Amy's Crazy Creative Life

December Daily 2011...it's a wrap!

2012-01-10T16:45:00.000-08:00

Aaaand it's done!

December Daily 2011 is now a memory. I have ten whole days to cover so I broke them up into two different videos.

Here are my finished days 15-20:

And here are my finished days 20-25:

This is by far my favorite December Daily I've done.
I love the repurposed encyclopedia, the binder mechanism, and all the different mixed up pages.
The good news is that I have a whole slew of those encyclopedias (and binder mechanisms) so there's a good chance I'll be doing a very similar album again next year.

Thanks for sticking with me on this project! I'll have some more fun information on Project Life here soon, I'm doing some neat things with it this year that I definitely want to share.

December Daily 2011, days 5-14

2011-12-15T22:26:00.000-08:00

We have been sick at our house so I'm making up for some lost time. Here is a video that goes through days five through 14.

I found that using my cell phone works really great to keep everything in focus too.

Also, here is a link to the Graphics Fairy:

http://www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/

That's where I got the vintage french "Joyeux Noel" graphic as well as the vintage clock hands I put on day ten.

Thanks for visiting!

December Daily 2011, days 1-4

2011-12-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

I liked doing the video of my album overview so much that I think I'll do videos of my days from here on out! Here are days 1-4 (sorry for the out-of-focus-ness),

More to come later!

Getting ready for December Daily 2011

2011-11-29T20:11:00.000-08:00

It's about that time of year!

I kind of can't believe it, but it is.

December Daily 2011 is just around the corner. I'm doing something super fun this year, I'm repurposing an outdated encyclopedia. With the help of some gaffer tape and rub-ons of course. Here is a video that goes over my base pages and the album itself.
(please pardon the hacking away in the background, my poor husband is sick)

Here is the link to CariKraft's shop on Etsy, she is the gal I got those super fun mini Christmas flash cards from: http://www.etsy.com/shop/CariKraft

I also wanted to include a link to another gal's shop, she is the one that did the round numbers I included in my album: http://www.etsy.com/shop/everyjotandtittle

Here is the second video that goes over the digital elements that I'll be using on the photos that go on some of the transparencies.

So excited! If you have any questions please leave a comment. Thanks for dropping by!

New updates to eBay's link policy are coming!

2011-09-18T18:16:00.000-07:00

Hello guys and gals! I had a customer email me today to let me know that eBay is updating their links policy effective October 1st, 2011 that will prohibit most links in eBay auctions. This is a concern because I have several links in my auction templates from Amybug's Primitive Attic, including the credit link at the bottom of the template.

Thankfully I already use eBay-only links for the "contact me" button in auction templates (if it were linked to your email address it would no longer be allowed). And also thankfully, my credit link is still allowed. Here is the specific page that goes over the new policy in reference to auction template websites:

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/linkspolicypreview.html

"Other links that point to a third-party provider's website are also allowed, such as image hosting sites and auction template sites." J

The eBay rep I talked to said that the new policy is being put into place because people were listing items with external links in the auction. And unfortunately, customers were purchasing items on the external links, not on eBay.

Have a great day everyone!

Hooray for Project Life!

2011-07-01T22:40:00.000-07:00

Well I put that post up a few months ago about starting and have yet to put up an update. Well the update is...it's going great! I am currently on week 15 and am finding it pretty easy to keep up. One thing that I did before I got started (and I think that it is key to me completing this album) - pre-stamping the dates on the cards, putting all the cards in the album and putting the monthly tabs in the album. I'm not going to lie, it took FOREVER to do. 52 cards to stamp. 416 cards to put in. 12 tabs to insert. But I'm really glad I did it. I can say that I'm almost positive I would've quit by now if I hadn't done the prep work first.

One thing that I'm noticing as the weeks pass is how many stories would normally go untold in our lives. For example, my husband told our son the other day that he had made a cool Lego dog. Our son then replied that it wasn't a dog, that it was a fierce creature from the 1970's. Seriously?? I couldn't make this stuff up. And I wouldn't have done a full scrapbook page on it either. It would have been lost in the shuffle of our everyday life.

So hooray for Project Life! I'm really enjoying it and I know that I'm creating a real treasure that my kids and grandkids are going to love to look through. Very cool.

Aloha

2011-06-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

Hello from Maui!

Our whole family is here for my little sister's wedding.

So thankful for this great trip.

Thankful that we could use miles for our tickets.

Thankful that my parents could use their timeshare for our room.

Thankful for my new brother in law.

Thankful that Roman is having a great time after a rocky start.

Thankful for amazing friends watching our animals while we're gone.

Thankful for relaxation and the ability to take it easy.

I have taken about 500 pictures so far. Yes, 500. Thankfully my father brought his laptop so I could empty the camera every day and go through our photos so it won't be so daunting when we get home. Before we left, I took the Scrapbook on the Road class from Ali Edwards. She had some great tips as far as what to do to make sure that you document your trip.

I've been making sure to keep everything and write everything down, if not during the day then when we get home at night. There are so many stories that I've written down that I know I would forget about if I waited until I got home. Lots of writing going on over here.

I've been happy to see the amount of local artists here, able to make a living from tourism. Although for every artist here, that are twice as many "discount" shops selling the same products made in china (which is really weird to me). I found one gal who makes and sells macaroons (gluten free!). Let me start by saying that I've never liked macaroons. I LOVE her macaroons. Love them. So fresh and light and good. Just another example of how you get what you pay for.

While it has been fun on vacation, I'm really looking forward to coming home. I miss our house, our weather (I may be the only one on the planet who likes cold weather), our pets and my graphic design work.

Until next time...aloha and mahalo for visiting!

In honor of celiac awareness month

2011-05-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

Here is my story.

I've always been a high strung person. Super type A, very driven. But I was also highly, highly sensitive. Things that wouldn't bother someone else drove me up the wall. And I was hungry all the time. I remember being a kid and thinking that I just needed more food than other people, and that was the way it was.

Fast forward to early adulthood. I was diagnosed with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) around 24 years old. Still hungry all the time, still easily irritated. Stomach problems were almost a daily thing for me.

Then I had my son in 2005 and was soon after diagnosed with post partum depression and anxiety and panic disorder. Thankfully I never had any thoughts of harming myself or my kiddo, but it was a struggle just to function every day.

My symptoms continued until October 2010 when things took a bad turn. I started having severe stomach problems, running to the bathroom 20+ times a day (vomiting and....other things). For a solid month I lived on brown rice and bananas while they did test after test to find out what was wrong with me. Then they did a blood test for celiac disease. My Dr. called and told me that my levels weren't just elevated, they were through the roof. But that wasn't enough to diagnose me, I had a colonoscopy and a sigmoidoscopy and the diagnosis? I had celiac disease.

How long have I had celiac disease? I think that I've had a gluten sensitivity all my life that turned into full blown celiac after my son was born.

Since my diagnosis in November 2010, I have noticed a huge change in my health, my appetite and even my moods. I haven't touched a single speck of gluten intentionally (I've been "gluten-ed" by accident a few times) since then. While I've never been much of a cook, I've been making things that I would normally buy at the store. Soups, breads, cakes, desserts. And I've discovered a huge love of quinoa - I can't get enough of the stuff.

I had a big breakthrough this past Easter weekend. We had Roman's cousins over for a few hours for a visit, plus a friend from next door came over to play too. So there were five kids playing and running around while I was trying to bake a cake while my husband was mowing the lawn outside with the window open. For me, that usually means the stress of the kids being too loud (and me worrying about the kids hurting themselves, making a mess, etc.), the stress of making the cake and the noise of the lawn mower. And of course all things happening at once makes it infinitely worse.

I realized while I was mixing up the cake that I was smiling. And then I realized all the potential stressors that were going around me and I nearly burst out crying - I didn't feel any stress. None. I was thankful to hear the lawnmower outside because that meant it was spring, I was thankful to hear the kids playing all around me and I was happy to bake the cake. But most of all I felt this overwhelming comforting calmness that I have never felt before. I was able to function.

I’ve also lost 20 pounds without trying because I’m not hungry all the time as well. And the food that I'm eating now is amazing - fresh, organic, whole grain, whole foods.

My body is still in the process of healing itself. They say it takes six months to a year for your body to completely heal from all the damage gluten does.

Thank you for reading my story. And if you have similar symptoms to mine at all, PLEASE get tested. Only a small percentage of people who have celiac disease know they have it.

project life coming soon!

2011-03-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

I have been hooked into doing yet another project. Project Life is coming to my studio.

Project Life is...well...I think that the best thing to do is let Becky Higgins explain it.

Just got an inspiration shiver. I'm so excited to get started.

I know that starting April 1st is kind of odd. The normal thing is to start in January. But I was just finishing up December Daily and to be honest, I would have rather sporked my eyes out than start a new project right away. And you know what? There are no rules to scrapbooking. So I'm gonna do what I wanna do.

There is so much good stuff going on in our lives. Stuff that I want to document and remember. Stuff that falls between the cracks of my crazy life.

So stay tuned sports fans, Project Life is coming to my crazy creative life.

captured super bowl Sunday

2011-02-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

{love}

organizing my gluten-free flours

2011-02-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

My bins have arrived!

I looked long and hard to find a good way of storing my gluten-free flours. I naturally wanted Tupperware because that's what I've used all my life. But its expensive. Really expensive. So I kept researching and ended up with Cambro square containers in 4qt and 2qt. I think these are the same ones that Alton Brown uses on "Good Eats" (my favorite cooking show - if you haven't heard of it you really need to check it out).

Amazon has Cambro containers, but the best price I found was from a company called The Webstaurant Store. If you're going to go that route (and I highly recommend you do), you have to purchase the lids separately. Lucky for me, the lids for 2qt and 4qt containers are the same.

The flours/items I put in my 4qt containers are brown rice flour, almond flour, quinoa flour, corn flour, rice bran, brown rice, quinoa and sugar. I use 2qt containers for cornstarch, potato starch, sweet white rice flour and a brown rice flour mix I use for baking.

Another change? I'm putting my flours in the freezer now - something I've never done. I just have to plan ahead and remember to take them out about an hour or so before I want to use them - they need to come to room temperature first.

I also realized that I forgot containers for my gluten-free oats and tapioca flour too. I'll get truly organized here one day. Going gluten-free is really a whole new ballgame. Especially for someone like me who isn't really that into cooking and baking. But I'm slowly getting there.

Gluten free bread success

2011-02-05T17:29:00.000-08:00

After making gluten-free bread for a little over a month, I have made my yummiest loaf yet.

Here is the recipe,

- 3 eggs

- 1 Tablespoon cider vinegar

- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

- 1/4 cup honey

- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 Tablespoon xanthan gum

- 1/3 cup cornstarch

- 1/2 cup potato starch

- 1/2 cup quinoa flour

- 2 1/4 cups brown rice flour

- 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast

And here's how you do it.

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order listed, making sure not to let the yeast come in contact with the wet ingredients.

2. Select the sweet dough cycle. Five minutes into the cycle, scrape down the sides of the pan if needed.

3. When bread is finished, let cool for 10 to 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

4. Nom.

I used the basic white bread recipe from Allrecipes.com, but instead of white rice flour I use brown, and instead of soy flour, I use either tapioca or quinoa flour.

While my husband has yet to be converted (he is super, SUPER picky about texture), our son and I absolutely love it. And I tell you, there is nothing better than your child taking a bite and then telling you that its the best bread ever. {sigh}. If you have any other great GF bread machine recipes, please leave a comment! I am always looking to branch out.

Hopefully coming tomorrow will be a post on organizing the plethora of flours, starches and gums that come with gluten-free baking. It all depends if FedEx comes through with my package of organizing supplies. More to come soon!

the benefits of celiac disease & money matters

2011-02-04T10:20:00.000-08:00

Happy February everyone! Well it has been a full two weeks since we have had any take out for dinner. While this may not be a big feat for most, it is unfortunately, for me.

While I am good at many things, cooking isn't one of them.

But since my celiac diagnosis in November, I had to choose between learning how to cook and bake or spend twice as much at the grocery store. Because the latter wasn't an option for us, I opened up to a new world of cooking and baking.

And you know what? I kind of like it.

My parents got us a bread maker for Christmas and I absolutely love it. I've made about two loaves per week since we got it (my son LOVES the homemade GF bread). And as far as dinners go, its been pretty easy - most of the stuff I made was gluten-free anyway. But I did have to make some substitutions, which is totally okay.

But the good news is that we are keeping our grocery/eating out bills at a minimum. After moving to our new house, we have a larger mortgage which is much harder to get used to than I thought it would be (we live in an expensive part of the country. Not California expensive, but close). So we are looking at all of our options to save money and focus on what matters most.

We cancelled cable. We use our cell phones as our home phone. We stopped any and all unnecessary spending. We cook more. We stopped eating out. We lowered the thermostat.

And you know what? Its working out. Having a tight budget feeds my creativity. I used to think that it would hinder it (not being able to spend money on scrapbooking supplies, or artsy stuff), but being limited to what you have on hand and making it work takes a lot of creativity. And thankfully, I have plenty of that to spread around.

So I am off to bake yet another loaf of gluten-free bread and to get some laundry done before I pick up Roman from school. I hope you all have a creative day and are able to focus on what matters most to you and your family today.

December Daily 2010 - days 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 and 31

2011-01-03T19:44:00.000-08:00

Oh man it took some motivation to get this post up.

I love Christmas. I really do. But right around this time I am so Christmas'ed out. January is also one of the busiest times for my business too, so I can always find an excuse or four not to finish this project up.

But it's done.

Hallelujah, it's done.

Here is day 24,

I think everyone needs a goofy picture of their kid in a glass ornament.

Here is day 25 - I have lots of content on this day,

This year's holiday Starbucks card and a handmade card from Roman.

This page is similar to my day 23, I had so many great pictures I put a "flap" on the first one so I could add two more,

and the journaling is hidden under a flap as well,

Here is day 26,

Not a lot going on on this day. Planning and packing.

Here is day 27,

The journaling is a bit hard to read so I did a close-up here,

I wanted to keep the embellishments really simple so the focus would be on the pictures. It was such a beautiful drive.

Here is day 28 (with some areas blurred out to protect privacy),

If you're ever in the area, Cashmere, Washington has some great antique shopping.

Here is day 29 (also with some areas blurred out for privacy),

Here is day 30 (again with some areas blurred out to protect privacy),

We had a lot of people at my in-law's house for dinner so the kids made place cards. I made sure to take ours home to use them for the journaling on this page.

And here is day 31,

This last page is adhered to a same-size, hole punched acrylic sheet for stability.

And that is all she wrote! Some things I learned from this year's project:

- While the acrylic sheet in the middle looked cool, it added way too much space

- I really, really like the 8x6 size

- I love December Daily

Thanks for sticking with me during this project! I'll be doing it again next year and in the meantime I know that I'll have a project or twelve to blog about.

December Daily 2010 - she is finished

2011-01-02T22:48:00.000-08:00

December Daily 2010 is done. Or should I say "The-Freakishly-Large-December-Daily-That-Ate-New-York" is done. This thing is MASSIVE.

Three and a quarter inches tall at the highest point...and this is being cinched tight by a ribbon too.

The reason this one is so big? I used an acrylic page instead of a transparency on some days. I love the look but holy smokes it added girth. Lots of it.

So the book is finished, but I am tooo dern tired to post the pages tonight. Tomorrow for sure. Seven pages left to photograph and post! Stay tuned sports fans!

back in town and ready to finish up December Daily 2010

2010-12-31T19:22:00.001-08:00

We are back in town after visiting family and I am excited to get the last pages of my 2010 December Daily album finished and posted. Hopefully by tomorrow, but let's say Sunday just in case =0).

Have a very happy and safe new year!

December Daily 2010 - days 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23

2010-12-24T15:07:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

I have a whole slew of pictures to post here, five whole days of December Daily! Here is day 19,

I am one of those crazy people who love wrapping presents.

Here is day 20,

I am in love with this day. We went to see Santa a wee bit late this year so we had to wait for quite some time, but the kids did really, really well.

Here is day 21,

I have an amazing neighbor who puts together fun things for the kids on an almost monthly basis. Some pictures and text is blurred out for privacy reasons. She even made gluten-free cake too! We are so lucky to have a neighbor like her.

Here is day 22,

Charlie Brown, grocery shopping, post office and Starbucks. Love.

Here is day 23,

This is a day that I've been waiting for all month, my whole family came over to make gluten-free Christmas cookies and treats. There were so many pictures from today that I wanted to include that I made a "flip-up-accordian-style-thingie" on the right-hand page,

I cut a 12" x 12" piece of cardstock down to two 5.5" x 12". I folded them in half and adhered them together, adhering the last page to the book. Then I put the photos on and viola! They are all included.

Have a wonderful, blessed day today and tomorrow! Just a reminder, my December Daily goes all the way to the 31st because we have another Christmas with my husband's family starting on the 27th.

Stay tuned sports fans!

December Daily 2010 - days 15, 16, 17 & 18

2010-12-19T16:51:00.000-08:00

Hello there holiday revelers! Here is a whole slew of December Daily pages that I just took photos of.

Here is day 15,

I couldn't resist taking pictures on this day. The views in our neighborhood are just amazing and the snow on the mountains made it even more magical.

Here is day 16,

On our Christmas tree, there is nothing more precious than that spray painted macaroni ornament. Nothing.

Here is day 17,

I am loving Martha Stewart's Christmas punches.

Here is day 18 (with some images blurred out to protect privacy),

Yes that is an actual reindeer! Very fun.

And that's all she wrote so far, have a great upcoming week everyone!

December Daily 2010 - days 13 & 14

2010-12-15T14:20:00.000-08:00

I ran out of toner the other day, thank goodness for Amazon Prime! They have the best price for the toner I use, and we do the Prime shipping with other family members each year too. I get my cat food through them too lol.

On to the good stuff! Here is day 13,

I'm kind of still surprised I did a page on this. A video game.....really?!? But it is festive. And Roman seriously loves it - its addicting for Mom and Dad too. So yes, I did a December Daily page on angry birds. Definitely a sign of the times.

Here is day 14,

I love the shot on the left. I still can't believe I got it - you can still read the "14" on the box and see what is inside. Love. I realized that I hadn't used my Dymo label maker yet on this project....which is kind of unheard of for me (I love that thing). So I used it and made some fun embellishments for the page on the right.

'Tis the season to make memories!

December Daily 2010 - Days 11 and 12

2010-12-12T19:25:00.000-08:00

I have more pages to share! Here is day eleven,

I was just diagnosed with celiac disease last month so I am still trying out gluten-free recipes for treats like cookies, brownies, etc. Thank goodness for Bob's Red Mill mixes! The cookies were really, really good.

Also, on the 6x8 photo on the left, I had accidentally put "have yourself a gluten-free Christmas" way too close on the right (I printed the text on the photo) and when I punched the holes for the album, it punched out some of the words too. So I printed new text on kraft cardstock, cut it down and viola!

Rookie mistake fixed.

Here is day twelve,

There is a really fun website where you can enter your kiddo's information and they will send an email to you from Santa Claus. Genius. Here is the link:

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/home

Stay tuned sports fans!

December Daily 2010 - days 8, 9 and 10

2010-12-10T18:01:00.000-08:00

I have realized at this point in DD that every page does NOT have to be my favorite. Even if I'm not 100% pleased with a page I do, I know that there will be another chance the next day. Here is my day 8,

I have family members that read my blog so the present list is blurred out! Almost forgot to do that too.

Here is day 9,

I was really surprised that my sewing machine went through both the sleeve and the sample cup too. This is such a great holiday campaign for Starbucks this year, I'm sure that we'll all be seeing many pages just like this. You hit the nail on the head this year Starbucks.

Here is day 10,

Our little boy is on the autism spectrum and has trouble sharing and empathizing with people sometimes. So when he "got" the idea of sharing and giving gifts to kids less fortunate this year, it was big.

Looking forward to letters to Santa and a few other fun things in the next few days. Stay tuned sports fans!

December Daily 2010 - days 6 and 7

2010-12-08T16:24:00.000-08:00

I have days six and seven ready to show! Here is day six, I wanted to show some of my favorite holiday catalogs this year (under the Land's End catalog page are a few other ones that I really like), I just cut them down, stacked them together and sewed across the top to hold them all in place.

The "Give Joyfully" and the snowflake rectangle were also pages from those catalogs too.

Here is day seven,

This is my favorite page so far. We had an online holiday card last year to help save money, but it really wasn't the same. I love Christmas cards! So this year, I decided to bend the rules a little bit and do what I wanted to do. So this year we have cards! I love them.

You'll see that the typed message on this page is less than perfect - there are a few double spaces in the middle of words and the margins are a bit off too. But that's how I know that I typed that message on my Dad's old typewriter (it is super finicky and will double space at random). And that makes me happy.

As always, just shoot me an email or leave a comment if you have any questions or comments, have a wonderful day!

December Daily 2010 - days 1-5

2010-12-06T14:34:00.000-08:00

I seem to be running out of daylight (and available computer time) these days, I was hoping to do posts the day after, but I may be doing group posts like this one from here on out.

I won't be putting links to specific products for time reasons, but if you have questions on anything I've done just shoot me an email or leave a comment.

Here is my finished day one,

And on to day two,

I blurred out some personal info on there. This page has a cut-down page protector where I put a book that my son made in school. Its really cute =0)

Here is day three,

And day four,

And day five,

My observations so far? I LOVE the transparency in the middle. I love looking at the pages to come through them. I also really like the uniform 8 x 6 pages - for a stand alone album it really works well (not too big, not too small), and the uniform size makes it a little easier for me to plan and get the pages done too.

I'm having a lot of fun so far - very happy with the album, very happy with the way its laid out and very happy with how it is turning out. Stay tuned sports fans!

advent boxes: a project

2010-11-30T13:54:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to do something fun advent-wise for our family for awhile now. First I made advent ornaments, but it wasn't "big" enough - I wanted something I could put on the wall. Something people would see when they first walked in the house. And then I saw Ali Edwards' advent boxes and fell in love.

I went to my local craft store to find paper mache boxes and they had a grand total of three there. No good. So I found a website called Woodcrafter.com that has a ton of different sized paper mache boxes at great prices. I placed my order and they arrived shortly after in great shape.

I loved the colors that she used for her boxes, so I kept those the same. Making Memories scrapbook paint in Cranberry, Avocado and Paper Bag. One thing I knew I wanted to do is to keep them all together somehow - I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. So I bought a 20" x 20" canvas and painted the edges in that same beautiful Cranberry paint. Then I lined the back with thick cork sheets (I actually ended up doing two layers thick) and secured it with duct tape (that suckers not going anywhere!).

Then I arranged my boxes how I wanted them, and tacked them in place with thumbtacks. I also used a little bit of tacky glue on the backs for extra insurance. And here is how it turned out,

(Our last name starts with "A" so this is one of the many "A"s around our house).

Another huge thank you to Ali Edwards for such a fun holiday project idea.

December Daily base pages 1-31

2010-11-29T16:42:00.000-08:00

My plans for December Daily have changed a wee little bit - mainly because when I had all my pages in my album....it was full. Meaning "if I put any pictures or anything in here this album is going to burst". So I changed things up a little bit and here is the new cover of my December Daily album:

My husband works for Starbucks and I am so in love with their holiday marketing campaign this year. So I laminated a pastry bag with a simple vintage red and white tag from Papier Valise (with the title typed on my Dad's old typewriter) and boom! Coverpage.

I'm also using these super fun book ring thingies from 7gypsies, they are flexible so you are able to turn the pages a little easier than a traditional book ring.

I still kept the stick-it felt interior page because it is cute too:

If some days have a fun design on the back of the overlay/acrylic page, I'll post that too. But most should only have one photo per page.

I am also planning on doing a full 6x8 photo with digital overlay on it for the left side, if not I'll run the page through the printer again so they match the page on the right.

To save time, I'm not going to be putting links to each product I used, however if you have questions about a particular product I used, just send me an email or leave a comment and I'll get back to you. Much faster that way!

Here is day one,

And the back of day one,

These are super fun little circles I designed to help cut down costs of my album this year. I sewed them to a cut-down sports card page protector and viola! done!

Here is day two,

I loved the idea Ali had about using a spray mist on a tag and then peeling the letter stickers off. I really like how it turned out (I used glimmer mist). Here is the back of the acrylic page,

Here is day three,

I didn't have a lot of fun transparencies around, but I did have several "print your own" 12x12 transparencies, so with a lot of these, I just designed a 12x12 graphic in Photoshop using fun holiday-ish brushes. I also designed the number three flash card as well.

Here is day four, front and back,

On another note, I have the coordinating squares on the page on the right adhered with temporary adhesive - to be honest I'm not 100% sure what I'll do with that space quite yet.

Here is day five,

This is a printable overlay that I designed using one of my favorite photoshop brushes. I used Ali Edwards' Christmas Boxes to frame up the number five.

Here is day six,

This is a fun overlay I bought at my local scrapbook shop.

Here is day seven, front and back (the page on the right is an acrylic sheet I cut down and hole punched),

Here is day eight,

This was another "print your own" transparency that I designed with a photoshop brush. Nice and simple.

Here is day nine,

Again with the "design your own" transparency. I also used a fun reindeer tag from every jot and tittle for the number nine.

Here is day ten, front and back,

Here is day eleven, front and back,

I think those 12 days of Christmas tags are so stinkin' cute. I definitely wanted to add them to the album this year.

Here is day 12, front and back,

Here is day 13,

This was a laser-cut sheet I had that I adhered onto an acrylic sheet.

Here is day 14,

Another laser-cut adhered onto an acrylic sheet. I really like that look!

Here is day 15, front and back,

Again with Ali's Christmas boxes and some fun patterned paper.

Here is day 16,

This is a great transparency, just find the day you're on - highlight it in some way and you're good!

Here is day 17,

Same transparency as day three. I think it'll look nice with photos behind it.

Here is day 18, front and back,

Again - VERY excited to see the photos through the acrylic sheet.

Here is day 19,

This is another tag from every jot and tittle. The page is a laser-cut sheet that I didn't back with acrylic (it is pretty sturdy on its own), but I did reinforce the holes just in case.

Here is day 20, front and back,

Again with the glimmer mist and the tags! I really love how it looks, much prettier in person.

Here is day 21, front and back,

Nice and simple shapes cut from my die cut machine on acrylic.

Here is day 22,

I love playing cards. And again with the print-your-own transparency.

Here is day 23, front and back,

I think that will frame up the photos quite nicely.

Here is day 24,

And then day 25,

And because we have two Christmases (one with family in Eastern Washington), I go to day 31. So here is day 26, front and back,

Have I mentioned my strange and unusual love for vintage bingo cards?

Here is day 27, front and back,

Here is day 28, front and back,

This is another style of reindeer tag from every jot and tittle. I think this is my favorite day so far (I love the polka dots).

Here is day 29, front and back,

Here is day 30,

And day 31!

And that's all she wrote! I am very excited to start this project. Stay tuned sports fans!

livin' gluten-free

2010-11-28T15:35:00.000-08:00

After a loooong absence, I am back! I have been having some health problems lately and I just found out this past month that I have celiac disease. Meaning I can't have gluten or my body attacks itself (its an auto-immune disease). I have been having mild to moderate symptoms almost my whole life and severe symptoms only this past month. So I had a blood test and both an endoscopy and a colonoscopy and celiac it is!

Thankfully we live in a day and age where there are TONS of options out there. Tons. My local grocery store even has a different colored price tag for items that are gluten free. It makes things much, much easier.

My body is slowly healing itself after all the craziness and I can really tell a difference. I'm more awake and alert (without coffee....I know, crazy right?), I generally feel better - I'm not dragging so much, and of course there is the ability to eat without being in the bathroom for hours at a time.

This was also my first gluten-free Thanksgiving. For those of you that know me, I can't cook. It stresses me out and I would much rather be doing other things. But I made my very first pumpkin pie this year...and a gluten-free one at that. And wonders of wonders...it was really good! Chalk one up for my ability to follow a recipe!

I have a bunch of fun things coming up, my December Daily base pages as well as a fun Advent calendar project I just finished up as well. So stay tuned sports fans, I'm back and better than ever!

Great giveaway from Johanna Parker!

2010-11-17T13:53:00.000-08:00

You all know that I am a huge fan of small businesses and homemade goodies. Johanna Parker is giving away a beautiful (and functional) freebie on her blog!

For those of you that don't know about her, she does beautiful, handmade vintage holiday art. She has been featured in magazines and books, and as a small business owner, is very close to my heart. Take a peek!

Pretty cool huh? Good luck to all!

thank you

2010-11-11T21:08:00.000-08:00

thank you everyone for your comments and emails! I am having a blast going on this crazy creative journey with all of you.

Speaking of which, I will be posting a couple new December Daily freebies coming up here in the next few days. If you're anything like me, you run out of fun number ideas really quick. Our family actually does two Christmases (one with our family in Eastern Washington the day after Christmas) so I go all the way to 31...and usually hit a wall around day 15 or so lol.

Stay tuned sports fans!

Every Day October wrap-up and December Daily 2010 Introduction

2010-11-02T14:19:00.000-07:00

I am so happy to wrap up my Every Day October project! I know I'm going to look at this book for months to come - definitely something I want to do again next year.

Here is what I did for day 29 (wasn't having too much luck taking great photos today),

I have a strange and unnatural love for Bingo cards. Love 'em. Happy that I had one with "29" in one of the squares.

Here is day 30,

I used the Halloween Freebie from Ali Edwards for the "Boo" graphic in the page protector. I also used the "Happy Halloween" from the same set for day 31 too,

Because I had so many fun photos, I added an extra acrylic page that I covered with two photos, one on each side (I LOVE the photo on this side, the colors are just perfect).

And that is all she wrote! I'm starting to really like doing these minibooks which is why I've decided to change from a 12x12 Christmas album to strictly doing December Daily albums. I really love doing them and it is such a fun artistic outlet.

I like to follow along with Ali Edwards when she does her December Daily album. She has such fun, fresh ideas, I like to incorporate them in what I do too. This year I'm going with an 8 x 8 album from Making Memories. I was happy that it is a "D" ring binder (it didn't say that in the description), I like that they hold more than a standard round ring binder.

If you followed me last year, you know I love stick-it felt. Love it. My birthday present this year was a Big Shot from Sizzix. I used this die set from Spellbinders to make the fun shape with red stick-it felt in the window and topped it with another fun freebie from Ali Edwards.

On the inside I have another sheet of stick-it felt sized to my pages which are 6x8, topped with the same freebie from Ali.

I fell in love with the cardstock that she used, a criss-cross Bazzill paper in Creampuff. Really nice and a great color. I also liked her printable overlays, but I couldn't get over having the date on there twice - I really like having fun odd number elements in there (like playing cards, bingo cards, etc.), so I designed something very similar in photoshop - but this overlay has a spot for a 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" square for coordinating patterned paper where the date is on Ali's overlays.

My plan is to adhere the patterned paper to the backside of the previous day's cardstock after I'm done embellishing it. I like to sew and staple on my pages and don't want it to show on the previous page. And for days that have a lot of pictures or memorabilia, I'm going to add a cut-down sports card page protector between the two pages.

I mostly used whatever Christmas patterned paper I had around, although I did purchase two new designs from my local scrapbook shop. So there you have it! Its all ready and waiting for me to start filling it on December first. Stay tuned sports fans!

Every Day October, Days 21 - 28

2010-10-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

I am rounding the bend on this project! I can't believe that October is almost over - of course this happens to me every year lol. Its going to be nice to have this book to look back on this great month.

Here is day 21,

This is a business card protector that I found at an office supply store. A nice change from the trading card protectors - love 'em both.

Here is day 22 and part of 23,

I used the "print screen" function on my computer a lot in this project - I used it on page 22 to capture photos of my niece's first birthday shoot.

Here is the inside of the folder for day 23,

It was my birthday so I wanted to include cards and other fun stuff from that day.

Here is day 24 and 25,

I got the "blustery day" poem and image from the internet, it was verrry appropriate for us here on that day.

Here is the backside of day 25 and day 26,

26 was such a fun day, we were surprised with cookies from one of our great neighbors =0)

Here is day 27,

This was really fun for me - where we live we have a view of the Cascade Mountains. They have been completely clear except for today, we saw snow. Snow! So awesome, kind of magical for us because we just moved here not too long ago.

Here is day 28,

And if you're wondering where I got the small "Treat" bingo card - I actually cut it out from the back page of the bingo card pack, you know the one where it shows what is inside the package? I got that idea from my local scrapbooking store - very fun. Especially because I'd used the big one already.

More to come in a few days - have a fabulous fall afternoon!

Every Day October, Days 16 - 20

2010-10-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

I am learning so much from this project!

It has taken two "Daily" type albums for me to really discover my "style" for these albums. I've decided that I'm going to continue on with Every Day October and December Daily for as long as I can - I don't think I'll be able to do this when the second kiddo comes along in the future. And that's totally okay, I'm going to try to go with the flow, do what I can and not beat myself up if I can't.

Here is day 16,

I really don't like beer too much. But there is something about Pumpkin Ale that I just looooove. So tasty.

Here is day 17,

My fabulous sister gave me permission to put my beautiful niece's face up and I am so glad that she did! These pictures are just too darn cute.

Here is day 18,

Okay so I have some 'splaining to do about this one.

Every month Roman's class gets a new poem to memorize and recite in front of the class. If they are able to do it by memory, they get a cool certificate. This month, Roman did it! So I put the poem, certificate and quite possibly my favorite new scrapbooking invention so far:

This is a compact, super thin voice recorder from My Pages Talk. You can record up to 30 seconds and keep it FORVER. I'm serious. Its awesome! We all know how quickly our kiddo's voices change and this is a great way to add some serious interest to a layout or memory book.

I recorded Roman saying his poem, slipped it inside a cool kraft envelope and stuck it on the page. The button to hear the recording is right underneath the smiley face stamp. And you can hear it clear as a bell, even in the envelope. Awesome.

Here is day 19,

This is a fun project that I put together a few years ago from a back issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine - the frame is from Ikea, I stuck some wire mesh to the back and viola! A super fun, Halloween advent calendar-ish type project. This is also the first time I've used smashed bottle caps on a project - I think I'll do it again. And yes, they are from that delicious pumpkin ale =0)

Here is day 20,

The weather was still gorgeous (and BOY has that changed lol) and I wanted to add this quote by George Eliot (and looking at the page now I see I misspelled "her" name. Sorry Mary Anne.).

That one line - "my very soul is wedded to it", wow. Definitely how I feel and why I wanted to do this project.

More coming soon! Thanks for all your emails and comments!

Every Day October, Days 1 - 15

2010-10-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures of my Every Day October album. For those of you that are new to my blog, this album follows the format of a December Daily album. I did the December Daily last year and loved it - but we have been keeping a separate Christmas album for the last ten years. I found myself repeating the same layouts in both the December Daily and the December Album on several occasions. And I am a fan of simplifying things so I may not do that project this year. I still wanted to do a "Daily" album so I'm highlighting my favorite month - October. And "October Daily" just didn't sound right to me so it became "Every Day October".

Another thing I'll be doing this year is not listing the supplies, it's very time consuming. So if you have a question about a particular product, just email me or leave a comment.

Here is the coverpage that I made out of a 12x12 acrylic sheet, cut down to 8.5x11 and hole punched.

Here is day one,

I used a bag from a grocery store in the San Juan Islands where we were staying at the time, and made a fun pocket for some pictures. I used my favorite old-school dymo label punch for the tab. I seriously love that thing.

Here is day two,

Burlap is cool. I plan to use that quite a bit throughout this album.

Here is day three,

Some of these layouts will use the backside of the previous day, some won't. I pretty much "go with the flow" and do what I think looks good. With this one I used a Starbucks coffee bag and had some fun with orange crackle paint for the number "3". I love that stuff! I slipped a story about why I love fall so much (some parts are blurbed out because they have some detailed info I didn't want to share with the world).

Here is day four,

I seriously love my niece. Which is why she is blurred out in that photo just in case.

She is so stinkin' cute and I put here in this album every chance I get. This is just a trading card page protector cut down to make things interesting. I love this baby.

Here is day five,

I used the back side of the trading card page protector and also used a Heidi Swapp transparent clock to feature the super cool picture of the Cascade Mountains. Ali Edwards uses those a lot in her projects and I love the quirky-ish ness that it brings to an album.

Here is day six,

I used the back of the clock transparency and cut out the circle with the new Martha Stewart circle cutter - for those of you that don't have it yet...run...don't walk to your nearest craft store. It is awesome. I'm really impressed with her line of craft products so far.

On the other page I used photoshop to crop the photo down and put the border and text on the photo. This makes it so much easier to achieve a fun, clean look with your layouts. And Photoshop Elements is really affordable too, I highly recommend both programs.

Here is day seven,

More burlap. And Dad's old typewriter. With pumpkins. LOVE.

Here is day eight,

I plan on including more of Roman's artwork from school in this album too.

Here is day nine and ten (some info is blurbed out - addresses and stuff),

I also love using playing cards on layouts too. Its kind of funny how the things that look best on pages were never meant for crafting.

Here is day eleven and twelve,

We love, love, love, love Charlie Brown in this house. Love. So I had to do a page on the Great Pumpkin. I could watch that movie all year. I do watch that movie all year.

I also wanted to put a spotlight on the amazing weather we've been having in the northwest this month - it has been amazing. Mostly sunny and clear with just the right amount of chilly.

This is the weather for the month of October on weather.com, I just hit "Print Screen" (which will copy all the images from the screen onto your clipboard) and pasted it into Photoshop. I'll have to do it again at the end of the month because the weather is STILL gorgeous. Crazy.

Here is day thirteen,

I usually can't stand ads and extra paper that we get in the mail. But I thought it would be fun to put snippets of the "extra" (a.k.a. junk) mail on a page. I backed it with a chipboard house shape and hole punched it. Viola.

Here is day fourteen,

You can't really read the text on here, but if you go to SproutOnline.com, there's something called the "Barnyard BOO-gie" game. You can put your kiddo's face in the character and watch them dance. It is hilarious. I made so many screenshots that I used the front and the back of the sports card page protector for this one.

Here is day fifteen,

Neighborhood gatherings are so fun. I added the recipe for the soup I made on a library card and stitched it to the page protector. I made the photo collage and added the text in Photoshop.

And that is it so far! More to come in a few days, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

its coming...

2010-10-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

I have truly forgotten how crazy October is for our family.

This is one of the busiest times of year for my business, my customers are small business owners who are gearing up for the Christmas rush. And we have birthday parties galore this month. We have five birthdays (including my own) and one anniversary.

But I am having a blast with my project! The good thing about being busy is that there is no lack of content - I always have something to take a picture of/write about.

Stay tuned tomorrow (I promise!) for pictures of days 1-10, I need to wait for the sun to rise again to get some better photos. 'Night!

Every Day October coming soon!

2010-10-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

I haven't forgotten about it, I just have a bunch of stuff on my plate right now. But I'm so excited to show you all the ideas I have for this great project, more to come soon!

holy smokes I want this book

2010-08-13T16:01:00.000-07:00

I've seen this skit before but never made the connection that it could actually be a book (even though the book is shown before the skit...but whatever). But be still my beating checkbook....it is.

Shut Up About Your Perfect Kid: A Survival Guide for Ordinary Parents of Special Children

Thankfully I'm not yet at the stage where parents are comparing report cards and sharing amazing stories about their kids, but I know that is coming soon. And I'm actually okay with that, I've been lucky enough to surround myself with people who are understanding, accepting and open minded.

One of the reasons I am so "into" scrapbooking and taking pictures is because of self esteem. I didn't have a whole lot growing up (I still struggle with it to this day), so that is something I want to instill in Roman every day. That he is original, one of a kind and amazing. Here is a page that I did the day we learned he was on the autism spectrum.

Doing layouts and making art is therapeutic for me. Sometimes its hard to get over yourself when you have a non-typical kiddo. This definitely helps me focus on what matters most. Some days when Zach gets home I confine myself to the office for a few hours until I get my groove back. And that is totally okay.

Documenting the good and the not so good. Because that's life. Anyway, the book is in my shopping cart, I am so excited to get my read on.

planning for Every Day October

2010-08-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

I am so excited.

Joann.com is having a 40% off scrapbooking supplies sale right now so I took the opportunity to stock up on albums and to get the album I'll be using for my new Every Day October project.

This is going to be exactly like the "December Daily" project, except this year, I'm doing my favorite month. The December Daily project was great, but I found that I was repeating a lot of the same content in our family's Christmas album. I am a fan of making things as easy and fun as possible so I am making the switch.

I'm going to be using an American Crafts 8.5"x11" D-Ring Modern Album. I'm using the brown to go with the autumn theme. I love these modern albums, the chipboard covers allow for some fun customization. Here is what I came up with so far,

First I painted the cover with a mixture of two Making Memories Scrapbooking Paints, Nutmeg and Eat Your Carrots (yes that really is the name). The nutmeg was a little too brown and the carrots was waaay too orange. Mixed together, they worked nicely!

To distress the edges a bit, I used a sponge with a Staz On Brown ink pad. This is a solvent ink pad that is permanent and waterproof. Because the cover was painted, the ink dried nice and quick.

Next I used a fun date stamp from Close to my Heart with the same Staz On ink pad to make the date circle on the front.

I used letters from Making Memories to make the title and then used a bat punch by Martha Stewart crafts, (one of my favorites) on an old dictionary page.

Am I early? Oh heck yes. When I think about all the fun things that we'll be doing in October (camping trip, Harry Potter exhibit coming to the Seattle Science Center, decorating in the new house, pumpkins, etc.) I am really inspired.

Bring on fall, I am totally ready.

two new designs listed

2010-08-08T17:57:00.000-07:00

Work was slow over the weekend so I caught up on some designs that I started awhile back, but didn't quite finish. The first is a Halloween design that has been in in the works for a good year now:

Next is a softer, everyday design that has been in my "pending" folder for realistically, at least two years. But today it is finally finished.

If you click on the two thumbnails, they will take you to the page the design is listed, and as always, all new designs are listed at the very bottom of the page. Here's hoping that everyone has some time to do something they love today!

organizing family photos and albums

2010-08-04T20:15:00.000-07:00

Most people who read my blog know that I love to take pictures. A lot of pictures. And I also like to scrapbook and create Life Art, its a great creative outlet for me and I love looking back on all of our memories.

I've gotten a lot of questions from people asking how I organize everything and I am finally explaining everything from albums to photos.

We have two ikea bookshelves in our living room that hold all of our books,

I like having them out in the open in a central location.

At this point in our lives, I have the albums divided into four categories: Roman, Family, Christmas and Week In The Life (still on volume 1 of that one, I just started last year). I also have any mini-books that I've done in a basket below the albums (you can see the top of it in the top photo).

Because these books span eleven years, I also have some specialty albums, our wedding, my family history, Zach's family history, my high school & college memories, Roman's first year and yes, I even have smaller albums for the pets (keep in mind that we had the pets before Roman came along so I had some extra time on my hands). You can also see that I've used several different types of albums over the years, the one thing that keeps everything "together" is the labeling system that I use on the spines.

I see a lot of software out there to help organize photos and to me it looks like it takes something that can be simple and makes it complicated (and I loathe complicated).

I organize my pictures like I organize my albums, we have a "media" folder with subfolders of "Christmas Album", "Family Album", "Roman's Album" and "Other Albums".

The Christmas Album folder has subfolders with the years the photos were taken (with a Christmas Past folder for random scanned pictures when I was a kid). I didn't go digital until 2005 so thats when the folders start,

Our Family Album photos are organized the same way,

and Roman's photos are organized by his age,

The Other Albums folder is for projects like Week In The Life, December Daily, etc.

Then when I download my pictures from my computer, I make a folder for each event (Roman's Birthday, a fun Saturday outing, etc.) and then put the photos in the corresponding folder.

Last year I decided to try a December Daily album, something new and really fun, but I found that I was repeating a lot of the same things in our Christmas family album. So this year, I knew that I wanted to do something similar to the December Daily...just not in December.

My favorite month is and always has been October. I love everything about it, from the leaves changing, the pumpkins, the super fun Halloween decorations and the cooler temperatures. And every year, it seems to go by way too fast. So this year, in December Daily tradition, I'm going to be doing an Everyday October album - something that I am really, really excited about.

So that's it - my super simple, non-complicated system. If you have a user-friendly system I'd love to hear about it!

we are home

2010-07-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

Finally after all the craziness we have settled into the normalcy of everyday life in our new house. The whole process of selling our house and buying this one went by so fast...it's very surreal. I keep thinking to myself, "hey, maybe we should sell the house" (the old house). It's hard to believe that it's all said and done and we are where we will be for the next 20+ years.

The layout of our new house works much better for us, my favorite part by far is our new office.

Because both my first and last name starts with "A" I thought this was appropriate ☺. I love the chocolate brown walls, everything I put up really "pops"! We even have a "peek-a-boo" view of Mount Rainier from our second floor too, kind of ironic because we live in Snoqualmie where views of Mount Si are everywhere.

okay so the picture totally didn't turn out but with my eye I could see Mount Rainier pretty well. Really. I'll try to get a better picture later lol.

One of the things we really wanted when we were looking for a new house was a playspace for Roman, we needed room for his swings, toys, crash mat, etc. This house has a loft space upstairs with the two kids' bedrooms that we used as the playspace. When the painters came in to do the den and living room, I had them do something special for that room:

we had the entire far wall painted in chalkboard paint. He LOVES it, and it's really great for fine motor too. Much better than the super small chalkboard we had at our old house.

And now that we are finally settled in and I have all my creative stuff all put away and organized, I will be doing more of my fun creative-ish posts.

I am so happy to be here. So happy to be home.

PS - I have to apologize up front about the word verification in the comments section, I have been getting spam comments like you wouldn't believe and really had to do something.

up and running!

2010-06-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

I am happy to say that I am typing on my computer at my temporary workstation, my husband fixed our computer! My website is back up and running and I am a happy girl once again. More updates to follow!

we have successfully moved out!

2010-06-06T22:05:00.000-07:00

As of 7:30pm, we are officially homeless! I am typing this on my Dad's laptop as I sit in my old room at my parents' house. We are staying with them until our new house closes - that's right we get to move not once...but twice!

The good news is that most everything so far has gone smoothly. The bad news is that our computer may be toast. Which is very, very bad news for my customers and my business. Not good at all. Zach and my Dad are trying to fix it right now, I am hoping that we can get it up and running asap - I don't like being away from my email for too long!

So if you have emailed me in the last couple of days and havent heard back, I will get back to you as soon as I can! And to my customers, I appreciate your patience and will get your order filled asap. Updates to come as they happen!

why have I been gone so long?

2010-03-29T16:03:00.000-07:00

We are putting our house on the market to sell! This means that for the past few weeks I have been painting, moving and remodeling every free second I had. All the base moulding and doors needed to be primered and repainted (four + coats people....ugh) as well as touch ups on the walls and a complete re-painting of the laundry room. Why the rush? We want to take advantage of the federal tax credit. We also want to take advantage of the super low interest rates as well.

This is something that we have been talking about for several years, we first had our real estate agent out about three years ago, before the bottom fell out of the market. We have a split level home that worked well when it was just Zach and I, but add a special needs kiddo in the mix and it just doesn't work. What are we looking for? A much smaller, flat lot. Something really easy to maintain. A house with a different layout with an office and a play space (a room or loft), where I can have Roman's swings and toys. Something a little newer that doesn't need constant upkeep.

We had to consider a few different options when we were deciding where to move to. We knew that we needed a better commute for Zach, right now he takes three different, super clogged freeways to get to work and then home again. We want great schools, a real community and more of an "out there", northwesty feel. So we decided on.....Snoqualmie!

This area is about 30 minutes east of Seattle, has amazing mountain views, a great school district and has a newer, planned community that is just awesome. It is also much cheaper than homes in cities closer to Seattle, which means we can find something we can actually afford (bonus!) It has everything that we are looking for and we are so excited to start looking for our new house! Wish us luck!

want to win an amazing camera?

2010-03-03T21:53:00.000-08:00

Check out this website:

http://www.haveanepiphanie.com/home/2010/2/28/epiphanie-give-away.html

They are giving away an AMAZING camera, a Cannon 5D. Awesome. Fingers crossed that my name gets picked!!

do not read unless you are a parent of a boy. you have been warned.

2010-03-01T23:14:00.000-08:00

Okay, the following post should not be read unless you are a parent. Scratch that, unless you are the parent of a BOY.

You have been warned. Proceed with caution.

Today I was getting Roman off the potty when he looked back at his handiwork and said "Mommy, can we take a picture of that and put it in my album?"

(when he says album he means scrapbook)

I thought he meant the super cool shirt he wore today.

I was so wrong. "No, my poop Mommy. I want you to take a picture of my poop and put it in my album".

While I am a fan of scrapbooking everyday life, I tastefully declined.

He is such a boy.

diagnosis: autism spectrum

2010-02-20T23:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had our meeting with the neurologist, thankfully it was a good meeting. Both Zach and I felt really good going in and leaving, the neurologist was very open minded and we felt comfortable talking with her.

Roman is officially on the autism spectrum. Something that we already knew in our minds and hearts but is now in black and white. Zach and I are still doing okay, we found ourselves bickering about little things in the afternoon and realized that it was a little hard to see the diagnosis on paper. When you have a special needs child it's hard to get over yourself sometimes. But it's all good. We are all good.

We also learned of a supplement called carnitine we can give him for his hypotonia that we'll be starting him on right away (I can't believe we've never heard of it before).

This opens the door to all sorts of things for Roman, something that we are very happy with. Now we have access to networks and programs. Which is awesome, considering we were on our own for two and a half years.

This is a good thing for our family. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers.

for the love of vintage and family

2010-02-18T20:16:00.000-08:00

I am a vintage nut. I love ephemera, nostalgia, antiques and all things vintage. Which is why I love this.

This is my Dad's old typewriter. I've had it for months, hidden away in a closet under the stairs. I finally found a typewriter repair place in Puyallup and had both this typewriter and my black beauty repaired. And the crazy thing is....I like the way this one types better than mine. So my beauty is in my curio cabinet upstairs and this one is now put to work.

I even have the original case with my Dad's name on it (the white is just to show where it is, kinda hard to see).

I picked it up yesterday while Roman was in school. I had an hour to spare when I got back so I spent it wisely at some antique stores looking for treasures. I found some awesome 50's children's books that inspired me to do this layout.

See the alphabet page in the lower right corner? That is from a vintage Golden Book that I scanned and added to my layout in photoshop. I loved that the "R" and the "Z" were right next to each other. Fate I tell you. Fate.

Here is the stuff that I used: background paper: bazzill dotted swiss paper in rope swing (I am in love with that dotted swiss paper, the texture rocks); Heidi Swapp lowercase Ghost Letters; distressing ink in chocolate: Close To My Heart; font used: ozwald itc; other: Dad's Typewriter, Photoshop.

I want to do many more layouts like this in the future. Layouts to show Roman that he is loved and unique and amazing. We have our "big" appointment with the neurologist tomorrow to go over his autism test results, although at this point it is merely a formality...we know in our minds and hearts that he is on the spectrum (and his therapists have let us know what they think). And you know what? It's okay with us. We are at peace with it. For two and a half years we have been searching for an answer. Every test has come back unremarkable. A diagnosis for us means more support for our family (which we really need).

I'll be putting a post up either tomorrow or Saturday about the results. Please keep our family in your prayers but know that we are seriously okay with this. We are the parents of an amazing. one-of-a-kind child and that is something that we celebrate every day.

this is way too long for my facebook status...

2010-01-20T19:34:00.000-08:00

Roman has a a cold so I kept him home from school today. He was really dragging and said he was sleepy so I told him that we could take a nap. I tucked him in, said goodnight......and promptly fell asleep myself. I wake up to Roman running in to happily tell me that Sally (his fish) was dead and we can now get a cleaner shrimp. At first I thought he had a really bad dream but I was sooo horribly wrong.

So I go into his room and see that his fish tank looks suspiciously empty. Then I see that he has taken all of the big rocks and plants out of it and put the soggy bunch on top of his paperback books (of course). Then he had climbed on top of his desk to get the fish net and the rock vacuum - both were completely wet (the rock vacuum even had a rubber snake stuffed inside). Then I noticed something in the net. Yup, he had caught one of his little fishies and it looked like lights out for Sally.

So we take the net into the bathroom and Roman says that he wants to say a "pare" (prayer) for Sally. I said, okay, go ahead. This is what he said, completely uncut and uncensored,

I caughted Sally in the net

and now she is dead

now we can get a cleaner shrimp

in Jesus name amen

Then we empty the net into the toilet...and the fish starts swimming! It wasn't dead after all! I contemplate catching it again in the net and putting it back into the fish tank when it swims down the toilet drain. This sealed Sally's fate and she is now (no pun intended) sleeping with the fishes.

What did we learn from this crazy mishap? Roman is too young to have his own fish tank. We told him over and over again to never ever ever touch his fish tank, but the temptation was just too strong.

RIP Sally...and Max, Mary, Mel, Jack and of course Saggy the mystery snail. You will all be missed.

autism screening tomorrow

2010-01-11T16:07:00.000-08:00

Roman starts his Autism screening tomorrow, it will last the week (he has evaluations with his speech, occupational and physical therapists) and then an eval with their psychologist.

I do want to stress that if he is diagnosed with autism that it doesn't change anything. It's not bad, it's not good, it just is. The only thing that may change is that we may be able to be eligible for funding which would be awesome. Being in constant debt because of medical bills just plain sucks.

I'll be posting a lot this week, I have a lot of projects up my sleeve that I want to talk about. Ali's December Daily project inspired me so much that I want to do a daily project in October too. Every year I look forward to October and I always feel like it goes by way too fast - hands down it is my favorite month of the year.

Have a great day everyone!

December Daily 2009: Days 29, 30 & 31

2010-01-04T14:25:00.000-08:00

This is my last post about DD 2009. "boo" and "yay" are running through my mind right now, I really loved running around like a total geek with my camera around my neck taking pictures of everything every day (which really isn't too different from my everyday life...but whatever). This was really really fun. I will be doing this next year with bells on.

Onto the goods - here is day 29 before:

and after:

stuff I used: word stickers by Making Memories; patterned paper by My Mind's Eye; pages from an antique dictionary; my old typewriter; font used: avenir.

This was our last day in Wenatchee and the first day I started to feel better. Murphy's Law I tell you.

Here is day 30 before (now this one was fun):

and after (the pics turned out a wee bit blurry):

Stuff I used: Starbucks bag; tab punch by McGill; word stickers by Making Memories; old school dymo label maker.

I was so happy to have my SLR that day, the views from the train coming home were breathtaking! Living here is so awesome, I love Washington.

And now my last day....day 31 before!

and after (I have two pages of after...will explain below):

Stuff I used: transparency talked about here; lined scalloped journaling page, unknown; December calendar embellishment by Jenni Bowlin Studio; word stickers by Making Memories.

I finished this page with a transparency pocket on both sides so that I could put some thoughts on the very last page.

Stuff I learned from December Daily: the little things matter most; before printing journaling on photos, keep in mind where you holes will be; eyelets look nice but make your book thicker and the pages harder to turn (won't be using them next year); it really is fun if you challenge yourself to use what you have on hand; don't use felt to cover an album if you have pets (I've sticky rolled it about 50 times so far); a daily book is fun for me but is like Disneyland for my kiddo (which is awesome, he loves looking at it); I will so totally be doing this next year.

Thank you to Ali Edwards who inspired this project and thank you to my husband and son who put up with 31 days of me shoving my camera in their faces...even more than usual. Love you boys.

December Daily 2009: Days 25, 26, 27 & 28

2010-01-03T23:46:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! I am incredibly stoked (did I just say that?!) to write this email, man did I have fun with this project. I will seriously be doing more mini-books now. So much fun.

Without further ado.....here is Day 25 before:

And here it is after:

Stuff I used: patterned paper from behind both photos from My Mind's Eye; word stickers by Making Memories; paint on left page, "spotlight" by Making Memories; transparency on right page talked about on my day five page here; font used: avenir.

Lots of fun. And yes that is Skype on the page on the right, my sister and her boyfriend are in England for the holiday. Technology rocks.

And now on to day 26! Here is the layout before:

And here are the "after" pages, I have two because of the file folder:

on this page I put memorabilia in the left pocket and I covered the file folder on the right with photos. That was fun. I designed a fun journaling box in Illustrator (I'm really loving doing that lately) and wrote in with white pen. All aboard!

Stuff I used: File folder from Staples (cut down and corners rounded); white journaling pen by Signo (this is by far the best white pen I have found and I have gone through a bunch); gaffer tape by 7gypsies; word stickers by Making Memories; "26" letters by Thickers (I think this is the funniest, wittiest name for a product ever by the way).

This was fun to put together but a little time consuming, I traced around the photo (stuck on the file folder) with a finger tip craft knife (which I highly recommend for doing detailed cutting).

Here is day 27 before:

and after:

Stuff I used: random ledger paper from Bartell Drugstore; pages from an antique dictionary; word stickers from Making Memories; mini letter stickers from Making Memories; stamp set is an oldie I got for a great deal on eBay; ornament on right page, unknown; "27" number stickers from Creative Memories (I think they may be retired, I got them a really long time ago).

I didn't take many pictures that day, my cold had gone from bad to worse and I slept most of the day. Now onto day 28 before:

and after:

for this layout I ended up using two ways of showing the number 28. Why? I found this awesome website called Sky Blue Pink, if you are looking for fun playing cards to use in altered art projects or scrapbooking - you must see this website. It is awesome. Anyways, I found some fun Christmas playing cards and thought I would use them for next year's album. I got them and couldn't wait. They are really, really cute.

Stuff I used: patterned paper from My Mind's Eye; stocking graphic behind "28" from Making Memories; "28" numbers unknown; word stickers by Making Memories; font used: bookman.

29, 30 and 31 coming tomorrow, stay tuned sports fans!

my one little word for 2010: strength

2010-01-01T15:23:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! We are back home after a fun yet sick time in Wenatchee visiting family. Zach and Roman are doing much better but I still have a bit of a cold. **sniff**

I also have some fun news to report...I am done with my December Daily! Which makes me happy and sad at the same time. This is the first time I've done a project like this and I didn't just like it...I loved it. I adored it. It was SO much fun, I can't wait until next year. This project helped me grow as a story teller, an artist and a scrapbooker. I am seriously happy about this. I'll take some pictures hopefully today and have my blog post up in the next couple of days.

Now onto another Ali-inspired project - one little word. My one little word this year is

Strength

I chose this word for a few reasons. The first one is obvious, I would like to exercise more to get stronger. A healthy mind definitely lives in a healthy body. And this body will hopefully be pregnant again in this next year. Dealing with two kids definitely warrants more strength. Alot more strength. The second is emotional strength. Way too often I have a "poor me" attitude when things get hard and it seriously needs to stop. The third is strength with integrity. Being a strong person with my values and living them (not just talking about them).

Are you going to do this project? If so, leave me a comment with your one little word and your reason for choosing it, I'd love to see it!

Wishing you all beauty, prosperity, love and strength in the new year!

APA closed from 12/26 - 12/31

2009-12-25T17:58:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to let you know that Amybug's Primitive Attic wil be closed from December 26th - 31st. My website will stay up but please remember that all orders will be filled on the 31st.

Please visit my "Common Q and A" section here if you have any questions.

Have a happy and safe holiday!

December Daily 2009: Day 23 & 24

2009-12-24T23:59:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Eve! Our stockings are hung, our presents are wrapped and I am ready to share some December Daily pages! here is Day 23's layout before:

And here is the layout after:

This layout was inspired by Ali's day eleven page, I fell in love with that fabric tag the moment I saw it. This was really fun to put together and I'm sure that many parents out there can relate. Here is a close up of the picture collage on the left (I put this together in Adobe Photoshop CS):

And here is a close up of the list on the right:

And here is the stuff I used: canvas tag by Pink Paislee; small letter stickers by Making Memories; printed paper behind clear acrylic by My Mind's Eye; font used: Rockwell Condensed.

Here is today's layout before:

and after:

I did this almost 100% digital, collage on the left and layout on the right was designed in Photoshop CS, snowflake was downloaded from Microsoft.com's free clip art section and altered in Adobe Illustrator; "hello" drawn with my Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet (this is super fun for putting hand-drawn elements on your digital layouts); "24" cut from this page by Making Memories; font used: avenir.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year! We will be on the road the day after Christmas so no blog posts until the 31st. But then I hope to have the rest of the album finished. Gotta go, I think I hear something on the roof...and bells too...

why I love my friend Amy

2009-12-23T18:58:00.000-08:00

I just checked my messages and here is what she sang:

to the tune of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas"..

I called to leave you a message,

I'll see you on boxing day....

and the icing on the cake was after that she sang,

and bring your dog........!

to the tune of...well I can't remember what that is but it's that thing that people sometimes sing after a song is over. It's the "da daa da daaaaaaaaaaaaah"!. I hope you know what I mean. Anyway it was awesome. And this is why I love my friend Amy. The end.

December Daily 2009: Days 19, 20, 21 & 22

2009-12-23T18:28:00.000-08:00

Seriously? Two days until Christmas? Holy smokes. We're all still sick, but I am hoping that we feel better tomorrow for family get-togethers.

This year is kind of funny. My house is a mess, my laundry runneth over, we're sick, and yet I am super happy. I think that having this extra creative outlet really helps me feel more like me. And that is cool.

I have some updates for our December Daily album! Here is day 19 before:

And here is the layout after:

Stuff I used: Starbucks cup (hee hee), gaffer tape by 7gypsies; game spinner by Tim Holtz; vintage red labels by Papier Valise; border punch by Fiskars.

On to the next! Here is day 20 before:

And after:

This layout was super fun, I was inspired by this gal's December Daily picture and was able to recreate it at my parents' house (no breakable ornaments here). I think its pretty funny that Roman looks much taller than me in that picture. A sign of things to come for sure. Like next week or something.

Stuff I used: number paper by Making Memories; clear acrylic frame, unknown; red ink on clear acrylic frame by Close To My Heart (Cranberry); tag by Avery; border punch by Fiskars; font used, avenir.

Here is day 21 before:

Earlier I had switched day 6 with day 21, so there should be a white envelope from day 6 here. But then my sister gave us a Christmas card with a super cool red envelope and I ended up using that instead. Here is the after:

This layout was inspired by Ali's day three page. I loved the idea of writing a letter to your kiddo in the book.

Stuff I used: santa paper by My Mind's Eye; "21" circle designed in photoshop (font is Rockwell Condensed) and cut out with Marvy Uchida's Super Jumbo Circle Punch (which is 2 inches wide - a great size to have on hand); border punch on envelope, threading water by Fiskars; letter stamps by Stampin' Up (the ones I used I think are retired, I ended up getting them on eBay for super cheap); tab punch by McGill.

On to day 22! Here is the layout before:

And here is the layout after:

Stuff I used: my kiddo's artwork from school; star ticket by Jenni Bowlin Studio; same stamp set used on day 21; binder-edged border punch by EK Success; "22" numbers unknown; mini index card for journaling.

I will actually be going all the way to the 31st with my album, our family always goes over the pass to see my husband's family where we have our second Christmas. So stay posted, much more to come!

my heart is happy...but my throat is sore

2009-12-22T14:27:00.000-08:00

I caught the cold. Boo. But my spirits are up and my heart is extremely happy right now, if you guys haven't checked out the December Daily Flickr page - check it out here.

It is amazing, inspirational, happy, creative....awesome. I think that it is so cool that there are so many artists out there that are sharing their work with us. It seriously makes my heart happy.

December Daily freebie

2009-12-21T17:05:00.000-08:00

After doing my day 17 page I realized that it would be fun to offer the "hello Tradition" journaling box that I designed to anyone that could use it. It is a bit of a funky size, 5" high by 5.67" wide (I sized it to my page), but hopefully you can make it work with your project.

If you are just using it as a black and white element, you can click on the image above to see the full-sized, print-quality version and "right click" to save it to your computer. Or you can download the zipped up .png file by clicking here.

You can re-color the element by following the steps on the Designer Digitals website here. Let me know if you use it - I'd like to start doing more of these freebies if they are useful. Have a creative day!

December Daily 2009: Day 17 & 18

2009-12-20T01:09:00.000-08:00

I finally feel like I have a handle on things - I have only one present left to wrap (wahoo) that should be here tomorrow. I'm happy about this because I can now ditch this whole "responsible adult" thing and start enjoying Christmas like a kid with my kid (and of course my husband). Yay to that!

I am a few days behind on my posts, so here is what my day 17 layout looked like before:

And here it is after:

Roman absolutely LOVES Charlie Brown and I thought it would be fitting to do a day on it.

Stuff I used: Wacom pen to draw "hello" in Photoshop; images from the internet; font: avenir.

On to day 18! This one was super fun. Here is the layout before:

And here it is after:

It was our day to take pictures with Santa! So much fun. Roman was a little bit shy but kept it together. My sister's little girl did awesome! Happy as always. This one was fun because I got to include the receipt in with the photo on the right. It'll be fun to look at that in 20 years and think how "cheap" pictures were "back then" lol.

Stuff I used: transparency talked about on my day 5 page; photoshop. Super simple this time. Avenir font used again (one of my favorites).

More to come tomorrow, have a warm and safe night everyone =0)

December Daily 2009: Day 16

2009-12-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

Time is not flying by....it is jetting by. I can't believe that we are almost to Christmas! Here is my day 16 page before:

And here is the layout after:

Every night after dinner, I go downstairs and get my work/creative time on while Zach spends time with Roman (which is why my office hours are so late). This usually involves a lot of roughhousing and playing. Last night was particularly loud (laughing and yelling) and I actually said (sarcastically) "ha - do you hear what I hear" to myself. So I went with it - hee hee.

I used the same type of colors that I have on the album itself, light blue and red. I initially wanted to do red letters but you could see the red stamped letters on the left as well as the red "15" so I thought I would go with blue. I wanted to do something special with the pictures and remembered this fun technique of rounding only two opposite corners. The bigger the corner, the better the shape! So I used the large corner rounder from EK success (it is a little over a half inch) for maximum cool-shape-ness.

other stuff used: grungeboard letters by Tim Holtz; scrapbook paint by Making Memories; paper on the left behind photo is by My Mind's Eye (this was purchased a few years ago and is discontinued); wee little word stickers by Making Memories; bird punches by Martha Stewart Crafts; Red Stick-It Felt; journaling circle created in Adobe Illustrator and cut out with Marvy Uchida Super Jumbo Scalloped Circle Punch.

While I'm fairly caught up with this whole December Daily thing....I have yet to get my Christmas presents taken care of (ha!). So I'll be working on those quite a bit in the next few days. But I would so rather be working on December Daily. Yup.

December Daily 2009: Day 12, 13, 14 & 15!

2009-12-16T14:38:00.000-08:00

I have realized that doing a handmade Christmas and a December Daily album is kind of a lot for me to handle. Thus the super long break between posts. But I have to say that I am having so much fun! On to day 12!

Here is the layout before:

And here is the layout after:

I had so much fun decorating the coffee sleeve! Onto the supplies: Starbucks Coffee Sleeve, Game Spinners by Tim Holtz; Clock transparancy by Heidi Swapp (I found this on eBay, I think it is discontinued); patterned paper by My Mind's Eye; ribbon, JoAnn Fabrics; labels by Avery; Holly elements cut with Martha Stewart Holly Punch and Stick It Felt; word stickers by Making Memories.

On to Day 13! Here is the layout before:

And here is the layout after:

Today we saw snow flurries - the first of the season! Roman loved it, he kept saying "look mommy, it's Christmas!".

Supplies used: Pages from an antique dictionary (I got mine on eBay); word stickers by Making Memories; Polka Dot Patterned paper by Making Memories; typewriter; thread; font used, Avenir.

Hello Day 14! Here is the layout before:

And here is the layout after:

Supplies used: Poinsettia Blossom by Making Memories; "joy" and "my favorite gift" journaling tags also by Making Memories; paper tag underneath "14" by Papier Valise; vintage dictionary page; letter stickers by Creative Memories.

On to day 15! Here is the layout before:

And here is the layout after:

I didn't use pictures on this layout (I didn't even take pictures that day), I thought it would be fun to put one of my planner pages in here, complete with my chicken scratch handwriting. I also wanted to put a library card in there but it was too short. So I stuck two together and used a ribbon to hide the seam. Crafty eh?

Supplies used: letter stamps and ink by Close To My Heart; planner page by Franklin Covey; library card bought at Discount School Supply - I LOVE this website; "You are Here" stamp by Stampers Anonymous.

That's all folks - stay tuned!!

December Daily 2009: Day Eleven

2009-12-12T15:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was one of our "nothing" days meaning no school, no therapies. Because we are constantly on the go, it is nice to have a day to just relax and have fun. Here is the day eleven layout before:

And here is the layout after:

Thoughts on this layout: I am in love with using divided protectors. This was the first time that I have used them in a layout/project, I will be using them a lot in the future - very versatile and super easy to put together and have it look the way I want it. Very nice.

Supplies used: Santa paper on the left by My Mind's Eye (this was purchased a few years ago and is discontinued); patterned paper and santa circle on the right by My Mind's Eye (I really love this paper pack); number stickers by Creative Memories; word stickers by Making Memories; font used: Avenir.

Have a great weekend everyone and stay warm!

PS - I am super excited about tomorrow's layout - how often do I get to decorate a Starbucks sleeve??

December Daily 2009: Day Ten

2009-12-11T19:26:00.000-08:00

Still freezing cold here in the Northwest - fingers crossed for snow tomorrow! But now.....it's time for December Daily! Here is Day Ten's layout before:

And here is the layout after:

For the story of the transparency, take a peek at my Day Nine page here. I modeled the collage on the left to look like Day Nine's. The journaling on this one reads:

It was super cold but sunny and clear.

Roman went to school for the first time all week after being sick.

Then it was off to the dentist for Roman and Zach.

I realized after the fact that nothing there explains the picture of the horse at the top. Rookie mistake yet again. It was such a beautiful day that I took a drive after dropping Roman off at school and found this clearing with a gorgeous view and the white horse. Perfect!

Supplies used: Extra large playing card by Heidi Swapp; printed paper behind photo on right by My Mind's Eye.

I forgot to add that I'm using Adobe Photoshop CS on all of my photos and layouts too. Happy Friday everyone!

December Daily 2009: Day Nine

2009-12-10T20:18:00.000-08:00

Happy December 10th! Is it just me or is time flying by?? Holy smokes. It's December Daily time!

Here is day 9's layout before:

And here is the layout after:

This layout showcases some of my handmade ornaments that I've made in the past few years. If the Advent Ornaments look familiar, I saw these advent numbers here and just fell in love with them and ended up recreating the basic design of them at home with my punches and wishblade. Love them!

On my Day Five page I talked about creating my own transparencies from printable Ink Jet film from Grafix. I did the same thing on this layout, I wrote "merry and bright" in different colors and printed them out on my Wide-Format Epson Photo Printer (I absolutely love this thing). My photo collage was inspired by Ali's day eight page. I wanted to match the transparency with the button in the middle of the collage, so I used the same font for the "merry and bright" on the button. I added some noise and an inner bevel on the button to try to make it look real-ish and not something I printed out (which of course I did).

Other supplies used: Metal number "9" by Tim Holtz, chipboard letters by various brands painted with Making Memories Scrapbook Paint in "Shopping Bag"; paper behind chipboard letters by My Mind's Eye; other:old school Dymo label maker, thread.

More to come tomorrow, stay warm everyone!

working on fine motor this month

2009-12-09T18:32:00.000-08:00

we had Roman's parent-teacher evaluation not too long ago and they were concerned about two things - his talking in class (well duh, he's my kid) and his non-improvement in fine motor skills. So his wonderful OT (who is now officially on maternity leave - we will miss you so much Jackie) suggested a chalkboard. We have one downstairs but we don't like him going down there without a grown up (we have one of those glorious seventies split level houses).

So she suggested putting black contact paper on his door. Brilliant! I loved the idea and went on a website she recommended, Discount School Supply, I found the black contact paper along with some really bright fun chalk.

The order came the other day and I realized that I would need to put the contact paper on something flat. We had some left over pressboard from our kitchen remodel in the garage, so I cleaned it, plopped down the contact paper and then realized that it was too big to put on the door.

So change of plans, I bolted it to the wall just below his artwork. Perfect! Here is the finished product:

You can also see some beautiful artwork that he drew. When I asked him to tell me about his picture, I expected to hear, "its an owl" or "its a dinosaur". Oh no. Not my son. He says, "it's kitty puke Mommy, can't you tell?!".

Oh my.

December Daily 2009: Day Eight

2009-12-09T18:07:00.000-08:00

This one is for all you dog lovers out there!

Here is the layout before:

And here is the layout after:

My pooch got groomed yesterday and looked too adorable so he was the star today.

Because my handwriting is seriously illegible, here is what the journaling says:

I seriously love you.

Even when you roll in extra disgusting things. even when you have that toxic gas and lay right next to me.

I love you.

Thank you for being such a good boy. You protect Roman and I when Zach is away on business trips. You shoo the cats away when they are getting into something.

And you love us.

unconditionally.

The supply list on this one is super short - the paper behind the journaling box is unknown and the number 8 tab is from 7gypsies.

Most of the work on this layout was done in Photoshop - for my dog Shamus's photo, I used trixie as my typewriter font (ont of my favorites) and then I used my Wacom pen to draw "love" in my handwriting on the photo. Then I created a journaling box with the same Trixie font at the top for "to my mountain dog of the east":

so are you curious about the whole "mountain dog" thing? Okay, here is the scoop. We got Shamus from a rescue shelter in Snoqualmie about six years ago. For those of you who are non-northwest people, Snoqualmie is a sleeper community about half an hour east of Seattle. The mountain views here are just amazing - it is one of my favorite places to visit and take pictures. Soooo....put the mountain views and the east together and you have - mountain dog of the east! Plus he totally looks like a mountain dog too.

More to come tomorrow!

December Daily 2009: Day Five, Six and Seven

2009-12-08T21:49:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness what a crazy couple of days!! Thankfully the flu has left the house and miraculously Roman was the only one who got sick. This is the first time that Zach and I dodged any kind of sickness from him (fingers crossed). Anyhoo - it's December Daily time!

Here is the "day five" layout before:

And here is the layout after:

Quick note on this layout - I really wanted to use what I had on hand for this album and I really loved the transparencies that Ali's stitched onto her fabric pages...but I didn't have them. I did have these handy dandy guys - printable transparencies! So I just made a bunch of circles in photoshop, outlined them in green, reproduced the heck out of them and viola! A fun transparency.

Supplies used: paper on the left under the photo by My Mind's Eye (this was purchased a few years ago and is discontinued); Number 5 cut out from this page by Making Memories; old school Dymo Label Maker; paper underneath journaling, Slice 8x8 Paper Pad: Ledger (I absolutely love this pad - I don't even have a slice lol).

Now onto "day six" before:

Note - I actually ended up swapping my "day 6" page with my "day 21" page. I realized that it was silly to have two things that held stuff in the same layout. Rookie mistake. Again lol.

Here is the layout after:

Ideally I wanted to include one of our Christmas cards in the album. But we are super tight with finances at the moment so we decided to do a Christmas web newsletter instead. But how do you put a website into an album? I used Photoshop and the "print screen" button on my keyboard to peice together our whole newsletter:

it worked pretty well! We may even do it again next year too.

Supplies used: transparency (see "day five post"); journaling label by Jenni Bowlin Studio; letter stickers by Making Memories; old school Dymo Label Maker.

Now onto "day seven" before:

Because I swapped out the envelope with the clear file folder from day 21, my finished layout looked like this:

on this layout, I used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I had seen Ali's overlays and I just loved them. I used Illustrator to make the "baby its cold outside" title on the right page with that same style:

Other supplies used: vintage round playing cards from eBay; paper, unknown; fonts used, Arial and JSL Ancient.

Phew! Three days in one post! More to come tomorrow!

sick kiddo alert

2009-12-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

our little man has the flu and a bad one at that. blog posts to resume very soon...hopefully!

December Daily 2009: Day Four

2009-12-05T14:37:00.000-08:00

Here is the layout before:

And here is the layout after:

Supplies used: "four" cut from this page from Making Memories (I used this for a lot of my numbers); patterned paper, Close To My Heart; scallop punch, Fiskars "Scallop Sentiment" (I love Fiskars border punches); paper under "the story of our stockings", Slice 8x8 Paper Pad: Ledger; brown distress ink by Close to My Heart; font: arial; other: my typewriter, thread.

More to come tomorrow!

December Daily 2009: Day Three

2009-12-04T16:56:00.000-08:00

Here is the layout before:

And here is the layout after (the picture is a bit washed out - darn flourescent lights)

Supplies used: sheet music printed from the internet and then cut with Extra Jumbo Scallop Circle punch from Marvy Uchida, smaller circle cut with Martha Stewart Scalloped Circle Punch-, Letter "3" by Creative Memories, journaling spot on tag by Heidi Swapp, paper on tag underneath photo and journaling spot by My Mind's Eye (this was purchased a few years ago and is discontinued), font: schoolhouse.

Lessons learned from this layout - When I printed my photo collage, I measured across the entire length of the clear page protector. The problem? The grommets (see before picture). No problem, I thought. I can remove them just like I did on the cover. This was so much harder to remove than the ones on the cover, the plastic is stretchy and was very easily damaged. So now I will measure the length of the area just beyond the grommets. Lesson learned.

More to come tomorrow!

December Daily 2009: Day Two

2009-12-03T14:11:00.000-08:00

Here is the layout before:

And here is the layout after:

Supplies used:Avery Manila G Shipping Tag - 6.2, December calendar, Jenni Bowlin Studios, Slice 8x8 Paper Pad: Ledger (under text), Font: Trixie

More to come tomorrow!

December Daily 2009: Day One

2009-12-02T21:02:00.000-08:00

Here is the layout before:

And after day one:

Supplies used: polka dot paper by Making Memories, Number One also by Making Memories (cut out from the page), Font: Garamond.

Note to self: don't put journaling where the holes go. Rookie mistake. More to come tomorrow!

Hello December Daily 2009

2009-12-01T14:05:00.001-08:00

This year I have decided to do a super fun project inspired by Ali Edwards.

This is my December Daily album! December is usually an eventful and memorable month for families and this is such a fun way to be creative and remember all the fun things that happen too. My album goes all the way up to the 31st, we visit my husband’s family in Eastern Washington starting on the 26th, so we almost have two Christmases.

Like Ali, I used the Prima Canvas Album.

I took the grommets out like she did here, and covered it with light blue felt that I had left over from my son’s felt board with Stitch Witchery.

I lined the inside of the album with two sheets of red stick it felt – they were sized perfectly height-wise and I just overlapped them a little bit in the middle to make it fit perfectly. Then I used the same red stick-it felt and used Martha Stewart bird punches to punch out the felt elements for the cover. Then I traced graduated circles on the back of the stick-it felt, cut them out stacked them for the snowman. Then I freehand cut the scarf out of white stick-it felt (did I mention that I love stick-it felt?).
Then I added new grommets and 2 ½” rings that I found in the needlepoint section of JoAnn Fabrics and viola! The album is ready to go.

Here are my pages that will soon be filled with photos and memorabilia this December. If you have questions about specific products used just leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you – I used a lot of the same products that Ali used on her album, I also have a few embellishments and pages that I designed myself as well.

Click on the images to see a larger version of the photos.

My goal is to post every day with my page(s) for the previous day. Have a creative day!

I am back!

2009-12-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

First of all, I apologize for the extremely HUGE gap in posts, things have been a bit crazy around here lately.

Roman has been increasingly difficult lately, it is still super hard for him to transition between activities, even with his chart and giving a "count down" (five more minutes until we do this). There are many other things going on, almost too many to remember right now. Its been almost a constant battle for the last couple of months.

I am feeling better now, but I struggled with depression for a few weeks. I know that Moms of special needs kiddos can relate with me on this one. It is really hard sometimes.

We are having him tested for Autism again coming up here soon, he was tested at about 18 months and it didn't look like that was the case, but so many things have changed since then. That wouldn't change anything on our end, he would still get the care he needs through private therapy and through the school district. But it may open some doors for more resources for him, which is so, so important! He is such a great kid and we really want the best for him.

But I am now back! I buried myself in creative work when my husband came home (a saving grace for me, truly) and I have a super fun project for December! I am working on my post right now with all the details. Stay posted!

one word

2009-11-13T19:45:00.000-08:00

Got this from my friend Christine's blog...you can only use one word to answer each question.

1. Where is your cell phone? purse? (question mark because I really don't know, I always lose it)
2. Your hair? ponytail
3. Your mother? loving
4. Your father? thoughtful
5. Your fave food? Curry
6. Your dream last night? Bizarre
7. Your fave drink? Latte
8. Your dream/goal? Authenticity
9. What room are you in? Office
10. Your hobby? Creating
11. Your fear? Loss
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Motherhood again
13. Where you were last night? Home
14. Something that you aren't? Bold
15. Muffins? Yes.
16. Wish List Item? Lenses (camera lenses)
17. Where did you grow up? Washington
18. Last thing you did? iTunes
19. What are you wearing? Comfy
20. Your TV? Roseanne
21. Your Pets? Playing
22. Friends? Necessary
23. Your Life? Blessed
24. Your Mood? Tired
25. Missing Someone? Nope.
26. Vehicle? Odyssey
27. Something your not wearing? Shoes
28. Your fave store? Amazon.com
29. Your fave color? Green
30. Last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Tuesday-ish
32. Your best friend? Zach
33. One place that I go to over and over? PCC
34. One person who emails regularly? Customers =0)
35. Fave place to eat? Indian

new book on my nightstand

2009-11-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

I am now reading It's a Boy!, a book that I bought a couple of years ago but just haven't picked it up.

It was recommended to me by my sister and I also remember someone coming to our MOPS group a few years ago that talked about this book. I remember really liking this guy (was he the author? I don't remember unfortunately), he talked about the importance of mothering and the bond between mother and child and how it is crucial for development. Awesome stuff.

Our little boy is four so I have quite a bit of catching up to do (I just started the "toddler" section LOL), so far it is really interesting - makes me happy to be a mother of a boy. I actually really wanted a boy, I played with boy-oriented toys when I was a kiddo (dinosaurs, transformers, gobots, etc.) and I actually had more guy friends growing up than girl friends.

We're still planning on having another kiddo and I would love to have another boy. Part of me would love the challenge of raising a little girl too, what an opportunity that would be. Raising a girl in today's society that has confidence and self esteem (something I lacked severely growing up). We'll be incredibly happy with whatever we are blessed with. And we're not in any hurry right now to have another child. Although many of our friends and family have children fairly close together, we wouldn't be concerned if our children are several years apart. It's what works for our family.

On another note, I WILL be resuming my Template Tuesday to Thursday give away, I absolutely promise! I missed the month of October so this month I will be giving away two....count 'em two templates/banners, whatever you like! And I have also decided that you can either take a freebie or get ten dollars off a Webset, eBay store design or Selling Blog Template too.

On yet another note (yes I really am that random), I will be unveiling my 2010 signature design really early this year....like hopefully this evening early (but probably tomorrow). The reason? I am really tired of my current design to be completely honest (LOL) and I also wanted to have a separate button so customers can purchase a selling blog template instead of having the hassle of purchasing a regular blog template and then purchasing the add-on. Here is a sneak peek....
More to come soon!

keeping the peace

2009-10-29T17:14:00.001-07:00

the past few days have been...challenging around here. Roman has been having a hard time transitioning between playing and...anything really. It is especially hard to get him on the potty these days too, each time he we try to put him on he throws a fit and sometimes even cries because he says he is busy.

Yesterday morning I was at my wits end when we finally got to Occuptional Therapy (late of course). I told Roman's therapist about the issues that we have been having lately and she recommended putting together a schedule to help him transition a bit better. She also recommended reinstating the potty chart (which didn't seem to be working) in addition to giving M&M's as rewards.

So last night I got to work and this is what I came up with, (the squares you see above his schedule are the completed activities for the day)

I made 3x3 squares in photoshop and typed his activities for the day along with a corresponding picture (thank you Microsoft Clip Art!). I printed them out then laminated them with sturdy 10 mil sleeves (my favorite thickness), cut them out, rounded the corners, then added a strip of velcro to the back along with a magnet, the velcro is white and hard to see against the white paper so I added black lines to show where it is.

Then I laminated an 11x17 sheet of paper, rounded the corners and added three strips of velcro for his squares. Last night I made up his schedule for the day and left it on the fridge for him to see the next morning.

The result? Today has been incredible! He loves taking his squares off his schedule and putting them up on the fridge after we're done doing something. We have had zero complaints about going potty today and get this...zero accidents! I also made another potty chart for him too, the one we were using had 20 boxes across and was a bit overwhelming to look at. This one only has ten, everything seems to be working - wahoo! I even made a special square for our "nothing" days: that would be the "Go To Starbucks" square. He is a sucker for hot cocoa and lemon loaf lol. So far so good, will keep you posted!

happy birthday to me

2009-10-24T00:54:00.000-07:00

I am official 32 years old as of yesterday. And I couldn't be happier about it. My 20's were all about establishing myself, getting married and having one of two kiddos. My 30's are all about my family and finding my real joys in life. Did I ever think that I would be an at-home Mom with a graphic design business? No. But it is the best job I could ever have. Being a Mom is....amazing. Truly the best thing in the world. Being a Mom and having amazing creative outlets? I couldn't ask for more.

Speaking of creative outlets....I was given the most amazing birthday present ever. In the history of birthday presents. A present that will span many birthdays and a Christmas or two. Or three. Or four. This is a Canon Digital Rebel SLR T1i. 15.1 megapixels. 3 frames per second. Amazing camera. I should say that I am the unofficial family photo historian in the family. I have our family history scrapbooked to the mid 1800's. I scrapbook almost every single day and take a ton of pictures.

I realized about two years ago that I had some major limitations with a point and shoot - camera shake was a huge one. I don't like using the flash, I love the look of natural light pictures. But my pictures always turned out blurry. That and I needed a higher mega pixel, I use a lot of 12x12 and above pictures in my layouts. Here is my first layout from my new camera featuring a 9x14 photo: The picture is clear, crisp and I didn't have to stretch the photo to fit. When I think about the amazing pictures I can take from here on out, I almost hyperventilate I get so excited. I am one deliriously happy girl.

the pumpkins have landed

2009-10-22T02:46:00.001-07:00

and I am having so much fun with them this year! I've been thinking of using gourds for noses, ears, etc. for years and I finally did it this year. I actually used our electric drill to drill the hole. I wasn't prepared for the pumpkin goo to splatter all over the kitchen, but when you use power tools, it can get messy. And it did. Big time.

I also wanted to try a fun new idea that I saw on MarthaStewart.com. This technique uses wood gouges to carve into the pumpkin's skin without going all the way through. The result is pretty darn cool. So first I measured my pumpkin, then made a template on my computer, printed it out and taped it to the pumpkin. Then I used an awl to poke holes around the letters so I could see them when I took the paper off. Then came the wood gouges! Here you can not only see the pumpkin but a close up of my super thick glasses. Yes, it is a wonder that I can see at all. Here is the finished design: Roman wanted a scary pumpkin so we made this one for him: Happy Carving!!

lanterns are finished!

2009-10-19T09:24:00.001-07:00

and I am very happy with them! They are a bit smaller then what Martha has on her website because I used my wishblade to cut the parts out (did not want to do it all by hand!). I purchased the orange vellum on eBay and I used Bazzill Bling Black Tie Cardstock from scrapbook.com to make the lanterns themselves. Add beeswax votives inside and you have a frightfully beautiful display for Halloween!

welcome sweet baby girl

2009-10-18T01:11:00.001-07:00

eight pounds, six ounces. completely irresistable. I am such a proud and happy auntie.

("Welcome sweet baby" text scraplifted from the great ali edwards)

Updates!

2009-10-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

My poor sister hasn't had her baby yet. Yes folks, she is two weeks past due today. But the good news is that she is now in the hospital, they started inducing her this morning and as of about five minutes ago...its kind of not working. Meaning she is getting contractions but they are not going anywhere.

I also wanted to update my customers out there, we are having some major computer issues and may need to take the computer in to the Geek Squad to be fixed. It is taking forever to do things that took only seconds before. For me, this is very frustrating as I try to fill orders. So please be patient with me for the next few days, if you don't hear back from me! I can't wait to get this fixed!

So updates will be in order for the next few days...stay posted!

on baby duty

2009-10-01T09:50:00.000-07:00

while my husband and son are in Wenatchee visiting family, I am home on baby duty. today is my sister's due date and still no sign of baby. Will keep you posted.

scraplifting ali's tuesday tutorial

2009-09-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

This Tuesday I was really inspired by Ali Edwards' Tuesday Tutorial, "Trash to Tools". I loved the look of the toilet paper roll idea so I put it to work on one of my layouts: Love how it turned out, how easy it was and how inexpensive the tools for this layout were! Very nice. I will definitely be using this technique again.

Speaking of Tuesdays...this coming Tuesday is the first of the month and I will be doing my Template Tuesday to Thursday drawing! So tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell people you don't even know! If you are in need of a prim or vintage banner, auction template or blog template be sure to come back this Tuesday! Have a creative day everyone!

halloween is a'coming...

2009-09-29T20:05:00.001-07:00

and I am so excited! I love everything about it - the colors, pumpkins, decorating, everything. I have also been crafting like crazy lately and wanted to show you whats been going on at my house.

My favorite magazine of all time is Creating Keepsakes. Absolutely love it for inspiration and ideas. I've also been really into getting past issues from eBay, in fact, I have every single issue from 2004 to the present. This is above my computer desk so I can easily grab an issue when inspiration strikes. And you never know when you're going to find an especially amazing issue.
Isn't this cool? This is a project from the October 2008 issue of Creating Keepsakes. The article is called "Halloween Countdown" by Candice Stringham and includes two projects, this 13 days of Halloween project and the crow banner that you'll see later on.

The frame is from Ikea and I just got the wire mesh from our local hardware store. I made the little creations from miscellaneous embellishments and fun scrapbook paper. Then I used hooks (from "hook and eye" sets) from JoAnn Fabrics, and fixed them to the back of my various creations.

You can see that they are numbered 1-13, on the back of each item (or inside the item itself) is something to do on that particular day, like "try on your costume" or "bake Halloween cookies". For the crow banner, I redrew the crow image in Adobe Illustrator then cut out the crows with my Wishblade (I was lazy and didn't want to cut them all out by hand). I also cut the letters out with the Wishblade as well. Now the crow banner in the magazine said "spooky" but I liked "Halloween" better.

I also wanted a banner for the upstairs fireplace, so I made one of my own design,
The last project I've been working on is a luminary from MarthaStewart.com. I wanted to do something special on the piano this year.
It turned out pretty cool, I hope to make two more to go on either side and add some pumpkins on there. I'll take pictures when I'm finished with the whole setup.

I am having an absolutely blast with all of this - it is so much fun seeing something and then recreating it with my own twist on it. I would love to see what you're working on this year, leave me a comment!

sick kiddo today

2009-09-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

Roman has a cold and missed his first day of school and will probably miss the week (no school on Fridays), poor baby. He has been really looking forward to this! We're hoping that he sleeps through the night, like Mommy, he can't sleep when his nose is all plugged up.

Exciting and interesting posts will return in a few days! I am working on some fun Halloween crafts with inspiration from old Creating Keepsakes magazines and Martha Stewart. Stay tuned!

things I am grateful for today...

2009-09-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

its almost fall

I have access to delicious organic fruits and veggies

I'm a mom of an amazing little boy

I have the power to learn

I have a husband that supports me and lets me know when I'm a bit too crazy

creative outlets

the ability to live a more authentic life

simplicity

being conscious about what matters most

coffee

my crazy creative life

the first day of school that wasn't

2009-09-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

Our school district has been on strike for the past couple of weeks so when we heard that the strike was ending and that school was starting on Tuesday, we were super happy! Roman especially. So we got there and waited...and waited...and waited...

only to find out that even though school started today, preschool doesn't start until this coming Monday. So we went to Starbucks and drowned our sorrows in hot cocoa.

He is so excited to go back to school!

2009-09-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

and the winner is....

Flossiecat a.k.a. Lori! Here is her favorite school memory:

I love my ebay template I got from you and still use it! Never can have enough of your beautiful stuff! My favorite memory is when I was in fourth grade and it was nearing the end of the year so it was warm with flowers blooming everywhere. My Papaw had bought me a beautiful new painted pony and it was TORTURE for the day to be over with so I could get home to ride him. I didn't think the day would ever end! But, it did, and I almost jumped off the bus while it was still moving. I ran to the barn and Papaw had Toby saddled, bridled and ready to go when I got there. What a day! We were inseparable from that day forward. Hmm. . . I hope this counts as a school memory!

It certainly does! What a wonderful story.

My favorite back to school memory is not really a specific memory, I remember being extremely excited about going back to school and getting everything ready. One thing that I did from about fourth grade on (into high school) was get a "view" binder and spend hours cutting out words and pictures from magazines and putting together a collage that I would put in my binder. I did the cover, back cover and even the spine too.

Lori, please email me at AmybugSells (at) comcast.net for your prize!

its baaaaaaaaack....

2009-09-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

yes ladies and gentlemen, the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte is back and better than ever.

For those of you that don't know, my husband Zach works at the Starbucks Corporate Office here in Seattle so we are really into anything Starbucks.

Not only does the PSL taste good, but it almost gives me permission to start doing fall crafts and to start getting excited about decorating and pumpkins and leaves changing and....well the whole shabang. This is totally my favorite time of year. I am one happy gal.

2009-09-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

Would you like to win a free Amybug's Primitive Attic Auction Template, Banner, Blog Template or About Me Page? If so, you're in the right place. I am starting a new promotion called Template Tuesday 2 Thursday!

I will be posting a fun question the first tuesday of the month, if you'd like to win an APA freebie, just leave a comment (just one!) with your answer and make sure that you are a Follower of my blog.

Comments are moderated (so don't worry if your comment doesn't show up right away) and will be closed at 8:00pm Pacific time on Thursday. I will pick a random number between one and...however many people leave comments, make sure they are a Follower and that will be our winner!

So this week's question is...

What is your favorite back to school memory growing up?
I will also be posting my answer to the question when the winners are announced Thursday evening. Make sure to come back then to see if you are a winner! Have a great day everyone and good luck!