Wednesday, November 28, 2012

He's back!

*** Don't forget to leave a comment on the previous post for a chance to win one of three prizes.***

Ziggy.  Our Elf, is back.

 He showed up the day after Thanksgiving with a new train.  The Thomas Holiday train.  Nick is convinced Santa and Ziggy listen because he has been asking for this train ALL year.
 Saturday, Ziggy brought back two new ornaments for the tree.  A Thomas one and a Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
Sadly, someone was so excited he touched Ziggy.  Our poor Elf lost his magic and it took him a couple of days to recover but he's back to his old elf self.

I snuck in a little scrapbooking over the busy holiday weekend.

But mostly we were decorating.



Monday, November 26, 2012

Happy Cyber Monday

Happy Cyber Monday!

We have two announcements to make today.  Two fun announcements.  I'm pretty sure you'll love what we have for you today.

First, the coupon.  We have a 30% off code today for you to save and stock up on our string.  Enter code MONDAY30 during checkout.   For every order placed today you will receive a FREE gift as well.  We have plenty so don't worry about us running out.

Shop Now.

Second, we have three big giveaways!  Leave a comment on this post by this Friday 11/30/12 to win one of the following:

A set of all 38 42 of our twine colors.  You will win a spool with 5 yards of each color of twine. (4 new colors arrive this week!)

A set of our chevron and striped ribbon.  One yard of each color of chevron and striped ribbon. 18 colors in all.

A set of our fabulous burlap strings.  One yard of each of our 20 burlaps.

All you need to do is leave a comment for us on why you love to use any of these items on your projects for a chance to win!  Comments will remain open until this Friday - 11/30 - at midnight.  Winner will be announced December 1st.  Open to internationals.  No purchase necessary.


Thursday, November 22, 2012

Being Thankful

I'm thankful for many things these days and I've learned not to take certain ones for granted.  Its been a long couple of years but I'm proud to say I handled it all like an adult.  Even my mom said she was proud of me.

Since work seems to be keeping me extremely busy these days, my crafty time has dwindled.  I say that too often here but I'm slowly figuring out how to incorporate family, work and my hobby into my life.

I worked on these every day at work the week before Thanksgiving.  My co-workers and employees think I'm nuts but it was a nice break from the stress.  I cut up one sheet of the Simple Stories Harvest Lane line and used scraps to create the pinwheels, banners and starbursts.

I'm going to go ahead and gush about Simple Stories a bit.  I love them.  Just about everything they put out is amazing.  Okay, everything is.  I would love to be on their Design Team.  Echo Park is the only other company I feel this way about.  Not many companies can put out lines on a continuous basis that grab my attention the way these two companies do.

Back to crafting.

I cut apart the Bingo card paper and layered the rest of the scraps on top to create these:




I have Lennox china - its the most extravagant thing I own.  I'm not much into china, crystal etc.  But I've wanted this set my entire life.  I saw it once when I was shopping with my mom as a teenager.  I have wine/water glasses to match.  These look good on my fall tableclothes but they look A-MAZ-ING on my royal blue cloth for Christmas.  I'm not much of a red/green person for the holidays but blue and silver make me swoon.

The feathers are from a Studio Calico kit and the brown burlap string is from the Stringery store.  There is currently a 20% off coupon code (FALL20) to use.  Rumor has it, there will be a Cyber Monday deal and a pretty big giveaway.

I hope everyone has a great holiday!  Our Elf on the Shelf Ziggy should be arriving tonight!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Purging...

Again.  I've got three, yes THREE, full flat rate boxes from the post office filled with paper, stickers, chipboard, washi tape, bakers twine, ribbon, Studio Calico kit exclusives and more.

Each one weighs a bit but you're getting some fun stuff.  Each box is different.  I have three available at the moment.  $32 each and that includes shipping.

I have 2 pages of stamps listed for sale as well.

Check it all out HERE.  

I've been busy cleaning and getting ready for the holiday.  I'll be back in a day or two with more crafty stuff.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Its beginning to look a lot like......

Christmas.  Yes, I'm ready.  We had a few cold days here and I loved it.  I even broke down and put Christmas music on the ipod.

I've been slowly compiling my December Daily stuff.  I have these few odds and ends I've purchased so far.  (Excuse the bad photos. I'm working with the last light of day when I took these.  Daylight hours are a premium for me these days.)

 I'll be keeping it all in a Studio Calico Crop Bag.  With everything in there, I still have lots of room.
 Felt snowflake is from Target.  Its a tree ornament.  I bought some tags from Chic Tags (LOVE her stuff.)
 A mini class kit from Studio Calico - 25 Days of Christmas.  I believe its sold out now.
 Stamp set from Elle's Studio.
 LOVE those paper clips from Studio Calico.
 I have the 6x6 Studio Calico Wonderland pad, the 12x12 sticker sheets and the poloroid frames.
A quick look at everything.

And on Tuesday, my big kit comes from Studio Calico.


And there's an order from 2 Peas with one of these:

And finally, there will be lots of bits from the Stringery shop and a {flair} for buttons.







I'm a sucker for non-traditional colors so this mix totally suits me.  I can't wait to start working on this.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Room Mom

A part of me still can't believe I took on the role of Room Mom for my sons class.  There really isn't a lot to do but there are things to organize.  Parties and gifts for the teacher are two.

My son's teacher has a Birthday coming up in early December which means I'm 'begging' for money for this AND the holiday gift.

The PSG (Parent Support Group) came up with an idea this year to give each teacher a blank sheet of paper with lists on it.  They had to write in their favorites for everything (food, restaurant, store, sports etc).  So I have a great list to go off of for present buying.

I had to have a way for the parents to pass their money off to me without the teacher knowing.  We have cubbies and folders but only the teacher is allowed to leave items in there.  So I made this:


Thanks to the mom that walked into my office the other day and had this idea.  She took a regular manilla envelope and covered it with patterned paper that she'd typed 'Ms. ******'s Room Mom Folder'.  Then she laminated it, cut the slit open and hung it up.  I loved the idea so much I made my own.

The papers I used are from Fancy Pants Off To School line from last year.  I only have pieces left.

Monday, November 12, 2012

The best form of flattery

Sorry, more horrible pictures from me.  I just wanted to share these so I can put them in albums....

THIS layout has been in the back of my mind since I saw it on her blog.  I've been waiting for the right picture and paper to come along.



 And the original inspiration....

And this one.  Another easy one.  Star transparency is from Fancy Pants.  All other papers were from Crate Paper.

 Flair ....... of course!

Sunday, November 11, 2012

We are family

A couple of years ago, I contacted someone I used to work with at my last job.  After the major layoffs, we all went off to find other jobs, starts our own ventures etc.

She started her own photography business and I was lucky to snag an afternoon with her.  She did such a great job capturing Nick's personality.

These were some of my favorite shots from the afternoon.




I used the Simple Stories fall line again because the colors match so well.  Some older Thickers, burlap string and a sketch from Scrapbook Generation.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

A little sale.....

going on here.....

The Stringery

Stock up on string and ribbon for the holidays.  Need Bakers Twine to wrap that present?  You can find every color in the shop.  Love that chevron ribbon?  Check out the rainbow offered.

Sale lasts until the end of the month but shop early.  Suppliers are low on the popular styles and we just stocked up!

I'll have a post later in the week about the items I'm setting aside to use in my December Daily mini this year.

Monday, November 5, 2012

My cool kid

My husbands friend drove this bike out from Texas to attend some biker convention here in So Cal.  N was fascinated with the loud bikes and was lucky enough to get to sit on one long enough for me to grab a couple of pictures.  


I take so many pictures with my iPhone these days and I forget about them.  Then, I get bored and go through the gallery and find little gems like this one.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Not the best...

photo quality.   I had to work with the little daylight I had yesterday morning.



This was an easy one.  I used one of the Simple Stories Take a Hike papers and layered a 6x12 photo over half of it leaving the other half of the paper 'exposed'.  I added a few elements from their sticker sheet and other papers to finish off the other half.  A bit of glossy accents on some of the elements so they pop and some of the burlap string from the shop finishes it off.

And one more.....

Simple Stories Fall line and some 'old' Thickers.  I'm trying to use up some older supplies these days.  I keep getting rid of stuff and I've come to the conclusion that if I'm going to keep buying I need to use (or attempt to use) my older supplies.