yay for crafting regularly now, studio calico team!

A few weeks ago, this happened:

It came at the right time as it's been a few years since I was on the 2peas team and while I needed a break at that time, I found my heart missing the craft on a regular basis. Being that I scrapped by deadline for over 10 years, I found it hard to just 'pick up and make something'. Long story short, I am happy to announce that I will be joining SC regularly for the 2015 year! I am so excited about getting that brown box on my doorstep and creating with this community. I love that everyone there just LOVES the craft.

There's a special running right now, too! If you want to join along and be a newbie at SC like me, let's do this together! Click here to check it out!

December 12, 2014 3

december daily days 2-9

It's day 10 today and I'm still going strong!!!!! 🙂

This is where I battle with mixing old product and new product. This is also where I cry as my entire stash of Basic Grey rubons that I've stashed over the years no longer work.

days 4 and 5 togetherdays 6 and 7 together

day 7- we did a lot 🙂

still day 7, memorabilia from unique LA.

day 8 with a cut up brochure from unique LA

day 9 sibling secret santa

day 9 addition of my love hate relationship when the anthropologie catalog arrives in my mail. hidden journaling in the envelope. that KI lace paper will always hold a special place in my heart :)

yay for 9 days DONE! 🙂

December 10, 2014 0

commuting through downtown LA via iphone

I've been working with Amy Tangerine for about 4 months now and sometimes I get some nice commute pics on my iphone. No worries, I'm always stopped at a light or stuck in traffic when I take them. 🙂 I've posted them on my instagram and I think they're looking so cool all together, they may just need their own hashtag!

I'm new to this commuting thing, if you know me, I've been a stay at home mom for nearly 19 years. Just now that the kids are all in school full time, I ventured out to get a part time job and there Amy and I connected. She was looking for someone to come to the studio part time and it was perfect. It's a great balance as I still have some days at home to volunteer and do house stuff. I love it.

I also use the Waze app. So every commute is different. Taking me through different parts of LA that I've never seen before. It's eye opening and somewhat of a race to beat my previous drive's time 🙂

I'm digging this series. I think it'll make for a cute 2 page spread!

December 8, 2014 2

paper camellia kit

I recently had the chance to work with Paper Camellia's December Main kit, it was filled with Amy Tangerine's Stitched collection! I loved how they paired it with some of Heidi Swapp's wood embellishments and that pink houdstooth paper, love that combo! I didn't even trim the wood birch edge from the houndstooth because I loved that combo as well!

The first layout has pictures from about 3 years ago of Elsie. It was a kindergarten animal dress up day. Sorta a DIY costume day and we pulled from what we had. The second layout are my two older teens. Just needed Caleb in the mix and I would have had all 4 in one post! Next time 🙂

Head over to the paper camellia blog where they're hosting a giveaway! Happy almost Friday! 🙂

December 4, 2014 0

December Daily 2014

It's been SIX YEARS since I tackled a december daily! And even then I only made it to day 18. Sigh. Here's the book from way back when if you wanna take a peek. (here and here) I noticed I didn't even take photos of the second half of the book I made, ugh! I have to say that when I dug it out, I oohed and aahed at the memories I recorded and am so happy I did so! I had little kids back then, this will be fun to document the holiday season with 3 teenagers!

I am also using a black faux leather album like Amy Tangerine. We decided when we were together that we were going to tackle this this year. Though she's been rather faithful, I'm not surprised! I'm going the simple route with a little modern look for the cover. Old school KI memories lace paper yup!! I've hoarded so many goodies over the years, this is going to be a mesh of old school supplies and bits of current!

First page, DONE! Little pocket of journaling about how I learned to snag chocolate advent calendars when I see them in Trader Joe's in OCTOBER now because they sell out and then I have to search high and low for marginal chocolate calendars. I think once the calendar is consumed, it might be cute to tear out some of the pockets and include it around here for visuals.

The hardest part of keeping up with the december daily in my opinion are the photos. It's darker out which make for harder indoor photos, the pressure to DO something to take photos and then to print photos. I am going to give myself a pass on all that this year. I'm just gonna do what I can do, because really, it's been SIX years. Gotta ease back into this thing :)

December 1, 2014 1

lorde thanks to instagram

A few weeks ago, I came home from work and plopped on the couch to catch up on instagram. I follow gwynethmademedoit and happened upon her post where she had a few extra tickets to the Lorde concert at the SB bowl. We live in LA. Not super close to SB but not too far either. I quickly snatch up the tix and then call Chris to make sure he can make it home earlier from work. Thanks to WAZE, we make it in record time to watch an amazing show, in the pit, even! Love that we scored some spontaneous date points, always important after 16 years of marriage 😉 WE LOVE YOU LORDE!

November 4, 2014 0

gratitude, documented.

I am thrilled to be contributing to Shanna Noel's Gratitude class she is teaching at Studio Calico. Join us Nov 1 to make a little album of thankfulness!

I am constantly grateful daily. I have an amazing husband who after 16 years, still brings butterflies. I am humbled by the people our children are becoming. Our extended family who are our biggest cheerleaders, our friends who make us laugh and stand by us daily. I don't want to forget any of it. Why not jot it all down and put it in a cute book while I'm at it? 🙂

In the spirit of gratitude, reminds me I need to purchase this. SO TRUE, right??!

October 29, 2014 0

ojai for 24 hours

Chris and I often plan little getaways, somewhat nearby. We put them on the calendar, make sure my mom can come stay with the kids and then we get giddy for the next few months as we look forward to having some adult time! But this was a spur of the moment getaway. Like… we planned Thurs night and left Sun morning. We have stayed at the Ojai Valley Spa a few years ago with the kids and loved it but that's a big indulgence! So we went the airbnb route and was so pleasantly surprised!

Morning started at the farmer's market. WHY DIDN'T I BUY SOME BASKETS?! 😦

Our little cottage for the night.

LOVE this place!

Our cottage owner is a potter. Her studio is also on the property and her work is amazing!

Most of our time was spent reading and relaxing by the pool. Chris read Gone Girl. I started Goldfinch.

Fig. I'm pretty sure this is my new favorite store. More than Anthro even! So delightful!

Freaking love all the quotes all over this store.

Shop Summer Camp. Cute, hip little shop for lots of moonrise kingdom sorta stuff. 🙂 Our airbnb owner's pottery is featured there.

Found the tastiest, healthy food at The farmer and the cook. Thanks to yelp! I'm super picky about my smoothies but this one was delish! Also had cashew "cheese" for the first time, on taquitos- SO good.

Cocktails at the Ojai Rancho Inn. Initially tried to get a room here but since the pool was out of order, we went the airbnb route.

Few thoughts about leaving Ojai and going back to busy LA. It's close enough to drive within the day but feel far enough like we got away. It's much quieter in Ojai. People seem more relaxed and are very pro local. I love and appreciate little getaways with my man. They're rejuvenating and relaxing. Good things!

October 17, 2014 1

halloween on her mind

October 9, 2014 2

amy tangerine’s new line *stitched!

I was so thrilled to be able to play around with Amy's new line with American Crafts, STITCHED! It's whimsical and fun- check out the line here at Amy's blog. Love all the handmade looking touches as well as the pretty word phrases. Sigh.

Funny sidenote, I made these layouts weeks apart, and when photographing them at the same time, I noticed I tucked in the phrase, wonderful things do happen, to both tops of the photos. Apparantly that's my go to move and my go to phrase. Oh well, different pages will be in each girl's books. Done! I also can't believe I've been holding on to that photo of Elsie since she was 18 months old. She's 8 now. WHAT!?

October 1, 2014 2