Melissa Frances: Now & Then, I love cookies!

Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved to bake! I was always the one baking something at home and learned a lot about baking from my grandmas, aunts and mom. Both of my grandmas always had something baked to offer when company came calling. My Grandma Theresa was famous for her chocolate chip cookies - people in our family would jokingly (I think it was jokingly anyway) fight over them. My Grandma Kathryn was famous for her cinnamon rolls. I remember many times baking something side by side with them. It was one of my favorite things to do. My mom liked to bake too but she just let me go loose in the kitchen when I wanted to. Now that I have my own kitchen, I experiment with new recipes but go back to our tried and true family favorites time and time again. I'm very much looking forward to baking with my two daughters at my side and I hope to instill the same love for it that I have. 

I documented my love for baking with this layout using the Kitschy Kitchen collection by Melissa Frances. While we were creating our adoption scrapbook, we had to take a lot of photos of ourselves doing what we loved. The photo on the upper left is me whipping up a batch of cookies. I came across this photo of little Jill making some Christmas cookies and thought it would be great to a comparison of the two. I was almost 3 in this picture. 

I created a patchwork of patterned paper squares that I then stitched together. 

Here's a look at part of my title. I used a few different chipboard alphabet sets by Melissa Frances and a scalloped "I love cookies" sticker. I wrapped a die-cut with red & white Martha Stewart baker's twine - pretty fitting for a baking layout, right? :) 

The scallops at the bottom of the layout are a Martha Stewart starburst punch that I cut in half. 

I put a couple of the starburst punches at the top of my layout too along with a tag that I cut and accented with baker's twine. 

We've had a very long week in our house dealing with some sleeping issues with one of the girls. She has been refusing to nap at times and waking up in the middle of the night again. I had one of those days yesterday that made me struggle with a lot of doubt and frustration. It can be very tiring chasing after two toddlers every day so I cherish the little break I get in the middle of the day for nap time. It's a time for me to regroup and mentally get ready for the rest of the day. Yesterday, that didn't happen so I was left feeling very, very frustrated. I prayed a lot throughout the day and my child who had issues actually slept through the night last night! Yay! Now, we'll see how today goes! Each stage of growth and development brings new joys and challenges. Just keeping it real, you know?! :) 

Have a great day! :)