mini cha visit

here's my little post from cha, super tardy. i know that these same sort of pics are all over the web already, ha!

studio calico's booth was awesome. i love their simple but totally amazing eye candy. every layout in that booth was AWESOME. they have such a great team!

cute japanese tape!

one of the lines i am most excited about. dear lizzy! her display was too cute. love seeing all the details in real life!

anna griffin butterflies!

making memories is coming out with a cool jewelry line with jill schwartz! i actually made a necklace and love it! i don't think i've ever done make and takes at the shows but this time i did a few! how could you pass up those cute little trinkets!? i'm hoping kira wants to do a jewelry making party this year for her birthday 🙂

more butterflies! (making memories booth) this reminded me of a jellyfish of butterflies. all made from the slice. i want that thing so bad! but apparently not bad enough to take a picture with the vespa 🙂

more tape! this is from pink paislee. love the cute designs! they have some pleated ribbon that looks just awesome too!

i want to do this 🙂 (doodlebug booth) next time i see cute wrapping paper, i want to frame it 🙂

i'm excited for margie's new line. you walked into her booth and could just see the hours she put into making the statement she wanted to. there were so many amazing details. i love the big pink lanterns the best. we know these convention centers are not pretty! i love how designers are trying to pretty-fy them 🙂

highlight of my day, spending time with my good friend, shannon and seeing her layouts in real life. i forgot to get a pic of us together, so her in her layout will do 🙂 there's something about seeing layouts in real life that just gets me. especially shannon's. there's always so much more texture in real life, like that pink flower- it's pop dotted. one of my favorite layouts of hers ever!

other company booths i forgot to take pics of but are totally worth mentioning:

october afternoon, jenni bowlin, KI memories, cosmo cricket,crate paper, hero arts 🙂

it was a good day for sure 🙂 chris told me that his day with the kids went fine and just as he was putting elsie to bed, she rolled over and started whimpering, mommy…. and guess who walked in the door 🙂 perfect timing 🙂

February 3, 2010 8

layout and news

last week's layout was for this site that i recently joined. 🙂 most of this crew is from the former simple scrapbooks magazine team and i'm excited to be part of it!

if you're not familiar with the WCS site, i highly recommend it! there's lots of activity and a monthly gallery. super inspiring! 🙂

i have lots of pics to go through and blogging to catch up on! will do this week!

February 1, 2010 6

home

i had such a great time at CHA yesterday. i have to download my pics and i'll write up a little post. as usual, i look and see and talk and then i walk away and realize i forgot to take pics. or i just feel dorky whipping out the camera 🙂 i wanted to share one of my latest obsessions. tumblr. i know it's been around for awhile, but i recently turned mine into cool things I see online, in hopes to reduce my bookmarks on my favorites and just load here as i see 🙂 here's mine if you want to take a peek 🙂

January 27, 2010 3

layout of the week (3)

this week's layout came together thanks to the sketch of the week at ella publishing!
i was happy to find their twitter announcing their sketch, as it was friday and i hadn't had a chance to scrapbook and was feeling rushed. it looks like they are having 6 weeks worth of sketches and doing some giveaways. 🙂
on tuesday, i'm going to CHA. can't wait to see all the new goodies. i'll be back to share pics and will be hosting a chat at 2peas on wednesday, meet me over there!

January 23, 2010 5

the gift that keeps giving

a few years ago, i became obsessed with the movie, waitress.

tell me you saw the wonderfulness that it is! the movie itself gives me goosebumps. i love it. the tragic true story of the writer/director breaks my heart. 😦

chris being the total stud gift giver that he is, enrolled me in a local pie class, taught by penny of penny's pies. penny taught a private class at her home for kira and i and we came home with 3 pies and a quiche. our lives have been changed. penny is an awesome teacher, very easy to love. 🙂 i love making my own crust, i feel so betty crocker 🙂 quiche is a pretty regular thing around here, i think this last one was probably my best crust yet. (phone pics)

heavenly! i wish i had some leftovers now! so like i said. chris was pretty smart to give me a gift of a pie class. our family will continue to reap from it's lesson 🙂

January 19, 2010 21

layout of the week (2)

this week I did a layout for shannon's class at 2p. cutting out images from patterned papers is one of my favorite things to do so that part was easy. i think the hard part about this layout was that these weren't really my colors. but I went with it anyways and voila!
here's my midmonth layout for 2p as well!
this was the template I used, here. it made the year in review so much easier, i think i will have to do this from now on! maybe even every month! ha! i used lots of bits from my favorite digital kits, including this one and this one and this one.

i'm excited to have a 3 day weekend. lots of catching up on a whole lot of relaxing ahead 🙂

January 16, 2010 6

almost four

chris doesn't like it when people ask how old she is and i answer, almost 4. he thinks there's no need to rush her, and i totally agree. but developmentally, 3 and almost 4 are whole different ballparks! these are from a few weeks ago. in her own little world, performing as usual 🙂

she is N O N S T O P. ask anyone who knows her and converses with her. she is alllllll conversation, games and performance! i have to admit that at the end of the day, when she's asleep, there's times i will look at her and think, 'i could have been a better mom to her today, more patient, played more, done more.' it's hard! and tiring! but every morning, i greet her with a fresh start and know that i am excited and blessed to spend my day with her. our days are filled with errands, endless games of pretend and lots of conversation. she asks me questions to things that you would think is self explanatory. i'm kicking myself that i didn't write them down now! chris is great at explaining them to her, even in non kid terms, and she's just like, oh okay. 🙂 she has an amazing sense of humor. she has her favorite sundresses that i have to hide from her because she will wear them on rotation, even on the coldest days. she will only wear skinny leggings, cracks me up that she knows the difference. still crazy about her pink rain boots. will change her clothes many times throughout the day, surely working my nerves! she's finally entered the stage of wanting things at the store, thanks to all the gift cards at christmas! 🙂 (trying my patience since of course, you can't always get what you want) but really, she's so happy. all she wants in her world is her blue blankie, her family, her fingers and a treat every now and then. we cannot believe that she is turning FOUR in a month and a half. how is that possible!?

January 12, 2010 17

layout a week (1)

i did it! i made my first personal layout of the week for 2010.

i'm trying to use up some older products with some of my faves. i can't get enough of these borders!

i'm also going to try and get better at sending the ones i love actual cards in the mail. i love getting mail and i sometimes love making cards. so i put aside some of my favorite scraps and diecuts and card supplies to dig thru when the time comes.

and the card for my lovely sister in law 🙂 the little phrase is from here.

i'm excited for the new year 🙂

January 9, 2010 16

he loves milk

like many bowls of cereal a day. many glasses of milk and chocolate milk a day. but he's been having horrible headaches for the past few months, and today his doctor suggested taking milk out of his diet. 😦 as soon as we left the office, we went to the store and i got him every flavor of soy milk and had him stock up on other snacks besides yogurt, pudding and string cheese. tonight i made chicken curry and made his portion separate as i put cream in the dish, his was cream-less and rather sad looking. he made a bowl of oatmeal (with water) afterwards and gobbled that up. 😦 i'm so sad for him but i am determined to figure out the cause of these headaches! hopefully milk won't be the cause and he can go back to it in a few weeks!

anyone have any dairy free snacks, drinks or recipes you'd like to share? he would be super appreciative 🙂

January 7, 2010 37

2009 in scrapbook pages

i saw this on stephanie's blog and wanted to do the same! here are some of my favorites from 2009. these are mostly for 2peas and KI. some are favorite photos or favorite memories. some i just felt real happy after i made them. you know that feeling. 🙂 happy scrapbook feelings 🙂

seeing last year's layouts makes me come to the scrapbook conclusions that: i like white cardstock, i like polka dots, i like bright colors, i really like patterned paper and stickers, and i like to handwrite my journaling.

i've noticed i didn't do any sort of year in reviews for the kids so that's one of my goals this year. also need more husband layouts in there. even if that means layouts without pictures. so in addition to the 6ish layouts a month that i do for other companies, i am going to be scrapping for myself once a week. i've got 3 more days in this week to get my first layout done!

January 6, 2010 18