Some scrap book pages

I am trying REALLY hard not to be more than a year behind in my scrap booking, though that is hard to do. I am also trying not beat myself up about it. Today, I FINALLY finished scrapping Ryann's first year of life - I got her 1st birthday pages done (Two 2-page layouts)! YAY! As you recall, I made a Shutterfly book of her first birthday, so I didn't feel compelled to scrap every photo that was taken, which helped. In the second layout, the page on the right is a 12x12 print from Costco. I was very pleased with how well it turned out and what an easy way to get a page completed! =) I was also able to finally put in a page that has been done for a LONG time - a page with a photo from each month of her first year. I was so excited to do that page that once I got her 12 month photo printed, I got that page finished and it has just been waiting for a home in her scrap book. Here are some pics of the pages I did today:

So, it's not a craft, but it IS a project....

Ryann was big enough last year to explore and be amazed with all that is outside - the grass, bugs, sticks, trees, leaves...and flowers! She got to the point where she would sniff anything that remotely resembled a flower. There's a small piece of "land" at the back corner of our property. To be honest, we don't know if it belongs to us or to our neighbors, but they are nice enough people that we can agree to share it. =) It was just a dirt patch, not even any grass growing in it. I did my best to shape the little area and then, as we'd find seeds, etc, Ryann and I would take them out back to plant them. We didn't get any much rain and we had to water it a LOT but nothing really came up.  We transplanted some brown-eyed susans from another flower bed and my MIL brought over some daisies, so we'll see what happens this year.  The "project" I'm referring to in this post is a little seedling patch Ryann and I started January 24, 2013 .  We got the Jiffy "greeenhouse" and 3 packets of seeds at the grocery store.  We bought a wildflower mix, Butterfly bush and Gallardia. The Gallardia & the wildflowers are both sprouting.  The ones that are going crazy, though I shouldn't be shocked by this, are the wildflowers!  You know the saying "Growing like a bad weed".  Well, I suppose that wildflowers are technically weeds, right?!  AND, might I add, my favorite kinds of flowers!  I love the ones that are just here and there as you drive along the back roads.  I have high hopes for "Ryann and Momma's flower garden" this year.  I don't even pretend to have a green thumb, but you just never know....

Snowman Pumpkin & Baby shower gift

This year, Ryann was old enough to really get into Fall - the leaves changing colors & falling off the trees and, most importantly, she became absolutely infatuated with pumpkins "Gumpins" and Jack-O-Lanterns"Jack-o-Wackins!!! Daddy carved a Jack-O-Lantern and she thought that was so exciting! At James' work, they had a pumpkin decorating contest. He LOVES doing this stuff and decided that his team was going to do a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man pumpkin (they actually had a WHITE pumpkin!). Ryann was so in love with that pumpkin that she got upset when I mentioned throwing it away. Taking the Stay Puft hat off of it, concocting a "top hat" and a button nose, it easily became a snowman gumpin! The pumpkin finally made it's way into the trash this past Friday. I also had a baby shower to go to in November! This shower was for James' dad's cousin's daughter-in-law. (did you get that???). Megan was expecting baby Archer at the end of December. We haven't had many boys around us lately - just about everyone we know has had baby girls in the past several years! My mother in law had this shadow box that she wasn't going to use for anything and offered it up to. I found an idea on Pinterest (though I could have totally come up with it on my own) and altered it a bit. I was very pleased with how it turned out! I glued a piece of scrap paper to the back of the shadow box, added a journaling block, painted a wooden letter "A" (for Archer) in red and added a small photo frame that she can change photos/put a newborn pic in, etc. I was very pleased with this gift!

Owl Jack-O-Lantern. James is a beast @ carving pumpkins!

Stay Puft Marshmallow Man pumpkin

Snowman pumpkin

Baby Shower shadow box