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

Project Life | Pretty Crazy

This week:  This spread includes the last weekend of October.  I left out actual Halloween and saved it for the following week since I had so many pictures.  We traveled to Houston with some friends to visit and see the Zoo.  We also got to visit the temple there in time for their kids' Diwali function.  

The black and white striped card is a letterpress card.  The picture of Nandini is from the zoo Thriller dance party.  She does a mean zombie impression.  It has seriously become part of her daily dance moves.  We also feed the giraffes and got a lot of pictures from that.  I cut out the middle of some frames on a card and put the pictures behind that.

First side:  This card is from the Becky Higgins Holiday mini kit.  I love that kit so much.  I have the digital version so I just print a few cards now and then when I need to.   I used the number stickers from my Studio Calico kit too.  They are kinda big and hard to use for me personally.  Not sure how often I'll find a place for them to fit again. 

Second side:  I love these transparent stars from the Printshop collection, I just stapled them this woodgrain Midnight card.  I also used a Paislee Press cut file on kraft for this spread. 
I used a lot of little stamps on these pages as well.  Just like accents from date stamps or my big Pebbles roller stamp for captions. 

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.

I am drooling over the early release of Amy Tangerine's Plus One line over at Two peas right now.  Probably my favorite new line this year. The free shipping promotional code for Two Peas January is:  5SSYWX



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?

Project Life | 2013 Catch up

Project Life is one of those things that I have really loved.  It gives me structure and an easy way to record all those precious little memories without worrying about doing a separate layout for each one.  It also lets me off the hook for the memories I don't record because I know I have so much down already that missing some is 'allowed'.  It alleviates the guilt.  One thing that is crucial for me though is staying caught up and working on it contemporaneously.  Catching up is never fun or easy, but I somehow got behind at the end of last year and I am determined to finish up and get it done.  In the spirit of motivation I will be sharing a spread here each day this week (I hope). 

I think for some people nesting involves cleaning up, for me it involves tons of scrapping apparently, ha!

This week: This is the second last week of October.  We went to Sea World, costume night at the museum and Avinash had 'watch day' at his dance class.  We also celebrated the Indian holiday Karva Chauth. 

First Side:  I used a ton of the Studio Calico PL Kit, Cuppa.  I just really loved that PL kit.   I'm normally not a huge fan of 'fall colors' because I don't love orange, but the colors were muted enough that I think photos still stand out, but interesting enough that I had fun using them.  I added touches of metallic, like those silver letter stickers from pink paislee, and wood grain+kraft, with the flag stickers from target. 

This stargazer patterned paper from Studio Calico was a kit exclusive and something I hope we see more of in the future.

Second side: I love the colors of these cards.  The red and green next to each other somehow don't look christmasy.  I added a little gold stamping to the watercolor card.  I find that subtle/classic is the way to go with my Indian event pictures. 

I just loved this big star as a photo backdrop.  Very Texas.  I used pop dots to put a MME banner sticker on top.  

I went tone on tone with the transparent icon square.  They didn't work well with adhesive so I used my tiny attacher to keep it in place.  I used more of the Target (dollar spot baby!) kraft stickers here as well.  So great for journaling on.  

Watch day was so amazing.  I somehow forgot to put him in his nice white shirt/black pants outfit so he is sticking out in his orange Mickey shirt. Watching his face light up with joy while he jumps and spins really is the best part :)


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?

Currents // @35 weeks

currently // at 35 weeks and one cm dilated, not a huge deal in and of itself but my last labor with Nandini was fast and I really want this baby to keep growing before he comes out.  so yeah, I'm freaking out a little bit.  I'm ready to pop but also not.
drinking // white hot chocolate, an old favorite we found at Whole Foods again recently
listening to// the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia series on CD in the car.  This is the best thing for our family and my sanity since I don't have to hear the same ten Disney songs over and over anymore.  Less whining for dropped crayons too as they are occupied with listening to the story.  I kind of want to show them the Lazy Sunday video now, but I don't think they'd get it. 
loving // my prenatal yoga class.  everyone is so friendly and it always leaves me feeling so peaceful and happy
loathing // the nightly insomnia that has me waking up for an hour or two at 5am each night.  If I'm lucky enough to fall back asleep I end up with zombie dreams or something.
watching // lots of great dramas like Justified and Sherlock.  some mediocre ones (re: guilty pleasures) like Downton Abbey.  and great comedies Mindy Project and Super Fun Night, which is new but I think has a lot of potential.  plus I love Rebel Wilson
eating // veggie burgers and fries from the drive thru after every trip to the Y.  kinda defeats the purpose but I love eating in the car.
wanting // to get caught up with Project Life and my Day in the Life album from last year

making // custom flair for One Little Word, oh how I love my little Etsy shop
needing // ten times more patience with Avinash and Nandini right now. four weeks off of school is just too much.
grateful for // playdate with school friends today, and one planned for tomorrow.  they needed it and I needed it. also, the only motivator to good behavior that has worked all week.
looking forward to // our baby shower this weekend.  put together by my husband's lovely coworkers, this will be our first real baby shower.  couldn't be happier about it, resisting the urge to make the decorations myself

Happy New Year!

Things have been quiet around here lately and likely to continue to be so for the next few weeks.  At almost nine months along I know not to make too many plans.  My baby shower is next week and I'm so excited about that. 

We celebrated the New Year in a not so quiet fashion at home.  I bought one of those big packages of party poppers at Target.  That, plus popcorn and some sparkling apple cider, one juice box and a sippy cup of water made for a pretty wild party here. 

I am so ready for a new year and a new start.  I can't wait to get out of this falling apart rental house, and find a home.  I am excited to meet this baby and for all the new adventures next year will bring.  I am still pondering my goals and my needs/wants.  Ideas for this year's One Little Word are percolating and I am getting inspired seeing what other people have come up with. I am also trying to finish up the last few weeks of project life.  So, you have a huge post about that coming your way soon :)

If you entered my giveaway, you can see the results here.  Thank you to everyone for supporting me, this little blog and my crafty endeavors.  I love you guys.  Wishing you all the happiest of new years and heaps of blessings on top.