Check back for pictures later in the month.  I can’t post it here until it is up at the Maya Road DT blog. 

Well I had my eye out all day on Friday because I knew my Maya Road goodie box was on the way.  It got here at 2:15p.  It definately felt like Christmas.  It was so much fun to open it and go through all of the beautiful items.   Caroline and Deb are sooo generous!  There was a TON of their awesome ribbon, and many different chipboard books and coaster books.  I also got all different kinds of those beautiful ribbon slides as well as chipboard, felt flowers and birds and rub-ons.  We also got a bunch of papers, rub-ons, distress ink and cardstock stickers from the MR product trade companies.  Very nice and ideas have been running through my head all weekend.  I can’t wait to get started on my October project, hopefully today.  Thank you MR.