tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38537881196259786902024-03-17T12:19:21.972-07:00Alayna's CreationsAlayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.comBlogger277125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-67436177637759806552015-04-25T06:45:00.002-07:002015-04-25T06:45:36.125-07:00The Blog Has Moved!That's right - I've upgraded to my own domain! Exciting for sure, but also kind of a learning curve that goes along with the new format. I will slowly be transferring my favorite posts and projects from this blog onto the new one so feel free to check back often to see what's new!<br />You can now find me at <a href="http://www.alaynascreations.co/">www.alaynascreations.co</a> !Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-12948660127390813202015-03-13T11:16:00.001-07:002015-03-13T11:16:28.577-07:00Around Here - Almost Spring!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
I've been trying to think of a better lead in to this blog post than something cliche like "I can't believe how fast time is speeding by" or "It's the middle of March ALREADY?!" But I couldn't because the fact is, the days really have been going by too quickly for me and often by dinner time I'm left with a partially unfinished To Do List and not enough energy or time to do anything other than hope there is something decent on the DVR so I don't get stuck watching some strange documentary my husband runs across on the History Channel. Don't get me wrong - I'm not overwhelmed or stressed right now. I'm on top of all my Have Tos for the house, the kids, the Etsy shop, finally getting a handle on an exercise routine and getting more active, and even working in time with friends, fun things with the family, and even a few things from my When I Get a Chance list. Still, there always seems to be things I don't quite get to for days at a time - like blogging! So I thought I would do a quick Around Here post, if only to get myself back into the blogging groove. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd4QnfPC4SntHt5j2RNQy9RREF0ght_WOQd_GLmNkWXYGRQiGvqY6UByG3W4NTJjjbtcEpnO628n3jivpzHh41VmsGpxnPMgp3ApQpQgJ3T7Iz39XqT3oIJmhaWY9SDr63djVIAtGr0Ei6/s1600/20150313_095640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd4QnfPC4SntHt5j2RNQy9RREF0ght_WOQd_GLmNkWXYGRQiGvqY6UByG3W4NTJjjbtcEpnO628n3jivpzHh41VmsGpxnPMgp3ApQpQgJ3T7Iz39XqT3oIJmhaWY9SDr63djVIAtGr0Ei6/s1600/20150313_095640.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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This is what my craft table looked like this morning - remnants of last night's Card (making) Group and today's crop of countdown blocks getting ready to ship out. </div>
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And have I mentioned I finally joined Instagram?! </div>
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It must be "baby season" again because I've had a pretty big bump in sales for the <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/AlaynasCreations?section_id=11271364&ref=shopsection_leftnav_2" target="_blank">pregnancy countdown blocks</a> in the past few weeks and quite a few friends and acquaintenances have announced pregnancies in recent months too. It was my turn to host our monthly card making group so, of course, I chose baby cards for the theme.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ngTvbz7JlVbZXvtjhjTdl6Ml29HyrwSJjuviyQclrKv9igOH8Z2mjLPeZ1tfR9e1F5SudaKnBu0TNNZViki9Q5xasFMN8Vu0gLL0Zu9UR065buf3h8ZEEP69sOhf9vVT4KXrtxxbElrr/s1600/New+Baby+Cards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ngTvbz7JlVbZXvtjhjTdl6Ml29HyrwSJjuviyQclrKv9igOH8Z2mjLPeZ1tfR9e1F5SudaKnBu0TNNZViki9Q5xasFMN8Vu0gLL0Zu9UR065buf3h8ZEEP69sOhf9vVT4KXrtxxbElrr/s1600/New+Baby+Cards.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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Can you guess which one was mine? Yup, the one with the baby feet ;)</div>
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Speaking of babies - it's baby season out on the ranch too. We have a handful of new calves born the last few weeks, including this little guy.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUcgWkRofIZJHZOJxjUDQRv4Ro0dS3TopXFGfLPNrJxUzGCY0cmuIwHI_BU7wM4NCKkh0PcYJqrIridYwcW51hXtVceM-Zo4d5H1r-UIKI0yJYU9DoqnE19Mr9iHDVVR3vZzBwlSVRtDJ/s1600/20150304_110748.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUcgWkRofIZJHZOJxjUDQRv4Ro0dS3TopXFGfLPNrJxUzGCY0cmuIwHI_BU7wM4NCKkh0PcYJqrIridYwcW51hXtVceM-Zo4d5H1r-UIKI0yJYU9DoqnE19Mr9iHDVVR3vZzBwlSVRtDJ/s1600/20150304_110748.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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He was born in the middle of the night during a really cold snap and my Dad was concerned that he wasn't eating. I was the only one around to help out first thing and "got" to spend the better part of my morning playing cowgirl as we attempted to get the baby and his mom in from the back pasture and into the small corral near one of the closer sheds. It was quite a process and in the end we had to bring almost the entire herd into the corral then take them all back out to the pasture again.</div>
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On the up side, while it was may have been cold it has been absolutely gorgeous outside.</div>
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On the Mom Front - the kiddos are keeping busy with school and activities. Miss Kate is doing great on the swim team and knocked quite a few seconds off a couple of her best times at the meet last weekend. </div>
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Tyler's class was required to participate in the school's creative challenge (the theme being "Behind my Reflection is so Much More, Talents and Skills for me to Explore) and he chose to do a photo project in which he used mirrors to take selfies doing things he enjoys or is good at. We got that turned in just in time for him to start working on a "storytelling" presentation that must be 3-7 minutes long and include expression, guestures, and props.<br />Kaitlyn also had a big book report due, in which she had to turn the book into a breakfast cereal then create a TV-style commercial for it. We all spent a funny evening as cast and crew recording said commercial. I was dreading it, but as it turned out I haven't laughed that hard in weeks. Seriously though teachers, can the parents get a little break here?</div>
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As I said, the weather has been gorgeous with very few storms and the a-typical practically snow-less winter has continued. I was nervous that we wouldn't get a chance to use the groupon for tubing that I got the kids for Christmas but we managed to slip in on one of the colder week nights shortly before they closed down (early) for the season. The only snow in sight was what they had manufactured for the tubing and cross country runs. Crazy weather. The tubing itself was tons of fun. We also managed some time at the ice skating rink with cousins, which was pretty much the last of the activities left on our (imaginary) Winter Bucket List.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieOYj1ig3Fs5ue93gJHIoRMx2THt2a0FLn0Hokjs2n2tPBwPXqjxVYOLTxIs25bwePIuiRx_vvu0F7LXaIRKsVb0JwDrvn07CJhsObTGVTUMNPHe-Z3fhLOIcIyvXaRUQ__0CWc_v1Lgsv/s1600/20150308_182908.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieOYj1ig3Fs5ue93gJHIoRMx2THt2a0FLn0Hokjs2n2tPBwPXqjxVYOLTxIs25bwePIuiRx_vvu0F7LXaIRKsVb0JwDrvn07CJhsObTGVTUMNPHe-Z3fhLOIcIyvXaRUQ__0CWc_v1Lgsv/s1600/20150308_182908.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
My husband got both of us fancy new pedometer thingy's and we've been trying to make being active a priority. That has involved a lot of walks outside - with the dog on the ranch, or loading up the kids and their bikes/rollerblades and getting to know the local walking paths. The second option was prompted in part the day the dog came home all muddy and full of burrs from our walk in the field, and from the fact that no longer living in a neighborhood means the kids can't just step out the door and have somewhere to ride their bikes. Everything else makes up for that little issue though, and we are very happy to be living "back home."<br />
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And that, my dears, is part of what has kept me away from the blog lately. That and the multitude of things that needing fixing - the computer spent a week being repaired, the brand new fridge finally arrived but conked out within days of it's arrival, and so on. But I'm trying not to dwell on the annoying parts and enjoying the fact that for today I have found some free time to do some "catching up" And maybe, just maybe after I grab some lunch I might be able to do some scrapbooking before the kids get home from school. Ya think?!Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-27025593261810746732015-02-20T19:36:00.001-08:002015-02-20T19:36:09.794-08:00New Size! Wall Mounted Laundry Drying Rack<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Funny how life works - all kinds of give and take, schedules, rhythms, changes, priorities, juggling. As it happens, the busy season for the laundry drying racks in my <a href="http://www.alaynascreations.etsy.com/" target="_blank">Etsy shop</a> isn't during the build up to Christmas. Our busiest time is January, February, May and that worked out great this year because with the move and settling in, frankly I don't know how I would have handled it all if orders had been more abundant in November and Decenber. Now I feel like we're past the settling in part and we can turn a little more attention to other things. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh95jGS4_Ve7cGvMdlcqASG79v4591SOewdZwYBqkjyb3DV9k6n10LGNYwnKHQGfosUPcQOzm5vouSF-kDwhSnWj4M64_UaJwrMLdwcBKe3_d52fz5RfAUH70d3M-6F7ewiTNekJlrrGGhp/s1600/Wall+Mounted+Laundry+Drying+Rack+Small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh95jGS4_Ve7cGvMdlcqASG79v4591SOewdZwYBqkjyb3DV9k6n10LGNYwnKHQGfosUPcQOzm5vouSF-kDwhSnWj4M64_UaJwrMLdwcBKe3_d52fz5RfAUH70d3M-6F7ewiTNekJlrrGGhp/s1600/Wall+Mounted+Laundry+Drying+Rack+Small.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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I am excited to announce that we are adding another <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/223455749/small-unfinished-wall-mounted-laundry?" target="_blank">(smaller) size option for our laundry drying racks</a>! This is something we get requests for quite often and I have been considering doing for quite a while now. The new smaller racks are 23" wide - perfect for tight spaces without being too small for adult-size clothing. Available painted white or unfinished for any DIYers out there.<br />(And isn't it fun that I was able to take some photos of the new racks using our old hay barn as a backdrop?)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqCcjrpNxsoXugCtLldhiZJMOFcii06O2cbccRxauLjTpVuSWWizYsNhUX6ED03oXcN18b_wM4vn5MflZ6j2-KnR1dA0PDQwqPI8DTLi-eHsunPTaDUReXXsJwFYlTFSU1Ak9R51DmRM5q/s1600/Small+Wall+Mounted+Laundry+Drying+Rack+Retractable.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqCcjrpNxsoXugCtLldhiZJMOFcii06O2cbccRxauLjTpVuSWWizYsNhUX6ED03oXcN18b_wM4vn5MflZ6j2-KnR1dA0PDQwqPI8DTLi-eHsunPTaDUReXXsJwFYlTFSU1Ak9R51DmRM5q/s1600/Small+Wall+Mounted+Laundry+Drying+Rack+Retractable.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
Check out the listing in the shop<a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/223455749/small-unfinished-wall-mounted-laundry?" target="_blank"> here</a>. Or the unfinished version <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/223455749/small-unfinished-wall-mounted-laundry?ref=listing-shop-header-0" target="_blank">here</a>. And of course our standard size is available in <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/80129447/wall-mounted-laundry-drying-rack" target="_blank">painted</a> and <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/164900699/wall-mounted-laundry-drying-rack?ref=related-2" target="_blank">unfinished</a> options as well.Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-35794993411011969542015-02-14T11:18:00.001-08:002015-02-14T11:18:46.964-08:00Valentines Photo Book for the Kids<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Happy Valentines Day! Is everyone feelin' the love? Honestly, most of my Valentines-type celebrating has been done already. The husband works weekends so we took advantage of his day off on Thursday and went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch - totally yummy and no V-day crowds! The kids had their parties at school yesterday and the last minute Valentines to loved ones far away went in the mail. This morning the kids insisted we wake them up before their dad left for work, so gifts have already been exchanged and pink waffles have been consumed.</div>
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I ran across this great idea a few weeks back in which the parents made their kids special photo books every year for Christmas. Obviously we were past Christmas but I thought "what a great idea for Valentines!" I didn't get them put together and ordered as early as I could have (in order to blog about it pre-Valentines and er, so as not to sweat that they wouldn't be here on time) but they did appear in my mailbox just in time yesterday - yay!</div>
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These are 8x8 soft cover books from Snapfish (I had a coupon) - there are tons of sites that do great photo books.</div>
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I wanted to go with an ABC's of Me theme - using words to decribe the kids and their interests right now. <br />
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Some of the letters were easy and I had WAY too many ideas, others were hard and I had to reach a bit.<br />
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Tyler got a big grin about the boots one and said "oh I love those!"<br />
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This one made me laugh - I couldn't resist putting that close up photo of the flaming marshmallow on there ;)<br />
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And there they are all wrapped up, along with the other book and candy I got the kids for Valentines. The paper airplane is a printable I found <a href="http://www.skiptomylou.org/2015/01/22/printable-airplane-valentines/" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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Best of all, when they opened up the books this morning the kids loved them and had to read them cover to cover right away. Kaitlyn even said, "wouldn't it be great if we got a book every year?" Hmm... great minds really do think alike, don't they? ;)Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-48706648014154698192015-01-31T19:24:00.000-08:002015-01-31T19:24:40.408-08:00Quick and Inexpensive Valentines<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
It's been kind of a rough couple of days. Not in the classic sense of the word - I haven't had a bad day or anything. But my kids have been sick and in Mom World, that's rough. Not only do we not want our precious little ones to feel badly, but we end up putting almost everything else on hold simply to be around and take care of them "just in case." So here I sit on day 2 1/2 of house arrest, with the TV tuned to the Disney Channel, the humidifier going and trying to do low key things while the kids endure it (and hoping that I DO NOT catch whatever it is they have. Knock wood).</div>
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It just hit me how close we are to the end of January. February is tomorrow! And with it will quickly come Valentines Day. Seems like we just finished Christmas, doesn't it? With a bunch of family and friend's birthdays in January, it kind of feels like we haven't had much of a break from gift giving and big events. </div>
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I'm afraid I don't often have much motivation by this point to get really creative and crafty when it comes to Valentines. This year I pretty much just jumped on the first idea I spotted - which happened to be some fun mini puzzles at Michael's.<br />
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I added a quick chalkboard style tag and they're all set to go out. Just one more example of things not having to be complicated or pricey to be cute and effective, right?<br />
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I also picked up these cute monogram notebooks for the teachers and added a few pencils I already had on hand. That's it - school Valentines DONE!<br />
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Which leaves me two weeks to get the kids to work on their Valentines for their grandparents and the other special people on their lists. Kaitlyn got the paints out (which are now residing on the coffee table until everything is finished - yay) and started on hers today, but Tyler didn't get any further than figuring out a plan before having a coughing fit. *sigh*<br />
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I have a fun project in the works that I'm going to give the kids. I will work on that some more after I get them to bed (T minus 5 minutes until bedtime - woohoo!) No idea what to do for the hubby though - ideas??!Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-86184845206144741202015-01-30T08:03:00.002-08:002015-01-30T08:03:46.547-08:00One Little Word 2015 - January Workshop Prompt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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January. My month of reflection, reevaluation and motivation. I do this in bits and pieces as life keeps whirling along at high speed, but throughout the month I do spend quite a bit of time thinking about how my life is going, what I like/don't like, and what direction I want it to take in the next year. Part of that process, for quite a few years now, involves choosing my Word for the Year (you can see the word I selected for this year <a href="http://www.alaynascreations.blogspot.com/2015/01/my-one-little-word-for-2015.html" target="_blank">here</a>) and figuring out how to incorporate that into my every day life. Last year, in a bid to keep my goals and intentions more present in my daily life I joined the year long online <a href="http://aliedwards.com/projects/one-little-word" target="_blank">One Little Word</a> workshop - such a great decision! So I happily joined the workshop again this year.<br />
While I shared most of the layouts resulting from the workshop prompts last year, I don't intend to post quite so many of them here on the blog this year. However, I did want to start out the year by putting it out there - making myself accountable and sharing what I have been thinking about lately to clarify some of my intentions and goals.<br />
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My word for this year is Light. I used my <a href="http://www.alaynascreations.blogspot.com/2015/01/my-one-little-word-for-2015.html" target="_blank">previous blog post</a> for the journaling section on the "reason why" cards. The photo was one I had snapped with my phone at sunrise during our vacation to Utah this past summer. And while I'm not a "yellow person" I decided that my word practically demands that yellow be used, so I'm going with kind of a yellow/gold and blue color scheme. I think.</div>
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That little heart is a wooden one I found in my stash. I just used a little chalk to give it a blue tint and free-hand cut out the star, folding the paper back-to-back first so that the back matched the front since I knew I wanted to just slip it into the pocket and leave that section open to the next page.<br />
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Page two and so on. I'll let the photos tell the story from here on.</div>
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So as January comes to a close, here's to seeking out and finding the <i>light </i>and the joy in everyday life.<br />
What are you hoping for in 2015?Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-33002371559333034342015-01-27T05:32:00.002-08:002015-01-27T05:35:18.145-08:00Crochet Boot Cuffs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Quick Show and Tell today. </div>
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Seems like I have plenty to blog about, but am finding it hard to get on a regular schedule to sit down and put together blog posts. That doesn't, however, mean that I haven't been finding time to craft. In fact, earlier this month I dusted off the crochet hooks (which haven't been used in who knows how long) and tried out a pattern I saw on Pinterest months ago. With our move back to the mountains, and a friend with a birthday in January it seemed like a good idea to make a pair of the boot cuffs I kept running into online. I think they turned out nicely for a first attempt and I'm happy to report the pattern was a very quick and easy one. (that should be my tagline, right? Quick and Easy ;) )</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_3HENYdzby4PR2b8jWVCGSN2WjdzH5g9UErRMYfjSPF39mgpqzf0LP9GSEpNzpY-cfC64TZERhoJHEYujxN7qHEum8CkcYgtk9u3S5bogGYDX90NGLHfDLrM_kpIA2bcLmMlgxmSaJq6/s1600/Boot+Cuffs+Crochet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_3HENYdzby4PR2b8jWVCGSN2WjdzH5g9UErRMYfjSPF39mgpqzf0LP9GSEpNzpY-cfC64TZERhoJHEYujxN7qHEum8CkcYgtk9u3S5bogGYDX90NGLHfDLrM_kpIA2bcLmMlgxmSaJq6/s1600/Boot+Cuffs+Crochet.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
Pattern found <a href="http://daisycottagedesigns.net/crochet-roundup/free-boot-cuff-crochet-patterns/" target="_blank">here</a><br />
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I now have a second set (different pattern) in progress - finish date to be determined ;)<br />
I'm curious - what's on your crafty To Do List? What have you been meaning to try but haven't found the time for yet?Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-78393448016664488782015-01-17T15:49:00.001-08:002015-01-17T15:49:53.796-08:00Around here - Snow!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If I had to use one word to describe what we have been up to the last few weeks, it would have to be <i>snow</i>. After taking a four year break from the white stuff I had almost forgotten how often the snow affects daily life - from the frustration of cleaning 6" off the car in the morning or the worries of driving through a storm, to the fun of watching the kids sled down the hill or throw snowballs at the dog, to the daily beauty of this place. The kids are in love with the snow and Tyler in particular can spend hours out in it without complaining he is cold. And for myself, I find that I am experiencing it and appreciating it in ways I haven't before.<br />
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I've also been having a lot of fun with the camera so I thought I would share a few photos.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYDwS6zjlSUf8Z8_JmnVDx1aOTgQkMsOkB_tgJAOewFpJymP33vc4HAMqLBITRjyIJUYs2OA1guPptgKfFb2eoVqWwf7nGjvYvxG8N04xpNb9MQ9QKVInJkVGmVy2Y0H6CPq26HFkA0A4A/s1600/20141219_195030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYDwS6zjlSUf8Z8_JmnVDx1aOTgQkMsOkB_tgJAOewFpJymP33vc4HAMqLBITRjyIJUYs2OA1guPptgKfFb2eoVqWwf7nGjvYvxG8N04xpNb9MQ9QKVInJkVGmVy2Y0H6CPq26HFkA0A4A/s1600/20141219_195030.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><br />Ok - not snow in this one per se, but I loved the photo and it's wintery ;) Shortly before Christmas we took the kids to see the lights at Temple Square - the first time we had ever taken them. It was beautiful.</div>
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Horse photos in the snow with my brother. He has had this horse since he was um...9 years old? Forever, really and she's the best horse ever. Anyway, it has become his tradition to go out for at least one bareback ride in the snow and I went out with him to get some photos. I also rode bareback and without a bridle for probably the first time ever - pretty proud of myself for that one!<br />
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This is the view I have every morning at 8:15 AM while waiting for the bus with this happy kid. The sun is just coming up at that point and though often freezing, it's gorgeous out there. Plus the company is great! (Sam waits for the bus stop with Kate an hour before this then heads to work himself)</div>
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Huge snowstorm last week dumped many many inches. I never did look up the final count, though I know it was over 6" in the three hours I spent working in the shop that morning.</div>
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And then there was the day the we woke up to over an inch of frost coating everything in sight. So pretty.<br />
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I may have tried cross country skiing once or twice as a kid but have only recently discovered I like it quite a bit. A couple of days ago I went up the canyon with a few friends and we had the best time figuring out how to ski and enjoying the views and the weather. It looks like we will be making it an almost-weekly activity, and I'm excited about that.</div>
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And these two - that's my dad and Tyler has him wrapped completely around his little finger. Tyler wants it, Grandpa is game to do it. Night before last I guess Ty and Gpa were having a talk about playing in the snow and Tyler came up with the big idea to use the trackhoe to build some sort of elaborate snow cave. My dad knew the trackhoe wasn't the ideal tool for the big plan, but was excited to get Tyler on there and let him move some snow around. They fired up the trackhoe as soon as they both got home yesterday and were out there for over an hour, with Tyler operating the trackhoe for much of that time. They didn't end up with anything more than some random piles of snow, but they sure did have fun.<br />
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So, what do you like to do in the snow? Still on my bucket list for this winter is tubing (we got the kids tickets for one of those places that pulls the tube up the hill for you), seeing the Ice Castles, and maybe snowmobiling...Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-90952617065886089962015-01-04T15:01:00.001-08:002015-01-04T15:01:32.305-08:00My One Little Word for 2015Happy New Year! Have I said that yet?<br />
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I have loved the holiday break. Lots of fun, lots of time with the kids and extended family, plenty of down time to recharge. But I also found myself a bit on edge - quick to lose my patience, cranky, maybe a little out of balance emotionally. In among all this, I had been thinking about and selected my Word for this year (this is something I've been doing for the past few years in addition to setting goals. It works as more of a touchstone or focus for me throughout the year. See previous posts <a href="http://www.alaynascreations.blogspot.com/search/label/word%20of%20the%20year" target="_blank">here</a>) and one hit me out of the blue.<br />
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I think I'm pretty good at buckling down, working on the To Dos and Have Tos, being proactive, recognizing priorities, setting goals, looking for balance, and so on. I've done plenty of work on being efficient, setting routines, and following through and I will have plenty of that going on this year without having to put extra focus on it. Instead, I find myself wanting to reach for the softer things in life -<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15.4545450210571px; line-height: 21.2999992370605px;"> </span> to be goofier with the kids, to be more patient, deal with interruptions better, more work on relationships with the people that mean the most to me, the fun, the laughter, peace, positivity. Things that don't come as naturally to my mostly-serious self.<br />
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The word that came to me a couple weeks ago and has felt more and more right for me each day is<br />
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To me, light means joy. Beauty. Warmth. Love. Inspiration. Giving. Sharing talents and creativity.<br />
So many many different ways and directions I can go with this and that's exciting.<br />
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This is the first year that my word comes to mind with its own visuals - light streaming through a break in the clouds on a stormy day or that hazy glowing backlight photographers are always trying to capture - lots of moods and nuances and all of them positive and affirming. And that's what I want in 2015. <i>light</i><br />
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Do any of you choose a word for the year? (ie: One Little Word along with Ali Edwards) Set goals? I'd love to hear about it.<br />
<br />Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-2622876224715793502014-12-29T05:28:00.000-08:002014-12-29T05:28:22.133-08:00All SetI feel like we're on the final countdown here. Last (partial) week of 2014, one more week of Christmas vacation then Real Life hits again in full force. And I'm so NOT ready to get back to the normal routine. Or maybe I just don't want to go down to the freezing cold shop and work on drying racks while the snow falls and the kids are home entertaining themselves - and the attitude is just carrying over to everything?...<br />
I have been enjoying the slower pace the past few days and not forcing myself to get up and go to the gym or work on a giant list of To Dos. Though I do also enjoy being productive and being on top of things. Both have their place and the art of balancing them has been on my mind a lot the last couple of days. There are just so many parts and pieces that make up a <i>life</i>, aren't there? And only limited quantities of energy, motivation, time, and money. <br />
It may be cliche, but this time of year is when I get in that mode to really think about and reevaluate my life, my priorities, and the direction I want to take in the new year and I've been taking a few solid steps toward preparing to jump into the new year with both feet. I am finishing up my final prompt for the <a href="http://aliedwards.com/projects/one-little-word" target="_blank">OLW workshop</a> I participated in this year (and starting to get excited for the process next year) and am pretty sure I have decided on my new <a href="http://www.alaynascreations.blogspot.com/search/label/word%20of%20the%20year" target="_blank">Word</a> for next year (that will get it's own blog post in a few days). I sat down with Kaitlyn this morning and we revised and reprinted the <a href="http://alaynascreations.blogspot.com/2014/09/how-i-handle-screen-time-with-kids.html" target="_blank">Before Screens list</a> for the kids (we haven't used the lists at all since the move and I've been having such a hard time keeping Tyler on track and self directed lately. Hoping this alleviates some of the frustration and constant nagging) and have them hanging up ready to be used. I have a few other things/ideas for interactions with the kiddos that are percolating in my head. I even found homes for most of the new things we all got for Christmas and the clutter piles are nearly all gone.<br />
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I also picked up a weekly planner - something I haven't used in years. I have a number of reasons for doing so. First of all, I haven't been on the ball about putting things on my Google calendar and I'm hoping that having it all just in a hard copy will be easier for keeping track of appointments and schedules. I know, right? Old School. But the bigger reason for purchasing a planner was for memory keeping/scrapbooking purposes. My intention for the last few years has been to put together some kind of <a href="http://aliedwards.com/projects/december-daily" target="_blank">December Daily album</a> (I know - lots of inspiration from Ali Edwards lately. We must have similar personalities/tastes or something ;) ) but I am never fully set up enough to do it as I go along, so this year I printed off a weekly calendar for December - you know the ones with a bunch of lines under each day of the week so you can take notes - and have been using it to keep track of some of the things I want to remember from each day. I've seen that kind of idea before - using a calendar to write down one memory every day during your baby's first year and so on - and a light finally went off. Those little squares on a calendar are not nearly enough room to write down a story from the day or any sort of detail but the idea of keeping it all in one place, in something that is easy to pick up and use, is a solid one. So. My plan for this year is to write down everything I want to remember in the weekly planner - funny quotes from the kids, details about daily life, stories of big events, etc. Much easier than scrolling through Facebook posts, emails, and blog posts trying to figure out what happened during week ____ when trying to put together my layouts/albums. Right now I'm thinking I'm pretty brilliant, but the true test will be a couple months into it to see if I have been following through on writing everything down on a regular basis.<br />
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I really am serious about doing more scrapbooking on a regular basis. I even had the husband buy me a photo printer for Christmas - so exciting! I still need to get another USB cord so I can hook it directly to my computer instead of printing solely from the camera's memory card but I have figured out the basics of how to use it and am very pleased with the photo prints so far. So with the photo printer on hand and a weekly crafting date all set up with a friend I am looking forward to making a lot of progress with the scrapbooking this year.<br />
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Now I just need to finalize a few fun plans for New Years Eve (ack - someone tell me I'm not the only one that staying up until midnight doesn't appeal to! lol) and I think I'm all set to head into 2015. Are you?Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-54487074636637863082014-12-24T05:45:00.001-08:002014-12-24T05:45:39.987-08:00Merry MERRY Christmas!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Happy Christmas Eve! I hope the next couple of days are magical for everyone! Enjoy!<br />
-AlaynaAlayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-84362978064845308432014-12-23T07:27:00.001-08:002014-12-23T07:27:24.024-08:00Elf Antics 2014 - Week 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Christmas is almost here! Here's a look at what our Elves have been up to in the last week or so.</div>
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Day 15: hot chocolate! They found a special Cookies and Cream version from Stephen's - MMMMMM</div>
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Day 16: crepe paper Christmas tree<br />
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Day 17: time for a Nerf dart war<br />
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Day 18: the elves found the tablet and had used it to take photos of themselves (by the Christmas tree, posing by the dog, random selfies, etc) then used them as the desktopbackground photos on the tablet.<br />
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Day 19: Playing with Tyler's Minecraft toys and even found a Santa Minecraft head for Steve. (The Steve is a printable I used for Tyler's <a href="http://alaynascreations.blogspot.com/2014/12/minecraft-birthday-party.html" target="_blank">Minecraft Party</a> and the Santa head is a printable found <a href="http://www.alittlemooreblog.com/elf-on-the-shelf-mine-craft-santa-and-free-printable/" target="_blank">here</a> that I just enlarged a bit before printing. It wasn't quite big enough for one of our elves to wear, but it worked fine for Steve)<br />
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Day 20: We got home late last night and the kids forgot to open their Advent treat box before bed so the Elves did it for them. Lucky for the kids, the elves didn't get as far as opening any of the chocolate!<br />
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Day 21: found the elves fast alseep under the Christmas tree, using the kids' stockings as sleeping bags.<br />
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Day 22: the elves were having fun with the camera last night and took all kinds of photos. (Printable photo props found <a href="http://talkcraftytome.com/2012/12/06/christmas-photo-booth-props-free-printable/" target="_blank">here</a>)</div>
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Day 23: this morning they attempted to hitch a ride to school in the kids' backpacks. I think we are all excited for the last half-day of school before Christmas break!<br />
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The husband hasn't "helped" the elves out much this year (it's been mostly my doing and I have to say it's a bit exhausting) but he thinks they should do a "ropes course" tonight. Oh boy. And of course they will also leave their farewell letter because tomorrow is Christmas Eve!<br />
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*If you are looking for even more Inspiration I'm constantly adding ideas I run across to me <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/AlaynasCreation/christmas-elf-on-the-shelf/" target="_blank">Pinterest board</a> - even in July! ;)Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-66820674207611779122014-12-20T06:00:00.000-08:002014-12-20T06:00:03.563-08:00Elf Antics 2014 - Week 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
So who else is having fun with their Christmas Elves/Elf on a Shelf this month? We are! Week two we found them:</div>
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Day 8:<br />
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Day 9: they got into all of the treats left over from the birthday party<br />
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Day 10: must have been taking inspiration from my (body builder) brother. Looks like Tinsel might benefit from a few personal trainer sessions.<br />
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Day 11: found the sled on top of the entertainment center in the living room. I'm told Twinkle almost met with a horrible accident when she toppled off and my brother's pitbull picked her up. Luckily, the husband saw it and pried her out of his mouth before any damage was done.<br />
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Day 12: packed the kids' lunchboxes<br />
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Day 13: changed out the light bulb in the hallway for a pretty stained-glass one. Tyler said it looked like they were having a dance party.<br />
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Day 14: climbing the Christmas tree. I'm afraid it looks like Tinsel must have taken a tumble or two.<br />
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<br />Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-45432163661797305552014-12-18T06:59:00.000-08:002014-12-18T06:59:00.437-08:00Christmas Cards 2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hot chocolate, a corny Christmas movie on the Hallmark Channel, and a stack of newly arrived photos - that's how I spent some of my time on Saturday afternoon. Love it. Love the season.</div>
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Christmas cards have been making their way into my mailbox every few days and I've been having fun adding to my little Christmas Card book. This is the 5th year I've been keeping them like that and it's been fun to flip back through all the past years, seeing all of my friends' children at different ages. However, I've been a little anxious to get my own cards pulled together and out the door (so everyone can have our new address) and I was so happy to see that my Christmas photos had arrived at the post office a couple of days earlier than expected. I sat right down and started putting them together and stuffing envelopes. </div>
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There are so many great card options out there right now, but I get caught in the "I can just do it myself" mode every year - you know the one. The day spent outside with the tripod and the camera on the self-timer, fingers crossed the whole time that the photos will look even half-way decent when you get home. The time spent on Pinterest looking at card ideas and cute quotes trying to figure out the Very Best option for this year. Then trying to pull it all together in Photoshop, using only the 4 commands I am familiar with. ;) And doing it all at 10:00 PM (when I'm normally in bed) because you realize your coupon code for photo prints expires that day.</div>
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All things considered, I didn't actually mind the process - I'm just laughing at myself for rushing through it yet another year. One of these days I will remember to take photos in October with perfectly coordinated outfits and all of November to pull the cards together. For now though, my method did still result in reasonably cute Christmas cards for the year - phew! ;) </div>
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Ok time for a close look at them, right?</div>
Front:<br />
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Back:</div>
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Well, I'm off to take photos of the kids playing in the falling snow. Maybe I can use those photos for next year's card and be super duper on the ball for next time?! ;)<br />
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<br />Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-49269690288918235212014-12-16T06:00:00.000-08:002014-12-18T14:10:56.151-08:00Time for the Tree!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It doesn't quite feel like Christmas until the decorations are up, does it? I held off on putting up the tree until after Tyler's <a href="http://www.alaynascreations.blogspot.com/2014/12/minecraft-birthday-party.html" target="_blank">Minecraft party</a> - I can only imagine what those wild and crazy kids would have done to the tree. I have visions of a toppled tree and broken ornaments or at the very least we probably wouldn't have found all the Nerf darts before New Years!</div>
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But the day after the party, it was definitely time to pull some of the Christmas decorations out.</div>
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All of our stuff is in a giant inaccessible stack in the garage right now so we used one of my Mom's trees and decorations. It looked a little sparse when I first set it up but by the time we were finished with it I don't think there was a single bare branch.<br />
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I also discovered that when it comes to decorating the tree, my Mom is a bigger perfectionist than I am. We were all ready to call it good and she just kept going and going...<br />
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Turned out gorgeous though, right? I was happy I had taken the time to wrap gifts a few days before and stashed them in the closet so we would have some ready to put under the tree.<br />
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And that, my friends, is the sum total of my decorating for this year. We don't have much space right now and I'm happy with just the tree, and the stockings, and watching the Christmas cards slowly roll in from the mailbox so I can add them to my card collection. I love Christmas!<br />
Bambi does too ;)<br />
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Linking to:<br /><a href="http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2014/12/christmas-tree-party-2014.html" target="_blank">Christmas Tree Party 2014</a></div>
Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-7398062711406110182014-12-14T06:23:00.000-08:002014-12-14T06:23:00.197-08:00Elf Antics 2014 - Week 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Two weeks into December and I haven't posted a single Elf photo?! </div>
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One of our fun traditions for the holidays is having a couple of Santa's Elves visit us. The kids always get a kick out of finding them every morning and look forward to their arrival on the first of December. In fact, when I was giving Kaitlyn a hug before bedtime on November 30th, she whispered a reminder in my ear lest I forget what day it was(little miss is growing up too fast and became one of our Christmas helpers last year).</div>
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Sure enough, Tinsel and Twinkle arrived at our house on schedule bringing with them Lego advent calendars for the kids.<br />
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Day 2 found them in the storage room where they had pulled out most of Grandma's games and toys. Photo is courtesy of Kaitlyn, who was quick to inform me when I got back from the gym that morning and found the kids playing Jenga that she knew I liked to take photos before we moved the Elves and had made sure to do so. (Isn't she the greatest?!)<br />
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Day 3 - in the bathroom, where Twinkle was tangled in Kaitlyn's headbands and Tinsel had drawn a Rudolph head on the mirror.<br />
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Day 4<br />
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Wonder what's in the envelope.... (printable found <a href="http://www.overthebigmoon.com/elf-on-the-shelf-mission-impossible-envelopes-and-mission-cards/" target="_blank">here</a>. Awesome idea)<br />
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Day 5 was Tyler's birthday so the elves had made an attempt to decorate with crepe paper but got distracted playing with the party games.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiswCqq2lgis0wSgUa95Ak_G885v7APTaxNfUC6iJE7OGPddNJQFVr9wdJFPu655xESNFnCMp15kZGxsIfZlgBW52Gf2E0ykVpvN0PrEaI0DqjHQyc-JHPGfLQaAtz8VlHOrrkSnnmCDghv/s1600/IMG_2020A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiswCqq2lgis0wSgUa95Ak_G885v7APTaxNfUC6iJE7OGPddNJQFVr9wdJFPu655xESNFnCMp15kZGxsIfZlgBW52Gf2E0ykVpvN0PrEaI0DqjHQyc-JHPGfLQaAtz8VlHOrrkSnnmCDghv/s1600/IMG_2020A.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
Day 6<br />
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Day 7<br />
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<br />Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-50060649200836333832014-12-13T05:35:00.003-08:002014-12-13T05:35:57.814-08:00OLW - November Gratitude Prompt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi42ooLiAZTcMwdiPtc6UQfP1GL5tWc1V7dE3XPNZlw0Z03IDm9GGv2kAv04PzTOUUNEg5rT61zzjfvduwgdLZ3dswag3FzMDlPZ3Erf9QdgNXybfJEMZyQsvfl0Axnq2I0yjMQmjOvS09a/s1600/OLW+Gratitude+PhotosA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi42ooLiAZTcMwdiPtc6UQfP1GL5tWc1V7dE3XPNZlw0Z03IDm9GGv2kAv04PzTOUUNEg5rT61zzjfvduwgdLZ3dswag3FzMDlPZ3Erf9QdgNXybfJEMZyQsvfl0Axnq2I0yjMQmjOvS09a/s1600/OLW+Gratitude+PhotosA.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
It's the month of December and not only is there NO snow on the ground here in Utah, but I also found the time yesterday to spend the morning working on my <a href="http://aliedwards.com/projects/one-little-word" target="_blank">One Little Word</a> album. Free time on a weekday in December?! Craziness. ;)<br />
The prompt for November was a combination of photos and words, revolving around what it means to "live your word" and recognizing what we are grateful for. I spent the first part of November trying to note something I was Thankful For every day (posted daily on my <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AlaynasCreations" target="_blank">Facebook page</a>) and although it kind of fizzled around the 20th, I still had plenty of ideas to choose from. I thought finding the right photos might be harder, but after combing through all my photo files from the past few months I ended up with plenty to choose from. I guess being a photo-obsessed, wish-I-had-more-time-to-scrapbook Mom comes in handy sometimes.<br />
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The finished layout:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI_PK1pNb95NH4NwgIYUl5kmSzSbWwp7xaOY0bsS0gefym5NVNMhVkl2ZfKZRbKdDEgKsJ8oVKvKPs-c-46t_kZO553gtd1EzAlWPppiyG8u1mVEtkTxVgCW8-RUBDA18uy2IFJTKCVmhE/s1600/OLW+Nov+goalsA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI_PK1pNb95NH4NwgIYUl5kmSzSbWwp7xaOY0bsS0gefym5NVNMhVkl2ZfKZRbKdDEgKsJ8oVKvKPs-c-46t_kZO553gtd1EzAlWPppiyG8u1mVEtkTxVgCW8-RUBDA18uy2IFJTKCVmhE/s1600/OLW+Nov+goalsA.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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I just realized I had intended to add a line of journaling to this photo. On well. I may do it later and reprint it, or maybe it's fine just like that.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUG4ns3WZ450392glg9ASR1pOOMQt84j44eOU1ntp4H_YCzNrRaNbZk06U8RBrXlr6HKTolPUltzK1s0sde9iZcVxQvPJqY2fDJCE5hbzVmApqjkb_95dhwyxfHJoM4sPZblt8nNzEtDMy/s1600/OLW+Grateful+Photos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUG4ns3WZ450392glg9ASR1pOOMQt84j44eOU1ntp4H_YCzNrRaNbZk06U8RBrXlr6HKTolPUltzK1s0sde9iZcVxQvPJqY2fDJCE5hbzVmApqjkb_95dhwyxfHJoM4sPZblt8nNzEtDMy/s1600/OLW+Grateful+Photos.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRMMq4ltchWzj3ucFq8IMN-i8kBsuiYy8LRCCMlNhb0_FI5ayYWm4EGRvFRpPuCu6XKLZYEwaq3Dt7zL5TS5XJxmPkbCN0ZX6K3AbMNOR14vG2-wQQ14dbtGqJ1Mm8hbQTF0ToWpv8yaWu/s1600/Gratitude+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRMMq4ltchWzj3ucFq8IMN-i8kBsuiYy8LRCCMlNhb0_FI5ayYWm4EGRvFRpPuCu6XKLZYEwaq3Dt7zL5TS5XJxmPkbCN0ZX6K3AbMNOR14vG2-wQQ14dbtGqJ1Mm8hbQTF0ToWpv8yaWu/s1600/Gratitude+1.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
*photo taken as we pulled out of our neighborhood in North Carolina and started our trek across country to move back home to Utah. I followed that Uhaul trailer for four days straight.<br />
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I have loved participating in this online workshop this year. Whether or not I managed to do the prompts "on time" I got a whole lot more out of the experience than I did in previous years with my words. I have already signed up for next year's workshop, though I have no idea at this point what my word for next year will be...Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-33596642930976306042014-12-12T19:20:00.002-08:002014-12-14T06:19:06.928-08:00Minecraft Birthday Party<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0a2h9AY5OTTxIjgRq2lRM3JoO8aej7sqgwNWap3W-olzDd0gL-Gu7-WGSWFZIkj4DdaWEfNBDHQwsutHRAN1alOs2fS7QSAZjSL-p319OUTNsL1nbwFbr-WxkWY0qZIsYinoiAqkAGSW/s1600/Minecraft+8th+Birthday+Party.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0a2h9AY5OTTxIjgRq2lRM3JoO8aej7sqgwNWap3W-olzDd0gL-Gu7-WGSWFZIkj4DdaWEfNBDHQwsutHRAN1alOs2fS7QSAZjSL-p319OUTNsL1nbwFbr-WxkWY0qZIsYinoiAqkAGSW/s1600/Minecraft+8th+Birthday+Party.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a></div>
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Look who turned 8 last week! He was SO excited - and who can blame him? Birthdays are exciting, especially when you are looking forward to a party with a bunch of your new friends and one with the theme of your favorite game to boot. Yup - Tyler, like many kids right now, is completely obsessed with Minecraft.</div>
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I have to admit I know very, very little about Minecraft, nor was I really in the mood to sit down and play the game with the kids. So I relied pretty heavily on looking at ideas online with one of the kids at my side making comments. It was kind of a fun process actually. Tyler had lots and lots and lots of ideas. ;) And Kaitlyn is great about helping me pull it all together. In the end, we decided on the following:</div>
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Creeper Rice Krispie Treats went to school with Tyler for all of his classmates. We just tinted the marshmallow green and the eyes are chocolate chips which I melted and piped onto wax paper to form the eyes and mouth.</div>
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Once the birthday boy was off to school I got to work on the cake. He had requested a TNT cake, which seemed as easy as stacking a few cake squares on top of each other and covering it with red. Uh huh. Yeah. First ever <i>epic cake fail</i>. It started leaning after I got all the layers on and even with additional support, it had toppled before I could get the exterior frosting on it.</div>
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I had to laugh. Really, what can you do but laugh? And my brother, who was eating breakfast at the time, laughed at me too - and asked if he could "publicly humiliate" me by posting a photo on Facebook. I told him that was fine, because I fully intended to blog about it ;)</div>
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So what do you do when your cake falls apart and you don't want to run to the store? I turned it into Dirt Cake, that's what. </div>
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The kids didn't have a clue - ha! In fact, they loved it. Couldn't get enough of the cake in the cups with the Minecraft toppers I printed at the last minute (found <a href="http://halegrafx.com/printables/free-printable-minecraft-cupcake-toppers/" target="_blank">here</a>).<br />
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The rest of the food was pretty easy. Tyler had been pretty quick to suggest a bunch of foods that were in the game: "bread" was sandwiches cut into squares, "potion of healing" were just Hugs with labels on them (I was informed that the potions are always red but since it would have taken way too many boxes to find enough red drinks for everyone we used green too since Creepers are his favorite character from the game), "slime balls" were green grapes, "raw fish" were goldfish crackers, and carrots and gold apples were, well, carrots and apples ;)<br />
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Printables for the food and drink lables came from <a href="http://delicateconstruction.com/2014/08/free-minecraft-party-printables.html" target="_blank">here</a>, though I did resize and edit them a bit, as well as use them for the base to make the other signs for the party.<br />
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<span style="text-align: start;">I found the printable for the large Steve and the Creeper </span><a href="http://www.fps-x-games.com/2013/04/large-minecraft-creeper-free-papercraft.html" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="text-align: start;">.</span></div>
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The table set up was pretty simple (and inexpensive) too. It doesn't take a lot to make a big statement.</div>
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The plates were just green plates with Creeper faces that I had cut out of vinyl with the Silhouette machine.<br />
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And the table runner was green wrapping paper that I quickly cut into block-type forms on the edges. I used the Silhouette to cut a pattern for the Creeper face out of cardstock and used it and a Sharpie to make Creeper faces on the table runner and on a bunch of green balloons.<br />
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The balloons went downstairs in the "party area," along with my standard bead board birthday banner. I also put a set a balloons out by the road and by the door, along with a Minecraft Welcome sign. I always try to do something like that in case a guest hasn't visited our house before so they can easily tell where the party is.<br />
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As I mentioned in an earlier post, Tyler had invited his entire class to his party and not knowing how many kids would actually show up, planning was a little tricky. I decided to use the kitchen/living room for the food and do all the activities in the family room downstairs. I only set up one table, which was perfect for the amount of kids that did RSVP but I had another table and extra decorations on stand-by in case we had any show up unannounced. We only ended up with one that hadn't called ahead, so it was fine.<br />
Anyway. One of Tyler's first requests was to have "torches" as decoration so I printed off a few for the stairs/hallway and used crepe paper to form the "portal" (or am I confused and they only use that term in Skylanders??)<br />
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Downstairs, I had turned my craft tables into "crafting tables" (of course!). It was just a simple matter of using electrical tape and a ruler to form the grid. Minecraft is all about building, so I had a few crafty projects planned.<br />
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And again, not knowing how many kids would actually attend the party, I had planned accordingly. If we had a large number of guests, I had extra helpers on hand so we could split them up into smaller groups and do "stations" for the different crafts and games. I put all the things needed for each activity in its own little basket so we could just grab them as needed.<br />
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<span style="text-align: start;"> As it turned out, we had about 10 kids attend so they just did everything in one big group, but I was still glad I had planned ahead and set it up this way.</span></div>
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I always like to have some sort of low key activity for everyone to start working on when they arrive. This keeps the fidgeting and chaos to a minimum while still allowing time for any later guests to arrive without missing much of the planned activities. For the Minecraft party, our Arrival Activity was making Minecraft masks. I cut out a bunch of small squares out of colored paper and the kids glued them onto poster board that I had cut into squares with a couple of square openings for eyes.<br />
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This worked pretty well, but these kids were HYPER that night so as soon as we could, we moved on to the more active games.<br />
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This game was originally intended to be a beanbag toss, but the beanbags we have for our cornhole boards were too big for holes so we used Neft guns instead. Nerf dart look close enough to the TNT in the game, right? The kids didn't care - they had fun (though some of them were way too excited to wait their turns!).<br />
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The next game was probably the favorite for our rowdy crew. I had filled a bunch of balloons and put a line of tape down the center of the room to split it into two parts. Yes, I was all creative and used some of the Creeper balloons as well as some smaller colored ones which could represent the other animals in the game - but I don't think the kids noticed or cared. The point of the game was to get all the balloons onto the other team's side. We played music while they bopped balloons back and forth (had intended to find Minecraft parody songs but forgot to get them cued up and just ended up using whatever was on the IPOD) until the music stopped, then everyone would freeze while we counted the balloons on each side. As I said - this game was a perfect way for them to use up their energy without hurting anything so we let them do 5 or 6 rounds before we headed upstairs for cake and gifts.<br />
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The time just flew by and by the time everyone had finished eating and all the gifts were unwrapped we only had a few minutes left before parents would start arriving so I gave them some block character printables to assemble.<br />
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<a href="http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Ultimate-Guide-to-Minecraft-Papercrafts/" target="_blank">This link</a> has a lot of great printables for all of the blocks, characters, etc.<br />
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As I said, the time went by so quickly we didn't end up using some of the activities I had planned. Like:<br />
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Minecraft character Perler bead keychains. This activity alone probably would have taken them half an hour.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilG-cNAHJlfff23wDh5DH09SbdZNkOInMrfbJ0vyoXt1cFc5wYmkIO5EBRoocF3Qmh1pPOfasyN3vNQFQUKtlN55LtKlomNto19wvySW97RZGm5zyb_1qy6ufAabjUA5AaSIFAhyphenhyphenYLiidv/s1600/Minecraft+Perler+Bead+Keychains.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilG-cNAHJlfff23wDh5DH09SbdZNkOInMrfbJ0vyoXt1cFc5wYmkIO5EBRoocF3Qmh1pPOfasyN3vNQFQUKtlN55LtKlomNto19wvySW97RZGm5zyb_1qy6ufAabjUA5AaSIFAhyphenhyphenYLiidv/s1600/Minecraft+Perler+Bead+Keychains.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
And the bean bags were going to be repurposed to "Feed the Wolf."<br />
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But I'd rather have too many activities planned than have bored kids at the end of a party.<br />
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As they were working on the character printables, I also had them take turns assembling their own favor bags.<br />
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For the favor bag tags I used a pdf file I found online (see <a href="http://coloradomoms.com/featured/minecraft-birthday-party/" target="_blank">this blog</a>), added the rest of the message (in Photoshop) then printed them 6 to a page. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuTtUqefcj3mdYSspq6E64qiWft9EOZ78tL1Ku1NDigu0LGiZKWhtaxXXy9PnLFuP7Wssyb1dpxsThACkJwjKj-hDA1RfqeC1q23TmkxTT6qZe0MHLgTThTnLDmDdihVC540SdH1YJ4i65/s1600/Minecraft+Party+Favor+Station.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuTtUqefcj3mdYSspq6E64qiWft9EOZ78tL1Ku1NDigu0LGiZKWhtaxXXy9PnLFuP7Wssyb1dpxsThACkJwjKj-hDA1RfqeC1q23TmkxTT6qZe0MHLgTThTnLDmDdihVC540SdH1YJ4i65/s1600/Minecraft+Party+Favor+Station.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="text-align: center;">The tags went inside a cellophane bag and the kids got to fill it with:</span><br />
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Creeper face lollipops, (had an a-ha moment on this one and instead of cutting them all out by hand I figured out how to make my own pattern for the Silhouette to cut out - go me!)</div>
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glow stick "torches"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieZA1qQIc_XUfhfDOmeuyY-xH9KR2k-Kt6yOeYXy9GwtncMumu3u6Yd2lxt6t4Lv9-bsLKfcFS_LAjFO5MFsTZDHptwZbqGJP4btDCqbH5bHniryU0UQYvRosVJQhVz7AsdO8eao1RuHyx/s1600/Minecraft+TNT+Licorice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieZA1qQIc_XUfhfDOmeuyY-xH9KR2k-Kt6yOeYXy9GwtncMumu3u6Yd2lxt6t4Lv9-bsLKfcFS_LAjFO5MFsTZDHptwZbqGJP4btDCqbH5bHniryU0UQYvRosVJQhVz7AsdO8eao1RuHyx/s1600/Minecraft+TNT+Licorice.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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licorice "TNT" (Tyler was very pleased with those. When he saw them all assembled he told me "Mom, you've really outdone yourself!") and Hershey Kiss "emeralds, red stones, and silver"</div>
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So there you have it! Paper, scissors, a printer, and a lot of ink - that's really all it takes to make a little guy happy on his birthday ;)<br />
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Linking to:<br />
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<a href="http://www.theidearoom.net/" title="The Idea Room"><img alt="The Idea Room" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtp-9Khm1ypArcBK3NWQH9eGnM27TgiAgsOgAHyP0tIGW_Uy3e-X4zI962Q3qGdCav8Qm-yiXceaCIsFjAjb1euwxl6pzQsG9nodKh8npi2Co1Q4ZiRhXoDw62CEgKMj3mSL7HXSG4a3bz/s1600/TPB+Button+150.png" style="border: none;" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.iheartnaptime.net/link-party-palooza-71/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Iheartnaptime1+%28I+%7Bheart%7D+Nap+Time+RSS+Post%29" target="_blank">Link Party Palooza</a><br />
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Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-396666650140622802014-11-25T03:42:00.001-08:002014-11-25T03:42:39.092-08:00It's almost party time - again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Tyler's birthday - it crept up on me. Usually I have these things planned out weeks in advance. In fact, often I do most of the planning and prep for his party before Kaitlyn's birthday because I've found I get Party Burnout after hers and I have a hard time motivating myself to put much energy and effort into it. With the move happening so quickly after Miss Kate's birthday this year I didn't put any thought into Tyler's, other than asking what theme he wanted and randomly adding ideas to my Pinterest board if I ran across them. So last week it hit me - we are getting really close to the holidays and thus really close to Tyler's birthday! I'd better start planning!</div>
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The kids start school at different times now and Tyler and I tend to have a good 30 minutes of down time between when he is ready and when we have to go out to the bus so it was fairly easy to find the time to sit down with him and start going through ideas to see what struck his fancy. And man is that kid full of ideas! It was completely adorable to hear him ramble on and on about what we could do at his party. Care to guess what theme he chose that had him so excited?</div>
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Tyler also wanted to invite his entire class to the party and usually I would say no to that many kids at once. But we haven't been here long enough for him to have formed many close friendships yet and a party would be a great Get To Know You thing for him. And since it's right in the middle of the holiday season and on a Friday night, a lot of people may already have plans. So I said <i>yes</i> to the <strike>possible</strike> probable chaos and 25 of these invitations went out last week.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2hdUzkqUgETEcVB-TqXMKd61IT5VbAY_pYaNhCYzpPbKGpXIHZkq0BpHxhYBF_ZAuKOBoXizzkh1igarox_vkB_k2dCml2D8BU8xQ9wDN_CPzy8irnPa260tGaZOmNWWm-RsHbXXdnw5S/s1600/Tyler+Minecraft+Invite+Web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2hdUzkqUgETEcVB-TqXMKd61IT5VbAY_pYaNhCYzpPbKGpXIHZkq0BpHxhYBF_ZAuKOBoXizzkh1igarox_vkB_k2dCml2D8BU8xQ9wDN_CPzy8irnPa260tGaZOmNWWm-RsHbXXdnw5S/s1600/Tyler+Minecraft+Invite+Web.jpg" height="320" width="231" /></a></div>
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Knowing I was going to need a bunch of them I found a good pdf for the base of the invite online then added party details and printed them out 4 to a page. The fonts are <a href="http://www.1001freefonts.com/minecrafter.font" target="_blank">Minecrafter</a> and ProFontWindows. <br />
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If you are looking for more Minecraft party ideas I have quite a few on my Pinterst Board (<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/AlaynasCreation/minecraft/" target="_blank">here</a>). And, of course, I will tell you all about it after the party - stay tuned! Less than two weeks to go until party time...Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-6496615789660983092014-11-22T05:43:00.000-08:002014-11-22T05:43:05.607-08:00One Little Word - September Prompt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghKkH8_hgdp0_P45l7Tp2griUbru2L7BnzogQuBr5elWMnuHcQ39Pxe0-vZqatC-GTbHKwu55LoXk0AdaDXY4Eg4b7ruS-f8ue2CrL-zO7xDTrXKqDOnBYlAMkGY7SmzkTAtDfdvwJPMSA/s1600/OLW+Real+Story+Detail+D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghKkH8_hgdp0_P45l7Tp2griUbru2L7BnzogQuBr5elWMnuHcQ39Pxe0-vZqatC-GTbHKwu55LoXk0AdaDXY4Eg4b7ruS-f8ue2CrL-zO7xDTrXKqDOnBYlAMkGY7SmzkTAtDfdvwJPMSA/s1600/OLW+Real+Story+Detail+D.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
Sometimes I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that we are almost at the end of 2014. But we are and it truly has been an eventful, sometimes overwhelming and crazy, but good year. September's <a href="http://aliedwards.com/projects/one-little-word" target="_blank">One Little Word</a> workshop prompt was about telling our "real" story - not the one that goes on in our head, but how our life truly is. It was nice to take a step back to look at how I view my life and see how my perspective looks from a different angle.<br />
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The photo is one I took over the summer as we were hiking Timpanogos. I had it printed at 8x10 size and just cut it into pieces to fit the slots in the page protector. The rest is pretty self-explanatory.<br />
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<br />Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-79296949936770287352014-11-17T07:00:00.000-08:002014-11-17T07:00:07.960-08:00Back to Card Group!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of the side benefits of moving back home - card group! The same friend that started up my old card making group has a new one going now and I got to join them last night. Yay! I'm completely rusty (and slow!) and couldn't find half my stuff (thank goodness the local "Drug Store" has a small scrapbooking section so I didn't have to run all the way to Walmart for glue dots!) but it was so nice to get back to something that used to be one of my favorite nights of the month.</div>
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One night per month, we leave the kiddos home and get together with a small group of crafty ladies. Everyone designs one card around the theme that month's hostess has set, and makes kits for everone in the group. Then we all get together to put together our kits and we go home with a handful of new cards for our stash. It's a lot of fun seeing all of the different personalities and techniques - such a wide variety for one tiny little theme.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOvs5UaQExQNNIwg4sUPDq0pUrAnuJswappFkAgIms3dlauyq3eHKl9pvH2TTrmL8BsUnjsfcCvEMnjpALj3wJ5BilD65S3csp8ehLvo6vOH6Lj-9vQZhw01ZI0VroHx8qolurlWM2W7ni/s1600/Card+Group+Thank+You+Cards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOvs5UaQExQNNIwg4sUPDq0pUrAnuJswappFkAgIms3dlauyq3eHKl9pvH2TTrmL8BsUnjsfcCvEMnjpALj3wJ5BilD65S3csp8ehLvo6vOH6Lj-9vQZhw01ZI0VroHx8qolurlWM2W7ni/s1600/Card+Group+Thank+You+Cards.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
The theme for this month was Thank You cards. This one is mine:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjycDcVhtn6cwLa1FirQ-8tfyXEyAH0q1LUAyqje2005tfn70u6ZyVZkpVxeUUvfXsLBggKptopWSygtTbBFvR8F5xj069_Ooj-NSdzYUGoaF9W4qULr5B9038jBSzJ_SpzulOdp3T0R_NG/s1600/Card+Club+Thanks+Ever+So+Much+Card.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjycDcVhtn6cwLa1FirQ-8tfyXEyAH0q1LUAyqje2005tfn70u6ZyVZkpVxeUUvfXsLBggKptopWSygtTbBFvR8F5xj069_Ooj-NSdzYUGoaF9W4qULr5B9038jBSzJ_SpzulOdp3T0R_NG/s1600/Card+Club+Thanks+Ever+So+Much+Card.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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I was so excited to run across a fun little blog full of FREE cut files for the Silhouette machine. and as soon as I saw the "thanks" one I knew that I had to use it. (cut file can be found <a href="http://www.birdscards.com/card-cover-7-thanks-circle/" target="_blank">here</a>) I cut it out of cardstock and used that for my starting point, grabbing a couple of fun patterned papers from my stash and cutting out the "ever so much" sentiment from black vinyl.</div>
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The kit looked like this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG3aBIVYFUnW5wChBU2oaXvCST_IaTijeCIrHbhE7YIjZCgm3j_nfRuhOEsaqWhBswdUdH9HM1xUT_KKKFaiAdbAnoQHTguxD1cZktAQXBPPx29SqQFPXc8xj-0uGGN7TSjvw5oKNPZqgN/s1600/Thank+You+Card+Kit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG3aBIVYFUnW5wChBU2oaXvCST_IaTijeCIrHbhE7YIjZCgm3j_nfRuhOEsaqWhBswdUdH9HM1xUT_KKKFaiAdbAnoQHTguxD1cZktAQXBPPx29SqQFPXc8xj-0uGGN7TSjvw5oKNPZqgN/s1600/Thank+You+Card+Kit.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWqtkcwDQHYtAbmElmvbnNmwtRoEhh8Fz2Qpz5W2pWHsYNwja-TiwSz-Cf8dyRcsdrgCDoqIEQjeKMMhsYo2W4GRQ8m3wWchpys6aBt1HBJV357thNG1XHYmt8vX5SBM-EhLuD3J2QhvIV/s1600/Thank+You+Card+grey+green+orange.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWqtkcwDQHYtAbmElmvbnNmwtRoEhh8Fz2Qpz5W2pWHsYNwja-TiwSz-Cf8dyRcsdrgCDoqIEQjeKMMhsYo2W4GRQ8m3wWchpys6aBt1HBJV357thNG1XHYmt8vX5SBM-EhLuD3J2QhvIV/s1600/Thank+You+Card+grey+green+orange.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
Not bad for my first card club in 4 years, right? Can't wait for next month!<br />
<br />Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-54506946258291417542014-11-16T12:34:00.003-08:002014-11-16T12:38:42.281-08:00OLW - July<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Friday I found myself not only with a little free time, but also felt the urge to create something. I had just unpacked the boxes with my scrapbook paper and my <a href="http://aliedwards.com/projects/one-little-word" target="_blank">One Little Word</a> album so of course I decided to do a little catching up. This is the layout for July's prompt for the year-long online workshop I have been participating in (love it - pretty sure I will be doing it again next year!). I had all the journaling/writing done and had even printed out the photos, just hadn't had a chance to pull it all together. And before I get distracted by something else, I thought I'd better share it.</div>
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Front:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiC7_UXF3ZuLrOSPoAS5-PDqoPDhyphenhyphen9Tt_ckaCli9k24T-iJ91xzdz4WVI02fknm8vjvQc4IrWHbe7gOW4xQilneqS02888TQe2qC4e7WGLnDjyo0SV3djpGsf-dTtygaGePR3iIz5bzR1W/s1600/IMG_1216A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiC7_UXF3ZuLrOSPoAS5-PDqoPDhyphenhyphen9Tt_ckaCli9k24T-iJ91xzdz4WVI02fknm8vjvQc4IrWHbe7gOW4xQilneqS02888TQe2qC4e7WGLnDjyo0SV3djpGsf-dTtygaGePR3iIz5bzR1W/s1600/IMG_1216A.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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Back:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggG9QQDQ5S-EccqRUAVOHHu9fL4fBAn5MCxDqWk-mTb5wrbGVxurjKZmip-p7VzdFACF2TW0tYk-Pgq6MgvF5SCna8hw2_5qUjlk1OyDoKHyTEQqSknkp7Qe-rjlf_sFfLTY2HdN35pLs0/s1600/IMG_1220A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggG9QQDQ5S-EccqRUAVOHHu9fL4fBAn5MCxDqWk-mTb5wrbGVxurjKZmip-p7VzdFACF2TW0tYk-Pgq6MgvF5SCna8hw2_5qUjlk1OyDoKHyTEQqSknkp7Qe-rjlf_sFfLTY2HdN35pLs0/s1600/IMG_1220A.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwOl7N9xcV2eMQl1oVIQ42-Wts46-yMS_q4V5lH3aBq1b8DiFlt3AngnxcQXLTyOHolGV7f7msG4Uk6QBf2KI85bGogaRPgVzht_m6GjGTkUJIncZhLz9y1qWl-P8cJYO6tW0fencoGIIQ/s1600/IMG_1221A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwOl7N9xcV2eMQl1oVIQ42-Wts46-yMS_q4V5lH3aBq1b8DiFlt3AngnxcQXLTyOHolGV7f7msG4Uk6QBf2KI85bGogaRPgVzht_m6GjGTkUJIncZhLz9y1qWl-P8cJYO6tW0fencoGIIQ/s1600/IMG_1221A.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGmm5YkdtyOAVHvu9kaCfwcoozTIo0gROsf-6Y6BfVmatFc9I5XYJAw2-IY9oR6YX5qoRs94ZhAbNIlddLYtzAV6HO9ucMaXIXRPJwFuEIcz3rj2c3Msbxw0dAgGN4hX3sEc-irio-I8H4/s1600/IMG_1222A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGmm5YkdtyOAVHvu9kaCfwcoozTIo0gROsf-6Y6BfVmatFc9I5XYJAw2-IY9oR6YX5qoRs94ZhAbNIlddLYtzAV6HO9ucMaXIXRPJwFuEIcz3rj2c3Msbxw0dAgGN4hX3sEc-irio-I8H4/s1600/IMG_1222A.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-77102479532589270422014-11-15T14:57:00.000-08:002014-11-15T14:57:17.434-08:00My New Normal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS9yHsyXxCxD0P1DpInyFUshZSxIp_fumphtFOl5mKLQnHE0Yvu-yJUhJpvq78svHqkTUOQRFC_BX8rHxxmZ7vWy1woJTJ3FiIacoDixHzQ86fnmrHvh-06v0cN_C7SS-4TFsglWQRu_Sw/s1600/IMG_1277A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS9yHsyXxCxD0P1DpInyFUshZSxIp_fumphtFOl5mKLQnHE0Yvu-yJUhJpvq78svHqkTUOQRFC_BX8rHxxmZ7vWy1woJTJ3FiIacoDixHzQ86fnmrHvh-06v0cN_C7SS-4TFsglWQRu_Sw/s1600/IMG_1277A.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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Winter in Utah - I'm not sure I'm ready for it! Yesterday's light snowfall was gone by the time the sun went down, but we woke up to a few inches of new-fallen snow this morning and the kids couldn't be happier. The adults, however, still have a few big outdoor projects to finish and the weather sure hasn't been helping with that. We are just going to grit our teeth and do the best we can, as we can't be truly settled in here until we are finished with them.</div>
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As we finish up our third full week back in Utah, I find myself finally settling into what will probably be my New Normal for the next little while. Things like:</div>
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Wearing fluffy socks all the time (generally ones that don't match my outfit because that's all I've got). Predawn hours in the dark, sitting on the couch with my computer or a book and not making any noise so that the dogs don't know I'm up or they will bark and wake up the rest of the house.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBlNC_ZdLT5qq67VAB19eoeB3_F4RCiiWwzci2JqZdXrE1DqcPYMoDluy4Zi3cB_DAvnMV-CD0MxggQ04bNJuepk0oL_vRT128adfhSS3tBpgC64ZBIXnbCdGf6qtrnWHSWEbSVh3ENcS9/s1600/20141103_082102.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBlNC_ZdLT5qq67VAB19eoeB3_F4RCiiWwzci2JqZdXrE1DqcPYMoDluy4Zi3cB_DAvnMV-CD0MxggQ04bNJuepk0oL_vRT128adfhSS3tBpgC64ZBIXnbCdGf6qtrnWHSWEbSVh3ENcS9/s1600/20141103_082102.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
Extended morning routine for the kids. It goes like this: Me, awake at Alayna Time (that means earlier than most people want to be awake) followed by Kaitlyn up, usually without an alarm, by 6:30. Dad is typically out the door by then. Kate eats breakfast while I fix lunchboxes and clean up the kitchen. Then we go downstairs to make sure the boys are awake and starting their day. Sam keeps Kaitlyn company waiting for the bus while I nudge Tyler along, then Sam leaves for work. Ty and I generally have another half hour to waste before putting him on the bus and Mom tries to leave for work before the bus arrives (usually she doesn't make it and has to follow the bus the whole way). Then I have the house to myself - for maybe half an hour before my brother stops by to fix himself breakfast and chat. Dad usually shows up again sometime before 9:00 to check in before he starts his actual work day.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUo_3yiNMEh_B5LnAbbZF17lLTDogeAxTaEcjwsDShacGuZeq1V8aMlpInA9EvlU8hExsH5Q79VTw3QwcePOAquV5jDtkZwlF557gqZEpUNHecUH2lamc6hCgq9zsbGJEE6ljeXrNIrewG/s1600/20141106_130034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUo_3yiNMEh_B5LnAbbZF17lLTDogeAxTaEcjwsDShacGuZeq1V8aMlpInA9EvlU8hExsH5Q79VTw3QwcePOAquV5jDtkZwlF557gqZEpUNHecUH2lamc6hCgq9zsbGJEE6ljeXrNIrewG/s1600/20141106_130034.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
Some mornings I head to a friend's house for a yoga workout. Love that. Some days I unpack another few boxes, reorganize, or clear out a few clutter piles. Others I head down to the freezing garage where we I'm all set up to work on drying racks. Those big projects I mentioned? Yeah - one of them is finding the old heater from the barn and installing it so that I can survive the winter in there.<br /><br />Monday nights driving swim team carpool then taking Tyler to karate practice.<br />Meal planning and dinner prep for 6 hungry people - most of whom are picky eaters.<br />Not being able to complete the laundry in one day as half the time I find it in use by someone else or I'm too busy and not around enough to switch out the loads as soon as they finish.<br />
Almost-daily discussions with my brother on healthy eating, exercise, and motivation - and still haven't made it to the gym for a true workout yet.<br />
Dogs. Everywhere. In the way. Wanting attention.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2QV40DkhWTL-hFm9nKYhTJINmEkdcs0PxNi6qeKqsYbrKcEd9hURs-Z16kTbhGNAH6uLssM_Rx-I6IfG7ZRi6M_WqbzvnS6RIPtWn9dN1U0cLrsDWSCVxDpBbWqzhuPpf_8XkgB_Qh0F9/s1600/20141108_111837.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2QV40DkhWTL-hFm9nKYhTJINmEkdcs0PxNi6qeKqsYbrKcEd9hURs-Z16kTbhGNAH6uLssM_Rx-I6IfG7ZRi6M_WqbzvnS6RIPtWn9dN1U0cLrsDWSCVxDpBbWqzhuPpf_8XkgB_Qh0F9/s1600/20141108_111837.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
The weekends are for putting the Men to work on projects, and me right along with them while the kids hang out at the house (with or without Grandma).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvNm72JoZP8T9q3SULgbxp0_UH9LaQqHFFSilZFKAp1ILVyHP8FlvHsx2Zirdu3DnT6d2XR_adrkko7PhNhLzdGiaWATpQuIu9ZRLBb2TVpdLal8K9R21mpeZVO9DIUjb4-vOa5x_xZ9A6/s1600/20141108_115354.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvNm72JoZP8T9q3SULgbxp0_UH9LaQqHFFSilZFKAp1ILVyHP8FlvHsx2Zirdu3DnT6d2XR_adrkko7PhNhLzdGiaWATpQuIu9ZRLBb2TVpdLal8K9R21mpeZVO9DIUjb4-vOa5x_xZ9A6/s1600/20141108_115354.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
This scenery. Love that part of my new normal. (this photo is taken from approx where we will be building our new house)<br />
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Taking a break from the hard work and chatting with the husband. Lots of long chats lately.<br />
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My new work gloves - I purposely held out for something super girly. ;) And you know what else I realized? All these years I've never had a pair of my own - just borrowed my Dad's oversized ones any time I helped him out.<br />
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Did I mention it's COLD?</div>
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And did I mention the snow?! ;) Ahhh Utah...Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-65424922542624144212014-11-04T05:11:00.000-08:002014-11-04T05:11:07.427-08:00In TransitionI can't get life to slow down! Some days, I really really feel like it needs to, and others, I look back and am glad it all went by so quickly. October was one of those - plenty of highlights, but also full of stress and hard work as we finished packing up our lives in North Carolina and moved across country. Intense. I think that was the hardest, most labor intensive move to date. So so many details and To Dos this time around.<br />
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We packed up the entire house into two shipping containers and one Uhaul trailer, rented out the house, bid goodbye to good friends, and set out with the kids and the dog on the four day drive across country. The drive went pretty smoothly - thank goodness! - and with all the fall leaves out, the drive scenery was gorgeous.<br />
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We arrived at my parents house on a Friday, stopping just long enough for a potty break then running to the school to get the kids enrolled before they closed the doors for the weekend.<br />
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It's been a little over a week since we arrived. The kids have started school, we took over half of my dad's shop and set up the tools to start working on <a href="http://www.alaynascreations.etsy.com/" target="_blank">drying rack orders</a>, helped with some pre-winter farm prep and "fixin' fence,"<br />
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celebrated Halloween by watching the elementary school's costume parade and Trick or Treating in our old neighborhood (fun fun!), experienced our first snow of the season (not the first storm here, but we weren't here for that)<br />
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and have been steadily chipping away at the million-and-one things we need to do to get settled in.<br />
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We aren't done yet! Not by a long shot. The shipping containers will be dropped off today and I'm excited to get our stuff here and put away. Most of it will need to go into storage. Did I mention we are living in my parents' house while we build a house on our family land? Yeah. Lots of hard work ahead. Thus the title of this post, "In Transition" - because life is just one giant Work In Progress right now.<br />
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<br />Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3853788119625978690.post-74501014965162118132014-10-13T03:44:00.002-07:002014-11-04T04:10:21.963-08:00Horse Birthday Slumber Party - Cowgirl Style<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Our house has been Party Central this weekend - fun fun! (and exhausting!) My daughter turns 11 next week and she has been helping me plan the party for months. She is definitely my child - she knows what she wants and is full of ideas, she wants it to look good, and she wants to <b>Do It Herself</b>. ;)<br />
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After all the horseback riding she did while we were in Utah this summer, it was almost a forgone conclusion that she would pick Horses for her theme for her birthday party. And her very first request- after specifying that she wanted a slumber party, of course - was that she have chocolate horses topping her cupcakes - and that she be able to do them herself. She had seen a YouTube video about piping chocolate onto wax paper to make shapes and that was what she had in mind, but that sounded a little intense for her first attempt at real cake decorating so I found a chocolate mold online. With our lives as crazy as they are right now and the amount of time it takes each batch of chocolate to cool I did end up making most of the chocolate horses myself, though I did make sure she got to do a few on her own.<br />
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Once we started looking at ideas online (you can see my Pinterest inspiration board <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/AlaynasCreation/horse-slumber-party/" target="_blank">here</a>) we decided to go with a Cowgirl theme in pink and brown with a few blue accents thrown in. The invitations, of course, came first. (You can see the invitations in an earlier post <a href="http://www.alaynascreations.blogspot.com/2014/09/horse-party-invitations.html" target="_blank">here</a>)<br />
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Kaitlyn fell in love with the idea of a big wooden pallet sign with the outline of a horse on it, but I didn't want to work on a project that big right now. Instead, I grabbed some scrap wood from the garage, distressed it and stained it, then used hot glue to attach some jute "rope" to spell out the word Howdy. We used this sign on the front door to greet everyone and set the mood for the party.<br />
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When the guests arrived they each received a cowboy hat.</div>
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From previous experience with birthday slumber parties I know that the girls are always super-hyped, loud, and anxious to direct their own fun. They spent most of the party playing Just Dance or playing with Kaitlyn's fast-growing collection of Ever After High dolls, but I did set up a couple of stations to go along with the party theme.<br />
The Photo Booth props were a lot of fun<br />
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And I threw together a bucket of stuff for mani/pedis, though it didn't get used. We also had the idea to YouTube some line dances (perfect for a cowgirl party, right?!) and would have done so if the party was lagging. As I said, the girls had no problem having fun on their own so I just let them do their thing.<br />
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Knowing that, I spent more time on the food and the decorations than I did on the activities. The beadboard pennant birthday banner got some theme-appropriate fabric and ribbon and provided the backdrop for the dining table.<br />
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The longer I do this, the easier it gets. I also have a handful of Go To tricks that I can use for any theme - like dressing up the drink containers. For this party, I picked up a 6-pack of cream soda bottles and added a vinyl horse silhouette (made it using a horse dingbat font and my Silhouette machine. I love that there are so many great fonts out there <i>for free!</i>). The plates are part of a stack of inexpensive plastic party plates we picked up at Sam's club a couple years back - they work great for parties. The napkins, bandana, and tiny pink cowboy hats (aren't they cute?!) were all fun finds at the party store.<br />
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On to the food! The cupcakes turned out great - though I suggest putting the horses on only at the last minute. It was a warm day and some of them wanted to tip over when their legs got a little soft.<br />
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For dinner, Kaitlyn had requested ribs and mashed potatoes. And you know what that means? That means the husband did most of the food prep because he is the rib smoker expert ;)<br />
Side note - the rolls down there on the end are in a pink plastic cowboy hat. I forgot to get a detail photo of that, but I wanted to point it out because the girls thought it was a fun detail.<br />
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Once the girls had a couple of hours to play and were ready to settle down a bit, I prepared a tray of goodies so they could snack and watch TV. Included: popcorn in brown paper bags (that I had folded down and fringed the edges), water bottles with the horse decals (I try to avoid having any colored drinks on the playroom carpet - it is horrible when it comes to stains), Cow Tales carames, licorice "ropes" and rice krispie treat "hay bales."<br />
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I went to bed around 11:00 that night and I'm told some of the girls stayed up only 'til midnight while the other half made it to around 2AM. But they were all awake and hungry by 7:30 in the morning. We did a full cowboy breakfast spread with pancakes, sausage, bacon, hash browns, and chocolate milk.<br />
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Party favors were their cowboy hats, more of Kate's chocolate horses, some cute fingernail decals (in the closest we could find to the party colors), a pen, and some more Cow Tale caramels.<br />
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If noise levels and chaos are any indication (naw they weren't that bad - I didn't even have to wake up in the middle of the night to tell them to tone it down), the party was a rip-roaring success. Yay!<br />
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Linking to:<br /><a href="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/tutorials/tutorials-tips-link-party-182.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thestoriesofa2z%2FVisw+%28Home+Stories+A+to+Z%29" target="_blank">Tutorials and Tips Link Party</a> @ homestoriesAtoZ<br />
<a href="http://www.thegunnysack.com/2014/11/time-sparkle-link-party-85.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGunnySack+%28The+Gunny+Sack%29" target="_blank">Time to Sparkle Link Party</a><br />
<a href="http://www.skiptomylou.org/2014/11/03/made-by-you-monday-228/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:" target="_blank">Made By You Monday Link Party</a>Alayna's Creationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04441954034209756170noreply@blogger.com1