a little bit of me.

{2010: A year in paper, photos & glue.}

((decided to post a few of my scrapbook favorites from the year today - and save favorite photos tomorrow.))

i managed to scrap a lot in 2010.  no doubt due largely to my participation at Studio Calico...  ;)  I love that I scrapped not just magazine assignments, but also lots of layouts FOR ME.

and so, these were my top 10 (i tried to narrow my list down to 10, but couldnt get past 12) favorite pages created (or published!) during the past year...

... this one was scrapped last winter while i was still pregnant, and nostalgic over Evan's newborn photos.

...(created for the january 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes) - evan STILL says "haboom" to mean yes.  only in the past month or so has he actually started saying the word "yes" in addition to haboom.  so 2010 continued to be the year of the haboom for us.  :)

...one of my random-hold-the-camera-out-and-take-it yet still favorite shots of evan and i.  i'm glad that i found time to find a scrapbook page home for this photo.

...i love how the pastels look on the white, and i also love the little story that i recorded! - this page took all of about 20 minutes to do, with scraps that were leftover on my desk from a Studio Calico kit, a few ultrasound pics, and my trusty circle punch.  ;)

...These photostrip frames were one of my favorite kit products from the past year.  I love how they inspired this layout for evan's every month book.

...Scrapped when I still didn't know Noah's gender (and he could have been a she) - and even though i secretly had a strong feeling he was a HE - I was still taking every oportunity that I could get to work some pink and flowers onto my pages.  ;)

...Could be my favorite of the year?! the 1st reason that i love this page SO much: Noah's little animal print kimono tee (it will forever bring back memories of his first few newborn weeks at home)...  the 2nd: these are simple snapshots that i love with a color scheme to match.  :)

...i just love this photo.  (my amazing sister kristi took it in our front yard)  i have another version of it printed as a glossy canvas in our home, and i smile every time i walk by the nook where it's propped up.

...one of the best days of the year translated to a scrapbook page.

...this page was a favorite AGAIN bc of that cute kimono tee (this time in the next size up), and also because of the adorable alphabet soup playing cards.  i love that little giraffe!

...this KI Memories calendar page paper inspired me to print a mini pic from each day of noah's first month - & i love that i was able to capture his entire newborn phase on a single page.

...one of my most recent pages with this kit.  :)

*****************

happy, HAPPY new year everyone!

i can only hope that 2011 proves to be even more creative & crafty than '10 was.

:)

{Layout Share}

With the craziness of Christmas and Christmas-prep this past week (plus), I didn't have time to share this page that i made for the Studio Calico blog...

it's based off of a sketch from a layout that April did - you can see the sketch here, and even though it's too late to play along with this sketch challenge - you may want to join in on the current SC BLOG sketch challenge going on here!

i absolutely love this pic of noah.  (so much so that i included it on our holiday cards.)  the look is just so him right now.

there are lots of little studio calico tweet tweet bird rubons sprinkled around the page, along with various elements from the studio calico documentary line - fstop paper, documentary fabrips, and documentary label stickers.

i misted the fabrip with a few different Mister Huey's - dark calico and calico cream.  if you haven't tried any of the Mister Huey's yet, you really should!!!

i am in disbelief that 2010 is just a couple days away from being over.  pouring over photo files and working on creating a best of 2010 for tomorrow.  ;)  woohoo.

{Wordless Wednesday: Hanukkah this Year.}

(since i was on a somewhat self-imposed blogging hiatus when Hanukkah happened back at the beginning of the month...)

 

 

 

(...yum.  i made these from scratch!)

:)

{SC's Who's Who Revealed!}

Studio Calico's January kit is live.  YOU'D BETTER HURRY!

and this is what i made with it...

..."Love" - possibly my favorite page in a long while?!  lots of b&w bits and pieces of recent photos combined with some of my favorite elements of both the main kit and add-on kits.  Its already been framed in a 12x12 shadowbox from target and is ready to be hung up somewhere in my office.  ;)

..."a new favorite photo" - just that.  (and lots of buster brown add on #2 here!) i snapped this in our backyard when we got home after evan's preschool christmas program (both boys were as dressed up as we get, for once).  i love that n is looking up at e.  this is definitely going to get printed as a canvas for our wall after i decide on a size.  :)  psssst - that's also the exclusive Studio Calico tree print paper used on this page - get it here!

..."5 months" - another installment for noah's every mont book.  woohoo!

i told you this month was a great kit!

:)

{Christmas 2010 & One MORE SC Sneak!}

psssst.

(santa told me to leave one more SC sneak on my blog...  so here it is!)

...BE SURE to hit the Studio Calico site tonight at midnight EST for the full kit reveal - it's a good one!

and while you're shopping you may just want to grab one of these and throw it into your cart.  I'm really, REALLY hoping that this upcoming week goes easy on me, and that I have the time to grab an extra album from my closet, and compile my own 'best of 2010' with my favorite & most meaningful pages from the year.  :)

And here is a little bit of our Christmas 2010 celebration in photos...

(i tweeted this - but thought it warranted blog posting too!)  >>  Eric's very-very festive christmas "grinchmas" gift wrapping.  i love his creative gift wrap skills.  :)  and yes, that is a very-very festive christmas scotch in his hand ;)

(christmas morning when evan discovered his santa loot.)

(noah loved his santa loot too!)

(The ball popper is already destined to be a fave...)

(...but only if air hockey doesn't end up out-ranking the baby toys for n!)

...and maybe my favorite pic from the holiday - my 2 "best" gifts this year under the tree on christmas morning.  xo.

;)

{Meeting Santa & Some SC Sneaks!}

a few weeks ago we found time to "meet Santa" one weekday morning at our mall.

it was before there were crazy long lines started forming, and by that i mean we only had to wait about 30 minutes.  ha.  ;)  but it was so nice to get a pic of both boys with him - since this was the first year that Ev wasn't scared, and noah is still (for the most part) just cool with anyone holding him (even if its a big old guy in a red suit :).

...sidenote: so we recently took Ev to see the Megamind movie - and he's now more than a little obsessed.  When we saw Santa at the mall, Evan made sure to tell him all about how he wanted 'megamind, metroman, minion, talking minion (he has 'talking woody' and 'talking buzz' and apparently decided that he needs talking megamind guys too!), tighten, and roxanne.  >> that is exactly what he's explaining to santa in the above shot.  i love knowing that. :)

...and in this shot he's screaming "CHEEEEEEEEEEESE" at me in the hopes that i'll stop snapping pics and he can collect his candy cane.  ;)

...and then there's cute little noah who must have finally come to the realization that Santa is a creepy old guy with a crazy purple chair.

and so that was our santa experience this year, and i'm really glad that we managed to squeeze it into our holiday activity schedule.  if only for the funny photos... ;)

**************************

and now - for all of my Studio Calico blog reader peeps - a few SNEAK PEEKS of the new January 2011 kit - Who's Who...  along with add-on's Betty Crocker (#1) and Buster Brown (#2).

i loved this kit so much.  with the craziness that the month of december is for me (and most) - its always hard to fit scrapping into the mix, but the pages that i made with this kit are some of my most favorite ever.  :)

...that stamp, and the scallop alpha paper along with the polka paper are in addon #4 (i happened to have the papers in my stash already and they worked nicely with my page/photo!).

...the Studio Calico exclusive papers are GORGEOUS this month - the tree print above is one of them...  you will NEED more of it.  trust me.  ;)

...& how fabulous are these stamps?!  the cutie love set (along with the clever addition of the 'thats what she said' phrase) is part of addon #3.  i was lucky to snag a set for myself, and used them all over this page.  & i think they'll be perfect for my valentines day cards this year!

i also got More Color and More SC Paper (along with the main, and addons 1 and 2) - (prices/info inside the link.)   In addition (in case anyone is wondering) - I was able to get the stamps in addons #3 and #4 - and those are used on my projects!

my official 'shop items used' along with the Who's Who kit...

pumice stone ink

this to that glue dot runner

Mister Huey's Calico Cream

Mister Huey's Calico White

Pink Mist

Iridescent Pearl Mist - back in stock!!!

:)

(merry christmas everyone!)

{at 6 Months...}

we are now closer to 7 months than 6, and i am officially one of the worst blogging momma's out there (when it comes to keeping up with these types of posts) - but I'm thinking better late than never.  ;) 

((and also that my new years resolution may be to get these monthly updates posted in a more timely fashion.  teehee.))

while we were busy ringing in the month of December, and the holiday season (as well as starting our hanukkah celebration at our house!) - Noah celebrated half a year and turned 6 months old...

i can't believe that half a year has passed since this day...

...our lives are going a mile a minute and i just want to slow it all down for once.

And so at 6 months, Noah...

...is *almost* sitting (and was a few days later when i snapped these shots!).  As in he 'balances' pretty well for a couple of minutes but still takes the occasional tumble sideways.

...ADORES evan.  He thinks that he is just hilarious, and love his songs (the "weather person" song from preschool is a current fave!) and silly faces.

...Wants to put anything and everything into his mouth (but still no teeth to date!).  The whole task of getting the pesky little tag on his every month bear into his mouth pretty much consumed him during the course of our photoshoot...

...

...

:)

...Just started to eat oatmeal cereal once a day & loves it.  He's also very fond of trying to grab the spoon away from me so that he can feed himself.

...Is still rocking mainly 3-6 month clothes with no problems at all.  I've started to switch out all of his sleepers for the 9 month ones, and I've also taken a few 6-12 mont onesies out, just bc I've gotten bored with the current selection!

...has an amazing range of strength.  In particular his leg strength.  which no doubt can be attributed to his looooooong jumparoo sessions, and also the way he tries to turn the exersaucer into its own version of the jumparoo.

...HATES bottles.  and is currently on a bottle strike.

...is most definitely a momma's boy.

...loves to "watch" dinosaur train with evan.  i think its the crazy cute dino voices and little songs that lure him in.

...Loves reading books.  faves are the "mirror & me book" and the "in my nest" book with the little owl finger puppet.

...has completely nixed the paci.

...naps about 3x per day for precisely 30-40 mins each time.  ONCE in a while for longer.

...& is absolutely adorable (we're not biased or anything :) - with current nicknames of sweetpea, noahpants, mr smiley, and naughtypants.  ;)

xoxo, little one.

{Wordless Wednesday: Around Our House Today}

(it will probably be thursday by the time this posts, but who's keeping track!? - at least i'm blogging, right?!)

(...we had an official "christmas jamomma day" today ;)

(...with cookie decorating)

(...and ornament eating)

(...and present wrapping)

(...and trying to make noah laugh for his official 'first christmas' frame ornament photo)

xo.  :)

{Wordless Wednesday: Socks are Tasty!}

(...thought these pics would be fun for the return of wordless wednesday on the blog)

(neeeeeed to get back into the habit of posting these weekly - they are usually the type of thing that i love looking back on...)

& right now this is pretty much ALL noah spends his time doing - it's officially his mission in life to "taste" every sock he owns - which makes it more than necessary for me to make double-check that his socks are always clean ;)

{2011 Hero Arts Catalog Blog Hop}

I'm so excited to be able to debut a few of the new Hero Arts 2011 Catalog stamps in this post today!  wooohooo!  AND to be a part of the 2011 Hero Arts Catalog Blog Hop!

It's already been a crazy start to the month of December for me (hence the lack o'blogging!)...  but - i did find time to make a little somethin-somethin with these new stamps...

I've always loved the stamp sets that Hero comes up with, and these were no exception.

For my little "Six Months" layout of Noah (with a quick couple of pics from this week!) I used two new stamp sets.  The first stamp was a new cling stamp - CG245 - Classic Fabric Design - and I stamped it using a sparkle watermark ink onto kraft cardstock, and then layered it beneath my photo...

The second set that I used was the Find Joy - CL497 set - which has lots of fabulous sentiments included in it, as well as a few sweet, small sized images.  I stamped a few of the sentiments onto kraft cardstock "tabs" using brown Staz On ink and then machine stitched them to my page.

I also randomly stamped the leave and heart design onto my page using Pumice Stone Distress Ink to finish off the look.

...& now it's time to link to the next blogger on the Hero Arts blog hop list...  It's Kelly Rasmussen - I can't wait to see what she has made!

and - Remember, If you find a link that doesn't work, you can always hop back to the Hero Arts Blog for a list of direct links to all the blogs in the hop.

:)

ETA - by request, other supplies used: Sparkling Season paper (american crafts), Forest Grove paper (american crafts), October Afternoon patterned paper, Pebbles patterned paper, Bella Blvd patterned paper, Studio Calico patterned paper, kraft cardstock, american crafts cardstock, Mixtape (american crafts), rhinestone brads (american crafts), Glitter Alpha stickers (sassafrass), Studio Calico Mist, Maya Road Mist - Iridescent Pearl