Baby Update #1!

It's a girl!

Happy birth day, Kylie! 

Kylie Rhyann Branum was born this morning at 10:51 a.m.  She weighs 6 lbs. 4 1/2 ozs.  Mommy, baby and Daddy are doing well!

I'll be back later with news of the second baby who is currently being delivered via c-section.  Who knew that my sister-in-law and nephew's girlfriend would both deliver on the same day?  At the same hospital!  Kylie came two weeks early and Evan is about 3-4 weeks early.

Sneak Peak!

It has been a busy week -- COLD, but busy!  My grandson got his first tooth Wednesday night, with a second one due to break through any minute.  Our nephew, Josh and his girlfriend, Crystal are at the hospital in labor and delivery as I write this, awaiting the birth of their first child.  And I have been prepping for a card making class.  Not for my usual group of adults, though.  Nope, this class is for a special group of people . . . eight 5, 6 and 7 year olds!

My daughter is in a multi-age classroom -- Kindergarten, first and second graders all in one class.  On Fridays they have "clubs" -- clubs are run by volunteers and can be whatever you choose to come in and share for 45 minutes for four weeks.  Demi has participated in a "Fancy Nancy" club (based on the children's books by the same name) and has come home with her nails painted, her hair done up "all fancy", etc; a cooking club where they made dirt cups, cupcakes and other treats; and several others.  Since the beginning of the year Demi has been begging me to come and teach a card making class -- "just like the grown-up one you do, Mom!"  The first two rounds of clubs hit at bad times for us and so I told her I would do one after the first of the year.  And so . . . here we are, it's after the first of the year and it's time for clubs to begin.  

Demi and I sat down and went through the Create-A-Critter cartridge book (her favorite) and she picked out her favorite designs.  Our first class will feature a birthday card and a small gift bag.  Here is a sneak peak at what I'll be sharing.  Stay tuned for pictures of their completed creations!

Cooking With Cricut Challenge: Glittermania!

The challenge this week at Cooking With Cricut was to incorporate glitter into our project.  I almost didn't sign up for this challenge because I hate working with glitter.  I love how it looks, I just don't love how it gets EVERYWHERE!  I end up wearing more than is on my project.

Having said that, I decided to create a scrapbook page layout celebrating one of the people in my life that absolutely LOVED anything glittery or that sparkled -- my late Step-Mom, Linda.  She became my Step-Mom when I was eleven years old and we had the typical love-hate relationship that comes when a person who is not your mom marries your daddy.  However, we managed to get past that and we had a wonderful relationship.  She gave me two of the greatest gifts in life . . . my sister, Elizabeth and my youngest brother, Andy!

Linda was a Registered Nurse and was responsible for bringing the ParyLite Candle business to Gainesville.  She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2002 and with surgery and treatment was declared cancer-free.  In 2004, doctors discovered that she had lung cancer and that it was inoperable.  She was given 3 to 6 months to live -- she fought valiantly for two years before she was taken from us. 

My youngest daughter was born shortly before her diagnosis and was 2 1/2 years old when Linda died.  I wanted Demi to remember her Mimi -- not that she'll forget her, we still talk about Mimi frequently and there are still tears shed because she misses her so.  So I created this page to share some of the things I learned from Linda that I know that she would have taught Demi.  She and Demi would have been the best of friends -- 'cause Demi is ALL about the glitter and bling, too!

The 12 x 12 paper is from the Die Cuts With A View Nana's Nursery - Baby Girl paper stack.  Its hard to tell in this photo, but the flowers are glittered.  All of the other paper is from my scrap stash -- the hot pink is a Recollections card stock and the green is the back side of a Bazzill Bling card stock called "Petty Cash."

I used Stickles on the "Remember" and added pink and green rhinestones in various spots on the page.  The purple ribbon represents all cancers and was purchased at Michael's.  The Cricut cuts are as follows:

Pink Journey: 

• Live - cut at 3 1/2" wide with the flower trimmed off. 
• Love - cut at 3" wide. 
• Hope cut at 3 1/2" wide. 
• Believe - cut at 3 1/2" wide with the flowers trimmed off. 
• Always Remember - cut at 4" tall and altered.  I cut the curlicue off of the "R" and had to shorten the stem a bit so that it would fit.

Plantin SchoolBook: 

•  Laugh - cut at 3 1/2" wide.

This was an emotional layout to work on, but I am so pleased with the way it turned out.  Linda would have loved it!  It has all of her favorite colors, just enough glitter and lots of bling!

Make sure you hop on over to Cooking With Cricut and see what my fellow "Chefs" have whipped up -- its sure to be sparkly!