Right now

Right now... I'm working on this.
Right now... this is laying on my scrapbook table.

Right now... I'm nursing a running injury. That's bad because I have a race in 2.5 weeks.
Right now... I'm reading a lot of school material.
Right now... I'm glued to my phone-just waiting for it to ring.
Right now... I'm wondering why we think the grass is always greener on the other side?
Right now... I'm enjoying have some free time even thought it makes me nervous.
Right now... I'm eating less and trying to move more.
Right now... I'm watching all the new shows and loving 'Revenge', 'New Girl' and 'Up All Night'.

xoxo
K

a card + something new

So this is a little card that I made for the Studio Calico sketch this week. I never make cards. But I had to say a little 'thank you' to a family member of mine hence the 'thank you' card.



In other news, as some of you may know I've been working on my M. Ed for a while now. I'm currently doing my last two courses and one of them is an arts-based course. I get to make a scrapbook to tell a story about something meaningful in my life. In conjunction with the project itself I have to produce a portfolio and I chose to do mine in the form of a blog. So, if you're interested, I'll be posting periodically about my process and the inspiration behind my project here at a new blog: A 'Summery' of Camp. I hope you'll come and check it out!

Happy hump day!

xoxo
K

Anatomy of a Layout

So I've seen a number of posts recently that demonstrate how people put their layouts together. Well, I decided to show you a little window into my process for a two-page layout I made this past weekend using a Studio Calico's kit I had on hand.

I had a stack of hipstmatic photos to use from a day off with my BF this summer and I wanted to demonstrate just how many pics you can fit on a layout if you use this photo size (about 2 by 2).



I started out with two pieces of pattern paper as my background and cut two 4.25 wide rectangles to span the two pages which I inked to make them stand out a little more.



Then I punched a few strips to accent the bottom of the rectangles.



I matted the photos and chose to pop 6 of the photos, 3 on each page.



I added it all to the cardstock and then used two strips of washi tape to cover the seam between the pattern paper and the punched edge.



I added this stamp at the top of the page and the cream 'July'. I colored the '7' for the month and stuck the 19th in there because that was the date.



I added a little title and a few embellishments.



Then I took apart this little tag and inked it.



I stamped a little caption and added it to my layouts with some little accents.



And here's the final product including some journaling I stamped and added to seemlessly coordinate with my title. It reads:

Shake Shack & Sprinkles & Max Brenner & shopping & silent train rides & a great day in NYC just me and D.



So, that's how that layout came together for me. Just a little peak into my process. I hope you enjoyed it! I would love to see any scraplifts if you chose to do one. If you do, please post a comment with a link to your layout!

xoxo
K

Me: A-Z

Saw this floating around on the blogisphere and thought it was cute. Here's a little about me:

A. Age: 28
B. Bed size: Queen
C. Chore that you hate: vacuuming. I don't really like the sound.
D. Dogs: Future Dogs include a great Dane and a French bulldog.
E. Essential start to your day: a good breakfast
F. Favorite color: currently it's blue. Changes with the season and my mood.
G. Gold or Silver: Until recently silver but I bought this great leaf necklace this summer that's gold and a pair of gold studs to match and I LOVE the combo.
H. Height: 5’4 1/2-the half counts.
I. Instruments you play: once upon a time I took piano lessons
J. Job title: Teacher
K. Kids: I have hundreds of them-I just give them back to their parents every day at 3 o'clock.
L. Live: Newfoundland, Canada
M. Mother’s name: Carol
N. Nicknames: K-Rock; K
O. Overnight hospital stays: None thank God.
P. Pet peeves: white socks with black pants and shoes, people who aren't on time, and I'll leave it at that.
Q. Quote from a movie: The latest one I used was on my best friend on the night before her wedding when I said "Okay. Time for your last single girl kiss" ('last single girl kiss' is from Sex & The City #1)
R. Right or left handed: Right handed
S. Siblings: 2-one brother, one brother in law. They both count.
U. Underwear: Yep I wear em. :)
V. Vegetable you hate: Ick. Brussel sprouts.
W. What makes you run late: other people...
X. X-Rays you’ve had: too many to count, arms, nose, ribs, feet, legs, etc. Pretty much all over.
Y. Yummy food that you make: Anything baked-cupcakes, cookies and when I cook I can do a mean pasta dish.
Z. Zoo animal: Penguins, sharks, Polar Bears, dolphins, whales-I love Sea World. Can't you tell!

So that's a little more about me!

xoxo
K

5 For Friday

It's Friday again. Love Fridays. It's been a busy week around here. September is in full swing and here's the latest.

1. I've been thinking about how to use all those Becki Higgins page protectors that I bought back when I was going to do "Project Life". I'm thinking of doing a month of 'Project Life'. Kind of like a 'week in the life' but not nearly as intense. I'm thinking October might be a good month and our schedule looks like it's shaping up to be a fun one too!

2. There are a ton of movies either in theaters or coming soon that I really want to see. Now, if only my schedule would open up I would see them. Here's what's on the list:

*"I Don't Know How She Does It"
*"The Change Up"
*"The Debt"
*"Ides of March"
*"Moneyball"

3. It's Fall! I was published in Canadian Scrapbooker's Fall issue this month. Here's the layout I had published. It's my first Canadian pub so I was pretty excited!



4. I am so excited for all the new Fall shows this week- 'Gossip Girl', The Good Wife, Hart of Dixie. I'm pumped. I've been watching old 'The OC' episodes to get in touch with my inner Rachel Bilson for the premiere of 'Hart of Dixie'. We already watched "Broke Girls", "The New Girl", "The Mentalist", and "Modern Family". Seriously?! Can you tell I love a good tv show!

5. I've got a cool school/scrapbooking related announcement coming early next week so stay tuned!

Have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo
K

You Can Stand Under My Umbrella

I've been continuing to use up some left over Studio Calico kit materials this week.

In June I saw Rhianna in concert with a group of great friends of mine. We had a blast. The afternoon of the concert was stormy and we actually had a giant hail storm and it rained so hard that you could barely see. But, by the time it was time to head to the concert the weather had cleared up and off we went to see her in all her glory. And boy was she awesome!



The title is inspired by my favorite song 'Umbrella'. She sang it as one of her encores and it was amazing! Umbrellas and all. The song lent itself perfectly to this pic of me and my brother-in-law pre-concert. The shots on the left are from the show.

And here's a close up:



xoxo
K

Love This

In an effort to plow through a few nearly-empty Studio Calico kits I gathered a bunch of pieces of pattern paper and a few scattered embellishments and put this layout together.



Matthew and I have a lot of fun and I thought I could use these pics, taken with his Iphone, to tell that story. I tried something new with the title by incorporating the pictures into my title and making the 'L' in 'Love'. My goal was to include a whole bunch of patterned papers and I think I was successful. I count 4 patterns in there and that's pretty good.

Here's the journaling and a little close up if you'd like to have a read.



Hope you're week is going swell.

xoxo
K

Inspired by...

I spent some time scrapbooking yesterday and created a layout that was inspired by Amy Tan. She recently had a layout published in Scrapbook Trends. Here's a pic of the magazine shot...


Scrapbook Trends Magazine photo

So, I took some leftovers from an old Studio Calico kit, "Moses Supposes" and a few other things I had lying around and put together this quick layout.



It only took 30 minutes or so. I didn't really change much. Used some cardstock strips at the bottom instead of tape and my pictures are a bit bigger so I moved the corner embellishments at the top to the left hand side. But, overall I like how it turned out.

That lovely baby is Liam, my godson. He's pretty stinkin' cute. M & I met him for the first time In September. Please notice the varied expressions between my pic and M's. Hilarious.



I tucked my journaling on a little Pink Paislee care and stuck it in behind one of the photos.

I'm thinking of making the 'Inspired by...' posting part of a weekly or monthly series. Each week/month I would chose a layout and show my take on it. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Hope your Monday is flying by!

xoxo
K

And that's a Jets...first down.

So this time last weekend we were gearing up for our first NFL football game. This afternoons course of action involves M watching the game while I scrapbook in the same room. Go Jets! I'm such a supportive wife.

We had such a good time and to be honest it wasn't even the actual game itself but the people around us who were so entertaining, talking smack and good-naturedly yelling back and forth to one another. It was amazing and seriously the most entertaining live sports game we've ever been to. And then there were the snacks-so many snacks. Really that's what I go for-the treats. ;)

Here's a few of my favorite shots from the game.



Our new Cowboy's friend who just wanted to make some new friends in the row behind us!



These guys just loved the Cowboy's but they were probably the most entertainment I've had in a long time!



We had a pretty high-up view.



And then there were the snacks. Lobel's meat sandwich and chicken finger and fries. LOVE.



Hope you are having a wonderful Sunday.

xoxo
K

5 for Friday

This is gonna be a quick one. I am busy, busy, busy.

1. I'm already getting calls for substituting and it's only the 2nd week of school. That's awesome.

2. There's a hurricane coming to town tomorrow. Fun times-some wind and rain. Another day in Newfoundland.

3. I'm supposed to go to a crop tomorrow night at my local store The Paperie. I should probably hit up the Walmart and develop a few photos.

4. Saw 'Up All Night' on NBC last night. It was hysterical. Loved it.

5. Also watched the season finale of 'Big Brother' this week. Rachel won. Seriously?! If you watch the show you know that she's nuts and has ruffled more than a few feathers on the show.

I'm off. Have a great weekend. I'll have some scrapbooking to show you early next week!

xoxo
K

Feeling Inspired?

First of all, thank you to everyone who made some suggestions for my messy photo organization yesterday! I'm still mulling over my system but when I make some decisions I'll be sure to let you know how I've done it. But today i've some some inspiration for you.

I've found some seriously cool ideas this week while wandering the blog scene. Just a few ideas mulling around in my head...

*Octagons-I'm loving this tone on tone look that Davinie created on her layout!

*This layout title "YOU ARE HERE" from Amy Tangerine's blog! Perfect for the vacation photos we took last week!

*Totally going to take this challenge by Liz K. I'm pumped to use my remote. I might even find a cool location here in the city to try it out with.

*Another great title idea here by Gerelyn Sy. It looks like she used a machine but that's her handwriting that she cut out! That rocks!

*I love a good mini album and this one is too cute! I wish I had found it before leaving on vacation because it's size and shape lend itself to a great way of storing memorabilia!

What's inspiring you this week?

xoxo
K

Help!

I'm struggling with my organizing system for my pics. I’m trying to sort out the best method of sorting and organizing my photos but the programs I’m using aren’t playing nice with one another and I’m pretty sure that I have two, maybe three, copies of my photos scattered all over my computer. My husband cringes at the sight of my current system. Being a computer engineer he sees it as a mess and until recently I saw it as ‘organized chaos’. But, I have to face the facts that it’s just not working.

So I’m asking for advice!

I’m a MAC user first of all. So I have photos in my iphoto because that’s where they automatically go when I plug in the camera. I also have photos in the free google program I downloaded years ago called Picasa 3. I love Picasa because you can make collages with your photos at the click of a button. Then I have some photos in Bridge, the photoshop program, because that was the only way I could quick edit a bunch of photos I wanted to do. Needless to say, it’s a total mess. Nothing really plays nice with anything else-Picasa won’t let you edit anything without first making a copy from iphoto and it’s all just one big disaster! Iphoto won’t ‘sort’ my photo originals-it only shows up looking ‘that way’ in iphoto.

So, how do you organize your photos. What do you do to sort through what you download from your camera(s)?! I’m looking for any and all suggestions-pros, cons, new programs...I’ll accept any ideas at this point.

......................................................................................

And just a little teaser of something I'm working on this week...



xoxo
K

Camp Bound!

Today I get to go to one of the places I love most in the world. CAMP. And I get to see a whole lot of my friends-my family really-and boy am I excited!



M & I head to upstate New York this morning for our very first Bat Mizvah. We're surprising the young lady who's turning 13 and I can't wait!

So this is a shout out to the birthday girl-one of my favorite kids in the whole world-Happy Birthday Bear! I hope it's a wonderful party and I can't wait to celebrate with you!

Stay tuned for some pictures!

xoxo
K

5 for Friday: Vacation Edition

There have been lots of exciting things this week and I'll admit that I could totally do a list of much more than 5 things that were awesome this week. But, here's my top 5...

1. Our best friends Nicole and Mike got married!!! Yeah they did. And it was wonderful and fun and AWESOME! We wish them all the best and a happy, healthy marriage!



2. We met my new godson-yep, I'm a godmother! He is too cute and such a good baby. I even made Matthew hold him...just for a few minutes though.





3. We saw Shamu and his family at Seaworld. I ate a shamu ice cream bar. When in Rome right?! It was amazing.





4. We discovered this funny sign on International Drive. Anyone wanna tell me what a 'smothie' is?!! Too funny!



5. We got wet not once but twice at two different water parks! We visited Aquatica & Wet and Wild. They were awesome and the weather cooperated for us as well which was nice!



We have a had a great week on vacation but it isn't over just yet! Today we are on our way to NYC. I'm pumped! Then a little surprise visit on Saturday which I'm keeping under wraps...stay tuned for details!

Have a great weekend!
xoxo
K

New York, New York: Here I come!

Tomorrow I am on a plane bound for one of my favorite places in the whole wide world: NEW YORK. And while I'm there I'll probably visit the subject of this layout: Magnolia Bakery.

I've had a deep love affair with Magnolia since it's early days featured on 'SATC'. It's kind of an obsession for me. They introduced me to red velvet cupcakes and I've never turned back. This summer I tried 'Sprinkles' and declared that they have a delicious red velvet cupcake-one that might even be better (dare I say it) than Magnolia's. It felt like I was cheating on my husband when I said this out loud to my bf while sitting there stuffing my face at 'Sprinkles'. But Magnolia will always hold a special place in my heart regardless of the taste of their cupcakes!



Details about the layout: So there's afew things I wanted to incorporate here-a grid of photos, a few accucut cupcakes and bakers twine because what says a bakery more than a little bakers twine?! I love, love, love how this one turned out. I used the accucut system to make those little cupcakes-aren't they cute & the letters as well. My new obsession with clouds continues to appear in this layout as well with some more ink and Zing embossing powder. I also bolded some of the words in the journaing to make them stand out a little more!





Here's to cupcakes and shopping...it is New York afterall. Until tomorrow Magnolia!

xoxo
K

Photobooth: you rock!

So I recently discovered a new app for my iphone called 'Photobooth'. It is awesome. It produces pics like those you get in a photobooth in the mall. I just love it. It takes 4 quick pics and you never really know what you are going to get. You can email them to yourself when you are done or send them to your photostream in your iphone camera. Once I emailed them to myself, I used photoshop to put four of the strips on a blank 5 by 7 canvas and then printed it as a 5 by 7 pic. It worked out quite well.

This layout uses a photo strip I printed to tell the story of my friendship with Daniela, my coworker and bff from camp. We weren't always so fond of one another so our story of friendship is a funny one. I'm not usually much of journaler but this story was one that needed to be told.



Details about the layout:I love a little grey with some green polka dots and light pink accents. It's a lovely combination. I used the sticker 'You & Me' which is probably supposed to be for a wedding layout but it seemed fitting for the story and the little point at the top points at US which is just too cute. I heat embossed the Maya Road chipboard clouds with white Zing to make them stand out and used the new Studio Calico stamps for the pink polka dot cloud in the top right hand corner. I LOVE me some polka dots! Like I said above, the story is really the focus here even though I'm not one to usually journal this much but I like how it turned out.





Sometimes you meet your best friends in the most unlikely of places and situations. All I've got to say is don't judge a book by it's cover. First impressions are not always accurate. You never know when you'll meet your next soulmate.

I love you D.

xoxo
K

Me & You

Today we're headed to Orlando, Florida for a few days. We are so excited to have a few days off together to relax before the chaos of the fall semester of school and work begins. I love taking vacations with Matthew. Hopefully I'll have a few pics for you as the week progresses.

But on a scrapbooking not-I've been wanted to do a he/she layout ever since I saw the slideshow of this month's sneak peeks at Studio Calico. Amy Tan included two hand-stitched tags in one of the add-on's and I loved the idea of them almost as much as I loved the tags themselves. So, I focused a whole layout around it.



Details about the layout: This is very simple. I don't usually hand write my journaling but it seemed appropriate for this layout. I even did a little sewing-some tread for the buttons and some thread around the pink chipboard piece down the centre. I love the quirky letters by Cosmo Cricket as well. They are super fun!







xoxo
K

Sunday Sketch

Before I post my Sunday night sketch layout I wanted to share some exciting news. I am being featured in the spotlight at my local scrapbooking store here in Newfoundland this month. My first layout went up there on Friday night. Check it out at The Paperie.

.........................................................................................................................................................

Now onto that sketch. I was inspired by last week's Studio Calico Sunday sketch to put together a layout. I love a good grid so I stuck with the grid on the left hand side but put my own simpler touch on the right hand side. I used a Studio Calico add-on kit from the spring called Moses Supposes. I love the name. So cute.

Here's the sketch:



And the layout...


Details about the layout: I used some ink and a few pieces of cardboard to prop up the jumping photo and added the 'happy day' chipboard sticker from Cosmo Cricket to draw some attention to it. I wanted something to anchor my title as well so I added the tiny Tim Holtz stamp of the birdies on the wire.





xoxo
K

Love & Marriage

Our friends got married last night and boy was it a beautiful day! We had so much fun getting our hair done, prepping for the ceremony and dancing the night away. Here's a few of my pics of the awesome day!

getting ready at the salon & in the hotel...


the bride

me

beautiful hair

bride's hair

We're ready!

This was too cute...

and there she is...



getting photos done in the hotel

the venue-the National Arts Gallery

the bridesmaids- Jo, Me & her sister Angela

M & I just before the ceremony

The cake, red velvet-my favourite & the happily married couple





the first dance

and then the fun dance party! We had a great time!






All in all it was a spectacular day! Congratulations Mike & Nicole! We wish you all the best and thank you for making us such a big part of your special day! We love you!

xoxo
K