a little bit of me.

{SC's April Kit - Revealed!}

Studio Calico's April kit - City of Lights - was one of my favorites in a WHILE.  I got it, along with addons Sorbonne and Montmarte, & Addon Patterned Paper - and made this...

...Almost 5 - this is a photo of my niece, Paige - taken by my amazing sister - Kristi - and as soon as i saw it on her facebook page, i KNEW that i needed to scrap it with this kit.  ;)  Loved how well it worked with the soft spring colors in the main (and that bike paper! - and SC exclusive) - and this was made ENTIRELY with the main kit - City of Lights.

...Ellie - this is another set of photos that i borrowed from my sister to scrap for the book that i keep for her girls (its a book made up of pages with gorgeous photos and lots of GIRLY embellies that I let myself indulge in when I'm in the mood to do GIRLY!  ha!).  The ruler paper at the bottom is one of my favorite prints ever - the colors are SO fab!!!  & the BIG butterfly embellishment was die cut on my silhouette - love how vellum looks die cut like this and layered!

...Just Another Tuesday - Tuesdays are MY FAVE around here - there is no set agenda for Noah and me - and we usually end up doing something FUN - like this beach outting a few weeks ago.  Lots of little pics (a random beach walker wanted to take a pic of Noah and me - so i let her - and I'm so glad i did, bc i LOVE that shot...), and embellies and AQUA + KRAFT (which we all know is my fave!).  ;)

...You Right Now - this was made ENTIRELY with Sorbonne - addon #1 - and I "wrote" the journaling with alpha stickers in the kit.  Pics of Evan from a few weeks ago and lots of little tidbits about him RIGHT NOW.  I kind of want to hang on to this age for a bit longer.  I'm so NOT ready for five (this summer...).

...LOVE YOU MORE card - this stamp was included in Montmarte - love it!  ;)

...Thank You Card - isn't that bike paper from the SC prints this month SO FUN?!  :)

...Thank You (with butterflies!) Card - love to punch A LOT at once when i love the patterns in a kit so much!!!

...You are my Favorite Card - More layered vellum butterflies - and stamps from Louvre.

And that is what I made...  that's enough, right?!

:)

{Sketchbook Class Give-A-Way!}

UPDATED!  WINNER INFO!!! - please email me with your contact info and SC username if you have one!  congrats!  :)  seweinroth@gmail.com

I'd love to be the lucky winner! Thanks for the opportunity!

Posted by: Annie | March 27, 2012 at 11:14 AM

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

I've got a give-a-way with a quick turnaround today - MUST PICK A WINNER by tomorrow am in order to get the lucky person enrolled in what is going to be an AMAZING class next month at Studio Calico...

...I'm currently finishing up my page contribution to the class, and you will only be able to see it there - along with lots of great inspo from other contributors and Kelly herself (of course!).  ;)

Please leave me a comment here if you'd like to win enrollment in the class - and PLEASE CHECK BACK TOMORROW AM to see if you won - I'll need your contact info to get you enrolled...

And one more little project to share today - a quick card made with the new SC lines that just hit the shop last week...

 

...The Abroad collection is absolutely full of color and coordinates so well with my new favorite basics (so useful in my Project Life album!!!) from Classic Calico 2.

:)

Products used on this project:

InLinkz.com

{Project LIFE: Week 7}

MORE PL!  :)  I'm officially "caught up" to week seven...

...with lots of the following weeks filled in, and just missing a story here or an accent there - that seems to be the way I work with PL - fill as I go, decide what I need to add, fill a bit more.

Week 7 is one of my favorites so far.

Valentine's Day pretty much dominated the entire Left side of the spread...

With not one, but THREE inserts this week, with more V-day stuff.

The first contains a card that Evan made me at school (that i LOVE - it was 'Peter Max' inspired!).  I used a regular 12x12 protector then just trimmed it to size and machine stitched up the left side.  EASY-PEASY.

...and after that i used a cut-down something or the other protector (i can't remember what!) to hold the photo card that we attached to Evan's class valentines.  (There's a sheet of his Star Wars valentines included on the backside of his hand-made card!).

The third (& last!) insert is a cut down Style A protector - pics from evan's class party on the front and also the story about how we created cute little "mailboxes" together before Valentines, then hung them up on the bedroom doors in our home...

...and snippets on the reverse side from a much-needed "datenight" that eric and I went on that week - along with the tweet that I sent after searching out the "robot" minifigure from Lego's series 6 new packs.  :)  I kept the package and stitched it onto the patterned paper backing along with the instagram pics.

and then we come back to the left side of the spread...  I'm so glad I finally snuck in a weather screenshot - as this might have been the coldest it (sadly) got all winter.  And I also had the chance to document our "muffin tin lunches" - I know that I'll love pics of these, 20 yrs from now!  ;)  And that's brand new SC Classic Calico 2 on the title card.

And that was week 7.  phew.

:)

Products used on Week 7:

 

InLinkz.com

{Wordless Wednesday: Small Shadows}

xo... :)

{at 21 Months...}

so we are just 3 months away from "two".  ;)

which is a bit of a reality check, i must admit.

I feel like under two is still "baby" - and I'm reluctant to give that up right now...

I am loving this last-little-bit-of-baby stage...

...because he just gets a little bit funnier with every day.

:)

At 21 Months, Noah...

...says something new every day.  or almost every day.  and granted it's sometimes only decipherable by me (and then translated to Daddy) - but I'll take it!

..."Sings" all the time - mostly unrecognizable songs, but sometimes I can make out the "ABCs".

...Eats off of a plate, and with a fork.

...weighs 24 lbs.  According to his last ENT visit.  YAY!  I'm a bit skeptical though since he had shoes and (probably) a full dipe at the time.  ;)

...loves to crawl up onto my lap and point out my "no" (nose), "mou" (mouth), and "eye".  and knows all of his body parts (and has for a while).

...is perfecting his color recognition.  LOVES to question me on what a color is and then point to it elsewhere.

...has decided Toy Story 1 is his FAVORITE movie.  Will bring me the dvd when he needs a little downtime, to watch.  And then will CLAP when i put it on.  ;)

...CLAPS for a lot actually.  and shouts "yaaaaaaaaay".  (ie snacktime, turning in to pick up evan from preschool, when i tell him we can get a cookie (aka "dee-dee" in noah language) at publix, when I get a sippy cup out to get him juice, etc etc).  ;)

...IS HUGELY ATTACHED to momma.  More so than Evan ever was. And will jump around and start to cry if he thinks there's a chance that I'm trying to pass him off on Daddy at bedtime.

...likes to come find me and say "...Momma?!" and hand me anything he finds laying around the house that he deems as "mine" - ie my cell phone, chapstick, etc.

...DANCES in his carseat - like breaks it down and turns it on, full on kicking in his seat to the beat of a song he really likes.  Which is only further encouraged by Evan dancing along too if he's in the car as well.

...likes to say "cheeeeeeeeeeee" when I ask evan to stop and "cheese" for me.

...has gotten very good at putting his hand-me-down croc shoes on.  And even better at taking them off in the car as soon as we start going anywhere.  ;)

...won't sit in the stroller while going into the mall unless i tell him we can go get a pretzel.

...will do anything Daddy says - when daddy tells him to do it in his "stern" voice - why, we don't know?!  but we've figured out that he's a little bit scared of daddy and we're totally using that to our advantage and running with it.  ;))

...is FABULOUS at picking up scraps of trash (or usually just scraps from my projects that I'm working on, on the kitchen counter, that have fallen to the floor) and throwing them away.  It's like a little game for him.

...has the BIGGEST smile and BELLY LAUGH ever -- and when I get a true laugh like that out of him I cherish it.  And wish that I could bottle it up forever.

xo, sweetpea.

{Project LIFE: Week 6}

And the catch-up continues...  all the way back to the beginning of February - Week 6!

Here it is...

no inserts this week... crazy (for me!).  :)

I just discovered the "you are my happy" stamp on this set, and used it on my title card below - LOVE that phrase!

...this week was all about keeping up with the kids while eric was gone - starting t-ball - Mr potato head glasses(!) - assembling valentines - a trip into downtown jax - and seeing star wars in 3D (for eric & ev - i had eric snap a phone pic of the star wars poster at the theatre to include as a 3x4 card in PL)!!!

I'm thrilled that I managed to fit it all into just the single spread.  Must have meant that I didn't snap that much that week.  ;)

I translated the blog post story about the glasses (from early Feb) to the journaling card below with the mr potato head glasses pics...

...and that was week 6.

:)

Products used on Week 6:

InLinkz.com

{I Love Oranges.}

Since we moved (back) to Florida (almost) four years ago, I have had my heart SET on a photo session in an orange grove. 

And when I found out that there was a fabulous u-pick grove just north of where my sister lives in southwest florida, it was the perfect afternoon "activity" to throw into our weekend adventure (while visiting her & her boyfriend this past weekend!).

I'm not going to lie - as much as I tell my clients not to stress over their photo sessions - it IS stressful.  Or at least it always is for me.  Which is why we I don't end up coordinating family sessions for ourselves all that often.  ;)

I am so so SOOOO glad that we made the time & effort for this one though!

It's been a treat for me to be on the "client" side of things (somewhat) - and see what my sister put together in the form of "peeks" from our session - I seriously could not be MORE THRILLED with how she captured US, right now.  ;)

You can see LOTS more photos from our shoot on my sister's blog - Kimberly Joy Photography - HERE.  And there are even a few not shown on the blog, on her facebook fan page HERE.

Towards the end of our afternoon, I grabbed my own camera and snapped a few too - here are just a couple...

...

(and my sister, Kimmie & Jereme!)...

We came home with a BIG bucketful of oranges (=Fresh OJ as a bonus the next morning), & TONS of photos that will keep me busy editing for quite a while.  AND I can't wait to do it again NEXT orange season. 

;)

{Project LIFE: Week 5}

Catch-up time on blogging Project Life...  here we go!!!

Week 5.  ((way back to the start of February...))

Eric spent most of the week in Arizona for work - so I had him text me some photos - and that's how the cactus pic ended up in the middle of this week's spread.  I'm loving that he's loving what the album is becoming, too.  ;)

I'm also LOVING the Design F Pocket page (used on the left side of my spread).  I take a ton of vertically oriented portrait style shots, and have found that this is what I usually want to grab, and what works really well for me.

...Lots of other random tidbits from our week.  And I have to say that it's kind of crazy that its definitely become a mix of iPhone pics and then regular digi SLR shots.  I LOVE THAT.  :)

The instagram collage is just a few faves - there are so many more pics, and instas that don't end up in my week here - and I think that might just be the part of Project Life that I'm struggling with the most right now.  I want to include IT ALL - and that is just not possible.  I'm slowly realizing that and attempting to let go to the "everything from the week that I love must be shown here" mentality.

...I used a a 5x7 protector insert to include a shot from Evan's half birthday pics taken this week (with his half-year updates!) on one side, and then a shot of Noah (taken the week after this, but included here bc this was the week he hit 20 months).

Evan had a couple of cute artwork pieces that he brought home this week and that I wanted to include in the spread - so I just photographed each, and then resized to fit a 3x4 base.  I added color and a text title to the fireman pic and story below, and then a story about groundhog day (as he described it to me as "grandpa's day") next to that piece.

...and finally - a cute email subject line from eric, simply added to a colored background on a 3x4 base.

And that was week five.

:)

PRODUCTS USED ON WEEK 5:

InLinkz.com

{at 4 and a half...}

Evan turned four and a HALF about a month ago...

we celebrated his half birthdy at school, and did a little "mini-shoot" against a red brick wall the week after...

...and now I'm just getting around to blogging his half year update.  I absolutley love "storing" this info on the blog to be able to easily come back to later. 

and so, At FOUR AND A HALF, Evan...

...is all about: LEGOS, STAR WARS, NINJAS (ninjago!), and CARS.  ;)

...loves his lego mini-figures, or "guys" as he calls them, and is constantly arranging them in little "set-ups" or scenes around the houes and his room (and then saying, "Look at this great set-up I made, momma!").  Star Wars minifigures are the faves, with Yoda (a valentine's gift) being the VERY favorite of all.

...has discovered Star Wars (via the star wars lego mini-movie on cartoon network).  And since has collected LOTS of guys, and ships, and saw episode 1 in 3D with Daddy last month.  LOVES Yoda the best out out all the star wars guys, followed closely by Darth Vader.

...Is addicted to cheeseburgers (no onion, no pickle please).

...wants all his milk to be chocolate milk.

...weighs 40 lbs, and just had a HUGE growth spurt between mid-December and early February.

...LOVES preschool, and playground time, and show-n-tell on fridays when it's his show-n-tell day(!).

...likes to ask me "What today is, momma?" for a run-down of the days events, and school activities, and also in general just wants to know EVERYTHING that's going to happen before it actually does.

...still loves the Toy Story Trilogy, and Cars 1 and 2 as movie choices to watch (with Noah).

...Adores his brother Noah, and likes to call him that: "my brother Noah, and me".  Races CARS cars around the house with him, wrestles him, and plays with him any chance he gets (when he's not worried that Noah is going to "get" something from his lego stash!).

...asks endless questions and we love it.

...likes Daddy and I to both ready him a book before bed.

...wants to paint or color or draw or write with me most of the time I ask.  OR make a "card" and scrapbook with me.  ;)

...is all about "dessert" after dinner/bath now.

...and is crazy-cute and SUPER-SILLY, & loves to ham-it-up when he's in the mood too.

We love you, little E.

(photo from this weekend @ disney!!!)

:)