The One with the Easter Egg Hunt

Before Fox's very first Easter egg hunt this afternoon, Chris took some pics of me'n my little boy. I just think he's the cutest thing ever.

Why do babies make so many funny faces?

Smooches!

A lone reed.

Eye of round.

:)

Fox goes CRAZY over his pacifier!

And that concludes our impromptu photoshoot. Moving on to the hunt!

We walked over to the park and waited for all the mommies and babies to arrive. Jamie made this super cute bunny banner:

We all piled our candy-filled plastic eggs in some baskets.

Then the few dads who showed up "hid" them around the park.

Fox is ready to go huntin' - basket in hand and all!

Some of the little gals gathering their loot.

I let Fox take this egg hidden in a tree notch.

He had fun holding it and sucking on it.

Fox's egg.

What's a get-together without ridiculous amounts of sweets and treats? I think I have five new cavities and gained five pounds.

Then we lined up all the kiddos for a group shot.

Fox was sitting up on his own for awhile, but when he started teetering over I asked a little girl to hold onto him.

Fox is on the far right. To get their attention we all started singing "Popcorn Popping." Hence the funny/mesmerized looks on some of their faces.

Believe it or not, there were at least a dozen infants who were too young or other kids too distracted to be in this photo. SO. MANY. BABIES!

Fun day - I do love me some mommy outings!

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The One with the Paint Chip Sample Easter Egg Garland

I saw this on Whitney's blog a few days ago:

And then I googled "Paint Chip Sample Easter Garland" and found this which seems to be the origin of the phenomenon:

And so I totally copied the idea and made one myself. First I went to Home Depot and picked out practically one of every one of their paint chip samples.

Then I made an Easter egg template and traced it with a light purple marker onto each paint chip sample and cut them out.

Then I organized the eggs by color.

Then I put them in the order I wanted (I repeated pink, orange, yellow, green, aqua, blue, purple) and sewed them together across the top.

Viola - an easy peasy, free, cute Easter garland!

Our very first Easter decoration :)

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The One with Prepping for the 1000th Post Giveaway

I figured out what I'm going to do for my 1000th post giveaway (take a chill pill, it won't be for another couple months - about 60 posts to go!). Instead of a hodge podge of random schtuff going to one person, I'm going to make ten "PaigeBooks" and give one to ten different people. That way the odds of winning something are better. Win win. I've started gathering things to make covers out of and can't wait to get started.

I got some beautiful mini tiles at Home Depot today:

And bigger tiles, also from Home Depot:

I can also use wood,

fabric covered chipboard,

Cassette disks,

and Plexiglas.

Or new mediums to me like Floppy disks, DVD cases, or my dad suggested sticks glued together. If you can drill holes through it, it can be turned into book covers. Although, I don't even necessarily have to drill holes, I can just use chipboard and cover the chipboard with sticks, rocks, decorative tiles, etc. The possibilities are endless! What other kinds of covers should I make? Suggestions are more than welcome!

Totally un-related but totally worth mentioning: Fox can sit up on his own for longer and longer periods of time every day. I'm betting by the time we go to Washington later this month he'll be sitting on his own for good. A whole new world is opening up before my eyes!

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The One with a Job Opening at Simply Handmade Magazine

Two magazine posts in a row! If you live in the Provo/Orem area (or even further and are willing to commute!) and you're crafty, I know of a job for you! Here is a note from the Editor of Simply Handmade - Tammy Morrill:

We at Simply Handmade Magazine are looking for an assistant to help recreate projects for the tutorials we share with our readers. You'd be responsible for sourcing the items needed to make each project, recreating it from the ground up (each of the steps shown separately), and being on-site with a photographer to get everything shot in the proper order, etc. This is an in-office position, so we need someone who can be in the Provo area during regular work hours. Part-time, some flexibility on what hours, pay DOE. Please email Tammy (tammy@northridgepublishing.com) with a short note telling why you're qualified and what your availability is. Attach 3-4 pictures of craft/sewing projects you've made in the past year or so to give us an idea of your range and skill level. Looking forward to hearing from you!

I love working at Scrapbook Trends. I mean, I've been there for 5.5 years, that's gotta say somethin' about it right?? When I lived in Utah this job was part of my responsibilities and it was a blast to go shopping for all the supplies and then recreate a project from scratch and then see all the work in print. I'd open the magazine and show people and be like, "Yo! Those are MY hands!" Hopefully your hands are better lookin' than mine though... more than once I was told to get a manicure, haha. What can I say, I don't paint my nails or take care of them very well! Anyways, hope you apply and then we'll get to work together :)

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The One with Cricut Magazine Title Pages

My favorite part about the new Cricut Magazine (besides the hundreds of pages of incredible projects!) is the title pages that Alisha Gordon puts together each and every issue.

It must take her hours and hours to pick each and every shape, place each and every shape in a circle, and then color each and every shape with a hip color combo!

So worth it to me though, each title page brings a big huge ginormous smile to my face :)

Way to go Alisha, you rock my socks.

The Cricut Magazine is still a brand new magazine, only two issues have hit the shelves, but a couple more are debuting soon and then it goes monthly and then the new Cricut Idea books start coming out monthly. Wicked cool!

The premier Feb/Mar issue:

The Apr/May issue which is in stores now:

The soon-to-be-published June/July issue:

And the soon-to-be-published new Cricut Idea Book Series: Birthdays book!

I'm definitely inspired by every project and want to use my Cricut more and more! Time to upgrade to an Expression??? My birthday IS next month...

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The One with Hot Pink Clouds

The other night the sun was setting and I looked out the window and what did I see?

Hot pink clouds!

I quickly grabbed my camera (it's never too far away from arm's reach for moments exactly like this!) and ran outside to snap away.

Nevermind that pollution is what makes such bright and vivid colors - if it weren't for pollution, sunsets wouldn't be nearly as pretty! Therefore, we have LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of beautiful sunsets in LA. :)

Definitely made my top ten list of beautiful sunsets!

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The One with "Black & Yellow, Black & Yellow, Black & Yellow"

Last night I helped scrap a Bat Mitzvah party right-then-and-there and the color scheme was black and yellow - so naturally in my mind I start singing Wiz Khalifa's "Black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow."

:)

This backyard was turned into an awesome place to eat, party, dance, relax, wine, and dine.

All the tables glowed in the dark.

The candy bar. Mmmmm I want some.

The cake.

Bejeweled table cloth.

I don't know what this is, but it's pretty!

The dance flo'.

So fancy!

There was one long table where all the vendors sat including us scrapbookers,

the henna tattoo artist,

and the fake eyelashes booth!

Heck yes I got some!

With sparkles to boot!

And at the end of the night, the lady of the evening had a scrapbook filled with pictures of all her friends and family that came, along with handwritten notes of congratulations/mazel tov.

It's always fun to catch a glimpse into the lifestyle of the rich and the famous via these scrapbooking gigs!

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The One with Crying It Out WORKS!

Just wanted to update and say that Fox is now sleeping in a 9 hour stretch with a total night time sleep of 11 hours (he goes back to sleep for two hours after eating after his 9 hour stretch).

IT'S A MIRACLE!!!!

In only a matter of four nights this is the result.

We're thrilled. Ecstatic. Elated.

And best of all, now we act like nice, normal human beings instead of grouches :)

Hope this trend continues cuz I'm lovin' it.

Mr. Fox and Mr. Chris are heading out to Priesthood session as I type this and I'm heading out to meet up with Amy and scrap a Bat Mitzvah on the site.

I sure do love my dapper boys!

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The One with So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen Goodbye

I've got some bittersweet news.

The good news?

I've been offered a really cool full-time position with benefits as a work-at-home-blogging-mom for a crafty website.

The bad news?

I have to shut down this blog.

So, so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye! It was fun while it lasted!

April fools'!

(If any of my employers are reading this, I repeat, April fools'! I'm not lookin' for any new job :)

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