Best Laid Plans

I had such great plans for blogging this month but time has slipped away from me. I have been working on my December Daily album but I am behind. Will share that soon!

Here is something I can share though, my layout for my Scrapbooking Techniques class that is on January 4th at Craft Fancy. It should be a fun one!

Out My Window

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am so thankful for my family and friends and all of you wonderful readers. I hope you all have a great day with family and friends!

December Daily 2011 - Foundation Pages

I can't believe that it is time for the December Daily album again! This will be my 4th year doing this project and I love it more each year. It's a great way to get into the magic of the holiday season. This year I am changing how I do things. I am leaving most of my pages blank, I am not even adding in numbers for most of the days, to keep things more free when I  add in my photos and whatever else I have for the day. I think this is part of the reason that I did not finish my album last year, it was too hard to change and I got bored with it.

Here is my cover page for this year. I used a piece of wood paper and cut it down to 5x7. I added some Fab Rips from Studio Calico around the outside and stitched a piece of fabric on the front. I stamped the December on a gold piece of paper and cut it out along with some other embellishments.

I have been checking out the foundation pages that Ali created for her album this year and I loved the stitched page protectors. Here is one of the few that I am still adding to the album.

Most of my pages are just card stock in white, red and green but I do have a few pages that I have added numbers too.

So that is the start of my album! I am really excited to get started, I have even been thinking about starting this weekend. I will try to be better this year about sharing my album in progress.

Are you working on a December Daily this year? I would love to see it if you are!

It is Beginning to Feel Like Christmas

They are putting up the decorations in the park outside my house and I have been busy working on cards for my classes. I have also been working on the foundation for my December Daily album that I will share with you all this week.

Today here is a look at the cards I am teaching today.

Are you getting ready for Christmas yet?

iPhone Photo Love

Just thought I would share some of my favorite iPhone photos from the past few months.

I got a little carried away taking photos of Cinderella's castle when we were waiting for the parade at Disney World in September.

Happy Monday!

Some Christmas Stamping

My Creative Stamping class is happening this Wednesday at Craft Fancy and I wanted to share some of the cards that we are making in class this month.

I am in love with this stamp set from Lawn Fawn!

The ornaments are so cute and fun to color!

For this last card I got a little carried away with my distress inks! I am thinking about doing a tutorial on the blog for this card later next week if anyone is interested.

Have a great weekend!

28 @ 28: Half Way Point!

Since today is my half birthday I thought it would be a good time to give an update on my 28 @ 28 project.  I have not done anything with the mini book yet, I need to get some photos printed out in the next few weeks. Once I do that I will share the book but here is my list and some of the things I have crossed off so far this year.


1. Go to Ireland
2. Run/walk 365 miles
3. Cook a meal for my family
4. Read 28 books - I have read about 15 so far
5. Open an Etsy shop
6. Run a 5K
7. Take an online class
8. Knit 3 sweaters
9. Design a knitting pattern - I have a pattern all worked out I just need to finish it
10. Visit friends in CA
11. See a concert with Shannon
12. Go to Seattle
13. Take a photo a day for a month
14. Send a friend a card just because
15. Volunteer
16. Donate something handmade
17. Try a new food
18. Journal once a week
19. Paint a picture
20. Take a dance class
21. Make cupcakes from scratch
22. Go snorkeling
23. Get a project published
24. Plan a fun weekend with friends
25. Set goals each month
26. Go to the zoo
27. Go to the beach
28. See a show on Broadway



So far, so good. I really need to work on the run/walk 365 miles goal, that one just fell through the cracks and I really need to get moving again. It's good to take a look at this list again and remind myself of a few of these items, even though I haven't done a lot of them I still think I can check off quite a few more before April. 


Time to set a few more goals and get a few more things checked off this list!

Scrapbooking Techniques Class this Week

I am super excited to be teaching another Scrapbooking Techniques class at Craft Fancy this week. I went with one Halloween layout and one Fall layout, both using the Night Fall collection from American Crafts.

I used some of my favorite Disneyland Halloween photos for this first layout that has an opening to reveal more photos and a spot for your journaling.

The fall layout is perfect for showing off all of your fall leaves or pumpkin patch photos!

This layout has a hidden spot for journaling and a fun technique to make the leaves.

If you are in the area I would love to have you join us in class!

What I have been making

Lately it seems all I have had time to make are things for my classes, which is totally fine but I have a stash of supplies at home that are begging to be used! I am hoping to get to make a few things for me tomorrow, but for now I want to share what I made for classes this month.

I taught a scrapbooking techniques class to two lovely ladies earlier this month and here is one of the layouts we made.

Next are some cards for my creative stamping class that is happening this Wednesday. This class is all about Halloween using the Lawn Fawn set Happy Haunting.

I will be back sometime this week to share pictures from Disney World and my mini album that I finished while on the trip.

Hope you have a great week!

October Knitting Like Crazy Knit Along

I am hosting a knit along over on the Knitting Like Crazy Ravelry group in the month of October and I would love to have you join in the fun! To join in all you need to do is pick on of Jen's great patterns that you want to knit and cast on with all of us on October 1st. Finish by October 31st and you can win some fun prizes!


Click here for more info on the Ravelry group and click here to check out all of Jen's patterns!


Jen has also so kindly offered 20% off all of her patterns in the Ravelry shop when you use the coupon code “octoberkal” at checkout! Coupon code will be good throughout the entire KAL!


Would love to have you all join in the fun! It's a great chance to get started on some holiday knitting!

Lollapalooza 2011 Recap!

My friend Shannon made the trip out again this year for Lollapalooza and it was a blast! Here are some of the highlights from that weekend.

One of the first groups we saw was Foster the People and it was a great way to kick off the weekend. They are one of my new favorite bands right now and they put on a great show. We were packed in with thousands of other people, dancing and singing along to Pumped Up Kicks.

Bright Eyes was another Friday highlight. We both fell in love with this band.

Then we had to make probably the biggest choice of the whole weekend, Coldplay or Muse. We chose Muse since we had both seen Coldplay several years ago and I think we made a good choice, Muse was amazing.

Saturday started out with Walk the Moon, it was my first time hearing them and I think I have a new favorite after that show. They were awesome. Then we saw another new favorite band Fitz & the Tantrums, it was one of the shows I had been looking forward to for weeks and they did not disappoint! Saturday was really low key which was nice, we didn't have to run all over the park to see the bands and we got to hang out in the shade most of the day. Saturday night ended with Eminem and he put on a great show.

Sunday was crazy. Lots of great bands early in the day, we saw Gold Motel, The Joy Formidable, Noah and the Whale, City and Colour, Flogging Molly and Portugal the Man. Right before we saw the Arctic Monkeys it started to rain. Not just a little bit of rain, but the kind of pouring rain where you get soaking wet and it turns the field where you are standing into a giant mud puddle! It only lasted about 20 minutes and then the bands started to play again.

We ended the weekend with the Foo Fighters. After the first 10-15 minutes of the show it started pouring rain again but the band just kept playing! Here is a video of them playing during the rain, it was amazing how much was hitting the stage.



It was a great way to end the weekend. On the walk out that night everyone said this was the epic moment of the weekend and I have to agree!

First Challenge at the Craft Fancy Blog!

The first challenge is up on the Craft Fancy blog right now and this week we are challenging you to use paint on a project. Here is the card that I made for the challenge this week!



Be sure to check out the blog for more details, you could win a $10 gift card to either spend in the store or our online shop, your choice!

This Month's Creative Stamping Class

This month's Creative Stamping class was today! This month has been super busy, as you can probably tell from my blogging absence. I promise some fun pictures this week!

Here are the cards we made in class today.

Thanks to April for the great photos!

Celebration Mini Book Class

After my trip last week I got right back into teaching this week with my Celebration Mini Book class at Craft Fancy. (If you missed out on the class yesterday, I am teaching it again on July 28th!)

This book was so much fun to create and I had a lot of fun with the ladies last night in class teaching it to them!

For the book I used pictures from my birthday this year in Dublin but it would be great to use for a child's birthday party mini book. The album also stands up so it would be fun to display on a special birthday each year!

I can't wait to teach this class again next month, if you are in the area I would love to see you there!

iPhone Photos from the Past Week

I got to spend the last week with friends out in Los Angeles celebrating a very special first birthday. Here are some photos from the week!
















Such a great week!