The Family Christmas Card

As far as clients go, I would have to say that Mom is by far...  
the toughest,  
absolute pickiest,  
most detail-oriented of them all.

She's had me working on the family Christmas Card.

For weeks.

Probably since before Halloween.

Over the past month or so, there have been several totally fabulous possibilities that have hit the chopping block.  It's a tough screening process, believe me.

The final card was finally chosen about a week ago and since then it's had at least 10 reincarnations.
Christmas Card 2010 has been a process to say the least.
But we have finally...well I am saying this with my fingers crossed...but we have finally sent the official, for sure, final final draft off to the printer today with my mother's blessing...phew!

Here are a few of the possible cards from the past few weeks...
One however, is the actual winning design...but I won't tell you just yet, in case you might be getting one in the mail ;)

p.s. I love you Mom!

card supply credits: echo park abundance paper, carina gardiner sweet nothings paper, suddenly artistic splatters on a grid photomask, suddenly artistic life in black and white paper, karla dudley brush

Good Things Come...

in tiny Coach packages.

New Coach wallet and wristlet...

so loving the jewel tones.

image credits: Coach.com

Party Frocks

 ...are the best.

love this photo.

photo by Sandra Beijer

Photo Play

I love to take pictures.  And I love to make my photos look kinda artsy and pretty.  I just jazzed up these pics from the twins birthday...

My brother may actually have taken a few of these photos since we are sharing a camera at the moment...you know my recent camera drama.  I cannot seem to settle on a camera to save my life...I've bought and returned TWO already...

Anyways, I am thinking I want to print a few of these photos and frame them as Christmas gifts for the fam.  Might be nice, right?  I love how they turned out. 
Hopefully I am typing this on an off day when the fam isn't reading and they'll skip this posting.  I'm terrible at keeping surprises! ;)

Very First Product!

Sooooo... I have some products on sale!

Ok, well a product. 

But I am pretty excited about it because this is the first time my creations have ever been on sale at an official online store.

I designed some Quick Pages for Catherine (a.k.a. Butterflies and Bluebells) using her Noel Chez Moi kit and she is selling the pages as a pack of four or bundled with matching word art and photomasks.  If creative time might be hard to come by these days or you've fallen a wee bit behind in your digi-scrapping, or if you are new to digi-scrapping altogether, Quick Pages like these might be just what you need right now!  They are so easy to use and not gonna lie, the ones I've created for you really are quite nice ;)

Here are some sample layouts using my Quick Pages...
(note: the thin blue line around the edges is just to separate them from the white background of my blog, it isn't really part of the layout...)

Kinda fun, huh?  

Did you brave the shopping scene today??  If so, hope you made it home in one piece with some great bargains!  I chickened out.  I'm hoping to catch some of the leftovers this weekend... :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cows and Chickens have absolutely nothing to do with the Thanksgiving holiday that I had absolutely every intention of writing about, but I just SO couldn't not post this super funny super cute tee that I saw on Threadless. 

OMG.

Are you just dying??!

That is the cutest cow and chicken and egg ever. of all times.

love it.

Thank you so very much for stopping by, it truly makes my day!
And I wish you a wonderful holiday...and well, just a wonderful day if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving in your part of the world ;)

image credits: Threadless, Jean-sebastien Deheeger

Every Great Gift...

Needs a really great bow.

And not only do I heart bows tremendously, but I'm gonna go ahead and say that yes, I do tie a darn good looking bow.  However, my talent only goes so far.  When it comes to gifts, my bows may be a bit sub-par...

But never fear! I found the following tutorials that will show us how to make various types of gift bows!  Perfect for all the holiday packages we will be wrapping up in just a few weeks...

Gift Bows...by Scrap a Little

Magazine Gift Bow...by How About Orange

Trouble Free Gift Bow...by Small Notebook

Expert Tips and Various Bows...by Container Store

Owlies 2011

My Owl Barn is THE place in the blogosphere for staying in the know about all things owl. 

I've been a fan for some time now, but when I saw THIS oh boy oh boy did our relationship deepen. 

You can customize your very own 2011 owl lover calendar with completely original completely gorgeous owl artwork!  

And as if that's not awesome enough, you simply hit submit and it will be downloaded to your desktop in seconds.  You can create as many calendars as you'd like, perhaps one for all of your owl loving friends??  Love it!  I probably spent far too much time creating my calendar, trying to find the most perfect owl to match with each month...however, I do think I came up with a winning combination ;)

Enjoy!

I Think Autumn Has Arrived...

Cuz it's been raining here.  

aaaaaaaaaall weekend long.

Perhaps I should consider purchasing a pair of these...

ummm hello Kate Spade? You DID NOT just go there?

Oh yes. 

She did.

Black wellingtons. With big red bows.

I heart them.

Tremendously.

images via Target and Zappos, brands: Target, Gabriella Rocca, Bogs, Hunter, and Kate Spade

If I Had an iPhone...

This would totally be my wallpaper.

Image by Pawel Jonca via Poogla

Did You Know...

The word "verb" is actually a noun.

and...

That bees do not have ears.

and...

That hamsters are illegal in Hawaii.

Yeah.  

For reals.

Learn Something New Everyday has made it their mission 

to provide you with one completely random lesser known facts like the aforementioned

every single day

IN ILLUSTRATED FORM.

omg.

and added bonus, you can get the illustrations printed on tee shirts.

 sweet.

This one is totally my fave.
  

image credits: Learn Something Everyday

Let's Try Again.

Ok so book #24 didn't work out.

I didn't like it.

I returned it to the library 30-ish pages in.

Soooo I need a new read.

I browsed the shelves of the library today and was totally uninspired...nothing sounded the least bit interesting.

hmmmm...

Might you have any suggestions??

Also, along these same lines...I returned my new camera...again.  

Yep.  

This would be the second camera I have purchased and returned in the past three weeks or so.  

I just cannot make up my mind as to the type of camera that I want - the camera that is just right for the type of photos I want to take, that is perfect for my lifestyle, that is right for where I want to take and use the camera, and for exactly what I want to use it for...

etc. etc.

I just need to think about it for a bit.

And trust me, I have done tons of research...
I've read blogs, reviews, forums...
You name it, I've read it.

And I think it's actually a good thing that I've gone through this lengthy purchasing process.
I think I actually have a decision-making benefit now that I have tried both types of cameras.

I can really and truly make an informed decision having actually taken photos with each camera and carried them around, tried their features etc...

So, I guess now we shall just wait and see if I can in fact, actually make that informed decision one of these days...

SIDE NOTE: I thought this was a cute new holiday card just introduced over at Rock Scissors Paper..

image credits: Rock Scissors Paper

It's Barely Thanksgiving Buuuuut...

I saw some adorable Christmas wrapping paper the other day and just had to share.

But, first of all, do you love the Container Store as much as I do??
Oh lordy.
I could buy containers all day long.
I mean good grief I will walk out of that store with brand new snazzy containers for things I had no idea even needed to be contained before I got in there.  And side note: in all honesty, those items in most cases had been perfectly fine my entire life un-contained and probably would have been perfectly fine for the rest of my life without an expensive container, but goodness, those containers were just so fancy-looking in the store I had to have them.

Anyways, around this time of year the Container Store has some quite fabulous holiday goodies...things like wrapping paper, stocking stuffers, containers to contain all of your holiday wrapping and stocking stuffing supplies...it's marvelous really.

I stumbled upon their holiday wrapping and thought they had a lovely collection this year...some were cute and fun, some were kind of retro and modern, and not gonna lie, there were some ugly ones too, but we'll focus on the positive...here are some of the ones I liked:

They are kinda cute and funky I think...a little different for the holidays...check 'em out...as well as some of the fun stocking stuffers like these...or these.

image credits: containerstore.com

Hoopla and Merriment

There's been much to celebrate 'round these parts lately...

Today was my mom's birthday and...

HOLD UP.

Time out.

You HAVE GOT to see what we got her...SO CUTE...I tried it on before I bought it for her and I did not want to take it off.  First of all it has thumb holes.  I mean, that right there sold me.  Secondly, the fabric is just irresistibly cozy.  Thirdly, its Lulu...Lulu is just so cute; so trendy; you can't help but love it.  Needless to say, she was thrilled.

Ok, back to the celebrations.  Tomorrow is the twins second birthday and we are having a little shindig.  Again, I can't handle the cuteness of the gifts I got them.  See below:

Little toddler Vans.  Adorable.

And now, the final cause for celebration is that this very posting is my 100th post!!!  I just think that is so fun! I'm excited.

So anyways, in honor of all the festivity around here, all the hoopla and merriment, I thought I would share some of it with you by giving you one of my little creations!

You can download this celebratory Word Art Sticker HERE.

And I hope you do smile today! :)

*images courtesy of Vans.com

Blog Hop! Blog Hop!

To celebrate the beginning of a new chapter in our careers, the newly certified Jessica Sprague digital designers are having a Blog Hop!  
So.
Fun.
We created a gorgeous collaboration kit to share with you and well, to show you just what awesomeness we can do ;)

Check out the previews below:

Hello fabulous.
Right?

Well thank you so very much for visiting my blog. Here is my contribution to the blog hop.  You can click right below the preview to grab the free download!  I so hope you enjoy it!
 

Click HERE for your download

If you got a little lost along the way, the Blog Hop started at Sweet Sunshine Photography.  It officially begins November 11 and will continue through the 14th.
You got to my blog by first stopping at Angela's blog...  
And you are now going to head on over to Tasha's blog for some more goodies!
 

A New Fave

Suddenly Artistic is my new favorite Digital Scrapping blog.
Nina (I think that is the author's name) creates the most beautiful layouts.
As you know, I have been experimenting with white space and well, she is THE master!
Her layouts totally inspire me.
They are examples of just how beautiful and artsy layouts with lots of empty space and small clusters of photos, word art, and brush work can be.
You must check out her gallery.
Oh, she has awesome freebies too...we love freebies ;)

Sometimes It's Ok To Cheat...

If you're a newbie photographer like myself, these just might come in super handy for you. 

I particularly like the second one as I cannot, for the life of me, keep the numerical values for aperture, shutter speed, and ISO straight in my head. 
But, now, with this awesome cheat sheet, I will take photos like a pro!
Ha! Maybe.

So I used my new camera for the first time this weekend.
The photos turned out ummm...
well...hmmm...
Let's just say I'm still learning how to use the camera so I totally have a legit excuse for my completely terrible photos.

Oh here is the cheat sheet I liked best...kinda small but you can download it here at Web Designer Ledger if you are interested...

#24!

I loooooooooooooooove to read.  

I've totally mentioned this before...as well as my big reading goal:
to keep track of how many books I read this year 
Such a fun challenge!

I thought I would give a little update on my progress...I am currently on book #24...being that it is the beginning of November that is approximately 2.3-ish books a month.  Not too shabby eh.

I would so love to join a book club.  

Well, technically, I am already part of a book club.  But over this past year it has kinda fizzled so I am searching for a new one...any suggestions?? 

Well it is a lovely Friday night and I plan on staying in, being cozy, and well, reading my new book.

I party.

Book #24

Yes. I'm a Spontaneous Doodler.

...or if you'd rather, a doodle addict.  

Put a writing implement in my hand and I will draw.  

I draw during staff meetings, on napkins in restaurants, on my students' tests while I am grading them, while talking on the phone or watching a rental...I am a doodler.  

And guess what?!  

I am so not alone!  

I stumbled upon this gem today...a little corner of the blog world for people just like me.  yay.  

You've got to check out the napkin doodling.  OMG.  We are talking serious works of art here.  I gotta step up my game. Next time I go out to eat, I'm bringing out the big guns.  Ok, ok...maybe just some colored markers, but still.

image courtesy of Doodlers Anonymous

I Love Christmas...

And can you believe it's less than two months away!  It will be here before we know it!

I went to the mall this past weekend and it was absolute madness.  I am not ready to believe it, but think the crazy holiday shopping season has most certainly begun. 
Urg. 
That is the one part of this fab time of year that I dread...battling my way through crowded malls.

Luckily, the digital scrapping stores are super easy to shop...they are all online!  Nothing like shopping while sitting in front of the TV, dressed in your pjs, and sipping a hot cup of tea...love it.  Anyways, the digi scrap stores have started stocking their storefronts with Christmas Kits and oh boy, oh boy, such eye candy!

Butterflies and Bluebells, the design team I am on, has just listed it's Christmas Kit over at Digital Design Den and it's just lovely!  I made the following two layouts with the kit...
I ummm...don't quite know how to pronounce the name of the kit as it's French, but I think it's very pretty :)

Didn't Quite Make It In Time...

Yup.  

Halloween has come...and Halloween has gone...

...and my little ghost, my little 3.5 inches of felt, are totally still sitting here un-stitched.

 

I mean seriously, I couldn't find 10 minutes to finish this little guy??  What have I been doing?!  OMG.  I suppose there's always next year...I now have exactly 364 days to get him completed.  

Lordy.

Digi-Scrappers Get Ready!

We're having a Blog Hop!

I was recently certified as a Digital Designer by JessicaSprague.com.  It was an intense course to say the least, but it was truly SO amazing.  My design skills were completely challenged, and not only did my skill set grow, but my confidence as a designer did as well.

In celebration of our certification, the designers of this very first graduating class will be hosting a Blog Hop to show off our skills and strut our stuff a bit.  It will be so fun!  We each created a little mini-kit that we are calling Christmas Treasure...the kits all use the same color scheme so you will be able to mix and match pieces from each kit.

Love it!

The Blog Hop will begin November 11.  Simply visit my blog and you will find the list of all the blogs in the hop.  As you wander from blog to blog, you can download each kit or just the ones you like best.  You will see so many different styles and personalities, not to mention a bunch of new blogs, and your stash of scrapping goodies will grow tremendously!

Hope to see you there! xo!