Daddy's Girl....

Do you ever take a photo and then immediately know you have to scrap it right that minute??  Well I did just that yesterday!  I took this pic Monday, had it printed Tuesday night, and scrapped it on Wednesday.  Here it is:

Love, love my handsome husband with my beautiful daughter!! 

This layout was super fun and came together easily.    I used an add-on from Studio Calico's July kit, Elmwood, and I have to say, I am SO GLAD I rejoined a few months ago.  The kits have been so FULL of stuff and scrappy goodness.....and this kit especially, with it's bold, vibrant colors it really hits the spot with all of my summer pics. 

Well I must hop off the computer and get ready to take one kiddo to football practice and the others to the farmers market! 

Happy Thursday :-). 

Michelle

Splash!.....

Happy Monday!!  Today should by fun--both my oldest daughter and I have hair appointments.  I might possibly try something a little bolder than my blah hairstyle I am rocking right now. And for Maleia, a trim is on the agenda. It will be her first haircut so of course, I will be going camera in tow :-).

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I was very scrappy last week and this is somethiing I did:

 

Splash!  How fun is this page?!  This was actually done for a challenge at Studio Calico.  The task was to scraplift the featured layout of the week in the gallery.  You can see the original here.  Made this with the July Studio Calico kit which is FULL of fun colors AND denim alphas!!  So happy that I rejoined their kit club :-). 

The pic is one of my fave's from last month's trip to Las Vegas to visit my parents.  Leia was just a fish in the water--she had no fear at all!  And Hayden, as usual, could happily live inside a swimming pool.  So to get a shot capturing the happiness and joy in their faces was priceless.

Wishing you a fantastic day!

Michelle

Paper Posies Kit Club......& Harry Potter

I have been a member of Paper Posies' Kit Club since June of 2010--the year I really got into scrapbooking--and I have loved all of their kits.  I thought it would be fun to share two new layouts featuring this year's June Kit.

June's kit features Simple Stories and Basic Grey--two lines that work great together.  Each month Michele (Paper Posies' owner) matches products so perfectly.  Having more than just one line of paper really makes the kits versatile and gives me the variety that I like. 

Had fun putting these two layouts together.  The first documents good times with my family and the second, my daughter's first taste of ice cream. 

On another note, I have been in such a scrapping mood lately :-).  I am being crazy productive and am making a dent in my stash.  I am currently finishing up a project for a CHA challenge over at 2Peas that I am excited about.  (Okay, I am always excited about my projects--that's the truth.) 

On another more random note, I am sort of suffering from a mild depression at the moment that almost had me driving to Mc Donalds for some french fries.  Just finished re-reading the Harry Potter series yesterday and have been in such a funk since.  The books are just SO GOOD.  Honestly, I have read them many times, but each time I swear I learn something new or see something in a new light.  I think I am bummed that there will never be an eighth book.  :-(  Thank you J.K. Rowling for your amazing imagination and your crazy, wicked writing skills.  I guess I could read them again......

Thanks for letting me share.

Michelle

Gone Girl....

I read this for the Book Club at Studio Calico.....

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is the July selection (book club discussion starts on the 15th in the forum) and my first read for the club.  Was super excited to start Gone Girl; I had read good reviews on the book and I was not dissapointed....up to a point.  

The book is definitely a suspense and at first, the plot reads like a story ripped from the headlines (to quote Law & Order) before it takes a few, unexpected turns.  The twists, however surprising and welcomed, are where the book becomes flawed for me.   Without revealing the details, I did not like the character development of Amy (the girl who is "gone") and Nick, Amy's husband.    I really feel that the author made a mistep in the last third of the book. Both characters feel so disjointed from the first two-thirds of the book and the story, though purely a work of fiction, becomes too unreal for me. 

If you are looking for a thriller Gone Girl fits that mold.  But if you are looking for any sense of justice or closure you have to get it somewhere else. 

Michelle

The Language of Flowers...

While on vacation I read this....

After finishing the book, I was thinking about how I would describe it when I came upon this review in the book:

"A deftly powerful story of finding your way home, even after you've burned every bridge behind you.  The Language of Flowers took my heart apart, chapter by chapter, then reassembled the broken pieces in better working condition.  I loved this book."

--Jamie Ford, author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

This is seriously exactly how I felt after reading the book.  There are so many heart breaking moments in this book.  So heart breaking that at one point I did not think I could read any further, which is unusual for me.  I wanted so much to take the main character, Victoria, and fix the damage that had been done to her as a result of a LIFETIME spent in the foster care system. 

Another really interesting aspect of the book is learning about the language of flowers--yes, it is a language--from the Victorian era.  Victorians would communicate by giving people flowers based upon what ever message/feeling they wanted to share with someone. There are dictionaries catalogueing flowers and their meanings.  So seriously, beware next time you send flowers, you might not be sending the message you want. LOL.  And because I found this so intrigueing, I have a flower dictionary in my shopping cart at Barnes and Noble.....I am sort of a nerd like that!   

I think anyone who picked this book up would be a better person for reading it--I know I am.

Michelle

Stewart.....Back from Vacation

Good morning!  I have been back since Monday from a week long vacation in the Eastern Sierras and am just now logging in to blogger...I think the shock of the heat upon our return home has zapped all my energy. 

What I want to share today is a layout I finished prior to vacation and it is one that I love.  This layout has quickly shot up on my list of faves for several reasons.  First, it features my husband and he looks absolutely HAPPY in the photo.  Now he is a generally happy person, but to capture that on camera is hard.  He usually instantly freezes into Mr. Tough guy when he sees my camera, but this time I got him!  Second, and this sounds incredibly lame, but I figured out how to make little chevrons out of triangles.  Yes, it doesn't take much to thrill me! 

Finally, the whole layout resulted from a new little design process that I tried.....Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed with deciding what I want to do or try out on a layout.  I have ideas everywhere--written down, bookmarked, posted on Pinterest...So what I did this time, was I looked through some of it and made a short list of some techniques/design elements I wanted to incorporate.  The list looked like this:

1.  Big, bold burst of mist

2.  Use a big banner horizontally

3.  Layers

4.  Vertical paper strips on side edges.

5.  Journaling under photo-underline.

And here is the result:





So happy with the results!

Happy Scrapping!

Michelle

P.S.  Stewart is not the name of my husband, but the brand of his board!