First Ever Monday GSO!

I'm starting a new blog/facebook feature this week, entitled our Monday GSO. Everyone knows that Mondays are usually dreary. I find that mine very rarely live up to my expectations. And as I was thinking about it the other day, I decided that the perfect way to spruce up my Mondays would be to feature a GORGEOUS layout by one of my lovely friends at Digiridoo Scraps using my products.

I love seeing my stuff being used. My customers use my kits in ways I can't even imagine, and I am constantly in awe of the gorgeous stuff they create! My Monday Gallery Spotlight is a way for me to say "Thank You", and give them a little of the recognition they absolutely deserve.

Today's GSO was made by scrappymelly on the DRS forums, and is titled "Aunt Judy". It uses the May DRS Collab - and specifically some of my part of it - to layer up a stunning layout.

Both the kit and the layout are linked up - click on the kit to get a better look at it in the DRS store, and click on the layout to leave Melanie some much deserved love in the galleries!

Hope you liked this Monday's GSO - keep scrapping with my stuff, and next week's GSO might just be you!

Happy Scrapping!

May DST Blog Train

Sorry guys, I am having some issues with getting my portion of the blog train to upload properly. I apologise heartily for not having that done in advance. With my laptop issues and some sudden RL stuff going on today I am unable to devote any more time to trying to get my bit online.


I am sorry for the wait, and then the cancellation. I hope you enjoy the rest of the blog train.

You are at Virginia State of Mind Designs. You should have come here from Bon Scrapatit Designs. The next stop on the blog train is Marissa Lerin @ Pixelscrapper. As always, if you are having trouble finding any of the stops, or want to revisit a certain page, you can find the entire list here at The Blog Train Blog.

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