Welcoming a New Cousin

Back in March we went down to Madison to celebrate a baby shower for my cousins! Of course the shutter bug named me snapped a few pictures. My cousin's didn't know if it was a boy or girl, so I tried to stay gender neutral with this page. I used the My Girl paper line from My Minds Eye. The pink chevron ribbon is from American Crafts and I hand cut the big blue chevrons from the opposite side of the crazy patterned paper.

 Big surprise-I used modeling paste on this page. Surprisingly I left it plain white. Normally I mist it while it dries. I decided to bling it up a bit with some iRock gems. 

 

I have a new tool in the family. I finally got a Silhouette! I'm just learning the software, but I'm looking forward to the opportunity to dive in more. Especially with bilingual materials! 

The Turkey Poem

I had to share this little giggle for all my blog friends:

The Turkey Poem
Author Unknown

My New Parrot
Recently I received a parrot as a gift.
The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary.
Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude,
obnoxious and laced with profanity,
I tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently,
saying only polite words,
playing soft music and anything else I could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary.
Finally, I was fed up and I yelled at the parrot.
The parrot yelled back.
I shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder.
So, in desperation, I threw up my hands, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer.
For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed.
Then suddenly there was total quiet.
Not a peep was heard for over a minute,
Fearing that I'd hurt the parrot,
I quickly opened the door to the freezer.
The parrot calmly stepped out onto my outstretched arms and said
"I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions.
I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."
I was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude.
As I was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird continued,
"May I ask what the turkey did?"


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Everyone have a wonderful day of family and loved ones! 

Peek in my Craft Loft

This post is well overdue. I moved back in August. I'm finally getting around to showing off my scrap loft. I actually took these pics a month ago, and then re-took a few on Sunday after I got stir crazy watching that four hour football game. I gave in and let myself decorate ONE thing to hold myself through until after Thanksgiving. My dad won't bring my tree over, its the only reason it's not up already. Supposedly I won't be getting it up the stairs myself.

 I'm loving my rail of my loft that overlooks my living room!

 My desk (also overlooks the living room) and has a great view outside.

The rest of these were taken a few weeks ago during the day. I've got nice storage and a washer/dryer upstairs. I also kept my old TV for doing workout DVD's. My complex is super quiet but also has some rules about noise.

 The view from my desk. Can't wait to watch it snow up there.

I ripped apart that old TV hutch this summer and transformed it into scrappy storage! And I got my Expedit while I was in Atlanta.

So this is my scrap space/work out space/laundry space. It's multipurpose but I love it!

On The Ice

When we were up in Door County for my birthday in March we decided to walk on the Bay of Green Bay. I will admit, I get really leery of walking on ice, when I know how deep the water is underneath (aka 20 feet). I hung closer to the shore, but we got some cool shots. This beach is super crowded in the summer time, so it was really weird to see how deserted it can be in the off season.

 This layout comes from the new Bo Bunny winter collection. I really liked the grey paper with the pops of blue. My silly bright coat makes it hard to pick paper that goes well. I'm still into the chevron trend, and spend way too much time cutting up all these little strips.

 

 I gave my Cricut a good workout on this page. I changed the blade as I decided to put it up on Craigslist. I forgot the nice cuts it makes with a clean blade in. So I had a bunch of fun snowflakes. The snowflake in the top left corner was a big mess. First I did modeling paste, but that didn't work out so well, even with the mist. So I cut another one, misted it, and placed it in the groves. The original plan didn't look like anything besides a mess.

 My thicker stash is low, and I am trying to cut back on my spending. It always works to cut letters and put your own fake stitching on there.

We woke up to snow the other day, and it was really exciting. Now three days later and its just plain cold. I'm already over this cold stuff.

But we had a pretty sunrise recently-

Colors of Fall

It wouldn't be fall if I didn't share the pictures of the turning leaves in Door County. My dad and I drove up with weekend after Atlanta, realizing it would probably be the last chance we had. We had a fun father daughter day.

Beautiful farm field (taken through the window as we were driving)

Another car shot. Too many beautiful leaves

Minions at the grocery store

Taking a bike ride. Turns out I was biking on my bum foot with bad tires

On our favorite bluff

Looking over Ephriam. If you look at the top of the picture you can see Lake Michigan on the horizon

These DC pictures will have to hold everyone over until I get back to scrapping. I'm looking forward to the Deer Widow Crop at my LSS this weekend!

Fall Blog Hop

Thanks for coming along today on our Fall Blog Hop.  You should have made it here from Amanda's blog.

My page is from the Newport Resort in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin. Every fall they do a cool pumpkin display on their front lawn. This year they did a fairy garden. We stay at this condo association regularly throughout the year.

 This was such a fun page for me to make. I didn't use any patterned paper on this page. The majority of the circles on the page are paint, stamped with a Dr. Pepper can.

 I also used a variety of stencils with modeling paste and mists to make dimensional circles as well.

 I have a love hate relationship with my Cricut. I love how people weld on their Silhouette's, so I've been doing it with my Gypsy. So I cut my title with two different fonts.

Lastly I sewed some circles to add another medium to my pages. Mixed media is one of my favorite things to do on my scrapbook pages. The colors on this page were so much fun!

The display was so much fun to check out and photograph this year:

Here are some pictures at Newport through the past few years.

2013

2011: Apple Patch

2010: Charlie Brown

Your next stop on the blog hop is Robyn:


Here are all the participants in order:

Mandi - mjskraze.blogspot.com/ Amanda - www.lovejoypaper.com
Megan -  creativitybymeg.blogspot.com/ 
Robyn- cozienookhomestead.wordpress.com 
Devra - www.mycreativeview.blogspot.com/
Laurie -  tulip-scrapper.blogspot.com/
Cassie - allsmilesandsunshine.blogspot.com/
Christy - myscrapbookevolution.blogspot.com/

Atlanta Trip

As I promised, some pictures from our travels this fall. At the start of October our family traveled to Atlanta for a wedding. I flew down myself, my parents drove, and my sister flew in to meet us as well. I was there for 60 hours. I didn't want to use both of my personal days 5 weeks into the school year, so I made the most of my time there.

Highlights of the trip were the Botanical Gardens, Coke World, Centennial Fountains, and of course the wedding.

The Living Goddess at the Botanical Gardens

Another living creature-all from live plants

Super colorful pond

Night shot

We loved the fountain at our hotel

The Wonderful World of Coca Cola was pretty interesting. I've done the Coke Rotunda at Disney, but this was better

Selfie in the mirror

Centennial Fountains

The wedding venue

Atlanta was such a cool place to visit. I definitely would like to go back again. Getting around town couldn't have been easier. So much to do, we ran out of time.

Easter 2013

 One of the best things about having a big family is the celebrations These pictures were taken on Easter of 2013. All the cousins who were in attendance tried to take a picture. There are two little boys hiding under a table instead of getting in the shot. Either way its a nice picture of our family.

The paper line I used is from Echo Park. It was part of one of their mini lines. It was perfect for me since I only decided to scrap on picture from this day. I had a bunch of the egg hunt, but they weren't anything great. But this paper was fun to play with. I made the ruffled ribbon myself. I just run a hand stitch right down the middle of a ribbon, and bunched it up when I was ready. This is one of my favorite new techniques. Plus you can personalize it to your page, and it's way cheaper than most of the pre-made ruffles on the market.

 

 I'm still in love with my cuttlebug. I really enjoy adding different textures to my pages, and I am becoming more comfortable with inking things to make them fit the page better. I'm still trying to figure out these cute journalling cards. I'm not doing any type of Project Life right now. I like using a card or two here and there, but I always have a bunch left over. They are very fun to have a distinct journalling space.

And once again I enjoy taking stickers and making them into banners. I'm thinking it might be time for some new twine before I start my December Daily. Next weekend is our Fall Blog Hop. Check back next weekend for a variety of fall inspired projects.