Home again.

This reminds me of a song off the Juno Soundtrack, "Tire Swing" by Kimya Dawson

"Now I'm home for less than twenty-four hours. That's hardly time to take a shower, Hug my family and take your picture off the wall, Check my email write a song and make a few phone calls. Before it's time to leave again, I've got one hand on the steering wheel One waving out the window."

Esta es mi vida. :)

Reminder- 12 Hours until I pick the winner for the giveaway! Leave a comment here. Oh, and BONUS- leave a comment on this post for an extra entry. Tell your friends!

A couple pictures from the last couple hours:

1. My mom bought me a very pretty rose. Not only is it gorgeous, but now I can use it for my drawing project that I have to do this morning. Score! Thanks, Mom. :)


2. I met this princess last night. Mika is super cute. I like the newest addition to our family, even if she has quite the attitude. (Maybe that's why I like her? Ha.) :)


3. Blue's a little jealous, though. It's fun to see them interact. Oh, the competition. Feeding time, which was never a big deal before, is now a frenzy around here. It's Craaazy.


4. Sneak peak of another 52Q I've been working on. It's not done yet, but I think it'll be my favorite yet. :)


See you back later tonight with a winner for the giveaway! Thanks for visiting!

Love.

Brit

P.S.- Remember to leave a comment on this post for an extra entry. :) Good luck!

Hola! Me llamo Brit. Me amo el arte mucho.

I just finished a Spanish speaking test, so I'm in the mood for speaking Spanish. I like these days. :)

Friendly reminder- have you backed up your photos lately? I'm doing that right now. Peace of mind is good for the soul.

Shares:

1. Happy four months with Greg, which was yesterday. I made him an old-school cd mix, too. It's the little (freeish) things that make ordinary days special :)


Supplies: Cardstock- Bazzill, Patterned Paper- Sassafrass Lass, "4"- Chit Chat White Thickers by American Crafts, Embroidery thread- DMC, Foam dimensionals- EK Success, paper piercer- Making Memories, other- buttons

2. Here's a card inspired by one by Taylor Vanbruggen for Jeb's birthday this weekend. I hope he gets it on time!
Supplies: Cardstock- The Paper Studio (Kraft), Bazzill (off-white) and Unknown (red), Patterned Paper- My Mind's Eye (Striped- I got it a while back- here) and Scenic Route (dot and arrow), stamps- Hero Arts, Ribbon- Offray, Ink- StazOn by Tsukineko

3. I worked on this embroidery using a font made from my own handwriting that I printed off and then eyeballed everything else- this was surprising relaxing. (Make your own font here.) I challenge you to give it a try by picking up a piece of embroidery cloth for a couple dollars and a simple hoop for a dollar or so- I bet you already have embroidery floss and a needle to work with!

4. A big thanks goes out to Hero Arts for the way cute goodies they sent me a few days ago for winning a blinkie drawing. Happy birthday, Hero Arts blog! I can't wait to use this scrappy goodness:
5. I've started growing wheat grass in my room- my mom sent me a "kit"- a.k.a. a chinese takeout bowl, some soil, some seed, and a spray bottle for "watering" the grass. It's so cool to see it grow. Here it is today after only two days... and I swear it's grown since then.
6. I'm dying to go home soon to see this new princess that's part of our family. Soooo excited:
My family adopted her last week from the local Human Society- isn't she gorgeous? I can't wait to get to know her. :)

Okay, well I'm off to nurse my injuries (tummy ache :( ) and have a very relaxing, creative weekend.

Love.

Brit

Spring Break Happiness and Flowers

Hey there! It's a very happy week here in Wisconsin. I've never been so happy to be home. It's all smiles around here. :) I thought I'd pop in and say hi and share a few inspiring things:

1. Flowers. I've been getting progressively more obsessed with fake flowers of all types. Here are a few inspiring tutorials and images to inspire you as well:

a. A tutorial on the Cosmo Cricket Blog about making Fabric Flowers that were used in this project by Natasja Verbeek
b. Aren't these flowers gorgeous? Here's the tutorial. I need to try this!

c. One of my projects at the top of my to-do list is to make a headband inspired by missrubysue on Etsy. Isn't this gorgeous?
2. This is a card I made a week ago in attempts to get ahead for the next few weeks that so many of my friends have birthdays during. The card is super simple- I'm actually thinking about adding something more to it, but we'll see.

Supplies: cardstock- The Paper Studio (kraft and white) and Bazzill (green), patterned paper- Basic Grey, ink- Tsukineko, marker- American Crafts, stamp- Studio G

3. This cute owl sweater. I saw this on Elsie Flannigan's blog today and can't get enough. I need this sweater :)

4. This is what I've been up to in preparation for a "personal crop day" that I'm having tomorrow. I'm going to archivers and cranking out layouts. I'm excited. :)

Lotttts of sketches. I <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3BMAthBFsQbR5HsDERlaBu9mQYXLFqkgEUpFg8qwon09GprlAjDS6jZV_qBPV_nHhAsFLmbqS8hr_FW5u9biTuPGELeQPT_50Wlk0hzcg58PoAd8qsqPyzViMgV9sov-Q3K8AcF1HRlCH/s1600-h/03-16-09+Blue+Eyes.jpg">6. Me + B.J. Novak + friends = <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO9CLBF8YlybXFU8lRPKSGmcwa4-oYvtHmTCVutLhyvXOm-39kCUzrlLMVPOJDvHToSQ0eTE5xBqVwVP1vXIP75uzaXYQvqNMd1mKYQYZ3v7hsVRJnPUTM9mmhdbRpPyufr_unlg991XS0/s1600-h/03-16-09+BJ+Novak">From left to right: (top) Sara, Patrice, Me, B.J., (bottom) Greg, Adam (Sara's twin who was visiting for the weekend from his college). Missing from the picture- Jeb (who was spending time with another one of our friends at the time) and Greg's twin, Joe. Why am I friends with a whole bunch of red-headed twins? Good question. I need to make a layout about that. Here's a picture of Greg and Joe just because I love their twin-ness so much:

Hehe. Cute.

So that's all I have for now, but I'll be back soon to share all of the things I do tomorrow. I'm loving having so much time to relax during this wonderful spring break. :)

Love.

Brit

What's a girl to do

when it's hot outside, she doesn't have to work until 4pm each day, and all of her friends have real jobs to be at during the day? Listen for the hum of the UPS man's truck and scrapbook, of course. It's the life, I'll tell ya.

Two things that I am in love with that Mr. Beautiful 1 and Mr. Beautiful 2 (a.k.a. UPS man and Fedex man) brought me in the last week:
1. my camera.

I originally was going to buy the Panasonic DMC-TZ5 and still have rave reviews about the time I tried it, but I realized that a $275 camera was probably a bit excessive for me. So instead, I went back to the drawing board to look at more reviews. A couple days later, and I found the camera I needed to have in my life- the Canon A590. For only $153 at Amazon, it was perfect.

Here are some reasons why I love it:
-8 megapixels
-the price
-4 x optical zoom, 4 x digital zoom... so 16 x zoom (works really well, too)
-you can interchange the lenses, so there's room to grow with this camera
-uses SD memory
-the capability to shoot with fully manual settings

(Uh... please excuse the toilet?)
There are only few things I don't like, but the benefits outweigh the drawbacks
-the case is plastic, so it feels cheap even if it takes quality pictures
-it uses AA batteries. I'm used to a rechargeable battery, so this is more of an adjustment than anything. AA batteries could actually be convenient. If I'm ever at a loss for battery power in a time of need, I can always rest assured that outrageously priced AA batteries are for sale nearby. That's the way life works
-I have a ton of learning to do about this camera. I know that once I learn more about it, I'll be able to take better pictures. It's a little daunting to have to "learn a camera", though.

(picture of my cat, Blue, taken with my new camera. It's currently serving as my desktop. :-) )

Overall, I'm really pleased with my purchase. I highly recommend it as a good point-and-shoot camera for a great price. The reviews on the camera across the web were phenomenal, too.

2. my ATG!
It's amazing. I'm still working on the finesse to using it, but the learning process is coming along well. Here are some pictures of my baby:

(how it came wrapped... wow! It was lots of bubble wrap)


I also started altering it a bit. I really want to paint the handle, but that requires a lot of work and supplies that I don't have in the house... so stay tuned for updates on that little project. I'm sure you'll be the first to hear.

(altered with KI Memories expoy letter stickers, a Sakura white pen, and bazzill paper)

----
Last night, I had the honor of seeing The Dark Knight. Let me just say that action movies are not remotely my thing. Not at all. I didn't even want to go at first, because I get scarred incredibly easily. However, The Dark Knight was PHENOMENAL. Easily, it was one of the best movies I've ever seen. Heath Ledger played the Joker so well that I can't even explain how I feel about him as an actor. You need to see this movie if you get the chance.

(Picture from http://inhome.rediff.com/movies/2008/apr/29look1.htm)

I'm actually working on three layouts right now- all of them challenges. I'm really excited about them, but you'll have to wait until next week when I actually have time to finish them. For now, here's a layout I did for COCOA this week:



Supplies: cs - Bazzill (blue), The Paper Studio (white and black), pp- Basic Grey (circles), My Mind's Eye (stripes), unknown (green dots), deco scissors- The Paper Studio, thread- DMC, black pen- American Crafts, letter stickers- Scrapworks, buttons- unknown

Also, my shopping trip the other day was very successful. So successful, in fact, that I get really excited every time I think about the items that I bought. (Some of which I'm giving to the PAW winner tomorrow.) Yum! Here's a picture:


My favorite by far is the giraffe stamp, though. Is that not the cutest giraffe ever? I need to use it on something, like, now.

By the way, look what my boyfriend brought to me Tuesday night before our date? You gotta love him.



Thanks for stopping by! Next: Atlanta Album, 3 challenge LOs. Check back in a couple days!

Love.
Brit

Today...

Is an incredibly busy day in my eyes. I'm excited though- oh so very excited for today's events.

Here are some thoughts:

Yesterday was a great mail day. In fact, it was one item short of fantastic. If my computer had come, I would be on cloud nine... I did recieve, however, the following:

1. Prints from shutterfly. I can finish all my projects now! Yay!

2. Around the Block Mystery Bag. It was worth the 35 dollars... I got some pretty cool stuff like a flocking kit, rubons, brads, a cute bag, an 8 by 8 album, etc. Here are a couple pictures:

3. Some things I bought from the Japan Kawaii Ya store on Etsy (check it out here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5762390) Everything is SO cute, and I love the note she wrote me.

So when will my computer come? When will it ever come? Who knows?

Here's a link I found today... monthly challenges? Sweet. Added it to my reader. Plus, it looks like they have lots of give aways. Also sweet. http://useyourstash.blogspot.com/

Speaking of challenges, I did one randomly the other day after reading a post here http://paperandink.typepad.com/thegoodlife/2008/05/hoopdeedo-and-l.html and deciding to do the quickest page I could. I did, and I think it turned out pretty nicely considering the fact that I did it in 30 minutes.

Here's the challenge... feel free to take a half hour and do it!

Take 3 minutes: Grab the following (fast-don't think about it)...

one sheet of cardstock

one piece of pattern paper

one tag

one label

one stamp
one sticker

one rub on

one brad

*optional: one embellishment/chipboard/acrylic etc.

*and either one photo or skip the photo

and by the end of the chat, make one super quick page or 2 cards using only these items (you can add letter stickers or journaling too if needed...oh, and obviously your scissors, pens, adhesives, etc...)
The object of the challenge is to work super fast, don't worry about mistakes- you can always go back and change it later. FUN????Ready, Set, GO!!!!!

I used a picture that I took, developed, enlarged, and colored by hand. It's crazy how much work that is!

Supplies: My Mind's Eye pp, bazzill cs, an epoxy sticker from KI Memories, Doodlebug rubons, Stazon ink, a label sticker from Making Memories, chipboard letter from Pressed Petals, brad and vellum from The Paper Studio, Vellum Writer black pen from ZIG, and acrylic stamp (dots) from KI Memories

Layout numero dos- from the teaser the other day. This layout is crazy and I love it.

And my favorite puffy panda sticker ever... (I love pandas a lot.)

Supplies: DMC Embroidery Floss, ZIG black marker, Sakura Souffle White Pen, American Crafts Rubons and stickers, Heidi Swapp chipboard letter, red and turquoise Archiver's cs, and other various things

I have more on the way in the next few days. I should be finishing up TWO minialbums, along with at least on more page by Friday. For now, I'm off to go make a CD of the bands some friends and I are going to see tonight and tomorrow a Summerfest. :) I love the midwest and all of our wonderful "fests".

Lots of Love,

Brit