Finally getting around to completing some layouts. In this one I used some Basic Grey paper (I think it was from their Periphery collection or maybe their Perhaps collection) along with a film strip (which I love) from Creative Imaginations. I actually bought two of these. They’re a great way incorporating snapshots of an event that would have otherwise gone unused. And as usual, I’ve used American Crafts Thickers for the page title

Most of this last weekend was spent cleaning and trying to find homes for things. While one would thing that sounds like a drag, for me it was a relief and a huge weight off my shoulders. The situation isn’t perfect just yet. We still have mountain of boxes taking up the corner of our living room. I’m afraid until we move into a bigger place, we will have to suffer with it for now.

Despite that and the waning job search, things have been good. Financially we are living on my income for now, but we know that can’t go on forever. So for now, we’re keeping our ears open for potential opportunities and applying to the ones that come up.

Last weekend I was able to do some scrapping so I’ll be posting those pages here shortly. I’m taking a week long vacation beginning next Thursday and it will be a welcome relief. I’m not going anywhere exactly, just taking some time off for my cousin’s wedding and then the Coldplay concert on the 21st. I can’t wait.

I took this photo a couple weeks ago on a Friday night after a painful day at work. Honestly I was just ready to go home. I knew the only thing that would wash away the pain would be a great dinner on Mena’s patio and a delicious margarita.

I think I’m definitely going on a stash diet though. I’ve acquired way too much stuff for my own good. However, all of the stuff I used in this layout is new (with the exception of the kraft paper). I’ll be using a lot of new things over the next few weeks. The only thing I’ll be buying while on this stash diet adhesive!

Last night I was cleaning my craft space so I figured I would let Izzie lounge on my bed which is directly behind me. This is where she ended up.

That pillow will eventually become Jabari’s

There’s never enough time in the day is there? So here I am, finally getting around to posting a layout I started like 2 weeks ago.

I took this photo the first week Jabari moved in. I thought it would be a good representation of our lives finally coming together: a photo of our shared closet.

I think I’ve pretty much used up all of the paper and embellishments I bought last summer with the exception of some sheets. And now I have a whole new stack to get through. This is ok since I think I have a lot of scrapping to catch up with anyway!

Kaiser Craft is slowly but surely becoming one of my favorite brands. My latest love? These cute wooden flourishes. I discovered them at Scrappin’ Good Time on our last shopping trip. They were $4.99 but I absolutely loved them. Had I not been on a budget, I would have bought a couple more as well as the wooden flower shapes they had. So adorable!

I’m so very guilty of not spending any scrapping time. Life has been a little hectic lately and I just haven’t had the time or the energy to clean up my space which would help with my creative dry spell.

In the meantime, I’m still taking photographs and searching for inspiration.

8 ladies + Tasty Food + Lots of Chocolate + Cute Waiter = Fun evening!

Yesterday afternoon, Jabari and I did some exploring. Someone had suggested this coffee house to him in east Dallas called White Rock Coffee right about the same time I came across it while browsing Yelp.com. That’s when I figured perhaps we should check it out.

We decided to stop somewhere for lunch on our way out to the coffee house. I strategically chose Bubba’s on Hillcrest. Why? Because I knew it was in a location Jabari would like. We fell in love with the towering oak trees that curved over the narrow streets and the quaint little cottages with white trim and neat lawns.

White Rock Coffee turned out to be everything we had expected. The coffee was great, the atmosphere laid back. Jabari and I sat at a table in the upstairs alcove. He made notes in his planner of ideas and things he wanted to accomplish during the week and I read my book club book. Every once in a while, he would say, “This is a good song,” referring to the music that was playing over the coffee shop’s sound system. And I would smile and nod in agreement which would then be followed by a generous sip of my caramel slammer (blended caramel latte drink).

We stayed long enough to soak up enough of the atmosphere to last the drive home. Then we packed our things and headed out. But not before I purchased a pound of their signature whole bean coffee, Lady of the Lake.

On the drive home, we listened to music and the gentle whoosh of my car’s AC. We were on Northwest Highway, somewhere between the White Rock train station and 75 when Jabari said he really liked this neighborhood. I smiled and nodded, looking around at the passing cars, feeling energized by the bustling city life.

It was on that afternoon that the path was revealed and all we had to do was take the first few steps toward our next destination.

Updating my iPhone software right now. There are a number of memorable events in my life: my first new car, my first apartment, graduating from college. Now added to that list: upgrading to the iPhone 3.0 OS.

Copy and paste, here I come!

Our cable has been out since Saturday afternoon so I haven’ been able to get online or watch TV since then. I’m not exactly sure what to attribute it to since the bad storms and tornadoes were a couple days prior. I finally called Time Warner yesterday morning to schedule an appointment with a technician for today. Here’s hoping they can fix it.

I finally sat down last night to do some scrapping, but I didn’t finish mostly because I just didn’t have the energy or the patience. I do plan on finishing the layout I started and posting it once we get the cable working again.

Living with Jabari wavers between delightful and, well, not so delightful, mostly due to the fact that there are 2 of us in a 750 square foot apartment with vaulted ceilings nonetheless in the middle of a Texas summer. You do the math. On the other hand, getting to see him every day often outweighs the sweltering indoor temperatures and the inevitable high electricity bill. I look forward to the day when we can move into a bigger place on the ground floor. On the other hand, I don’t look forward to moving again.

But I guess that’s what our new moving fund is going to be for

I took this photo last week before her haircut. She kept giving Portable Izzie the evil stare. There’s another photo I took of Izzie opening her chompers, ready to take a bite out of Portable Izzie’s Face.

Today things seemed more real. After I got home from work, we browsed the sales papers and made our grocery list. Jabari stayed at home while I went out to the store. After I came home from grocery shopping, he cooked dinner while I put away everything and marveled at how much money I saved by browsing sales papers and using coupons (I’m learning! Read this blog post for more info). You would have thought we’ve been living together all along. He even turned on my reading light for me (after gently scolding me of course for trying to read without it). With the exception of a few mishaps (like him using my hand towel to clean his beard clippings) it has been a smooth and painless transition.

At work, we’ve adopted 9 children from Kenya via Compassion International, a Christian charity that helps kids around the world. Recently, I just sorted through my card collection and pulled out a few select ones to donate to my office to send to our kids.

I realized I had very few masculine or "gender neutral" cards to be able to donate. Granted, in our family we have a lot of girls (although the next generation of kids is mostly boys–what’s up with that?) so I have tons of "girly cards." And, well, I’m a girl too so of course I’m more drawn to girly papers and accessories.

So this is my attempt at making a boy card. I tried not to embellish it too much for fear of making it overly femenine. Ultimately I ended up with a very simple but useful card for any boy

OHHHH MYYYYYYY! So yesterday, I went out on a scrapbook shopping excursion with the gals. It’s the third one I’ve been on so far and as always, I had a blast. We went out to several different shops all the way out west–like way past Ft. Worth.

We first started out at Scrappers Boutique out in North Richland Hills. They were having their grand opening that day so we thought it would be great to kick off our trip by joining in the celebrations. Here I picked up quite a bit of paper (mostly new Making Memories, Basic Grey, Pink Paislee and Fancy Pants) and some embellishments from Making Memories and Pink Paislee.

Next we headed out to Cat’s Creations in Mineral Wells. Now that store was pretty impressive. They were having a 20% off everything memorial day weekend sale which made our timing perfect. I went a little crazy, picking up several sheets of paper from Crate Paper, SEI Mimosa, Basic Grey, and Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia. I Also bought embellishments and die cuts from SEI, Kaisercrafts, Basic Grey, and Lucky You.

We made an impromptu stop at Nana’s Scrapbook in Weatherford. I was already approaching my budget cap for the day so I only got a few sheets of paper from Bella Blvd., BoBunny, and chipboard letters from Basic Grey.

After Nana’s, we made our last stop at Scrapbook Getaway in Springtown. They carried the Poppy line from SEI which I absolutely had to have (I love the shimmer accents on their papers) and some stamp sets she had on sale. Afterward, I discovered that one of the other girls picked up a BoBunny stamp set that she got for $8. Had I known it was on sale I would’ve totally picked up that set! I was so sad

Nonetheless, I had such a great time with my friends that I was glad I decided to go at the last minute. Love you, SASSY gals!