Color challenge, freebie and just some stuff

I finally managed to get my color challenge freebie done, sorry it's just a tiny one this time. I'm trying to get back into it, honestly - it's just hard with a baby:-)

I'll do a 365 update on monday, I promise!

Meanwhile - I got tagged by Nani!
I had to go to my photos folder,
pick the sixth subfolder
post the sixth picture on my blog and tag some more people!
so, here is my pic:Thats me on our honeymoon, somewhere in Connecticut. I am tagging JULIE, and KELLY - I only found their blogs just now, they are fellow LIFE 365 scrappers!

Here's a LO I just did - isn't Lilith's smile just the sweetest thing ever?


Color challenge time!

Get my freebie here

Project 365 - my LO are up to date!

Its so nice of Gina at W&W to give us goodies for being up to speed with our 365 LO! Here are my most recent LO:

Week 6/2009


Week 7/2009

Baby pictures - a comparison and an some scrappy stuff

I'm doing fine with project 365 so far and I'm amazed that I'm still at it - I really hope it will stay that way for a while. Gina Marie over at Weeds&Wildflowers is doing her best to help all of us - ste gives out wonderful incentives for those of us who stay up to date...

We visited a games convention this weekend. From Friday noon to Sunday evening we played boardgames and even some RPG - Chtulu and DSA. I haven't had the chance to play an RPG in a while and Christian always has to be the screen monkey (for those who don't play RPGs - the screen monkey is the game master/ dungeon master), so he was excited to play a character again. Our Dungeon Master was awesome and the adventure was exactly matched to our characters, so it was a lot of fun :-)

Dorian was the cutest kid imaginable. He played a couple of games with us and he got really excited when we had our roleplaying adventure. He ran around yelling "temfen, temfen!" (his way of pronouncing "Kämpfen", the german word for "fighting") and listened to the story we where telling. Everybody there loved him and fed him junkfood - LOL. I'm not entirely happy with that, but it was only a weekend. I'll just make sure to fill him with fruits and veg the rest of the week...

We played a couple of board games, too. I saw a couple of new ones and played some old favourites... Currently we love playing Dominion, Galaxy Truckers, Race for the Galaxy and Battlestar Galactica (can you tell that we are sci-fi nerds?)

All the proceeds af the convention go to a childrens cancer hospital and reasearch center.
I was absolutely amazed by the effort that the organisation put into that weekend. There where about 60 people and the Grandparents of one of the girls in the organisation team cooked Lunch and Dinner for all of us, They offered back and neck massages (by a professional masseur) if you donated some money, they did all the cleanig...

I would have liked to have a small duty assigned (taking out trash regularly, washing dishes or something) so they would get to play some games, too, but they did everything themselves and didn't accept any help.
The Location was cool, too - we played in a church. The church offered the location for free to help with the convetion and to raise more money for cancer research.

And now for something completely different. I recently took a photograph of Lilith that copies a picture I did when Dorian was her age. I scrapped it for my "Project 365" and here's the result :-)


And some scrappy things, too - Kim B has her new commercial use grab bag out -and don't forget to take part in her color challenge at DSO!


There's a fantastic posting bonus if you take part!

My son's first LO!

My son saw me scrapping on my computer and wanted to try it. I opened up a new page for him and opened whatever he wanted - he pointed out what files he wanted to use and put it on the page where he wanted. The Kit used is Jessica's Doodle kit, available here

Please don't forget that he's only two and a half years old. I think its amazing for his age!



Blogging for two consecutive days... :-)

Project 365 and some stuff...

Wow, just two weeks since the last post and I'm already posting again...

We are slowly getting into some routines and I enjoy having two kids - I certainly don't get enough sleep, but its not Lilith's fault. She actually lets me sleep for about 6 hours without waking up - but Dorian comes into our bed around 3am and that wakes me...
I have a fix date for scrapping now! every Sunday night I do my project 365 - There's a sweet incentive to staying on track at Weeds and Wildflowers - GinaMarie makes a little "hodge podge"-kit that coordinates with her LIFE 365 and gives it to anyone who is up to date with their pictures...

I just bought the two that I missed - I didn't know about the incentive, but the kits are sooo cute...

Well, this week I'm up to date :-)



On Sunday I went to a marine zoo with Dorian so he could have some alone time with Mommy and we both enjoyed that very much. Pictures are being scrapped - I started during the Superbowl but didn't finish...

We had a cute little incident during shopping yesterday. I was standing infront of the dairy shelf looking for a yogurt and Dorian took one of the kiddy products from one of the lower shelves - you know, one of those far too sweet puddings - and tried to put it into our shopping cart.
A little boy standing net to him said "Swiper, no swiping!" and Dorian replied with a very convincing "Oh maaaan"...

If you don't get the joke, go watch Dora the Explorer :-)

I'll try to post more frequently - maybe a jour fix to do it? every monday morning? I'll figure something out...

So much Stuff...

...has been going on in my life!




On december 10th, our little daughter Lilith Guinevere was born. She is a very good baby so far - lets me sleep at least parts of the night and keeps me awake during the day. Unlike our first kid, Dorian, she's growing and gaining weight like a troll - our doctor is really happy with her!

Dorian loves his little sister dearly and I have to be careful because he always wants to cuddle her and carry her...

The LO above was done for Kim B's color challenge on DSO - For the first time I have submitted a LO for this challenge, I just didn't have time to design a kit with the baby around :-) I used various professional use products made by Kim B - I love that stuff, her last grab bag was a stunner - again...

She also has a new kit out - it looks quite sweet and ist called Hearty Tarty and 25% off at the moment. There is another kit out that I love - and I hope I'll scrap with that for the whole year. It is called "LIFE 365" , available at Weeds and Wildflowers. It is designed to make it easier to follow through with project 365. It has a ton of 2 page 7 picture templates and is really easy to use . I scrapped with it already, and while I miss the challenge of actually doing the whole Layout, I can see myself doing this every week because it is so quick. And if I have time and want to, I can concentrate on scrapping Lilith's and Dorian's Baby pictures, our christmas pics and whatnot....

Here is my scrappy week three




I'm going to try to post a little more regularly this year. Maybe I'll manage to at least post my "project 365" things.

I'm going to make a post about our Christmas as soon as I find time to scrap some of the pictures...

See you around!

Finally! I got something done!

There's a freebie for you today - I finally finished Kim B's color challenge on DSO and I've got a kit for you - I loved the colors this month :-)

In other news - we're going to visit my mom in germany in two weeks. This will be the first long drive with our new car, so we're pretty excited. We bought a Renault Modus in August and we're pretty happy with it so far - but this will be the big test. Its a 5 hour drive to Nürnberg where my Mom lives.
Also, on that weekend there will be a class reunion of my old school, so I'm pretty excited to show off my big belly there :-)


I'm almost done ith my 2009 calendar that I'm doing as a present for family and friends for christmas this year. With the baby due in the middle of december, I have to get my presents done very early this year!
If you're on a budget, a scrapbooked calendar is a pretty good, low clutter and fun to do present. I use www.foto.com to develope the calendar - I'm using a big calendar, but they start at 12 €. And I'm sure you can get them cheeper at other companies - they just have the format I want :-) You digitally scrapbook and they do the nasty work...
Its a great way to give friends and family some pictures to look at for the next year.
Consider scrapbooked presents this year - they are a nice alternative to bought presents, much more personal, fun to do and not too expensive.

So, after reading my little excursion into the world of christmas presents, here is you're well deserved reward:

Its on 4shared as usual - please do not share the link, send people here instead. I love comments, but I like them better here than on 4shared. Thank you loads!

Yes the Handyman can...

NOT!
Uugh, we had no warm water over the weekend, because our heater was being checked on Friday, and the guy told us that we were lucky that it hadn't blown up...
So I was quite looking forward to having a new heater installed and having warm water again - do you know how EVIL dish washing is when you have no dishwasher and no warm water? I had to boil pots of water... Very 19th century :-D
Well, our heater was supposed to be replaced yesterday. Luckily, we're in a rented apartment, so it's our landlords duty to get us a new heater - would have been very expensive otherwise...
They show up, don't even greet me or my son, stomp through our apartment with dirty boots, mess up our bathroom, take HOURS to get finished...
And the end result is THIS!!

They hung it up too high, now we have a huge gap between heater and bathroom tiling, and our top tiling will not fit either.


A hole all the way through the wall into our "toilet room"


I'm not impressed at all! They left total chaos! But I have warm water again. Now, if only our shower wasn't broken...

Hello there...

I am ashamed of myself, really!
I haven't scrapped over the summer, I haven't designed ANYTHING, I have not visited ANYONE'S Blog *hangs head and puts some ash on it*

Well, that said, I actually had a good reason (well, if there ever is such a thing as a good reason to neglect your friends...).
There is a lot that I have to get done before our new family member arrives! Yes, I'm pregnant again! ETA is December :-)

I've been playing around with some photo effects ;-) Here's what I came up with - its for the final round of Gaia's Next SimModel, if anyone remembers this. We were supposed to dress our Models "manly" and I went for a Marlene Dietrich look...I'll try not to neglect this part of my internet social life any further! And here is a cute pic of my son - we celebrated his second birthday in July :-)

Hello everyone,
today I have a very important message for all the moms out there. I saw this on one of the message board I frequent. The author asks us to share this with as many people as possible, so I thought I'd share it on my blog.
Her son was shaken as baby and PLEASE, PLEASE read what she has to say.

Today marks the start of National Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness Week (April 20-26). It’s something that most people who have never had a child who was shaken overlook. They think, “That doesn’t really apply to me because that could never happen to my child.” Really? Think so? Think again. I never thought it could either, until it happened to my son.
Other people might still be thinking, “OK, well it happened to you but it won’t happen to me because I trust everybody who cares for my child.” Again, so did I. Simple trust ISN’T enough. You have to fully educate everyone who cares for your child – your parents, your DH/SO, your siblings, your best friend, their babysitter… EVERYONE. Have a talk with everyone who cares for your child – a simple talk, not anything confrontational.
Of course you don’t think they would do anything like shake a baby, but you know what? I didn’t, either. NO ONE who has ever had a child who was shaken thought that, until it was too late. Most people who shake babies aren’t violent people normally. They have no criminal record, no bad tempers… they’re normal, average, everyday people. When a baby is shaken, it happens when a person just gets to the point of being too frustrated with a crying child that they completely lose it for a few seconds and shake the baby that they’re holding, that they’re supposed to be caring for. Unfortunately, a few seconds is all it takes to ruin the rest of a baby’s life FOREVER.

Every year in the United States alone, an estimated 1,400 babies are shaken for whom treatment is sought. But the numbers don’t end there… a study done recently at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill found that for every one diagnosed case of Shaken Baby Syndrome, another 150 babies under the age of two are shaken.
These kids, the ones who aren’t shaken severely enough to warrant immediate medical attention, nevertheless can suffer lifelong problems. They are the ones who, years down the road, will enter school and have learning disabilities and behavioral problems. And if those numbers aren’t real enough for you, those statistics equate to 1 child in 38 who is shaken at some point before the age of two.

Think how many moms there are, right here on this website. I might be one of the only ones who knows she has a child who was shaken, but how many more are there out there who might be shaken and their moms will never know it? Why not stop it before it happens to your child? How, you wonder? Again… educate. Tell everyone who cares for your child of the harm that shaking a baby causes, and don’t stop there. With your husband or significant other, have a plan in place – a well thought out plan – for when frustration gets to be overwhelming. What will you do when you can’t take the crying anymore? Know that it’s okay to put the baby down in a safe place and walk away. Take a breather from the crying. Phone a friend, exercise… watch TV or listen to music.
Letting a child cry when you’re feeling frustrated does NOT make you a bad parent. Even getting frustrated doesn’t make you a bad parent – it’s what you do with that feeling that counts. No child has ever died from crying too much, but TOO MANY have died from being shaken.
Also realize that crying in infants is completely normal. Crying is a baby's only way of communicating. Not being able to get a child to stop crying does NOT make you a bad parent. Sometimes babies just need to cry. Newborns, in particular, starting at about two weeks of age, go through this completely normal period. It used to be called colic, but recently field experts have partnered together in research and found something more descriptive and helpful - it's called the Period of PURPLE crying. For more information on PURPLE, visit - http://tinyurl.com/35t2vd
Statistically speaking, biological fathers are the perpetrators most often in shaken baby cases. Men are the abusers far more than any other group. Many moms have an irrational fear of leaving their child with a babysitter or daycare provider, while in all actuality children are in much more danger under their own roofs.
Scary thought. That's why it's SO important to educate everyone your child might come in contact with... no matter how much you think you can trust them, or how well you know them, or anything else. Educate EVERYONE.
One in four shaken babies die within a few hours to a few days of being shaken. The vast majority of the rest (85%) are left with severe, lifelong disabilities. Blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, paralysis, developmental delays, seizure disorders, learning disorders, behavioral problems… the list goes on and on. Many will never walk, talk, see or eat by mouth, ever again. I know that no one here wants that for their child.

We are all on this site because we love our children and we want what’s best for them. Also realize that while it might be called "Shaken Baby Syndrome," it's not ONLY babies who are susceptible to injury from shaking. Children up to the age of FIVE have died from being shaken. Even adults in domestic violence situations can suffer brain injury as a results of a severe shaking. So please, take it from someone who has been where you are now – don’t wait until it’s too late to start educating others. Start now… what better time than during Child Abuse Prevention Month and SBS Awareness week? Talk to those who care for your children. And never, ever make the mistake of thinking it can’t happen to you. It can and it does happen every single day.
For more information on SBS, visit:
www.stopsbs.net
www.dontshake.org
www.aboutshakenbaby.com
www.sbsprevention.com
www.shakenbabycoalition.org
*Jennipher* http://stopsbs.net