*RAK* Journal Winner

...and the winner is nicole!



nicole, please send me your email. i will send this journal off to you as soon as i can get to the post office.

ladies, thank you for participating. i'll be trying to do a RAK every other month or so. in any event, please stop by the blog anytime! =)

tagged.

alrighty then...this was a bit delayed...the family got sick after the weekend activities and we're just starting to recover from a wicked case of the stomach bug...

i was tagged by jillian to list 6 weird or quirky things about myself. i actually had to enlist my husband's help, because i couldn't think of 6. {and, here i was thinking i wasn't so weird...}.

1. {according to hubs} i refuse to answer questions by giving an answer not related to the question. {please keep in mind, he's an attorney - so, he's always thinking along the lines of "yes/no", and, in my mind, things aren't always so black & white...and i disagree with his opinion - sort of}.

2. {also according to hubs} i incessantly apologize for things that don't warrant an apology; but, i don't apologize for things that should receive an apology. {and, i feel like i'm always apologizing, warranted or not}.



3. i eat fast food french fries are with a non-ketchup condiment. {e.g. mcdonald's french fries must be dipped in sweet and sour sauce; wendy's french fries must be accompanied by bbq sauce. if we travel long distances on the road, we'll hit either of these places - mostly the latter of the two...so, if you're wondering what i get at BK...the answer is, "i don't visit BK". ::smile:: and for the record, in & out burger is the best!}.

4. i love ketchup. french fries {at home or in restaurants} and other foods generally serve as a vehicle to consume ketchup. i don't know why i like it so much and i don't have it often. which may explain why i feel the need to make up for "lost" ketchup consumption. =)

5. {according to hubs} i don't mind vacuuming or dusting {well, the jury's still out on dusting...}, but i can't stand washing the kitchen floor. i don't know why - it's just not a preferable house chore.

6. i can't stand sink clutter, so i don't like to leave dishes in the sink.

i don't know a ton of people with blogs, so i feel the need to tag some people who threw their hat into the RAK ring from Tuesday's post, and some other PI folks. I hope you ladies will take a minute and list out some of your quirks! So, Cathy, Celeste and Susannah - you ladies have been tagged!

on a completely unrelated note, i'll be posting the chandelier journal RAK winner sometime tomorrow. i also hope to post another layout later this week.

thanks for stopping by! =)

love & adore

okay, okay...so, here is my newest layout, using the picture i mentioned in a post earlier this week.

my layouts are really simple at this point. i'm working on mixing more paper, but i find i like really simple and clean looking layouts, in general. it's freestyle and it's the one i always keep coming back to. maybe that'll change. i'm really a newbie with PSE, so if anyone can give me any pointers to where to take pictures of your layouts and against what kind of backdrop to get better results, i'd appreciate the tip{s}.

so, here it is...



most of the materials are from the PI january kit...minus the cardstock layering the gold ric rac and the fibers i threaded through the stamp {which are from basic grey's blush line...love basic grey...}. journaling reads, "i love and adore your wide-eyed expressions - it's the look of pure sweetness. love, mommy. amelia ~ 9 months. may 2006."

funny, when i first saw this paper in the store, i knew i wanted to exacto out some of these awesome branches...and then it was in january's PI kit!

well, it's my first posted layout. might not seem like a major accomplishment, but it's a big one to me...especially, since i don't have a ton of fancy equipment at home.

thanks for looking. =)

i'll be posting 6 quirky & weird things about me later...

frigid.

i just went outside to get the mail and almost froze my tookus off. holy moly! it's about 23 degrees and really windy. i guess after walking around for the past month, marveling at the 60 degree temps and wondering aloud, "where is winter?", it's finally here.

so happy that i just finished the last bit of wallpapering that will not require the legerdemain of an exacto-knife. which leaves the bottom portion of wallpaper and the wallpaper surrounding the central air controls. i'm hoping that hubs will help with that tomorrow.

okay, so what's with the crazy word and the link to webster's online? i was reading my friend, jillian's, blog and discovered that she, like me, is one for vocabulary and learning new words...this is just the thing i was made fun of for in middle and high school. so, i think i'm going to challenge myself to get back into this habit and work on adding to my vocab. i usually do much better with this when it involves words that have a tangible meaning to something in my life - or something i already know. we'll see how it goes.

i've also started to read more since the new year. something else that fell to the wayside...i used to always, ALWAYS read books...voraciously - one after the other. for some reason it stopped - and this is long before i had a child. i actually just finished a book entitled One True Thing by Anna Quindlen. it was such a well-written, loving, yet sad book. i will have to make a mental note to read more from this author.



hubby is always reading. just like his dad. reads books, reads the paper. always knows what's going on in current events. and, meanwhile, i'd just like to figure out how to tack on about 5 extra hours to my day. ::sigh:: i guess i do a fair bit of reading with my daughter, who just adores her books. so, does that count towards reading more?



well, i'm off. i started working on my new layout of amelia {see yesterday's post} and i'm stumped! i thought i knew where i was going and even sketched out the page. wouldn't you know it? i'm stuck! i exacto-knifed some flowers, branches and the little birdie from basic grey's cherish paper and positioned it around the photo...and now i'm running into creative issues. too hard to describe. i think one of my downfalls is that i don't enjoy the creative process of scrapbooking as much as i should. i hyper-scrutinize everything i do, partly because of the overwhelming talent i see everywhere. so, i really should just take a deep breath, and a step back, and lighten up a bit, right? let's see if it works...

i'll be back later and probably post tomorrow...we have a few things going on this weekend, which i'll talk about later. plus, i've been tagged by jillian to list 6 quirky things about myself. i'm actually going to enlist my husband's help - not that i can't list 6 by myself - but, it'll be more for his amusement and i'm sure to get a good wisecrack or two. =)

inspiration.

whew! what a day. not one of my daughter's best either. today she's been bratty and moody, which frightens me that it starts this young with little girls. hopefully, it'll blow over and she'll be back to her sweet self. we met a friend and her daughter for some browsing, shopping and lunch and survived the experience! i think we'll both be putting our feet up this afternoon.

i'm going to do a little scrapbooking after i post this. and i hope i have this picture on hand. this photo of amelia at 9 months will be my inspiration piece for my next layout:



i took a bajillion photos that day of her. the trouble is that i have all of those photos to scrap, and i would like to keep just this photo on one layout...all by itself. so, i have to think about how i want to compile some of those other photos.
looking at this picture, it's so hard to think of her in any way other than sweet. but, i guess we girls all have our days!

i found some other inspiring items for the home. these darling candlestick holders are my inspiration piece for possibly having pineapple accents to the dining room.



and now that the holidays are over, i'm on the hunt for a new decorative plaque for the front steps to the house. not sure if this will be too hidden with the holly shrubs nearby, but i thought it was cute.



our house has hardwood floors throughout, though some of it is still carpeted - like the family room and most of the upstairs bedrooms {ack! there's pink carpeting in our bedroom that i'm itching to tear up!}. i thought these rugs looked fresh and crisp...but i'm not ready to buy area rugs yet...



and, last, but not least, my favorite new accessory pieces:



i just think these vases are just so pretty. i could see them filled with shells, pinecones, etc.

well, enough daydreaming. off to do some work!

brrrrr...

well, this was the view outside of my house on monday morning...

of course, now it's wednesday and there are only tiny patches of snow hiding in the cool shadows...but still, it was a very, chilly and wintery greeting...once again reminding me that the warmer months are still far enough away. guess i should get around to taking the last holiday decoration down. i don't know why i haven't - probably because it's outside and i don't see it constantly. until i leave the house or pull up the drive.

amelia seemed nonplussed over the snow. she was much more intrigued with the glass pieces i have temporarily on the bay-window. she sprouted upward recently in a bit of a growth spurt and can reach more things. better move them out of her grasp.

of course, she flashed me an innocent, "ma, i PROMISE to be totally carefully with your crystal bowl" look.

i have all my cute valentine's decor up already. i don't have a lot of it and just started collecting some pretties this year. but, there are adorable, little felt hearts adorning some of the cabinets in the kitchen, a "sweetheart" of a welcome sign in the foyer and a budding, pink heart wreath perched above the bed in the master bedroom. i find i like to slowly acquire my decorations for the holidays…each new year brings with it a host of new decorations…eye-pleasing color combinations. i like my collection to be a mish-mosh of favorites, coordinated accordingly and placed in different areas of the house. it’s nice to look back and say, “i remember i got that the year…” and have some memories associated with that inanimate item.
in other news…dining room is coming along slowly. hubby pulled the chair-rail this weekend to expose the wallpaper underneath and i have taken those remains down. my husband’s eager handiwork left some nice gashes in the wall, but nothing that a little spackle and sanding can’t remedy.

there are a few tricky areas i have to tackle next, and they’ll probably have to wait until my husband’s around, which means mustering up some patience for either this weekend or next weekend {we have some family obligations this weekend, which may mean it gets put off….ho hum…}. we have to take down the control box to the central air and take down the wallpaper around that {weird, huh?}; and, we have to exacto-knife the second pattern of wallpaper that goes from where the chair-rail used to be {about mid-way on the wall}, down to the floor where there’s another chair-rail molding that runs along where the floor and wall meet. Since the wallpaper runs behind that molding as well {ugh}, the exacto-knife will be used to cut the wallpaper neatly along the rail since we’d like to keep that up and not tear it down. but, after that, i can run to the paint store for the fun part…getting the paint! more to come in the next few days...

*RAK* This Way...

hi & welcome to my little corner of the world...
this is my first, ever RAK. i stumbled across these at old navy the other day and thought they were super cute, especially after the chandelier hubbub that was taking place over at poppy ink in december.


very cute for jotting down your thoughts, making a laundry-list of stuff to do or for sketching out your next scrapbook layout...very compact, so it can fit in most purses or tote bags...sweet black & white plaid interior lining. And did i mention super cute?
i have one of these journals to give away...so, if you would like me to enter your name in my *RAK* drawing, please drop me a little note. {i like little notes and nice visitors}.
i hope to make continual improvements on my blog, making it a fun place to stop on by for a quick read or some inspiration. please feel free to drop by for a visit...whenever!
i will make the drawing announcement for, say, next tuesday? good luck!

out with the old...in with the...

new mantra for the new year. for me, the new year means the start of fun, new stuff by establishing some personal "challenges".
so, personal challenge #1: dining room makeover. we moved to our new home in july, 2006. it's a little over 30 years old and, while the former owners too good care of the place and made some updates, some updating still remains and - er - some of their updates are not our taste.
this applies to the pinky-peach floral dining room wallpaper. so, out with the old wallpaper scheme....in with something a little new...a little fresh. take down the chair rail. prime and paint the walls.
it's slowly coming along and i usually work on it an hour here and there when the kiddo is taking her nap.
i picked out the paint color already. "barley" by benjamin moore. i loved the fact that it was a feature color in the pottery barn mags during the fall and early winter seasons.

we are without a dining room set right now and it'll probably be another year or two until we buy the one we've already picked out {yay! one income joys!}. but, a girl can dream...and plan...so, i think i'd like to throw up some silk drapes on the windows... and i'd like to do pineapple or starfish accents.




i know the accents might sound bizzare, but i've started planning it in my head, and it's not {that} hideous.
my primary hope is that i like the color after it's up on the walls. we did a little sample swatch of this color...benjamin moore sells little jars that you can test the color prior to buying loads of paint. i wish i were a little braver with color instead of always going with the subdued look. but, i will look to punch things up a bit with accent pieces. fortunately, this is a step-by-step process, which means: i still have plenty of time to plan. and, i'm only starting with the walls...



anyway...gotta run and take down some more wallpaper!

poppy ink's qotd {01.16.07}

Name: Nicole
Hometown: Flemington, NJ
Number of candles that appeared on your last birthday cake? 28
Married/Single/Partners/Other? Married
Children?: Yes. One.
Why did you start scrapbooking? Innocently enough, to compile my recipes in a fun and unique way - other than the card indexes used by my grandmother and mother. then i went to photos.
How long have you been scrapbooking/stamping/etc.? 6 years or so.
What is your favorite type of adhesive; ie, Tape runner, photo splits, mono adhesive or glue? seems i turn to mono adhesive for most things.
What size are your albums, 12x12, 8.5x11 or other? 12x12
Navy or Baby Blue? Red or Pink? navy & pink
Do you journal on all or most of your pages? in some way, shape or form......
How do you do most of your journaling, hand written or computer? a mix.
Do you use stickers or die cuts, or both? both.
Do you like to experiment or stick to what you know best? experiment. otherwise, i fear getting into a rut with scrapbooking - and it's too creative for that.
What type of lettering do you use for most of your titles, sticker letters, die letters or self lettering for titles? a mix of all these things, plus others.
What is your favorite embellishment? love ribbons, love buttons. i'm just starting to get into rub-ons. would like to try chipboard. and acrylic paint. ugh. the list goes on.
"Know the date..." or "What's the date? for your pics? sometimes i'm better at it then others. if i don't write it down, i tend to forget.
Do you redo a “bad page” or just “let it be”? redo.
What is your perfect scrapbooking atmosphere? (Quiet or music, snack or starve?) i just go with the moment. sometimes my husband watching the football game is my background noise.
Scrap for hours or scrap when you have a spare moment? spare moment.
What memorabilia do you include in your scrapbooks, if any?
i haven't been including a lot of memorabilia as of late.
What types of albums have you worked on or do you plan to do that you are excited about? i would like to work with a 7 gypsies notebook and do an altered project that involves the holidays. stay tuned......
What do you like best about scrapbooking? it's a creative outlet for me. on the flip side, i'm my own worst critic.
Have you done any swaps that you’d like to tell us about or do you plan to host any fun swaps in the future? i would LOVE to host a swap and stumbled across a great one on a fun-looking blog that i just may have to add to my fun & inspiring section...
Do you have a favorite product? why limit it to one? American Crafts, Close To My Heart, Basic Grey, KI Memories are just a couple of the many...
Do you have any helpful hints you’d like to share? i use tweezers to place my titles. it helps me be more precise with the alignment.
If someone gave you $100.00 to spend on scrapbooking, what would you buy? ha - where do i start?
What is the scrapbooking resource (book, magazine etc) that you repeatedly go back to for inspiration? some of my autumn leaves idea books. poppy ink. scrapbooking mags.
How much time per week do you spend at scrap sites (not shopping sites)? too much. i need to spend more of that time working on some of my projects - scrapbooking & non-scrapbooking.
What is your favorite scrapbook supply place? (It can be online, store or catalog). i go wherever i can find the product{s} i am looking for at that moment.
How would you best describe your scrapbooking style? freestyle. i am still developing my style and i hope to post some of my LO's to my blog soon....

august & everything after...

so, a little bit more about me and the reason behind the name of this blog {does there need to be a reason?}.
i'm still in my twenties, but some days i can't believe how i'm creeping closer and closer to the big 3-0. i guess i've built it up in my mind - i have no idea why.
the past few years have been a whirlwind to me. but, i feel like a huge mile-marker was established after the birth of our daughter last august. {hence..."august & everything after"...and here you might've been thinking i was a die-hard counting crows fan.}
i'm including a pic of me and my hubby. it's from our honeymoon in 2004. we went to napa and SF and spent 10 glorious days soaking up the ways and weather of the west coast. {as huge "foodies" and lovers of cooking, we proceeded to eat our way through the trip - hey if you can't work out like a fiend and drop the weight before the wedding, what's the point of a little self-indulgence for the big celebration afterwards?}. if it weren't so expensive and it didn't mean moving away from family, i'd seriously contemplate the move. well, it's not like the NE is that much less expensive, but you get the idea.
in this photo, we're standing outside the martini house in napa - er - st.helena. {i highly recommend the kobe beef burger and sitting outside under the lovely pomegranate trees, near the tiny coi pond}.
yikes! this feels like ages ago. we had such a great time then. but, august & everything after's been pretty unbelievable too.
hopefully, in the next couple of days i'll be able to put together some pics of my latest project, which involves renovating the dining room {tearing down wallpaper and chair-rail to get it all ready for a fresh coat of paint}. also, i hope to be announcing my first RAK by the end of the week. thanks for stopping by...

here goes.....

{hi, welcome & happy new year.}

geez. i have no idea where to begin. i am posting my very first blog "blip" after spending an hour tearing wallpaper down in my dining room. i am now enjoying the little bit of "down time" i have left be for my daughter wakes up from her much needed afternoon nap.
so, why did i start my blog?
this is a question i have been asking myself lately, as, by no means, do i have the time to kill and was eagerly looking for something else to do.
but.....i guess i am eagerly looking for ways to branch out in 2007.....creative ways.....
i started my new years with a new goal {oh, okay, resolution....} to complete one scrapbook page every 1-2 weeks and have been doing just that {haha, with only 2 weeks into the new year.....i'll pat myself on the back for lasting this long.......}.
seriously, i've been feeling a little left behind in the creative realm. i spent enough of 2006 poking around, visiting other blogs, seeing super-fantastic talent everywhere.....and i would actually like to be a part of it all.
so, i want to be more creative. that's my goal.....er......resolution for this year.
i'm getting off to a slow start, but i'm starting.....
...with renovating the dining room {and committing to a color i want to paint it}.
...with finishing a LO last weekend and starting plans for my next.
...and with posting my first blog.
not much, but a start.
see, i have this fear that my daughter will know more about computers and technology and have more digital where-with-all by the age of 10 then i will have now at 28. i marvel at how much people know in this area.
now that i've done a couple of little, creative things, i want to pick it up a bit. try photoshop. embellish. so, as i do these things and others, i'll be posting them and sharing...hoping i can inspire others like i've been inspired by so many...and hoping that a year later i can look back and say - "wow.....look what i can do now...."
{n}