the moments in between

touring meredith / scrapbooks etc

on friday, becky novacek and i roadtripped to des moines to visit the bhg scrapbooks etc offices. that's the original meredith building above - built to house the first magazines about a hunderd years ago. it's now connected to another more modern building - things have expanded a little in all that time.

it was like the COOLEST creative field trip i've ever been on. as the day went on, i just got more and more amped up about paper + glue.

michelle rubin picked us up at the front desk and then proceeded to blow our minds with a tour of the buildings. there are a LOT of magazines headquartered there, including better homes and gardens, renovation style, traditional home, parents, family circle (etc etc etc). we saw where the test kitchens for BHG were - and there were some DIVINE smells in that hallway. we saw their show kitchen and test garden. but my absolute favorite part? the photography studio. it's huge, with little alcoves with sets in them everywhere. all this is surrounded by props galore - rooms filled with rolling pins and vases and plates and bowls arranged by color and furniture and just about anything you can think of. it was a little mind boggling!

up in the scrapbooks etc area, we got to see the august issue all mocked up. the pages are printed and hung on the wall for a final approval before it goes to press. it's a good issue. ;)

after getting to see all the inner workings and meets lots of the behind the scenes magicians, we headed out for lunch with some of the people behind SBE and the BHG creative collection pubs. it was a great chance to meet some amazing women. as if that wasn't good enough, michelle took us to two super cute stores - ephemera and domestica, before we headed back to the office. both places were filled with eye candy - i walked out with some cool arrow clips and a couple of prints.

we ended the day by meeting with the project life group they have in their office - they try to get together monthly to work on their albums. how cool is that to have a built in support group? i shared some ideas that will hopefully make PLing a little easier for them, and becky gave them some awesome photo tips. it was so inspiring to see how they're all coming at project life from their own angle, and it made me want to get home to work on my own book!

becky and i left feeling totally recharged creatively - and our day still wasn't over. we stopped at an amazing little vintage shop - rescued junk - on the way home. it's typically open one weekend a month, but we got an email earlier in the week that they'd also be open that friday. i did a lot of balancing "OMG I WANT" with practicality (the red lockers? a boy would totally lock another boy inside those), and came home with a new stool for my workspace and a cool fan. and a bit of an obsession about a piece that isn't pictured here. like, thought about it all weekend.

and guess what? it's going to be mine. =) i just heard back from the shop owner w/ the dimensions and it wwill work perfectly in my room. now to figure out the details of getting it from there to here. i.am.GIDDY.

there is so much about the day that i can't even put into words - it was just an amazing experience. an amazing place, amazing people, amazing energy - and an amazing road trip partner. ;) i think the positive energy from that day will carry me for a while!

happy monday! =)

a workspace peek

studio calico has a new feature on the blog - workspace wednesday. i love peeking into people's rooms, so i love that they've started showcasing them. a little look into my room went up yesterday - i'm sharing my new vintage storage pieces and how i store my current kit. you can see the post here.

happy thursday! it's not even lunchtime and i'm already thinking sam and i will have to find SOMEWHERE to go this afternoon or we'll drive each other nuts. here's to finding an adventure. =)

where i glue : 2011 edition

it's been over 2 years since i've shared photos of my room, so i thought it was time for an updated tour. =) this little room is under 8ftx10ft and holds my scrap + sewing stuff, as well as office + shipping supplies, some overflow kid art stuff, and a fair amount of sam's toys (he's still young enough that he'd rather be underfoot than upstairs in his room).  i would love nothing more than to pull everything out of here and paint the walls + woodwork and do a major purge on all fronts - but that is so far down the house to do list that i can't even imagine it happening.

we'll start on the right side of the archway from the dining room, where there's a little cart from the kitchen section at target that holds my sewing machine + fabric. and a yo-yo that needs a string. there are more sewing supplies in the closed portion of the shelf, as well as extra adhesive.

this used to be a closet - and now holds a zillion things. in front of the shelf is a box that holds stuff to donate, my misting box, and a frame and memo board that i need to hang (but first i need to re-do the stuff hanging on the wall currently. overwhelming, so it hasn't gotten done. i'm not good at walls).

the bottom shelf holds mailing stuff, more fabric supplies, a box of finished LOs & the plastic drawers have keepsakes.

the second shelf has a box of kid art (clay projects), cardstock that the boys can use, another box of finished LOs (ahem) & the baskets hold misc suppleis (transparencies, notebooks, watercolor paper, smash books with yet MORE finished LOs stacked on top & paperwork.

the third shelf has my project life supplies (first cube), keepsakes (second cube - working on sorting the stuff into the plastic drawers into these), and embellishments (third cube - bottom drawer is recentish 2peas purchases, middle drawer is SC countryside & state fair & coordinating stuff, top drawer is the latest SC release + coordinating items).

the 4th shelf has stamps (one of the aqua boxes - the other is empty), some project life supplies & mini albums (baskets), more misc embellishments in the 3 drawer cube, (bottom drawer is mostly labels and tags, middle drawer is SC elementary + coordinating items, top drawer is empty) and some misc supplies in the last one (paint, AC & JBS embellies, 2 empty drawers)

the 5th shelf holds photos from my film days.

these built in shelves were here when we moved in - the last owner had a lot of plants here, if i remember right.

the bottom shelves have kid stuff in the back corner (art supplies that are seldom used) & alphabets, last year's december daily supplies (ahem), punches and magazines in the baskets.

the middle shelf has a printers drawer filled with small stuff (i should probably sort through it since i don't know exactly what's in it), mistmistmist in an old coke crate, extra adhesive and stamps in the little suitcases. the cube holds buttons, small embellishments and some jenni bowlin stuff. and back in the corner is a plastic cube with office supplies - paper clips, printer paper, tape, that sort of thing.

the top shelves have paper & albums (obviously) - as well as our windows home server (hello, photo backups)

desk space!! these are kitchen islands from the line martha stewart did for kmart way back when. i love them.

i've got punches in an old printers tray under the desk - and in the card catalog drawers. the drawers of the desk hold random tools, embossing powder, ink, printer supplies and all sorts of random stuff. i have a row of flowerpots on my desk that hold scissors, adhesive, pens & pencils, paint brushes and my tiny attacher, as well as bowls that have leftover bits and washi tape. the tray + floral box hold my latest SC kit. my clear stamps are in a basket behind my laptop. the wall to the right of here has shelving with toys on it.

so. this is where i glue. it's a little too small and a little too cluttered and it could be prettier, but it works. =)

and on the scrapfront...

i took down the big fence that seperated most of my scrap storage from the rest of the playroom (you can see it in pics here) while it was wonderfully effective at keeping little hands out of my supplies, it was a hassle to get to most of my storage - AND it became a deposit spot for all sorts of junk. so, out it went.  and now the littlest is obsessed with pulling my stool over and stacking things on my desk. he's been fairly good about respecting my things, but i realized earlier that one of my studio calico bird stamps has gone missing..  and i'm pretty sure i know who lost it. (and speaking of studio calico & stamps, there will be a new pink slip list in the newsletter tonight...  and some of my faves are retiring. i'll have to give them a grand send off speech tomorrow, along with my june kit sneaks).

 

(supplies : chip letters - making memories, chip hearts & brads - american crafts, blue, red & yellow pp - october afternoon, gray overlay - hambly, hexagon, map, green floral, grey & "s" pp - studio calico, fabrips - studio calico, label stickers - studio calico & october afternoon, punches - fiskars, tiny attacher - tim holtz, journal lines stamp - studio calico, ink - pumice distress)

this page was up on the studio calico blog last week, along with a writeup on how i got from an inspiration piece to this finished project.  it was fun to take the time to think about how i work and break it down into steps - though it makes me realize that i have some odd work habits. ;)

this set of cards & matching envelopes went up on the fiskars site earlier this week. i'm trying to get back into the habit of making cards, and trying to remember that they don't have to be rocket science - a simple design can go a long way.

also -  one of my fave pages of me + the boys was featured over on the scrapbook & cards today blog last week, along with some other beautiful mother's day projects. i took an IOU on a mother's day pic this year - i didn't shower till right before we left for the ball field - i need it to stop raining so we can get a photo of me + the boys. =)

speaking of the rain....  while i have to say that i enjoyed the first couple nights of rained out baseball, i'm paying for it now.  because practices have been pushed back and rescheduled and now the next couple evenings are looking rather complicated. i'm off to ponder when and what we're going to have for dinner tonight..  happy thursday!

ps : lorie just posted that there are more knick knack add-ons from may available - they found a box that didn't get sold.  this was my fave add-one - love that cloud stamp, love the color scheme, and those felt stars are too cool!  check it out if you missed it the first time. =)

starting my 35th year on the right foot

(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!

where i glue

i recently cleaned my room...  and thought i'd better commerate the occasion by taking a few pics. my room has changed a LOT since i last did any pictures of it.  my room started life as a front porch, but it was enclosed in the 80s. it is about 8x10 and attaches to our dining room with a wide arch, so i have no door to close to make my mess disappear. ;)  it also serves as a playroom for sam - our house is old and small, so everything does double duty.  this is the view looking in from the dining room.  the window looks out to the front yard.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, desk space. it's amazing how quickly i can fill this up. in the drawers (going from the left) are buckets w/ new & fave embellishments, misc extra adhesive and cutting tools, ink, and printer supplies. there's a card catalog and printer's tray on the far right that are my storage, the rest is sam's (plan garage + baskets of toys)

the card catalog holds punches, the printers tray holds stamps. 

the left side of the desk.  i love the pots.  they hold pens, tools, adhesives, scissors..  all of stuff i grab on a regular basis.  just to the right you can see one of three little bowls from anthro - they hold erasers, baker's twine, and jewelry. i tend to start and end the day in here so it ends up being a good place to take off / put on necklaces. i have some of my big hero stamps lined up along the windowsill behind my desk.  love having them where i can grab them.

moving to the right along the back of my desks...  slice storage + a bowl of fave stamps.

and then an amy butler tote w/ my clear stamps in making memories storage folders.  love having them all out.

this is the right side of the room. kid art and etsy prints that are waiting for frames on the wall.  sometimes i hang recent pages here. the shelves are 90% toys - mostly sam's, plus alex and ben's imaginext sets - they're on the cusp of outgrowing those.  sam likes to hang out on the monster bean bag and watch videos on the ipod while i work. he also likes to hide in the corner where the light is.

i use a smidge of the shelves along the right wall - the basket holds new kits & goodies, the metal containers hold american crafts ribbon, and the making memories organizer has photos in the front, little alphas & tab stickers in the middle, and jenni bowlin goodies in the back. 

the left side of the room.  hello, storage!!  the gate keeps sam out of my stuff - for now, at least.

this is directly to the left of my desk. the shelves were here when we moved in. the top one holds idea books and albums.  the middle is paper (that really needs to be organized and purged!) and our windows home server (LOVE this thing) + battery backup. the sterilite drawers on the bottom shelf holds office supplies, the target drawers hold american crafts embellies, heidi grace embellies, and buttons.  there are ikea strips along either side w/ tins that hold small embellishments and brads.

the printer's type drawer holds more ac embellies, the coke crate holds paint and mist, and the muffin tin holds small odds and ends that have no other home.  the suitcases have adhesive refills, and um, i can't remember what's in the bottom one. 

this was a cabinet when we moved in, we took the doors off.  it's under the shelves in the last picture. one side has 2 wire baskets holding misc alpha stickers arranged by color, 1 holding more fiskars punches, and another holding fiskars stamps.  the right side of the cabinet has kid art stuff.

this was a closet.  we took off the doors and pulled out the shelves that were built in and moved in a BIG wire shelf.  LOVE IT.  it holds soooooooooooooooo much. starting on the bottom shel L-R, there are misc sewing supplies (batting & stuffing), mailing supplies, and heidi grace embellishments. the next shelf has a box of school paper, vintage book and musc papers, the martha boxes hold more stamps, then some misc cheap cardstock. the sterilite drawers have a mix of embellishments by type & company - the bottom drawer is KI & love elsie, the middle is making memories, and the top is mixed chipboard. going up a shelf the entire left side is kits that really need to be used, then the drawers are more mixed embellishments - one is tags and journaling spots, one is jenni bowlin, and i can't for the life of me remember what the third is. my old scanner is on top of that.  then there's pp from all of the old fiskars consumables lines.  the drawers on the next shelf up are mostly memorabelia and paperwork, but there's a few other things mixed in.  heidi swapp stuff & embossing powder, off the top of my head.  the target drawers hold heidi grace & c9 embellishments.  2 of the wire baskets hold fiskars tools, and one holds mini albums.  the red photo boxes have finished cards and minis in them.  and the very top shelf is film photos.

and just to the left of that, directly behind my desk, is my sewing machine on a little cart.  it's behind the big gate but i usually just angle it and use it without climbing back there. the shelves hold ribbon.  i have too much ribbon.  inside the doors are ac rubons.  i have too many of those, too.  the letterpress letters spell out "glue" and the "T" is from anthropologie.

the bottom of the cart is fabric storage.  the bottom basket is big pieces and the top one is scraps and fat quarters.  the bucket holds sewing tools.

so that's where all the fun happens.  if you have ?s about anything, just comment. =)  this room has been put together bit by bit over the nearly 5 years we've been in this house and finally really works for me.  i'd like to eventually get a different rug and new curtains, but i have no clue when that will actually happen - there are too many other things we need to do around the house!

if i'm going to scrap tomorrow..

...then i'd better deal with THIS today.  sigh.

the dentist went fairly well yesterday.  just some major, heart wrenching sobs.  he did really well until they did the flouride stuff that you can't rinse off.  our dentist is fabulous about working with him and made a note in his chart to skip that to the *very* end next time, and to try a different kind of stuff that has a taste / texture that might be a bit easier for alex to handle.

ben's ball game was rained out this morning - the extra time was nice, but we were supposed to play denise's son's team, so that would have been fun.  ah well.

the boys are out running errands, so i'd better see what i can do about that mess while they're gone.  i did find a bit of the floor earlier, so there might be hope. ;)

swinging & other miscellany

two days ago:

today:

loving the new spring like weather.  we've spent quite a bit of time outside this week.  alex has finally mastered the fine art of STOPPING his bike, and is running about 50/50 on getting it started by himself. his determination today was something else.  he was frustrated to the point of tears more than once, but kept getting back on the bike and trying again. the mama pride level was pretty high as i watched him get the hang of it. =)

   

ben has conquered many made up supervillians.  his alter-ego, king s, is quite the superhero.  he's king of snakeland, where he previous alter-ego, snakeman, resides.  gotta love little boy imagination. =)

matthew starts his work golf league tomorrow, AND he has to go to denver for work in may....  which means i get to go to chicago for cha-s. YAY.

in the last 12 days, i've done 3 sewing projects, 5 layouts, an 18x24 canvas, 4 cards, a tag, and 2 small projects.  whew. i need to clean.  this was taken this weekend, after which i cleaned.  and then made a new mess.  so now i need to clean again.  here's a couple that i can share:

this is from the april studio calico kit + some heidi grace daydream believer.  i am so bad about buying kits and not using them, so i was happy to actually DO something with one!  and i'm so happy to get these pics scrapped, i've had this page idea in my head forever - the pics are 18+ months old!

oops - sorry, can't share this one anymore. ;)

heidi grace daydream believer + hero arts stamps.  i got the idea for the card and really wanted to use my maya road chipboard trees. could i find them?  nope.  so i improvised.  love the new little sparkle clears sets from hero arts.  cute stamps + bling = happy.

it's supposed to rain tomorrow.  boo.  maybe i'll get my photo a day blog caught up.  i'm behind on editing and posting.  again.

habits

*good

i've been actually cleaning my desk between projects.  shocking.  it's amazing how much easier it is to work when you're not digging for all of your tools.  LOL.

also.  someone asked me about my desk - it's a kitchen island from martha stewart's kmart line.  details here.  love it.

*bad

those are stacks of completed layouts on top of those baskets (also martha, also kmart - LOL).  i should put them into albums.

it's rainy.
there are stuffy noses everywhere.
fedex just came and i have to go get scrappity.
happy thursday. =)

ps: no steps yet. =)

my fortress of solitude

i tore the scrap / playroom apart right after the new year, so that we could create a sam-proof area on one side to hold all of my stuff and the lego / knex type big boy toys.

and now, at the end of march, my side of the room is finally put together.  there's still some random rearranging / purging that needs to happen, but isn't there always??  my desk is nearly clean (aside from a new pottery barn catalog and a 2peas order that came today). i'm dying to get in there and make it a mess again, but the busy level for this weekend is way too high.  we're having a brief moment of quiet while sam takes a nap, and then sam, ben and daddy are going out to get alex a bday present, and i get to clean some more.  WHEE!  later we need to paint eggs.  and tomorrow we're busy w/ easter stuff.

update re: my last post:
the shoes came and are super cute.  and i ended up ordering the granite carseat, after going back and forth many times.  and i will definitely be checking out all of the skirt ideas - thanks!