My First Inchies!

So, as I mentioned before, I just joined an "Inchie" swap on Swap Bot and it's my first time making them. Inchies are 1" x 1" miniature pieces of artwork. If you google them you will find tons of examples.

I am sending 4 inchies each to two different people. Since I'm a bit pressed for time and it's my first set, I decided to just create 4 designs and duplicate them. I used a few different mediums but I really like 3 dimensional (butterfly and penguin) the best I think. And stamping overlays. Ok, it was all fun:)

I think they turned out pretty good for my first time! It was fun designing them. The pictures aren't so great. There is a dark one which shows the detail of the lighter one best and a regular one which shows the other details. They will be sent off to their new homes in Argentina and Oxford, GA.

Can't wait to get mine! One set is coming from Germany. The other from somewhere in the US (can't remember.) I'll be sure to post them.

Only 5 more days until we leave for Ocean City, MD. Can't wait!

Happy Birthday Jay!

Owen had another birthday party to go to today for his buddy Jay! Jay is one of the 3 musketeers at school (Owen, Alex and Jay.) The party was at Day Frog, a fun indoor playing area for kids. We have never been there before but Owen really enjoyed it.

Picture of the inside if Day Frog

The hit by far for Owen was the train table. They could have just had a small room with the train table and Owen would have been totally happy. I wish we had room for one at our house...

Evidence of sharing


Owen and Jay with the trains

Owen of course found a giant truck.

They even had an old timey sit n spin

They had lunch and cupcakes to celebrate. Owen ate pizza which I didn't think he'd eat so that was exciting!

Watching Jay blow out his cupcakesThe birthday boy:)

A good time was had by all!!!!

Happy Birthday Parker!

Owen's friend Parker from school turned 2 today! He had a fun birthday party hosted at Gymboree. At first Owen was a little unsure but ended up having a lot of fun:)

Owen and Alex in the tunnel

Climbing around

Fun with the balloons

Owen and his buddy Zoe from school having fun

Owen having fun with the big kids. After this Owen took a header over the side and his neck bent in such a way that I thought for sure it snapped. But he got up and just kept running around so I guess he's fine. Thank God for little kid flexibility!

Owen might have been the silliest, loudest kid there! But, he was also one of the happiest.

Owen practicing his sumo moves


Bubbles!!!!!

So much fun on the parachute

Clearly a lot of fun was had...

On another note, I'm part of Swap Bot which is a really fun snail mail swap site where you can pretty much join a swap for anything. I've done postcards and this really fun "Summer Whimsey Jar" swap where you swap things that are themed summer in a half pint canning jar. My swap partner sent me all sorts of fun goodies!
I recently joined 2 more swaps, "Craft for a Craft" and an "Inchies" swap. Inchies are like mini-artwork that are 1" x 1" in size. It will be my first time creating them so I hope they are good! For "Craft for a Craft" I was going to send some jewelry that I made, but my partner's profile says she doesn't like jewelry so I'll have to come up with something else. It should still be fun though.

Owen's World

Life is good in Owen's world (when he's not being a toddler that is...)

Here is his classroom newsletter for August.

And some recent artwork:)

Digital Diva

I made my first digital scrabook layout!!! It was so much fun:)

The tutorial and the materials are from Designer Digitals and are so great. It's addicting. I wish I didn't have to work so I could scrapbook all day! I couldn't get enough of crafting before, and now I can do it virtually...so great.

This picture is courtesy of Jeff from our recent visit to the lake. It's one of my favs.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

It was a beautiful day in Chicago so we decided to get outside and enjoy it! We paid the Lincoln Park Zoo a visit.

Looking at the penguins

Watching some swimming birds

They have a pretty fun children's zoo area.

Hanging out with the bears

Oooo, turtles!

Fun in the treehouse

Hello Mr. SnakeChecking out the swimming otter

Before leaving we of course had to stop at the primate house and see the monkeys!

Up close and personal

And last, but certainly not least, we watched the train. We debated whether or not Owen would go on his own, but decided he's probably not quite ready to go without mommy or daddy yet. Nonetheless, he still enjoyed watching it!

God Bless America!

We received the neatest gift from our friend Ben who is in the Air Force and currently serving in Iraq.

He sent us an American Flag that was flown over Iraq by him in his F-16. So cool!!!!
Thanks Ben! We are praying for a safe return for you and all serving in our military so that we may continue to enjoy our freedom.