Challenges 5-9

The race continues. Here are my most recent challenges.

#5 - We were to interview an inanimate object and have 4 questions and answers. I chose Nicole's corn popper which she loves.

#6 - This Challenge was called a spin and lift. We had to take a layout of our partner's and rotate it and scrap the opposite material. Becky did her daughter at in the fall so I did Nicole in the spring. Here's Becky's:

Here's mine:

#7 - This challenge was very specific. We it was an element challenge where we had to use very specific things. We had to use 1-paper, 2-ribbons, 3-buttons, 4-glitters/gems/blings, 5-frames, 6-photos, 7-different alphabets, 8-flowers/stars, 9-staples, 10-additional elements of our own choosing. Also, all the items had to be by the same designer.

#8 - This challenge was fun. We had to scrap a memorable vacation using only black and white photos, we could not use travel themed paper or elements, our journaling had to incorporate song lyrics and we had to use only one word for the title. I scraped from our trip to Vegas. The "judge" that checked our layouts first accused me of not using a b/w photo, but I did - I just used a gradient to make the top and bottom transparent so the blue paper blended into the photo.

#9 - For this challenge we had to scrap in the style of "altered art". Basically a style blending different types of media, collage type style, vintage... So very much your own interpretation. I had this photo of Nicole in her Easter dress holding her Easter "bucket" so I thought "okay, I'll have her pouring something out of her bucket. And Eric was actually the one that came up with "put her on the moon and have her pour out stars" which I loved. So as I'm working on it, the look on her face was like she wanted something. And that's where I got the "wish" idea. So she is pouring all these stars into the sky to wish on them all. I think this is my favorite layout.

What else is new with the Robinson's??? Well, a week and a half ago, (on Good Friday) we got 14 inches of snow. Eric was supposed to work a half a day which he works 12 hour days, so 6 hours would get him home around 2... I figured that actually meant he would get home around 4... however he didn't leave until 4:15. On a normal day, he would have about a 45 minute drive, but with the snow, it took him over 3 hours. So he got home at 7:30 (normal time) and Nicole had been a beast all day. Plus, the day before, Eric attended a poker party and didn't get home until after 12. So I had been with Nicole by myself since Thursday morning, without much of a break. So Eric gets home (at 7:30) and says he's going to snow blow. If I spent one more minute alone with Nicole I was going to lose it, so I forced him into the house and said I would go out and snow blow. So as I'm trying to get the snow blower past the car, where there was about 2 1/2 feet of drifting, I fell. Unfortunately, the plow had gotten all the way to the pavement where I fell. I hit my knee really, really hard. Thankfully, Eric came out and helped me up, and offered to finish, but I had only been out for 5 minutes, and couldn't bear going back in. Since I could walk without much pain, I continued. I did just enough to get Eric's truck in (which was more than half the driveway) and then came in. Once I got in, my knee really started hurting more. So I pulled up my pant leg and there was a knot on my knee the size of a tennis ball - no joke, no exaggeration. So I iced it and took ibuprofen for the next day, but it's still messed up. The bruise continued to get bigger until Wednesday (it was bigger than my hand spread open) and its still fading now. However, the knot is still there. It's smaller now, but it's kinda scary because now it's numb. When I run my fingernail over it lightly, I can't feel it. My boss told me how she hurt her knee in a very similar way. She could still walk on it, it felt fine, but she couldn't kneel on it. Which is exactly how my knee is. She ended up needing surgery to repair her torn meniscus. Since it seems to be feeling worse, I'm going to have my doctor check it out, just in case. So think good thoughts for me!!!

Other than my knee, not much else is new with me. Eric has to go to New York this week for work. Just a day trip. He has to look at glass (for the billionth time) for his current project. Nicole is fine. She's smart as a whip, but still not saying much.

Here's a fun picture I'm going to end this post with. It was the only funny part of our snow day. The Easter Bunny showed up early!

Challenges 2, 3 and 4

Here are my scrapbook pages for the Amazing Digital Scrapbooking Race Challenges 2, 3 and 4.

Challenge 2 was a collaborative challenge. Each partner had to design half a page. Becky had this cute picture of Nicole and got the idea of naughty or nice. She scrapped half the page, sent it to me and I finished it up. She did naughty, I did nice.

Challenge 3 was all about ME! It had to  be at least 50% journaling, so I did a 50 things about me list, inspired by my friend Kim's "100 things about me." It started about being 100 things, but I'm not that interesting. Maybe I'll finish it later!

For challenge 4, we had to choose an event and write about it. I chose write about the day Nicole was born. We also had to use at least 1 large picture, and some sort of blending, which I used color and pattern overlay.

I'm off to work on challenges 5 and 6! more to come later!

It's been so long!!

I know, I haven't been keeping up with my posts. Bad, bad Mel. :o(

So here's what's new!

Along with my friend Becky, I joined the Amazing Digi-Scrapbook Race. It's this digital scrapbooking contest, and there are two challenges every week at different websites. It's a team thing, and Becky is my teammate.  Some of the challenges are individual, some are a collaborate effort. So here is my first layout!

We were given a template we had to follow, and it had to be about our favorite subject to scrap, and contain our favorite colors. I will continue to post my layouts.

What else is new??? Not much! Eric's good. Nicole's good... That's about it! What a boring blog I have. I'll have to spice it up one of these days!

2007 in review

I've been working on this post for awhile. I wanted to post a picture of Nicole from each month to show how she's changed and grown. But Since I didn't do it in 2006, I started from her birth. A lot has happened last year! Our lower level flooded. Eric and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. Nicole changed so much. She went from my baby girl to my big girl. She learned the word "no" and she learned to ignore it too. She went from being a little peanut to a big moose butt. So here she is! From birth to 16 months!

birth

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

1 year

13 months

14 months

15 months

16 months

Meet Ginger & Mango

Here are two members of our family that you may not know. These are our kitties, Ginger & Mango.


Mango is a beefcake. She's lazy, constantly underfoot, but is such a sweetheart. She loves to lounge around on her back with her feet in the air.


Ginger is a very sweet, but sassy girl. She gets this crazy streak in her where she rips around the house like a maniac. She's very cute and likes to cuddle.

So these are our other girls. The don't get mentioned much since Nicole came around and stole their thunder, but we love them just as much as ever.

My little snow bunny

Here comes another photo shoot! We went outside during one of our warm up days for a few pictures. Nicole wanted to show off some of her new Christmas clothes, and we both enjoyed the fresh air. Is she too cute, or what?

Baby, it's cold outside

It's been a while... I've been working from home a lot, so most of my computer time is work, not leisure.

What is new? Nicole is all better from her cold and being just as sassy as ever. We got about 9 inches of snow recently and she thinks that is pretty cool. Tomorrow, I'm going to go buy her a snowsuit and boots, and maybe a sled to pull her around the yard.

Eric and I attended his work Christmas party on Saturday. It was held in the grand ballroom at Navy Pier. So beautiful. Dinner was yummy, drinks were yummy and dessert was to die for. They set up like 5 dessert islands with all kinds of stuff. One island is a chocolate fountain with all the good dippings, plus a few unusual (twinkies?) Another island was "kid candy" which was fishbowls of candy like fun dip, bottle caps, candy buttons, airheads, lemonheads, necco wafers... you name it, they had it. Then there were a few islands with more normal dessert items - cheesecake, cupcakes, mini pies, candy apples, bars, cookies... all the goods. So yummy. This year they did something new. They brought in a candy company and they made candy canes on the spot! It was fun to watch. So we had a lovely night in Chicago. The next morning we discovered that the New York Giants were staying in our hotel for the game against the Bears. So there were a bunch of Giants fans waiting by an escalator to see the players come down and get on the bus. I wanted to see someone semi-famous so we waited a few minutes and we did get to the QB - Eli Manning. So that was my star sighting for the year! (I'm so star struck!)

I'm so excited for Christmas. I'm going to try to get some stuff up tomorrow. I also have to work on my Christmas Cards. I love to make them, but I think I lost all of my creative juice as I can't come up with a fun idea for them. I know it will include a picture... but that's about it!

I'm having issues with uploading photos. More to come soon. Promise!!

Crappy Weekend

So this weekend was pretty awful. Nicole started developing a cold late Thursday night. It got worse Friday and Saturday morning she was coughing so hard she sounded like a dog. But Saturday afternoon she was struggling to take a breath. So we took her to the walk in clinic where she was transferred to the emergency room. We learned she had an upper respiratory infection as well as an ear infection. She received two breathing treatments, some steriods, chest x-rays, a popsicle and was sent home with three prescriptions. Through all of this she really was in great spirits. She's so incredible. Why does she keep getting sick? I feel lately it's been a lot. In September she had bronchilitis, then a couple weeks later pinkeye, then a high fever for a couple days, which turned into a cold, and she just got over that and this all happens. My poor baby girl. She's feeling much better now though. :o)

Trick or Treat

Nicole was a ladybug for halloween. She didn't do much trick-or-treating though. Just to the neighbor. With her allergies, she could only have suckers. I don't think I ever posted that we had her re-tested and she is no longer allergic to wheat or peanuts!!! Still milk (quite severly) and eggs, but she can eat bread and most crackers now!!! And real cheerios! No more Perky-Os for this girl!!!

Again, I don't think I posted her picture from last year halloween. She was a lobster. So I've included that as well.

So much love for my little big girl

I never knew I could love someone as much as I love my peanut. She is so wonderful, and makes me smile all the time. Even when she wakes up at 2 in the morning wanting to play, I just can't get enough of her. My baby girl. Today, my baby girl wore her new overalls, and looked more like a small child! Where did my baby go? I just turned around and she was gone. Turned into a big girl who knows how to brush her hair (all 5 strands of it). A big girl who can use a fork. A big girl who knows how to pet the kitty gently so she doesn't run off. A big girl who can get in and out of her rocking chair all by herself. A big girl who will give hugs and kisses if you ask for them. Although I miss my baby girl, I'm pretty excited about my new big girl.

Who Knew Corn Could Be so Cute

Not much has been going on with us lately, hence this strange post. Nicole was eating corn the other day, and it was so funny I had to bust out the camera.

Weekend in Review

This weekend was kind of plain. We made a few trips to Kohl's as we had a 30% off everything coupon. Got a few picture frames, some fall clothes for Nicole, new jeans for Eric, and new shoes for both Nicole and myself. My brother-in-law and his girlfriend came down to visit and to give Nicole her birthday presents since they couldn't make it for her party. We had some dinner at Culver's, and called it a day. Sunday, I picked up a gift card at Ben & Jerry's for my pregnant friend's birthday. I swear, walking into that place smelled like I had walked into a giant cave of ice cream. When I got back in the car, Eric said I smelled like ice cream too. So now I'm craving some Ben & Jerry's Cinnamon Bunz... mmmm.... so yummy. But I'm trying to eat better, so Eric is at the store buying me sherbert. Yeah. That's the same. How sad. :o)

Happy Birthday Nicole!

We celebrated Nicole's 1st birthday this weekend. Can you believe it! Nicole is 1 year old! Here are some pictures from her party.

Here are some of her guests, chatting and snacking before lunch is served.

Here is Nicole, waiting patiently for her lunch.

Here is Nicole with the guest cake.

And here's Nicole with her wheat free, milk free, nut free, egg free cupcake with Crisco/Powdered sugar frosting.

And of course she got some presents. This is her Little People Farm set.

And here is her Elmo chair that giggles and shakes when Nicole sits in it.

This is her rocking toy that when you press the ear it sings "I'm a magical unicorn, rainbow colors and glowing horn. We'll have lots of fun today when you come with me and play."

And this is from Mommy and Daddy, her riding Pooh airplane.

What a fun day. I hope Nicole had a good time. Love you baby girl. xoxo