ahhhhh….. one of my favorite types of lists!  i. LOVE. books.  i have always enjoyed reading since i was a little bitty kid.  we definitely plan on having a two-story library in our house someday, and our idea of date night is sitting on the floor at B&N with a cuppa Starbucks, surrounded by piles of books.  yeah, we’re not nerdy or anything :P

I ♥ Books.

Some of my all-time favorite books are:

• the Bible
• The Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit (J. R. R. Tolkien)
• Hope for the Flowers (Trina Paulus)
• Alice in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass (Lewis Carroll)
• A Song of Ice and Fire – series (George R. R. Martin)
• anything by Shel Silverstein
• The Dream Giver (Bruce Wilkinson)
• Harry Potter series (J. K. Rowling)
• Twilight series (Stephanie Meyer)
• The Chronicles of Narnia series (C. S. Lewis)

it’s a lot of fantasy fiction.  i am really into that… there are probably several other series and books i could list here just in that category, but i won’t bore you with all of that.  don’t be fooled, though, i spend the majority of my time in any bookstore in the nonfiction area, mostly camped out in the arts & crafts section

it’s here!  February’s Paper Lovelies kit is just overflowing with romantic, shabby goodies – just in time for those Valentine’s projects and layouts

it’s really gorgeous!  there is really a lot of stuff in this kit, too – even stamps!  here’s what you get:

★ KaiserCraft “Sweet Nothings” 12×12 double-sided papers (2 each):  Dozen Roses, Devoted, You & Me, With Love, Sincerely, All Yours, Silver Lining, Cupid’s Arrow, Love Letters, Memories

★ KaiserCraft “Memories” die cut sheet (1)

★ Jillibean Soup 12×12 corrugated alpha – white (1)

★ KaiserCraft pearls – blush (1)

★ small red felt heart (1)

★ Maya Road mini ruler (1)

★ Jenni Bowlin bingo card – red (1)

★ Prima mini bouquet – color varies (1)

★ Maya Road wood spool (1)

★ Maya Road game pieces (2)

★ Hug Snug seam binding – white (24″)

★ May Arts rosette ribbon – red (12″)

★ KaiserCraft “With Love” mini stamp set (1)

so very exciting

to get you started with some inspiration, you can check out my samples below, or visit our other designer’s blogs to see their creations:

★   AMBER   ★   ILENE   ★   KASSIDY   ★   LISA   ★   SARA   ★   CARRIE   ★   NANCY   ★

and here are mine:

this kit absolutely has a bazillion possibilities!!!  you definitely need to check out Paper Lovelies before they sell out – they go FAST!!!  don’t forget to stop by the Paper Lovelies Facebook page from time to time to participate in giveaways and see other creations made by the Paper Lovelies fan club!

thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today.  make sure you stop by The Sampler’s blog tomorrow to see the ultra-fabulous-super-amazing layout i made to finish off this month’s kit!

peace, love & stickers 

SUPPLIES:

“Tiny Toes”

• Patterned Paper – KaiserCraft “Sweet Nothings – You & Me, Sincerely, Cupid’s Arrow” (from Paper Lovelies Feb. 2012 kit)
• Alpha – Jillibean Soup (from Paper Lovelies Feb. 2012 kit)
• Flowers – Prima (rosettes from Paper Lovelies Feb. 2012 kit; petaled from personal stash)
• Pearls – KaiserCraft (from Paper Lovelies Feb. 2012 kit)
• Mini ruler, game piece – Maya Road (from Paper Lovelies Feb. 2012 kit)
• Hug Snug seam binding (from Paper Lovelies Feb. 2012 kit)
• Rub-on – Basic Grey (personal stash)
• Metal charm – ??? (personal stash)

“With Love”

• Patterned Paper – KaiserCraft “Sweet Nothings – You & Me, Sincerely, Memories, Silver Lining, With Love” (from Paper Lovelies Feb. 2012 kit)
• Pearls – KaiserCraft (from Paper Lovelies Feb. 2012 kit)
• Stamp “With Love” – KaiserCraft (from Paper Lovelies Feb. 2012 kit)

CELEBRATING WORDS.

How do you celebrate in many different ways?

• party
• balloons
• confetti
• surprise
• cupcakes
• dinner
• presents
• shopping (my favorite way to celebrate! lol!)
• make cards
• family

DREAM SPOT.

the places we dream in:

• my first bedroom through age 6 had a double bed, and my parents gave me an old TV and Pong console to play with (my first video game!)
• later, i had a powder blue room with a pink butterfly border, and coordinating blue/white shag carpet, and a daybed.
• my last room at home was in the basement – it was two separate rooms!  a den for hanging out with friends and a bedroom.  in that room i was allowed to draw on my walls and i did some really cool art and caricatures of my friends!  it was like a giant coloring book
• when i lived on my own, i bought myself a canopy bed and hung curtains around it – that was a little creepy, being shut into bed like that!
• now my room is so big that my craft room is a part of it!  not to mention the walk in closet that could easily be a craft room if i didn’t have a million clothes

[ photo from city-data.com ]

annnnd… that picture was taken in APRIL 2005.  yes folks, April.  it can be like that anytime from October-April, maybe even earlier or later.  i moved away from my hometown to get away from the winters there, but there is still something nostalgic that i miss about winters back home.

HOMETOWN WINTER.

Winter in Doylestown, Ohio:

• So much snow on the streets that you can’t tell where the street stops and the lawns begin.
• Snow days!
• Huge piles of snow on the sides of the roads and in parking lots.
• Everything is still open – banks, CVS, gas stations… all five businesses! lol, jk there’s like 9.
• The Christmas decorations the town hangs up every year, and the way the lights zigzag across the main street…
• Slip-sliding down the roads everywhere you go
• Kids sledding down the big hill in front of the high school & in yards everywhere
• The historic buildings around town, and how festive they look with all the snow on them!
• The Sweet Shoppe is closed
• Salt trucks and plow trucks cruising around 24/7.
• My little brother running his snow plowing business when he was like 10.  Started with shovels and a riding lawn mower, now he has a full blown plow on his truck, and goes around helping out wherever he can!

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN 5 YEARS?

• homeschooling Kellan.
• possibly designing stuff for a scrapbooking company, or my own line of digital scrapbooking products.
• maybe adopting another child?
• trying to squeeze around the schedules of two busy teenagers.
• maybe living abroad, if Travis’ company decides we need to go somewhere (it’s in the cards, folks.  i’m pretty nervous about it actually.)
• still having the same friends and doing the same usual stuff i always do.  i’m a creature of habit, really.

It’s the Big News Lately.

This is what I’ve been hearing a lot about lately:

• Costa Concordia Cruise wreck off the coast of Italy (1/13/12) – as of today, 12 dead, 20 still missing
• GOP Candidates – Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum… who’s it gonna be
• Internet blackout on 1/17/12 in protest of SOPA – many sites were “blacked out” in protest, and offered ways to contact your congressman to help discourage votes
• American Idol…another season, really?  I mean… X Factor is the new American Idol…
• Strange weather all over the place… below zero temperatures, mountains of snow, freezing drizzle… everywhere but Texas, where it has {thankfully} been in the 70s most of the week.  strange for January.
• Picnik is closing down.  Depressing.

i have noticed that {this} post gets more attention than any other post on my blog.  apparently, Dollar Store crafts are a hot commodity these days

so here’s another round of coolness – if only i could just make some of these someday!!!

1.  Stenciled Quote Pillow (from Amanda, Wit & Whistle) - i. absolutely. love this.  need to make for our bed!  and you can achieve it with no more than $3, or more if you want it to be a bit more elaborate.  such a fantastic idea!!!

[ photo via Dollar Store Crafts ]

2.  Pebble Mat (from After I Finish This Row) - i’m pretty sure every bathroom in our house needs one of these.  possibly the front and back porches as well.  $3 total for the materials… i’m almost tempted to get up and go buy some rocks right now!

[ photo via Dollar Store Crafts ]

3.  Duct Tape Rings (from Living Locurto) - these could be virtually free if you already have all of the supplies on hand – a little duct tape, a little cardboard, and whatever you want to embellish them with! a fun project to to with kids, too

[ photo via Dollar Store Crafts ]

4.  Leftover Candy Canes = Minty Sugar Cubes (from Carolyn’s Homework) - brilliance.  sheer brilliance.  i love minty coffee anyway, and i’m running out of that “holiday-only” Peppermint Mocha creamer.

[ photo via Dollar Store Crafts ]

5.  Origami Wreath (from Dollar Store Crafts) - the scrapbooker in me squealed with joy when i found this!  another project added to the list.  and it only uses 5 sheets of paper

[ photo via Dollar Store Crafts ]

6.  Cute Spring Tree (from Craft Jr.) - pretty cute, cheap, and so many different ways you could spruce this up to match your decor!

[ photo via Dollar Store Crafts ]

7.  7 Fashionable Wardrobe Revamp Projects (from Dollar Store Crafts) - an absolutely amazing collection of cheap and easy (some even no sew!) ways to spice up some of your old stuff or thrift store finds.  including the men’s dress shirt tutorial that has been floating around pinterest.

[ photo via Dollar Store Crafts ]

8.  Reusable Swiffer Covers (from Merwing-Little Deer) - and… i probably need to look into this.  i was just complaining the other day about the stupid Swiffer, maybe this will help… also only costs $1, so that ‘s helpful.

[ photo via Dollar Store Crafts ]

9.  Fork Bracelet (from Stars for Streetlights) - my BFF Shannon will love this, if she hasn’t found it already!  dollar store silverware is obviously fantastic for craft projects.  might have to pick up a few pieces next time i am there.

[ photo via Dollar Store Crafts ]

well i hope that you have enjoyed this little update to my previous post!  pinterest has come out since that post, so i’m always skimming over great projects like this.  i will try to make another post like this sometime in the future since it seems to be a popular thread among so many people.  i always love finding new things too!  thanks for stoppin’ by

peace, love and stickers -

hi all!  here’s my Life.in.Lists for today!  Tami says on her blog that the most “ordinary” things we do every day will be a “fascinating window into how life was back in the year 2012.”  i definitely agree!  this theme keeps coming up for me, whether it’s while i’m researching genealogy or reading “Little House on the Prairie” – it’s really neat to see what things people wore and did and how life was for them.  i have always been interested in history, and if i ever got my hands on a time machine, i think i would just want to travel back to certain eras and just blend in with society so that i could be immersed in the culture of the day!  it’s amazing, reading “Little House”, how much things have changed since the mid-late 1800′s; it wasn’t really that long ago!!!

TODAY I…

• TODAY I… used my iPhone to make phone calls, send text messages, check my email, check the weather, read the Bible and play a game.  i really don’t know what i would do without it!
• TODAY I… wore skinny jeans, a hooded sweatshirt, and slip on sweater shoes.  it’s a lazy day for me!
• TODAY I… played a game of Firefight on Halo: Reach on my Xbox 360 with a friend, via the Internet, and we were able to chat while we played using microphone headsets.
• TODAY I… let my little man watch Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues via Netflix on my Macbook.  Netflix is awesome.
• TODAY I… am working on a crochet project {super secret! photos soon!}
• TODAY I… am surprised that it is 78 degrees in the middle of January!  and subsequently kicked myself when i left the house for wearing a hoodie and sassypants (big long socks) because it is warmer outside than it is inside!
• TODAY I… wrote this blog post!

just wanted to stop in really quickly and share a card with you that i made yesterday for The Sampler Kit Club, using the January 2012 kit

it’s so simple, but i love it because it was a great way to use up bits & pieces of leftovers from the kit!  everything is from The Sampler’s January 2012 kit “Ready, Set, GO!”, minus the kraft, the mini brad, and the woodgrain embossing folder – those were from my hoard.  this card was also a great excuse to try out the woodgrain embossing folder that i bought at Hobby Lobby the other day.  i can’t say i’m fully pleased with it as yet… this emboss was done on a piece of the Core’dinations from the kit, and the emboss seemed to almost come right through the paper!  this piece was the second attempt.  the first i had run through the Cuttlebug twice, as i usually do to get a nice crisp emboss, and the paper was perforated all the way through in some places!  this second one was a little better, since i only ran it through once.  it was still a tidbit fragile and wanted to perforate in places if i manipulated it too much.  maybe i’m using the wrong combo of embossing plates or something… idk, i’m a n00b when it comes to this embossing stuff (heat or dry)!

the brand of this particular folder was “The Paper Studio” which is Hobby Lobby’s flagship scrapbooking brand.  comparatively, i never really have a problem with “The Paper Studio” products – they are generally pretty durable and quality is pretty good, and they keep up with the current trends at a fraction of the price.  this folder was originally $4.99, but with the 40% off any one item coupon, i snagged it for $2.99.  it didn’t seem to vary much from the Cuttlebug and Sizzix folders i have that have produced nice embosses in the past.  i will certainly be trying it again, possibly with some different / thicker paper in the future, and i will hopefully be able to give a more accurate review of this product then

[ PS - this is my personal, honest opinion and the tested results of the use of this product.  Hobby Lobby and/or "The Paper Studio" is in no way compensating me for this review, howevermuch i wish they would!!!!!  ]

oh! anyway, back to the card.  i have a tutorial for the flowers made on this card and the “hey you” card i posted earlier in the month for the reveal of The Sampler kit, so head HERE, to The Sampler’s blog, to read that post and make you own cute, quick little flowers for your own creations.  i made three flowers during the tutorial, these were a bit different from the flower from the original card, but you can achieve either result with my tutorial.

*** UPDATE ***

Shopping is a chore that I don’t always enjoy but…

1. CRAFT SUPPLIES!!!  i mean, are you kidding me?  i keep considering asking if they will let me just move into Hobby Lobby if i pay them a monthly premium…
2. CLOTHES.  i have tons of clothes.  i don’t like to wear the same things all the time, and i like everything to be matchy.  there was a time (when we weren’t dirt poor) that i couldn’t go into a store that had clothing without making a purchase.
3. FOOD.  i love food shopping.  i love food.  i love being surrounded by all the pretty packaging and smells!
4. BOOKS/MAGAZINES.  i’ve been known to spend hours in B&N just wandering around and pitching camp on the floor surrounded by stacks of books with Starbucks in hand.
5. IPHONE APPS.  it’s rare that i miss a Thursday App Store update.  you just never know what little program they’ll come out with next that simplifies another area of your life!  or… if you’re me, a game that ends up consuming more of your time than originally planned

peace, love and stickers 

SUPPLIES:

• Cardstock – Core’dinations “Marsh” from The Sampler January 2012 kit; kraft (personal stash)
• Patterned Paper – My Mind’s Eye “Lime Twist – Out of the Blue Playful”, Simple Stories “Live Life – 24-7″ from The Sampler January 2012 kit
• Sticker – Simple Stories Yearography Expressions from The Sampler January 2012 kit
• Chipboard – My Mind’s Eye “Kraft Funday Happy Days” from The Sampler January 2012 kit
• Ribbon – My Mind’s Eye “Stella & Rose – Hattie” trims from The Sampler January 2012 kit
• Mini brads, Woodgrain Embossing folder, foam squares – The Paper Studio – Hobby Lobby (personal stash)
• “3 flowers” die cut by Lori Whitlock – Silhouette Online Store / Silhouette SD