Christi VISITS!

Ok, now that I've got a little bit more energy it's time to post! You may be asking yourself, gee, where did Melanie's energy all go anyway? Well you see, my younger-but-taller sister, Christi, and her friend Cody, came to visit over her birthday and Valentines day and I'm just now recovering, she's EXHAUSTING! It's ok, I can say that because #1: it's true and B: she doesn't read this anyway.
SO the first thing we did on Saturday was head off to the living desert for some "desert fun".






We saw some animals and beat the drums, had a snack, then decided to go on the "nature walk"(using this term loosely). We left Dustin with Damen because we figured we'd be about an hour and didn't want to tire the kiddo out too much.

Look at this interesting tidbit, Cheese Bush, that's for you Yvonne:)

Ok, so all of the signs say aprox. 3.5 miles around the loop, no big right:) Look at how much fun we're having laughing, joking, walking. . .

2.5 HOURS LATER we made it out, alive thankfully. You see, the "loop" was actually 5 miles around, maybe the first or second loop back were 3.5? Whatever, all I know is that sometime between the dried up riverbed and the mountain climb up to 1000 feet I realized I should have brought some water maybe? Or a totally different body, like the inshape one my sister was lugging around, it looked like it worked. This is us on the way back down, happy to be headed DOWN HILL towards the exit exhausted, sunburned, and thirsty!


We rushed home to shower and change so we could make it to an early dinner at Claim Jumpers for Christi's birthday dinner. Then home we rushed to change again, Dustin and I went to a Sweethearts dance. Sunday was relaxing and laid back. (Oh right, except for when Damen threw up) Monday we headed to Ocean Beach for the day with dreams of Acai bowls and 99 red balloons in our future. Damen had a blast, even after he got rolled in the surf.




So that's what literally took the wind out of my otherwise perky sails:) Love ya Christi!!!!

Ooooooo Ahhhhhhhh

I've been messing around A LOT with photos and digital scrapbooking. I took this picture two weeks ago at the living desert during a "weekend with Christi" which I will post about later, when I have the energy. Anyway, I messed around with different photo elements and I LOVE how it came out, so thought I'd share:)

Riding a BIKE!

Last week I got to see Damen ride a 2wheeler for the first time! He is obviously borrowing a girls bike, but who cares, it was fun!

Shadow Box for Damen

I Forgot to take a before picture, sorry I was too excited to get started!
I found this adorable unfinished shadow box at the Dollar Tree, and I should have bought all that they had!
First I put a piece of computer paper over the top and with a pencil did a rubbing so I could figure out the sizes of the boxes later.
Then I whitewashed it with a light coat of off white, only the sides, not the back inside.
Next I went through all of the embelishments/papers/stickers/ stuff that I have for scrapbooking and found/designed what I wanted for each box.
Then using the template from the rubbing I cut coordinating paper for the back and glued it in with plain white glue.
Using pop dots for dimension I glued the other pieces in place.

Total cost was $1 + tax for the box, everything else I had on hand.





TADAA!!

I hope the pictures pick up the dimension enough, I really like how it turned out!





Check out other ideas for under $5 at:

Hungry much?

"Great Birthdays start with BETTY CROCKER"

That's what's printed on the side of a frosting can. Yup, I'm sure because I read it as I scooped out a spoonful of it

to eat.

Really.

The best part of waking up. . .

Everyone should have the opportunity to be woken up this way:

You hear the rushing of little feet and open your eyes just in time to see your three year old run past the bed with his pants around his ankles, hightailing it to the bathroom. Talk about preparedness.

If it hadn't been 5:30am I would have laughed out loud.

I like

This is the actual name of another blog I saw while catching up on my "crafty" blogging reading:

"PATTERNS ARE FOR PANSIES, LOOK MA NO PATTERNS"

I love it, it is exactly how me and my sewing maching get along! Not only are they for pansies, but they're just too dang complicated and more reading than I'd prefer when sewing. So, thanks Krista from Cleveland, it's nice to know I'm not alone!