Overdue layout

He totally hated the pool, but he looked so cute!

Charlie is so lucky- not only does he have 3 sisters, but we have 2 new little girl cousins Sadie and Abigail, and in the next few months he'll have 2 more girl cousins, Riley and Evelyn! Doesn't my little baby look HUGE next to those new ones?

Cards

I made a couple cards worth sharing- I even tried a "sketch challenge" for the first time. This one is from LilyBean's Paperie which has some of the most beautiful handmade cards ever.Mine is totally not in the same league as hers but it was fun to make, and I have set the goal of making at least 1 card per week just to force some creativity. (and hopefully get better at it and use up all my crap!) I made a couple of these birthday cards using the cute bird chipboard stickers from Glitz. And finally I made a ton of these candy bar pockets for my sister's shower months ago but there were extras and I like how they turned out. (I know I already showed candy bar pockets before, but these are totally different!)

Cheap Date

We went out last night and had to be a little creative- we had a gift certificate for dinner and then drove around until we found ourselves at the library. We checked out the "For Sale" section and I learned that you can buy magazines there for $.35, and you can also donate your old magazines when you are finished. I found this fantastic book for only $1:

Published in 1966 and most of the crafts are totally horrendous, but it was just too classic to pass up. I knew I would regret not buying it. I know this picture is blurry and hard to read but the title is Aprons with a Foreign Flair- and the comments beside each apron are so funny- (left to right) "Ideal to wear for smorgasbord party" "Greek or not, she'll love wearing it!" "Oriental look not bought in a shop" and finally "Wear it as an apron or an overskirt" Wow- seriously? BHG doesn't kid around. These Bazzar Best Sellers are Bizzar-although there's something I really like about the chicken spice rack... Ok, again hard to see, but that wall on the left has TASSLES hanging on it! That is just classic. I love my new (old) book.

That great find got me energized for vintage stuff, and we stopped off at a thrift store before heading home (didn't want to get home before the kids bedtime!) And I found 2 more cool things. Can't you just see a little old lady in this "house dress" (isn't what they call them?) I am determined to make it into a couple of pillows. And I found 2 of these pretty sheer tablecloths-

I just have to have a tea party now to use them, or maybe I will cut them up for aprons... (to be honest, they will probably sit somewhere for years before I do anything with them, but for $3 I couldn't pass them up.) So our free date ended up costing about $10, but that's still not bad right?

Cool Art

This is really neat- artist Daniel Edlen paints musicians on their records. Click on the picture to go to his website:What a great gift for your favorite music lover- Lindsey, if you and Kipp need to buy for your crazy-KISS-fan-brother for Christmas this year, you need not waste another minute shopping:

Time to go green?

I got an e-mail the other day that illuminated the evils of the plastic grocery bag and I thought I might look into getting some re-useable grocery bags. And if I'm going to jump on the oh so trendy "go green" wagon, I need some pretty shopping bags! The HP website has these butterfly/nature images you can download and print onto iron on transfers for your cloth shopping bags. (click picture to go to website.) I don't know the best source for canvas shopping bags, but Amazon has a ton of choices, I liked THIS ONE.

Birthday Fun

Miss B had her 7th birthday- the countdown to the teenage years is on! I didn't even buy her any toys this year.

And I've been bit by the digital scrapbooking bug- or maybe I'm just not used to 32oz Dr Pepper's before bed anymore... regardless, I am forcing myself to go to bed now.

Happy TEN Years

We celebrated our 10 year anniversary this week and I finally made a digital scrapbook layout- it's been MONTHS but it was fun and I suddenly feel motivated again. Yes those are the lyrics to a cheesy country song, I know, but we were cheesy then... I can't believe how young we were.

Cowboy crib mobile

All of my babies have LOVED their crib mobiles, but I couldn't find one for Charlie that was cowboyish that I liked, so I made one. And it was fun. I found this (not too cute) mobile at the JC Penny outlet for $3 and took off all the stuff, then added these horses from Oriental Trading Company and a bandana we had laying around.
He is very happy to lay in his crib now. (for a little while anyways)

I obviously have 3 big sisters

(and drool a lot)

Time to update my wallpaper

I am loving my new desktop wallpaper/calendar:

If you want one you can download it from Shabby Miss Jenn HERE and add your own picture. Here's another cute one for July from Shabby Princess: click HERE to download it:

Cutie

I've been trying to start doing something creative but haven't actually finished anything yet but I really wanted to post something new on here! Quite cute if you ask me.

Printables

I love to make things with my computer, and I recently heard about these sheets you can use to print your own rub-ons, then the other day on the news they were showing these sheets you can print your own (temporary) tattoos on, and I got to thinking, what else is out there? Besides the usual magnets, t-shirt transfers, stickers, and transparencies etc, here's what I found:
Gold or Silver
Shrink Art (print your own Shrinky-Dinks!!)
Pearlescent
Window Clings
Fabric Sheets
Puzzles
I'm trying to decide what I "need" to try first...

Have you tried Red Box?

You've probalby seen the big red machines at the front of your Walmart, or Walgreens or probably other places too, but if you haven't tried it, you really should! Super easy DVD rentals for $1 a day and you can return them to any Red Box machine. Also, if you register at their website, you will get a text message every Monday and Wednesday with a free code- so 2 free movies a week! Click the picture below to go to their site to find your nearest Red Box and register!

Father's Day

Looking for some last minute Father's Day gifts? I am- here's a couple cute ones that can be from the kids: (from Martha Stewart)

And nothing says "manly" like duct tape- click HERE to visit a website with lots of DIY duct tape gifts.

And for the primary kids, I think I'm going to have them make a card for their dad with their picture, and enclose a little STOP sign on a popsicle stick with THIS POEM.

I started working on our church primary bulletin board last night and the words we are using are from this song. A family we know lost one of their new babies yesterday and the last 2 lines of that song have been running through my head over and over today: "as a child of God I know this truth: a family is forever." Say some prayers for the Rogers family today.

Personal shopper in your in-box

A friend sent me the link for this new service/website, Shop it to me. You sign up and tell them your favorite brands and sizes, and they send you an e-mail once a week (or however often you want to hear from them) letting you know where your stuff is on sale! I got my first e-mail from them the other day and found some jeans and shoes for my girls for $5 from The Childrens Place. I was so excited. Now I don't have to sign up to receive e-mails from every online shop I like too. I wasn't in the market for those things but for $5 I can save them for fall! If you are interrested in trying it out, click HERE to sign up! I tried shopping with all 4 kids once, and it wasn't pretty. I think I will stick to shopping online for the next 12 years or so :)

Video: Charlie bit my finger - again!

This is adorable- and funny, and not just because I love babies named Charlie! It's super short, you've got to watch it.

I'm back- showing off chubby Charlie

At our house Charlie is running the show- it's been 8 weeks and it's time for me to get back on the blogging wagon! Here are some pictures I've wanted to post:
Uncle Joe came over and did a little photo shoot a few weeks ago- the one above was one of my favorites. It was pretty bright so we couldn't get his eyes open much.
I just liked this one- we prop him up on the couch and it's cute.
This poor picture is the best I got of him on his blessing day! We were running late for church so I didn't have time to take pictures before we left, then the rest of the day was a blur and finally at 11pm, I grabbed the camera and took a picture of his crumpled, spit up on outfit before I put on his pj's. Can you believe those chubby cheeks? (and arms and legs!)
And finally we have smiles! These last 2 were from today- he was smileing up a storm and it's so fun to start seeing some personality!

Get your Twilight movie fix!

My mom sent me the link to these Twilight clips- http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1588451&vid=224215 I am looking forward to it- I hope it's good!