One Little Bird: Project Life August 2014

Hello!!  I'm on the One Little Bird blog today sharing a glimpse of what our August looked like!  I hop you will pop on over and say hi! 

Stephanie Makes Shop Update

The new goodies in my shop will be available on October 1st!  As I mentioned, I am in total "fall" mode, so the shop is full of pretty golds, krafts, florals and wood veneer!  I have lots of fall mini albums, as well as a pretty gold "Oh Happy Day" mini album kit!  Oh...and there's also a sprinkle of hot pink in the shop too....just for fun!!  

Life Is A Beautiful Ride

There are so many rewarding things about being a momma.  Seeing your child accomplish something so awesome and watching them stare at you with pride is one of the best things ever.  Anna was beaming with pride as she learned to ride her bike in about 10 minutes flat and I was about three seconds away from tears.  She needed a little bit of help with balancing initially, but she was off and running after a few tries.  We've had her training wheels off for months, but she just wasn't ready.  We would ask her every so often if she wanted to go practice, but she was always a little too scared.  That's her personality, though.  She's not going to do something until she's able to do it 100%.  I love that about her.  I love her determination and drive when she wants to do something.  And I love that I got to help her and watch her accomplish this awesome milestone.  I'm so proud of you, baby girl. 

And if you want to join in on this magical milestone, just watch the quick video below!

Maggie Holmes' Design Team: September Project Life

Hi there!!  Happy Thursday! 

I'm over on Maggie's blog today sharing a look at my most recent Project Life spread.  I used my very favorite page protector for this one (the October Afternoon one with the 3x3 inch pockets) and I just love how it turned out.  Those Styleboard products just make everything look beautiful!  Can't wait to get my hands on the new Open Book collection!!  Are you excited too??

Little Talks

YOU: Are tracked out of school right now and are my little shadow all day long.  You love shopping and could shop for clothes, shoes, accessories and toys for hours.  You love picking out the "perfect" outfits, which always include some pretty shoes and a matching headband.  You can easily rock red, pink and orange all together, no problem at all.  You are obsessed with filling up your "marble jar" and will do just about anything to get another marble.  You are an awesome listener and a rule follower.  You always eat your fruit and veggies first, ask politely for seconds and clean up your own plate.  You love being wherever I am, and shine when I ask you to be my helper.  You still suck that thumb when you are tired, but we are working on that (slowly, obviously). You are sweet as pie and as cute as they come.  You love to cuddle with momma, which just melts my heart. 

ME: I'm loving our "girl" time together when Drew is in school.  I'm trying to find a love for shopping so I can keep up with you, but that doesn't look like it's happening any time soon!  I'm taking a much needed social media break and I'm loving every minute of my "free" time.  I'm working on "just being", which is actually really hard for me.  I'm trying to remind myself to slow down and enjoy these little moments...not to rush through to the next planned activity, meal, etc.  I'm reading books like the library is getting ready to close.  I'm wearing kimonos and sweaters all day everyday and I can't get enough of apple almond butter cookies.  

Working for the Weekend

I spent a few hours in this pretty room this weekend.  I've got some fun things coming to the shop next week and I can't wait to share more with you!!  You can see most of the new products over in the shop right now!  The shop will open back up and open on October 1st!!  Fall is in the air....can you feel it??  Yay!

Around Here

For the most part, I completely unplugged this past week and just enjoyed being a momma.  It was pretty awesome and I will definitely be making some changes to my "online" presence over the next few weeks.  Don't get me wrong....I love social media and consider myself an "instagram-aholic".  I love the online friends I have met and the little glimpses of their lives I get through Instagram and their blogs.  But I kind like just hanging out better.  Being with family.  Being with friends.  Just being.  Life is busy enough as it is and to add in more stressors with social media just makes everything one big cluster.  And I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I do love blogging.  I love this blog.  I love that it's all mine and I especially love that I don't have a running list of people who "liked" my post.  Comments are pretty few here, as it seems they are on most small blogs, and I'm okay with that.  I love the readers who do take the time to leave me a small note, and I'm making it a goal to leave more notes here and there on the inter-web.

I'll continue to post my design team projects and other fun crafty adventures here on this blog, but I plan on adding in more "real life" stuff.  I want to add more of "me" and my personality.  I want to break out of my shell and share more of our life, my feelings and our everyday adventures.  Photography has always been a passion and picking up my camera has never felt so good.  So, with that...here's what we have been up to this week!

Thank you so much to those who take the time to read my little blog.  Lots of hugs and kisses to you!!  Happy weekend!  I hope it's full of hugs and happiness!!

xoxo

Little Talks

YOU: You started preschool last week and are slowly adjusting.  You cling to my leg every single time I drop you off, but never cry.  You love being at home and always want to play for "just a few more minutes".  You are obsessed with the words poop, bottom and butt and have frequently found yourself in a time out for saying them repeatedly.  You love fiercely and give the best kisses.   You tell us all you love us at least a zillion times each day.  You love dinosaurs, eggos and legos.  You are awesome and I love you so very much....and yes...I even love your butt. 

ME: I'm struggling to find my "purpose" while you kiddos are in school.  I'm filling my days with exercise, books, lunch duty and Pinterest perusing.  But I miss you all more than you know.  I struggle with wanting to be "the best" mom to you both, whatever that means... and hope that I'm doing an okay job. I'm dreaming of school track out, fall, changing leaves, cooler weather and yummy pumpkin spice lattes. 

Little Talks is a new series I am introducing here on my blog.  I have a strong desire to tell more stories and to write more letters to my children.  I document our happenings and memories, but often find that I leave out "the heartfelt" stories in the rush.  Little Talks will share the "here and now" of my children, as well as myself. 

The Right Now

A little glimpse of our life right now.  We are busy....and in the thick of it all.  Life is crazy, but awesome.  I'm loving the time I get to spend with Drew when Anna is in school, and I'm so looking forward to Anna's school track out (which is for an awesome three weeks)!  I've missed her way more than I thought possible and I can't wait for some good girl time, shopping and manicures.  They keep me busy...that's for sure.  It's a good busy and being their momma is still the best job ever created.

Photographing our everyday will always be one of my very favorite things to do, and honestly...I haven't been the best about capturing the ins and outs this year.  I'm so thankful for my 12 on the Twelfth series, even though it often feels like a lot of work and concentration.  I love having random little bits of our day captured.  I love photographing the small stuff, the toys, the messes, the hugs and the tears.  It's "us" and it's our story.  It's what matters most.  These photographs are moments frozen in time....they are frozen in a time where everything seems to move and change so quickly.  While I can't seem to make time stop, I can do my best to enjoy every single minute.  

And just so you know...I'm planning on taking a little bloggie (and Instagram) break over the next few weeks, but will pop in with some DT assignments here and there.  I really want to focus on my sweet babies, cooking, reading, a beach vacation and the lovely Fall weather.  Sometimes it's hard to squeeze it all in (as I'm sure most of you know)!!  I'll be around, though, and will be back soon!

Happy Monday!

12 on the Twelfth: September Pictures

Oh where is this year going?  I can't believe it's already the middle of September.  This month has been jam-packed, but I was actually really looking forward to documenting our day this month.  So much has changed just since August, so it was nice to get a look at our "right now".  I spent a while looking back through our photos from this project (all the way back to January) and I am just so grateful for this project.  I love the moments that were captured and I love looking at how our days have changed.

Here is a look at our September day:

If you played along, I'd love for you to link up your day in the comments below!!

Happy Saturday!

Glitz Design: Sparkle

Hey there!  Happy Friday!!  How is this week already over???

I'm up on the Glitz blog today with a layout that sparkles and shines!!  Click on over to read more about how my page came together!! 

Cozy

Today, I'm sharing another page using Shimelle's lovely new collection.  The pinks and creams just won me over big time and I seriously can't stop playing around!

For this page, I wanted to use this cream paper with the pink sunbursts as my background.  I attempted to use the entire sheet, but....you know that goes.  I just couldn't make it work for me.  I was missing all of my white space!  So, instead of using the entire sheet, I trimmed part of it down and added it as a vertical band down my page.  

To add a little bit of interest to the white part of my paper, I used a few of Shimelle's gold rub-ons, some paint platters and a little bit of pink paint.  It's subtle, and kind of hard to tell from the photo above, but in person, you can totally see it.  I like that it adds just a little pop to that side of the page. 

Next, I layered on my photo, some lace and a few papers.  And again....those gold thickers.  Just can't get enough (you'll be seeing them again!!).

A simple handmade embellishment and some journaling along the vertical band were the finishing touches to the page!  This page seems rather simple now that I'm typing out how it came together, but I swear, this one took me a while to finish for some crazy reason.  Does that happen to anyone else???  Everything always seems easier when you explain it, right?

Oh...and believe it or not, tomorrow is the 12th of the month!  I'll be snapping away, so if you would love to join me, that would be awesome!!  

Maggie Holmes Design Team: Art Journal Part 4

My art journal is still one of my favorite projects!  I don't know why it comes so easily and naturally, but it does and the process is so freeing.  As I've mentioned before, my journal definitely has more of a scrapbook take, and I'm totally fine with that.  Some pages are messier than others, and some are super clean and simple.   

Today, I'm sharing my latest pages over on Maggie's blog!  These are some of my favorites so I hope you will check them out!!  You can see the rest of my art journal through the links below:

Art Journal: Part 1

Art Journal: Part 2

Art Journal: Part 3

You & Me

Hi friends!  Happy Monday to you!!  It's dreary and rainy here and I am slowly getting out of a fog from traveling to the West Coast and back over the weekend.  It was a whirlwind trip, but I attending the Be Crafty Workshop with Amanda and Maggie was totally worth it!  I'll share more photos soon!!  It was dreamy!

But first...this week on my blog is dedicated to the lovely Shimelle!  

Just kidding....kinda...  But, I did manage to get a little carried away with her new collection and created quite a bit, so I figured I could share them here this week!  I have a few other design team posts that will go live, but for the most part, I'll be sharing four layouts and one mini album I put together with her awesome products!  You can also see a bit of her collection sprinkled throughout my Summer Mini Album. 

The layout I'm sharing today was totally inspired by the patterned paper, which is really unusual for my style and process.  I typically always start with a photo, but this pink/gold/red diagonal paper was just calling my name so I knew I had to make it work!

I pieced this layout together in a few different ways before I was finally pleased.  I originally started with the diagonals taking up one half of my page, but I couldn't make the photo and paper layers mesh with the paper for some reason.  In the end, I trimmed down the triangles and adhered them to a piece of white card stock.  I kind of like how it sits on the page.  I also decided to use a black and white photo so the pink/red/gold colors could pop from the page and I think it turned out perfectly!

I used the ampersand as part of my title and added the "you, me" in gold thickers on either side of it (I kind of went overboard with those thickers, so be prepared to see much more of them this week!).

I added a few simple embellishments and paint splatter on my page, trying to keep them clustered around my photo and paper layers.

I stitched the triangle piece onto my card stock, added my journaling along the outside edge and then backed it with a piece of music note paper from Webster's Pages.  I tried to back this page with several different papers of various colors, but the neutral black and white seemed to work the best with my photo.  

So...have you played around with Shimelle's collection??  The embellishments of a collection are usually what draw me in, but in this case, her papers have won my heart!!  The embellishments are a super close second, though!!  

Happy Monday!!

The Shop Has Been Restocked!

Hey hey!  Happy Saturday!!  My shop has been restocked and updated with some new goodies!!  There are more "Oh Happy Day" and Instagram mini albums, as well as some new "Dreams" daybooks and travel journals!!  As always, thank you so much for your love and support!  Happy shopping!!

Summer Mini 2014

If you're bored and wanting to spend a few hours here with me, then settle in and I'll take you on a journey through my Summer 2014 mini album!  I didn't realize I had completed so many pages until I started to upload them here to my blog.  Wow!  Sorry about that, but I was just so inspired by Marcy's mini book workshop at Studio Calico that I couldn't stop!!  

This little book is the We R Memories Keepers 4x4 album and it is just soooooo cute.  I'm going to order a few more because, seriously, they are just so cute!  And I love 2x2 photos!  They are fun and easy and are so small that you really don't have to worry about embellishing them or even journaling!

Ok...here we go...all 24 pages!  I won't walk you through the whole album, but let me know if you have any questions about products or process or what not!

Eeeeeek!  I just can't stop looking at it!!  I love all of the layers and different elements!  And Marcy, well...she is the bees knees to me.  I swear she makes magic!

Happy Friday!

xoxo