Once we decided to get a puppy for Christmas, I couldn't wait. The kids agreed that they would rather have a puppy than Christmas presents this year, and I decided I'd rather housetrain a puppy in October than in December/January. So we found a cuddley, sweet little male Bichon Frise who is now officially named Shadrach.
There has been more laughing in this house over the past couple of days than a whole week combined before our puppy days. The kids each react and play with the puppy in different ways, but it always ends up with laughter. Even Pete got into the play and ended up chuckling as he realized his face was more ticklish than he thought.
Our little guy is non-shedding, loves people, and will only grow to 10-12 lbs. He is currently 8 weeks old, and is quickly adjusting to his new family.
The kids and I were taking the tree down and putting away Christmas decorations today. As we were packing up the kids' homemade ornaments I marvelled again at these pretty stars. They seem to have so much more appeal to me than those reindeer made of popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners. K and V made these in Sunday school this year, and I actually really like them.
As for the technical side of taking a photograph like this, the lighting is very tricky and I obviously don't have it figured out yet. The shadows were terribly distracting, but if I add too much light the reflections of light on some of the beads were overexposed. I could spend an hour or two in Photoshop selecting the ornaments and literally deleting the background, but the infinite number of nooks and crannies . . . ugh!
Ok, now everyone stay still and look at the camera. Miah, you need to look here. Meister, keep your tongue behind your teeth. K, please put the grass down, S is going to try to eat it. Whoever cooperates can have ice cream when we get home, OK? Meister, that means you can’t be fussy. Can someone put S’s hat back on? Miah, put your head up straight. MIAH! No goofy smiles! K, can you get S’s hand out of her mouth?
Credits Fonts: Dupree, GeoSlab 703 XBd BT
Background Papers, trim, and metal elements: Debrra Tope at Oscraps
Glitter Stars: Shelle Pukas
Date Stamp: Katie Pertiet
Sometimes I find myself at a loss for how to arrange my scrapbook layouts. Especially when most published examples are of one page layouts. I like to be able to open the kids' scrapbooks up and have coordinating pages on each side, so I'm always looking for dual page ideas. I found a scrapbook sketch at Page Maps by Becky Fleck that I thought would work with my pictures, took the layout idea and 70 minutes later I had this:
Credits: Papers & elements - Heavenly Holiday kit from Atomic CupcakeFont: Heather
Did I mention she has a fascination with her tongue right now?
Eventually she got tired of staying in one place, but that canvas is so scratchy on bare knees, so we've got to do the bear crawl instead.