My first week in the life album

I've been following Ali Edwards for years, watching her family grow through her wonderful scrapbook pages first in Creating Keepsakes magazine, then her blog and even now, on facebook and twitter. There is just something about her style, her way of bringing her story together that captures my full attention. I had no intentions of even trying this project this year, as most of us, I am busy and didn't believe I had the time to spend both in capturing our week on film, nor the documenting our days in so much detail. But as I watched her blog throughout her week and so many others going about bringing their week in the life together, I started to feel the tug to try it myself. I started half way through the week that most others were doing so my week was the last few days of July and the beginning few days of Aug. I also made some mistakes along the way, forgetting to document some times, and mixing up my picture uploading in the first few days then having to sort it all out in the end. All in all, it was a wonderful experience and I am looking forward to trying it again. So thank you to on of my favorite scrapbookers of all time and for your continue inspiration in my own life and creative endevors.

the album I used was a 8x8 album, plain chipboard covered

from Stampin Up, and I covered it with a wonderful line of paper that

I had just purchasde weeks before the start of this album.

The top view of the album to show how I divided up

the album.

I was consistant throughout the album and only used
this line of paper along with the journalling cards that
went with the paper line. The title was black cs cut with my
cricut cartride, on of my newer toys I've been learning.

The left side of these two pages was actually the backside
of the title page paper and was all random bits and saying,
I added quite a bit of stamped images and sayings, using
color ink that closely matched the colors in the paper.

I loved this section of the paper when I bought it, and
knew it would do well for the table of contents page.
I did more stamping on this page as well.

When I had all my pictures organized, I used the
Photosheet program and did up 8x8 collages and had
printed out at Costco for only $1.89 each, which was a
good reasonable cost :)

Each day had the same LO, fun stuff on the left side,
a small hand made journalling card, in which I actually
hand wrote all my photo references (a rarity for me to use
my chicken scratch on a LO) then the right hand side was
the collage, with a 4x6 photo sheet attached with brads to
add a bit more photos and on the backside either more
journalling or reciepts or other goodies.

a closer look at the elements for the first day, just
to give you an idea of how each day was done.

the back of each journalling card look so bare that

I just decided to add some fun arrows to direct

the flow of the album :)

A look at how I numbered the photos

so that they would correspond with the hand

written notes I made.

Day 2, same format.

This day, I didn't take enough photos, so only
had ones from a walk along Crescent beach so
I used all of those, but Amy and I did have
gelato at a quaint little place, so I saved the
business card and our spoons to use :)


Day 3

Just a few tidbits from our day, not much

but something at least.

This was one of my favorite days of the week,

time with my friend Cathy and her two girls,

then time with my brother in law learning

how to fire a gun, and shooting for hours.

And ending the day finding pop shoppe pop.

I saved both the bottle caps for the LO, and the

bottles sit on my window sill with flowers in them.

I didn't have much for tidbits from this day,

so I just used our treat receipt from McDonalds.

Oh, and on the front of each 4x6 photo, I added

a small journalling stripe as well.

I only did a few days of full journalling cards on

the back of the 4x6 photo.

I loved that I had a new month during this week,

because I really liked the month cards of this set,

but only August had the right colors that I wanted.

This was also another of my favorite days, BC Day

holiday and Jason and Michelle for a BBQ and a

night of game play out on the deck on a warm evening.

A little journalling card and the tag from a pineapple.

Not much happening this day, just errands, so

most of the photos were taken on my iphone

during our outings.

Apple store business card and receipts.

Good thing for warrenties.

I made my own day sheets and actually

handwrote again on each one, although my

instinct was to type it for more clean lines,

I had Ali's voice in my head telling me there

are no mistakes in scrapbooking and to embrace

my handwriting, for future generations.

A little journalling for the end of the album, and

to just have a nice clean end before the addition

of all the days sheets.

I took this photo while flipping through the day

sheets just to give you an idea of how they looked.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my week in the life

project, any comments would be appreciated.

Birthday cakes part two

this was my process for Jordyn's cake this year, which I was not sure of what I was going to do until I was walking around Save on looking in the baking isle. Jordyn doesn't really like chocolate cake so I knew I was going to be making a white cake of some sort....well I got a French Vanilla cake, and vanilla frosting. The rest was just play for me, I wanted to try making a cake with different colored layers to it, so I seperated the prepared batter into four equal amounts and added a few drops of food coloring to each, then into two prepared pans I carefully layered two of the colors on top of one another, and into the oven they went.


then came the simple frosting of the cake, just to get it started, I add frosting between the two layers before putting the cake together as well.


Then carefully, well I least I tried, I added sprinkles to the outside edge and ended up with them all over the counter as well, but at least I had bought it in bulk and had lots of those tiny sprinkles. :) I also always add a wax paper edge to all sides of my cake on the bottom of the cake plate so that clean up is easy.

during this process, I had to put the cake into the fridge a few times because it was so hot in the house that the icing was actually slipping off of the cake, but all was fine in the end.

I had taken the left over icing from the container after I had iced the cake and added a few drops of coloring and then put it into a ziploc bag and just had fun adding swirls onto the top of the cake.

I then added the jelly candies to give it a festive fun feel and put it into the fridge overnight so it wouldn't melt at all.

I added candles just before we sang happy birthday to her and she really liked the little birthday girl candle. (she kept it afterwards and added it to her planter pot :) )

I took a picture after we had cut out a few pieces to show how the colored layers work, the bottom is actually blue and green but was hard to capture in a picture. And although the pink and white layers kinda blended together, I was happy with how it turned out, and Jordyn thought it was cool as did her friends.

With the left over pink icing I made the birthday girl her own messaged plate. <3

Birthday cakes part one

I am making this post and the next one as well for my friends who are new or fairly new to motherhood. It's all about birthday cakes, and how no matter what your skill level is, a birthday cake you make from scratch or even from a cake mix is okay, as long as you make it with lots of love. In a world where there are cupcakes stores and gourmet cake stores all over, sometimes we lose sight of what is really important to the child, and that's the celebration of them, no one else is as important as they are on their birthday and it's my experience, that a cake makes as big a statement as any that they are special and that you love them. Now don't get me wrong, those gourmet cakes are gorgeous, and spectacular, but I guarantee you that it's the homemade ones they will remember for years to come.

This year I made Amy's cake and coated the entire outside edge in skor bits...oh my was it delicious...and when we were enjoying it with family and a few of her friends, do you know where the conversation went...it went into the past, both my girls discussing which of their past birthday cakes were there favorites, and remembering almost each and everyone I had made, they talked about them with such happiness in their voices and made me feel happy that they remembered each of them so clearly, even the ones early in their lives...so remember mom's, a birthday cake made with love will be remembered for years to come.

18 years ago

I became a mom for the second time, and welcomed another baby girl into my heart. Who knew my heart would double in size once again...the capacity for love from a mother to her child is absolutely amazingly powerful. And through all the years of raising this baby girl to become the women she is today, one thing has not waivered, and that is my love for her. Our family became complete that day so long ago, and I am humbled and honored to have been choosen to be the mother of two such amazing girls. And no matter what Miss Jordyn, you will always be my baby girl. <3