My Summer CHA 2010 Wish List

Instead of brooding about the fact that I couldn't go to Chicago this summer (okay, so maybe I'm brooding just a teensy bit!), I thought I'd take the opportunity to do a little window shopping and highlight my top five must haves from the sneaks I've seen thus far. October Afternoon is a given, so I will skip right over that and give you my non-October Afternoon list:

1. Cosmo Cricket Togetherness: What can I say? I'm a sucker for cute, colorful, and whimsical!

2. Jenni Bowlin Chipboard Holiday Buttons: Vintage Yumminess! I think the Halloween ones are my favorite. I think I'm going to need at least two sets of each.

3. Studio Calico Elementary: As an educator, I am a sucker for all things school-themed. How cute are those composition book journaling cards?

4. Jillibean Soup Pasta Fagioli: Again with the bright colors. I love the camera paper and the film paper!

5. Basic Grey Wander: Travel. If you didn't catch my layouts on the Write.Click.Scrapbook. blog here, take a peek and you'll know why I need Wander!

So, there you have it, my top five. If you want to catch a glimpse of CHA, tune in to the Write.Click.Scrapbook. blog this week for updates from Emily and Paula.

Seaside Sneak Peek

With one set of grandparents walking distance from the Atlantic Ocean and the other set walking distance from the Pacific, we have countless photos of time at the beach. Therefore, I am thrilled that October Afternoon has released a beach-themed line: Seaside. I've been playing around with it for the last couple of days:

The keepsake bottles were a super-quick and fun project. See below for close-up photo and instructions:

1. Remove labels and adhesive from a Frappucino bottle (or another similarly-sized bottle).

2. Using a 1 3/4" circle punch, punch a circle from October Afternoon Seaside Boardwalk patterned paper and adhere to top of bottle cap.

3. Adhere an October Afternoon Seaside Shape Sticker to white cardstock and trim around the edges of the shape.

4. Punch a small hole at the top of the cardstock-backed shape sticker.

5. Thread a 10" length of jute through the hole in the cardstock-backed shape sticker and tie it around the neck of the bottle.

6. Fill the bottle with shells, sea glass, etc. (either collected at the beach or purchased at a craft store) and you're done!

A Fun Little Card

 I finally conquered the zig zag stitch! :)
 

October Afternoon Patterned Papers, Sticker, and Wild Card; Maya Road Trinket Pins

Seaside!

October Afternoon's newest line, Seaside, is set to release soon. I can't wait to play with it!

Wild Cards:

Papers:

 

Stickers:

 

Stamps:

Flashcard Book:

Be sure to check the October Afternoon website for additional images...coming soon!

Big News! Very Big News!

I am one of the newest members of Write. Click. Scrapbook.! I was so honored and thrilled to be asked to join! It's early morning and I'm off to work, but I just had to share. Be sure to head on over to check out the June gallery!

Money Matters

Yesterday, while I was working on re-formatting my blog, Sadie asked me, "Is your wallet in your purse, Mommy?" I responded with a distracted, "Yes," not really thinking through why she might have been asking me that. A minute later, Sadie approached me with a one-dollar bill and asked if she could have it. "Sure!" I replied. Sadie ran off screaming to Eli, "We're rich! We're rich! We're rich! You said we're poor but now we're rich!"

If only it were that easy...

Sadie has clearly not learned a lot from recent bank visits! While the kids have had accounts since birth at our regular bank, last month we took them to a local bank designed just for kids and opened accounts that we hope they will use regularly. They've gone in both April and May, and if they also go in June they will each get a free piggy bank!

Patterned paper: Sassafrass (numbers, cream grid, scalloped-edge), October Afternoon (green grid)
Corrugated letters and numbers: Jillibean Soup
Rub-on: October Afternoon (green star)

Hello Blog Readers, Remember Me?

Thought I'd fallen off the face of the earth, right? Well, things got upended a bit at the end of February. Nothing horrible, just stressful.

Long story short, to keep our kids in school together we have to move one neighborhood over by early August. School choice is a great idea when the school you want to send your child to is not a highly coveted school. School choice turns out to be a not-so-great idea when, three years later, the school has turned into a highly coveted school and there are no spots for non-neighborhood kids. We know that Sadie will be fine at our neighborhood school (which is a great school), but we'd prefer to have our kids together, both for the shared experience and for the removal of the logistical nightmare of two different pick-ups and drop-offs at two different locations and sets of times.

So...with putting the house on the market, blogging and scrapbooking have kind of gone by the wayside. I have squeezed in some scrap time here and there, including time to create a layout for Celeste's article in Scrapbook Ellaments (scroll down to see mine). I've also managed to fit in a few other layouts, I'll share three here:

"S is a Swing"

Patterned paper, wild card, journaling card, and "tree swing" sticker: October Afternoon
Buttons: Jenni Bowlin (these are my new addiction)
Baker's twine: Martha Stewart


"Vacation"
Patterned paper, stickers, journaling card (handcut bird on a branch): October Afternoon
Chipboard letters: American Crafts
Circle punch: EK Success


"Vintage Dad"
Patterned paper, flashcard, stickers: October Afternoon
Foam letters: American Crafts

Now that I'm back, I am hopeful that the spiffy new look to my blog (thanks, Paula, for helping me out with that!) will keep me motivated to post more often! (The long weekend should also help with that!)