Sam the Gnome

I love gnomes. I'm a gnome fanatic! I used to watch the cartoon David the Gnome as a kid. I think that is what started the Gnome Love. Cliff is freaked out by gnomes, otherwise I'd make sure the neighbors hate us more and deck the entire yard out in gnomes. Well... guess what I got in the mail today?
Do not even try to tell me that is NOT the cutest thing ever! I have a gnome baby and you don't! Nanna nanna boo boo! Don't you just wanna kiss his little old-man looking self. We have little nicknames for one another and Sam has always been the wizard or the gnome. Now he really is!

Nadia, of Nadcraft on Etsy, made this darling hat for my Sammy. I had made her a banner and avatar for her Etsy shop and she offered to make this up for me. The little card that came along with the hat even said, "For Baby Gnome"! So frickin' cute!

Of course, as sibling rivalry usually goes, now Dylan wants one. He behaved well though. I think Dylan was as excited as me over the gnome hat. I was running through the house singing GNOMIE GNOMIE! When I put the hat on Sam, he started doing his little nose crinkle-smiley-snorty kinda laugh. He never tried to take it off or nothing, yay!

The hat was made to be tied under the chin, but Sam kept trying to eat it, as he does with most things lately. It stays on just fine tied behind his big ol' head.

So, yup, Sam will be a gnome for Halloween and I'm thrilled. I think I'll skip out on a beard and say he is a gnome-baby, unless you have an idea for me how to construct it where Sam won't eat or tear it. I got this gnome bib from ColbyLaneDesigns on Etsy for him to wear as part of the costume. Add a little long sleeve blue shirt and some pants and I'm set.

Nadscraft is so super sweet to do have made this hat for me. You should check out her shop, http://nadscraft.etsy.com . She is very talented with felt crafting. See that little cake above? FELT! So cute, right?! There are even complete kits with everything included to make these felt creations too. Thanks again, Nadia. :)

It's turning into a stamp giveaway bloggin' kinda day...

Okay, I've always wanted these little girlies, so I had to enter. So check out the giveaway, here.http://fluttabyz.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-blog-candy-giveaway-gorjuss-girls.html

Squiggle Stamp Giveaway!

I spotted this newer stamp company not too long ago and found out today they are doing a giveaway! I love clear stamps and I love the option to buy them as singlets too. The design of the images are pretty for paper piecing which I love to do. What lucky girls on this design team, eh?! Squiggle Stamps is giving away 10 stamps and a K&Co Prize Pack, click here to enter.

Incubus!

Again, I'm a bit behind on telling yall about our time at the Incubus Concert. You've probably heard me babble about it so, that this is a pointless post, but I'm still thrilled I got to go! I linked the song titles to YouTube videos if you aren't familiar with Incubus and want a little listen. :)

Now first off, I haven't been to a real concert before. I'm not counting Cherry Blossom Festival music performances or random punk bands at the skate ramps. Nor am I counting Atlanta Rhythm Section, because my parents made me go with them and I hated it. So this was an extremely cool treat. The best part, IT WAS FREE! I won 2 tickets from Swagbucks in a drawing.Not counting the mosh pit or the VIP tables, We were 4th row, dead center. Mr. Brandon Boyd was directly in front of me. Bliss. Now to tell you about the people around us... I have no earthly idea how it happened, but I got stuck next to an extremely cheerful drunk super fan lady (that almost broke our camera trying to take a pic of us 2) and Cliff got stuck to the prettiest red head in the shortest skirt possible. If you didn't know, Cliff has a thing for red heads. Loverly :: eye roll ::

The opening band was The Duke Spirit. I had listened to a few YouTube videos before hand and wasn't sure if I was gonna like them or not. They are fantastic in person. The chick is extremely hot and not afraid to rock out in such a short skirt either. She did a super long harmonica solo in the middle of a rock song (quirky, huh?) that was what won me over.

Incubus opened the show with Pardon Me. Everyone went crazy. Every time he would sing the Pardon Me part of the chorus, red lights would explode around them. Super cool.

Oh and I have a funny for you! So I was showing mom these pictures and she made a comment about how awesome it was that I was able to catch in the pictures all the lighters being lit in the audience. I got to update her that waving your cellphone in the air is the new lighter. She did The Rock eyebrow arch on that one.

At about this point, I gave up taking photos. I wanted to live the experience not behind a camera lens, ya know? Besides, I was dancing and jumping too much to get non-shaky photos. So Clifford took over for me. He's taller anyways!

These were some of the coolest light effects. That fish behind him was swimming on the screen. For Megalomaniac, which is banned on MTV btw because of the political imagery, they showed all of that and more behind them on the screen. It was super. It was about at this point that Brandon Boyd ripped the sleeves off his shirt. Then eventually taking the whole thing off! His shirt said, "Make Believe, Not War" which I am guessing was for the Woodstock 40th anniversary on that day. (Thanks Karl/Matt, math is not my forte.)

I was really impressed in how he could sing non-stop for 2 or so hours straight like that! There was never a weak note and sounded better than the CD. I got to hear my favorite song, Warning, sang too. I think that made my entire night.

They did Drive as a slower, acoustic version with just Mike E. and Brandon. Was super fab. The audience was overwhelming singing along. He told us we sounded, "Effin' Beautiful" and had the sexiest smile. I thought that was super cute.

They came back for an encore of 3 songs, including one of my faves, Are you in. Incubus did the Let's Go Crazy cover too. Cliff got this great photo of them waving good-bye.

I got me one of their tour shirts on the way out. It's the wrong size, but I still love it to pieces. We didn't drink as a bottle of beer was 10 bucks and a glass of cheap wine was $12! The shirt prices were not bad though. Even re-listening to these songs on YouTube, I get goosebumps all over again and crush even more on Mr. Brandon Boyd.

"The Greatest Show on Earth" Etsy Treasury

I made a treasury up with a circus theme. Check it out!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=78271

Featuring Etsy sellers: BNDesigns, Myself, heysailor, ModMargeFineFinds, Librarie, Roadside, breeree, CrudeThings, HOWEVER, MookieDesigns, SmallEarthVintage, and fosterbk.

August 12 of 12

This was a weird month to document. Dylan is preschool now, so it's just me and Sambo at home looking at one another waiting to go pick him up. I really don't know what to do with myself without Dylan during the day.

There was a picture of a grumpy Cliff and Dylan getting ready in the morning, but um, it got erased. The mornings are smoother NOW, but on the 12th, we were still settling into the new morning routine with Cliff and Dylan. The moment they left, I found one of my favorite and perkiest looking mugs, filled it with coffee, and sat on the back porch for a bit. I can sit out there in the morning just drinking coffee, looking at the woods, and petting the dog for about an hour if you'd let me. It's my happy way to wake up.

Mandatory self-pic. Me and Wilson. He is always so hyper in the morning to see people. I really think he needs a buddy-dog since Chance ran off.

It had rained off and on. Mushrooms were popping up everywhere. I'm pretty happy with this picture!

Taking photos of items to sale in my etsy shop. Dontcha just love my professional studio set up? LOL Just to giggle even more, that chair is a kid sized spongebob chair.

Woohoo! It's 2:20! I can just say to Sam, "wanna go get brother?", and he gets all excited and smiley. Well not in the picture. The red-eye prevention light on the camera kinda freaked him out.

Picking up the munchin. I was exactly on time, but everyone else had got their kids at 2pm! Poor Dyllie-boo was sitting there alone for 30 minutes looking glum when I came in the door. He smiled in this picture only because I promised him candy from CVS.

Super sunny out, hence the squinty eyes, but got the two boys to pose for me next to the school's fence before we drove away.

The rest of the night involved Cliff and Dylan on the Wii. We got Punch Out and them two get pretty aggressive playing it. Oh, but hey! Notice the walls aren't orange? We are in the middle of scraping and peeling it off in the living room. 2 walls down, 2 more to go.

I guess this one can speak for itself, eh? BTW, Bitch Away is a natural soothing oil that helps with cramps and PMS I got from OrionStars on Etsy. Happy, yet annoyed he even mentioned it, Cliff says it works in nicer words for you blogosphere people.

Still not done with the bathroom renovation. If you look at last month's 12 of 12, you'll see there has been some progress. The tub walls got plastic behind them and I got a floor down. Well, sorta. He screwed that up as well and did the wood pieces vertical instead of horizontal and we ran out about a foot at the door well to finish it off. Growl!

Savvy N Sassy August Ribbon Kit Creations

I got the Henry's Brilliance August Ribbon Kit to create with this month from SavvyNSassy. Tons of blues, so you know I was happy! BTW, these ribbons were grouped together to coordinate with the new Nikki Sivils papers.

Look at that! A layout! I'm trying to catch up on scrapping the pics from the 12 of 12 project I'm participating in. This is my first time using Thickers too. Gasp, I know, right?! Close-up of my embellishment cluster below. :)I got these embroidery hoops at a flea market, even though I don't do embroidery or cross-stitch. I'm liking how this came out. I call it faux embroidery! I used a thinner patterned paper that somewhat looks as though it could be printed aida cloth. Traced around a chipboard "S" letter for Sam trying to make the lines look like stitching. I added the threaded needle to make it more realistic. Mission accomplished?
Dylan gets Highlights magazine and every month there is some sort of pull out craft. Since it's just flimsy magazine paper though, it never holds up well. So I cut it all out and made a front and back chipboard cover from cereal boxes and surprised Dylan with this when he got home from school. He was thrilled!
Here's a little whimsical journaling spot I paper pieced like crazy. This is one of those things that no matter how hard you try to take a photo, it just looks better in person.
Don't shoot me for creating this Christmas journaling spot in the middle of Summer, mmkay? :) The Santa is actually pop-dotted from the blue snowy background behind him. Looks really neat in my opinion. I'm still a newbie at coloring in stamps, but Stickles always help to make things look better!
Here's a Halloween card done up in non-traditional colors. I'm happy with how it came out. It also felt good to create something so satisfying from my beloved Love Elsie paper stash. Pop-dotted paper-pieced Pink Paislee skull stamped image too. {Say that 3 times fast.}
Thanks for looking! Check out SavvyNSassy for this awesome ribbon kit. They also have all Gel-a-tin stamps on sale til Friday!