Thursday, September 30, 2010

October Guest Designer

Please join me in welcoming Aubree Greenspun as our October Guest Designer!

My name is Aubree Greenspun. I am the mother of three beautiful children, a son and two daughters. They keep me on my toes. We are constantly on the run from soccer, to baseball, to gymnastics, etc. In addition, I work full time in the finance industry. My life in general, is a constant juggling act, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

How long have you been scrapping, and how did you get started? I started scrapping about four years ago. Some close friends of mine are scrappers and they encouraged me to try it out. I haven't looked back! I am now a bit obsessed. Scrapbooking has rekindled my love of photography and has created a personal outlet for me. I have made many wonderful friends through scrapbooking and discovered my own creativity. I guess scrapbooking has really caused me to find myself.


What are your 5 favorite tools? First and foremost I would have to say my favorite tool is my sewing machine. I love the look of machine stitching on a layout! 4 more tools I love .... hmmm... cat's eyes chalk inks, pop dots, cutterbee precision scissors, edge distressor.

Who inspires you ? Kelly Goree -- She is fabulous! I love her style!

Any mfgr. product you love? Basic Grey, Pink Paislee but one product? I am loving all of the new journaling tags everyone has out!



Anything you do on every layout, or some sort of embellishment you use often? Like I mentioned before, I sew on my layouts a lot! I also tend to frame my layouts, whether it is with stitching or double matting.






You can view more of Aubree's work on her blog here. She is also on the Sketchabilities DT here. Thanks so much for joining us this month, Aubree!!




I Love October


Ahhhctober - the most wonderful month of the year. Maybe I love October so much because my birthday and wedding anniversary both fall in October, but no, it's much more than that! October is the perfect month!

With the arrival of October, comes milder temperatures, lovely, just warm enough days and crisp, cool nights, with an occasional rain storm thrown in here and there to make the air smell even more fresh and clean. I love the fact that there is no need for either fan or furnace (leaving us with a little extra cha-ching in the old wallet).

The beauty of the month of October is unsurpassed as the world is blanketed in a quilt of yellows, oranges, and reds and perfumed with the musty, earthy smell of menopausal leaves that rustle and crunch underfoot.

Last October, my husband and I went for a drive in the mountains on a beautiful autumn day. As we came up over the crest of a hill we were met with every color of the rainbow. There were hundreds of small roundish trees with thousands of tufts of  leaves in yellows, oranges, pinks, reds, and greens. As we drove down the road, we were enveloped by color and it felt to me as if we were driving through the middle of a box of nerds candies. I don't throw the word 'breathtaking' around too often, but this was truly breathtaking!

Here's What We Have to Look Forward To:

The Month of October has more monthly observances than any other month with a total of 101 monthly holidays and observances including:
Caffiene Addiction Recovery Month  
Energy Awareness Month 
Halloween Safety Month 
and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, just to name a few.

Here are a few items that are offered on October's buffet table:
Apple Month
Caramel Month
Cookie Month
Dessert Month
Pasta Month
Pizza Month
Taco Day
Apple Betty Day
Fluffernutter Day
Gumbo Day
Angel Food Cake Day
& Chocolate Cupcake Day

And along with Halloween, be looking for:
Columbus Day
World Smile Day
National Kick Butt Day
Sweetest Day
Sourest Day
Monster Mash Day
&, among others,Frankenstein Friday

So pull out the jackets, the Halloween costumes, and your favorite harvest spice candle, and get ready for a month full of good food, memorable holidays, wacky observances, and lots of fun! Happy October!

Image by: Boyd Miller

Just For Fun


Ten birds in a bed and the middle one said, "Roll over, roll over....."



Step, two, three - kick.  One, two, three - kick.

These beautiful images and more from: amolife.com

America

In honor of MARK FORESTER
Killed in action in Afghanistan Sept,29 2010

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Wall Collage

I recently created this collage on our powder room wall...
I plan on jacking that 7Gypsies receipt holder up here soon, but otherwise, I love how it turned out! I planned it out on the living room floor, use kraft paper to "map" where everything went (no extra holes in the walls!), and voila!!

Enjoy your Thursday!

Ubuntu 10.10 Wallpapers - Maverick Meerkat

 The wallpapers included in the latest Ubuntu edition the Maverick Meerkat.
Resolution varies from 1600x1050 to 2000x1333.

The P5 is still ALIVE

Sorry everyone, we haven't been updating The P5 lately. We'll be back soon with some new ideas. In the meantime, stick around and search the archives. Also, leave us some more comments. We still publish those. While your at it, leave us some new ideas as well. Afterall, this is a community effort.

greeen door

I am in the process of painting my front door green...I am loving it so far. It is Martha Stewart Sea Grass green paint. I have about 2 more coats to go, a kick plate (courtesy of my mom) and a fun Fall wreath and then I am done. (and on to my next project). Below are some other green doors I love. *TIP* I made the mistake of buying an eggshell finish, it doesn't have the nice gloss look. I will probably end up going back to get the same color in a gloss for a final coat ($10 wasted). SO buy glossy.

Potato Bake with a hint

I really enjoy helping people find recipes, make recipes and bake recipes. I get a kick out of finding out how they went, if they enjoyed it or not and what they would do differently.

So when the call went out from Melissa Goodsell from One Crafty Mumma on twitter I jumped on the chance. And this is what I have come up with! (And thankyou to Kate from 2littlebanshees for the addition of the

Bunny Halloween Coloring Pages

Kids Coloring Pages, Coloring Pictures
Bunny Halloween Coloring Pages

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Owl Inspiration


You know I love me some Sweet Treats...

I made these bag headers with the Stampin' Up Bracket die, a few circle punches and a couple scallop circle punches. I free-handed the beak (diamond shape, folded in half) and then attached to to a bag full of this stuff...

I've posted about White Trash Mix before, but if you need the "recipe", you can find it here.

For more Sweet Treat ideas, be sure to check out my ebook here.
Enjoy your Wednesday!!


new color obsession!

I have fallen IN LOVE with this color combination. Orange & Turquoise...perfection!

I found this via House of Turquoise, one of my most favorite decorating blogs. I think this gal has impeccable taste.

Thought of the day, something I have been thinking a lot about. Failure. My husband always tells me this when I get down or feel like we'll never get to where we want to be. He always tells me that the meaning of failure is giving up or remaining stagnant. As long as you are constantly working towards what you want you'll never fail. He's right. But sometimes it's hard to feel that way, especially when your life is pretty much not what you ever expected.

...but that is when I need to adjust my expectations and be grateful for ALL the wonderful things I do have.

more orange and tuquoise...

above found via Moving Designz.

above picture via Confetti Style.

Craft hour

I have been quite crafty the last couple of days.

I have felt the need to do things with my hands. I have needed an outlet.

Both Alan and I work some serious hours. 60 hours a week.....and so when we get home we do try not just to sit on our bums and do nothing.

So....I want to show and tell....so I ran around the house and took photos of all the things that I have made in the last week!

Take

Fall Leaf Coloring Pages

Kids Coloring Pages, Coloring Pictures

Monday, September 27, 2010

My Space

I should've titled my post "My Mess" because that's what it is right now. I had every intention of tidying up my room so I could share some current pictures with you, but time got away from me and right now it truly looks like a tornado swept through my room.

So, I will share some photos I took several years ago when we first made my scrap room. It looks pretty much the same, only I've accumulated more stuff. I've updated my paper carts and I've added a Clip-It-Up and a little cabinet that holds my Thickers. (Yes, I have that many Thickers that I needed a cabinet just for them!)

I'll start with an view of my room. My room used to be an unfinished part of the basement that stored all of our junk. We knocked out part of the wall, so that it could be open and I could talk to Farzad while I'm scrapping, and we finished the walls and floor.

I love my red walls. They're so energizing yet cozy. Poor Farzad. He was working for McDonald's at the time, and when he came home and saw the red walls with the yellow ceiling, he said, "I can't get away from McDonald's."


You can see that on the one side, I have my sewing machine. I'm so fortunate that I can keep it out in the open since I use it on almost all of my pages. That little green paper cart has since been replaced with a matching white one.

Speaking of paper carts, they are my favorite part of my scrap room. I got them from The Container Store, and they are so sturdy and hold SO much paper. The wheels on them are very smooth, and they roll out and back in easily. I have my paper in legal-size hanging files and I made labels on cardstock, which I laminated and stapled to the folder. Here's a close-up view. You can see these are old photos by the papers I had.

I like that my paper sticks out above the file folders because it makes it easy to rifle through the papers to find what I need. The paper doesn't get bent.


I now have six of these carts. I file my papers alphabetically by manufacturer. I have one cart dedicated to BasicGrey papers and another cart for my monthly kits. The rest are for the other manufacturers. A new addition to my system is that I have a page protector to the front of each folder where I store all the scraps. That makes it so easy to find particular scraps of paper.

I store my cardstock in ROYGBIV order in this letter sorter I got at Staples. Since I scrap 8 x 8, most of my cardstock is 8.5 x 11. When I get 12 x 12 paper, I cut it down to 8.5 x 11 so it fits in this sorter. It's sitting on a square piece of countertop because Farzad didn't quite know how to miter together two countertops. (Some day, in my dreams, I'll have a fancy house with a professionally built scrap room.)


I store my cardstock scraps in file folders, by color, in a little rolling thingy that hides under my workspace. It's easy to grab what I need.


Here's another favorite part of my scrap room--my stackable drawer chests from The Container Store. When I started buying them, they only came in this icky brown, but I love how they help me to keep my embellishments organized. They now come in a pretty white, and I have some of those in another spot.


I added labels to the drawers, and I store my small and "lumpy" embellishments by type, in alphabetical order. The drawers are really lightweight and easy to pull out to find what I need. They're surprisingly roomy. Not too deep so that you'd have to pull everything out to find anything but nice and long to accommodate lots of stuff. Here's a close-up shot of the contents of one of the drawers (again, old stuff because my pics are several years old). I have a lot of stuff in there, with lots more room at add more.


My flat packages of embellishments are stored in drawer units that match the paper carts. I have four of these, and they hold the countertops. Also, the paper carts each have two drawers at the bottom. Here's a picture that shows them with the drawers open. These drawers are very roomy and very long and not too deep. They easily slide out and I can put them on my lap and dig through them to find what I need (ignore the old stuff).


I don't have pictures, but I store lots of other stuff in the drawers. I have a couple of drawers to hold punches, one that holds sewing stuff, all my Heidi Swapp chipboard letters (I have a ton of that), some hold tools, a drawer for adhesives, another for embossing powers, mists, flocking powder, glitter, etc., another for stamping supplies, like ink and acrylic blocks.

I store my flowers by color in these drawers. I used to have them all thrown in together by color, but this summer I spent a day organizing them with similar types in plastic bags, so now I can find what I need:


I use some of the drawers to hold my rubber-mounted stamps. Most of my acrylic stamps are in CD jewel cases in this little shelf that I got at Michael's for $1.00 (I think they made a mistake). I have a few baskets with other stamps that I've kept in their packaging. 


You can see I have a basket that holds smaller pads of paper. I have a few baskets like that around my room.

My ribbons are in big glass jars, stored by color, and I think they look so pretty sitting on that shelf.




I bought spice racks to hold my paint. Yeah, I know, it looks like I don't use my paint, but I really do. They were pretty much brand-new when I got that rack. Don't you love the way ROYGBIV looks like a rainbow--and such a great way to organize everything. Makes it so easy to find just what you need!


The door on the right leads to the washing machine, fuse box, and water heater.

Here's a shot of where I work on my layouts. Ha-ha! It NEVER looks like that. I usually have about a 9 x 9 inch space clear to work on my 8 x 8 pages. I have a BasicGrey magnetic mat now, but there's not even enough space for that to be clear!

I now have one of those little turn-around thingys to hold all my pens and tools. I love those little stackable screw-together plastic containers to hold all my ittty-bitty things like brads and eyelets. For my buttons, I've gone through many systems, but I finally settled on Ziploc baggies, organized by color. Not pretty, but easy to stick my hand in there and find what I want. I love my OTT-Light which is screwed onto my counter. Oh, and I love my comfy office chair that has wheels so I can roll back and forth to my paper carts and my sewing machine.


Okay, I caved and took a couple of updated pictures. Here's one of the drawers with my Thickers. I have three drawers full, stored ROGBIV.


The rest of my letter stickers are in a basket that I got at Home Goods. It's big enough to hold legal sized file folders, and I have my letters sorted by color. I cut my BasicGrey letter sheets in half so I could sort them in the proper color folders. I used to have them stored with the collections, but I'd always forget to use them.


Here's one last look at my room. You can picture me sitting here in that chair. This photo shows how the wall is open. On the other side of the room is the family room, where we spend most of our time. I can see the TV from my chair. And my computer, which I use ALL the time for my scrapping is right on the other side of the wall, so I can run back and forth. And I can listen to my i-Tunes from my computer when Farzad's not home watching TV.


Okay, I lied. Here's one more picture--the way my scrap room really looks on a regular basis. This was taken a few years ago when Two Peas was having their CHA in Spirit Day and one of the challenges was to take a picture of your messy scrap room. I can't believe I'm showing this in public, LOL. Me in my muu-muu, no makeup, in all my glorious mess.


DIY: making a message board from an old clock...

My writing has gone down the tubes! Is it because I am lucky if I can even post a picture and 1 sentence with 3 little munchkins now? Is it because my vocabulary is stuck in 'speaking with children under 6' mode? Is it because I'm just not feeling like I have a whole lot to say??? Well maybe the first 2 are correct but that last one couldn't be more false... trust me I have A LOT going on in this brain and A LOT to say, I've just learned to keep it to myself. Why? Je ne sais pa? My friend/neighbor came over and we talked and talked and talked...and I realized how much I miss talking with people over 20 years old. It doesn't happen a whole lot, but I love the times when it does. I will try and be more"Brooke" candid from now on...I mean really, who am I trying to impress? I'm not meek and demure, I am not the girl who sits by and lets things happen, I do have power and am powerful - even as a crafting, blogging, scrapbooking, cleaning, diaper changing, dishwashing mom.

This clock was broken and useless, I didn't throw it out because I knew I could figure out something to do with it. And here is what I did.

Vintage Button Pushpins: To make the pushpins, I used old buttons that used to belong to my grandma. I LOVE old buttons. I just hot glued the button to the top of a clear push pin.
1. To make the clock into a message board I removed the inside of the clock. It was really simple, all I had to do was remove 4 screws and it popped off easily. 2. Next, I unscrewed the back from the frame and cut the cork to fit. 3 & 4. I hot glued the fabric around the cork board and screwed the back on.

It sits in our office and I just love it, I only hang my "cute" things on here like cards, announcements and invitations. :) I also reupholstered this old thrift store chair with black and white fabric. Et Voila!!

Pumpkin and Halloween Piglet Coloring Pages

Coloring Pictures, Kids Coloring Pages
Pumpkin and Halloween Piglet Coloring Pages

Zucchini Slice - Gluten Free


I got in a couple of kilos of Zucchinis today because they are cheap at the moment!!

Alan and I have a standing joke that everytime we get Zucchinis in that we make Zucchini and Rosemary soup! So after the giggles died down (and we laugh at it everytime) I wanted to make Zucchini Slice.

Do you remember eating this cold as a kid? I do, and I do remember it being around Spring/Summer that it

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Worth a Shot...

I risked my life to take this picture of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. because I stood in the middle of the street to get it. And it was such a rush...
This one was taken from the street, too. But from the safety of the passenger seat!
Today, I challenge you to find a street you love--one that inspires you or one where you live--whatever the street--stand in the middle of it and take a picture. Don't risk your life or anything (be careful, of course--and possibly have someone be a "look-out" for you), but take a shot at it. I promise to do the same and post the results a bit later today. Feel free to link yours up, too!
Enjoy your Monday...