A Little Beauty - on the day after the Boston tragedy

You may or may not know this, but Boston is my home.  I lived there from age 10 up until last year when my husband and I moved our family to southern california for his job.  I am a devoted Pats fan and member of Red Sox nation. I have friends that run the Boston Marathon (and drink like fishes afterward) and we have partied on the sidelines of the marathon for many years, cheering on the runners while we sip tasty beverages.   Seeing the events of yesterday unfold from so far away is heartbreaking and I wish I could be closer to help the city grieve and regroup.  My thoughts go out to the wounded, the families of those who lost their lives and to those who witnessed such tragedy.  Boston, you're my home....

Now to hopefully make me feel better, The Urban Fairy released her A Little Beauty kit today.  What a sweet little kit!!


Here is the kit. Only $1.75 now at the Digital Scrapbooking Studio

Creative Team Layouts

Here are my layouts in larger form.

The first is a photo courtesy of my friend Tami and is of her adorable daughter a few years back in fairy wings. Precious!!!

The second is picture of a dragonfly I took last year.

Playing with Templates

Since I started digital scrapbooking, I have been hesitant to use templates. I feel like it's almost like cheating in that the template has taken all the creativity out of placement of certain features like the picture (s) and other elements.  But recently I have had a couple of fun opportunities to play with some templates and they can actually be quite fun.  Check out this template that The Urban Fairy created for the Digital Scrapbooking Studio's 4 year anniversary challenge:

I still needed to scrap up some ofthe picts of the kids from when we went to pick strawberries the other day so here is what I came up with:

I am not one for much journaling but it was fun to capture the memories of the kids. Other elements used in this layout are from The Urban Fairy's Little Bunny Love.

Another opportunity I came acros to use a template is for the Digital Scrapbooking Studio's Layout Artist Challenge Week 2.
Here is what the template started out as:

And here is my layout, in remembrance of my huband's great uncle Ron Schwenke, who passed away recently. Elements by Templation Lil Dude by Scrappy Cocoa, The Urban Fairy (A Little Moment, Flutter Fields, Butterfly Kisses) and ADB Designs (Enchantment).

Refilling GoGo Squeez Applesauce packets

Anyyone with toddlers knows about squeezies.  Basically they are the newfangled way of feeding toddlers soupy stuff like yogurt and applesauce with less mess than feeding from a bowl.  They are usually foil packets with some sort of spout or valve and they are, of course, disposable. Great for on-the-go but a lot of waste.  Well how about refilling them?  I have seen some refillable squeeze pouches on the internet that are designed for this purpose, like Sili, Squooshi, Yummi, and Beaba Babypote.

Sili

Squooshi

Yummi

Babypote

These are all very cute and I have not tried them because I thought, why can't I just refill the squeezie packets? They are foil and plastic so they clean up easily ( I just rinse with water and then pop in the dishwasher on the top rack with the spout over a tine of the dishwasher rack. I opened one up to check and it came out very clean) and the caps in the silverware holder.  I bought a cheapo condiment dispenser at the grocery store and filled it up with applesauce.  Then just squeeze to refill, cap and refrigerate.

refilling go go squeez

chewed spout

So that brings up a couple of the drawbacks of this method. 1. once the applesauce or yogurt is opened it probably should be refrigerated, so not ideal for on-the-go situations. 2. my kids sometimes chew on the spouts so the caps don't fit tightly. Again, not great for on-the-go but I think this method is great for refilling them to keep at home.  I am sure this is much cheaper than buying new ones over and over again or even using the refillable ones, but I haven't done the cost breakdown.

Note: I did try to use a pastry bag to do the refilling but apple sauce is so runny that it made a huge mess.  not worth it.

Little Bunny Love and more Easter pictures

Hey all. Today The Urban Fairy released Little Bunny Love, a very sweet little kit.  You can find it HERE for only $4.98 for a limited time. There are also come coordinating pieces that you can also find at The Digital Scrapbooking Studio.

 And here are the Layouts done by the creative team, including three of mine

Greyson sniffing some dandelions:

Greyson at the Eater Egg Hunt

A cute little girl at the easter egg hunt