While I recover....

I leave you with a photo of the most adorable bathing beauty:

Am I right?

This was already a few weeks ago, which means she's not quite that small anymore, which means I'm ready to have the next one. Kidding! Sort of. Ahem.

Be back soon with fun projects to share, a new giveaway, and a past giveaway winner!

The Sickies

The sickies have reached the Starr household. Head cold, pink eye, sore throats, you name it.  First Ellie got it, but she bounced back pretty quickly. Now Ellie is at school while Mommy and Daddy over here stay home and try to sleep A LOT. Be back soon!

Ebb and Flow

About, oh, a year and a half ago things were a little different around here. I was fortunate to be working for a slew of design teams and often participating in outside projects or cooking up my own creative ideas. I submitted layouts to publication regularly, and enjoyed packing them off and seeing them in the issue months later. I had tons of new product coming in, and was using most of it. I scrapbooked every night at least, hardly missing a day.

And then, a few things happened. First, I got pregnant. Which was so long awaited and as thrilling as can be, but well, it made me tired.  I still scrapbooked every night, but often for shorter amounts of time, and I alternated between standing and sitting down (I am generally ONLY a standing scrapper!).

A few months after that, I got a job. Which is when I discovered that sneaky truth of adult life will a 9 to 5 job, which is that by the time you come home from work, make dinner, catch up on laundry, and respond to emails, there's not a whole lot of time left in the day.  So my scrapping continued, but on days when I was cooking for Shabbos I had to forgo my nightly ritual, and I struggled to spend at least as much time scrapping as I was spending on submitting and putting myself out there.

Fast forward another couple of months, and this little one came on the scene.

For a while, I lost all semblance of a routine, as day/night/sleep/nap/scream time became all meshed into one.  I scrapped as my break during maternity leave, but once I came back to work it was a whole new situation.

At this particular moment, I'm the busiest I've been in a long, long time. I'm extremely blessed to have all of the things that keep me occupied, from the sweet baby to the fulfilling job to the brand new house.

But one of the hardest parts of this phase of my life is learning how to say no, especially to scrappy things that bring me so much joy.  No, I shouldn't spend time submitting a layout right now when my boxes are still piled up and causing me stress. No, I shouldn't apply to this design team because I couldn't give it the time it deserves. No, this dream needs to wait.


I'm still keeping up with my current team, and I'm having fun scrapbooking whenever I get the chance to do it. I hope that when we unpack and settle into a new routine, it can happen twice a week or so.  In the meantime, I'll keep sharing with you what I do have time to create, and the ups and downs of making time for this fabulous hobby of ours.

How do YOU fit creativity into your busy life?

Write Click Scrapbook June!

Happy Thursday, folks! I've missed you all--between unpacking, work, forcing my husband to help me choose between drawer pull options, a 24 hour stomach virus, and a possible case of baby conjuctivitis, things have been a wee bit crazy at Chez Starr. 

In the meantime, though, I do have my June layout for Write. Click. Scrapbook. to show you--finally! This one is about how I love to spend time with my E-bear by getting right up close to her face. I love her eyes light up and she gets so interactive!

Speaking of interactive, I had a magical moment getting Ellie ready for her bath today--I was trying to make a farty/bubbly sound with my mouth that she loves, and she was cracking up. Not just laughing because she was being tickled, but because she found something funny! It was a new level of interaction for us, so much fun:)

Here's a close-up of the layout:

Love the veneer arrows, washi tape, and garland! Lots of new Studio Calico goodies in this one. What's the latest scrappy item YOU picked up lately?

Self Portrait

Today...

I felt at home in our new house, even though many things have yet to be unpacked (including my Shabbos reading material--boo!)

I took a walk and appreciated the wind on my face, and the beautiful sun.

I looked at my baby--really looked at her--and considered, once again, how much of a miracle she is to me. I get so scared sometimes that something bad will happen to her, that I'm not doing a great enough job of taking care of her, of everything that could possibly happen. Because I can hardly believe that after everything, she's here.

Today I'm glad to be back. After a week with no internet (!) I'm finally blogging again and taking a moment to pause. It feels good.

What are YOU thinking about today?

House Tour Part 3

I'm checking in from move/ traveling/ family event craziness to share the last part of our house tour: the basement and outdoors!  You can see the first posts here and here.

When you get down to the basement, you see the den to your right:

It's got a very dark, woodsy feel right now, but I think a little paint will be just the ticket!

To your left is the rec room:

Which leads to this ginormous room, which I have no idea how I'll use yet...

The left side of the "big room" has the potential makings of a Passover kitchen one day (I'm hoping!)

Through the doorway is a storage room that was too dark to be photographed that day.

Upstairs, off the kitchen is my beloved porch:

Imagine this one day with black cushions, a porch swing, and hanging planters. Sigh.

I love the little details, like the fixtures, which also carry over the front porch.

In the yard, we have a patio and lots of grass

And there you have it! Home sweet home, part three.  The house already looks SO different after being painted and having some floor work done. I'm so excited to decorate, but I have to deal with more pressing items, such as setting up Internet and making my kitchen kosher, first. Stay tuned for more updates!

And since I just took an 8 hour road trip today and have another one coming up, I would love YOUR suggestions to fun things to do on road trips!

Happy Monday, folks--be back soon with a whole bunch of fun projects to share!

Pardon the Dust...

Checking in to say hello in between all the craziness--I have so much I want to write about (my Write Click Scrapbook layout for June, a few new layouts I've whipped up, thoughts on some articles about Orthodox Judaism circulating the web, and the final installment of the house tour to name a few) but I'm racing against the clock to pack this place up before the movers arrive Thursday morning. Plus go to work. Plus care for that  cute little munchkin in the photo above.

So please pardon the dust and I will be back in a few days! In the meantime, tell me--which post topic are YOU most interested in?

PS--Stamp giveaway open below. I will pick a winner on June 18th!

Happy Third Birthday WCS!

Welcome everyone!  Today we are having a blog hop to celebrate Write. Click. Scrapbook's turning three!  If you're new to my blog, welcome over and please feel free to stay!

Here's your next letter to collect:

And now, I want to share part of why I love WCS. A few years back, I came upon Simple Scrapbook's final issue at a bookstore and devoured it. It was unfortunate that I only discovered the magazine for the LAST issue and not the reverse, but I was still so happy to find such a light, bright, pressure-free way of going about this hobby. Once I got more involved in the scrapbooking industry a few years later, I was thrilled to discover WCS, founded by Simple Scrapbook alums and sharing the same message. This group of scrapbookers is incredibly supportive of one another---we all have completely different styles of scrapping and involvement in the industry, but we focus on and embrace what we do, not the things we don't quite get a chance to.  Get to know WCS--you won't regret it.

For the June gallery, we created layouts inspired by our team members. I chose a layout by the talented Vivian Masket as my inspiration:

I love the linear design, the beautiful script title, the banners--pretty much the whole thing!

Here's a sneak of my take on Vivian's layout:

Go to the WCS June gallery right here to see the whole thing and more!

To continue hopping away, go ahead and visit the (superfun, super-talented...but I digress) LISA KISCH!

To celebrate, I'm giving away a brand new Christy Tomlinson for Unity Stamps background stamp:

To enter, please leave me a comment with some contact information.  (Internationals are welcome to enter as long as you don't mind paying shipping!)

Thank you for hopping and have a happy weekend!