a beautiful work

So I still remember packing Belle’s tiny backpack when she started Mother’s Day out once a week.  She was 3 and was a little reluctant to meet new friends.  It was so hard to say good bye to her but I knew it was for the best.  She needed to meet new friends, become a tiny bit independent from Mommy, and learn how to follow school rules.  It took her about a month to get into the swing of things and she loved it.

I think about this every time I get her ready for a new school year.  I remember her little Dora the Explorer Backpack, packing an extra outfit & pull ups, making sure her stuffed Rabbit “Ham” was safely inside just in case.  Now I make sure she has lunch money, tissues, chapstick, and a small note wishing her a great day.  Soon we will have to worry about homework and permission slips making it to school. I used to make sure she had easy on pants and velcro shoes.  Now I have to make sure she has clothes that scream, “passion for fashion”.   Kind of sad but great at the same time.  Wonderful to see how far she has come from the shy toddler to the big kid who LOVES to socialize and learn.

Here’s to the first day of school and all the mommy’s out there who still want to cry a little seeing them go…

Super Quick Layout using Two Peas in A Bucket Digital Kit.

Download it here for FREE:  Shannon Freeman’s Back 2 School

I traditionally make Belle a backpack tag with a theme that she chooses.  Of course this year was Hannah Montana.  I think everyone has seen these cool packaging tags but this one was made with a KI Ice Candy Package,  K & Company papers, KI Ice Candy, Random Rose Beads.  The Hannah Montana sticker is one from the sticker machines outside grocery stores.  She loves it!

and just for nostalgia, Belle’s Dora Backpack Tag posted at Two Peas

Hope everyone enjoys the first day of school!

will be back soon

now you know, xoxo m

edited to add: i didn’t NOT buy any of these because I didn’t think they were super cute… the usual happened when shopping with belle.  I shop the 30-40 dollar range and belle shops the 100+ dollar range.  Most of these shoes are over a 100.  lol  I wish I could buy them all for her.

so school is around the corner. i don’t really have to worry about buying school clothes since grandma sent a giant box to the house yesterday from belle’s wish list. awesome. thanks mom!

so i think i will splurge a little and buy her a super cute first day of school outfit and go ahead and buy her outfit for school pictures complete with matching shoes. we did o.k. at first. quick choosing at gap.com then i made two mistakes.

one: going to zappos.com

two: forgetting that belle is related to courtney and in some strange twist of fate inherited her passion for fashion and love of shoes…

here are a few she picked out…

needless to say none of these shoes will be gracing the school catwalk. i was going to buy the second pair… the little patterned mary janes until i realized they have a skull and cross bones on them to which belle replied, “i know! isn’t it great!” oh and yes, one of those is a pair of roberto cavalli’s. pray for me.

a few things I am obsessed with at the moment…

Inchies… I am pretty sure these are a british scrapbooking thing and they are soooo addictive and challenging. They are one inch by one inch with no cheating allowed. I am swapping with some really talented ladies and I can’t wait to make a really cool framed collage for my scrap room. I have some 6×6 shadow box frames just waiting for them.

I am a hoarder of pattern paper and my hoarding paid off when I began making these. I have had a piece of 12×12 K&Company collage paper for 4 years that looks like this and it was the perfect paper to cut apart and use. I also had been hoarding some french inspired stamps from Vive La France that I got in New Orleans about 8 years ago. Made me happy to finally use and create. You might be able to find this paper on ebay it is from the Life’s Journey line from a zillion years ago.

chipboard buttons… and corrugated cardstock buttons… a great reason to keep your cup sleeves from starbucks. just stick those sleeves in your circle punch and make some! so much fun to make and swap. i make them while i am on the phone. (yeah, that’s the sound you have been hearing in the background)

snapshots of my favorite girls… i am seriously blessed to have such beautiful nieces and a beautiful daughter. they are just my favorite things in the whole world. i have 3 photos of them that i look at almost every day cause i love them so much. i swiped one off courtney’s blog of cadence who is the sweetest, happiest most beautiful little baby doll in the whole world. we miss you!!

i took this photo of my niece ireland over 4th of july weekend. she is soo full of life and fun and just gorgeous. i feel sorry for my brother when she is a teenager. i mean what a blonde cutie and those blue eyes are too die for beautiful. so happy i got this shot of her. she is sometimes too quick to catch in a photograph. she is always a busy honey bee. and she does an amazing impression of ralphie from “A Christmas Story” when he gets his secret decoder ring in the mail. She also has a baby doll she named “Pita Chips“. awesome!

and i just refound this photo of belle that shantay had taken last year. i am in love right now with her messy hair and pink cheeks. i love this girl!

perfect portrait dresses: so belle will turn 6 soon… i am sad at how quickly she is growing up. i am obsessed right now with this dress for her 6 year portrait. i am going to need some help from aunt courtney to get her to wear it. i am sure she would like to wear hot pink boots and a sequin belt with dangly hoop earrings and a rock n roll t shirt but there are teenage years for that until then it won’t hurt her to wear a pretty dress in her portrait. of course the dress is ralph lauren because my world revolves around…

the description says “Stylish wrap dress in crisp cotton poplin, woven in a tonal variegated stripe for a haberdashery-inspired look.” I mean couldn’t you just live off that description. I’ve been going around for days repeating, “haberdashery-inspired look”. It just rolls off the tongue… but you know what else does… “ring ring ring ring– banana phone– banana phone“

til next time

ciao bella!

allow me to make your acquaintance with alexi murdoch. we are “involved” now. just to let you know.

Watch Here.

So the glue stick is back! Whenever I start scrapbooking after a mini vacation from it, I usually start by making a tag or a card just to get the creativity flowing. So I don’t know if big things are on the way or what but I totally made this GIANT tag. And when I say GIANT I mean GIGANTIC! It measures 7×12 inches. It is going to look pretty cool in my American Crafts binder. I know that most of you know that I scrapbook this way. I just cut my page protector down and got out the cropodile and made my own custom protector for it. If anyone wants step by step on how to do this I can post some pics here. Just send me an email. And those are some old school Christina Cole stickers on it… sweet! You know I don’t believe in old products… just don’t. I prefer to think of them as vintage. I found this wonderful 5×7 of Belle crafting wearing her favorite Snow White dress… seemed the perfect photo for a creatively sized layout.

And no, I didn’t create all those chipboard buttons on the bottom. Well, I made a couple of them but most of them came from awesome scrappers at Scrap In Style. Tracy hostessed one of the cutest swaps I’ve ever been in. The tutorial for making all these adorable chipboard buttons is by Diane. You can find it here. Be warned though– they are addictive but a fabulous use for all your scraps. It was awesome to get all these sweet little pieces of art in the mail from some seriously talented scrappers. Thanks ladies! Here is a pic of the buttons all together.

I do have to apologize for the photos tonight. I still haven’t found the best lightening situation in my new scrap room but I am working it out. I have been crazy busy making stuff but a lot of it has been things I can’t show yet but I am trying to work on something for this blog every day so I can keep it updated. Thanks for the comments everyone has been leaving– they really make my day!

let us pause for a moment for a minute of salutes:

when your hair is wavy, thick but fine as cornsilks… I say Tresseme Ultra Fine Mist Hairspray– I salute yoU!!!! I may buy a case and hoard it in my closet.

To Beverly at Perfect Image Salon who understood my pain as I grew out one of the worst haircuts in my life and brought my angled chin length with side swiped bangs back to life. I salute you!!!!!

To my adorable sister in law Courtney who always look like she just stepped out of a salon and always knows the best place to buy a Chi– I salute you!!! I wish you could have seen the adorable look on your brothers face when he found out how much it cost! But he just bought a bike so Hooray for me!

now back to scrapbooking…

3 things…

this is duchess marie, although we rarely call her duchess. we mainly call her “kitten marie” “sassy cat” “little marita”. belle had left the door open to my craft room this morning and i found her, perched in the window watching the wind blow the grass. her little spot of heaven in my little spot of heaven. i hadn’t been in the craft room in a couple of weeks. i had forgotten all the treasures i had. all the treasures waiting…

this is jack kerouac. we used to be “involved” and i mean that in the most fictional sense imaginable. he once wrote Belief and Technique for Modern Prose, a list of 30 ideas that i had once kept on my college fridge. back when i was a writer. 3 of the rules were

1. Be in love with your life
2. Something that you feel will find its own form
3. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning

Here is poor Mr. Kerouac and his words on a scrapbooking blog… how terrible… would he be upset, too cool for this beat? Nah, probably not, he would probably be amused. I remembered these rules when I stumbled upon a youtube of Johnny Depp reading Kerouac. pretty fitting for this moment of time in my life.

this is michael stipe. lead singer for the band r.e.m. he wrote this song, Country Feedback, which is my favorite song of all time. i am fickle with it. i forget it is my favorite song of all time until i hear it then i realize that i don’t know if i want to live a life where this song does not exist. this song always reminds me of who i am. it played on my ipod the other night while i was reading. i remembered.

so i am back to work.

officially today.

this is me.
i am a busy bee
but i have time to wordle

i caught this cool tool while lurking the nsbr over @ 2peas.  It seems like it would be handy when you want to create cool text clouds for your layouts.  Before you even get out the stickers and rub ons you can check out millions of different variations.  i imagine all the blank spots filled with buttons, flowers, tiny embellishments, all the KI ice candy you have been hoarding then never used.  very cool indeed.  seriously though, I am warning you– I just lost like a 1/2 hour of my life over there.

til next time. peace.

oh yeah… i’m still on vacation… not a glue stick in sight.