Thursday Thoughts

Hello! It's funny how my recently quiet blog isn't reflecting real life at the moment. Real life is anything but quiet with school starting this week.

This year is quite the year for our little family. Colten started junior high, Carson is on his last year of elementary school, and Jaxon started kindergarten. Lots of firsts and lasts this year. I'm adjusting to two schools and three different schedules, which will change as Colten starts school sports soon.

Adlyn is adjusting to having only Mom home during the day to entertain her. Mom is adjusting to her constant cries for attention. ;)

But in all the craziness, I've been impressed to do my very best to take it all in. The time I have left with Colten and Carson at home is shorter than the time I've had with them so far. The school years will go by faster, the summers will seem more brief, and soon, they'll be leaving the nest. A feeling of near panic sets in inside my chest from time to time when I think of how little direct, at-home influence I have left over their precious lives. It makes me want to be a better mom, better person.

And better wife. Josh and I just celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary over the weekend. A dozen years done and an eternity to go :).

As for the crafty stuff you probably visit here for, I've been busy there, too! I just don't have much to share at the moment. September will be absolutely full of projects, though, so the blog drought won't be long ;).

Thanks for stopping by and letting me speak from my mama heart today. Have a good one! Tessa

"Mother" Altered Book - SEI

Our library always has free books in the lobby, books that are too old to keep on the shelves for borrowing. I sift through them every time we go in, looking for beautiful colors, covers with vintage patina, and pages with pretty text or pictures. I recently found a small, yellow book that I decided to alter.

I used my favorite papers by SEI, gold leaf stickers and metallic gold paint by Martha Stewart, washi tape, mist, vellum, and even antiqued paper from an old fashioned mercantile store that I picked up on a field trip a few weeks ago.

I decided on the theme of "motherhood" because Mother's Day was approaching as I made the book. I typed up several of my favorite quotations about mothers in my favorite font - Traveling Typewriter. I also used my Silhouette to cut the words "mother" and "mom" several times. I love that font, too - Grand Hotel. While looking around the Silhouette store for some flower files, I came across several that SEI made. I downloaded them at once and you can find them all throughout this book.

I edited about 50 photos of this book and just couldn't narrow down my favorites for this post. So, I made a slideshow:

You can find more details about the book at the SEI blog today, here. Also, I'm adding all the photos of the book to my flickr photostream, here. I hope your Mother's Day was lovely :). Have a good one! Tessa

Ladies - The Studio

Happy Sunday! There's a new challenge at The Studio today, one all about family. I chose to scrapbook a recent photo of all of us Elzea girls at my sister's bridal shower:

I used the October kit from Scrapbook Circle, News Flash, and add-ons. I specifically pulled the new Crate Paper On Trend papers, as well as embellishments from the Dear Lizzy 5th and Frolic line. I wanted the page to feel festive, just like the bridal shower.

And do you see my title?! That's my first Silhouette Cameo cut! Whoo hoo! I can't wait to learn more about this machine so that I can use it more often. I'm still a little bit intimidated. Good thing Amanda is going to be teaching a Silhouette 101 class. I'll be that nerdy kid in the front row :).

I wanted to emphasize the word "ladies" because of an inside joke we sisters share. See, Caitlin (second from the left) began referring to us as a group with the word "ladies" when we were planning our San Diego vacation. However, she doesn't just say it normally, she uses this creepy, game show host, pick up line-esque voice that just cracks us up every time! I can't do it. I've tried. As soon as I cut the title, I sent an instagram photo of it to her. I wish you could hear it, but you'd probably think it's dumb. That's how inside jokes go, I know. But really, it's hilarious - at least to us Elzea girls ;).

If you'd like to play along with the challenge, you can find the details here. We'd love to have you! Thanks for stopping by today :). Tessa

How the Buys' do Chores - Epiphany Crafts

A year ago we sat down as a family and planned out chores for the two oldest. We had a short list of things that needed to be done daily and then a short list for Saturday chores.

Our goals were:
1. Teach the boys responsibility and give them a sense of pride in their accomplishments.
2. Teach the boys that as a part of the family, they could contribute, too. It's not just the parents doing all of the work to make the family/house run.
3. Show them that work can be enjoyable, even if it is just enjoying the aftermath of a clean house.
4. Show them that doing a little each day is much easier than having to do major clean-up every once in awhile.

So, we're doing okay. We're still working toward these goals. Some weeks were fabulous, others - not so much. As this school year came around, I found the boys dragging their heels and decided that we needed to revamp our system. First, I needed to upgrade from a piece of paper on the fridge. Second, I needed to include Jaxon (who is now three). Third, we needed to fine-tune what was actually done on a daily basis. Along came this pin on Pinterest, and shortly thereafter, an assignment from Epiphany Crafts to use the Round 25 tool. Our new chore charts were born (click on picture to see larger):

We started with a family planning meeting again. We made our list of chores and then split them evenly between Colten and Carson, saving a couple of easy ones for Jaxon. Last year we had an "A" and "B" list (which constantly caused conflict - I'm A this week. No, I'm A this week! Insert sigh and eyeroll from Mom here). This time around, there is a blue set of chores and a green. They switch chores every Monday with a simple swap of the magnets. Because these charts are interactive, the boys have a much easier time of keeping track of their progress - and it's a little bit fun.

To make a chart like mine, you'll need a frame, cardstock, neo-magnets, the EC Round 25 tool and bubble caps, patterned paper and thin metal sheets. We found the metal at Home Depot in 8x12 sheets for $1 a piece. We just had to trim off a couple of inches.

Type up your chores and cut them into strips. Glue them to patterned paper and use the EC tool to create the epoxy circles. Add neo-magnets to the back. The Neodymium magnets are strong enough to hold through the glass of your frame, which will help the chart stay clean. Hands doing chores get dirty, you know ;).

Print out your chart. Put the child's name at the top and make two columns - "to-do" and "done". Add the chart and the metal to the frame and voila - your chart is complete.

I have discovered that we need a "key" for the chores, a list of everything that is expected for each chore. For example, "trash" means kitchen, bathrooms, and computer room, not just the kitchen. I'll be typing that up really soon and including it in a frame next to the chore charts.

So far, so good. Colten said to me yesterday, "Mom, my chores were really easy today. I did a good job yesterday, so today it wasn't really messy." I love it when light bulbs go off like that! Fingers crossed that it continues ;).

I'd love to hear about what works and what doesn't work for you in your home. Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Hello there....

Hello there :). It's been a while since I posted last. The past two weeks have been a challenge for our family, but they've also been sprinkled with blessings.

Jaxon's namesake, Great Grandpa Buys, left this world for the next, incidentally on my husband's birthday. We gathered as family and told stories. Listening to my husband's aunts and uncles reminisce about their father was a precious experience. The service itself was beautiful - simple, heartfelt, full of love - just like Grandpa Buys. The weekend following the service, a meteor shower was at its climax and we gathered together again as family and gazed into the stars while eating popcorn - a Sunday tradition for Grandpa (and Grandma) Buys. I saw twenty-two shooting stars that night, and couldn't help but look into the heavens and know - just know - that a Heavenly Father who created such an amazing place for us to live in now also has an amazing home for us after we die. That families are forever. That the bonds we have here can carry over to the next life. That family is oh so very important.

The following week brought an awful stomach virus to our home. My oldest came to me in tears complaining of pain, so off to the doctor's we went, fearing that it might be appendicitis. The verdict was a virus (thank heavens!), and as Colten got better, Jaxon and I got worse. But it's over now and everyone was healthy enough to start school today.

Josh and I also celebrated our 10th Anniversary :). I can't believe I have been married for a decade. Wow. We have a getaway trip planned and I'm excited to spend some one on one, quality, extended time with him.

I have been creating - the etsy shop has been buzzing, I've been doing a lot of design team work, and I've even managed to get a head start on my sister's wedding. Here are a couple of recent projects for Epiphany Crafts. First, we teamed up with Little Yellow Bicycle to feature EC and the Splash line. Please click on the photos for better views. For some reason things are looking blurry until you do...

This summer, my boys finally learned to love the water. This mini album is about their pool adventures at soon-to-be-uncle Karl's house.

I've got more photos of this album in my flickr photostream here. Also for EC, I created this card for my husband. I plan to give it to him before we leave on our trip:

The challenge was to use the circle and square tool. I thought that paired together, they make a great hot air balloon.

Well, I'm off to entertain the lone 3 year old. Poor guy lost his playmates to their first day of school. I can tell he really misses them :(. I hope the past two weeks have treated you well and that you are having an awesome day :). Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

Scrap Fit

Happy Tuesday! I'm a little sunburned and tired, but yesterday at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom sure was a lot of fun! Who knew my eight year old was a roller coaster junkie?! Quality time with the family, my sister and niece was definitely needed and enjoyed :).

LOL, this was during the dolphin show. I have no idea what's going on with Colten's face - a dolphin must have done something cool ;).

I wanted to let you all know about a challenge blog that Precocious Paper is sponsoring this month - Scrap Fit! I am sponsoring two challenges.  The lucky winner of the first challenge - to put a banner on it - will win the July Sampler and a pair of Pink Limeade Butterfly Doilies:

I hope you'll stop by and play along. I'd love to send you some of my handmade goodies.  And before I go, I want to publicly wish my wonderful husband a very Happy Birthday! I get to make fun of him because now he is 30 and I'm still in my twenties - for a few weeks, anyway ;). Enjoy your day! Tessa

New Year, New Month, New Little One

Ushering in 2011 makes me excited about opportunities to come.  It feels good.  And with the new year comes a new month, which means Scrapbook Circle has a fabulous new kit to share with you.  Called "Love is All You Need", this gorgeous kit is filled with American Crafts, Glitz Designs, and Fancy Pants papers and embellishments.

This layout, featuring some family photos we took this past week, includes quite a bit of the American Crafts goodies:

And I had a lot of fun with the Fancy Pants papers for this one, about the baby shower that us girls put on for our sister Shanae a few days ago.  We are so excited for a new little one!

You can see my other layouts in the Idea Gallery.  You'll want to see what the rest of the design team did, too.  This kit brought out incredible designs from everyone and was a great way to say goodbye, as this is our last kit as a design team.  Thank you to Lisa - working with Scrapbook Circle was amazing!   Enjoy your New Year's Day! Tessa

Attitude of Gratitude Day 9

I'm grateful that my children love to learn.  I couldn't be more pleased with the parent teacher conferences I attended yesterday.  One comment that stood out to me is that both of my sons' teachers described them as eager to learn, excited about new things, and determined to succeed.  I hope that passion for knowledge grows with them, that they will always thirst for learning.

We celebrated their excellent report cards last night by going out to dinner.  They chose In-n-Out Burger (yum!) and we had a really good time.

On a scrappy note, have you checked out the November kit at Scrapbook Circle?  Definitely my favorite one so far.  This is a layout I made about a "Fun Friday" activity that Carson's class did - collecting leaves:

Have a great day, everyone!  Tessa

Busy at The Studio

First, some happy-yet-bittersweet news:  We are moving back to California!  We've loved living here in Wyoming, but we are too far from both sides of our families.  So, when my husband was offered his old job back at a much higher pay rate, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to be with our families once again.  In between getting ready to start school, my Etsy shop, my position at church, and my design team assignments, I am packing a house.  So, if you don't see me around the blog much in the coming few weeks, just know I'm happily busy and I will be back soon!

Now for some scrappy chit-chat!  There is a new Sunday Challenge up at The Studio: Alter or create from scratch a pretty storage item for your craft space.

We were sponsored by Cosmo Cricket and I used this Blackboard Box with the Delovely collection to create a little storage space for my favorite sketches.  I had too many print outs and pieces of paper with drawn sketches on them littering my scrapbook room, so this was the perfect solution for me.  Now I just print the sketch onto the card (or draw it), note the source, and pop it into my little box.

Also at The Studio, I have a Wednesday Extra tutorial for you.  After getting requests from several people to teach them how I made this yarn wreath...

...I created a tutorial featuring this yarn wreath:

You can find the tutorial here.  And one more bit of The Studio news for you - the big Summer Cyber Crop is coming up on August 21st.  Here is a little sneak peek of my class:

Have a great day! Tessa

Happy Birthday, Honey!

To celebrate your birthday, Josh, the boys and I interviewed each other about what we love most about you and decided to write this blog post :).

Jaxon: Since he can't speak yet, we're going to say he loves snuggling to sleep with Daddy at night, wrestling, and hiding his pacifier from you.

Carson: "He's good at getting money. I love that he fixes cars. I love him so much."

Colten: "I love that he plays computer games with me and sometimes helps me.  He makes good paper airplanes and paper boats."

Me: "I love that he is a regular, down-to-earth, loving, goofy, guy.  I love that he works hard for our family, teaches his children the gospel, honors the priesthood, and loves us more than anything else in the world."

Happy birthday, honey! WE LOVE YOU!

A tough one...

Challenge, that is.  I found the new challenge at The Studio to be a difficult one for me!  I love that about Amanda - her challenges are always so different.  This week she has challenged us to use only cardstock, patterned paper, and alpha stickers on a layout.  Hmmmm.... No mist, no paint, no stitching, no fabric, no buttons, no ribbon, no trim....  I sat down to plan it out and ran into a brick wall!  My first instinct was to fussy-cut some pretty floral papers and find some photos to match, but then I found this photo strip of our little family, pre-Jaxon.  Florals would not do, so I went a different route:

I raided my freshly organized small scraps drawer.  I chose papers with red, light blue, and yellow in them, then handcut them into little strips.  I made a box, punched a few hearts and some border pieces, then glued it all down.  I really love the way it turned out - simple, easy, quick and perfect for my photo strip.  Now, if I'd been allowed to go farther, I would probably stitch through the center of my strips and mist my background.  I think I'll be scrap-lifting myself someday soon :).

I hope to see you at The Studio! Stop by the blog for details on how to play, or join the Facebook page to stay up-to-date with sneak peeks and posts.  Visit www.facebook.com/thestudiochallenges and click "like".  And remember, Cosmo Cricket is July's sponsor :).

Enjoy your day! Tessa

Family

The last of the June challenges is now live at The Studio!  This week the challenge is a fun, easy one: Splash! We want to see your pages about the beach, sunshine... anything summer-ish! How do you spend your summer holidays?

My journaling reads: "One of my favorite things about summer is the extra daylight.  Those precious hours of sunshine that linger long after dinner.  That sweet sunshine allows us as a family to get out and enjoy each other's company more, like on this day that we went to the local soccer fields to play games.  To me, summer = more happy family memories."

We've kind of begun a tradition of capturing photos like this whenever we can (see another one in this post).  This is the first family shadow portrait that includes the little guy.  Wow, 5 shadows.  I'm blessed :).  I used the June Scrapbook Circle kit and included some summery embellishments.

Don't forget! Precocious Paper is sponsoring the month of June at The Studio!  I'd love to send YOU some handmade scrapbooking goodies, so get to playing :).  Have a wonderful day! Tessa

A Family is Forever

I believe this with every ounce of my being - a family is forever.  In March 2008, our little family visited the Sacramento LDS Temple.  The sun was setting and I was able to capture these images of our shadows cast on the temple walls.  Our family has added one more shadow since then, so I hope to return soon and take a similar photo of all of us.

I based this layout on another fantastic Sketchy Thursdays sketch, and added the trim for a challenge over at Scrapfreak.  I wanted to play with a technique I read about a few weeks ago, so I got a little messy attaching a piece of a sewing pattern as my background.  A little watered-down glue and a paintbrush was all it took, and I really like the result.

I've got a couple of really busy days ahead, so if you don't hear from me soon, don't worry!  I'm just being a typical mom and Etsy shop owner :).  Have a great day! Tessa