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Goodbye old friend..............

2014-01-30T11:34:00.002-08:00

Life has changed and I feel like this blog no longer fits me. Visit me here at my new home...........

Olives

2014-01-26T17:04:00.000-08:00

I am not a sweet tooth sorta girl. I dig my savory foods, some big ones for me are olives and pickles. Always and forever I shall be gobbling them up. After my wedding I had my friend's drive me to a store that specializes in Italian foods, so imagine the olive bar they had! Some of the comments I got while walking through the store in my wedding gown were hilarious. One women asked if she was going to be on a t.v show. When you think about it, it would have been pretty funny to see a women in a wedding dress searching for olives.

I did walk out with a nice container full and some funny photos to immortalize the event:)

When kids make birthday gifts

2014-01-22T16:14:00.004-08:00

This past weekend we took my mom out for lunch. We chose Friendlys because we would be dining with two children and its just super kid friendly;)

My stepdaughter wanted to paint something for my mom as a gift, she loves to paint.

I had a few pieces of wood laying around thanks to my brother in law who is a carpenter.

I painted her hands purple and we did two simple hand prints on the wood which I had painted gold. I then dug into my button collection and embellished the hands which I then turned into flowers. A half of a doily as sun with some more buttons in yellow and a simple banner from K.I and I called it a day.

On the back we wrote a personal message along with the date and age of my stepdaughter. My mom loved it. It was simple, sweet and a gift that shall be cherished for years to come!

Hey, its 2014!

2014-01-18T17:05:00.001-08:00

2013 you have been good to me in many ways. You have also given me a run for my money for sure.

I used to always make resolutions, every year, the same ones pretty much. I don't agree with resolutions, they can seem so restricting. As I have read on other people's blogs or watched in their vlog videos, setting some goals is good. Restricting yourself to ones set in stone, not so good.

So I have thought of a few things I would like to do in 2014 and I went for the Paper Issues challenge and created a layout documenting my ambitions:)

Youtube Process video to follow on my channel

The makings of a wedding album

2014-01-08T15:31:00.000-08:00

First of all I have to say that I adore my wedding photographer. I had went to elementary school with her many moons ago and we had reconnected this past year. She does photography and it just all worked out for the best. I think it was great working with a friend because you can be open and honest and they kind of get what you like and what you want. She definitely brought it all to the table and with well over 300 images.

Now to share those images with family and friends who may visit our house. Me being a scrap booker could only think of the layouts I could create. The fun titles, the pretty papers tying it all together and lets not forget the journaling so people can read about the stories behind each image.

So last week I set out to my new scrap book room and got to work. I have created 7 layouts so far for our album and have many more ideas to go to fill it up.

I also took to the Youtube waves again and intend on sharing many a process videos along the way!

I'm loving how its coming together and look forward to the finished project.

For now I shall share along the way:)

There you go! The beginnings of our wedding album.

Blog and life updates!

2014-01-08T15:02:00.002-08:00

Well hello there blog!!! You have been a part of my life since 2008, I was living as a nanny in Conneticut in a town that was rather boring. I started to get into scrap booking and reading fellow crafter blogs. It turned into a community, a way to connect and share and I was hooked. Over the years I have blogged about creating, going on adventures, interviews with crafty people, etc. It was always such a great outlet for me.

Times have changed and I have read that some believe that the blog is dead, and well that makes me sad(in a way) It may be dead for some, but I for one have decided to take my dead blog and breath some life back into it.

Life has changed, especially in my world. I am definetly not that same lady blogging back in 2008 or even 2010!

First of all I have gotten married...........

Exciting right? Little ole me, married, its crazy but its also really nice:)

We chose October a year to almost the day that we got engaged. The fall is our most favorite time of the year, so imagine all the fall themed touches at our wedding. It was perfect, everyone enjoyed themselves and we created tons of memories. After that we went off on our honeymoon where we probably ate to much and relaxed on some really nice beaches.

This was all the calm before the storm.

In November I went in for a surgical procedure. I had been diagnosed with Endometriosis, and was to have a Laparoscopy surgery to remove most of it. Unfortunately no Laparoscopy for me but instead I had a Laparotomy (which is similar to a C-section) Had a nice 1 night stay in the hospital which involved some not so good food and some very strong drugs. Then the next day I was on my merry way to heal at home in my bed.

Healing began and I slowly started to feel better, I was even back to getting out and cleaning the house. Then almost a month to the day of my operation I started to feel not so well, almost like the flu was coming over me. My stomach was extremely swollen and I felt so very sore, it hurt so much just to get up out of bed. My appetite was barely there, I felt sick constantly and not to mention the depression it brought on from being bed ridden.

Eventually all of this led to a nice ride in the ambulance one Sunday afternoon and I was diagnosed with a Staph infection. I am not even going to go into details, I am not about TMI at all. I cant even handle the TMI facts myself.

I was sent home from the ER with tons of prescriptions and the hope that all of this just would eventually go away and be yet a distant memory.

It has taken awhile, and I am very grateful that things happened the way they did. I might have never known I had a Staph infection and who only knows what would have happened then.

Over the past few weeks I have used this time to craft more, re-connect with my favorite online communities, catch up on some Downton Abbey and have some lovely visitors including a really awesome nurse. I have definitely re found my scrap booking hobby and I am enjoying it even more. I have so much to scrap book and share about this new life of mine, the possibilities are endless!

I am still home bound, nurse care daily, at least for 2 more weeks but things are totally looking up.

It such a mystery how these things happen. BUT its not a mystery to how they change your perspective on things, your appreciation for the little things and the love and caring of all your family and friends.

Its not how I envisioned my first few months of married life but I guess it was a great learning and growing experience. My husband ran out for the smallest of things ( ice cream especially) He tried his hardest to do the laundry and tidy up the house. He drives me to appointments and even sits in the room with me when getting my check ups. He is awesome.

My sister has also been there for me a lot as well ( we finally live close by!) She has taken the reigns when my husband cant go with me and has picked me up and gotten me out of the house when I needed it the most.

Friends have stopped by, brought me lunch, slept over and indulged me on junk food and movies. They have really come through.

All in all I think I am pretty darn lucky.

Going into 2014 I'm looking on the bright side of things and focusing on the positive. We have so much to look forward to and after this whole fiasco, we have so much to be thankful for!

Its a workshop

2012-05-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

I am going for the gusto, won't you join me?

Down below is the Paypal button. Please be sure to include a valid email address in the notes of the payment. If you have any questions at all please feel free to email me.

Layout time

2012-04-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

I wanted to scoot on here and share some layouts I have made recently. Do a little catchup and say "Hellllloooo out there"

Not gonna lie, I have been working my butt off and find it hard to blog at days end. I have however been putting up tons of videos over on my Youtube channel of my scrap booking process. I just set up the camera when I am getting ready to scrap a bit and just record it, so it has been easy to keep up over there.

I am hoping that within time I will be down to one good job, and a tad more free time. BUT till then we will make do.

Layout time.......

Scrapping the fall

2012-04-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

Feeling proud of myself for scrap booking some of those older pictures from the fall. We did alot in October one of which was finally getting to Salem! I love, love that place. Everything about it was pretty much what I had imagined except a tad more modernized. And the icing on the cake was going there with great friends.

I used the Thursday Sketch over at Elle's Studio to create this layout. I loved the grid pattern which is perfect for all of my little 3x3 photos:)

The photo is tad bright but you get the idea!

Till later!

Crate color challenge

2012-04-09T17:21:00.002-07:00

When I saw the color challenge for Crate Paper this month I knew I had to do it. Canary Yellow, map blue and magenta, LOVE it!

Happy Easter!

2012-04-08T06:07:00.002-07:00

A very Happy Easter to you and yours!

Seuss Landing

2012-04-04T14:19:00.000-07:00

Well me and the boyfriend visited Disney about two years ago and I am still working on layouts from that trip. The following is a layout of Seuss Landing, one of the happiest places in Universal in my opinion. What is there not to like about a land made up of all things Seuss?

A very bright and colorful one.

Check out the video behind this layout over here.

Hot pink paint

2012-04-02T18:32:00.000-07:00

Gotta love the new trend on neon's. Me and neon's go way back, back to the eighties and now they are back especially in scrap booking. SO when I found some hot pink paint up in CT while shopping with my favorite people, I just had to have it. Little did I know that I was spending a small fortune, but well worth it. NOW I have to find a way to use it in every layout, whether it be a small dot or a huge splatter it must find its way on my page.

In the following layout you will find globs of it and I LOVE IT!

I was also inspired by Rahel Menig. Love her use of layering, crumpled, fun layering.

You can also go here and watch a video of me creating this. Fun times:)

P.S this is also my layout for the Creative Type April Challenge.

Sketch time

2012-04-01T17:45:00.000-07:00

Did some scrappy stuff this weekend including a video which I will post possibly in this post if blogger allows me!

So I used this sketch from Elle's Studio:

here is what I came up with!

video time...................

Nope maybe next time!

Happenings

2012-03-29T18:36:00.001-07:00

I feel like I am always saying "time for catchup on the blog" . I don't want to have to say that or do that but you see, at the moment I am juggling 3 jobs, one of which I do not get paid for but enjoy immensely. I have finished my program(can't remember if I mentioned that in this here blog:) and now I am in the externship phase. On April 18th I take my certification test and then I will be on the lookout for a job! It will all fall into place but for now its 6:30 am till 10 pm then bed for me. Coffee just not cut it anymore, and I wind up cozying up in bed with Alfred Hitchcock and falling off to la la land. I do miss my social time with friend's and traveling up to CT to visit our dearest couple Lindsay and Marshall. But I just have to tell my self this all just temporary and of a course for a great cause.

I did however get to attend one night of Hampton's restaurant week with two of my bestest of friends. We dined on a delicious three course meal and shared a bottle of wine. After that we returned back to my friend Sara's house and sat by the fire pit. I need more of these days, I miss them but I totally cherish the nights I do get to do this.

While I was gone from blog land I recieved the magazine I was published in called Somerset Memories Spring 2012. This magazine is amazing and I felt very honored to be chosen to be published in it.

When I was a zombie

2012-03-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

Well I don't suppose I was around to tell you about my zombie days(or day) In 2010 me and my friends took a trip to the Asbury Zombie walk, I believe I blogged about it here .

This year we were well prepared for months, booked a hotel room on the boardwalk and attended as much of the zombie festivities as we could. I was a 1920's inspired zombie and my boyfriend was the green Hornet zombie. We had a blast. Surrounded by great friends, interesting zombies and a really funny night frolicking on the boardwalk in zombie attire. I cannot wait till next year!!

Oh and we got to watch the original cast of The Living Dead talk about the film!

A double page layout, out of my comfort zone for sure but documented our zombie adventures well:)

Things you have missed

2012-03-09T17:38:00.000-08:00

I feel the need to back track on my blog a little since I have been missing for a bit.

Back in October my boyfriend and I agreed to skip family Thanksgiving and go to the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade with our friends Lindsay and Marshall. Being a New Yorker my whole life, I have never attended one and felt like I was missing out big time. After we told our families that this year we were skipping the normal Thanksgiving festivities at our homes, we started to plan out our plan of attack.

First we had to find out the best place to be to watch the parade. We came up with Columbus Circle. Next we had to figure out the time we should head on in to the city, that turned out to be like 3 in the morning. Eventually it all came together, we got there super early and found some benches to set up camp at until the parade started. To be there in real time and not watch it on the TV was amazing!!! The floats are breath taking, the magic in the air(yes sounds cheesy) is there and unforgettable. I loved every minute of it including the memories we made with our friends sure to last a life time. I was a bit sad though that there was no turkey dinner, no pumpkin pie, instead pub food and beers:)

(us in the morning sitting on our bench!)

Of course one of the highlights of the parade was the very green Kermit the frog float. Man he was a big fellow up close and personal.

I am not quite sure what is up with our smugs in the picture in this layout. Perhaps it was the lady that came along and somehow weaseled her way onto our bench, claiming it her own. Or the fact that the Neil Diamond float was lame because he was not singing or even wave at us, boo!

Whatever it was I thought it was a pretty funny picture and it had to be documented.

Summer days

2012-03-08T17:05:00.000-08:00

Today felt like Spring. It was so nice outside and I was off! I worked in the morning and then drove down to the beach it get some fresh air and to roll down my windows and allow my car to get some fresh air. As much as I am sad that we pretty much skipped a whole season(that season being Winter) I am getting a little excited about Spring. I love the smell of it, the clear air, that fresh sort of feeling. I guess I am looking forward to it.

Today I scrapped about Summer, I like that season as well but to a certain extent. Not much for the heat, all that humidity that goes with it on the East coast. However I do enjoy the fun times camping, going on adventures, even just going to the beach. I know that I have talked about going to Coney Island in the past on this blog. It happens to be one of my favorite things to do in the Summer.

I came across the picture I used in the layout below in my roller tote thing(its what I have all my remaining scrap supplies in while living as a nomad) I love this picture because it was taken at Beer Island which is no longer at Coney Island(boo) Due to higher rent rates they were forced to close down. A lot of places were actually, slowly Coney Island is losing its charm, sad. Just recently we read in the paper that they are ripping up the wood boardwalk and installing a plastic one, not so sure about a plastic boardwalk. My friend Melissa has gone down there to see if she can get a piece for us, I think it would be something I treasure, perhaps hang some Coney Island pictures on(great idea Mel!)

I did this layout for the Two Peas Elle's Studio challenge ( I have lots of Elle's Studio to use over here) The challenge was just to use Elle's Studio products that could be found at Two Peas. I like the color combo in this layout, summery, light, cotton candy and sunshine yellow:) Not much embellishing, pretty simple.

After I created this one I made two others! SO I guess I am on a roll, ONCE again!

A sketch that led to a layout

2012-03-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

When I am feeling a bit uninspired like many scrap bookers, I like to find a good sketch. There are certain sites where I know that I will like their sketches, Elle's Studio happens to be one of them.

Now after not scrapping for a few months, I have been scouting around for some design ideas and came across their weekly Thursday sketch. I really worked quick with this layout. I found my photo, picked out few scraps and went from there.

Here is the sketch:

I had been hoarding this popcorn patterned paper from Basic Grey and decided now was the time to use it for this movie inspired layout.

I really love the pops of pink. I am trying to really use up my scrap book supplies that I have, no matter how old the paper. That is one of goals this go around:)

I pulled through

2012-03-04T15:47:00.000-08:00

I finished out my class and passed! Now I just need to take the certification text and then I can go off and do my job. The past two months have been a tad nerve wrecking. To be quite honest with you, I have never completed any sort of class. Well I mean I have completed art classes in college but when it came to technical sort of classes especially math I always bombed! So to think that I learned new math in a month and was able to figure out these huge problems without any help on the final and pass it, I have to pat myself on the back.

Since well before Christmas I have not picked up one scrap book supply, and today I have finally made a layout. I used the Dares 188 prompt, it was for a picture essay layout. I have been trying to take pictures every day on my phone and catch the smallest of things in life. I was able to run off to CVS today and print out a few and use them in my layout.

During the past two months me and my sister would meet up at this local coffee shop, go on our computers, talk, she would crochet and I would try and study. So this layout is pretty much a photo essay of that. Oh and also while visiting our very amazing friend's in CT, I picked up some hot pink paint and have been dying to use it on something. Yup, so that is hot pink splatter on my layout and it makes me happy:)

Trying to catch up.

2012-02-10T16:18:00.000-08:00

Yes I have reached that point where I am tryng to catch up with this photo thing. Ok so we left off at day 3, day 4 was a stranger which I did not get. Day 5 was 10 am:

Day 6 was dinner, which by the way was my favorite meal:

Day 7 was button:

A picture of me turning my heated blanket on, its been so cold in our house!

Be back with some more soon:)

Day 2 and day 3

2012-02-03T19:21:00.000-08:00

Continuing on with the photo a day February challenge:) Yes I am keeping up(hopefully it lasts)

Day 2, "Words"

These have been the words I have been dealing with lately. I have had to read them over and over again and I have even recorded myself reading them in hopes to memorize them.

Day 3 "Hands"

This happens to be one of the most loving dogs in the world. She knows just the right moments to lay down right in the middle of my room and await me to come over and pet her. She is the biggest mush, wagging her tail in thanks.

February photo a day

2012-02-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

I will get do this, that is what I always tell myself. However I am gonna do this. How hard can it be to take a picture a day for a month? Not to hard. I have a decent camera on my phone, snap a picture and email it over to myself. Pretty simple.

So lets start!

Yes that there is two pictures, not one! Today was mainly my sister and I spending time at this new(new to us at least) coffee shop we found called Roast. I was trying to study which turned into me people watching and she was working on her adoption ads(she is in the process of adopting!)

Well here is to a month of daily pictures!! You should join along;)

It has been a great big while.

2012-01-30T20:54:00.000-08:00

It has been about 4+ months since my very last post and well a lot has changed/happened.

For starters I am no longer a nanny in the big bad city. I am well into my third week of Pharmacy Technician school, and that does not leave a lot of time for fun crafty things. My day usually is work in the morning, work in the afternoon and school at night(at least for the next month or so) I have moved temporarily and I am pretty much living like a gypsy out of bags and bins. But it will all pay off and I hope to be in a stable place with my new career, new place, basically new life within the next few months.

I do crave time to scrap book, create in general but first comes all of these important life things.

One thing that helps me along has been Pinterest. It fulfills my crafty desires, and continues to inspire me even when I have to memorize drug names and crazy math equations for the pharmacy. When the dust starts to settle a bit, I will be pulling one project here and there from my crafty board and getting it done. Making Pinterest more then just a board of ideas collecting cyber dust.

Just recently my sister and I have started up a joint crafty blog called Two Sister's craft. We both share a love for crafting, and we both enjoy spending time together sometimes with margaritas:) and a project of some sorts to work on. This is what this blog will be all about, projects being worked on, things we learned a long the way and I guess a lot of life in general.

Last night it was all about me learning to crochet and well I guess I did good for a first timer.

By the way, I did get past the basic chain.............but not as far as an actual scarf;)

Well its off to bed for me, it was great to blog again. Hope to be back soon, I have missed you all! P.S tell me what you have been up to!

I think I will Dare myself.

2011-09-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

Every time the Effer Dares put out a new challenge I tell myself this week you will do it!  This week you will pull out your paper and glue and take it on.  However week after week and now year after year I still have yet to try one out.  Currently they are up to number 183 so I am totally behind:)  Their prompts are totally different then other challenge sites, sort of make you look at scrapping in a whole new perspective and I sort of need that these days to give me a jump start.  Well I am going back to Dare #1 and I am working my way through them starting last night.  

Dare #1 can be found here.  Its all about heart.  As you can see from the post each of the team mates took it on in their own style.  

This is what I came up with:

This is my favorite picture of my dad. It was taken back in the sixties when he was in the Marines. I think it was taken in Vietnam, not 100% on that fact. For the background I created a mosaic heart which I cut out and pop dotted on top of light gray paper. With the heart being the main event on this layout, I kept the rest simple. Just a touch of journaling around the heart and that's it.

On to Dare #2!!!