thegoodlife

Scrapbooking + Love Labels for Sale

Well, it's been a busy week around here at Le Chateau Pebbles... on Sunday, John and I headed out for a few days of rest and relaxation out at the beach...the weather was sunny...and freezing cold and snowing...from inside the house it looked just like a warm summer day...until you stepped outside. Brr.

We had a little birthday dinner with my parents, drank some wine and ate half a cake, and then we just worked on some projects around the house and soaked in the peaceful atmosphere. It wasn't long enough of a trip, even though we extended it for one additional night, I think we were both sad to leave without going for another winter paddle.

Then we were home and for the past two days have been playing cram and catch up to get ready for today- My Birthday!!! Weeeeeee.... :)

Tonight we are having a few of our friends over for some drinks and snacks and laughs. So, naturally I had to reorganize the house, clean things up a bit. John painted our bathroom gray- twice. It's still a little too blue, but it'll do for now. I am working on finishing up a small to-do list and then will start figuring out if I am going to make crock-pot meatballs or weenies. :)

As I think I may have mentioned in an earlier post...I did some scrapbooking over the past few weeks...after I got my hands on some of the new Cosmo Cricket papers!! So cute...love, love, love... Anyway, fitting to my birthday, I made a page all about my gray hair: 

   

(I sewed some loose strands of gray thread on this page to drive home the point.)

and after that little bit of catharsis, I made this page about working with John:

 

(in actuality, I am more like his new boss...but pretend I didn't tell you that, k?)

and then I made this ooey gooey page of babiliciousness about Baby G:

 

SUPER FUN!! I love Scrapbooking!

Also, I finally spent a few days at the canal working on uploading the Love Labels for you, so if you missed out on them in February, you can buy them here now. 

   

It's always a working goal to make and sell more digital stuff, but then that thing called "time management" comes into play, and that's why you only see, like, one thing from me in 6 months. I do have ideas, I want to make them happen, so I spent some time yesterday making a chart for the week- to designate which days I do what...like "Monday & Tuesday- work on Madrona Paintworks files and marketing...Thursday- make and post hoop.dee.do's...etc."  Also included in my plan is to try to set aside one day for blogging for the whole week...let's see how I do with that!! hahaha!!!

I am anything if not honest.

So, I hope you have a wonderful weekend, I will see you here again shortly...hopefully not too hungover and tired from my wild night of celebration. I am pretty sure I might have a Dorito hangover...John just brought home "Hot Wing and Blue Cheese" combo flavor Doritos...and DAMN!! They are gooooooooood...

(Don't Forget about the big 100th hoop.dee.do giveaway!! The drawing is open until Monday night...good luck!)

Cheers!

Hermit is my new favorite word.

Let's just say, "I need a vacation."

It's been good to take a little break- I have been hermiting here in my little shack, working on some projects, making some pages for the Garden, and waiting patiently for Summer to show up in Seattle. It's practically still winter- rainy and cold!! I have been on two camping trips since we last chatted, one to the ocean and one to the lake (just this weekend)...The sun is apparently in Eastern Washington- my forehead is so sunburnt it's scabbed over...eeewww. It's ok, basking in its glorious warmth was worth it.

Today I decided to dust off the ol' blog, clean things up a little bit, and suprise you with a random post!! John took a new pic of me with my sunburn and my hat, I fixed up the wonky sidebar graphics and made a new banner- something kinda different- a little calmer and more clean feeling...then I wondered what I should blog about, since I am horribly out of practice...and since I am still feeling like a hermit and not my usual chatty self- I decided to just post some projects that I have completed recently.

Here you go:

*grungeboard perpetual calendar- inspired by this awesome goodness*

*2page Weekly Inspiration Layout for 2peas*

*Ad Inspiration Theme pages for 2peas*

*American Crafts Bookmark*

and this is the Baby Dearest Book kit that I got to play with for Candice Carpenter's awesome shop Peacoats & Partyhats- Candice is one of the most seriously talented artists I know- she is also a riot and we have a lot in common- I was so excited that she asked me to make this project- I really liked how it turned out.

That's just some of it...you can see the whole thing page by page here. There is also a link to it under the Galleries section on the left sidebar. Candice wanted me to let you know that she has about 5 kits left if you want one!!

So there you have it, a small portion of the fruits of my labor over the past few weeks. What have you guys been up to? Have I missed anything important? Fill me in!!

I'm not quite back from my break yet- I hope to get a bunch of pictures proofed from my trips and adventures to share. Still enjoying my hermitness, hanging out with Drake and John and finishing a few good reads, etc. I'll be back soon.

Peace and Love

a calendar day

Hi Friends!

Just popping in to say "Hi," hope your week is going well so far. I have been crafting up a storm lately- yesterday I was browsing the member gallery at 2peas and was SOOOO inspired by all the new additions- I added a bunch of stuff to my "bookmarks" (what used to be the "book of scraps") and then I just started making some goodies. I will share those with you in the next few days (gotta stretch it out you know, can't post all in one day and then having zero things to talk about for a month:) - I still have a few more things I want to make and maybe we can do a play along activity or something:)

Today I am the page of the day in the 2008 Autumn Leaves Designing With Desk Calendar, (I found some in stock at Scrapbook.com) so I thought I would put that up. It's amazing to me how empty this layout seems- when I look at it photographed- I think it really needs more, but then when you see it in real life, it doesn't really seem as plain? I don't know- sketches are hard for me, especially 2 pagers. They don't feel natural to the way I like to scrapbook- but I love seeing this type of thing when other people do them. It would be great to do more publication work, but sketch assignments scare me, lol! Better left for more qualified individuals :)

The journaling talks about how much fun we had taking Drake to the dog park the first few times he went, before he could swim- and how we wished that Honey wasn't sick because Drake might have encouraged her to be more playful. I miss her a lot. I think of all the pictures I take of Drake with my new camera, and I wish I would have had it when she was alive. I would have been able to take more expressive and detailed shots of her, and the things that made her such a quirky dog, like her big huge ears and the psycho angry face she used to make when John held her. It makes me laugh just to think about it.

Anyway, just a random Tuesday! It feels good to be productive in the crafting department again.

a *semi* productive weekend

I know I just posted the bird notepad, but here's the fruits of my labor from the weekend...it's totally part of the "WWKCD?"experiment...which has been pretty much working up until today...

Sometimes I just like things to be really, really simple...this kind of reminds me of some of the letterpress cards I have seen lately...

{Stamps: "happy day"- Simple Celebrations Clear Set : A Muse, Triangle from Memory Box, Ink from Colorbox (amber clay and ice blue), Marvy Uchida marker}

Again, this is a notepad cover: See this post for credits. Can you see the faint numero 5?

I *heart* my favorite wood grain stamp!! And I used on of my LPS Swank Labels as a frame for this little funky vase and flower.

{Stamps: Vase and Scallop Flower- Savvy Stamps, Asterisk from Memory Box, Sentiment, dashed line (stem) and circles (leaves) from Personal Stationery Set from A Muse. Gems from Hero Arts, Ribbon from Martha. Chipboard shape sent to me from my lovely friend Julie!!}

I have had a thing for big solid chunky numbers since this past Christmas...I was looking for a good set for a long time, and it just so happens that Martha made this great set that I scooped up recently...did you know that the set contains a solid set and a dotted outline set?? What a deal.

{Stamps: Numbers by Martha, Damask from Impress, Postal elements from Cavallini & Co., Barcode from Autumn Leaves. Ledger Paper, Antique ticket, Staples, Shape scissors and corner rounder, Ink from Colorbox (Blue Iris, Olive Pastel, Creamy Brown, Chestnut Roan), Ribbon from Martha}

A random photo editing tip:
I tried something new this week when editing my photos for the blog...I usually do all my edits to the large/main photo file, and then save it for the web at about 500 pixels wide. Then, I open that new file (the one saved for the web) in Photoshop and apply the "Sharpen" filter to help keep the images crisp...however lately, I've tried running the "Reduce Noise" filter first- at a strength of about 80% and then applied the "Sharpen" filter, and it makes a little bit of a difference, it smooths out and then crisps the image...if that makes sense...Just thought I would share in case this will help some of you.:)

I may be absent for a day or two while I finish up my A Muse assignments and catch up on emails, etc...but I will post when I get a free second or if I have something good to share..... And good luck tomorrow to everyone who entered the Suitcase Challenge at A Muse. I heard that our soon to be announced winner is off by one single stamp!!! I can't wait for the big reveal!!!

(((HUGS))) Friends!! Have a great week!!

note to self

{Supplies: Personal Stationery Clear Stamp set by A Muse, Ink: ColorBox Chalks- Chestnut Roan, Burnt Sienna, Dark Peony, Lime Pastel, Rouge, Ice Blue, Alabaster, Aquamarine. Bird Stamp and Large Number by MarthaStewartCrafts.com, Ribbon: Strano, Pencil: Paperchase}

Trying to flex my creative muscles today- I feel a little stagnant...I have a small pile of new stamps and fun stuff I want to make something out of, but I am having a really hard time getting anything done...I feel like I am wading through creative mud. ssssssllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwlllllyyyyyy.......I am getting a few things done here and there.

I had a great weekend, a few of us gathered our dogs together and brought them to the park on Sunday. It was raining, but still fun, and then Nate and Jessie came over for BBQ burgers for lunch. And then, apparently this morning when John went into the garage, he came back to find Drake with a bag of hot dog buns hanging out of his mouth...and an empty plastic bag on the kitchen floor where the hamburger buns used to be.

All I heard was "bad dog. bad dog. bad dog. no. no. no."

What a silly monkey- I guess he was hungry;)

In other news: I got my June PI kit...oh man, you guys are going to loooove it...lots of inspiring stuff and I can't wait to make my pages. Good times, noodle salad....TGIM!!