Zva Blog Hop Winners!

Just a quick note regarding the winners of the Zva Creative blog hop!  Please find the winners' names and the amount of their prize noted below:

Michelle Woerner - $50.
Jules the blog princess - $50.
Karen Motz - $30.
Rbarakat - $30.
Scrappininak - $15.

Please send an e-mail to kimhughes22@aol.com and share your address.  We appreciate you playing along with us so very much!

This is also my last official post as part of the Zva Creative Design Team.  I chose not to apply to continue on for another term as things are pretty hectic for me right now between tball, soccer, puppy training, birthday parties and just the general craziness that comes with spring.  I have truly enjoyed every minute as part of this fabulous and talented team and cannot say enough good things about their products.  Good luck to those of you who have applied for the new team - I know I for one cannot wait to see what amazing projects the new team creates in the coming months. 

AC/Pebbles Product Swap!

Happy Monday everyone!  Yes I am still here even though from the state of my blog you might think I've gone into hiding.  It's just been a really busy past few weeks and my scrappy time has had to take a backseat to tball, birthdays, and the almighty puppy training.  LOL!

I did want to share with you a recent project I created as part of an American Crafts and Pebbles product swap!  As some of you may know American Crafts acquired Pebbles late last fall.  Pebbles has made some real positive changes as a result of this new relationship and I couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of it all.  And just to show you how well these two companies work together we've scheduled a "swap" this week on both the Pebbles and American Crafts blogs.  You'll get to see some of the Pebbles design team members incorporate American Crafts products into their projects and vice versa. 

I created this fun and bright layout about my beach boys using a combination of the Tree House collection from Pebbles and the Abode and Heat Wave collections from American Crafts.

The colors in these collections work together perfectly and it was a ton of fun to cut bits and pieces of some of the patterned papers to embellish my layout especially these clouds I cut from the Sunset paper in the Tree House collection by Pebbles.

Pebbles has always been known for their Candy Dots and now they've come out with Glitter Candy Dots - LOVE!  They look just like brads but are self-adhesive so no need to poke holes in your papers ... just peel and stick!

I love to layer stickers and pop them up with dimensional adhesive for even more impact and that's exactly what I did here with theses cardboard stickers from the Tree House collection from Pebbles.  I layered my stickers with some bits of American Crafts paper, American Crafts journaling stickers, and of course a little stitching. 

And finally my title using some new ABC stickers from Pebbles along with more punched and pop dotted bits of paper. 

It felt REALLY good to create this layout after not scrapping for awhile especially since the products were just so inspiring.  I hope you stop on by the Pebbles blog today and every day this week as we share lots of projects to get your creativity moving along.  Oh and of course there's a giveaway involved ... so be sure to get over there and leave a comment for a chance to win!  Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Happy Birthday Brandon!

This little man is 4 years old today.  My how time flies!  I still remember the day I found out I was pregnant with him - a total shocker for my hubby and I since our first son was an IVF baby and we were told we had a one in a million chance of getting pregnant on our own.  But sure enough on the morning of Darian's FIRST birthday I realized I was late with my period and decided to take a pregnancy test that I had stashed.  And when it said positive I just about fainted - truly our own little miracle had happened and Darian had given us the best gift on his birthday that any mama and daddy could ask for - another baby to love!

Pregnancy with Brandon was eventful to say the least - lots of nausea and vomiting.  Moreso than Darian and so I was convinced until the day of my 20 week ultrasound that he was a girl.  But truth be told I was thrilled when the technician said we were having another boy.  It meant Darian would have a baby brother just 20 months younger than him - built in playmates and best buddies for life!

I had prelabor with Darian and of course the same went with Brandon.  At 37 weeks I had a regular OB visit scheduled but I wasn't feeling well that day and actually asked Salar to come home from work early and drive me there.  I knew I probably wasn't coming back home.  And sure enough when the doctor checked me I was 5cm dilated.  She contemplated for a minute whether or not she should send me home or not and I think I threatened bodily harm if she sent me back home because I knew I'd end up right back at the hospital in no time.

Labor with Darian was super fast and it was no different with Brandon.  I remember the doctor broke my water and said "settle in I have a C section to perform and then I'll be back."  Salar left to get the forgotten video camera from the car and ran into family in the hallway and didn't come back.  And I was in serious pain.  I pride myself on being very tolerant of pain but it was excruciating and I called in the nurse and told her to turn up the epidural.  She said "Oh honey you're at 10cm the epidural will do nothing for you now." So I pleaded to push and was told I needed to either wait for my doctor to be done with her C section or have an intern deliver my baby. 

So I held on for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only about 10 minutes.  As soon as they knew the doctor was on her way they got me ready to push.  She literally walked in the room, put on her gown, said "push" and then a quick "okay stop, he's out."  And just like that Brandon was born with one push ... or half a push ... or whatever you want to call it.  And I remember Salar saying "that's it?  That was so anticlimatic."  Men!  LOL! 

Brandon was the sweetest baby.  So calm and even tempered.  And then he turned two and his inner demon emerged.  Hee hee!  He is so much like his mama it's scary.  We are both stubborn and hard headed and often get into a test of wills (and I can't even say that I always emerge victorious).  And at the same time he is the sweetest, most caring little boy I could ever ask for.  He still has the most squeezable cheeks and gives the best "juicy" kisses ever.  He is full of energy and has an imagination like no other.  He makes me so very proud to be his mama!  Love you little man ... happy birthday!