The One with the Blogger Onesie

My very first baby gift: a super cute custom-made Blogger onesie from my sweet friend Jenny!


Apparently I have worn my Blogger sweatshirt around Jenny a lot - enough for her to know that I would love to have a matching onesie for my baby. I can't believe anything besides toys would fit into this!
The first of many cute clothes to be hung on this rod.

Thanks Jenny!

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The One with Elle's Studio April Projects

Here are my projects for April for Elle's Studio!


BEACH LIFE.

Journaling says: The lifestyle of the people who live on the beach is so much different than the lifestyle in our shady (as in shaded by trees, not shady like bad things happen) neck of the woods in South Pasadena. We may all live in the same state, but just 30 miles makes all the difference in the world. I saw a "For Rent" sign on one of the beachfront homes - and technically it wasn't even right on the beach - but they were asking $5000 a month for rent! Must be nice to afford that kind of lifestyle! "Some day" right? :) I do love the beach, I love the sand and the ocean. But you know what I've decided? I like trees and rain even more. I'm a Washington girl at heart and I hope to live there again some day!

Tips: I watched The Time Traveler's Wife while making these layouts, FYI :) I covered a kraft cardstock background with a colorful collage of journaling spots and date labels then took away a couple to make room for photos. I wrote the journaling then created matching colored flowers on most of the rest of the journaling spots. To make the flowers I tore concentric circles from cardstock, layered them together, crumpled the edges, and topped the center with a matching colored button. Easy as pie.

Supplies: Cardstock: American Crafts, Kraft; Journaling spots, date labels: Elle's Studio; Buttons, letter stickers, pen: American Crafts



I LOVE PETS.

You'd think I'd get sick of making layouts about pets and animals but just the opposite is true! Journaling says: Name a pet - any kind of pet - I've probably had one or wanted one at some point in my life. I have loved animals since before I can even remember. My very first "real" pet was a guinea pig named Tanmerry (pronounced tan-marie). I can't tell you how happy it made me to have a little rodent to look after and take care of and love. I would carry her around in my shirt and play with her in the backyard. Since then my pet collection and obsession has only grown and gotten worse. Currently we have a dog named Joey, a cat named Rachel, a bunny named Chandler, a finch named Alice, a conure named Jadis, and a chinchilla named Li'l Chinchilla. They're a handful of work, but I love them all!

Tips: I fanned out a bunch of pet-themed vintage flashcards, put a silly photo of me with all my pets on top, then stitched a few circles around and around the picture using brown thread. I stamped an Elle's Studio paw-print in black ink across the page, then added some colorful buttons to the flash cards.

Supplies: Cardstock, buttons, letter stickers: American Crafts; Flashcards, paw print stamp: Elle's Studio; Pens: American Crafts (black), Sharpie (white); Sewing machine: Brother; Thread: Coats & Clark; Ink: StazOn



PAPER FLOWERS

The nice thing about Elle's Studio products is a lot of them come in a square format so I can make one of my favorite paper projects super easily! I did a tutorial of this paper flower on the Simply Handmade blog back in December so click on that link if you want to learn to make some - they're super easy and super cute!

Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics for Elle's Studio; Patterned paper, calendar tags: Elle's Studio; Other: Hot glue gun

Visit the Elle's Studio Inspiration Gallery to see all the other talented designer's amazing work and here's a link to the Elle's Studio blog where lots of other fun stuff is always going down!

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The One with the Hambly Studios Guest Designer

I had the wonderful opportunity to be the Guest Designer for April for one of my favorite scrappy companies: Hambly Studios. It was oh so much fun to get my hands on a bunch on their amazing products. I love Hambly like a Bella loves Edward. Such bright and fun colors, just my style, and they're always on top of the latest trends. Swoon.

HUNTINGTON BEACH DOG PARK

Journaling says: One fine Saturday in March, we took our dog Joey on a field trip to the Huntington Beach dog park. He loved seeing dozens of other dogs, but one thing is for sure: he hates water. We still had a great time strolling along the beach and taking a few minutes to snap some photos at this cool lifeguard tower.

Tips: I watched Sherlock Holmes literally seven times while making all of these projects - I was just too lazy to switch out the DVD :) Plus I really like the movie and the music so I wasn't even sick of it. Now about the layout - I cut strips of slightly varying widths from all my favorite patterned papers and transparencies and framed them around a central photo. I added a few blank strips of kraft cardstock on which to journal. I finished with a smattering of buttons and rather than sewing them in place I connected the holes with a white pen - faux stitching - tricky tricky!

Supplies: Patterned paper, patterned transparencies: Hambly Screen Prints; Buttons, black pen: American Crafts; Letter stickers: Making Memories; White pen: Sharpie

AM A...

Journaling says: It's amazing everything one person can be. The influence that you can have on people's lives. I am a wife to Chris. I am a sister Eric and Allison. I am a daughter to Tom and Carolyn. I am a daughter-in-law to Tom & Margi. I am a soon-t0-be mother, though I consider myself a mother to our pets. I am a niece to Steve & Katy, Dave & Cissy, John & Natalie, and David & Anissa. I am a friend to many and hope to continue to make and keep many friends. I am an aunt to Drew, Avery, and Luke. Not included in the title, I am a cousin to John, Maren, Sara Jayne, James, Elizabeth, Cat, Daniel, Benji, and Leah. Hopefully more to come! I am an in-law to Bethany & Peter, Jay, Andy & Cami, and Nick. These are just a few of my connections to people in this world. Oh, I'm also a granddaughter to Ted & Doris and John & Cathie. I hope that I can become the best version of me possible so that I can be the person all of these individuals need me to be. Some day in the future, like waaay in the future, I want to add the title of grandma and even great-grandma. But, let's not even start thinking about that yet :) Every day I will do all that I can to build these eternal relationships and make them stronger.

Tips: I started by punching 1.25" circles from my favorite patterned papers and transparencies then I adhered them around a circle of white cardstock. I stitched around and around and around the layout giving it a fun texture. Funny thing, I was originally going to scrapbook on the other side of the layout (hence the solid colored circles - they're patterned on the other side), but when I flipped it over I liked the texture of the sewing better, I loved the brightness of the solid circles, and I liked being able to see the circles in their entirety. So I scrapped on this side of the page instead! I put a picture in the middle, added words that describe who/what I am around the edge, and journaled between the stitched lines. I finished by applying a rub on wing.

Supplies: Patterned paper, patterned transparencies, wing rub on: Hambly Screen Prints; Cardstock, buttons, pen: American Crafts; Letter stickers: American Crafts (Thickers), Making Memories (mini paper)

CAFE RIO

Journaling says: One of the things I knew I was going to miss about Utah was Cafe Rio. But thankfully they built one a half hour away. So worth the drive.

Tips: I applied an entire sheet of white doilies across the top of an aqua cardstock background as clouds. Then I hand cut branches from kraft paper (I drew them with a pencil first then cut them out with an exacto knife), and added "bark" detailing with a brown pen. Then I cut out lots of leaves from patterned papers and transparencies, folded them in half, and glued them in place. I know that trees don't really have much to do with Mexican food, but it's just what came to mind when I planned this layout!

Supplies: Patterned paper, patterned transparencies, rub on doilies: Hambly Screen Prints; Cardstock, letter stickers, pens: American Crafts

SEE ANY CHANGE? ME NEITHER...

Journaling says: Besides the different outfits and slight lengthening of my hair, I don't see much of a difference between these photos. But no matter. I know what's going on inside. Every week, little by little, you're growing and getting bigger. It's only a matter of time before I won't be able to conceal my growing bump. Of course I'm still worried about losing you, but my family is great at calming me down. So for now, every Sunday after church we'll document your growth.

Tips: I wanted to create a collage of my favorite stickers and rub ons and thought these pictures of my growing (or seemingly not...) belly would be fun to scrap. It's just a hodge podge of a sticker here, a rub on there, and some journaling in-between!

Supplies: Rub ons, stickers: Hambly Screen Prints; Letter stickers: American Crafts, Hambly Screen Prints, Making Memories; Pen, buttons: American Crafts

NECKLACE

Supplies: Patterned paper, patterned transparencies: Hambly Screen Prints; Ric rac, buttons: American Crafts; Floss: DMC; Felt: Craft supply; Other: Hot glue gun, needle

Instructions for necklace:
1. Hand cut circles from your favorite patterned papers and patterned transparencies. Vary the sizes of the circles.
2. Layer concentric circles together, then crumple and distress each circle for texture and dimension.
3. Sew a button to the middle of each stack of circles.
4. Arrange the layered circles how you want them, then hot glue them to a scrap of felt.
5. Hot glue a piece of ric rac to the top of each corner to create a way to tie the necklace around your neck.
6. Wear and enjoy!

So there you have it! Check out the Hambly blog to see tons of other fun and inspiring projects and products!

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The One with Doggy Party Projects

My monthly project for the American Crafts blog is up today! My assignment was to create something inspired by animals or pets. Right up my alley! But believe it or not I had NO IDEA what I was going to do right up until I sat down to create something a month after I was emailed my assignment. Most of the time I thought I was going to make some kind of paper chain link leash, but I just couldn't translate my thoughts to reality. So instead I made doggy party decor and favors.


Make sure to visit the American Crafts blog to see instructions, supplies, and even more pictures!

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The One with Pre-Natal Vitamins

Is that dry old blood on our kitchen ceiling?


Nope. That would be pre-natal vitamin juice... Of all things.

It's a funny story: The day I found out I was pregnant I asked Chris to run to the store to get me some pre-natal vitamins. But I forgot to tell him that I can't swallow pills that are bigger than a quarter inch or so. Chris came home with these giant liquid horse pills and I took one look at them and said, uh uh, no way, ain't gonna happen in a million years. So we tried to get creative. I thought maybe we could cut them in half and I'd swallow the halves one at a time. We went into the kitchen, laid down a paper towel, put the pill on top, and grabbed a knife. As soon as Chris cut into the pill the dark red juice inside squirted all the way up onto the ceiling. And we have pretty high ceilings! It was very dark red and looked like blood and completely stained wherever it touched. No one has noticed so far...but I'm sure the next tenants will wonder what happened...

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The One when the In-Laws Came to Town

There's never a dull moment when the Evans' are in town! I was thinking I'd have 10, maybe 12, pictures to share from our activities today, but I guess we did a lot more than I remember cuz I've got 25 pictures in my "to edit and upload" folder. We had a fun-filled day!

As we were walking out the door this morning I took a picture of our wacko kitchen light.

Have you ever seen a light like this? It's nuts! We spent like $25 on new bulbs, replaced these ones and guess what? It still doesn't work. Blast. Next step: email the landlord...

Our first stop of the day was to drop Joey off at daycare. He has quite the reputation and was once greeted with, "There's the little trouble maker!" Oops. We like to take Joey to daycare every Saturday for a few hours (at $2 an hour it's such a deal for some "alone" time!) and usually drop him off right when they open at 8 am. I bet the lady thought she was off the hook today since we didn't drop him off 'til around 10... He's getting better at not being so hyper, though when we picked him up later today he was in the "rambunctious doggie room"...Sigh. Silly Joey.

After we dropped Joey off at daycare we drove down to Manhattan Beach.

I would love to live in one of these cute bungalows for a week or month or year or so.



Purty.

We walked to the edge of this pier.


Along the pier we looked out over the ocean and watched the surfers for a bit.


Everyone wants their own ocean view! I prefer the pigeon's view :)

The building at the end of the pier is a little cafe and an aquarium. This eel was four feet long and really gross looking. Like a giant worm.

This fish was getting a nice massage from a sea anemone.

Tons of starfish.


Me. And my slightly protruding belly!

After cruising along the beach for an hour we went to lunch at Cafe Rio. How could we not when we were in Manhattan Beach? It was good as ever. After Cafe Rio we picked up Joey, drove around the Rose Bowl, googled the "Gamble House" and realized it was right in the area so we went there. The Gamble House was where Doc Brown lived in the Back to the Future series. These are the beautiful steps leading up to the house.

This is from the movie:

And this is my picture:

This is where they filmed Doc Brown's garage according to the internet:

And this is my picture:


Super fun :)

We came home and took a nap for awhile then we drove down to Chinatown for dinner at Philippe's: the birth place of the French dip sandwich.



It was pretty good. Better than pretty good.

I'm not much of a pie gal, but this boysenberry pie was delish!

As we were finishing up one of the bus boys came by with a towel and motioned to me like he was taking a picture then pointed at us. Are we THAT identifiable as first-timers/tourists? I didn't even have my camera out or anything! Meh. I said yes thank you and gave him my camera and here were are.

Now we're playing games in good ol' Evans' family fashion and taking it easy. Googley day.

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