Be Merry.

It's already that time of year when Christmas stuff starts popping up all over the place. i LOVE this time of year, it was the first day of fall a couple days ago and the leaves are all ready changing and the apples are ready to be picked (by me then i'll eat 45883 of them and be sick). pretty soon it will be time to go to Stoney Ridge farm quite possibly my favorite place to take pictures.

this year is a little, well a lot different for me, i just started school on monday (ick) i thought, 3 classes, whatever that's nothing, in high school i had 6 classes. well it's a lot tougher. i have to actually use something called time management...?! what's that all about? it's all online so i have about 48873 new usernames and passwords and i'm feeling overwhelmed. oh well i just need a schedule and i'll be fine. that's on my goals for next week, this week i've been babysitting from about 7am-5:15ish everyday and haven't really had time to get organized yet.

this weekend is going to be crazy (i guess to finish off the week how it started). saturday morning i have a young womans pres. meeting at 9am, at 10am i have to help out with a "sharing party" with all the girls ages 5 and under from our ward, right after i leave the party, i have to meet chrey and abby to get our nails done for chrey's wedding on sunday, then go straight to the dress rehearsal in fairhaven. then we'll go out for dinner. so it's going to be a loooong day. i just want to sleep for about 3 days. i was in orgeon last weekend for a wedding (you can read about that here). i've just been too busy.

well i didn't mean to go on and on, it was supposed to be short, oh well. here is a new line from My Minds Eye that i LOVE LOVE LOVE (Be Merry). i bought some of it this week:

and here are a couple pictures from the impromptu photoshoot with the kids i'm kidsitting this week:that's it. i hope everyone has a good weekend. next wednesday i'm sleeping IN!!! woohoo. (that's the first day i won't have anything to do in the morning).

digital scrapbook pages

if you would like a free scrapbooking kit, go to shabby princess and you can get this kit.
here's cason from the 4th of July partay.
since miss mary hasn't been on here for a long time i thought she should probably make an appearance. so here's mary.

Check out my last post to help out Stephanie Neilson.

NieNie...

See my blog, here, if you would like to help NieNie Thanks!!

I promise i'm not a scrapbook stalker!!

ok before i post the pictures of my next couple scrapbook pages, i just have to clarify WHY and WHAT i scrapbook. i take pictures for a lot of people, and my hard drive you better believe is a mess b/c i don't delete them, just in case. soon i'm going to have to get another external for all my pictures...anyways back to the point, right now, i scrapbook the pictures i take, and most of the pictures i take are of other people (i do scrapbook for my mom sometimes). it's like a portfolio if you will of some of my photos. i usually take one or two of my favorite pictures and scrapbook them, to help me chronologically keep track of them. and i love to scrapbook so it gives me something TO scrapbook.
i have no idea if that made any sense, but oh well. i guess to sum it up, i scrapbook other people. weird it might be, but what else am i going to do with the 583772284 pictures i have?

alright first, we have Noah. we took him out to birch bay a couple months ago and i took some 2 year old pictures of him. the little circle things are called YoYo's and i found them on an Etsy shop.

this one i have to apologize for, the colors look terrible in this picture, i couldn't get the new point and shoot to work too well. so in real life, those browns are closer together and don't look so heinous. this was one of my favorite Pratt pictures. i really wanted to use that big P for something.
this isn't a scrapbook page, but my mom and i had this sign made for baby Heath. it's a metal sign with brown vinyl words. (you can visit Treasury of Memories if you would like one..)
so that's it, good job putting up with my ramblings.

i love to {K}nit

i'm not a typical 21 year old i guess, if i think knitting a hat and watching a couple episodes of survivor is funner than going let's say to the mall...well this is my new endeavour i'll have to let you know how it goes, i'm on the last couple rows now of a baby hat. of course after i'm done, i'll need a baby model...anyways here's what i have so far...
i am very tempted to just leave this little "air" hole. i really don't like using 4 freaking needles, it messes with my head. (please ignore the mess around the hat, i'm trying to be good and prepare my lesson for sunday before saturday night.)
and last but not least, i made the pratts a little frame (that ty dropped and kinda broke the corner of {i fixed it though})i used a floating frame and a vynal from Treasury of Memories and printed a 5x7 of one of my favorite pictures from their photoshoot.

Pratts

alright today is going to be A LOT of pictures. i used some pioneer woman actions on them (see right sidebar for link) and the Boutwells Totally Rad Actions on others. woohoo my favorite part of photography is photoshopping them after. i hope the pratts don't mind being on my blog...if they want to see them before hand this and facebook is the best way.

The End.

p.s. it helps a whole bunch when the family you are taking pictures of just natually looks nice, unlike our family where anytime we take any pictures we have funny faces and lots and lots of closed eyes. haha

Birthday Card

I haven't posted a card in a LOOOONG time. i've decided it was time. this is an acetate front card ( i don't know what to call it.) i used opaque stazon stamp pad and a piece of scratch paper for the "present" i might put some ribbon the the seam where the acetate meets the paper but i don't have time now. darn work.
anyways i hope everyone has a good day. i have to go to work so...well...ya.

"That's the best smell this house has ever had"

today, we are going to discuss the importance of good food. we all probably know that i like to cook/bake, then of course i have to EAT what i make, it's a horrid cycle. anyways, our new neighbors gave us this recipe a couple weeks ago and it couldn't be simpler, or taste better! i don't know what it's called, maybe chicken, with sauce. (very original) i'll walk you through the process. then you have to promise to go and make it...now. don't wait, don't pass go, don't collect 100 dollars...wait, nevermind. ok well. now that's out of the way..
what you need:
chicken breast
russian dressing (which i HATE except for in this recipe)

lipton dry onion soup mix- 1 packet

handfull of crasins

Now you can stop there and make it with rice or something, but we like to do things a little differently around these parts...
we get the guerrero hard shell things..see picutre

guacamole
sourcream
lettuce
cilantro

(added this time, green onions and raddishes...just b/c we can)
the first thing you do, is preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
stir together dressing and lipton onion stuff

put chicken into pan with the sauce. coat those bad boys ALL OVER with this stuff. seriously flop them around in there until every bit is covered.

add the crasins on top
now let it cook for about 1-1.5 hours it will get real tender like. that's how we like it. flip the chicken about every half hour, let it get in all that goodness. when there's about 10 minutes left of cook time, i take it out and shred it so it can soak up that sauce some more. then put it back in the oven for a little bit.

then you top your little shell with whatever you'd like and EAT IT!

last time we made this with rice too, but forgot this time and it was still good. shelley even asks for seconds.

my dad came in from outside and said, that's the best smell this house has ever had. everyone, including picky sam loved it.

Random: it's what's for dinner.

i'm kinda crazy. i just started a new blog, mostly meant for random thoughts. i'm keeping this one seperate so you don't get sucked into my craziness. you're welcome. if you dare to venture to that part of the blogisphere go at your own RISK. don't say i didn't warn you! muhahahaha

Camera Straps.

For my birthday last month, i got a little tri-pod...thing. but it wasn't the right size for my SLR so we had to return it. to make up for that, i picked out a stinkin' cute strap for my camera. i LOVE it. i haven't gotten it yet since we just ordered it, but i already know i will enjoy it a heck of a lot better than my black, itchy, ugly strap that came with my camera. here is the one i got...

i know you're all probably jealous. i bought it here, Cotton Candy by Natalie. when i first found her website, i posted a link to it on the right hand side of my blog under SLR straps. you should check her site out, they are a pretty good price and no matter which one you choose, they are all cute. i will let you all know about it when i get it. i'm waiting anxiously for the mail everyday!
p.s. here is what we did today...mini golf and go-karts. yes we are 8.




of course i used the Totally Rad Actions, which i am in love with. (another shameless plug :)) oh well it's not like they pay me.