life is beautiful

it really is! i have had an amazing visit with my mom. she is in town from CA this weekend (hence the absence from the 'ol blog). i try to stay really aware of my blessings...all the time. to continually look around me and see the abundance and sweetness of it all. for example, my entryway:

i love this. all the essentials of everyday life gather here. my purse: essential! my camera bag: totally essential - to me! my scriptures: very essential, but i don't refer to them as often as i should! shoes, hats, gloves, scarves, etc. all essential.

okay, then there's this guy. see him up there!! love him so much. he is absolutely essential to my happiness. :) dang, he makes me laugh and love my life!

and of course these guys too. my heartstrings. my breath and reason for just about every choice i make these days. isn't it amazing how kids will do that for you?? my dog, sammy, is also essential to me. he heals and loves and protects me. couldn't do without him!

my life............is SO...........BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

happiest of monday evenings to you! :)

quote collector

i am a collector of quotes. and i use them frequently in either scrap pages, cards i make, or art journals. i post them up all around me. they remind me to give thanks, smile, and love deeper. my mother-in-law called me the other night and asked me if i would make a card for a friend of hers that just had a heart and lung transplant. she said it needed to be really, really, really special. no pressure, right? so that night i got on a quote website and tried to find the perfect quote to uplift and bring her hope. the card pictured above is what i came up with. man, i hope it lives up to her expectations! but, then again, we are always our own worse critics! and that's never been truer than in my case.
so if anyone out there has any cool quotes, or links to quote websites, please SHARE with me!! i will be ever so grateful :)

before and after...

before his first haircut.......





after:

we waited for so long to cut his hair because it took sooo long for him to GET hair! then once he did, all of a sudden it got long in weird places. then it got dreamily curly. one of my favorite things to do is to kiss his soft little curls. so i was reluctant to cut his hair for fear i would be cutting off those beautiful curls. but no. they are still there. in fact, maybe more so! he looks like a little cherub now :)

then, we have a couple layouts i did yesterday. the one above is an effer dare (see link on yesterdays post) to use both a b&w photo and color photo in the same layout. i was skeptical, but i'm so in love with the results. i will definitely be doing this more!! yep!

i love heidi swapp tape! love, love, love it! so easy to use, and so stinkin' cute. adds that extra little touch of awesomeness to a layout! don't you think? i'll be doing tons more beach pics cause i'm at that time frame. i scrap in order, for the most part. now i'm on to my photos from last Oct. don't get me wrong....that's not to say i've scrapped all my photos up to that point!! oh heck no! i still have to go back a few years and scrap those. i guess my system is pretty random. i'm always looking to improve on it!

lots of wednesday love to ya!

how to get creative, inspirational, mojo-licious vibes a-flowin'

there are so many places i look to for inspiration. lately, it's been through a number of blogs that belong to amazingly fantastical artists who inspire much!! without much further ado...i give you some, just some of these fabulous ladies:

http://candicestringham.typepad.com/
http://thompsonfamily.typepad.com/
http://aliedwards.typepad.com/
http://elsieflannigan.blogspot.com/
http://www.embers.typepad.com/e/
http://www.tarawhitney.typepad.com/
http://www.autumnleaves.com/lookBlog/
http://leslielightfoot.typepad.com/
http://www.fortheloveofeffers.blogspot.com/

like i said, these are but a few. but i visit them daily because i ALWAYS find something there that will light my fire in some way! and doesn't all inspiration spring forth from something or someone??? yes. i think so.


then there's my space. i know i've posted this before...but these are far messier versions of the aforementioned photos. this is what it looks like all the time. i keep adding to it. i'm quickly running out of wall space too! you can't really see it very well from this photo, but above my computer is a vintage map of paris. i found it at a paper store in bolder, co. the colors are these muted pastels, and the fonts used are brilliant. there is something subliminal working inside that is manifesting paris all over my house!! HA! and i thought my dream trip would be to italy...hmm..

and it's so much messier now. i always thought i needed a huge desk to house my scrap space. turns out i only need like a 2x2 area. the rest is for all my *necessary* supplies.

and finally, the sewing area. this is the sewing machine my mom bought when she was pregnant with me. yep, a 1973 beauty! still works like a champ! it's basic, straightforward, and trusty. couldn't ask for more. someday maybe i'll venture into a machine that does embroidery, is computerized, all the bells and whistles. or maybe not. there is something a bit romantic about a machine my mother used to make my clothes on. sort of like the lost art of handwritten letters (which i try to practice whenever possible!).

have a lovely tuesday!!

some new favies

my scanner has a nasty little habit of cutting off parts of the scanned items. frustrating beyond belief? yes. it is. but i just wanted to share what i've been up to this weekend....creating my little pants off! lots of color here, people. be warned. but i think when you're doing layouts with kiddos you need color. kids are colorful after all. i do wane from that every now and then. i don't know that i've discovered my "style" yet. i sort of try on different styles. but i love the freedom of scrapbooking. and one things for sure, i am a nut for patterened paper! i actually start to salivate at the scrapbook store when standing in front of those tempting, perfect little rows of deliciousness!! mmmm....paper...

and in the above layout that looks like an expensive ghost frame, right? am i right?? (crickets chirping) no? well, if you said no you were right. it's a transparency sheet i cut into a frame, and then outlined with my beloved white pen.

ahh...doodling. that lost elementry school art form. now brought back to life from the likes of elsie flannigan and other such scrapbookers. love it, we do!!

so this layout was very butchered by my scanner. the title is "THE original dragon prince". i hand cut the word prince and watercolored that baby to a perfect sheen!! :)

happy monday people!

college towns = inspiration

welcome to bolder, co. home of university of colorado. a college town if ever i saw one...and a very cute one at that! set, no, nestled in the mountains (as you can see in the above pic.) it's just a perfect little town. it reminds me of s.f., in a way, because of the laid-back attitude that flows freely here. i would love to live in such a place...maybe someday.

everywhere i looked there was gorgeous color and words bursting forth! i think i spent more time behind the lens than looking without it. a feast for the eyes for sure!

and no college town is complete without flyers of local bands, local restaurants, local...vibe, plastered all over the place. love that!!

and now, i would like to introduce you to this lovely. actually there are two. brother and sister. my husband actually had to pull me away from them. i was sitting on the ground having such a moment with the female. i have always loved saint bernards. stephan and i have always known that our next dog WILL BE a saint. no doubt. well, after sitting with these guys i decided the time is now. we are looking to adopt one as i speak! i'm so excited - we are expanding our family!! of course i'll be sure to post more on this subject :)!

coloring my world...

with yumminess in papers, stamps, and journaling from the heart! oh how i love to scrapbook. do you know this? perhaps i've mentioned it before...umm...yes, i think so. if i could just be locked away from, oh, say 12 hours. to have completely uninterrupted scrap time. man...that would really be the ultimate for me. in the meantime i'll just squeeze it in between dirty diapers, making lunches for 3 hungry growing boys, and laundry. yes..for now that will have to work!

this is a card i made for my sister-in-law in PA. i am so completely in love with my sewing machine these days. we're having quite the affair, lemme tell ya. it just yields the most impressive results with the least amount of effort. come on, how much do we adore that????

happy monday night!

scrappin' love

just thought i would share some of my recent productions..... i have so many cool snaps of our time spent on haight-ashbury. there will certainly be more pages to follow. everywhere you look there is something cool and inspirational on the haight. i miss s.f. - truly miss it!

the title on the above lay-out is somewhat obstructed because of the journaling tab. but it's clear enough i think.

okay, so the grateful dead house (in the lay-out above) is so freakin' awesome. i am not really a fan of their music, but the culture of that era facscinates me. as you can see there is a car in the driveway, so someone lives there. can you even imagine??? living is such a house?? blows my mind a bit.

happy thursday to y'all!!

in love with love

the concept of love, adoration, being swept away in something entirely blissful, is certainly not new. and it has been mused over and over. but not by me! i've known ever since i was a very tiny girl that i would be married and have babies of my own. some girls say i want to be a doctor, or some other worldly profession. me, i wanted to be a mommy.....oh, that and an actress, of course! i had the whole handsome prince scenerio going on from a VERY early age. believe me, no man stood a chance against my standards. despite that, i did manage to find one who not only met, but exceeded those standards.....prince stephan. he swept me off my feet right away. our eyes met from across a crowded room, and i think we both just knew. neither one of us stood a chance. the circumstances weren't exactly ideal, but are they ever?

so he proposed in an entirely romantic way (because he knew how insanely important that was to me). and then, soon after, this little guy came along. he completed the circle of love that was already there with his older brothers, ben and kyle. i love babyhood. they give affection so randomly and freely. and they need it - all the time. they need that touch and connection. as they get older they need it as well, but just in more structured ways. not that that stops me from giving them huge hugs and kisses at random! i do.

i love love. anything and everything associated with it. i hope i never become a hardened cynic who hates sweet holidays like valentines day. a love scrooge, if you will. i love it when people find that soul mate they've been waiting for. i love it when i hear about happy marriages that last and endure. i love it when i hear about passionate encounters that turn peoples lives around. i love holding hands. love kissing. love big bear hugs. i love burying myself in stephans chest and breathing him in. i love watching the smile on his face when i say something that makes him laugh, or catches him off guard. i love crawling into bed next to him.

yes, i am a lucky, lucky girl who has found her happily ever after. it puts a huge smile on my face every day! love has found me, and it is here to stay!

happy valentines day eve!!!!!

scenes from a restaurant

yesterday was my father-in-laws birthday. that is him looking into the camera. dave. in september he was diagnosed with GBS. a disease that attacks your nerves and basically lends you paralyzed - temporarily. the recovery is slow and the frustrations are high. it has taken the whole family aback because it hit out of nowhere. so this birthday was very special because he was able to leave the nursing facility where he lives (temporarily) for the day! we went to breakfast in manitou springs and then had lunch at this restaurant in colorado springs. it's been quite awhile since i've seen him this happy. cracking jokes. laughing. drinking wine. eating cake. it just reminds us all how blessed we are. truly!

my son (noah) has this thing with having to toast "cheers" whenever he gets a drink - of anything! it is cute...but after about 3 refills it loses it's luster.

and of course i couldn't resist this shot from the restroom. fun. and, in my defense, it was a beautiful restroom. i take that stinkin' camera EVERYWHERE! you just never know.

i scrapped this photo from christmas. this was his first time leaving the nursing home since he became sick. he looks so much better - even from christmas. i have tried to chronicle him throughout this illness because i believe it is important to capture it all. good, bad...all of it. it's something i am trying to become better at as a photographer, to photograph in bad times is not easy. it's awkward and potentially embarassing (to the subject). you have to handle it with care. utmost care. but i look at the photographers i admire most: dorothea lange...henri cartier-bresson...ansel adams, and some of their best work is of tough times. it's the human condition that matters most, isn't it? and so i try to keep that in the forefront of my mind when i have my camera in hand.

art journal inspiration

as promised in a previous post, here is my art journal that picked me up out of that creative slump! it is so much fun to work on, and it IS still a work in progress. that's what is so great about it. no pressure to be complete. no pressure to look a certain way, or contain certain material. it's just for me, and that's very cool! i'm finding a lot of what i'm putting in it is photography related - go figure, right!

and now, without much further ado...i give you the product of my art journal inspiration! no more creative slumps around here. i'm crankin' out pages like a mad woman!!!

these pages were kind of fun to do...interview your loved ones and scrap the results. it's not a question of when they will want to go back and look at them. it's really a question of, not again...didn't you just look at that yesterday??

and finally, one of the current favs of mine. i drew lines on white paper, then used watercolor pencils to color them in. then lightly blended with a brush and water. very custom and personal. then i wrote a "love letter" to my husband. i absolutely love journaling. scrapbooking and journaling go hand in hand. it's really hard to have one without the other. you can. but it's just not complete until you tell the story. preferably in your own handwriting.....for your posterity. they'll want to know what great-great-great-grandmas handwriting looked like - wouldn't you?