the moments in between

puttering

i got some alone in the house time yesterday, and my first thought was that i would scrap. i mean, really - quiet house usually = scrappy time. but i just wasn't feeling it.  i ended up cleaning my desk, and taking care of a few odd piles around the house that i never seem to get the time to deal with. little things like that tend to weigh on my mind - every time i see them i just wish i had time to take care of them. it's nice to have them gone. and nice to have a clear desk.  once everything was put away i spent some time taking out my december studio calico kit and getting it ready to work with. it's going to be a fun one!!

 

i also finished up a tutorial for the studio calico blog - a how to on the titlework for this page that i made with the october kit.

 

the weather was gorgeous this weekend - so we spent lots of time outside.  i had to sneak in some photos of the adorable girl next door.  i can't believe she's 6 months old already!

 

my bigs and her brothers have decided that she and sam need to get married so that the 4 of them can be brothers.  hee.  that's just too cute.

 

and my first handcraft holidays project went up at fiskarscrafts - a super hero cape, belt and arm bands. this project has been popular around my house, and was really fairly easy to put together.

happy monday!! i've got a diet coke in hand and some ideas spinning around my head (thanks to this post on decor8 - inspiration galore!!)- here's to a productive start to the week. =)
 

pixie petals giveaway!

the sweet miss AesaLina from pixie petals sent me some of her beautiful crocheted flowers to play with - AND - she wants to sponsor a giveaway for my readers. how cool is that?  check out her shop - she not only has the flowers, she also has really fun tags made using vintage images, lace, and other bits and pieces.

 

this is the color set of flowers that i chose to work with.  love them.  more on the boy-ish side - i can't imagine why that appealed to me. ;)  the winner of the giveaway will get to pick one set of $4.99 flowers, and will get 2 belle blue tags.

 

here's what i made with mine :

 

i used studio calico's october kit - yearbook. i made this page for the sketch challenge on the sc blog - so it went together super fast.  i masked the right side of the page and sprayed the left side with cream mist, and then removed the mask and sprayed orange mist, aiming at the spot where i was planning on adding the photo. i added the envelope, and then stitched a rectangle around where the photo would go.  The photo was added using foam adhesive, and then i added the embellishments & title.  i love how the crocheted flowers look with this color scheme. 

SO.  now the important part. ;)  do you want to win the flowers and tags?  here's what you do.  leave a comment here. that will get you one entry.  if you blog or tweet about this giveaway, with a link back to this post (here's the url - http://gluestickgirl.typepad.com/moments/2009/11/pixie-petals-giveaway.html ) - you can leave another comment with a link showing me where you posted about it, and that will count as another entry for you.  sound good?  i'll leave this open till 2pm cst wednesday, and then draw a winner.  sound good? =)

and a bonus project - the girls at get sketchy - which is a card sketch blog - asked me to play along this week. i broke out my new home front goodies and some stamps from the november kit (and gray scrapper's floss - if you haven't picked up this color, you neeeeeeeeeed it for homefront) and made this :

 

they do a giveaway with each sketch, too - so go check it out. =) thanks, girls, for asking me to guest! 

have a great weekend!!!

ah, fall.

we live in an old part of town.  with lots. and lots. and lots. of old trees.

it has its benefits.

 

but there's a not-so-good side, too.

 

14 yard waste bags.  from the backyard.  which already has more leaves on it.  and we haven't touched the front yard.  and it's not like we're on a big lot, at all.  we're on a small mid city lot.  with a lot of trees on our block.  lol.

i've spent some time at my desk this week, looking out at those gorgeous leaves.  i've been finishing up a couple of christmas projects for fiskars, which will be up later this month.  while i wait for those to be live, i'll link you up to our november project a day - handcrafted holidays. loving the stuff that i've had a peek at!

i also made some blocks for a quilting bee that i'm doing with kelly, becca, susan, steph, and kelly's sister tami.  these are for kelly's quilt, and she wanted us to all do houses. this was a super fun little project, and i managed to learn a few things along the way. =)  

 

this was my first block.  i decided to go against my first instinct - which was to border the block w/ the linen - and uses the linen for the house, and set it on a crazy background.

 

and my second block, which i wanted to keep!!  there's a city house (hi-rise!) and a country house.  hee.  the space above the little house seemed too empty, so i added a stitched heart.

i'm off to clean my desk.  i had a happy, happy mail day today. i got a box containing the studio calico decemeber kit, AND the new home front line.  i've linked you to some images of the product on the blog, but here's another peek :

    

 

(it's even lovelier in person - so can't wait to work with this!!!)

happy thursday!

and now it's november

 

 

 

just a few favorite photos from our funfilled week / weekend. =) way more of sam than the bigs - they were too busy running around with friends!! the boys all had a blast on halloween. i stayed behind and manned the porch while the boys trekked around the neighborhood in search of candy. we had a big group this year - 7 kids, 3 toddlers, 3 dads and 2 mom. they stayed out for over and hour and came back with a *lot* of loot. we had a beautiful night - absolutely perfect weather for trick or treating. 

we had a quiet day yesterday - it was clear and warm again, and the boys spent almost all day outside. it was a nice way to work off all of that candy. ;) i'm glad to have the craziness of last week behind us and move on to a quieter week.  i'm starting today with a little desk cleaning, and then sam and i are meeting a friend for lunch.

 

i finished up this page last week - i had posted a pop dot challenge on the studio calico blog, and wanted to play along.  plus, i got to use a couple of elements (the car paper and that maya road ribbon) from the november kit that  i didn't get around to working with when i finished my projects for the gallery.

happy monday, all - here's to a good week. =)

marketplace

i loved this kit.  it was just warm and cozy and home-y.  perfect. both the main kit and two of the add-ons are still available. =) be sure to check out the whole design team gallery - there's oodles of inspiration there. =)

 

this project was made using just the bazaar add-on.  loved that alpha border, loved the sassafras alpha - seeing them together inspired this piece.  it will be perfect for sam's room.  i added some letters stamped with the carter alpha - i used spiced marmalade distress ink.  i added a bit of text with my typewriter and then filled in some of the awkward empty spaces with stars punched with a fiskars hand punch.

 

this was done with just the street fair add-on.  loved that hambly leaf transparency.  i printed these pics about 18 months ago and never got around to scrapping them.  they were taken 2 years ago - look how little sam is - and alex was the age that ben is now.  crazy.  i added three little birds cut from some cosmo cricket paper to the photos on the right - one bird for each boy. the pumpkins were stamped w/ stazon timber brown.

this page has been on my to do list for a long time, and when i saw the stamps in flea market, i *knew* it was time. i built the layout around the sassafras whimsies and then added 2x2 squares of other patterned paper to fill in some blank spots. i added my own machine stitching over the hambly rub-ons because i'm crazy like that. ;)  this page used mostly flea market, with little bits from bazaar and the main kit. the ink is ranger peeled paint. the flower up in the top left was sprayed with avocado mist.

 

this page was inspired by reyanna's recent house hunt - her posts got me thinking about a few house that didn't *quite* work for us.  while i love the house we ended up in, all of these houses had things about them that i loved. i blocked off the areas around the little houses with stitching and then used cream mist.

 

this is my favorite page.  i love the colors, i loev the photo, i love the message. it came together fairly easily and it just makes me happy when i look at it.  it was made using mostly the main kit and bazaar, with a smidge (the BG blue doily paper) from flea market).  LOVED these buttons. loved the patterns and colors of these papers together.  i used the ledger stamp from the main kit over the back of one of the studio calico papers, and added the alpha border from bazaar to the top - both using ranger shabby shutters ink.  the star border along the journaling was a happy accident - the paper i cut had been used to punch the stars for the framed alphabet piece, and i liked the look. i also used fiskars circle, scalloped circle & apron lace punches.

 

this last one is a work in progress.  matthew went to san francisco at the beginning of october for his cousin's wedding.  i pulled a handful of his pics and memorabelia to get this started, but there is still more to add!  i cut the wood veneer in half and punched holes for the binder rings with a fiskars hand punch.

 

 

 

 

i sized each of my pics to fit inside the album, and then backed each one with kraft cardstock.  i masked a circle on each piece of cardstock and sprayed them with mist (i used red, avocado, turquoise and silver) and then added some stitching, bits of patterned paper, and typing.  i have some brochures, the save the date for the wedding and part of the program, and some other little bits from his trip that still need to be added.

if you've got any questions about anything i did or products that i used, i'd love to answer them. =)  hope you all have a good wednesday!!

quickie

marketplace goes live tonight at midnight est over at studio calico.  the presale add-ons for subscribers and the shop items updated at noon est, so head over there to check it out if you haven't. =) i don't know if i'll make it to the chat tonight or not - we'll have to see how the evening unfolds around here.

 

i contributed to a holiday cards article over at fiskarscrafts - there are 3 different card sketches, and each sketch has 3 different cards to go with it. lots of good ideas if you're thinking of making your own cards. =)

and last, i didn't realize that this downloadable project went live a couple weeks ago.  i played around with a fun technique for using punches on my background paper.  step by step directions, with lots of pics, are here.

i'm currently trying to decide if sam is coming down with pinkeye, or has just irritated it somehow.  either way, we skipped gymboree and will be skipping the playground after school.  no fun, especially as the weather is gorgeous today! 

we're off to get the bigs - have a good tuesday! =)

pumpkin patching (sort of)

after a crazy busy week w/ another one in front of us, we decided to go the easy route to get pumpkins.  our fave little urban patch that's just a few blocks from home. =)

 

it's bordered by a 4 lane road and a cemetary, but hey.  it works. =)

 

the boys take their pumpkin choosing very seriously.

 

i love that little finger pointing.

 

debating the merits of this round one.

 

ben finally commits to one.

 

i lovelovelove this photo.  love.

 

and this one cracks me up.  they had a bowl of candy at the counter and told the kids they could have one.  sam couldn't reach, but wasn't about to be left out.  love that little hand reaching up.

so.  this week we have a halloween party, a bday party, a block party, and movie night at school. ben has a field trip today, alex has a school club tomorrow, and the bigs have swimming on saturday.  there are pumpkins to carve and there will be homework that needs to be done. i'm sitting w/ a diet coke and my calendar right now, trying to figure out when the errands and scrappy time will fit in, while still making sure sam gets a good nap and playtime everyday, and the bigs get some quality downtime w/ us.  eeps. i know it will work out, it always does, but seeing it on paper can be a little daunting.  here's to a productive week!

sneaks of two sorts

first :

 

halloween costumes!!  we have darth vader, boba fett, and the imperial monkey. who wouldn't wear the pants from his costume, but what can you do?

matthew's work had a halloween party today, so the boys got to do some pre-halloween trick or treating. some of the departments really go all out - one building has different groups that each have their own haunted cubicle rows, complete with voting on which one is best.  sam left with his treat bag so full it was dragging on the ground - and with the idea that he was going to eat it all TONIGHT.  he was a pretty cranky monkey when he got one piece after dinner.  they boys will be attending another halloween party at grandma's work next week, and then trick or treating in the neighborhood on halloween night - i suspect we'll have enough candy to last the next 5 years by the time we're done.

and second :

 

 

studio calico november sneaks. =) both of these use the main kit and the bazaar add-on, which was by *far* my fave of the three. and i liked the other 2 quite a bit, so that's saying a lot!.

***

thankfully, none of the rest of us caught what ben had - we made it through the week healthy. =) the bigs were off school today and yesterday.  they went to my grandma's yesterday afternoon while matthew and i went to conferences (and they both got glowing reports - so proud of them) - and then matthew joined them there for dinner.  i had volunteered, along with another mom, to get dinner for the teachers - they work 8a-8p on conference days, and only get a half hour for dinner - so i met them back at home later that evening.  today, ben went over to a friend's while alex, sam and i hit the library. i spent some time scrapping, they spent a lot of time playing - and we generally enjoyed the not having to go out into the rainy icky wet first thing in the morning.

no big plans this weekend - just lots of little ones.  pumpkin buying and carving, errand running, cleaning, laundry - and hopefully lots of outside time, these kiddos could use it.

some sneaks

(mostly the flea market add-on, with bits from marketplace and bazaar)

 

(just marketplace)

 

(just street fair)

 

yesterday and today have been absolutely gorgeous.  love getting the chance to open up the windows, and  hearing the rustling leaves and happy playing boys outside. the bigs and the neighbor boys spent the evening playing some crazy made up ball game with enough rules to rival calvin ball.

we were hoping to get some playground time after school, as it's beautiful again today - but ben's sick. =(  and from what the secretary said when i called this morning,  he's not the only kid out with an icky, croup-y cough. the bigs are off school thursday and friday, and i reeeeeeeeeeeally hope we're not all sick for it. heck, while i'm hoping for things, here's to ben waking up feeling well tomorrow and no one else getting it!

the winner of the sc kit is....

rhonda said...

Congratulations! Looking forward to all of your new creations! Living in New England, there are so many great things about fall! I love the frost on the pumpkin, the changing colors, the fall sky, breaking out the sweaters, and heated car seats!

Reply October 15, 2009 at 09:28 AM

rhonda - send me an email with your address - there's a link to the right. =)

sorry this is a tidge late, today kind of got away from me! we spent the morning moving beds, and this afternoon was becky's son's wedding.  i hope to be back tomorrow with a couple more sneaks from the november kit. =)