yesterday = gorgeous weather

Fun school parties.

Great parade of costumes at school.

Today = GLOOMY! With a capital G. Just in time for me to host 50 neighbors outdoors for a party later. Good stuff.

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free november desktop + iphone wallpaper

You can get this free desktop HERE. I actually designed them this month :) Much harder than I anticipated. Also, if you need directions for installing your iphone wallpaper go HERE. You can google to find additional instructions if these do not work for you.

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she shoots-

and scores! Number 32 has finally made a shot during a game. Her first ever. It was a foul shot. And I, her mother, was not there. Thus, the funky non traditional basketball (er, soccerball?) shot you see instead!

Go Olivia!

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and them sometimes, you get it right...

After Shelby got home from school yesterday, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful Fall day. So, I grabbed my camera and headed out, focusing on the subjects at hand: fall leaves, Skipper the Dog, pumpkins and my girl. The above photo was pure luck. The light was right and the smile genuine.

I ran a few Pioneer Woman actions on this, including my fav: Seventies. Then I added an overlay to give it the aged feel and the frame.

So, it would be perfect if only I could figure out how to display it properly, frame only, not the white box surrounding my frame :( Shout out some direction if you have it.

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dog in costume

It's true. We got Skipper a costume. He is a HOT dog. Kacie is holding him for his photo debut b/c he goes kinda crazy wearing it and just tries to free himself. It reminds me of when my kids were babies and you could torture them, I mean, dress them any way you'd like/

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project 365: august

Another month done! Once again, LOVING the sense of accomplishment. I realized once I put these side by side that I could have/should have rotated those leaves around but it is not bothersome enough to re-do it.
Again, these products are mostly from the now closed, WE R Storytellers. I am still enjoying using the same staples but will be glad to change it up for next year.

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this accurately sums her up right now...

soccer player
full of "peace"
quirky sideways smile
a funny personality
5

shelby.

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pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing + pumpkin brownie muffins

(photo from Real Simple Website)

I spent some of my spare moments this week thumbing through magazines here for a cupcake recipe I had seen. I am usually good about dog-earing recipes in my magazines so that before I pass them on (or pitch them, which I do less often these days) I can easily tear out what I want to make. This time, the recipe eluded me!

Family Fun: NO
Good Housekeeping: NO
Food Network: NO
Rachael Ray: NO
Woman's Day: NO

Finally, I began a Google search and found it in Real Simple. Sigh. If only I had all the ingredients on hand, I'd be making them this afternoon. Has anyone tried this? The recipe is here.

While "doing a google" I also found this recipe which is (or appears to be) healthy?! If you have made it, please respond with a review:

Yum Yum Brownie Muffins

(1 Muffin, or 3 minis - 180 calories, 2.5g fat, 37 carbs, 2.5g, fiber, 2.5g protein - 3 WW points)

This super-simple 2-ingredient recipe is a Weight Watchers Fave!

1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 can solid pack pumpkin (15 oz.)

Directions:
Mix the two ingredients together. Don't add anything else that may be mentioned on the box, such as eggs, oil, or water. The mixture will be very thick and you will be tempted to add in other things to make the batter smoother. DO NOT DO THIS AS IT WILL RUIN EVERYTHING! Place batter into muffin tins (or mini muffin tins) lined with paper, or sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 12 regular or 36 mini muffins.

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photo enhancements

First, I keep seeing very cool textures being added to photos. I want to try and play along! Problems:

1. I have not been taking any photos, especially nice outdoor portraits
2. I have not had time to mess with pics, assuming I had some
3. My skills in this area are a bit lacking :(

All that aside, I found this when I downloaded what photos I have taken in the past week or so, which amounts to about 1 dozen pictures. Totally unlike me!

I simply made this one sepia, sharpened it a bit and used a free overlay to "weather" it. Not perfection, but it does at least have my creative juices flowing.

Right now, the sun is shining, the leaves are in full color and I just need to step outside and take a few pics. I cannot believe I am about to say this BUT too bad my kids are at school :)

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coffee break

I think I have mentioned how I know very little about the rules of basketball. And now, I have this kid, who is totally into it.

So they have a "play" and the person throwing it in (yea, work with me on this) yells COFFEE and everyone scatters. It is hilarious. It's the only thing I have ever heard someone shout out but it seems to work fairly well so perhaps that is why no tweaking/adding has been done.

So, I missed Friday and Saturday's games but my mother in law shared this photo and can't you just hear her shouting: COFFEE!

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off balance

That's me. I had a hectic week. A crazy, fun overnight on Friday with friends. I checked in tonight to see a week has flown by without a word from me.
I think it's mostly b/c I am doing the talking over at Little Dreamer but I did not take on that responsibility with the idea to shirk mine here. In the words of Arnold: I'll be back. Pin It

halloween decor

Although the picture came out a bit blurry, it is the first day of actual sun coming in our sliding doors to take a photo at all, so this is the one I am sharing. I gotta admit, my little BOO! banner makes me smile. And a Shelby funny, she said: I know how to spell BOO. B-O-O-i. She turned the exclamation point upside down. Cute!

And here we have my 15 minute pillow. In it's defense, the form was a flat pancake but in addition it doesn't fit as well from top to bottom as it does side to side, giving it kind of a sad appearance. It came to be because on Friday, I whipped up my first ever log cabin (ish) block from scratch which was a pretty proud, moment. The fabric is a bit of left over material from the Boo! banners so I used it here. This chair sits in front of my mantle.

These photos are strategically angled so as to cut out all the clutter surrounding every other square inch of that room. Sigh.

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super painted faces

I have mentioned before that a local restaurant offers face painting on Thursday night. The woman does such a fantastic job, all for a donation. At our local amusement park, this would cost upwards of $15. Since the girls were off school, they got all duded up last night and had me take these photos before bath time. Olivia is waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy into peace signs. Way.

The corner brushes are from Little Dreamer.

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real men wear PINK

So, I have mentioned my great friend Beth here before. She is beating breast cancer and is definitely an inspiration to those who surround her. This past weekend, she showed up to her son's football game to see this:

All the boys wearing pink socks to show love and support for her and her family. Her husband is one of the coaches and he did not know either.

Her sister in law and the team mom organized the whole surprise. I mean honestly, is there anything cuter than 8 year old BOYS in PINK socks?!

It just about knocks your socks off, right?!

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when it all feels worthwhile...

On Monday, I volunteered in the cafeteria at my girls' school. When Olivia's class came in to eat, I went over to say hello to her. One of her friends asked: "What does the joke say"? She was referring to the lunch box notes I made a few weeks ago. I knew Olivia had been enjoying them but it made my heart sing that she was sharing them and that other kids were even asking about them.

I put the last one of that stack in her lunch today. Now I have an incentive to make a few more :) Pin It

quintuplets born at 25 weeks

(photo from MSNBC)

I saw this on the Today Show this morning and I cannot stop thinking about it. Maybe you know, maybe you do not but I had triplets 9+ years ago that did not survive. My babies were born at 24 weeks and these babies came at 25 weeks--it is just way too early. I of course wish this family the best but mostly my heart is filled with sadness. It's a tough reminder for me as their weights (we also had one born at under 1 lb.), and seeing their photos, definitely reminded me of my babies. Darn, sometimes life is not fair, right? Pin It

the mad snapper--project 365 layout

I just completed another "filler" page for my 2009 photobook. After closer inspection of these soccer photos, when I noticed Shelby snapping her fingers, I knew it would be perfect for documenting her current snapping passion :)

The template was a freebie and is identified only by Amy M.

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custom iphone wallpaper-installation tutorial

Instead of starting from scratch to make a new iphone wallpaper, I gave this method a try and it worked:

I cropped a section of the new wallpaper I installed on my computer (but you could take these dimensions and crop anything you'd like). Here is an excerpt I found online describing the iphones screen size and resolution:

The iPhone’s screen will be measured at 3.5 inches diagonally, with a resolution of 320 pixels x 480 pixels at 180 pixels per inch (ppi). It is significant to note that computer monitor LCDs have a standard of 72 pixels per inch. The iPhone’s screen will be extremely crisp and clear in comparison, which is a good thing for a small screen which will have lots of text on it.

After I cropped my new image, I changed the resolution and saved this into a folder designated iphone wallpaper. I put this under MY PICTURES, making it easy to find and sync on i tunes. After syncing, on your iphone go to settings, then wallpaper. Your new folder named iphone wallpaper should appear. Click on your new wallpaper if you have more than one, and then click apply.

Good luck. Again, my design can be found below and downloaded for free.

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a tale of two players

In the span of 2 hours, we saw this.

Olivia pictured in white, at a 2p basketball game.

On the far left, you see #32 taking the ball down the court. So exciting!

Next, 3p, shelby playing soccer. She is the pink player to the right of the ball.

And finally, running through tunnel post play.

It is a busy life but I have to admit, basketball is fun to watch and super fast. I still know very little of the rules of the game, but that hardly deters from cheering. We're back there tonight for a second tournament game.

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my october desktop

I picked up this cute freebie tonight and added my photo. Done.
I am also sewing my fingers to the bone finishing up my gifts for my girly dinner/b'day gift exchange night on Friday.

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a new gig!

You will notice a new and pretty fabulous blog banner. Well, all those items came from Little Dreamer Designs. I imagine you will be seeing lots of their stuff and hearing more about them as I am the new blog editor for their site! Stay tuned, I cannot wait to dream up some great ideas. I am so grateful for this opportunity to expand my blogging experience and also to get to take a role in the digital scrapbooking industry. Two things I love all rolled into one. Pin It