The One with the Chris 411

My friend Annie tagged me in a blog post and I figure since I didn't really post anything lovey dovey yesterday, this will make up for it!

1. Where did you meet? In an art history class on January 22nd 2004.
2. How long did you date before you got married? We started dating pretty much the day we met and got married May 8th 2007, so about 3.5 years. Mind you he was in the Philippines for two of those years.
3. How long have you been married? Two years and nine months.
4. What does he do that surprises you? He'll empty the dishwasher or vacuum the nasty rugs or do a load of laundry without even asking. Loooooove that.
5. What is your favorite feature of his? I love his hazel eyes and the crescent moon dotting of moles on his left arm.
6. What is your favorite quality of his? He just gets me. It's hard to put into words. He knows me better than anyone else in this world. We're two peas in a bucket. I mean pod.
7. Does he have a nickname for you? Babe. Buttmunch. Tootsie Roll Pop. Jerk face. Yeah, we're affectionate...
8. What is his favorite color? Blue or orange.
9. What is his favorite food? Thai. (Me too me too!)
10. What is his favorite sport? Ice hockey.
11. When and where was your first kiss? February 6th, 2004, in his car, some random place in Provo.
12. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? We loving lounging on the couch watching movies or tv shows on DVD.
13. Do you have any children? Not yet. Just a whole lotta pets.
14. Does he have a hidden talent? He says he can play the trumpet, though I've never ever heard him play in all the years I've known him.
15. How old is he? 24. He'll be 25 on August 3rd.
16. Who said I love you first? He did then I said it right back.
17. What's his favorite music? Hard rock. (Me too me too!)
18. What do you admire most about him? His dedication to whatever he puts his mind to. He can do anything he wants because of his determination.
19. Do you think he will read this? Yup, and he'll probably be the first to comment cuz that's what he does and I love it :)

Happy belated Valentine's Day My Love!

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The One with a Session, a Shower, and a Show

We had a fun-filled day yesterday. It started off bright and early with a 7:30am session at the LA temple.

Since we didn't get to go to Newport Beach last Saturday, we went back to LA this month. But we've got an appointment at Newport Beach for the 5th of March so we're looking forward to that.

As soon as we got home, I changed into more casual attire, watched an episode of Project Runway season 2, then headed out to Long Beach to attend my freshman roommate Paula's baby shower.

I realized we've known each other for almost 7 years - since 2003! My how time flies. The sign-in book was the one she won here on my blog many moons ago. What a fun surprise to see a book of mine in use!



Paula was absolutely glowing and looked so very pretty.

Her sister did a great job with all the details like these baby bird cupcakes,

the custom water bottles,

and the napkin rings.

Here's me and Paula holding up the cute little dresses I got for her.

The baby shower was so much fun! Congratulations again and again Paula!


As soon as I got home from the baby shower, I showered and we got ready for an event put on by the Pasadena Stake for Valentine's Day.

Our good friends the Bybee's and Malan's showed up shortly thereafter so we nabbed a table together and got in line for food. It was yummy teriyaki chicken and rice.

After dinner there was a Japanese performance complete with drums, a koto (sort of like a harp), a Japanese lion dance, and dance lessons. I opted out of learning the dance, I'm so uncoordinated it's not even funny.

Here's a sampling of the amazing drums:

Here's a sampling of the lovely harp:

And here's a sampling of everyone learning the dance:


All-in-all, an A+ day.

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The One with the CARDS Challenge Card: Valentine with Fabric

Because today is the blessed day of Friday, I did a challenge post on the CARDS blog. The challenge was to use fabric on a Valentine card. Here's my card:

Love

Card is 4.75" square

This card literally took 15 minutes to make. That's my kind of card. I didn't exactly know how to translate my idea of a puffy fabric heart to paper, so this is what I did:

1) Die cut a heart window from the front of a kraft cardstock base.

2) Stitch a piece of floral fabric to the window, letting it bunch so you can fill it with fabric scraps/polyfil.

3) Turn the card over and fill the fabric heart with scraps of fabric or polyfil. Adhere a piece of cardstock to the back to keep the fabric scraps/polyfil in place. Tip: When I sewed around the heart the first time to attach the fabric, it looked really sloppy, so I went around the heart two more times after the cardstock was attached to blend in the imperfections. So not only did the cardstock get attached permanently but my sloppiness got blended in. Sa-weet.

4) Add a green ribbon bow to the bottom of the puffy fabric heart and place "love" pink foam letter stickers on the side.

5) Done and done.

Supplies: Cardstock: Kraft; Fabric: Fabric supply; Foam letter stickers: American Crafts; Ribbon: Making Memories; Sewing machine: Brother; Thread: Coats & Clark; Die cut machine: Cuttlebug by Provo Craft; Heart die: Nestabilities by Spellbinders; Paper cutter, scissors: Fiskars; Adhesive: Helmar

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The One with the 600th Post Handmade Giveaway!

I really really really enjoyed doing a giveaway on my 500th blog post and figure I'll keep up the tradition every 100 posts - so about every 3.5 months. Sound good? Good. Sweet beans.

Up for grabs to one lucky winner:

1) A t-shirt embellished with felt. Very similar to the one I showed here a couple weeks ago, but this one is not on a striped shirt and the tree is made out of brown felt instead of screenprinted on.

I actually used my sewing machine on fabric for the very first time! And decided I like sewing on paper much better :)

The shirt is a size small from American Apparel. I'll be honest, it's a tight squeeze. But beauty is pain right?!?!



2) Next, a super versatile handmade fabric flower.


The layers include tulle (eee!), fabric, a piece of leftover lace from my wedding dress, felt, and a pre-made flower embellishment. You can wear it in your hair, clip it on your clothes, or pin it on your purse.

It's large and in charge.

3) A love frame. Perfect for year round decor.

This is the frame I made for the Feb/Mar issue of Simply Handmade, so it's, like, famous :)

4) A gaggle of my very favorite cards:



5) The four February issues of Northridge Media magazines: Scrapbook Trends, Bead Trends, Simply Handmade, and CARDS.

Full to the brim of ideas for making your very own handmade creations.
6) The entire collection of I Heart You paper by American Crafts. 24 sheets of lovely goodness. It's a little too late to make Valentine's, but you can always scrapbook your holiday pictures and start making cards for next year!


7) And finally, an original PaigeBook. This is a linkstitch binding made with clear acrylic covers and an assortment of scrapbook and handmade papers for the pages. It's 4 x 6" so you can use it to store photos, keep notes and inspiration, or just put it on a shelf and look at like I do with 99% of the books I make.

If the winner wants me to put a sticker title on the front, I can totally do that.






The rules: Leave a comment on this post telling me what your plans are for Valentine's Day (keep it PG rated please :) and I'll randomly select one person at 8am Pacific Time on Tuesday February 16th and post the winner shortly thereafter. Good luck, may the force be with you. Or something.

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The One with the 599th Post

Today marks my 599th post (I think. I really can't tell cuz I've got posts in the queue...but I'm just sayin' it is). Tomorrow is the big 600th post. I will be doing a giveaway tomorrow to celebrate, and since I can't think of anything better to blog about, how 'bout some sneak peaks of what's being given away to one lucky winner?





Some things have been seen here before, others I just finished creating this morning. Now I just have to take pictures of everything and get the post ready for tomorrow. Until then, adios!

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The One with It Feels Like Christmas!

I love when my doorbell rings around 10:30am. More often than not it means Mr. UPS man has brought me a package. Yippee! Today it feels like Christmas cuz Mr. UPS man brought me a very big box from American Crafts.

Score. Heck yes. Awesome. Today is a great day.
I was hooked up with three of the newest lines: Botanique, I Do, and Heat Wave.

I've been wanting to get my hands on the Botanique paper ever since I got to make these flowers with prototype paper for the patterned paper pack back when the line was being designed last year.

The paper in real life is 100 times better cuz it's got foil and glitter and a matching solid color on the back!

The Thickers in this collection are to die for. I LOVE the colors, I LOVE the size, I LOVE the materials.

The I Do line has those papers that you don't want to use, you just want to frame them and hang them on the wall, they're just that pretty. Love the Details. Love the Elements. Love the Flair. Love it ALL. Way to rock it Clairice and Lindsey.

Pause to note that I can't go anywhere without these two following me and causing mischief and mayhem. Usually the bird follows me too, but he was locked in his cage during this shoot.

Last but certainly not least the Heat Wave collection.

These Details blow my mind. They're soooooooooooo cute.

As I was putting the papers away I noticed the backs have a printed border on the tearaway strip!

Way to be green!

I feel like the luckiest girl on the planet to be part of the American Crafts Contributing Design Team and I am so excited to start playing and creating with all of this scrappy goodness.

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