Happy New Year!

Ringing in the new year with a day filled with....

Classic chocolate frosties,

Pizza at the beach,

a morning hike,

and lots of looking forward to renewed goals, new experiences, and added memories.
Wishing you all the very best health and happiness in 2012!!

Merry all the way...

Hoping everyone had a wonderful day filled with lots of love and gratitude! I felt inspired to post a picture of a layout I completed tonight with some photos from our Christmas tree shopping. I recently saw this add in a scrapbooking magazine.....

and it inspired this layout....

I'm hoping to post a bit more in the upcoming year. I'm currently working on my December Daily but need to print some more photos to continue. I am on Day 13 and have hopes of making it to Day 25 before I have to return to work next week. I'm also looking forward to beginning Project Life in 2012...just trying to document all the little details that I don't ever want to forget!! What kinds of things are you planning for the upcoming year?

The Great Pumpkin

Well...actually this is a story about a little boy and a mini pumpkin. This fall has been so exciting because Liam is old enough to take to the pumpkin patch. We opted for the simple, more down-to-earth option of a pumpkin patch only...i.e. no hayrides and other hullabaloo. Just pumpkins...sweet and simple. We visited Lavender Hills pumpkin farm and I am thankful that we chose 'simple' because just trying to focus Liam on a single pumpkin was hard work!

Look mom...isn't this one cute?!!

But this one is pretty interesting as well....hmmmm... let me see....

Hard work picking a pumpkin! I'll just hitch a ride back to the car in this wheelbarrow!

Isn't fall great?!!! What have you been doing to get yourself in the Halloween mood?

Paper Scrap Use

I recently purchased this cute poster from etsy to put in my office at work. There are some days that I really need to remind myself that I "love" what I do! LOL! I had a plain white frame...one of many that I stocked up on this summer during Aaron Brothers' One Cent Sale. Somehow it just looked too blah...so I used a bunch of vintage wallpaper scraps sitting on my table to jazz up the frame. I just cut them into squares and glued them around parts of the frame. I also added a few swatches of my favorite washi tape and now it looks so pretty!!

I just love it....

Project Photo Wall

Sorry I've been missing....I had lots of computer problems during the months of August and September so I didn't want to load tons of new photos onto my laptop for fear they would go missing!! Hubby has fixed the problem so I am back with some photos of a summer project I was so happy to finally complete!! You know how you have this idea stirring in your head for months...thinking about every detail of it and just chomping at the bit to actually do it?? This is one of those projects! It's a little photo wall that you see as you enter the house...and it has some of my favorite pics of Liam's first year...including this precious baby picture from the hospital! I can't believe that that was only 17 months ago!!!

The mini white frame next to it on the lower right corner is a portion of his favorite sock monkey blanket.

"M" of course for Morgan and 3 since we are a family of three! I bought the vintage metal number off of etsy and spray painted it candy apple red so it would stand out a bit. I also sewed fabric swatches for the 3 little hoops at the top of the display..I'm currently obsessed with making and hanging those wooden embroidery hoops!

I took a small old wooden box and lined it with paper to make a cute shadow box for the wall. I then glued one of those Tim Holz glass knobs to the top of the box. Then I mounted a vintage camera inside.....another new obsession being the vintage cameras.
That's all for now!! Thanks for hanging in there with me if you are still checking my blog! I hope it won't be near as long until my next post. Have a great week!

Do-It-Yourself Satisfaction

How many times have you seen something in a store that you think is just too cute, but you cannot possibly justify spending money on it when you think you can most likely make it yourself? And on top of that, you know that you have enough fabric, felt, and other materials at home that you could open a small craft store out of your garage??

I saw a felt/fabric flower recently that I just had to have, but the price tag was over $20. Not going to spend that much on something that was most likely made from the remnants left on somebody's craft table...because I also have those same remnants hanging out on my table that I could use to make it! Tonight I finally had some time to try to replicate the scrap flower I saw...

First, I cut out a felt circle. Then I just started snipping small pieces of fabric, felt, and lace and tacked them onto the circle with fabric glue to hold them in place. Next, I used the sewing machine to stitch from side to side and then in a swirly circle around and around.

Finished it up with a button for the center....

Love it!! Now I'm thinking about making some more of these, but possibly in a bigger size. I'm sure there are all sorts of things I can adorn with these little scrap flowers...fun!!!

Packed and Ready (I think)

Tomorrow we are off for our one-night family vacation in Laguna!! LOL!! After making two 6-hour flights this past year with a baby, I am actually relieved and happy that this is only a one night adventure that we can actually drive to!! We were lucky enough to nab one evening in the cottages at Crystal Cove in Laguna Beach, which we have been trying two years now to get! I'm soooo looking forward to hearing the waves crashing as I drift off to sleep!

Here are the first, and most important, items that I packed....

Inspirational art book, Art Saves *check*

Eye Candy decorating book *check*

Journal *check*

Instax camera *check*

All the good stuff accounted for!

On another note, I thought I'd post a picture of this cute little case I made for my iphone. My third obsession this summer (right behind my new iphone and this blog I mentioned in a previous post) is the magazine Molly Makes. Usually after reading a magazine, I rip out all of the pages that really speak to me and put them in a big binder of inspiration I have. However, this is one of those magazines that I actually keep the entire magazine! I have two issues of it, and I think I've paged through and read each one about 5 times!! The great thing is that on the cover of each issue is a little envelope in which are the basic supplies and instructions for a mini-project. I added the patterned fabric, lace, and vintage button to this case, but the rest was supplied. FUN!!