(well, mostly. there was a minor debacle this morning involving my car keys and matthew's pockets. as in, that's where my keys were. and matthew, along with his pants (obviously!), was at work. on the other side of town. the school secretary laughed when i called to tell her alex and ben would be a smidge late since we had to walk to school)
i gave myself the best birthday present ever. i took the time to clean my office. CLEAN clean. deal with the piles. go through and pull stuff to donate so i actually have breathing room. see that aqua tray? totally an impulse purchase at target last week. it's the perfect size to hold all of my kit paper, with room at the end to put the scraps. $10 well spent. now the paper doesn't slowly creep and take over the desk, AND i can move it off my desk if need be.
okay, so it's not perfect. there's still a stack of finished pages and an envelope that needs to be mailed. but those layouts used to be stacked on the printer because there was a pile of random stuff where they're sitting now. a pile of random stuff that was a LOT taller than that pile of pages.
i even put labels on my mist bottles, so i don't have to pull them all out to find the right color.
i switched up some of my organization - hoping it makes it easy for me to remember and USE what i've got. i dedicated a whole drawer to little accents - gems, brads, pins, epoxy stickers. i reach for these a lot when i'm looking for something to finish a page, and i think having them all together will really help. i tend to just use plain brads or buttons because they're easy and right there next to me - so i think this will work. i also put all of my baby / little boy accents into one bucket instead of having them w/ each manufacturer. another good place for me to look when i need a finishing touch.
also - the boys got me this cute little clock for my birthday. now i'll actually know what time it is while i'm working!! i can't count how many times i've had to book it to pick the bigs up to school because i got absorbed while working while sam was taking a late nap.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaand - as promised, joyland sneaks. i am loving this kit. it has, i think, bumped bibliography down from the top spot on my favorite kit ever list. that, my friends, is huge. this kit just has a fun urban cool color scheme, and the SC exclusive paper is *awesome* - i think i'm going to need more. especially of that woodgrain / graph. hello, LOVE.
this page uses just the main kit. i really wasn't sure about those k&co frames when i saw the pic online, but when i opened them? they're really cool. they look like old photo frames. i think i'll be using a lot of them. i used turquoise mist on the background of this one.
this page uses the main kit + an alphabet from each of the add-ons that i got - skycoaster and whacky shack, as well as a "happy" stamp from skycoaster. i used blue raspberry mist on the chipboard & spiced marmalade for the stamp. oh, and a bit of lemon mist on the yellow letter stickers, just to make them a bit darker. by the time of reveal, alex will be nine. NINE. eeps. only 11 more days of eight!
this page uses skycoaster and whacky shack. i am loving the stamp set in whacky shack - it's a solid house shape with a matching outline. i stamped the solid shape with tumbled glass ink, and the outline with broken china. love how they look together!! the background is covered with tangerine mist.
i'll have more sneaks sometime next week - i am no where near done with this kit! =) oh, and don't forget to check out the sketchbook giveaway in the last post - it's open till wednesday morning. =) i'm off to get a bit of sewing done while sam naps, and then we're hitting target to check out the liberty of london goods. happy monday!
