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This is LONG overdue. But we finally have a new look! I am beyond thrilled with it. Its exactly what I was looking for! It’s been a great experience, I found the template on etsy and got to talk to the designer directly and she has been helping me slowly customize it over the last day or two. Obviously I am still working on it, but I hope to have it fully up and running soon!

Please feel free to leave feedback about it. What you like, what you miss. I love hearing from you guys for any reason. I do know the blog is still running slow. {That will take me some time to go back into 6 months of postings and re-edit them.} But for now I am just so elated to have a working site again and get back into blogging. I have definitely been neglecting it since my site went wonky.

If you are interested in the information of the site designer, please write me at lissables@gmail.com I would love to direct you to her etsy shop. She really was everything I was looking for. Excellent customer service!

 

Thank you for your patience.

Hey all my scrapbook lovers. Did you know CHA is going on just 20 minutes from my house. Isn’t it just cruel to know that all the new paper lines are just down the road, {highway.} If you haven’t checked them out already, Teresa Collins is launching 4 new paper lines for Summer 2013. I AM IN LOVE. I’m going to give you a run down on all 4, and then I have a project to share with you! Yes it’s true, I have actually been scrapbooking instead of just hoarding beautiful scrapbook supplies. {I have some serious piles going on in here.} But first, did you know it also happen’s to be Teresa’s Birthday today? And to celebrate she is giving away ALL FOUR PAPER LINES to one lucky girl…or guy I guess? EXCITING! All you have to do is pop over to her blog and enter. But check out these amazing lines first.

This is Family Stories

Woodgrain, teal&pink, anchors, little people, arrows. I’m pretty sure she just took these images out of my head. This is absolutely perfect. I cannot wait to get my hands on it. It is just screaming mini album to me.

This is Santa’s List.

Its a Christmas Line….EEEEEEeeeeeee This might actually inspire me to make a December Daily this year. So far 3 years in a row I have just “said” I was going to make one, but the vintage feel to this line is so inspiring. Did I mention she has treat bags in this line! WHAT, perfect easy peasy beautiful christmas gifts. Throw some cookies in there and no one will know how last minute that was. They are so beautiful that when I saw them on her page my mouth dropped and I had a sad moment where I thought she made them herself. Then I read they were products from the line and got all excited again.

This is Memorabilia 

Chalkboard. That’s all I have to say about this gorgeous line. And then teal again! WITH YELLOW. Seriously, get out of my head. I really can’t decide which one I love more between this and Family Stories. But all the vintage looking frames, bicycle and hot air balloon’s are making me swoon. Good thing it is also my birthday this week and I have some extra cash that will be stashed away until these release!

This is Masquerade Party

First, could there be a cuter name for a Halloween line. Second, Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. I have no reason why really, it’s just a fun holiday. I have always loved getting dressed up and Las Vegas seems to embrace it like no other time of the year. The pumpkin patch last year was my favorite thing all year. And now there is a beautiful line to capture those memories. It’s hard to do a Halloween line without getting tacky, but Teresa absolutely nails it! O and hey, there is treat bags in this line too! AHHHH

Are you still here? This is a big post today! Ok I now have a beautiful little album to share with you. Its not completely finished because I like to add to it and throw pages in at random. Its a mini album of pictures of just Sawyer and I. Through out the massive 2 years he’s almost been around for. It’s my casual easy album and I love it. The front cover is a layer of cute things from the Spring 2013 line “Memories.” I love this line too. I still have so much to play with from my massive buy this spring. {Is it sweet I save up Christmas money for one big paper line release and then Birthday money for the next? Works out quite nicely indeed!} I like that you can see the Past, Present, and Future tabs. Because this album has all random pictures and random pages. I also bound it with cord and tied int he back. Which means I can add pages whenever I want!

The inside of the cover is a massive pocket. I usually keep photo’s I want to work on next in it. Or special little things He receives. Cards or notes. Its big, it can hold a lot! I also added a popped up frame much like the one on the cover. I cut these out of the 2012 line “Tell Your Story.” I used pop dots to give them a bit more dimension. I swear he was that little just yesterday. Where is the time going!

The next page might be my favorite. Its just photo’s I grabbed on my phone during his first birthday party. They are grainy and not well framed and for me that is heartbreaking…Apparently his Birthday is the other day my big camera was not attached to my hands. It was a little chaotic though. But these two pictures melt my heart every time. I love them on the big yellow polka dot paper. Just love. I also used some stickers from Heidi Swapp’ line from Michaels. I cannot go into that store without buying one of her little embellishments. Get me every time! Also do you like my little photo bomber. He see’s a camera and doesn’t understand why he is not in front and in focus. I had to leave him in because I think it’s adorable!

This next page is my Birthday last year. One full year ago. Its a just a snap shot of Sawyer on my lap, Neither of us is paying attention but I remember every detail from it. Photo’s with real emotion behind them are always my favorite. Whether they are perfect or not. I love the doily added to this page. Its just wrapped around the photo for a different shape. Super simple.

This next and last page to share with you today, is the first photo’s of Sawyer. I love seeing the difference between these two pictures side by side. In the pocket is a little note about all the details from that day. I like having private journalling. It’s there for those who need to read it and prettily tucked away otherwise. {Is prettily a word?} I hope you liked it. It’s different from all my other albums, but its a fun format to work with! I get to leave lots of my pictures pretty big since it is 12×6.

And last but not least to share today. {I know I don’t post for a week and then I just load you up!} Since it was Teresa’s Birthday + I had extra cupcakes left over anyways + I was location scouting, just a couple blocks from her hotel. I ran these over with the help of one of her daughters! I had to dress the box all up. I love this idea. I saw it on pinterest months ago and have been waiting to use it. Perfect way to dress up a cupcake box. Way too cute. I just didnt want those things going to waste and I ate way too many cupcakes and cookies already this week. And don’t you worry I am already planning the birthday cake for Sunday. It will be EPIC, or a complete failure, since thats the way it seem’s to go. If we are following the pattern, its epic this year, as lsat year was the fail. But they always taste good! So stay tuned!

 

 

Today we are featuring a guest post from a reader! This is too exciting to have someone love my blog enough to want to also be a part of it. I have a couple other guest post’s coming in the following months. Still getting the website re-done. {Im only one little girl who doesn’t have a clue what she is doing technically!} So for now enjoy this lovely post from Katie Moore about staying healthy through pregnancy! Katie is an active blogger who discusses the topics of, motherhood, children, fitness, health and all other things Mommy. She enjoys writing, blogging, and meeting new people! To connect with Katie contact her via her blog, Moore From Katie or her twitter, @moorekm26.

Hi Everyone!  I wanted to thank Alissa for allowing me to guest post on her site!  It’s always an honor to share my stories and tips with others and I love meeting new people.  I found Alissa’s site through what else- cupcakes!  I love making and creating new cupcakes with awesome frosting.  And if you can’t tell- we both make a mean cheeseburger cupcake! While baking is just a side hobby, my true passion is writing about my life as a mom and my pregnancy.  My husband and I live with our daughter Lily and we love watching her grow.  Feel free to reach out to me regarding anything- from babies to sprinkles at moorekm26@gmail.com.

 

Adopting Healthy Habits During Pregnancy

When I had my daughter, I wanted to do everything perfectly so my little one would be provided with the healthiest possible start in life. I spent hours each day reading everything including the value of banking my baby’s cord blood to how to track contractions! I was often overwhelmed by the amount of information available and the idea that everything I do while pregnant could affect my developing baby. Rather than burdening myself with too much information, I decided to stop reading and focus on acting on the things that I knew were good for me and my baby. Besides, sitting in front of the computer all day certainly wasn’t doing me any favors. Here’s a breakdown of my daily healthy habits:

Exercise
Today, the common belief is that a pregnant woman is in delicate condition and should therefore be as inactive as possible. However, exercise is important for everyone, especially pregnant women. I knew that my chances of developing gestational diabetes was much greater if I didn’t stay physically active, so I made it a point to get at least 30 minutes of light exercise every day. I did this mainly by going for walks, but I also enjoyed swimming and yoga.

Hand Washing
There are a lot of pathogens out there, and my doctor had told me that the germs I get could be passed to my baby. Besides that, I was also more susceptible to illness. During pregnancy, a woman’s immune system doesn’t work as well as normal, so she has to be extra careful. I made sure to frequently, especially after running errands.

Eating Right
All throughout my pregnancy, nutrition was perhaps my strongest focus since it was so critical to my baby’s proper development. I avoided processed foods completely as these provide little nutrition and contain many questionable ingredients. Sugar was a no-no particularly because it further suppresses immunity and greatly increases the chances of gestational diabetes and other health problems. Instead, I ate plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, wholesome meats, dairy and eggs along with my prenatal vitamins.

Sleeping
Sleep is extremely important during pregnancy, yet according to some sources, most women experience disturbed sleep when they’re pregnant. I certainly did, especially when my baby decided to practice kickboxing on my bladder. I was up every couple of hours nearly every night, so my body never had a chance to enter deep sleep. It’s during deep sleep that your body carries out many of its growth and repair tasks, so taking frequent naps was important.

When I began managing these aspects of my pregnancy, I began feeling healthier and more confident about bringing my daughter, Lily, into our little world. Give them a try for yourself and perhaps these healthy habits will do the same for you!

 

Thanks so much Katie! We enjoyed your post and look forward to hearing more from you in the future! 

 

Hey it’s always fun to play along with some of the biggest blogging trends, right? This is one I have seen sweeping through lots of the creative blogs I follow. I thought it would be fun to do one of my own. So here is the currently of lissables.com

WATCHING: O good we’re going to start with the most embarrassing! I recently re watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer from Season 1-7. And like most books or series, you just cant seem to shut that world away when it ends. That’s were spin off’s come in. So yes I am watching “Angel” now. Sad but True. Mostly I just have it on while I am editing or working on the never ending shutterfly books.

READING: “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me” by Mindy Kaling I don’t usually read celebrity written books. I don’t think they have much to offer for advice since they don’t really live in the real world. But I love Mindy. I mean LOVE. It started with the Mindy project this year. Not watching it? Do yourself a favor and catch up on season one, which just finished, before season 2 comes out. Then I found her book. It’s been my guilty little pleasure. Each chapter is only a few pages long. She is so funny and true. I think everyone should read this book. Seriously, go buy it.

LISTENING: I don’t typically download music or buy CD’s anymore. I most often just turn on Pandora. My musical station is getting a lot of play lately. But if I had to narrow it down to someone I can listen to over and over again its Rae Morris, Don’t Go. And Macklemore, Same Love.

MAKING: I haven’t been baking much, have you noticed. Something had to take a backseat in life. I have been too busy with photography. So I guess you could say I am making memories for other families. I truly love my job. I feel just as excited editing a beautiful happy picture, as if it were my own family. I am trying to scrapbook more. But it is often put on hold. Trying to change that.

FEELING: This is a little personal. But if I get it out maybe I will feel better? Ugh. We are trying for sawyer 2.0 However…Sawyer was a one and done baby. Exciting, no pressure, no thoughts. This has been a little different. We are coming up on 6 months and a lot of negative tests. Funny how that little negative sign can be a relief for some and utter devastation to others. Sometimes it’s all I can think of. And I know in the long run it’s not that long. I’ve heard it all already people. But when your in it and it was so easy last time, it’s hard to put those thoughts aside. Like why wont my body just agree with me on what I want! I know it will happen at the right time…I just thought the right time was 5 months ago.

PLANNING: Trips! One with an old friend and one home for the summer. Very exciting. Both with include photoshoots and fun. Going home for a month is extremely exciting. My mom is even flying down to drive home with me, since Brandon cannot take a month off work. And even though it’s a whole month I know it will go entirely too fast. How did it already become the end of May?

LOVING: Let’s make this just the most random list ever. Southwestern Salad. Cool nights on the deck watching Sawyer play. My hubby letting me nap yesterday after having a long week with a sick Sawyer. Sawyer’s pouty face. My sister’s visit last week. Pool days. Vanilla Coke Zero. Teresa Collins Stationary Noted. My Minds Eye Find your wings and Fly. Target. {Because you cant have a list about Love without Target.} Penpalling {totally a word I made up.} with my best friend in Texas. Sour cream and onion ritz chips. My new iMac. Wink Brand cards. PicTapGo photo editing on my phone.  My job. Pinterest, always. Surprises being planned. Strawberry trifle. New photography challenges. The Mindy Project. The color mint green. And yellow. Together. Green Tea Frapaccino’s from starbucks…at target. The smell of sunscreen. Ready Oliver Jeffers books with Sawyer. AC. My Hubby. My Sawyer. My Family.

 

I had the pleasure of doing Emelia’s Smash Cake session a couple weeks ago. And was also asked to photograph her first birthday party. I love all the candid moments you see while watching a party from afar. I feel that they best capture the joyful feeling of celebrations. But what makes my heart really sing is seeing my work on display at such an event. I’m proud of my work, but when my clients love it just as much and more, it means the world to me.

And of course it’s not a party without some tears shed! I don’t think there has ever been a first birthday, {at least that I’ve attended.} Where there hasn’t been a meltdown. I call it the meltdown hour. Its usually during cake time. The birthday child rings it in, and it slowly hits all the kids. I love it, because it always makes for great candid pictures!

Stay tuned, I have some crafting, and more sessions to share soon!

Easter was a week ago. I had to check a calendar to make sure. Because I feel like this week has gone by in a blink. I have been BUSY! But that’s the thing, it is amazing to be busy. Between last Saturday and tomorrow I have had 4 session’s and of course Easter photos. I am trying to edit my little brain out, but life get’s in the way. Sawyer is breaking his 50th tooth. {wait they don’t get up to 50?? because I swear this is the 50th time we’ve gone through teething!} There are tiny little elves that break into my house every night and make a mess. Sort of like Christmas but no presents. And some how I am behind on blogging, posting pictures on fb and laundry. Like a lot of laundry. Seriously a lot.

 And in between that all I get to dress up Sawyer, watch him go on his first Easter egg hunt. Treasure these moments that are slipping between my fingers way too fast. This morning he figured out how to pull back the race cars and let them go flying across the room. Since when do kids grow up so fast? And why am I just realizing this. And then right in the middle of my panic attack of growing older, he behaves just perfectly and throws a fit because ya a 6ft tall bunny is probably not be a comforting thing. But that’s ok, I’m going to look back one day and LOVE that he cried on both Santa’s and the Easter Bunny’s lap this year.

So I am always going to be behind. I am just trying to hold on to him. Can’t blame me for that. And then once in awhile I will stay up again too late and spam my lovely readers with a million pictures of this very well dressed red head. Enjoy, there’s only a couple more I swear!

Tomorrow I have another session with a little girl for her 3 annual Birthday photo’s. I think kids are my favorite subjects behind a lens. Is anything more beautiful than seeing the world through a child’s eye’s. Stay tuned for those gorgeous previews!

I just adored capturing little Emelia’s Smash Cake session. I cannot get over her beautiful bright smile. She actually became a client of mine after her mom stumbled across my blog! The best part is I get to work with this little princess again on Saturday. I am covering her Birthday Party! I myself wish I had done the same. It’s always hard to enjoy and photography your own parties. So I offer events as well! But without further ado, here is her Beautiful One Year Smash Cake Session Photo’s!

You can check out the entire album on my facebook page this weekend!

To schedule your own session please contact me on fb or at lissables@gmail.com

There is lots of ways to be creative, but one of my favorites is with shutterfly books. I’ve shared some in the past. My favorite being the book to document Sawyer’s craniosynostosis story. And of course the yearly books, which have recently turned into half a year. Apparently I take too many pictures to meet the 1000 photo maximum. But just this week I am finishing up another special book for Sawyer. I saw the idea on pinterest a year ago and just knew I needed to make one.

It’s an alphabet book. Each letter has it’s own page with words that are special to our family. With each finished page I loved this book more! Here is the list of words we used. Some pages I couldn’t decide on one thing so I used multiple words. Of course change as many as you can to be uniquely yours!

A- Airplanes
B- Bitter beer face, Birthdays, Bubbles, Batman, Bathtime, & Babies
C- Christmas, Cuddles, Cousins, Cars, Cake & Craniosynostosis
D- Daddy
E- Easter Bunny
F- Feet
G- Grandparents
H- Halloween
I- Ice Cream
J- Jump
K-Kisses
L-Love
M- Monkey’s & Mommy
N- NapTime
O- Ocean
P- Party, Playdates, Pool Time
Q- Quiet Time
R- Red Rubber Boots
S- Super Hero’s, Swing, Smile, Sad, Santa & SAWYER!
T- Toys
U- Ultrasound
V- Valentines Day
W- Winter
X- Xray, Ok ours was actually a CTscan but all the same. {There is basically NOTHING that starts with X}
Y- You
Z- Zoo

As you can tell this is still a work in progress. But I am working like crazy since shutterfly is offering their free 8×8 book promotion! {I have until Tuesday, I love companies that make big promotions like free photo books!}

I also included a page for Numbers, Colors and Months. I believe this will be a great tool in teaching and spending time together. I can’t wait to get it in the mail! It will also be our Easter gift to Sawyer this year! See you don’t need to be crafty to make customizable creative gifts. All you need is a few key starting points, shutterfly and LOTS of time 😉 Seriously I spend too much time on shutterfly. But it’s worth it!

And also browsing Pinterest on a daily basis doesn’t hurt!

Hope you enjoyed today’s {very picture heavy} post! Stay tuned this week for more scrapbooking and photography. And some party details from this weeks celebrations for my hubby and sister in law.

I know some of my very loyal reader’s will remember this project when I first did it in 2011 for Valentines day. Well do you ever start projects and then stare at them for years? No that’s just a me thing? O well! For my Mom’s 50th Birthday I wanted to give her something special, and what’s more special than a list of reason’s you love someone. She loved it!

This is a quick and easy album to make. Which make’s it a perfect gift to give someone else. All you need is a deck of cards, a permanent marker, one ring, and some ribbon and embellishments to make a cover page. I wrote directly onto the cards and let them dry overnight. Don’t want any smudges! Punch a hole in the top left corner of each card. I punch one and then use it as a guide to punch the rest in unison. If you want you can make a cover page for your album. I made mine using a pre cut card and decorating it with some stickers and rub-ons. I love how simple it is. Then I added some ribbon to the ring, because I always think they look naked without it!

 Had I thought about this earlier I was planning on printing pictures and attaching them to the backs of the cards. I think if you filled it with black and white pictures of you and the person it was made for, it would be the cutest thing ever made. But finding 52 black and white images from the lat 25 years proved to be too big a task for a last minute project. And I don’t mean I didn’t think about doing an album until the last minute. I have 2 others on my desk I was making for her as well. But I inherited my dad’s famous procrastination. {I know you just read that dad, don’t deny it. Because I know where Kimmy got her stubbornness too! But I love you enough to make a 52 reason’s for you too!}

I’m so glad she liked it, even though she made sure to tell me there was TWO extra reason’s to her birthday years. I also had the brilliant idea to bring her some lissables cupcakes. I always get the request to ship my goodies, well in the picture you can see why I don’t! I went to extra care to make sure they stayed perfect for my airport arrival. But I forgot I was traveling with a mini monster. Who upon finding them when I was taking stuff out of the diaper bag to get him a toy, proceeded to fall right on top of them. So they arrived much like me, squished, beaten and done with traveling across 2 countries with a toddler! But I tried. Can’t blame me for that!

All in all I think this will be a gift-able album I make again in the future. Little enough to carry around for a pick me up, sentimental as you want to make it, and o so easy peasy! Hope you enjoyed it! I have some photo session’s coming up that I will be sharing. Some more projects and every day life. Thanks for being awesome reader’s! I appreciate each and every one of you!

O my gosh! Remember how I just shared my entry for the Create: Blog Teresa Collins giveaway! We’ll I woke up this morning to a post with my picture in it. I think it took me a minute to realize, I HAD WON!

This vacation I felt like, started off as bad as possible. Just little crappy things piling up my last day before my flight. Flying itself is a nightmare for me + add a wiggly toddler. Then there was the surprise 2 hour drive from the airport to the cabin. Just little things. But once I got there….sigh, I was so in love. We even looked at extending my stay. But alas we did not win the lottery, so not worth it. I was having so much fun walking on the beach, scrapbooking during naps, and re-watching MadMen from the beginning with my mom. And I NEVER win anything. Seriously. And I won a gift basket at Shoppers Drugmart at a little shopping event, just the night before I left! I left most of it with my mom but got a big bottle of juicy perfume.

And then BAM this morning I wake up to the blog post announcing the Create: Blog’s winner. So exciting. I feel like I’m on a winning spree. Maybe I should go buy some lottery tickets! {although NV doesn’t even have a lottery haha} So I won my choice of a line from the 2013 winter collection. I already have most of the Memories and Stationary Noted lines. {I was obsessed with that blue and red in the stationary noted.} So it was really between the He Said, She Said and the Far and Away lines. So I narrowed it down the the He said, She said, because I love my little boy pictures and this is a line that you can use with boys but it isn’t just baby blue and yellow. All the cute Mustaches and speech bubbles. And especially the washi tape! You have to check out all the 2013 lines. They are all amazing.

If you are loving the paper’s I used in the album I entered, you can find them all here, the Now&Then line. Which is still available online and at some of your local stores! As well here is a link to all the entry’s on the Northridge Publishing Pinterest page. Now that I am home, I can’t wait to get all my pictures printed and finish this winning album!