A little different WW for me today...no photos, just a layout today :) I took these photos of Brady during bathtime last week and couldn't wait to scrap them. It really is his favorite time of the day. I'm LOVING the new Studio Calico Take Note and Abroad papers and now can't wait to get my hands on all the embellishments and Thickers!! This layout is a little different for me (a little patterned paper heavy?), but I just couldn't resist all these patterns. Thanks for stopping by! Happy Wednesday, friends!!
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February 29, 2012
February 27, 2012
Studio Calico's Story Hour!!!
Wow, this kit is a favorite. Probably #2 or 3 in my top five favorite kits ever. Trailing *very* closely behind Joyland and Paper Moon. The gorgeous mix of products...Crate, Kesi'Art, those tags in the Illustrated add-on. Aaaah, so perfect and I loved the more "boy-ish" vibe of this kit too. Always a bonus for me :) Here's what I managed to come up with this month...
This was the last layout I did after mixing up most of the kits together. The papers are mostly from Narrative (& hello amazing tiny alpha stamps!!), but there are bits from Encyclopedia and the stamp from Illustrated. We've recently started giving our boys a little more freedom/leeway when it comes to playing outside. I'm a worrier/hoverer by nature, so it's been rough for me. I wanted to document that here w/some instagram photos of the boys playing outside w/their friends.
I snapped this photo of our sweet Bailey (she's a 10-year old chocolate lab) sleeping near Brady doing a puzzle in his room. She always does this. She can't ever be away from anyone, she's always watching over us and we love that about her. This layout uses the main kit only. I cut different sized rectangles/squares from the patterned papers and added them above the photo. I used my Silhouette to cut the "always" words and added them over the misted title area. I used the SC exclusive letter stickers to mist the title.
I think this one might be my favorite, even though it was totally out of my comfort zone...misty, 8.5x11 AND a 2-pager (which I haven't done in forEVER!). All the DT members were inspired by different pieces on Pinterest for one of their layouts this month. I chose this as my inspiration. I really loved the misted circles that were overlapping. I used Lunchtray, Lemonade and Orchard Mister Huey's for the circles. This layout also uses mostly Narrative and Illustrated.
Brady can't decide if he's a righty or a lefty and is always switching back and forth. I snapped these photos of him switching hands while he was doing some kindergarten prep at home one day and knew I needed to document this. I used bits from Atlas, Encyclopedia and Narrative for this one. I loved the yellow background paper and thought it fit the "school" feel of this layout really well. I used various circle punch sizes to punch the circles and made them travel up the page.
I really wanted to use that adorable polka dot bag from the Atlas add-on, but didn't manage to use it on any of my layouts. I decided to make this little gift bag/card envelope with it instead. It also gave me a great excuse to use those fun glitter stickers from Encylopedia. :)
Be sure to check out the rest of the DT gallery...they are all SO amazing!!!
OH and thank you all for the emails, tweets, etc. about Brady's allergy testing. He did AWESOME...didn't even flinch...the nurses joked that they wanted to take a "how to get allergy tested" video of him and show it to other kids. ha! The bad news is that he's allergic to grass and coconut. Coconut is a pretty rare allergy, so I've been reading up on it as much as I can tonight. I'm finiding that coconut and/or coconut oil is in a LOT of stuff....dish soap (!!), some sunscreens, shampoos, LOTS of baked goods, even popcorn at the movie theater is popped in coconut oil (which explains the stomach issues he has after eating popcorn at the movies :P). I'm all ears if anyone has experience in dealing w/this type of allergy or any food allergy.
Happy Tuesday!! :)
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More SNEAKS & Menu Monday...
I love Mondays. A new & fresh start to another week. I'm a little tired this morning after a crazy fun weekend with my girlfriends in Orlando. But, there's lots to do this week and lots to share on the blog, so I'm pushing through :) Brady has his allergy testing (scratch test) this afternoon, so if you could put some good thoughts out there for him, I'd appreciate it. He's not nervous about it, but he doesn't really know what it entails either, so hopefully it'll go well. Okay, here's what's on our menu this week...
M- Baked Ravioli (Brady's favorite)
Th- Baseball night, so we'll probably have sandwiches or something else quick.
Another reason THIS Monday is great? It's Studio Calico reveal day!!!! I really had a great time with this kit. I shared some sneaks last week, but wanted to share just a couple more. I think this one is my favorite layout I made this month....used mostly the Narrative (#4) add-on. Those little letter stamps are going to be a staple for me and AWESOME for Project Life!
This is just something fun I made so I could use those fancy gold glitter thickers. ;)
I'll be back tomorrow to post all of my layouts here, but don't forget that reveal is tonight at midnight. Come and join us for the 11am (EST) chat today and/or the 11pm (EST) chat tonight...it's always a great time!
Happy Monday, friends! :)
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February 23, 2012
Thoughts on 33 & Storyhour Sneaks!!
I turn 33 today. It's hard to believe. It's not a milestone birthday or anything, but 33 is well over 30. I didn't have any issues with 30...it came and went and I was happy to be 30. 33 is different. To be honest with you, most days I feel like I'm not old enough to be handling all this life stuff. Like I'm just a kid playing "house". When I'm making lunches, scrambling to get us all out the door on time or singing kids to sleep, I stop and think "how did I get here so fast?". I still feel like I'm in my early 20s (still act like it too sometimes. heee!). The great thing about 33? I'm doing exactly what I wanted to be doing when I "grew up". I'm married to an amazing man, have 2 incredible boys, have the best Mom in the world, am fortunate enough to be part of a hobby I love, have a small thriving creative business, and have the best friends a girl could ever ask for. Age is just a number, right? ;)
Soooo, in celebration of 33, I've got some Studio Calico Storyhour sneaks to share!!! I pretty much LOVE this kit. So many great bits and pieces. I got all 4 add-ons this month (sorry if you were hoping I'd make just one or two suggestions. ha!) because I just couldn't choose. ;)
This first sneak uses mostly Illustrated and Narrative. Illustrated is probably my favorite add-on of the bunch (if I had to choose) and it's all because of the awesome tag assortment in the kit....so fun! You can see I used one of the larger ones here....
The main kit is amazing all on it's own, as well. I did a little tone on tone work w/the title here and I love the way it turned out...
Last one uses mostly Encyclopedia, but also bits from Narrative. I'm in LOVE with those little journaling spots from Evalicious!
Alright, that's it for now...I will try to share a couple more sneak peeks before reveal. I can't put this one away just yet! Happy Thursday, friends!! :)
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February 22, 2012
Wordless Wednesday: Always There....
Wherever they go, she's always there...she can't handle it if we're all in different rooms, she just goes back and forth making sure to check on everyone. She's the best dog ever.
Happy Wednesday, friends! I'll be back tomorrow with some Studio Calico March kit sneaks!! :)
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February 19, 2012
Baby Kyle {Land O Lakes Newborn Photographer}
My friend, Deanna, had her gorgeous little boy 2 weeks ago now. He is absolutely perfect and it was such a treat to spend some time with him and his super proud big brother, Max. Little Kyle was a long awaited addition to their family and he is so loved. Enjoy your sneak, Deanna, Jimmy & Max :)
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February 17, 2012
Project Life...Week 3!
This was a rough week of PL for me. I didn't have many photos, my printer was printing crooked no matter what I did and I just honestly had a hard time getting it together for week 3. And then, I tried to post this earlier today and my card reader kept unconnecting from my computer. grrrr! But, I finally got it to work tonight and I'm happy to share week 3 and consider it DONE finally! ;)
Week 3 was fairly busy, even though I didn't have a lot of photos to show for it. Jackson got his report card at the beginning of the week and I knew I wanted to include it somehow. I ended up scanning it in and then using Paislee Press' free 4x6 template to put the report scan and the photo of J out to dinner celebrating side by side. The drag and drop templates are so quick and easy...LOVE that!
This week, I also used Studio Calico's new Project Life stamps...both sets are so fun! Speaking of Studio Calico, lots of this week's products came from my Daydream Believer kit leftovers. I'm loving the new Dear Lizzy Neopolitan line....so much fun! You can see in page 2 below, I also used a birthday party invite that Jackson attended. I didn't take any photos from the party, so the invite was the perfect solution.
So, that's week 3! I think in order to get myself caught up, I'm going to work on 4 & 5 this weekend and just keep them each to one page. I know I didn't take all that many photos and I'm hoping I can catch up on weeks 6 & 7 next week sometime. Whew!
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Oh, one more thing! Bella Blvd has a new February newsletter and they were so sweet to ask me to make a couple of pages for this month. I loved working with their fun new lines....so bright and happy!! You can check it out HERE. :) Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!!
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February 16, 2012
Wordless Wednesday...on Thursday ;)
It's been so long since I've taken my camera outside and snapped some everyday photos of the boys. Basketball is their new obsession. We can blame it on Daddy's obsession w/the Hoosiers. ;) (post processing is a little different than my usual processing...just trying something new:)
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February 15, 2012
Project Life...week 2!!
Oh my. I'm still so behind. I finally finished week 2 last week and since then I've also finished week 3. I will NOT give up on this project, even though it is soooo like me to give up if I feel like I'm not doing it "right" (or caught up!). Anywaaaay, I'm super excited to share week 2 finally!
Since this was only the 2nd week in the project, I had plenty of photos to choose from! On top of that, it was just a busy week anyhow, so there were lots of photo opportunities. One thing I've noticed is that I stink at taking photos w/my big camera now that I've gotten so used to using my iphone. I'm hoping to get better about that after struggling to fill some of the 4x6 spots for week 2 & 3. ;) Some new stuff I used this week: days of the week cards from the silhouette store and marcy penner's fun time 4x6 cards. Also still using Erica Hernandez's cards & brushes from 2peas this week...
My favorite part of this week's spread? The grocery store reciept!! How fun will that be to look back on 10-20 years from now?! It's astronomical that we can easily spend $140 at the store each week these days...I imagine we'll laugh about it in 20 years. heee! :)
Here's a little bit of what I used for this week....more Project Life (week 3!) coming Friday!! :)
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February 13, 2012
Catching up (& Menu Monday)...
So part of my resolutions this year was to stop procrastinating and start focusing (<----my one little word this year) on what NEEDS to be done rather than doing just the stuff that I WANT to get done. Blogging, unfortnately, is not a need and so I've been slacking. The good news about that is that my house has been fairly clean, I've kept up with assignments and although we've been busy, things have been moving along nicely. So what's been filling up our days??
- Baseball!!! Jackson has been playing since December, but Brady started up again a couple weeks ago and so we're at the ball field 2-3 days/nights per week.
- an ER trip for Brady on Superbowl Sunday. :( All of a sudden, he was coughing and having a hard time breathing. We think he might have had a reaction to something he ate, but we can't figure out what it was. He goes for an allergy scratch test in 2 weeks. :( If anyone has any experience/advice, I'd love to hear it!
Brady was mesmorized by the personal TV remote in the ER room. heeee!
Jackson was sooooo worried about him and wouldn't leave his side. So sweet!
- lots of school activities...100th day for both boys, Odyssey of the Mind for Jackson, getting ready for Valentine's Day, etc, etc.
- lots of Valentine's photos for Kelly Noel Photography...I photographed LOTS of super cute kids last month!
- working on new branding, website, blog, etc. for the photog biz...it's coming along...I can't wait to show everyone!
And even though we've been busy, I've still been cooking a bit here and there (on the no baseball nights...heee!). Here's what's on our menu for this week...
M- Carrabba's (we had a gift card...yummy food for free? yes please! lol)
T- PW's BBQ Meatballs & Creamy Mashed Potatoes (our special Valentine dinner at home w/the boys....this is one of their favorite meals)
Th- sandwiches (both boys have practices). It's also Pokeno night w/the girls for me, so I'm using my Grandma's yummy strawberry cake recipe to make mini cupcakes.
F- Baked Buffalo Chicken Bites (I think the boys will really like this one!)
I'll be back tomorrow with a Project Life post...I'm bound and determined to get caught up and I've got week 2 photos to share :) Don't forget the Studio Calico March kit sneak is tonight....I'll be heading over to the chat in a bit...come join us!!
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