The Paper Mama Photo Challenge: Surprise




April 2nd
This weeks challenge: Surprise
The challenge: The challenge will be based around your children. Take or find a photo of your baby (or kid… or puppy… or kitty). We just had April Fools! Any surprises?

 

My example of “Surprise”:



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Here are a couple links to some free photo editing software if you don’t already have something:
Picnik 
Picasa
Gimp
Pixlr

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Remember: my photo challenges do require you to have either your children or one of your furry children (pets) in the photo. It could be just one finger… or a toe… but, they must be there.
There always has to be rules… I know, boring right? But, it’s to help me and you. πŸ™‚ Click on this link for more details… Each entry does need to link back to my blog… All photo entries need to be in by 11:59 PM Pacific Time on April 7th …
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Guess what…. after 4 challenges there will be a week long vote off of the winners from the 4 previous challenges… 4 more challenges to go…


Winners so far:
– Surprise: … no one yet …
– Black and White: … no one yet …
– Self Portrait: … no one yet …
– Multicolored: … no one yet …

The Paper Mama

And, if you all get a moment…. 
I’d LOVE a vote! πŸ˜€
Vote For Us @ TopBaby Blogs! The Best Baby Blog Directory


❀ Chelsey

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BlogHer 2011!

Categories: Uncategorized


Time for the Vote Off!!!

It’s time to vote for your photo of the last month! Here are the 4 winners:

1. Simple Beauty: Hella Kids
{Hella Kids}

2. Peace: K. Laudick Photos
{K. Laudick Photos}

3. Green: Babe in Boyland
{Babe in Boyland}
4. Sweet: Fiddlehead
{Fiddlehead}

 

Please Vote! Voting will end on April 7th, 2011 at 11:59 pm. Get your friends and family to vote! πŸ™‚ Make a post on your blog linking back to the vote post.



❀ Chelsey

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BlogHer 2011!

Categories: Uncategorized


AND, the winner of the "Sweet" Photo Challenge is….



This weeks challenge: Sweet.
The challenge: The challenge will be based around your children. Take or find a photo of your baby (or kid… or puppy… or kitty). This could be as literal as a dessert or hershey kiss. OR it could be a sweet moment you captured with a friend or family member or pet?

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The winners chosen by me:
First: Love this beautiful moment.
{Fiddlehead}

 

Congrats to the winner! Great job, and please feel free to grab the Fact: I’m Awesome button! Because You are awesome!!

The Paper Mama

Second: Love the processing and this photo is so sweet.
{Wandering Wicopy}

 Third: Sleeping babies are the sweetest!
{Living Our Love Song}

Fourth: Baby kisses!
{Being What i Want to Be}

Fifth: Love a close crop. And… those cake pops are yummy!
{Just Bits and Pieces}

Congrats to my top 5 winners! If you’d like… you are more than welcome to grab a Top 5 Photo button below!

The Paper Mama


My favorites (in no particular order):

{Blue Skies Photography}

{My Life, My World, My Blessings}

{Les Cadeaux}

{Luvin’ Life Photography}

{Life with Rylie}

If you’re one of my favorites you are more than welcome to grab a “Paper mama hearts me” button below!

The Paper Mama


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Guess what…. after 4 challenges there will be a week long vote off of the winners from the 4 previous challenges… 0 more challenge to go…

Winners so far:
Simple Beauty: … Hella Kids

Peace: … K. Laudick Photos …

Green: … Babe in Boyland  
Sweet: … Fiddlehead … 
 
And, if you all get a moment…. 
I’d LOVE a vote! πŸ˜€
Vote For Us @ TopBaby Blogs! The Best Baby Blog Directory


❀ Chelsey

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BlogHer 2011!

Categories: Uncategorized


Party Time

I’m partying today! Blog party that is. I want to welcome anyone new to my blog with a little bit about me…

Me:

The husband, Mike:
The baby: Laureli… or Ruari as I mostly call her (yup, named from the Gilmore Girls. ;D):
Our “dog” Angus:
Our Cats… Pistachio and Princess:

My shops:
the paper mama shop short banner
the paper lady shop short banner

I like paper… I like blogging. I like love my baby! I draw a lot… I take too many photos! I can’t stop tweeting… If I had to eat one thing for the rest of my life it would probably be fried chicken… so yum. I like being sarcastic. I tattoo babies. I have many dreams about blogging and the bloggers I “meet”. I get REALLY carsick… I either have to asleep for long car rides… or drive. Red wine is yummy. White wine if lovely with shrimp. Dessert wine is gross. I am going to BlogHer ’11. I try to buy most of my gifts handmade. And… that’s all I can think of.
Please, look around… enjoy yourself. Have a glass of wine and some fried chicken. πŸ˜€

Ultimate Blog Party 2011

I’m here a lot:
button twitterbutton facebookbutton flickr

❀ Chelsey

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BlogHer 2011!

Categories: about me, family


Ruari Vlog: Learnin’ Time


I really hope you all learned a lot today. Ruari loves to help you learn!

I don’t know if you heard it… but, Ruari 
also asked if you could spare a vote for our blog! 
Just click the button… then one more click! Thanks!
Vote For Us @ TopBaby Blogs! The Best Baby Blog Directory

❀ Chelsey

…………………………………………………………………..

BlogHer 2011!

Categories: Uncategorized


Say hello to my April sponsors!

Say hello to the April 2011 sponsors! Please, give them ALL a visit!

{Rice Babies Shop}{Rice Babies Blog}

{A Sorta Fairytale Blog}{A Sorta Fairytale Photography Mentoring Sessions}

{As She Walks Blog}

{Pretty Little Mustache Blog}{Pretty Little Mustache Shop}

{The Little Illustrator Shop}{The Little Illustrator Blog}

{The ab press Shop}{The ab press Blog}

{Fleur Anning Shop}{Fleur Anning Blog}

{Paint the Moon site}

{Saturated Canary Blog}{Saturated Canary Shop}

{IROCKSOWHAT blog} {Shop}
{Barely Measured Blog} {Barely Measured Shop}

{Tiny Tree Hugger Blog} {Tiny Tree Hugger Shop}

{Simplicity Blog} {Simplicity Shop}

{Bohemian Baby Shop}

{RSVP Ink}

{Fine Art By Christina Hammock Shop}

{Pepper and Farley Shop}

{My Card Creations Shop}

{Twenty Five Designs Shop} {Torie’s Blog}

{Scissors Paper Rock Shop} {Scissors Paper Rock Blog}

{Sissy Little Shop}

Please give them ALL a visit! There are some AWESOME giveaways coming up in the next week or so… Thank you sponsors! I believe you guys are amazing! πŸ™‚

❀ Chelsey

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BlogHer 2011!

Categories: Uncategorized


Wordless{ish} Wednesday: DIY wedding tips…

{Just wanted to share a few DIY wedding tips with you all. This weeks Vloggin’ Vednesday was a ‘How To’ video… but, I took it in a different direction. DIY and money saving tips… some in my video and some below…}

{My sister and I doing the Arrested Development chicken dance.}


❀ {Skip the bridal shop: skip the marked up bridal shops. Buy your dress online from Ebay or from a thrift shop… or… try somewhere that doesn’t specifically sell bridal dresses. I believe the word “bride” or “wedding” attached to anything really kicks up the price! For my wedding: I bought mine on Ebay for $160 (shipping included): April Bridal.}

❀ {Buy handmade: What can you buy for the wedding that’s handmade? From Etsy? I purchased my vintage earrings for $10 on Etsy. I still wear them ALL the time.}

❀ {Borrow: What can you borrow? For my wedding: I couldn’t get myself to buy an expensive veil… so, my friend that had been married two months earlier said I could borrow hers! I just LOVED it!}

❀ {Forget the favors: Lets be very honest…. who really needs a candle shaped like a bride or wedding cake? I certainly don’t… and, I’m sure many other people don’t need them either. These items end up in the garbage or shipped off to Goodwill.}

{Favors can be VERY spendy. I found the average price, when I was planning my wedding, was about $3/favor. If I ordered 150 favors for 150 people… wow: $450 for something most people wont take or will throw away. For my wedding: I ended up taking $200 dollars and adopting 4 different animals under “Chelsey and Mike’s wedding guests” from the World Wildlife Fund. I printed up little certificates to hand out thanking my guests for adopting these animals.}

❀ {Get crafty: There are so many tutorials and inspirations online that you can find to help you create something awesome! Instead of buying! For my wedding: We made the hair clips the bridemaids wore… and little flags to wave instead of throwing rice.}

❀ {Save your bridemaids some money: Of course… I completely understand wanting all of your bridemaids to match… but, if you really don’t care… just let your friends choose their own dresses! For my wedding: I let all my friends choose their own dresses. I gave them each a brown fabric sample to sort of go by to find a brown cocktail dress and said find gold shoes. All of them bought a dress they loved and at a price they wanted! One person borrowed her dress… and another only spent $10 on her’s! They all looked beautiful.}

❀ {Buy wholesale: I had paper umbrella’s and a TON of string lights. I bought them wholesale online… saving a ton of money! For my wedding: I got my wedding craft supplies from here.}

❀ {Skip the site that requires you to choose from a list of caterers: You are pretty much guaranteed to spend more that way. So many times I was given a list of caterers to choose from… and it would have been (the lowest) at least $35 a person. No way am I spending that. For my wedding: Mike and I actually had the pizza company that was in the same building cater our wedding! We spent about $900 for food. We also skipped cake and went with cupcakes.}

❀ {Reconsider some of the things you “think” you need to rent: So, I personally didn’t want a sit down dinner… so, I saved a ton and just skipped all the tables! Well… I still had a few tiny cocktail tables. I still got about 50 chairs. And really… They weren’t all used.}

❀ {Get your flowers locally: Why not see if there’s a u-pick flower spot somewhere near you? For my wedding: My sister and I went to a tiny little you-pick Dahlia farm (the day before the wedding) we’ve passed for years! It was $4 for a dozen flowers. I spent $40 on ALL of my flowers… My sister put together a sweet little red bouquet. It was perfect. All of my bridesdmaids we’re already carrying $3 paper umbrellas… so, they didn’t need flowers. πŸ™‚ }

❀ {Ask your friends and family for help: My cousin was so kind to sort of take over the wedding extras and sort of run things for me. I gave her a $50 gift certificate for her help. And, most of my family set up and took down the wedding decor. Only problem: Now I know I’ll have to do it for their kids… ha! Just kidding! ;D}

❀ {What is most important for your wedding: So… yeah.. the most important thing about your wedding is celebrating your love and sharing it with your friends and family… blah blah blah… but really… think about what’s REALLY important for you to have at your wedding. For me: it was the photography. I went and got my favorite local photographer and didn’t care what the price was. And, I’m so happy I did. My photographer: Craig Mitchelldyer.}

❀ {Check out the non-typical wedding locations: I got married on top of a building in the city of Portland. I NEVER pictured that would be where I would get married. I had been looking at millions of vineyards… but, I just didn’t fall in love… What’s really surprising is there are a TON of spaces that would love to throw a large “party” for you. We have this really cool space in an industrial area in Portland that I found out rents out for small weddings: Produce Row. How cool?}

{via}

{Really… I encourage you to think outside of the box for your wedding. It’s one day… and if you worry too much about it… spend to much money on it… you might regret it later. That money could go towards a home… or a car… or whatever.}

{If you have a Wordless{ish} Wednesday, please feel free to link it up below. BY the way: Shawntae from A Little King and I now share our Wednesday Linky’s. :D. And, feel free to link up to these blogs too… 5 Minutes For Mom, Parenting by Dummies, A Beautiful Mess, Supermom, and Live and Love Outloud.}

{If you thought all my tips were awesome… 
can I get a vote for my blog? :D}
Vote For Us @ TopBaby Blogs! The Best Baby Blog Directory

❀ Chelsey

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BlogHer 2011!

Categories: diy