An (occasionally) updated space where I share my family, my photography, my crafting, and mostly, my rambling.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Favs from March-Flickr
365 Challenge
Once I figure out how to link a flickr gallery, I'll put it up there --->
Wish me luck!
Also, check out these cool little Post-It notes I got a Chapters yesterday, I love using office supplies/non scrappin' items on layouts, and these are perfect for writing a bit of journaling. Super cute :)
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Gettin' obsessed...
Anyhoo, thought I'd share another mini-book I made today, created with what will undoubtedly become 2 new staples in my scrapbooking world: The Dymo labeler and woodgrain contact paper. I got the idea for the contact paper from Amber's blog, it's so cool, I love it, and it's very easy to use (and cheap, 1$ for a decent sized roll at the Dollarama!). The Dymo labeler is something I've wanted for awhile now, since I'm trying to find ways to create titles/word stickers without actually having to buy a ton of chipboard letters, letter stickers, etc, so this is a great way to save money (and it's easy too!)
The idea for the mini book came from Kristina's blog, but I've been thinking about doing something like this for awhile now, and I had this old (kinda fugly) 6X6 album my father-in-law gave me for Christmas, and it just hit me all of a sudden: "Cover that sucker up with the woodgrain!". I added some ribbon from my kit down the spine to cover up the ugly green checkered pattern, added a title, and voilà! I'm going to fill it soon with more random pages of what makes me happy, the only downside is that it's an actual album so I have to make "traditional" 6X6 pages that go inside plastic sleeves (boo), but in a way it's a good thing, I need to practice my "old-school" scrapping skills too, it's not just all mini love and inspiro-walls.
Well I guess that's all, been checking out Flickr alot, getting a huge itch to go outside and take some pics, but it's been a really crappy weekend weather-wise, so I think the plan is to go out on Wednesday night, it's supposed to be mostly sunny and +11, so it doesn't get much better than that.
Well that's all, I hope to get some more scrappin' done this week (I'm about halfway done my "I love Art" mini, and I have some pages lined up, so we'll see...), and I also want to get myself organized for spring cleaning (this place is sooo dusty!)
Anyway, hope everyone has a great week!
Friday, March 28, 2008
My Mantra
Anyway, this is my new mantra, what I keep telling myself when I feel like all my work sucks, like I can't do it, like the creativity in me has gone away, when I compare myself to everyone else...just be an artsy chick. Just do what you love, and enjoy it, don't apologize, don't justify, just dream, click and art it up.
I downloaded the 12 Weeks to Better Photos tutorial from 2Peas and I'm starting to learn the basics of my camera, like Aperture, ISO, Shutter Speed, etc. It's really fun playing with it, I enjoy it immensely already, and that's just taking picture in my apartment (been cooped up inside because we got another stupid storm....PS-Dear Winter: Go the Eff away!) I can't wait to get outside and try it out in some natural light and in different settings. Love my new toy! Here are a few shots playing around tonight...
<--taken by Dan being a paparazzi.
Well that's all, I hope to scrap some more this weekend, I've been slacking some lately.
Night!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Welcome to the Rebel World...
It's still really amazing though, the quality is great, I'll be playing with it for a long, long time. Even within 20 mins, I managed to take a really great shot of Eko (you can even see the drool on his whisker!), and a pretty grizzly one of Dan, haha. Another great part is that the store where I bought it from said that I can come in and take a free one hour photography lesson with them whenever I feel ready, which is super cool, I'm definitely going to take advantage of that.
I signed up to Flickr today, and I have a feeling I'm soon going to get addicted to it, à la Etsy. So many inspiring photos on there, I aboslutely love photography, if I'm lucky it's a hobby I'll be able to really get into. Tomorrow night I'm going to Sara's baby shower to see little Judah, he's 4 weeks old already, it's crazy to think...time flies by (sometimes in a good way sometimes in a bad way, but that's another story.)
Well that's all for now, expect to see LOTS of photos soon!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Quarter of a century...
Oh! For my birthday my mom got me the March Paper Posies scrapbook kit! I was so excited, it's awesome, there's some really cool stuff in there! I'll be sure to talk about it more detail when I get home, haha. I've only used one sticker from it so far, so it's still in its original yumminess state :)
Well I hope everyone is enjoying their Easter weekend, and that their weather is being nicer to them than ours has been to us here (seriously though, when will this winter end?)
Before I go, here's a quick layout I did today with my mom (we always try to scrap together when I come home), about my Muse (aka Dan) and his love for felines:
That's all, I'll be sure to be a better blogger this week!
Saturday, March 15, 2008
I am Lovin' me some Pillows...
I LOVE the birdcage one, and the trees too...so many to choose from! I'm really diggin' the Etsy thing, but I'm trying not to buy too much on it (so far only the 2 chipboard albums), because I know that it could get really out of hand, really fast, haha. I might eventually buy some art, because there are some really cool girls on there and their art is amazing (I picture buying alot of it for an eventual-hopefully-nursery.)
Anyhoo, pizza's here! Night all.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Mini-Book
Here are a few pictures of it put together as well (I love how the bookrings allow you to add as many pages as you want, or to switch the order of the pages up whenever you want. I might attempt to do a few more "Random" pages in 08, and they can all go into this album.)
I ordered another one off of Etsy last night, a 4X6 one (I want different sizes for all of them, they'll be more distinguishable that way.) I like the idea of a 4X6 'cause then I can have one page with just a photo and the other can be the journaling/title/whatever.
Well I guess that's all, I'm just proud of my creation :) I think that tonight we are going to go out for some appetizers/drinks and then play some mini golf with Heather and Scott, but it's storming out right now, so we'll see what happens. It's St Patty's night (well, the night to go out anyway since it's on Monday), so to all the Irish out there, have fun!
Saturday, March 8, 2008
How I passed my afternoon...
I've also been checking out Decor8 a lot lately...I found it through another girl's blog (which I found through another girl's blog, which I found through someone else's blog...it's the best way to find cool sites I'm discovering). Anyway, it's a design blog, very cool and modern and fun, and they have all these pictures of *beautiful* rooms. So I'm starting to save all the pictures of rooms that I love for when we move; since this apartment is going to be "permanent" (at least until we move into a house), I want to make it somewhere that I actually want to be, so I'm hoping to be able to decorate a bit more and really get into it. Anyway, I'll probably post a pic here and there of the rooms I'm finding, depending on how I'm feeling I suppose. So, be prepared to oooh and ahhh :)
Well, that's all for now, hope to get some more scrapping done this weekend, so I may be back!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
A few quick projects...and rambles
After making the clothesline, I took some old wooden frames I got at Ikea forever ago, painted them black and put in some cool images/papers, including a postcard I got in Madrid of a Picasso painting I love, some awesome Love Elsie paper, a cool chandelier card (love the bright green and the "be glam" I added underneath it) and a simple message to myself..."create." (I used my new favourite mini letter stamps, I just love them!) Add a few flowers, papers, cool jewelery and voila!
I also decided to try out creating my own mini book, since I'm now obessed with them...basically they are mini scrapbooks that you create yourself, they are super fun because the format is small (whatever you want them to be really) and you can finish multiple pages (or the whole book) in a few sittings. You can also make them about anything you want, they are messier, less formal, don't always include pictures and can be a bit more personal. I have about 6 or 7 that I want to create, mostly ideas from other mini books I've seen, but also a few of my own. So I found an awesome tutorial on Paper Adventure '08 on how to make one out of junk cardboard, keyrings and paper. I made it tonight and I'm so excited with the result...simple, but just what I'm diggin' right now, I can't wait to start filling it with pages...and make more!
Once I start filling it with pages I'll be sure to update.
Other random thoughts:
-Looks like we are moving on May 1st, which is a month sooner than I had originally thought, but that's ok, I'm kind of looking forward to it, being the kind of person I am, who can never live somewhere for longer than 2 years (going on a year and a half here...)
-I can't wait to get my camera...soooo excited for it! Dan is doing our taxes this weekend so I hope to have it by the end of the month!! Then (I hope) my pictures won't suck so hard, haha.
-I'm still waiting for my chipboard album from Etsy, it's been 2 weeks now, starting to get impatient, how long does it take to ship something from Ontario?!
-Work has been insanely busy, pretty stressful, but I found out today that I should find out within the next few weeks what my benefits will be and when I will be in the Union and all that fun stuff, so that's good, I really hope that I get Permanent, but I'm thinking it will only be a Term position, which is still fine with me, as long as I can take a vacation day!
Well that's all for now. Bonne nuit all.