Lots of Little Things...

I know! I am doing awfully right now in the blogging area and I promise to try and do better, but I am working on getting into a routine with Ben gone and right now am still kind of floundering on how best to utilize my time. BUT things are getting better and I am getting on top of my schedule/life goals for the next year (but really focusing on the next 5 months.)

Today was truly my deadline to really get going on my weekly schedule. But the big piece of news is this...

I know that it doesn't look like much, but I have officially started working on/writing my book. That is my biggest of my goals in this coming year simply to prove to myself that I can do it. I am not going to say anything more about it right now, but I can guarantee that you will be hearing things about it throughout the next year. It will be DONE (and in publication form) by my 40th birthday!

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Some other little things happening that I thought you all might want to make note of...

Shimelle is starting a new class tomorrow, Learn Something New Everyday (the image above is her class artwork!) I love Shim's classes and am so excited about this one and she is giving a spot away on her blog...go check it out, or better yet, buy you a spot in the class! At only $15, you will not find a better bargain for a month chock-full of inspiration!

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And speaking of inspirational people...

Some of my favorite inspirational people are starting out on a new venture, Torendi! I am not sure what all is going to be involved besides a kit club/online store and for sure some fun, but it is owned by Jenn Coker and the DT is going to be headed up by Tiffany Johnson...

Opening Day is 9/09/09!!! Love that!

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And finally, because I have been a bad blogger, I have missed sharing some of the Unity September kit of the month sneaks with you all. So here is my catch up on that. The full reveal will be tomorrow and hopefully I will have some artwork to share with it too!!!

One Goal is DONE!

I officially have one of my projects from my Better Me list DONE!

My stamp room is clean and (I think) more functional!

This is what it looks like right now.

{I wanted to start off with the pretty image so you wouldn't immediately be horrified by this post....LOL!}

{-- oh, and all of these images should be clickable so that you can see the details better.}

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But this is what it looked like when Ben left just 3 days ago....

I had gotten where I was constantly piling my stuff on the floor around me because I didn't have anyplace to put it. All that stuff on the shelves was pretty much long-term storage....not a good use of my space (which is already VERY limited...this room is tiny!)

more before photos....

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And now the after, but they aren't in very good order. One of the glitches with my new Mac though is that if I re-arrange them, then you can't click on them (don't ask me why because I have NO IDEA!) So we will just leave them as they are and you will forgive me, right?

I was basically just playing here and taking a fun artsy shot of my stamps. I am pretty sure that this "artist" stamp is a Tim Holtz stamp. In the background are just about every other brand of wood mount imaginable. I love my stamps! ;o)

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These are my MUST-USE wood slide mount Unity stamps. They sit in this pretty little basket from World Market and are so accessible this way!

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She was just looking cute so I had to take a photo. She claimed this Tattered Angels chipboard butterfly as her own, but was VERY CONCERNED that his eyes were gone....LOL!

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My newly cleaned tabletop. Notice my Unity handles just waiting for stamping and that black thing on the right is my mini-dvd player....so perfect for my table top.

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My newly re-organized shelves. These sit directly to the right of me when I am sitting at my table. That white thing on top is actually a medicine chest from Walmart that I bought to hold all of my Prima flowers...it's perfect!

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This is one of the main areas where I re-organized. This is a Martha Stewart kitchen island that I had in my kitchen in our last house and now it is a key place in my stamp room. It's counter high so is perfect when I want to work standing up. I have 2 work areas...the first was at that table and this is my second. I added these shelves to the top of this. I had found these great bookcases at World Market for $39 each a few weeks ago and bought several of them. This was an extra and by actually putting it on top of the island, it gives me so much more storage and organization! I love it.

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The little rectangular wire baskets are from Target's dollar spot (although they were $2.50 each) and I have my embellishments separated into them...one for bling, one for metal embellishments, one for journaling embellishments, and one for everything else.

The shopping style baskets (one big and one little) are from Hobby Lobby and I have had them a while (I buy lots of these kind of things when they put them on sale for 1/2 price.) The large one houses my alphabets and stickers and the little one has some more misc. items.

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This photo is taken from the island so you can kind of tell how the room is laid out. That table is a sewing table that I have probably had 15 years. It is only opened half way, and it provides another counter-level workspace if I need it, but I tend to use it as simply a place to pile paper and such.

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This wire shelving above here is actually made for laundry areas to go above a washer and dryer. It works so perfectly for this area and was only about $35. There is enough room for me also to pile my old Iris carts that hold older stamps and alterables in this space.

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Just another view of my main workspace. I keep most of my patterned papers stored in the closet, but a few favorites stay right at my feet that you can see here. And you wouldn't normally believe it, but that chandelier gives me the absolutely perfect lighting for working. I LOVE IT!

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Crumb! I just realized that a close-up of my new Unity storage isn't on here so I am going to have to add it and move it down here...I REALLY hope that doesn't screw up all the photo's clickability...

These are my Unity stamps (cling-mounted storage.) Before my re-org, this was a lot of that mess on the floor. Now it sits on the top of the sewing table just to the left of where I sit.

I have gone through several generations of how I store these.

1. To the right are my oldest Unity....they are stored on laminated cardstock in gallon sized ziploc bags stored in magazine holders

2. The green boxes are the document boxes that, sadly, Target discontinued. I loved these boxes and at $2 each, they were a huge bargain.

3. Now all of my clingmounted Unity go into folders into the Scraponizer boxes that Unity sells. You can see them here. They fit perfectly into this brown crate and as you can see, I still have several to fill... ;o)

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And that is my newly organized stamp room. Now I need to get in there and see how well I can create without the chaos...LOL!

My Blog Winner...

Angela announced yesterday that all of the DT blogs would have a winner for some fabulous Unity.

Congratulations, Cathy! You're my winner!!!

StampinCathy said...

What creative layouts. I just love the details of the pages. Thanks for sharing this priceless picture. I can't wait to see this on one of your super duper inspiring pages. Thanks for all the fabulous eye candy from all the hip hops.

12:48 PM

Email eryn@unitystampco.com with your mailing details and that you won from my blog.

It's our Last HIP HOP!!!

...at least in this format. The Unity crew is putting together a plan for all new fun. I can't wait to see what they have in store for us. But for today, we are going to enjoy this final hip hop!

Are you liking the sneaks of the new Sept KOM???

It's so darn cute, but we know that it could be nothing less!

Ben left for his five month (maybe longer) deployment so he was on my mind last night when I went to do my hip hop artwork for this week and this just came together....

I love that new little month stamp from the Sept kit...so much you can do with it. And hmmm, did I get some other kom stamps in this?!?

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Sept kit- Go Ahead Wish

*Unity Stamp Co. Frame This Alpha

*Unity Stamp Co. Sending my Love (August kom incentive)

*Daisy D's papers

*Fiskars border punch

*corner rounder

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And here is just a shot from yesterday at the airport that just pulls at my heart, so I thought that you might want to see. We were very lucky in that they let Kat & I see him off at the gate...a very simple little blessing....

Now you need to hop on over....

***Natalie's gorgeous blog***

A Better Me...

In March of 2006, I made a layout and list about the things that I wanted to accomplish by the time I was 40. At that point in time, I had 4 1/2 years to complete the list. Then, surprise! I got pregnant and a lot of that list simply went out the window with the re-focusing of my life to raise a baby/toddler.

As I just passed my 39th birthday, I thought that it was time for a new list. I have 1 year until I turn 40 and a lot of it will be spent as a single (sahm) parent. The trap in that is that it is so easy for life to become a pj life...no one else around to know that you didn't do anything all day so I thought some goals in life would be a good thing and created a layout so that I would have a written record of those goals.

I will list the things written on here so that you don't have to strain to see all the journaling. They aren't in any sort of order...basically in the order that I wrote them down (it took about a month to come up with the list.)

1. write a book (I think that this is just a good goal for me...to accomplish something BIG!)

2. self-publish that book (I want to do something very custom and artsy)

3. 135 lbs (I am not so sure that this is attainable since I have been exercising 6 times a week and eating really healthy) so I would be happy with a size 8 jean that's comfortable.

4. artwork published in a US magazine

5. est. a good working weekly routine (ie. Mondays- dust; Tuesdays-wash sheets; etc.)

6. repeat my 12 Days of Christmas this year on the blog

7. Create an inspiration board (I have plans here that hopefully I will be sharing soon)

8. create monthly inspiration stash (I love the way Mish creates inspiration stations and want to recreate the idea.)

9. Maintain my weekly exercise routine

10. Submit to magazines weekly

11. Become part of another DT ( I am really thinking some sort of sketch team...I don't want to do anything that competes with Unity.)

12. Mail all birthday cards at least a week in advance of birthdays (this is something that I am AWFUL about and there is NO EXCUSE with the amount of cards that I make each month.)

13. Finish my daily to-do lists.

14. Work on my photography skills weekly

15. send out 4 RAK's/month

16. prep calendar books a year in advance

17. reduce, reuse, recycle- Simplify!!!

18. make stamp room more workable

19. create every single day

20. picnic with the kids more

21. eat healthy

22. read the Harry Potter books

23. read 3 literary classics

24. learn a new skill

25. be friendlier/more outgoing (I struggle with being an introvert and being comfortable around people that I don't know very well.)

26. jump in puddles more

27. get a haircut (I know, this may seem like a strange one, but I haven't had my hair professionally cut since Kat was about a week and a half old so I thought that it would be a good goal for the year.)

28. control the piles in the house

29. Make more gifts.

30. get all of my layouts into albums (this goes along nicely with #28)

31. Organize my cards (also goes along well with #28)

32. Write more letters

33. Make more phone calls (this is that introvert thing again...it's so much easier just to not make chitchat...I need to be better about staying in touch.)

34. Make calling cards (I just have an infatuation with calling cards and want to play with the art this year.)

35. Mail Christmas cards (one of my major downfalls this past year- I will get them made AND sent this year!)

36. declutter

37. organize my submission process (harkens back to #4 and #10)

38. draw more (I used to be fairly artistic...I would like to find that skill again.)

39. stretch myself out of my comfort zone

40. More quality time with the kids (i.e. less time playing on facebook...LOL!)

41. Conquer my Mac computer (yes, I still have issues!)

42. sew more (I used to sew all my clothes and I have no desire to go back to that, but I would like to be friendlier with my sewing machine on a regular basis for fun things.)

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And that's my to-do list for the next year, esp. the next 5 months. It should keep me busy to pass the time quickly, right?!?

And just real quick, here are the supply details for the layout...

supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Frame this alpha

*Unity Stamp Co. Confession: i luv Unity

*Unity Stamp Co. Bevy of Butterflies

*MM paper and trim

*decorative file folder

*Tattered Angels chipboard and glimmer mist

*flat-backed pearls

*Bazzill kraft cardstock

*MME paper (dark pink)

*Fiskars border punch

Sketchy cards...

I've taken a bit of playtime with my stamps this week to explore some of the card sketches out there on the net...

First up, is a version of this week's CPS sketch (#129.) This card is way out of my comfortable color range, but I wanted to work with these gorgeous Autumn Leaves papers...LOL!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Stylin Stars

*Autumn Leaves papers

*watercolor pencils (blue accents on stamped images)

*Marvy Uchida circle stamps

*Martha Stewart border punch

*ribbon

*StazOn inkpad

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Then on this card, I used another one of this week's 100th sketch celebration (MOJOSARAH from yesterday) from the Mojo Monday blog.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Le Chic Vintage (available Sept 1)

*Basic Grey paper collection

*brads

*ribbon

*Fiskars border punch

*Memories inkpad

That's it for now. I have some other things to share and hope to find time for some blogging this weekend, but I am not promising anything...

It's a Scrapbooking Kind of Hip-Hop!!!

ETA, Congratulations Kristen! email eryn@unitystampco.com and let her know your mailing info and that you won the kit Growing in Unity...

Kristin Y (jinchris2003@yahoo.com) said...

Love the journaling tags and layout. I love Unity Stampsets! Thanks for the chance to win.

4:27 PM

Well, are you drooling over this new scrapbooking kit, Le Chic Vintage, yet?!?!

I cannot tell you how fabulous it is...so PERFECTLY my style!!!

I am even more excited that you are getting a sneak peek of it (even though it won't be available until September) because that means I can play with it and SHARE!!! I have been dying to play with this kit ever since I got it.

I did manage to get a couple of projects done with it. First, of course, has to be the layout...

This is one of those photos that was pure luck, but I knew that it was a winner as soon as I saw it in my camera window. Kat has amazing eyes...everyone comments on them that meets her, but her eyelashes are just as incredible and I love that this photo highlights them while also showing her Princess Personality. ;o)

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Company Le Chic Vintage

*Unity Stamp Co. Frame this Alpha ("Princess" and "Kat")

*Memory Box paper

*Prima bling

*Memories inkpad

*Fiskars border punch

*ribbon

*buttons

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I finished up the layout fairly late last night, but I just had to put together a quick card to show off another one of these fabulous images (and I think that this one is my favorite one of the bunch.) The best way to put together a card quickly is to use a sketch and one of my favorite card sketch sites is Mojo Monday. This week they are celebrating their 100th sketch with a new sketch every day. I used Tuesday's sketch for my card, MOJOMARIA...

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Le Chic Vintage

*Cosmo Cricket Earth Love collection

*various border punches (fiskars & martha stewart)

*SU celery ribbon

*brads

*corner rounder

*Memories brown inkpad

And you have reached the end of today's Blog Hop.

Leave a comment here and you might win one of my favorite kits ever...

***Growing in Unity***

The winner will be announced in the SCS Unity forum around 8:00 CST tonight.

Just a quick share today...

I got this Unity Hauntingly Sweet kit a few weeks ago and just haven't gotten the chance to get it inky enough. Then I got in these new Pink Paislee papers and knew exactly what I wanted to do...

Just a super quick and simple card...

Supplies used:

*Unity Hauntingly Sweet kit

*Pink Paislee Twilight paper collection

*flat backed pearls

*brads

*corner rounder

*ribbon

*string

*StazOn jet black inkpad

I hope to be back tomorrow finally with my 39th birthday layout...

hmmm, where did I disappear to???

I didn't go anywhere.

I have needed to blog for 3 days.

I have had the projects done, just not the time to sit down and organize my thoughts.

We are on the final countdown for Ben leaving us for 5 months on his deployment, so right now I am making family life an absolute priority over everything else. It will probably be like this until the middle of next week. He flies out on the 26th so bear with me. After that I am gonna have all the time in the world (aside from doing the single parent thing) so I will probably be blogging tons!

This is the layout that I mentioned last hip-hop using that cute new Sending My Love incentive kit. When I first saw it, I knew that I was going to be using it tons in the near future. I see many cards heading Ben's way using this kit!

The photo is one of Ben that I took on Spring Break. It's on here simply because I love this photo of him. You can use a generic photo (i.e. not associated with any certain event) for layouts on this that focus on a whole-life-event.

I stamped the mailbox and the Air Force badge onto a paper that is NOT camoflauge, but I think that it takes on that look for the layout. I was completely surprised by that when I did it...one of those lucky flukes!

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Sending my Love (free when you sign up for the kit of the month this month!)

*Unity Stamp Co. Frame that Alpha ("deployment")

*Unity Stamp Co. Unity in America (Memory Making Crafts Exclusive kit)- Air Force badge and "courage"

*Unity Stamp Co. Confession: I love Unity

*MME papers (red and green)

*October Afternoon papers

*watercolor pencils

*string

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Happy Hip Hop!!!

It's 8:48 am and I have been working on getting this post started for over an hour and a half. I keep getting distracted by all the shiny fun things on the internet this morning. hehe!

Happy Hip Hop Everyone!!!

I absolutely adore the kit that we are focusing on today, Sending My Love! If you are not a Unity Stamp Co. Kit of the month member, when you join this month, you get this incentive kit for FREE!!! You gotta just LOVE that!

The image in this kit is adorable,

but those sentiments are absolute MUST HAVES...so perfect!!!

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For my project using this kit today, I used the sketch that Amber posted on Monday, #USCSC19. It's been sitting on my desk all week and I finally figured out how to make it work for what I was creating. I just flipped it over!

I stamped the mailbox image onto some MM ledger paper and then paper-pieced the mailbox and added some watercolor pencil touches and of course, used my favorite new line of paper...Basic Grey's Raspberry Lemonade!

Supplies Used:

*Unity Stamp Co. Sending My Love

*Basic Grey Raspberry Lemonade paper collection

*MM ledger paper

*Memories brown inkpad

*watercolor pencils

*Marvy Uchida scallop circle punch

*ribbon

*brads

I have a layout started using this kit too, but I didn't quite get it finished for today's post. I hope to have it done and up for Hip Hop Hangover tomorrow so be sure to check back!

Now you need to hop on over to....

***Amber's Incredible Blog!***