And So It Begins!

We Americans are all sufficiently stuffed with turkey and dressing and December is just around the corner.  I have finally, FINALLY finished my December Daily from 2011 and have my 2012 book all ready to go. 

So here it is...what you've all been waiting almost a year for me to complete...my 2011 December Daily.

***I must note here that I am completely and thoroughly tired of all the papers and elements I used in this book and while it is a treasure for the ages, I won't be picking it up to flip through again any time soon.  Maybe in 2013! 

December Daily 2011

 

 

My base pages were made using the Dear Mr. Claus line from Cosmo Cricket.  Primarily.  I also have a few pages of other papers, including some vintage Daisy D's that I'd been hoarding for years!  There are a variety of other papers thrown into the mix for interesting layers, including a few scraps I had leftover from making my 2012 base pages (I still had to finish up days 23-25 of 2011!)  I tabbed each date, something I will not be doing this year.  I used a few paper lunch bags, about a billion stickers and chipboard pieces, a few washi tapes, and I don't even know what else!  A lot of what is in this album probably would be very hard to trackdown today, though there are a few brand spankin' new elements like some of the chipboard pieces I used from this year's Crate Paper - Sleigh Ride line.

 

If you have any questions about anyting I used in the album, please do not hesitate to ask me by either leaving me a comment in the comment section or emailing me.  My email can be found at the top of the page.  I'd be more than happy to help you out to the best of my ability!

 

Thank you all so much for stopping by!  Tomorrow I'll be back again with the cover, title page, day one set up, and remaining base pages of my 2012 album!  Can't wait!

Turkey Day

Since it's a day of thanks here in America, I wanted to take a few minutes to be thankful for all the wonderful things in my life.

1.  My wonderful girlfriend, Lisa.  Lisa and I have been together almost 3 years and she has put up with all my quirks and craziness.  We have a blast together, love almost all the same things, and have made it through good times and bad.  She is great and I cherish, love, and adore her. 

Lisa, for those of you who don't know, is Irish and yes, she lives in Ireland.  That means we are in a long-distance relationship.  Long-distance relationships are haaarrrrrddddddddddd.  We only see each other a few times a year, if that.  We are six hours apart, so scheduling time to talk is very close to impossible, though we manage.   And she has to put up with so much being with a super crazy like me!  But still, we're super darn cute together and in case you don't believe me, here's a super darn cute picture of us:

Us in Ireland this summer.  On one of the 30 rainy days out of 35 that I was there!

2.  My amazing little niece, Ellie.  I never knew I could love a little kiddo as much as I love this one!  We have lots of fun together and she keeps me on my toes.  I adore that sweet little mush!

Ellie looking at the animals on a zoo trip I took her on this summer.

3.  My super cool sister, Parrish.  Parrish is Ellie's mom and she and I are super close.  I'm six years older (...and wiser???) but most of the time, I feel like she's the older sister (not because she's wiser, as I've already sort of established) because she is definitely more responsible on some levels and more mature.  She's the one who will take charge of family crisises if they develop, whereas I often lack the common sense necessary for such feats.

Sissy in March of this year.

4. My wonderful parents.  They're names are Tom and Candy, in case you were curious, since I'm throwing everyone else's names out there.  My mom and dad have put up with all kinds of crazy from me over the years.  Religion conversions, serial school skipping (yes, I'm ashamed I was ever that dumb), moving away and back and away and back and away and back (into their actual house...),  changing colleges (four times).  They've been there for me through everything....They supported me in my choice to major in theatre in college.  They've accepted me, loved me, and had my back when I came out to them a billion years ago.  They have only every wanted me to be happy. 



My cute parents at my sister's nursing school graduation dinner in May.

5.  Good friends!  I have some great friends that I teach with and another great group of friends that I met when I worked at Borders years and years ago.  We still get together frequently and stir up trouble.

I won't post any pictures of them here, because they are a myth.  ;)

6.  A job that I (mostly) love.  I teach 3rd grade and some years are fabulous and others are just plain difficult.  But for the most part, the kids make it worthwhile.  There's nothing like the unconditional love and admiration of 21+ eight-year olds in a room seeking your love, guidance, and approval.  I can only hope I live up to the stature of the pedestal upon which they place me.  In addition to that, I am so blessed to still have a job and be making a living in this crazy economy in which we exist.


7.  A crazy little dog who loves me.  Bailey is a crazy little girl who has caused me quite a bit of anguish on an annual basis when we visit the vet, but I love her all the same.  She was the original mushy-dog.  (Don't tell Ellie)

My Mush-Dog!

8.  My grandparents and great aunt living into their 90s and 80s respectively.   I love these three people so much.  They have so much knowledge about the world and are three of most generous people you will ever meet.

Gran (my grandfather) with the Girl Who Stole His Heart, Miss Ellie.

 

Big Dee (I was named "D'Arcy" after my grandmother, thus she's "Big Dee" and I'm "Little Dee") with Ellie last fall.

My Great Aunt Jody on Christmas Eve last year. 

 

 

9.  A car that runs, food to eat (sometimes too much!), and a house with a roof, walls, windows, and doors!  Not to mention electricity, indoor plumbing, fresh drinking water, clothes to wear...the list goes on.  When you think about all the people in the world that are lacking even the most basic of life's necessities, it really puts things into perspective.

10.  Lastly, it wouldn't do if I didn't make mention of the things I love to do:  reading, listening to great music, watching great films and television shows (and sometimes really crappy guilty pleasure ones), and this great hobby called scrapbooking.  I don't know what I'd do with myself otherwise!  I'm especially grateful for getting back into scrapbooking last year about this time after a few years off.  It's allowed me to be creative and relieve happy memories!

 

Thanks for reading everyone and to those of you celebrating: Happy Thanksgiving!

My Love of Modern Family & Downton Abbey

One of my favorite shows on tv right now is Modern Family.  I absolutely adore that show.  And when a reference was made by one of the characters to the show Downton Abbey (probably my favorite show EVER), I immediately typed that little quote into the notes section of my IPhone.  Seriously. 

So as I was scrapping away one day and stumbled across this unscrapped picture of the sign leading into the now defunct Toontown at WDW, I decided to put that quote to good use and make it the title of my layout, despite the fact that Downtown Abbey and Modern Family have absolutely zero to do with the photograph, with WDW itself, or the overall layout (other than my reference to both!  hehe

It's Toontown, Not Toonton...

 

I love, love, love the Abroad collection from Studio Calico.  It is by far one of my favorite collections ever!  The background paper on this layout is from said collection and works so well here on so many levels.  It just makes me smile.  Otherwise, there is a broad mix of manus in this layout...some Pebbles, a little Bella Blvd, Echo Park, and of course, October Afternoon.

 

I honestly have no idea what manufacturer the arrow and circle stickers are from...but I feel like if I sit here staring at them long enough I'll figure it out.  I'm very tempted to say Echo Park.  If you have any ideas, please let me know in the comments!

 

Much, much layering of stickers and a little die cut from Jillibean Soup (Smiles Look Good On You).

Supplies:  patterned paper - Bella Boulevard, Crate Paper, Echo Park, October Afternoon, Pebbles, Studio Calico;   letter stickers - October Afternoon, Pebbles; vellum die cut - Studio Calico; stickers - Echo Park, October Afternoon; washi tape - Bazzill, Cosmo Cricket, Freckled Fawn; die cut - Jillibean Soup

Thank you so much for reading and commenting, everyone!  You really make my day!

Silly Titles

 

Good day, everyone! Hope you are having a swell Tuesday!

 

So I am kind of a quirky sort of a girl and I often find that I come up with some pretty silly titles for my layouts.  Which leads me to this...

 

A Lone Photo From Fake Norway

 

I only took this one picture on my 2008 trip to WDW at Epcot's Norway.  It's not real Norway, thus it's fake Norway. 

 

 

 

I used the August kit from Studio Calico (Summer of '69) to create this layout.  Since the kit had a lot of OA's Woodland Park, I threw in some additional elements I had on hand from that collection as well.

 

 

You may notice I used the same Studio Calico patterned paper for my background on this layout as yesterday's layout.

 

I discovered how pleasant doilies can be as a result of using this kit.

 

I really can't abide a naked label, and since my journaling was done directly on the page, I went ahead and stamped onto the tag as an interactive element.

 

I'm a huge fan of OA's Little Flyers and use them on a ton of my layouts.  The butterfly comes from the OA flower sack for the Woodland Park collection.  I can't begin to express my sorrow over the fact that the flower sacks seem to have been discontinued for future collections.  I use them tons.

 

Some more stamping.  Something I need to do much more of considering the vast array of stamps currently in my possession.

 

A close up of that doily and how I used some Prima pearl embellishments to further accentuate it's loveliness!  I also enjoyed using some sequins as confetti on this layout.

 

Supplies:  patterned paper - American Crafts, Basic Grey, October Afternoon, Pebbles, Studio Calico; stamps - Studio Calico; pearl embellishments - Prima;  flag, stickers - October Afternoon; letter stickers - Basic Grey, October Afternoon; die cuts - October Afternoon, Pink Paislee/College Press; other - tag, flair, sequins

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Massive Blog Fail.

Failure!  Last week was to be a week of Walt Disney World here on the good ol' Adventures of Me and I did not get my other posts up.  So I'm going to jump ahead a week and pick up where I left off. 

Pop Century Giant Jukebox

It is no surprise to my frequent readers to hear me say that I used a ton of October Afternoon on this layout.  Specifically, the newish Midway collection.  Such a super cute and fun line! I'm loving all the bright colors and fun graphics in this collection.  And I think it suits a Disney-related layout perfectly. 

Pop Century has been the only hotel I've stayed at for my last FOUR WDW trips.  I love that place.  And as a fan of the 50s in general, it is always fun to go check out the 50s pool at the resort.  On this particular trip four years ago, we stayed in rooms that opened directly onto the pool. 

 

Since this is such a fun photo of a big icon, I wanted to include lots of fun elements on my page.

 

The telephone sticker comes from Echo Park's Happy Days collection from 2011.  I love that collection, especially since it's 50s themed. 

 

I'm really into using Studio Calico papers as my backgrounds lately.  The light chevron pattern on this one worked really nicely.

Supplies:  patterned paper - Echo Park, Lily Bee, October Afternoon, Studio Calico; transparency - Hambly; brads, flair, letter stickers, die cuts, spray ink - October Afternoon; stickers - American Crafts, Echo Park, October Afternoon

A Week of Disney World

Hellloooo!  It's Monday, a brand new week and I've decided to make this A WEEK OF DISNEY WORLD!  (all caps used so that you might read that in an echoy announcer man's voice a la "Pigs in Space" from the Muppets.)

I've been working a lot on my family's 2008 trip to the World, so have several layouts that I'm really pleased with and want to share!

Sisters in Canada

I had to try out the new Studio Calico 12x12 starburst mask.  I used a spray ink by October Afternoon with the mask and to me, anyway, the OA sprays go on a little thicker than Mister Huey's do.  I used it on a sheet of vanilla cardstock and the effect was almost like it was printed that way.  Super cool!

 

I was trying to figure out a way to step it up a bit and decided slicing up strips of paper to outline the bursts would be the way to go.  I wasn't really sure how it would turn out, but really LOVE the effect!  I layered different pieces of OA's Midway behind my photo.

 

 

 

I love the Midway collection by October Afternoon and used a few different embellishments to complete this layout.  I pulled out my handy Fiskars scallop punch to make several elements with the patterned paper to layer in with other pieces.

 

 

I also pulled in this little flag from Basic Grey's Soleil collection.  Love it!

 

Supplies:  patterned paper, brads, washi tape, tickets, journaling spot, tab, spray ink - October Afternoon; flair button -  A Flair For Buttons; letter stickers - American Crafts, October Afternoon; mask - Studio Calico; scallop punch - Fiskars

 

Thanks so much for looking!

 

***Announcement***

I'm super excited to FINALLY tell you all that I'm on the Design Team for a brand new sketch challenge blog called Sketches With Color.  Our first challenge and reveal was posted on November 1 and is open until the end of November.  You can find the sketch and color palette for this first challenge on the blog. 

And here's my first project for the blog!

Stop and Smell the Roses

 

Supplies:  patterned paper - GCD Studios, American Crafts, Authentique, Basic Grey, October Afternoon;  cardstock - Bazzill; die cut banner flag - My Little Shoebox; flowers - Recollections; jewels - Doodlebug, Prima; butterfly sticker - Studio Calico; brad - American Crafts (Amy Tangerine); other - ribbon

 

Thanks for looking!