Crop 'til You Drop

Don't pay the ransom, I've escaped!

(That's what my dad always used to say when he'd been gone for a long time and was calling to check in. :)

No, I didn't forget about the blog. I woke up Wednesday to a completely dead laptop even though it'd been plugged in to charge overnight. Thank goodness it was just the power cord, but no one within an hour radius of BFE our teeny tiny town carries any kind of Mac accessories. I decided to wait to go to a Mac store since my weekend plans put me near one.

The reason I was in the "big city" this weekend was for a scrapbooking retreat with my mom. My cousin came to watch Peanut while we worked on our albums. It was nice to have her right there, but still be able to focus on my pages.

I go to several retreats every year and it seems like I always lose my creative juice as soon as I walk in the door. Not this time! I was brainstorming layouts in the shower and in the car on the way there. It was so nice to sit down, pull out my pictures and immediately get to work instead of sitting there for the first 3 hours with a blank stare on my face.

I didn't get a ton accomplished because I still had to take time out to feed Peanut, feed myself and tend to her when she needed her mom. It was still more than I've accomplished in the last 10 months. It felt so good to get started on her album and fun/emotional/sad to look back at pictures of her when she was first born.

I wanted a girly album for Peanut's first year, but not light pink or anything with cheesy baby graphics on it. I fell in love with the color of this one and bought it. The picture doesn't really do it justice. It's somewhere between a bright pink and a coral.

I'm not going to post the title page because Peanut's full name is the majority of the layout and blurring it out would pretty much leave a blank page. :)

Here are some of the layouts I completed. Nothing too fancy or overly creative, but they're finished. I took a lot more time than usual figuring out what to say in the journaling boxes. I want Peanut to know not only what happened, but how we felt.

I think I'm headed out for a run to wake myself up. I'm going to fall asleep if I don't get up and moving. That's one thing about spending the whole weekend away from home. I'm always worthless the next day.

I'm also linking this post up to the following parties:

Hope you all had a great weekend!

My Fair Baby

Yesterday my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and I took Peanut to her very first county fair.

It was a bajillion degrees and extremely crowded. Blech! We didn't stay very long. 

Of course my sister-in-law and I had to check on how our Home Arts projects faired in the judging and take pictures of our items on display. This was my main motivation for even wanting to 

My digital scrapbook took 1st place in its category:

My vacation scrapbook got a 5th place:

Neither of my sewing items placed. No shame there considering I'm an extreme novice. You should have seen the incredible pieces they were up against! Not gonna lie, I swelled with pride when I saw them on the display shelves even though there were no ribbons there. Regardless of how well they did, I made those and other people saw them. :)

 

I kinda wish they would have at least straightened the letters before putting it on the shelf. Oh well.

My sister in law did pretty well with her gift wrapping and baked good projects. This is sort of pathetic, but we're already planning projects and categories to enter for next year. The 2010 fair isn't even over yet!

Off to the fair!

I just got home from entering my projects in the county fair!

I showed horses at my hometown county fair when I was younger, but I've never entered anything as an adult. My sister-in-law entered things for the first time last year and has been trying to talk me into it since then. Until recently, I wasn't diggin' the idea. There's just something about putting my work out there for people to see and judge that makes me nervous.

As the fair actually drew near, my sister-in-law's excitement was contagious and I decided to enter a few things. It would be nice to win for pride and for the cash prizes, but I'm not going to be devastated if I walk away empty handed. I'm just really proud of myself for letting go of my insecurities and it will be neat to have my projects on display.

Here's what I entered:

honeymoon scrapbook (digital category)

Girls' Cruise 2006 scrapbook (vacation category)

felt ABC pillow (miscellaneous pillow category)
template from Martha Stewart

stuffed fish (stuffed toy - cloth category)
Thanks to Kristan for introducing me to this Stanley pattern from Fig Tree & Company. I did sew a smaller piece of black felt onto the eye after taking this picture because it just didn't stand out enough for me.

I also entered a plate of 5 Roma tomatoes from our garden. I'd hoped to have more veggies to enter. Unfortunately, our hot peppers peaked too early and our squash haven't come on yet because we were a little late in planting. :(

The judging is tonight at 5pm. Any good vibes would be much appreciated!