Favorite Things: Day 1 - Scrapbooking

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

(comment: be glad you’re reading the lyrics and I’m not singing them to you)

So in the spirit of Christmas and a new year being right around the corner, I thought I would do some of my favorite things from 2012.  I think I’ll break this into 3 posts: scrapbooking tools, around the house and beauty.  Today’s favorite things will be… scrapbooking tools!

First up:  Cricut Craft Room software.  Best part?  It’s free!  I’ve had my Cricut since 2008 and have used it hands down 100% more and more efficiently since downloading this software from Provo Craft.  I use a lot less paper trying to get the perfect cut and now put all the paper on the mat at once to cut all layers at one time (saves time AND paper!).  This weekend I even expanded my Cricut Craft Room skill set by welding 2 cupcakes to make the cutest card ever!

 

Next, is my pink ATG gun.  I use to always use rubber cement on my scrapbooks because it was acid free and pretty mess free as well.  Since I’ve discovered the tape gun I haven’t touched regular glue! LOVE this thing.  Plus, the fact that it’s pink doesn’t hurt either.  No more glue drying out or million bottles to store… just my lovely tape gun.  I’ve found that the refills last me a long time as well.  I made a pretty large order of tape refills back when I was living in Baton Rouge (so probably 2 years ago) and still have a box of 12 left to go.  Michaels carries the pink ATG gun and it’s often on sale if you’re looking for your own.

Another glue that I do use for small Cricut cuts is the Zig 2-Way Glue Pen.  This glue is like concrete and perfect for those oh so tiny slivers of paper that I always end up trying to assemble. 

Earlier this year I had to replace my large paper trimmer – the one I had was starting to really mess up paper when I’d cut with it … supposedly the blade was supposed to be self-sharpening but mine had issues.  So out it went and in came a lovely new pink cutter by Making Memories.  I use this on 98% of my projects and it makes me smile because it’s pink.  Win win.

My paper storage.  Remember from this post about how I organize my paper?  Love both my tall paper racks and the little ones I keep on my desk for scraps.  Organized and pretty to look at.

There’s lots of other things I use in my crafting, but these items are things that I have used the most in 2012. 

Oh, and a black Friday addition.. this 10-drawer rolling cart.  I actually bought 2, one's assembled and sitting in my scrapbook room - just haven't decided what to put in it yet but I can already tell  -- it's a favorite.

Save-the-dates!

Something I've been looking forward to is getting our save-the-dates out!  I wanted to do something different and incorporate more than just 1 picture and what I found is spectacular (in my opinion) and so different.  I searched high and low for the perfect cards (I didn't want one that said "save the date" on it which ruled out lot of options!!) and found them through peartreegreetings.com.  I hadn't heard of Pear Tree before but I am really pleased with the quality of their products.  I originally only ordered the minimum so I could make sure I liked the card before ordering 100+... I was getting ready to place the order this weekend and Groupon sent out coupons for Pear Tree!  What are the odds?  So, instead of paying over $300 for the save-the-dates, I got them and labels for $130!! Wooooooo

At this point, my plan is to send them out the first week of January so they don't get lost in the hustle and bustle of Christmas and Christmas cards.  Plus, that gives me a little bit more time to finalize the guest list and collect addresses.

 

Island Dreamin'

In less than 6 months, my honey and I will be honeymooning!  I am SO excited for the honeymoon.  I'm getting my dream vaca and we're both going somewhere we've neither been..... (drum roll).... French Polynesia!!!

We will have quite the travel time going and coming but it will be totally worth it.  How many other times do you get to take off for your dream vacation with your dream husband??  Plus, Adam and I have always spent our vacation time either going to Michigan or West Virginia so this is a trip that's JUST for us.  

We will fly from Atlanta to LA and then to Papeete (capital of Tahiti).  It's an 8-hour flight from LA to Tahiti; we will stay the first night in Tahiti and then take a ferry to Moorea.  We're staying at the Hilton Moorea in an overwater bungalow!! So excited!!  After 3 nights, we take a very short flight to Bora Bora where we will be staying at the Hilton Bora Bora in another overwater bungalow.  Then it's back to reality after 10 days of bliss.  We are looking into scuba diving while we are down there.. have to see if I'm brave enough first!!! 

Lucky Tree #3

After begging last Christmas and starting my begging earlier in the year this year, Adam finally caved and agreed to putting a tree up for me over the door on a ledge that I swear was made JUST for a Christmas tree!  It was def. the perfect last touch to our decor this year.  (On top of the candles I bought for all the windows... :) )

Step 1:  Get 22' ladder ready to go!

Step 2:  Get strong fiance to climb 22' ladder while holding assembled 6.5' tree and not falling!

Step 3:  Admire tree from the inside.  Nice work babe!

Step 4:  Admire tree from outside.  Perfect!!!

It's so pretty I may never take it down ;-)

Random Ramblings

Happy Monday!  I had a great weekend at home (literally didn't leave the house once with the exception of walking the dog around the neighborhood!).  It felt so good to finally get caught up on so many things and get my "to do" list pretty much completed (don't worry, I have a new one that's growing by the minute).  This post is going to be pretty random because well, that's how my weekend was. 

I had a "wedding nightmare" Saturday night which was probably inspired by the fact I knew our engagement announcement was going to be in the Chattanooga Times Free Press Sunday morning so I went to sleep thinking about that.  My dream was crazy!  I dreamed that the bridesmaids were wearing skin tight, sequined, hoochie-mama dresses... my dad had on jeans.. I had on a lace dress... the groom and groomsmen were late.. there was some awful music playing while I walked down the aisle.. I had a brick vs flowers for my bouquet... Eick!!!!  I even declared that this was NOT the wedding and I wanted a re-do and walked out of the church!  Then, when trying to decide when the wedding should be, started re-freaking out because I already had over 100 Save-the-dates made!  Thank goodness it was JUST a dream!!

Also happy to see our cute faces in Sunday's paper :).. seeing it in writing just makes it all that more real! (Yes, the rock on my finger makes it feel real as well)

In other randomness news, I am 100% addicted to a game on my iPad/iPhone called Candy Crush.  I'm at level 30 on my phone and 50 on my iPad.  You only get so many lives and then there's a time delay before you get any more or of course you can buy more lives... but who does that?  I'm cheap.. come on.  Plus, the time delay allows me time to do all the things I need to be doing haha

Check it out.. but know that I warned you... you won't be able to walk away!

I had a meeting in Nashville last Wednesday and made a quick trip there and back.  I have been dying to go to Nashville (No Adam that trip didn't count!!) and now I want to go even more.  After the meeting, my co-worker and I grabbed some lunch a the Cheesecake Factory (hello orange chicken and cheesecake!!!!) and then... another first... THE CONTAINER STORE!!  It was like love at first site for me.  I have always wanted to go in one of these stores but never really been close to one... Can you marry a store?!  It was Heaven!  So many containers, so little time.  I just walked around and touched everything...twice.

I've been trying to get my drawers organized in the bathroom and kitchen and they are such a weird/small size none of the dividers I've tried work really well.  I hate wasted space and I always end up with inches in the back that you can't access or along the sides.  I bought the Rubbermaid Interlocking Drawer Organizers to try in the bathroom and couldn't wait to get home and try them out.   

Here's the before...

 And the after! 

 So, it's still not "perfect" but it's better. With the pink baskets, my eye liners would sneak out those little slots on the side and I'd be forever looking for them.  This is my "everyday" make up for the most part and I have it in the top drawer for easy access.  The items in front left square are samples from Sephora that will get used up/tossed.  The right square holds my most used eye shadows.  In the long tray on the left are my brushes and primers.  The long tray on the right has my mascaras, eye lingers, eye make up brushes, etc.  In the far back 2 squares are compacts I don't use that often (but are too expensive to toss!!) and some older eye shadows.  The dreaded "space canal" on the right are more samples and my scissors.  Must have scissors in every room!  This drawer is only 7" wide so you can totally tell a man designed the bathroom cabinets...  

My last randomness topic is the "winter" finale of Revenge!  I LOVE this show.  I'm worried that not a lot of people talk about it so it could get canceled (so start watching it people)!!  I love the characters, I love the twisty plot, I love the Hamptons, I love it all!  I don't like that I have to wait a few months to see what's going to happen next!!! 

I also did quite a bit of crafting this weekend but I'm working on 2 very special projects so I can't post pics quite yet :)

 

Thursday happenins

Where has this week gone?  Too bad it's not Friday yet, I'm ready for a low-key, pj-wearin', stay-at-home kind weekend!  Monday night I threw the turkeys and pumpkins back in their storage totes in the basement and drug out the remaining Christmas decor.  I have a love of putting seasonal garland on my stair banister.. it just screams holidays.  One of the things I wanted in my house during the search was the wrought iron rungs .. and I got it :)  Here's the staircase "undecorated:" 

Looking festive for fall

 

Ready for Santa

Tuesday night I tackled putting the Christmas decor outside - nothing fancy, just a prelit wreath on the door and a few prelit trees in urns on either side of the entrance.  I have wreaths for the windows but I'm not sure I have the energy this year!  Maybe this weekend?? 

 

Mason nappin' in the garland

 

 

 

 

 

While I was working on the lights I decided I had better tackle some laundry, so I rounded it up.. and made a heap in the keeping room...and sorted it.. into 12 LOADS!  We do have quite a bit of additional linens given the guests for Thanksgiving, but sheeeesh, that's a LOT of laundry.  Wish me luck.  It's 2 days later and I still have 3 loads to go.

 

 

 

Another Thanksgiving in the Books

Hard to believe Thanksgiving has already happened and is over!  I so wish this was another 3-day work week too!!  I did not want to get up this morning, plus, it was really cold!

We had a nice time at home (our TN home) with family.  My parents and grandma arrived Wednesday and then Adam's flew down for the night Saturday.  It's nice to be able to get the parents together.  I guess the next time they see each other will be the wedding!!

Mom's new pup, Ginger, is 100% adorable.  She was not the least bit afraid of Henderson.  She would chase him around the house all day if she could except he would go jump in his crate to get away from her. 

After telling myself I was not going shopping Black Friday... I caved.. majorly.  I think the highlight of Thanksgiving is seeing all the ads in the newspaper!!  I actually had to take a break from looking at them there were so many.  (Plus, those potatoes weren't going to peel and chop themselves now were they..)

So, I made my plan of attack and mom and granny decided to join me.  We left the house at 9pm and got home at 7AM FRIDAY MORNING... just in time for the sun to come up!

We started out at Michaels where I got the MOST awesome 10-drawer rolling storage cart - I actually got 2, one for my scrapbook room and one for sorting my Scentsy inventory.  Now I'm wishing I bought more because it's just that awesome and I got a heck of a deal.  I got 2 wreaths for the wedding too. 

Then it was on to Target.  Target was insane.  I actually ended up stashing the few things we wanted vs standing in line for 2 hours to check out.  Plus, I really wanted the pink Chi but they only had purple and gold left and I was willing to hold out for pink... and Jen found the pink one at her Target later in the night and picked it up for me.

We then got in line for Kohl's around 11:45 (which the line was at least 2 football fields long!).  We made a dash for the home items where I grabbed my Chef mats for the kitchen, some faux fur J-Lo throws, pet blanket for Henderson, some Fisher Price baby toys for upcoming arrivals, a few outfits for Abbie and Vera Wang sheets for mom.  Oh.. and a few can openers.  Apparently, no one likes my old school "crank" hand opener.  I'm pretty sure it has a stripped gear anyway.  We waited in line about an hour to check out which felt like FOREVER because it was boiling hot in there.  I did end up with $135 in Kohl's cash which now I can go back and buy more stuff with!

We headed across the street to the big mall next.  I picked up a few things at New York and Company for mom and me and while I was waiting (AGAIN) in a very slow-moving checkout line, Mom and Granny went on to Belk.  I left NY&Co and dropped by Sephora then grabbed some fries and bottled water before hitting Belk. 

I found them in the shoe section that looked like a few tornadoes had come through.  Do you ever wonder how many hours it takes to get everything put back away?!  By this point it was 4am!!  My grandma's face was priceless when I told her it was 4am.  We decided it was time to leave the mall and start making our way to Home Depot for her Christmas tree.

On the way to Home Depot we wasted some time (& money) at Ulta.  They were already sold out of the doorbusters I wanted but I managed to find a few other things I had to have.  We got to Home Depot around 4:40 and got in line.  Home Depot was actually the only place we went that had a map of where the doorbusters were located so we were able to make our attack plan.  I headed for my 22' ladder which was on one side of the story and mom and granny took over for the other side where the 7.5' tree was located.  We met back at the cash register (it was only 5:21!) and then magically shoved our new (LARGE) purchases into the Explorer that was already busing at the seams.  It really was like one of those clown cars where they just keep coming out except we were putting in.  I wish I had taken a picture because it was that amazing.

We were killing time until 6am when Bed Bath and Beyond opened so I decided to run back in Target and grab our hidden goodies.  This time it was a like a ghost town and they were re-stocking some of the doorbusters.  I was able to get the pink Chi straightener I originally wanted and also our hidden stash.  No line at the checkouts - bingo! 

With our well-packed, over-stuffed SUV we headed on to Bed Bath and Beyond.  We picked up a few items, literally SHOVED them in the car and headed for home!  My thought was, if we woke anyone up we'd just pretend like we were just getting ready to head out shopping!!!  LOL

We drug everything in the dining room, had a "midnight snack"... then CRASHED!  I must say, I was SUPER impressed with my 75 year-old Grandmas!  How many of you could keep up with her?!  Plus, did I mention, she's got a sprained ankle!?  She's like super woman.