SFTIO sneak peeks

The December kit from Scrapbooking From the Inside Out will be revealed this Saturday. I can't believe it is almost December!
So I have a few peeks at three of the layouts I completed using the new kit.

You can also see some additional peeks by other team members here.
I just have to say that I really enjoyed doing these three layouts, despite the top one was a bit of a tough topic. Being on the Scrapbooking From the Inside Out design team has really stretched me in terms of my journaling. And that is something that I really wanted to work on. In the past six months, I have really found myself truly thinking about what I want to say. And I have told stories, I never thought I would get around to telling.
And that is why deciding not to stay on the team for the next term was a truly hard decision. I debated for several days and even almost changed my mind a few times. :) I have enjoyed working with everyone involved and will miss the team! But this just feels like the right choice at this time.

When I started out trying to *break in to the publishing and design team world*, it wasn't easy. There are a lot of amazing and talented scrapbookers all trying to do the same thing.
So I set a few goals for myself. The first was having one of my layouts published in a magazine. Happy to say that is a goal I have accomplished a few times.
As far as design teams, I wanted to try and experience a different variety of teams. Such as a local scrapbook store (For Keep's Sake), an on-line store (Scrapgal), a challenge blog (Craft Your Nest) and a kit club (SFTIO). The bonus was an on-line magazine (Crafting Ireland). Each team has been such a blessing. And I have met and stayed in touch with so many of the women from these teams.

My final goal is to try and make a manufacturer team. This is going to be my scrapbooking focus for the next year. Although I won't just try out for a manufacturer just to be on a manufacturer team. I am only going to submit for teams that I really love their product or think I would be a good fit.

In addition to possibly getting back into teaching by subbing which is really exciting for me!
So I am looking forward to 2013 and meeting a few more goals.

I guess we will see. :)

A Little Peek or Two

That was a nice little blog break :)
And Thanksgiving went pretty well, too.
We were super, super busy with family time,
and got zip done on the closet project.
But now I am back to routine and the kids have a full week of school.

I do want to share peeks at the two projects I just finished creating for
Crafting Ireland magazine's upcoming issue coming out on January 1st.

and...

So you will see these after the New Year. And while that may seem far off, I know it will be here way too quickly! I mean we have less than a month until Christmas and I haven't even started thinking about that!

I did finally buy us some new bedding today. I mean we have had the same Pottery Barn quilt for ages and ages. I love that quilt, but it is looking pretty ragged. So with the sale at Crate & Barrel, we invested in this one...

The colors are perfect for our room. There is a pretty maroon color in there which we are going to get a blanket for under the duvet to add a pop of color. Plus the green goes perfectly with our wall color.
I with our windows looking out onto the park across the street, it is going to be a nice relaxing addition to our bedroom.


Well, keeping this short today. I will be back on Thursday with either a layout (I am hoping) or my Scrapbooking From the Inside Out kit peeks. Not sure which yet :)

Memorial

Sharing my final layout for the month using the November Mindfulness kit by Scrapbooking From the Inside Out

I actually did use only product from the kit which contained mostly aqua, white, orange and peach colors. It's amazing what one little navy blue ink pad can do to change things up. Especially to the Pink Paislee resistable paper that is matting my journal block and the aqua chipboard letters by American Crafts. :)

Once again, I was inspired by the quote die cut from the Teresa Collins "Tell Your Story Line"

That second one from the bottom. I had not originally intended on doing a page like this. But when the kit came and I saw those quotes, I thought of these photos. The Memorial site was definitely a place to be mindful and present.

Journaling:
Words cannot begin to describe how moving the Sept.11th Memorial at the Art Museum in 2011 was to us.
When we arrived, just seeing the number of flags (one for each life lost) was overwhelming.
The only sound was a quiet flapping of the flags as a breeze blew around us. All of the visitors walked among the flags reading the labels on the poles with the names of the victims.
I think for the first time, Evan really understood what happened that day. And I felt a sadness for the families of those who lost loved ones because of such hatred. 

As for my closet organization project which I talked about on this post, I have definitely made progress. Did not make my Sunday deadline, but getting pretty sick on Thursday set me back. I was pretty much out for the whole day.
But you can see here that my huge pile in Erin's room is a lot smaller.

(and getting some cute baskets for Erin's toy shelf is next on the list!)
So smaller pile, lots of things thrown out or recycled, and...

I know it still looks a bit messy inside, but I am on the verge of getting everything into it's spot! I organized my photos about two years ago, but they needed some help again. So I feel like I am in a good spot as far as photo boxes go!

So almost there! I knew it was going to be a huge project and take a lot of time. Which is why I procrastinated for so long!

As for blogging, I have a post going up over at Craft Your Nest tomorrow for Thanksgiving. Otherwise, I am taking off until next week for the holidays.
If you celebrate Thanksgiving here in the States...Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Today...

I am sharing another layout created using the November Mindfulness kit by Scrapbooking From the Inside Out.

Journaling:
I have been struggling a little bit lately. Trying to figure out who I am besides being a wife and mom. And I know that it may not be huge or life changing, but I want to go back to teaching preschool eventually.
The day to day things I do are important. But sometimes I feel I want to do more.
And as Evan and Erin get older, there is going to come a time when I will need something more.
I love being a stay at home mom. It's not always easy or gets the respect it deserves. But it is a job I embrace and am grateful for every day!
I am enjoying this time with my kids, but I have to look to the future just a little. And I know that teaching is where I will want to be.
But for now, I am a wife and mom who loves to stay home and spend time with family and friends. A woman who understands what is most important for our family.
But also a woman who has dreams for the future.

I was inspired to create this layout by two of the little die cut quote cards from Teresa Collin's "Tell Your Story" line that came with the kit.

"In this life we cannot always do great things, but we can do small things with great love"
                                                                                    - Mother Theresa -
"It is NEVER too late to be what you might have been."
                                                                                    - George Elliot -

The rest of the frames forming the border down the left side were cut from a piece of patterned paper from that same line.

This layout is also featured on the Creating Keepsakes blog along with layouts by the other design team members and a chance to win the November kit

You can see the post and leave a comment HERE.

Also, Scrapbooking From the Inside Out is having a design team call. The deadline is November 28th and you can see all the details here!

Now that the basement remodel is moving along at a fast pace, I was inspired by fellow blogger Tracy who is "defunkifying" her house one step at a time. It was this post here that convinced me it was time to finally clean out the messiest area in our house. The closet in Erin's room. It has been a holding place for tons of junk as you can see...

This is just a portion of what was stuffed in that closet. And now it's in Erin's room waiting to be sorted, tossed or kept.

This is still in there. Cabinet on top holds scrap stuff and drawers below hold scrap stuff in top drawer and bills and paperwork in the bottom drawer.

And then there is this. Sorting through all of the cd's and Dvd's for keepers and giveaways. Plus packing up all of the CD's that have already been downloaded to itunes. Found a few gems in there I had forgotten about and can't wait to listen to again!

And lastly, this side. It's a nice sized closet. Especially with all the shelves Mike put in. But you can imagine how crammed it was with stuff from that first picture. Now I can actually walk in it. And the goal is to clear at least half for Erin's stuff, so I have a lot of purging to do!

If I get it done by Sunday, I will be happy.
Because I am also working on this project with Evan at the same time.

Project Lego sort by color...

We are getting there slowly but surely. The boy has a lot of Legos. And I do mean a lot!
That first photo is only about 1/4 of what he has.

So as you can see, I am one busy girl with all of my sorting and organizing :)
I'll be back next week with my last SFTIO layout for the month.
Have a great weekend!

 

  

Issue 14 for Crafting Ireland Magazine...

is out!

And I have a layout with a small step by step tutorial starting on page 12 :)
Here is a link to the magazine Issue 14!

They are also having a design team call which you can see on pages 4-5. The deadline for the call is January 14th. So if you are looking for a fun design team that only asks for two projects every six weeks, this is a good magazine to work for. Timi and Nicole really have a fantastic thing going here :)

Here is my two page winter layout being featured in the magazine. I go into a little more detail in the article. With all of the devastation and destruction I have seen caused by Hurricane Sandy, it makes the power outage from this ice storm in 2006 seem not so bad. Kind of puts things in perspective for me.

One of the things I love about designing for Crafting Ireland is that I am able to use product I have on hand to create my projects. So everything on this layout, with the exception of the gray striped washi tape at the bottom, has been in my scrapbook stash for a while! Love using all of that up :)

Tomorrow I will have a post up at Craft Your Nest and will be back here Thursday with another layout to share! 

My Friend

Welcome,Thursday! I am not one to talk much about politics with others, but I did vote on Tuesday :) I did my research and felt pretty confident about my choices.
Now that the election is over, I am hoping and praying that these next four years are going to be better for our country!

Enough politics! On to scrapbooking :)
When I found out the theme for the November kit by Scrapbooking From the Inside Out, Mindfulness, of course one of the first things that came to mind was yoga. And the idea for my "Mind Racing" page from my last post, was a no-brainer for me.
But after that I was seriously stumped. So I googled mindfullness and actually discovered a few pretty helpful sites. One of them is here. "Mindfulness exercises to relieve stress."
The other site, Mindfulness.com, is more of a blog with lots of great ideas and thoughts on mindfullness. And this is the place where I found something written on "mindful friendship" which stated that a mindful friends practices "loving speech and compassionate listening."
Right away that struck a chord with me and made me think of my friend Bridget. She is the very definition of loving speech and compassionate listening!

I have known Bridget for over ten years now and in that time we have become great friends. Our children are close and I am grateful for her is so many ways.

Journaling:
I was so blessed on the day Bridget and I became friends. We officially met while we were each separately out walking in the neighborhood with our baby boys in carriers. And immediately a friendship was born! 
Through Bridget, I have learned that true friends can have different ideas, thoughts and feelings, but still not let that get in the way of friendship.
She is what I would call a "miindful" friend because she has perfected the art of "loving speech" and
"compassionate listening". When I talk, I truly feel that she is listening. And when she talks, I truly feel the kindness and love in her words. I treasure our friendship because she gives great advice and is a calming presence in my life. And I hope I am that kind of friend to her as well.

Have you created any layouts about the friendships in your life?

Time Is Flying!

So today I am going to share a nice calm layout that may slow things down a bit :)

Created using the November Mindfullness kit by Scrapbooking From the Inside Out.

Journaling:
I began doing yoga in 1998 as a way to help me relax and deal with stress after being in a really bad car accident. I was having panic attacks and just feeling sick to my stomach all of the time. A friend of mine recommended yoga to help me learn to breathe, so I bought a beginning yoga video to get me started. And my friend was right! Whenever I did yoga, I found myself feeling calmer and more relaxed.
Fast forward several years when my kids were born. Yoga wasn't quite as relaxing for me. I would try and go through a routine, but the constant interruptions threw me off! And whenever I tried to get up before the kids to fit in a workout, they would decide to wake up early, too.
Last fall though, I had a wonderful yoga experience. When Mike and I traveled up to Muskogee Canada for our anniversary trip, the resort offered a free yoga and pilates class. Only a few students showed up, so it was the perfect class size. The teacher was fabulous and very laid back. Once again I found the calmness and peace I knew yoga could provide.
Now that both kids are in school full time, I am able to fit a little of my quiet yoga time in after they leave. Some time to relax and just breathe.

For  me, yoga is the perfect exercise in mindfullness :)
And it was important for me that this layout stayed simple, because simple gives me such a calm feeling these days!

In other scrapbook news, I have a layout published in ScrapStreet magazine for November. One of their last issues :(
You can see my layout here on page eight for the "Black and White" article.

And better late than never, a few photos from Halloween.

Evan's favorite pumpkin.

Our spooky animated witch who talks and stirs her pot when people approach :)

The gang! Evan didn't have his costume on yet. And decided not to go trick or treating, but stay back at the house with me while Erin trick or treated with her friends and Mimi. This was the first year Mike had to be out of town for Halloween which was a bummer!

Erin and her best friend! His mom and I are saving all these photos from when they are younger for the wedding ;)

All in all, it was a pretty good Halloween. Although the kids had school the next day and we are use to having the day off. So it was a little rough getting up and going :)

As for blogging, I think between now and New Year's I will most likely be putting up posts here on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It seems to fit in the best with my schedule right now. And I will still do Wednesday posts at Craft Your Nest. So I will back on Thursday. Thanks for stopping by!

November

Hope everyone who celebrated had a great Halloween! We really did thanks to friends and neighbors. Despite Mike having to be out of town. Although we did miss him and it just wasn't the same!
I will have some photos to share on Monday. Just didn't have time last night to get it all together :)

Now since it is November, I have a layout to share with you from the new November kit by Scrapbooking From the Inside Out.

I think this is a page that a lot of women can relate to on a daily basis! The "Mindfullness" theme of the kit this month, immediately made me think of how I feel like I am always thinking ahead these days. Not feeling relaxed and in the moment, but thinking of the next item I need to check off on my to do list!

Journaling:
Not quite sure why, but I do know that these days my mind is continually racing. Whatever I am doing, I feel as if I am continually thinking into the future about what needs to be done. What can I cross off my to do list? I am afraid I will forget to do something important. And it's driving me crazy!

Back in the days before kids, I would go for long walks for exercise in our neighborhood after work. Just relaxed and focused on the walk. But these days, that isn't the case. Listening to music on my ipod does help a bit, but I still find myself wanting to hurry up my workout so I can get on to the next thing.

I feel fragmented. Like I need to be in a million places at once. I am trying to multi task and do too many things at the same time. And not doing any of them well!

There is the closet in Erin's room that has needed cleaning out and organizing for a year now. I want to go through each room of the house and figure out what we should get rid of and what we should keep. The house continually needs cleaning and upkeep. School for the kids involves overseeing homework, paperwork, checks to be written and more! There is so much to do and it seems less time to do it.

I just want to slow down a bit and not wish the days or time away. I want our family to be able to relax and enjoy time together. And I want to be focused in the present more than I am.

There has to be a way to slow this down and not always feel like I am racing towards a finish line!

That little light bulb embellishment on there is by Prima Marketing.
I have to admit that I was a little thrown by them at first. And then I thought of light bulbs and how they appear over cartoon characters heads when they get an idea :) Which made me think of thinking and the mind. So I decided to use one for this particular page. Although I decided to try and scrape off the letters because I received two and neither of the words really worked with my page. I discovered that it was indeed possible to just scrape off the word with my fingernail and have a plain light bulb which I like very much!

The yellow chevron paper is a resistable paper by Pink Paislee that I just colored with stamping ink.
And the instagram photo was taken on a walk down my street to the mailbox one day. And I thought it worked well with my journaling :)

And here is the November kit over at SFTIO. Lots of Teresa Collins and Cosmo Cricket with a little Studio Calico, Glitz and Prima thrown in :) You can see more photos and the list of contents here! :)


I hope you have a wonderful, relaxing weekend! Ours shouldn't be quite as crazy as last weekend. But you just never know :)