Life In Color

The magical fruit

Today was a super busy totally fun day that involved swim lessons, chickens, a splash fountain, skinned knees, and long drives. But of course I took no pictures so I'm sharing some from a week ago. 

I got this tub of beans idea from Sew Liberated, who was a trained as a Montessori teacher and has lots of great ideas for the toddler set on her blog. 

IT'S SO EXCITING! We got the big bag of pintos from Costco and then added in a few small bags so she could pick out big and little beans. 

Good for dumping, pinching, and scooping practice. We had this under the bed bin left over from college and I'm glad it has a lid. When things start to go overboard (and she stops helping them go back in) we wave bye bye to the beans and put the lid back on. A note though, since I didn't wash the beans I was shocked how dirty she got, especially the first few times. Makes me want to wash all my beans a little bit better!

Also, if you've asked me a question recently just wanted to mention that I do answer them in the comments section.

Showered

I had a fabulous weekend, and I hope you did too! Saturday after our toddler music class we drove to Corvallis for the fall festival. We got to hang out with Sarah who snapped this photo.

Ah my two loves! So sweet. 

Sunday was the shower in honor of Kathy, who is due next month.

Tracy and I threw it (she's due on Valentine's day, how cute is that?!?!).

We played up the orange and green theme (colors of her nursery). We had faux-mosas (a hit!), cheese and crackers, orange and green fruit parfaits, and these:

Little appetizers made from hollowed out cherry tomatoes (from our yard). Bj made these before and they are so good, though a bit tedious.

I love throwing parties, especially ones where I can get out the fancy dishes. What's the last party you threw? I'm thinking I need to throw more of them!

On the brain

Ugh, Bj's cold attacked me too! Yuck! I hate being sick, and having my ears plugged like this. I'm mostly better but it will be a happy day when I can pop my ears, that's for sure!

One thing I managed to do while sick was make up this cute banner for a baby shower I am throwing tomorrow:

Baby's room will be orange with a jungle theme so I thought this would be cute for the shower and if the mama wants to put it up in the nursery for a bit she can. It went together super quick because my step mom let me borrow her Cricut, have you guys ever used one of these?

Oh it is so much fun for a project like this. After I was done with the banner (I used this cartridge and this one) I couldn't stop myself from cutting up other things. Using this cartridge I cut out a bunch of asterisk type things.

Not sure what I am going to do with them yet. The tool set my step mom has was totally necessary to get the shapes off of the mat. 

After playing with this man I am seriously lusting over one of these digital die cutting machines. I think the Cricut is super easy to use, but I've got my heart set on a Sillhouette SD, does anyone have one? I am determined to win one right now. There are a couple giveaways going on (Blue Cricket Designs and Twig and Thistle are hosting two of them). The Silhouette doesn't take cartridges and you can play with it hooked up to your computer. Since I happen to know an awesome graphic designer (who by the way has a blog IN THE WORKS) I think that would be the better option. After playing with my step mom's machine I'm afraid I would be a cartridge collecting fool! Probably getting use my own fonts to cut would be the better option. 

I won't be scrapping for a while, I've got things piling up on my plate, including the shower tomorrow and some warmer weather that is happily keeping me outside! 

Picking in the Rain

This morning their was a break in the drizzle we've had for a few days and Tuesday and I worked out in the yard trimming, dead-heading, and weeding. Tuesday didn't just stick by the tomato plants and eat them non stop like usual (though she did pick a couple of peppers). I think that is because her and papa went out this weekend and she got her fill. 

First papa has to get you all bundled up (while he stays in shorts!)

To the right is all of my basil, I have to make some pesto!

Of course sampling is so important. 

A mouth full of tomatoes.

Pretty much cherry tomatoes are the only thing we've got this year. We also had some of the yellow pairs ripen up and a very few of our other kinds. There are still so many green tomatoes on the vine, I'm not giving up hope yet! And thank goodness for our CSA box. The tomatoes in that keep us in fresh salsa, yum.

Scraplifting, old school style

Actually when I first started scrapbooking I didn't scraplift (copy the design or elements of an existing layout) at all. I just did whatever. Now that I have my own loose style I find it easier to look at other people's work for inspiration and not loose my style in theirs. I pulled out my old Ali book A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking with Patterned Paper and picked out a couple of layouts to lift to get myself into the groove the other day. 

This is a pretty straight lift from page 77. Photo turns, hello, totally forgot about these little lovelies. 

I barely squeaked out the title with some fabric I had in my to be punched quickutz stash (I use a ruler box to store strips of cardstock, paper and fabric that are 1.5"—to fit my little xyron. Hope that makes sense, if not tell me, this helps me utilize my Squeeze so much more). I need to bring more fabric up and incorporate it into my layouts, I love the texture.

This is a looser lift from page 94. Super simple, but wanted to show lots of the girls playing together. I know they are going to love looking back at layouts like this when they are older.

I'm trying out a new neutral and so far I love it. I was in a big white/kraft kick but I like this slightly speckled off white. 

Also glimmer mist, yum!

More mists. The photo of the layout was too wonky to try and crop it, sorry. Pretty impressive that my nails are painted though! Ha!

Fabrips from Studio Calico, love them!

Last one from today, and my favorite! I don't know when I bought the Zing powder, but I hadn't used it before, and it is so awesome. I forgot how much I love the look of embossing.

And of course brads. 

Are you scrapping this weekend? I have some more layouts to share, but after I took photos I realized they needed something. Good thing I just got my sewing machine back from the shop!

Also based on my last bunch of layouts I don't think I will ever use up my patterned paper stash, yikes!

This and That

-what a day around here. I had a very upset toddler who was not telling me why she was upset. This is rare, I usually get a lot of signing on her wants/needs. 

-Finally in the evening we had the double combo of grandma coming over and getting her to eat (exactly what I had been trying to feed her, but better because grandma was doing it, of course) and some major poops. Have I mentioned we use these and love them? This is our out and about option (she can go with out it, but is more comfortable when the opening on a toilet is smaller).

-Tuesday has slept through the night a few times in a row now, but I can not seem to get used to it. Has this happened to anyone else? 

-I can't wait to show you what I did with this and this. Hello heat gun, I've missed you. 

-Of course that all depends on getting a certain toddler to let me take a picture. I had to pack my orders today with her on my back. I can't remember the last time I did that. The Ergo is still working great (Tuesday is probably a little over 20 pounds). 

-I got a big order of summer time prints from Shutterfly. And I scrapped one of the contact sheets that comes with your order. I love it.

-I tried to use a Michael's coupon to get this, but I'm pretty sure it's impossible to get anything there I want with a coupon EVER (they either don't have it or it's on sale for a tiny bit—boo!).

-My mom closed up her pool today. Maybe the earliest ever, and she opened it late because of the nasty weather. So a very short season to swim. Tuesday was just getting comfortable.

-I want to build on that so I signed her and I up for swim lessons.

-Which meant I had to go buy a sport type one piece. Which I haven't done since I taught swimming... and was tan and very fit. At least swimsuits were all on sale everywhere.

-I finished watching The Gilmore Girls. My lovely neighbor had all seven seasons on DVD. Bj has heard this about a million times but, I wanted a montage at the end, damn it. 

-Then I watched The Young Victoria which was waiting for months for me to watch it while I powered through Gilmore Girls. I'm sorry I made you wait Victoria, you were brilliant! 

-Now I'm not sure what to watch while I scrap and clean, or fold laundry, or... (I tend to watch things in snippets on my computer here and there). I've even started up watching the news again. It's depressing. Anyone have a better idea? 

-I actually took the garbage out and sorted the recycling/composting before getting on the computer... kitchen duties, you will not be so lucky.

-Time to eat more freshly made salsa.

Amber out.

 

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The Beach

We had a great weekend. Saturday we picked up Sarah and headed to the coast. 

Tuesday spots the big water (her sign for water is a finger by her mouth... she can't quite make the "w" sign).

For some reason the water was quite nasty, lots of foam, so she wasn't able to play in it. But she sure had a blast in the warm sand.

She was covered in sand, but since it was dry it was pretty easy to clean up.

A great weekend. 

I can't seem to stop myself...

Just a few more layouts to share. My sewing machine has been getting a little tune up and will be coming home tomorrow, so maybe I'll switch it up and sew this weekend. But for now...

An 8 1/2 by 11 landscape, totally mixing it up. Actually I stamped on a 12x12 piece of paper when I was going through my ink and the top was all messed up so I decided to salvage it this way.

I am loving the white on white (or color on color) layouts that I've seen around, and I thought it was perfect for the quiet ton of this picture.

Like I've said before, I love brads! I also love my Quickutz, I've had most of my fonts for years and years (I use the old Squeeze tool) and I always find it so handy to have a fond in any color I want whenever I want. I think I've shared this tip before, but when I have long piece of scrap cardstock I cut it into just under 1.5 inches (so it will fit through my xyron) and keep it in a pencil case. That way I have strips to choose from without having to cut into a new piece of cardstock. I go back and forth on digital die cutters (slice, cricut, silhouette). Anyone one have one? Do you like it? Do you still use a manual die cutter?

Memory Keeping and Art Making

Tuesday and I had a day up in Portland today and on the drive back while she was sleeping (yeah!) I had some time to do that daydreamy thought thing. I sometimes have thoughts that maybe scrapbooking is a waste of time and supplies... like when I go on a fun scrapbook supply buying binge. Why don't I just put the photos in the book and write a caption? I mean it would be so much easier and less time consuming. But in my musings today I decided I like spending the time on it all, and I like the supplies. But the main thing for me is that I DO print out all of my decent photos. I have them in boring black faux leather albums that we can flip through whenever we want. For me the scrapbooks elevate certain photos and stories, and I love that. 

It got me thinking back to my first scrapbook. I talked my dad into giving me the same amount of money that a pre-made senior scrapbook would cost. With it I bought a Canson spriral book, one of the early CK issues and some supplies. I still love this thing (even though it has a few pages with post it notes where finished layouts should be!). I'll share a few pages (the cover I modge-podged with a class project from my New Mixed Media class):

The opening pages. Our school colors were orange, brown and gold... really.

I need to do another one of these pop culture pages, so fun to look back on now. I still can't believe I've kicked the Diet Coke habit after 15 years!

Random stories that didn't take up a whole page (I should do this again too!).

Ah the free time of a teenager, I think I've been to three movies in the last year.

I'd love to see links of your first scrapbooks!

Ok a few more recent things, I vered off the kit a bit, but I got a lot of layouts out of it, so try one out!

Tuesday and her love of beets. :)

Sweet girls :) I just traded out the pictures in the frames in our bedroom after a few years (refreshing!) and wanted to scrap them, as they are some of my favorites.

A simple one about Tuesday's first trip to the fair last year. 

I think this might be my favorite one (finally found the layout I got inspiration from it is here). I love me some brads. And those old Doodlebug letter stickers... and the subject matter of course :) I am going crazy scrapbooking lately, in addition to these I did three more, plus all the kit ones plus three tonight! 

So happy scrapbooking to you!

Enjoying

Labor day sales

Yummy backyard dinners

Good company

Scrapping favorite photos

And cute little girlies

Tuesday with Carmen's daughter Chloe.