project life and whole foods

1. Have you heard of Project Life? If you're a scrapbooker, you've probably heard of Becky Higgins. She has this great product called Project Life that makes scrapbooking so simple and easy. The basic idea is that you take a picture everyday of something going on in your life - maybe it's of your son helping you make cookies or your daughter playing in the rain or your garden that's progressing...then you put it in it's slot and write out your journaling and it's done. It's so easy! The kit comes with everything you need, including the album, and it's all very adorable. There is none of the time consuming stuff (which can be fun but not always possible). People who don't consider themselves scrapbookers but want to preserve memories of your family might also be interested in this simple approach. There is also a digital version, which I really like. If you feel that committing to a picture a day is a bit much, you could take a handful of pictures a month and do it that way instead (which is kind of the concept I'm going for with Oliver's baby book - which I will share eventually. The kit I'm using to make his book is also designed by Becky). Anyway, I mention Project Life because it's $10 off through the end of this month (which is tomorrow). This would also make a great gift.

2. I went to a Whole Foods grocery store yesterday for the first time ever and I was like a kid in a candy store. Every isle was so exciting! There was even a salad and hot food bar right there in the store (with ten vegetarian soup options - ten!). I had to make myself leave the store. It's probably a good thing that this store is in Seattle and not too close to my house.

3. I start school tomorrow. I am a bit nervous, mostly about balancing everything (school, work, baby, house, etc.) but I'm hopeful that somehow it will work out. Wish me luck.

six years

Today marks six years since the day we were married. At this time on that day, I already had my hair done and was getting ready to leave for the temple. I was nervous and excited. It was the best feeling to walk through those doors and see Wendel standing there and to feel peace wash my nervousness away. Last night we were talking about all of the hurdles we've jumped through since we've been married (mostly having to do with school). I think they've made us stronger. Best decision I've made.

P.S. I thought I'd reach into my scrapbooking archives and post this page that I made several years ago (since I don't actually have time to scrapbook anymore).

cuteness in blogland

I have seen some pretty cute things lately as I have been perusing blogs. Here are a few favorites:

This adorable embroidery stitching. I love it!

This little vintage dress is just about the cutest piece of clothing I've ever seen. Is it wrong to want to buy one even though I don't have a little girl?

These paper clocks.



This scrapbook page. (It almost makes me excited to start scrapbooking again, even though it isn't really my style. It is just really cute though.)

So much cuteness!

mini quote book kit sale

Just stopping in to let you know that the mini quote book kits I have in my etsy shop are on sale through the end of the year. I am too busy to keep up with my shop right now, so once they are gone I think I will be closing it down for a while. These would make fun Christmas gifts (and can be used for anything really - not just quotes. They would make fun journals, baby shower gifts, 10 Things About Me books, etc.)

finally!

I have really neglected scrapbooking this Summer. Well, really for a year, since I started the social work program. But this Summer I thought I would spend tons of time on it, but instead chose to spend all of my free time on photography. But thanks to my friend Melanie (who had me over for scrapbooking on Friday night), I did get a few layouts done the other night. I am still finishing up one of them, but here are a couple.

(My blog is cutting the side of my page off, but you get the idea.)
Pictures look familiar? They haven't even been pushed to the second page of my blog yet. That is how recent this event occurred. That being said, I am not one to scrapbook chronologically as life happens. I am more of a "I think I feel like recording our first year of marriage four years after the fact" kind of a person.

I just scrapbook some things, and let other things be recorded on my blog or put the remaining photos in an album. I don't stress myself out about getting every single event creatively recorded in an album (obviously). I also scrapbook in varying sizes, as you can see. I am doing this with my albums. I love the different sizes mixed together. You can also read more about this here.

Image by hyperb.

We had a really fun weekend. Saturday morning we did a photo shoot and then ran a bunch of errands (and I got supplies for my OPAM this month. Yay!) Then that night we went to the Puyallup Fair. No, we didn't take that photo above. It was difficult not to take our camera, but sometimes you just need to enjoy the moment rather than capturing every little thing, you know? So we did. We went with our friends Adam and Dottie. It was a great time. I've never experienced a fair anything like this one. Apparently it's the 6th largest in the country. Pretty impressive. I also must note that W was very happy to enjoy his much-anticipated Krusty Pups, which he has been talking about since last year. We even got some Christmas shopping done.

Then yesterday after church we drove to Portland to have dinner with Britney and Ron (W's sister). They made some really good Salmon. It was fun. And that was our fabulous weekend.

a little something

Anyone want a copy of this issue? I have a project in it so they sent me some extra copies. It is not just for scrapbookers...it focuses on lots of fun projects made with paper such as home decor, cards, invitations, etc. It's full of cute ideas. Leave your name and something that is making you happy right now and I will draw a winner on Monday. I will also throw in a little something else from my stash. Friends and family are welcome to enter. Happy Thursday!

baby blocks

I made these photo blocks as a baby gift for a friend. I am only sharing a few glimpses out of respect for their family, and plus I want them to be a surprise when she receives them. Lori, if you're reading, here is a sneak preview. They should arrive soon.

cards and books

[The first card was removed for publication.]


Just stopping in to share some cards I made the other night. I couldn't sleep (because it was so hot...this coming from an Arizona girl...but at least there everyone has AC! I still find it surprising that AC is a rarity here in Washington) so I got out of bed and put together these cards. They are super simple. I like to have cards on hand so I don't have to throw them together at the last minute.

I had a scrapbook night on Friday night. I have some pictures I want to share from that, as well as what I made (or started to make...I didn't get too far) but I have to wait until my computer is working a bit better.

I just finished One More Day by Mitch Albom last night. I liked it. It was a really quick read with a good message. There were lots of good one-liner quotes that I found very meaningful and wanted to copy down.

Has anyone else read any good books lately? I am all about reading non-required books this Summer. Others on my list: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards, The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom, and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I also want to read Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall (about her experiences growing up in a FLDS Polygamist sect, as well as Escape by Carolyn Jessop, which is supposed to be a similar account). I would love to hear feedback about these books if you have read them or any other good books you have read. Enable me!

NSD Drawing

So today is National Scrapbook Day. To celebrate I'm doing a little giveaway. Leave a comment and tell me what you're inspired by (music, movies, photos, sites, blogs, stores...it doesn't have to be scrapbook related) and I will draw a name. The winner gets a bunch of patterned paper (Chatterbox, BasicGrey, 7 Gypsies, Fontwerks, Creative Imaginations, American Crafts, Making Memories, and others) some SEI ribbon, some Making Memories eyelet phrases, a few word embellishments, and some rubons. I have so much stuff and I want to purge a little so I thought it would be fun to share. Even if you aren't a scrapbooker, this stuff would be fun for making cards too. Also, if you don't have a blog or your blog name doesn't link to your blog, be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you. (You can leave a comment even if you don't have a blog - just choose "other" and type in your name.) If I can't contact the winner and haven't heard from that person within three days I will re-draw.

Have a great day! ETA: I will draw a name on Tuesday.

strep

So we have strep. It's one thing after another, but I have found comfort in watching Gilmore Girl re-runs. We only have seasons five and six, and I'm almost done with six...I'm pretty sure we need to buy the whole series. I really, really love that show (and W likes it too).

I was going to make a nice Easter Dinner yesterday and have my brother over but since we were sick we had to cancel. We were pretty bummed about it. Then a nice family in our ward brought us plates of Easter dinner, which we were so grateful for. We know a lot of wonderful people and we're grateful for them.

My Internet is working beautifully now so I can share some pictures of the book I made Lindsey and Dylan. It is super simple because 1) Simple is my style. 2) I started this book at 12:30am and finished at 6am the night before flying to Utah for the wedding. The first few pages are the sign-in pages, which you can see on the table next to the book. Throughout the rest of the book, I left room for them to write stuff, and there are pages which aren't pictured that allow for them to write about the bridal showers, wedding day, and honeymoon, and extra pages so they can add more pictures. (Click on the pictures to see them bigger.)













I took these pictures of the book displayed at the reception so the lighting wasn't the best and there is a glare on some of the pages, but you get the idea.

Back to Gilmore Girls...

one year

The contest is closed.

Today is the one-year anniversary of my blog! I really cannot believe it has been a year - time has gone by so fast this past year. In honor of my little blog, and to thank all of you who stop by, I'm going to do a little drawing. I have an extra copy of Paper Trends December / January issue (I have a fun altered project in it) and I will also throw in a few other scrapin goodies. And don't worry - this issue isn't just all about Christmas and Holiday stuff - there is also lots of other fun stuff in it. It is also not all about scrapbooking. It has ideas for lots of things you can do with paper - invitations, cards, altered projects, gifts, etc. so still enter even if you aren't a scrapbooker. So leave me a comment if you want to be in the drawing. I will draw a name on Wednesday. (If you don't live near me, I will ship the stuff to you.) ETA: You can leave a comment even if you don't have a blog. Just click on the comments link below this post and choose "other" or "anonymous" - but be sure to leave your name so if I pick you I know who the winner is.

In other news, I sang a duet today. I can mark that off of my goal list - yay! It was scary, I tell you. There were 100+ people there, all staring and Crystal and me. I seriously thought I was going to fall over because I was shaking so much. I didn't think my legs would hold me up. Any time I made eye contact with anyone this wave of nervousness washed over me. But we did it and I think it was okay. (So thanks, Crystal, for talking me into it.)

We are getting ready to go up to Seattle for W's work party. Should be fun. Have a great weekend!

goals

So I haven't listed my goals here on my blog yet. I am super excited about goals this year because we are part of a "goal group." We basically support and encourage each other to reach our goals, which each person sets in the following areas: personal, physical, intellectual, spiritual, and financial. Then we pair up - someone will call me every morning and night and I will call someone every morning and night and we will see how the goal progress is coming along. Pretty intense, but pretty cool. The duration of the goals is ninety days. I am so excited about it, in fact, that I made this little book to track my progress.





[You can see the rest of this book here.]

So here are my goals:
Personal: 1. Sing a duet in public. I have never done this and the thought of it scares me. But I have committed to doing it in a little over a week! 2. Take a self-portrait every day for a year. Crazy, but I'm excited about it. It will be good for improving my photography skills and allowing me a little time each day to be creative. You can see what I have so far here.
Physical: Work out 3x a week. Not a big deal to most people, but school seriously takes over my life and it's difficult to find time to do much else. ETA: Go to bed between 11 and 11:30 every week night (unless I have a huge paper pending...I have to give myself a little room here).
Financial: As a couple W and I are going to set aside money each month to build up our food storage.
Spiritual: 1. Read the Book of Mormon in the 90 days. 2. Read another uplifting book by a General Authority.
Intellectual: Get A+s or A-s this quarter again.


I also chose my word of the year (as prompted by Ali). My word to focus on this year is balance (as you can see on the inside cover of my mini book). I really want to balance my time between all aspects of my life - this did not happen last quarter so I really want to work on it for this quarter (and year).

I love fresh starts.

sharing a layout and some recipes

I finally finished up this layout and wanted to share it here. It felt so good to make a page again. I had lots of pictures I wanted to use but I didn't want my page too look to cluttered so I made most of the pictures small and made a little booklet of tags with the pictures on the front and back, punched a hole at the top and tied them together. I sewed the piece of patterned paper the bottom picture is on to make a pocket for the little tag book. The journaling is hidden under the first picture. It was a fun page to make. School starts Monday so you probably won't see another layout here for a while.

I made Split Pea and Ham Soup tonight and roasted garlic on focaccia bread the other night and wanted to share those recipes here since it's been so long since I've done that (I really need to update my recipe blog).


Split Pea and Ham Soup

2 C. split peas, rinsed
6 C. cold water
5 C. chicken or vegetable broth
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stock with leaves, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper to taste
dash each of parsley, thyme, marjoram and cayenne pepper
2 C. ham
1 potato

*Optional: 1 tsp. sugar, barley

(For the barley, while the peas are simmering, in another pot, cook 1/2 cup of barley with 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until most of the water has been absorbed. Drain and rinse barley with cold water. Add to soup.)

Directions: In a large pot add peas with 6 cups of cold water. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for one hour until the split peas are tender (longer if needed).

Add chicken (or vegetable) broth, carrot, potato, celery, onion, garlic, sugar, lemon juice, ham, bay leaf and all spices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for another 1/2 hour or until carrots are soft.

(Note: I didn't add the potato because I thought it was thick enough already. You can also puree the soup in a blender before adding the barley but I didn't.) Yum!



Roasted Garlic Focaccia Bread

(This one comes from our friends John and Christa and it's so good.)

Roasted Garlic

2 whole garlic heads (bulbs)
2 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel the outer skin of the garlic only but leave the garlic bulb whole. Slice 1/2 inch of the pointed end of the garlic bulbs. Put the garlic head in a small oven proof dish, garlic roaster, or pan. Pour 1/2 tsp. of olive oil over the top of each bulb and let it sink in between the cloves. Wait two minutes and then repeat with another 1/2 tsp. of olive oil over each bulb.

(Note: Remember the garlic roaster I gave and then took back at our white elephant party? I finally used it for this recipe and love it!)

Cover and bake one hour or until cloves are browned at the exposed end and soft throughout. Remove from oven.

Allow garlic to cool and remove cloves from head as needed. Garlic may be stored in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for several days. To puree, crush garlic cloves with the flat of a knife.

For the bread I made, I didn't have any extra garlic. I bought crumbled gorgonzola cheese and poured it on top of the bread. Then I melted it in the oven on 250 degrees for a few minutes (not completely melted though). Then I put the roasted garlic on top.

You can also put in on flat bread, or on baguette bread with cream cheese.

Also, if you're looking for a good Picco de Gallo recipe, look here. I made this for New Year's Eve and it was really good.
......................................................................................

We moved to Washington one year ago from today. It's difficult to believe it has been that long. This past year has gone by so fast. Last year on this day, we flew into Seattle from Texas (we were there visiting family) and went straight from the airport to my Statistics class (glad that's over, btw). Then straight from there to the DMV to get our licenses (to get a jump-start on getting residency as soon as possible), then back to the airport to pick up the luggage that didn't make our flight with us, and then to our apartment in Seattle. Such an adventurous time. It has been such a great year.

*inspiration*

I finally checked out flickr and it is awesome! I can't pull myself away from it! There are so many fun pictures on there and so much inspiration to be found. Above are just a few of my favorites. Some I like for the colors, some for the composition, some for the project or item itself. Very cool stuff.
[1. spied and loved, 2. cantina chair, 3. red stars, 4. Whole "give thanks everyday" accordian Mantel Decor, 5. spring art, 6. Saturday morning coffee on the patio, 7. 308: 12.5.07, 8. plate wall, 9. ...try again, 10. candy floss, 11. bookshelf, 12. Shadow Dance, 13. where the happy music came from, 14. bloomin' colors, 15. tea boxes, 16. pretty things at Art & Soul, 17. cheers!, 18. "living life as you dream it", 19. house of the rising sun, 20. 60s redux, 21. ramped, 22. paint, 23. by land, 24. 133: SOTTS will make you jump!, 25. 365.104 Feet Up Friday, 26. little hands, 27. don't you love those little feet?, 28. lolli*love, 29. stepping*out, 30. Untitled, 31. Untitled, 32. Untitled, 33. Untitled, 34. Untitled, 35. Untitled, 36. smoochable]

I also wanted to share the thankful album I made for my mom and siblings that I couldn't share before Christmas. I made this book with the freebies I posted about last month. It was really easy to put together since Jessica had already designed the pages. I just opened each page in photoshop elements and typed in the journaling (I highlighted a two-page spread for each person in my family with what they said they were grateful for at Thanksgiving dinner), then uploaded the pages and pictures to wal-mart to be printed, added a few other embellishments, punched three holes in everything and tied it with ribbon. Easy and fun to make.




You can see the rest of this book here.

I actually scrapbooked last night for the first time since September (other than this grateful mini book, cards, altered stuff, etc). But as far as an actual layout goes, this is the first in a long time. I need to finish up one thing on it and then I will share.

We took down our tree yesterday and put away all of our Christmas stuff. I wouldn't have minded leaving it up a little longer but our tree was so dead the ornaments were falling off of it. Now the spot where it was seems so bare, but it's good to have everything nice and clean for the new year.

I hope everyone is having a beautiful Sunday!

altered stars

I am so excited that I have a few weeks of break before starting classes again. My last final was yesterday. It was a rough morning...I left my house a little after 8:00 so I could be there in time for my 9:15 final. There was an accident on the 5 South though so I didn't get there until 10:30. I was freaking out...it was so frustrating to be sitting there in traffic, knowing that I was missing my final. It did all work out though - my professor gave me an hour and a half to complete it once I got there. But still, it was very stressful getting there and I'm glad it's over.

The first thing I did after coming home from my last class was make a creative project. I started these altered stars at the beginning of December with the intent to have them done for our party but of course I didn't have time to finish them. They are just simple but it was fun to make something again.




We're going to Home Depot so that's all for now.