Scrap Rendez-Vous #12

Time for another Scrap Rendez-Vous with my dear friend Alexandra at Art, Scrap & More. We were to use the number 3 in our creations.


Hope you come and join us!

Scrappy Monogram

You may have seen this sneak peek photo on my Shuttercal yesterday...


We had all sorts of fun things to do this weekend but instead I woke up to Diego throwing up in my bed at 7am Saturday morning. Luckily I had the makings for a project I had bought earlier in the week to keep us occupied at home.

To do this project you will need:

Mod Podge or something like it
Paintbrushes of some sort
Scraps of paper (always plenty of those in my scrapbooking stash)
A wooden letter of your choice

Simply apply Mod Podge adhesive with a paintbrush and arrange small scraps of paper as you like. You may want to check for wrinkles in the paper and smooth those out as you go. Work in small sections until you have your letter completely covered. Paper sticking over the edges is fine, you can trim it later. When you're done gluing the papers down go over the whole surface again with at least one layer of Mod Podge. Allow to dry completely, flip the letter over and use a cutting and razor blade to trim away excess paper from edges. Now go hang your masterpieces!

Geocaching

This was our very first geocaching adventure. We were too excited once we got our GPS to wait for Daddy, but now we are excited to have him join us soon! It is amazing how many geocaches are all around us, even at our favorite parks, which is where we headed first. We found 3 of 3 on our first trek. Everything I know, I learned from geocaching.com.

Cache #1


Cache #2Cache #3

Frogs & Pollywogs

We spent the morning with nets and buckets in hand chasing little critters at a secret little pond our friend Maria shared with us. It was a beautiful day for it.

Free Art

I sure love a good deal! Can you believe the things people are willing to toss into a dump? Found this on the curb, asked the lady who was packing up a U-Haul if it was broken and she said "No, just needs to be cleaned up." Sold! In less than 10 minutes I had wiped it down, scraped off the stickers, magic-erased some marks, and cleaned the tray with soap & water. Cali has already created 3 masterpieces. This is the 3rd one pictured, that figure toward the top is "Daddy doing ballet!"

At the Lake

One of our favorite places flooded a few summers ago and just now re-opened. I had been waiting for a nice day to take the kids out there to picnic and explore. Well, I thought it was going to be a nice day just like it had been all week but unfortunately the wind kicked up and the clouds rolled in and it was not the day I had been hoping for. We ate a quick picnic as the wind blew relentlessly in our faces (and even tried to pick up our empty plastic plates) then promptly headed back to the car. Later in the evening the wind had died down and the temp had come up so we went back for the exploring part. We even found a nice green Frisbee to play catch with and spotted the resident herd of deer on the way out.

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Of all the fun things we did this past week, I don't have myself pictured doing any of them (other than the 5K) so I made sure to snap a photo of myself riding the bike to the park this afternoon. Diego was in the bike trailer and Cali rode her own bike, with her baby along for the ride of course.

Crazy Kite Fest

We attended the 81st annual Zilker Park Kite Fest yesterday, I think it was our 4th year in a row. I had never seen so many people in my whole entire life! We ended up spending more time in line for the parking shuttle than anything else. It was a gorgeous day though and pretty amazing to see so many people and kites in one place!


I swear D was there too, just not in any decent photos.

First 5K...

since having kids! My parents brought me up as a "Runner". I ran many many miles throughout my childhood and started doing 10K & 5k races in elementary school. I even completed a few half marathons and one 17-miler. In High School I was on the track & cross-country teams and continued to jog on and off since then. After I had Cali I got a single jogger and when D came along shortly after I called good ol' Dad to help me buy a snazzy double jogger so I could continue to be the Runner he raised me to be :)

This weekend I finally ran a road race again, stroller, 75+ lbs of kid and all! I finished the 3.1 miles in 35:12 - it sure felt good to hear all the positive comments from everyone I passed by. Even all the High School football players they had stationed along the race course were impressed!

Bear #4

Cali has had her beloved "Bear" since she was about 6 months old. At one point she had two Bears that I could swap out in case one was misplaced or in the wash. Those eventually got so worn out I bought a 3rd and told her that I was going to give Bear a "very good, very special bath." Now she is 4 1/2 and that 3rd Bear is on his last leg. I pointed out to her how worn he is getting (he practically has mange) and asked her what we should do. First, she suggested patches but I was skeptical (he'd need a full body patch, really). Next she suggested I could buy her a new one! Well, that's easy enough! I just wanted it be her idea this time and since she brought it up I headed straight to ebay to round one up. Just $12 later he was in the mail. I didn't tell her I had ordered him or that I was expecting him this week. One of Bear's unique features though is the ball rattle in his belly, so when I shook the package she had a pretty good idea what was inside!!

After all the initial excitement she came to me with the saddest voice and a few tears dripping down to tell me "the new Bear doesn't smell good like my Bear... sob... my Bear always smells like flowers." So I told her that was just because the new Bear hadn't been loved yet, that she just needed to hug him and cuddle him and love him and he would start smelling "good" too. She is a smart cookie and decided I was right. Tonight when she went to bed she told me she is going to just hug the new Bear and smell the old Bear. And with a few more sad little tears she told me that when the new Bear starts smelling good, that is when she will put the old Bear up on her shelf.

Strawberry Spider Treats

You will need...

Fresh Strawberries
Pretzel Sticks
Chocolate, melted

Wash strawberries, dry thoroughly, remove tops and cut each berry in half. Have your assistant arrange pretzel sticks in groups of 4 on a wax paper lined baking sheet. Dip the flat cut side of a strawberry in melted chocolate and set on top of pretzel sticks, centered so you now have 8 legs (4 sticking out on each side). Repeat until you use up all the strawberries. I had to use a fork to do this part well. If you have extra chocolate enjoy at your leisure :) For the eyes we used black writing frosting and some round flat sprinkles. You could also use mini chocolate chips. Refrigerate for a bit to harden the chocolate, and enjoy eating your delicious spiders!

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I could have a picnic 5 days a week if weather permitted and we've been having a lot more nice weather here lately.

Mixed-Up Mini of 2003

Like many people, I did not start scrapbooking until I had babies. So all my pre-baby photos were still hidden away in the computer. I used this Ali Edward's mixed-up mini idea to quickly toss together all my favorite photos from our first year of marriage... our 1st apt, 1st cars, 1st jobs, our dog as a puppy, our kid-less adventures, etc. For the journaling I simply jotted down the things I remembered as I looked at the photos, each time starting with "Remember..." then just listing the things that came to mind. Example: "Remember... those hideous curtains, the borrowed futon & cheap ent. center, Huey watching out the windows"


There are some pages I didn't get pictures of since they are all double-sided and my camera battery died before I got them all flipped over. There are 30 double-sided pages in all.