Crunch 'n Munch, Fish and Kits

You know what I love? Kit-naming contests. I don't even care if I win. I just love playing. It's so cool to see what people come up with when they see a kit. So anyway, I almost always enter if I spot one of those contests. The first time I won, it was for Gina Miller's Andy's Charm kit (no longer available but here is my layout using that kit). I also won this kit by Angie Briggs:


I thought the kit had a fun 60's feel to it and the notebook paper made me think of it as something a teenage girl in the 60's might use. So that made me think of the fashion at the time and voila - Gypsy Boots!

And this was a funny story actually. In the designer forum at DST, there was a discussion about how hard it is for designers because they'll have an idea for a name and then before they get a chance to release it, someone beats them to the punch. So I made a comment that unless you come up with some crazy name like Sandrine Shelakam, you're probably gonna see duplicates or something similar. Tracy joked that she was indeed going to name a kit Sandrine Shelakam. In the end, she created this beautiful paper pack and did use part of the name! What started out as us being silly turned into quite the beautiful paper pack didn't it?

Sandrine paper pack

So Kyla said a couple new things! When McKenna wants us to do something again she says "Aden, aden!" (Again, again!) And Kyla has picked up on that. Today I was teaching her to say "Boo!" and she thought it was so funny so she'd laugh and then say "Aden!" through a fit of giggles. And when we were at Sea World, she and I went over to a large aquarium and Erick and McKenna went to another on the other side. I was pointing to the tank and saying to Kyla "Fish. Fish. See those? Those are Fish. Can you say FISH?" She would look at the fish, look at my mouth to study the word and then back to the fish. Then she heard Erick say something on the other side of the room and she called out "Daddy! Ish!" She mimics the sounds for "thank you". For her, it's "tay ooo!" She's also learning to use her fork really well. And her hair is getting really shaggy and long! I want to grow her bangs out but her bangs grow stick straight and right into her eyes! McKenna has started calling her Max, like the sheepdog in The Little Mermaid. So I'm contemplating bangs. We'll see. For now she wears the silliest pigtails and ponytails that stick STRAIGHT UP on her head! LOL!

On Wednesday, Erick and McKenna had their first Crunch 'n Munch class. Erick said they had the best time! They came home with some really cute art projects too (most of which were eaten later)!

A magic wand (large pretzel stick with the end dipped in peanut butter and rolled in sprinkles)

A necklace (Shoe string licorice laced with fruit loops and tied to a pretzel for the charm)

A mini mudpie (pudding topped with cookie crumbles and a gummy worm)


McKenna loooooved the class and can't wait to go back! We were thinking of going to Solvang this week but we might just postpone that until November so that she won't miss any classes. We'll see.

Speaking of classes, I got McKenna's monthly info for school and it says they'll be practicing their cutting with scissors and to practice at home. So we were at Target yesterday and I went to buy her a pair and apparently, children's scissors are created for different ages. They all came in ages 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. No 3? Which made me think "Is she teaching them early?" Which made me think "Sweet! This teacher is exactly what I was hoping for!" I'm of the opinion that if you introduce things to children early then it will either come to them earlier or at least come to them easier when they're ready to learn. So this is one of those little things that made me happy we switched. They have class pictures next week. That's gonna be so cute! We couldn't afford the pics last year. Which wasn't a big deal - I have a class photo from their Halloween party and pics of her on her first day of school. But this year it will be fun to pay for the official, over-priced photo package. LOL! One thing that is different about her class this year - less art projects! Last year we got 3 every day that she went. This time she gets one and then she comes home with worksheets that she's completed. Mazes, brain-teasers, matching games, tracing, etc. It's not as fun to hang in the window but it's neat to see the skills they're teaching!

So I decided to be totally selfish and scrap to my heart's content this weekend. I took care of a few DST things here and there but I had to give myself permission to scrap with whatever products I wanted and to just enjoy some scrap time. It felt so good! My left-brain was getting plenty of work with all my to-do's lately. My right-brain needed some exercise though. ; )

You can see my 3 newest layouts here:

Tiniest Dancer

Just a Bit Longer

Little Lady and a Bug

And finally, did you see my new blinkie? I'm scrapping for Amy Martin! I've been a fan of her work for.....EVAH! Both as a scrapper and as a designer. She's an element queen and she's been trying her hand at kits! I've been having a blast using her products. Two of my favorite layouts are using her kits:

Playing Dorothy

Twinkle, Twinkle True Star

You can see more of Amy's designs here. "But Shannon," you say," I thought you were so busy? How do you have time for another team?" There are designers who have high requirements and those who have a more laid-back approach to their requirements (I understand both reasons, for the record). All of my teams have laid-back requirements thankfully so! If it weren't for the designers with laid back requirements then I wouldn't be on any teams! LOL! I just know I can't promise x amount of layouts in a month because every month seems to get busier and busier!

Speaking of busy, I have five million things to do today! My Mom is coming to babysit tonight so that Erick and I can go to the Sufjan Stevens concert at the Wiltern tonight. Yay! So in the next 4 hours I need to catch up on my PMs and business emails, send out two invoices, leave some praise in the praise game, scour all 3 sinks, do the dishes, run the vacuum, pick up McKenna from school, pay her preschool fee, welcome the Directv guy who is coming to install.....HDTV channels? Something like that. I don't know. And then get dressed for my date! So off to work I go!