The One with the American Crafts Warehouse Sale

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas! If you live in Utah right now you absolutely HAVE to go to this, if you know what's best for you. Trust me. Maybe not best for your wallet, but 'tis the season! Buy something for yourself and for people you need to get presents for; I can pretty much guarantee you'll find something you just have to have.

You're welcome :)

The One with the 2Peas Gardeners' Digest November 2013 Blog Hop

Friday, November 22, 2013

Today is the 22nd of the month - you know what that means?! Time for another 2Peas Gardeners' Digest - a monthly blog hop hosted by the Garden Girls! Below you will find a super special video (we're trying something new this month!), a sneak of my upcoming Scrap Your Stash layout, a couple of layouts from a scrapbooker that inspires me (Wilna Furstenberg), a list of items that I've placed in my shopping cart, and a $25 gift certificate giveaway to twopeasinabucket.com!

***Paige Evans***
Lisa Dickinson
Wilna Furstenberg
Lilith Eeckels
Corrie Jones
Jen Kinkade
Jen Gallacher
Shimelle Laine
2Peas

Here is the special video to go along with this hop where I've answered a couple of scrapbook-related questions.

Here is a sneak peek of the beginning steps of my next Scrap Your Stash layout and how-to video featuring LEAVES:

Check out the rest of my Garden Girl creations HERE and I'll share the entire layout on Thanksgiving Day!

It is my hope and dream to someday be as amazing as fellow Garden Girl - Wilna Furstenberg :) The way she uses art supplies like paint and watercolors and spray mist on her layouts is divine. I am so totally loving on these two fall-themed layouts she recently created. I'm pretty sure they're the inspiration behind my leaves-themed Scrap Your Stash video:

FALL IS IN THE AIR by Wilna Furstenberg

DREAM BIG LITTLE ONE by Wilna Furstenberg

View more of Wilna's projects on her blog and her 2Peas Gallery!

In keeping with the leaf theme I've got goin' on, I browsed the 2Peas store and found my favorite leaf supplies:

Amy Tangerine Paper Leaves by American Crafts. I have these and use them all.the.time. I need more.

Flower and Leaves Wooden Veneer from the Sundrifter collection by Studio Calico. I could do an entire blog post about wood veneer and what awesome embellishments they are!

Leaf paper called Afternoon Delight from the Ready Set Go line by Amy Tangerine for American Crafts. So so perfect for all the fall photos I've been hoarding!

Loving these exclusive Two Peas fall flair badges! A great finishing touch to all your fall projects. Of course I put one of the cute fox buttons front and center!

How gorgeous are these Falling Leaves clear stamps by Technique Tuesday? So gorg!

BONUS - all fall-themed products are 25% off at twopeasinabucket.com right now!

Saved the best for last :)
I have a $25.00 gift certificate to twopeasinabucket.com that's burning a hole in my pocket!

To enter to win, leave a comment on this post by Monday November 25th telling me: what is your favorite thing to eat at Thanksgiving?
(Sorry for the short turnaround - the gift card has to be used by November 30th so I want to make sure the winner gets time to use it!)
Updated to add the winner - congrats Fleur Smith - I've sent you an email!

Next on the hop is the super fab Lisa Dickinson!

The One with Christmas Stockings 2013

Thursday, November 21, 2013

WARNING: Just because some of the following pictures show SIX stockings does NOT mean I am pregnant with twins - we are just getting ahead of the game :)

I am such a nostalgic person. I've said that many times here before. I love making memories and I love traditions and I LOVE the stockings my mom made for the Taylor family many years ago when I was just a wee kid. I loved them so much I asked her to give them to me a few years ago, and she did!

There were originally four, not sure what happened to the white one that was my mom's.

But now that we have four people in our family we need more stockings! The ones at the store are, how should I put it nicely... U.G.L.Y and they ain't got no alibi!

Enter my super talented seamstress mother! For Christmas this year I asked for six stockings. I reiterate, we are NOT pregnant with twins, but we eventually do want more children, so we just had her make six, a nice even number.

They arrived in the mail today and they are SO CUTE!

We don't have a fireplace or mantel or anything of that nature in our house, so we'll have to get creative with where to hang our stockings (with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon will be there).

Jane's is definitely the pink one, and I think Fox fancies the snowmen one. I think I'll take the one with pretty vintage ornaments and Chris can have the one with all the candies - perfect for the dentist! Leaving the plaid and fun circles for Rachel and Joey (the cat and dog). At least for now :)

Thanks Malm! I love you!

The One with The Dentist

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

I guess I can't exactly hate my dentist. Cuz he also just so happens to be my husband!

On Tuesday I got a cavity filled by none other than my dearly beloved, Dr. Christopher Evans, DDS.

The Army dentists. Workin' hard or hardly workin'? Just kidding, it was their lunchtime, they can be lazy then. #camerafail

My time is up!

Dun dun duuuuuuuuun....

Before my filling | Getting worked on #goodthingididnthaveanyboogers #ormaybeijustphotoshoppedthemout #theworldmayneverknow

All, in all, not too shabby! He was fast and efficient, friendly, and he tried to be super gentle.
It was so weird to have my husband working on my teeth though, not gonna lie!

I would highly recommend Dr. Evans :)

The One with Jane's First Ponytail

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Jane's hair is growing like a weed!

In just two months it's grown long enough to put into a genuine ponytail.

She's a little entranced by Sesame Street...

I'm so happy that she's letting me start put clippies back in her hair. For a few months there she would pull it out as soon as I put it in.

I'm such a proud mama :)

The One with Bekah's Scrapbook

Monday, November 18, 2013

A super nice and amazing and special lady in our ward, Bekah, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I was asked to make a scrapbook of the first annual "Pink Up the Pace" breast cancer awareness 5k that was hosted here on base to give to Bekah to look through for encouragement during treatments. It would be my pleasure! Lots of people purchased "I run for Rebekah" pink t-shirts and sported them throughout the race. So, in honor of the breast cancer signature pink, I went with an all-out PINK theme and picked and sorted through all of my supplies to get as much pink material as possible.

It took about 40 hours total to complete the entire 40-page album. I started by gathering pink supplies (above picture). Then I punched hundreds, if not thousands, of shapes (circles, squares, scalloped circles, hexagons) from about 50 different pink patterned papers. Then I found 40 sheets of a variety of colors of pink cardstock and patterned papers for the base pages. Next I adhered the punched shapes on most of the pages and ran them through my sewing machine to stick them down permanently. Other pages that didn't have punched shapes got spray misted or otherwise embellished. Next I added the photos. It took a long time to print the pictures at a local German shop, trim them down, put them in the right categories, and figure out how many pictures I needed on each page to fill 40 layouts. Then I added captions and finishing embellishments. Phew! Labor of love :)

On the cover I made a breast cancer ribbon logo with pink bling.

All done, ready to be photographed, and placed in page protectors!

You can never have too much pink - or so says my mom :)

For the opening page I used pictures of Bekah in the center surrounded by her loving supporters, trying to get themselves in the ribbon shape. We tried :)

And here are the pages. I tried to put them in chronological order, but then Picasa moved things around so they aren't really. But they are in order in the book and that's what matters!