A Little bit of LIFE....: 2012

September 28, 2012

Craft Table Time

I'm doing a lot of crafting, in fact I'm spending probably 90% of my "free" time there.

Does it feel good?
Yes, yes it does.
Should I play more with the girl?
Yes, yes I should.
Does the hubby mind?
Maybe, I'm not really sure.

Anywho, I really loved the challenge over at Paper Players Challenge blog this week and decided that I should play along!!

I got these clear cards with my last CTMH order and really was wanting to play with them. This challenge was perfect for this!

The truck is actually the only thing on the front of the card. This is a really old Stampin UP stamp set, that I just love. There is so much I can do with it. The papers are plain colored card stock from Close to My Heart that I jazzed up with their brand new september scrap month set. It's probably my favorite stamp set yet!! The inside of the card looks like this...

Fun?

Yes, yes it is!

I've also scrapped a page for my own Challenge blog, Black Tie Fridays. It will probably turn into a 2 page layout over the weekend. I'm just have a hard time doing one page layouts anymore.

Ethan's 1st Halloween (9 months old)

Have fun scrappin' ladies!

September 17, 2012

Surf's Up

In crafting this weekend I decided that I would play along at Dynamic Duo's Challenge. There color challenge this week is Lime and Black. Ooooo fun!!! There are a ton of Halloween entries, but I really wanted to do something different. Lime reminds me of summer. Summer reminds me of oceans, and oceans remind me of surfing. (maybe because that's what people do here!) So while there is no sand on my card, I thought a silhouette of grass would suffice.

The green didn't turn out to look as lime as it really is in person. Hmmm, do I retake it the photo?

Products Used for this card:
CTMH: white card stock, dotty for you paper pack, kraft paper, and basic black card stock. Stamp sets: surf's up, it's your day, and just chillin'. Inks: coca and black

August 29, 2012

{Scream, Shrill, Girly Stuff!}

Ok, so scrapbooking and card making have been a part of my life since 2006. Ethan was 3 months old when I started this adventure. While the paper crafts have been shut in closets for years when I was busy having kids, and then brought out again in wide open spaces for me to craft.

We then moved, and also with that stayed the crafting buddies. Upon moving I decided to sale Close to My Heart (thanks Rhonda!) The craft stuff went back into a closet, but this time it's organized and comes out often. Do I miss my always open space to craft? Yes, Yes I do!

We joined a church and slowly but surely the crafting buddies came out of the cracks and I started a small group of girls willing to get together twice a month to scrap!

I'll admit we have tons of fun!
When I started selling CTMH I said I wouldn't really promote it unless it was a super awesome thing, and well, this classify's as a "really awesome thing"!

September is scrapbook month and because of this CTMH is selling a huge stamp set pack for $5 with a $35 order, yes you read that right! So, those of you looking for a reason to order who haven't but been wanting to, now is your time! It's an awesome deal, and I can't wait for September 1st to place my order!! Below you can find a picture of the stamp set deal you get.

To place an online order and have it directly shipped to you go here.

While I plan to take pictures again, right now I'm doing a lot of crafting with papers and I'm liking it!

And catching up on some books!

Happy scrapping everyone :)

August 27, 2012

{More cards more fun!}

This weeks color combo from dynamic duos challenge is a purple monochromatic combination. A toughy for me for sure!! Since I've scrapbooking mostly boy stuff for the last several years having a purple around is not easy to find!

I do have to say with only one purple paper found and one purple stamp ink I love the way my card turned out!

The two papers I used were Close to my heart Smokey Plum and Bamboo. I first cut the card base using the Close to My Heart Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge. I used the same cartridge to cut the smaller matching pieces as well. The card base was cut at 5 3/4", the insert and top base were done at 5 1/2. The two smaller plum and bamboo pieces were done at 1 1/4 and 1 1/2.

So that's all the cutting! Whew, that was really hard!!! Thanks Cricut for making our scrapping life easier!

Before assembling I stamped the base layer with two stamps from the "potential" stamp set from Close to My Heart with Almost Amethyst color from Stampin' Up. the ink color is really old so I'm not sure if you can even buy it anymore, but mine is barley used so it's a good pad! I did random stamping on this layer. I then assembled the pop out. The base layer on this part is a shape from the "Milepost shapes" that is by Close to My Heart. (LOVE THESE!) I then distressed the plum shape with an emery board to show a little more of the white card stock center. I then used a sponge to go over the bamboo top layer and stamp "4 my friend" from the stamp set 4 my friend also from Close to My Heart. The top layer is put on with a foam pop thingy. I'm not sure what their real name is.

The inside is stamped with the same ink as the front and the stamp is from the "Potential" set. I separated the stamp. This can be done using scotch tape, covering up what you don't want to show up, ink, then remove the tape and stamp on your paper.

And that's it! I'm sure for most people this won't take all day like it did me! Interrupted by a 2 year old and then picking up the bigger kids from school made it a little hard to get it done in a timely fashion! But I still love it and I'm sure one of these days I'll have a reason to send it to a good friend!

August 11, 2012

{A Little bit of paper crafts}

I've recently been making and scraping paper again, and it's been a ton of fun. It feels good to be doing something that I love so much for those kiddo's I love! I've also met a wonderful gal named Joyce who has been scrapping with me and is also a Close to My Heart consultant. She mainly does cards and then blogs about them too! You can find her blog here. In following her blog I've been opened up to a whole new thing....

Card Challenges. Ha, what fun!!

Now I have yet another excuse to make cards, get my stuff out, and be creative.

Move aside orange chair, the craft stuff is going to stay out a little longer!
That's the chair that sits in our kitchen/crafting area.
I never thought I'd craft in the kitchen.
My next house is soooo going to have enough space to have a whole area for me to craft in! You know like those cool loft spaces or attic type areas?
I'm sewing, crafting and making a huge mess all the time. I just wish it wasn't in my kitchen!

So, I've decided that my crafting earns a little bit of space here on this blog.

Here are some recent cards that I have been making.

Sorry the backgrounds aren't that great. Well, the pics aren't that great. I just snapped them with my phone so I could quickly load them to facebook. Next time I'll put a little more effort into the picture taking!

See photographers take crapy pictures too!

If you'd like instructions on either one of these cards let me know and I'll put it up here!

August 9, 2012

{Do you hear what I hear?}

I'm having the itch to head to the city soon, so it's a good thing my sister is coming into town because the last time she came we didn't head to San Francisco and this time we are!

One of our favorite things to do while we're there in the city is head to fisherman's wharf or pier 39.

Not that we're going to go fishing or anything, and it's really touristy so I REALLY dislike that, but it's a fun place to be and it has one of my favorite things.

Sea Lions!

Not sure why they are called a lion. They bark not roar. They don't have mains, or big furry paws. Hmmm. Yet another mystery.

They are fun to watch.

They sun bathe, bark (very loud), and sometimes will have squabbles with one another.

It's a great place! You can see many things in this little area of San Francisco....the Golden Gate Bridge, street cars, Alcatraz, and one of the many look out towers the city has. It might be touristy, but it's a place to visit if you don't have a lot of time in the city!

Here is just a few pictures of the things mentioned above...

Next I'll include pictures of the kids during this trip to the city! It was a fun one....

August 7, 2012

{Grand Opening...}

A few weeks ago we had our Grand Opening at our church, Southbay. Southbay started in 2008 but on this day we finally had our church home! We had previously been meeting in an elementary school in Santa Clara, but now have our own in North San Jose.

At our grand opening we kicked off a series titled, God at the Movies, it was a fun time! I had been asked to snap some photos during 3rd service. Here is just a few of what was taken.

As you walk in to the church there is a big room...

You can meet paster Andy....Yep he's that cool!

Grab the oh sooooo important coffee, an orange or apple, hot chocolate, water.

They might look at you funny if you grabbed it all.

One week they had watermelon instead of apples and oranges.

People looked funny walking around eating that!

You can also buy books, journals, sit and talk, they have iPad stations too.

Walk down the halls to check your kids in and you will find inspirational things the church strives for.

Bay kids is the area of the church that you feel like you've gone underwater. The walls are nicely painted by many artists in the church and the ceilings are decked out too.

Yes, that's a canoe, or row boat, or something that goes in water!

When you walk in to the auditorium, you might find something like this....

A monolog....

Our worship band....

The sounds guys...

They are pretty cool, and do an awesome job!

The band is pretty cool too.

Paster Andy giving the message.... (lights go up)...I wish they'd stay down.

I know I'm not asleep!

We pass buckets...no offering plate....buckets.

And when all's said and done you will feel some of this!

And hopefully your stay here isn't TOO loud, but if it is you can grab one of these....

Ear plugs, not the mints. You might look kind of ridiculous walking around with mints in your ears.

I think the mints are to get rid of the coffee breath so you can go about your day.

And eat lunch across the street!

Thanks for stopping by into Southbay. If you get to come visit us here in California this is what you'll be sucked into!

August 3, 2012

Now, I know what you're thinking....

I go to this ladies blog like everyday and she never posts but once a month, why am I going?

And I'm going to tell you this....

because this lady is amazing at what she does....being a mommy, photographer, scrapbooker...so be patient with me while I'm adding this blog thing back into my so called crazy life!

So, on today's list....
1. laundry....I might just get caught up! I know it's amazing!!
2. finish painting April's room. I've only been "working" on it for a couple of weeks...it needs to be done before I go crazy.
3. well, let's face it, anymore than number 1 & 2 and my head might explode. I've got some amazing blogs planned so keep coming back to see what's going on in our little bit of life

Up coming blogs: April's room remodel, our recent adventure to see some HUGE redwoods, and I will probably throw in some old things like beach fun! Let's just pray my house stays clean, April's room gets finished, and laundry stays done(ish) so I can let myself blog, play with my kids, and work on rebranding my photography business!

Mostly the house staying clean.
Why am I type A?

July 23, 2012

{when life gives you oranges....}

when life gives you oranges...

You make orange juice!! Duh.....

What is one of the best things about having orange trees all year round and good neighbors?

They let you come over and pick oranges when ever you want! Ahhh, what good neighbors we have!

While the boys were taught how to "pick" oranges april had a blast being handed them to put into bags!

We picked and picked and picked

and no, we were not picking our nose, if any of you were wondering.

We got three bags of these in the end!

So, what do you do with THREE bags of oranges??

Because I know we can't eat three bags of oranges, and if we could eat three bags of oranges there might be something wrong with us. We might turn orange or pulpy. Hmmm I wonder what that would look like!

Oh yeah, we made orange juice. Fresh squeezed oj.

I can only say three things about this process....

messy

Messy

MESSY!

So, wash and gather your oranges....

Find a helper (this is the most important step!)

Cut your oranges in half.

I had to cut mine in half and then into fourths! Yes, they were that huge!

Oh, and make sure your helper is super goofy!! (this is much needed)

Squeeze, juice, squeeze, juice and continue this process.

Ummm like forever!

When you're done you will have a sink FULL of orange peels and half a jug of juice!

and you will never take your juice for granted again, you will also learn why your grandma has juice glasses, and why they're so tiny!

Bonus: Can you guess what month this project was done in? If so I will send you a special gift! (and no it won't be orange juice!)

March 28, 2012

{a little bit of mining}

Shortly after coming back after Christmas we decided to head out on an adventure

Dangerous I know, but we went, we did, we survived!

Just over the hills down the street from our house lies a small town called New Almaden. This town lays at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the national park of Almaden Quicksilver Park. The park is huge and is loaded with mines from the days of quicksilver. (mercury) This was also used during the time of the gold rush to clean the gold. This was one of the first quicksilver mines in California.

Our goal:
a mine shack. Impressive I know.

This park is filled with many mines. One is still an open mine, not operating, but open so you can walk into the mine tunnels at your own risk. We plan to find it one day....it's really far into the park. I think we'll need some better equipment for it!

Bigger kids being one...

Our boys not really wanting to pose for me, but put up with me none the less. This side of the hills were so green despite that it's winter. The creek was nothing but green grass and weeds. I suspect that it's not normal for winter out here since everyone says it should be raining. Lucky for us we've had so much sunshine!