Blog Tour from Stephanie Howell

The lovely Stephanie Howell sent me an email with this fun blog tour going on. I guess it's been going on awhile but I've been a tad out of it so it's new to me! 🙂
Here are the questions she's asked. Feel free to copy and paste the questionairre and post on your blog as well!

        1. What am I working on right now? Mentally, LOTS! 🙂 Physically, I'm trying to order as many pictures from our last trip to Hawaii as I can so that I get an album going with fresh memories.
        2. How long does it take me to create a project? Not more than an hour. 40 min is usually my sweet spot.
        3. What are my favorite things to create with at the moment? They are still my go to supplies, patterned papers and brads. But since the last time I've created years ago, these enamel dots have emerged and I think they are quite addicting! I'm also intrigued by these mini screens that Amy used. (There's a little collage of pictures down in the post!) So interesting!
        4. How does my writing/creating process work? I'm usually either inspired by a memory or a photo and from that I choose some papers and embellishments to cutesify it 🙂
        5. How do I become inspired and stay inspired? I was actually uninspired for about 3 years. That's when I took my little scrapbooking hiatus. I stopped buying, looking, and making. I needed an actual break. Then I flipped through my albums one day, and nearly cried at all the memories I was able to jot down. I went to a few scrapbooking sites, I was inspired. I missed it all. The making, the community, everything. Slowly but surely, I'm reaching into it again. Happy to be creating again.
        6. What is my signature style? Simple, white space and embellished clusters.

Thanks for tagging me, Stephanie, it's been fun to think of my creative process in a fresh way! Comment here if you decide to participate in this blog tour, I'd love to read your answers! 🙂

September 29, 2014 2

Studio Calico Snapshot class!

I'm excited to be contributing to the Studio Calico Snapshot class that April Foster is teaching! I have never tried a photo a day prompt of any kind, but was inspired to do so this month! :)

It's only the 10th today, so there's 20 more days you can participate in. Or you can be like me and go through your feed from the past and hashtag the first 9 days you missed 🙂 I seem to be torn on some of the prompts, wanting 2 or 3 photos instead of 1. I'm usually a quick decision maker! Which is why I'm glad they have a Gallery and Message Board for the class- I can post my second choices there :)

#SCsnapshot guilty pleasure

#SCsnapshot workspace

#SCsnapshot energy

….join us at SC for the rest of september! :)

September 10, 2014 1

scrapbooking for someone else

I always thought I wouldn't be able to scrapbook for other people. There's just something so intimate and personal about making pages, that I didn't think I could pull it off, nor did I ever have a desire to. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when Amy shows me this wedding album she's making for her BFF. There's this many photos left and we have this many weeks to finish it. Jamie enters panic mode. There's about 10 minutes to leave Amy's to get onto LA's nightmare of a freeway system and pick up Elsie from school. Luckily BFF has a gorgeous color scheme, which all the pages will coordinate with. I dig through Amy's super large stash of supplies and grab things that fit within the color scheme. It was like a game show where you had this little bit of time to grab all you needed before the bell rang. (Got to use lots of Shimelle's new line which matched sooo perfectly!) I whip out these pages and my heart is happy.

My first ever Project Life spreads. I now see how this system can be addicting!

And these 2. I am the most proud of these layouts because A: they are reception photos (wedding photographer speaking here) B: they are 2 pagers C: LOOK HOW MANY PHOTOS I MANAGED TO GET ON THESE SPREADS! I'm inserting the hand clapping emoji here!

yeah that's 18 photos. yessss!

I made more layouts for her but didn't photograph them. And I really am proud of them all. I am so excited for Amy to give her the album. 🙂

The only way I could see tackling a project like this is to be able to grab the color scheme supplies (papers, letter stickers, die cuts and just a few embellishments) and just use from that stash only. It reminded me of an article I wrote for Creating Keepsakes back in 2007 about making so many layouts from a handful of supplies. Not having too many overwhelming options is the key :)

September 8, 2014 0

Boyhood

Chris and I saw the movie, Boyhood, a few weeks ago. We were amazed at what they pulled off, filming the same boy, spanning from age 6 to 18. Of course it made me think of my own boys and their own stories they are living. I felt for the mom (Patricia Arquette, love her!) and nodded my head in agreement as other parental situations would come up that I've been through. Good soundtrack, solid acting, thumbs up.

The photo was taken in 2009 by our fave photog Jonathan Canlas. Journaling today, Aug 2014. Not scrapping as much has taken off the pressure to create immediately with new photos and new supplies.

Some notes while creating for the first time in years. 1. Don't try it after sitting in traffic for many hours previously. Mind is already mush and cannot make creative decisions. 2. Brads and black lines around the layout edges are my forever. Did I just date myself?

August 28, 2014 5

creative options, literally!

Sometimes unexpected doors open just when you least expect them to! I am happy to announce that I've joined the Amy Tangerine team and will be working with her. I've been around all my scrappy favorites for a few weeks now and it's been such a great feeling. I truly have missed it and am like a kid in a candy store, seeing all the new stuff I've missed out on! There will be pages to share in the future but for now, a little video that my girls helped us out on with the Creative Options systems! :)

August 20, 2014 2

fig + mascarpone tart

A friend gave us a boatload of figs from her tree and I was thrilled as they are one of my favorite fruits and they can be pricey at the grocery store! The kids aren't crazy for figs but I wasn't either when I was their age. So excited to be able to use a bunch of figs for this tart, guiltfree and still have a ton leftover for other ways of eating! Threw this tart together from this recipe I saw on pinterest. I decreased the honey in the filling from 1/2 cup to 1/3 cup and added a handful of blueberries and raspberries to the figs.

sigh. :)

August 15, 2014 2

them

Just because I am trying to get back on the saddle of recording and creating again, a photo of my 2 oldest. Now in his junior year of high school, she's a sophmore in college. Yes, I started this blog when she was like 10, that was like 4th grade. 😦

They try me, but support me. They push me, but they love me. They exhaust me, but I love them. So many emotions that are constantly changing with teenagers… glad to have them part of this ride where I am learning how to balance it all.

She even blogs. KIKI CUISINE 🙂

July 29, 2014 0

goodbye :(

It's embarrassing that there's one entry between the post where I said hello with the 2peas screenshot from March, until now. And now we as a community are saying goodbye to 2peas for good. Today's the last day of it's doors being open and I find it so very sad. When I first heard the news a few weeks ago, my heart broke. I wrote a few blurbs on my instagram and facebook, I screenshot my profile and imported my pages to their new location at scrapbook.com. I started to read other member's goodbyes via their blog posts. As I poked around their site for the last time today, I can't help but be so proud of the time I spent there. The wonderful people I met, the places I've been to, the many doors that were opened for me through 2peas. My kids are older now, I don't share a whole lot about them online, my instagram is private. I crave a little privacy for them. But I also look back on the few years I haven't scrapbooked and I cringe that I haven't recorded as much as I had the 10+ years prior. I flip through my books now and am so grateful to have captured so much. Memories that I have already since forgotten had they not been jotted down on my pages I love so much. Now the only thing left is to get back on the saddle and begin again.

Thank you 2peas for what you have done for the scrapbooking community. Your efforts and time have been appreciated by me and my family. xo

I got to play around with these goodies the other day. It was fun. I need to have this kind of stuff in my life regularly again. 🙂

July 24, 2014 1

lunchtime

the time of day where I can (mostly, usually weekdays) make food just for ME. where I don’t have to think about who eats what and who doesn’t like what. it’s the days where I’m out and so hungry and almost about to grab fast food, instead come home and make my own food- that I am the most satisfied. happy!

April 16, 2014 1

hello :)

Last night I had a dream about scrapbooking. I'm sure it was because I happened upon a page of mine posted on Pinterest and that got in my head somehow when I was off in lalaland. (My favorite place to be) I don't remember what I was doing exactly, but I think I was at CHA and I was flipping through an album. I remember being SO happy. Like, it was fast forwarded to today and I was back scrapping and I was like, how did I ever stop? I know why and how I stopped. My children got older and I wanted to share less. I wasn't comfortable putting too much information online of them. Els was still fair game cuz she was a baby. But now they've all gotten even older, and I'm the mom who's looking back and reading her scrapbooks and thinking, I AM SO GLAD I WROTE THIS DOWN I TOTALLY WOULD HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS, THANK GOD! And oh wow, that's a nice design, and that paper- ohhh i loved that paper and those stickers! Oooh. My ❤ fluttered remembering the feeling of it all. A few months ago I realized I had some credit in my 2peas cart and bought a handful of things. I was so excited when I spotted that familiar box on my doorstep, the rush of ripping it open and feeling it all. Then I put it in my stash and haven't thought about it until last night.

2014 has been a great year for me so far. A new way of taking care of myself as my little ones don't physically need me taking care of them as much. I still am here for them 24/7 and care for them in other ways than chasing after them and taking them to the park like I used to. It's like a little spark fired up and with baby steps, I'm discovering me again. I hope that I will revisit that stash of supplies and get my thoughts on paper like I did before. It truly is such an amazing treasure that I am so glad to have. Here's to 2014 and baby steps.

March 22, 2014 4