Word of the Year

I don't do New Year's Resolutions, and I guess in a way this is just another form of that, but I have chosen a word of the year for the last few years and want to keep up that tradition.

For 2011 I have chosen the word 'CONSISTENT'. I tend to be very gung-ho about things for a while, then I slack off, then pick it back up, then slack off. So, my word, and my main goal this year is to maintain some consistency.

Top 5 daily consistency goals

1. workout
2. spend some quality time with Ellie (too many evenings after work, I am too busy to spend much time with her)

3. take care of my skin (use real cleanser, and moisturize)

4. floss - yeah some days I skip it to save a few seconds in my routine

5. do one small to-do list item (many days I put off my to-do list in favor of relaxing or sleeping more, but then I just have more to do later)

That's it! easy! I figure that if I focus on these 5 little things, doing them consistently every day, it would really make an impact on my life.

Other goals that would be nice to achieve, but are not the top of my focus:

Stress Reduction - learn to meditate or do yoga consistently a few times a week

Athletic - finish the 10 mile Broad Street Run in May

Artistic/Scrapbook - focus on creating for the reasons that I got into this art, don't stress about contests, design teams and publishing

Health - stick to a lower calorie balanced diet.

Weight - lose 30lbs

Family - do a 'major' family activity at least once a month - camping, going to a museum, etc.

snow day! holiday and key west recap

So, today looks like a snow day. Which is good because I STILL have to finish my Webster's Pages Design team application. I have never worked so hard on an application before. I keep making things I love, then second guessing myself and trying again. but I am drawing the line today. I am going to finish the layout and card that I am working on now, and call it done. Too much anxiety. If it is meant to be, then it will. and if not, then maybe next time. Yeah, easy to say now... Let's hope I am that zen if and when the time comes.

Anyway, so here are a couple of my favorite holiday photos. this one is from the butterfly conservatory. the butterflies really loved Bubby and Ellie was desperate to have one land on her. She was standing still, then moving to a 'better' location, repeat. We had to go through twice but finally persistence paid off because she had one land on her! mission accomplished! and I managed to catch a photo of it, even though it was a brief landing.

how is this for a chocolate milk? we went to a dessert restaurant in key west called 'better than sex' and this is the chocolate milk with chocolate dipped rim! Ellie didnt even realize that it was chocolate on the glass until we told her. She just looked at it and went back to coloring.


love this face! I had to have her recreate it for this photo because every time I missed it. but the recreation was pretty spot on! every time she opened something exciting she would make this face and say, for this one, 'a bakugan! it's a bakugan!' but you really need to hear it for the intonation, it was GREAT!












and this one is for all of you children of the 80's - yep Santa came through. Boy did he come through! He got Ellie all sorts of He-Man and She-Ra toys.

the elves messed up the wings to She-Ra's flying horse though and they will have to make new ones and mail them after Christmas. Or at least that's the party line for now. Really, they were coming from London and didn't get here in time.

my new homemade light box/tent

Yay! It is finally done and it works! No more waiting until the sun is up to photograph my projects. No more running outside in the freezing cold and chasing my pages across the lawn when it is windy. Now I can take great consistent photos inside any time! woohoo!

I got inspiration here: http://www.studiolighting.net/homemade-light-box-for-product-photography/
and here: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/how-to-make-a-inexpensive-light-tent

they are two different approaches, and we sort of went with a combo of the two. The problem for me was that I want to be able to photograph 12x12 layouts, and it was tough finding a box that size. BUT we already had this tri fold cardboard display thing that I picked up at ACMoore for like $1. We DID have to buy lights but the large workshop light on the stand on the left was only like $10 on sale at the local hardware store and the smaller spotlight one was like $9 on amazon. And I will be working a little more on the 'stand' that the projects sit on. Right now it is a dish towel over a plastic shoebox thing.

the fabric is just a roll of lightweight curtain lining that I happened to have and dont plan on using any time soon. Oh and I DID have to switch my camera to manual and play around with the settings a little. I found that 400iso, 'more vivid' optimization, and incandescent +3 (or was it minus 3? I have it written down) seems to work the best (my camera is a nikon so yours may be different) now, does it work?! you be the judge:
the one on the left was taken outside in pretty good light. the one on the right was taken with my new set-up and virtually no touching up with photoshop. ok, maybe not a dramatic difference so how about this one...






















the one on the left was taken inside with my lightbox before it was perfected. At this point I thought I was doing pretty well compared to what my indoor photos normally look like. the one on the right is with the new improved setup. notice the difference in the colors. If you arent familiar with the Webster's Pages Hollywood Vogue line, I will just tell you, the one on the right is MUCH more accurate. Also note the glare on the transparency on the left one. Again, virtually no retouching on the right.

Lots of news and an ACOT reveal with Webster's Pages!

So, I went out of town for a week and a whole bunch of cool stuff happened. First, I forgot to tell you that I won one of the Webster's Pages Winter Wonderland challenges for my new blog header, which I designed using their new digi stuff. Then I was featured in their gallery for my card which I made for this month's NVS girls challenge and used the Webster's Pages digital papers as hybrid elements. Then, totally out of the blue, I was informed by Sandy that I had been featured on the Moxie Fab world facebook page for my blue ice cream page posted as my Day 7 countdown page.

hmm, did I forget anything? well, probably I forgot to mention anything about our eventful trip to key west where, in between illnesses I attempted to teach myself how to relax and do nothing. But I think that is a story for another day.

For now, why don't you check out my latest reveal at ACOT featuring Wonder Fall from Webster's Pages.

Day 10 countdown

Today is going to be the final day of the countdown. I will have some more stuff from this year to share next week, but for now. I love this page because it is soft and pretty. I love the sentiment - is her birthday really her day, or is it mine? probably a little of both. And I love that Seth took the photo of this layout, and the fancy pants metal frame that I had hanging there is swung off the side in this photo! It makes me laugh! I went back and took another photo, but I guess I forgot to update it in my gallery, and that's ok with me. Pink Paislee products here.


And this is my favorite altered item of the year. It isn't as embellished as most of my altered items but it was a very ambitious undertaking and I love how it turned out. I wanted it to be functional, so of course I couldn't embellish it with much. Sassafras Lass here.

Day 9 countdown

This one is just fun! I love the punched ruffled paper 'ribbon' and I love all of the mixed up Sassafras Lass stuff.






















This is my third favorite altered item of the year. I altered a plain plastic pumpkin to create this beautiful treat holder for my princess to carry on halloween. She LOVED it! Graphic 45 papers here.

Day 8 countdown

This is another one that I love because of what it got me. this one won the pagemaps contest for the sketch from which it was taken. I also love all the stitching and the somewhat monochromatic look of it.

















I also love this mini album because it is different and pretty. I love all of the details on it.

Day 7 countdown

like yesterday's layout, I love this page because it is outside of my normal style. This was a lift, but I changed it up a fair amount. I love the contrast between the varied blues and the black stitching.

Day 6 countdown

oh how I love this page! I love the bright bold colors and the messy mist and paint. I love that it is not my usual style. And I love the hand drawn characters. I drew them on scrap paper, used them as masks then drew them again on the background paper.

Day 5 countdown

I loved this page when I created it because I love the photo and the serene look of the monochromatic green. I rarely do hand stitching but I love it on this page. I love this page even more now though because it was chosen as a fabulous find on the My Mind's Eye blog.

Day 4 countdown

Wow, I remember making this one too! I always say that one of the reasons that I scrapbook is because I have a terrible memory for events in my own life. But strangely, I seem to remember a lot about making my scrapbook pages. I remember working on this one at a weekend crop. I remember being inspired by another cropper's layout to create this quilted/tiled look. I also remember hand drawing and cutting out the kites.

I guess that is what I love about this - the distressing, the quilted look, the pops of red, and the memories.

Day 3 countdown

I remember photographing this page. It was for a Prima contest and I finished it late at night on the due date, so I had Seth hold it up next to the bathroom light to try and get the best photo possible. Obviously, the photo still isn't that great - but hey, that's why we are constructing a light tent right now - so I can get good photos at any time. Anyway, I love this page because it is so soft and 'pretty'. I also just love the photo.

Day 2 favorites countdown

I love this page because it is so fun and it was fun to make too! I love Sassafras Lass and I loved combining some of my favorite products on this page. It is quite busy but I feel that the whitespace around the edge keeps it grounded. And of course, I love that photo, of Ellie asleep in the car on Christmas day.

counting down my favorites of 2010

Someone suggested doing a year end blog post containing your favorite layouts from the past year. I have a few exciting things yet to share at the very end of this year, but in the mean time, I really don't have much since I have been so busy with holiday and travel preparations. So, for the next ten days I will be counting down my favorite layouts and projects of the past year.

Today, I will start back in the spring with this layout about Seder. I love it because it has clean lines and a lot of white space and because it is purple!


Also from the spring, is this altered easter basket. This is possibly my favorite altered item EVER! I wove the strips of paper through the basket and then mod podged the whole thing.

oh yes I scrapped!

I was so stressed about getting some scrapping time in this month, but I did it! I scrapped A LOT this weekend. My parents were nice enough to take Ellie overnight so I got to scrap the whole day on Saturday! I participated in a couple of the Webster's Pages Christmas challenges, like my new blog header, and this altered notebook. It isnt really finished, I was going to add some more 'stuff' to it, but I ran out of time.



I finished a couple of other things, some for DT work and some that I just have not photographed yet. But you will be seeing it soon!

got some photos!

of Ellie!

with santa. is it just me or does she look like she was added digitally?















and her school photo

December NVS challenge

The december challenge should be up at NVS (nerdy victorious scrappers) sometime today so I am going to post mine now.

I made this card using Webster's pages digital papers and elements that I printed out on cardstock. The lady was printed on transparency. The pins are jillibean soup. the flowers are websters. Lots of pop dots on this. I am going to try to take another photo soon, hopefully using my new homemade light box /tent. but I need to find a spare minute for that - lol! sketch is from priscillastyles MMSC84

Here is the inspiration for this month, and here is the challenge post .

this month we are sponsored by candy shoppe designs, check it out fabulous inspiration and products over there! there is a photo on the blog of the prize package too which looks AWESOME!