Category Archives: Uncategorized

I Lied..

I said I wouldn’t take a new CT position, but an opportunity came along that was just too good to pass up. I will share the details soon… so exciting.

My travels begin tomorrow. I have to head to Seattle for a couple of days before I fly to Australia on Wednesday. I am starting to get very stressed out with all the work I have to do before them – both for my real job and at home. I think I’m going to have to reduce my scrap time for a couple days – unless the new Nancy Comelab and Jen Wilson challenges post of course.

I am not taking my computer to Australia. I just don’t the distraction would be good given that I’m seeing some people for the first time in two years – brothers included. I think it may just kill me if the 24 hour solo flight with a two year old doesn’t do me in first.

Anyway, here’s a quick LO I made with Sasha Jane Products at MDM. Good reminder that I CANNOT forget the DVD player. 🙂

Credits

Have a great Monday

Nicole

Me Me Me!

The challenge on Nancy’s blog this week was to scrap a page with many different photos of myself. Unfortunately this meant that I had to TAKE some photos of myself – something I hate. I am much more comfortable behind the camera.
So I set up a little makeshift studio in our back room. It’s the best room in the house for lighting so that I could avoid flash. I hung a red blanket over a drying rack for a makeshift backdrop, put Blue’s Clues on the TV to keep Thomas occupied and proceeded to take about 100 photos. About a quarter of them were subject to the delete key, but a few made it into my layout.
And here is the result – a page with nothing but me me me. Probably the toughest page I have ever pulled together.

Credits

Thanks for stopping by

Nicole

Scrapapalooza!

It’s a scrapping frenzy! The start of the month means a new Muse Journal, which also means I can now share a whole bunch of LOs that I have been working on. Oh, and make sure you pick up the Journal. It has a some really interesting articles from the team and a free kit from Tara that rocks!

This one is for the Muse of the Month scraplift. I had the pleasure of lifting one of Dani’s layouts – no easy task but a lot of fun.

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This one is for Tiff’s Multi-Photo template challenge which starts today. Fabulous template!

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And last, but not least, a LO using Tara’s free kit. She also has a lot of new products in the store that coordinate with the kit so make sure you check those out too.

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Note: Credits today are all linked to the MDM store. It’s DST’s 1st birthday and the site is painfully slow today.

Oh, and I did some shopping late last night – if you are not aware, Jen Wilson is selling almost a;; of her element packs for $1 each! I picked up about 12. 🙂 And Little Dreamer has a grab bag that combines products from all of the designers. The contents definitely did not disappoint. 🙂

Next on the list of things to do

  • Finalize September Muse article
  • LO for Tara’s CT
  • MDM CT Layouts
  • Photo for MDM photo challenge (I am not hosting this month due to travel plans but I will contribute a pic)
  • Nancy Comelab blog challenge
  • LDD Blog Challenge with Grab bag items
  • JWD Attire Challenge #4 (not posted yet but I am eagerly awaiting)

And all of this during a crazy week at work and right before I head to Australia – in just one week! Eeeeck!

Have a great day.

Nicole

Challenged…

…And not in a good way. Seems this parenting thing is getting more difficult. Kei played golf all afternoon on Saturday and Thomas was a challenge at best. He has finally realized that he has an opinion and is not afraid to express it. Don’t get me wrong, I want him to become an independent child with a mind of his own – but not if EVERYTHING is the opposite of what I want. I wanted him to eat lunch at the table, HE wanted to eat on the floor. I gave him fish crackers, HE wanted peanut butter crackers. I wanted him to have a bath, HE didn’t want a bath. HE wanted me to out on a diaper, I started to put on the diaper, HE wanted me to stop. Just one struggle after another. Exhausting.

Makes me wonder about a 20 hour trip to Australia…alone…with Thomas…Hmmm. That DVD battery had better sustain his attention.

I ordered Parenting with Love and Logic from Amazon. Should arrive just in time for the plane ride. I am expecting miracles.

I did get some scrapping though. I was feeling particularly creative on Saturday night and finshed three layouts – in addition to the two I finished on Friday. I am only able to share one right now. It is using Dani’s new Stitches over at the Sweet Shoppe. I am always a sucker for good stitches, especially if they are a little funky and fun and these don’t disappoint. She has some circles as well. Will definitely have to use those soon.

Credits

Have a great Monday!

Nicole

Busy Busy Busy

Seems those weeks of procrastination at work are finally catching up with me. I have so much to do that I am finding it difficult to get started on anything. I have to fly to Seattle a week from Monday for two days (Mon, Tues) and then I am flying to Australia on the Wednesday. So much to do in so little time.

But I thought I should at least share a couple of layout to keep this blog going in the meantime.
This layout is using the new Summer Breeze Colab kit at MDM. Such beautiful colors in this kit and lots of great embellishments.

See the kit here and here, and credits for the layout here.

Next up is a LO I made for the challenge hosted by Emily Merritt on Nancy’s blog this week – Share your Summer traditions. I had created a similar LO for the Scrap Outside the Box challenge at MDM so I reworkd it to include some of Nancy’s stuff. I really like how it turned out.
And last but definitely not least is for another challenge on Nancy’s blog. This time it was Nancy doing the challenging and asked us make a LO of our goals. I not a big person for thinking too far in the future. That doesn’t mean I don’t have any goals, just that I prefer to focus on what I want to achieve in the near future rather than a 10 year plan. But this turned out to be very cathartic experience. Who knew?

Thanks for stopping by – hope your day is a great one!

Nicole

Revising my To Do List

I had a very productive weekend! I crossed four things off my to do list – whoo hoo! But the best thing is that I had fun doing it. I guess it wasn’t such a bad thing that our weekend plans fell through (although I do still need a vacation – don’t get me wrong).

I spoke with my brother tonight for the first time in probably a year. He only has a cell phone in Australia and it’s too expensive for me to call so I try and catch up with him while he’s visiting my parents. It made me want to leave to go home NOW – I can’t believe I still have to wait for 2 and a half weeks. It’s killing me.

But, back to my list. Here are the things I marked off the list:

  • Photo Swap layout
  • Layout with Dani’s new kit
  • Small Project for Digi Scrapping Race (Dani’s Girls blog is a stop)
  • Layout with the new MDM Collab Kit (coming soon)

And here are the results – well the two I can share anyway.

First of all, the photo swap challenge. This one was..well…challenging. There is so much more pressure when you are scrapping with someone else’s photos, especially when that person is as talented as Traci Reed. In the end, though, I like how it turned out. IThe colors worked well togetehr and I think I used a good mix of elements. I just love that overlay from the Scrapartist Reverie kit. And it only took me three weeks!

And this one is my layout with Dani’s new MVP kit. Fantastic kit and one I can see myself coming back to time and again as Thomas continues his sporting “career”. There are just so many goodies in this kit that it’s impossible to show them all in one layout. I love it when one kit allows for so many different pages. This was actually a re-scrap. I wasn’t happy with my previous attempt but I was so proud of the journaling that I went back to try again.

Credits

Still remaining on my list…

  • Shopping with what remains of my GCs ($10 from Jen Wilson, $5 from Nancy Comelab)
  • Jen Wilson Challenge 4
  • Nancy Comelab Blog Challenge Goal LO (I think this will be a tough one)

Best get to bed now- another work week beckons… sigh…

Nicole

What’s a girl to do? Shop!

We were supposed to head to the coast for the weekend but when I called last night to confirm, I found they had no record of our reservation. Even though I had an email confirmation. I did tried to call when I made the reservation orginally but they never called me back and then I received an email message so I thought it was confirmed. But I guess not…

And finding last-minute accomodation on the Oregon Coast on a weekend in the middle of the summer is an impossible task.

So instead I shopped. I LOVE the Nordstrom anniversary sale. I bought these shoes – the heel is way too high and they are totally impractical but look how cute!

And then of course I had to buy some new jeans to wear them with. And a new top to finish off the whole outfit (couldn’t find a pic of that).

I bought some sensible shoes as well. Still very cute, but sensible.

And it’s all completely justified because they were on sale! Ahhh… I feel so much better. 🙂 It has been so long since I bought something for myself.

I was supposed to be on leave today but since we’re no longer going away I didn’t want to waste it. So I do have to do some work. Then I think I’ll pick Thomas up from daycare a little early and we can all go and get some sushi for dinner.

The weekend is looking better and better. Besides, I think it’s going to rain all weekend on the coast.

See how I just turned that frown upside down?? 🙂 Have a great weekend!

Nicole

I almost forgot…

My Photography challenge is happening right now at MDM. You have until bnext Wednesday at midnight to be in the running for a GC to the store. Click on the image for details.

Lastly: Please indulge me as I update my task list here – it makes me personally accountable. 🙂

  • Photo Swap layout
  • Write article for the September Muse
  • Layout with Dani’s new kit (coming soon)
  • Small Project for Digi Scrapping Race (Dani’s Girls blog is a stop)
  • Layout with the new MDM Collab Kit (coming soon)
  • Shopping with all of my GCs 🙂
  • Jen Wilson Challenge 4
  • Nancy Comelab Blog Challenge Goal LO (I am determined to keep up with these)

Phew – busy days ahead and a vacation weekend in the middle. Best get started!

Nicole

The light at the end of the tunnel.

I’m having one of those mornings. I hate uncertainty and there is a lot of that with my job right now. I just want to know what my job IS I guess – too much to ask? Didn’t think so.

Well, enough of my cryptic ramblings (you never know who might be reading this). The good news is that we are heading to the coast for a few days tomorrow. I can’t wait. I really need a vacation and it will be so nice for us to spend time together as a family.

Oh, and it’s now less that three weeks before I head home for a quick Aussie visit. I am so excited. My parents haven’t seen Thomas since last October which was before he was even walking. He has changed so much since then and I can’t wait for them to see how much he has grown up. I am also looking forward to catching up weith my brotehrs and some friends. Should be fun! If anyone has ideas for some magic products to keep a toddler occupied on a 20 hour flight I would appreciate it. I am going to buy a portable DVD player and went shopping for some new books yesterday, but I am looking for ideas for small, portable toys that will occupy an almost 2 year old. Preferably for a good 5 hours. (Hahaha).

Of course I can’t leave without an image of some kind. Here my LO for Jen Wilson’s Challenge week 3. The challenge was to couple things on a layout that you usually wouldn’t put together. I chose to place a graphic brush and some bling (glitter border and sequins) on a fairly rustic layout. It’s also a photo of my son with flowers – which I have never done before. This was a tough one for me but I think it turned out quite well.

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Until next time

Nicole