live . craft . learn

i had so much fun

... playing with the september kenner road kits.

it's the site's first birthday and i feel so happy & humbled that the past year has been filled with so much support from my amazing creative team, our wonderful guest designers and especially each and everyone of our supportive and happy customers. we have alot coming up in the next month, some little surprises and some HUGE! eeks!!

i completely fell in love with new cosmo cricket lines when i got a sneak peek before cha and when i began designing our exclusive fabrics and the stamps i was itching to get it all here to use, and use it all i did :)

the layout above was actually one of my last creations {so far} as i have a love affair with my scraps but haven't been using them up like i always want to. it was probably my quickest layout ever created, about 10 minutes.

these bottles were one of my most favorite parts of the CC chipboard... want to come over?

this is maddie and 1/2 of her besties whom you've seen me document before. when i took mad's back to school shopping she saw these bff shirts at old navy and just HAD to get one for each of them for the first day. so priceless!

ok... i'll admit that i got a little carried away with this one but it was SO fun to make. Those Jillibean Soup corrugated alphas are my new favorite, i could use up the negative sheet over & over & over & .... well. i think i have a 1" x 5" section left. lol

 

and i could write a sonnet for the vespas that line one of our downtown streets everyday. while the new ones are beautiful it's the vintage yellow one that grabs my heart each time i pass it on my visits downtown. if i didn't have littles i would be on one of these on a daily basis, unfortunately they don't make them with dual child-seats, or maybe they do? hmmmm...  ;)

happy tuesday!
xo

 

it's raining

clean slate + pencil box

saturday morning at around 3 am i woke up to a boom. for a few minutes i was in a daze, still believing i was asleep. then i saw a brilliant flash sneak through our bedroom window as lightening pulsed across the sky. we don't get lightening & thunder storms here in norcal. it's one of the things i miss about my college days in ohio, that mid-west late afternoon storm that comes during the summer.

i stayed in bed and kept watching. snuggled under the covers and i hoped and i wished for rain.

elementary + clean slate + pencil box

eventually my sweetie woke up {startled, like i had been} and asked what was going on. we sat huddled under the blankets and listened, and again, i hoped and i wished and i dreamed of rain, until we started watching an episode of eureka at 4am before going back to bed. lol

 

elementary + pencil box

and today. today it's dreary and gray and drizzly. but still no rain. i want to do a rain dance and make the clouds open up. i want to make the sky pelt down the drops and drench our dry norcal earth. i want it to thunder and storm, like the eastern states know how.

until then i'll keep using up my september kits. and hope.

happy sunday
xo

eta : it finally started raining about 7pm. the drizzle started earlier but i didn't believe it until i heard {and smelled} the rain. it smells SO good right now. :)

sharing day

elementary + pencil box + clean slate

just popping in to share a few sneak peeks of my september kenner road creations. i'm on a roll this month with five so far and i'm still going. thank goodness the mojo is back. my pause last month helped so much, i just want to cut paper & stitch & print photos and create all weekend.

happy saturday!
xo

 

elementary + clean slate

 

elementary + clean slate + primer {vintage kit}

little love

it's been a while... i know. i took a much needed vacay from here over the last few weeks to enjoy the last few days of summer with my littles and to regroup and reorganize myself. all things are good and i feel so energized, but that definitely wasn't how i felt when i got home from florida & cha.

i was stressed. i was exhausted. my creativity felt hollow and empty. our schedules were about to chage as maddie started first grade and ben started a 4 day a week preschool program. i started to realize that week after i got home that i just needed to stop. my priorities were a little jacked off center and i wasn't doing anything about it, even though i needed to. i desperately needed to.

so i spent basically all of august figuring things out and screwing my head back on :

1. playing with my littles and going on adventures; the sf zoo, dragraces; playdates and the park.

2. refocus on loving my man. he's amazing and so dedicated to us but honestly things just started to become rote, as i'm sure it does at times for alot of couples. life can become so busy and responsibilities can become so huge. so i started asking myself "what can i do for him". it's a small question but the rewards in our relationship are worth it. not to mention we're laughing again. alot.

2. i started weight watchers {and have lost 10lbs in 4 weeks} because i've had it with being overweight and not making myself enough of a priority.

3. i'm reorganizing kenner road and it is building, excatly itno what i always saw it would be, it's amazing how four mornings of childless work can help with all of that, and getting excited for our first birthday on september 14th helps too!

4. admitting i can't be all things to everyone if i'm nothing first to myself.... oh how this is another huge mountain i'm climbing. but climb it i will & i am.

5. making something everyday. this is being helped along because i'm guest designing on kari's a year of color blog and i created a daily journal tutorial {sneak peek above} for september. it's something small and simple that i can fill with all of my "little loves" on a daily basis as i want to recharge my creative spirit this month.

so here i am. i'm refreshed. i'm rejuvenated and i'm ready for everything.

i missed you.
xo

kenner road : august sneaks

i love this month. the main kit has so many extra elements {two alphabets!!} and i adore how the papers aren't so matchy matchy but the colors blend together really well.

 

and then there's the extra bit of something on this layout that is my all time favorite kenner road goody to date.

we're doing another reveal night chat tomorrow night beginning at 8pm pacific. come join us and say hi, just look for the chat link on the homepage right before 8pm. ;)

happy thursday!
xo

tall & lovely

i've got a little candle tutorial up over on the kenner road blog today. why don't you head on over and say hi. and then make sure you come back tomorrow, i've got some august kr sneak peeks waiting for their debut. ;)

happy wednesday!
xo

wedded bliss

the july gallery challenge is up on the kenner road blog and this is my project, and i must admit, new all-time favorite altered creation. it'll be on it's way to a sweet friend who recently got married... maybe you know her? i've been wanting to make mr & mrs ruiz something special to celebrate their new life together and those basic grey rubons were just itching to be used... they were the reason why i picked the olio rub-on book for the blue ribbon add-on so i best use them, dontach think? {there's a few more of this add-on left too... here}

the challenge was to use a stamp in your project and i used the ledger stamp as a background on the woodgrain flashcard that came in the sweetwater embellishment kit. just stamped it randomly two times and applied the rubons right over... it added just enough texture i think without being too busy.

you've got practically two weeks to create something with stamps and get it linked up and posted in the kenner road flickr gallery. go here to find out more!

happy wednesday!

xo

kenner road | july

there's no doubt about it, the july kenner road kits seriously kicked my butt right back in creation mode. all of the stress of june, with maddie's surgery and the endless nights of insomnia leading up to it {which still haven't left me completely... ugh!} and the weeks without making a thing. 

last week i had a chat/scrap playdate with some seriously wonderful friends and while we were chatting and laughing i started taking some pics with my webcam. and when i was looking at them all, i really saw how happy i am again. just laughing and chatting. it's taken a while but i'm really rediscovering myself again and feeling more secure in everything that means to me.

 

i just sat down last week and started cutting. i love cutting... and punching. i seriously have a new found love of the punches. see those little critters punched in rainbowpants' layout. eksuccess and my new love!

and this one. maddie had a field trip to armstrong woods the last week of school and i just wanted to get down some of my thoughts on finishing her first year in school. still can't believe it actually, in one month she'll be an official first grader. gah!!

and this one of my sweet ben at 12 months. i wasn't scrapping when i had maddie or ben and i really want to start documenting that time for them. i want to try to remember the little things that i can before it all becomes a fog. these pics were actully part of the pics i took for ben's birthday invitations. the one i used is of his backside so i'm not comfortable sharing it online {cause of the icky creepy people} but this was an outake that i adored.

 

this one is just some summer love and me playing around with circle punches for the first time... boy they are addicting!!

 

and i adore this card. i'm really trying hard to become better at sending cards out for all of the events i need them for and i would rather that they were handmade. that's what i adore the most when i get mail... and i love repurposing that stunning prima packaging.

and that's my kr gallery wrap up. lol. now i need to get to processing all of those orders so everything can go out on the 20th.

happy wednesday!!
xo

some more sneaks + the giveaway winner

 

wow! so many nice sweet comments about my lovely kenner road kits. thank you so much for all of the support and for loving what i put together. it really thrills me when my little paper window displays {as i lovingly refer to them} go out into the world to inspire others to create. i really love scrapbooking and it really thrills me that all of you enjoy it too!

i thought i'd share a few more sneak peeks of some of my creations that will be revealed tomorrow night. i'll share one more tomorrow as i'm also doing a mini class on the kenner road blog on august 5th. it will be a complete tutorial using the add-ons + the main kit.... ;)

however, without making you all wait any further i want to announce the lucky winner of the sweet dreams add-on is from this weekend :

                Great kit! Thanks for the giveaway!

                Posted by: Leslie | July 10, 2009 at 04:17 PM

congrats leslie! send me your contact info and we'll get this beauty out to you this week.the littles and i spent today doing my other favorite thing, swimming! we've been going to swim lessons {them, not me} at a local swim club and i just adore it there. we know a bunch of other members and i didn't realize until we started last week just how much i missed swimming and just being in the water in general. it really feels like summer now with the little whiffs of chlorine i smell on the littles after we head home from the pool and the tan lines that we are all developing... gosh i love tan lines. happy monday!xo

july sneak peeks + a giveaway ((giveaway closed))

i've got some fun, fun, fun for you all today! the entire kenner road creative team is giving away kits this weekend. make sure you check out the kenner road blog for links to everyone's posts. Everyone should be posting today and tomorrow and the more you enter the more chances you have to win, right?

i am giving away the beautiful sweet dreams add-on from may {shown above} isn't it dreamy? this is the very last one and i'm a little sad to see it go, it has been in my top three of favorite add-ons to date and actually may be my number 1 pick, except i'm really quite enchanted with the july blue ribbon add-on.

just leave a comment in this post by july 12th at midnight pacific and i'll pick a winner and post on monday morning with some new sneak peeks of my july creations. but before i go i'll be nice and leave you with at least one sneak peek, can't start talking about july wihtout at least one visual, right?

happy friday!
xo

eta : 07.13.09 8am : giveaway is closed. i'll be back monday afternoon with a winner and some more sneak peeks!