Alright, Just One More With Neverland

Still hanging in here.  Wondering how I keep at this craziness that I call our life.  The kids continue to amaze me with their goodness.  I thank God everyday that they are such good people.  They are my constant reminder that I must be doing something right.  Who in their right mind would choose to live apart from their husband just home from a deployment?!?  This crazy lady.  It's all about what's best for the minions.  I know that keeping them in one place for another year is best.  I know that this is most likely the last time we will have back to back orders in one duty station before Patrick retires.  And that, my friends, could be a dozen years away, gulp.  So, I just keep swimming.  And praying that it all works out.  Just keep swimming...

BOAF April Reveals

So much to share these days, but just don't have the heart to do it properly. So much good stuff happening in our world. So much to be thankful for. So many blessings in my life. But, so much to worry about, too. For everything there is a season...

On the bright side, April's Birds of a Feather kit was so much fun...

The One With a Little Neverland Love

 

 

I kinda like Studio Calico's kits.  Just kinda.  I have for ages.  I've been subbing since Whodunit (January 2010).  But, I was stalking them for about a year before I made the leap.  This past March's kits were my favorite ever.  And that's saying a lot because Bakers Dozen and Lawn Party held that title for quite awhile.  So, hope you like these kits, too.  There MAY be a dozen or more layouts headed this way...

The One With a Bit More Neverland

 

 

 

 

 

Daddy came home for a visit last month. One cool thing about him being in school is that he is on a school schedule. So, he spent his Spring Break at home with us. I told him, if I was him, I would have gotten away somewhere warm and much quieter, lol. We were able to get away, for the evening, at least. We took the brood to the circus. The babies had never been and it turned out to be just as magical as it was when we went when the Bigs were younger. Gotta love a place that ALL 7 of us could enjoy. That's getting harder and harder as the kids get older. So glad we took the time...

The One With the Braids & Geralyn's Cut File

I may be obsessed with Studio Calico's kits.  Just sayin.



 





 

  

Hello oh faithful blog readers.  Sorry I have been scarce.  We are wrapping up a super duper busy, jam-packed Spring Break week around here.  We have done. absolutely. NOTHING!!  It has been wonderful.  We stayed up late.  We got dressed around dinner time, if we got dressed at all.  We played board games and put together puzzles.  Basically, nada. I will admit I feel just a tiny bit bad that the kids don't have any big stories to tell when they return to school on Monday.  I REALLY hope there are no "What I Did Over Spring Break" writing assignments., lol.  But, all kidding aside.  I needed this.  We all did, really.  It was so refreshing to have nothing on the calendar.  We live so much of our life on the proverbial hamster wheel, sometimes it's nice to just get off.  If only for a week.  Because Lord knows it's right back on it we go first thing Monday morning, 0620.
Who are we kidding?!?  I gotta hit snooze, just once.  See you at 0629...  And not a minute earlier.

p.s.  That's my pretty girl on the right.  Performing in a little funny skit the girls prepared for Girl Scouts last week.  Wish I could always get her in a dress & braids.  Sigh.

Technique Tuesday at BOAF

Hello there Chickies! Today I have a super easy & fun miniBook tutorial for you. You could feasibly put it together with just three pieces of double sided cardstock (like those found in March's kits) and a sewing machine or a good strong adhesive. I took the easy way out, but would suggest using a sewing machine to bind yours. I've made many of these minis over the years and I like the look of the sewn ones the best. Especially when using thickerpapers like those in the March kit.

I cut 7 pieces of paper at 4 by 12. Don't ask me why 7, it just worked best for MY project. It's best to work in even numbers. I arranged them the way I would like to see them in my mini... Note the top one will be both your cover and last page.

 

I arranged them in pairs (except for my odd one). It's best to work in pairs whether you end up sewing your seam or using paper to create your binding. It decreases the bulk some AND keeps things lined up better...

 

Next I cut 4 by 2 inch pieces of paper to bind each of my pairs together. (If you want to sew, all you have to do is run your machine right down the center of the whole stack.) I creased them in the center. You can see one of these pieces below. It is the coffee cup piece. In this picture I am about to attach the two pieces (I used my xyron to make the binder pieces sticky, you can use your favorite strong adhesive) together in my first pair using a contrasting piece of 4 by 2 paper.

 

Up next you can see the three pairs adhered to themselves, you now have three pairs put together (plus my one random extra, lol). ..

The next step is putting the three pairs togeher by adding the seam pieces to the back of each set. Like so...

I'll be honest, once I had it all together, the right edge was uneven. Adding the binder pieces in really added to the bulk of my book. so, I just trimmed the edge even with my cutter. This is where pulling out your sewing machine would have lended itself to much quicker and initially tidier project, lol.

Now, comes the fun part. Decorating it and adding in your photos and words.
I had fun adding in pictures from my husband's five deployments (and counting). I just love having all of these photos together in one place. It's crazy to see how our family has grown. P.s, yes, you can see my husband with a newborn in the first two homecomings, because I gave birth during both of those deployments. Not sure how I survived that. Either time.
     

 

To keep my rather chunky miniBook contained, I attached a rosette brad to the front and wrapped some pretty silver floss around the book ala manilla envelope style. The finished project... Now, I'm ready to start a new one to contain the next chapter...