the moments in between

sketchbook 4 winner + sneaks

i've got a little sneak peek of my sketchbook four layout. if you're on the fence about this class, i have to say that kelly's sketches are my FAVORITE. i love how open ended they are - they're not like some sketches that are really specific about what size photos you should use or where embellishments should go. they are just the perfect jumping off point for starting any page - and i have to say that the pages i've created for some of her past classes are among my all time favorites. plus, you get 38 sample layouts and a total of 60 sketches for $22. not a bad deal.

i used the april kit from studio calico, city of lights, along with some new take note and abroad - they coordinate beautifully! i also used some of my new gold stripe washi - i love the subtle glitz.

and now to announce my winner for a spot in this class....

meche - keep an eye on your inbox, i'll be emailing you soon! =) thank you to all who entered! and remember, sketchbook four registration closes on 3.31 - that's saturday!

and just a reminder - it's reveal day at studio calico!! the shop update and add-on presale are at noon EST, and the full reveal is at midnight EST. lots of fun new goodies will be in the shop at noon, including loads of new smash and the echo park this & that brads that i used on two of my pages. you'll be able to find all of the new shop items - including the new SC releases - right HERE. here's another little sneak at my pages :

happy tuesday!! alex had a fabulous birthday yesterday - thanks to everyone who sent him birthday wishes! we celebrated with dinner at 5 guys - his choice - and lots of time playing his new 3ds. ;) and that ends our birthday bonanza..  things will be a little low key until may. we need a break from cake. ;)

 

eleven

yep. today my sweet boy is eleven. i'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that. 

he got his nintendo 3ds. it took a lot of saving (he hasn't spent any of his allowance since christmas) + asking for gift cards for his birthday. he was thrilled to go to target and make the big purchase last night. SO proud of him for working towards it - he's definitely getting more responsible in his old age. ;)

our contribution to the 3ds fund was a very big box. filled with balloons. that had dollar bills in them. that was fun to watch. ;) thank you, pinterest, for the idea!!

happy happy birthday, alex! here's to another awesome year.

city of lights sneaks + sketchbook 4 giveaway

hello, paris in the spring time. i've got sneaks for studio calico's april kit, city of lights. i only did three layouts this month - we've had 2 birthdays, a weekend out of town and the boys on spring break in the time since i got the kit. needless to say, i've spent a bit more time making memories than recording them. 

(city of lights)

(city of lights + sorbonne + louvre + montmarte)

(city of lights + sorbonne + louvre + montmarte)

InLinkz.com

and on to the giveaway - i've got a spot in the new sketchbook class at studio calico! here's more info : 

Join Kelly Purkey in another installment of her popular Sketchbook class! Sketchbook 4 is a four week class filled with fresh sketches, easy instructions, beautiful examples, and lots of fun. This class is designed to be used at any time and over + over again when you need inspiration.

Sketchbook is different from any other sketch class out there because Kelly and the contributors offer design tips and detailed explanation of what makes a page work. It's more than sketches - they’ll deliver valuable pointers for creating great layouts.

By the end of the class, you'll have a complete sketchbook of 12 original sketches, 38 layouts, and an ADDITIONAL 38 sketches based on those creative pages. All the examples are brand new layouts, exclusive to this class... you won't see them anywhere else! You will be receiving an example layout from Kelly for each of the sketches, along with two example layouts from a Studio Calico Design Team member and some of your favorite SC Guest Designers.

just leave a comment to enter - i'll draw a winner on tuesday, march 27th. =) if you've already bought the class, SC will refund your fee. registration closes march 31st - you won't want to miss this one!

happy saturday! i'm recovering from a day at an indoor waterpark and then a sleepover with 3 extra boys. we're definitely sending spring break out with a bang. now on to thinking about alex's 11th birthday - on monday. march is NOT a dull month for us.

gardeners' digest // march

the gardeners' digest is a monthly blog hop from the garden girls at two peas in a bucket. we'll be sharing what we're working on, what's inspiring us, and some of our favorite products each month. i'm looking forward to getting a little peek into all of the other garden girls' brains! =)

i bought OA sasparilla with NO clue how i'd use it. my boys are all super heros and space, and not so much cowboy. but i came across some pics that were a perfect fit. =) it'll be up in the garden soon!

i've also had a couple of things go live recently - my 2012 : captured class for march, and a memory keeping monday video - in case you missed them and are interested in checking them out!

totally digging this - it was an email via anthropologie. i added it to the 2peas pinterest boards a while back and can't wait to use it as a jumping off piece for a project. i love the colors + texture, as well as the design.

oh. this.is.HARD this month. so much has come in to the store lately! here's my top 5 of what i'm waiting not so patiently for : 

InLinkz.com

1. light green chevron washi. there's a LOT of tape coming to me, to be honest. i may be addicted. i mean, it's not confetti..  but i DO like it a lot.

2. viewmaster pp. i might have ordered two sheets. i love fun images like this - perfect for this house full of BOYS.

3. instaframes. loved these at cha, and cannot wait to play with them!

4. boy boutique buttons. these are a little pricier than some other buttons, but worth it to me since i know i'll use every single button on the sheet. so many have designs that are too big or just not me - but these are all perfect.

5. calendar smash tape. this has project life written all over it. 

and since i keep talking about washi tape - here's a fun way to use it. i needed to wrap matthew's bday present last night. a few lengths of my favorite tapes over white paper = perfect!

happy thursday friends! it's time for me to send you on to your next stop -the fabulous wendy sue anderson!! here's the entire line up - or if you get lost along the way, you can stop by the new two peas blog at http://twopeasinabucket.typepad.com/! enjoy the hop!

becky novacek 
jaime warren 
kimber mcgray
lynn ghahary
laura craigie
amy heller
nancy damiano 
shimelle laine
jill sprott
amy tan 
jennifer gallacher 
wilna 
lisa truesdell 
wendy sue anderson 
shannon tidwell 
julie campbell

wordless wednesday : down and ready

2 days in KC

friday morning we dropped the boys off at school and then hit the road. we spent 2 days in kansas city, they spend 2 days being spoiled by their grandparents. we left with no real plan. we had a list of restaurants from dawn, and a list of art museums to visit, and that was it. 

on the drive down, i decided that i was going to find some thrift / antique stores. i did a lot of googling when i actually had good phone coverage (there's a lot of edge network between omaha and kansas city). i found a few that looked good, but only one was open while we were in town. but that one, the river market antique mall, was AWESOME. 4 stories of awesome. and odd. and what the heck. and more awesome. i would have happily bought EVERYTHING in the booth where we got the metal drawers below. there was an old lab table, maps, a super cool old school desk, a totally impractical lab stool. bliss.

1) sign bolted to the floor 2) drawers that would have come home w/ me if i could have thought of anywhere they could live 3) sign letters 4) brownie camera 5) GORGEOUS wood piece. HUGE. $462. still at the store 6) some of our treasures 7) old ampersand stamp 8) drawers. the middle set is now on my floor - soon to be rearranged into my space) 9) median sign for the bigs' room

we waited 45min in line at 3pm at oklahoma joe's. and just as dawn promised - TOTALLY worth it.

we wandered the aisles of propspero's books - totally prekids US.

we visited the nelson atkins museum. beautiful building, beautiful art.

we wandered around the plaza and did a little shopping (someone had gift cards + a birthday discount, after all).

we picked up cupcakes to take home to the boys.

we didn't have to remind anyone to be quiet in the hotel halls. and no one woke us up at 6:30. or earlier. all in all - an awesome trip. =)

happy tuesday! after a couple of weeks of sunshine + warm, we've got rain rain rain for spring break. honestly, i can't recall a spring break that WASN'T rainy. i guess we're in for a fair amount of popcorn + movies, video games and legos.

 

memory keeping monday : takeoff

monday, already??! matthew and i had a fabulous little getaway to KC - including spending a couple hours in a 4 story antique store. (i'll share more about that tomorrow!) and the boys were thouroughly spoiled by their grandparents. we got back saturday night and hit the giant THUD of back to reality on sunday - i spent the day working on this video, we did a LOT of laundry, and ben had his first baseball practice.

(takeoff // copyright www.twopeasinabucket.com)

monday, as usual, means another memory keeping monday from 2peas. and this week it's my turn again. i couldn't resist breaking into my new echo park this & that charming and october afternoon sasparilla goodies - they coordinate really well. you'll find more info on this page + a start to finish video here. this time, i shared a few thoughts on choosing photos for a page, and on stamping on your background. 

and for us, this monday means the start of spring break! we've had a good lazy morning, but someone is bugging me to go play catch - so i guess it's time to get moving. hope you have a great one!

 

a little huey love

in honor of mister huey being the steal over at scrapbook steals today, i thought i'd post a few mist-y pages. =)  now go forth and get inky!

happy happy friday! matthew and i are hitting the road today.. grandma's coming over for some quality boy time. we're looking forward to good food and uninterrupted sleep, they're anticipating pizza and movie time and pancakes. i think we'll all come out of this happy. =)

2012 : captured // march : project life week 9

(2012 : captured // march - copyright www.twopeasinabucket.com)

my 2012 : captured // march class went up today. this month the topics were digi journaling cards & adding other voices into your album. my two fabulous contributer this month were erica hernandez & joscelyne cutchens. you can see their pages here (erica) and here (joscelyne). they both aboslutely rocked their weeks and have SO much awesome info to share with all of you!!

week 9 : february 25th-march 2nd // origami yoda. painting the bathroom. trying out a two wheeler. sick ben. 

with this month's focus being on adding other voices, it was definitely in my thoughts as i took notes and photos this week. it's something that i let slide when i get busy, but everytime i come back to making sure to include quotes & kid written journaling, i'm glad i took the time.

i had a lot of fun finding new ways to personalize digi journaling cards.. i hope you'll stop over to the class to read more! 

InLinkz.com

happy happy thursday! yesterday i stopped being 35 and started being 36.... ;) i had a wonderful day celebrating w/ my boys. and now it's back to errands and trying not to catch a cold. the weather's too gorgeous to be stuffy and icky headed!

a day in the life - the mini

back on february 8th, i joined ali edwards and a zillionty other people and recorded a day in the life. and after going back and forth on what i wanted to do with the photos, i decided to go all in and put them in an amy tangerine daybook. to make sure i didn't procrastinate, i emailed jamie at 2peas and asked her if i could do the mini as one of my garden projects. she said yes - and just like that, iwas committed.

(one day // copyright www.twopeasinabucket.com)

here are a few of my favorite pages.. if you want to see all thirty of them, pop on over to 2peas. (you might want to grab a snack first) 

i started this book on a grey & rainy day. i made myself a little kit of supplies and parked it on the living room floor. sam watched a movie and did a little of his own crafting while i worked. i took a LOT of breaks to play. =) i finally decided that the easiest way to put it all together was in stages. i went page by page and attached photos and numbers. then i went through and added patterned paper. then i worked on the pages that backed one another and added final embellishments + stitching. and then, FINALLY, it was done. and totally worth it.

InLinkz.com

happy tuesday!! i can't believe how quickly it's turning into spring. the boys & our neighbors playing outside in t-shirts.  ben & matthew made a trip to the batting cages. open windows (and a kitty enjoying them). basketball brackets being filled out. even with a crazy mild winter, i'm still so ready for sunshine + warm.