Mom, I had a bad dream...

Every once in a while Alex comes in at night and has had a bad dream.  She is a girl with a wild imagination and that translates into her dreams too.  Sometimes her dreams are about truly scary things like volcanoes, earthquakes), sometimes they are scary and funny, like the one where a little girl set down her ice cream cone to tie her shoe and while she wasn't looking someone put a bomb in her ice cream and then she unknowingly ate it.  Wow, at 7, these are real, true fears of hers!  Eek.  Well, Alex is also a clowny little girl and that also translates into her REM sleep images.  The other night she came in and was crying...I was watching Desperate Housewives or Brothers and Sisters, don't remember which.  Todd was on call, so she climbed into bed with me and we cuddled.  I never know how much detail I'll get on these dreams, sometimes she is so out of it that she mumbles and I just comfort her and tuck her back in.  Sometimes though, she has a full on conversation with me complete with expressions and all.  This was one of those times.  She proceeded to say that a beetle had eaten her plant.  And as I sat there trying not to giggle and hugging her, I began to probe for more..."I'm sorry punkin', where did you get the plant?"  She said she had grown it from seeds so it was special.  She was upset!  Poor little thing!  So in the morning I asked if she remembered this..she laughed and said yes, she remembered the dream and that the beetle was a really big one and described it's color and teeth and everything!  Then, she drew it for me....so I had to share.

I am glad it was a beetle this time and not a bomb or natural disaster!

Alex Scrapped!!!

So, I took a LONG break from the scrapping world b/c I was burnt out!  I needed a little time to refocus on other priorities in my life and recharge my creativity...I am back now and man have I been busy!

But, before we get to that....my DD scrapped her first layout tonight!  She's been asking me to do this for years and she is so cut out for it!  My Mom told me (while I was on hiatus) about this kit Shape Up! that Amy Sumrall at The Digi Chick did.  It's a kit and comes with some special files of shapes and other simple elements geared towards kids AND she makes video lessons for the kids!  She's since added another installment of goodies and several more videos (once you purchase the system, add'l videos are included).

So, tonight Alex watched the first video and I set her up in Photoshop and the shapes and let her have at it.  of course, she was already asking how to do things well beyond the scope of the first video, she is so ready!  So, i let her in on a few other tricks of the trade and off she went...she used a scene background paper and added the cloud, rain, tree sparkles and "seeds" (yellow glitter).  I think I'm in for it now, we'll be fighting for computer time...

Oh, wait, was that chore bribery I just heard...oh, yes, it's in her future!

Here's what she did...she would love some love if you'd like to leave her a comment, you think we like getting comments, 7yo girls are even more excited to see that others really saw her work!

And here's a little update of all the layouts I've done just in the past few days, yes, NSD can do that to you...

And with that, I am really tired! So off to sleep I go!
back tomorrow with a cute story and another piece of art from Alex.
G'night!