Baby It's Cold Outside!

First of all, thank you for all the kind comments on my previous post! You all are so kind!

Next, I told you I was inspired...I created this little baby to document Mac's first snow. Of course he only stay out in it for 5 min. but it still counts, right?




I've really enjoyed going through all my "old" papers lately and seeing them in a new light. This large die-cut is some old Collage Press that I still adore. After choosing it, I chose to go with the green/turquoise/gray combination. And though it's a little different, I kinda like it. It helped to make my page as cold and wintery. So did the graphite colored Glimmer Mist. Besides the Collage Press, there's a lot of American Crafts too--stickers, paper, thickers, tags...I love all their little goodies. And just about everything has some sort of sparkle or twinkle to it.

Well. That's about all I've got for today. I need to finish cleaning the house (yes, I've been quite productive today) and start making dinner.

Hope you've had a good start to your week!

Later.

A new favorite

First of all, some fun news I haven't shared yet is that I'm one of a good handful of ladies who have made the final round for the DT call over at My Scrapbook Nook! I'm super excited and crossing my fingers BIG time! But the talent there is SO amazing, I'll definitely be chewing my nails til the list comes out!

And because of that super talented message board, I've been really inspired to create lately. So last night I sat down to do something about that. There were just too many ideas swimming in my head. The funny thing is that I sat down to do one layout, I ended up going the completely opposite direction, and this one came together practically on its own instead. I love it when that happens! :D And now it's one of my favorites!




There's so many little oddities about this layout, it's kinda funny how it all came together. Like I said, I had a completely different layout, pictures, and style in mind when I sat down to scrap. BUT, here it is, and some of the things that make it seems "funny" to me.

1. I rarely ever use Basic Grey, I mean ever. I usually don't like stuff to be distressed for me. But I'm in LOVE with the "Curio" line. In fact, I'm thinking about framing some to decorate the house with! hee! (And for a quick side note, I really like what they're presenting at CHA this weekend too. I may be warming up to BG all over again.)

2. When I do a vintage/shabby layout I always feel the need to use a black and white photo. But for some reason I love the colored shots with this one even though the green rain boots totally don't match. That's something that would usually bug me, but for some reason it doesn't this time.

3. I also have been HOARDING (seriously hoarding) those American Crafts vintage rose brads. I bought a second set just because I love them so much, but they were back-ordered so I never got them. So I REALLY hoard those brads. But last night I felt compelled to use almost each and every one. I had to scale myself back to using only two.

4. I've also been hoarding my Jenni Bowlin vellum butterflies, but it seemed like a crime not to use one on this page. (Another side note, Why do I hoard stuff? I always like it better, and it looks so much prettier, when I actually USE it! lol!)

5. I just ADORE brown glitter. I think it's the prettiest thing ever! Thank goodness for Martha Stewart and her super fine glitter. I'm in L-O-V-E love!

And since I haven't officially introduced her yet, that baby doll is Kayla. She's the newest addition to our family. And apparently you'll be seeing a lot of her since Caroline can't/won't go anywhere without her. :)

That's all for now! I'm still creating, so hopefully I'll be back soon with some more goodies to share!

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend!

Getting the itch

to re-decorate. It's been a while since I've rearranged or redone these rooms, and since we've been holed up here for weeks now (or at least it seems that way) I'm ready for a change.

My personality is to change it all, to start a project in every room, and then not complete a single one. So I'm thinking I want to change up my bedroom first. Don't know why, but it's the one that seems like I could get done the easiest.

I've been really inspired lately by a couple of bloggers like this one from The Lettered Cottage:

LOVE the horizontal stripes,the faux plank ceiling, and the shelving arrangement.

Or this from Hometown Girl:

mmm...a farm table with non-matching chairs. But I think it's the pitcher with hydrangea that sold me. Is it spring yet?

Or these bedroom shots from Resolved to Worship. (You can't copy/paste her photos anymore.) I LOVE how she mixes tins and metals with the rustic touches. I could SO do a curtain "rod" like that. Maybe I will! ;) And, "hello black and white portraits. I need you."

Sigh...I must be crazy because this would NEVER work at our house. I'd love a white or tone-on-tone vintage/shabby house, but really our house CANNOT be white right now. Just too many little people live here. But can I do just our bedroom?

Am I crazy for thinking that I can keep a bedroom, if it's ours, nice and neat and WHITE (or beige/cream)? I probably am. I mean, I DID just find raspberry sparkle Lip Smackers in the dryer.

I'm just ready to decorate something. Anything. I need a change. Suggestions?

MLS sketch

Hi there everyone! Just wanted to share a quick post today of the layout I did with the My Little Shoebox sketch this month. I really enjoyed Aphra's sketch, and was really inspired by it.

"Natural Beauty"

Obviously I turned the sketch on its side to accommodate my vertical pictures. And I did a mash up (pardon the Glee reference) of several MLS lines to get the color scheme I wanted. ;) The photos are a little funky because I was shooting them at night. Sorry 'bout that.


Here's how you can play along:
* Create a layout based on this sketch using My Little Shoebox products
* Post your layout to your blog or favorite gallery and link back to this post
* upload your layout to our My Little Shoebox gallery at our Facebook page
* Leave us a comment on THIS blog post linking us to your layout

You have until midnight Pacific time on February 3rd so get to creating!

What will you win??

How about a fabulous prize package of My Little Shoebox goodies and your layout featured along with your photo and blog link right here on our blog!!

Can't wait to see what you create!

As promised...

The rest of the layouts I created this past weekend.

I actually forgot to include this one on yesterday's post since it's a Fall/Thankful LO. It's my favorite photo of my kiddos from the Fall. Funny how they grow up so fast, because now the girls' hair is longer, Mac's so much bigger. Strange to look back and see what a difference just 3 months can make. Sheesh!

On both sides of the flower I created a faux bow, for lack of a better term, out of the striped patterned paper. I simply made a loop with the paper and adhered the ends together so that they were flat, the attached two loops together. Repeat for the other side, and voila, a "faux (patterned paper) bow". The flower makes the center of the "bow".

Moving on, I made this LO of Sarah Kate decorating our Christmas tree. I think it's the first LO I've made that doesn't have a title. I don't think it needs one, it's pretty self-explanatory, but really I ran out of room for one. hee!

A close-up of the trims and embellishments. The whole LO is made with items that came in my Nook Secret Santa package! The paper is a part of Gudrun's paper line from Norway, and I really love it! Thanks again, Hilde!

And then one I've been toying with for a while.
I LOVE this line from Echo Park, it's just so fun, bright, and whimsical! It fit perfectly with the photos of the kids with Santa.

Getting back in the groove

Life's been crazy lately, I've been playing the single-mom role for about 2 weeks now. Thank goodness it's over, and Josh isn't traveling any more. But all that time to "myself" really sucked all creativity out of me. I found that at the end of the day when I usually do my scrapping, I was so tired (emotionally and physically) that I just couldn't bring myself to pull out the paper.

BUT, good news, this weekend The Nook held an online crop, and I'm FINALLY starting to get my groove back! Whew! I was a little worried it wouldn't. I was able to complete 4 of the many challenges, and so I thought I'd share them with you. I'm "catching up" with my Fall and Winter pictures, so today I'm sharing 2 Fall LOs. Tomorrow I'll post my 2 Christmas ones. (With still many more photos to go. Thank goodness I'm not one of those who feels like they have to be caught up!)

"Thankful Hearts"

First up is "Thankful Hearts", my favorite layout of the weekend. This one just kinda created itself. I played with the stuff that was lying on my table, and ended up with an embellishment combination that's really random and really fun (at least I think so). There's some OLD Fancy Pants, a never used wooden Karen Foster sign, and more yummies. I did this for Hilde's "Wood" challenge.

"So Very C"

And this one is for Stacey's "Monogram" challenge. I just love love love these photos of Caroline. They're SO her, which is what the journaling states. She's so in the moment, and so full of joy, I'm really happy I was able to capture these pics. I may just scrap them again I love them so much. Hee! Here I used a lot of October Afternoon, Elle's Studio labels, a mix/mash of Maya Road and Recollections flowers, and some fun doodling and faux stitching. ;)

And that's all for today. I'll be back tomorrow with 2 more LOs from the crop.

Hope you've had a great Monday!

Sneak peeks and a giveaway!

The My Little Shoebox sneak peeks are up, all 6 of them. And they're so dang cute! Each collection features 5 double sided papers, cardstock stickers, clear stamp and journaling punch outs. And guess what? The circle die-cut papers are back! woohoo! They're so stinkin' cute! I love'em!

And in case you missed it, here's a recap of the peeks. The full reveal will be at CHA so stay tuned.

Home Tweet Home

Farmer's Market

Sew Cute!

Oasis

Garden Party

City by the Bay

And wait! There's more! MLS is giving away each new release to a lucky blog commentor! Go check out the details here and get yourself registered to win!

And tell me, which one of these do YOU like?

Five

I can't believe my big girl is five. Where did the time go?

We celebrated Caroline's birthday Saturday by letting her choose all the things she wanted to do for the day. Here's a recap of our day.

First Daddy went and bought her a special birthday breakfast donut, chocolate covered with sprinkles (emphasis on the sprinkles). She opened her presents from us too--Baby Alive baby doll clothes, a Barbie computer, and new shoes.

Then we went to a paint-your-own-pottery place. She's been begging to do this for almost a year, and was so excited to actually get to go. She chose to paint Snow White. (of course. it had to be a princess.)

Then we went to the movies and watched Tangled. I failed to get a picture of the girls because I was too busy trying to convince them that even though the theater is dark and has loud noises, it really IS a safe place to go. Once we got them to our seats, they were fine. And didn't they want to leave at the end.

And we topped the day off with some Gigi's cupcakes. Caroline chose to get "Strawberry Love". ;) A perfect ending to a really fun day!

Caroline at five:
-Is really coming in to her own.
-loves learning her letters, numbers, and learning to read
-really likes to play board games especially checkers
-now has the Dorothy Hamill 'do, since her hair is finally growing out. hee!
-asks really poignant questions about her faith, Jesus, and heaven
-LOVES her Baby Alive doll. She's named her Kayla.
-Still tells the same "knock, knock" jokes and laughs her head off every time.

She's a great big sister, the energy of our household, who has a quirky fashion sense, a love for all things creative, is very curious and wants to know "why", but also has a very loving heart.

Baby Alive

Which one of these is not like the others? giggle!

When I laid McClain on the bed so I could help the girls with their pjs, they laid their Baby Alives next to him. It totally cracked me up, so I had to take a pic. Corny, I know. But we've been stuck inside/at home since Sunday and I *may* be starting to lose it! The tiniest things are starting to amuse me now.

You are my Sunshine

I did this layout for the weekly challenge over on the American Crafts blog. This week they were focusing on the Details, sweet little embellishments that were just the right touch for my layout. I used 3 of them--the sunshine, the hot air balloon, and the flower. I also used their City Park line, which I loooove! There's more to come from that line! I love it! :)

Powder

This time we got powder.
Seven inches of it!!!

And this one can't stay out of it!!

It's the first thing she asks right after breakfast--
"Can I go outside? Puh-leeease?"
And she spent so much time out in the
backyard today that we were
afraid she was going to have frostbite.

Tomorrow will be Day 3 of it.
I *might* just have to venture out in it myself.
We'll see...

Today.

Today this is how she dressed...bedhead, gymnastics leotard underneath a Belle gown.

Today she wore her new feather boa and practiced her curtsy.

Today she got scared by what the weather looked like outside.

And today we had this conversation:

C: Mommy, I'm scared. It looks like it's going to be a tornado!
Me: It's not going to be a tornado. It's just windy and it's getting dark.
C: But Mommy I'm scared.
Me: It's okay Caroline, God is in control. His Bible says the He knows the plans He has for you.

Then...
C: But Mommy, what if He loses them???

I chuckled and said, "He won't baby. He won't." And kept chuckling.

I love her sweet innocence and her desire to know everything.

January PageMaps is up

And I had the privilege of being a layout contributor again! Woohoo! I was so excited when Becky asked me back! :)

Here's the sketch I got to work with:

And then my interpretation of it:

Products used:
Crate Paper chipboard, pp, and sticker strip. Echo Park pp, and stickers.
Cricut Expression and Winter Woodland cartridge

I seem to be enjoying the winter/snowflake theme lately. I mean, we got so much snow over Christmas that I can't help it! ;) The journaling reads, "One December morning you woke up and saw that it had snowed. So at breakfast you prayed, 'Oh, and God? Thank you for the snow I wish for for Christmas!' Too cute!" I love her and her candid honesty. So sweet, so innocent. I knew right away that I'd include that quote in a layout somewhere.

Favorite projects of 2010

Although creating layouts will always be my absolute favorite, I ventured out more in the project world in 2010 and created some altered art, cards, and other "stuff" that I really like too. Here are some of those.

First some cards. I don't make
that many, and really I have a card complex.
I usually don't like the cards I make.

And some altered projects.
I usually do these as seasonal home
decor projects, because I like to
enjoy some pretties around the house too.

And a mini-album. (The yellow
is not a part of it, but used a background
for photo purposes.)