Tickling the Ivories ...

This is a picture of our youngest daughter Maddie (about 15 months in this shot) at our local children's museum. What is neat about this photo is that she heard the music coming from the piano first and was obviously trying to follow it. When the child who had been "playing" the music stopped Maddie was visibly confused and began trying other things to replicate the sound. She actually ran into the piano accidentally and this "bumping" created the noise she was looking for. It was practically impossible to get her to stop pounding this little piano to death afterward.

This is a simple and quick layout I made from an older sketch at The Scrappiest's blog. I have found in my newborn induced sleep deprived state that sketch's sure do help jump start the creativity. The paper is a mix of Stampin' UP! and Crate. The tile embellishments are Chatterbox. I added a paper pierced border around the circles and the baubles and buttons are miscellaneous items from my stash. For some reason I normally find layouts with circles a bit intimidating so I was glad to try something a bit out of my comfort zone.

Thanks for looking!

CarrieAnne

Family Traditions

My father was huge on family traditions growing up (enter Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack here). Whether it was having custard pie for breakfast on holidays (which included his birthday :) or hanging up Christmas ornaments in a certain order - tradition was important. As a military family that moved around a lot it centered us and helped us to build strong bonds that my siblings and I still enjoy to this day.

In my married family, the Florida Gators (especially the football team - Tebow we miss you!) are a BIG deal. So each year my husband and I dress ourselves and the kids up in our Gator gear and head to a local park to take a family photo. We than take a nature walk and treat the kids to a special snack.

I love pulling out the photos and comparing them from year to year, especially as we add new family members.

I decided to scrap last year's photo for Harmonie's monthly sketch challenge. The product used is primarily Pebbles, with a bit of Chatterbox and miscellaneous stash thrown in.

The polka dot on the blue mat is done with the Swiss Dot Cuttlebug Embossing folder. I then just sanded the top a bit to get the white core of the patterned paper to show through. For those who don't want to invest in spendy two toned papers - this is a cheap fix, especially when you use remnants from your scrap box.

Thanks for looking,

CarrieAnne