The Scrappy Jedi

harbor freight spinner rack + brad storage update

2012-02-02T07:00:00.001-06:00

Yes, I've been tweaking the scrap room again! Remember a couple of weeks ago when I shared my new Project Life organization and mentioned that I'd also switched up how I store my brads? Today I'm going to show you that little project along with the waterfall of small changes that came along with it. Organizational projects are like Pringles- you can't have just one.

You might recall from my massive scrap room overhaul that I have a small cabinet on one of my side walls that looks (or looked, rather) like this.

It's just a tiiiiiny bit different now, and looks like this.

It's not a huge change, but I did completely switch out one of the organizers (it now lives in the kitchen holding fruit) and moved some things around in the others, so let's take a little tour of that!

The biggest change was the addition of the four-tier spinning organizer from Harbor Freight. I first came across this amazing $20 wonder (yes, just $20) on Kinsey Wilson's blog, and I bow to her crafty powers as she has since given hers the woodgrain treatment, making it look oh-so-much-more-fab than my plain black one.

But I'm just kinda lazy like that sometimes, you know? It took enough effort for me to haul myself over to Harbor Freight and pick up one of my own, then spend another hour or so putting a zillion (yes, that's a slight overstatement) little bolts into place. Imagine IKEA-style build-it-yourself stuff with crudely hand-drawn diagrams and badly-translated-from-Chinese instructions, and that's what I had to work with, people!

The biggest gain I got from adding this particular rack was making my collection of decorative tapes more visible (and it also gave me the chance to go all OCD on them and put them in color order). Their previous storage unit was a lot prettier than this one, but the rolls were all jumbled together in the top basket, and every time I dug through them to find a particular pattern some of the rolls would escape through the basket's mesh and roll all over the place.

Not cool. This is much better.

This rack also gave me a new home for my growing collection of baker's twines! All the single-color wrapped cards are on one level (with room to expand), and the mixed cards and spools are on the top rack.

I also love that the bottom rack of this unit is completely empty. Room to grow is a very good thing!

My button and bauble storage rack (you can see how I set this little guy up here) is where my brad collection has now gone to live.

All of my brads were still on the original cards that they came on, making them pretty to look at, but flipping through a dozen or so cards every time I needed one was making finding the right color brad for a layout a bit challenging.

What was even more challenging is where all those brads were stored- buried in this basket of what are supposed to be my "favorite" or newer items that I want to make sure that I use. The only problem was that I apparently have so many "favorite" items that it was really difficult to find anything in here!

Luckily when I put my button storage together I left a few empty jars for future use (see, room to grow, people!). I spent two episodes of Stargate: SG-1 (how sad is it that I measure how long a task takes by the number of sci-fi show episodes I watch while working?) pulling the brads off of all those cards and organizing them by color in the extra jars.

And now the empty part of the button storage tray isn't quite so empty!

What is empty is the top tier of my color mist tray. It used to hold all of those baker's twine cards that now live in the new spinner rack, so my mist collection has room to grow, too!

I honestly really do think that I'm done with all the organizing...for now, anyway! I hope. Maybe...

cha winter 2012 | hambly screen prints

2012-02-01T13:00:00.001-06:00

After seeing Hambly's sneak peeks before the CHA Winter 2012 show, I knew I had to get to this booth as quickly as possible!

I love Hambly's graphic style and the fact that they offer the same print in multiple colors in either clear overlays or screen printed papers- that kind of variety makes it so easy to find the perfect piece to match whatever project I'm currently working on!

Hambly is also great at spotting and following trends...and many times being ahead of them! Take, for instance, their new Herringbone print. This pattern is just starting to emerge as a new trend in the industry (thanks to the current love affair with its cousin, the chevron), and Hambly is already on top of it!

Speaking of chevrons, Hambly has those, too. I'm loving the big chunky print.

For those who want smaller chevrons, Hambly has the Chevron Mashup print with your choice of three different sizes, all on one sheet.

Hambly is on top of the travel trend, as well, with a fun airplane print.

And oh. my. word. the map!! I'm going to be buying several of these!

The geek in me adores this graph print.

Isn't this cloud print awesome? I love the stripes, dots, and chevrons inside the clouds themselves.

And the honeycomb print- do I even need to say how much I love it? ::sigh:: This is one trend that I really hope never goes away!

Hambly has a new series of mini overlays, as well, that are perfectly sized for cutting apart and using in Project Life albums. I'm definitely going to have to get my hands on some of these for my own album!

Color printed cardstock is also new to the Hambly family at this show, and they've taken many of their most popular designs and patterns and produced a fun, bright paper line!

Hambly has also added two new sets to its wildly popular washi tape line. Just LOOK at those camera prints! Love!

CHA rolls on for one more day! Which booth will I post next? Who knows?!? I'm not even sure yet!!

bella blvd inspiration unlimited week | baby girl

2012-02-01T07:15:00.042-06:00

It's been a huge week for Bella Blvd here at CHA (I can't believe that today is the last day!), and it's a huge week over on the Bella Studio blog, as well! Today they're highlighting the new Baby Girl collection, and the design team has cooked up some super sweet projects to show off all the new papers and embellishments.

I actually made two projects with this collection- a layout and a mini album. I'll share the other project next week, but I wanted to get started with this layout about my cute li'l niece, Natalie.

Darren and I just happened to already have plans to be in DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival almost three years ago when we learned that Natalie was due to be born around the same time. We got really lucky and were able to meet her when she was only 6 days old!

I also sprinkled some of the new Bella chipboard, buttons, and flags around this page- the new embellishments are so fun!

I just love the purples that are mixed in this line. As many of my blog readers know I have a slight aversion to the color pink, so having purple to use is a really great thing! The little animal prints are too adorable- you'll see the cutest monkey print that was also in the collection when I share my mini album.

Back tomorrow with more Bella goodness!

scrapbook circle layout | the hat

2012-01-31T19:00:00.000-06:00

This is the layout that I didn't mean to do this month. Don't get me wrong, I love the photos and had intended to scrap them sometime, but not necessarily with this kit. And then I had the little goof-up that I mentioned a week or two ago with my One Item Wonder post for this month's kit at Scrapbook Circle and ended up doing a fifth layout. I rifled frantically through my photos looking for something- anything- that would work with all the pink in this kit, and finally landed on these photos of my niece, Sophie, and my Dad.

So finally I showcased that little tag paper like I was supposed to (I cut a bunch of them out, tied them with baker's twine, and used them as pennants), but more importantly I got this funny moment from Beth's birthday party earlier this year documented. Sophie kept reaching for Dad's hat, so finally he just plopped it on her head. :)

And with this fifth and final layout, I'm wrapping up my posts for the January kit. Layouts from the February kit coming soon!

cha winter 2012 | studio calico

2012-01-31T13:00:00.001-06:00

Next up on our tour of CHA Winter 2012 booths is the incomparable Studio Calico. They're unveiling three amazing new collections at this show, and I stopped by to take tons of photos of all the new goods.

Take Note is probably my favorite of the three give its versatility and the varied yet cohesive color scheme. This line was developed in collaboration with the creative team from Sassafras, and their signature funky style is definitely on display here coupled with the classic timelessness we've come to expect from Studio Calico.

I absolutely love the mix of gray and woodgrain neutrals in a single line- it's quite uncommon in the industry and refreshing to see!

Note the journaling card paper at the very top of the rack. Is it not simply perfect for Project Life? ::sigh:: I'm going to have to have several of those, I think!

Thanks to their new partnership with American Crafts, Studio Calico has greatly expanded their line of embellishments. The new lines include Thickers (in addition to the signature letter stickers that Studio Calico is known for) and fun new items such as garlands and decorative tapes.

There are new cling stamps in the lines, as well, thanks to Studio Calico's ongoing collaboration with Hero Arts.

I say that Take Note is my favorite, but maybe it's Abroad...I can't decide! I love to travel, and Abroad is filled with gorgeous map motifs and a color palette that is neutral enough to suit nearly any type of vacation photo.

I'm quite excited to see new tiny alpha stickers in the Studio Calico lineup!

And of course there are the standard Studio Calico wood veneer embellishments and more new cling stamps.

I think that these wood veneer cameras deserve a close-up!

As does this wonderfully detailed map stamp- definitely a must-have!

Those map print stickers had me at hello. Or maybe at map.

Classic Calico was a definite smash hit for Studio Calico, and they've followed it up with a second volume of the amazing neutral line.

The papers are a new mix of trends patterns and basic prints in the same gray, white, cream, and kraft color palette that was the hallmark of the previous line.

There are new embellishments in this line, too, including more wood veneer and new tapes.

There are also new misting masks, including a super trendy chevron pattern and a set of banners in both small and large sizes.

And this time there's a 6x6 pad of Classic Calico- yay!

There are, of course, new Mister Huey's colors along with a range of standard shades that will always be in the lineup.

Here's miss Kelly Purkey demonstrating the color mists to a customer.

The Studio Calico design team always does a fantastic job when creating sample projects, and the booth was filled with so many inspiring cards, layouts, and mini albums.

The words "I'll take one of everything" definitely came to mind while I was in this booth- I can't wait until I can order the new goodies and start playing!

bella blvd inspiration unlimited week | sunshine and happiness

2012-01-31T07:15:00.010-06:00

Yesterday Bella Blvd kicked off a full two weeks of sharing all the great new projects that the design team has been busily creating with the new paper collections and embellishments. Today the new Sunshine and Happiness line is taking center stage over at the Bella Studio blog, and I've got a new layout made with these bright, sunny papers to share!

Darren's brother and his family were in town visiting for a few days (it's hard to believe that it was back in 2010!!) and we were both so busy that we hardly had any time to spend with them (they came during the week when we were working and not over a weekend). They hung with Darren's parents most of the time, but we did manage to have dinner with them one evening and also spent an afternoon with everyone at Darren's sister's lake house (which is where this photo was taken).

And it just so happened that miss Natalie's beach towel on that particular day was the perfect match for these papers!

Did you notice the details in the cloud print? Stephanie is always doing something cute with those! Bella's last Halloween line had little lightning bolts coming out of them, and this collection styles them up with chevrons and dots. So fun!

cha winter 2012 | pink paislee

2012-01-30T22:06:00.000-06:00

CHA Winter 2012 is officially underway, and it's time to let the booth tours begin. You'll be seeing lots of up-close and in depth looks at many, many manufacturer booths in the coming weeks (not to worry, there will still be plenty of projects and geekery mixed in!!) as I work through the hundreds of photos I've already taken and the hundreds more that are sure to come.

I'm starting with the always fabulous Pink Paislee, who really decked their booth out with a gorgeous tablescape to set the mood!

Doesn't it look like something straight out of Martha Stewart Living?!? ::sigh::

A close up of the gorgeous Mistables banner- so stunning!

And the party place settings themselves, trimmed out with so many of the new items- I spy lots of Spring Jubilee and London Market here!

Speaking of Spring Jubilee, here's a look at the entire new collection! It's based on designs by House of 3, and you can definitely spot their signature layered styling in the papers and embellishments.

The colors are the quintessential spring palette and are quite vibrant and oh-so-cheery.

The stamps, rub-ons, and printed tags (new embellishments in the Pink Paislee family) are all stunningly gorgeous!

London Market is the newest collection by Collage Press- they're really fitting right in with the Pink Paislee clan!

I'm especially in love with the quilted map print paper- anything map related just thrills me.

The collage paper pack is a wonderful addition to the line and includes neutral prints of flyers, newsprint, sheet music, and more maps!

Pink Paislee does ephemera packs like no one else! And there are spool buttons and mistable chipboard buttons with just a touch of resist, too.

Here are just a few projects made with the London Market collection. This design team is so very talented- I have nooooo idea how in the world I got lucky enough to be on it! I only hope that I can live up to the other girls' fabulous work.

I love, love, love the colors in the Prairie Hill collection. Those yellows, oranges, and aquas are just a darling combination, and this line would work well for either summer or fall photos.

There are more amazing embellishments in this line, including another set of the printed tags! I'm going to have to use some of these in my Project Life album for sure.

Indigo Bleu is a funky, quirky, and fun combination of blue, yellow and gray.

There are so many sweet embellishments to love in this line, too. Check out those wood and denim buttons!

Pink Paislee is also debuting the new She Art line by Christy Tomlinson at this show. I actually filmed a 20 minute video of Christy making one of her mixed media canvases from start to finish, but due to a very bad internet connection at the hotel I haven't been able to upload it yet. I'll be sure to link to it when I finally get it on YouTube!

Pink Paislee is also showing their fantastic Mistables line at this show. I kind of geeked out over this at the summer show- there are so many gorgeous patterns in the papers including my current favorite- a honeycomb!

It was so very surreal to walk into the booth and see my layout just sitting there (under a cute li'l chandelier, I might add!) with the other Mistables projects.

And just a few more projects to round out the tour...

Eeeeeek!! Yup, that's another one of mine!! That's Darren standing at the edge of the river at Harper's Ferry.

I. cannot. believe. that I have layouts in the Pink Paislee booth. Someone please pinch me!

There are many more booth tours to come, so stay tuned! I have fab photos of the Heidi Swapp booth that I need to post soon- maybe not next, but soon!

heidi swapp layout | edge of the world

2012-01-30T13:00:00.004-06:00

Part of the awesomeness of being on the Pink Paislee design team is that I also get to work with Heidi Swapp's brand new collections, as well! Pink Paislee is handling all the manufacturing and logistics while Heidi has full creative control, and the design team falls under that "logistics" category. :) Whatever the long and winding path that lead to it, I was thrilled to be asked to make a layout with her new No Limits line for her booth at CHA!

The only problem? These papers were a perfect match for some of my photos from our trip to Aruba last year, and scrapping them in the middle of winter made me miss that place so much!!

These photos were taken at Arashi beach on the afternoon of our first day there, when, after walking out into the ocean on beds of seagrass and seeing moray eels fleeing our feet, we declared it to be the best vacation ever- and it was just getting started!

I adore these map trim embellishments from Heidi's line- they've got just the right amount of subtle glitter on them!

Ah, Aruba, I miss you. I'll have to console myself by scrapping more pictures of you until we can book the next trip!

project life 2012 | week 2

2012-01-30T07:00:00.003-06:00

Week 2 of Project Life for 2012, and I'm still completely in love with this format!

This week I took it "easy" mostly used items from the Project Life Amber Core Kit. Not every week has to be an amazing scrappy masterpiece. In fact, most won't be!

A close up of the left side...

This is actually the back side of the 4x6 chevron piece (from Keri Bradford Studio) that I used in my Week 1 layout. Did you see that Keri has a whole set of nothing but 3x4 and 4x6 background files out now for Project Life?

I added a fabric flower by Bella Blvd and some Tim Holtz tissue tape to perk it up a bit, though I am going to have to watch out for using too many bulky embellishments as this album grows.

I added a Sassafras (oh, how I miss that company!!) Paper Whimsy to the top of this journaling card from the Amber kit.

And here I did get a little scrappy. The supah pretty printed cupcake is from Pink Paislee's Soiree line, and I layered over a shipping tag (and on another card from the Amber kit) with a bit of baker's twine to finish it off. I did refrain from stitching it, though, just to prove that I do have some small amount of self control.

One of the things that I totally love about Project Life is the "stuff" that gets added to the album. For instance, where else in my scrapbooking would I use part of the packaging from my husband's latest beer obsession? I realize that beer obsession may have been a poor choice of words- really he gets a 6 pack every six weeks or so, and it takes him about that long to drink it all.

And here's the right side...

I used a couple of Elle's Studio tags (which are much easier to find now that I've organized my Project Life supplies) on this week's spread, too. I love these little guys!

The honeycomb piece was cut on the Cameo using a border file from the Silhouette store. I resized it so that the width was right for the pocket, then trimmed the length on my paper trimmer.

And I totally didn't plan this, but look how cool the cupcake is going to look showing through the back of the honeycomb on Week 3!!

Speaking of Week 3, it may be a bit delayed since I'm using the new kit from Scrapbook Circle and have to wait until it's posted on the blog there before I share it here. Every once in a while I may have to show weeks out of order because of something like that- just a little advance warning!

sponsor | new cha winter 2012 preorders at stop and scrap

2012-01-29T09:29:00.001-06:00

Today is the first day of CHA, and I'm getting ready to hit the show floor as soon as it opens this morning! I'll be bringing you a close-up look at many of the new products over the next few days and weeks, but I wanted to let you know quickly this morning that Stop and Scrap already has many of the items up for preorder, with more on the way in the next few days!

Here are just a few of the collections that are available, and you can get an extra 12% off the already-discounted prices by using the code scrappyjedi. This code is eligible for multiple uses, so you don't have to worry about "saving" it- feel free to use it over and over!

Simple Stories- Documented, Awesome, and Fabulous.

Echo Park This and That and Dots and Stripes 2.

Basic Grey Konnichiwa and Plumeria.

The also have the new Jennni Bowlin releases, Magpie, available, as well.

I'm definitely going to have to get my hands on some of the new Basic Grey and Echo Park- what are you looking forward to from the new releases?

chattanooga december 2011

2012-01-28T21:57:00.000-06:00

I'm still in catch-up mode in a few areas where last December is concerned. One of those areas is getting my photos blogged, but I think that I'll be done with that after this post!

So, about two weeks before the craziness that was Christmas started, Darren and I spent a couple of days (okay, more like 36 hours over the course of two days) in Chattanooga. Neither of us had ever been to the Christmas light displays at Rock City, and it had been forever and a day since we'd been to the aquarium. After asking Darren if he preferred a hotel or bed and breakfast, I got our trip booked in late November.

In case you're wondering, he picked a bed and breakfast. We stayed in the Vanilla Sky room at the Garden Walk Inn in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. It was a cute place- nicely furnished and everything, but for the price I think I'd stay at a hotel next time.

The bathroom. If you've been reading my blog long enough to have seen any of my other travel photos, you may have noticed that I like to take photos of pretty bathrooms at the places I stay. I'm just weird like that, yo.

We had already eaten dinner at Logan's on the way to Lookout Mountain, so after unpacking and settling in we headed to Rock City. There was a bit of a wait for tickets because there were sooooo many other people there, so I headed over to Starbucks to get hot chocolate and peanut butter cup cupcakes while Darren waited in line. It was pretty cold outside, so the hot chocolate served double-duty as a sweet treat and a handwarmer!

Finally, though, we got in, and it was really pretty!

Unlike the light displays at the Botanical Gardens here in Huntsville (which I think is still my favorite of the two), Rock City is set up so that you get the experience of walking through the gardens (at night, no less!), with lots of pretty lights highlighting the existing landscape.

Of course, there are some beautiful big displays thrown in, too. :)

::sigh:: I love snowflake lights.

Nope, my white balance wasn't off in this shot- the lighting in this rocky pass really was all blue!

Perhaps at this point I should mention that I was hiking through all of this, in the dark...in the air cast I was wearing while my torn achilles healed! I walked bunches in it over the course of this weekend.

There was something very Lord of the Rings-ish about this gnome fishing from a high cliff with the little tree in the middle of the water below.

It's not Christmas without gnomes and mushrooms, right? Or is that just me?

This was my favorite part of the tour. It reminded me a lot of the massive curtains of lights at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens' Galaxy of Lights (and, incidentally, it's my favorite part of the tour there, too).

I had so much fun with unfocused light photos this Christmas!

The view of Chattanooga at night from the top of Lookout Mountain was stunning. Don't let the serene-ness of the photo fool you- it was windy and cold up there!

The candyland display was so fun. And bright! The photos don't show it, but it was so bright that it almost hurt your eyes to look at it!

I took this photo just because Darren didn't think I could (the lighting was really challenging). To that I say, "phhhhbbbbbtttt!!"

There was a narrated nativity scene, too- I was so happy to see that!

I love toy soldiers and nutcrackers!

One whole section was nothing but a fun winding path through "toyland."

And these guys marked the way into the cavern whose grottos are filled with illustrations from nursery rhymes and fairy tales. We both found that to be quite creepy and/or boring, so we didn't spend much time inside. Also? It was really humid and made my camera lens fog up. Grrr!!

The next morning we ate at the bed and breakfast before heading back down to Chattanooga- peach french toast and sausage.

The Tennessee Aquarium. As soon as I stepped into this place, I wondered why I'd stayed away for so long! We'd seriously let life get too darn busy because we used to go there all the time (in fact, I wrote about that on a scrapbook page for May Flaum's Camp Scrap class about a year and a half ago- and to this day I have no idea why that came out, because it certainly wasn't what I intended to write!).

We're so happy to have renewed our memberships now, and since we've moved back to Huntsville and are closer to work and school, we actually have the time to go now!

Now, on with the fish!

Have I ever mentioned that Darren is a big kid? :)

Clownfish are my absolute favorites and have been since long before Finding Nemo ever came out.

Coronet fish. I think...Darren will have to correct me if I'm wrong.

You have no idea how many shots of this tiny baby seahorse I stood there and took with my macro lens to get one that looked right!

The leafy sea dragons are Darren's favorites.

I was so happy that the otters were actually out playing while we were there and not sleeping in their dens! They moved so fast it was hard to get a good photo of either of them, but it was so much fun to watch them play.

Trout!

I was a bit shocked to see this sign! I mean, River Giants sounds cool and all, but I remember standing in front of this tank on many occasions and watching in fascination as the sharks and stingrays went swimming by. I guess they didn't need a saltwater tank in this part of the aquarium any more since they built the saltwater wing, but it's still a little sad to see it go. :(

The Rivers of the World exhibit.

Turtles! I love turtles. :)

And Darren loves sturgeons. So cool that they have a "petting tank" here!

More turtles!

Darren is also quite fascinated with paddlefish.

And also with snapping turtles.

The Tennessee Aquarium is divided into two buildings (freshwater and saltwater), so we took a lunch break at Cheeburger Cheeburger between the two.

And then it was on to the second building, where I got to pet the stingrays! I'd forgotten about this pool and may or may not have squeeed a bit when I saw it.

Their butterfly exhibit is small, but pretty.

And the penguins are just cool!

The freshwater building is really cool, and I love it, but there's nothing like the saltwater wing. I mean, where else can you be right across the glass from something as amazing as this massive sea turtle?

Their other sea turtle is actually a rescue- he was injured in a boating accident and lost his tail and back flippers, but now he gets to safely live out the rest of his life at the aquarium.

I love reef aquariums!

More clownfish!

Cuttlefish. Which Darren tells me are very intelligent.

Jellyfish. They used to have a whole exhibit of nothing but jellyfish here, and I'm so glad that they kept parts of it.

The divers in the aquarium kind of sealed what my birthday present is going to be this year- I'm getting scuba lessons/certification!!

And one last look before we left for home.

I'm so very glad that we finally made it back to the aquarium, and I'm already thinking that our next trip needs to be soon- maybe in the next two or three weeks!

scrapbook update | my cha winter 2012 sneak peek picks

2012-01-28T07:00:00.001-06:00

The sneak peeks have literally been pouring in for the last couple of weeks now, and there are so very many new goodies to be excited about! I've chosen a few favorites and am sharing snippets of them with you below, but I've also got an entire article up over at Scrapbook Update highlighting these items and so many more! Be sure to head over and check it out!

friday favorites | january 27, 2012

2012-01-27T21:25:00.000-06:00

Happy last Friday in January, peeps! I'm putting the finishing touches on all my CHA packing (I pack light, which believe it or not takes more time than just bringing it all!) and getting ready to turn in for the night, but I just couldn't do that without sharing some fun links with you first!

From the top left:

Amy Atlas has a great pattern board with tips on which one to use for certain occasions and events. Plus, it's just super pretty!
Learn how to make this super cute wall art with paint swatches at A Beautiful Mess.
Michelle Wooderson walks readers through her Project Life layout process. Can you ever read enough about other people's scrapping processes? I love it!
This flow chart at Pix IQ shows why you should be shooting your photos in RAW (as opposed to JPEG).
Julie Fei-Fan Balzer recently posted an entire week's worth of art studio organizing tips on her blog!
This bright, fun keyboard is covered in bits of washi tape! Check it out at More Design Please.
Monica McNeill also shares her Project Life process.
I wonder if my Silhouette Cameo is cabale of cutting something as intricate as these wedding invitations featured on Design*Sponge.
And, finally, if you're like me and still have a pile of Christmas card laying around after the holidays, this idea from Eighteen25 might just help you organize them!

Have a scrappy weekend!

pink paislee sneak peeks | prairie hill + a layout

2012-01-27T17:48:00.000-06:00

I simply love this next release from Pink Paislee- as soon as I saw the new releases, I said that Prairie Hill was my one of my favorites!

I love the colors- the aquas, the oranges, the yellows- the patterns (just look at those chevrons!), and the overall vintage summer-y feel of the collection. Here are just a few bits of it- you can see it all (and enter to win a collection of your own!) at the Pink Paislee blog.

Prairie Hill was one of the collections that Rebecca asked me to work with for the CHA booth, so I pulled out some awesome photos of our visit to Harper's Ferry (a side-trip on our visit to DC) last fall.

And that's the last of the new releases around here, guys! Tomorrow I fly to LA and shuttle over to Anaheim for the show. You'll be seeing lots and lots and lots of photos of all the pretties on my blog over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

bella blvd sneak peek week | collection kits

2012-01-27T07:15:00.007-06:00

Are you ready for the last day of the Bella Blvd. CHA Winter 2012 reveal? Can you believe that it's showtime already? I can't believe that I'm getting on a plane tomorrow and headed to Anaheim!! I so cannot wait!

Today's sneak peek is something that should make your shopping oh-so-much easier- Bella Blvd. is now packaging their lines both individually and in new Collection Kits! You'll want to check out the Bella Studio Blog for all the details, but I've got some teaser images to get you started today.

Be sure to check my blog throughout the weekend and next week as I'll be posting photos from in and around the CHA show as often as I possibly can!

scrapbook circle | february 2012 kit "remember this"

2012-01-26T18:00:00.000-06:00

The February 2012 kit at Scrapbook Circle is live, and this one, kids, is definitely one for the records!

Remember This features products from Rhonna Farrer's amazing Follow Your Heart collection from My Mind's Eye and includes embellishments from Elle's Studio, October Afternoon, and Crate Paper, just to name a few. I'm totally digging the yellow, aqua, and kraft color scheme and can't wait to dig into mine and start scrapping up a storm!

There's also a coordinating add-on, Be Amazing, this month that includes even more wonderful goodies like a 6x6 paper pad and matching chipboard elements. It's definitely a must-have!

pink paislee cha winter 2012 sneak peek | indigo bleu

2012-01-26T13:00:00.000-06:00

Pink Paislee has announced the next collection in their CHA Winter 2012 lineup- Indigo Bleu!

You can see the full lineup over at the Pink Paislee blog, but I've pulled images of just a few items to share with you here. Pink Paislee took the yellow and gray color palette that was so hot at the last CHA show and added a decidedly denim shade of blue- how fun! This collection also includes some of the new printed tags and some fun wood and denim buttons.

Pink Paislee is giving away an entire Indigo Bleu collection to one lucky winner over at the blog, so be sure to go over there and enter!

bella blvd sneak peek week | crotchet flowers and flags

2012-01-26T07:15:00.023-06:00

I'm back today to share sneak peeks of some of the brand new embellishments that are joining the Bella Blvd. family this release. As always, you can visit the Bella Blvd. Studio Blog for more close-ups and details.

Crocheted flowers and tiny flags are big trends in the scrapping world right now, and Bella is pleased to introduce a new line of each. The flowers are available in several colors, and there are so many varieties of flags that you're sure to find one that fits your project!

Speaking of projects, I had a great time sprinkling these new embellishments around on my CHA layouts and have just a few images to tease you with before I start revealing the full layouts next week.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Bella Blvd. sneak peeks, so be sure to come back and see what else Stephanie has cooked up for you!

scrapbook circle layout | love is fluffy and pink

2012-01-25T18:00:00.000-06:00

I knew that I'd have to cave to all the pink-ness in the January Scrapbook Circle kit, You + Me, at some point while making my design team layouts, so I decided to do it with a photo of my favorite flowers- cherry blossoms!

Yup, cherry blossoms are about the only pink thing that I like (aside from Hello Kitty), and these are extra-special multi-layered quanson cherry blossoms! Yoshino cherry blossoms are are my absolute favorites, but I also love the quansons because they last a bit longer and bloom right after all the yoshinos have fallen (which always makes me a bit sad). It's like God gives me a second little span of time to enjoy them. :)

P.S. If you'd like to read more about my love of the little hexagon bits in this month's kit, head on over to the Scrapbook Circle blog to see my post there today!

pink paislee cha winter 2012 sneak peeks | london market + a layout

2012-01-25T14:29:00.002-06:00

This next collection from Pink Paislee's new releases is really something special. Allow me to introduce you to London Market, with new designs by Collage Press.

As always, you should really pop on over to the Pink Paislee blog to see the whole thing!

When I first received my box of Pink Paislee items to work with for the CHA booth I looked through it all, but paid special attention to those items I was assigned to work with. London Market was not one of those collections, but I kept going back and looking at it and seeing more and more that I liked about it.

The soft grays. The map prints. The little bits of vintage-style ephemera.

Did I mention the map prints?

So when it came time to make my Mistables line layout, I pulled out London Market's embellishments to sprinkle around my page.

Lots of misting going on here, of course, with Studio Calico's Mister Hueys used to perk up the Mistables letters and paper. This was such a cool (and popular!) line from Pink Paislee last year, and I'm so glad that they're keeping it as part of their catalog for a while longer.

The photos were taken last September at the family reunion while I was helping my adorbz niece learn to climb the stairs. She's good with climbing just about anything these days.

There's yet another awesome line from Pink Paislee debuting tomorrow, so stay tuned!

bella blvd sneak peek week | sophisticates high five alphabets

2012-01-25T07:15:00.013-06:00

If you loved the Sophisticates Quattrofina alphabets from one of the previous Bella Blvd. releases, then you're going to love the new High Five alphabets! There are five alphabet sets on each 12x12 sheet, and they're available in a variety of colors to coordinate with almost any of the existing Bella lines. Be sure to visit the Bella Studio Blog for a closer look!

Here's just a tiny look at a couple of the CHA layouts that I used these alphabets on. I was very grateful to have a variety of letter sizes and fonts available when I was putting these pages together!

project life organization

2012-01-24T18:49:00.068-06:00

I know, I know, I know. I just finished a massive, month-long overhaul of my scrap room, and here I am talking about organization again, right?

The problem is that I'm a tweaker, and if something isn't quite working for me my brain continually processes it in the background until it comes up with a better solution. Such was the case with my Project Life album. My Amber Core Kit and the original kit from my half-finished 2011 album were just sitting in boxes on one of my Expedit shelves, with the other supplies (mostly tags from Elle's Studio) scattered in other hard-to-find places.

Places like this lovely basket of all my favorite things...except the journaling and little shipping tags were barely visible under an onslaught of ribbons and brads. The brads have also found a new home, but I'll get to that another day...I'm very excited!

One day about two weeks ago my brain, having finally completed its background processing, told me to get up and go first into the attic and then to Target right now to get the items I needed to take my Project Life's lack of organization and turn it into this...

Poor Darren. He probably has no clue why I do the things I do, such as suddenly have to go into the attic at almost 10pm to find one of the trays that his mom painted for our wedding.

I'd been looking at (and ~~envying~~ admiring) Marcy's, Michelle's, and Lisa's Project Life "stations" for a few weeks, but I knew that I needed something smaller and slightly more portable. Large, flat surfaces are at a premium in my scrap room, so any solution that I came up with had to be movable and also storable in my existing Expedits. Eventually I remembered these trays in the attic (I'm pretty sure they were originally unpainted wood trays from Michaels), and they turned out to be perfect for holding all the little journaling bits I like to use for Project Life.

At Target I browsed the organizer aisles in search of something to divide the tray up a bit so it wouldn't just turn into a huge mess of supplies...because that never happens in my scrap room, right?

After just a few minutes of looking, I found these long, narrow drawer dividers that were the perfect width to accomodate the original Project Life journaling cards, and they even have little grippy rubber bottoms to keep the cards from sliding around!

I say that the cards were a perfect fit as if I measured the cards or the tray before returning going out and returning home with three of the little bins, but really it was just sheer dumb luck that they a) fit the cards so well and b) fit perfectly into the tray and even allowed for all three plus a bit of extra space at the end. Truly I have the organizing kung-fu gene. Or God magically changed the size of the tray and/or the bins before I found out they didn't fit, because He knows how that would have frustrated me greatly.

I've already shown the first tray full of actual Project Life Journaling cards, and the other two hold all my Elle's Studio tags and a small assortment of other tags and journalers that are useful for the album. I removed all the Elle's Studio tags from their packaging to make it easier to flip through them and find what I need. I've learned that removing items from their packaging is often a great way to make them more usable since you're more likely to be able to see the full contents.

This little tray slides perfectly into some otherwise dead space on top of my greeting card organizer box in one of my Expedits. I can pull it and my album (along with a kit or whatever paper line I want to work with) out when I'm ready to work on a week of photos, and the easily put it away again when done. Perfect!

So, see, it's not a huge overhaul! :) Sometimes it's the little tweaks to a system that make the biggest difference.

pink paislee cha winter 2012 sneak peek | spring jubilee

2012-01-24T12:15:00.002-06:00

Are you ready for more Pink Paislee gorgeousness? Today they're revealing the amazing Spring Jubilee collection by House of 3! I've got just a few little images to show you, and you can get a look at the whole enchilada over at the Pink Paislee blog.

Are the colors not simply gorgeous? And those amazing layered graphics- this has Rhonna Farrer's name written all over it!

The entire collection is beautiful, but my absolute favorite pieces are these embellished shipping tags and flash cards!

Check back tomorrow for more Pink Paislee lusciousness- this next line is going to knock your socks off!

bella blvd sneak peek week | sunshine and happiness

2012-01-24T07:15:00.018-06:00

Today's Bella Blvd CHA Winter 2012 reveal is full of Sunshine and Happiness (ooooh, look how I worked that title in there...smooth, no?), which is something that I desperately need right now in the middle of winter! The image below is just a sampling- you can see close-ups of everything at the Bella Blvd. Studio blog.

Here are a few sneak peeks of the layout I created for the Bella booth with this super fun line. Some of the new Designer Tapes may or may not have also found their way onto the page, along with a cheery chipboard sun from the new Sophisticates Ciao Chips.

We've only got three days of sneaks left before the show is underway- things are getting exciting around here!

project life 2012 | week 1

2012-01-23T21:55:00.000-06:00

Squeee! I'm so excited to finally be posting Week 1 of my 2012 Project Life album! I've completed two weeks so far (and the third week, also know as last week, is in the works) and I have to say that I'm loving it so much more now that I've backed away from the whole "photo a day" thing and am taking the weekly approach. Using my own stash in conjunction with some of Becky's awesome Project Life supplies also has me pumped, too- it's like each week I can go pull an old favorite (often something I've been hoarding) out of my stash and use it!

Here's the two-page view, starting with New Year's Day (my weeks start on Sunday- it's just how I roll, yo). Since I was (and still am) terribly elated that I'd actually made the Pink Paislee design team, I pulled out a few sheets of their old Office Lingo collection (remember that gorgeousness?) and mixed it in with some items from my Amber Core Kit.

On the left side I have photos from New Year's Eve/Day (we're so exciting- we stream the ball dropping in Times Square online, usually in our pajamas). January 1st is also when I officially finished and photographed my massive scrap room overhaul!

I LOVE these Thickers! I also added a shipping tag, a bit of baker's twine, and a little label from Studio Calico.

The chevron die cut was made using my Silhouette Cameo and a file from Kerri Bradford's Life Additions 2 kit.

Little journaling cards from Elle's Studio are perfect for this project but they're a little small for the pockets, so I just mat them on a piece of patterned paper before inserting them.

Another Silhouette die cut- this one is by KI Memories from the Silhouette store.

The right side, with a few photos from the rest of the week (I was actually pretty bad about taking photos that week, but you'd never know it to look at this page!).

Another shipping tag, a bit more baker's twine, and a tiny tag from Elle's Studio layered with a My Mind's Eye brad adorn this pocket.

I totally took the inspiration for using this chevron die cut as a see-through element from Nichol Magouirk's first week of Project Life- such a great idea, and I'm sure one that I'll use again!

And have you seen this?!?!?

I've been searching around for an American Crafts album (I only use their albums for my scrapbooks) to use specifically for Project Life, and as soon as I saw this super cute camera album from Amy Tan's upcoming Sketchbook line, I knew I'd found what I was looking for! As soon as it's available I'll be ordering one...or three. :)

pink paislee cha winter 2012 sneak peek | she art by christy tomlinson

2012-01-23T14:22:00.003-06:00

Finally, after actually having the gorgeous new Pink Paislee products in my scrap room for a week (I just sent my CHA layouts off to them today- eeeek!!) I can share this awesomeness with the rest of the scrapping world!

Today Pink Paislee is unveiling the new She Art collection by Christy Tomlinson. You can see a snippet of the papers and my favorite item from the line- the doily mask- below, and be sure to check out the entire reveal over at Pink Paislee!

The Pink Paislee sneak peeks are going to continue to roll out this week (and are there ever some beautiful things in store for you all!!), so be sure to stay tuned to their blog!

bella blvd sneak peek week | sophisticates chipboard and new colors

2012-01-23T07:15:00.016-06:00

Yes, the sneak peeks from Bella Blvd. just keep coming, and they keep getting better! Today Bella is announcing the expansion of their Sophisticates line, including the addition of three new colors and new Ciao Chip chipboard elements. I'm loving the addition of the deep shade of blue, especially. For more details on these new releases, be sure to check out the Bella Studio Blog today.

Just for fun, here are a few sneak peeks of two of the layouts I used the new colors and chipboard on. I'll be sharing the full pages in a week or two!

geek girl | january 22, 2012

2012-01-22T22:19:00.001-06:00

So tonight we, being between Big Bang Theory discs from Netflix, decided to pick up where we left off watching Farscape long ago (we sort of lost interest in it after discovering Doctor Who). I now remember why we lost interest so quickly...can anyone who's watched the entire series tell me if John stops being crazy any time soon? We just watched the sixth episode of season 3, and crazy John is really, really getting on our nerves. This show was cool and all during the first season, but the coolness seems to have been replaced with John slowly going insane.

When is Doctor Who coming back on? Ugh!!

And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, please accept my apologies. The scrapbooking will be back tomorrow. :) In the meantime, here are some geeky (and mostly non-crazy) links.

From the top left:

I'm already trying to figure out if there's a spot for this R2-D2 area rug in my scrap room!
The detail of the Obi-Wan and Vader figurines on this cake are amazing! Though Vader looks a bit more like a Goa'uld super soldier in this case...
Super cool silhouetted versions of Star Wars posters.
How about a life-sized Stormtrooper cake? I can't believe they actually cut into it!
Darren just informed me that a storm system the size of the one that came through last April and brought a cell of tornadoes that, among many worse things, left most of Huntsville without power for a week, is on its way here right now. Kind of wish I'd bought one of these Star Wars umbrellas now! (And now he's telling me that the same system is putting tornadoes on the ground three surrounding states- lovely.)
The Doctor Who timeline is long, confusing and, well...wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. But this infographic attempts to help sort it out.
These amazing landscapes carved out of books are more art than geekery, but cool nontheless!
The same goes for this rug made from hundreds of Hot Wheels- pure art!
Have you seen the original 1983 Apple iPhone prototype? Seriously! I'm not kidding!

Until next time, geek out, peeps!

bella blvd sneak peek week | itty bitty stamps by unity

2012-01-22T07:15:00.008-06:00

Are you ready for more Bella Blvd. goodness? How about some new Unity Itty Bitty stamps to coordinate with the new lines? These are so fun, and so affordable! Check out the Bella Blvd. Studio Blog for more information, and be sure to check back all next week as the new product reveals continue!

friday favorites | ...on saturday?

2012-01-21T07:41:00.000-06:00

Ooops! Oops, oops, oops.

Somehow in the mad rush of scheduling all the Bella Blvd. sneak peeks posts, I forgot to put the Friday Favorites up! Yikes! So sorry about that- I almost never just forget something.

I hope that the extra-goodness of this week's picks will make up for it. I also hope that I'm not forgetting anything else I should be doing! :)

From the top left:

I absolutely love this gorgeous tag album by Keisha Campbell. So many detailed layers!
Stephanie Howell gives a tour of her antiques-infused scrapping space.
I've got to try this glitter-spatter technique by Rahel Menig really, really soon! Like, maybe today...
This fun "Daily Affirmations" twist on a daily-style mini album can be found at Bella Blvd.
Learn about shooting and editing food photos at restaurants with Kelly Purkey.
The Create blog shares a tour of Keisha Cambell's gorgeous scrap room. Just look at those lovely rows of punches!
Photojojo now has a separate blog that's all about taking photos with your phone. They cover lots of apps and techniques- definitely worth checking out!
Jasmine Star recently had a guest poster who has a great process for organizing and displaying her personal photos- definitely worth the read!
This pretty little calendar is also a journal- scribble down a line about each day for years to come! Visit Wit and Wistle for more information.

Have a scrappy weekend!

bella blvd sneak peek week | designer tape

2012-01-20T07:15:00.013-06:00

Oh. My. Goodness. The tape. The tape!! Ya'll know I have a serious weakness for decorative tape, and Bella Blvd. is excited to reveal its own designer line of washi tapes! These beauties will be available at CHA Winter 2012 (just a week to go- eeeeek!!), but you can see them all, right now, up close and personal at the Bella Studio blog

I had so much fun playing with these on my CHA layouts. You can see peeks of one below, but they definitely made it onto more of them that I'll be sharing over the next couple of weeks!

scrapbook circle layout | ikea love

2012-01-19T14:00:00.000-06:00

I never go to IKEA without a camera. Ever. And I'm not talking about my iPhone camera either. Oh, no, it's gotta be the big Nikon D3, which Darren also refers to as "the brick." (Although I know that he has plans to snatch "the brick" away from me one day when I upgrade and abscond with it on one of his trips to Africa...so he must not think it's that big!)

Oh, gosh, where was I? Oh, yeah, IKEA.

So, when Mom, Beth, and I trekked to IKEA early last month to get some items that were on our organizational wish lists (such as a few items I needed for my big scrap room overhaul), of course I took the camera with me!

I talked earlier this month about the challenge I have working with Valentine themed stuff and about some of the ways that I made the January You + Me kit from Scrapbook Circle work for me, and this layout is another example of that. The heart paper I used as a background isn't something I normally would have picked for myself, but when I smeared some white paint across it (BTW, the new Martha Stewart paints are fab!) and divided the area into a grid using some baker's twine, it suddenly became the perfect canvas for my IKEA photos!

I also have a small confession about this page- it was a total mistake! Yes, really. Each month one of the design team members is assigned a certain item to highlight. When I received my instructions for the month, my brain had a meltdown (I told you December was not a good month for me) and replaced "small tag paper" with "speech bubble paper."

Oops.

I did fix the situation and also made a layout with the tiny tag paper that I'll share later this month, but I love this page and am grateful for the happy accident that produced it!

bella blvd sneak peek week | we're expecting

2012-01-19T07:15:00.011-06:00

No, no, no, I'm not expecting, but Bella Blvd. is!! Today on the Studio blog they're revealing a new mini collection designed to coordinate with the new Baby Boy and Baby Girl lines.

Are you shocked that I wasn't asked to make any projects for the Bella Blvd booth at CHA with this line? Haha! As our design team coordinator, Laura Vegas, said to me, "you just can't fake that."

Unless it's an episode of Desperate Housewives, and I'm not even going there...

Back tomorrow with more fun stuff, including my very favorite new items from the Bella Blvd. release!

green frog studio layout | that's one really big tree

2012-01-18T14:00:00.015-06:00

I'm interrupting the cuteness that is Bella Blvd's sneak peek week to bring you a layout I'm very, very excited about. This is my first layout to be posted over at Celine Navarro's blog, Green Frog Studio, as part of my new guest blogging gig with her. She came up with a fab sketch for me to work with, and I got to dig out some of my new Holiday Style goodies from October Afternoon and just play. This line was so much fun to work with it, and I already have a couple more projects in the works with it that I hope to share soon.

I pulled out a couple of photos of the massive Christmas tree at Bridge Street for this page, including the super cool one that Darren shot of me looking up at the monstrously huge thing. I like scrapping pages like this one- just fun little snippets of life.

bella blvd sneak peek week | baby girl

2012-01-18T07:15:00.018-06:00

You didn't think that Bella Blvd. could introduce a Baby Boy line without making a Baby Girl collection, too, did you? Be sure to visit the Bella Studio blog for a more detailed look at all these pretties!

I made two projects for Bella's CHA booth with this line- a mini album and a layout. I've got peeks of both below, and I might ::cough:: have spilled the beans in these photos on an embellishment or two that we have yet to see revealed. Can you spot the new goodies?

the final stop and scrap box of 2011

2012-01-17T14:00:00.001-06:00

Yes, I fully realize that it's the middle of January 2012, but in a lot of ways I'm still living in mid-December 2011. My Journal Your Christmas album, for instance? Still in the works, though I'm bound and determined that it will get done. Even if it means I'm digi scrapping on the entirety of the flights to and from LA the week after next.

One of the other things that I still want to share from December? A good-sized box from my absolute favorite online scrapbooking store ever, Stop and Scrap! I was actually surprised that this shipped so early- usually I let me preorders pile up to save on shipping costs, meaning I may get things a month or so after I order them, but they surprised me by shipping this one early, and I'm not complaining at all!

Want to see what was in it? I know I have some readers who love to see what comes in these oh-so-wonderful boxes. :)

First up was the new Holiday Style line from October Afternoon. I was over the moon excited to finally get this in my hands. I've already been playing with it and will share a layout I made using the collection tomorrow.

I've really taken a liking to October Afternoon's 8x8 pads- they make some of their larger patterns so much more usable.

And of course I had to have my Sprinklers and Miscellany, along with lots of letter stickers, chipboard, and labels.

I already had the Farmhouse paper line, but wanted the stickers and chipboard elements to round out the collection. Such a great theme and wonderful color scheme!

I loved the orange and turquoise color palette in Authentique's Gathering line.

There was new Basic Grey in the box, too! I ordered a few of my favorite patterns from the Little Black Dress collection in 12x12 sheets and then purchased the 6x6 pad to get the rest of them. I've been ordering my paper like this for a while now, and I really like the way it works for my scrapping. It's especially useful now that I'm doing a lot more Project Life!

I loooooove the colors in the Picadilly line!

My Mind's Eye had me at the word "Kraft" with their Kraft Funday collection. Again, I got just a few papers and the 6x6 pad from each set...

But then went a bit nuts with the bling, twine, and brads. You know how much I love my twine and brads, especially. :)

I ordered some of the Love, Me line, also from My Mind's Eye, long before I knew it was going to be in the January kit from Scrapbook Circle. Oh, well, I love the hexagons, so I'm sure I'll find a use for that sheet again somewhere!

Crate Paper's Paper Heart line is going to be great for sooooo much more than Valentine's scrapping. Just look at those colors!

Now, this is where the box gets interesting. You see, Stop and Scrap had some major clearance sales before Christmas, and while I try to not load up on too many things like that I couldn't help it at the prices they were offering. For instance, these bling swirls were between 90 cents (yes, cents!!) and $1.50 each.

The stamps were only $2.40- how could I pass that up?!?

And these fabric letter stickers? $1.20 a set- for all those letters!

There were lots of Studio Calico goodies on sale, too. I managed to restrain myself, but I still picked up some labels for Project Life and also their grid stamp from Hero Arts that I'd been eyeing for a while.

I picked up some chipboard from the My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas collection to go with the papers I already had.

And Stop and Scrap had a HUGE sale on American Crafts.

By huge, I mean Amy Tangerine papers for 20 cents a sheet (the fabric and stitched sheets were a little more than that, but not much!).

I loved this map print so much and had already used up the one I ordered, so I bought several more to take its place. I can always use a good map print!

And the Thickers? Oh my goodness, they were $1.25 a set, and these were new CHA Summer 2011 releases!

I'm almost embarrassed to say that I should have another box at some point soon. Not long after these sales they put a bunch of Ranger items on clearance, and I stocked up on reinkers, Distress Inks, Stickles, and paints for- get this- 80% off!! I know! I'll be sure to share that box when it arrives!

sponsor welcome | stop and scrap (and a coupon!)

2012-01-17T09:53:00.001-06:00

You've all heard me rave about my absolute favorite online scrapbooking store, Stop and Scrap, on many occasions. Between their awesome customer service, great prices, rewards program, and preorder system that helps you make sure that you get everything you want in a collection before it goes out of stock, they've made my scrapbook shopping ever so much easier.

I was delighted when they contacted me recently to ask about partnering with me on the blog and offering a special discount to my readers, and today I'm doubly delighted to be sharing that discount with you! Starting today, my blog readers can receive 12% off any order by using the coupon code SCRAPPYJEDI (note: this code is valid for multiple uses, so feel free to use it over and over!). Stop and Scrap newsletter subscribers usually receive a discount code for that day's preorders, but this code gets you a bit of a bigger discount and is good for anything in the store! I've also placed the coupon code in the sidebar right on the front page of the blog, so you can access it at any time.

Want to get started using the code right away? Stop and Scrap just launched their preorder for all the new Prima releases this morning, so if you've been eyeing any of the loveliness that they're releasing at CHA in a couple of weeks, you can go ahead and get your order in now and Stop and Scrap will ship when it arrives at their warehouse.

Thank you to Stop and Scrap for partnering with me here on the blog!

bella blvd sneak peek week | button market

2012-01-17T07:15:00.018-06:00

Are you ready for more fab sneak peeks from Bella Blvd?

Today the new Button Market embellishment collection is being revealed on the Bella Studio Blog. I'm so excited to see Bella expanding its line of embellishments, especially with this gorgeous line of buttons in a variety of themes and colors. The wooden buttons are my absolute favorites!

I had fun sprinkling these little beauties on some of the layouts I made for Bella's CHA booth- it's hard to believe that the show is only a week and a half away!!

Here are some sneak peeks of those layouts for now. They'll all be revealed in full when the show starts- Bella is planning to blitz the Studio and design team member blogs with tons of projects and inspiration in the weeks to come!

bella blvd sneak peek week | baby boy

2012-01-16T07:15:00.018-06:00

Yahoo! Hooray! Sound the trumpets! Or the vuvuzelas, if that's more your style...wait, where was I?

Oh, yes, it's time for sneak peeks of the new Bella Blvd. goodies that will be released at the CHA Winter 2012 show in just a couple of weeks in Anaheim!

Today you can hop over to the Bella Blvd. blog to get a look at the new Baby Boy collection- I'm loving the oranges, greens, and blues in this one. I've got just a teaser below, but you can see the whole thing over at the Bella blog.

I'll have some sneak peeks of layouts to show you with the later collections- the fun is continuing all this week and next as new Bella Blvd. products are slowly revealed right up until the start of the CHA show!

geek girl | january 15, 2012

2012-01-15T22:01:00.000-06:00

Good evening, geeklings! I'm in full-up CHA mode right now (and if you only come here for the geek stuff, the CHA show is where all the big news in that scrapbooking stuff that fills about 75% of my site happens), and I'm a little pooped out from a) scrapping way more layouts than any sane person should in a weekend and b) watching way too many episodes of Stargate: SG-1 while scrapping said layouts.

Wait, scratch that. "B" isn't even possible- one can never have too much Stargate.

One can never have too much Star Wars, either, which is a good thing since there's so much of it in tonight's roundup!

From the top left:

Go out in style (or something like that) this winter in a Chewbacca fur hoodie. Is it just me, or does Mr. Model Dude look a bit emo?
For those who're scared of the dark (or just never grew up- not that I would know anything about that), weapon pillows might be just what the doctor ordered.
I stumbled upon these letterpressed Star Wars Valentine cards from Dingbat Press almost by accident, and nearly squeed in delight when I saw them!
I never got into the whole Batman thing, but these crocheted Batman and Robin infant costumes were too adorable not to share!
Speaking of adorable, check out this super cute Ewok cake!
Do not adjust your monitors- this burger is not burned. Instead, it's the upcoming "Dark Vador" burger from a Belgian food chain, timed to coincide with the 3D re-release of The Phantom Menace. What's even funnier than the burger is Jen at Cake Wrecks' commentary on said burger. (Speaking of TPM 3D, am I supposed to be excited about that? Because I'm not.)
Club Jade found some amazing Star Wars themed custom nail polish mixes on Etsy. There are also Doctor Who and Star Trek mixes, among others.
Club Jade is on top of merchandise reporting this week, having spotted some new Star Wars fabrics at Joann stores.
I'll round this out with something sweet- a bantha cupcake, and the promise of two more geeky sweets if you click through the link.

Until next time, geek out, peeps!

scrapbook circle | project life

2012-01-14T07:00:00.017-06:00

Every month I'm making one of my Project Life layouts using the current Scrapbook Circle kit, which made this layout just a bit challenging. :) You see, the design team gets the kits about a month ahead of time, so I ended up scrapping photos from the first week in December using the decidedly Valentine themed You + Me kit! Luckily the kit was packed with reds and krafts that still worked well for Christmas photos. Whew!!

Here's a shot of the layout without the middle insert, which is just a printout of the group class schedule at my gym. I'm more than a little addicted to a couple of the classes there, so I thought it would be a good thing to add.

Another challenge with this particular layout? I only took photos on three out of seven days that week. Ooops!! I made it work, though, because even though I'd only taken photos on three days, I took multiple photos of different things each day and still got a good picture of the week. I stretched my photos even further by including several shots from my trip to IKEA with Mom and Beth and adding in some photos of layouts I scrapped (not something I normally include) and even a piece of product packaging from a 12 pack of Coca-Cola! So in the end it all worked out. :)

friday favorites | project life

2012-01-13T18:51:00.001-06:00

Happy Friday, bloggy peeps!! I hope everyone has had a fantastic week. I'm super pumped about mine since my orthopod finally took me out of my air cast, meaning I'm back in semi-normal shoes! I say semi-normal because I've fallen in love with my Vibram Five Fingers (toe shoes) and never want to take them off, ever. The one thing I haven't tried in them yet is running since I'm still not allowed to do that for another month at least (booooooo!!), but they are awesome for BodyPump and general walking around.

It's also been an incredibly busy week on the scrapping front. I have new goodies from Bella Blvd. in house and have been working like a mad woman on CHA booth layouts. And I get to share sneak peeks of all the new stuff next week!! A big box of the new Pink Paislee items is also winging its way here, and I'll be doing booth layouts for them, as well. CHA is sooooo close- I can't wait!! Today I was all ohmygoshtheshowisintwoweeksandidon'thavebusinesscards, but I just put in an order that will take care of that- I ordered a business card stamp so I could make my own! More deets on that when I've actually made a few. :)

Another thing I'm loving right now? Project Life! I've got my photos printed for the first week in January and will be putting it all together this weekend. I'm actually planning to work a week behind so I don't get stressed out and will be able to make those pages a regular feature here.

In case you missed it, Becky Higgins posted a monstrously awesome piece with all kinds of Project Life inspiration and lots of links!! I've also started a Pinboard on Pinterest (here) with all kinds of Project Life pages, and all of today's Friday Favorites picks are Project Life related!

Ready to jump in?

From the top left:

Marcy Penner made the Project Life community very happy this week by sharing sets of planner pages for all the new and existing divided page protector configurations. Be sure to tell you thank you if you download them!
Michelle Wooderson shares a look at her Project Life workspace. I'm super jealous of those awesome organizers she has her journaling cards in!
Jana Werner is putting her own spin on Project Life by combining the divided page protectors with some full layouts. Very cool!
I've long admired Elise Blaha's mini albums, and I'm excited to see what she does with Project Life this year.
Vee Jennings is doing her own fun, artsy thing and making a smaller format Project Life album. I've already pinned her first layout to my pinboard- it's gorgeous!
Check out another Project Life workspace at One Happy Mama.
Celine Navarro is also doing Project Life this year and shows all the fun goodies she's set aside to use in her album. You just might find some great ideas for using items in your own stash!
Deb Duty shares an easy way to print your Instagram photos in little 2x2 blocks, all right on your iPhone!
Lisa Truesdell posted a tutorial on making these awesome quote bubbles for Project Life albums using a Silhouette. I've got to try this!

Have a scrappy weekend!

pink paislee layout | party prep

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000-06:00

Hola! Just popping in quickly today to share the second new layout I put together for the Pink Paislee design team call last month. This one includes some of my favorite photos of the prep work that went into Mom's birthday party last summer. The whole family pitched in and made it so pretty!

new dcwv, martha stewart, k and company, and valentine's goodies at michaels

2012-01-11T10:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday night I was out picking up a few items at our local Target store, which just happens to be in the same shopping center as Michaels, and decided to pop in to see if any of the new Valentine's Day items were out yet. I'd heard rumor on Two Peas that some new merchandise was trickling in, and I was pleased to find several new displays!

I didn't have the D3 with me, but I did take a bunch of photos with my iPhone 4S. Please excuse the slight off-ness of some of the items- I'm still getting used to shooting with my phone like it's a regular camera. The brick (the pet name for the D3) really is my photographic security blanket. :)

Anyway, on with the new goodies!

The rumors of the new Valentine's items being in stock turned out to be true! There was an endcap dedicated to K and Company items...

...and one whole side of the display was nothing but Martha Stewart merchandise. See that heart confetti punch on the right? I'm pleased to report that's the only thing I brought home from this crafty excursion. I'd been looking for something to make lots of tiny hearts quickly and will probably end up using it on a mini album I'll be making this weekend.

Lots more Martha goodies.

I thought this heart glitter was too cute! I might have to go back with a coupon and get a pack.

And of course there was a section of her awesome party goods, as well.

There were lots of new non-Valentine's items too. The new spring stuff from K and Company was in stock, including two new Susan Winget paper pads.

Michaels has added some new paper stacks to their in-house Recollections brand, as well.

8.5x11 scrappers will be happy to learn that there's even a stack or two (or three!) catering to just your size, and in a whopping 240 sheet set, no less!

Die Cuts with a View has lots of new yummies out, too. I'm all set to get the full tour of the new additions at CHA (their marketing department has already been in touch with me to set it up) at CHA in a couple of weeks! The scoop will either be here or at Scrapbook Update- not sure which yet, but I'll let you know when it's available.

DCWV has a new glitter stack that has plenty of sparkle and zero mess- the glitter just won't come off the page!

The Silky Smooth cardstock stack is...well, silky smooth. :) It's got a really nice sheen to it.

They've also got a new selection of papers with pre-adhered rhinestones.

Each sheet is packaged in its own wrapper within the stack to prevent damage.

These decorative trim tapes, also by DCWV, really caught my eye in the home decor department.

Just look at that lovely glitter!

I was kind of surprised that these items were already out since my store is very slow to stock new items. Hopefully that means they'll be turning up soon (or already be out) for the rest of you!

journal your christmas december 1-2 + december daily in reality

2012-01-10T21:54:00.000-06:00

So, you say you haven't finished your Christmas journal yet? Perhaps you've barely even started? Well, you're in good company! Or at least you're in my company, which may or may not be good depending on who you ask. :)

Some of you may remember my big plan for doing a digital album for Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas project this year. Some of you may also have read my post this weekend about what my December was like. Let's just say that life happened to my album just like it happened to me.

I also had some computer problems- something that I'm not used to seeing as how a) I'm a software engineer by day and b) I use a Mac!! Long story short, I had two issues- my web browser and memory. I've known for a long time that my Firefox web browswer was getting more and more bloated and taking up more and more memory just sitting there. (If the software I wrote for work leaked like that, I'd be in huge trouble.) I've since made the switch to Google's Chrome browser and am much happier for it. As for the memory, my fairly new (about a year and a half old) 27" beast of an iMac only had 4GB of RAM, and I was trying to run Photoshop CS5, Lightroom, Firefox (before I switched), and the DVD player (because I have to have my Stargate while I scrap) all at the same time. It was all just too much for that little bit of memory, so I bought another pair of 4GB sticks to shove into it for a total of 12GB, and now it's perfectly happy running all that at the same time.

But back on the scrapping front...

As it turns out, after Christmas lots of blog posts started popping up written by scrappers who were either very behind or just starting on their December albums, or choosing to do their own thing, regroup, or go in an entirely different direction. I've collected just a few to help encourage those of you who are in the same boat as I am.

I'm hoping that if you're feeling like you'll never get your album finished you'll take the time to click on a link or two and read and perhaps feel a bit better...or at least not so alone.

As for me, I'm still planning on completing my album. I've got all the photos edited and planned out for each day, along with some notes. And one of the good things about doing it all at the end? I can batch tasks! Right now I'm in the process of selecting a digital template for each of the remaining days and simply dragging photos and supplies onto it and saving it to be scrapped later- perhaps on the plane to CHA at the end this month. And since it's digital it's something that I can open up and work on when I have a few minutes here or there without having to worry about continually dragging out and then putting away physical supplies. Thank goodness I did all that planning before December started!

I do have a few pages completed, though not necessarily in order. The first two are ready to share, though, and I'll be continuing to post my pages until the album is finished.

December 1- The annual Christmas "Manifesto" prompt for those following Journal Your Christmas.

December 2- The Weather

If you're still working on your own Christmas journal, I've got a Pinterest pinboard going with lots of amazing albums by those who did manage to finish theirs. That's another good thing about being behind on this- I can enjoy everyone else's albums and lift ideas.

So, who else is with me on getting these things finished? 2010 will not be remembered as the year I didn't get my journal done!

scrapbook circle layout | the couch at anthro

2012-01-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

I had to laugh to myself a little last week when fellow Scrapbook Circle design team member Diana Waite posted that she had to let the January Scrapbook Circle kit, You + Me, simmer with her for a little while before scrapping with it, and then it all just came together. I felt exactly the same way when it first arrived- it was all pink and red and mushy, and I'm definitely not a pink, red, or mushy kind of girl. So I let the kit simmer, as Diana put it (admittedly for longer than I intended due to circumstances beyond my control) as I decided how best to put my own spin on it and make it decidedly me. I even had a minor freak-out moment on Twitter about it after seeing the gorgeousness that the other DT girls were putting together and thinking that I could never live up to that, but then I got over myself and sat down to do my thing, and wouldn't you know that all four layouts came together in record time on the same day? I was on fire, I tell you!

This was the first layout that came out of that session...

Step 1 of making this kit my own was to choose photos that are decidedly Melissa-style- usually meaning they're somewhat silly. This one is of Darren crashed out on his favorite sofa in the whole world...which just happens to be at our local Anthropologie store. If it wasn't $6,000 I'd buy it and bring it home for him!

Step 2 involved bringing in the Kraft Funday chevron paper by My Mind's Eye to use as a background. It tones down the page a bit while still adding plenty of pattern.

And Step 3? Cutting out those hexagons! I wrote a whole article for Scrapbook Update last fall on the hexagon/honeycomb/lattice trend, and it's still one of my favorite trends from last year!

The layouts that I made with this month's kit are some of my favorites that I've made in quite a while. I'm looking forward to sharing the rest of them with you over the next few weeks!

geek girl | january 8, 2012

2012-01-08T19:24:00.000-06:00

Good evening, geeks!

I've been blogging tons today and am kind of blogged out for the evening, plus I really, really want to go crash and watch our new Blu-Ray of Transformers: Dark of the Moon tonight, so I'm just gonna jump right to the good stuff, okay?

Okay.

From the top left:

Amazing knitted Muppet hats. Gonzo is shown, but there are tons more if you click through the link.
If Star Wars is more your schtick, check out this knitted Yoda hat!
Homeschoolers (or anyone with kids, really) will want to check out this awesome (and free!) downloadable learning pack. It's Star Wars themed!
These gorgeous Star Wars Evian bottles are just a concept, but how cool would it be if they actually produced them!?
Super cute Gremlin cake alert!
Should I admit that I once had a little Pokemon obsession? Should I also admit that I was in college at the time? No? Oops. Then I probably shouldn't say that I also still have my Pokemon posters somewhere in the house...anyway, you can find out everything you ever wanted to know about Pokemon Pokeballs here.
Super funny and super snarky sarcastic letters...I love the one from Google to Yahoo.
The animated Hobbit film freaked me out as a kid, so this is the one and only time I'll be mentioning the new Hobbit movie here. Seriously, I think it was either the big spider or the creepy music, but I've told Darren that he's on his own to watch this one. I thought it noteworthy, though that it's being Lego-fied.
Speaking of Lego-fied, check out this full-size Lego Halo sniper rifle. That'll show those giant spiders. And their creepy music.

Until next time, geek out, peeps!

2011 reading list

2012-01-08T19:10:00.003-06:00

I'm still working on a few straggling 2011 wrap-up posts. It's become something of a tradition for me to list out the books I read during the year. Generally the list is heavy on geekery and light on substance. Reading is my fun time, and I don't have any qualms about not having more "heavy" material on this list.

Also, I read a lot at the gym while on the elliptical trainer, and it's good to have something light to read- that way things like announcements, general gym noise, and the dude on the treadmill next to me stopping to answer his cell phone in the middle of a workout aren't huge distractions.

In 2011 the entire back catalog of Stargate novels was released to Kindle, meaning I was able to pick up a few that were out of print and add to my collection. I also have a stack of these in paper format still waiting to be read- I bought them long before the iPad was even rumored to be in the works, and now I kinda wish I could trade them all in for electronic versions!

These books are sometimes fun, and sometimes just so-so depending on how well the author does with characterizations.

My love of Star Wars novels continued, of course. The Fate of the Jedi books are a bit tedious, but fun in places. Timothy Zahn's novel was, of course, excellent- as his always are! All of these were read on the Kindle app for my iPad.

Pretty much all of the Doctor Who books are available electronically now, as well, which is awesome because they can be a bit hard to come by in print in the States. I read a ton of these, and, like the Stargate novels, how good they are varies greatly between authors. These are a great way for me to still get a 10th Doctor fix from time to time. I still love the show with Matt Smith on it, but I really miss David Tennant's Doctor!

Burn Notice novels are the fluffiest thing on my list, for sure. They read like a slightly longer episode of the show, but they're always fun and guaranteed to make me laugh. Plus, the publisher seems to have gotten past all those icky typos that were in the earlier books. Fun stuff!

The only nonfiction book I read this year was a scrapbooking book- Stacy Julian's Finding Photo Freedom. Not all of her system is for me, but I definitely like to read about how others organize their scrapbooking.

So that's my year in 16 books. No big series this year like Harry Potter, just lots of fun reads. I keep hoping I'll add more books each year- this year my reading dropped off at about the same time I tore my achilles and couldn't use the elliptical trainer any more. Hopefully it'll pick up once I'm cleared to go back to it!

so christmas went like this

2012-01-08T15:42:00.000-06:00

So, at first I was a bit worried that I was getting my Christmas photos up too late, but then I looked back and last year I didn't get my Christmas photos blogged until the 23rd of January! So it's all good. :)

Darren has told me many times that you have to sleep to form memories. This could possibly be the explanation for why I have such a bad long-term memory- I don't sleep a lot. Sometimes it's by choice, and sometimes not, but I rarely sleep more than 6-7 hours a night...sometimes a lot less. And this Christmas? I'm not sure I got even that much during a lot of the season! So my memories of it are a bit fuzzy in places, which is why I'm so glad I took lots of photos. :)

I'm one of those people who's usually finished shopping by the weekend after Thanksgiving and has everything wrapped, decorated, and ready to go by mid-December. This time around, though? I'm not sure what happened...I think it was a combination of physical therapy (having to drive to an extra 2-3 appointments per week sucked a lot of time out of my schedule) and a rather severe case of my usual winter blues, but it took me until December 20th...yes, the 20th...to really get my stride. That was also the weekend of my brother's birthday, which marked the start of what I would come to call "driving season." I spent so very much time in a car this Christmas, and much of it was unexpected!

I'll start my story on the 21st, the day after I'd just been up to see my family for J's birthday party...

When we arrived home from our trip to Lebanon, TN, I found a surprise box from Mom and Dad on the front porch containing these two cuties! I collect nutcrackers, and they found these guys at World Market and knew I would love them (and I do!!).

I love that they're shorter than many of my other nutcracker dolls- I'd been wanting more of a variety in sizes, so these were perfect!

The new guys arrived just in time to be put out with our other decorations that I'd slowly been adding to the living room, including our tiny nativity set.

Here are the stockings, hung by the chimney with care. :) They're actually one of the first things I got out this year when I started decorating! I have many bins of Christmas items, but one in particular is labeled "Open First" and contains stockings, stocking holders, the nativity, the card holder, and many other must-haves for Christmas decorating. If I just get the contents of this box out, then about 75% of the decorating (besides the tree) is done.

Our poor Lego Star Wars advent calendar...we still haven't opened all the windows. That's how crazy busy it was!

I love getting Christmas cards. :)

I managed to find some crafty time at the last minute to letterpress a few special cards to send out.

And I also took a little more crafty time to make ornaments- the white clay snowflake one was made using these instructions on Pinefeather's blog, and the little tree in a snowglobe was inspired by this post on Craftberry Bush (I also included photos of some of the supplies I used).

The last week before Christmas started smoothly- I felt like I was finally getting back into my holiday groove and was on track to get all my gift wrapping and last minute prep done early, but then on Tuesday we learned that Darren's grandfather had passed away and his funeral was going to be held on December 23rd in Knoxville- about 3 hours from our home. He'd been ill for some time so it wasn't unexpected, but it was still understandably difficult for the family.

We'd originally planned to drive up on the day of the funeral and stay only for the service, but then we learned that Darren's brothers and their families were all driving in from D.C. the day before, so at the last minute we changed plans and drove up that Thursday evening as soon as I got off work.

We were there less than 24 hours before driving back home, and between driving from the condo where everyone stayed to the funeral home and then to the burial site, we probably spent another 2 hours in the car while there.

Christmas Eve morning was a flurry of activity. I was majorly stressing because even though I'd finally managed to get myself together during the early part of the week, the unexpected travel had totally thrown off the plans I'd made to have everything done before that day. Instead of spending a relaxing day having sushi out at lunch and maybe getting the chance to read a book or something, we spent nearly the entire day wrapping presents and cooking (I had two loaves of bread and a pecan pie to bake for various gatherings). We did make time to go out to lunch, but unexpectedly found that our favorite sushi place that we always go to on Christmas Eve was closed this year! So we went to Cracker Barrel instead.

And somewhere in the middle of all that my Dad got in touch with me to tell me that one of my great uncles had passed away that morning. :( He'd also been sick for some time and it wasn't unexpected (he'd been under Hospice care for a while), but it's still something that's just never easy, especially at Christmas. At the time the funeral plans hadn't been set yet, but I would later learn that visitation was on the 26th and the funeral on the 27th.

We finished wrapping and getting things ready just in time to leave for the Christmas Eve service at our church. Well, almost just in time- we were about five minutes late. :)

After church we headed over to Darren's sister's house for their traditional Christmas Eve fondue. And here's how stressed I was...I forgot to take my camera!!! Yes, me! Thank goodness we only live about ten minutes away and were able to go and retrieve it after dinner and before we opened presents.

This is one of the few photos I have of Mike during the evening- he's hardly ever still enough to get a photo of!

Darren's sister gave all the "college" students (Darren is working on his Master's degree in Biology) monkey Snuggies with their names embroidered on them. What Steph doesn't know is that he loves the thing! He's wrapped up in it more than once when we watch something from Hulu or Netflix. :)

Darren grabbed the camera for a bit, so there's at least a few photos of me in this batch. Everyone gave me tons of awesome Star Wars stuff, including a bunch of things that Darren's sister found at the Williams Sonoma outlet. I was all, like, hold up, there's a Williams Sonoma outlet? Good thing it's nowhere close to me, or I'd have no money left. Ever.

Darren and Elyse, the Snuggie twins. :)

And Darren made a new friend. He hates cats. Can't you tell?

After spending a few hours with Darren's family, we drove back home (again, just about 10 minutes this time, thank goodness!) and promptly fell asleep- we were pretty exhausted!

The next morning I woke up early and went straight to the living room. Not to make coffee, not to check the gifts, and not to sneak a peek in my stocking. No, I wanted to get up and make sure...get this...that the white balance on my camera was correct. Yes, I have become a dork about that lately. And the lighting in our living room is tough because some areas get more natural light and some get more artificial, so I have to balance between the two and do the best that I can.

I did get a few shots of everything all set up on Christmas morning while fiddling with settings, though. :)

We had to put all the presents on the table this year instead of under the tree since the new kitten was a little too interested in what was going on under that big green thing with all the lights. Let's just say I'm glad we found the mess before we put any packages under there! Hopefully he'll grow out of that next year.

The stockings are full now!

The arrival of the new nutcrackers from Mom and Dad prompted me to go ahead and get a few more of them out. One of my goals for next Christmas is to find a really good place to display them all instead of finding spaces for just a few each year.

And I did place a few packages- just those for Darren and I- under the tree with my new tree skirt just so I could take a photo of them and make it look normal. Again, dorky like that.

And then Darren got up and we proceeded to open stockings and gifts. Of course I got him his annual case of Bounty bars!

Griffin was very interested in one of the glittered snowflakes we used as package toppers.

Darren filled my stocking with all kinds of fun, unique chocolates from Fresh Market!

This package is from a fun friend who lives all the way across the country. Check out the Darth Vader lollipop!!

I went geeky with Darren's gifts this year- he got both an Aperture Laboratories (from Portal) coffee mug and shower curtain.

In this photo I'm opening a gift containing RF locators for keys. With a remote. Seriously! I'm always putting my keys down somewhere and not remembering where later, so now all I have to do is press a button on the remote and they'll beep (loudly!) anywhere in the house. Of course, my first thought was what if I lose the remote, but it's been living in the basket with our projector and Blu-Ray remotes and hasn't gotten lost yet.

And, of course, the Christmas cats. :)

After we opened gifts we cooked breakfast- pancakes and bacon!

And then it was time to gather up all the gifts and finish packing so we could go and spend a couple of days with my family.

At Mom and Dad's house we started off with Christmas dinner. The centerpieces that I made earlier in December finally had their chance to shine!

Miss Sophie was hungry as soon as she arrived, so J and I quickly made a plate for her.

I think that Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner plates are always pretty- so colorful!

Darren made another new friend.

And this photo of Sophie may look all sweet and everything, but really she was throwing those pom-poms on the floor and yelling "boom!" Darren may or may not have encouraged this behavior. :)

Sophie and my Mom sewing.

Christmas with this chickie was so different this year than it was last year. This time she was all into it, helping pass out gifts and really enjoying opening her own (as opposed to really enjoying chewing on the paper and boxes :) ).

Here she's trying to pick up my "big gift" of the Silhouette Cameo. She made the funniest grunting noise when she tried to lift it! After I shot this photo I quickly ran over to help her out.

I got Dad a set of nesting circle dies from Lifestyle Crafts. They inherited my old Big Kick and have been using it for some projects around the house, and this was one of the things they tried from my stash that they really liked.

Beth and J gave Sophie a play kitchen for Christmas, so Darren and I got her lots of play food for it, including an adorable Melissa and Doug sushi set. Yes, they really do make wooden play sushi!

Sophie also got her own "laptop" and "Blackberry."

My brother and Darren picked up the gift wrapping rivalry again after a couple of years' hiatus. Darren's huge box was heavy and contained two smaller boxes.

One was a stack of MCAT study books...

...and the other? Was filled with rocks!! And also a printout of the keyboard dock for Darren's Asus Transformer Prime. It wasn't available for Christmas but was Darren's big gift, so he'll get it just as soon as it's available to ship. Side note- the Transformer Prime tablet itself (his birthday gift) finally arrived earlier this week, and he loves it!

There were stockings involved in the gift opening, too (of course!), but I think that all of the photos of those are on Dad's camera since I was busy, you know, digging stuff out of my stocking at the time. :)

We finished opening gifts, and then quickly got ready for more company to come over. J helped Mom clip some threads off of a couple of sewn gifts that had just been completed. Darren and Mom helped provide plenty of light. :)

This girl stuck with her Poppy for a lot of the night.

My Aunt Tina, Uncle Mike, cousins Michelle and Jake, and my grandparents all came over shortly afterward for another round of gift opening.

This shirt that J got is priceless- I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.

Dad got a cool coffee mug shaped like a Canon camera lens.

My Aunt Linda and Uncle Mike also came by for a little bit, but unfortunately I didn't get any photos of them. Hopefully Dad did!

The next morning Beth, Mom, and I got up super early and headed out for what's become a fun day-after-Christmas tradition- shopping the after Christmas sales at Target!! I needed more ornaments like a hole in the head, but when I came across some absolute cuteness I couldn't help myself. What I did need were package toppers (I love adding little pretties and sparklies to wrapped gifts), and I found those in abundance!

The felt heart and tree ornaments came 3 to a pack and were marked down to 50 cents each, and the glittered snowflakes were 4 for 50 cents- the perfect thing to add to gift wrapping! I'll use them paired up with my annual 50 yard roll-o-clearance ribbon from Sam's (I get one or two every year when they mark them down and try to add a different color each year) that I scored for $5 later that week.

Back at Mom and Dad's, we realized that in the hustle and bustle of all the other visitors coming over, Sophie never got to open her stocking! I'm not quite sure that she got the concept this year, but J helped her out.

She was quite happy to try on her new mittens...

...but apparently the hat was too much. :)

Poppy got her smiling again quickly, though, by letting her play with his camera.

And then we had a bit of a lazy afternoon- I played with the Cameo and everyone pronounced it amazing. Even the bits it leaves behind on the cutting mat are pretty!

Shortly before 4 we all left for the funeral home for visitation (we weren't able to stay through for the funeral), and then Darren and I headed back to Huntsville and Beth, Jon, and Sophie left for their house, as well.

After all of that, the last couple of weeks have been amazingly quiet, though still a bit busy as I've been working hard to catch up on things. Also, I've decided that next year I'm starting everything early- the cards, the shopping, the wrapping- I would love to have it all done by December 1. We'll see if that happens, but I'm going to do my best to make it so! :)

friday favorites | january 6, 2012

2012-01-06T21:58:00.000-06:00

Happy Friday evening, peeps! Lots to share today- I've kind of been all over the place this week, so there's lots to tell you about in addition to this week's picks!

I've already linked up a couple of my Scrapbook Update articles this week, but I failed to mention that I also wrote a companion piece to my scrap room overhaul with some tips for those of you who are thinking about tackling your own crafty or even living spaces.

Becky Higgins linked up my post on how I used her Project Life envelopes to preserve bit of of Christmas wrap. The post she included it in is a phenomenally huge wealth of information and inspiration for Project Life in general- definitely worth reading! Speaking of Project Life, there's been so much goodness on the web about it lately that I'm planning an all Project Life Friday Favorites next week!

And, I'm saving the most exciting news of the week for last- Celine Navarro of Green Frog studio announced her team of guest bloggers this week, and I'm thrilled to be included on it! You'll see me posting there from time to time, mostly working from her fab sketches. Funny story...I was driving to work one morning with my iPhone laying in the passenger seat. I do not use the phone for email, text, or web while driving, but I happened to glance over at it while at a red light and saw Celine's name pop up in my email alerts. I didn't check it right then, but you can bet I dug into my email as soon as I got my car parked at the office! I've been a fan of Celine's work for a long, long time, so I'm super excited to be joining her on this adventure!

And now, on with this week's picks!

From the top left:

Katrina at Pugly Pixel shows how to make your own custom envelopes from magazine pages using a cute envelope template.
This vintage crafts themed party at Amy Atlas Designs is full of lovely ideas for parties and craft projects alike!
Check out a cool way to use the negative space of a used-up sticker sheet on a scrapbook page at Crate Paper.
Apartment Therapy has rounded up photos of lovely (and small!) craft spaces.
Love the look of Hipstamatic photos, but hate that you have to use the app itself to shoot the photo (why, oh why do they not allow post-processing of outside images?!?!?)? Check out this set of Hipstamatic actions for Photoshop at WBActions (found via Deb Duty Photography).
The pie chart on this layout by Marcy Penner definitely appeals to the geek in me!
I've selected a few mini albums to round out this week's picks, including this sweet one posted at Bella Blvd.
Speaking of Celine Navarro, she has an amazing mini album posted on the Fancy Pants blog.
You can find this fun leaf-shaped mini at Crate Paper.

Have a scrappy weekend!

scrapbook update | valentine's day product roundup

2012-01-06T14:43:00.000-06:00

Oh, wow...okay, that's a lot of pink! I don't usually do the whole pink thing, but in honor of Valentine's Day I put together a roundup of all the new (since CHA Summer 2011) Valentine's scrapbooking collections that are or will soon be on the market. If you liked the Christmas supply roundup I posted at Scrapbook Update last November, then you'll love this post, as well. Hop on over and check it out!

pink paislee layout | organize

2012-01-05T07:00:00.006-06:00

Today's my big day on the Pink Paislee blog!! The new 2012 Design Team members are being introduced over the next week or so, and my intro went up this morning along with one of the layouts that I put together for the design team call.

I love, love, love this page. Not only is it about one of my favorite topics (if you read my scrap room post earlier this week, you could probably tell how much I enjoy organizing my supplies), but when I sat down to make it I specifically made sure that the style was me and not simply what I thought Pink Paislee would want.

You see, that's the thing about design teams- if you have to change your style or work with things that don't really inspire you, then you're just going to be miserable during your term. It's always best to just be yourself during a call. If you get turned down, then you know it wasn't a good match. But in the case of Pink Paislee and I? It's a perfect fit! I love their products, and now I know that they like my style, so we're all set to rock it for the next year!

scrapbook update | etsy app review

2012-01-04T19:00:00.000-06:00

In the rush of all the year-end cleaning, organizing, Christmas tree de-constructing, and scrap room photographing, I failed to post about one of my newer articles at Scrapbook Update!

Etsy recently released and iPhone app, and I took it for a spin to see how well it performed. I'm pleased to report that it makes shopping for handmade and vintage goods from your iPhone a breeze! For the complete rundown, head on over to Scrapbook Update.

bella blvd layout | nativity

2012-01-04T07:15:00.001-06:00

It's another free-for-all layout month for me at Bella Blvd., meaning that I had my choice of any Bella collection and any topic I wanted to scrap about. I ended up playing with the mid-release Winter Wonder line, pulling in lots of soft colors to coordinate with the photo of our tiny nativity scene at home. It turns out that Winter Wonder can easily be used for Christmas photos, too!

Both the star background and the title were cut on my new Silhouette Cameo (love, love, love this machine!). I will readily admit that I'm more than a little addicted to the Pacifico font- it just welds together so well!

There are a lot more layouts from other talented members of the Bella design team over at the Studio blog, so be sure to hop on over and check it all out!

new yearlong scrapbooking projects for 2012

2012-01-03T21:32:00.000-06:00

I've got big plans for some new projects here in my little scrappy world this year. A few of them will be shared on the blog while others are more organizational in nature and might spark an idea for something you'd like to do yourself!

Basic Grey Kit Feature

Big project number one involves all those lovely Basic Grey card and layout kits that I picked up on clearance a few weeks ago. I found a few more of them the weekend before Christmas, and I have enough to feature a kit every couple of weeks throughout 2012. I'd like to thank everyone who chimed in when I originally bought them and expressed interest in seeing the finished product- it was a unanimous yes vote!

Here's the post where I shared what I originally found, and I've also got photos of the new ones.

I was lucky enough to find the Kioshi and Lauderdale page kits...

...and greeting card kits from the Pyrus, Hopscotch, Life of the Party, Wander, and Lauderdale collections.

I'm really excited to get these going. I've got a pile of photos from my 4x6 printing days still waiting to be scrapped, and these layouts should make a pretty good dent in it. I also really need to beef up my card stash, so those card kits are going to come in handy!

Project Life

I'm going to be continuing my rebooted Project Life album in 2012. Sometimes I'll use a kit, sometimes I'll use supplies from a certain line or manufacturer, and sometimes I'll just pull out my Amber Core Kit and make it really easy on myself. I'll be sharing all of those layouts here on the blog as I finish them.

School Albums

My brother and I both have many, many boxes of old school papers (I'm talking all the way back to first grade and maybe even kindergarden) in the attic at my parents' house. I haven't even run this idea past Mom and Dad yet, but I'd love to dig into those boxes and start putting the items worth saving into albums. I don't want to do anything too fancy, but I'm thinking that some of Becky Higgins' Project Life items (especially some of the divided page protectors and the 12x12 envelopes) will come into play here.

This is a project that I a) have to first get my parents' blessing on and b) will have to do when I make the trip up to Nashville to see them. I'll be sure to post progress here as it's made should I get the green light!

Scanning Negatives and Magazines

I have both a stack of scrapbooking magazines that I'd like to digitize and a binder full of old negatives that need to be digitized. I have specialize scanners for both of these jobs- a document scanner that automatically feeds pages and creates a PDF and a negative scanner that is made specifically to hold and feed film strips. It's time that I stop procrastinating and put both of these to use. My goal is to scan either one magazine or one roll of negatives each day. If I do that, I'll have all of both items done well before the end of 2012.

So that's my 2012 plan- to do all the items listed above in addition to my regular scrapping. I think it's totally doable, and I look forward to sharing results and progress with you all as it happens!

the big scrap room reveal

2012-01-03T07:22:00.002-06:00

If rearranging scrap rooms was an Olympic sport, I'm sure I'd be a contender for the gold medal. It seems like every winter now (or as soon as the temperature gets to chilly for my wimpy self to venture out of doors, which is generally sometime in October) I do something drastic to my space. Usually said drastic action involves a trip to IKEA- no small feat in and of itself since our closest one is four hours away in Atlanta!!

I've finally finished this year's updates and additions to my scrap area, and I've put together a little photo tour to show off all the improvements and to also link up to older posts about storage systems that I still have in place.

This is likely to be a bit of a long post with a lot of back story up front, so I thought I'd start with a photo of the finished product first, just so you won't have to wade through everything I'm about to throw at you without some idea of where we're going to end up.

Ahhhhh, I love it! I'm sitting in it right now as I type this post, and I have to tell you that this is the best arrangement I've ever had in this space!! And, before I dive into too many details, I want to settle a couple of things up front. First, I don't have one of those massive houses. Far from it, actually- our little casa is a mere 1,238 square feet, but since it's just the two of us here I'm blessed to get one of the extra bedrooms to play with (Darren has the other one for his own office), though it does also function as a guest room so I do have to keep that in mind. Second, I didn't acquire everything that you see here in one shot. It's been built slowly over the course of two and a half years and four trips to IKEA, so it's not like I went out and dropped a bundle of money on this setup all at once.

Perhaps I should start with a bit of the history of how I put it all together.

We moved to the house we currently live in in June of 2009. I put off putting together my scrap room for a while because I thought we might have the wood floors refinished first, but we decided it would be best to wait until the bathroom and kitchen remodels were complete so we wouldn't have to worry about dragging cabinets and tubs and new fixtures across freshly sanded and sealed floors. That coupled with an impending knee surgery for me in September kind of sped up the timetable, so in August of 2009 we took our first ever trek to IKEA to pick up a 5x5 Expedit shelf (I'd already had my Madison Trestle Desk from Target delivered straight to my door thanks to a free shipping deal).

Long story short (if you want the long story, you can check out the posts here, here, and here), at the end of that first organization cycle, my room looked like this. Oh, and if you want to see a time-lapse video of how an Expedit is built, you can check out this post from the time I built a pair of them for our bedroom...on New Year's Eve!

Big difference from the current setup, eh? Note the desk against the wall and the plastic drawer units containing color sorted embellishments under the window. Those are going to change shortly.

It took a little more tweaking, but I finally got the room all set up the way I wanted it at the time in January of 2010, and I put together a full walkthrough in five posts- The Desk Area, The Expedit, Mini Album and Kit Storage, Embellishment Storage, and Scraps and Miscellaneous Organization. I'll be referring to some of those posts again later on- some things have stayed the same, and some have changed drastically.

A few months after that tour was posted I set up my copy stand for photographing layouts, adding a table that had formerly been in our old house's entry. At this point with a guest bed, the extra table, and my Expedit and desk in the room, it started to feel a little cramped in it's current configuration. Also, it had a recliner in it that I'd borrowed from my parents since it was the most comfortable thing for me to sleep in for the couple of months after my knee surgeries. Yes, that's plural- one turned unexpectedly into two, but that's a whole other story.

This time my organizational itch didn't wait for winter to flare up. Instead, it took hold in May when I hatched this plan to move everything and try to optimize space. That plan got a bit delayed, though, by overriding demands at work and a pretty heavy schedule of 5K races that I'd signed up to run. Take that, knee surgery!!

It was November before I completed that transition (see, cold weather does it every time!), and by then, just a year ago, my space looked like this.

Thanks to a trip to IKEA with my brother and Beth (who was 8.5 months pregnant at the time- maybe 8.75!!!), I was able to pick up a second 5x5 Expedit unit. I had originally planned to place it on the wall opposite the first one such that they would flank my desk, but as soon as I assembled the second shelf and put it in place, I knew I wasn't going to like that arrangement. Instead, I put the shelves side-by-side and moved the table that used to house my copy stand over to the opposite wall. My desk got moved to right in front of the window so I could enjoy a view of the back yard.

And where did the copy stand go? Into the closet, thanks to a makeshift shelf that Darren built. It's still there today, and it seems to be the perfect spot for it.

It was around this same time that I sorted all my embellishments by color and placed them in bins- you can find that post here- and also reorganized my scrap and paper stack storage (post here). I also reorganized my in-progress project storage somewhere in that same time frame (post here).

Believe it or not, my scrap room actually stayed this way for about a year, but then as soon as it got a little chilly this fall, I got the urge to rearrange it again. I hatched another plan, this time to replace the guest bed with a futon (a comfy one- not a cheap crummy one) so that I could have a couch in my room part of the time and then extend it to a guest bed as necessary (since we only have company a very few times a year). Moving the bed out of the space opened up a new world of layout possibilities for me, and I quickly devised a scheme to turn my two existing 5x5 Expedits into a corner unit.

But first, I had to go back to IKEA.

If you happen to have an IKEA store close to you, then you're very lucky indeed. If you've never been able to go to one and find yourself in a city that has one, you might want to pop in if only to see the wealth of wonderful storage, organization, and furniture arrangement ideas they have on the show floor.

There are tons of "rooms" set up- everything from living rooms to bedrooms to full blown apartments!

And you can even eat there an make a day of it, which is exactly what Mom, Beth, and I did.

The three of us went together and took my 4Runner and trailer...and it came home packed!! My shopping list consisted of furniture for my office at work (it's so big that I bought a couple of comfy chairs for it), and a 1x5 Expedit and a pair of Alex carts for my scrap room. It was a long and exhausting shopping day (and I think three trips through the checkout before we were totally finished), and by the end of it I was so tired that I tried to use a box of crackers to pad some picture frames.

Don't ask. I don't even know what I was thinking (and the frames are fine).

As tired as I was that night, I still got up the very next morning and started putting the 1x5 unit together. I'd already worked on moving the two 5x5 Expedits to opposing corners (that was a fight in and of itself...and I did it all while in an air cast!!), so it was just a matter of putting the 1x5 in place and moving everything in until the corner looked like this.

That was on December 4th, and I've spent the intervening time working in 15 minute (or sometimes an hour if I'm lucky) increments to get it finished. And now it looks like this!

Let's take a little tour, shall we? I'll go back to this picture that was taken shortly before I moved the desk in since I think it'll be easier to refer to that way. Speaking of the desk, yes, it does cover those bottom four cubes of the right-hand Expedit, but those are items that I'm simply storing and hardly ever need to access, so no big deal.

The middle shelf is the new 1x5 unit that I put in to form a corner. I didn't bolt anything together (the Expedits aren't even bolted to the wall)- I simply snugged it all together and it fit rather nicely.

That row of green baskets mostly holds kits that I've either bought or made, and you'll notice that the top basket only has a couple of things in it. Room to grow is a good thing! Though I will say that I did purge quite a few items during this renovation- some of it was shared with my Mom and cousin, and another box of it is waiting to be taken to the next crop I go to at church to share with the girls there.

The basket below holds any kits I'm currently working with or projects in immediate progress. I use it mostly to hold photos and supplies that I've pulled out to use for assignments.

I also moved my scraps from the 12x12 drawers that they were in back into large zip-top bags in a basket. I just don't use scraps often enough to warrant the space that the drawers were taking up, and Mom was happy to take them for her own space.

I still store paper pretty much the same way I did when I originally set up the room- in Cropper Hopper vertical holders in the Expedit cubes. You can read more about my paper organization here.

I did move my 6x6 pads out of the boxes they were in and into open baskets to make them more accessible. I'm using them a lot more these days and wanted them handy, and putting them in baskets in Expedit cubes makes them easy to get to.

I also keep my newly found collection of Basic Grey kits here, along with page protectors and pretty much everything else that I originally stored in my first Expedit.

I still use baskets to store punches and keep a lot of my embellishments in color bins. This round of revamping was mostly just moving stuff around and not so much organization, so this stuff hasn't really changed.

The taller Pjas baskets (also from IKEA) fit perfectly in Expedit cubes, and I use them to hold things like office supplies, my adhesive stash, and some taller tool items.

I've also made my document and negative scanners easily accessible. This room also functions as my home office, and I need to be able to get to and use these items quickly! You can't see it in the photo, but there's a huge mass of cables behind this shelf running to a USB hub that in turn runs to my iMac so everything is connected all the time.

I still use this old bookcase to store mini album supplies (see that post here), and I've also moved my archived projects in progress from the cart I originally had them on (posted here) to 12x12 Iris cases that fit perfectly on the shelves.

The update that I think I'm most excited about is the addition of the two Alex carts from IKEA. I needed something that my Cricut Expression and my new Silhouette Cameo (an awesome Christmas present from my whole family) to sit on where I could get to them and use them without having to move a bunch of other stuff around. These two items are also permanently wired to the iMac at all times.

These carts are on casters, and I can easily roll one out a few inches when I need to make a cut, allowing the cutting mat to travel as far back as it needs to. I'm already using this cutter a lot more than any other I've ever had, and part of the reason for that is the convenient location!

The big draw of the Alex cart for me is the series of 6 flat, deep, shallow drawers- perfect for things like cutting mats, extra blades, and even my Cricut Gypsy!

I've also discovered just how much these units will hold! This drawer contains felt-cutting supplies for the Cricut.

And finally, finally, finally, all my glitters and inks have a home instead of just being jumbled up in a basket or other bin.

I've also finally got space for all my manual dies and embossing folders and plates.

And storage for stamps! I never really used my stamps much because they were pretty hard to sort through when I just had them thrown in a basket. I'm already using them more now that they're easier to sift through in these drawers!

And would you look at that- an empty drawer! I actually have two of them, though I may turn one into a Project Life station- not sure yet.

The wall off to the other side of the room is largely the same as it has been- the table is still there, and the copy stand is still in the closet.

The contents of the table have changed, though- it now holds some serving pieces from HomeGoods that I'm using to store baker's twine, mists, and decorative tape, as well as my new button storage.

I also moved the little dresser that I repainted and replaced the knobs on a couple of years ago to stand on the wall between the closet and the door- it's the perfect spot for my sewing machine!

Now that I've shown you the finished parts of my room, it's time to take a quick look at the scary and not-so-finished parts.

First, the Alex carts have a secret secondary purpose- they hide this hot mess of cables running from all my devices to my iMac!

And if you take a look from behind my desk (yes, that's Stargate: SG-1 playing on my computer :) ), you'll see that I've not yet made any progress on the business with a futon that I'm planning for that side of the room. And there are boxes of stuffed animals and a pile of bedding that I still need to deal with, but I can live with it for now.

And just how do I expect to fit a queen size futon in this space? Well, when it's a couch it'll be easy...but there's also an easy way to make room for the bed when it's folded out. Those Alex carts? That are on casters? They'll just roll back behind my desk (after unhooking the cables from the backs of the die cutters). The desk itself still has the furniture sliders on it and will be easy to move backward a foot or so to make room for the bed. In other words, no problem at all!! I'm guessing I could have this room company-ready in 10 minutes or less.

Whew! I'm pretty tired from just having written all that, but I've been wanting to do a full post like this on the evolution of my space for a long time now- it's so good to have it out there!

2011 in layouts

2012-01-02T09:38:00.000-06:00

In 2011 I scrapped more than I ever have before and made a total of 134 Layouts. That's 110 single page, 21 double page, 1 digital, and 2 in divided page protectors (I really, really need to do more of those!). That total doesn't count my Project Life album or the two photobooks I made- one from our Aruba vacation and the other from my trip to Star Wars Celebration V. Also not included are the 15 pages of my Journal Your Christmas album from 2010 that I was still finishing up this year or the mini albums I made.

That's a lot of scrapping. :)

I thought it would be hard to narrow it down to my top 10 favorites like I've seen so many other scrappers doing this past week, but when I started scrolling through them all, it was actually pretty easy!

So, in no particular order, here are my 10 mostest favoritest layouts that I made in 2011...

Sunday at the Gardens

Autumn Colors

Thai

Internet Cafe

Tourist Troopers

I Was Here

Snow on Christmas Day

Trashboggans

Snapshot

White Christmas

And, just for fun, I threw all of those pages (plus a few of my less hideous cards) into Picasa and came up with this massive collage of every single layout I made in 2011 (with the exception of the photo books and mini albums).

I know they're tiny- you can click on the image to make it marginally larger.

Here's to lots more scrapping in 2012!

geek girl | geeking in the new year!

2012-01-01T21:37:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year, geeklings!! Let's get it started off right with a mix of great nerdy finds! I've been a busy bee all day working up some new scrapbooking content for the blog next month (some of it will debut as early as Tuesday!!), and I'm really feeling the need to get my geek on tonight...

From the top left:

Princess Leia headphone covers so you can rock out in style. Or at least rock out.
A super cute Chewbacca cake.
A super cool (but not necessarily cute) Wampa cupcake.
If Leia-style buns aren't for you, perhaps you'd care for a Doctor Who costume t-shirt instead? The 10th Doctor's is pictured above, but many more are available.
Autobot cupcakes!! And, if you click through the link, you'll see some Decepticons, too.
This Lego model of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN looks like something straight out of Big Bang Theory. Still waiting for the Lego Higgs boson particle, though...
Fancy a game of tic tac toe against a book? Think Geek has you covered! Of course, nothing beats a nice game of Global Thermonuclear War.
Adorable Star Wars plushies!!
This amazing Star Wars opening text crawl escalator is in Tel Aviv, in the city hall, of all places!

And, for tonight's viewing pleasure, an epic retelling of Star Wars...with cellos.

Until next time, geek out, peeps!

on friday...

2011-12-31T23:08:00.001-06:00

So Friday went a bit like this...

I got up early and went to physical therapy to take care of this...

I've got one more week of therapy left and two more weeks until I find out if I can finally get out of the air cast!

From therapy it was on to work (sorry, no pictures there) where I was almost the only person there. The joys of being the new girl- I don't have a ton of vacation time to take off right now.

After work it was off to BodyPump class...yes, I still lift weights, even with the boot on. It's actually not that much harder.

After I finished at the gym, Darren and I went to Bridge Street so I could buy a pair of these...

Yes, I got some funky toe shoes!! Vibram Five Fingers Bikilas, to be exact. They are soooo incredibly comfortable, and I can't wait until the achilles is cleared for me to run again so I can really try them out.

Since we were going to be at Bridge Street anyway, I made an appointment with the Apple Store's Genius Bar to have a problem looked at with this...

My iPhone 4S was having serious volume control issues (it would turn itself up for no reason at all), so it got replaced. Again. Yes, this is the third 4S I've had since they were released. The first just quit connecting to the network for no good reason.

Finally, we had dinner at Viet Huong, which Darren hadn't been to before. Soothing warm soup was the perfect thing for both of us after a long day.

Oh, and I left out one little thing that happened between the gym and the toe shoes...this!!!

I nearly ran screaming across the gym lobby when I saw the email from Rebecca on my iPhone, inviting me to join the 2012 Design Team at Pink Paislee! I'm so excited...and shocked. I honestly did not expect to make it, but somehow I did. I'm looking forward to a year of working with this amazing team and Pink Paislee's wonderful products. They're like the Doctor Who of scrapbooking- constantly reinventing themselves with each release. I can't wait!

friday favorites | december 30, 2011

2011-12-30T07:00:00.025-06:00

Happy New Year's Eve Eve, everyone! I hope you've all had a relaxing week. I think that the week between Christmas and New Year is one of my favorite weeks of the year (even though I hate winter). It's sort of like the calm after the storm. A very merry, fun, sparkly storm, but a storm nonetheless. It's a time when Christmas crafting gives way to a mix of wintery motifs (helllooooooo, snowflakes- my favorite) and pink (my not-so-favorite) projects.

In that vein, I've gathered up an interesting mix for you this week- party backdrop ideas, a sweet winter scarf (since it finally got cold here- we just pulled out the down comforter and put it on the bed this week!), a snowflake garland, and, of course, a couple of mini albums tossed into the mix!

From the top left:

Find out how to make these sweet, subtle snowflake garlands at Oh Happy Day.
100 Layer Cake has a tutorial showing how to make the fun, fringed crepe paper backdrop behind this dessert table. What a great idea for those hosting (or helping host) New Year's Eve parties!
This fun felt scarf requires zero sewing! Learn how to make your own at Giver's Log.
Love Instagram? Love photo collages? Michelle Wooderson shows you how to combine the two using just your iPhone. That's right, no fancy computer required- what a perfect tutorial for those tackling Project Life next year.
Christmas may be over, but gift-giving (and thus gift wrapping) is a year-round thing. Check out this awesome gift wrapping room and get some great package decorating tips at Celebrate Creativity.
Traveling Mama posted a lovely travel mini album. You can also check out another post with more photos of the mini here.
Turn your discarded wine corks into DIY stamps! Sweet Spot shows you how.
These "jotter" notebooks at Design Sponge were made using vintage Christmas cards, but you could easily do the same thing with any of the Christmas greetings you may have received this season.
American Crafts has a great mini album posted using tons of Instagram photos.

Have a scrappy weekend, and happy new year!