Scrapbooking Pictures Part 1

Happy Saturday! Before I head to the hardware store to pick up another 5-gallon bucket of paint for the house, I thought I would blog since I haven't done it since Monday. Ooops! I'm adjusting to having quite a different schedule because of working at the coffee shoppe. I come home after 6 hours and I feel exhausted, but it feels good because I know I've worked! So I'm trying to find balance with everything right now. I haven't been creating much, but I have been knitting because it's just so relaxing to me. There's a lot going on right now.

I mentioned in one of my last posts that I finished our 2009 vacation album and it will be printed through Shutterfly. I think I want to dedicate a few posts to scrapbooking pictures in a very simple form...through collage. There are times (believe it or not) that I like to keep my pages simple because I want the pictures alone to express the turn of events. That's how I feel about the page below. They were pictures taken at a tea house in Lake Louise and I wanted the pictures to stand alone. I did put a few embellishments above the journaling just to tie it together. One of the reason I created the Travel Along kit was because I wanted some simple embellishments and shapes to work with that go along with traveling.

I love the palette of colors!

P.S. Working at the coffee shoppe has been fun, but also quite challenging. I am learning more about coffee than I ever though I would know. I'm not a big coffee drinker, but if I do drink it I like it [really] sweet and without caffeine. I'm enjoying getting out of the house, meeting new people, and working.

Just for fun!

I'm back again today with a page I created tonight. I am a super big fan of CD Muckosky's designs, so I just had to scoop up these flowers! I just wanted to scrap for fun! Fun, fun, fun! Ok, now I better get off the computer!


{credits}

Screaming for ice cream!

Hello! Well, guess what? I finally finished the 2009 vacation album I had been working on! *cheering* *clapping* I know, some of you are thinking, "I have boxes of pictures from 1984 that I'm still trying to scrap!" (I do too!) I wanted to get in on their 30% off sale at Shutterfly, plus free shipping. If their next sale is 50% off photo books I just might be screaming for ice cream! Ha!


This was one of the last pages I created for the album.

The album turned out to be 65 pages! You can view it here along with the last few photobooks I created. I did a lot of simple photo collages since I didn't want to steal away from the photos too much by adding a lot of other things. I like that approach. I can't wait to hold this album in my hands. It will be the first completed album with most of my own digital designs! *smile*

Tomorrow I start a new job working at a coffee shoppe! I'm a bit nervous! Eeeek!

Journal Cover

I love knitting! I love making things for others! In fact, I have a growing list of gifts I want to make. This is something I made for my friend Carrie. I was at the local yarn shop and I found some turquoise-colored cotton yarn and I didn't know what I would make with it, but I thought it would make the perfect gift. So I bought two. Later on I was looking through some patterns and when I found this pattern for a cable knit journal cover, I knew it would be perfect! And guess what? The yarn I bought was the exact yarn needed for the project! That happened months and months ago. I didn't start knitting it until probably April or May. It's my first cable knit project. I practiced the cable stitches a few times and then dove right into the project. I figured I would learn as I went along. And sure enough, I did! This was the project that I was following the pattern wrong. It was quite hilarious! I just pulled out all of the stitching and started over again. By that time I was familiar with a lot of the cable stitches. The journal cover turned out beautiful!

Pattern can be found here: Ready, Set, Knit Cables

This was the first time I've ever blocked anything after knitting. I admit I was a bit intimidated by this process, but it was a piece of cake! I bought some foam squares from Knit Picks and some t-pins from the craft store and I was ready to block. All this blocking required was pinning the project to a board, pinning the pins around making sure it was the size I wanted it, and then steaming it with an iron. I had to do this 2-3 times because I needed to stretch it out a little bit more.

After it dried from the steam, I put the ribbons through and it was finished! I may have to make one for me!

Oops! This photo is upside down! I guess it doesn't matter though. The front and back are the same.

Is there a project out there calling your name, but you are intimidated? Well, just dive in! You can do it!

A Yarn Tale

Hello! Hope ya'll had a great weekend! This weekend was a nice one for us...weatherwise, too! That's always a super bonus! We even started painting our house today! You know me and painting (we don't mix together), so the idea of painting the exterior of our house sounded great, but the actual reality of it wasn't so great because it involves a lot of time and detail. I'm a detail person, so you would think I would be ok with that, but it's no so with this kind of project. Our kind neighbor is letting us borrow his paint sprayer, so it's going to make the project go even faster! Whoohoo!

Ok, enough about paint, let's talk yarn.

So I started a new project recently. It's a baby blanket. I've been wanting to make a blanket for a few months now, but I was just waiting for the opportunity to make one. I can't say who this is for just in case if she reads this, but I can say that it's for a baby boy! I found the pattern here, from the Purl Bee (which is a super cool blog for all crafters, especially if you like yarn and fabric!). It's a super duper easy pattern (every row is knit). I am all for soft yarn and a soft finished product, so I researched what kind of yarn to purchase that would be soft, but not with too many $$ attached. That's one of the things I love about Knit Picks--affordable prices! I loved the color combos on the Purl Bee site, but I just couldn't justify buying seven skeins of yarn for at least $9.00 each.

I picked out five colors, two of the colors will be doubled. And that's what they will look like on the blanket. The middle color is a dark brown. The yarn is called Comfy Sport. I'm working on this project in between working on my sweater. I figured it would be good to switch back and forth to give myself a break from each one.

This is all I've accomplished so far...I have a long way to go! The yarn is super soft!

On another note, Quent and I ran on Saturday and we ran 5 miles! After we were done Quent asked me if I ever imagined myself running 5 miles. Nope!

Sneak Peek

Hey-o! I hope you are all having a great week!

Today I wanted to share a little sneak peek of a new kit I've been working on. I'm not exactly sure what this kit will be called, but right now it's entitled "Subtle Memories". I have 4 papers designed and a few embellishments, but that's as far as I am with it. And something exciting happened today as I designed...I scrapbooked too! My goal is to use the kits first--before I put them into the shoppe. If it's not something I would use, then I don't want it. Ha! And it was really fun creating the layout this sneak peek is from because I was playing and I was being "messy" in a digital kind of way. I have a new toy to play with--Artrage--and I'm like a little kid all over again! Whoohoo!



We are having dinner guests tonight. I'm making ribs and wow, do they smell awesome! Yum!

I've been keeping up with running. My goal is to run 3x per week. Now that I have the Nike+ ipod contraption I know how how fast and the distance. It's been super fun! I've been challenging myself by running up hills, and that's definitely been a challenge! Ha! Today was my hardest run so far. This is just another part of being disciplined. I don't always *feel* like getting up and running. Like this morning I didn't want to run. I didn't feel excited about it. But I made myself get up and get out the door and run. It was a tough run, but it was worth it. It feels so good! And I'm loving the results I'm seeing from being disciplined. Since December 31st, I have lost 25 pounds, which pretty much puts me at my goal! And it's taken a LOT of discipline. I've changed my eating habits and I exercise many hours during the week. Now I get up in the morning and it's just not a normal day if I haven't dripped sweat in the morning. Ewww...was that too much information? Sweat is good!

And on that happy note...I'm off to dinner!

Beach Bliss Kit

Here's a new kit for the beach: Beach Bliss
Save 20% now until Wednesday, July 21st

Francesca Shrug

I thought I would show a project I've been working on. A few months ago I saw this sweater at a store and I really liked it and I was tempted to buy it, but I thought, "Why not make my own?" So...I searched and searched for a pattern--online and at the local yarn shop, but nothing turned up. I saw ones that came close to what I wanted, but I still wasn't settled. When I was in Michigan, my sister Amanda and I spent some time (ok, maybe a lot of time) in a yarn shop just drooling over their yarns and patterns. I described to Amanda what I was searching for and so we diligently searched in the pattern books. We found many that were close to what I was looking for, but still nothing that made me say "That's the one!" But I did find some other patterns for some other sweaters I want to make--hee, hee! After probably an hour or so of being in the store (Amanda was so patient!) and giving up on my quest of finding THE pattern, I *finally* asked the clerk if there was a sweater that looked like the one I wanted. And what do you know? She led me to the pattern. It was a moment of "That's it!!" *jumping for joy* So we left the store with 3 pattern books, 2 separate patterns, needles, and smiles! Our mission was accomplished!

You can find all of the information about the project at Ravelry, but if you would like the basic information:

Pattern: Debbie Bliss Rialto book, Francesca pattern
Yarn: Hawk 24318


One thing about this pattern is that it has really goofy wording. I actually had to write out some of the directions word for word so I could figure out what it was saying. This is my 3rd sweater and so far none of them have been the same or even close to being the same. I surely hope the back of the sweater is supposed to look like what is pictured at the top.

This is the first sleeve, which took hours upon hours to knit. It was very therapeutic though. I'm thankful for shows like The Cosby Show, Everybody Loves Raymond, I Love Lucy, and The Office that entertain me while knitting.

The ends of the sleeve were crocheted. I had never crocheted before, but youtube helped me figure out how. It was fun!

Do you love templates?

Ooops! I almost forgot to tell you about something exciting over at The Daily Digi. My friend Christine of List Girl Designs is featured there. Check it out!

Fabulous

Hello!! It's been awhile since I last posted. It seems like a lot has happened since I last wrote, but before I get to that, I wanted to share a card I made a couple of weeks ago for a dear friend of mine. I was in a card-making mood and this person was really on my heart, so I just started creating. She is a fabulous person!



My little word for the year has been "discipline", which is basically learning self-discipline. I have to admit I wasn't too crazy about the word at first, but now I realize just how perfect that word has been for me so far this year. It involves every area of my life. There are so many things I was being lazy about or I didn't "feel" like doing. Very quickly I learned that it's not always about what I *feel* like doing. I don't always *feel* like getting up in the morning and exercising, but now I do it. It's become a habit. There are plenty of other areas I could focus on in this post, but I wanted to share with you about the exercise part for now. A few months ago I started to run. Where did I get that crazy idea? I think I was just looking for something new to do. And so I did it and I didn't hate it like I remembered hating it years ago. I realized after 3 runs that I could run 3 miles without stopping and I actually felt good! If it wasn't for being disciplined and getting on my stationary bike almost every day before I attempted running, I wouldn't have picked up running. I had to build up to that. Now I have an ipod to accompany me on my runs and recently I bought a Nike+ ipod app to motivate me even more. It's the coolest thing! There's this sensor that goes onto my shoe and then my ipod can track my distance, time, and speed. It's super cool! I love living a disciplined life! It's totally worth it!

On June 26th at 11:59 pm Quent and I started to run in a fun run called Only Fools Run at Midnight. We ran the 5K portion and it was super fun! Running is opening up a whole new world! Whooohoo!!

For the 4th we went to Wrangell for a week. I had so much fun visiting with friends! It was so very wonderful!