The One with Guest Designing for Lily Bee Design


Thursday, May 30, 2013

When Heather with Lily Bee Design asked if I'd like to guest design for them I jumped at the chance! I love getting to play with new, awesome products! Lily Bee Design is right up my alley with bright colors, bold patterns, and a great mix of feminine designs for me and Jane and masculine designs for  Chris and Fox.
 RIGHT NOW

Journaling says: This picture was taken on Easter Sunday 2013 before we headed to church. Just a snapshot of our little family. Chris holding Fox and Paige holding Jane. We are a happy family!

How to: Lightly distress the edges of a blue cardstock background. Punch 3" squares from each patterned paper in the Pinwheel collection and trim them into triangles again and again until you have a bunch of sizes. Place a photo on the top left side of the background and arrange the triangles around the photo. Embellish the photo with three patterned buttons, a sentiment pennant sticker, and number stickers. Place label stickers on the edges of the layout, trim the excess, and stamp the date on the left one and write journaling on the right ones. Attach a fabric brad on the left and right edges, connect them with a piece of gray baker's twine, and staple the twine in place. Drop black spray mist around the layout. 

Supplies: Cardstock, pen, date stamp, adhesive: American Crafts; Patterned paper, fabric brads, buttons, baker's twine, stickers (labels, numbers, sentiments): Lily Bee Design; Staples: Office supply; Spray mist: Studio Calico; Ink: StazOn; Square punch: Marvy Uchida
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARD

How to: Punch starbursts from an assortment of papers from the Sweet Shoppe and Pinwheel collections and arrange them evenly spaced across a cream cardstock card base. Stitch double circles around three of the starbursts. Add a pink "happy birthday" sticker to an aqua label sticker, place a bow tied with gray baker's twine at the top, and adhere the embellishment on the right edge; trim any excess.

Supplies: Cardstock, adhesive: American Crafts; Patterned paper, baker's twine, stickers (label, sentiment): Lily Bee Design; Starburst punch: Martha Stewart Crafts; Sewing machine: Brother; Thread: Coats & Clark

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THANKS CARD

How to: Stitch a double border with white thread around a dark gray cardstock card base. Punch squares from the Pinwheel collection, fold the opposite corners of each square in to create a diamond, then arrange the diamonds across the card base in three rows. Layer label stickers, letter stickers, a flower fabric brad, and red striped button on the right edge to create a focal point and sentiment.

Supplies: Cardstock, adhesive: American Crafts; Patterned paper, fabric brad, button, stickers (labels, letters): Lily Bee Design; Square punch: Fiskars; Sewing machine: Brother; Thread: Coats & Clark ******************************************************* THE CUTEST

How to: Trim a flower petal shape from cardboard then trace it onto both sides of every paper from the Sweet Shoppe collection, cut out the pieces, then sew around them to create a quilted look. Arrange the petals into a flower on a yellow cardstock background. Add a large crocheted doily to the center and top it with three photos. Make a title from letter stickers and embellish with a fabric brad, patterned button, and an assortment of stickers. Punch a partial scalloped border on each corner of the layout. Pierce a stickpin with a baker's twine bow tied on it through two of the punched edges. Drop aqua spray mist by the stickpins.

Supplies: Cardstock, date stamp, adhesive: American Crafts; Patterned paper, fabric brad, button, stickers (labels, letters, hearts, words, sentiments): Lily Bee Design; Stickpins: Making Memories; Baker's twine: The Twinery; Crocheted doily: Vintage; Ink: StazOn; Spray mist: Studio Calico; Scalloped border punch: Fiskars; Sewing machine: Brother; Thread: Coats & Clark
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A BOY & HIS STICK

Journaling says: Fox is so flippin' excited every time we walk by this house and find some sticks for him to hold and wave around. What is it with boys and sticks? Whatever floats his boat!

How to: Die cut a geometric background from gray cardstock then back most of the pieces with patterned paper from the Destination collection as well as four photos. Draw a border around the photos with a white pen to draw attention to them. Back one section with white cardstock and write journaling on it with a black pen. By the journaling add a letter sticker title in one section and place a sentiment label sticker and the date stamped on another label sticker tucked under a "GO" badge. Stamp the date again in white in a section on the top left side. Tie brown baker's twine in a bow around a section on the left side. Place a red fabric brad and yellow button on sections with paper of the same color. Drop white spray mist across the layout.

Supplies: Cardstock, date stamp, adhesive: American Crafts; Patterned paper, badge, fabric brad, button, baker's twine, stickers (label, letters, sentiment): Lily Bee Design; Pens: American Crafts (black), Uni-Ball Signo (white); Spray mist: Studio Calico; Die cut machine (Cameo), geometric background die (Silhouette): QuicKutz; Ink: StazOn (black), VersaMark (white)
I had SO much fun with these lines! Lily Bee Design, you rock :)

P to the S - congrats to the winner of the latest 2Peas blog hop, Funky Finds:
2Peas will hook you up!

The One with Jane at 10 Months


Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Sweet Jane is 10 months new! 
Here are her done-at-home stats: 
 Length: 29" (75-90%) 
 Weight: 20 pounds 2 ounces (50-75%) 
 Head circumference: 18.25" (90-95%)

One nice thing about being in the eternally overcast/cloudy/rainy state (bitter much Paige?) is the lighting in my bedroom is supreme for these monthly photoshoots!

So what's new with Jane in the last month? Well lemme tell ya!

She is eternally happy and smilely and sweet. She makes everyone feel like they're the most special person on earth.

She prefers to feed herself but only has two teeth still so there aren't tons of options that we can give her so we still try to sneak in a pureed food of some sort at least twice a day. Most of the time she shuts her mouth as tight as she can and turns her head away. Stubborn girl.

She is ALWAYS moving around and is so squirmy wormy and difficult to hold. So we plop her down on the floor and almost instantly she'll get onto her belly trying to reach out for something, but she doesn't like being on her belly, so she'll cry out for us to rescue her.

She HATES her carseat. Not sure what we can do about that. Oh wells.

She's kind of starting to use her legs more in a stand-up position instead of sticking them out in front of her, refusing to stand, so there's hope that one day she'll walk :)

Jane is a very good mimicker. She claps, waves, shakes her head, sticks out her tongue, and blows on her food to cool it off, which I caught on video:

Her hair is growing longer and longer. Can't wait to put it in li'l piggies!

She lunges at toys that are far away and can eventually get to them by rolling and scooting.

She's juuuuuuuuust about to start crawling.

I know I said last month that I thought she'd be crawling by 10 months, but this time I really think she'll be crawling by 11 months.
Here's her daily routine at 10 months:
6:30am - wake up and eat breakfast
 8:30 - 10:30am - nap in her crib - she falls asleep quickly without me having to do anything, hooray!
10am - play! 
12:00pm - lunch
1:00 - 3:30pm - nap - again, she goes down easily and quickly - awesome!
 3:30pm - play 
5:00pm - dinner
6:30pm - bedtime routine - bath with Fox and then put to sleep with a bottle
7:00pm - asleep for the night in her crib 
6:30am - repeat 
SHE'S SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!! Doing a happy dance over here. 
Happy 10 months girly! 
We love you to pieces and we love you whole!

The One with My Golden Birthday!


Tuesday, May 28, 2013

I'm 28 years old today! 
Or, as I like to say, 28 years young :)
It also just so happens to be my GOLDEN birthday, meaning, I'm 28 on the 28th! 
We're not doing much in the way of excitement today, maybe going out to lunch and/or dinner, and I've gotta get some scrappy things done, but then on Thursday and Friday Chris and I are leaving the kids with my parents, their grandparents, and we're taking a jaunt up to Vancouver, Canada to do a session through the temple, go to the Chinese gardens, and go on the Grouse Mountain Skyride (which is where part of the X-Files episode Ascension was filmed :) - see, I can still get my "Hollywood" kicks and jollies even when we don't live in California anymore! 

Looking back on my 27th year of life, it was a pretty amazing year. 
We got into Disneyland an hour early and went on 20 rides in 4 hours!
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We went up to Big Bear with the Bybees for a fun over-nighter.
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Erica threw me a wonderful baby shower!
We went to the Los Angeles Zoo
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We watched the annual 4th of July Parade down Mission Street in South Pasadena. 
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We saw a Wendy's commercial filmed at our neighbor's house and then thought it was so flippin' exciting when the commercial was shown on TV. 
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I started Operation Weight Loss. These are BEFORE pictures. On 8.14.12 I was 165 pounds. Today, 5.28.13, I weigh 133. It's been a long and hard journey, and it's still on-going, but I feel great!
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Here's me TODAY. I'm sitting down so you can't quite see the entire change, but it'll do for now.
When Jane was just 2 weeks old we drove all the way up to Oregon for the annual Evans family reunion. I'm glad we went, it was a blast. 
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I expanded my Etsy shop (which is currently closed until we move to Germany and get all our stuff) to include over 4 dozen styles of pacifier clips. 
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Fox turned 2 and we threw him a Buzz-themed birthday party!
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I flew to Washington with the kids by myself for 9 whole days of fun. 
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We went trick-or-treating in the best neighborhood in the world. 
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We went to Indio, again, with the Bybees, again. 
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I went to the final Twilight movie with a bunch of awesome girlies. 
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We spent Thanksgiving at home and Chris made the most delicious dinner of them all. 
We got our annual Christmas photos taken at Newport Beach by the talented Jill Facer
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I reached 1400 blog posts and had a giveaway to celebrate!
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I planned and put together a Christmas party for our Relief Society
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I helped plan and put together the Christmas party for our entire ward
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A dream of mine came true when I was asked to be a Garden Girl for twopeasinabucket.com.
I went to my 6th winter CHA in Anaheim and got to meet and re-meet lots of lovely scrappers. 
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I went to a screening of Safe Haven for a fun GNO. 
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We found a couple of the Modern Family houses
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We tried a delicious new burger joint called Slater's 50/50
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I went to a taping of Ellen and later saw myself on TV. 
We sat on the 500 Days of Summer bench
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We went on Angels Flight Railway
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We did a session through the San Diego temple
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We went with the Bybees to the San Diego Zoo.
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I went with my mom, SIL Tanya, and Jane to Allie's bridal shower in Vegas. Hopefully many more girls trips to come!
We found out we'll be moving to Germany in July!
I went to a The Host book signing with Stephenie Meyer and a few of the actors from the movie. 
We did the WB VIP Studio Tour and sat on THE Friends couch!
I went on a GNO to The Voice premier!
We went to the beach for an Academy of LDS Dentists bonfire
I played a fun April Fool's Day joke and said I was done scrapbooking :)
I made lots of books, including Allie and Tori's wedding sign-in books.
We went to Washington for my little sister's wedding and festivities. 
We went to the Pawn Stars pawn shop in Las Vegas. 
We did a session through the Las Vegas temple
I worked at a baby shower at the Bel-Air Hotel. I worked at many events over the year, and I just blogged about 'em all, so I picked this one as a re-cap.
My 10th cousin was born. 
We celebrated our 6th anniversary!
I celebrated my 3rd Mother's Day!
We finally went to the Venice Canals
We moved from our beloved apartment to live with my parents for a few weeks before our big move to Germany. 
Me on my 28th birthday.
If 27 was such an amazing year, I can't wait to see what 28 has in store!
Paige Taylor Evans © // Quinn Creatives DESIGN