Little House

My Elle loves... I mean really reeeeeally loves... to read!  I've had so much fun introducing her to some of my favorite childhood reads like Ramona Quimby, Charolette's Web, and Little House on the Prairie.  The latter sparked lots of questions about pioneer life, like how they made things without machines, what it was like to live without a car, and on and on.  We were all too happy to indulge her curiousity with a trip to a pioneer festival. It also happened to be the perfect excuse to make adorable pioneer outfits for both my girls.

 

I made Elle's skirt from some pioneer-ish fabric I picked up on the cheap at Jo-Anne's, an easy white apron, and used this tutorial for the bonnet.  I couldn't resist the ruffly cute white bonnet Grandma's Girl made, and had to have it for Liv. Her super simple white dress with little cap sleeves and drawstring neck completed their pioneer transformation.

 

We had lots of fun at the festival!  Elle's favorite parts were selecting angora fur died just the right shades of pink and watching as it was spun on an antique wheel into a lovely yarn to be used for a future project and the highschool xylophone band.  

 

Winner winner chicken dinner

Ok I don't have anything to post about a chicken dinner, but that would be great right?! I'm totally gonna do that next time... have a post for you with a chicken dinner recipe when I announce the winner of a blog giveaway. Ok ok enough silliness let's get to it. The winner of the My Memories digital scrapbooking software, by random drawing is:

True Random Number Generator
Min: 1
Max: 13
Result: 11
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Traci that's you! Thanks for entering, I'll contact you via email with the details.

Digital Scrapbooking Giveaway!

I've mentioned before, ages ago, that in my life before sewing & children & bentos & printables & parties my creative outlet was scrapbooking.  The 14 scrapbooks I've created cronical my highschool days, my early relationship with my now husband, and our girls' first years.  They are among my most prized posessions; I wouldn't trade them for the world.  BUT truth be told, I don't get as much enjoyment out of scrapbooking as I do my other creative endevours.  In fact, I had given it up all together.  I think scrapbooking didn't hold my attention because I like structure, following directions, and innovation, mixed in with just a bit of creativity and a teeny tiny dose artistic flair... scrapbooking requries a good healthy dose of artistic flair... a little too much for my liking.

My Memories has changed all that.  I am now free to rejoin the world of scrapbooking and you are too... especially if you're like me and are creative but not necessarily artistic (it's a fine line but it does exist!).  My Memories Suite really couldn't be easier to use.  This digital scrapbooking software comes with album designs already loaded into it, you just insert your pictures, and waalaa:

Really!  Ok, so that's the "I did virtually no work on my own, I barely understand how the software works, I just want it to be quick and done" way of using My Memories Suite. But there is so much more to this software if you want to take it to the next level!  You can bring in your own images that you've collected from the internet or clip art or scan yourself to use as embellishments and backgrounds (which means you don't have to buy expensive digital kits), there's photo editing built right into the software, so you can make a picture black & white, give it an effect, and remove red eye right there as you build your album, and when you're done you can save your album as a jpg, email it, and/or have it printed wherever you'd like.

I'm really excited about using My Memories Suite (more pages are sure to pop up here on my blog as I make my way through our family photos) but I'm equally as excited that I get to give away My Memories Suite to one of my readers!  Yep, the $40 My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software AND $10 to use in the My Memories shop (you can buy digital scrapbook elements and printing services) to one lucky reader!

I'm going to give you lots of chances to win.  Do any (or all!) of the following and leave a separate comment here on this post for each.  1 week from today I'll pick the winning comment by random drawing.  Here's how to enter:

• Follow my blog via email or Google Reader (link in the margin to the right)
• Follow my blog via Facebook (link in the margin to the right)
• Check out the digital paper packs at My Memories and leave a comment here telling me which is your favorite
• Follow the My Memories blog 

Good luck!  Oh, and if you're not familiar with digital scrapbooking software you can watch some tutorials on My Memories Suite and catch the digital scrapbooking bug!