Project Life | New Year

 This week | We celebrated the New Year and my parents went back home to PA.  We bought a new car in anticipation of having three car seats in the back at once very soon.  We also just hung out at home and wen to a few outings like yoga and the museum.  A pretty chill week.  Most of these photos all of the photos were taken with my iPhone.  I edited most of them with the VSCOcam app.  I love that thing.  Instagram is too dark for me, I just love the richness this app seems to give my photos.  I also used my iPhone to photograph my spread this week.  A little grainier than usual, but I think it looks similar once I resize it for the web and all.  What do you think? Can you notice a difference?

 First Side | Using lots of the my Studio Calico kit cards here. Lots of white space.  Extra large white borders around my photos because I didn't crop them to 4x6 beforehand and just used the shrink to fit setting on my printer.  Lovely white border and a little breathing space on the layout.  The big XO is some fun new word art from Kal Barteski and Amy Tan.  I have too many regular thickers anyway so this was a fun product to play with. 

This card from SC controversially said '2013' on one side.  I covered it up with a little wood veneer heart.  No way am I going to back to 2013 now.  lol.   Minimal stamping on these pages.  Tried to keep it simple with black ink too.

I used a post it from the new Basic Grey sticky pad.  Love them for journaling spots and their ease of use.

Second side |  More Studio Calico cards, mostly the Copper Mountain kit.  I tried to get creative by cutting the love this card in half and putting my photo in the middle.  Something different anyway I suppose.

I really adore the alpha rubons in the kit.  They are bold and fun.  The shipping tag is just from the office supply section, stapled on for good measure.  

 I tried to get a little extra creative here as well.  First I stitched along the stripes of this card, then cut them apart and glued them back on another neutral journaling card.  The cut file is from Shanna Noel.  I thought the colorful background would let the white stand out.  Love the texture it adds to my spread and making one 'fancy' card really wasn't all that hard for the week.


You can see all of my Project Life pages here.  This is my third year of doing Project Life and I love this method of memory keeping for our family.  The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, and Midnight kit, with multi-pack page protectors.  I am linked up with the Mom Creative this week.

Now it is your turn!  Add your link back to your Project Life pages here and try to visit and leave comments for each other as well.  Grab a button if you'd like too!  Thanks to everyone who linked up last week!

Nine months and counting ...

Not so patiently waiting.

Contracting on and off (almost) every night.

Getting anxious.  Been at 3 cm since Wednesday - a week ago now.  My doctor was so excited when she checked me, but nothing. is. happening.

Sick of my itchy achy body. 

Hoping the baby is okay. Being upside down for so long has to be uncomfortable.  Nandini was head down for weeks and was born with a massive cone head.  Hello round two of that.

Went back to yoga yesterday after two weeks off.  I think it is fair to increase physical activity now.  I swear I thought my hips were going to break after doing the frog pose though.  Ouch.  Relaxin hurts.

For the longest time I was so afraid of this baby coming early.  With everything that happened with my last pregnancy and Nandini's speedy delivery I just didn't know if I could trust my body. So grateful to have made it to full term.

Of course, now that I think about it, I'm not sure if my body is able to go into labor on it's own.  For both of my previous deliveries the doctor broke my water once I was already in the hospital and it wasn't until after that point that the contractions really started. 

I have so many people asking me if the baby is here yet and I have made so many promises to send text messages to my friends when I go into labor.  Love that people want to hear from me and not just see pictures of the baby or something.  I am so touched by friends who have promised to pray for me when I do go into labor.  And of course one of my parents (or both) have been staying with us for weeks just in case. 

Linked up with Stephanie's Blog your heart, her timing could not be more perfect. 

Austin 'Snow' Day

Oh my goodness.  Friday was just epic here.

All the schools were cancelled.  The roads were empty.

The city did a great job of salting about half the bridges and none of the roads.

Ryan and I were watching TV the night before and got to see all the live updates of snow coverage flash across the screen.  Schools went from delayed to cancelled.

The best line?  "Some areas already report light dusting of snow on grass."  WHATTTT!!!!!!!  Light dusting of snow on grass!!!  Heheeee.  I'm sorry, I can't help it. Ryan and I may have laughed about that quite a bit.

Texans are even more dramatic about snow than everyone talking about the "polar vortex".  (Whatever happened to regular old storms and blizzards?  Does every weather system have to get an apocalyptic hashtag to go with it now?)

Somehow though, waking up to real snow was still magical. We had less than 0.5 inches and most everything had a layer of ice on top, so there was no fluffy white stuff.  More just packed in sheets of ice.

In fact, the snow only stuck in a few areas.  We had this quaint little patch in the middle of the back yard.  The driveway was pretty icy and we gathered snow from the hood of the car for snowballs. 

Avinash was so excited, we ran outside with him right away.  It's really not that cold here, so he's got a sweater on over his jammies.  Mittens were later added because of all the snow ball making.  

We gathered enough snow to make this little guy.  Avinash and Nandini later rescued him from the front yard and he is living in our freezer now. 

Avinash had such a blast throwing snow balls at us.  Nandini was more into the laundry basket rides down the driveway.  When I think about serious we were about sledding growing up in Pa, I just have to laugh.  Yes, she is wearing socks on her hands because we never ever really need to wear mittens here.

He found an icicle, amazing!  After about an hour we went inside for a quick warm cocoa/marshmallow break.

The 'snow' was already melting when we went back out.  This is his sad face.  Poor boy!  But lucky too, to see this weather in Austin.  Everything melted within the day and we are back to 60 degree weather.

One day of snow and back to awesome weather.  That is why Austin is so great.  I definitely don't need three to six months of it.  We spent all morning at the park today and I couldn't even get them to keep their sweaters on.  Don't feel too bad though, we pay for it in the summer. 

And, of course, I had to scrap about it.  I saw this picture (on pinterest probably, but it might have been an ad) that had the latitude and longitude printed across the scenery.  I was thinking of saving that idea for a travel scenery photo, but decided to try it here.  The idea is that given our pretty southern location it was crazy to get snow here.  Ryan didn't really get it, but I like the way it looks anyway. 

I used my Studio Calico copper mountain kit for most of this page.  The feather is a die cut I made and had lying about and the gold labels are from a different recent kit.

I got this navy blue floss from my kids craft stash and used it to add a little more texture to the layout.  (Which is kinda mean since I never like to share my stuff with them, lol.)

I was trying to keep the focus on the middle of the page, with one little cluster in the corner to add a bit more context to the page.  

linked up with Paper Issues for the Just my Type challenge.

Project Life 2014 | Here we go!

For the first time in ever I made a cover page and I am sticking to it.  Of course I left a few blank areas for a picture of the new baby or a family picture maybe.  I had so much fun once I got started with this page that I made two more.

I started with a design F page cut down to 9x12 so it would have more of an 'insert' feel, separate from the usual spread.  I knew that I was going to include the 'fly me to the moon' overlay, (it was my whole reason for buying the Studio Calico Union Meadows kit in the first place.)  Most the stuff made it in as I picked little things from around my craft area.  Like the cosmo cricket wood veneer card and the old chic tags hearts journaling card (reminiscent of an ee cummings book cover). 

The very cool doodle paper and Kal Barteski/Amy Tangerine phrase are new items.  I got a few things from the new plus one line and am digging them all.  Trying to stay away from buying too much new paper though. 

I realized after I made this page that I included a rainbow here.  Pink to red to the yellow/green/blue ombre tape.  I love it.  Subtle but awesome.  Including all the colors of the rainbow on a page just really appeals to me.  In truth the only reason I added the strip of tape is because I was vacillating about whether to match the straight and rounded corner cards.

I had a rounded corner card and straight letterpress card next to each other on the back.  The rest of my cards are rounded.  I wanted to include this 4x6 card on the front, but I didn't want to corners hanging over both edges.  I ended up trimming the card by about an inch so at least half the rounded corners shown through. 

Instead of transitioning to 'regular' PL pages right away, I continued the title page over the next two pages.  The blank space is for a baby or family picture (ETA : NO IDEA.).  Mostly just a random collection of some of my favorite cards at the moment.  Three different woodgrains.  Pink, blue, brown, and grey.

The color story is repeated here: pink, teal, silver, and a touch of kraft and red.  Lots of white.  One more pocket is blank here. I used my remaining acryclic shape from the Dec FF kit here as well. 

Love the look of kraft with silver.  These chunky glitter thickers are especially fun.


 The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, and Midnight kit, with multi-pack page protectors.  You can see all of my Project Life pages here.

Your turn to link up!  Share your current Project Life post here. It is not required but I would appreciate a link back here and feel free to grab the button above.

Project Life | December + wrapping it up

I did it you guys!  I finally finished this year.  I do not recommend getting this far behind (almost three months) but it feels good to be done.

Even though I did December Daily, I decided to include December in my Project Life as well.

Why did I bother?

• Despite doing DD, I still had extra photos I wanted to include that I'm not likely to scrap. I didn't count the weeks, just filled up a spread until I ran out of photos or things to talk about.  
• I felt it made the entire project seem more complete to end here, not November.
• My journaling is sparse (and I'm okay with that) but there were a few key stories I wanted to tell.
• I had more than enough product to finish these pages.  Probably too much which is why they ended up being a riot of color and patterns and random sayings.  Let's just call it very festive.  

I want to share the pages here but will just go over the highlights.

More about our week at home.  We attended a wedding and celebrated Thanksgiving.  I still have to add in some journaling here about their visit from Grandma.
I used these large 4 inch wood veneer numbers from Freckled Fawn.  I think they are just so fabulous.  

Quite a mix of patterns and colors I know.  But I did have to document some things like Nandini's insane love for a pack of dollar spot Doggy Stickers and a mini snowball with "texas" (re: fake) snow.  

This is the final week!!! I used some of the letterpress cards that I made.  I finally found the tag from the tree farm I had been wanting to use.  I also used the wood veneers and die cut cards I loved but hadn't found a place for yet.  My favorite parts are the pictures of my parents on here.

The closing page.  I kept it simple.  A group photo from Christmas and a couple from New Year's Eve.  We stayed in so I really didn't have many to include anyway.

So, how about you? Did you finish up PL?  I feel like I'm the last one to start on 2014 but I did the cover and am starting the last few days this weekend.  Yay!

In baby news we are still waiting.  I am progressing very slowly as of my last checkup which is a good thing.  My dad is here taking care of me and us and my mom is coming down soon too.  Praying that the baby waits for her to get here!  I don't know if I can go through labor without her and I really don't want to test that theory, lol. 

Project Life | November

In the home stretch here and it feels so good.  I finished up November with these two spreads.  Just hitting the highlights.  

It had been a while since I included a baby update, so I added the babies gestational age and a card about how I've been feeling.  The baby flipped head down in November and that felt crazy.  Lots of false labor pain that week.  

Loving the purple included in the Studio Calico kit.  It seemed to pair well with this story about Nandini being a polar bear.  Though today she told her Nana she is a doggie.  You never know.  

I kept this spread fairly simple.  Instagrams were printed on 4x6 photo paper and I didn't bother trimming them into squares.  I like the white space it lends a spread.  Only one journaling card and a little more info written on labels.  I love that numbers card from Glitz so much that I used both sides.  Here I covered it with BG wood veneers painted white. 

The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, Kelly Purkey kit and Midnight kit, with multi-pack page protectors.   Thanks for visiting, I appreciate all of your support. 

Please, leave your links to any PL pages in the comments so we can check them out too. 

 Just a little reminder, if you are doing one little word this year, I have sets of customizable flair for sale in my shop right now. 

Project Life | Happy Place

This week| Week is a fluid term here.  I printed out a bunch of photos from November and checked the dates afterwards.  Other than the few Diwali pictures I didn't really know the dates of anything else.  We did go to brunch alot, Target, play dates, birthday parties and one pizza carnival. 

Full Spread | This is definitely a riot of color.  I am loving the navy/pink combination, and I decided to add some aquas and yellows to that as well.  It was fun at least.  

 First page|  Lots of Studio Calico kit cards here.  I had some extra Silhouette cuts lying around so I added those as well.  I also used a bunch of these cute transparency die cuts from Chic Tags.  Love them!

 Gold, navy, pink and cork.  Love it. 

 Second Page|  I added more yellow and grey to this side.  This page is more the second week of November anyway.  I used some Atlantic wood veneers for the pirate party.  I actually am almost out of those and have used them in a purely thematic way only.  We do a lot of piratey things here!

Super cute paper clips from Freckled Fawn.  The ampersand is a little letterpress trial, loving silver on kraft. 

I am linked up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday. The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, Kelly Purkey kit and Midnight kit, with multi-pack page protectors.   Thanks for visiting, I appreciate all of your support. 
Please, leave your links to any PL pages in the comments so we can check them out too.  Are you all caught up and ready to go for 2014 or still behind like me?

 Just a little reminder, if you are doing one little word this year, I have sets of customizable flair for sale in my shop right now. 

Project Life | Fire Crackers & Diwali

 This week | Are we done with October yet or not ? Oh my goodness.  The month that won't end.  Really, I loved October so it took me forever to scrap everything we did!  This spread thankfully includes the beginning of November and Diwali as well. I also included some dance class pictures.  Nothing better than a flying leap, except for maybe zombie moves (Rachel, I am working on getting those on tape, will let you know when I do!).

First Side| I kept all of October on one side, mostly because I didn't want to combine Halloween with Diwali.  I love those big numbers from BG, and was happy to fill up some white space on this photo with them.  We took pictures outside in the backyard before trick or treating.  I sprinkled some more printshop die cuts and flair around the page.  Liking the mini size of those.

Second side| More printshop: mini flair and wood stars scattered around the page.   I letterpressed the be joyful phrase on a piece of packaging (from Target, of course) in silver.  I kind of randomly stamped the wood veneer card with an old ampersand stamp.  More silver with the very glittery and fun Pebbles thickers.  I mixed in gold with the foil pressed journaling card.  I think it works because there are so many neutral cards on this page with just a little blue added. 

I love this Cuppa card and added some tone on tone embellishment with the mini flair.  I included a shadowed picture of Nandini and an 'overexposed' photo of Avinash at dance.  I like both effects (and how they hide the clutter!) and the contrast between the two.

I am linked up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday. The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, Kelly Purkey kit and Midnight kit, with multi-pack page protectors.   Thanks for visiting, I appreciate all of your support. 
Please, leave your links to any PL pages in the comments so we can check them out too.  Are you all caught up and ready to go for 2014 or still behind like me?

The free shipping promotional code for Two Peas January is:  5SSYWX