Hello, Sunshine!

I received my Mosh Posh May'10 kit on Monday and I couldn't resist it! I know I have a lot of other beautiful paper sitting around... but I had the perfect photos for the Lily Bee Hello, Sunshine collection:

 
The buttons are my own: Doodlebug Design - primary assortment. I love how the colors of the layout match the toy birdhouse at the play area! These pictures are from the trip to NYC that I'm working on... more LOs on the way!

Obsession

I'm still obsessed with the Twilight saga, what can I say.

I read the unfinished draft for Midnight Sun and then I had to start on the books all over again... I had borrowed them the first time, but I bought them this time around.

I sincerely hope Stephanie Meyer will finish Midnight Sun. Actually, I hope she rewrites the whole saga through Edward's mind, the second book in particular - can we call it Full Moon?

I hope it won't be like Star Wars and I have to wait 30 years for the next set!

winter in FL

Living in Florida has some advantages, such as a very mild winter weather. Some days are just warm and sunny, like this New year's day in 2009.

I love Apron String' Smaller Than a Bread Box kits because they come with 3 sets of 2-page kits. This is the first time that I used an entire set for a layout. It's called Prima - My Mommy & Me and was part of the August'09 kit. I got it as a sub for one of the packs in the April'10 kit that didn't strike my fancy. This is a great kit club because you can skip, sub and flip the kits if they are not what goes with your style! The alphas are Umbrella Thickers from American Crafts. I ran out of "s", so I used a snake from the Accents set. I also used some illustrations from the guide that we got at the the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, FL.

Holiday Tree

This past weekend I finished 2008. I can hardly believe it!

Here is a LO I made for our tree hunting outing. If you want to know why I call it a holiday tree, read this.

I love the picture of the little one asleep after he managed to take off with just one sock. The tree farm is not even 5 minutes from our house, he was exhausted!

Papers from my Mosh Posh February'10 kit. I also got the felt embelishments from them. I layered two sizes of Prima flowers and attached them with mini brads. I used the paper insert from the Prima package as a journaling tag.

What about me?

When I realized I wasn't in the album I started for family pictures, I quickly whipped up a LO using some goodies from my Apron Strings January'10 kit and some extra Sassafras Lass Sweet Marmalade stickers I had at home.

I cut the title from the background sheet with a Coluzzle alpha template, then I cut the shadow for the letters with the cardstock I used to mat the pictures. It took a little patience to get things aligned just right, but I liked the effect. The border on the right came from the same paper, but it was on the top, on the other side - I accented it with yellow crystals, from the same set as the flowers.

This LO reminds me of trying to do too much at the same time, but enjoying the reasons behind it.

Scrapping Nostalgia

I decided not to put the Sea World LO in our travel scrapbook, as it was a one day thing and would get lost amidst our longer family vacations. I pulled out an old scrapbook I started for the boys during my second maternity leave, after I deemed the baby books complete. This is what I found in there:

The X2 tag is from the new Express Jeans I bought when the pre-baby stuff didn't fit ;)

These LOs were made Summer 2008, when I started getting the hang of the scrapbook thing. I visited a local scrapbook store (which has closed) and started buying Coluzzle templates (which have been discontinued). I remember debating over those funky frames for days before I found them in a discount website.

I made so many pages that summer... but once I went back to work I had no more free time to scrap. But by the end of last year I started getting more personal time - or maybe I just made time for myself. But there are so many photos to catch up on that it seems overwhelming at times... but I just scrap through it, one LO at a time.

Sea World Fun

I've been catching up on my scrapbooking. This LO is from our trip to Sea World in 2008, our first visit to a amusement park with the kids. Considering my oldest preferred the sand box to any of the other attractions, it is understandable why we haven't been to any of the other Orlando parks...

I love using maps in my LOs, and I find they go best with a subtle card stock background. I kept it simple with just some Jolie embellishments I found at Michael's.

Lack of sleep

I haven't been getting much sleep lately... I decided to try reading something different and opened my copy of Twilight that a friend of mine gave me for Christmas. That was a week ago, and I was ready to borrow New Moon 2 days later.

This is insane! I've been taking 2-3 days to devour each of the books and I cannot control myself! So far Eclipse (book 3) is my favorite, and I have a feeling I will wish I had stopped there. I'm overwhelmed by foreboding about how things will derail in Breaking Dawn, the fourth book - like in the Mists of Avalon when Morgaine discovers she is expecting Arthur's child. Bad decisions sure to come... Or worse, a feeling that she will wake up from a coma caused by the van actually hitting her in book 1 and normal life will start over, like the Wizard of Oz. And you were there, and you, and you...

I'm sure I'll finish the last book in another day, in spite of the dread and foreboding...

Historical fiction, 12th century

I have been literally living in the English middle ages these past couple of years...

• I'm almost on the last of the Brother Cadfael series, by Ellis Peters - just missing the last two.
• I read Sharon Kay Penman's historical trilogy on Henry II, plus the first three Justin de Quincy Mysteries and the first of the Welsh Trilogy, Here be Dragons. 
• And I almost forgot Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth and World Without End...

 This madness started when I was taking a break from detective novels, but I can see I got immersed in the conflict between Maude & Stephen, the fiery reign of Henry & Eleanor, and the not quite so monastic life of Brother Cadfael. Can I really let them rest in peace and move on?

Nerdy Bird Card Context

I noticed this card contest sketch on the PageMaps Blog:


I thought an origami bird would give the card a cute feel, so I gave it a try:

I used the Colour Change Bird model by Paul Jackson and goodies from the Mosh Posh February kit. I attached the ruffles with my tape runner, following this tutorial.


I need to work on my no flash photo-taking skills...