On hiatus...

Hello out there! Just popping in to say I'm going to be taking a bit of a break from blogging and all things digital. I'm sure I won't be gone too long but I just need step back for now. I'm sure I'll be back intermittently to share updates with you. Maybe once a week or so if I feel up to it.

Things aren't perfect, things aren't even ideal. But I am not broken. I can not be broken. The faith I'm standing is stronger than anything in this world. God is with me and my family. Our light is shining bright.

Before I depart, I shall leave a message for someone I know reads this blog daily. I know what you did. I can't begin to understand the motives behind it but that doesn't matter. Just know that I love you, I forgive you and I am praying for you.

Recovering from the weekend...

Short post today! We are sick today, all 3 of us! Great way to start out the week, eh? Tristan feel much better but he is still laying around a lot which is very unlike him so he's not quite 100% better yet.

We had a pretty good weekend! The kids, Tim and I spent the weekend with my Aunt and it was very relaxing :). Lots of great family time and fun together. We visited my Dad on Sunday which was also a lot of fun. Tristan finally got a much needed hair cut. He looks cute but I kind of miss his pretty locks!

We've got a pretty big day coming up tomorrow so prayers are much appreciated. I thank God for all the blessings he has bestowed upon us. My faith is unwaivering, I know God is watching over us.

Thank you for stopping by to visit with me today! Blessings to you and yours!

Kicking off the weekend with a bang!

After going to bed early last night Tristan woke up SCREAMING inconsolably at 4 am. I couldn't seem to comfort him at all and I couldn't figure out what was wrong at all. He wouldn't eat or drink anything :(. Some children's motrin and a warm bath calmed him down some . I rubbed his belly until he finally drifted off to sleep around 6 am. Of course, Gabriel was just waking up so no rest for mommy!

Tristan finally woke up just before noon, again screaming his head off :(. He was also burning up with fever :o! So off to the ER we all went! Let me tell you, getting a sick, feverish, crying toddler and a little guy in a wheelchair into the ER solo is no easy task! Tim was stuck at work with no one to relieve him and my Aunt was MIA!

My poor little guy had a bad ear infection :(! We have been so lucky with ear infections, combined my boys have only had a handful of them in their lives. I was so sad for my little Tristan to get such a bad one :(. They gave him some more tylenol for the fever, some ear drop s for the pain and prescription for the earache. We had to wait for a bit to see if we could coax him to drink anything. Finally he took several sips of sprite so they let us come home. Sadly he puked as soon as we got home and I haven't been able to get anything else down him since. He is sleeping now so hopefully when he wakes up he'll drink some more for me or back the ER we go! Can't have my little guy gettin dehydrated on me!

We had planned to have a fun afternoon outside and then go to Trading Days, a street festival going on this weekend but it looks like those things will have to wait. Perhaps he'll feel better tomorrow! Say a prayer for my little guy will ya?

God is so gracious and loving! He has carried me through this difficult day with grace. In the face of the diffulties I have been experiencing he has blessed me wondrously. I feel his love all around my home and family. Our Lord is protecting us and guiding us through the hard times. I am so uplifted by his kindness and mercy and love. My heart sings his praises!

Look for my good news coming very soon ;)!

Pruning dead branches...

This has been quite a week for me. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions. I was betrayed and had my trust violated by someone I considered a dear friend. Consequentially I left a message board I have been part of for years. I will always think fondly of the members of this message board and I have established a hopefully ongoing e-mail/IM relationship with some of them.

This came in the midst of terribly difficult situation in my life. After exhausting all avenues I could humanly possible I did the only thing I could do. I have put it in God's hands. My faith is unwaivering. I can move a mountain.

After deep reflection and prayer I broached a subject with someone in my life that had been festering for awhile. In the bible, John speaks of pruning dead branches that bear no fruit. It was time to prune that dead branch. Such a black and cruel heart deserves no place in my life and can only bring pain. I have blocked this person from contacting me and hope that this person never tries again. That book is closed forever. I pray that God delivers peace to this person.

I have some very happy news to share with you soon! I can't spill the beans just yet but I am absolutely elated! A true blessing has entered my life, praise God!

Monday, Monday...

The weekend goes by too fast doesn't it? It was a quiet weekend here in Bella Gypsy Land! I just have one question for all you bloggers out there? Does the cleaning ever end? I don't think it does! If I let the cleaning slide for one day the house becomes a disaster area! Needless to say I spent a good deal of my Sunday afternoon trying to recover from the hysteria!

Tim spent a good deal of time with us this weekend. It's so nice to have him around. He is such a wonderful guy. The boys love him and he is so good. I feel so much better when he is around!

I've been struggling with some major depression this weekend. I hate living with depression. It seems like there are people out there who live to make things worse. I'm doing the best I can. It feels hard to breathe sometimes. At one of my lowest moments today when I was wondering what I was going to do....it just came to me. Through all of this I haven't really asked God for help. I'm not a deeply religious or spiritual person. I began to pray and the pain started to lift off my heart. It was a powerful moment for me. I am deeply thankful to God for easing my pain at that moment. I am filled with a renewed sense of hope that things will be okay. I need to lean on God and put my faith in him. I want my children to know the wondrous love of our Almighty Father in Heaven.

I finally got a new element pack in my store at Scrapbook-Bytes! I am totally in love with it and can't wait to get some of these pretties on my upcoming LOs! I am totally into funky, cool ribbons lately and have really been wanting some like these! Grab'em for $3!

Totally Twisted available at SBB!

So I also decided to participate in the Team GMD blog challenge! I have struggled for page inspiration lately. I mean I love my pages but sometimes I just need a bit of a push, ya know? I just love the way this came out. I can't believe my baby Tristan was ever so little! When I was finishing the page he came and crawled up into my lap and started pointing at the photo saying "bebe"! It was precious! I told him that was him as a baby and he said "bebe Ti-tah" which is what he calls himself *lol*!

Read full credits HERE!

time flies...

It sure does! This week has been a blur. It's not even that I have been massively busy. I have had plenty to do alright but much of it has continuously been put off again and again. I know I have lamented it several times over but there just isn't enough time in the day for me. I constantly have a to-do list a mile long.

I did get a decent amount of cleaning done this week. I spent on whole day just cleaning practically. The house is a tad lived in at this moment but it's very clean! Before I crawl into bed I'll tidy up! I'm sure you've gathered by now I'm not a neat freak! Quite the opposite actually. Cleaning is way down there on my priority list *lol*! I do enjoy it when things are quite so chaotic though. It brings a nice piece of mind. If only it didn't get messy again so fast. It's truly amazing how destructive a toddler boy can be! It's really just Tristan too, Gabriel and I only contribute to a tiny amount of the mess. It just blows my mind how fast Tristan can make a mess out of a room! He is anxious to help though! When I start picking up he tries to help me and he vaccums along with me with his toy vaccum when I'm doing using the real vaccum. He's a helpful little guy.

We've also been quite under the weather this week. It's hard to explain. I mean we aren't suffering from fevers and vomiting or anything too bad. It's just a sense of general unwellness. Is that a word? It is now! It's made it a quite exhausting week in that sense.

I feel like I have gotten so behind. I really need to make one of those big schedules on a poster board, you know, like SuperNanny does? It seems like I can only do focus on one thing. If I focus on designing then the house becomes a disaster area. If focus on cleaning I don't get any designing done. I know there has to be a balance. I need a clone *lol*!

I've been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer a lot this past week. I find I do that a lot when I clean. I'm not sure why but I find it helpful and it focuses me more than listening to music. I finished up the final season on dvd and promptly started back over! I know I don't have to watch them in order. The first two seasons are actually my least fave of all of them but I just like to watch them in order!

Before I depart I shall leave you with a new LO. I finally decided to try a digi-dare! I knew when I saw the prompt I had to scrap about being pregnant. I LOVE being pregnant! I really would be pregnant all the time if I could, I think *lol*!

Read the full credits HERE!

blog slacker...

I have been so bad at blogging lately. I aspire to blog daily but just haven't been able to get it done. Having another go around with the "not enough time in the day" syndrome. It can get so disheartening. I'm struggling with depression pretty heavily too. The depression makes it so hard to accomplish anything at all. Life can be so overwhelming sometimes...

If you can spare them keep those prayers coming please. I'm struggling to keep my head above water.

Before I depart I shall leave you with a layout. My sweet sunshine boy, Tristan!

Read full credits HERE!

New look, debut sale, freebie!

It was time for the blog to have a new look! Despite the fact that mother nature has a cruel sense of humor and it has turned cold here again. Despite the fact that it SNOWED the last two days, I'm ready for spring! I used my new Playdate kit available at Scrapbook-Bytes! Yep, I'm in the store now! Woohoo! I'm sooo happy to be in the store :)!

Today has been a really great day! First my sweet, sweet Tim brought me FLOWERS! I could have fallen over! I have only received flowers one other time in my life before this. Tim got a beautiful easter basket of flowers! My batteries are dead in the camera (currently recharging right now) so I couldn't take a pic yet but check back tomorrow. They are divine!

I got the house cleaned up. It's not clean per se but it's cleaner *lol*! I'm not done yet though, I'm gonna finish it up before bed time. Tim and I went to the grocery store with the kids. It was crazy mad busy but it was a very nice little outing!

So wanna know about my goodies at SBB? Let me start you off with a little freebie to wet your palette! I made these sweet little plush petals for you to have! They are available in my SBB store!

Click here for the store!



Okay girls! This is my Everyday Celebrations Collection. I decided not to release as a collection. If you want ALL 5 kits drop an e-mail at tabatha@tabathareed.com and I'll send you a special coupon to purchase the entire set for $18! The kits are $5 individually so you can save $7 by purchasing the entire set :)!!

Wait there is more! (I sound like an infomercial, eh?) Until Monday at midnight all 5 kits are on sale for $4, that's 20% off! I will still give you the $ 7 off, IF you contact me saying you want the entire set by Monday at midnight EST! So that is just $13 for all 5 kits! A total steal!

Click here for Sunday Brunch!

Click here for a Playdate!

Click here for Family Dinner!

Click here for Comfortable Silence!

Click here for Afternoon Naps!

April already...

Isn't my new desktop wallpaper prettiful! Puts me in a good mood to see it :)! I can't believe April is already here. The older you get the quicker time passes, I swear! It's been several days since I've been able to muster the energy to blog. I'm going through a bad case of "not enough time in the day." Seriously, I feel like I'm running full throttle all day long and still end not getting half of what I need to do -done!

I need a moment of silence. I need to honor the passing of my favorite bra. I don't know how to explain what happened to it. It just sort of disentegrated in my hands! It was a weird thing to happen. I knew it had seen better days but it was my most comfortable bra and I loved it dearly. So here I sit in a much less comfy bra today. I must go get a new bra ASAP.

I'm a bit under the weather today. I'm not sure what is up. All 3 of us have it though. Sniffles, cough, scratchy throat. I also have a headache and slight dizziness. The headache/dizziness are the symptoms that are throwing me off. Hopefully, they won't slow me down too much I still have about a zillion things I need to accomplish. Please don't let it slow me down too much!

I did a very airheaded thing this morning. I can't even tell you what it is...yet. Maybe I'll spill in a day or two but I feel like such a dork for doing it. What's worse, it's not even the first time I have done it. You'll see and you'll laugh when I tell you!

Anyway, I shall leave you with this LO of Tristan when he was 8 months old!

Credits can be seen HERE