Sharing for Studio Calico

A real quick Friday post.  Halloween is almost here, I just can't wait.  I don't have any decorations up, I don't know why, busy doing other things I guess (see past posts this week!).  Hope you guys all have a great weekend too. 

Hello Thursday

Four more layouts (I know, I can't stop!!) done yesterday and today.  You know, this is how life is for me.  When I get going, I just go.  It's like that with everything.  I can be a bit obsessive.  It's kind of important to keep positive things as the things I'm obsessed with.  I'm working on that.  Sorry about the quality of this pics.  It's a cloudy day here today.  Click on any picture to have a closer look. 

This one is a studio calico lift.  I added a bit but pretty much took it right from the example.  The paper is gorgeous, isn't it?  It's Sassafras' new line.  I added links at the side of my blog.  Sassafras is the hedgehog.

Also wanted to share this.  Can't stand Katy Perry but love this version of Teenage Dream by the Rescues.

It's beautiful, isn't it?  Takes the yuck out of the song I think.  Happy almost Halloween!

Amiee

No title ideas

I've been blogging so much I don't have any title ideas.  How boring.

But I do have another page to share with you (scraplifted partly from Kelly Purkey at Studio Calico):

One of the awesome things I feel like I got out of Amy Tan's workshop is that I should do pages for myself!  So I am!  This is like the second one I've done just about me.  I really really like it.  It's okay to be a little narcissistic.   Say that ten times fast.  Oh, and that's totally me standing on my head.  I even took it with the timer so I had to run down the hallway and hop upside down really quick before the flash went off.  It was fun!  I recommend it!  And doesn't Joe look like he's wearing blue blockers??  Ha hahaahaha, maybe that is a good idea for Christmas...  he is getting up there...

So that's that!  Hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday.  It is so windy here it feels like the whole house is going to blow away.  Still trying to get my kid to stay in bed, arg...

Amiee!  (you're welcome for the little something extra today!)

Tuesday storms

I know, it's a record.  Three days in a row.  Real quick, wanted to show you guys this:

As you might or might now know (did I mention it??) I got my first Studio Calico kit in the mail while I was in California.  It is amazing.  Anyway I totally copied this one design, so don't think it's original.  But that's the beauty (and danger) of getting a complete kit, someone, lots of people in the case, has or have the same materials as you.  And there are examples posted!  I don't intend to do this often, but I wanted to scrap in a new way, with other people's ideas.  I liked it.  It was quick, I did some stuff design-wise I never would have done.  Maybe I even learned a couple things! All I have to do is add stitching under the journalling, which I admit got a little wordy.  I do like to put sentences together. 

Hope you guys survived the storms.  On another note, I am having a heck of a time keeping Owen in bed these days.  He jumps out of his crib (which was like a threat for a while) and wanders around the house for hours at night.  I keep putting him back to bed, sometimes nicely, sometimes not, but nothing seems to work.  Anybody got any really bright ideas???  Anything???

Told you there was more

Hi again!  I know, you and I both can't believe I'm posting two days in a row!  I have some projects to show you, but I'm tired of posting pictures so I'm going to send you over to my flickr account.  There, you can pour over my new minibooks the way I know you want to pour over them.  Have fun!  Every picture can be enlarged by clicking on it :)

By the way, these books were inspired by Amy Tan's workshop, which was amazing.  She's planning on doing another one in the spring, which I am totally doing and you should too. 

Amiee's Flickr Account

Go go go!  And have a great week!!

Amiee

Sunday recap

Hi guys!  I really had some good intentions to blog while I was in San Diego but it just got away from me.  Is anyone really surprised?  Anyway here's the fun from California.  The weather didn't cooperate but it was great to hang out with my sister and her little fam.  She got some good news while we were out there too so we got to celebrate at ChuckE Cheeses.  Hilarious.

Me and Ehrin having some creative time while the kids were (hypothetically) napping.

Eating something amazing from the tamales stand at the farmers' market.

This is how they make crepes.  I had no idea!

Some nice guy took our picture at the farmers' market.  And Josh watched our kids on Saturday morning.  He is a saint!

Isn't my sister cute?  And Toby too.

A pajama cousin train.

Good news!

The sun did come out the last day we were there.  We saw it for a few minutes and then Ehrin drove us to the airport.  Oh well, it made coming home that much sweeter!  

Hope you've had a great weekend!  More coming up... 

Title Page

Hey guys, real quick.  Just wanted to share the day.  

Kept going on the title page for my Amy Tan's workshop.  It looked so sad with just the stitched title, I just felt like it needed some stuff!

Will probably add a bit more but I like where it's going :)

Had a fun day today.  Went to the Wild Animal Park that's part of the San Diego Zoo.  Oh my gosh, so cool. The place was just breathtaking.  Hate to say it but it blew Brookfield Zoo right out of the park.  Get it.  

Had fun all day really.  The cousins are getting along, for the most part. This is mainly for Grandma and Grandpa A, because I know how much they like seeing their grandkids together. 

Oh my gosh these kids are hilarious...  See you all tomorrow.  Hope your Thursday was a great one!

Amiee

SoCal baby

Holy moly it was a long day.  Made it to San Diego  with Owen to visit my sister and her fam.  Being up early, a long plane ride, a day without a nap for my toddler, and the time change adds up.  I'm exhausted.  

But there are a couple things to share before tomorrow.  From the workshop:

It says "all that's mine," if you can't read it.  It's not like possessiveness, mine, it's more like, ownership mine.  Like, I control what I create and my attitude about the world around me.  I don't control the situation or the problems or the frustrations but I do own up to my reaction to them.  Does that make sense?  That's my sister holding my book.  I think the hardest part about this was picking a title.  And maybe I made the words too small but I kinda tend to do that. Am still loving this workshop.  Can't wait for tomorrow, as long as I get a little sleep!  Goodnight all, thanks for reading!

Amiee

Day one...

I signed up for this workshop:  Get Those Creative Juices Flowing Workshop.  It started today.  Aren't you lucky I'm going to share everything with you right here on my little blog!  Well, maybe not everything. 

We made these super cute, super easy little books today.  Thank goodness I'd gotten my sewing machine out a couple weeks ago to make, well, I'm not going to show you just yet.  You'll have to stay tuned...

Here is the first of two books I made:

 

Pretty cute, huh?  Here's the second one, a bit smaller, that I made for Halloween.  I'll show you what it looks like after I fill it up with pictures and stuff. 

So there!  What do you think?  Do you love them?  I sure do.  And they were simple enough to do while Owen was napping, double bonus.  

I should mention too, that Joe ran the marathon yesterday.  So awesome of him.  My parents watched Owen so I could go down there.  It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen, seriously.  So much camaraderie, so much motivation, so much optimism!  Even as temperatures continued to increase, people were super supportive of one another, both those who ran and those who cheered them on.  It was so amazing I'm considering trying it out for myself.  Eek!  Those of you who know me know that I am not a runner at all!  5ks intimidate me!  But maybe, just maybe, I'll try it out.  Don't quote me on that...

Here's Joe with his group.  He's the one who stands out like he didn't read the directions, because he didn't read the directions ("Oh, I guess I was supposed to wear one of those shirts they sent in that packet in the mail a couple weeks ago..." and then later, "Where do we start?"  Yikes...)

Here are a couple guys on his running team.  Joe was really good friends with the guy on the left when he was a kid, and now the guy lives right around the corner from his ex-wife.  Joe's ex-wife.  He's super nice. 

It was a beautiful morning, and absolutely perfect if you're going to spend 4+ hours by yourself.

Self-portrait.

 The starting line.  It was totally insane.  Maybe the worst part of running a marathon is waiting with a throng of crazy runners for a half hour.  

I watched them turn on Buckingham Fountain right on the lake front.

I watched the first men cross the finish line on TV; here is the first woman crossing the finish line.  They are so incredibly fast.  I almost cried it was so emotional.  Like, so triumphant, such catharsis, and then exhaustion.  When in your life do you ever experience that?  When you have a baby, that's pretty much it I think...

Here's a poor guy puking at the finish line.  Sorry guy.  I thought it was amazing you kept it all in til the end of the race. 

Here were two people who got got engaged at the finish line.  Pretty cool.

The only picture I got of Joe after the race.  I know, I know, I'm a terrible photographer.  He didn't want his picture taken and I had to sneak this one:

A super cool picture as we looked across the tracks.  Wish I could've seen it from the ground too.

For all you folks who miss the city of Chicago.

Then today we went to Willowbrook Animal Shelter.  It was fun.  We hiked around a bit and saw some pretty cool birds.  Owen got to pet a rat and see a Screech Owl up close.  And run around like a maniac.

And here's us.  Both a bit crabby, Joe because he was sore from the marathon, me because I was tired from waking up so early the day before.  Whew!  It just knocked it right out of me. 

So tomorrow's post will be shorter.  More to the point.  Hope you enjoyed the sneak peak into this workshop though!  I can't wait for what the rest of the week will bring.

Thanks for reading!

Amiee