If it’s March, it must be Calvinball…

Posted in Documenting Life, Make Stuff, Memory Keeping, Project life, Scrapbooking by

Oh hello March…I have no idea where February went, even with that extra day it all zooms by super crazy fast!   So busy making stuff and chauffeuring teenagers, no time to post!

Last month, I participated in the Layout A Day Challenge, which overlapped a little with my own personal Layout A Day for Lent challenge… well, I did do 29 layouts in February and there are 29 days…so for the purposes of February, I’m calling it good.

This month is Calvinball at Get It Scrapped (HERE is the link to the forum to learn all about it and join the fun)… true to the game from Calvin and Hobbes, it’s a game with moving targets for rules and the objective is to have fun and see how many scrapbook pages you can make, and how many extra points for other things (1-point for scrapping with the color purple) you can manage.  The rules are suggested by everyone and the list grows longer every day.  It is a ton of fun and completely hilarious.

My first two days in March were busy with sewing and website work so today was the first day I was able to sit down and work on layouts (after helping my bestie clean out her craft room all day!)…. I managed three layouts for our 2014 Project Life scrapbook (for 2014 I did one two page layout per week).  It’s kind of funny that I’ve finished our 2015 book and still have 2014 laying around but I am determined to finish it up this week !   A few quick snaps, shot at night with terrible lighting on my iPhone with no attempt at fancy photography, just documenting the documenting!

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Week #42:  October….sports, sports, sports…Dad visiting, Lunch with my bestie Janet, quick trip to Maine to see progress on my sisters house and drop Dad off.  Labyrinth at church (super cool)

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Week #43:  October…oh yes more sports, bad storm, Dad back at our house, Spooky Sprint, Spooky World, Dinner with Tina & John

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Week #44:  October/November…So sad Mayor Menino passed away, the best Mayor Boston has had, what a great man.  Dad here beginning of the week, fun medical stuff, Halloween, projects done and it’s November!

I will be so happy when this is done because I’ve already started 2016 HA!

 

Memory Keeping:: Layout Share

Posted in Digital Scrapbooking, Documenting Life, Layouts, Memory Keeping, Scrapbooking by

Happy Playoff Sunday!  AS of the last minute of the 4th quarter, the Patriots are not looking so good 😦

The upside is I’ve been doing some digi-scrapping and wanted to share with all of you!

As you all may (or may not) know, I am on the Creative Team for Little Feet Digital Designs.  This year, Janet has started a kit / prompt series called “52 Narratives”  more info to come but wanted to share the first few layouts I’ve done using the kits and prompts.  All are available at Janet’s shop at PickleBerryPop

I am thinking of having a photo book made with all of these layouts at the end of the year, we’ll see but I think it would be neat to have something in a bound book (I usually have my layouts printed then put them in page protectors in scrapbook albums along with my paper layouts)

Cover:

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(uses 3 kits:  New Year Narratives,  52 Narratives – January – Week 1,  52 Narratives – January – Week 2)

Week 1:

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(kit:  52 Narratives – January – Week 1)

Week 2:

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(kit:  52 Narratives – January – Week 2)

And a bonus layout not related to the above project…. I had this photo I took at Squam Art Workshops this fall and I’ve been waiting for the right way to scrap it… think I found it.

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aaand still working on my December Daily book, working on finishing up a few Project Life albums aaand starting work on PL 2016.  I’m excited about finishing up projects  !!!

What did you work on this weekend?  I have a few more layouts up my sleeve and some digital supply organization before Downton Abbey later tonite!

Happy Sunday!

 

Making-Modern Half Square Triangle Quilt Along

Posted in Craft, Fiber fun, In the Studio, Make Stuff, Quilts, Sew this by

I’ve been broadening my podcast horizons lately and have started listening to the “Modern Sewciety” podcast and I love it, Stephanie has such a lovely way of chatting with her guests about quilting and the quilt world (which I admittedly do not know much about).  I have made a number of quilts over the years but would not consider myself a “quilter” because, well, I didn’t use an established pattern, I made everything up and made my own patterns. And, I don’t quilt as in put the three layers together and hand stitch them on a quilting frame the size of my dining room table…no thank you.  I have quilted smaller quilts on my home sewing machine, tied a number of larger quilts and sent one out to Nebraska to be machine quilted, hmmm funny still didn’t consider myself a quilter. Well, I guess that is all about to change with this quilt-a-long I heard about on Stephanie’s podcast a few weeks ago.   I’m embarking on the Modern Half Square Triangle (HST) Quilt Along this year courtesy of  Alyce  at  Blossom Heart Quilts .

2 blocks per month x 12 months will equal enough squares for a nice sized quilt.  I’ve pulled fabrics from my stash and purchased just a few pieces to round out the color palette, I’ve also purchased a light grey fabric with white printing that will be the background fabric in each block, I am waiting until the top is done to decide on the sashing and binding fabrics.

QAL Fabric Pull

Aren’t they pretty?!  I went with very highly saturated colors for the most part which I think will give some nice contrast against the background.

QAL-block 1

Aaanndd….here is my first block!  Yay!  I have had that dark blue fabric for YEARS!  I’ve been hoarding it as it’s one of my all-time favorites but now it has found it’s perfect home as part of the new quilt!  The block is a little rough around the edges as I need to “true” the block up, I’m waiting to do that until I purchase a 12.5″ square ruler specifically to that task.  But it’s done!  It didn’t take forever!  It didn’t make a huge mess!  Everything went back onto the shelf until it’s time for the next block!  Win Win Win!

What have you been making this weekend?!

 

Memory Keeping:: Layout Share

Posted in Digital Scrapbooking, Documenting Life, Layouts, Memory Keeping, Scrapbooking by

Happy Friday everyone!

A quick post to share two digi-layouts I’ve been working on and finally finished!

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I’ve unofficially dubbed this one “Pumpkin Carry”  this photo of my nephew and my daughter makes my heart sing.  Love the two of them together, and they were so little back then!  This layout was a multi-year layout ha ha!  Started in 2015, finished in 2016.

Kit:  Enchanted Woodland Forest   /  Template:  AOAT #2 by Little Feet Digital Designs.

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I thought this photo of Saint Chappell from our trip to Paris would be perfect for these papers.  It is an amazing place, like being inside a jewel box!  Wanted to make sure I had really big photo featured for this design and I’m really happy with how it came out.

Kits:  All That Glitters is Gold and Stained Era by Little Feet Digital Designs.

Thanks for stopping by… More digi layouts in the works, as well as working on December Daily from 2015 and catching up on Project Life albums.  What are you working on this weekend?

 

1/14: The Big Gray Pot

Posted in Around Here, Cooking, Creative Practice by

Happy Middle of January !

Winter had finally arrived here in New England.  It’s cold, it snowed (not enough to really shovel but enough to look pretty), the sun is out and it’s cold.  Just the kind of weather for hearty yummy carb-laden goodies made in the Big Gray Pot.

This week (so far) I made risotto with shrimp and peas.   Risotto is one of those dishes that everyone in the house loves, but I kind of forget about when I’m thinking of things to make.  It is super easy, I use the basic recipe from an old, old Williams Sonoma “Risotto” cookbook.  There is half an hour of minding the pot on the stove as you add the chicken stock but easy to do while you are puttering around the kitchen making salad or cleaning up.  Add to that peas in the freezer and frozen cooked shrimp on sale at MarketBasket and it’s risotto for the win!

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The night I made it was my basketball carpool night, after the risotto was finished, I put the lid on and put it in a 200 degree oven to stay warm while I picked up and dropped off hoop stars.  I’ve never “held” risotto in the oven like that before and I think were I to do it again, I’d add a little extra water on the top to keep it moist.  The rice kept sucking up the cooking liquid and wasn’t dry but not quite as creamy.

Hope you try something like this, I love the fact that I can cook something on the stove and then hold it in a warm oven rather than letting it get cold and them microwaving to heat up later.

Have a great day everyone!!