February 2021 Highlights

February 2021 was probably the funnest, busiest, craziest, quickest month I've ever had in my life! Here's a look at all of it:

The kiddos picked up some Valentines and had fun filling them out for their class parties.

My mom, sister, and her two kids came to visit for a few days!!!

My nephew Jude is as cute as can be.

My niece Daisy is also the cutest! She's so spunky and always has something to say.

Daisy was absolutely smitten with all the pets :)

Visits from Grandma are the best!

Botox at home :) I get it for my migraines and jaw clenching.

We went to the Park Meadows mall for a bit of shopping.

We drove to the Red Rocks Amphitheater and walked around. We didn't last very long, it was literally freezing! But we had so much fun seeing all the pretty red rocks and snapping photos constantly. Hard not to in such a scenic place!

Gorgeous views.

Hope to see a concert here some day!

Jump for joy! Such a cool tunnel through the rocks.

When Fox asks me to take his picture :) And Allie taking selfies in the background lol.

Malm.

Me'n'Daisy.

One night we watched The Greatest Showman and it was so special and fun. Movie nights are awesome.

While my family was here an old friend reached out to me. We parted ways a few years ago in a super sad way and I often thought of her because I was so upset about how things ended. When she reached out, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders! All because she saw my face in Michaels. Yup, I'm still scrapping! Makes it all worth it!

Grandma's colorful and floral room.

Valentine's Day bouquet, swoon!

Chocolate covered strawberries from Costco for a Valentine's Day treat!

My love!

We went to Tom and Margi's for Valentine's Day dinner. Margi decorates for every holiday which I love!

On the food front: Chris smashed up some mint oreos and put them on my ice cream. So good! We went to an Italian restaurant with the local Evans adults only and I tried a margherita pizza. We got Tuk Tuk Thai for the first time and hands down it's the best Thai food we've found here in the Denver area! I crave it every day now. We went to Kneaders and got their delicious bottomless French toast with caramel syrup. Chris made a Mediterranean dish from a Hello Fresh box and it was sooooo good. Also craving that every day! Our last meal before the kitchen was demod - chicken, potatoes, and carrots. 

My orchid bloomed for the 3rd time! This makes me so happy! It's the little things :)

Me throughout the month.

I was doing so good with my fitness goals the first half of February, walking 10,000 steps daily and exercising every other day. And then I got a sinus infection from not washing my masks :( It was my very first sinus infection and I thought I had something seriously wrong in my nose, it hurt sooooo bad. The headaches I got were the worst I've ever had in my life and I've gotten some pretty gnarly ones. Luckily I got antibiotics and felt better about a week later, but then I fell off the fitness wagon. When I'm not feeling good, exercise and eating right is the first thing to go. Hope to begin again this month! Also PSA to wash your masks... So gross that I haven't been. Live and learn!

Holy moly it was cooooooooold in February!!!!

One day it was sunny and we woke up and it was still sunny, but during the night it snowed 12"! So crazy!

Colorado typically gets most of its snow in February and March so this is to be expected. The kids even got a Snow Day!

Beautiful Highlands Ranch.

Fox helped me with an upcoming Spongebob movie campaign.

And I helped him reach his goal of 100 subs in 2021 :)

Rachel! Whenever I share photos of her on my instagram stories people reply and say pics of her make them smile. She makes me smile too :) Nothing better than a kitty purring in my ear.

Renos! They're happening! And they're going to be a big part of our lives the entire month of March. When we first walked through this house we just got that vibe that this was our home and looked past all the cosmetic things that we knew we'd eventually want to update such as the cabinet color which was one of the first projects we did when we moved in and had them painted white. But countertops can't be painted and ours were brown tiles with grout. Why?? We've been searching for a couple years to find the perfect contractor and so far I think we've found him - Tim with Brownstone Renovation. It's been a smooth process so far and what I love the very most is he gave us a daily schedule and has stuck to it. For the planner in me and having to know everything far in advance, this is exactly what I need.

The day before demo was to begin we took everything out of all the cabinets in the kitchen and laundry room and stored them in various places around the house. There is a phrase in our house that is uttered often, "Mommy doesn't like messes!" lol. So having our things strewn about like this is really really hard for me. I repeat to myself, "It's only temporary and will all be worth it!" to keep my sanity.

The workers showed up right on time on the Monday morning and by the end of the day the entire kitchen was gone!

Best of all, the mystery sound in our master bedroom floor disappeared!!! When we had the carpet replaced in December we had several people drill hundreds and hundreds of screws into the subfloor and that did diddly squat! Chris and I even tried sleeping on opposite sides of the bed so that he could go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and not wake me up by skipping over that creaky part of the floor altogether, but after a few nights we just couldn't get used to it so we switched back and hoped that Tim could fix the noise from up underneath eventually. Somehow, some way, when the soffits in the kitchen were removed, the sound disappeared! That alone makes all this worth it and I think changed my whole perspective and mood about the mess because I'm just so flippin' relieved that the sound is gone! I've slept like a baby every night since :) AAAAND, there was also a mystery clicking sound in the walls that happened whenever the heater was running and that's also gone! You might think I'm crazy lol, but random noises are one of my biggest pet peeves. And both are fixed. I'm so happy!

Bye bye brown tiles! I actually saved a tiny piece of it to remember. I'm nostalgic like that.

We're updating the laundry room too so everything was demod in there on day one. Not sad to see those grey/red/brown tile floors gone!

My exercising spot in the basement has been turned into a temporary kitchen.

Picking grout color. Who knew there were so many shades of gray? Lol.

Thinking of maybe adding some medallions to the ceilings from above the future hanging pendants?

On the second day lots of things were happening simultaneously but the biggest noticeable change was removing the wall between the kitchen and pantry so it's all open and not such a tight squeeze. Nothing was found in the walls or soffits that needed to be moved which, from watching HGTV for 20 years, I was so surprised and happy about!

On the second day the new tile floor went into the laundry room. I'm excited to see how it all comes together with the finishes and colors of things we've selected.

Hi Joey! He likes saying hi to all the new people coming and going. We've moved the dining table into the living room so we can still eat meals together.

Making eggs for breakfast every morning on the single burner plug in appliance :) It works!

On the third day a new hood was installed for over the stove and the gas line was installed.

We're moving the fridge to a different area so a water line was installed.

I got the news that the countertops we chose and absolutely freaking loved (seriously, I was mostly looking forward to that! Afterall, it was the brown counters that started this whole thing) were not available anymore. Poop. So I went down to the showroom and have selected a few more options and now hopefully this week I'll go see big slabs in person to make a final decision.

On the 5th day backsplash tile in the laundry room started going up the wall! Eeee!

Tinkering with the idea of wallpaper on the remaining 3 laundry room walls???

One week of renos down, five to go! But who's counting?! Me, that's who :)

Onto scrappy recaps!

Here are the projects I made and shared here on the blog in February:

I Love Scrapbooking Layout // Folded Paper Hearts Layout // Stitched Love Heart Layout // Valentine's Day Memory Explosion Box
Shine Bright Layout // Born to Create Layout // Better Together Layout // Soft Kitty Layout
Adventure Layout // A Heart Full of Flowers Stamped Layout // Reykjavik Iceland Mini Album // Here & Now Mini Album

One of the things I was worried about most was my very first live virtual class. I'd been avoiding them with every fiber of my being because I get so flustered when I'm live! But I said yes to teaching a Zoom class for Michaels and the day finally came!

All prepped and ready to begin!

I printed a list of tasks in the order I wanted to demonstrate them - anything to help me not fumble so much.

And so it begins!!

Over 600 people from around the entire world joined the class! Incredible!

I did it!!! I felt so happy and empowered afterwards, like I could accomplish anything! It's a great feeling to do something you're so scared to do and have it turn out okay, better than okay :) In fact, I thought it went so well I decided to venture out on my own and teach virtual classes! More about that further down. Aaaand Michaels wants a second class for the Memory Explosion Boxes so stay tuned for more info!

A happy spot.

I announced my Cut File Design Team for 2021! Super excited to work with all these talented folks!

I gave away 3 free cut files in February in my Happy Scrappy Place Facebook Group:

Speaking of cut files, Adam Westwood in the UK is launching a new shop called The Cut Hut that will sell my cut files PRE-CUT!! That's right! Click HERE to join the instagram account for all the updates.

Got some happy mail from Emily Inspired Designs - I LOVE her charms!

I shared a peek at all my heart-shaped mini albums on Valentine's Day! I've added one more since.

Loved these two paintings by Dawn McVey in my space so much I picked up a third.

You can see the trio on the right wall. The colors speak to my soul!

I spent a Friday night hand stitching and watching Vicki Boutin live! She's sooooo inspiring!

On January 31st I put an idea out into the universe: teach my own virtual classes with kits! On February 4th I gathered supplies for kits and placed an order with American Crafts soon after. By February 27th, all 400 kits were out the door, samples have been made, Facebook groups created, and the idea has basically 100% come to fruition in less than a month!

500 pounds of product for the 4 kits arrived on a palette February 18th.

I spent 2 whole days collating the kits. It was a mad dash to get them all sorted before I didn't have work surfaces in the kitchen anymore.

I documented the entire process of opening boxes of product until they were made into kits via instagram stories.

Day 2 of kitting!

A few items were missing so the kits sat in boxes in my office for a week. It gave me time to finish up the mini album samples and add other little bits to the kits like ribbons & string, and also label them.

My friend Rosie came over to help put the label stickers on all 400 kits while I assembled all the shipping boxes. Such a process! I was thinking of making this a monthly thing, but now I dunno lololol.

I looking forward to these 4 virtual classes this month and next! Hope to see you there! And to think it probably never would have happened if I hadn't taught the Zoom class with Michaels :)

I busted out the We R Memory Keepers Button Maker for my upcoming Spongebob campaign and I'm addicted to making buttons now! Once I got the hang of it, they just kept coming!

I met up with a scrappy friend at Kneaders! It's always so fun to meet people in real life and get to know them on a personal level :)

And that, my friends, is February in a nutshell! For the shortest month of the year, we sure packed a lot in! Bring on March!