Thursday, March 29, 2012

Friday, March 23, 2012

Friday Favorites

Favorite Instagram (and moment): Tuesday while we were at school, Lachlan asked me to help him go down the fire pole on the playground. After I helped him about 3 or 4 times, he said, "mom, I want to do it myself." So I gave him a couple tips and watched him go for it. He was so proud of himself, and I'm glad I was there to see it!

Favorite new endeavor: I went to my first Zumba exercise class Wednesday morning. It was fun, and challenging, and I'm so glad I went (thanks for meeting me, Codi!). Hoping to make it a part of my weekly routine!

Favorite season change: Spring has sprung in the last week! Hopefully we don't get any deep freezes or snowstorms in April!


Favorite Spring Break read: Divergent. Billed as another "Hunger Games-esque" YA dystopia, I found it very entertaining and a page-turner. It is not as well-written or conceived as the Hunger Games series, but if you're looking for something along the same lines, I do recommend it. I think the second book in the series comes out in May.

Favorite new snack: Yummy!



Favorite Pin: I think I may have found Kenley's halloween costume... I also did a little poking around the creator's blog, "Probably Actually" and it is very sweet.

By the way - did you see that Pinterest has updated their terms of use? Doesn't seem to address ALL the concerns, but hopefully a step in the right direction.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Project Life - week 11

I decided to make this week all about the photos. Of course I took tons of photos while we were in Florida last week, and I wanted to showcase some of my favorites from my SLR. I did not include any of my Instagram photos, because I'm planning to make a Blurb book using just my Instagrams from the trip. Recently I've been making Shutterfly photo albums with my vacation photos, but I feel like this spread + and Instagram book + maybe 1 or 2 12x12 paper layouts will be the way I document this trip.


Supplies:
Ali Edwards Spring Break brushes and stamps
Banner Labels no. 1

Monday, March 19, 2012

Project Life - week 10

Playing catch up on Project Life today, between loads of laundry and taking poor feverish Kenley to the doctor (just a virus). We had a great trip to Florida for Spring Break last week, so I'm looking forward to getting to week 11 soon!
I'm not going to list all my supplies this week because I was picking and choosing all kinds of different bits from all my favorite digi designers (and I want to use the time to catch up on week 11). I did pick up some new fun cards by Nisa Fiin from Jessica Sprague's website for this week.

Friday, March 09, 2012

Friday Favorites

Favorite Instagram: Pretty much in love with this photo of Kenley wearing my sunglasses while sitting in the grocery cart. I love it so much it's in consideration for the lock screen on my iPhone - that's been the same photo of L in the DJ Lance hat for 2 years. Ha!

Favorite link: this video via Ali Edwards and Amanda Soule. I almost didn't watch it because it was 10 minutes long, but I'm so glad I did. Beautiful visuals and a great reminder of how lucky we are for the gift of each day and all the blessings in our life.

Favorite blog feature: I've kept Katie's Pencil Box in my reader because of her ethereal photos and sweet style. But I LOVE her new feature - her boy has been dictating letters to his baby sister-to-be. They are funny and cute and totally charming. Always brings a smile to my face.

Favorite purchase: my new glasses that got here just in time for our vacation! They are very different than the thicker black frames I've been wearing for five years. I think these were the 2nd pair I tried on, and I just knew they were the ones right away. A little funky and fun, but neutral enough for every day wear, I hope.


Favorite lucky break: I bought my glasses on Leap Day, when Discerning Eye was having a 29% off sale. They were also having a drawing for a purse, and what do you know? I won! WOO! It's a gorgeous leather purse. Totally my lucky day!

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Project Life - week 9


Another week down! I realized after I uploaded them that I didn't make a little card with the dates for this week. I decided to just go with it, considering my layout didn't have a good spot to add it back in. I took my camera around one afternoon to collect photos of a few favorite spots around our house. I think I will enjoy having a little spotlight of our everyday environment.

Supplies:
Cobalt Edition Full Collection
Project Life - The Templates
Everyday Papers by Robyn Meierotto (grid bit)
Cut it Out Frame Cards by Robyn Meierotto
Tiny Templates #1
Everyday Photos brushes and stamps by Ali E.
Snippets Typed Paper by Robyn M.
Love Love Love Elements by Robyn M. (blue label sticker)
Borderline Frames

Friday, March 02, 2012

Project Life - week 8


Hello, week 8 Project Life! I love the way this spread came together, mostly because of the cool Cut It Out frame cards by Robyn Meierotto. I had been planning to start repeating digital elements on my weekly spreads to create some consistency - but people like Ali and Robyn keep releasing adorable new digi supplies that I *must* download and try! I have been using the Cobalt Edition kit papers and journal cards throughout, so I think that helps with the flow.

A couple new elements this week: I scanned in our movie tickets from Star Wars 3D. They are something I would have included if I were doing Project Life as a paper scrapbooking project, so I wanted to include them in the digital version. I also wrote my first (I think?) story without a photo - to record Lachlan's first play date away from home with a preschool buddy.

Supplies:
Cobalt Edition Full Collection
Project Life - The Templates
Everyday Papers by Robyn Meierotto
Banner Labels No. 1 by Katie Pertiet
Cut it Out Frame Cards by Robyn Meierotto
Happy Day Digital Elements (the "favorite memory" strip)
Tiny Templates #1
So Totally Happy Brushes by Ali Edwards (the "so cute" w/ arrow)

Friday Favorites


Favorite Instagram: I love this photo. It shows the boy that Lachlan is becoming. I love that he wants to wear the Mike and Rich shirt I had made out of one of Bill's shirts (and he's outgrowing it!). Love that he pulled the roller skates out of the garage and started tooling around the driveway. (also, it was almost 50 yesterday and snowing like crazy today? Weird Iowa weather.)


Favorite purchase: I've been waiting for Joy's book to come out. I just love her blog and every recipe I've ever tried from her blog has been excellent. Can't wait to bake up some recipes from her cookbook. The other two books come highly recommended, so I'm looking forward to diving into those, as well.

Favorite new challenge: After taking on two daily photo challenges in February, I wasn't sure if I'd join in again. But I really loved the prompts, and I caught some moments of our everyday life that I otherwise would have missed. I have left the February Instagrams out of my Project Life pages, because I'm planning to include them in my Project Life book as stand-alone pages with a grid of the full month (if that makes sense?).


Favorite recipe: Consummate Chocolate Chip Cookie. Oh man, I followed this recipe, with the exceptions of using all purpose flour instead of bread flour, and regular bittersweet chocolate chunks instead of the fancy disks. They were delicious. The cookie dough was seriously delicious. I sent most of the batch to work with Bill to keep myself from eating them up. Kenley was a big fan, too!

Favorite Pin: Instead of posting a favorite pin, I wanted to direct you to this post by Kal Barteski. The posts she links to at the bottom of her post were very thought-provoking, as well. Although I still love Pinterest, I'm feeling conflicted about continuing to pin and posting the images here. I'm not to the point where I'm planning to delete my account. But. I am concerned about the copyright infringement issues and liability issues. I am also making sure that every new pin I add links back to the permalink post of the original creator. I hope Pinterest addresses this ToS issue soon. Certainly it is not only an issue for Pinterest, but that is the site that is creating a stir right now.

Have a great weekend!