Week In The Life: Friday

Hello, world! M is excited for it to be morning. When I took this, she was trying to wiggle away from me so she could climb down the couch. Please ignore the WALL OF STUFF behind her. We are sort of stuck in this halfway process of moving and also for the life of me I can never seem to get all the clean laundry put away. We like having a clean floor, though, so it all just gets kind of pushed against that wall.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I always forget to pull out the camera in the mornings for my husband. It must be because I am such a zombie in the AM. I will definitely have to try and fix that in the future.

M and I had some breakfast, changed a diaper, and she played while I caught up on the internet. Then I did a little cleaning in the bathroom.

M was a great helper.

This is where M's bath toys tend to collect when not in use. Upon reflection, I suppose that mat should be cleaned soon. Huh.

After that I made my to-do list. And then proceeded to do things.

I discovered that, yes, I really do look 26 weeks pregnant. Yay me!

We have a cat who loves to wait until I'm in the bathroom... ahem... taking care of business... before she egs for attention. I guess she figures that she has a captive audience, so why not?? I'm very proud of this picture because she was standing almost on top of me and yet I managed to stay out of the shot. Yay me!

I have the following cleaning policy: Every day by 6PM, the living room and bathroom will be clean. I will always attempt to get some dishes done as well. Anything else will just have to wait until my husband is home to corral the child, and it will be okay. The above picture is M's idea of a 'clean' living room. She spends all morning dragging things out and making this ginormous mess.

Thankfully, she has me to come along behind her and mess everything up. You'll note that no sooner was I taking a picture of the results than she was beginning to put the room to 'rights' again. :P

Afternoon nap. Mommy's very favorite time of  the day.

I definitely did have 3 100 calorie ice cream bars yesterday. Oops. At least I ate other food too! That reminds me that I need to get a picture of M eating grapes. OMGosh the best!

The most unorganized drawer in my craft cabinet. I think it needs going through. There appears to have been a flurry of non-crafty things in Mommyland.

M's favorite way to teethe is on leftover pizza crusts. Sure, why not? Have it, kiddo.

Crawling around - wait, what? Is that my car?

My husband, engaging in his favorite activity. Reading. Also acting as a dragon protecting his awesome sword. M has had a bath and a bottle and been aslepp for about half an hour at this point.

If a bowl of fruit this size (I've eaten most of it in the picture) didn't cost twice as much as a bag of potato chips, I would eat one EVERY DAY. I love fruit and melons so much!

Best. Birthday. Present. Ever. I love my husband for bringing me this cup. It travels everywhere with me. It's probably as attached to me as my phone is at this point. Gotta keep hydrated. Gotta do it in style. Oh, yeah... (That is my dresser. Another casualty of the 'clean floor' rule. That is a pile of Goodwill-bound baby clothes and a couple new packages of wipes. XD Those really should have other homes. It's amazing what you don't notice, huh?)

That was my Friday! It looked a lot like Monday-Thursday, but with many more pictures! See you again tomorrow!

Store Closing Sale @ Divine Digital

Yes, you read correctly. I am shutting down my store at Divine Digital. I have loved Divine. It has been my digi-home for almost a year now. The administrators and designers there are professional and friendly, and I will miss working with them.

But I have some really awesome things in store - for myself and for you.

My journey as a designer does NOT stop with my store closure at Divine. And I think, if you keep an eye on this blog, my facebook, and my twitter over the next week, it won't take you long to get as excited as I am. :) I have a LOT going on for NSD weekend - and even more great things coming up after that! I hope you will follow me as I embark on this new chapter of my digi-journey.

In the meantime (because I can't reveal EVERYTHING at once!) I am offering 35% off ANY purchase at my Divine Digital store between now and the 3rd, when I will be disabling my products and closing up shop. It doesn't matter how much you spend, or how many of my products you buy*. 35% off.

*$1 products not included.

I'll be back soon with more awesome stuff!

A Week In The Life: Thursday

Thursday is DH's day off, and so mine too. I have only 1 picture for you from Thursday. It is of a little substance I like to call AMBROSIA. <3 Have a nice day!

A Week In The Life: Wednesday

Having a bottle on the couch. It's made up as a bed because Daddy goes out there to catch some extra Z's after M wakes up crazy early in the morning. She usually gets back in bed with me - with varying results.

I made dessert chips for after lunch. I love these so hard. Let me see if I can copy/paste the recipe I posted on Facebook...

Brown sugar cinnamon tortilla chips. Yummy yummy. I'm still perfecting the recipe, but here's what I'm going to do next time: set oven to broil, mix up sugar/brown sugar/cinnamon to taste, cut up tortillas into desired shapes, lightly brush with olive oil on both sides, place on cookie sheet, sprinkle with spice mixture, place in oven. Cook time depends on how 'done' you want them to be. I want mine slightly golden around the edges, and mostly crispy. Using corn tortillas will give you more of a Dorito crisp vibe, whereas flour is usually a little chewier. Since they're dessert chips, I prefer flour tortillas, but that's a matter of taste. ;)

 Something I forgot to say on Facebook was that you should NEVER walk away from these. Count to 60 twice, and then crack the oven door so you can watch them. My chips usually take about 3 minutes to cook if the oven is completely pre-heated when I put them in. But since it's set on Broil, it will always cook up super quick!

The honeysuckle outside is literally taking over the house. Gotta love it.

I have come to the conclusion - from hours of 'forced' consumption - that the Backyardigans live in the perfect world. A world where, with the exception of one Christmas special, it is eternally summer. But not the 108 degrees far too hot to go outside summer. No, they live in that magical time between school letting out (they're all old enough for at least preschool) and the crazy heat. And they live in a neighborhood where their parents know the neighbors and are okay with their kids running around in each other's backyards unsupervised in the afternoons.

I want to live in that world. Please, please, please.

A Week In The Life: Tuesday

This morning started off innocuously enough, I suppose. M got that piano toy from my Great-Aunt Virginia. She's had it for almost a month now, and has finally started showing some interest in playing it without prompting. I was a little concerned, since she loved her other piano so much (RIP yard-sale baby piano. You were great while the batteries lasted. Perhaps we'll pull you out again for J to play with) but she seems to have finally gotten the hang of it.

Daddy left to go for work - and I never seem to have my phone handy to document the waves goodbye and sadness when she realizes that she can't follow him to the car. Unhappy day. We settled in with our respective toys, and got started on our day. M had some of my cereal (with skim milk even - don't judge) and a few puffs, and a bottle. I changed her diaper. Normal stuff. Then, I decided to do some laundry. Silly, silly me.

M followed me into the laundry room. Then she got bored. And when M gets bored it usually means trouble of some kind. Today was no exception. She crawled into my bedroom and started playing under DH's desk. Normally, I don't mind - she has toys scattered throughout every room, and she usually pulls one to her choice sitting spot and entertains herself. Except that today, she somehow managed to get tangled up in a lamp cord.

Are you seeing where this is going?

This is the lamp that USED to sit on the hutch of DH's desk. It also USED to have an awesome, bright, CFL bulb in it. Right. This is when Mommy starts panicking. I think I might have pulled something yanking her out of the debris. After dusting her off and making sure she had no cuts or glass in her hair, I relocated her to the living room and frantically called my husband. Six times. I would show you on my recent calls list, but my iPhone doesn't have a screen capture feature.

But seriously. Mommy Freak Out Time. CFL bulbs - so I have heard and read - can be crazy, crazy dangerous because of the mercury inside. And M just broke one, practically over her head. The only instructions I could remember said something about pulling up the carpet. WE ARE RENTING THIS HOUSE. Also, I couldn't remember if, in addition to bathing M, we needed to burn/dispose of her clothes. Yes - when I freak out, I don't do it lightly.

Luckily, our bulb contained POWDERED mercury. We didn't have to pull up the carpet, or burn clothes, or anything like that - but our vaccum is out of commission for a while. My husband came home and cleaned up the mess while I gave M a mid-morning bath. She thought that was absolutely the best thing ever. If she was older, I would probably worry about it becoming an incentive to break more lightbulbs. As it is, I think she was too busy enjoying herself to plot. Much.

We closed off the room for the rest of the day, and I breathed a sigh of relief. And then we had a bottle and took a nap (on the couch)

Seriously. Is there ANYTHING more adorable than a sleeping baby? Anything?

After our nap, M had her lunch. Spinach and cheese ravioli. She obviously thought it was crazy yummy.

Then we read a couple books (I will have to get some video of M "reading" up here at some point - she is so spot on with her mimicry there) and played with our toys some, and I got on the computer to sneak in a little work. She continued playing (and occasionally watched some Backyardigans - I am not above distracting her to get a few minutes to myself in the afternoon) and every so often I would look over and we would grin at each other over whatever toy she was stuffing in her mouth. And, ooh, wasn't that cute, she was gnawing on one of her Little People... Wait. M doesn't have any bright blue Little People.

If your heart constricting in terror and flying into your throat was considered a heart attack, I can say with surety that I would have been experiencing one in that moment. Somehow, very quietly, very sneakily, my TEN MONTH OLD had gotten the child-proof lid off of a bottle of allergy medicine, and was shoving said lid into her mouth.

I staged a picture of the bottle with some pills scattered on the bathroom counter, but apparently photos like that are against the ToU of my image sharing website, since they deleted it less than an hour after upload. :|

She didn't ingest any of them, thank goodness. But I think the fact that she could reach them means I definitely need to re-think our baby proofing. And keep my purse off the floor. That would probably help as well.

Anyway... that was the majority of our Tuesday. DH came home from work. We played. We ate dinner. M had another bath. She went to bed. We went to bed. All normal things which I didn't manage to get pictures of.

But when I was going through my camera photos, I found this one from spring break and wanted to share it with you:

This is my husband, in the yard at his mom's house, taking a break from teaching himself how to juggle. I love you, honey. <3

Divine Digital Download A Day

Don't forget to pick up today's mini for the Divine Digital DAD! I'm one of this month's sponsors, and you can pick up my piece by clicking on the preview (and registering at Divine Digital).

A Week In The Life: Monday

So I really fell down on the job today. There was absolutely no picture-taking today. For that matter, I did very little thinking about A Week In The Life. I'm pretty disappointed with myself, that's for sure.
Back when M was born, I was taking several pictures a day at least, between my camera and my phone. Not just of her (but mostly) and I really felt like I was on-track for eventually getting our memories recorded.
And then life happened... And the photos started getting fewer... and farther between...

I am determined to be better. This is our life! These are our memories! I'm trying to break into a business where I help people make and keep memories for a LIVING! I cannot be lax about this. We have a story. When M is older, I will cherish getting to look back at it. So will she. So will my grandchildren. And their children.

I'm not sure yet what my solution is going to be - but I will find one.

In the meanwhile, have a picture that is not from Monday, but very well could have been.

That is my Fiestaware cabinet. It's my "wedding china". I treasure every piece in that cabinet. Hopefully, someday, I'll be able to make a kitchen to match. Ah, dreams...

Download A Day at Divine Digital

Don't forget to pick up today's mini for the Divine Digital DAD! I'm one of this month's sponsors, and you can pick up my piece by clicking on the preview (and registering at Divine Digital).

Divine Digital Download A Day

Don't forget to pick up today's mini for the Divine Digital DAD! I'm one of this month's sponsors, and you can pick up my piece by clicking on the preview (and registering at Divine Digital).

Divine Digital Bunny Hop

How's your hopping going? We've got a great bunny trail planned for you today!

I've hidden a bunny print on my blog - can you find it and get your freebie?

New Release Friday - "My Dream" and "Birthday Party"

Hello, all, and welcome to New Release Friday! I have a TON of stuff coming into the store for you today! :)

I'm really excited to debut my two new kits, the first of which is called "My Dream". This kit was definitely inspired by my daughter, and the many, many photos I take of her via Instagram. It has a total of 8 patterned papers and 17 elements for you to play with.

 I love bold colors, on my walls, on myself, and on her. At the same time, I also wanted the kit to be versatile enough to scrap lots of things with - and I think it would definitely work with little boy pictures as well, or with any I have taken of my husband or other family members. It's bright enough to work for Spring and Summer, and it's exactly that boldness and "alive" feeling that I search for in the depths of Winter.

The Mini Kit will be normally priced at $2.50, but for the release weekend, you can pick it up for only $2! That's 20% off!

When I finished the mini, I realized that I had made WAY too many papers! I couldn't make myself let them languish on my hard drive, so I put together a little paper pack for you. It contains 5 solid papers and 7 patterned papers, and is priced to make your budget happy at only $1.50.

 

And when I had it all finished, I realized that I hadn't made any alphas! To make up for not having one in the original kit, I bundled three together - the whole bundle costs $1.50 - so that means you are only paying .50 an alpha. That's a great deal!

Now, when I previewed this kit earlier this week, I announced a giveaway as well, and for my first one on my blog, I was very excited to see the response! I am happy to announce that the winner was poster #2 - Shelly! Please email me at vsomdesigns@gmail.com to get your coupon code, hon.

For those of you who were interested in the kit, but didn't win it, feel free to use this coupon code for 15% off your purchase of at least $5 in my shop through the Sunday the 8th of April:

nr_mydream15

 

My second new release is also dear to my heart. It's called "Birthday Party", and it was created to celebrate TWO birthdays happening in the next week. Divine Digital will be celebrating it's birthday on Monday, April 9th - and I will be celebrating my own birthday on Friday, April 13th! I love the colors in this kit - they range from bright and bold to more pastel and subtle. And the theme was amazing. 

This kit is filled with stickers, doodle flourishes, and my favorite element - icing splatters! I don't know about you, but I am the world's messiest birthday cake eater. Icing always ends up on EVERYTHING. That, honestly, is probably why I don't eat a lot of it. :) The two ribbons in the kit were also hand-extracted by me, which is a great design achievement for me. The iced cookie alpha is lower-case only, but don't despair - keep your eyes peeled to Divine Digital and my Blog/Facebook on Monday and you might, just maybe, find the other half of the alpha floating around for free...

The kit has 24 papers - 8 solid and 16 patterned, 1 full lower-case alphabet, and 45 elements. It is priced at $3.50. There is no sale on this kit this weekend.

I also separated the patterned papers, for anyone who would rather purchase them by themselves. They are priced at $1.50.

I made a whole bunch of add-ons for this kit - I just couldn't stop!

I created this paper pack for those scrappers who prefer more subdued patterns in their layouts - while I am a fan of bold patterns and bright colors, I know that lightly patterned papers fit better with other artistic styles. This paper pack contains 16 lightly patterned papers, and is priced at $1.50.

 

Click the bunny print to be taken to your freebie!

I also made this single-case birthday candle alpha. I love birthday candles, the bright colors and beveled stripes. I made this alpha in FIVE colors for you, and this alpha pack is priced at $1.50.

And then, what is a birthday cake without number candles to commemorate your age? In the same vein, what is a birthday kit without number candles to decorate your page? This pack contains four 0-9 numeral candle sets, and is also priced to move at $1.50. They are more decorative and less traditional than candle alpha, but who doesn't want something pretty to spice up their pages?

As a reminder, all my products are PU/S4O friendly, and are not for commercial use. Each preview in this post is linked to it's individual store listing, but if you would like to see my whole store, you can find it here. You can also "like" me on Facebook for instant news and updates about my business.

I am also hosting the shape challenge at Divine Digital this month! Hustle over here to the challenge thread to partiicpate, and you can pick up this PU pack of .png shapes to edit and use to enhance your layouts!

Also happening today is Divine Digital's Bunny Hop!

 

Keep an eye on the Divine Digital forums, my blog, and my Facebook today - as well as all the other Divine Designer's Social Media sites - we will be giving away freebies all weekend - a veritable scrapper's easter basket full of supplies!

So, I hope I have inspired you to not only check out my store, but also to spend some time with your pictures and SCRAPBOOK. Always remember, I do what I do to provide you with beautiful, versatile scrapbooking kits because your memories matter.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend, and happy scrapping!

New Release Friday - Sneak Peek #1

Check it out! This is one of two new kits I will be releasing on Friday (April 6th!). This one is called My Dream. And you could win it!

Here's how to enter: 

- Comment on this blog entry.

For extra entries, you can:

- "like" Virginia State of Mind Designs on Facebook, and leave a separate comment telling me you have done so.

- become a follower on my blog, and leave a separate comment telling me you have done so.

The contest will close on Thursday, April 5th, at midnight EST. Any comments posted after that point will be ineligible for the drawing. I will draw for a winner from the comments on Friday morning, when I post the full kit preview. 

Good luck, and happy scrapping! :D

April LDS Blog Train!

(Image courtesy of LDS.org)

My dear Relief Society sisters, you are closer to heaven than you suppose. You are destined for more than you can possibly imagine. Continue to increase in faith and personal righteousness. Accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ as your way of life. Cherish the gift of activity in this great and true Church. Treasure the gift of service in the blessed organization of Relief Society. Continue to strengthen homes and families. Continue to seek out and help others who need your and the Lord’s help.

Sisters, there is something inspiring and sublime about the little forget-me-not flower. I hope it will be a symbol of the little things that make your lives joyful and sweet. Please never forget that you must be patient and compassionate with yourselves, that some sacrifices are better than others, that you need not wait for a golden ticket to be happy. Please never forget that the “why” of the gospel of Jesus Christ will inspire and uplift you. And never forget that your Heavenly Father knows, loves, and cherishes you.

Thank you for who you are. Thank you for the countless acts of love and service you offer up to so many. Thank you for all that you will yet do to bring the joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ to families, to the Church, to your communities, and to the nations of the world.

Sisters, we love you. It is my prayer and blessing that you will never forget that you are truly precious daughters in God’s kingdom, in the sacred name of our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

~Dieter F. Uchtdorf 

It is a great honor and privilege to be a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. One of the many blessings I have received as a member of the church, countless times over, is the blessing of hearing our modern day prophet and apostles speak across the miles on subjects that directly affect my day-to-day life. By the time President Uchtdorf closed his talk at the General Relief Society meeting last October, I was sobbing. His words touched me in ways that changed my view of myself and my spiritual contribution to my family and my church community.

I know that I am not forgotten. I am a divine daughter of my Father in Heaven, a princess in his kingdom who is destined for many spiritual blessings. I know that I am enormously blessed to have been sealed to my husband in a temple of the Lord, and to have my daughter and unborn son sealed to us in an eternal family. I know that I have been gifted with a knowledge of the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who is my brother, my teacher, and my redeemer, the divine son of God who walked as a human on this Earth for the sole purpose of learning of my trials and taking upon himself my sins. I know that I am incredibly blessed to have His atonement in my life, that if I am diligent in repenting of my sins I can return, clean, to my Father in Heaven. I am so thankful for His church, the things it has taught me, and the opportunities is has given me to service my fellow man. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me, just as they love you. And with that, I close my testimony in the name of my brother, my Savior, and my friend, Jesus Christ. Amen.

And now... Down to business.


This month's Blog Train theme was Forget Me Not, which is also the title of the President Uchtdorf talk I quoted above. You should have found me from Word Art World. If you are wondering why the preview below looks different than the preview in the video above, it is because I decided to unveil my new product packaging this month, and ended up repackaging my part of the train after I had submitted my preview for the video.


Here is my portion of the blog train:

Some elements were resized to fit on the preview. Drop shadows are for the preview only. Blog Train Downloads will be available on my blog for 1 year after the original posting, after which I reserve the right to add them to my store. All Blog Train contributions are hosted on my personal ftp and offered for direct download for your convenience.

The next stop on the blog train is DesignZ by DeDe.

As always, if you have gotten lost, you can find the entire station list at the LDS Blog Train Blog. 

Be sure to keep an eye on my blog for upcoming announcements about Divine Digital's Bunny Hop on April 6th AND the Divine Digital Birthday Bash on April 9th, as well as my own birthday festivities starting on April 13th! Don't miss it!