Look What I Made

Cheers! St. Patrick's Day Freebie

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I had some extra doodles that didn't make it into my March Ombré Rain printables set so I thought I'd offer a freebie today. The download link below has a 3x4" and a 4x3" card. Enjoy!

Download Cheers! (St. Patrick's Day) Freebie

Pinterest Faves

1. Cactus drawing, also my current desktop background.
2. Not exactly sure what this is but it looks like a stamp to me. Found here and more like it here.
3. 'Numbers' Print by LifeLovePaper
4. Hand-drawn 'Crystals' pattern
5. Cute little succulent plants
6. 'Breakfast of Champions' Illustration
7. The Motivated Type - Love Print
8. Vintage Hedgehog Ashtray
9. Hermann Glöckner Painting

Today, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite things on Pinterest right now. I, like everyone I'm sure, go on Pinterest binges and will pin anything and everything I see. I've started to now go back through my own pins when I'm looking for a burst of inspiration and it always works. I find things all over again and notice trends. Above is a good round up of the things I'm drawn to right now. It's funny, I am always drawn to simple designs and neutral color palettes, yet I'm obsessed with bright colors. I don't quite understand. 

Currently: March

Drinking too much coffee.

Eating dried sour cherries. And Amy's Ice Cream.

Wanting to check out the sno-cone truck nearby. It just opened.

Riding my bike every chance I get. 

Watching House of Cards with Billy. We're obsessed.

Interviewing for new jobs. And learning a lot along the way.

Enjoying my new gym.

Feeling very restless with all my free time. I need a new project. 

Excited for visitors the next two weekends.

Equally excited to eat at Freedman's tonight.

Project Life 2014 | Week 5

Week 5! It was a busy week for us. Billy started his tennis season and I was knee deep in getting my stamps launched. It's funny how the busiest weeks usually have the least amount of photos. Does that happen to you too?

Still mixing up my pocket styles - I used Design D on the left (the back side of week 4) and Design S on the right. 

Here is the left side. I can't seem to get enough yellow these days. I noticed a trend of pinks and reds in my photos so I added in some pops here and there to make it all flow together. As always, I added some gray, kraft and gold too.  

When I originally I created this date card it seemed a little too bare for my liking. Especially compared to the embellished details all over the rest of the spread. I used a bunch of my stamps and this silver inkpad to create a background pattern. I think it adds just enough detail without being too overpowering. (Minimalism is so not my thing.)

Like I said, it was a busy week but I didn't have too many photos so I made this list of highlights from the week. I have a few sheets of this Dear Lizzy striped paper and love it for journaling in Project Life.

Austin now has In & Out Burger! This was a big deal for us. We celebrated Billy's first tennis match (and win!) with some double cheeseburgers. So delicious.

Here is the right side. Design S is becoming one of my favorite page styles. I'm so glad I decided to mix it up this year.

I wanted to this side to focus mostly on Billy/Billy's tennis match, but didn't have enough photos so... more stamps! 

The tennis racket card on the left here is from the Project Life Tennis Themed Mini Kit. I bought it as soon as I knew Billy got his coaching job. The 'You are Awesome!' stamp on the right is from my shop. Again, more yellow details which (bonus!) is one of Billy's school colors. 

That's our week. Yesterday I photographed four weeks of Project Life spreads so I'll be sharing those over the next couple weeks. A few products are linked above, but please feel free to ask any questions in the comments!

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See all my Project Life posts here.

Ombré Rain | New Printables in the Shop!

Introducing Ombré Rain, my new March printables are in the shop! This month, I was inspired by bright, spring hues and watercolors. I wanted to create a set that can work for pages transitioning from winter to spring. But really, they can be used all year round. I'm not huge on themed products but definitely wanted to include a couple St. Patrick's Day references.

You can shop my new Ombré Rain designs here. The Candy Crush & Jumpstart sets are still available too!

 

Also, congrats to Julia who won my stamp giveaway! I'll be emailing you. Thanks to everyone who entered. I should do another one of those! ;)

Around Here

This week I got a new computer! It wasn't in the plan just yet but the battery on my 2007 Macbook Pro exploded (!!) so we made a trip to the Apple store Monday night.

I spent a lot of time in my little crafting area. I hung nails on the wall and am using little clips to hold posters and Project Life cards and a calendar. I like how it's working out so far. 

My favorite snack right now. Cottage cheese + sunflower seeds. Super yummy!

Stamp stock up! I ordered a couple more stamps for my inventory, these 3 designs sold out super quickly! Also, I recently learned that my shop wouldn't allow international shipping. SO sorry about that. I've updated my shop, it's expensive, but I do ship internationally.

PS - Don't forget to enter my giveaway, it ends today! 

Determined to finish reading 'The Dinner'. I've got about 25 pages left and still have mixed feelings about it. I just want to know what happens. Yesterday morning, I grabbed my coffee, a blanket and read on the porch. It was a little chilly, but wonderful.

I'm still obsessed with my new bike! I rode around Austin for an hour and a half yesterday. I'm hurtin' a little today but it was so fun! I have already found at least 3 new restaurants I want to try with Billy.

 

So as you can see, my week was eventful and uneventful all at the same time. My last day at my job was last Friday, so all week I had nothing but time to myself. Boy, was it nice to be able to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I'm learning already that I'll need to give myself somewhat of a schedule just to stay productive. I simply cannot watch One Tree Hill reruns on Netflix all day. ;)

Focus Update

Want to turn your One Little Word into a stamp?

I talked a little bit about my One Little Word here and here. Today, I'm just sharing an update. I picked a few areas to "focus" on during the month of February.

February was definitely a transition month around here. Billy started his tennis season which meant long days for him and lots of alone time for me. I was also getting ready to leave my job after 6.5 years. My last day was on the 28th.

Both of these things have a lot of good/bad qualities. Bad that my husband will be working a lot, good that I have tons of free time to work on projects, my shop, finish reading a book, eat cereal for dinner, aka, do whatever I want. Leaving my job is bad because that means I have no job, but it's good because I am ready to move on and find a job here in Austin. I'm more than ready for what's next...whatever that is. 

Over the short month of February, I chose just three areas to focus my time.

1. Find a new job. This didn't exactly happen, but I feel like I made significant progress here. I put together a resume and design portfolio. I applied to countless jobs. I got a lot of "no's" or no responses but also a lot of positive feedback and interviews. I feel like I'm on the right track. Part of this is finding the "right" job, not just any job.

2. Putting good things on the internet. This one probably sounds weird, but with all my alone time, I wanted to be sure I was able to take a step back and be happy with my work. Sometimes, especially as a designer, you can get stuck on one track without coming up for air. It's hard to take an objective look at your work and make changes as needed. So, I focused on it! I felt that my stamps, blog posts, Project Life spreads, Instagram photos were all good representations of me.

It also meant that I didn't post for several days because I simply didn't have anything I was happy with to share (plus, I was a little busy, see #1). I am okay with that. I'd rather not post anything than post something I'm not happy with. 

3. Exercise. I had been struggling with making time to exercise. It's hard to stay motivated when you work from home and when you don't belong to a gym. Well, it is for me anyway. Ironically, after writing this post, I decided to join a gym down the street. I am SO happy I did. It's a really awesome gym that mixes some CrossFit exericises with running and yoga and other techniques. It's very challenging and a really good fit for me. I've been going 4 times a week ever since I joined. Something about paying for a gym just makes me more accountable. The second thing I did was buy a bike. I'm getting out much more than I used to when my feet were my only mode of transportation.

 

I haven't yet decided on my March areas of focus yet. I actually (just now) decided continue working on the three I listed above. I still need to find a job, I still want to put good things on the internet and I still want to exercise. I feel like I can still put in some serious effort into these goals, plus, I have a feeling this month will be one of change so I can't exactly predict where to aim my focus. It's a little scary, but mostly exciting. 

Austin Bucket List: Minibook Update

A couple weeks ago, I shared my photos from our Food Truck Date. Now, I'm sharing my minibook update! I posted our Austin Bucket List title page here and now the time has come to get started on the fun part of the album. I printed a few photos from our day and used my February Paper Bakery Kit to create this simple spread.

I tried to keep it simple for the most part. There are 25 items on our list so I will be working on this for a while. I'm using this gray Handbook and plan to keep things consistent by creating a two page spread for each list item. I also plan to keep a white border around my photos, again, to keep things cohesive. Other than that, not putting too many rules on myself.

Simple Scrapper Layouts - March 2014

Well, February flew by! It feels funny to be here sharing my March layouts for Simple Scrapper. I made 2 this month, here's the first. In November I went to San Antonio with my parents. We had a fun trip and I liked this picture that my dad took. It's a little off-center but that's why I like it. 

I stuck to a neutral color scheme with pops of color. That seems to be my go-to these days. I used a bunch of different black, gray, tan and kraft papers. I used pale pink and yellow for my pops of color. I went a little embellishment happy around the photo. Almost all of them are Studio Calico embellishments. I have a ton so I really wanted to use them up without making the page to cluttered. The 'hello' stamp is from my shop.

I painted these Amy Tangerine thickers with a gold paint pen (from this set). I like to buy white when I'm feeling indecisive because they are easy enough to paint a different color. 

 

My second layout is documenting my time working from home. Friday was my last day, so now I'm just home. I took this photo on a particularly sunny day when I was working from my bed. 

 

I used a similar color scheme here, neutrals + pink. With all the patterns going on, I had to stick to a neutral palette or it would never work. I love the mix of lines and dots and chevrons. I just used a few simple wood veneer embellishments.

The photo is raised a bit using pop dots. The dimension helps add a little bit more interest to this simple page. 

I'm linking my post up at the Simple Scrapper Community Show & Tell today. Over there, you'll find a ton more inspiration!

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

Project Life 2014 | Week 4

I'm hoping to get back on track with regular posting this week. Things have been a little busy for me and there just aren't enough hours in the day. 

Here is week 4 of my Project Life. I had these photos sitting on my camera for a while. I'm still going strong mixing page styles, this week is Design F (backside of week 3) and Design D. 

This is the left side. This biggest thing this week was launching my stamps. All my photos this week were iPhone photos and are a pretty random roundup of the week.

Here is the right side. The weather was crazy this week in Austin. It was snowing one day and then 80 degrees two days later. I can't keep up. 

After the Great Snow on Friday, we took full advantage of the nice weather on Saturday and Sunday. It was a good week. The heart circle and the Amazing stamp are from my shop!

Short & sweet today. Please ask any questions in the comments. :)

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See all my Project Life posts here.