Things I'm Eyeing

The good news is that the moratorium is going strong. The bad news is that I'm afraid I'll party too hard when I allow myself to buy stuff in December! Which would lead to another moratorium, and so on...:) Here are some things I'm keeping my eye on--although they can't ALL be purchased, sadly. But then again, if I bought every scrappy item that caught my attention, I'd be living in a cardboard box. A Studio Calico box, but still!

In my cart over at Two Peas:

Jenni Bowlin alpha--always looking for letters this size

Ali Edwards stamps--I love the mix of typewriter and scripty fonts
The new Studio Calico Home Front line. Goodness knows how I've been holding out on this one!
And over at Studio Calico.... The December kit (one little peeky of it below)

And SC add-on # 1, Strings. Which I definitely plan to get, unless the craziness of this Friday (and the swiftness of the SC crowd) stop me.





And finally, a scrapbook LAYOUT, as opposed to shopping. Hee hee. This one is about the hubby and his sewing prowess. In fact, he's sewing on a layout for me right now....

A Little Recent. Scrappiness

Made the two pages above this week.

The top page is about our first apartment in Philadelphia, where we lived from our marriage in December of '08 until May. In this little box of an apartment (really a little box--you had to walk through the bathroom to get from living room to bedroom) we had our first taste of married life, hosted our first Shabbos meals, and learned about each other and ourselves. We lived in West Philly across from a 7-11, and used the curtains in the photo to hide the neon signs! I was glad to move to a bigger place, but nostalgic about leaving our first home together.

The next page is about hair covering. For those of you who don't know, Orthodox Jewish women cover their hair when married. I wear scarves, wigs, bandanna-thingies, you name it. This page describes my feelings as I adjusted to this new routine.

To Market, To Market

I have been LOVING the new Studio Calico kit, Marketplace.

Here's what I've done with it so far:

First page, Farm, is about....well, you guessed it. A trip to a farm. Added some stamps from my stash (first time I've used this swirly-guy!) and wordfetti.

Next one is a shameless lift of Kelly Noel. I loved her "Baby Love" page so deeply I needed a version of it in my own album! This page was "marinating" in my head for quite a while, so I was glad to get it down on paper!

PS--the spectacularly perfect circle stitching on those flowers was done by Steve! He got it on the first try! Am just a LITTLE jealous, tee hee.

This next one is inspired by Davinie Fiero's At the Pumpkin Patch page. Steve loves it because of my grumpy face picture--see if you can find it:)

Page below is also inspired by our horseback riding adventure of a few weeks ago.

This one below is one of my faves. LOVE this kit.

And that's all for today....whew.

All I Need in Life....

is a pair of new shoes


a good book


and a tall cinnamon dolce latte.

Heaven.

This is where the Magic Happens

I had always dreamed of having a scraproom of my own, and that dream became a reality when we moved to our current apartment in Elizabeth. My husband was so kind as to let me have a WHOLE room to myself, paint it blue for me, and set up furniture. Reason #28654 why I married him:)

This room doubles as both scraproom and guest room--hence the daybed, which works well as a couch for Steve while I'm scrapping, a place to hold random stuff, and a guest bed! The bottom drawer pulls out to a second bed, as well.

I am loving this Ikea Expedit--I'm very into open storage. If I can't see it, I won't use it.

Two more pillows have been added to the daybed in the picture above--so it looks more filled out:)

I wanted a giant, clean space for my scrap desk, and I got it. Love the drawing-board feel.

I love storing embellies in pretty clear jars--cute and functional!

My growing paint collection, which lives on top of the Expedit. In the months since this photo was taken, they have been joined by a sewing machine, threads, and mist. So it's gettin' a bit crowded up there:)

Love girly and feminine touches like this cake plate! I use it to store odds and ends--things that really inspire me and that I don't want to forget to use!

I haven't really USED these chipboard letters, um, ever. But they do look pretty!

I LOVE my paper chest above. Saw something like it on a two peas gallery, and searched for ages, but couldn't find anything like it to buy. In the end, we took an Ikea TV stand, added extra shelves, and made it into this baby!

I got this Clip It Up cheap on ebay and love it! Most of my ribbons are American Crafts and don't have any holes in the center, so traditional ribbon storage didn't work for me. With this system, I can organize spools and scraps, and add some color to my room!


So there you have it.....my little spot of heaven.

Life Marches On....

Here are a few new layouts to start off...

This one is about my mom, who I don't see very often since my family lives in Ohio:(

This next one has become one of my favorites! Inspired by an Ali Edwards page, I recorded a typical Day in the Life for Steve and I. This felt especially important to do now, since in less than two short months Steve will be done with law school and off to the working world! I will follow four months later, and then these days of schoolwork and hours of research at Starbucks will be a thing of the past.

The Studio Calico calendar paper in the October kit was the push that finally got me to make this page.

A few days ago, my friend had a "bachelorette party" on the West Side--ie, dinner with friends. Since the dinner didn't begin until 9pm and I pretty much become a MESS if I don't eat on my regular schedule, Steve and I went to an early dinner.

Some photos of us at Noi Due, our new favorite restaurant. It's the first place I've had gorgonzola cheese since I started keeping kosher years ago!

Played around with Rollip yesterday--a site that turns your photos into polaroids and adjusts the coloring. Kept me very entertained!

Here are some results:

Last but not least, the scrap supplies moratorium is going strong! Although I do have plans to reward myself--on my list right now is a Big Bite. I got some gorgeous brads with Studio Calico's November kit, but I can only place them within one inch of the edge of the page! Anyone know of any other options to hole punch anywhere on a page?

Since I'm new to this whole blogging adventure, I welcome feedback. Is there anything you particularly like or don't like to see on this blog?

The Challenge Proves--Well, Challenging

Only one day into my new no-scrapbook supplies challenge, and I am sorely tested by this:


It's Studio Calico's new Home Front line. And I want it (especially the dress pattern paper). Real bad. And it might sell out!

I came THIS close to checking out to buy it, but stopped myself. Because the challenge is, after all, a challenge. And April promised there would be Home Front to buy in January.

I love all sorts of things--scrap supplies, beautiful clothes, jewelry, Body Shop body butters in practically every scent--but I don't want to be controlled by those things. Don't want to feel that my happiness is dependent on something you can put in a postal box and ship via UPS. So I'm waiting.


in other news, finished these two pages last week (or the week before--time is passing quickly!)

I just finished re-reading this book by Rochelle Krich. If you like mysteries, you will love it! It's the third in a series following a very likeable sleuth who also happens to be an Orthodox Jew! It's a fantasic intro to Orthodox life, and this book contains powerful insights into Jewish theology.
I am always looking for book recommendations, so if you have any, pass them on!
On a separate note, I'm excitedly awaiting the new Studio Calico kit for November, which should be here on Monday. I was a bit wary of committing to a kit club at first, but I've really fallen in love with SC--the kits are beautiful, well put together, and very usable.

I also just received some goodies from October Afternoon's Farm Fresh:

I've been doing a lot of scrap shopping lately, and decided I need a little break. I'm getting a little over-saturated with stuff and want to focus on just using what I have. So I'm challenging myself to no scrapbook supplies for the rest of November. I know, it's a little sad that I need a blog challenge to not buy supplies for three weeks, but that's what it is!

Little Happy Things

I had a busy, but wonderful, past couple of days.

Explored an exciting potential job opportunity.

Picked up these lovelies from Ann Taylor Loft:

Which is especially exciting because I have been looking for clothes for MONTHS and haven't found any! The turning point came when I separated my clothes and scrapbooking budgets--I just wasn't willing to part with any scrapping money, it seems:)

I made a couple new scrapbook pages:

And, one of my pages was featured on the Studio Calico blog! Which happened shortly after my meltdown in the previous blog post:)

I've noticed that it's very hard to predict which layouts will wow an audience--at least for me. There are some I LOVE that no one seems to notice and others I wasn't even going to post that ended up being popular. Hard to guess!

This Shabbos, we're having a couple with a baby stay over--in the scrap room. A little nervous as to how the scrapbook supplies + baby combo is going to go, so any tips are welcome!