life. photos. scrapbooking.

On the Road.

Traveling up to Mimi and Grandpas house for a few days with the kiddies.

Hope you are enjoying something hot and comforting this chilly winter morning~

:)

Layouts for my peeples.

Remember I told you that the Friday before New Years, I called MK and asked her to come babysit so I could have a little "happy place" time to myself?

Well... just thought I'd share a few layouts from then.

:)

_{LAYOUT SUPPLIES :: Patterned Paper - Basic Grey, Bella Blvd, Letter Alpha - Martha Stewart Crafts, American Crafts, Weekday Stickers - Little Yellow Bicycle, Date Stamp - Office Depot, Ink - VersaColor, Brad - Making Memories}

_{LAYOUT SUPPLIES :: Font - Avenir, Flowers - Prima, Button - Stampin Up!, Patterned Paper - Daisy Bucket Designs, Cardstock - Bazzill Basics Orange Peel, Stampin' Up!, Alpha Stickers - American Crafts, Popup Dot Adhesive - EK Success}

_{LAYOUT SUPPLIES :: Fonts - Avenir, CK Bugle Boy, Cardstock - Bazzill Basics Orange Peel & Die Cuts With a View, Chipboard # - Sassafras, Patterned Paper - We R Memory Keepers}

On this particular layout - I've blurred the text to protect the innocent. :)

_{LAYOUT SUPPLIES :: Cardstock - Bazzill Basics, Patterned Paper - Cosmo Cricket, So Happy Sticker - Stampin' Up!, Square and Scalloped Punches - EK Success, Adhesive - 3M Foam Squares, Square Pebble - Unknown (old!), White Gelly Roll Pen}

_{LAYOUT SUPPLIES :: Cardstock - Bazzill Basics Orange Peel, Large Chipboard Sticker - Basic Grey, Patterned Paper - October Afternoon, Basic Grey, Sticker Alpha - October Afternoon, Font - Courier New, Other - Martha Stewart Butterfly Paper Punch, Making Memories Brad, Staples}

_{LAYOUT SUPPLIES :: Cardstock - Bazzill Textured and Orange Peel, Ink - Stampin' Up! and Embossing Powder by Stampin' Up!, Chipboard Alpha - Two Peas In A Bucket, Rubber Cement Adhesive, Patterned Paper - October Afternoon, Date Stamp - Office Depot, Font - Headline}

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

xo

 

Sharing the love... Paper Coterie

Several months ago I saw (and LOVED) these memory keeper boxes from Paper Coterie on Ali Edwards blog HERE.

Then, around Christmastime they were running a promo for a free pack of custom holiday cards when you spent a certain dollar amount.

At that point - I decided it was the right time to try these out for myself.

These are large (extremely well made) boxes that store all of those things that kids come home from school with or other ephemera or special keepsake from lifes journey that you have a hard time incorporating into a layout or finding a place for.

They have some really great templates that you can simply drop your photo and text into - or you can do as I did and create a custom one for yourself. 

I took Ali's advice and started with the Diagonal Stripe design - and just sort of followed her lead in her blog post when creating mine. I chose my (neutral) back cover and spine color from the cover photo I used for each child. I also loved the placement of the text in the Avenir font on the front cover and spine as well that Ali had so I went the same way there. Simply choosing another neutral - but contrast color for the text.

They are a great size at 9.75 inches wide x 13 inches tall x about 2 inches deep. So many of Macho's art projects from school that are too large to fit on a standard 12x12 layout... fit nicely here.

Here's a shot of how they look with the rest of my albums. They are the cream and grey spined ones in the middle.

I've had these photos taken for quite some time as some handy "in queue" blog material - and figured NOW was a great time to share with you as I just recieved an email from Paper Coterie this week that they are having a

50% off sale on these babies valid through JAN 23, 2012!

Just use the offer code :: WELCOME2012

Now if you'll excuse me - I'm going to go make another for Macho for 2012-2013. :)

Now YOU GO!~

DIY: Master Bathroom Remodel - Day 7

I was finally able to upload Monday nights video for ya.

This one has a few special guest appearances! Enjoy!

:)

  

Catching up.

First things first!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Been a little MIA over the past few days here. I've enjoyed a little holiday break. :)

On Friday I treated myself to some "happy place time" and hired our summertime babysitter - A.K.A. "Macho's girlfriend" MK to babysit, while I got down and dirty scrapbooking the day away. It was glorious, I tell you.

Then on Saturday night (New Years Eve) Clark took a break from his sledgehammering to join me for a late night grown up dinner at friends of ours. Eight adults sans kids total. Super fun. I wore my fake eyelashes and drank too much wine. :) And MK babysat again for us. The funniest moment of the night for me was trying really hard to write her out a check at 1:00 am. It looked like Macho wrote it. Tee hee.

On Sunday, after I ingested a moderate amount of ibuprofin and H20... I cooked enough pork and saurkraut to feed the hungry masses that would be stopping by our place. Including our Australian neighbors and their two kids, and my Aunt and Uncle and their three boys. Pork and saurkraut on New Years Day is a big tradition in my family. How about you guys? Do you do this?

My Aunt's oldest son, (though still much younger than me) is a nuclear engineer and has been on a Navy submarine since July. He was able to come home for Christmas but had to return to his deployment (he's stationed in Pearl Harbor) on January 2.

I cried when he left.

Sniff.

Other than those specific activities,  I've been on 100% mom duty the past several days while Clark has been holed up in the bathroom remodel... We've been building forts, reading books, making snacks, going to the park playground, baths, diaper changes... the usual drill.

Oh yeah - and thanks to the remodeling situation - I was unable to do laundry for three and a half days. I went to throw some in and quickly realized that when Clark shut off the water to the bathroom - the washing machine was also nixxed.

Normally, I would've enjoyed this kind of forced hiatus, but I already had things pretty piled up, and Macho had just wet the bed that morning.

Strike that.

He wet OUR bed that morning. He likes to crawl in with us in the early hours and then go back to sleep for a bit until his favorite Disney cartoons come on....

So for three days I could do NO washing, nor any sleeping in my dust laden bed. I slept with Macho in his room (he has a queen size bed) and Clark slept on the couch. Meanwhile, I swear, nearly every article of clothing and bed or bath linen piled up all around us. It was frightening. Like being swallowed up by piles of dirty socks and sheets.

Come Sunday when I was finally back in business.... well - let's just say the washer has been running nonstop since - and I'm STILL digging myself out.

I recorded a video of the bathroom updates last night for ya - but when I went to upload it to VIMEO I was 50 megabytes over my weekly limit.

I've never done this many consecutive video posts so I didn't even realize there WAS a limit.

Luckily, the limit is a WEEKLY thing - and my week turns over today so you'll be seeing something tomorrow regarding our progress there.

Clark is back to his real job today after being off since the 23rd. What a nice time we all had together. I'm voting for him to take the week between Christmas and New Years off every year if possible. It sure did let me get into the rhythm of the holidays a bit more... rather than it feeling like just another weekend.

I have to include however, I vote NAY, on spending that week remodeling in the future. Not because he's not doing a killer job - but because the last 7days haven't felt like much of a vacation for either of us.

Eh.

It had to get done at some point... and to try to do it over a slew of weekends would've just turned it into a several month job... and THAT DUST my friends - for THAT LONG - I simply could not handle.

We do what we have to do over here.

 

How was your New Year's weekend?

Oh - and because every post needs a cheesy photo or two - here are some I took in the bathroom mirror at roughly 2am on January 1... I came home, washed my face - took off my falsies - and then realized I forgot to do my traditional photo... You know the one... I used it for my 33@33 list...HERE.

I was silly tipsy when I took it.

Don't judge.

Some folks dial... or text their friends... I get goofy with my camera.

I call this one - "Too far off the mark to qualify as "creative"."

I call this one, "Yes, you are ridiculous. And that's funny riiiiight there. And out of focus."

and finally this one called, "If you hold real real still. You might not tip over."

Happy New Year folks!