From Baby to Boy

Today marked my first really sentimental moment when I realized that Liam is not a baby anymore! He's been sporting something of a mullet these last couple of months since his baby hair grew out so much longer in the back than on the rest of his head. So...we headed over to Cuts for Little People and the sweetest gentleman named Marciano gave Liam his first haircut.

Afterwards it really hit me that he is now a little boy and not a baby. Here is Mr. Liam with his new hairdo...

What's not to love about a face like that?! (Good thing I have some experience with disciplining kids or I might never be able to say "NO" to that innocent little grin!)

A Sunny Father's Morning

Beautiful morning for honoring all the dads out there today! Daddy's wish was to take a hike at Los Penasquitos Canyon so that's what we did! It really is a beautiful place to walk with lots of little winding trails and places to have a picnic lunch. Liam loves to be a little monkey on daddy's back...

What a great time!! The bonus was that we discovered a PinkBerry nearby, which was our reward after the hike...yum!! New flavor this season..Salted Caramel...it doesn't get any better than that! Hope you're enjoying your weekend!!

More Birthday Fun

As promised...here are some more pics of pages 6 through 10...

Eating the birthday cake...yuuuummmmm!!!

Opening some presents...

Playing with one of his favorite gifts...

Enjoying the birthday balloons....

Birthday Fun

Summer is finally here (yeah!) so hopefully I will have a bit more time to post some of the things I've been working on. I finished this cute little 1st Birthday Boy book about a month ago, but I thought it was still worth sharing. The on-line class for this book can be found at Elizabeth Kartchner's new site Something Splendid. It's a super cute site with lots of fun projects to make! I changed mine up a bit by making the book slightly bigger and using actual envelopes inside of it instead of glassine bags. It was meant to be an envelope book of 10 envelopes. However, I made 5 envelopes and then 5 additional pages with layouts/photos on them.

This worked out to be the perfect mini book to document Liam's first birthday since I had so many photos it would have taken me forever to do layouts using all of them. Instead, I used a couple of photos and then grouped the rest by theme such as "Cake Eating", "Playing with Toys", "Birthday Memorabilia", etc. I was able to tuck his invitation in one of the envelopes along with some birthday party confetti and a napkin. The additional photos I just tucked inside each envelope by theme and was done...so easy!!

Here is the cover....I cut the monkey head out of one of the party plates.

(Sorry, skipped page one here...I'll share tomorrow)

Most of the paper and labels/stickers are from Crate Paper's Boy line that came out this spring. I will post pages 1 and 6 through 10 tomorrow. See you then!

Happy Memorial Day!

Soaking up the sunshine today! Summer is just around the corner, and I can't wait to spend all my days with this sweet boy! Hope you had lots of laughter and good times in your little corner of the world this weekend.....

Gratitude

Ever buy a cute scrapbooking product that you feel you MUST make something with...right away? Well, I recently ordered these flashcards from October Afternoon that feature vintage children's images with the numbers 1-9. These really aren't a new product, just new for me!

I decided to do some sort of mini book about 9 things...hmmm....but nine what? Since it is nearing Liam's first birthday, I thought I'd write a series of nine mini thank you letters to him detailing all of the things that I am thankful I have learned from him in this last year.

I then used the Martha Stewart starburst punch to punch out a piece from all the patterned papers I used in the book. I glued them on the cover in two vertical rows and then added some stitching over top of them. I got this particular idea from this great book, Sharing Your Stories: Recording Life's Memories with Mini Books by Ali Edwards.

On the back side of each "thank you" letter, I stamped out a quote that fits the topic of the letter to Liam.
I glued the patterned paper front to back and stitched a border around each page of patterned paper.

I hope that he understands someday, when he is older, how much meaning and fun and love he has brought to my life! I can't believe it has already been nearly a year.....

BE. Inspired...

We were off from work this week since it was our district's spring break. *sigh* I had a couple of friends over to craft on Thursday. The theme of the day was Be Inspired and we decorated a wooden block with lots of bright papers and inspirational sayings. I added a few details to my dining room to set the mood....

(Created from the new Pink Paislee line called "Soiree"...LOVE these papers!)

Some bright colors to tie in with the black and white...

(Poster from etsy seller Katie Daisy.)

A few postcard images from the etsy shop Inspire Lovely along with other odds and ends collected from around my studio....
Really a great afternoon! These gals are a group of friends who I have known ever since I got my first teaching job here in California, and they have continued to be my very best support system through many ups and downs. They are the kind of friends that you may not see for a few months, but you can pick up with them right from where you left off and feel like you just talked yesterday! I was really in need of some serious girl chat time and a few reassuring words. Many of them already emailed me to thank me for a fun day, but I hope they know how much they did for me in return just by being a good friend!