Maanasa is going to be 4 in june & Neha will be 2 in a month, where did the time go? Sometimes I feel that they were born just now, they grew up way too soon): Maanasa is looking forward to her birthday in June so much, she keeps telling everyone that she will no longer be a baby once she turns 4!!)::) I don't know from where she got this idea??!! She gets upset & angry if someone refers to her as a baby. I remember the times when I wanted to be a grown up, I think it was around my 10th birthday, I was
thinking that it'll be ages before I grow up & drive a car, go to college & all the other exciting things that grown ups do:) I remembered this on my 30th birthday, when I was feeling a little sad, scared and confused. I couldn't believe that I was 30, how did I become so old? why should the time fly? can't it move a little bit slowly? lol.
Facebook is evil, lol, esp. the Pet society over there. I got addicted to playing it pretty fast. I was playing day & night for a week, before I realized that I hadn't scrapped a page in a week, so I'm out of it now, I do play occasionally, but I can safely say that I'm cured of the addiction, lol.
From the scrapping front, I joined a few teams, resigned from a few. I was invited to join the CT at The Digichick:) I also got into Ida's team at Catscraps. I'll be a guest CTM for one of my favorite designers in April-May, can't wait!!!
Ida & Gabi have teamed up to create this gorgeous kit. The kit will be released tomorrow, Tuesday March 31st and will be available for 20% off that day.


Here is my LO with the kit.

Today is Maanasa's 3rd birthday. I can't believe that she is already 3, where did the time go?? My baby is slowly becoming a little girl. She loves pink already:) She is a sweetie, she loves her sister & shares everything with her. She rarely cries & laughs all the time. She is not shy, she talks to everyone, it is so cute to hear her babble away in tamil(our mother tongue) with english & german words mixed up. She loves to sing & dance, she can carry a tune quite well, she is a picky eater, she loves her teddies & wouldn't sleep without the 3 teddies in her bed. She is a chatterbox, not unlike me, lol. People used to tell me about terrible two's but we had only terrific two's:) We are so blessed to have her in our life.
I'm not feeling very well today ):so I bought a cake for her to cut in her krippe. She had a small party there. We'll be celebrating her birthday with some close friends on saturday. Here are some photos of the birthday girl:)















































































And a couple, when she was less than a hour old.

Time for my quarterly update,lol. Seriously, I've decided to blog more often, atleast twice a week, let us see:) Life is hectic but good. We had a great time in India, the grandparents totally spoiled Maanasa & Neha. Neha celebrated her first birthday with our family & friends there. Neha is walking or I should actually say, she is running, this girl never walks, she runs all the time, she is full of energy. It is amazing to see how different Maanasa & Neha are, since they are only 2 years apart, I remember what Maanasa did at each stage. Maanasa was also a busybody, always moving around, very energetic, but used to play quietly, but Neha is a live wire, she is super active and when she is excited she gives a ear splitting scream that actually sounds like a horse neighing, lol. Maanasa didn't like to be cuddled or held. Neha loves to cuddle. She would play in a place for a few minutes, then she will climb on my lap & cuddle for a few minutes before playing again. She is very friendly with everyone. We have a lot of friends in our area because of Maanasa & Neha. I was a little worried about how Maanasa will feel about Neha, but so far, she has not shown any signs of jealousy at all, she shares all her toys with Neha, even her prized possession, the Teddy bear,lol. She doesn't say anything when Sriram or I hold Neha, in fact she tells us to hold her & play with her. In turn Neha adores her bigger sister. She has a special smile reserved for her. In fact, Neha's first word was 'Akka'- elder sister.
I'll share some of my favorite layouts from the past couple of months.
That Special smile

















You at almost3

















Clap

















Piggies

spring has sprung:)

I can't believe that it is march already, Neha is going to be 1 in exactly 2 months, time just flies. She is holding onto things and walking now & just today she took a few steps on her own. Maanasa is busy with her playschool, she really enjoys herself there & she has a lots of friends, she has picked up a lot of German, she evens sings a few german songs. Finally it i becoming a little warmer now. This winter was horrible for us. All of us were falling sick again & again, so I'm looking forward to this spring so much.
Maanasa loves to see the printouts of my layouts, she sees the folder every day & will ask me lots of questions, of course the same questions, in the same order every day and I am expected to give the same answers, without missing a word, lol.



It has been a long time since I blogged, so I have literally 100's of layouts to be posted here, so I'll just post my recent favorites.

For credits, click here.




For credits, click here.

Neha is sitting up & Stand up & Scrap Layouts

Neha is 6 months old & sits up without support.

How cute is she!!!

I've started her on solids, she now eats cereals & vegetable mash. People are scaring me by saying that she is going to walk soon,lol. I'm so not ready for that right now. She has started sleeping through the night (Woohoo, lol), but she just wouldn't nap during the day, but if I take her out, she sleeps for about 2 hours in her pram. So, I' try to go out every afternoon. It is quite cold now and sometimes it is very tiring, dressing both the kids & getting them ready to go out, but Maanasa is thrilled as she gets to go to the park everyday. Maanasa & Neha have started playing together, Neha adores her sister, you should see her broad smile when she hears her sister talking:) Maanasa talks non-stop, she has started asking lots of questions.
Stand up & Scrap is finally over. I got a whooping 9 points, I know it is not much, but it means the world to me. I got it for my Week 3 layout which makes me even more happy because this LO was a totally new style for me. I learnt quite a lot about blending modes and I really put my heart & mind into making this page. This is the first contest I participated & I loved it, well, most of the times, lol. Of course it was a little stress on having a deadline & topic/concept, but I think it pushed me to explore beyond my comfort zone. Here are all the 6 layouts.
Week1

Week 2

Week3

Week4

Week5

Week6

So, what do you really think about them?

Neha is here:)

It's been ages since I posted here. Time for an update:)
Neha is here, she was born on the EDD:May 3rd by emergency C section.
I had a regular appointment with the Dr. in the morning, I had been having contractions on and off, he did a non-stress test and was concerned about baby's irregular heart rate. He sent me straight to L&D to have a stress test so that he could induce labour. Even before they could start the I.V, I had a strong contraction & the baby's heart beat went down drastically, so they decided to do a C-section as soon as possible. Neha was born at 2.18 p.m. She weighed 3.445gms & was 48 cms long. The moment she came out, she let out a cry and then turned blue all over, they had to give her oxygen immediately, she also had low sugar & low haemoglobin levels. She was kept under observation for 4 days. Now she is completely alright. We came home on wednesday afternoon. She is doing fine and Maanasa is thrilled about having us home. Every time when Neha cries, Maanasa mimics her crying & tells me that 'Neha baby is crying like this.....':).
A few pictures:)



Neha means love/loving.
Yes, that is her hair, not a cap, lol.
I have got loads & loads of clothes for her, but in the hospital, she is supposed to wear only what they provide.
I can't wait to get back to scrapping, Sriram is at home next week too & I'm planning to catch up on scrapping (if Neha cooperates:).

Blogging after a long............. time

I'm blogging after such a long time that I forgot the password & I had to set a new one:)
It snowed only once this year so far & it is already march. Ok, winter is not my favorite season but I love snow, I love watching the snow falling & walking on fresh snow. This year I was even more looking forward to it as I wanted to introduce Maanasa to snow & I eagerly bought her snow boots, gloves etc, but it snowed only once & that too not so much ):
I am 33 weeks pregnant now. This baby is very active, kicks me quite a lot:), Maanasa is such an easy child, she slept through the night from early on & never gave us any trouble,even when teething, I'm not sure if we would be lucky this time as well.
I'm getting really uncomfortable now, can't sleep well & I'm feeling very thirsty all the time. Last time I had gestational diabetes, but luckily the sugar levels are normal this time, but I have problems with low B.P instead. I had emergency C-Section with Maanasa as the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, but the Dr. said we could try for a normal delivery this time. I'm excited about it, but I'm not 100% sure if I can manage it, lol. Can't wait for the next 5 weeks to get over fast.
Onto scrapping news, I'm loving these guest CT gigs, I get to know the designer's style & there is no long term commitment. I was on guest CT for Ake in January. This month I'm a guest CT for Teresa Ferguson at Sweet Shoppe & Cindy Irvine at Elemental Scraps & Bette Duganitz at SBE.
Thanks to Amy, I started a wishlist at Kabbodle & since so many digi stores are having a sale right now, bought a few things. Can't wait to use them.
Normally I don't win anything, anywhere, I'm so unlucky. I was so thrilled & surprised when I won a HP printer at Digiscrap info., but I could not use it here(due to voltage differences), Connie was so helpful in answering all my questions through mail & finally she offered me ACDsee photo editor instead of the printer & I jumped at the opportunity, I had downloaded the trial version & I love it, it just makes organizing so easy, I now scrap with things that I didn't even realize that I bought & downloaded, lol. I also won a 10$ GC to NDISB.
I'm slowly trying to experiment with altering my scrapping style, nothing drastic, but I do want to play with all these fab. doodles & swirls that seem to be the in thing now. I've tried a couple of layouts in this style & I think I like the result.
I have a great news to share, but I can't until the announcements are made:)
Some new layouts:
I did this for the eclectic team challenge at Jessica Bolton's blog.
My dh & dd watching a beautiful sunset on a glorious autumn evening.
Everything by Jessica Bolton at Scrapbookgraphics.


see here for credits.

See here for credits.

See here for credits.


See here for credits.

Look here for credits.

See here for credits.

Credits.