New52 - week5

I can't believe that we are already on week 5.  So this week, I tried 2 NEW recipes.  I'll only share with you one because I totally botched the other one.  I've been following the Pioneer Woman and always drool over her mad cooking skills.  All of her food look so amazing that I finally decided to try one of them.  I made her Beef Fajita Nachos, but I didn't make the nachos part just the fajita.  I thought it came out really good, a bit on the spicy side but with homemade guacamole really tones it down.  So what you see below are my sliced flank steak, guacamole, and stir fried bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms.  The second picture is my fajita all assembled.  The full recipe and stunning photo can be found here.

My sister, Jill, is in town visiting with her son.  We went shopping on Saturday and I bought NEW makeup.  Just a simple Chanel highlighting powder.  I couldn't resist after Ed put some on me and the fact that Jill kept telling me that it is only "limited edition."  It is always nice to indulge a little, especially on makeup.

Here is just a quick photo of my daughter with all of her cousins.  Grandpa and grandma must love all the extra company at their house.

From left to right, Nicholas, Luke, Josh, and Bostyn.

Now for some NEW layouts for the week.  There is nothing that a great challenge to get my creative juices flowing.  This time it is the joint designer spotlight on Paislee Press and One Little Bird at Oscraps.  I've already created 7 layouts for this spotlight.

These photos were taken the other week when we were at the Bishop Museum.  We were outside eating gummy bears and Bostyn wanted to play, "which hand" game.

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This layout is about a story Bostyn told us about the babies.  Well, she really doesn't tell "stories" yet but it was her first real attempt at recalling an event that happened at grandma's house that day.

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This photo was taken on our outing to the park.  Bostyn wanted to go down the slide over and over again.  This became her catchphrase for the day, "one more time . . . one more time . . . "  I later found that Liz of Paislee Press had "spotted" this layout on shared it on her blog.  What a wonderful surprise and such an honor because so many layouts have been submitted for this challenge.

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 This layout is using the freebie template, Conversation Piece no. 2 by Paislee Press and One Little Bird.  I wanted to use it for this layout showing Bostyn stuck in a box saying, "help me please."  You can see her hand reaching out to you wanting help out of the box.

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This layout is using another great template, Conversation Piece no. 3.  I wanted to keep the page white and use these photos of Bostyn.  I love how the blue dress and adorable white shades just pop off the page.  This page documents all of Bostyn's first words up until 24 months.  After that, I couldn't keep up.

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Ok, this layout had to be photo-less.  Why?  because it is a conversation that Bostyn had with her daddy while he was in the bathroom.

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This layout was simply saying Bostyn's new favorite word, "oh-tay."  She can't pronounce the /k/ sound so it comes out at /t/ instead.  It is so cute to hear her say, "oh-tay."  Surprise, surprise, I got a Gallery Standout for this one.  I did not expect such an honor because there are so many cool layouts in the gallery lately.  I know all of you in the digi scrapping world would appreciate a gallery standout and be totally thrilled and excited to get such an honor.  However, all my sisters did was mock me.  They just don't get it.    

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Now onto the Superbowl Inspired Challenges at Design House Digital.  I totally jumped onto this late.  I wish I had done a few more layout and blogged about it earlier.  I really wanted to win their Wacom Tablet giveaway.

This layout was inspired by the Superbowl Ads.  Remember the Snickers commercial where the guys are playing football and then one guy tells another, "You're playing like Betty White, out there."  Too funny.  I love that commercial.  So I made a layout showing Tate playing basketball with his friends.  I love these frames from Karen Funk

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Superbowl team logo inspired challenge.  I took the G from Green Bay Packers' logo to create the title on this layout.  Yes, my daughter picks out all the green candies out first.

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I love this template by Deena especially the word art that comes with it.  So this layout was inspired by the Pittsburgh Steelers' team colors.

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This layout had to incorporate the "vs."  It was perfect for the sequence of photos that I took of Bostyn and Tate going down the slide.  I love these alpha digital brushes from Karla Dudley.

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Sorry, for this incredibly long post.  I promise it will be shorted next week.  Thanks for hanging in there.