A little better + some pages

I got a place at a good childcare close to my suburb. It is a new place, it is pretty, it looks organised, and they gave me a place... now I just need to get to know them and find out if they are good people, and if they are going to take care of Lucas. They gave me only two days to start with, but Matty is going to pre-school only two days anyway, so it works.
I called my boss and explained the situation, but I still have no idea on what to do with Mateus during school breaks, and I also heard horrid things about after school care around here, so I might have to work only half day. I’ll just wait and see how it goes, I know I am doing my best, I should stop stressing about it... On that note:

Here is an AAM page I did for The Digichick Creative Team:

And a page with Jofia’s Designs (also for The Digichick):

I think this one was one of my favorite photos of 2007, the second I saw it I knew the page title and what I wanted to do with it :)
((Click on images for credits))

So close...

...but never there...
My initial title for this post was “almost there”. House almost clean and organized, but noooooo, I noticed things are not quite like that.

I spent the first day after I got back sleeping, it is hard to cope with the time difference.

The next day was cleaning, I was very proud of myself. I was lucky I did do some cleaning because that same day my uncle and aunty called, they were coming to spend the weekend.

I had completely forgot that they came all the way from Brazil to pick up my cousin after her studies here and obviously were coming to visit me! We had a great time, stupid me didn’t take many pics though :(

Monday I tried to tidy up again, but went to catch up with a friend instead.
Tuesday spent the day looking for childcares, with no success. I started getting pretty stressed out.

Wednesday I called my boss and asked to talk about my return to work later, because I had not decided what to do yet. I might HAVE to stay home with the kids if I can’t find somene to look after them :( I finally scrapped again after so long :) and I was all caught up with e-mails (whew). In the meantime, luggage s still living in the middle of the living room!

Thursday Alex bought a freaking car!!!! I just told him go and buy it because I don’t want to talk about it anymore (I didn’t think we really needed it and could save the money) now we have two cars (well, when the other one get here we will). I FINALLY finished doing all the loads of laundry I had to do (I think they were 8 in total).

Friday, got my driver’s license done (lost my previous one) and caught up with a friend.

Yesterday we went shopping for storage system for inside the kids wardrobe. I finally started unpacking.

Today we went shopping for storage again, plastic containers for the kids’ toys that were ALL over the place.

As I was typing this, I thought I was *almost done* getting everything done and having time to relax. The reality hit me that even though I did all this big stuff, there’s still a lot of work to be done, there always will be. By now the house needs cleaning again (obviously) and the laundry basket is already full.

/end rant

SMJ's Valentines

This month I have the honour of being a guest for the very talented Shabby Miss Jenn(for the third time – YAY). You just HAVE to see her new valentines stuff released today, it is just gorgeous :) Here is a peek:

And here is a page I did with it:

I also wanted to share two LOs showing my printed stuff done with her designs. My mom's ABC album created with Flea Market Baskets kit (this album originated the quickpage album that SMJ gave for free at her store's birthday, remember the freebie?)
and the pages from her CD Calendar quickpages... gosh, I loooooove how they turned out. I gave one for mom, one for dad, and one for my MIL. Here it is:


Thanks for looking :)

DSM toot

As I have mentioned before, I got a layout into the February/March issue of Digital Scrapbooking Magazine. Well, I got the hardcopy today and I just loooooooove it. Page 23! It was such a thrill to see my LO there. Here is how it looks published:

I just love the reflection under the LO, can you see it? Clever!
and let me tell you, there will be another LO on the April/May issue and TWO LOs on the June July issue (these two I bet will not be full page, but I am still over the moon for it)

RAKed

I have always admired the work of Yvette(alohamamma), so when I joined Lisa Whitney's CT and Yvette said she loves to create layouts for other people I just HAD to send her some pictures :) I just feel so honored! Have a look at the beautiful page she has created:
Totally the kind of stuff I love :) Thanks Yvette!

Aninha Reis and Me

Look at us together, aren’t we pretty? LOL Well, we are :)
Aninha Reis was suuuuuuuuper cute and came all the way from her city to São Paulo to see me (and do other things, but still, there was ME hehe) I felt like we have know each other for the longest time, yet, we just started chatting online last year. We are part of Scrapblog and our team has a forum for day to day organization, ideas and, off course, chat. She just had a baby, Arthur, which is the cutest thing and the calmest baby I have ever held. Her eldest, André, was the perfect match for Mateus, they played like brothers, but they didn’t stop one second so we didn’t get a good picture of them together, but here is one of *almost* all of us.

Unfortunately Lucas was not there, he was at the hospital for a throat infection, poor thing :( When Aninha left, I really felt like we didn’t chat enough, that I still had lots more to say. It was like meeting an old friend and you just want to tell them everything that ever happened to you and is so curious about them too, you know? I can’t wait to meet the other girls. Pity we live so far, but... someday :)

(oh, if you are wondering, these two pictures were edited in Lightroom and I used the "Dream" preset by Kelsey Smith, loving these!)

real web friends

While in Brazil I did many many things. Visited family and friends and went to places I missed, ATE everything I wanted (or almost) but the coolest thing? I met dear brazilian digifriends :)

I met Paola Peia and Patricia Sampaio in december, just after the boys' party and just before going to my hometown. They came to my Mother in Law's place since I didn't have a car and was organizing my bags for the next day. Leo, Miza and Mateus played together while we chatted away. It was great to really *talk* face to face with them and to show my albums :) They are sweet sweet people and we talked about EVERYTHING, fromm food to travel to raising kids! After they left I kept thinking how cool it would be to live close to friends like that :) Here are some pictures:

with the (unwilling) kids

just the amazing scrappers ;)

thanks for coming girls! you rock! I had a blast :)

(photos edited in Photoshop, I used Midnight Sepia action available here.)

Back

Arrived today back from Brazil. After 36 hours travelling I can't make much sense of anything... Hopefully I will be able to catch up with my e-mails soon.. and everything else, LOL. Talk soon!
oh, I have reactivated the link to my freebie on the previous post :)