..:: currently ::..

Currently I am...

hearing  my Soul Mate play guitar often, sometimes accompanied by our three year old daughter on her pink guitar. 

loving what I’m hearing. 

feeling overwhelmed at work, happy at home.  I feel like I am at a decision making point with my job.  I'm not sure what will be next for me, or when it will happen, but I know that I am longing for something different.

missing Mikaela

counting my blessings on a daily basis.  Today I am thankful for my mom, my daughters, and my One True Love.  I am lucky to have them in my life.

smelling fall; my favorite season, full of changing leaves, cozy sweaters and football games (and an abundance of orange).  B. and I have had several conversations about the pretty leaves. Sometimes I wish it could always be autumn, but then I remember spring.

enjoying having the windows open so we can feel and hear nature around us.

drinking coffee in the morning and wine in the evening.

cultivating creativity in myself and our daughter.

digging Bob Dylan’s newest record.

hoping to hear him live again soon.

preparing for 31 things in October.  I didn't take the original class, but now I've purchased it as a self-paced class from Big Picture Classes.  I hope to be able to make it happen for myself in October.  I'm thinking a minibook is in order.

obsessing over instagram

anticipating my birthday season

Ali Edwards invited her readers to join her today and publish a post about "right now".  Check out her post here.

~ hide and sneak ~

Yep, you read that correctly.  B. says, "Hide and Sneak".  She's cute like that.  She also confuses the game often. For example, she hides, but then when you say something like, "I wonder where B is hiding." she will say, "I'm here!" and jump out!  Then she tells you to hide (but tells you where to hide)!  After counting (sometimes correctly, sometimes not), she doesn't yell, "Ready or not, here I come", she says, "Here or not, here I come"!  So, we have a few things to work on.

In early May, only a week after Mikaela's funeral, it was beautiful outside and we were trying to find our new normal.  On that particular evening she was loving the hide and seek.  She was hiding behind the trees, and then telling us to hide behind the trees.  There was lots of running and screaming just because it was fun.  At one point she was hiding behind the tree and "shushing" those around.  I caught it with my iPhone.  It's not the best photograph, in that it's quite blurry.  But it's also the BEST photograph, and had to be documented.

Glitter Girl challenged us over at 2 Peas to create clustered embellishments, so I tried that.  Erika at Club CK challenged us to use numbers on a layout, so I tried that! Scrapbook Circle's Challenge is to use speech bubbles, so I did that!  AND, if that wasn't enough, Paper Issues is Fall'n for flair (and I never need a challenge to use flair), so I did that!  Whew!

embellishment cluster

numbers

speech bubbles

more speech bubbles

Have you ever had a layout that you like the parts better than the whole?  This one is like that for me!  And, you guessed it, much like the last layout, it's the title (blah) and journal spot (not even close to being straight) that I'm not happy about.  Also the colors in the photo below are off -- the colors are really orange, blue and white (inspired by a coffee mug that I purchased a Target)!  The closeup photos are closer to the right colors.  :-)

I like the paint spots (really gesso spots), the misting, the colors and the washi (especially the washi over the speech bubbles).  This patterned paper was actually pretty light, and I made it blue by misting quite a bit.  Also the orange behind the photo was white.  I tried to ombre it with mist (apparently "ombre" is now a verb).  Sorta worked, but I had to use a lot, and it was difficult to find any adhesive that wanted to stick (even after letting it dry for over 24 hours)!  I used mostly the Scrapbook Circle September kit :: Talk of the Town, but everything is linked below except the hello stamp, found at Target, and the striped washi, which is recollections.  

On Thursday expect another post.  My first "currently" post (challenge by the great Ali Edwards).

Happy Fall!

~ b's new boots ~

B's new boots (full name is blurred)

This one came together so quickly (and I never get to say that)!  As soon as I saw these photos that my One True Love took with his phone on B's birthday, I knew they would make it to a page!  I didn't want it to be about the birthday -- this is all about the boots (but I did stick a '"no. 3" in there, all sneaky-like -- I also hid the journaling in the striped bag behind the photo)!

Last year my daughter went to a daycare that is really close to our house.  This year she goes to a daycare that is really close to work.  On Fridays at work we can leave about an hour earlier than the rest of the week, which is AWESOME!  Last year I used to come home and work on processing photos or scrapbooking for an hour or so, and then go pick up B.  This, because of the daycare change, that's really not realistic.  Soooo....a work friend and I decided that we would take advantage of our Fridays and bring some things to work and have our own little mini-crop!  This past Friday was the first of these days and that is why I got this one done so quickly.

A while back I started a notebook to help me with the memory keeping process. The whole idea of it was to write down the stories that I wanted to tell.  Often times I put the date of the photos, a description and then the text that I think I will use.  It's evolved into a place to practice a technique (here I was practicing doodling), get a sketch idea down (I ended up using this one, but flipped it because my arrow stamp went the other way), practice my journaling, and I also document all the supplies that I use so it's easier to blog.  

Even though it came together much more quickly than usual, it was not without it's problems/mistakes.  When I used the mask a second time, I was left with a giant blob of mist at the top (hate that) and I felt like you could really see the line where I extended the masking.  But I went with it (after I pouted a bit).  This is a good thing for me.  It think that sharing my disappointment on instagram helped!  In the end, I added a bit more to the giant blob and just decided to roll with it.

One of my favorite parts of this layout is the flower on the journal spot above.  I used an exactoknife and cut the bottom part so that I could put the flower over the photo.  Love that!

I added a few items, but most of the supplies came from the August Scrapbook Circle Kit :: True Stories. Among the added items is this lovely flair button from aflairforbuttons. All items are linked below.

I searched high and low for some alphas, including JoAnns, Michaels, and our LSS.  Boo!  I couldn't find a thing I liked (however Michael's was having a 50% off sale that was a surprise to me; a lovely, lovely surprise.  There were purchases, just not alphas for this.).  So, I actually used my cricut (I've been so addicted to thickers that I haven't used it in a while), cut out the letters, added a bit of 3D tape and called 'er done!  The letters standing out like this...well, it just makes me happy (I also did the same with the arrow)!

This is one of those layouts that I love -- it was fast, the ideas came to me easily, not too many mess ups that I couldn't live with, and I like the final product.  My Soul Mate saw it as I finished and he also gave his nod of approval.  Bonus!