The One with Where'd My Ink Pad Go?

Friday, May 25, 2012

I was scrapbooking the other day and was rummaging through my stamping supplies. I went to the kitchen to get a drink of water and upon my return to the table I noticed my brown StazOn ink pad was missing. It was just right there, where the heck could it be?!?!? Not in the garbage can, not under my piles of paper, not amongst my mess...
Enter mischievous, thieving, Mr. Fox...

PS - He looks 22 years old in these pictures...

Someone had stolen my ink pad and tried to eat it!

At first I thought it was just chocolate cuz I had given him some M&Ms earlier, but then I saw my ink pad on the floor, ink side up thank goodness! StazOn ink is known for being pretty much the most permanent ink out there - it's what you use to stamp on fabric and slick surfaces like vellum and transparencies - so I thought Fox was gonna be a mess for days! Luckily, after I snapped these priceless photos, a warm, damp cloth wiped it right off.

All's well that end's well and now I have some cute photos and a story to scrap :)

The One with Kate's Baby Shower

Thursday, May 24, 2012

My friend, fellow 4th year dental wife, and baby semi-twin (our boys are 2 months apart and our girls will be 6 weeks apart!) Kate had a baby shower for her little girl last night. I volunteered to make some decorations which included a garland, balloons, and wildflowers (I also punched flower confetti, but I totally forgot to use it!).

We decided to use this picture as the inspiration for our color-scheme:

Beachy, summery, not-too girly, just right. Totally Kate!

For the garland I punched a billion circles from patterned papers and transparencies and glitter papers, etc, in those colors and sewed them together in rows then dangled them from a branch I found outside. Easy peasy!

For the balloons, well, that's pretty self-explanatory! I just went to the party store and picked balloons in colors as close to the inspiration picture as possible.

We grouped them into 3's and taped them all around Lindsay's apartment. I heart balloons. They complete every festivity.

And finally, the flowers! For Fox's 1st birthday party extravaganza last October I purchased a whole bunch of apothecary jars and filled them with candy. Now empty, they just sit on top of our bookshelves, waiting to be used any chance they can get. Enter baby shower! I walked around our yard and neighborhood and picked wildflowers galore. Side note: I'm not much of a flower person - Chris used to get me roses when we were dating and then I told him to stop cuz I thought they were a waste of money. But FREE flowers - now that's something I can hop on board with! Not only free, but sooooo beautiful all bunched together in their different colors and varieties. I think I may have a bouquet of wildflowers sitting on my desk forevermore.

The shower itself was so fun! I just love hanging out with my lady-friends.

Kate's little girl is going to be the cutest dressed baby at the beach and will have a different suit for every day of the week :)

Congrats Kate - can't wait to meet your little girl in just a few weeks!

The One with Be Still My Heart Bowtique

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Amber of Be Still My Heart Bowtique emailed me last week to show off her pretty handmade bows! Her motto is: All little girls deserve a pretty bow, no matter what their mommy’s budget is. Agreed. Bonus: she heat seals the ribbon, hand sews the bows, and starches them to maintain shape. Talk about high quality! Here are some examples:

Like what you see? Make sure you "like" Be Still My Heart Bowtique on Facebook and then leave a comment on this here post for a chance to get your hands on one of her pretty bows! I'll pick a winner on Saturday May 26th and email them to let them know.
Little girls are just too much fun to accessorize :)

The One with the Boob Tube

Monday, May 21, 2012

And this is why it's called the boob tube:

Not much has changed in a year!

We have to limit how much TV Fox watches or else he'd turn into a couch potato.

The One with the Annular Eclipse

Sunday, May 20, 2012

We missed out on the Super Moon event recently so I didn't want to miss today's celestial phenomenon - an annular eclipse! FYI - a solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun. A total eclipse is when the moon obscures the sun entirely. An annular eclipse, like the one visible today, is when the moon appears smaller than the sun, leaving visible a thin ring of the sun called an annulus. At the start of the eclipse we were at the park and Chris took a picture with his dumb phone (as opposed to smart phone :) which actually turned out to be the best pic of the event!

Once we got home, my eyes were a little tender... oops... so Chris quickly constructed a pinhole viewer thingy: poke a tiny hole through a notecard, hold that notecard in front of the sun, and then hold a plain notecard about a yard away from the poked-hole notecard to watch the eclipse. We could totally see it!

I love creating memories like this. Simple and sweet!

The One with the Through the Kaleidoscope with Amy Heller

Friday, May 18, 2012

I can finally spill the beans about another 2Peas workshop that I contributed to! The marvelous and talented Amy Heller just debuted her Through the Kaleidoscope: Making Sense of Color 4 Scrapbooking class. You know how much I love fun, bright colors!!

The deets:

Do you wish you could add more color to your scrapbooking projects? Have you ever wondered how to mix manufacturers' products and collections with ease? And lets talk about all those products you've been hoarding in your stash, ever wish you could learn to use more of those in your projects? Join Garden Girl Amy Heller as she teaches a color theory based workshop, 'Through the Kaleidoscope | Making Sense of Color 4 Scrapbooking' based on the principles of the color wheel.

As a graphic designer and former creative and art director by trade, Amy's experience in color has spanned not only from the crafting world, but over 10 years professional experience in the design of advertising, brand development and packaging. Over five chapters, she'll share 50 brand new scrapbook pages by her and her group of contributors. Each chapter contains a printable PDF containing beautiful color inspiration boards from daily life as well as from scrapbooking supplies for each of the principles and colors covered, as well as a coordinating video. Included is a handy, portable flip card set with each of the color theories covered as well as the full color wheel for taking to your next crop or simply having in your craft area for easy and convenient color reference.

The content of this workshop will be available immediately upon purchase. The lessons are available for you to work at your own pace and upon purchase can be accessed in the "Workshops" section under "Classes & Events." A private message board forum is also available to ask questions for Amy and to connect with other participants. Cost of workshop: $25 Buy now!

Congrats and thanks for the opportunity Amy!

I've taken a break from scrapbooking lately, but I've got some upcoming assignments so I hope to bust out my supplies again soon and share what I make here!

The One with Some Fox Stories at 19 Months

Thursday, May 17, 2012

I feel like Fox has been under-represented as of late, especially since I didn't do a 19 month post. So, in lieu of that, here are some things that he's been up to:

Last weekend he caught a nasty bug which resulted in a constant flow of eye-goobers and snot. I fell behind in my motherly face-wipe duties and snapped a photo of him at his worse. Sorry future, older Fox for posting this :)

His latest and greatest smile:

Seriously, this kid wants to be Buzz Lightyear when he grows up. Here he's saying, "To infinity, and beyond!" I hope to catch it on camera one of these days cuz it's just too cute and makes no sense, but we're sure that's what he's saying.

We go to Garfield Park every once in awhile and I swear 9 times out of 10 there is a lady there walking her old Shiba Inu named Michiyoo (?). It's a carbon copy of Joey so Fox always gets super excited because he thinks it's actually Joey. Then he gets kind of confused as to why I'M not the one walking Joey around and why the lady just keeps on going by with him. We will explain dog breeds to him, all in good time.

Fox does silly things sometimes, as I suspect all toddlers do. The other day his "thing" was he wanted to walk around with Joey's leash. So for our entire hour outing he lugged it around. Okay, Fox, whatever you want!

This was back in Washington while we were waiting for the bus to pick us up to go to Seattle. Just a cute photo, that's all :) (Note the Buzz figurine in his hand.)

On another of our many adventures outside, Fox bent down to pick up his binky with his mouth (let's not get started on the binky issue... because it has become an issue...), and along with his binky he snagged a twig in his hair. He didn't even notice and kept trudging along.

Chris gave Fox an at-home haircut (no, he's never cut baby's hair before) and now he has bangs. I'm thiiiiiis close to buzzing it all off and letting it grow out from scratch. Chris thinks it won't be curly anymore but I do. We'll see who wins :)

Love you Foxman!

The One with the Butterfly Chandelier

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

I was so excited when I came across this butterfly chandelier on Pinterest. I just HAD to make one of my own!

I was even more excited after digging around the internet to find the original source on Second Sister Suaviloquy. My excitement was pegged when I emailed April and asked how to make this stunning chandelier and she told me to call her. So one day while in Washington on Spring Break I called her and got a list of supplies and a quick how-to tutorial. I've been working on it all weekend and finished late last night.

Supplies:

- 12" and 8" foam wreaths

- large assortment of patterned paper in colors of your choosing (I used lines from American Crafts like Peachy Keen, Hello Sunshine, Dear Lizzy Neapolitan, and more)

- 1 yard of white muslin

- scissors

- 2 binder rings: one large, one small

- pearl and heart stickpins

- assortment of butterfly punches (these are all by Martha Stewart Crafts)

- Silhouette Cameo for die cutting extra large butterflies

- variety of ribbons, trims, pearl strands, tulle, sequin strands, etc.

- 12 feet of plastic chandelier garlands (I found these ones from Koyal Wholesale)

- hot glue gun and extra glue sticks

- staple gun

I spent three hours punching and die-cutting hundreds, if not thousands, of butterflies! I even ran out and had to punch more.

One important step is to wrap the foam wreaths with muslin strips in preparation for hot gluing all the butterflies in place - otherwise the glue will melt the foam.